Xbox 360 gets upgrades before competitive onslaught begins in stores

With Microsoft's next-gen console firmly a now-gen reality thanks to an impending one year birthday, Microsoft have made dozens of improvements, including 1080p HD output, available free of charge. Is it enough to fend off the competition?

From today, US Xbox owners will be able to download a free system update that provides more than 85 new features and enhancements, including support for native 1080p games and movies, faster Arcade game list display times, and even more choices when it comes to video playback options.

While the US Xbox site is brimming with information about this update, the Australian Xbox website is strangely bereft of similar news...more

Boingo's Wi-Fi net puts roots down in Asia-Pacific

Boingo Wireless has signed roaming agreements with Singapore telcos and is now looking for more.

Boingo Wireless announced last week that it is further expanding its Asia-Pacific presence by inking agreements with three providers in that region.

Boingo, a Wi-Fi network aggregator, has 61,801 hot spots from 140 Wi-Fi service providers around the globe.

The service provider now has roaming agreements with Singapore Telecom and StarHub , both based in Singapore.

The SingTel agreement adds 347 hot spots to Boingo's network. The service provider has wireless LAN access points in high-traffic shopping areas, Starbucks, Burger King, libraries and hotels, Boingo says...more

NASA considers a final repair mission to Hubble telescope

The future of the Hubble Space Telescope hangs in the balance as top NASA managers weigh the feasibility and risks of sending shuttle astronauts on a fifth and final servicing mission to the observatory.

Michael D. Griffin, the agency administrator, is scheduled to announce Tuesday, at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., whether he'll order the mission. "There is talk about very little else at the moment.

Everybody wants to know what's happening," said Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which manages Hubble science. "This is basically going to renew the telescope that is so very critical to us."

If Griffin says "go," the mission could launch as early as 2008, providing 7,000 astronomers worldwide with five more years of access to the famous telescope — along with better instruments to explore the depths of the universe and its evolution...more

Apple finds a cure for the 'Shutdown Syndrome'

Taking steps to ensure the customers' comfort, Apple Computer Inc. on Thursday issued a significant software update, which according to the company will be able to fix the problem of some MacBooks which have been shutting down inexplicably.

Some MacBook owners have been bothered by the random shut-down of their PCs since July. 'Random shutdown Syndrome', as the users call it, often results in corrupted files and lost work. This has forced some of the users to return or repair the machines which cost them more than $1000...more

Scientists create cloak of invisibility

Scientists are boldly going where only fiction has gone before - to develop a Cloak of Invisibility. It isn't quite ready to hide a Romulan space ship from Capt. James T. Kirk or to disguise Harry Potter but it is a significant start and could show the way to more sophisticated designs.

In this first successful experiment, researchers from the United States and England were able to cloak a copper cylinder.

It's like a mirage, where heat causes the bending of light rays and cloaks the road ahead behind an image of the sky.

"We have built an artificial mirage that can hide something from would-be observers in any direction," said cloak designer David Schurig, a research associate in Duke University's electrical and computer engineering department....more

Video iPod virus

From Jonathan, Australia.

Apple said Tuesday that it had discovered that a small number of its Video
iPods shipped with a Windows virus installed on the player.

"Less than 1 percent" of the Video iPods sold after Sept. 12 were infected with the Windows RavMon.exe virus, Apple said.

"This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it," the company said in a statement posted to its support web pages. "So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free.

As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it." The virus is fairly easily removed with a conventional virus scanner, Apple said. However, the iPod must be connected during the scan.

Judge OKs Sale Of 'Bully' Game

A Miami judge tossed out a complaint by attorney Jack Thompson stating that the game violated a Florida law that prohibits activities that can injure the health of the community.

A Florida judge has allowed the sale of Rockstar Games' new Bully game by dismissing a legal complaint against the company.

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ronald Friedman tossed out attorney Jack Thompson's complaint, which stated that the game violated the Sunshine State's nuisance law. The Florida law prohibits activities that can injure the health of the community. Friedman dismissed the suit Friday, just days before the video's North American release Tuesday.

The suit was one part of a long-term personal crusade for Thompson, who has sued game developers in several states and pushed for legislation banning violent games. Thompson termed Bully a "Columbine simulator," but others have defended the game.

Justin Goldberg, communications coordinator for the National Coalition Against Censorship, said the opposition is part of a long tradition in which critics have tried to ban classic literature, movies, music and now video games without reading, watching, listening or playing...more

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Speed up Mozilla Firefox start up time with Firefox Preloader

From techiecorner.com via ping.sg:

Many people complain that the Mozilla Firefox take up a lot of time during start up. To speed up firefox start up time you can try to install Firefox Preloader.

Firefox Preloader is a free utility that is designed to speed up firefox start up. By loading parts of Mozilla Firefox into memory before it is used it improve the speed of the startup time.

Download here.

Google gives Writely and Spreadsheets a common platform

Google has integrated its formerly separate spreadsheet and word processing applications, giving them a uniform user interface and a unified document repository. By creating a common platform, Google seeks to make it easier for people to switch between Writely and Google Spreadsheets, Google officials said.

The combined product, called Google Docs & Spreadsheets, will become available on Wednesday in beta.

Google made it easier to switch back and forth between these two hosted applications because it has learned from user feedback that many people use both to work on similar tasks, such as making lists and plans, said product manager Jonathan Rochelle...more

Google To Acquire YouTube for $1.65 Billion in Stock

Combination Will Create New Opportunities for Users and Content Owners Everywhere

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 9, 2006 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.

The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google's expertise in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach a vast new audience.

"The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," said Eric Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer of Google. "Our companies share similar values; we both always put our users first and are committed to innovating to improve their experience. Together, we are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers."..more

Britain may loosen Internet gambling law

Britain may bring in legislation allowing London-listed Internet gambling companies to move their headquarters to Britain, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The paper said it had seen documents in which the government said the move would provide Britain's online gamblers with "a safe, well-regulated environment."

The paper also said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport had been lobbying the Treasury to introduce a favorable tax regime for online gambling companies...more

Norton AntiVirus definitions update causes issues on some Macs, fix

It would appear that the updated definitions released for Norton AntiVirus on October 4th are causing issues with launching the application on some Macs.

Some users report an error message at launch saying that a re-installation is required. However, the re-install process is interrupted and fails to complete shortly after LiveUpdate is run -- indicating an issue with the October 4th definitions.

MacFixIt reader Terry Kopecky writes:

"I had the same problem arise when applying the update, both through LiveUpdate and the standalone package download. I reinstalled NAV 10.1, reapplied the October 4 update, with the same error message resulting. Reinstalling again, but this time using the September 27 Definitions file from my backup solved the issue...more

Would You Like Fries With That Monopoly Game?

From Jonathan, Australia.

THE familiar tokens from the Monopoly board game are getting a modern and, some might say, mercenary makeover.

An updated edition of the venerable game, scheduled to be introduced on Thursday, will include tokens that are styled after name-brand products. Five of the eight tokens in the new Monopoly Here and Now edition will be branded, offering game players the chance to be represented by miniature versions of a Toyota Prius hybrid car, an order of McDonald French fries, a New Balance running shoe, a cup of Starbucks coffee or a Motorola Razr cellphone.

Those who consider playing games to be too serious to be commercialized need not fret. The maker of Monopoly, Hasbro, says that toy stores, discount stores and other retail outlets will continue to sell the original edition of the game, based on the classic version brought out by Parker Brothers in 1935, alongside the new edition....more

US Northeast could warm drastically by 2100

For those who love New England's mild summer weather, scientists have some advice: enjoy it while you can.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current course, Massachusetts may feel more like sultry South Carolina by century's end, researchers said on Wednesday in a report on clear signs of global warming in the U.S. Northeast.

The region, comprising nine of the 50 U.S. states, is critical, since it alone is the world's seventh-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, just behind the entire nation of Germany and ahead of all of Canada, said Cameron Wake, a University of New Hampshire climate scientist and a co-author of the report....more

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Firefox demo flawed

One of two hackers who demonstrated a vulnerability in Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox at a hacker conference on Saturday has retracted claims that the bug could be exploited to hijack computers running the browser. In fact, the hacker's demo may have been little more than a joke.

Mischa Spiegelmock and Andrew Wbeelsoi showed exploit code for a Firefox JavaScript vulnerability at the ToorCon hacker conference amid claims that they had nearly three dozen vulnerabilities they weren't going to disclose. Mozilla immediately began investigating.

Monday, however, Spiegelmock forwarded a message to Mozilla that was posted on the company's developer center....more

OS: Vista hit by EC fears and McAfee ire

More bad news for Microsoft's delayed operating system Vista - the European Commission is widening an investigation into whether or not it breaches competition law.

Microsoft and the Commission were already discussing the oft-delayed software.

But the Commission is now concerned about encryption technology and handwriting recognition which are included in the release. The Commission is concerned the development could put Microsoft back in bundling territory, according to the FT.

Today also saw full-page adverts in the Financial Times from security vendor McAfee. The open letter, addressed to "Dear computer users around the world,", warns that Vista is likely to make security problems worse....more

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