The Tecker

It looks like the pricing for Windows 7 might be a little more reasonable then expected! Also for a limited time, Microsoft is offering an additional discount, so if you're looking into buying it, now's your chance.
[via Gizmodo]

Philips has just announced the first ultra widescreen LCD in 21:9 aspect ratio.

Yes, that is the cinema aspect ration.

The TV will be 56 inches diagonally, and incorporate Philips' Ambilight technology to create richer colors.

The reason Philips wanted to develop a 21:9 ratio TV was because they knew that many consumers do not want to see the black bars on the top an bottom of their TV's during movies, so they designed the TV in the proper ratio that would eliminate the need for the blank space.

[via GadgetVenue]

Well it's official, Sony has worked way too hard this CES.

They have released 70+ products.

Granted 18 of those are camcorders, but still, you wonder if Sony is trying to bring profits back by creating such a wide diversion of products...

[List of products on Gizmodo]

Sorry about the third post in a row...

But The Windows 7 Beta download limit has been extended to January 24, even if the downloads exceed 2.5 million. (Mainly because they already have)

So please try it out and tell us how you like it or don't.

Ok, now here it is people! The Windows 7 Beta release servers are up again but remember, the download is only available to the first 2.5 million people who download it. After that, the beta won't be able to be downloaded.

So ready, set, go get it! [Windows 7 Beta]

PS: please don't be stupid and rely on Windows 7 as your daily machine because it is in Beta still. Secondly, read the list of known problems so you know what problems you could face [Release Notes]. Finally, this Beta expires on August 1, 2009, so have another OS that you can use when this one expires.

Have fun and tell us what you think about Windows 7 in the comments!

Microsoft has released the Windows 7 beta to the general public after its mention at the CES. This means you do not have to download it via torrents because Microsoft released it on their site! [Windows 7 beta...]

Sorry, it would be there. Except the demand crashed Microsoft's servers. Oh well.

No, we'll post the link as soon as it comes back up!

Dell has been teasing all of us recently with posters and teasers about their new Adamo. It's a thin laptop built to compete with the Macbook Air, and so far it looks pretty good. EDIT: It looks amazing!

Now at CES though, they have unveiled it! [Video and Pictures at Engadget]

Asus has been very busy recently! They has at least three new interesting products in their Eee Pc line.

First of all is the new tablet Eee laptop. The Eee Pc T91 combines the guts and price of the Eee line-up with a swivel 9" touch-screen, a GPS receiver, a TV Tuner, and a FM Transmitter.
[via cnet]

Next is is the "keeeboard" (just a prototype name). This is actually a home theater PC crammed into a keyboard with a side touchscreen, a battery, and wireless HDMI capabilities for using a HDTV as a screen without any wires. The whole design reminds me of a really cool, modern Commodore. [via Gizmodo]

Finally we have the Asus Eee D200. It is a home NAS (network attached storage) media server with a touch screen embeded into the front of its case. The concept seems really interesting...

[via Engadget]

Ever since Blackberry's and iPhone's have started dominating the smart phone industry (with Windows Mobile Devices trying to keep up) Palm has kind of been hiding in the background.

Palm has been recently trying to change that by creating a new operating system to replace their outdated one they currently use.

Ever since the CES, nobody had any clues as to what it was like or how it looked, but they just unveiled it, and it looks like it will be a real contender!

[via Gizmodo]

Cannon is set to release 6 (six!) new standard definition camcorders at this year's CES. There are some ones with Flash storage, ones with DVD, and even MiniDV.

So have fun with your new camcorders after Ballmer bores the heck out of you!

This year the Annual CES show will be a real snooze. Bill Gates won't even attend because last year was his last one, and so Steve Ballmer will have to try to rally up the crowd.

Problem is, everything has already been announced.

• Windows 7 will hit public beta (not the torrent version that's out)
• Windows Mobile will get Flash by March (before iPhone!!!!!111)
• Two Halo games for Xbox 360 (yum)
• Better home networking (heard that one before)

[via Gizmodo and TechCrunch]

Journalspace.com was a place for people to blog and share pictures, etc. However, their database was overwritten and they had no real backup, so their company is toast.

One might ask why they did not have a backup.

Well, they did, sorta. They relied on a RAID configuration to keep their data safe. So if one of the drives failed, they just swapped it out for it's backup drive. However, in Journalspace's case, the drive did not fail, it was overwritten which also means (because the drives are configured in a RAID format) the other one had the copy written over too!

The moral? Don't rely on any one technology to keep your data safe. In this case it was RAID, that didn't turn out the intended results. The technology didn't fail, it did its job by copying the one drive, it just had no way of knowing that it was not supposed too.

So remember people backup your data often on removable formats, and always have a backup kept off site too!

---Info for any Journalspace users---

• You can find out more information what happened. [Journalspace News]

• A blog post about how to attempt to recover your posts and pictures via Google's cache. [Andrew's Blog]
• Journalspace also has a twitter account set up so you can view the updates [jsupgrades@twitter]
• Also the company is planning to release the source code for the site to the open source community

If anything else comes up, we'll keep you posted here at The Tecker!

Microsoft had submitted a patent for a "pay to use a part" scheme that allowed users to pay a fee and temporarily use more powerful resources via a cloud-like approach.

Basically, what this meant was that if you wanted to use a more powerful processor, all you had to do was click a button in this Microsoft program and it would charge you a fee and then allow you to use a more powerful processor from a server or something similar.

However, the patent office rejected it but saying that too many parts of the patent had already been patented, and that the patent was too vague to be granted.

Tell me what you think about it!

It has been found out that shouting at hard drives while they are reading or writing severely impacts performance. The shouting (which is air waves vibrating) vibrates the disk platter, and so when the disk is working, it has to slow down or repeat the read or write to make sure it completes it with out error. This in turn, of course, negatively impacts disk performance!

So, the moral? When your hard drive is running slow, don't yell at it! It only slows things down, and actually shortens the life of the drive by wearing out the bearing quicker!



[via Engadget]

It seems as if the Atom processor (developed by Intel) which was created as a low-power processor for netbooks will possibly be available for full-sized notebooks soon!
The talks were started by HP and they seem to be doing well in convincing Intel to open up the requirements!

Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool has found and removed the "AntiVirus 2009" virus from 400,000 computers so far.

[via Slashdot]

If you are like most people, you get a computer that comes with a mouse and keyboard and use those til' they bite the dust. Then you go out to the store and buy a cheap no-name replacement so you can get your work done.

However, you should know that keeping yourself comfortable is very important, and so Extreme Tech has compiled a list of the best keyboards and mice to use for any type of work you do.

[Best Keyboards on Extreme Tech]
[Best Mice on Extreme Tech]

Yellowsn0w has been released to unlock your 3G iPhones via the SIM card! For instructions on how to use it, visit The iPhone Dev Team.

Along with the Supersized iPod rumor comes the rumor that a aluminum Mac Mini will be unveiled with some pretty good specs.

Here's to hoping that the rumors are true!

There is much speculation that next fall Apple will introduce a large screen iPod Touch.
Rumor has been around for a while that Apple has been developing a tablet, but until now, they have been unsure if it would sell well. I think that they have decided it will, and many sources confirm that the iPod project does exist.

I can't wait...