One month ago, I pledged that I would try Windows Vista on my new PC for a month before deciding whether I would keep it or revert back to Windows XP as my primary desktop OS. The verdict? I’m sticking with Vista, begrudgingly.
All four major record labels - Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner - as well as a range of independent artists have signed on to the Vodafone MusicStation service, which will offer access to more than 1 million tracks and does not charge any fees aside from the weekly subscription cost.
As with its competitors, Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 is fitted with Intel’s Atom N270 chip. This pint-sized processor has a surprising amount of muscle. Partnered with 1GB of RAM, it gallops through everyday tasks such as email and the web and uses programs such as Microsoft Office. If you’re in the market for a netbook, the Inspiron Mini should be near the top of your list.
I haven’t been enthusiastic about any office application for some time. They aren’t flashy. They shouldn’t be, really, as it gets in the way of their primary task. That’s why it seems that OpenOffice.org’s 3.0 release candidate is a winner. It doesn’t look radically different. Its new features are its strength, and its extensibility is its future.
After experimenting with ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates, Microsoft has now decided to go straight for the Jobsular with its next set of ads for Windows. Directly targeting Apple’s ‘I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC’ series of ads, Microsoft’s new adverts are all introduced by a man who looks like John Hodgman (the PC in the Mac ads).
Nvidia wants to reinvigorate the 3D market by developing its own glasses hardware and driver software, which they hope will avoid the pitfalls of previous efforts. Do we have the technology to make stereoscopic 3D tech practical? And more importantly, is this something that, as a gamer, you’d be open to embrace?
When we first heard about EFiX—a simple USB dongle that’ll let you magically install Leopard on your PC—it sounded too fantastic to be true. Well, I used it to turn my gaming PC into a Mac Pro over the weekend, and I’m somewhat amazed to say this, but it works perfectly
The MPro110 is pretty basic looking on the outside—just a grey box. But it gets the job down. A VGA input lets you plug in a laptop; and the composite video jack will take output from a digital camera, PSP, iPod, iPhone, or most any handheld device (though video-out is still pretty rare on cellphones).
Company managers also contrasted IE8 Beta 2’s “Suggested Sites” feature with the “Suggest” feature used by rival Google Inc. in its Chrome browser, saying that Microsoft’s browser requires the user’s explicit permission before it’s used. They did, however, acknowledge a bug that prevents the request from reappearing during reinstalls.
When Microsoft unveiled Vista in January last year it was plagued by frequent crashes, compatibility problems with both software and hardware, missing features and sluggish performance (as much as 20 per cent slower than Windows XP). But despite Microsoft fixing many of the issues through software patches, Vista is still regarded by many as a faulty operating system, which sparked the need for Microsoft’s $US300 million ad campaign.