General IT News
MS yields: boot to desktop, Start menu options in Win 8.1
Date added : 17/04/2013
By Jose Vilches@Techspot.com
Microsoft may be ready to address two of the most common complaints about Windows 8 with its upcoming “Blue” update. Specifically, The Verge cites sources familiar with the company’s plans who claim builds of Windows 8.1 are being tested with an option to skip the “Metro” start screen and boot directly to the traditional desktop. A separate report from ZDNet seconds this and also suggests that the Start menu might make a comeback.
Signs of a boot-to-desktop option were spotted a few days ago in a leaked build of Windows Blue. Apparently the option is disabled by default and there’s currently no toggle to enable it in the operating system’s settings panel. But the code is there. It’s possible Microsoft still hasn't decided on whether to implement this in the final Blue release, though ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley says her sources have confirmed “this is now looking like the plan.”
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MS reverses one-PC Office 2013 licensing restriction
Date added : 07/03/2013
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Following a wave of criticism over the licensing terms for the retail version of Office 2013, which essentially tied your version of the software to a single computer for ever, Microsoft has amended the agreement with a transferability provision to allow users to move the productivity suite to another computer up to once every 90 days. The change is effective immediately and covers Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013, Office Professional 2013, and all of the standalone Office 2013 applications.
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Vodacom app launched
Date added : 05/12/2012
Staff Writer ,MyBroadband.co.za
The “My Vodacom” app for BlackBerry, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone has, over the last few weeks, been quietly rolled out to the relevant app stores for the various platforms.
According to Vodacom, the app lets users view their account summary and balances, as well as purchase and transfer data bundles, transfer airtime, and view their PUK.
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Microsoft won't release Service Pack 2 for Windows 7
Date added : 25/10/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
The engineering team responsible for building and releasing service packs has reportedly been told there won’t be another service pack for Windows 7. It marks the first time in multiple releases that Microsoft won’t be issuing a second major update.
If you recall, Windows XP received three service packs during its run while Vista scored two major bundles. It’s unclear at this hour why Microsoft isn’t planning a second service pack but it doesn’t take a genius to make an educated guess.
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Microsoft: Office coming to Android, iOS in March 2013
Date added : 11/10/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
Talk of Microsoft Office showing up on Android and iOS devices is headlining tech sites once again. This time there’s some solid evidence in support of a mobile Office suite. Microsoft product manager Petr Bobek reportedly told Czech site IHNED that Office software for Android and iOS is coming in 2013.
The software will arrive as native apps on the mobile platforms, according to Bobek. Not long after the announcement, The Verge came forward with claims to have seen a press release from Microsoft’s Czech Republic team. The release confirms the software will be coming to the two most popular mobile operating systems alongside Windows Phone, Windows RT, Mac OS and Symbian.
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MS launching Office 2013 upgrade program next month
Date added : 14/09/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
Microsoft is preparing to launch their Office 2013 upgrade guarantee program next month. Much like what the company offers with Windows, customers that purchase a copy of Office 2010 between the specified guarantee dates will be able to upgrade to Office 2013 free or at a discounted rate when it becomes publically available.
Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet says an inside source told her Microsoft plans to launch the upgrade program on October 19. Anyone that buys Office 2010 between that date and April 30, 2013 will be eligible for some sort of guaranteed upgrade path.
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MS gets a logo makeover for the first time since 1987
Date added : 24/08/2012
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Microsoft today revealed a new look for its corporate logo, marking the first time in 25 years the company has changed its image and the fifth time overall. The new logo features the name "Microsoft" in the Segoe font — a proprietary font used in the firm’s products and marketing for several years -- alongside a multicolored Windows symbol intended to "signal the heritage but also signal the future.”
Microsoft is preparing to launch a range of products this fall, including Windows 8 and a new Surface tablet running the OS, as well as Windows Phone 8. The software giant's new logo reflects a change in its products’ look and feel which relies heavily on a tile-based UI formerly known as Metro -- now it’s just called Windows 8 Style. It also arrives just months after introducing a new single-colored Windows 8 logo.
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Microsoft renames Hotmail to Outlook
Date added : 01/08/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
Hotmail has been synonymous with the Internet for as long as I can remember but despite maintaining over 325 million monthly active users, the end of an era is near. Microsoft has decided to ditch the Hotmail brand in favor of something that doesn’t carry quite the negative stigma: Outlook. Yes, the same Outlook that has been a staple of Office products for years will now be used to brand the free email service.
Windows Live general manager Brian Hall told VentureBeat that Hotmail simply had a bad reputation and that many people didn’t feel comfortable having their name associated with the service. On the other hand, however, Outlook has a much better reputation as mail from Microsoft and thus the new branding was born.
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MWEB slashes 10Mbps uncapped ADSL price
Date added : 27/07/2012
Staff Writer @MyBroadband.co.za
MWEB has announced that it will be slashing its 10Mbps uncapped unshaped ADSL pricing by R1000 per month. The company will also be introducing a new 2Mbps uncapped ADSL service.
MWEB has slashed the price of its 10Mbps uncapped ADSL product from R1,999 per month to R999 per month.
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LinkedIn Will Integrate With The Next Version of Office
Date added : 27/07/2012
Steve Kovach @businessinsider.com
LinkedIn announced on its blog this evening that Microsoft will support integration with the social network in the upcoming version of Office.
Users will be able to log in with their LinkedIn credentials in Outlook and see profile information like photos and status updates for anyone who emails them. LinkedIn data will also be added to contact cards in Outlook.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-
microsoft-office-integration-2012-7#ixzz21o313efu
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Microsoft Office 2013 drops support for XP, Vista
Date added : 20/07/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
Microsoft has published clearer system requirements for deploying Office 2013 on its Technet website. Users still running Windows XP and Vista may be disappointed to hear that Office 2013 will not be compatible either operating system. The new version Office will only be compatible with Windows 7, 8, 2008 R2 Server and 2012 Server.
Dropping support for Windows XP is not surprising, but Vista users may feel a little sore after the stark reality of impending abandonment manages to set in. Keep in mind Vista already reached its end-of-life milestone in April, so excluding Vista from IE10 -- and now Office 2013 -- actually isn't very surprising at all.
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Firefox 14 released, adds secure search
Date added : 18/07/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
Keeping pace with their own rapid release schedule, Mozilla has released Firefox 14.0.1 -- the latest stable build of its popular Internet browser -- to PCs and Macs everywhere. This release follows last month's launch of Firefox 14 for Android and Firefox 13 which was released several weeks ago.
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MS urges Vista, Win 7 users to disable desktop gadgets
Date added : 12/07/2012
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
In a security advisory Tuesday, Microsoft urged Windows Vista and 7 users to download a tool that disables the operating system's sidebar and gadgets. The company warned that insecure gadgets could be used to run arbitrary code on a computer, access its files or display objectionable content. In the event of arbitrary code execution, an attacker could take control of the affected system with the ability to install programs, view, change or delete data, or create new accounts with full user rights.
Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't detailed the vulnerabilities, when (if?) they'll be addressed or whether systems are actively being exploited in the wild. Some have suggested the advisory is merely an attempt to prepare users for the rumored removal of gadgets in Windows 8. Computerworld offers a more plausible explanation, noting that researchers at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on July 26 plan to outline "interesting attack vectors" for creating malicious Windows gadgets.
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MS employee explains decision to scrap the Start button
Date added : 29/06/2012
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
One of the biggest gripes that longtime Windows users have with the upcoming OS release is Microsoft's decision to pull the classic Start menu to make way for a new Metro start screen. Many have called out the company for forcing what they claim is a touch-friendly interface optimized for tablets on desktop users, worried that productivity might suffer as a result.
But Microsoft believes the Start button had actually fallen out of favor with users of Windows 7 already and that presented the opportunity to do something new.
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Microsoft buys Yammer for R10.2 billion
Date added : 26/06/2012
Reuters @Techspot.com
Microsoft Corp agreed to buy online social network firm Yammer Inc for $1.2 billion in cash, which will allow the software company to offer a service like Facebook Inc’s to corporate customers.
Talk of a deal had circulated earlier this month, but the two companies only confirmed an agreement on Monday.
Four-year-old Yammer, which has 5 million users of its private, in-company social networks, helps companies’ internal communications and collaboration by allowing employees
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Microsoft Surface tablet PC uses Intel or ARM
Date added : 19/06/2012
Staff Writer @MyBroadband.co.za
Microsoft unveiled its own range of tablet PCs at an event in Hollywood today (19 June 2012) set to run on its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.
Repurposing the name of its old touch computer, Surface will be available in both Intel and ARM variants, with Microsoft saying that Nvidia would provide the system-on-chip for the ARM device.
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BlackBerry OS 7.1 available in SA
Date added : 12/06/2012
Staff Writer ,MyBroadband.co.za
BlackBerry 7.1, the latest version of the BlackBerry smartphone OS, is now available for customers in South Africa.
The update is available for the BlackBerry Bold 9900, BlackBerry Torch 9810, BlackBerry Curve 9360 and 9380 smartphones, and the Porsche Design P9981 smartphone from BlackBerry, subject to carrier availability.
Customers can upgrade their smartphones to BlackBerry 7.1 for free over the air, from the South African BlackBerry 7 web portal, or using BlackBerry Desktop Software.
BlackBerry 7.1 includes BlackBerry Tag, a way to share content with other BlackBerry users using near field communications (NFC) technology. Two NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones can be tapped together to share contact information, pictures, a URL from the browser or documents.
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Telkom 40Mbps ADSL upgrades coming
Date added : 08/06/2012
Staff Writer ,MyBroadband.co.za
Telkom said that it will increase the speed of its entry level ADSL service to 2Mbps by 2015, and at the same time boost its highest ADSL speed to 40Mbps.
Telkom announced its annual results for the year ended 31 March 2012 today (8 June 2012), and Telkom CEO Nombulelo Moholi said that the company will consistently add more value at the same price through higher speeds and higher usage caps.
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Telkom ADSL pricing surprise
Date added : 04/06/2012
Rudolph Muller @Techspot.com
Telkom is planning to increase the access fee of its entry level ‘Fast DSL’ product by between R8 and R10 per month.
Two independent sources have informed MyBroadband that Telkom is planning to charge Internet Service Providers (ISPs) between R8 and R10 per month extra per ‘ADSL line’ for its entry level broadband service.
ISPs may try to absorb the increased DSL access costs from Telkom, and hence not pass this increased cost on to consumers, but with already thin margins this could be challenging.
Telkom announced on Friday 1 June 2012 that it will increase the speed of its 384kbps ADSL subscribers to 1Mbps, and will boost the speed of its current 1Mbps users to 2Mbps.
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Google Chrome Becomes World's Most Popular Browser
Date added : 25/05/2012
Seth Fiegerman @linkedin.com
After months of chipping away at its lead, GoogleChrome has finally overtaken Internet Explorer to become most popular web browser worldwide.
Chrome's share of the market rose to 32.8% in the week ending May 20, while Internet Explorer's share of the market dropped to 31.9%, according to new data from StatCounter, via TheNextWeb. This marks the first full week that Chrome has beaten Explorer.
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Microsoft Office coming to Android and iOS in November
Date added : 25/05/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
Microsoft is planning to release a full suite of Office apps for Android and iOS later this year. The apps are said to be launching in November and with full iOS compatibility, this means we could potentially see apps on the iPhone and iPod touch in addition to the iPad, according to a reliable source as reported by BGR.
Rumors have suggested that Microsoft has been working on an Office suite for the iPad for some time now. Late last year The Daily reported on this and even followed up on their story in February with a photo of the app running on an iPad with claims to have had some hands-on time with a working prototype of the software.
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Microsoft launches new social network
Date added : 21/05/2012
Jeremy Proome @MyBroadband.co.za
Microsoft has finally decided to come to the party and launched a new social-networking platform.
Named So.cl (pronounced ‘social’), the software giant’s new service provides an outlet for students to network and share information with their peers.
Users can log in through their Facebook or Windows Live accounts, and will be presented with a variety of suggested topics of interest.
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Windows 8 ditches Aero Glass -- will you miss it?
Date added : 21/05/2012
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
In a lengthy blog post, Microsoft has explained some of the logic behind Windows 8's interface. Much of the article discusses Metro, but a sizable chunk focuses on the desktop environment, including some significant changes that haven't been revealed in the Consumer Preview yet. Most notably, Microsoft says it's scrapping Aero Glass, the glossy, transparent border introduced with Vista, in favor of a flatter style that's less distracting:
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Bing goes social with Facebook, Twitter integration
Date added : 11/05/2012
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
In what it claims to be the largest update ever, Microsoft will introduce social results to its search engine -- not unlike the "Search, Plus Your World" initiative Google launched in January. However, instead of showing only Google+ data, Bing will incorporate information from relevant contacts and experts on Facebook, Twitter and more.
Coming to the US in a few days, the update will add a "brand new information architecture" with three columns: the left contains familiar algorithmic results, the middle column provides a "snapshot" of relevant information and services such as maps and reviews, while the right "sidebar" has social-oriented results.[ More... ]
802.11-2012 Wi-Fi promises 600Mbps, 3.65-3.7GHz
Date added : 09/05/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
Over the past 15 years, the Wi-Fi (802.11x) standard has been revised only a handful of times, evolving to include major revisions like 802.11b, g and n and smaller, incremental amendments like 802.11a. For the fourth time since 1997, the IEEE standards committee is planning another major revision to the standard being called 802.11-2012.
This new Wi-Fi standard will differentiate itself from previous iterations by operating within a range of 3.65 and 3.7GHz. Current implementations of Wi-Fi typically operate around either 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequencies. However, with 2.4GHz completely saturated by almost every conceivable consumer device and 5.8GHz becoming more popular, utilizing a new area of the spectrum will give consumers more opportunities to avoid interference.
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Microsoft to drop "Windows Live" brand
Date added : 04/05/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
Were you finally getting used to the idea of Microsoft integrating its products and services under the "Windows Live" umbrella? Well, if you're someone who's gotten comfortable with the Windows Live brand, you're about to be jettisoned into the zone of discomfort again.
With the advent of Windows 8 looming around the corner, Microsoft has decided to retire its "Windows Live" brand.
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Google tweaks algorithm to thwart keyword stuffing
Date added : 26/04/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
In an effort to penalize evil webspammers and reward those who utilize their SEO powers for good, Google announced that it will be adding new anti-webspam measures to its search algorithm. The changes are expected to roll out over the next few days.
During testing, the company says, about 12 percent of all queries were affected to a significant degree. Google claims that only about 3 percent of search queries actually change in a way users would notice though.
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Microsoft Security Essentials 4.0 released
Date added : 26/04/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
Microsoft has just released version 4.0 of its free anti-virus utility, Microsoft Security Essentials. Since MSSE's release in 2009, its effectiveness, speed and features have been well-received. As a result, the anti-virus program enjoys a great deal of popularity in the U.S. and remains a TechSpot Editor's Pick along with two other solid, free AV offerings: Avast! and Avira.
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Google Drive released, offers 5GB free
Date added : 25/04/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
Following piles of mounting rumors, an official cloud-based storage option by Google is finally here. In February, a Google employee had mentioned that the company would be releasing a cloud-based storage service in a "couple of weeks". Although that turned out to be a somewhat overzealous estimate, it's here and here's what to expect.
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Dropbox improves sharing capabilities
Date added : 24/04/2012
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Dropbox already offers arguably the simplest solution to synchronize and access your own files across PCs, tablets, and smartphones. Now, the company is taking a step further by making it much easier to share files with others, even those that do not have a Dropbox account. All you need to do is share a public link.
This is just an extension of Dropbox's existing sharing capabilities but will make a big difference to users of the service. Up until now sharing on Dropbox requiered users to throw files into the Public folder located in its default sync folder and only then they could get a public link for said file. But requiring the use of a special folder meant most users were unaware that the feature existed, the company admits.
The other option was sharing entire folders but this was only possible between Dropbox users.
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MWEB cuts 384Kbps/1Mbps uncapped ADSL prices
Date added : 17/04/2012
By Rudolph Muller @Techspot.com
MWEB has cut the price of its 1Mbps uncapped ADSL data accounts from R299 per month to R199 per month. MWEB Business is reducing the price of its business uncapped 1Mbps service from R986 per month to R799 per month.
The price of MWEB’s 384kbps uncapped ADSL accounts has also been dropped to R199 from the previous R219. MWEB will further offer a free upgrade to 1Mbps to all of their data-only uncapped 384Kbps ADSL customers.
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Telkom ADSL speed upgrades planned: source
Date added : 16/04/2012
Rudolph Muller @Techspot.com
Telkom is planning to increase the speed of their 384kbps ADSL subscribers to 1Mbps, and boost their 1Mbps ADSL speeds to 2Mbps. This is according to a source close to the Telkom’s DSL operations.
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Portugal considers a 'Terabyte Tax'
Date added : 16/04/2012
by Paul Taylor @Techeye.net
In what legislators are calling an attempt to “bring old legislation into the 21st century”, the Portuguese parliament is considering taxation on storage devices, in an attempt to protect copyright holders.
According to one local media outlet, Exame Informatica, the 'minor' legislative update proposed by the Portuguese Socialist Party (currently in the opposition) in Portugal, would have consumers forking out for a new tax on storage devices, all in the name of copyright protection - yet all but killing off HDD sales in the country.
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Microsoft ends mainstream support for Windows Vista
Date added : 12/04/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
Microsoft has terminated mainstream support for Windows Vista operating systems today. Vista was announced in July 2005 and released worldwide on January 30, 2007
Mainstream support is offered for a minimum of five years from the date of the product’s general availability or for two years after the next operating system has been released, whichever is longer. In this instance, the five year time span applied to mainstream support since Windows 7 was released more than two years ago.
Mainstream support applies to all customers but there are special circumstances for businesses. Extended support is available for commercial customers only and extends the support time to two years after the second successor OS (two versions later) has been released. Extended support for Vista is set to expire on April 11, 2017, although Microsoft outlines that in certain cases, support can be extended for up to 10 years after a product launch.
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New 802.11ac WiFi standard coming later this year
Date added : 11/04/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
A new Wi-Fi standard that is being co-defined by Broadcom and Qualcomm Atheros is preparing to take wireless speeds to the next level. 802.11ac will replace the existing 802.11n standard as the next step in mainstream wireless networking by the end of this year or early 2013, as reported by PC World.
502.11ac will operate strictly on the 5GHz band, whereas –n functions on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency bands. 2.4GHz offers better range but there are a multitude of devices already on that frequency that can cause interference including things like microwaves and Bluetooth headsets.
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AMD engineer pleads guilty, stealing Intel documents
Date added : 10/04/2012
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
Former Intel engineer and newly hired AMD employee, Biswamohan Pani, has plead guilty to five counts of fraud centered around the theft of sensitive Intel documents. The stolen information, valued at an approximate total of $1 billion, included chip-related design and manufacturing data. It is thought Pani intended to use the information for purposes of career advancement. However, AMD denied knowledge of Pani's wrongdoing and has cooperated fully with federal investigators.
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Facebook to acquire Instagram for $1 billion
Date added : 10/04/2012
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Social networking giant Facebook, which is in the process of going public with a record IPO that could value the company at about $100 billion, has just announced it is buying Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and stock. The popular photo-sharing application had one of the fastest growing user base in the mobile space, garnering around 30 million iOS users in just 18 months, and new users signing up at a rate of more than 2,000 people a minute after its Android client was launched last week.
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Free Wi-Fi in Stellenbosch: High speeds, happy users
Date added : 05/04/2012
Rudolph Muller @Mybroadband.co.za
Stellenbosch’s free Wi-Fi network – an initiative between the Stellenbosch municipality, Mxit and the Stellenbosch University – is growing fast and is currently providing speeds of well above 10Mbps.
Earlier this year Stellenbosch mayor Conrad Sidego announced that the town is planning to build an extensive free Wi-Fi network, covering the full municipal area.
Stellenbosch councillor and head of the municipality’s finance portfolio, Pieter Venter, explained that the trial network went live in February.
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Chrome 18 enables GPU-powered Canvas 2D
Date added : 02/04/2012
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
Google has released the latest stable version of Chrome (v18.0.1025.142 for those counting), bringing nine security fixes and more notably, enhanced support for graphically intensive applications. Previously offered in beta, the update officially introduces GPU-accelerated Canvas 2D (an HTML5 element) on "capable" Windows and Mac systems, but there's no mention of support for Linux.
As you'd expect, the feature provides faster and smoother performance in games and other GPU-intensive Web applications, while reducing load on your CPU. I don't see an option to disable GPU-accelerated Canvas 2D in chrome://flags so I can't offer a performance comparison with the feature on and off, but I get around 50fps when rendering 1000 fish in Microsoft's FishIE Tank test.
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Microsoft seizes Zeus botnet servers in Illinois
Date added : 27/03/2012
Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
In collaboration with the financial services industry and the US government, Microsoft has dismantled another major malware network, raiding command-and-control servers in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Lombard, Illinois on Friday. Microsoft described the undertaking as its most complex effort against botnets to date, as its target involved cross-industry threats using the Zeus malware family including ZeuS, SpyEye and Ice-IX, which are said to be responsible for nearly half a billion dollars in damages.
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Facebook improves photo experience
Date added : 23/03/2012
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
New features and updates continue to roll out for the world’s largest social network as Facebook has now made it possible to view user-uploaded photos in a high resolution format that can fill the entire screen.
The new photo viewer features were introduced on the official Facebook blog earlier today. The viewer will now display a photo in the highest possible resolution and on a large display, this can be up to four times bigger than before. Users can further expand the image to take up the full screen by clicking the arrows at the top right corner of a photo. This will hide the comment bars and show only the image on the screen.
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ReFS, Microsoft's next generation file system revealed
Date added : 18/01/2012
By Lee Kaelin @Techspot.com
Microsoft detailed its long awaited and arguably well overdue NTFS replacement yesterday, the Resilient File System (ReFS), on the Building Windows 8 blog. It marks the first time the Redmond-based software giant has revealed the specifics of its next-gen file system in full.
The company claims ReFS has been built from the ground up, to meet the demands of the storage requirements needed by Windows users. It offers the ability to handle large storage volumes, enhanced resiliency to corruption and shared storage pools across multiple machines.
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Microsoft releasing automatic Internet Explorer updates
Date added : 19/12/2011
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
Microsoft announced today that it plans to start releasing automatic Internet Explorer updates in the near future. Starting next month, Windows XP, Vista and 7 users in Australia and Brazil will begin experiencing the silent rollouts. It's worth noting that this change will only affect those who opt into automatic Windows Updates, but we imagine that represents a significant portion of users considering how annoying the Windows Update notifications can be. There's no word on when this will be available to customers in other regions.
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Bill Gates Considering Return To Microsoft?
Date added : 09/12/2011
By Ben Reid @Redmondpie.com
Bill Gates, founder and Chairman of Redmond-based software giant Microsoft, could make a dramatic return as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, if investor gossip is to be taken on board.
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Microsoft Demos The Windows (App) Store For Win 8
Date added : 08/12/2011
By Edward Marquez @Redmondpie.com
You can buy apps for your iPhone and iPad from the App Store. You can buy apps for your Android device from the Android Market or Amazon Appstore. Soon, you can buy apps for your Windows 8 PC from the Windows Store.
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Western Digital partially restores Thailand operations
Date added : 06/12/2011
Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Western Digital has partially restored production at one of its HDD manufacturing plants in Thailand one week ahead of schedule, according to a press release issued yesterday. The company also raised its revenue outlook for the current quarter as a result, and now expects to make around $1.8 billion in revenue instead of the $1.05 billion to $1.25 billion it previously estimated due to the recent floods in the country.
"Much work remains to be done, but we couldn't be more pleased with the effort and results thus far, including tremendous support from our supply partners and customers," said Western Digital CEO John Coyne. "The passion, perseverance, ingenuity and execution exhibited by the Western Digital team has been extraordinary and enabled us to make substantial progress in partially restoring our operations in Thailand."
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Seagate announces 4TB GoFlex Desk external hard drive
Date added : 08/09/2011
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Seagate today announced a 4TB variant of its GoFlex Desk external hard drive, touting it as the highest capacity single-volume external storage device on the market. The company is not saying how many platters are inside the new drive but considering it has already announced 1TB per platter drives, we're assuming they went with four platters with an areal density of 625Gb/s per square inch.[ More... ]
McAfee says hackers may target vehicles next
Date added : 08/09/2011
By Shawn Knight @Techspot.com
A new report from security software provider McAfee suggests that your car might soon be the next target for hackers. The company has partnered with Wind River in releasing a PDF outlining the potential danger that hackers present to the growing number of connected vehicles.[ More... ]
Hitachi GST announces 1TB per platter hard drives
Date added : 07/09/2011
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Hitachi GST has announced their first 3.5-inch hard drive featuring 1TB of storage capacity per platter. The milestone was first announced by Seagate in May, with drives hitting the market last month. But while Hitachi may be playing catch up here, breaking the 1TB areal density barrier means they'll be able to produce high-capacity hard drives with fewer platters and heads, which ultimately translates into lower costs, power consumption and failure rates.[ More... ]
Google warns users of data-stealing malware
Date added : 20/07/2011
Jan Vermeulen @Mybroadband.co.za
In a post published earlier today on the official Google blog, Google security engineer Damien Menscher wrote that the search giant had detected a number of computers infected with malware communicating with Google’s servers.
Menscher explained that they discovered strange patterns of activity and collaborated with security engineers at several companies that were sending the modified traffic to determine the cause.
It turned out that the computers in question were infected with malicious software, or malware, that makes a PC send traffic to Google through a small number of proxies – servers that sit between you and Google.
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Microsoft ends support for Windows Vista SP1
Date added : 14/07/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
As planned, Microsoft today ended support for Windows Vista Service Pack 1. This means the software giant will no longer provide any assisted support or security updates. Windows Vista users are thus encouraged to upgrade to Service Pack 2, or move to Windows 7 altogether.
Windows Vista was released on January 1, 2007. SP1 followed on February 4, 2008 and SP2 followed on April 29, 2009. Support for SP2 will end 24 months after SP3 is released (if ever) or at the end of Windows Vista's support lifecycle, whichever comes first.
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Trojan requires infected Windows Users to System Restore
Date added : 29/06/2011
By Jose Vilches @TechSpot.com
Microsoft has warned of a new malware threat affecting Windows users that can only be completely removed by restoring the system to a previous state or wiping it altogether. According to Redmond, the culprit is the latest variant of a Trojan known as "Popureb" (specifically, Trojan:Win32/Popureb.E), which stores part of its data in the hard drive’s master boot record (MBR) and introduces a driver component to prevent the malicious code from being changed.
"The driver component protects the data in an unusual way," wrote Chun Feng, an engineer with the Microsoft Malware Protection Centre, in an advisory last week. "The hooked DriverStartIo routine monitors the disk write operations: If it finds the write operation is trying to overwrite the MBR or the disk sectors containing malicious code, it simply replaces the write operation with a read operation. The operation will still succeed, however, the data will never actually be written onto the disk."
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Microsoft releases Office 2010 SP1
Date added : 29/06/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft Office 2010. The software giant will also push it out via Microsoft Update, and eventually as a required update.
Office 2010 SP1 SP1 consists of cumulative and public updates to date for the various point products that are part of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. These include the Office 2010 suites, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Office 2010 servers, Office Web Apps, Search Server 2010, SharePoint 2010 Products, and FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
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8ta launch 3G data product - 10GB (8ta Network only)
Date added : 23/06/2011
Jan Vermeulen @ MyBroadband.co.za
8ta today (23 June 2011) launched a data promotion which significantly undercuts any other mobile broadband offering currently available on the SA market.
8ta launched two data products, a 10GB data bundle priced at R199 per month and a 10GB + 10GB Midnight Surfer service priced at R299 per month. Both services are available on 24 month contracts.
8ta’s 10GB + 10GB service offers subscribers 10GB of data per month, with another 10GB of data from 00:00 to 05:00.
[ More... ]
MWEB Store-It: free cloud storage service launched
Date added : 23/06/2011
Staff Writer ,MyBroadband.co.za
MWEB today (23 June 2011) announced the launch of its cloud based file hosting service, Store-It. Store-It allows users to store and access files online using cloud computing.
The service is an extension of MWEB’s range of cloud services to the consumer market.
Store-It, which will be offered as a value add to all MWEB customers, is an alternative solution to using hardware such as flash drives or external hard drives to store and save files.
A 5 GB Store-It product will be offered free to MWEB’s customers with the 45GB and 95GB upgrade options retailing at R70 and R140 respectively.
[ More... ]
MS Security Essentials takes first place in North America
Date added : 14/06/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Microsoft (17.07 percent), AVG (15.63 percent), and Symantec (14.47 percent) were found to be the top three antivirus vendors in North America, according to the latest quarterly antivirus market share report released by OPSWAT. Microsoft increased its market share from OPSWAT's previous antivirus report to surpass Symantec and become the North American leader. AVG held steady in the second position, and Symantec fell to third.
Worldwide, the top three antivirus vendors detected were Avast (12.37 percent), AVG (12.37 percent), and Avira (12.29 percent). Microsoft was fourth (11.24 percent), followed by ESET Software (9.98 percent).
The software company analyzed more than 43,000 opt-in reports from endpoints worldwide. The reports, generated by OPSWAT's AppRemover and Am I OESIS OK? tools, utilize the detection capabilities of the OESIS Framework to list the applications installed on the endpoint computer. The full 8-page document, titled Q2 2011 Antivirus and Instant Messenger Market Share Report, includes data on the leading antivirus vendors and products in North America and worldwide, Windows OS usage in North America and worldwide, instant messaging market share worldwide, and instant messaging usage in North America and Europe.
[ More... ]
Google rolls out +1 button for websites
Date added : 02/06/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Google today released the +1 button to the whole Web. You should thus start seeing the +1 button appear on various sites all over the Internet.
The search giant has already partnered with a few sites that have adopted the +1 button: AddThis, Mashable, The Huffington Post, Rotten Tomatoes, Nordstrom, O'Reilly, Reuters, The Washington Post, Best Buy, TechCrunch, and Bloomberg. As for its own properties, Google says the button will be adopted on the Android Market, Blogger, Product Search, and YouTube.
Less then three months ago, Google added the +1 button to its search engine, allowing users to upvote search results. The plus one name comes from forums and similar discussion mediums where the term is commonly used to indicate agreement with a previous post.
[ More... ]
EU investigating Seagate and Western Digital
Date added : 31/05/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
EU regulators opened in-depth probes today into two takeover bids in the hard disk drive market involving two Asian and two US companies: Western Digital buying Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) and Seagate buying Samsung Electronics' HDD unit. The EU is concerned the deals would reduce the number of rivals.
"Hard drives are the backbone of the digital economy," EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in a statement announcing the investigation. "The sector has already experienced significant consolidation and the proposed acquisitions will further reduce competition."
[ More... ]
Apple acknowledges Mac Defender malware, offers help
Date added : 26/05/2011
By Jose Vilches @TechSpot.com
Apple computers are often touted to offer a virus-free computing experience, as opposed to Windows, but as the platform increases in popularity it is also becoming a more serious target for attackers. One recent case involved a piece of 'scareware' dubbed Mac Defender, and became notorious for Apple's initial reluctance to help affected customers, despite receiving thousands of tech support calls related to the infections.
The scam in question targets Mac users via SEO poisoning attacks linked to a phony online antivirus scanner, which dupes users into thinking their machine is infected and automatically starts downloading an antivirus 'solution.' The design and content of Mac Defender makes it seem like a genuine antivirus program. However, once installed it will report that it has found other viruses and offer to clean the computer after a credit card payment is done.
[ More... ]
Kingmax unveils world's first 64GB microSD card
Date added : 26/05/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Kingmax has implemented its 9 Stacked Die technology to create the world's largest capacity microSD card: 64GB. The microSD card complies with the latest SD3.0 and Class 6 specifications and is also compatible with SD Card Association's SD2.0 specification.
Although it comes in a compact size (15mm x 11mm x 1mm), it will very likely satisfy your needs for massive multimedia data storage, including high-resolution video clips or photos, MP3 files, mobile games, or multimedia downloads. Moreover, with the help of an adapter, Kingmax's microSD card can also be used as an SD card or a USB flash drive. This means you can use it with anything from digital cameras, to multimedia players, to PCs, to PDAs, to card readers, and to printers.
[ More... ]
MWEB announces free uncapped ADSL speed upgrades
Date added : 25/05/2011
Rudolph Muller @MyBroadband.co.za
MWEB today (25 May 2011) announced that they will upgrade their current DSL512 subscribers to 1Mbps at no additional charge. MWEB CEO, Rudi Jansen, said the new 1Mbps rates will automatically take effect on 1 June 2011.
“MWEB set out to allow its subscribers a liberated Internet experience when they first launched Uncapped Internet. It is important that we follow this mantra of Free the Web and keep on innovating and ensuring our products evolve as the South African landscape changes,” said Jansen.
[ More... ]
Microsoft announces Windows Phone 7.1
Date added : 25/05/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Microsoft today announced and previewed Windows Phone 7.1 (codenamed Mango), which the company says will include over 500 new features. Frankly, with everything that is in the update, we're surprised it's not called Windows Phone 8.
The Mango release will be available for free to Windows Phone 7 customers and is scheduled to ship on new phones beginning this fall. Details on device update timing will be provided closer to availability.
[ More... ]
Microsoft CEO finally talks Windows 8, slates it for 2012
Date added : 25/05/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
For the first time, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer referred to the next version of Windows as "Windows 8" – it was during remarks at a Microsoft Developer Forum in Japan, as opposed to an official press event for Windows, but it's still worth noting. Furthermore, Ballmer specifically said the next generation of Windows systems will be out next year.
[ More... ]
Seagate intros mobile wireless HDD for iOS/Android devices
Date added : 17/05/2011
By Jose Vilches @TechSpot.com
Seagate has announced an interesting new addition to its GoFlex range of external storage devices. Dubbed GoFlex Satellite, it's the first battery-powered hard drive to wirelessly connect to any Wi-Fi-enabled device, including iOS and Android tablets or smartphones. Priced at $200 for 500GB of storage it's certainly not for everyone, but Seagate believes that since most mobile devices are limited in storage, it can be a handy companion to take on the road.
The device's wireless radio supports up to three connections and lets you access any media on the drive through a web browser. There's also a dedicated GoFlex Media app for iOS that will let you transfer files between your device and the hard drive -- the Android version is said to be coming soon. Battery life will last about 5 hours of operation and about 25 hours when idle, and like other GoFlex drives, you can still hook it up to any computer via USB 2.0 or USB 3.0.
[ More... ]
Samsung designs AMOLED display that can be folded
Date added : 17/05/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Samsung researchers in South Korea have designed and built a prototype of a seamless foldable Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display. The display's mechanical and optical robustness were tested by performing 100,000 folding-unfolding cycles. The relative brightness at the junction decreased by just 6 percent, which is hardly recognizable by the human eye and so the deterioration can be considered negligible. The findings have been published in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters.
The display consists of two AMOLED panels, silicone rubber (a hyperelastic material), a module case, and a protective glass cover (which not only prevents scratches but can also serve as a touch screen). The display has a very small folding radius of just 1 mm, so that one panel lies almost completely on top of the other when the display is folded at a 180° angle. "All the materials in a foldable window unit (glasses and silicone rubber) must have almost the same optical properties and attach to each other strongly without any optical property change," coauthor HongShik Shim of the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology told PhysOrg.
[ More... ]
HP intros world's first Wi-Fi mouse with 9-month battery life
Date added : 13/05/2011
By Matthew DeCarlo @TechSpot.com
HP has expanded its PC peripheral line today, introducing the world's first Wi-Fi mouse. Generically called the "HP Wi-Fi Mobile Mouse," the device reduces clutter by connecting to a computer through its Wi-Fi receiver. In addition to shedding the cable bound to wired mice, it also scraps the USB dongle associated with competing wireless models that use infrared or Bluetooth technology. In other words, you won't have to fiddle with messy cables or worry about losing your wireless receiver, and you'll gain a USB port in the process.
What's more, HP says its offering provides up to nine months of battery life, supposedly two times more than comparable Bluetooth models. That seems like a bold claim, but we'll have to take their word for now. The laser mouse features a four-way scroll wheel and five customizable buttons that can be configured to perform common actions such as cut, paste, undo and redo -- though this functionality is available to anyone with software like AutoHotkey. HP opted for an ambidextrous profile with a grippy rubber coating on both sides.
[ More... ]
Microsoft buys Skype For $8.5 Billion
Date added : 10/05/2011
By Taimur Asad @redmondpie.com
This is just in! After WSJ report, Kara of AllThingsD has now confirmed that Microsoft has indeed bought Skype for a staggering amount of $8.5 Billion.
Earlier reports indicated that Facebook and Google were also looking to acquire the telephony giant, but in the end, it was Microsoft with its highly aggressive bid which got them the acquisition of Skype.
Skype is expected to be integrated in Windows Live, and other online services of Microsoft in both consumer and enterprise space.
Microsoft announces public beta of Office 365
Date added : 19/04/2011
By Jose Vilches @TechSpot.com
Microsoft's answer to Google Apps for Business, Office 365, just became available to the public for beta testing. The cloud-based enterprise productivity suite puts Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online into a single subscription package aimed at small, medium and large organizations. The public beta pushes the suite out to 38 markets in 17 languages, and comes in two flavors: small business on a month-to-month deal with "community support", or enterprise with 24x7 support, advanced configuration options and an annual contract.
[ More... ]
Report: Samsung to sell HDD business, Seagate interested
Date added : 19/04/2011
By Jose Vilches @TechSpot.com
Samsung Electronics is pondering a sale of its loss-making hard disk drive unit to invest in other areas of growth, according to a report on the Wall Street Journal. Citing "a person familiar with the matter," the paper claims Samsung wants to get as much as $1.5 billion in the sale but may take less than $1 billion. Interestingly, a potential buyer for the business is the world's second largest hard disk vendor, Seagate Technology.
[ More... ]
Oracle to give OpenOffice.org back to the community
Date added : 19/04/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Database giant Oracle has announced its intention to move OpenOffice.org to a purely community-based open source project and to no longer offer a commercial version of OpenOffice. Oracle became OpenOffice's principal contributor when it acquired Sun Microsystems last year.
Oracle says it will continue to make large investments in open source technologies that are strategic to its customers, including Linux and MySQL, which it specifically focuses on because they have won broad based adoption among commercial and government customers. The company will support OpenOffice, but its commitment does not appear to include the same level of investment as for Linux and MySQL.
[ More... ]
Google Videos shutting down later this month
Date added : 19/04/2011
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Google Videos, Google's answer to YouTube before it gave up and bought the video sharing service, is being shut down. The search giant has sent out an email warning to users who previously uploaded one or more videos to the service.
As of April 29, 2011, Google Videos will no longer let users watch any more videos. Users can, however, download their videos until May 13, 2011, and Google is encouraging them to re-upload their videos to YouTube.
We're a little surprised Google has taken so long to shut down Google Videos. We're even more shocked that Mountain View is not letting Google Videos users simply transfer their videos to a YouTube account. It's understandable that Google does not want to move all the content over (Google Videos still hosts millions of videos), but giving users the option would certainly be much more convenient and a smoother experience.
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IE9 sees 2.35 million downloads in first 24 hours
Date added : 17/03/2011
By Emil Protalinski, TechSpot.com
Internet Explorer 9 was downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours since its release earlier this week. In other words, IE9 was downloaded over 27 times every second, or over 240 downloads every 9 seconds (Microsoft loves using the version number as a metric for random statistics).
[ More... ]
Canonical to kill off Ubuntu editions as of version 11.04
Date added : 10/03/2011
By Emil Protalinski, @TechSpot.com
Canonical has announced that the next release of Ubuntu, version 11.04, will no longer have separate netbook or desktop editions. With the introduction of the new shell for Ubuntu, the company insists that one user interface will work equally well with all PC form factors and that the underlying technology will work on a range of architectures, including those in netbooks, notebooks, or desktops.
[ More... ]
WinRAR 4.00 released, up to 30% faster decompression
Date added : 10/03/2011
By Emil Protalinski, @TechSpot.com
After almost three months of beta testing, WinRAR 4.00 has been released. You can download the new version directly for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
The most impressive improvement is in the decompression, which is now up to 30 percent faster, depending on the file format you use. There's now also a password manager for regular compression jobs, though the passwords are not encrypted. Still, when extracting multiple archives you can now set WinRAR to use the same password for all of them. For more information, check out the page What's new in the latest version.
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Radio breakthrough could double wireless performance
Date added : 17/02/2011
By Matthew DeCarlo, @TechSpot.com
Stanford scientists have discovered a breakthrough that could double the speed of wireless networks. The technology reportedly allows radios to simultaneously send and receive signals over the same frequency -- something previously thought to be impossible. "Textbooks say you can't do it," said Philip Levis, Stanford's assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering.
[ More... ]
Adobe releases Flash Player 10.2
Date added : 10/02/2011
By Emil Protalinski, @TechSpot.com
Adobe has released Flash Player 10.2, introducing Stage Video, a new API that delivers high performance video playback across platforms and browsers. The new version also offers everything introduced in the beta, including custom native mouse cursors, multiple monitor full-screen support, enhanced sub-pixel rendering for superior text readability, and Internet Explorer 9 hardware accelerated rendering support previewed earlier in Flash Player Square.
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Microsoft: SP1 for Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 hits RTM
Date added : 10/02/2011
By Emil Protalinski, @TechSpot.com
Microsoft today officially handed off the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to its OEM partners. On February 16, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will be available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers as well as Volume License customers. On February 22, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will hit the Release to Web (RTW) milestone, meaning it will become generally available for download via the Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update.
For Windows Server 2008 R2, SP1 adds two new features that directly affect Microsoft's desktop virtualization platform: Microsoft Dynamic Memory and Microsoft RemoteFX. The former gives on-the-fly control of a virtual machine's memory while the latter provides a virtualized 3D graphical experience for remote users. For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates: mostly hotfixes already delivered through Windows Update. SP1 will, however, feature an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
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Hackers repeatedly penetrated Nasdaq's computer network
Date added : 07/02/2011
By Emil Protalinski, @TechSpot.com
Hackers repeatedly made their way into the computer network that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market during the past year. The part of the system that executes trades was not breached but other parts of Nasdaq's infrastructure were accessed, though it's still unclear which ones. The Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation are looking into the matter, though they haven't found any malicious activity yet, according to The Wall Street Journal:
[ More... ]
Intel finds design flaw in Sandy Bridge chipset
Date added : 01/02/2011
By Jose Vilches, @TechSpot.com
Intel has warned of a flaw with the 6 Series chipset, code-named Cougar Point, that accompanies its latest Sandy Bridge processors, which gradually degrades the performance of the SATA ports over time and thus affects the speed of hard drives and optical drives. In a statement put out this morning, the company attributed the problem to a design issue and said it expects the cost to repair and replace the chip to be around $700 million -- a recall notice should follow soon.
[ More... ]
Sony launches PlayStation phone
Date added : 28/01/2011
by SAPA-DPA @myboardband.co.za
The hybrid, dubbed Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, comes with a slide keyboard and a 10-centimetre screen, according to first reviews by website Endgadget.com. Information about the product had been leaked earlier.
Sony Entertainment also presented Next Generation Portable (NGP), the latest version of its Playstation Portable gaming console.
[ More... ]
BitTorrent creator shows off live P2P streaming
Date added : 21/01/2011
By Emil Protalinski, @TechSpot.com
BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen is now focused on developing a new P2P live streaming protocol that would be superior to all other streaming solutions currently on the market. Cohen demonstrated the unfinished technology this week, but he has yet to release any solid technical details. He did say, however, that the technology should be revealed this summer. [ More... ]
Apple changes iPhone screws to deter DIY repairs, mods
Date added : 21/01/2011
By Matthew DeCarlo, @TechSpot.com
It's no secret that Apple frowns on customers performing DIY repairs and mods, and it seems that stance won't be changing in the near future. According to iFixit, the company has started using proprietary tamper-resistant "Pentalobe" screws that sort of resemble the familiar Torx format except they have five rounded points instead of six sharp ones.
[ More... ]
Online piracy: Crime and punishment in SA
Date added : 20/01/2011
Jan Vermeulen @MyBroadband.co.za
The word “piracy” conjures up different meanings depending on who you ask.
Some might immediately think of the activities around the horn of Africa that are constantly in the headlines. Others have more romantic notions involving a charismatic Captain Sparrow.
Piracy can take on a very different meaning when it comes to software, videos and music.
According to a guide to digital music written by Michalsons Attorneys, “[Piracy] is usually associated with the specific copyright infringement of distributing and receiving copyright protected works without the author's permission.”
[ More... ]
GeoHot shows interest in WP7
Date added : 20/01/2011
By Emil Protalinski, @TechSpot.com
Hacker George Hotz, also known as GeoHot, is known for helping crack the iPhone and for releasing the PlayStation 3 root key and custom firmware. Understandably, he is fed up with both Apple's and Sony's stances on jailbreaking (Apple wants to make jailbreaking illegal while Sony is suing GeoHot). According to his website though, he likes Microsoft's approach on homebrew and wants to try Windows Phone 7:
perhaps a more appropriate way to deal with jailbreakers
I'm going out to buy a Windows 7 phone
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How Facebook could harm your business
Date added : 02/12/2010
workplace Staff @IOLJobs.co.za
Online social networking is a major threat to organisations - and it's not just about loss of productivity or bandwidth wastage.
Research shows that 90 percent of all security breaches originate from inside an organisation's ranks. Of these breaches, 95 percent are unintentional.
Therefore it is a company's employees who cause most communication and security breaches, and generally they don't mean to. That's the warning from Dries Morris, operations director at specialist IT security company Securicom.
"With the array of communication channels nowadays, distributing information is easy," he says.
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SP1 RC for Windows 7, Server 2008 R2
Date added : 27/10/2010
By Emil Protalinski @TechSpot.com
Microsoft today released Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. As you can see over at Microsoft.com, the 32-bit installer is 514.7MB in size while the 64-bit installer is 865.4MB.
Microsoft started testing SP1 seven months ago and a public beta was released in July 2010. The final release of SP1 is expected to arrive during the first quarter of 2011. Microsoft provides service packs for free to bring their OS up to speed with all of the latest security patches and bug fixes, provided that you have a genuine copy of Windows.
[ More... ]
Microsoft Security Essentials' birthday
Date added : 01/10/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
It's been a whole year since Microsoft released its first truly competent antivirus, and the company is celebrating its anniversary by sharing a number of user statistics and other noteworthy highlights. Since its 2009 debut, Microsoft Security Essentials has been installed on 31 million computers -- 27 million of which reported infections to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC).
MSE's largest install base is in the US, while Brazil, Japan, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, China, Italy, the Netherlands, and Russia fill out the top ten non-US regions using the antivirus, which is available in 27 languages and 74 countries. "Language shouldn't be a barrier to good security. Money is no problem, either -- Microsoft Security Essentials is available at no cost," Microsoft said.
[ More... ]
Toshiba preparing glasses-free 3D TVs
Date added : 25/08/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
Although consumers remain skeptical about in-home 3D media, the entertainment industry is pressing forward with its largest rollout of 3D products to date. Headaches and hefty admission price aside, people tend to be put off by the goofy shades required to view extra-dimensional imagery. Well, glasses schmasses says Toshiba, who is supposedly readying a line of 3D TVs that can be watched without any special eyewear.
[ More... ]
Buyer beware: Misleading HDMI cables
Date added : 24/08/2010
By Gary Merson
Have you seen HDMI cables online or in stores labeled "120 Hz," "240Hz" and "480 Hz"? It's easy enough to slap such labels on HDMI cables but it's a sham. HDMI cables can no more be manufactured for specific refresh-rate HDTVs than a garden hose can be manufactured specifically to water seeded lawns and sod lawns. The same water flows through either one. The same HDTV signal flows through all HDMI cables, whether labeled "120Hz" or "480Hz" — or not labeled at all.
In fact, a TV's refresh rate has nothing whatsoever to do with the signal flowing to that set. The refresh rate is determined by the set's circuitry once the signal gets there, so how can different HDMI cables be manufactured for different refresh-rate sets?
[ More... ]
Intel to acquire McAfee
Date added : 20/08/2010
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
In a rather surprising announcement, Intel today revealed it plans to acquire antivirus company McAfee in an all cash deal worth $7.68 billion. That equates to $48 per share, a 60% premium over McAfee's Wednesday closing stock price of $29.93. The deal should help Intel serve the security needs of customers through a combination of hardware and software, particularly in the mobile and embedded segment, where it has struggled to expand its presence as more devices such as smartphones, televisions, medical equipment, and ATM machines go online.
[ More... ]
Toshiba breakthrough, chance of 10TB HDD
Date added : 19/08/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
Toshiba has announced a storage breakthrough that it will demonstrate today at a conference in San Diego. By using a technique called bit-pattern recording, the prototype to be shown boasts an areal density of 2.5Tb per square inch. That's about five times more than the company's existing products, meaning three-platter 10TB hard drives are entirely plausible, and Toshiba is working on doubling that density to 5Tb per square inch -- just when we thought HDDs were on their way out.
[ More... ]
SanDisk unveils stamp-sized 64GB SSD
Date added : 19/08/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
SanDisk has revealed a new class of solid-state drives that supposedly offers more speed and storage than any competing solution. The firm's integrated SSD or "iSSD" crams up to 64GB of memory into a BGA package measuring 16mm x 20mm x 1.85mm and weighing less than one gram. In more relative terms, SanDisk says that's about the size of a postage stamp and lighter than a paperclip.
[ More... ]
Zeus3 Trojan steals $1m from accounts
Date added : 13/08/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @TechSpot.com
A new version of the Zeus Trojan has surfaced called Zeus3, and it's supposedly emptying bank accounts across the UK with the equivalent of over $1 million stolen thus far. According to experts at M86 Security (PDF), the malware first appeared early last month and is said to be the most "sophisticated and dangerous threat" the firm has ever seen.
[ More... ]
Millions of routers vulnerable to web attack
Date added : 22/07/2010
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
An upcoming presentation at the Black Hat security conference later this month will reportedly demonstrate how millions of household routers, from popular brands such as Netgear, Linksys, and Belkin, suffer from a vulnerability that allows hackers to intercept and redirect traffic as well as access computers on a local network. The flaw was discovered by Maryland-based security consultancy Seismic and exploiting it involves an old a technique called DNS rebinding.
[ More... ]
Samsung launches first 1TB notebook drive
Date added : 21/07/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @TechSpot.com
Following in the footsteps of companies like Western Digital and Toshiba, Samsung has become the latest HDD manufacturer to launch a 1TB notebook drive. The Spinpoint MT2 crams three 333GB platters into a 2.5-inch by 12.5mm form factor, which is a bit thicker than the typical 9.5mm-tall laptop drive. That said, the Spinpoint MT2's dimensions on par with the competition, and it's most likely to be installed in desktop replacement notebooks, external enclosures, TVs, and home media systems where space is less of an issue.
[ More... ]
LG intros 3D notebook
Date added : 20/07/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
LG has announced several products today, including the company's first 3D notebook. The XNote R590 3D features an Intel Core i7 processor, a 1GB Nvidia GT 335M GPU, an optional Blu-ray drive and presumably most of the hardware seen on last year's XNote R590, except the 15.6-inch 3D display and polarizing glasses, of course. You'll also find TriDef software preloaded, which converts 2D video to 3D in real time. Pricing supposedly starts around $1,300 and although initial shipments are limited to South Korea, the machine should go global in August.
[ More... ]
Sharp launches 100GB Blu-ray discs
Date added : 20/07/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
Sharp has become the first company to launch a Blu-ray disc based on the BDXL specification announced in April by the Blu-ray Disc Association. The company's new triple-layer VR-100BR1 disc can house up to 100GB of data, which doubles the capacity of the existing 50GB dual-layer discs and is enough for around 12 hours of terrestrial digital TV broadcasts or 8.6 hours of BS digital broadcasting.
[ More... ]
Telkom’s new ADSL rates:
Date added : 19/07/2010
Staff Writer @MyBroadband.co.za
Telkom announced in June that it has filed its latest tariff adjustments with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) which will see an overall price increase of 0.8% kick in on 1 August 2010.
Telkom’s monthly DSL (Digital Symmetrical Line) rates, Do Broadband subscriptions and monthly Internet subscription charges will remain unchanged.
Analogue line rental however increases from the current R131.00 to R133.30 which means that you can expect to pay R2.30 more on your overall ADSL bill. Businesses are harder hit by the new prices, and here analogue line rental rates will increase from R174 to R182.70, an increase of R8.70 per month.
[ More... ]
EASSy live on Friday
Date added : 15/07/2010
Rudolph Muller @MyBroadband.co.za
MyBroadband recently reported that the 10,500 km Eastern African Submarine Cable System, better known as EASSy, will provide South Africa with more international bandwidth within the next few weeks. The actual launch of EASSy will in fact happen sooner than expected.
WIOCC CEO Chris Wood announced on Wednesday that the cable will go live on Friday. This launch, Wood said, will be a full commercial launch after three successful testing phases.
[ More... ]
SEACOM fault may take days to fix
Date added : 06/07/2010
Staff Writer @MyBroadband.co.za
Numerous ADSL users experienced international connectivity downtime today due to a problem on the SEACOM cable. The problems started at around 11:00 on Monday and affected numerous ISPs, including Afrihost, Axxess and Internet Solutions.
SEACOM confirmed that services between Mumbai and Mombasa were down since 9:19 GMT (11:00 local time) on 5th July 2010. At the time the company said that they were still investigating the exact cause of the downtime.
[ More... ]
Ethernet cables to replace HDMI?
Date added : 05/07/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo, TechSpot.com
An alliance of electronics manufacturers including Sony, Samsung, LG and Valens have designed a new technology that could soon replace HDMI – and you won't have to buy any new wires. Called HDBaseT (PDF), the standard uses the ubiquitous RJ45 connector and existing CAT5e/6 network cables to send video and audio signals, connect to a network, and even power devices remotely.
[ More... ]
10 Mbps ADSL launch details
Date added : 05/07/2010
Rudolph Muller @MyBroadband.co.za
Telkom’s 4 Mbps ADSL subscribers have been waiting for another speed upgrade since September 2006 when the company’s DSL 1024 subscribers were bumped up to 4 Mbps free of charge.
Telkom has been trialing an 8 Mbps ADSL service for years, but it was not until 2010 that it became public knowledge that the company was also looking into potential 10 Mbps and 12 Mbps offerings.
[ More... ]
Over 10,000 XP machines attacked
Date added : 02/07/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo, TechSpot.com
Users of Windows XP may want to double down on security until Microsoft deals with a recently identified flaw (CVE-2010-1885). A Google engineer found the hole last month and at first, Microsoft said it only saw "legitimate researchers testing innocuous proof-of-concepts" – but it didn't take long for malicious hackers to prey on the vulnerability.
The hole apparently lies in the Windows Help and Support Center software that is included with Windows XP. Attackers are using various methods to take advantage of the bug, and payloads vary greatly. Microsoft has released a list of some of the payloads detected so far. Most are Trojans, and you can find the list toward the end of this blog post.
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Fibre over the air
Date added : 01/07/2010
Hans vd Groenendaal @EngineerIT
Free space optics (FSO) - also referred to as "fibre over the air" - is an interesting new point-to-point wireless technology used for short distance high bandwidth connections
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Seagate debuts world's first 3TB external
Date added : 01/07/2010
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Looking to meet and exceed users' ever evolving storage needs, Seagate has announced it now is shipping the industry's first 3TB external hard drive as part of their FreeAgent GoFlex Desk family. The drive is compatible with both Mac OS X and Windows systems, utilizing a work-around that allows it to overcome the 2.1TB partition limit on XP. Like other GoFlex products, it can be adapted to transfer data using USB 2.0, USB 3.0 or FireWire 800 interfaces.
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Google faces probe over Wi-Fi snooping
Date added : 23/06/2010
By Jose Vilches @TechSpot.com
Last month Google revealed that its Street View cars had "inadvertently" collected data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in several countries, for at least three years, as they logged hotspot locations and took pictures for the online mapping service. The company explained the data was gathered because of some rogue code developed by a "single engineer," but it never went into details about how the code came to be included in the Street View system.
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Adobe releases finalized Flash 10.1
Date added : 11/06/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
Adobe has released the finalized version of Flash 10.1 following months of pre-release builds. The browser plug-in's first public beta was pushed out last November, bringing hardware H.264 video acceleration to Windows machines, and most of the changes since then have revolved around that in some fashion – whether bug fixes or extending GPU support.
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Microsoft launches free Office Web Apps
Date added : 09/06/2010
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
Microsoft has officially taken the wraps off their online productivity suite today as the company steps up its game against the likes of Google and Zoho. Dubbed Office Web Apps, the suite comprises cloud-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and is accessible to anyone with a Windows Live account. The roll out was supposedly limited to the US, UK, Ireland and Canada but it seems to be working in other countries too -- just not in their native language.
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Microsoft readies Windows 7 SP1
Date added : 08/06/2010
By Jose Vilches @Techspot.com
The first public beta of service pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 is coming by end of July. Microsoft confirmed this bit of news at their TechEd conference in New Orleans, after first sharing some details of the update a couple months ago. Echoing previous statements, the company said SP1 will bring a couple of big additions on the server side of things, but for home users it's mostly the usual patches and hotfixes rolled up into a single update.
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Safari 5 announced
Date added : 08/06/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
In addition to officially uncorking the latest iPhone handset and operating system, Apple also announced Safari 5 today -- albeit unintentionally. The new build touts improved DNS prefetching and page caching, making it 30% quicker than Safari 4 (based on SunSpider 0.9.1, a JavaScript benchmark), 3% faster than the recently launched Chrome 5, and over two times the speed of Firefox 3.6.
Safari 5 features over a dozen new HTML5 technologies, including full screen playback and closed captions for HTML5 video, HTML5 geolocation, HTML5 sectioning elements, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, HTML5 Ruby, HTML5 AJAX history, EventSource and WebSocket. Apple has also launched the Safari Developer Program to let developers create Safari Extensions, which are sandboxed and signed with a digital certificate from Apple for security.
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Google Street View SA here next week
Date added : 04/06/2010
Staff Writer @MyBroadband.co.za
The long anticipated Google Street View Imagery South Africa will arrive next week Tuesday
Google Street View – a service integrated into Google Maps and Google Earth that provides users with panoramic views at street level of prominent locations – was first launched in May 2007 and initially focused on cities in the United States, but has since expanded to include a vast array of international locations.
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Symantec buys a chunk of VeriSign
Date added : 24/05/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
In its third purchase this year, Symantec has announced that it will buy a portion of VeriSign that specializes in Internet security technology. The $1.28 billion deal includes VeriSign's secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate services, public key infrastructure (PKI) services, and identity protection and authentication service. Additionally, Symantec will receive a majority stake in VeriSign Japan. [ More... ]
WiFi goes Gig
Date added : 24/05/2010
Russell Bennett @MyBroadband.co.za
The WiFi Alliance has revealed the next-generation of the standard WLAN technology platform, unoriginally labelled WiGig, which could be the catalyst for the death of messy, unattractive and inconvenient UTP cabling – at least in the home.
As useful as WiFi technology is in getting the more remote areas of a fairly large home connected to the home network, more widespread adoption of the standard has run into problems primarily due to throughput performance.
Even the latest WLAN specification, 802.11n, can only manage theoretical maximum throughputs of 150M/s, and that with some proprietary optimisations thrown in which limit the vendor-agnostic nature of the network.
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Lithium battery prices on the rise
Date added : 04/05/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @techspot.com
Prices on lithium batteries are on the rise, according to industry players cited by DigiTimes. Due to continuously excessive demand, Taiwan's lithium battery manufactures will increase prices in the second quarter. This wasn't entirely unforeseeable, however. It's reported that toward the end of 2009, fellow Japanese battery companies, such as Nippon Chemi-con and Panasonic, informed customers of price hikes.
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Microsoft Office 2010 RTM ready for download
Date added : 26/04/2010
By Rick Burgess @Techspot.com
About a week after Office 2010 went gold, Technet and MSDN subscribers are now able to download Office 2010 Professional Plus in ISO format for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. For those of you who would rather avoid the notoriously slow download speeds of MSDN and choose to utilize less official channels, the SHA checksum is: 0E1840BF1AA81077692AF651BEFB75648CD9FAA7. Microsoft has also made available Sharepoint 2010, which is a complimentary enterprise solution for Office collaboration.
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Mobile data costs
Date added : 25/03/2010
Staff Writer @MyBroadband.co.za
MTN recently announced that it is slashing its Out-Of-Bundle (OOB) data rates on its broadband data bundles by up to 84%.
MTN SA head Karel Pienaar last week said that these price reductions were made possible by the company’s continual telecoms infrastructure development in South Africa, and that consumers can expect more of the same as the company’s projects start to come online.
The latest OOB data price cuts from MTN mean that they currently offer the best value for money to mobile broadband providers. This bodes well for MTN’s plans to become the leading broadband provider in the country.
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MS warns of malicious antivirus, 'Security Essentials 2010'
Date added : 02/03/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @Techspot.com
Microsoft announced on Wednesday that malware writers are creating malicious applications with a similar name, look and feel to the company's legitimate security software (Microsoft Security Essentials) -- a popular and long-used method of preying on inexperienced users. The fake antivirus is called "Security Essentials 2010" and contains the Trojan Win32/Fakeinit.
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Malware criminal strategy exposed
Date added : 25/02/2010
Tom Manners @MyBroadband.co.za
Although many business and home users trust that the antivirus and security systems they have installed are reliable the reality may be considerably different.
This was the message conveyed by Dr. James Lyne, a long term strategy executive at online security provider Sophos, during a recent discussion regarding the growth of malicious software in recent years.
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Microsoft releases specs for Outlook PST
Date added : 25/02/2010
By Matthew DeCarlo @TechSpot.com
Following through with its previous plans, Microsoft has released the specifications for its Outlook PST data format. The company announced in October that it was working with industry experts to prepare the technical documentation. Said documentation was made available for download a few days ago. You can read the 200-plus-page PDF, or download a 102MB zip file with 35 total PDFs covering formats like DOC, DOCX, and XLS.
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How much bandwidth do you need?
Date added : 19/02/2010
Tom Manners @My Broadband.co.za
The debate surrounding the state of broadband in South Africa is ongoing, with consumers begging for higher speeds and lower data costs from operators. While consumers may be unreasonable at times, they have a strong case that local broadband services are not up to speed when it comes to international standards.
The minimum requirements to use the Internet and various online services are increasing all the time, and unless an individual or organization meets these minimum requirements they basically sits on the wrong side of the digital divide. But what are these requirements?
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Firefox 3.6 is available for download
Date added : 22/01/2010
By Jose Vilches, @TechSpot.com
Mozilla has popped out the final release of Firefox 3.6 just a couple of days after its second release candidate was made public. Although an official announcement hasn't been made yet, users can already download the latest version from the company's FTP servers.
Firefox 3.6 is intended as a relatively minor update to version 3.5 which was released in the first half of 2009. Initially planned for availability in November, a variety of 'blockers' (severe bugs) forced Mozilla to postpone the launch on more than one occasion. Curiously, the timing of this release now seems perfect with all the criticism Microsoft is facing from users for IE's role in the recent attacks on Google.
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Microsoft's web-app browser
Date added : 20/01/2010
Alastair Otter, @MyBroadband.co.za
2010 kicked off with the news that Google's Chrome browser had passed Apple's Safari to claim third place in the web browser popularity stakes. The news will no doubt fuel the ongoing browser wars, but the real battle in the coming year will be to build a browser better able to run web applications.
And Microsoft is already working on a new browser which is clearly aimed at this market, even if the company is still denying suggestions that it will commercialise the product in the near future.
The project - officially just a research project - is known as "Gazelle" and is a browser that has the look of a traditional web browser but many of the features of an operating system. In a public posting on the Microsoft Research website - titled "When is a browser not a browser? - the company describes Gazelle as a "multi-principal OS ... that supports an increasingly sophisticated Web environment".[ More... ]
Dust can be a PC killer
Date added : 08/07/2009
Antowan, Mybroadband.co.za
It is amazing how little attention people can pay to the cleanliness of the inside of their computer. Maybe it is because it is such an easy thing to overlook. That machine that makes your computing life so easy tends to find itself on the floor, a carpet or somewhere where dust is literally always blowing and stirred up in its vicinity by footsteps and air movement. Since I first became aware of the performance impact of dust on the innards of a computer I have stopped putting my computers in harm’s way. None of my computers will see the floor again unless I can find a way to completely dust proof them there.
A desktop or shelf is a much safer place for longer lasting peace of mind unless you really feel like blowing out the innards of your machine on a relatively regular basis. I have written about this before but more and more folks are coming to me with complaints of slow and hanging machines that really only need to be blown out and cleaned inside for everything to return to normal.
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