Microsoft Releases Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 RC

Windows Home Server has been a product rough around the edges for a lot of people. While some have happily used boxes with no issues whatsoever, others have been unfortunate enough to experience data-threatning bugs that turn them off of the platform.

Thankfully, Microsoft pushed out its new release candidate for the operating system's "Power Pack", which will bring along a host of new features as outlined by ArsTechnica:

• Support for PCs running Windows Vista x64 editions
• Backup of home server Shared Folders
• Easier and enhanced remote access capabilities
• Better energy efficiency
• Improved performance
• Chinese and Japanese versions

The update also fixes potentially dangerous (and frankly terrifying) file corruption bug, which plagued a lot of users making the entire backup solution effectively useless. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of WHS and would rather use a more affordable and tested solution such as Ubuntu Server or FreeNAS, but the appeal and simplicity is there for home users who simply want to backup their data. Hopefully this fix will be the first of many from Microsoft's doors.

We've seen delay after delay for Windows Home Server (WHS) Power Pack 1 (PP1) as Microsoft makes sure to thoroughly address a file corruption bug in addition to adding various new features and fixing bugs in the operating system. The software giant has now released build 1771 of WHS PP1 for public testing, a move that means the company is reasonably satisfied with the update and now wants to confirm that users feel the same. Redmond has also opened a new channel of communication for the beta: Power Pack 1 subforum on the Windows Home Server Community forums.

Source: Windows Home Server Team Blog, Via: ArsTechnica

Apple WWDC Announcements: New iPhone, SDK Features, MobileMe, Snow Leopard

In case you've been under a rock for the past few hours, you'll probably be somewhat excited to know that Apple announced a few exciting products and the company's 2008 Developer's Conference. First up (well, technically last), the company lifted the veil off of the new phone, which sports 3G data, GPS, a lower pricetag ($199 and $299 for the 8GB and 16GB versions respectively), a new white model, better battery life, a flush headphone jack, and as one would expect, all of the features of the 2.0 upgrade which is due out in early July for existing owners.

The main draw here is really the inclusion of two things: the lower price and availability. Apple expects the phone to be available in 70 countries by the year's end, and the phone shouldn't exceed the $199 price in most cases. This obviously opens up the potential market a great deal, adding 65 new countries to the list. Even if you have no interest in the phone, the new discounted price will surely attract eyeballs from both customers and competitors.

Two things that weren't mentioned during the keynote are the end of iTunes activations and data plan pricing, which has been increased from $20 to $30 with the inclusion of 3G. AT&T has since stated that they removed this option because people wanted the ability to activate the phone in store and walk out with it (which, oddly enough, was already possible), but I believe this is a blatant effort to combat the unlocking scene because of the new subsidized price.

Along with the new phone, Apple also told developers that they would offer a solution for the inability to run processes in the background by implementing a sort of server-side notification system that would run through Apple's servers, free of charge for developers. The company claimed the upside would be increased stability and performance.

There was a demonstration of a new service, called MobileMe, which replaces .Mac, that the company calls "Exchange for the rest of us." The idea is that information (email, photos, calendar, address information, files) could be accessed from any "computer" and synced through the "cloud" wirelessly. This will undoubtably be an attractive feature for new users with more than one computer, or an iPhone, for instance, but I'm sure the $99 price tag will put some potential customers off.

Lastly (whew), Steve Jobs mentioned the new 10.6 release of OS X would be called "Snow Leoperd", as the rumors suggested, but.... didn't go into any details. Developers were offered a preview "after lunch", but no details have been released.

Source: Apple

June 9th Tech Roundup

• Asus Striker II NSE - I4U
• XFX 790i Ultra - Bjorn3D

• Samsung 2220WM - Benchmark Reviews
• Sapphire HD3870 X2 Atomic Water Cooled Edition - Modders-Inc

• Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB DDR3-1600 - ThinkComputers
• Crucial Ballstix 2GB PC3-16000 - HardwareLogic
• A-DATA G Series 2GB DDR2-800 - Overclockers Club
• SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4GB - Madshrimps
• Cyber Snipa Dog Tags 4GB - GideonTech

• HP SimpleSave Photo Disks - TechwareLabs

• Gelid Thermal Compound GC-1 - DragonSteelMods

• Cooler Master Centurion 590 - InsideHW
• Cooler Master Cosmos S - Tech-Reviews
• Airlive AirView-2000 WiFi Projector Server - techPowerUp
• Logitech G5 Revision 2 - Tech-Reviews
• Logitech VX Nano - Tech-Reviews

• ASUS M70S Notebook - ComputerShopper
• Toshiba Satellite X305-S6845 Notebook - HotHardware