Sources: Apple to unveil new iPod lineup on September 9

Apple currently plans to host a media event on Wednesday, Sept. 9 to introduce its 2009 iPod offerings and make a host of other music-related announcements.

People familiar with the matter say the Cupertino-based electronics maker had been teetering between Sept. 8 and Sept. 9 for weeks, but most recently indicated to its industry-related partners that the latter of the two dates would be more feasible.

Apple, as it has for the past four years, is expected to use the gathering to introduce new versions of its iPod nano and iPod touch digital music players, both of which should serve as dual-purpose point-and-shoot cameras for the first time.

Also likely is an introduction of iTunes 9, which has widely been rumored in recent weeks to make its debut with a handful of social networking features -- a first of sorts for Apple. Unexpected is anything having to do with the much anticipated Newton Web tablet, which isn't expected to surface in any form until the first calendar quarter of 2010.

While it's unclear at which venue Apple will hold the event, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center would seem a likely candidate if past years are of any indication. The Moscone West is also another potential candidate site. Analysts and members of the media should start receiving invitations will full details roughly one week prior.

Word that Apple cordoned off Sept. 9 for its annual fall event was first published earlier this month by John Paczkowski on the D | All Things Digital blog.

 

source: www.appleinsider.com

Microsoft confirms Xbox 360 price drop in the US

Starting tomorrow, Friday August 28, Microsoft will be dropping the prices of the Xbox 360 games console across the US.
The new prices will be:

• Xbox 360 Elite - $299.99 (was $399.99)
• Xbox 360 Pro - $249.99 while supplies last (was $299.99)
• Xbox 360 Arcade - $199.99 (same as old price)

Company officials confirmed the Xbox 360 you buy today will work with code-named "Project Natal" and controller-free gaming in the future. "With the holiday season right around the corner, it's already time to start looking for entertainment and gifts that everyone will enjoy," said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of strategy and business development for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Corp.

In addition to the new pricing Major Nelson also announced the new Xbox 360 packaging that has been spotted in some US stores this week.

 

source: www.neowin.net

Smoke pours out of the back of an iMac

It seems that every month new reports of computers going up in smoke surface. A video has been posted online from a Chinese reporter who was using his iMac when smoke started pouring out the back of his machine.

The computer appears to have adequate airflow around its vents and doesn't appear to be placed in an area where temperatures would exceed normal operating conditions. Hopefully this iMac will be shipped back to Apple so that they have a chance to examine what caused the smoke and will be able to take precautionary steps to avoid this again in the future.

Apple is not the only one who has had problems with computers bursting into flames. All of the major manufactures have had some issues but each incident is isolated and has yet to become a wide spread problem.

The only way for the vendors to know the true cause behind situations like these is if the consumer contacts the manufacturer immediately. By alerting the appropriate vendors they may be able to determine the cause and avert further issues in the future.

 

source: www.neowin.net

Snow Leopard Has Built-In Antivirus

Originating on the Intego blog, a new Snow Leopard find may indicate Macs are not so immune to malware. In fact, Apple itself seems to be taking security issues more seriously with the latest version of Mac OS X, something that doesn’t quite fall well with its latest Get a Mac ads.

In its latest TV commercials, Apple continues to bash PCs for being highly unreliable and prone to getting infected by viruses, whereas the Mac is downright immune to these threats. However, the people at Intego (security company) have posted a report on their blog saying that, “Snow Leopard contains an antivirus.”

Corroborated by Snow Leopard testers over at the MacRumors forums, the screenshot shows the malware-check feature working with a file download via Safari. Upon extracting the contents of the downloaded disk image, Snow Leopard detected a version of the RSPlug Trojan horse, Intego reports.

“We’ve gotten reports about an interesting feature in Snow Leopard, the new version of Mac OS X due for release this Friday,” the company writes on its blog. “According to reports we’ve seen – and the screen shot below – Snow Leopard contains an antimalware feature.”

source: www.softpedia.com

Apple hits back with two new Mac ads

Apple has begun to air two new "Get a Mac" ads that continue to target Microsoft's "Laptop Hunters" ad campaign which has directly attacked Apple's higher prices for PC's. These ads try to quell the idea that Mac's cost more and try to point out, yet again, that Mac's have "superior" functionality and quality.

One of the new ad's called "Top of the Line" features Patrick Warburton - well known for his portrayal of David Puddy from the Seinfeld Sitcom. Top of the Line focuses on potential viruses and other "headaches" that may affect PC's, but not Macs. The second ad, called "Surprise" was also posted today featuring a similar message.

Apple is only a few days away from the launch of Snow Leopard, on August 28th, it's latest and greatest operating system that features 64-bit capability, is faster and leaner, offers exchange support and is more accessible than ever, and it's not a surprise that these ads appear at this close to the release.

 

source: www.neowin.net

Opera 10 RC Out; Final Arriving on September 1

Opera today unveiled the Release Candidate of Opera 10 and also announced that the final version will be released on September 1st. The company says that this version has better performance, a Turbo mode for people with slow internet connections, support for a variety of Web standards, and improvements to the Opera Mail feature.

According to the Desktop Team this version should be considered a stable release and only selected fixes will be added if absolutely necessary. Here is what Opera's vice president of desktop products had to say: "Now we are very close to releasing the best browser in Opera's long history. We hope everyone who has helped us test our browser thus far will put the release candidate through its paces."

The most obvious change has to do with the application icon of the browser that was designed by Oleg Melnychuk. The red O has received a major facelift and is now available in bigger sizes, also, the document icon has been updated.

According to Techcrunch, Opera claims the browsers will be 40% faster than Opera 9.6 (due to the Preston rendering engine) which was the last major release.

Opera's current market share is being pegged at 1.97% according to Marketshare. So, will their market share increase post the release of Opera 10.0? How many people are going to use it as their main browser? That is the only question left on everyone's mind.

The new Opera release candidate is available for download now.

 

source: www.neowin.net

Windows Start Button Is 14 Years Old, as Is Windows 95

It was almost 14 years after the initial introduction of the Start button and menu that Microsoft signed off on the latest Windows client containing a revamped Windows Aero graphical user interface. It was on August 24, 1995 that the Redmond-based company released Windows 95, taking the Windows GUI to another level, and, in fact, building the foundation of the desktop user experience for the Windows platform that would survive until the advent of Windows 7, released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009.

During development, Windows 95 was codenamed Chicago, another aspect that has changed dramatically with the advent of Windows Vista’s successor. As far as Windows 7 is concerned, the codename and the official brand are one and the same, and Microsoft is already hard at work planning the next iteration of the Windows client, under the Windows 8 moniker.

Back in 1995, the launch of Windows 95 marked the availability of the most successful operating system produced by the software giant until that time. On October 22, 2009, Microsoft will enter another stage in the evolution of Windows, as Windows 7 will hit the shelves, with all signs pointing to it also being a success months ahead of General Availability.

The Start button was considered necessary in Windows 95, including using the “Start” term in order to indicate to end users the best place from which to start using the operating system. The Start button survived all the way into Windows XP SP3, only to be transformed into the Vista orb. Windows 7 takes the Start sphere one step further with the addition of new effects.

But while the concept of the Start button has remained virtually unchanged, the Taskbar’s evolution has been more consistent. In Windows 7, Microsoft killed the Quick Launch area, which did not exist in Windows 95, and closely integrated the Taskbar with Windows Aero, dubbing the feature the Superbar. The Windows 7 Superbar offers users Aero Peek, Live Thumbnail Previews and Jumplists, an overhauled notifications area, task progress updates, eye-candy color effects, and Quick Launch functionality. It took the Redmond-based company 14 years to get to it.

 

source: www.softpedia.com

Windows 7 Family Pack Available on 10 Markets Worldwide

Microsoft plans to extend the availability of the Family Pack edition of Windows 7 come the official launch of the operating system, scheduled for October 22nd, 2009. Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack will no longer be limited to the United States and Canada. In fact, the Redmond company confirmed plans to offer the special three Home Premium SKU bundle on no less than eight new markets. Microsoft’s new initiative is focused in particular on European consumers, which, following the premature death of the E flavor of Windows 7, can be allowed access to the entire line-up of Windows 7 editions.

“I can now tell you of several more countries that will have a chance to take advantage of this great deal: the UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden. This will also be a limited offer, but is just one more way that our customers can save on Windows 7,” explained Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team. “So what changed to make this possible? Basically, the fact that we are now able to have an upgrade version of Windows 7 available at launch.”

On August 24th, 2009, Microsoft announced that scrapping the E version of the latest Windows client in favor of a browser screen ballot for end users would allow it to provide both upgrade and full editions of Windows 7, in addition to the N variants of the OS to European consumers. The browser screen ballot is designed to make Windows 7 compliant with EU antitrust regulations. At the start of 2009 the European Commission concluded that the bundle between Windows and Internet Explorer broke antitrust regulations. Microsoft’s initial response was to the E version of Windows Vista’s successor, basically Windows 7 with IE8 stripped off entirely, but had a change of heart and opted to offer end users running the OS a chance to choose their default browser by offering a number of alternatives including from Mozilla, Google and Opera.

European customers will have access to Windows 7 upgrade and full retail editions just as users across the Atlantic, but also to the Family Pack. The special package allows Windows 7 Home Premium to be installed on as many as three different PCs. Microsoft informed that via the Family Pack users in the US would be able to buy three Windows 7 Home Premium licenses for just $149.99. Prices for Europe have not been announced.

“On July 24th, 2009 – we announced a new proposal to the European Commission address competition concerns regarding the Windows OS and Internet Explorer web browser,” LeBlanc added. “Under this new proposal, customers in Europe who buy a new Windows PC with Internet Explorer set as their default browser would be shown a “ballot screen.” Through this ballot screen, people can easily download and install the browser of their choice from the web. As the result of our new proposal, as announced on July 31, we will no longer offer E versions of Windows 7 in retail, OEM or other channels. European Economic Community countries will have the same version of Windows 7 as the rest of the world.”

source: www.softpedia.com

Official: Snow Leopard available to order, arrives August 28

You can head to Apple's site right now and place an order for the new operating system for $29.00 with free shipping.

"Upgrade from Mac OS X Leopard with Snow Leopard, a simpler, more powerful, and more refined version of Mac OS X. It delivers a wide range of enhancements, next-generation technologies, out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server, and new accessibility features. It's the world's most advanced operating system, finely tuned from installation to shutdown"

source: www.neowin.net

UNIX turns 40.

This August, Unix is celebrating it's 40th birthday, and it's worth noting that an operating system that old, has been used every decade of it's existence - and still is. In fact, Unix is gathering more and more attention as the years go by.

Unix was conceived at Bell Labs after AT&T, MIT and GE stopped production on a major project that was an attempt to create an operating system called Multics. Unixs' purpose was to make better use of mainframe computers and to have them serve many PC's at one time.

Ken Thompson, one of the primary researchers behind Unix allocated each week of a month, while his wife and daughter were away visiting family, to each of the four core components; the operating system, shell, editor and assembler. When AT&T gave away the software for free, it took off in the academic community almost immediately and growth was huge.
In May 1975 Unix got another boost by becoming the standard operating system for the internet, as laid out in RFC 681. It is notable that Unix had full networking support from the beginning.

After this, Unix, because of it's flexibility was adapted for use everywhere. From mainframes, to servers, desktops and laptops all around the globe. Unix has been through many different forms, and in many different flavours.

These days, Unix is available in many different shapes and forms. The internet still is mainly comprised of Unix-based servers and Unix philosophy is the main influence on the open source software movements and the Linux operating system. Unix can be found in Windows - which runs the communication stack that was originally created for Unix, and Apple's OS X is still based on Unix.

So, Happy 40th Birthday Unix!

 

source: www.neowin.net

Duracell announces myGrid wireless charger

Duracell has unveiled a clone of the WildCharge system called the myGrid that does the same exact thing. The pad can charge multiple devices and connectors are offered for the iPhone, Nokia, Motorola, and Blackberry devices.

Other charge accessories are available to allow charging of MP3 players as well. Duracell has also announced a new Instant charger for smartphones, iPods, and other devices that plugs in to give the electronic gadgets more battery life. The myGrid is set to ship in October at undisclosed pricing.

 

source: www.phonemag.com

Apple Store UK says Snow Leopard ships by August 28th

There's been a lot of news circulating around about the upcoming release of Mac OS X 10.6. First, Snow Leopard hit Amazon's pre-order list (and soon topped it) and days later, there were reports that Snow Leopard had finally reached gold master.

Today, Apple's UK store has posted information about Snow Leopard and Apple's "Up-to-Date" program, with an interesting note: Ships by August 28th. If this is true, it would confirm rumors that the next major release of the Mac operating system would be released ahead of the September release date set by Apple.

While the page is public, there's no way to order it yet. This could be a simple error or an outdated page but has Mac fans in a buzz as the release gets closer.

 

source: www.tuaw.com www.macrumors.com

Online glitch may point to early Snow Leopard launch

Yesterday, several news sites reported that Mac OS X 10.6 was listed for a short while as shipping within 24 hours on the Apple Store online. This glitch follows reports from several Apple rumor sites that Snow Leopard is due to launch as early as this month. Apple has still not announced a ship date for Snow Leopard and Apple officials were quick to say this was simply a mistake.

This also follows a report from MacRumors which received what is supposedly box art for the new operating system. The images depict what would be the Portuguese version of Snow Leopard.

As previously reported, Mac OS X 10.6 represents a series of refinements "from installation to shut down." Snow Leopard is faster and more efficient while taking up a smaller footprint. Improvements include native 64-bit applications, a faster and smaller install and native Exchange support. Leopard owners can purchase the 10.6 upgrade for only $29, Tiger owners will need to buy the entire Mac Box Set including iLife and iWork for $169. Family Packs for each version are also available.

Apple is still not offering pre-orders of Snow Leopard to the general public, only those who purchased an eligible computer through their Up-to-Date program can get a pre-order. This glitch marked the first time that Snow Leopard had actually appeared on the Apple Store website. Several other retailers however have been offering pre-orders for several months now, but still, with no estimated date of release.

 

source: www.neowin.net

PlayStation 3 Slim Officially Unveiled, Available in September for $300

As you all know, yesterday reputed electronic and gaming company Sony held its press conference at the GamesCon event, which is unfolding in Cologne, Germany. It was a highly anticipated day, as many gamers and game journalists wanted to see which rumors regarding the Japanese company would come true.

One of the most talked about announcements regarded the supposedly true PlayStation 3 Slim and how it would arrive coupled with a $100 price cut off the regular tag associated with the console. All of these things came true, as Sony's Kaz Hirai went on stage and revealed the new and improved PS3 Slim, codenamed CECH-2000A.

The model, which will be sporting a matte charcoal black exterior, is almost half the height of the original PS3 and will come in just one 120GB flavor, for only 300 dollars, Euros or 29980 yen. A worldwide release date was given and, as such, on September 1, people from all regions, including North America, Europe and Asia, will get their hands on the newer, slimmer and cheaper platform.

The current PlayStation 3 consoles, which are still available in 80GB and 160GB versions, will see their prices slashed to $300 and $400, respectively, and will be available for sale until their stocks run out, at which point the PS3 Slim will be the only version available for Sony fans.

And now for some technical details, as the company was keen to highlight that such a drastic reduction in weight and height was possible thanks to new main semiconductors, power supply unit and the cooling mechanics. Also, the new platform boasts improved power consumption, which was reduced by two thirds, and a much quieter fan. The new matte texture won't have users worry about any scratches, as it happened with the glossy finish of the first PS3 models.

Also, fans who were hoping that the PS3 Slim would bring back the backward compatibility feature of the first few PS3s will be disappointed, as Sony considers that the library of games made for the platform is quite adequate and such a feature would only impact the manufacturing price of the new model. Modders and those who wanted to experiment with other operating systems on the PS3 will now be unable to install anything else, as the company revealed that this would have only distracted mainstream users.

Among the other new features of the PS3 Slim will be the 3.00 version of firmware, which will bring new options when it will be released at the beginning of September. Sony Bravia owners will also be happy to hear that it will have a Bravia Sync feature, meaning that they will be able to control the functions of the console with the TV remote. Last but not least, a vertical stand for the console will be sold separately for those of you who want to squeeze it anywhere in your home.

Overall, these are some massive changes that Sony made to the PS3 and, with the new lower price, it will definitely make a lot of people interested in the platform and get Sony back into the console war.

 

source: www.softpedia.com

Windows 7 to sell in UK for half the US price

Those lucky individuals who live in the UK will be able to purchase a full copy of Windows 7 for half the price that it is sold in the US. Cnet was the first one to discover the massive price difference and did the due diligence to confirm that this is actually the case.

"In the UK, full versions of Windows 7 Home Premium -- not an upgrade edition -- are going to cost around £65. That's less than the price the Yanks have to pay just for an upgrade version -- $120 (£72) -- and half what they'll have to cough up for a full version -- $200 (£122). "

Several retailers in the UK are already selling Windows 7 for the discounted price including Amazon.co.uk and Play.com. Is this a ploy by Microsoft to help move many copies of Windows 7 to help combat the launch of Snow Leopard or is it a genuine price mistake that may be later corrected? The true answer will never be known but the consumer is the big winner either way.

This is good news for those who live in the UK as traditionally they end up paying far higher prices as compared to those in the US.

 

source: www.neowin.net

Windows Live Movie Maker to be released today

Today Microsoft will release their newest version of Windows Live Movie Maker. This version allows for greater editing of videos including standard definition (4:3) videos and high definition (16:9) video support.

Windows Live Movie Maker allows for direct YouTube, Facebook (through plugins), burn straight to DVD, save in 480, 720 or 1080p HD video format or play through your HDTV. Auto Movie allows users to easily create a video automatically for you in under one minute using selected images, captions, a title and soundtrack to go along with the slides.

The new Movie Maker comes with dozens of polished features over previous versions. Live Movie maker introduces a smarter storyboard, allowing faster and easier editing than before, audio editing in the storyboard is also available.

Windows Live Movie Maker 14 is available today for download here (Currently offline until later today).

 

source: www.neowin.net

Perpetual Reboot for Failed Windows 7 RTM Upgrades from Vista RTM/SP1/SP2

Microsoft detailed a workaround

In certain scenarios, a failed Windows Vista upgrade to Windows 7 can throw the computer into a perpetual cycle of restarts, Microsoft informed. The Redmond company did not offer specific details on the causes of a Vista to Windows 7 upgrade failure, but it did offer a workaround for end users affected by this specific issue to put a stop to the continual reboots. The KB article Microsoft supplied for this issue was published after the RTM of Windows 7, and it indicates that the problem impacts all editions of Vista RTM, SP1 and SP2.

“When attempting to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 the upgrade attempt may fail with the message “This version of Windows could not be installed, Your previous version of Windows has been restored, and you can continue to use it." However, the next reboot of the machine will launch the upgrade process again only to fail with the same message,” the software giant informed.

The perpetual reboots are caused by the way the computer's Boot Configuration Database (BCD) store is modified in the Windows 7 upgrade process. While, the failed upgrade is capable of restoring the original Vista operating system before the jump to Windows 7 was attempted, it does not do the same with the BCD store.

“Windows Vista will have been restored on the computer but the Boot Configuration Database (BCD) store has not edited to restore Windows Vista as the default booting operating system,” Microsoft stated. “The computer will continue to boot to the Windows 7 Setup and then fail until the BCD database has been restored to its previous state.”

For the time being there is only a manual fix for the perpetual reboots. End users need to first of all select Windows Vista and not the default setup for Windows 7 when they are presented with the boot entry menu. Here are the additional steps that need to be taken in order to stop continual reboots for a failed Vista to Windows 7 upgrade process, according to Microsoft:

1. Insert the Windows Vista Media into the drive and exit the Windows Vista Setup when it’s launched
2. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then right-click the Command Prompt icon, and then click Run as Administrator.
3. Type the following command at a command prompt and press ENTER
Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All (Note: In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Vista installation media is located)
4. Restart your computer

 

source: www.softpedia.com

Understanding Windows 7 New Levels of Performance and Reliability

For an operating system that required unmatched hardware resources, Windows Vista failed to translate the horsepower available into sheer speed. The same is not the case for Windows 7, as the evolution from Vista brings new levels of performance and reliability. The latest iteration of the Windows client, released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and already available for download to certain audiences, including MSDN and TechNet subscribers, delivered a superior user experience in terms of performance and reliability since early in Beta stage. An integral part of the work done to kick Windows up a notch is related to PerfTrack.

“PerfTrack is the feedback and monitoring system inside of Windows 7 that performs measurements on, well, all things related to the overall performance of the OS, especially as it relates to system responsiveness to user actions. So, when you click on something (an icon, a folder name, etc...), how long does it take for the user to receive an expected reaction from the system? What are the bottlenecks that lead to a poor experience (user-observable latency) when using some feature in Windows? Is the root problem in the design of the feature itself or with the underlying OS? Enter PerfTrack,” Microsoft revealed via Channel 9.

At the bottom of this article, you will be able to find and watch an embedded video detailing the work done to boost performance and reliability in Windows 7. Development Manager David Fields and his colleague, Group Program Manager Bill Karagounis, explain the work that went into Windows 7 and the way they used PerfTrack in order to deliver a superior experience compared to Windows Vista.

“PerfTrack is part of the effort of what we've been doing in terms of performance and it allows us to do a couple of things. One is to understand how the system is performing in the filed. We've always been able to run benchmarks and benchmarks are of course not always representative of what users are doing. It's a very simple way of instrumenting code and operations within the operating system, with a start and stop event, and then take those and skim them back. That allows us to get a response time curve of what the population looks like,” Fields explained.

 

source: www.softpedia.com

Zune HD browser, UI and On Screen Keyboard hands on Videos

Engadget has posted a detailed Zune HD hands-on video, full to the brim with good looking Zune HD features - including the UI and the On Screen Keyboard in action. Crunchgear is also featuring a video which shows off the browser UI. Some of the highlights of the videos are found below:

On Screen Keyboard - The typing interface in the video seems very easy to use - the onscreen keyboard allows a lot of space and seems to work just fine with larger fingers too.

Pins, History, and New - From the home screen, a quick tap on the left icons bring you to your Pins and History. There you can view all your pinned items and your recent history. Pinned items can include music, pictures, and videos. Just below your history you'll find the most recently added items making it easy to find your media in one place.

HD Radio - Similar to the original Zune's radio interface but now featuring the HD radio which allows you to listen to radio stations in high quality. Flick left and right to scroll between radio stations.

Music Selection - Scroll through your artists with a quick flick or tap the alphabet header to view all of the alphabet and skip to a certain letter. The interface is still carried over from the old Zunes meaning that you have headers on the top containing different categories, like artists, playlists, etc. You just tap on the next one to go over.

Artist Screen - Shows the artist's albums, songs, pictures (downloaded from the marketplace), bio (downloaded from the marketplace), related (downloaded from the marketplace, similar to Mix View).

Videos - Play in landscape, as expected. Tapping on the screen reveals transparent video controls.

Pictures - Pictures are well laid out with two pictures per column which makes it quick and easy to find the picture you want. Zooming (with multi-touch) and panning is very smooth as is rotating from portrait to landscape. And to set the picture as your background, just tap the picture, and then click "apply as background".

Now Playing - The Zune "now playing" screen is very similar to the slick looking Zune desktop player's "now playing" interface. The background image of the artist is automatically displayed as the background while in the "now playing" screen (pre-loaded from metadata/the Zune marketplace), and tapping on the album brings up the controls. There's a beautiful looking new screensaver which brings up the artist's image, pans and zooms and displays "now playing" information.

Web Browser - This can be found at the end of the second video from Crunchgear below which shows off the new Internet Explorer for Zune. It is based on the version included in Windows Mobile 6.5; multitouch features are incorporated and panning and zooming looks well implemented, finally.

Integrated Bing - Microsoft is all about Bing right now, and as expected, Bing has been integrated into the Zune's firmware - it fits quite nicely, allowing quick, integrated search from Bing.

The only gripe with the current firmware is that usually the home screen button will bring up the home screen very quickly, but when inside the browser, the Zune freezes up, and you must press the button multiple times before the home screen will appear.

Remember that the firmware shown in the videos below is subject to change as the Zune HD has not been released yet and has changed a lot over its lifecycle. That said, it seems too late in the game to change a lot seeing as it's rumored to launch on the 8th September.

 

source: www.neowin.net