Virtualisation hypervisor: The commercial version of the open source Xen virtualisation product, XenServer is what’s referred to as a hypervisor. That means it can be installed and run directly on bare hardware instead of being loaded as an…
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third-person Jedi combat: Movies and computer games have always had a close tie, but only a handful of games have lived up to more than half the promise of the film originals. The Star Wars franchise in particular has…
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Sorry folks, no WordPress article this week.
We’ve had a death in the family, so we’re trying to get ready for some last-minute, unexpected travel.
In marketing materials for its new $150 in-ear headphones, Monster headlines its package with the question, “The world’s best-sounding earphones?” I’m not sure if we should take this as a declaration or an actual question, but so far the answer from Amazon reviewers and some blogs is a …
Looks like the Midwest isn’t the only thing that’s freezing up this holiday season: many people are reporting that their 30GB Zunes are spontaneously going on the fritz as well.
Microsoft's Zune MP3 player.
(Credit: Microsoft)
The symptom is being reported widely on discussion boards about Microsoft’s music player, including Zune.net, Zune User Community Forums, and ZuneScene. With the problem, people’s Zunes reboot but freeze when the startup status bar reaches 100 percent.
Some users reported the problem happened at exactly midnight PST, at the very beginning of the last day of the year. That timing led some wags to call the problem Z2K after the Y2K problem that was widely feared to cripple the computing industry when computer clocks moved from 1999 to 2000.
“It reset itself. I don’t know why,” said one owner who posted an account of his Zune problem on YouTube after reporting it on the Zune.net forum.
Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning, but issued a statement later in the day (see below).
“I hate to say it but I believe this is the end of the road for the Zune and I. Just as I was happy with the last update and things were fine, we get another major meltdown. I was always supportive and had good things to say about my Zune to those that would ask, however this is the nail in the coffin,” griped user Redinight on a ZuneScene discussion board. “I can’t take it anymore. I can’t sit here all the time and wonder what Microsoft does right or wrong anymore, I just want to get up and go listen to my music. Listening to music is about the last thing I do with my Zune. I always have to reinstall, download new firmware, or wait for the slow software to catch up. Now this? I want to throw it away and never look back.”
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Originally posted at News - Microsoft
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds Is a quad core processor, built in digitizer, and color calibrator not enough innovation for you? Lenovo also crams in a slide out second display into this behemoth workstation. 5449
BenQ Joybook Lite U101 The Joybook Lite has a compact and unique chassis, but this netbook’s battery life and keyboard don’t stand up to its peers. 550
Could we soon be seeing a beefed-up iPod with a bigger screen?
(Credit: Apple)
Apple is expected to release an iPod Touch device with a 7- to 9-inch screen in the fall of 2009, according to a report on TechCrunch that cites three independent sources.
One of TechCrunch’s sources
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Originally posted at News - Apple
It’s not Wal-Mart who’s going to bring you a $99 8GB iPhone but it’s AT&T. And it’s not a 4GB version but an 8GB version that AT&T is going to sell for $99. How’s that possible you ask? Those 8GB iPhone 3G are refurbished ones. They will come with a 2-year contract and the $100 discount I’ve just told you about.
And in case your mind keeps wondering about refurbished 16GB iPhones then you’ll be happy to know AT&T will offer you the same $100 discount for them. A $16GB iPhone 3G with a 2-year contract will sell for $199. Just make sure you check the iPhone you’re going to choose! You wouldn’t want it damaged in any way!
via AT&T
We weren’t expecting this to happen, especially after Christmas but it looks like Microsoft, Apple and Google will be sued by a little company from Michigan called Cygnus Systems. Why? Cygnus Systems holds on to patent US 7,346,850 called “System and method for iconic software environment management.” The abstract of the patent describes “a method and system for storing, navigating, and accessing files within an operating system through the use of a graphical thumbnail representing the video display of the active document within the active application.”
This patent which happens to describes features which are similar to Windows Explorer or Apple Finder was awarded to Cygnus in March 2008 despite being filed in 2001.
In other words, Cygnus’ patent describes features similar to those of Windows Explorer and Apple’s Finder. Will Microsoft, Google and Apple pay the price for their icons system? Probably they will. I don’t want to imagine the alternative.
via ArsTechnica
