The Return of the C:\ Prompt?

Microsoft has big plans for the trusty old C:\ prompt. For its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, the company is developing a new command-line interface, or shell--the text-based controls typically accessed by clicking Command Prompt (under Start Menu, Programs, Accessories) in Windows XP.

Code-named Monad, the new shell will enable a host of new programs known as scripts--something at which rival Unix operating systems have historically excelled. While these new commands and scripts will interest primarily administrators and power users, less-technical types may benefit from Monad scripts that could circulate on the Internet as Unix scripts do. For example, a Monad script might quickly reorganize files and directories based on their name or creation date--a task that can take a fair bit of manual labor in Windows Explorer.

A beta version of Monad for Windows XP is available as a free download. Registration is required, and you will also need to have .Net Framework 2.0 (available at the same page) installed.

Opera chooses Google

Norwegian Opera Software has agreed that Google will be the default partner for its mobile Internet browsers, Opera said on Thursday.

"Google will be the default search partner for the mobile browsers: Opera Mobile and Opera Mini," Opera said in a statement. "Under the one-year contract, Opera will make Google Search a major part of the browsers home screen." Oslo-based Opera Software is a tiny competitor of Microsoft in the Internet browser market, but the fast-growing part of its business is in browsers for mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices.

Intel unveils new logo

Intel said Thursday that it would scrap its 37-year-old logo as part of a major rebranding that will emphasize the chipmaker's shift away from its core PC business into consumer products.

The original Intel logo featuring a lowered "e" will be replaced with one showing an oval swirl surrounding the company's name.

The phrase "Leap ahead" will supplant "Intel inside," which helped bring the company into the public awareness during the PC boom of the 1990s.

Intel said CEO Paul Otellini is set to unveil details of the campaign during next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Its not MSN Messenger beta

A virus masquerading as a new beta version of Microsoft's MSN Messenger has begun circulating, antivirus company F-Secure said on its blog Tuesday.

The virus, which F-Secure calls Virkel.F, comes as a file called BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE that can be downloaded from a Web site. Running the program installs not a new MSN Messenger beta, but rather a virus that sends download links to a computer user's MSN Messenger buddies. The virus falsely labels the link as "MSN Messenger 8 Working BETA."

"It also connects your machine to a botnet server," F-Secure warned, meaning that a person's computer can be controlled remotely to attack other machines or send spam.

Malicious software that uses instant messenger programs is growing more common. A November study by Akonix Systems identified 62 examples. And Microsoft's instant-messenger infrastructure is the most popular conduit for attack, IMlogic said in an October study.

Its all about GPS

While LG Electronics in Korea has licensed two patents from Honeywell that describe how to improve accuracy of satellite-based Global Positioning System navigation systems by augmenting GPS data with inertial measurements about how a vehicle is moving, Europe launched its first satellite of Galileo network which will challenge United States monopoly over GPS which is run by US military.

50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years

1. Sony Walkman TPS-L2 (1979)
2. Apple iPod (2001)
3. ReplayTV RTV2001 and TiVo HDR110 (1999)
4. PalmPilot 1000 (1996)
5. Sony CDP-101 (1982)
6. Motorola StarTAC (1996)
7. Atari Video Computer System (1977)
8. Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (1972)
9. M-Systems DiskOnKey (2000)
10. Regency TR-1 (1954)
11. Sony PlayStation 2 (2000)
12. Motorola Razr V3 (2004)
13. Motorola PageWriter (1996)
14. BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (1998)
15. Phonemate Model 400 (1971)
16. Texas Instruments Speak and Spell (1978)
17. Texas Instruments SR-10 (1973)
18. Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (1998)
19. Sony Handycam DCR-VX1000 (1995)
20. Handspring Treo 600 (2003)
21. Zenith Space Command (1956)
22. Hamilton Pulsar (1972)
23. Kodak Instamatic 100 (1963)
24. MITS Altair 8800 (1975)
25. Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)
26. Nintendo Game Boy (1989)
27. Commodore 64 (1982)
28. Apple Newton MessagePad (1994)
29. Sony Betamax (1975)
30. Sanyo SCP-5300 (2002)
31. iRobot Roomba Intelligent Floorvac (2002)
32. Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (1999)
33. Franklin Rolodex Electronics REX PC Companion (1997)
34. Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System 1.0 (1998)
35. Motorola DynaTAC 8000X (1983)
36. Iomega Zip Drive (1995)
37. Magnavox Magnavision Model 8000 DiscoVision Videodisc Player (1978)
38. Milton Bradley Simon (1978)
39. Play, Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (1996)
40. Connectix QuickCam (1994)
41. BellSouth/IBM Simon Personal Communicator (1993)
42. Motorola Handie Talkie HT-220 Slimline (1969)
43. Polaroid Swinger (1965)
44. Sony Aibo ERS-110 (1999)
45. Sony Mavica MVC-FD5 (1997)
46. Learjet Stereo-8 (1965)
47. Timex/Sinclair 1000 (1982)
48. Sharp Wizard OZ-7000 (1989)
49. Jakks Pacific TV Games (2002)
50. Poqet PC Model PQ-0164 (1990)

Google Pays $1 Billion for 5 Percent of AOL. Google will become the only shareholder in AOL other than Time Warner. Time Warner will retain management control and full strategic flexibility over AOL, while Google will have certain customary minority shareholder rights, including those associated with any future sale or public offering of AOL.

Microsoft, Mozilla: A symbol of cooperation? Thats right. Read this. A small but healthy begining.

Startup Readies Long-Lasting Fuel Cell

Medis Technologies, a U.S.-Israeli startup company, is planning to unveil at next month's Consumer Electronics Show power packs that will be able to power or recharge portable electronics gadgets.
The power packs are based on an alkaline fuel cell technology developed by the company and will be able to provide, for example, several complete recharges for dead cell phone batteries or an additional 20 hours of talk time.
The power pack is made up of two parts: a disposable fuel cell component and connector cable. The fuel cell, which measures 3.2 by 2 by 1.4 inches, will provide the raw power while the connector cable will interface between it and the gadget being charged. Cables for different gadgets, fitted with the correct charging connector and voltage regulator, will be available.
Medis envisages these battery alternatives will power cell phones, digital cameras, PDAs, MP3 players, and handheld video games like the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS. For an iPod music player a single Medis fuel cell could keep the gadget running for about 80 hours.
Medis says its technology has advantages over the methanol or hydrogen-based fuel cell technologies being pursued by many major consumer electronics companies.
Existing fuel cell technology involves diluting methanol with water and then dripping into the fuel cell to generate electricity, said Lifton. That process requires micropumps and other components which are very difficult to make and use.
Commercialization of methanol or hydrogen-based fuel cells is also difficult at present because both are potentially hazardous fuels and so their carriage onboard aircraft is currently heavy restricted. Medis' fuel cells can be carried on aircraft with no problem, the company said.

Sony "rootkit" CDs had designs on iPod

The Princeton researchers that have done much of the work deconstructing SonyBMG's recent controversial copy protection software have found an interesting new tidbit. According to their new findings, the Sony software had a hidden component that could convert songs from the CD, or other ordinary MP3s, into a file compatible with Apple's copy protected FairPlay format.

That would mean that the songs could be played on iPods, which hasn't been the case with copy protected CDs in the past. It apparently accomplishes this by using open-source, yet copyrighted code, a practice deemed a no-no in programming circles.

It's not yet clear how this came about. Record labels have hoped to establish compatibility with the iPod for their copy protected CDs for some time, and EMI Music has even said that its CDs are close to reaching that point. Apple, for its part, denied EMI's contention.

Hynix Unveils Fast Memory Chip for Games

Hynix Semiconductor, South Korea's second largest memory chip maker, has launched the speediest memory chip aimed at game consoles and PC graphics cards available so far.

The graphics double data rate 4 (GDDR4) chips are high bandwidth DRAM memory able to process heavy volumes of gaming and video images far faster than normal PC memory chips. They're a step up from the GDDR3 generation of chips currently used on the highest performing graphics cards today. Hynix said its GDDR4 chips are also ideal for 64-bit computing.

The company on Sunday announced the availability of a 512-megabit density GDDR4, an ultra high speed memory chip that Hynix says improves data processing speed by close to two times over GDDR3.

Hynix's GDDR4 chips operate at 2.9 gigabits per second and can process 11.6GB of data in one second, the company says. It will begin shipping samples to customers soon and plans to start mass production of the chips in early 2006. By the second half of next year, the company says it will improve the speed of the chips to 14.4GB.

The fastest graphics memory chips had been limited to a speed of just 1.6 gigabits per second before the launch of GDDR4.

The density and speed of Hynix's GDDR4 improves over a similar chip released by rival Samsung Electronics in late October.

At the time Samsung was able to claim first place in the race to ship GDDR4 to customers for testing. Samsung's GDDR4 is a 256-megabit chip that runs at 2.5 gigabits per second, both smaller in density and slower in speed than Hynix's offering, based on the specifications each company has released.

Samsung plans to introduce a 2.8Gbps GDDR4 chip by the end of this year. The company said it expects the high performance graphics card market to grow significantly in the second half of next year.

For its part, DDR maker Rambus has developed a technology called XDR2 that boosts data rates in and out of DRAMs. Rambus claims speeds of 8GHz, compared to 1.6GHz for GDDR3.

Overall, it has been a tough year for proponents of DDR2, who expected the new DRAM technology to take off faster than it has.

The Web sites of other major memory chip makers, including Micron Technology, Infineon Technologies, and Elpida Memory, do not carry any announcements regarding the release of GDDR4 products.

IBM makes Workplace suite ODF-ready

IBM has thrown some its weight behind the Open Document Format (ODF) for the Office Applications standard. The exact force of that support is IBM Workplace Managed Client, which will support the newly ratified standard.

Specifically, word processing, presentation graphics and spreadsheets within version 2.6 of the IBM client software, will support the import, export and rewrite of files in the ODF standard.

ODF is currently a hot topic, with Massachusetts leading the way in calling for public bodies to avoid the limitations of proprietary formats and adopt open standards. Microsoft has tried to counter this line of argument by putting its Office XML up for standardisation, but Sun has repeated its backing for current open standards.

The OpenDocument XML format is also the basis for the open source OpenOffice suite, now at version 2.0. Sun's rival to Microsoft's Office is Star Office, which itself is based on Open Office.

The Workplace Managed Client software works in conjunction with the IBM WebSphere Everyplace Deployment server and is designed to provide an interface for enterprise applications on server-managed laptop and desktop systems. It is scheduled to be available in early 2006.

Start with Microsoft

These days Microsoft's inspiration is Google. And its not recently that Microsoft started copying google. Its been going on for a while. Maybe you will remember MSN Search. When it was launched it used to look and feel just like Google. Thought it has been changed a bit, but still its nothing much different. Now Microsoft has come up with a service called start. If you check it you will won't be surprized that it also looks and feels just like My Google. Don't think of it as a conincidence. After all Microsoft is quite (in)famous for plagiarism. Earlier it was Apple and IBM; and now its Google.