Surprise, surprise. Windows is a sieve and either the holes are getting larger or the malware authors are getting smarter. Regardless of which, Microsoft itself is reporting that it has witnessed an increase  of 13% in the number of malware objects which its own anti-malware tool has been removing. El Reg indicates some solidarity with Microsoft by suggesting that by judicious use of firewalls and patching Windows can be as safe as Mac OS X or Linux. My position questions why anyone would want to have to work that hard when an easier, better, safer, and more reliable pair of OSen are available. Me, I’ll stick with Apple which, by the way, is also seeing a steady increase… in sales.

written by Tyler Regas

I’m warning you up front; this kit is not for the technically faint of heart. If, however, you want to add touchscreen functionality to your ASUS Eee 900 or 901 or Acer Aspire One and you’ve got $100 clanking around in your pocket, then check out Hoda Technology’s Easy and Fun TouchKit now available on eBay. I can’t and won’t vouch for this thing, yet, but if all of the DIY hacks out there are any indication, it should work just fine.

written by Tyler Regas

Well, its that day of the year again, so get your haunts out. Its that time when candy, costumes, and fun are the name of the game. Halloween is the single most popular pagan holiday in the world. Listening to a The World radio program today they discussed Halloween in Transylvania where they enjoy the holiday deeply and consider Dracula the countries greatest ambassador.

This is also the time when a wide range of pagan groups, namely Wiccan covens (witches and warlocks for you who don’t know) get out the vote with celebrations for the Winter Solstice. While I don’t have any personal experience in pagan ritual, I’ve heard that Wiccans are generally misunderstood and don’t practice dark magic, but instead hold the land of its offerings as revered.

No matter how you enjoy this holiday, revel in the thrills and chills, stay safe, have fun, and for God’s sake, DON’T DRIVE DRUNK!

written by Tyler Regas

Microsoft released a lot of details about various items its working on today at their Professional Developers Conference show. The big news was Windows 7 itself where they detailed a wide range of updated features and changes from how Vista works (or doesn’t, depending on which side of the fence you’re on). Steve Sinofsky also demonstrated Windows 7 running on a 1GHz netbook and reports indicate that it was pretty snappy and quite a bit thinner than its bloated cousin, Vista.

Microsoft didn’t stop at that, either. Some information was made official regarding MS’ plans to start offering an online version of its Office suite. The general idea is apparently to step into the space already occupied by Google and other online services while still offering the larger, more cumbersome, very expensive desktop version of the applications. Targetted applications are Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote in both ad-supported and premium paid editions. As expected, Office Live will reside on Windows Live. woot.

written by Tyler Regas

You bought that MacBook but what you really wanted was a tablet. Feh at Apple, though, since they don’t make one. Axiotron, however, does make them but they sell them already made into tablets… at least until now, that is. Thanks to Axiotron’s ModService you can now get your exisitng MacBook converted into a ModBook for about US$1,300. Unfortunately, there’s no indication of how long it takes, though my guess is that they swap your hard drive from the system you send in a slide it into an already configured ModBook. Hell, that’s what I’d do. Then again, they do mention that you take it to a locally sourced, authorized ModService provider.

written by Tyler Regas

HP’s got something going on, donchaknow. They can’t manage to design phones to save anyones grandma, but they can do lappies like nobodies business. HP has just unveiled their new consumer-oriented Mini 1000 netbook, one of the slickest yet offered. Reviews of the unit are already positive, often citing the keyboard as one of the best in its class. Other than quality, there’s really nothing all that different in terms of specifications with the new MIni 1000, but I’d suggest you stay away from the 8.9″ model and just get the 10.2″. I’m not to thrilled about the 1024×600 display resolution, but then I’m deep in love with my Nokia N810 which sports a veritibly tiny 800×480 viewer.

written by Tyler Regas

Cowon makes PMPs and other media-related devices. Now Cowon is bringing their popular O2 portable media player to the US in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB Flash-based storage versions. What I dig are the very, very nice prices, specifically US$219, $249, and $299, depending on integrated storage. Cowon is even nice enough to provide an SDHC card slot for expanding storage alongside the 4.3″ widescreen touch display and support for more codecs than I’m willing to type out here. JetMall has models available now.

written by Tyler Regas

If you’re looking for a nice little netbook for a sweet price, look no further. I can’t speak to quality, but for US$479.99 and with the Averatec Buddy’s set of features, its one hell of a deal. The Buddy sports a 1.6GHz Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a roomy 160GB drive, a 10.2″ widescreen display with a native resolution of 1024×600, b/g wireless, 10/100 Ethernet, and a 1.3MP webcam. What I don’t understand is why more of these netbooks don’t have integrated Bluetooth. Oh well. You can get a MogoDapter from TigerDirect.

written by Tyler Regas

IBM has been quite busy, but not with the Apple iPhone SDK as was suggested earlier this year. No, they’ve been working with Apple’s WebKit and developing a web version of access for their approximately 140 million Lotus Notes users worldwide. That’s right. Its called iNotes Ultra and its a secure web application designed specifically for the iPhone. What’s even nicer is that its free. More accurately (and I’m guessing here) its probably a free Domino server extension which administrators can install to offer users access to their accounts. Its also apparently quite secure, since its not an application and it doesn’t store data directly on the device.

written by Tyler Regas

OMG! I knew there were a lot of netbooks out there and more are seemingly being added every day, but I had no idea there were as many as Liliputing, a boutique website dedicated to the little compys, has in its database of systems. Keep in mind that not all of these (read: most) are available in the US. There are, however, plenty of importers out there who will ship systems to you. Some will even load a US operating system on it for you. Of course, Liliputing also has a whole load of systems they are vending via Amazon, which is carrying a surprising number of systems from HP, Acer, ASUS, and Sylvania. Wow.

written by Tyler Regas