PowerDVD is a software DVD player that offers the solution to enjoy personalized DVD entertainment on the PC. Its high quality video and audio playback has made it one of the most reliable.

Download: PowerDVD 7 Trial

Firefox is an award winning preview of next generation browsing technology from mozilla.org. Firefox empowers you to accomplish your online activities faster, more safely and efficiently than any other browser, period. Built with Tab browsing, popup blocking and a number of other seamless innovations, Firefox stands out ahead.

View: What’s New
Download: Firefox 1.5.0.3
View: Mozilla Firefox Homepage
Source: MSFN

The story goes like this: when Apple CEO Steve Jobs won an abandoned mineral mine in western Australia in a poker game from late Australian publishing and gaming tycoon Kerry Packer, he reportedly asked that the first advertisement capable of being seen from space be created there. Two years later, and what do you know, it looks like an iPod. It’s huge—the iPod image covers 220.7 acres. See it yourself on Google Local.

Source: Gizmodo via Flexbeta

A test has revealed that a Linux server is far less likely to be compromised. In fact, unpatched Red Hat and SuSE servers were not breached at all during a six-week trial, while the equivalent Windows systems were compromised within hours. An unpatched Windows 2000 Server was the quickest to be compromised, at an hour and 17 minutes, while unpatched Windows Server 2003 lasted slightly longer. Windows XP Professional, unpatched, lasted one hour and 12 seconds. Meanwhile, Unpatched Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and SuSE Linux 9 Desktop weren’t compromised during the month and a half it was exposed to the Internet.

However, patching does make a difference. Patched versions of Windows fared far better, remaining untouched throughout the test, as did the Red Hat and Suse deployments. The results of the test were confirmed by Symantec’s other finding, Companies were at risk from unpatched software bugs for an average of 42 days per bug during the second half of last year, according to the company’s latest semi-annual Internet Security Threat Report, released this week.

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Source: Tech World via MSFN

We have come to light of some information - Microsoft “Origami” is a new device of which will ribal the Sony PSP, the iPod and other devices. It will be a handheld device of which can be physically manipulated to take different shapes and forms (nothing out of Star Trek, just folding a few times… we think) and will be able to play games, play music, connect wirelessly via Wireless Protocol and possibly Bluetooth.

Not sure about the operating system - we’ve seen some images running Windows XP, although the edition is unknown, probably Tablet PC Edition. However with Vista on the looms, I’m sure we can see that being supplied with the “Origami” device.

UPDATE: Just recieved some more information which could be very useful. Because transistors nowadays are producing faster and faster computers, the limit is around 4Ghz before they get so hot they just won’t work. However, a new transistor is being produced and Microsoft may well be using this new chip to create a new processor within their “Origami” device, to enable really fast computing on really small devices.Microsoft may not be making the “Origami” device itself, they may just be making the operating system that runs on it. However, some interesting *unconfirmed* information states that Microsoft could be working with manufacturers such as HP, DT Research, NEC, DuraTab and/or Assistive Technology Inc. Now we have yet to confirm this, but these may well be the companies which go towards making the final Microsoft “Origami” device!

View: Microsoft “Origami” Project
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Source: MSBLOG via ieXbeta

CONSUMERS will be forced to pay up to $400 to continue watching television under a plan to convert all viewing to digital technology.

The industry estimates more than 14.5 million TVs would have to be converted to digital reception over the next five years under a recommendation by a federal parliamentary committee to turn off the traditional analog service.

To stimulate conversion to digital the cross-party committee recommends lifting bans on networks broadcasting multiple, free-to-air channels by 2008. This opens the prospect of up to 30 free-to-air channels being available to viewers. To get access to the higher-quality, wide-screen services, consumers would need to buy set top boxes ranging in price from $80 for a basic model to about $400 for a better-quality, high-definition receiver.

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Source: SMH

Beta Refresh is Now avaiable to selected beta testers. Build 0562 is now available to download from Microsoft Connect

Changes include:
- New UI design
- New contact list design (no more hover behavior)
- A return of the old status icons
- A Sharing Folders status and progress bar
- The Sharing Folders activity log is now in a separate window
- New Voice platform
- Improved reliability
- Improved stability
- Improved performance
- Improved login performance

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has warned that people should not download Google Desktop because it “greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy”.

A spokesEFF said that if the toolbar chooses to use it, the new “Search Across Computers” feature stores copies of the user’s Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google’s own servers.

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Source: The Inquirer via Flexbeta

SHOCKING new figures show UK perverts are trying to access child porn websites 35,000 times a day.

Figures from internet provider BT show online paedophiles attempted to view four million illegal child pornography sites in the past four months alone.

There are fears the overall number could be much higher, as BT accounts for around just a third of the internet market.

Bids to visit banned child porn sites have more than tripled since screening was introduced by BT in June 2004. The Cleanfeed programme, which prevents users from accessing sites blacklisted by the Internet Watch Foundation, initially registered 10,000 attempts by BT’s 3.1 million domestic users each day.

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Source: The Sun via Flexbeta

Nero is a flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use application designed to write both data and CD audio to CD-R and CD-RW discs. It supports ISO 9660 images as well as ISO mode 1 and XA mode 2, and allows for on-the-fly disc recording in addition to overburning (if supported by hardware). Nero also supports multisession and mixed-mode recording, HFS, ISO/HFS hybrid, UDF, PSX, OFAS (optimal file access speed), track-at-once (TAO) and disc-at-once (DAO) writing, digital audio extraction, and more. In addition, Nero can dynamically disable automatic-insert notification, offers support for multiple languages, and works with all major models of CD-R and CD-RW drives.

Download: Nero v7.0.5.4 | Mirror (Shareware)
View: Release Notes | Nero Homepage
Source: MSFN