Posted by dan on: 2010-04-05 21:59:54 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
RCA has named the batteries AirPower and envisions they will serve as a backup power source to normal battery charging methods. While it is obvious that enough power couldn't be gleaned from a wireless network to keep an active device running, an AirPower not in use could charge as fast a 6 hours. Naturally this is abysmally slow compared to current wired charging technologies. However, if the batteries are priced right they might give you one less thing to worry about since you wouldn't have to worry about plugging in and unplugging unattended batteries.
Posted by dan on: 2010-04-05 21:52:41 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Windows 7 market share up to 10% according to Netmarketshare.
Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals (March2010)
Posted by dan on: 2010-04-04 01:49:04 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
The Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals is a Microsoft Office Excel-based spreadsheet listing software applications which have met Windows 7 Logo Program testing requirements for compatibility with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7, and have thereby earned the right to display the Windows 7 Logo Program logo with the application. These products are identified with the compatibility status “Compatible – Windows 7 Logo.”
Additionally, this list includes applications with the following compatibility statuses: “Compatible,” “Free Update Required,” “Paid Update Required,” “Future Compatibility,” and “Not Compatible.” These statuses are based upon the software publishers’ statements of compatibility. These products have not met the Windows 7 Logo Program testing requirements. For an explanation of the various compatibility statuses, please see the Release Notes for the Windows 7 Application Compatibility List.
For the latest collection of compatible applications and hardware devices, please visit the Windows 7 Compatibility Center. You can also leave feedback on compatibility and suggest new products to get added in future reports.
Google begins close down of Chinese domain as it redirects searches to Hong Kong
Posted by dan on: 2010-03-24 01:16:50 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Google's January plans to move out of China were confirmed last night as attempts to reach the nation's version of the search engine were redirected to Hong Kong.
In a blog update, David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer at Google, claimed that it stopped censoring its search services including Google Search, Google News and Google Images on the Google.cn domain.
He said: “Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.
Posted by dan on: 2010-03-24 01:12:11 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Be patient !! Mozilla promises March 30 fix for critical Firefox bug
Posted by dan on: 2010-03-23 15:26:25 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Mozilla plans to patch a critical vulnerability affecting the latest version of its Firefox web browser in seven days.
The flaw, first discovered by Russian security researcher Evgeny Legerov, could allow an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code on an affected system. It will be fixed with the release of Firefox 3.6.2, scheduled for March 30.
Secunia has classified the bug as “highly critical,” or four out of five on its severity rating scale. If users do not wish to wait for the late March patch, they were advised by Mozilla to download the beta version of Firefox 3.6.2, which contains the fix.
Legerov first disclosed the vulnerability on Feb. 1 on a message board hosted by Immunity, a Miami Beach, Fla.-based security assessment and penetration testing vendor. Legerov provided few details about the bug, however.
“It is a really cool bug," Legerov, founder of Moscow-based security research firm Intevydis wrote in the post. "It was an interesting challenge to find and exploit it. The exploit needs some work, but it was quite reliable in our testing.”
Legerov could not be reached for comment on Monday.
It's Official !! Microsoft will launch Office 2010 May 12
Posted by dan on: 2010-03-23 15:19:35 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Microsoft will officially launch Office 2010 to businesses at an event slated for May 12, the company announced last week.
Enterprises with volume license agreements will be able to obtain the finished product that same day, Microsoft added. Office 2010 is set to go on general sale to consumers and business without licensing deals sometime in June.
As expected, Microsoft also unveiled a program that provides a free upgrade to Office 2010 for customers who purchase the older Office 2007 between now and Sept. 30.
Earlier last week, Microsoft's chief financial officer had confirmed that the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program would launch this month. Last month, details of the free Office 2010 upgrade program leaked to the Web when a Microsoft technology specialist briefly posted information to the firm's partner community site.
Via Press Release
Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Posted by dan on: 2010-03-23 15:14:17 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Today during our online Desktop Virtualization Hour event, we’ll find out a little bit about Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
For Windows Server 2008 R2, SP1 will be introducing two new desktop virtualization features: Microsoft RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory. These features are designed to meet the increasing needs of our customers as they utilize virtualization in their environments with Windows Server 2008 R2.
For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update. SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2.
Posted by dan on: 2010-02-19 18:38:24 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Microsoft and Yahoo! announced today that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now turn their attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.
Implementation of the deal is expected to begin in the coming days and will involve transitioning Yahoo!’s algorithmic and paid search platforms to Microsoft, with Yahoo! becoming the exclusive relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers globally. Once the transition is completed, the companies’ unified search marketplace will deliver improved innovation for consumers, better volume and efficiency for advertisers and better monetization opportunities for web publishers through a platform that contains a larger pool of search queries.
“This breakthrough search alliance means Yahoo! can focus even more on our own innovative search experience,” said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. “Yahoo! gets to do what we do best: combine our science and technology with compelling content to build personally relevant online experiences for our users and customers.”
Internet Explorer 8 Officially Becomes World’s Most-Used Browser
Posted by dan on: 2010-02-03 23:11:50 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
This week, Net Applications released their January browser market share report. Their report shows that Internet Explorer 8 is not only the most popular browser on Windows with 27.9% usage share, but that it now has 25.6% of market share across all OS’s on a worldwide-weighted usage share basis (data provided by Net Applications). We launched just less than a year ago, so it’s both humbling and thrilling to see so many people choose our product so quickly – making it the most popular browser of choice worldwide.
There are many reasons people choose which browser to use. Most people want to know and trust the company behind their browser. And people are looking a browser that protects them – and their privacy online.
Top Lithuanian BitTorrent site is being sued by Microsoft
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-28 18:06:36 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
In conjunction with Lithuanian anti-piracy outfit LANVA, software giant Microsoft has sued the alleged operator of the country’s largest BitTorrent site. Microsoft is demanding $43 million from the defendant and his company for assisting in the illegal distribution of Office 2003 and 2007.
In recent years we’ve seen plenty of legal action against the owners and operators of BitTorrent sites, mostly initiated by the movie and music industries.
This week, Microsoft joins the fight as the software company announces that it will pursue LinkoManija’s alleged operator Kestas Ermanas and his company in court.
The action against Lithuania’s largest BitTorrent site, which is in the top 10 of the most visited websites in the country, has been approved by the US headquarters of the software giant.
The defendant and his company are accused of facilitating copyright infringement of Microsoft’s Office 2003 and 2007 through their involvement with the BitTorrent tracker.
Microsoft releases tool to restore NTBackup files on Windows 7 and Windows Serve
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-28 18:01:03 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
This week Microsoft released an update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with a utility for restoring backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers that are running Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2.
This utility has been available for Windows Vista and Server 2008, but did not work on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-27 21:47:58 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Today, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage to introduce a new device named the Apple iPad.
Jobs began by revealing that Apple has reached 250 million iPod sales to date. He then revealed that "Apple is the largest mobile devices business in the world today." Moving on throughout Jobs speech he questioned whether there is room for a third category device in-between a laptop or a smart-phone. Jobs then mocked competitors for investing in netbooks and immediately revealed the iPad.
Jobs went on to demonstrate several features including browsing, Photos and built-in slideshows. The iTunes store is also built in and the usual suspects of a mail, contacts and calendar applications are available. Jobs also demonstrated the maps application and its location features.
YouTube HD support is also included and Jobs demonstrated various videos during his keynote. After the video demonstrations Jobs moved onto the specifications:
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-27 16:50:17 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Google has released a web version of its Google Voice app for the Iphone, which will allow users to make cheap mobile calls using the Internet and bypass some other services provided by telco operators.
Last time Apple chucked its toys out of the pram when Google tried to release a similar application and refused to approve it. This triggered an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission, the US government's telecommunications regulator, and culminated in the resignation of Google chief executive Eric Schmidt from the Apple board.
At the time Apple said the app contravened its terms and conditions by replacing the Iphone's "core mobile-telephone functionality and Apple user interface with Google's own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging, and voice mail."
However this new version of the Google Voice web app can be accessed via a browser and can bypass the vetting procedures necessary to gain admission to Apple's Iphone App Store.
Relations have not been good between Apple and Google lately. Apparently Apple is so miffed at its former best mate Google that it is considering signing up for Microsoft's Bing search engine, including on its new tablet.
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-27 16:47:23 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Software giant Microsoft issued a set patches Monday night for its latest desktop operating system, Windows 7.
The updates are stability and reliability fixes rather than security patches, so they don’t address any of the continuing vulnerability problems that hackers exploited in Internet Exploder, much to Google's chagrin.
The patches are available in a selection of flavours - Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit, Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit and Windows Server 2008 R2 for Intel's Itanic systems.
The Microsoft Support Service outlines the stability and reliability problems fixed by the patches:
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-26 17:16:18 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Google has released version 4.0 its Chrome web browser, which it claims has more than 1,500 new features.
It only works under Windows of course, so Apple and Linux users will have to wait about a year before the Chrome browser on their machines is up to speed.
Actually the 1,500 features are file extensions that are created by developers to add functionality to Chrome. Goodness knows how many of these Firefox has and no one considered them as the highlight of a browser release before.
While the extensions are useful but not really anything spectacular, bookmark sync is probably more useful. It means you can share your bookmarks between multiple computers without needing to recreate your bookmarks or copy them from system to system every time you switch machines.
Worldwide PC Microprocessor Unit Shipments Rise 31.3% Year Over Year in Q4: IDC
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-26 16:41:47 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Worldwide PC microprocessor shipments in the fourth calendar quarter of 2009 (4Q09) rose modestly, compared to 3Q09, but still achieved all-time record levels for a single quarter, according to IDC's latest PC processor study. Notably, when compared to 4Q08, shipments in 4Q09 rose 31.3%. For the full year 2009, total PC processor unit shipments grew 2.5%, while revenue declined 7.1% to $28.6 billion.
"Compared to 3Q09, the modest rise in shipments in 4Q09 indicates that the market is returning to normal seasonal patterns," said Shane Rau, director of Semiconductors: Personal Computing research at IDC. "Compared to 4Q08, the huge rise in shipments indicates that the market has put the recession behind it. Both comparisons indicate that the PC industry anticipates improvement in PC end demand in 2010."
Looking at market performance by PC form factor, both mobile PC processors and PC server processors grew well. Mobile PC processors, which include Intel's Atom processors for mininotebooks (also known as netbooks), increased 11.7% in 4Q09 compared to 3Q09. x86 server processors grew 14.1% quarter over quarter. Desktop processors grew 4.8% quarter over quarter.
On the client side—mobile and desktop—IDC notes that mainstream and performance processors rose modestly as a percentage of the total mix compared to value processors, which caused the overall market average selling price of processors to rise 6.7% quarter over quarter.
"The sequential rise in mainstream and high-end client processors points to the new products, like Core i5 and Athlon II, that Intel and AMD were shipping into the market for the holiday buying season in the fourth quarter," said Rau. "What's interesting there is that consumers were there to buy systems based on them and that OEMs were investing in them for future builds. At the same time, the sequential rise in server processors indicates that server OEMs are starting to see corporations come off the sidelines."
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-23 21:57:19 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Skype the largest communications provider
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-21 17:26:02 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
"Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far," said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography on Tuesday.
Skype's technology allows consumers to make practically free long-distance calls over the Internet on fixed lines. It is mostly used on desktops but Skype has made the move into mobile too and it now comes pre-installed on some cellphones.
According to the firm's data, over the past 25 years, international call volume from telephones have grown at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent.
In the past two years this growth has however slowed to only 8 percent, rising from 376 billion minutes in 2008 to an estimated 406 billion minutes last year.
By comparison, Skype's on-net international traffic between two Skype users grew 51 percent in 2008, and is projected to grow 63 percent in 2009, to 54 billion minutes.
Posted by dan on: 2010-01-19 17:08:16 in category: General [ 0 Comment(s) ]
Microsoft has been gazing at its navel and decided that it only really needs to know everything you do on its Bing search engine for six months.
The Vole's chief privacy strategist Peter Cullen has announced that he will cheerfully delete all personal data that Bing gathers on you after six months rather than the current 18 months.
He said that this new and significant step will be incorporated into Microsoft's existing privacy practices, which he claimed already provide strong protections for Bing users.
Cullen said the change was the result of an ongoing dialogue with privacy advocates, consumer groups, and regulators. The fact that one of them, the Article 29 Working Party which provides advice to the European Commission and other EU institutions on data protection, was not happy about the Vole sitting on personal data for 18 months had nothing to do with it.
RCA has named the batteries AirPower and envisions they will serve as a backup power source to normal battery charging methods. While it is obvious that enough power couldn't be gleaned from a wireless network to keep an active device running, an AirPower not in use could charge as fast a 6 hours. Naturally this is abysmally slow compared to current wired charging technologies. However, if the batteries are priced right they might give you one less thing to worry about since you wouldn't have to worry about plugging in and unplugging unattended batteries.
The Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals is a Microsoft Office Excel-based spreadsheet listing software applications which have met Windows 7 Logo Program testing requirements for compatibility with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7, and have thereby earned the right to display the Windows 7 Logo Program logo with the application. These products are identified with the compatibility status “Compatible – Windows 7 Logo.”
Google's January plans to move out of China were confirmed last night as attempts to reach the nation's version of the search engine were redirected to Hong Kong.
Mozilla plans to patch a critical vulnerability affecting the latest version of its Firefox web browser in seven days.
Microsoft will officially launch Office 2010 to businesses at an event slated for May 12, the company announced last week.
Microsoft and Yahoo! announced today that they have received clearance for their search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission, and will now turn their attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.
This week, Net Applications released their January browser market share report. Their report shows that Internet Explorer 8 is not only the most popular browser on Windows with 27.9% usage share, but that it now has 25.6% of market share across all OS’s on a worldwide-weighted usage share basis (data provided by Net Applications). We launched just less than a year ago, so it’s both humbling and thrilling to see so many people choose our product so quickly – making it the most popular browser of choice worldwide.
In conjunction with Lithuanian anti-piracy outfit LANVA, software giant Microsoft has sued the alleged operator of the country’s largest BitTorrent site. Microsoft is demanding $43 million from the defendant and his company for assisting in the illegal distribution of Office 2003 and 2007.
This week Microsoft released an update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with a utility for restoring backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers that are running Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2.
Google has released a web version of its Google Voice app for the Iphone, which will allow users to make cheap mobile calls using the Internet and bypass some other services provided by telco operators.
"Skype is now the largest provider of cross border communications in the world, by far," said Stephan Beckert, analyst at research firm TeleGeography on Tuesday.