May 16 - 12:50am EDT   Microsoft tonight revealed that the highly talked-about OLPC XO – a laptop initially designed for students in developing countries – will ship with Windows XP as an option in August or September, with some countries to get the low-cost ultraportable sooner. Engadget expects that in the future, the operating system will most likely replace the current Sugar front-end offered in the XO, but OLPC has not explicitly said anything to support the theory. The build is allegedly the same as that of the Eee PC, with custom drivers for the XO hardware. [full story]

May 13 - 11:50pm EDT   Apple has premiered two more TV ads in its "Get a Mac" series, pitting Apple computers against those with Windows. The first of these, "Pep Rally," features a squad of cheerleaders, and positions Macs as having "record sales," and being the most popular computers on college campuses. The second ad is entitled "Group," and continues the arc of Windows Vista suffering from instability issues, whereas Macs are positioned as reliable and less crash-prone. Update: Apple has posted yet another ad titled "Sad Song," in which PC, dressed as a cowboy, laments the loss of users by singing the Vista Blues: "So many users are leaving me and ain't coming back: Vista's got issues...they're ... [full story]

May 12 - 1:55pm EDT   Artificial limitations are being imposed on some forthcoming low-cost Windows PCs, according to documents Microsoft has sent to PC builders. Although the company plans to offer a sharp discount to ultra-low cost PC (ULPC) builders on the price of Windows XP Home, in order to foster the adoption of Windows over Linux on devices like the Eee PC, vendors are being asked to limit screen size to 10.2 inches, and hard drives to 80GB. Furthermore, no qualifying ULPCs with XP will be allowed to have a touchscreen, more than 1GB of RAM, or anything better than a single-core processor running at 1GHz, except for certain chips like Intel's Atom N270. [full story]

May 9 - 8:15pm EDT   Since switching over to Intel processors, the Mac is now capable of running practically any operating system. The simplest option is to use Boot Camp to create a dual-boot system that can run Mac OS X or Windows XP/Vista. A more flexible solution is to run Mac OS X and one or more additional operating systems at the same time. To run another operating system within Mac OS X, you’ll need a special virtualization program like Fusion. Although the program has been available for over a year, the company has recently released a version 2 beta to give you a glimpse of its upcoming features. [full story]

May 9 - 1:50pm EDT   Microsoft today said it would appeal the nearly $1.4 billion fine levied against it by the European Commission earlier this year. The company has not explained its specific motivations behind the objection, but says the move is an effort to "seek clarity" from the Commission's court and that Microsoft's opposition with the appeal is to the fine itself rather than the ultimate verdict. [full story]

May 9 - 10:05am EDT   Parallels has released a new update to Desktop, its side-by-side OS virtualization app. The software is now at build 5600, and adds "full support" for the latest editions of Microsoft Windows; Vista is now handled up to Service Pack 1, while XP compatibility extends to Service Pack 3. Parallels has also improved compatibility with the MacBook Air. [full story]

May 8 - 11:45am EDT   Offering its own take on low-cost desktops, MSI has released the Titan, its early answer to ASUS' E-DT system. At 9.4 by 7.3 inches, the system is larger than some of its planned rivals but also includes a 250GB hard drive in its frame; size is kept down by using a 2GHz Via C7-M mobile processor at the Titan's heart and by using a notebook-sized DVD burner and hard disk. These also keep it quiet and greener than full desktops, MSI says. The system is also software-indepedent: rather than ship with Linux or Windows, the Titan comes as-is for users comfortable installing their own choice of operating system. [full story]

May 8 - 10:05am EDT   Microsoft chair Bill Gates today noted at a European news conference that sales of Windows Vista have reached 140 million copies worldwide. The update is the first since the company crossed the 100 million mark at the start of the new year, although Gates doesn't clarify when the company reached the newer threshold. This demonstrates that Vista continues to sell at a "very rapid" rate, according to the Microsoft co-founder. [full story]

May 6 - 7:00pm EDT   Microsoft on Tuesday resumed the availability of Windows XP SP3 at its website. Last week, the company pulled the update from its public servers due to some compatibility issues; it delayed the general release of Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), due to a last-minute discovered incompatibility. The update, released to manufacturing two weeks ago, was expected to be generally available on April 29th and later in early Summer as an automatic update. Microsoft said it is now offering "hotfix" for the compatibility issues with its Dynamics Retail Management System, which it says should be installed first. [full story]

May 2 - 12:10pm EDT   Apple's Safari browser recently tripled its number of Windows users in the span of a month, according to the Internet analytics group Net Applications. Although the earlier Safari 3.0 beta never achieved Windows marketshare over 0.07 percent, even with the help of a recognizable brand and several months of availability, this figure grew to 0.21 percent during the months of March and April, following the release of the official Safari 3.1 client. [full story]

April 30 - 1:05am EDT   Microsoft on Tuesday announced a delay in the expected general release of Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), due to a newly found discovered incompatibility. The company said that it had uncovered a compatibility issue between its retail chain management solution for small and midsize customers, Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS), and the updates (both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1). The update was released to manufacturing last week and was expected to be generally available on April 29th and later in early Summer as an automatic update; however, Microsoft did not provide any details on revised public release date (which had ... [full story]

April 24 - 6:05pm EDT   Apple today released a variety of updates for Boot Camp users, as well as a Common Criteria Tools security verification utility. The Boot Camp updates are required to install Service Pack 3 in Windows XP, Windows Vista 32-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit versions on an Intel Mac. Little is mentioned regarding the updates themselves, but they are presumably designed to ensure compatibility with the updated versions of Windows. [full story]

April 24 - 2:05pm EDT   VMWare Fusion 1.1.2 has been released, adding enhanced support for the MacBook Air. The new release also enables Time Machine backup of virtual machines, adds support for Windows XP SP3 Boot Camp partitions, and is now available in Simplified Chinese. In addition, VMWare can now properly disconnect USB devices connected to the virtual machine when shut down, making the USB devices available again to the Mac. It also addresses problem with wireless bridged networking in some cases not being able to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server. [full story]

April 23 - 9:00am EDT   Microsoft today unveiled what it says is a solution to keeping information in sync across not just multiple computers, but handhelds as well. Live Mesh is a platform similar to but expanded on Apple's .Mac that creates both a 5GB personal storage space and also tracks all the associated devices. Users can upload files, folders, and sometimes programs to their Mesh either as shared or private content that can be swapped between devices; actions performed in the Mesh are in turn pushed as news items that can be shared with others. As with an RSS feed, users can let friends know when vacation photos are posted or collaborate on projects, including through live chat with ... [full story]

April 21 - 8:10pm EDT   Microsoft has announced that Windows XP SP3 has been released to manufacturing and will be released for download on April 29th as a standalone installer. It will be available in early Summer as an automatic update. Windows XP SP3 includes all previously released Windows XP updates, including security updates and hotfixes, and select out-of-band releases. Microsoft says it's not adding significant Windows Vista functionality to Windows XP through SP3. However, SP3 does include Network Access Protection (NAP) to" help organizations that use Windows XP to take advantage of new features in the Windows Server 2008 operating system." [full story]