Windows president Steven Sinofsky has confirmed that Windows 8 is getting an app store. He casually dropped the scoop whilst listing the software’s dev teams as if he was listing the week’s groceries. Yes, let’s get ready to see the ‘all hell broke loose’. Next up, Steve Jobs saying ‘yep they copies us, and we’re so proud’ at the next Mac OS X event.

SOURCE via MSDN

If being able to see the Colosseum of Rome or trek around Stonehenge from the comfort of your La-Z-boy is your cup of tea, Google has another living room adventure for you. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to keep dry on the sofa while floating down Brazil’s Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers via Street View. That’s right, folks… an expedition to one of the most remote, yet biologically diverse locales on the globe will become a reality for many who feared it’d remain elusive forever — if you don’t mind exploring remotely using your favourite web-enabled device, of course.

Teams are currently gathering images from the adjacent forests and local villages using the trike, floating cameras down the river by boat and even training locals to use the equipment. The project is a joint effort between Brazil and U.S. Street View teams alongside the Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon (FAS). Check out the full rundown by hitting the source link below and begin planning your trip — to the couch, that is.

SOURCE via Google

While Microsoft is busy readying the much talked about Windows 8 for release, a new patent application has popped up that could reveal even bigger — or at least faster — things to come. According to the filing for “Fast Machine Booting Through Streaming Storage,” which was submitted in February of last year and released last week, Redmond is looking at creating a system that could stream an entire OS to just about anything with a screen. The proposed setup would enlist a series of storage devices, both remote and local, to act as a virtual hard disk, allowing anything from a set top box to a tablet to boot almost instantaneously.

SOURCE via Electronista

Nokia’s Symbian Anna has finally arrived for download, right on schedule. Available for N8, E7, C7 and C6-01 users, the new OS brings a fresh new UI and a virtual portrait QWERTY keypad to Symbian smartphones, along with split-screen messaging, richer maps and speedier browsing. The update also brings NFC capabilities to the C7, in particular, allowing users to share contacts, photos and other goodies by simply tapping their handsets together. If you’re interested in upgrading, you can download Anna using the latest version of Ovi Suite (3.1.1), or with an OTA update, though availability and method of delivery vary from market to market.

SOURCE via Nokia

The new ROG MARS II picks up where previous graphics card powerhouses from ASUS ROG left off, and continues the legacy of the finest hardware for hardcore gamers. The limited-edition card is built on twin NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPUs and a mammoth 3GB of GDDR5 video memory, with a proprietary ROG design that combines extreme cooling and extensive tuning facilities that cater to the most demanding power user. It also offers colossal pixel-pushing output that is unmatched by any graphics card.

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Lexus has updated its GS sedan, which will be going head to head with the likes of BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E Class, and boy it looks gorgeous, despite having a slightly conservative design cue.

It looks rather like an enlarged Lexus IS, featuring a similar hourglass shaped front grille found on the CT200h, a design that extends down to the bumper to visually integrate the upper and lower grilles on the front end. The headlamps are also now a one-piece design, losing the split design that the GS has had since the second generation.

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In July, it is reported that Intel’s brand new SSD has a particularly nasty firmware bug that could reduce a new and shiny Intel 320 SSD, regardless of size, down to just 8MB. Today, Intel posted a firmware fix that addresses the Bad Context 13x Error. Intel describes the error as:

For users unfamiliar with the issue, an Intel SSD 320 Series drive may exhibit a drive capacity of 8MB and an electronic serial # field containing a message of “BAD_CTX 0000013x” caused by an unexpected power loss under specific conditions.  Once this error occurs, no data on the SSD can be accessed and the user cannot write to or read from the SSD.

For obvious reasons, Intel recommends that all users of the 320 Series of SSDs upgrade their firmware to the new version.

In order to provide the best user experience, Intel always recommends users download and install the latest firmware.  As with any storage device, Intel recommends users frequently back up their data and periodically check for firmware updates.  The Intel® SSD Toolbox provides a host of utilities to monitor your SSD, including displaying detailed information such as the currently installed firmware revision.