According to the report published by Arrington, Google has been in the process of making a smartphone that follows the company’s directions to the T. That basically means they have a handset manufacturer who is working with them and following their specifications. In fact, the latest buzzword there is probably ‘Google Says’. So what does Google say?

That is something we don’t know yet but we do know that this new phone is not going to compromise on anything at all. It is being made to deliver what Google thinks a modern smartphone should be like. So this is not just a Google Experience phone but the true Android vision that Google has. It is meant to show their customers exactly what Google means by a smartphone.

But therein lies a problem. Google is not supposed to make an Android phone. They have too many partner companies who are making their own Android phones. Google’s handset would compete with theirs and that is not how you maintain a healthy relationship. So how do you maintain it and still get what you want?

Arrington has an idea. He suggests that the device will not be a true phone but merely a VoIP device. That way, it will get to have everything awesome that Android has to offer and yet will not compete with the offerings from their partner companies. If they are really making such device, why not just make a tablet? I am sure they see the vast potential in that. What is the use of giving someone a phone shaped MID that has VoIP instead of GSM or CDMA?

May be this is Google’s idea of the future – everything based on the Internet. It does tie in with what Google has to say about practically everything that involves technology and communication of some sort – move it online! Case in point – the Google Chrome OS. It takes your standard Linux OS and turns it into a mere client for all sorts of cloud services. As a result, you get to forget about backing up, maintaining, cleaning and generally thinking about how to get it to work and stay working.

However, the viability of such device depends greatly on one thing. This is that one thing that Google cannot move online – the very means to get online! You have many other carriers all over the world who have the fasted 3G network just like AT&T does and also the spottiest coverage, against just like AT&T does! And worst of all, they may be the best carrier in some countries! What use will be the phone then? We are still far away from a truly global coverage on mobile data networks, especially in countries that are no fully developed.

The current Android Super phone

However, if Google chooses to work with an existing partner who agrees to play ‘Google Says’ – will it harm them all that much? We already have Google Experience phones. So now we can have the Über Google Experience phone. In any case, Google has at least realized the age old truth – if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Dear old Steve knew that decades ago and now look where he is. Google has done things their own way so far (Search, Ads, Mail, Wave, etc.) and that has led to exponential growth. So why stop now? They have done it with the Chrome OS, where they will be strictly controlling what hardware it is running on. And I am sure they have been disappointed with some of the recent Android phones. So it makes sense logically to make their own version of the Android phone. Wouldn’t you agree?

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Martin has posted his concerns about Chrome OS in his insightful “Google Chrome OS: My concerns“. I am in full accord with Martins’ take on cloud computing. But instead of discussing my feelings on the cloud or why we need another OS, I thought it would be beneficial to take a look at a running instance of the Google Chrome OS. I will preface this by saying the OS is in the very early stages of development. But even with the early stages it is quite obvious where this fledgling operating system is heading.

Getting and “installing”

In case you are interested in trying Chrome OS out you can with the help of either VirtualBox or VMware. Since we’ve covered VirtualBox here on Ghacks (read my article “Install VirtualBox with USB Support” to learn how to install VirtualBox) I will show you how to get Chrome running with that application.

After you have VirtualBox up and running you will need to download an image file to use. I have tried both the Chrome OS VirtualBox image and the VMware image on VirtualBox. The results of the VirtualBox image was a black screen that wouldn’t boot. The VMware image, however, was able to successfully boot. So it is my recommendation that you hop over to the Google Chrome page on Gdgt and download the VMware image. You will have to register on the site in order to get to the downloads page.

The download is just over 300 MB and will come in zip form. After you unzip the file you will have a vmdk file ready to use. What you will need to do is move that file to your VirtualBox hard disk directory with the command:

mv *vmdk ~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/

When that file is properly located you can then create a new virtual machine using that image as your hard disk.

What you get

Figure 1

When Chrome OS boots (and it does so fairly quickly) you will be at a login prompt. It shouldn’t surprise you to find out the login/password is your GMail username/password credentials. As you can see, in Figure 1, your Google Chrome OS experience will very closely resemble the experience you have in Google Chrome – the browser.

But what else can you do? So far not much. I have read about application panels, but it seems as if you have to have a google.com login to experience them. I am, sadly enough, only the holder of a gmail.com login so I can not witness, first hand, some of the other features of the OS. Without having that login there is so little to the OS, in its current state, that it seems nothing more than a web browser running without an apparent operating system (which I believe is the point).

One of the few features of the OS I have managed to find is the ability to pin a page to a tab. What this effectively does is allow you to create a tab dedicated to a page (or Google application). For example: If you use Calendar, Mail, and Documents frequently you could pin each of these tools to their own tabs so that, in order to use a tool, you only have to click that that tools’ tab.

It should be pretty obvious what the intention of the Google Chrome OS is – a foolproof, web-based, single minded operating system who’s experience will only be as good as the applications available to it. This type of operating system seems as if it wants to take the metaphor of the mobile OS and put it square in the middle of your desktop. But with the way the web experience is growing vs. the computing habits of the average user – it makes perfect sense. You have a stripped down OS that can do everything you need to do without having anything on the periphery to confuse or confound the user.

“Features”

Figure 2

After playing around with the OS I have found a few features in place that are usable. You can add a compact navigation bar (see Figure 2). By default this bar (text area to the left in Figure 2) is not there. You have to click on the Options menu and select “Compact Nav Bar” for this to appear. But where is the Options menu? Take a look in Figure 2. The downward-pointing arrow in the far right corner is clicked in order to reveal the Options. You will be surprised to see that this menu is very similar to the Google Chrome Options menu.

As I mentioned earlier, you can pin a page to a tab. Say you use Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Documents frequently. Instead of creating bookmarks for these pages, all you need to do is open that page up, right click the tab, and select Pin Tab. This will create a tab for that page (or App if you will). Now, as Google Chrome OS is very much in the early stages, these pinned tabs will disappear upon reboot.

Final thoughts

It’s only a start, but the Google Chrome OS has all of the underpinnings of something that could have remarkable impact on a very specific application. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest using this early release, but when it hits beta, it will certainly be worth a try.

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Another difference that becomes obvious right away is the support for both Windows and Linux operating systems whereas Ninite only supports Windows. AllMyApps on the other hand makes it more difficulty to finish the process, especially at first run. The user needs to download the application and install it on the computer system. An account at the website needs to be registered afterwards. Once that is done it comes down to selecting the applications that should be installed on the user system.

That selection takes more time compared to Ninite as the developers have listed them in categories with no apparent option to view all at once. It usually takes a few clicks to add an application to the list of applications. AllMyApps offers more applications than Ninite does. Both seem to provide access to popular applications such as CCleaner, Google Talk, Paint.net or ImgBurn to name a few.

The applications need to be transferred to the installed application. The web browser will display a launch application dialog (Firefox does at least, not tested in other web browsers) with the AllMyApps application preselected. Security software of the operating system, like UAC in Windows, might also display a prompt that needs to be accepted before the data can be transferred. The program will then display the applications in its interface giving the user the option to cancel or start the installation.

A click on start will initiate the download of the setups and afterwards the installation of the selected software programs without further user interaction. Users who want to install multiple applications at once now have two programs to chose one. Ninite works only in Windows and does not offer as many applications but is less complicated to use. AllMyApps is compatible with Windows and Ubuntu Linux, offers more applications to install but makes it harder to install the applications due to the registration and software selection process.

Users who want to try out AllMyApps can visit the project’s homepage to do so.

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The new search results layout will use a cleaner design with an additional left sidebar. The left sidebar will always be visible and seems to have originated from the advanced search options which currently have to be expanded to make them visible. The sidebar will make use of colorful icons for permanent listings at the top and a dynamic lower part that display contents depending on the choices the user made. A selection of video for instance will display filters for playtime, date of publication or quality while the selection of images will display image related filters.

The default entry point for most searches is Everything which will display the standard mixed search engine results. The Google search engine will guess the most appropriate mode, a search for Mercedes videos will therefor display the video mode as the default entry point again with the option to switch to another mode.

It is likely that Google will roll out this new search interface to all users eventually. What’s your opinion on the matter? It will likely be another difficulty change for Google users who lately had to endure the new Google homepage design with the fading links.

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You can watch that video directly at Youtube by following this link. The 1080p videos seem to make use of the &fmt=37 parameter which can be added to the url to see if the Youtube video supports 1080p.

The second feature consists actually of two technologies: automatic captions and automatic timing.

Auto-Timing: Upload a transcript (a simple file with the text of what’s said in the video), and through speech recognition technology we’ll turn it into synchronized captions. Timing is the toughest part of creating captions, but now this should be much easier. The technology works best for videos with good sound quality and clear spoken English.

Automatic timing ensures that an external transcript is being used to avoid errors during speech recognition. This does however mean that a transcript of the video needs to be available. Youtube will automatically turn the transcript into synchronized captions through the use of speech recognition technologies.

Auto-Captions: We use the same speech recognition technology to create machine-generated captions (which can then be translated into 51 languages). You can see auto-caps in action right now on a range of educational channels, such as UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Yale, UCLA, Duke, UCTV, Columbia, PBS, National Geographic, Demand Media, UNSW and most Google channels, including YouTube’s. Click on the menu button at the bottom right of the video player, then click CC and the arrow to its left, then click the new “Transcribe Audio” button. In time, we hope to expand this feature for many more YouTube videos.

Automatic captions on the other hand uses speech recognition not only for timing purposes but also for creating the video transcript.

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Here it is possible to change the output directory and video bitrate before the queued videos are processed. Advanced users can edit batch files with advanced settings that are located in the program’s installation directory. These batch files contain the default configuration for the video to mkv conversion. The standard settings produce great results but advanced users might want to tweak the settings further to improve the quality of the output further.

Video To MKV will automatically detect several subtitle formats (srt, idx, sub) which are then automatically embedded in the mkv file that is created. The software program supports multiple audio channels as well.

Video To MKV is an easy to use program. All it takes to convert videos to the mkv format is to drag and drop them into the interface to process them one after the other. Advanced users can tweak the settings in the supplied batch files. Not the most comfortable way of editing the video conversion settings but better than no options to tweak them at all.

The software is available for download at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of Microsoft Windows and does not need any additional software installed to function properly.

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Torrent Fetcher uses a basic interface that contains both the torrents search engine and the results listings. It is possible to enter a search phrase and start the search for torrents right away or configure some of the advanced options like the number of results that should be retrieved, the torrent download directory or a specific category that should be searched to avoid that unrelated torrents are displayed in the search result listing. Up to 1000 results can be displayed by the software. Categories include the usual assortment of games, tv shows, movies, software and music that one finds in almost every torrent search engine on the Internet.

Torrents in the search results are displayed with their name, size, seeders, peers and date it was added to the database. Torrents are color coded so that the user can see on first glance if a torrent is well seeded or not.

A double-click on any file will download the torrent to the local computer system. Some Bittorrent clients can be configured to monitor directories for torrents. The programs could therefor be configured to start the downloads of the files right after the download of the torrent file has finished if the client supports it. There is also an option to automatically launch downloaded torrents which is another way of adding them directly after download the Bittorrent application.

The developer of Torrent Fetcher could improve the software program by adding the following features to it:

• The ability to retrieve additional information about a torrent. It is currently not possible to see where a torrent originated from.
• The option to download multiple torrents at once.
• Search filters like excluding words from the search results or searching for an exact phrase.

Torrent Fetcher is a comfortable alternative to searching for torrents on websites. It does not offer the same amount of information that those websites usually offer on the other hand. This is something that the developer should consider improving on.

The software program is available for download at the developer’s website. It is compatible with most versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

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Chrome OS will be minimalistic which has the advantages that it will boot fast. Several security concepts like sandboxing processes or verifying core systems during startup make it harder to attack and less likely to spread.

There is one premise though that users have to understand. Chrome OS is not aiming for the same market that Microsoft is targeting with Windows or Apple is targeting with Mac OS. At least not in the years to come. Why? Because it is to limited. Here are a few examples:

• Cloud based data storage means that an Internet connection is required to access the data. Google probably plans to make it possible to store data on the local computer system (Google Gears?) so that it can be accessed without Internet connection. This does however mean that a fast connection is required to be able to upload, download and sync the data. It could on the other hand be the perfect system for users who want to use it for very specific operations, i.e. banking, chatting or social networking to name a few.
• Entertainment: If you want to play that 10 Gigabyte ultra-HD video sitting on your desktop you can do so by clicking on it. How will this work if the video is in the cloud? What about an audio collection? This could become really problematic if data cannot be stored offline, especially for users with slow Internet connections. But then again, who says that this is one of the applications of the OS?
• Games are another area where Chrome OS will not cut it. You can play browser games sure but that’s it for now.

There are however some advantages. This (likely) includes lower hardware requirements to run the operating system (not only cpu or memory but also hard drive space, optical drives), data backups that are taken care of or a possible lower battery usage for the system.

Chrome OS will be a very specialized operating system in my opinion and not the Microsoft Windows killer that many users hope it to become.

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The HTC Dragon AKA HTC Passion, is going to be the toast of the Android community if it really has everything that it seems to have. Even though details have been scanty, imaginations speculations have been running pretty wild after the screenshots and live shots were revealed.

Now, Techcrunch claims that the phone has been on the prowl at Android headquarters for quite some time now and top Android people are already using it. It has been undergoing a lot of testing and it is likely that a release is imminent.

It is said to be a lot slimmer than either the Droid or the iPhone. Of course, it won’t have a keyboard so being slimmer than the Droid is nothing to talk about. But the 1GHz Snapdragon processor is. It will blaze through everything that the OS has to offer and will certainly help you with multi-tasking. HTC has recently shown with the HD2 that they are really good at making phones. If they can make Windows Mobile into that good a phone, they should logically be able to make a killer Android phone.

So Techcrunch is of the opinion that this is the next super phone that will carry Android and we agree. If Google is taking a personal interest in it, it has to be something special. I don’t think the top Android players carry and test every Android phone that comes out.

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But what’s so special about Chrome OS? The Google blog mentions three aspects that distinguish it from other operating systems:

First, it’s all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.

This means that Chrome OS is storing all data in the cloud. Many web applications handle data in this fashion already, think about Gmail, blogs or photo hosting websites for example. Privacy advocates on the other hand might find this problematic depending on the privacy and security regulations.

Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn’t trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot. While no computer can be made completely secure, we’re going to make life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys. If you dig security, read the Chrome OS Security Overview or watch the video.

Chrome OS implements some security features like sandboxing to secure the operating system and data from taking harm. The operating system is also checking its code on every startup to verify the integrity. Would be interesting to know how this affects boot time. Most of this is already available in today’s operating systems or by using third party software like Sandboxie.

Most of all, we are obsessed with speed. We are taking out every unnecessary process, optimizing many operations and running everything possible in parallel. This means you can go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds. Our obsession with speed goes all the way down to the metal. We are specifying reference hardware components to create the fastest experience for Google Chrome OS.

This does sound interesting but there are already other options to boot a computer in a significantly lower time than today’s average (a Phoenix bios showcased a much faster boot time a few months ago).

It will nevertheless be interesting how this turns out. According to the blog posts first consumer releases can be expected at the end of 2010. Here is a short – well done – video about Chrome OS.

What’s your first impression of Chrome OS?

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When someone puts a file up on a server for download, how does the host or the end-user know, for sure, the file they are about to download (or are serving up) is the valid file? What if someone hacked into the server and replaced the file with a bogus file that contained malicious code? It’s happened before and it will happen again. Fortunately there is a way to avoid downloading invalid files – checking the md5 hash. The only problem is that this method only works if the host and user knows how to use md5 tools. In this tutorial you will learn how to add an md5 checksum to a file and how to run a check on a file you have downloaded.

What is md5 and checksum?

Before we continue with the actual steps, you might benefit from knowing exactly how the process of checksumming works. MD5 stands for Message Digest algorithm 5, which is a cryptographic 128 bit hash function and serves as a “fingerprint” for a digital file. A checksum is a fixed-size datum that is computed from a block of data. When it is crucial for a piece of data (such as a download) to be valid, the datum is compared to the original block the datum was computed from to check for a match. When an md5 checksum matches, the user/host can be certain the file is valid. When the md5 checksum does not match, a red flag should immediately go up and the original block of data should be discarded. If a file changes by so much as a byte, the checksum will fail.

For most users these tasks are handled from the command line. There are GUI tools available (such as GtkHASH) that can tackle the same tasks. But for the purposes of this tutorial we will stick with the command line tool.

Creating an md5 sum

For those who plan on hosting files for download, you will want to know how to create an md5 sum. This is very simple. Open up a terminal and change to the directory holding the file you want to work with. Say, for example, you want to create an md5 on the file /var/www/files/download.tgz. To do this you would change to the /var/www/files directory and issue the following command:

md5 download.tgz

The above command will output something like:

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I am referring to the fact that it is carrying an ARM Cortex A8 chip inside or so the rumor mills say. That chip is supported with a hefty Dose of RAM – whole 256MB of it. Then there is the PowerVR graphics processor – Kurara has one inside it.

All of this has been made possible by the machinations of one Mr. Eldar Murtazin, the one who runs the Mobile Review website. He promises greater details will follow soon. But his overall impression of the Symbian 80 OS on the Kurara is that it is extremely fast.

Well, if you intend to run a slightly older OS on a comparatively newer processor, you are likely to get good results.

Kurara was previously taken to be the little brother of the Sony Ericsson Aino, having a smaller camera size and over all slower components. But now it looks like the Kurara is poised to take over the higher end of the mid range section. If the UI is palatable and the phone runs without problems, a lot of people will snap it up as a budget phone because logically it shouldn’t be as expensive as the Aino or the XPERIA phones. Over all it is likely to be closer to traditional phones than the modern smartphones even though Symbian has third party apps and this is a full touchscreen phone. Whatever happens, we will be watching you Kurara. [read]

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The image viewer is available in several editions including a portable version and an installer. It supports multiple languages and is completely free for personal use. The main interface of the software looks a bit cluttered and very colorful at first glance. Especially the two icon bars at the top of the window can cause some confusion at the beginning. It is possible to make changes to the skin but not the the interface itself. The designs itself looks professionally done and the three program windows for browsing folders, previewing images and thumbnails are intuitive to use after all.

A click on a thumbnail image will display a larger preview of that image in the preview window in the left sidebar. A left-click in that preview window will zoom in on the image. It is even possible to move around with the mouse as long as the left mouse button is pressed.

FastStone Image Viewer comes with an assortment of image editing tools. Not as much as image editing software programs like Paint.net, Gimp or even Adobe Photoshop offer but enough to perform the most common image editing operations like resizing, rotating, cropping, changing colors, brightness or contrasts or removing red eye effects.

There are also options to perform batch operations like converting or resizing multiple image formats at once. A handful of other interesting modules are available that include the ability to create slideshows, remove JPEG metadata, change timestamps or compare images. The program supports file tagging and is a solid program for these kinds of tasks.

FastStone Image Viewer 4.0 is a fast comfortable image viewer that can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

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According to the rumor, Apple has pushed back the Tablet launch schedule from early 2010 to later. The original schedule, apparently, was around March 2010 and the new schedule is sometime in the 2^nd half of 2010.

The reason behind the delay is cited as a last minute decision to use OLED screens. This new decision adds a bit more development time and hence the launch has been rescheduled.

But OLED screens are expensive and according to certain estimates, the OLED version can cost around $2000 for the customer. The OLED screen is supposed to be around 9.7”, which is pretty big. There is a normal TFT LCD version in the works apparently, that will cost a more manageable sum of around $800-$1000. The LCD screen will be bigger too – around 10.6”.

There is another dimension to the rumor – OLED prices are expected to drop massively in the next year. So Apple is likely to wait till the prices come down so that the OLED version can retail at a lower price. And since this will need a data connection on the go – it will probably be sold by carriers who will subsidize it. So the price will become more manageable for the consumers.

The manufacturing partners have been identifies as Foxconn, Quanta and Pegatron. [read]

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The 2012 release is codenamed Windows 8 and Microsoft does not explicitly state that this will also be the release year of the new operating system although that is generally assumed by everyone.

Windows 8, which is currently only a codename for the new operating system (did not they say so previously when asked about Windows 7 as well?), will be major released opposed to the release updates Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

Our thanks to Stephen Chapman for publishing those two Windows roadmap images. Check out the Windows 8 News website for the latest news and rumors about Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8.

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The following article contains an overview of Microsoft beta releases that have been made available yesterday. Each item will be introduced with its name, a small summary and a link to the official project page at the Microsoft website which contains additional information and the downloads.

Microsoft Office Web Apps (Beta)

Microsoft Office Web Apps are new web-based tools that extend the Microsoft Office 2010 experience to your browser. Office Web Apps enable you to view, do light editing, and share your Office documents from virtually anywhere. With these online companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote you’ll always have the tools you need, wherever you are.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2
Hardware Requirements: Processor – 64-bit; Dual Processor; 3 GHz, RAM – 4 GB for standalone; 8 GB for farm, Hard Disk – 80 GB
Software Requirements: Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Server or Microsoft SharePoint Server
Size: 177.8 MB – 1367.7 MB*

official Microsoft link

Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus Beta

Microsoft Office 2010 gives you powerful new tools to express your ideas, solve problems, and connect with people. Applications include Word, Access, PowerPoint, Publisher, Outlook, InfoPath, Excel, SharePoint Workspace, OneNote, and Communicator.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 3 (32-bit), Windows Vista with SP1 (32-bit or 64-bit), Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit or 64-bit), Windows Server 2008 with SP2 (32-bit or 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
Hardware Requirements: 500 MHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher, 256 MB of system memory or more, 3 GB of available disk space, 1024×768 or higher resolution monitor, DVD-R/W Drive
Software Requirements: None
Size: 700 MB

official Microsoft link (registration required)

Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 Beta

Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2010 provides contact management, sales, marketing and project management for the small business or small team.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 3
Hardware Requirements: Computer and processor: 500 MHz processor or higher, Memory: 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher, Hard disk: 2.5 GB; a portion of the disk space will be freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard drive, Display: 1024×768 or higher resolution monitor; 1024×576 or higher for Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word.
Software Requirements: Outlook 2010
Size: 366.9 MB

32-bit download page | 64-bit download page

Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 Beta

Microsoft Visio 2010 Beta takes diagramming to a new level with dynamic, data-driven visualization tools and templates, enhanced process management capabilities, and advanced Web sharing. Bring real-time data together from multiple sources, including Excel and Microsoft SQL Server, in one powerful diagram using vibrant graphics like icons and data bars. Manage processes with sub-processes and rules and logic validation to ensure accuracy and consistency across the organization. Create SharePoint workflows and export them to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for real-time execution and monitoring. Share refreshable, data-linked diagrams over the Web with anyone, even those who don’t own Visio.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 3
Hardware Requirements: Computer and processor: 500 MHz processor or higher, Memory: 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher, Hard disk: 2.5 GB; a portion of the disk space will be freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard drive, Display: 1024×768 or higher resolution monitor; 1024×576 or higher for Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Word.
Software Requirements: Certain inking features require running Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition or later. Speech recognition functionality requires a close-talk microphone and audio output device. Information Rights Management features require access to a Windows 2003 Server with SP1 or later running Windows Rights Management Services.

Connectivity to Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 or later is required for certain advanced functionality in Outlook 2007. Instant Search requires Microsoft Windows Desktop Search 3.0. Dynamic Calendars require server connectivity.

Connectivity to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP1 or later running Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services is required for certain advanced collaboration functionality. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is required for certain advanced functionality. PowerPoint Slide Library requires Office SharePoint Server 2007. To share data among multiple computers, the host computer must be running Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows XP Professional with SP2, or later.

Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, 32 bit browser only. Internet functionality requires Internet access (fees may apply).

Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration and operating system.
Size: 296.5 MB

32-bit download page | 64-bit download page (registration required)

Microsoft Project Server 2010 Beta

Project Server 2010 Beta ensures organizations select and deliver the right projects, while gaining greater visibility and control of resources leading to improved productivity and better business performance. Participate in the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Beta and be the first to see how the innovative new capabilities can help organizations to:

• Capture all types of work in a centralized demand management repository
• Select the right project portfolios and maximize resource utilization
• Build and conveniently update project schedules online
• Create powerful dashboards and project reports

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2
Hardware Requirements: Processor: 64-bit, dual processor, 3 GHz, RAM: 4 GB for stand-alone or evaluation installation, 8 GB for single server and multiple server farm installation for production use, Hard Disk: 80 GB.
Software Requirements: SharePoint Server 2010 Beta is a required prerequisite for Project Server installation, SQL Server 2005 SP3 CU4 or SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU3, SQL Server 2008 AMO objects.
Size: 22.1 MB

download link (registration required)

Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 Beta

For organizations looking to help users find information and expertise quickly and easily through a search capability able to address their most challenging needs – includes all the search features and integration capabilities of SharePoint Server 2010, plus a more engaging and conversational search experience, use of context to provide specific search experiences for different needs (such as departments or geographies), advanced content processing capabilities that create metadata and add structure to unstructured content, and deep platform flexibility, scalability, and extensibility. For use with SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2
Hardware Requirements: Processor Minimum: 64-bit, 4 CPU cores, 2.0 GHz, Recommended: 64-bit, 8 CPU cores, 2.0 GHz, RAM Minimum: 4 GB, Recommended: 16 GB, Hard Disk
Minimum: 50 GB, Recommended: 1 TB RAID* across 6 spindles, Other DVD Drive.

In general, RAID5 configurations with 128 KB stripe size provides a good combination of performance and reliability as content storage for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. Different RAID controllers have varying sweet spots for operation. SAS disks are recommended over SATA. Within a fixed power and cost budget, performance will be better with a larger number of 10k RPM disks compared to a smaller number of 15k RPM disk.
Software Requirements: Windows Server 2008 SP2 x64 or Windows Server 2008 R2 x64
Size: 651 MB

download link (registration required)

Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Beta

Microsoft Project Professional 2010 Beta gives you powerful, visually enhanced ways to successfully manage and deliver a wide range of projects. Easier and more intuitive, Project Professional 2010 Beta provides flexible choices to simplify planning, collaboration and resource management.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 3
Hardware Requirements: Computer and processor: 700 MHz processor or higher, Memory: 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher, Hard disk: 1.5 gigabyte (GB); a portion of this disk space will be freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard drive, Display: 1024×768 or higher resolution monitor.
Software Requirements: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later running Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise is required for certain advanced collaboration functionality. Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 SP2 or later required to use the Import Outlook Tasks feature. Visual Reports require Microsoft Office Excel 2003 SP2 or later and Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 SP1 or later. Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 is required for Project Professional 2010 Beta task list synchronization.Project Server 2010 Beta is required for enterprise project and resource management capabilities. Exchange 2007 SP1 or later required for importing tasks to the Outlook tasks list.
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Beta (installed as part of Microsoft Project Server 2010 Beta) is required for publishing projects, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Project Tasks List. Microsoft.Net Framework Version 3.5 is required for the Resource Substitution Wizard.
Size: 651 MB
download link 32-bit | download link 64-bit (registration required)

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No Color is basically an on and off switch for colors and image backgrounds on websites. The developer mentioned that the Firefox user had to drag and drop the icon into one of the toolbars of the web browser after installation; This was not necessary on a Firefox 3.6 test system. The icon to switch the design and layout of a website was already linked in the status bar of the browser.

A click on the button will remove the colors and the image background of the page. The Ghacks homepage looks the following after clicking on the icon in the status bar:

The settings of the add-on contain an option to remove the icon from the status bar and place it in the View menu instead. No Color works extremely well on pages that use irritating colors or background images that make it harder to impossible to access the actual contents of the website. The add-on is available at the Mozilla Firefox website where it can be downloaded. It is compatible with all Firefox 3 versions.

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All they need to do is to join the new Orkut community at Orkut which will hand out an invitation to the redesigned Orkut interface to the user after the joining. The new Orkut community page can be accessed here. Just log into Orkut first and click on the join link in the left sidebar afterwards to join the Orkut community.

Some Orkut users might be wondering if the redesign is worth out trying right now, here are the main changes in comparison to the old Orkut design:

• * Fewer pages, faster browsing: We’ve concentrated orkut’s principal actions onto your homepage, making it a one-stop-shop for nearly everything that you’d like to do. Now you can chat, watch videos, and browse and search within your full friends and communities lists without ever having to open a new page. See a photo, video, or status message in your activity stream that you’d like to comment on? Just start typing away. After all, fewer pages and a GWT interface mean less time waiting for things to load and more time doing what really matters– hanging out with your friends!
• A clean, simple interface: We’ve reorganized the most important activites on orkut so that they are easy to find and even easier to use. Look out for larger pictures, easier to access notifications, targeted friend suggestions, and key updates closer to the top of your homepage. Now you can even use your friends’ profile pages to keep up with their most recent activities and leave them scraps.
• Greater personalization: Make your orkut profile and homepage truly your own by choosing the color that best fits your style. Have a personality that’s too unique to be captured by words? We’ve also made it possible for you to customize your “about me” section, adding video, OpenSocial applications and much more to your array of options.

The request to join the new community is pending until a moderator of the community approves it. This can take a few hours, sometimes even longer. It is still one of the fastest ways of being able to access the new Orkut design unless you know someone who could send you an invite directly.

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Microsoft has now confirmed that they started working on Internet Explorer 9 and it seems that they have big plans for this browser. Three demo videos have been released by Channel 9 that show some of the Internet Explorer 9 developers showcasing some of the improvements that they already build into the web browser. The Sunspider Javascript benchmark comparison looks very interesting as the new Internet Explorer 9 JavaScript engine closes the gap to Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 to about 100 ms.

Standards and Interoperability

JavaScript performance:

Surfing On The GPU

The most interesting changes that have been announced so far:

• New Javascript engine
• GPU enhanced page rendering
• Better interoperability and web standards support

It is interesting that Microsoft is giving the public a chance to view the progress that they are making. They already changed their strategy during the Windows 7 development phase where they created blogs, videos and other means of showcasing the development progress and features to the public.

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Even worse was the fact that Firefox users were not able to manage these components at all as they would not be displayed in the add-on’s and plugin’s section of the web browser. This meant that Firefox users were not able to disable them if they encountered incompatibilities. But the Mozilla developers themselves were also unable to react on incompatible components or those that would pose a security risk to Firefox users. You might remember that they did block a Microsoft plugin globally after a security vulnerability was disclosed but that was a plugin, not something that was added to the components directory.

From Firefox 3.6 Beta 3 on the components directory is locked for third parties. This means that third party programs that were using this way to add their functionality to Firefox are not working anymore since they are blocked by the web browser. Only Mozilla components will from this web browser version on be allowed to use the components directory.

Neowin and others have reported about this but got their facts wrong as they linked this stability and security measure to the Microsoft silent install incident a while ago. Microsoft back then installed two plugins without the user’s consent, something that other software companies like Apple do as well. Microsoft’s bad luck was that a security vulnerability was disclosed shortly thereafter which made the Mozilla developers block the plugin globally for all Firefox users.

The components directory is a subdirectory of the Firefox installation directory.

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