Microsoft improves Games for Windows Live, still has work to do

We give Microsoft credit for finally understanding that what works on a console won't necessarily appeal to PC gamers. First, it stripped away the much-derided, fee-based Games for Windows Live Gold membership level. Now the entire Games for Windows Live interface has received an update. The Xbox 360-style "blade" interface is gone, replaced by a fully mouse-driven drop-down menu system. If it only worked as well as it should.

To clarify, you're not intended to download a GFW Live client for your PC, at least not yet (technically you can). For the moment, you're instead supposed to launch any GFW Live-enabled game, log in to the Live service, and from there follow the update prompt. Microsoft says a separate downloadable client is coming, along with a PC gaming-oriented Marketplace that will sell updated content for GFW Live-supported games.


For now, you can use the GFW Live service to socialize and find people to play with from your Windows or Xbox Live friends lists. It also includes an achievement system, as well as an update monitor, which can be both a blessing and a curse. For example, the recent Fallout 3 patch has its share of problems, but GFW Live requires you to update, or else it will log you out (the same is true of Valve's Steam service, GFW Live's primary competition).


Read more »

Which PC maker will fare best in a bad economy?

Commercial and consumer spending on technology is expected to fall off in the next year, and the PC industry is bracing for the impact.

Already beginning to feel the effects of sagging average selling prices, thinning margins, and oversaturated markets in North America and Europe, there's clearly going to be a shakeout among the biggest players as the economy enters a full-blown recession (of course, many believe we're already in one).

Intel's warning this week that the company sees "significantly" lower demand for its chips signaled that the worst is still to come for PC makers as they navigate the current economic storm. So how will the five biggest producers of PCs, which account for about 54 percent of all PCs sold, fare as demand wanes and prices drop?

No surprise, it's Hewlett-Packard, the top PC vendor in the world for the last two years, that appears best positioned to weather a recession.

There's bound to be a whole lot of uncertainty among PC makers: Uncertainty about what's the right combination of products that will attract consumers during a recession and beyond, and fear of overproducing products that are too expensive for increasingly price-conscious consumers and budget-constrained IT departments.

In other words, with fewer people and businesses shopping for PCs, "where do you want to emphasize your opportunity" and pick up market share from competitors, said Richard Shim, PC industry analysis with IDC.
Read more »

Iomega external hard drive asks for your MacBook Air's hand in marriage

The eGo Helium drive from Iomega really loves your MacBook Air and would like to respectfully ask for its hand in marriage.

You see, the two were virtually cut from the same cloth and share an uncanny amount of similarities. From their subtle gray chassis (off topic: What's the plural of chassis? Yep, chassis) and their finely shaped edges to their proprietary file formatting system (HFS+), they're so in touch with each other that US$143 seems like chump change to pay for the wedding.

The only thing missing in your MacBook's life is just a little extra space, and the eGo Helium drive is ready to provide her with 320GB of pure storage love. If ever there were a reason for these two not to be joined in the chains of marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Via CNET Crave

Seagate powers self-encrypting Dell PCs

According to credible sources, a notebook computer is stolen every 53 seconds--and 97 percent are never recovered. In most cases, the risk of losing data stored on the hard drive is much higher than the value of the notebook itself.

To address this issue, Seagate, Dell, and McAfee teamed up to announce data encryption solutions for PCs that work without you even having to know about it. The solutions include new self-encrypting hard drives, software managing systems, and computers that implements the two.

The new hard drives belong to the Seagate's Momentus FDE family. FDE stands for full-disk encryption, Seagate's self-encrypting method for 2.5-inch hard drives.

Dell is the PC vendor that implements the new hard drives in a variety of its business computers. McAfee annouced that it has joined the list of security software providers that support Seagate hard drives' embedded hardware encryption. This offers customers another choice of enterprise management solutions required to secure notebook computers.
Read more »

Apple updates Safari with 11 security fixes

On Thursday, Apple released Safari 3.2. Although the update affects both Mac and Windows users, many of the Mac updates were provided in Apple's October update for Mac OS X users. The update includes eight fixes specific to Safari and three specific to Webkit.

Safari 3.2 is available via the Apple Software Update application, the Apple Software Downloads page, or Apple's Safari download site.

Safari-1
This patch affects Safari users on Windows XP or Vista. This update addresses multiple vulnerabilities in zlib 1.2.2 detailed within CVE-2005-2096. Apple credits Robbie Joosten of bioinformatics@school, and David Gunnells of the University of Alabama at Birmingham for reporting the vulnerabilities.

Safari-2
This patch affects users of Windows XP or Vista. This update addresses the security issue in the libxslt library detailed within CVE-2008-1767 in which processing an XML document may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Apple credits Anthony de Almeida Lopes of Outpost24 AB, and Chris Evans of the Google Security Team for finding the vulnerability.
Read more »

Crave is...

The name says it all. Crave is our blog about cool gadgets and other crushworthy stuff.

Drop us an email if you have tips or suggestions.

Crave for...

» Mobile Phones (2242)

» Digital Cameras (988)

» Notebooks (1242)

» PC & Peripherals (1312)

» Handhelds (585)

» Printers (83)

» Home AV (1147)

» Music & Play (897)

» Gadgets (1488)

» Future Tech (396)

» Green Tech (172)

» Lifestyle (158)

» Luxury (22)

» Home Appliances (58)

» Cars (99)

» Games and Gear (248)

» Software (96)

» Web (119)

Previously...

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Hot Topics

Subscribe to
Crave

What's Hot

apple apple inc. apple iphone apple ipod asia battery camera game google inc. iphone microsoft corp. microsoft windows mobile phone photograph singapore smart phone software sony corp. video

Today on CNET |  Reviews |  Crave |  Blogs |  CNET TV |  Digital Living |  Downloads