Smartphones running Windows Phone 7 will hit shop shelves around Europe on 21 October, according to several reports.

The devices will go on sale then in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the reports said. Microsoft will splash out on a number of launch events in the run-up to release, with Orange joining forces with the software maker for the UK debut, according to Neowin, quoting “sources familiar with the software giant’s plans”.

The date fits the likely timeframe, given that Microsoft completed development of its new mobile OS at the beginning of September and looks set to hold an open house to promote it in New York on 11 October. Despite this, it isn’t expected to arrive in the US until early November, and then only on GSM networks.

Windows Phone 7 marks a clean break with its predecessors, and the fresh start includes the use of technologies such as Silverlight. However, the new mobile OS has come under fire for its lack of some key features, such as the ability to cut and paste.

HTC, Samsung and Dell are among the handset makers that have signed up to sell Windows Phone 7 smartphones at its launch.

Source: ZDNET

The MaxBlogPress team are reopening their hot-selling plugin offer – “Subscribers Magnet” – for 4 days only!

If you haven’t heard by now, this is the same plugin bloggers all over the Internet downloaded in droves and amazingly experienced a “sizable” boost in their mailing list subscriptions. It is no secret; once you try this on your blog, you could double or even triple your sign-ups, virtually “overnight”.

The best part is that you don’t need to get any additional traffic; this plugin works wonders at the current level of your traffic. Obviously, if you’re only getting one or two visitors a day to your blog, the program won’t work for you; but if you’re getting 10, 50 or more visits a day, you should see a double or triple increase in subscribers.

You need to know about the 30% OFF discount offer which saves you lots of money. Click here to grab your license now at this incredible bargain.

This 30% discount offer expires on Friday October 1st, 2010 at midnight!

If you’re still on the fence, and would like more “nitty-gritty” details on this plugin, please read further.

Here are 3 serious reasons to grab the plugin while it lasts.

1. You can now turn your blog into a subscriber gaining machine with point and click ease.

Using this tool is as simple as 1-2-3. Just copy-paste some text into your widget, and with one or two clicks of your mouse, you’re done. You have professionally-looking subscription windows “instantly” appearing either on your sidebar, at the top posts, in the footer, in the blog post itself, or a combination of all these.

2. You can “transfer” more visitors from your web site to your mailing list, in a non-intrusive, safe mood. They’ll actually thank you for giving them the chance to hop on your list and receive your great content, which they’d not find on your blog.

3. It saves not only your time, but your visitors time, at the same time.

Unlike the “old style” opt-in forms, with Subscribers Magnet, your visitor’s name and email address will be automatically filled in the form. All they need to do is click the submit button.

If you are not fascinated about these advantages by now you should be. Can you see how for the same 100 visitors browsing your blog, you can now get 10, or even 15 subscribers, instead of just 5? Let’s put that in monetary terms. If your blog makes £100 a month, with this plugin you could be making £200, £300, or even more – without paying for advertising or using PPC!

Once again – here’s the 30% OFF discount link. Don’t tell anybody about it, unless they’re friends of yours, and you’d like to let them know about this surprise “gift”.

Go ahead. Download the plugin, try it on your blog then share your results here on this blog.

At long last we’ve finally got ourselves a cheap but versatile TeckNet webcam and it works absolutely brilliantly.

This Camera has up to 5.0 Mega pixels resolution with a high quality five layers glass lens. And the resolution is simply stunning! There”s even a built in microphone, so this webcam is ideal for simple web conferencing using all the major instant messaging services, including MSN.

This amazing webcam does not come with any software at all. It just works straight out of the box. The webcam uses standard Windows camera drivers and can therefore be used with Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7. We currently use Windows 7 Professional and have found no problems at all.

If you are looking for a cheap and high quality webcam, you can buy the TeckNet New Webcam Camera with total peace of mind.

Give this one a try. You will not be disappointed!

Google has for the first time released a version of its Gmail application in the Android Market, in a move that will see the ‘app’ being updated more frequently than ever before.

The email application has been a key feature of Android since the mobile operating system became available in 2008. However, as Gmail was tightly integrated into the Android Operating System rather than available as stand-alone app, it was only updated with each new version of Android. The stand-alone Gmail app announced in a blog post on Tuesday changes all that, while immediately adding new functionality such as Gmail’s Priority Inbox.

“Gmail updates aren’t tied to Android version releases anymore. Now you can get new Gmail stuff faster without having to wait for system updates,” Gmail for Android team members Simon Arscott and Paul Westbrook wrote in their post.

Despite not being tied to the core OS anymore, the decoupled Gmail app released on Tuesday does requires Android 2.2, which is the latest version.

In addition, the Gmail team noted in an update to their post that HTC phones running Android 2.2 are experiencing a glitch with notifications of important Gmail actions. A Google team are now working to fix this.

Arscott and Westbrook also pointed out that the Android implementation of ‘Priority Inbox’, an email sorting system introduced for desktop Gmail at the end of August, is “limited” for now, but will be fully implemented soon.

Source: ZDNET

Microsoft issued nine bulletins fixing 13 vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday (14 Sept) that affected Windows, Internet Information Services and Microsoft Office.

Affected software included Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7; Windows Server 2003 and 2008; and Office XP, 2003 and 2007, with the older versions affected by critical bulletins, according to the security advisory.

One notable fix was for the security hole being used by the Stuxnet worm to infect PC’s. This patched a vulnerability in the print spooler service of Windows that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer by sending a specially crafted print request to a vulnerable system where the print spooler service is exposed without authentication.

Prior to the huge patch, Don Leatham, senior director of solutions and strategy at Lumension said “Organisations running Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 are running much more secure environments and, as an added benefit, this Patch Tuesday will practically be a non-event for them. Organisations stuck on Windows XP and Server 2003 need to take a hard look at the cost and risk factors associated with staying on these dated platforms.”

Source: CNET

Telecommunications watchdog Ofcom has found that nearly half of consumers think that changing their broadband or land line provider is “too much hassle”.

Ofcom is now suggesting a system in which a new provider “takes the lead” in performing the switch. However, Ofcom notes that it must protect consumers from the growing practice of “slamming” in which switching occurs without the consumer’s consent.

Ofcom is engaged in a consultation on the issue and welcomes public comment.

Sebastien Lahtinen of broadband information site ThinkBroadband says the proposal is not without its potential pitfalls, one of which could be a rise in high-pressure sales tactics from providers. “We welcome the review by Ofcom of the switching process as it is clearly causing frustration for consumers,” he said. “However, any improvements on the current systems should ensure that the consumer is able to make an informed decision about switching.

“What we need is a system similar to that used by banks which permits the transfer of direct debits and standing orders from one bank to another. A similar process for communications services could include details of any services within the bundle, including those which cannot be transferred, and consumers could then make a decision on how to proceed.”

Source: BBC Tech News

Customers of Orange and T-Mobile will soon be able to hop between the two mobile networks.

The deal is one of the first practical benefits from the recent merger of the two firms, which have 30 million customers combined.

The network sharing deal is limited to 2G signals, so customers will see little benefit when using the mobile web.

Analysts said that T-Mobile had the most to gain from the merger.

“Outside of the South-East of England there has been a constant perception that T-Mobile is an underperforming network,” said Shaun Collins of research firm CCS Insight. “This deal literally takes it away overnight.”

He said that network coverage was becoming a “key battleground” between the major UK networks.

“The network coverage advantages of the merger [between Orange and T-Mobile] were always the most important part of it,” he said.

Customers of the two firms will have to sign up for the free “roaming” service, which goes live on 5 October. Once registered, their phone will automatically hop between the networks when it loses signal. The underlying system is similar to that used when a phone “roams” on a different network abroad.

Next year Everything Everywhere – the company that runs Orange and T-Mobile in the UK – said that phones would automatically switch to whichever of the two networks has the strongest signal mid-call.

It said it also plans to roll it out to 3G services.

Source: BBC Tech News

A new and improved version of the BBC’s catch-up television service, iPlayer, will go live later today (6th September).

The revamped iPlayer features a new design that makes it easier to find television programmes, personalisation tools, so that users can tailor-make their viewing experience, and social networking integration, to enable people to share their favourite shows on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The new-look iPlayer is the first major upgrade to the catch-up TV service since it launched in December 2007.

More than 1.1 billion minutes of video are watched on iPlayer every month.

iPlayer is available on a variety of platforms, including through television sets, on-demand TV services, online, through games consoles and on mobile devices.

Source: Telegraph Tech News

Microsoft has declared Windows Phone 7 “ready”, and started to ship the software to handset makers and networks.

This process, known as release to manufacturing (RTM), means that Microsoft’s partners will be able to apply their own tweaks and settings to the Windows Phone 7 operating system in preparation for its launch later this year.

Terry Myerson, corporate vice president of Windows Phone engineering at Microsoft, published a post on the Windows Phone blog yesterday (2/09/2010) announcing that the work of the internal engineering team was “largely complete”.

Windows Phone 7 had up until now existed in ‘technical preview’ form and remained in testing for an extensive period of time. According to Myerson’s post, the operating system has undergone the most complex testing the company has ever carried out, with nearly 10,000 devices running automated tests every day.

The new mobile OS represents a significant change for Microsoft, as the company seeks to move away from the slow, clunky and much-criticised interface and user experience that has been the hallmark of previous Windows Mobile devices.

Windows Phone 7 features much of the social networking integration and connectivity seen in both Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s IOS platform. Microsoft’s popular Xbox Live service will also be built in to Windows Phone 7, enabling gamers to integrate their online gaming portals with their mobile device.

Multiple Windows Phone 7 devices are rumoured to be in production from various manufacturers including HTC.

Source: Telegraph Tech News

A lot of people add to the functionality of their Internet browsers by installing various add-on toolbars. These toolbars are normally designed to improve your browsing experience.

The toolbars provided by Google, Yahoo and Windows Live are some of the most useful toolbars you can use as they can offer you many useful features. For example, with the use of these browser toolbars, you can perform single-click access to specific pages on the Web as well as bookmark some others. In addition, you can block pop-ups and create shortcuts to some of the most common tools that you use.

Sometimes, you may install an add-on toolbar without even knowing about it. Many legitimate downloads often arrive with a toolbar that is part of the download process. This is generally installed by default unless you clear the tick in the checkbox to stop the browser toolbar from being downloaded. Over time, you may end up with multiple toolbars on your Internet browser. This situation is likely to muddle the browser window and can sometimes even reduce your Internet browsing speed.

To reduce the clutter you will have to remove one or more of your browser toolbars, so how do you go about doing this if you use either Internet Explorer or Firefox as your primary browser?

Uninstall Toolbars from Internet Explorer

If you want to uninstall add-on toolbars from Internet Explorer, you need to first close all Internet Explorer windows.

The steps to uninstall add-on toolbars are listed as below:

1. Select the Control Panel command from the Start menu to display the Control Panel window.

2. In the Control Panel window, select the Add or Remove Programs link in Windows XP, or the Programs and Features link in Windows Vista.

3. Then browse through the currently installed programs list and select the toolbar that you want to uninstall.

4. Next, select the Change/Remove (XP) or Uninstall (Vista) button, whichever applicable.

Once the uninstall process is complete, restart Internet Explorer and verify that the toolbar has been removed.

Uninstall Toolbars from Firefox

You need to use the available options in the Web-browser if you want to uninstall toolbars from Firefox. Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Click on the Tools menu in the Firefox window and select Add Ons, then the Extensions tab to display all your Firefox Extensions.

2. In the Firefox Extensions window, scroll down the list and select the toolbar you want to uninstall.

3. Next, depending on your preference, select either Disable or Uninstall. This will remove the selected toolbar from view or completely remove it.

Now exit the Firefox Extension window and restart the Web-browser to complete the uninstall process.

When a toolbar is uninstalled you should perform a full system and registry scan using a good anti spyware/anti virus program to completely remove any rogue toolbar elements. This will ensure that any malicious files and registry entries are completely removed from your PC.

Tip: remember, unnecessary programs clutter your hard disk and add useless entries in your registry, which can slow down the processing speed of your computer. To find a good removal tool see our software reviews page for both paid and free software solutions.