IT-Code-News: IT News HeadLines (TweakTown) 31/12/2010

Grace Digital Audio internet radios with color screens to debut at CES
I don't listen to the radio much in my home because there aren't that many stations in my area and the ones we have tend to play music I don't like. In the car, I listen to CDs and digital tracks mostly. If you have the same issue and you don't want to move your CDs in and out of the car one of the internet radio devices from Grace Digital Audio would be perfect. The company will be unveiling three new devices at CES next week that all have color screens.

One of the devices is the Solo Touch that is a compact tuner with a big 4.3-inch touchscreen color display. The device also ships with a remote control and has an Ethernet connection in addition to the WiFi connectivity built-in. It also has headphone port and RCA outputs with a MSRP of $249.99. The Bravado X is a WiFi enabled tablet top radio with a 2.7-inch color screen.
It packs stereo speakers, RCA inputs and outputs, USB port, and a headphone port. It will sell for $179.99. The final new device is called the Mondo with a 3.5-inch screen and full alarm clock functionality. The device has snooze and a remote control. It sports WiFi, Ethernet port, RCA outputs, and a USB connection. The MSRP is $169.99. Exactly when the three new products will be available to purchase is unknown.

Barnes & Noble says Nook line are its best selling items ever
eReaders have been around for a long time now, but they really only caught the attention of a lot of people after the Amazon Kindle debuted a few years ago. The Kindle went on to great success and is the best selling item ever for Amazon, which is saying a lot. Barnes & Noble was one of the booksellers that decided to follow Amazon into the eReader market with its line of Nook readers.

Barnes & Nobel has now announced that the Nook line of eReaders are the best selling items it has ever had in its store or online. That best selling title spans the entire 40-year history of the company. Barnes & Noble offers up no specifics on just how many Nooks have sold overall. However, it did note that on Christmas Day alone almost a million NookBooks sold.
"NOOKcolor became the gift of choice over the holidays for people who love to read everything - books, magazines, newspapers, children's books and more - in rich, beautiful color," said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble. "The success of NOOKcolor, along with our unique ability to market NOOK devices to readers in our stores and through our strong channel partnerships with Best Buy, Walmart and Books-a-Million, resulted in the continued explosive growth of our Digital Content business and our NOOK line, our most successful products ever. We have a large online book business at BN.com, that's been recently growing. And the fact that eBook unit sales now exceed physical book sales through BN.com, illustrates how quickly we've grown this exciting new business at Barnes & Noble."

RR Auction sells off some really cool space memorabilia with Astronaut autographs
I was born too late to be part of the golden age of space flight. The first thing I remember about space was the Challenger disaster when I was in grade school. I think it was cool that with the tech of the era we were able to put men on the moon. If you are a fan of auctions and the golden age of space flight, you can get your hands on some really cool space related items, if you have the loot.

The coolest item in the auction in my book is the little American flag that went to the moon on Apollo 11. The flag is mounted on a special card and has autographs by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. The card is autographed by Armstrong to a sports shop owner from Texas named Rooster Andrews.
Apparently, Rooster was an astronaut pal. You can also get yourself an autographed 60's Playboy centerfold pic that orbited the Earth if that is more your style. There are all sorts of items in the auction including some really old freeze-dried food.

Clear discontinues iSpot 4G device
If you are an early adopter of the iPad, you have a device that came with no 3G service and many of these folks are looking for devices that will get them online using a mobile network. If you are a user that happens to be in one of the 4G service areas that Clear operates that fast WiMax network might have looked really good combined with the company's iPhone/iPad/touch specific iSpot hotspot device.

A few weeks back you could get the thing for only $20 as a holiday special. That special apparently helped Clear to clear out their stock of the iSpot devices. A Clear rep on the official Clear forums has told users that the device has been discontinued. Apparently, you can still find the iSpot in some retail stores, but after that stock is gone, there will be no more offered.
Clear has apparently held some of them back to serve as warranty replacement in the event a user has issues with one under warranty. The iSpot would only work with iOS devices and some users had issues getting it to work period. This may be one of the big reason the item is no more. If you already own an iSpot device, the Clear rep said the service would continue to be supported.

FBI raids ISPs looking for clues in Anonymous investigation
If you have followed the saga of WikiLeaks at all you are probably familiar with the hacker group going by the name Anonymous that tried to lend support to the WikiLeaks cause by launching DDoS attacks against the websites of major companies that stopped supporting the site and cut off services. Anonymous launched DDoS attacks against Visa.com, PayPal.com, and Mastercard.com.

The attacks were able to force a few of the websites offline, but no user data was lost or accessed by the hackers. The FBI and authorizes around the world are looking for the people behind the attacks and have raided some ISPs here in the US in the search for clues.
The FBI raided Tailor Made Services in Dallas and seized a pair of HDDs to search for evidence. The raid happened after German police found a link to the company in an investigation in Germany. The FBI also raided Hurricane Electric in California for HDDs as well. Authorities are seeking details on the IRC servers used to coordinate the attacks.

Happy New Year From all of us at TweakTown - 2011 FTW!
Yet another 12 months has flown by since 2010 kicked in and we're looking down the barrel of another fresh and eventful year. Over the past 12 months we've seen TweakTown continue to grow in all areas with a heavy focus on further diversifying our content and how it is presented.
But of course, without you, our loyal readers, we wouldn't be much at all. So we would like to quickly take the time to thank you all for putting a bit of time aside each day or week to check out what's happening in the computer world through the eyes of the team at TweakTown.
On behalf of all of us here at TT, we wish you a fantastic New Year and hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday break with your new goodies, time spent with loved ones, or whatever else it is that has helped put more smiles on your face this holiday season.

We hope you've enjoyed what TweakTown has had to offer you over the past 12 months and we look forward to bringing you all another year's worth of new and exciting coverage throughout 2011, beginning with the highlights of CES as it fires up early into the new year!
Time to bring on 2011 with a BANG - Happy New Year folks!!

BFBC2: Vietnam "Operation Hastings" unlocked on PC!
DICE had put a goal on their new Vietnam pack for Bad Company 2 when released. That a new map would be opened up when 69 million team actions had been completed.

Xbox 360 combatants are on around 36 million team actions, PlayStation 3 battlefielders are on 27 million while PC - have pushed past 69 million and now have the map unlocked to play!
Team actions are given for players who spot enemies, heal, revive or resupply ammo to your team mates and also repairing tanks or vehicles. Any good player will do this as the game is very heavily based in teamwork. Now, back I go to it for my NYE festivities!!

Sharp Galapagos Android tablets coming to America
A while back now Sharp announced its first Android tablets called Galapagos and there were a couple sizes. The tablets headed to Japan first in roughly 5-inch and 10-inch screen sizes. Those tablets looked nice enough and if you felt your geeky Android heart flutter, but were in the US you may have been bummed out that you couldn't get the tablets.

Sharp has now announced that the Galapagos tablets will be coming to other countries soon. The first location outside of Japan to get the Android devices will be America with the Galapagos offerings landing in early 2011. After the tablets hit the US, they will head to China and India as well as other spots around the globe.
Sharp is already courting publishers to provide content for its content platform that Galapagos users can use to download books and other material from. The only difference between the Galapagos models that will hit the US and the Japanese version is that the US versions are expected to have 3G connectivity whereas the Japanese were WiFi only.

Gresso iPad gets gold and old wood
Gresso has a history of making some cool, gaudy, and crazy expensive gadgets and items. The company makes a watches and has a history of taking cool gadgets and glamming them up for rich geeks. The latest thing to get the Gresso treatment is the popular Apple iPad. The Gresso version of the iPad is designed for "luxury and exquisite style of perfect technologies."

The iPad's aluminum back is covered in 200-year-old African Blackwood and the Apple logo is done up in 18k gold plating. You even get the iPad name engraved in the wood under the logo. The use of the old wood means that no matter how many of the things are sold, they will all be unique and different.
Other than the wooden back and the gold logo this is the same old iPad that geeks all around the world are using on the inside. All of the buttons are left uncovered and the wood doesn't extend to the front of the iPad at all. Gresso is mum on pricing, but if you have to ask, you can't afford it.

Samsung NX11 interchangeable lens digital camera debuts
I have been shooting photos for years now using a DSLR camera. I bought the DSLR just for the faster shutter speeds so I could catch my kids actually in the frame instead of just an elbow or ear. I found out after using the thing for a while that the manual modes a DSLR offers and the ability to change a lens to your needs and situation makes for much better photos. The big downsides to a DSLR camera is that the things are big and bulky, plus they cost a lot.

Over the last year or so there have been a growing number of smaller digital cameras coming to the market that lack the mirror box of a DSLR making them smaller and keep the image quality and interchangeable lenses. They aren't any cheaper than a DSLR typically, but they are easier for some to take with them. The latest of these interchangeable lens cameras to land is the Samsung NX11. This is not a micro four-thirds camera; it has a larger APS-C sensor than the micro four-thirds offerings have.
The camera works with the Samsung i-Function lenses that allow all settings to be adjusted from the lens. The rear LCD is a 3-inch AMOLED unit and the camera can record HD resolution video as well. It will be offered with a 20-50mm zoom lens and other lenses will be optional. The sensor in the camera is a 14.6MP unit and the video recording resolution is 720p. Samsung will ship the camera in February for $649.

COD: Black Ops gets illegally downloaded 4.27 million times
Torrentfreak has 'awarded' COD: Black Ops the highest amount of illegal downloads for 2010 - sitting on 4.27 million copies dated to the 26th of December. Keep in mind the game has only been available for not even 2 months.

Other games that made the list were Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with nearly 4 million downloads, Mafia 2 with 3.55 million and Mass Effect 2 with 3.2 million. Obviously this amount looks like a lot and would add up to billions in 'lost sales'.
This is where I don't understand how they can claim lost revenue in piracy... people can buy the game and return it, a store can resell it at near full price and do this more than once with it being OK. The developers build in anti-piracy measures, but when was the last time this worked? Piracy will never stop, of course this does not mean it is not a serious issue - it just means these 'lost revenue' numbers shouldn't be thrown around so easily.

PS3's 'private key' has been hacked
A hacking group named 'fail0verflow' have announced that they have deciphered the private key that Sony uses to authorise code to run on PlayStation 3 systems. Breaking this code means things can be launched, as if authorised by Sony.

The group made the announcement at the Chaos Communications Conference - saying it opened a huge number of options, such as being able to run linux on the console no matter which firmware is running. Of course this could be used for piracy, but they have said this was not their goal.
fail0verflow are also the group that bought us the Wii Homebrew Channel, cracking this private key is big work as it's a very complex process and no one has achieved it until now. Sony most likely has the "FFFFUUUUUUU" face right now.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

IT News HeadLines (TweakTown) 31/12/2010

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