Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Microsoft’s Bill Gates is still on his media tour following the launch of Vista.  Next up is his interview with CNN where he *claims* that Windows Vista is innovative, and that nothing was taken from Apple’s OS X.

Video [YouTube] Via [Cult of Mac]

Over a year ago, Sony BMG loaded DRM on their CDs so when you put it in your computer’s CD ROM drive, you get a rootkit.  When you tried to remove it, the rootkit screwed up your computer.  Then finally a month later, Microsoft released a patch that safely removed it (ironic, right?). 

Sony has just agreed to pay out $150 to customers infected by the rootkit in order to “repair damage done.” The company will also be providing an uninstall tool and patches to repair any damage that was done.  If my computer was infected, I likely would’ve re-formatted by now, but would gladly pocket the cash.  In fact, I think I’ll hit up eBay and look for an infected CD to install on my computer.  Sounds like an easy payout to me!  (Disclaimer: we do not indorse this activity)

Read [Yahoo! News] Via [Gizmodo]

Well it looks like our “intelligence" came through. Today Apple released 4 new $79 products in the form of new colored iPod Shuffles. Although I was hoping for something along the lines of iLife and iWork, I’m totally cool with a hot pink shuffle.

“When we designed the new shuffle we entered into a new space of fashion—the idea that you can wear it in your favorite color is a great extension,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, told Macworld

Well as long as your favorite color is Pink, Orange, Green, Blue, or Silver. I think the biggest question is, with the new paint job, does this make them 2.5-Gen shuffles?

Product [Apple] via [TUAW]

So have you been longing to see what the Gadgetell CES team really looks like? Click on.

We’ve stumbled upon a neat little feature in Microsoft’s new Windows Vista called BitLocker.  The tool lets you encrypt everything on your hard drive and makes it so you can use a flash drive (AKA thumb drive) as the key to the safe.  So everytime you want to log on to your machine, you must have the flash drive in the USB port, or else you’ll get a screen telling you to insert it.  And unfortunately, we’re not seeing any backdoors yet. 

You can of course add multiple flash drives to the list, but the more you have, the less secure you really are.  If you’re going to load BitLocker, make sure you backup your recovery key *on a different machine or external storage device.* If you leave your key on the same machine, don’t lose your flash drive, or else you’re simply screwed.  We’ll tell you about more Vista features as we dig them up.

Pete and Leander at Wired’s Cult of Mac blog decided to test out Microsoft’s new Windows Vista on their Mac Pro using Bootcamp.  The results were shocking… Vista may have actually run faster on Apple’s own hardware than their own OS X.  Kind of embaressing.  Here’s an excerpt from their experience:

Vista really flies on this beast, and feels like it’s faster than OS X - it boots faster, folders burst open and apps launch instantly...I’m especially delighted with Vista’s “glass” Aero interface, which works in all its glory on this machine...The OS is dark and handsome. It’s really quite exciting...Vista’s icons are big and colorful, and frankly, a lot more logical and easy to read than some of OS X’s, like the intelligible iWeb icon.

They go on to talk about how although everything is more logical than XP, it’s all still a mess…

Of course, in many ways it’s the same old Windows. There are pop-up dialogs galore thanks to the new security features, and the Start menu, though slimmed down, is still a confusing mess. Maybe it’s just me.

Read [Cult of Mac] Via [Gizmodo]

If you’re into the whole getting things you’ve wanted for cheap thing, then you should probably head over to Woot right now for the Woot-Off.  Woot specializes in selling one product everyday, and usually giving a damn good price on that product.  And a Woot-Off is where they keep an item up until it’s all sold out.  Once it’s sold out, they move on to the next item.  Sometimes products are sold out in 10 minutes, and sometimes they take hours.  Am I making sense?  I’m trying to tell you to stop reading and get over to Woot to see what item is up right now!  Enjoy!

Woot-Off [Woot]

As a part of his Windows Vista launch tour, Bill Gates was on the Today show on NBC, as well as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  The interview was filled with Stewart cracking jokes and lite on the content, so don’t expect anything on that front.  Hit the play button above to watch.

Video [YouTube]

All of the Apple rumor sites have mentioned that new products are ready for launch tomorrow.  The lastest report is out of Mac Rumors and calls for “four $79 Apple products coming on Tuesday.” We can’t say for sure what it is that’s being announced - or if there’s any facts to support the speculation, but it sounds like we could be seeing multiple colored Shuffles hit the shelves.

Read [MacRumors]

In a effort to clear up the confusion in the Windows Mobile naming convention, Microsoft has decided to rename them Standard, Professional, and Classic for the next-gen Windows Mobile 6 (codename Crossbow).  What is currently known as Pocket PC Phone Edition - used on touchscreen devices - will now become Professional.  Windows Mobile Smartphone edition, which is a non-touch screen version lacking Mobile Office, will become Standard, and Pocket PC Edition (for PDAs only) will become Classic.  The new names are really too vague to be helpful, so we’ll see how long they last.

Read [Pocketinfo] Via [CrunchGear]