As the GUI Championships 2006 progresses, we're slowly revealing what prizes are up for grabs in this years competition. Earlier in the week, we revealed cash prizes totaling $3850, a good step towards our touted $12,000 total prize package! Today, we fill in a few of the remaining blank spaces on the prize grid. The event prizes revealed today are: Best Overall WindowBlinds Best Overall Icon Pack 2nd Place, Overall Competition So what are you going to get for having...
Microsoft has issued a declaration of sorts to developers on MSDN. The message? "be cool!" At least, that's the word from Windows chief, Jim Allchin. His declaration to developers reads as a pep rally speech before the big game in an attempt to whip the home crowd into a frenzy. Claims are made of an expected 200 million people purchasing and loading Vista in the first 2 years, and that those millions of people will be looking for applications, cool applic...
At long last, ObjectBar 2.0 is available now on Stardock.com . This upgrade is free to existing customers. ObjectBar is a program that can replace or extend the Windows taskbar. It provides the functionality of the Start bar while adding a vast array of new features and benefits. Because it is so flexible and skinnable, it can be made to look like any sort of toolbar, menu, dock, etc. found on any OS, or it can be used to create something entirely new, giving you a level of personalizati...
First Dell, then Apple, and now Toshiba has begun to recall laptop batteries. Around 340,000 of them! Toshiba is just the latest in a string of companies doing recalls on Sony-made laptop batteries. However, this time it's not because of risk of fire or explosion. The impacted batteries on Toshiba laptops merely fail to retain a charge after a fairly short period of ownership. This defect impacts Dynabook and Satellite laptops made between March and May of this ...
Interested in what exactly you'll be competing for in the 2006 GUI Championships? Well, if you head on over to the competition website , you'll see the first part of our prize chart revealed. Today we've posted what the cash prizes will be, and that alone totals to $3850! Over the next week or so, we'll be revealing additional parts of the prize chart, eventually leading up to the announcement of our top competition prize! So make sure to check back often. Also mak...
We missed the poll last week, what with all the news over the GUI Champs going out and taking up everyone's time and attention. So you all had a little bit longer than normal to vote in this poll. Last time, I asked everyone thought was the single most exciting feature in the upcoming WinCustomize 2007 site refresh. The answer was pretty clear, with 241 votes registered, the new streamlined and faster site design came out clearly on top. Here are the numbers: Which...
Previously, Windows Vista RC1 was only available to either those in one of the Microsoft tech communities or those who had tested a previous build through the Customer Preview Program, which stopped accepting testers some weeks ago. Starting today however, sign-ups for the Customer Preview Program and testing for RC1 have reopened to the public. The goal is to reach 5 million testers prior to RTM. So if you missed out previously and want a shot at a Vista RC1 DVD and key, go sign...
After numerous reports of laptops catching fire and batteries melting through cases, Dell and Apple issued recalls of several laptop lines that carried a Sony lithium-ion battery that was suspected to be the culprit. While it has been well established that it was the Sony battery at fault, no one at Dell or Apple had yet taken Sony to task publicly over the issue. That is, until this week. Dell founder, Michael Dell, denied that the defect was in any way the fault of their laptop ...
Yes, I'm late AGAIN this week with the Weekly Pick feature. I blame it on launching the GUI Champs this week and all the background work involved with that. So now I'm finally getting around to posting the excellent picks our volunteer staff came up with for last week. Because the GUIs are going on right now, a lot of the skinning community will likely be saving their work for it, instead of posting it straight to WinCustomize. So, depending on the amount of normal WC submissio...
Office 2007 Beta 2, which originally came out in late May, was packed with bugs and usability issues, not to mention a gargantuan menu/ribbon across the top of the window that confused and frustrated users. Well, this Thursday, Microsoft will be releasing an updated build to the public that is supposed to address most of the issues users encountered with the original version. Major revisions to the ribbon, and a new theme are the most immediately obvious interface changes in the new ...
It looks like MetaMachine, the company behind the eDonkey Peer-to-Peer filesharing network will be coughing up $30million to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of six record companies. Since the settlement, the services' website has been shut-down. This marks the latest death in the rapidly dwindling P2P Fileshare space. Next on the RIAA's list of targets looks to be the service LimeWire, another P2P fileshare network that is developed and backed by a single company that l...
It's been a big week so far for Apple and its iTunes Music Store. Yesterday, it was announced that you can now purchase feature-length, near-dvd quality movies from the service, which recently began offering select television shows from networks such as ABC, Comedy Central, SciFi and others. Movies on the service are currently only from Disney-owned studios (Disney, Mirimax, Touchstone etc.) but plans are to expand out to other studios in the future. This places Apple in direct...
The GUI’s is the ultimate Graphical User Interface (GUI) competition. Graphics designers from around the world will be competing in three primary GUI categories; Icons, Visual Styles and Wallpapers. This years’ competition has a prize pool totaling near $12,000! Starting Tuesday, September 12th , skinners will be able to submit their work to the competition website ( http://www.guichamps.com ), with the first events being judged in early October, and the overall "Best Skinner" crowned the s...
Yesterday, online retailer Amazon.com opened up it's new online video store; Unbox Video Store, a rival to Apple's iTunes service. The new store from Amazon will allow users to either buy or rent TV shows, movies and other misc video content. At launch, the service is offering thousands of movies from more than 30 movie and TV studios. DRM restrictions limit a user to loading a purchased/rented movie on two PCs and two portable players. The service is currently limited to Windows users only....
CRN is reporting on the possibility that Microsoft will delay the release of Windows Vista in Europe, depending on the antitrust requirements of the European Commission. Microsoft and the European Commission are tossing blame back and forth, each accusing the other as being the one responsible for any potential delays to the early 2007 release for the operating system. Microsoft claims it needs EC response and review of Vista to ensure compliance with the commission's antitrust ruling...