Oracle Updates Free VirtualBox Hypervisor

VirtualBox is one of the many projects Oracle found itself with when it purchased Sun earlier this year, and this is the first major release by the company.

Technically known as a hypervisor, VirtualBox allows users to create virtualized instances of operating systems running on top of their existing OS. There are versions of VirtualBox available for Windows, Intel Mac, Linux, and Solaris, and it's possible to virtualize those operating systems too, although only the Server edition of OS X is supported.

This time around there are big changes to VirtualBox's licensing system, although arguably for the better. Previously users could choose between the Open Source Edition (OSE), which was available as source code and which needed to be compiled before use, and the main VirtualBox release, which was covered by the Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL) and which was
available as a standard, ready-to-go installer.

Only the main release had full USB functionality, beyond simple mouse support. It also featured Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to allow remote access of virtual machines.

With version 4, the OSE has gone. Instead, the base VirtualBox release is available in both source code and standard installer formats, and USB 2.0 and RDP support have been shifted to an "extension pack", released under the PUEL.

Full 1.1 USB support is now a feature of the base release. Everything but the extension pack is open source, released under the GPLv2.

None of this means anything for end users, who will notice no difference; both the base release and extension pack remain free of charge and freely available, although users will have to ensure they download and install the extension pack in addition to the main program if their existing virtual machines have USB 2.0 drivers.

Samsung to Show 23mm-thick Blu-ray Disc Player

Samsung Electronics has developed a Blu-ray Disc player that's just 23 millimeters thick, and plans to unveil it at next week's International Consumer Electronics Show, it said Tuesday.

The slim player supports 3D Blu-ray content and includes a function to convert conventional 2D content into a quasi-3D image, Samsung said. The player can also connect to the Internet and display content from sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on a TV screen.

Samsung provided no other technical specifications of the player, but claimed it would be the world's thinnest 3D Blu-ray Disc player when launched.

Pricing and launch information was not disclosed.

Samsung will be launching the player at a time when consumer interest in 3D Blu-ray Disc appears to be rising.

The method for encoding 3D content onto Blu-ray Disc media was standardized during 2010 and players compatible with the format are beginning to appear on the market.

During the recent "black Friday" sales-promotion period in the U.S., Blu-ray Disc player sales more than doubled compared to last year at over 400,000 units, said NPD Group. 3D-compatible players accounted for 15 percent of those sales.

Samsung is one of the world's largest manufacturers of Blu-ray Disc players and has used the previous two CES events to emphasize the design and form factor of its players. In 2009 it launched a model that was 39 mm thick and in 2010 it showed a model 29 mm thick.