Full FeedWindows 7 is the “biggest pre-order of all time” at Amazon
Amazon states the the latest Windows offering has beaten absolutely any product they have ever had for pre-order in the UK. Better come up with a new trick Harry Potter, because even you have lost the king of pre-order title and crown.
Amazon has sold more copies of Windows 7 in the first eight hours of its release for pre-order back in July than Vista did during its entire pre-order period. No big shocker there. Maybe Vista is why Windows 7 is selling like mad; people want to get rid of it in favor of something else.
“The launch of Windows 7 has superseded everyone’s expectations, storming ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as the biggest grossing pre-order product of all-time at Amazon.co.uk, and demand is still going strong,” says Brian McBride, Amazon UK MD. And if it is beating Harry in the UK? It’s gotta be in high demand. The official release of Windows 7 is tomorrow, October 22, 2009.
Read: [tgdaily]
RelatedThe “Onyx” BlackBerry Bold 9700 officially announced
We’ve been telling you it was coming, and now it’s all official. The latest RIM device is the BlackBerry Bold 9700, or the “Onyx.” It has been officially announced, and is coming to AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Bell, Rogers and more.
So to go through the recap of what it brings you—some pretty nifty features on this new model with more memory for your apps at 256 MB, a faster processor speed (624 Mhz), the camera is upgraded to 3.2 megapixels, and the general style of the phone is cooler. It’s slimmer, has the optical trackpad, and just a jazzed-up look. Yet, you’ve still got the parts that you probably love—the keyboard has barely changed, and it still also has the leather backing. Also included in the latest Bold is OS 5.0.
Even with all the info we do have and the fact that RIM is launching the Onyx to just about every GSM carrier in both Europe and North America, they have yet to give a “this is it” official news on pricing and carriers. However, AT&T has said they will be offering it for $199 after a mail-in rebate of $100. T-Mobile hasn’t mentioned price as of their press release, but, they did say that the phone will be able to make unlimited calls off Wi-Fi for $10 a month. No such promise from AT&T.
The latest on the streets is that we can expect the new Bold in November for that holiday shopping. As always, stay tuned for more details as we get them.
Read: [intomobile]
RelatedRootkits on Sony/Beuna Vista rental DVDs
Although so many people get movies streamed right to them a host of different ways, occasionally, some do still venture forth into that old brick and mortar building called a video store. So, there you are, it’s a Friday night and you go to your local Blockbuster, grab a movie, dreams of relaxing with some popcorn and the latest “must see” dancing in your head. Run home, pop it in your laptop to watch, and that’s when all hell breaks loose.
“The Proposal” by Sony starts it all off
Well, at least it did for me this past weekend after renting the new release “The Proposal”, distributed by Buena Vista, a division of Sony. When I first popped the DVD into my drive, it sounded like it was having a bit of a hard time reading the disk. I initially thought that the disk might have been dirty or scratched, but after removing and checking it, I could see it was fine.
After several more attempts to play the DVD, I was about to give up when all of a sudden, I got a pop-up from one of my anti-virus programs (Kaspersky) telling me that the disk was attempting to play as a document file. What the heck? Then, the video did start playing, sort of. I could hear it, although the sound was going in slow motion, and there was no video playing. I once again ejected the DVD, and that’s when I saw we’ve got problems.
The Rootkit begins to do its thing on my system
First, my computer locked up. I did a hard boot, and when it logged back in, I didn’t hear that familiar little “Windows chime.” Uh-oh. I went to my desktop and immediately boxes were popping up like mad telling me all kinds of programs are failing to respond. Everything from Firefox to Yahoo Messenger to explorer.exe. It looked like some kind of “you’re really screwed” video game going off, where you had to figure out in seconds what to do with all the things flying at you before you see what happens next.
The system mess continues
What happened next wasn’t any prettier. I could not access my control panel, my start button, and any of my anti-virus programs on the desktop just wouldn’t launch. The only thing vaguely reassuring at that point, was that somehow, Kaspersky was still running, and I was able to click on it in my toolbar, and have it perform a scan.
Although nothing came up in the system scan, when I had it check for vulnerabilities, it named everything and its brother that is on my system. Then, it showed me where it all began. Which drive, what time. Yep, the Buena Vista movie I attempted to play “The Proposal.” It showed as containing several keyloggers and a rootkit. Just great. Now what?
Now, to add to the fun, my computer would not do anything in regular mode, so I went into safe mode to see what I could do. Pretty much the same nothing. I had never before come across any virus or malware that so thoroughly disabled and messed up my system. Right then, I was good and ticked at both Blockbuster and Sony. Heck, I was even mad at Sandra Bullock for starring in the stupid movie.
Rootkit removal tools
After downloading a number of rootkit removal tools, I tried to access the files on my laptop. Through a weird quirk, I was able to get into Microsoft Word and drag a copy of the removal tools to my desktop. From the desktop, I was able to run the programs. Even after running the rootkit removal tools, my system was still affected. After a system restore and malware scans, it looked like smooth sailing except for the lack of internet connection.
After a while, I realized that somehow, the stupid thing simply managed to turn off the wireless connection on my laptop. This was probably the easiest fix I dealt with through the whole fiasco. I just had to hit the reset button on my laptop for wireless internet connection.
Sidenote for Acer Aspire owners
I just had to hit the reset button on my laptop for wireless internet connection. For anyone who runs into this problem and you don’t know where that is, it is usually a small button on the front of the laptop. In my case, using an Acer Aspire, the reset button for wireless connection is at the top of your keyboard, under the on/off button. You will see a row of keys. The internet connection key is the one on the far left.
The Bottom Line
Be very, very careful what movies you are putting into your computer. If it’s distributed by Sony/Buena Vista, I would strongly urge you to think twice before doing so. Unless you consider hours of trying to bring your computer back to life more fun than the relaxing with a movie you were initially looking forward to that is.
Image Source: sevensheavens
RelatedGoogle’s Street View: On your trike, get set, go!
Everyone and their brother has heard of Google’s Street View program, I am sure. It allows you to virtually tour all kinds of places as seen from the street. But now, according to a post on Google’s official blog site, they have expanded where they can virtually take you to visit. Their latest development, Street View Trike, takes you where the roads couldn’t.
There are lots of places in the world you may want to see or go, that you just can’t get to by Street View car. For example, those out of the way bike paths in the middle of a park, or a tour of ruins where vehicles just aren’t allowed. Now, you can still check them out.
Street View Trike takes you to all of these places and more. One of the mechanical engineers on the Street View team is an avid mountain biker. He says he got to thinking about how he could incorporate some of the “roads less traveled” with his hobby of biking. The result was a camera system built on a bike, which gives us…Street View Trike.
They have already toured several locations in the UK finding some cool out of the way by car places to bring you. Now, they want to hear your suggestions on where they should head to next. You can go to www.google.com/trike to make your nomination of where you think they should take the trike. You can make suggestions in six different categories: Parks & Trails, University Campuses, Pedestrian Trails, Theme Parks & Zoos, Landmarks, or Sports Venues.
You can submit nominations through October 28. At that point, Google will go through all the suggestions, pick some top finalist locations, and then let the public vote on who should win in each category for where the Street View trike should visit. They say if the winner is either privately owned or an operated location (like a theme park), they will “work directly with the relevant organization prior to collecting the imagery.”
When Street View trike was opened up for nominations in the UK, they were hit with a hailstorm of nominations—over 10,000. What can you come up with America? What off the streets area do you most want to view? Don’t forget to go to www.google.com/trike to give your ideas.
Read: [Google Blog]
Image Source: Google
5 spooky gadgets: Are they a trick or a treat?
The leaves are changing colors. Football has become a weekend staple. Pumpkins are seemingly everywhere. It is that time of year again, fall is upon us and with that comes the chance to have some frightening fun. You see offers of great scary gadgets all over the place, but which ones are a treat, and which are just a trick to have you shell out your hard-earned cash? Here you will find a list of five spooktacular gadgets designed to give you the shivers.
Toshiba announces the latest offering in the Dynadock family
Toshiba isn’t the new kid on the block when it comes to universal docking stations. They’ve had several earlier versions out, to mostly favorable user reviews, and were rated the top online seller May-August of this year.* Now, they’ve announced their latest tech brainchild, the newest dynadock wireless U universal docking station.
So, what does this one have? It features wireless USB so you don’t have to worry about the pain of wires and and using a cable connection between your laptop, and the docking station. It also offers an integrated digital audio card that provides 7.1 surround sound. Two of the six USB 2.0 ports are the nifty front “Sleep-and-Change 1” variety, which allow users to power up devices even when the laptop is turned off. That’s rather handy. It also comes with a one touch dock/undock button. This button is really nice since it makes sure that all of your peripherals are actually shut down correctly when undocking. This prevents any outbursts, combined with a loss of data.
It gives you automatic connectivity, so there is no lag time. You get an HD Digital Video card to connect to an additional VGA or DVI monitor (up to 1680x1050 resolution.) It has bi-directional ISOCH support, support for USB speakers, audio, webcams, and microphones. And what really makes this stand out from the current model is that it is offering beta drivers for Windows 7 for both the dynadock wireless U, as well as the dynadock U.
The new Toshiba dynadock wireless U universal docking station is now available at an MSRP of $299.99 at most major e-tailers and at toshibadirect.com. It is also soon to be made available to major electronics and computer stores nationwide. You can find out more information by checking out their site.
Product Page: [dynadock]
RelatedWi-Fi Direct is gearing up to give Bluetooth a major run for its money
Rumors of the coming Wi-Fi Direct are out and I’m sure it’s got the Bluetooth makers shaking in their boots. With Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth may no longer be top dog.
Just announced at a consortium, some of the biggest players in the tech field are coming together to form an alliance to bring Wi-Fi connectivity to the public without all the hassle so often encountered now. Intel, Apple, Cisco Systems and over 300 other tech companies are all joining up to develop and distribute technology that will turn just about any gadget into an access point that can connect with any other Wi-Fi enabled gadget within around 300 feet.
Just think—phones, computers, gaming systems, TVs - all able to communicate together. If you happen to own an existing Wi-Fi enabled device, you will still be able to make use of the new Direct technology by simply downloading some software.
This is what is probably going to make the Bluetooth folks a little nervous. Now they finally have some competition and while Wi-Fi can go through your battery life more quickly than Bluetooth tends to, it has its upside in speed and a richer multimedia content.
Beyond the obvious use on cellphones, TVs implementing it are probably going to become commonplace. Chipmaker Marvell is already in pow-wows with TV makers. Although not many offer this technology currently, several are now thinking about adding the feature so that users can do things like transferring video and photos right onto their TV screens from cameras, camcorders and laptops.
What is also cool when you think about this technology is the fact there are so many ways it is going to be able to be used. We hear that the technology is supposed to be able to connect both one-on-one and in a group and will come with built in WPA2 technology to keep those nasties at bay.
Set to launch sometime mid-2010, this is something I’m definitely looking forward to seeing come to play.
Read: [businessweek]
RelatedIt’s finally coming: The long-awaited social networking on XBox 360
Well, we had gotten the early scoop quite a while ago, that Facebook was coming to an XBox 360 near you. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen when Microsoft was first hinting that it would…way back in August. It’s the “Big 3” apps scheduled to make their debut soon - Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm. The apps are now supposed to hit in “a Fall release,” with the company saying sometime in November. Although even when pressed, they wouldn’t commit to a firm date.
If you are among the select group of beta tester users, you can try it out ahead of time (sign up here). What they’ve got going so far is cool, though not as extensive as the desktop versions. This was kind of expected in some ways though, when you consider that they have to plug three rather major web apps into a system that doesn’t have a web browser, let alone a mouse or a keyboard. Instead, users have either the on-screen keyboard or the attached USB keyboard, and the 360 controller. You can also opt to buy the Chat Pad for around $30 if you like.
Obviously the lack of a browser affects the use of the apps. I mean, when you go onto Facebook, or Twitter, you tend to click on stuff right? Can’t do it here. No browser equals no links.
So what does each app on the 360 consist of? What can you do?
Well, let’s start with Facebook. One thing XBox 360 users are probably going to use this for is to connect with other gaming friends to give status updates bragging on their scores or levels they just beat. It does that well through Facebook Connect.
Another area is allowing you to see friends’ photos quickly and easily. You are able to check out friends’ photos in a full-screen slideshow that has some serious speed getting you the photos, just about the same as getting the shots off of a card reader. Well, this is of course dependent on your internet connection. Nice. However, at this point at least, you are not able to take your own shots from a memory card and upload them to Facebook through the app. Not so nice.
Another fun thing is the ability to find buddies who are on either Facebook or XBox Live easily with just one click. When you are logged into the app, you have the option of adding someone in two different ways: Facebook Friends on XBox Live or vice versa. It sounds fast and simple. However, right now you have a limit of 100 people with whom you may be friends. Microsoft has been hinting around though, that they just may up that limit.
Also still missing—that I hope show up eventually—are chat and videos. It’s doubtful Microsoft is going to add chat (wanting users to keep using Windows Live Messenger), but the video portion might not be asking too much. Ron Pessner, Microsoft general manager of XBox Live says that “We’re obviously interested in what folks have to say about the desirability of personal videos,” he said. “We’re going to be evaluating that going forward.” Let’s hope it happens, it would be a nice touch.
Moving on the Twitter, what can you do with this part? Well, it looks pretty. It is big and bright and blue. It’s also kind of limited. You can look at the last 50 tweets from the people you follow. You can reply, retweet and favorite tweets. It does also offer search and trending topics on the main page. User themes don’t cross over though, everyone is blue.
However, again, you can’t click on any links. And when people are only tweeting 140 characters or less, they usually include links to whatever they are talking about. It would be nice if you could actually check them out. While it can be a pain in the butt using a vrtual keyboard, chances are you won’t be trying to bang out War and Peace anyway in a bunch of tweets. So, you can handle it for the brief shout-outs you will probably be using it for. But you do want to take note of the fact that it doesn’t give you any kind of warning when you are approaching the 140 character limit, and it lets you keep typing. Maybe they are just checking your Rainman skills. A final part that is rather cool is that you can switch back and forth between more than one Twitter accounts from the same Live user profile, since the app isn’t tied to your XBox Live account.
Last.fm
Moving on the music with Last.fm, lots of people seem to like it as a way to find new music. The strange thing about the app, though, is that it doesn’t hook in with the music you have already ripped to your 360. Once you start using the app, you are starting at square one of telling your favorite bands, although you can link to an existing Last.fm account you may already have and sync up with that. There is also a set of “music for gamers” that Microsoft and Last.fm have created. It has stuff like game-inspired music and game music soundtracks.
Now the not so nice, it can only run when it is the only thing running. If you want to listen to it while you are gaming? Ummm…no. It also takes a tad to load, about 10-15 seconds, compared to Facebook and Twitter loading pretty much immediately.
What else?
Guess who Microsoft chose to use for their video marketplace app? Zune. Yep, Zune. Pessner says they went this route rather than with the XBox Live brand because it’s “part of Microsoft’s move to put Zune across as the music and video brand.”
And actually, it seems to work quite well. The video streaming is better than what is being used now for their streaming service and due to the Zune’s adaptive streaming technology, you can stream pretty much instantly. Now, even with the older 20GB 360, you can watch HD movies without having to download them first. You can also stream content you bought to somewhere else, like your Zune, so you don’t have to use up your hard drive space.
So who gets to use it?
The Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm apps are only going to be available to those users with an XBox Live gold account. Silver won’t cut it. This is another way Microsoft is going to try to get the free members to cough up the money for an upgrade.
So, if you aren’t a gold member, would these apps make you rethink the cost to upgrade? Are they things that make it worth it to you? Or just some more not needed apps in your opinion? Tell us what you think.
Read: [CNET]
Image Source: CNET
Walmart wants to give it to you straight, introduces their new Straight Talk cell phone plan.
With the economy the way it is today, more and more people are looking around for ways to pinch pennies and save a buck. Carpooling, being sure to turn off all the lights, and less needless spending are becoming much more of the norm. One big area that many are looking at to try to cut down on is on their cell phone bill. More people are abandoning the high costs of a “regular” cell phone plan that racks them anywhere from an average of $78 and up a month*, and turning to a pay-as-you-go or no contract cell plan. With this in mind, enter Walmart’s latest way to try to offer up the goofy big yellow smiley face to their customers.
“Family Guy” goes wild for Windows - at least for a night
You’d have to be blind not to see Microsoft trying to shove Windows 7 into the living rooms of America through TV commercials. The most recent—the gaggy sweet little girl making rainbow and flower pages though, is in my opinion, not their best effort. But, that effort is now veering in a new direction with their latest venture. Microsoft has just signed a deal with Fox to sponsor a show produced by “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane.
And get this, the show isn’t even going to have any commercials! That’s because it is kind of one big long commercial in itself. It is going to be a plethora of Windows programming throughout the show. The title is “Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy Show,” and will be a mix-up mashup of animated shorts, live-action “Family Guy” musical performances, as well as celebrity guest appearances.
No one would talk about the specifics of how they are gonna slip Windows 7 in throughout the show, but we are told it is going to be well integrated into the content. According to general manager of consumer engagement and advertising at Microsoft, Gayle Troberman, “You’ll see us deeply integrated into the content ... you’ll hear a lot about how Windows 7 can help you simplify your PC—it’s simple, fast and easy to use,” She continued by saying, “Think about metaphors and examples we might use, talking about how simple things are. We’ll be evoking the cast of ‘Family Guy’ in some interesting ways that integrate the product messages.” Hmmm….maybe stressing it is so easy to use, even a bright bulb like the family guy can use it.
Troberman maintains that branded entertainment with content integration and programming offered up “phenomenal results” when they used it for launching the search engine Bing. She says that is why they are going that route for Windows 7 as well. “Consumers exposed to both branded entertainment and advertising have more positive reactions,” she said. But, working in to use an OS isn’t quite as simple as promoting a candy bar, or even a search engine. I’m curious to see just how they manage to do it. The show is scheduled to air on November 8 at 8:30 PM Eastern.
Read: adage
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Palm Pre Information & Updates
Palm just introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Palm Pre, and next-gen operating system, Palm webOS. Gadgetell's got the latest Pre and webOS information and news for you right here.
