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A new version of ConvertXtoDVD has been released, version 3.6.4.

Recent changes include:

• new image filter
• new translations
• new VSO updater included
• minor menu template corrections
• preparation for 2 pass encoding coming in Version 4

With GNU/Linux, however, the story is different. For over a decade, columnists and bloggers have been explaining how GNU/Linux isn’t ready for the desktop — and, despite all the progress in the operating system over the last ten years, the arguments haven’t changed much. Moreover, increasingly, they’re outdated when they’re not based on complete ignorance. In fact, I often get the impression that those who pontificate on GNU/Linux’s inadequacies have never tried it.

The article is nice reading, but Bruce however makes some pretty strange suggestions while busting these myths, like suggesting GIMP as a replacement for PhotoShop, while the former doesn’t even support CMYK color pallette which is a real blocker for most imaging professionals. Bruce also writes that no Windows “migration tools exists”, while the popular Ubuntu distribution actually has one integrated to the installation process.

Anyway read and judge for yourself – this is always a fertile topic to debate about:

The GNU/Linux Desktop: Nine Myths

Cahoona Games has released a game title Marble Maze Ultra for Apple iPhone. The idea of the game is to control a ball inside a labyrinth using the accelerometer sensor as control. The new idea in the game is to have moving “wooden” boxes inside the labyrinth to give more challenge, and to make the game more puzzle like. This is the first game from Cahoona Games company to be released for the iPhone platform.

The game can be purchased through iTunes Store for iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch devices.

Screenshots of the game:

Cahoona Games establishes a partnership deal with Mojos Mobile

Cahoona Games has established a partnership agreement with Mojos Mobile. Mojos Mobile is a global operating Content Aggregator, Provider and Publisher, founded in 2007. Main customers are the leading International operators, Resellers and Content Channels.

So what’s the fuzz about then? Interestingly the Windows Seven is an attempt to eliminate a lot of the crap that made everyone hate Windows Vista. The focus has been on performance, stability and backwards compatibility. Actually Windows Seven is not completely new, as it shares a lot of the code base from Windows Vista, which should be a good thing for application and hardware compatibility. Initial performance reports have suggested that Seven does in fact outperform the sluggish Vista, but also the golden oldie Windows XP under some circumstances.

I downloaded the Windows Seven beta and first gave it a whirl in the Virtual Box emulator. I dedicated 900 megabytes of RAM for the virtual system, and the Seven installed and booted nicely. The installation procedure was very easy and comfortable and also pretty fast. I was encouraged by this and decided to try on my old but good IBM Thinkpad T41 (1GB RAM, 1,6GHz CPU).

Once again the installation was smooth, and faster then previous Windows versions – similar to Linux distributions today. While the T41 is Windows XP certified, and has Vista drivers availble from the manufacturer, I ran into problems. This was somewhat unexpected as various articles have suggested that Vista drivers should work just fine and the whole concept of Seven is that “if it works on Vista, it works on Seven”. Seven however refused to detect the Intel Pro Wireless WLAN chip and also the Pro Ethernet LAN showed no signs of life. I tried to install a number of Vista driver revisions to get some connectivity, but with no success. If anyone has success with Seven and older Thinkpads, please post some tips to the comment field below! Funny thing is that Linux commonly has problems with very latest hardware, but it works great on this kind of old rigs, but on Windows the situation is totally opposite – you need new hardware to make it work!

So my test session turned out to be very lame as I couldn’t get into any real daily usage without the Internet. What I was able to observe is that Seven beta version has pretty nice visual design, although the color scheme is a bit on the bright side. Visually it has some KDE4 feel to it but Microsoft guys definitely have better graphics designers than any Linux distro has. The memory footprint after boot and without any applications was around 300 megs, so Seven is not ultra thin in terms of resource requirements. In comparison the major modern Linux distributions have a footprint of 200+ megabytes on this system (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc.), and Windows XP can go way below 100 megs if configured properly.  Other than footprint the system seemed fairly responsive and it gave me the initial feeling that Seven could actually be usable on this veteran laptop.

It will be very interesting to see how the Seven public beta testing phase goes on. With the free public release there will be huge amount of reviews, discussion and commentary on the web about it in just a few days from now. I have not found a definitive release date for Seven, but it seems likely that it will be out during this summer. However, Microsoft has stated that the finalization of Seven will be quality driven so that they will not come out with a premature product and release only when it is really ready. If you are planning on buying a new PC, the Windows Seven is something to take into consideration – it might be best to wait for Seven to be released and build your new system on top of that, as it seems to be better than Vista in every way. Is it really good enough to push Windows XP finally away from the market remains to be seen.

Although newer BD+ decryption wasn’t expected until February 2009, today’s AnyDVD HD 6.5.0.2 release decrypts copy protection on all current Blu-ray movies and, in turn, ensures that consumers may continue to backup and enjoy their Blu-ray movie purchases even when using computer monitors that are not HDCP compliant. In fact, Anydvd HD remains the only program that can decrypt all commercial Blu-ray releases, and this incredible magic is, as per usual with Anydvd HD, performed on the fly without requiring users to rip first to their hard drives.

The following is a selection of current Blu-ray releases supported by AnyDVD HD :
Futurama: Bender’s Game (U.S.)
Firefly, The Complete Series (U.S.)
Planet of the Apes (1968 ) (U.S.)
Predator 2 (1990)
Shine a Light (U.K)
Planet of the Apes (the series), U.S.
Space Chimps, USA
Meet Dave, USA
X-Files 2
X-Files 1
Home Alone
The Day The Earth Stood Still: Special Edition
Jingle All The Way
Super Troopers
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Horton hears a Who
French Connection I & II (UK)
In the Name of the King (US)
Vanishing Point (Germany)
Babylon A.D.

Source: SlySoft Press Release

Download the free fully functional trial versions of the software from HERE or proceed directly to the purchasing page HERE.

AVCHD is a High Definition video format that basically is Blu-ray content recorded on regular DVD media. It can deliver real high definition video at the real HD resolutions (usually 720p), although the used bitrate is lower which leads to lesser image quality in comparison to Blu-ray. The quality however is obviously better than on regular DVDs and can look great on a HD television. If you slip an AVCHD disc to a PlayStation 3 it will play just like a DVD and it can also containt subtitles. The pirates however play it very dirty as they place their AVCHD copies of Blu-ray films in characteristic blue jewel cases and even place hologram stickers of them to make them look like authentic Blu-rays. The thing is however that not all Blu-ray players are AVCHD compatible.

AVCHD discs are actually simple to author by anyone who has standard compliant video material available. tsMuxer is a free and easy to use software for the job, and the discs are recorded using a regular DVD-RW drive. See our guide for step-by-step instructions: Click here

Source: Tietokone.fi ( in Finnish only)

Link: ConvertXtoDVD version history
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ConvertXtoDVD video guide: Click here

Foxmarks has been offering their synchronization solution quite some time, but until now their service has been limited to bookmarks. They gained a good reputation and a decent user base even with the more limited set of features as their service was proven to be quick and more reliable than the competition (Google Browser Sync, and especially Weave). Now with password synchronization included their service is top notch in every way.

Like in all browser synchronization services, the idea of Foxmarks is simple. It takes your Firefox personal data, encrypts it with 256bit encryption algorithm using a PIN-code that only you will know, and uploads the content to a Foxmark’s server. In case you do not want to use Fomark’s server to store your private data you can also setup your own.  When you setup Foxmarks to another Firefox client, you will be asked whether to merge the bookmarks and passwords, use the server data, or use the client data. Afterwards it keeps track of changes in the clients and synchronized them with the server periodically. The server will also act as a complete backup of your browser data in case you happen to lose a Firefox browser setup for one reason or another (hardware failure, reinstalling the system…). Foxmarks also offers the bookmarks available online via their web based service.

Check them out at: Foxmarks.com