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There is a new list of the top 10 technologies that will be strategic for companies in 2010.

The list was compiled by the Gartner who defines a strategic technology as one that can have a significant impact on the enterprise within two years.

So what is on the list? What new technologies should you be concerned with for 2010? After each we will give you a little of our take.

In timely fashion with the launch of Windows 7 this coming Thursday, Microsoft plans to open its first "Microsoft Store" in Scottsdale. To help gather the masses MS has decided to give the first 1,000 visitors free gift bags as well as tickets to an Ashley Tisdale concert set to kick off come 5PM.

Every PC buyer on launch day gets a free HP printer and a copy of Office 2007 Home & Student. The strategy partly mirrors Apple's tendency to offer concerts at flagship stores as well as its giveaways, though the Mac producer rarely offers special discounts.

Microsoft is known to be patterning its store design closely after Apple retail with answer bars and open spaces but with an emphasis on customization as well as all of Microsoft's main product lines, including Windows Mobile, Xbox 360 and Zune.

It looks like Microsoft is going to launch the new Microsoft Store in conjunction with the launch of Windows 7. The Microsoft Store is an interesting idea from the marketing minds out there in Redmond. On the surface it is supposed to compete head to head with the Apple stores but more subtly it creates an actual market presence for MS.

Why is that important? Well it is important in that it gives MS something they have never had before. Direct consumer contact. With this contact they can feel the impact of their marketing choices first hand. It also allows them to directly comment on their performance in the marketplace. Now I am not saying their information will be accurate or that it will change any opinions, it just allows them to remove a common complaint about them.

The launch alongside Windows 7 is smart also. As of this writing Windows 7 actually is being anticipated by the consumer. People are looking for a replacement for the venerable Windows XP , but do not want to trust to the often maligned Windows Vista. Their answer is Windows 7, so Microsoft is looking to piggy back on the good press from that event and get the Microsoft Stores out on the high note.

NVIDIA's third instalment of their SLI Profile updates has just been released which expands upon the list of game titles to support the company's SLI multi-GPU technology and in some cases also optimizing support for SLI-ready titles.

The latest additions to support SLI using this update are as follows :-

• Borderlands

NVIDIA's Tegra is looking pretty good right now. First it manages to land in Microsoft's Zune HD player. This iPod Touch competitor has been doing great so far with many stores reporting that they are sold out of them and waiting for stock. This is good for both Microsoft and NVIDIA. For MS it shows that they can compete in the Apple centric PMP market. For NVIDIA it shows that Tegra is a viable product and one that is capable of doing the job in a small package.

Now we hear that Nintendo is planning to drop Tegra (either the current or next gen version) into their new DS portable game player. This is great news and one that is sure to push the Tegra towards the 50% company revenue goal that NVIDIA CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang talked about earlier this year.

The news comes from multiple sources and seems to be close to the mark. Of course neither NVIDIA nor Nintendo are commenting on this as of this writing but our sources also confirm this and say that we should see quite a few more items with Tegra under the hood, including SmartPhones, Netbooks, SmartBooks and more. Some of these devices have already reached internal testing by different providers. This means we could see even more Tegra based products alone with the Nintendo DS next year.

In the wake of the (somewhat inaccurate) news of the GT200 parts being discontinued we hear that many partners have ordered significant quantities of NVIDIA's new Fermi GPU. In some cases it was ordering Fermi that caused the shortage of GT200 GPUs in the first place. According to a few sources that we spoke with they anticipated delivery of Fermi GPUs earlier as such they were shifting from production of the GTX 260, 275 and 285s for the holiday season.

As such many manufacturers have had to shift allocation from their EMEA divisions to the US to meet demand there this has caused a false famine in parts at some companies.

Now while all of that is interesting, it does point out one thing. The GT300 appears to have been pushed back from the original production date. We have heard that originally GT300 was supposed to launch around the end of October. Now the time for the public launch is sometime in the middle of November. This could be the reason for the early demo of the Fermi Architecture instead of an actual launch.

Snow Leopard is has not been having a very good time. After being hailed as the next best thing since the Pizza it launched with lukewarm press coverage. You see normally when Apple launches something the press simply goes nuts and talks about all of its virtues. This trend has been shifting slightly. This is probably due to normal cycles in the fickle press, but also could be due to growing scrutiny of Apple's policies and business practices.

No matter the reason Snow Leopard has had its share of issues. From being labeled as a Microsoft copy (for 64-bit, multi core support, built in malware protection etc), to finding out it shipped with a seriously flawed version of Flash and that the built in Malware Protection can only detect two viruses. Now we hear there is an even larger issue with Snow Leopard.

The problem relates to the way the Guest Account works (something disabled by default in Windows). You see some users are reporting that if they log in using the Guest account and then to their regular user account they find that all of their data is simply gone. It is like something reset their account. The problem has been all over the Apple Support Boards, but until today Apple had not even acknowledged the problem.

You know it's been a long time since we have seen a major screw up by a graphics company when it comes to driver optimization. The last big one that I remember was ATi and Quake.exe.

This time it seems it is Intel that is running afoul of the community. They have introduced application specific optimizations in their latest graphics driver. Now optimization for games and applications are nothing really new, they are often built into to allow for better or more stable performance. However, this is not the case here. You see with Quake on ATi and Futuremark Vantage on the Intel GMA. The optimizations actually reduce graphical quality to gain the extra performance edge.

They do this by detecting the application that is running by name. Back when ATi did this the game was up when someone renamed Quake.exe to Quak.exe and noticed that the performance fell dramatically.

And Geohot does it again. After delays with the Dev Team's reds0wn (Windows jailbreak application) for iPhone OS 3.1(.2) many people wondered if we would ever see a Windows jailbreak for the iPhone 3G S and OS 3.1.2. Well tonight at a little past midnight it happened. George Hotz released his new blackra1n jailbreak. This new software is a "30 second ALL device 3.1.2 jailbreak." He does caution that you cannot update to 3.1.2 on the 3G and 3G S using iTunes if you want to maintain an unlocked phone but that otherwise this is the tool you have been waiting for (me included). I grabbed it just after it was released and began the tack of not only upgrading but jailbreaking my iPhone 3G S.

It actually tool longer to update the phone than it did to jailbreak it. To maintain my applications I used AptBackup and made a backup of my phone before the upgrade. I downloaded and installed the new 3.1.2 using iTunes (I am not interested in unlocking). After the update and the backup restore I ran blackra1n. Time from beginning to end;

2 minutes to download iPhone OS 3.1.2,

I tell you it must be the time of year. It seems like most of the new traveling around is a lot of mudslinging. After the round of bad FUD over NVIDIA (stupidly) showing off a fake card (I still think it is not a big deal). We now hear that someone is throwing mud at Microsoft's Project Pink.

This one comes from Apple Insider and reads like a disgruntled employee lashing out; in fact it might be the same one that leaked the original hate about the project.

This brings many, many doubts to mind about the project and what is going on behind the scenes here. Why would someone leak information to an Apple oriented site about an MS project? Why would they then follow up there if they are trying to give context?

Remember that very cool Optical interface that Intel showed off at IDC called Light Peak? Well after some digging we found out that this is sort of a spin off idea of a much older concept and one that Apple is very interested in(as we said at the time it would explain the used of the Hackintosh).

At IDC Intel did not give any time frame for the launch of the product. This is not surprising as the demo was in the very early stages (if the state of it is any measure).However we have read some new information that could indicate that Light Peak is closer to reality than it currently seems.

The information comes not in the form of a leak from Intel or Apple; instead it is all about the cable that would be used for connections.

It's been reported today that NVIDIA's chipset development has grinded to a halt due to continuing legal woes with Intel. All chipset development has been postponed until the legal issues have been resolved in court next year.

This is a pretty extreme decision given NVIDIA still has the freedom to innovate in the way of chipsets for AMD, not to mention Intel's four-year agreement with the green giant didn't cover Nehalem or the Core series of processors either.

"We have said that we will continue to innovate integrated solutions for Intel's FSB architecture," Sherbin told PC Magazine in an email. "We firmly believe that this market has a long healthy life ahead. But because of Intel's improper claims to customers and the market that we aren't licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs. So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we'll postpone further chipset investments."

There is good news for users of Brite-View's CinemaTube. They have found a way to make this product work with Windows 7. As of right now this is a work around but still for most it seems to do the trick.

The problem had to do with Windows 7 and the way that it handles network share requests. CinemaTube users were not able to access their shares as the device would ask for a password even when one was not setup on the Windows 7 systems.

XP and Vista users were not affected by this problem. Brite-View was able to find a workaround though so all would seem to be good in the world now.

In attendance at CEATEC this month Sony is showing off a highly impressive 56-inch monitor dubbed the TRIMASTER SRM-L560.

What's particularly special about this beast is its resolution, four times that of 1080p; 3840x2160 to be exact.

Further to that, it's been said the LED backlit TV has a 176-degree viewing angle from all sides and is meant to be a color-accurate preview for video pros and others who need large screens.

Intel have put into swing their Core i7 Custom Desktop Challenge as of October 5 which allows participants to sign up online and be in with a chance to pick up some nice prizes such as Intel processors, a netbook, Flip HD camcorder, 160GB SSDs and more.

There are two contest categories you can choose from as follows :-

• Mod Creativity: a mod PC desktop that showcases innovations in lighting, cooling, liquid emersion, cut case and creativity.

Some product and box images of a fancy looking new VGA cooler from Xigmatek have been sourced by the folks at Techpowerup.

Xigmatek calls it the Bifrost VD1065 VGA cooler. It comprises two 100mm fans running at 2000RPM with a dBA of under 20, whilst the Nicked plated base measures in at 234 (W) x 112.5 (H) x 51.5 (D) mm and includes six copper heat-pipes (as well as the use of Heat-pipe Direct Touch technology) and using an aluminum fin array.

Compatibility is good with support for all of the following cards :-

Just the other day I was musing about the lack of Flash on Web enabled smartphones and Personal Media Players like the Zune HD. After all it has been a very long time since this handy little feature was asked for on these devices it seems almost comical that we have not seen it yet.

Well, looks like the latest version of Flash, not 10 but 10.1 is about more than GPU acceleration. According to information we have heard it will also be able to be used on mobile OS platforms like Web OS and Windows Mobile. This is excellent news, as it means that other mobile platforms should follow shortly (HD Flash on the Zune HD would be amazing). Of course, there is a downside; this is for all iPhone/iPod Touch users. As of this writing this will be the only platform that Flash 10.1 will not work on.

Whether this is due to issues with Flash or Apple's instance on control (where my money is) we are not sure. Still this is great news, but since this is not the first time we have been promised flash on our mobiles I will believe it when I see the updates. We are also going to try and see if Flash 10.1 on Windows Mobile will mean Flash 10.1 on the Zune HD. This would be an amazing upset if it does.

The GPU race is heating up. This is evidenced by the latest round of FUD circling the internet over the weekend. You see NVIDIA used a Mock Up card for its introduction of the Fermi at their GTC event. Now this is a typical setup. Manufacturers often show off mock up cards at trade shows - nothing new here really.

So why has this become a big topic in the news? Simply put because Fermi represents a real threat.

Even if it is not ready for launch right now (all of our sources still say first week of November for the launch and availability at the end of November). It is still a serious enough threat to AMD that much of the "information" getting out can be traced back to them.

So get this, after all the people claiming the GT300 was a pipe dream or failure were prove wrong yesterday with the demo the first Fermi based Tesla cards we now hear some people claiming that NVIDIA's launch shows a commitment towards GPU computing and a move away from Graphics.

This argument is about as bad as the people that claimed the Core i7 would be horrible for gaming because it Looked to be aimed at the high end desktop. At the time when these comments were made not much was known other than what Intel showed at IDC. This is the same thing we have here.

NVIDIA did a great job of keeping GT300/ Fermi under the radar. There was enough ATi news and NVIDIA bad PR to keep much of the details hidden from the public. As such it was not until the last few weeks that the GT300 was even known by the vast majority to be real and ready for launch.

Yesterday I wrote an article on the accidental leak of the HTC HD2 known to most of us as the Leo. In it I made the statement;

"It is also speculated that Orange might have dropped this little teaser to gain back some business they are going to lose now that they are no longer an exclusive provider of the iPhone"

An observant pair of readers caught this and reminded me that O2 is the exclusive provider of the iPhone until next year and that they are the ones that Leaked the information. While working on that article I was thinking about rumors that Orange was going have the iPhone as well and somehow combined the information.