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Sunday, October 23, 2005

Mozilla Firefox reached 100 million downloads

Firefox 100 Million
After a sustained effort of the Firefox community their favorite browser has been downloaded over 100 million times.
Firefox is a open-source browser made by Mozilla.
The browser is expected to reach 10% of the marketshare by the end of 2005.
You can download Firefox from www.getfirefox.com

OpenOffice 2.0 is out

OpenOffice
The new 2.0 version of OpenOffice has been released after a long beta period. This is a major step for the open-source community, now also having a powerful office suite.

OpenOffice is an open-source alternative to Microsoft Office; including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation creator and database.

The install kit download has about 75MB for Windows and 100MB for Linux and Mac OS X and can be found on OpenOffice.org

After a recent deal between Google and Sun, OpenOffice will be distributed by Google at some point through the Google Toolbar.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

The Power Mac G5 introduce dual-core PowerPC processors

Power Mac G5
With the update of the product line Apple also introduced a new Power Mac G5 with dual-core technology.
The new dual-core line starts at 1999$, with a 3299$ version with two dual-core processors, called quad.

A simple description of the dual-core technology is that enables a single processor to act like two, with each core having its own task.

Access announces the death of PalmOS

PalmOS
After PalmSource, the owners of PalmOS were acquisitioned by the Japanese firm Access some hoped that they will try to re-enter the market with PalmOS. Unfortunately Access recently announced that they will not continue to use PalmOS any further, because of "“logical end-of-life is expected for the Palm operating system."”

I personally think that this is a wrong move, because PalmOS would have a great future in the handheld market helped by the migration to Linux announced a few months ago.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Apple updates the product line

Apple Powerbook
Apple unveils an updated product line, with new versions of the PowerBook ( with a "Higher resolution. Better Mileage." ) and the Power Mac G5 (with a new version called Power Mac G5 Quad with two dual-core processors, along with a single dual-core processor version named Power Mac G5 Dual ). Also introduced a new professional photography application named Aperture.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Toshiba 803 mobile phone promoted by Oasis

Toshiba 803
The Toshiba 803 mobile phone is enabled for 3G networks and has a 2.2MP digital camera and Bluetooth. The 20MB base memory can be extended with SD cards. It will be a Vodafone exclusive.

Following the pop queen Madonna, Oasis ( Noel and Liam Gallagher ), signs to promote a new MP3 enabled mobile telephone. They are set to endorse the Toshiba 803 handset and for those interested in mobile music collections, they can get with a free video of Oasis latest single Let There Be Love and also five other tracks from their latest disc Don't Believe The Truth.
Madonna recently starred to show up in advertisements for rival company Motorola's new iPod handset.
The Toshiba mobile phone is enabled for 3G networks and has a 2.2MP digital camera and Bluetooth. The 20MB base memory can be extended with SD cards. It will be a Vodafone exclusive.
Oasis are an incredible success story in the UK and Europe. Oasis have existed for more than 10 years because people love their music and we think it is fantastic that we can offer our customers exclusive audio and video of the band to play on their mobile phone.
- says spokesman Chris Bignell -

Paris Hilton’s Sidekick hacker sentenced

paris
The 17-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to hacking into the cell-phone account of hotel heiress and Hollywood celebrity Paris Hilton.
The Massachusetts boy was sentenced to 11 months' detention for online posting of revealing photos and celebrity contact numbers from Hilton's phone. As an adult, he will then undergo two years of supervised release in which he will be barred from possessing or using any computer, cell phone or other electronic equipment capable of accessing the Internet.
[from The Celebrity Blog | MP Blogs]

Gwen Stefani “Hollaback Girl” registers 1 million downloads

Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl apparently will become the first song to have registered one million legal downloads ever.
Because of that Stefani will be awarded a special certificate at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl on 21 October.
From Stefani's debut solo album Love Angel Music Baby, Hollaback Girl had been downloaded 980,000 times, and continues to generate 14,000 downloads a week, according to a Nielsen Sound Scan. report issued on September 28.
[from The Celebrity Blog | MP Blogs]

Eminem sues five companies over ringtones

Eminem
Eminem is suing five cellular phone companies, Colorado-based Cellus USA, Georgia-based FanMobile, New York-based Nextones.com, New Jersey-based MyPhoneFiles and New Jersey-based MatrixM LLC, seeking a court order to ban the American firms from selling ringtone versions of his songs over the internet.
The hip-hop star filed suit on 04 Oct. in the US District Court in Detroit, Michigan.

Apparently the singer will not stop here and according to the star's lawyer, Eminem's publishing companies Eight Mile Style and Martin Affiliated also plan to sue karaoke companies who sell his songs without the correct licensing.
[from The Celebrity Blog | MP Blogs]

Steven Spielberg to direct three new video games

Steven Spielberg
Electronic Arts, the world's largest game maker, hired Steven Spielberg to direct three new video games. Spielberg will be involved in producing the video games and will work together with developers to create original (not based on a movie) content, starting with the concept.
It seems Hollywood and the video game industry has a lot in common, because Spielberg, in a speech last year, told film students they could change the face of making movies if only they played more video games.


He really wants to make sure each of these products has at least one really meaningful innovation that nobody has ever seen before.
- said Neil Young -

[from The Celebrity Blog | MP Blogs]

Desperate Housewives on Apple newest iPod video

iPod
Apple announced the new video-capable iPod and Desperate Housewives will be available on the must-have piece of the year.
The iPod has been increasingly popular ever since November 2001, having sold over 28 million units. Now Apple provides more than 2,000 music videos available for download on their iTunes site and the new video iPod, can store and play up to 150 hours of television shows, pop videos and film clips downloaded from the Internet.

They made deals with ABC and Disney, offering shows such as “Lost”, “Night Stalker”, “That’s So Raven” and “Desperate Housewives” for $1.99, only a day after the show airs.

The iPod is thinner than the previous models by 2.5 inch and has a 320 x 240 color screen. The pricing for the 30GB version and 60GB version will be around $299 and $399, respectively.
[from The Celebrity Blog | MP Blogs]

Unpacking the new video iPod

iPod Video
Engadget done an article with many pictures made while unpacking the new video iPod: Unpacking the iPod (with video).

I've realized that the new iPod is about the same size as the older generations. Personally, thinking of the bigger better screen, I thought that it would be much wider. I was wrong. It's a great gadget. Now not just MP3 but MPEG4 video too.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

McDonald's to offer free Wi-Fi for Nintendo DS

Nintendo McDonalds
The deal between the McDonald's fast-food restaurants in the US and Nintendo will provide free Wi-Fi access to Nintendo DS owners with help from Wi-Fi provider Wayport. It will be available starting on 14th of November in about 6,000 McDonald's restaurants. Some of the games that will benefit from this service will be Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk's American SK8Land and Metroid Prime Hunters.

Sony Ericsson W900 3G Walkman phone

Sony Ericsson W900
Sony Ericsson W900 is the forth Walkman branded phone and the first one with 3G. Has a QVGA ( 320 x 240 ) TFT display, FM radio, 2 MP camera with auto-focus and flash. For music playback the Sony Ericsson W900 supports MP3, AAC or AAC+, MIDI, WAV and XMF and has a 3.5mm stereo jack for output. The base memory of is 470MB expandable through Sony's Memory Stick Pro Duo.

New Samsung V7900 mobile phone with 3GB HDD

Samsung SPH V7900
Samsung V7900 is designed for CDMA EV-DO networks and has a 3GB hard disk drive. The mobile phone is capable of audio and video playback through a 320 x 240 TFT LCD and two stereo speakers. It also has a 2MP camera with 2X optical zoom.
The phone can be bought in Korea for 700$.