Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Well, it looks like the good times that are the Ubuntu alpha testing process hit a bit of a snag recently, as one of the latest kernels apparently had the nasty side effect of irreparably damaging some users’ hardware — specifically, certain Intel network cards. So far, it seems that only laptops have been affected by the bug, which corrupts the NVRAM used to store data like MAC addresses, but folks don’t seem to be ruling out the possibility that it could affect desktops as well. What’s more, while a warning has been added to the ISO download, it hasn’t been pulled altogether, with the only explanation given being that it would delay the 8.10 release schedule too much. Not entirely surprisingly, that has prompted at least a few folks to give up on testing alpha versions of the OS, at least until this whole thing gets sorted out.

[Thanks, JagsLive]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Right, so we have to pepper in some skepticism here just in case someone with way too much time on their hands has simply coated Vista in what they believe is Windows 7 garb, but ThinkNext purportedly has a whole host of screenshots from the forthcoming OS. The shots in the read link are supposedly from Windows 7 M3 Build 6780, and to be honest, it doesn’t look a tremendous amount different than Vista. Oh, and keep the source linked bookmarked — the author has promised videos shortly. Mmm, videos.

[Via GottaBeMobile]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hold your horses, vaquero. Let’s not blow this all out of proportion here. While it’s no secret that a certain amount of Vista purchasers are utilizing that “downgrade to XP” option to its fullest extent, a small (and let us emphasize “small”) collection of data suggests that some 35% of “mainly enterprise-class users” have opted for XP over Vista on their newly-purchased rig. By scouring data from the 3,000 or so members feeding information to the InfoWorld Windows Sentinel tool, the site found that just over 1 in 3 users had defected to Microsoft’s previous OS. Granted, the tool cannot take into account Linux users or even the “Hackintosh crowd,” though as Randall Kennedy puts it, 35% is “still a huge percentage, and way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista.”

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Hold your horses, vaquero. Let’s not blow this all out of proportion here. While it’s no secret that a certain amount of Vista purchasers are utilizing that “downgrade to XP” option to its fullest extent, a small (and let us emphasize “small”) collection of data suggests that some 35% of “mainly enterprise-class users” have opted for XP over Vista on their newly-purchased rig. By scouring data from the 3,000 or so members feeding information to the InfoWorld Windows Sentinel tool, the site found that just over 1 in 3 users had defected to Microsoft’s previous OS. Granted, the tool cannot take into account Linux users or even the “Hackintosh crowd,” though as Randall Kennedy puts it, 35% is “still a huge percentage, and way out of proportion for even the dramatically unpopular Windows Vista.”

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Windows 7, in large part, has remained fairly elusive thus far. Granted, we wouldn’t expect anything different given that it’s still years out from being formally titled and pushed to market, but it’s still great to hear that we’ll be hearing more shortly. The new Engineering Windows 7 (E7 for short) blog, which is penned by engineering managers Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, points to two upcoming conferences in which “in-depth technical information about Windows 7″ will be revealed. The Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on October 27 will the first of the two, and the aforementioned duo has promised to keep a steady stream of details flowing on their blog during the run-up. Are you on the edge of that seat yet?

[Via CNET]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Networking

According to a report, Microsoft isn’t just looking at the next version of Windows (no, not Mojave) for future OS possibilities, but is looking beyond the Windows architecture altogether with a project known as Midori. The new OS is still in the “incubation” phase (which puts it slightly closer to market than R&D projects), but Microsoft has admitted to its existence, and the Software Daily Times says at least one team in Redmond is actively working on the new architecture.

The basis for the platform centers around research related to Microsoft’s Singularity project, and envisions a distributed environment where applications, documents, and connectivity are blurred in a cloud-computing phantasmagoria which can be run natively or hosted across multiple systems. The researchers are working to create a concurrent / parallel distribution of resources, as well as a method of handling applications across separate machines — religiously-dubbed the Asynchronous Promise Architecture — which will set the stage for a backwards-compatible operating system built from the ground up, with networks of varying size in mind. Says the SD Times, “The Midori documents foresee applications running across a multitude of topologies, ranging from client-server and multi-tier deployments to peer-to-peer at the edge, and in the cloud data center. Those topologies form a heterogeneous mesh where capabilities can exist at separate places.” Like it technical? Hit the read link for an in-depth look at the possible shape of Microsoft’s future.

[Via Yahoo!]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Rumors of Dell playing a role in the smartphone industry have been around for what seems like ages, but each time the fire dies down, another can of lighter fluid emerges to get us all wondering again. In a recent interview with Om Malik, the bigwig had more than a few interesting things to say on the computing industry as a whole. Still, what intrigued us wasn’t the talk about being a founder or changing up Dell’s game in order to rebound — no, it was Michael’s remarks on the handset sector. When asked if there was a “desire” on its part to work with Android or Symbian, Mr. Dell stated that the company “is kind of working on that,” although it wasn’t ready to “publicly disclose” plans. Granted, he also asked us “not to expect anything anytime soon” when referring to a phone, but would you really expect any CEO with a trick up his / her sleeve to say anything different?

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Filed under: Handhelds

After seeing Android all lit up on Nokia’s N810 internet tablet, seeing this antiquate piece of software on there just seems… wrong. Still, we can’t deny that we’re a huge fan of the work, and to be frank, we’d highly recommend anyone with a fair amount of spare time give it a whirl just for nostalgia’s sake. Wait, is that a tear we see forming? You softy.

[Via PDAToday, thanks Bill]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Word in the OSX86 world is that a new product will revolutionize (and simplify) the process of installing OS X on a PC — and that product is called the EFiX. The USB dongle allegedly pops into a free port and allows you to install the retail version of the Mac operating system on just about any system by automatically locating the proper hacks and drivers needed. Famed OSX86 hacker Netkas has demoed a beta unit on video (which you can see after the break) and claims that it’s working as it should. The manufacturer is aiming to have models available for purchase by June 23rd… barring any more “sabotage.” This sounds like a much more reasonable solution than marketing a Mac clone — feel free to send one our way whenever you like guys.

[Via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Continue reading EFiX wants to bring OSX86 to the masses

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Filed under: Laptops

What do you know? The former OLPC head of software and content did indeed resign at least partially over NickNeg’s growing fondness of Windows XP. In a recent soul-spilling interview with xconomy, Walter Bender made clear that he resigned his post at the non-profit due to the general de-emphasis of “radical projects like Sugar,” the innovative XO user interface which Mr. Bender was unsurprisingly neck-deep in during his stay. Essentially, he felt as if the outfit had stopped trying to “be disruptive” and started “trying to make things comfortable for decision-makers,” hence Walter darting out “to do his own thing.” Needless to say, the lead developer of Sugar isn’t satisfied with seeing his work forgotten, and while details have yet to be worked out, he is looking to “find a new central home for the community of educators and software developers who have been creating Sugar-compatible applications.”

[Image courtesy of The New York Times]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Though we originally expected (read: hoped) that Microsoft would dish out Service Pack 3 for Windows XP late last month, it seems the deed may actually get done before May dawns. According to an “internal schedule” fetched over at Neowin, OEMs, volume license, Connect, MSDN and TechNet subscribers will have access to the update on April 21st, while most average joes / janes won’t notice it until April 29th when it hits the Microsoft / Windows Update download center. For folks too busy carrying on to worry over which SP their XP is running, they could very well overlook the automatic update scheduled to land on June 10th. (Re)mark your calendars, won’t you?

[Via InformationWeek]

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Filed under: Laptops

After a week full of Red Bulls, Fruit by the Foot and dreams of In-N-Out, the mighty Sony VAIO loaded with Linux stood as the only machine unhacked by the end of the PWN 2 OWN hacking contest at CanSecWest. As you’re well aware by now, the MacBook Air on display was seized in two minutes by the presumably well prepared Charlie Miller, and after two full days of work, Shane Macaulay and a few of his 1337 associates managed to crack the Vista rig on Friday. Reportedly, Shane and his pals weren’t expecting to do battle with the extra protected SP1 version of Vista, and while the exact loophole won’t be divulged, we are told that it was a cross-platform bug that “took advantage of Java to circumvent Vista’s security.” In the end, it was reported that some folks on hand had discovered bugs in the Linux OS, but many of them “didn’t want to put the work into developing the exploit code that would be required to win the contest.”

[Image courtesy of TippingPoint]

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Filed under: Laptops

And just think — last year you were singing Dino Dai Zovi’s praises for taking control of a MacBook Pro in nine whole hours. This year, the PWN 2 OWN hacking competition at CanSecWest was over nearly as quickly as the second day started, as famed iPhone hacker Charlie Miller showed the MacBook Air on display who its father really was. Apparently Mr. Miller visited a website which contained his exploit code, which then “allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers [read: unashamed nerds] cheered him on.” Of note, contestants could only use software that came pre-loaded on the OS, so obviously it was Safari that fell victim here. Nevertheless, he was forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement that’ll keep him quiet until “TippingPoint can notify the vendor,” but at least he’ll have $10,000 and a new laptop to cuddle with during his silent spell.

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Filed under: Laptops

Last year’s PWN 2 OWN contest at the CanSecWest security conference went over way better than expected (read: exploits were glorified), so this year, organizers have spiced things up by letting hackers have their way with three separate machines. The Linux, OS X and Vista-based rigs were all setup as similarly as possible in order to “make sure the attack surface was the same on all of them.” For attendees in Vancouver, there sits a $20,000 top prize — which dwindles with each passing day as restrictions on attacks ease up — but it can only be acquired if an all new zero-day cyber roundhouse kick is used. Anyone here going to give it a go? You get to keep the freshly victimized laptop too, you know.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Now, we know the official story on the CeBIT Meizu shutdown was related to MP3 codec licensing, and not the M8’s iPhone-like UI. Still, it does seem strangely fortuitous that more pictures of the phone’s interface have just appeared that seem to showcase a move away from Apple’s familiar look. The Chinese site CNMO has new shots of the device’s music player, which now appears to incorporate song info, EQ display, lyrics, and volume / tracking controls all on one screen. The pictures also show a couple of different music browsing options, both in landscape and portrait mode. Is this a signal that the company is putting some distance between the M8 and the iPhone? Only time will tell.

[Via PMP Today]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

It’s been in development for nearly half a decade, but this year at Microsoft’s R&D extravaganza TechFest, the company finally lifted the curtain on its research-oriented Singularity OS. Let’s just be clear from the get-go, though: while it’s is available for immediate use, Singularity is nowhere near anything you’d replace your desktop OS with. The sole intention here is to test out futuristic new concepts in application interaction, microkernel architecture, and so on, so don’t expect to hear that Microsoft is hanging up the Vista apron or anything. But for the turbo-geeks in the crowd, the Singularity Research Development Kit (RDK) 1.1 is now available for download for academic non-commercial use. And for the rest of us, well, we’ll just see what the year 2011 holds in store.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Brush up on your Singularity theory
Read - Download that biz

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Filed under: Cellphones

If you’ve seen our shots of Samsung’s Armani redo, the F480, you might have noticed it’s running a new OS. The UI — called TouchWiz — is based off of the company’s Croix interface (which apparently was rushed out to compete with the iPhone), and will be used on all of the upcoming finger-touch phones from the manufacturer. The cats over at Phone Scoop had a chance to go one-on-one with TouchWiz at Mobile World Congress, and they’ve put together a pretty informative video that shows off the UI doing its thing. The inclusion of a new widget system, expanded menu options, and overall speed bump make this OS a notable step up from Samsung’s previous offering. Take a look at the video after the break to see the system getting all funky-fresh.

[Thanks, Martijn]

Continue reading Samsung’s new TouchWiz UI gets previewed on video

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Filed under: Gaming

Early last year, we polled the grand audience and found out just what you liked (and disliked) about Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 for PS3. Fast forward 13 months, and those still waiting on the sidelines have yet another option for jumping in. As of now, Terra Soft Solutions is offering up Sony’s 80GB PlayStation 3 with YDL 6.0 pre-installed for $549.95, and yes, that includes the DVDs containing the OS. Interestingly, it seems as if you’ll still have to pony up for a component or HDMI cable, but at least the option’s there, right?

[Thanks, Fiddlesworth]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Details are still fuzzy at this point, but according to an e-mail received by numerous tipsters, Microsoft is indeed offering up a free copy of Vista in exchange for their privacy. Yeah, even though it claimed otherwise late last year. According to the note, Redmond is viewing these folks as “registered members” of the Windows Feedback Program, and if they keep their guard down for the remainder of a three month period, they will seemingly receive a copy of its latest OS gratis. So, any others out there finding an unexpected message from the Big M regarding said offer? Let us know in comments below, particularly if you get any free wares or previously analyzed keylogging reports.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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