Starting in mid-2007, you will be able to purchase notebooks from Apple and HP that feature not the same old LCD screens you're used to, but screens powered by LED technology, much like new HDTV sets from Samsung. These new displays while consuming more power and being more costly to produce, show improvements in a number of areas such as color reproduction, uniformity, contrast ratio and brightness. It is assumed that any LED-based notebooks from these companies will be largely targ...
A lot of ink has been used to talk about Aero, the new user interface built into Windows Vista. Aero represents Microsoft's most recent attempt to create a strong visual branding element to their flagship product. The glassy look, the transparency and the shiny glowy bits added to the UI look dazzling, but will all of that graphical heavy-lifting create a burden for your PC, slowing it down when trying to draw too many windows over one another? According to Principled Technologies, a ...
Media Center has taken its place as the dominant home media center connector in the past year or so as uptake of digital media and the XBox 360 console has taken off. Windows Vista especially will be pushing the Media Center in new directions with new content distribution channels through Live Marketplace, and enhanced connectivity with the 360 and Zune portable media player. Now we all know this isn't Microsoft's first attempt to break into the living room. WebTV was a product th...
Turn the clock back 12 years. Look around you and you may find yourself sitting at a 386 PC, chances are you'd be running Windows 3.1 and if you were really lucky you'd have a 14.4 modem with a connection to The Internet. The web was still in its infancy (having only sprung into existence 2 short years ago) and the 'Net was still small and relatively unexplored. Back in this early time, there was the Internet World Magazine. At the end of 1994, they published a list of best/...
CNet News is reporting on changes within the EU's consumer protection laws that will leave scammers "nowhere to hide" according to the U.K. government. This is being accomplished through increased amounts of cooperation between national enforcement groups throughout the European Union. These changes come about and the end of January when the Consumer Protection Cooperation regulation goes into effect. The target are scammers who prey on unsuspecting users via email across natio...
Last week, I began a five-part series looking at Windows Vista and what it might mean to the average user. These articles are meant to go beyond the typical "should you buy this" approach, and is meant to give a high-level break-down of what's new and improved about the latest installment of everyone's favorite operating system. Last week was a brief introduction . This week we look at the Changes & Additions to the Vista User Interface . Next week we'll examine the new cont...
Christmas day is typically a day of family, friends, lots of eating and having a good time. This year however it was also a time for pounding on your favorite online service of choice, as companies such as Nintendo with their Wii Store and Apple with iTunes saw massive increases in traffic as people who received a Wii or iPod for Christmas went online to their respective stores for the first time. Most roughly at the same time. Hitwise, a site which monitors Internet traffic trend...
Welcome to 2007 WinCustomize regulars! With the new year comes a new poll, this one focused towards increasing community involvement in how the site operates. Before I get into the new poll however, lets recap our last poll of 2006: How Old Are You? Every now and then we like to get an idea of the audience we serve here at WinCustomize. Through stat tracking, we have plenty of data on what browser and OS our visitors use, most popular pages visited etc. What we don't...
Well, tonight’s the night. In just a few hours the calendar here turns over to a new year, 2007. So here I sit, looking back at the year that was and marvel at the good fortune I’ve had these past twelve months. 2006 was overall a very good year for me as I was afforded great opportunities, and was able to share in some great moments in the lives of my friends. While it was a hectic, busy and stressful year from start to finish, I don’t think I’d trade a single second of it consideri...
This January, Windows Vista is unleashed fully upon the world with the consumer product release. Soon we'll be seeing new PCs come preloaded with Vista and Windows XP will slowly become a thing of the past. At a price point of up to $400 though, some may want to know what they're getting into before making the plunge. To that end, we've put together a sort of walkthrough series of articles focusing on Windows Vista Ultimate and what might or might not be of interest to you al...
This is part 1 of a 5 part series offering a look into some of the new features of Windows Vista, slated for release to consumers on January 30th, 2007. These articles will be posted once per week starting at the end of December and leading up to the commercial launch of Vista. There’s been a lot of commotion over Vista. It’s all over the press, people are writing about it extensively, and we’ve covered it in-depth here at WinCustomize through news postings and fea...
Hundreds of episodes from shows in the BBC vault will be made available via the Azureus Zudeo file-sharing network. Zudeo, a service comparable to Google's YouTube, provides users the ability to upload video content to be streamed over the web. The difference between YouTube and Zudeo is that Zudeo is capable of providing high-definition content. Though to access Zudeo videos, you will need to download software from Azureus. This new venture will mean US viewers will now be ...
So far in this guide we've been talking a lot about utilities and applications, and skins. Cool stuff, but everyone wants to receive something FUN for Christmas too right? What could be more fun than a game? Or how about a whole pile of games? Stardock doesn't just do serious stuff ya know, we make and sell games too! Really great games for that matter. Stupendous games... fantabulous ones... absolu... well, you get the point. For the strategy gamer in you...
Google, eco-friendly to the extreme, is expanding its plans to deploy solar-power technology to supplement power needs at its main campus, has planted groves of "solar trees." These "trees are poles with solar cells affixed to them, in large numbers it looks like a futuristic orchard of sorts. One of the more inventive areas they've been deployed is over parking lots to shade cars during the day. This is part of Google's plan to generate 1.6-megawatts of electricity from the syste...
What would a Microsoft product launch be without people up-in-arms protesting over it? Well, Vista is no different as the Free Software Foundation has recently launched the website BadVista.org , a site aimed at exposing the real truth behind Microsoft's latest OS. Among tidbits posted, are claims that Vista is a step backwards by adding unacceptable restrictions. The operating system is compared to a virus in several instances, and the FSF claims that systems such as gNewSens...