Aren't you tired of waiting for Vista's first service pack already? I am asking you this because I am sick and tired of all this. Shouldn't updates be simply there when you open up your computer, asking you to check which ones to install, and nothing more? Even more, big service pack shouldn't be needed, in an operating system we're all dreaming to be the perfect one. Well, we don't have such a thing yet, so let's get back to the early-released Windows Vista SP1...


The story is this - yesterday, Microsoft released Vista Service Pack 1 to subscribers of its (paid) TechNet and MSDN services, about two weeks after official news regarding this emerged. Microsoft's Kathy Dixon said "We have posted the SP1 Update release for download through the Top Downloads section", so it's all done.

The subscribers of the two services mentioned above can download the 32-bit version of the SP1, as well as the 64-bit one, and for both of them, they have two choices - full-install DVD image, or stand-alone executable installation package.

These being said, if you're a subscriber to TechNet or MSDN, go for it, and please, get back here and share with the rest of us your impressions, because regular Windows users still have to wait until mid-March...

Some time ago, we started talking about what has become Google Android, in the meantime. Since then, things moved on a lot in the right direction, and now Google just released a new SDK for its open-source mobile platform...


The original SDK became available back in November, and was criticized for its stability and documentation, although a lot of people were pretty happy with it, considering the fact they had a fresh software package on their hands, barely released for the first time into the wild.

Now, Googled took advantage of the World Mobile Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain, to release an updated SDK for Android, labeled M5-rc14. This new release comes with an updated interface, a lot of media codecs, as well as an updated Eclipse plugin.

To make this platform more popular amongst developers, the Open Handset Alliance, lead by Google, launched a $10 million contest for best mobile applications built using Android.

These being said, there isn't much to say, for now. Android-based devices will soon arrive on the market in large numbers, and all I can hope is that software based on this new SDK to be as good as possible (well, for $10 million, they would better bring in some awesome things, or else...), but that's what we'll get to see by the end of the year, I am sure of that.

To be honest, I am as tired as intrigued by this whole Yahoo story. First Microsoft places an unsolicited bid with a value higher than the company's value at that time, then Yahoo's shares start rising high in a very short time, then a lot of rumors started appearing about possible unofficial reasons (and pretty wicked) Microsoft had to start the whole thing, about other companies being interested in Yahoo, such as Apple, and so on. One chapter has been closed for now, because Yahoo rejected Microsoft's bid officially, but what's in store next?


Although nothing is official yet, it seems Yahoo has unofficial talks with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. regarding a possible alliance. This is not something new, because rumors about News Corp. being interested in Yahoo have been heard before, but it's an interesting subject.

According to Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang, "We have redeployed our resources to drive Yahoo's key strategic priorities -- taking important steps to streamline our organization and close down or scale back businesses that don't support these critical growth initiatives.".

Despite Yahoo's declared growth potential, it would be a wise move to see MySpace combined with Yahoo, as rumors go in various media reports centers. Obviously, by combining News Corp's properties with Yahoo, that would lead to a part of Yahoo, maybe even 25 to 30 percent, being the price for this operation.

Well, hopefully everything works well, and maybe they'll also call back at least some of those 1,000 people being fired these days (not that I would be worried about their chances of finding new jobs, with Yahoo on their CVs...). Be sure we'll keep you in touch with this matter, all there is to do is check back here from time to time!

Do you hate cables? I am asking you this because I do, and if I can get a wireless device that works at least as good as the wired one it's going to replace, then I won't think twice before making the switch. Unfortunately, wireless networking is not an option for me, but one of these days I had the pleasant surprise of discovering a new wireless printer(also add "scanner" and "copier" to that) from Lexmark, namely the X4850, so now I can simply move it around as much as I need, without getting any headache in the process!


The Lexmark X4850 can be easily shared wirelessly among multiple computers, and can also print Microsoft Office documents or PDFs right from USB flash drives. It comes with a pretty good software package from Lexmark, but why use it, when you can easily take advantage of other programs(I currently have another Lexmark model, and I know what I am saying)?

First, when scanning, you can easily import images right into IrfanView(one of my favorites), as well as into professional applications, such as Adobe Photoshop, but if you need text recognition facilities, then Abby FineReader is probably one of the best choices available.

Next, when it comes to printing, you can use virtually any program you can think of, as well as X4850's capability of printing right from USB drives and, finally, if you need to copy, then I suggest you to use the printer's software application, which is pretty good, after all, as I was saying earlier.

With two side-printing, a built-in 2.3-inch color LCD display, and full Windows/Mac OS X support, the Lexmark X4850 is a very interesting solution for a very good price. If you don't believe me, feel free to check this printer reviews site, and see for yourselves that this is one of the best choices for wireless printing at home and, maybe, even in small offices...

When it comes to holiday movies, you should either get a HD camera, or nothing. Well, some people have older models, and since "older" could mean less than a year, as well as a 10-years camcorder that you won't ever throw away ("oldies, but goldies", you know...), sometimes you need to get a little help from your computer. After all, there's nothing better than giving small retouches to your holiday movies and shots, to make them better, don't you think?


It is interesting to see that a company from Graz, Austria, entitled a computer program M.I.R., just like the Russian space station launched back in 1986... but let's get to the M.I.R. software now, shall we? Available for both Windows and Mac OS X, M.I.R. 1.3 is an application able to provide "a powerful solution for manual dust busting and any other kind of single image defects retouching issues".

To make a longer story short, it's enough to say that M.I.R. can fix dust spots, bad splices, tears and the like with only a few clicks, and this program's capabilities go as far as allowing you to work with 2K and even higher resolutions, with the help of the built-in smart caching and micro-loop technologies.

Basically, this software is about click & fix movie processing, but you can also work on individual frames, and let's not forget about one of those old problems that many people had at least once - you go somewhere, shoot some footage, then you want to print some pictures, but the movie quality is simply disappointing. I've been there too, and apart from jumping between a bunch of printer reviews, trying to find the best one for my purpose, I had no solution, because fixing the footage wasn't quite an option. From now on...I know what to use, because M.I.R. is the perfect tool for occasional users like me, but you can also employ it for professional tasks.

At last, you should know that the demo versions have 42MB (Windows), respectively 39MB (Mac OS X), and to find out more about the pricing, you should contact the producer, using this page. Good luck!