I have to admit that I like writing about Google, and that’s Ok given the fact that this site’s name is Our-Picks! Google has quite a heavy word to say in many things that involve Internet and not only.

First we’ll talk about Wikis, a subject much debated on the Web these days, I’ve read a wave of articles about how Wikis are adopted by corporations big and small and how Wikis have advantages and disadvantages; bottom line: people love Wikis and consequently Google needed one of his own. As a natural response to that need Google has acquired JotSpot (JotSpot was founded in 2004 by former members of Excite.com and as they describe themselves JotSpot is the first application Wiki company), and i quote:

“Why is Google acquiring JotSpot?

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One week ago, the beta version of Windows Live Messenger 8.1 has been made available to private beta testers, despite of common users’ requests of the package being made available to the open public. It seems they’ve reached better sences, and they’ve been provided the package for us to test and review.

In the meantime, internationalization attempts of the official web site continues. They are registering msgpluslive.* for as many countries as possible, and translating the software in those languages in the same time.

Main features:
• Redesigned, smarter contact cards that give you more and better organised data regarding your friends
• Your display name, status and personalization are carried with you to any computer
• Try PC-to-phone calling with two free calls to any virtual phone in the world
• Better server performance
• Automatic updates
• Improved sign-in performance

Feel free to try it yourself, and don’t hesitate to share your oppinions with us ;)
Download link

Microsoft released version 11 of Windows Media Player today. The software that’s still beta for now, is designed to work with all versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2, including Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional. We’re all expecting that the final release of MP11 will be available in the soon-to-be-launched Windows Vista.

Basically, the beta version has four major improvements:
* It will bring a whole new look to your digital entertainment with the new design simplicity.
* It will store all of your entertainment and multimedia files in one single place, being able to play almost all types of audio/video/digital media files.
* Windows Media Player 11 is loaded with smart, fun features that breathe new life into your music collection and create a much more personal entertainment experience.
* You can stay connected with your music, video, and pictures no matter where you are, by sharing them with the rest.

Other refferences:
Media Player 11 Readme & Troubleshooting
Media Player 11 FAQ
Download Link

Terry Semel (CEO and Yahoo! chairman)

The news is that Yahoo! wants to buy AOL, now in cases like these there are lots of false leads and so called ‘inside information’ but trough all the rumours there just might be some truth.

The facts are that Yahoo! has to act now given the facts that Google is now the number one search engine and the number one online ads money maker. Yahoo! fell behind and now has to do something about it. There are a couple of things that Terry Semel (chairman and CEO of Yahoo!) might do and we will speak about some of them.

Now I quote Fortune: “Fortune has learned from multiple sources that Yahoo recently approached Time Warner (parent of Fortune’s publisher) about buying America Online-essentially trying to jump-start talks that broke down a year ago”.

At this very moment there is a number of things Yahoo! can do, buy AOL, be bought by Microsoft (there are some signs in this direction such as the compatibility between Yahoo! and MSN IM users), merge with eBay (it’s quite unlikely but this has been brought to discussion due to the several past negotiations between Yahoo! and eBay).
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Seagate is planning to release this week a new technology to come in the aid of those who need to secure their data. The new system is called DriveTrust and will run as firmware, using its own ‘invisible’ partition that cannot be accessed by the operating system or by the user, this software is also not going to affect in any way the overall performance of the HDD.

This kind of data lock-up comes as a response of increasing data theft on devices such as laptops, that contain confidential data that has to remain private. DriveTrust uses a multi layer protection so that if one layer of protection is broken others take its place (you can use full HDD encryption, password protection thumbprint and smartcard options for multi-factoral self-authentication) besides that there will be a quick erase function so you can permanently destroy data in a hurry if it comes to it.

Seagate currently offers DriveTrust on the DB35 series, which are 3.5 inch HDDs for digital video recorders (DVRs) and other digital entertainment devices. And that’s not all, Seagate plans to make the code public so we can expect some real competition from giants like Toshiba, Western Digital or Hitachi.

This comes as a great help to those in need to secure the data on laptops and other vulnerable storage devices and all this at affordable prices (at least that’s what they say for now).

This day and age most people have a cell phone, a digital camera and an mp3 player. But what’s better? Having all these integrated into one item or have them separated?
There are ups and downs to each option, but the problem is finding which option suits you best, which one has more ups and less downs in your case.

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