Skype for Mac OS X 2.7.0.195 Beta

Publisher's Description:

Skype is the next phenomenon from the people who brought you KaZaA. Just like KaZaA, this uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you to other users – not to share files this time, but to talk for free with your friends. The technology is extremely advanced - but super simple to use. You’ll be making perfect quality free phone calls to your friends in no time.

Latest Changes:

* Feature: Higher resolution video calls (640x480 and 25 frames per second)
* Feature: Mobile Indicators
* Improvement: Possibility to paste DTMF codes to call window
* Improvement: Added confirmation dialog before closing all open chats
* Improvement: selected chat background color in drawer is now gray if Skype is inactive
* Improvement: Joining public chat when host is offline has improved messaging
* Improvement: clicking search button in the view which is shown after quickfiltering starts search immediately
* Improvement: "Block" and "Add to Conference" menu items were not enabled when multiple contacts were selected in contact list
* Improvement: Added "Back to Contacts" button to the view which is shown after quickfiltering didn't find anything
* Improvement: KICKED and KICKBAN messages now shown in chat
* Improvement: Volume slider in conference calls and video calls
* Improvement: Improved context menu of contact groups
* Improvement: Rename contact group right after creation
* Improvement: Address Book contacts are now updated after change in Address Book
* Improvement: context menus of Address Book contacts improved

Released: November 29, 2007
Publisher: Skype Ltd.
License: Freeware
OS Support: Mac OS X



BetaNews

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 1

Publisher's Description:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is the most advanced Windows Server operating system yet, designed to power the next-generation of networks, applications, and Web services. You can develop, deliver, and manage rich user experiences and applications, provide a secure network infrastructure, and increase technological efficiency and value within your organization.

Windows Server 2008 builds on the success and strengths of its Windows Server predecessors while delivering valuable new functionality and powerful improvements to the base operating system. New Web tools, virtualization technologies, security enhancements, and management utilities help save time, reduce costs, and provide a solid foundation for your information technology (IT) infrastructure.

Released: December 5, 2007
Publisher: Microsoft Corp.
License: Commercial Demo
Limitations: Yes; 30 day timeout
OS Support: Windows 2008


BetaNews

CleanCenter 1.65.2

CleanCenter is a user-friendly utility designed to free up disk space by deleting useless junk files. Each time you use your PC, unwanted files are created that increasingly more space on your hard drives. CleanCenter can find over 48 types of junk files with ease! You will need only 3 steps to do all the works!

Unlike many other programs CleanCenter will let you choose which drive to clean, which file types to search for and whether to delete them or not. You can also select Fail-Safe option to move junk files to the Recycled Bin! Additionally this wizard will help you clean cookies and the temp folder on your hard drives. It supports all Windows.

Author: Miniwish Software
Date: 2007-12-05
Size: 982 Kb
License: Shareware $29.95
Requires: Win All
Limitations: 15-day trial, nag screen, scan only.



MajorGeeks

UltraEdit 13.20a

UltraEdit the #1 selling, most powerful, value priced text editor available! The ideal text, HEX, HTML, PHP, Java, Perl, Javascript, and programmer's editor! Free trial period... Industry award winner... Over one million users licensed worldwide....

Key Features

Code Folding
Supports 64-bit file handling (standard) on all 32-bit Windows platforms
UNICODE support
Disk based text editing - supports files in excess of 4GB, minimum RAM used even for multi-megabyte files
100,000 word spell checker, with foreign languages support (American English, British English, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish and Swedish)
Syntax highlighting - configurable, pre-configured for C/C++, VB, HTML, Java, and Perl, with special options for FORTRAN and LaTex. Multiple wordfiles available for download
FTP client built in to give access to FTP servers with multiple account settings and automatic logon and save. (32-Bit Only) Includes support for SFTP (SSH2).
Project/Workspace support
Configurable keyboard mapping (32-Bit only)
Column/block mode editing
Hexadecimal Editor - allows editing of any binary file, shows binary and ASCII view
Named Templates
HTML Toolbar preconfigured for popular functions
Integration with UltraSentry to securely delete UltraEdit temporary files
Multi-byte Support with Integrated IME Support

Author: IDM Computer Solutions, Inc.
Date: 2007-12-05
Size: 10.8 Mb
License: Shareware $39.95
Requires: Win All



MajorGeeks

HWiNFO32 1.77

Hardware Info (HWiNFO™) is a powerful system information utility designed especially for detection of hardware. It's able to identify a large scale of system components and supports the latest technologies and standards.

Limitations: 14-day trial. Windows 9x & ME support is limited. If it does not run for you under these 2 operating systems, you will need the DOS version.

Author: REALiX
Date: 2007-12-05
Size: 1.81 Mb
License: Shareware $15.00
Requires: Win All



MajorGeeks

IObit SmartDefrag Beta 4.02

Disk fragmentation is generally main cause of slow and unstable PC performance. IObit SmartDefrag helps defrag your hard drive most efficiently. With "Install it and forget it" feature, IObit SmartDefrag works automatically and quietly in the background on your PC, keeping your hard disk running at its speediest. Slow down, freeze-ups and crashes will be a thing of the past. IObit SmartDefrag is 100% free for personal, home and small business. Detected by many strictest tests, IObit SmartDefrag is 100% safe and has no spyware/adware.

To support this freeware, you can make a donation.

Author: IObit.com
Date: 2007-12-05
Size: 1.85 Mb
License: Freeware
Requires: Win 2K/03/XP/Vista



MajorGeeks

Can IBM connect cores in a chip with light?
By Michael Kanellos
December 5, 2007 9:00 PM PST

IBM has come up with a technology that could one day let different cores on a processor exchange signals with pulses of light, rather than electrons, a change that could lead to faster and far more energy efficient chips.

The device, known as a silicon Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator--converts electrical signals into pulses of light. The trick is that IBM's modulator is 100 or more times smaller than other small modulators produced by other labs. Eventually, IBM hopes the modulator could be integrated into chips.

Here's how it works. Electric pulses, the yellow dots, hit the modulator, which is also being hit with a constant beam of light from a laser. The modulator emits light pulses to correspond to the electrical pulses. In a sense, the modulator is substituting photons for electrons.

Since the beginning of the decade, several companies--Intel, Primarion, Luxtera, IBM--have been coming up with components that, ideally, will let chip designers replace wires in computers and ultimately chips with optical fiber. Wires radiate heat, a big problem, and the signals don't travel as fast as light pulses. (The research in this area is known as silicon photonics and optoelectronics.)

CNET News
complete article

Michael Bay slams Microsoft over HD DVD
By Blake Snow
December 05 2007 9:42:36 AM PST

Director Michael Bay criticized Microsoft's "dirty secret" in backing HD DVD saying the real agenda is to eventually move towards digital downloads.

"Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads," Bay said on his official forums, when addressing user complaints about the unavailability of Transformers on Blu-ray.

"That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads."

PlayStation 3 (Blu-ray) and Xbox 360 (HD DVD with add-on) owners are both seen as key players in the high-definition disc wars given their buying power.

Game Pro

AMD Phenom, Barcelona Chips Hit By Lock-up Bug
By Mark Hachman
December 5, 2007

AMD has confirmed a bug that can cause its new Phenom and existing Barcelona processors to lock up. Specifically, AMD has found a bug in the translation-lookaside buffer, which can impact some of AMD's quad-core chips.

AMD will rework both chips and provide a new stepping, sources said, but in the meantime motherboard manufacturers are being asked to distribute a BIOS patch that, unfortunately, reportedly cuts performance by about 10 percent. "You may remember that during our Q3 earnings call, AMD acknowledged that our initial ramp of Barcelona had been slower than anticipated," AMD spokesman Phil Hughes said in an emailed statement.

"However we did say during that call that we would ship 'hundreds of thousands of quad-core processors' into the server and desktop segments during Q4. AMD is tracking to this guidance. Quad Core AMD Opteron processor is the most advanced x86 processor ever introduced to the market and as such there are design and process tuning steps that will take longer than expected.

"There has been some talk about an erratum relative to our TLB cache in Barcelona as well as Phenom processors resulting in delays," Hughes added. "AMD notified customers of this erratum and released a BIOS fix prior to the Nov. 19th launch that resolves it. We are experiencing strong AMD Phenom demand and are shipping parts to channel, system builders and OEM customers."

Extreme Tech
complete article

Gates: Next IE to be IE8
By Ina Fried
December 5, 2007 2:53 PM PST

Bill Gates confirmed that Microsoft will call its next browser Internet Explorer 8, though Microsoft isn't sharing much else, such as the obvious questions: When will it arrive and what features will it have?

The confirmation came during his speech at the "Mix and Mash" conference taking place this week in Redmond, Wash. In a posting on the IE blog, Microsoft general manager Dean Hachamovitch jokes about some of the names Microsoft ruled out, such as "IE 7+1" and "IEVIII."

But, seriously, folks don't care about the name. They care about features and timing. Hachamovitch pleads for more time. "You will hear a lot more from us soon on this blog and in other places," he said. "In the meantime, please don't mistake silence for inaction."

CNET News

3SLI has a big flaw
By Charlie Demerjian
December 05 2007, 9:39 AM

ONE REALLY INTERESTING bit has bubbled up about Nvidia's on again/off again 3SLI. If you look at a circuit diagram of the 780i, you see one very standout part, the PCIe slots.

It goes something like this, and the NV diagrams, like everything that comes out of the company, is really vague and meant to make you draw the wrong conclusion. The problem is that two of the PCIe 16x slots are PCIe2 and one is PCIe1. Hmmmm. The PCIe2 slots are connected to the north bridge via a chip called the Nforce 200 bridge chip.

This is rumoured to be one of the things they still haven't managed to get completely functional yet. The one 16x PCIe1 slot may or may not be connected to the south bridge, the diagrams are purposely misleading here. In the end, you have 2 PCIe2 links 2 hops from the NB, and one PCIe1 link one hop from the SB.

See a latency problem? Thouight so. To make matters more humourous, how well do you think the third card does four hops away from the other two while running at half the speed? We sense problems in the making, do you? This could quite possibly be why the 780i and 3SLI are so delayed and fraught with problems.

The Inquirer
complete article

AMD Resurrects K8 Architecture for 2008 Roadmap
By Kristopher Kubicki & Gabriel Ikram
December 5, 2007 10:22 AM

Things at AMD may have gone from bad to worse with the lackluster Phenom launch in late November. Not only did Phenom fail to appeal to professional reviewers, but the company ended up removing one third of its CPU lineup just after the big day.

Last week AMD CEO Hector Ruiz vowed that the company would stop hemorrhaging cash and return to profitability soon. "That is our number one goal right now," Ruiz said in a conference in Bangalore. Making a profit at AMD apparently means refocusing on its older K8 architecture. The company will introduce eleven 65nm K8 processors over the next two quarters.

By comparison: AMD launched two quad-core K10 Phenom processors in November with three more scheduled over the next two quarters. Two tri-core Phenom processors will follow in March 2008. Essentially, AMD will move any remaining Athlon 64 processors from the 90nm node to the 65nm node, with a few new frequency and TDP variations.

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ will be the first to jump on the new 65nm K8 bandwagon with a 65W TDP. The previous Windsor-based chip of the same featured an 89-Watt TDP. AMD will also add 100 MHz to the core frequency of the Athlon 64 X2 5600+, now rated at 2.9 GHz.

DailyTech
complete article

Security giants fail VB100 virus test
By Shaun Nichols
December 05 2007

Researchers at Virus Bulletin have released the results of the latest VB100 computer security test, highlighting failures at a number of leading security vendors. Products from Sophos, Trend Micro and Kaspersky were among those that failed to protect fully against a collection of outdated viruses.

The December edition of the VB100 test subjected security software to 100 Windows 2000 viruses collected from labs and websites. "It was a shock and a concern to see such a poor performance from so many products in this latest round of testing," said John Hawes, a technical consultant at Virus Bulletin.

"It is particularly disappointing to see so many major products missing significant real-world threats." In order to pass the test, vendors needed to identify 100 malware samples as well as avoid reporting false positives on clean samples.

Kaspersky failed the test by missing one virus from the list, while Sophos missed eight. Trend Micro missed four virus samples, failing VB100 certification for the fourth time in five tests.

VNUnet
complete article

Intel adds low-end member to 4 series chipsets
By Joseph Tsai
December 5 2007

Intel is planning to add one more member to its 4 series (Eaglelake) chipsets which will be launched in the second quarter of 2008, according to sources at motherboard makers. In addition to its original premium G45 IGP and mainstream P45 chipsets, Intel will add the G43 chipset to replace the previous G35, P35, G33 and G31 chipsets in the value segment.

The G43 will adopt a 65nm process and have a built-in Intel GMA 4500 graphics engine, supporting DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.0. The chipset will also have built-in HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI support along with HDCP.

The difference between the G43 and G45 are that the former has reduced high-definition video decoding and memory support, the sources noted. Only the G45 will support MPEG2, VC1 and H.264 decode acceleration meaning systems with the lower-end G43 chipset will see higher CPU utilization when playing back high-definition formats such as HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Both the G45 and G43 will support dual-channel memory, but the G43 will only support one DIMM per channel, while the G43's maximum memory capacity will drop from 8GB, of the G45, to 4GB. In the third quarter of 2008, 4 series chipsets will account for 20% of Intel's total chipset shipments, while 3 series will total 60%, 945 18% and 965/946 family 2%, added the sources.

DigiTimes

Salesforce.com rolls out customer data sharing
By Dan Farber & Larry Dignan
December 4th, 2007

Salesforce.com on Wednesday will roll out business networking tools so customers can securely share information such as sales leads, product information and other communications. Think Facebook and LinkedIn meets corporate data sharing files. Salesforce.com (all resources) dubs the effort a “multi-tenant business network.”

With the announcement, to be made at events in New York and San Francisco, Salesforce.com is trying to build a moat around its business and take advantage of its subscriber base, which will pass the 1 million mark by the end of the month. By connecting subscribers to make transactions and information sharing easier Salesforce.com is trying to turn its community into a competitive advantage.

“This makes the size of community a relevant factor when choosing an on-demand company,” says George Hu, executive vice president of products and marketing at Salesforce.com. Dell and DoubleClick are among the early adopters of the service. Dell, which will provide a demo later Wednesday, is using Salesforce to Salesforce to share information with channel partners.

As for the cost, Salesforce is charging $100 a month for each connection. The party that invites another partner pays the fee. Each company, say Dell connecting to ADP, is one connection. “We’re pricing for mass adoption,” says Hu. Today, the service is predictably focused on sharing sales lead and CRM-type information.

ZDNET Blogs
complete article