Nova Palm OS on CES 2009?

Is Palm ready to become the darkhorse of 2009 with its new OS, Nova??

As they get ready for CES 2009, some information was leaked as to what they'll be presenting on the show:

• "the goal is to create products that bridge the gap between Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry devices, oriented to work and e-mail, and Apple's iPhone, oriented to fun."
  
• The article implies that the platform would be capable of acting as an OS for not only smartphones, but gameboy like consoles and e-book readers.
  
• Palm believes they can grab 2% of the market; that RIM will dominate the majority of share and the iPhone will have 10%.
  
• The OS would also help phones make "smarter use of data about you. For example, your smartphone could send you an e-mail the day before your next business trip, advising you on the weather conditions in your destination city."
  

At least they admitted that they won't be able to beat the giants (Blackberrry and the iPhone), therefore targetting what's left. It sounds bad that a company is willing to take in scraps, but I think this is one way of saying:

Undercommit, but overdeliver.

And if somehow they overacheive their targets for next year, that'll be good news for them and their stockholders.

Microsoft Windows major patch:Seven year itched!

It's very alarming that it took Microsoft seven years to plug a leaking hole in its Windows OS:

"[In 2001] we said that we could not make changes to address this issue without negatively impacting network-based applications.... For instance, an Outlook 2000 client wouldn't have been able to communicate with an Exchange 2000 server," Christopher Budd, a security program manager at Microsoft's Security Response Center, said in a blog post.

Personally, I'd rather have a few days--even weeks--of Outlook problems than have a possible security breach on my computer. Is this how Microsoft ranks their priorities?

What's even more surprising was that, according to the report, no one bothered to exploit it. Either we have one employee in Microsoft who knows all the security holes in it and not saying a word for the last seven years, or this is all bullcrap. Windows users may have been exposed and exploited already, but not know about it because this information was withheld from its customers.

I begin to wonder now, what else Microsoft has been hiding from its users...

Source

I heart Google Chrome

I've been a fan of Google Chrome since it went into Beta a few months ago and I haven't looked back since. It's a treat then to know that it has gone past its Beta stage and into the 1.0 realm. Although I do have precautions with trying out "1.0s", I think this one's a winner.

It's nice, but it still has a long way to go. Unlike Firefox, Chrome's spartan...too spartan--even bordering on the ridiculously minimalist. It also lacks the extensions that FF has and this is where it pales in comparison. However, since this is an open source program, I'm expecting more extensions to come in middle of next year.

Another problem is that it's available for Windows users only. Although they are working on the Linux and Mac version, I can't help but feel animosity from the non-Windows users. Patience is a virtue, besides, you guys have Ubuntu and Quicksilver to be proud of.

I'm staying with Chrome, but just in-case something should happen to it, I still have IE and FF browsers as back-ups. LOLZ.

Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street

If you got a Facebook account and you received an email with a title like the one above, please don't be a doofus and click on it (like I did LOLZ!!!).

Why? It's a virus named Koobface sent to your Facebook account that once it enters your computer, it will:

"... transform victim machines into zombie computers to form botnets."

Other funny-sounding email titles you should totally delete:

• Examiners Caught Downloading Grades From The Internet
  
• You must see it!!! LOL. My friend catched you on hidden cam
  
• Is it really celebrity? Funny Moments

...and anything else that sounds totally off-kilter...

Not to worry, as the site has already provided instructions on how to destroy the little bastards.

Source

Korea: Game geek Nirvana

Korea is a place where most gamer geeks like me would want to be reincarnated in when we die.

"The government will invest W350 billion in the computer game industry until 2012 and expand exports to W5 trillion a year."

Ugh....I'm dying now.....Aion save mehh........

Source

YouTube: Algorithmically Demote THIS!

Youtube users are getting raped in the ass regarding the new policy.

Here's just one of the policies that got them fired up:

"Demotion of sexually suggestive content and profanity - Videos that are considered sexually suggestive, or that contain profanity, will be algorithmically demoted on our 'Most Viewed,' 'Top Favorited,' and other browse pages."

Time to "algorithmically demote" the following youtube channels then:

• Athenewins
  
• hotforwords
  
• sxephil
  
• paperlilies
  
• (enter your favorite youtube channel)
  

Are we going to see a lot more demotion of "really cool" vids in favor of artist's videos that wind up on the Most Viewed list because they're company is paying for it? Are we going to see illegally uploaded Barney shows in the front page now? Lololololol.

Youtube, seriously think about this...

Youtube goes back in time?

Check this out. Here's youtube's page as of this moment:

If you've been a youtube subscriber for a long time, you'd notice something weird here. If you clicked on any of those vids, you'll see that most of them are dated Oct. 22 to 24.

Whathappen?

Update:it's ok now...looks like a minor hiccup for a few minutes

Apple should fire its ad department

Apple's getting sued by a customer over the fact that 3G on his iPhone ain't as fast as advertised: "Twice as fast, half the price." And Apple's defense?

“…No reasonable person in Plaintiff’s position could have reasonably relied on or misunderstood Apple’s statements as claims of fact.”

In short, no one in their right mind would believe Apple's ad is true.

If that's the case, then Apple's ad department is full of truth-stretchers and mind-distorters. This isn't the first time that their ads overstretched it a bit, two of their iPhone ads got banned in the UK for the following reasons:

• "...exaggerating the speed of iPhone 3G."
  
• "...ad gave a misleading impression of the internet capabilities of the iPhone"
  

Wow! Could this be the same reason why they pulled out their "anti-virus recommendation" page? I mean after all the hype that they never get viruses, could they be afraid of getting sued because they lied on their ads?

Palm deserves a facepalm:41% short of projected revenues

I admit to the world: I wish I had a Palm phone! I'm a big fan of GTD and I believe that this is the right equipment for the job.

The iPhone is nice and all, but it has the same problem as Palm does (at least in the Philippines): it's too darn expensive. I thought that it would slash its prices just to compete, but noooooooo....

With iPhone, Nokia, and others going the touchscreen route, the first one who made it popular seems to be going down the drain.

"The revenue decline vs. the company's Q1 fiscal year 2009 and Q2 fiscal year 2008 is a result of reduced demand for maturing smartphone and handheld products."

WTH? A "reduced demand" for more high tech phones? Quit pulling the world's legs, Palm! Instead work on how to make your products sell more.

Source

Why just now? FCC Chairman recommends free web for all

Although I may not be an American, reading that the outgoing FCC chairman wants free WiFi nationwide is crazeee. 

I have a feeling that he wanted this all along but didn't dare work on it until he's about to leave his position. Why? Consumer advocates would be totally all over this as free WiFi means free porn as well. Since the cat's out of the bag, it's up to the in-the-tech Obama administration to continue this project. 

Good luck to them, I hope this would become a precedent for other nations to copy.

Finally! Nokia jumps on the touchscreen wagon

I remember Nokia as a juggernaut and leader, not a bandwagon-jumper. Yesterday, Nokia just proved me wrong by introducing the N97: a touchscreen phone.

Naturally, it has all the features you'd get from an iPhone and more.

• QWERTY keyboard
  
• Bluetooth
  
• 5 megapixel camera lens
  
• 32 GB built-in flash memory
  

I guess this would put them near the top of a gadget geek's Christmas list. LOLZ

However, what disturbs me is that Nokia seems to have joined this craze late. Was it a marketing plan to release this a few days before Christmas or did they have to a hard time convincing themselves that touchscreen is the future of mobile phones?

Whatever, the reason, it would be best for Nokia to look forward and develop a new product that would make the world say: "Wow! We never thought of that!"

WTF? Apple pulls down anti-virus recommendation

Just a few days after posting in their site that Macs should also use anti-virus programs (just in case that there are Mac viruses out there in the wild), the administrator decided to pull it down.

The reason?

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesman Bill Evans, explained for Macworld. "The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box,” he added.

Reaaaallllyyy...LOLZ!!! Thanks to that statement, Apple just became the virus-creator's flavor of the month. My prediction? The world will be seeing some viruses that target Macs to come out of the woodwork from today until middle of next year.

The reason why viruses don't target Macs IMO is because they don't have that large enough users to target. Yikes! Now with the statement given by Apple, they will probably be saying the next one a few months from now:

"Me and my big mouth."