Planet Lowyat

Microsoft will feed Windows Vista users an update in the next week to finger illegal copies installed with cracks that the company will bust when it rolls out Service Pack 1 (SP1) in mid-March.

The ‘update’ which will go out via Windows Update (WU) and install automatically on most Vista machines, will detect two cracks commonly used to activate pirated copies of the operating system. The cracks evade Vista’s built-in counterfeit-detection technology by sidestepping product activation and spoofing a legitimate installation.

One of the cracks, “Grace Timer,” extends Vista’s activation grace period, which is normally 30 days, until the year 2099. The other, called OEM BIOS, modifies system files and the PC’s BIOS to mimic the product activation done by computer-makers at the factory.

Both cracks will be blocked by Vista SP1, the major update that will hit WU as an optional download in mid-March and automatically download and install the next month.

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Storage giant EMC said today that it’s angling to purchase Pi Corp, a Seattle-based company whose software and services will help users keep track of their personal data.

Pi develops software and online services to enable users to control how they find, access, share and protect everything from photos, videos, and music. The data can be stored online or locally. Pi hasn’t actually launched any products or services yet: They are in beta testing, according to EMC.

EMC sees Pi not only as part of its consumer push, but also an element of its cloud computing strategy, the next big thing in storage, according to one analyst. Read more »

NVIDIA has unveiled the first of its next generation GeForce 9 series of graphics processing units, where the company touts this latest offering to deliver the largest single-generation performance jump in the entire history of NVIDIA. The GPU in question is the GeForce 9600 GT that pumps out 116% more performance than its predecessor, without having a price tag that breaks the $199 mark. Will this make you rush out and purchase the 9600 GT, or are you rather upset that you just picked up an 8600 GT from the store? Excerpts from the press release are available right after the jump.

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According to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, speaking to Bloomberg, who believes that the already stellar sales will be helped even further by key software launches in the region, such as Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros Brawl.

The Wii has so far sold about 8 million systems in the USA, with the Xbox 360 topping 9 million presently.

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Congratulations to Mozilla Firefox!

The Firefox browser has been downloaded more than 500 million times, says their SpreadFirefox website. Read more »