The most advanced TV Guide app for Android is now available in beta. With the IceTV app, not only can you view a complete TV Guide for digital free-to-air TV with a quick tap, you can also take advantage of IceTV’s Interactive features. Including the ability to add shows as ‘Favourites’, create your own personalised TV Guide for the week ahead with “My Week’, and if you have a media center at home, even set all your favourite shows to automatically record remotely.

To be one of the first to get your hands on this revolutionary TV Guide app for Android™ and help IceTV with their initial beta testing, simply click here or on the following image.

In order to join the beta testing and use the IceTV app, you will need to be an IceTV member. You can join IceTV for free with a 14-day free trial and then decide which membership option is right for you. The interactive features available via the IceTV app will vary, depending on your IceTV membership.

Existing IceTV members just need to click here to download the app. Then log-in when launching the app on their Android phone for the first time.

If you have an Android phone and a media center setup at home, you will love the IceTV app and IceTV’s interactive features and the advanced series recording and keyword recording capabilities. Never miss a show again! Set all your favourite shows to record automatically, from wherever you are.

Don’t have a Media Center or a cheap TV tuner for your PC? IceTV have some fantastic deals on compatible TV tuners starting from just $49, including free delivery and free IceTV memberships (valued up to $33). Visit the Cool Room or checkout all the PC solutions they have available via their Online Store.

Already have a Media Center? Get $50 Off IceTV! To celebrate the beta launch of the IceTV app for Android™, IceTV are also giving you the chance to get $50 off a yearly membership. Simply enter the discount code “IceTVonAndroid” when purchasing a 12 month membership in the discount code field provided and pay $49 instead of $99. (Discount code will expire at midnight, Tuesday 14th September 2010).

The products, which are scheduled for public beta release in August, were unveiled at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC, on Monday. The update — code-named Small Business Server (SBS) 7 — is a straightforward revamp of its enterprise suite of Exchange Server, SharePoint and other server tools. The small office suite — code-named Aurora — is a new product that builds on the same Windows Server 2008 R2 core as the next release of Windows Home Server.
Aurora SMB image

Aurora is aimed at businesses with five to 20 users and “ad-hoc IT budgets”, Microsoft said. “It’s a super-simple server for the very small business,” Windows Server senior product manager Michael Leworthy said at a press briefing.

Aurora handles networking and file services locally with minimal management requirements, and it has tools for connecting to cloud-hosted services like email. Remote access tools give users access to files when on the road, as well as allowing IT staff to see if PCs have been backed up.

Like the upcoming Vail release of Windows Home Server, Aurora will use Microsoft’s drive-pooling file system, which treats all the drives in a server as a single-storage fabric. Aurora will also support content duplication by default, with all files stored on multiple disks. Leworthy described it as “normalising all my drives, so I can add as many as I want, and it’ll look and feel like one big drive”. Users will be able to use external drives for backup and to extend the storage pool.

Aurora will use a simplified dashboard for all management tasks, with a Users view for handling all Active Directory operations. The same dashboard will also cover identity federation with cloud services from Microsoft and partners, and will display network health diagnostics for the server and for desktop PCs.

Microsoft believes that most users will work using Aurora’s web-based self-service features on PCs using client software that automatically connects to the Active Directory. Leworthy noted the software also supports Macs, with the client software bundled for download from Aurora.

In addition, Microsoft is starting to integrate cloud services with on-premises hardware resource in the new server software. Leworthy described Aurora as a “cross-premises solution that not only has the things we know and love around SBS, but also with hybrid hooks into cloud services”.

Those cloud services will be provided by Microsoft and third parties, using Aurora to manage user identities when connecting to services. Users will not need to manage passwords and accounts on their PCs, and they will be able to use any service that accepts federated Active Directory connections.

In contrast to Aurora, the SBS 7 update is meant for larger businesses with 75 users. Like the current SBS product line, it will come in Standard and Premium editions. However, it will not have the same drive-pooling or cloud service features as Aurora, instead continuing to use Microsoft standard NTFS file system and local applications, with Exchange 2010 for email and Windows SharePoint Foundation for collaboration.

source: www.zdnet.com

MythTV 0.23 now features a beta of the MythNetvision internet video plug-in, newly re-synced FFmpeg libraries and the addition of a new themes, Arclight and Childish. Other changes include a 15% faster software H.264 decoder, fixes for analogue scanning and rewritten audio code, including simplified configuration, multi-channel up-mixing and automatic re-sampling. The developers say that they are now working towards MythTV 0.24, which should include a new MythUI on-screen display (OSD), Blu-ray disc and disc structure playback, a nearly completely rewritten audio subsystem capable of handling 24 and 32 bit audio as well as up to 8 channels of output, and several other performance improvements.

More details about the release, including a full list of changes and updates, can be found in the release announcement and release ntoes on the MythTV wiki. MythTV 0.23 is available to download from the project’s FTP site. MythTV is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

For anybody new to the DVR scene, full details of all MythTV’s features can be seen here.

Discuss this article?

In KB 981770, Microsoft states: “You frequently experience a music library issue when you access the music library in Windows Media Center or in Windows Media Center Extender. You access a music library in Windows Media Center or in Windows Media Center Extender on a computer that is running Windows 7. However, it takes a long time before the music library becomes available.

Hotfix page || Download Hotfix

Discuss this article

At this point there haven’t been any announcements from manufacturers leveraging these new features, however in the press release Microsoft is certainly bolstering the broadcast TV and other media features in a set-top box.  AOpen who produces a range of small-form-factor PCs appears to be the only manufacturer mentioned by name.

Microsoft Press Release

Microsoft Delivers Windows 7 Technologies to Device Manufacturers With Release of Windows Embedded Standard 7

Newly unveiled Windows Media Center feature helps OEMs deliver differentiated connected media, TV and set-top box device experiences with rich user interface capabilities and integrated multimedia.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – April 27, 2010 – Today during an industry address at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) Silicon Valley, Microsoft Corp. announced the release to manufacturing of Windows Embedded Standard 7, delivering the power, familiarity and reliability of the Windows 7 operating system in a highly customizable and componentized form. OEMs can leverage Windows Embedded Standard 7 to create differentiated experiences and enhanced connectivity with Windows-based PCs, servers and online services on specialized devices, such as thin clients, digital signage and industrial controls for the enterprise, as well as set-top boxes (STBs), connected media devices (CMDs), and TVs for consumers.

“With the release of Windows Embedded Standard 7, Microsoft has furthered its commitment to the integration of Windows 7 technologies in the specialized consumer and enterprise device markets by providing OEMs with the latest innovative technologies to differentiate through rich, immersive user experiences and streamlined connectivity,” said Kevin Dallas, general manager of the Windows Embedded Business Unit at Microsoft. “The addition of the Windows Media Center feature in Windows Embedded Standard 7 is driving the set-top box, connected media device and TV markets by providing OEMs with opportunities to develop uniquely branded experiences and service providers with capabilities to explore additional revenue streams with unique content through a centralized media hub in the home.”

Announced in September 2009 during the community technology preview, Windows Embedded Standard 7 helps OEMs build enterprise devices with seamless connectivity, allowing companies to extend their existing investments in management and network infrastructure. The platform also features the latest Windows technology innovations to drive rich, immersive user experiences, including multigesture touch interfaces and context-aware applications with Windows Touch, and the ability to develop “green” solutions with smart power management APIs.

In addition to support for enterprise devices, STBs, CMDs and TVs built on Windows Embedded Standard 7 and leveraging the Windows Media Center feature will enable consumers to merge multimedia content from disparate sources, including Internet and broadcast TV, social media portals, and personal libraries of photos, music and videos, into a centralized home entertainment hub. Information can easily be shared across Windows-based PCs and individual devices.

Industry analyst firm Strategy Analytics estimates the potential market opportunity for connected STBs, digital video recorders, digital media adapters and flat-panel TVs to experience annual growth of more than 50 percent through 2014, expanding from 40 million units to more than 360 million. OEMs can take advantage of this opportunity by coupling Windows Media Center and additional features within Windows Embedded Standard 7, such as Windows Defender and Parental Controls for heightened security, to create differentiated consumer entertainment devices with integrated user experiences. This includes leveraging the customizable, extensible platform in Windows Media Center for content, services and applications, as well as powerful backend support for metadata, TV listings and content providers.

For service providers, including cable, telecommunications and satellite operators, STBs and other consumer entertainment devices with Windows Media Center provide opportunities for over-the-top content, incremental services and applications to be delivered directly to consumers, offering opportunities to build new revenue streams. Service providers also can leverage the flexible x86 architecture of Windows Embedded Standard 7, Windows Presentation Foundation, Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player 12 and the latest desktop innovations from Microsoft to develop customized user experiences, while ensuring integrated content from the Internet, broadcast TV and personal media through HomeGroup.

Windows Embedded partners and customers already have plans to begin shipping products and solutions for a variety of specialized devices built on the Windows Embedded Standard 7 platform. Examples include AOpen Inc., C-nario, DT Research Inc., Micro Industries Inc. and YCD Multimedia for digital signage; HP and Wyse Technology for thin clients; and Heber Ltd. for industrial control systems.

Steve Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer Division at Microsoft, shared more insight around recent OEM and partner activities with Windows Embedded Standard 7, the upcoming availability of Microsoft and Intel Corporation’s digital signage platform during Screen Media Expo Europe 2010 in London, and Microsoft’s commitment to Windows 7-based technologies for specialized devices, in his blog.

Discuss this article

The attacker(s) have downloaded Greenlife’s PDF document, and changed it to include malicious code. They then attempted to email the malicious PDF to a user in a major international organisation that brings together governments from all over the world. We should emphasise that downloading the PDF from the Greenlife website is perfectly safe at the time of writing this blog.

The attack makes use of a recently patched vulnerability in Adobe Reader – CVE-2010-0188. The patch for this critical rated vulnerability was released by Adobe on February 16, 2010. Since then we have observed a large number of targeted attacks attempting to exploit this vulnerability. Proof-of-Concept exploit code is available in the Internet which is contributing to the large number of observed attacks. The exploit makes use of a flaw in the TIFF file parsing in Adobe Reader. In particular, a stack overflow is caused by inserting a TIFF image into the PDF with a specially crafted “DotRange” tag.

Anticipating the logical increase of FIFA World Cup 2010 themed malicious activity, last month, the company released some stats showing the dynamics of malicious sites and spam campaigns using the World Cup as theme.

With the event scheduled to take place in June, 2010, cybercriminals will be the first to take advantage of the anticipated traffic flow, coming from gullible bargain seekers (Survey: Millions of users open spam emails, click on links).

According to recent reports, malicious PDF files not only comprised 80 percent of all exploits for 2009, but also, represent the preferred infection vector for targeted attacks in general, for the first time ever surpassing the use of malicious Microsoft Office files.

Users should not just update their Adobe products, or perhaps even consider an alternative PDF reader, if truly paranoid. They should take a comprehensive approach when dealing with all the 3rd party applications and browser plugins, currently installed.

source: www.zdnet.com

Media Release:

PC and video game enthusiasts, the games industry and everyday Australians overwhelmingly support a change in PC and Video game ratings. 91% of Australian adults, whether from game or no-game households, whether gamers themselves or non-gamers, think that Australia should have an R18+ for games just as it does in other media. (Source: Interactive Australia 2009, Bond University). In just three weeks, retailer GAME has spearheaded a petition calling for an R18+ classification to be created and has attracted over 41 300 signatures.

GAME will present a sample of these petitions to every Attorney-General and Shadow Attorney-General before all various State Attorneys-General meet at the next STANDING COMMITTEE OF ATTORNEYS-GENERAL MEETING ON THE 29TH APRIL IN MELBOURNE. We will also present a sample of these petitions to the Federal Home Affairs Minister, Brendon O’Connor. GAME will continue collecting petitions in store until 15th April.

“Unanimous support is required by all State Attorneys-General to change classification system. And to date, neither the gaming industry nor the media have been able to ascertain confirmation that any preliminary results from the public’s submission to the R18+ PC and video games discussion paper will be presented to State Government Attorneys-General at the next SCAG meeting in late April.” said Rob Lukic, GAME Managing Director. “We all recognise the significant difference in maturity levels between an adult and an adolescent. It is time for the government to provide the equivalent “distance” in the classification system, the “distance” being a clear distinction between an 18 year old and a 15 year old.

This is plain to see for all parents and only with this change will parents have a clear view of what is suitable for their children. Some games are meant for everyone and some are only meant for adults”, said Lukic. “We will continue this campaign for as long as it takes. We will persist. We’re in it for the long haul. We want a change in the PC and Video game classification”, said Kulen.

Background

Three weeks ago submissions closed for The Commonwealth Government’s discussion paper on the pros and cons of creating an R 18+ classification for computer games. Three weeks ago leading national Video and PC games retailer, GAME, along with gaming news website, Pal Gaming Network (PALGN) launched e a campaign to keep the pressure on governments to support an R 18+ game classification.

Why keep the pressure on State Governments? For games classification legislation to change the unanimous support of all State Attorneys-General is required. Moreover, if one state attorney-general disagrees, legislation remains unchanged.

Censorship Ministers have considered the issue of an adult classification for computer games on several occasions, but this time, Rob Lukic, GAME Managing Director, is calling on governments
around the country to help support parents in understanding which games are suitable for over 18s and which games aren’t.

“GAME and PALGN want to ensure that children are not exposed to Video and PC games with mature content, and they both firmly believe that the R18+ classification provides a clear
message,” said Lukic. “Some games are played by everyone, but some are only meant for those over 18,” explained
Lukic.

Games appealing to more families, more than ever before “Australia currently does not have an adult video game classification. Games that are only suitable for adults are either pushed into the MA15+ category or simply banned altogether.” “GAME and PALGN believe that an R18+ classification will allow adults the freedom of choice to play games with mature content, and help to ensure that these games are not rated MA15+ under any circumstances.”

“The public should be educated to ensure that children are not exposed to any video games with mature content, and the R18+ classification provides a clear message that this is the case. It will allow our (GAME) stores to offer clear advice to all customers, on the suitability of the content for the end user. An R18+ Classified product is clearly intended for Adults, based upon its content, and would not be suitable for anyone under that age.”

“Family gaming is now the largest segment of the video games market, and it is important for all video games to provide a clear message with regards to their content – Some games are played by everyone, but some are only meant for those over 18,” added Lukic.

PALGN, Australia’s most trusted independent source of video and PC game news, has partnered with GAME to keep the PC and Video game classification debate alive. Roland Kulen, Director of PALGN says, “It is not over until the games classification legislation is changed – and change doesn’t come easy. We’re in this for the long haul.”

Kulen added, “We spoke to a number of gaming retailers last year presenting the idea of joining forces on a petition to urge governments to create an R 18+ game classification. GAME really understood our concern that the current gaming classification system, which doesn’t have an R18+ rating, leaves Australian families without a specific guide as to which games are suitable for under 18s and which aren’t.

GAME shared our vision that creating an R 18+ rating is not about the right to view or sell over R18+ games, but rather about helping families identify those games which are not suitable for under 18s.”

As just about every Aussie family knows games are now well and truly mainstream family entertainment and repeated studies show that gaming has become integral to family connections with parents and children playing together and siblings of all ages playing together.

In a recent GAME focus group, a female divorcee wanted to make sure her next male companion and his kids were adept at using the same console platform as she and her daughter, because it meant they could all play games together.
The gaming industry and gamers have created a website to harness the enormous support for an R18+ game classification – www.EveryonePlays.org.au.

The EveryonePlays website was built as a result of a recent survey on PALGN revealing that almost half of core gamers, 97% of whom are male, are gaming with family members. The survey revealed 42% of core gamers are gaming with either their parents, siblings or other family members.

“These are powerful statistics. The EveryonePlays name speaks to all Australians representing both core gamers and parents with children, which means our message will appeal to mainstream and social media audiences”, says Kulen.

“Overwhelmingly the industry and the public support an R 18+ Classification rating,” concluded Lukic. And to ensure that public support for an R 18+ classification remains top of mind for censorship Ministers around the country, GAME has launched a petition in all 120 GAME stores nationwide, and on EveryonePlays.org.au.”

The petition will be open for a total of six weeks.

Links:
www.game.com.au
www.everyoneplays.org.au

GAME Australia operate 120 retail stores nationwide and an ecommerce site game.com.au. Our specialist proposition is the retail of video and PC games, consoles and related accessories. GAME offers customer friendly policies, unrivalled product knowledge, a pre-owned programme, pre-orders, wide range of software and accessories, choice and value deals, constant promotions, offers and a Reward Card programme. For further details see our website www.game.com.au

Roland Kulen is a director of the games website PAL Gaming Network – PALGN. PALGN writes news, reviews and articles on PC and video games. Kulen is the architect of the GAME / EveryonePlays R18+ PC and Video imitative that includes the support of Robert Lukic, Managing Director, GAME, 120 GAME stores across Australia, operation and marketing teams, a dedicated website (www.everyoneplays.org.au), social media, in-store communications materials and offline / online PR. To be effective, this is an integrated multi media campaign.

As a parent, with two children (Mackenzie 16 and Elise 10), games are a big part of how his children socially interact with each other. “I feel comfortable sending my kids to an MA15+ movie; but when it comes to my kids playing games together, I’m quite unsure which game is right for them.”

“I want to put some “distance” between an MA15+ rating for games and the next age-appropriate game because the older we get the more worldly we become. An R18+ rating helps me understand this.

Media Contacts:
Anne Lawler / AKL Public Relations / 0419 018 834 / anne@aklpr.com.au
Karla Boge / GAME / 02 8998 4567 / karla.boge@game.com.au
Roland Kulen / PALGN / 0414 429 986/ roland.kulen@palgn.com.au

As a result, some applications with bugs that are not exploitable when running in a not-virtualized operating system are rendered exploitable if running within a guest OS in Virtual PC, according to Ivan Arce, chief technology officer at Core.

The flaw, discovered by Core exploit writer Nicolas Economou, exists in the memory management of the Virtual Machine Monitor. It causes memory pages mapped above the 2GB level to be accessed with read or read/write privileges by user-space programs running in a Guest operating system. Affected software includes Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, Virtual PC 2007 SP1, Windows Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005. On Windows 7 the XP Mode feature is also affected by the vulnerability.

In particular, a vulnerable application running in Windows XP Mode on Windows 7 may be exploitable in a virtual environment, while the same application running directly on a Windows XP SP3 operating system is not.

NB. Microsoft Hyper-V technology is not affected by this problem.

read the rest of this story…

Microsoft are now explaining that the Windows Mobile 6.5 phones won’t be compatible with the advanced Window 7 series operating system – and vice versa. The apps that designed for Windows Mobile 6.5 – a whole 20,000+ apps in the Windows Marketplace – won’t be able to run on the Windows 7 Series.

The new 7 Series OS in its adaptation has been changed from a business-orientated operating system to a consumer-friendly phone focused on media and gaming, but the fact that Windows Phone 7 seems pretty much incapable of being compatible with anything is likely to be a significant hindrance to its success.

Read more about this strange decision here

Note
I think the user ’surur’ summed it up wll with his comment on Charlie’s blog:

“No sane company would commit to Windows Mobile, and every company that is currently invested in it must now be desperately looking for an exit strategy.   By dropping backward compatibility you have basically just killed Windows Mobile, and since your new platform will be very unfriendly to enterprise and is years behind developer and consumer adoption, you have basically killed Microsoft’s mobility ambitions.“

Media Release:

On the 28th February, submissions closed for The Commonwealth Government’s discussion paper on the pros and cons of creating an R 18+ classification for computer games.

Keeping the Pressure on ALL State Governments

Tomorrow leading national Video and PC games retailer, GAME, along with gaming news website, Pal Gaming Network (PALGN) will also launch a campaign to keep the pressure on governments to support an R 18+ game classification.

Why keep the pressure on State Governments? 

For games classification legislation to change the unanimous support of all state attorney-generals is required.  Moreover, if one state attorney-general disagrees, legislation remains unchanged.

Censorship Ministers have considered the issue of an adult classification for computer games on several occasions, but this time, Rob Lukic, GAME Managing Director, is calling on governments around the country to help support parents in understanding which games are suitable for over 18s and which games aren’t.

“GAME and PALGN want to ensure that children are not exposed to Video and PC games with mature content, and they both firmly believe that the R18+ classification provides a clear message,” said Lukic.

“Some games are played by everyone, but some are only meant for those over 18,” explained Lukic.

Games appealing to more families, more than ever

“Australia currently does not have an adult video game classification. Games that are only suitable for adults are either pushed into the MA15+ category or simply banned altogether.”

“GAME and PALGN believe that an R18+ classification will allow adults the freedom of choice to play games with mature content, and help to ensure that these games are not rated MA15+ under any circumstances.”

“The public should be educated to ensure that children are not exposed to any video games with mature content, and the R18+ classification provides a clear message that this is the case.”

“It will allow our (GAME) stores to offer clear advice to all customers, on the suitability of the content for the end user. An R18+ Classified product is clearly intended for Adults, based upon its content, and would not be suitable for anyone under that age.”

“Family gaming is now the largest segment of the video games market, and it is important for all video games to provide a clear message with regards to their content -  Some games are played by everyone, but some are only meant for those over 18,” added Lukic.

PALGN, Australia’s most trusted independent source of video and PC game news, has partnered with GAME to keep the PC and Video game classification debate alive.   Roland Kulen, Director of PALGN says, “It is not over until the games classification legislation is changed – and change doesn’t come easy.  We’re in this for the long haul.”

Kulen added, “We spoke to a number of gaming retailers last year presenting the idea of joining forces on a petition to urge governments to create an R 18+ game classification. GAME really understood our concern that the current gaming classification system, which doesn’t have an R 18+ rating, leaves Australian families without a specific guide as to which games are suitable for under 18s and which aren’t.

GAME shared our vision that creating an R 18+ rating is not about the right to view or sell over R 18+ games, but rather about helping families identify those games which are not suitable for under 18s.”

As just about every Aussie family knows games are now well and truly mainstream family entertainment and repeated studies show that gaming has become integral to family connections with parents and children playing together and siblings of all ages playing together.

In a recent GAME focus group, a female divorcee wanted to make sure her next male companion and his kids were adept at using the same console platform as she and her daughter, because it meant they could all play games together.

The gaming industry and gamers have created a website to harness the enormous support for an R18+ game classification – www.EveryonePlays.org.au.

The EveryonePlays website was built as a result of a recent survey on PALGN revealing that almost half of core gamers, 97% of whom are male, are gaming with family members.   The survey revealed 42% of core gamers are gaming with either their parents, siblings or other family members. 

“These are powerful statistics.  The EveryonePlays name speaks to all Australians representing both core gamers and parents with children, which means our message will appeal to mainstream and social media audiences”, says Kulen

 “Overwhelmingly the industry and the public support an R 18+ Classification rating,” concluded Lukic.  And to ensure that public support for an R 18+ classification remains top of mind for censorship Ministers around the country, GAME is launching a petition in all 120 GAME stores nationwide, and on EveryonePlays.org.au. “

The petition will be open for six weeks.

More information: www.everyoneplays.org.au
Locate & sign petition:    www.game.com.au