Microsoft's Rumored Acquisitions Big for Xbox?

What a week for acquisition rumors as Microsoft is rumored to be after peripheral pimp - Logitech and internet king - Yahoo.

Logitech has long been known as a computer peripheral maker that likes to dabble in console controllers and add-ons. Microsoft has scaled back it's own peripheral manufacturing over the last couple years. If Logitech were to be purchased by MS, it could mean we would see a host of new and quality gaming gizmos for the Xbox 360 and next generation of Xbox hardware. With a quality track record for racing wheels and controllers, there's no doubt MS could benefit from dipping into the R&D department of Logitech for gaming related peripherals.

Next up is the Yahoo acquisition rumor. This rumor has spread like wild fire since word broke from the New York Post. The reason gamers should be interested in an MS purchase of Yahoo is simple. Yahoo is the number one internet site in the world and the biggest competitor to Google on just about every front. Yahoo has R&D going on for just about everything imaginable that has to do with internet technologies. This includes digital delivery services of video and gaming content. And due to recent issues with XBL, we all know MS could use any new help they can get in bettering their online services.
Something to think about: MSN combined with Yahoo. MSN Zone (online gaming) combined with Yahoo games. The list goes on and thanks to the trickle down effect; it could only make Xbox gaming better.

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How low can some people go: Hackers quickly move to exploit Bhutto assassination.

Within hours of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, malware makers exploited the breaking news to dupe users into downloading attack code, security researchers said Friday.

Searches for news about Bhutto's killing and the ensuing chaos in Pakistan listed sites pimping a bogus video coder/decoder (codec), said analysts at McAfee Inc., Symantec Corp. and WebSense Inc.

For instance, WebSense found such a site simply by using "benazir" to search on Google. Meanwhile, McAfee quickly located 10 sites hosted on Blogger.com, Google Inc.'s blog service, that were spreading the fake codec.

The sites use the well-worn tactic of promising a video -- in this case one of Bhutto's assassination -- but telling Windows users that they need to install a new high-definition video codec, the program that decodes the digital data stream, to view the clip. Naturally, the so-called codec is no such thing, but is instead rigged code that downloads a variant of the Zlob Trojan horse, a back door that can infect the compromised PC with a wide range of other malware.

"Even death isn't sacred to some," said Symantec researcher Vikram Thakur in a post to the company's security response blog.

Other hackers are relying on the news of Bhutto's assassination to draw users to sites that forgo the codec angle and instead conduct drive-by attacks, said Rahul Mohandas, a security analyst at McAfee's Avert Labs unit. "There are a plethora of sites which attempt drive-by installations when unsuspecting users visit search-engine results for 'Benazir Bhutto,'" said Mohandas in a post to the Avert Labs blog this morning. "Many of these compromised pages have malicious scripts, which point to the 3322 domain. These pages contain obfuscated variants of the MS06-014 exploit, which is perhaps one of the most popular of all the exploits we see on a daily basis."

MS06-014, issued in April 2006, patched a critical vulnerability in an ActiveX control that is part of Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC), which are packaged with Windows XP and Server 2003.

Shilling bogus codecs is a popular pastime of attackers. The technique has been used to plant malware on PCs from singer Alicia Keys' MySpace page, for example, and was the vector used by hackers who went after Macs last month.

Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2

Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.

Performing benchmark tests on development milestones of Vista's first refresh are inherent methods of getting a taste of what SP1 will bring to the table. The Redmond company revealed in the past that it considers irrelevant tests involving a pre-RTM build of Vista SP1. But with the release to manufacturing date of the service pack still to be announced, sometime in the first quarter of 2008, the temptation is too big to get a sneak preview of the refresh.

In an initiative similar to that of the Devil Mountain Sofware company that tested the performance of beta builds of XP SP3 and Vista SP1, Gizmodo has also performed a benchmarking of Vista SP1, but this time the full Release Candidate. Earlier in December, Microsoft opened up the beta testing process of Vista SP1, with the delivery of the first public download, namely Release Candidate 1. Now, there is still no word from Microsoft whether RC1 is the final stage before RTM or if another RC will follow, but the company has given strong indication that Vista SP1 RC1 is close to the service pack's final form.

The new performance tests are essentially a comparison between Vista SP1 RC1, Vista RTM and Windows XP SP3. The tests were performed on a machine with the following configuration: a dual quad-core Penryn HP xw8600 PC, NVidia Quadro FX 4600 graphics (eight processor cores each at 3.16GHz), a 15,000rpm SAS hard drive and 4GB of physical system memory. Vista SP1 RC1 scored the highest, according to the results returned by running the industry-standard PCMark05 benchmark, accounting for 15.28% speed increase, compared to the RTM version of Vista. However, when it came down to network transfers, Vista SP1 RC1 hit a speed bump and copied a 1.37GB folder with 2606 items in almost 16 minutes, whereas Vista RRm did it in 13 minutes and XP SP2 in under 4 minutes.

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Sony releases Firmware Update v2.10 for PS3; DivX playback added!

Sony has officially released Firmware Update v2.10 for its PlayStation 3. The update enhances media playback: DivX and VC-1 (WMV) video playback is now available in the Video section of the XMB. Users have been asking for DivX support for a very long time, it’s great to see Sony listen to their customers. The new version also brings the PS3’s Blu-ray drive up to Profile 1.1, meaning various Blu-ray enhancements only available on Profile 1.1 compatible Blu-ray discs will now work on the PS3. A voice changer feature has also been added, enabling users to change the tone of their voice during voice or video chat.

Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista.

The long-awaited Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista now has a preview build available for download.

The Vista version sports an entirely redesigned user interface, tabbed chatting, the ability to transfer files of up to 2GB over the Messenger client, and a corresponding Sidebar gadget to boot.

A couple of things are missing from this build, however. Users eager to try out this version will have to do without both voice and video chat, and will also have to deal with poorer performance than the traditional Yahoo! Messenger. There is also no 64 Bit version of the software, although it is unknown if the final build will include a 64 Bit version.

Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista (link 1)
Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista (link 2)
Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista (link 3)

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Reggie Fils-Aime: Wii shortages "highly unfortunate"

Nintendo US boss speaks out at claims of manufactured supply situation

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo in the US, has hit back at claims that shortages of the Wii console may have been artificially created in order to generate marketing hype.

In an interview with MSNBC Fils-Aime stated: "In absolute terms, it is highly, highly unfortunate that consumers cannot find a Wii to purchase.

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Note: Check on eBay just how much they are selling for. ;)