IT & Network Infrastructure : Intel Xeon, Atom-Powered Devices Are Highlights of 2012 IDF Conference

When researching a story, journalists like to come across the terms "first," "only," and "new," because the more those words are used in a news item, the more newsy the item will be. Intel at its annual international developers' forum in San Francisco had a few "firsts," "onlys" and "new" items to talk about. For example, the first Atom-powered smartphones—from makers such as Orange (France), Lenovo (China), Lava (India) and Megafon (Russia)—were on display for developers to check out. Those qualified under all three terms. In addition, the world's largest chip maker showed new Ultrabook laptops and desktop PCs with new, more powerful and power-efficient 22-nanometer chips. A lot of emphasis was put on the ability of these new chips to power ever-more-realistic gaming, high-definition video, touch-screen and business applications to sky-high performance metrics. Here, eWEEK offers a number of different highlights of the Intel Developer Forum 2012, which was held at San Francisco's Moscone Center West. 

'X Factor': Will.i.am to Appear as Guest Mentor

We may not know who’s hosting the series, but one more notable name has been added to The X Factor roster.

Will.i.am, the multi-talented rapper, singer, producer, songwriter and philanthropist, will appear during the judges' homes portion of the series alongside Britney Spears, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

This will not be the first time Will.i.am has given his expertise to reality singing contestants. Earlier this year, the Black Eyed Peas frontman served as a coach on the U.K. version ofThe Voice. His contestant,Tyler James, was one of two runner-ups on the series.

THR recently caught up with Will.i.am at the Democractic National Convention, where he declined to speak about any of his current music-related projects. He did, however, have a lot to say about the government.

The X Factor debuted last night to softer ratings than its season one premiere, despite the addition of new judges Spears and Demi Lovato. Preliminary numbers showed the Fox series tying its direct competition, The Voice on NBC, averaging a 3.3 rating among adults 18-49 on Wednesday, a 25 percent drop from last year’s series premiere.

Last season, Enrique Iglesias, Pharrell Williams and Rihanna each pitched in as guest mentors, while previously scheduled Mariah Carey (who recently signed on as the newest American Idol judge) was unable to participate due to Hurricane Irene.  

The second part of the season two premiere airs 8 p.m. Thursday on Fox. A representative from the network had no comment on this story.

Cruise dismisses claims about women being auditioned to marry him

　　And reports suggest that Hollywood star Tom Cruise is furious with claims that Scientology officials auditioned dozens of young women for him to get hitched to before he married Katie Holmes. In a statement issued, Cruise's representative has rubbished the reports and said, "Lies in a different font are still lies — designed to sell magazines."
　　According to the claims of an international magazine though, the secretive religious group organised an audition process to search for a suitable wife for Cruise and met dozens of women to make sure they posed whatsoever no threat to the church or Cruise. And it has come out that his ex-wife Katie Holmes was not even in the running for the post — she was not the first choice of the church, who instead wanted Cruise to marry a young actress, who was already a Scientologist.
　　The shocking claims have been made by writer Maureen Orth in the October issue of same magazine, where she claims that the project to identify a new partner for Cruise started way back in 2004 and was headed by Shelly Miscavige, the wife of the church's top official David Miscavige.
　　A number of Scientologist actresses were screened and simply told that they were being considered for a role in a new training video. Holmes was nowhere a part of the process. Instead, Miscavige went ahead and chose Nazanin Boniadi, then 24, an Iranian-born actress who grew up in Britain, to be the star's new partner. It was only when Boniadi was suddenly flown to New York and taken for dinner by Cruise at a trendy restaurant, that she began to suspect of being a part of an elaborate set-up.
　　The pair even went ice-skating together, where the rink had been especially closed for them and then spent the night together. The actress, who has starred in General Hospital, How I Met Your Mother and Iron Man, was also made to sign confidentiality agreements about the whole affair.
　　It is said that Cruise fell for the young woman, who did not reciprocate his affection. Withing three months, Cruise allegedly got tired of his partner and Boniadi was asked to move out of his house and into the Scientology Celebrity Centre. Scientology officials have dismissed the story as vindictive and unreliable.