Windows 7 RC Self-Destructs
Just in case any of you are still using the free release candidate (RC) version of the operating system, you will start noticing strange goings-in. The trial period has now ended and it begins with warning pop-ups, and unannounced twice-hourly shutdowns; anything you are working on will not be saved. This will continue until June 1st when it goes into ‘non-genuine’ mode, at which point a permanent warning notice appears on the screen, the wallpaper disappears and it will no longer be possible to download updates. Be warned, there are a number of fixes on the Internet that claim to be able to fix Windows 7 Release Candidate’s suicidal tendency but as far as I’m aware none of them work properly and some of them contain viruses or malware.
Lookin Good
LooKInMyPC won’t fix your PC the next time it throws a wobbly, but it might make it easier for you, or someone who knows their way around computers, to track down the fault. When called into action it produces a detailed system profile and diagnostic report about all of the hardware, running services, drivers, updates, startup programs, networks, Internet connections, event logs and a zillion other things about your PC that could prove useful. Save the report when the PC is behaving itself and if things do go awry and help isn’t at hand you can email the report to a knowledgeable friend or tech. You don’t even have to install it on your PC after you’ve downloaded the program you get the option to install it on your hard drive, or on a removable drive or UDB memory stick. Hopefully you’ll never need it (some hope…) but if you do, it’s ready to help.
Microsoft Plus Yahoo vs. Google, So It Begins
The Microsoft and Yahoo marriage has been blessed by antitrust regulators both in Europe and over the pond, giving the two companies green light to implement their anti-Google search alliance. On the morning of February 18th, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Antitrust Commission have wrapped up their reviews of the Microsoft-Yahoo search agreement. With the alliance between the two giants cleared without restrictions, the duo will now move to implement the deal.
“Although we are just at the beginning of this process, we have reached an exciting milestone,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. “I believe that together, Microsoft and Yahoo! will promote more choice, better value and greater innovation to our customers as well as to advertisers and publishers.”
Microsoft claims that the search agreement was announced in late July 2009, but the company has been flirting publicly with Yahoo for a total of over two years, but there’s no way of telling just how much time had Ballmer actually spent on this deal ahead of the start of 2008. The debut of February 2008, brought with it an unsolicited offer of $44.6 billion from Microsoft, which at the time was trying to acquire Yahoo. Making sure that the deal fell through was Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, then occupying the position of CEO. Read more
Firefox Erodes IE to New Low
The open-source browser from Mozilla has managed to grab a share of the market representing no less than half of the Microsoft proprietary browser, according to StatCounter data. Essentially, the market measuring firm indicates that Internet Explorer’s share has dropped to under 60% while Firefox has grown continually to its detriment and is up to 30%. The statistics made public are valid for users worldwide. The situation is much worse in the US for IE and Microsoft, StatCounter explains.
In the US alone, IE dropped from 56 .18% in June 2009 to just 54.77% in July. This while Firefox jumped from 31.5% to 32.34% in the same period of time. Safari is the bronze winner in the browser race with 7.59% while Chrome accounts for 3% and Opera for 0.72% in July. But the growth of Safari, Chrome and Opera pales in comparison to that of Firefox. Read more
Zune HD Goes Against iPod Touch
Microsoft is planning to release an alternative to Apple’s iPod Touch devices in the fall of 2009 under the Zune brand umbrella. At least for 2009, the Redmond company will continue to sell the now traditional versions of its digital music player along with the new device, but it indicated that moving forward the evolution of Zune would be synonymous with Zune HD. The Zune HD portable media player would be made available exclusively in the US this fall, Microsoft revealed.
“The Zune music player is an integral part of the overall Zune experience, and we’re proud to be growing and extending our offering beyond the device,” revealed Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the Microsoft TV, Video and Music Business Group. “Delivering on Microsoft’s connected entertainment vision, this news marks a turning point for Zune as it brings cross-platform experiences and premium video content to living rooms around the world.” Read more
How to update the firmware of your Nokia mobile phone?
Got a Nokia mobile phone? It’s important that you update the mobile phone’s firmware once in a while. Firmware is actually the software that keeps things on your Nokia mobile phone running.
There are a lot of benefits of upgrading your phone’s firmware. You may get functional enhancements, bug fixes etc. Some issues that you might be having with your phone can be solved with a firmware upgrade.
Updating Nokia Mobile Phone Firmware:
Updating the firmware on the Nokia phone is very easy, we only need 3 things, the internet connection, Nokia PC Suite and Nokia Software Updater. There are steps that you can do to update the firmware on your Nokia phone. Read more
Rapidshare Auto Downloader
Rapidshare Auto Downloader is a handy free tool which lets you download multiple files from specially from rapidshare.com download links.
It acts like a auto downloader for free users to download more than one files from rapidshare in one go, moreover it will keep downloading the incomplete downloads until all the links are downloaded which makes its best suitable free rapidshare downloader specially for free users.
See Also: Automatic RapidShare Downloader For Free Users
You don’t have to to anything to download any file from rapidshare.com other than adding the rapidshare link to the Rapidshare Auto Downloader, it will automatically download all the files queued for you one by one. Read more
Google to Allow Free Music Downloads in China
On Monday, Google Inc. has announced that it has begun offering free and legal downloads of licensed music on its Chinese servers, after the American company reached an agreement with the four largest music producers and distributors in the world – Sony Music, Warner Music, EMI and Universal Music. Google will pay for the songs by sharing some of its advertising revenues with the music companies, one of the first attempts made by the music industry to cash in on the large Chinese market.
In China, the most popular search engine is not the leader of the market, but trails behind giant Baidu.com Inc., which has the most visitors and registered searches per day. The President of Google for greater China, Lee Kai-Fu, said that one of the main reasons why the company lagged behind Baidu was the fact that Google offered no music downloads. “We are offering free, high quality and legal downloads. We were missing one piece – we didn’t have music,” Lee stated. Read more
Free Microsoft Web Tools and Web Hosting
In collaboration with its web hosting partners Microsoft has debuted a new promotion designed to offer customers not only free web hosting but also free web development tools. Provided that customers will be willing to host their websites, and additional content, including Internet-based applications, on the Microsoft web platform, the Redmond company in collaboration with its partners is ready to offer them free hosting for a total of 60 days as well as the Microsoft Expression Web ($299 value) for free and the Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition.
“This is a good example of our commitment to Interop and more importantly validation of our Software Plus Service strategy for providing customers to building consistent rich applications and with choice of hosting with our partners or in our cloud,” Read more
3 New Windows Games for Windows 7
As it is the case with previous versions of Windows clients, Windows 7 comes to the table with its fair share of components. Among them is a collection of games, some traditionally associated with Windows, and some new additions. There are a total of 11 games in Windows 7 by default including: Chess Titans, FreeCell, Hearts, Mahjong Titans, Minesweeper, Purble Face, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Internet Backgammon, Internet Spades, and Internet Checkers. Some of theme, like Minesweeper and Solitaire, are nothing short of Windows classics, while others, especially the Internet-based ones, have been added to Windows 7. Read more
