AMD Game! Goes Live

AMD has just launched a brand new gaming microsite that provides gaming news, reviews, forums, monthly contests and prize giveaways and a handy tool to evaluate your system’s performance. Here are screenshots from the system evaluation tool showing systems passing and failing:

Today AMD has unleashed a new gaming microsite to provide a forum for gamers to communicate, collaborate and stay in tune with the latest developments in PC gaming. Gamers will have the ability to access exclusive game content and contests while customizing aspects of the site to fit every user’s preferences. The site is now available on http://game.amd.com.

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Ajax Startup Launches Web Desktop Linked To Gmail

Net entrepreneur Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com and Linspire, is on a crusade to change the software industry again. This time, he’s putting his energy and expertise behind a new startup that uses Ajax as a middleware platform to create a niche in the software as a service (SaaS) marketplace.

The company is Ajax13, the product is ajaxWindows, and the concept is pretty straightforward: The software platform is operating system-agnostic and based on the XML User Interface Language (XUL) to act as a Web-based desktop. Files can be moved around and opened, and applications launch with a mouse click. The interface also includes customizable wallpaper, start-up and shut down sounds, and browser bookmarks. But instead of interacting with the hardware, the user stores all desktop data, documents, and content, free of charge into a Gmail account.

“The concept here is that we didn’t want to determine where our registered users keep their files,” Robertson told InformationWeek. “We are launching the Gmail interface but we will let people have a choice going forward.” Options include other online sites or a local storage device such as a USB thumb drive, Robertson said.

Movie download service Vudu launches

Silicon Valley startup Vudu will start taking orders tomorrow for its proprietary set-top box, which will allow users to stream or download up to 5,000 movies onto their TV sets over a broadband Internet connection.

The box is priced at $399 through www.vudu.com and Amazon.

Vudu operates similar to a peer-to-peer service. In a P2P network, movies or other large files are downloaded from a number of fellow P2P users with a computer connected to the Internet that already have the file on their computers. This means files can be sent faster than those downloaded from one central server.

On Vudu’s service, files will be transferred across a private network. Vudu will send bits of files of popular movies to different users’ Vudu boxes. When a user clicks to watch a movie, the file is then sent from those other Vudu boxes. Since the files are sent between Vudu boxes only, the company says they can provide better copy protection and ensure a file is sent with the pieces in order so the user can watch right away.

Google Earth Flight Simulator

Some time last week, Google expanded Google Earth with Google Sky. As fascinating as Google Sky is, that’s not the focus of this post. Along with the latest update comes a hidden feature of which I cannot seem to find any other information about. It’s not in the release notes and a search on Google produces no results. Seems Google have done one of their unpublicized updates they’re becoming well-known for.

What I’m talking about is a flight simulator embedded within GE. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? If the thought amazes you as much as it did me, then you might have run off and tried it for yourself. But there’s a problem. Remember what I said above – it’s a hidden feature!

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More clues point to Google phone

Specialized blogs are abuzz this week with rumors that Internet giant Google will soon launch the “Google Phone” or “GPhone,” a cheap mobile phone equipped with Google’s operating system.

High-tech product specialist Engadget said a Google announcement would come next week, adding that a Google operating system would be tailor-made for the new cell phone.

According to another blog, CrunchGear, “Google is currently assessing over twenty (of Taiwan’s) HTC models” and plans to launch its cell phone between January and March of 2008.

Photographs of Google’s touch-screen handset are already on the Internet, and according to Rizzn.com, it will cost a mere $100.

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Bloggers battered by viral storm

Google’s Blogger site is being used by malicious hackers who are posting fake entries to some blogs.

The fake entries contain weblinks that lead to booby-trapped downloads that could infect a Windows PC.

Infected computers are being hijacked by the gang behind the attacks and either mined for saleable data or used for other attacks. The Blogger attack is the latest in a series by a gang that has managed to hijack hundreds of thousands of PCs.

Security researcher Alex Eckelberry from Sunbelt Software first noticed the booby-trapped links turning up on Blogger on 27 August.

Astronomers move live data 41,000 kilometres at 250Mbps

Scientists have successfully carried out the first very long electronic baseline interferometry (e-VLBI) observations by connecting telescopes in China, Australia and Europe with dedicated fibre optic links.

The EXPReS project (Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service) was demonstrated at the Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) meeting in Xi’an, China.

As there is no competing traffic on the fibres, large amounts of data can be transferred in real time. The demonstration spanned 41,000km and achieved a consistent speed of 250Mbps.

Previously, data was recorded at each location and shipped on disc or tape. “What was achieved yesterday allows scientists to have immediate access to data in real time, even while experiments are in progress,” said Chris Hancock, CEO of AARNet.

Spammers use YouTube to spread Storm worm

In yet another twist to the Storm worm menace, spammers are using a fake YouTube site to trick users into downloading malicious code which could turn their PCs into bots.

In line with the trend for virus writers to use Web sites hosting malicious code to infect vulnerable PCs, the latest effort to spread the Storm worm attempts to hijack the YouTube name to cause infections. Using a site which carries YouTube branding, those behind the attack hope to capitalise on the popularity of the video sharing Web site to trick unwary users.

Those who fall for the trick are directed to a site which includes a link to a downloadable video file carrying the Storm worm.

Using typical social engineering techniques, an e-mail containing a link to the fake YouTube site is distributed as spam, with the message: “Man you have got to tell me where you picked her up. I saw this on the web. It has to be you. Check it out yourself at…”

Yahoo Updates Mail

Even after a long beta, revised Web mail service offers some surprises.

Yahoo Inc. will close an almost two-year public test for its new version of Yahoo Mail on Monday with several new enhancements, as the Sunnyvale, California, Internet giant boosts this Webmail service that is key to both its usage and advertising growth.

Yahoo will remove the beta tag from the new Yahoo Mail version on Monday and will roll it out to all of the service’s 254 million active users worldwide in the coming six weeks.

A few surprises because

The new Yahoo Mail has been available to all of the service’s users for almost a year in beta form, its enhancements aren’t a secret, but Yahoo is announcing some new improvements.

For example, all users will see an improvement in performance and speed with this “general availability” version of the new Yahoo Mail, as well as an expansion of the search refinement features.

In addition, the capability to initiate an instant messaging session with Yahoo Messenger users from within Yahoo Mail has been extended to include Microsoft Windows Live Messenger users and will be available worldwide as well.

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Hot deal: Xbox 360 HD-DVD, plus six HD-DVD movies, for $170

We’ve seen the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player listed at close to $200, so we’re happy to find it offered for quite a bit less.

The Xbox 360 HD-DVD player is an inexpensive way for 360 owners to get high-def movies. For you gamers who already love your Xbox, just plug in the HD-DVD player and boost your at-home viewing with ultra-sharp images and surround sound.

What: Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player plus six HD-DVD movies
How much: $159.99
Shipping: $9
Where: GoGamer (via LogicBuy)
When: Through unknown date

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