For those of you who don’t know what HTC is all about, check out htc.com. The HTC corporation (High Technology Computers) are the creators of some really awesome cellphones (yes, even better than iphone!)

You can also take a look at my personal blog, fabnomena.com where I’m talking about the 7th world wonder, HTC Bravo :P

I know, I know.. updates have been REALLY rare these days and I really have no other excuse than the truth - life is busy :) I have been working on my fabnomena.com blog page, I have been working on a norwegian gadget website and a lot of other minor projects.

I can’t reveal too much about the current project just yet, but make sure you bookmark hardcore.no if you understand norwegian. The original launch date was set to January 31st, but as of right now I’m a little behind schedule, so don’t get your hopes up just yet :)

The reason I’m so excited about this current project is because I’ve built the site from scratch with Drupal. It’s been a long journey, but it has been worth it, soooo worth it. I will keep you all updated on the progress.

DL Makeover
I don’t know about you all, but I’m thinking about giving the DL mainsite a new makeover. What do you guys think? I’m not sure what the new site will look like, but I’ve been sketching a little and made some basic layout drawings. As always, I’m always open for suggestions and ideas, so feel free to drop a comment or send me an email.

Thanks guys, have a great week!

The software giant has hyped up Windows Mobile 6.5 for some time now, but today finally announced that the first handsets to support the redesigned OS will start appearing in retail stores on 6 October.

Despite insisting that Windows Mobile 6.5 devices are referred to as “Windows phones”, Microsoft hasn’t actually made any handsets itself – in spite of claims to the contrary.

In Europe, version 6.5 devices will be available from the likes of Orange, Vodafone, HTC, LG, Samsung and Toshiba, Microsoft said.

Windows Mobile 6.5 provides an “improved, easy-to-use user interface”, Microsoft said. The latest OS also supposedly boasts “better browsing capabilities” and access to the likes of Marketplace for mobiles and My Phone – a cloud-based service where you can back-up your handset’s data to a password protected website.

Here is a little WM6.5 intro for you all :)

One of these acquired domain names is Clothes.com. According to Amazon’s SEC filing, Zappos had bought Clothes.com for $4.9 million from Idealab in May 2008. The domain is currently redirecting to a Zappos web page selling clothing products.

In May 2008, we [Zappos] acquired the Clothes.com internet domain name from Idealab. The domain name was recognized as a purchased intangible asset with a useful life of 20 years. The entire purchase price of $4.9 million was assigned to the price of the domain name intangible asset and will be amortized on a straight-line basis over its remaining estimated useful life.

This makes Clothes.com the second-highest domain sale of 2008, topped only by Fund.com, which was sold for close to $10 million. The sale shows once again how many top-dollar domain sales go unnoticed in any given year. But it also shows that many smart companies do care about generic domain names, which they quietly acquire and then use to increase sales and support their brands.

The software, called the Google Chrome Operating System, is initially intended for use in the tiny, low-cost portable computers known as netbooks, which have been selling quickly even as demand for other PCs has plummeted. Google said it believed the software would also be able to power full-size PCs.

The move is likely to sharpen the already intense competition between Google and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system controls the basic functions of the vast majority of personal computers. “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, in a post on a company blog. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds.”

Mr. Pichai and Mr. Upson said that the software would be released online later this year under an open-source license, which would allow outside programmers to modify it. Netbooks running the software will go on sale in the second half of 2010.

The company likely saw netbooks as a unique opportunity to challenge Microsoft, said Larry Augustin, a prominent Silicon Valley investor who serves on the board of a number of open-source software companies.

“Market changes happen at points of discontinuity,” Mr. Augustin said. “And that’s what you have with netbooks and a market that has moved to mobile devices.”

But while Google has deep pockets and a vast reach, it is in for a difficult battle when it comes to challenging Microsoft in the operating system market. Many companies have tried this over the years, with little success.

Google’s plans for the new operating system fit its Internet-centric vision of computing. Google believes that software delivered over the Web will play an increasingly central role, replacing software programs that run on the desktop. In that world, applications run directly inside an Internet browser, rather than atop an operating system, the standard software that controls most of the operations of a PC.

That vision challenges not only Microsoft’s lucrative Windows business but also its applications business, which is built largely on selling software than runs on PCs.

Google said Chrome OS will have a minimalist user interface, leaving most space on the screen to applications.

“All Web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite Web technologies,” the company said.

Google has already developed an open-source operating system called Android that is used in mobile phones. The software is also being built into netbooks by several manufacturers.

But Google has not encouraged netbook makers to use Android. The company appears to be positioning Chrome OS as its preferred operating system for netbooks, though it said competition between the two systems would likely drive innovation.

“It makes total sense,” Mr. Augustin said. “Android wasn’t really meant for netbooks.”

Google had planned to unveil the project on Wednesday but moved up the announcement after receiving inquiries from The New York Times, which reported the company’s plans on its Web site late Tuesday. Ars Technica, a technology news site, also reported the outlines of Google’s plan late Tuesday.

Google released Chrome last year, describing it as not only a Web browser but also a tool to let users interact with powerful Web programs like Gmail, Google Docs and online applications created by other companies. Since then, Google has been adding features to Chrome, like the ability to run such applications even when a user is not connected to the Internet.

Google said Tuesday night that it still had work to do to develop a full-fledged operating system. In a recent interview, Marc Andreessen, who created the first commercial Web browser and co-founded Netscape, said Chrome itself was already well along that path.

“Chrome is basically a modern operating system,” Mr. Andreessen said.

The first wave of netbooks relied on various versions of the open-source Linux operating system, and major PC makers like Hewlett-Packard and Dell have backed the Linux software. Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, has worked on developing a Linux-based operating system called Moblin as well. The company has aimed the software at netbooks and smartphones in a bid to spur demand for its Atom mobile device chip.

To combat these efforts, Microsoft began offering its older Windows XP operating system for use on netbooks at a low price. In addition, the company has vowed that its upcoming Windows 7 software, due out this fall, will run well on the tiny laptops, which have stood out as the brightest part of the PC market during the global economic downturn. Microsoft’s current Vista operating system is designed for more powerful machines.

Over at the SyScan conference in Singapore, Mr. Miller disclosed a hole that would let attackers “run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator’s network in order to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet.” Charlie’s planning to detail the vulnerability in full at the upcoming Black Hat conference, but Apple’s hoping to have it all patched up by the end of this month.

Sedo also turned in another six figure sale this past week, completing a transaction for TimeManagement.com at $100,000. The seller was Roy Messer, famous for his sale of Vodka.com for $3 million (also brokered through Sedo). The buyer is in the Philippines.

Oh, and by the way - Kari Fosse is a norwegian singer/artist with a fantastic voice and a very bright future ahead of her.

UPDATE: Everything seems to be working now. If you experience any kind of problems, please let me know. Thanks all :)