A week after Microsoft released Windows 7 to OEMs, crackers have cracked Windows 7 RTM Ultimate. Tech website Softpedia was the first to report on the matter, though it stopped short of linking to websites and forums where the proof-of-concept of the crack can be found. You don’t mind, do you? 

The OEM copy of Windows 7 RTM Ultimate being blamed for the crack is said to have been stolen/leaked from Lenovo’s safekeeping (or un-safekeeping). The crackers also managed to get their hands on the OEM-SLP (System-Locked Preinstallation) product key and the OEM certificate for Windows 7 RTM Ultimate, both of which are enough to crack open Windows 7 RTM Ultimate on a system posing as an OEM machine.

 

Mozilla is already ruminating on the look and feel of future Firefox versions. It shared a few Firefox 3.7 theme mockups last week. The common denominator across those mockups was the absence of the all-too-familiar title bar, a design feature that summons to memory the name “Google Chrome.”

Mozilla is certainly in love with Chrome’s minimalist design, if the freshly released “Firefox/4.0 Windows Theme Mockups” are anything to go by. It has released two Firefox 4.0 theme mockups in all and both of them closely mimic Chrome. 

The position of the tabs vis-à-vis the address bar is what sets them apart. The first mockup features the address bar on top of the tabs, whereas the second one has the tabs placed above the address bar – again reminiscent of Google Chrome.

The WiMax Forum has decided to approach the certification process of 2.3GHz WiMax with much more urgency. Since the 2.3GHz band has been reserved for WiMax in most parts of Asia and Africa, the rapidity being promised will only help WiMax’s cause in these necks of the woods.

According to the WiMax Forum, the number of WiMax networks that have been deployed in this spectrum around the world stands at 29.  The first batch of 2.3GHz WiMax products is expected to be certified by the WiMax Forum in last quarter of 2009.  The consortium foresees these products on the market in early part of 2010.

“Certification profiles for 2.3GHz also pave the way for WiMax Forum certified tri-band devices in 2010 which will increase the opportunities for true global roaming across networks in the 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5GHz spectrum bands which make up a global WiMax footprint today,” said the consortium’s acting president Mohammad Shakouri.

Fujitsu has begun shipping its first generation USB 3.0-to-SATA chip, the company announced in a press release on Monday. The MB86C30A, as the chip is called, is capable of delivering the 5Gbps maximum data transfer rate expected from SuperSpeed USB. The first engineering samples based on the chip will be ready next month. However, commercial variants will only be available next year.

The chip features Fujitsu’s AES encryption/decryption engine that supports data encryption/decryption at a rate of up to 300MB per second. The first PCs equipped with Superspeed USB are expected to become available during the far end of the year, according to the July issue of Nikkei Electronics Asia.

Microsoft was forced to edit one of its Laptop Hunter ads after Apple’s legal team highlighted the presence of an erroneous reference to the MacBook’s price in it. In the original ad, the protagonist, Lauren, who was shown scouring for a notebook under $1700 with her mother, disdainfully rejected a MacBook Pro due to its $2000 price tag. Even her mother backed her decision to reject the MacBook.

Apple drew Microsoft’s attention to the recent drop in MacBook prices, which rendered the reference to its starting price inaccurate. Microsoft has not only made the necessary edits but also pulled down the original version from video sharing websites like Youtube after receiving a phone call from Apple.  The new ad features no direct reference to MacBook’s price, though the protagonist still fails to justify its price.

“We slightly adjusted the ads to reflect the updated pricing of the Mac laptop shown in the TV advertisement,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement. She further added that the focus of the campaign has remained intact.

Microsoft had to cough up $193 million in legal charges during its fiscal fourth quarter, the (depressing) results of which it announced on Friday. Now, it has forestalled the possibility of being slapped with another hefty fine. The Redmond-based software giant has bowed to EU’s demand that it let OEMs have the ability to bundle any other browser besides Internet Explorer with Windows.

"The European Commission can confirm that Microsoft has proposed a consumer ballot screen as a solution to the pending antitrust case,” EU revealed in a statement.

Microsoft had been hoping EU would allow it to ship Windows without a browser. EU had agreed to this solution when bundling of Windows Media Player was at issue, but the results proved that it was just a ruse. Had EU lent its seal of approval to Microsoft’s favorite solution, the company would have found it very easy to influence OEMs.

Palm managed to re-enable iTunes sync on the Pre barely days after Apple had managed to block it using iTunes update 8.2.1. The said update had ephemerally pulled the plug on the ability of non-Apple devices to sync with iTunes by rejecting all Vendor IDs apart from Apple’s.

Palm soon responded with an ingenious solution, the legality of which may be probed in coming days. Palm chose the WebOs 1.1 update and some USB trickery to deliver its riposte. The WebOs 1.1 update changes the USB Vendor ID associated with the Palm Pre to the one assigned to Apple. This hoodwinks iTunes into treating the Pre just like a legitimate Apple device.

Palm is very serious about its role as the archpriest of “openness and interoperability.” It reckons that it is in fact Apple that is misusing its Vendor ID number and has notified the USB Implementers Forum about the same.

“Palm believes that openness and interoperability offer better experiences for users by allowing them the freedom to use the content they own without interference across devices and services, so on behalf of consumers, we have notified the USB Implementers Forum of what we believe is improper use of the Vendor ID number by another member.” Palm  told AllThingsD.

Fujitsu is said to be working on the “fastest rig on the planet.” While it is very common for car ads to heap praise on German engineering, the same is not true when it comes to PCs. But a slide (see below) related to the upcoming “fastest rig on the planet” is a laconic ode to German engineering.

The slide credits “German ultra clocking” for making Fujitsu’s mysterious gaming rig the fastest in the world. It also mentions that the rig features the very best “hand selected components”. Fujitsu posted a link to a teaser video - which miraculously doesn’t make even a thickly veiled reference to the gaming rig – on Twitter.

Business cards have largely been untouched by all the technological advancements around them. But all that is about to change as efforts to bring business cards up to speed are underway on a war footing. James Alliban's, a London-based Flash developer, lit up the internet after he unveiled his augmented reality business card last month.

Just as he was preparing to launch a company to tap the commercial potential of his project, another similar project surfaced. Jonas Jäger, a German design student, has trotted out his own AR business card solution, which is avowedly inspired by Star Wars.

He is currently developing a frontend tool that will let users “create a presentation file for your portfolio.” The user will have to print the unique QR-code – containing the URL of their presentation – and the AR-marker on the back of their business card to breathe life into to it. He has promised to release the source code under the Creative Commons License.

Last month, Facebook users were for the first time given the opportunity to reserve custom usernames in a move aimed at simplifying account URLs. Facebook had advised its users to approach the christening process very seriously as the usernames chosen by them would become inextricably tied to their profiles. 

Those of you who are still ruing your questionable choice of username can now stop.  Facebook has spread its arms wide open for all those still drenched in a cocktail of desolation and regret. In an act that manifests its magnanimity, Facebook is now giving users the opportunity to change their usernames, but they only have one final shot at getting it right. 

Wall Street savants seem to have been deceived by their crystal balls yet again. Microsoft’s fiscal fourth quarter results turned out be even lower than what they had predicted. Microsoft reported earning $3.05 billion, or 34 per share, on revenue of $13.1 billion in the quarter.

The company was quick to blame the weakness in “the global PC and server markets” for the decline in revenue. But Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell is pleased that the company managed to “deliver over $750 million of operational savings compared to the prior year quarter” despite the economic weather being a huge impediment. Microsoft also imputed the decline to “a $276 million deferral for the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program”.

Google had announced last week that it was going to overhaul the Google Docs interface over the next few weeks. Some of those changes have already taken place. One notable change is that the filter for “PDFs” has been supplanted by “Files” in the "items by type" slide-down menu.

This has further fueled speculation that Google Docs is on its way to becoming an online file storage service. There is a possibility that Google might allow people to upload other file formats besides PDF files. A person is also said to have stumbled upon an image of what appears to be a folder icon featuring the familiar Google Chrome logo. Perhaps Google may need such a folder icon for a web-based storage service to compliment Chrome OS.

Three months after it arrived, Dell Adamo has received a price cut. A price cut for the Adamo became inevitable once Apple slashed the price of its svelte MacBook Air -perceived to be Adamo’s archrival - in June. Prices of all Adamo ultraportables have been lowered. 

The basic Dell Adamo is now available for $1500 as opposed to its original price of $1999. This places it on level ground with the entry-level MacBook Air in terms of price. The basic version has a 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. But at the other end of the spectrum, the top-end Adamo variant still remains pricier than its MacBook Air counterpart. The new price of the top-end Adamo is $2,230. It features a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor, a 128GB SSD, and 4GB RAM.

On Tuesday, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch reiterated the company’s promise to release a beta version of its Flash 10 player for mobiles by the end of this year. He was addressing analysts at an event specially organized for them. He went on to add that the mobile version of Flash will begin making full use of APIs by the beginning of next year. This will allow the mobile variant of Flash to fully tap such hardware features as multi-touch and accelerometer, which are found on an increasing number of smartphones.

AMD has posted its second-quarter results. Though AMD merely extended its losing streak by posting another quarterly loss, this fresh loss of $330 million is a touch less depressing compared to the $1.2 billion loss it posted for the same quarter last year. The company’s revenue in the second quarter stood at $1.18 billion. The chip maker is hopeful of a better showing in Q3 2009. This optimism is also shared by market analysts as they expect the PC market to show a strong upward trend in the next half.

Global all-in-one PC shipments for 2009 may breeze past previous forecasts. According to a report in China’s Commercial Times, global all-in-one PC shipments for 2009 are now expected to touch 6.5 million units, which is considerably higher than the previous estimate of 5 million units.

The new estimate will certainly please Apple, for it alone is expected to ship 3 million units. The very report further says that the penetration rate of all-in-one PCs – computers with the monitor and CPU bundled together in one console – will rise to 5% this year, 9% in 2009, and 12% in 2012.

Less than a month after the release of Firefox 3.5, Mozilla has published a few design mockups for Firefox 3.7 on Mozilla Wiki. Mozilla made it amply clear that the designs “are only for brainstorming/exploration”.  Mozilla is making a conscious effort to come up with a design that will let Firefox 3.7 melt seamlessly into the Windows7/Windows Vista environment. On the face of it, Firefox 3.7 is very likely to feature a toolbar that mimics glass in its appearance, with the buttons being translucent and having added gloss.

Yahoo has lifted the curtain on its new homepage, which has been rolled out in beta. The homepage has not only received a facelift but also a number of newfangled features, including the ability to keep pace with updates from your favorite websites without leaving Yahoo.

 With social networking websites almost holding internet users captive for long periods of time, the new Yahoo homepage will let users have one eye on the latest from their friends on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Other notable additions include the ability to customize the homepage using widgets and the introduction of a top ten search list just under the search bar.

But the launch has been far from smooth, as some users still haven’t encountered the option to try the new beta homepage. Yahoo is under considerable pressure from Microsoft’s latest search offering Bing, which is increasingly closing in on Yahoo in the online search market.

Microsoft is scheduled to post quarterly results next Thursday. While things have started to look up for the Redmond-based behemoth, especially its search engine business, its main growth drivers, Windows and Office, still remain hamstrung due to the bleak state of the PC market.

Wall Street analysts are almost certain Microsoft will report a dip in profit and sales for its fiscal fourth quarter. They expect Microsoft to report earnings of around 36 cents a share and $14.38 billion in revenue, according to Reuters. It must be noted that the company had reported earnings of 46 cents a share and $15.84 billion in revenue for the same quarter last year.

With the PC market showing some signs of recovery and the chances of a search-and-online-ads deal between Yahoo and Microsoft having been revived, Microsoft has a lot to look forward to.