The long awaited Service Pack 3 for Windows XP is now available to public! Click here to download the installer for XP 32-bit, English. According to DailyTech, there are 1100+ hotfixes in this service pack. SP3 should be the last service pack for Windows XP, since Microsoft will stop producing Windows XP this June.

For those who are using Windows Vista, Service Pack 1 is also available. Click here to download.

Microsoft is currently having a special promotion for Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1. For more info, please click here. Currently, Compu-zone is selling it at RM335, which is around USD100.

Please take note that this promotion is only valid in Malaysia. You need to activate your copy in Malaysia.

The beta of the next version of Internet Explorer is now available! The IE team just announced the availability of the Beta in MIX08.

One of the new features that the IE team boasted about is that IE finally passed the Acid2 browser test, which mean IE conform to CSS standard. (All previous IEs failed this test) Some other features include:

• Faster JavaScript handling. 2.5x the speed of previous IE. “Back” button support for AJAX.
• Webslices (I’m not quite sure about it, but it said it will let you subscribe to part of a website)
• Social integration/activities in right click. Live maps, Facebook, etc…
• Better developer tool.

You can download the Beta version here. The IE team said that the main focus user in Beta 1 is web developer (to help them create website that compatible with IE8/standard compliance) Normal user would have to wait for Beta 2 for more features that focused on them.

It is really great to hear that Microsoft have finally releasing a standard compliant web browser. But for now, I’ll just stick with Firefox. :p

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Official Website

The format war is over. Toshiba just announced that they will stop their HD DVD business. I guess that the switch by Warner Bros really killed HD DVD.

RIP HD DVD 2006 - 2008.

Apple just announced their new MacBook series, which is the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air is the thinnest notebook in the world with the thickness of 1.93cm (when closed). I thought the MacBook was pretty thin, but this one is even thinner!

But of course there are some sacrifices for this thinnest. The MBA is lack of built-in optical drive, slow hard disk, no Ethernet port, not user upgrade-able (everything is sealed inside) and also the price tag, USD1799! (around RM5900) For this price tag, you can get a Dell XPS M1330 with better spec, but slightly thicker.

The system specification of the MacBook Air is after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

This video is from Bill Gates’ CES 2008 keynote…

Warner Brothers just announced that they will be going to be Blu-ray exclusive. I guess that this is the biggest news today. Currently, Warner Bros support both Blu-ray and HD DVD. But it will goes 100% Blu-ray starting from May this year. Is this the end of format war?

Someone of us might be waited for this for a long time (but not me :p), Google finally added the IMAP functionality in Gmail! So, what exactly is IMAP and why is everyone is so excited about it? IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It is one of the two protocols that most mail client support. Another more common and widely used protocol is POP (Post Office Protocol). But why people prefer IMAP over POP? The reason is because POP will download a copy of your email when you retrieve your mail using an email client. The email will still available in the server even though you deleted it from your client (ie: Outlook Express, Outlook) However, this is dependent on your mail server provider. For example, Gmail allow you to change the setting of POP. You can choose to either archive, delete or keep a copy (in the mail server) after you download your email to your client. But with IMAP, the client will synchronize with the mail server. So, if you mark you email as read, it will also be reflected in the mail server. You can also check the explanation/advantage of IMAP in the Gmail help page over here.

I’ll post a step-by-step guide on how to setup the Gmail IMAP account in Windows Live Mail later.

Yes, the search function is finally here! Google Reader user can now use the search box in the top of the page to search for the news items in their subscribed feed. You can even search base on feed and tag.