The few minutes that it takes for the computer to boot up are called the “black hole” of the digital age. During that time, there is nothing to do but wait and wait before one can log on. Have users become impatient or are the computers slow?

What do people do when waiting for the computer to boot up? While some people stare at the screen, others walk up and down or grab a hot cuppa. If it is time for brushing, then people do that too!

With all the complaints there have been of computer boot up time, the computer industry is forced to look into it and try and give back those precious seconds lost. Several of the major PC makers in the world are soon introducing “quick-start” computers. A few months back, we have mentioned that Hewlett-Packard is onto something in this arena in one of our articles titled, “Computers With Instant Start.” You can read that for more information and to understand how it works.

According to a senior executive of a company that makes quick-boot program from PC makers, it is ridiculous to expect people to wait patiently for a couple of minutes, in this day and age when people want instant-on.

Manufacturers like Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo are bringing out machines that allow people to access at least the basic functions of a computer, such as a web browser and email in less than 30 seconds. Asus, a company based in Taiwan, the world’s largest maker of circuit boards for PCs, has already gotten busy with creating fast-boot software for its complete product line.

Windows software has always had complaints of slowing down the start time of computers. Recently, Microsoft has revealed its intention of doing something about this in their next version of the operating system. On a Microsoft company blog, it said that a very good system is one that boots within 15 seconds.

People in the know say that Apple Macintosh’s boot much quicker when compared to Windows machines, but many people find them also slow. This frustration is nothing new as booting up has always taken several minutes. The difference is in the way people think. They feel they are losing time and are not as tolerant as they were before the advent of the internet. Previously, during the pre-internet days, people did not feel this urgency as the computer was just a solitary machine unlike now, where the whole world awaits at the other end. The computer industry states that the current information addicted society is agitated by even a moment of downtime.

Experts say this impatience stems from the fact that people are now used to the “always-on” handheld devices. People are so used to using smart phones and other similar gadgets that they cannot wait for the boot-up process to complete.

PC makers are vying with each other to create new software and it is not done just to ease the pain of users. They do it for themselves too. The computer industry is very competitive and has very thin profit margins. In this situation, every company looks for anything they can trumpet that can prove to be advantageous to them, even if it is a small achievement.

According to Hewlett-Packard, their research revealed that when boot times exceed more than a few minutes, users get all worked up and think they have been at it for ages. Even just 3 or 4 minutes feel like an eternity when waiting for a computer to boot. In June, HP introduced a fast-booting laptop that costs $1,200. Right now, HP is looking at offering PCs that boot in 30 to 45 seconds and in the next 18 months, they are planning on reducing the boot time to as less as 20 to 30 seconds.

Everyone is waiting for Microsoft to come up with a solution that shortens the loading time of Windows. Meanwhile, PC makers are trying to use programs that bypass Windows and thus speed up boot times. All these systems rely on Linux, which gives users quick access to Web browsing and other basic functions of their computer.

A new navigation system with the ability to provide emergency services with the quickest route while at the same time taking stress into account, has been developed by Trung Bui, a PhD candidate at the University of Twente. This dialogue system identifies users’ emotions and has the ability to react to them appropriately.

A dialogue system is an advanced computer system that has been created to communicate with humans using a coherent structure. They are used for information provision with the use of speech, text, haptics, gestures, graphics and other modes of communication, for both output as well as input. An example of a dialogue system would be the speaking computer that provides travel information. Usually, these computers do not take human emotions into consideration, because emotions are very difficult to interpret, especially so for a computer. How can a computer differentiate the raising of the voice, between enthusiasm and anger? It requires a lot more information to figure out which of the two emotions the person has exhibited. It may be easy for human beings to find the difference as they use a lot of other information that is available to them; but the same cannot be said with a computer. For a computer to be able to make this differentiation, it this involves intricate programming.

Bui’s amazing new dialogue system does exactly this – it takes human emotions into account. To achieve this, he used a mathematical technique that was originally developed in the 1960s and controls factory processes. It was called Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP). He showed that this can be used to imbibe the user’s emotions into a dialogue system, which had the capability to deal with uncertainties. Although, this method performs better than all others that are in existence, it is limited to small-scale dialogue problems. For larger problems, the method needs a lot of calculating power.

This is the reason Bui developed a strategy that combines the Dynamic Decision Network (DDN) with POMDP. This combination known as the DDN-POMDP, splits dialogue systems into two different levels. They have the ability to make a choice between looking far ahead and checking whether the required calculating power is available.

In order to demonstrate how effective the DDN-POMDP actually is, Bui applied the technique to a navigation system for emergency services that took into account, the stress experienced by the user. This navigation system gets the input from a separate stress module that has the power to assess an emergency worker’s stress levels, taking them into account when the user is communicating with the system. When the stress levels of a user are high, the system smartly anticipates that the user is more prone to make mistakes and will start requesting confirmation for the tasks performed by the user more often than normal.

The important issues that Bui plans on tackling in the future are, scaling up the model with larger state, action and observation for managing problems; to collect and generate artificial and real data to build and train the model well. With all these features, it is not long before computers become our saviors in more ways than one.

Apple is riding the wave of innovation with the introduction of the new versions of the MacBook Pro and MacBook portable computers, that Steve Jobs revealed were created using a new manufacturing process. They are said to be made from 2.5-pound blocks of aluminium.

These computers were introduced on October 14, 2008, Tuesday, with an audience of about a hundred journalists, bloggers and analysts in an auditorium on Apple’s campus. The main topic of discussion was not the price but the manufacturing process.

According to Apple, this new process would give them scope to create lighter, stronger and far more reliable products. The new MacBooks have been crafted with a single aluminium block, and Apple started off with a 2.5 pound aluminium block. Traditionally, all notebooks are made with numerous parts, but Apple has come up with a unibody. Steve Jobs said that Apple has been trying to create unibody enclosures for some of the new notebooks.

Nvidia was another important topic of discussion and Mr. Jobs declared that several new Macintosh computer models will feature two custom-designed graphics processors from Nvidia. This should enhance the computer viewing experience and game play. Nvidia is also the supplier of the integrating chipset for the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. Mr. Jobs also mentioned that the new Nvidia graphics processor offers much better, at least five times the graphics power of the Intel graphics processors that the MacBooks currently have. This statement does nothing for Intel and leaves a question on Apple’s relationship with Intel, which is the supplier of the central processing unit for the Macintosh.

The MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro also feature brilliant instant-on LED-backlit displays and new glass multi-Touch trackpads, which offer a whole lot more tracking area, allowing users to use several finger gestures, such as swipe, rotate and pinch. They can easily switch between applications with just the touch of a fingertip.

Apple revealed that the new MacBook features everything their customers always wanted; a complete metal enclosure, high performance 3D graphics as well as a LED-backlit display.

Apple also said that it leads the industry in meeting high environmental standards by eliminating toxic chemicals, by using arsenic-free glass and mercury-free LED-backlit displays.

The new 13-inch aluminium MacBook with full features, which is based on the standard MacBook line, comes at a price of $1,299, which is $700 less than MacBook Pro that costs $1,999. It is a beautifully compact and durable notebook featuring the new Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics processor that delivers extremely good 3D game play and is much faster than the previous generation. It comes in two models; the 2.0 GHz MacBook with a 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive and the 2.4 GHz MacBook with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive with a backlit keyboard.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro weighs 5.5 pounds and is a good looking and compact piece. It has Intel Core 2 Duo processors, that run up to 2.8 GHz, and provides two options for users. They can either use Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphic processor for a more powerful performance or use the Nvidia GeForce 9400M processor for extended battery life. The new MacBook Pro is also available in two models; a 2.4 GHz with 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and 2.53 GHz with 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive.

Apple updated its MacBook Air, which is sold at a starting price of $1,799 and comes with 50 percent more storage. The 17-inch MacBook Pro has also been updated. The while plastic 13-inch MacBook portable with Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 120GB hard drive as well as a slot-load 8X SuperDrive, comes at a reduced price of $999, a reduction of $100. Although, the price drop may not seem like much, it is a notable feat as this marks the first time Apple is selling a laptop computer for less than $1000.

With all these innovations and better features, Apple expects to see an increase in sales.

The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and the 17-inch MacBook Pro are said to go on sale on Wednesday from all of Apple’s retail stores. The new MacBook Air will be available from early November onwards.

Apple’s Macintosh computer sales continue to grow everyday but it has been seen that there is a slight decrease in the rate of growth and the reason has nothing to do with the Mac itself, but is attributed to the fact that Apple has done nothing to refresh the Macs product line. With the updates of iPhone and iPod behind them, now everyone is focusing their attention on the MacBook and the MacBook Pro and they find it surprising that Apple took so long to update its notebook line, as these are the products that matter the most to Apple’s bottom line.

Apple understands what people need and is trying to keep everyone happy again by bringing out the much-awaited and long-overdue revamped notebooks. The release was earlier expected to be towards the end of September, but that seems to have changed. According to sources, it could very well be an October 14, 2008 release. However, some say that we may have to wait until November. We will just have to wait and hope it is sooner than later.

The three legs of Apple as referred by Steve Jobs are the Mac, iPod and iPhone. Well, there are high expectations from the Mac leg.

Already images of the new machines have started appearing everywhere on the Web. Many of the pictures are purported to be fake; however, going by history, there are certain expectations people in the know have from the Mac.

Predictions of what the revamped notebooks will look like are being made by everyone. Mac enthusiasts predict a rounder and thinner design like the MacBook Air, with a high resolution LED backlit screen of 16-inch.

Another area where Apple has been left behind when compared to others is the 3G Wireless technology and perhaps WMAX. It is now hoped that Apple changes that by providing a 3G option.

Here are a few more things that according to some experts, would be seen in the new revamped notebooks: a multi-touch glass trackpad; HD video out; although it would be nice to see a built-in GPS, there are no Mac apps that can take advantage of this yet; solid-state disk drive (SSD) optional; and HD camera among several other things.

Blu-Ray disk drive may also be a possibility. Many people feel that since Apple would want people to buy HD movies through iTunes, this may not be an option; while others feel that Apple has to acknowledge this as a new standard and to not do it when other manufacturers are, would be a very serious mistake on its part.

The price point for the notebooks makes another interesting topic of discussion and most people predict that the price will remain the same.

The consensus is that it is high time Apple revamps the entire notebook line, with a new chassis, chipsets and multitouch touchpads. It is also felt that Apple may be having a surprise under its sleeve, in the form of a touchscreen MacBook, although the odds are against that happening.

As always there is good news for Apple. A recent survey showed that people considering buying an Apple laptop hit an all-time high. In spite of the slight decrease in the rate of growth, the growth has certainly not stopped and Apple’s laptop sales overall have seen a high. The fourth quarter earnings in October are expected to show a fat profit margin for Apple with the Mac sales.

No one knows for sure what direction Apple will go now. What is likely to happen is that the synergy between OS X Leopard and OS X iPhone and the technology of the iPhone certainly has Apple thinking what the next generation notebook computers should be like. If history repeats itself, the entire industry may be caught off guard by Apple once again and this is one area where people would love to be surprised.

The invitations for Apple’s major music-related “Let’s Rock” event held on September 9, 2008 were sent out to the media and others, inviting them to the Yerba Buena Center for the Performing Arts in San Francisco.

Now with the heavily attended event behind us, the overall takeaway from Let’s Rock is that iPod is back on track. In spite of there being nothing exceptional, the incremental improvements were significant. Through this event, Apple shared a whole year’s worth of progress.

The iPhone has dominated every discussion about Apple the past few days. But at this event, one thing that figured prominently was the iPod product line and iTunes. The timing could not have been better and launching in September gives Apple a lot of time to look at the marketing and distribution ahead of the holiday season shopping.

At this event, Steve Jobs unveiled the sleekly designed iPod nano with a host of new features, an upgraded and cheaper iPod Touch and the new version of iTunes. He expressed his happiness at Apple’s growing dominance in the digital music market.

Upon his entrance, Steve Jobs talked about iTunes. He explained the new features of iTunes 8.0, which are the new “Genius” recommendation engine, a totally changed grid view, a visualizer and better accessibility on Windows and Mac OS X. The iTunes now offers 8.5 million songs, 125000 podcasts, more than 30000 TV shows, 2600 movies and over 3000 apps for iPhone and touch.

The Genius feature allows you to create playlists from songs in your existing library. It also scales to TV shows, podcasts and movies. This is done by selecting any one song and pressing the Genius button, which in turn creates about a 25 to 100 song playlist based on songs you have in your library, which will go well with the song you selected.

There is also a new Genius Sidebar that recommends songs from the iTunes Store based on the song selection. If you have more than one selected song, then it will consider only the first song and show a recommendation based on that.

Steve Jobs also announced that NBC would bring its television lineup back to iTunes. Earlier, both parties had clashes on a couple of issues. NBC executives stated that they wanted Apple to take concrete steps towards the protection of content from piracy, which means they wanted Apple to prevent iPods and iTunes from playing NBC content that is obtained from sources other than the iTunes store. They also wanted variability with pricing of their new programs. Now they have sorted things out and are back together. TV shows from NBC and other networks will cost $1.99 for normal video quality, while the high-definition video quality will cost $2.99. Older shows will cost just 99 cents.

There is new competition for Apple in the form of MySpace which is forming a joint venture with some big music labels, offering music downloads that have no digital rights management software copying restrictions. As far as Apple goes, it only has EMI offering this as of now. Steve Jobs’ comment on this was, “hasn’t seemed to work for them so far. iTunes’ market share is just growing since they started this.”

The charts at the event emphasized that Apple has sold 160 million iPods since 2001 and dominates the U.S. retail market with 73.4 percent share. There was no mention of how many iPhone 3Gs were sold.

Steve Jobs announced that the new fourth-generation iPod nanos are “the cleanest we’ve ever built.” The iPod nano is 0.2 inches thick and is the thinnest player Apple has ever made. It now comes with a built-in accelerometer, which makes resizing of photos possible and menus based on the orientation of the player. It comes in a rainbow of colors; bright blue, orange, purple, green and pink. The entry price is $149 for 8GB and $199 for 16GB.

Touting it as the “funniest iPod ever,” Steve Jobs introduced the new iPod Touch that looks similar to the iPhone sans the calling features and the monthly subscription plan. The new upgraded iPod Touch comes with hardware volume controls and a speaker that were not present in the previous one. It will also cost $70 less than it used to, making the new cost $229.

During the event, Apple promoted the portable gaming angle of iPod Touch heavily, and this could be because of Apple placing it as a competitor to the handheld gaming devices from Sony and Nintendo.

Steve Jobs said that Apple would release a software upgrade on Friday that should fix most of the iPhone problems. As you would know, many iPhone 3G owners have reported difficulty in maintaining high-speed connections on the internet.

The words “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” popped up on a large screen behind Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief, when he took the stage at the event and brought smiles all around. This message addressed the speculation about his health in the recent past, especially after he appeared thin and gaunt at the Apple’s developers conference in June.

There were no announcements related to the much-speculated new Mac notebooks. This is actually nothing new as Apple has never announced new Mac hardware at any of their previous events. According to sources, if you are looking for the new MacBooks, you will have to wait for another month.

There was a slight disappointment felt by some, when Steve Jobs failed to follow his usual practice of providing the much-awaited “last-minute” onstage surprise. However, the “Let’s Rock” event was overall a success and was filled with humor and events that will rock the tech world.

The name “Ubuntu” comes from Zulu and Xhosa languages and the principle of Ubuntu is said to be, “a person is a person only through other people.” This can be better explained through the following quote:

“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Ubuntu is not only free of charge but people are also allowed to improve upon it anyway they wish to, which means they can change and fix the software in any way. This proves to be advantageous when developing programs. Users have no restriction on the number of systems they use it on and the installation is extremely simple.

Ubuntu, sponsored by Canonical a European-based company owned by Mark Shuttleworth, does not cost anything and is free software that does not carry any software licensing charges. In fact, the operating system CDs will be shipped free throughout the world. By making it totally free and open, the company has been able to leverage the knowledge of other developers instead of doing all the development in the company. Canonical is said to make money in spite of giving the software for free, from its engineering services and commercial support contracts, which it offers globally to the wide range of customers, from government organizations to Fortune 500 companies and from schools to research institutes. This paid support makes it possible for the company to earn revenues.

Ubuntu can be installed very easily and to the hard disk from the Live CD environment without having to restart the computer before installation.

Ubuntu comes in many versions as well as different variants. Here are the official variants:

• Kubuntu: Ubuntu with the KDE environment instead of Gnome. It is also a part of the Ubuntu project and showcases the complete potential of the KDE desktop. It shares the same underlying system as Ubuntu.

• Edubuntu: Is another subproject of Ubuntu that focuses on education. This is designed to be used in classrooms and contains many educational applications, such as KDU Edutainment Suite, Gcompris and Schooltool Calender. It makes it possible for even educators with no technology expertise to set up computer labs or even undertake the task of setting up an online learning environment in a couple of hours. They will also be able to administer that environment. It is also suitable for use by children at homes.

• Xubuntu: Ubuntu using the XFCE desktop environment instead of Gnome. It has been created keeping in mind people who own computers that are not powerful or even those that need an efficient desktop environment on powerful systems.

• UbuntuStudio: Ubuntu focused on multimedia production.

• Gobuntu: Flavor of Ubuntu that is basically the same desktop environment as Ubuntu, with strict restrictions on the licences of code and conduct. It is for people using other free software platforms.

• Ubuntu JeOS (pronounced Juice): This is configured for virtual appliances.

• Ubuntu Mobile: This targets mobile internet devices.

• Mythbuntu: Integrated with MythTV.

The default desktop environment for Ubuntu is Gnome, which is a leading UNIX and Linux desktop suite and development platform. An alternative choice to the default Gnome desktop environment is Kubuntu that offers KDE, another leading UNIX and Linux desktop. The default desktop for Xubuntu is Xfce. Since Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, Xubuntu, and Gobuntu all share the base; any one of them can be installed easily on the other.

The Linux kernel is the heart of the Ubuntu operating system. A kernel provides the communication bridge between the hardware and software and is an important part of an operating system.

The latest version of Ubuntu has a lot of software installed, which includes Firefox, the internet browser that is preferred by many for security reasons and other features; OpenOffice software that is compatible with Microsoft Office, so that users will not have any problem exchanging documents with anyone who uses Windows and Microsoft office; instant messenger and graphics editor. There are also several card, board and puzzle games that are pre-installed.

Ubuntu also has an excellent calendar and email application, which helps a great deal in organizing the mail and searching. Ubuntu has a full range of server and desktop applications and once installed, the software is great for almost all computing needs, either for business presentations, databases or complex programming. There is also plenty of business software, word processing for documents and letters, spreadsheets to be used for business purposes and high-quality presentation software.

It is also an excellent platform for education in the form of Edubuntu. It has graphic design and desktop publishing. It helps students studying computer science and information technology. The main advantage with Ubuntu is that it is available in many languages.

Ubuntu also has an edition or servers, the Ubuntu Server Edition; and it is very simple to get the server up and running in no time.

Ubuntu’s development releases are twice yearly and are given animal names, such as Warty Warthog, Hoary Hedgehog, Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, Edgy Eft, Feisty Fawn etc. The version name contains the year and the month of the release.

There is not a free moment at the Apple headquarters and they know how to keep the “rumors alive,” to satisfy the insatiable appetite of the technology freaks.

Apple is planning on closing the year with a few new product introductions.

iPhone Nano

This time, it is the “Nano fairy” all ready to sprinkle its dust on the Apple product line.

According to a source quoted in a British newspaper, the iPhone Nano is expected to be unveiled soon – perhaps a Christmas gift?

The reason for this is believed to be the fact that the EDGE and 3G iPhone models are expensive and it would be easier on the light-pocketed customer to have a smaller sized phone that is similar to iPod Nano.

The iPhone Nano could be a “iPhone Lite” device without full internet access, with a rear-facing iPod style touch wheel for inputting the numbers and a display screen that is front facing.

Meanwhile, the iPhone is expanding its wings into new territories.

Russia Calling

It was in July this year that Apple spread the sales of the 3G iPhone in more than 20 countries; however Apple iPhones are not yet being sold in Russia, in spite of the Russian market being the fastest growing in the world. Of course, it has to be noted that the iPhone has already found other unauthorized ways of getting in.

There are three top mobile carries in Russia; MTS, MegaFon and Vimplecom, who have all been trying to finalize the deal with Apple. The problem with sealing the deal was that these operators were not keen on sharing their iPhone revenue with Apple, in order to get exclusive rights.

However, this is going to change, with Apple getting into a deal with Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), which is the largest mobile phone operator in Russia, for the sale of iPhones in Russia.

According to Steve Jobs, the sales may begin by the end of the year and sources say that it could be as soon as October. Estimated sales by the end of 2008 are said to be in the range of 700,000.

There are a few other new and interesting products being released before this year ends.

Tablet Mac

The much awaited multi-touch tablet Mac may just be around the corner or so it seems. With rumors being floated around for many years, finally the year 2008 may see the release of the tablet Mac or the mini-tablet Mac.

According to reports, the tablet may come with a 12 or 13 inch touch screen, full Mac OS X, an iPhone type GPS chip, a slot loading Superdrive and perhaps the Intel Atom processor. Experts expect the sales to be good if it is released during the end of the year, depending on the price tag Apple puts on it.

Everyone would want to see how great the touch screen interface is going to be and we can only imagine the thrill of getting our fingers on the virtual keyboard on the screen. We just have to wait and see what Apple does with the tablet.

This has nothing to do with their product range, but something we felt the need to talk about.

Spooky Incident

Must have shocked Steve Jobs to see his own obituary, as it has spooked the Apple investors.

A Bloomberg News reporter, while making some updates, accidentally sent the obituary of Apple founder Steve Jobs to thousands of their corporate clients through an external wire system. This obit was only to be released when necessary, but was sent erroneously.

In the text, a blank was left in place of the cause of death and the age. Along with it came a complete list of people Bloomberg reporters should contact in case Steve Jobs passes away.

An excerpt from this obit read that Steve Jobs “helped make personal computers as easy to use as telephones, changed the way animated films are made, persuaded consumers to tune into digital music and refashioned the mobile phone.”

In spite of the talk that Steve Jobs’ pancreatic cancer has returned, it must have been hard to digest to see that his obit was kept ready. After this, Steve Jobs did clarify that his cancer has not returned and all is well.

Whispers about Apple are aplenty and they surround refreshed iMacs, new ipods, overhauled notebooks, where tweaks are being implemented to the MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops and many more.

When we think of video on the internet, the first thing that comes to mind is the Mogul of video, YouTube. No doubt YouTube’s popularity is unparalleled. There is certainly nothing wrong with YouTube and they have the distinction of spearheading the video sharing revolution. However, it is not necessarily the only site that can be used for posting videos on the Web.

Even if you decide to check out different video sharing sites, where would you go? Different people have different needs; while some have memories to store, others may wish to make a quick buck.

Here is a list of some video sharing sites which allow sharing of the videos and much more.

Tubemogul.com: This is a service that is provided by an online distribution and video analytics company. It helps marketers measure the impact their online marketing campaigns have. It allows uploading of video to all the main video sharing websites at one go. Users are also provided stats of when, where and how often their videos are watched. The most beautiful feature is the ability to track viewer demographics and geographics. With 100 MB being the upload limit, the major sites that are supported by this service are YouTube, MySpace video, AOL video, Google video, Yahoo video , Revver and Metacafe.

Break.com: Who would not want to have the added advantage of earning some cash for uploading a video? Their cash rewards go up to $2000 if it is selected for their homepage and $25 if it shows up in their gallery. In fact, this is a wonderful way of weeding out the garbage people upload into the virtual world day in and day out. There are many fans of this site, even if the buffer rate is said to be slightly slower when compared to other video sharing sites. Its clutter-free interface, in-built brightness and contrast controls, in-built sharing options and the ability to watch videos on dedicated channels are some of the features liked by all.

Metacafe.com: This is among the more famous video sharing websites around. The buffering rate is fast and it has a built-in rewind and forward options. A most-liked feature is that videos can be added to a Skype mood message. There is also a “Family safe mode” that filters out all the adult content, preventing children from logging on in the absence of adults and viewing videos they should not. This is also a great tool for amateur filmmakers, looking for a medium to showcase their talent. “Directors Cut” in the Metacafe Pro is a channel that is dedicated to such people. Videos can be installed directly without any web browser.

Dailymotion.com: This site is innovative and stands apart from a regular video sharing site. The channels include music, films, games, sports, college etc. The buffer rate is supposed to be good too. The “VideoWall” feature allows users to display up to 81 videos on their sites and the “Jukebox” allows videos to be broadcasted according to the selected criteria. Users can also restrict access of their videos only to friends.

Revver.com: The first viral video sharing website that features animation, gaming, comedy, webisodes and videos. The best part about this site is that it also pays for video uploads, not only those that belong to the user. This means users have the option to share any video they like, even if it is posted by someone else, and earn a share in the revenue. Videos can be located by the “most viewed” and “most commented.” A Revver widget can be used on the users’ blogs, and this gives the ability to share multiple videos at a time. Another great feature is the “Live video,” where users can chat and receive live feeds of people online. The only drawback as some users said was the buffer rate, which is not great as there is no continuous streaming.

There are several other sites that can be checked out too; such as jumpcut.com, eyespot.com, video.google.com and funnyordie.com. With so many options for video sharing and each one having its own innovative features, it becomes worthwhile trying the others too and who knows there may be some feature that is of value and gets the users hooked.

Windows Vista was released worldwide, five years after Windows XP has been introduced, which is the longest gap between Microsoft releases. It was launched with much aplomb with several new and better features and huge promises of a better computing experience. A lot was expected of it, especially due to the long wait.

Windows Vista has the visual sophistication not seen in the previous operating systems and the ease of use is remarkable. The Windows Start menu has been made much faster than the previous versions, with the integration of the Instant Search feature that helps find almost anything on the PC instantly. Windows Aero, which is the first of its kind in a Windows operating system has translucent window borders and icons. Taskbar tabs show graphical preview of the window’s contents. Windows layout has changed for the better.

However, Microsoft’s primary objective with Vista was to increase the security in the Windows operating system, which was a cause for complaints in their previous operating system, Windows XP. Vista is certainly the most secure version of Windows yet. It is aimed at protecting the PC from worms, spyware, viruses and other unwanted software and is a huge step forward from Windows XP security. The User Account Control (UAC) feature which is one of the significant changes, is felt to be annoying and obtrusive. Accessing files over a network is slower in Vista that the other operating systems. Although, there is a whole lot more security in Vista, unnecessary extra features bog down network sharing. Windows Vista is slower than XP.

Although, Windows Vista was found favorable when it was launched, this sentiment has not been shared by too many Windows users. Surprisingly, Microsoft faced competition for its Windows Vista from none other than its very own Windows XP.

Windows Vista faced severe post-launch pains and all of Microsoft’s efforts at creating magic with their news desktop OS in five years, fell flat. Microsoft tried its best to reiterate why Vista is a great successor to XP, in a market where users do not appreciate change. However, they failed to do this convincingly, in part due to a technological mishap.

In the past year, there have been many bugs that have been discovered and Microsoft was busy bringing out patches for all those quirks. Before the first service pack was out, Microsoft has released various patches as well as the reliability and compatibility packs, which seemed to have solved many of the earlier complaints about Vista.

As it is well known, most businesses will not touch a Microsoft product until the release of the first service pack. They wait until the product is used widely and the problems identified and solved. This in turn puts a lot of pressure on Microsoft, whose products, as good as they may be, will not find too many customers until the first service pack. This makes the first service pack almost as important as the product launch itself, if not more.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 contains all those changes that are focused on addressing the performance and reliability issues, supporting new hardware as well as adding support for many new standards. However, in April 2008, there was a compatibility issue found between Microsoft Dynamics’ Retail Management System and SP1 and RMS users were advised to stop installing the service pack till the new tweaked version was made available again.

Microsoft aims at showing their customers and businesses that Vista is now ready for them and also that a reliable and secure server can be built out of it. Experts say that on the one hand, Windows Vista is the slickest version of Windows with lots of nice touches. On the other hand, it is slow and has a lot of features that do not work as well as expected.

Amidst all this dissatisfaction over Windows Vista, credit has to be given where it is due and there is a whole segment of users who find Vista advantageous and that is the PC gamers, who consider DirectX 10 as providing better gaming experience with realistic graphics.

However, usage of Windows Vista has been low and it had to face harsh criticism from all sectors, in spite of the fact that more than 20 million Vista copies were sold initially in the first month, which is double the amount of Windows XP sales when it was first released. This shows the high expectations that were garnered during the long wait. But that figure has not sustained, with a large percentage of the buyers still using XP. The percentage of corporate customers who are totally satisfied with Windows Vista is estimated to be much lower than that of Windows XP.

Due to the continued demand for Windows XP, in an attempt to please the distraught Vista customers, Microsoft has decided to extend sales of XP, even allowing them to go back to XP by giving downgrade rights. Enterprise customers, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Business customers can downgrade to Windows XP Professional if they wish to. The company also said that it will continue the sales of Windows XP for the ultra-low-cost PCs until mid-2010.

Microsoft also said that due to Vista’s incompatibility issues, they have decided to come out with Windows 7 that will have the core architecture of Windows Vista. Many businesses that were waiting for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to be released before deciding to migrate, seem to have now decided to wait for the new Windows operating system, and this calls for a wait until late 2009. Hope begins all over again and this time it is hoped that Microsoft will leave no stone unturned.

Apple is constantly upgrading in order to meet the demands of their growing user base.

The latest entry into Apple’s growing list of corporate customers is Axel Springer, the German newspaper publisher, who is said to be replacing all their PCs with the complete range of Apple’s products, including MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac mini as well as Mac Pro desktops. The transition is said to take place over a period of five years on about 12,000 PCs. According to Heise Online, the German magazine, Axel Springer is Apple’s second largest client after Google.

Things are changing for the Mac in the corporate scenario. Google lets its employees use what they wish to run; either the Mac, Windows or Linux. IBM too has been experimenting with Macs.

With the increase in Mac users, especially Mac notebook users, there are five companies that formed an alliance to promote the Mac to corporate customers. These companies are Parallels, Group Logic, Atempo, Centrify and LANrev. These companies concentrate on the technology between the Mac OS X and Windows. They realize that many people think that the Mac is harder to use and support, and they intend on educating corporate users about the ease of use of the Mac.

Since most corporations are already using Windows, the major issue for those that are planning on using the Mac in an environment almost exclusively Windows, is what the potential shift to the Macs entails; whether they should have two teams, one supporting the Windows and the other supporting the Mac. Most users are also concerned that the software will be different or that it may not be possible to share files with other PC users. People wonder about the differences in using the Macintosh operating system and Windows.

The most common difference is the Windows operating system, from which people would switch to Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard.

Although the Mac and Windows user interfaces are similar in several ways, they do have small variations that require some re-learning. Of course, all the Macs now can run Windows and other Windows programs, along with the Mac operating system.

For the new Mac buyers that are switching from several years of using Windows, this tip sheet can help.

While Windows has a menu bar for each of its programs, on the Mac, there is a single menu bar that keeps changing based on the program being used.

The Dock on the Mac is similar to Windows Task Bar. While the task bar holds icons that represent open windows, the Dock holds icons of programs that are used most frequently. The icons of programs can be simply dragged on and off the Dock.

The difference between Windows and the Mac is the lack of Start Menu on the Mac. All the functions of the start menu are either on the Apple menu or the Dock.

System preferences is the Mac version of the control panel in the Windows. This can be launched either from the Apple menu or the Dock.

The usual Windows keyboard commands, such as Ctrl-P changes to Command-P on the Mac. The Command keys are used instead of the Control keys.

When switching programs in Windows, Alt and Tab are used, to display all the running program icons. On the Mac, the same can be done by using the Command and Tab together. However, the Mac also has another great feature, “Expose,” which displays all the open windows in miniature on one screen.

Many people believe that the Mac does not have a right-click function, which is a wrong notion. This can be done with the use of a mouse or even by using the control key on the Mac.

Microsoft Office 2008 has been specifically created for the Mac and is interoperable with Microsoft Office for the PC. Instead of Outlook, it has Entourage, which is almost the same.

For those that wish to do presentations, Keynote 08 is much better than PowerPoint and if the files need to be shared with someone else, all that needs to be done is to export the file as a .ppt file.

With a better understanding of Mac among people, many corporate users are showing a keen interest in the Mac and are beginning to look at it as a business machine. With Apple all out to woo the customers; the Mac may soon be a big part of the corporate world.