Google reminds carriers that data access is the way forward
The classic, quick, abbreviated, teen-fueled short message service (texting) is showing absolutely no sign of dwindling traffic as of late, despite the fact that many many consumers now have access to broad-end or even unlimited data usage. SMS is especially picking up steam in developing countries where the infrastructure and charge rates are far more affordable for those less fortunate - but even without that in regard, the developed world is still using the truly out of date service for... well, everything.
"SMS is the biggest messaging system in the world today, and it's still growing and growing phenomenally," said Peter Barry, head of venture capital and emerging technology at Vodafone. "The mobile phone is still primarily a communications mechanism, and you can't afford to forget that."
Google, however, believes that data plans will take over once they have developed into something for all mobile phone users to adopt. Google's Vice President of Engineering said at a mobile phone conference that "data could explode, if only the right plans were in place".
A perfect case study of this fact is a carrier in India, that offered unlimited data access for just 100 rupees ($2) - an offer that spiked a huge surge in data use.
"We discovered this only by spotting a huge spike in traffic usage; it spiked at 50 times normal usage," Said the search engine executive. "As we get better browsers and data plans in the developing world, very interesting things will happen."
Read More ...
Advanced Directory Printer 1.51 release
Advanced Directory Printer is a Windows based application designed to print or export a list of directories, subdirectories, and files. Information fields include file name, type, extension, size, creation time/date, last access date, last write time/date and file attributes, and you can choose which fields to print or export. Advanced Directory Printer allows you to sort the list of directories, subdirectories, and files by any information fields. File and folder listings can be saved as text file or as file ready for import into main spreadsheet or database programs. Program shows current status.
Changes include:
- Minor updates that enhance stability and performance
Website: Segobit Software
Download: Advanced Directory Printer 1.51
Read More ...
Mozilla gear up to celebrate 1 billion Firefox downloads
Mozilla is gearing up for a big celebration as just weeks after releasing version 3.5 of their extremely popular internet browser (Firefox), it is now nearing its 1 billionth download.
On the main page of the Firefox website there is a huge banner about the event and detailing what users and fans can do to celebrate, such as taking photos with Firefox banners and apparel and enter it into a draw to be put up on the site!
Mozilla also offers tips toward taking your celebratory photos - check them out and get more information at the Celebrate Firefox website.
Read More ...
Facebook accused of breaching Canadian privacy laws
The Canadian Privacy Commission have published a report this week in which Facebook is hammered for breaching various Canadian laws through the way that it stores a user's personal information, and the fact that it is held indefinitely.
A representative from the commission said that Facebook should be holding onto the data for "only as long as it is necessary", as the law states.
Over a massive 250 million users are registered on Facebook worldwide, and 12 million of those reside in Canada alone. The report says that the privacy policies on Facebook for the user are confusing and misleading or incomplete. If an account is "de-activated", the information that was stored in the account is reserved in case the user wishes to re-create their account at a later date - the specific policy which breaches Canadian privacy laws.
The Commission's objections could be taken further to a Canadian Federal court, at which time policy would be forced upon Facebook - but it is not yet clear whether this action shall be taken.
Read More ...
Averatec releases the D1005 All-in-One PC
TriGem USA has now introduced a new All-in-One desktop PC under its Averatec, the 22-inch D1005. Featuring a sexy and sleek black shell, the system packs a 22-inch LCD panel, a 2.5 GHz Intel COre 2 Duo E5200 CPU, 3GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, GMA X4500HD integrated graphics, and a slot-in DVD burner.
"Our latest offering was designed with the college student and business professional in mind," said Henry Hewitt, vice president of sales at TriGem USA. "Its sleek design and small footprint make it an attractive system to sit on top of your desk without taking up a lot of space. As people downsize their office space and college students head back to the dorm, saving valuable desktop real estate is top of mind."
Priced at $800, the D1005 also boasts a 2 megapixel camera, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Windows Vista Home Premium, and is backed by a one-year warranty.
Read More ...
Plextor rolls out three new DVD writers
Plextor is keeping the faith in the old DVD format and has thus added three more DVD burners to its line-up - the PX-880SA and PX-870A internal drives and PX-880U external drive. All three products have support for the LightScribe technology, Lossless Linking and Zero Link functions to prevent buffer underrun errors, a 2MB buffer and a SATA (PX-880SA), PATA (PX-870A), or USB 2.0 (PX-880U) interface.
Priced at $54.99 and $99.99, the PX-880SA and PX-880U, respectively, provide maximum write speeds of 24x for DVD-R/+R, 12x for DVD-R/+R DL and DVD-RAM, 8x for DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-RW, 48x for CD-R, and 32x for CD-RW. As for the PX-870A, which goes for $54.99, it offers the same speeds with one exception - it can only top 22x for DVD-R/+R.
Read More ...
Enermax intros the colorful Apollish series case fans
Liberty PSU maker Enermax has now unveiled the Apollish series of case fans which aim to bring a little more color into your life and that of your PC. The new 80 and 120mm fans comes in four flavors - silver, red, blue and green, have up to 15 diodes to ensure a bright coloring and feature a scratch-resistant and durable glossy coating, a patented twisted bearing which provides a low output and a lifetime of up to 100,000 hours, detachable fan blades and an integrated thermal sensor for optimized speed control.
The full specs of the Apollish fans look a little something likes this:
- 80nm models - 600 - 2100 RPM | 21,21 - 56,15 m3/h | 15 dBA (minimum sound output)
- 120mm models - 700 - 1700 RPM | 49,24 - 121,93 m3/h | 15 dBA
The 80mm and 120mm Apollish fans have recommended price tags of أ‚آ£7,99 / $13 and أ‚آ£11,99 / $19,5 (without VAT).
Read More ...
VIA Eden CPUs make their way into Fujitsu's FUTRO thin clients
VIA has scored a nice little win as Fujitsu has decided to use its Eden low-power processor for the FUTRO S100 thin client. Measuring 42 x 182 x 185 mm and weighting in 1kg, the fanless S100 is designed for server-based computing and virtual workplace solutions, and features a 500 MHz Eden ULV processor which consumes up to 1W under heavy load, 1GB of RAM, Chrome9 HC3 integrated graphics, and the VIA VT1708S audio codec.
"Our VIA Eden ULV processors allow the creation of a new class of fanless and silent devices that are today seeing significant growth in the enterprise," said Richard Brown, Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies. "The FUTRO thin client series from Fujitsu represents the leading edge of energy-efficient client computing, something we are proud to be a part of."
For more info about the Eden-powered FUTRO S100 check out Fujitsu's website.
Read More ...
Microsoft delivers Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 beta
Windows Home Server users rejoice, Microsoft hasn't forgotten about you and has a new Power Pack for you to test. Available in beta form, the WHS Power Pack 3 comes with quite a few additions including backup and recovery for Windows 7-powered PCs, Windows 7 Libraries integration, Windows Search 4, Console Quick View, TV archiving, (and more Windows Media Center enhancements), plus better netbook support
To test run the PP3 beta you have to be signed up as a beta participant of the Windows Home Server program on Microsoft Connect. If you can do without the beta for now then know that the full and final Power Pack 3 doesn't have a concrete release date but the plan is to have it out before the day Windows 7 ships (October 22nd). For more info about the WHS Power Pack 3 check out this page.
Read More ...
Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS now available for download
A third update for the open source Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS (long term support) operating system has now been let loose. According to its developers, this new maintenance release comes with over 80 updates including the following:
Installer
- Fix persistent mode on the live CD
- Fix GPT/MBR syncing on modern Intel Macs
- Fix handling of UUIDs on existing swap partitions during install
Desktop
- Set hdparm power management based on AC state on resume/thaw
- Fix LSB compliance in foomatic-rip
- Work around crash when navigating around ssh locations
- Don't inaccurately report all suspends >= 6 hours as failed
- Disable the ability to create a new user whose name is owned by a previously defined group, which, if allowed to happen, would overwrite the old group. If this happened to 'admin', for example, it would render any system administration by sudoers impossible.
- Fix nautilus shortcuts to smb shares
- Recover lost DAV over HTTPS mounting functionality
- Fix connection issue with new ICQ protocol
Server
- Fix for mod_proxy with SSL using all the CPU
- Fix kernel oops when shutting down NFS server
- Fix open-iscsi installation and startup
- Adjust openldap apparmor profile to allow cnconfig
- Avoid getting stuck in infinite loops in redhat-cluster-suite
General
- Fix libgomp to work with shared libraries
- Fix kernel oops when invalid character occurs in filename on udf filesystem
- Fix kernel oops in the NFS client
- Upgrade the lsb package to support LSB 4.0
To download Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS visit this page.
Read More ...
No comments:
Post a Comment