TechThisOut!
Tech news, reviews, and how-tos!
EA backtracking on claims of simultaneous Mac game releases
Aug 16th
Windows Is Free
Aug 16th
Conspicuously missing from most debate over which operating systems are better is the distortions created by the existence of pirated software. Windows, and Mac OS, are effectively free in the minds of most consumers. Most debate centered around features or stability is eclipsed by the lack of money considerations in assessing user’s needs.
Cool new mobile app from Mozilla: Project Joey sends video to your phone
Aug 16th
This is an application developed by Mozilla that allows you to send video to your phone. From Project Joey: “Project Joey brings the Web content you need most to your mobile phone by allowing you to easily send it to your device.” Seems like a pretty useful tool that will bring all sorts of video and other content to mobile users.
Bug in Internet Explorer could be patched sooner than expected.
Sep 25th
Microsoft is considering releasing a fix for a bug in Internet Explorer, as malicious hackers are actively exploiting the bug online. The bug could be deemed serious enough that waiting for the usual monthly patches would put too many users at risk.
The bug means that “hackers” can take over Windows machines and install ad/spyware which could not only annoy alot of users, but compromise the security of online activities such as online banking.
It was discovered by anti-spyware firm Sunbelt Software on 21 September, and can be exploited by using the weaknesses found in the way Internet Explorer handles vector graphics.
Sites More >
Launch for PS3 delayed for Europe
Sep 7th
According to the BBC, the launch of Sony’s long-awaited PlayStation 3 games console in Europe has been delayed until March 2007.
Ken Kutaragi, head of Sony’s global computer entertainment division, said the machine would still be launched in November in the US and in Japan.
Mr Kutaragi blamed the European delay on problems in mass producing elements of the high-definition Blu-ray disc drives in the machines.
Sony said it still aimed to ship six million new PlayStations by March.
But it halved its forecast for the end of 2006, saying just two million units would be shipped worldwide before the end of December.
Production problems More >
Try Windows Vista (Beta2) for free!
Aug 20th
Ever wanted to create your own game?
Aug 14th
Now you can, as Microsoft is to offer a consumer version of professional tools used to develop videogames for the Xbox 360.
The software will let non-professionals develop titles and then share them via the Xbox Live online service.
Microsoft executive Peter Moore said: “It’s our first step of creating a YouTube for videogames.”
The program will seek to complement a trend that has seen videogames becoming more like film blockbusters, costing up to £20m to produce.
Users will need a PC running Windows XP – or Vista in the future – to operate the tools program, called XNA Game Studio Express.
The tools will More >
AOL apologise after handing out search data
Aug 8th
Recently, the internet giant handed out to researchers, the serach terms that over 650,000 of its subcribers used, in what was apparently an “innocent attempt to reach out to the academic community with research tools”.
Whilst the terms could not be linked to specific individuals, they could have contained personally identifiable information. This has upset many subcribers as it has not yet been made public who the researchers were, and why they wanted the data.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, after AOL removed the file that contained “information on 19 million queries and included information on what search terms were used, More >
Photos transformed into 3D model
Aug 1st
Technology that transforms digital images into 3D models will be unveiled at a conference on Thursday.
Microsoft’s Photosynth takes collections of images, analyses them for similarities, and then displays them in a reconstructed 3D space.
The system, to be previewed at a computer graphics meeting in Boston, will allow users to walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
Microsoft says Photosynth should be available for use later this year.
Richard Szeliski, principal researcher at Microsoft Research who developed the technology with Noah Snavely and Steven Seitz, of the University of Washington, said: “The system builds a 3D model just More >
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 >