Overclock.net - Overclocking.net - Software News

[Tech Report] Power Pack 3 for Windows Home Server arrives next week

-iceblade^ — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:25:31 GMT

Quote:

Power Pack 3 improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing new features like: backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for netbook computers. Power Pack 3 will enable the most optimal experience for Windows 7 users on a Windows Home Server network.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/18006

makes a very good excuse to have a Windows Home Server tbh

[DLS] Trillian brings impressive multi-network chat to the iPhone

cubanresourceful — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:15:08 GMT

Quote:

Trillian, the excellent all-purpose chat app we've loved for years on the PC, just made the leap to the iPhone.

There are a lot of things to love about this pocket-sized version of Trillian, including its great-looking interface and its support for several different chat services. You'll need to sign up for a free Astra account if you don't already have one, but it's nice that Trilian's existing desktop users can just plug and play with no account setup required.

I use Trillian on my desktop, though I do not have an iPhone. Hopefully they'll have a client for Windows Mobile 7 when it comes out. :)

Source: Download Squad

[Giveaway of the Day] EASEUS Partition Master 4.1.1 Professional Edition

cubanresourceful — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:59:06 GMT

Quote:

EASEUS Partition Master is comprehensive hard disk partition management tool and system partition optimization software, Professional Edition can let you enjoy all the powerful basic and advanced partition functions.

It is especially for business users who run Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 x32 and x64 and want to optimize the disk usage and better manage disk space. More advanced than Home Edition, it can help you create bootable CD/DVD in case of system boot failure.

Key features:

Extend system partition to maximize computer performance.
Copy wizard to backup all data or copy entire hard disk to another without Windows reinstallation.
Basic partition features for better managing hard disk and maximizing computer performance.
Advanced partition features to maximize computer performance and minimize computer downtime.
Usability features allow you to operate directly on the disk map with the drag-and-drop and preview the changes.

I actually like this partition manager, so I'll post it here for you guys. It's 100% free. :)

Source: Giveaway of the Day

[Beepa] Fraps 3.0.2 Released

CoreXE — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:40:34 GMT

Quote:

Changelog
- Fixed inability to put machine to sleep with Fraps running
- Fixed bug preventing people from updating the benchmark timeout value
- Fixed problem restoring Fraps window to previous position upon startup
- Fixed AUDIODG.EXE consuming large amounts of CPU for some users

Source
Download

[WUWT]CRU has apparently been hacked � hundreds of files released

Backwoods166 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:19:13 GMT

Quote:

An unknown person put postings on some climate skeptic websites that advertised an FTP file on a Russian FTP server, here is the message that was placed on the Air Vent today:

We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to
be kept under wraps.

We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents

The file was large, about 61 megabytes, containing hundreds of files.

It contained data, code, and emails from Phil Jones at CRU to and from many people.

Science and computers, my two favorite topics.

source

[engadged] Google Chrome OS available as free VMWare download

azt3c — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:02:36 GMT

Quote:

By Vladislav Savov posted Nov 20th 2009 1:44AM

Hands-On
Breaking News
Seriously, how awesome have the past few hours been? Engadget turns the design stakes up to 11, Google finally dishes the dirt on Chrome OS, and now you can even download the forthcoming software to have a fiddle with yourself. It's completely free, though you'll need VMWare running atop a Windows, Linux or OS X installation to make the magic happen. Naturally, we've been considerate enough to provide download links for everything you'll require at the source below, so get those fingers clicking. We've already successfully installed the browser-based OS and will soon be sharing our own hands-on thoughts, but if you beat us to it, spill your insight in the comments below. We do read 'em, you know.

Update: Join us after the break to see what we thought of our first run through the new OS.
Chrome OS hands-on

Well, we've had a chance to have a quick and dirty snoop around Chrome OS and our early conclusions are rather predictable. This really is a browser with an OS attached rather than vice versa. You get your tab-based navigation up top, and the focus is of course on the internet, with minimal option buttons on the far right and app launchers at the top left. Unfortunately, in order to access the more interesting apps, one requires a Google.com login which we do not have, so we were stuck gazing at only the Gmail and Calendar applications. They act and function much like their online counterparts, but for the significant lag and choppiness that may be attributed to the still very early stage of development or the fact it's running on a virtual machine.

We didn't manage to find any bugs as such, aside from somehow losing the aforementioned pair of apps on our second login, but that could've just been due to our own fumbling with the VM software. One thoroughly pleasing thing to note is that the "machine" booted to the login screen in under 10 seconds, and we were ready to browse the web within another five -- quite a feat already, and if paired to an equally smooth and responsive experience inside the OS, this could completely obliterate quick-launching browsing software like Splashtop.

Rest assured we'll be doing our utmost to get access to the full, albeit still skeletal, Chrome OS experience, and as soon as we can take a look at the rest of the apps on offer, we'll do a more in-depth analysis. Stay tuned.

Source

here is the torrent (only 280MB O_O)

and the VMWare site.

YouTube- What is Google Chrome OS?

YouTube- Google Chrome OS UI Concept Video

YouTube- Google Chrome OS Demo

[Eng] Microsoft CEO Ballmer says Windows 7 sales are double its predecessors'

wierdo124 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:47:46 GMT

Quote:

Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer was on hand for the company's annual shareholder's meeting in Washington, and news of Windows 7 sales came up right away. While delivering the opening remarks, Ballmer said that Microsoft has sold twice as many copies of Win 7 as any previous Microsoft OS in a comparable time frame. That's including both OEM sales and boxed retail copies, of course, and though no specific numbers were mentioned, the good news isn't completely unexpected as pre-orders were through the roof. High five, Microsoft.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/19/m...le-its-predec/

[Engadget] The NEW Engadget

Xombie — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:14:18 GMT

Quote:

Welcome to the new Engadget, humans! As you can tell by taking a quick look around, we've been doing some major work on the site behind the scenes, and we couldn't possibly be more excited to finally share this work with the rest of the world. For months now -- nearly the whole year -- we've been tinkering, adjusting, tweaking, and honing the experience at Engadget with one goal in mind: do what we do as best as we can, and bring news to our readers better than anyone else. We think we've achieved that goal through a lot of hard work and long days (and nights), and it is truly awesome to finally be able to show everyone!

Obviously there is a ton of new stuff here, and if you're a long-time reader of the site, you'll probably be a little shell-shocked at first. Don't worry, we're still cranking out news the way we always have; in fact, we think the new design will allow us to crank even harder and provide more up-to-the-minute info to you guys. If you're a new reader, you picked the right time to check us out, because the site has never been more organized, had more content, or been more useful to someone who's reading us for the first time!

Source

You may have already noticed the change. If, so, what are your thoughts?

I'm not a huge fan... but I think I'll learn to love the new design! ;)

[TPU] Gpu-z 0.3.7

Anth0789 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:34:30 GMT

Quote:

0.3.7

* Added Infotips for sensors
* Fixed crash when ATI ULPS CrossFire enabled
* Added full support for ATI HD 5970 (Hemlock)
* Added full support for NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 (GT215)
* Added "ULPS active" note to CrossFire status when ULPS active
* Fixed overclocks via CCC not showing correctly
* Added checkboxes to show availability of CUDA, PhysX, OpenCL and DirectX Compute
* Improved memory type detection for GT 216, GT 218
* Added voltage monitoring support for HD 5770
* Disconnected fan now shows correctly in sensors (when detectable via hardware)
* Improved accuracy of ATI GPU load monitoring
* Added detection for ATI RV380/RV530 cards relabeled to NVIDIA 9400/9500/9600 GT
* Added support for NVIDIA 9300 SE, NVS450, GT 240, GTS 250M, G102M
* Added support for Intel G41

Source

[Reuters] Wikipedia, iPhone among decade's top 10 Internet moments

the_milk_man — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:01:46 GMT

Source

Quote:

Here is the Webby's list of the 10 most influential Internet moments of the decade.......

gotta check out the link to find out :D

[Reuters] AOL to cut one-third of workforce

the_milk_man — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:59:09 GMT

Source

Quote:

AOL plans to cut one-third of its workforce, or about 2,500 jobs, in an effort to trim some $300 million in annual costs as part of the Internet company's planned spin-off from Time Warner Inc.

The only thing I use that has to do with AOL anymore is AIM.... and even that is sparingly used.

[ZDN] Google makes Chrome OS open source today

sodaholic134 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:39:36 GMT

Quote:

Contrary to rumors, Google did not release a beta version of its much anticipated Chrome operating system today. And nothing is coming anytime soon: the final version is at least a year away, the mega giant web company said.

But there was some significant news for the community today. Google made the early code available to the open source community and claims external developers will have the same access to the code as internal Google developers.

All the code is open and sketches of the design documents are available now. The final version of the cloud-based operating system is expected to ship at the end of 2010, before the holiday season, executives said.

SOURCE

EDIT: Added some videos from the event.

YouTube- Google Chrome OS UI Concept Video

YouTube- What is Google Chrome OS?

[TorrentFreak]UK�s Terrifying Anti-Piracy Plans Leak

Sgtbash — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:06:22 GMT

Quote:

Tomorrow morning Lord Mandelson will present the Digital Economy Bill to the public, which among other things is aimed at reducing illicit file-sharing. According to parts of the bill that leaked today, the legislation could lead to jail terms for file-sharers and unprecedented power for the entertainment industries.

source

My word, sucks to be a Brit right now.

[Anand] Flash 10.1 Beta Benchmarks

DuckieHo — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:42:27 GMT

Quote:

This isn�t just a Mac issue, it�s a problem across all OSes and systems, regardless of hardware configuration. Chalk it up to poor development on Adobe�s part or...some other fault of Adobe�s, but Flash playback is extremely CPU intensive.

Today, that�s about to change. Adobe has just released a preview of Flash 10.1 (the final version is due out next year) for Windows, OS X and Linux. While all three platforms feature performance enhancements, the Windows version gets H.264 decode acceleration for flash video using DXVA (OS X and Linux are out of luck there for now).

The same GPU-based decode engines that are used to offload CPU decoding of Blu-rays can now be used to decode H.264 encoded Flash video. NVIDIA also let us know that GPU acceleration for Flash animation is coming in a future version of Flash.

A good pre-release review by Anand. He has direct contacts so the article has a lot of useful advice to get it working.

[ArsTechnica]Good Karma: An indepth review of Ubuntu 9.10

-iceblade^ — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:38:46 GMT

http://arstechnica.com/open-source/r...ubuntu-910.ars

Quote:

Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala, climbed down from the tree last month with new features and updated software. For five years and eleven releases, the Ubuntu Linux distribution has delivered a capable desktop operating system built largely on open source software. The new version is another important step forward for Ubuntu and its corporate backer Canonical.

long read but worth it.

[MTW] Windows Mobile 7 shown under NDA today

DjiXas — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:56:04 GMT

Quote:

Looks like a bunch of lucky guys got a chance to look at Microsoft’s upcoming and higly anticipated mobile OS today during the Mobius conference in Seatle. The majority of the event is under strict NDA, but our Italian pals at SoloPalmari posted some early impressions (poorly translated by Google):

Quote:

Revolutionary, no need to take away: the next version of Windows Mobile, as shown by the leaks and the first screenshots of the new system, the Web will soon be spring, we are faced with an upheaval of the logic of interaction and not just a substantial revision of the interface. The concept of “applications”, as the programs continue to live their important identities, will bend to the principle of “user experience”.

Finally the performance, the fluidity in the display of screens, images and icons becomes a priority. As powerful and versatile Windows Mobile will be next, will never submit to slowdowns and delays in the response. How will, indeed, as they did to achieve this result is not yet technically clear. But developers say Microsoft is certain: the experience of use to forget the “old” Windows Mobile.

Read

[MPC] 64-bit Windows is More Secure, for Now

razr7 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:33:26 GMT

Quote:

Microsoft is doing some chest-thumping over the advantages of it�s 64-bit operating systems. According to Joe Faulhaber, who works at the Microsoft Malware Protection Center, the 64-bit versions of Windows and Vista are less likely than their 32-bit counterparts to be infected with malware.

According to Faulhaber, who relied on information gathered by Microsoft�s Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRC), during the first half of 2009 64-bit XP was 48 percent less likely to be infected, while 64-bit Vista was 35% less likely to be infected.

Source:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new...ore_secure_now

[PocketNow] Office Mobile 2010 Beta Now Available

DjiXas — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:32:37 GMT

Quote:

Office Mobile 2010 Beta is now available for free in the Windows Mobile Marketplace. You can see it here in your web browser or look for it in the Marketplace app on your Windows Phone.

The description is as follows and you may notice a few new features.

Read

[Fav] Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) vs. Firefox 3.6 vs. Chrome 4 vs. Safari 4

DjiXas — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:19:41 GMT

Quote:

IEBlog has published Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) (not final version) SunSpider benchmark results and compared them to Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.5...

Read

[Microsoft] MS Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta - Download now

ignite — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:14:06 GMT

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta is now available for download. It is said this will be active until October 2010 which at that point, you will need to purchase Office 2010.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010...s/default.aspx

Active until October 2010
32 or 64 bit!
To sign up, hit the sign up box on the top right, and log onto your Windows Live account (Hotmail)
Fill in the few questions (name, work - can leave most blank) and then verify your email
Once the email is verified, you get a Key and the DL Link for 32 or 64 Bit.
Then... Enjoy!

Direct DL Link: http://care.dlservice.microsoft.com/....exe?lcid=1033

Some features are pretty nice. Like the new summary type feature when you click the Orb. Example:

_______________________________

And for those that are not fans of the 2007/2010 menus, there are addins that you could make the Office 2007/2010 Ribbon like the 2003 Menu bar. I have never tried it though so can't comment on it.

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows...ice-2010-2007/

Attached Thumbnails

[TC] Silverlight 4 In Beta. Supports Google Chrome

DjiXas — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:37:26 GMT

Quote:

Microsoft announced the availability of Silverlight 4 in beta at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) today. Some of the new features include more fluid animations, Webcam, microphone and printing support, 200 percent faster start times than Silverlight 3, deep zoom and multi-touch support and more. It now also supports Google Chrome, even though it’s just a rounding error of a browser.

Read

[EXP]NVIDIA Forceware 195.55 WHQL Candidate Drivers Released

Open1Your1Eyes0 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:23:08 GMT

Quote:

This is a WHQL-candidate driver for GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 100, and 200-series desktop GPUs and ION desktop GPUs.

New in Version 195.55

Adds GPU-acceleration for smoother online HD videos with the new Adobe Flash 10.1 beta.
Adds support for GeForce GT 240.
Adds support for OpenCL 1.0 (Open Computing Language) for all GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
Adds support for CUDA Toolkit 3.0 features and performance enhancements. See CUDA Zone for more details.
Adds SLI and multi-GPU support for many top new gaming titles including Borderlands, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA Soccer 10, and more.
Includes numerous bug fixes including improved performance for Need for Speed: Shift. Refer to the release notes on the documentation tab for information about the key bug fixes in this release.
Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver.

Existing Support

Supports DirectCompute with Windows 7 and GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
Supports OpenGL 3.2 for GeForce 8-series and later GPUs.
Supports NVIDIA 3D Vision Discover, a complete, low cost solution to start your immersive stereoscopic 3D experience. NOTE: If you are using NVIDIA 3D Vision active shutter glasses, you must download the separate 3D Vision driver which includes the driver for the 3D Vision IR emitter.
Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL, including 3-way SLI, Quad SLI, and SLI support on SLI-certified Intel X58-based motherboards.
Supports NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on a dedicated GeForce graphics card. Use one card for graphics and dedicate a different card for PhysX processing for game-changing physical effects. This driver installs PhysX System Software version 9.09.0814.
Download these FREE PhysX and CUDA applications now!
Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.

Source

Windows XP (32-bit)
Windows XP (64-bit)
Windows Vista (32-bit)
Windows Vista (64-bit)
Windows 7 (32-bit)
Windows 7 (64-bit)

Windows Vista and Windows 7 Release Notes

[Fav] Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) to Support Hardware Accelerated Rendering

DjiXas — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:11:07 GMT

Quote:

Steven Sinofsky, the president of Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live divisions said that IE9 will take an advantage of a computer’s graphics hardware to better render online images, videos, animations and other graphics.

Read

[News 24] Global cyberwar underway?

thenailedone — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:09:14 GMT

Quote:

Washington - Warning of a "cyber arms race", a leading web security firm said on Tuesday that China, France, Israel, Russia and the US were among countries that have developed "cyber weapons".

Source

Seems McAfee is in need to sell more anti-virus software...

[fedoraproject] Fedora 12 Released

0xygen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:36:44 GMT

Quote:

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that brings the latest in free and open source software to your desktop, laptop and server. Fedora is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project

Source

[Fav] Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 Removes Windows 7 Features

DjiXas — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:32:57 GMT

Quote:

Fixing over 90 bugs, this version also removes Windows 7 tab previews. Furthermore, there won’t be any support for other popular features...

Read

[WC] WindowBlinds 7.0

Anth0789 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:29:02 GMT

Quote:

What�s new in WindowBlinds 7 over WindowBlinds 6

There are hundreds of changes and new features in WindowBlinds 7 over previous versions. Below is a summary of some of the more significant changes.

1. Native support for Windows 7
2. Native Aero skinning for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
3. Native 64-bit support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users
4. Auto-conversion of Windows XP era skins to Windows Vista or Windows 7
5. Ability to apply textures to skins
6. A new, easy to use configuration program
7. Native Clear-Type support for better font handling
8. New Skin format called UIS0 for skinning Aero (takes hours instead of days to create a new skin).
9. New WindowBlinds 7 skins included such as Submline, Aero Metals, Corporate, Aero Woods, Aero Clay, Sabertooth along with new WindowBlinds 7 skins being released soon after to the public such as Altitude.
10. Option to have a random skin applied each logon
11. Much better customization of fonts
12. Massive performance improvements in applying of skins.
13. Optimization of Windows Vista and Windows 7 DWM drawing to improve battery life on laptops.
14. Aero skinning (UIS0) is 100% compatible (it�s Aero) with all Windows programs.

Official Site
More Info

[AMD] ATI Catalyst 9.11 Drivers released

sodaholic134 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:05:21 GMT

Quote:

Here is what is new in ATI Catalyst� 9.11:

New Features

GPU Acceleration of H.264 video content using Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta

* This release of ATI Catalyst� supports the new Hardware Acceleration features of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta for video encoded in the H.264 format.

* Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to deliver smooth video playback, reduced system resource utilization, and to help preserve battery life.

* Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta is expected to be available for download from Adobe Labs (labs.adobe.com) before the end of the year. This feature is supported on the ATI Radeon� HD 5800, ATI Radeon� HD 5700 and ATI Radeon HD� 4000 Series of products.

High Quality downscaling for Video Transcoding MSE

* This release of ATI Catalyst� includes an enhancement for the ATI Video converter for users Transcoding high quality interlaced content (1920�1080i @60i videos) down to small resolution progressive content (320�240 @30p � iPod videos as an example), by maintaining high visual quality when down-scaling by a significant amount and converting interlaced video content to progressive.

Highlights of the Linux ATI Catalyst� 9.11 release include:

New Features

Support for new Linux operating systems

* This release of ATI Catalyst� Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:

* RHEL 5.4 support
* openSUSE 11.2 early look support

SOURCE

[InfoWorld] Will Apple Force You to Watch Ads?

VulcanDragon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:27:21 GMT

Quote:

Yes, this is true: Last year Apple Inc. filed for a patent on technology that would force you to watch advertisements, no matter how hard you tried to avoid it.

Quote:

The idea is that phones, computers, set-top boxes, etc. can be sold more cheaply -- or even given away for free -- if subsidized by ads. But because nearly everyone who doesn't work in the ad industry loathes advertising, the subsidizers need to ensure people are actually watching these horrid things. Per Stross:

Its distinctive feature is a design that doesn't simply invite a user to pay attention to an ad — it also compels attention. The technology can freeze the device until the user clicks a button or answers a test question to demonstrate that he or she has dutifully noticed the commercial message. Because this technology would be embedded in the innermost core of the device, the ads could appear on the screen at any time, no matter what one is doing.

Source

Apparently this is old news, but was just recently made public last month. First I'd heard about it though. Bad idea IMHO, to put it lightly.

[Fav] French Government to Migrate 130 000 PC's to Mozilla's Apps

DjiXas — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:26:06 GMT

Quote:

According to ReadWriteWeb, French Government’s public finance department will switch 130 000 PCs from IBM Lotus Notes and Microsoft Office to Mozilla’s Thunderbird as well as Lightning Calendar.

Read