Hardware and Software Forum

[ATTACH=right]16305[/ATTACH]No more shortcuts for hackers - that's the word from Microsoft, which plans to release a patch today that the company says will fix a security loophole. The issue is tied to the way the Windows OS handles shortcuts, or .lnk files, or as Microsoft explains it in the [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/2286198.mspx"]official …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]16277[/ATTACH]First came the smart phone. Next comes the smart camera phone. Thanks to [URL="http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/camera-2.0/"]researchers at Stanford University[/URL], your smart phone's camera might eventually have a plethora of its own apps that are more advanced than even the iPhone's limited inventory of camera apps. "Camera manufacturers used to ignore phones because …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]16281[/ATTACH][URL="http://www.unwiredview.com/2010/07/30/apple-starts-patenting-mobile-app-ideas/"]Apple's filed three patent applications[/URL] that mobile app developers are raising eyebrows at. The three patents involve design ideas rather than hardware, and cover high end fashion, hotel, and travel shopping via mobile device. Here's what each application is designed to do. The [URL="http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220100191578%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20100191578&RS=DN/20100191578"]high-end fashion app[/URL] is aimed at luxury …

[B]ATI Takes the Lead[/B] [ATTACH=RIGHT]16273[/ATTACH]After a long stretch of dominance, NVIDIA has fallen behind ATI in discrete GPU shipments. According to Mercury Research, ATI claims 51% of the market, and NVIDIA has slipped to, you guessed it, 49%. NVIDIA was the leader this time last year with 59% market share, …

[attach=right]14422[/attach]File under oops. The website of The Telegraph newspaper has been defaced by hackers, apparently upset at a cult British television show and the newspaper itself for mocking their country. The 'Romania National Security' hacking group has claimed responsibility for the attack which hit a couple of third party services …

[ATTACH=right]16252[/ATTACH][URL="http://mobile.venturebeat.com/2010/07/28/android-wallpaper-app-that-steals-your-data-was-downloaded-by-millions/"]Questions have been raised[/URL] about an Android wallpaper application that is collecting personal data and sending it to a site, [url]www.imnet.com[/url], in Shenzen, China. It's unclear why the data is being collected or what use might be made of it. The app Wallpaper, which originated from developer Jackeey, was uploaded …

If you’re one of the outstanding users yet to make the pilgrimage to Gmail from your dilapidated Hotmail account, you may have been one of the lucky ones (like myself this morning) rewarded recently with a handful of e-sunshine for your continued loyalty. The once affluent e-mail service received a …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]16218[/ATTACH]According to [URL="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-21/will-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-be-fired-for-low-stock-price/"]Peter Laurie on The Daily Beast[/URL], Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer may soon be out. Senior Microsoft executives have been discussing how to oust their leader. Dissatisfaction with Microsoft's stock performance has fueled the possible rebellion. Microsoft stock prices have fluctuated over the past few years, but the company …

At the [URL="http://www.blackhat.com/"]Black Hat[/URL] conference in Las Vegas, Barnaby Jack gave a demonstration of how he learned to crack the security of various stand alone ATM's. While they have long been at risk for physical theft (someone stealing or physically breaking into the internal safe of the ATM itself), this …

A lot of rumors began circulating about the possibility of a new Kindle on the horizon after the popular Kindle DX seemed to suddenly be sold out on Amazon's web site some time ago leading to the speculation that Amazon had a new version in the works. Wednesday those suspicions …

Last week, [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story299002.html"]Indian officials unveiled a $35 Linux-based touchscreen computer[/URL] to the dropped jaws of users holding tablets 16x as much. Capable of web browsing with JavaScript and Flash support, word processing, video conferencing, viewing multimedia content, reading PDF files, and housing USB ports, Wi-Fi, and 2GB of storage, its …

[ATTACH=right]16221[/ATTACH]iPhone users can now create Web photo albums straight from their phone, with the ability to update existing albums. No longer is uploading photos from the iPhone a time-consuming task. In the past, iPhone users needed to select photos one-by-one. The updated version of the photo sharing app from [URL="http://jalbum.net/apps/iphone"]Jalbum[/URL], …

[ATTACH=right]16216[/ATTACH]Intel revealed a new fiber-optic interface yesterday, capable of transferring an entire HD movie in a single second. Curious, considering they've yet to release their relatively modern [URL="http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/None/1813.htm"]Light Peak[/URL] technology that transfers data at an already astounding 10Gbit/sec. Their new interface ups the ante five-fold, and opens the door for …

[ATTACH=right]16070[/ATTACH]A new smart phone application, Virtual Test Drive, from [URL="http://www.vevdrive.com/"]Virtual Vehicle Company (VEVco)[/URL] will allow a phone to track the user's driving patterns in order to help them improve their mileage. The application uses the phone's GPS chip in order to track factors like when a user starts and stops …

It is often said that good things take time, and if that is true then AMD’s Fusion should prove to be exceptional considering the fact that it has been in the works since their $5.4billion acquisition of ATI four years ago.[ATTACH]16179[/ATTACH]The [URL="http://sites.amd.com/us/fusion/APU/Pages/fusion.aspx"]official AMD copy for Fusion[/URL] reads as: [I]“AMD Fusion …

If you've ever had an e-mail's tone misinterpreted, rest easy. New software [URL="http://tonecheck.com/"]ToneCheck[/URL] allows you check your e-mail messages before you send them and flags sentences and phrases that might lead its reader astray.[ATTACH]16183[/ATTACH]ToneCheck is the brain child of Matt Eldridge. After losing a deal due to appearing too pushy …

The economic news has been so bad of late, it's actually difficult to imagine that some businesses are profitable. It's easy to get sucked into the abyss of huge layoffs, high unemployment figures and generally negative fall-out from the economic meltdown, but in spite of all this, there are technology …

[ATTACH=right]16103[/ATTACH]The past few years, there hasn't been much great news for the airlines to report in those periodical newsletters they send out to their frequent fliers -- unless you count fees for everything, fewer flights and higher fares as good news. But lately, an awful lot of airlines have been …

Apple's online store went down last night, a signal that new (updated) products are rolling off the assembly lines. They've beefed up the Mac Pro line of desktops, iMacs, and the Cinema Display, and introduced their mildly-anticipated, Magic Trackpad. [ATTACH]16157[/ATTACH][ATTACH=RIGHT]16155[/ATTACH]The Mac Pro's upgrade is long overdue and Apple certainly didn't …

This morning, General Electric (GE) announced that it's investing in [URL="http://www.synapsense.com/go/index.cfm"]SynapSense[/URL], a startup working to develop hardware and software that monitors data center power usage in order to help companies determine where they can cut data center costs. Other investors in the company include American River Ventures, Robert Bosch Venture …

[ATTACH=right]16136[/ATTACH][URL="http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/fy10/earn_rel_q4_10.mspx"]Last week's earnings report from Microsoft[/URL] shows that the company cut its research and development budget for the first time in five years. Microsoft has been cutting costs lately, including efforts such as cutting [URL="http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3172423"]1400 jobs in January[/URL]. In its last fiscal year, Microsoft spent $8.7 billion on R&D - …

[ATTACH=right]16135[/ATTACH]A day after Wikileaks dropped one of the biggest leaked bombshells on the U.S. government, perhaps since the Pentagon Papers, typing wikileaks.org into a browser is likely to get you nothing more than a blank browser window. The somewhat mysterious collective site released over 91,000 secret reports related to the …

[ATTACH=right]16134[/ATTACH]At [URL="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/introducing-google-apps-for-government.html"]today's press conference[/URL], Google announced a new version of its Google Apps productivity suite, [URL="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/government/trust.html"]Google Apps For Government[/URL]. The software has been certified as meeting U.S. Government security requirements. Like the Premier version of their suite, the cost is a yearly charge of $50 per user, and includes applications …

[ATTACH=right]16132[/ATTACH]The U.S. Copyright Office has made new changes to the DMCA and there's some big ones in the mix. For one, it's no longer illegal to circumvent copy protection in order to copy a DVD for use in the classroom - under certain circumstances. Every three years, the office examines …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]16065[/ATTACH]Aza Raskin, head of user experience at Mozilla’s Lab unit, revealed their new project, Tab Candy, today. He believes that it will shift the way we use, and think about browser tabs in future versions of Firefox. The goal of Tab Candy is to manage all of your tabs within …

[ATTACH=right]16067[/ATTACH]As if carpal tunnel, driving while texting and the possibility that your cell phone might be seeding a tumor in your brain weren't enough, meet another new ailment of the information age -- [URL="http://text-neck.com"]Text Neck[/URL]. The phrase was coined by Florida chiropractor, exercise physiologist and entrepreneur Dean Fishman, who tells …

With what seems like inescapable, up-to-the-minute coverage of dropped call banter swirling around a tech universe with Apple as the sun, you almost forget that other brands exist. The most recent angle on their reception debacle has been the “But they’re doing it too!” defense, Steve Jobs’ attempt at dragging …

While Apple continues to bask in financial glory thanks in no small part to the iPhone, although the iPad hasn't exactly done it much harm, the same smartphone success does not appear to have rubbed off on the Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia. As Apple gloated about having the most …

[ATTACH=right]16012[/ATTACH]It's official -- or so it seems. HP will be, after much speculation to the contrary, moving forward with a Windows 7-based tablet. An HP rep told TechNewsWorld that the company has begun "customer evaluation" of a Windows 7 tablet, after the Internet began buzzing with rumors that a tablet …

The iPhone Case Program was announced earlier this morning, just a week after Apple CEO Steve Jobs addressed the reception issues spreading through the news like wildfire. In his shrugging off of the recent headlines, Jobs explained that only 1.7% of iPhone 4s have been returned and that just 0.55% …

India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has announced that the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science has developed a tablet with a retail price of $35 (approximately 1600 rupees), beating the price of MIT's [URL="http://laptop.org/en/"]One Laptop Per Child Program[/URL]. The Linux-based prototype performs Internet browsing, …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]16048[/ATTACH]What do you do when you're creating new features so quickly that your software can't keep up? Speed up production, of course. Google has announced that they plan to introduce a new version of their web browser [URL="http://www.google.com/chrome/"]Chrome[/URL] every six weeks in order to get new developments as quickly as …

[ATTACH=right]16006[/ATTACH][I]Part dedicated professional, part creative thinker and part con man.[/I] On a weekly basis a major corporation’s data is compromised in a most public fashion – in an instant slaughtering consumer confidence and bringing immediate disgrace. Who doesn’t remember the Google Aurora attacks and AT&T’s iPad data leak exposing 114,000 …

Security researchers have been looking at Safari, the standard browser for Apple's Mac computers, and have found a troublesome security problem. It seems that there is a feature that could reveal your personal information. The problem is with the Auto Fill feature which is designed as a part of the …

That's right, create your own Linux virtual appliances with [URL="http://www.vmware.com/appliances/learn/vmware_studio.html"]VMware Studio[/URL]. Appliances are small, single purpose servers that provide a service to users. Some examples are Content Management Systems (CMS), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, web servers, mail servers, DNS servers, database servers, and so on. VMware Studio is actually …

By now you may have seen those little mini solar-powered phone and gadget chargers for sale for about 50 bucks or so, giving you juice whenever and wherever you need it... well, so long as it's not cloudy, and there's no trees or flagpoles in your way, and you've got …

Apple released on Tuesday that even amidst iPhone 4 woes and bruises left by “Antennagate”, there weren't any worms in their financial statements, posting second-quarter net income profits up 78% to $3.25 billion. Figures from April-to-June soared up 61% year-over-year to $15.7 billion, producing Apple’s highest quarterly profit ever recorded. …

No doubt, by now you have heard of Microsoft’s latest addition to their Xbox 360, the Kinect controller-less …uhh controller. Instead of a standard handheld controller, the Kinect is a stationary sensor bar that sits in front of your TV. While the Kinect has been compared to the Nintendo Wii’s …

If you’re looking for a competitively priced portable Blu-ray alternative, look no further than Plextor’s recently shipped PX-B12OU. Available currently only in Europe for €92 including VAT, the 4x BD-ROM drive is an insanely affordable, fully USB operated external option for users still searching for their Blu-ray glass slipper. Not …

Dear Steve Ballmer, I believe it's time to give up development of a mobile operating system. With all due respect to the multi-billion dollar empire you're entrusted with running, the simple truth is that Microsoft is quite bad at developing user interfaces that are friendly and intuitive. Windows 7 is …

It’s official folks, Google’s Nexus One has officially been discontinued and will no longer be available from their online store. [URL="http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/21/nexus-one-is-sold-out-in-googles-store-forever/"]Engadget[/URL] points out that the only way to get the phone is through KT, a Korean phone company (good luck), or Vodafone. Google is planning on distributing what remaining phones …

[ATTACH=right]15946[/ATTACH]Just as we were finally getting to know all the ins and outs of Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Phone 7 is getting ready to drop - ain't that just like Microsoft? According to the guys [URL="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2366631,00.asp"]at PC Magazine[/URL], who recently got some hands-on time with the new platform, we've wasted …

It only took Sony four years, but they’ve finally created their version of the Wii killer: a glowing magic wand lollipop known to the world as the PlayStation Move. Requiring Sony's PlayStation Eye camera to deliver the experience dubbed by some as the most advanced motion controlled gaming to date …

While most consumers hail one- or multiple-touch technology as an improvement over keyboard typing or using a mouse, for musicians who need both hands to play their instruments, removing a hand to momentarily touch the screen for page turns is distracting at best and disruptive to the music at worst. …

Apple has kindly donated the source code for the original MacPaint software to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. This is in large part thanks to the [URL="http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/20/computer-history-museum-makes-original-macpaint-source-code-avai/"]exhausting efforts[/URL] of Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the developmental team for the original Macintosh in 1984. When …

The TV market is entering a new stage, as Internet connected TVs shipments surge. According to the latest [URL="http://www.displaysearch.com/cps/rde/xchg/displaysearch/hs.xsl/quarterly_tv_design_features_report.asp"]DisplaySearch Quarterly TV Design and Features Report[/URL], Internet connectivity has emerged as a key feature in TVs this year. This survey of 2010 product ranges from leading brands reveals that 55% of …

The good news is that security savvy Windows users will, more than likely, have already disabled the AutoRun and AutoPlay features. The bad news is that a new zero-day vulnerability could care less, and executes automatically anyway. [attach]15918[/attach]The zero-day vulnerability in question was first spotted by Sergey Ulase, a researcher …

The Consumerist is currently running a [URL="http://consumerist.com/5160187/identifying-yourself-as-a-lesbian-gets-you-banned-on-xbox-live"]story[/URL] about how a gamer was first harassed by other players and then booted off Xbox Live by Microsoft. Her crime? Admitting she was a lesbian in her gamer profile. According to the report she was harassed online by other gamers and when she …

More of us could be taking Linux with us wherever we go in the coming years - that according to a [URL="http://www.abiresearch.com/products/service/Mobile_Devices_Research_Service"]pair of reports from ABI research[/URL] that predict a big chunk of both smartphones and non-smartphone mobile devices will be Linux-based by 2015. [ATTACH=right]15931[/ATTACH]"The number of Linux-oriented initiatives recently …

Sales for the latest Tiger Woods PGA Tour titles from Electronic Arts have plummeted 68% from last years edition of the game and people have begun pointing fingers at the entitled golfer's promiscuity. It sure is easy to pass the buck when the accused is steeping in scandal, but that …