Software News

A new version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is now available for download, providing simplicity when it comes to assessing current IT infrastructure for various technology migration projects.

This tool was created to serve as a powerful inventory, assessment, and reporting utility that would simplify the planning process of any migration.

MAP comes from the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team and is meant to offer tested guidance and automated tools for companies who need to plan, securely deploy, and manage new Microsoft technologies.

The release notes of the new tool flavor include the following:

- A migration assessment for virtual machines deployed on VMware vSphere platform to Microsoft Hyper-V platform

- The ability to gather performance metrics from Linux based operating systems for use in Server Consolidation scenarios

- Hardware and role migration assessments to support planning for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

- Assess Standard Client Access License (CAL) needs for on-premise deployments of Lync 2010

- Desktop virtualization planning for Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDI), Session Virtualization and Windows Thin PC

- New options to streamline SQL Server discovery

- The ability to report on Active Users and Devices discovered through Active Directory

The toolkit was made available for download with support for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate, and can be installed on a machine with at least a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM.

It also requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0, or .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. During the installation process, the MAP Toolkit will install SQL Server 2012 Express LocalDB, Microsoft notes.

Existing installations of SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, or SQL Server 2012 can also be used if an instance called "MAPS" is created before running the MAP Toolkit installer.

Those who would like to learn some more info on what the tool is all about and on the system requirements and features it comes with should head over to Microsoft’s website for that.

The latest version of the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit is available for download from Softpedia as well, v ia this link.

Via: Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 7.0 Now Available

Patrick Verner announced yesterday, July 5th, that yet another maintenance release of his Parted Magic Linux operating system for partitioning tasks is available for download.

Powered by Linux kernel 3.4.4, Parted Magic 2012_07_05 comes with the following updated packages: Clonezilla 1.2.12-67, Partclone 0.2.49, lshw B.02.16, udevil 0.2.9, Grep 2.13, and mount-gtk 1.2.1.

Moreover, the following new programs have been added in Parted Magic 2012_07_05: nbd 3.0 (network block device) server and client, and kmod 9.

Parted Magic 2012_07_05 also fixes an issue with dfs using cifs, removes module-init-tools, and adds the "Erase MBR" option to "Erase Disk."

Last but not least ,there's now a new Fail Safe boot option named "Load NVIDIA," which blacklists the Nouveau video driver and loads the Nvidia kernel module (Nvidia package must be installed first).

Download Parted Magic 2012_07_05 right now from Softpedia.

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Via: Parted Magic 2012_07_05 Has Linux Kernel 3.4.4

On July 4th, Adrian Raulete announced the immediate availability for download of the first Beta release of his super fantastic Super Grub2 Disk 2.00 Linux distribution for booting broken operating systems.

Super Grub2 Disk 2.00 is now based on the newly released GRUB 2.00 software, offering support for Linux distributions which have GRUB 2 installed as the default bootloader.

This release also adds support for SunPC partition tables and for the BSD operating systems. Moreover, support for i18n was rewritten to bring special characters and * for using gettext.

Last but not least, Super Grub2 Disk 2.00 Beta 1 gathers all the Enable options under a single submenu, called "Enable extra GRUB2 functionality."

Download Super Grub2 Disk 2.00 Beta 1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta re lease and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.

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Via: Super Grub2 Disk 2.00 Is Based on GRUB 2

Sony Ericsson never brought to the market a smartphone running under Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, although it did have Windows Mobile-based phones available for purchase.

However, the company was indeed working on such a smartphone, which emerged into the wild once again, under the codename of Julie.

It is the same device that was leaked online during the past few years, featuring a sliding QWERTY keyboard and a 4-inch touchscreen display, along with an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with HD video recording capabilities.

The handset still runs under a beta release of Windows Phone 7, and seems more like a collection item than an actually usable phone.

According to Windows Phone Italy, the prototype is actually up for sale, and those who are interested in grabbing it should head over to the website to learn more on the matter.

Via: Sony Ericssons Windows Phone Prototype Julie Emerges Again

The GNOME Project unleashed a few minutes ago, July 5th, the immediate availability for download and testing of the third development release of the upcoming GNOME 3.6 desktop environment.

GNOME 3.5.3 is a development release that updates the following packages: Baobab, Nautilus, GNOME Shell, GNOME Terminal, Vala, Mutter, GNOME Contacts, GNOME Online Accounts, Empathy,Eye of GNOME, Epiphany, GNOME PackageKit, GNOME Panel, and much more.

GNOME 3.5.3 is part of the new GNOME 3.6 desktop upgrade, which should be released in late September 2012. The next development release towards GNOME 3.6 will be GNOME 3.5.4 available this month, on July 18th, 2012.

Download GNOME 3.5.3 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a development release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.

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Via: GNOME 3.5.3 Development Release Is Here

Chinese video card manufacturing company Colorful seems dead-set on taking the enthusiast graphics card market by storm. Now, the company revealed the preliminary design of its Shark Bionic Cooler.

Colorful’s subsidiary brand called ColorFire has been in the news these days with its 120-millimeter cooling fan shown here, and the world’s most powerful Radeon HD 7870 video card that we presented here.

Not wanting to leave Nvidia fans unattended, Colorful is reportedly preparing an impressive 9-heatpiped cooler.

The Colorful Shark Bionic Cooler uses big 8-millimeter-wide heatpipes that are cooled by three different stacks of cooling fins.

The cooling device is clearly not in its final developing stage, as there is more work to be done on the cooler base.

Colorful’s GeForce GTX 670 iGame Ares X graphics card will be the first video card to use the nickel-plated cooler, but pricing details are unknown at this time.

Via: Colorful Shows Impressive Cooler with 9 Real Heatpipes

Tokyo-headquartered giant, Japanese electronics company NEC has officially announced the new specifications and other details about NEC LaVie Z UltraBook, on its official website. The company is calling LaVie Z the world’s lightest UltraBook and we’re inclined to agree, considering the new weight specification.

NEC’s achievement is not something to take for granted, as behind the 875 grams lightweight design, there is a great deal of engineering and research work.

Weighing in at just 1.92 pounds, the NEC LaVie Z UltraBook uses a very special magnesium-lithium alloy for its die-cast body.

Moreover, the display is integrated in the top plate of the notebook, and it is assembled directly on the plate together with the necessary components.

The keyboard is also part of the notebook’s body and is integrated directly in the housing frame of the device.

With a thickness of less than 15 millimeters, the NEC LaVie Z UltraBook is a very impressive portable computing device.

NEC’s new UltraBook houses a battery large enough to be rated for 8.1 hours of work, despite the fact that the notebook is powered by a powerful Intel Core i7-3517U processor running at 1900 MHz base frequency.



The battery has a fast charge feature that will fill up 80% of its capacity in just one hour and the AC adapter is also quite small, as it’s just 18.5 millimeters at its thickest side.

The NEC LaVie Z UltraBook will be up and running in just 2 seconds, as it uses a 256 GB SSD and the processor can Turbo up to 2800 MHz when more performance is required, or even 3000 Mhz when a single-threaded demanding application is ran.

The Super Shine View widescreen LED 13.3” display has a 1600 by 900 pixel resolution.



On the memory side, the basic configuration boosts 4 GB of DDR3 RAM and the connectivity is also well-endowed with Bluetooth Ver.4.0 + HS, WirelessN, WiDi, USB 3.0 and an SDXC card reader.

An HD 720p webcam is also present, and the company promises that the launch will take place on August 23rd, while the price still remains a mystery.



Via: Worlds Lightest UltraBook Uses Magnesium-Lithium Alloy