A Service Called “Vudu” Competes With Apple TV

I told you that IPTV was coming… and it is getting hotter and hotter! Now a service is competing with Apple TV for viewers.

Vudu drops its price to compete with Apple TV

“High-definition on-demand service Vudu has announced it is slashing its price for its console by 25 percent, perhaps in response to Apple TV’s having replenished its own value proposition. In the short few months it has been available, Vudu has tried numerous offers in an effort to eke out a measurable stake in the video on-demand market: First, it offered $50 of free movies with purchase, then it announced a tie-in with Sharp’s Aquos HDTV line. Now, it’s taking a cue from HD DVD by instituting a severe price drop. By pulling the unit down to a $295 price point and offering $100 movie credit to those who purchased it within the last 30 days, Vudu is now on par price-wise with competing service Apple TV, which retails for $229 for its 40 GB model. Many are predicting that the high-def disc format war will end when streaming HD becomes affordable enough to be adopted by the majority. A price war between Vudu and Apple TV may be the first step away from the seemingly interminable Blu-ray vs. HD DVD fight.”

Geek Software of the Week: WinVi

WinVi
Have you ever used the vi editor in Linux or Unix? Need some practice with the editor in Windows so you won’t be quite as lost when you have to use vi? Well, now you can!

WinVi Editor

“This editor is especially useful for friends of the Vi editor, who do not want to give up the little conveniences offered by Windows. Many people think the advantages of WinVi suggest a turn to this editor.

This is a small selection of the features presented by WinVi:

* compatibility with Windows Notepad was my main goal
* nevertheless, it ought to be highly compatible with Vi
* a hexadecimal edit mode is available for editing binary files
* speedy program start because it is avoiding use of DLLs, MFC, etc.
* large files upto 2 gigabyte editable
* freely selectable background bitmap
* any font (variable spacing, TrueType, etc.)
* simple and clear handling with the availability of a toolbar and a status line
* support for Unix text file format
* fast change of character mappings for DOS files
* automatic word completion in command line (tab key)
* print support with choosable font (double column available)
* multiple language support (English, French, Spanish, or German)
* support of mouse wheels”

The “Obey the Moderator Edition” of Dr. Bill Podcast #120

Dr. Bill Podcast – 120 – (01/19/08)
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CES and Macworld news, Geek Software of the Week: Secunia Personal Software Inspector! Also, Sun buys MySQL!

Geek Software of the Week: Secunia Personal Software Inspector

Secunia Personal Software Inspector

This week’s GSoTW is very cool! Secunia Personal Software Inspector keeps track of all your installed software and makes sure that you have the latest, greatest versions installed, which is safer from a security point of view! Very nice!

“The Secunia PSI is an invaluable tool for you to use when assessing the security patch state of software installed on your system. It constantly monitors your system for insecure software installations, notifies you when an insecure application is installed, and even provides you with detailed instructions for updating the application when available.”

Secunia Personal Software Inspector

  • The Secunia PSI is available free of charge.
  • Secure your PC. Patch your applications. Be proactive.
  • Scan for Insecure and End-of-Life applications.
  • Track your patch-performance week by week.
  • Direct and easy access to security patches.
  • Detect more than 300,000 unique application versions.

Sun Buys MySQL for 1 BILLION Dollars!

Wow! MySQL is free to download and use… but Sun is paying for the company BIG TIME!

Sun to spend $1B to acquire MySQL, will compete with Oracle, Microsoft

“One of the principal products in the LAMP open source arsenal will become a Sun Microsystems product, possibly by the end of this quarter. When discussing enterprise database installations worldwide, as of today, it will be impossible not to consider Sun Microsystems along with Microsoft and Oracle. This morning, Sun announced it has reached an agreement with MySQL — which by some accounts may have become the producer of the most widely installed database, under everyone’s noses — in a deal expected to be closed as soon as this March. ‘Until now, no platform vendor has assembled all the core elements of a completely open source operating system for the Internet,’ Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz wrote for this blog this morning. ‘No company has been able to deliver a comprehensive alternative to the leading proprietary OS. With this acquisition, we will have done just that: positioned Sun at the center of the Web, as the definitive provider of high performance platforms for the Web economy.'”

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