ATI

Google today announced a new service, Google Buzz, that automatically brings social networking into Gmail and the rest of the Google-sphere. Whether or not you're big on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, Buzz offers a somewhat new and intriguing approach.

Buzz's five key features, as laid out in the event at Google HQ today, include:

• Automatic friends lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail)
• "Rich fast sharing" combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed, and it includes full-sized photo browsing
• Public and private sharing (swap between family and friends)
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates, like Facebook might, Buzz features emails that update dynamically with all Buzz thread content)
• "Recommended Buzz" puts friend-of-friend content into your stream, even if you're not acquainted. Recommendations learn over time with your feedback.

Buzz lets you share photos, video, links to web sites, and other content from all over the web with your closest contacts or with the public at large.

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Last week, Microsoft posted a slew of non-security updates for Windows 7, one of which was titled as follows: "An update is available to improve the stability and the reliability of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2." Unfortunately, according to a thread onMicrosoft TechNet, the update (KB977074) is actually breaking the stability and reliability of the operating system.

"I just installed this update and my system hangs & freezes at the windows bootup screen," the thread starter wrote. Another user went a little more in-depth: "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. During one startup, a message came up indicating I needed to validate Windows 7. Therefore the PC lost the validation information. The revalidate succeeded. Shutdown problems consistently occur after running media center. Also have problems with recorded TV programs. Intermittently can't burn a recorded TV program to disc. After this failure occurs, a subsequent shutdown produces a hang 100% of the time."

Microsoft regularly releases Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 stability and reliability updates, and this one builds on those that preceded it. The sad part is that the issues described by the users affected sound a lot worse than the issues this update is supposed to address, like keyboard malfunctions, notification icons, and screen saver problems.

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I love it, now I can watch previous Dolphin games on Hulu;)

Just in time for Super Bowl XLIV, Hulu has added NFL Network and NFL Films to its lineup of content partners.

Eight shows are available at launch, including America's Game, Greatest Games and Season in Review, as well as Hard Knocks, which ran on HBO but was produced by NFL Films.

In addition, Hulu is bringing back its annual Super Bowl commercials subsection.

Read more at B&C here

High-definition video files were meant to be seen on big-screen televisions, not your 19-inch PC monitor. But getting these files—either personally ripped from high-def sources or downloaded from the Internet—from your desktop to the living room has always been a cumbersome process. Users previously had the option of streaming over a network to devices like the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, which have restrictive file compatibility, or they could use a dedicated video player like Western Digital’s WD TV, which could only play back files from attached USB drives. The new WD TV Live, however, comes with a much-needed Ethernet port, and along with the addition of other new hardware and software features, is the best video streamer we’ve tested yet.

Like its predecessor, the WD TV Live doesn’t actually store any media. Plug portable hard drives filled with your movies, music, and photos into the player’s two USB ports and it’ll output the content to your home theater via either an HDMI, composite, or component video connection (also added since the original design). And while the first WD TV supported a host of popular file types, format compatibility on this successor is even more impressive. In our tests, high-bitrate 1080p videos encoded with MPEG, Xvid, H.264, or WMV codecs played without a hitch, even when housed in a variety of file containers, like Matroska MKVs. You can also play videos with multiple audio tracks, soft subtitles, and even DTS audio—a big omission in the last iteration. We only ran into problems on a few occasions, most notably with WMV 9–encoded files that wouldn’t play audio, and raw video recorded from high-end digital cameras.

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I love listening to online radio while I surf or work, and Radio Tuna is definitely one of the best I have found. You can listen to stations without signing up, but if you sign up for free you are able to bookmark all your favorite stations.

Radio Tuna

In the wake of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's major speech yesterday on Internet freedom, a speech in which she called out countries like Egypt, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Iran, and China, most governments have yet to respond. China, however, was quick to reply after dealing with the Google issue for a week already.

Here's what has happened in 24 turbulent hours. 

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Rumors are floating around that Hulu is going to start charging
for certain content. Supposedly you will be able to watch the last 5
episodes of a show for free, but anything older than 5 days will have a fee.

Read more here

I am always ready for the newest version of Firefox!

Snatch it up here;)