Content and news by Rob Williams

I have used Linux off and on since 1999, but have only been using it full-time for just over a year. In all that time though, it never once occurred to me that I should install an anti-virus to remain safe. I mean, isn’t that one of the reasons people enjoy Linux (and OS X)? It’s to get away from the hassles that Windows is plagued with. Well, whether you know it or not, Anti-Virus tools for Linux are plentiful, and some are far, far better than others.

In this comparison at LinuxWorld, 10 Anti-Virus’ were put to the test, against 25 reasonably well-known viruses. Only three of the applications caught all 25 viruses, which is rather impressive in itself. But the others performed far worse. WatchGuard Linux AV caught only 6% of the viruses, for example, although the company disputes the results. Kaspersky and Symantec proved to be the top ranking in the test.

The “winners” in last night’s contest were Linux tools from Kaspersky and Symantec, and the open source Clam AV. All three tools caught 100 percent of the viruses they encountered. FProt and Sophos caught 94 percent; McAfee caught 89 percent; and GlobalHauri, Fortinet, and SonicWall caught 61 percent.

Source: Dark Reading

Early last month, we posted that Universal Music decided against renewing their iTunes agreement, which sent shock waves through the interwebs. Well here’s a new spin on things, and again, iTunes will not be one to benefit. Universal intends to begin selling much of their catalog through online music shops, excluding iTunes, completely DRM-free. For most consumers, this should be a win/win since you can purchase the songs and then use them wherever you please… exactly how it should be in the first place.

… the music will not be offered D.R.M.-free through Apple’s iTunes, the leading music service. The use of copy protection software has become a major bone of contention in the digital music business, where iTunes accounts for the vast majority of download sales. The record labels generally have required that retailers place electronic locks to limit copying of music files.

Source: New York Times

Despite the fact that Gmail is still in ‘Beta’, they have finally launched a few pay-plans for those interested, which has been rumored for some time. Free Gmail users have access to about 3GB of storage space, while $1 per year can avail you twice that. For insane e-mail addicts, Google offers 25GB accounts for $75 a year, 100GB for $250 and 250GB for $500 a year. Though expensive, it is still far less expensive, in most cases, than getting your own dedicated host with similar bandwidth allowances.

If you’ve done the math, you probably realize that you can just sign up for 100 separate Google accounts and get 600GB for $100 a year, so the pricing seems a bit out of whack. But we’ll just chalk that up to promotional pricing and the fact that there are plenty of other services out there providing 2-6GB of online storage space for free.

Source: Download Squad

Have a Mac? Back up often? If the answer is yes and then no, then Apple has got you covered. Found via Digg, this elaborate, yet simple page gets into the nitty gritty of how to properly back up your system through .Mac Backup and other methods, including manual. I am unsure if Apple OS X includes the great Linux program rsync by default, but if you are willing to code a few lines, it can prove to be an awesome command-line backup application as well.

Regardless of which method(s) you choose, you should store at least one copy of your backup outside the computer to guard against common risks such as theft or power issues, including lightning. You may also wish to store a copy of important data at a second site to guard against property destruction, such as fire and natural disasters.

Source: Apple.com

Sony’s Playstation 3 seemed to have a slow start when it was launched last November, but the pace is certainly picking up now. Their 1.80 firmware update in May added DVD and PS1/PS2 up-scaling to the mix, among other things, and since then the new updates have been frequent. Well now it seems that the PS3 will gain DVR capabilities in the new year, meaning you could record and playback your TV. Sounds good to me… even though I don’t have an immediate need for such a thing. It’s good to see Sony is pushing things in the right direction. Of course, better games wouldn’t hurt either.

“We’re also hoping next year – about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service (expected to be in March) – to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder.” Sure, why not, but we’re going to need a hell of a lot more than 80GB or 120GB of storage to make that thing useful for HD recordings.

Source: Engadget

Capcom’s latest title, Lost Planet, was hyped all the way up until it was finally launched, both on the Xbox 360 and PC. PC gamers had a greater reason to be excited though, since the game officially brought a DX10 title that will put their 8-series and X2-series cards to good use. Well as Brent at Hard|OCP found out, running the game in DX10 mode is the last thing that should be on your mind. Sadly, I am not so confident in the DX9 mode either, but that’s mainly due to the mind dulling gameplay I found the game to have.

On the performance side it seems all video cards offer great gameplay in DX9 mode. Though, this game is very graphically intense and currently does require a lot of GPU muscle even in that mode. The GeForce 8800 Ultra was playable at 1600×1200 4xAA/16xAF with motion blur on “low” and shadows at “medium.” This certainly is not as high as the game can go; motion blur can be turned to “high” and so can shadows in DX10 mode. Even the mighty 8800 Ultra is showing signs of struggle with this new game.

Source: Hard|OCP

Remote controlled cars are fun, there’s no denying that, but their overall power is a little lacking. That’s where Nick Maslowski comes into play, with his RC car which he hopes to reach an incredible 200MPH. The current record with his X2 has been 134.4MPH, so 200MPH seems like a lofty goal.

This little vehicle certainly won’t win any Best in Show medals, but the streamlined design, melt-resistant foam tires, and onboard stabilization system will hopefully enable it to cruise somewhere close to its theoretical maximum speed of 274mph.

Source: Engadget

ReadWriteWeb has another one of their popular Top 10 lists, this particular one taking a look at the top ten properties owned by Yahoo!. Yahoo.com is considered the number one website in the world according to multiple tracking engines, but that’s just the beginning. Services mentioned in the article include Yahoo! News, Flickr, Messenger, del.icio.us and more.

Most Web users probably use at least one Yahoo product on a regular basis. So as part of our 100 Days For Yahoo week, let’s take a look at 10 that are among the leaders in their particular market segment, or are particularly innovative. These are subjective selections, because it’s almost impossible to use objective criteria to judge such different web properties. So we encourage you to comment on what you think should be in the list, or what shouldn’t. Also note that the following list is in no particular order.

Source: Read/WriteWeb

We posted back in March about Microsoft’s newest photo format, HD Photo, formally known as Windows Media Photo, although it’s tentatively being called “JPEG XR”. In short, it’s supposed to provide superb image quality without hogging half as much disk space. Vista already has support for the file format, although I don’t believe it’s being used other than internally right now. In the coming months, sixteen national standards groups will vote on whether or not the format will become a standard. If successful, and considering the fact that it’s set out to replace the JPEG format, it might not take too long before it becomes commonplace.

The “XR” in the name refers to the extended range of tones that the format can represent compared with traditional JPEG, one of many advantages Microsoft claims for the technology. JPEG can describe each component of red, blue and green color in a pixel with 8 bits of data; because cameras typically shoot images with 12 bits of data, that means conversion to JPEG typically throws away information a photographer might want, such as details in shadowed faces or the subtle folds of white clothing. JPEG XR can store 16 or 32 bits of data per color for each pixel.

Source: USA Today

We knew the 80GB Playstation 3 would be hitting our shores, and it looks like EB Games may be the first to offer up a pre-order. Compared to the original PS3, the $599 seems great, considering it includes a larger hard drive and a game. Assuming the game can be had for $50, that means your 20GB gain is also $50. The ‘original’ console now retails for $499, so it’s up to you to decide whether or not Motorstorm and the extra 20GB gain is worth your $100.

It may seem a bit of overkill to pre-order a system that’s already available and hasn’t exactly been flying off shelves, but those who want to pay $600 for their game system as a matter of pride or only like a limited number of the PS2 games they own may want to act fast. — If some are to be believed, you may have less time to buy a $600 PS3 than you think.

Source: Joystiq

When is it ok to use an emoticon, in this MySpace/FaceBook world? According to the New York Times… not too often. There’s a few real examples listed, one of which a woman’s business lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and was consoled with the help of a frown smiley. I agree with most of the article… like most things though, there is a right time and a wrong time for things. So it’s best you go scratch those emoticons off your resume.

In a survey of 40,000 users of the Yahoo Messenger instant-message program, 52 percent of the respondents were older than 30, and among those, 55 percent said they use emoticons every day. Nearly 40 percent of respondents said they first discovered emoticons within the last five years.

Source: NY Times via DownloadSquad

Apple is having an outstanding year, breaking records and constantly adding to their fanbase. While the iPhones initial numbers were impressive, it doesn’t come close to the news that iTunes has just hit it’s 3,000,000,000th download. That’s quite impressive… and according to my rough math, that’s about $3,000,000,000 that the store has been responsible for. One billion was hit in February 2006, two billion in January 2007. Nine months for one billion and now seven months for another one billion. Five more for another billion?

CUPERTINO, California—July 31, 2007 – Apple today announced that more than three billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). iTunes is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store featuring a catalog of over five million songs, 550 television shows and 500 movies. iTunes recently surpassed Amazon and Target to become the third largest music retailer in the US.

Source: Apple Press Release

Sure, “Gorgeous” is one word, but if it had a middle-name, it would be Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. Many car enthusiasts in 1995 were upset at Alfa’s stop to exporting cars to the US, but can now pop a cork at the fact that they are coming back. The first model is what you see below, first unveiled in 2003 and has hardly changed… a very good thing.

Offered here is a 4.7-litre V8, pushing out 450HP which slides the 8C right into the supercar category. 0-60 performance is not known, but it doesn’t matter. If you are in this car, you will want to go as slow as possible to give people a chance to stare. Start saving up your pennies now. All 20 million of them.

Source: Jalopnik

Last week, there was rampant rumor floating around the web about a potential G9 mouse from Logitech. After looking over all of the info, it looked completely fake, so I refrained from posting any news about it. Well it turns out that, it’s completely true, but some of the facts that floated around were slanted.

This mouse promises to take customization to a new level, which explains the reason for the design change. According to Logitech, the amount of adjustable features on the mouse, including software, is unprecedented. The mouse includes two grips, precision and wide load. Yes, it’s really called Wide Load. Each grip has a different feel, so it’s up to you to test both and settle on one.

1600DPI not doing it for you anymore? No worries, as the G9 goes all the way up to 3200DPI. Is that needed? Of course not, but you will definitely have the advantage in bragging rights. Also included is a custom-color LED, which is one of the coolest parts of the mouse. Choosing from a spectrum of hundreds of colors, you can choose the one that sets your mood. These LEDs show such info as battery-life and DPI settings. Lastly, the mouse borrows a feature from the G5 (weight system) and MX Revolution (two-setting scroll wheel) to help make this the most customizable mouse ever. I admit, I -want- one.

The G9 is not the only new product being unveiled today though. The popular G15 gamers keyboard is also getting an overhaul, which includes native support from the ‘most popular games’ for the GamePanel LCD screen which is backlit and has a 160x43px resolution. Whereas the original had eighteen separate ‘G’ buttons, the revised G15 includes only six, which can be shifted more than once to scroll through all eighteen. Also new is the look, which you can see in the photo below:

The G9 mouse will be shipping this month for an SRP of $99, while the G15 will arrive in October also at $99.

The DDR3 fight between manufacturers is now on. When DDR3 first launched in late May, the fastest kit on the market was courtesy of Kingston, settling in at DDR3-1375. Not too long afterward, Super Talent came and released an amazing DDR3-1600 kit. Then, OCZ beat out the competition with their DDR3-1800 kit. Well, it never ends. Super Talent regains the top spot with their latest DDR3-1866 kit. Of course, anything above DDR3-1333 speeds is probably wasted, but it’s fun regardless. Who will be first with a DDR3-2000 kit?

Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of DRAM memory modules and flash storage solutions, today announced the world’s fastest production DDR3 kit. W1866UX2G8 is a 2GB Kit that is tested and guaranteed to operate at 1866MHz (PC3-14900) at extremely low latencies. The W1866UX2G8 Kit, the world’s first 1866MHz 2GB Kit (2x 1GB), supports ultra low 8-8-8-24 latencies. This Kit is built with the fastest available, carefully screened DRAM chips, and is hand tested as a matched pair on a dual channel Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard at its rated specs at 1.9 volts.

Source: Super Talent Press Release

Mary Jo Foley has news that Microsoft will launch their ‘budget’ office suite, Works 9, as a free and ad-supported product, similar to what Adobe plans to do with an online version of Photoshop. It’s unknown whether for sure it will be an online or offline application, but it’s likely to be the latter to better compete with Google Docs.

Nadella added that Works will be just “the first of the ad-funded software we are going to do.” When I asked for other examples of products might decide to make free and ad-funded, he mentioned Office Accounting Express — a product which is currently available as both a free download and as a component of certain Office Live paid subscriptions. He also said software downloads/shareware was another category ripe with products that could be free and ad-funded.

Source: ZDNet

Despite being a PC hardware enthusiast, I am a huge console gamer and there is no genre I enjoy more than racing. PGR4 has many intrigued, and for good reason. It brings weather-effects into play and motorcycles… a huge step for the series. Joystiq has news of the official city list for the game which include Macau, Las Vegas, London, New York and even a Canadian level, Quebec. No surprise, but Nürburgring is back as well. As with most good news, there is some bad news as well:

The sequel to the Xbox 360 launch title will also boast weather effects, motorcycles and a Michelin-sponsored test track, with some of the returning tracks from the previous game seeing adjustments to enhance the flow of racing and prevent pileups. They will also be presented at a different time of day, though this aspect itself will not be adjustable. Posting in the official Bizarre Creations forum, a staff member noted, “You won’t see different times of day per city because this involves recreating all the textures again (one for day and one for night). Whilst this wasn’t a problem for our dev team, it was a problem fitting all this data onto a single DVD.”

Source: Joystiq

Dead in the sense that support has dropped, of course. Originally launched in 1998, the iMac was certainly a unique looking computer, which also happened to popularize USB ports. At that time, USB seemed incredibly impressive. September 18th is the day of doom, where support is dropped.. no parts will be available for purchase from Apple directly. This doesn’t mean that third-party vendors won’t have them, but chances are prices will go up, and parts will be harder to come by.

Come September 18 we’ll all be wearing black, mourning the death (or celebrating the life) of the slot loading iMac. Yes, the computer that brought USB to the masses and brought the Mac OS back into our hearts gets end of life’d on that fateful Tuesday. Once the 18th hits, Apple will no longer offer service parts or documentation to repair centers for this model iMac.

Source: CrunchGear

Are you proud to be humble? Did you fix up 1,500 computers to give to deserving people? That’s what I thought. Jacob Komar has done just that. He created “Computers for Communities” in 2001 which means he comes close to fixing up one computer per day, saving it from hitting the landfill in the process. The story at ABC News is short, but sweet as they say. I have to hand it to Jacob… it’s quite commendable what he’s doing. I’ll be over in the corner sobbing about my own sad existence.

I was at my sister’s elementary school and I found out that they were throwing away a whole lab of computers just because they were outdated. First, I was like, “Well, wow, they’re throwing all these away,” like, you know, “This seems like a waste.” And then I kind of thought about it and I was like, “Wow, well, there’s got to be kids that don’t have computers at home.”

Source: ABC News

Microsoft is gearing up to release a “Vista Performance and Reliability Pack” within the next few weeks. Not surprisingly, it has been leaked around the web already, but be careful what you download since it wouldn’t be difficult for malious users to include trojans and the like with the download. I’ll sit back and what for the official launch. Various things are improved, including video driver support and gaming visuals. Hopefully this will take care of other nagging features of the OS to hold us over until a proper service pack is released.

Microsoft has released to Windows Server 2008 beta testers two new hot-fix packs for Vista which aim to improve the OS’s performance and reliability in a number of categories, fixing many of the mass-reported performance issues in Vista, along with some unexpected improvements.

Source: TechSpot