Backpage News

foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats including MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, and CDDA. foobar2000 also has full Unicode support, advanced tagging capabilities, ReplayGain for both playback and calculation, customizable keyboard shortcuts and more useful features. There is also support for transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component (requires external commandline encoder executables for different output formats). foobar's developer al…

Microsoft on Tuesday continued its plodding march toward the long awaited release of Windows XP service pack 3 by opening the latest test build to the public. XP SP3 Release Candidate 2 is now available from the Microsoft Download Center to users running PCs with XP SP2 installed, a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to ChannelWeb. Microsoft earlier this month released XP SP RC2 to a group of 15,000 private beta testers. "This release catches the build up on previously released hotfixes and responds to the critical feedback from the previous betas," said the spokesperson. Echoing the vendor's well established party line, the spokesperson said Microsoft plans…

Back in December, I mentioned some changes were coming with WGA in Windows Vista. I want to say first that I'm excited about the step forward we're taking with SP1 and proud of the work that has gone into it. I'm excited both about the changes we've made to the user experience that we talked about and also about what we've done in Windows Vista SP1 to combat two of the most common methods we've seen for trying to hack product activation in Windows Vista. First let me recap the changes to the customer experience that are included in SP1. "Reduced Functionality Mode" (RFM) has been removed from the product and replaced with a notifications-based experience. The purpose …

innotek VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). See "About VirtualBox" for an introduction; see "innotek" for more about our company.Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and …

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Some of the useful features include drag and drop support, filename filters, network configuration wizard, powerful site manager, transfer queue, and it even supports resume and transfer of files larger than 4GB. When FileZilla v3 was released a built in updater was introduced. This allowed users to update their FileZilla Client faster and easier. Included are options to check for nightly and beta builds of the FileZilla Client. Download: FileZilla 3.0.7.1 Homepage: FileZilla on Source…

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. CCleaner can also clean very quickly, usually taking about ten seconds to run. Updated Index.dat cleaning in Vista. File scanning performance increase on NTFS drives. Improved exception handling methods. Fixed IE cache folder location bug. Uninstaller tool now exports foreign languages correctly. Fixed bug where IE temp files could be incorrectly listed. Performance improvements to secure deletion. Tweaks t…

At just after 3:00 am Eastern Time, Toshiba officially pulled the plug on its efforts to promote and manufacture HD DVD home theater consoles and disc drives, announcing its intention to cease all manufacturing and promotional operations by the end of March. However, the company left open one very small door: the possibility that HD DVD may have a future in notebook PC drives. BetaNews will cover the full impact of this morning's move throughout the day. Below is the transcript of Toshiba's entire announcement this morning: Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no l…

Microsoft wants more students using its software tools and it thinks it has hit on the right business model. It's going to give away its software. Starting this week, college students in 10 countries will be able to get Microsoft's Visual Studio and several other programs for free as part of an effort dubbed DreamSpark. Over the next year, Microsoft plans to offer the program worldwide for college and high school students. In addition to giving away its Visual Studio tools, Microsoft is also providing no-charge access to its Expression Web design tools and its XNA studio for developing Xbox 360 software. Microsoft already provides discounted academic versions of …

foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats including MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, and CDDA. foobar2000 also has full Unicode support, advanced tagging capabilities, ReplayGain for both playback and calculation, customizable keyboard shortcuts and more useful features. There is also support for transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component (requires external commandline encoder executables for different output formats). foobar's developer also…

Despite reports to the contrary spreading like wildfire around blogs and mainstream news sources Monday, Toshiba said it has not made any decision to halt production of HD DVD players, while acknowledging it is evaluating its strategy moving forward. The hubbub over HD DVD's demise began on Friday, when a brief article published in Hollywood Reporter cited an anonymous source claiming that Toshiba was making plans to exit the HD DVD business, spelling an end to the format that has been locked in a bitter war with Sony's Blu-ray format. Reuters spread the story around the world due to its syndication agreement with the Hollywood paper. The initial report was authored…

A security researcher has posted code for an exploit targeting a component of Microsoft Office. The vulnerability lies in a conversion tool used to convert Microsoft Works WPS files into Word RTF files The flaw could allow an attacker to remotely execute code on a user's system. Microsoft repaired the vulnerability as part of its monthly security release on 12 February. When the update was released Microsoft credited discovery of the flaw to iDefense, which in turn credited security researcher Damian Put. Two days after the patch was released, a user by the name of 'chujwamwdupe' posted the sample exploit code to security site milw0rm. The US Compu…

Tomato is a small, lean and simple replacement firmware for Linksys' WRT54G/GL/GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54 and other Broadcom-based routers. It features a new easy to use GUI, a new bandwidth usage monitor, more advanced QOS and access restrictions, enables new wireless features such as WDS and wireless client modes, raises the limits on maximum connections for P2P, allows you to run your custom scripts or telnet/ssh in and do all sorts of things like re-program the SES/AOSS button, adds wireless site survey to see your wifi neighbors, and more. Download: Tomato Firmware 1.16.1373 download page Changes: More logging, fixes for PPPoE support. Thanks to Walt…

Security researchers have uncovered "critical" security flaws in a version of the Linux kernel used by a large number of popular distributions. The three bugs, which allow unauthorized access to kernel memory, exist in all versions of the Linux kernel up to 2.6.24.1, including Ubuntu, Red Hat, and others. The three bugs allow unauthorized users to read or write to kernel memory locations or to access certain resources in certain servers, according to a SecurityFocus advisory. They could be exploited by malicious, local users to cause denial of service attacks, disclose potentially sensitive information, or gain "root" privileges, according to security experts. Th…

The question of which unilateral promise from Microsoft is supposed to apply to its Office Open XML format suite was supposed to have been clarified this morning by the company. At least that was the plan, and in the end, the matter may actually be settled, but in the middle, at least, there was more than a little confusion. Here is the story as we now understand it: Microsoft's position, according to a spokesperson with whom BetaNews spoke this afternoon, is that the company did indeed originally release OOXML under the Open Specification Promise (OSP) in September 2006, as indicated by this blog posting at the time from the company's director of corporate standards, …

FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) client with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface. Some of the useful features include drag and drop support, filename filters, network configuration wizard, powerful site manager, transfer queue, and it even supports resume and transfer of files larger than 4GB. When FileZilla v3 was released a built in updater was introduced. This allowed users to update their FileZilla Client faster and easier. Included are options to check for nightly and beta builds of the FileZilla Client. Download: FileZilla 3.0.7 Homepage: FileZilla on SourceFo…

The US presidential primaries have become the latest lure for spreading malware as attackers use 'videos' of candidates to tempt users into downloading Trojan applications. Researchers at Symantec and McAfee reported that malware distributors are using presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as bait for a malicious file download. Symantec warned of an attack which uses spam emails to spread a 'video' of Clinton. A file named 'mpg.exe' downloads another Trojan application which infects the user's system. Researchers at McAfee noted a similar attack which uses links hidden inside emails again promising a video of Clinton but redirecting to a page hosted on Google ad…

Microsoft Corp. announced the departure of several executives Thursday, among them a Silicon Valley veteran recruited to help fix its unprofitable Web business and one in charge of marketing Windows Vista, and the promotion of more than a dozen others across the company. The changes come just two weeks after Microsoft offered to buy Web portal and search competitor Yahoo Inc. for more than $40 billion, a move industry watchers broadly see as an admission that Microsoft's own Web strategy had failed. If the proposed Yahoo takeover is completed, Microsoft is expected to make more radical changes as it blends the two companies into a more formidable challenger to Googl…

Gmail, the fastest growing email service on the Internet, provided by Google, revamped last autumn, is finally finding its way onto our computers in our own languages. Perhaps a herald needs some special training, I don’t think I was able to underline the importance of this new update the way a pro could have. What’s so great about it? Well, aside from the scoreless numbers of new people soon to embrace Gmail that were previously held at bay by their not knowing English all that well to use it, the update comes fully equipped with everything that was added so far. You know the way Google launches a product when it’s almost finished and then patches it as they go along…

Finjan Inc, a web security solutions provider, just confirmed the results that Google’s security team and IBM’s X-Force reported. The one thing the three could agree on was that online criminals are exploiting vulnerabilities in end users web browsers by using drive-by downloads for identity theft, gaining access to online accounts and for some other illicit revenue-generating activities, M2.com writes. Google’s Niels Provos, a security engineer, led the team that studied billions of URLs over a 10-month time period (January 2007 – October 2007). Out of the 66,534,330 URLs checked, 3,385,889 were suspicious and 3,417,590 downright malicious and pointing to 181,699 …

Kevin Remde: The product team decided to give you TechNet and MSDN subscribers a little Valentine's Day gift by making SP1 available for download. Go to the http://technet.microsoft.com/subscriptions/default.aspx page. Notice the "Top Subscriber Downloads" section. You can also go here to get it - For TechNet Subscribers For MSDN Subscribers And if you're a subscriber, it will require you to log-in with the Windows Live ID you associated your subscription with. If you're NOT a TechNet Subscriber, I can save you $100 if you're interested. Link: Kevin Remde's IT Pro WebLog Source: WinBeta Link: Lunarsoft Frontpage

Comcast's response yesterday to its public thrashing by the FCC may have had a second, more important, purpose: A prominent Congressman has introduced legislation paving the way for a ban on Internet throttling. In the midst of an already overflowing legislative calendar, Rep. Ed Markey (D - Mass.), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, introduced a bill yesterday whose end result could be the illegalization of throttling of bandwidth to certain customers by Internet service providers. But the bill, tentatively entitled the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008, would not actually declare throttling illegal specifically. Inste…

OpenOffice.org is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. It is an international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format. It establishes the necessary facilities to make this open source technology available to the developer community.OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute. Download: OpenOffice.org 2.4.0 RC1 fo…

The company admitted Wednesday that it sales for its flagship game console were in fact so strong that it hasn't been able to maintain inventory levels. Redmond may be playing the expectations game as NPD data listing monthly console sales is due shortly, and may show some weakness due to these supply problems. Microsoft's game marketing chief Jeff Bell said it could have an impact on its sales. "We're literally out of stock in many stores," Bell told Reuters. January and February numbers are expected to be affected most, but the company is ramping up production and will likely be able to meet demand by spring. In December, Microsoft sold some 1.26 million units,…

Version 8.2 of the AMD ATI graphic drivers have been released. This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The ATI CATALYST software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability. Display and WDM Drivers included in this bundle. The Catalyst software suite 8.2 contains the following: Radeon display driver 8.451 Multimedia Center 9.16 (Windows XP only) HydraVision (Windows XP only) HydraVision Basic Edition (Windows XP only) Remote Wonder 3.04 (Windows XP only) WDM Driver Install Bundle Southbridge/IXP Driver Catalyst Control Center Version 8.2 Download: ATI Catalyst 8.2 Notes: Release Note…

Comodo Firewall Pro is the multi-layered security application that keeps hackers out and personal information in. Built from the ground upwards with your security in mind, this award winning firewall constantly monitors and defends your system from inbound and outbound attacks. Version 3.0 now features a fully fledged Host Intrusion Prevention System to protect your critical operating system files and block viruses and malware before they ever get the chance to install. Comodo Firewall Pro 3 features a friendly graphical user interface; highly granular configuration options; easily understood and informative alerts; wizard-based detection of trusted zones and much more…