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Phoenix Instant Boot looks like an impressive new technology that lets computers start up in just a few seconds. But let’s take a closer look at what is really happening.

The video is demonstrating a new BIOS that starts in about one second. The BIOS is supposed to make Windows load instantly as well. But this cannot happen with current hardware and a normal install of Windows. This is the key point – the Windows install. A normal install will have background applications running, more icons on the desktop, a higher resolution, and more things which will make it take longer to start. The video demo shows Windows Aero disabled, a resolution that appears way too low than it’s supposed to be, and it’s obviously a brand new install, maybe with the exception of a program or two installed (but not starting up).

The Windows install shown in the video is customized in a way that a normal user would never have it. That is why it boots so fast. And the thing about it changing how people will use the device – most likely no. It won’t change how people use laptops. It will just let people turn them on quicker. But then, who ever turns off their laptop? Hibernation cuts Windows loading time to half or less, and that’s what laptops do when you close the lid.

Don’t get me wrong – faster is always better when it comes to boot times. But people should also be realistic in terms of how much to expect – you just can’t boot a normal operating system in a few seconds on today’s hardware.

This video shows a robotic shape-shifting blob that can, well, change its shape. It works by inflating itself and unjamming certain cells (parts of its body) to allow them to be flexed. It sounds complicated but when you watch the video it will make much more sense. Very impressive technology, and it looks plain freakish. Not quite a T-1000 though, but we’re getting there.

It has been leaked that Windows 8 will feature a 128-bit architecture.

This is good news in terms of moving forward and adapting new technology, but is the average consumer really ready for 128 bit operating systems? The answer to that is a definite no.

Most people today use a 32 bit version of Windows. If given the option whether to buy a 32 or 64 bit version of Windows, most people would have no idea what 32 or 64 bit even means. How much software right now is written for native 64 bit use? Almost none. 64 bit is barely being taken advantage of right now, so why introduce 128 bit?

Whether this is a good idea or not, 128 bit will come sooner or later, and if not in Windows 8 then most likely in Windows 9. But first the average computer user must transition to using a 64 bit operating system. And the people who know about 64 bit need to stop believing that all their old software won’t work on it. The fact is that most software does work on 64 bit systems; if it’s old, it gets emulated as if it were being run in 32 bit mode.

It’s a good thing that operating system architecture is advancing, but it would be so much better if software companies started to really take advantage of the power of 64 bit right now.

There have also been rumors that Windows 8 will abandon the Windows platform and will be based on Cloud Computing. The chance of this being true is nonexistent. Backwards compatibility needs to remain in Windows, and the base model of the operating system has to remain identical, otherwise businesses, which make up a huge percentage of Windows customers, will simply never upgrade. In fact, a large amount of businesses are still using Windows 2000.

Windows 8 will most likely be released sometime around 2012.

DDR2 memory prices have been recently going up thanks to supply and demand catching up with the computer memory industry. Sets of DDR2 RAM that cost $40 just a month ago are now nearing $100. At the same time, DDR3 prices are falling slowly, as more computer enthusiasts use the new technology in desktop builds, and computer makers start to offer DDR3 memory in lower priced systems.

What this means for the computer memory industry is that DDR3 sales will be taking over DDR2 sales, and technology will be moving forward once again. DDR3 prices are now affordable and are still dropping. Due to this, much less people are buying DDR2, so the price is rising. DDR3 is about to become cheaper than DDR2 due to this effect.

If you need DDR2 memory it is best to buy now, before prices rise even more. As the technology gets older, demand will fall, and prices will rise. If you plan to keep DDR2 compatible motherboards for a while, stock up on the RAM. If you end up not needing it later, you will most likely be able to sell it at the same price you bought it for, or even higher, and make a profit. Now we wait for DDR4.

Yesterday Best Buy posted a video on YouTube promoting sales of electric vehicles at select Best Buy stores. They are selling electric bikes and scooters, and letting people test drive them. This is all good, except for the fact that throughout the entire video, they show people happily riding these scooters through traffic without wearing helmets.

While helmets aren’t legally required for these types of vehicles in California, it is still good practice to wear one when going more than 20mph. It is very irresponsible of Best Buy to promote riding through traffic without helmets, and it sets a bad example. Even if you know you’re not going to crash your bike or scooter, you never know when someone is going to crash into you. You simply can’t avoid every dangerous situation on the road, and when it comes to car vs bike, you lose 99.9% of the time.

To make it even worse, at around 5:30 minutes into the video, there’s a scene of a woman on an electric scooter weaving between a bus and a car so hard that she has to put her foot down, not wearing a helmet, and then proceeding to go through the intersection without looking, on what appears to be a red light for her. There’s a green for pedestrians, but a red for traffic, and while you are on the road, you are considered traffic.

Best Buy’s video is a bad example for everyone. It shows how people shouldn’t behave on the road. While wearing a helmet isn’t legally mandated (at least in California), it is stupid not to wear one. Someone in a parked car can not see you and open their door right in front of you, and then you’ll be tumbling at 20 to 30 miles an hour on the pavement. Good job, Best Buy. The video is below.

AMD has released the fastest video card ever, the ATI Radeon HD 5870. And now it has been listed on Newegg, and will be shipping on September 28, 2009.

The 5870 will have 2.15 billion transistors, DirectX 11 support, and 1600 stream processors, among other features. It will use a 40nm manufacturing process and use only 27W of power when idle. And to compare the 5870 to the 4890, the 5870 has more than twice the transistors and twice the stream processors. The video card will also be about 30% larger physically than the 4870.

Some of the 5870′s listed on Newegg include a free copy of Dirt 2. And the best thing about this GPU is that it’s only $380. This will push Nvidia not only to lower the prices of their current graphics cards, but to also speed up the development of their next generation graphics processors.

For a detailed look into AMD’s new ATI Radeon HD 5870, check out the article on Maximum PC.

image from newegg

image from Wikipedia

There has been quite a bit of talk on the internet about the Conficker virus that was supposed to wreck a whole lot of computers yesterday. People are panicking all over the place as if their computer is about to explode.

This is just another virus. It is hyped up to be something devastating, but apart from its ability to replicate and avoid detection, it is like any other virus. A lot of viruses already steal personal information from your computer. To avoid catching Conficker C, use the same methods you would to prevent any other virus.

Assuming you don’t already have Conficker on your computer, waiting to attack, here are the usual anti-virus tips you should follow.

• Don’t click on suspicious links on suspicious sites.
• Don’t download suspicious files, or most of the time, files that are around 900kb or 300kb (unless you know the file you’re looking for is supposed to be that size).
• Use good a good anti-virus program like AVG and make sure it’s fully updated.
• Don’t open suspicious emails and their suspicious attachments.
• Scan files before you open them.
• Make sure your operating system is updated.
• Use a firewall. Vista’s firewall is sufficient for most people, so just make sure that it’s enabled.

Use common sense and if you think a site or file might be infected, don’t open it. If you think your computer might already be infected with the Conficker worm, my suggestion would be to just reformat. You will lose all your files that you did not back up, but at least you will be 100% sure that your personal information isn’t being stolen. Just don’t back up your files if you’re already infected, because the virus will transfer along with your backups. Good luck and keep your computer safe. To protect your computers from virus infection, it is always best to read Antivirus Reviews to select the best product in the market.

Apple’s new iPod Shuffle uses controls located on the headphones. Everyone knows that the stock headphones that come with all Apple products aren’t that good. However, is having easier to reach controls worth it? No, but it’s still a great idea.

It is annoying to reach into your pocket every time to you want to pause the music or change the volume. It’s more annoying when you have a bunch of things in your pocket. Having controls on the headphones themselves fixes the problem of reaching into your pocket to take out your iPod. And that is about the only problem with the controls on the iPod itself.

Having fixed the problem of reaching into your pocket, the issue now lies with the quality of the stock iPod headphones. They’re not as bad as the Sandisk Sansa e250 headphones, but they’re pretty bad and a lot of people upgrade them. Having controls on the headphones won’t let people upgrade, and a lot of people are already complaining about this.

However, according to Gizmodo, Apple will sell an adapter for third party headphones. This fixes the controls being in your pocket problem and the bad quality problem. The adapter will most likely cost at least $20, so that might put a few people off. But even with a price tag, it will be worth it to some people. And Apple will never give a free adapter with the Shuffle or any iPod, because it would cost them money.

So while the stock headphones having controls is a not-so-good tradeoff, third party headphones with controls on the headphones will be a great feature of the new iPod Shuffle. No more digging around in your pocket to find the buttons. Good job, Apple.

On a side note, Apple yet again oversimplifies controls and makes the interface complicated for no reason other than looks. (Apple+click, one button mouse, anyone?)

Adobe has announced that they have made a deal with Google and Yahoo to make flash files indexable.

It’s great to finally see search engine technology progress into the modern web. Flash has been used for a long time to make menus and animations for websites. But until now, these flash files couldn’t be indexed by search engines, so web developers used normal text menus.

Flash content looks great on websites and gives sites more depth and a greater end-user experience. With today’s internet connection speeds, flash usually doesn’t take much longer to load than a site with images. Now web developers can use flash to make websites look better, make the customer more pleased, and still have the links, text, or even the whole flash site indexable.

This will be a great addition to Google search and Yahoo search.

image copyright Adobe

Today is Download Day 2008 for Firefox 3. So download Firefox 3 today to help try achieve the world record for most software downloads in 24 hours.