By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

The Vista experience – what exactly is it? Microsoft continuously strives to improve the experience users of its operating systems are subjected to.

This is one of Microsoft’s biggest concerns when developing their computing platforms. Microsoft wants the average consumer to be more productive via a user friendly and intuitive interface - the Vista experience.

However it appears that consumers abroad and some of the industries largest players think otherwise. In a recent move by the currently No. 1 PC maker giant – Hewlett-Packard, the user experience is being viewed from a different angle. HP has put together a team of engineers that are focused on developing software that will essentially by-pass certain elements of Windows Vista.

HP has acknowledged this effort as the ‘customer experience’ group which was put together nine months ago under the watch of Susie Wee – a former director within HP’s research labs. This ‘customer experience’ team is developing on touch-screen technologies and other software that will allow consumers to perform functions such as watching movies, view digital photos and manage other media and content much easier.

Quoting HP’s chief technology officer, Phil McKinney “Our customers are looking for insanely simple technology where they don’t have to fight with the technology to get the task done.”

Upon launch Windows Vista drew a lot of criticism from its target audience with claims that it “slows computers down” and “does not work smoothly for certain tasks.”

Employees involved with an internal project at HP are looking at possibilities of replacing Windows with a customized HP-assembled operating system. McKinney claims any discussions about building a customized operating system to rival Windows are happening below senior-management levels at this time. There was no denial that some employees may have had such conversations, but HP is not devoting substantial resources into such projects.

Still however, sources claim that employees within HP’s PC division are exploring possibilities of building a mass-market, customized operating system based on Linux. The goal would be to make an operating system that is actually easy to use for mainstream users. According to sources this goal would strengthen HP against Apple and make them much less dependent on the Windows platform. For the record, Apple has been increasing in Market share with its easy to use computers using its own customized operating system. Food for thought?

Several of Microsoft’s partners are stepping up support for Windows alternatives as well. Intel is now promoting Linux for a new class of mini-laptops that use its Atom processor. Dell has also introduced a mini-laptop that can run Linux as well – they also may be using the operating system for digital media players according to someone that is familiar with the company’s plans. “It is an endrun around Windows,” says Rob Enderle, president of tech consultant Enderle Group.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

It seems Lenovo has decided to stop selling Linux loaded machines online and instead will only sell PCs and notebooks pre-loaded with Linux through its channel organizations.

A spokesperson for the company told ComputerWorld that the company’s commitment to Linux hasn’t changed, but with the elimination of Linux and last month’s omission of Linux on the company’s latest netbook we’d be inclined to wonder.

At the beginning of August, Lenovo announced its push into the netbook industry with the new IdeaPad. However, while many of Lenovo’s markets will have the option to choose between Linux and Windows, Linux is not an option for North Americans.

Lenovo did not release any comment on why Linux was not available for the IdeaPad, although comparison of the U.S. press release with the IdeaPad release from other countries shows that the exclusion of Linux from the netbook is not global.

We’re beginning to wonder about Lenovo and Linux. The same spokesperson also said that the reason the company was ditching Linux for orders made via the web was because the demand for Linux-based machines from online orders was not meeting expectations.

Lenovo and Linux have been holding hands since 2000.

Read more on ComputerWorld.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

Mozilla has said that the next Firefox update, Firefox 3.1, will include private searching, similar to Chrome and Internet Explorer 8.

When the folks at Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 8 would incorporate a feature that would allow users to surf the web without having their searches recorded in the browser’s history or have cookies stored in their system (some refer to this as a "porn mode," for those to hide their unwanted tracks), rumors made the rounds that Mozilla would be incorporating a similar function into Firefox 3 at the earliest available opportunity.

Sure enough just a couple of weeks later, Mozilla has said private browsing will be a feature on 3.1. This will bring Firefox up to the same standard privacy-wise as Safari, IE8 and the latest addition to the browser war, Google’s Chrome.

According to a report in ComputerWorld, developers over at Mozilla were eager to have private browsing be a part of Firefox 3.1 and even more so once Chrome was released. The Firefox team have come to the same obvious conclusions in terms of the advantages of private browsing that we’ve heard from Microsoft and Apple. If people are using internet cafes or public terminals that see hundreds of different users every week, they may want to erase their history or not have it recorded at all. This goes double if they’re doing online banking or any activities that involve parting with sensitive information on a public machine.

3.1 is expected to be released in beta sometime in October.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

There has been some talk about Nvidia not releasing any new GPUs any time soon, but ELSA’s presentation slip could offer a peek at what’s next.

A recently leaked ELSA slide, if legitimate, indicates two new GPU’s scheduled to arrive on the shelves. The GT206 and GT212.

From what we can see in the leaked slide, the GT206 will be based on 55nm and the GT212 on 40nm. Pending the validity of this projection chart, the GT206 is slated to replace the GTX260 around the first quarter 2009, then with the GT212 replacing the GTX280 closer to the second quarter 2009.

Interestingly enough the GT212 is specified as TSMC’s 40nm manufacturing process. Other technical data and cost estimations are yet to be learned. If this leak indeed reflects what is to come, then we can more than likely expect more leaked data or publicized information shortly.

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By Aaron Heibert - Source : Tom's Hardware

A recent patent application filed by Google Inc. is sure to float your boat.

Patent application #20080209234, according to its abstract is for a ‘Water-Based Data center’ — essentially a floating Data-Center powered by the sea itself using waves and wind to generate electricity and sea water for the cooling systems. If you think that is pretty far-out, read on.

Google is no stranger to the legal system. Practically everyone and their dog as made a legal run at them over the years, some of which met headlines around the globe. Some of you may recall Google being sued over a privacy issue surrounding ‘Street View’ – still cameras mounted on vehicles driving around your neighborhood taking pictures from multiple angles. These photos were then put together to create panoramic views of city streets, towns and quite possibly the very street you live on.

So what does this have to do with a recent patent application filed by Google? Let us take a look at this situation from a few angles if this were to become a reality.

If these ‘Water-Based Data centers’ were to be placed inside of International waters then Google would be somewhat free from the current laws and regulations that bind how it does business. Google could essentially invade your privacy a lot easier. Not to say they actually would, but it would be entirely easier for them to do so.

Taxes would be handled a lot more differently. This could mean bigger profits for Google resulting in faster turn-around times in research, thus becoming a benefit to everyone else.

Another interesting thought that washes everything already said ashore is that US patents most likely cannot be enforced on International waters. So what exactly is the point behind this recently filed patent? Are there more entities out there with the same idea? Is Google trying to do the right thing for the environment and go ‘green’? One can only imagine the possibilities at this point.

A lot of patents get filed every day and end up being no more than writing on paper. Google moves pretty fast however, so time will tell what the whole idea behind this filing is. For now Google will continue to sail on digital soil.

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By Marcus Yam - Source : Tom's Hardware

It isn’t easy being Windows Vista, living with the stigma of being inferior to its predecessor.

Much of the public carries with it even today the opinion that Windows Vista is the undesirable choice for a PC operating system, despite Microsoft’s best efforts.

In fairness, Windows Vista got off on the wrong foot when it launched in early 2007. Microsoft knows this, but for obvious reasons must downplay many of the operating system’s issues. It is for that reason, then, that it surprised many that a “high-ranking Windows product manager” spoke to Maximum PC in mid-June about Vista’s teething problems.

The Microsoft employee detailed several key issues that plagued the early days, many of which can be attributed to bad GPU drivers from Nvidia. While it would be unwise for Microsoft to point the finger at a major hardware partner, internal Microsoft memos put 18 percent of all Vista crashes around launch time as a result of unstable Nvidia drivers.

Along with unstable drivers, gamers had a reason to be especially disappointed with the OS as games ran better and faster on Windows XP. Moving to the newer OS was often a dramatic downgrade in performance. The source told Maximum PC that “spending the money to port DirectX 10 to Windows XP would have been worth the expense.” Even more crushing might be his view on the Games for Windows initiative, calling it “a disaster, with nothing more than 64-bit compatibility for games to show for years of effort.”

The source also conceded that Apple’s control over the software and hardware side allows it to avoid such compatibility problems, making Macs more and more appealing to consumers.

Windows Vista also annoyed users quickly with its User Account Control, prompting users at every change made to the system. Vista users have become so accustomed to clicking “allow” on all warnings that one has to wonder if the system is really that much more secure when factoring user habits.

According to Erik Lustig, a senior product manager responsible for Windows Fundamentals, Windows Vista is the most secure Microsoft operating system to date, validating some of the design choices. For the move from XP to Vista, Lustig said Microsoft made “changes that have had some short-term ramifications that we’ve worked very hard the last year and a half, and through Service Pack 1, to address. ... I believe that those changes are going to be a fundamental basis for the integrity of the platform.”

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of Windows Vista is that it launched before it was fully ready. While many users still maintain their preference for Windows XP, few may realize how far Vista has come thanks to Service Pack 1.

With half a year already under Windows Vista SP1’s belt, the operating system is now performing at levels expected of it at launch. Windows Vista is now stable, fast and perhaps most importantly, more secure. It’s unfortunate then, that most current Windows XP users won’t see the strides made by Microsoft until the launch of Windows 7.

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By Jane McEntegart - Source : Tom's Guide

The latest Bill and Jerry commercial aired last night and while it wasn’t quite as confusing as the last one, it still didn’t make much sense.

The latest episode of the Bill and Jerry advertising campaign hit our screens on Thursday, and while we’re equally as confused as the last time, we actually sort of liked it.

Watching the first commercial, most people were just plain bewildered. It wasn’t all that funny and it was pretty much the longest minute and a half we’d ever experienced. We’re not sure what made the second installment that bit more entertaining. There were the same oddly random jokes and awkward questions and similarly uncomfortable ending. So, what made the ad better?

Perhaps that it was longer and there was more time to make it funny, more time to work in the jokes and more time to outline some kind of plot. Upping the original ad from a minute and a half to four and a half minutes made it seem like less of an ad and more like a short episode of “The Bill and Jerry Show.”

Yesterday’s commercial sort of reminded us of an episode of the Simple Life. It sees Bill and Jerry attempting to give themselves a nice healthy dose of reality by spending some time living with a normal, everyday family.

“Why, Bill? Because as we discussed, you and I are a little out of it. You’re livin’ in some kinda moon-house, hovering over Seattle like the mothership and I got so many cars, I get stuck in my own traffic,” Jerry explains. “We need to connect with real people!”

However some things never change and the fact that Microsoft still didn’t mention anything at all about the company until the very end of the commercial probably helped make it seem less like an ad. Finishing with another obscure question from Jerry Seinfeld about the developments being made at Microsoft, this commercial lacks Bill Gates butt, although, you do get to see him bust a move.

“Bill, you’ve connected over a billion people, I can’t help wondering what’s next. Frog with an email, goldfish with a website, amoeba with a blog… If it’s yes, give me a sign, gimme a little robot”.

Again, not exactly pushing the product or the company, but more amusing than watching Bill Gates "adjust his shorts."

A lot of people responded to the first ad with suspicions that Microsoft was trying to look cool. Hiring Jerry Seinfeld, a man with his own popular and very funny TV show, to do your commercials is bound to get you some brownie points with fans. Unfortunately these same people came to the conclusion that Microsoft could never be cool and shouldn’t try. This day last week, we’d have agreed however, this ad was ten times better than the old one and we’re finding ourselves looking forward to the next one. Sure, as an advertisement for Microsoft, it’s pretty lame, but it’s entertainment and people are talking about it, so maybe Microsoft’s marketing team are doing something right.

Unfortunately, a closer look puts a damper on the Seinfeld/Gates comedy experience. When you remember that they’re trying to push a product and the theme of this ad is obviously connectivity, it seems they send the wrong message entirely. The end of the ad sees the two evicted from the ’normal, every day home’, despite Bill’s declaration that he thought they connected with the family, it didn’t really work out in the end. Check out the advert and decide for yourself.

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By Marcus Yam - Source : Tom's Guide

To no one’s surprise, Nintendo once again eclipsed all competition in monthly console sales from NPD Group.

Throughout August, the Nintendo DS sold the greatest numbers with 518, 300 units – an impressive feat considering that the summer months are usually slow with new game releases. Vacation plans and road trips could have pushed more consumers to look for portable gaming.

The Wii continues to steamroll along, moving 453,000 consoles. With these strong sales amidst slow software months, it’s conceivable that there could be once again supply issues come holiday season.

“The positive public response to Nintendo DS and Wii has stayed strong throughout 2008,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. “New titles like Madden NFL 09 All-Play for Wii have joined top 10 veterans like Wii Fit, demonstrating the wide and long-lasting appeal of Nintendo games.”

Perhaps the vacation times and demand for portables has also worked in Sony’s favor, as the third best selling hardware for the month was the PSP, with 253,000 sold.

The Xbox 360 took fourth place at 195,200 sold, though Microsoft was quick to point out that the price cuts that took place in early September visibly boosted sales.

Microsoft revealed from its internal data, “Console sales across all Xbox 360 models were up over 100 percent between Friday, Sept. 5 and Sunday, Sept. 7. The Xbox 360 Arcade system, now the lowest priced next generation console on the market at $199, showed the largest lift, selling at six times the rate it was the weekend before.”

Although Sony’s consoles were at the bottom of the list, PlayStation 3 wasn’t far behind the Xbox 360 with 185,400 sold, while the PS2 still hung on at 144,100.

“We had yet another strong month for PlayStation in August, which validates that consumers are indeed recognizing the long-term value that PS3 offers as both a gaming and home entertainment device,” said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We also began shipping the new 80GB PS3 model in late August to address any short term inventory transitions from the 40GB to 80GB model.”

With Nintendo so far ahead of the pack, both Sony and Microsoft realize that the only battle left is for second place. Expect both to bring out the big guns this fall, leading up to the holiday season, making it a great time to be a gamer.

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By Steve Seguin - Source : Tom's Guide

While Apple’s venture into the consumer smartphone market has been gathering plenty of attention, RIM’s looking to crash that party by showing Apple how it’s really done

Just a day after unveiling its first flip phone, Research In Motion (RIM) further emphasized its clear intent to bring its Blackberry smartphones to the consumer market. RIM Announced Thursday at CTIA its new ’lifestyle’ integrated applications for the Blackberry, including new partnerships with TiVo, Microsoft, MySpace, Slacker and Ticketmaster. RIM is looking to make a big splash as it makes its full entry into the consumer market and it seems like Apple is standing right in its sights.

A phone is about communication and RIM has never forgotten that- it has built its empire on that ideology. While Blackberrys are not exactly known for their phone abilities, RIM has nearly perfected the art of mobile email communication to the degree where as hard as other companies try, RIM’s hold on that market remains unquestioned. As great as push email is for the the corporate environment however, its not a consumer-targeted style of communication, nor is the design of the classic Blackberry very well suited for the consumer. RIM is looking to change all that by creating a future of Blackberrys with consumer communication and needs in mind.

The expansion for RIM from the corporate environment to the consumer environment is really nothing new. The first Blackberrys were text-only email devices with monochrome displays- even the addition of full phone functionality was not an option until later. The first designs of Blackberrys were also dull and boring in appearance and arguably remained that way until only rather recently. The addition of an integrated camera was another more recent addition, an often unwanted feature in the corporate environment, but adored by consumers. The candy bar-styled Blackberry Pearl was yet another clear sign of the direction RIM was expanding- it was a more affordable device with a more consumer styled design that still worked well for email.

RIM’s excellent tactile qwerty keypad has also attracted some consumer attention and with the ever increasingly consumer-friendly designs, crackberry addicts are now being made of even teenagers, something RIM’s quarterly growth reflects. With the Blackberry Pearl Flip 8220 announced Wednesday, the Blackberry Bold now shipping and a touchscreen-based Blackberry soon to come, it is clear RIM has all the hardware needed now to make a really big splash in the consumer market. The flip phone is an inexpensive consumer favorite, the Blackberry Bold remains true to older Blackberry designs and the upcoming touchscreen Blackberry is a clear attempt to violate Apple’s personal space.

RIM has not forgotten the most important aspect for these new smartphones though and that is communication. While Apple is trying to create its own little world in a world with its AppStore, focusing on games and widgets, RIM knows its the ability to communicate well that will make smartphones sell. Already partnered with Facebook, RIM’s newest partnerships with TiVo, Microsoft, MySpace, Slacker and Ticketmaster just go to show that RIM knows where the communication flows from for consumers. Although applications allowing for Facebook and MySpace interactions are not necessarily new to mobile devices, if there was one company that could perfect such form of communication, it’s RIM.

RIM’s other partnerships speak of even greater things to come from the new Blackberry devices, such as advanced remote TiVo scheduling and browsing, exclusive Slacker radio services, powerful Microsoft search engine features and online ticket sales. What’s even better about this all is that a lot of these services can be accessed through WiFi, saving on cellular carrier charges. Apple can continue to load up on fluffed features and services, but if they cannot provide what is actually important to the consumer, they are going to have a rough time competing with RIM, especially if their most affordable smartphone remains the iPhone.

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By Kevin Parrish - Source : Tom's Hardware

Wednesday NCSoft announced its plans to consolidate its western offices by the end of 2008. Led by Chris Chung, previous CEO of NC Interactive, NC West will merge NC Europe, NC Austin, ArenaNET as well as NC Interactive into one subsidiary located in Seattle, Washington. While NCSoft is based in Korea, NC West will handle the western regions including Europe and North America.

“We are confident that by combining our subsidiaries into a unified global organization under Chris Chung’s leadership, NC West will become a more powerful force to be reckoned with in the western MMO market,” said NCSoft CEO TJ Kim in a press release. “Chris has become a guiding force within our company and has been extremely successful at every position he has held with us.  His detailed first-hand knowledge of all aspects of our business is invaluable and will help establish NC West as a global leader.”

The new subsidiary arrives at the heels of Blizzard’s recent announcement of both Diablo 3 and last year’s big Starcraft 2 reveal. Anticipation alone could jeopardize NCSoft sales in North America alone despite steady subscription counts in City of Heroes/Villains (137,000) and Lineage 2 (610,000) once Blizzard’s two mammoth games hit the streets. Currently Guild Wars is NCSoft’s biggest contender with over five million units sold thus far, and doesn’t require a monthly fee.

However, NC West’s biggest weapon against the Blizzard giant will be the upcoming MMORPG Guild Wars 2. The Guild Wars "sequel" will feature true MMORPG gameplay but without the hefty monthly fee currently enforced in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. With the western subsidiaries now under one roof, NC West will be able to fully utilize the expertise of ArenaNet’s Jeff Strain, Patrick Wyatt and Mike O’Brien; all three held senior positions at Blizzard prior to the formation of ArenaNet in 2000.

But with ten million subscribers and dominating 62-percent the MMORPG market, its a wonder if anything will topple World of Warcraft. Funcom’s Age of Conan looks barbaric enough to tackle Blizzard’s beast, racking in over 700,000 subscribers in just two months after its initial release. Currently NCSoft has scrapped the initial 2008 release date for Guild Wars 2, offering no further clues to its eventual publication. While it quite possible that the delay is the result from NCSoft’s restructuring, the game actually entered the alpha stage this year.

Whether Guild Wars 2 has anything to do with the formation of NC West or not, the merging of the four subsidiaries seems to be a logical one.  “There is an unparalleled opportunity for growth in the massively multiplayer online market,” said Chris Chung. “By combining the strength of our US and European teams, NCsoft has the best global infrastructure to win in new and existing markets, and the best developer talent capable of creating blockbuster MMO franchises.”

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By Devin Connors - Source : Tom's Hardware

According to ZDNet, anonymous sources close to Microsoft have claimed that Beta 1 of Windows 7 should be out sometime in mid to late December. Also, it seems likely because of a December release, those who attend Microsoft’s tech conferences in the coming months (Professional Developers Conference in October and Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in November), might not get that early look at the beta they were hoping for. While the beta seems to be several months off, a small and select group of users have been privy to the two Milestone builds of Windows 7, with a third build supposedly on the way.

If we do see a beta in December, it would make the supposed late-2009 release of Windows 7 look much more realistic, given that the new "major release" OS would have about 12 months as an official beta. However, it would not be a total surprise if he release got pushed to early 2010. A wide release beta will likely happen whenever the expected features of Windows 7 are complete. This will more than likely include Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Center, a possible "superbar" and updates to old favorites like WordPad, Paint, and the taskbar.

One of the more skeptical features of the new OS is the goal of a 15-second boot time. With current mainstream technology, and even looking forward to the next one or two hardware development cycles, this seems unlikely. However, if something like Intel’s Turbo Memory were to become more popular, we could see more software take advantage of having anywhere from 1GB of flash or more to play with. With Turbo Memory available in a myriad of laptops (but not nearly as many desktops), it wouldn’t be a total shock to see Microsoft take full advantage of this extra memory in the future.

As far as betas go, Windows 7 shouldn’t be any different from previous endeavors. According to Windows Customer Engineering program manager Christina Storm, "we will also be collecting feedback from this (Windows Feedback) panel and asking for participation from a set of Windows 7 beta users. Our current plans call for signing up for the beta to happen in the standard Microsoft manner on http://connect.microsoft.com." So for those of you who want the earliest glimpse of Windows 7 possible, keep hitting F5 on the Microsoft Connect site.

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By Marcus Yam - Source : Tom's Hardware

EA has released the final specifications of its specialized “Crysis” machine that it intends to offer for those looking to get into PC gaming’s most demanding title.

In late July, we reported that EA was planning on releasing special Crysis-branded PCs that would be both affordable and well-equipped to handle the most graphically demanding game of today. Details of this machine are now hitting the Internet, just in time for the release of Crysis Warhead, the next installment to the series, on September 16.

The Crysis Warhead PC will carry with it the following specifications:

- Nvidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB
- Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66 GHz
- G31 mATX motherboard
- 2 GB DDR2 PC6400
- 250 GB hard drive
- 16X DVD-ROM
- Integrated LAN
- Integrated audio
- Keyboard and mouse
- 500 Watt PSU
- Ultra X-Blaster ATX mid-tower
- One-year parts and labor warranty

All of the above will cost only $699 and will come with everything except a monitor and headphones or speakers. The Crysis Warhead PC is the result of ideas from EA, Crytek, Nvidia and the company who will build the machine – Ultra PC.

Crytek’s originally supplied the specifications to EA as recommended system requirements, but Nvidia stepped in with the idea of selling it as a pre-built machine.

Crysis franchise producer Bernd Diemer explained the concept to Chris Remo’s blog, saying, ”When we started working on Warhead, we decided performance was a big issue. So we said, ‘Guys, we’re going to build a PC which has a maximum price of six or seven hundred dollars, and it has to run Warhead in high spec at an average framerate of 30.’ We built that PC—Crytek in the Budapest office [where Warhead was developed]—and we put it in the middle of the studio, and every review was on that machine. All the milestone presentations we did for EA, for the Yerlies [founding brothers Cevat, Avni, and Faruk], for the team, all the new prototypes, we showed on that machine.”

The hammered out specifications allowed the development team to borrow a little bit from the console-mentality of optimizing towards a certain platform.

“For us, it was really helpful, because we sort of had a hard cap,” Diemer added. “You couldn’t say, ‘It works on my computer, looks great on my machine.’ No no no, this is the benchmark, guys. If it sucks on this, the whole thing sucks. For us as a team, that was really valuable. We had a tangible border we could bump our heads into.”

Interestingly enough, the Crysis Warhead PC will not come packed with Windows Vista and its supposed gaming prowess. Instead, according to GameCyte, the system will be preloaded with Windows XP Professional with the latest updates and Service Pack 3.

Online retailer TigerDirect already has a campaign paged advertising the $699 system. Slightly confusing, however, is that the machine won’t come pre-bundled with Crysis Warhead or the original Crysis – making the special Crysis machine just sensibly put together gaming PC.

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