EPSON Philippines General Manager Resigns

After 11 years in service, Jino Carlos Alvarez – Epson Philippines General Manager finally called it quits.  ”I believe it’s time for me to move on” said Alvarez.

Alvarez also dispelled reports that the reason for his departure was due to ”conflict of style” with management.

“The rumor that I am leaving because I am at odds with our President Mr. Hideto Nakamura is not true.”   said Alvarez.  ”It’s just that I felt that I have to move on and take a more and tougher challenges.” added Alvarez.

Alvarez will be moving to Samsung Philippines effective October 1, 2007.  He will assume the position  of General Manager – I.T. Products.  Alvarez said he is excited with his new role since it will expand his horizon and it allows him to offer a wider range and a more complete solution to his customers.

Alvarez has been with Epson Philippines for 11 years.  He has held the following positions - Asst. Technical Manager, Tech Manager, Sales and Marketing, Asst General Manager and General Manager.

Prior to Alvarez’s resignation, three other Epson Philippines executives has resigned for various reasons : John Titan, Russer Cabrera, and Heidi Co.

Prince, Village People to sue YouTube

Prince is taking on three sites that he says are primarily responsible for the online piracy of his music. Prince is suing YouTube, eBay and Torrent peer-to-peer file sharing network / repository Pirate Bay.

Prince’s legal representatives have requested the removal of around 2,000 illegally uploaded videos from YouTube.  The singer has instructed Web Sheriff, a company which specialises in combating online piracy and copyright infringement, to act on his behalf.

Prince’s legal representatives have requested the removal of around 2,000 illegally uploaded videos from YouTube.

Village People, the group who sang the song YMCA is reportedly suing YouTube as well.

SCO files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

The SCO Group, Inc. announced that it filed a voluntary petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. SCO’s subsidiary, SCO Operations, Inc., has also filed a petition for reorganization. The Board of Directors of The SCO Group have unanimously determined that Chapter 11 reorganization is in the best long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, as well as its customers, shareholders, and employees.

The SCO Group intends to maintain all normal business operations throughout the bankruptcy proceedings. Subject to court approval, SCO and its subsidiaries will use the cash flow from their consolidated operations to meet their capital needs during the reorganization process.

“We want to assure our customers and partners that they can continue to rely on SCO products, support and services for their business critical operations,” said Darl McBride, President and CEO, The SCO Group. “Chapter 11 reorganization provides the Company with an opportunity to protect its assets during this time while focusing on building our future plans.”

The SCO Group has filed a series of first day motions in the Bankruptcy Court to ensure that it will not have any interruption in maintaining and honoring all of its commitments to its customers. The motions also address SCO’s continued ability to pay its vendors, the retention of various professional advisors, and other matters.

Intel To Acquire Havok

Intel Corporation announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Havok Inc., the leading provider of interactive software and services used by digital media creators in the game and movie industries. Havok will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel.

The acquisition will enable developers in the digital animation and game communities to take advantage of Intel’s innovation and technology leadership in the creation of digital media.

Havok was founded in 1998 in Dublin, Ireland, and has offices in San Francisco, San Antonio, Stockholm, Calcutta, Munich and Tokyo. The company will be a wholly owned Intel subsidiary and continue to operate as an independent business working with its customers in developing digital media content. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Google Sponsors $30 Million Moon Contest

Google Inc is collaborating with the X PRIZE Foundation in organizing a contest where private firms are being invited to land a robot rover on the surface of the moon.

The first prize of $20 million will be given to the private firm that lands a rover on the moon and travels a distance of 500 meters and shoots specific video images. The second firm to accomplish the task will get $5 million.

An additional $5 million would be awarded if the rover manages to travel further, shoot pictures of Apollo hardware and finds any water or ice on the surface of the moon.

Sony dumps DVD for Blu-ray Disc

Sony has announced that it will no longer produce DVD-based personal video recorders, and instead will produce Blu-ray Disc-based recorders.

At the same time, Sony unveiled four new Blu-ray Disc-based digital recorders. They contain support for dual-layer discs, which can hold around eight hours of HDTV content.

Leading Companies agree to have Universal Flash Storage Standard

Micron Technology, Inc., Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Spansion Inc., STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments announced that they support the creation of a far-ranging industry specification for removable memory cards and embedded memory solutions being standardized by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association (JEDEC), a leading open-standards organization in the semiconductor industry. JEDEC is well known for its expertise in the standardization of component technologies and solutions.

The new specification, dubbed Universal Flash Storage (UFS), reflects the industry’s need for a universal memory solution. Widespread demand for higher densities and higher performance, plus the surging popularity of multimedia content, is accelerating the need for advanced memory solutions in removable card or embedded formats. UFS will provide a revolutionary leap towards supporting very low access times required for memories, as well as enabling high-speed access to large multimedia files, while reducing power-consumption in consumer electronic (CE) devices. The target performance level is expected to be a significant advancement beyond that of the varied flash cards popular today. Today, users experience a three-minute access time for a 90-minute (4 Gigabyte) high-definition movie; with the new standard, this would be reduced to a few seconds.

Major applications such as mobile handsets, digital still cameras and other CE devices will benefit from the convenience of a universal open standard based specification that is intended to reduce the time-consuming process of enabling interoperability among the various types of removable and embedded memory solutions at the system level. UFS is planned to provide consumers in the future with the convenience of a unified removable memory card that can be shared among various mobile, portable and other CE devices without the need for any adaptors.

The UFS standard is expected to be finalized in 2009.