"This is pretty brilliant in its own special way. Let's paint the scene -- you're wandering the cold streets of Chicago a few months from now, and you're wondering where the closest pizza place is. You whip out your iPhone to pull up the Google Maps application, but wait -- your hands are covered in gloves, and no matter how much you try to swipe the screen, you can't get it to register your swipes, much less hit those little keys on the keyboard. But it's too cold to take your gloves off -- what do you do?"
According to Microsoft they do, or at least one of their top officials. CNET sat down with Brad Brooks, who happens to be the Vice President of Windows Consumer Product Marketing. First off, take a look at this guy...
In my opinion, he looks like a toolbag. Although looks can be deceiving, after reading his interview, I feel my initial judgment was correct. I pulled a few good questions and answers from the interview, but it's definitely worth reading in its entirety if you're at all a nerd and need a good laugh.
"Q: Where are things at right now with Vista in the market?
Brooks: No. 1 is that we're seeing consumer perceptions in general swinging in a much more positive direction. We're seeing people have an even better experience after SP1, and we also are starting to see people realize the value that has always been inherent in Windows, that is really starting to play out with the economic conditions that are starting to swirl around us today."
Explain to me exactly what you mean about economic condit... Read more
iTunes version 8 was recently released but unfortunately it appears as though it is not yet ready for prime time. In my own experience, frequent blue screens of death (BSOD) have occurred courtesy of the new iTunes, but all is not lost! Simply rolling back your iTunes install or using System Restore should correct the problem. I recommend trying to uninstall iTunes and installing an older version to remedy the issue. I unfortunately couldn't find the last major release of 7 (7.7.1), but did find a link to 7.0.2 (sorry iPhone users).
So what does iTunes 8 change that causes BSOD? Aside from installing Bonjour, MobileMe, Apple Mobile Device Support, and possibly Safari if not unchecked, version 8 includes an USB controller update, which is reportedly causing STOP errors on Windows and an updated version of GEARAspiWDM.sys, which is a driver used in 2000, XP, and Vista for third party applications that provide CD/DVD burning capabilities. This file is located in the System32 folder. Read more
Wouldn’t it be great to share your music library with others in your house, apartment, dorm, or wherever else you may be? It’s easier than you think. There’s several different ways to do it, but I’m going to go over the easiest. Next week (or maybe later this week) I’ll post part 2, which will allow your listeners to add to your music library.
I’ve decided to use iTunes for this venture, mainly because I don’t know anyone who doesn’t own an iPod and iTunes makes sharing its library very easy. If you don’t have iTunes, mosey on over to apple.com and download it.
After the installation finishes, open iTunes. If your music library is already setup and ready to go, feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph. If not, it’s time to add some music. Before we do that, let’s tell iTunes how we want it to manage our music. In the menu bar at the top, click on Edit, then Preferences (on OS X, click iTunes, then Preferences). In the list of tabs, find Advanced and click it. In this dialog you’ll find the location of your iTunes library, which is where iTunes will keep all of your music files if told to do so, and a few other options.
The first checkbox, Keep iTunes Music folder organized should be checked by default. Enabling this option tells iTune... Read more
