• Solid-State Drives Go Mainstream #
• Woofer: This Twitter look-alike requires 1,400 characters #
• Using ‘Free’ to Turn a Profit #
• Hey, PC, Who Taught You to Fight Back? #
• Is Apple the Enemy of the TV Industry? Microsoft Thinks So #
• Apple kicks ZFS in the butt #

Solid-State Drives Go Mainstream

While prices for SSDs are still significantly high when compared to conventional spinning hard drives, mainstream consumers are starting to see the benefit of this new technology. As more and more manufacturers and models are available on the market, computer vendors are starting to incorporate them into lower-end computers as well. Because SSDs are currently still limited in storage space (up to 256GB, .5TB & 1TB are available but are prohibitively expensive), more and more people are turning to them as complimentary storage. SSDs can easily contain the operating system and applications, while other data can be stored on normal HDDs. Because SSDs are inherently faster, this workflow would evidently speed up your computer. ComputerWorld elaborates.

This Twitter look-alike requires 1,400 characters

I generally ignore Twitter “news” because it is cumbersome and totally useless – in my mind, but this one’s too funny. Woofer, an astoundingly accurate Twitter-lookalike actually requires you to update your status with at least 1,400 characters, as opposed to Twitter’s maximum of 140 characters. Woofer advises its users to be eloquent, to use adverbs and never to abbreviate. Via CNET News.

Using ‘Free’ to Turn a Profit

This editorial article from NYTimes gets together with Evernote and discusses its – and many other web businesses’ – revenue model. True to the web’s nature, Evernote is free for everyone to use. But how does the company make money? NYTimes finds out.

Hey, PC, Who Taught You to Fight Back?

Again from the NYTimes, this article describes Microsoft and Apple’s ad-fighting history in light of both companies’ latest television commercials. While Apple has always been big on advertising, it seems Microsoft has been making renewed commitments with its latest efforts – and is getting some results from it, too. From NYTimes.

Is Apple the Enemy of the TV Industry? Microsoft Thinks So

Microsoft’s Director of Consumer and Online in the UK has expressed his concerns with the Television Industry’s future if it doesn’t take initiatives to move its repertoire to the web and keep its content out of the hands of a single online entity – read: Apple. According to the said Director, the industry should be wary of what he called an “iTunes moment”, referring to the music industry and Apple’s hold on it with iTunes. The same could become true with TV, Microsoft warns. Via Mashable.

Apple kicks ZFS in the butt

In other Apple news, it turns out Apple completely yanked the promised ZFS functionality from its latest OS, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. ZFS is Sun’s open source, highly reliable and modern file system that would make its entree into the consumer operating system market for the first time with Snow Leopard – as announced two years ago by Apple itself. With every developer release of OS X 10.6 traces of ZFS became vaguer and the final release completely erases any trace of it – silently. Microsoft was harshly called out for yanking WinFS from Windows Vista, but is anyone paying any attention when Apple pulls the same stunt? ZDNet blog post.

• Google Now Offers Over a Million Free Ebooks in EPUB Format #
• Microsoft cuts Xbox price by 25 percent #
• Asustek to launch e-book reader under Eee family #
• Confirmed: $29 Snow Leopard Installs Whether or Not You’ve Got Leopard #

Google Now Offers Over a Million Free Ebooks in EPUB Format

Google currently offers 1 million books in EPUB format through it’s Google Books portal. Many of these books are in the public domain, so many of them are pretty old. But old books can still be good. Source at Mashable.

Microsoft cuts Xbox price by 25 percent

Microsoft has intensified the price war with Sony by lowering the price of its XBOX360 by approximately 25%. The Elite model will be 100$ US cheaper, with its 299$ US price point. The Arcade remains the same at 249$ US. The middle model, called the Pro, will be discontinued. This leaves the consumer with a simplified choice, says Microsoft. As of now, Microsoft is the only console manufacturer with positive sales. Source at Reuters.

Asustek to launch e-book reader under Eee family

eBook-readers seem to be in vogue lately. Word goes round that Asus, maker of the EeePC, will also be manufacturing an eBook-reader to compete with Amazon and Sony. Source at DigiTimes.

Confirmed: $29 Snow Leopard Installs Whether or Not You’ve Got Leopard

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard will cost Leopard-users $30, and Tiger users $169, because they are supposed to purchase the Box Set. This includes the new OS, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09. It has been confirmed that OS X 10.6 will also install whether or not you’re actually using 10.5. It turns out the so called upgrade disc doesn’t check for prior versions. If you’re still on Tiger, you can skip Leopard all together and save a lot of money, but you’ll be violating Apple’s EULA. Source at Lifehacker.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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…

While it is possible to make Safari [always] open links in new tabs, there is no user-friendly way to do this. To accomplish this behavior you will have to enter a line in Terminal.app:

• Quit Safari (CMD+Q)
• Open Terminal (\Applications\Utitlities\Terminal.app)
• Enter:
  defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true
• Close Terminal and re-open Safari

Tada! That does it indeed. While this is easy enough, Apple should have included it here:

Note: A solution to this problem in the Windows-version of Safari 4 has not yet been found.

• Top Sites: Tab homepage similar to Google Chrome’s, only fancier
• Cover Flow: Integration of iTunes-like Cover Flow for viewing history and bookmarks
• Tabs on Top: Also taken from Google Chrome (see screenshots)
• Nitro Javascript Engine: Once more, inspired by Chrome. Safari’s JS engine would render web apps up to 30 times faster than IE7 and 4 times faster than Firefox.

Not that I’m complaining, but did Apple just take the Chromium project and tack on its own additions? I haven’t looked into this yet, but Safari 4 certainly shows a lot of similarities with Google Chrome… On to some screenshots.

Note: After having used Safari 4 for 10 minutes, I already came across a rendering bug. When attempting to edit a link in WordPress’ WYSIWYG-editor, the page greys out and becomes unresponsive, forcing me to refresh and lose all unsaved work. Beta software indeed.

True geeks will love every bit of this clip that suffixed a recent episode of the Simpsons (read the transcript):

The video above is not complete. The full video was taken down again.