PureMobile sent us in a 16GB iPod Touch for the purposes of this article. This is one of the few times an - essentially - mp3 player comes with a powerful operating system (other examples include the Linux-based Archos and Sandisk offers). Read on for more.

Addictive 3D games for Linux users to fill their time with. These games are really good and some have won awards or have been featured on magazines. Most are cross platform and all of them completely free. You don't have to use 'Wine' to be able to play as they come with Linux installers.

"Leading up to next week's public beta-test release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, Microsoft today has published a 17-page document outlining in fine detail exactly what difference SP1 makes to Vista. Some of the contents has been shared in bits in the past, but this is so far the most comprehensive 'changelog' we've ever seen and probably will see as the final version is not expected to differ much from the RC, with the exception of WGA modifications."

The fifth release candidate for NetBSD 4.0 has been released. "We hope that this release candidate to be the last one before the final release of NetBSD 4.0. Please help us to test it as much as possible to make NetBSD 4.0 a solid release."

A few weeks ago Adobe released the Premiere Elements 4 and Photoshop Elements 6.0 applications. The bundle sported a new user interface but also new features. Read on for more for a quick rundown.

"Many people are looking to Ubuntu to be something that it is not: A mass market ready operating system designed to work with the same level of compatibility as Microsoft Windows. Where people get confused is in believing that if Ubuntu, king of the Linux distros, is not able to take the marketplace by storm, then something must be broken with desktop Linux. In this article, I’ll explain what it will take to dethrone the mighty Ubuntu and gain a market share so large that it will eclipse anything seen by Ubuntu to date." More here.

Jambi ships as a single Java library, or JAR (Java Archive) file, plus a handful of tools, including an interface layout and design tool, and an Eclipse plug-in. Trolltech uses its vaunted Qt C++ library as the GUI engine and puts Java wrappers around it. This approach uses the JNI (Java Native Interface) to call the necessary functions from Java. More here.

Stephan Kulow has announced the availability of the first development release of openSUSE 11.0: "We'd like to kick start the development of openSUSE 11.0 with releasing the current state of Factory as Alpha0 release. Since the release of 10.3, we checked in 2,187 packages including such fundamental package updates as GCC 4.3.0, Linux kernel 2.6.24-rc4, X.Org 7.3, KDE 3.5.8 and 4.0 RC1, CUPS 1.3.4, ALSA 1.0.15, GIMP 2.4 and YaST 2.16. The change between 10.3 and Alpha0 is big, but it still works pretty nicely." More here.

Microsoft is serious about getting Windows XP to work on OLPC's low-cost laptop, but the company still isn't sure it will be able to make a go of it. In an interview, James Utzschneider, the general manager of Microsoft's emerging market unit, says Microsoft has devoted about 40 employees and contractors to work on its effort. However, there are plenty of technical hurdles, he said. One of the biggest is the fact that the XO has no hard drive and only 1GB of built-in memory. The company concluded it needed at least 2GB of memory just for Windows and Office, so it convinced the OLPC folks to include an SD slot on the laptop's motherboard.

"Microsoft has started printing up the invites for the launch of Windows Server 2008 as it finally sets loose release candidate 1 of the long-awaited server operating system. Microsoft's decision to put a red ring around 27 February came as it released another test version of Vista Service Pack 1, the update it is banking on to breathe some life into the so-far zombified desktop operating system."

Ars has reviewed the new Santa Rosa-based MacBook, and concludes: "All in all, the new MacBook is shaping up to be a worthy replacement to my old PowerBook. In combination with Mac OS X 10.5, the most polished iteration of Apple's operating system, the MacBook is a joy to use. Even Omniweb, my favorite but much-maligned web browser, is snappy, and the Core 2 Duo processor appears capable of handling anything I throw at it. Certainly for someone with my fairly modest computing needs (word processing, web browsing, data manipulation, light graphics work, and media playback) the consumer line does what I want and does it well."

"The Christmas 2007 show, a relatively quiet affair held earlier this weekend in leafy Warwickshire, has been and gone. The main highlight was the appearance of Paul Stewart's home made portable RISC OS machine. Paul has managed to pack an A9home, laptop keyboard, touch pad, flatscreen monitor, a couple of speakers and other bits and pieces into what appears to be a slim flight case. Although he is remaining tight lipped about the project, Paul is set to reveal more details in the new year. It's understood the case has sockets for USB, video-out and ethernet, includes electronics to take power from a battery, and video is supplied to the flatscreen via analogue VGA."

A review of the Asus EeePC. It concludes: "The Eee PC may be targeted at children and students, but it should also entice anyone needing a compact, low cost, yet fully functional PC. It is featherweight, far easier to use than a Windows machine, starts up three times faster, and costs about a quarter of anything in its weight class."

"Sun Microsystems today announced a multi-year program called the Open Source Community Innovation Awards Program, which will foster innovation and recognize some of the most interesting initiatives within Sun-sponsored open source communities worldwide. To participate in the program's first year, Sun has selected six communities: GlassFish, NetBeans, OpenJDK, OpenOffice.org, OpenSolaris and OpenSPARC. Prizes are expected to total at least $1 million (USD) a year."