Quick Newsbytes from the tech world
On this week’s commandN, very happy holiday wishes from Amber and the gang, Apple’s last year at Macworld, YouTube unveils unique view counts, Christmas music on the Web, the Madagascar pengiuns star in their own Christmas caper, and more!
commandN // Episode 162
[ episode notes and download links ]
According to BusinessWeek, Kevin Rose is worth something like $60 million US. Kevin Rose says in this week’s DiggNation [ http://diggnation.com/ ] that that couldn’t be farther from the truth and that he doesn’t even have the money for a new couch for his new place. Either way, it’s no doubt that Digg is a runaway success, doing very well, and incredibly influential in the whole social-networking/information-gathering universe; bringing the ability to aggregate news and content to a customizable interface that’s user driven and user managed and user submitted. Digg is an amazing phenomenon, and its meteoric rise to success is definitely worth note.
BusinessWeek Online has the entire story, including Kevin’s subsequent effects on other young entrepenurs looking to stake their own claim on the web and find their own successes.
In an attempt to compete with services like Froogle, Microsoft has added a new weapon to its arsenal under the Windows Live banner; Windows Live Product Search. The new website allows you to search for products across 100,000 retailers, and sort them by price, relevance, keyword, or even search within the sites listed on the search results. So far, the site looks like a serious contender for Froogle, and definitely a good tool to be integrated into the Windows Live group of products.
We have a full writeup over at our technology blog, Gears and Widgets, head over there and take a look!
[ Gears and Widgets :: Microsoft Launches Windows Live Product Search ]
The long, drawn out court battle between Apple Corps and Apple (Computer) has finally drawn to a close, and Apple Corps, the music company, has lost. They plan to file an appeal, so the issue is by no means settled, but for the time being this combined with news that portions of the Beatles music catalong may be available at iTunes for download in the near future says a lot about the lawsuit in general, and gives some wieght to the result of the case.
We have a full writeup over at our full-on technology blog, Gears and Widets. Head over to check it out!
Last week Google finally released the Google Calendar service to as many people as want to sign up for it. The entire calendar works in Ajax, and has worlds of features to help you stay organized that other services like the Yahoo! Calendar, for example, doesn’t have. Not only can you import calendars from other public calendars so you can import everything from holidays to DVD releases in one fell swoop, you can also sync and export your calendar between Google Calendar and Apple’s iCal.
Add to this the ability to make your calendar public, link it up with GMail, the ability to have Google Calendar send your cellphone an SMS text message when you have an appointment coming up or a list of upcoming appointments, and the ability to give other users permissions to your Google Calendar so you can have your friends or family schedule things for you, Google Calendar looks like a solid winner. If you don’t have a GMail account, no worries, you can still sign up to use Google Calendar. Head over and check it out!
[ Google Calendar ]
You could have cut the tension with a knife at MacWorld yesterday, when the reporters and fans filed in to see Steve Jobs give the keynote speech, and Steve wasn’t one to dissapoint. Starting off the day by unveiling a new wired remote for the iPod with video that includes an fm tuner (now the folks that have been all uptight about the iPod not having one can’t complain, but similarly it’ll retail for 49 dollars and not come with your new iPod) and unveiled more television shows that will be available through the iTunes video store.
Moving on to the Macintosh, everyone had all but expected Apple to make the Mac Mini the first intel-powered Macintosh, as was promised last year, but Steve has other things in store. After unveiling the 2006 versions of iLife and iWork, as well as Mac OS 10.4.4, which is immediately available and runs natively on intel platforms, Steve presented us with an all new iMac that hides a pair of intel processors under the hood, called the Intel Core Duo. But no sooner than he unveiled the iMac did he unveil the next Apple portable, called the MacBook Pro, which is destined to replace the Powerbook altogether and also runs a set of Intel Core Duos under the hood. The Intel Core Duo is based on Pentium M technology, which makes them run cool and run fast.
(more on that here: [ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124243,00.asp ] )
The MacBooks are shipping in February, and the new intel iMacs are shipping immediately. More information on Apple’s announcement and the new lineup is here:
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,124323,tk,dn011006X,00.asp ]
More photos from the show floor at CES, brought to us by the staff at PC World! Now that the show is in full gear and going strong, we’re getting a look at some of the wackier and more interesting items brought out for show, some of which probably will never even make it to store shelves near you. But nevertheless, they’re definitely fun to look at, at the very least!
PC World brings us this time a company that’s selling to the gaming crowd by selling pre-modded personalized computers, the ultimate iPod dock/stereo station, a handheld lie detector, the ultimate backpack, and just the device you need to turn your old 4th gen iPod (ipod photo) into an ipod that can play video. (if you’re like me and bought your ipod photo like 3 weeks before the ipod with video came out!) Add to thast some hot new satellite radio receivers that can go anywhere you go, and even more cool gizmos, and you have PC World’s photo wrap-up from the third day at the show!
PC World is back, giving us more sneak peeks and hot products now that the show has officially opened and the droves of media, geeks, and technology enthusiasts are walking the floor looking for hot items and what will hopefully be the next big trends in technology and the digital lifestyle. This year’s looking good, and the products on display are definitely hot, but we have yet to see what’ll make it to store shelves and showroom floors and what will remain pipe dreams and conceptual ideas.
Alienware’s slimline PC that looks suspiciously like an Apple iMac (haven’t we been through this before with Gateway?) , even more portable media players and devices, droves of newer, smaller, digital cameras, and new ways to store and access your music, movies, and media from anywhere are all on display. PC World has full coverage of CES and specifically the second day highlights at the links below.
[ PC World // CES Photo Gallery: Hottest Products From Day 2 ]
Took them long enough, but Microsoft finally pushed out a patch today to repair the Windows MetaFile flaw, and the patch even coexists peacefully with the old workaround that Steve and Leo were reccomending on Security Now! and the GRC website [ http://www.grc.com/sn/notes-020.htm ]. The new patch is available through Windows Update, of course, or direct download from TechNet:
[ Microsoft TechNet // WMF Advisory and Patch ]
Head out and grab it now, and it’d be a good idea to let your friends, loved ones, and fellow geeks and non-geeks know about it as well.
The insiders at PC World have already managed to sneak their way into CES long before the show opens (officially on Thursday) and have wandered around to get some exclusive pictures and highlights from some of the gadgets we’ll be seeing on the display floor this year. Some of these guys look pretty cool, others….not so much. Regardless, if this is any indication, we’ll be seeing a lot of cool stuff on the showroom floor at CES 2006.
From Hello Kitty Guitars to compact media players that might give the iPod a run for it’s money, all the way to USB flash drives that use electronic paper technology, even these first few photos have me licking my chops to see what’s next. Stay posted, as more information comes along, we’ll share it with you. As for what we have now; link is below the jump.
Wired News is really on top of the whole year-end list phenom. We’ve got a bunch of them this time: Wired news brings us the best and worst tech moments of 2005, the 2005 foot-in-mouth awards, 2005’s 10 sexiest geeks, (sadly, I’m not on the list, oh well, there’s next year) and the biggest discoveries of 2005, they’re all pretty interesting.
From Steve Ballmer shouting about how he’s “f***ing kill Google,” to PayPal blocking Katrina aid, from the discovery of soft-tissue from a dinosaur to the MIT $100 laptop, it was definitely quite a year in technology; full of discoveries, outraging moments, and hilarious people. I blogged all of the lists over at one of my other blogs, Pleasant Tingle [ http://www.pleasanttingle.net ] , so I’ll just link them here:
Because the year just isn’t complete without some good “fill-in-the-blank of 2005” lists, ExtremeTech is fresh out of the gate with their list of failed tech trends of the past year. From high-definition everything to the whole Sony rootkit DRM fiasco bringing the evils of DRM copy protection to the fore in tech world, I think they’ve put together a pretty good list of some of the things that everyone told us would be the hottest trends of 2005 and that we could expect to see everyone using those technologies by year’s end, and lo they failed to materialize in any meaningful way, if at all.
My personal favorite? The flooding of the market with digital music players destines to compete with-and subsequently horribly fail against-the Apple iPod (not saying there aren’t good competitors, or even some better products, just that the market’s been saturated with crap) and their interesting take on how GMail wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Enjoy!
For those of us who have used TrendMicro’s HouseCall in the past to scan for viruses (and more recently, thanks to their upgrade, for spyware and trojans) here:
[ http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ ]
Microsoft has their answer to the pressing needs of their users, who have doubtlessly turned to them for help. They’ve unveiled the Windows Live Safety Center, a one stop shop that will allow you to scan your Windows PC for viruses, spyware, improve performance by cleaning up junk files, and help you get a little more power from your PC. It looks really good so far, give it a shot and see if you like it:
Aimed at making it easier to protect yourself while surfing the web, and specifically to help you fight back against phishing sites and scammers online, the makers of the most popular browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and the Konqueror, met to discuss ways they can commonly impliment standards in all of their browsers to make their users a little safer. Between being able to identify trusted sites, scammers, and defnitely trusted sites in browser based on the color of the address bar, and a slew of other features, it looks like the next generation of popular web browsers will definitely have security in mind from the getgo.
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123689,tk,dn112305X,00.asp ]
Partially because the EFF has always been the best lobby the technology crowd has, and because they’re out there working on a regular basis to make sure that our digital rights, privacy, and security are protected both from crooks and thieves who would steal them to scam up as well as companies and government agencies that would trade them, spam us, watch us, and monitor our every move, the EFF has been an incredible force in both government and technology circles in making sure that the real issues and needs of technology are properly addressed in government and in business. For example, take a look at their open letter to Sony BMG here in relation to the Sony Rootkit DRM scandal:
[ http://www.eff.org/IP/DRM/Sony-BMG/?f=open-letter-2005-11-14.html ]
Essentially, you broke it, you oughta fix it, and fix it properly, without opening up additional security holes (as they’ve done), deny responsibility (as they’ve done), ignore the issue (as they’ve done), or lie and insult the public (as they’ve also done). Because the EFF has been such an impressive motivator for personal rights and freedoms and technology, TechTV Forever advises anyone interested in becoming a member and support the fine work that the EFF is doing:
If you’ve been paying attention to tech news lately, you’ve been hearing a lot about the rootkit that Sony has been using as DRM on some of its BMG CDs for the past several months. It’s been covered on TWIT [ http://www.twit.tv/ ], Security Now! [ http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm ] and a great deal of other technology news agencies. I put together a synopsis of the issue while it was breaking at my e-zine here:
[ http://www.pleasanttingle.net/story/2005/11/7/105955/991 ]
And the issue has developed since then. BoingBoing, an amazing blog [ http://www.boingboing.net/ ] posted an excellent timeline of events yesterday here:
[ http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/14/sony_anticustomer_te.html ]
The trouble is that even since then, it’s been determined that Sony’s web uninstaller for the software is actually really dangerous and shouldn’t be used because even it’s so poorly written that it opens up yet another massive security hole in the process of trying to close another. Read about that tidbit over at the Freedom To Tinker blog in these posts:
Sony’s Web-Based Uninstaller Opens a Big Security Hole; Sony to Recall Discs
[ http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=927 ]
Update: Sony Uninstaller Hole Stays Open
[http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=928 ]
Sad. Very very sad.
CNet has a pretty comprehensive FAQ on what exactly identity theft is, how it happens to people, and how you can protect yourself. As if we all didn’t know what identity theft was by now, but the article goes into some really impressive detail about how people get your personal information and what lengths crooks will go to in order to become, essentially, you. They also disavow a number of popular misconceptions that identity theft is all about the internet; the entire article is full of good questions and informative answers. Additionally, the article gives you a lot of “protect yourself” info that anyone can find useful.
Wired has a definitive guide to Spyware and what every computer should know about it, and how to go about protecting themselves. There’s a lot of buzz about spyware in technology circles and rightfully so, but this piece is geared specifically to the audience who throws up their hands and says “why should I care? what is spyware, anyway?” And explains exactly what Spyware is, what it does on and to your computer, and why it should make all the difference in the world to you, and how you can go about protecting yourself from it, and getting rid of what you’ll doubtlessly accumulate. Read this one, it’s worth it.
And the Vs have it! Apple released a new iPod that will be replacing the standard line of 20GB/60GB models with a thinner, wider, widescreen version of the iPod in 30GB and 60GB models for the same price that now have the capability to play video. Also, the updated and redesigned iTunes Music Store allows people to download music videos and play them on their iPod, and Apple made the announcement that they’ve partnered with ABC to bring hit television shows like Desperate Housewives and Lost to your iPod. The new iPods are shiny and sexy with nice big screens, and they’ve been all the buzz all over the technology community. From CNet to the New York Times, everyone’s talking about them and the deal to bring video content to the iPod.
Apple’s perhaps less focused-on announcement was the unveiling of a new iMac, with a built-in iSight camera and a remote control that allows you to use their new software, called Photo Booth, to treat your iMac like a display device for video conferencing, home media like music, movies, and photos, and more. Definitely a promising development for the new iMac line. And since everyone’s chattering about it, there’s no lack of information to present with all the news in it. Check it out:
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/13/technology/13apple.html ]
[ http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6356367.html ]
[ http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,69193,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_6 ]
If you didn’t know already, Microsoft has announced that a new service pack for Windows XP, Service Pack 3, will be released near or around the time Microsoft Windows Vista will ship, sometime next year. A preview version of the new Service Pack has already surfaced online in a few places, and apparently includes a host of network fixes, improvements for windows logon, and much much more. At first, Microsoft had said they weren’t planning a major service pack release for Windows XP, but they eventually changed their tune. The news comes from PCWorld, and it’s all below:
Windows XP SP3 Preview Surfaces Online
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122871,tk,dn100605X,00.asp ]
Microsoft Changes Tune on Windows XP SP3
[ http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122903,tk,dn100705X,00.asp ]
