Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

The wrappings come off a couple of cool applications this week:

Even though Google Sky was first to allow wannabe astronomers to surf the heavens from their computers, Microsoft Research’s Worldwide Telescope is getting some good reviews for ease-of-use and the sheer wonder of its visuals. The app, previewed at the TED Conference in February, is now public and uses images from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, among other sources. Sorry, Mac users aren’t invited to this sky party; this window on the galaxy is Windows only.

You like to watch. Admit it. You know you do. Uh...we are talking about live car chases on local TV, right? If you live in the Chicago area, you can now watch those who do the watching of vehicular perps around the Loop. AirFox Live is the Fox affiliate’s website for its chopper video, streaming live from a number of cameras on the helicopter. The nice bonus is live GPS tracking on a map. I’m linking to the AirFox Live site but I first read about this on the Lost Remote website, which does an excellent job of tracking technology developments within the news business.

Read [Worldwide Telescope] Read [AirFox Live] Read [Lost Remote]

Google Search is big, everyone knows that.  But what we may not have know is how big.  According to estimates, Google Search is on track to overtake Microsoft Windows business by this time next year.  But will that be all the Redmond giant loses?

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Following up on the earlier rumors, HP has begun to officially offer the Mini-Note 2133 with Windows XP. Although HP has commented that Windows XP will be pre-installed they are doing it by way of the free Vista downgrade option, so when the notebook arrives it should include an install disk for both XP and Vista Business.

In addition to the Windows XP offering, HP has also added a few new configurations to the Mini-Note line-up. Instead of the original four configurations to choose from there are now eight. This should sound like welcome news with more to choose from, however it makes the XP downgrade offering seem just a little on the shady side. 

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Microsoft has brought back their “Ultimate Steal” promotion, and once again are offering a great deal on Office Ultimate. Microsoft is currently running the promotion for students which will allow them to save $620, which is 91% off the retail price of Microsoft Office Ultimate. The office suite normally retails for $680, however up until May 16 anyone with access to a .edu address can take advantage of this deal.

Based on the website for the promotion, you must be an active student, meaning you are currently enrolled in a class, however the New York Times is reporting that all you need is an active .edu email address. Well, I have a spare $60 lying around, just a shame I don’t still have access to my old .edu address.

Read [The Ultimate Steal] Via [Lifehacker]

Microsoft has released Windows XP SP3 to the masses and also re-added Vista SP1 as an automatic update. After having some recent compatibility issues, Microsoft had delayed SP3 for XP and although SP1 for Vista remained available, it had to be manually downloaded.

It seems everything has been fixed and both updates are now available and waiting to be installed. Simply wait for Windows Update to kick in, or if you feel like you cannot wait any longer lunch the Update get the satisfaction on having an up to date system, at least for a little while.

Via [Engadget]

Our personal choice for low-cost, well actually free Windows anti-virus has been AVG for a long time now, which as you can imagine is directly related to the price. There are lots of great alternatives and I cannot or will not attempt to tell you which is the best, however if you are looking for another alternative to AVG, that you can also get for free, check out Microsoft OneCare 2.0, which currently is free after rebates. Amazon is offering OneCare 2.0 for $30 along with a $30 mail-in-rebate, which will in turn lower the cost to $0. Similar to other subscription based services, this $30 will offer one-years worth of protection, after which it will have to be renewed.

Product [Amazon] Via [jkOnTheRun]

AVG announced that their Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 is now available for download. This free edition combines an anti-virus and anti-spyware engine to protect users machines against spyware attacks aside from the usual viruses that threaten your computer on a daily basis. The software also provides real-time searching protection with AVG’s LinkScanner technology which was incorporated into the new AVG Security Toolbar.

An English version of the Anti-virus software will be released first, to be followed by other language versions over the next few months. The software can be freely downloaded and used only on single computers which are running on Windows 2000, XP or Vista. 

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British online retailer BT Shop is currently offering a bundle that is sure to make just about everyone scratch their head. Lets just hope that some unsuspecting person does not take advantage of this offer thinking its going to save some money, because in turn it will just waste it, that is unless they have another Windows-based computer lying around that needs Office. Sadly the bundle, aside from being incompatible only saves the user £1.76, which is around $3.50 US.

Via [CrunchGear]

It turns out that April 29 was not the day for Windows XP SP3 to be officially released. However it was not just SP3 that was delayed, all of the updates for both Windows XP and also Vista have been stopped temporarily. The issue is due to another product called Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, which was causing some incompatibility issues. In addition to XP’s SP3, the SP1 for Vista is also being affected. The update for XP was put on hold, while the update for Vista is still available, its just not available as an automatic item. Microsoft is encouraging anyone who is running Microsoft Dynamics RMS to not install Vista SP1.

Via [CrunchGear]

Score one for the UMPC hacker community again, for just recently, a hacker named TFR revealed in OQO Talk that he successfully installed and ran Mac OS X Leopard on his little OQO e2 UMPC. Taking into account that his device came with Windows Vista pre-installed, it’s not that hard to imagine why he’d want to do something like that and run Leopard on the poor thing. As of this time’s writing, the hacker still hasn’t provided any details on how he performed the trick because he’s still not finished with the project and needs to take care of two final issues: video resolution and wwan. However, he promises that he will do so once he gets done. For now, you can take joy in viewing a photo of his Leopard-toting machine (log-in/register to view) and watching his YouTube video proof. Psystar should hire this guy.

Read [OQO Talk] Via [Tech Radar]