Geekly Update September 2

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

• Snow Leopard, the new Mac operating system, has finally hit the public, a few days earlier than expected. If you didn't pre order at Apple, Amazon is offering some good deals, including an upgrade for $24.99, and a 5-user Family Pack for $43.99. I've heard that a MacBook running Snow Leopard can actually levitate and fly around the room. But I might be confusing that with the radio-controlled helicopters at Brookstone. Not sure...
• While Barnes & Noble customers have had limited access to WiFi in the past few years at their outlets, the company has now partnered with AT&T for free WiFi in all Barnes & Noble stores. Designed in conjunction with its new free, downloadable eReader app, it will offer coupons, new release suggestions and book signing information.
• The Royal Opera House in London is actually composing a mini-opera from the tweets of its followers. You can add a line yourself or simply see what they have so far on their site. When completed, the operetta will actually be performed next month. Presumably NOT on Twitter.
• Sony has announced its new Reader Daily Edition with 3G and 7-inch touchscreen that will launch in December for $399. Maybe someone should mention to Sony that there's a wildly popular competing device that sells for $100 less.
• Symantec has released a list with 100 "Worst of the Worst" websites that are likely to mess up your computer via phishing, malicious downloads, browser exploits and links to unsafe sites. Almost half of them contained porn (the most common malware infection vector) while others were found under such topics as catering, deer hunting, legal services, figure skating and retail electronics. Be careful out there...
• Canon has outed its latest flagship camcorder. The VIXIA HF S11 can record a whopping 24 hours of HD quality video on its 64GB internal flash memory and can also handle SDHC memory cards. Boasting "professional level manual controls," it also features a 2.7" multiangle widescreen LCD, video editing software, night scene mode and a price this September of $1399.
• Mozilla is attempting to keep up with the touchscreen world by developing tools for Firefox. Available in Firefox 3.6, which is due later this year, the project includes multitouch support for online gaming and touch-based user interfaces. Felipe Gomes has been developing them and reports details and a demo on his site.
• Dolby Laboratories has announced that Microsoft is adding Dolby Digital Plus to Windows 7 Home Premium, Pro, Enterprise and Ultimate editions. This is good news for content providers and broadcasters who use it as a standard and also for those whose PC resembles a home theater system.
• The Walkman has certainly evolved. Sony's new music player has a 2.4-inch 320x240 screen, a 5 band equalizer and 42 hours of listening or 6.5 hours of video from a single charge. The 8GB model will retail next month for $110 or you can get 16GB for $130.
• Nokia's N900 has become more than a rumor. The new smartphone packs Linux-based Maemo 5 software allowing for several applications going at once while still being able to utilize the phone features, QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen. Its home screen can be personalized with apps, widgets and shortcuts. There will be a limited release this October with a price around $700.

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