The USB 3.0—officially dubbed SuperSpeed USB—has transfer speeds of 4.8Gbps (10x faster than USB 2.0) and be able to dump a 25GB HD file in about 70 seconds. Like the USB 2.0 USB 3.0 will be backwards compatible with prior USB hardware, but 3.0 hardware will be needed on both ends to achieve the highest transfer speeds.

NEC Electronics became the first to introduce a USB 3.0 controller in May 2009 and began shipping host controller samples just last month. The company is also scheduled to begin manufacturing an expected one million units per month in September. NEC anticipates that, by 2011, 140 million USB 3.0 ready PCs  will ship. Sales are expected to double by the following year.

Expect a new generation of USB flash drives, external hard drives, and other devices to be developed that will make use of the significantly faster transfer speeds.

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Since debuting its new operating system last fall, Microsoft has often advertised Win 7 on Netbooks. But for owners of machines that are missing CD/DVD drives, installing the operating system is no small feat.

The solution?

Windows 7 operating system loaded and sold on a flash drive, allowing usually disadvantaged Netbook users to easily upgrade their machines.

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The No. 1 video game console in the United States, the Nintendo Wii, has a price tag of $250. The cheapest version of Microsoft’s Xbox costs $200.  But Sony’s PS3 goes for a staggering $399, causing complaints among many of Sony’s game publishers.

Unfortunately for Kotick, who is calling for Sony to make some price cuts before losing more business, Sony refuses to do as such. Despite reporting a $1 billion loss last quarter, Sony insists that the PS3 is losing momemtum in the mark.  In response to Kotick’s threats, Sony issued this statement, “We enjoy healthy business relationships with and greatly value our publishing partners and are working closely with them to deliver the best entertainment experience.”

Kotick may give Sony until 2010-2011 to make a price cut before reconsidering Activision’s support of PS3 and the PSP.  But with a market value of $16 billion as the world’s largest independent video game developer, we’re pretty sure Activision has no qualms about cutting Sony out.

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Adobe Systems has formally launched Acrobat.com, moving the web-based productivity and collaboration services out of beta. Yesterday, the company began offering two premium paid subscription services for businesses.

The free version of Acrobat.com will still be available for use, but with limited functionality. For intensive business users looking to add capacity and capabilities, Adobe offers two subscription levels: Premium Basic and Premium Plus. The Premium Basic ($14.99 per month, $149 per) allows 10 PDF conversions per month, and the ability to hold web meetings with up to five participants. A Plus subscription ($39 per month, $390 per year) includes web meetings with 20 participants and unlimited PDF conversions. Free subscriptions will not include one-on-one support from Adobe.

Premium subscriptions to Acrobat.com are available on the Adobe online store (North American only). To lure users to its premium online collaboration services, Adobe is offering $50 off annual subscriptions until July 16, 2009.

Since the free public beta release of Acrobat.com in June 2008, five million people have signed up to use the service. Acrobat.com provides users with access to the Buzzword word processing application; My Files for file storage; and Adobe ConnectNow for live Web-based video and voice conferencing, online PDF conversion, and online file storing and sharing.

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Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it would be tossing yet another product into its growing bin of underperforming software. Like Encarta, Flight Simulator, and Windows Live OneCare before it, Microsoft Money has been scrapped. And just as Wikipedia defeated Microsoft’s Encarta reference software, Money could not survive against Intuit’s financial software package, Quicken. On the Money website, the company states, “With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus has changed.”

In August 2008, Microsoft ended updates to Money and pulled the software from retail shelves. By October of that year, the company began scaling back on the development on at least 13 products, which can be found here.

Microsoft Money will be available for purchase until June 30, 2009. Online services will be available until January 31, 2011. Microsoft assures the product will continue to work after that point, but users will no longer have access to automated data feeds from banks, credit card companies, and other financial service providers.

For those who currently own, or plan to purchase the software before the end of June, be sure to activate the program before January 31, 2011. And, for users who are concerned about exporting information from Money to another financial management application (Quicken, anyone?), Microsoft provides a support document on its corporate website, available here: Exporting Account Information.

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Intuit, the software developer of TurboTax and QuickBooks, has become yet another Silicon Valley company forced to trim staff amid the recession. In recent days, the company cut 4% of its 8,200-strong workforce in an effort to manage costs. Nearly half of the 300 employees given 60-day notifications came from Intuit’s Small Business Division, which is responsible for its QuickBooks accounting software.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the company tried to assure that the cuts Intuit will make in its workforce will not have a material impact on its results. For Intuit, she stated that, “We manage our resources on an ongoing basis; these changes support our long-term growth strategy.” The company also insists that the layoffs are in no way related to its plans to buy PayCycle, the online payroll service, for $170 million.

Intuit’s announcement follows in the wake of layoffs by Microsoft, Google, Applied Materials, and more recently, Hewlett-Packard.

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After being rumored for some time now, the Zune HD has at long last been confirmed by Microsoft.  The rumors about a touch screen Zune began over a month ago. Microsoft has kept quiet despite the growing amount of rumors, until now.

The new Zune HD will have a 3.3″ 480×272 OLED touch screen with up to 720p, but only through an HDMI AV dock. The new Zune will also feature HD radio, Internet browser (obviously), and Wi-Fi for instant streaming from the Zune store.

The surprising thing from Microsoft is the Xbox live capabilities the new Zune will have. There will be some type of integration between the Zune HD and live, but it is unclear at this point exactly what it will be.

A price has not been revealed yet, but we do know that the Zune HD will be release in the fall of 09. Microsoft will be showing off the new Zune , and its Xbox live capabilities at E3 09. I am looking forward to it.

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The New York Times has made a big change in the way they view the flow of information. For the first time in the history of the news paper they have created a social media editor position.  In a memo released from deputy managing editor Jon Landman, he details the need for this position. Landman Said “the point is that an awful lot of people are finding our work not by coming to our homepage or looking at our newspaper but through alerts and recommendations from their friends and colleagues. So we ought to learn how to reach those people effectively and serve them well.”

The person who has been named for this position is Jennifer Preston, and her experience is extensive. She has worked as a reporter, editor, and marketing manager. Jon said that “Jennifer will work closely with editors, reporters, bloggers and others to use social tools to find sources, track trends, and break news as well as to gather it. She will help us get comfortable with the techniques, share best practices and guide us on how to more effectively engage a larger share of the audience on sites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr, Digg, and beyond.”

Jennifer will also be the go to gal for anyone around the news room who has questions about social media. As her position will also include keeping them up to speed on the social media world.

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Sprint is gearing up for the big release of their latest iteration of the palm phone, the Palm Pre. Hitting the shelves June 6, Sprint is expecting the smart phone to sell well. In fact they are expecting the smart phone to sell out.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has stated that they are worried about keeping up with the demand for the new Palm Pre.  At a recent tech conference Dan Hesse said “We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for awhile.” He also went on to say “We won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.”

It’s rumored that Sprint has less than 400,000 units of the smart phone available for its launch.  That is a pretty small number for a major launch, and that is the primary reason why people are expecting a sell out.

The Palm Pre arrives June 6, at a price of $199.

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I found out about another one of Alex’s abilities in this trailer, that I was previously clueless about.  Alex is able to shape shift and take on the form of other people.  One scene in particular, Alex takes the form of a tactical agent to fool one of his pals, and then dispenses of him.

Prototype will be released June 9 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

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