Archive for the ‘Desktops’ Category

For those of you who are still running XP because you’re waiting out your trust issues with Vista, you may not have to wait much longer… or you’ll have to come up with a new excuse. According to ZDNet, a beta build of Service Pack 2 is in the hands of some software partners. Apparently, it’s also Microsoft’s intention to deliver the Service Pack before Windows 7 hits the shelves on June 3rd of next year. A new OS coming out only two years after Vista is a little foreboding, but hopefully SP2 will fix some of the remaining issues with Vista, namely,compatibility issues. There’s very little known about the features of SP2, but we’ll be sure and keep you updated.

No, you’re not being paranoid if you’re in public and surfing the internet. Computer screens are like a magnet for human eyes, whether you want people looking at what you’re looking at or not. Traditional privacy filters tend to leave your view a bit murky as well, so LG has announced the solution for the privacy vs. clarity problem. It’s new Viewing Angle Image Control display has the ability to have its viewable area cropped from just 175 down to 60, via a push of a small button. This change is not supposed to impact the brightness of the screen in any way. It’s not really the first screen which we’ve seen this ability from, but it’salready in mass production and will be showing up in laptops every where, very soon.

Microsoft is set to hand out pre-betas of Windows 7 to various developers, and it looks like they’ve finally found the perfect name for it’s next-gen OS. Get ready… introducing.. Windows 7. That’s right, it turns out the code name which has been used all through development has been chosen as the real name, which is a first for Windows. Apparently the company decided to stick with Windows 7 because it “just makes sense”. Seinfeld must have helped them on the set of the commercials with this idea. Whatever it’s called, I just can’t shake the feeling that Windows 7 is little more than a patch Vista.

As if you needed another reason to constantly check your email. This little device sits neatly on your desktop, cleverly disguised as an envelope. Whenever you receive email, the light inside the notifier will light up, either in green, blue or red. The color depends on what location you’ve received the mail from, for those of you with multiple inboxes, or you can use it to set the volume of your inbox, letting you know when its time to clean out your inbox. The device is priced at $17 and would make a great gift for the email addict you know.

Starting October 15th, the Nero LiquidTV/TiVo PC box will be available for purchase. The package comes in two options: software only or tuner model. The software only model will run you $99 while the tuner model will cost you $199. Both include a free year of TiVo (afterwards it will cost you $99 per year for the service). While Nero is known for their burning software, it looks like the exporting on this package is going to be limited to portable devices and the like. We’ll have to see how long that lasts or if it will cause the device to not sell as has been expected. It has also been over a year since the announcement of this partnership, so whatever steam there was may be gone by now.

Netflix has been working their magic to greatly increase the service that they provide to their users. Their goal has been to increase the amount of streaming content to their service, so their sights have been set rather high.

So far, it’s clear that Netflix is looking to work with CBS and Disney, but they’ve already started working with NBC. After the brand new season premiere of Heroes aired on Monday, Netflix was getting ready to unveil something pretty amazing. You can now directly stream every Heroes episode through the Netflix service one day after it airs.

Hopefully this is the type of thing that will catch on, allowing us to watch all of our shows in this format. With CBS and Disney on the way, there will be plenty of streaming content coming to Netflix in the next few months.

Oh and don’t forget that you’ll be able to stream Netflix onto your Xbox 360 relatively soon!

We’ve all seen the continuing “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials that have graced our TV over the past few years. Just recently, we’ve also had a chance to see Microsoft’s version of these ads, simple called “I’m a PC”. While these two big companies fight over terms that they still haven’t properly identified (see also: a Mac is a PC. Windows runs on a PC.), some new gossip has come to light.

The “I’m a PC” ad has supposedly been created on a Mac. Ironic? Sort of.  But the truth of the matter is that the entire ad campaign has been made using a Mac.

This isn’t uncommon for video production to be done on a Mac. It’s not like the studio doing the ad was based within Microsoft. That’s just how they decided to do it. Unfortunately, this is going to blow up in their faces.

I’m still stuck on the fact that nobody realizes a PC is just hardware……

The quest for the ability to properly hide that you’re looking at porn on your computer has come to a three way stand off. Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox all have active (or will by the launch of their next beta) a method that will allow users to ensure their privacy when doing private things.

Internet Explorer 8 calls their mode InPrivate.

Google Chrome calls their mode Incognito.

But as of yet, Firefox does not have a name for their privacy mode that will be launching with next months Firefox beta 3.1.

Let’s hope it’s something witty.

AMD isn’t content with sitting back and letting Intel take over the netbook market. While it may not be something they’ve got ready to launch just yet (with their first attempt being on the desktop side), AMD had started developing the Athlon Ultra-Value Client (UVC) series. They’ve already created processors to match the single core 1.6GHz Atom and the dual core 1.5GHz Atom down to the T. But they’ve also seemed to beef up the wattage on these chips, making them a bit more powerful.

If they can get the prices right and make the laptop version available quickly, we may just see Atom get a run for its money.

The rumors and gossip surrounding this topic are starting to get a little thick. But hopefully we can take the words of HP’s Chief Technology Office Phil McKinney stating that HP funding the development of a rival operating system to Vista “makes no sense”. Especially when their goal has been “innovating on top of Vista.”.

But the confusion comes from the fact that BusinessWeek has reported that there are people within HP who are “exploring the possibility of building a mass-market operating system.”. The rumors also state that the OS would be based around Linux, but much easier for the average user to grasp.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see.