March 11, 2008
Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs, Storage
Remember that tiny little
Windows Home Server glitch that was causing files to become corrupt for no apparent reason? Well, Microsoft has stepped up to bat with a fix... for June! That's right, all you have to do is hang on to your data-shredders for a few more months and the boys in Redmond will have this one sealed up tighter than a drum. The company has changed this issue's Knowledge Base article to reflect the new target, and suggests that users can avoid problems for the time being by using a command-line tool to move files, setting shared folders on WHS to read-only, and not using things like WMP to import to a home server -- certainly not the solutions most people are after. The company has also posted a note about the KB article on its WHS Team Blog, which we wouldn't call a straight-up apology, though it definitely has apologetic overtones. On the bright side, Microsoft says only a small number of users are having this issue, so in all likelihood, you don't even know what we're talking about! Lucky you.
[Thanks, Brian]
Read - Knowledge Base article
Read - An update on KB #946676
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March 3, 2008
Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs
We were originally supposed to see a "
limited rollout" of
Surface in 2007, which obviously didn't happen -- but despite the delays, Microsoft is apparently now feeling confident enough in the tech to let B- and C-list celebrities grope at it during the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship Drawing Party at Harrah's Casino. Unlike the standard demos we saw at
CES which involved relentlessly upbeat hipster presenters doing things like making custom snowboard designs, the motley crew at Harrah's was apparently only allowed to crudely write their names on photographs of themselves. You can almost see the joy in Jason Alexander's face, can't you? Sadly, it looks like Don Cheadle wasn't able to erase whatever's printed on his jacket (seriously, uh,
cool jacket, Cheadle) and poor Shannon Elizabeth didn't seem to be able make anything happen at all. Maybe Microsoft should have fired up that
Hungry Hungry Hippos clone and let these fools battle out instead. All the photos at the read link for the crazed VH-1 fans in the house.
Continue reading Microsoft and Harrah's confuse B-list celebs with Surface
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February 16, 2008
Filed under: Media PCs
Onyko's cranked out a couple slick little audio-oriented
desktops and
media PCs, and its latest carries the tradition on in fine form -- the new APX-2 HD audiophile PC actually looks more like a high-end shelf system than a PC, if you ask us. The compact unit houses a 1.66GHz T5500 Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, a vibration-isolated 500GB disk and the same digital amplifier found in the PCI-200 sound card, which bypasses Vista's sound mixer and channels audio directly through to avoid HD Audio signal loss. Sadly, this one looks to be Japan-only, but if you're headed out that way, you'll want an extra couple grand in your pocket to snag one of these bad boys.
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February 15, 2008
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs
Not like it's any
huge surprise or
anything -- after all, the
HD DVD deathwatch is already in full effect -- but Niveus has just informed us that due to "customer demand and format war influences," it will be adding support for Blu-ray and "ceasing production of HD DVD-based servers." According to CEO Tim Cutting, "incorporating Blu-ray into its offerings has always been part of the plan, but the demand from its customers, market trends, and recent announcements expedited its decision to come to market with Blu-ray support sooner rather than later." Adding more salt to the wound, he continued by saying that "while it has stood behind HD DVD as a viable high-definition platform, company engineers have been running Blu-ray in its testing facilities and are very impressed with the performance and integration with its servers." Another one bites the proverbial dust, eh?
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February 11, 2008
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs
Anthony Park just released his MyNetflix Media Center plugin. The application lets you add/remove movies from your Netflix queue, browse for movies, and view history and recommendations. The part that will tempt you into installing the beta software however is the ability to stream "
Watch Now" movies from the warm comforts of your Media Center. You do have a Netflix account don't you?
[Via
Chris Lanier's Blog, thanks Matt]
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February 11, 2008
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Media PCs
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February 5, 2008
Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs, Tablet PCs
Even though the first commercial deployments of Microsoft's
Surface have been
delayed until spring, it seems that enthusiasm for the tech is still strong in Redmond -- enough so that Steve Ballmer told reporters today that work on a consumer version has been sped up. The initial plan called for consumer-grade Surface products to, uh, surface in five years, but the demand for the tech is so high Ballmer said Microsoft is going to "follow our nose" and get it out ASAP. When that actually might be, we still don't know, but hey -- it's not like we're getting tired of that
Big-Ass Table video anytime soon.
[Via
The Raw Feed]
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February 4, 2008
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs
Not even a month after Lumenlab loosed its luxurious
Qmax on the world, the firm's Q42 has finally
escaped beta and is ready to tackle your living room. This PC-in-a-TV features an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor, an optional NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 1TB of hard drive space, gigabit Ethernet, 7.1-channel surround sound, optional Hotwire networking technology, a silent cooling system, all aluminum frame and an optional (but totally necessary) Blu-ray drive to boot. As expected, everything's housed behind a 42-inch 1080p LCD panel, and for those still in shock over the Qmax's $10,000 sticker, the $3,850 starting price on this bugger should be a sight for sore eyes.
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January 17, 2008
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Media PCs
Last
October, not much was known about Lumenlab's elusive "Q," but now it seems the firm's all geared up to dish out the deets and accept obscenely large checks. The Qmax still maintains a 42-inch 1080p LCD display, but we now know that you'll find an overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 processor (humming along at 3.3GHz), 768MB GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics card by PNY (also overclocked), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a trio of 1TB hard drives, the company's own Hotwire powerline networking technology, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi and a fairly swank cooling system for good measure. Additionally, you'll find HDMI, component and VGA inputs, 8.1-channel audio, optional HD DVD / Blu-ray drives and an optional $1,500 touch screen for those with plenty of cash to burn. Reportedly, this beast is handmade in Asheville, North Carolina and can be tweaked to your heart's content, but the general configuration will set you back around $10,000. The only question left, it seems, is why?
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January 11, 2008
Filed under: CES, HDTV, Laptops, Media PCs
Toshiba's Cell processor-based
SpursEngine B.E. was on full display at CES, with a variety of tech demos to show off its power. From HD video transcoding, facial recognition, or the always popular
gesture-control Toshiba's baby went through a series of workouts, trying to be the third teammate, with your CPU & GPU, to speed heavy-duty processing. Featuring only four cores -- half the number found in the PS3 -- it handled all tasks thrown its way, check out the gallery to find out how the
power of the Cell could help your PC in the future.
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Next Page »
Oops. One of Microsoft's big goals in releasing Vista SP1 is the closure of a pair of known Vista activation exploits. While the OEM BIOS hack and grace timer hacks are now indeed useless in the face of SP1, a third remains. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes over at ZDNet tracked down a hack that required "a few seconds in the command prompt" to trick Vista SP1 into thinking it was genuine. Now that SP1 is riding the torrents, we can't say we're surprised.
