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IRON MAN 2

Tentative release date: May 2010

What’s it about: The man in that cool iron suit is back for another round of cool-fest! Iron Man 2 is set six months after the events of the first film. Tony Stark is out in the open, having revealed his identity as Iron Man and the public attention has taken its toll on him. Meanwhile, things aren’t looking too good at Stark Industries; as the government is working to co-op his infamous armour. A powerful competitor named Justin Hammer also threatens Tony’s business, and a new enemy named Whiplash is hot on his tail.

What you need to know: Both Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow reprise their roles as Tony Stark and Pepper Potts. Mickey Rourke will be playing baddie Whiplash and the sexy starlet Scarlett Johansson dawns the role of Black Widow. But the coolest bit about this movie is that the equally-awesome War Machine, an Iron Man look-alike/sidekick will be joining forces with our favourite hero to whoop some nefarious butt!

Photo Copyright of Fox/Image.net

One of Windows 7’s most talked about features gets finalized.

Windows 7 is shaping up to be a dynamic release.  With many aggressive pricing options such as cheaper OEM prices and student discounts, the new release aims to please.

When debating what version to buy, one of the most compelling features of the Professional and Ultimates versions is Windows XP Mode.  XP Mode runs using Microsoft’s Virtual PC software, but unlike many virtual machines, it blends unobtrusively into your desktop, with XP-compatibility Windows happily living alongside Windows 7 windows, with no obtrusive differences.

Microsoft made an exciting announcement yesterday — the Windows XP Mode has finally hit RTM (Windows 7 hit RTM several weeks ago.).  The finalized version close resembles the Windows XP Mode Release Candidate, which aired in August.

For business users, XP Mode provides an innovative way to remove the headache of software compatibility.  With it, virtually any software that can run on Windows XP, can run within Windows 7.

For home users, the new feature is equally exciting, giving many their first taste of the benefits of virtualization.  Not only can it help them save on software costs, by running older versions of Office software or other programs, it can also allow them to play games that would run within Windows XP, but had trouble running within Windows Vista.  For fans of PC gaming, this is a welcome feature.

The virtual machine also helps to protect computers from online attackers when running.  Many attacks exploit virtualization features as a foothold to launch attacks from.  When XP Mode is running, its much harder to launch such attacks, though its still strongly recommended that you run security software, such as Microsoft’s free Security Essentials inside both the virtual machine and Windows 7.

The final release of XP Mode, will arrive concurrently with the release of Windows 7 on October 22.  It will be available for download from the Microsoft Download Center for users with Professional or Ultimate editions of Windows 7.

Source: Daily Tech

Microsoft has issued a status report on the recently-announced SMBv2 network vulnerability in Windows in their Security Research and Defense blog.

Reliable exploit code for the vulnerability has been released by Immunity Inc to their customers. That one and other exploits may be available elsewhere.

Many Vista users are protected in their configurations by the Windows Firewall or other firewalls they may be running. If you have the firewall on and explicitly share a folder or printer then you lose that protection, unless you have also set the "Public" firewall setting. Network firewalls, perhaps at a router, may also provide some protection. IPS products may also block specific exploits with appropriate signatures. For instance, Symantec has a signature for it in Norton Internet Security and their other products with IPS.

Microsoft provide an easy link in the status report linked to above through which you can disable the vulnerable SMBv2 network protocol, mitigating the vulnerability in all cases, and another link to re-enable it.

Toshiba has unveiled a new high-performance 2.5-inch hard drive in the MKxx56GSY series. The new drive has 500GB of storage with only two platters. The drive spins at 7,200 rpm and is aimed at notebooks and netbooks needing a lot of storage and high-performance.

Toshiba reports that the line of drives has a 13% improvement in disk operation compared to Toshiba’s previous 7,200 rpm drive family. The new line also removes some of the toxic and hazardous chemical used in previous generations of drive making the new line even greener.

The drive uses the SATA 3GB/sec interface and consumes low amounts of power in idle and sleep modes to extend battery life. The two platters used in the 500GB drive have an areal density of 395 Gb/in2. With 500GB of storage, the drive is capable of storing up to 142,000 digital photos, 131,000 music files, and 58 hours of HD video.

"This new family delivers faster overall system performance, which boosts user productivity – a key differentiator that PC manufacturers can provide to commercial and consumer notebook users,” said Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at Toshiba Storage Device Division. “As a result, we expect that 7,200 RPM HDDs will grow to more than 25 percent of 2.5-inch HDD shipments within two years.  In addition to the half-terabyte capacity, decreased environmental impact and low power consumption are also benefits, demonstrating Toshiba’s continued leadership in delivering the right solutions to meet emerging market needs.”

Other drive specifications include an average seek time of 11ms, 16MB of buffer memory, and more. The drive can withstand 325G of shock for 2ms when operating and 900G for 1ms while not operating. Toshiba will ship the new drives to manufacturers in Q3 and volume production is set for Q4 2009.

Source: Daily Tech

Medion has unveiled The Touch X9613 – a sleek black all-in-one home entertainment PC with multi-touch and voice control capabilities.

The 24in The Touch X9613 can be wall mounted or placed on a desk. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor, it has 4GB RAM and 1GB of nVidia GeForce GT 240M graphics.

The Touch X9613 runs Windows 7 and its multi-touch and voice-recognition functions mean users can swap between applications by simply touching the screen, or speaking commands. The touchscreen can be used to navigate the desktop, surf the web, view and edit digital photos, initiate media playback even play games.

The PC comes with a wireless keboard for typing, although a virtual keyboard is also offered for users that want to use the touch capabilities all the time.

The 1TB hard drive offers users plenty of space to store all their movies, music and photos while a side-loading Blu-Ray drive and integrated DVB-T, DVB-S and analogue tuner, means users can enjoy movies or TV on The Touch too. The dual turners also allow users to record live TV while watching another channel, while the Dolby-certified two integrated speakers and subwoofer, offer cinema-quality sound.

Just below the display sits the Medion Multimedia board, which offers back-lit touch-sensitive buttons to control films, TV and music.

The Touch X9613 also comes loaded with the Medion Touch Centre software that offers access to a number of application and also a helpful avatar named Laura. This ‘help’ function explains to users how specific applications work and can even read emails, browser content or personal documents out loud.

The PC also benefits from finger print recognition, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity along with a 2Mp webcam and microphone.

Medion’s The Touch X9613 will be available before Christmas. No pricing details have yet been announced.

Source:PC Advisor