With Microsoft picking up the pace in both the development and marketing of Windows 7, it’s also finding itself moving ahead with the next amendment package for Vista not too long after the release of SP1.
In an early piece of news that we had expected to hear on Monday, Microsoft will release the first beta editions of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista to private testers on Wednesday, October 29. Those testers will be among the first, according to a blog post from Windows 7 corporate VP Mike Nash this afternoon, to test burning data directly to Blu-ray Discs using only the Vista OS.
Where did everybody go? Recent Nielsen Online statistics reveal that the social-networking congregating online may not be hanging out where you think they are.
Nielsen’s September numbers for thirteen sites with a significant social-networking aspect provide stirring testimony to the ability of many of us to do anything but work on our computers — and, obliquely, a look at how the hype still outstrips reality in many cases.
The year 2008’s most popular social-networking site was also 2007’s — that would be MySpace, boasting a unique-audience-members count of 59,352,000 (sampling-derived numbers provided to Techachino were rounded to the nearest thousand in the customary fashion). MySpace users also spend the most time per person per session on the site, at 1:47:55.
She isn’t accused of homicide, exactly, but a woman in Japan could spend five years in jail on charges related to “murdering” her virtual husband in revenge for a virtual divorce.
Police in Japan suspect that a 43-year-old woman grew enraged after her online husband “divorced” her in the interactive Maple Story game — so much so that she virtually eliminated him.
The woman, Mayumi Tomari, has been arrested by the police on suspicion of illegally using the man’s logon and password to steal his ID in the game and delete his character, according to an account in the Daily Yomiuri Online.
The vote’s been tallied, and the European Union’s new Safer Internet program turned out to be roughly as controversial as claiming that water’s wet. While almost three percent of members abstained, a full 96 percent of the European Parliament agreed to spend 55 million to protect children online.
The 55 million (or $70.5 million) would be doled out between 2009 and 2013. Part of it would go towards awareness initiatives and research. Labels proclaiming some sites safe for children would also be established, and contact points and hotlines for reporting illegal and objectionable content are in the works.
One might say the Internet is anything you want it to be—a truth machine or spreader of lies—maybe it’s both. In light of recent events Apple would say it’s the latter. Twice over the past month, a blogger has sunk their stock.
It’s not so much the lie that matters, sometimes it’s who repeats it. That one blogger posted about Apple’s fictional $800 laptop was inconsequential. That the New York Times dropped it into their vast echo chamber was catastrophic. Investors thinking Apple, during turbulent economic times, had finally decided to tap a hugely untapped market—the low price laptop market—drove the price up, and upon discovery of the fiction stocks subsequently tanked.
Apple has announced today with their fiscal Q4 financial statements that the recent economic downturn is not effecting them as badly as other mobile phone vendors and that smartphone sales continue to flourish.
The company has so far sold 6.9 million iPhone 3G units, eclipsing the 6.1 BlackBerry sales pushed by RIM in the same quarter.
“Apple outsold RIM last quarter, and this is a milestone for us. RIM is a good company that makes good products, and so it is surprising that we could outsell them in any quarter after only 15 months in the market,”said Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Apple and Microsoft have been having this bizarre pissing match for a few years now, but this new set of ads marks confirms what previous volleys seemed to imply: these companies have no intention of actually talking about their products. Microsoft’s feel-good “I’m Joe the Plumber and I’m a PC” campaign was about as substantive as Apple’s disingenuous and outdated attacks on its opponent’s software, but this new set of ads is really nothing more than a vague indictment of Microsoft’s marketing strategy. Maybe that’ll fly with tech news hounds, but most people who see these on TV won’t even know what they’re talking about, much less care.
Toshiba and SanDisk have been in a number of joint ventures for some time now, but it looks like the two companies are now starting what could be a more drawn out break-up process, with SanDisk announcing today that it’s selling 30% of its manufacturing capacity outright to Toshiba in a $1 billion deal. For the time being at least, the two will remain 50/50 partners in the remaining 70% of the companies’ joint factories, though Toshiba will apparently get 65% of the production capacity at those factories. As MarketWatch points out, this latest move comes just a month after SanDisk rejected a $6 billion buyout offer from Samsung, and some analysts are now speculating that Toshiba’s deal will only make the company a more attractive target for Samsung. Nothing is expected to get wrapped up before August of 2009, however, which is when Samsung’s current royalty arrangement with SanDisk is due to expire.
Asus is ritzing up its LCD inventory with four new high-end displays this month — the VK266H and VW266H at 25.5 inches (beating out the manufacturer’s current top end) and the VK246H and VW246H at good ol’ 24 inches. They all feature the company’s new Splendid Video Intelligence Technology, run at at 1,920 x 1,200, and have a 20,000:1 contrast ratio, which is a significant improvement over the current Asus flagship’s 3,000:1, but the max brightness is a bit lower. Why two at each size, you ask? Actual specs are identical across the board, but the VK266H and the VK246H have built-in webcams, while the VW266H and VW246H don’t — unfortunately, pricing info is not yet available, so there’s no telling how much extra you’ll be paying to record cringe-worthy YouTube diaries.
eBay has filed suit against Digital Point Solutions, best known as the owner of one of the more popular web site owner communities, and others over an alleged cookie stuffing scheme.
According to the filing lodged in the Northern California District Court, Shawn Hogan and Digital Point Solutions, Todd Dunning and Kessler’s Flying Circus, and Brian Dunning and Thunderwood Holdings defrauded eBay in a “cookie stuffing” scheme that made it appear that their companies should be paid commissions on eBay affiliate sales.
With Microsoft picking up the pace in both the development and marketing of Windows 7, it’s also finding itself moving ahead with the next amendment package for Vista not too long after the release of SP1.
The vote’s been tallied, and the European Union’s new Safer Internet program turned out to be roughly as controversial as claiming that water’s wet. While almost three percent of members abstained, a full 96 percent of the European Parliament agreed to spend 55 million to protect children online.
One might say the Internet is anything you want it to be—a truth machine or spreader of lies—maybe it’s both. In light of recent events Apple would say it’s the latter. Twice over the past month, a blogger has sunk 
Apple has announced today with their fiscal Q4 financial statements that the recent economic downturn is not effecting them as badly as other mobile phone vendors and that smartphone sales continue to flourish.