Microsoft has announced today that you can expect a new version of its Windows 8 development to roll out in the first week of June. Microsoft announced the arrival of their new Windows 8 Release Preview, the next major preview of their new operating systems, via their Build Windows 8 Twitter account.

Windows 8 is expected to be officially launched in October, three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows 7. Microsoft has already revealed that there are three packages in the line-up, Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT, you can find out more information about the new packages .

Windows 8 features the new Metro style interface and has been “reimagined from the chipset to the user experience” say Microsoft. You can view the current Windows 8 Consumer Preview over on the Microsoft website now.

“It’s Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It’s an all-new touch interface. It’s a new Windows for new devices. And it’s your chance to be one of the first to try it out.”

Samsung is expected to unveil its new Galaxy S III smartphone early next month on the 3rd of May, and the company has now released a new teaser video, unfortunately it doesn’t actually feature the handset.

You can see the new Galaxy S III teaser from Samsung below, which Samsung says “With technology that fits in this easily, you can now stand out from everyone else” , in the video which also features some sheep.

So we presume Samsung are having another dig at Apple in their video, like they have done in previous offerings, we should have some more details on the actual handset on the 3rd of May, and we are looking forward to seeing what the new Galaxy S III is like.

As expected Intel has now officially launched its new next generation Ivy Bridge processors this week. Which are equipped with a 22 nanometer transistor design, in contrast to Intel’s older Sandy Bridge processor, which has 32 nanometer transistors.

The new higher density Ivy Bridge processors have been designed to be faster and be able to handle a multitude of multimedia functions than previous processors.

As well as being faster both Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 support is now fully integrated into the Ivy Bridge processors, providing faster transfers from smartphones, external hard drives and cameras

The new Ivy Bridge processors also have an integrated graphics processing unit, that has been added to help make editing videos faster and game play sharper. Intel corporate vice president Kirk Skaugen explained at a press conference in San Francisco:

“[Ivy Bridge is] 20 percent better performance on multithreaded applications, two times better 3D graphics, and twice as fast media processing, compared to the previous generation,”

Manufacturers are now planning to equip over 270 new desktop, all-in-one and laptops equipped with the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors, and due to the Ivy Bridge processors being a similar price to the previous Sandy Bridge processor consumers shouldn’t see much of an increase in price for the new Ivy Bridge equipped systems.

The last time we had some information from Facebook, the company reported they had over 800 million users, and it looks like that has jumped more than 100 million, as Facebook has revealed that they now have a total of 901 million active monthly users.

The company also revealed some more financial information, the details were provided in Facebook’s updated Form S-1, and their first quarter revenue is up to $1.06 billion this compares to $731 million for the same period in the previous year.

Their net income is down slightly to $205 million, as opposed to $233 million for the same period in the previous year, and we also got some more details on their recent $1 billion deal with Instagram.

Facebook will pay $300 million in cash for Instagram, the remaining $700 million will be paid in Facebook shares, also if the deal doesn’t go through for any reason, Facebook will pay Instagram a total of $200 million.

Microsoft has released a new version of Skype for Windows Phone and this is the first non beta version that has been released for Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, Skype 1.0.

Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone will work on Windows Phone devices running Windows Phone 7.5 or higher, although according to the guys over at The Verge it will only run on devices with more than 512MB of RAM and not on the latest Tango devices with 256MB of RAM.

Imagine talking to friends, family, and colleagues anywhere in the world, and seeing them as if they’re in the same room. That’s Skype.

Call, video call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free with Skype for your Windows Phone.

You can find out more details about Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone over at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

It has been revealed this week that Microsoft has sold a majority of its AOL patent portfolio to Facebook for $550 Million. The deal included 650 patents in total, but in its initial AOL Auction Microsoft secured around 925 U.S. patents and patent applications plus a license to AOL’s remaining patent portfolio.

The remaining patents in AOL’s portfolio, contains around 300 additional patents that were not for sale. As a result of today’s agreement, Facebook will obtain ownership of approximately 650 AOL patents and patent applications, plus a license to the AOL patents and applications that Microsoft will purchase and own. Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel, Microsoft explains:

“Today’s agreement with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction,”-“As we said earlier this month, we had submitted the winning AOL bid in order to obtain a durable license to the full AOL portfolio and ownership of certain patents that complement our existing portfolio.”

Samsung has be teasing us with details of their new Galaxy smartphone, which the company has been calling the ‘next Galaxy’, and now we have some confirmation that the device will be called the Galaxy S III.

Samsung has released a new app on Google Play, called the Samsung mobile Unpacked 2012 app, and as you can see from the screenshot below, the description of the app has a reference to the ‘galaxy s3′.

We are expecting the device to be officially announced by Samsung on the 3rd of May, so we don’t have much longer to wait to see what Samsung’s new flagship Android handset is like.

We are expecting to hear something official from Google on their new cloud based Google Drive service some time today, and now it looks like we may have some more information on the service.

According to the guys over at Reuters, Google Drive will offer up to 100GB of online storage, of course this 100GB of storage will cost you some sort of monthly or annual fee, we have no idea how much as yet.

Google Drive will apparently come with 5GB of storage free for everyone, and then you will be able to pay a fee for more storage, with the maximum available storage being 100GB.

The 5GB of storage ties in with the recently increased 5GB of storage that is free from Google Doc’s, this was increased recently from 1GB, hopefully we should have some more information on Google Drive later today.

Microsoft recently released Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone, and along with the release came the news that the app would only support devices with 512MB of RAM or more, this ruled out some of the newer budget handsets which come with 256 MB of RAM like the Nokia Lumia 610.

According to Nokia, the latest version of Skype will work with the Nokia Lumia 610 even though the device only comes with 256MB of RAM, and the app is available for the Lumia 610 in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

The guys from The Verge spoke to Nokia, and Nokia said that they has been testing the Skype for Windows Phone app on the Lumia 610 internally, and the app is working well.

We wonder if Microsoft will update the app in the future to support other devices which have 256MB of RAM, as soon as we get some more information we will let you guys know.

Within the latest nightly build released by Mozilla for their Firefox browser, the age-old favicon used by many sites in their URL’s has been removed and will no longer be supported in the URL address bar within Firefox. The favicon has long been used to provide an extra enhancement to websites allowing them to add a small image to the left side of their website URL.

The reason for the removal of the favicon after all this time, is due to a security issue says Mozilla. After unscrupulous websites have published the favicon as a padlock, making the site look secure to visitors, at first glance. However being far from secure in reality. Mozilla explains:

“Websites that use SSL certificates with Extended Validation will now have a green padlock next to the certificate owner’s organisation name.

Websites that use SSL certificates without Extended Validation will now have a grey padlock. The effective hostname will no longer appear next to the padlock. This information is redundant with our darkening of the effective hostname in the website address.

Websites that do not use SSL certificates or have mixed-content will fallback to a globe icon.”

The favicon is also used in bookmark lists to help users differentiate between different websites. Google removed the favicons from their Chrome browser some time back, but still allows them still to be used in bookmark lists and in the tabs used to separating pages within their browser. Lets hope that Mozilla follows a similar line with Firefox.

Yesterday we saw a leaked photo of Google Drive running on an Android developers device, and now we have some more evidence that Google are getting ready to launch their new Google Drive cloud service.

Google has increased to storage on their Google Docs to 5GB, the service previously offered 1GB of storage, and this is apparently been increased ahead of the launch of Google Drive.

There is even a rumor that Google may launch their Google Drive service some time today, and with more and more details on Google Drive being revealed over the last week we suspect we are pretty close to the launch.

As soon as we get some more details on when Google intends to launch their new cloud based Google Drive service we will let you guys know.

Spotify has unveiled a major redesign to its Android application today, providing users with a much cleaner and more visually pleasing application to use, more inline with Spotify’s excellent Windows Phone app.

The new Spotify design incorporates a new slide-out navigation system, which is accessible from the top left corner of the app, and provides easy navigation to all areas of the overhauled Spotify application.

However Spotify has stated that the update, will not be automatically pushed to devices for the time being, but is fully compatible with Google’s latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system. If you are interested in giving the newly revamped Spotify Android App a blast, a beta version is already to download and can be installed.

To install the Spotify beta version, you’ll first need to permit your phone to allow installation from “Unknown Sources” under Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources. Then download the .apk file from Spotify’s website on to your smartphone, and install it over the existing Spotify app with the required permissions.

Today Samsung has revealed it new line mirror less cameras which are equipped with WiFi, in the form of the new Samsung NX20, NX210 and NX1000. The new range of 2012 cameras replace the existing NX11, NX100, and NX200, and are now equipped with WiFi technology to take advantage of Samsung’s “Smart” features. Which allow you to connect to social networks such as Facebook directly from the camera via a WiFi network to publish photographs.

All three cameras are equipped with a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, 8fps continuous shooting at full resolution and full-HD video recording. There are a few other new features and cosmetic changes but the rangefinder-style NX210 and DSLR-shaped NX20 are remarkably different from their predecessors in design.

“The NX20 is built for the enthusiastic amateur or for the professional photographer looking for a camera that offers them the quality and control of their DSLR, but in a lightweight and easily portable body. It has been designed with the serious photographer in mind, incorporating an ergonomic hand grip and DSLR-style aesthetic to convey a professional look and feel.

The NX210 builds on the NX’s design heritage, with a premium metallic finish. Like its predecessor the NX200, the NX210 also offers a 3.0” VGA AMOLED display for viewing images and Full HD movies in brilliant resolution. With easy access to Wi-Fi functions, the NX210 allows quick sharing with friends and family, whilst with Samsung Mobile Link users can show off their best images on phones and tablets.

Rounding off the range, the NX1000 is highly portable and its eye-catching compact design makes it as useable as it is attractive. Available in stunning White, classic Black and eye-catching Pink the NX1000 houses a feature-rich range of specs, with technology such as Smart Auto 2.0 and the Smart Link Hot Key, making it simpler than ever to shoot and share great images instantly. “

The Samsung NX20 will be available in the beginning of May for $1,099.99, whilst the Samsung NX210 for $899.99 will arrive mid-May, and the Samsung NX1000 has yet to receive a price or arrival date as yet.

More details on exact specifications can be found over on the Samsung website.

Microsoft has this week released a new update for its SkyDrive product, that allows you to host and share files within a cloud based infrastructure, and access them from your web browser.

The new update has now enable the ability for the service to support Open Document Format (ODF), which is an XML-based file format for spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents.

As well as ODF support Microsoft has also increased the browser upload cap for the SkyDrive service to 300mb. Together with extra support for Twitter, and Windows Phone users who can now use shortened Twitter URL to link images.

Microsoft also promised that its had big plans for its SkyDrive service and is currently developing new tools and features which it hope to share very soon. Ready to compete with Google Drive when it becomes available shortly.

Intel and Lava, one of India’s fastest-growing mobile handset companies, have this week announced that their new Lava Xolo X900, the worlds first smartphone powered by an Intel processor will be arriving in India on April 23rd.

The Lava Xolo X900 smartphone is powered by a 1.6 GHz Atom processor with Hyper Threading Technology, together with a 400 MHz graphics clock and the full HD 1080p video recording and playback capabilities.

The Lava Xolo X900 is also fitted with a 4.03-inch high-resolution LCD touch screen and 8-megapixel camera, with a burst mode feature allowing 10 pictures to be captured in under a second.

Its internal battery has been designed to provide up to 5 hours of 3G browsing, 45 hours of audio and 8 hours of talk time. Mike Bell, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group explains:

“The first smartphone with Intel inside is now available to Indian consumers,”-“The boundaries of personal computing are expanding. As we enter the India market with our first smartphone from Lava, the device not only showcases the rich capabilities and user benefits of Intel computing, but also highlights the exciting possibilities of what’s still to come.”

No information on pricing or worldwide availability has been released as yet.

t now looks like Facebook has finally penciled in a date for the company to go public. According to sources close to Facebook has now planned the date for its IPO as  May 17th 2012. As long as Facebook can ready all the necessary paperwork for both its IPO and its recent purchase of Instagram for a cool $1 billion, earlier this month.

Facebook is currently valued at around $100 billion suggest sources, and its thought that Facebook is looking to raise $10 billion or less on the $100 billion valuation.

The valuation and with 2.51 billion fully-diluted shares outstanding, would put the share price at around $40. One source close to the proceedings explained: “Investors want as high a price as possible so that the secondary market won’t look like a problem,”. As more information becomes available or is confirmed by Facebook we will keep you updated.

As if you didn’t already know you were receiving way too much email, Google has this week launched a new Gmail Stats app for Gmail which allows you to view your email messages and replies in more details.

The Gmail Meter is an Apps Script which runs on the first day of every month and sends you an email containing different statistics about your Inbox, such as volume, daily traffic and traffic patterns to name a few.

Gmail Meter is an Apps Script script that lets you analyse your Gmail Inbox, and is easy to setup, check out the video after the jump.

“Volume Statistics show you the number of important and starred messages, the number of people who sent you emails, and more. Volume statistics can be very useful in determining how you are using email efficiency tools like Priority Inbox.

Daily Traffic gives you an estimate of when you receive messages and when you send them during a given month. For example, in the graph below you can see how the peaks in my “Sent” curve indicates that I write emails in spurts.”

For full details on the Gmail Stats script jump over to the Google website for more information.

We have featured a number of flight simulator devices and software over the years here on Geeky Gadgets, but this homemade one by Oakland Air Traffic Control Center in Fremont and a private pilot, is definitely the best DIY version we have seen.

Using the cockpit and nose section of a 1969 Boeing 737 aircraft, James Price of Pleasanton U.S. has constructed his very own fully functional flight simulator in his garage. Watch the video after the jump to see it in action.

The project took over three years to complete and Price has programmed the software and rewired all the instruments to make his flight simulator feel and react just like the real thing. Price told the San Jose Mercury newspaper:

“I don’t think it will ever really be finished…I will tinker with it for years to come. There is always some new technology coming along that is too irresistible not to add to my project. … This is pretty fulfilling. I can both practice and realize my dream to fly jets. Everybody has to have their crazy hobby.”

Its been reported that the DIY flight simulator may have cost as much as $150,000 to construct, but as you can see from the video below, its worth every penny. Great job!

Nokia has announced that they have started rolling out their budget Windows Phone smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 610 in Asia, with the device launching in the Philippines in the last week of April and then China, Hong Kong, Indonesia,Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam over the next few weeks.

As a reminder, the Nokia Lumia 610 features  a 3.7 inch WVGA capacitive LCD touchscreen display which has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, and it also comes with a a single core Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 800MHz processor, 256MB of RAM and 16GB of built in storage.

“The Nokia Lumia 610 will introduce Windows Phone to a new generation of smartphone users, offering something very different to the monochromatic smartphones filling shelves today,” said Jo Harlow, Head of Smart Devices at Nokia. “PeopleHub, Nokia services and quality apps – coupled with a fast and friendly interface – will make for a great smartphone experience at a great price.”

The Nokia Lumia 610 has a a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and an LED flash, plus a 1300 mAh battery, the device will be available for 189 Euros before taxes.

Let us start this tutorial by asking you a simple question. What happens when you paste , if you copy a text , and next an image?

The most recently copied item will be pasted(In this example, image). Windows clipboard has this basic problem of not storing multiple items in its clipboard. There were no major innovations done to improve the flexibility of clipboard usage. Thanks to freely available powerful utilities which always make our life simpler by simple software installation.

In this tutorial, We will explain the features of a small software extension for windows clipboard named Ditto.

First, download and install this from here.

- Once you install, upon run, you will notice a small icon in the notification area , which confirms that ditto is installed and working.

- Copy the desired files, images or the text together one by one. (control+c).

- Open the target folder, let us say if you want to paste a image to My Documents, open the same.

- Open Ditto by hotkey : Control + ` (back quote : Shift + “~ or tilde” ). The following UI shows up.

User interface of Ditto

You can see the items copied as a list. Select the required file/ image / or the text.

- Paste (Control+v).

- If you want to paste to notepad, or to paint, open those and follow the same steps.

- Right clicking on the Ditto icon in the notification area, opens up much more options.

Options in Ditto

You can always modify/ delete the entry by right clicking. You can as well see the image thumbnails so that you need not have to remember the file names of the images you copied. If you want the standard clipboard feature, you can choose the option “disconnect from clipboard“ .

Key features:  (More information on this application can be found here.)

• Easy to use interface
• Search and paste previous copy entries
• Keep multiple computer’s clipboards in sync
• Data is encrypted when sent over the network
• Accessed from tray icon or global hot key
• Select entry by double click, enter key or drag drop
• Paste into any window that excepts standard copy/paste entries
• Display thumbnail of copied images in list
• Full Unicode support(display foreign characters)
• UTF-8 support for language files(create language files in any language

When your computer makes a connection to the outside world, like your company network or the internet, that PC obtains a unique address called an IP address. This IP, or Internet Protocol, address identifies the computer on the network and allows the necessary communication to take place.

When you experience communication problems between your computer and an outside network, one of the first things you should do is check the IP address. Part of that troubleshooting process should be to release and renew the IP address. Releasing the IP address resets the connection, and renewing the address reestablishes communication with your home or company network or the internet. The results of the release and renewal process can tell you a lot about the status of communication with your computer and your network.

Windows XP

1. Click the Start button on your computer

1. Choose Run from the menu

1. Type CMD in the box and press Enter

1. Type ipconfig /release all and press Enter. Wait for the confirmation message indicating that the IP address has been released.

1. Type ipconfig /renew all and press Enter. Wait for the new IP address to appear.

Windows 7

1. Click the Start button on your computer

1. Type CMD in the Search box and press Enter

1. Type ipconfig /release all at the command prompt and press Enter. Wait until the computer releases the current IP address.

1. Type ipconfig /renew all and wait for the computer to obtain its new IP address. Check the status of your router, modem and other network equipment if the computer is unable to obtain a new address.