Windows 7 beta will shutdown in every two hours from July 1st 2009. If you want to continue using Windows 7 you will need to download the Windows 7 RC1 (release candidate version). It will work till March 2010. From March onwards it will also shutdown in every two hours and will expire on June 2010.

I think this is a fair game by Microsoft. If you want to test Windows 7 before buying it, you have plenty of time to do that by testing Windows 7 Ultimate edition. Microsoft also gains from this policy because most users will upgrade or buy Windows 7 as they won’t like to switch back to the buggy Vista.

Windows 7 will be available from October 22nd. But you can safely buy a Vista(retail version or pre installed) PC now as you can freely upgrade it to Windows 7 when it will become available (offer not valid for Vista Basic).

The estimated retail prices for upgrade packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

  • Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
  • Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

And the estimated retail prices for full packaged retail product of Windows 7 in the U.S. are:

  • Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
  • Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
  • Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

Source: Microsoft

Don’t want to spend anything ? Don’t like bi hourly shutdowns ? Download and install Ubuntu 9.04 for free or request a free installation CD :)

The much awaited browser from Mozilalla is released finally after a long time. Mozilla had released three release candidate versions before releasing the final one. It is time for another ‘war of the browsers’ – Internet explorer 8, Firefox 3.5, Opera 10, Google Chrome 2 and Safari 4.

Download: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

Some of the excellent features are,

  • The fastest browser released by Mozilla (Mozilla claims that it is two times faster than Firefox 3 and 10 times faster than Firefox 2)
  • A complete private browsing mode
  • Built in support for open video and audio (open format Ogg Theora)

You can also watch the video below – Mike Beltzner (Director of Firefox Development) gives a quick preview of what’s new and exciting in Firefox 3.5

Firefox 3.5 makes surfing the Web easier and more enjoyable with exciting new features and platform updates that allow Web developers to create the next generation of Web content. Native support for open video and audio, private browsing, and support for the newest Web technologies will enable richer, more interactive online experiences.

Performance. Firefox 3.5 includes the powerful new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which delivers unprecedented performance with today’s complex Web applications. Firefox 3.5 is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2.

Open Video and Audio. Enjoy video and audio content from within your browser, without the need for plugins. Video is a vital part of the modern Web, whether it’s used to communicate, educate, or entertain. Firefox 3.5 delivers the first native integration of audio and video directly into the browser. Now everyone can easily watch open format Ogg Theora videos.

Web developers can use these technologies to design pages that interact with video content in new and exciting ways, offering richer interactive experiences beyond controlling playback and volume.

Privacy Controls. Firefox 3.5 includes features designed to protect your privacy online and provide greater control over your personal data.

While using the new Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.5, nothing you encounter on the Web will be stored from that moment on during your browsing session. Unique to Firefox 3.5, the new Forget this Site feature can remove every trace of a site from your browser. If you want to remove all private data or activity from the past few hours, Clear Recent History, another Firefox-only feature, gives you full control over what stays and what goes.

Location Aware Browsing. Location Aware Browsing saves you time by allowing websites to ask you where you are located. If you choose to share your location with a website, it can use that information to find nearby points of interest and return additional, useful data like maps of your area. It’s all optional – Firefox doesn’t share your location without your permission.

Source

When searching, both Google & Bing(the latest search engine from Microsoft) allows some keywords or expressions to filter the results or control the way how search is done. These can be very useful for finding the best results. Following are some of the easiest and most useful search modifiers.

Naturally, this will also become a direct comparison of both search engines feature wise. So you may consider this as a “Bing Vs Google” comparison.

The following options are supported by both Bing and Google. But in some, for example currency conversion and unit conversion, Google is more advanced.

The following only applies to Google now. Bing may support these in the future.

Limiting search

site:domain <search term>

This will search only in the specified domain. The ’search term’ is optional. If omitted, this will bring all the indexed pages in that domain.

Eg: site:microsoft.com live writer will show results only from microsoft.com

image 

inurl:part of url <search term>

This will show results from the pages which has a similar url.

 image

Bing does not support this.

intitle

image

This will show results from the pages which has similar title

Bing does not support this.

Calculator

You can use google & bing as a calculator. Just type in the expression and search.

For eg: 13 * 12 + (1/2000) image

Other supported operators

% of             percentage of      
^ or **         raise to a power
sqrt              square root of

Currency Conversion

You can use google and bing for currency conversion. The syntax can be any of the following.

<amount> <from_currency_code> to or in<to_currency_code>

Eg: 100 USD to INR, 100 USD in INR etc

<amount> <from_currency_name> to or in<to_currency_name>

Eg: 100 Us dollars to indian rupees

You can also mix currency code & currency name.

For eg: 100 INR in Us dollars

image

But what if you don’t know the currency code or currency name? Google supports another very useful syntax.

<amount> <country_name1> money in <country_name2> money

Eg: 100 british money in indian money

image

Note: Bing does not support this.

Unit conversion

If you want to convert one unit into another you can use Bing or Google.

Eg: 100 Kg in mg or mile in km etc

image

Number system conversions

google supports number system conversions but Bing doesn’t.
Prefix the following to number to convert from one number system to another.

No prefix means decimal (Eg: 100 in hex)
0b = binary ( Eg: 0b100 in decimal)
0x = hex (Eg: 0×100 in binary)
0o = octal (Eg: 0b100 in hex)

0x100 in binary

Weather

You can find out the weather forecast from both Google and Bing using the following query.

weather city_name

Eg: weather trivandrum

image

Searching for a specific file type

You can search for a specific file type by adding the following to the search term.

filetype:<extension>

eg: iphone manual filetype:pdf – It will only show links to matching pdfs.

image

 

Following are some Google only tricks. These do not work in Bing. Probably Microsoft will add these search options to Bing as well.

Find definitions

You can get the definitions for a word or phrase by the following.

define:<word> (If the ‘:’ is omitted it will show only one definition and then list the normal results. If clicked on that result you can see all the definitions).

define:blog

Find local time

You can find the time of a city or country by the following query.

time <city name or country>

Eg: time new delhi, time india, time russia.

If a country has more than one time zone, it will list all.

time us

Movie information

If you want quick information about a movie, use the following

movie: movie_name

Eg: movie: the ring

movie:the ring

Specify a range of numbers (The .. operator)

This is useful if you want to search pages created in a specific period or a product with a specific price range.

Eg: mobile phones $500..$700

range search

Information about a site

If you need a quick information about a site, you can try

info:<domain_name>

Eg: info:apple.com, info:cnet.com

info:apple.com

Cached copy of a site

cache:<domain>

Eg: cache:cnet.com

image

Related Sites

If you want to bring out related sites – similar content or category you can try this.

related:domain

Eg: related:cnet.com

image

Bing Vs Google

It was not my intention to do a comparison when I started writing this post. But after finding a lot of Google only options I am forced to write the following.

Though Bing is a good alternative to Google, it is not a complete replacement. If you want more power over your search, still Google is the best. If you check the above search options, you might have already noted that, Google supports a lot of options that Bing does not support. But, Bing may evolve and will add more features under its hood – but until then, Google is the best choice for me.  For image and video search I might be tempted to use Bing.

Manufacturing costs of the latest iPhone 3GS 16GB is calculated as $178.96 (Around 8,700 Indian Rs). Interestingly, the priciest part is the memory – 24 $. Check the below table for full details (Source: iSuppli).

Source: ISuppli

Price in India – Is it justifiable ?

In India, the older iPhone 3G 16GB is selling for around 36,000 Rs (740 $) which is 4 times higher than the manufacturing cost of the more advanced iPhone 3G S. Airtel or Vodafone didn’t change the price after the release of iPhone 3GS. How can anyone justify this – charging more than 4 times of the manufacturing cost? This is called robbing.

After the release of the iPhone 3GS, more details about the hardware used to power the gadget is spreading in blogosphere.

Some of the interesting facts are,

1. The processor is under clocked. The processor used in iPhone is capable of a clock speed of 833 MHz but it is clocked down to 600 MHz.

2. It can record videos in 720P (1280×720) HD resolution. But Apple decided to limit it to VGA (640×480).

The only assumption is, Apple wanted to save some battery power. But imagine, if Apple decided to include a better battery, what a great gadget it could’ve been. HD Video recording plus one of the best processor in a mobile device. The only hope is that, a later software upgrade may enable these features.

You can see the full tear apart video below.

Source: Wired, Fast Company

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About me & this blog

Hello! my name is Hafees. Living in Kerala, India. I've been working as a web developer for almost 4 years. At present, I am working in Flip Media, the leading independent interactive media agency in the Middle East.

Through this blog, I will write about technologies, softwares, computers, gadgets and anything that fascinates me.

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