10 Days With Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

Ok, it’s been ten days since I installed Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition on a basic Compaq laptop and its time to talk about how things went. Did the world end? Am I ready to run to Linux screaming yet? Maybe, read on to find out what’s good and what’s bad with Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.To be fair, Windows Vista has a lot to offer, and in ten days I did manage to try most of the major features and found more than a few significant bugs. Windows Vista is by no means a small upgrade, but you won’t find any major functionality features or groundbreaking technology that you can see. What you will find is lots (and I mean LOTS) of tiny changes and improvements that sometimes help but often confuse you if you are as accustomed to Windows XP as I was. One interesting point to note, if you have used Mac OSX you might find Vista easier to use than XP since many of the latest user interface changes seem to borrow some of the ideas found in OSX (not a bad thing!). Overall I think Windows Vista is something to keep a close eye on but this first version leaves much to be desired when it comes to stability and compatibility. I found several issues, some minor annoyances (correct display resolutions not detected in World of Warcraft) to the more serious hardware power management issues many other reviewers have also reported. That is not to say that Windows Vista is all bad but these issues to detract from what rumor tells us might be the last version of Windows for quite some time.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, OS, review, software, vista

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Numerous Hacked Accounts On eBay

As of late I have been hearing more and more about numerous strange events on eBay regarding the misuse of accounts. Several stories posted on digg.com and slashdot.org have discussed just a handful of these events but the problem appears to be ongoing for quite some time. If even half the stories of accounts being hacked are true it would appear that eBay has a major problem which thanks to the holiday season has become almost epidemic. The basic story usually goes like this; a user with good feedback suddenly starts to “screw” people and not ship purchased items, after a short time the account is disabled and nobody seems to know what happened. The buyers never get any refunds from eBay or PayPal and the whole incident seems to erased along with any evidence of it happening on the eBay.com.

Technorati Tags: auctions, ebay, hacked account, security, selling, shopping

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Multi-Core Support Comes to World Of Warcraft

Better late than never, a long awaited update distributed this past Tuesday to users of the insanely popular online game World of Warcraft finally enabled a feature that shows off what the latest multi-core processors can really do. Up until the latest patch (2.0.1) the graphics libraries used by the game were singled-threaded, meaning they were unable to process more than one basic function at a time, even on systems with more than a single core. Through the use of multithreaded openGL they have finally enabled the ability for the game to process a significantly greater volume of data resulting in a major increase in speed (and framerates) for the game.

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Woot Is A Hoot

One of the more interesting blogs (if you could call it that) I have run across over the last year is this very unique site called woot.com. Love to shop for tech goodies and gadgets? This site is just for you. Each day they feature just a single item with one major feature, an incredibly low price! As you might expect, some of the items can be a bit cheesy at times but not always. Once in a while they have something really good, like a bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo or some other neat gadget. Where Woot really shines in when they have a “Woot Off” or they put up something called a “Bag of Crap”. The bag, aptly named is basically a mystery prize which could be just about anything (someone once got a 60 inch plasma TV in their “bag”). The Woot Off is a time period where they sell something until it is gone then they put up another product, in a rapid fire type of process. All things considered I think Woot is a great idea and a great use of the internet in a way that plays right to its strengths vs. all the sites which seem to always try to mimic offline stores.

So if you are looking for some cool tech gift this holiday season make sure to check it out, you never know what they might have…

3 Reasons Why I Won’t Be Buying An iPhone

After taking the time to sift through all the latest hype over the rumored Apple iPhone my mind is made up. I won’t be buying it. Why? How could I possibly turn down this gem of a phone which is rumored to do just about anything? Three very good reasons:

1. I don’t need another iPod! - I already own an iPod video and a older iPod with click wheel, both still working just fine. One goes in the car and the other I carry around with me to watch podcasts and TV shows whenever I have the time. I think the iPod is a great gadget, well worth the money I paid. Even after looking into several of the iPhone’s supposedly “killer” features I don’t see anything they could possibly do to improve upon in the video or music area that would make me run like a lemming to the Apple store money in hand for one. Seriously, I just don’t see why I would want my phone to play music or video…ohh wait…it already does! Yup, most phones on the market already have multimedia, giving any new entry into this market (if there even is one) a good run for their money.

2. If the phone has email it will be .Mac only – Ok, I am clearly speculating on this but if Apple decides to include email functionality into the iPhone then its a good bet they will only be fully integrated with the .Mac service. I do have a .Mac account so I can say without any reservations that it completely sucks compared to what Google now offers. The new .Mac email interface only works correctly under Safari making it far less useful than Gmail for those who have to bounce between a Mac and a PC. If Apple had any common sense at all they would begin the process of integrating Google’s services into both the iPhone and other Apple products such as .Mac. If you can’t beat them, join them.

3. I don’t want to be a beta tester – With computers and software we have all become accustomed to a certain level of problems that constantly plague our attempts at getting anything done. Apple has done a fantastic job with both the iPod and the recent releases of OSX in making something that is both stable and fun to use. Both these products where developed alongside the markets where they were sold, and had the opportunity to mature alongside those markets. Unfortunately I fear Apple has decided to jump into an already established market where they have had no previous experience. Its a good bet they are going to make mistakes, some of which will be only discovered after the iPhone is released. If recent information proves to be correct then its a good bet the new technology in the design for the iPhone will generate a unusual level of problems, many of which won’t be so well received by phone users who are not accustomed to such problems.

iPhone Revealed?

Just caught this (and this)on Digg.com earlier today and figured it was time to do a quick roundup of all the latest iPhone rumors. Kevin Rose (of Screensavers fame) seems to have some inside information on the iPhone that seemed very interesting. Although, based on what I have seen and heard so far I am not entirely convinced that this phone will work for my own needs but for many others I think we may have a slam dunk on our hands. So far the latest rumors and Rose’s predictions are pointing to the follow main features:

- Going to be coming out in January (Macworld?)
- All phone providers (GSM?)
- “It’s small as sh*t”
- Don’t know anything about the Operating System
- The OS is supposed to be “cool”
- Doing some unique things
- Two batteries, one charger. One for MP3 portion and one for Phone.
- 4GB ($249) and 8GB ($449)
- Flash memory, Slide out keyboard
- Maybe touch screen?

Based on the rumors I have heard I predict that the iPhone will primarily be a iPod device, music & video, with phone services on all GSM prividers (Cingular & T-Mobile) initially upon release. I can’t see them bothering with a CDMA or TDMA version of this phone since most of the cellular market is finally moving to GSM. I do suspect they will implement some kind of program where you can buy the phone from the Apple Store and then just activate it with whatever provider you wish, aka “unlocked”.