Goggle’s CEO now on Apple’s Board

Apple has appointed Google’s CEO to its board of directors.  It will be very interesting to see what unfolds as a result of this!

From SMH

Latest Vista the buggiest Windows OS in the last decade!

Industry analysts are reporting that the latest Vista beta is the buggiest in 10 years - full of blue screens and bugs!  It currently requires RAM of 700MB.  A survey of companies checking when they plan to implement Vista, and nearly 50% said they would wait at least 13 months after release, and others said they wouldn’t ever implement it!  So far there isn’t even an anit-virus program which works with it.

Personal firewalls

South Africa’s Mail and Guardian reports a review of 6 personal firewalls, finding that they are mostly useless because:

• the computer is attempting to be a firewall while carrying out its normal functions
• they can be easily switched off, so offending programs can easily send unwanted data to the internet
• browsers connect to the internet anyway, so hackers can use the inherent problems with browsers to circumvent the firewall
• more important are the safety habits of the user: careful reviewing of emails and accessing of web sites
• configuring the firewall is beyond most users’ capability
• "Not one of the six firewall programs the magazine tested, regardless of whether commercial or freeware, could prevent all attempts from the test programs at establishing outgoing connections between the PC and the internet."

Now Apple recalls Sony batteries

When we heard of Dell recalling Sony batteries, we wondered how many other companies’ computers were being affected.  Now we hear that Apple is recalling 1.8 million batteries, in the older G4 iBook and Powerbook.  Sony expects that the recall (of the Dell and Apple batteries) will cost them $172-258 million.

Free Vista upgrade coupon for PCs purchased from October

Smarthouse reports that from October, Microsoft will offer PC buyers a free Vista upgrade coupon, to encourage the purchases of Vista-ready PCs.  Now that news is out, anyone planning to purchase soon may well hold off until October.