John Schappert VP of Microsoft gaming division in a recent interview answers the hard hitting questions such as if Avatars were inspired by the Nintendo Wii’s Mii avatars. Also Schappert reiterates Microsoft’s stance on Blu-ray and […]

There are an inordinate number of issues that add up to decide whether a console is ultimately […]

For those that are frustrated that Vista won’t do what you want it to do, don’t write it off just yet.  With some simple system tweaks and some free software downloads, you can change almost every aspect of your OS to better suit your needs. 
PCWorld laid out choices for software downloads that make […]

Biofuels, generally ethanol, are becoming more and more popular as an alternative to fossil fuel.  The emissions are cleaner and the fuel is essentially “home grown” so little to no reliance on foreign oil interests.  Unfortunately, the processes used to make ethanol from corn or other plant materials has been costly and inefficient.  Developments […]

Ahead of a proposed net neutrality action against Comcast, a disgruntled congressman has written FCC accusing it of "essentially regulating the internet."
Strange accusation that, when essentially the Federal Communications Commission’s Censure is against Comcast’s net neutrality violations. The company is accused of faking internet traffic to limit peer-to-peer file sharing among its customers. Republican […]

Ever since Google Street View was launched in May 2007, there have been concerns from some quarters about how much the scheme infringes on civil liberties. While most of the USA accepted Street View without any trouble, public perception in the UK has proved to be a slightly tougher nut to crack.
Google Street View is […]

YouTube has introduced its voice-to-text technology to enhance the search function, and to provide rich metadata for select videos.  The technology makes the video headlines less important for searching now that any searched keyword can be found by searching the entire audio file instead.
It works by using a special type of automated spiders that […]

A Microsoft senior director says that Microsoft’s heart is deep inside Open Source. Cue jokes about whether Microsoft has a heart in the first place.
This lovely bit of news comes from, among other sites, The Register.  Microsoft platform strategy Sam Ramji spoke about Microsoft’s connection with Open Source in a podcast recorded at the […]

There’s another twist in the already long and winding road that has seen the massively popular Scrabble imitator (it’s lines like those that really help their legal case), Scrabulous, going up against the real thing. Forget Scrabulous - meet Wordscraper.
I’ve been following this story right from the off, when at the beginning of the year, […]

An industry-shaking idea itself, the Chevy Volt is on uncertain ground as Eestor continues to make progress on its ultracapacitor battery. Eestor just announced that its technology was verified by a third party, and that the company is on track to deliver a battery capable of powering a car for 300 miles on one […]

Announcements from both satellite companies this week indicate the future launch of true 1080p HD programming by way of pay-per-view movies in the near future.  While DIRECTV was the first to announce such a change, Dish Network looks to be the first to deliver on its promises.
According to the New York Times, Dish Network […]

LG will soon offer a device that plays high definition Blu-ray movies along with video streamed over the Internet from Netflix, which represents the latest move by Netflix to deliver movie rentals online rather than through the mail.  Everything available through traditional means, including movies and TV shows will become available instantly through the […]

British politicians have called for YouTube to find a better system for vetting inappropriate content – though they’ve acknowledged that manually checking every clip before it appears would be unworkable.
The call comes in a report by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee, the UK equivalent to a Senate sub-committee.
The major objection involved an […]

When I logged onto my MacBook Pro this morning I noticed that there was a new update available for iTunes. iTunes has been updated to iTunes 7.7.1.

Fujifilm announced the FinePix Z200fd today. The compact digital camera will have a 10 megapixel resolution, a 2.7-inch LCD screen. In addition to the traditional digital camera stats, the Finpix Z200fd also has added two features the “Couple Timer” and “Group Timer” modes that are designed with the intention of letting the photographer get in the shot.