Dell Goes Ubuntu

It seems that the wildly popular linux variant will sign a deal to get distributed and supported on Dell PC’s.

Ubuntu senior support engineer Fabian Rodriguez wrote, “Many people have been involved in this and I can only say I am excited to be a tiny small part of it: Ubuntu will be officially supported on Dell computers. Any other details will come on www.ubuntu.com, check it for the official press release

Although nothing has been formally announced, this deal seems finalized. Finally, this will allow you to buy a PC and run the operating system of your choice (with a little hackery you can use the MacOS too) without paying the dreaded “Windows Tax”.

found on Uneasy Silence

This is BIG news for the Linux community!

Earthlike Planet Found - Could Possibly Support Life and Already Contain Liquid Water

The most enticing property yet found outside our solar system is about 20 light-years away in the constellation Libra, a team of European astronomers said Tuesday.

The astronomers have discovered a planet five times as massive as the Earth orbiting a dim red star known as Gliese 581.

It is the smallest of the 200 or so planets that are known to exist outside of our solar system, the extrasolar or exo-planets. It orbits its home star within the so-called habitable zone where surface water, the staff of life, could exist if other conditions are right, said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

“We are at the right place for that,” said Dr. Udry, the lead author of a paper describing the discovery that has been submitted to the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

He and other astronomers cautioned that it was far too soon to conclude that liquid water was there without more observations. Sara Seager, a planet expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, “For example, if the planet had an atmosphere more massive than Venus’, then the surface would likely be too hot for liquid water.”

Nevertheless, the discovery in the Gliese 581 system, where a Neptune-size planet was discovered two years ago and another planet of eight Earth masses is now suspected, catapults that system to the top of the list for future generations of space missions.

“On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X,” said Xavier Delfosse, a member of the team from Grenoble University in France, according to a news release from the European Southern Observatory, a multinational collaboration based in Garching, Germany.

Dimitar Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who studies the structure and formation of planet s, said: “It’s 20 light-years. We can go there.”

The new planet was discovered by the wobble it causes in its home star’s motion as it orbits, using the method by which most of the known exo- planet s have been discovered. Dr. Udry’s team used an advanced spectrograph on a 141-inch-diameter telescope at the European observatory in La Silla, Chile.

The planet, Gliese 581c, circles the star every 13 days at a distance of about seven million miles. According to models of planet formation developed by Dr. Sasselov and his colleagues, such a planet should be about half again as large as the Earth and composed of rock and water, what the astronomers now call a “super Earth.”

The most exciting part of the find, said Dr. Sasselov, is that it “basically tells you these kinds of planets are very common.” Because they could stay geologically active for billions of years, he said he suspected that such planets could be even more congenial for life than Earth. Although the new planet is much closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, the red dwarf Gliese 581 is only about a hundredth as luminous as the Sun. So seven million miles is a comfortable huddling distance.

How hot the planet gets, said Dr. Udry, depends on how much light the planet reflects, its albedo. Using the Earth and Venus as two extreme examples, he estimated that temperatures on the surface of the planet should be in the range of 0 degrees to 40 degrees centigrade.

“It’s just right in the good range,” said Dr. Udry . “Of course, we don’t know anything about its albedo.”

One problem is that the wobble technique only gives masses of planets. To measure their actual size and thus find their densities, astronomers have to catch the planets in the act of passing in front of or behind their stars. Such transits can also reveal if the planets have atmospheres and what they are made of.

Dr. Udry said he and Dr. Sasselov would be observing the Gliese system with a Canadian space telescope named MOST to see if there are any dips in starlight caused by the new planet. Failing that, they said, the best chance for more information about the system lies with the Terrestrial planet Finder, a NASA mission, and the Darwin missions of the European Space Agency, which are designed to study Earthlike planets, but have been delayed by political, technical and financial difficulties.

“We are starting to count the first targets,” said Dr. Udry.

You can read this article by New York Times writer Dennis Overbye, reporting from New York City, N.Y., in context here: www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/science/space/25planet.html

found on http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=11485

iTunes + Yahoo = Lyrics?

By Katie Marsal

A proposed deal between Apple and digital media company Gracenote could soon see the iPod maker serve up song lyrics through its ubiquitous iTunes Store.

The move would be part of a larger industry-backed push to stifle proliferation of unauthorized websites that currently dominate the market, often offering inaccurate lyrics and never compensating artists for their work.

Gracenote and Yahoo! kicked-off the effort earlier this week in announcing a licensing deal allowing Yahoo! Music to offer legal, licensed song lyrics from hundreds of thousands of songs to its customers. Some feature artists include U2, Elvis and The Beatles.

In a deal with music publishers last summer, Gracenote gain the rights to distribute lyrics from nearly 100 music publishers, including the top five: BMG Music Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, and dozens of prominent independent publishers.

“Song lyrics are continually among the top 10 searches performed on major search engines, though the results often provide consumers a frustrating experience filled with inconsistent and incomplete lyrics, and annoying pop-ups,” said Craig Palmer, president and chief executive officer of Gracenote.

In speaking to Reuters, Palmer revealed his firm is in discussions with various other music partners, such as Apple's iTunes. "We wouldn't be in the business to launch just one service, so stay tuned," he said.

The arrival of lyrics on iTunes could present exciting opportunities for Apple, which already offers high-quality album artwork downloads to its customers. A deal between Gracenote and Apple would almost certainly pave the way for lyric downloads to digital music players, allowing iPod users to sing along to their favorite tunes. Karaoke products and possibilities also exist.

In speaking to Reuters, Palmer said licensing lyrics should boost worldwide music publishing revenues, estimated at about $4 billion annually, by as much as $100 million annually within the next 10 years.

found on Apple Insider

Intel CPU Prices Drop, Drop, Drop!

According to Akihabaranews, Intel has been cutting the price of its CPU (whole range) up to 40% ! The following chart was found on Akihabara and as you can see it demonstrates the drop in price of each intel CPU. Anyone out there with plans to refurbish your old desktop or maybe wanting to make it able to run Vista .... or OS X, but have incompatible CPU's (shucks, my problem); your prayers have been answered. (Tip: Click the picture and it will get bigger!)

Microsoft admits Vista failure

Actions speak louder than PR

By Charlie Demerjian in Beijing: found on the inquirer

WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows Me Two (Me II), is a joke that no one wants.

Microsoft did two unprecedented things this week that frankly stunned us.

Dell announced that it would be offering XP again on home PCs. The second that Vista came out, Microsoft makes it very hard for you to sell anything other than Me II. It can't do this on the business side because it would be laughed out the door, but for the walking sheep class, well, you take what you are shovelled.

This is classic abusive monopoly behavior, Microsoft wrote the modern book on it. It pulled all the major OEMs in by twisting their arms with the usual methods, and they again all fell into line. Never before has anyone backpedalled on this, to do so would earn you the wrath of Microsoft.

But Dell just did. This means that Me II sales are at least as bad as we think, the software and driver situation is just as miserable, and Dell had no choice but to buck the trend. If anyone thinks this is an act of atonement for foisting such a steaming pile on us, think again, it doesn't care about the consumer.

What happened is the OEMs revolted in the background and forced Microsoft's hand. This is a big neon sign above Me II saying 'FAILURE'. Blink blink blink. OK, Me II won't fail, Microsoft has OEMs whipped and threatened into a corner, it will sell, but you can almost hear the defectors marching toward Linux. This is a watershed.

The other equally monumental Me II failure? Gates in China launching a $3 version of bundled Me II. Why is this not altruism? Well, it goes back to piracy and how it helped enforce the MS monopoly. If you can easily pirate Windows, Linux has no price advantage, they both cost zero.

With Me II, Microsoft made it very hard to pirate. It is do-able, you can use the BIOS hack and probably a host of others, but the point is, it raised the bar enough so lots of people have to buy it. Want to bet that in a country with $100 average monthly salary, people aren't going to shell out $299 for Me II Broken Edition?

What did MS do? It dropped the price about 100x or so. I can't say this is unprecedented, when it made Office 2003 hard to pirate it had to backpedal with the student edition for about $150. This time though, things are much more desperate.

If you fit Microsoft's somewhat convoluted definition of poor, it still wants to lock you in, you might get rich enough to afford the full-priced stuff someday. It is at a dangerous crossroads, if its software bumps up the price of a computer by 100 per cent, people might look to alternatives.

That means no Me II DRM infection lock in, no mass migration to the newer Office obfuscated and patented file formats, and worse yet, people might utter the W word. Yes, you guessed it, 'why'. People might ask why it is sticking with the MS lock in, and at that point, it is in deep trouble.

So, it did the unthinkable, and dropped the price. I won't bother to hunt down all the exec quotes saying how people can't afford clean water would be overjoyed to sell kidneys to upgrade to the new version of Office, but they are out there. This was a sacred cow, and it is now hamburger backed up against the wall.

These two actions by Microsoft are proof of what I suggested three years ago. Microsoft has lost its ability to twist arms, and now it is going to die. It can't compete on level ground, so is left with backpedalling and discounts of almost 100 times.

What we are seeing is an unprecedented shift of power. It is also an unprecedented admission of failure. And the funniest part about the moves made? They are the wrong things to do. Microsoft is in deep trouble.

More Girls Than Guys Online

Women outnumber men online, and it's likely to stay that way. *Pause for applause and cheering* WHOOOOOOOOOO!

Yes folks, it's true! Girls now outnumber guys on the internet by about 6 MILLION users! The table's are turning and I like it! Anyone who knows me knows I'm so not a feminist and I get really annoyed at the hairy, masculine girls who get all hard up about this kind of stuff, but this is the one time I'll be stepping out of character to scream WHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GO GIRLS!

According to eMarketer, female usage of the internet in the U.S. has risen 12.4 per cent since 2000, compared with 3.2 per cent for males.eMarketer estimates that there will be an estimated 97.2 million female Internet users ages 3 and older in 2007, or 51.7% of the total online population. In 2011, 109.7 million US females will go online, amounting to 51.9% of the total online population.

Schools need to do everything in their power to push this further. THE INTERNET IS NOT JUST FOR GEEKY GUYS, THERE ARE GEEKY GIRLS TOO AND IT'S TIME TO LEARN! Schools need to teach girls about code, designing websites, graphic design, blogging, rss feeds, torrents, and all major sites like youtube, wikipedia, filehippo, and all those damn social network sites. Only 66 per cent of the estimated 97.2 million females online watch videos, compared with 78 per cent of the 90.9 million men.

The author of the eMarketer report said the change in demographics could affect trends in content and usage of the web.

"For girls who have grown up with technology, there is no significant gender gap in internet usage," said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson. "The rise of activities that are particularly appealing to young females, such as social networking, will result in even greater usage."

More Women Online [eMarketer via Slashdot] - [Gizmodo]

A Batch of Gmail Accounts, Accidentally Disabled

Next time when you can't access Gmail, be happy that Gmail is down only for a few minutes. Other people have to live days without their Gmail accounts (and you know it's hard to do that).

Last week, the Gmail team realized that a bunch of spammers found a temporary home at gmail.com. Says the Gmail team: "We have been actively investigating a batch of accounts that were accidentally disabled and are currently in the process of re-enabling these accounts. This error occurred in an effort to target a large network of spammers to keep them out of the Gmail system and keep your inbox free from spam. We apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we re-enable these accounts as quickly as possible."

Collateral damages, you'll say. But not if you're one of the poor souls who had the misfortune to be the target of Gmail's team raid. While some of the accounts were disabled, others didn't have links to email attachments.

My account is readable.. like i can logon. but i can't download any of the attachments. i have two huge presentations coming up and all the files are on my account. i trust google more than a usbkey soo i always have my files on my account. now i can't even get them.. and i can't get any one to send them to me. so please please fix it soon. "lockdown on sector 6" is what i get and i abide by google's terms of use.

Benedikt ("benedictus" means "blessed" in Latin), the wise soul from Gmail's Google Group, saves the day:

I think this extremely unfortunate event shows us the danger of having all the important information in one place, a place that depends on the functionality of one large software package, such as GoogleMail. (...)

What we experience right now is such a failure and most of the posts in this topic that have been posted before this one show us the consequences that can have. So let us hope that the capable engineers of Google will succeed in restoring GoogleMail's full functionatlity as they have succeded in building up the virtual world of collaboration, information and communication that has made Google what it is today.

While Gmail is a useful web application, you shouldn't use it to store mission-critical files or information. And if you do, make sure you have backups: store your files on different storage mediums, forward your Gmail messages to other accounts or pray that Gmail team doesn't have a bad day and disables your account. If you see an error message like "Lockdown in sector 4 (or 6)", complain to Google.

Google says they promptly re-enabled the affected accounts, but there are still people who can't access Gmail. And might "move their operations" to other sites, if the Gmail team continues to treat them like that.

I've been locked out of my original email for a full 7 days come midnight. I'm also locked out of anything google associated, so I can't post new content to my blog, nor check AdSense income. I thought I would have to wait the standard 5 days and now I realize my account wasn't having password issues, this was a long standing issue that it seems they knew about.

Which makes me upset enough to move my operations from google; I hope everyone else does the same...this is the only free email service I have known with regular outages, shutdowns and no customer support. The last time I lost access to my email was 3/14/06, my birthday no less...luckily, I got it back in 24 hours. Now, it's been 7 days.

found on googlesystem.blogspot.com

Apple finally rolls out 8-core Mac Pro

Apple Inc. on Wednesday quietly introduced a version of its Mac Pro professional workstation that sports 8 processor cores via two Intel Xeon quad-core microprocessors.

When purchasing a Mac Pro through the company's online store, customers can now choose to build their machines with a pair 3GHz quad-core "Clovertown" Xeons.

The 8-core Clovertown option adds $1,498 to the Mac Pro's base price of $2,499. The base system continues to offer quad-core computing via two 2.66GHz dual-core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors. Woodcrest Mac Pro systems are also available for configuration with 2GHz and 3GHz chips.

Customers can configure the Mac Pro with over 4.9 million build-to-order options including: up to 16GB of 667 MHz DDR2 fully-buffered ECC memory; up to four 750GB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm; up to two 16x SuperDrives with double-layer support; ATI Radeon X1900 XT and NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 graphics cards, both with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM; AirPort Extreme module, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module; Apple USB Modem; Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse; Mac OS X Server Tiger; Apple Xsan; and Apple Fibre Channel PCI Express Card.

Professional velocity.

8-core or quad-core Mac Pro workstation

Meet the latest addition to the Mac Pro family: The world’s first 3.0GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon-based Mac Pro. Consider the bar officially raised.

Performance standard

No matter which Mac Pro model you choose — 8-core or quad-core Intel Xeon — each delivers advanced performance, workstation graphics, and unparalleled expansion in so many possible configurations, your imagination has finally met its match.

Eight cores or four

Opt for the 8-core Mac Pro and you get the power of two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz. Or choose a quad-core Mac Pro featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors and decide how fast they fly: 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz, or 3.0GHz. At 3.0GHz, the quad-core Mac Pro runs up to 2x faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad.

Sources
AppleInsider
Apple.com

.XXX

.xxx is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) intended as a voluntary option for sexually explicit sites on the Internet. The name is inspired by the former MPAA and BBFC "X" rating, now commonly applied to pornographic movies as "XXX". ICANN announced in June 1, 2005 that .xxx would become a sponsored top-level domain similar to .aero, .travel, etc. but it was never implemented. On May 10, 2006, ICANN reversed its decision.[1], and on March 30, 2007, ICANN rejected the .xxx proposal a third time.

As of 2005, there is an alternative implementation of .xxx by New.net, a private domain registration service unaffiliated with ICANN, via an alternative DNS root. Its future - including that of domain names previously registered with New.net - is uncertain in the wake of the ICANN-sanctioned TLD announcement.

Another unofficial .xxx TLD was previously available through the alternative DNS root system administered by the now-defunct AlterNIC.

The .XXX debate roared on, until just recently. The controversial .XXX domain has been rejected by ICANN - the organisation that decides what domains can be for sale. This comes after intensive lobbying by certain countries that it is an inappropriate domain. The supporters of .XXX argued that it would help separate porn from the rest of the net.

The application proposed by the ICM Registry for a .XXX Sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD), was voted against by ICANN's Board of Directors. The Board discussion focused on the criteria for the sTLD, including sponsorship, and the terms of the contract proposed by ICM, as well as compliance issues related to key terms associated with public policy concerns.

ICANN's Board voted 9 to 5 against the proposed agreement. Directors who voted against the approval were Vint Cerf (Chairman), Alejandro Pisanty (Vice-Chairman), Raimundo Beca, Demi Getschko, Hagen Hultzsch, Njeri Rionge, Vanda Scartezini, Paul Twomey (President and CEO), and Hualin Qian. Votes in favor of the proposed .XXX Registry Agreement were cast by the following Board Members: Veni Markovski, Susan Crawford, Peter Dengate Thrush, Joichi Ito, and Mouhamet Diop.

ICM had proposed additional terms in response to issues raised by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, particularly at ICANN's meeting in Wellington in March. The application has received much public comment and detailed discussion by the ICANN Board. ICM had requested that the ICANN Board vote on the proposed contract at their recent meeting. Additional details regarding the vote will be provided by ICANN later this week.

ICANN is an internationally organised, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. As a private-public partnership, ICANN is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promoting competition; to achieving broad representation of global Internet communities; and to developing policy appropriate to its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based processes.

Sources

Wikipedia
Digg
domainsmagazine.com

New Macs feature dual or "quad-core" processors, says Apple

Apple Inc. this week inadvertently tipped its hand by revealing plans to include quad-core processors from Intel Corp. in an upcoming generation of Mac computers.
"Every new Mac features powerful dual-core or quad-core Intel processors, the world's most advanced operating system, and more," the company wrote on a section of its online store promoting Adobe's new Creative Suite 3.0 software. "Build your Mac to your exact specifications, or start with our recommended configurations that are optimized for Creative Suite 3."

The Cupertino-based Mac maker has not yet introduced systems with quad-core processors, but as AppleInsider reported exclusively back in October, an 8-core Mac Pro -- by way of two quad-core Intel "Clovertown" Xeon chips -- remains ready and waiting.

For Apple, the slip-up marks the second time this month that one of its online stores has published hints at the next-generation Mac Pro. A couple of week's ago, its UK shop accidently posted then removed a similar blurb.

"Now quad-core or 8-core processing power," said a caption next to the company's existing Mac Pro offering. "Configure yours today."

found on AppleInsider

Rumor-based Mac Buying Guide Keeps Fanboys Guessing

Still wondering whether you should buy that new MacBook or Mac Pro? The gang at MacRumors has compiled the ultimate Mac-buying guide based on product refresh cycles and Internet rumblings.

Take the Mac Pro for instance. MR recommends you skip it cause it's been 234 days since its last refresh. What's 100 percent safe to buy? According to MR, only the Shuffle. Obviously you shouldn't live or die by these rules, but savvy shoppers could save a buck or two if they at least hold off for Leopard. – Louis Ramirez

Mac Buyer's Guide [Mac Rumors via Crave]

found on Gizmodo

Some highlights of the Mac Buyer's Guide can be seen below and were not found on Gizmodo, but were found by myself.

Mac mini

Main article: Mac mini Buyer's Guide

The Mac mini is Apple's low end desktop.

Product Mac mini Recommendation: Don't Buy - Updates soon Last Release September 06, 2006 Days Since Update 204 (Avg = 151)

iMac

Main article: iMac Buyer's Guide

The iMac is Apple's all-in-one form factor desktop.

Product iMac Recommendation: Don't Buy - Updates soon Last Release September 06, 2006 Days Since Update 204 (Avg = 168)

MacBook

Main article: MacBook Buyer's Guide

The MacBook is Apple's consumer laptop; it was formerly known as the iBook.

Product MacBook Recommendation: Neutral - Mid product cycle Last Release November 08, 2006 Days Since Update 141 (Avg = 204)

MacBook Pro

Main article: MacBook Pro Buyer's Guide

The MacBook Pro is Apple's professional laptop, it was formerly known as the PowerBook.

Product MacBook Pro Recommendation: Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle Last Release October 24, 2006 Days Since Update 156 (Avg = 182)

Apple introduces 'Complete My Album' on iTunes

Apple on Thursday introduced a service on the iTunes Store called Complete My Album. The service allows users that have purchased individual songs on an album to purchase the full album at a reduced cost.

“One of the great things is that you can only do this in the digital world,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, told Macworld. “It gives customers a great new way of getting music.”

Until now, if you purchased an individual song on iTunes and then decided to buy the whole album, you would have to pay the full price. Not only that, you would have two copies of the one song you purchased. With Complete My Album, Apple will give you a full $0.99 credit for every song you have purchased from the album.

Complete My Album offers customers up to 180 days after first purchasing individual songs from any qualifying album to purchase the rest of that album at a reduced price. However, Apple is giving users a grace period — you have until June 27, 2007 to complete any album that was ever purchased from the iTunes Store.

When users buy any song on iTunes the corresponding album will immediately appear on their personalized Complete My Album page with the reduced price listed.

“We thought it was a great idea to give people the opportunity to go back and buy albums without paying extra,” said Cue. “It’s hard to imagine a music fan not loving this feature.”

found on playlistmag.com

Apple Bootcamp 1.2 Adds Vista Support + More

In what may very well be the last update to Boot Camp before Leopard is released, this version 1.2 of OS X's dual booting software gives Vista support to eager plaid jacket fans. For people who haven't updated to Vista yet (XP users), there's also:

• Better trackpad, audio, iSight, graphics, and modem drivers
• Apple Remote support in iTunes and WMP
• System tray icon for Boot Camp info
• Foreign language support
• Apple Software Update

We've been kind of holding out on loading Boot Camp because 1) we were happy running Vista elsewhere and didn't want to downgrade to XP, and 2) it sounded too much like physical exercise. Looks like it's time. – Jason Chen

found on Gizmodo

Google Notebooks Get Sexy!

Google Notebook has a new UI. The notebooks can be ordered alphabetically or by modified date, it's easier to add notes: just click in the space between any existing notes. Google Notebook borrowed the layout of messages from Gmail and placed the editing buttons at the top of the page so you don't feel any disruptive interface change when you edit a note. You can now add comments to notebooks and remove the title and the URL of a clipped note.



Google auto-saves each note, so you don't have to press a "Save" button. There's no option to search public notebooks anymore (but you can use Google search to do that).

found on Googlesytem.blogspot.com

iPhone to Have Unlimited Email Storage

Thanks to Yahoo! Mail VP John Kremer's announcement of unlimited email storage from Yahoo, the Apple iPhone will have unlimited storage as well. The current email storage is 1GB for free users and 2GB for paid users, but everyone will be able to get infinite storage now. Paid users can get a $20 refund if they ask.

The upgrade starts in May, and Yahoo will actively warn and suspend email accounts that are "abusing" their unlimited status. That means no using it as disk storage or backup (unless you do it sneakily).

Technically the iPhone's storage won't be "unlimited" even using IMAP to only download headers, but at the rate you fill up the 8GB of flash storage, it's essentially unlimited anyway. – Jason Chen

found on Gizmodo

Errors in Gmail!!!

ANNOUNCEMENT! Gmail is experience technical difficulties! Upon logging in users are blasted with this error message/apology. Could Google be changing something??? Or maybe they're fixing some kind of security breach we have yet to uncover. Maybe, just maybe the site is down for a make over or a new service is being added! One can only speculate at this point.


UPDATE!!! The error message happened world wide. Julio Dudu has posted the following picture on his blog, which you can see here, and was kind enough to share it with us!

Apple's Leopard reported to be nearing final candidate stage

Concerns that Apple Inc.'s next-generation Leopard operating has fallen behind schedule are overblown, according to one Wall Street analyst, who says checks indicated the software is rapidly approaching completion.

In a report distributed to clients on Monday, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu downplayed a recent report from Taiwanese-based DigiTimes, which speculated that Apple may push the release out to October in order to increase support for dual-booting Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista.

"From our analysis, we believe these concerns are overdone and believe that Mac OS X Leopard will ship on time in the 'Spring' timeframe, or Apple's June quarter," he wrote. "Our sources indicate that Apple's latest beta build has made noticeable improvements in stability and functionality from previous builds and that Apple is likely one or two upcoming builds away from reaching 'final candidate' stage to be released for manufacturing."

Wu noted that Spring technically runs from around March 20 to June 20 every year, which would give Apple nearly three more months to meet its self-imposed ship deadline. However, he acknowledged that a concerns amongst developers is that they are still in the dark on the software's "top secret" feature set.

"At some point, we believe Apple needs to 'publish' or enable these so-far undocumented features for wider beta testing," Wu wrote. "Many are hoping, including us, that it is virtual machine technology similar to that offered by Parallels, Inc. that allows seamless operation of Mac OS and Windows simultaneously. If so, we believe this would serve as a major catalyst for Mac sales."

For its part, Apple has publicly maintained that it will not introduce its own embedded virtualization technology with Leopard, indicating instead that it is very pleased with Parallels' solution and doesn't feel the need to compete. The company, however, has been known to intentionally mislead with some of its forward looking statements, as was the case in the lead up to the launch of the Mac mini.

In October of 2004, Apple chief financial officer told a teleconference of analysts and members of the media that Apple had decided not to compete in the sub-$800 PC market and instead would focus its efforts on its then booming music business and related products.

"We don't think we can make a lot of money there," the exec said. He must have missed the memo, because less than three months later Apple gave birth to the sub-$600 and sub-$500 Mac minis.

In his note to clients on Monday, Wu reiterated a Buy rating on shares of the Cupertino-based Mac maker, emphasizing his belief that the company is morphing into a four-prong (Mac, iPod + iTunes, Apple TV, and iPhone) vertically integrated consumer electronics firm.

"We see several catalysts in the quarters ahead, including Mac OS X Leopard, new Macs, new iPods, new movie and carrier partners, and lower cost cell phones," the analyst wrote.

found on AppleInsider

Apple says Leopard won't be delayed

By AppleInsider Staff on AppleInsider

Carve out another notch in the loss column for Taiwanese DigiTimes, which on Friday reported that Apple's next-generation Leopard operating system would be delayed till October.

Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg later spoke to Apple regarding the matter and was told the report is incorrect.

"Just spoke with Apple who confirmed the reports are wrong and Leopard is still scheduled to ship in this spring as they previously announced," the analyst wrote on his blog site.

"The rumor mill is wrong again."

DigiTimes had said that Apple would push Leopard's release out till October in order to bolster dual boot support for rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system.

Apple may delay Leopard release till October

By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 09:00 AM EST on AppleInsider

Apple Inc. may postpone the launch of its next-generation Leopard operating system in order bolster support dual boot support for rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system, DigiTimes reported on its website on Friday.

The Taiwanese trade publication cited "industry sources" in saying the launch delay is not due to software design problems with Leopard but instead is attributed to Apple's plan to have its new OS support Windows Vista through an integrated version of Boot Camp.

"Boot Camp is an Apple software application that currently assists in the installation of Windows XP on computers using Apple's latest OS," the publication said. "The company hopes with support for Vista, Mac computers using the new OS can grab more market share, according to the sources."

DigiTimes, whose accuracy in prediction Apple's future directions is mediocre at best, cited its sources in saying that if Leopard supports only Windows XP, then the chances of the new OS attracting Windows users to buy an Apple computer decreases.

For its part, Apple has maintained that it is on track to ship Leopard "this Spring." However, recent developer releases have raised suspicion over whether the Cupertino-based company will be able to meet that self-imposed deadline, as a number of critical issues reportedly remain in the software.

Apple has also stated that it holds some "top secret" Leopard features at bay, which haven't been exposed to widespread testing. It's widely believed that the company would first have to introduce those secret functionalities in developer builds before calling development of Leopard a wrap.

AppleInsider reiterates that DigiTimes' coverage of Apple has been historically inaccurate and therefore its reports should be taken with a grain of salt. Of note, however, the publication's recent predictions that Apple would use LED-backlit displays in its next-generation MacBook Pro line is believed to be accurate.

Update on Google Themes!

This is just a small, but very exciting update on the Google personalized page themes, it does indeed have international support. You just enter your city, country (ex. Amsterdam, The Netherlands). This should work, it worked for me. And yes I am confirm that the theme changes according to the whether and time of day and will be supplying proof of this soon. Keep checking back to this post.

Update 2: Not only weather changes, but objects in the theme such as the bicycles and stick people in the city theme according to a source that I'm waiting to confirm.

Update 3: Time of day changes are super cool and I'll be posting pictures very very soon!!!


Update 4: Weather changes!!!