Google planning VOIP?

A voice over IP (VOIP) service would be an ideal move for Google and would significantly improve its consumer offering, says Ovum chief analyst Julian Hewett.

"The appeal for Google is obvious: search for something, then `click here` if you`d like to speak to the company that`s selling what you`re looking for. Google then collects a fee from the `sponsor` for each voice connection. Voice calls with very little cost and funded by advertising."

The analyst`s statements have further fuelled speculation that Google is already looking into launching such a service. According to PCWorld, rumours began to surface last week when the company said in a job posting that it wants to hire people with experience in negotiating "dark fibre" contracts to develop a global backbone network.

However, a VOIP service is only one reason Google might be interested in operating its own backbone network. The company may simply be looking for a better way to move the data it collects for Web search results among its servers around the globe.

Apple cut the prices for upgrades on its Mac Mini yesterday to keep long-term costs to a minimum.

At $500 (R3 000), the Mac Mini is the cheapest Mac ever made, although users looking to add extra memory or wireless abilities soon found their costs spiralling upwards, ZDNet reports.

Upgrading the desktop to 1GB of memory initially cost $475 (R2 850) - almost as much as the computer itself - but will now sell for $325 (R1 950). Apple also reduced the price for adding Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme by $30 to $99 (R595), and has also cut the price for upgrading to an 80GB hard drive to $50 (R300).

IBM, HP, Nortel and Intel have joined together to promote an open source grid computing architecture.

The new Globus Consortium`s goal is to "proactively address the issue of grid computing in enterprises", says consortium head Greg Nawrocki. "Our belief is that open source is the key to grid in the enterprise."

According to IT Observer, the Globus Consortium promotes the use of the Globus Toolkit, an open source platform initially developed by Univa. While user and analyst reactions are mixed, most view the improvement of the toolkit as a good thing for the industry.

Grid computing involves joining groups of servers together to form a more powerful central processing platform.

Samsung has started mass production of its 256Mb XDR (eXtreme Data Rate) DRAM, which it claims is the world`s fastest memory.

According to the company, it is 10 times faster than DDR-SDRAM memory and five times faster than RDRAM.

The XDR DRAM was created for multimedia applications and is geared towards users with applications that require fast memory to process lots of data, Boostmarketing reports.