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 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:

The people who designed the game Grand Theft Auto took a jab at Apple for their overpriced hardware. Take a look at the screen shots bellow.

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

While quite comical, it's going to cause a little spite in the Apple Fanboy community (that's right, I said "fanboy community").

As I was chatting in my regular IRC Room, someone asked the question "What is the likely hood that Apple will release iTunes for Linux, as most of my music is in DMR'ed AAC Format". This brought up a debate between the chatters. Most of which said "Never, Apple will never release iTunes for Linux".

However, I decided to debate and oppose this point. Although I'm not a Linux user, the Linux market is growing. More manufacturers than ever are releasing computers and devices with Linux (eg. Dell / ASUS), which exposes Linux to those who wouldn't otherwise try it (probably). Not to mention, the number of people who use Linux installed from CD's or other sources.

As the market grows, any business with common sense will not deny themselves access to a potential customer base. If 20% of the market used Linux, why WOULDN'T Apple release iTunes for Linux? If they didn't, they would be cutting a potential of 20% of computer users worldwide.

Not to mention the fact, there's really no competition for music on Linux. Sure there's Amazon and eMusic, but people know the Apple Name. People rely on using their Windows or Mac machines to buy DRM-Free music from the iTunes store and then copy it to their Linux machines, or use illegal sources of music such as the Gnutella P2P Network or Torrents.

Apple have also recently released Safari for Windows. If their serious about entering the Browser market, then they'll have to do what almost every other browser does (with the exception of Internet Explorer), and be completely cross platform. Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

Those who know me, know I am not a religious person. However, today, I have seen the light. Yes my friends, the Apple Jesus Phone!

This morning (GMT) at roughly 3am, I found an Article on Digg to ZiPhone. The software allows you to jailbreak and unlock a 1.1.3 iPhone. I've been on 1.1.1 ever since I first got my iPhone last year, due to the fact I didn't want my US iPhone to be bricked. But you see, I have to thank the Digg Community for that article. Today, I went to my nearest city to see people and generally just go out seeing as it's such a nice day. My iPhone's battery was a little low, so I headed to the nearest O2 store where I know one member of staff and knew they don't mind you charging your iPhone.

While I was at that desk, a customer came and looked at the iPhone's on display, and a member of staff in the O2 store asked him if he would like any help. He asked several questions about the new Google Map features, which she (the staff member) couldn't answer. I interrupted, and said "The demo iPhone's are running an older version of the iPhone software, but here let me show you how it works". I then showed him the Google Maps "locate me" feature, and the custom pin points. He thanked me, and said "That's exactly what I was looking for!", he then walked over to the sales desk, and purchased an iPhone.

Only available on Any Network. Now while some can't afford the £270 (or $399 in the US) price for the Apple iPhone, and the further price for whichever tariff you take out with O2 or AT&T, the Chinese are here to save the day. You can still think you look cool with your iPhone look alike, and still, possibly, afford it.

Although I haven't tried one myself, it'll probably fool most people into thinking it's an official Apple Jesus-Phone. It has features that the iPhone does not, while also lacking features the iPhone does have. It looks much fatter than the iPhone, while claiming to be a "99% iPhone Clone".

You can buy the HiPhone here, not that we would recommend it. If you want an iPhone so bad, save up, chin up, and buy one. Then just unlock it like over 25% of iPhone Users do. Features and images after the break.

As many may know, a pre-beta copy of the next version of Windows, "Windows 7" has been reportedly leaked on Torrent and Warez sites. Bellow I have included a brief look into the new version of Windows 7 from what we can see so far. However, everything you see bellow may be changed before the final release of Windows 7, reported by Microsoft to be in Q4 of 2009.

About Windows Dialogue Box

One of the first things we notice is the fact that the version is "6.1". Windows Vista is version 6 of Windows. This means that they're currently working with Windows Vista's kernel.Windows 7 will be the first operating system to use the 'MinWin' Kernel, which is currently in development. The idea behind MinWin is to minimise the memory and processor use by the kernel itself, and to minimise the dependencies of other software on the kernel itself. According to a Video presentation of MinWin (which can be found here), MinWin uses only 25mb of Disk Space, and and uses 40mb of RAM.

We also notice that they will be keeping the current different versions of Windows Vista (a la. Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate). Many dislike this system and think we should have 3 simple versions... Home, Professional and Ultimate.

Windows Desktop

January 30th is International Delete your MySpace Day... what does this mean? Well pretty much what it says. On January 30th 2008, it's estimated that over 100,000 people will close their MySpace accounts. Why should you do this? Well see if any of the reasons bellow suit you:

1. You rarely log in to Myspace except to delete spam friend requests from nude webcam girls.

2. You spend five minutes writing a comment only to hit an error message when you try to post it because of all the website glitches.

3. You’re a girl who constantly gets marriage proposals from random men in the middle east.

4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to suddenly have music start blasting out of your speakers. Bonus points if it happens to you while you’re at work.

5. You have to make redundant clicks to perform simple tasks because Myspace keeps taking you to advertisement pages where you have to click on “return to myspace profile” in order to continue what you’re doing.

6. You visit someone’s profile only to have your eyes bleed because of terrible page layout with non-matching designs and font colors.

7. Your experience is hindered because of intrusive banner ads that either talk to you or try to reach out and block your view of what you’re trying to look at.

8. You read yet another news account about how some child predator using Myspace has abducted a little girl or that some hoax myspace account has caused a teenager to commit suicide.