PC Requirements for Windows 7

Today is the retail release of the new Windows OS, and many people want to know what are the PC requirements for Windows 7. Here you have them:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Additional requirement for Windows 7 to use certain features:

Internet access, may involve ISP fees
Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware
Some games and programs might require a graphics card compatible with DirectX 10 or higher for optimal performance
For some Windows Media Center functionality a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required
Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware
HomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7
DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2
BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive
Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on
Music and sound require audio output

Why Is Google a Barcode?

Today you may have seen the traditional Google logo replaced by barcodes, and you may have wondered “Why Google is a Barcode?”. Well, as you may know, Google always remember special dates, and this time they are celebrating the 57th anniversary of the first barcode patent.

Two people, Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver were the ones who patented this now commonly used code. The first patent, however, did not involve vertical lines, but a series of concentric circles.

The barcode logo spells out Google using Code 128 “a standard way of encoding ASCII character strings (ie. A-Z, a-z, 0-9, etc.) into a bar code.”

It’s always a surprise searching in Google. Just recently they included a logo with Ghandi to commemorate his 140th birthday.

Motorola Cliq

The Motorola Cliq has been announced today by Motorola, and this phone is set to be THE phone for all your social needs. The phone is expected around holidays and the company is promoting it as “the first phone with social skills”.

It will be available in colors Titanium and Winter White, and among the features are a 3.1 inch screen, 3G, WiFi, 5 Megapixel camera that also shoots video. This phone will be headed to T-Mobile.  Outside the USA the name will change to Motorola DEXT and will be offered by Telefonica, Orange and America Movil.

Some people are pointing out that this phone is aimed at teenagers, but more and more adults, young ones, are also into social networks. However, on the other hand, the Motorola Cliq doesn’t include many features that will be useful as a “work handheld”.

Ipod Touch and Ipod Nano Price Cut 2009!

Good news from Apple today for those of you who love gadgets! Apple has decided to to an Ipod Touch and Ipod Nano price cut! These are no small price cuts; for example the Ipod Touch 32GB model is 120 dollars cheaper!

CNET is saying that this may push people away from the iPhone, which is basically an Ipod Touch with no cellular phone features and with no camera.  This may be true, as apple has given one of the most interesting price cuts in technology for this recession times.

The Ipod Touch 8GB is dropped from $229 to $189; the 16GB model from $299 to $249 and the 32GB model from $399 to $279!

The Ipod Nano 8GB from $149 to $129; 16GB from $199 to $149 and the classic Ipod Nano from $249 to $229!

Snitch.Name

Snitch.name is a simple little website that allows you to search for a person across different social sites at the same time, and well depending on how you see it, it can also be a tool for people who want to research on a person and take advantage of the situation!

Snitch.name is a site like others (People123.com, Peekyou.com) and it is a good way to learn how easy is to gather information about someone on the Web.

The site has gotten quite some attention recently thanks to an article in the LA Times.  You could use the site to know how much information about you is out there, to delete it or protect it!

V Touch 8GB Touch Screen Media Player Review

V touch 8GB Touch Screen Media Player - Visual Land has created a cool gadget to satisfy all your media needs, called the V-Touch. This cool device has a touch screen from where you can control an mp3 player, an e-book reader, a video player and picture viewer!

The multimedia experience is completed with a 2.0 MP camera that shoots pics and videos, and a built in microphone for recording and a FM receiver! Visual Land has added some things most players don’t have.  I really like the ebook feature!

Those were the news on the V touch 8GB Touch Screen Media Player.

Farm Town Not Working

It’s been a few hours now and it seems that Farm Town is not working.  Farm Town is a Facebook game that has gathered quite a few users.

Some people are reporting that the game does actually load after you reload the application, however other people are not having the same luck. If you are an e-farmer, please don’t despair!

This is what comes up:

There are some network connectivity issues between our network provider and Facebook servers.

We are working on solving this issue, but don’t have an ETA at the moment.

We will be extending the “Ready to Harvest” time by 1 day, so you will not lose any crops due to this down time. Come back tomorrow and your crops will still be good as new.

Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks.

TwitViewer Phishing Scam

WARNING: A new “application” called Twitviewer, that promises to let you check who has visited your Twitter profile is just another phishing scam. You may have heard about twitviewer.net,  as it has been widely spread across the network.

These kind of scams are nothing new, scams are everywhere, and twitter has become a tasty ground for people who just want to steal your information. The page shows you a list of viewers but it seems this list is as fake as Holly Madison boobs!

NOKIA Surge

Today, AT&T presented the NOKIA Surge, a new cell phone for everybody who loves to go social.

The phone comes with a keyboard with keys set in QWERTY mode, and it allows easy messaging and integration.  This phone is excellent if you need to update your Facebook, Twitter and flickr accounts on the fly without having to use a computer.  This is all thanks to the fact that it comes preloaded with JuiceCaster.

Of course you will also be bale to surf the Web - even with Flash support, and supports a lot of AT&T services. The Nokia Surge also comes with a 3 MP camera, 2.4 in QVGA display and MicroSD card slot.

You will find the NOKIA Surge beginning July 19 for $17.99.

Authorize.net Outage | Authorize.net Down

Authorize.net Outage! The largest service online for accepting credit cards and e-checks, Autorize.net is down, and of course this has brought the concern of millions of people around the globe, since this means that a great number of money operations have stopped.

According to Authorize.net, this outage is a result of a fire in their Seattle’s datacenter, ruining their website AND backup center. In the meantime, they have created a Twitter account to be in contact with the users (a good move by the way, taking advantage of social media) at http://twitter.com/authorizenet

Their last Tweet says:

FYI, the Merchant Interface may be slow to access, but it is up.

Those were the news on Authorize.net outage.

Iphone 3gs Activation | Iphone 3gs No Service

Iphone 3gs activation seems to be unreachable for many Iphone owners who had no luck and are still waiting for activation. In USA there are many areas where users are having problems with AT&T activation delays. The message they get is:

“Waiting for activation. This may take some time.”

According to people over at Apple, after the initial setup, some users may have to wait 2-3 hours in order to connect to the network. This problem is caused by the large volume of Iphones that went out today.

“Evidently we’ve sold more phones than we thought we were going to sell. It’s taking AT&T longer than we thought it would take them to get all these phones set up.”

Those were the latest news on the Iphone 3gs activation.

Iphone 3.0 Problems | Iphone Activation Server

The Iphone 3.0 OS updates are underway and it seems many people are having Iphone 3.0 problems, more specifically, with the Iphone activation server. They are under heavy load, and this causes that not everybody is having their update.

Of course, this isn’t happening to everybody, some people got their updates fine and now are enjoying them without any sort of problem. The main Iphone 3.0 problem is the “Iphone Activation Server Temporarily Not Avialble”.

There is no further info on Apple on these issues, so this means this is not generalized. We’re all excited to check the new features brought in this update.

Those were the news on Iphone 3.0 problems.