Even though SP1 for Windows Vista was released to manufacturing in February 2008, and the gold bits of the service pack began being available to the general public in March, Microsoft is still issuing updates for the RTM version of its latest Windows client. It is the case of a compatibility and reliability update for Vista RTM, re-released on May 21, 2008, well after Microsoft wrapped up with Service Pack 1.

"This update resolves some compatibility issues and reliability issues in Windows Vista. By applying this update, you can achieve better reliability and hardware compatibility in various scenarios," reads Microsoft's description of KB938194 which is offered in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions for the respective editions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

In the fall of 2007, the Redmond company issued two Vista compatibility, performance and reliability update packs that were essentially bits of the first service pack, but offered to Vista RTM users almost half a year ahead of SP1 via Windows Update. Following the availability of SP1, Microsoft informed that there are users who cannot implement the service pack due to a variety of issues, but mainly incompatibility problems. For them, the KB938979 and KB938194 update packages were reissued. Users of Windows Vista SP1 need neither of the packs.

According to Microsoft, KB938194 will resolve the following problems:
"The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver.
• The computer stops responding, and you receive a "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message.
• The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
• The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
• The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off.
• There are stability issues with some graphics processing units (GPUs). These issues could cause GPUs to stop responding (hang).
• Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
• You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
• Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
• Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
• Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
• The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
• You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active."


Source: news.softpedia.com

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Ubuntu Ultimate Edition 1.8, a Linux distribution that's based on Ubuntu Hardy Heron, was launched with the codename "Harty Hotrod". This release is built manually, without the help of the "Reconstructor" application that was used for the previous versions of Ultimate Edition.

This Linux distro comes in two flavors, one for 32 bit platforms while the other is a 64 bit edition. It was created starting from Hardy Heron will all the things that you were used to and many new other features. For instance, if you fancy sounds playing as you’re using your computer, you should know that you will enjoy a new soundscheme created for Ultimate Edition 1.8. Usplash, featuring a dragon, will appear only after you install the distro on your system, and not when you boot it from the Live media.

Ultimate Edition comes with everything you might need. It can be used by novices and even system administrators, as it is packed with applications ranging from media players to tweaking tools. You can listen to MP3s out of the box, and watch your favorite movies with audio and video players like Amarok, XMMS, VLC and Totem. When you have to write a document, view a spreadsheet, make a presentation, etc. you can use OpenOffice, as it comes with all the necessary stuff for your office tasks.

If you want to tweak and tailor the system to fit your needs, you can play around with sysv-init, sum and a few other handy tools for tweaking. Besides, you can keep an eye on your system with the help of sysinfo, MGM (Moaning Goat Meter), and write your own programs with the development tools that are provided with the distribution.

If you are interested in KDE4, you should know that a version featuring KDE4 is being prepared for you, although it has not been officially released.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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Google Maps and YouTube on Your Sprint Handset - A new collaboration between the companies has been announced. The American company Sprint has announced today that it would expand its collaboration with the Mountain View giant, Google. Sprint is a wireless and wireline communications service provider that offers its products to both mainstream and business users. Google and Sprint have joined forces for the development of another project that was also announced today.

The new agreement will allow Sprint users to access some of Google's most popular products. As part of its efforts to improve users' dynamic mobile experience, Sprint will start providing easier access to Google Maps for mobile, YouTube and many others. The new tools provided to the Sprint clients are meant to lure more consumers, mostly with the help of the continuously increasing popularity belonging to Google's products.

Providing a fast and easy way to access the Google mobile search engine from their own Sprint handsets will most certainly allow users to better appreciate Sprint's services. Doug Garland, vice president of product management at Google declared that "Google and Sprint have a lot in common when it comes to our vision for the mobile web". He also added that "we both believe in openness and providing compelling, easy-to-use mobile services that consumers can use every day. We look forward to working together to deliver a great experience."

The collaboration between the two companies dates back to November 2006, when Google's Gmail was made available from Sprint's portal.

Google's interest in the world of mobile handsets has long been speculated. There were a number of rumors over the release of a potential G-Phone developed by Google but until now they were only simple speculations. The only thing that Google released, which comes close to a G-Phone, is the Android. The Linux-based operating system was unveiled in November 2007, as a joint venture between Google and the Open Handset Alliance.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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Feature Comparison: XP SP3 Professional vs. Vista SP1 - Courtesy of Microsoft. Call it a sign of desperation, a new attempt to blow some wind in the sails of its latest platform, or a reaction to the proverbial last drop, but Microsoft is delivering its own perspective in terms of the comparison between its two Windows clients sharing the vast majority of the operating system market. Just ahead of the availability cut-off date for Windows XP through the OEM and retail channels, the Redmond company has "come out gunning" in a move designed to settle once and for good the XP vs. Vista face-off. And what better way for Microsoft to do this but with a Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 vs. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 comparison? Microsoft's point of view of Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3 is focused on Vista's advances in areas such as security, management, deployment, mobility, and productivity. And believe or not, but Microsoft is doing it all for its customers, in order to help them adjust their expectations.

"During the past year, Microsoft and its ecosystem have made great progress in improving the overall quality and performance of Windows Vista, making the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) release a key milestone for broad enterprise deployments of Windows Vista. Microsoft recommends that all business customers who have not started to evaluate Windows Vista should start deployment planning and piloting Windows Vista with SP1. Windows Vista offers customers unique value from increased security and data protection to improved mobility and productivity to capabilities that customers can use to optimize desktop infrastructures and reduce management costs," reads a fragment of the Redmond company's Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3 feature comparison whitepaper available for download here.

In the same month that Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Vista to the general public, March 2008, the company touted in passing the 140 million sold licenses milestone. At the same time, internal Microsoft concerns surfaced of how customers, especially in the corporate environments, were failing to embrace Vista. The vast majority of new Vista users acquired the operating system preloaded on new machines instead of dropping XP for the "newer model."

What Microsoft is seeing is that customers who are not upgrading their hardware infrastructure are also sticking with Windows XP instead of making the jump to Vista. Unless users buy new computers, they are not upgrading to Windows Vista at all. For the Redmond company, this means that customers will most likely update Windows XP to Service Pack 3, available as of May 6, and ride the operating system for all it’s got until the next version of Windows, labeled Windows 7, drops, sometime in the 2009 - 2010 timeframe. Even though XP Sp3 is still very much Windows, and Microsoft will be able to at least conserve its share of the operating system market, inexistent Vista upgrades translate to lost business for the Client division. Not a dramatic loss, as over 80% of the Client revenue comes from sales of OEM machines with Windows pre-loaded, but sufficient so that Microsoft would perform its very own XP SP3 vs. Vista SP1 comparison. At the same time, customers that are sticking with Windows XP on older hardware instead of upgrading their IT infrastructure and migrating to Vista are the ones really hurting Microsoft.

"Microsoft knows that many customers will adopt Windows Vista gradually, through hardware refreshes (i.e., attrition). During hardware refresh, customers will co-manage Windows Vista and Windows XP. Enhancements to Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3), such as Network Access Protection (NAP), make it easier for customers to more securely integrate both operating systems into their environments. During the transition, using Windows XP with SP3 will help ensure that client computers still running the Windows XP operating system have the most recent security and software updates," Microsoft added.

The Windows XP SP3 vs. Vista SP1 feature comparison covers a few areas of the operating systems from security to management, deployment, mobility, productivity and focuses on items such as: Security Development Lifecycle (SDL); Defense in depth; Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption; Windows Firewall; Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode; ActiveX Installer Service; Group Policy; Standard user accounts; Reliability and diagnostics; Event management; Task scheduling; Image-based setup (IBS); Deployment, compatibility, and asset-inventory tools; Windows Setup; Worldwide single-image deployment; Windows Mobility Center; Sync Center; Offline files; Network Projection; Secure Sockets Tunnel Protocol (SSTP); Power management; Wireless networking; Search and User interface and navigation.


Source: news.softpedia.com

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Fake Windows XP Security Center in the Wild - Beware of Adware/XP-Shield
Back in the past, we saw a huge number of rogue anti-spyware technology which did nothing than to misinform users and trick them into buying unneeded security solutions. Today, a similar scam has been reported by security company Panda Software but, in comparison with the previous attacks, this one relies on a Windows function closely related to security. The Adware/XP-Shield poses as a Windows security center which usually informs you about the status of the security applications on the Windows workstations.

However, this piece of malware misinforms users that their computers are infected and, just like many other rogue anti-spyware products, it asks them to buy a certain security product. Only that buying the product does nothing to the computer because all the attackers want is to actually steal your money.

Once installed on the computer, the malware displays pop-up windows every once in a while, notifying users about the existence of an infection. If the user chooses to continue "unprotected", the application stays in the background and minimizes the window to System Tray.

"It is possible that while we are visiting different websites, several popups are displayed informing us that our system is infected or that our computer is not working properly and in order to solve these problems they recommend us to purchase a certain program. Be careful with this type of software, which will not really solve the problem and will make you lose money," it is mentioned in the Panda Software security advisory.

The malware can be easily identified by the name of the executable files, XPShieldSetup.exe, and by the fact that it drops a shortcut on the Desktop and in the Start menu. The infection only affected the Windows machines, including here Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows ME and Windows 98.


Source: news.softpedia.com

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Microsoft Mute on IE8's Evolution - No deadline for the next stages in the browser's development
Microsoft is consistent down to perfection in avoiding to reveal any details related to the evolution of Internet Explorer 8. The successor of IE7, which debuted into its first public testing phase at the start of March at MIX08, is built under the leadership of Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group. In this context, the translucency strategy for product development, which is Sinofsky's tactic for gaging all details about upcoming products, affects not only Windows operating systems and the Windows Live platform, but also Internet Explorer, specifically IE8.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 has been available for download as a release focused on web content developers and designers since March 5, 2008. Following the launch of the first beta, Microsoft indicated repeatedly that there would be additional testing milestones for the next iteration of IE. At the same time, IE8 Beta 2 was promised for the summer of this year, a version tailored to end users this time, rather than on developers.

Questions about the upcoming Beta for IE8, as well as for the final version of the browser have become nothing short of a refrain for the IE team. And so have Microsoft's answers. During April's Windows Internet Explorer 8 Expert Zone Chat, Eric Lawrence, IE Security Program Manager, explained that a date for the delivery of IE8 Beta 2 was not set in stone.

"Beta-2 will be available later this year. Sorry, I don't have a precise date available," Lawrence stated, adding that the same is valid for the general availability of the browser. "We haven't announced a release date thus far. We're all working hard and very eager to ship a great browser as soon as we can."

Little has changed between April and May as far as details on the next stages in the development of IE8 are concerned. Answering a question about the next build of the browser, a member of the IE feedback and release team had this to say: "We'll have another Beta sometime later this year. Thank you for using Beta 1!"

In addition, John Hrvatin, program manager for developer tools and script engine integration revealed that "IE8 Beta 1 was developer-focused, but we've been listening to input on how to improve the overall browser's appearance and customization that we'll incorporate in future releases." Lawrence emphasized that Microsoft is yet to announce the complete feature set of IE8, and that future releases will build on top of IE8 Beta 1.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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Although this update could be seen as early as a few days ago, the Mountain View-based company officially introduced the new Google Translate languages today, along with several other improvements to the translation technology. The newly introduced languages are Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish, raising the total number of supported languages to 23. This means that you can translate websites, texts and words from and to any language supported by the service.

As mentioned, along with more languages, Google has also came with a few other updates. "You can now translate text and web pages as well as perform cross-language searches between any two languages that we offer. For example, we now support Chinese translation to/from any of our languages (e.g., Chinese to French). So for those of you who will be following or attending the Olympics in Beijing this fall, you'll be able to more easily find and access content from local sources," Jeff Chin, Product Manager, wrote on the official Google blog.

Besides that, a "Detect language" function has been added to Google Translate that helps you detect the language of the website or text, and automatically translate it to the language you choose. "Keep in mind that the longer the text, the more accurate it will be. And for those of you who have embedded the Google Translate My Page gadget in your website to give it global reach, these new languages will automatically appear. Developers can also take advantage of these new languages in our AJAX language API," the Google official added.

Just like in the past, Google Translate also provides the "Suggest a better translation" link, which allows regular users to help the technology improve the quality of the translations and thus provide more accurate texts.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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