All Microsoft Windows CE .NET editions, which include Full, Evaluation, and Emulation, provide access to additional source code covered by the Microsoft Shared Source License Agreement. You can use this code to help you debug or as a reference to better understand the platform, Microsoft says.

The well known reviewer Walter S. Mossberg (WSJ) reviews the gobeProductive 3 Office Suite (the world exclusive Preview was hosted at OSNews two months ago). WSJ's review seems to be a fair one overall, even if he missed a couple of good points like the PDF exporting and the all-in-one document format that is featured in GP3. In related news, there is a new GP3 demo coming out in 1-2 days from now (version 3.0.2) and you will be able to test run the suite yourselves. If you already have decided to buy the application and support Gobe, the price is now lowered at $75 USD, which is a steal, considering the fact that its Family License allows you to install it in all your home computers, plus one at your workplace.

"DVD recording got a big endorsement Wednesday from Microsoft, which is licensing technology from Sonic Solutions, presumably for use in Windows XP. The two companies signed a multiyear deal focused on Sonic's AuthorScript technology, used to create DVD movies. The move comes as computer manufacturers increasingly view the ability of PCs to record home movies to DVDs as a big selling point. Consumers can then run the discs in standard DVD players. An A-list of computer makers sell systems with DVD recording drives: Apple Computer, Compaq Computer, Dell Computer, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and Sony. Apple and Compaq were the early leaders, both having shipped DVD-recording PCs early last year." Read the rest of the story at C|Net News.

In December, Java was more popular than .Net for building Web services, according to a ZDNet UK poll, but weeks later the position had dramatically reversed; investigation revealed just what (dubious) lengths Microsoft will go to to promote its products and manipulate the public opinion.

"Over the past two years, Microsoft has been working with industry partners on the USB 2.0 project. We are pleased to announce that USB 2.0 drivers will be available for Microsoft WindowsXP through Windows Update early in 2002. USB 2.0 driver support for Windows 2000 is still under development, and will be available later in the first quarter of 2002. Microsoft will not provide USB 2.0 support for the Windows 9x platform or Windows NT 4.0. This article provides details on Microsoft plans for USB 2.0 support. The USB Architecture section describes the structure of the USB 2.0 stack on Windows 2000 and compares it to Windows XP and Windows .NET Server. The last section discusses Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) plans for supporting the testing of USB 2.0 host controllers, devices and hubs." Read the rest of the article at Microsoft's Platform Development site.

From Andrenaline Vault: nVidia introduced today the nForce 415-D processor set. The nForce 415-D combines the nForce’s Media and Communications Processor with a new System Platform Processor. The nForce SPP features TwinBank, a 128-bit memory controller architecture providing up to 4.2GB per second of system memory bandwidth; a dynamic adaptive speculative pre-processor for boosting CPU performance; a singlestep memory arbiter for memory efficiency; and a 4X accelerated graphics port for external GPU expansion. The nForce MCP also integrates an audio processing unit with a Dolby Digital 5.1 real-time encoder; StreamThru, enhanced data streaming technology, and a communications suite including support for HomePNA 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet and USB.

"Bill Gates yesterday unveiled two new technologies, Freestyle and Mira, designed to beef up the capabilities of the PC - and hence, Windows XP - in the home. Both are intended to let users wander around the room or house while controlling their PC; Freestyle is categorised as a set of extensions to XP, while Mira is to all intents and purposes a CE-based thin client. Freestyle seems essentially to be a mechanism for extending the consumer PC into a combo media centre, jukebox and TV, so is being supported by consumer PC manufacturers such as HP, NEC and Samsung. Mira is somewhat more ambitious, and appears to slot in between Freestyle and the Tablet PC. It's described as a "new set of Windows CE.NET-based technologies," and the bottom line is that it enables smart flat panel displays which you can carry around and use for browsing and control purposes." Read the rest of the report at TheRegister, or at C|Net News.

At Macworld Conference & Expo, Microsoft Corp. announced the immediate availability of Microsoft Windows Media Player for MacOSX (6.1 MB). The new player has been Carbonized to run natively on MacOSX and displays the operating system's new Aqua interface. Windows Media Player for Mac OS X allows Mac users to easily enjoy playback of high-quality Windows Media Audio and Video content. The new release supports the latest Windows Media Audio 8 and Windows Media Video 8, as well as Windows Media Digital Rights Management, and is available in six languages worldwide. The new player features the new Aqua interface, which provides a look consistent with many other new Mac applications. Also, The OfficeX Test Drive (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage the e-mail application and personal information manager) has been released for MacOSX as a free download (122 MB). Inside the OfficeX Test Drive you’ll see how it combines several new and improved features with core MacOSX technologies.

I made some price comparisons this evening following the release of the new iMac. So, here is what I discovered, by trying to build an "iMac"-like PC (I targetted the configuration of the middle range iMac which sells at $1500), consulting prices from PriceWatch & PriceGrabber. The mentioned prices are retail and the individual components probably have costed even less for Apple, but I am going to overlook that and give the benefit to Apple. Update: Some good comments and further clarifications on the subject, can be found here. Update2: And speaking of eMachines (whose quality is not bad, neither the company is out of business (yet)), check out their brand new systems and prices. They even prepare for sale a NorthWood P4 system at 2Ghz. NorthWood is the new P4 CPU model which is much faster than its P4 predessesor at the same clock speed.

From NewsForge: "According to its website, the goal of theKompany is "to provide developers with powerful, easy-to-use tools for creating equally powerful and useful software for the world's leading open-source operating system, Linux -- and thereby ensure the long-term success of Linux." To find out more about theKompany and its plans for supporting Linux on the corporate and home desktop, DesktopLinux.com spoke with theKompany President and Founder, Shawn Gordon."

So, the big weapon that Apple was highly touting are indeed the new iMacs. Previous low end models were in the price range of $1000, but the new price range of iMacs will start at $1300 USD and goes up to $1800 USD. The specs:

700 MHz G4, 128MB RAM, 40GB drive, CD-RW - $1,299 (available March)

700 MHz G4, 256MB RAM, 40GB drive, DVD/CD-RW - $1,499 (available February)

800 MHz G4, 256MB RAM, 60GB drive, SuperDrive (DVD burn) - $1,799 (available January)

All iMacs will feature a GeForce2MX graphics chipset and the two high-end models include Pro Speakers. To the dissapointment of lots of OSNews readers (judging from our comment's section), the 15" LCD monitor only does 1024x768 (by design, good quality LCDs can deliver easily higher resolutions to this screen size - unlike CRTs which are more bound to the screen size). Get the latest info and detailed information from Steve Jobs' keynote at MacMinute and C|Net News. Our Take: This was over hyped all last week. ZDNews reported that Apple has not hyped anything in such a way ever, and they should have introduced something revolutionary. Apple should not have hyped these new products so much, as they are just a more modern & futuristic revision of an existing product. I am dissapointed in the way they tried to manipulate the crowd. Also, the entry level iMac has a ridiculously small amount of memory and no DVD playback. And it does not even meet my $1000 budget to buy the low-end machine Apple has to offer. I am dissapointed with Apple for more than one reason.

I'm writing this opinion piece on the eve of perhaps Apple's most hyped MacWorld Expo ever. TIME Canada has already pre-released an article about the next-generation flat-panel iMac machines, complete with pictures of the it, its industrial designer and Apple CEO Steve Jobs. While the complete picture has yet to be painted (and will be in the morning when Jobs reveals the specifications during his keynote speech), I'm starting to believe that Apple feels that "innovation" and "revolution" are a matter of hardware and user interface aesthetics. Where Apple used to pave the way for new technologies, programming methodologies and user interfaces, they remain stuck in a rut of their own creation, bound to re-create a lot of the same mistakes that caused them to lose the majority of their market share and relevance to Microsoft in the 1990's. E-I-C's note: The article was written before the actual MacWorld Keynote took place.

TimeCanada was "kind enough" (someone could say that they have screwed up, and they now link their index page to Time.com - but we know a few tricks of our own to link to the 'right page' which they try to hide) to write a story about Apple's new iMac, that is supposed to be revealed tomorrow during Steve Jobs' keynote speech at MacWorld SF. At this writing, the article is still up but hidden from the front page of TimeCanada, and the date on the article is January 14, 2002. If the article will be taken down, visit Slashdot for details and lots of comments. Our Take: I am personally very dissapointed, if this is indeed the "big secret" that Apple was keeping and was hyping enormously all week. Firstly, I was waiting for something else as the "secret weapon" than an iMac update (no matter if this update may be big), and as I read in the article, while it does not give any hardware specs except the fact that the new iMac will have DVD burning capabilities, the prices start at $1300 up to $1800 USD for the highest model, and that $1300 is $300 more than the previous low-end iMac model. I do not care about DVD burning (I only want playback) and even if the new iMac can do.. coffee, simply put, this is just too expensive for me, as I was expecting to buy a new G4-based iMac for $999 as I wrote recently. Plus, the new iMac looks like an egg (that's not necessarily bad though :). Update: Updated link and many pictures of the new iMac.

"Ruby. Perhaps you've heard of it? "Oh, yeah, I think it's one of those new object oriented scripting languages", you say. I know a lot of you might be thinking "Not another new language! I'm perfectly happy with (COBOL/C/cshell/awk/Perl/...); why does the world need another programming language?!", while a few others are thinking 'Cool, a new language to explore'." Read the rest of the article, an introduction to the Ruby programming language, at FreshMeat.