Category: Software
The European Union is investigating the Yahoo/Google ad sales deal – anti-trust action on the way?
The EU is getting angry again – and looking daggers the way of Yahoo and Google. Transatlantic daggers. Intercontinental ballistic daggers.
The bureaucratic RAGE is thanks to the two companies and their deal to sell Google ads on Yahoo in the US and Canada – a right old stitch-up which…
Terrorists planning their next deadly attack using… World of Warcraft?
That’s the 100% crackpot theory being investigated by the US military at the moment, as senior officials worry that shifty-looking foreign people are massing on WoW servers to practise unleashing death.
A man called Dr. Dwight Toavs, who is a professor at the US National Defence University, gave a presentation (PowerPoint file here) on how a virtual world…
Dell & Tesco bringing Linux to the masses – launching £299 Inspiron Z530 "Web Browser" in October
Tesco selling Dell laptops – a match made in retailer heaven. Only, the thing is, and we’d hate to be the ones breaking this to the poor, confused buyer, the Z530 will be running Linux.
The Z530 is described by Tesco as a “Web Browser” rather than a Laptop, PC, portable computer or any of the more usual terms, so presumably Dell and Tesco are aiming…
VLC 0.9.2 will play any video, ever
VLC Media Player has just released version 0.9.2. We don’t often cover incremental software updates, but I wanted to spotlight VLC for those of you who aren’t aware of this fantastic, lightweight, media player. If you’ve got it already, then feel free to move on to the next article. If not, then here’s why you need VLC in your life.
Compatibility
First of all, VLC will play just about anything you can throw at it. FLV. Ogg. Codecced-up AVI files. Just about anything – including stuff that ol’ Windows Media Player won’t recognise because it’s damaged in some way.
The sensational return of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Episode 2: Not connecting with real people
The double act no one really wants to see the return of has returned, as the two extremely rich men try to act like they’re normal and in touch with us common folk. All in the name of making Windows Vista look cool. It is not working. It didn’t work before. And this one’s even worse.
See Bill and Jerry order Chinese food, as if they don’t have in-house chefs back home at their respective palaces cooking up high-nutrient, low-fat foods at any time of day. They joke about being rich. This all goes on for a completely bewildering four and a half minutes. Here. See how far you can get through it.
Bill does a bit of robot dancing at the end…
Six-year-old story pops up on Google News, triggering United Airlines share price collapse
Three cheers for automated technology! The Google News “Googlebot” search routine decided last weekend that a six-year-old story regarding United Airlines filing for bankruptcy was new and exciting.
The automated news site posted the Chicago Tribune report – originally written on December 10 of 2002 – as new news at the top of its business section, dated it with the day’s date and sent UA shareholders into a CRAZED SELLING PANIC, bringing down the share price by a staggering 76%…
People who know people say T-Mobile's revealing its Android phone plans on September 23
The sort of “insiders” who can’t be named or they’ll get sacked reckon that Google and T-Mobile are very, very near to announcing official facts regarding the retail arrival of a Google Android mobile.
The two companies are planning a revelation for this month, with the same undercover sources hinting that a September 23 launch date announcement is definitely possible. September 23 is, at the time of writing, 12.5 days away…
Opera release 9.6 beta
Gosh, everyone’s going browser-mad lately. First IE8, then Chrome, now Opera are releasing a new version. Opera, of course, is the fourth largest browser out there, after IE, Firefox, Safari, and Safari. It has a small, but passionate, fanbase, which includes 2.6% of Tech Digest readers…
UPDATED: iTunes 8 causing crashes for Vista users
If you’re a Vista user and you haven’t updated to iTunes 8 yet, it might be worth holding off a little longer. There are isolated reports across the internet that it’s causing blue screens of death when you plug an iPod or an iPhone into your PC. Downgrading to iTunes 7.7 seems to solve the problems, but not without other issues…
OPINION: Still searching for reasons to switch to Google Chrome
Yesterday – and this is not a joke about how sad my life is, it’s the honest-to-Betsy truth – I decided to make the switch and start using Google Chrome as my default browser.
I’d decided the night before, in fact. I was, sadly, really quite excited about the prospect of turning over a new leaf or, to update the phrase, starting a new session. Doing a fresh install of my life and switching from Firefox to Chrome.
I like Chrome. It works, it’s already imported…
