Spinning off their entire manufacturing arm wasn't the end of AMD's new "asset light" business plan — the manufacturer has cut 500 jobs from its remaining workforce around the world. The worst news is that these cuts were planned before everyone became poor last month, so it's hard to shake the feeling that things still aren't going too well for AMD. It'd be sad to see processors become a one horse race, but that's what it's starting to look like. [Reuters]

After receiving endless flak for their silly tiered Vista Compatibility scheme, Microsoft has decided to issue a single "Windows 7 Capable" sticker for hardware that works with the new OS. That means no more "Windows Home Basic", "Windows Ready", "Certified for Windows" and "Windows Ready When You Are, Asshole" labels slapped on every piece of hardware in the computer aisle at Best Buy.

During the same conference in which this was announced, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 7 on a modestly spec'd Eee netbook, so it looks like Windows 7 compatibility might be taken for granted with most new PCs. Microsoft did tell the Register that there would be different stickers for touchscreen and media center devices. While the touchscreen sticker will be a convenient indicator that a device is touch-capable, what will media center sticker mean? That a computer has an HDMI output? That marketing asked for it? Also, one=three, apparently. [The Register]

Just last month we were reporting "Seagate to begin to switch to SSD" and now company CEO Bill Watkins has said that that's not quite the truth. Seagate will indeed be launching an enterprise-level SSD in 2009, but will not enter the "mobile SSD" market. Whyever not? Because there's no money to be made there: "Right now if you look at it whether it's Micron or Samsung or SanDisk - they're selling at a loss. To do the product is not a big deal but to make money at it - it's important to us." he notes. Instead the company is banking on post MLC technology, something like "a spin around magnetic RAM, it could be a phase shift type of process" says Watkins. Seagate hard drives might be around for a while longer. [Silicon via MRAM-info]

Anime fans can now store information on two of the genre's most famous characters—Lupin the Third and Gundam. Both USB figurines come with little extra accessories (like a pistol for Lupin and a shield for Gundam) and store 4GB of stuff. When you want to use them, twist their legs into sitting position and a USB port will pop out the back. Yeah, you're loading info into Lupin and Gundam's butts. Got a problem with that? The Gundam USB will be available in late November, and the Lupin one will come mid-December. Pricing was not yet available. [Buffalo Japan via Akihabara News]

The Guardian has a great interview with the head of Tudou.com, China's answer to Youtube. Tudou means potato in Chinese, meant to denote “couch potato.” CEO Gary Wang started the video-sharing site up four years ago after discovering the immense amount of government regulation involved if he wanted to go into television entertainment.

"There are things you cannot do in China because of certain regulations," says Wang. "TV is simply off limits. If you take away TV you didn't have a large market, so I began thinking how to bring entertainment to China, where there were already 10 to 20 million broadband users and I knew it would build up."

Of course, the 10 to 20 million figure is from 2004. Now, China boasts almost the same amount of internet users as the population of the United States. Tudou, which as grown threefold since just last year, now serves 100 million videos a day and garners about 75 million unique users a month. Though only about 5 percent of the videos on the site generate advertising revenue, that's already better than Youtube's 3 percent figure.

The biggest problems Tudou faces is, not surprisingly, the Chinese government. Wang employs about 100 people that focus just on vetting videos that are uploaded to the site – lest they be copyrighted... or, more importantly, contain banned political content. After all, since his servers and staff are all in China, a company shut down notice is literally always one uncensored clip away. [Guardian UK]

Hey Brian,
I'm writing this not from the Herman Miller Embody chair we reviewed, but from the detached "saucer section" of the Treychair, which I reviewed last year. Why? Because I can't see the TV that well from my couch, so I need to sit closer. I'm getting old.

So what else went on today? Well,

• Elaine documented her trip to the top of the world's tallest observatory
• Matt showed us why 64-bit processor are cool (as if being able to use more RAM in your machine needed any explanation)
• And we had a pair of good election coverage stories. I dissected how CNN's "hologram" system worked and Erica spotted Family Guy being watched with the help of a commenter

Good show. I also just finished Dead Space, which is scary and awesome and fun. You should pick it up. After you're done seducing towns-ladies in Fable 2.

Remember the Phantom Lapboard? Yeah, it's been so long that we've heard any news of it (despite them telling us that it was finally released), that most people have plumb purged it from their memory. According to Phantom Entertainment's recently updated blog though, the lapboard still exists and it's coming by the end of the year – for real this time! The Phantom Entertainment folks have paid for their first shipment of manufactured lapboards, and they'll be posting a delivery time frame soon. Good luck trying to generate buzz on your four-year-old almost-product, guys! [Phantom Entertainment]

The Economist has a great piece about researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a digital cinema projector that uses lasers as the main display technology. In doing so, these projectors are able to display a staggering 80 percent of the color range visible to the human eye. Previously, the 60 percent range that 35mm film offered was considered the benchmark for other projectors and displays to measure themselves up against.

In the past, laser projectors were never considered because lasers would produce speckle in the picture, thus reducing picture sharpness. But what researchers have done is combine separate red, blue and green lasers together with DLP technology to produce a clear picture. By melding the separate lasers together to produce a white laser, then having the DLP break it back part into RGB pixels, each laser cancels out the speckle created by the others.

Not only that, but in theory, by increasing the intensity of the lasers, these new projectors could theoretically display 90% of the visible color range while still using 35 percent less power than a xenon lamp projector. The only issue now for the budding technology is the initial cost. Considering lasers last much longer than Xenon lamps and movie houses can ditch film without sacrificing picture quality, these laser projectors should be an enticing option. [The Economist]

The AT&T Quickfire will be heating up the competition with the T-Mobile Sidekick when it is released on November 10 this year. This tri-band cell phone will only cost $99 with a 2-year contract—$299 without—and doesn't seem like a Windows Mobile phone, or any other OS we've ever seen. The Quickfire includes a touch screen, full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3G, a music player, and GPS, and will come in orange, lime and silver. [Engadget Mobile via cnet]

Philips has introduced goLITE BLU, a new clock that offers light therapy to people suffering from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or what is commonly known as the winter blues. It sits by your bedsides and emits a blue light designed to lift your mood and soothe you. For $279, it doesn’t come cheap and only offers a basic array of clock functions besides the light. It’s still cheaper than a few sessions of therapy. Regardless, I think I might know what would make me and my wallet happier than buying this clock—stop pretending I’m a crime-fighting hero by the name of Batman and actually turn on the lights? Halloween is over. [Philips via Boing Boing]