ExtraTorrent Blog

Christmas time is a great moment to gather with your family, spread the love and also spend loads of money.

And that’s where advertisements come into the play. Microsoft Corp. began on Monday to place advertisements on its U.S. MSN Mobile page, moving into the nascent mobile phone advertising business.

Computer-based Web usage dwarfs mobile Internet use in the United States, but companies like Microsoft, Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. see advertising tied to mobile phones as potentially more lucrative than the $40 billion online advertising market.The company will start with advertisements from Bank of America, Paramount Pictures and Jaguar.

Microsoft already sells mobile phone advertisements in Belgium, France, Spain, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Microsoft’s idea is to offer customers the option to place advertising across a wide range of platforms from the Internet to mobile phones to its Xbox Live online video game service.

Microsoft also plans to bring new features such as astrology and movie ticket buying to its MSN Mobile page. You can’t hide from the advertisements anywhere in these days…

Thanks to Reuters for this.

We have heard that Apple’s new Leopard operating system has already been successfully installed on Windows PCs.

The OSx86 forum has released details of how Windows users can migrate to Apple’s new OS, without investing in new hardware — even though installing Leopard on an PC may be counter to Apple’s terms and conditions.

The forum is offering full instructions on how to install the system, including screenshots of the installation process.

Not all the features of Leopard function with the patch — Wi-Fi, support, for example, is reportedly inoperable.

Historically, Apple’s likely next move will be to track down and act against those behind the hack.

The move to make Leopard work on a PC is just the latest in Apple’s continual struggle with the hacker community.

Also this weekend a crew of hackers unleased Jailbreak ME, an online service iPod touch and iPhone users can navigate to in order to break into these devices in order to install applications on them.

Apple has encountered similar trials each time it releases a new version of its operating system, as PC-using hackers want the OS, but not necessarily the Mac.

Thanks to PC World for this.

I was watching the TV when this software was launched - and like any keen gamer I was fasinated by the look of it - and its capabilities… but I didn’t trust myself to use it - so I didn’t.

This snippet you’ll see below - made me think.

Think I’ll stick with my Sims, its something I can stay in control of

It’s the case of Eros v. Simon. Linda Eros claims that Thomas Simon stole specific computer code to copy products she created and sells in the virtual Second Life world. It is not as absurd as it may seem at first.

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A few months back when the new AACS was cracked within a few short weeks?

Now the extra copy protection Sony niavly thought would stop rippers, BD+ is supposidly been cracked too.

According to SlySoft, the makers behind AnyDVD state they have succsessfully circumnavigated BD+ and that the ability to rip Blu Ray discs that contain this shiny *new* protection will be included in the next version of AnyDVD.

Thanks to Engadget for this.

Africa needs to embrace wireless broadband as a potential solution to the digital divide.

Chairman of Intel Craig Barrett has said. “It’s cheaper, easier and more efficient to communicate wirelessly,” he told the BBC News website.

Less than 1% of Africans have access to broadband and only 4% use the net.

The International Telecommunications Union has predicted that the Intel-backed Wimax system could become the dominant mobile standard in Africa.

The continent’s geography and political barriers have made it difficult to roll out wired broadband.

There is a shortage of fibre cable links between African countries and very few states have extensive copper wire networks for ADSL broadband.

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 Nvidia is ready for its next-generation GPU launch. According to sources at graphics card makers, the company plans to launch its GeForce 9 series GPU after the Lunar New Year in February.

The first chip to rollout of in GeForce 9 family will be the D9E, a high-end product that adopts 65nm manufacturing. The new product will also support DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1, revealed the sources.

In addition to the D9E, Nvidia will roll out a mid-range GeForce 9 family product named D9P in June 2008. The new GPU will adopt 55nm processing, the sources pointed out.

Thanks to the DigiTimes for this.

Mozilla announced this week that it is ramping up efforts to bring Internet and software platforms to cell phones, including a mobile version of Firefox.

Mozilla VP of engineering Mike Schroepfer wrote in his official company blog this week that Mozilla is expanding its mobile presence because the time and place are finally right.

“Up until very recently device limitations required writing new mobile browsers from the ground up. Being able to leverage all the investments in the Mozilla platform across both desktops and devices is the right approach,” he said.

Schroepfer announced that Mozilla is adding mobile devices to the tier 1 platform set for Mozilla2, meaning that cell phones and similar products will be treated as “first-class citizens” in future platform decisions.

The company has also planned to increase full-time staff positions in the mobile department.

Most interesting for consumers is the announcement of Mobile Firefox, which will be able to run extensions and other XUL-based applications that make it a much richer experience than traditional stripped mobile browsers of the past.

The Nokia N800 is currently acting as a test phone for Mozilla’s new mobile initiative, with a Mozilla browser available on that handset.

Other manufacturers and mobile operating system platforms are in the works, but Schroepfer says the company has not yet determined its target platforms for mobile applications.

Special thanks to TG Daily for this post :) 

   Microsoft WindowsXP!

Well this is fasinating, as I’m a Windows Vista Ultimate user I don’t really keep up-to-date with the Windows XP Scene however, we have been told that Microsoft are definatley releasing a Windows XP Service Pack upgrade.

This will take your current specification from Service Pack 2 upto the new version of Windows XP Service Pack 3.

This upgrade will be available from December 2007 from Microsoft’s own website

So if you feel threatend by the extinction of Windows XP, don’t Microsoft Corporation are still supporting this operating system.

As far as we know the corporation will stop supporting Windows XP next year, however personally I think they will extend this deadline, as Windows Vista hasn’t taken off as well as what the corporation had hoped, however Microsoft Windows Vista has a major competitor and it is Windows XP Service Pack 2

What I mean is, that Microsoft are wanting all users to eventually change to Vista, but they did such a cracking job with XP that users are comfortable with it, and see no need to change.

Personally I think users will change to Vista when Microsoft make it more stable and compatible with older computer systems.

We will keep you updated on this subject, I actually find it very interesting, :)

Here’s a big number: 20 percent of Microsoft Office’s U.S retail sales are the Mac version, according to NPD. Here’s another: Mac users account for 10 percent of retail Windows Vista Business and Ultimate sales.

Those startling statistics are yet another sign of the Mac’s resurgence and of the huge opportunity it creates for the largest Macintosh developer outside of Apple. Microsoft produced Mac versions of Excel and Word long before the products went to Windows. Apple’s resurgence is an opportunity for Microsoft to recall those early glory days.

But should Microsoft want to? After all, Macs compete with Windows PCs. Does Microsoft really want to be in the business of supporting a competitor?

“Twenty percent of all the versions of Microsoft Office sold at retail are the Mac version,” said Chris Swenson, NPD’s director of software industry analysis. “Office 2004 for the Mac is selling like hot cakes.” Swenson quoted numbers for U.S. online and in-store retail.

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Microsoft said that Halo 3 has become the “fastest-selling video game ever” and already has its place among the world’s most successful entertainment products, at least from a revenue perspective.

Microsoft did not say how many Halo 3 boxes were actually sold; estimates however put the game at about 4.5 to 5 million units within the first week.

In comparison, Halo 2, launched on November 9, 2004, sold about 6.4 million copies within its first two months of launch.

The company also said that more than 2.7 million gamers played Halo 3 on the Xbox Live network during the first week within launch, almost one third of the currently registered 7 million Xbox Live gamers.

More than 40 million hours of Halo 3 game play were logged on the Xbox Live server in the first week. And apparently, the Xbox console itself also got the boost Microsoft had hoped for.

“Initial reports from retailers worldwide show console sales have more than doubled compared with the weekly average before the launch of Halo 3,” the company said.

Halo 3 was released in 37 countries and 17 languages. To date, more than 20 million copies of the games in the Halo trilogy have been sold worldwide, Microsoft noted.

Special thanks to TGD for this post