Daniel Ionescu

Quite a few big announcements this week, such as the Nook e-reader, new Macs, a cool Google Android phone from Motorola and Windows 7 launch jazz. Here are my articles from the Today@PCWorld section this week.

Shot from Apple's new 'PC News' ad, mocking the switch to Windows 7.

Apple slams Windows 7 in ads
Not only Microsoft is celebrating the launch of Windows 7 with some new ads, but Apple is also taking a stab at the introduction of the new OS, in its usual deprecating manner.

Windows 7: what the reviews say
Microsoft unleashed Windows 7 to the masses on Thursday, and momentum for the new operating system has even put it ahead of Harry Potter pre-orders on Amazon UK this week, set to break retail records.

Google to launch ‘Google Audio’ music service and phone
Is Google gunning to become the next Apple? Google is reportedly set to unveil its own music service and is also working with a smartphone manufacturer on an own-brand Android phone.

Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader pricing and specs leaked
The dual screen (e-ink + capacitive touchscreen) reader from Barnes and Noble that runs on Android and can lend books for up to two weeks.

Can Verizon’s Motorola ‘Droid’ live up to the hype?
Verizon cranked up its hype machine, preparing the launch of the Droid, Motorola’s Android-powered competitor to the iPhone. But will it be good enough to trump the iPhone?

Pretty comprehensive reviews from Harry McCracken (PC World), David Pogue (NYT) and Walt Mossberg (WSJ).

All three are mainly Mac users, like myself. Bottom line: once you go Mac, you never go back (no pun intended).

I had to change my Wordpress theme again today, as the About and Contact pages wre not displaying any content with my new theme (thanks for those who mentioned it to me). I couldn’t really figure out why, so I decided to change the theme.

I found this other minimal theme called Cleanr, which is in use now. Check out this link if you are on the look for some other cool minimal themes. I particularly like on my new theme the typography, which is large and crisp — and it even has Helvetica on it, if you are reading this from a Mac.

In related news, “Safe mode is used on your server. It’s time to change hosts if yours doesn’t want to upgrade.” was the message that I noticed in my WP Dashboard today. After a quick chat with One.com (my hosting company), it’s official that I will have to change hosting companies if I want to install WP plugins that need this function off. Not happy.

– Later edit: The safe mode problem mentioned above also stops me from using the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin, given the fact that my connections is playing up today, so the built-in upgrade mechanism won’t work. Anyway, if you are using Wordpress on your own domain, 2.8.5 went up today and has the “the best available protection”. The changes include:

A fix for the Trackback Denial-of-Service attack that is currently being seen.

Removal of areas within the code where php code in variables was evaluated.

Switched the file upload functionality to be whitelisted for all users including Admins.

Retiring of the two importers of Tag data from old plugins.

Apple introduced on Tuesday new 21.5″ and 27″ iMacs (pictured below), a new multitouch mouse — the Magic Mouse, new Mac Minis, new Apple Remote, and a unibody MacBook (white). They all look pretty crave- worthy.

News is covered virtually everywhere, so you won’t miss out on any details.

Considering the Amazon Kindle goes on sale in the UK today, Plastic Logic teased with the Que.

Also see – An idea to save UK newspapers

– I intended to post this as a comment on Shane Croucher’s post on hyper-local journalism in Lincoln, part of the discussion theme going on at LSJ Bloggers. But it ended up a bit too long for the purpose, so I decided to make it a post on its own.

In his post, Shane makes a couple of good points:

• Lincolnshire Echo, BBC Lincolnshire and Lincs FM (bigest media outlets in the county) do not have enough manpower to cover every city council meeting or residents’ association forum
• The most beneficial of hyper-local coverage in Lincoln would be the West End of the city

However, my vision of hyper-local journalism in Lincoln is not particularly focused on a certain area of the city (though this is the whole idea of the concept) but on the whole city itself.

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Apologies for not updating my blog in a couple of months. It has been a very busy time, and among the highlights I need to note The Linc’s nomination for the best student website at the Guardian Student Media Awards 09.

I have been also continuing my work over at PC World, but I’m going to spare you a 40+ articles list accumulated over the weeks and below I listed only my posts for this week:

• ‘Free’ iPhone Apps May Now Come with a Price
• An iPhone With FM Radio? Yes, Please!
• Apple Working On Fix for Snow Leopard Bug
• Microsoft Red-Faced After Massive Sidekick Data Loss

As I won’t have the time to update this blog daily with my PCW posts, I will have a digest of my articles every weekend.