IE8 to be the last IE-engine based Microsoft browser?

Could IE8 be the end of the line for the most popular (though declining) browser in the world? There have been rumors floating that indicate Microsoft may be making such a move, potentially switching development to a browser built off an entirely different engine. Whether based off the alpha “Gazelle” browser Microsoft has already introduced or the growing WebKit platform, there seem to be a lot of signs pointing towards IE8 being the last Internet Explorer to appear.

Some will certainly cheer such a change but others may dread it. There is a massive base of IE-only applications that exist around the world, from banking interfaces to media players to numerous pieces of software, all which bet on people most likely using (or willing to use) IE. For all of those, IE8 being the end means that inevitably they would need to move away from ActiveX and all other IE-backwards-compatible components. There's also the embedded application factor, where many programs use IE's engine to render content or perform other functions. It's a big change, and one that indicates Microsoft may be re-thinking their browser strategy altogether.

Of course, this is just speculation. There's a lot of good reasoning behind it, and Microsoft could potentially benefit greatly in doing so, but by the same token seek to lose a lot too. Part of their browser dominance originally focused around support for proprietary protocols and APIs, which gave them overwhelming advantages in many situations. If the software giant does ditch IE-based browsers, it'll represent a fundamental change in how many view the browser market. What's your take: should Microsoft dump IE in favor of something new?

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/33864-ie8-to-be-the-last-ieengine-based-microsoft-browser.html

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Microsoft-Novell partnership yielding little results

When Microsoft and Novell partnered some time back, many people predicted doom and gloom. Open source advocates said that the IP sharing and cross-licensing Novell had agreed to was detrimental to Linux and ultimately was just a trap to any potential customers that would sign up. Businesses tasked with running mixed-operating system environments seemed to initially welcome the deal, though, and the two actually expanded their alliance with further investments back in August.

Specifically, the software giant agreed to purchase up to $100 million of additional Suse Linux Enterprise Server certificates – paid in $25 million increments starting last November as the certificates were distributed. But things are now slowing down in the Novell-Microsoft relationship, as it turns out, the companies didn’t sign a single large customer during the most recent quarter. Novell's approach to this loss of sales has been to blame itself, claiming that their reseller channel is insufficient rather than pointing fingers at Microsoft.

Novell also said that they have to date invoiced $199 million, or 83 percent, of the original $240 million agreement. So why did Microsoft prepay $25 million for a new batch of certificates when it still had $41 million lying around? It’s clear that Novell needed the cash, the company reported disappointing first-quarter earnings and a slide in its Linux business, but Microsoft’s motivation for the move seems unclear.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/33918-microsoftnovell-partnership-yielding-little-results.html

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Download of the Week: Miro

The increasing adoption of broadband has made it easier than ever to enjoy digital media and online videos in particular – whether it is user generated or professionally produced content that you are looking for. With the growing sources for online video, though, sometimes you just need the right tool to stay on top of it all. Miro is a desktop player that doubles as your video library and can download online video from a number of sources just as well.

This free cross-platform application is a combination of a video and audio podcast player with a built-in BitTorrent client and media player (based on VLC under Windows). There is a comprehensive programming guide that can be set to download new videos via RSS or you can just subscribe to content on your preferred torrent site, all while keeping track of what you've watched already and what is queued up for you. It’s most recent version, Miro 2.0, brings integration with streaming sites, a windowed video player, and much-improved performance.

Unfortunately, support for streaming video still feels half baked as it merely loads up websites like Hulu.com in a browser inside the application to play the videos rather than using its own player. Regardless, it does offer the advantage of bringing together a bunch of video sources from around the web and putting them together in a single, clean interface.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/33917-download-of-the-week-miro.html

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Online gaming grows on consoles, Xbox 360 leads the way

Although PCs are still the most widely used platform then it comes to online gaming, consoles are quickly rising in popularity. This according to a recent survey among 20,000 U.S. gamers by market research firm NPD, which found that consoles now account for a quarter of all online playtime, a “statistically significant” increase from 19 percent a year ago.

The Xbox 360 was second overall and the leader for online gaming using consoles, with 50 percent of the market, despite being the only one not giving out this functionality for free. Meanwhile, online use amongst Nintendo Wii owners rose from 18 percent to 29 percent. Specific figures for other platforms were not provided, but the company said that the PS2 fell dramatically and PS3 moved up from fifth place to third place among consoles. Additionally, the report claims online gaming has also become more popular among younger users, increasing 5 percent in gamers aged 13 to 17, while decreasing slightly among older gamers.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/33915-online-gaming-grows-on-consoles-xbox-360-leads-the-way.html

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Amazon uses DMCA to prevent third-party eBook sales

Apple isn't the only company with a proprietary device that they want total sale control over. Amazon's Kindle, for instance, is also designed to make use of online shopping exclusively through sanctioned Amazon avenues. Thus, when the retailer learned about a third party method used to extract the PID information from a Kindle, with the end goal being content delivery from a non-Amazon source, they acted quickly.

MobileRead published instructions on how to use a small piece of software to get your Kindle’s PID, and ended up receiving a DMCA cease and desist notice from Amazon, telling them to immediately pull the software and the instructions on how to use it. Though the site doesn't necessarily admit any wrongdoing, they complied with Amazon – but not before many mirror sites began replicating the content.

Their goal was simple: allow people to buy eBooks for the Kindle from anywhere. Given how much Amazon has invested into the device, you can't really blame them for waving the DMCA at anyone who would try to circumvent their direct channel to it. Many other companies, such as Apple, do exactly the same – despite protests from users who think the choice should lie with whoever owns the device. Amazon is resolute, though, claiming that information like the Kindle's PID is protected by the DMCA and users have no right to extract it.

This instance is yet another in a series of conflicts between hardware/software manufacturers and users, where the question asked every time but still unanswered remains: Who really “owns” the device, the user or the manufacturer?

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/33914-amazon-uses-dmca-to-prevent-thirdparty-ebook-sales.html

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Apple goes to court over exploding iPod Touch

No matter what type of portable devices you carry around you certainly don’t want them to explode on you. Unfortunately, as we have seen in the past few years, there is always the small possibility of portable batteries overheating or having some other issue. Sony’s defective battery scandal was just one of many reminding us of that, and there have been isolated reports here and there about batteries that catch on fire or even explode. Even if it's a one in a million chance, it only takes that one incident for an irate customer to file a lawsuit. That's exactly what happened to Apple, in regards to an iPod touch that supposedly exploded, and must now face the courts.

We've seen several of these cases before, though many of them ended up being an instance where the device had a clone battery not sanctioned by the manufacturer or some other issue. Given that the iPod Touch doesn't have a user-replaceable battery, though, this case is likely to get more attention. The lawsuit isn't asking for millions upon millions of dollars, which most do, but rather less than a quarter million – a more reasonable figure, but one that Apple is still likely to defend themselves against. The company of course has issued no comment on the matter, but it will be interesting to find out the details of the exploding iPod.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/33913-apple-goes-to-court-over-exploding-ipod-touch.html

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Microsoft details new changes to Windows 7

Following on from its previous update, Microsoft has unveiled 27 more changes it plans to make before upgrading Windows 7 from beta to release candidate. Once again, these are small tweaks based on user feedback aimed at improving the desktop experience, and more such adjustments are expected to come as Microsoft rushes to get their next operating system out the door.

This time the company has made some usability tweaks to how the taskbar thumbnail overflow feature works, modified the Control Panel Jump List so that it offers quick access to recently used items, and particularly focused on improving several aspects of the Windows Explorer file manager. Interestingly, Microsoft also decided to trim the shutdown and logoff sounds to gain up to 400 milliseconds because “every little bit counts.” The rest of the changes involve a number of different performance and operating areas, you can check out the full list on the Engineering Windows 7 blog.

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/33909-microsoft-details-new-changes-to-windows-7.html

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