New In The News

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images

Two new fresh copies of Windows XP SP2 are available as free downloads straight from Microsoft. This is, of course, not the first time when the Redmond company managed to come up with such an offering. In fact, Microsoft is making quite a tradition out of the practice of giving out free copies of Windows XP, destined for testing purposes.

Both copies of the operating system have already been activated, so users need not worry themselves with such a detail. In combination with the virtualization component, which in this case is Virtual PC 2007, Microsoft has dropped two Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images, at the end of the last week. Pete LePage, Product Manager, Internet Explorer, Developer Division, has uploaded the images to the company’s servers as early as December 5. Both downloads are addressed at web developers that need to test websites on Internet Explorer 6, as well as on Internet Explorer 7.

In this regard, IE6_VPC.EXE weighs in at 485.0 MB while IE7_VPC.EXE is 471.1 MB. The two images have already been optimized for running inside Virtual PC 2007. “VPC Hard Disk Image for testing websites on IE on Windows XP SP2″, reads the brief description from Microsoft of the downloads. “VPC hard disk images containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, and either IE6 or IE7 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit. You will need a minimum of 1.5 Gig hard drive space free to expand the VHD file”. As it was the case with the past offerings, the latest examples of Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images are also time bombed. The expiration date has been set for April 1, 2008.

Up until this point, Microsoft has been refreshing the offerings upon expiration, this being the reason of the latest releases, and it is probable that the company will continue to do so in the future. The two Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images are available for download via this link.

source: SoftPedia.com

The Software Freedom Law Center, an organization focused on protecting open-source and free software, has filed copyright lawsuits against two U.S. companies, alleging that they are redistributing software in violation of the GNU GPL (General Public License).The SFLC filed lawsuits Monday on behalf of the developers of BusyBox against High-Gain Antennas of Parker, Colorado, and Xterasys of City of Industry, California. The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, allege that the companies are distributing BusyBox illegally, without meeting the GPL requirement of providing access to the source code of their implementation.

BusyBox, available since November 1999, is a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities commonly used in embedded systems licensed under GPL version 2. The two companies are distributing “BusyBox, or a modified version of BusyBox that is substantially similar to BusyBox,” the lawsuits allege. The lawsuits ask the court to give the BusyBox developers the profits from that software, plus other damages.

But Richard Bruckner, CEO of High-Gain Antennas, said the SFLC is mistaken about the GPL violation. The company, which makes wireless broadband antennas and related products, uses firmware from a company called Edimax, not BusyBox, and makes the source code available, at the request of customers, he said.

Bruckner said he tried to explain the situation in a conference call with SFLC officials but was hung up on. During that first conversation SFLC was “already asking for money,” he said. “What they need to do is get their act together and read the source code.”

If the SFLC doesn’t end its threats, High-Gain Antennas may file a countersuit, Bruckner added.

But Dan Ravicher, SFLC’s legal director, said the organization has tried to work with both companies and has not gotten adequate responses. The two sides may still be able to settle the lawsuits out of court, he said.

“There is a hope, but since neither defendant wanted to resolve the matter privately previously, we’ll have to see if they want to do so now,” he said. “In the end, we can hope to settle all we want, but if the defendants don’t want to do so, we can’t force them to. All we can do is ask the court to force the defendants to comply with the law.”

Ravicher also said he’s confident in the lawsuits. “The evidence we collected during our investigation was sufficient for us to form a basis for our belief that they are distributing BusyBox and are not doing so in compliance with the GPL,” he said.

If either case filed is heard before a judge, it would be the first time that a GPL infringement lawsuit has gone to trial in the U.S.

Officials from Xterasys weren’t available to comment on the lawsuit against their company.

These are the second and third lawsuits the SFLC has filed on behalf of BusyBox developers Erik Andersen and Rob Landley. The first lawsuit, against Monsoon Multimedia, was settled out of court Oct. 30, with Monsoon agreeing to fix the violation and pay Andersen and Landley an undisclosed sum.

“We let companies do what they like with BusyBox on their hardware, and what we asked in return was that they let us reproduce what they’ve done with BusyBox on our hardware,” Landley said in a statement. “That’s the deal embodied in the GPL.”

The SFLC assists nonprofit open-source and free software projects. Its chairman is Eben Moglen, long-time general counsel to the Free Software Foundation.

source: ComputerWorld 

SlideRocket is a web application that provides everything you need to design professional quality presentations, manage and share libraries of slides and assets, and to deliver presentations in person or remotely over the web.

www.sliderocket.com

The good: The Pantech Duo has a unique dual-slider design with a slide-out number dialpad plus a QWERTY keyboard. It comes with the Windows Mobile 6 OS as well as a 1.3-megapixel camera, quad-band support, HSDPA, plus access to AT&T’s broadband services.

The bad: The Pantech Duo has a cheap plastic body with a flimsy sliding mechanism. The QWERTY keyboard felt flush to the surface and was tricky to use

The bottom line: Even though the Pantech Duo has an impressive feature set that include 3G/HSDPA support, we were ultimately disappointed with its subpar design.

source: CNet

NoiseFree VoIP has just launched a fresh all-software solution to those often noisy VoIP calls. Skype, Yahoo Messenger with Voice, and Google Talk are great ways to save money on long distance, but if you’re calling anywhere near civilization, you’re bound to get interference. A noisy line can undo the advantage of free Internet calls.

Until December 31, 2007, NoiseFree VoIP is offering a free beta of its noise-canceling software to registered users. We gave it a go at CTIA (coverage), and was impressed with the demo. There was noticeable improvement in call quality when we toggled the software on and off, though the background buzz in the busy room didn’t and couldn’t have faded completely.

NoiseFree VoIP launches as a window that detects when you use VoIP. It doesn’t add on to or interfere with your voice program of choice, operating invisibly. The app window can be set to start with Windows or with a browser launch. It minimizes to the system tray and can be called on for a few very minor tweaks.

NoiseFree VoIP is Windows XP and Vista-ready. Download NoiseFree VoIP for free from CNET Download.com.

source: CNET Download.com

Apps Mania is like Techcrunch with a CSS Mania vibe.

Apps Mania was launched in June of 2007 in order to satisfy the need of Internet entrepreneurs to have a place for presenting their new Web applications.

Apps Mania also looks to be a place of reference for all who want to be informed about new projects on the Internet.

It’s a great website, i love it.

I will be posting reviews about programs that are available on appsmania.com, make sure you come back to New In The News to check them.

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