Boxee Box release date delayed until November

Despite previous intentions, the set-top device being developed by Boxee and D-Link has been postponed until the fourth quarter of this year. The Boxee Box was originally slated to ship by the end of the second quarter – or around now – but it seems that timeframe was "overly ambitious." The companies now plan to launch the media-streamer sometime during November, but an exact date hasn't been disclosed.

There isn't an official reason for the delay, but it sounds like Boxee just needs a little more time to tweak the software. The company said its goal is for the Boxee Box to play 1080p videos from the Web or local network using hardware accelerating whenever possible, and to provide a TV browser experience that can handle things like Flash 10.1 – all without the device feeling obsolete a year after folks buy it.

The Boxee Box is expected to ship for less than $200 and features include an Nvidia Tegra T250 SoC, HDMI, S/PDIF, and RCA connectors, two USB ports, an SD card slot, gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. Naturally, Boxee's media software will be preinstalled and the machine will support a range of formats, such as H.264, MKV, DivX, and VC-1. It'll also ship with a pretty slick looking keyboard remote.

Archos 13 ultra-portable with dual-core Atom now available

Archos is now readily welcoming orders via its online French store for its new Archos 13. Priced at €399.98 (~$480), the ultra-thin treads dangerously close to being cast aside as "yet another Atom-based netbook," but it doesn't come without a few perks. For starters, the 13.3-inch (1366x768) display is a bit larger than you'd expect from a netbook, and the system packs a dual-core Atom D510 processor, which is typically reserved for compact desktops.

Other specs include 1GB of system memory, a 160GB hard drive, a 1.3-megapixel camera, 10/100 Ethernet, an integrated modem, wireless b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, VGA output (no HDMI), three USB 2.0 ports, an MMC/SD/SDHC card reader, and audio jacks. Unfortunately, there's no HD-capable graphics, such as Nvidia's Ion or even a decoder chip from Broadcom. With a six-cell battery the machine weighs about 3.5lbs, measures just over an inch thick, and runs Windows 7 Starter.

MSI's 17-inch GX740 gaming notebook ships stateside

Another one of the gaming notebooks MSI unveiled at CES in January has crept onto the market, with units readily available on sites like Newegg. The 17-inch GX740 features a 1680x1050 resolution, Intel Core i5 and i7 processors (the model on Newegg packs a 1.60GHz i7-720QM), up to 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM, and ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics with 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM.

Hard drives range in capacity from 250GB to 500GB and some models are equipped with a Blu-ray drive, but the GX740 on Newegg only lists a DVD burner. A subwoofer accompanies the notebook's speakers and connectivity includes gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n, optional Bluetooth, VGA and HDMI-out, three USB 2.0 ports (one eSATA combo), a multi-card reader, and an Express Card slot.

The GX740 ships with a nine-cell battery and there's no mention of how far that'll get you, but battery life is mostly irrelevant when discussing a 7lb Core i7 and Radeon HD 5870-powered laptop. It's backed by a one-year warranty, has Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit preloaded, and the GX740-0749US listed on Newegg costs $1,400, so expect to see a similar price tag elsewhere.

Lenovo intros business-oriented ThinkCentre M90z all-in-one

Lenovo has unboxed the ThinkCentre M90z, which is claimed to be the "industry's first large business-focused, 23-inch all-in-one" desktop PC. The new AIO doesn't stray far from the norm in core specs, with hardware including a choice of Intel's latest Core i3 and i5 processors, DDR3 RAM, a selection of both disk and solid-state drives, a DVD player, as well as optional Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

Some additional features include an optical touchscreen, a physical on/off toggle for the webcam, automatic brightness adjustment to conserve energy, an easily removable back for in-house tech support, and security features like encrypted storage drives. Lenovo has posted a brief video discussing the design process of the ThinkCentre M90z.

The AIO is currently available through business partners and it will be on Lenovo's site later this month. It's already used by the Center for Severe Weather Research, who brings the machine on the road when tornado chasing. Pricing starts at $899.

t News Page 2 12345 Microsoft quietly pushes Firefox extension in toolbar update

It seems Microsoft is back to pushing stealth updates to unsuspecting Windows users via its Windows Update mechanism. As part of its monthly 'Patch Tuesday' cycle, the company pushed out a range of updates this week, fixing vulnerabilities in its operating system and other applications. Among those, however, the company quietly included a browser extension for IE and Firefox to fix a URL handling issue in the Bing toolbar -- whether you have it installed or not.

The update in question, KB982217, is labeled "Update for Microsoft Search Enhancement Pack" and marked as an Important update rather than Optional. This means the extension will be installed either automatically, if the user has Automatic Updates on, or manually when the user clicks Install, as Important updates are checked by default. What makes matters worse is that the update's knowledge base article says nothing about installing an extension or add-on.

There doesn't seem to be any security implications to this add-on's background installation, but as you can imagine Mozilla is not particularly amused by having Microsoft silently updating their browser -- and Firefox users probably won't be either. If you don't appreciate the extension cluttering up your Firefox, or simply don't use Bing's bar, it's safe to remove it just as you would with other extensions -- you can also delete the Firefox Extension folder from "C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Search Enhancement Pack\Search Helper\" to make sure it's gone from your Firefox install.

Logitech intros new HD webcams, updates Vid HD software

Logitech has unveiled a new line of webcams today that can take advantage of Logitech's Vid HD software to make free two-way high definition video calls. The flagship HD Pro C910 will sell for $100 and offers 720p video calling, 1080p video recording, 10-megapixel still photo captures, a Carl Zeiss lens, Logitech's Fluid Crystal technology for smoother motion and truer colors, two microphones for stereo audio, and one-click uploads to Facebook and YouTube.

The C510 features a foldable design that's ideal for users always on the go. Though most notebooks today feature built-in webcams, with this $60 stand-alone device you'll get 720p video calls and video recording, 8MP photos, and a 360-degree rotation capability. Logitech will sell its HD Webcam C310 and Logitech HD Webcam C270 for $50 and $40, respectively, with a reduced feature set but still capable of making 720p video calls.

Besides supporting Logitech's free Vid HD software, which is now available for both Windows and Mac OS X systems, all four webcams are Skype-certified and will work with all major video-calling clients including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, and Gmail Voice and Video Chat.

Google takes a page from Bing's homepage

Tired of Google's white homepage? Starting today the search giant is letting users customize its famously spartan home page with photos of their own or from a public gallery featuring the works of professional artists, by clicking a link on the bottom left corner. This is a major shift in the company's design philosophy. Google says the move is aimed at making the "search experience more relevant, useful and fun through personalization." It also makes them look a lot like Bing.

Microsoft's search engine has provided changing daily backgrounds since the service launched in May 2009. On the other hand, Google's approach to its home page has always been minimalistic, based on the notion that people want lightning-fast page loads and no distractions. These background images might remove that advantage by slowing things down a bit. Unfortunately, it seems there is no easy way of reverting to the original white background for now.

Feedback is mixed -- if not leaning towards negative. Some say this shows how Google has been feeling the heat from Microsoft's Bing search engine, while others have already "threatened" to switch providers. ZDNet's David Gewirtz also makes an interesting (albeit a tad exaggerated) point suggesting the change could have deeper consequences for the company, hurting its iconic image and confusing less-savvy users about the service they are using.

However, it seems the default Bing-like background image is just part of a 24-hour introduction of the feature, with backgrounds rotating on a random basis. Google's plain white search page is expected to return tomorrow, so they won't have to worry much about deflecting users and those who like the custom backgrounds feature can still make use of it.

MSI claims the BIOS has its days numbered, this time for real

Depending on your background you may hate the BIOS, you may completely disregard its existence, or perhaps you have grown accustomed to it and learned how to tweak it. The motherboard BIOS has evolved over the last decade to accommodate many enthusiast-oriented settings, while at the same time it has changed very little.

This is certainly not the first time someone claims the BIOS as we know it is going the way of the dodo, and then nothing happens. Back in 2003 I wrote a short piece titled "Writing an end to the bio of BIOS," describing Intel and Microsoft’s work on a replacement called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) that was set to become the new industry standard. Except for Itanium-based machines, Linux and Intel Macs, you know how that went for the average Windows computer.

Now MSI is claiming that a new revision of the same initiative (UEFI) will start to appear on motherboards before the end of the year, bringing a point-and-click interface to newer platforms beginning with Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge chipset. UEFI is supposed to bring more flexibility compared to the aging BIOS, the former is developed in the C language while the legacy BIOS uses Assembly. But perhaps most importantly, storage giant Seagate has hinted that the adoption of UEFI will be "essential" for using hard drives larger than 2TB, a kind of limitation not seen before by the BIOS. Considering that 1TB hard drives are going for as low as $40 these days, it won't be long until multiple terabyte drives become mainstream.

Manufacturers have often claimed that EFI adds an unnecessary layer of complexity given the little improvements it brings, but in the era of 32nm transistors that can switch on and off over 300 billion times in one second, how difficult can this truly be? Without meaning to open the boot time floodgates, I'll just say I wish we already had an instant booting computer that welcomed you with a full resolution splash screen and not the legacy VGA-res boot screen we've been looking at for over two decades.

Fallout: New Vegas will use Steam for DRM

A few weeks back Bethesda and Obsidian started taking questions for the next Fallout title. A staff member on Bethesda's forum posted answers to a dozen of those questions yesterday, revealing that Fallout: New Vegas will rely on Steam for DRM. After looking at other options, the developers decided that Steam is the "best, least intrusive experience for PC gamers." The use of Valve's platform is great news, considering the recent string of less-than-cherished always-connected mechanisms from folks like Ubisoft.

Offering his take on Steam, senior producer Jason Bergman said the platform is tightly integrated with New Vegas. Steamworks is implemented in "as light and unobtrusive away possible," and it will be mandatory to play the upcoming Fallout. That said, you can install the game on as many systems as you want, and besides the initial activation, an Internet connection isn't required.

Tight Steam integration also means that New Vegas will rely on the platform for friends lists, storing user preferences in the cloud, achievements and so on. Additionally, you can activate and download the retail boxed versions of the game via Steam, meaning won't have to lay hands on the DVD if that's the way you want to go.

Fallout: New Vegas is due in the third quarter and made our list of 2010's most anticipated PC games. It's a stand-alone installation in the series that follows three years after the events of Fallout 3 and although it shares a similar gameplay experience to the previous entry, there are no reoccurring characters.

Notion Ink Adam on track, non-Tegra models on the table

Notion Ink is cooking up one of the more promising tablets we've seen thus far, and although the so-called Adam has been subject of delay rumors lately, the company says its highly-anticipated slate is right on track for a Q3 2010 launch. Furthermore, according to Notion Ink founder Rohan Shravan, Notion Ink has just secured its final round of funding. The investors remained unnamed, but their cash could supposedly fuel the production of around 100,000 Adams per month.

Shravan also dropped word of the potential launch of cheaper slate models. Until now, we've known about two versions of the Adam: one with an outdoor-readable Pixel Qi display, and another with a regular LCD screen – both iterations are based on Nvidia's Tegra 2 SoC. Apparently, Notion Ink is considering the use of a second, cheaper platform, but there's no information about what chips are on the table.

Pricing is still a bit ambiguous, but earlier reports said the Adam would start at around $330 and soar up to $800 for a completely maxed out model. However, Shravan recently stated that Notion Ink has worked to get the products out at a more aggressive price than originally intended. Precisely how much more aggressive remains to be seen.

Microsoft expands Games on Demand for Windows library

Microsoft is stepping up its efforts in the digital distribution market with a new deal that will bring titles from the likes of Capcom, Rockstar, THQ, Ubisoft and others to their Games on Demand for Windows platform "day-and-date" with their release in stores. This should give a much need boost to the service's games library, which is still fairly limited when compared to Valve's Steam and other online gaming venues.

Microsoft says that beginning today with the release of "Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands", new non-Live titles will launch on Games on Demand every week, with more than 100 new titles joining the portfolio by year's end. To celebrate their latest addition they are also offering Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, both for 75% off at just $2.49 each -- or 200 Microsoft Points.

The company opened up its Games on Demand digital distribution feature late yesterday as part of its Games for Windows Live platform. As the name suggests, Games on Demand allows users to purchase titles (using a credit card or redeeming Microsoft Points) and download them directly to their PCs. Prices are comparable to other digital distribution services, ranging from $9.99 to $49.99.If you are new to Games for Windows Live you can download the client here.

Google touts fresher results with 'Caffeine' index system

Google has just rolled out a new web indexing system, dubbed Caffeine, which it claims will provide 50% fresher results for your searches by constantly updating its database to keep up with the explosion of real-time content. "Whether it's a news story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links to relevant content much sooner after it is published than was possible ever before", explained Google Software Engineer Carrie Grimes.

Under the old index, when you did a search Google would scan the various layers of its index. These layers are prioritized by importance, so it would search one group of high priority sites and then work its way down to less prioritized groups of sites. Each layer was updated on a schedule and at different rates -- the primary one was refreshed every two weeks, for example. With Caffeine, Google drops the layered architecture and instead analyzes small portions of the web and updates the index on a continuous basis. This means that recently-published content is added much sooner than before.

According to Google, Caffeine is capable of adding hundreds of thousands of pages into the Google index per second, and hundreds of thousands of gigabytes of information per day. This is the biggest change to the search engine's methodology in four years, and one that reportedly increases their ability to scale up with the rapid growth of information online.

MSI GT660 gaming notebook detailed.

Back in February, MSI introduced a new gaming notebook just ahead of CeBIT, but apart from a few core specifications, details on the GT660 were slim. With the second quarter in full swing, the Taiwanese PC maker has recently revealed more information about its pending 16-incher, which will be the first to include MSI's Turbo Drive Engine+ (TDE+) a feature said to boost CPU, RAM, and GPU performance with the touch of a button.

Under the hood, you'll find a quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, three DDR3 memory slots (as opposed to two) for up to 12GB of RAM, 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M graphics, and a 500GB hard drive along with an optional secondary 500GB drive. The GT660 is well prepared for the mounting wave of SuperSpeed USB devices, packing two USB 3.0 ports. There's also talk of a theater-grade sound system, an HDMI output, and a nine-cell battery that pushes the system weight to 7.7lbs. Pricing and availability remains a mystery.

Apple intros iPhone 4 at WWDC 2010, available June 24

As expected, Apple today announced the next iteration of their popular iPhone smartphone. Simply dubbed iPhone 4, the device introduces some new design elements like an integrated antenna system in the form of a stainless steel band that goes around the device, a flattened glass-like back for better reception, and a new high resolution "Retina Display". The latter is able to fit 326 pixels per inch of its surface, which is beyond the display capabilities of the human retina, and obviously a marked improvement over the 3GS -- or any other smartphone -- in both brightness and clarity.

The new display is 960 by 640 pixels, with an 800-to-1 contrast ratio. Like the iPad, it also has an LCD screen with IPS technology for superior viewing angles. Most of the specs we're already familiar with from previous leaks: A4 chip, larger battery, front-facing camera, micro SIM tray, 5-megapixel camera and LED flash on the back, noise cancellation mic, among other things. But Apple also threw in a new three-axis gyroscope, which paired with the iPhone's accelerometer and compass will offer six axis orientation for gaming and much more precise movement.


The camera on the back has been fitted with a backside illuminated sensor for low light photos, and besides capturing still images it can also record 720p high-definition video at 30fps. Users will be able to edit their videos with a mobile version of iMovie which will be available for $4.99 in the App Store. Also on the software side, Apple renamed its mobile operating system iOS 4 to reflect its spread to the iPod and iPad, announced iBooks for the iPhone, touted its iAds advertising platform, and unveiled its video calling software (Wi-Fi only for now) dubbed FaceTime.

Apple's iOS 4 will be free to all 3GS, 3G, and iPod Touch 2nd generation users on June 21st. As for the new iPhone 4, pre-orders start June 15 for the 16GB ($199) and 32GB ($299) models, with the phones available in stores roughly one week later on June 24. Besides the United States, Apple will launch the new iPhone in Germany, UK, France and Japan.

Alienware M11x gets Core i5, i7 and Nvidia Optimus

As expected, Dell has infused its 11-inch gaming notebook with Intel's latest processors. The new base model starts at $949 – a $150 increase from the six-month-old Core 2 Duo-based machine, which is also still available. The extra cash nets you 1.06GHz Core i5-520UM, and for another $150 ($1,099 for the total system) you can add a 1.2GHz Core i7-640UM. Additionally, to offset the extra muscle, Core i5 and i7-equipped models ship with Nvidia's Optimus automated graphics switching technology.

Standard specifications include an 11.6-inch 1366x768 display, Nvidia GeForce GT 335M discrete graphics with a gig of VRAM, 2GB to 8GB of DDR3 800MHz RAM, 160GB to 500GB of mechanical storage or a 256GB solid-state drive, wired and wireless network connectivity, a 1.3-megapixel webcam, and a 5.1-channel sound system. The M11x ships with a one-year warranty as well as a factory installed copies of Valve's game distribution client, the game Portal, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Safari 5 announced, boasts twice the speed of Firefox 3.6

In addition to officially uncorking the latest iPhone handset and operating system, Apple also announced Safari 5 today. The new build touts improved DNS prefetching and page caching, making it 30% quicker than Safari 4 (based on SunSpider 0.9.1, a JavaScript benchmark), 3% faster than the recently launched Chrome 5, and over two times the speed of Firefox 3.6.

Safari 5 features over a dozen new HTML5 technologies, including full screen playback and closed captions for HTML5 video, HTML5 geolocation, HTML5 sectioning elements, HTML5 draggable attribute, HTML5 forms validation, HTML5 Ruby, HTML5 AJAX history, EventSource and WebSocket. Apple has also launched the Safari Developer Program to let developers create Safari Extensions, which are sandboxed and signed with a digital certificate from Apple for security.

Another key feature is Safari Reader, a function that lets users "read single and multipage articles on the Web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter." When the browser detects an article, users can click an icon to display the post for "clear, uninterrupted reading." Safari Reader has a few tools, such as the ability to enlarge, print, or send via email.

Interestingly, the press release for Safari 5 has disappeared on PR Newswire. That said, one is available on Apple's site, it shouldn't be long before the rollout. When Safari 5 goes live, both Mac OS X and Windows users will be able to download it here.

Update: It seems to be available now, although there is a minor error on the page. We assume someone's scrambling to get it out the door.

Microsoft launches free Office Web Apps

Microsoft has officially taken the wraps off their online productivity suite today as the company steps up its game against the likes of Google and Zoho. Dubbed Office Web Apps, the suite comprises cloud-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and is accessible to anyone with a Windows Live account. The roll out was supposedly limited to the US, UK, Ireland and Canada but it seems to be working in other countries too -- just not in their native language.

Users get free access to the tools, along with 25GB of storage from their SkyDrive accounts. Microsoft describes it as an online companion to Office 2010 that will give you the "best productivity experience across the PC, phone, and browser." Office Web Apps lets you view and edit documents in your web browser or desktop, regardless of where they were created first. You can also collaborate with multiple people simultaneously, and there's a built in version history feature that will let you to go back to older edits of your documents.

The user interface seems very polished and has a desktop-esque look and feel most of us are familiar with. Surprisingly, Office Web Apps appears to work just fine in Chrome, Firefox and even Opera, though the "Edit in 'Office program'" button won't work unless you are in Internet Explorer. The platform will seamlessly integrate with Microsoft's Office 2010, which launches to the public next week, and will be compatible with smartphone versions of Office 2010.

Sony launches VAIO J entry-level all-in-one series

Shopping for a touch-enabled all-in-one PC on a budget? Sony wants you to know about its just-launched "entry-level" VAIO J AIO, which packs a 21.5-inch 1080p multi-touch display and is geared toward home entertainment. Both pre-order models come with a Blu-ray player as well as touch-friendly media software, but vary slightly in horsepower.

The VPCJ115FX/B is priced at $1,100 and gets you an Intel Core i3-350M and HD graphics, 4GB of RAM (supports up to 8GB), and a 500GB 7200RPM HDD. Meanwhile, the $1,550 VPCJ118FX/B upgrades to a 2.66GHz Intel Core i7-620M, an Nvidia GeForce 310M GPU with 512MB of VRAM, and 6GB of DDR3 system memory with the same 8GB cap.

Connectivity includes gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n, four USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE 1394 port, and a multi-card reader, and the systems run Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Models ordered online today will ship later this month and retail outfits will stock the VAIO J by next month, at which point a $900 variant should be available.

HP launches $380 15.6-inch Compaq notebook

HP has quietly launched a new full size entry-level notebook with a price that compares to most netbooks. For $380, the 15.6-inch Compaq Presario CQ62Z packs an LED-backlit 1366x768 display, AMD's new 2.2GHz V120 processor, ATI Radeon HD 4250 integrated graphics, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB 5400RPM hard drive, a DVD burner, 802.11n wireless, a six-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium x64.

If that's a bit mild for your taste, you can swap out the V120 for a 2.3GHz Athlon II, a 2.3GHz Turion II, a 2.8GHz Phenom II dual-core, or a 2.1GHz Phenom II triple-core chip for an extra $30 to $185. Additionally, you can opt for a $100 512MB Radeon HD545v discrete graphics chip, up to 4GB of RAM, 320GB to 500GB of storage, and a $150 Blu-ray reader.

Naturally, there's a few USB ports, while HDMI 3.1 output, a 5-in-1 card reader, and a webcam are optional features. Systems ordered today have an estimated build date of June 16.

Toshiba debuts first notebook to play 3D Blu-ray content

Toshiba has announced the world's first notebook to play 3D Blu-ray content, the 15.6-inch Satellite A665. The machine utilizes an LED-backlit 1366x768 120Hz display along with WinDVD BD and Nvidia's 3D Vision software for 3D Blu-ray playback. Inside is a quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTS 350M GPU with a gig of VRAM, and up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM as well as 750GB of storage.

Additional details include gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, three USB 2.0 ports (one eSATA combo), a multi-card reader, HDMI-out, a 1.3MP camera, analog and DVB-T hybrid TV tuner, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. The Satellite A665 will also be available without 3D, and according to the spec sheets, that iteration will be configurable with a Core i5 processor.

The system is set to debut in Japan late next month under the name "Dnyabook TX/98MBL" ("Satellite A665" is for Europe and presumably the US). Pricing hasn't been mentioned, but Engadget reports that it's expected to be listed in the vicinity of $2,700.

Microsoft readies Windows 7 SP1 public beta for July

The first public beta of service pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 is coming by end of July. Microsoft confirmed this bit of news at their TechEd conference in New Orleans, after first sharing some details of the update a couple months ago. Echoing previous statements, the company said SP1 will bring a couple of big additions on the server side of things, but for home users it's mostly the usual patches and hotfixes rolled up into a single update.

Among the new features in Windows Server 2008 R2 is a graphics acceleration platform known as RemoteFX, which can deliver high-definition video, the full Aero interface, and even high-end apps like AutoCAD to remote clients using a new codec that runs in hardware or software. This means graphics hardware on the server will be able to handle the graphics needs of multiple virtual guests, which in turn need only an low-end card and a virtual GPU driver. The result is something very close to an old mainframe environment, with "terminals" that are smarter than their predecessors but still less expensive than PCs, requiring far less maintenance and consuming very little power under load.

The other major addition to Server 2008 R2 is called "Dynamic Memory," which allows virtual machine memory to be configured on the fly as applications need it. No exact dates were given for the final release of SP1 on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, but rumors has been circulating that it will be before the end of this calendar year.