Archive for December, 2008

As a long time WordPress user, I am happy to see the release of version 2.7.

The first thing you’ll notice about 2.7 is its new interface. From the top down, we’ve listened to your feedback and thought deeply about the design and the result is a WordPress that’s just plain faster. Nearly every task you do on your blog will take fewer clicks and be faster in 2.7 than it did in a previous version. (Download it now, or read on for more.)

It took me a little getting used to, but the interface is so slick, and the built-in one-click upgrade makes it worth the upgrade all by itself.

I’ve been using the release candidate so I was able to upgrade today with a simple click. Be happy to know this is the last painful WordPress upgrade (if you could call any WordPress upgrade painful) you’ll have to deal with.

Finally. One of the coolest features comes to Firefox.

The much-anticipated Firefox 3.1 beta 2 is out and about for Windows and Mac users, incorporating the faster JavaScript engine TraceMonkey as the default setting and introducing Private Browsing, which has been in development for years. There are other improvements, of course, but the big one is the ability to turn off the cache and other private data settings with a single click.

I’m not sure I will need to use it, but it’s nice to know I have the option.

I don’t get this. If you want a mobile phone, wouldn’t you buy a mobile phone? Would you buy an mp3 player that could be “transformed” into a mobile phone?

Apple may have a new mobile phone to compete with–one that runs on its iPod Touch.

Truphone’s app turns the iPod Touch into a mobile phone.

The MP3 player can be transformed into a mobile phone with the help of a free app from Internet telephone company Truphone. The new app allows users with a Wi-Fi connection to make and receive phone calls via voice over IP with other iPod Touch owners, users of the Google Talk’s messaging service, and customers of Truphone’s Internet telephone service. The company said it expects to add the ability to handle landline calls.

Would you buy a washing machine that could be transformed into a microwave?

Heads up Wii fans.

Nintendo Co Ltd’s Wii has emerged as one of the few hot products this holiday season, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc will offer “tens of thousands” of the hard-to-get video game consoles on its website starting on Monday.

Walmart.com said it will offer the Nintendo Wii console for $249.24, and a “value bundle,” which includes the console and other items like an extra set of controllers, for $329, while supplies last.

Yeah, you know you’ll be sitting on the Wal-Mart website first thing Monday morning, unless of course you are busy getting the best acne treatment you can find.

They are not in discussions, but Ballmer says they should quickly come to an agreement.

Microsoft Corp. should strike a deal to acquire Yahoo Inc.’s search business “sooner than later,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

In a joint interview Friday with Qi Lu, the newly appointed president of Microsoft’s online services business, Mr. Ballmer argued for the two companies to quickly come to an agreement.

While the companies currently aren’t in discussions over a transaction, Mr. Ballmer said such a deal would have the benefit of creating a “credible competitor” to Google Inc., which leads the online search and advertising market.

Yeah, Microsoft doesn’t want to buy Yahoo’s search business. Puhleaze.

I highly doubt this is true.

Save money, live better and get an Apple iPhone for the low, low price of $99? Whether that’s fact or wishful thinking, news that Wal-Mart will sell the 4-GB Apple iPhone at the rock-bottom price is causing a buzz.

While it can’t confirm the story, Boy Genius Report broke the news Thursday after it said it got a tip about the deal, and said that the deeply discounted 4-GB iPhone will require a two-year agreement. The Web site warned that readers should take the rumors with a grain of salt.

I think I have a better shot getting some of the best diet pill long before I find an iPhone for $99 on the shelf.

If it does turn out to be true, will we see iPhone lines at Wal-Mart?

Do you run Vista? Are you a techno-geek? Then you might be interested in this.

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is set to be released as a public beta version Thursday, Microsoft has confirmed. The program, which has been under limited testing since October, will become available on the Microsoft TechNet site.

If you are technologically challenged you shouldn’t mess with Service Pack 2 yet. In fact, I highly recommend you upgrade. To a Mac. Heh. Yeah, okay, I know you won’t but I tried.

Does Jonathan Miller really want to buy Yahoo, or is he trying to drive the cost up so Microsoft has to pay more?

Former AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller is trying to raise money to buy part or all of Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Yahoo shares rose more than 9 percent after the report, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Miller is a partner at Velocity Interactive Group, an investment firm focused on digital media. The Journal reported he wants to raise the funds to buy Yahoo for $20 to $22 a share, or $28 billion to $30 billion.

I still think this is just a ploy. He’s going to have trouble raising that kind of money, which is pocket change for Microsoft. I still say Yahoo goes to Microsoft before too long.

Just like in real life, it took three hospitals several weeks to cure a common virus.

Three London hospitals whose computer systems were infected with a relatively old worm are now almost back online.

Around 5,000 PCs at St Bartholomew’s, the Royal London Hospital and The London Chest Hospital were hit in mid-November by an infection of Mytob, a worm that e-mails itself to other PCs and can be used to put other malicious software on a machine.

About 97 percent of those PCs are now clear of Mytob, according to a statement issued Friday. The remaining PCs, which are located in non-clinical areas, should soon come back online.

The question here is, now that they have healed them, are they immune from catching it again or is it just a matter of time?

When we constantly hear reports that they “deny” a story, only to get a “no comment on such rumors and speculation”, that tells me it’s pretty much a done deal.

Microsoft and Yahoo have dismissed a report that they’re once again in discussions to sell Yahoo’s online search business for $20 billion.

The Sunday Times wrote Microsoft had agreed to the “broad terms of a deal” but there was no guarantee that it would be completed.

“We continue to offer no comment on such rumors and speculation,” according to a statement supplied by one of Microsoft’s public relations agencies, Waggener Edstrom, in London on Monday.

A Yahoo spokeswoman also said the company had no comment on the report.

It won’t be long now, executives from both companies will be sharing Titleist golf balls out on the course and it will be done. Mark my works.

As I have said time and time again, Microsoft will own Yahoo. Period.