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SlingPlayer 2.0 public beta goes live

The public beta for SlingPlayer 2.0 is finally released and gives you a chance to get to grips with it. This will be welcome news for eager fans ever since it was announced last year at CES 2007, but the player will be without one of its big features, Clip+ Sing.

I guess not all features will make it into the beta after all, so it looks like only the local DVR features are present, so you’ll be able to test out the new 60-minute buffer and EPG which is still exciting.

Other minor changes to the player include a tweaked UI, and the removal of Slingbox Finder Ids in exchange for user accounts, Skin supported has also been dropped.

At the moment, it only runs on Windows, but expect more announcements on this software soon. To read more details on SlingPlayer and view a video of it in action, follow the link below.

Source: Read

IBM warns Linux Desktop Developers not to copy Windows

IBM bosses have sent a warning to Linux Desktop Developers; they have told the open source community to make Linux like a desktop OS for consumers and businesses. What they mean by this is “Not to Copy Windows.”

Bob Sutor, Vice President of open source and standards at IBM was at LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco. He told the attendees there that the open source community has to make Linux as popular as Operating Systems used on desktops for both consumer and business users.

In the conference Sutor said “Stop copying 2001 Windows. That’s not where the usability action is.”

Yesterday we reported that IBM was joining forces with three major Linux distributors Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat, to come up with a Microsoft Free PC by 2009.

All four companies have agreed to provide hardware partners with the software needed to build these desktops. IBM carry a lot of weight when it comes to the Linux community, this is because they put a huge amount of investment into the program.
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Video explaining Mozilla Labs Aurora browser concept

Mozilla Labs has released a video which explains all you need to know about their Aurora browser concept. Mozilla hope that by launching this video, it will help to inspire people to take an active part in what is being described as the future of the web.

Mozilla Labs hope that they are able to provoke the thought of this new browser concept; they would like to facilitate discussion in designing the new direction of Firefox as well as other Mozilla projects.

The video has been created by Adaptive Path and Mozilla Labs. When watching the video, you will get to see how the Aurora browser looks and works. The concept browser uses OS X, this uses a dock-like and drag and droppable interface.

We could be watching the future of Firefox; so far I like what I have seen. The look is futuristic with objects fading away which lay further back in the past. I do worry when a concept looks this good, it will just be one of those things that we never end up seeing.

Check out the Mozilla Labs Aurora browser concept video below.

IBM says Windows free computing by 2009

IBM have said that they want Windows free computing, this is something that they are working on with three major Linux distributors, Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell and Red Hat.

They aim to achieve a Vole-free personal computing world by 2009 however; this is a tall order. All four of these companies are in collaboration with each other and are working on the development of a PC which will come pre-loaded with Linux, IBM’s Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS), Lotus Notes, Symphony and Sametime.

Consumers as well as independent software vendors will then be encouraged to develop applications that will run on this new PC. This will be done via Lotus Expeditor; this is a software framework which is based on the open source Eclipse programming model.

IBM Lotus Software vice president, Kevin Cavanaugh has said “The slow adoption of Vista among businesses, coupled with the proven success of a new type of Microsoft-free PC in every region, provides an extraordinary window of opportunity for Linux.”

It seems that more and more PC customers are asking for a computer that does not have any Microsoft software in it. It looks as though IBM has listened to them; let us hope that this collaboration works and all four companies can come up with something that consumers have been waiting for.

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Steve Jobs: Mistake launching MobileMe and iPhone 3G together

Following on from Peter’s article this morning I thought I would say a little more. MobileMe from Apple has had it fair share of problems since launching and of course it is bad enough to read many readers criticisms about MobileMe but from Steve Jobs it is surely mind-blowing.

We like his honesty, Ars Technica had an internal Apple email that Steve Jobs sent out to their employees showing details of his displeasure that MobileMe was “not up to Apple’s Standards.” It indeed needs both more time in testing, and a piece-by-piece launch, rather than attempting to launch it as a “monolithic service,”

So ok Steve Jobs has said

“it was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” which is an admission that perhaps Apple had bitten off more than they could chew. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”

That is a very good point when you think about it, they launched the Apple iPhone 3G, MobileMe then the iPhone update, and then came the App Store plus the recent 2.0.1 firmware update, we believe Apple are doing far too much to quickly and they should concentrate in giving us anything they have working properly, but it seems they want to push out as much as they can even if it works or not.

Do you think Apple is doing too much too soon?

Steve Jobs admits MobileMe mistake: Apple has to learn

Looks like Steve Jobs has had to eat humble pie as he admits that launching MobileMe early was a mistake. He said that it was not up to Apple standards and that they need to learn from this.

Steve Jobs decided to send an email round to Apple employees, in the email it went on to say that launching MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store was a mistake. Jobs felt that MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.

Apple has also said that the early launch of MobileMe clearly shows that Apple still has a lot to learn about the Internet Service.

Apple did add that they will defiantly learn from this mistake; it is nice to hear that a company as big as Apple can still admit when they have made a mistake. This is something that we do not hear from other companies, such as Microsoft.

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X-OOM Music Clean 5: Transfer Old Music to CD and iPod

X-OOM Music Clean 5 enables users to digitally re-master and restore old music from vinyl and cassette tapes to CDs and MP3s quickly and easily.

The software features a high quality digital equaliser for removing unwanted noises such as crackling, clicking and hissing, leaving music to be enjoyed in excellent quality. Favourite old vinyl and cassette tapes kept in the attic can be restored and then backed up onto a PC, ready to be transferred to a CD or MP3 player. Even the oldest tunes can be brought back to life and listened to in high quality once again Read more

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 launched: Beta expires on 31 August

Adobe has launched their second full version of the popular Lightroom photo organizing and editing software package. Lightroom 2.0 was first out as a Beta version, which will expire on August 31.

The full version of Adobe Lightroom 2 is now available and a number of changes have been made, all has been designed to make workflow easier thanks to a number of developing tools.

Adobe have said that they have simplified the organizational tools in the library as well as improving how your view your volumes of images.

Adobe has added a Smart Collections tool, this allows photographers to set certain parameters, as well as search criteria from their images’ metadata. Lightroom will then automatically create collections

Adobe Lightroom 2 has also added a keyword suggestions; this saves time when typing in metadata. This full version also has an improved keyword list. Dual monitor support and 64-bit Native makes workflow easier on your Mac and PC’s.

The full version price for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is £175. The upgrade price is £69.

For more information visit: Adobe

IBM Research Develops Software Technology to Aid Human Memory

To help people remember key facts, today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled a software technology created in its Research Labs that uses the images, sounds, and text recorded on everyday mobile devices to help people recall names, faces, conversations and other important information.

The technology, nicknamed “Pensieve” by the IBM team, uses associative recall to make connections between pieces of related data acquired by a person. The advantage of the new technology is its ability to understand the context in which data is captured, then connect various data, and then use this knowledge to help bring the correct information to a person when it is needed. Read more

Apple’s Steve Jobs is involved in MobileMe problem

When a company gets much larger it can sometimes lose that personal touch it had at the start. Apple has been plagued by problems with its new push data service (MobileMe) and now it’s got “company chief Steve Jobs involved”.

Some Apple users have been suffering during the 14 days since MobileMe launched and things have not got that much better.

It may be late but Apple have setup a dedicated status page that will keep MobileMe users informed of the progress on fixing the new service.

Apple is working 24-7 to improve matters, but they have reported that 1% of the accounts are affected and that “as much as 10 percent of these messages delivered between July 16th and July 18th will have been lost”. That’s a serious issue on its own, its not good losing email under any circumstances.

There will be another update this week that will provide more information on why MobileMe is having problems. We do know that the launch of iPhone 2.0 firmware and iPhone 3G had caused a massive surge of data traffic. Apple did not anticipate this load.

You can read more details on the MobileMe email support article and Apple Insider. Also view more iPhone 3G news here.

New Catalyst driver for Radeon graphics cards under XP and Vista

There is a new Catalyst driver for Radeon graphics cards and if you are wondering how it will perform under Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, then you need to check out Tweak Towns 12 page review and test.

The ATI Catalyst 8.7 analysis under XP and Vista goes into depth to find out the real performance and in their final thoughts Tweak Town said, “While the new drivers don’t offer massive performance gains or anything like that, there are a number of nice little bumps on offer here today.

With the fixes implemented in the driver, they’re a good upgrade for most users. People who will be particular happy, however, are mid-range HD 3650 users who want an extra few FPS here and there.

There’s no doubt that the AMD guys are extremely busy at the moment with the HD 4800 series of cards, but with the X2 just around the corner, hopefully it begins to calm down a little bit and the team can get stuck into the drivers and try and get us some more performance from the new cards”.

Read the 12 page review and test.

HP Introduces New Software Services

HP today announced new solutions that help chief information officers (CIOs) prioritize and align their IT investments to deliver better business outcomes.

Part of the broader HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software portfolio, the new release of HP Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Center 7.5 delivers integrated IT management capabilities that span project and portfolio management, application lifecycle management and IT service management Read more

Microsoft distributes security patch to fix Internet addressing system

Microsoft and other big companies are distributing a security patch that fixes an Internet addressing system problem that was found by accident.

This was a major security glitch and it would of allowed criminals to redirect a user to another webpage and that’s even if you entered in the correct URL, this issue was unprecedented and should not cause panic but web users should be concerned.

Could you imagine the problems that could have been caused if you entered the address for your normal online banking website and was redirect to another site that looked the same. This could be done easy by using the Domain Name System (DNS) to redirect you there.

You will now want to make sure you get this patch; we have heard it will be spread through automated updates on personal computers.

The problem was originally found over 6 months ago and Mr. Kaminsky (who found the problem) has been in secret research with computer giants such as Cisco, Sun and Microsoft to fix this problem.

Technical details have not been made public, this is to give people a chance to update their computers before any hackers try and break the patch.

The question I have is, did anyone find this loophole before and have they been using it for some time? Lets hope that’s not the case.

Source: Read

Google’s Lively: Second Life in a web browser

In the last 24 hours, Google has introduced another innovative product and this one is like Second Life in a web browser, the 3D chat room plug-in is called Lively.

One of the best ways to spread the word about a new product or service is with social networking and blogs, how about being able to embed the very product into those blogs and sites through an iframe embed code.

Google’s Lively will bring another dimension of the web and while it’s only 20 percent complete, this portable 3D space will let you interact with visitors via avatars and build rooms.

With many chat rooms having been the talk of dodgy discussions in the past, it seems Lively 3D chat rooms have been able to only have activities in the G to PG range.

Lively has been made with simplicity in mind and its extremely easy to install the plug-in and the embed code is something everyone has come to use and know in other applications. This is only a Google Labs beta phase, but if it gets enough attention here then we could see the web getting more Lively.

Although Lively is still a clunky beta, Ars Technica has given the service a full hands-on review. Could you get use to Lively’s cartoony environments?

Watch the video explaining what Lively is below.

Microsoft Equipt vs open source and free software

The computer users of the world have been getting more interested in open source and free software for some time now and Microsoft’s new Equipt subscription service is aimed at defending the Office franchise.

As we reported the other day, the pricing model for Equipt will be $69.99 per year and you get a lot of software for the money that can be accessed by up to three computers.

Circuit City have got the exclusive rights to Equipt beginning mid-July and it’s hoped by Microsoft that the convenience of Equipt will stop some Office users moving towards the open source or free software route.

There is a lot of competition for Microsoft and that’s why this new service was needed to keep them in the game, as IBM is offering Lotus Symphony free and also other brands have similar free Office software packages.

The sales results for Office products have shown a downward pattern and the last quarter saw Office products among consumers drop 39%.

Will you use the new Equipt subscription service or do you have another favorite?

Microsoft’s new Office Equipt subscription service

Retailer Circuit City will be launching something new from Microsoft and they will also be the first to bring this new software service called Microsoft Equipt.

By mid-July the consumer software subscription service will be at around 700 US based Circuit City stores and will include MS Office, Windows Live One Care, Messenger, Photo Gallery and other applications.

Microsoft Equipt will cost $70 per year and although this is not a complete move to the subscription model by Microsoft, its still welcomed.

Having bought MS Office in the past I know just how much this can cost and the thought of getting so much included in such a small fee makes this option very desirable.

We are hearing that Equipt will include subscription versions of Student 2007 and Office Home; you will also get easy subscription removal and unlimited e-mail support.

Sadly we have no dates of a similar subscription service to countries outside the United States.

Mozilla Firefox 3.0 enters Guinness World of Records

A few weeks back we were all rushing to our computers to download Firefox 3.0 from Mozilla, and none of us could have imagined how popular the new Web Browser was going to be.

Well Mozilla must have known something, as they had asked there users to try and make them hold the record for the most software downloads in 24 hours.

The thing was at the time the Guinness World Records had no such record, but Mozilla had campaigned to allow this new record.

Well it now seems that Guinness officials have decided to accept Mozilla’s final count of 8,002,530 downloads for Firefox 3.0 in 24 hours. We can now say that Firefox 3.0 is a record holder.

When Mozilla launched their latest Web Browser last month, at their busiest time their servers had to handle at least 9,000 downloads per minute.

The previous version of Firefox had 1.6 million downloads in 24 hours; version 3.00 beat that in just 5 hours.

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Adobe’s Google and Yahoo agreement: Search engines will see Adobe Flash-created content

This is breaking news and very good news at that, Adobe has new software that will make flash-created content more noticeable by search engines like Yahoo and Google. At the moment it seems that search engines like Google and Yahoo and other Web-search tools cannot easily recognize pages that have Flash-created images.

Many times we have searched the web to buy something and we end up seeing graphics built with Adobe Systems’ Flash software, have fun finding the exact product with a search engine, though. Because it seems Google and other Web-search tools can’t. Well Adobe has announced that they are taking steps to solve those problems, Adobe are providing Google and Yahoo with software that will makes these pages inside flash-powered sites show up much higher in search results, it will infuse those results with a much better result leading you to what you are really looking for much more easier and of course with more relevant details.

Adobe’s moves include providing Flash software that is more attractive to Web site developers and of course to persuade more consumers to visit its customers’ sites, Adobe’s Google and Yahoo agreement will be very competitive and is surely a smack in the face for Microsoft, who indeed makes web software that competes with Adobe’s. Just so you know flash sites often contain ads, sell products, promotes movies and much more, so the most important thing that should happen for the creators is for sites to show up where consumers are clicking.

So with Adobe providing Google and Yahoo with this all new software code and a very special version of its flash player, one that can expose the what-used-to-be hidden flash-content now seems a thing of the past.

Read the uncloaking ‘invisible’ Flash Web content over at CNET

Safari and Firefox grow at expense of Internet Explorer

It’s been long known that Internet Explorer is the most used web browser but it’s also a known fact that it has been losing market share to Firefox for some time now. Today we are hearing that Safari and Firefox have been growing at the expense of Internet Explorer and if you’re a percent person lets give you some figures.

The Safari Web browser has gained market share for two months in a row and now has 6.25 percent of the browser market, although Firefox has a lot more at 19.03 percent at the end of June and this figure has been steadily moving up month on month. Both Apple and Mozilla’s web browsers are taking more market share each month but Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has a dominant 73.01 percent of the market.

While that’s a massive lead for Microsoft it is still one that can be overtaken if it keeps losing surfers to Safari and Firefox. These statistics give you an outlook of the current web browser market but in the whole, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is consistently losing people. The other brands have a long way to go and I am sure Microsoft is not sitting around letting this happen, so anything can happen yet.

What web browser do you use and what features make you choose that browser?

It looks like Firefox 2 is the most secure Web browser, this would be assumed because 83.3% of its users run the most current version and this is compared to 45.2% of Internet users who do not use the latest version of their Internet browser and this will then not be as secure. Do you always update your web browser as soon as an update is available?

Source: Read

Microsoft Windows XP No Longer: Either love Vista or wait for Windows 7

Microsoft retires Windows XP; Microsoft has stopped making available Windows XP to large computer firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo and even software retailers. There will be a few exceptions where Windows XP will in fact be unavailable to retail shoppers and computer makers; this is a big blow to some because it means forcing quite a few Microsoft PC users to migrate to Windows Vista OS, or if you hate Vista then having to wait to 2010 for Microsoft Windows 7.

This new move has been panned for months, they will continue to offer the operating system to system builders that is, small, independent PC makers, through July of next year. What we do like is the fact that Microsoft are still offering to make Windows XP available to builders of ultra-low-cost laptops and PCs, you know like Asus, they will do this until the end of 2010, Windows 7 will be out then. This has apparently been seen as an attempt to prevent the likes of Linux from being a more established beachhead in emerging markets. Also, some PC makers, including Dell (Dell), are giving customers continued access to XP for an indefinite period if they buy certain models of Vista-based computers. There is a loophole in Microsoft’s licensing terms that lets users of its most current operating system “downgrade” to a previous version at no additional cost. There are many hardcore users who love XP and they are not going to give up their beloved OS without a hard fight, there has been a petition to save XP which has been launched by a computer industry publication and has so far more than 210,000 online signatures.

Like I many users hate Windows Vista and love XP, XP is what I am using still and will continue to do so, the reason I hate Vista so much is because of its compatibility with older software. One thing is for sure and that is users will not sway away from XP anytime soon. Microsoft has said that they will extend support for the OS until 2014.