ComputerNutz

Google announced Wednesday the launch of a new music service in partnership with three major record companies, a service that will compete directly with Apple and Amazon to sell music directly to consumers and allow them to access songs from any PC or Android-based mobile device, but goes a step farther by allowing users to share tracks with friends through the Google+ social network. Sharing is limited to one listen of each track with their friends.

Pricing is in line with Apple at .99 cents a track.

Possibly the most interesting thing they announced was to become basically a label of their own called Google Music Artist Hub for independent artists. The DIY-like software allows virtually anyone to sell and price their music on Google’s storefront. Musicians selling tunes through the service will keep 70 percent of their set list price, forfeiting the other 30 to the Android giant.

This service will give independent artists the exact same look and feel as the big guys have including the preview and sharing services.

Live video from the Google Event believed to be a music service announcement

Facing stiff competition from HTML5, Adobe has discontinued the Flash plug-in for mobile browsers.

Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson has dialed up his investment in the mobile payment system Square

Consumer Reports recommends the iPhone 4S and says it fixed the 4’s antenna problems. Still, the group says Android devices are better.

There are now reports that both Western Digital and Samsung have told their Taiwanese distributors that they will not be able to supply hard disk drives this month.

And last night Seagate, in a filing with the SEC, said it expects that total industry HDD shipments this quarter will be limited to 110 to 120 million units, far less than the 180 million units forecasted before the flood. That’s even worse than the predictions I heard earlier this week.

Again, many of the hard drives for PCs destined to be sold this quarter have already been manufactured. Still, the flooding will certainly reduce the number of PCs available significantly, both this quarter and into the next….more on Forward Thinking

Hewlett-Packard isn’t going out of the PC business after all. Today, CEO Meg Whitman announced the company would continue to make and sell PCs, reversing a decision made by her predecessor Léo Apotheker in August — a decision that riled investors and employees and led to his ouster in late September. Since the August announcement, HP’s future has been repeatedly questioned, as has the competence of its senior management. The appointment of board member Whitman as CEO added to the criticisms.

After assuming the CEO role, Whitman promised to assess the PC business’s future quickly, to try to end the hand-wringing by employees, shareholders, and the press. A month later, she delivered on that promise.

Look, we loved Steve Jobs, but this is why the old Apple magic sometimes can be a problem.  If a doctor tells you something is wrong with you, do not try to treat it with freaking tea leaves and spirits. We go to court to take kids from parents who try that crap on them for a reason.  Medicine works, tea leaves, not so much.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 56 earlier this month. In this video, Walter Isaacson, author of the upcoming official Steve Jobs biography, talks about why Jobs refused life-saving surgery. Catch the entire interview with Walter Isaacson Sunday on 60 Minutes.

Fresh UI is a new solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings in Windows XP/NT/2000/9x/Me, this software covers customizing and optimizing techniques such as

Customizing Windows User Interface (UI)
Optimizing system settings
Hardware settings
Customizing Windows application settings
Control user environment with policies.

Fresh UI is organized by section for easy navigation and complete with detailed descriptions for easy reference

Supported Operating System:
Windows 95, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, windows Vista, Windows 7

The  Onion had a great short article memorializing Steve Jobs today and it says it all while still being funny as hell. Epic win.