If you choose to purchase an upgrade version of Windows Vista to upgrade XP, you will no longer be able to use that version of XP. Either on another system, or as a dual-boot option. The key will be invalidated, preventing activation.

View: Full Story @ TomCoyote.org

According to a report MacScoop has obtained, Apple will charge current users of Mac OS X Tiger for the final version of Boot Camp that will be released at the same time as Mac OS X Leopard, this Spring.

Though the source wasn’t sure about the final pricing, the report said there is strong possibility that Apple’s boot manager software, allowing to use Windows and Mac OS X in dual boot mode will be sold for $29 to Tiger users.

View: Full Story @ MacScoop

Playing video games can satisfy deep psychological needs and, at least in the short term, improve people’s well-being, new research shows.

The more a game fulfilled a player’s sense of independence, achievement and connectedness to others, the more likely he or she was to keep playing, Dr. Scott Rigby of Immersyve, a Florida-based virtual environment think tank, and colleagues from the University of Rochester in New York found. And the more fully a player’s needs were satisfied, the better he felt after playing.

“We think this is really one of the first validated models of what is going on psychologically when people are playing video games,” Rigby told Reuters Health in an interview. To date, he noted, research on video games has focused on their potentially harmful effects, such as promoting social isolation, addiction, and violence.

View: Full Story @ Scientific American

Today we’re announcing further detail on how Windows Anytime Upgrade works. Come 30 January, Windows Anytime Upgrade will allow customers to purchase and download a digital key to upgrade to a more feature-rich edition of Windows Vista. The user will then complete the upgrade process by inserting the Windows Vista DVD that came with their PC or with their retail purchase of Windows Vista. The program will be available in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan.

Manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (MSRP) to upgrade from a more basic version of Windows Vista are:

* Home Basic –> Home Premium: $79
* Home Basic –> Ultimate: $199
* Home Premium –> Ultimate: $159
* Business –> Ultimate: $139

View: Full Story @ Windows Vista Team Blog

To make it easier for households with multiple PCs to make the move to Windows Vista, Microsoft is launching a limited-time offer for customers who buy retail copies of Windows Vista Ultimate. From Jan. 30 through June 30, the Windows Vista Family Discount will allow North American customers to license two additional copies of Windows Vista Home Premium for use on other PCs in the home at the reduced price of $49.99 each. Before completing the order online, customers will need to enter one valid full or upgrade Windows Vista Ultimate key from their retail boxed product. After eligibility is verified online, the customer can purchase licenses to install Windows Vista Home Premium on one or two additional Windows-based computers. The Windows Vista Family Discount is available only in the U.S. and Canada. More information is available at http://www.windowsvista.com/FamilyOffer

View: Vista Family Offer
View: Full Story @ Microsoft Presspass

In October 2005, Windows expert Mark Russinovich broke the news about a truly underhanded copy-protection technology that had gone horribly wrong. Certain Sony Music CDs came with a program that silently loaded itself onto your PC when you inserted the disc into a CD-ROM drive. Extended Copy Protection (or XCP, as it was called) stymied attempts to rip the disc by injecting a rootkit into Windows — but had a nasty tendency to destabilize the computer it shoehorned itself into. It also wasn’t completely invisible: Russinovich’s own RootkitRevealer turned it up in short order. Before long, Sony had a whole omelette’s worth of egg on its face, and the word rootkit had entered the vocabulary of millions of PC users.

The concept of the rootkit isn’t a new one, and dates back to the days of Unix. An intruder could use a kit of common Unix tools, recompiled to allow an intruder to have administrative or root access without leaving traces behind. Rootkits, as we’ve come to know them today, are programs designed to conceal themselves from both the operating system and the user — usually by performing end-runs around common system APIs. It’s possible for a legitimate program to do this, but the term rootkit typically applies to something that does so with hostile intent as a prelude toward stealing information, such as bank account numbers or passwords, or causing other kinds of havoc.

View: Full Story Via: EETimes

More than half of a group of surveyed stores had Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 in stock, while Nintendo Co. Ltd.’s new Wii was sold out, an analyst said on Tuesday in a report signaling demand for the market leader’s new console may be soft.

“Our channel checks yesterday of 52 retail stores, from boutiques to big-box retailers, showed that 28 of the 52 stores had PS3 consoles in stock, while none had Wii consoles in stock,” American Technology Research analyst Paul-Jon McNealy said in the research note.

He added that those stores with PS3s in stock typically had units numbering in the low single digits, with only one major retailer having 60-plus machines in stock.

View: Full Story Via: Reuters

Microsoft announced Friday it has hit the 100 million installation milestone for Internet Explorer 7, a figure that makes the new browser the second most used behind IE6. Web analytics firm WebSideStory reports that 25 percent of all Web surfers in the United States are now running IE7.

“We expect these numbers to continue to rise as we complete our final localized versions, scale up AU distribution, and with the consumer availability of Windows Vista on January 30, 2007,” wrote IE group program manager Tony Chor on the IEBlog. Because IE7 is built into Windows Vista, Microsoft expects adoption rates to jump further as consumers upgrade. Already, Microsoft is preparing to discuss the next version of Internet Explorer at the company’s MIX conference that begins April 30.

Via: BetaNews

Netflix will start showing movies and TV episodes over the Internet this week, providing its subscribers with more instant gratification as the DVD-by-mail service prepares for a looming technology shift.

The company plans to unveil its Watch Now feature Tuesday. But only a small number of its more than 6 million subscribers will get immediate access to the service, offered at no additional charge.

Netflix expects to introduce instant viewing to about 250,000 additional subscribers each week through June to ensure its computers can cope with the demand.

View: Full Story Via: USA Today

The HD-DVD has been cracked, and high definition content is now being distributed freely over BitTorrent. We all knew this would happen sooner or later, looks it was “sooner”. The first HD-DVD to be uploaded to BitTorrent is Serenity, the Firefly movie.

It hasn’t even been a month since the HD-DVD ripper, BackupHDDVD was released and we’re already seeing high definition feature films pop up on torrent sites. Other than Serenity, it is rumoured that HD-DVDs of the movies 12 Monkeys and King Kong have been decrypted and consequently shown up on torrent sites. Yesterday, a handful of hackers figured out how to extract the unique volume key from HD-DVDs.

According to HDTV Blogger, the torrent is “a 19.6GB file in native EVO format that should play on PowerDVD and WinDVD with HD DVD playback.” Apparently, he got a “very, very nasty email” after posting about the first HD-DVD torrent. It seems the anonymous mailer was upset at the fact that he was bringing unnecessary attention to the P2P community. Looks like his plan just backfired.

View: Full Story Via: torrentfreak.com