New in Opera 10.53

• Enjoy unprecedented speed with our new Carakan JavaScript engine, Vega graphics library, and Opera Presto 2.5 browser engine.
• Opera includes industry leading support for Web standards such as HTML 5, SVG and JavaScript.
• Enhanced platform integration on Windows and Mac means that Opera looks and works better than ever on your operating system.
• A beautiful, new design looks great on Windows, maximizing your view of the Web and fully utilizing Aero transparency on Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
• Our improved dialogs will not get in your way or interrupt you. You can now switch between different pages without having to clear prompts first.
• Searching is easier than ever, with Web search integrated right in the address field. You can also find pages from your history and bookmarks, as you type.
• Displaying pages in the size you want is smoother than ever, with a new zoom slider in the status bar.
• Rest assured that browsing stays personal with private browsing. Once you close a private tab or window, the data from that session is removed from the browser without a trace.

Opera lets you surf the Internet in a safer, faster, and easier way. One of the most full-featured Internet power tools on the market, it includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera’s groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. You can customize the look and content of your browser with a few clicks of the mouse.

Opera is known as the fastest and smallest full-featured browser, a first choice for people using older PCs and Windows 95 and a brilliant alternative to the default IE from Microsoft. Opera, first of all, is client World Wide Web, that is the program for extraction of the information from WWW as the documents created with help HyperText Markup Language (language of a marking of hypertext HTML).

Low requirements to resources of system. Opera will work even on 386 computer about 6 MB of operative memory. MDI the interface. You can open without special expenses of memory any quantity of windows inside one working window, having chosen thus a tabulared or cascade mode.

Opera started out as a research project in Norway’s largest telecom company, Telenor, in 1994, and branched out into an independent development company named Opera Software ASA in 1995. Opera Software develops the Opera Web browser, a high-quality, multi-platform product for a wide range of platforms, operating systems and embedded Internet products.

Download Opera 10.53

Mozilla has released Weave 1.2.3, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Recent changes

• • Sync data faster by detecting when you’ve added additional devices and downloading all data in one pass
  • Easier access to remote tabs from the right-end of the tab bar or going to about:weave-tabs
  • Less disruptive “start over” by showing the sync direction options and skipping the username entry
  • Prevent potential data corruption by favoring most recent changes and being less strict about version requirements
  • (1.2.3) Add support for Firefox on Android (Fennec pre-alpha)
  • (1.2.2) Fix compatibility with trunk nightly builds of Minefield
  • (1.2.1) Sync a capped number of form history items to avoid slowing Firefox

Firefox 3.6.3 fixes a critical security issue that could potentially allow remote code execution (see bug 555109).

What’s New in Firefox 3.6.3

Mozilla has released Weave 1.2.1, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Recent changes

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

More Information

• For more information on Weave Sync 1.0, please see the release notes
• For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Weave Sync Changelog

Here you can read about Weave add-on releases. For the full hg changelog, go here

Weave v1.1 (February 26, 2010)

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

Weave v1.0.1 (February 12, 2010)

• When syncing saved passwords we no longer allow Weave credentials in the set of data that is encrypted and synchronized with the server

Weave v1.0 (January 28, 2010)

• Fix threshold sync values so clients don’t sync too aggressively
• Updated web links and icons

For a limited time you can download this free E-Book First Look: Microsoft Office 2010 without stepping through any registration.

First Look: Microsoft Office 2010, by Katherine Murray, offers 14 chapters of early content, organized like so:

Part I, “Envision the Possibilities,” introduces you to the changes in Office 2010 and shows you how you can make the most of the new features to fit the way you work today. Chapter 1, “Welcome to Office 2010,” gives you a play-by-play introduction to new features; Chapter 2, “Express Yourself Effectively and Efficiently,” details the great feature enhancements and visual effects throughout the applications; and Chapter 3, “Work Anywhere with Office 2010,” explores the flexibility factor by presenting a set of scenarios that enable users to complete their work no matter where their path takes them.

Part II, “Hit the Ground Running,” focuses on each of the Office 2010 applications in turn, spotlighting the key new features and showing how they relate to the whole. These chapters provide a how-to guide for many of the top features you’re likely to use right off the bat, and they offer inspiring ideas on how to get the most from your favorite applications.

Part III, “Next Steps with Office 2010,” zooms up to the big picture and provides examples to help you think through interoperability. How often do you use the various Office applications together? Customer research shows that people often don’t realize how well the applications work together as a complete system—which means they might be laboring over items they could easily incorporate from somewhere else. This part of the book provides examples for integrating the applications and explores Office 2010 security and training opportunities, as well.

You can First Look: Microsoft Office 2010 Download here.

Watch video

Google Chrome Dev Channel has been updated to 5.0.342.3 for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms

This release improves stability and fixes some known crashers (such as Issues: 37035, 37674, 37567)

• All: Form auto-fill is not enabled by default (Issue 37466) – Fixed on Trunk
• Windows: Browser crashes on quiting with Authentication dialog opened (Issue: 37698) – Fixed on Trunk
• Linux: Chromium Bookmark Sync Not Working (Issue: 36460)

Direct Download Link:

It’s official! In a blog post today, Arpan Shah officially announced that May 12th, 2010, is the launch date for SharePoint 2010.

You’re invited to virtually join us on May 12th at 11am EST to listen to Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch.

You can register for the launch event at: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/proof/pages/2010-launch-events.aspx.

Watch Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announce the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 11 a.m. EST. The live keynote focuses on the next wave of productivity that delivers:

• End user productivity across the PC, phone and browser
• IT choice and flexibility
• A platform for developers to build innovative solutions

Join the virtual launch event with Microsoft executives, product developers, partners and customers to:

• Find out how peers and partners are already seeing benefits to their business by leveraging the next wave of productivity.
• Submit your questions through live Q&A.
• Participate via blogs, tweets, social media networks, commenting, and more.

View on-demand breakout sessions showing how Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 meet the unique challenges people and businesses are faced with today, and provide the solutions they need for tomorrow.

Mozilla has released Weave 1.1, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Recent changes

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

More Information

• For more information on Weave Sync 1.0, please see the release notes
• For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Weave Sync Changelog

Here you can read about Weave add-on releases. For the full hg changelog, go here

Weave v1.1 (February 26, 2010)

• Fix issues with uploading stale data when upgrading
• Remember bookmark locations when moving out of unsorted
• Prevent certain tabs from syncing: restore session, wyciwyg:

Weave v1.0.1 (February 12, 2010)

• When syncing saved passwords we no longer allow Weave credentials in the set of data that is encrypted and synchronized with the server

Weave v1.0 (January 28, 2010)

• Fix threshold sync values so clients don’t sync too aggressively
• Updated web links and icons

Mozilla has released Weave 1.0, the Firefox extension and service that provides Firefox user data synchronization among computing devices like laptops, desktops, and starting tomorrow, with Firefox for Maemo release, mobile devices. It is also great for users who dual-boot, and what don’t want to bother remembering where they did what.

So far, synchronization includes bookmarks, history, preferences, passwords, filled forms, and even your last 25 opened tabs. All the information is transported and stored in encrypted form at all times making it pretty safe to use.

Weave, in development for more than two years now, includes a client (the Weave Sync extension), and a server component (Weave Server) so companies could deploy their own synchronization servers.

A feature that is not present but was tried at some point in Weave development is automatic sign-on, but it could come back at some point.

Also, preferences finally ended in its own tab in the Options or Preferences dialog, after trying a page approach Mozilla is considering for the whole preferences user interface or add-on management at least (more on this in the next post).

With Weave 1.0 and Firefox 3.6 released, and Firefox for Maemo 1.0 debuting tomorrow, Mozilla is rounding a great 2010 start.

Check out the release notes for more details. Download Weave Sync from Mozilla Add-ons.

Here is the list of Changes since Beta 3:

• Fix threshold sync values so clients don’t sync too aggressively
• Updated web links and icons
• Preserve multiple bookmarks to the same page to avoid reordering issues
• Show that email addresses aren’t usernames
• Fix issues that potentially led to reordered bookmarks
• Avoid triggering master password prompt on launching Firefox
• Better integration with Fennec UX
• Smarter detection of tabs to sync
• Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
• Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
• Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
• A few more bug fixes related to changing passwords, mobile bookmarks, etc

The iPad is a tablet computer announced by Apple on January 27, 2010. It is 0.5-inches thick, weighs 1.5 pounds, and features a 9.7-inch IPS capacitive multitouch display. It is powered by a proprietary 1GHz processor, 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and is available in 16, 32, or 64GB flash storage capacities. Additional specs include an accelerometer, compass, speaker, mic, 30-pin Apple dock connector, and 10-hour built-in battery.

Standard apps that come pre-loaded on the device include a mobile Safari web browser, an e-book reader app called iBooks, a calendar app, two-pane email app, contacts, notes, Google Maps, media player, photo viewer, iTunes store, and App Store to download third-party applications and games. Existing iPhone applications are centered on-screen at their original 480×320 resolution, or can be run in a magnified mode where the app is enlarged to fit the entire screen.

Apple will offer models with built-in unlocked 3G data capabilities. US customers can purchase an AT&T 250MB data plan for $14.99 per month or an unlimited data plan for $29.99 per month.

Wi-Fi only iPad models will be available by the beginning of April 2010:
$499 – 16GB
$599 – 32GB
$699 – 64GB

Wi-Fi + 3G iPad models will be available by the beginning of May 2010:
$629 – 16GB
$729 – 32GB
$829 – 64GB

And here’s Apple’s full press release:

Apple iPad

A Magical & Revolutionary Device at an Unbelievable Price

Apple® today introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more. iPad’s responsive high-resolution Multi-Touch™ display lets users physically interact with applications and content. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds- thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store. iPad will be available in late March starting at the breakthrough price of just $499.

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

iPad features 12 next-generation Multi-Touch applications. Every app works in both portrait and landscape, automatically animating between views as the user rotates iPad in any direction. The precise Multi-Touch interface makes surfing the web on iPad an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. Reading and sending email is fun and easy on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard. Import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD or flip through pages of an e-book you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

iPad runs almost all of the over 140,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. The iTunes® Store gives you access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 8,000 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. Apple also announced the new iBooks app for iPad, which includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile device. The iBookstore will feature books from major and independent publishers.

Apple also introduced a new version of iWork® for iPad, the first desktop-class productivity suite designed specifically for Multi-Touch. With Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers® you can create beautifully formatted documents, stunning presentations with animations and transitions, and spreadsheets with charts, functions and formulas. The three apps will be available separately through the App Store for $9.99 each.

iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using the standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or PC. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

iPad’s brilliant 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display features IPS technology to deliver crisp, clear images and consistent color with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle. The highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display is amazingly accurate and responsive whether scrolling web pages or playing games. The intelligent soft keyboard pioneered on iPhone takes advantage of iPad’s larger display to offer an almost full-size soft keyboard. iPad also connects to the new iPad Keyboard Dock with a full-size traditional keyboard.

iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip. Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours.* Apple’s advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five year lifespan.**

iPad comes in two versions-one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad includes the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the 3G versions support speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on HSDPA networks. Apple and AT&T announced breakthrough 3G pre-paid data plans for iPad with easy, on-device activation and management.

Continuing Apple’s dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.

Apple today released a new Software Development Kit (SDK) for iPad, so developers can create amazing new applications designed to take advantage of iPad’s capabilities. The SDK includes a simulator that lets developers test and debug their iPad apps on a Mac, and also lets developers create Universal Applications that run on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Pricing & Availability

iPad will be available in late March worldwide for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, $699 (US) for the 64GB model. The Wi-Fi + 3G models of iPad will be available in April in the US and selected countries for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. International pricing and worldwide availability will be announced at a later date. iBookstore will be available in the US at launch.

NVIDIA has released the GeForce 300M Series Graphics Processors for Notebooks/Laptops.

NVIDIA® GeForce® 300M Series Notebook GPUs are ready for Microsoft® Windows 7®, provide great gaming with NVIDIA® PhysX® technology, able to run award-winning applications with NVIDIA® CUDA® technology.

Optimized for Windows 7 and ready to take advantage of the new GPU-accelerated capabilities and features.

• Experience GPU Powered drag-n-drop transcoding in Windows 7 as you automatically transfer video for viewing on your portable player

• Enjoy new GPU-accelerated video and image processing applications built with Microsoft’s new DirectCompute API

Equipped with the latest technologies including PhysX technology for ultra-realistic game environments and virtual worlds

• Darkest of Days looks and plays realistically, thanks to the inclusion of natural environments, complete with realistic leaves and flowers, wind, ground fog, smoke, volcanic ash, snow, and more

• Dark Void will have the distinction of being the first game ever to use dynamic, accurate smoke effects and smoke trails for the game’s innovative jetpacks, UFOs, and spaceships

CUDA technology accelerates the most demanding GPU-powered applications to run up to 20X faster than the CPU

• Easily edit HD movies with GPU-based applications like PowerDirector7 by CyberLink and Super LoiloScope from Loilo

• Automatically clean-up video from your camcorder or mobile phone with vReveal from MotionDSP

Performance when you need it (up to 2X faster than previous generation GPUs) for those intensive apps and greater battery life with 50% lower power consumption with for your everyday tasks

• Leading edge process technology, coupled with new GPU architecture, enables smaller size chips, lower idle power, and increased performance per watt

The new lineup includes the GeForce GTS 360M and GTS 350M in the “High Performance” category, the “Performance” GeForce GT 335M, GT 330M, and GT 325M, and the GeForce 310M and 305M “Mainstream” GPUs. Currently, there are no 300M Series models in NVIDIA’s “Enthusiast” and “Value” categories.

The 300M GPUs support GPU-accelerated video and image processing applications built with Microsoft’s new DirectCompute API, as well as older technologies such as DirectX 10, CUDA, PhysX, and PureVideo.

The GeForce GTS 360M and GTS 350M additionally support two-way SLI.

According to the GPU specifications, the most of the GeForce 300M chips have the same or similar 3D graphics performance as their 200M Series counterparts.

What’s New in Firefox 3.6

What makes the all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processors so smart?

SMART TECHNOLOGY

Imagine having a processor smart enough to know when your PC needs a little more juice. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology gives you speed when you need it and delivers energy efficiency when you don’t.

Also available on select models of the all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processor family, Intel® HD Graphics provides superb visual performance for sharper images, richer color, and life-like audio and video.

SMART SPEED

We’re all multitaskers. We edit photos, send email, watch video, sync our iPods*—and we want to do it all at once. Now we can. Intel® Hyper-threading Technology lets your processor work on two tasks at the same time.

SMART INVESTMENT

A new PC today opens more doors tomorrow. The all new Intel® Core™ processors adapt to your needs now and down the road. So you won’t just keep up. You’ll get ahead. 

  
 Intel® Core™ i7 processor Specifications

 Intel® Core™ i5 processor Specifications

 Intel® Core™ i3 processor Specifications

Intel® Core™ Processor Family feature details:

  Processor Number
Processor models vary according to clock frequency, supported memory frequency, cache size, and other supported features. Every year, software developers design programs and applications that demand and utilize more and more of these elements. When you’re shopping for a new computer, we recommend you think about tomorrow’s needs as well as today’s, and choose the best processor you can afford.

Cores/threads
Cores and threads go hand in hand. Multi-core processors are single chips that contain two or more distinct processors or execution cores in the same integrated circuit. Multi-threading allows each core to work on two tasks at once, thereby letting you do more things simultaneously, producing faster, more efficient results. Now your computer can keep up with even your heaviest multitasking.

Clock speed
Just like a stopwatch, clock speed measures how fast a processor performs an activity – which activity depends upon how you plan to use your computer. Clock speed rates are shown in gigahertz (GHz), which means a billion cycles per second.

 Intel® Smart Cache
Cache is a fast storage area where the processor places frequently accessed data. Smart Cache is Intel’s performance-maximized data storage. It allows each processor core to dynamically utilize up to 100% of available cache and obtain data from the cache at higher throughput rates. By keeping more data closer to the processor for fast execution, overall performance is improved. This is of particular benefit when running rich media titles and games, as well as everyday productivity applications.

 Silicon Technology
A nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter. The transistors on Intel’s latest processors are just 32nm wide, while our previous generation processors are built on 45nm and 65nm architectures. This allows transistors to be packed more densely, leak less energy, produce less heat and switch faster, which leads to processors that run faster, use less power, and are more energy-efficient. It also means new features can be squeezed onto processors, so computer makers can focus on things like extending battery life, creating ever-sleeker designs and putting new wireless capabilities into devices. Lastly, it means Intel can keep bringing you better performance at relatively the same or even lower prices over time

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
Available on select models of the all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processor family, Intel® Turbo Boost Technology dynamically redirects power and accelerates performance to match your workload. Previously, unused portions of the chip would be “turned off,” leaving some cores idle. Intel® Turbo Boost Technology reroutes that unused performance to the cores that are active, boosting their performance without wasting power. As a result, you automatically get extra performance whenever you need it, and increased energy efficiency when you don’t.

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology
Available on all new 2010 Intel® Core™ processor family, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology delivers more efficient use of processor resources and improved performance on multithreaded software. This allows you to run demanding desktop applications simultaneously while maintaining
system responsiveness. For example, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology helps multimedia enthusiasts create, edit and encode graphically intensive files while running background applications, such as virus protection software, without compromise to performance.

Mozilla Labs Weave 1.0 RC2 is now released.

What’s changed since Beta 3?

• Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
• Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
• Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
• A few more bug fixes related to changing passwords, mobile bookmarks, etc.

Release Notes

1. Upgrade all your clients to the latest version
   If you are using Weave Sync on multiple computers, you will need to update all of them to the latest version. Weave Sync requires that you use the same version of the addon on all your computers that you want to synchronize data to/from.
2. Hosting Your Own
   If you are hosting your own Weave server, you’ll need to add an apache alias line for the 1.0 URL – your old server will still handle the same API.

More Information
For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

Beta, Download, Firefox, Mozilla, Nokia

What’s New in Firefox 3.5.7

Firefox 3.5.7 fixes the following issues:
- Fixed a common stability issue.
- Fixed a problem with how updates were being presented to users.

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. You may also be interested in the Firefox 3.5.6 release notes for a list of changes in the previous version.

• Get Firefox 3.5.7

  3.5.7, English (US), Windows (7.7MB)

  Download Now – Free

• Get Firefox 3.5.7

  3.5.7, English (US), Linux (9.4MB)

  Download Now – Free

• Get Firefox 3.5.7

  3.5.7, English (US), Mac OS X (17.6MB)

  Download Now – Free

Release Notes – Other Systems and Languages

Intel will use CES in Las Vegas this month to launch its First 32-nm Core i3 and Core i5 processors, as well as new Core i7 chips. These desktop and notebook processors will offer a host of features, including Turbo Boost, Hyper-Threading, Integrated Graphics and On-Chip Memory Controllers.

Intel is preparing to launch a number of new Core processors for desktops and notebooks at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show 2010 in January. At small events here and in San Francisco Dec. 17, Intel officials gave reporters a taste of what the chip maker will launch at the CES, which runs Jan. 7-10, 2010, in Las Vegas.

Intel will release new Core i7 chips, and release the first of its i3 and i5 processors, and i7 dual-core processors, built on the company’s 32-nanometer manufacturing process, though the officials at the New York event declined to say how many new chips would be rolled out.

Intel officials at the San Francisco briefing reportedly said there would be 17 new chips released in January.

The “Arrandale” and “Clarkdale” processors are all shipping now and will begin appearing in new computers in early 2010. Intel has invested more than $7 billion in the United States in 2009 on four factories used to build the 32-nm products.

At the journalist events, Intel also had several systems on display that were powered by the new chips. Several systems were running animated movies and video games, showing off the graphics capabilities of the new chips.

Karen Regis, director of consumer client marketing for Intel’s Consumer PC Group, said the new family of processors will come with a host of features, including Hyper Threading, while the i5 chips will offer Turbo Boost, which enables processing cores to run a little faster when the demand arises.

Intel also will introduce a Turbo Boost application that will enable users to see how the technology is working as they run applications. The application puts an indicator showing core power levels appears on the system‘s screen as a workload runs.

“It let’s [the user] see what Turbo Boost is doing for them in real time,” said Zane Ball, director of desktop platform marketing for Intel’s PC Client Group.

The new chips also will come with Intel HD graphics, a 45-nm graphics chip integrated with the CPU. The current quad-core Core processors, rolled out in the fall, offer discrete graphics capabilities.

Ball said improvements in the integrated graphics will enhance the Core chips’ high-definition video and audio capabilities, as well as 3D performance, Ball said.

Regis said demand for high-end graphics is growing, with consumers not only playing video games on their PCs, but also editing photos, voice and music content.

Ball and Regis also touted the on-chip memory controller, another new feature that has come with Intel’s “Nehalem” architecture, as well as per-core power management, which will shut down power to cores that aren’t being used.

However, there was some information they were declining to release, including chip frequencies and prices. Those will come when Intel makes its announcements Jan. 7 at CES, first at an early-morning press briefing and later during CEO Paul Otellini’s keynote address.

Intel sees a PC market that will be driven by the consumer side more than businesses, with Regis saying that after a flat 2009, the PC market is set to start growing again in 2010, thanks in part to Microsoft’s new Windows 7 Operating System.

“Beginning next year, we’ll see the commercial [sector] recovering,” she said.

Intel will use CES in Las Vegas this month to launch its First 32-nm Core i3 and Core i5 processors, as well as new Core i7 chips. These desktop and notebook processors will offer a host of features, including Turbo Boost, Hyper-Threading, Integrated Graphics and On-Chip Memory Controllers.

Intel is preparing to launch a number of new Core processors for desktops and notebooks at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show 2010 in January. At small events here and in San Francisco Dec. 17, Intel officials gave reporters a taste of what the chip maker will launch at the CES, which runs Jan. 7-10, 2010, in Las Vegas.

Intel will release new Core i7 chips, and release the first of its i3 and i5 processors, and i7 dual-core processors, built on the company’s 32-nanometer manufacturing process, though the officials at the New York event declined to say how many new chips would be rolled out.

Intel officials at the San Francisco briefing reportedly said there would be 17 new chips released in January.

The “Arrandale” and “Clarkdale” processors are all shipping now and will begin appearing in new computers in early 2010. Intel has invested more than $7 billion in the United States in 2009 on four factories used to build the 32-nm products.

At the journalist events, Intel also had several systems on display that were powered by the new chips. Several systems were running animated movies and video games, showing off the graphics capabilities of the new chips.

Karen Regis, director of consumer client marketing for Intel’s Consumer PC Group, said the new family of processors will come with a host of features, including Hyper Threading, while the i5 chips will offer Turbo Boost, which enables processing cores to run a little faster when the demand arises.

Intel also will introduce a Turbo Boost application that will enable users to see how the technology is working as they run applications. The application puts an indicator showing core power levels appears on the system‘s screen as a workload runs.

“It let’s [the user] see what Turbo Boost is doing for them in real time,” said Zane Ball, director of desktop platform marketing for Intel’s PC Client Group.

The new chips also will come with Intel HD graphics, a 45-nm graphics chip integrated with the CPU. The current quad-core Core processors, rolled out in the fall, offer discrete graphics capabilities.

Ball said improvements in the integrated graphics will enhance the Core chips’ high-definition video and audio capabilities, as well as 3D performance, Ball said.

Regis said demand for high-end graphics is growing, with consumers not only playing video games on their PCs, but also editing photos, voice and music content.

Ball and Regis also touted the on-chip memory controller, another new feature that has come with Intel’s “Nehalem” architecture, as well as per-core power management, which will shut down power to cores that aren’t being used.

However, there was some information they were declining to release, including chip frequencies and prices. Those will come when Intel makes its announcements Jan. 7 at CES, first at an early-morning press briefing and later during CEO Paul Otellini’s keynote address.

Intel sees a PC market that will be driven by the consumer side more than businesses, with Regis saying that after a flat 2009, the PC market is set to start growing again in 2010, thanks in part to Microsoft’s new Windows 7 Operating System.

“Beginning next year, we’ll see the commercial [sector] recovering,” she said.

Firefox 3.7 is said to start up 25% faster on Windows and will incorporate Jetpack which is an improved interface for plug-ins that makes them easier to write, install, and upgrade.

Firefox 3.7 is also expected to incorporate the first phase of work on Electrolysis. Electrolysis is designed to improve the stability of the browser by isolating processes into separate components. Plug-ins will also be moved to a process separate from the main browser. By separating components in this way, a problem with a process or plug-in won’t crash the entire browser.

Another key improvement with Firefox 3.7 is called Weave. This plug-in will synchronize bookmarks, passwords, plug-ins, and open tabs across different Firefox windows.?

Happy New Year 2010.

“Happy New Year” in Various Languages:

Scooopy Team Members Resolution for New Year’s 2010:

What’s your 2010’s Resolution?

Struggling to come up with a New Year’s resolution?

Try Monina Velarde’s New Year’s Resolution Generator

Best of luck for 2010.

WordPress 2.9.1 Release Candidate 1 is now available because the recent 2.9 release triggered a bug in certain versions of PHP’s curl extension.  With these versions of curl, scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly.  To fix this problem as well as a handful of other, lesser issues, WordPress Dev Team Members are quickly releasing 2.9.1, the first maintenance release of the 2.9 line.

RC1 contains a few more fixes, bringing the number of fixed tickets up to 23.  If you are already running Beta 1, visit Tools->Upgrade in your blog’s admin to get RC1.  You can also  download the RC1 package and install manually.

Mozilla Labs Weave 1.0 RC is now released.

What’s changed since Beta 3?

• Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
• Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
• Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
• A few more bug fixes related to changing passwords, mobile bookmarks, etc.

Release Notes

1. Upgrade all your clients to the latest version
   If you are using Weave Sync on multiple computers, you will need to update all of them to the latest version. Weave Sync requires that you use the same version of the addon on all your computers that you want to synchronize data to/from.
2. Hosting Your Own
   If you are hosting your own Weave server, you’ll need to add an apache alias line for the 1.0 URL – your old server will still handle the same API.

More Information
For information about previous versions as well as the latest development snapshots, check out the changelog

WordPress 2.9.1 Beta 1 is now available because the recent 2.9 release triggered a bug in certain versions of PHP’s curl extension.  With these versions of curl, scheduled posts and pingbacks are not processed correctly.  To fix this problem as well as a handful of other, lesser issues, WordPress Dev Team Members are quickly releasing 2.9.1, the first maintenance release of the 2.9 line.

The easiest way to test Beta 1 is to install the WordPress Beta Tester plugin, elect to get on the point release development track, and then perform an automatic upgrade via the Tools->Upgrade menu.  You can also download the Beta 1 package and install manually.  Fourteen tickets have been fixed in 2.9.1 Beta 1.  The curl problem and a couple of other problems are dependent on specific hosting configurations.

Opera 10.5 pre-alpha is now available for downloading & testing.

What’s new

Inside

• Carakan

  Carakan is our new JavaScript engine. It’s fast, more than 7x faster in SunSpider than Opera 10.10 with Futhark on Windows (Mac optimization is not as far along). You can read more gritty details regarding register-based bytecode, automatic object classification and native code generation in the Opera Core blog.

  SunSpider Javascript Benchmark (runs per minute)

  

• Presto 2.5

  We are now using Presto 2.5, which contains a huge numbers of improvements. It also includes support for CSS3 transitions and transforms, and more HTML5 features like persistent storage.

• Vega

  Vega is our new graphics library. It’s currently software based and displays everything you see on-screen. Vega can be hardware accelerated, but as you can see from the complex graphics benchmark in Peacekeeper, we don’t seem to need it yet. (Note that Futuremarks Peacekeeper test does no include the results of their complex graphics tests in the overall score. We believe this is wrong in 2009 and will simply be silly if not changed in 2010.)

  Peacekeeper Complex Graphic Benchmarks

Outside

• Platform integration

  • On Windows 7/Vista, you will notice a lot of visual changes and use of APIs which allow the UI to display the Aero Glass effect. For Windows 7, we also added Aero Peek and Jump List support to easily access your Speed Dials, Tabs, etc. from the Taskbar.
  • For Mac, a complete rewrite in Cocoa brings an Unified Toolbar, native buttons and scrollbars, multi-touch gestures (try 3-Finger Swipe Left/Right or Pinch to zoom) and a bunch of other small details. We also added Growl notification support.

• “Private tab” and “Private window”

  You can open a new Private tab or Private window that forgets everything that happened on it once closed.

• Non-modal dialogs

  Dialog boxes (JavaScript alerts, HTTP authentication, etc.) are now non-modal and are displayed as a page overlay. This allows you to switch tabs or windows while the dialog is still displayed. Similarly, the Password Manager dialog is now anchored at the top of the page won’t block any content as it loads a new page.

• Address field and Search field improvements

  Both fields have been upgraded in looks and functionality. They can now remember searches, support removing items from history and show results in a better layout.

Download

To try it out, you can download the latest Labs build here:

• Windows
• Mac OS X (Intel)

Mozilla community released Firefox 3.6 Beta 5, making it available for free download and issuing an automatic update to all Firefox 3.6 beta users. This update contains over 100 fixes from the last Firefox 3.6 beta, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users.

Over 70% of the thousands of Firefox Add-ons have now been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta. If your favorite Add-on isn’t yet compatible, you can also download and install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter – your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!

The Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features for users to evaluate:

• Support for the HTML5 File API
• A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
• The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Web developers and Add-on developers should read more detail about the many new features in Firefox 3.6 for developers on the Mozilla Developer Center. For the full list of changes since the alpha release of Firefox 3.6 see this list (it’s big).

If you already have Firefox 3.6 Beta, you should be automatically updated to the latest version. You can also choose to manually “Check for Updates” from the Help menu.

If you’d like to download Firefox 3.6 Beta, please use the following links or visit the Beta Download Page:

• Windows: Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 Setup.exe
• Mac OS X: Firefox 3.6 Beta 5.dmg
• Linux: firefox-3.6b5.tar.bz2

Connectify Releases Connectify 1.0 for Windows 7

Connectify 1.0 (http://www.connectify.me) is now available.
For downloading Connectify, click here to start the download.

Here is their press release about this release:

Connectify is proud to announce Connectify 1.0 (http://www.connectify.me), a free software application for Windows 7 that turns any Wi-Fi enabled computer into a real wireless access point. With Connectify, users can share any Internet connection: a cable modem, a cellular card, or even another Wi-Fi network with any device that supports Wi-Fi. Connectify has hit a market need: since its beta release on October 27th, Connectify has had over 97,000 downloads, and 26% of Connectify users state they upgraded to Windows 7 specifically to be able to use Connectify.

Consumers can use the software to connect their computers, smart phones, music players, game systems and other devices onto personal Wi-Fi networks, or to extend the range of their home Wi-Fi networks. Because the Connectify software is free to download and use, users can save money on multiple Wi-Fi connections while on the road and still get all their devices online simultaneously. “Everywhere you go, users congregate in groups and have multiple devices including notebook PCs, Wi-Fi enabled handsets and mobile internet devices,” said Alex Gizis, CEO of Connectify. “We simply noticed a tremendous problem: There was no easy way for all of the user’s mobile devices to get and stay online. Connectify is our solution.”

For teams of mobile professionals, Connectify plus file sharing is a mobile office to go. Only the machine sharing the Internet connection needs to be running Connectify. Other Wi-Fi enabled devices can see and join the hotspot just like any other Wi-Fi access point and do not even need to be running Windows.

“MiFi has been a raging success providing a standalone device to enable Wi-Fi access for up to five nearby Wi-Fi enabled systems,” said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D., Chief Analyst for Mobile & Wireless at Frost & Sullivan and Managing Director, Yosemite Ventures. “Now, any new notebook PC can be turned into a Wi-Fi hotspot using free software from Connectify.”

Connectify is available at no charge. The company plans to offer Connectify on a wide range of mobile devices and provide a number of value added services within the software that will be made available for a small fee.

To download Connectify for free now, go to http://www.connectify.me .

ABOUT CONNECTIFY

Connectify is a Philadelphia based company that has developed innovative wireless solutions for the military and (now) the consumer market. The Connectify team is dedicated to bringing real wireless sharing to everyone, saving people money, and improving the cross platform wireless experience.

WordPress 2.9 “Carmen” is named in honor of magical jazz vocalist Carmen McRae.

Here is a short video summarizing some of the cool things about the new WordPress 2.9 version:

The coolest new stuff from a user point of view is:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

WordPress 2.9 provides the smoothest ride yet because of a number of improvements under the hood and more subtle improvements you’ll begin to appreciate once you’ve been around the block a few times. Here’s just a sampling:

• We now have rel=canonical support for better SEO.
• There is automatic database optimization support, which you can enable in your wp-config.php file by adding define('WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true);.
• Themes can register “post thumbnails” which allow them to attach an image to the post, especially useful for magazine-style themes.
• A new commentmeta table that allows arbitrary key/value pairs to be attached to comments, just like posts, so you can now expand greatly what you can do in the comment framework.
• Custom post types have been upgraded with better API support so you can juggle more types than just post, page, and attachment. (More of this planned for 3.0.)
• You can set custom theme directories, so a plugin can register a theme to be bundled with it or you can have multiple shared theme directories on your server.
• We’ve upgraded TinyMCE WYSIWYG editing and Simplepie.
• Sidebars can now have descriptions so it’s more obvious what and where they do what they do.
• Specify category templates not just by ID, like before, but by slug, which will make it easier for theme developers to do custom things with categories — like post types!
• Registration and profiles are now extensible to allow you to collect things more easily, like a user’s Twitter account or any other fields you can imagine.
• The XML-RPC API has been extended to allow changing the user registration option. We fixed some Atom API attachment issues.
• Create custom galleries with the new include and exclude attributes that allow you to pull attachments from any post, not just the current one.
• When you’re editing files in the theme and plugin editors it remembers your location and takes you back to that line after you save. (Thank goodness!!!)
• The Press This bookmarklet has been improved and is faster than ever; give it a try for on-the-fly blogging from wherever you are on the internet.
• Custom taxonomies are now included in the WXR export file and imported correctly.
• Better hooks and filters for excerpts, smilies, HTTP requests, user profiles, author links, taxonomies, SSL support, tag clouds, query_posts and WP_Query

Upgrade to WordPress 2.9 now.

Get a 31% improvement in artificial intelligence for game characters and realistic physics for game worlds. 3DMark* Vantage CPU test covers the two most common CPU-side tasks: physics simulation and artificial intelligence. Measurements compared for the Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor and the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor Q9000.

Unleash leading edge digital media creation with up to 81% faster video encoding. Performance based on Cyberlink PowerDirector 7* test results, comparing Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor to the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor Q9000. Actual performance may vary. See http://www.Intel.com/performance/
desktop/extreme/index.htm for more information.

Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 is the next generation of mobile browsing which runs on almost every phone.

Top new features

Tabbed browsing

Browse several Web sites at the same time, while easily jumping from one to another.

Speed Dial

Get to your favorite Web page with just one click, with a set of visual bookmarks when you open a new tab.

Opera Link

Synchronize your bookmarks and Speed Dial between your mobile phone and desktop computer.

Download manager

Manage downloads right from the browser. Pause and resume downloads to suit your needs.

Feature details

Innovative and easy-to-use

1Living up to our vision of providing the best Internet experience on any device, Opera Mini 5 boasts a powerful new user interface. Merging the best from our desktop browser together with new innovations for mobile phones, Opera Mini is advanced, yet highly intuitive to use.

Faster

Time is precious. Opera Mini compresses pages by up to 90% before being sent to your phone, meaning faster page-load times than in other mobile Web browsers.

Full Web in your palm

2When visiting a Web page, Opera Mini displays the overview of the page and suggests where to begin your reading before you zoom in. Opera Mini also detects when you are on a Web page designed for a mobile phone and displays it optimally.

2

Full Web in your palm

Page zoom

Control default text size on Web sites. Depending on your mobile phone screen size, often text can be too small or too large to be viewed easily. Control the default zoom level from 60% to 200% directly in Opera Mini 5.

Built for speed

The new Opera Mini lets you search for text within a Web page, so you can get to the information you need even more quickly than before.

1

Innovative and easy-to-use

Speed Dial

Get your favorite Web page with just one click. Speed Dial is a set of visual bookmarks you see when you open a new tab, like a dashboard for your online life. To add a new page, simply click an empty dial, and Opera will make suggestions based on your browsing history and bookmarks.

Mobile view

Fit content to your mobile phone. Mobile view intelligently reformats Web pages into a single column eliminating the need for horizontal panning. Changing to Mobile view is accessible though the Settings menu.

Password Manager

4There is no more hassle with those hard-to-enter usernames and passwords. Opera Mini 5 will remember your credentials, and you can log on to your favorite Web sites with just a single click. The passwords are stored on your phone for your convenience.

4

Password Manager

Tabbed browsing

Browse several Web sites at the same time. Check your e-mail in one window, Facebook in another and, Twitter in a third, all while being able to jump easily from one tab to another. With a touchscreen phone, you can enjoy even easier tab switching with visual tabs. On keypad-style phones easily mange desktop-style tabs in the Opera Mini user interface, above the address bar.

Power scrolling

Scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad or by dragging the page on a phone with a touchscreen.

Touch and keypad

3The user interface has been designed for both touchscreen- and keypad-style mobile phones. With a touchscreen, you can enjoy even easier navigation with our new zooming and kinetic scrolling.

3

Touch and keypad

Adaptive zoom

On a touchscreen phone panning has become even easier with adaptive zoom. When panning quickly around a zoomed-in page the panning momentum creates a more intuitive and easier to-navigate experience.

Landscape mode

Browse in the way that is most comfortable to you. Landscape mode allows you to view Opera Mini 5 on your phone in landscape.

Download Opera Mini 5 Beta 2 to your mobile phone

To try Opera Mini 5 beta 2 visit the address m.opera.com/next, using your phone’s default Web browser, or download it to your computer. It is completely free.

Mozilla Labs releases a new experimental beta version of Ubiquity.

Ubiquity is a time-saving Firefox extension that simplifies common web activities by letting you give commands to Firefox. Ubiquity includes about 80 commands for speeding up common web activities (searching, translating, mapping, emailing, etc.), but also provides an API so you can write your own commands using Javascript. You can also share the commands you write, and subscribe to commands shared by other users.

To make it easy for users to run these commands, Ubiquity provides a unique pseudo-natural-language input method: You type what you want to do, and Ubiquity guesses what you mean and suggests the best-matching commands. For instance, you can select some foreign-language text on a web page, hit a hotkey to bring up the Ubiquity interface, and type “translate” (or just type “tr” and let Ubiquity figure out that you mean the translate command); then hit enter to have the selected text replaced, right in the page, with a translation to your language.

Download Ubiquity – Experimental beta version!

Mozilla Labs Weave 1.0 Beta 3 is now released.

What’s changed in Beta 3?

• Numerous fixes to address sync reliability and correctness
• Clarify and clean up interactions and user experience for Firefox and Fennec
• Changes to preferences sync to sync everything (except for machine-specific settings) in the Firefox preferences pane
• Fixes to support screen readers (for accessibility)

For those who are new to the project, check out the main features of Weave and see what we’ve been preparing for these beta releases. To start syncing your data, just install Weave Sync on Firefox 3.5 or newer.

MSI‘s currently running a Holiday Giveway 2009 through MSI’s Facebook Fan Page.

Keep visiting the Facebook page for future chances to win.

AMD’s 40th Anniversary

May 1, 2009, marked AMD’s 40th anniversary.

Formed by Jerry Sanders and seven co-founders in 1969, AMD is a company with a rich and colorful history.

AMD’s 40th anniversary is a testimonial to our longevity, our employees, our customers and our unique business approach. AMD takes great pride in our role of igniting next-generation technology solutions, as well as our ability to see where customer and end-user needs are headed next and then collaborate with the industry accordingly. These values are captured in our Fusion business approach: a unique combination of integration, intimacy and impact.

Watch Video on YouTube – AMD’s 40th Anniversary

We get quite a few questions about the difference between Opera Mobile 10 and Opera Mini 5. This post will attempt to clarify.

NB! Unless you have a Windows Mobile or Symbian/S60 phone, Opera Mobile is not available for you to download to your phone. Enjoy Opera Mini!

First, here is what they have in common:

• Both are based on the same core technology, the Opera Presto browser engine (just like Opera for desktop).
• Both use the same cross-platform user interface, providing similar features and browsing experience.

And the difference:

• In Opera Mini, the Opera Presto browser engine is located on a server. In Opera Mobile, it is installed on your phone.

When you enter a Web address in Opera Mobile, the Web page is fetched directly from the Web server to your phone. However, the Opera Mini client sends a request to the Opera Mini server, which downloads the page from the Internet. The server then transcodes the page before it is forwarded to the client in a lightweight mark-up language designed specifically for this purpose.

The advantage is that the Opera Mini client can be much smaller and work on more basic phones than the full Opera Mobile browser.

On the other hand, Opera Mini depends on a server while Opera Mobile does not. (Opera Turbo is an optional service for Opera Mobile that compresses Web pages and makes it cheaper to browse, but it is not required).

In practical terms, here is what that means for you:

• Opera Mobile will render Web pages just like a desktop browser. In Opera Mini, there may be slight differences, and very complex Web pages may not work optimally.
• Opera Mini will generally be faster. It downloads less content and requires less CPU to render pages.
• Opera Mini works on almost any phone. Opera Mobile is only available for Windows Mobile and Symbian/S60 phones.

Which product is best for you depends on your personal preferences and the sites you browse. Many advanced users will have both browsers installed and alternate depending on the situation. For example, they will use Opera Mobile when on Wi-Fi, Opera Mini when on a cellular network.

Another reason why Opera Software has both products in the portfolio is that many of our operator and handset manufacturer customers have very specific requirements. The differences between the products may be extremely important to them. For example, Opera Mobile is generally preferred by handset manufacturers for preinstallation on mobile phones.

One of the claims of Windows 7 is making your everyday tasks easier.  One of the areas that Microsoft has made much simpler to use is the backup feature in the OS itself.

For anyone who has ever lost data due a hard drive or computer crash and did not have a backup system in place, I am one of these folks myself, then you know how important that backup process is. Especially if it was your significant others computer and it resulted in the loss of irreplaceable files. Again, I am raising my hand right here!

Today I use Windows Home Server to back up my home computers and it takes care of business.  However, not everyone has a Windows Home Server and may be looking for a different method of backing up those critical files on your home PC’s.

One way included in Windows 7 is the Backup Applet in the Control Panel. There are two types of backups available to you. The first is your file by file back up process which you can set to incrementally back up your system each day, week, month etc.

The second one is what I am going to cover today and that is creating a System Image of your Windows 7 installation that can be restored in case of a catastrophic failure of your hard drive which has Windows installed on it.

The process is quite simple, only has a few steps and takes about 30 minutes or so. I base that 30 minutes on my system which backed up 69GB to my extra internal hard drive. Your mileage will vary based on the size of your installation and whether you back up to hard drive or DVD (lots of DVD’s). I recommend an external or spare internal hard drive.

So to get started you need to bring up the backup/restore applet in the control panel which is located at Control Panel>System and Security>Backup and Restore. Easy way to get there is via the Start Menu search bar and just type in Backup.

Select the Create System Image link.

Select the media you want to store your back up on.

Once selected it summarizes what will be backed up. Start the back up.

System Image in the process of being created.

Once the image is created you will be prompted to create a system repair disc that will allow you to restore your system image as well as a few other things top repair your system.

Select the drive to use for creating your repair disc. Notice no hard drive options – that is on purpose.

System repair disc being created.

Final dialog showing the disc is created. Label it and store it in a safe place and hope you never have to pull it out

There ya go – just a handful of steps to have a solid system image of your computer in case of a system crash.  I think this process in combination with a daily file based back up will keep your data safe.

While Dell was busy working on getting 19 hours of battery life, HP were putting the finishing touches on getting up to 24 hours. The HP EliteBook 6930p with Intel^® Core^™2 Duo processor and Ultra Capacity Battery² outlasts the Dell Latitude E6400 by up to five hours.

Now get up to 24 hours of total battery life – only from HP!

Nobody wants to work all day and all night, but if you need to you can – but only with HP. With no need to access a power outlet. And in these tough economic times, being ultra productive is critical.
Here’s what you need and how you get it

Our new HP EliteBook 6930p notebook PC provides up to 24 hours of combined battery life. This solution will require a specific configuration including an 80 GB Solid State drive, an LED display and our Ultra Capacity Battery. So if you travel across the globe, or spend large chunks of time away from a power source, look to HP to keep you up, running and productive.

HP EliteBook – A tough notebook for tough times

Up to 24 hours of battery life is only available on our HP EliteBook 6930p notebook. This notebook is an excellent choice for mobile professionals needing a business-rugged notebook that will provide years of service and is a great “bang for your buck” in these challenging times.
HP offers choice:

Even if you don’t need up to 24 hours battery life, HP has many other options with impressive battery life, to suit your needs and budget.

Battery Run Times

HP Batteries – safer and more reliable, with the latest technology

When you’re considering batteries, you’re worried about more than just how long they last. You want to be assured that you, your home and your business are all highly secure from battery-related dangers.

HP was the only top notebook manufacturer in 2006 and 2007 to not have a battery recall, when other manufacturers experienced major safety issues and recalls. HP’s emphasis on reliability and innovation results in a much higher degree of safety.

HP Batteries meet the highest safety standards

HP batteries are designed to help prevent problems before they happen. HP notebook PC systems are designed to always be one step ahead of the game so that you don’t have to worry.
Minimize heat: HP notebook PCs are designed to minimize heat within the system. Each HP notebook thermal solution is designed to maintain the entire battery pack at a safe operating temperature and create a consistent temperature gradient across the pack.

Power management: The power load on the system is managed so that, in the unlikely event that battery over-heating was detected, the system would initially be throttled. If the over-heating were to continue, the system would be shut down. In the event of insufficient power to run the system, a controlled shutdown would occur to avoid the risk of data loss.

Diagnostic tools: HP Info Center provides a battery diagnostic utility that can verify battery functionality and health.

Minimize risk: HP battery charging technologies are designed to minimize risk by providing higher performance while meeting applicable battery cell manufacturer recommendations.
Here are a few of the ever-evolving safety measures included in HP batteries:
Flame-retardant plastics (rated V-0 by Underwriters Laboratories) exceed industry requirements.

Flexible circuit interconnects help prevent latent failures by eliminating discrete wires that could be pinched during assembly.

A barrier wall helps prevent short circuits and safety hazards by ensuring that, in the event an aging battery leaks, the battery fluid does not reach the circuit board.

A thin conformal coating on the printed circuit board (PCB) protects key components from contaminants that might be introduced during the assembly process.

Battery designs are continually improved and updated to take advantage of the latest industry developments.

HP Batteries offer enhanced battery life and quick recharge

HP batteries stand out for their long battery life as well as the HP Fast Charge and HP Enhanced Fast Charge^® technologies that efficiently yet safely charge HP notebook PC batteries. These technologies offer:

Charge rates that comply with Lithium-ion battery cell manufacturer recommendations.

Proven, standards-based algorithms to control battery voltage and charging current.

Redundant safety mechanisms in both the battery pack and the notebook PC to help prevent over-charging.

HP Batteries undergo exhaustive testing

HP batteries go through an incredibly rigorous set of testing, including:

Fuel gauge accuracy and functionality testing for voltage, current, temperature, capacity, communications and status.

Protection circuit functionality testing for over-voltage, under-voltage, over-current, over-temperature, short circuit.

Environmental testing for ElectoStatic Discharge (ESD) protection, drops, shock and vibration.

System integration testing for charging functionality, battery thermals, Inrush current tolerance, critical hibernation and non-operational thermal shock.

HP Batteries are designed for compact, comfortable use

HP secondary batteries are designed to not interfere with an optical drive bay. Instead, they connect underneath the system, providing for positive comfort and expanded usability.

Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

Battery life will vary depending on the product model, configuration, loaded applications, features, and power management settings. The maximum capacity of the battery will decrease with time and usage.

Up to 24 hours of battery life requires separately purchased Ultra Capacity Battery and customer download of the latest Intel graphics driver and HP BIOS. Notebook must be configured with optional Intel 80GB SSD drive and HP Illumi-Lite LED Display and requires XP operating system.

Windows Vista Business disk also included for future upgrade if desired. To qualify for this downgrade an end user must be a business (including governmental or educational institutions) and is expected to order at least 25 customer systems with the same custom image.

2533t and 2530p run times are based on 3 cell, 6 cell, and 9 cell batteries; 2530p run time is without the optical drive; 2133 run times are based on 3 cell and 6 cell batteries

This system may require upgraded and/or separately purchased hardware and/or a DVD drive to install the Windows 7 software and take full advantage of Windows 7 functionality. See http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/ for details.

It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.

To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.

Facebook’s current privacy model revolves around “networks” — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.

However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.

Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.

Few years ago a little-known feature called Virtual Wi-Fi was crafted by Microsoft‘s research group as a way to “virtualize” one wireless card as several separate adapters in Windows. The project was discontinued in 2006, but some of the code apparently made its way into Windows 7, and now at least one company is taking advantage of it with a new application that can turn any laptop into a wireless access point.

Developed by military consulting firm Nomadio, Connectify lets a laptop “tether” other wireless devices to a single internet connection by effectively turning it into a software-based wireless router. Windows 7 is required on the notebook acting as a wireless hotspot, but any wireless-equipped device, including handhelds and other notebooks running whatever operating system can jump online without any additional software. The program even encrypts traffic to and from the software hotspot using WPA2-Personal (AES) encryption.

While the Connectify beta is free to download, Nomadio expects to charge users once the complete version is released in about six weeks. A free, ad-supported version might also be released down the road.

Back in February 2009, Brandon Paddock and Alwin Vyhmeister authored the Windows 7 Federated Search Provider Implementer’s Guide and described federated search as follows:

Federated search enables users to search remote data sources from within Windows Explorer. Remote data sources make themselves searchable with a simple web front end that exposes their search capabilities.

Windows® 7 introduces support for search federation to remote data stores using OpenSearch technologies that enable users to access and interact with their remote data from within Windows Explorer.

Imagine being able to open Windows Explorer on your PC and search popular sites directly from there. Instead of opening a browser window, going to a site, finding the search box, entering your search words and getting your results you would just open Windows Explorer and search right there using the search connector for that site.

What are the benefits of this method compared to the normal search methods? We will let Brandon and Alwin answer that:

The benefit of integrating your data source with Windows Explorer is that users can get at all of their information by using the already familiar Windows Explorer user interface. Your users will be able to see files from your remote data source just as they would local files, with the right application icons and context menus. They can preview documents or web pages, see thumbnails of images, and drag and drop a file directly to the desktop or into an email.

We are not sure about you but that sounds pretty handy to us.

We did some digging online and found several search connectors that are already built – all you have to do is install them on your Windows 7 system and you will have access to them in your Searches folder in Windows Explorer.

• Flickr Search Connector
• YouTube Search Connector
• Google News Search Connector
• Google Blogs Search Connector
• Twitter Search Connector
• MSN Search
• Deviant Art Search

Jamie Wells of MSFT just made a blog post about Microsoft’s Marketplaces for Mobile.

Here is the brief of that post:

Earlier in the month we rolled out “Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces,” a new mobile ad product that illustrates the performance advantage gained by combining the power of mobile search and display.

We launched the Marketplace to a select group of advertisers during the critical holiday shopping season, when consumers often are on the go and pressed for time. So far, we’ve launched Marketplaces for Ringtones, and additional Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces are already in the works, including Holiday Shopping, Mobile Games and Wallpapers slated for release in the coming days.

Here’s how Marketplaces work: A user browsing a Microsoft mobile media property, such as Mobile MSN, Hotmail, Messenger, CNBC or FOX Sports, is presented with a display ad promoting a specific consumer product vertical, such as “Last Minute Holiday Deals” or “Hot Ringtones.” When the user clicks on a mobile display banner they are then re-directed to a mobile landing page that contains a list of sponsored links from Bing for Mobile that are based on the specific theme or set of keywords associated with that Marketplace.

In effect, the Mobile Marketplace acts as a transformational mobile ad product, converting a generally reactive medium like mobile display into a more intent-based mobile search product. Benefits to the advertiser are many, but two of note are cost savings and ease of implementation.  Advertisers are able to increase their ROI by extending their mobile search campaign across key Microsoft Mobile display properties, and it’s simple to implement – advertisers can participate in the Marketplace simply by setting up a typical Bing for Mobile ad campaign and bidding on just one keyword.

The early results are in and we’re off to a great start. Average Marketplace campaign click-through rates (CTR) are currently running in excess of 20 percent, which is over five times more than the average CTR for a mobile search campaign.

Stay tuned as we launch additional Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces over the next few months.  In the meantime, please contact our Mobile Sales Specialists at mobads@microsoft.com if you are interested in participating.  Also, leave a comment below if you have any thoughts on specific Mobile Marketplaces you’d like to see brought to life, or if you have any additional thoughts you’d like to share on this new product. ]]> http://scooopy.com/microsoft-rolls-out-marketplaces-for-mobiles/feed/ 1 http://scooopy.com/opera-mobile-10-beta-released-for-windows-mobile-phones/ http://scooopy.com/opera-mobile-10-beta-released-for-windows-mobile-phones/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:32:02 +0000 Scooopy http://scooopy.com/?p=54

Nokia owners just got a load of win delivered with the release of Opera Mobile 10 beta. Opera Mobile’s facelift hits harder than office linebacker Terry Tate – Yes, the beta actually merges the best from your favorite desktop experience into a traditional sleek minimal Mobile interface!

Read more and get to know all the techy details on opera’s mobile pages. If you don’t care about that, simply download for your Nokia, Samsung or Sony Ericsson S60 device.

Nokia is entering the personal computer market with a small netbook computer, the Booklet 3G, which has specifications much like a cellphone: 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and a headphone and microphone combined on one jack. It’s also got a price that gets a lot better if you sign up for a two-year contract for wireless data on AT&T $299. (It costs $599 without the $60-a-month commitment.)

The Booklet, which will be on sale exclusively at Best Buy starting in mid-November, runs Windows 7. And like Apple’s MacBooks, it is cut out of a single piece of aluminum.

The most intriguing feature, however, is not common on laptops or cellphones: 12-hour battery life.

Nokia is trying to carve out a premium segment in the netbook market, which has largely seen a race to the bottom in prices. Best Buy’s current assortment ranges from $250 to $500 for netbooks without a wireless contract and subsidy. AT&T offers three netbook models with a contract for $200 each.

AT&T’s best seller, the Acer Aspire, claims only three hours of battery life.

One way that Nokia was able to extend the battery life was to use the slowest of Intel’s Atom processors. That raises the risk that the Booklet, like other Atom-based devices, will be sluggish to use.

Nokia is clear that you wouldn’t want to use the machine to play intensive video games or to do bridge engineering. But when I played with one at Nokia’s press conference in New York Wednesday, it seemed fast enough rendering complex Web pages and displaying YouTube videos.

At the event, Glenn Lurie, the president of AT&T’s emerging device unit, said he understood that a $60-a-month data plan put the device out of the range of many potential consumers. He said that AT&T would introduce other data plans with lower prices before the end of the year, possibly including prepaid plans and those that charge users only for the days they are actually online.

Source: Nokia, NYTimes

Similarly, netbooks may look like notebooks, but - as we’ve previously pointed out – they’re not the same.

NPD released a survey last week finding that 60% of consumers who purchased a netbook thought it would have the same performance as a notebook. Additionally, out of the 18-24 year old demographic – a major segment for netbooks – an astounding 65% said they bought their netbooks expecting better performance.

It’s no wonder that some netbook resellers saw a 30% return rate, as reported by Brooke Crothers at CNET.

Clearly, there is confusion in the market over the functionality of a netbook. And I don’t blame the consumer.

So what do we do? BusinessWeek’s Olga Kharif wrote a call to action for PC makers and retailers to better explain the difference in netbooks’ and notebooks’ capabilities. Speaking from personal experience, she writes, “I loved using [my netbook] to quickly check Hotmail or to watch a video off of YouTube. But try multitasking, such as downloading a photo or a document while streaming a video off of YouTube, and their performance falls off the cliff. Consumers need to be made aware of this before they make their purchases.”

In some cases, consumers may even encounter problems during normal Web surfing. Many Websites now have video or flash right on their homepage. If you’re a parent buying a netbook for your kid, try loading Disney.com.

As with battery life, we think the PC industry has a role in helping consumers make educated decisions. In fact, Best Buy calls out on their Website that, “Netbooks may look like laptops, but they don’t have the full capabilities of a computer.”

What I also find interesting about the NPD survey is that the percentage of consumers who bought a netbook expecting the performance of a notebook closely parallels the percentage of netbooks that never leave the home (60% according to NPD). To me, this signifies that there is an opportunity in the market for a higher-performance product that is inexpensive and lightweight, satisfying consumers’ desire for a small, powerful machine while not disappointing on performance.

Of course, AMD’s response is the“ultrathin” category. If you’re looking for a lightweight, sleek laptop that is still powerful enough to handle your day to day activities, we recommend you check out the HP Pavilion dv2, powered by the AMD Athlon™ Neo processor for ultrathin notebooks.

Source: Blogs, AMD

I can assure you that no devious plot exists to mislead you. It really comes down to three simple factors.

#1: Measurements are best case: Like a car’s “highway miles per gallon” which gauges the best case (cruising at a sustained speed for an extended period without stop-and-go driving), notebook battery life is typically based on MobileMark® 2007. This benchmark primarily measures battery life while the notebook is doing nothing – not even wirelessly connecting to the Internet. A “city-driving” equivalent of notebook battery life doesn’t exist…yet.

#2: Different strokes for different folks: Notebook users are different; we all use notebooks differently, and therefore will see different battery durations.  Some watch HD web videos on YouTube, some may just do email, and some play more games than others. ALL which will mean varying battery life.  You can see this data from AMD here that shows the phenomenon.  This even shows that battery life under system use can even vary by component manufacturer.

#3: Battery life varies over time: The longer you own your notebook, use it, charge, and recharge, over and over again, the more the battery loses its effectiveness.  So theoretically, your longest battery life will be on the first day you crack open the packaging.  See all the people selling new batteries for old notebooks?  Some even say, battery life is variable with heat.

So what should a consumer like you do?

• Grade battery life on a “curve”, let’s say 60%. If the label says 10 hours, my guess is it’s probably only about 6 hours in real use.  (UPDATE: this isn’t always linear, so be very careful with this.)
• Ask your retailer and systems providers to provide the “city miles per gallon” or using the tried and tested cellphone analogy, “talk-time”. They all have web sites and when all else fails, you can ask them over Twitter.

I may have not added back 40% of your battery life, but hopefully you know why you only get 60% of it!

Sources: AMD, Blogs

The Good

There’s a lot I like about Chrome OS because it sound different enough and radical enough to maybe get people thinking a little differently about what an OS is and how it relates, how to secure it, how it interacts with the hardware and how the user interacts with the it. Certainly the way that Google plans to make Chrome OS speedier and more secure shows that there’s been a lot of out of the box thinking going on.

Note: What was interesting at yesterday’s announcement was that during the Q&A session at the end how many of the tech press questions and comments seemed to want to drag the project back from being radical and make it into what we already have,

For example, take changes to the boot sequence …

… verified boot …

… and how easy it is to re-image the OS following malware or corruption …

There’s also tight integration with Google’s massive array of online apps. Now, depending on how you view Google this can either be a good thing or a very bad thing. However, it’s hard to deny that a machine where all your data and settings are synced to the cloud for both storage and security is a very interesting way to mitigate data and system loss disasters. The idea that your data isn’t tied to a particular system is interesting, and the idea that all local data is encrypted is also very interesting.

I also like the fact that Google has made the project truly open source and is allowing outside developer involvement. Actually, I think it’s been done at exactly the right time too – some of the framework has been put in place, but now the project can evolve. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.

Here are some important things you need to know about the Google Chrome OS:

1. It’s not Available Yet Today Google launched only the open source development project. This means developers and third-party partners (including hardware manufacturers) can download, compile, and install the code. Most importantly, they can change and enhance it. All those changes could pour back into what will become the first shipping product late next year. The rest of us will have to wait until then.
2. Every Application in Google Chrome OS is a Web Application This means there are literally no desktop apps. Google execs reiterated this point by adding, “third party apps will work as long as they’re Web applications.” This fact could—and maybe should—scare you. All the application CDs you currently have sitting on shelves are useless with the Chrome OS. If you have a favorite drawing or scrapbooking application, you might as well throw it out if you plan on devoting your life to the Chrome OS.On the other hand, it’s likely that you’ve started using more and more cloud-based applications to get work done. One thing that’s not clear here is whether or not Google’s own Picasa photo management app will work. You download and install the client on your desktop and are not usually doing all of your work in the clouds. Your photos are stored locally, too. In the Google Chrome OS world, you store them with Google or another service like Yahoo’s Flickr.
3. Google Chrome Browser is Part of the OS Foundation If you like Google’s upstart browser, you may love the Chrome OS. They look almost exactly the same, though Chrome OS does add a number of important, operating system-like features.
4. Google Chrome OS will Offer Easy Access to Apps A Web browser lets you add shortcuts to Websites on the toolbar, but it isn’t particularly good at giving instant access to applications. Google Chrome OS tries to address this by adding a “Tabs” feature. These are persistent tabs that keep your favorite Apps a click away.
5. Panels Are Persistent Browsers aren’t persistent, but Google Chrome OS is not a browser. It’s an operating system and, as such, can handle multiple tasks at once. One way Google Chrome OS will do this is with Panels. These will allow you to play music in the background, play video, and interact with external storage media.
6. Google Chrome OS Will Always be Up-to Date Microsoft always recommends you turn on Windows Update, but not everyone does it. In the Google Chrome OS, there is no choice. If you’re currently running the Google Chrome Browser, this shouldn’t surprise you. It always polls for new versions and updates on its own, as well.
7. Google Chrome OS will Repair Itself Google said its primary goals for the Chrome OS are speed, simplicity, and security. To achieve that last part, the Chrome OS will do something never seen before in a desktop operating system: it will, if it needs to, re-image itself. If the OS detects a malware infection or even just a bad bit, it will get an updated version of the OS from the cloud and reinstall it. Thankfully, this will not blow away your data and settings, because they’re all stored in the cloud.
8. Your Data is in the Cloud Google Chrome OS will not store any of your data locally. As long as you’re online, it will constantly cache your data and settings in the cloud. All of that information is, by default, encrypted. There is a benefit here. If your computer is stolen, or even if you want to upgrade, you don’t have to backup or migrate a thing. You’ll have it all as soon as you sync up your new computer. The concern, obviously, is what happens when you don’t have online access–cross-country flight, anyone? [See item 11]
9. There is No Hard Drive Google Chrome OS will not run on spinning hard drives. Google execs said they’re working with OEMS to create the ultimate reference design for Google Chrome OS machines. Part of that is flash or solid state media. A key benefit—speed. During Google’s demonstration of early code, the company showed a machine booting to login in seven seconds and launching an app in an additional three seconds.
10. Google Chrome will not Run on Just any PC Sorry, but if you were planning on converting all your existing systems to the Google Chrome OS, you’re out of luck. As noted in point nine, Google is targeting a very specific kind of computer. In fact, even though Google expressed great love for all the world’s netbooks—those that have helped drive people toward a more light-weight operating system—they have concerns about the current crop of small, affordable laptops. Google execs said they want to see netbooks with 100 percent keyboards and larger screens. They said they also want to focus on 802.11n connectivity. Google does believe that its operating system will eventually run on more powerful desktops and laptops, but not in 2010.
11. Google Chrome OS Will Work Offline—Sort of Google is serious when it says it intends the operating system to be used in a connected environment. Still, at today’s event, they did make some vague promises about “exposing offline capabilities” and supporting some offline storage. They also talked about the ability to play offline media and games.

There’s more, like the fact that whatever you see now probably doesn’t represent what the shipping product will look like in 2010, and the fact that Google doesn’t seem to have a hardware driver plan (though they did promise that Google Chrome OS will print). But these are the early days. I expect we’ll learn a dozen or more key points when we finally download and compile the code in PC Labs. We gotta say, we’re looking forward to it.

Matt just announced about the winning of WordPress’s 2009 Open Source CMS Award.

Here is the content of his blog post:

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta along with Office Web Applications are now available for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.

TechNet Plus and MSDN subscribers can now download and evaluate Office 2010 Beta.

Public download for Office 2010 Beta will be available on November 18th 2009.

The most significant change in this Beta Build from the Technical Preview is the new installation procedure for test versions of Office 2010 SKUs, Upload Center, modified version of Backstage view and new refreshed icons for all Office products.

Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Office 2010 Beta are now available for download for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers.

Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from MSDN
Download Microsoft Office 2010 Beta from TechNet Plus

Scooopy – Scoops about Gadget, Mobile & Technology

Scooopy Team Members will try to bring all the latest news & stories about Gadget, Mobile & Technology.

Keep visiting us regularly to be up to date with all the latest Gadget, Mobile & Technology Scooops.

Thanks for visiting us regularly,
Scooopy Team Members