Within hours of its release, Microsoft’s Service Pack 3 for Windows XP began drawing hundreds of complaints from users who claim the update is wreaking havoc on their PCs.

The problems with XP SP3, according to posters on Microsoft’s Windows XP message board, range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes.

“My external disks are having trouble starting up, which results in Windows not starting up,” complained user Michael Faklis, in a post Wednesday. “After three attempts [to install XP SP3] with different configurations each time, System Restore was the only way to get me out of deep s**t,” said ‘Doug W’.
Another user said the service pack prevented him from starting his computer. “I downloaded and installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals,” wrote ‘Paul’. “Now I can’t get the computer to boot.”

Dozens of other posters reported similar problems.

I really think it would be hard to find someone that disagrees that 2006 - 2008 have been Microsofts worst PR years. A botched major OS upgrade, delayed service packs that are faulty when delivered, a laughable media player, shutdown of SPOT, failed acquisitions, and a whole new storage appliance line that actually erases data (with no fix in sight). At least its been a banner year of the XBox team.

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AT&T’s iPhone website (under ‘Plans’ tab) has been updated to reveal that each iPhone plan now includes access to their “more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including Starbucks all for use in the U.S.”

Now I find it hardly fair that AT&T offers free WiFi to only iPhone users, so here is a work around to allow you to get free wifi no matter what AT&T device you have.

To trick AT&T you have to change your browsers User Agent. If you use FireFox download User Agent Switcher (UAS) to start the process.

Then you need to alter the UAS settings (Tools - User Agent Switcher - Options - Options - User Agents - Add) to the following:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3

(Make sure all of that is on one line)

and if you have a Mac in Safari 3.0 in the Preferences, Select Advanced and check the “Show Develop menu in menu bar”. A new menu item called “Develop” should appear in the menu bar. Click on that menu and select “User Agent” and then select the sub option “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 - iPhone”.

With the user agent now switched you will be directed to a landing page designed just for AT&T iPhones where AT&T is asking your for your iPhones phone number. Put in any VALID AT&T number and you will be granted free and unlimited Wifi on your laptop.

Enjoy!

Thanks to a little glitch in iTunes, Apple is treating you to a free download of the movie “Hitman.” All you have to do is open iTunes, click iTunes store, look for the ???Browse??? on Quick Links in the right hand side. Than, select ???Movies??? and then ???Thriller???. Look for the title ???Hitman???. You will see it is free. Just click “Get Movie” and you can download the whole version of Hitman for free.

Also, this download can work in any country by creating a free US iTunes account. Don’t say we never gave you anything :)

It’s the claw game, only instead of toys…. You get Lobsters. Only in Japan! I’ll leave the rest up to the commenters!

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As a huge fan of single user sign on UNEASYsilence is now allowing commenting via OpenID. We are utilizing the WP-OpenID plugin and all you need to do is plugin your OpenID URL into the website field in our comment area and you are good to go!

A Comcast insider tells me the company is considering implementing very clear monthly caps, and may begin charging overage fees for customers who cross them. While still in the early stages of development, the plan — as it stands now — would work like this: all users get a 250GB per month cap. Users would get one free “slip up” in a twelve month period, after which users would pay a $15 charge for each 10 GB over the cap they travel. According to the source, the plan has “a lot of momentum behind it,” and initial testing is slated to begin in a month or two.

“The intent appears to be to go after the people who consistently download far more than the typical user without hurting those who may have a really big month infrequently,” says an insider familiar with the project, who prefers to remain anonymous. “As far as I am aware, uploads are not affected, at least not initially.” According to this source, the new system should only impact some 14,000 customers out of Comcast’s 14.1 million users (i.e. the top 0.1%).

[…]

The new cap will be coupled with plans to increase enforcement of DMCA letters sent to P2P pirates. “Up until now, letters sent out to account holders have not been tracked,” the source says. “This will change, with progressively increasing penalties, up to disconnection of the account after four letters within a 12 month period.” This will be one way Comcast can maintain their promise to be “protocol agnostic,” while still booting some high-consumption users.

How about before Comcast upgrades their billing and tracking system, they focus on better quality of service for their users.

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Deutsche Telekom might be interested in buying the Sprint Nextel network in the USA. Combining that with its own T-Mobile USA would make it the No:1 US network. […]

Deutsche Telekom’s deliberations are at a preliminary stage and management may very well turn away, these people cautioned. If a bid is launched for Sprint Nextel, which has a stock-market capitalization of $22 billion and is the No. 3 player in the U.S. wireless market, it could still be weeks, or even months, away, they added.

I don’t know, but I think that Sprint being bought by T-Mobile will be the potential downfall of both companies. Agree?

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Amazon.com is suing New York over a new law that requires out-of-state online companies to collect sales tax from shoppers in New York.

“We are challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted legislation in New York,” Amazon spokeswoman Patricia Smith said.

Officials estimated the state would gain about $50 million by requiring Internet giants such as Amazon.com to collect state sales tax. New Yorkers are currently on an honor system to report their online spending when they file state tax returns.

The state Legislature and Gov. David Paterson passed the law as part of the 2008-2009 budget. It applies to companies that don’t have a brick-and-mortar presence in New York but have at least one person in the state who works as an online agent — basically someone who links to a Web site and receives commissions for related sales.

The suit argues the change unfairly targets Amazon, is overly broad and vague, and violates the commerce clause of the constitution because it imposes tax-collection obligations on out-of-state entities.

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SIMable is a VERY thin chip that you stick to a carriers SIM card which makes the phone behave as if it were unlocked.

SIMable is an innovative little chip that frees your SIM card to work in the vast majority of mobile phones. We all know that the very latest 3G devices can be very difficult and expensive to unlock and SIMable is the 10 second solution without invalidating any warranty on your precious handset.

It is important to note that SIMable does not alter the phone’s software, and when you remove SIMable your phone will be returned to its locked state. Might be worth something to someone. Available for ??16.99.

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If you are at all like me you have NES cartridges stuffed in a shoe box somewhere - wouldn’t it be fun to dust them off and use them again? Yea, sure you can downoad ROMs to an emulator - but where is the nostalgia in that?

For the uber retro nerd FC Mobile made a portable system for you. FC Mobile???s has a 2.4 inch LCD color screen (You can use an included AV adapter cable to hook it up to a TV). Powered by 3 AA batteries, you can game for hours.

Ok, who is with me in the fact that they don’t care or are numb to the incessant rumor mongering regarding the existence or the non existence of a 3G iPhone. I don’t care what day it will be announced, who is making it, how big its gonna be - I’m tired of the MONTHS of speculation from small hobbyist websites to the Wall Street Journal.

Lets sum it up here. There will be a 3G iPhone before the earth spins off its axis and hurtles to the Sun. Guess what, there will be a 4G iPhone too. Why don’t we get the rumors starting now - I hear it will grant eternal life!

When the chat feature first launched one of the first things my less tech-savvy friends expressed was that a lot more time was going to be wasted on the site. While I see their point I can still see the use of it. For one thing, it means you can now chat with the people you’ve added on Facebook but aren’t quite comfortable with yet to give them your actual IM accounts. C’mon, you know you have those friends!

Since everyone on your friend list are supposed to be your friends there isn’t any way to block certain people just yet, at least I didn’t find any way. You can a “go offline” but all it does is disable your ability to chat with anyone, so if you wanted to chat with some people and not with others you’re out of luck for now.

The chat can be popped out which is nice, meaning you can have the chat without actually being on the site itself though there aren’t any sounds or distinctive visual cues to tell you there is a new message when the window is minimized. Annoying for me when I want to get people’s messages, but a blessing for those who want to check for messages on their own time. Personally it just means I’ll be checking for a new message every 5 seconds, and no, I’m not nearly as popular to warrant such actions.

Facebook, Facebook Chat, Twitter, Pownce, Google Reader, Socialthing, Friendfeed, UNEASYsilence. I think the internet officially hates me. When will I ever get time to go outside?

On behalf of the Flack family, I would like to express our sincere appreciation for all the kind words of sympathy extended to our family, as we mourn the loss of our beloved Stan. We have read many of the comments sent in by Stan’s readers and former colleagues alike, and it is heartwarming to realize the profound effect Stan has had on many of your lives. It is certainly a tribute to Stan, and we trust his legacy will live on. Last week was a time of grieving for our family. This week, it is time to deal with the business aspect of things. We would like to thank all of you MacMinute readers for your patience as MacMinute goes through this transition period. It is difficult, and it takes time, but we are working tirelessly to resume publication, as MacMinute now embarks on this new journey. We do appreciate your patience, and we will update our progress. Many requests have been made regarding flowers and donations. We are in the process of setting up an education fund in Stan’s name. It is taking a little longer than we anticipated, as we want to have it accessible online for the ease of those wishing to give. This fund will be called the Stan Flack Memorial Education Fund. Stan always believed that a good education was a solid foundation for a successful career. In closing, we would like to thank many of Stan’s former colleagues for their kind offer of assistance at this most difficult time. A special thanks to Dennis Sellers, with whom I spoke recently. Dennis worked for Stan from 1995 to 1999, and spoke of fond memories, of hard work, and lots of fun. Also, special thanks to Dave Moser, one of the early MacCentral gang, who stuck with Stan through thick and thin, and was with him since the early stages of his business. He too shared warm memories of those early days. We would also like to extend a warm thanks to Jim Dalrymple for his help and support, and for getting the news of Stan’s passing out into the Mac world, when we had other arrangements to attend to. Jim was an old friend of Stan’s, who worked with him at the Chronicle Herald Newspaper in Halifax, NS, Canada. Later on, Stan hired Jim to join the rest of the MacCentral gang, making lots of memories himself. I understand that Ben Wilson was another of the gang. After Stan sold his business to Mac Publishing in June of 1999, Dave, Dennis, and Jim all went with him to what is now known as Macworld. Stan went on to create his latest venture, MacMinute, in May 2001. Stan achieved many great things in his life. He had many admirable qualities, but what I admired most was his devotion to his family. He was always there for his family, to offer a helping hand, and unwavering support. He had many friends, but there were none so dear to him as his family. We all love him immensely, and miss him dearly. On Monday, April 14, 2008, the world lost a great soul, but heaven gained a gem! Many thanks! Julie E (Flack) McKenna

His presence is missed already and we send our deepest sympathies to the Flack family.

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Now, this is not for the faint of heart and does require some SIM cutting and hacking. That means we are not responsible for any damage you do to your SIM’s or iPhone. I’m not kidding, you have been warned!

With that said there are a couple of methods to have two phone numbers on your phone - the all AT&T (hacked and unhacked) method, and the mixed network method.

But before you start you need a dual SIM holder. There are a few out there. There are ones that switch phone numbers when you shut down the phone and ones that can get switched on the phone (We will talk about that later). These SIMs require no jailbreaking or hacking to use if you have two AT&T SIM’s. All you do is cut both AT&T SIMs with an knife to a template size then pop both sims into the SIM adaptor and anytime you want to switch lines you just shut your iPhone off and turn it on. Easy enough, right? But that is not the most ideal solution for people.

The method, which I think most people would prefer, requires a bit of jailbreaking and unlocking (with ziPhone) but it allows you to switch SIMs on the fly within the iPhone software (Yup, Apple does have dual SIM support in the OS).

I found a affordable auto switching dual SIM adaptor over at PhoneUnlockNow (They also sell the SIM cutter too for $20). Again you get both SIMs, cut them and put them in the dual SIM adaptor. Once that is done, stick the new hybrid SIM into your iPhone. With ziPhone you jailbreak, unlock and activate your iPhone.

Once that is done, on your iPhone navigate to the Settings icon then click on the Phone option. Under the Phone option if you scroll down to the bottom you will now see a new option called SIM Applications.

Under the SIM applications menu you can now select either SIM1 or SIM2 to be the SIM your iPhone uses to make and receive calls. Simple as that.

Now the dual SIM adaptor won’t automatically switch when you are getting a call, but if you have two phone numbers this is an easy way to carry one phone.

Again, this is not for the faint of heart and does require some SIM cutting and hacking. That means we are not responsible for any damage you do to your SIM’s or iPhone. Big thanks to Al for the step by step!

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company could re-evaluate its plans to phase out Windows XP by June 30, if customers demand that it stick around. So far, they have not.

“XP will hit an end-of-life. We have announced one. If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter, but right now, we have a plan for end-of-life for new XP shipments,” Ballmer said during a Thursday news conference, according to Reuters.

It’s kinda funny seeing how the tides have changed for Microsoft. I personally remember the LINES for Windows 95, 98 and XP. Huge launch parties, and users just hungry to install. With Vista, Microsft has lost the magic. Who knows is Windows “7″ will finally replace Windows XP, but it seems that XP will be sold past it’s scheduled EOL cycle.

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The market for SSDs used in notebook PCs will surge on average 313 percent per year through 2011, according to a report from Nikkei Business Publications. The report referred to a speech given by Toshiba Semiconductor Company’s President Shozo Saito at an International Disk Drive Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA) function in Japan on the 18th.

By 2010, SSD-based notebooks will be about 10 percent of the market, then jumping to 25 percent in 2011, Saito said.

The increase in capacity will be accompanied by sharp reductions in cost per bit, the biggest barrier to SSD adoption this year. An oft-cited example is the Apple MacBook Air. The Air model with a 64GB SSD is about $1,200 more than the model with a larger capacity 80GB hard disk drive. The price difference is largely attributed to the premium a buyer must pay for an SSD.

If the price for NAND flash memory is reduced by 50 percent per year, the price gap will shrink (by 2011) to 1.4 and 3.2 times the price of 1.8- and 2.5-inch hard disk drives, respectively, Saito said.

It is all about economies of scale, but SSD will - in my opinion - lag behind good ol’ traditional pattered drives and will always have a much higher premium.

Do you think Toshiba has gone insane by these predictions or do you believe that 2009 - 2010 will be the year of SSD?

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Tellme lets you speak commands into your Blackberry to seach the web, look up movie times, check traffic and make other queries.

Once users download the program, they can push on their phone’s green “talk” button and say either the name of a business, type of business, or the keywords “weather,” “movies,” “traffic,” “map” or “driving directions.”

Using GPS, the system figures out where the user is located and delivers nearby results from Microsoft’s Live Search engine to the smart phone’s screen, along with links to call, get directions, buy movie tickets and other related actions.

Might be worth a shot for the Crackberry addicted sect out there.

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Isn’t is a pain in the ass to get the jack out of your car when you have a flat? Now with a ingenious invention, you can use your cars own exhaust to help you jack up your car.

This Exhaust Air Jack is a work of pure genius. It is a big orange bag which you set underneath your vehicle. There is a hose coming out of it which you connect to the exhaust of your car. In about 30 seconds the bag will have inflated enough to raise your car up off the ground. There???s even a one-way valve to prevent air loss if you decide to turn off your vehicle This will work on just about any surface, which isn???t the same for traditional jacks. I???d say that $129.99 for one of these would be money well spent.

I would have to say that is one the the coolest things I have seen today.

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Sure there are other pieces of software on the market, but I haven’t had much luck with them for various reasons - plus it really isn’t “true iTunes sharing.” If you connect to your home or business network over a VPN, with this guide, you can easily make those Bonjour beacons hop across the VPN to your remote machine.

In this installment, we will only cover how to use your existing VPN connection. In the next installment of this article I will show how to actually create an SSH VPN to your home network without any fancy software or expensive router.

On the host machine (the computer with the large iTunes library) all you need to do is download Network Beacon from Chaotic Software (as an aside I met one of their developers at Macworld - Really great people!) and launch it. Click on “New Beacon” and enter the following into the new dialog box:

Where it says service name enter whatever you want the share to look like in the remote computers iTunes (eg: Home iTunes Computer). Click OK.

Then on your remote computer connect to your remote network over the VPN. Launch iTunes on the remote computer. Within a minute you should see your other computers iTunes library.

Now, if you don’t have a VPN setup to your home network in a subsequent post I’ll cover how to create an SSL VPN to your home computer using free software and simple port forwarding (something any router can do).

I consider Facebook and MySpace to be two different type of sites. MySpace is more for the “I don’t care about society”? type person while Facebook is for a more sophisticated crowd. I could be wrong. I don’t and won’t use MySpace, and if I had to use a MySpace-like site I would o with Virb. I saw MySpace as a breeding ground for spam and a sort of “don’t care”? attitude by the people behind the site. I mean, any time I happen to come across the page for an artist I like, I see the comments with a bunch of spam. Facebook is different, at least I would like to believe that. Imagine my surprise when I saw a friend of mine posted this message on my wall. Facebook spam isn’t particularly new and I think it’s safe to say it isn’t rampant either but I am a bit disappointed this could happen. I am assuming that my friend’s account could have been hacked and this was sent out to all friends, or more plausibly an application added would have done it. Anyone with info on this?

No, this isn’t just a torn and shorting USB cable its actually a USB flash drive. A simple $10 DIY project can really make your friends (and strangers) do a double take when they see this.

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When your website is processing information there is no need for a boring “Please Wait” dialog box. Might as well use some Javascript to spiff up your home on the interweb.

Busy.js 1.0 allows you to add/remove loading indicators to html elements on your webpages (inc. overlay color & transparency). It uses unobtrusive javascript to keep your code clean. Requires no plugin/extension or any other external resource!
It works in all the major browsers - Mozilla Firefox 1.5+, Opera 9+, Safari and IE6+. On older browsers, it’ll degrade to simple quadratic shapes.

Really great resource if you are a web designer if you ask me!

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The company that powers that service, uLocate, has ported the seemingly popular web application to work with the iPhone via the web.

With Buddy Beacon, iPhone users can easily share their location with friends, as well as see the locations of friends on the iPhone’s map application. […] Buddy Beacon for iPhone provides users with essential functions and features that have made the application so popular with users of other mobile devices across virtually all North American carriers. Users are in complete control of the Buddy Beacon experience and can choose when they want to share their location.

Buddy Beacon also allows users to easily grow their buddy network by inviting new friends to join, ‘nudge’ friends to update their location and status from within the application, and more. These features combine with Buddy Beacon’s seamless integration with Facebook to provide iPhone users the ultimate friend finding experience.

Now me being Mr. Anti Social Networking the integration to social networks is nil. But I think it’s really cool now that anyone with a iPhone can log onto a simple website and it can broadcast their position so their friends can meet them easily.

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How many Phones do you carry? What phone is it? Who is your preferred carrier? Sound off in the comments.

The machines specs are as follows:

• 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2GB of DDR2 667 memory
• Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics
• 20x DVD+/-R Drive
• 4 USB Ports
• 250GB 7200RPM Drive

Now we all know that you can install MacOS 10.5 on an ordinary PC, but the legality of such a procedure is a grey area. This is the first time a company is emulating the Mac EFI firmware to achieve a true Mac clone. Sure Apple’s crack legal team have begin firing up the old C&D machine as we speak.

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Bring a little of the office home with you. Available for $7.95

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With the passage of the hotly debated state budget last night, New York legislators approved a bill that will require many online retailers to begin collecting sales taxes on purchases shipped to the state, even if they have no operations or employees working there.

New York Governor David Paterson is widely expected to sign the measure.

The so-called “Amazon tax” closes a loophole for Internet retailers who derive sales through affiliate programs in which Web site owners place a link to the merchant on their site and earn a commission on sales made from referrals. In lobbying for the bill, the industry group representing New York retailers had argued that the exemption from the sales-tax collection requirement gave out-of-state online retailers an unfair competitive advantage.

First of all it is to be expected that there will be TONS of law suits over this and for people familiar with the NYS tax code (As a loyal tax payer with a brilliant accountant - I am). It is currently the citizens responsibility in NY state to report purchases made out of state on your taxes so that you can appropriately be taxed come April 15.

Thoughts?

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According to a report by ABI Research says that these new unlimited plans will “test the limits of 3G networks” and potentially cause capacity strain.

Unlimited Internet access will have the biggest impact on the network, especially if users begin to visit sites such as YouTube to download videos. Continuous use of video applications, whether streaming, downloading or uploading pose the biggest challenge by significantly increasing network utilization and reducing per-subscriber data rates, or the number of subscribers able to access the network. There are reports that two majors Korean operators (SKT and KTF) offering video calls and global roaming on WCDMA networks are experiencing degraded voice quality.

Backhaul is also affected. As operators??? 3G backhaul requirement increases and they plan for network migration, higher capacity backhaul becomes essential. Operators have been evaluating alternative backhaul solutions for some time, but higher utilization of 3G networks will drive this requirement faster than 4G requirements. ???The cost of increasing backhaul capacity, handling more calls to service centers, and potential increases in customer churn can quickly erode any gains from flat-rate plans,??? Manjaro concludes.

I find it funny that the single feature that was designed to attract customers may be the single feature that ends up repelling them because a particular companies network is too overburdened.

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Ok, I’ve flirted with Twitter before, I just never understood it. What purpose does Twitter serve for you? Why should anyone use it? Should I use it again? Does anybody care about people’s passing thoughts?

Sound off in the comments!

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Remember those temporary Tattoo’s you used to get when you were a kid? Time to have them enter the digital age. You can now order special inkjet tattoo paper that will let you create your own design.

Once it is printed you apply an adhesive sheet to the printout and smooth out any bubbles. When you remove the adhesive sheet, the printed tattoo will be left with a sticky surface allowing it to be applied to your skin with a wet sponge. The tattoos are water-based and non-toxic, so while they???ll stick around for about a week if you avoid bathing or showering, they can easily be removed with just soap and water.

A 5 pack of the paper is available for about $25.

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