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Is It An Xbox or Mac?

Cory Bohon — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:38:15 -0600

A new hackintosh might make some Mac users--and Xbox users--jealous.

Engadget reports on a hackintosh system built by Will Urbina that has an interesting case design. It is the power of a $4,500 Mac Pro in an Xbox case.

This hackintosh features a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550s, NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card, 8GB of RAM, an 16GB SSD, and four traditional hard drives and was built for only $1,500 plus the many hours required for achieving this awesome mod.

Check out Will's website where you can find more information about this mod. You can also see a video below of the building magic happening.

Microsoft Announces Silverlight 4 Beta, Adds Chrome Support

Cory Bohon — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:46:32 -0600

Today, Microsoft announced version 4 of their Flash-like software for web browsers.

According to TechCrunch, the software, which is currently in beta, now has support for Google's Chrome browser. The new version also includes support for fluid animations, webcam, microphone, and printing support. TC is also reporting that the software has a 200 percent faster start time than its predecessor.

Silverlight 4 also comes with the ability to take web applications and sites like Facebook and turn them into a seperate application on your desktop, similar to the functionalities of Adobe-AIR.

Silverlight 4 makes it seem that Microsoft is closing in on Adobe and their Flash software that could turn out to be clunky in comparison. You can read the full details and see more screenshots on the TechCrunch website.

Bill Gates: Steve Jobs “Saved” Apple

J.R. Bookwalter — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:40:19 -0600

It might be difficult for many Apple faithful to remember the dark days before Steve Jobs’ triumphant return to the throne, especially given the absolute hot streak the company has been on in recent years. But one of the people who remember it well is someone who was instrumental in helping the company get back on its feet at the time: former Microsoft chief Bill Gates.

CNBC recently hosted a Town Hall Chat with Gates and Warren Buffet, and one of the juiciest moments of the talk came when audience member David Matthews of Columbia Executive Business School posed the question, “If you could just comment and tell us what your thoughts are on the job Steve Jobs has done as the CEO of Apple?”

The query received a round of laughter from the audience and a big grin from Gates, who promptly went on to answer the question by praising his former competitor as only he could:

“Well, he’s done a fantastic job,” Gates proclaimed. “Apple is in a bit of a different business where they make hardware and software together. But when Steve was coming back to Apple… Apple was in very tough shape. In fact, most likely it wasn't going to survive. And he brought in a team… that’s made Apple back into being an incredible force in doing good things.

“And it's great to have competitors like that. We write software for Apple, Microsoft does. They compete with Apple,” Gates concluded. “But he, of all the leaders in the industry that I've worked with, he showed more inspiration and he saved the company.”

Leaked: Office 2010 Beta!

J.R. Bookwalter — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:12:35 -0600

To the surprise of almost no one, a beta copy of Microsoft Office 2010 is already making the rounds via peer-to-peer torrent websites, according to Neowin.com.

Microsoft is expected to release the beta officially at next week’s Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles, having already pegged November as their target month and goosing rumors with a Twitter post about big Office news coming at the conference. Couple all that with the leaked beta already circulating, and it doesn’t take rocket science to make an accurate prediction about next week. The beta is the next extension to the technology preview Microsoft unveiled in July, which was also leaked early.

“We have not officially released the beta code of Office (2010),” a Microsoft representative commented. “We recommend that people do not download code from unauthorized sources.”

Adding fuel to the beta fire, the website Craving Tech has also posted several screenshots of what they claim to be the Office 2010 beta — and revealing their source to be none other than Microsoft themselves. Could “leaked” torrents be the new viral marketing or what?

Microsoft Publicly Slaps Employee’s Hand For “Mac Look & Feel” Comment

J.R. Bookwalter — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:07:42 -0600

When it comes to Microsoft, it pays to be careful what you say in public. That’s what Simon Aldous found out the hard way recently when he proclaimed that Windows 7 “borrowed” a little bit of the Mac mojo during a recent reseller’s conference.

Aldous infamously gave credit to Apple for having a desirable operating system (according to a Microsoft study), going so far as to claim that Windows 7 wanted to “create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics.”

Needless to say, tech blogs had a field day with that quote — that is, until PCR Online, the computer and software reseller publication who first printed it, was found to have presumably gotten the story a tad bit wrong with regards to Aldous’ stature within the company.

Aldous was painted as being a Microsoft executive in his role of marketing manager for the Worldwide Partner Group. It didn’t take long for Brandon LeBlanc, a chief Microsoft online evangelist, to set the record straight: “Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed.”

BetaNews.com went so far as to cite Windows 7’s “revised taskbar” as proof of the Mac inspiration, which compares favorably to the Finder’s Dock. They make it clear, however, that no one at Microsoft felt the same way when the feature was introduced at last year, despite audience questions to the contrary.

Of course, it’s not the first time that Windows has been accused of emulating the Mac, but it may be the last coming from anyone up in Redmond, if Microsoft has anything to say about it.

Apple Expected to Surpass Microsoft as Tech Giant

Liam Widman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:20:52 -0600

CNBC says that Apple is in Microsoft's rearview mirror, but could soon pull ahead of the software giant. While Apple is currently valued at $180 billion, and Microsoft at $250 billion, Apple's business is growing quickly while Microsoft is not.

“The biggest overriding reason why the company still has room to run is that its business is growing,” said Erick Maronak, chief investment officer for the Victory Large Cap Growth Fund to CNBC. “The day they introduce the tablet, that’s going to drive a lot of earnings.” Maronak said he would "not be surprised to see Apple’s market cap approach Microsoft’s in the next two years, though he also likes the software company’s growth prospects.”

Apple already has a market capitalization to Google, who is another major rival of Microsoft. Apple has already doubled annual revenues to $36.5 billion since 2005, while Microsoft has fallen 34% in the same time period.

Apple Details Windows 7-Boot Camp Compatibility

Cory Bohon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:58:09 -0500

Apple has announced that official Boot Camp support for Windows 7 will be coming by the end of this year.

According to a knowledge base article on Apple's support site, "Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp."

Of course the compatibility of Windows 7 means that some initial Intel Mac models will not be supported, mainly the following models:

- iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
- iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
- Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

If you have already purchased Windows 7 and are wanting to run it on your Mac, we have found that Windows 7 does in fact run on some newer models like the unibody MacBook Pro. However, some features like the Multi-Touch trackpad are a bit finicky. You can also run Windows 7 in virtual machine software like VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop.

Via MacRumors

Patent Holder That Won Against Microsoft Now Targets Apple

Liam Widman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:52:42 -0500

Apple and 22 other companies are now the target of a new patent infringement suit over the use of browser-embedded interactive Web content. Previous patent suits on behalf of Eolas have gone favorably for the company. In 2004, Eolas was granted $565 million from litigation against Microsoft over a patent. The latest suit alleges that Apple and other companies are in violation of patents 5,838,906 and 7,599, 985. Both involve embedded Web applications. The suit was filed Wednesday in a U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas.

The suit states that Apple's official website uses QuickTime and Safari to enable the viewing of interactive content. It also alleges that Apple's hardware that runs the previously stated software is in violation of the patents as well. "Intellectual property is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy," said Dr. Michael D. Doyle, chairman of Eolas. "The primary reason for this has been the success of the U.S. patent system in allowing the innovative company in a field to develop and market its new inventions without having competitors unfairly profit from the innovator's hard work.”

The company stated that its patents relate to interactive, browser-embedded applications. The patent that ends in 906 was granted in 1998 and the other was issued this month. It covers the use of embedded applications through the use of browser plug-ins and AJAX.

The list of defendants, in its entirety, is as follows: Adobe, Amazon, Apple, Argosy Publishing, Blockbuster, CDW Corporation, Citigroup, Ebay, Frito-Lay, GoDaddy, Google, J.C. Penney, JP Morgan Chase & Co., New Frontier Media, Office Depot, Perot Systems Corp., Playboy, Rent-A-Center, Staples, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, Yahoo and YouTube.