Wednesday was a happy day for producers of Fox’s “Prison Break” and “American Dad,” NBC’s “The Office” and USA Network’s “The 4400.”

All four shows have earned pickup orders from their respective networks.

Fox ordered nine episodes each of taut drama “Prison Break,” which led the charge for network this season, and animated comedy “Dad,” bringing their complement to a full season’s worth of 22 episodes.

“Prison Break” got off to a strong start in its preseason August 29 launch and in recent weeks has held its own in the 9 p.m. Monday slot as Fox’s rivals have rolled out their new Monday programs.

“American Dad” bowed in May behind Fox’s relaunch of “Family Guy” in the Sunday 9-10 p.m. hour. “Dad,” from “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, has not been as big a Nielsen hit as “Family Guy” or “The Simpsons,” but it has helped put Fox back in the game with the younger set on a competitive night.

NBC confirmed it has given the green light to produce seven additional episodes of “The Office,” bringing the total for the offbeat comedy’s sophomore year to 13 episodes.

USA signed up for a second 13-episode season of the Emmy-nominated “4400,” a sci-fi saga about the reappearance of 4,400 people who were previously reported missing or dead but suddenly returned to Earth with mysterious powers.

Source: Yahoo

Marking its biggest step into the wireless communications market to date, Google said on Friday it has proposed to provide free wireless Internet services across the city of San Francisco.

The Web search company said it has responded to a request for information by the City of San Francisco to test local Internet services via Wi-Fi, the short-range wireless technology built into most new laptop computers.

“Google has submitted a proposal to offer free, wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi) to the entire city of San Francisco,” Google said in a statement.

The Wi-Fi access could be funded through online advertising, a Google spokesman said.

The service aims to test a range of new services and applications around the hilly city, which is home to more than 700,000 residents.

Source: Reuters

The MIT Media Laboratory expects to launch a prototype of its US$100 laptop in November.

The facility has been working with industry partners to develop a notebook computer for use by children in primary and secondary education around the world, particularly in developing countries. The laptops should start appearing in volume in late 2006.

MIT researchers believa that by equipping all children in the world with their own laptop will greatly improve the level of education and help stimulate children to learn outside of school as well as in the classroom.

The lab expects to unveil a prototype of the $100 laptop at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on Nov. 17. The WSIS is due to be held in Tunis, Tunisia, from Nov. 16 to Nov. 18.

The 500MHz laptop will run a “light” version of the open-source Linux operating system. It will have a two-mode screen, so it can be viewed in color and then by pushing a button or activating software switch to a black-and-white display, which can be viewed in bright sunlight at four times normal resolution.

The laptop can be powered either with an AC adapter or via a wind-up crank, which is stored in the housing of the laptop where the hinge is located. The laptops will have a 10 to 1 crank rate, so that a child will crank the handle for one minute to get 10 minutes of power and use. When closed, the hinge forms a handle and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap. The laptops will be ruggedized and probably made of rubber. They will have four USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, be Wi-Fi- and cell phone enabled and come with 1G byte of memory.

Each laptop will act as a node in a mesh peer-to-peer ad hoc network, meaning that if one laptop is directly accessing the Internet, when other machines power on, they can share that single online connection.

The lab will initially target Brazil, China, Egypt, South Africa and Thailand, as well as the U.S. state of Massachusetts, which has just committed to equipping every schoolchild with a laptop. Mass production of some 5 million to 15 million laptops for those markets has been schedulled towards the end of 2006.

Today, September 27th, 2005, Google has been around now for 7 years! and probably will be here for the rest of our lifes and probably soon to be in our backyards with their internet.

Also this week Microsoft turns 30 years old.

Microsoft Max lets you make lists of your photos and turn them into beautiful slide shows to share with your family and friends. Max is the codename for Microsoft’s flagship application based on WinFX and Microsoft’s new user experience.

Microsoft Max requires a minimum of:

* Microsoft Windows® XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Microsoft Windows XP Professional with SP2. (Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition not supported.)
* 1.0 gigahertz (GHz) processor.
* 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
* 200 MB of available hard disk space.
* Super VGA (800 x 600) resolution monitor.

Although Max is beta, Max uses Microsoft Update to make sure you have the most up-to-date version running. Which means you can try the new features or get the latest fixes with each release.

Download: Download Microsoft Max (Requires WinFX Runtime Components 3.0 Beta 2)
Screenshot: click here
View: Microsoft Max
Source: Neowin.net

This bad boy is hott, I love the new looks especially for Word 12!

Microsoft today released screenshots and information at PDC 2005 on its future plans for Office.

The whole UI for Office 12 has been overhauled. The main user experience is codenamed “ribbon” and will provide the central place for users to author documents they’re currently working on. Microsoft are removing the stack of task panes and menus/toolbars to look through, instead giving the user one place to look for commands.

A new feature named “galleries” gives users a visual representation of the kinds of formatting choices they can make in their documents. The galleries also offer “live previews” in many instances, so you can see exactly what the document is going to look like before you make the choice, which makes it easier to experiment and change content.

A feature code-named “Super Tooltips” integrates Help topics into the product in a new way.Super Tooltips are integrated Help tips that provide quick access to information about a command directly from the command’s location in the ribbon. The tooltip itself will usually give you enough information about what that feature does so that you can use it.

Another feature is the “Quick Launch Toolbar,” which allows you to customize the UI by adding as many commands as you like to a toolbar. It’s a place where the user can collect the specific set of commands they use frequently.

Office 12 is expected to enter into beta by the end of the year with a release along side Vista in late 2006.

Screenshot: Word 12
Screenshot: Powerpoint 12
Screenshot: Excel 12
Screenshot: Access 12

Yesterday, the iPod nano was announced. Since yesterday, you have been able to get your own free iPod Nano just go to either http://www.freeipodsnano.com or http://www.yourfreeipodnano.com to get yours!

Make sure to pass this link around to your friends!

Incase you did not know, you will now be able to update windows through IE7, previously you probably encountered a problem with it just loading forever. Like myself.

I guess it has been fixed for a few weeks, I just found out today and had not been using IE7 in a few weeks (as it is on my Windows XP copy) and I have not had that computer on in awhile.

A Google Talk Board is now open over at http://www.gtalkboard.com

It is in NO way sponsored or affiliated by Google Inc.