By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

I first wrote about Microsoft’s attempts to get Windows XP on the OLPC last December. You may recall that James Utzschneider, the general manager of Microsoft’s emerging market unit, was just about the make at trip to the OLPC Foundation.

Microsoft was having to write a series of drivers and new code to get the OS to boot from the SD card, among other things. They weren’t even clear at the time if they could do it.

Yet Thursday in a post on Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential blog, Utzschneider announced that Windows XP on the XO-1 has RTM’ed.

On another front in this area, Microsoft internally “RTM’ed” (Released to Manufacturing) the Windows XP version we are building for the OLPC XO computer. Windows on the XO looks like it is on track for availability in these types of national educational PC deals in September. We still have no plans to make Windows available for individuals who bought an XO in the Give 1 Get 1 program though.

The addition of XP to versions of the XO-1 will raise the price of the laptop from $188 to slightly over $200, with $3 devoted to the cost of the OS with the rest for hardware adjustments including more RAM. Which of course explains why “Give One, Get One” XO-1’s can’t get the OS: not enough RAM.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

I take it Open Tech hasn’t been reading the news, or they would have heard that Apple doesn’t take kindly to clone makers. After all, it’s only been a week since Apple sued Mac clone maker Psystar. On the other hand, this is a clone with a twist.

Open Tech is selling Mac clones, yes, but they won’t install the OS for you. Instead they will provide a kit that will allow the end user to Mac OS X. What they are trying to avoid is this part of the EULA for Mac OS X:

“You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.”

Except - they’re not really avoiding it, are they? That “enable others to do so” clause is a gotcha.

Right now, nothing is available anyway. The site simply says “coming soon” for all their models. Is this to give Apple enough time to sue before they waste time trying to take orders (heh)?

Also, the site has a .tk country code top-level domain (ccTLD). That would be Tokelau, a territory of New Zealand located in the South Pacific. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are headquartered in Tokelau.

More to come, I’m sure.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

On Friday Intel celebrated its 40th anniversary, and as part of that, they unveiled the World Mural Project. The project is a Web-based digital art piece that includes visual and written contents from the Intel Computer Clubhouse Network, which stretches around the world. More than 500 young people in 21 countries participated in the project, with approximately 300 Intel volunteers at 70 Clubhouses around the world working with them.

Prior to the unveiling, I had the pleasure of speaking to Favianna Rodriguez, the digital artist commissioned by Intel for this project, Peter Broffman, the manager of Intel’s Informal Education program, and Agnes Kwan, Intel’s international PR manager.

Working with the clubhouses, the idea was to create one piece of digital art all contributed to from all around the world. As I indicated, each contribution would consist of two parts: one part graphic and one part textual.

The topic of the mural: What does the future hold?

This project is also part of Intel’s attempt to give back 1 million employee volunteer hours during their 40th anniversary year. As Intel told me, they are always striving to encourage employees to give back to the community, but this year in particular, they are shooting for more.

(And yes, I did ask about employees giving back to the community during normal “working hours;” after all most of us feel overworked in this global economy. The response was that it was on a case-by-case basis.)

If you click the image above, you can see a larger image of the mural.

In their 40th Anniversary press release, Intel said:

Through this project, youth all around the globe are telling us that they expect computers will continue to change the world in positive ways for the next 40 years and beyond.

“As an industry, we have a responsibility to fulfill these expectations,” said Bruce Sewell, senior vice president for corporate social responsibility at Intel. “By providing opportunities for young people in underserved communities to learn technology literacy and problem-solving skills, we hope to secure the next generation of innovators, thought leaders and role models.”

For those interested, Intel also has a Flickr set to celebrate its 40th anniversary here, with some vintage stuff, like a picture of a 4004 CPU and the original IBM PC.

Happy Anniversary, Intel, and congratulations.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Come on, you had to be expecting this. The question wasn’t if, but when (and perhaps, what was taking so long). Since Psystar opened up its doors in April we’ve been waiting for the hammer to fall, and apparently Apple’s really big hammer fell on July 3rd, with a lawsuit filed.

You can check the court docket history here (.PDF).

The information was first highlighted by Jorge Espinosa’s blog. He’s a lawyer and his firm specializes in:

Trademarks, copyrights, patents and the business of protecting the products of human creativity. Domestic and international litigation and prosecution. Border protection. Internet law.

Figures he’d be interested in this - and that he’d note it.

So, is this the end of Psystar? With Apple’s big legal wallets, one would think so.

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Kodak just announced the first 50 megapixel digital sensor, the KAF-50100 Image Sensor and today Hasselblad has unveiled the first camera to use the new chip. No word on pricing yet, but the Hasselblad H3DII-50 is definitely the sharpest camera on the market.

What does 50 megapixels mean? Consider this: with a 50 megapixel camera, if you took an arial photo of a 1.5 mile wide field, the sensor could zoom in and detect an object the size of a small notebook computer. Which of course begs the question - do we need this?
Source: Ubergizmo

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

We cover the classic Nintendo game “Duck Hunt” from time to time. (take a look at some earlier posts below and then get back to this one, we’ll wait.) Today, we found a very serious shooting simulator from Marksman Training Systems AB called the ST-2. It is designed for shooting instructors and from the excerpt below, you can see this is no toy.

Shooting
The simulator can be used with most shotguns and rifles. The camera sensor that registers gun movements and shooting direction can be easily attached to the barrel of your own gun. The shooting direction is calibrated by a single shot at a calibration target. The shooting scenarios include moving and fixed targets. Starting position, trajectory, speed of the targets are parameters that can be altered by the user creating a wide variety of scenarios to practice on. Hit position and the effectiveness of the shot are evaluated according to all contributing factors: ammunition load and weight, range, target size, trajectory and speed.

Diagnostics
The diagnostics provided by ST-2 after a shot
- Illustrates how you missed
- Why you missed
- If you have correct gun fit
- Helps improve your shooting technique to increase success in the field and competition
Source: Marksman Training Systems AB

We Say: No pricing yet, but my guess is that unless you are Bill Gates or some other very bored billionaire, this one is not showing up in the home anytime soon.

More Ducks

–Kill the Dog from Dog Hunt < --New & difficult
–Duck Hunt + Doom = Duck DOOM< --don't miss
–Play the Original Duck Hunt Online
–DIY: Build a Sniper Rifle for Duck Hunt < --sick

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Without much fanfare, Apple has made a couple of pretty significant price cuts to the MacBook Air. The total of the cuts comes to a pretty nice $500.

First, the price of the 64 GB SSD (meaning flash ram-based) drive has been dropped $400, from $999 to $599 (see above). Second, the price of the CPU upgrade from 1.6 to 1.8 GHz has been dropped from $300 to $200.

So the price of the top of the line MBA has been dropped from $3098 to $2598. While not cheap, it’s in the “dang, that’s a pretty decent price” range now.

On the other hand, $599 is still a pretty pricey premium. Still, this type of downward movement by Apple has to affect pricing of other similar laptops, such as Lenovo’s X300.

And those customers with orders in progress will receive this email:

To Our Valued Apple Customer:

Apple has announced a price drop for a component(s) of the MacBook Air that you recently ordered. We have automatically adjusted your order to reflect the new lower price.

For up-to-date information on your order, please visit our Order Status website at http://www.apple.com/orderstatus. After your order is shipped, you can also obtain tracking information on this site.

Thank you for your shopping at the Apple Store.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Support

By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Not sure how a police detective in Oregon was the one to crack this, but he found a way to retrieve calls, emails, and contacts from a recently purchased refurbished iPhone that had “allegedly” been wiped clean. Not good news to the many businesses eyeing the iPhone, as well as the core users who chat and phone and email on their beloved handset.

The good news is that Apple is prepping a new version of its software that will wipe your iPhone clean. Verdict: Takes about an hour to erase the 8GB version, but that is one hour well spent.

‘According to official statements made by Apple during its developers conference earlier this month, as well as this press release, “iPhone 2.0 software will be available on July 11 as a free software update via iTunes 7.7 or later for all iPhone customers.”‘ Source: AppleInsider