Researchers are working on technology that could offer seven times as much storage. Researchers in Japan have reported success in an advanced data-storage technology that could help yield hard drives with capacities of seven times or more than today’s most advanced drives in as soon as five years.
Their work is a refinement of perpendicular storage technology, a method of data storage that is only just beginning to come into commercial use in hard drives. Drive makers are switching to perpendicular storage because it allows much more data to be stored on a disk. This is because the magnetic particles on which data is stored stand perpendicular to the disk’s surface and so more of them can be packed onto the disk than in the current longitudinal recording method in which they lay flat.
>> Read the article @ PCWorld
The United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, disagreed with two lower court rulings. Today’s opinion agrees with the MPAA and RIAA contention that P2P developers are responsible for the infringing activities of its users. The decision is a serious setback for commercial file-sharing companies, who were hoping a favorable Supreme Court decision would give the necessary leverage to negotiate a distribution agreement with the RIAA and MPAA.
With today’s ruling reaffirming the rights of the RIAA and MPAA, these two organizations are now more secure then ever before in their distribution methods. This also leaves StreamCast and Grokster wide open for additional copyright infringement lawsuits. StreamCast and Grokster, the two defendants named in the MGM lawsuit, have been fighting the movie and music industry for nearly 3 years.
>> Read the full article @ Slyck.com
From the LimeWire forums, this is what’s new in LimeWire 4.9.0 beta:
Searching:
LimeWire now recognizes more types of licenses in the search results. In addition to Creative Commons licenses, which LimeWire 4.3 added, “Weedshare” licenses and arbitrary licenses in WMA & WMV files are recognized. If you enable the ‘License’ column you can see if any search result had a license. You can then right-click on the item and choose to ‘View License’ to verify the information. As if that wasn’t enough, you can now right-click on any search result and choose to ‘Download As’, saving the file to any arbitrary location. You can also choose to search for similiar kinds of results from a new ‘Search More’ submenu.
Downloading:
In a nutshell, downloads just work better. They’re faster, they’re smarter, and they use fewer resources. LimeWire now has vastly improved support for large files due to a highly optimized swarming algorithm. These features will continue to speed up downloads even further in the future, as more users upgrade.
Sharing:
We’ve gone to great lengths to make sure that you don’t accidentally share files you didn’t mean to. LimeWire will now detect directories that are “sensitive”, prompting the user to confirm that they really do want to share them. You can also now choose to stop sharing a single file from a shared folder, or stop sharing a subdirectory of a shared folder. For users who want to share files from arbitrary locations, you can also choose to share any individual file. These files will show in a special ‘Individually Shared Files’ item in the library. The Library tab has also been revamped to give you more control over what you’re sharing while maintaining LimeWire’s famous ease-of-use .
Network Messaging:
The entire messaging architecture has been redesigned and rearchitected to use less resources and less memory. Ultrapeers should notice a significant speed and memory improvement when connected to many hosts. In the future this will allow your searches to return results faster and reach more hosts.
>> Download LimeWire 4.9.0 beta
>> www.limewire.com
MS AntiSpyware (beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including slow PC performance, annoying pop-up ads, unwanted changes to Internet settings, and unauthorized use of your private information. Continuous protection improves Internet browsing safety by guarding over fifty (50) ways spyware can enter your PC.
The main improvements are that the software expiration has been extended to December 31, 2005, users who dock their start bar on the sides of their screen will now be able to read messages generated from Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (beta) and improvements for removing spyware and spyware definitions.
Microsoft plans to finalise Windows Anti-Spyware by the end of the year.
>> Download MS AntiSpyware build 614
CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and FREE! 
>> Download Crap Cleaner 1.20.118
When it comes to converting camcorder or DVD video, it pays to look at the space-saving Divx format. Tom’s Hardware analyzed the new Divx version 6 in the THG Lab, and compared it to WMV 9 and MPEG-2.
>> Tom’s Hardware DivX 6 test
>> http://www.divx.com
BBC is running is an interview with Niklas Zennström, the internet entrepreneur behind both Kazaa and Skype, about how his two inventions came about, and how broadband and wireless devices are shaping his vision for the future. From the interview: “On the other hand, Skype, just like Kazaa and other software, are encouraging people to buy broadband connections.”
>> Read the interview
This tropical island off the east coast of Africa is best-known for its white-sand beaches, its designer clothing outlets and its spicy curries. But tiny Mauritius is about to stake a new claim to fame. By year’s end, or soon afterward, it is expected to become the world’s first nation with coast-to-coast wireless Internet.” From the article: “An undersea broadband fiber-optic cable, completed three years ago, gives the island fast and reliable phone and Internet links with the rest of Africa and with Europe, India and Malaysia. Many of the country’s 1.2 million people–a mix of French, Indian, Chinese and African descendants–are bilingual or trilingual, speaking French, English and either Chinese or Hindi. The country is democratic, peaceful and stable.
>> Yahoo News
Winamp just released a new update for their popular media player!
* Fixed: OSD stays onscreen in DirectDraw Mode
* Fixed: Fullscreen video OSD doesn’t reappear after using Pause
* Fixed: ML Playlist > Select all (no delete key)
* Fixed: Vis data for in_mod (and possibly other input plugins)
* Fixed: msvcp60.dll now linked static
* Fixed: Small intermittent bugs in gen_ml and gen_ff
* Fixed: Greater than 2 channel vis data now works
* Fixed: Media Library problems with parentheses/brackets in artist or album names
* Fixed: Ripping CDs with trailing ellipses (…) in artist or album name
* Fixed: Better video flipping for YUV colorspace videos
* Fixed: Saved mute settings with modern skin.
* Fixed: Drag and Drop from external applications
* Fixed: Open File Dialog always-on-top
* Fixed: Crossfade on start
* Fixed: Freeze when switching audio tracks in a multi-audio stream.
* Fixed: Fullscreen switching with scaled video window.
* Update: Dynamic Online Media can now alert users to live events(can disable).
>> Download Winamp 5.093
>> http://www.winamp.com
Mention ECS (Elitegroup) in the same sentence as enthusiast, high-quality motherboards and you might not have a favorable outlook towards their products or branding. Indeed, in the world of I.T. components, ECS has always played second or even third fiddle to many of the household names like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte. However, little do many know, ECS is actually one of the top three motherboard manufacturers and controls up to 15% of the motherboard market in the world. In fact, they were the largest motherboard manufacturer in 2002, with a two million units/month in sales and have constantly been listed as the top 100 I.T. enterprises by Business Week USA in 2002, 2003 and 2004. It is also not an industry secret that ECS is also the OEM manufacturer for the likes of ABIT, EPoX, FIC, Lenovo, just to name a few.
>> Take the tour @ Hardwarezone.com