The people at Microsoft have decided that they would expand the range of choice of things to do by hiring famous Hollywood producer, one “Mr Safran” in a hope that it would bring in more people onto xbox live and to give those already a new dimension of how to use there Xbox.

There is currently 10 million people currently playing on Xbox live with 18 Million consoles sold through out the world. This will be a big step for Microsoft as they look to take a leap in front of the other gaming giant Sony and Nintendo.

The Producer has been signed first and fore most to produce short 10 minute stories looking to target gamers interests like comedy and the ever growing genre of Horror. The Producers from Safran Company are looking to sign big filmmakers with the likes of Spielberg and Lucas thrown into the mix. Although they have said that they aren’t expecting big name actors.

The one downside is that this will of course cost, and will be through microsoft points, the idea looks to go through in americas autumn our spring

A team of security researchers have won themselves $10,000 for hacking into the MacBook Air in under two minutes by exploiting a Safari vulnerability.

This was done at the CanSecWest conference where there is a competition for hacking into the MacBook Air, Vista and Ubuntu. IDG News Service is reporting that on the first day, no one managed to execute any code as it was limited to over-the-network techniques on the OS itself.

The second day saw the rules changed to allow attacks done by tricking somebody to access a malicious website or e-mail. Hackers were allowed to target “default installed client-side applications,” like web browsers.

The researchers already had an attack code already set up on a website and retrived a file after “tricking” the judges to visit the site.

The winners signed a non-disclosure agreement so that this could not be exploited and a site said that Apple has been informed about the vulnerability.

News.com.au is saying that Australia could be the first recipients of the new 3G iPhone coming out later this year. We missed out on the original because it uses the 2.5G network, which is slower than the 3G network. All carriers except Three carry both 3G and 2.5G. The 2.5G is known as EDGE in the US.

Apple has been tight-lipped on the arrival of the iPhone but has confirmed that the 3G version will be made, according to News.com.au. Earlier this year, analysts have been looking into supplier agreements and Steve Jobs travel expenses and have concluded that it would be released somewhere in June or July.

But these conflict with what Spanish mobile operater Telefonica told the press, saying it would be released in May. Spain missed out on the same reason why we missed out on the iPhone as well.

Kevin Rose, from Digg fame, said on his weekly appearance on Revision3’s Diggnation that a “source” told him that the 3G iPhone would be out soon and would include video calling.

Back in Australia; Optus, Vodafone and Telstra are thought to be in contention to gain the exclusive rights to the iPhone.

Rumours are pointing to Optus as SingTel was thought to be in talks to have the rights to the iPhone for Australasian region. SingTel has not rejected or confirmed the rumours.

But Telstra posted an ad for a designer who could build applications for its search company Sensis.

Vodafone’s spokesperson said last year that the company expects a 3G version of the phone to be under its mobile network.

The iPhone is under exclusive contracts with O2 in the UK, Orange in France, T-Mobile in Germany and AT&T in the US.

CBS in the US is testing out in its labs HD streaming. It currently has 2 minute clips of six shows, including Dexter, How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory; in 480p.

While it has not tested anything beyond that, but they say they will stream in 720p and 1080p soon. They are using H.264/AVC if you want to get technical.

However, it is not the first. Hulu, the video on demand service brought to you by News Corporation and NBC Universal, is showing HD as well; in 360p, 480p and 720p. While the 360p and 480p are streamed, the 720p content is progressively downloaded.

Even if CBS streams in 720p, or with Hulu’s current setup - it will be no different to what you see in the previous formats. Speaking to TechCrunch; Eric Feng, CTO of Hulu, said that the median of streaming in the US is 1.9mb/sec and that is considered to be 720p or higher on the web. But even if CBS chose to stream in 720p, they will experience buffering problems.

High Definition content is starting to appear on the web, with even YouTube trialling it but appears rarely to users and appears at random.

We should also note that Hulu does not have 480p or 720p on most of its videos. It currently has 480p on some of its movies and 720p on videos under its “HD Gallery”. It won’t deploy 1080p because it would be a pain for them and its users.

As you can see, we have been not doing the usual short excerpt for the stories lately. It’s not because I’m tired but we have been working very hard because TECH.GEEK is getting a redesign and a revamp. No longer we have to be stuck in the old and tired “news” layout, but we are switching to what we are and always have been - a blog.

As well, due to this; the TECH.GEEK Podcast is in extended break mode. This is because many of us are working in the site. You will still have the news posted by me - but sometime after the revamp.

The revamp, unlike October’s revamp, will take place somewhere next week. So please don’t call us that the site is down. We are working on the site. This will take place somewhere between 10:00PM our time, as we don’t tire ourselves.

The new revamp will also see ‘The Journal’ being its own separate blog - meaning that all of our staff can write in it. From books, weird things, gadgets and online videos - it is the place to find what is what on the web. It will also be the place where most of our opinions will be and some others taken from their sites.

Also, TECH.GEEK Studios is taking the new design too.

We are also, in TECH.GEEK Studios, launching a couple of new shows - either on the YouTube account or on our Blip.TV accounts (we have two - one for us and one for Stewart).  So if you have any technology-related questions, we want them and we will answer them on the show. We will have a online experience where you can give us your questions via the comments section here, e-mail, IM, Skype or video response.

So there, wish us luck for the redesign.

Terence Huynh
Head Editor

It looks like Senator Hillary Clinton is gearing up for her war on video games.

Sources say that Clinton has been asking for volunteers for a new anti-violence in video games initiative. Specifically, Clinton is looking for someone who feels passionate about extreme violence in video games.

One of Clinton’s ideas is to try and add a special tax to video games, sort of like what they do for cigarettes. The profits from the tax would then go to a child advocacy and obesity programs.

The “concerned parent” would need to attend a press conference and make a short statement about their opinion and should be able to deal with annoying reporters asking questions like: Did Clinton send out a memo asking for someone like you to talk for her at a press conference?

Just a word of warning gamers, this isn’t going away. Clinton has her heart set on making violence in video games a key component of her platform. Taxes on video games are going to be discussed.

This Article is being written whilst i am watching the game of Manchester United vs Liverpool, which by my opinion has had some of the worst umpireing i have ever seen and personally, i’m appalled by this. Which sparks the debate of should technjology be used in Sporting competition.

In this debate some things need to be made clear, technology of course one day will be implemented in sports, this argument is about the immediate introduction into sports.

PROS

1. i’t will avoid controversy like the one appearing infront of me.

2. It would reduce arguments about wrong or right calls

3. It would be Fair 

 CONS

1. It would remove the spontenuity from the game, which some people like.

2. It would cost to put togethor and to fix, with money that could be spent on training umpires.

3. What would happen if it were to break down.

Personally i know what i think, but i am curious as to what you other people think. 

When Microsoft launched Windows Server Home, the new moved silently in the market. Dedicated servers “family”, the system does not in fact a specific request as we can see ships, but could create its own audience by concentrating the digital life of an entire family.

A few months after its launch, a problem boring appeared in one of the major features of the system. Windows Server Home makes it possible to aggregate more than one hard drive and bring up the total as a single entity, removing the requirement to switch to appoint disks with letters. Technology Drive Extender is responsible for managing and guiding the disk access in the future.

This technology uses a driver that actually causes the problem. In some cases, data corruptions have been reported, and Microsoft had announced work on the problem. Now that the cause has been found, the publisher announced that an update will be available in June to correct this concern embarrassing.

Although still wait three months to be rid of the problem, Microsoft is currently testing a beta version of the patch. It modifies the operation of the system at a low level, which explains the time necessary.

Guitar manufacturer Gisbon Guitar has now added six major retailers to its lawsuit against Activision’s Guitar Hero. The stores are Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Gamestop, Toys-R-Us and Amazon.

The decision to add them to the lawsuit was made “reluctantly”, according to a statement released by the manufacturer.

The latest move, which was filed on Monday, has been criticized by Activision.

“Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong,” it said in a statement. “We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision’s relationship with its customers and its consumers.”

The lawsuit was launched earlier this month as Gisbon claims that it violates a 1999 patent for a “virtual-reality guitar-playing device” that could “simulate(s) participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3-D display that includes stereo speakers.” The copy of this patent was included in its original lawsuit - and it is indeed dated on November 23, 1999.

Activision filed for declaratory relief on March 11, claiming that the lawsuit came after the game publisher terminated a marketing deal with the guitar manufacturer. In the filing, it says that Gisbon “waited three years to make its patent allegations” and only started the lawsuit after it was not interested in renewing the current “marketing and support agreement”.

It also says that Gisbon’s claims were disingenuous and lack any justification.

The lawsuit brings 10 defendants to lawsuit; with MTV Networks, Electronics Arts and Harmonix being added to the list with the six retailers and Activision today. All three are involved with the game “Rock Band”, which is based on “Guitar Hero”, but also includes vocal, bass guitar and drums into the gameplay.

Representatives for all three companies that have been recently added have declined to comment. Harmonix created and developed some of the games in the “Guitar Hero” franchise.

Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock has been released in Australia, but the hybrid disc for Mac and PC has been delayed; with Rock Band coming out in Q2 2008.

Boing Boing is reporting that Slysoft, the makers of the famous DVD-copying software AnyDVD HD, has managed to crack the new anti-copying system used on Blu-Ray disks.

Known as BD+, it was thought to be uncrackable and was one of the reasons cited by many pundits for its victory over HD-DVD in the format wars. BD+ allowed the movie studios to include applications on the disks with some can downgrade or not play parts of the disk.

“Admittedly, we are not really so fast with this because actually we had intended to publish this release already in December as promised. However, it was decided for strategic reasons to wait a bit for the outcome of the “format war” between HD DVD and Blu-ray. On top of
that, we first wanted to see our assumptions confirmed about the in the meantime released BD+ titles regarding the BD+ Virtual Machine. We are rather proud to have brought back to earth the highly-praised and previously “unbreakable” BD+. However, we must also admit that the Blu-ray titles released up to now have not fully exploited the possibilities of BD+,” Peer van Heuen, the head of High-Definition technologies, said in a press release.

“Future releases will undoubtedly have a modified and more polished BD+ protection, but we are well prepared for this and await the coming developments rather relaxed.”