IT Masala

It looks like Microsoft is on its way to give some special look and feel to their upcoming Windows version !  Apart from adding new features, they should concentrate on having patches for existing problems too. don't you think 

Microsoft's next OS will come with a touch screen to replace the existing mouse ! This will be a nice feature, replacing the old classic mouse. This touch screen will bring in more interactivity for the user,making him feel good ..maybe..

Touch Screen Demo :

Scheduled to be released in 2010, the new touch screen lets users enlarge and shrink photos, trace routes on maps, paint pictures or play the piano ( as seen in the video )..

BBC reports "When challenged as to who would get to market first with a new touch screen device, Microsoft or Apple, Mr Ballmer said it was not much of an issue. "We'll sell 290 million PCs and Apple will sell 10 million PCs "

So lets wait and watch how far this multi-touch Windows 7 will be successful ! 

[ Microsoft Windows ] 

Apple will pay $25 to $79 to customers who "bought an adapter made by Apple or another company to replace a failed one." Customers who bought certain replacement adapters for PowerBook and iBook computers are eligible for the settlement. Apple is gonna pay that amount to around 2.3 million Macintosh computer owners.

[LA Times, photo by Don Ramsey]

Apple's new web browser for Windows was downloaded more than a million times in the first 48 hours of its release, the computer group has said.

The Windows version of Apple's Safari will compete with Microsoft's Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox and expand the 4.9% market share it enjoys.

Steve Jobs launched "the fastest browser on Windows", saying it was twice as fast as Internet Explorer. It was previously only available for Macintosh computers.

[ Download ] 7.97mb [ Apple Safari ]

These laptops are on the heavy side, but they're ideal replacements for desktop PCs.

Ubuntu Guide explains on how to make backups of your digital media. Follow these simple steps to create .iso disk images of your CD/DVD. This is not specific to Ubuntu, you can use the steps to create .iso and MD5 checksum files in any distro.

Steps :

Turn a CD/DVD into an .iso
sudo umount /dev/cdrom
dd if=/dev/cdrom of=file.iso bs=1024
Turn a folder into an .iso
mkisofs -r -o file.iso /location_of_folder/
Generate an MD5 checksum file
md5sum file.iso > file.iso.md5

How to create Image (ISO) files from CD/DVD [Ubuntu Guide]

Jointly developed by Intel and Asustek, the Eee PC will hit the market during the third quarter, most likely in August or September. The notebook will be aimed at education users 

Measuring 9 inches wide by 6.6 inches deep, the Eee PC 701 is about 1.5 inches thick with the screen closed and weighs just 31 ounces. Other specifications include a 7-inch monitor, a 300,000-pixel camera, 512MB of DDR2 memory, and Wi-Fi. Next year, Asustek plans to introduce a second Eee PC model, the 1001, which will have a 10-inch screen.

The eBay Toolbar lets you search eBay, access your account and more, all from within Firefox. Currently, eBay's own browser toolbar is an Internet Explorer-only product. grow up ebay !!

You can do everything which is possible on present ebay's toolbar - Search eBay from anywhere, Access your account easily, Get to ending auctions quickly, See image previews for all search results. Compatible with linux,mac,windows. we can say that this works wherever Firefox works !!

My eBay Fox rocks ..njoy !!

[ My eBay Fox ] [ Download Plugin ]

You must have already gone through our earlier article on How to Fix scratched Cd's. Here is a nice video which explains the method to remove scratches from cd's and dvd's..

Watch the video tutorial to know how to remove scratches from cd /dvd:

Canonical and Dell are pleased to announce a partnership to offer Ubuntu 7.04 on select desktop and notebook products. This is a great news for all Ubuntu users..

The idea of offering pre-installed Linux on more Dell systems initially started with a discussion and survey on IdeaStorm, Dell's popular online customer forum. In that month-long online survey, more than 70 percent of the respondents said they would use a Dell system with the Linux OS for both home and office use if it were available.

The Round Rock, Texas-based company said that it received more than 100,000 responses in the survey, which ended March 23.

Dell is now making Ubuntu Linux available through a partnership with Canonical, the commercial, European-based sponsor of this open-source operating system (OS).

For those who donna what Ubuntu is : Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'humanity to others' or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu distribution of Linux, their site proclaims, "brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world."

Check it out ! Dell has a placeholder for Ubuntu at dell.com/ubuntu.

Note : Dell has also decided that, as a matter of policy, open source drivers from kernel.org will be used whenever possible for Linux desktop and notebook computers.

PN : "Dell recommends Windows Vista™ Business." is pasted on almost every webpage of the Dell.com website.

[ Ubuntu ] [ Dell website ] 

Google has now released the complete version of a ‘Google for your computer’, the Google Desktop that lets users search their computers at the same speed they can search the Internet and easily find all their files. ( Beta version was released earlier this month)

The features section on what’s inside the new Google Desktop 5 says the following about security: “We care about your security, and have added a feature to make your search experience safer and easier by helping to combat both phishing and malicious software websites. Whether you’re clicking on links from documents, IMs and e-mails on your desktop or browsing the web itself, you may receive a warning when you’re about to visit a site that might be trying to steal your personal information or install malicious software on your computer, so you can decide if you want to use the site.”

Some New features to look at in Google Desktop 5 :

The application involves a sidebar for the user's desktop environment, variety of "gadgets", designed to display a range of functions, including the time, photos and stock prices. Vista, the latest version of Windows, offers similar functionality to the desktop sidebar(is it a copy ??)..

- It also incorporates previews of desktop search results

- warnings for Web sites that may contain malware.

- It is visually more enhanced than its predecessors and Windows Vista's version.

- Some popular gadgets have also been redesigned.

PN : Google Desktop now has for the first time, supports Hindi along with 28 other languages.

Awesome cool , Google claims , you can now search your pc's at the same speed that they can search the internet. 

[ Download Google Desktop 5 ] [ Mac version ] [ More information on features ]