Tech Support Help Desk

Mozilla is making sure it won’t be left high and dry in the future release of it’s browsing platform, Mozilla2. It’s already telling it’s coders that mobile services will be a part of their future. With the success of the iPhone, they are taking their cue for which way technology will be heading.

That isn’t to say there won’t be some roadblocks however. Both Microsoft and Apple are already offering browsers for phones that run on their operating systems. Other third party vendors like Opera have also been dabbling in the market, tweaking their mobile browser for some time now.

Let’s think for just a minute. Who would be the perfect platform for Mozilla to launch it’s mobile browser with? Who would be in the market to compete against the big names in the mobile Internet cellular marketplace? Well, I’m going to go out on a limb here (just remember you read it here first!) and say that I see a partnership between Google and Mozilla as a potential on this one. Google is already rumored to be working on their own “Gphone” … and I suspect that Mozilla’s browser would be the perfect addition to the team.

I had a thought several weeks ago that I shared with some friends and family. With flash memory prices dropping, and storage sizes expanding, I wondered how long it would take for PC manufacturers (especially laptop makers) to utilize this to their advantage.

Apparently they already have. However, because the cost of the equivalent of a top-end hard drive in flash memory is so expensive, one company has decided to bridge the gap for now. Seagate has come out with a laptop hard drive that will boot up off of a flash memory partition … saving A TON of batter power in the process. Extending battery life is the holy grail in terms of notebook computers - just ask anyone who’s got one.

If you want to read more about this new development, check out the Tech News article here.

Well, Halo 3 is out, and it’s breaking all the sales records.  Microsoft should be very pleased, although there have been reports of issues on their Xbox Live service, with so many new users flooding the online gaming servers.

If you have an opinion about Halo 3, let me hear it!  What do you think about this new addition to the Halo collection?

It seems that Starbucks want’s to get on board with the latest iTunes push.  They are getting ready to give out 50 million free iTunes songs between October 2nd and November 7th, 2007.  Only 37 titles are part of the promotion, but across the chain they will be giving away over 1.5 million tunes a day.  Customers will get a ’song of the day’ promo card with their purchases.  In addition, they will also get 2 free songs with the purchase of a Starbucks gift card.  With java, wifi, and now free iTunes, you can hang out at Starbucks all day!

Well, there’s been an update on the iPhone refund that was supposedly offered by Steve Jobs a few days ago.  While the price of the iPhone has dropped right at $200, the refund for those eager beaver early adopters will only be $100.  Hmmm … isn’t that nice of Apple to take you into consideration?  I’m sure you should be grateful that they are even doing that .

Let’s face it.  This was a face-saving attempt from Apple in the first place, especially seeing the initial reviews the iPhone has been getting.  Apple relies on those early die-hard adopters of new technology gadgets to put their product out in the market … but have they gone too far?  Will the really gutsy Apple fans still support this kind of fluid priced marketing?

Stay tuned, I have a feeling we’ll find out real soon …

It seems like something out of George Orwell’s novel, 1984, but it’s not. It appears that Microsoft has been up to something secret. Microsoft has been updating files, through it’s Windows Update service. What’s so special about that, you ask? You say you already knew that?

Well, did you know they were doing it even when you have the Windows Update option turned off? That’s right … even if you have the update option turned off, you are still getting updates from Microsoft. Security experts are warning that this leaves a gaping hole in your home PC security, and would-be attackers could strike using any compromise that they find.

To read more about this check out the article in ZDNet.

Well, Steve Jobs has done it again. With market share slowly trudging behind and Apple’s new iPhone not receiving all the glowing reviews it was supposed to garner, Steve Jobs has pulled another rabbit out of his hat. He has, in effect, dropped the A-bomb (that’s the Apple bomb folks, not a nuclear proliferation device) once again.

Jobs announced that Apple is lowering the price of the phone, and will be offering a refund to early adopters who bought the iPhone at it’s original $600 price tag. The new price is slated to come in at $399, a whopping 1/3 off the original price! Makes you wonder just how much that little jewel really cost, doesn’t it?

Will it be enough to pull the iPhone out of mediocrity and back into the positive limelight? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure: Steve Jobs is a master showman, and if anyone can pull it off … he will. (Maybe he should have been around to partner up with P.T. Barnum!)

Reports from Bloomberg and others have quoted Japanese research company Enterbrain’s figures, showing that in August, Nintendo sold 245,653 Wii consoles, Sony sold 81,541 PS3’s and Microsoft sold 11,288 Xbox 360’s in the Japanese market.

These new figures put Nintendo at a 3-to-1 advantage over Sony. The lead has fallen though, – the sales figures for July had put Nintendo at a 4-to-1 advantage, falling from a 6-to-1 advantage earlier in the year.

This brings total sales of consoles in Japan to 3,406,528 for the Wii, 1,143,798 for the PS3 and 442,290 for the Xbox 360. This shows that although Nintendo’s lead has narrowed a little over Sony, both Sony and Microsoft still have a long way to go to catch up.

The race is on, and everyone is jockeying for position for the Christmas season sales, which are just around the corner.

Microsoft announced Wednesday that Windows Vista SP1 will be ready with a beta version in the next few weeks, with a full fledged version in the first quarter of next year. This is good for Microsoft, as this can usually signal an increase in companies that are willing to migrate over from an older operating system. Most companies will not make the transition to an untested, brand-new OS.

Consumers look forward to service packs to fix pesky glitches in their application. However, desktop managers have been anxious for Microsoft to make a Windows Vista SP1 announcement because it directly affects their plans for deploying a new operating system. Soon the wait will be over for both parties. We can only cross our fingers and hope that this new release will cover the issues that make a difference for the actual users of the operating system. Only time will tell.

There have been some reported meeting between Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs and Volkwagen’s chief, Martin Winterkorn. Apparently there have been some discussion about integrating some of Apple’s products into the make of Volkswagens automobiles.

Apple already works with many automobile manufacturers to offer an integrated in-car hook-up for ipods. Perhaps this meeting of the minds will lead to the next stage in the evolution of the automobile. Maybe one day in the future you will be able to cruise down the road, while cruising through cyberspace to pick up your latest video podcast.

Give me a break. This will take wreckless driving to a whole new dimension.