Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TTTF MTY Monday, March 27,2006 —I— —I m m A 1 t I " ^ m v Page 5 Special to THE GAMECOCK 9 Microsoft's Vista operating system on hold until next year Jeremy Tumage THE GAMECOCK Microsoft announced Tuesday its plans to delay the much-anticipated Windows Vista operating system. Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft’s platform products and services division, revealed that the software maker will not release Windows Vista in time for the holiday shopping season as planned. Instead, the operating system is slated for a January 2007 release. nuwcvci, vvmuuwb vibia i^iiLcrprise, a business version of the software designed for the needs of large, global organizations with • complex IT infrastructures, will be released in November as expected. The release of Microsoft Office 2007 has also been pushed back to coincide with that of Windows Vista. The news of the delays brought Microsoft stock down 3 percent on Thursday. “But the industry requires greater lead time to deliver Windows Vista on new PCs during holiday,” said Allchin in a Microsoft press release. “We must optimize for the industry, so we’ve decided to separate business and consumer availability.” Microsoft notes the reason for the delay is to give PC manufacturers more time to implement and test the operating system. “Quality is the top-line message, and we needed just a few more weeks,” Allchin said. “We will release to manufacturing and sit on the disk for the consumer launch.” Windows Vista has been in development since 2001 and was originally planned as a minor upgrade between Windows XP and the codenamed Windows “Vienna.” In 2004, the minor upgrade became a major one when development started anew with the intent of creating a brand new operating system. Microsoft says that Vista has over 1,000 new features and technologies within its code. These include Internet Explorer 7, Windows Sidebar, Microsoft Defender and increased security measures. The operating system will also feature support for HDTV and a new graphical user interface known as Aero. Bill Gates has stated that the Windows Vista launch is the biggest and most ambitious operating system launch since Windows 95, which was released 11 years ago. Various PC manufacturers have thrown their support behind Microsoft’s decision for the delay. We strongly support Microsort s decision to prioritize quality in determining the schedule for Windows Vista,” Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the Personal Systems Group at Hewlett Packard, said in the press release. “A January launch of Windows Vista allows us to execute in a consistent way throughout the holidays, and will provide the right opportunity for a large, exciting launch industry-wide after the New Year.” Best Buy’s executive vice president and general merchandising manager, Ron Boire, said in the press release, “When people come to our stores to buy a new PC or new software for their PC, UlSTfl • 6 DOCTORS STUDY ANXIETY, PANIC ATTACKS After years in dark, research show progress Jessie IDilligan KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS She was anxious. Her heart rate increased. That frightened her, and the more scared she became, the more her heart raced. Before long, she was running down the dark alleys of her own fears. That’s what it feels like inside the jagged edges of what we now know to be panic attacks, says Clark Vinson, the therapist who eventually treated the woman at the Phobia Center of Dallas/Fort Worth. But back then, 20 years ago, panic attacks weren’t so well understood. The woman went through 64 electroshock treatments, and then sought Vinson’s help. “What we needed to do was treat her reaction to her own fear,” Vinson says. Doctors, therapists and the public have made great leaps in the understanding of panic attacks in the last two decades. Everybody’s favorite mob boss, HBO’s Tony Soprano, suffered from panic attacks. Willard Scott has said he succumbed to them while readying his weather reports for the “Today” show. Nicole Kidman has said she has been hit with them before stepping out on the red carpet. About z percent to 5 percent of Americans will have repeated panic attacks throughout their lives. Mental health specialists say that percentage is “not” increasing, and a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and released last year, ^showed not even the terrorist attacks of 2001 boosted the rate of the nation’s anxiety disorders. Yet despite celebrity confessions and public awareness, the same study found the average sufferer waits 10 years before seeking help. “Panic disorder is highly treatable,” says Dr. Sanjay J. Mathew, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Behavioral therapy and antidepressants are the most common treatments. Panic begins in the pnnic • 6 As camera phones gain ground, users wonder about image quality Terry IDaxon THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS ® DALLAS — Kodak moments may become cell phone moments for many photographers in the not too-distant future. Camera phones will soon offer the type of picture quality now provided by today’s entry-level digital cameras, a development that could make camera phones the primary snapshot taker for many casual photographers. Industry observers say __ they doubt a cell phone’s camera will ever replace a stand-alone camera for the serious amateur photographer, much less for professionals. But the growing capabilities of camera phones within two to three years will far surpass the grainy, poorly colored and out-of-focus images that characterize the typical cell phone picture today, making camera phones much more popular. “What we will see is that the camera phone is going to be the Instamatic, the Brownie of cameras,” said wireless analyst Ken Hyers of ABI Research, referring to popular point-and-shoot film cameras of the past. Consulting firm Gartner recently estimated that nearly 300 million camera phones were sold last year, or about 38 percent of all phones sold worldwide. Gartner analyst Hugues de la Vergne said that in 2006, more than 60 percent of all phones sold in North America probably will have cameras. And they’ll have better image quality than in the past. To this point, most cameras in phones have been VGA quality, meaning resolutions of about 300,000 pixels, or 0.3 megapixels. However, de la Vergne said that the product lineups are changing. “In 2006 we’ll start to see 1.3-megapixel cameras become standard” on most more advanced, third generation phones, de la Vergne said, and they’ll be available on cheaper, higher volume phones. In Asia, camera phones with much higher resolution are already common. Samsung Electronics last year even introduced a 7 megapixel camera phone. In North America, the best that consumers have been able to obtain are 2 megapixel cameras on such phones as the Nokia N90 or the Samsung MM-A800. However, Sony Ericsson announced that it would introduce the K790 cell phone, a 3.1-megapixel camera phone, during the second quarter. For camera phones to become the primary snapshot taker, Hyers said, the resolution has to improve. “It’s got to be able to create an image that looks good in your typical 4-by 6 format when you print it out,” he said. “People want to be able to take these images and, if they print it, have it actually look like something rather than this pixilated, off-color mess that is the case now more often than not.” While 1.3 megapixels is an improvement over VGA cameras, that level of resolution still isn’t good enough, said Hyers, cims • 6