Intuit and Google get together on QuickBooks

In a move that seems like a win-win for both companies, Google and Intuit are partnering to give small business owners the ability to create AdWords ad campaigns, get their businesses listed on Google Maps, and selling products via Google Base. Under the terms of a deal announced today, small businesses buying QuickBooks 2007 will have access to a number Google features from within the software.

Along with easy access to Google features, QuickBooks 2007 will also come bundled with Google Desktop. A tweak in the search application will ensure that QuickBooks data can only be accessed by Google Desktop when the search is initiated from within QuickBooks.

According to Google, less than half of businesses using QuickBooks have any sort of online presence. The search giant hopes to change that by creating simple "notecard" pages for such companies, as AdWord click-throughs need somewhere to go. QuickBooks 2007 users will be able to easily create AdWords accounts with information supplied by the application, and will receive a $50 credit towards Google services.

"By adding key Google services into the world's most popular accounting product, we're making it easier than ever for small businesses to find and use all of the tools available to them," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

New iPods now, Apple iTV coming in early 2007

Apple did take the wraps off of a new iPod today, but it was not the mythical "true video iPod" that we've been waiting for since last year. The company looks to be focusing on improving the video playback experience, however, touting a 60 percent brighter screen and better battery performance when playing video. The 6G iPod will get many more games, as popular time-wasters such as Bejeweled, Cubis 2, Mah-jong, Mini Golf, Pac Man, Tetris, Texas Holdem, Vortex and Zuma are coming to the iPod, and can be purchased at the iTMS for $4.99. The iPods will also feature newly redesigned Apple headphones.

The new top-of-the-line is a 8GB beast that holds "20,000 songs" for $349.

As expected, the iPod nano is showing its new colors now: green, silver, black, blue, and pink. With the explosion in color options comes an additional model, too. The entry point is a 2GB (silver only) model priced at $149. For $199, Apple offers the 4GB model in every color except for black, which is reserved for the new 8GB model alone. Priced at $249, the 8GB model comes in any color you like, as long as it is black. The nano has 24 hours of battery life according to Apple.

Apple also announced a new generation of the iPod Shuffle, priced at $79. The Shuffle is now smaller in physical size, around the size of a matchbook. Capacity has been boosted to 1GB, and it has a 12-hour battery life according to Apple. It will begin shipping in October.

The movies have indeed arrived. Apple is launching with Disney as its sole partner, with only 75 movies to start. We all know how that will end.

The big news is the pricing. Apple has apparently listened to the movie studios, and has adopted a pricing strategy to promote new releases. While new videos will sell for $14.99, studios have the option of offering pre-orders for $12.99, and this special introductory pricing will also be good for the first week that a video is released. Older titles will be sold at $9.99.

Apple has turned up the resolution on videos sold through iTMS, moving from its paltry 320x240 resolution to a much more respectable 640x480. Encoded with h.264 (MPEG-4), the videos should be close if not better than many 480p sources. It's not HD by any means, but it's a big improvement and really the first resolution we can see performing well on the TV across all manner of content.

iTunes has been updated to version 7.0 and sports some new features, including "Cover Flow."

Breaking with Apple's tradition of not announcing unreleased products, Jobs said that the company will release a wireless, set-top box for the TV called... iTV. Approximately half the size of the Mac mini, the iTV will feature Ethernet, 802.11g, USB ports, component video, optical audio and HDMI ports. It will work with the Apple Remote and sport an interface much like that of Front Row.

iTV will allow music, TV shows, and movies residing on a computer to play on a television in another part of the house with what Jobs describes as instantaneous access. It is slated to ship during the first quarter of 2007 and will retail for $299.

"Apple is in your den now," says Jobs. "Apple is in your living room. Apple is in your car. Apple is in your pocket." Will Apple be in your wallet?

Flash RAM replacement promises high speeds

Since its introduction, Flash RAM has become immensely popular. It is widely used in digital music players, millions of people have USB thumbdrives on their persons, and hybrid hard drives that combine flash memory with the spinning platters are on their way. For all its usefulness, flash RAM does have its drawbacks: it's relatively slow and it has a finite (although high) number of read-write-erase cycles.

Enter PRAM. Despite sharing the same name, the new memory technology from Samsung is not to be confused with the stuff Mac owners zap when troubleshooting a balky machine. Phase-change Random Access Memory is Samsung's new memory technology that works much like flash memory, but is much faster and more durable.

So far, Samsung has built a fully-functional 512Mb chip to demonstrate the technology. It uses the same vertical diodes and three-dimensional transistor structure used in DRAM and unlike flash RAM, can write data without needing to erase data already present on the drive. Samsung says that overcoming this limitation means that PRAM can operate at speeds up to 30 times faster than flash RAM. It will also last longer—up to 10 times longer than flash RAM chips.

The chipmaker anticipates offering a full lineup of PRAM products in 2008, once it has the kinks in the manufacturing process worked out and fabrication facilities up to speed. It looks promising from a fabrication point of view, though. Samsung says that it will be less expensive to manufacture since it requires 20 percent fewer process steps than does conventional flash.