Google Chrome Operating System (OS) launch plans this Thursday

Google announcing Chrome OS launch plans this Thursday, Nov 19, 2009. It's looking increasingly unlikely that Google's Chrome OS is really launching this week (not that we were really that convinced anyway). What is true, however, is that the company is hosting an event later this week at its Mountain View, CA headquarters to showcase its progress, provide an overview of the platform, and give information on its "launch plans for next year." Excited? Us, too.

source : here

Previously ...

Google's Chrome OS just a week away from launch?
We'd heard last month that this month was the month that Google would finally launch its highly-anticipated Chrome OS, and now we've got a "reliable source" over at TechCrunch asserting that the software is gearing up for launch "within a week." Granted, we can't ever be too certain when it comes to a rumor such as this, but if the system really does hit the wilds, we probably won't see it available for every machine on the face of the planet. The presumed Alpha build will likely only support a select few products that Google engineers have had a chance to specifically work with -- possibly something such as an Eee PC netbook, which has generally the same specifications regardless of design or model number. Either way, we'd go ahead and prepare ourselves for something new before the end of November -- but don't let it spoil your holidays should things get pushed back a bit, okay?

source : here

Arctic Cooling C1 and C2 Universal USB charges

After Arctic Cooling's first alkaline batteries, the company has dug even deeper into the branch with the introduction of the Arctic Cooling C1 and C2. The C1 and C2 are two wall socket USB-chargers. It's remarkable for AC to release such products, given its history of computer cooling solutions.

The USB-chargers have outputs ranging from 100 volts up to 240 volts and have an overcurrent- and short circuiting-protection. Both devices come with four extra powre plugs, allowing them to be used in the entire world. The C1 has one USB port, whereas the C2 has four.

Both products are to be released around December. Arctic Cooling's C1 USB charger will cost about € 15, its C2 counterpart is to sport an € 18 pricetag.

source : hardware

How Microsoft Blew It With Windows Mobile

Microsoft Windows continues to dominate the PC market with a 90 percent market-share stronghold, but when it comes to smartphones, Microsoft is getting beat up worse than a mustachioed villain in a Jackie Chan movie.

Windows Mobile has lost nearly a third of its smartphone market share since 2008, research firm Gartner reports. Windows Mobile had 11 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter of 2008, according to Gartner, and last quarter Windows Mobile's market share plummeted to 7.9 percent.

Meanwhile, Apple's global market share grew from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent, and RIM saw a rise from 16 percent to 20.8 percent, according to Gartner's figures.

It's worth noting Microsoft got a head start with Windows CE, its pocket PC OS, in 1996. Windows CE serves as the foundation for the Windows Mobile OS shipping with some smartphones today. The smartphone OS market, in fact, has existed for several years, and Microsoft was an early leader in the space. But only recently have several additional corporations stepped into this space with their own platforms.

Microsoft's biggest problem? One word: iPhone.

"It was really the iPhone that came out full-bore for a consumer perspective," said Ross Rubin, an NPD Group consumer technology analyst. "We saw app development focus on consumer applications like social networking and games…. Particularly with Apple's retail presence and advantages in that market, through design and so forth, that's where Microsoft's main challenge lies."

Many other technology observers agree that Apple receives credit for sparking the smartphone boom. The 2008 introduction of the App Store enabled third-party developers to sell their own software, further enhancing the capabilities of the iPhone. This proved a workable model, giving 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners the ability to choose from the now 100,000 apps in the App Store. Meanwhile, some developers earned hundreds of thousands of dollars with hot-selling apps. Even if most developers didn't earn that much cash, the success stories helped make Apple's App Store powerfully attractive.

Apple's blockbuster success with the iPhone and its App Store compelled other tech giants to offer their own mobile platforms and app stores as well. Google, Nokia, Research In Motion, Palm and others have opened app stores and begun recruiting developers to compete.

But if Microsoft was the first player in this market, why wasn't the software giant able to replicate the success it had with PCs?

"It was theirs to lose and they lost it," said Raven Zachary, a technology analyst and owner of iPhone app development house Small Society. "They had everything they needed to execute, to do the right kinds of carrier deals to create an app store, create visual voice mail, touchscreens and so on. They've been in this space since the beginning."

To Peter Hoddie, CEO of Kinoma, which develops a mobile media browser for Windows Mobile and other platforms, a major knock against Windows Mobile isn't the OS itself, but rather the weakness of the bundled apps included with it.

"The sad part for Microsoft is that in terms of operating systems, they have a great one, and they had it long before anyone else did," Hoddie said in a phone interview. "Their first problem is the built-in apps are uninspiring, so that sets a very low bar for developers who are coming to the platform."

Hoddie compared Windows Mobile to the iPhone, whose apps he described as "beautiful," which encourages third-party developers to produce apps of similar quality.

He added that Microsoft's second problem is segmentation in the hardware ecosystem. Windows Mobile ships with several different manufacturers' hardware, including HTC, LG and Samsung. The problem? From a developer perspective, that requires coding an app for several phones with different UI styles, buttons and screen sizes. (The same problem, incidentally, has started to plague Android developers.)

That would give the iPhone another advantage: The iPhone operates on a closed system, which can only run on Apple hardware, meaning third-party developers can produce apps and games that work exclusively with the iPhone. Therefore, despite Apple's questionable and controversial approval policy for iPhone apps, developers can code one app that works with 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices, which is less time consuming than developing several versions of one app for a variety of Windows Mobile smartphones. In turn, that spells out to a larger number of apps in the App Store, which enables Apple's hardware to cater to a larger and broader audience.

The inability to recognize the new smartphone audience is another one of Microsoft's flaws, Rubin said. Microsoft's mobile OS history is rooted in personal digital assistants, which were marketed toward enterprise audiences. Today, the smartphone has shifted into the mainstream as a consumer device, and yet Windows Mobile is still largely focused on enterprise features.

And even in the enterprise market, Apple's iPhone is winning. In a recent customer satisfaction survey conducted by JD Power, Apple grabbed the number 1 spot for smartphones in business. How? JD Power found that more than half of business smartphone owners reported downloading third party games for entertainment, and 46 percent report downloading travel software such as maps and weather apps. That would suggest enterprise users are interested in mixing business with pleasure in their devices — and the iPhone's wealth of choices in the App Store covers those needs.

"I would say Microsoft needs to err more on the side of going too far into the consumer segment versus trying to achieve a good balance between enterprise and consumer features at this point," Rubin said.

Despite Microsoft's recent shrinkage in the mobile OS market, it's not over for Windows Mobile. Rubin said he expects Microsoft to redeem itself with its next OS — Windows Mobile 7 — as it did with Windows 7 after negative reception of Windows Vista.

Microsoft declined to comment on details about Windows Mobile 7, but a spokeswoman said mobility is one of Microsoft's top investment areas, and the company's mobile strategy will not change.

"The company's mobility strategy has not changed; it is and has always been to provide a software platform for the industry," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. "The company works closely with many mobile operators and device makers around the world because people want different experiences on a variety of phones."

Leaks indicate Microsoft plans to incorporate iPhone-like touch gestures. Windows Mobile 7 is scheduled for a 2010 release.

"Microsoft believes the Windows brand is very strong, and consumers associate the Windows brand with enabling them to do what they need to do in their digital lives, at least on the PC," Rubin said. "In general with this whole Windows phone terminology, Microsoft is trying to do more to leverage what it believes is the good will value of the Windows brand."

source : here

Tips Use Google Wave for Your First Project

As Google is issuing Wave invites in a steady trickle, those fortunate enough to have an account are trying to figure out how this new tool might fit into their work flow and help them better communicate and collaborate with their teams and clients. Here is 6 Tips for using Google wave on your project :

1. Set suitable expectations.
Despite the months of buzz, and blogosphere- and Twitterverse-wide clamoring for Google Wave invites, the product is still in preview and has some rough edges. Therefore, it does all parties good to be realistic, even if everybody is psyched to be the first kid on their block to use it on a live project. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll also encounter bouts of slowness, messages to refresh Google Wave, and perhaps even the random browser crash. Your project team's level of tolerance for such things might vary.

2. Do a dry run with a Wave.
The Wave concept is definitely a new model for many. It took me an impromptu "dry run" with my client for us to truly grasp the Wave concept and see how it could shape our online collaboration. For example, I could see how Wave could be used to keep all project information and communications online and out of our already cluttered inboxes, and it was great to able to see my client paste text as well as type into a Wave in real-time.

3. Take control of your Waves.
It's easy to get a little excited and end up creating Waves for all sorts of things, but you need to take control of the conversation in Google Wave, instead of letting Google Wave take charge of your conversations. For my project, we decided on one Wave per project document, for the sake of organization.

4. Use folders and tags.
While the Inbox Zero and GTD crowd have yet to full plant their stakes in Google Wave, I must say that the use of folders and tags is prudent, especially because while the Wave platform breaks so much new ground, but folders and tags are concepts are familiar to many. I ended up creating a project-specific folder for all the Waves associated with the client project. My use of tags also came further into play as a tool to fine-tune my own organization. A simple tip is to remember you can resize the navigation pane to accommodate your folder list as it grows. By default, your folder list may not fully appear in the navigation panel.

5. Consider whether to use live editing or attachments.
Google Wave melds email and word processing together. Thus, it is important to decide whether you want to collaborate on documents directly in Google Wave or via file attachments. Unfortunately, at this time Google Wave lacks version control for file attachments (thus putting the feature at the top of my wish list for a Google Wave extension). My client and I decided to work with file attachments for the project documents and write directly in Google Wave for direct communications with each other.

6. Have a Plan B.
It's cool to get jazzed as an early adopter, but if Google Wave isn't enhancing productivity and communications, be sure that you have a fall back plan in case it end up causing more problems than it is worth.

Source : here

After Installing Windows 7, Next What you things to do?

So, after seeing a countless amount of positive reviews, playing around with it a bit on a friend's PC or at the store, perhaps trying out the Beta and RC, and simply hearing your geek friends talking amongst each other about 7, you finally decided to make the switch. Whether you're upgrading a current system, or purchasing a new PC, there are a few things you can do to spruce up your experience and make it even better.

1. Reinstall windows 7 if you purchased a new PC with 7 – Yes, you heard right. If you purchased a new OEM PC from a store like Best Buy, FutureShop, CompUSA, Costco, etc., or from another similar store, than it's best to go and purchase a fresh copy of Windows 7 from that same store and re-install your OEM PC right after purchasing it. Why? Because the installations of Windows that come with these OEM systems are clogged with bloatware, causing system crashes, instability, sluggishness and various other issues that can be eradicated with a clean copy of Windows. Myself and many people I know do this with all the systems that they get their hands on, and it's been proven to make a positive difference.

2. Run Windows Update – It's very important to have the latest drivers and security patches on your machine for optimal performance. This is why it's important to check for updates after an installation, and to let it automatically install important updates to keep your system safe and speedy.

3. Adjust UAC – If you were one of the many people that were annoyed by User Account Control (UAC) in Windows Vista, than I have good news for you. In Windows 7, you can keep the protection offered by UAC without the intrusiveness. To do this, go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts > Change User Account Control Settings. From there, you can either disable UAC altogether or simply tone down the intrusiveness.

4. Skin it – Even though Windows 7 only hit the shelves on October 22nd, there already are a few rather nice skins out there for it. In a previous GeekSmack post, titled 7 Stylish Skins for Windows 7, you will see my personal favorites at the moment. If you're unfamiliar with the concept of skinning, skinning is basically patching your machine so that you can use custom skins instead of the default Aero look alone. Skinning isn't harmful at all towards your system, and it's something that many people do.

5. Set up a homegroup – Among the many other improvements in 7, networking was also made better and easier. With homegroups, you can set up a password-protected network of PCs that are all running Windows 7, which makes it easier to share files, printers, and stream media. To get started with homegroups, simply go to Start > Computer (or any Explorer window of your choice) > Homegroup (in the left pane). From there, it's quick and easy to start a homegroup, and all you need to do from there is connect the other PCs to the homegroup.

6. Learn the time-saving keyboard shortcuts – By using some of the spiffy keyboard shortcuts built into Windows 7, you can save time and interact with your PC more using your keyboard. There's some great keyboard shortcuts out there, such as the ones listed below:

* + number - Start the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. If the program is already running, switch to that program.

* + Up Arrow - Maximize the window.

* + Left Arrow - Maximize the window to the left side of the screen.

* + Right Arrow - Maximize the window to the right side of the screen.

* + Home - Minimize all but the active window.

Picture of Windows logo key + Shift+ Left Arrow or Right Arrow - Move a window from one monitor to another.

There's many more keyboard shortcuts to learn about, and you may do so by going to: Start > Help and Support > Type "Keyboard Shortcuts" in the search box > Click on the first link titled "Keyboard Shortcuts".

7. Install XP Mode – If you're one of the many people out there that need to use software not supported by 7 (or even Vista) that works on XP, than there's no need to fear. XP Mode, a program that utilizes virtualization technology to basically run the incompatible apps in XP while still using 7 may prove useful to you. It will allow you to run applications incompatible with 7, for example IE6, in a Windows XP window alongside the usual 7 applications in their appropriate Windows 7 windows. As XP mode utilizes virtualization technology to do this however, you will need to have a compatible CPU. Check to see if your system supports XP mode and download it over at the XP Mode official website.

source : here

HP HPE PC Edition

HP has announced the HP Pavilion Elite High Performance Edition (HPE) PC. The manufacturer states that the system is designed for power-intensive gaming. The HPE is based on an Intel Core i7 processor, an nVidia GTX 260 special edition graphics card, up to 6 GB of DDR3 memory and 2TB of hard disk capacity. The HP Extra Quiet technology with internal ventilation is to keep the HPE both cooled down and silent enough to be placed anywhere.

Other features include a DVD-burner, integrated wireless, TV-tuner, Blu-ray player (in one of the models) and MediaSmart software 3.0. A pocket media drive bay is to simplify upgrading and expanding.

The HPE will be released later this month. HP specifies a recommended pricetag of €1.199.

Source : Hardware

Deimos X-10 By BFG for Gaming Notebook

BFG has announced a new high-end gaming notebook that is to compete with ASUS' W90 laptop. The notebook is branded Deimos X-10 and features a large 18,4" screen, combined with a 1920x1080 (Full-HD) resolution. The system is available with both Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors and up to 8 GB of DDR3 memory can be installed. The graphics are provided by not one, but two GTX280M graphics cards, in an SLI-configuration. nVidia's GTX280M is based on the G92 chip and sports 128 shader units, unlike the desktop GTX 280, which has 240.

In terms of storage, the Deimox X-10 is also a fierceful competitor, having room for up to three 2,5" hard disk, allowing for a maximum capacity of 1,5 Terabyte. BFG's Deimos X-10 is also suitable for multimedia use, featuring an integrated Blu-ray drive and 5.1 audio. There are connectors for HDMI, DVI, S/PDIF, eSATA, FireWire, USB, audio and Gigabit Ethernet on the notebook. Also present are a 7-in-1 cardreader and a 2 megapixel webcam, as well as Bluetooth V2.1 functionality.

The Deimos X-10 will be available in three versions, of which the cheapest model sports a recommended price of $1859. Early adopters (between now and the 30th of October) will receive a 10% discount. The notebook will be bundled with Windows 7.

source : hardware