Microsoft is offering some of it’s higher-end developer products away for free in hopes it will boost it’s customer base in the future using Microsoft based products instead of Mac OSX and free-open source (Linux) products. It’s offering Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Expression Studio, xna Game Studio 2.0 and Microsoft SQL Server free to thousands of students around the world.

Naturally, many will be suspicious of getting anything for free from Microsoft, but in this case, there's very little to worry about. Most of the software is several years old or - in the case of Expression Studio - so unused in the wider world that using them is unlikely to actually help you get a job.

The one exception: Visual Studio 2008.

Obviously Microsoft will take an initial loss on this, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to complain about:

1. A very stable, XP like operating system
2. Pretty good Graphics, Web and Media creation and editing software
3. Game Development Software
4. A high class C#, Java, ASP.net and Visual Basic programming suite

all for free (note: legally). They’re calling the initiative “DreamSpark” and you can find the site here. To be quite truthfully honest, I’m surprised I haven’t seen more about this in the technology media or on social news sites (Digg, I’m looking at you), and there’s been little publicity about it from Universities and Colleges, so check it out, and annoy your College or University to get you the access logins you need!

The Apple world is buzzing about what is coming down the pipe this Tuesday. Expected to be launched or announced in a couple days at their Let's Rock event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on September 9 at 10:00 a.m. are:

If a post on Facebook’s developer blog is accurate, you have less than a week to make your call for no change. That’s right, no change. a group of members have coalesced behind a petition, massing together “Against the ‘New Facebook’” to send Zuckerberg and the rest of them out in Palo Alto a message: “We’re not saying get rid of the new layout, just that they should keep the old one and let us choose which layout we want like skins. Color options would be good too.”

As Compete’s trendspotters made known this past week, many Facebook users have switched over to the “new” Facebook, also called “beta,” only to revert back to the old way. Yet, the company is choosing to switch the network over by default in a matter of days, not months, as I myself envisioned it would. If you’re not fond of the idea of a site-wide shift, join the gentle opposition. Their goal at present is to reach 1 million registrants. As of 7:50 PM ET Saturday, they collectively number 424k-strong. The count has been 11 42 days in the making. Thousands enter the fold by the hour. All to invoke no change, but rather, a choice. Where do you fall? Here at Live25, we kinda like the new Facebook and think it's a lot more web 2.0ey on design.

From: Mashable

Late last year we discovered that MySpace cofounder Tom Anderson, arguably the most popular individual on the Internet with 240+ million MySpace friends (he is added by default to every MySpace account) was actually 37 years old, not the 32 that he continues to claim on his MySpace page.

Now we’ve learned a much more colorful part of Anderson’s history: In 1985, when he was fourteen and in high school in Escondido, California, Anderson was subject to one of the largest FBI raids in California history after hacking into a Chase Manhattan Bank computer system and subsequently showing his friends how to do it. He was never arrested because he was a minor, but the FBI confiscated all of his computer equipment and some newspaper accounts of the incident stated incorrectly (see image below from a 1986 LA Times story) that he was “convicted in federal court of computer hacking and placed on probation” (the statements were corrected in subsequent articles). Anderson used the hacker name “Lord Flathead.”

If you have stumbled across this web page, then you are 25% qualified to own an iPhone. Now there's lots of articles out there that tell you what the iPhone has, what it doesn't have, what you can download onto it, tips and stuff... but there's two problems with all of them:

1. They're not written by me

2. They're spread all over the interwebs

So join me in this special feature (which has taken me hours to compile by the way) and bask in the glory of the iPhone's awesome fearitude!

The iPhone is missing a lot of features that other phone have had for years. Here’s a run down of the things Apple need to either sort out themselves or at least accept apps that do it for them.

1. Un-retarded Bluetooth

I’ll go out one night with some friends to a couple of clubs, take a picture and someone will say “Bluetooth it to me”, it’s then up to me to describe that my phone is retarded and doesn’t know how to send or receive files from other phone… but if you want I can email them to you… oh you don’t check your emails that much? Facebook? MySpace… I already said I can’t send files to you!

2. MMS

Nope, I can’t send it via MMS either… sorry! But hey at least if someone sends me a file, I’ll get a text message with a link and a password to check it using Safari browser… I can also save it in firmware 2.0, but otherwise, I’m outta luck. Sorry!

3. Video Recording

Oh, ermm mind if I borrow your phone to record a video quickly? That’s right, my phone has 16gb of storage with like 3gb free, a pretty decent 2 megapixel camera, but it can’t do video. Sorry, I really am gonna have to borrow your N95 quickly!

4. Flash Video

So you haven’t jailbroken your phone, and the App Store doesn’t have some apps that you need. Or you have jailbroken your phone, and installer doesn’t have some of the apps that you need. Either way, here are the top 8 iPhone Web Apps.

1. Digg (5 out of 5)

The Digg iPhone app allows you to use the social news website Digg on your iPhone in a friendly manner. It shows you the top stories on the Digg front page showing 10 at a time. It loads quickly and effortlessly, and even lets you login, and Digg stories by simply tapping on the number of current Diggs.

One of the things that origionally made the Digg iPhone web app very annoying was the fact that it only showed you the top 5 comments, and if you wanted to view more, you had to browse to the actual Digg.com website. They have however recently fixed this, and you can now tap “Load more comments” to get a further 5 and so on. This does cut down on the load time. However, you still can’t Digg or Submit comments unless you browse to the full website.

2. Ping.fm (5 out of 5)

1. Screw MobileMe, lets take a look at Mail2Web…

MobileMe is expensive and unreliable (considering most email providers are now free), and most people don’t just have a Microsoft Exchange server easily accessible to them, so instead if you want free push email / calendar and contacts, you can sign up to Mail2Web.

There’s a great Lifehacker article on how to set it all up here.

2. Free SMS

I haven’t tried this to UK phone numbers just yet, but I assume it’ll work. Install the AIM app from the App Store (although this may also work with Apollo IM, Fring and other iPhone IM clients), and instead of sending a message to an AIM username, simply put the country code, followed by the persons number.

Eg. If the persons number is 07123456789 and they live in the UK then you just need to send a message to +447123456789 and they’ll get it and it won’t cost either of you.
You might want to write who it’s from as well though, and possibly your number in the message.

3. Buying an iPhone

I’m not entirely certain about the US, but in the UK, the iPhone 3G actually works with any O2 Sim Card… so if you don’t want to be tied into a contract, just head over to eBay and pick up an iPhone 3G, then go to O2.co.uk and sign up to one of the Simplicity tariffs… I recommend the following:

£25 a month ($50) and you’ll get:

1200 Anytime, Any Network Minutes
1000 Anytime, Any Network Texts
& Unlimited 3G Data

1. Mophie Juice Pack (5 out of 5)

It won’t protect your iPhone, but it will double the battery life of it. Simply slide your iPhone into the juice pack, and it will charge the iPhone’s battery back to full, while the iPhone uses the Juice Pack’s battery instead of it’s own. Once the Juice Pack is all out, you can simply remove it and enjoy a full iPhone battery life.

It’s not too badly priced at $99.95 (just under £50) for the first generation iPhone and an iPhone 3G version due to be released soon. Because of it’s soft rubberised design give you a bit more grip and stop your iPhone from slipping out of your hand.

I didn’t find it added too much weight or size to the iPhone and still fits perfectly in your pocket. It’s great for going to house parties where you might not be able to charge your iPhone for a day or two.

2. Otterbox Defender Series for the iPhone (5 out of 5)

10. Light (3 out of 5)

I covered Flashlight in the App Store top 10 Apps, but I think Light is worth a mention here too. Flashlight allows different colours and a strobe, this however on does white. It’s still really useful no matter what and fills the void of the iPhone having no camera flash to use as a torch. There are other light apps out there, but this is just simple and no fuss.

9. Swap Tunes (4 out of 5)

Swap Tunes allows you to sync your iPhone with more than one computer, which can be really handy if you tend to use two computers in different places (eg. Home & Office). Just make sure you have the right library open, otherwise you could accidentally erase the content off your iPhone which leaves you without until you can get back to that libraries computer.

8. Colloquy (4 out of 5)

I’m gonna give you a run down of the top 10 free apps from the App store and Installer… the reason is, Apple isn’t going to allow some of the coolest apps, as it’s against their ‘rules’, so we’ll take a little look at both :)

10. MySpace (4 out of 5)
I stopped using MySpace for a long time, and instead used Facebook. But I faced a problem, a lot of my friends were still on MySpace, as in the UK it’s the social networking market leader. To be fair to them, this app is really really cool.

Unlike the Facebook app it allows you to upload photo’s you already have saved on the phone (whereas if you want to do this with Facebook, you either need to copy them to your computer first, or email them to mobile@facebook.com).

Viewing photo’s is a breeze, and although it doesn’t allow you to see them completely full screen like the Facebook App, it does allow you to slide through them, see picture comments (which the Facebook App does not) and also see the descriptions and leave comments.

Sadly the profile view for it is limited, and it doesn’t show quite as much info as you can see using the Facebook app (which is also pretty limited).

It is however great for sending messages, and reading comments. I’ve started to use MySpace more now, when I’m bored or sitting on a bus, it’s great to just pull out and take a look at messages.

The Republic National Commitee in the US has started a Facebook parody site called Barackbook in order to mock Barack Obama and the Facebook generation. The idea is to try and show is poor judgement.

In a statement regarding the new website, RNC spokesman Alex Conant said: "The website is an interactive way to learn more about Obama’s poor judgement. "Obama's judgement is an issue in this election, and this site will help us highlight some of Obama’s noteworthy 'friends'."

There's some YouTube videos on the site to show him up a little also. Barack Obama's official Facebook page currently has over 1.2m supporters whereas the Barackbook app on Facebook only has 650 users with a rating of 1.4 out of 5.

If that weren't enough, obviously the RNC is a little behind the times - there's a "New Facebook" encase you didn't know. You got the look wrong!

The US company Best Buy this morning announced that it had bought half of the British company Carphone Warehouse. A deal earlier last year between the two companies launched the 'Geek Squad' brand in the UK, a brand that is synonymous with Best Buy. The announcement came as a supprise to some investors, while others predicted it earlier last year.

The Carphone Warehouse is a reseller of contracts and pay as you go mobile phones from all major UK networks, including but not limited to O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3 and their own 'Fresh' brand. The Carphone Warehouse also owns home Broadband and Phone company 'Talk Talk' and recently purchased AOL UK.

The full price of the acquisition came in at $11.6 Billion (roughly £6 Billion)

Clients like Digsby adding Facebook chat support helps people use the platform as a REAL chat client, which right now it's just not cut out to do. If you've ever tried talking to someone for a full conversation in Facebook chat, you'll know what I mean.
From their website:

You asked for it, you got it! Build 28 (r14688) introduces Facebook Chat support! This is our first implementation so you can expect many improvements over the coming weeks. Please let us know if you run into any bugs so we can fix those too. There are several other important updates in this release. As always, you can read the entire list of new features, bug fixes, and enhancements on our Change Log. Notably: