Download squad have found a great tool for those times when you want to get into your PC fast but you want all the freshhhness of a newly booted PC. Boot Snooze combines the goodness of hibernation and rebooting.
Essentially the tool allows you to reboot and then set the PC to go into hibernate immediately or go to sleep immediately after the reboot. The result, a fast start up when you next come to your PC. The best of both worlds.
Hulu is fantastic, unless of course you happen to not live in the US then it’s a chocolate teapot unless of course you use a VPN to make the service think you’re in the US. The name “geotarding” has been applied. TV Gorge have currently overcome this and have lots of shows available for free online streaming.
It’s TV hell either, the lineup includes:
- The current series of 24 (and previous series)
- 30 Rock
- CSI (xyz)
- Chuck
- V
In fact there are lots and lots and lots of available shows, and the quality is pretty good. The site requires flash, no shock there, an seems quite snappy. I can’t find anything on the site that indicates that it’s not got agreements in place with content providers, but I do wonder if this will get geotarded soon.
[via Download Squad (who rock)]
Lifehacker have a very interesting how to all about how to run whole home audio over your homes internal phone wiring. It’s kind of a neat solution if you have this in your home already…interestingly I’ve recently stripped my home wiring out since I don’t need it, kind of which I hadn't now.
It’s a very detailed solution and as you can see from the left it’s quite simple…no really it is quite simple.
I’d be interested if anyone’s doing this or has repurposed any other home wiring for the same kind of solution.
Today is the 1st of Feb and that means you have 15 more days to use the Windows 7 RC (release candidate) before you need to upgrade to the final RTM version. A timely reminder from Technet: Windows 7 RC expiration coming soon | Media | TechNet Edge.
What does this mean for you, if you are running the RC. Basically you need to backup and rebuild your PC running the RTM version. There is no direct upgrade route, essentially this is the same process as if you are on XP moving to Windows 7.
[EDIT: a few people have contact me now about what's specifically going to happen, this article explains all...
But the skinny is:
Effective February 15, 2010, the expiration notification process begins:
- Windows 7 RC users receive an expiration notification in the task bar one time per day.
- Windows 7 RC users are presented with the Notification Wizard one time every four hours and then one time every hour.
Effective March 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC enters the next phase of expiration:
- Expiration notifications in the task bar continue.
- Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.
Important When the computer restarts, your work will not be saved.
Effective June 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC expires:
- Windows starts to a black desktop.
- Windows 7 RC users are presented with a Windows Activation screen. The screen states that the Windows that you are running is not genuine.
]
So basically, it’s really annoying!
Use the Windows Easy Transfer to transfer all your stuff and make the process as pain free as you possibly can. Just hit start and type “transfer” into the search box. Back everything up to a USB key or hard disk and then on your shiny Windows 7 RTM install do the same, but select restore.
15 days and counting, almost 14 and a half now…
Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.
Wow, I knew we were going to get a 3D offering from Sky but this is something else! So fast… Sky are broadcasting the first ever 3D sports match, a football (soccer for you US types) er on Sunday.
Yep, a world first, and in the UK the first ever 3D sports on TV and it’ll be between Arsenal and Manchester United in the Premier League this Sunday. It’ll be available to anyone with a 3D TV (so no one then) and a bunch of pubs have been given some TVs to use for the show. There’s one in Manchester for Ian to go to.
To support this landmark broadcast, the nine pubs – located in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin – have been kitted out specially with some of the first ‘3D Ready’ TV sets to reach the UK and Ireland. As 3D TVs become more widely available, Sky will roll out its 3D channel to hundreds of pubs from April, allowing football fans across the country the opportunity to experience a live Premier League match in 3D each week.
And also interesting to read how they do it:
To make the 3D preview a reality, Sky Sports will produce two edits of its live coverage of Sunday’s game at the Emirates Stadium, one for its HD channel feed and another dedicated to 3D. Eight specially engineered 3D camera rigs will house sixteen of Sky’s high definition cameras, to provide comprehensive stereoscopic coverage from all angles. The 3D broadcast will be supported by Sky’s dedicated 3D production team and purpose built 3D outside broadcast truck, which will enable live mixing between camera positions, slow motion replays and the use of innovative 3D graphics. There will also be a dedicated commentary team to support the 3D edit.
This is gonna be very cool stuff folks this 3D lark. Sky’s full consumer service launches in April, best get them 3DTVs on the market folks…
Full details in the press release
Microsoft have just released an update for Zune and it appears to have some fun new items to speculate on. First Long has found that there appears to be a phone coming. Second Ian’s found Windows 7 Library integration. And I might have found something…
Above left is my Zune folder now. Above right is the Previous version from 24th of Jan before I applied the update. Does this hint at a European launch, with localised language folders (yes they include UI localisation files too!)
Long’s spotted a great series of advertising by Microsoft in the US that’s got a digital home bent to it so I thought I’d throw it out there. In Australia Microsoft are sponsoring part of the Open tennis coverage and (very cleverly) using the snap feature to do picture in picture switches between matches. What a cool idea, never really thought about using it like that to say, watch the news and the Rugby at the same time, but it’s clever…
Anyone else doing that?
Head over to istartedsomething to watch the vid
Microsoft have released the security patch for the big news issue with Internet Explorer that just about everyone has been talking about.
If you have Windows Update turned on the you’ll get it automatically. If you don’t download it below and read all about it.
Take my advice, turn on Windows Update. Get Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware and Anti-Phising protections and LEARN enough about security and identity theft to be able to explain why it’s needed. Just like you can explain why you need a lock on your house. Also if you have an alternative browser installed then make sure that too is set to get automatic updates.
Wow, talk about a cool way of looking at tweets. This, my friends, is Seesmic Look, the second output from Seesmic since they’ve started developing closely with Microsoft. I’ve just downloaded it and started to play, and it’s very sexy looking. @Loic (runs Seesmic) has just launched the product and you might be thinking “what the hell, this isn’t Media Center related”. Well it is.
Just like Media Center it’s works brilliantly with the Media Center remote and it’s fully touch enabled. Super cool. Developer folks, this is what you can do.
Seesmic Look is designed to be far more consumer friendly than any other Twitter client. I looks stunning and it focuses on getting Twitter content in front of your eyes. You can get it here
–Simon May
Techcrunch has an interesting article about Apple moving iTunes into the cloud, it certainly represents and interesting idea. According to the article the plan is for a fully fledged cloud based iTunes, perhaps removing the need for a local install, certainly it could make purchases a great deal easier over the web. There’s also the possibility of an API (which our developer community would right, imagine being able to purchase the track from a Media Center interface).
I wonder if we could see a Microsoft, cloud based Media Player or store?
As Brandon just reminded me, there is the Zune store which already is cloud based, yet another thing that Zune has over the iPod / iPhone…unless of course you don’t live in the US or Canada. I’d love to see a Zune store API too though, I like APIs.
Anyway, a little off topic but lots of us need to use iTunes for those iPods and iPhones…Do you buy from iTunes, would you if it was easier? (I don’t unless I’m mobile and stuck for something to listen to)
--Simon May
The Rough Guide to Windows 7
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