Microsoft has sponsored a study into its latest operating system and the new Aero theme, which has come to the conclusion that it doesn't slow PCs. Apparently the new interface "had little or no negative impact on Vista's performance". Matt Ayers, a program manager at Microsoft, wrote "We put quite a bit of effort into making sure that the new visuals were as efficient as possible, and it really paid off," continuing "You can run Aero without guilt!" Many people have criticised the resource-hungry Windows Vista which has put some gamers off using it, and this report may make people sceptical as to why Microsoft recommends a noticeably more powerful system when running the Aero interface. Although the report comes to this conclusion, it does not appear to contain any benchmarks related to gaming or 3D applications.

A new flaw has been exposed in Google's Gmail service which could allow hackers to get hold of your contacts. When you log into your Gmail (Googlemail in some countries) account, Google will put your details into a JavaScript file. Because of this, if you browse other websites whilst logged into your account, any of them could potentially declare the function "google" and be able to get hold of all of your contacts. The only two ways to ensure your privacy is safe are to disable JavaScript in all websites except those you trust or to not browse other sites whilst logged into any Google service. Admittedly Gmail is still only a beta, but a fault like this could be quite serious.

Update: Disabling JavaScript did not solve this problem, however it appears that Google has now fixed this issue and your contacts list should be safe.

Everyones favorite game Duke Nukem Forever wins Vaporware '06, the king of Vaporware returns!
Wired wrote a nice list of the Vaporest(?) Vaporware of 2006, programs and hardware that should have been but are not.

• Duke Nukem Forever
• TiVoToGo for Mac
• Skype for Symbian
• Spore
• SED Televisions
• Airbus 380
• Gran Turismo 4 Mobile
• The "IPod Killer"
• Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
• Optimus-103 Keyboard

An impressive list of nice stuff to have, most of them should be available once hell freezes over.
For full details on these wannahaves follow the linky.

Today my good friend Unwinder announced the final release of his RivaTuner v2.0 utility. Since its existance the tool has had over 5 million downloads, which just shows how much there is a need for good overclocking software.

Unfortunately with this version Unwinder steps down from Rivatuner development, at least for a few months. I am very sad to see this happening and will miss the countless discussions we had about how to interface with hardware to achieve things like monitoring, overclocking and fan control.

Head over to Guru3D to grab the final RivaTuner 2.0.

In fact, a lot of DX10 games are delayed. Crysis and Flight Simulator X have both pushed off their release dates to at least late Q1 07, if not Q2 or Q3. The main reason behind this is the lack of DX10 hardware support for these games, and we will be lucky if there is a DX10 beta of Flight Simulator X on the launch day of Windows Vista.

BBC Worldwide has announced that it plans to release many of its programmes for free viewing via file sharing. Anyone living in the US and using Azureus' Zudeo software will be able to download titles such as Little Britain, Doctor Who, Monty Python series and Red Dwarf. Zudeo is Azureus' version of YouTube (Zudeo it offers high definition videos), although they are most famous for their controversial BitTorrent software. The BBC said this move is part of a drive to reach the largest audience possible.

Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom - the founders of Skype, one of the largest companies in VoIP calling - are planning for a peer-to-peer IPTV service. About 6,000 users are already beta testing this service (codenamed the Venice Project) which is intended to allow people to share any videos that they own the copyright to, almost like a peer-to-peer YouTube. Although this is an interesting idea, many connections will be unable to handle the upload speeds that would be required if thousands of people were looking to stream the same video from a few users.

Google Inc. has released a customized version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) browser in which Google, not Windows Live Search, is the default search engine. In addition to using Google as the default search engine, Google's customized version of IE 7 also provides users with the Google Toolbar and a Google homepage they can personalize. Google's customized version of IE 7 can be downloaded from here.

Microsoft Website gets a faceliftIf you take a look at www.microsoft.com you will notice that the site now has a new layout, giving it a more modern and fresh look (old shown on the left, new on the right). Pages based on a similar template have been appearing for newer software such as Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista for some time now, but Microsoft have only now transferred it to their main page. They seem to be aiming for a simpler design to make navigation easier for the average user. If you want to read the frequently asked questions about the new site take a look here.

Every HP computer that is "Windows Vista ready" and shipped with a Windows Vista upgrade coupon will get a free copy of Windows Vista when it is released. However, they will also get a free DVD full of various drivers, as well as a small guide on upgrading to Windows Vista, to make the upgrade process as worry free as possible. HP has worked since 2001 with Microsoft to ensure an easy upgrade path.

Back in August, we reported that Microsoft would let amateur game programmers have a go at making games for the Xbox360. Based on Visual C# 2005 Express Edition and Microsoft .NET framework, XNA Game Studio Express allows anyone running a computer with Windows XP to make Xbox360 games. Of course, for the games to actually run, the author has to be a member of the XNA Creators Club, which costs $99 a year through Xbox Live. Members of the XNA Creators Club get the ability to publish games on Xbox Live, forum support, and various assets. You can download Game Studio Express and the framework required from MSDN.

The Inquirer learned that NVIDIA plans to release the G80 driver for Windows Vista, DirectX10 enabled and fully functional, in mid December. NVIDIA is not giving away "review samples" of the driver, but internal sources say that the driver is very nice and works quite well. NVIDIA hasn't released a public Vista driver yet because the mainstream version of Vista is not due for release until January 30th, and NVIDIA wants time to work all the bugs out.