Thursday, March 30, 2006

Fujitsu Plans 200GB Laptop Drive for Q3

Fujitsu keeps its promise to begin shipping a 200GB hard disk drive for laptop computer in the third quarter. The release schedule is earlier than what Fujitsu predicted last year, when it said such drives wouldn't be available until 2007.The drive may be available in systems for end users this year.

Fujitsu will utilize a Serial ATA (SATA) interface for the new hard drive, not unlike its current 160GB hard rive. Fujitsu targets market for the laptop, music players and digital video recorders, which is expected to see strong growth over the next few years.

Source: Computer World

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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Free Student & Teacher Tool For Microsoft Office

A free program as companion to Microsoft Office is provided by Microsoft which designed to help students work through their school assignments and to help teachers put together effective lessons and handle administrative tasks. This tool called Learning Essentials comes in two flavors: one for student and one for teacher.


Microsoft also provides Content Development Kit (CDK) that allows you to build your own project-based teaching tools. The CDK contains wizards, forms, and toolbars to create tutorials and templates, and project assistance to guide students and teachers in completing projects.

Download Program | Download CDK

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Apple's Nightmare in Europe

Apple's problems in Europe are likely getting worse and worse. After the heels of France’s legislative to push DRM interoperability of its popular music store, Denmark is thinking along the same line. According to Maersk, Dansk Supermarked's product manager, Henrik Olesen, the DRM interoperability would be a win-win solution and would not hurt Apple.
"We would like to ask the politicians to follow the route they're taking in France, so that it becomes as easy as possible for the consumers to purchase music legally. This will in the end mean larger gross sales for all music stores," he said.
At the moment, Apple locks in its consumer with its iTunes + iPod combination. If you shop from iTunes music store, it can only be played on iPod and impossible to transfer to another player.

Last year, Apple refused to open its iPod DRM music format to competitors. As a result, US Congress is considering requiring all technologies and music labels to use a single DRM format for music. Apple failed to appear at the Congressional hearing.

Source

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Manga Go Mobile

With about 80 million people in Japan are using their mobiles from texting to surfing the Internet and making video calls, there are plenty rooms to expand. Another string that has been released recently in Japan is mobile manga that is a service that allow mobile phone's owner to read manga (Japanese comic) in their mobile phones.

For starter, there are a number of sites that offer subscription fee of $10 to $15 a month. You can download every genre, as many as you like. Bandai Networks is one of the largest publishing outfits with 20,000 users subscribing to a catalogue of 400+ titles.

According to Mahota Asunuma of Bandai Networks, mobile users are becoming used to doing more and more with their phones, so the transition will be smooth. Also, the improvement of mobile screen that uses liquid crystal display will make people get less tired than they used to reading books on a phone. This new technology will significantly help to improve the market penetration.

Source: BBC News

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Microsoft Producer for PowerPoint 2003

Microsoft released a free tool for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 which can help you easily capture, synchronize, and publish audio, video, slides, and images. This tool will be very extremely useful when you fancy about creating attractive presentation.


Following the features that Microsoft Producer offers:
- Support a wide variety of audio and video formats
- Capture live audio and video
- Select various video effects and transitions
- Supports importing timeline from external source
- Embedding presentation in HTML
- Automatic creation and publication of project files
- Share your presentation on intranet, internet or by CD
- Create a project archive by using the Pack and Go Wizard
- Integrate your presentation in a FrontPage Web

After you create and preview a Producer presentation, you can publish it so that it can be viewed in your web browser. Microsoft Producer is also available for Microsoft PowerPoint 2002.

Source | System Requirement | Download

Monday, March 27, 2006

12 Years Old Student Built A Google Desktop Plug-In

A seventh-grade student of Lake Country Christian School, Adam Faulkner, created a plug-in for Google Desktop that displays the verse of the day from BibleGateway.com. He submitted the plug-in to Google earlier this year. Google tests each plug-ins and posts ones that conform to the company's plug-in guidelines.

His plug-ins now is featured along with another 150 plug-ins listed on Google's plug-ins website. Adam is rewarded as a Google Programmer and also received a Google Desktop t-shirt. Adam said he is happy about his plug-in and seeks room for the improvement of the version 2.

Source: Start Telegram

Nintendo to Offer 1000 Classic Games

Nintendo Revolution, the next generation console from Nintendo, is going to rely pretty heavily on the past. The company plans to offer 1000 classic games from Sega and Hudson Software and makes it available to download using its online service called the Revolution Virtual Console.

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in a keynote speech at the Game Developer Conference said that classic games are brand new for young player, where for older players those classic games will bring back their memories.

Nintendo has to be innovative to gain its position back as a leader in game industry, before the crown was taken by Sony PlayStation. Overall, Sony has sold 101 million PlayStation 2 worldwide, following by Microsoft's Xbox which made 24 million sales. Meanwhile, Nintendo's GameCube has sold just 21 million.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Samsung Says No to Hard Drive

Samsung, Korean electronics giant, said that it will only be a matter of time before your computer comes without a hard drive. Samsung is planning to sell 32 gigabyte flash memory chips for laptops by 2008. The price will be between $200 and $250. Comparison to hard drive, flash memory is more expensive but it is lighter and uses 95 percent less power. Microsoft's new Origami will likely uses flash memory for data storage.

Samsung demonstrated a notebook powered by one of the new Flash memory at CeBIT. Apple also utilizes flash memory to power its iPod Nano.

Source: MobileMag

Windows Vista Delays Sluggish Mac Sales?

Windows Vista delays will not only affecting Windows users. Analysts said that since Apple switches to using Intel chips in Macs, many Mac users hoped to run both Mac OS X and Windows on their machines which mean that Windows Vista can actually boost Mac sales.

Even though, recent Microsoft's announcement that Vista will not support EFI booting shocks the owner of Intel Macs who had hoped they would be able to dual-boot between Windows Vista and OS X. However, hackers have figured out to get Windows XP running on Intel Macs. Apparently, the concepts will likely work with Windows Vista as well. Intel Macs only support EFI booting.

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Nokia Targeting Apple iPod

Nokia plans to push MP3 players and video camera to cell phones and readies to steal Apple iPod's market shares. Last year, Nokia shipped 100 million camera phones and topped Nokia as the world's largest camera maker. With music player and camcorder integrated with the cell phones, Nokia hopes it can win the battle, given the convenience of a single device with much functionality. In the meantime, NEC has developed a new chip that allows cell phones to play music for up to 50 hours. That would be a big improvement over iPod, which claims a battery life of up to 20 hours.

Source: Engadget Mobile

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Windows Vista Build 5342 Screenshots

Microsoft released a new build of Windows Vista Build 5342 to beta testers. This version includes an extensive collection of drivers and the exclusive sidebar. Glass is also a feature that we all have come to respect and love, along with the 3D flip. The official version number is 6.0 Version 5342.winmain_idx04.060321-1730. Internet Explorer version number is Version 7.0.5342.2. Nice features include a new "Paint" and redesigned network center. This version also includes an "Ultimate Extras" services (live update, windows live) for those who "own" a copy of window Vista.

Visit X64Bit.net for the screenshots and more info.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

NEC Extends Mobile Phones' Battery Life to 50 Hours

A chip called “uPD99910” is designed and developed by NEC Electronics to optimize the music playback function of the application processor to allow 50 hours of continuous music. The chip also incorporates an SD Memory Card interface and supports Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) copyright protection technology whose SD-Audio function enables music data to be downloaded and played without copyright infringement.

By employing this chip, the manufacturers will be able to offer a cost-effective mobile phone solution without compromising performance. In previous models, CPU in the application processor were used to play back music and also for other types of processing such video processing that resulted at the expense of power efficiency.

Source: SlashPhone.com

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Friday, March 24, 2006

Windows Vista Release Delayed

Microsoft will delay Windows Vista for the second time and plans to release Windows Vista consumer edition in January 2007. However, the enterprise version will remain on track that will be released in November 2006.

In conference call with media, Jim Allchin, the co-president of Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division, said that the major reason for this delay is to give Microsoft more time to improve the quality of the Windows Vista. He also stated that certain partners asked Microsoft, not to sold Vista in December as they needed time to manage overseas manufacturing of their PCs.

In the meantime, rumor was spreading in the Internet, saying that the reason behinds Vista delay is 60% of Windows Vista code need to be rewritten; due to one of the key components of Windows Vista consumer version has major problems.

On the other hands, InternetNews.com reported that the rumor is not correct and 100% false. Microsoft flatly denied the report and said that the report is "speculation with no demonstrable basis in fact". The company is working on security, testing and polish, not writing new code.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Windows XP on Intel Mac without Emulation

Windows XP now run on Mac machine natively after a winner of Intel Mac content announced. It made Apple computers become the first machines that can run three different operating systems: Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS itself.

To install Windows XP on Mac, hard drive must be reformatted and repartitioned to include separate partition where Windows XP will be put in. Then follow a couple of steps to modify Windows XP boot loader that will let Mac to recognize it. Once it's done, Intel Mac machine will be able to do dual-boot between Windows XP and Mac OS X without any emulation software such as VMWare.

If you are interested in, you can download the boat loader from OnMac.net

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Swap Songs With Stranger, Will You?

Automatically adding new favorite songs to your digital music player while you are walking in the street will soon become a reality. A new technology called Push Music is developed by Viktoria Institute in Gothenburg, Sweden, allows WiFi enabled MP3 players to automatically transfer copies of songs when they come within 20 meters of each other.

When two or more Push participants come within WiFi range, their MP3 players set up a conference that allows them to exchange music files. To ensure people end up with songs they are likely to enjoy, each MP3 file is accompanied by a data file containing information about the song and how often it is played. Furthermore, to protect copyright holders, Push technology will self-delete the copied songs after a few days, forcing users to buy songs if they want to keep them.

The co-creator Maria Hakansson said that Push technology is a technology to allow music to find the user, instead of the user always looking for the music. During this project, WiFi enabled PDA was used as WiFi enabled MP3 player is still not available in the market.

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Saturday, March 18, 2006

Windows Vista Build 5308 Image Gallery

Windows Vista moved to "feature complete" status, which means no new features will be introduced into future builds. Here you can browse 62 screenshots of the new features in Windows Vista build 5308.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Mitsubishi to Use Green Plastic

In an effort to help stop global warming, slow the depletion of oil reserves, and protect forests; Mitsubishi has developed a bamboo-fibre reinforced plant-based resin for use in automobile interiors to cut carbon dioxide emissions through-out the vehicles life cycle.

This plant-based resin product is called polybutylene succinate (PBS) was developed with co-operation between Mitsubishi and the Aichi Industrial Technology Institute.

Mitsubishi plans to substitute the plant-based resin product for materials such as petroleum-based resins and wood hard-boards used in car interiors. A new concept mini-car will be the first concept car that uses those parts as the interior. This car will be introduced in Japan in 2007.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Bill Gates, World's Richest Person 2006

Bill Gates, once again, is nominated as the wealthiest people in this world by Forbes. The annual report, that provides ranking of the very richest people on the planet, uncovers new 140 billionaires within three years period. Total 793 billionaires are reported this year and they are worth a combined $2.6 trillion.

Bill Gates retains his title as the world's richest person for the twelfth straight year for making $50 billion. His buddy, Paul Allen also listed in number six with total net worth is $22 billion.

Meanwhile, Google founder, Sergey Brin and Larry Page named in number 26 and 27 respectively with total worth $25.7 billion.

Microsoft Secret Project Unveiled

Yesterday, Microsoft Secret Project codename Origami was unveiled. It is not an iPod replacement or whatsoever. It is a transformation of Bill Gates' vision of an ultra mobile PC: a device with all-day battery life, yet small enough to fit in a pocket and much cheaper than a laptop.

Don't get me wrong, it is just Bill Gates' vision. This first generation device is not that powerful, yet so big, expensive and power hungry. However, this device is still promising. Origami just needs time to unfold and will transform to amazing device in the future. If you remember the first generation iPod, you'll notice that iPod was not so special and had so many limitations.

This is only the beginning.

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Demographic Targeting, Google's Response to MSN adCenter

Google quickly added a new feature to answer MSN adCenter. Now, advertisers can target the audience by age, gender, income or other factors using AdWords Demographic Site Selection.

"The demographic site selection option is found on the ‘Identify sites’ page when you create a new site-targeted campaign, or on the site tool in an existing site-targeted campaign. In both cases you’ll also be able to use two other options to find sites: listing site URLs and describing topics that match your ad. We recommend using those methods along with demographic site selection to identify the very best sites for your ad to appear."

Merely US customers can enjoy demographic site selection and yet this is applied to Google AdWords Content only. Meanwhile, Google still has no plan to expand demographic targeting into its search.

On the other hand, MSN is affected very much as previously demographic targeting is one of adCenter main turfs.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Stop Eating Sushi

Sushi is a Japanese food that is more popular than ever before, however studies say that it has become the new Russian roulette in term of safety. These studies held by a California group show in some fish used by sushi may contain high mercury level that is very dangerous.

Samples were taken from six popular sushi restaurants in Los Angles for testing. As a result, most of tuna fish had mercury level about 88% higher than FDA (Food and Drug Administration) level.

Sushi restaurants mostly use big-eyed tuna and blue & yellow-finned tuna, because those tuna are considered best suited for sushi. Moreover, these kinds of tuna have longer live are suspected carrying more mercury than others. Whereas, seafood like shrimp and salmon do not pose any mercury risk as their life spans are very short.

Mercury is very risky as it can cause permanently damage the nervous system in fetuses and temporary memory loss in adults.

Meanwhile, according to the restaurant owner, sushi is still healthy to eat regardless of high mercury level. It is definitely safer and healthier than beef and chicken.

Source: MSNBC

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Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Windows Live Expo Beta Lives U.S Nationwide

Microsoft makes Windows Live Expo Beta available to all U.S consumers last Monday. Windows Live Expo provides set of expansion to the traditional classified ad concept by providing social networking and community features through a trustworthy, convenient and free online service.

This beta includes the following marketplace features:
  • Tight integration with MSN Messenger and Windows Live Local that makes it easy for customers to access, search for and locate listings and services they are looking for. Ultimately Windows Live Expo will be integrated with Windows Live Search, Windows Live Spaces and Live.com.
  • Ability to choose to post items for sale or purchase among only MSN Messenger Contact List and/or e-mail groups, adding a level of trust and familiarity.
  • The integration with Windows Live Local allows products listed in Windows Live Expo to be geo-tagged which can help users to locate the site of seller. It will be very helpful customers who want to buy or rent apartment / house.
  • Advanced search methods that allows customer to provide more than one keyword. For example, when searching a house customers can search on other qualifying characteristics such as square footage, price range and location.
Windows Live Expo is available for free and it is very easy to setup. Customers can list their product in fewer than four steps by using a very efficient user interface. To learn more about Windows Live Expo you can visit Expo Website.

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Friday, March 03, 2006

Windows Live Local Preview

The latest preview of Windows Live Local is so fabulous. After offering a bird-eye view, now you can enjoy the street level view by driving a sport car or walking. You can simply control the direction using either keyboard or mouse.

Every time you change the direction, it will refresh the background on top screen. It is like playing driving simulation game. In some stage, it offers wonderful sights of the city. However, this preview only supports map of San Francisco and Seattle.

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Thursday, March 02, 2006

A Chameleon Keyboard

Keyboards with additional keys are very common. Usually, those additional keys are located on top of standard keys. You can also assign what applications will be launched once you pressed those keys.

But this keyboard is different. The keys can be transformed according to the application you launched. Amazingly, it can also be transformed based on the OS’ language setting. Say, if your language setting is Japanese, it will show Japanese character instead Latin. :D Saving money, don't have to buy additional keyboard though. Another thing is the keys are animated and colorful. Make it so beautiful.


This keyboard is called Optimus and developed by Art. Lebedev Studio. It is the largest design company in Russia. In addition, Optimus keyboard is expected to be released and available globally by the end of 2006. How about the price? Not known yet, but according to its website, it will not cost more than a good mobile phone.

Reduce Website Response Time by Implementing CSS

There are massive sluggish websites out there. Their loading time, oops, very slow.
If you are web designer / developer, you should aware that there are still tons of web users still using dial-up modems.

Despite of the facts I am in broadband connection, as a web developer, I always test my website response time with slower connection such as dial up. Response time is one of accessibility aspects. Your visitor will definitely close the browser or type another URL if your website still has not finished loading in certain time. Don't believe me? Try it yourself, and let see if you are still patience enough :)

I have some tricks that you can apply to your web site:

Avoid using images in HTML instead try to use background images and CSS
It's possible to achieve advanced presentation effects using CSS without putting any images in HTML, for example site navigation, web site background, etc. The advantage of doing this is when the browser loads web pages; it downloads the HTML part first. After it displayed, it continues downloading the CSS file and the images as well.

Design your web site layout using Layer + CSS, not tables.
Tables are considered very slow compared to HTML layer such as DIV. Moreover, layer needs less HTML code thus the amount of HTML code can significantly reduced. It means the response time can be reduced. Normally, before displaying the web site content, browsers need to read through tables twice, first to figure out the structure, and then determine the content. Once again, this process just slower the response time.

As I described, CSS offers many advantages in designing web. It also gives great flexibility, for example web designer can easily changing the layout and web site theme in the future without changing the HTML code.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Quaero, European Answer to Google

Following French President Jacques Chirac statement to media last week, The Quaero project is prepared as a search engine for European Union. This initiative is taken to match US domination in media search. At the present, most of search engines giant such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are based on US.

Last December, Japan government also unveiled their plan to launch their own search engine to lessen Google dominance.

Making Profit from PPC Advertising?

As click frauds are considered as one of the biggest threats to Pay per Click advertising model, you might think that advertising through PPC program such Google AdWords just a waste. Despite of the facts, PPC for some of people still one of the best way to drive the traffic and generate sales.

The writer of Cash from Your Camera Robert Hartness experienced that PPC advertising still efficient. Regardless the click frauds, choosing good PPC providers are a matter. In his experiment, his Google AdWords campaign drove fewer visitors than Kanoodle; however, Google AdWords resulted in better conversion rate.

Good Bye Passport, Welcome Windows Live ID

A new Microsoft's InfoCard technology will back up Windows Live ID service to provide authentication service for Windows Live family by 2007. A Microsoft spokesperson said that Windows Live ID would play a large part in making upcoming services possible. However, the service launch date is not known yet.

Windows Live ID was first revealed at RSA Conference earlier this month. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said that InfoCard was intended to replace Passport. InfoCard technology will provide integrated place for personal data and payment information.