Geekly Update October 20

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Windows 7, the successor to XP and Vista, becomes available to the masses this week, on October 22nd. I've written some helpful articles on Windows 7 features, cost, and tips on upgrading.

Finland is the first company to make the Internet a legal right. During a press conference, the Finland Ministry of Transport and Communications has stated that by July 2010, all of their 5.2 million citizens will have 1Mbit connection. While 95% of the country already has access, the law is designed to bring it to rural areas. Hooray for the nanny state! When do we get our government-issued new car, refrigerator and movie tickets?

IBM is offering an email service to challenge rivals such as Gmail and Hotmail. iNotes 8.5, part of their Lotus Notes program, is being offered at only $3.00 a month for 1GB storage and includes the ability to pick a domain name, utilize PIM and share data. Could be nice for business users who are already tied to Lotus, but I still likes my free Gmail...

Ever wonder how reliable Wikipedia is? Beginning this fall, the Wiki Lab in UCSC will be initiating a program that assigns a color code to edited text using an algorithm based on the author's reputation and past contribution lifespan. WikiTrust computes a score from 0 - 9 and when someone edits, the background becomes shaded orange, with the brighter the color, the less "trust" there is.

Nokia is bringing its first laptop to the US next week. The 2cm thick Booklet 3G will be sold through AT&T and has the efficiency of a full PC with its Atom processor. Features include a 10.1" HD display, up to 12 hours battery life, WiFi and a price of $300.00 with a 2 year contract.

Sonos, makers of musical systems, has just released a wireless music system that can be controlled by iPhone. The ZonePlayer S5 can play your iTunes library, over 25,000 Internet stations and other streaming sites like Pandora and Napster. The cost of the basic player is $399.00.

One of the new features offered with Firefox 3.6 will be an orientation interface, giving it a foundation for interactive apps. Support will become available for PC, Mac, Linux, some ThinkPads and, in the future, mobile devices.

Vonage Mobile is now available for iPhone/Touch and Blackberry users who make international calls. A low per-minute rate will be charged and the VoIP app can be accessed through WiFi or the cellular network.

Adobe released a security bulletin for Adobe Reader and Acrobat Tuesday. Software affected includes 9.1.3 of Reader and Acrobat; Acrobat 8.1.6 for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix, and 7.1.3 of Reader and Acrobat for Windows and Macintosh. It fixes 28 vulnerabilities that may make your computer crash or allow it to be usurped by an attacker.