Today Intel announced it will buy McAfee, the computer antivirus software maker, for about $7.7 billion in cash.

Under the terms of the deal, Intel will pay $48 a share in cash, a 60 percent premium to McAfee’s Wednesday closing stock price of $29.93.

With its McAfee purchase, Intel is gaining an entrance into the security tech sector, one that is expected to continue growing quickly as Internet usage expands. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., McAfee reported about $2 billion in revenue last year.

I must say that made me say, wow!

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Look what Mr. UPS dropped off today, out of the blue (and without a working link to the MacOS client download). The Monsoon Media Vulkano box. For those out of the loop my buddy Dave Zatz sums it up:

But the Volcano line is more than just a placeshifter, with actual video input and television out capabilities. For playback of local media (USB or eSATA storage, UPnP, DLNA) or a variety of web content, starting with YouTube streaming and CinemaNow video on demand downloads. Additionally, video from an attached set-top box can be offloaded onto attached or (later) integrated storage. For local or remote playback which can be streamed… or copied (think TiVoToGo) for subway or air travel.

Later I’ll plug this baby in and take some UI screenshots. UPDATE: Now with UI walkthrough pictures and here is my first thoughts on the device.

Sure, with FireFox there is an easy way to download YouTube videos, but what if you want to download a song posted on YouTube as an MP3?

With a visit to dirpy.com you preform a YouTube search, and the results are displayed in a list. You pick your video and dirpy Studio does its thing – letting you customize the file name and ID3 tag data.

Kinda neat if you ask me!

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In this beautifully shot video, you’ll get a time-lapse view “of a [Virgin Atlantic] Boeing 747 being repainted with its new livery; in total it takes about four days.”

How annoying is it that Apple decided to go with a non standard USB voltage to power the iPad and to see your new $499+ gadget just say “not charging” when plugged into your old Mac or any PC? For $5 a dongle will make sure your iPad charges!

The iPad has some cable charging issues which have not been fully resolved. There is a problem related the way the iPad charges with a computers USB port. Users of non Apple computer and some Apple computers cannot charge the iPad unless they use an electrical wallplate. The 10W Power Adapter which is packaged with the iPad is required if a user wants to charge the iPad. Therefore, to charge the iPad you have to be a slave to a wall outlet.

Unless you have a 2.0 USB connector on your laptop or desktop which will operate with the iPad for charging. Apple states on their website that some USB 2.0 ports and accessories do not provide enough power to charge iPad. When this occurs the message “Not Charging” appears in the status bar next to the battery icon. This appears to happen in most cases. As it turns out the iPad will not charge through USB ports on non-Apple computers. iPad charges just fine through the wall charging brick and accompanying USB data cable. The iPad charges just fine when connected to USB ports on iMac, MacBook Pro. However the non-Apple as a whole have a problem.

The iPad does not charge correctly when connected to a PC.
The iPad does not charge correctly when connected to an older MacBook Pro (pre-Unibody).
The iPad does not charge through USB hubs, regardless of what the hub is connected to (PC or Mac)
The iXP1-500 adapter has been designed to solve the USB power with an inexpensive solution . Simply attach the iXP1-500 adapter to your existing Apple charge/sync cable and your iPad will charge from your computer’s USB port – Guaranteed. The iXP1-500 charges the iPad using the USB port on the users computer. No need for a wall outlet. No more frustration.

Pretty neat if you ask me! Count me in for one!

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Well, with the announcement that Star Wars is coming to Bluray in 2011 it seems that everyone has Star Wars fever – including Adidas with their themed sneakers.

In addition to the Jaba the Hut sneakers there will be Chewbacca boots, Boba Fett running shoes, R2-D2 + C3-PO half and half low-tops and Stormtrooper high-tops.

No word on pricing, but you can expect these to arrive in time for the Fall/Winter of 2010.

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Did you know that Microsoft holds more than 10,000 patents? Or, that it’s company tradition to celebrate special events with M&M’s? A reader emailed me a JPEG of other interesting Microsoft facts.

Ever have an issue where your Boot Camped iMac just hangs on startup? I may not be a Windows issue after all. It seems the culprit might be the power cord.

At my job most of the employees are using iMacs running Windows XP SP3 via BootCamp. A few months ago I got a complaint from one employee saying their computer wasn’t booting. It was an old 2007 white iMac and it would hang at the Windows XP loading screen. I brought the machine back to my cubicle and first booted it into safe mode and started disabling unnecessary startup items. The machine then booted without any issues so I brought it back and everything was fine. A few weeks later I get a call from the same employee as well as another employee with a 2008 aluminum iMac experiencing the same issue.

The post continues to go on hypothesizing that the culprit may be, well, a power cord that creates the boot hangs. I’ve witnessed this first hand several times on various iMacs scattered across different areas and the only thing that changed in the setup is a simple cord.

Does this happen to you? Should we break out the tin foil hats? Can it really be a power cord? It’s an excellent read with interesting observations.

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As seen at a Safeway grocery store soda aisle.

So, what if Apple banned Camera+’s volume snap feature because it “it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion.“.

You know with a simple URL in Safari on the iPhone you can enable it? Yup, a simple URL.

Open up Mobile Safari and type in:

camplus://enablevolumesnap

And there you have it by pressing the volume up button in Camera+ you can take a picture. To disable it just type camplus://disablevolumesnap . Its a neat feature if you ask me to allow you to take much steadier photos by holding the iPhone with two hands.

Update:. Apple has pulled the Camera+ app. How about downloading the UNEASYsilence app instead – to get the latest news from UNEASYsilence and other tech websites. Plus, ouch notifications for breaking news!