Another round for foobar2000 updating wows starts.
foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows. Featuring a minimalist interface, it also has many features for metadata support and high-quality audio output. The theoretical maximum sampling rate can be as high as 96 kHz and bit depth can be as high as 32 bits per sample for best sound quality.
Microsoft begins beta testing for both Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate (RC) 0 and Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 beta.
Testers had been expecting the new test builds of both Windows products to debut earlier this month.
Click for more on Windows Server 2008 RC0, Vista SP1: Back together again »
Users for years have been lamenting the fact that Hotmail was only available as an http protocol, and did not offer POP access. Well that’s now changed for Hotmail Plus users, and plans are in the works for making POP access available to all Hotmail users for free.
Starting this week Hotmail Plus users ($19.95 a year) will be able to use POP access from any device. In the interest of transparency though I want to be clear that we have plans to offer POP to all users (all premium and free) but we aren’t ready to do that yet.
If you do take advantage of this premium feature and sign up for Hotmail plus you’ll also get an ad-free experience, more storage, larger attachment support, and a non expiring account.
Security features debut in latest preview, as Firefox 3.0 heads down the stretch
With the release Firefox 3.0 alpha 8, the Mozilla Corporation has finally unveiled several security features it’s talked up for months. Among the security provisions debuting in the new alpha of “Gran Paradiso,” the code name for Firefox 3.0, are built-in anti-malware warnings and protection against rogue extension updates. The malware blocker, which was first mocked up in June, will block Web sites thought to contain malicious downloads. The feature will use information provided by Google Incorporated to flag potentially-dangerous sites, warn anyone trying to reach those URLs with Firefox and automatically block access to the site.
An [almost] milestone release for NOD32
ESET NOD32 Antivirus offers superior, comprehensive protection, the fastest scanning throughput, and the least performance impact of any solution. Keep your important information safe & stay productive with peace of mind. Running separate applications for viruses, hackers, adware, and spyware can slow your PC, be difficult to manage, and provide questionable protection. Beware of large, bloated internet security suites that consume hundreds of megabytes on your PC. These typically exist because vendors have acquired products and ‘bundled’ them together. In contrast, ESET NOD32 was designed from the core as a single, highly-optimized engine that works as a unified Anti-Threat system to protect against a broad spectrum of malware. Viruses, worms, spyware, and other malicious attacks, which are constantly evolving. ESET NOD32 utilizes patent-pending ThreatSense® Technology to detect tomorrow’s threats in real-time, by analyzing code execution for malicious intent - keeping you ahead of the malware-writers.
What’s new in ESET NOD32 Antivirus 3.0.414 RC1:
ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 v3.0 release candidates are now available. These releases include changes in the graphic user interface, additional improvements in the Antivirus module, improved installation packages, and added support for group security policy installation.
Download: ESET NOD32 Antivirus 3.0.414 RC1 | 64-bit version
Download: ESET Smart Security 3.0.414 RC1
The popular Archiver, achieves another gold release.
WinRAR is a 32-bit Windows version of RAR Archiver, an archiver and archive manager. RAR files can usually compress content by 8 percent to 15 percent more than ZIP files can. WinRAR’s main features include strong general and multimedia compression, the ability to process non-RAR archive formats, ZIP compression and decompression, support for long filenames, programmable self-extracting archives (SFX), repair of damaged archives, authenticity verification, embedded file comments, and encryption. Unicode is supported in archive filenames, allowing non-English filenames to be handled painlessly. You can manipulate the parameters of many archives at once and view a volume sequence as a single archive. WinRAR can convert other archive formats to RAR and search for specified text and files in archives.
A zero-day PDF vulnerability in Adobe’s Acrobat Reader has come to light that can lead to Windows boxes getting taken over completely and invisibly, according to a security researcher.
“All it takes is to open a [maliciously rigged] PDF document or stumble across a page which embeds one,” said researcher Petko D. Petkov, aka pdp, in a blog posting on Sept. 20.
Click for more on Critical Zero-Day PDF Bug Compromises Windows PCs »
A release candidate is typically almost identical to the final release. Windows Server 2008, currently in Beta 3 and feature complete, is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2008.
Michael Neil, general manager of virtualization for Microsoft, disclosed the plans while demonstrating the software’s virtualization capabilities at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. A release candidate is typically almost identical to the final release. Windows Server 2008, currently in Beta 3 and feature complete, is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2008.
Click for more on Microsoft To Ship Release Candidate of Windows Server 2008 Next Week »
Microsoft explained the [misleading] “back-door” of Windows Update service.
It was widely reported last week that Microsoft had automatically updated systems that had Automatic Updates set to “Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them”. Nate Clinton, a Windows Update Program Manager at Microsoft posted a response on his blog shortly after the widespread [misconceived] reporting had gone out.
Click for more on The Windows Update Stealth Affair Cleared »
Skype has clarified an earlier statement which appeared to blame Microsoft’s monthly patch for last week’s outage of the VoIP service. Skype had attributed the two-day crash of its service to a large number of Windows users logging on after rebooting their systems to install Microsoft’s monthly updates.
Owing to a lack of additional information, the justification seemed to blame Microsoft. On Tuesday, however, Skype posted a full admission that sought to clear the software giant.
Click for more on Skype absolves Microsoft from outage blame »
