Microsoft has released a statement about the battery life issue in Windows 7.

It said, “The warning received on some computers using Windows 7 uses firmware information (information about hardware status provided by the PC itself) to determine if battery replacement is needed…The battery notification is new functionality in Windows 7, so the notification itself should not be an indication that customers are having this issue. Windows Vista and Windows XP did not display notifications when it was time to replace the battery.”

Therefore, the operating system is just reporting the battery life accurately.

Source: PC World

Sophos has posted about a Starbucks $25 gift card scam on its blog section.

The website shows that those who are interested on getting the gift card must follow six steps. SavioL of Sophos, the author of the article, notes that there is a message on the bottom left of the site which says, “This is not a scam, we are merely trying to get people to go to Starbucks. We are trying to see what coffee people purchase…” The “This is not a scam” phrase is used in many Nigerian/419 rackets according to SavioL.

Source: Sophos

One of Microsoft’s latest non-security updates which is supposed to improved reliability and stability of Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 actually provides an opposite result to some machines.

A user wrote on a thread at Microsoft Technet, “At shutdown the PC often hangs with a message that a program is still running. Forcing program end does not work. The PC hangs for minutes until I press the PC’s power button.”

Another user wrote, “I [j]ust installed this update and my system hangs/freeze[s] at the windows bootup screen.”

Source: Ars Technica

Microsoft will release patches for 13 bulletins. Five of the bulletins are listed as critical, seven are important, and the other one is moderate.

It is unknown what is the total number of vulnerabilities that the patches would fix.

10 of the bulletins need a restart which means down time for servers. The most important bulletin is bulletin #6 since it affect all currently supported desktop and server Windows versions.

“Usually when there have been bulletins like this in the past that cover every single Windows platform it means it could be fairly low level in the OS,” said Lumension’s senior director of solutions and strategy.

Source: PCWorld

Sophos has posted an article today about an announcement by Microsoft regarding a publicly disclosed vulnerability that exists in its Internet Explorer (IE) software versions 5 through 8.

The users who are not running Protected Mode, which is disabled by default in IEs for Windows XP are the ones who are at risk since the mode is enabled by default in Vista and 7.

No patch exists at the moment and users can protect themselves by making sure that the mode is enabled when using the web browser.

Source: Sophos

“The 27-inch iMac has been a huge hit with customers and we are working to increase supply to meet up with strong demand,” an Apple spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

The company is also working to solve problems with the machine’s display issues.

A firmware was released “to address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering.” Many customers who experienced the display issues are happy since the firmware solved their issues.

However, some people who applied the patch still have problems with their iMacs.

Source: The Register

At a Microsoft forum, users are complaining that the newest Windows operating system takes battery life at a faster rate than previous Windows operating systems.

“Unbelievable! It is Feb 2010, so this issue is already 8 months old and no fix from MS?” wrote RVBoston who is a forum member.

Another member said, “It was working fine then all of a sudden, around the 1st or 2nd week of October 09, it wouldn’t hold a long charge and I got the error.”

Source: Information Week

The free preview version of Microsoft’s latest consumer operating system Windows 7 will run out next month.

Users will need to upgrade to the full version of the product by March 1. If a user does not upgrade, his or her machine will automatically shut down every two hours.

“To avoid any data loss, I suggest making plans to move to a released version of Windows 7 before the automatic shutdowns start,” said a Microsoft spokesman.

“During these shutdowns, your work will not be saved,” he added.

Source: Tech Radar

A new version of iTunes has been released.

The new improvements include remembering the “Remember password for purchases” setting which the software ignores on the previous version, Smart Playlists and Podcasts with the iPod’s problems are fixed, and there is also an improvement about the recognition that an iPod is not connected.

Starting with version 9, the product requires a minimum operating system of the latest Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4.11) version or Windows XP.

As with every new version, 9.0.3 also address stability and performance issues according to Apple.

Source: Softpedia

A new “stable” version of Google Chrome has been released. Version 4.0 provides all Windows and Linux users access to the new extension gallery that includes more than 1,500 tools.

The Windows version also offers bookmark sync. Its purpose is to synchronize the bookmarks of a users across all of his or her machines. The web browser also has a 42 percent performance boost.

Users can manually update their browser or wait until it arrives in the stable channel which will happen within next week.

Source: The Register