Stories by David Murphy

Facebook now allows one more user name change

It's been a month and change since the mad scrable for Facebook vanity URLs this past June. And seemed like an awesome way to gimick the system back then--here's looking at you, www.facebook.com/epicfail--has surely left some users a bit unhappy with their spur-of-the-moment choice.

Alleged Windows 7 update process spawns criticism

Outrage spread like wildfire across the Internet this week with criticism of Microsoft's alleged new upgrade process for Windows 7. People were concerned if they wanted to upgrade to Windows 7 they would be required to activate the current version of Windows they were using prior to upgrading.

SATA 6.0 Gb/s rollout delayed

Triple-whammy. PC Perspective is reporting that a trifecta of motherboard manufacturers--ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI--are all using the exact same SATA 6.0 Gb/s controller into their upcoming P55-chipset motherboards. Only said controller, Marvell's 88SE9123, is suffering from a few problems that are causing at least two of the three vendors to pull the controller from their motherboards. Consequently, said products will ship without support for the SATA 6.0 Gb/s connection specification.

Wanna be @the_real_shaq? That'll be $50,000...

If you're a nobody who wants to be somebody in the online Web world, you don't need friends--just a thriving bank account. That's where uSocial comes into play. The company converts your cash into background support on the Web's top social sites: You can buy Diggs, votes on Yahoo Buzz, eyeballs for StumbleUpon ... and now, Twitter followers.

The iPhone 3GS popularity wars

Is shopping mania for the iPhone 3GS finally over? It's hard to say. Apple recently released an online tool that tracks the status of iPhone 3GS shipments across each of its 210 retail stores in the United States. This suggests that Apple is still concerned about the retail availability for it customers. While store employees might welcome the decrease in the number of times they have say, "yes we have it" or "no we're out" over the phone, the question remains: Isn't the whole concept of availability-tracking a little too late?

Will Apple's first 'approved' iPhone porn app last?

"We uploaded topless pics today. This is the first app to have nudity," said Allen Leung in an interview with Macenstein. He's the developer behind the "Hottest Girls" application, currently bringing scantily-clad women--and now those of the bare-chested variety--to your iPhone or iPod Touch device for a mere $2 installation fee.

Windows 7 can run on a very old PC

I've always wanted to get a modern operating system to work on my graphing calculator. And we're about there, thanks to the efforts of a fellow (or strangly named lady) on The Windows Club forum.

SATA 3.0 released, solid state drives rejoice

We've seen glimmers on the horizon for some time now, but the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) has finally made official the third iteration of the serial ATA specification. SATA Revision 3.0 doubles the existing SATA 3Gb/s bandwidth to 6Gb/s, or roughly 600 MB/s, using a connector that's fully backwards-compatible with the older specification. Device manufacturers (especially motherboards) won't have to reinvent the wheel connection-wise, which should help the new specification reach full market acceptance in a short time frame.

Nine Inch Nails: the first open-source band?

Throughout his 20+ year career as the man behind industrial-rock act Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor has been no stranger to the ways of Creative Commons and digital distribution. In fact, he's let fans tinker with his musical creations as far back as the 1999 release of his two-disc album, "The Fragile," two years before the sharing and remixing licensing arrangements of the non-profit organization Creative Commons even existed.

Notebook PCs outsell desktops, first time ever

The third quarter of 2008 marked a first for the computer industry. According to iSuppli, more notebook PCs were sold globally than desktop PCs -- just for the quarter, however. Compared to the third-quarter of 2007, notebook PC sales spiked 40 percent to 38.6 million computers sold. The desktop PC market didn't fare quite as well. Compared to the same time frame last year, sales shrank 1.3 percent to 38.5 million units sold.

Motherboard manufacturer Abit dead (sort-of)

Internet speculation about the fate of Taiwanese manufacturer Abit has been running at feverish paces this week. But as Obi-Wan Kenobi might say, the alleged death of the company is correct — from a certain point of view. The manufacturer, known throughout the computing circles for its motherboard offerings, is at the mercy of a restructuring by parent company Universal Scientific Industrial. As part of the cost-cutting measures that USI plans to undertake, Abit will cease production on all motherboards as the company heads into the new year. Abit still plans to offer RMAs and warranties for up to three years, but you can expect to see no new Abit-branded motherboards coming through the retail chains until further notice... if ever.

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