Choosing the right monitor for one's computer is one of the most important decisions a person can make when purchasing a new system. The monitor will influence your vision and will allow you to display more natural colors, which in the end provides for a better working environment, since they generate less stress on the eyes. On the other hand, when watching a movie, most users will want vibrant colors and high-level details, so they can enjoy fast action scenes and beautiful landscapes.

Asus is one of the most important hardware manufacturers in the world and it also provides a high quality LCD line. Its latest addition to the LCD series includes 4 different models. The VH192 has a 18.5-inch diagonal, the VH222 and VH226 use a 21.5-inch diagonal, and, of course, we have the 23.6-inch VH242. As you can see, the displays don't really follow the standard 19, 22, 24 inch rules we are used to. That's because PC monitor manufacturers have finally come to their senses and are now releasing 16:9 AR monitors, which can map HD 720p and 1080p signals 1:1.

All the new displays come with built-in speakers and HDMI inputs, except for the little VH192, which lacks HDMI (poor thing). The little brother is even more dampened by the 720p standard, while all the others can make use of the Full HD standard. They all feature VGA and DVI inputs. You might wonder what are the differences between the VH222 and VH226. All of the other new displays have a 5ms response time, while the VH226 provides a 2ms average response time.

The displays have a mate screen and a black glossy frame. There's no webcam or other features included, since these type of monitors are mostly aimed at hardcore gamers or movie addicts. Prices and availability are yet to be announced.

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The Prince of Persia franchise is one of the oldest and most popular platforming series of games out there, with its roots tracing back to 1989, when we followed the adventures of the first Prince. Now, in 2008, the franchise, which was bought by Ubisoft, has seen its latest installment, a completely fresh and new Prince of Persia game.

After the Sands of Time trilogy, Ubisoft thought that a fresh vision on the franchise was required in order to make the series more interesting in the eyes of people who hadn't played the first games. With a completely and different art style and with some very intriguing gameplay mechanics, the new Prince of Persia was received quite well by critics, who praised it for the compelling story and the great levels, but considered that the game almost played itself, and didn't really make the player believe that he was in control.

Ben Mattes, the producer of this game, talked with IGN regarding the innovations the release brought to the franchise, and the fact that most of the reviewers didn't really appreciate them as they should have. Mattes complained that although his game struggled to deliver something new in order to please the public, the level of appreciation wasn't very high.

“For years we've all been reading complaints about sequels and companies churning out carbon copies of proven formulas without focusing on innovation or taking risks. We tried to really embrace this challenge on PoP. We set out to keep a few core fundamentals but to re-imagine everything else, discarding some very well entrenched ideas not only about the brand but also about videogames in general. What surprises me is how little these high level risks seem to be noticed and appreciated as attempts to shake up the industry and push things forward. Perhaps I'm an idealist, but I think perhaps I was expecting a few more virtual pats-on-the-back for our attempts to do something new.”

Although Prince of Persia brought quite a lot of new things, the game wasn't a major breakthrough. Even though the new art style and gameplay mechanics were pretty innovative, it still had glitches and some levels were very poorly designed. Let's hope that the Ubisoft team will do something more innovative with the next game in the series.

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While end-users are still to see the full power of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX295 and GTX 285, rumors of new 40nm-based GeForce graphics cards have already made their way on the Internet. The Santa Clara, California-based chip maker is now expected to debut its first 40nm-based graphics cards as early as the second quarter of the upcoming year. In addition, by the end of 2009 the green company will have an entire range of new graphics cards for all market segments.

According to a recent news-article on vr-zone, NVIDIA's GT212 graphics processor is slated for release in Q2 2009, while the company's GT214, GT216 and GT218 GPUs are to become available as early as Q3 2009. The first will be designed for the enthusiast and performance market, consequently replacing the manufacturer's dual-GPU GTX295 in the highest-performance market segment. The other GPU models will be designed to compete in the mainstream and value market segments. What's even more interesting is that by Q4 2009, NVIDIA is said to be planning a new high-performance card, which will be based on a GT300 GPU and meant to replace said GT212.

Sometime in Q3 2009, NVIDIA is also preparing to release a new integrated graphics processor, the IGT209, which will power the products that are now based on the company's GeForce 9400 and GeForce 9300 IGPs.

If the details that have been reported by vr-zone are anything close to real, this means that NVIDIA's latest GeForce graphics cards will have a relatively short lifespan. Said GPUs are to replace the company's current GeForce lineup in the enthusiast, performance, mainstream and value market segments.

According to additional info, the Q4 GT300 is expected to debut with support for Microsoft's upcoming DirectX 11 API. Furthermore, the GT216 and GT218 are expected to provide 4 and 6 desktop SKU, respectively.

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The nicest boss of all was Arthur D. Levinson, chief of Genentech, who got a 93 percent approval rating. He leads the Silicon Valley biotech company with a “decision-making structure that intrinsically forces authority downward to the lowest possible level providing many opportunities to exercise and test one’s judgment,” a strategic planner at Genentech wrote.

Overall, 6 of the top 10 bosses on the “nice” list were from Silicon Valley, including Steve Jobs of Apple, with a 90 percent approval rating; Eric E. Schmidt of Google, with 88 percent; Jen-Hsun Huang of Nvidia, with 80 percent; Shantanu Narayen of Adobe, with 79 percent; and Dan Warmenhoven of NetApp, with 78 percent.

Despite a lousy year for financial firms, two Wall Street bosses made the “nice” list, including Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, with an 88 percent approval rating, and Kenneth Chenault of American Express, with 80 percent approval. A.G. Lafley of Procter & Gamble and Ian Davis of McKinsey rounded out the top 10.

The worst chief executive of the year was Steve Odland of Office Depot, according to Glassdoor.com’s reviewers. He had an 80 percent disapproval rating. “Fire Odland,” wrote a department manager. “The corporate office in Delray Beach, FL is asleep at the wheel and frankly incompetent. Maybe if some of them would listen to or maybe even spend a few hours in a store they would understand their own business a little better.”

Anthony LaFetra, chief of Rain Bird, an irrigation company, was second-worst, with a 75 percent disapproval rating. “Your employees, both short and long term, are voting with their feet and exiting in a steady stream,” wrote one employee in an open memo to management. “In what delusional alternate universe do you exist where this level of turnover and loss of legacy knowledge is good for any company?”

But tech companies dominated the bad-boss list, taking seven of the remaining spots in the top 10 — hardly a badge of honor for an industry that likes to boast about its great workplace culture.

Randy Falco of AOL received a 68 percent disapproval rating, and Greg Brown of Motorola and Ron Rittenmeyer of EDS (now part of Hewlett-Packard) were close behind. Kevin W. Sharer of Amgen, Lynn R. Blodgett of Affiliated Computer Services, Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems and John Donahoe, who replaced Meg Whitman this year as the head of eBay, also made the list.

Rounding out the hall of shame was James R. Pouliot of CSAA Inter-Insurance Bureau.

Glassdoor.com went live in June 2008. It was founded and initially financed by Robert Hohman, Tim Besse and Rich Barton, all of whom came from Expedia, which Mr. Barton started. Since then, Benchmark Capital, where Mr. Barton is a venture partner, led a $3 million round of financing and Sutter Hill Ventures led a $6.5 million round.

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If you're a social network fan, then this is a good news for you. If you're an iPhone user, then you should know that Facebook 2.0 has been released and, more importantly, that it is now available for download at the iTunes App Store.

Let's see what this new version brings. First off, now you can get notifications directly on you iPhone, and you're also able to get friend requests, full news feeds, and news feed comments. Another thing that you can now do is to view your entire inbox and photo capabilities. Also, you can check up on how all your Finance major friends are doing from the road, just by using your trusted iPhone. Other features include people search, photo tagging, the full “Mini-Feed” combined with “The Wall,” and much more.

Now, using Facebook from your iPhone, keeping in touch with your friends, and even making new ones, becomes really easy. Users will also be able to share information and, thanks to Facebook Chat, to start a conversation with others. Aside from the option of seeing friends’ latest photos and status updates, now, users can also upload their mobile photos to Facebook at any time just by using the iPhone.

For those of you who are not familiar with Facebook, you should know that it is a popular social networking website, launched in 2004 and that enables users to join the network, connect and interact with other people. They can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles so that their friends constantly know how they are. It’s not just once that Facebook has been compared with Hi5, a similar website.

If you have an Apple iPhone and you are not a member of Facebook yet, this might be a good moment to create an account, since you’re guaranteed to have lots of fun using this service, which, to cap it all off, is also free of charge. If you’re already a Facebook user and have been, until now, rather frustrated with the downsides of the mobile version, then you’re welcome to check out the latest updates and benefit from them.

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LittleBigPlanet is probably one of the most innovative games that have appeared this holiday season. It provided a unique twist to the usual puzzle platformer genre, enabling players to create their own levels via the unique tools that were made available by its developer, Media Molecule.

Also, as Sony, its publisher, considers that the game will get better over time, the two companies have teamed up and now offer weekly batches of DLC (Downloadable Content) in the form of costumes for the SackBoy and SackGirl characters or packs that contain new material for the Level Creator.

Such is the case with the free Christmas pack that we reported about earlier, and which is available up until January 8, when it will be removed from the offers on the PlayStation Store. Now, as an even more special Christmas gift, Media Molecule has just announced that two Metal Gear Solid-themed content packs will appear on the PlayStation Store today in North America and tomorrow in other territories, like Japan.

After waiting for quite some time, players will finally be able to buy special costumes for their SackBoy or Girl characters. The costumes available will be Solid Snake, the main character of the MGS tactical stealth games, Meryl Silverburgh, Screaming Mantis and Raiden. Players who want to dress up their characters in their costumes can pay 5.99 dollars for the whole pack, or purchase them individually by paying 1.99 dollars on the PlayStation Store.

But that's not the only MGS pack that will appear for LBP, as the developers have worked together with Konami, the creator of the MGS franchise, and will release a very special Premium Level Pack filled with lots of goodies. From the fact that it will contain all the costumes, plus a special Gurlokovich Soldier one, it will also come with a variety of new resources for the Level creator, so players can make their own MGS-themed levels. 72 stickers, 18 objects, 12 materials and 10 decorations will be available in this pack, but, as opposed to the Christmas level pack, which only contained resources, this one will also bring new developer-created levels.

That's right, 5 new Story Levels and 1 new Challenge Level were custom made by the Media Molecule developers, together with Konami, in order to bring gamers the full LBP MGS experience. Along with these new levels, new music resources will be made available, such as custom tracks and objects, but, as a first, SackBoy will also wield a paint gun, dubbed the Paintinator, which he will use to take down his enemies, like in MGS.

All of these things, including 12 new trophies, will be available for the very low price of just 5.99 dollars. A true Christmas gift for any Metal Gear Solid and LittleBigPlanet fan, which will certainly have a happy holiday season.

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According to the latest news on the web, Advanced Micro Devices will make its upcoming Phenom II Deneb-based processor available for distributors in the last days of this year. Moreover, it seems that the Phenom II 940 at 3GHz and Phenom II 920 at 2.8GHz will start selling in the week beginning on December 29th.

The Sunnyvale company already announced its plan to launch its Phenom II chips at CES 2009, plus the new processors would become available for purchase starting with the second week of the next year. The chips the company will launch at CES are compatible with AMD's older AM2+ motherboards, a feature meant to help their adoption on the market.

Moreover, the chip manufacturer also plans to release Phenom II 9x5 versions of the Deneb core about a month or so after the initial launch of the new series. These processors, instead, are said to be compatible with the AM3 chipset and to feature support for DDR3. The best feature of these chips is that they will also be compatible with AM2+ motherboards.

It seems that the Phenom II chips are finally turning into reality and they are expected to help AMD regain some of its popularity. As previously stated, the chips bring along a lot of performance capabilities, while also being said to feature smaller prices and better overclocking capabilities than the Intel Nehalem products, their direct competitors.


Unlike the Nehalem-based Core i7 parts, which require a new motherboard, as well as fresh memory modules, AMD's Phenom II CPUs that work with the company's 780FX / GX motherboards will provide a cheaper upgrade option, which should facilitate their penetration of the market. On the overclocking capabilities of the processors, we should note that they have been reported to work at 4.2GHz while cooled on air, and to be able to peak 6.3GHz when cooled with liquid.

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Touted as one of the best-selling Mac games of all time, Black & White is a real-time strategy title where players become a young god. The sequel to the highly-acclaimed game has now been confirmed for a January 6 release, coinciding with the opening of exhibits at Macworld 2009 in San Francisco, where attendees can have a hands-on experience with the game.

Black & White 2 has players resuming the role of a young god in search of followers and returning to the once innocent world of Eden. With times moving on, weapons have been invented while humans have harnessed the forces of nature. “Eden is in turmoil and the young God has been called back to save his people,” the game's plot goes.

Feral has also confirmed an expansion pack for Black & White 2. The Battle of the Gods add-on is included with the standalone Black & White 2 game, “offering players a host of new challenges including the threat of a rival God,” according to the publisher.

Created by Lionhead Studios and designers Peter Molyneux and Ron Millar, “Black & White has achieved a phenomenal and long-lasting popularity on the Mac,” Feral Interactive’s David Stephen says. “We are confident that Black & White 2 will continue that success.” Stephen concludes.

As far as pricing and availability goes, Black & White 2 for Mac will cost US $49.95 to buy in the US, and £29.95 in the UK. €39.95 is the price point for the rest of Europe. Those interested in acquiring the game can already pre-order their own copy. Head over to Feral's online store to pre-order now.


Black & White 2 for Mac has the following system requirements (minimum): 1.8GHz Intel Mac only, 512MB RAM, 128MB graphics card, DVD drive, 5.1 GB of hard disk space, and Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later. Intel GMA processors are not supported. Apple’s latest GeForce 9400 M-enabled Macbooks are a go!

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iPhone this, iPod Touch that, BlackBerry and Google Android apps galore, but where is the Windows Mobile love? Well, it is certainly not to be forgotten as the Samsung i770, HTC Touch Pro and Samsung Omnia are all being sold in stores this December, and all of them are powered by Windows Mobile.

With those users in mind, here are over 20 top free apps to get the most out of the Windows Mobile operating system.

Games

Death Drive - Who doesn’t love a little vehicular combat? Death Drive brings Carmageddon like combat to your Windows Mobile powered device.

Kevtris - What is mobile gaming without at least one version of Tetris?

Pocket Heroes - Pocket Heroes is a Heroes of Might and Magic game clone for Pocket PC. It may be a bit simple for some, but still a lot of fun.

Realms - A space based shooting game that might remind you a bit of the old Asteroids arcade game, but only in concept. Multiple ships to choose from and numerous levels to explore.

Internet Tolls

Fring - Fring brings their instant messaging services to more than just the iPhone and iPod Touch with a Windows Mobile version. Allows you to instant message with AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, MSN, SIP, Skype, Twitter and Yahoo.

Opera Mobile - The popular Opera browser comes to the mobile format with a full set of features.

Slick - Allows you to instant message with AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo. Also has text messaging, emoticons, message history and more.

TwitToday - A plugin for your Today screen that allows you to post to your Twitter account.

Web Viewer - Web Viewer is an expansion to the web browsing ability with a tabbed browser that allows you to save open tabs and more.

Media Players

MPlayer for Windows Mobile - Part of the MPlayer suite for Linux, MPlayer for Windows Mobile will let you play Flash videos as well as videos in the RV40, RV30, R20, sipro, cook and atrac codecs.

RealPlayer - An official mobile release for the famous Real One Player.

The Core Pocket Media Player - TCPMP, as it is known, supports a dizzying array of video and audio formats from DivX to Ogg Vorbis.

YouTubePlayer - Just as the name implies, YouTubePlayer lets you to search YouTube for videos and then plays them in their native FLV format.

Phone Applications

Call Firewall - Call Firewall does exactly what you would think it might in that it helps you create blacklists and whitelists for your Windows Mobile powered cell phone. One of the coolest features is that it will send an SMS to a blocked call telling them why they were blocked.

iDialer - iDialer, pictured above, gives you a new dialing interface that feels similar to another popular phone’s dialing system. It does offer compatibility with popular Internet phone services such as Grand Central and JaJah.

Skype - The well known Skype service is available for Windows Mobile, enabling you to make Skype calls from your mobile, saving you a lot of money on calls.

Utilities

CapSure - You can capture your screen in BMP, GIF, JPG or PNG and then add captions, obscure sensitive information and more.

Dashwire - Allows you to sync your phone at all times including pictures, files, contacts, messages and more. Cool feature that lets you see texts on your computer as they arrive at your phone.

GSync - As you can probably guess by the name, GSync allows you to synchronize your Google Calendar with your Windows Mobile powered phone. The app is available in Dutch, English and Italian.

iContact - iContact changes your contact interface to more of an iPhone style system that allows you to browse through your contacts with just a flick of your finger.

Pocket RAR - An official version of the RAR archive manager that you can use on your mobile device.

SoftKey Manager - This app allows you to edit the soft keys on your Today screen.

What are some of your favorite Windows Mobile applications? Let us know in the comments!

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Intel's Core i7 processors are registering a good penetration of the market these days, as they bring a lot of performance improvements over existing parts, and users are looking closer and closer at the capabilities of the new chips. Some of them are looking so close that take the CPU and try to make it give its best. According to the latest news on the web, a user managed to overclock one of the processors up to the world record speed of 5510.09 MHz.

As the news states, the processor was paired with an ASUS ROG Rampage II motherboard, and the OC was performed by the same guy that leveraged the speed of an Intel Pentium 4 631 chip up to 8140.4 MHz last year. The ASUS motherboard features small buttons that enable real-time hardware adjustments, which are said to have proved helpful in this guy's attempt. Perhaps the capabilities of the motherboard helped a lot, but the speed still makes the Core i7 quite an impressively fast processor.

Intel's Nehalem-based CPUs have been subjected to a lot of performance tests as soon as they made it to the market and even before that, following the aggressive marketing strategies the chip manufacturer implemented for the architecture. Overclocking tests have proved successful many times, as proof of the quality of the new parts released by the company.

Even so, as we reported last week, AMD's upcoming Deneb processors, dubbed Phenom II, seem to feature greater overclocking capabilities. The chip has been said to be able to reach 6.3GHz, although the company appears to have preferred calling it “goes over 5GHz,” which means that the 6.3GHz speed is not official. At the same time, it was said that the actual speed the chip reached was under 6GHz but very close to it (5950MHz). For what it’s worth, Deneb might prove a better overclocker than Core i7, and that would mean AMD has made a jump forward, not a single step.

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ASUS' Core i7 line of motherboards has been enriched with a new addition, the P6T6 WS Revolution board. Although coming with an ATX format and being based on the X58 chipset, the fresh ASUS part is somehow different from other Core i7 supporting motherboards. The company plans to push the board into the workstation area, and has included in P6T6 support for no less than six PCIe x16 graphics cards. Moreover, the board offers support for both 3-way SLI and CrossFireX configurations, allowing users to take advantage of the unleashed power of GPUGP.

The graphics processing performance of any system that includes the ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard can be leveraged to the maximum. The board supports three true x16 link PCI-E slots for NVIDIAs 2-way & 3-way SLI and ATi CrossFireX technologies, along with the six PCI-E Gen2 x16 slots onboard, which can deliver high speed I/O and flexible graphics and computing options. Undoubtedly, the board is able to offer the base for powerful workstation Small Office usage, SOHO and mainstream workstation users.

Each of the six PCI-E Gen2 x16 Slots is able to provide up to 8GB/s of bandwidth, twice the bandwidth of PCI-E 1.1m, allowing high speed Infiniband connections, professional graphics or high-performance computing cards to be plugged in. The I/O interfaces provided through the six PCI-E Gen2 x16 slots the board comes with will satisfy any user.

The features list of the P6T6 WS Revolution includes onboard SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) ports, which are said to offer hard drive upgrade flexibility, while also retaining full compatibility with the ASUS optional SASsaby card. The SAS hard disks are faster, safer and more stable, offering higher data transmission speeds and better data storage reliability when compared to SATA interfaces.

The new ASUS motherboard also comes with a 16+2 power design (16-phase to vCore; 2-phase to vDRAM/QPI controller inside CPU), offering this way high power efficiency, more efficiency in dispersing heat generated by the VRM module, as well as lower temperatures. The P6T6 WS Revolution includes high quality power components like low RDS (on) MOSFETs, Ferrite core chokes (lower hysteresis loss), and 100% Japan-made polymer capacitors. The 16+2 phase VRM design is meant to deliver longer component life, minimum power loss, and helps reach higher overclocking scores.

Other features include WS Diag. LED and the “ASUS Heartbeat,” which are meant to ensure proper functionality of all components. The board also comes with a built-in operating system, the Express Gate, which features a web browser, instant messenger, Skype, photo manager, music player and online games. The additional G.P. Diagnosis card performs precise system checks, while showing errors on the LED display.

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As the end of 2008 draws ever near, most sites and magazines reporting on videogames are getting ready to present a host of awards, showing which titles impressed editors and players alike during the closing year. Our awards will be presented during the final days of December.

IGN, one of the leading sites reporting on the videogames industry, has already named the best games it reviewed in 2008 for a variety of platforms. And the picks are a pretty good indicator of the other awards.

World of Goo, from 2D Boy, is Game of the Year for the Nintendo Wii. The title, which is basically a physics puzzle with a lot of personality, was launched via the Wiiware digital download service from Nintendo and proved to be a great success. It's easy to get into, while requiring a certain level of mastery to be reached by the player as the levels progress.Fallout 3 was named the best Xbox 360 Game of the Year, edging out titles like Dead Space and Gears of War 2. The Bethesda made role playing game, which I've reviewed for Softpedia, impresses with the depth and breadth of the Capital Wasteland it portrays and the move to first person will probably keep the Fallout series relevant for years to come.As expected, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was chosen as Game of the Year for the PlayStation 3. The epic created by Hideo Kojima was launched early in 2008 and impressed with the visual style, the varied gameplay and the lengthy cutscenes. It's a game some people loved, while others hated intensely.Sins of a Solar Empire was seen as the Game of the Year for the PC. The Ironclad developed and Stardock published real time space strategy title was released early in 2008 and created a very deep and engaging experience, mixing planet management and fleet battles.

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We shed light on Microsoft’s first Live deal with Blackberry maker Research in Motion back in mid May. At the time, both had partnered to deliver Live Messenger and Live Hotmail to smartphone owners held within RIM’s embrace. Today the companies have announced a kind of extension to the contract to involve Live Search among some of the mobile applications present on the devices, including Blackberry Browser and Blackberry Maps.

As with the companies’ previous agreement, the Live Search functions won’t be immediately present on Blackberry devices. “Available later this year,” is RIM’s estimation. Similarly, Live Hotmail and Live Messenger were at first mention said to be ready for a rollout in summer. That was before summer had arrived. Nevertheless, the Live Search feature is perhaps the most essential component to add to its partnership with RIM, as it is mobile search that is, particularly in location-sensitive scenarios, seen to be increasingly valuable. Microsoft’s primary target in the search space, Google, has made no secret of its desire to tap the advertising potential made possible with the increased ubiquity of small screens in consumers’ hands.

Of course, it has traditionally been the case that the Blackberry is the domain of business, which alone perhaps makes this arrangement among tech giants not so very impactful. Yet it clearly is the consumer that is in the sights of RIM with recent design releases like the Pearl, the Curve, the Bold, the newly announced Pearl Flip, and the much-anticipated “Thunder.” The advent of premium hardware from the likes of Nokia and Apple have only served to spur RIM in their direction. And so the financial incentive for RIM to sign with Microsoft - and vice versa - only grows with time. Today’s mention of the Live Search agreement also notes, as with the other services of Microsoft origin, multiple language support will be provided

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Veoh, the internet television network, has appointed Steve Mitgang as its new CEO.

Mitgang is coming from Yahoo, where he was Senior Vice President of the Global Team, and was heavily involved with advertising, platforms and services. Succeeding Veoh’s founding CEO Dmitry Shapiro, Mitgang will oversee Veoh’s continued growth. Shapiro is now the Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, focusing his energies on the company’s technology platforms. In addition, Veoh has also appointed Jennifer Betka, formerly at Sirius Satellite Radio, involved with business development and Internet marketing strategies, as the Senior Vice President of Marketing.

The Internet television network has seen a great deal of growth in the past six months, gaining funding and scaling to 14 million users. It is also moving quickly into the mobile market, having partnered with Verizon to extend its network offerings to Verizon customers.

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With each successive release of the Windows operating system it has gotten bigger and bigger. While it doesn’t help that it has to keep supporting so much legacy stuff from previous versions it has also suffered from more and more being added to the core OS.
This has lead to anti-trust battles with both the DOJ and the EU to the point that Microsoft had to release a special version in Europe without the Windows Media Player as in integral part of the OS. It doesn’t matter that the sales numbers of that EU specific version were nothing short of laughable, they still had to make it available.
It would seem though with Microsoft’s push into the Software as a Service (SaaS) world they are rethinking just what really needs to be included as a base part of their next version of Windows. As both LiveSide and The Inquisitr are reporting that Mail, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker are not going to be a part of the base install. As Duncan Riley from the Inquisitr says
It’s a courageous move by Microsoft, empowering users to make an installation decision that may see them gravitate to the competition instead of Microsoft software. And yet, it’s says alot about how Microsoft sees itself and its role today. Finally we’re moving past the old school monopolist who seeks to lock in users to as many products as possible, to a platform provider, who respects that their user base should be able to choose between Microsoft desktop or online products, and other products.

Personally I think this slimming down of Windows is a smart move on Microsoft’s part; but I don’t think they are going far enough. I can think of any number of other built-in applications or applets that could be removed in much the same way. Right off the top of my head there is Wordpad, the wannabe word processor, there is Fax and Scan and one could go as far as to suggest Windows Media Play. None of those really need to be a part of a base install.
However, I would go even one large step forward and suggest that even the Windows Desktop is something that doesn’t need to be shipped as part of the install, at least not the desktop that we are used to today. I could see it shipping with a bare bones corporate type desktop. Leave the desktop for the consumers as something that they could download separately much like you can do with Linux.
There are plenty of developers out there who could design a much better desktop than Microsoft. Stardock comes to mind right away, but they aren’t alone in being able to produce a high quality desktop that we would be able to pick and choose from on our own.
Microsoft is slowly entering the real world of consumer choices - whether they want to or not - and what they ship as part of their base install of the next Windows operating system will show how much they are really listening to the marketplace. They are making some interesting first moves and it will be interesting to see how much further they are willing to go.

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It was only a few hours ago that we heard from Bill Gates, who, during a press conference in Tokyo, said that Microsoft was planning on building an independent strategy for future growth and did not have a hole burning in its pocket, now that the Yahoo deal is dead (for now). The fact remains, however, that Microsoft still needs to find a way to improve its search and advertising tactics if it wants to beat Google and Yahoo.

What Does Independent Mean to Bill Gates?

But perhaps Gates has a different understanding of the word “independent” when it comes to Microsoft. According to Kara Swisher, Microsoft has been seriously considering a complete buy-out of popular social networking site Facebook. Now, Microsoft already threw a $240 investment at Facebook, blessing it with a $15 billion valuation and making Zuckerberg one of the youngest to be on the short list for top billionaires.

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The title might come to you as some surprise, since the rumour mill focused on Yahoo’s possible acquisition of Facebook has been hard at work for over a year. However, the New York Post now claims that Google and Microsoft are battling to invest in Facebook (if you can’t buy it, invest in it), both looking for a 5-10 percent stake.

If the pre-money valuation really reaches $15 billion (New York Post claims it’s $10-$15 billion), it means that Google or Microsoft would have to dish out approximately $1.5 billion for a 10 percent stake in Facebook.

Remember when

Yahoo’s one billion offer for Facebook seemed like a lot of money? Well, it’s a whole new ball game right now.

According to New York Post, the deal will be made in the next one or two days, and Google seems to be winning (read: more willing to dish out an insane amount of cash). Other sources, claims the Post, say that Microsoft is willing to offer “any price” to keep Google from buying a piece of Facebook.
The game’s on; we’ll report on any further developments promptly.

[via New York Post]

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Everyone knows that newspapers are in a state of decline, in large part due to the rise of online media. So, you would think that perhaps you’d see prominent new media execs joining the ranks of old media companies to try and right the ship. But at Facebook, it’s the other way around, as Washington Post CEO Don Graham is joining the company’s board of directors.

The obvious conclusion to draw from this appointment is that Facebook has ambitions as a media company, and bringing on someone with extensive experience in that department – Graham has been CEO of the Post since 1991 – could be helpful. Graham joins other Facebook board members Jim Breyer and Peter Thiel - early investors in the company - as well as Netscape and Ning founder Marc Andreessen.

So, what knowledge might Graham bring to the table that could be helpful? The Post - which also publishes Newsweek - has held up surprisingly well versus some of its old media counterparts, in part because of its timely adoption of new media, and Graham likely has some perspective on how Facebook can help old media transition into the digital age.

With Facebook moving outside its own social network with products like Facebook Connect, having a media veteran like Graham on the team could certainly help them navigate the old media world and design solutions that they’ll adopt. So, while on the surface the appointment might seem odd, it actually makes a lot of sense given where Facebook appears to be headed.

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