Sony, Launches “Home” today and according to the Washington Post and I’ll quote:
PS3 owners will be able to download and check out the new service starting tomorrow. Home is free to Web-connected owners of the game console, though users may opt to spend money to spiff up their avatars and virtual apartments.
It looks very much like it will be a success with the users. This should make it a lot easier to meet people and discuss what they are playing. It looks like they are trying this in BETA and should out of beta in a couple of months. Sony should start offering service for everyone as they roll out it to all parts of the world. It will take time for it to get to all the pople so please be patient.
[ad#ad2-left]In my Previous article I talked about how you could be in the Beta, and I just checked this morning. It looks like they took that article down. I don’t know if they are changing it around or what but it will be. I hope they fix this soon. I would like to start testing this on my Virtual Machine first before I install it on my real machine!! I will update this when they do get it up and running.
As you can see that looks to be the final release of the start screen. In the past they haven’t change the start screen, it looks to be really polished and ready for use with Windows 7. If anything, I think the boot screen will be permanent and definitely not temporary. On a Side note, I found this video as well:
[ad#ad2-left]This video I almost suspect is the release they did at the Professional Developers Conference and is probably going to have the beta in hand. Although I could be wrong this looks to be almost like Vista? Why is Microsoft trying to make Vista turn into Windows 7, probably due to the fact that Vista had such a rotten launch they are hoping people will see Windows 7 as if Windows Vista didn’t even exist.
I also found one more little Video that looks to be promising, it’s called Windows 7 Super bar. This little Video looks convincingly like this will be kept in Windows 7 but you know how Microsoft is on beta’s. Any how, Here’s this one:
As you can see the super bar feature looks to be quite interesting and quite nice to have. I will bet that will be a great productivity improve in Windows and it might even be more like MAC OS X. I don’t know but it seems to be something that Apple should of done a long time ago!!
Beginning Thursday Dec. 4th, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP). The CPP will launch on TechNet and be available to anyone interested in trying out this service pack. The CPP is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release. For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack.
[ad#ad2-right]Yes you heard right, you can get into the Beta of Vista SP2 and not have to wait till April. Some things to remember:
It is a Beta
It will Have Bugs
It is for people who want to test it out
It should only be installed for people who need to test it out
Some of the changes that they are going to incorporate into Sp2 are support for new types of hardware and emerging standards that will grow in importance in the coming months. The complete list of changes can be found here. I will be testing this out sometime this weekend to give it a full thorough check out. I will give a report later on this month possibly first part on January I would like to give it a complete test. To test it out yourself, check out this link for directions on how to download it.
According to Techworld.com, Vista has a new Vulnerability that could let a hacker infect a Vista machine with a rootkit. The talk from them is quite intriguing. I will quote it to better let you know what the Vulnerability is:
The vulnerability could allow a hacker to install a rootkit, a small piece of malicious software that is very difficult to detect and remove from a computer, Unterleitner said.
[ad#ad2-left]Phion notified Microsoft about the problem on 22 October. Microsoft indicated to Phion that it would issue a patch with Vista’s next service pack. Microsoft released a beta version of Vista’s second service pack to testers last month. Vista’s Service Pack 2 is due for release by June 2009. [via Techworld.com]
The way they could do this is through the Device IO Control which in turn could corrupt the Kernel of Windows Vista. Now we all know that Microsoft will release a patch quicker than 6 months away. According to this article, people are already looking for the exploit and want to know more about it. I would be willing to bet they will have a patch out sooner than later. Probably January or Febuary, which will be a big deal because no one will expect it. I would also imagine hackers will start trying to figure out how they could install software as quick as possible before Microsoft pushes out the patch. So what can you do to protect yourself, Get a firewall, a Antivirus and learn how to protect yourself to prevent yourself from getting a computer virus.
