Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Nokia, acting a little ahead of the planned schedule for “early June” and released the latest update for the North American N95, bring the firmware to version 20.02.011. Along with the new firmware comes a few welcome changes that include a faster boot time that was cut from 30 seconds down to 19 seconds and a camera start-up time of just 2 seconds. The N95 also sees the addition of Flash Lite 3 support, demand paging, Web Run Time and Idle Screen Nokia search. Nokia also added a few N-Gage demos in for good measure. The update, which is currently available for all Nokia N95 NAM users can be found on the Nokia Software Updater.

Via [IntoMobile]

Piracy in the software industry continues to grow, this time slashing $48 billion in the revenue of software companies in 2007. This is in contrast with the dip of piracy rates in most countries. Piracy rates decreased in 67 out of 108 countries. Despite that, an $8 billion overall loss growth is being experienced worldwide by the software industry. It has been noted though, that half of the increase in losses are attributed to the depreciation of the dollar.

The Business Software Alliance or BSA, have reported in their fifth annual report that there are “emerging markets”, like Brazil, Russia, China, and India, which grow in PC sales per year. However, the rate of growth of PC sales does not correspond directly to the number of software shipments.  BSA President Robert Holleyman stated that these emerging markets report to have 46 percent of new computer shipments last year, yet the percentage of software shipments is just 17.

That clearly tells how the number of software products lags behind PC sales, and this provides evidence of piracy. The BSA provides in-depth reports of the effect on revenue sales of firms due to software piracy.

Read [CNET]

The case of the missing NBC video on Windows Vista Media Center PC’s in DVR mode reminds me of Bill Murray’s classic line from “Ghostbusters.” When tempted by a demonically-possessed Sigourney Weaver, Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman says, “I make it a rule never to get involved with possessed people.”

After she nuzzles his neck, he sheepishly adds, “Actually it’s more of a guideline than a rule.”

CNET News reported that Vista PC’s won’t record certain NBC prime-time programming. (We’ll ignore the larger question for now as to why someone would actually want to record “American Gladiators.") When its reporter questioned Microsoft, the software company released a statement saying that it is honoring broadcast flags - technology that disables attempts at recording - as set forth by Federal Communications Commission “rules.” But those “rules” have no force of law behind them. The networks wanted them a couple of years ago, but federal courts shot them down. Optional installation? Sure. But there’s nothing mandated by governmental agency or Congress.

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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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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]

Looking to keep its promise of delivering newer versions of its SlingPlayer Mobile software, Sling Media has made updates available for download on their web site today. And not only did they update three currently existing versions of their software client, but they also added support for a few new devices, namely the Nokia N95 8GB, the Treo 500v, and the Samsung i760. Streaming has also been optimized on select handsets, and one such is the Sprint Mogul. Interestingly enough, though, the SlingPlayer Mobile software client on the Palm OS has not been upgraded yet like the other clients.

To download the latest version of SlingPlayer Mobile, all you have to do is log on to Sling Media’s web site and click on the appropriate links. You won’t be needing to fork out any money because the download for the upgrades are free, unless of course if you’re not already an existing customer, at which case you’d have to pay $30 per handset. And don’t forget you also need a Slingbox set up in your home (or any place you stay) for all this to work. So unless you do and you’re willing to pay for the hardware (and software, for new customers), don’t be dreaming up about this right now, thinking that things will magically appear out of nowhere. More info available at the following links.

Download [Sling Media] Via [Crave]

For just $2.99 per month, Alltell Wireless and Ontela are going to let you carelessly take pictures of anything you deem appropriate with your camera phone and they will save it automatically for you. They are going to do this by collaborating for a new software application that automatically saves all the photos you take to your PC, email, and online photo albums. You wouldn’t need to press anything other than the camera shutter release button, which is very very convenient to say the least. Ontela CEO Dan Shapiro had this to say about their new service:

“You just take the pictures and as if by magic, they appear on your computer in your ‘My Pictures’ folder. This is the end of the ‘photo graveyard,’ where people take pictures and then leave them on the phone until they’re deleted. Instead, we’ve given a new life to these memories by saving them to the places users care about most.”

Camera phone aficionados are surely going to save a lot of time and precious memories from this. Now how about something that automatically deletes my unwanted photos? Has anybody ever thought of that yet?

Via [I4U News]

BlackBerry devices have been getting a lot of love lately. Or rather, a lot of updates, including one from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and now this, newly introduced support from ShoZu. Available for download to BlackBerry device owners is a new software application that enables them to connect to popular social media and networking sites directly from their handset and do things that they are only normally able to do with their PCs. With ShoZu, BlackBerry owners can now connect to sites like Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Picasa and even Blogger. ShoZu also serves as an RSS feed reader, and almost an instant messaging platform via the handset’s two-way multimedia capabilities.

ShoZu for BlackBerry will be available for download at ShoZu’s web site, as well as in “Built for BlackBerry” and “BlackBerry Owners Lounge” web sites.

Product [ShoZu] Via [IntoMobile]

Some may say that Artificial Intelligence has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years, but perhaps a very practical use for this has been discovered by a group of Tel Aviv University students. They have combined pinpointing software with physiological research. Amit Kagian, the program’s developer explained, “Coordinates are used for calculating geometric features and asymmetry”.

To put it simply, the software gauges the distance and symmetry as well as texture and tone of the face. While Artificial Intelligence will perhaps never match human intuition, this could be useful for picking models, as well as facial-recognition software.

Read [ZDNet]

Blu-ray disc burning on computers gets even better and easier with the launch of Roxio’s Toast 9 Titanium software. Toast 9 lets users record HD content from their HD camcorders and HD programming from TiVo DVRs and Elgato’s EyeTV devices to Blu-ray Disc. For users who haven’t adapted the Blu-ray technology yet, Roxio Toast 9 also allows burning HD videos and slide shows on standard DVDs.

Roxio’s Toast 9 Titanium also comes with a Streamer application that can be used for streaming video content stored on Mac computers to an iPhone or iPod touch via Wi-Fi connection. It even works with any other connected Mac or PC as well.

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