Microsoft Removes “3 Simultaneous Apps” Limit From Windows 7 Starter

May 30th, 2009 • 2 comments Featured, Software
Tags: 7, microsoft, starter, windows

Microsoft developers have announced in a blog post today that Microsoft is removing the 3 application limit from the Starter version of Windows 7.

Very few users will be familiar with the Starter or Basic versions of Windows that have been available on PCs since Microsoft released Windows XP. These versions have mostly been sold in developing countries, to help keep PC costs down. Unfortunately these low-end versions are extremely limiting (and many would argue purposefully) to such a point that many people have strong incentive to shell out extra cash and upgrade to the Home edition. The Starter edition is however more lightweight than other versions of Windows, and keep costs low for netbooks.

Thankfully, Microsoft has decided to remove the most crippling factor from its next operating system, Windows 7. Users will no longer be limited to having a maximum of 3 applications open at any given time.

We are also going to enable Windows 7 Starter customers the ability to run as many applications simultaneously as they would like, instead of being constricted to the 3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included.

Windows 7 Starter will be available first the first time in developed countries such as the US – but to avoid confusion, won’t be sold at retail. Only OEM versions will be available on ready-built PCs, avoiding consumer confusion at retail.

Bare in mind however, Windows 7 has many more limiting factors, so don’t be fooled into thinking its a cheap operating system. You get what you pay for.

[via The Windows Blog]

Popularity: 40% [?]

Intel Hit with $1.45 Billion Fine

May 15th, 2009 • Featured, Industry
Tags: amd, cpu, eu, illegal, intel, market, rebate, share

Intel has been handed down a record 1.06 Billion Euro ($1.45 billion) fine for antitrust violations in Europe regarding Intel’s long-time rival – AMD.

After over 8 years of investigation, European regulators have finally found Intel guilty of using illegal methods to prevent AMD from getting free access to the microchip market. These violations include special “payments” (read bribes) to computer manufacturers to exclude or delay the implementation of products using AMD chips. Intel was also found guilty of paying illegal rebates to encourage retailers to only stock products that contained Intel chips.

“Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years”

said Neelie Kroes, a European Union Competition Commissioner, in a news conference after the ruling.

As a result, Intel was called to immediately stop its illegal practices and pay the $1.45 billion fine within 3 months. This is the largest fine ever imposed by the EU, more than the 896 million euro fine in 2007 on Saint-Gobain for their price-fixing.

The ruling finally sees AMD’s pleas heard, who have been complaining that Intel has been practicing these methods for quite a few years now – ultimately shutting the door on AMD.

“The ruling is hugely important,”

says Nathan Brookwood, an anylst at Insight 64,

“MD has been out there for the last five or six years screaming that Intel has been keeping them from getting free access to markets.”

Despite optimism being expressed by AMD, experts believe that Intel will simply shrug off the fine and keep on dominating the market, as they have done since their introduction of the Core series of processors a few years ago. They (and myself included) believe that this will aid AMD’s market share by a small margin, but won’t cause Intel any serious harm.

Intel’s attempts at contesting the case have so far been unsuccessful.

[via Reuters]

Popularity: 40% [?]

41% Of All PC Software Is Pirated

May 12th, 2009 • 2 comments Featured, Software
Tags: applications, download, p2p, piracy, pirate, Software

A fresh report, released today by the BSA, details how 41% of all installed PC software worldwide was pirated in 2008, 3% more than in 2007.

The study, which included 110 countries, interestingly found that the piracy rate in over half (51.8%) of the countries actually dropped when compared to a year before. In fact – only 14.5% of the countries displayed an increase in the piracy rate. So where does the 3% jump occur? Simple – Computer shipments to High-piracy countries, specifically both China and India, grew faster than other countries involved in the study. This meant the reduction in piracy elsewhere was easily overpowered.

The study also found that losses jumped over $50 billion for the first time in history. I’m assuming that this is based on the assumption that every illegal copy would’ve been bought, which isn’t entirely realistic. 20 million illegal downloads doesn’t mean 20 million sales, as many users just simply wouldn’t have bought the software whether a cracked copy was available or not. Either way, it’s still an incredibly large loss in revenue each year.

Ironically, the US makes up the largest amount of revenue lost ($9.1 Billion), despite having the lowest piracy rate in the world (20%), thanks to having the largest PC software demand in the world. The study also found that despite the piracy rate hovering around 20%, losses have grown larger and larger with each year.

The full report by the BSA, and conducted by the IDC is available here.

[via DownloadSquad]

Popularity: 100% [?]

Google to Advertise Chrome on TV

May 9th, 2009 • Featured, Video, World
Tags: advert, advertising, adwords, browser, chrome, google, television

Following a successful 30-second internet advert in Japan, Google has decided to advertise its web browser, Google Chrome, on television.

Google Japan produced an advert promoting Google Chrome that attracted quite a lot of attention and praise quite a while ago. Google decided to ride this wave of enthusiasm and hype and created a Youtube channel titled Chrome Shorts last week. Chrome Shorts is basically a collection of short videos promoting Google’s entry into the web browser market, Chrome.

Needless to say, this turned out to be quite popular as well. Since then, Google has decided to take the next big step and has decided to showcase the ad produced by Google Japan to the world. And what better way to communicate with the masses than with TV?

Thus a Google TV Ad campaign was born:

We designed a Google TV Ads campaign which we hope will raise awareness of our browser, and also help us better understand how television can supplement our other online media campaigns.

Was written on Google’s official blog, which contains details regarding the advert.

Not too long ago, Google started doing research regarding the relevancy of TV ads. That research is being used to  target the right audience.

The advert (which is embedded below) will begin airing this weekend on various TV networks.

[via The Official Google Blog]

Popularity: 48% [?]

Microsoft Let’s Another 3,000 Employees Go

May 5th, 2009 • Featured, Industry
Tags: bailout, economy, employees, fired, jobs, microsoft

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

Following the order to pay $388 million in damages, and the shutdown of both Encarta and adCenter Analytics, Microsoft has announced that it has fired 3,000 employees in its second wave of the company’s cost-cutting initiative.

Microsoft employees received the following email from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer bearing the bad news yesterday:

From: Steve Ballmer

Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009

To: Microsoft – All Employees

Subject: Update: Realigning Resources and Reducing CostsIn January, in response to the global economic downturn, I announced our plan to adjust the company’s cost structure through spending reductions and job eliminations. Today, we are implementing the second phase of this plan.

This is difficult news to share. Because our success at Microsoft has always been the direct result of the talent, hard work, and commitment of our people, eliminating positions is hard.

Today’s action includes positions in the United States and in a number of countries around the world. In the U.S., affected employees will be notified directly by their managers today. In other countries, local leadership teams will provide more specific information about the impact to their organizations.

With this announcement, we are mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations by June 2010. We are moving quickly to reach this target in response to consistent feedback from our people and business groups that it’s important to make decisions and reduce uncertainty for employees as quickly as possible, and so that organizations can concentrate their efforts and resources on strategic objectives.

As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.

For those of you directly affected by today’s announcement, I want to thank you for your contribution to Microsoft and assure you that we will continue to provide support as we did during the previous job eliminations.

And for everyone across the company, I want to reemphasize how much I appreciate the way you have pulled together to help the company respond to this difficult economic environment. There’s no doubt that these are very challenging times. But together, we are making the right choices to ensure that we will continue to deliver great products and position ourselves for strong future growth and profitability.

Thank you for your continued hard work, commitment, and focus.

Steve

The announcement is part of the second phase of Microsoft’s announcement in January to remove 5,000 full-time employees from its payroll by June 2010. 1,400 employees were let go then, with 3,000 more being asked to leave now. That means that the job cuts are nearly over, which totaled around more than 5% of the software giant’s workforce.

The victims of today’s job cut are from various countries around the world, including the US.

As mentioned in the email, fired employees have until next year June to find a new place to work, and Microsoft has informed everyone that it has set aside $237 million for severance for laid-off employees.

Microsoft is still planning to hire 2,000-3,000 new employees within the next 18 months.

But what good will that do financially?

[via ComputerWorld]

Popularity: 47% [?]

Norway Testing Laptop-Only Exams

May 4th, 2009 • Featured, World
Tags: computer, exam, laptop, norway, school, schoolwork, student

Norway is currently experimenting with a laptop examination trial, the success of which could result in all of Norway shifting to this new method of completing exams.

When a seconday-student turns 16 in Norway, they are provided with a laptop to help aid them in their schoolwork. The laptops are automatically preloaded with software a student would need (such as word processors), and sometimes the configuration is specialized, as is the case with media or design students who automatically have their laptop rigged with Adobe Photoshop.

Norway is looking to push this initiative further – to a point where even exams will be “written” on the very same laptop they use for everyday schoolwork.

The trial run, which currently involves every student between the ages of 16 and 19 in Nord-Trondelag county in Norway, is said to comprise of around 6,000 students nationwide.

Photo by: jackhynes

The proposed move to laptop-only exams is said to provide students with a environment in with equipment they are used to working with, says Bjorg Helland, project manager of digital literacy at Nord-Trondelag county council, Norway.

“This is used both during their final exams before going to college or university but also during tests when the teacher wants to have a test with the class”

The examination process is possible thanks to a signature piece of software that runs during test or exam conditions. The software also has another trick up its sleeve – keylogging. Each time a student performs a significant action, a screenshot is taken and keystrokes are recorded. This means that cheaters are going to get caught – but it doesn’t stop there. The software also helps deter would-be offenders, and also allows suspected offenders to clear their name:

“Students are irritated by the fact that some students cheat on the tests. This way they can make sure it is fair for everybody,”

said Ms. Helland,

“It’s not just that they can be caught cheating it – can also get them off the hook. They can prove that the work is actually their own.”

There are also more advantages to doing things electronically. Electronic papers can be marked more easily, since they can be emailed instead of mailed to markers. Less paper is used in the examination process too, as question papers are downloaded (in conjunction with the special software, preventing a student from tinkering with the code) at the start of a test or exam.

Early success of the trials as prompted a nationwide-trial from September onwards, and willing schools can now apply for computer-based exams.

[Source: BBC News]

Popularity: 39% [?]

Linux Reaches 1% Market Share

May 1st, 2009 • 1 comment Featured, Software
Tags: linux, mac, market, operating, share, system, ubuntu, windows

From MarketShare. Click for Full-Size

Linux, for the first time ever, has attained a 1% market share on desktops.

The latest report from MarketShare, available here, from data collected during April clearly shows that whilst Windows and Mac have both declined slightly, Linux has grown in popularity to achieve a 1% overall market share – the most popular it’s ever been in recent history.

There are quite a few reasons why Linux’s share has risen lately. Namely, the global recession is far from over, with users preferring to go free and opensource. Another reason may be that Netbook demand is still as high as ever, with both the ASUS EEE PC and Acer Aspire One running customized versions of Linux (to name but a few). It’s also important to rule out the release of Ubuntu’s latest version, 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) towards the end of April.

Although Linux is still miles away from Mac (which sits at 9.73%), it is no doubt a positive development and is a good sign for the future of Linux and opensource in general.

Microsoft currently remains at the top with a dominating 87.9%.

[via DownloadSquad]

Popularity: 49% [?]

Disney Joins Hulu.com

May 1st, 2009 • 1 comment Featured, Internet
Tags: disney, hulu, sharing, Video, walt, website

Walt Disney Co. has purchased a 30% stake in the popular video-distribution website Hulu.com, becoming the third of the four major U.S broadcasters to do so.

The deal will mean that TV shows such as “Lost”, “Greys Anatomy” among others to the Hulu service. Hulu now has ABC (Disney), Fox, and NBC in on the deal, with only CBS missing from the service. An inside source has reported that Disney will have a 30% stake in Hulu (which translates into 3 seats on the 12-seat board), which is equal to that of the other two networks.

Financial details have not been disclosed, as the agreement (which took months to negotiate) included a confidentiality agreement.

Don’t count CBS out of the deal however – Hulu and CBS are still busy negotiating a deal.

“We’d love to have them be a part of Hulu … ultimately it’s their decision,”

said Jason Kilar,  Hulu Chief Executive, regarding CBS.

Hulu was founded in 2007 by NBC Universal and News Corp. and has grown so rapidly that it is now ranked as one of the top 3 video website in the U.S, with over 380 million views in March. Youtube still remains top dog, but Hulu is closing the gap.

Popularity: 40% [?]