Category: GReader

We’ve referred to Windows 7’s Libraries as a top thing to look forward to, and then as one of the best underhyped features—but if you really can't get used to them, you can disable it.

The new Libraries feature in Windows 7 creates what are essentially virtual folders—you can combine multiple document folders together into a single library that combines them all into a single folder, create new libraries, and access them from common file open dialogs.

It's an excellent feature that's a huge step forwards in Windows file management—but if you aren't able to get used to a new way of doing things, the Tweaking with Vishal blog has a registry hack to completely eliminate them. Simply download, extract, and double-click on the provided registry hack file, then restart your computer and you'll see that the Libraries are completely gone. There's also an uninstall registry script provided just in case.

As a rule, you could always wait to buy a laptop, and find a better, cheaper one later. But believe me, now is one of those times when you have to. Here's why you should wait—just two months.

Gallery haters, click here to remove that gallery framework.

A Way Better Operating System

We have been blunt about it: Windows 7 kicks ass, especially Vista’s. Sure you can upgrade a current Vista laptop to Windows 7 but there’s a hassle involved. Buy a laptop now and you get a free upgrade to Win 7, but the laptop manufacturer (not Microsoft) has to send you the install disc via snail mail after October 22. A clean install of the OS done at the factory is more likely to be hassle-free. On top of that, a number of laptops will be optimized for Windows 7, meaning they will have new hardware features that will take advantage of the new operating system which brings us to point number two.

More Power

If you have been looking for the opposite of a netbook and a high-end mobile machine, you’ll have your pick come November (actually, late October). That’s when Intel ought to roll out the latest edition of the Centrino platform, codenamed Calpella. This chipset is expected to feature a less power-hungry version of the Core i7 desktop processor we like so much, with perhaps mobile Core i5 and Core i3 versions on the way later. We expect a slew of these laptops to hit then. We already know that MSI will ship 15.4 and 17-inch notebooks powered by Intel’s new Core i7 7200M, Core i7 8200M, and Core i7 920XM with Windows 7.

Mac users take note: The Centrino platform is also found in all manner of MacBook—just without the Intel sticker—so this applies to you, too. And fans of the shiny white plastic MacBook know that it's due for a cosmetic upgrade, so whether you want the faster processors in a unibody MacBook Pro, or a full makeover, inside and out, on the plastic MacBook, it pays to wait.

The arrival of 64-bit-savvy Windows 7 and Snow Leopard means that system builders will also be able to bump up the RAM. Now it will make sense to go beyond 4GB, pushing us out of the current RAM rut, though perhaps at an added cost.

Serious Weight Loss

The thin-and-light laptops that are coming are so thin they make me hungry. If you don't care about the kind of horsepower needed for games and 1080p video, Intel is also shipping new dual-core ULV processors. Laptops that used to cost north of $1,500 now thanks to Intel's ULV (once called CULV) are gonna be under a grand. The new dual-core chips are aimed at ultra thin laptops (those right in between netbooks and mainstreamers, like the Acer Timeline). MSI told us about the new Core 2 Duo SU4100 and SU7300 chips—it is our guess that these are the same chips that will be in Sony's rail-thin X Series and Samsung’s X120.

Sweet Deals

It may still seem too early think about holidays but, hey, autumn starts in two weeks. Many of these new notebooks will be released at the end of October to coincide with Windows 7’s Oct. 22 official launch date, and a scant month later we hit Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the biggest sales days of the year. Retailers and manufacturers would be stupid if they didn’t mark down even the newest stuff, so if you hold out just a few weeks, you will not only get the best laptops out there but you’ll get them at some unbelievable prices.

Future Features

We don’t necessarily expect you to wait for GScreen’s dual-screen laptop, but some other pretty great new technology will start hitting notebooks before year’s end. SuperSpeed USB (aka USB 3.0) will be showing up soon, and after Windows 7 arrives, more and more laptops will be built with multitouch capability. Additionally, chances are good that the price of solid-state drives will start dropping, and that more laptop manufacturers will also start selecting the faster SSD models.

The future is upon us. So don’t buy anything right now. Save your money, handcuff yourself to a piece of furniture, and wait it out. Just two months, that’s it.

The feature film that taught us Greed is Good will soon see a sequel, and Charlie Sheen’s character Bud Fox will make a cameo appearance in the upcoming Wall Street sequel.

Worst Previews offers:

He is the highest paid actor on TV, earning $860,000 per episode and working and traveling much less than he would have to do for a feature film.

But even though Sheen has a different life now, director Oliver Stone has just confirmed to NY Times that the actor will make a cameo in his upcoming “Wall Street” sequel as Bud Fox, the young trader from the original film.

There is no word on just how they will work in Bud Fox’s character in the film that will return Michael Douglas’ Gekko character to the world of finance looking for that second chance.

One franchise that I have enjoyed off and on throughout the years is Star Trek. Granted it’s origin predates even my birth, and I was 5 when Star Wars came out and was a far bigger fan of that. But the undeniable presence of Star Trek began on this day 43 years ago!

Chud shares:

On September 8th 1966 Star Trek premiered on NBC with the episode The Man Trap. 43 years ago the USS Enterprise began boldly going where no television show had gone before, and this summer it proved that there was more than enough dilithium crystals in the old warp nacelles to keep going for some time yet.

So after 5 Television series and now 11 feature films, Trek went from a devoted cult following, to a successful run of TV shows to modest feature film boxoffices and finally fading out before a new reboot/sequel sparked new interest.

Star Trek The Original Series
Star Trek The Next Generation
Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Star Trek Voyager
Star Trek Enterprise
Star Trek (new film)

Each had its own flavour and approach the the Trek universe. Which one appealed most to you?

Scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, China believe this footage of an unidentified flying object is the evidence we have all been waiting for.

Michael Bishop threw three second-half interceptions to sink any rally attempt by the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who dropped their fifth straight Labour Day Classic, 29-14 to Saskatchewan, on Sunday.

If Fujitsu was going for sexy, it certainly missed the mark with the LIFEBOOK T4310, one of the least attractive machines of its kind, but where the T4310 tablet falls short on style, it certainly makes up for with its excellent multitouch-friendly capacitive touchscreen. Playing with Windows 7’s new touch features, it almost seems feasible to use the OS with a finger (gasp!), and the screen can also accept pen input (based on pressure-sensitive Wacom technology) when your blunt jabs aren’t getting the job done. The multitouch prowess is most evident using Microsoft’s Surface-inspired Touch Pack applications, which come pre-installed, but it’s also a nice way to get around in Internet Explorer. Other perks of the machine include a 360-degree rotating hinge, a hot-swappable drive bay, and all the internal accouterments (SSD, 3G) one could ask for. Video demo is after the break.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Continue reading Fujitsu’s multitouch LIFEBOOK T4310 tablet makes quick work of Microsoft’s Touch Pack

Fujitsu’s multitouch LIFEBOOK T4310 tablet makes quick work of Microsoft’s Touch Pack originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 12:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If your Velcro jacket fasteners were made of this German-engineered steel "Velcro", you'd be able to withstand 35 tons worth of force—provided your skin and bones don't tear first.

The “Velcro”, which isn’t really Velcro but has one side with spikes and the other with steel brushes, can withstand heat at up to 800 degrees Celsius.

And if you’re interested in tearing these Velcro strips vertically (as in straight out instead of horizontally, where it’s stronger), it can hold up to 7 tons. So, a 6 ton man or a 6614 pound Hummer H2 could be suspended from a building with no problem. (*Although its not clear how much of this stuff they’re talking about to support that much weight, its hard not to be impressed.) [New Scientist via Make]

Just as we predicted, Microsoft’s request to have that ban on sales of Word put on hold pending appeal of i4i’s XML patent victory has been granted. That means IT managers and excitable first-year college students can continue to happily throw down cash for the world’s most popular word processor, while the rest of us twiddle our thumbs waiting for either proceedings to resume on September 23 or Stevey Ballms to write the big check and make this whole case disappear forever.

Filed under: Software

Microsoft Word allowed to stay on sale… for now originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Things are looking up for the one American automaker that didn’t go for a government bailout, and it’s not just because of “cash-for-clunkers.

Glenn Healy has resigned as the NHLPA’s director of player affairs.

Hey Apple, check this thing out! Toshiba just blazed into IFA on a 7-inch multimedia tablet, the JournE touch. It’s dominated by the touchscreen display, but underneath there’s support for a wide range of codecs (H.264, DivX, WMV), 802.11b/g WiFi, some online multimedia services like YouTube and Flickr, and some light internet duties thanks to Internet Explorer running on Windows CE 6.0 Pro. Despite the size and multimedia prowess (it can output sub-1080p video over an HDMI plug in the dock), the device measures a mere 14mm thick and weighs just under a pound. There’s only 1GB of built-in storage, but that can be expanded via the SD slot, and the device can access external storage over USB. Word is it’ll retail for 250 Euro in Q4 this year.

The device feels pretty nice in hand, but there’s still a bit of a prototype vibe about it — maybe because it’s still a prototype. It’s clearly a resistive screen, and the device will include a stylus for non touch-optimized apps. Toshiba seemed to be having fun with the multitude of Apple comparisons, namely since there isn’t an Apple device to compare it to yet. They also call the video output the tablet’s killer app, and promise to show more once they can track down a WiFi signal. Sure, it’s just a MID at the end of the day, but we’ll be happy to humor them — it’s a pretty hot MID.

Update: We’ve got some video hands-on of the JournE right after the break — gaze upon its G-Force displaying prowess!

Update 2: Added one more video after the break, just in case you didn’t get enough the first go ’round.

Continue reading Toshiba’s JournE touch multimedia tablet (updated with hands-on video!)

Filed under: Handhelds, Tablet PCs

Toshiba’s JournE touch multimedia tablet (updated with hands-on video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today, September 2, is the Internet's 40th birthday! On this day, 40 years ago, in a test lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, two computers passed test data through a 15-foot gray cable – it was then called the ARPANET. One month later Stanford Research Institute had also joined. By the end of the year, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah had joined, thus creating the "internet". The Web, as we know it, was invented by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, when he invented the "World Wide Web" or "WWW".

Read full story…

The Vancouver Canucks have reached a 12-year contract extension with star goalie Roberto Luongo.

Gmail’s reliability honcho jumped on the webmail’s official blog last night to explain what happened during yesterday’s repeated outages. The gist? They took down a few servers for maintenance Tuesday morning (Pacific time), expected the webapp’s “request” routers to handle all the re-directs to valid servers, and … were unpleasantly surprised. The Gmail team notes that IMAP/POP worked throughout the outages, and that they’re working on a fix for similar problems in the future.

How did you end up dealing with Gmail’s downtime yesterday? Did any of the alternate ways into Gmail work for you, or did you just have to relinquish availability for a short while? [Official Gmail Blog]

EBay plans to offload Skype, as the company has been unable to cash in on the popular VoIP service

Free-agent forward Alex Tanguay signed a one-year, $2.5-million US contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

If the ‘I’m a Mac’ ads are to be believed, one of the biggest selling points of the Apple computer is its supposed invulnerability to viruses, spyware, and other evil programs. Of course, those who follow these sorts of things know such a claim is misleading at best. OS X has seen a number of viruses and other nasties over the past several months, as the OS has gained popularity. And now Apple seems to finally be admitting, if rather quietly, that OS X is not quite immune to the Internet’s more nefarious elements.

Apple confirmed last Friday, to PC Magazine, that the latest version of OS X (10.6, or Snow Leopard) features a built-in anti-malware tool. Although OS X has had a feature called ‘file quarantine’ since the 10.4 days, the latest update automatically detects certain Mac-specific threats and suggests that the user quarantine them.

To start, Apple will only detect two different types of malware, but some are already questioning how effective Apple could possibly be at defending OS X against online threats. Apple doesn’t have a great track record at promptly addressing security holes, after all. In fact, some may see (we among them) the Cupertino-based company’s new anti-malware move as an unwitting challenge to online miscreants that could result in an explosion of harmful, Mac-targeted software. [From: BetaNews and PC Magazine]

Filed under: Computers, Web

Apple Quietly Admits Macs Get Viruses originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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By Nate Mook, Betanews

Has Google issued an apology about today’s Gmail outage, or is the company trying to downplay the issue?

We’re not really sure.

In a blog post this afternoon, Google engineering director David Besbris wrote, “We know many of you are having trouble accessing Gmail right now — we are too, and we definitely feel your pain. We don’t usually post about minor issues here (the Apps status dashboard and the Gmail Help Center are usually where this kind of information goes). Because this is impacting so many of you, we wanted to let you know we’re currently looking into the issue and hope to have more info to share here shortly.”

“We feel your pain” seems to be a new recurring Google slogan. It’s the same exact thing the company said one year ago when Gmail went down for 15 hours.

But more disconcerting is Google’s remark that “we don’t usually post about minor issues.” To tens of thousands of Gmail users who immediately took to Twitter, Facebook and blogs to express their frustration, no such outage would be considered minor. E-mail remains a crucial artery in which most important communication flows around the Internet.

Although it was only down for two hours, the Gmail outage — and Google’s response — highlight the problems of migrating critical services to the cloud, and raise questions of what level of service should be expected. Most users do not pay for Gmail or Google Apps, but they still rely entirely on Google to keep the services up and running. Are we asking too much?

As we continue marching toward cloud-based applications, these questions will be at the forefront of the industry. If Google can’t stop their hosted apps from breaking, then nobody can.

Will companies be willing to switch to Web versions of Microsoft Office, Photoshop, or other important tools when a multi-hour outage could literally halt work right in the middle of the day?

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2009