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Official image of Zune HD's marketplace released

Sam Symons — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:16:34 +0000

The Zune HD is Microsoft's next big thing when it comes to mobile media, and aims to be a direct competitor to Apple's iPod touch line. To aid in the battle against Apple's current dominance, Microsoft will be offering a marketplace, as you may know, and a few days ago, an official image of it has been release. It comes to us from 'fitret', who's the Xbox 360 Program Manager, but unfortunately doesn't offer much detail. We've included the image below for you to inspect, but there's also the direct link above.

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Neowin Exclusive: Messenger Plus! Live 2009 contest

Andrew Lyle — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:25:25 +0000

Patchou has announced his 2009 Messenger Plus! Live contest with no less than 1,000 prize packages up for grabs. The contest does not require any form of entry, only for users to simply click on an image made up from millions of pixels, selecting the winning pixels that contain prizes. The contest is similar to that of the 6th anniversary contest two years ago. Beginning at Sunday July 12 at 00:01 (GMT -5) the contest will open to everybody. Anyone with Messenger Plus! Live (4.82.368) installed can play the contest. Users will see a gold Messenger Plus! Live logo on the top of their Windows Live Messenger contact list that looks like this: .

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Neowin Exclusive: Stallman on the current state of GNU/Linux

Mitchell LeBlanc — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 04:47:18 +0000

Richard M. Stallman is defined by Wikipedia as being an "American software freedom activist, hacker and software developer." He is perhaps most notably known for his work on the Free Software movement. Stallman is also the father of the GNU operating system, that which is commonly referred to as Linux but more accurately defined as GNU/Linux. Richard M.

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Microsoft to issue 6 bulletins for July patch Tuesday

Kevin Weiner — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:22:17 +0000

Microsoft on Tuesday will issue six security bulletins for patch Tuesday reports PC Magazine. Among these bulletins will be a DirectShow vulnerability issued in May, and possibly a zero-day vulnerability that was discovered this week. As stated in an advanced warning in a Microsoft blog, three of these bulletins affect Windows. The other 3 affect a vulnerability in Publisher 2007, one in ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) Server 2006, and one in several current versions of Virtual PC and Virtual server. An update will also be out for Malicious Software Removal Tool and the Windows Mail junk filter.

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Palm Pre hacked and ported to Verizon

Brad Sams — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:16:09 +0000

When a product exists but is locked down in functionality a hacker does not see it as an obstacle but as a challenge. Case in point is that a PreCentral forum member "Cleanser" has managed to take the Palm Pre and port it over to the Verizon network. The Pre has the potential to work natively on Verizon but due to software locks and exclusivity agreements the Pre is not currently sold for anyone other than Sprint. All is not perfect for the hack as "Cleanser" points out that currently only voice and SMS services are working but unfortunately data may take more time to hack.

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Mozilla collecting all web tools together in one directory

Sam Symons — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:46:51 +0000

If you're a web developer, you'll hopefully be aware that there are many helpful (and free) tools designed to progress your quest for an epic website; the only problem with this, though, is that you have to find them. There is currently no centralized directory for all such tools, but Mozilla's fed up of this, and has set out to build one of their own, according to MoMB (via the folks at TechCrunch). Mozilla has posted an entry on their official blog regarding the new site, with Ben Galbraith saying, "There are an immense number of tools that have been created to help web developers. Unfortunately, you might never know this; there's no central index of these tools.

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Netflix coming to Sony

Andrew Lyle — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:49:05 +0000

Some consumers might be happy to hear that Netflix is finally coming to Sony BRAVIA HDTV's in the fall of 2009. Most Sony BRAVIA HDTV televisions made in the last two years will be compatible with new Netflix integration using BRAVIA Internet Video Link, sold separately. Fans will be disappointed to hear that there is no announcement that Netflix will be coming to PlayStation 3 any time soon, but owners can rejoice that Sony is making headway into Netflix to bring streaming video to some of its products. Currently, Microsoft has an exclusive deal with Netflix to stream TV shows and movies directly to the Xbox 360 console without any additional hardware (U.S. only).

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New iPhone patents, object identification and more

Andrew Lyle — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:11:18 +0000

Apple has filed new patents today for its iPhone. Some of the items in the new patents include real world object identification, face detection and recognition, text messaging filtering, smart text messages and voice changer. The patents filed today may not be seen for awhile, possibly in the next 4.0 upgrade or in the next iPhone, something we could see next June or July, if the pattern of iPhone releases stay true. Real world object identification will let users take video or snap shots of places around the world, for example The Pentagon, and then the phone would check a database of similar photos and give detailed information about the landmark.

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Microsoft releases Silverlight 3.0

Ryan Rea — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:41:37 +0000

Today Microsoft launched its latest effort to "Light up the web", Silverlight 3 which is now available for download. Silverlight has come a long way since its version 1.0 launched in 2007. It has even attracted big players like Netflix who use it as their primary video player. 3.0 brings a host of improvements such as "Smooth Streaming" and "out of browser experiences". Web developers will also appreciate the built in support for GPU acceleration. Silverlight 3 introduces more than 50 new features, including 3D support, GPU acceleration, H.264 video support and out-of-the-browser capabilities to Silverlight.. The out-of-browser support will enable developers to build applications that work like Adobe's AIR plugin.

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Microsoft is planning an Office party on Monday

Tom Warren — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:17:16 +0000

Microsoft is planning to announce Office Web Applications and the Office 2010 beta at the company's annual Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans next Monday. Neowin hinted at the announcements yesterday but insider sources have confirmed that the company will be demonstrating the delayed Office Web Applications and announcing its plans for the Office 2010 beta. Office Web Applications Microsoft officials originally announced the applications at the company's Professional Developers Conference back in October 2008. At the time the main focus was on Windows 7 and no-one was able to use the applications themselves so they were somewhat overlooked.

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