Wii, PlayStation outsell XboX 360 in May
Sony eeks out another win over Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console in the month of May, while Nintendo reigns supreme with Wii and DS sales. NPD figures for the month of May show PlayStation 3 outsold Xbox 360. A mere 22k separated the two consoles, hardly putting a dent in Microsoft’s huge lead over the battle for total sales. 208k PS3 consoles were purchased last month and 186k Xbox 360s were snatched up by gamers. To date, 19 million Xbox 360s have sold worldwide compared against 13 million PlayStation 3s.
Unsurprisingly, both consoles were obliterated by Wii at 675k. Even Nintendo DS performed better than either PS3 or Xbox 360, generating more sales than both consoles combined with 452k handhelds sold. Nintendo pushed through over a million game systems during May, which nearly doubles PS3, Xbox 360, and PSP sales combined. Counting PlayStation 2 sales and Nintendo still boasted larger sales. Hand-in-hand with Wii and DS were solid game sales. Seven of the top ten selling games in May were on either platform. Mario Kart Wii took second place with 787k copies in a photo-finish behind the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV with 871k. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of GTA IV were the only games to make the list for those consoles.
Redesigned MySpace to be introduced next week
MySpace will unveil next week a large-scale redesign that will alter major components of the social-networking site, like its home page, navigation scheme, search engine and video player. On Wednesday, MySpace users will see the first phase of the redesign, which has been in the works for the past six months, according to the company. MySpace, the world’s most popular social-networking site, expects the changes to boost user engagement by making the site easier to navigate. MySpace is routinely criticized by users and observers for a layout that many consider visually strident and messy. Its members have many options to alter their profile pages, such as changing their background color, adding hyperactive animations, using fonts of many sizes and colors and plastering them with videos and photo slideshows.
As part of the redesign plans, MySpace has conducted surveys, performed usability tests and gathered focus groups. In addition to revamping the home page, MySpace is also changing the profile editor to make it easier for members to design and decorate their profile pages. The profile pages will also undergo renovations. Meanwhile, the search engine interface is getting a more streamlined layout, an enhanced relevancy algorithm and a tabbed results page including categories like people, MySpace site, Web, music and video. In addition, the video player is gaining new controls and support for Flash 9 full-screen mode. Facebook is also busy these days toiling away at a major redesign of its member profile pages, which it has previewed and which it hopes to roll out at some point this month.
Nintendo sues Nyko for wireless nunchuck
Nintendo is suing peripheral maker Nyko over a third-party wireless Wii nunchuck controller, Bloomberg reports. At a glance, Nyko’s wireless Kama Nunchuck (pictured) appears plenty different from Nintendo’s first-party Nunchuck controller, simply because Nyko’s offering is wireless, and Nintendo’s isn’t. But Nintendo believes that Nyko’s wireless Nunchuck infringes on its patents, nonetheless. According to Bloomberg, Nintendo is suing Nyko, claiming that the peripheral maker’s controller “wholly appropriates the novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller.”
Nintendo said Nyko has infringed on two design patents and its trademarks. The company is seeking an injunction on sales of the wireless Nunchuck and cash compensation. Nyko rep said that the company has “not knowingly violated anyone’s intellectual property,” and is currently looking into the claims. Best Buy’s website advertises the Kama Wireless Nunchuck for $35, while Nintendo’s first-party wired offering sells for $20. Nyko also sells a wireless adapter for the first-party Wii Nunchuck.
Intel slows down USB 3.0 development
Intel is trying to nip rumors of any feet dragging on a new USB 3.0 specification. In a blog post by the company’s Nick Knupffer, the company differentiates its efforts in making a host controller versus the effort of the USB 3.0 Standards Body. Knupffer adds that Intel will make the host controller standards available in the second half of 2008 royalty-free or in his words “free, gratis, unpaid, zero dollars, free of charge, at no cost, on the house.” USB 3.0 will be a new higher-speed wired interface that several motherboard and chipset makers are just chomping at the bit to implement. Knupffer says there are two separate development efforts that some reporters seem to be confused about. The main USB 3.0 specification is being developed by the USB 3.0 promotion group which includes major companies like HP, Intel, MSFT, NEC, NXP, and TI. This spec should be available in the second half of 2008.
Intel is working on its own host controller and specification something which Knupffer says is costing the company loads of money. “Think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours,” he said – ok maybe he’s exaggerating just a tad on that one. He calls this specification a sort of “Dummies Guide” on how to build a compatible USB 3.0 piece of silicon. While some have accused Intel of holding back on this specification, Knupffer says the company just wants to make sure the specification is robust enough to prevent any major hardware conflicts. He adds that the entire spec will be available for free later in 2008.
Firefox 3 release date set: June 17
Mozilla has set June 17 as the official release day for Firefox 3. The introduction of the new browser marks the beginning of a race for the title of the fastest browser on the market. With more than one million people already pledged to download Firefox 3 on the first day of its release, Firefox 3 could set a Guinness World Record as the most downloaded software with the first 24 hours of launch. Mozilla has set next Tuesday, June 17, as the official release day for the upgraded Firefox 3 browser, following months of beta testing and release candidates that have been publicly available to users over the past few weeks. Firefox 3 will be shipped for both Mac and Windows on the same day.
Firefox 3 has already won critical acclaim for its reliability and noticeable performance improvements. It Besides code optimization, Firefox 3 brings numerous new features, including one-click bookmarking and tag support in bookmarks, smart location bar, the ability to save and restore browser sessions, smart zoom that enlarges all web page content (not just text) and significantly improved protection against phishing attacks and malware. Mozilla claims that Firefox 3 has 15,000 tweaks and enhancements when compared to Firefox 2. The official release of Firefox appears to be also launching the beginning the battle for the fastest browser on the market. The JavaScript engine seems to be the primary battlefield for now, as the scripting interpreter optimization directly translates to user-visible speed gains in Web 2.0 sites and Web applications that run faster and show more a responsive user interface.
Microsoft and Apple issue critical patches
Microsoft and Apple released a batch of critical security fixes within 24 hours of each other, patching a variety of components including the Internet Explorer browser, Bluetooth services and the QuickTime media player. Three Microsoft patches were rated critical, the highest threat ranking in Microsoft’s four-tier scoring system. One purged IE of cross-domain and memory corruption vulnerabilities. Users could fall prey to them by visiting trusted websites that have been compromised by attackers. The Sans Internet Storm Center is urging people to apply the patch immediately, because details of the cross-domain bug have been public since March. A second critical patch from Microsoft fixes a bug in the Windows implementation of Bluetooth. An attacker can use it to execute malicious code by flooding a vulnerable system with a large number of Bluetooth device queries. This would be particularly useful for pwning a machine while in use at an airport or coffee shop, it seems.
Microsoft also issued a critical fix for buggy DirectX components. Not to be outdone, Apple on Monday fixed five vulnerabilities in QuickTime that allowed miscreants to execute malicious code by tricking users into opening booby-trapped pictures, video and sound files. The patch is available for both Macs and Windows machines, and like the Microsoft updates, should be installed as soon as possible. To our disappointment, today’s Patch Tuesday from Microsoft failed to neutralize a blended threat that confronts Windows users who browse sites with Apple’s Safari browser. Two weeks ago, Microsoft warned users to stop using Safari until the threat is finally removed.
3 biggest ISPs unite to fight child porn
Three big Internet service providers said yesterday they plan to block access to child porn Web sites and newsgroups after an undercover probe by the New York State attorney general’s office found numerous cases of explicit child sex on the Web. At a news conference announcing the initiative, officials from Time Warner Cable, Sprint and Verizon also announced they were giving more than $1 million to combat the spread of child porn. The three companies are among the nation’s largest service providers, with several million customers, said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. He acknowledged that two other large Internet service providers hadn’t signed the agreement but he wouldn’t identify them at the news conference.
Acknowledging that efforts to stop child Internet porn face challenges, Cuomo said that his office is shifting strategy, aiming at pornography suppliers rather than customers. Jeffrey Zimmerman, a senior vice president for Time Warner Cable, said the company expects to start blocking access to the newsgroups by the end of the month. Representatives for Verizon and Sprint didn’t give a time frame. Cuomo said that under the agreement the companies will take down child porn Web sites when they learn of them through complaints or investigation, including a directory of questionable Web sites identified by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which will receive some of the money being put up by the companies.
Apple previews new version Mac OS, Snow Leopard
Apple surprised many today when it announced it would be previewing the next version of the operating system that runs on its Mac line of desktops and notebooks, Mac OS X 10.6, aka “Snow Leopard”. Despite questionable name choice, in its early stages it shows a lot of potential as an even more stable operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, featuring better 64-bit computing (a theoretical 16 TB, yes terabyte, of RAM is to be supported), full Microsoft Exchange support in its Address Book and Mail applications, improved multicore support through what Apple calls “Grand Central”, and a technology called OpenCL that puts more processing to the graphics processing unit. Apple also promises an improved media experience through QuickTime X.
“We have delivered more than a thousand new features to OS X in just seven years and Snow Leopard lays the foundation for thousands more,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “In our continued effort to deliver the best user experience, we hit the pause button on new features to focus on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system.” More details available at official Snow Leopard promo website.
Omnia, competition for iPhone from Samsung
Samsung Electronics South Korea released on early Monday preview details on the company’s new smartphone, before the mania of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference begins in California. The Samsung Omnia (SGH-i900) is similar in looks and function to the Samsung Instinct (SPH-M800), but with a few more bells and whistles. For starters, it sounds like it has a very promising camera. With five megapixels and anti-shake technology, this may be the first camera on a phone that produces pictures you would actual think of printing, not just posting to Facebook. This is an improvement over the 2-megapixel cameras on both the first-generation iPhone and on the Samsung Instinct.
The touch-screen smartphone, which runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and features Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Opera 9.5 as its Web browser, will also have Wi-Fi. That’s something the Instinct also lacks. Like the Instinct, the Omnia has visual voice mail, 3G capability, Bluetooth, an FM radio, and GPS functionality. The smartphone, of course, also doubles as a music player and, with 16GB, will be able to hold up to 4,000 songs or 100 minutes of video, according to Samsung. More details on the smartphone’s specs will follow when the Omnia (SGH-i900) is officially unveiled on June 17 at Communicasia, the 2008 Singapore Expo. The Omnia (SGH-i900) will become available in Southeast Asia first and then be launched to other markets over the second half of 2008, according to Samsung.
Opera 9.5 with anti-malware protection
On Friday Opera announced that version 9.5 of the browser (download Opera 9.5 beta for Windows or Mac) will include built-in anti-malware protection from Haute Secure. This is, of course, to counter the anti-malware protection built into Firefox 3, currently available as a final release candidate . Firefox uses data from Google and StopBadware to block a site before it loads on your browser. Haute Secure counters that its offering is better because it relies upon a community of dedicated users to inform the product when to block and when not. In testing at CNET, the latest version of Haute Secure still misses some recently published phishing sites, while Firefox 3 RC2 blocked them immediately.
How did that happen? Haute Secure explains that the APIs provided by anti-phishing sites such as PhishTank won’t update until the site is confirmed to be bad, whereas Google can make that determination on its own. Still, Haute Secure prevents malicious sites (as opposed to mere phishing sites) from loading, and provides more information about those sites than does Firefox 3. Haute Secure was founded by a group of former Microsoft employees, and its flagship product came out of beta in March.
Apple is world’s #3 smartphone maker now
Apple has staked a strong claim in the smartphone market. And it’s a good space to latch onto, as the worldwide smartphone market grew more than 29 percent and the North American smartphone market doubled in the first quarter of 2008 compared to a year ago, according to new research from Gartner. Apple, Cupertino, Calif., is the No. 3 vendor of smartphones, selling 1.7 million units worldwide to grab a 5.3 percent share of the market, Gartner said. Apple has built that share up from nothing, offering no smartphone in its portfolio until the debut of its iPhone in June, 2007. In the U.S., Apple is the No. 2 vendor, grabbing 20 percent of the market. Still, the vendor has a ways to go if it wants to hit No. 1 worldwide. Nokia, Espoo, Finland, holds that spot, selling 14.6 million units in the first quarter and grabbing 45.2 percent of the market. Research in Motion, Waterloo, Ontario, sits at No. 2, selling 4.3 million units to grab 13.4 percent of the market.
Globally, buyers snapped up 32.2 million smartphones in the first quarter, an increase of 29.3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2007. In North America, unit sales more than doubled to 7.3 million. “Despite economic concerns, the smartphone market continued to expand in the United States, driven by heavy advertising and strong marketing promotions as more devices reached mass market price points,” said Hugues De La Vergne, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner, in a statement. “North American operators are giving these devices strong support, as they provide higher average revenue per unit (ARPU). We expect operators to continue to make these devices the focus of 2008 promotions.”
Google lets users experiment with Gmail
Google invited members of the press to its main campus in Mountain View today to unveil Gmail Labs. Gmail Labs is essentially a stage for Google employees to develop new features for Gmail under the public eye. Starting at 6pm PT tonight, all Gmail users in the US and UK will see a new tab in the settings area called “Labs”. The tab will show a selection of beta features, such as “Pictures in Chat”, which (unsurprisingly) puts portraits in chat sessions, and “Mouse Gestures”, which allows you to navigate Gmail using mouse gestures. After testing these features, users will be able to submit feedback directly to the developers themselves. Google will decide to incorporate some of these features into Gmail as default enhancements based on the feedback and total usage of each. This makes potential beta testers out of the millions of Gmail users out there.
Gmail product manager Keith Coleman says that any Google employee can add their creations to this tab once they go through a simple code check. Pretty much any idea will fly, even recreating the game Snake within Gmail, or creating a fun feature that locks users out from Gmail for 15 minutes so they can take a break. Developers are given full access to the entire Gmail code base, so they can modify almost anything (although Coleman avoided the question of whether a feature could be developed that removed ads). Google has traditionally tested feature additions to Gmail within the company by making them available first to other employees. This is the first time they’ve opened the testing process and brought in outsiders on such a large scale.
Warner Cable sued by Los Angeles City
In the two years since becoming the major cable provider in the Los Angeles area, Time Warner Cable has drawn sometimes colorful criticism from its subscribers. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City attorney, Rocky Delgadillo sued the company in Los Angeles County Superior Court accusing it of engaging in “unlawful, unfair and fraudulent business acts and practices and deceptive advertising.” The suit says that the company has subjected subscribers to delayed repair appointments, deceptive pricing and Internet outages. “Time Warner Cable must be held accountable for illegally deceiving and ripping off its subscribers,” said Mr. Delgadillo in a statement on Wednesday.
Mr. Delgadillo is seeking $2,500 in civil penalties for each violation. A spokesman for Time Warner Cable said that the company disagreed that it had “misled customers in any way.” Time Warner’s Los Angeles area subscriber base grew from 360,000 to about 2 million after the acquisition, Mr. Dudly said. Since then, the company has done an extensive renovation and upgrade of the system it inherited. “We now receive fewer complaints than we did before the acquisition,” said Mr. Dudley. “I think that shows some substantial progress.” Message boards for Los Angeles area residents rating the city businesses are filled with comments complaining about botched cable services. I guess the yesterday’s news about capping the bandwith by Warner was latest impulse which may start an avalanche of similar complaints.
Time Warner to charge extra $1 per GB
An announcement from Time Warner Cable has stated that they are planning to charge consumers $1 for each gigabyte of content over their allotment. This testing on metered Internet access will start in Beaumont, Texas. Time Warner Cable is a cable operator in the U.S. dealing with the development and launches of innovative video, data and voice services. The company also delivers advanced products and services such as video-on-demand, high-definition television, digital video recorders, enhanced TV features, high-speed data, and Digital Phone. The move has immediately drawn criticisms as it is seen as an abuse of regional monopoly. However, Time Warner Cable has maintained that this type of charging would actually help a majority of users since this would discourage the problem of 5 percent of customers using half of the capacity on local cable lines.
In an interview to AP Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable’s executive vice president of advanced technology, said, “We think it’s the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure.” Reuters meanwhile reported that Time Warner Cable has new designs to provide multiple levels of service that would start at $29.95 per month for speeds of 768 Kbps, with a limit on downloads of 5 GB. This limit would amount to more than 340,000 e-mails, 170 hours of online games or downloading more than 1,300 songs. At the high end, customers could pay $54.90 a month for download speeds of 15 Mbps and a limit of 40 GB, which amounts to 124 hours of standard-definition videos or downloading over 11,000 songs.
PlayStation 3 games with in-game dynamic ads
Sony says it will now start running ads in PlayStation 3 games. Sony has reached an agreement with marketing firm IGA Worldwide to provide dynamic in-game ads for the PlayStation 3. Shortly after the announcement, IGA Worldwide announced a deal making IGA Worldwide the exclusive ad provider for PS3 games developed and published by industry giant EA. Games most likely to be effected by this deal are EA Sports games as well as racing games like Need for Speed and Burnout. The move by Sony is most likely to counteract Microsoft’s buy out of advertising firm Massive and then creating a similar exclusive deal providing advertising for Xbox 360 games.
Here comes real ConvertXtoDVD competition. Pegasys’s TMPGEnc DVD Author allows you to convert any video file to DVD. But it doesn’t stops there; you can add subtitles, edit video, create menus (from templates, or you can make your own), simulate DVD, plus much more. Additionally you can edit/author you movies into newest DivX format (DivX Authoring). If you need more features than ConvertXtoDVD can offer, give DVD Author a try.
Do you have a lot of movies and you don’t know how to catalog them? Or when you want to watch a movie you don’t know it’s rating… or if you will like that movie at all… in that case Movie Label 2009 can help you. 
This application is made by Code|Aero Technologies & released by Invisible. This is all you need to arange your favorite movies. So I hope you will like it, and put in into good use. All files are checked with Virus Total. So no worries…. your PC wont get infected.
If you don’t want to bother with several security products to protect your PC (firewall, antivirus, antispyware and so on) try this all-in-one suite.
Total Uninstall is windows uninstall replacement tool, and according to some people/reviews it’s one of the best of its kind.
Systweak’s Advanced Vista Optimizer 2008 is tool for optimizing your Vista OS (but, it works on XP too, according to publisher’s description). There are a lot of options & tweaks to choose from to make your Vista (or XP) more smoothly…
Techsmith’s SnagIt is popular tool for taking screenshots on your Win OS. It’s more powerful than usual “Print Screen” command build in Win. You can have better control over the screenshots you take. ZWT came with newest 9.0.0 version which have redesigned user interface with a lot of 
CFF group released Ashampoo’s tool for fighting against spyware and other malicious software. 
Cowon America has improved version 7 JetAudio plus. This version is relesed by Core. JetAudio is another multimedia player which includes a little more options like converting, broadcasting, ripping, burning and more.
