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KUALA LUMPUR – June 25, 2007 – SonicWALL, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNWL) today launched a new version of its Email Security solution that delivers powerful new performance and management capabilities to help keep organizations productive and safe from inbound and outbound email threats.

Based on the new capabilities of Version 6.0, SonicWALL has added the Email Security 6000 and 8000 products to its new E Class line of premium performance solutions designed to provide network and data technology to large networks. The Email Security 6000 and 8000 solutions join SonicWALL’s recently-announced Network Security Appliance (NSA) E7500 to expand the E Class line up. The NSA E7500 is a 16-way multi core Unified Threat Management security appliance intended for deployment in campus networks, distributed environments and data centers.

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Forbes reported that sales of digital music players are waning. After years of growth in this field, chances are the market digital music players is reaching saturation point. From the article:

Music player sales are also being cannibalized by surging interest in cell phones with music players, says Ross Rubin, director of consumer technology industry analysis at the NPD Group.

The situation could worsen starting June 29, when the Apple Inc. iPhone, a music playing cell phone, goes on sale.

Now, that last paragraph I must disagree with. No matter how you look at it, the iPhone is not innovative in all of its published plus points:

1. It’s not the first mobile phone with touch-screen controls
2. It’s not the first Internet-enabled mobile phone
3. And it sure as hell isn’t the first mobile phone with multimedia capabilities (read music and video playing)

I’m beginning to get irritated reading how the iPhone will supposedly change mobile phone usage forever. It won’t. All the so-called “features” of the iPhone has been readily available for ages.

I for one don’t use an iPhone; yet my Motorola SLVR L7 is not only my mobile phone, it’s also my calendar, digital camera, video recorder, Internet access device and file sharing gadget. Yes, it’s also iTunes-enabled, but why would I want to use that?

And somehow the iPhone will make digital music players a thing of the past? Yeah, right! Apple has yet to showcase anything groundbreaking since Mac II… and I don’t think the iPhone will change this fact.

Currently, AMD have two fabrication plants namely Fab 30 and Fab 36, located in Dresden, Germany. Operating fabs are a very costly affair and apparently they could be the next thing to go in AMD’s current cost-cutting strategy:

Speculation is building in the analyst community that AMD will attempt to further cut costs by outsourcing more—or all—of its chip making as early as 2008. One Citigroup analyst is predicting a “transformational move” that would result in AMD’s lower-end CPUs being manufactured by a third party and possibly selling off part or all of its Dresden, Germany facility. Another report from Goldman Sachs outlines the investment firm’s belief that the company will leave manufacturing completely in the hands of third parties.

I’ve been an ardent fan of AMD processors since God knows how long. The only non-AMD CPU computer I’ve used was a Compaq Presario PC given to me by my dad. Since then, all my subsequent PCs are self-assembled units powered by AMD processors.

My preference for AMD processors is mostly due to the low overall costs involved in assembling a PC on that platform. AMD processors are much cheaper than it’s comparable Intel counterparts. Motherboards for AMD processors are also generally less expensive than a similar one for Intel.

Therefore, I’m hoping that things will get better for AMD. Should anything happen to them, then Intel would surely be a near monopoly in the CPU market. Not that I have anything against Intel, it’s just that I prefer a competitive market because it drives innovation.

I finally found out what the “mystery product” from Microsoft is: Microsoft Surface. It doesn’t come cheap though, expect to cough up between US$5,000 and US$10,000. So what is this “surface computer” thingy from Microsoft?

Microsoft Surface, which has a 30-inch display under a hard-plastic tabletop, allows people to touch and move objects on screen for everything from digital finger painting and jigsaw puzzles to ordering off a virtual menu in a restaurant.

It also recognizes and interacts with devices placed on its surface, so cell phone users can easily buy ringtones or change payment plans by placing their handsets on in-store displays, or a group of people gathered round the table can check out the photos on a digital camera placed on top.

The world’s largest software maker said it will manufacture the machine itself and sell it initially to corporate customers, deploying the first units in November in Sheraton hotels, Harrah’s casinos, T-Mobile stores, and restaurants.

Cool, eh? This will probably be the first generation of those computers you see in Minority Report.

A family from Illinois is suing Microsoft, claiming that an XBox 360 overheating power supply sparked a fire that killed their infant son:

According to the suit, the wiring that connected the Xbox 360 to an electrical outlet became so hot that it started a “catastrophic” fire at a house in Warsaw, Illionis. The victim, an infant named Wade Kline, died in the inferno.

“The fire was a direct and proximate result of the overheating of the game’s power supply and wiring,” claims the lawsuit, which was filed in State Circuit Court in Illinois. Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and an unnamed power-supply maker have been named in the suit.

Hmm… what an event to preceed Microsoft’s planned launch of a “mystery product”. Perhaps the mystery product is a fireproof power supply unit for the XBox 360