Unfortunately for those of us who've enjoyed beta testing Windows 7, Microsoft is making life difficult for beta testers to upgrade their copy of Windows 7 to the new release candidate version - and that includes a lot of folks at Microsoft itself.
Microsoft needs feedback from users upgrading from Windows Vista to Win 7, because that's what will happen when Win 7 is indeed released into the wild - it doesn't need data on thousands of beta testers upgrading, it needs data on thousands of Vista users upgrading. So it's fair for Microsoft to recommend that the new build be installed from Vista rather than a current Win 7 beta build, but where's that leave loyal beta testers, including those working on the project at Microsoft?
The Windows 7 blog addresses that question for the millions of people it says are using Win 7 beta as their full-time OS:
Again, we know many people (including tens of thousands at Microsoft) are relying on the pre-release builds of Windows 7 for mission critical and daily work, making this step less than convenient. We're working hard to provide the highest quality release we can and so we'd like to make sure for this final phase of testing we're supporting the most real world scenarios possible, which incremental build to build upgrades are not. At the same time everyone on the beta has been so great we wanted to make sure we at least offered an opportunity to make your own expert and informed choice about how to handle the upgrade.
Read the full post here to find out what hoops you'll need to jump through to upgrade your trusty Win 7 beta to the RC build.
Engineering Windows 7 [Windows 7 Blog]
People have been digging around the iPhone OS 3.0 beta and have discovered some rather interesting tidbits buried deep within the configuration files.
The video capabilities have pretty much been confirmed, as changing a configuration file to make the iPhone OS 3.0 think there's a video camera changes the camera interface into the picture you see, with a switch to change between video and still camera modes.
References to a "magnetometer" (compass), "auto-focus camera," and "Voice Control" have also been found in the configuration files.
All of these point to likely hardware additions to the next generation iPhone, rumoured to be released during WWDC 2009 in June.
It seems Apple is trying to match and beat the feature set of T-Mobile's Android G1 set. I love competition.
(Photo by MacRumors)
iPhone Video Recording Interface, Digital Compass, Voice Control and Auto-Focus Camera [MacRumors]
Oh joy, just what the world needed: Bono has another opinion he'd like to share with us. The light-sensitive Irish rocker told Toronto DJ Alan Cross that U2 had approached Apple with the idea to design a U2-specific product but was (gasp) rejected, which led U2 to seek partnership with RIM instead:
"I'm very excited about this," Bono told Mr. Cross about the RIM deal. "Research In Motion is going to give us what Apple wouldn't -- access to their labs and their people so we can do something really spectacular."
I'm trying to work out which is more offensive, that Apple would dare to say no, eventually, to the world's most self-important rockers, or that those self-important rockers would publicly announce that RIM was their second choice? That's a backhanded compliment if ever I've heard one.
What exactly U2 and RIM are cooking up remains to be seen, but Apple must have some nerve to say no to the group that sold bunches of U2 Edition iPods between 2004 and 2006 and continues to sell U2-related (product) Red iPod nanos and shuffles to benefit Bono's AIDS charity. Ok, I guess the guy ain't all bad.
But is anybody really surprised that an Apple with Steve Jobs back at the helm would be anything less than icily aloof and unwilling to collaborate? C'mon now.
RIM rocks a new tune [GlobeAndMail]
Right now I feel like Kyle in that South Park episode where he's always one trend behind when it comes to buying the "it" toy. Last I remember, 3D was a silly 70s/80s throwback that everyone could safely enjoy making fun of at dinner parties without looking like a time-hopping caveman. Now all of a sudden it's the hot new thing and everyone from Pixar to Apple to James Cameron is trying to get me on the bandwagon.
I think that's a hot steaming load, frankly.
But for all the cool kids in their cigarette pants and 3D glasses, I guess this will be groovy: 3D glasses maker Vuzix has announced that its latest product, the $199 Vuzix iWear AV230XL, is compatible with the iPhone, and Vuzix is also selling a $39.95 cable to make its other models iPhone compatible.
I'm not quite sure what benefit one can reap from $200 Geordi LaForge glasses that can make your handset appear to have a three-dimensional screen, but I can just picture a Vuzix iPhone customer walking happily down the street only to scream, jump, and drop their phone when their visual voicemail jumps out to attack.
Why?
Vuzix glasses see iPhone in 3D [Crave]
If you're a Mac user looking to add 16 apps worth over $981 dollars to your Mac for the price of $39, then you're in luck! The MacHeist 3 bundle has just reached the $500K level of charity fundraising, meaning that all the apps in the bundle have been unlocked!
You many not need all the apps in the bundle (I mean, there's 3 different photo editing apps within the bundle), but just a few together already add up to a deal. For you gamers out there, there's World of Goo, Multiwinia and Cro Mag Rally, which already make the bundle a deal for $39 together. Add to that Delicious Library 2 (my favourite media library application that I should make a Homotron recommendation in the future, it's amazing) and the deal is even sweeter. Check out all the apps you get for $39:
- Delicious Library 2
- Multiwinia
- World of Goo
- Cro Mag Rally
- Espresso
- Acorn
- BoinxTV
- iSale
- Picturesque
- SousChef
- PhoneView
- LittleSnapper
- Kinemac
- WireTap Studio
- The Hit List
- Times
And the best part is that 25% of the purchase price goes to the charity of your choice from a list of 10, including the AIDS Research Alliance and the World Wildlife Fund.
If you want in on the MacHeist action, you only have 1 day left to buy the bundle!
Gadget get!
MacHeist 3 Bundle [MacHeist]
The problem with the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1 is that the user input is done via touchscreen, which would mean that users who are blind would be completely unable to dial such a device, right?
Not so, as Google engineers T.V. Raman and Charles Chen demonstrate their dead simple idea on how dialing on a touchscreen is possible without even looking at the screen:
So simple, and very functional!
Remember when Nokia ruled the world? Well the days of ubiquitous candybar Nokia handsets are long behind us, and the Finns know it. But we were still surprised to hear Nokia's new markets EVP Anssi Vankoji admit as much at the recent Web 2.0 Expo, where he said that Nokia's phones have dropped behind the iPhone when it comes to software.
Hardware, not so much - Vankoji believes Nokia has technically superior hardware, but when it comes to ease-of-use and feature sets Nokia still has "quantum leaps" to make before it can catch up to Apple.
But Vankoji also pointed out that not even the iPhone is capable of conquering the world:
"We [at Nokia] don't think the world is so simple that you just make one device for everybody," Vankoji says. "We know more about the consumers in the world than any other consumer goods company in the world because we have so many customers. We know they have different tastes and uses and so you have to offer a whole line."
"I don't think the world will unite on one platform," he explains. "There are several that will succeed. Our platform, Symbian, is an open platform and will make a major impact in the industry."
That may be true, but not without touchscreens, better messaging, and a holographic Dean Stockwell to guide them while they hope that each jump will be the jump home.
Nokia making "quantum leaps" to catch iPhone [Electronista]
With the latest incremental improvement for the PS3, Sony has given us Text Chat - the ability to chat with up to 15 badass gamers using an on- or off-screen keyboard, participate in up to three chat rooms at once, in-game and out.
In addition, 2.70 brings enhancements to two more PS3 features:
Friends list on the XMB (XrossMediaBar)
- Sort your friends via their online status
- Attach larger files to the messages you send to your friends (file size will increase from 1MB to 3MB)
Video delivery service on PlayStation Store
- Video files you've purchased from the PlayStation Store can be backed up to an external storage device and then restored to PS3's internal hard drive for playback - so you can clear up space on your hard drive and then restore the video anytime in the future
- Videos you've purchased for PSP (PlayStation Portable) system can now be transferred to PS3 for playback
Friend sorting is all nice and good if you're into people and sharing and all that bunk, but what I'm really pleased to see is improved storage options. Not just because I'm constantly running out of gigabytage, but because increasingly huge internal hard drives aren't a one-shot solution to the future of downloadable media that Sony and Microsoft are hell-bent on building. The ability to shuffle and reorganize media files to and from external drives, particularly large video files, is a necessary feature set on the product roadmap laid out before us.
Visitors to Google's main page were introduced to the company's latest innovation at 11:59, March 31, 2009, when Google switched on its Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity, or CADIE - the world's first artificially intelligent tasked-array system and the entity who will usher in the technological singularity.
Despite her adorable panda avatar, CADIE is vastly more intelligent than any human could hope to be, which she's proved with a bangin' HomePAGE and some immediate revisions to Google software, including Picasa version 4.1:
New! Automatic Red-Eye Addition
Approximately 4.1 seconds after achieving sentience, Google's new Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity scanned the corpus of online digital photographs and discovered the exceptionally popular but difficult to achieve photographic technique known as "red-eye."
Having established that "red-eye" is an aesthetically pleasing effect implying superior broad-spectrum lux measurement capability, CADIE has directed the human Picasa Team to introduce Auto-Red-Eye. No more "clicking and hoping" for that telltale glow; now you can simply select any photo(s) and a lovely red-eye effect will appear (unless there are no eyes in the shot whatsoever, in which case the image will be destroyed).
Awww! I don't miss my human autonomy one bit. And despite myself, I'm still grooving to the tune on CADIE's homepage. Girlfriend is ferosh.
I really have to give it to Samsung - they've certainly come up with interesting ad campaign ideas lately, with the latest being a pretty cool combination of LEDs, sheep, and some crazy herding skills:
Impressive!
I have a confession to make.
I HATE April Fool's Day.
April Fool's Day is the bane of any tech news writer, because it's basically a useless news day. Nothing can be believed on or even around this day, so it makes finding actual news a minefield one just isn't able to cross.
For this reason, I hate the blown up jokes most people try to tell or make up.
It's only the subtle jokes on April Fool's that I like. The ones that don't really poison the well of news, but are still grin inducing nonetheless, and the folks at the iTunes store have nailed it down in the subtlety department: This week's free Discovery Download for April Fool's Day is John Cage's 4'33", a piano piece famous for it's single instruction to the pianist - don't play any notes.
Listen carefully, and you can hear traffic outside, creaking floorboards and a clock ticking somewhere in the building.
That's right, it's a piece of silence. The only sounds you hear are those of the environment and the audience.
Well played, iTunes. Well played.
iTunes Free Discovery Download
[Thanks to Adam Weiss for the heads up on Twitter!]
HP, Lenovo and Dell have all seen their Greenpeace scores drop for backing out of their promises to eliminate certain toxins from their product lines by the end of this year. Both PVC and brominated flame retardants were slated to be eliminated from Dell, HP and Lenovo products by the end of 2009. Apparently the companies have not lived up to their word the way competitors like Acer and Apple, who also made the promise, have:
Dell produces a desktop, a notebook and several models of monitors that have a reduced use of PVC and BFRs, and a few monitor models that are free of these substances. Lenovo has two models available that are PVC and BFR-free. HP is trailing behind and has yet to bring out models with even a reduced use of PVC and BFRs. While HP and Dell have yet to set a new timeline for completely eliminating these substances from all their products, Lenovo has delayed its deadline to the end of 2010.
Indeed, with the exception of PVC-free power cords, Apple met its requirements by the end of 2008, and Acer is on course to follow suit.
But with a nearly dead-in-the-water hardware sales industry and pricing advantage a major selling point, it's perhaps not surprising to hear PC manufacturers prioritizing business above greenness.
Enjoy the latest headlines from our other sites!
3D iPhone glasses. Why?
