Microsoft takes VMWare head on

Microsoft has recently unveiled how they view virtualization, and how they plan to make virtualization grow in the near future. More specifically, they’ve talked about what their primary goal is – to oust VMWare from its comfortable 80% or higher lead in virtualization deployments.

It seems Microsoft’s primary intention is not to directly compete with what VMWare is offering, and instead take the next “technological step”, moving to a management infrastructure that is both physical and virtual. They put a lot of emphasis on managing virtualization deployments, and see that as more important than the actual implementation. This is definitely true, at least from a business standpoint, as one of the goals of any virtualization suite is to become seamless.

If anyone knows how to operate a monopoly and control large market share, that would be Microsoft. VMWare could be in danger here. Even with a technically superior product, they might find themselves in a serious hurt if they do not react to Microsoft’s plans, on top of several other vendors like Sun and Cisco competing for VMWare’s current domain as well.

Seagate preparing enterprise SSDs for 2009

Seagate is getting ready to finally release an SSD product but not before next year. Apparently the company will initially aim at the enterprise market specifically, with the drives designed for use in servers.

Seagate is a latecomer in the SSD world, falling behind numerous companies, including Intel. Part of their delay was voiced by their CEO, Bill Watkins, who outright attacked SSDs as they exist today and claimed they were a minor part of the storage market. Seagate’s decision to both attack and embrace the SSD market has been an interesting one to watch.

Shortly after claiming that if SSD became popular, they would sue certain SSD makers, Seagate remained true to their word and sued STEC. Both companies remain in court today as STEC tries to get Seagate’s technology patents revolving around SSD declared as invalid.

Windows 7 to tone down UAC prompts

One of the biggest complaints Windows Vista receives is focused around the UAC (User Account Control). While touted as a security measure that would prevent a system from becoming compromised, most users simply see it as an annoyance, having to confirm even seemingly simple changes made to the system.

Microsoft has received a ton of feedback in this regard, and they seem to be preparing a simplified version of UAC for Windows 7 that will try to prompt the user less often.

Although early on Vista’s life cycle many of the UAC triggers were prompted by software not yet written with the OS security features in mind, Microsoft admits they could have done better. According to some stats gathered by the software giant, one out of three Vista “sessions” create at least one UAC prompt. Not a huge deal when the machine is first being setup, but after it has been in use it tends to get in the way. Microsoft talks further details on its internal affairs with the upcoming OS on its Engineering Windows 7 blog.

Wal-Mart rescinds decision to shut down DRM servers

At the end of last month, Wal-Mart announced they would shut down their DRM servers. That would have resulted in anyone who purchased DRM-laden music from Wal-Mart stuck with a worthless purchase down the road unless they burn their music to a CD beforehand. The decision was a reminder of how dangerous DRM can be for the consumer, and how it truly is a method of “renting” content rather than “buying” it. The company has wised up in recent days and now plans to offer DRM-free music on its online store, but that won’t help those who jumped on the service when it was first offered.

Naturally this caused a lot of upset among those Wal-Mart customers who felt their paid-for music was in danger. They protested, and as a result the retail chain will be extending the server shut-down deadline. Wal-Mart hasn’t given a specific date – only mentioning that they will maintain and operate these servers for the foreseeable future.

Mozilla freezes feature set for Firefox 3.1

Mozilla has pushed back the release of Firefox 3.1 by several weeks in order to build into it a number of features that include a highly touted ‘private browsing’ mode, further optimizations on its JavaScript engine and improvements on how the browser’s address bar works.

With this timetable the first beta of Firefox 3.1 is expected to see the light as soon as next week, while a more feature complete Beta 2 is expected on early November. Mozilla anticipates to have the final version out by the end of the year or early 2009, with a set date being announced later on.

Firefox remains the second most used browser worldwide with ~18% market share. By comparison Internet Explorer dominates at large with about 76,3% of users and Safari comes in at third with 3,8%.

Circuit City in trouble, going the way of the dodo?

After Blockbuster rescinded its $1.3 billion offer for taking over Circuit City last July, things haven’t gone anywhere but downhill for the retail chain. Last quarter the company reported losses for $239 million, it has also suffered from the loss of its CEO and a severe impact on its stock price plummeting from a high $9.4 a year ago to $0.43 this week.

With the current financial crisis expected to take its toll on companies that rely heavily on credit or do not have enough liquid assets, Circuit City is one of those retailers expected to collapse by the end of the year.

Without a doubt Circuit City’s dramatic decline in market capitalization looks astounding but other tech giants are also suffering from the stock market pain as summarized by a table at TG Daily.

Nvidia, for example, is down 81% from a year ago, Motorola -76%, RIM -60%, and even stock stars from the past few years like Apple and Google are both down 56%. Could consolidation extend to the technology industry, many analysts seem to think so considering the relative bargain some stocks are selling for right now.

Picasa 3 beta for Linux available

If you are a Linux user and have been wanting to run Google’s photo organizing and editing software Picasa on that OS, your wait is now over. Google has released a
Linux port of the software based on its latest available version. The software reportedly utilizes portions of Wine to function, so it wouldn’t be accurate to call it an actual “port”. As a result, there are a few features missing in this release due to Picasa relying on certain Windows components.

Picasa 3 Beta is also available for Windows now, which is no surprise, but not for the Mac. We wonder if this is some sort of trend setting at Google, let’s remember that the company’s month-old Chrome browser remains at large a Windows-only application.

CyberPower intros Gamer Xtreme XI system

CyberPower has just introduced the Gamer Xtreme XI, an Intel Core 2 Extreme based system designed with gaming and performance computing in mind. The Gamer Xtreme XI combines a factory overclocked Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 quad-core processor running at an impressive 4.0GHz, with a pair of powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 cards featuring SLI and PhysX support.

CyberPower claims their system can handle even the most graphically intense computer games, but as you might expect it also carries an obscenely high price tag. Starting at $4939, this beast features 4GB of Corsair’s DDR3 PC1333 Dual Channel memory, twin 500 GB SATA II 7200 RPM hard drives in a RAID-0 configuration and a LG Blu-ray / HD-DVD optical drive, all this enclosed in an NZXT Khaos full tower case – which offers no extraordinary features and at $400 is just a poor choice (read our review) for an already expensive gaming rig. For an already generous price tag, they could have done better in that aspect.

The CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XI should go head to head with the likes of the HP Blackbird 002 and Alienware Area-51 ALX and can be ordered now (and further customized) at CyberPower’s website.

Microsoft to unveil Windows Cloud OS this month

Speaking at an event in London, Microsoft’s chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer, has revealed that the company will let loose a new operating system, provisionally named Windows Cloud, at their professional developer conference later this month.

Microsoft has been long expected to unveil a cloud-based platform, and there’s been much speculation on whether the company will just launch a hosted version of Microsoft’s software or a new Windows operating system. If we are to take Ballmer’s comments literally, however, this probably isn’t something you would just run on your desktop but rather some sort of Windows Server built to manage the needs of services in the cloud.

Ballmer also dismissed the idea of creating a Google Docs rival, suggesting there simply wasn’t any value in it, but admitted the company was looking to bolster the online component of its Office suite. Further details about “Windows Cloud” remain scarce at the moment, but with Microsoft also expected to discuss Windows 7 at PDC, this is shaping up to be quite an interesting event. We’ll post more information as it becomes available, stay tuned.

Wii HD in development?

What are Nintendo’s plans for the Wii in the near future? A new console, perhaps, after rumors and hints of what they have in store to succeed the Wii. Precious little in terms of details has been offered up from Nintendo, so much of what people know is speculation, but it seems that Nintendo is planning a Wii successor called the Wii HD. It is not a refresh of the existing hardware, but rather a redesign – and as the name suggests, the console will support high definition content.

One statement was made that compared this next-generation Wii to the Game Boy being succeeded by the Game Boy Advance. If so, the “Wii HD” might get a massive hardware upgrade.That direction is somewhat different than what Nintendo has taken in the past. Since the release of the Wii, they have claimed that hardware isn’t everything – and they were proven right with the tremendous success of the console.

The new console, if indeed on track, is estimated for a release in 2011.