RICAVISION International, Inc., a leading provider of home digital entertainment solutions, announced the launch of the RICAVISION Microsoft Windows Vista SideShow Media Center Remote Control early this month, which makes use of the Vista SideShow auxiliary display platform to allow convenient access to information received from a Windows Vista-based PC. The Vista SideShow Remote Control has a built-in 2.5 inch color QVGA LCD display that features Class 1 (100-meter) Bluetooth capability. Using Windows SideShow, applications can send data to an ecosystem of devices that can then send control commands back to the application on the PC. For example, an e-mail application can send the last 10 received e-mail messages to one of the devices, or the user can schedule a TV program to record on a Media Center PC.
RICAVISION Vista SideShow Remote Control package is also the only one that comes with an external USB RC6 receiver and with a Class 1 Bluetooth receiver. It turns the Vista PC into a Bluetooth computer capable of receiving data from any other Bluetooth device within a 100-meter range.
The RICAVISION Vista SideShow Remote Control provides a set of four Gadgets that will be an extension of the Media Center for Windows Vista:
• TV
• Music
• Pictures and Videos
• Now Playing
RICAVISION SideShow Remote offers more extensive Gadgets than ever, to enable the user to extract data from the Media Center in Windows SideShow XML format and send it through Windows SideShow to compatible devices, such as a remote control device, an LCD display panel, etc. It will also accept incoming navigation commands from the various devices and send them back to the Media Center. Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft’s new update to the five year old aging XP, Vista, is not even officially out yet and security firm Sophos is claiming that three malware applications can easily infect Vista without any problem. The irony of this is that these destructive items are nearly three years old!
Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D and MyDoom were executed without issue by Sophos according to ZDNet. With variants of each of these malwares, this puts the total percentage of malware effective against Microsoft’s new “secure” operating system at 39%! Not good.
After Microsoft’s co-president Jim Allchin told the media that he would let his seven year-old son run Vista without any type of protection, just out of the box, Sophos got thinking.
“The comment about his seven-year-old spurred our idea–let’s see if malware runs on Vista,” said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. “It does.”
“I’m certainly not going to run Vista without antivirus,” Theriault added. “And I wouldn’t take the risk with my business. Who knows how many more pieces of malware run on it?”
Vista isn’t a wash, though. “Vista is excellent, but it hasn’t really changed the security landscape,” said Theriault. “You still need antivirus, firewalls and patches at least.” Or you can just get a Mac and be done with it.
Like its really lame teaser web site, the Zune just didn’t have a chance with success since Microsoft was behind it. Many won’t remember the failed “easy” OS Microsoft Bob (though Melinda, Bill’s wife, will since she was the project manager for that fiasco), but the Zune’s companion software and store remind me so much of Bob that I just can’t help think how it’s happening all over again.
I had earlier said that Zune was going to give a good run to Apple since early reports of the player sounded great. Nice large screen. Impressive interface. Built-in Wi-Fi. Very cool stuff. But then people finally got a hold of the unit and when the software installs started, that’s when the truth came out. Bob.
There’s a few major problems with Zune. First, the digital rights management (DRM). After hyping up Media Player 11 and how great it was in its recent release, we come to find out Media Player 11 won’t sync with music from the Zune store. In fact, Zune store material won’t even play on the Media Player 11 at all. Huh?
Second, Microsoft selling out to Universal. Oh man, this one is BIG! This gets my blood boiling in fact. Seems that Bill and Team have thought it prudent to shell out a buck for every Zune sold to Universal as a way to appease the label and studio for all the lost revenue in ripped off media every Zune user will be enjoying. I mean, that’s what Microsoft is saying, right? Every Zune user is a thief and thus here’s a dollar for every unit sold, Universal. The fact Microsoft is paying Universal isn’t even a large problem as the precedent this now sets for the MPAA and RIAA when it goes after Apple, Creative, and any other hardware manufacture of audio and video players. Microsoft are such bone heads!! This move alone shows how it cares more about Hollywood than its customers. My only reasoning for this move is that MS hopes waxing Hollywood’s palms will give it an up over Apple for movies and music content. “Look, we’ll do anything for you guys if you give us The Beatles and Star Wars now!”
Third, DRM on your personal file. So you’d like to share your baby’s first words with your wife from your Zune to hers? No problem, the built-in Wi-Fi will get it to her in seconds. Only things is she will only be able to listen to it three times and then — poof! — it’ll be gone from her Zune. Again, playing to Hollywood, Microsoft’s DRM protects everything that goes on the Zune. I can’t wait for the copyright infringement lawsuits on this one! Microsoft needs to brush up on Creative Commons.
Fourth, points. If you want to buy a song, and I mean A song, then you have to purchase it with points. 70 points. Thing is, you have to buy a block of points for $5. The iTunes Store lets you buy just the song. That’s it. See you never again if you so desire. Not at the Zune store. Lame.
One has to really wonder just what Microsoft was thinking when it designed the Zune. Bill Gates is on record for saying that Microsoft was going to make an iPod killer to a high school class in Seattle this time last year. Now he’s telling the world it will be a “modest” market contender. Spin the media and hope for good damage control, I guess. The iPods simplicity and good looks is what made it popular. Microsoft missed out on both counts. The seamless software and great store made it a no-brainer. Microsoft again missed out on both counts. Evidently, the Zune team was too busy celebrating its killing spree before it did some market research.
It’s too bad Microsoft once again choose to ignore the market and force something to it. Instead of bringing in a handful of kids and asking them to help shape the Zune from beginning to end, Microsoft went to the big cash holdin’ jerks in Tinsel Town. I hope it got a good deal, because it will all Zune be over for Microsoft.
I know, I know, I know, it ain’t even Thanksgiving yet and I’m already telling about cool software for Christmas. Well guess what? This will also work for your Turkey Day shopping list, too. Ya, it’s that good!
Long time readers will know that I’m a fan of SplashData products and one of my absolute favorite list program anywhere is SplashShopper. In its current form, it only plays on Palm OS devices in the PDA realm (but my inside source tells SvenOnTech a Windows Mobile version is on the way!) It also will sync with both the Apple Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows desktop versions.
SplashShopper will allow you to, “Manage your lists of groceries, gifts, to do’s, wines, music, movies, and more! Track prices and locations.” What better way to shop for your loved ones this Christmas? With its powerful organization, easy to read screen, and swift synchronization with your desktop computer, how will you not be a head of the crowd this season? With over a dozen five star reviews from users at Handango and PalmGear (yes, we chuckled at the lack of lesser star reviews ourselves), you can guess that this really is a great list keeper for your Palm. Again, we love it and we know you will, too.
Merry Christmas, er, Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, well. Tell me you’re not surprised. Seems Microsoft quietly pushed out the fact that it will not release the next major update to Windows XP, Service Pack 3, until 2008. Why? According to Jed Rose, Windows product manager, it’s so that Vista could ship. “It was reported almost one year ago that Steve said SP3 ‘might’ ship before Windows Vista; however, since that time the focus has been and continues to be shipping Windows Vista,” Rose stated.
Mmm, really? Well what will SP3 be primarily made up of? Good new features like SP2 had? Nope. Again, according to the Windows road map, it will mainly consist of security updates. That’s it. So why another year for just security updates that already exist? Why put users and IT administrators through another year of 60 plus individual security updates (which of course will balloon to well over a hundred by the release of SP3)? Why? Because it’s understood that Microsoft just really wants users to purchase Vista. Plain and simple.
It’s too bad that Microsoft has decided to take this avenue. When it support Windows NT 4, Microsoft took the service pack count all the way to 5a. Windows 2000 got up to 3 in no time and now three years of SP2 for XP, nothing. This seems to be yet another reason to dislike Microsoft and proof to all the naysayers that it MS really doesn’t care about its customer. Come on Redmond, look at things from a new panorama. Oh ya, it is.
[Via BetaNews]
Microsoft has brought the software of once developers from the Seattle area company, Giant, to its final version today with the release of Windows Defender v1.0.
Discovered today by myself while out at a clients early this morning, the new version comes with some minor fixes and a tweak to its color scheme. Embracing green instead of the XP blue, Defender will now scan your system more efficiently and even has an enhanced Software Explorer for all you Windows users. Oh, maybe we should clarify “Windows users” for you before any Windows 98 hold-outs get too excited. With this release, only Windows XP SP2 and higher are supported and when I say higher, I mean higher to current releases. For some reason, Vista is not supported.
If you were like me when Beta 2 was released and was wondering where the System Tray icon went, well you can bring it back to the tray and keep it put even during inactivity with this release. If you’re a SysTray purest and like to keep things nice and neat, there is no icon by default.
Okay, all you Windows and Parallel Desktop users, go get this now before you’re infected as Beta 2 will expire and shut off December 31st.
You know, we joked about the security thing in our IE 7 release announcement, but truth is, it was only half-joking since Microsoft just really isn’t known for “security”. Well looks like security experts Secunia have called Microsoft to the carpet and called its IE exploit found last November an Internet Explorer exploit and not an Outlook Express one that Redmond is claiming.
“Microsoft claims the recent IE7 vulnerability is an Outlook Express vulnerability,” Secunia CTO Thomas Kristensen’s statement claims. “This may be true, from an organizational point of view within Microsoft. However, the vulnerability is fully exploitable via IE, which is the primary attack vector, if not the only attack vector.”
Secunia won’t let up, either, and still has the exploit listed on its site for Internet Explorer 7.x. “Secunia finds it necessary and reasonable to flag Internet Explorer as being vulnerable if Internet Explorer provides a clear direct vector to a vulnerable component, which is included by default in a fresh clean install of Microsoft Windows,” Kristensen writes.
But to make things even more interesting, BetaNews tested this theory and installed IE 7 on a fresh install of VirtualPC and found, “The browser failed the MHTML content retrieval test. The issue involves redirecting the Web browser to a local resource.”
So the plot thickens and SvenOnTech will only continue to warn you to use IE of any sort with extreme caution. Use Firefox if you must use a PC at all or just get a Mac and forget all this nonsense. 
[Via jCXP.net]
Mmm, looks like Apple is keen on passing the buck like every other large company caught with its pants down. Apple today blamed Microsoft for its iPod virus that effects any iPod video purchased after September 12th.
It appears these iPods are infected with a low-risk virus named “W32/RJump.worm”. It infects removable storage devices attached to Windows hosts. Thus, only Windows users will be affected by this pest. McAfee states the virus will open, “A backdoor on an infected system”, and “attempts to spread by copying itself to mapped and removable storage drives.” McAfee offers a free removal tool for unfortunate Windows users and adds that nearly any up-to-date anti-virus program will find and remove this infection from systems.
Apple writes in its statement, “As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.” Upset at Windows? Seriously? The virus is on iPod hard drives, not Windows boxes, Apple. Come on, this is office politics at its worst. Apple’s QA should have caught this prior to shipment on the factory floor, not blame Microsoft for its success and thus dweebs around the world writing viruses for it. This would be like Microsoft blaming Duracell for an unresponsive wireless mouse only due to dead batteries being shipped with the product.
Come on, Apple. Think different.
Thanks Rick for the tip!
With Microsoft’s release of its “iPod-killer”, Zune, and Apple’s refreshed line of iPods, a healthy battle for Christmas 2006 and beyond has emerged. Some have already written the Zune off as just another feeble attempt from Microsoft; however, many are forgetting that the Redmond-based company is more of a 3.0 kind of company. Look at Windows. It didn’t steal the Macintosh market share until when? 3.0. How about Internet Explorer? Remember how Netscape use to be the king of the web browser until, up, Internet Explorer 3.0?
Microsoft doesn’t innovate. Everyone knows that, except Steve Ballmer. The Windows giant simply buys out other companies that have great products or copies other incredible confections and slaps that Microsoft name on it. I can’t think of one successful product with the MS label on it that it created from the ground up. Not one. That’s why it’s a 3.0 company. These buy-outs and copy cat procedures take some time. And now Microsoft has watched long enough to see what makes the iPod so successful and piggy-backed off Toshiba hardware to make it’s 3.0 DAP.
So, should everyone be laughing and discounting Microsoft? I would say not. With Apple’s slipping sales for months in a row with the iPod and the how-hum refresh we witnessed at the Showtime event, Steve Jobs best be working on getting that full-screen iPod ready for Macworld or he can start kissing his bread winner goodbye.
Removing any Microsoft bias, the Zune isn’t that bad. It does have a nice interface (will Creative be suing Microsoft now for this very iPod-like system?) with nicely done backgrounds and a good play screen layout. I have to admit, I like the large full cover art being displayed with the song details at the same time below the cover. It’s not dinky like the iPods. The Wi-Fi sharing is great, too, and even though there’s no video support, that will be here soon like a more robust Windows was with 3.11 back in the early 90s.
Apple on the other hand only answered with a larger hard drive (which is still too small in light of Seagate’s 120 GB drive that would fit nicely into the iPod), brighter screen (that technically has been on the 5Gs for a month or so), and video games. Old ones. Joy. Where’s the full-screen Steve? The Wi-Fi? The Bluetooth? The meat?! Sorry, but this wasn’t a good job (pun intended.)
If the iPod doesn’t bring on a new cool factor (and regurgatating the iPod mini via the nano doesn’t qualify,) then Apple can once again remember the days of the Macintosh Performa and try to figure out, “How did we lose all the market share…again?”
Updated: Corrected author to Sven. Sorry Jon for all those that said mean things.
Plain and simple, Microsoft knows Leopard will have virtualization. Yes, Apple is denying left and right about virtualization being standard in Leopard but it’s done this same thing for years only to later release what it denied. Truth is, Apple can’t let — excuse the pun — the cat out of the bag too early or many developers may stop developing Mac ports of Windows software. This may still be a problem when Leopard releases, but for the time being, Apple wants to encourage Intel-based ports of Windows software now. Telling everyone that the famous bloat-ware will run natively on Macs in about six months will just stop that momentum.
With the success of Boot Camp so vivid and Parallel’s Desktop becoming a must-have software install on all new Intel Macs with Apple’s blessing, things just seem to point in the direction of native virtualization.
I truly believe that there will be a big announcement at this January’s Macworld and it won’t be the iPod full-screen video player, either. You’ll see.