Content and news by Rob Williams

When Apple released the Safari browser for Windows at last Monday’s WWDC, nobody knew what to think. Given that a week has past, looking back, I am confused at the move myself. Safari is a popular browser but doesn’t exactly offer anything innovative to take people away from their Firefox’s and Camino’s. Mike Elgan of Computer World has his own worries for Apple, after their odd move.

While security nerds were ripping Apple for a buggy beta, the UI enthusiasts started going after Apple for the look and feel. Here’s a small sample. Apple can expect much more of this in the future. The problem? Safari for Windows just isn’t Windows enough.

Source: Computer World

Well, that war is over! Alright, a single video store is not going to decide the fate of a next-gen format, but Toshiba’s execs are not likely in a good mood right now. Apparently, out of their 1,500 stores, 250 of them provided HD-DVD and Blu-ray options to their consumers for months, but found Blu-ray to be the better investment. It’s noted that content itself is what helped sales, but I’d be willing to bet the Playstation 3’s support for Blu-ray has even more to do with it.

Interestingly enough, it seems that content — and not price — was the deciding factor for consumers, with Blu-ray-only hits such as the Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean films apparently outmatching equivalent HD DVD exclusives.

Source: Engadget

Microsoft’s WGA technology has never been touted as a smart security tool, because quite frankly it’s proven to have done more harm than good. Luckily, I have never run into issues personally, but I know of a few who have. What if you could trick WGA into thinking your Linux was validated?

The user who found this hole did nothing more than follow the on-screen instructions as a Windows user would. Running the WGA tool gave him a code which Microsoft’s site accepted. I performed this exact same procedure many months ago, but I was told that no code could be generated, so apparently this user had the right combination of tools running. Either way, this is just another reason of why WGA is a waste of everyones time.

Another crack in the Windows Genuine Advantage wall. A user at UbuntuForums.org managed to validate an Ubuntu installation as a genuine copy of Microsoft Windows and get to the download page of Windows Defender, using IE4Linux and Wine.

Source: Slashdot

There is an on-going thread over at the AVS Forum from a user suffering with disc rot on his BR copy of The Prestige. It turns out that half the people in the thread are also suffering from the same problem with the same movie. It doesn’t always deem the movie unviewable, but more often than not it does. If you own any BR discs, especially that movie, you may want to look at the back and see if your disc has the malady as well.

This looks like the issue with the hardcoat application as it is spread thruout the disk. Maybe the hardcoat process got contaminated with something during a particular batch.

Source: AVS Forum

The word from Phoronix is that Google has a few Linux applications up their sleeve, but there is no solid information on what they might be. Google Talk seems like a reasonable guess, or Google Desktop. Personally, I have never had a desire to run any Google app on any rig, except Google Earth of course.

The goal of the Google Linux Client Team is to develop Linux desktop applications, such as what we have seen from Google Earth and Google Picasa with official Linux versions. Also mentioned on this slide was significant accomplishments / releases this year: TBD.

Source: Phoronix

The Thinkpad Reserve Edition rumors have been floating around the web for what seems like forever, and here it finally is. Sadly, there is nothing to really get that excited over. It’s a standard laptop encased with hand-sewn leather. The biggest problem is that it’s an invite only product, for the executives of the world, I assume. Included with the $5,000 price tag is some apparently amazing support though. A good thing, since it runs Vista.

Specs include a Centrino Pro Core 2 Duo L7500 processor, WWAN, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD and of course that 12.1-inch not-a-touch-screen. Lenovo even tosses in an external multi-burner and an 80GB USB drive for good measure, but despite all the freebies, we’re having a hard time swallowing that $5,000 pricetag.

Source: Engadget

Pong is a classic, there is no sense arguing that. But… it’s more boring than watching paint dry. So, to enliven the game a bit, Ashish Derhgawen wrote a homegrown version that will play by itself with the aide of a webcam. Sure, this could be considered a waste of time, but can you say that you wrote a homegrown version of Pong and that your computer plays with itself? I didn’t think so.

As Pong attempts to solidify itself as the most hacked up game in the history of mankind, Ashish Derhgawen has programmed his computer to actually play a homegrown version of the title without any human interaction at all. By utilizing a webcam as the machine’s eyes, he was able to write up an image recognition program that could detect borders and make appropriate movements based on where the ball currently was.

Source: Engadget

Are you looking for an Xbox 360 setup that will cause drool to flow? As gross as that sounds, this setup is far from disgusting. Imagine, three 37-inch LCD TVs with four Xbox 360 Elites and the Xbox 360 wireless steering wheel. Added also is the comfy Sparco racing seat, with a Forza 2 emblem in the back. I don’t care to know the price of this, but it’s a great setup for those who don’t wish to build their own.

The frame is constructed from CNC machined polished aluminum, and envelopes the gamer by curiously including just one Sparco seat along with four Xbox 360 Elites, four copies of Forza Motorsport 2, an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on player, camera / wireless headset, a Zune, force feedback wheel, and surround sound as well.

Source: Engadget

I am a huge Tony Hawk Pro Skater fan, so I giggled like a girl when I seen that IGN put up the first trailer for the new game. Proving Grounds is going to be quite different than anything we’ve seen before, since there are three classes to choose from. Each class has pros and cons, so we can expect it to highly add to the games replay-ability.

The video goes into more detail about the different classes you can choose from. I have a feeling this game is going to blow the pants off what we saw with Project 8.

Source: IGN Xbox 360

According to this article, there are now over one billion Bluetooth enabled devices in the world, a much higher number than I could have ever guessed. There’s another 13 million of them being sold every week, which would include cell phones, headsets and other such devices. Business 2.0 reports that the next Bluetooth revision is going to make things even better.

The problem is that current Bluetooth devices can be difficult to pair up with other devices, and can require upwards of fifteen steps. The new Bluetooth revision should see devices pair up with as little as three steps, which still seems high to me. I have never been a fan of Bluetooth because of the clunkiness, but it will be interesting to see how well this new revision actually helps things.

Users will be able to easily beam photos from cameras to printers or digital picture frames. Wireless keyboards, mice, and videogame controllers will get a boost too. Bluetooth 2.1 will be integrated with near field communication, or NFC, a standard for mobile payments, so consumers will have more opportunities to pay with their phones.

Source: CNN Money

In an attempt to continue their ATI-ass-kicking, NVIDIA has released a new top-end mobile GPU to replace their Go 7950 GTX. According to DailyTech, the new 8700M GT pushes a 10,371 3D Mark 06 score, which I assume to be with the Toshiba WXW. Currently, Toshiba is the only notebook manufacturer to be selling the GPU, which is not much of a surprise since most of Toshiba’s notebook lineup tends to follow the high-end scheme.

I admit I an intrigued, because the 8700M GT has specs substantially better than the 8600M GT. If temps stay reasonable, then this will be one serious gaming notebook.

NVIDIA packs the GeForce 8700M GT with 32 stream processors clocked at 1.25 GHz. The overall core clock is 625 MHz and paired with 800 MHz, 1.6 GHz effectively, memory. NVIDIA specifies a maximum 512MB of video memory on GeForce 8700M GT graphics cards. Aside from the clock speeds, the GeForce 8700M GT is identical to the previously released GeForce 8600M-series.

Source: Daily Tech

Compared to its Windows counterpart, the Linux version of Adobe’s Flash player has always been somewhat crippled. A lot has changed in the past few months though, especially since Flash 9 was released for the OS. One specific feature that was still lacking was full-screen mode for video, due to complications that a non-developer such as myself fails to understand. However, Adobe has released an updated beta to take care of that problem, and in my quick tests, it works very well.

Though welcomed, the Flash player for Linux still has a little ways to go. The main beef I personally have is that many flash ads do not function properly at all. Depending on how the ad was designed, it could actually cover the actual content on the page. I have it happen at least once every other day, and I’m sure I am not alone.

The most notable features of interest to Linux users: Fullscreen mode works on Linux, and the entire thing has been reworked as a native GTK app that communicates with the hosting web browser using the XEmbed protocol. Hopefully, your favorite Linux web browser also holds up its end of the bargain by hosting XEmbed applications.

Source: IGN Xbox 360

Project Gotham Racing is one of my personal favorite racing series, so I’m pumped about the ‘fourth’coming version. Weather is a big thing this time around, with most of the available screenshots and video showcasing the new feature. Of course, weather will add new gameplay modes and track variety, but I am hoping it’s not overdone to the point of it being the games main focus.

IGN has an interview with one of Bizarre Creations’ team members to see what exactly is going on. Apparently there will be ten different types of weather including heavy fog, wet, icy and of course, clear. If you are pumped up for the game like I am, check out the article and be sure to download the new video showcasing most of the weather effects.

Remember though, it’s not always this clear cut. Sometimes it’ll be snowing, but not cold enough for the puddles to ice over. Sometimes it’ll have stopped raining, but the puddles will still be on the track. You’ll need to play it by eye instead of “learning” each track in each condition by heart.

Source: IGN Xbox 360

Sony launched their official Playstation3 blog just the other day, but they’ve been keeping it updated constantly. Hopefully that will keep up. Their latest post confirms that a new firmware upgrade will be available today, but it’s primarily a round of patches to fix problems that came with 1.80. RGB Full was an option unveiled in 1.80, but it would not work properly for most people, but that’s fixed up here.

You can download the update tomorrow from PlayStation.com or through your System Update option on the PS3 XMB. We’re continually evaluating and improving PS2 software compatibility too. Where we can, we’ll look to share similar updates like this on our blog moving forward. Thanks for your ongoing feedback and support!

Source: Playstation Blog

Although the launch of the Safari browser for Windows platforms didn’t go as smoothly as Apple would have liked, it didn’t stop them from having very impressive numbers to brag about, that number being 1,000,000. The real question is, how many people will stick to it? The browser had a good share of problems after launch, but the main security issues have been taken care of in an updated version of the beta.

Taking a quick look at our website stats, I found that the biggest surge of Windows+Safari was on Monday, with the number decreasing for Tuesday and even further yesterday. At this point, it seems the big numbers were from those curious, but most do not appear to have enjoyed it enough to stick with it.

Safari 3 is the fastest browser running on Windows, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2, based on the industry standard iBench tests.* Safari 3 supports all modern Internet standards including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and Java. Safari updates are delivered seamlessly through Apple’s Software Update, and the first update for
Safari for Windows Public Beta which fixes some early reported bugs was released last night.

Source: Apple Press Release

We found out from Hard|OCP earlier today that paying more doesn’t always mean you wind up with a better product. There may be increases, but they certainly don’t always warrant the extreme price increase. The boys at Gizmodo took a trip to the Monster Cables headquarters to perform some in-depth testing with Monster Cables and also Monoprice cables, which cost far less.

What they found out is interesting. First, anything under 6ft in distance, it won’t really matter what cable you pick up unless you are looking to future proof for 1440p. That’s not going to be a concern given the price of a 6ft cable, though. The Monster Cable 2 meter managed to pass all tests, including the 1440p, but it’s quickly evidenced that anything longer will degrade quality fast. It’s difficult to find a long cable that will handle 1080p signals without having to pay a good deal of money.

The truth is, the bigger rip-off appears to be the $20 XtremeHD cable. It didn’t perform as well as stuff one-fifth the price. (No wonder they don’t sell a 10-meter cable.) I would say beware of mid-priced cable of dubious origin. Our dealings with Monoprice lead us to believe that at least they know what they’re selling, even at such a tremendous discount.

Source: Gizmodo

Judges without a clue is nothing new, but it never makes the newest happening any less interesting. Take an example of a federal judge in Los Angeles who decided that computer RAM is a valuable asset in an investigation. Anyone who understands even the basics of computer memory knows that no data is stored on the modules themselves, at least not for long. It’s such a fast transition, that there is no way they could find anything useful.

If this ruling is allowed to stand, things are not going to get much better for TorrentSpy or any other questionably-legal website. As far as I am aware, TorrentSpy still confident that they will keep user information private, but they won’t have much of a leg to stand on if their servers get raided for the precious RAM.

To prove that TorrentSpy was making it easier to share files, the studios told Chooljian that it was necessary that they obtain records of user activity. They convinced her that the only way to do this was to obtain the data from RAM.

Source: ZD Net

Bundled collections are nothing new, especially on DVD, but Warner is the first to bring such collections to the high-definition formats. Each ‘best-of’ collection includes four movies and will retail for $85. It’s steep, but a huge savings if you happen to want all four movies to begin with. Volume 1 seems to be one of the better bundles with such hits as Training Day, Swordfish and Lethal Weapon.

Each box will carry an MSRP of $84.99 on both formats, a savings of up to $55 compared to the combined list prices of each title, if bought separately. Note that none of the box sets include any additional bonus features or different specs from those on the stand-alone releases. Box art for each individual title as also remains the same.

Strong: High-Def Digest

When Apple’s Safari browser was released on Monday, I am not sure if anyone knew how to react. Safari is not known as being a killer browser, so what effect could it possibly have on our lives? Well, as we immediately found out, it wouldn’t mean much, especially with the many problems that came about right away.

But how did Microsoft and Mozilla feel about things? Mozilla’s Mike Schroepfer courteously welcomed them to the arena on the Windows side, but recommended they follow web standards. Microsoft’s Kevin Kutz was actually defensive, but lost all credibility when he stated that Internet Explorer 7 was the best browser available.

Because Safari has such a small share of the browser market, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft would be mum on the announcement. Internet Explorer still has the largest browser market share by a long shot, and Safari doesn’t hold nearly the same level of threat to IE as Firefox does.

Source: Ars Technica

With the launch of Intel’s P35 chipset, ASUS promptly released seven boards for you to choose from. A few weeks ago we had taken a look at the P5K3 and were left very impressed. Given the fact that the P5K is strikingly similar in specs, we hope to be left as equally impressed.