Archive for February, 2007
“The folks at Google have added a new tab to the company’s Maps service that provides real-time traffic data. A new overlay appears on the map, showing the speeds traffic is currently moving on major freeways (or highways as you East coasters call them) and urban routes. The Google Operating System blog was one of the first to notice the change. This is a long-overdue update for Google Maps. Yahoo Maps and Microsoft’s Live service have had traffic data integration for months. 511.org has been the SF Bay Area commuter’s old standby for years…” (Read full article here)
February 28th, 2007
“BitTorrent, the pioneers of peer-to-peer file sharing technology, have just launched an online video, TV and movie store. The content offered by this new store marks a U-turn from the company’s previous business model, as content available on the site is now licensed and users will have to pay a small fee for every download. By legalising their service, BitTorrent, widely used by web pirates around the globe in the past, have taken action to prevent any further lawsuits against the company from copyright owners…” (Read full article here)
February 27th, 2007
“Sony Corp. said Monday it is bringing out a cheaper player for Blu-ray discs early this summer, a crucial step in its battle to make the high-definition format the replacement for DVDs. The BDP-S300 will cost $599, yet will have the same capabilities as the $999 BDP-S1 Sony is currently selling, said Randy Waynick, senior vice president of the home products division of Sony Electronics. Sony and Samsung Corp., which also makes a Blu-ray player, have been undersold by Toshiba Corp.’s players for the rival HD DVD format. Toshiba has a model on the market for $499…” (Read full article here)
February 26th, 2007
“Mozilla updated Firefox on Friday to patch 14 vulnerabilities, three of them critical, but pushed out the new versions without fixing several flaws.
Firefox 2.0.0.2 and Firefox 1.5.0.10, which originally were to be released last Wednesday, were delayed to patch a series of bugs, including some disclosed this month by Polish researcher Michael Zelewski. Two others forwarded to Mozilla developers by Zelewski, however, didn’t make it into Friday’s updates…” (Read full article here)
February 25th, 2007
“Microsoft Corp. has been hit with a trademark infringement lawsuit by a California company that seeks to stop the software maker from using the name Office Live for its business tools. Office Live LLC of Los Angeles offers online productivity service and operates free consumer advice sites such as lawofficelive.com and doctorsofficelive.com. According to documents on file with the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, the company registered the Office Live trademark on Dec. 31, 2002, and a lawyer for the company said it had been in use since 2001…” (Read full article here)
February 24th, 2007
“According to the new market data provided by market research firm NPD, US gamers mostly fetched Nintendo Wii video games console, which helped it easily soar past Xbox 360 in sales and open a huge lead over the PS3. The second best-selling console was Sony’s 7-year-old PlayStation 2, which moved 299,000 units and outsold Microsoft’s Xbox 360 with merely 5000 units and Sony’s newer but more expensive PS3 with nearly 300,000 units. According to NPD Group’s research data, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 sold 294,000 units, while Sony’s Playstation 3 sold 244,000 units. The high-end versions of these machines are priced at $US400 and $US600, respectively…” (Read full article here)
February 23rd, 2007
“Security researchers have discovered a serious flaw in Google Inc.’s desktop software that could be used to wreak havoc on a victim’s computer. The bug, which was made public Wednesday by Watchfire Corp., has now been fixed. While Google is automatically delivering a patch, Google Desktop users who want to be sure they are running the latest version of the software can download it here. Users should be running version 5.0.701.30540 or later, said Google Spokesman Barry Schnitt, via e-mail…” (Read full article here)
February 23rd, 2007
“HP has announced financial results for its first fiscal quarter ending 31 January 2007 with net earnings of $1.5bn, an impressive 26 per cent year-on-year increase. As notebooks continue to become a more attractive option over desktop PCs, desktop revenue declined one per cent but notebook revenue grew an astounding 40 per cent over the prior year period. HP’s Personal Systems Group reported a strong rise in overall unit shipments of 19 per cent. Analysts have suggested that this huge jump is eating into Dell’s market share, which is already feeling put upon as it continues to lose ground in the PC market…” (Read full article here)
February 22nd, 2007
“NVIDIA today released its WHQL certified ForceWare 100 drivers for Windows Vista. The new ForceWare version 100.65 is the first WHQL certified driver compatible with NVIDIA GeForce 8800-series based graphics cards. Windows Vista beta drivers were available to GeForce 8800-series users previously. The new drivers support Microsoft’s DirectX 10 API on single-GeForce 8800-series configurations only. Users with a pair of GeForce 8800-series graphics cards in SLI will have to wait for SLI DirectX 10 support. Nevertheless, DirectX 9 and OpenGL applications will be able to take advantage of SLI technology on GeForce 8800 GPUs…” (Read full article here)
February 21st, 2007
“Just as Slysoft’s AnyDVD software lets consumers easily watch copy-protected DVDs by remove region coding and going straight to playing the movie without waiting for FBI warning or other logos, AnyDVD HD gives consumers the same freedom with HD DVD movies at last. With the defeat of HD DVD encryption making the recent news, it comes as no surprise to discover that SlySoft, makers of the CloneCD, CloneDVD and AnyDVD software programs, have released software to deal with the problems of HD DVD encryption…” (Read full article here)
February 20th, 2007
“It seems Sony is desperate to continue the trend it has set of doing everything the Xbox 360 can do only much later. The latest example: movie downloads. Sony’s PlayStation Studio Chief Phil Harrison spilled the beans in an interview with 1UP saying “The decision we made to put a hard drive in every PlayStation 3 was because we saw the long term benefit. The ten year plan of allowing people to download all kinds of digital content to their PlayStation 3 — not just games but movies, music, HD, standard definition TV, you name it. And that was a significant investment, but it was absolutely the right thing to do.”…” (Read full article here)
February 19th, 2007
“The Red Herring is reporting today that Google has purchased Adscape, the San Francisco in-game advertising firm, for $23 million. If it’s true, then it shows that video games will be a new battleground for the likes of Google and Microsoft to slug it out. Microsoft bought Massive Inc., the New York pioneer of in-game advertising, last year in a deal reported to be at $200 million to $400 million. Massive was one of a number of start-ups that sought to insert ads into video games…” (Read full article here)
February 18th, 2007
“The identity of a YouTube user who uploaded entire episodes of Fox drama “24″ before they were broadcast has been handed over to Fox in response to a District Court subpoena. 20th Century Fox Television has confirmed both YouTube-owner Google and fellow video-sharing site Live Digital complied with subpoenas and disclosed to Fox the details of individuals who uploaded episodes of “24″ and “The Simpsons”, reports Internet News. The first four episodes of this season’s “24″ were available on YouTube and LiveDigital a week before they first went to air in the U.S. - highlighting the struggle television networks and movie houses face against piracy…” (Read full article here)
February 17th, 2007
“Nvidia’s next step up from the impressive but pricey 8800 series will be the 8900GTX and 8950GX2. As the model numbers would imply, these are performance class cards and come with a performance class price. The pricer of the two, the 8950GX2, currently rumored to be a dual-GPU solution, will come in with a massive price tag of $600. The 8900GTX will be slightly less at around $550. Indeed, it seems the high end cards from both camps, whether ATI/AMD or Nvidia, are carrying enormous price tags that make even the PS3 look cheap…” (Read full article here)
February 16th, 2007
“Sharp has developed a Blu-ray Disc recorder that cuts costs by doing away with the tuner. Instead, the BD-HP1 will use the tuner present in a television set to record TV programs, the company said on Wednesday. The recorder, which Sharp describes as “a player that can record,” connects via iLink (IEEE1394) to a TV. Sharp says it will work with all models of its Aquos LCD (liquid crystal display) TV line that sport an iLink connector. The TVs can power just their tuner, so the entire set doesn’t have to be switched on to make recording possible…” (Read full article here)
February 15th, 2007
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