With Microsoft Office Web Applications, the productivity suite will have a real web-facing side for the first time. It will be released alongside Office 2010 and will be supported by all major browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Apple Safari and Google Chrome. Anticipations and stakes for this release are high and I personally think it’s going to sweep current online productivity suites like Google Docs right off the table. Yes, I have extreme high hopes for Office Web Apps. And perhaps you should too.

Feature Set

While not much is known about the real specifics of the online Office suite, it is certain that the traditional desktop software applications like Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote will certainly be represented in the online version of Microsoft Office.

Microsoft describes the suite as online siblings for its Office applications. They will be “lightweight versions of the applications from the desktop product”. According to the General Manager of the Office-project, users of the web applications will be able to “view, edit, and collaborate” on Office documents. The web-version of Office will also, most importantly, retain document fidelity to the fullest, allowing a user to view documents in full quality online, make alterations and save it again (online or off) without loss of quality. This is stellar functionality lacking currently in all  online productivity suites.

Google Docs – as a common example – incorporates support for Microsoft Office documents in rather shoddy way. After you upload your files – frankly – they become half-assed HTML variations of the originating document. Microsoft’s solution promises to retain all of the rich formatting, lay-outs, styling, charts, transitions and image quality.

This is obviously a big improvement over any of the current implementations. And it’s one with far-reaching ramifications.

High Hopes

If you have ever sampled an online productivity suite like Google Docs you instantly realize what a step back it actually is from Microsoft Office 2007. It’s slow and feature-impaired. In Google Docs’ case it feels more like a old Office 2003 replica, with the toolbar UI bringing back bad memories with every click. Support for pretty fonts and advanced page layout capabilities are simply neglected. There isn’t anything significant implemented around text styling, nor is the revisioning system in GDocs very much impressive. If we’re honest here, it’s a downright fluke. In my opinion, Google Docs is more reminiscent of an advanced WYSIWYG-editor for blogging purposes, rather than an online word processor. And it’s not even decently apt at producing the aforementioned blog posts, since the HTML it outputs is extremely semantics unfriendly.

Microsoft’s solution, however, could be a game-changer. It will feature the ribbon interface, albeit it less feature-rich, because some functionality simply doesn’t belong in a browser. It will support many of Office’s advanced presentational niceties, though. Couple this to the online storage we’ll be getting with Office Live and true cloud computing starts to show its colors.

Reduced Functionality

I talked about reduced functionality, but don’t let that scare you. The online version of Office will be feature-limited to the degree that the most used functionality will remain present. And since most Office-users only utilize a small percentage of the full suite’s feature-set, I don’t think there will be problems with using Office in its reduced form through Office Web Applications.

To me, this is all very exciting, but I realize I should reserve judgment until I can get my hands on it for some real experience. But what’s a geek to do? I just can’t help myself. Microsoft’s introduction of the ribbon interface to its Office line was big. And so will this be. I sure can’t wait to check it out.

Tech news roundup for August 25, 2009. I’d like to share some science/astronomy oriented articles with you before we jump to the tech news.

• Another Little Ice Age? Solar activity and climate change #
• Extrasolar Planets at Full Tilt #

Now for the tech news:

• Microsoft’s OneApp targets non-smartphones #
• Nokia to deliver Windows 7-powered netbook with 12 hours of battery life #
• Opera 10 Slated For September 1 Launch. Will Anyone Take Notice? #
• Sony’s new Reader lineup assaults Amazon Kindle #

Another Little Ice Age? Solar activity and climate change

The Sun’s is experiencing a slow return to normal activity after its natural 11-year cycle. The number of sun-spots have decreased, which could indicated a “Little Ice Age” may be impending. The last time this happened was the late 17th century. This time around its effects may not be as chilling due to the vast amount of greenhouse gases now circulating our atmosphere. Source at ArsTechnica.

Extrasolar Planets at Full Tilt

Exoplanets – scientists have recently discovered – don’t generally follow our Solar System’s common circular orbits. Instead, they’re usually tilted more than 30 degrees, causing some of them to actually orbit backwards relative to its parent star. The most tilted planet (7 degrees) in our solar system is Mercury. Interesting insights. Source at Discovery.

Microsoft’s OneApp targets non-smartphones

Microsoft recently launched a mobile application called “OneApp”, which is directed at the non-smartphone market. The application will act as a gateway to web applications and services like Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and more. Because non-smartphones are so low on processing power, OneApp will relay processing and storage to the web. The app itself only takes up 150KB and will even work on the most basic GPRS/EDGE phones. Source at TechRadar.

Nokia to deliver Windows 7-powered netbook with 12 hours of battery life

Yes. Truly. Read the specs at Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite Blog post.

Opera 10 Slated For September 1 Launch. Will Anyone Take Notice?

The cursed underdog of browser-land, Opera, has published the Release Candidate for its upcoming browser Opera 10. Codenamed “Peregrine”, it will offer “an improved user interface, increased web standards support, bug fixes, performance improvements, and new tools for web developers”. As with every release from Opera, I will download it and give it a fair chance. I rarely like what I see, though. So, in those terms, this will be Opera’s tenth chance to convince me. Source at TechCrunch.

Sony’s new Reader lineup assaults Amazon Kindle

Sony has refreshed its lineup of eBook readers with a trio of readers, each specialized in a certain type of end user. The first – called “Pocket Edition” – is portable and cheap. The second one – “Touch Edition” – offers a bigger screen with touch capabilities. And the über-reader is called the “Daily Edition”, with a big screen, touch capabilities and 3G & WIFI connectivity. In each case, Sony’s equivalents to the Kindle and Kindle DX are significantly cheaper than Amazon’s offerings. Also, Sony scrambles behind eBook-standard EPUB enabling broader compatibility. It has also partnered with Google. Source at ZDNET.
(click the thumbnail on the right for a closer look)

Tech news roundup for August 24, 2009.

• Update | Mozilla asks EU to reject Microsoft’s Windows 7 browser plan #
• Update | Microsoft warns of chaos if Word sales are halted #
• iPhone Outsold All Windows Mobile Phones in Q2: Analyst #
• Snow Leopard now available from Apple Store, ships Aug. 28 #
• Blurb | Looks like Zune HD supports apps too #

Mozilla asks EU to reject Microsoft’s Windows 7 browser plan

After much ado over Microsoft’s “browser ballot screen” Mozilla is now requesting the EU to reject the OS vendor’s browser plan. Mozilla is obviously dissatisfied with the fact that Internet Explorer would get a more prominent spot on the screen, because – obviously – IE still has the biggest browser usage-share. Mozilla claims this is “unfair” and continues to whine. Source at ComputerWorld.

Microsoft warns of chaos if Word sales are halted

Because of the utter boringness of this story, I’m sure you won’t mind me just quoting ComputerWorld: “Microsoft Corp.warned last week that an injunction preventing it from selling Word in the U.S. after Oct. 10 would cause “massive disruptions” to sales of its Office software, as well as to key partners like Best Buy Co., Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.” Source at ComputerWorld.

iPhone Outsold All Windows Mobile Phones in Q2: Analyst

I always take analyst reports with a grain of salt, but the inevitable has happened in the smartphone world. The Apple iPhone has outsold Windows Mobile based phones for the first time in Q2 2009, with a lead of approx. 4.7%. Industry leaders Nokia and Blackberry retain suit with respectively first (~44%) and second (~21%) places. Palm isn’t currently on the list, despite its efforts with the Palm Pre. Blog post at TechnologyExpert.

Snow Leopard now available from Apple Store, ships Aug. 28

After the Apple Store’s brief down-time on Monday morning the site pulled up again with Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s page updated and release confirmation. Shipping date of the OS is officially scheduled for August 28, 2009. If you pre-order now you’ll get it on the 28th – guaranteed. Also, no shipping fees will be charged for the time being. Source at ArsTechnica.

Looks like Zune HD supports apps too

Microsoft’s much anticipated competitor to Apple’s iPod Touch will sport an application platform/store after all. This was the last essential selling point needed for Microsoft to make a fair chance against Apple Inc. As things stand now, the Zune HD will also be more affordable than than the current-gen iPod Touch. Blog post at Paul Thurrott’s Supersite Blog.

Disclaimer: The news summaries above contain opinions of editorial nature. Opinions expressed in this post do not reflect those of source materials and are entirely my own.

Tech news roundup for the weekend of August 22, 2009 through August 23, 2009.

• Apple Opens Up on App Store Approvals #
• Remember Cuil? Now It’s a Real-Time Search Engine #
• GPU Computing and Windows 7 #
• Chromium popularity rising on Ubuntu, gains 64-bit support #
• More tech news on my FriendFeed

Apple Opens Up on App Store Approvals

In response to Apple rejecting Google Voice, the F.C.C. filed an inquiry to investigate Apple’s motives with the possible inclusion of AT&T colluding to ban all non-traditional voice traffic. Apple has responded to the F.C.C. stating AT&T has absolutely no part in the rejection of Google Voice. Its reason for the rejection is that it replicates too much of the iPhone’s phone, texting and voice-mail functionality. They’ve also stated they’re “still investigating” Google Voice and haven’t actually rejected it yet. Source at The New York Times.

Remember Cuil? Now It’s a Real-Time Search Engine

Cuil.com – the search engine engineered by two ex-Google employees launched last year – has added real-time search to their portfolio. While in the beginning the site knew a humongous surge of visitors, its unique visitor rate has been declining drastically ever since. The real-time search capabilities are a welcome addition, though not stellar and certainly not better than existing solutions. Source at Mashable.

GPU Computing and Windows 7

The Windows Blog discusses a new technology that will debut with the release of Windows 7. It’s called GPU Computing and will allow software to utilize the processing power inherent to modern GPU’s outside of graphics processing. By doing this, the main processor(s) can be relieved and address more processing power to other computational tasks. GPU Computing will require DirectX 11, which will be part of Windows 7. nVidia’s GPU’s already support GPU Computing fully. Source at The Windows Blog.

Chromium popularity rising on Ubuntu, gains 64-bit support

Chromium – the open source version that drives the Google Chrome browser – is gaining popularity like wildfire amongst the Linux community. It has recently gained full 64-bit support and is increasingly being seen as a viable competitor to Mozilla Firefox by Linux enthusiasts. Source at ArsTechnica.

In response to social networking sites like Twitter, URL shortening services have been springing up on the web like unsavory fungus on a cheese sandwich, without the prospect of slowing down any time soon. Services like Bit.ly were inspired by the need for compact links when sharing websites in character-limited status updates on Twitter and its Laconica-like counterparts.

While short URLs are extremely useful in these specific contexts, they also pose a serious security threat and are a bad omen of exploits to come. As Twitter-like social networks become more mainstream, regular folk will become (and presumably already are) conditioned to click on any link they come across, with the risk of landing on malicious websites that take advantage of web-based exploits like XSS (Cross-site Scripting).

In my opinion, links should be treated more like e-mail attachments. They are only to be opened when from a trusted domain. While everyone knows random link-clicking is bad web-behavior, it is being encouraged by the uprising of short-form social networks.

Unarguably, something has to change, as the bad guys have already taken the opportunity to start exploiting this phenomenon. Of course, who am I to suggest that services like Bit.ly and compatriots should be yanked from the interwebs if 140-character status updates gain traction on the net.

So, we can’t banish them. But there are things we can do to make URL shortening safer.

Site Specific Shortening URLs

Bit.ly in particular has proven its immense usefulness because of its way-advanced statistical capabilities. So it is in our own interest to keep such services alive. But..

A safer way to go about URL shortening would be to create a federated system. A possible architecture for this could be accomplished by means of a small web application (possibly coming from a third party like TinyURL or Bit.ly) installed onto the sites to which the short URLs will be linking, which in turn would do the redirecting.

For example:

If the shortening app on the given site would only allow short URLs within its own domain, individual networks of short URLs would be created and doing so would allow the user to exactly know where he’s being led to, thus eliminating the risk of contracting WTDs entirely (Web Transmittable Disease ).

Increasingly, I’ve been seeing site which have started doing something similar, but I don’t think they’re actively limiting their URLs to their own domains only. Also, I’m of the opinion that there is a need for a standard in this space. Such a standard could consolidate the matter entirely, making it safer and more uniform in the process.

The technical side of this shouldn’t be too hard, either. It’s just a matter of realizing the danger of having hyperlinks to arbitrary sites and getting some shortening providers assembled to work together to create a standard process for issuing short URLs.

Current third-party URL shorteners could integrate with the federated system to provide a higher user-friendliness. One could still use a service like Bit.ly, but it would go out and check with the domain’s URL-shortener first and return that to the requesting user, first. If not supported or available it could go ahead and generate it anyway.

Click confirmation

Another thought would be to enforce confirmation upon the clicking of a shortened URL. The hyperlink would be intercepted by a page showing information about the domain buried below. It could surface the name, the full URL and other important identifying information. Maybe a database of certified domains could even be established.

Additionally, blacklists like those behind Phishing filters could be employed to heed visitors of suspicious sites. Naturally, these databases would need some kind of governing. Perhaps a web authority like VeriSign could take this responsibility on and possibly wire it to its current SSL-verification process/database…

It’s hard to imagine for me that we’ll all just keep on clicking on links left and right without considering the significant hazard it implies. The web browser is becoming the primary vector for exploits against Internet users. No longer does the the stress lie on the avoidance of e-mail attachments. The threat actually lies within the chrome around each web page you visit.

Security-conscious users [like me] would undoubtedly like to be more cautious with short URLs, but for the lacking of a secure alternative there is nothing else to do but go with the flow for now.

Help. Someone?

News roundup for August 20, 2009.

• Mozilla makes much ado about nothing over browser ballot #
• Xmarks extension alpha for Chrome arrives #
• Archos soft launches own Android app store #
• Irish ISP to block The Pirate Bay #
• IT IS HERE: A Fully Functional Copy of The Pirate Bay #
• Microsoft offers cloud database previews #
• Like Vista, Windows 7 will grant 120 grace period #
• Check out my FriendFeed – uh, feed - for more tech news.

Mozilla makes much ado about nothing over browser ballot

I only recently blasted Opera for pushing its childish whims into the lap of the EU and now Mozilla – Firefox’ creator of which I didn’t expect this – also chimes in and is urging for even more strictness and regulation of Microsoft’s browser ballot screen. If you haven’t read my prior rant, I’ll reiterate: it’s preposterous that Microsoft is even buckling under the EU’s weight, let alone it even have to bolt the specifications of the ballot screen down even more (!). Mozilla spokesperson Anderson brings up issues like “Microsoft is causing inadvertent changing of the default browser in Windows and that’s not right” (which isn’t true, BTW) and other nonsense. Don’t be such a crybaby, Mozilla. Source at ArsTechnica.

Xmarks extension alpha for Chrome arrives

In response to Google’s own bookmark syncing feature for Google Chrome, Xmarks – the maker of password and bookmark syncing add-ons for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari – put out its alpha version of their add-on for Google Chrome. Source at CNET.

Archos launches own Android app store

Archos has launched its own Android application store, in response to Apple and RIM. The apps in this store, however, won’t only work with Android-enabled Archos devices, but will be available to any compatible device. Source at TechRadar.

Irish ISP to block The Pirate Bay

Eircom, an Irish ISP, agreed to cut off customers that illegally downloaded music or movies – after an out-of-court settlement with the entertainment industry. Now, Eircom will also be preventing its customers from viewing The Pirate Bay. Source at IrishTimes.

IT IS HERE: A Fully Functional Copy of The Pirate Bay

Speaking of TPB: after a torrent was put out containing the whole Pirate Bay repository, people were wondering what to do with it. Today, btarena.net has brought a nearly exact replica of the whole Pirate Bay site online, including downloads, tracking and searching. The site is also capable of hosting new torrents, although its creator insists that this must remain to be a mere backup, for now. Source at Mashable.

Microsoft offers cloud database previews

SQL Server 2008 R2 and – more importantly – SQL Azure came out for developers to preview and use with their web applications. SQL Azure is Microsoft’s hosted relational database which developers can rent for a monthly fee. Prices vary between $9.99 US for 1GB to $99.99 US for 10 GB. With SQL Azure, Microsoft provides pay-as-you-go storage and promises graceful scaling – if necessary. Source at ReadWriteWeb.

Like Vista, Windows 7 will grant 120 grace period

Windows 7′s predecessor, Vista,  allowed a user to prolong his 30-day trial to 120 days by using the ‘rearm’ run command at the end each trial period. This was possible up to three times, after which you were supposed to purchase a license key to continue using Windows. As it turns out, Windows 7 – now in final form – will also support this behavior. Moreover, it has been confirmed by Microsoft as not violating the license agreement.

So basically, one can do the 120-day thing, re-install Windows and go at it again – endlessly, without ever needing to pay for Windows 7…

Tech News roundup for August 19, 2009.

• How The Pirate Bay will be legalized #
• Sony unveils slim PS3, price-drops #
• Blogger “strike” in Italy #
• Office Web Applications will support mobile browsers #
• Opinion: Why AT&T killed Google Voice #
• More on my FriendFeed at friendfeed.com/aceontech

How The Pirate Bay will be legalized

GGF – the company which is to acquire The Pirate Bay – has laid out its plan on how it thinks it will be able to legalize the notorious torrent sharing site. It proposes, as it had stated before, to start charging for the use of the site. Use of TBP would include downloading as well as uploading (sharing) of files. It’s not yet set in stone how steep the subscription fee will be, but GGF has stated it would grant copyright holders two options if they object to the free sharing of a certain file. The way they hope to ‘legalize’ TBP is to offer either a financial contribution with each download or pull down certain torrents at request. If copyright holders collectively go for the latter, I imagine TBP won’t continue to exist much longer. Also GGF hopes to establish partnerships with the entertainment industry and possibly start offering ‘official’ paid torrents. Source at TorrentFreak.

Sony unveils slim PS3, price-drops

True to Sony’s track-record and business cycle, it will be putting out a slimmer version of the PS3 somewhere in September. It will allegedly take up 33% less space and suck 34% less power. Sony’s also offering the console at lower prices, near to $300 US for the lower-end model and $400 US for the higher end model. Source at NewsWeek.

Blogger “strike” in Italy

Because of the impending Italian laws that could cause independent bloggers and content creators to have to pay fees if they refuse to pull down content, bloggers decided to have a strike to counter it. The Italian blogosphere went quiet for one day, but one might wonder, is this the way to achieve something? One would rather think it would be more efficient to make more of a raucous instead of plainly shutting up… Source at TechDirt.

Office Web Applications will support mobile browsers

Microsoft’s release of Office 2010 will bring along version 1 of Office Web Applications, the full Office suite for the web, for free. Features will be limited, of course. For only so many features are useful for the web. The surprise here will be that not only all major browsers will be supported, but that mobile browser will also get full support. Microsoft is essentially giving Office away for free to millions of users, including Linux and Mac users alike. Source at ArsTechnica.

Also, read Paul Thurrott’s preview of Office Web Applications 2010.

Opinion: Why AT&T killed Google Voice

Andy Kessler from WSJ writes: “Telecom operators are yesterday’s business. It’s time for a national data policy that encourages innovation” and opines why AT&T pulled Google Voice for the iPhone. The article also broadens its spectrum (pun) and calls for unifying voice traffic and  cable distribution to become mere data traffic – making matters more neutral and ultimately cheaper. Source at WSJ.

Google to venture into creating its own operating system, it was only a matter of time. The day Google released this blurb of news, the whole Internet / Tech community went berserk over the possibility of ‘Goodie Two Shoes’ Google innovating in the operating system space, which is currently dominated by Microsoft. As far as Google’s own announcement goes: it was very low-calorie on substantial technical facts. All of the excitement – of course – was inspired by them voicing that their OS would essentially be extremely browser-centric. Like the name suggests, it will be based on Google’s recent entry into the browser market, being Google Chrome.

Browser = OS ?

Many vocal techies have been shouting this out for quite a while now. After all, the browser has become an operating system in its own right, no? Similar to desktop operating systems, like Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, the browser serves as a platform for other software to live on. In this case, that software just happens to be web-based. These web apps often employ server-side scripting technologies [like Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, PHP, etc.] as well as client-side ones, with the main protagonist being JavaScript.

But can scripting languages genuinely be classified as real software? This is a tough question. Maybe si, maybe no.Cite from Duma Key, written by Stephen King. Fact is that web apps are more and more turning into fully fledged desktop-esque applications. They are taking over the tasks that traditional desktop software used to do so well.

Web-based e-mail is the most popular example of traditional software being ‘webified’. While webmail has been around since the nineties, the true cloud-based e-mail technology was inspired and primarily architected by Google. Gmail – especially in the light of recent developments – has become increasingly more of a program you download every time you point your browser to mail.google.com, rather than just a static listing of your inbox.

Other milestone initiatives have also risen to the occasion to shed some light on the cloud-centered future that may be ahead of us. To me, the most iconic example of this future just has to be Aviary, the online Photoshop replacement. It loads fast, does most of Photoshop’s basic graphical editing, it’s free and it integrates social networking into the digital art creation process. This is what a cloud-oriented world could look like if multiplied. Exciting indeed.

Back to Chrome OS

I started this post by introducing Chrome OS and the exasperation that surrounds it. But what do we really know about this [currently fictional] operating system? It turns out we’ve picked up painfully little in the intervening weeks between announcement and the present.

A quick rundown of its [alleged] feature-set:

• It will be Linux-based: Chrome OS will build off open source code – not a real shocker. Google will not architect the OS’ underpinnings from scratch.
• It will boast Google’s own, proprietary window management front-end, instead of adopting existing window management systems under Linux, such as KDE, Gnome, etc.
• It will incorporate instant-on booting technology, meaning it should start up within a few seconds, much like some existing ‘instant-on’ Linux distributions work today.
• It will be based on the Google Chrome browser. From what has been disclosed, it looks like native software might not even be supported. Web applications will surely be preferred, with Google’s own products naturally being pushed to the forefront.
• Its release is due in 2010 (!). Any excitement generated now is actually uncalled for. The tech community should reserve judgment until someone actually gets some hands-on experience with it.

It’s safe to speculate that Chrome OS will not embrace [taking advantage of] advanced hardware capabilities like 3D hardware acceleration, and nor will it encourage the development [native] third-party software. Google’s take on their operating system is clean and simple: it must be lean on features and fully dedicated to the web.

A big step for Google?

All things considered, I think we all agree it’s a big thing for Google to take on software giant Microsoft – and niche computer maker Apple – at their own game. Google is no longer a small and insignificant competitor: it has spread its business to a multitude of markets. It seems as if it has made a sport out of nipping away at other companies’ core businesses.

But will Google actually know success with this [hopefully] innovative OS? Or, more likely, will it merely serve as a role-model for Microsoft and Apple to build off, an example for ushering their own OSes into the cloudy future?

Once more, no-one should close their eyes to the fact that Chrome OS will be extremely sparse-featured. Google has a history of taking their spartan concepts just a tick too far. A testament to this would have to be the Chrome browser. If it’s to be any indication of what’s in store for us, one doesn’t need a lot of imagination to envision what Chrome OS will look like. It’s not because it’s branded Google, that it’ll necessarily become a good product…

However, there is no doubt in my mind that Google will leave a big impression on the OS industry, which in turn will cause matters to change significantly. I don’t believe, though, that Google will be the one reaping successes from it left and right. In the long run, Microsoft, which is already slowly adopting the cloud-religion, will eventually migrate Windows to a more cloud-based paradigm. It will undoubtedly take them an extended period of time, but in the end I’m sure they’ll nail it.

Although I still strongly believe in Microsoft’s adeptness, it has become a disproportionately big corporation which is inherently slower at maneuvering into new markets / business models than rivals like Google. So inevitably the question to be raised here is whether Microsoft will get there in time…

A world of change is ahead

Either way, no matter who seizes the crown jewels, a world of change is impending. The future is cloud-computing – we all realize it – and everyone is making a jump at it. There is one problem though: nobody really knows exactly what they’re jumping at. Will everything move to the cloud in the end? Or will things remain to be more hybrid, like where we’re at today?

I’m leaving it open.
It’ll be an interesting case to see where we’ll stand in 5 to 10 years.

This is the first entry of what I’m hoping will become a new section here at Ace on Tech. Tech news is a hard thing to grasp, because it’s so crowded and comes at you from all directions. I have decided to write aggregate posts on a regular basis. I obviously cannot deliver to-the-minute technology news because of obvious reasons. Firstly, because I simply don’t have the time and interest and secondly because there are many sites out there way more adept than I could possibly live up to. Sites like cnet.com, arstechnica.com and techradar.com are good places to start.

These posts serve as catch-ups for those who don’t monitor the wire 24/7. Also, be aware that the entries I will highlight here are biased toward my own interest and don’t represent the general tech news of a particular day.

Note that these posts will be published regularly, but not every day. I won’t be doing these on week-ends either, though I may consider doing a weekend round-up. Let’s see where this goes.

Here’s a high level rundown, click the hashes to jump to its excerpt and source:

• Windows 7 to sell in UK for half the US price #
• Google adds Bookmark Sync to Chome #
• XP users enthusiastic about Windows 7 #
• 10 things you need to know about HDMI 1.4 #
• Sony delays big-screen OLED TV #

Windows 7 to sell in UK half of US price

Traditionally, it seems the UK has always been stricken by Microsoft enforcing steep pricing, especially when compared to the United States. For the first time, Windows will be sold at a lower price than in the States. Half the price to be exact. The version we’re talking about is Windows 7 Home Premium FULL, not upgrade. It will be sold for as little as 65 GBP, which is less than Americans need to pay for the UPGRADE version. It’s half the price of the US full edition. Even more interestingly, Amazon UK has stated it will be sustaining these prices “indefinitely”.
Source at CNET UK.

August 18, 2009: The day Google added Bookmark Sync to Chrome

I literally saw dozens of news sites and blogs report on this. Okay, Chrome will support native bookmark sync , but what’s the big deal? Firefox, Internet Explorer and Apple Safari have had it for ages [through XMarks]. Nonetheless, folks seem to think this is a big story, so that’s why it’s here. Let me recap: “Google is getting bookmark sync!”. Chrome is a still a feature-impaired browser – with or without bookmark sync.

XP users enthusiastic about Windows 7

PC World and Technologizer conducted a survey on the amount of enthusiasm about Windows 7 with 5000 Windows XP users. Results show that 70% of those surveyed rate their enthusiasm for the upcoming release of Windows 7 as “high”. This stands in stark contrast to their ratings to Vista, which they graded overwhelmingly as “somewhat negative” to “very negative”. Source at Technologizer.com.

10 things you need to know about HDMI 1.4

With the new HDMI-cable standard comes new features. And the impact of the features HDMI 1.4 will offer is pretty profound. Consequentially, 1.4 will be incompatible with prior TV models and boxes. A full upgrade will thus be required to take advantage of HDMI 1.4.
It offers:

• Integrated 100 Mbps Ethernet channel
• Dual Stream 1080p 3D support
• Support for Ultra HD resolutions up to 4K x 2K (effectively 4096 x 2160 pixels)
• Other, less interesting stuff can be found at the source.

HDMI 1.4 will be available in the marketplace by 2010. Perhaps you may want to hold off on that nearing HDTV purchase. Source at TechRadar.com.

Sony delays big-screen OLED TV

Sony will not be manufacturing bigger OLED TVs in the foreseeable future. Sony currently maintains the only OLED TV on the market. It’s the XEL-1 at only 11 inches big and a price point of $2000 US. Rather pricey for a such a small screen, but word has it that the picture quality is above anything else you’ve seen before.  Sony is probably focusing on its core – albeit less innovative – business, until the recession is over. Source at BoingBoing.com.