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Dear Visitors,
I have not been updating the website regularly for the past week
or two. The reason for that is because I am terribly near my IGCSE O-level
exams. Everything is messed up at this point and all the teachers are driving
the students as hard as they can to make them ready for the exams. I am doing my
mock exams real soon and straight after that the real IGCSE exams will start.
All of this, of course, means that I won't have time to update the
website nor clear the spam from the forums. So you can expect the first update
by 20th of June.
I'm really sorry for any inconvenience but these are the most
important exams of my life, and I have to be at the best of my game
Thank you for reading,
Webmaster of Techjunkeez
30 March 2008
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Top Tech Story of the Day
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Gibson sues MTV, EA over
"Guitar Hero" |
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 Gibson
Guitar said on Friday that it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Viacom
Inc's MTV networks and Harmonix as well as Electronic Arts relating to the
wildly popular "Guitar Hero" video games.
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Tennessee, relates to the same
patent involved in another suit Gibson filed earlier against various retailers,
the Tennessee-based guitar maker said in a statement.
The "Guitar Hero" series has sold more than 14 million units in North America
and raked in more than $1 billion since its 2005 debut.
Gibson said the games, in which players use a guitar-shaped controller in time
with notes on a television screen, violate a 1999 patent for technology to
simulate a musical performance.
Read more... |
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Latest Tech News Headlines
 Sony Won't Charge $50
To Remove Bloatware |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Responding to a tidal wave of outrage, Sony has reversed a plan to
charge $50 to remove all the pre-installed applications — often derided as "bloatware"
or "craplets" — from its high-end TZ-series notebooks.
Earlier today, PC World reported that Sony would charge $50 for a
configuration option called "Fresh Start," which would not include the bloatware.
When contacted by Gadget Lab, a spokesperson for Sony said that the company will
now remove that charge.
"There will be no charge for Fresh Start," said the spokesman.
Like many notebook manufacturers, Sony preloads its notebooks with
anti-virus, anti-spyware and other useful software. Problems arise when such
applications swiftly expire, offer limited functionality, or result in poor
system performance--or when there is simply so much of it that it cannot be
easily removed.
Read more... |
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Windows Vista SP1
Flunks Out At Penn |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Windows Vista SP1 Is having a tough time getting into the Ivy
League.
University of Pennsylvania tech staffers are advising faculty and
students not to upgrade their computers to the new service pack for Microsoft's
Windows Vista operating system.
The school's Information Systems & Computing department said it
will support Vista SP1 on new systems where it's preinstalled, but added that it
"strongly recommends that all other users adopt a 'wait and see' attitude,"
according to a newly published department bulletin.
Penn's ISC department advised "continuing to use previous versions
of Windows XP and Windows Vista until after the initial bugs in SP1 are
identified and fixed."
Vista SP1 users have reported numerous glitches since the
operating system became widely available on Tuesday.
Read more... |
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State
Department Fires 2 For Looking At Obama's Passport File |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Two contract employees for the State Department have been fired
and a third disciplined for inappropriately looking at Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama's passport file, and the department is investigating
whether political or other motives were involved, senior officials said
Thursday.
Spokesman Sean McCormack said that for now it appears that nothing
other than "imprudent curiosity" was involved in three separate breaches of the
Illinois senator's personal information. It is not clear whether the employees
saw anything other than the basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age
and place of birth that is required when a person fills out a passport
application.
The breaches occurred on Jan. 9, Feb. 21 and March 14, and were
detected by internal State Department computer checks, McCormack said. The
department's top management officer, Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy, said
certain records, including those of high-profile people, are "flagged" with a
computer tag that tips off supervisors when someone tries to view the records
without a proper reason.
Read more... |
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US gov't
investigating PS3's Blu-ray |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
In February, HD DVD creator Toshiba officially called an armistice
in the high-definition video playback wars, saying it would cease production of
its format standard and let it fade into obscurity alongside Sony's Betamax.
While Toshiba's pullout defaulted the victory in the HD disc war to the Sony
spearheaded Blu-ray Disc Association, skirmishes surrounding the format linger
on.
The US International Trade Commission said this week that it will
be launching a patent infringement investigation of "certain short-wavelength
light emitting diodes, laser diodes, and products containing same." Parties
named in the investigation include Blu-ray creator Sony, along with 30 other top
electronics manufactures, including Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, Pioneer, and
Hitachi.
The investigation stems from a complaint filed by Gertrude Neumark
Rothschild on February 20. Rothschild claims diodes currently imported for use
in "hand-held mobile devices, instrument panels, billboards, traffic lights, HD
DVD players (e.g., Blu-ray Disc players), and data storage devices" infringe
upon one of her patents, and thus are in violation of section 337 of the Tariff
Act of 1930. As such, Rothschild is requesting that the US trade body issue
exclusion and cease and desist orders to all companies named in the
investigation.
Read more... |
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Microsoft To Release
XP SP3 Next Week |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Now that Windows Vista service pack 1 has been released, all eyes
have shifted to Microsoft's plans for Windows XP service pack 3, the final
package of updates for the trusty OS. And, according to at least one source,
Microsoft will roll out XP SP3 next Monday.
As of Wednesday afternoon Pacific time, the BitTorrent search
engine Mininova listed a 568.73 MB Windows XP Professional SP3 5503 file
available for download. The file, which had 112 seeds and 417 leeches, had been
downloaded 2083 times since it was posted Tuesday, according to the listing.
According to the file description notes, Microsoft will release
the final version of XP SP3 on March 24, but the 5503 test build passes all
Windows Genuine Advantage checks and is able to download Windows updates that
previous XP SP3 builds weren't able to, which suggests that it could, in fact,
be the final RTM build.
When Microsoft released Vista SP1 in February, the final RTM code
was identical to the Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) 1 Refresh 2 test build
that was released to a group of 15,000 testers two weeks earlier.
Read more... |
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Verizon, AT&T Big
Winners In 700 MHz Auction |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Verizon Wireless and AT&T, as expected, won most of the spectrum
in the FCC's 700 MHz auction, according to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
Verizon Wireless bid $9.6 billion to grab a large block of
valuable spectrum, bolstering its nationwide network and positioning it to roll
out next-generation, high-speed wireless infrastructure known as LTE. AT&T bid
$6.6 billion to grab spectrum that will supplement the 700-MHz spectrum it
purchased before the auction from Aloha Partners for $2.5 billion.
According to an analysis by The Associated Press, the two telecom
companies bid more than $16 billion, constituting the vast majority of the
overall $19.6 billion that was bid in the FCC auction. With Verizon Wireless and
AT&T dominating the auction so completely, hopes that the auction would allow
for the creation of a new nationwide wireless service provider were dashed.
However, Martin said a large enough percentage of the new licenses went to other
companies that competition in the wireless market would increase.
Read more... |
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Nokia's "Comes With
Music" now comes with EMI |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
EMI is looking to become the second major label to provide music
to Nokia's unlimited subscription download service called "Comes With Music."
Announced last December, Comes With Music would give owners of compatible Nokia
handsets access to unlimited music downloads for one year. Universal was the
first label to sign up at the time of Nokia's announcement, and EMI will be
another welcome ally in the industry's renewed movement towards music
subscription models.
We took a look at Nokia's Comes With Music last fall and found it
to be a mixed bag. Due to launch in the second half of 2008, Comes With Music
will pay the labels a reported one-time fee of $80 per compatible handset in
exchange for a one-year, unlimited music download subscription account. Nokia
has not released details as to whether this fee will be rolled into the cost of
a device or if it will seek iPhone-like revenue sharing from wireless carriers
to pay the bills.
Read more... |
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Ubisoft Acquires Tom
Clancy License |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Ubisoft announced yesterday that it has purchased the perpetual
rights to Tom Clancy's media empire, including videogame, film, and book options
on the famed military author's future works. Previously, Ubisoft had made
royalty payments for the use of the Clancy license, which is most notably
associated with the publisher's Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell
franchises, but the acquisition gives Ubisoft use of the license without
additional fees.
According to the press release, Ubisoft's net cash position for
the 2007-08 fiscal year will drop from 150 million Euros to 130 million Euros,
indicating an initial payment of 20 million Euros. Additional payments for the
license will be made over the next two fiscal years, and Wedbush Morgan analyst
Michael Pachter told Level Up that the total purchase price looks to be 60
million Euros ($93 million USD) in cash, with an additional 20 million Euros
($31 million USD) as an earn-out (assumedly paid as the acquired license reaches
profitability).
Read more... |
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Home Integrators
Approve Of Blu-ray Profile 2.0 for PS3 |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
This week's news that Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) gaming console
will be the first Blu-ray DVD player to receive Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0
(BD-LIVE), a feature that enables gamers to download extra content via the
Internet, was greeted with approval from home integrators.
"Having the format war end is a very good thing for the industry,"
said Wireless Home president Matt Peters. For the Naples, Fla-based home
integration company, Peters said it's important to be able to confidently
recommend the format that will bring highest resolution content available today.
"In terms of the interactive elements available through network
products like the PlayStation 3 offering, it's too early to tell how influential
that will be," he said. "But as we're watching the trends in the industry,
internet-connected devices are likely to be competing more regularly with online
downloads as a format."
Read more... |
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Activision to bring
"Guitar Hero" to Nintendo DS |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Activision said on Thursday it will release a version of its
"Guitar Hero" video game for Nintendo's DS, bringing its blockbuster musical
series to the most popular handheld gaming device.
"Guitar Hero: On Tour" will include a plug-in accessory and mock
guitar-pick to let players tap out notes on the device's screen in time with
songs from bands like Nirvana, No Doubt and OK Go, the company said.
Activision said the game will come out this summer, but it did not
disclose the price. A typical DS game costs $30, but the inclusion of a hardware
accessory may push the price of "On Tour" over that.
"Guitar Hero" games for home consoles like Microsoft Corp's Xbox
360 have cost $80-$100, more than the $50-$60 that is standard, due to
Activision's practice of bundling a guitar-shaped controller with the software.
Read more... |
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Apple pushes Windows
Safari via iTunes updater |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
As Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs promised last summer, Apple has begun
leveraging its dominance in the music download business by pushing the Windows
version of its Safari Web browser to iTunes and QuickTime users running XP or
Vista.
Starting Tuesday, when Apple updated Safari to Version 3.1, the
company has been posting the browser as a download in Apple Software Update, the
utility packaged with iTunes and QuickTime for Windows. Joe Wilcox, who writes
the "Microsoft Watch" blog, was the first to notice the behavior. "The Apple
updater offered installation of new software, not something that had been there
before. Whoa," said Wilcox.
Computerworld has confirmed that the update utility offers Safari
3.1 to Windows machines that do not have the browser currently installed.
Typically, updaters only notify users of -- or in some cases download and
install -- updates to existing software, and are rarely used to seed new
software.
Read more... |
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Amazon Chief
Apologizes for Lack of Kindles |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Visitors to the Amazon.com home page Thursday morning were greeted
by an apologetic message from Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos , who offered a
mea culpa for the shortages of his company's Kindle e-book reader.
According to Bezos, customers have had to wait up to six weeks to
receive the Kindle, which has been shipped on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bezos said the company has been "scrambling" to increase its manufacturing
capacity ever since, something that I'm sure a book retailer has had little
experience in. In any event, the company was still scrambling back in January,
when it acquired Audible.com.
"We hope to be able to announce to you within the next few weeks
that we're back in stock and when you order a Kindle, we'll ship it to you the
that very same day," Bezos wrote. "That's our goal: order today, and we ship
today. Until then, customers can order now, and they'll be first in line.
Read more... |
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Harry Potter",
"Chocolate Rain" win YouTube awards |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
A puppet show version of "Harry Potter" featuring a naked
Dumbledore and an enigmatic song called "Chocolate Rain" by a Minnesota graduate
student were among the winners of YouTube's second annual video awards, the Web
site said on Friday.
Tay Zonday, a 25-year-old baritone PhD student in American
Studies, won best music with his original song "Chocolate Rain," a rhythmic
electric keyboard-backed number whose curious lyrics could be a political
statement -- or humorous nonsense.
The song, one of about 30 videos Zonday has posted, has been
covered by singer John Mayer and rockers Green Day, and he has performed it live
on Jimmy Kimmel's late night talk show.
Read more... |
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Apple Patches 93
Holes In Mega Update |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Apple's own "Patch Tuesday" came in like a lion. In what was
easily the biggest update in a while, Apple released a massive set of patches on
Tuesday afternoon fixing more than 90 vulnerabilities in almost every component
of its operating systems.
To add to the load, Apple updated its Safari browser earlier today
for both Mac and Windows, covering a total of 13 vulnerabilities.
Altogether, Tuesday's patches fixed bugs in both the client and
server editions of Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard.
The Leopard bundle included fixes for AFP Client, Apache,
Application Firewall, ClamAV, CUPS, macs, Help Viewer, Image Raw, Kerberos,
mDNSResponder, OpenSSH, pax archive, PHP, Podcast Producer, Preview, Printing,
System Configuration, UDF, Wiki Server and X11.
Read more... |
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Sequoia Threatens
Lawsuit Over E-Voting Machine Review |
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Tech Junkeez Latest Tech News
Sequoia Voting Systems has threatened possible legal action if a
Princeton University professor independently analyzes the company's electronic
voting machines for a New Jersey county.
Union County leaders requested a review after paper records
showing the number of voters that cast ballots in each party didn't match the
machine's printouts.
The company said this week that it will "vigorously protect and
defend its intellectual property and enforcement of established licensing
agreements." Sequoia released two statements explaining its stance on
independent reviews of its e-voting machines after Princeton University
professor Ed Felton received an e-mail warning him of legal action if he
followed through with a request by New Jersey officials to examine Sequoia's
e-voting machines.
The company said that it allows top-to-bottom reviews of e-voting
machines within the framework of its license rights and according to
arrangements between Sequoia and governmental agencies legally authorized to
conduct reviews.
Read more... |
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