How secure is Flash? Here's what Adobe won't tell you

How secure is Flash? Here's what Adobe won't tell you: "Ed Bott: Adobe's co-founder and co-chairman says concerns about security in Flash Player are 'old news.' Adobe even cites a Symantec study as evidence of their security record. But when you read that study, as I did, you get a completely different, and quite alarming story...



View Full Article: Ed Bott's Microsoft Report"

Download Windows 7 SP1 Build 7601.16556 (Beta 1 Escrow v.172)

Download Windows 7 SP1 Build 7601.16556 (Beta 1 Escrow v.172): "Another build of Windows 7 SP1 (Service Pack 1) has been leaked to the web. The new leaked build of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (both operating systems have the same code base and use the same service pack) is 7601.16556.100421-1510 v.172, reportedly of the beta 1 (b1) escrow milestone. The SP1 [...]

• Windows 7 SP1 Beta 1 (7601.16537) Leaked Download
• Windows Vista SP2 RC 6002.16659 v.275 (32bit and 64bit) Standalone Update and Full ISO Download
• Windows 7 RTM Wallpaper Free Download
• Download MS Office 2010 Build 14.0.4730.1007 (x86 and x64)
• 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 Build 7077 (RC Escrow) Leaked ISO Torrent Download

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All-new Hotmail next Monday

All-new Hotmail next Monday: "

Today, Microsoft unveiled its response to the rise of Google Docs for word processing, spreadsheets, and sharing, in the form of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010.

Next week, Microsoft will unleash a new version of its category-leading Hotmail email service that carries the fight against Google from corporate IT departments onto the screens of the hundreds of millions of lone users and small teams who swear by Gmail.

And instead of mumbling vague, wussy generalizations about key benefits, the word is that Microsoft’s Hotmail team will come out swinging the bat straight at Gmail’s forehead.

Full Story At Source

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Microsoft offers PC makers Office Starter for $2, but with Bing bar

Microsoft offers PC makers Office Starter for $2, but with Bing bar: "Microsoft is planning to offer PC manufacturers $2 per copy of Microsoft Office Starter 2010, if they pre-install the Bing bar and Windows Live Essentials, according to zdnet.
PC makers can also opt to not install the Bing bar and Windows Live Essentials, but will pay $5 per copy of Microsoft...

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Windows Live Wave 4 to be named Windows Live Essentials 2011

Windows Live Wave 4 to be named Windows Live Essentials 2011: "Microsoft is planning to brand Windows Live Wave 4 Essentials as Windows Live Essentials 2011 when it launches later this year.
The software giant is currently readying a public Windows Live Wave 4 beta which is expected to be widely available in June. Microsoft has reached the end of...

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Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 10.04 meet up for an OpenGL benchmarking session

Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 10.04 meet up for an OpenGL benchmarking session: "

So these three operating systems walk into a bar one night ... alright, we'll behave. With all the Steamy conversation about gaming on non-Windows desktop platforms going on, we thought you might care to peek at a little OpenGL performance comparison review. As the chief cross-platform API, it's the only way we're going to be seeing the latest games running natively on Mac OS and Linux, but how will that experience compare to the market leader? As it turned out, Windows maintains superiority in this field, with frame rates that were habitually above those on the latest Ubuntu and well ahead of what you might get on Mac OS 10.6.3. It's still early days -- after all, Steam's non-DirectX cupboard is pretty bare right now -- but at this point in time, OpenGL gaming is a crown that Microsoft retains with relative ease. Hit the source for all the line graph evidence, and let's hope things improve for the rest of us in rapid fashion.

Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 10.04 meet up for an OpenGL benchmarking session originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 May 2010 04:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In Depth: Hands on: Microsoft Docs review

In Depth: Hands on: Microsoft Docs review: "

We've taken a look at Microsoft Docs, the corporation's free suite of web-based software designed to go up against Google Docs. It's currently accessible on a limited beta at http://www.docs.com/ where you can register your interest in taking part.

As always with Microsoft, the challenge it has is not only to compete, but to make its offerings backwards compatible with the Microsoft software of yore. While you'll read that we've been harsh at times on Microsoft's new service, it's a key caveat that Microsoft Docs is in beta - so it can not be judged too harshly.

However, it is blatently clear within a few minutes that the service needs serious improvements to not only usability but also the basic coding that underpins the service - at times things simply don't work and the connection to Facebook is about as easy to manage as trying to fit two mis-shaped pieces of a jigsaw together.

Facebook you say? Yes. Docs uses Facebook to share documents and for the sign-in process (bye bye Windows Live ID?). This works in principle, but it didn't always work seamlessly (sometimes not finding our documents) or sign us in properly.

Here's the main Docs window - as you can see, this is the My Docs panel which houses your documents (note the new 2010 logos). You can also view your Facebook friends' documents (providing permission has been granted, more on that shortly). The Add a Doc menu can be seen above in the main picture. Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents can all be created and edited.

In terms of usability, the interface lags behind Google Docs, but we'd expect more work to be done in this area by the time the web apps actually hit the streets. If this interface remains untouched, it will represent a missed opportunity.

Click a Doc to open it. Well, when we say open it, we mean open a Preview window, which looks like Print mode in Microsoft Word.We're not quite sure why this stage is here - it opens with every document. It does, however, enable you to choose whether to continue and Edit the document in the web app, or open in Word proper. This in itself needs clearing up, since it doesn't make sense - if you were a first-time user clicking Open in Word, wouldn't you think it would open in the web app?

So here's the main editing interface. It looks a lot like the desktop version of the software. The additional sidebar on the right enables you to edit permissions - more on this below.

Once you're done, you just click Finish editing. It also gives you the option of opening your document in the desktop version of Word, Excel or PowerPoint straight from the site if you need to carry out additional work - in Google Docs, on the other hand, you would need to completely export the file.

Here you can see the editing windows of both Word and Excel in greater detail.

See full-size image

See full-size image

The editing generally works just fine - though, as with Google Docs, it can be a little sluggish. Sadly though, cut and paste didn't work on a couple of the machines we tried. Again, this needs work as it just made things irritating.

One thing Google Docs does really well is letting more than one person edit documents at the same time, but we weren't able to test this properly in Docs due to the limited Beta program. Sharing documents is easy though, although your collaborators will also need to be friends of yours on Facebook - work/home life mixing aplenty.

You can choose individuals, all your friends, or keep documents to yourself.

You can also specify who you want to be able to view or edit a document when you upload existing documents, or choose to share it with everyone you know on Facebook (probably not a good idea, we're guessing). Talking of uploading, the Word and PowerPoint sections of Docs will take older or newer types of Office files (.doc and .docx, for example) but you will need .xlsx files to upload anything from Excel - Microsoft does need to fix this, otherwise you get the error below.

You can't upload other types of documents, as with Google Docs.

In terms of Facebook itself, Microsoft Docs pops up as an additional tab in your profile, but this is where the integration is especially patchy - our documents aren't shown where they should be!

Well, at least not initially, anyway...

We were rather concerned by the default sharing of a doc we uploaded as a test! However, we have been using the Beta for a few days and now note that this has been altered - you can change the sharing credentials of anything you upload or create, though 'shared' is still the default option.

Should you wish, Docs will also post uploaded documents to your feed - here's what it looks like.

Microsoft Docs seems like a decent first step, but with the release of Office 2010 not far off and Docs probably going public around the same time, we're surprised it isn't more finished. The editing interface is brilliant (aside from the copy and paste issues) but, sadly, the rest of it just isn't ready for prime time and isn't as usable or nimble as Google Docs. Facebook is a great way to collaborate, too, but this also needs polish. Some rapid work needed.

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