Color And Touch-Enabled E Ink Panels Rumored For Next Year
Amazon's third generation Kindle recently launched, and aside from a frame that's a bit thinner, controls that are nicer, the inclusion of games and a slight user interface overhaul, it's the same as the first. The main attraction, the E Ink panel, hasn't changed all that much. It's brighter and sharper now, but it's still E Ink. It still can't display color, and it still has a page refresh that's slow enough for the naked eye to notice. So, the question is: why is E Ink technology evolving so slowly? It's moving
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Cox To Start Selling TiVo Premiere DVRs, Will Others Follow?
Well, it's about time. For years now, TiVo has been fighting an interesting problem. They essentially created the DVR service that we know and use today, but they have been struggling forever to make profits and acquire new subscribers. How so? Cable companies were able to duplicate the experience, and although it's not nearly as robust, it's good enough for the vast majority of people. Also, TiVo never had any deals with pay-TV providers, so they were out on their own attempting to upsell people despite regular
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Microsoft Launching IE 9 Beta On Sept. 15; Will It Rival Firefox And Chrome?
The "September" time frame was confirmed already, but the next major installment of Internet Explorer now has a firm launch date: September 15. That's the date that Microsoft has set for the debut of the first IE9 beta, which is the company's first major attempt to battle the advancements made by Chrome and Firefox over the past months and years. Since the start of the Internet, Microsoft's browser has dominated in terms of market share. Most say that's because IE comes pre-installed on Windows-based PCs, but
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Clean Your Touchscreens for Security's Sake
At the Usenix security conference, an "unusual" but still useful study was discussed. It involved using the smudges on touch screens to break into smartphones, among other devices. The study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania focused on smartphone touch screens, but researchers added that such "smudge attacks" could be applied to "a significantly larger set of devices, ranging from touch screen ATMs and DRE voting machines to touch screen PIN entry systems in convenience stores." Indeed, while
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Dr. Martens USB Boot Drive: A Boot In More Ways Than One
Boot drives. Pretty simple to understand, right? It's a hard drive or solid state drive (usually), internal or external, used to boot up into a given operating system. Well, that used to be the definition. Now, mentioning "boot drive" takes on an entirely new meaning. Dr. Martens, which is a boot company that has been around for years and years, just celebrated their 50th. In order to really revel in their achievement, they could have just produced a new shoe. But instead, they did something different. Very
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TweetDeck Beta Comes To Android, Stirs Up Quite The Fuss
The Android faithful were pretty happy when Twitter launched their official mobile app on Google's mobile OS, and now they have another reason to celebrate. The app that's largely considered the best Twitter app for iPad (and Mac) is now official on Android, and it's making waves across the Web as it looks to put the official Twitter app in second place. TweetDeck is based on Adobe's AIR platform, and it uses a unique column style to display tweets. It's one of the most user friendly Twitter interfaces out right
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TweetDeck Beta Comes To Android, Stirs Up Quite The Fuss
The Android faithful were pretty happy when Twitter launched their official mobile app on Google's mobile OS, and now they have another reason to celebrate. The app that's largely considered the best Twitter app for iPad (and Mac) is now official on Android, and it's making waves across the Web as it looks to put the official Twitter app in second place.TweetDeck is based on Adobe's AIR platform, and it uses a unique column style to display tweets. It's one of the most user friendly Twitter interfaces out right now, and the Android beta actually collapses your Facebook, Twitter, Buzz and Foursquare updates into a single feed. The keeps everyone in one single application, and generally makes managing your social networking a lot easier.
Early reports on it are rather positive, but not everyone is being invited in just yet. Currently, it's an invite-only beta, which means that you may have to wait until TweetDeck hammers out a final version for release. The link below is a sign-up form if you'd like to get in early, but you know what they say about beta software. Can't live with it, can't live without it.
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Dr. Martens USB Boot Drive: A Boot In More Ways Than One
Boot drives. Pretty simple to understand, right? It's a hard drive or solid state drive (usually), internal or external, used to boot up into a given operating system. Well, that used to be the definition. Now, mentioning "boot drive" takes on an entirely new meaning. Dr. Martens, which is a boot company that has been around for years and years, just celebrated their 50th. In order to really revel in their achievement, they could have just produced a new shoe. But instead, they did something different. Very different.
They produced a USB drive, and as you might guess, it's a "boot drive" in more ways than one. Not only can this USB flash drive act as a boot drive for your computer, but it's also shaped like a boot. Cute, right? It's a limited edition drive with 2GB of storage space, and it measures 2" tall. It's $25, which isn't bad given the form factor. And if you're a big fan of the company's shoes, well, this one's a shoe-in. Sorry, we had to.
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Clean Your Touchscreens for Security's Sake
At the Usenix security conference, an "unusual" but still useful study was discussed. It involved using the smudges on touch screens to break into smartphones, among other devices.The study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania focused on smartphone touch screens, but researchers added that such "smudge attacks" could be applied to "a significantly larger set of devices, ranging from touch screen ATMs and DRE voting machines to touch screen PIN entry systems in convenience stores."
Indeed, while the idea of a "smudge attack" may first seem arcane, touching the screen with your finger leaves behind an oily residue that is pretty persistent, as those that have tried to rub it off sans a screen cleaner can attest to. This makes it something that could be used to break into certain lock sequences, in particular the "pattern lock" used to secure many Android phones.
Researchers were able to use various lighting and camera angles to enhance the appearance of smudges, such that they were able to figure out the sequence of patterns used to unlock Android smartphones. In fact, the researchers were successful at unlocking the Android phones more than 90 percent of the time.
We believe smudge attacks based on reflective properties of oily residues are but one possible attack vector on touch screens. In future work, we intend to investigate other devices that may be susceptible, and varied smudge attack styles, such as heat trails caused by the heat transfer of a finger touching a screen.There are some ways to minimize that issue on Android, such as using a pattern that crosses itself to make it more difficult to determine the actual pattern. Additionally, Android 2.2 adds the ability to use a PIN-lock instead of a pattern, and some manufacturers have customized their Android builds to allow PIN-locking of earlier builds. For example, the Droid X with Android 2.1 has PIN-locking.
The practice of entering sensitive information via touch screens needs careful analysis in light of our results. The Android password pattern, in particular, should be strengthened.
Still, one has to wonder if this suddenly the sale of screen cleaning wipes will rise as a result of this. That's the obvious way to keep this from being a security hole of your own: keep your screen clean.
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Microsoft Launching IE 9 Beta On Sept. 15; Will It Rival Firefox And Chrome?
The "September" time frame was confirmed already, but the next major installment of Internet Explorer now has a firm launch date: September 15. That's the date that Microsoft has set for the debut of the first IE9 beta, which is the company's first major attempt to battle the advancements made by Chrome and Firefox over the past months and years.Since the start of the Internet, Microsoft's browser has dominated in terms of market share. Most say that's because IE comes pre-installed on Windows-based PCs, but people are beginning to notice that free rivals from Mozilla and Google (and Apple, if you include Safari) offer more features, less exploit threats and a generally better user experience.
Microsoft knows a thing or two about coming back from a major blow, and Internet Explorer 9 has a lot to live up to. When it comes to free software, it's easy to simply choose the best and never even try the rest. If IE9 doesn't live up to the standards set by Firefox and Chrome, chances are that won't go over well in the tech community. Microsoft has had plenty of time to evaluate the next generation browser landscape and really nail this one, but that all remains to be seen.
The company will host a launch event in San Francisco, California on the 15th of next month, with the beta going live for all to download who choose to do so. Of course, we expect some bugs to be noticed in the beta build, but hopefully Microsoft won't keep it in beta for too long. The real question is how this next gen browser will fit into the Windows Phone 7 landscape, if at all. WebKit has dominated the mobile browser space; is this the time for Microsoft to finally make an impact there, as well?
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Color And Touch-Enabled E Ink Panels Rumored For Next Year
Amazon's third generation Kindle recently launched, and aside from a frame that's a bit thinner, controls that are nicer, the inclusion of games and a slight user interface overhaul, it's the same as the first. The main attraction, the E Ink panel, hasn't changed all that much. It's brighter and sharper now, but it's still E Ink. It still can't display color, and it still has a page refresh that's slow enough for the naked eye to notice.So, the question is: why is E Ink technology evolving so slowly? It's moving so slowly in fact, that some people are just resorting to LCDs to get what they really want. Many use the iPad as an e-reader because it can display color and it refreshes in an instant, even though the battery life is worse and it's difficult to see outside. But we know that Qualcomm's Mirasol addresses these problems, and Amazon has already confessed to having some color prototypes in their labs. So we know it's out there somewhere, just not on store shelves.
A new rumor from DigiTimes makes it seem like color E Ink is closer than we had imagined. And there's more. E Ink displays with capacitive touch panels are also rumored to be making the rounds internally, which means that a fully touch-enabled, color-supporting Kindle could be in the labs as we speak. Of course, that's not to say the device is close to shipping to consumers, but any progress would be nice at this point. The report notes that shipping product could be ready by next year, but we aren't going to buy into something that optimistic just yet. We'd love to be shown wrong, though. An E Ink based tablet that could last for days could really revolutionize things...
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What do you think about my overhaul?
I posted this on gamefaqs and got a very helpful reply, and was hoping for some more opinions.
I'm keeping my old 650 Watt PSU, DVD drive and 500 GB HD.
Here's what I'm getting:
i5- 750 from microcenter: $160
Windows 7 Professional w/ Student discount (yay still active alumni email): $30
All form newegg:
Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3: $119
Kingston SSDnow V series 64GB: post discount and rebate $135
Lian LI Lancool PC-K58W black AND G.Skill Ripjaws series 4GB RAM combo: $130
AZiO AWU354 USB wireless adaptor: $9
Pallit GTX 470: after discount and rebate : $223
All together ~$806. What do you think? Would you replace anything? Would that powersupply still be ok with the new parts?
Thanks
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Feds File Charges against Fake iPod Repairman
Federal prosecutors recently filed felony fraud and money-laundering charges against a Michigan man who is accused of duping Apple into sending him more than 9,000 replacement iPod Shuffles. According to court documents, Nicholas Woodhams of Kalamazoo, Mich. received 9,075 iPod Shuffles from Apple by entering valid serial numbers on Apple’s Online Service Assistant website. This website provides users with replacement iPods for defective devices that are under warranty. After receiving the iPods, Woodhams turned around and sold them for $49 apiece.Woodhams ran an iPod repair business under the names iPod Mechanic, iMechanic, and Pod Tradeup. He had websites under the first two business names. Those sites have since been taken down.
Woodhams apparently discovered that he could guess valid, warranted serial numbers and enter them into Apple’s website to receive a replacement unit without ever purchasing a unit. Through the program, you must provide a credit card number that can be charged $1 for a preauthorization fee. Woodhams used Visa-branded gift cards for the preauthorization and had the replacement units sent to a box at a local UPS store. When Apple did not receive the defective unit Woodhams was suppose to return to Apple under the repair agreement terms, Apple attempted to charge the cards for the cost of the iPod. By then, the gift cards had already been exhausted so Apple was out of luck.
Last June, Apple filed its own lawsuit against Woodhams, alleging he had fraudulently manipulated the replacement program. At that time, Apple asked the court to bar him from continuing his practice. Apple’s reported losses from the scam were $75,000. Apple’s lawsuit is currently on hold as a result of the recently filed federal criminal charges.
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Verizon's FiOS TV To Host First 3D NFL Game Of 2010 Season
3D is here to stay, for a while anyway. And that means that 3D content will slowly but surely arrive to catch up with the 3D hardware that's already out there. Programming is sure to scare for some time, as not many programs are even equipped with the cameras to shoot in 3D, and not all content will be shot in 3D. With HD, everything could benefit from a higher resolution. That's not the case with 3D, with some content simply looking gimmicky when transformed.But one area where most everyone can agree that 3D will benefit is sports. The World Cup already proved that sports in 3D has traction to gain, and the NFL is apt to follow suit. Select football matches have been shown to select groups in 3D in the past, and they've always shown well. This year, we can expect even more 3D in the NFL, with Verizon hosting the first one exclusively on their FiOS TV service. The September 2 match between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots will be more than just a regular pre-season match. It'll be the first 3D NFL game of the 2010 season, and it will be shown on FiOS Channel 834 for FiOS TV subscribers in the New York City area, including Long Island and Westchester and Rockland counties, as well as for subscribers in northern New Jersey, Mercer County, N.J., Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
You will need the service, a compatible TV and 3D glasses to enjoy the broadcast, and if you have all of those, you could probably charge neighbors to come over and enjoy. If you don't, you could check around a local watering holes; we get the impression that quite a few bars will be hosting this match. It should be quite the kickoff to the season.
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Samsung Seek Is Boost Mobile's First Touch/QWERTY Smartphone
The biggest problem facing prepaid mobile carriers isn't the pricing. In many cases, their pricing is far better than the major postpaid carriers. But aside from a lack of marketing at times, the phone selection is the biggest obstacle. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon manage to land the best phones, and when consumers want the best devices, they simply don't have anything to offer at prepaid stores. But that's beginning to change.Boost Mobile has been offering an attractive $50/month unlimited plan that includes talk, text and Web, and now the company is offering a touchscreen phone with slide-out QWERTY keyboard for the first time. The Samsung Seek is probably Boost's best phone yet, and it may actually sway consumers who are considering some other touchpanel phone on a postpaid carrier. The phone has a 2.6" QVGA display (touch-enabled), a 1.3MP camera, IM support, email support, stereo Bluetooth support, microSD card slot, GPS and downloadable games.
It's going to launch on August 25 for $149.99 with no contract, making it one of the cheaper touch phones on the market, bar none. If Boost Mobile can keep hits like this coming, it'll be harder and harder to sign those pricey 2-year deals with the major carriers, and we could all use that kind of competition.
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Cox To Start Selling TiVo Premiere DVRs, Will Others Follow?
Well, it's about time. For years now, TiVo has been fighting an interesting problem. They essentially created the DVR service that we know and use today, but they have been struggling forever to make profits and acquire new subscribers. How so? Cable companies were able to duplicate the experience, and although it's not nearly as robust, it's good enough for the vast majority of people. Also, TiVo never had any deals with pay-TV providers, so they were out on their own attempting to upsell people despite regular DVRs being pushed hard by cable companies. It was and is an uphill battle, to say the least.But finally, finally, TiVo has what they have needed from day one: a deal with a cable company. It's "just" Cox, which isn't nearly at the top of the cable company heap, but it's a much needed start. The deal means that Cox will begin to promote and provide TiVo Premiere units, and it will offer installation and tech support. That means that TiVo won't have to sell themselves to Cox customers; it'll be an option right from the start. It's also the first-ever integration of Cox On Demand into a retail device, making it a win-win for both companies involved.
Customers will need a CableCARD for access to Cox services, but at least it eliminates the need for Cox's cable service + a standalone TiVo. Now the two are integrated, as they should be. Cox is planning to roll this out across all major markets for an undisclosed amount, and we suspect other cable carrier could follow suit if it proves fruitful.
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