Over the next week we will probably be hearing a lot more about Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series offering as well as some more tidbits about the new Metro UI that is suppose to being powering it; as well as the Zune HD, given that the big MIX10 conference is starting on Monday.

However word is beginning to leak out courtesy of the team at Engadget that Microsoft will also be showing off the game playing abilities of the new Windows Phone 7 Series. With the phone being powered by the nVidia Tegra 2 chipset those who have seen two of the games being prepped say the graphics are pretty sweet.

Here’s some screen shots that Engadget was able to get their hands on of  The Harvest and Battle Punks.

Uberstaller

If there is one thing I really dislike is when you uninstall software there is always garbage left behind, whether it be files or settings in the registry. Uberstaller claims to be able to solve that problem. When you use Uberstaller to uninstall a program it will also scan and then delete any files or registry settings it finds that are associated to the uninstalled program.

Site: Uberstaller

Windows Versions: Vista & Win7

According to a news report from the BBC in early 2011 the hard drives we use in our machines will be undergoing one of the biggest changes in its format than has been seen in 30 some years.

Called advanced format this change will make it easier for hard drive manufacturers to produce bigger drives that use less energy.

There is only one problem: Windows XP.

The problem originates in the way that hard drives have been storing data for years, the 512k byte sector. While this was okay with smaller drives of the past the larger drives we use now end up with lots of empty space.

While 512 bytes was useful when hard drives were only a few megabytes in size, it makes less sense when drives can hold a terabyte (1000 gigabytes), or more of data.

“The technology has changed but that fundamental building block of formatting has not,” said David Burks, a product marketing manager for storage firm Seagate.

This fine resolution on hard drives is causing a problem, he said, because of the wasted space associated with each tiny block.

Each 512 byte sector has a marker showing where it begins and an area dedicated to storing error correction codes. In addition a tiny gap has to be left between each sector. In large drives this wasted space where data cannot be stored can take up a significant proportion of the drive.

Moving to an advanced format of 4K sectors means about eight times less wasted space but will allow drives to devote twice as much space per block to error correction.

“You can get yourself into a corner where you cannot squeeze much more onto the disk,” said Steve Perkins, a technical consultant for Western Digital.

This shift also allows manufacturers to make more efficient use of the real estate on a hard drive.

“We can put more data on the disk,” he said. “It’s about 7-11% more efficient as a format.”

Where this becomes a problem with Windows XP is that it was released before the 4k format was decided upon. While these new advanced format drives will be able to hep XP cope by pretending that they still use the 512k format there could be problems when writing data to the disk.

It might not be a killer problem but there will be a noticeable delay and reduction in hard drive performance.

Okay so it’s not the batteries themselves that are in danger of infecting your machines but rather the software that comes with USB battery chargers.

According to the folks over at Sunbelt Software there is a warning out today from CERT that the Energizer DUO USB battery chargers have been found to be infected with a trojan that loads up backdoor malware when you install the battery monitoring software.

The U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) is warning that Energizer DUO USB battery chargers have been found infected with a Trojan that loads backdoor malware on a victim PC along with its battery monitoring software.

The charger copies a .dll file named UsbCharger.dll in the application’s directory and another named Arucer.dll in the Windows system32 directory. USBCharger sets a registry entry to autoexecute Arucer.dll when Windows starts.

Arucer.dll is a backdoor that communicates through TCP port 7777.

The charger has been sold worldwide for three years.

CERT notes that the Trojan contains Chinese language text.

Sunbelt detects it as Trojan.Arugizer.

CERT Vulnerability Note VU#154421 here.

I always knew I hated that drum beating rabbit.

So what are you waiting for – get bending some pipe.

via Simplified Building

Ever since word first leaked last September of a new hardware product going by the name of Courier interest in Microsoft’s interpretation of a tablet slash e-book reader has been growing.

Well it appears that Gizmodo has a bunch new information as well as images of the illusive Courier as well as word of it coming to market somewhere around Q3 or Q4 of this year (amazingly close to the delivery date for the Windows Phone 7 Series).

Contrary to popular thought though is that OS that will be powering won’t be Windows 7 but rather the same operating system that is powering the Zune HD, Windows Phone 7 Series and the upcoming Pink phone. Additionally word is that it will be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing.

Here’s some images of Courier courtesy of Gizmodo

And here’s the video of it in action – sort of