Tech news, reviews, and how-tos!
Archive for July, 2006
Microsoft to charge for Office2007 beta
Jul 30th
To the suprise of many, starting on 2nd August 2006 at 6pm (PDT), Microsoft will be charging users $1.50 (£0.80) per download of Office2007.
This move apparently came round after the Office beta was alot more popular than expected, and with 3million downloads, that was five hundred percent more than Microsoft thought it would be.
Existing users of the beta will be able to download updates for free, but many have been outraged that a multi-billion company like Microsoft has to charge for beta software (that will stop working sometime, just like most betas!) with the fee helping “offset the cost of More >
StuffPlug 3 Exclusive!
Jul 14th
Update: Stuffplug has now been released an is available here!
Yes that’s right! A techthisout.net exclusive preview of the newest pre-beta build of StuffPlug3, the very popular (now stand-alone!) add-on for Windows Live Messenger (which from now on will be reffered to as WLM).
It installed easily and quickly, but the installer isn’t the final one that will be “shipped” with StuffPlug3, so I won’t really say much about it. The thing I noticed after the installation was the seamless incorporation into WLM. As you can see from the screenshot below, it adds an icon and a menu (very much like MsgPlus! More >
PlusNet wipes 700gb of customer emails.
Jul 12th
Quoted from Plus.Net:
This major incident occurred as a result of human error during work to resolve timeouts when collecting mails, which we reported via service status last week: http://usertools.plus.net/status/archive/1152295291.htm
As of Sunday morning, things had progressed well, and we were on track to solve the issues with mail timeouts, which had started to occur following our move to a new email storage system.
At 8AM on Sunday morning our engineers were in a position to switch over to use of the new storage solution. As the first stage of this, an engineer was in the process of bringing the new back-up storage More >
YouOS
Jul 8th
Just when you thought the internet couldn’t get more bizzare, out comes: the first ever online operating system.
I decided to give it a go, first using a guest account, and then signing up to a members account. If you create your own personal account, anything you save whilst logged in, will still be there when you next log in, even if you’re on the other side of the world!
The main page boasts:
- Access from anywhere. Create a document at an office computer, drive home, continue right from where you left off.
- Built-in sharing. Instantly share music, documents and more with your buddies.
- An application community. Everyone More >
Flash drives herald end of the hard disk
Jul 4th
Several manufacturers are showing large capacity hard drives based on Flash memory technology at the Computex trade show in Taipei.
The drives are lighter, less power-hungry and far more durable than traditional hard disk drives based on a rotating magnetic platter.The largest on display were PQI‘s 64GB drives, and another company has a 32GB drive.
The PQI drives are working engineering samples with mass production scheduled for August, Bob Chiu, a sales manager with PQI told Techcentral. Apacer was showing a similar 32GB flash drive.
While Flash hard drives have many potential benefits, they also have some drawbacks and are expensive.
Apacer’s 32GB drive, which More >
Computer chip shatters speed records
Jul 4th
ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) — A super-cooled computer chip has shattered speed records for silicon-based electronics, but don’t expect your PC to hum along at 500 gigahertz anytime soon.
The chip only ran at the high speed when it was cooled to 451 degrees below zero — just 8 degrees above absolute zero, the coldest temperature possible in nature, researchers at IBM Corp. and Georgia Tech said.
Still, researchers believe they can improve the technology so that high speeds can be reached at room temperature — a development that could lead to advances in cell phones, radar technology and space exploration, among other More >
Google to offer ‘easy’ payment service
Jul 4th
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — Google Inc. Thursday will launch a long-awaited service called Google Checkout, which some analysts said could help online merchants boost sales and convince them to commit more advertising money to the Web search leader.
Analysts were mixed on whether the product, initially available only in the United States, puts eBay Inc.’s PayPal online payment system in Google’s competitive sights.
The new offering, referred to in news and analyst reports as GBuy or Google Wallet, promises online sellers an easy way to add a checkout to their sites and can be used in addition to other options such More >
Make your PC a playstation!
Jul 3rd
I was just thinking the other day, how difficult it was trying to play GTA:Vice City on my laptop, and now I have the perfect solution! The USB Playstation2 controller converter allows you to plug PS2 controllers straight into your PC via the USB port, ready for you to start playing your favourite games without having to spend 6 hours memorising the key combinations for every move.
It’s features are as follows:
- USB powered.
- Easy to install, simply hot-plug to USB port.
- Real vibration feedback function.
- Digital & analog modes are available.
- Support dual player games.
- Compatible with PlayStation/PlayStation2 controller.
- Compatible with Win XP, 2000, ME, 98SE, 98 with More >