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Many Vista features that we all love can be used on XP! There are several free 3rd party applications that will give you those great features on XP. Take a look at the Lifehack article that dives more into what app does what.

Source:
[ lifehacker.com ]

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Google now has a awesome new feature that allows you to view photos and Wikipedia information based on the location you are viewing in Google maps. This feature can be toggled with the new checkbox options in the "More..." dropdown button.

Check out the new features at [ maps.google.com ]

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Google has integrated AOL's popular AIM instant-messaging service into its Gmail Web-based e-mail client, the company announced on Tuesday.

Gmail has had its own chat service since February 2006, but now Gmail users will be able to connect to AIM through a drop-down menu on the Gmail Web page, Google said. Gmail users can sign into AIM through the "set status here" menu, Google said. AIM contacts and Gmail chat will appear on the same menu.

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Going forward, people will be able to see mini banner ads optimized for their browser type and screen size on their mobile devices when they visit the MSN Mobile portal, which works on any mobile phone, said Phil Holden, director for online services for Microsoft.

The MSN Mobile portal offers news, information on weather and stocks, as well as movie reviews and listings. It also offers access to search, Hotmail, Messenger, and Windows Live Spaces.

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Its official Internet Explorer 8 is currently in development. At Microsoft's Mix 'n Mash event in Redmond, Bill Gates talked a little about IE8.

On Wednesday, December 12, Internet Explorer 8 correctly rendered the Acid2 page in IE8 standards mode. For more information about Acid2 see [ en.wikipedia.org ]

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In a shameless promotional move, DirecTV offered NASA a full HD makeover for the Space Station that would not only include the dish, but also an HD DVR, a 42" flat screen and a remote control - thoughtfully loaded with velcro.

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Sony on Tuesday announced that it is opening up its PlayStation Store--an online source of downloadable games and other content--to PC users. No longer will the store be the exclusive province of owners of Sony's top-end video game console, the PlayStation 3.

The company said that the move means that PlayStation Portable users will now be able to download games via the store. Those games include "classic" PlayStation games, as well as a series of new PSP games available only through the PlayStation store. Existing PSP games will also be available.

Among the store PSP exclusives are Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and Beats, both of which cost $9.99 on the store.

The move is probably a good one for Sony, since it means that PSP users will be able to get access to games without having to go to a store to buy them. And for the company's video games unit, which is in strong need of a boost come this holiday season, any expansion of its market is a plus.

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Google Inc enjoyed one of its biggest monthly gains in U.S. Web search market share in October, building on consistent gains over the past two years, according to industry data out on Wednesday.

Market research firm comScore Inc said Google's core Web search properties captured 58.5 percent of the U.S. market in October, up from 57.0 percent in September.

The top five providers of Web search all showed at least 5 percent growth in the number of searches in October. Yahoo Inc was number two after Google, followed by Microsoft Corp, IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com and Time Warner Inc's network of sites, including AOL.

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You've already bought the DVD to enjoy on your big-screen TV at home. But you also want to watch the flick on your portable media player or on your laptop without using the disc.

Until now, you had two options: Rebuy the movie digitally (an expensive, often limited proposition), or circumvent the copy protection on the disc and make your own digital copy of the movie. Two film studios are taking baby steps toward offering a third, legal alternative, permitting you to copy the movie to your device from the DVD itself.

Twentieth Century Fox is first out of the gate. With the two-disc Live Free or Die Hard Collector's Edition DVD, out today, Fox debuts Fox Digital Copy, the studio's fledgling infrastructure for allowing consumers to transfer digital copies of a movie from the disc to a PC and to a portable device.

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One of the big challenges for Google's ambitious phone project is persuading software developers to write interesting applications. Already, developers of mobile phone programs complain about having to write for too many different software platforms, like Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, RIM, and soon, Apple's iPhone. And while those software platforms are already powering millions of phones, there are no phones out there running Google's "Android" system - and there won't be any until the second half of next year.

So why would a developer bother? Money, of course. Google today is unveiling the developer tools for Android, and along with it, the promise of $10 million in prizes for those who build cool apps. The top 50 applications, as determined by a panel of judges, will be given $25,000 prizes to help fund further development. Then, of the 50, 10 will be eligible for $100,000 awards and another 10 $275,000 for awards.

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The Federal Communications Commission is likely to impose a new regulation on the largely unregulated cable television industry, the first of what may be more to come.

Under a proposed rule circulating at the FCC, cable companies such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable would have to slash the price they charge smaller television programmers to lease access on spare cable channels, a move the FCC says would open up cable viewers to a wider diversity of shows.

In addition, the FCC is contemplating a national ownership cap that would prevent one company from having more than 30 percent of all cable subscribers.

FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin would like the commission to vote on what is known as the "lease access" rule by the FCC's next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 27, and is optimistic that he has the three commission votes needed for passage. The proposed rule comes as a result of the agency's annual review of competition in the video industry.

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According to Nielsen//NetRatings the Online encyclopedia Wikipedia has added about 20 million unique monthly visitors in the past year(making it the top online news and information destination)

Wikipedia had 46.8 million unique visitors in May according to NetRatings(that's a lot of visitors!!). Wikipedia also finished on top of the news and information category every month this year!

I personally like Wikipedia, I use it almost daily to find information. If you have never been to [ wikipedia.org ], I would recommend you give it a go sometime.