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If you like to have more of storage you get the premium account that gives you up to 1TB of storage.

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Google Contest for best Apps and does a huge difference to Android Market

                 

Google gave up US$10 million in prize money to developers of the best applications for its nascent mobile platform for winners of the Android Developer Challenge. In doing so, Google also helped to stock the shelves of Android Market.

• Development teams of the top 10 applications each received $275,000.
• The 10 next-best applications got $100,000.
• Another 30 applications were recognized as finalists.

There's GoCart, which uses the phone's camera to scan a bar code while you're shopping and then price-compares like items from nearby stores and online retailers and provides inventory data and user reviews. Compare Everywhere, a similar product, also helps manage shopping lists.

An extremely clever app is cab4me, which combines GoogleMaps, GPS and cell data to hail a cab to your location with just one button-press. No phone call, no directory assistance. You don't even need to know where you are.

It's remarkable that an operating system released only last November has spawned so many great and useful applications, especially when they involve technologies as complex as mobile cell networks, global positioning and the restrictions of embedded programming. The first phones to use Android, which is Linux-based, could be available to consumers as early as October, according to an August 14 report in the New York Times.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 Released on 27th Wednesday

              

This 2nd test of the Windows Internet Explorer release happened on Wednesday 27th August 2008 with the letest technology upgrades to the world. This release give the user features like to enhance privacy, ease-of-use, and security.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 was released on March,but that was aimed at letting Web developers take a first look at the new browser. This latest version is aimed at a broader consumer audience.

Microsoft company didn't want to release the tests of this products but for millions of peoples requests it has been released yesterday.

Microsoft has pledged to deliver more regular updates of Internet Explorer, whose lead has been chipped away by Mozilla's Firefox browser.

Check for more in comments

27 years old person arrested for maintaining a BLOG having "Chinese Democracy" Album in LOS ANGELES.

                                

A blogger suspected of streaming songs from the unreleased Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" on his Web site was arrested Wednesday and appeared in court, where his bail was set at $10,000

27 years Kevin Cogill posted nine unreleased Guns N' Roses songs on his Web site in June. FBI agents arrested Kevin Cogill on Wednesday morning on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. Cogill appeared in court in the afternoon wearing a T-shirt.

These 9 songs which Kevin Cogill posted in his wen site is removed afterwards.  

Sidewinder X6 Keyboard for PC Gamers

                 

Amazing latest technology, Microsoft Hardware announced two new peripherals from the SideWinder family which should hold considerable appeal to PC gamers in Germany.

The keypad that can be attached to the left or right of the keyboard and the Sidewinder X5 mouse with five customizable buttons and adjustable sensitivity switching.

This ultimate technology has two mode separately for gaming ad for normal use of applications. For miss use of the mode it detects automatically whether the system is running a game or a application and depends on that it switched the modes.

Complementing the versatility of the keyboard are features specifically designed for gaming, including the capacity to store up to 90 macros per game and two-color adjustable backlighting that helps when playing in low lighting.

Other noteworthy features for PC gamers include:

• A new Cruise Control feature continues an action without having to hold down the key or keys assigned to the action.
• In-game macro record button lets gamers record any sequence of keystrokes — even standard chat messages. Macros are stored on the PC hard drive and can be easily shared.
• WASD gaming keys, the most commonly used keys for gamers, have front-face lighting for enhanced visibility.
• Quick-Launch key gives one-touch access to Windows Vista Games Explorer, allowing gamers to quickly see the games in their PC’s game library.

Along with the Sidewinder X6 keyboard, Microsoft announced the nine-button SideWinder X5 gaming mouse which features vertical side buttons, adjustable sensitivity switching up to 2,000 DPI, five customizable buttons, and a Quick-Launch button that instantly launches the Windows Vista Games Explorer.

Industry trade group's new general counsel also served as senior counsel to US Department of Justice.

                        

"As if there was any doubt about it, the Entertainment Software Association today signaled that antipiracy efforts will continue to be its major focus.
The gaming-industry trade group announced today that Kenneth Doroshow has been named its next general counsel. Doroshow most recently worked as the former senior vice president of litigation and legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), where he fought legal battles to uphold the copyright interests of record labels.
Among Doroshow's projects during his time with the RIAA were antipiracy lawsuits against LimeWire, Usenet.com, and AllofMP3.com. Prior to that, he served as senior counsel for the US Department of Justice's computer crime and intellectual property section. In that role, Doroshow is credited with playing "a key role in the largest-ever multinational criminal investigation of software piracy over the Internet."
Doroshow will assume the duties of the ESA's general counsel next month."

The New Features Coming in the Fall for XBox 360

Play from hard drive

Copy your games from the game disc and play directly from the hard drive. Not only will the drive not spin, but load times are quicker, as well. Of course, you will still need the disc in the tray to prove you own the game. · Access Xbox LIVE Marketplace on the Web. Browse and purchase Marketplace content whenever you want from Xbox.com and it downloads automatically to your console. Purchase that new map, television episode, the latest Xbox LIVE Arcade game or set up a movie to watch when you get home from work.

Dashboard built into the new Xbox Guide

For everyone who loves the blades interface, it’s not going away; they are now built directly in to the new Xbox guide. Every feature and option is available right from the guide. You can even access your full games library at all times. No matter where you are (in dash or in game), immediately call up your games played list and directly launch a game.

LIVE Party system

Create a party of up to eight friends, and stay with them from one game to another, or watch a Netflix movie together, or share a slideshow of your personal photos. It works with all Xbox 360 titles, not just upcoming games. LIVE Party allows up to eight people to chat in the dashboard, so you can meet up before playing.

Xbox LIVE Primetime

This whole new category of games is going to give you more reasons to get online with your friends. Games will support everything you’d expect, like Achievements and leader boards, but many of these games will include real prizes. You can invite your friends, and even set a reminder for an upcoming show. Each game is broadcast simultaneously, so everyone is answering the same questions. Many events will have a live host, calling the shots as they happen.

Avatars

Your online identity started as a Gamertag - it then grew into a personalized Gamercard. Now, it has evolved even further into avatars. You can express your style, check out new outfits and share this with the community. Avatars will also be integrated into Xbox LIVE Arcade games, LIVE Party, as well as retail games.

New display support

Because you asked for it, we are adding 16X10 over VGA or HDMI, and support for 1440x900 or 1680x1050.
This is only the beginning. Over the next few months, we will share more details on the upcoming changes.

DNS Attack Writer a Victim of His Own Creation

It happened on Tuesday morning, when Moore's company, BreakingPoint had some of its Internet traffic redirected to a fake Google page that was being run by a scammer. According to Moore, the hacker was able to do this by launching what's known as a cache poisoning attack on a DNS server on AT&T's network that was serving the Austin, Texas area. One of BreakingPoint's servers was forwarding DNS (Domain Name System) traffic to the AT&T server, so when it was compromised, so was HD Moore's company.
When Moore tried to visit Google.com, he was actually redirected to a fake page that served up a Google page in one HTML frame along with three other pages designed to automatically click on advertisements.
BreakingPoint employees noticed the problem early today after friends and family who were also using the AT&T DNS server noticed that their Google.com Web page didn't look quite right (hackers had omitted the NASA-themed logo that Google used on Tuesday).
In early July, computer security experts began warning this type of cache poisoning attack could be pulled off much more easily than previously thought, thanks to a new technique. Early last week, technical details of this attack were leaked to the Internet and HD Moore's Metasploit project quickly released the first software that exploited this tactic.
Now he's one of the first victims of such an attack. "It's funny," he said. "I got owned."

The Ultimate Battle Against Evil Continues in Doom 4

ID Software team has announced on May 7,2008 that the production of DOOM 4 has started. "DOOM is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry.

DOOM is one of the main recognized games in whole work which have been named "one of the ten most influential games of the decade" by PC Gamer and "the #1 game of all time" by GameSpy.

DOOM 4 also going to join the award-winning series has consistently topped sales charts throughout the world.

DOOM 3 had a great history after it got released. That time with NVIDIA FX 7950 the original Game DVD was gifted for whole world.

Actually I need to add my history of DOOM 3. This game was the first game I tried full detail in my whole life using SLI in wide screen.

Still they have not estimated the System requirements for DOOM 4. The peoples ideas of this release is surely this is going to beat the history of Crysis, Assassin's Creed, And Mass Effect.

A Vehicle Runs with Water for the First Time In Sri Lanka

                   

Thushara Priyamal was the eldest of Edirisinghe family in Athurugiriya who had an interest for researching scientific substances since school age. He was a much recognized past pupil from Kristhu College Pannipitiya. Starting from 9th grade he wanted to research on producing Hydrogen gas using water.
He learned how to fill air to balloons by adding a piece of Aluminum into Caustic Soda mixed with water and also found that the balloon gets exploded if it is taken near a fire. So he thought, collected Hydrogen could produce enough power to start a vehicle engine.
Thushara had a good knowledge about electric parts of a vehicle and he had an interest in improving his skills very much by going to a Mechanical Engineering Institute. So he stopped his education after he passed O/L's on 1996. Since he achieved tremendous results at O/L's he was selected to for Electrical Engineering at Moratuwa German College in year 1998.
By this time he wanted to make an airplane. He was able to airborne a small airplane which is made of Rigifoam and necessary electrical parts. He was successful more than he anticipated, because it could fly so far that even the connection with the remote control was lost. He lost the model because of the unexpected performance of this hand made aircraft. After finding the airplane, he never attempted to airborne it again, because he was advised from the air force not to airborne unlicensed air planes more than 8 Kilo meters away from the source.
After he joined Electrical Engineering at Moratuwa German College in year 1998, he proved his core competencies very well by performing at his studies remarkably well comparing to the other students. Most of the time when he is at home, he repaired vehicles and continued his own researches on motor mechanics. After completing studies in year 2004, he started to work in the field he always had a passion about. Since he was busy with the job, he couldn't manage time to do his own researches. So he planned to leave the job and continue fulfilling his endeavors. Then he continued his researches collecting enough Hydrogen gas to start a vehicle and he succeeded on December 2006. According to that he made an electrical circuit.
This circuit produces enough Hydrogen gas using only water to start a vehicle. A fluctuation was generating by fixing a special electrical circuit into a water tank that can hold around 3 and a half liters of water. It produces Hydrogen gas and Oxigen gas consuming a small beam of electricity. Combination of these two gases can make a vehicle engine start. But unfortunatly he didnt have a vehicle to do his researches. But thushara didnt give up. He fixed his circuite into one of him friend's vehicle. He succeeded. So he drived all the way to Anuradhapura, Kurunagala , Puttalama etc with his new found vehicle for around 1 month time. Suddenly the owner of the vehicle has taken the vehile away from him with the circuit. He has requested the circuit from him, since he worked hard to find it. But he has not recieved it back. Still he didnt give up. He has started to make a new circuit on march of last year. He succeeded to finish it by july of this year. Since he didnt have his own vehicle he had to test it in other's vehicle once more. In the same way has tested for around 1 month. The same story happend at this time also, but he has not given his new research this time.
This circuit produces enough gases to run 80Km with only 1 liter of water. As he says the output is nothing but water vapor. He thinks to improve and make a release to the country, since there is a huge problem of fuel in Sri Lanka. He thanks to his family, Burnard Nydef and Kumudhu Nudef for giving strenght to succeed this new research.
He has wasted so much of money to come into this position. This can be helpful to our country as well as to the whole world.

VirtualBox - BLAG Linux And GNU 90000 VDI

                       

This is a Functional Sun xVm VirtualBox Virtual Computer. This is NOT a CD/DVD ISO image. Sun xVM VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers.

VDI images of pre-installed, premade "Open Source" Operating System distros.
Instantly run another operation system on your desktop in a window.

Installation Instructions :

• Download and install VirtualBox http://www.virtualbox.org/
  Create a new Virtual Machine select the VDI file as the virtual  disk
• Start the virtual machine

!!! The files ARE NOT Password Protected !!!
!!! The files ARE NOT Password Protected !!!
!!! The files ARE NOT Password Protected !!!

username: adminuser
password: adminuser
root password: adminuser
The Embedded operating system may have passwords
The passwords for all veeDee-Eyes.com files are available at the site http://www.veeDee-Eyes.com/

Garena, Hamachi and Lancraft

These days I've been playing games, hacking games, finding ways to play multiplayer and stuff...
So, I chanced upon this thingy called Garena @ http://www.garena.com
Well, what is it, you may ask... It's basically a game matchmaking kinda service. It supports the more popular ones around Asia such as Warcraft III, Counter Strike 1.6 and Source, Starcraft(OMG!!! It's still active!), Call of Duty 4, Warhammer 40K and Quake 4...
This program is easily one of the easiest to use compared to Hamachi and Lancraft where you have to manually find games and VPNs to join. It's also a hassle for beginners to use these programs as they have to configure various port forwarding issues and firewall setup.
I've been using Garena behind a router without port forwarding and so far it's fine. The lag is minimal if you pick a room based on your country, for e.g Malaysia Dota Room or Singapore DoTA room. Also please be reminded that I'm only on a measly 512kbps STREAMYX line...
So, if anyone of you are itching for any of the above games to be played with others, please do go to Garena to sign up for a FREE account.

But I tried World In Conflict using Hamachi. 0% lag. That was my Experience in 512KBps connection. Before I didnt prefer Hamachi. Sow how now I use Hamachi too. But the main problem is we need to create a network and only knows can play using Hamachi.

BitTorrent Sites Open for Signup

                   

Get sign up fast. www.underground-gamer.com/ is one of the largest gaming torrents collection private tracker. Luckily its opened for sign-ups these days. So better be fast.

Here is the registration URL: http://www.underground-gamer.com/signup.php

Comcast Ordered to Stop BitTorrent Traffic Interference

               

"ISPs have been throttling BitTorrent traffic for years now, but only recently has this turned into a political issue. In a huge victory for BitTorrent users, the FCC has now announced that it will order Comcast to stop interfering with BitTorrent traffic."
"Almost a year ago we first reported that Comcast was actively disconnecting BitTorrent seeds. Now, after numerous debates and false promises from Comcast, the FCC has ruled that Comcast’s BitTorrent interference is unacceptable, and orders the company to stop doing so.
Kevin Martin, FCC chairman told AP that Comcast’s BitTorrent throttling is “arbitrary”, and that the company had violated the principles of the Federal Communications Commission. Martin said that Comcast slows down BitTorrent users independent of the amount of traffic they use, and that the company failed to communicate their network management practices to their consumers.
Indeed, a recent study by the Max Planck Institute showed that the company had misinformed the FCC and their users. Comcast has always argued that BitTorrent upstream traffic was only blocked during periods of heavy network traffic, this turns out to be a lie, as the study showed that they blocked BitTorrent upstream traffic 24/7.
The FCC has announced that it will take appropriate action against Comcast, and the ISP will be ordered to stop interfering with BitTorrent traffic. Comcast has said before that it will invest in its network capacity

Pioneer develops Blu-ray compatible disc that holds 400GB

On July 13 Pioneer will be giving a presentation at the International Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage where they'll discuss recent advances that apparently make discs with up to 16 layers possible. Although other companies have found ways to radically increase the number of layers on an optical disc, Pioneer seems to be the first company to manage it with as much as 25GB per layer, making it very similar to Blu-ray.

In fact the company has said "it is possible to maintain compatibility between the new 16-layer optical disc and the BD discs." That could potentially mean a single Blu-ray disc capable of storing up to 400GB with the new technology.

Of course that's assuming a number of things, including that manufacturing costs, which are already very high for even single layer Blu-ray discs, come down significantly. The large amount of data per layer for Blu-ray increases the precision required to make them compared to DVD, resulting in a higher percentage of bad (unreadable) discs. It's reasonable to assume that putting 16 such layers on a single disc would lower yields even further.

There's certainly potential for adding just 2 or 3 more layers to accommodate increased resolution in future generations of HD video. At the same time, Blu-ray is limited by more than just storage capacity. It only makes sense that even higher resolutions would also require higher data throughput to accomodate increased bitrates, just as DVD's 9.8Mbps was deemed insufficient for current generation HD video.

So for now it's certainly an interesting development, and perhaps even revolutionary, but don't make any plans to buy 400GB Blu-ray discs any time soon.

Microsoft To Launch Windows Small Business Server 2008 On Nov. 12

An early release version of Windows Essential Business Server 2008, Microsoft's mid-sized business product, will also be released in November.

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) on Monday said it would launch in mid-November a series of products aimed at small businesses that need up-to-date computer technology but lack large IT staffs to handle installation and maintenance.

The company said it would ship Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008 on November 12. The company also said trial versions of both products are now available for download through a Microsoft site called MultiplyYourPower.com.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 is a scaled-down version of Windows Server 2008, which is the server OS counterpart to the Windows Vista desktop operating system. The standard edition comes with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Windows Live OneCare for Server, and other utilities.

The Premium edition adds the small business version of SQL Server 2008 and several other technologies drawn from Windows Server 2008.

Windows Essential Business Server 2008, which Microsoft developed under the code name Centro, is designed for mid-sized businesses with more sophisticated IT needs, and offers a range of additional messaging, management, and security tools.

Microsoft on Monday also disclosed that Dell, along with Europe's Wortmann AG, will build and sell servers and other products powered by Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008.

The small- and mid-sized business markets represent lucrative growth markets for Microsoft and other tech vendors. IDC predicts that worldwide IT spending by SMBs will grow at a rate of 7% annually through 2012, compared to a 5.2% growth rate for the IT market overall during the same period.

Pricing for Windows Small Business Server 2008 starts at $1,089. Windows Essential Business Server 2008 starts at $5,472.

Microsoft May Ship Next Mac Office By 2010

Support for Visual Basic for Applications also will be restored in the next version of Office for Mac, Microsoft says.

Mac users won't have to wait another four years for the next version of Microsoft Office. A company official said Tuesday that the software maker plans on delivering the successor to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac by January, 2011, at the latest, and possibly as early as January, 2010.

Microsoft also plans to restore support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in the next version, which will officially be called Office 2010 for Mac, or Office 2011 for Mac -- depending on the exact ship date.

"We're on a two to three year lifecycle," said Amanda Lefebvre, senior marketing manager at Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, in an interview. "We were a little beyond that for our last round," she conceded.

Indeed, a series of delays meant that Mac users who purchased Mac Office 2004 had to wait four years for the next version -- Mac Office 2008, which shipped on January 15. It's the first version of the desktop suite to run natively on Intel- and Power PC-based Macs, but its development was set back by quality control issues.

Microsoft's MacBU, which currently houses about 200 employees, is aggressively hiring developers, programmers and testers -- in part to ensure that the next Mac Office is developed on time and is cross-compatible with the Windows version, said Lefebvre.

"It's really about delivering full compatibility, at the file format level," she said.

Lefebvre added that some of the new hires will be tasked with restoring support for VBA in the Mac Office environment. "It will be a big piece of work," she said. Microsoft dropped VBA support in Mac Office 2008, but the move drew complaints from business customers who use the language to create macros for Excel and other applications.

MacBU workers are also developing tools that will ensure that Mac Office can be more tightly integrated into corporate Windows environments that run Microsoft's Exchange Server and Unified Communications Server, said Lefebvre. "It's about connecting in with the greater Microsoft environment and driving improved experiences," she said.

It's a sound strategy. Industry research reveals that Macs are showing up with increasing frequency in business offices, once the sole preserve of Windows desktops. Nearly 80% of businesses now have at least some Macintoshes in their offices, almost twice as many as two years ago, according to Yankee Group.

Increasing Mac sales are, naturally, helping to boost sales of Mac Office. Microsoft sold more than three times the number of licenses for Mac Office 2008 during its first four months on the market than it did for Mac Office 2004 during the comparable period.

Beyond developing applications for the Mac, Microsoft's MacBU isn't ruling out building programs for other popular Apple platforms, such as the iPhone and the iPod. "We're always investigating possibilities," said Lefebvre, who added, however, that "we have nothing to announce at this time."

Radeon HD 4870: Better Than GTX 260!

Only a few days ago, everything seemed perfect in the best of all possible worlds for Nvidia. The card manufacturer had just launched its GeForce GTX 260 and 280, which – despite the six-month delay – pushed the unified architecture introduced with the GeForce 8 to the limits of what a 65-nm process and a gigantic number of transistors could offer. The performance gain compared to the former –and now older – generation wasn’t overwhelming (59% on average over a 9800 GTX), but the arrival of CUDA applications was an interesting development, and Nvidia had no competition. Meanwhile, AMD seemed to be ever deeper in the red with its graphics division, avowedly incapable of competing on the high-end market segment as it once did, with its existing high-end cards quickly aging performance-wise. Then came the hush-hush release of the Radeon HD 4850, even before anybody had time to test it, and at an astoundingly low price of $199.


Yet, in the AMD camp, a miracle has happened. The Radeon HD 4850’s performance surprised everybody – including Nvidia. Despite the last-minute launch of the GeForce 9800 GTX+, which will not be available in retail channels until mid-July, Nvidia simply can’t match the explosive performance/price ratio of the Radeon card as we demonstrated in our recent test. The familiar marketing pitch about optimizing efficiency and the architecture’s yield, which has always sounded like fluff, suddenly took on a new meaning considering the Radeon HD 4850’s test results. It also even awakened hopes of an even better performance in the future. Having managed — to its own surprise — to increase the number of multiprocessors from 320 to 800 despite a 43% increase in the number of transistors and at the same engraving depth, AMD doesn’t want to settle for playing in the minors – and for good reason. A Radeon HD 4870, based on the same architecture but with higher performance (and of course at a higher price) has been announced and is slowly beginning to be available, though there’s still some uncertainty about that last point. On paper, at least, it could directly compete with Nvidia’s new high-end cards, and at a significantly lower price. But how about in practice? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_Series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Micro_Devices http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radeon

Samsung Puts 128 SSDs Into Mass-production

Samsung today said that it has begun mass producing 1.8" and 2.5" multi-level cell (MLC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLC )-based solid state http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_state drives (SSD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSD ) with 64 and 128 GB storage capacity. Samsung also promises "more attractive" pricing, which indicates that SSD technology will become more competitive with traditional hard drives and be in reach for more consumers.

Samsung’s announcement has written "mainstream" all over it - it does not offer those speedy data transfer rates we have heard in recent weeks and there is the note about "attractive pricing". Of course, that brings up the question how much these drives will cost. Samsung traditionally does not comment on price and, not surprisingly, spokesman John Lucas declined to comment on possible pricing. But we can speculate.

Before we do that, let’s have a quick look at the specifications of the drives. Samsung claims that MLC based SSD has a write speed of 70 MB/s and a read speed of 90 MB/s, which are performance levels that are well below single-level-cell (SLC)-based SSDs which can achieve read speeds of 130 MB/s. In fact, Samsung’s new SSDs are even a bit slower than today’s fastest hard drive, WD’s 3.5" Velociraptor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive

Samsung claims that the 128 GB SSD, which is built from 64 MLC NAND flash memory chips of 16 GB each, is energy efficient at 0.2 watts in standby mode and 0.5 watts in active mode. Probably most interesting is the drive’s expected life: Samsung claims the drives will last 20 times longer than the average 4-5 years of hard drives - which would mean that the SSD is rated at 80-100 years.

So, what about the price? Considering the fact that these drives are in mass-manufacturing, the fact that there is talk about "more attractive" pricing in an environment where entry-level 64 GB SSD notebooks can be purchased for about $1600 (check Dell) sounds to us like SSDs are finally ready to take a first shot at the upper mainstream segment of computers. This would mean that vendors such as Dell would have to drop the current $600 price of 64 GB substantially: Flash prices typically fall by about 40% every year and $300-$350 for a 64 GB drive sounds realistic to us.

In any case, you may want to begin looking a bit more seriously at this segment if you are interested in purchasing a SSD or a computer with such a drive.

But don’t get too excited just yet. Hard drives are still cheaper and Samsung’s vice president of memory marketing, Jim Elliott, said in a statement that these 64 GB and 128 GB MLC SSDs are aimed at "business users and many PC enthusiasts". So far, the company is not talking about "value" PCs.

Samsung said it will introduce a later this year.

Microsoft promises four patches next week

on Thursday chalked in four security updates for next week that would fix vulnerabilities in Windows, SQL Server and Exchange Server.
All four were labeled "important," the company's second-highest ranking, even though one of the Windows updates will quash a bug that attackers could use to execute malicious code remotely. That kind of vulnerability has been regularly rated as "critical" by Microsoft in the past.
As is its practice for pre-patch notifications, Microsoft disclosed few details today of next week's updates other than their severity ranking and the affected software.
"None of these were on my radar," admitted Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc. "I'm doing quite a bit of head scratching given the variety and interesting details [in the bulletins]."
One of the two Windows bulletins will patch Windows 2000 and Windows XP -- including the recently released XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) -- but not Windows Vista, while the second update slated for the client operating system will patch Vista, including Vista SP1, but not the older OSes.
The Vista bug caught Storms' eye because while Microsoft said it could result in remote code execution -- a description reserved for a serious vulnerability that could let hackers hijack a PC -- the company ranked it as important, not critical.
"I read that kind of bug as 'critical'," said Storms. "Microsoft seems to have stepped it up a notch," he said, noting that it appears the company is taking a harder line in defining "critical" flaws as only those that don't require any user action to be exploited.
Microsoft described both the SQL Server bug and the Exchange vulnerability as elevation of privilege flaws, and will provide patches for the former to Windows Server 2003, Server 2008, Windows 2000 and all still-supported versions of SQL Server, the company said. The Exchange update applies to both Exchange Server 2003 and the newer Exchange Server 2007.
The amount of detail Microsoft tucked into the pre-patch notification for the SQL Server and Exchange Server vulnerabilities puzzled Storms, who pointed out that Microsoft specified that the former's flaw affected both WMSDE, the SQL engine added to Windows clients, and WYukon, the engine within Windows server software. "I don't know whether this is a clue [about the vulnerability] or whether they're just being more promiscuous with information," Storms said.
It doesn't appear the Microsoft will be patching an Internet Explorer vulnerability first reported in 2006, but which returned to the limelight last month when security researcher Aviv Raff claimed that it could be combined with a bug in Apple Inc.'s Safari to pose a danger to users. At the end of May, Microsoft warned users of the blended threat, and recommended that people stop using Safari.
Apple patched Safari for Windows to quash the browser's so-called "carpet bomb" bug two weeks ago.
But Storms thought there was an outside chance that Microsoft would fix IE, even though it didn't explicitly label any of the prospective patches as intended for Internet Explorer. Last year, he said, Microsoft dealt with protocol handler bugs that could be exploited by attacks against IE by fixing Windows, not the browser.
The four security updates will be posted Tuesday, July 8, around 1 p.m. EDT.