Hardware and Software Forum

There is something of a media fuss going on over here in the UK thanks to the fact that Ivy Bean is using Twitter. No, she is not some soap star or a topless glamour model and does not have a famous footballer as a boyfriend. In fact her claim …

I've never been a big fan of American Idol or reality TV in general, but the tit for tat going on between Microsoft and Apple ads reminds me a bit of a reality TV competition with bloggers acting as Simon and Paula and the gang. We watch. Sometimes we laugh. …

Now this is interesting: with the arrival of a demand for some $4.5 million in damages, one of the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4011.html"]founders of Pirate Bay[/URL] has come up with an innovate method of paying it. Gottfrid Svartholm has set up something called [URL="http://internetavgift.se/"]internet-avgift[/URL] which encourages ordinary Internet users who are friendly to …

While The Telegraph has been enjoying all the media attention this last week, at least here in the UK, thanks to exposing the scandal of British MP expense claims and breaking new details first online every day, it is not the most popular online UK newspaper according to [URL="http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/5/U.K._Newspaper_Sites_Aattract_Visitors_from_Around_the_World"]newly published[/URL] …

Recently Google has hit the headlines with [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4163.html"]concerns over privacy[/URL] courtesy of Street View mapping, plus [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4305.html"]allegations of trademark infringements[/URL] with the Android open source mobile phone OS. The latest headlines, though, look like returning to the heart of Google: the search engine. Google SERPs malware manipulation has hit new …

You really couldn't make this up if your tried very hard indeed. The ongoing saga which is best summed up as 'what will Apple ban today' has just got stranger than ever. Apparently all BitTorrent iPhone apps are toxic, as is the notion of superimposing your own face upon that …

I wonder if the [URL="http://www.linuxfoundation.org"]Linux Foundation[/URL] is prepared to go to task for us, the Linux users, the Linux supporters, the Linux developers and the Linux Foundation members? I wonder if they are our [URL="http://www.nra.org"]National Rifle Association[/URL] (NRA)? I wonder if the Linux Foundation is prepared to meet the challenges …

Microsoft has made a double whammy of Windows 7 update announcements. The first concerns a hotfix for a bug that could "cause some application failures on the English version of Windows 7 Release Candidate 32-bit Ultimate" while the second brings news of the arrival of as many as 10 'fake' …

This coming Monday, May 11th, marks the start of the first annual [URL="http://news.opensuse.org/2009/05/07/get-ready-for-opensuse-community-week/"]openSUSE Community Week[/URL], an event conceived of by openSUSE community members to help mentor folks who want to get involved with the openSUSE open source Linux project, but don't know how to get started. The virtual conference will …

Kaspersky Lab has successfully [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/02/23/kaspersky-patents-malware-removal/"]patented yet another bit[/URL] of security technology. This time it is a new heuristic analysis technology which allows security ratings to be assigned to software based entirely upon behaviour patterns during emulation. Is this something to get excited about? Well, yes, if you look beyond the …

With the Windows 7 release code out there and [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4283.html"]available for download[/URL] right now, and [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4317.html"]free to use until 2010[/URL] for good measure, the last thing Microsoft will want to hear is bad news about potential security risks for users of the new flagship OS. But that's exactly what researchers …

I downloaded and installed [URL="http://www.ubuntu.com"]Ubuntu[/URL] 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and am happy to say it's an overall success. Of course, I would say that because I love Ubuntu; it's my favorite Desktop Linux distribution and I've seen a lot of them. Being Debian-based, it is rock-solid, stable, easily updatable and a …

Strange but true. The 02 [URL="http://dnc.o2.co.uk/home/2009/05/o2-digital-families.html"]Digital Families report[/URL] was commissioned in order to get a grasp on the impact that technology has on family life in the UK. Perhaps unsurprisingly it revealed a nation obsessed by gadgets, with 40 percent of UK families spending 10 percent of their household budgets …

According to the latest report from The NPD Group, US consumer sales of the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4076.html"]BlackBerry[/URL] Curve have outstripped those of the [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24653/1231/"]Apple iPhone[/URL] in the first quarter of 2009. It says that an aggressive buy-one-get-one-free promotion from Verizon Wireless has helped in no little part to push the Curve into …

So I get up to work first day after a hard time relaxing over the public holiday weekend and guess what - the web's full of rumours that [URL="http://www.apple.com"]Apple[/URL] is about to swoop and buy [URL="http://twitter.com"]Twitter[/URL]. The value being put on the deal by anyone wanting to tout the story …

The App Store is a beautiful idea that is [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4149.html"]wildly successfu[/URL]l, but Apple has a big App Store problem. They are trying to control the content in the Apps and they really, really need to just get out of the way and let the market judge the quality of an …

Last week we heard about the first Android-powered Netbook (which I wrote about in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4290.html"]First Android Netbook Nothing to Write Home About[/URL]). Then on Friday, analyst [URL="http://gartenblog.net/"]Michael Gartenberg[/URL], who is VP of Strategy at Interpret, and who writes frequently about consumer technology sent the following Tweet: [I]Is Android's future in …

Word emerged this week that Apple was in talks with Verizon and everyone assumed it was it about the iPhone, but buried at the end of a BusinessWeek article, [URL="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090429_594307.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech"]AT&T's iPhone Dilemma[/URL], is an interesting nugget: [QUOTE]Apple has also shown Verizon a larger, more computer-like device dubbed by one person …

I am no great fan of the concept of National ID Cards, although my reasoning is not so much based upon distrusting the 'if you've done nothing wrong you have nothing to fear' argument nor even the 'big brother invasion of privacy' paranoia which seems to grip most of the …

I hope I am not the only person who has occasionally thought that his mobile phone bears more than a passing resemblance to something straight out of Star Trek. Not being a Trekkie myself I cannot say whether it is a communicator or one of those handheld medical scanners, a …

Virgin Media has released the results of research carried out into just how much the British actually understand the Internet, and those results show that on the whole the nation is pretty much baffled by broadband. The study, which quizzed more than 3000 internet users, discovered that broadband jargon confuses …

Last week, former UK Prime Minister and current Quartet Envoy to the Middle East on behalf of the EU, UN, US and Russia, [URL="http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/"]Tony Blair[/URL] was hacked. Well, the [URL="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Tony-Blair-Faith-Foundation/53370916629"]Tony Blair Faith Foundation on Facebook[/URL] was hacked according to reports at any rate. It seems that the site was flooded …

File under strange but true, it would appear that 24 year old musician Gary Baker, better known as singer and songwriter Gary Go, is to play Wembley Stadium with his iPhone as musical accompaniment. As the supporting act on the Take That tour, Gary Go will be on stage on …

On the day that the annual [URL="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2241289/european-commission-criticises"]Infosec[/URL] show starts in the UK we have a call for a Euro cyber security tsar. I was surprised at this. In many ways it's the perpetuation of all that I feel is bad about security management. A handful of readers might have heard …

I had a call this morning asking me to go on the radio tomorrow morning. It was from BBC London and I'll be on at 7.20am UK time, thanks for asking - discussing this story about the [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8019948.stm"]terrorist Cyberthreat to the 2012 Olympics[/URL]. The man suggesting there is such a …

There has [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4259.html"]certainly been enough speculation[/URL] about when the Windows 7 Release Candidate code would actually be made available. Right here on DaniWeb [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4182.html"]we confidently predicted[/URL] that the big day would be May 5th following a slip up, or more probably a deliberate leak for marketing purposes, on the Microsoft …

On Friday, a 13 year old named Connor Mulcahey from Weston, Connecticut had the distinct honor of [URL="http://www.apple.com/itunes/billion-app-countdown/"]downloading the one billionth app[/URL] from the iPhone App Store. In order to honor this occasion, I decided to list my five favorite iPhone apps. Just a word before I do: I'm not …

The quarterly numbers are in the books for Google, Apple and Microsoft , and while Apple and Google made money, Microsoft failed to report a profit for the first time in 23 years as a public company. [B]Crazy Times, Crazy Results[/B] It seems unfathomable that Apple continued to do well …

The Street is still buzzing about Apple and its amazing quarterly performance numbers, boosted by solid iPod and iPhone sales, especially in the month of March. Apple’s stock is selling at $125 per share right now, but there is no shortage of analysts who believe that stock price is a …

Apple came out with its earnings report yesterday, and while all wasn't rosy for the Cupertino technology company, bottom line is they made money as earnings increased an impressive an impressive 8.7 percent in year over year earnings with net profits up 15 percent (as reported in [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/apr/22/apple-quarter-results"]the Guardian[/URL]). All …

Would you steal sensitive data from your employer if the price was right? According to a new survey conducted in the financial heart of London by [URL="http://www.infosec.co.uk"]Infosecurity Europe[/URL] reveals that 37 percent of those asked would do just that. While 63 percent remain honest, the cost of corrupting the remainder …

[URL="http://www.apple.com"]Apple[/URL] users are the most dedicated and fervent operating system fans with undying loyalty to their operating system, hardware and peripherals. And they're just as loyal now to the new Unix-based OS X as they were to the old proprietary Mac OS. However, when given the option of a Linux-based …

For American readers this is probably a bit of an ordinary day - you go about your business and there's every chance that when you wake up tomorrow things will be much the same as they were when you woke up today. In the UK that's not the case. In …

According to [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/21/hackers-us-fighter-jet-strike"]reports[/URL], the Pentagon has been subject to a successful hacking attack with details of the F35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter and the most expensive jet fighter ever, the target. Apparently, design data including that of the $300 billion jet project electronics system, have …

May 5th should prove to be an interesting day for tech fans, as it would appear that both the much hyped Windows 7 operating system and the HTC Magic Android mobile phone will be launched to the waiting public. Neowin [URL="http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/04/18/windows-7-rc-coming-to-msdntechnet-soon-public-may-5"]spotted[/URL] that a Microsoft Partners [URL="https://partner.microsoft.com/US/40084742"]web page[/URL] (now replaced with …

The iPhone is many different things to many different people. I have heard some refer to it as their cellphone, while others describe it as a smartphone, a pocket computer and even the Jesus Phone. One thing I have not heard people call it is a weapon though. Until now …

This looks like it could get very interesting, very quickly. The online auction outfit, eBay, seems to be in the process of having something of a corporate clearance sale. There were stories circulating a couple of weeks back that [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/24377/1231/"]Skype could be sold off[/URL], possibly back to the original owners, …

It might seem like something of an odd question, unless your idea of a good night in is a box of popcorn and a copy of some dodgy DVD featuring a Captain Jack lookalike doing unmentionable things to his crew. Yet the answer is that these two things, the illegal …

It is usually the Apple adverts which get the positive column inches both online and off, even when they go [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/21257/53/"]straight for the Vista jugular[/URL] perhaps because they do so with no small dose of humour. Microsoft has done less well in garnering media support for its campaigns. Who can …

I've been fascinated by the recent series of Microsoft ads that go after Apple. On one hand I commended Microsoft for having a unified message in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4186.html"]Microsoft Gives Apple the Full Court Press[/URL]. On the other, I think the message is off kilter as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4212.html"]Apple's Value is …

As I've written before ([URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2335.html"]here[/URL] and [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4177.html"]here[/URL]), the Linux desktop in danger of extinction. If operating systems could be placed on the Endangered Species list, I'd lobby for it. Perhaps this is a legitmate task for the [URL="http://www.linuxfoundation.org"]Linux Foundation[/URL]: Preserve the Linux desktop. I'm not quite ready to give up …

Microsoft today released the first public beta of MS Exchange Server 2010 which forms part of the Microsoft unified communications family. As the first of many products (Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010 all to follow) which will form part of the …

So much for a “glimmer of hope”. Wall Street is looking more skeptically at claims from Washington that the economy is getting better. The stock market is down about 45 points in late morning trading, after more layoffs were announced by U.S. companies (Yahoo (YHOO) being one of them – …

Will you be moving to Windows 7 during the next year, or will Vista disappointment, economic doom and gloom or compatibility concerns keep you away like 84 percent of business folks surveyed have said? The [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23795/53/"]Windows 7 Release Candidate[/URL] is nearly with us, complete with plenty of [URL="http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23084/1231/"]reported security problems[/URL], …

Google's [URL="http://www.androidlinux.com"]Android[/URL] operating system for cell phones, GPS devices and a host of other gadgets yet to be is the topic of much controversy and discussion. Why? [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/products/windowsce/default.mspx"]Windows CE[/URL], Embedded Linux, Android...who cares? When you shop for a phone, or any modern gadget, do you ask which operating system it's …

A [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=aa6e0660-dc24-4930-affd-e33572ccb91f&displaylang=en"]Microsoft security report[/URL] has 'revealed' that some 97 percent of the emails travelling across the Internet are actually unwanted spam. Well duh, like I didn't realise it was such a big problem. Actually, I didn't, to be fair. Mainly because just about every other security report I have read …

President Obama – who only weeks ago warned of the greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression if his $1.1 trillion stimulus package wasn’t passed by Congress - now says that he sees a “glimmer of hope” that the financial trauma is ending and that things could be stabilizing. Call …

I opened up Google Reader this morning and found major rumors from our favorite corporate rivals Apple and Microsoft. For Apple it is the oft cited iTablet. For Microsoft, it's a supposed iPod Touch clone. I try not to give too much credence to rumors (as I wrote in [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3626.html"]It's …

It has not exactly been the best of weekends for [URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/blogs/daveyw/2009/04/03/google-to-buy-twitter/"]Twitter[/URL], and for those whose tweeting has been hijacked by not one but two worms it could easily be considered the worst of times. It all started when people noticed that a lot of their followers seemed to be recommending …

I saw a netbook at a discount chain store the other day that I want. It's an [URL="http://us.acer.com/acer/product.do?link=oln24g.redirect&changedAlts=&kcond5e.c2att92=843&CRC=2745306029"]Acer Aspire One[/URL]. It has 1GB RAM and a 160GB Hard Drive for $296. Awesome deal. The problem, at least for me, is that it comes standard with some whittled down version of …