Google is trying for years to position Google as no.1 browser in the world. It succeeded well, but they want to be even better. That's why they are organizing Pwnium 2. Total prize fund is U$D 2,000,000 and first prize is 60K, appropriately named “Full Chrome exploit”.

FinalWire Ltd. announced the new versions of their AIDA64 software. Extreme Edition v2.30 is diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users. AIDA64 Business Edition 2.30 is an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises.

 Gabe Newell, the co-founder and managing director of Valve, the videogame development and online distribution company, made a rare appearance at Casual Connect, an annual videogame conference in Seattle. Newell, who spent 13 years at Microsoft working on Windows, is not well-known outside of the videogame industry, but the company he has built in Bellevue, Wash., cannot be overlooked. Valve is not only a game developer, producing megahits like Portal 2, it owns and operates Steam, which is the largest consumer-focused digital games distribution platform in the industry.

Official release was on July 25^th. As Apple says, worlds most advanced desktop OS got better. And it’s just $19.99. There are 200+ new features, for the complete list please click here. This release should be stable, especially as Beta releases in last six months have been rock solid. First adopters have confirmed this, but only time will tell. OSX is still in transition from desktop OS world to iOS, so don't expect to many canges.

List of supported hardware looks something like this:

• iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
• MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
• MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
• Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

If you want to upgrade, you have to be running Lion (10.7.x). If you are (still) running Snow Leopard (10.6.x), first update to the latest version of OS X Snow Leopard before purchasing OS X Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store. Click the Apple icon and choose Software Update to install Snow Leopard v10.6.8, the latest version. Downloading Mountain Lion means 4.4 GB of traffic, which is not an issue these days.  

Microsoft has announced that Windows 8 will release in October, with enterprise customers and hardware partners getting access as early as August. The highly-anticipated next version of Windows will be available to manufacturers in the first week of August and early August for enterprise customers with Software Assurance benefits. General availability will be by the end of October, which means Windows 8 and Windows RT computers will be available to buy starting in October. Upgrades to Windows 8 will also be available then. The Windows 8 commerce platform will be turned on at the beginning of August so developers can begin earning money for their apps. This news suggests Microsoft is well on track for a major Christmas blitz of Windows 8 products, which should include desktop PCs, laptops, and tablets. A whopping 231 markets across the world will sell Windows 8, with 109 different languages available. Microsoft also announced that Windows 7 has passed the 630 million licences milestone, making it the best-selling operating system of all time. The company will be hoping to beat that figure with Windows 8, which has the added advantage of functionality for the booming tablet market.

Source: vr-zone

Microsoft chose the first working day of the third quarter to announce the Windows 8 Upgrade pricing model. We expect to see a lot of fireworks over this one, since the upgrade cost dropped beyond belief. Bought a new computer and want Windows 8 Pro? That’ll be $14.99, sir. Even with all the marketing preparations, Microsoft pulled a never-before-seen move to get as much traction as possible. The whole idea of paying hundreds of dollars for an operating system seems like an idea from 1990s. Faced with obvious competition in the form of Apple and its continuous reductions in upgrade prices, Microsoft pulled quite an unexpected move. If you own a Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 operating system, you will be able to upgrade the system to Windows 8 Professional for just $39.99. The company released images of its Windows 8 upgrade advisor which will take you through the process. If you wish to order the version on a DVD, you will have to pay $69.99. If you have just bought the computer (Windows 7 SP1), you will be able to upgrade for just $14.99, with that offer expiring end of January next year (2013). This is a quantum shift from Windows 7 upgrade prices, which ranged from $119.99 for Windows 7 Home Premium to $199.99 for Windows 7 Professional. Naturally, if by some odd reason you don't have a Windows license already, regular prices will be announced in the next couple of weeks. Which leads us to the question - why Microsoft started to follow Apple with its OS prices? Is Windows 8 bombing that badly with the user experience groups, media and analysts that the company is going for price dumping so that it could say that Windows 8 installed on XXX million of computers?

Source: vr-zone

Undoing an accidental action while using Dropbox is as easy as hitting an “undo” option, and Dropbox has only just started implementing the undo command.

“We just launched a quick way for you to unwind those slips of the mouse or gaffes on the keyboard when you’re using Dropbox on the web. Now if you make a mistake when moving, renaming, copying or even deleting a file or folder, you can quickly reverse it. Just click the ‘Undo’ link in the green dialog that appears at the top of your screen. (Ctrl+Z and ?+Z work too!)”

So the next time you accidentally uploaded a file to Dropbox, you can instantly undo that action without having to go through the troubles of manual removing those files from your box.

Source: vr-zone

One of the main reasons why Android has drawn so many loyal users is because many Android devices support Adobe Flash.  The days of “I can watch Flash videos on phone” will soon be over as Adobe has declared that it will cease to support mobile Flash on August 15th. Okay, we all know (or at least people that care enough to dig into these things) that Steve Jobs—and by extension—Apple had issues with Adobe, therefore iPad loyalists never got official Flash support.  Essentially, Jobs decreed that the iPad will not have Flash support, and therefore it doesn’t.  Some devs have managed to make some flash contents work on the iPad through certain app, but it’s nothing comparable to streaming YouTube contents from a desktop. It’s simple with the iPad, but why is Adobe deciding to stick it to Android users now after several years of supporting mobile Flash?  There could be a variety of reasons, but one main reason is perhaps there are just too many Android devices (with all sorts of specs) to support—fragmentation.  Imagine working on trying to make one software compatible with literally thousands of devices from different OEMs.  On top of that, Android users are all over the place with regards to the OS that’s powering their phone. Albeit, over half of all Android users are still on Gingerbread, there are many more that are on Froyo, Eclair, ICS, etc…  Did I mention that some OEMs also heavily modify their Android OS (i.e. Amazon’s Kindle Fire)?  Okay, you get my point by now—that is, it just takes a lot of work to make Flash work on Android devices. People that purchased Android tablets and smartphones recently with the intention of using their devices to view Flash content will just have to live with the fact that their device may not support Flash in the future. Flash may become obsolete in the future, as HTML 5 is supposed the next medium for delivering media online.  So Adobe may not be dropping Flash support for mobile devices based solely on how much work is needed to make it work, but rather they may see HTML 5 as replacing Flash sooner than we expect. It’s unknown when HTML 5 will become the predominant form for delivering online contents, but we can’t help it if Adobe wants to stop supporting mobile Flash.  Until then, Android users will have to anxiously await a complete YouTube transition to HTML 5.  Again, Android users will have until August 15th to get the most out of their “Flash enabled device.”

Source: vr-zone

The latest version of Mozilla’s popular mobile browser is now available for download in the Google Play store for Android devices. Firefox 14 isn’t filled to the brim with new features but there is enough on tap for most users to take note. The organization claims users can expect a snappier mobile browser, from startup and page load times to panning and zooming. This includes running mobile web apps such as Mozilla’s BrowserQuest game. They further highlight that the latest revision is much faster than the stock Android browser, citing benchmark results from Sunspider and an in-house app called Eideticker. A sample test result shows Firefox 14 to be more than three times faster than the default Android offering. There’s also a new streamlined look that includes a personalized start page. Awesome Screen, a function that is powered by Firefox Sync, brings all of your bookmarks, passwords and browsing history from your computer to your smartphone. Mozilla has additionally optimized other features like tabbed browsing and add-ons for a more desktop-like experience. Firefox 14 for Android further supports Flash for a broader range of web content compatibility and new HTML5 capabilities ensure continued website and app support into the future.

Source: techspot

Futuremark today released its first trailer for the next version of 3DMark. Designed for measuring the gaming performance of everything from tablets and notebooks to high-end desktop gaming systems, the next 3DMark for Windows will be the world's first unified graphics benchmark allowing testing of DirectX 9, DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 capable hardware through the DirectX 11 API. Expected to be released after the launch of Windows 8, this new 3DMark will also be compatible with Windows 7 and Windows Vista. The new trailer provides a preview of the DirectX 11 test and is now available online and in high definition for the first time at 3DMark.com. In the trade town of Scarport, buildings cling to canyon walls above canals of lava and provide shelter from the toxic volcanic atmosphere. Gaudy neon signs flicker as steam rises from the molten rivers running beneath the town. A trader walks along ledges carved from the volcanic rock, smoke swirling around her flowing cloak. Her robotic sentinels keep watch, but what dangers lie hidden in the shadows? The 3DMark DirectX 11 tech demo brings this scene to life with intelligent tessellation and advanced volumetric lighting using real-time light scattering. The visible particles and clouds of smoke in the scene react to other objects using fluid dynamics simulation. Post processing, ambient occlusion and various lens effects complete the look. The new 3DMark is currently in development and is expected later in 2012 following the launch of Windows 8. It will also be compatible with Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Source: techpowerup