Have We Run Out of Space on the Internet?

There is no more space on the Internet – sort of.

It is predicted that on February 2 around 4am the Internet is going to go through an Armageddon of sorts. All allocatable IPv4 address will be used, and the Internet community will be forced to adopt the IPv6 standard.

The current system of IPv4 addresses allow for only 4 billion combinations to be allocated. Every device that is connected to the Internet is given a unique code, called an IP address, which allows the device to be recognized on the Internet.

At the current rate these IPv4 addresses are being assigned, they will depleted in no time. One Internet Service Provider (ISP) calculates that one million addresses are assigned every four hours. The countdown to “IPcalypse” has begun.

As noted, most of these IP addresses are reusable. Unfortunately, many of them are being utilized as “one-time use” addresses.

The company Hurricane Electric is taking a step to encourage other ISPs to transfer to the new IPv6 system, which allows for 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 combinations. Their Twitter account is counting down the days and IP addresses left before we completely run out.

Currently, hardware and software developers have noticed that this change is needed and have built in compatibility to many devices and software applications to be ready for the change in our future.

Speed Up Your Computers Start Time

Speed Up Your Computers Start Time from Dork Digital on Vimeo.

Watch in full screen mode to follow along. This is our first try at this, and we are looking forward to making many more to help everyone out!

A lot of computers today come loaded full of programs and software before you even get the machine to your house. A lot of those programs along with the ones that you load onto your machine will start up as soon as the computer starts! "MSCONFIG" is a good tool to use for turning off these programs that are preset to start up. By turning this feature off in the unnecessary programs, you will allow the programs that actually control you system to start up your computer environment much much quicker!

Dork Digital Photo Competition - Free computer Cleaning and Upgrades

Contest 1) BEST Mobile Photo - Anything Goes!
In this category we are looking for the best photo period no matter what. Keep in mind that the winners will be posted on our page and on Facebook.com so don't submit anything you don't want viewed online!

Sony Ericsson debut 8.1 megapixel camera phone
Click on image to see full size!
The Last Night Shuttle Launch Feb 8, 2010

Smartphones and Tablets to Get Even Faster With Nvidia's Tegra 3 Chip

Nvidia is set to roll out the next-generation Tegra 3 chip aimed at smartphones and tablets, promising to be even faster than its current processor, which was one of the stars of CES 2011, the dual-core Tegra 2.

While Nvidia hasn't officially announced the processor yet, the Tegra 3's impending launch is almost certain, according to Softpedia. The new chip is expected to have four cores inside, and will probably roll out at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 14.

Without revealing any dates, Nvidia's general manager of Tegra Mike Rayfield confirmed the Tegra 3's launch in an interview with Hexus,

"I'm going to come pretty close to my cadence of a launch every year," said Rayfield. "It will be in production around the same time as my competitors' first dual-cores will."

Given that the Tegra 2 was launched at CES last year, Tegra 3's launch is due any time now.

Just as the Tegra 2 chip boosts the performance of tablets such as the Motorola Xoom and the first dual-core smartphone, the LG Optimus 2x, and many others we saw at CES 2011, the Tegra 3 is said to have four cores, which can further speed up browsing and gaming on tablets and smartphones. In addition, multiple cores can run at half speed to accomplish the same tasks that a single core would need to run at full speed, enhancing battery efficiency and generating less heat.

Clearly, multicore smartphones have arrived, with quad-core chips probably waiting in the wings. Ovum analyst Nick Dillon told Morningstar:

"In the same way that 1GHz was the standard for top of the range smartphones in 2010, every top-end service in 2011 is likely to have a dual-core processor. We may even see the first quad-core chipsets emerging in handsets by the end of the year."

Why It's Worth Getting Excited For Spotify's US Launch

You've probably not heard of Spotify yet. That's ok—it's still relatively new over here in Europe, where I live. But I can say in the year I've used it, I've never touched iTunes or used BitTorrent once.

It's a music-streaming service, free to download—though they've tried making it a bit "exclusive" so you have to be invited by a user, but as they've already got 7 million users that's not too difficult. It's worth noting that the users who opt to pay nothing for it will encounter the odd commercial, roughly every five songs. But that's ok, as they're targeted to what you listen to—so I've discovered some great music because of the ads, which is one of the reasons I wouldn't want to pay for it.

Paying for it costs £9.99 here in the UK each month (roughly $14), and for your dosh you get to listen to your music uninterrupted, and also on your iPhone or Android. It can cache your playlists, so you don't need internet access to play them.

But as I said, that's not the beauty of Spotify—though I know a fair few people who pay for it for mobile use. (It's said Spotify has around 300,000 paying subscribers).

So what does it do, and why have I not touched iTunes once (ok, once in a blue moon) since downloading it?
Simply put, the music streaming service lets you choose from the millions of tracks in the database (all legal, since the Swedish company has gone to great lengths to get permission from all the major record labels), so you can create playlists galore. When you get the urge to listen to a particular song, it's there—and you don't need to jump through any hoops to get it. You can listen to complete albums (usually Spotify has them the day of release), individual songs—whatever you want.

I love creating playlists, it's become an absolute addiction. My favorite—and rather infamous—is my "dadrock" playlist, which contains all the sort of cheesy songs my Dad used to play when I was a kid. Dire Straits, Phil Collins, Fine Young Cannibals, and so on.

I've shared the playlist with dozens of people by sending the URL to them, which then opens their desktop program and loads it there for their listening pleasure. They can contribute to it, if you've created a collaborative playlist, or if you'd prefer people not tinker with your choons you can set them as so too.
There are hardly any bands I've searched for which I haven't been able to find on Spotify. The Beatles and Pink Floyd are the only bands I've not been able to find on there, but both bands have well-publicized issues with digital downloads/streaming.

I use Spotify on average about eight hours a day. True, when you're streaming, especially using the free service, it's not the highest bitrate—but when the music is being pumped from laptop speakers it's not that important. If I want to listen to something in a higher bitrate I'll just put on an SACD, vinyl or CD. Or open iTunes and play from my library, though that's a very rare occurrence nowadays.

Get excited for the US launch. It's going to be big news when it's made available over there, just like it's soared in popularity over here. Not a day goes past when I don't see people linking to their playlists on Twitter or Facebook, or hear someone on the street using Spotify as a verb, the same way we say "just YouTube it" or "I'll Google it" now.

I know there's a dozen different music streaming and download services available already in the US (far more than I've got access to here in the UK), but all the US people I've spoken to who've used Spotify while on holiday in Europe or via sneaky means absolutely rave about it.

Details are still hazy about the US launch, but Bloomberg is reporting it'll be available States-side in the third quarter of 2010 after originally being slated for an early 2010 debut. The delay is due to licensing discussions apparently—but that's a good thing. You'll feel so virtuous giving up BitTorrent and streaming music legally, and for free. Sounds crazy, I know.

Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk

by Gina Trapani

I spend about 45 to 50 hours a week working on my computer. Up until a week ago, I did that work sitting on my ever-expanding behind.
Last Monday I adjusted my desk to standing height (pictured right). I spent the week working on my feet, and I'm never going back to a sitdown desk again. Here are some questions and answers about the change.

What made you switch to a standing desk?
Ever since I wrote about a "treadputer" treadmill desk at Lifehacker in May of 2006, I've been curious about and inspired by alternative desk setups. My workday—which consists almost entirely of typing on or talking into a computer—is completely sedentary, and is a big part of the reason I'm more than 20 pounds overweight. Burning more calories while I work is a better use of that time.

Building or buying a treadputer is too expensive an undertaking for something I'm not sure I'll like or even have the space to accomodate. A standing desk, however, is doable. In July of 2010 I featured an Ikea Jerker treadmill desk, and mentioned I might just adjust my Jerker to standing height. This has been something I've been thinking about a long time.

Three straws finally broke the camel's back. First, I'm using RescueTime to monitor how I spend my time on my computer, and the weekly report made me realize how many hours I really do spend sitting down (week before last: 48). Second, I'm actively working on losing weight right now, and this seemed like a small way to add to the effort (down 12 pounds in 3 months so far). Finally, Macworld posted a guide to setting up a treadmill desk, and unequivocally recommended that you go from sitting to standing to walking, not straight from sitting to walking. That did it.


Why use a standing desk?

Two reasons: Higher calorie burn and better posture. When I'm sitting at my desk, even in a fancy ergonomic chair, I tend to slump, with my back curved and shoulders forward, which closes my chest and makes my breathing more shallow. When standing at a desk where my forearms are at a 90 degree angle on the desk surface, my shoulders go back, which makes my spine concave and opens my chest. Besides the initial foot pain and muscle aches of engaged thighs and calves, it feels great.
I didn't discuss the switch to a standing desk with my doctor, though there have been some studies about the negative health effects of excessive sitting. I'm not a medical professional, but it seems obvious that human beings aren't meant to spend 45 hours a week sitting still in a chair. Now that I'm standing, I pace, dance, and fidget a lot more freely, which is just more natural activity and calorie burn built into my day.

But don't your feet hurt?

Yes, very much. In fact, the first three days were brutal, so painful I doubted the whole endeavor. By mid-day 2, I had to sit down every hour or so. I was distracted and had a hard time focusing on anything but how much my feet hurt. At night I sat on the couch with my feet elevated. I collapsed into bed totally exhausted. I never appreciated sitting as much as I did the first three days.
Then, on the fourth day, it wasn't so bad. On day 5, I got lost in work for 2 hours before I thought about the fact that I was on my feet once. Now it's my new normal.

How did you convert your desk to a standing desk?

I have a (sadly discontinued) Ikea Jerker desk, which is designed to let you set the table to any height you want when you assemble it. So, I put in the 3 hours it took to break down my whole computer setup, dissemble the desk, and put it together at standing height. I don't have a lot of willpower, so I wanted to make the change difficult to undo. Adjusting the desk back down to sitting height will take another half-day of tooling with Ikea furniture, not something I'll want to do again any time soon. Besides, if I want to sit, I always have the dining room table. Here's what my new setup looks like:



If you don't have a desk that you can assemble to standing height, you can always create a temporary standing desk by putting shelves on your current desk.

Or you can use Coke cans, like Marco did:



Or you can use printer paper, like tbone7770 did:



Or you can just buy a standing desk.


What about those treadputers?
They're cool, aren't they? I'm not sure if I'll ever actually make it to the point where I'm walking and computing all day. I'm going to put in several months of standing before I consider it.

What shoes do you wear?

I wear ordinary running shoes, which are fairly new, well-padded and supportive. Changing your shoes seems to help the feet, too. Sometimes I go barefoot, but I don't usually last long.

Do you stand on a soft mat? If so, which one?

Not yet, but I've ordered a squishy mat to put under my desk. It's not one of those fancy $100 kitchen gel mats, it's more like a $25 cash register/factory mat. It arrives this week. I'll let you know how well I like it.

Did you use any other gear in your switch to standing?

I bought a $20 monitor riser to get my screen to the right height so I'm looking straight ahead at it, not down.

How long did it take you to get used to standing all day?

I'm not entirely used to it yet, but I'm through the worst. I started Monday. By Friday I felt comfortable. Monday through Wednesday were pretty tough, though.

Do you take sit-down breaks?

Yup. I sit down at lunchtime, on phonecalls (though I'm more apt to pace), at meetings, and maybe once or twice for 5-10 minutes at other times in the day, as needed. One day I was pretty exhausted and achy so I treated myself to a sitdown beverage at the coffee shop, which was a double treat. But for the most part, I'm not even thinking about it any more.

Update: A few people have pointed out that there are health risks associated with too much standing, like varicose veins. There's usually some health effect associated with too much of anything. I don't stand ALL the time now--I sit, stand, pace, and stretch. The difference between now and before is that I used to mostly sit. Now I mostly stand.

Who else uses a standing desk?

More people than I'd realized, especially techies! Former Twitter developer and founder of BankSimple Alex Payne. Creator of Instapaper Marco Arment. Podcaster extraordinaire Dan Benjamin. Novelist Philip Roth. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Lifehacker editor Jason Fitzpatrick. Now, newly, my fellow San Diego techie Mitch Wagner. Who else?

Desktop Wallpaper, Need A New Screen

Needing a new look on you Laptop, PC or Mac? Check out these free wallpapers!
Categorized and organized for easy searching if your wanting a certain style or look for your setup

http://www.freewallpapersdb.com/Computers-wallpapers.html

Dork Digital Photo Competition - Free computer Cleaning and Upgrades

Dork Digital First Mobile Photo Contest
1Month Long (Jan. 5 - Feb. 5)

The rules are simple with this one. We are looking for creativity and overall awesomeness in the photos. Each person may only submit one photo in each of the two categories! If more than one photo is submitted for one of the categories only your first one is counted. No exceptions! When sending in the photo also ad the make and model of the phone it was taken on

*Winners of both categories get free upgrades for the software that is installed on their computer and will also receive a full cleaning of the entire inside of their computer.

Contest 1) BEST Mobile Photo - Anything Goes!
    In this category we are looking for the best photo period no matter what. Keep in mind that the winners will be posted on our page and on Facebook.com so don't submit anything you don't want viewed online!

Contest 2) BEST Mobile Photo - Most unorganized Desk!
    This can be staged or natural. Here we are judging on just plain outrageously, unbelievably, messy and unorganized straight up!

We are trying to keep this broad to allow people to send in a lot of different mobile photos.
Please send all photos to (Dork.Digital@yahoo.com) and/or (361) 589-9712

*One person may win both categories! We are hoping that we do get a different winner for each.

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.50.1

Download Now (7.38MB)

editors' review

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a surprisingly effective freeware antimalware tool. It's a relatively speedy malware remover, with the quick scan taking about 8 minutes even with other high-resource programs running. The heuristics engine proved on multiple computers during empirical testing that it was capable of determining the difference between false positives and dangerous apps.

The app has some nice features rolled in, too. It supports multiple drive scanning including networked drives, context menu options including a scan-on-demand for individual files, and the FileAssassin option under the More Tools section for removing locked files. The interface is simple, but pleasant-looking and well-organized.

Tabs live just below the oversized logo, with few options per tab to keep down the clutter. The installation process was fast enough, but interestingly offered up the well-kept changelog and an instant definition file update.

Do note that the real-time protection is restricted to the paid version, as is the scheduler for updates and scans. Overall, though, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is a responsive malware remover that does what it should with a minimum of fuss.

Ryan Graham Photography

Needing any family portraits or maybe looking for a photographer for any other reason?
Check out: http://www.ryangrahamphoto.com
Created by: Dork Digital
Dork.Digital@yahoo.com
(361) 589-9712

Five Easy Places to Recycle Your Old Gadgets and Computers

Maybe you got some next-generation gear over the holidays. Maybe you're just cleaning out unused cruft in this new year. Whatever the reason, you've got gadgets that need to go. Here's where to bring them for responsible, ecological, and (mostly) free recycling.

Many towns, cities, counties, and states have their own e-cycling programs that offer convenient drop-off locations for old computers, big monitors, and other electronics. The EPA suggests a cluster of search sites for helping you find a local ecycling program, including EcoSquid and the Consumer Electronics Association's MyGreenElectronics. And beyond the picks you see below, the EPA has a grid list of consumer-friendly e-cycling programs from stores and manufacturers.

With that in mind, almost everybody has a Best Buy, Goodwill, or Staples somewhere near them. Read up on their recycling programs, and learn about two other options you might not have considered:

Oddly enough, the electronics superstore that only just recently dropped a hefty restocking fee also has the most convenient and customer-friendly electronics recycling program around. Each household can bring in up to three items per day, including older-style CRT TVs (up to 32 inches in size), any flat-panel TV, monitors, cellphones, GPS units, DVD players—basically, if it has a plug and a display, and you can carry it, Best Buy takes it. There's a $10 charge for TVs and monitors, but you get that back in a $10 gift card.

New cellphone packages often come with a pouch in which to mail back an older cellphone for recycling, or for re-purposing as an emergency 911 phone for community services. If your phone didn't, check out your current or past cellular provider. Each of them offers phone recylcing services, generally free and offered through both in-store drop-offs and postage-paid mail-ins. Your phone's maker (LG, Motorola, etc.) likely offers a similar low-hassle deal.

Senate to try again on controversial antipiracy bill

The U.S. Senate judiciary committee will take another crack at arming the government with broad antipiracy powers.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the judiciary committee's chairman, said today that the government must take action against "online criminals" who harm American jobs by obtaining the nation's intellectual property without paying for it. Leahy made the statements as he laid out the committee's agenda for this session of Congress.
In September, Leahy introduced legislation called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, which could boast bipartisan support and unanimously passed in the judiciary committee, but failed to pass in a full Senate vote.

"Online infringement costs our national economy billions of dollars every year," Leahy said, according to a transcript of his speech. "Our intellectual property-based businesses are among the most productive in our economy and among its best employers. We cannot stand by and see them ravaged, and American consumers subjected to counterfeits. We will renew our effort this year."

Among the bill's supporters are the Motion Picture Association of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Recording Industry Association of America. Among the legislation's opponents are the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Distributed Computing Industry Association, and American Civil Liberties Union, who say the bill is little more than censorship.

Under the proposed legislation, the Justice Department would file a civil action against accused pirate domain names. If the domain name resides in the U.S., the attorney general could request that the domain name in question be seized.

The bill would also authorize the attorney general to order other specified third parties, such as Internet service providers, payment processors, and online ad network providers, to take action against pirate sites. For example, ISPs could be ordered to block access in this country to file-sharing sites based overseas or order Visa to stop taking processing transactions from the sites.

The legislation's supporters in the entertainment industry say its introduction has already produced benefits. Last month, CNET reported that Mastercard was willing to stop processing transactions from sites trafficking in pirated music, movies, games, and other digital copyrighted content and would support Leahy's bill.

Meanwhile, others have been less than supportive. The major ISPs have yet to weigh in on the issue but some executives from the sector have told me they are skeptical of Leahy's chances at getting his bill passed anytime soon

AT&T should shut up about Verizon iPhone

I see over on Business Insider that AT&T’s PR boss is already bashing the Verizon iPhone that will be announced next week.

AT&T should shut up.

I still can’t use my iPhone in parts of San Francisco and at CES? AT&T was nearly unusable.

AT&T has absolutely NO credibility to bash its competitors. It has, simply, provided horrible service over the past three years and I’ll be very happy to leave it, even if top-end speeds are slightly slower.

Why am I happy to leave AT&T? Because it has proven unable to support us at big events. Yes, SXSW was pretty good. But the World Series? Unusable. CES? Unusable. Web 2 expo? Unusable.

They refuse to make the kinds of investments they need to make to keep our service up and running and now they are trying to bash Verizon?

Hello AT&T. Every Verizon phone last week at CES worked just fine.

You should shut up. Maybe after 40% of your customers leave because you mistreated us for so long your service will be faster. But it won’t matter at that point because you mistreated us for so long.

Sincerely, Robert Scoble, a guy who has paid you many thousands of dollars over the past three years to have your horrid service.

UPDATE: Oh, and now I see that Verizon is going to be offering iPhone/Verizon users unlimited data plans, in contrast to your lame 2GB cap. Screw you.

Money Shot: The Blackberry Playbook Tablet

It's true, the BlackBerry PlayBook is weird in some ways. You have to tether to your BlackBerry to get your calendar or email. But it's also pretty great.

It's sort of the idealized seven-inch tablet, so dialed in it might be generic if it wasn't so cleanly executed. As thin as an iPhone 4, the corners are rounded, but not too rounded. The back is a rubber-y soft touch, but not too rubber-y. The button-free glossy black bezel? It's actually a blank touch surface for gestures, like the Palm Pre. A 3-megapixel front camera stares out of the top.



For being a beta build of the OS that's not totally optimized, it runs pretty smoothly. Apps open and expand, shrink and close, swoosh in and out as you swish between them without any stuttering. Swiping from the top of the screen brings up the app's menu. From the left or right, switch to the next open application. And from the bottom, it brings up the app switcher, where open apps can be flicked away (kinda like Palm WebOS). Web pages loaded with Flash actually run. It's legit impressive.

The question is: Who, besides BlackBerry users, is going to want to buy it? The core email and calendar apps are completely tethered to a BlackBerry. Without your BlackBerry, there is no native email or calendar app—just access through the (admittedly good) web browser. But that's gonna turn off a lot of people. And we didn't get a chance to see what the new App World looks like, or any of the future apps that could make it a truly killer tablet—or break it.

This form factor is totally going to live and die by the apps, by the that things you can do with it. RIM's smartly giving developers a lot of way into the PlayBook—Adobe AIR, HTML5/web apps (which they call WebWorks), a native SDK (only for special developers), and they can —but how many are going to bite?

RIM's got something here that could really stand on top of the bajillion other crappy tablets that are going to launch this year. They just have to take it the rest of the way.

WARNING: Internet Explorer Was Exploited

Microsoft said today that it will release two security bulletins next week fixing three holes in Windows, but it is still investigating or working on fixing holes in Internet Explorer that have been reportedly exploited in attacks.

One bulletin due out on Patch Tuesday, rated "important," affects only Windows Vista but the second one, with an aggregate rating of "critical," affects all supported versions of Windows.

Microsoft said it is not releasing updates to address a hole affecting Windows Graphics Rendering Engine that it disclosed earlier this week, or one disclosed in late December, Security Advisory 2488013, that affects Internet Explorer and for which there have been reports of targeted attacks, the company said in a post on the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.

"We continue to actively monitor both vulnerabilities and for Advisory 2488013 we have started to see targeted attacks," the post said. "If customers have not already, we recommend they consult the Advisory for the mitigation recommendations. We continue to watch the threat landscape very closely and if the situation changes, we will post updates here on the MSRC blog."

Also not mentioned in the Patch Tuesday preview announcement by Microsoft is a bug in IE disclosed last weekend by Michal Zalewski, a security researcher for Google based in Poland. Zalewski released a tool he used to find the hole and others in all the major browsers and said that an exploit for the IE bug had been leaked to the Web accidentally. Security firm Vupen has confirmed the critical hole in IE 8. Microsoft says in Security Advisory 2490606 that it is investigating the bug reports.

Josh Abraham, a security researcher at Rapid7, was surprised that Microsoft was not rushing to fix holes that were reportedly being used in attacks.

"With only two bulletins this month, the big shock is that Microsoft is not addressing two security advisories that have already been weaponized," Abraham said. "I would bet that if the malicious attackers start using the exploits, then we will see an out-of-band patch."

Meanwhile, as Microsoft released its Patch Tuesday preview, Sophos is warning people about a fake Microsoft security update e-mail circulating that contained a worm. The subject line says "Update your Windows" and urges recipients to download an attached executable. But Microsoft does not issue security patches via e-mail attachments. Another clue that it's a scam--Microsoft is misspelled in the forged e-mail header as "microsft."

What Is Surface?

The Microsoft Surface® platform brings people together to connect, learn, and decide. It enables experiences that change the way people collaborate and connect with a 360-degree interface. And, with PixelSense™, Microsoft Surface sees and responds to touch and real world objects—supporting more than 50 simultaneous inputs.

This experience comes to life in the new 40 inch Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface that can be used as a table, on the wall, or embedded in other fixtures or furniture.

Touch The Possibilities

How can you use the Surface platform in your organization? The only limit is your imagination. Whether you’re in hospitality, retail, healthcare, professional services, or the public sector, you can change the way people interact with information and with each other.

* Make content more engaging.
Give your customers immersive and collaborative ways to engage with photos, videos, documents, maps, custom applications, and more.
* Plan and simulate.
Bring to life real-time "if/then" modeling and visualization, simulations and calculations—perfect for financial services, healthcare, and other consultative environments.
* Make learning more fun.
Breathe new life into the education process with rich visualizations that encourage teamwork and enhance learning.
* Transform the shopping experience.
Make shopping more immersive by connecting customers with more options, recommendations, product and service comparisons, and personalized service.
* Connect with customers through games and pastimes.
Have some fun by putting Surface in restaurants, bars, hotel lobbies, and other venues, associating memorable experiences with your brand.
* Communicate and connect.
Give people an efficient and intriguing new way to get the information they’re looking for—like maps and tourist destinations in a hotel lobby. Or use it to help them exchange personal information so they can connect with each other and to your business.

New Facebook Profile Photoshop Trick!

The Future of Windows Isn't Just PCs Anymore

The next version of Windows is going to run on ARM processors—the same kind of chips that's inside a bajillion smartphones and tablets right now. Which means the future of Windows isn't just PCs anymore.


What does this mean?
Well, most simply, it means the full Windows shebang you know and love (or loathe) from your PC can now natively run on tinier computers that use way less power—specifically ones using ARM chips that are common in smartphones right now. Think tablets. And other wacky, smaller form factors. But you know, with all-day battery life, thanks to these ARM chips.

So all of my Windows apps will just work on this new, mobiler Windows?

Ehhh. Microsoft wouldn't say how or if it would happen, but ominously, Head Windows Dude Sinofsky noted "It's definitely the case that x86 programs [i.e., the ones on Windows now] don't run on ARM."

And to get those running, Microsoft won't be using "virtualization or something like that," since the low-power ARM chips aren't really suited for that kind of work. Microsoft's own demo apps, like Office, have been recompiled to run on ARM. Which means either Microsoft has another trick up its sleeve (hopefully) to run current x86-compatible programs on this new, ARMier Windows, or it's not going to happen, so you'll have to get new version of programs. Another point is that devices won't just work either—-manufacturers are gonna have to write new drivers for 'em.

Is regular old Windows going away?

Nope. It'll run on old-school x86 chips from Intel and AMD and the like. It'll just run on these ARM chips too. How Microsoft is going to differentiate them, from the branding to the interface to the features, we don't know yet. Microsoft is very much emphasizing that this is just a "tech demo" to show that they have Windows running on ARM chips right now.

Does that mean the sweet Windows Phone OS won't be on a tablet?

Probably not. The Microsoft philosophy is, "Small screen is windows phone. These screens are Windows 7." So the future of tablets (and other things with slightly-bigger-than-phone screens) for Microsoft is very much still Windows. Conversely, it means for the future of Windows isn't just PCs anymore. Though we're not exactly sure what that means yet.

Apple's Mac App Store Now Live With 1,000 Apps

Apple kept to their 90-days word—it's January 6th, and the Mac App Store is ready for your custom. There's over 1,000 apps—both free and paid-for—for Macs, with all that's needed is Snow Leopard and an iTunes account.

Apple's Mac App Store Opens for Business
CUPERTINO, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Apple® today announced that the Mac® App Store℠ is now open for business with more than 1,000 free and paid apps. The Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac, so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store is available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS® X v10.6.6.
"With more than 1,000 apps, the Mac App Store is off to a great start," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We think users are going to love this innovative new way to discover and buy their favorite apps."
The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what's hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews.
Entirely new apps, as well as current Mac favorites, are available from developers such as Autodesk, Ancestry.com and Boinx. iPhoto®, iMovie® and GarageBand® apps from Apple's popular iLife® ‘11 suite are available individually in the Mac App Store for $14.99 each, and Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers® apps from iWork® are available for $19.99 each. Aperture® 3, Apple's powerful photo editing and management software, is available for $79.99.
"We're delighted to bring our professional-grade paint and drawing app, Autodesk SketchBook Pro, to the Mac App Store on its first day of launch," said Carl Bass, Autodesk's CEO. "We've seen tremendous success on the Mac, iPhone and iPad with multiple apps. We're excited to offer SketchBook Pro on the Mac App Store so artists can easily create everything from quick sketches to high-quality artwork right on their Macs."
"By offering the Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker app on the Mac App Store, we're making it even easier for people to discover and access their family history," said Tim Sullivan, Ancestry.com's CEO. "The Mac App Store will drive a new generation of innovation on the Mac platform."
"We're thrilled to have our award-winning animation, video production and photography software available on the new Mac App Store," said Oliver Breidenbach, Boinx Software's CEO. "The Mac App Store makes it easier than ever for consumers to access all the innovative software designed for the Mac."
To get the Mac App Store, download the Mac OS X v10.6.6 Software Update or visit www.apple.com/mac/app-store. To find out more about developing for the Mac App Store visit developer.apple.com/programs/mac.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.