journals

What’s wrong with Windows Vista?

By Nick, November 29, 2007

That is the question I am posing to you. What is so wrong with Windows Vista that it is considered by CNet UK to be one of the worst tech products ever? If you’ve only used Vista for five minutes at your local Best Buy or something, I don’t think you’re exactly qualified to answer this question. If you have an agenda, you aren’t qualified to answer this question.

I don’t think Vista sucks. I think it is a solid improvement over Windows XP. If I had to buy a PC or use Windows on a regular basis, I would pick Vista over XP in a heartbeat. Does that mean it is flawless? No. Does that mean that there haven’t been issues? Nope; there are issues with every major OS revamp. And there are some rough edges that need a little bit of polish. But it doesn’t suck, and it certainly is not one of the worst tech products in history. You want a miserable failure and a product that is worthy of a worst-product-ever list? Look no further than Microsoft Bob.

And before people start pegging me as a Microsoft apologist, consider this: I am a Mac user. I…
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Windows Live Suite

By Liam, November 19, 2007

Windows Live never really was considered the best idea Microsoft has ever had. Couple a deluge of similarly named services with the fact that MSN was making money while Windows Live wasn’t, and you’ve got a great recipe for people to say, “wtf lol?” or, alternatively, “f u M$.” As the months have passed, one thing has become clear: Windows Live is a serious effort to compete with Google. Most of the web services went final earlier this year, including Hotmail, Spaces, Search, Maps, and Home. Now, a second wave of products has left beta, this time targeting Microsoft’s biggest asset: desktop software.

It’s Called Windows Live, not Windows Live. Duh!

I’ve been at somewhat of a loss to figure out just what exactly what to call the thing. Apparently, it’s called Windows Live, as though it’s a separate entity from the other Windows Live (the big one, remember? The one that was here first.) The download button at www.windowslive.com even says “Get Windows Live.” So, I’ll be calling this Windows Live. Sometimes I may say Windows Live, and in those few cases, I mean the project as a whole. Clear as mud? Excellent.

Unified Installer

Microsoft wants you to…
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All-in-one desktop shootout

By Nick, November 18, 2007

All righty, it’s been a while since we’ve done a hardware comparison here.

Lately it seems that all-in-one desktop computers have seen their popularity rise. Since August, Apple has released a fairly large update to the iMac, Gateway unveiled their Gateway One PC (which is way sexier than the Profile 6), and the Dell XPS One.

In this article, I will compare one configuration of the Apple iMac, Dell XPS One, and Gateway One. And if you think you’ve seen this sort of article around here before, well, you’d be right.

First thing’s first

Before I start, I want to get a couple things out of the way. First of all, I am not framing this article to make one company look better or worse, so let’s not even go down that road. These prices are for models as configured on Sunday, November 18, 2007, and are what the manufacturers list on their US online stores (Dell/Gateway Home and Home Office and Apple’s standard pricing). All prices are in US Dollars.

Secondly, yes, I know you can buy a regular tower PC for less than you can buy an all-in-one. Yes, I know you can build a PC for less.…
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Updated: Dell officially unveils XPS One, Latitude tablet

By Nick, November 16, 2007

Dell. They’ve always had the reputation for churning out decent PCs at good prices. But let’s face it, their products have never seen incredibly unique. That may be changing, though.

Yesterday Dell too the wraps off their XPS One all-in-one desktop, and their very first tablet PC called the Latitude XT. Dell hasn’t said much about the XPS One yet, but there is a teaser page up on Dell’s site. The XPS One is the latest all-in-one desktop to come from PC makers; other recent releases include the Gateway One (yes, I know about the name--coincidence?) the HP Touchsmart, and of course, the iMac. Perhaps PC companies are noticing that there is a market for the all-in-one desktop?

The Latitude XT is the first tablet PC out of Dell, and it’s not an ordinary tablet PC. As Engadget reports, The Latitude XT sports a multi-touch display. Dell used a painting program and photo viewer demo app to show off the XT’s multi-touch capabilities. The big question: how will Windows and applications handle multi-touch input? That remains to be seen. Still, it’s nice to see some really exciting products come from Dell.

UPDATE: The XPS One is now available to buy on dell.com Models start at $1499 for a 20” display, 2 GB of RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive.

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Security researchers warn of iPhone vulnerability

By UnnDunn, October 24, 2007

An article in Wired News today warns of a potential security hazard in the iPhone:

...every application on the device—from the calculator on up—runs as “root,” i.e., with full system privileges. As a result, a serious vulnerability in any of these applications would allow hackers to gain complete control of the device.

While there are no published exploits for this vulnerability yet, and it is unlikely any will show up soon, security experts are warning that it may be only a matter of time, and any attacks that take advantage of this could have dire consequences:

With the limited bandwidth of the iPhone, malicious code would be unlikely to slow portions of the internet. But malware could wreak creative havoc of a different kind. It might, for example, cause a phone to call numbers without the user’s knowledge, seize text messages and a list of received and sent calls, turn the phone into a listening device, track the user’s location through nearby WiFi access points, or instruct the phone to snap photos of the user’s surroundings—including any companions who may be in view of the camera lens.

Apple plans to release an SDK to allow third parties to develop applications for the iPhone, but said it was working on ways to maintain the device’s security while doing so.