Tech Rave

Windows 7 fails to take down the Apple monster

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Microsoft has failed! Or maybe its just a sign that there's room enough in the marketplace for two types of computers. While the PC market has been enjoying an a spike in sales thanks to the release of Windows 7, Apple has also seen growth in sales ... meaning that the new Windows probably hasn't converted a lot of people to come over to the dark side...

Bangalore: The release of Windows 7 has definitely helped in increasing the sales of the PC at work, but have failed to slow the increase in adoption of Macs at the workplace, according to a study. Apple is expected to grow at the same time, while the number of companies buying Mac desktops remains flat at about seven percent, the number of those buying MacBooks has grown by 10 percent, according to Electronista.

The ChangeWave study also reports that Dell and HP should benefit from a slight increase in corporate sales with a respective 33 percent and 18 percent companies planning to buy both desktops and notebooks from the two. Also, 93 percent of those who had tried Windows 7 were either somewhat or very satisfied with the OS, that hasn't translated into significant decisions to move up upgrades at the office. But only 19 percent plan any sort of change, and only three percent plan a "significant" change to get Windows 7 into their businesses early.

Shouldn't you expect this though? Apple users drink coffee, drive Jettas and tell everyone how great their computer is. PC users have jobs. Enough said.

Bing eats up Yahoo, still way behind Google

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Bing is continuing to grow with its market share in the search engine market, taking most of its traffic from Yahoo, which is something that brings up an interesting dilemma since Microsoft will be entering into a partnership with Yahoo. Akkkkkkwwwwaaaarrrrd.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Once the world's online search leader, Yahoo's share has sharply declined, putting it in danger of losing its relevance in a market increasingly dominated by Google.

Yahoo's search market share in November fell to 17.5% from 18% in October, according to a monthly comScore report released late Wednesday. It's the lowest share ever recorded for Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).

Cannibalizing Yahoo's market share is Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), whose new Bing search site gained 0.4 points of the search market to 10.3% in November. That was the first time Microsoft owned more than 10% of the market since September 2007.

Now keep in mind that Google still rules the world, but Bing keeps creeping along.

Acer surpasses Dell in PC shipments

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:15:00 +0000

Laptop wars! With the Christmas season upon us and probably more than a few people wanting to get one for the Holiday season, it's going to be a bear's market out there. And apparently, traditional power Dell is losing ground.

Acer's Gateway acquisition positioned it as the world's third-largest PC vendor two years ago. Now, boosted by a 16.6% year-over-year growth in notebook shipments, the company has officially leapfrogged past Dell to take the second spot just behind HP. According to the latest figures from iSuppli, the Taiwanese firm commanded 13.4% of global shipments in Q3 2009, compared to 19.9% for HP and 12.9% for Dell.

I wonder how much netbooks play a part in this as it seems those are becoming more popular. Anyways, be sure to put one of those on your wish list.

The internet apparently makes you crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:41:00 +0000

Yesterday we heard about the guy that beat World of Warcraft, meaning that he's probably an internet addict. Hopefully he doesn't hurt himself, because apparently people who spend all their time in front of their computer on the internet are more likely to hurt themselves.

Researchers surveyed 1,618 adolescents aged 13 to 18 from China's Guangdong Province about behavior such as hitting themselves, pulling their own hair, or pinching or burning themselves, and gave them a test to gauge Internet addiction.

Internet addiction has been classified as a mental health problem since the mid-1990s with symptoms similar to other addictions.

The test found that about 10 percent of the students surveyed were moderately addicted to the Internet, while less than one percent were severely addicted.

The students ranked as moderately addicted to the Internet were 2.4 times more likely to have self-injured one to five times in the past 6 months than students without an addiction, said Dr. Lawrence Lam from the University of Notre Dame Australia.

The moderately-to-severely addicted students were almost five times more likely than non-addicted students to have self-injured six or more times in the past 6 months, Lam and his colleagues from Guangzhou's Sun Yat-Sen University reported.

Wow, so basically people with no social lives are more prone to physical harm of themselves? Surprise, surprise...

Congrats to the king of nerds

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:25:00 +0000

I don't know if I'd call this an achievement, I'd put this in the category of "what the hell have you done with your life?!"

A Taiwanese man has been named the first ever person to successfully "complete" World of Warcraft, collecting the game's staggering 986 Achievements to effectively do everything there is to do in the hugely successful MMO. This is literally the most amazing news of the day.

'Little Gray" beat the game after killing 390,895 creatures, administering 7,255,538,878 points of damage, completing 5,906 quests (averaging 14 quests a day), raiding 405 dungeons and hugging 11 players. I believe we can safely add another statistic to the numbers -- he has had sex 0 times during this period.

Some nitpicky WoW f*ckheads are trying to downplay Little Gray's accomplishment, claiming he received one event-tied achievement (B.B King) due to a glitch, and did not win it fairly.

You've got to be kidding me. I mean not only did this guy spend waaaay too many human hours playing this video game but apparently there are some people out there that want to tear down his loser-dom. Seriously? How big of a loser do you have to be to say that another loser isn't as big a loser as he seems? I feel like it's the same people that live in their mom's basement and eat catfood.

Facebook is now much bigger than the United States

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Remember how we thought "The Matrix" was just science fiction. Well when Facebook 8.0 comes out in 50 years we might all be hooked up to machines and getting used like a AA battery. Why? Because Facebook is spreading like a freakin' virus, what happens when it becomes self aware?

Social networking giant Facebook reached a new milestone this week, surpassing 350 million registered users. Founder Mark Zuckerberg noted the occasion in a blog update, where he outlined how his company achieved that number and where it is going from here.

Zuckerberg also used the time to address concerns about changes to Facebook's privacy policies. A major change will be the nature of networks, where regional networks are disbanded and users are presented with more confirmations on what information is exposed. Other privacy options will be simplified by combining many actions.

You've all been warned. Take cover.

Users love Windows 7, things that dont crash

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Windows 7 has been a big hit with software critics (who must live a rockstar-esque lifestyle) and the sales charts - but what has the average user been saying about it? Remember, Windows Vista was treated like the plague when it was released and Windows XP was a mess when it was distributed to the public.

Seven? Well, it's heaven.

Windows 7 is scarcely more than a month old. Most of the people who will eventually use it haven't gotten around to trying it yet; those that have are still settling in. And the Win 7 experience will change rapidly as remaining bugs are squashed, missing drivers arrive, and compatibility glitches are ironed out. Even so, it's not too early to start gauging what real people think of Windows Vista's replacement.

So to riff on Ronald Reagan's famous question from his 1980 debate with Jimmy Carter, Are Windows users better off today than they were a few weeks ago, back in the Vista era? We decided to ask the Technologizer community, a group of tech enthusiasts with a high propensity to acquire new operating systems quickly and push them to their limits. Starting on November 16th, we surveyed our readers (and Twitter followers) about their experiences with Windows 7.Our goal: to do a reality check on the mostly favorable initial reviews of the new OS (as well as our own survey of largely enthusiastic Windows 7 beta testers back in March).

The 550+ Windows 7 early adopters who took our survey mostly echo the positive response that the upgrade has received from professional reviewers, pundits, and users of pre-release editions. A sizable majority say they're extremely satisfied with the OS and rate it as a clear improvement on both the beloved Windows XP and the widely-panned Windows Vista. Crippling installation problems-the bane of every upgrader's existence, and always a legitimate reason to postpone switching OSes-were rare.

So everyone should go out, sell their Mac, and buy a PC with Windows 7. There, I said it.

Wii sales down for Nintendo, but still higher than the PS3 and Xbox

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Even though every hardcore gamer (without a girlfriend) will tell you how much the Wii stinks because its graphics aren't as sparkly, the truth of the matter is it's selling a whole heck of a lot more than the other two "superior" systems.

The Wii outsold Sony's PS3 550,00 to 440,000; Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) has not yet published its figures, but said they were "double" the previous November week's, according to vgchartz.com.

Now, the bad news. Although Nintendo sold 550,000 Wii consoles between Nov. 22 and 28, that's roughly 30 percent fewer than the nearly 800,000 units sold during the same period in 2008. And that is also despite a $50 price cut on the Wii this fall. Some observers blame mediocre software on the decline. Others have noted Nintendo has been slow to offer new gaming titles for the Wii; the company's only recent major releases have been Wii Sports Resort in July and Wii Fit Plus in early September. According to reports, Wii Sports Resort is selling well.

In October, the game maker reported lower profit of 69.5 billion yen ($767.8 million) for the six-month period ended Sept. 30, compared with 144.83 billion yen for the same period in 2008. The company expects lower total earnings in 2009 than in 2008 -- the first annual earning decline for Nintendo in six years.

Well what do you expect in an economy like this? Nintendo is still racking in the money, and while I'm not sure about the Xbox - I know the PS3 is a big hemorrhage of money for Sony. Make fun of it's sophomoric graphics but the Wii is a moneymaker, that is for sure.

Good sales in the month of October for computer chips

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Any increase in business is a good one, and the computer chip business had some excellent news to report, it was a whiz-bang month for them in sales.

According to data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), worldwide chip sales rose 5.1% to $21.7 billion in October from September. October is historically a strong month for the semiconductor industry, and improvements were seen in all geographic regions. Europe reportedly grew the most, with a 7.5% sequential increase .

I wonder why October is so strong, is it computer manufacturers gearing up for the holiday season? Or are ghosts notorious for buying semiconductors? I'm just curious, that's all.

Making counterfeit Apple parts does not pay

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Word of advice to tech companies, don't try to make knockoff Apple computers. Or power adapters.

Why? Because they'll go after you.

Apple is taking another company to court, once again over knock-off hardware. Media Solutions Holdings will face Cupertino in court over making power adapters for laptops, at least one model of which allegedly violates an Apple patent.

The company being sued peddles more than just Apple knock-offs, they sell adapters for numerous brand-name laptops, including HP, Acer, Sony, Toshiba and Lenovo. It's a quite common business, as most brand-name power adapters can be expensive.

Apple is often synonymous with pricey, which makes them a common target for manufacturers of clone hardware like Psystar, but the term "counterfeit" better describes this case. It seems that Media Solutions Holdings was attempting to pass its adapters off as genuine Apple hardware.

Do you think consumers were tipped off when they found an orange on the power adapter instead of an apple?

Macs definitely aren't perfect

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:12:00 +0000

First that little OS snafu where all user files were deleted, and now Apple is shipping defective or broken machines. What the heck is happening at the World Wide Leader of Cute Computers?

Scattered reports around the Web indicate that there may be one or more design flaws with Apple's 27" Core i7-powered iMac. Many users claim that their high-end iMac systems have cracked screens out of the box, and some units are completely dead on arrival. Among the affected are editors at Engadget, who recently received a new i7 model that refused to boot -- though, a different i7 iMac was fine.

Customers have piled into the Apple Support forum to complain about their busted machines, but Apple has yet to determine the root of the problem. It would seem most likely that the cracked displays are a result of insufficient packaging, poor handling -- or both. The DOA machines could also stem from improper shipping practices, though it is less probable.

Is the guy shipping all these Macs Ace Ventura? I mean a few cracked screens is one thing, but widespread cases of that along with dead machines is not a good sign for quality control at Apple.

PC shipments increase, revenues decrease

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0000

We've been hearing a lot of good news lately from the tech sector in terms of dollars and cents, however it seems that the PC industry market value will shrink this year.

According to a report released by Gartner today, worldwide PC shipments will grow 2.8% this year -- though, revenue will fall 11%. The firm's preliminary fourth-quarter forecast indicates that global PC shipments will total 298.9 million units in 2009, and may reach 336.6 million units in 2010, a 12.6% increase from this year.

This news comes after less optimistic research in September, which claimed there would be a 2% decline in shipments for 2009. Gartner said the growth is due to higher-than-anticipated sales in the third quarter, but despite that boost, the market value is still expected to decline. The outfit predicts that the market value of global PC shipments will total $217 billion in 2009, 10.7% less than 2008. That figure may increase by 2.6% to $222.9 billion in 2010.

With all things considered, an 11 percent drop seems about on par with the way everything is going. Growth in 2010 looks promising as everyone starts to pull themselves out of this recession.

Microsoft and Fox News in bed with one another

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:35:00 +0000

Well this whole Bing-Google search engine war just took an interesting twist. Look for the cannonballs to start flying after Microsoft is in discussions with News Corp to stop indexing their content with Google News. That's the same News Corp that owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and The Sun. Uh-oh.

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine.

News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment.

One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan “puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them”.

Things just got really, really ugly. We're about to see an all-out brawl. And I think newspapers are really kidding themselves if they think that selling the rights to their stories is going to save the industry. That's like saying a sports league could survive on TV rights sales alone. Not gonna work.

What you need to know about the Google Chrome OS

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:05:00 +0000

Google unveiled its plan for its new operating system yesterday and while I'm sure nobody is still sure what to expect but here's the basics about the Chrome OS...

1. Google Chrome OS is essentially a web browser on 'roids - This is something hard to get my brain wrapped around but essentially the Chome OS will be based largely on web applications (meaning no desktop apps) and a tabular navigation system much like the Google Chrome browser already in existence. This may seem weird but considering how much work people already do online and how many applications are online these days, this is just another way to be speedy on the computer (a webpage opens up quicker than a program). However, despite it's browser roots, it still will be able to handle multiple tasks at once, you'll just have to get use to the navigation.

2. It will update and fix itself constantly - Tired of those "Patch Tuesdays" that Microsoft always rolls out? Chrome OS will always be updating itself to the latest version for security and convenience reasons meaning that everybody will have the most up-to-date versions. If it does find some malware or other problem in the operating system, it will basically just re-download the latest version of itself, bug-free.

3. All your data is online - Everything will be stored online, not locally on a hard drive. While this seems scary at first, if your computer is stolen or broken you can just get a new computer and access all your old files. However, if you're not connected online, that's a different story. This is how they'll be able to pull of the constantly updating and re-imaging of the operating system since your files will not be on a hard drive, hence they wont be swept away when you OS refreshes itself.

4. Chrome OS will only work on Google-approved PCs - Google is looking for very specific types of machines for their OS. They're also going to do away with traditional hard drives and move on to "flash" or solid state hard media, meaning no moving parts. This would mean a boot-up time of around seven seconds on the machine.

5. It should work offline, but I'm not sure how well - You might be able to play games, but if you're not connected and can't access files, I could see this being a serious issue.

Mozilla makes some money

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Mozilla Firefox, better known as the browser you download with IE after you buy your computer because it runs quicker than that slug Microsoft saddles you with, reported some interesting financial numbers for the year 2008. They are another tech company that has seemed to be able to ride out these economic times and grow in profit.

Our revenue and expenses are consistent with 2007, showing steady growth. Mozilla’s consolidated reported revenues (Mozilla Foundation and all subsidiaries) for 2008 were $78.6 million, up approximately 5% from 2007 reported revenues of $75.1 million. The majority of this revenue is generated from the search functionality in Mozilla Firefox from organizations such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, and others.

2008 revenues include a reported loss of $7.8 million in investments in the Foundation’s long-term portfolio (approximately 25%) as a result of economic conditions and investment values at the end of 2008. Excluding investment gains and losses, revenues from operational activity were $86.4 million compared to $73.3 million in 2007, an annual increase of 18%.

With Google Chrome, the latest version of IE grumbling in the background, Opera and Safari - there is a lot of competition out there for Mozilla. Although don't count out the devoted fanbase of Firefox, which seems to be growing all the time.

Modern Warfare 2 is the best selling piece of media ever

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Fighting terrorists and other countries apparently ranks high in the minds of people as Modern Warfare 2 has raked in truckloads of cash. In fact, its raked in more cash in a five day period than any game or movie. Ever.

Wow.

Despite a bit of controversy in Russia, Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 has taken the video game world by storm, and now it is breaking sales records across the entire entertainment industry. The title reportedly generated $550 million in sales during the first five days available, beating all other video game launches and raking in more cash than any movie in the same timeframe.

By comparison, the current worldwide box-office record-holder is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which earned $394 million in its first five days. The Dark Knight holds the US box-office record with $203.8 million. The title has even successfully trounced Grand Theft Auto IV, which pulled in $500 million over the first five days of sales.

Hear me know, there will be no studying on college campuses for the next three months.

Internet Explorer to rise again

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:27:00 +0000

Even though I use Firefox religiously, Microsoft gearing up for another version of Internet Explorer is big news because I'll have to eventually get a new computer and use this browser to download FF and Chrome.

Microsoft will talk about its plan for upcoming builds of Internet Explorer this week at the Professional Developers Conference
-- though, it will not offer a preview of its next browser, according to CNET. It is also reported that the company is not planning to announce a move to the WebKit engine, despite speculation.

During a presentation today at the conference, chief software architect Ray Ozzie said Microsoft would make Internet Explorer the best Windows
browser, but did not elaborate. Redmond is expected to offer more details during tomorrow's keynote speech, however, which will touch on some "focus areas" for the next version of IE.

One thing that keeps getting me about IE is how darn slow the thing is. While more tests have shown that it's actually a fairly safe browser in terms of viruses and spyware items, it still takes forever to boot up and load pages. So Microsoft... speed things up a bit.

The Russians don't like Modern Warfare

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:15:00 +0000

This makes me wonder what they thought of Goldeneye. According to some content in the latest COD game, there's been a big snafu and the game has been pulled off the shelves in Russia. An apparently ban on it is rumored.

Activision is celebrating many successes with Modern Warfare 2 in general. The game opened up to amazing sales and helped contribute to a record-breaking number of Xbox Live connections. It's not gravy worldwide, however, following some recent trouble the game is dealing with in Russia. Despite an initial passing grade, MW2 is now facing an outright ban in Russia due to controversial content.

In particular the scene in which a player is put into an airport in Moscow has caused an upset, though for what specific reasons hasn't been clarified yet. Neither Activision nor the Russian government has released an official statement on what the situation is, but for now the game has been pulled from shelves in Russian stores. There's also rumors (though nothing official yet) that the game may face an outright ban.

So we don't know what it is yet? Can you say lame? Apparently they have a different idea of freedom over there in Russia, or some weird tastes when it comes to video games. After all, they did make Tetris.

Gamers up in arms about Modern Warfare 2's multi-player system

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Gamers tend to like Call of Duty's awesome multi-player feature, which can basically suck up your entire day due to it's extreme enjoyability. Trust me in college, there was a week where we didn't have school due to snow and guess what I was doing that entire week? With the release of COD:MW2, it seems some gamers are up in arms about a few things.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released worldwide this week to an overwhelming success, selling 4.7 million copies on a single day and raking in an estimated $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom alone. Reviews have been mostly favorable too, at least as far as gameplay is concerned. But there is one group who feels slighted by a series of changes made in this latest addition to the Call of Duty franchise.

Ever since the word was out, PC gamers have been up in arms with Infinity Ward's decision to replace dedicated servers to host multiplayer matches with a proprietary infrastructure called IWNet. This has translated into less control in the hands of gamers, with no way to choose who is hosting matches (one player is assigned automatically), and no ability to kick or ban players from your game.

GASP! That's the end of the world.

Okay, so that does sound kind of annoying and I don't know why IW just couldn't stick with the old system unless there was some sort of concern that we're not aware of. Sometimes you don't want to give gamers too much control but the automated IWNet sounds a bit lame, kind of like Mario Kart Wii's automated and completely random multi-player system.

Makes me was to go use a rocket launcher.

Water found on the moon

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:36:00 +0000

Remember that big NASA impact on the moon a while back? Well apparently the data is back and they've found quite a substantial amount of water of the moon. Looks like we might be going back...

Substantial water reserves have been found beneath the Moon’s surface, Nasa announced yesterday, paving the way for a permanent lunar base.

The discovery came from Nasa’s “moon bombing” mission, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) probe, which was deliberately crashed into the lunar South Pole last month. An analysis of the dust thrown up from the impact revealed the presence of about 80 litres of water, or enough for a shallow bath. The results suggest that much larger, more accessible reserves are available at the poles.

“We can announce that we’ve found water — not just a little bit, a significant amount,” said Tony Colaprete, principal investigator for the mission at Nasa’s Ames Research Centre in California.

The exact form of the water is not yet clear, but it is likely to be spread out in small ice crystals. The rocket hit the Moon at an area where the surface temperature is around -230C. This region has not been in direct sunlight for at least two billion years.

And it's still probably cleaner than the tap water in LA. Wonderful.

The 50 Best Innovations of 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:54:00 +0000

Time Magazine has released a list of the 50 best innovations of 2009. Some of them high-tech, some of them life changing and some of them are just plain weird. The No. 1 on the list was NASA's Ares Rocket which could potentially launch men to the moon and beyond.

The new rockets could take astronauts to some thrilling places. The biggest costs — and risks — associated with visiting other celestial bodies are from landing and taking off again. But suppose you don't land? An independent commission appointed by the White House to make recommendations for NASA's future recently returned its 154-page report and made strong arguments for bypassing the familiar boots-in-the-soil scenario in favor of a flexible path of flybys and orbits.

Under the new thinking, astronauts could barnstorm or circle the moon, Mars and Mars' twin moons, deploying probes to do their rock-collecting and experiments for them. They could similarly sample near-Earth objects like asteroids. They could also travel to what is known as the Lagrange points — a scattering of spots between Earth and the moon and Earth and the sun where the gravitational forces on the bodies are precisely balanced and spacecraft simply ... hang where they are. These would serve as ideal spots for deploying probes and conducting cosmic observations.

Ladies and gentlemen, the 21st Century!

Windows 7 continues to take over the world

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0000

It's official, Windows 7 is way better than Vista and it's selling a whole lot better than Vista. In just three weeks, the new operating system has captured an astounding four percent market share, something that took Vista six months to do. Miracles or miracles if you release something stable and people actually want to use it.

Windows 7 continues to blaze trails, both in new sales and in upgrades of existing machines. As of the second week in November, less than three weeks since the official release, Windows 7 has reportedly snagged over 4% of the global OS market. At that speed, Windows 7 is outpacing its predecessor at an alarming rate. It took Vista roughly six months after release to reach 4% share.

This momentum may continue through the end of the year, when PC sales are traditionally high. If it does, it will be interesting to see where most of the users are coming from -- be it upgrades from XP, Vista, or new machines. Regardless, the message is clear: Windows 7 is growing at an astounding rate.

Apple people might have overestimated the whole "Windows 7 will cause people to switch to Mac" because they were dead wrong. Windows 7 is gaining momentum and I think we may have found a suitable replacement for Windows XP.

Macs apparently aren't perfect either

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Wait, I though Macs were supposed to be perfect in every sense of the word. No viruses, bugs and gremlins slowly tearing apart your computer (Actually PC's don't have gremlins either). However, Apple just came out with a massive patch that fixes 58 vulnerabilities in its operating systems. Wow.

Today's security update was the sixth from Apple this year, and the second that included patches for Snow Leopard, launched in late August.

"Seems a little large, but really, it's par for the course for Apple," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, referring to the number of individual bugs quashed in today's 2009-006 update. In May, Apple patched a record 67 vulnerabilities; it addressed 55 in February, 33 in September, and 19 in two separate August updates.

"Thank goodness Apple didn't release it tomorrow," Storms said. Microsoft, which unlike Apple sets a regular schedule for its security updates, is slated to deliver six updates Tuesday that will patch 15 vulnerabilities.

Why does it always feel like I'm getting talked down to when reading a Mac story? I mean these guys seriously think they're error free yet they do the same stuff Microsoft does.

Ready for Google Caffeine?

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Remember when Google rolled out it's test Google Caffeine build that was much quicker in terms of search speed. Well the next generation of Google search is about to go live and while it's not much of a graphical change it will be a big tweak to the infastructure of the search engine giant.

Here's the statement from Google. This comes from the Google Caffeine beta page which has now been shut down.

We appreciate all the feedback from people who searched on our Caffeine sandbox.Based on the success we’ve seen, we believe Caffeine is ready for a larger audience. Soon we will activate Caffeine more widely, beginning with one data center. This sandbox is no longer necessary and has been retired, but we appreciate the testing and positive input that webmasters and publishers have given.

It will be interesting to see how this changes some of the rankings and who gets dinged and who doesn't. This might hurt Bing a little as more people will want to test drive the new "Google" if they don't already use it all the time.

Big Brother... I mean Google... is watching you

noreply@blogger.com (Brandon) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:52:00 +0000

In a rare move in big company history, Google is actually letting everyone know how much information they have on you. Now if only the CIA would do the same...

"Over the past 11 years, Google has focused on building innovative products for our users. Today, with hundreds of millions of people using those products around the world, we are very aware of the trust that you have placed in us, and our responsibility to protect your privacy and data," said Google in a blog post today. "In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over their own data, we've built the Google Dashboard."

The company said the Dashboard is set up so that users can control the personal settings in each Google product that they use. Google said the Dashboard tool supports more than 20 products and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts and Google Latitude.

I took a peek at my Dashboard and basically Google knows everything about me, which is kind of creepy. It's like a spouse but without all the arguments about who left the toilet seat up.