Computer Renaissance

How to Optimize Internet Explorer 9 for Maximum Privacy

2012-01-23T10:26:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance found this article useful for Internet Explorer 9 users and would like to share it with you.

Use Internet Explorer 9? It may be sending your entire browsing history to Microsoft. Or, it may be automatically blocking tracking websites. It’s all in how you tweak Internet Explorer’s privacy settings.

Internet Explorer’s tracking protection is a standout feature, but suggested sites, the SmartScreen filter and search suggestions can leak your private information. Tracking protection isn’t enabled by default, so you’ll have to enable it for maximum privacy protection.

Suggested Sites

Internet Explorer 9 automatically sends your entire browsing history to Microsoft is suggested sites is enabled. Microsoft saves your browsing history and compares it against against other similar sites. Internet Explorer displays these similar sites as suggestions when you open the Suggested Sites folder on your favorites bar.

Don’t want Internet Explorer 9 sending every website you visit to Microsoft? Just click the gear-shaped Tools menu icon and select Internet Options.

From there, click over to the Advanced tab, locate the Browsing section in the list and uncheck the Enable Suggested Sites check box. Click OK and Internet Explorer will keep your browsing history private.

Tracking Protection

Internet Explorer 9 allows you to install custom tracking protection lists, which contain a list of scripts and other files that track you. Internet Explorer won’t load these files if you visit a page that uses them, preventing everything on the list from tracking you. Internet Explorer 9 also sends a “do not track” request when you have a tracking protection list enabled. At the moment, most websites will ignore the do not track request.

Internet Explorer 9 doesn’t have any tracking protection lists installed by default, so you won’t get any protection until you install one. Just click the Tools menu, point to Safety and select Tracking Protection to see the tracking protection lists you have installed.

Click the “Get a Tracking Protection List Online” link to see a gallery of available lists on Microsoft’s website.

Install a tracking protection list by clicking its Add button. Here we’re installing the EasyPrivacy tracking protection list. It’s maintained by the same people that work on the EasyList ad-blocking subscription for Adblock Plus.

Internet Explorer 9 will download an updated version of your tracking protection list once a week.

SmartScreen Filter

Internet Explorer 9’s SmartScreen filter helps keep you safe online by detecting known unsafe websites, but it does this by sending website addresses you visit to Microsoft. When you visit a website, Internet Explorer 9 checks a downloaded list of popular, safe websites. If the website you’re visiting doesn’t appear on the list, IE sends it to Microsoft, where it’s checked against a list of unsafe websites.

Be aware that Internet Explorer 9 won’t warn you about malicious websites if you disable this feature. If you still want to disable it, click the Tools menu, point to Safety and select “Turn Off SmartScreen Filter.”

Select the Turn Off option in the window that appears and click OK. You can still manually check a website by clicking the “Check this website” option in the Safety menu.

Search Suggestions

Internet Explorer’s search suggestions feature sends everything you type into your address bar to your default search engine. The search engine sends back related searches, which IE displays in a drop-down box.

Internet Explorer 9 uses a combined address bar and search box, so your default search engine will see website addresses you type if you have suggestions enabled. Disabling search suggestions is as easy as typing something into your address bar and clicking the Turn Off Suggestions link.

Cookies

Advertising networks and other websites often use cookies to track you online. You can adjust Internet Explorer 9’s cookie settings by clicking the Privacy tab in the Internet Options window.

Drag the bar higher to block other types of cookies. At the top-most position, websites won’t be able to save cookies at all, which will prevent you from logging into websites. Other settings may also cause problems with some websites; lower the slider if you encounter problems.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/102502/how-to-optimize-internet-explorer-9-for-maximum-privacy/

Chrome 15 Beats Out IE8 As World's Most Popular Browser

2011-12-15T10:36:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance found this article useful and would like to share it with you.

Google Chrome 15 is the most popular web browser in the world overtaking Internet Explorer 8, according to web analytics firm StatCounter. Chrome 15 just barely beat out its Microsoft rival for the first time between November 21 and 27 with 23.63 percent of the global browser market share compared to IE8's 23.5 percent. Mozilla's Firefox 8 trailed behind at a distant third with 12.12 percent of worldwide usage during the same time period.

Chrome 15 Continues Global Surge

Chrome 15's worldwide popularity doesn't appear to be slowing since stepping ahead of IE8 in late November. Between the week of December 5 and 11 (StatCounter's most recent numbers), Chrome 15 not only beat out IE8 overall but was also more popular during the regular workday. "Chrome 14 and 15 have been overtaking IE8 at weekends since the beginning of October," StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen said in a statement announcing the Chrome 15 findings. "It looks as if people [favored] Chrome on weekends at home, but office commercial use has now caught up.”

StatCounter's latest weekly count (December 5-11) has Chrome 15 at 24.55 percent of global market share and IE8 at 22.16 percent.

In the U.S., IE8 is still more popular than Chrome 15, according to StatCounter. IE8 recently accounted for 27 percent of the American browser market between December 5 and 11, compared to Chrome 15's 18.1 percent.

IE Still Bests Chrome By Brand

While Chrome 15 may be gaining steam worldwide, Internet Explorer is still more popular overall when you count all browser version numbers in use such as IE 6, 7, 8, 9 and Chrome 14 and 15. During the period between November 21 and 27, IE owned 40.09 percent worldwide usage while Chrome accounted for 26.31 percent, followed by Firefox at 25.07 percent. Earlier in December, StatCounter reported that Chrome beat out Firefox to become the second most popular browser in the world.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/246287/chrome_15_beats_out_ie8_as_worlds_most_popular_browser.html#tk.hp_new

How to Adjust the Visual Settings in Windows 7 for Best Performance

2011-12-14T09:28:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance found this article useful and would like to share it with you.

Many PC users are not aware of the host of visual settings that are available in Windows 7. There are many animation effects, transparency settings, menu fades, and so on. In slower machines, these can be a drag on system performance. Also, not everyone is enamored of a lot of busy visuals.

Here is how to configure the settings to your own liking (some settings will be missing in systems that do not support Aero):

Open the Start menu

Right-click Computer

Choose “Properties” from the context menu

In the left panel, click “Advanced system settings”

In the Performance section, click the “Settings” button

The dialog box shown in the figure below will open

Make sure the “Visual Effects” tab is selected

Remove or add checks to items according to your preference

Click “OK” and “OK”

If you don't mind typing long words, you can get right to step 6 by entering "SystemPropertiesPerformance" (without quotes) in the Start search bar.

An alternative to making individual selections is to use one of the options listed near the top of the dialog box. You can let Windows choose what’s best for your system, adjust for best appearance, or adjust for best performance.

Here are some possible effects to disable for better performance:

Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing

Animations in the taskbar and Start Menu

Enable transparent glass

Fade or slide menus into view

Fade or slide ToolTips into view

Fade out menu items after clicking

Show shadows under windows

Slide open combo boxes

Naturally, this and all the other possible settings are a matter of personal choice. Also, how performance is affected depends on the nature of your particular system.

Source: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-adjust-visual-settings-windows-7-best-performance.htm

How to Access Advanced Settings and Information for Your Chrome or Firefox Browser

2011-12-12T10:09:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance would like to share this article with you.

Both Firefox and Chrome have pages with information and advanced settings that are available from the address bar by entering “about:X”, where X stands for a variety of possibilities. A list of the possible entries can be obtained in either browser by entering “about:about” in the address bar (without quotes and with no spaces). Below are capsule lists of the available items for the “about” function. Take a look at some of these and you will be surprised at the kind of information that can be found.

Google Chrome 15

appcache-internals
blob-internals
bookmarks
cache
chrome-urls
crashes
credits
dns
downloads
extensionsflags
flags
flash
gpu-internals
histograms
history
ipc
media-internals
memory
net-internals
view-http-cache
newtab
plugins
print
quota-internals
sessions
settings
stats
sync-internals
tcmalloc
terms
tracing
version
workers
conflicts

Firefox 8

addons
buildconfig
cache
config
crashes
credits
home
license
logo
memory
mozilla
permissions
plugins
privatebrowsing
rights
robots
sessionrestore
support
sync-log
sync-tabs

Source: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-access-advanced-settings-and-information-your-chrome-or-firefox-browser.htm

DockShelf Customizes and Adds as Many Docks to OS X as You Can Handle

2011-12-05T10:57:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance found this article useful for Mac OS X users and would like to share it with you.

Mac OS X: If you've ever found yourself wishing you could add custom docks to OS X, DockShelf is a utility that gives you the ability to create and customize as many as you like.

DockShelf works by providing visual shortcuts to any app or folder of your choosing, just like the standard dock, but allows you to create multiple docks on different parts of the screen for quick access. It also has different workspace settings and support for multiple monitors, so you can customize it depending on the task you're doing. The free version gives you two docks, two workspaces, and a small ad, but the full, $4.99 version lets you stuff as many docks as your desktop will support. You can download both versions from the developer's site below.

DockShelf

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5865103/dockshelf-customizes-and-adds-as-many-docks-to-os-x-as-you-can-handle

Carrier IQ Tracking: Your Questions Answered

2011-12-02T10:18:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance would like to share this article with you.

Many cellphone users are wondering whether their Android and BlackBerry devices are spying on them after security researcher Trevor Eckhart recently claimed that a piece of diagnostic software on the phones was acting like malware. Eckhart said the software, created by company Carrier IQ and installed on devices by phone manufacturers and carriers, was secretly recording user data such as keystrokes and Web browsing history. Carrier IQ's software is on more than 140 million handsets worldwide.

Carrier IQ denies Eckhart's allegations and says its technology is only used for diagnostic purposes to improve handset performance and network quality.

So is Carrier IQ up to no good? Is the company's software collecting more information from your handset than it should? Or is this just a big misunderstanding about what Carrier IQ's software does?

Here's a breakdown of what we know.

What was discovered?

Eckhart published a report in mid-November about a piece of software created by Carrier IQ. This software is supposed to be a diagnostic tool that helps manufacturers and carriers improve the quality of their services. But Eckhart claimed Carrier IQ's software is actually a rootkit that secretly logs your phone's activity.

Carrier IQ diagnostic software comes installed on many phones including Android and BlackBerry devices, according to Eckhart. Carrier IQ software was later discovered on iOS devices but it appears to be benign.

What was the software doing?

Eckhart posted a video to YouTube showing what he said was Carrier IQ software running on an HTC handset. In the video, the Carrier IQ software appears to be logging key presses (including the phone's number pad), SMS messages, location data, and Web browsing history including encrypted data traveling over https (SSL). It's not clear whether this data was then sent to Carrier IQ.

Does it do the same thing on all phones?

Eckhart's demonstration shows only what Carrier IQ's software was doing on an HTC phone. Samsung devices appear to log some of the same information including screen taps and browser URLs, according to Eckhart's report.

Developer Grant Paul (no relation to the author) claims that on iOS devices, Carrier IQ software was accessing a more limited set of information including your phone number, carrier, country, when a phone call is active, and your location if Location Services is turned on.

The Verge is reporting that Carrier IQ software is not on Motorola's Xoom or Nexus-branded Android phones including the Nexus One, Nexus S, and Galaxy Nexus.

Can Carrier IQ software be removed?

It doesn't appear to be possible to remove this software on an Android phone unless you have a rooted device.

Paul says you can stop Carrier IQ on iOS 5 devices by turning off "Diagnostics and Usage" in the Settings application.

What is Carrier IQ?

Carrier IQ is a California-based company that offers "accurate, real-time data" to carriers and device makers to help them improve their services. Carrier IQ's data is pulled from diagnostic software embedded on handsets that the carrier and/or device maker sells to customers. Carrier IQ says its diagnostic software provides "actionable intelligence" to improve network quality, understand device issues and ultimately improve the user experience.

Carrier IQ software is embedded on more than 140 million handsets worldwide.

Carrier IQ's response

Carrier IQ says its software does not record keystrokes, and does not inspect or report the content of your SMS messages or e-mail. Carrier IQ also said it does not provide tracking tools and does not sell the data it collects to third parties.

Instead, the company claims its software identifies handset performance issues such as dropped calls and poor network service.

Carrier IQ also denied providing "real-time data reporting to any customer." Which is confusing since the company's website states, "Carrier IQ’s Mobile Service Intelligence solution eliminates guesswork by automatically providing accurate, real-time data direct from the source -- your customers' handsets."

Did Carrier IQ do anything else?

On Nov. 16, Carrier IQ issued a cease-and-desist letter to Eckhart. The letter demanded that Eckhart remove his research from the Web and replace it with a statement prepared by the company that rebutted Eckhart's earlier claims.

The company also wanted Eckhart to remove Carrier IQ copyrighted materials that he posted on his website including company training materials that were previously available on the company's site. Carrier IQ also wanted a list of all the people (including their contact information) that Eckhart had shared Carrier IQ's copyrighted information with.

Eckhart received legal support from the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Nov. 21. Carrier IQ retracted its demands two days later and issued an apology to Eckhart.

What's next?

It's unclear what, if anything, will happen as a result of Eckhart's report. Carrier IQ says it plans on discussing its software with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which may produce some answers as there are definitely some big questions that need to be answered. Not least of which is, "If Carrier IQ software is not logging keystrokes then why does it appear to be identifying them in the first place?"

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/245265-2/carrier_iq_tracking_your_questions_answered.html

How to Control the Amount of Disk Space Used by System Protection (System Restore) in Windows Vista/7

2011-11-28T09:54:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance would like to help you to control the amount of disk space used by system protection in Windows 7.

The shadow copies for Windows Vista/7 can consume quite a bit of disk space. However, it is easy to change the space settings for these System Restore backups. These settings are found under System Protection. There are various ways to access them but here is one that is convenient:

Open the Start menu and right-click Computer.

Select “Properties”.

On the left side of the window that opens, click “System Protection”.

The dialog shown in figure 1 below will open.

Highlight the disk or volume you want to configure.

Click the button “Configure”.

The dialog shown in figure 2 will open. In this case, disk C: has been selected.

Use the slider (shown highlighted) to adjust the space allocated on the selected volume.

Click “OK” and “OK” again.

For a more fine-grained way of changing the settings, the command-line with the command “vssadmin” can be used. The methods given there show how to allocate a numerically specified amount of space or to delete shadow copies.

Be aware that Vista Home Premium does not provide for access to shadow copies nor does Windows XP.

Figure 1. Settings for Windows System Protection

Figure 2. Allocating space for Shadow Copies

Source: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/how-control-amount-disk-space-used-system-protection-system-restore-windows-vista7.htm

How to See What Web Sites Your Computer is Secretly Connecting To

2011-11-23T09:54:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance found this article useful and would like to share it with you.

Has your internet connection become slower than it should be? There may be a chance that you have some malware, spyware, or adware that is using your internet connection in the background without your knowledge. Here’s how to see what’s going on under the hood.

So, how do you find out what the problem is? There is an easy method using the netstat command from a command prompt window. This works with Windows 7, Vista, and XP. If you’re still using XP, make sure you are running at least Service Pack 2.

We will use the netstat command to generate a list of everything that has made an internet connection in a specified amount of time. To use the netstat command, you must run the command prompt window as administrator. Open the Start menu and enter “cmd.exe” in the Search box. When the results display, right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator from the popup menu.

If the User Account Control dialog box displays, click Yes to continue. Note: You may not see this dialog box, depending on your User Account Control settings.

At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter.

netstat -abf 5 > activity.txt

The –a option shows all connections and listening ports, the –b option shows you what application is making the connection, and the –f option displays the full DNS name for each connection option for easier understanding of where the connections are being made to. You can also use the –n option if you wish to only display the IP address. The 5 option will poll every 5 seconds for connections to make it more easy to track what is going on, and the results are then piped into the activity.txt file.

Wait about two minutes and then press Ctrl + C to stop the recording of data.

Once you’ve finished recording data, you can simply open the activity.txt file in your favorite editor to see the results, or you can type activity.txt at the command line to open it in Notepad.

The resulting file will list all processes on your computer (browsers, IM clients, email programs, etc.) that have made an internet connection in the last two minutes, or however long you waited before pressing Ctrl + C. It also lists which processes connected to which websites.

If you see process names or website addresses with which you are not familiar, you can search for “what is (name of unknown process)” in Google and see what it is. It may be a system function you don’t know about or a function of one of your running programs. However, if it seems like a bad site, you can use Google again to find out how to get rid of it.

Using CurrPorts to Check What Your PC is Connecting To

You can also use a free tool, called CurrPorts, to display a list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports on your local computer. It is a portable program and doesn’t need to be installed. To use it, extract the .zip file you downloaded (see the link at the end of this article) and run cports.exe.

For each port that CurrPorts lists, information about the process that opened the port is displayed. You can select connections and close them, copy a port’s information to the clipboard or save it to an HTML file, an XML file, or a tab-delimited text file. You can reorder the columns displayed on the CurrPorts main window and in the files you save. To sort the list by a specific column, simply click on the header of that column.

CurrPorts runs under Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. There is a separate download of CurrPorts for 64-bit versions of Windows. You can find more information about CurrPorts and how to use it on the website listed below.

Download CurrPorts from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html.

Source: http://www.howtogeek.com/98601/easily-monitor-your-computers-internet-connection-activity/

Compact New Nook Gets Touch Screen, Lower Price

2011-05-24T08:51:00.001-07:00

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch holds up the new touch-screen Nook.(Credit: CNET)

Barnes & Noble today unveiled a smaller, relatively inexpensive Nook e-reader.

Like the original Nook, the $139 "Simple Touch Reader" has a black-and-white screen for reading books. Unlike it, though, it's got a touch screen.

While that option starts nudging the e-reader closer to the tablet market, dominated at present by Apple's iPad, the new Nook doesn't have tablets' characteristic ability to run apps, something the company's Nook Color can handle. The Nook Color has a touch screen.

CEO William Lynch unveiled the new reader in New York today. For a blow-by-blow look, check CNET's live blog.

Customers can order the $139 device now, but it won't ship until June 10. Barnes & Noble also lowered the price of the original Nook to $119 and the Nook Color to $169. The original Nook previously cost $149 and the Nook Color $249. In comparison, the top rival, Amazon's Kindle, starts at $139.

The new Nook is more compact than rivals and predecessors, with a 6-inch Pearl screen and no keyboard. The display's contrast is 50 percent better than the original Nook, the company said.

The device itself is 35 percent lighter and 15 percent thinner than original Nook, and it's got a contoured back to try to make it more easily gripped.

Among other features:

• A non-removable battery that lasts up to two months.

• Built-in Wi-Fi networking, but no 3G.

• Six fonts with seven sizes each for a more customized look.

• An 800MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 3 processor.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20065678-264.html#ixzz1NHlidXrJ

Facebook, Google Eye Skype deal

2011-05-05T08:57:00.001-07:00

Facebook and Google are reportedly pondering either an acquisition of Skype or a joint venture and strategically the two buyers couldn't be more different.

Reuters reports that Facebook and Google are pondering some sort of deal with Skype, which delayed an IPO. Talks are very early so it's unclear what will happen if anything.

But let's zoom out a bit. If you have been following Skype's corporate strategy of late, it's clear the company is making a lot of nice business-to-business moves. Skype has a channel, key partnerships and an entry to small businesses as well as large ones.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20059893-94.html#ixzz1LUhLwp9T

Five Questions For Sony About PSN Breach

2011-04-28T14:29:00.001-07:00

After a week of PlayStation users wondering why they couldn't access PlayStation Network, Sony dropped the bomb yesterday: someone had gained access illegally to the personal information of more than 75 million of its users, forcing the company to shut down PlayStation Network and rebuild it, along with the related media download service Qriocity.

Sony had issued a few brief updates late last week and over the weekend acknowledging the service's outage and then an "external intrusion," but it didn't explain the consequences until yesterday.

The information exposed includes customer names; addresses; e-mail addresses; birthdays; PlayStation Network and Qriocity passwords and usernames; as well as online user handles. Sony says there is "no evidence" that credit card information was compromised, but the company advised customers to monitor their credit cards for erroneous charges anyway.

Making matters worse for customers nervous about their personal information being in the hands of someone who shouldn't have it, the service will continue to be unavailable for at least another week. And until then users have no way of resetting their password, or deleting their credit card information. Customers are, understandably, apoplectic.

So while Sony has (finally) given us useful information about the breach, there are still some big questions the company needs to answer. Here's what we'd still like to know.

Who did this and how were they able to access our information?
It's fairly basic, but it's the question on everyone's mind. How was anyone able to worm their way inside Sony's system? Was the security that poor? And even though someone was able to get the data, were our names, birthdates, addresses, and passwords not encrypted?

In regard to who did this, Sony's statement yesterday used the singular when describing the breach as being the work of "an unauthorized person." One person was able to do a lot of damage.

The company has said it is basically rebuilding its PlayStation Network from the ground up to beef up security. Without more answers, all of this calls into question Sony's security and whether the company can be trusted with this type of information again.

Why did it take a week to inform customers their credit card information may have been exposed?
Sony has told us the company found out on April 19, a Tuesday, that someone had accessed user information on PSN. The company did not inform the 75 million registered users of PSN and Qriocity that their personal information had been exposed until April 26, the following Tuesday. Customers are understandably angry, and some are even suing.

Sony did offer this explanation late Tuesday night: When the company found out on April 19 about the hack, it hired a private security firm to do a "forensic analysis" to figure out what, if any personal data, had been stolen or exposed.

But a week is a long time. If the company was even thinking that personal information, and especially credit card information, was in the hands of someone illegally, customers would obviously want to know.

Most states have laws that require companies to notify customers when sensitive personal information has been exposed, including social security numbers and credit card numbers, which could be used for financial and identity fraud. But since Sony has said it "has no evidence" that credit card information was exposed, it doesn't appear the company has violated any state laws by waiting to tell customers.

The timing of Sony's informing its customers has also attracted the attention of Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who yesterday wrote a letter to Jack Tretton, president and chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, saying he was troubled that the company had not notified customers sooner about the breach. He also called for Sony to provide affected customers with financial data security services, including free access to credit reporting services for two years to protect against identity theft.

Have you contacted law enforcement?
The company has so far refused to answer this question. In response to a query from CNET, Sony issued this statement: "To ensure the confidentiality and effectiveness of this investigation, we cannot discuss details at this time."

How is Sony compensating customers?
While it's free to sign up for PlayStation Network, much of the content that can be downloaded requires a separate subscription to use, and every day that customers can't access that content, they're essentially losing money for something they've prepaid for. And it's not just games.

Other examples include the Netflix app that can be downloaded from the PSN Store and used to access Netflix's Watch Instantly subscription feature; MLB.TV's $100-per-season game package, which lets users watch MLB games on a TV via the PS3; the paid version of Hulu, Hulu Plus; and more.

PSN Plus customers are also losing money, since they pay for year or several month blocks of time to access exclusive content from PSN. As of now, they are also unable to play some games they've already downloaded because PSN has to be operational to play.

What happens to files stored in PSN Plus cloud backup service?
In March, Sony introduced a new feature of PSN Plus that lets gamers store 150MB of saved game data on their PSN account. In other words, users who paid for it could back up game data already saved to their console remotely to this cloud storage service as well.

But now that Sony has shut down PSN and is "rebuilding" it, will all of that data still be there when the service is restored next week?

We'll update this story when we get more information.

Update 5:30 p.m. PT: Sony just posted some answers on its site. Here's what they said in response to some of the questions above.

While credit card data was encrypted, personal information of customers was not. "But (it) was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack," wrote Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold.
Sony says it's working with law enforcement but has yet to disclose which branch or agency.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20057963-260.html#ixzz1Kr7EbsxS

Seagate Agrees To Buy Samsung's Drive Business

2011-04-19T10:37:00.001-07:00

Seagate has agreed to acquire Samsung's hard drive business for $1.375 billion in a deal that gives Samsung a 9.6 percent stake in the hard-drive specialist and that forges an alliance for the new era of flash memory storage.

The companies announced the deal today, a new step in the steady consolidation of a major part of the computing industry. Last month, Western Digital signed a deal to acquire Hitachi's hard-drive unit for $4.3 billion, thereby vaulting it over Seagate to become the largest hard drive maker. Seagate's deal today would reduce the market to just three main players, the two hard-drive specialists and Toshiba.

Under today's deal, Segate will pay $1.375 billion, half stock and half cash, to Samsung. Seagate will supply Samsung with hard drives for its computers and consumer-electronics products, while Samsung will supply Seagate with flash memory for business-grade solid-state disk (SSD) storage products, the companies said.

Flash-based drives are a major trend in the computing industry, offering advantages in performance, power consumption, ruggedness, and silent operation. However, the cost per gigabyte is considerably higher for flash storage. Samsung is one of the world's largest manufacturers of flash memory.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2011. The Wall Street Journal reported the deal yesterday.

Also as part of the deal, the companies will cooperate on enterprise storage product development, a Samsung executive will be nominated to Seagate's board, and the companies will expand their current patent cross-licensing agreement.

And Seagate expects to gain better access to companies manufacturing products in China and Southeast Asia, the company said. "In addition, the mutual supply agreements enable Seagate to secure an important source of leading-edge NAND flash supply as the company expands its SSD and solid state hybrid product offerings, and position Seagate to be a more significant supplier of disk drives to Samsung," it said.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20055186-264.html#ixzz1JzY3hEGD

New Intel Chip Heading To Tablets

2011-04-11T12:34:00.001-07:00

Intel said today it is shipping a new processor slated for tablets from Lenovo and Fujitsu among others, as the world's largest chipmaker tries to blunt an onslaught of designs based on competing silicon from ARM.

The Atom Z670 processor delivers improved video playback--up to 1080p--and longer battery life than previous Z series Atom chips, according to Intel. The chip will also allow smaller, thinner tablet designs owing to a 60 percent reduction in the size of the "die," or the raw piece of silicon that contains the integrated circuits.

In addition to Lenovo and Fujitsu, other device makers including Motion Computing, Razer, and Viliv will bring out tablets based on the Z670. Like other Atom chips, the Z670 supports Google Android, MeeGo, and Windows operating systems. "This unique flexibility delivers...more choice when it comes to tablets and hybrid designs that combine the best features of the netbook and tablet together," Intel said.

At the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, which begins tomorrow, the company will give a sneak peak of its next-generation Intel Atom platform codenamed "Cedar Trail."

Intel, to date, has been marginalized in the tablet market. Apple's popular iPad, Motorola's Xoom, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, and upcoming tablets from RIM and Hewlett-Packard all use processors based on a design from U.K.-based ARM. Intel has not been successful in the tablet market because, among other reasons, its processors don't meet the power efficiency requirements demanded by tablet and smartphone suppliers.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20052638-64.html#ixzz1JFErJe6e

Sprint To Fight AT&T's Bid For T-Mobile

2011-03-28T14:31:00.001-07:00

When AT&T announced its plans to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion last week, Sprint was quick to criticize the deal, saying that it would dramatically alter the structure of the communications industry and impact innovation--a sentiment that was echoed by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse during CTIA 2011.

In case its position wasn't clear, the carrier issued an official statement today to oppose the merger and announce its intentions to fight the deal.

Vonya McCann, Sprint's senior vice president of government affairs, said:

Sprint urges the United States government to block this anti-competitive acquisition. This transaction will harm consumers and harm competition at a time when this country can least afford it. As the first national carrier to roll out 4G services and handsets and the carrier that brought simple unlimited pricing to the marketplace, Sprint stands ready to compete in a truly dynamic marketplace. So on behalf of our customers, our industry and our country, Sprint will fight this attempt by AT&T to undo the progress of the past 25 years and create a new Ma Bell duopoly.

Sprint added that the merger would undo nearly three decades of work by the U.S. government to modernize and open the U.S. communications markets to competition and affect job creation and investment in the American economy.

Sitting in third position among the U.S. wireless service providers, it's also hard to ignore the fact that the merger could have a negative effect on Sprint as it tries to gain new subscribers and deal with the spectrum crisis. Despite recent effort to provide a more open experience to customers with such offerings as integrating Google Voice into its cell phones, the AT&T-T-Mobile megamerger would only make it more difficult for Sprint to compete against Verizon and AT&T.

Sprint didn't elaborate on how it plans to fight the merger, and requests for comment were not immediately returned. The merger deal between AT&T and T-Mobile deal would require the approval of the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission and the process is expected to take at least 12 months.

More to come.

Source: http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20048020-85.html#ixzz1Hvqx9c00

AT&T To Acquire T-Mobile USA For $39 Billion

2011-03-21T10:30:00.001-07:00

In a blockbuster mobile deal, AT&T announced today it had agreed to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion.

The acquisition would make AT&T the dominant wireless player in the U.S. with the addition of more than 33 million subscribers to its 95.5 million customer user base, giving it a new total of more than 129 million subscribers. The merger would push AT&T past Verizon Wireless, which would become the U.S. second largest wireless carrier with a little more than 102 million subscribers.

"This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation's future," AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement announcing the deal. "It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people."

AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA

Under the terms of the deal, AT&T will pay $25 billion in cash and the remainder in stock, giving Deutsche Telekom an 8 percent stake in AT&T and a seat on its board of directors. The deal has been approved by both boards of directors but is still subject to regulatory approval, which is expected to take up to a year to complete.

Winning regulatory approval may be tricky. The Federal Communications Commission warned in a report last May that the wireless industry was becoming more concentrated and indicated that 60 percent of the nation's subscribers and revenue come from the country's two largest wireless providers: AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

In addition to the size of the combined subscriber bases, antitrust regulators are likely to be concerned that the deal will also merge the two largest GSM carriers in the U.S., giving customers only one carrier to choose from if they want to use that wireless standard. GSM is the dominant global wireless technology and the standard in Europe, meaning that U.S. cell phone users who travel frequently will need to carry one of AT&T's phones.

The deal will also give T-Mobile users access to a planned 4G wireless network using LTE, or Long Term Evolution technology. T-Mobile has HSPA+, which delivers 4G-like speeds, but it's not a real 4G technology and the company hasn't announced any plans for network expansion beyond HSPA+.

related coverage
AT&T-T-Mobile: By the numbers

On the cusp of a historic mobile operator merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, a look at some key stats.

The announcement comes on the heels of rumors that Sprint Nextel was getting ready to make an offer for Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile.

There has been a lot of speculation recently over what the German parent company Deutsche Telekom would do with T-Mobile USA. Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann said at the company's annual meeting last May that he was not "fully satisfied" with T-Mobile USA's performance, and there were reports that Deutsche Telekom was looking into an initial public offering that could lead to spinning off T-Mobile USA.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20045184-94.html#ixzz1HFwvkwBs

Impressions: Flash 10.2 Beta on Xoom

2011-03-18T09:47:00.001-07:00

CNETTV.com works as expected on the Xoom with Flash.

(Credit: Eric Franklin/CNET)

One of the advantages the Xoom purportedly has over theiPad is its support for Flash. Unfortunately, Flash wasn't available for the Xoom at its release, but as of today it is. We've taken the Flash 10.2 Beta for Xoom for a spin and have lived to tell the tale.

The full Web (?)
Motorola states that this update brings "a full Web browsing experience" with it and for the most part that's true, but it really depends on how a full Web browsing experience is defined.

Yes, Flash on the Xoom does offer support for Flash Web features, including video, ads, and games. However, there are still many sites that default to their mobile versions when you navigate to them on the Xoom. In fact, going to pandora.com immediately kicks you to pandora.com/android, which suggests you download the Pandora Android app, with no navigation offered to the site proper. Not the full experience you'd expect.

Fortunately, there is a way around this, but it has nothing to do with Flash.

Follow these steps to navigate to the full version of any site.

1. Navigate to the site that kicks you to the mobile version.
2. In the address bar, type "about:debug" without quotes and tap enter.
3. Tap the settings button in the upper right corner.
4. Tap Settings. Then tap Debug, and finally UAString.
5. Select Desktop and the next time you navigate to a site that usually defaults to the mobile version, the full version should load instead.

I still don't understand why this is a "hidden" feature, as it should be something easily accessible in the settings. Hopefully Google will add a feature allowing you to easily select the mobile or desktop version of a site in a future update.

Speed changes
Earlier this week we conducted tests of Website loading speed on the iPad 2 and the Xoom without Flash installed. To determine if installing Flash made any difference in loading speeds, I retested the Xoom with Flash installed, timing how long it took to load the page proper both without and with ads taken into account.

Web site
Motorola Xoom
Apple iPad 2
Apple iPad
Motorola Xoom (Flash installed)
Motorola Xoom (Flash installed, ads factored)

CNET.com
5 seconds
6 seconds
12 seconds
5 seconds
11 seconds

CBSNews.com

6 seconds
10 seconds
16 seconds
6 seconds
14 seconds

GiantBomb.com

5 seconds
5 seconds
6 seconds
5 seconds
n/a

As you can see, sites loaded at the same speeds, with or without Flash installed; however, depending on the site and likely the ad used, CBSNews.com and CNET took longer to fully load the site with ads factored in. Giant Bomb's main page doesn't make any noticeable use of Flash.

Video and games
Sites with embedded video like CNETTV worked as expected and quickly shifted into full-screen mode when prompted.

The Facebook Flash game Dragon Age Legends performed horribly sluggishly, with the characters moving and animating much more slowly than on a desktop or notebook. Also, the "keep building" portion of the game, which requires you to drag graphics around, was practically unplayable. We were not able to drag the pieces to where we wanted with any accuracy. This was not a problem at all when we played this on our laptop, however.

That said, Flash games like Extreme Snowboarding worked flawlessly.

A little ways to go
Flash on the Xoom works. Games, video, and ads all deliver comparable experiences to what you'd have on a desktop or notebook; however, this update doesn't transform your Xoom browser into something that inherently gives you a full Web experience.

You'll have to do some tweaking and perhaps wait until Adobe releases the final version with a few much-needed optimizations to finally get the experience they've claimed is coming.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20044419-1.html#ixzz1GyEQ14DO

Internet Explorer 9 Arrives, But Not For XP

2011-03-15T11:04:00.001-07:00

The training wheels have come off of the latest version of Internet Explorer, as Microsoft unleashes version 9 of the world's most heavily used browser this evening at an event at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Internet Explorer 9 (download after 9 p.m. PT) debuts to the public not only as the fastest, most standards-compliant version of IE yet, but also as one that can stand up and compete on features and looks with MozillaFirefox, Google Chrome, AppleSafari, and the Opera browser. Along with IE's new features, though, Microsoft has a clear message for Windows XP users: hurry up and upgrade toWindows 7 already.

Microsoft's official explanation for why Internet Explorer 9 doesn't support Windows XP, the operating system that runs on an estimated 40 percent to 50 percent of the world's computers, is that the graphics card-powered hardware acceleration that helps the browser load pages faster doesn't work properly with the device drivers on Windows XP. However, at least one other browser, Firefox 4 release candidate 1, offers full hardware acceleration across multiple operating systems, including Windows XP.

The lack of support for Windows XP aside, Internet Explorer 9 is a fantastic browser when compared with its predecessors, and competitive against its toughening rivals. The browser offers some great new features, such as Pinned sites, a revamped search box, and add-on performance impact notifications.

Pinned sites create a tighter integration between the browser and desktop by creating site-specific browsers. Drag a tab onto the Windows 7 desktop taskbar, and depending on the site developer's coding you can get site-specific jump lists, unread e-mail notifications, or streaming media player controls. Other major sites that have Pinned integration include Groupon, CNN, Pandora, Hulu, Slacker, Facebook, Twitter, and eBay.

The interface isn't the only part of IE9 that's gone back to basics. Notifications, such as the session recovery warning shown here, appear at the bottom of the browser window and won't "grab your focus" and prevent you from continuing to browse.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Meanwhile, the new unified search box manages to include all the functionality of the old search box, such as changing search providers on the fly, while introducing on-the-fly searching so that as you type you see a relevant list of Web results, bookmarks, and browsing history.

The add-on performance notification is a small but useful feature that warns you when an add-on is slowing down the browser. You can customize what level of impact is warned for, too.

The performance of the browser itself has been lauded since last year when Microsoft rolled out developer's previews. Over the course of the following year, the developer's previews, betas, and release candidate version of IE 9 were downloaded more than 25 million times, and amounted to around 2 percent of all installed versions of Internet Explorer on Windows 7 by the time the release candidate was published.

For an in-depth review of Internet Explorer 9, check back here at 9 p.m. PT when Microsoft makes the browser available to the public.

Source: http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20043103-12.html?tag=mncol;title

Microsoft To Launch Internet Explorer 9 At SXSWi

2011-03-09T15:11:00.001-08:00

Microsoft will be formally launching the next version of its Internet Explorer browser, IE9, at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi) on Monday--an interesting place to launch, given that the Austin, Texas, geek fest is packed full of the hordes who have long since ditched Internet Explorer for the decidedly hipper pastures of Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.

The new browser, which had its first and only release candidate land in users' hands in early February, will fully launch to the public at 9 Pacific time that night. In a blog post, Internet Explorer senior director Ryan Gavin described the browser as offering up "a more beautiful web."

On its release day, Microsoft is having a press briefing where Gavin said there are still "a few surprises left." Later that night, Microsoft will be throwing a party in Austin in celebration of the new browser, with hipster-friendly rock act Yeasayer headlining the event.

Among the new features in IE9 is a refreshed look with the browser taking up less space than previous versions of IE, as well as a way to pin sites to the Windows task bar. Sites can then program their pages to act more like desktop applications with things like notifications, and the Windows 7 Jump List feature, which can hop users to specific parts of a Web page.

IE9 also brings performance improvements, including faster start times and a new JavaScript engine called Chakra that Microsoft has proven to be faster at the WebKit SunSpider benchmark test than competitors like Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and Safari. On the security side, IE9 also adds support for "do not track" through lists that users can subscribe to, as well as a way to filter ActiveX content from pages.

The new browser continues to be offered only to users of Windows Vista and Windows 7, leaving users of XP--which is the most popular OS at 45.3 percent of Windows users (according to W3schools)-- with IE8.

For more on IE9, take a look at CNET Download.com's first look at its release candidate.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20041126-36.html#ixzz1G9ARCEA2

Western Digital To Pay $4.3B For Hitachi Drive Unit

2011-03-07T13:57:00.001-08:00

Western Digital, already one of the largest hard-drive makers in the world, has signed a deal to pay $4.3 billion for its counterpart at Hitachi.

The resulting company will keep the Western Digital name and will appoint Steve Milligan, currently president and CEO of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, as president of the new business. Milligan will report directly to Western Digital President and CEO John Coyne. Hitachi GST is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi.

The combined company will offer "significant operating scale, strong global talent, and the industry's broadest product lineup backed by a rich technology portfolio," Western Digital and Hitachi said in a joint statement. The new company will target both consumers and businesses.

To pay for the acquisition, which was announced today, Western Digital will pony up $3.5 billion in cash and 25 million of its common shares, currently valued at $750 million. As a result, Hitachi will own 10 percent of all Western Digital's outstanding shares once the deal is done.

The purchase has already been OK'd by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close during the third quarter, pending regulatory approvals. Western Digital said it expects the acquisition to immediately add to its earnings.

"This brings together two industry leaders with consistent track records of strong execution and industry outperformance," Milligan said in a statement, adding that the combined company's products and services will range from "innovative personal storage to solid state drives for the enterprise."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20040001-92.html#ixzz1FxArowJw

Apple Announces iPad 2: A5 Dual Core, 2 Cameras, Thinner

2011-03-02T12:20:00.001-08:00

As expected, Apple announced the next generation of its popular tablet device at a media event today. The iPad 2 will have the same 9.7-inch display but will be 33% thinner than the previous model. It will have front-facing and rear-facing cameras and Apple's new 1GHz dual-core A5 processor.

“With more than 15 million iPads sold, iPad has defined an entirely new category of mobile devices,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “While others have been scrambling to copy the first generation iPad, we’re launching iPad 2, which moves the bar far ahead of the competition and will likely cause them to go back to the drawing boards yet again.”

With the addition of cameras, the next-generation iPad will be capable of making FaceTime calls with other FaceTime-capable devices. The rear-facing camera can capture 720p HD video. Despite its thinner casing, the iPad 2 will have the same battery life as the first generation of 10 hours and 30 days of stand-by time.
The 3G models of the iPad 2 will be compatible with the GSM networks of AT&T and other carriers as well as Verizon's CDMA network. The versions compatible with Verizon's network will be sold in the U.S. only.

Apple has designed new accessories for the next-generation iPad, including cases called Smart Covers and an HDMI adapter. The Smart Covers will attach magnetically to the iPad 2 and will automatically wake the device when opened and put it to sleep when closed.
The iPad 2 will run iOS 4.3 which will be released for other iOS devices on March 11.
The iPad 2 will be available starting March 11 in the U.S. and will come in two colors: white and black. Pricing and capacities have not changed from the first generation of the iPad with the Wi-Fi models coming in at $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will cost $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB.

Source: http://www.macrumors.com/2011/03/02/apple-announces-ipad-2-a5-dual-core-2-cameras-thinner/

GoToMyPC Remote Desktop App Released for the iPad

2011-02-28T10:50:00.001-08:00

GoToMyPC has released a remote desktop application for the iPad that lets you connect to your Mac or PC.
GoToMyPC is the fast, easy and secure way to instantly connect to your Mac or PC, with access to all of your files, programs and network. And now you can take it to go with GoToMyPC for iPad.

No more filling up flash drives, worrying about forgotten files or late nights in the office. With GoToMyPC, everything you need is always just a few taps away.

Simple
• Instantly access your Mac or PC desktop.
• Work on any application or file on your computer.

Convenient
• Leave the laptop behind and lighten your load. With GoToMyPC you can use all of your computer’s contacts, files and programs from your iPad.
• Finish up your workday without staying in the office after hours. With GoToMyPC you always have access to everything on your work computer.

Reliable
• GoToMyPC comes with free 24/7 Global Customer Support. You’re never left hanging.
• GoToMyPC is backed by Citrix, so you can count on this app working when you need it.
Features

• Instant access to your files, programs and network
• Intuitive touch and gesture controls
• 300% zoom to see details and operate with precision
• Full keyboard functionality, including special keys like Alt, Ctrl and Tab
• Preview text mode for fast typing
• Keyboard Locking and Screen Blanking on host computer (PC only)
• Works seamlessly with existing firewalls – no need for special configuration
• 128-bit AES encryption, dual passwords and end-to-end user authentication
• Inactivity timeout that you can configure (PC only)
• Connects over 3G and Wi-Fi
• Free 24/7 support

NOTE: To use this free application, you must first have a GoToMyPC subscription on the computer(s) you want to access. If you’re not a subscriber, try it now free for 30 days at www.gotomypc.com.

You can download GoToMyPC (Remote Desktop) from the App Store for free.

Source: http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=14085

Dell Rolls Out Updated XPS 15, XPS 17 Laptops

2011-02-22T13:24:00.001-08:00

Well, it's not the promised thinner and lighter replacement for the XPS 14, but Dell has just announced two other new XPS laptops: updated versions of it XPS 15 and XPS 17. Both of those are available today in a whole range of different configurations, including your choice of Sandy Bridge or Huron River processors, NVIDIA GPU options up to a GT 540M on the XPS 15 or GT555M on the XPS 17, up to 8GB or 16GB of RAM, and even an optional 3D-capable panel on the XPS 17. As usual, prices vary widely depending on the configuration, but things start at just $899 for a basic XPS 17 or $1049 for the XPS 15 -- hit up the link below to check out all the options available.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/22/dell-rolls-out-updated-xps-15-xps-17-laptops/

Toshiba Adds Sandy Bridge To The Portege R800

2011-02-16T15:13:00.001-08:00

The 13-inch Toshiba Portege R830.

(Credit: Toshiba)

Sandy Bridge processors in laptops still haven't been seen yet, but we can start putting together a wish list of laptops we'd most like to see with the updated Intel Core i-series CPUs. The Toshiba Portege R instantly rises to the top of that list. The Portege R705 was one of our top-rated laptops of 2010, and at MWC in Barcelona, Spain, Toshiba has unveiled the next generation of these laptops, the R800 series.

The Portege R830, as it's being called in Europe, corresponds directly with the 13-inch R700 line we loved so much. The big changes come under the hood: the Sandy Bridge CPUs should add greatly improved integrated graphics, a missing feature in the R700 line. In addition, a newly engineered air-flow cooling system detailed by Toshiba could help run operations with a little less heat.

New to the lineup will be 14- and 15.6-inch Portege R800s, offering fuller-size screens.

The case designs look similar but offer new materials: either a magnesium alloy casing in the 13-inch model, or a high-stiffness resin casing in the 14- and 15-inchers.

No word on price, official model names, or release dates in the U.S., but hopefully we'll hear more soon.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20032262-1.html#ixzz1EANx2HGp

IE9's 'Pinning' Brings Traffic Boost To Sites

2011-02-14T15:33:00.001-08:00

Microsoft says a small new feature within Internet Explorer 9 is having a big impact on sites that have tweaked their code to make use of it.

"Site pinning," which is new to this latest major version of Internet Explorer, lets users add a shortcut to a site from any page of their own to sit on their Windows 7 task bar. On the surface this would just seem like any other shortcut, except that Microsoft has provided ways for sites to boost the interactivity, like putting site-specific notifications, navigation, and information in contextual menus that sit behind the icon.

Microsoft now says that sites that have gone this extra step are seeing anywhere from a 15 percent to 50 percent increase in site visits, behavior that can be tracked back to a pinned site's increased visibility compared to bookmarks, which are usually kept hidden within a menu inside of the browser.

"It shouldn't surprise that much," Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live business group, told CNET in an interview last week. "If you think about it there's a reason people have competed aggressively for default home paging for years and years and years. That default home page was the thing that you saw every time you started your browser," Hall said.

"What we enable is the ability to get out of having only one home page. And not go wonky to the level that you have to have multiple paths, which an average customer isn't going to do for their home page set," he continued.

So far more than 900 sites have taken advantage of the feature, meaning that they've added some code to their site to offer up the special features to IE9 users. That includes high-resolution icon and support for Jump Lists, which break out site-specific actions into a menu that can be accessed without hunting around for those same options on the site itself. The feature has long been available to native applications built for Windows 7, with Microsoft positioning IE9 as the first pathway for Web developers to include the functionality into their sites and Web applications.

"We have more and more sites that just continue to keep pushing it," Hall said. "For instance when you have Pandora pinned now you'll notice that when you're paused and the windows is not in the foreground, you'll see a notification that lets you know that you're in pause."

Others have also moved to take advantage of the feature by promoting it when users first visit using IE9. "Huffington Post is interesting. If you go to Huffington Post from IE9, it will actually prompt you to do the pinning because they know that if it's pinned you're going to go there more often," Hall said. Similar initiatives have been done by mobile Web application developers with the home screen shortcut feature that's built into Apple's Safari browser on its iOS devices.

Microsoft says sites that have been coded to enable things like Jump Lists after being pinned are seeing traffic gains.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft also sees site pinning as a way to change the way portal-style home pages typically drove traffic to internal properties. "Let's take a site like Yahoo, which today has obviously good home page share in the United States," Hall said. "We could encourage people to pin Yahoo, pin Yahoo Mail, pin Yahoo Finance, and all the sudden [Yahoo] doesn't need to try and program everything through that single piece of real estate that is the home page."

Hall said that system encourages users to group together similar sites, or clusters of links. "If you go to 20 different sites, if you just start pinning them you get logical groupings," he said. "So let's say I'm doing all my research on MSN, I can have 10 links that are logically grouped here, and they're not getting in the way of my de novo browsing section."

But does that principle scale as users begin to pin more and more sites? Based on user behavior during the beta, that hasn't proven to be an issue. "I think the majority of people aren't going to have more than 10 pins," Hall said. For those that do, Hall pointed toward simply expanding the size of the Windows task bar to double or even triple height (or width) to accommodate more pins.

"I think what you'll find is, the more sites that do pinning, the more people want to pin. You might see more people going into double height, but that's a problem we look forward to having," Hall said.

Microsoft put out the first, and likely only, release candidate for IE9 last week, though the company has not said when it plans to roll out a final version. The software continues to be offered only to users of the current, and previous iteration of Microsoft's Windows operating systems: Windows 7, and Windows Vista.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20031845-75.html#ixzz1DyltAAEC

Manufacturers Get Windows 7 Service Pack

2011-02-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

Microsoft said today that it had sent the first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to original equipment manufacturers, with a consumer release to follow later this month.

The news comes several weeks after Microsoft's Russian Windows localization team had reported the update as being finalized from its first and only release candidate, and released to manufacturers.

Microsoft says the update will go out to consumers through Windows Update on February 22. TechNet subscribers and Microsoft's volume license customers will get their hands on it a week earlier, on the 16th.

SP1 includes an updated version of Microsoft's remote desktop client, alongside a round of hot fixes, and dynamic memory support for Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2.

On the company's server team blog, Michael Kleef, who is a senior technical product manager on the team, said that the dynamic memory feature alone has made a dramatic increase in machine density within the company's testing:

Dynamic Memory lets you increase virtual machine density with the resources you already have--without sacrificing performance or scalability. In our lab testing, with Windows 7 SP1 as the guest operating system in a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) scenario, we have seen a 40 percent increase in density from Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM to SP1. We achieved this increase simply by enabling Dynamic Memory.
Kleef goes on to praise the new RemoteFX technology that's included with SP1, which virtualizes the graphical processing unit on the server instead of on local hardware. This means thin-client machines can run more graphically intensive applications on hardware that wouldn't otherwise support it, which as a side effect can cut down on electricity used by those machines. "Together, these technologies will drive down the end-point cost and reduce end-point power consumption to as little as a few watts," Kleef said.

Microsoft rolled out the first beta of SP1 back in July, with its first and only release candidate appearing in late October.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20031233-75.html#ixzz1Db5KMML7

Google Doodles 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

2011-02-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

I fancy that the only fun place to work at Google these days is the Doodle Department.

And today the members of this elite crew have created an homage to Jules Verne, whose 183rd birthday it would have been today, had he not, well, died in 1905.

Today's doodle has its own delightful Verneacular. You can toggle a little joystick thingy up and down, as you sink toward 20,000 leagues under the sea or rise from it.

(Credit: Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

(Credit: Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Verne actually became a bit of a miseryguts after his nephew, who may not have been all there and ended up in an asylum, shot him in the leg.

Indeed, this seems to have led Verne to think less optimistically about life. It also led him to consider whether technology was the road to joy.

Even before he was shot, he wrote a book called "Paris in the 20th Century," which was then put away. It is Verne's vision of 1960.

Some might find it interesting, for it describes the life of Michel Dufrenoy, who lives surrounded by lovely skyscrapers, calculators, fax machines, gas-powered automobiles, and even, get this, a communications network that connects the whole world.

And yet our hero, a poet, is unhappy. For the world has no art. Engineering and banking control everything.

You will be stunned to hear that Defrenoy's life ends tragically.

"Paris the the 20th Century" was kept in a bottom drawer and only published in 1994. And I wonder how many folks at Google and other fine engineering concerns have read it.

I don't know if many people go to Google.com these days. But, if you go there today to play with this lovely doodle, perhaps you can also get hold of "Paris in the 20th Century."

Just for a little work-life balance.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20031001-71.html#ixzz1DPW1AqIc

You Can't Carpool In This Time Machine Hard Drive

2010-11-30T14:07:00.000-08:00

In the words of Chandler Bing's on again-off again girlfriend Janice Hosenstein, "Oh... my...god!" Real fans of the "Back to the Future" series will undoubtedly love to get their mitts on this hard-drive makeover.

A 1:18 scale replica of the DMC-12 that was modified for time travel by Doc Brown in the sci-fi trilogy, this Delorean time machine hard drive comes with working gull wing doors and hood, a Mr. Fusion reactor, 1950s wheels and rims, and of course, a 500GB Seagate HDD stuffed in the trunk (though at $250 a pop, we'd have expected at least a 1TB drive under the hood and the speedier USB 3.0 connection). Then again, this is the perfect vehicle to store your entire collection of "Back to the Future" rips on.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20024152-1.html#ixzz16o2gNZ9A

Report: Chrome OS Smartbooks Coming This Month

2010-11-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

Google's Chrome OS project is almost ready for the masses, according to a report.

Digitimes said today that hardware companies in Asia are putting the finishing touches on smartbooks running Chrome OS, with the intention of shipping them later this month. Acer and Hewlett Packard are expected to launch Chrome OS systems in December, Digitimes said.

One interesting tidbit is that Google reportedly plans on selling a Chrome OS smartbook (an ill-defined term that seems to reflect an improved Netbook) under its own brand, similar to what it tried to do with the Nexus One. CEO Eric Schmidt hinted earlier in the year that such a strategy was in the works, but it's not clear how Google plans to sell such a smartbook: through carrier partners, direct from its Web site, or at retailers like Best Buy.

In any event, the Chrome OS smartbooks will likely coincide with the arrival of the Chrome OS Web Store, which will help make the smartbooks more attractive with additional apps outside of the stock build. Google has only said that it expects both parts of the Chrome OS strategy to arrive in the "fall," but most observers have expected the company to get everything out before the official start of the holiday shopping season.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20021484-265.html?tag=mncol#ixzz149ZNjcG0

X-ray Phone Flashes Its Guts For All To See

2010-10-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Transparent keypads and displays on handsets are so passe now that the X-ray phone is here to show off its guts in their full glory. If you're into electronic circuitry, microchips, and all the tiny modules that work harmoniously together to let you make a call and send a text message, then the X-ray phone might be for you.

Created by Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka, the X-ray comes with a 7x102 dot-matrix LED sub-panel that displays the current time and incoming e-mail alerts, as well as an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with an onboard photo light.

Three colors--deep red, black, and blue--are available for the polycarbonate chassis reinforced with glass fiber. Unfortunately for some, it's sold only by KDDI in Japan for now.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20020089-1.html?tag=mncol#ixzz12qLcOJHl

The Full Story On Windows Phone 7 (Roundup)

2010-10-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's characterization of the new Windows Phone 7 OS as "always delightful and wonderfully mine" may go down in tech marketing-speak history.

But what exactly did the company launch this morning, and exactly how is it taking aim at competitors like Apple's iPhone and iOS, Google's Android, and RIM's BlackBerry?

The hardware
There are nine announced Windows Phone 7 devices that U.S. customers will soon be able to choose from, with T-Mobile and AT&T handsets coming out of the gate as early as November 8. The diverse array of handsets, geared toward target markets as disparate as gaming freaks and "rugged" phone users (as well as keyboard loyalists), stands in stark contrast to Apple's vision of the iPhone as a single, simple device that can ideally be used by just about anyone.

The software
Customization and convenience ("a phone to save us from our phones") are what Microsoft is going for here, hoping to offer a higher level of personalization than your average smartphone while still keeping Microsoft-centric experiences. When Windows Phone 7 devices hit the mass market, we'll see if consumers think their aim was accurate.

There's deep integration with Microsoft's Zune service for music and Xbox Live for gaming, including a partnership with EA Mobile. For the three Windows Phone 7 devices running on AT&T, there is also access (for a fee) to its U-verse Mobile media service. There's Office 2010 and access to Microsoft's Bing search engine and mapping tools, which are all closely tied into the software.

So is Facebook, the social network in which Microsoft bought a stake in 2007. Open up your contacts in Windows Phone 7, and you'll be able to see their Facebook-tagged photos.

One of the biggest software disappointments: the Windows Phone 7 OS can't handle copy-paste functions. Well, it can't yet. That's slated to arrive in a January 2011 update.

Microsoft executives spent a significant amount of time talking about the Windows Phone 7 e-mail features, which are perhaps its most prominent example of how they intend the operating system to be highly effective for both personal and business use. This is a strategic jab at both Apple, which was initially criticized for not making the iPhone e-mail function business-friendly enough (it's since improved it), and RIM, which continues to work to make the BlackBerry less synonymous with corporate use.

The carriers
In the U.S., the Windows Phone 7 handsets on the immediate horizon come from AT&T and T-Mobile. Handsets on Sprint and Verizon are on the way. This puts Windows Phone 7 already one step ahead of Apple, which still has yet to make the iPhone available on U.S. carriers other than AT&T (though rumors about Verizon persist).
Around the world, carriers include Telus in Canada and Orange, O2, and Vodafone around different countries in Europe.

The apps
Perhaps because of the emphasis on Microsoft-grown products like Xbox Live and Zune, there was less of a focus on third-party developers and apps than one would expect from an announcement about the iPhone or Google's developer-centric Android. Aside from games and a quick peek at music apps that tap into Zune, only eBay and IMDb's Windows Phone 7 apps were demonstrated. More have been announced, but it's going to be a while before the breadth of apps offers anything like the iTunes Store or Android Marketplace.

Still, Microsoft exec Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president in charge of the Windows Phone program, said that "hundreds of thousands" of developers were at work on Windows Phone 7 apps.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20019220-94.html?tag=mncol#ixzz125DoPXNq

D'Agostino: High-End Audio Just Got Higher

2010-09-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Dan D'Agostino is one of the founding fathers of American high-end audio. He began his audio odyssey at age 11, patching together more than his share of amplifier kits as his father built Klipsch speakers. By 14, he graduated to a Marantz preamp and power amplifier, and AR 1 speakers with Janszen electrostatic tweeters, all purchased with money he earned "polishing the tubes, and sweeping up the floors" at his hometown hi-fi shop, the Audio Center in Niagara Falls, N.Y. He went on to receive his electrical engineering degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

He started his first company, Krell Industries, in 1980 and served as its chief engineer for 30 years, designing amplifiers, preamplifiers, CD players, surround-sound processors, and speakers. Krell was the Ferrrari of the American high end industry; D'Agostino sold his interest in Krell in 2009.

The D'Agostino Momentum amplifier
(Credit: Dan D'Agostino)

Now he's back with Dan D'Agostino, Inc., and his first product will be the Momentum mono block power amplifier (you need two for stereo). It's a 300-watt design, but draws just one watt when not playing music. So the Momentum is easily the "greenest" amplifier D'Agostino has ever designed. The Momentum amplifier is an all-analog design, including all of the protection circuits.

I spoke with D'Agostino yesterday to learn more about his new venture. He spelled out his objectives this way: "We're a small company dedicated to two-channel audio, and we'll hand-build everything, including the chassis, in Connecticut."

The Momentum Series will also include a preamplifier, stereo power amplifier, phono preamplifier, and a CD player. The amp will arrive first, but the Momentum preamp will boast a number of unusual features for a high-end preamp, including streaming audio/internet radio, USB inputs, and the preamp will use an iPod Touch as its remote control.

The Momentum amplifier retails for $42,000 a pair and will start shipping in December.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20018036-47.html?tag=mncol#ixzz11330i8kH

Reports: Apple TV Starts Shipping

2010-09-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

The Apple TV is now shipping, according to reports.

Several publications, including Engadget, have been receiving word from people who've ordered the Apple TV that the set-top box has started shipping. The devices are scheduled to arrive at customer homes by the end of the month (that is, Thursday), but as early as tomorrow, the reports claim.

I also preordered an Apple TV. Although my order status currently says that the device hasn't shipped, it has been "prepared for shipment." Apple's order-status page still says that the device will ship by the end of this month.

The new Apple TV was unveiled at a September 1 Apple event by CEO Steve Jobs. The device is much smaller than the original Apple TV and boasts an all-black finish. Apple ditched onboard storage in favor of streaming in the new set-top box. Users hoping to watch television shows can stream them to their Apple TV for 99 cents apiece. HD films are available for $4.99. Owners can also access Netflix Instant Streaming.

The Apple TV is scheduled to hit store shelves by the end of the month. It retails for $99.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20017785-17.html?tag=mncol#ixzz10lkBqE6x

New At Google: Google New

2010-09-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

A few weeks after starting a video series to promote the most popular searches in a given week, Google is starting a blog of sorts to promote its new products.

Google New went live today as a directory of new products designed to help call attention to the new products Google launches at a dizzying rate, the ones that may not get as much attention as say Google Instant Search or voice calls from Gmail. The site will pull together posts from Google's various product and policy-related blogs and it appears it will use some editorial judgment in how it lays out the site: Google Instant Search is in the lead story position, as opposed to product launches over the last 24 hours such as Rich Snippets in Google Maps or enhancements to Google's AdWords accounts.

For a company built on the back of advertising, Google hasn't done a lot of advertising of itself. That's definitely starting to change this year, with the company buying the mother of all ads--a Super Bowl spot--in January, and more recently rolling out plans to advertise its display-ad prowess as well.

But it's also doing more subtle promotion, such as the Google Beat video series and the new Google New blog. Google authors dozens and dozens of individual blogs, but the most recent promotional activities--Google Beat and Google New--seem designed for more of a mass audience than the niche blogs that focus on specific product categories.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20017308-265.html?tag=mncol#ixzz10IN7COam

Intel Will Teach Gadgets To Learn About You

2010-09-15T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Personal Vacation Assistant is an example of a device that will learn about its user and offer suggestions based on context.
(Credit: Intel)

SAN FRANCISCO--Rather than teach your gadgets what to do, Intel researchers say that in the not-too-distant future they will learn about you on their own. That means where you are, how you're feeling, and what you want.

It's actually not as creepy as it sounds. Intel Chief Technology Officer and Director of Intel Labs Justin Rattner took the stage Wednesday at the annual Intel Developer Forum here to talk about the future of "context-aware computing," what Intel is doing about it, and how gadgets can make life easier for their owners, but in a way that the owners can control.

Context-aware computing is Intel's term for devices that anticipate what people need or want and guide them accordingly. The context is gathered through a combination of "hard sensors"--cameras that detect movement and GPS-based location information--and "soft sensors"--such as calendar information or pieces of data you input into a device.

The most consumer-friendly example is something Intel Labs has been working on for a while called the Personal Vacation Assistant. It's a mobile device (still in prototype phase) that looks a lot like an oversized GPS. It uses what Intel is calling "context" to help travelers make decisions about stuff to do while playing tourist. Your personal travel preferences (where you like to stay, things you like to do), combined with data about stuff you've already done, your location, and your calendar schedule will help the device make on-the-spot recommendations for sights to see, places to eat, and more. At the end of a trip, the device can auto-generate a travel blog too, including photos and videos.

Intel and Fodor's have already conducted a test putting the device to work with a few dozen visitors to New York City.

The sensors built into devices are what will make devices gather and process context, said Lama Nachman, an Intel Labs researcher who joined Rattner on stage.
"Sensing is at the core of these context-aware devices," she said.

She showed a prototype TV remote with a sensor pack that can detect who is holding the remote as an example. The remote can tell who is watching TV based on the movements the holder of the remote makes. It uses a process Intel calls "unsupervised learning," which means the sensor on the remote is always on and always learning in the background. When it figures out who it is, the remote can then make personalized recommendations of shows the user may want to watch. Those recommendations appear in the form of a pop-up menu on the TV screen.

Besides coming up with practical applications, Intel is in the process of fusing all of this hard and soft sensor data into a platform that can be controlled by users. It's sort of a "digital rights management" for context-aware devices, said Rattner.
"We need a cognitive framework for managing context," he said. "So users can share what context is released, to whom, and when it expires."

He didn't make any bold predictions about how many devices we'll see like this, but he did say we "can expect to see these features appearing in Intel products in the not-too-distant future."

Original X-Mini Speaker Caps It With Nifty Refresh

2010-09-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

Singapore-based XMI is harking back to its roots with the hamburger-style speaker that started it all--the X-mini. The capsule speaker with its signature accordion middle, which nabbed the company a red dot design award, has gotten a cap. We think it's a nifty upgrade since this not only protects the exposed driver from unintentional hits, but appears to help direct the sound. Also, thanks to a customized driver, the X-mini 1.1 in a recent demo at our Labs projected notably fuller-bodied and much richer sonics than the original.

What we also like is that XMI has brought over the best of its X-mini II over to the X-mini 1.1. Which means users get a built-in 3.5mm audio cable that tucks away into the base, and can now through the buddy-jack daisy-chain endless X-minis together for more volume. There's also a two-step volume switch dial for greater control.

The improved X-mini gets priced at $19, the same as the original, which is being phased out. The refreshed version, which appeared briefly at the Comex fair in Singapore last week, will ship in matte black and red when it hits retail shelves in a week.

Archos Reveals Five New Android Tablets For Fall

2010-08-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

Archos carries the distinction of being one of the first manufacturers to produce an Android tablet. Now, it seems it's gunning to be the manufacturer with the largest stable of Android tablets.

Today, Archos revealed its plans to deliver no fewer than five new Android-based tablets in 2010. According to the company, all of its tablets are scheduled to be released about September and October, and each it promises to ship each tablet with Android 2.2 installed. Here's the lineup:

Archos 101
With a cost of about $300, the Archos 101 is the company's top-of-the-line Android tablet. It has a capacitive 10.1-inch touch screen and measures half an inch thick, making its comparison against the Apple iPad all-too-easy. It it powered by a 1GHz processor and includes a HDMI port for outputting 720p video. The 101 also has USB and Bluetooth connections for tethering. It has a front-facing VGA camera that is compatible with preloaded video chat apps. It comes in two capacities--8GB and 16GB, with the 16GB running $50 extra.

Archos 70
The Archos 70 seems to be an uncompromising version of the Archos 7 Home Tablet. Its touch screen is capacitive, rather than resistive, it has a front-facing VGA camera, and its Mini-HDMI port let you to output video to a TV. The Archos 70 will set you back about $275 for an 8GB model, or $350 for 250GB.

Archos 43
If you've caught on the the new Archos naming scheme, you've probably guessed that the Archos 43 uses a 4.3-inch screen. Unlike the higher-end tablets, the 43's screen uses a less-responsive resistive touch technology. To make up for it, Archos threw a camera on the tablet's back that can record 720p video. It will cost $199 and comes with 8GB of storage.

Archos 32
Approaching the iPod Touch scale, the Archos 32 has a resistive 3.2-inch touch screen and gives you an Android 2.2 tablet for a measly $150. With it you get 8GB of storage, a rear-facing camera that records 720p video, composite video output, and codec support befitting its PMP proportions.

Archos 28
With a screen measuring only 2.8-inches, the Archos 28 is more wafer, than tablet. Still, it comes with Android 2.2, a 320x240-pixel resolution display, plenty of multimedia support, and an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. Best of all, it's only $99.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20015224-1.html?tag=mncol#ixzz0yDrwrvh8

Apple's iPod, iTunes Event September 1

2010-08-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

That Apple September music event? It's happening earlier than anyone expected this year.

Apple sent an invitation moments ago inviting us to the event next Wednesday, September 1. It'll take place at the usual spot, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, at the usual time, 10 a.m. PDT.

We'll be there live-blogging the proceedings, so be sure to come back here a week from today.

What exactly will Apple announce? Well, it's a tradition for the company to release new iPod hardware in September. This year, it's widely expected Apple will add the "Retina" display and front-facing camera of the iPhone 4 to the iPod Touch. There's also been speculation about changes coming to Apple TV, including a scaled-down device, a much lower price tag of $99, and access to the App Store.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Apple would be introducing 99-cent TV show rentals at this event, but said that event would take place September 7.

A Doodling Tablet Coming To The Wii

2010-08-17T13:45:00.001-07:00

A doodle pad is noodling its way to the Wii.

Game developer THQ unveiled on Tuesday the uDraw GameTablet. The accessory, which is designed exclusively for the Wii, allows people to draw and color on a 4-inch by 6-inch surface with a detachable stylus. As the player draws on the tablet, the artwork will show up on your television screen. The tablet's uDraw Studio software, which comes with the tablet, is what allows players to draw and color.

A Wii version of Pictionary and a new title called Dood's Big Adventure will be sold separately.

THQ CEO Brian Farrell says that the uDraw GameTablet is for "consumers of all ages," but it's clear to me that the device targets kids.

The tablet draws power from the Wii Remote, which is docked into the device. It features tilt-and-roll capability to allow players to control in-game characters. The company said the device also comes with an SD slot, allowing users to "save their creations on an SD-Card and print their artwork for display on the refrigerator."
It's worth noting that the uDraw GameTablet is making its way only to the Wii--the console that may offer the tablet its best chance at success.

The $69 tablet will be released for the holiday-shopping season. Pictionary and Dood's Big Adventure, which will launch with the tablet, will sell for $29 each.

Hackers Release Browser-Based iPhone 4 Jailbreak

2010-08-02T14:58:00.000-07:00

The unlocked iPhone 4 is now technically legal and technically possible.
Just days after the U.S. Copyright Office ruled that bypassing a manufacturer's protection mechanisms to allow "handsets to execute software applications" no longer violates federal copyright law, the iPhone Dev Team on Sunday released a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 at JailbreakMe.com.

Unlike previous jailbreaks, which required the device to be connected to a computer to run the update, the latest jailbreak is accomplished completely via mobile Safari loaded on the device. The browser-based software bypass reportedly works on all iOS devices, including iPhones, iPads, and iPods running iOS 4 and iOS 4.01, but it will reportedly not work on devices running the iOS 4.1 beta.

Also, some users report the jailbreak disrupts FaceTime and MMS functionality on the device.

However, as of this writing, demand for the jailbreak is apparently so strong that the site's servers can't keep up, and many visitors report difficulty in getting through.

Jailbreaking allows devices to run apps not approved by the company producing the operating system--such as Apple, the main target of such bypasses. Jailbreaking also allows devices to run on nonauthorized networks.

While the U.S. Copyright Office has declared the software legal, Apple discourages users from loading the bypass, reminding them that doing so will void their device's warranty. "As we've said before, the vast majority of customers do not jailbreak their iPhones as this can violate the warranty and can cause the iPhone to become unstable and not work reliably," Apple said in a statement earlier this week.

Feds Say Mobile-Phone Jailbreaking Is OK

2010-07-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Jailbreaking your iPhone or other mobile device will no longer violate federal copyright law, the U.S. Copyright Office ruled Monday.

The decision, part of a process that takes place every three years, said that bypassing a manufacturer's protection mechanisms to allow "handsets to execute software applications" is permissible.

The Copyright Office also allowed bypassing the anticopying technology used in DVDs, but only for "documentary filmmaking," noncommercial videos, and educational uses--a ruling that stopped short of allowing Americans to legally make a backup copy for their own use, in case the original DVD gets damaged. It also doesn't apply to making backup copies of videogame discs or Blu-Ray discs.

Apple, the maker of the iPhone, had objected to the exemption for jailbreaking phones. A letter that the company sent to the Copyright Office argued that allowing jailbreaking would result "in copyright infringement, potential damage to the device and other potential harmful physical effects, adverse effects on the functioning of the device, and breach of contract."

Apple's support department already receives "literally millions of reported instances of problems flowing from jailbroken phones," the company said, and legitimizing the practice of jailbreaking would result in more malware being delivered outside of the App Store, other security problems, and even physical damage to the iPhone.

Monday's announcement certainly counts as a political victory for jailbreaking enthusiasts and critics of the anti-circumvention portions the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but it may not have much of a practical effect.

Apple has never sued any of its customers on grounds that their jailbreaking violates the DMCA, even though a February 2009 estimate suggested that over 400,000 U.S. iPhone owners have done so. Nor has it filed any breach-of-contract lawsuits claiming that the software license agreement was violated.

Section 2(c) of the Apple iPhone Software License Agreement (PDF) bans any attempt to "modify" the iPhone software or to reverse-engineer it.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco-based civil liberties group, had requested that the Copyright Office expand the number of exceptions in the DMCA, which has been a focus of controversy among programmers, hackers, and security researchers for over a decade. The DMCA broadly restricts, but does not flatly ban, bypassing copy protection technology.

"The Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have taken three important steps today to mitigate some of the harms caused by the DMCA," Jennifer Granick, EFF's civil-liberties director, said in a statement Monday. "We are thrilled to have helped free jailbreakers, unlockers, and vidders from this law's overbroad reach."

iPad To Hit More Countries On Friday

2010-07-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

The iPad's market is going more global starting this Friday.

Apple announced Monday that its popular tablet will reach residents in nine more countries: Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G models will go on sale.

The iPad is currently available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.

In U.S. dollars, the Wi-Fi models now sell internationally for $499 for the 16GB edition, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB, while the Wi-Fi+3G units sell for $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB.

Apple said its tablet will reach more countries later this year and that it will announce availability and local prices at a later date.

In the iPad's first 80 days on the market, Apple sold 3 million units. Estimates on how many sales the tablet will rack up over the foreseeable future vary. In April, iSuppli forecast that iPad sales would hit 7.1 million units this year, followed by 14.4 million next year and 20.1 million in 2012. But earlier this month, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi projected that Apple would sell a minimum of 18 million units and as many as 25 million in 2011.

New Apple TV To Offer 99-Cent Rentals?

2010-07-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

A new Apple TV featuring 99-cent television show rentals is currently in the works, a report from GigaOm blog, NewTeeVee, claims.

According to NewTeeVee, which cited unnamed sources, Apple is currently trying to coax television studios into allowing the company to offer TV rentals for just 99 cents each on the as-yet announced new version of the Apple TV. Currently, Apple offers consumers the chance to buy television shows on its Apple TV set-top box for $1.99 for standard-definition episodes, and $2.99 for high-definition episodes.

Although details from NewTeeVee's sources are scant at this point, the blog said that "the consumer will have 30 days to start watching the video." As soon as they start watching an episode, they will need to complete it within 24 hours, or else the rental will expire, NewTeeVee reported.

Apple hasn't immediately responded to request for confirmation.

Since its launch in 2007, the company hasn't done much with Apple TV. Save for some software updates, a hard drive update, and a price drop, the company has largely ignored the "hobby."

Meanwhile, Google is attempting to capitalize on the potential entertainment void in the living room with its Google TV service. The software will potentially be coming to several hardware products. The first, Logitech's Revue, is scheduled to hit store shelves later this year.

Given the competition, and all the rumblings surrounding the Apple TV, speculation abounds over when Apple will finally release a follow-up to its set-top box. Back in May, a report surfaced from Engadget, once again citing an "anonymous source," saying Apple will be releasing a new set-top box that will run on the company's A4 chip, and include iOS 4. The report claimed the device will retail for $99 when it's released. Since then, we haven't heard Apple or any of its employees hint that such a product will be hitting store shelves anytime soon.

So, as with any Apple announcement, it's important to take the NewTeeVee report with a grain of salt. But given the competition the Apple TV is now facing, it seems believable.

Microsoft investigating new Windows flaw

2010-07-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it is looking into reports of a new Windows flaw that could compromise the security of machines running older versions of the operating system.

In an advisory on its Web site, Secunia said that the vulnerability is due to a boundary error in a function included in Windows XP and Windows 2000 that, if exploited, could allow malicious code to be executed. The firm rated the vulnerability as "moderately critical."

"Microsoft is investigating new public claims of a possible vulnerability in Windows 2000 and Windows XP," group manager Jerry Bryant said in a statement. Bryant said Microsoft is unaware of any attempts so far to build an attack based on the vulnerability and included Microsoft's standard language that it will take appropriate action, which could include releasing an update as part of the company's monthly patches or issuing an unscheduled update.

Microsoft had noted in a Twitter posting on Monday that it was investigating the issue.

Blu-ray Apparently Isn't Coming To Macs

2010-07-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

The more Apple customers pelt Steve Jobs' in-box, the more he seems to respond. But unlike the last flurry of e-mails that were made public on iPhone and iPad issues, this time Jobs is apparently expounding on why Blu-ray won't be coming to Macs.
According to the MacRumors fan site, which posted an e-mail exchange, one of its readers e-mailed the Apple CEO to ask why a Blu-ray drive didn't make its way to the company's newly updated Mac Mini.

In Jobs' apparent response, he seemed nonplussed by the value of Blu-ray. He supposedly said it doesn't make much sense to include it in the company's computers.
"Blu-ray is looking more and more like one of the high end audio formats that appeared as the successor to the CD," MacRumors reported Jobs as saying. "It will be beaten by Internet downloadable formats."

The customer wasn't done, though. The person said that Jobs may be right about the long term but that currently Blu-ray's superior video quality and storage capacity makes it an ideal format for Mac owners.

Once again, Jobs apparently disagreed. The film business is moving away from physical media, he reportedly said, and Apple plans to stick with the industry.
"The downloadable movie business is rapidly moving to free (Hulu) or rentals (iTunes) so storing purchased movies or TV shows is not an issue," Jobs reportedly said. "I think you may be wrong. We may see a fast broad move to streamed free and rental content at sufficient quality (at least 720p) to win almost everyone over."
Of course, Jobs' apparent comments have an element of self-preservation in them. Currently, Apple offers customers the ability to buy or rent films and television shows through iTunes. By bundling the Mac Mini without a Blu-ray drive, but with an HDMI port for connectivity on an HDTV, Apple seems to be begging users to load up iTunes and download some of its HD video content from the device. A Blu-ray drive could conceivably throw a wrench in that plan.

Beyond that, Jobs has a well-known, and seemingly lasting, distaste for Blu-ray. Back in October 2008, the Apple CEO said that licensing and delivering Blu-ray to customers is a "bag of hurt."

Coming soon: WWDC 2010 live blog

2010-06-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

On Monday morning Steve Jobs will take the stage at Moscone West in San Francisco to kick off Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference 2010. In all likelihood, he will be introducing the next version of the iPhone. And we will be there to bring you live coverage of the event.

Jobs' keynote will start at 10 a.m. PDT Monday. I'll be live blogging all the news from his speech, along with CNET's iPhone reviewer Kent German and CNET News' Josh Lowensohn. For a reminder of when the event will start, sign up below. You can also bookmark this page and come back here Monday morning.

Though the iPhone is widely expected to be the star of the show, expect more details about iPhone OS 4, the iPad, and lots about apps. The theme of this year's conference is, after all, "The Center of the App Universe."

Until the show starts, check out more photos of workers setting up for the event on Friday at Moscone Wes

iWork on the iPad is a great way to work

2010-04-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

Your Friendly staff here at Computer Renaissance feels these apps would be very helpful for everyone with an IPad.

Of the many apps available on iPad release day-and the continuing flood of new additions coming in as developers get their apps primed for the new device--a few key apps came straight from Apple. As reported when the iPad was initially announced, Apple has created iPad versions of its popular iWork productivity suite, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps--each of which is available for $9.99 at the iTunes App Store.

We've had a chance to get a close look at each of the iWork apps and have found them to be extremely useful on the new platform. Obviously, the touch-screen keypad won't be as efficient as a keyboard for serious writing, and the lack of print features require some extra steps, but for most other purposes the iWork apps will be useful to anyone trying to get some work done on their brand-new iPad.

The toolbar in the upper right is where all your most important tools live across the iWork apps.

Pages for iPad seemed like the biggest stretch for a touch-screen device like the iPad, but with Apple's keyboard dock stand or a Bluetooth keyboard, it works quite well. Even with the touch-screen keyboard, we were able to type at a fairly fast speed.

Numbers for iPad is Apple's spreadsheet program, and we were pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to interact with the app. Creating spreadsheets and graphs is incredibly easy on the touch-screen interface, and Apple has streamlined the job of using your spreadsheet data through smart interactive tools that tie your information together.

Keynote for iPad lets you make professional-quality presentations using an intuitive interface that just about anyone can master. Everything from slide-to-slide transitions, imported images and movies, to cool-looking animations are all possible with only a few swipes of your finger.

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20001794-243.html?tag=smallCarouselArea.0

Malware and social network attacks surge in '09

2010-03-03T13:58:00.001-08:00

Malware-carrying spam and attacks via Twitter and Facebook grew dramatically in the second half of 2009, says a report released Tuesday by security company M86 Security.

The volume of spam shot up last year to more than 200 billion messages each day, or 80 percent to 90 percent of all inbound e-mail sent to organizations, said M86. Spam carrying malware also surged in the second half of the year, hitting 3 billion each day compared with 600 million per day in the first half of 2009.

The vast majority of spam is now sent through botnets hiding on infected computers--the second half of 2009 alone saw 78 percent of all spam triggered by the top five botnets, such as Rustock and Pushdo.

As most spam is triggered by just a few select botnets, a takedown of those specific threats could have a huge impact on malware, notes M86. But since most cybercriminals are part of organized gangs, they've proved to be adept at bouncing back from attempts to take them down.

Spam messages that carry malware payloads have become more sophisticated over the past year. One example pointed out by M86 is the Virut virus, which can install virtually any type of malware on a PC by infecting executable files with .exe and .scr (screensaver) extensions.

Zero-day vulnerabilities often found in Adobe and Microsoft products also grew in the latter half of 2009. This type of malware has become particularly hazardous since it can sometimes take companies weeks or even months to patch up specific security holes in their software.

PDF files have proved especially fertile ground for cybercriminals due to the ubiquity of Adobe Reader and the ability of these files to include hyperlinks and other dynamic content within them. Almost a dozen zero-day attacks were launched throughout 2009, says M86.

Malware via social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter also grew in volume during the second half of 2009. One example was that of venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, whose Twitter account was hacked last June and sent out tweets with links that led to malware.

Cybercriminals have also pounced on the vulnerabilities inherent in shortened URLs, commonly used at Twitter and other social networks. Since users can't by default preview the actual page beforehand and usually trust that the link is legitimate, it's easy to direct a shortened URL to a malicious Web site that launches a malware attack.

How can people better protect themselves against the growing tide of

malware? Aside from the typical advice of keeping your security software updated and not clicking on links in an e-mail, M86 recommends that people use the NoScript extension in Firefox, which limits the execution of JavaScript code and installs browser extensions that can display shortened URLs as their full addresses.

M86 said the report was compiled based on findings from its own researchers, who comb through more than 7 million different e-mail messages each day looking for specific patterns and trends in spam and malware.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10454870-83.html

Symantec Ships Norton 360 Version 4

2010-02-17T09:18:00.001-08:00

Computer Renaissance thought you should know about the new Norton 360.

Today, Symantec announced Norton 360 version 4, the company's utility suite that emphasizes a "reputation"-based approach to fighting malware, and adds online backup.

Norton 360 version 4 will cost $79.99 for the Standard edition with 2 GB of included online storage at n360.backup.com, and $99.99 for Norton 360 version 3.0 Premier edition with 25 GB of included online storage. The only difference between the two editions will be the amount of online storage, a Symantec spokesman said.

Users can renew the Standard edition for $59.99 per year, and the Premier edition for $89.99 per year.

As the Symantec disclosed with its beta, the new version of Norton 360 adds its "Quorum" technology, which attempts to discover previously unknown malware based on characteristics like the file's originating IP address. The opt-in technology, also in the company's Norton Internet Security product, has rated 177 billion files since September, the company said.

That helped Symantec's NIS top a limited but real-world study of 100 pieces of malware set up to attack several off-the-shelf products. Symantec blocked 99 out of 100, AV-Comparatives.org, which ran the study, said, tied with Kaspersky. AVIRA finished second, and Microsoft's own Security Essentials technology finished third, tied with Avast.

Symantec also added a startup manager technology that the company claims will speed up the boot time by roughly, between 20 and 30 seconds on Vista and Windows 7. A download manager will assess the impact and possible security impact of downloaded files.

The suite also includes other standard protections, including antivirus, antispyware, botnet protection, identity protection, Norton safe Web, and firewall.

Files can be backed up online, and links sent to friends or user contacts. Users can set that link to expire after a certain amount of time, executives said. In a few weeks, Symantec even plans to have beta apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Android, so that users can make the remote file access available on those devices as well.

In Norton Internet Security 2011, Symantec plans to add tools to make rooting out malware even easier, including Web-based detection and removal, even disc burning software. Symantec is also testing a SWAT-styled malware removal tool, even for non-Norton customers, to attack the top 30 percent of deeply embedded threats, including fake antivirus and "scareware" apps that can dive deep into a PC, executives said.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2359865,00.asp

Intel chips to spawn new laptops

2010-02-02T09:47:00.001-08:00

The most power efficient of Intel's new series of mobile processors will start appearing in new laptops in February, according to the chipmaker.

The Core i3, i5, and i7 processors are slated to replace most of Intel's older generation of Core 2 processors. Intel introduced, for the first time, mainstream mobile processors based on the Core i design--the Core i3 and i5--at the Consumer Electronics Show last month.

Though laptops using Intel's standard-power Core i mobile processors have already hit store shelves en masse, systems using the chipmaker's ultra-low-voltage, or ULV, Core i processors will begin to appear "in early February," according to an Intel representative. These new processors include the i5-520UM and i7-640UM. Because ULV chips consume relatively little power, they are used in laptop designs in order to offer longer battery life.

High-profile laptop lines that currently use Intel's older Core 2 ULV chips include the Dell Adamo, Toshiba Portege R600, Sony Vaio Y, and Hewlett-Packard Envy 13. The most widely used processors have been the SU9400 and SU9600. Dell, last week, began offering steep discounts on its Adamo laptops that use the SU9400, cutting prices by about $500.

With the new i3 and i5, Intel is changing the way it rates power efficiency to account for the new "Arrandale" chip design that packages the graphics silicon together with the main Intel processor.

A Core i chip rated at 18 watts will now be considered a ULV processor, compared with the 10-watt rating of the older Core 2 technology. This is done to account for the additional power load of the graphics circuits that, before, were in a separate chip package called the chipset.

To date, Apple's MacBook Air has used Core 2 low-power processors but the Air's processors run at relatively high speeds of 1.86GHz or 2.13GHz, higher than ULV-designated chips in other ultrathin laptops, and therefore are not as power efficient.

Though Apple is expected to use Core i5 processors in its upcoming MacBook Pro lineup, it is not yet clear which processor Apple would opt for in a new MacBook Air model--if indeed Apple is planning an imminent update for this model.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10444827-64.html?tag=mncol

And the most popular password is...

2010-01-26T09:20:00.001-08:00

It is “123456,” based on the analysis of 32 million breached passwords, obtained from last month’s RockYou.com server breach, from which researchers from Imperva were able to analyze the insecure practices used by millions of users when choosing their passwords.

What did their analysis conclude? Short passwords, lack of lower-capital-numeric characters mix, and trivial dictionary words, which every decent brute forcing/password recovery application can find out in a matter of minutes.

Key findings include:

In just 110 attempts, a hacker will typically gain access to one new account on every second or a mere 17 minutes to break into 1000 accounts About 30% of users chose passwords whose length is equal or below six characters Moreover, almost 60% of users chose their passwords from a limited set of alpha-numeric characters

Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words, dictionary words or trivial passwords (consecutive digits, adjacent keyboard keys, and so on). The most common password among Rockyou.com account owners is “123456”

The rest of the passwords rated by popularity:

It’s important to point out that, the same password “123456” also topped a similar chart based on statistical analysis of 10,000 Hotmail passwords published in October, 2009.

What actions on behalf of RockYou could have prevented this systematic practice of allowing end users to register with weak passwords?

Enforcing the use of stronger passwords as a long-term strategy, or borrowing short-term tricks from Twitter’s, such as the “banned passwords” list consisting of 370 passwords that are not allowed to be used during the registration process. And “123456” is at the top of the list.

For starters, the 32 million passwords were stored in an unencrypted format, according to RockYou.com’s announcement, and even if they weren’t, the fact that the users were allowed to register with such weak passwords, makes it possible for someone to brute force them in a very short period of time once they gain access to the database.

Source: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=5325&tag=wrapper;col1

An impossible $75 fantasy tablet

2009-12-24T11:32:00.001-08:00

The XO-3 is thinner than an iPhone.

A dual-touch-screen XO-2 laptop was a fantastical concept. But it's nothing on One Laptop Per Child's XO-3, a dream of a tablet.

The concept design, via Fuse Project, is all semi-flexible plastic, multitouch, and backlit. It functions as a color-screen e-reader and a camera. It's thinner than an iPhone, waterproof, and $75.

The tablet features a camera.

In other words, it's everything people have been fantasizing about in a tablet--durable, thin, multitouch, and multiple-screen modes for computing and reading--but for just $75.

Nicholas Negroponte, head of the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child, wants it by 2012.

Remember, this is the organization that didn't just scrap the XO-2, but couldn't even tack a touch screen onto the current XO-1 laptop, which isn't anywhere near the $100 that Negroponte once dreamed of.

This may say everything about the likelihood of the X0-3 ever happening. "We don't necessarily need to build it," Negroponte told Forbes on Tuesday. "We just need to threaten to build it."

The concept tablet includes a touch-screen keyboard.

Source:http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10421017-1.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

T3Desk Brings 3D Eye-Candy to Your Windows Desktop

2009-12-16T13:15:00.000-08:00

The staff at Computer Renaissance wanted to share this cool new program with you.

Windows only: If you want a little extra eye-candy in your Windows management, T3Desk is an alt-tab alternative that gives you 3D windows arrangement and more.

T3Desk works on all versions of Windows but it really shines in Vista and above where it can take advantage of Aero. After installing T3Desk you can use keyboard shortcuts to minimize and maximize windows to the edges of your monitor, arranging them in a pseudo-3D fashion. T3Desk can be tweaked in a variety of ways including how the windows are angled, animated, their level of transparency, the apparent distance from the viewer, and how they transition from the virtual desktop back into use.

You can drag windows and dock them to the four sides of the monitor, use Aero Peek to see which windows are on the virtual desktop, and set an always include/exclude list for applications to easily exclude applications from the effects of T3Desk.

Some caveats about T3Desk: the biggest issue is that it won't work with multiple monitors. All 3D windows are pushed onto the primary monitor. Another minor issue is the inability to customize the application's hot keys. Those complaints aside, it works as promised and provides an novel way to arrange and view open applications.

Source:http://bit.ly/5lHHKi

Windows 7: Inside Multitouch

2009-10-26T12:48:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance have seen touch screens before, so what makes the ones supported by Windows 7 so special? Below is the inside scoop.

Touch screen technology may seem shiny and new but any analyst will tell you that it has been around for decades: ATMs, grocery store self-check kiosks, even museum exhibits. But what makes Windows 7 so exciting is that no computer operating system ever incorporated native support for multitouch before. The new breed of multitouch laptops and desktops with touch screens don't need extra downloads or plugins-- multitouch just works.

Multitouch's Predecessors

To be fair, Windows 7 is not the first operating system to support some form of touch computing. Vista offered single-touch capabilities in tablet mode, and pen input is quite common as well. But as much as Microsoft would love to paint multitouch as a natural progression in its operating systems, its Apple that was the real democratizer of multiple-input touch screens. Introducing now familiar gestures like pinching, tapping, and flicking, the iPhone and the iPod Touch, made multitouch second nature to many users. Apple followed up its mobile devices with gesture-based touchpads on its MacBook and MacBook Pro models in late 2008. Though it was a bit tough to get used to the integrated mouse button and touchpad, the ability to use gestures based on up to four fingers opened up new possibilities.

A few Windows-based "multitouch" systems have come out as well—namely the HP TouchSmart TX2 and Dell Latitude XT line of laptops, as well as the HP TouchSmart desktop PCs. These systems used built-in hardware and software solutions to accommodate two-finger touch (though they still couldn't support three- and four-finger gestures). But it wasn't until early glimpses at Windows 7 this year that we saw Microsoft itself respond to the multitouch trend.

How Multitouch Works

A few months before those MacBooks hit the scene, Microsoft announced its plans for multitouch at the All Things Digital conference in California. Unlike any of its predecessors, Windows 7 natively supports multitouch functionality in touch screens and is built to accommodate up to 10 points of contact. On the Engineering Windows 7 blog, the developers highlight all the ways the OS was tweaked to optimize it for touch. It's everything from making keys on the on-screen keyboard glow when your finger is covering the letter to improving high dpi support to make small links and buttons easier to access with touch.

Though the software is similar across platforms, the PCs we've tested use different hardware solutions. The multitouch laptops we've seen so far, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet and Fujitsu LifeBook T5010 use dual-active digitizers, meaning they have one technology for the stylus and another, called capacitive, is activated for multitouch using your fingers. Non-tablets like the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s use a capacitive touch screen only, and many more will follow this implementation (Toshiba and Acer have already announced capacitive touch panels on their mainstream laptops).

In capacitive screens, a small current of electricity runs across the surface, with circuits at the corners. Touching the screen interrupts that current. Capacitive technology only works on smaller screens, so desktops like the HP TouchSmart 600-1055 PC and Gateway One ZX6810-01 employ optical solutions. Optical sensors are set up around the screen creating a grid. The screen reacts when your finger, pen, stylus, or any other implement break one of the beams; you don't actually have to physically touch the surface to get a response.

All of the PC manufacturers that have put out multitouch systems so far have included Windows 7's Touch Pack, a software suite that incorporates applications that work with the Windows 7 kernel to use a multitude of different gestures. For instance, Microsoft Surface Collage lets you access and manipulate all your photos to create different designs on the screen. You can drag and drop images with one motion, resize or rotate them with two fingers, and scroll through the images available on the bottom pane using the flicking motion. Other games and applications like BlackBoard and Microsoft Surface Lagoon act like tutorials for multitouch, creating objectives that force you to perfect various gestures in order to win the games.

What's Next for Multitouch

Although the Windows 7 Touch Pack certainly has that gee whiz factor, the real question regards implementations for multitouch in the future. Will it change the user experience? And can we harness that potential to take it beyond a neat trick for games and fun apps? Clearly the onus right now is on software makers to come up with revolutionary ways to integrate multitouch and expand its possibilities. Some PC manufacturers have included programs built around multitouch, like Gateway's TouchPortal and HP's TouchSmart interface. While HP's includes extra functionality like Hulu desktop and HP games, these still don't bring much more to the table than a new way to interact with Microsoft's existing touch-based programs.

Whether its niche markets like education, health care, and engineering finding new uses for multitouch, or multitouch making its way onto new platforms like netbooks, there's no question that this interface can change the way we look at computing. The Engineering Windows 7 blog sums its effect up well. In it, Steven Sinofsky, the president of the Windows division wrote, "One of my favorite experiences recently was watching folks at a computer retailer experience one of the currently available all-in-one touch desktops and then moving to another all-in-one and continuing to interact with the screen—except the PC was not interacting back. The notion that you can touch a screen seems to be becoming second nature."

For a closer look at some of the emerging Windows 7 multitouch systems, be sure to read our full reviews.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354680,00.asp

Magic Mouse: Oh my God—it's full of capacitive sensors!

2009-10-23T12:30:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance thought you would enjoy an inside view of the new Mac Magic Mouse and Screen.

iFixit

You thought iFixit was going to gut the new unibody white MacBook and call it a day? Oh no—it has vivisected Apple's new Magic Mouse to see just how the "magic" happens. The gang also went ahead and disassembled the 27" iMac that came with it, too.

The first thing that iFixit discovered is that Apple really does not want you to take the Magic Mouse apart. The whole thing is held together with some really tough glue instead of screws, or clips, or anything that might make it easier to take apart and put back together. Once apart, though, iFixit verified that the entire top surface is literally covered in capacitive touch sensors—138 in all—just as Apple promised. This is what allows the multitouch gestures to be so accurate and specific over such a small surface—though it would be nice if Apple enabled pinch-to-zoom and two-finger rotate.

Though the mouse has an aluminum base, the total aluminum content weighs just 10 grams. "That's compared to 37 grams of plastic and 47 grams of batteries," according to iFixit. "Nearly half the mouse's weight comes from the two AA batteries."

The diminutive circuit and electronic components do contribute a few grams to the overall light weight of the Magic Mouse. Part of what makes the circuit so small is a Broadcom BCM2042A4KFBGH, part of the BCM2042 family of chips that integrate keyboard and mouse controller functions with an HID profile and full Bluetooth communications stack. Broadcom brags that the chip allows wireless input devices to "approach the price points of legacy-wired mice and keyboards," but this is Apple here—paying a slight premium for a "better" mouse is par for the course. Besides, what is the standard price for a wired multitouch mouse? (Answer: there isn't one!)

Of course, after discovering all the magic Apple could stuff into a $69 mouse, though, you can hardly blame iFixit for "taking apart the iMac that came with our Magic Mouse." The new 27" iMac (the lower-end Core 2 Duo version) isn't radically different that the 24" iMac model that preceded it. However, iFixit did turn up a few interesting details.

iFixit

One nice addition is that Apple has doubled the amount of RAM slots; when stuffed with 4GB SO-DIMMs, you can have a total of 16GB of RAM. The new model also eliminates the 4mm aluminum bezel around the display glass cover—it goes all the way to the top and side edges, giving it a slightly cleaner appearance. The DisplayPort connection isn't wired up to allow the display to be powered separately when using the promised external source display functionality, though—the whole machine will have to be powered on for it to work.

A couple other notable discoveries: the power supply is 310W, the largest on any iMac; the SuperDrive is 12.5mm height, so it could be swapped for a Blu-ray drive if Apple ever gets over that bag of hurt; because the new back is all aluminum, the plastic Apple logo now serves as the only way for WiFi signals to get in and out of the iMac; and cooling the new machine requires two large heat sinks and three large, low-noise fans.

Source:http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/10/magic-mouse-oh-my-godits-full-of-capacitive-sensors.ars

Technology Fails: 8 Extreme Electronic Disasters

2009-10-22T14:55:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance would like to inform you about the eight extreme electronic disasters that seems to effect each and everyone of us.

Let's face it: Technology seems made to stop working. Screens crack, circuits short, and power supplies abruptly conk out. It's all part of the complex and confounding ecosystem of electronics.

The worst, though, is when something really is built to break--and in the most extreme way. I'm talking fiery explosions, flying components, and acid-leaking compartments, all courtesy of bugs built right into ill-fated devices.

Sound far-fetched? Hey, we've seen some crazy stuff happen over the years. Some of it is astonishing; some of it is merely annoying. But all of it is extreme--and entirely too real.

We start with some good old-fashioned spontaneous combustion.

Combustible Computers

Nothing screams "tech disaster" like a laptop on fire. Due to the intricacies of modern-day electronics, it takes only a minor manufacturing error to send your system up in flames--and not the kind generated by the jerks of online forums, either.

The most extreme example of fire-related fallout may be the massive series of recalls brought about by bad Sony batteries in 2006. Small shards of nickel made their way into the batteries' cells during production, causing numerous systems to overheat and sometimes catch fire. The recalls affected laptops sold by Dell, Hitachi, IBM, Lenovo, Toshiba, and even Apple.

By the end, a staggering 9.6 million laptop owners had been burned (figuratively speaking) by the failure, and Sony had spent nearly $430 million to replace all the defective units.

Lest you think I'm just blowing smoke up your ash, let me assure you that this danger was far from hypothetical. (Watch PC Pitstop simulate a laptop battery explosion where the temperatures soared to 1000 degrees.) A Sony-battery-powered laptop famously exploded and caught fire at the Los Angeles International Airport in 2007, and a traveler managed to catch the entire incident on tape.

Be warned: You will hear a few expletives shouted during some of the more dramatic moments. With a blast like that, I'd say they were warranted.

Fire risks have led to countless other laptop battery recalls over the years. Scientists are now working on developing a new material that could better protect the lithium ion technology and keep such short-circuiting from occurring.

Exploding iPhones

Apple's all about glitz and bang for its product launch events. Lately, however, the company has been making headlines for a different kind of spark. Reports surfaced in late July suggesting that numerous iPods and iPhones had erupted in flames and scalded their owners.

Soon after, word broke that the European Union had launched an inquiry into exploding iPods overseas. Apple reportedly claimed that some sort of improper handling led to the explosions, calling them "isolated incidents." A full investigation is currently under way.

The recent rash of complaints isn't the first time Apple's iPods and iPhones have come under fire. In March, an Ohio mother sued Apple over allegations that her 15-year-old son's iPod Touch had malfunctioned. The device, she said, exploded in the teenager's pants.

Speaking of explosions, did you hear about those new porn-star apps people are downloading?

Acid Rock

The avatar for Kurt Cobain may be making Guitar Hero headlines right now, but one year ago a far more corrosive controversy was connected to the product. Rage Wireless Guitars, a series of controllers sold for use with the game, were found to have circuit-board defects that could cause battery acid to leak outside the devices.

If you're not sure how severe of a problem that could be, just think about this: Over what area of the body do most people hold a guitar? Yeah...not the best place for a chemical burn. It actually happened to at least one person, too, according to reports filed with the manufacturer and published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

That's one disaster I'd suspect even the great Jimi Hendrix, famously fond of both acid and fiery guitar solos, wouldn't be willing to risk.

Red Ring of Death

If there were an award for the most extreme-sounding technology flaw, the red ring of death would win, hands-down. Microsoft's Xbox 360 became known for it due to a widespread hardware failure that reared its ugly head in 2007. Its signature sign: three red lights blinking at you, like a disco flashback gone horribly awry.

The lights were more than a mere nuisance: They were frequently an indication of a complete hardware failure that had rendered the system useless. The issue was severe enough to earn the Xbox 360 the branding of "least reliable gaming console in recent history" from at least one publication.

Microsoft ended up spending a reported $1 billion to extend warranties as a result of the red-tinted menace, citing an "unacceptable number of repairs" as the catalyst for its decision. The company also agreed to reimburse customers who had spent their own cash trying to get their consoles fixed.

Recently, a second red-ring-like error has cropped up on some Xbox 360 systems, causing users to see a fatal error with the code "E74." Though the dreaded red lights themselves don't flash, the console is again rendered useless. Microsoft announced in April that it would offer a similar extended warranty and repair reimbursement program for anyone affected by the issue.

Melting Multimedia

We all want home theater systems that make us feel like we're inside the movies--but when your DVD player actually reproduces on-screen fire inside your home, things have probably gone too far.

Wal-Mart recalled 4.2 million Durabrand DVD players this fall after discovering that the devices could overheat and set an entertainment center aflame. The company received more than a dozen reports of overheated players, at least seven of which ended with some kind of property damage to the owner's home.

Other multimedia devices recalled due to reported fires or fire risks include DVD players by Toshiba, digital cameras by Hewlett-Packard, and speaker systems by Philips Magnavox.

Retail Viruses

Would you like a virus with that purchase? In an age when keeping up with the latest security threats can feel like a full-time job, knowing that a virus could come preloaded on brand-new technology is a real kick in the pants. Unfortunately, it's also an all too common occurrence.

In some cases an entire computer system could be the culprit. Last fall Asus announced that it had accidentally shipped a line of Eee Box PCs with preloaded viruses. A malicious file on one of the systems' hard drives would not only infect local data but also copy itself to other drives and external storage devices connected to the computer.

Viruses have been found on new digital photo frames, USB flash drives, factory-sealed hard drives--and yes, even some iPods. (Those models, it probably goes without saying, were not the "funnest ever.")

Disappearing Data

You don't need a built-in virus to leave you with a manufacturer-caused data disaster--you can also experience one of the always-popular instances of crappy-hard-drive-itis.

Plenty of people came down with the disease earlier this year when Seagate revealed that its Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives had a firmware bug that was causing widespread failures. According to user reports, the drives would die while booting up, leaving no way to access any of the data inside.

Once Seagate isolated the bug, the company offered free data-recovery services to try to make up for the mess-up. Gauging from various online discussions, though, its customers' goodwill is likely one thing the company can't recover anytime soon.

Dangerous Rides

As if Segway riders didn't already look goofy enough, a couple of apparent glitches started sending them flying through the air a few years back. The two-wheeled transporter, as the late Rodney Dangerfield might say, just can't get no respect.

The trouble started in 2003, when Segway had to recall about 6000 of its devices. In that case, the company found that riders could suddenly fall off when the vehicles' batteries ran low. Then, in 2006, a second recall targeted 23,500 more Segways; that time, the devices were found to be "unexpectedly apply[ing] reverse torque" (translation: "causing people to eat pavement").

Thankfully for Segway users, those problems are in the past. Now mall cops are back to relying on their own instincts--and, of course, the fact that they ride around on silly-looking stick machines--to look like total twits.

(Photo of a burning laptop, used as promotional art for this story: Courtesy of Secumem, Wikimedia Commons)

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/173933/technology_fails_8_extreme_electronic_disasters.html

HP's New Touch Screen Laptop and All-In-Ones Debut

2009-10-20T14:03:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance discovered the NEW touch screen HP Laptop. We thought you might be interested in today’s technology is now rising up to.

HP is taking touch to the people, with new touch screen laptop and desktop models, all featuring Windows 7 and some shipping on Oct. 22, when the new operating system is formally introduced.

The new multi-touch models include a number of applications that take advantage of the interface, including Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Recipe Box, a webcam "photo booth" application, and the HP Music Store.

HP TouchSmart tx2 -- A laptop, starting at $799, with a 12.1-inch screen that rotates 180-degrees for use as a tablet. Besides touch commands, users can write or draw on the screen with an electronic pen. Available Oct. 22.
HP TouchSmart 300 and 600 -- Are the third-generation of HP's touch-enabled desktops. The 300 has a 20-inch screen and the 600 (shown) has a 23-inch display. The 300 starts at $899 and will begin deliveries on Nov. 1, with the 600 due Oct. 22 and priced starting at $1,049. Read our review of the HP TouchSmart 600.
HP TouchSmart 9100 -- An all-in-one desktop, starting at $1,299, which includes a 23-inch touch screen. It can be used as standard touch screen PC or tasked as a map or events kiosk in an office, hotel, or other location. Deliveries begin in December.
HP LD42200tm -- A digital signage device with a 42-inch touch screen. Available in December for $2,799.

Besides touch screens, HP also introduced several business desktop and laptop computers as well as new value-oriented Compaq-branded desktops and a laptop.

The Compaq Presario CQ61z (where do they get these model numbers?) costs only $399 and features a 15.6-inch screen, after $100 instant rebate. The Compaq 500B business desktop sells for $359, while the new Compaq Presario 4010f desktop sells for $309.

My take: The laptop looks very interesting and I will consider purchasing one during my next upgrade cycle. I am not wild about reaching out to touch a desktop, although HP is pushing these models for entertainment and kitchen use, where touch makes some sense.

In the kitchen, the touch screen is meant to be used with recipes and other applications that can work entirely by touch when keyboard use isn't appropriate. Verbal directions are also provided.

The new Compaq's are a welcome addition to lowest-priced laptops and desktops. The laptop competes with netbooks on price and will win some of those battles.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/173551/hps_new_touch_screen_laptop_and_allinones_debut.html

Email Isn’t Dead- But It Is Broken

2009-10-16T13:47:00.001-07:00

Friendly Computers found this article to be quite interesting. With all the websites like Twitter, Facebook and many others, this guy seems to think that are email days are over.

PCMag.com's managing editor for software, Sean Carroll, just got back from that rare place few of us can imagine these days: a two-week vacation. We got by without him, his reviews posted, and he only lost one staffer (his senior editor, Matt Murray, just took the reins at ExtremeTech.com). He returned refreshed and reenergized, only to discover an inbox box of 2,200 messages! E-mail, that revolutionary advance in human productivity, is sucking our time. E-mail is, to be blunt, broken. And it is going to take some new technologies, and some changes in human behavior, to save it.

Just this week, The Wall Street Journal, hardly a hot bed of techno-radicalism, ran a story suggesting that e-mail's days are numbered. With the advent of Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, sending a plain old e-mail seems not just dated, but ineffective. If you sent Sean Carroll an e-mail over the last two weeks, you know what I am talking about. It was once poor etiquette not to return an e-mail. Now most of us can honestly say we missed it. Personally, I get 300-400 e-mails a day, (I send about 30)—can you blame me if I missed one, especially if it is from an address I have never seen before?

Now, I should probably admit that I have mixed feelings about e-mail. One of my earliest stories at PCMag was 50 Reasons Not to Send that E-mail. I came up with a lot more than just 50. My biggest problem with e-mail, however, is that people just send too much of the stuff. It's sometimes a result of misdirected manners: I can't resist typing "thanks" and hitting Send. But most of the e-mail I receive is just useless—press releases, random story pitches, line edits on a story, press releases, obscure-newsletters-I-never-signed up-for, press releases, office joke threads. (Okay, I have chimed in on some of those, too.) Honestly, keeping a heavy finger on the Delete key can resolve a lot of these annoyances and keep your inbox free.

Let's not forget that, at its core, e-mail is a form of mail. Mail used to take three to four business days, now it takes three to four seconds. Too many people measure their importance based on how many e-mails they read, and their self-worth on how many e-mails they send. We have hit the tipping point: we can no longer read all the e-mail we create. Technology can help. And it will.—Next: The Wall Street Journal Is Right >

The Wall Street Journal is right (...gulp, did I just type that?). We are creating a new communication vocabulary, an evolving new media vernacular. Instant messaging is used for real-time cube-to-cube messages. If it is just office gossip, and I'm busy, I can ignore it. Texting is a great way to communicate point-to-point, and I can respond instantly or hours later. Best of all, you have to know my number to reach me, and I don't spread it around. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are great for broadcast communications, and, when I have time, more direct conversations. It is impossible to call all of my old friends every week, but a few minutes here and there on Facebook, and we can keep in touch. I think there is a phone in my office as well, but I am pretty sure it just makes outbound calls.

I am currently testing a host of software tools designed to help you manage your e-mail. Xobni works with Outlook to provide context to all of your e-mail communications. When someone sends me an e-mail, Xobni shows me their most recent e-mails, social network profiles, any attachments they have sent me, and most importantly, their photo, pulled from LinkedIn. Just seeing the face of the individuals I am e-mailing is a wonder. I am also looking a Gwabbit, a small app that sucks up the signature information at the bottom of e-mails and drops it into a Contact file. I am still testing, but so far it's amazing.

Then there is Google Wave, Google's attempt to combine e-mail, IM, search, collaboration software, photo management, and about a dozen other applications. Despite seeing and participating in lots of demos, Google Wave is a technology that you have to use to understand. It is like trying to explain Facebook to someone who has never logged on. We are just starting to use Wave at the office, so I will report back when I understand it better.

Given my job, I am a huge fan of technological solutions, but fixing e-mail is going to require some serious behavioral modification. We need to rethink how we use e-mail. It isn't a real-time communication tool, and shouldn't be used as one. It may seem like we can send and receive an infinite supply of e-mail, but we can't. Sending a lot of e-mail doesn't make you more productive—in fact, it makes everyone else less productive. Choose your e-mails carefully, for you own productivity and sanity. And for mine, too.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354216,00.asp

Sony Releases the NEW Vaio X & Vaio CW Computers: Cheaper Than You Thought

2009-10-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

Computer Renaisssance came across Sony's new Vaio laptops, which turn out to be way cheaper than you would think. Check it out, they even come with Windows 7 already included!

Sony Unveils Vaio X, Vaio CW Laptops
Ian Paul

Sony has unveiled the official specs for its super-slim Sony Vaio X series laptops, which the company was showing off last month at the IFA trade show in Berlin. The specs are pretty close to what was predicted, but there are a few surprises--including a lower-than-expected price. Sony also detailed its upcoming Vaio CW series laptops, which are less expensive than the X series.

The Sony Vaio X is sure to turn heads, with its carbon fiber body weighing in at 1.6 pounds. At only 0.55-inches thick, the new Vaio X is a little bit thinner than the recently announced Dell Latitude Z, and a lot lighter than most ultra-slim notebooks.

You will have to make some trade offs for the Vaio X's sleek chassis, though, starting with its puny 11.1-inch LED backlit screen with 1366 x 768 resolution. By comparison, the MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch diagonal screen and the Dell Latitude Z sports a whopping 16-inch display. As for the processor, Sony will only say it's a 2.0 GHz Intel chip. Early speculation said the Vaio X would come with an Atom processor, which would make the Vaio X's processor the Atom Z550, but that is only speculation.

The Vaio X ships with Windows 7, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 64GB solid-state drive, multi-touch trackpad, Memory Stick Duo and SD card slots, GPS (works in the U.S. and Canada only), Ethernet, Wi-Fi (802.11n) and Bluetooth connectivity, 2 X USB 2.0 ports, and MOTION EYE Webcam. The Vaio X also comes with built-in 3G capability, which requires a Verizon wireless broadband subscription. Available colors include black and gold. The Vaio X's body is made of carbon fiber, but the top case around the trackpad and keyboard is aluminum.

Sony Vaio X pricing starts at $1300, which is much lower than Sony's claim last month that they Vaio X would be priced under $2000. The Vaio X will start shipping in November and can be found on Sonystyle.com right now.

CW Series

For something a little cheaper you can try the Sony Vaio CW on for size. This laptop runs Windows 7, and features an optional Blu-ray drive, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce dedicated graphics card, 320GB hard drive and HDMI out, which Sony says will allow you to playback high-definition content on your big screen TV. Available colors include fiery red, poppy pink, icy white, jet black and indigo purple.

The Vaio CW series starts at $780, but looking around on Sony's Website, the cheapest version I could find of the model described above started at $800. The CW Series will be available at the end of this month, likely after the Windows 7 launch on October 22.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/173338/sony_unveils_vaio_x_vaio_cw_laptops.html

Common Troubleshooting Techniques and Strategies

2009-10-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

Computer Renaissance thought you might enjoy these useful tips on daily troubleshooting problems.

Here are five common-sense techniques and strategies to solve common computer hardware problems.

(1) Trial-and-error

Personal computers are highly modular by design. The most powerful trouble-shooting technique is to isolate the problem to a specific component by trial-and-error. Swap compatible components and see if the system still works. Try different peripherals on different machines and see if the same problem occurs. Make one change at a time.

(2) "It's the cable, s-----."

More than 70% of all computer problems are related to cabling and connections. Ensure all cables are connected firmly. IDE and floppy ribbon cables and power cables can often go loose. Ensure microprocessor, memory modules, and adapters such as video card and sound card are inserted correctly and didn't "pop-up" during transportation.

(3) Don't be frustrated!

Don't be afraid of computer problems. It is often the best opportunity to learn. Trouble-shooting is part of the fun of owning a computer. Imagine the satisfaction you could get by solving a problem yourself.

Of course the fun could ran out quickly once you are frustrated and have spent too much time on the same problem. If you feel frustrated, it's time to leave it for a while and go back with some new ideas or call someone who can help. Rule of thumb: You shouldn't spend more than three hours on the same problem at one time.

(4) Take notes!

Take notes of what you have done and all the error messages. You may need to use them later. For instance, when you see an unusual blue screen with an error message, copy the entire message onto a piece of paper. In many situations, that message may point to the right direction in getting the problem solved quickly.

(5) Take a look?

It's OK to open a computer case and take a look inside. There is only 5V and 12V DC voltage supplied to the components outside the power supply. Those who have never seen the inside of a computer are often amazed by how simple it looks. Of course, still always power down and unplug the power cord first.

Source: http://www.directron.com/strategy.html#caption

Upgrade to Windows 7 or Just Buy a New PC?

2009-10-07T10:47:00.001-07:00

With all of the new hardware being released with Windows 7, you may be wondering if it’s better to just buy a new computer rather than upgrade your old one to the new operating system. Computer Renaissance found a great article that might help you make that decision. Read more below…

October 22 is quickly approaching, and excitement over Windows 7 is at an all-time high. Manufacturers are announcing new hardware, and software companies are readying their newest apps. Users who just have to have the latest OS from Microsoft are faced with a pressing question: Do I upgrade my computer, or do I buy a new one?

This decision may seem simple, but here are a few questions to examine before you decide.

Will Windows 7 run on my computer?

If your PC is less than 5 years old, the answer is almost certainly yes. Microsoft claims that a 1GHz processer, 16GB of disk space, and 1GB of RAM are the minimum specs required, and I've even run it successfully on below spec hardware. However, for the most productive and satisfying Windows 7 experience, you'll want as fast of a computer as possible. I don't recommend running Win 7 on anything less than a dual-core CPU with 2GB of RAM.

It's also a good idea to run Microsoft's Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, which will check to see if your hardware and software are compatible with Windows 7. I've had issues with unavailable video drivers on some laptops, so even though Windows 7 would install, the experience was sub-par. A good rule of thumb is that if you're already running Vista, Windows 7 will perform as well or better on the same hardware.

Will I get the most out of Windows 7 on my current hardware?

Though Windows 7 might run acceptably on your computer, older hardware could mean missing out on some of the new OS's best features. For instance, Windows 7 has extensive multi-touch support, and you may want a multi-touch monitor or track pad to take advantage of it.

Windows 7 is also the first Microsoft OS to include native enhancements for SSDs. Considering the performance gains of a computer with an SSD running Windows 7, this is one temptation that makes sense to users who don't have time to waste.

Will my computer support XP Mode, and do I need it?

XP Mode is a great feature of Windows 7 Professional and higher. It allows people to run applications that require Windows XP inside of a virtual machine. XP Mode relies on Windows Virtual PC, which not only has greater memory and CPU requirements, but also requires a processor capable of hardware virtualization. If you have apps that require XP you may be deeply disappointed if you assume your computer can handle XP Mode without verifying support first.

Is it time to leap to 64-bit? Will my computer support it?

We've finally reached the point where it's cost effective to supply a PC with more memory than 32-bit Windows can handle, and I personally suspect that Windows 7 will be the last Microsoft OS to be offered in a 32-bit version. If you find yourself performing tasks that push your computer to use more than 3GB of memory, you should be considering 64-bit Windows. People who use their computers for office apps and Web surfing don't really come close to exceeding the limits of a 32-bit OS. But if you find yourself running virtual machines, editing HD videos, and manipulating 12MP raw images, it's probably time to switch to a 64-bit OS. The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor can tell you if your CPU is ready for it.

Does it make sense to sink money into my old computer?

Purchasing an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional will set you back a solid $200, while Home Premium will run you $120. That's a serious chunk of change that could otherwise be applied to a shiny new PC. Considering that a new laptop can be had for under $330 and $800 will buy you something pretty sweet, it's easy to see that $120 to $200 as a discount on a new piece of hardware which already comes with the edition of Windows 7 that you want.

There's also a bunch of newer features that a computer that's more than couple of years old may not have, such as HDMI, Blu-Ray, eSata, 802.11n, and LED backlighting.

If you've got a kid who can use your old computer for school, or if you really find yourself wishing you had an extra machine in the office, it might be best just to leave the old computer as-is and treat yourself to the latest technology. Besides, you deserve it, and our economy desperately needs your contribution.

Conversely, if your computer is relatively new and fully compatible with Windows 7, and you're happy with its features and performance, it probably makes sense just to keep it and upgrade your OS.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/172501/big_decision_upgrade_to_windows_7_or_just_buy_a_new_pc.html

Tweeting Misleading Applications

2009-09-28T12:11:00.001-07:00

Link shortening is popular among users of Twitter and other social networking websites, but Computer Renaissance warns you to be careful of what you click on. Since the links are indistinct, it is difficult to tell what you are clicking on until you have already clicked it. The shortened links often lead to pages containing malware or phishing scams. Read more below…

A lot can be said with 140 characters. It’s just enough to convey a point, but constricting enough to make things concise. No wonder microblogging sites such as Twitter have become so popular.

Unfortunately one of the limitations here is sharing Web pages with long URLs. In order to address this issue, URL-shortening utilities have grown in popularity on the site. Using such tools allows you to include a link well within the 140-character limit, which will redirect anyone who clicks it to the longer URL and thus the site you wanted to share.

There’s one downside here, from a security point of view—you’ll often have no idea where the link leads until you click it. Clicking any link like this is entirely a security leap of faith. Unfortunately malware authors have caught on to this and are currently distributing misleading applications using these shortened URLs. Using enticing tweets and commonly used twitter search terms, their goal is to get other users to click on their links, leading to malicious code.

Now, neither Twitter nor the URL shorting services are at fault here. This is simply another case where malicious attackers are using a neutral technology as a means to their deceptive ends. Both Twitter and the URL-shortening services are convenient technologies that we don’t see going away any time soon.

So how do you protect yourself? The good news is that both Firefox and Internet Explorer offer browser plug-ins that will check a shortened URL for you and show you the final URL before you even click on it. While this won’t tell you for sure if the link is malicious, it will at least allow you to look more carefully before clicking.

While the misleading applications currently being served up in this manner all seem look very similar today, we’re likely to see more variety in the future. If you’re running Symantec antivirus software, there’s no need to worry. The current IPS signatures will detect and block these risks from being downloaded onto your computer.

Source: http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/tweeting-misleading-applications

Bogus Sponsored Link Leads to FAKEAV

2009-09-24T16:22:00.001-07:00

Watch out for fake sponsored links in search engines – Computer Renaissance learned that they may lead to the dreaded FakeAV trojan. Read more below…

Apart from SEO poisoning, cybercriminals have found another avenue to proliferate FAKEAV malware—bogus sponsored links (sitio patrocinados in Spanish). Just recently, Trend Micro researchers were alerted to malicious search engine ads that appeared in Microsoft’s Bing and AltaVista, among others, when a user searches the string “malwarebytes.” (Malwarebytes is a free antivirus product, but of course, not a FakeAV.) Clicking the malicious URL points the user to an executable file named MalwareRemovalBot.exe-1 (detected by Trend Micro as TROJ_FAKEAV.DMZ).

Upon execution, the rogue antivirus displays false information that the system is infected with files that do not even exist.

In the past, cybercriminals employed the same tactic when it hitchhiked on Trend Micro. Some Google searches then showed banner ads that led to a fraudulent Trend Micro website.

Though the ads may not appear in all regions, all users are still strongly advised to be extra careful when clicking links in search engines. Users connected to the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network are protected from this attack as it detects and blocks all malicious URLs.

Source: http://blog.trendmicro.com/bogus-sponsored-link-leads-to-fakeav/

Seagate Ships World's Fastest Desktop Hard Drive

2009-09-23T11:48:00.001-07:00

Hard drives just got 2x as fast with a new hard drive from Seagate that boasts transfer speeds of 6Gb/second. Computer Renaissance has more information below…

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX) today began global shipments of the world’s fastest, largest-capacity mainstream desktop hard drive – Barracuda® XT, a 7200RPM product featuring 2TB of storage capacity and a blazing fast Serial ATA (SATA) 6Gb/second interface. The 3.5-inch desktop drive, the industry’s first to feature a SATA 6Gb/s interface, meets the capacity demands of gaming, digital video-environments and other storage-hungry desktop computing applications while delivering the highest performance in its class.

The introduction of the Barracuda XT drive marks the shift to the next generation of desktop computing speed as Seagate doubles the storage bandwidth of current computers.

“Capacity and performance remain the defining attributes of hard drives for PC gamers, digital multimedia content developers and many other customers requiring high-end systems at home and in the office,” said Dave Mosley, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing at Seagate. “Seagate is meeting these requirements with the first 7200RPM desktop hard drive to combine 2TB of storage capacity with the fastest Serial ATA interface to date.”

The Barracuda XT product, a four-platter drive featuring an areal density of 368 Gigabits per square inch, delivers the highest performance – burst speeds of up to 6 Gigabits per second – for all PC applications, maintains backward compatibility with the SATA 3Gb/second and SATA 1.5Gb/second interfaces, and uses the same cables and connectors as previous SATA generations to ease integration. The hard drive’s SATA 6Gb/s interface enables system builders using SATA 6Gb/s drive controllers to build high-performance desktop PCs, full-tilt gaming rigs, and home and small business servers, and its 64MB cache optimizes burst performance and data transfer speeds.

“Marvell is pleased to be announcing the industry’s first commercially available SATA 6Gb/s solution and working with Seagate to introduce this technology,” said Dr. Alan J. Armstrong, vice president of Marketing, Business Storage Group at Marvell. “Marvell has been working with a broad group of partners and customers to bring this solution to market. As early adopters of Marvell’s SATA 6Gb/s technology, both ASUS and GIGABYTE offer motherboards to complement SATA 6Gb/s hard drives.”

The Serial ATA 6Gb/s Solution: Barracuda XT Drives and Motherboards from ASUS and GIGABYTE

With Barracuda XT drives and SATA 6Gb/s motherboards from ASUS and Gigabyte, computer makers can build the highest-performance PCs, workstations and entry-level servers. ASUS was first to market with a SATA 6Gb/s motherboard; the company’s P7P55D Premium began shipping in August. The new GIGABYTE P55 series GA-P55-Extreme motherboards are also now shipping .

“At ASUS, we are once again at the forefront of innovation by being the first to launch a native SATA 6Gb/s interface on a motherboard,” said Joe Hsieh, corporate vice president & general manager, Motherboard Business Unit & Desktop Business Unit, ASUS. “An expansion bridge integrated into the P7P55D Premium helps achieve real SATA 6Gb/s throughput to support bandwidth-hungry applications. The ASUS solution eliminates transmission bottlenecks in current technology and ensures users truly enjoy faster data speeds and double the storage bandwidth. For other P7P55D Series models, ASUS also provides an expansion card to achieve the same results.”

“GIGABYTE has worked closely with our partners Seagate and Marvell in making the highly anticipated SATA 6Gb/s technology a reality,” said Tony Liao, associate vice president of Marketing at GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. “As the leader in motherboard innovation, GIGABYTE is always excited to bring the very latest technologies to market, and with the release of the world’s first SATA 6Gb/s hard drive from Seagate, our customers’ expectations will be blown away with double-the-bandwidth performance for lightning-fast data transfer and storage.”

Source: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=null&vgnextoid=d190ff72f68c3210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD

Sony Ericsson Unveils Motion-Activated Headphones

2009-09-21T15:06:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance found out about a neat set of headphones by Sony that can control your music and phone calls depending on whether they are in or out of your ear. Read more below…

Sony Ericsson may soon make the play button a thing of the past with its new motion-controlled earbuds. The handset-maker on Monday unveiled its MH907 headphones that allow you to play your music and answer phone calls just by inserting the buds into your ear or taking them out.

How It Works

To listen to music you simply put both earbuds in, and your music starts automatically. To pause, take out one earbud; removing both stops the music entirely. To answer the phone, do the same thing. If you're listening to music when a call comes in, you have to remove both earphones to stop the music, and then put one back in to answer a call.

Sony Ericsson says the MH907 headphones are activated by body contact, so you can't accidentally answer a phone or start your music when the headphones are in your pocket or purse.

Compatible Phones

If you were hoping to pick up a pair of these for use with your iPhone or other smartphone, you can forget it. The MH907 is only compatible with Sony Ericsson's own Fast Port-equipped phones -- Fast Port is SE's proprietary connector on the bottom of its phones. To determine which Sony Ericsson phones support Fast Port, visit Sony Ericsson's Website.

Pricing, Colors and Other Features

Sony Ericsson didn't reveal any pricing information, but rumor has it these earbuds will set you back anywhere between $55 and $60. Available colors include yellow and white or titanium chrome. Other features include a built-in microphone, FM antenna, sound-blocking (the MH907's are not noise-cancelling headphones) and stereo sound.

Sony Ericsson says the MH907 headphones will be available worldwide later this week.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/172309/sony_ericsson_unveils_motionactivated_headphones.html

Top 15 Ways to Extend Your Laptop’s Battery Life

2009-09-16T12:34:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance understands how obnoxious it can be when you are in the middle of working on a project on your laptop and when you get that dreaded “Low battery” warning. Here are a slew of tips to make your battery last as long as possible…

Laptops tend to lose their charm quickly when you’re constantly looking for the nearest power outlet to charge up. How do you keep your battery going for as long as possible? Here are 15 easy ways to do so.

1. Defrag regularly - The faster your hard drive does its work – less demand you are going to put on the hard drive and your battery. Make your hard drive as efficient as possible by defragging it regularly. (but not while it’s on battery of course!) Mac OSX is better built to handle fragmentation so it may not be very applicable for Apple systems.

2. Dim your screen – Most laptops come with the ability to dim your laptop screen. Some even come with ways to modify CPU and cooling performance. Cut them down to the lowest level you can tolerate to squeeze out some extra battery juice.

3. Cut down on programs running in the background. Itunes, Desktop Search, etc. All these add to the CPU load and cut down battery life. Shut down everything that isn’t crucial when you’re on battery.

4. Cut down external devices – USB devices (including your mouse) & WiFi drain down your laptop battery. Remove or shut them down when not in use. It goes without saying that charging other devices (like your iPod) with your laptop when on battery is a surefire way of quickly wiping out the charge on your laptop battery.

5. Add more RAM - This will allow you to process more with the memory your laptop has, rather than relying on virtual memory. Virtual memory results in hard drive use, and is much less power efficient. Note that adding more RAM will consume more energy, so this is most applicable if you do need to run memory intensive programs which actually require heavy usage of virtual memory.

6. Run off a hard drive rather than CD/DVD - As power consuming as hard drives are, CD and DVD drives are worse. Even having one in the drive can be power consuming. They spin, taking power, even when they?re not actively being used. Wherever possible, try to run on virtual drives using programs like Alcohol 120% rather than optical ones.

7. Keep the battery contacts clean: Clean your battery’s metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol. This keeps the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.

8. Take care of your battery – Exercise the Battery. Do not leave a charged battery dormant for long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, do not let a Li-On battery completely discharge. (Discharing is only for older batteries with memory effects)

9. Hibernate not standby – Although placing a laptop in standby mode saves some power and you can instantly resume where you left off, it doesn’t save anywhere as much power as the hibernate function does. Hibernating a PC will actually save your PC’s state as it is, and completely shut itself down.

10. Keep operating temperature down - Your laptop operates more efficiently when it’s cooler. Clean out your air vents with a cloth or keyboard cleaner, or refer to some extra tips by LapTopMag.com.

11. Set up and optimize your power options – Go to ‘Power Options’ in your windows control panel and set it up so that power usage is optimized (Select the ‘max battery’ for maximum effect).

12. Don’t multitask – Do one thing at a time when you’re on battery. Rather than working on a spreadsheet, letting your email client run in the background and listening to your latest set of MP3’s, set your mind to one thing only. If you don’t you’ll only drain out your batteries before anything gets completed!

13. Go easy on the PC demands – The more you demand from your PC. Passive activities like email and word processing consume much less power than gaming or playing a DVD. If you’ve got a single battery charge – pick your priorities wisely.

14. Get yourself a more efficient laptop - Laptops are getting more and more efficient in nature to the point where some manufacturers are talking about all day long batteries. Picking up a newer more efficient laptop to replace an aging one is usually a quick fix.

15. Prevent the Memory Effect - If you’re using a very old laptop, you’ll want to prevent the ‘memory effect’ – Keep the battery healthy by fully charging and then fully discharging it at least once every two to three weeks. Exceptions to the rule are Li-Ion batteries (which most laptops have) which do not suffer from the memory effect.

Source: http://www.friedbeef.com/top-15-ways-to-extend-your-laptop-battery-life/

Bing Launches Visual Search

2009-09-14T14:02:00.001-07:00

Microsoft’s Bing search engine just received a major upgrade with a new Visual Search feature. Visual Search allows you to search for items by category and picture, rather than text. Computer Renaissance found more information about the new search feature, which you can read below…

Text search can only take you so far. Sometimes, you know exactly what something looks like, but you just can’t remember the name. A new Bing feature called Visual Search will come in very handy in such cases.

Looking like something coming from Apple’s labs, Visual Search presents you with a grid of images, making it easy to find exactly what you need without having to know its exact name.

It works great when, for example, you’re shopping for gadgets or looking for a famous person whose name you just cannot remember. You can also start by browsing; for example, the Visual Search lets you visualize MLB players, after which you can filter them out by their earnings and various game stats.
The feature is powered by Silverlight, and the content for Visual Search is provided by several sources, one of them being MSN. The transitions look quite cool; I’d prefer a black over white background, but that’s a matter of personal preference. The layout may look too busy at first, with 50 images shown in the grid, but it’s actually not that hard for the brain to find the right image when you know what you’re looking for.

You’ve got to hand it to Microsoft, after switching from Live Search to Bing (and doing relatively well with it), they’ve been steadily introducing new features, focusing on the ones that their biggest competitor – Google – is lacking. Visual Search might not revolutionize search and make users suddenly start switching from Google to Bing, but it’s another piece of the puzzle that makes Bing competitive in the search game.

You can check this new feature out at Bing.com/visualsearch.

Source: http://mashable.com/2009/09/14/bing-visual-search/

Acer's Congo-based 11.6-inch Ferrari One: finally, a netbook with speed

2009-09-11T14:17:00.001-07:00

The size and portability of netbooks really comes in handy, but they are notoriously slow. Computer Renaissance just found out about a new netbook from Acer that promises to bring some speed to the netbook world. Read more below…

We've seen a couple of netbooks that we'd actually consider to be mildly quick, but given that locating an Ion-based netbook is about as easy as entering North Korea with a US passport, we haven't had much of a chance to really love on 'em. Today, Acer is extending its boutique Ferrari lineup with the Ferrari One, an 11.6-inch machine that is among the first to rely on AMD's newly announced Congo platform. Packed within the chassis is a dual-core 1.2GHz Athlon X2 L310 CPU, ATI's Radeon 3200 graphics, an XPG port for connecting an external graphics solution, a 1,366 x 768 panel, WiFi, Bluetooth, optional WWAN and a 6-cell battery. You'll also notice AMD Vision and Windows 7 badges alongside the obligatory prancing pony, but you can bet you'll be paying dearly for this when it ships on (surprise, surprise) October 22nd. How dearly? Try £435 ($724), or roughly the cost of a single lug nut on an F430.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/10/acers-11-6-inch-ferrari-one-finally-a-netbook-with-speed/

iTunes 9 Improves Syncing, Network Sharing, More

2009-09-09T12:46:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance just found out that a new version of popular media player iTunes has been released, and it comes with a slew of new features including media sharing, ringtones, and more. Read more below…

Windows/Mac OS X: The biggest software announcement at today's Apple event comes in the form of iTunes 9, the newest release of the popular desktop media player.

It's a solid update containing a few features that we'd be really excited about if only they were just a little bit better (see Home Sharing, for example).

Worthwhile/notable features in the new release include:

Home Sharing: You can now copy songs across authorized computers on your home network with the new Home Sharing feature. (You can even select a view to show only items that aren't already in your library.) It's nice to see iTunes add this feature, but it's still a far cry from the full-on library sharing that we've been dying to see for years on home networks (and that we've done our best to accomplish on our own). You know, one library you can play, add to, and edit from any computer on your home network.

Improved Syncing: When you're syncing to your devices, iTunes 9 offers more fine-grained control for syncing music by genre or artist, straight from the Music tab of the sync dialog. It also boasts better syncing of Photos (using iPhoto's Events and People identification) and Movies.

Better App Management: If you're syncing apps to your device through iTunes, iTunes 9 adds the ability to organize your synced apps on your iPhone pages from your desktop. Photo via Gizmodo.

iTunes LP: Apple has introduced their new music format called iTunes LP. The new format intends to take digital music to a new world of multimedia integration, including videos, liner notes, credits, and more. Think of it sort of like the music version of DVDs with special features.

iTunes Extras: Well, if iTunes LP is sort of like a DVD with special features, iTunes Extras is exactly like it. Now when you buy a movie from the iTunes store, you also get some special features, including cast interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, photo galleries, etc.

Genius Mixes: Using the Genius feature introduced in iTunes 8.1, Genius mixes plays songs from your library that it thinks go well together. This doesn't seem like much of a tweak on what's already there, though I will say that Genius recommendations have improved a lot since the feature was first launched.

Ringtones: iTunes 9 now sells 30,000 ringtones for $1.29—though we'd suggest saving yourself the cash and just making your own (in Windows; in OS X).

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5355669/itunes-9-improves-syncing-network-sharing-more

10 things you should know about moving from Windows XP to Windows 7

2009-09-04T14:27:00.001-07:00

With Windows 7 a little over a month away, Computer Renaissance thinks you should start preparing for the switch if you are using Windows XP. Read more below…

If you skipped Windows Vista and stuck with Windows XP, chances are good that you are now seriously considering moving to Windows 7 after it’s released on October 22. If so, there is much for you to do. Not only should you begin planning for your operating system migration, but you should begin learning as much as you can about Windows 7. Here are 10 things you can do to get ready for the switch.

1: Check your hardware

Windows 7 was designed to be lean in terms of hardware, so that it will be able to function satisfactorily on sub-powered netbooks. If you’re running Windows XP on a computer manufactured within the last three or four years, chances are good that Windows 7 will run fine on your system. However, you can make sure that your hardware is compatible by running Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will perform a detailed scan of your entire system, checking hardware, programs, and peripheral devices. Once the scan is complete, the Upgrade Advisor will display a report telling you whether your system meets the hardware requirements and idenfying are any known compatibility issues with your programs and devices. If it finds problems, the Upgrade Advisor will provide suggestions you can use to better analyze your upgrade options to Windows 7.

You can download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from the Microsoft Download Center. At the time of this writing, this tool is listed as being a Beta version. However, running it now will give you a good idea of what you will be facing as you prepare for your upgrade.

If you’re planning a much bigger Windows XP to Windows 7 migration, you’ll want to investigate the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. This free toolkit, which runs across the network without having to install software on client systems, will allow you to investigate systems and compile reports on hardware and device compatibility.

2: Understand the Custom Install

If you’re running Windows XP on your computer and you want to use Windows 7 on that same computer, you’ll purchase an Upgrade license package of Windows 7. However, you won’t be able to perform an in-place upgrade. In other words, you won’t be able to upgrade to Windows 7 on top of XP and keep all your applications and settings “in place.” Instead, you’ll have to perform a Custom Install, which Microsoft describes as follows:

A custom (clean) installation gives you the option to either completely replace your current operating system or install Windows on a specific drive or partition that you select. You can also perform a custom installation if your computer does not have an operating system, or if you want to set up a multiboot system on your computer.

When you completely replace Windows XP, the installation procedure will not totally obliterate it. In fact, the installation procedure will create a folder on the hard disk called Windows.old and will place the Windows, Documents And Settings, and Program Files folders from your Windows XP installation in it. Your data files will be safe and accessible, but your applications will not be viable. (Even though the Custom Install saves your data in the Windows.old folder, you will want to have a separate backup on hand just in case!)

Regardless of whether you choose to completely replace Windows XP or set up a multiboot system, you are going to have to back up and transfer all of your data, reinstall all of your applications, and reconfigure all of your settings.

3: Consider a setting up a multiboot configuration

When pondering a Custom Install, you should consider setting up a multiboot configuration. That will place both Windows XP and Windows 7 at your disposal, which will be a big advantage as you begin migrating your settings, documents, and applications. More specifically, you can boot into Windows XP to check out how something is set up and then boot into Windows 7 to re-create the same configuration. Once you have everything in Windows 7 exactly the way you had it in Windows XP, you can remove the multiboot configuration set Windows 7 as the primary OS and then remove Windows XP.

To be able to perform this type of switch, both XP and 7 must be installed on the same hard disk but on separate partitions. (If you install Windows 7 on a second hard disk, the boot partition will exist on the first hard disk, so you won’t be able to remove that drive once you’re ready to get rid of XP.) As a result, you’ll need to repartition your hard disk to make room for Windows 7. To repartition your hard disk without destroying data, you can take advantage of partition management software, such as Norton PartitionMagic 8.0, which retails for about $70, or Easeus Partition Manager Home Edition 4.0.1, which is available for free and earned a 4.5 star rating in a recent CNET editors’ review.

4: Plan your backup and restore strategy

Before you move from one operating system to another, you’ll want to back up all your data — at least once and maybe twice, just in case. While it may sound like overkill, having an extra backup will give you peace of mind.

If you’re using a third-party backup program, you will need to check the manufacturer’s Web site to see whether the program will be upgraded to work in Windows 7. If you aren’t using a third-party backup program, you’re probably using Windows XP’s native Backup Utility. As you may have heard, the file format used for this tool isn’t compatible with Windows Vista’s Backup And Restore Center. To provide for that, Microsoft released a special version of the XP Backup Utility, called the Windows NT Backup - Restore Utility. It’s designed specifically for restoring backups made on Windows XP to computers running Windows Vista. While I was unable to get official confirmation, it is a safe bet that this special version will work in Windows 7 or will be adapted to do so.

If you aren’t willing to take that bet or you are not sure whether your third-party backup program will be upgraded to work in Windows 7, you can simply make copies of all your data files on CD/DVD or on an external hard disk.

5: Plan your data transfer strategy

To move from one operating system to another, you’ll probably want to use a transfer program that will scan your XP system, pull out all your data and settings, and then transfer them to Windows 7. Fortunately, the Windows 7 Easy Transfer utility can provide this service for you. However, before you perform this transfer operation, it will be in your best interest to have a separate back up copy of your data (see #4).

The new operating system will come with two copies of the Windows 7 Easy Transfer. One copy will be on the DVD and the other will be installed with the operating system. Before you install Windows 7, you will run Windows 7 Easy Transfer from the DVD and back up all your files and settings. Then, once you have Windows 7 installed, you’ll use it to move all your files and settings to the new operating system. You can learn more about the Windows 7 Easy Transfer by reading the article Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration on the Microsoft TechNet site.

6: Inventory your applications and gather your CDs

Since you won’t be able to perform an in-place upgrade when you move from Windows XP to Windows 7, you’ll have to reinstall all your applications that passed the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor compatibility tests (see #1). It will be helpful to have an inventory of all the installed applications so that you can track down all your CDs or compile a list of Web sites for those applications you downloaded.

While the report generated by the Upgrade Advisor will be helpful as you create an inventory, it won’t be comprehensive. To create a detailed inventory, you can use something like the Belarc Advisor. For more details, see the article Gather detailed system information with Belarc Advisor.

7: Become familiar with the new UI

The UI in Windows 7 is quite different from the UI in Windows XP, and it offers a lot of new features. As a result, you may encounter what I call “UI Shock.” You’ll know what you want to do, but you’ll experience a momentary lapse of composure as you strive to adapt what you know about XP’s UI to what you’re seeing and experiencing in Windows 7.

To ease the level of UI shock, you’ll want to become as familiar as possible with the features of the new Windows 7 UI. One starting point is Microsoft’s Windows 7 page. While a lot of the content here is essentially marketing related, it will give you a good idea of what to look for when you actually move into the Windows 7 operating system.

To help you get right to the good stuff, check out:

The Windows 7 features section, where you’ll find a host of short videos and descriptions.

The Windows 7 Help & How-to section, where you’ll find a whole slew of step-by-step articles that show you how get around in Windows 7. Be sure to check out the section on installing Windows.

You’ll also find useful information on the Windows Training Portal on the Microsoft Learning site. Be sure to check out:

The Windows 7 Learning Snacks, which are short, interactive presentations. Each Snack is delivered via animations and recorded demos using Microsoft Silverlight.

The Microsoft Press sample chapters from upcoming Windows 7 books. Viewing the free chapters requires registration, but it is a short procedure. Once you’re registered, you can access sample chapters from Windows 7 Inside Out, Windows 7 Resource Kit, Windows 7 Step by Step, and Windows 7 for Developers.

8: Check for XP Mode support

If you discover that some of the applications you’re currently running in Windows XP are not compatible with Windows 7 (see #1) or you just want to keep Windows XP accessible, don’t forget about Windows XP Mode. This virtual environment includes a free, fully licensed, ready-to-run copy of Windows XP with SP3 that runs under Windows Virtual PC in Windows 7.

As you consider the Windows XP Mode, keep these things in mind:

Windows XP Mode is available only in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.

Your computer must support processor-based virtualization.

You can learn more about Windows XP Mode from the following TechRepublic resoruces:

Determine if your hardware can support Windows XP Mode in Windows 7

Hands on: Windows 7 XP Mode

10 reasons why Windows 7’s XP Mode is a big deal

9: Ask questions

You aren’t the only one making the move from Windows XP to Windows 7, so ask questions and share information you pick up along the way. Of course, you can use the TechRepublic discussion forums. But you should cast a wider net.

One good place to connect with Microsoft experts is the Getting Ready for Windows 7 section of the Microsoft Answers site. Another good place is in the Windows 7 forums in the Windows Client TechCenter on the Microsoft TechNet site.

10: Subscribe to the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report

TechRepublic’s free Windows Vista and Windows 7 Report newsletter, which is delivered every Friday, offers tips, news, and scuttlebutt on Windows 7. As we count down to October 22, the day that Windows 7 is to be released to the general public, we will be covering topics of interest to Windows XP users in more detail. You can sign up on the TechRepublic newsletters page.

Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1000

Mobile Users Unfazed by Web Threats

2009-09-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

It may seem like browsing the internet on your cell phone would be a lot safer than a computer, but this may not be the case. There are a variety of malware affecting mobile phones and their numbers are growing rapidly. Computer Renaissance recommends that you use security software if possible, and to be careful when browsing the web on your phone. Read more below…

Users are under the impression that mobile phones are more secure than PCs, according to the latest Trend Micro survey. A number of users are found not practicing safe browsing when using their mobile phones.

The survey shows that 44% of over 1,000 respondents are lax when it comes to surfing using their mobile phones. The respondents are actually more concerned of losing data such as contact numbers via physical phone loss rather than information loss due to Web threats and phishing or spam attacks. In fact, only 23% utilize security software already installed in their phones. Some even believe there is no use for such software as mobile phones are not as prone to security risks.

Quite unfortunate is the fact that users’ assumption that mobile phones are spared of attacks by cybercriminals is very much incorrect, as mobile threats have been around for the past four years now. Trend Micro researchers often see Symbian malware such as SYMBOS_BESELO.A, SYMBOS_VIVER.A, SYMBOS_FEAKS.A, and SYMBOS_YXES.B infect Symbian-based phones. Other notable mobile malware include WINCE_INFOJACK.A and WINCE_CRYPTIC.A, which target Windows mobile phones. These so-called traditional mobile malware are still very much active up to this day as seen in the chart below.

As mobile phones become more Web-based and as users more heavily rely on them to conduct their day-to-day business, potential risks brought about by phishing and other Web threats will become more rampant as well. Users are advised to be wary when browsing as this could lead them to malware infection and information loss. They are strongly urged to use security software to stay protected from malware infections.

Source: http://blog.trendmicro.com/mobile-users-unfazed-by-web-threats/

Use Firefox to Fix the Web's Biggest Annoyances

2009-08-31T14:25:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance found an excellent article about some small and simple tweaks you can do in Mozilla Firefox to fix some common annoyances on the Web. Read more below…

If you've spent more than 5 minutes browsing around the web lately, you've no doubt dealt with greedy webmasters assaulting their readers with awful ads and more—but Firefox makes it easy to take back control.

Blocking Unnecessarily Obnoxious Ads

Without question, obnoxious ads are out of control on the web these days—you can barely move your mouse across a page without ads moving around, popping up, taking over the screen or pretending to be a dialog window indicating impending doom if you don't pay for a system scan NOW. These ads can be put in their place easily, using everybody's favorite Adblock Plus extension. Lifehacker is, of course, an advertising-supported site—so we'd be grateful if you'd keep us on the whitelist—but it'll do a charm for those flashing, pop-up-ing, overlaying, obtrusive ads all around the web.

Turn Off Auto-Playing Sounds

As annoying as advertisements and blinking text might be, nothing is more embarrassing than heading to a web page only to have everybody around you hear donkey noises emanating from your speakers at some ridiculous volume. Thankfully Firefox makes this problem easy to solve—though you probably should still think about headphones if you are in an office (even if they're not connected to anything). You can block most auto-playing music and/or sounds with the Flashblock extension, but since people can still embed media directly in the page, you'll want to take a look at the Stop Autoplay extension for a tool that can address both issues.

Prevent Sites from Resizing Windows and Disabling Menus

How many times have you clicked a link only to have your browser window resized and moved to the corner of the screen, or right-clicked on a page only to see a message saying that the clueless webmaster disabled the context menu on the page? Thankfully Firefox makes all of this easy to disable—just head into the Options panel and head for Content -> Javascript -> Advanced and remove the checkboxes.

Disable the Blink Tag

One can only assume that the <blink> tag is the result of some practical joke by the nerds that created HTML in the first place, and Firefox makes it easy to disable. Just enter about:config into your address bar, filter for browser.blink_allowed, and double-click it to set the value to false. Once you've made the change you won't have to deal with annoying commenters that think they are funny, causing seizures across the web.

Disable Blinking Text in Firefox

Block Animated FavIcons

This is one of the annoyances that isn't terribly prevalent (yet), but if you frequently need to use a site with an animated icon in the address bar, it can become irritating very quickly. Unfortunately there's no quick config setting to disable the animation, but you can use Adblock to disable the specific FavIcon or use the FavIcon Picker extension to choose a new, friendlier icon for that site with the clueless webmaster.

How to Block Distracting Animated Favicons

Stop Pages From Auto-Refreshing

Whenever a web site wants to artificially increase their pageview numbers, all they need to do is set a meta tag in the page that makes your browser reload the page every x number of minutes. Sure, there are some legitimate reasons for automatic page refreshing, but if this one is driving you crazy you can simply head into about:config and set the accessibility.blockautorefresh value to true. You'll end up with a message in the page window saying that Firefox blocked the page from refreshing, but it's better than wasting your bandwidth.

Disable Automatic Web Page Refreshing

Click, Click, Clicking Through Multiple Pages

One of my personal pet peeves are those web sites that split up every article with a single paragraph on each ad-ridden page, and 437 Next links to click through before you can read the whole thing. The sad thing is that I'm only slightly exaggerating—it's a serious problem, but there's also a plethora of extensions that can help you deal with it. You can take your choice between AutoPager, Skipscreen, repagination, PageZipper, Unlinker, and even the Antipagination bookmarklet to load the next page inline without having to reload. Each of the extensions works a little differently, and none of them work as well as boycotting sites that are particularly hostile to their readers.

Greasemonkey and Stylish Can Handle the Rest

If you've got a specific pet peeve that isn't solved already, you can simply install the Greasemonkey or Stylish extensions and get to work customizing your favorite pages to work just the way you want them to. If you don't have the skills to create your own scripts, you can head to userscripts.org or userstyles.org for customizations created by the community—or take a look through our top 10 Greasemonkey scripts, 2009 edition.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5349446/use-firefox-to-fix-the-webs-biggest-annoyances

Snow Leopard Contains an Antivirus

2009-08-26T10:34:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance discovered that the next version of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard, could come with an antivirus feature. This is a surprise, considering one of the major selling points of Macs and Mac OS X is that they are prone to be malware-free. Read more below…

We’ve gotten reports about an interesting feature in Snow Leopard, the new version of Mac OS X due for release this Friday. According to reports we’ve seen – and the screen shot below – Snow Leopard contains an antimalware feature.

We’re not sure yet exactly how this works, but the above screen shot shows this feature working with a download made via Safari, detecting a version of the RSPlug Trojan horse in a downloaded disk image.

Source: http://blog.intego.com/2009/08/25/snow-leopard-contains-an-antivirus/

How to Buy a Back-to-School PC

2009-08-21T15:41:00.001-07:00

With the new school year just around the corner, it may be time to invest in a new computer. Computer Renaissance found a guide to finding the perfect back-to-school PC for your child (or yourself, for the college students out there). Read more below…

So your favorite student is going back to school in a few weeks, and the PC that he or she have been using is either ready for the scrap heap or is being passed down to younger siblings. What should you look for in a new desktop PC? It depends partly on the price and partly on the form factor, but these days you can get the kids outfitted for way below the $2,500 that used to be the norm for desktops just a few years ago.

Mac or PC?
Some schools require their students to have Windows-based systems, so their IT staff doesn't have to support other operating systems, but in general you can use Mac OS X or Windows (Vista or XP) on your computer. Linux is always an option, particularly in the geek quarters and the sciences, but be prepared to do your own tech support if you follow the penguin. Check Web sites like www.apple.com/education/shop or www.delluniversity.com for school-specific deals online, or check your school's Web site for the computer store.

But what about Windows 7, slated to be released in October? The majority of Windows-based PC makers should have an upgrade coupon in the package or on their Web site by the time you read this. If it does, I would hold off on the upgrade. Unless you school upgrades their PCs en masse over this school year, your school will be unlikely to use Windows 7 (if at all) before the 2010-2011 school year. The majority of your students' classmates will still be using Mac OS, Windows Vista or XP.

Check Your Curriculum: Needs and Wants
High school and college students will need to consider their curriculum needs when they make their computing choices. For example, the Liberal Arts student concentrating in Creative Writing will need a simpler PC than the one a potential J.J. Abrams successor would need in a Graduate Film program.

In a nutshell, consider the following when choosing a desktop for school:

Does your school mandate Windows XP, Vista or Mac? Buy with the herd if you need to; otherwise go with what you like.

Netbooks and nettops are fine for simple writing and researching.

The majority of "full blown" desktops are perfect for most students' needs. Find a dual core-powered system for the best balance between power and price.

Students in the Sciences and the Arts will want a quad-core system, for added computing power. High powered quad-core multimedia PCs are perfect for students that need to crunch a lot of numbers before their next study session.

Integrated graphics will be fine, unless your curriculum mandates a certain graphics card. For example, a card capable of running CAD/CAM for engineering or a high –powered graphics card for work in Adobe CS4. Your pre-term information sheets should point out the cards that your school recommends.

All-in-one PCs fit great on tiny dorm desks, can be used to watch movies during downtime, and have larger screens than almost any laptop.

Though it may be tempting, don't buy the cheapest PC available. Remember that "cheaper" PCs will feel "slower" before you know it.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2351372,00.asp

Logitech Performance, Anywhere Mouse MX Review

2009-08-20T16:52:00.001-07:00

Optical and laser mice have the benefit of not needing a mousepad to work – unless you have a glass desk, that is. Computer Renaissance thinks this is about to change, as Logitech recently released two laser mice that can track on virtually any surface, including glass. Read more below…

Logitech's latest laser tracking technology in their Performance MX and Anywhere MX mice, Darkfield, promises to track even better than standard lasers multiple surfaces not possible before. The most impressive one? Glass.

The Price: $80 for the Anywhere Mouse, $100 for the Performance Mouse

The Technology: A new lasering scheme called "Darkfield Laser Tracking", which gives the mouse enough fidelity to illuminate even glass (as long as it's more than 4mm thick). The laser (or standard optical) illuminates the different terrains on a surface, which the mouse can then track to see which direction you're moving your hand in. The more differences the mouse can "see", the more fine-grained the movement. The Darkfield tech works by blocking out light from the central area, then allowing light to enter at an angle, which is more refined in seeing abnormalities. Both these mice use two lasers to help track dust, scratches and other identifying features.

The Verdict: It works! It works so well that it tracks just fine on a glass sliding door. And using it on regular mousepads, like the MacPadd aluminum mousepad, works even better than last-generation Logitech mice at providing a smooth, uninterrupted mousing experience.

The Big One: The Performance Mouse MX is similar to the MX Revolution and the MX 1100 in that it's fully loaded, meant for the hardcore mouse user and only really usable for right-handed people. But there are some slight differences. The Performance mouse has its forward and back thumb buttons have moved slightly higher to make room for a zoom button underneath. It's also slightly narrower and smaller, pushing your hand further back on the mouse instead of firmly in your palm area.

To us, that's a slight step backwards in design. We prefer the fatter mice that fits in your hand like a comfortable pebble, but this should probably be fine for people with smaller hands that complain about the size of the previous two MX devices. So, great for Chinese children forced to farm gold in World of Warcraft all day.

The Performance MX takes one AA battery and comes with one rechargeable Eneloop, which is great. Other than that, it's basically the mouse you loved before but with increased tracking capability with the Darkfield laser.

The Small One: The Anywhere Mouse is like a travel mouse with benefits. It has the two forward and back thumb buttons, a separate middle click/app switcher button and the same Darkfield laser. It's also slightly larger than usual travel mice, but still small enough to fit easily in bags without bulging out too much.

It takes two AAs and actually has a slot inside the mouse for the Logitech Unifying adapter, preventing it from being lost in the bowels of your briefcase. It's definitely one of the best travel mice we've used, and the fact that it has better trackability with Darkfield means you won't need to bring a mousepad along with you—you can just mouse anywhere.

Final Thoughts: Although the Performance Mouse MX is slightly smaller than we'd like, it's still one of the best-tracking mice we've ever used. If you've got a glass table, or if you just like slightly better fidelity with your input devices, Logitech's new Darkfield is probably as big a step forward as the jump from optical to laser.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5340410/logitech-performance-anywhere-mouse-mx-review

Rogue Facebook apps steal login data, send spam

2009-08-19T16:32:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance warns you to be careful using Facebook apps. There are few out there that can steal your log in info and spam your friends. Read more below…

Security firm Trend Micro warned on Wednesday that a handful of rogue Facebook apps is stealing log in credentials and spamming the victim's friends.

So far, six malicious applications have been identified: "Stream," "Posts," "Your Photos," "Birthday Invitations," "Inbox (1)," "Inbox (2)" according to a blog post by Trend Micro researcher Rik Ferguson.

As of Wednesday afternoon, all of the apps were live except for "Stream," he said in an e-mail.

This screenshot shows evidence of the phishing scam on Facebook.

(Credit: Trend Micro)

The activity started earlier in the week with a Facebook notification Ferguson says he got from an app called "sex sex sex and more sex!!!," which has more than 287,000 fans. The notification said that someone had commented on one of his posts. That app doesn't appear to be malicious and may have been compromised somehow in order to begin the distribution of the spam, he said.

That first notification included hyperlinks that led to a phishing site on the "fucabook.com" domain, allegedly registered to someone in Armenia, he said. Once Ferguson gave up his credentials (for a Facebook account he uses for research purposes) he was directed to Facebook and to an application install screen for the app called "Posts."

He installed that app and immediately his friends were spammed with a bogus notification "Profile_name has sent you a message," with the hyperlink to the phishing site.

On Tuesday, the first couple of apps were sending notifications that hyperlinked to the fucabook phishing site but by Wednesday the destination had changed to a simple IP address rather than a domain name, he said. A JavaScript that pulls up Facebook bounces the browser around among any of the six rogue apps to get them widely installed and the cycle continues, he said.

All the apps look and act exactly the same and include ads.

"I am keeping Facebook informed of these developments as they arise and they are working hard to rectify the situation," Ferguson wrote on his blog.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company was looking into the matter and provide more comment later.

Ferguson recommends that Internet users always check the URL displayed in the browser address bar before entering any sensitive information on a site and hover the mouse over a hyperlink to see the URL. Facebook users should also review their privacy settings regularly and delete any applications they no longer use, he said.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10313618-245.html

Three ways to get more out of Google Chrome

2009-08-18T15:35:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance found some useful tips to get a better experience from Google’s Chrome browser. Read more below…

The browser wars are heating up again. Microsoft's touting the improved performance and security of Internet Explorer 8, dozens of new Firefox extensions are released every day, and, according to Apple, Safari 4 will be even faster than its speedy predecessor. Meanwhile, Opera just keeps chugging along at version 9.64, with version 10 beta 3 now available.

Just a few weeks ago, Google announced its plans to create an operating system based on Chrome. Considering that the browser itself is barely a year old, such plans may be premature. Then again, maybe not. But for right now, I'll keep looking for ways to make the Chrome browser more useful.

Last June, I described ways to change Chrome's default settings. Here's a look at ways to revamp the browser's interface and access some of its useful hidden features.

Themes perk up Chrome's drab interface
Google is famous for its no-frills look, which describes the default Chrome interface as well. You can spiff the browser up a bit by adding one of the 30-or-so themes available for the version 3 beta.

To add a theme, click the options button in the top-right corner (the wrench icon) and choose Options. Under the Personal Stuff tab, click Get themes, or just browse to the Themes Gallery.

Add a theme to Google Chrome 3 (the Glow theme is shown).

(Credit: Google)

If you get tired of a theme, either select a new one or reopen the Personal Stuff tab in the Options dialog and choose Reset to default theme.

Make the most of Chrome's context-menu options
At first glance, Chrome lacks some of Firefox's most useful options. For example, Firefox lets you view your recently visited pages by clicking the down arrow next to the Back and Forward buttons. You can get the same information in Chrome by right-clicking either button to see a list of the sites you've been to most recently.

Another handy right-click option is to copy a URL and then right-click in the address bar and choose Paste and go. You can also open a link in a new incognito window by right-clicking it and selecting Open link in a new incognito window. And like Firefox's Undo Closed Tab right-click option, if you inadvertently close a tab, just right-click another tab and choose Reopen closed tab. (You can do the same by pressing Ctrl-Shift-Tab.)

Useful Chrome keyboard shortcuts
I'm a big fan of keyboard shortcuts, and Chrome's got several handy ones (note that some of these shortcuts also work in Firefox and other browsers):

• Shift-Escape opens Chrome's Task Manager, where you can view the amount of memory and CPU cycles used by each open tab.

Pressing Shift-Escape opens Chrome's Task Manager.

(Credit: Google)

• Ctrl-Shift-N opens a new incognito window.
• Ctrl-B toggles the bookmarks bar off and on.
• Ctrl-Shift-B opens the Bookmark Manager.
• Shift-Alt-T moves the focus to the toolbar. Switch buttons by using the left and right arrow keys.
• Alt-H opens your home page.
• Alt-F4 closes the current window.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13880_3-10310703-68.html

Zune HD packs a big processing punch

2009-08-13T14:17:00.001-07:00

Microsoft’s Zune HD is set to be released soon, and Computer Renaissance thinks its powerful processor may give it a leg up on the iPod. Read more below…

Microsoft's Zune HD will use one of the most powerful chips to go into a portable media player yet: Nvidia's multicore Tegra processor.

Tegra packs two processor cores based on intellectual property from U.K.-based chip designer ARM. One is the main processor--based on the ARM11 core--which runs the operating system. Tegra's defining feature, however, is an additional Nvidia GeForce graphics chip.

"Nvidia brings powerful graphics to the portable media player. This is a unique capability," said Jeff Orr, senior analyst for mobile content at ABI Research.

In total, Tegra integrates eight independent processors, according to Michael Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia's mobile business unit. "We accelerate Flash, we have HD video, we do acceleration of rendering of Web pages on the GPU," Rayfield said Wednesday in a conference call, referring to the graphics processing unit. "The Zune HD will be an amazing showcase of what Tegra is capable of doing."

Its processing prowess notwithstanding, Tegra's design flies in the face of the hot, heat-sink-clad Nvidia graphics processors that power the fastest gaming rigs today. Tegra uses less than 0.5 watts of power, an attribute the chip inherits from its power-stingy ARM parentage. This trickle of power consumption is a tiny fraction of Nvidia's bread-and-butter desktop GeForce processors that are often rated well over 100 watts.

The Zune HD comes with a 3.3-inch, 16:9 OLED (480x272 resolution) screen. And also includes an HD (high-definition) Radio, HD (720p) video out, Wi-Fi, a Web browser (with tap-to-zoom technology), built-in accelerometer, and touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.

Audio codec technology has been developed by PortalPlayer, which Nvidia acquired in 2006.

Zune HD will also include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.

CNET Reviews applauded the Zune HD:. "This thing was worth the wait, folks...The Zune finally has the power to make good on the promise of delivering one of the richest music experiences on a portable device."

The Zune HD is the first of many Tegra-based devices to come. "There's about 50 devices in design right now with Tegra," Rayfield said. They range from media players to smartphones to smartbooks to Web pads. Smartphones based on the Tegra are due toward the end of the year.

"The next generation should be better. Current Tegra chips use the ARM11MP processor, next gen will use the faster Cortex-A9. Other IP in the chip is Nvidia's," said Tom R. Halfhill a senior analyst for Microprocessor Report.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10308833-64.html

Prevent USB Drives from Spreading Viruses

2009-08-10T15:46:00.001-07:00

If you have a USB drive that you use with multiple computers, it could be used to spread viruses and malware from one PC to another. Computer Renaissance advises you to change your AutoPlay settings to prevent this from happening, and you can read how to do it below…

When you stick a thumb drive infected with a worm like Conficker/Downadup into a clean system, the normally handy AutoPlay feature launches the worm and spreads the infection. So, what are you waiting for? Turn off AutoPlay! Panda Security offers a free "vaccine" program that will turn it off. But you can actually flip the master switch without any utilities. Here's how:

On non-Home versions of Windows (for example, Windows XP Professional, Vista Ultimate):
1. Click Start, click Run, enter gpedit.msc (launch Group Policy Editor);
2. XP users: Open Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System,
Vista users: Open Computer Configuration | Windows Components | AutoPlay Policies;
3. Find Turn Off AutoPlay in the right-hand pane and double-click it;
4. Choose Enabled and set it for All drives.

Or, in any Windows version:
1. Launch the Registry editor (Start | Run | regedit);
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer;
3. Double-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun in the right-hand pane and set its value to hexadecimal FF.

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343838,00.asp

Cookienator Cleans Up Questionable Cookies

2009-08-07T15:43:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance discovered a useful utility that deletes all of the potentially harmful cookies on your computer while leaving the others in-tact. Read more below…

Windows only: Portable application Cookienator cleans up cookies from any of the major browsers, but instead of removing all your cookies, only removes the ones that are used to track you.

Once you've downloaded and extracted the no-installation-required utility, you can simply launch the executable to analyze just how many evil cookies are sitting around on your computer, and clean them up immediately. The options panel will let you choose which browsers to check, and it even includes the hard-to-delete Flash cookies. The utility can automatically clean your cookies when you log in, or you could choose to only run it manually.

Cookienator is a free download for Windows only. If you'd like to just opt-out of the tracking mechanisms, you can use previously mentioned PrivacyChoice, which works the opposite way—it adds a cookie that tells advertisers not to track you.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5332032/cookienator-cleans-up-questionable-cookies

10 cool things you can do with a USB flash drive

2009-08-06T14:15:00.001-07:00

USB drives are mainly used for transporting data, but did you know that you can use them for much more than that? Computer Renaissance found 10 other uses for your pocket-sized drives…

1: Run portable applications

In addition to storing your data, you can run portable applications from a USB flash drive. For example, OpenOffice, which is a complete office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database, is available as a portable application. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are also available as portable applications. When you combine the office suite with the ability to surf the Web and check email, you’ll be able to take your most vital computing applications with you wherever you go — right in your pocket.

If that’s not enough, you can choose other applications to install on your USB flash drive from PortableApps.com. You can even install an entire prepackaged suite of applications that includes such things as an audio player, games, an antivirus utility, and a handy menu system.

2: Boot an operating system

If you want to do more than just run your own applications, you might want to consider booting an entire operating system from your USB flash drive. You can boot either Windows or Linux from a USB flash drive; however, the process is not an exact science and you may be in for a technical adventure.

Fortunately, there are some guides you can follow. To learn how to boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive, see the article Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. To learn how to boot a version of Linux from a USB flash drive, see the article Puppy Linux teaches an old dog new tricks.

3: Connect to a wireless network

If you have a wireless network, you can use the Wireless Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP or the Windows Connect Now (WCN) feature built into Vista to save wireless network configuration information to a USB flash drive. You can then use your drive to quickly and easily connect another computer or a WCN-compatible device, such as a router or printer, to your wireless network. To learn more about using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard, see the Help And Support Center, which is accessible from Windows XP’s Start menu. To learn more about using the Windows Connect Now feature, see Windows Help And Support, which is accessible from Windows Vista’s Start menu.

4: Create a password reset disk

A password reset disk can really come in handy if you forget the password to your user account on a Windows system that is not a part of a domain. If you find yourself in that situation, you can use the password reset disk to reset your password and quickly get back into your user account. In Windows Vista, you can use USB flash drive rather than a floppy disk as a password reset disk. For details on how to do so, see the article Create a Vista password reset disk using a USB flash drive.

5: Boost performance

If you’re running Windows Vista, you can use a USB flash drive to speed up your system with the ReadyBoost technology. ReadyBoost can use the storage space on a USB Flash drive as an additional memory cache to aid the memory cache on your hard disk. And because flash memory is more responsive than a hard disk, with its physical moving parts, the memory cache provided by ReadyBoost can significantly improve system responsiveness.

Using ReadyBoost is easy. You just insert your USB flash drive into your Vista system and follow the onscreen prompts to configure and use ReadyBoost. If you want more details, check out the article How SuperFetch and ReadyBoost work together.

6: Manage it

If all you really want to do with your USB flash drive is transport data, and you’re running Windows XP, you can do so more efficiently with the Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager. Once you have installed this manager, you can easily copy files to and from your drive, back up and restore the entire flash drive to and from your hard disk, change the drive label, and even create an autorun.inf file to launch Drive Manager automatically when you plug in the drive. To learn more about and download the USB Flash Drive Manager visit the Microsoft TechNet Magazine site.

7: Use it as an MP3 player

Would you like to be listening to music when you’re using a computer at the office, but you don’t have an MP3 player? If so, you can use a USB flash drive as an MP3 player along with Windows Media Player and a set of headphones. Just copy your MP3 files to your USB flash drive, plug it into your computer, and direct Windows Media Player to build a library of the songs on your drive. You can use all of Windows Media Player’s playback features, such as playlists and favorites, to easily customize your music listening experience. And best of all, you won’t have to worry about running low on battery power.

8: Password-protect it

If you use a USB flash drive to transport sensitive data that you would prefer to protect from prying eyes, should you lose the drive, Rohos Mini Drive can safeguard that data. This security tool allows you to create a secret partition on the drive and then password-protect/encrypt that partition, thus protecting any documents you copy to that partition via the utility’s file manager. You can download (and read a review of) Rohos Mini Drive at Download.com.

9: Run a Web site from it

If you are a Web developer, you may be interested to know that with Server2Go, you can easily run a Web server that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl right from a USB flash drive. You can use Server2Go right out of the box without any installation. It runs on all versions of Windows, supports most common browsers, and is completely free. To a developer, the benefits of having a portable Web server on a USB drive are numerous. For example, imagine being able to carry a live Web site demo into a sales pitch meeting. For more information about this package, visit the Server2Go site.

10: Lock your PC

Have you ever seen a movie in which a person in some secret government installation simply inserts and removes a card to log in and log out of a PC? If you thought that idea was cool, you’ll definitely want to investigate Predator (Figure E). Once installed and configured, this little freeware utility will allow you to turn a USB flash drive into a key you can use to lock and unlock your computer.

While the USB flash drive is connected to your computer, everything works as it normally would. Once you remove the USB flash drive, your computer is locked down — the keyboard and mouse are disabled and the screen darkens. To unlock your computer, you just plug in the USB flash drive and the computer will be unlocked and you can begin using it. To learn more about Predator, and/or to download it, visit the developer’s Web site.

Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=931

Mysterious computer virus quiet, but attack may be in works

2009-08-05T14:08:00.001-07:00

The Conficker worm that caused an uproar in April may finally be launching an attack sometime soon. Computer Renaissance has more information below…

Malicious software installed on millions of computers has yet to wreak havoc on technology systems worldwide as some fear, but researchers warned that the ”Conficker worm” could still strike in the future.

Also known as Downadup or Kido, Conficker turns infected PCs into slaves that respond to commands sent from a remote server that effectively controls an army of slave computers.

Researchers feared that the network created by Conficker might be deployed Wednesday for the first time since the worm surfaced last year because its code suggested it would seek to communicate with its master server on April 1.

They formed an industry-wide task force to fight the worm, bringing widespread attention that experts said probably scared off the criminals who command the army of slave computers, known as a botnet.

“The Conficker-infected machines attempted to call home to get new commands from their master but those calls went unanswered,” said Joris Evers, spokesman for security software maker McAfee Inc.

Researchers warned that the botnet’s commanders are probably waiting until they are under less scrutiny before they mobilize the network of infected computers.

“I never thought it would happen April 1,” said Roger Thompson, chief research officer at AVG, an anti-virus firm. ”It might be tomorrow. It might be next week. It might be next month.”

Privately held AVG and other firms with security labs including Microsoft Corp, Symantec Corp, McAfee and Trend Micro Inc will closely monitor the botnet’s activities long after Wednesday.

The virus exploits weaknesses in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. It can evade corporate firewalls by passing from an infected machine onto a USB memory stick, then onto another PC.

In February, Microsoft announced it was offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible for creating Conficker, saying the worm constituted a criminal attack.

Source: http://www.canada.com/technology/Mysterious+computer+virus+quiet+attack+works/1452302/story.html

Microsoft prices Windows 7 family pack

2009-08-03T12:04:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance found more details about the “Family Pack” version of Windows 7, as well as upgrade prices for standard editions of the operating system. Read more below…

Microsoft said on Friday that it will charge $149 for the family pack version of Windows 7, which allows users to upgrade up to three PCs to the Home Premium edition of the operating system.

The software maker had previously said it would offer the family pack, but had not said how much it would charge. (It actually inadvertently confirmed the family pack by referencing it in the licensing terms of a test version of Windows 7 that leaked onto the Internet.) The family pack covers those moving from XP or Vista to Windows 7.

Microsoft also announced pricing for the Windows Anytime Upgrade option, which lets users move from one version of Windows 7 to another.

Microsoft said that the move from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium will cost $79.99. That is one of the key upgrades Microsoft is hoping to sell by convincing Netbook owners that they really want more of the Windows features.

Among the other prices, the move from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional will cost $89.99, while going from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate will cost $139.99. Although that last move is pricey, it still represents a 12 percent drop in the cost of going from Windows Vista Home Premium to Vista Ultimate.

Because the move involves only entering a new product code, Microsoft said the Anytime Upgrade in Windows 7 can be done in as little as 10 minutes. With Vista, the move also required the use of a special Anytime Upgrade disk.

In the U.S. and 11 other countries, upgrade codes can be purchased at a store or online.

Microsoft noted in some of its communications that the family pack is available "while supplies last." Given that Microsoft would seem to be in a position to make as many boxes as it wants, I pressed the software maker to understand how limited this offer will be. A company representative would only say that it is a new offer that Microsoft is testing and declined to elaborate on the time frame or the number of copies it was limited to.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10300835-56.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

Firefox: 1 billion downloads only part of the story

2009-07-31T12:48:00.001-07:00

The internet web browser Firefox has been gaining popularity over the years. While many people still use Internet Explorer by Microsoft, Mozilla’s Firefox has reached its 1 billionth download. Computer Renaissance found this out…

At about 8 a.m. PDT Friday, Firefox crossed the billion-download threshold--a notably large number for Mozilla's open-source Web browser but one that doesn't tell the whole story.

Firefox fans love their statistical milestones, and Mozilla enjoys fanning the flames by providing plenty of opportunities for self-congratulation. In 2008 was the Firefox Download Day, with more than 8 million downloads in 24 hours. Next came the Firefox 3.5 debut and its download tracker.

Mozilla boasted that Firefox downloads surpassed 1 billion on Friday.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

And now we have the billion-download figure on the Spread Firefox site. That includes updates people have fetched deliberately, not automatic updates, Mozilla said, so the statistic isn't padded by minor. To maximize the marketing potential, Mozilla also is touting the 1,000,000,000 + you site.

That site probably could be named better. Firefox director Mike Belztner said in June that Mozilla estimates there are 300 million Firefox users, up from 175 million a year earlier, so don't go thinking there are a billion people using it. Indeed, I find the total user population a much more interesting statistic than downloads.

Firefox has truly achieved real success, eating steadily into Microsoft Internet Explorer's dominant market share to become the second-most used browser. The newest version is downloaded between 40 and 60 times a second worldwide at present.

IE 8 downloads surpass 200 million
But lest Firefox fans get too carried away with their success, there's another number that shows what Mozilla is up against. According to a source familiar with Microsoft's statistics, IE 8 has been downloaded more than 200 million times in the last four months since its release.

That's a fifth of the way to what Firefox achieved since Firefox 1.0 was released nearly five years ago. And Microsoft hasn't even begun pushing IE 8 through update in earnest yet. Microsoft's the 200 million statistic doesn't include updates such as bug patches and security fixes.

So let's face it: being installed along with the world's most widely used operating system is remains a huge advantage for IE's use, antitrust concerns notwithstanding. Microsoft declined to comment on its download statistics.

(Credit: Mozilla)

So what do all these numbers really show besides browser makers' urges to thump their chests about their popularity? This: the world of browsers is in serious flux.

Next-gen Web en route
That's because after years of near-dormancy after IE crushed Netscape in the 1990s, the browser wars are back in full swing. The growing migration of personal and professional activity to Web applications, the growing adoption of broadband Internet connections, and the growing adoption of truly Web-capable mobile phones are combining to make Web browsers a strategic asset in the computing industry. Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Google, Opera Software, and others all want to be the gateway to the world's most vibrant medium, the Internet.

Even the fifth-ranked browser can claim notable success. Opera's desktop browser has been downloaded more than 270 million times from the company's own servers since 2003, and the daily download rate has jumped from 30,000 to 40,000 back then to about 200,000 today, the company said. Throwing Opera Mini for mobile phones into the mix increases the total to about 500 million.

The download rates show that there's a powerful movement afoot to "upgrade the Web," as Mozilla's marketing catchphrase would have it.

It's a gradual change, with plenty of laggards such as corporate users who can't upgrade from IE 6 or cybercafes with locked-down PCs. And there's plenty of turmoil about next-generation Web standards. But the herd is gradually moving to more sophisticated browsers that collectively enable a more sophisticated Web.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10301013-92.html?tag=mncol

Clampi Trojan stealing online bank data from consumers and businesses

2009-07-30T09:31:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance recently learned of a scary Trojan that has been circulating around the web for a few years. This Trojan, known as Clampi, can steal bank info and is already responsible for the loss of many large sums of money. Read more about it below…

LAS VEGAS--Hundreds of thousands of Windows computers are believed to be infected with a Trojan called "Clampi" that has been stealing banking and other log-in credentials from compromised PCs since 2007, a security researcher said on the eve of the Black Hat security conference.

Clampi, also known as Ligats, Ilomo, or Rscan, infects computers in drive-by downloads when people visit Web sites hosting malicious code that exploits vulnerabilities in browser plug-ins Flash and ActiveX, said Joe Stewart, director of malware research for the Counter Threat Unit of SecureWorks.

When the infected computer is used to access a targeted banking or other site, the log-in and other information is stolen.

Clampi has spread quickly through Microsoft-based networks in a worm-like fashion in recent months, Stewart said. It uses domain administrator credentials that were either stolen by the Trojan or based on an administrator logging into an infected system. It then uses a Windows executable SysInternals tool, "psexec," to copy itself to all the computers on the domain, he said.

Clampi also serves as a proxy server for criminals to anonymize their activity when logging into stolen accounts.

Stewart has identified 1,400 Web sites in 70 different countries out of 4,500 sites being targeted by the Trojan attack. The sites include banks, credit card companies, online casinos, retail sites, utilities, ad networks, stock brokerages, mortgage lenders, and government and military portals.

Based on the techniques they are using, Stewart said criminals in Eastern Europe are believed to be behind Clampi.

Because it can take days or weeks to get a sample of the latest version of the Trojan, antivirus protection is often delayed, arriving after a PC is already infected, according to Stewart.

"This type of Trojan, banking Trojans in general, are the biggest threat to home computer users and businesses doing banking online," he said. "You can't rely on antivirus. At some point you are going to visit the wrong site and they'll get a Trojan on your computer."

The Trojan uses three types of encryption and sophisticated virtual machine-based packing technology to disguise itself in order to get through antivirus filters, according to Stewart.

SecureWorks' intrusion prevention software doesn't stop computers from getting infected but it prevents the stealing of the data by blocking the encrypted traffic that it deemed suspicious, he said.

Stewart recommends that consumer and business Web surfers use a dedicated computer for their banking and other sensitive financial online activities that is separate from the computer where e-mail is accessed and Web surfing is done. People should also be careful using removable drives on those isolated computers as Trojans can spread that way.

By now, the criminals "probably have way more accounts than they can actually clean out," Stewart said.

Even so, the losses from Clampi are starting to be publicized. The Trojan was behind the theft of nearly $75,000 from Slack Auto Parts in Gainesville, Ga., according to the Security Fix blog at The Washington Post.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10298233-245.html

Can my PC run Windows 7?

2009-07-27T11:58:00.001-07:00

Although Windows 7 will not be released for three months, Microsoft has already released its Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor so you can start planning ahead. Computer Renaissance has more information below…

In general, if your PC can run Windows Vista, it can run Windows 7. But if you're not running Windows Vista, or are just not sure if your system is ready to run Windows 7, there's a quick way to do a simple check.

Just download, install, and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta. You'll get a report telling you if your PC can run Windows 7 and if there are any known compatibility issues. If an issue can be resolved, you'll get suggestions for next steps. For example, it may let you know that you need an updated driver for your printer and where to get it.

Note: Information about your PC will be sent back to Microsoft; however, no information will be used to identify or contact you. For more information, read our privacy statement.

Before you begin

Before you run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta, be sure to plug in any USB devices or other devices such as printers, external hard drives, or scanners that are regularly used with the PC you're evaluating.

Important: The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta is a pre-release version and is available in U.S. English only. While we consider this a stable and high-quality beta, it's not the finished product.

Next steps

When the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scan ends, it'll display your options for upgrading a PC you already have or recommend that you just go buy a new PC for the best Windows 7 experience.

In general, if you are running a PC with Windows Vista and the Windows Upgrade Advisor says you can upgrade it, the transition to Windows 7 should be pretty smooth, although you may first need to update your Windows Vista system to the latest service pack. If you do decide to upgrade your PC, Windows 7 will be available for purchase October 22.

On the other hand, if you're running Windows XP, or any other operating system for that matter, we recommend that you experience Windows 7 on a new PC. The Laptop Scout can help you find a great PC fit for you, or you can browse through these featured PCs that can run Windows 7.

...And while we don't recommend it, should you choose to upgrade your current PC from Windows XP or another operating system to Windows 7, we recommend that you get help with this process from your local computer service provider. You'll need to back up your current files and settings, perform a custom (clean) installation, and then reinstall your files, settings, and programs.

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

What Size External Drive?

2009-07-23T14:41:00.001-07:00

External hard drives are a great way to backup your files, but how do you know what size is sufficient? Computer Renaissance came across an excellent article that offers advice on what size to get – both capacity-wise and physically. Read more below…

When people talk about the "size" of a hard drive, they generally mean it's capacity--how many gigabytes of data it holds. But you should also consider its literal, physical size.

External hard drives come in two basic sizes: portable and desktop. Portable drives are light, generally the size of a small whiskey flask, and can be powered by the computer's USB port. Desktop drives are larger, inconvenient to carry, and need separate AC power.

On the other hand, desktop drives tend to be faster, hold more data, and cost less by the gigabyte if not by the drive. For instance, as I write this, $100 can buy you a 500GB portable drive or a 1TB desktop one.

If you want to take the drive with you on the road, go for a portable. If you want to back up massive amounts of hi-def video, you'll want a desktop. Otherwise, weigh the factors and consider your needs. Personally, I prefer portable drives for backup, even if I don't travel with them, because I can hide them after backing up and lesson the likelihood that a burglar will take my PC and my backup.

Now then, about capacity: Go with the drive that holds about 25-percent more than the source drive you'll be backing up from. This will allow you to do a full backup and many incrementals.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/168220/what_size_external_drive.html

Microsoft Details Windows 7 RTM Plans: What You Need to Know

2009-07-22T15:11:00.001-07:00

Microsoft has released details about the RTM release of Windows 7, and what the means for everyone from consumers to developers. Computer Renaissance has more information below…

Microsoft still hasn't officially announced that Windows 7 has been "released to manufacturing" (RTM) for production and packaging in preparation for its October 22 release to consumers. But the company did share more fascinating details yesterday on its pending RTM schedule on the Windows 7 Team Blog.

The company said it's still right on target to deliver the RTM as promised in the second half of this month. Well, that's got to mean we're pretty darn close -- today is July 22, leaving only nine more days this month for RTM to happen. Let the guesswork begin!

Meanwhile, while Microsoft is picking a date for RTM, let's look at what it will mean for you every step of the way.

*For beta testers and other enthusiasts: The biggest news so far is Microsoft's confirmation that they will indeed offer a "family pack" for Windows 7, which will be a specially-priced copy that can legally be installed on up to three PCs.

That's great news for all of us who maintain multiple PCs and want to be able to afford to move them all to Windows 7 without having to take out a second mortgage. "We have heard a lot of feedback from beta testers and enthusiasts over the last 3 years that we need a better solution for homes with multiple PCs," wrote Microsoft's Windows Communications Manager Brandon LeBlanc in the blog post. "I'm happy to confirm that we will indeed be offering a family pack of Windows 7 Home Premium (in select markets) which will allow installation on up to 3 PCs. As I've said before, stay tuned to our blog for more information on this and any other potential offers."

Also notable for beta testers and enthusiasts: Following the move to RTM, Microsoft will be releasing an evaluation of Windows 7 Professional for IT Professionals via its TechNet Springboard Series, LeBlanc wrote. "Over 40 percent of beta testers are IT Professionals and this will allow them to quickly access the RTM code and plan for deployments," he said. That should provide lots of needed information that can be used to evaluate and plan the move for corporate users.

Beta testers won't automatically get a free copy of Windows 7, LeBlanc reiterated, but will be able to continue to use their Release Candidate test versions through its expiration on June 1, 2010. Microsoft TechNet subscribers will be able to download and install the RTM version when it is ready, LeBlanc said.

*For general consumers, there are no other major new details to report today, except for the good news about the pending family pack: Windows 7 will be available for sale starting October 22 in retail stores and on new PCs, according to Microsoft.

*For partners and OEMs: Windows 7 RTM downloads will be available to Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and Independent Hardware Vendor (IHV) partners starting on Aug. 6 from Microsoft Connect or MSDN, the blog said. "If you are a partner who has been working on Windows 7 for a while, now is the time to complete your testing with final version of Windows 7," LeBlanc wrote. "For partners that haven't gotten started yet with Windows 7, now is the time to get involved. You can also visit www.readyset7.com to learn more about getting ready for Windows 7."

Downloads in English will be available starting August 16 for Microsoft Partner Program Gold/Certified Members through the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) Portal, LeBlanc wrote. Other language versions will be ready by October 1.

"OEMs will receive Windows 7 RTM software images beginning approximately 2 days after we officially RTM, as a little time is required to release and distribute these images," LeBlanc wrote. "This will allow them to begin preparing images for new PCs to ship with Windows 7 on them. We know our OEMs are excited for Windows 7 and we can't wait to hand them the final RTM bits!"

*For business customers: Downloads of Windows 7 RTM in English will be available starting August 7 if you are a Volume License (VL) customer with an existing Software Assurance (SA) license, according to Microsoft. Other languages will be available later using the same Volume License Service Center (VLSC) portal for downloads. Volume License customers who don't have an SA license will have to wait until September 1 to purchase Windows 7 through Volume Licensing.

*For IT professionals: If you have a TechNet subscription, you'll be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English starting August 6, with other languages available by October 1. The Microsoft Springboard Series Web pages provide lots more information to help with successful deployments and with finding answers to problems, the company said.

*For developers: If you have an MSDN subscription, you'll be able to download Windows 7 RTM in English starting August 6, with other languages available by October 1. Several helpful information resources are being touted by Microsoft to help you with application development for Windows 7, including the Windows 7 for Developers Blog, the Windows 7 Developers Guide on MSDN and a series of helpful videos on Channel 9.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/news.html

How do I know if my computer has a virus?

2009-07-21T10:01:00.001-07:00

As usual, Computer Renaissance reminds you to regularly update your antivirus and operating system software to avoid getting viruses and other malware. In addition, we found a great article outlining the signs to look for to determine if your computer is infected with a virus. Read more below…

Do you think you may have a virus? The following are some ways you can tell you may have a virus

Your Anti-virus software won't come up when you try to start it.

You get a lot of returned e-mails that you did not send. NOTE: this might also be spoofing, meaning someone else is infected and is giving out your address.

You get e-mails back letting you know you have a virus. This could also be spoofing If there are attachments, do not click on them or open them. Delete the messages immediately.

Your computer is unusually slow, or exhibiting strange behavior. Spyware will also commonly cause these symtoms.
If your computer does have a virus, you should purchase anti virus software and install it on your computer if you do not have any. You can find it at places like most retail outlets, and allcomputer stores. In the meantime, you can immediately do a free virus scan by simply typing "free virus scan" into your favorite search engine. You can also instantly purchase the software at various sites such as Free AVG, Norton AntiVirus and Macafee. Check with your ISP, as they may offer free virus/security protection. Comcast for instance offers Macafee for free to all her customers.

If you have anti-virus software make sure, it is updated regularly. In fact, most programs have an option to perform automatic updates.

The best way to keep a virus from spreading through your computer and to remove it is to boot the computer into safe mode, by hitting the boot menu key at startup (usually F8)

If you cannot get it to remove a, send or take it in to a computer repair shop and have them clean it out.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-5426-Internet-and-Technology-Examiner~y2009m7d19-Gadgets-101-How-do-I-know-if-my-computer-has-a-virus

Kingston unveils world's first 256GB USB flash drive

2009-07-20T10:12:00.001-07:00

Kingston has just released its new 256 GB flash drive, the largest USB drive to date. Computer Renaissance has more info below…

After delivering the world’s first 128GB USB flash drive, Kingston has claimed the title again for their 256GB DataTraveler 300. The drive makes use of a cap-less design which seems to employ a sliding mechanism to eject the USB head. Being larger than my primary OS HDD, I imagine this beast can host quite the cache of media.

The drive is capable of holding up to 365 CDs – or one album for every day of the year. The 256GB DataTraveler 300 features read rates of up to 20MB/s and write of 10MB/s. Given its storage capacity, the drive is a bit bulky at 2.78” x .67” x .87” but it shouldn’t detract much from its portability. While the drive is ReadyBoost-capable, its password software will not work properly if ReadyBoost cache is enabled.

It is built to order and ships with a five-year warranty and 24/7 tech support. According to Kingston’s website the DataTraveler300 is available in the Far East, Middle East and Africa only. The MSRP is £565.67 (about $935.11).

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/35509-Kingston-unveils-worlds-first-256GB-USB-flash-drive.html

Mozilla closes security hole with Firefox 3.5.1

2009-07-17T13:24:00.001-07:00

Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox, which patches the security flaw that was found recently and also improves on some other aspects of the browser. Computer Renaissance has more information below…

Mozilla updated Firefox to version 3.5.1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux on Thursday, fixing a security problem, improving stability, and speeding launch time on some Windows systems, according to the release notes.

"We strongly recommend that all Firefox 3.5 users upgrade to this latest release," browser director Mike Beltzner said in a blog post Thursday.

Firefox 3.5 embodies Mozilla's hope to build a better foundation for Web applications, but about two weeks after its debut, a vulnerability in the browser's JavaScript engine came to light. Mozilla rated it "critical" because an attacker could create a Web site that would run malicious code on the computer.

The new version can be installed from Mozilla's download site or by selecting "Check for Updates" in the Help menu. Unfortunately, when I did so, the Firefox warned me that the newly updated Gears 0.5.29.0 plug-in from Google becomes incompatible again.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10289205-83.html

Bill Gates on Google's Chrome OS

2009-07-16T15:17:00.001-07:00

Just like everyone else, Computer Renaissance has been very interested in hearing more about Google’s Chrome OS but It’s REALLY interesting to hear from Bill Gates on the subject.

To Bill Gates, Google's Chrome OS looks a lot like a familiar foe: Linux.

"There's many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways," Gates said in an interview with CNET News this week. "In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks. It's got a browser in it."

Gates said it was hard to really say much about Chrome OS, since Google has said so little about how it will actually work.

"The more vague they are, the more interesting it is," he said.

As for the notion that the browser needs to act more like an OS, he noted that the browser has already become an extremely broad concept, with all of the plug-ins and other things that are now done inside a browser.

"It just shows the word browser has become a truly meaningless word," Gates said. "What's a browser? What's not a browser? If you're playing a movie, is that a browser or not a browser? If you're doing annotations, is that a browser? If you're editing text, is that a browser or not a browser? In large part, it's more an abuse of terminology than a real change."

Read the full story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10286308-56.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=BeyondBinary/

The Pirate Bay Co-founder Ordered to Pay $3.6 Million

2009-07-16T14:55:00.001-07:00

At Computer Renaissance, we inform clients of the dangers of downloading music and pirated software. After reading this, you will see the damages of owning/operating the portals that promote and enable users to acquire media without purchasing it.

The music industry will attempt to seize money paid to acquire the Pirate Bay, according to a high-level music industry source and a spokesman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the trade group representing the music industry worldwide.

Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde shows 'I owe you' note to the music industry following a judge's order that the site's founders pay the equivalent of $3.6 million.

(Credit: Mats Lewan/CNET )

Global Gaming Factory, a Swedish software company, made big news two weeks ago by announcing that it would acquire the Pirate Bay, the popular outlaw file-sharing site, for $7.8 million. Since then the company has been touting a new business model and even hiring executives, such as Wayne Rosso, the former Grokster president, to legally obtain content from film and music industries.

What remains to be seen is how that sale might be affected by attempts by the music industry to collect the $3.6 million damages that a court in Sweden awarded it in April. The court found the four operators of the Pirate Bay--Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, and Carl Lundström--guilty of copyright violations and sentenced each to a year in jail. The court also ordered them to pay 30 million Swedish kronor ($3.6 million).

Alex Jacob, a spokesman for the IFPI, said that the group has always intended to collect the damages award, but now, should the sale go through, music execs know that the original Pirate Bay operators have access to the money.

Whether these attempts to seize part of the proceeds of a sale could hold up a sale remain unclear. The first thing to remember is that the sale isn't yet done.

According to a press release, Global Gaming's offer is to pay half of the $7.8 million in cash and the other half in the company's stock. To finance the deal, Global Gaming must issue new shares and to do that it needs the blessing of investors and board of directors. Any acquisition isn't expected to be finalized before August, the company said.

On the other side, the Pirate Bay's founders have said that they haven't owned the company for years.

"We never had any interest in earning money from the Pirate Bay," Peter Sunde told Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper. "We haven't owned TPB since the search and seizure in 2006... Those who will get the money, friends in a foreign company, have agreed as a condition to put the money in a foundation for future internet projects."

The legal adviser for Global Gaming has said that the Pirate Bay is owned by a company in the Seychelles called Reservella.

Jacob, from the IFPI, says it makes no difference who owns the Pirate Bay. He said: "The judge found the four operators guilty and ordered them to pay the damages."

That's who the IFPI will try to get the money from.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10288495-93.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Critical JavaScript vulnerability in Firefox 3.5

2009-07-15T11:33:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance recently learned of a major security flaw in Firefox 3.5. While there is not yet a fix for it, there are a few workarounds to avoid the problem until Mozilla releases a patch. Read more below…

Issue

A bug discovered last week in Firefox 3.5’s Just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compiler was disclosed publicly yesterday. It is a critical vulnerability that can be used to execute malicious code.

Impact

The vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker who tricks a victim into viewing a malicious Web page containing the exploit code. The vulnerability can be mitigated by disabling the JIT in the JavaScript engine. To do so:

Enter about:config in the browser’s location bar.

Type jit in the Filter box at the top of the config editor.

Double-click the line containing javascript.options.jit.content setting the value to false.

Note that disabling the JIT will result in decreased JavaScript performance and is only recommended as a temporary security measure. Once users have been received the security update containing the fix for this issue, they should restore the JIT setting to true by:

Enter about:config in the browser’s location bar.

Type jit in the Filter box at the top of the config editor.

Double-click the line containing javascript.options.jit.content setting the value to true.

Alternatively, users can disable the JIT by running Firefox in Safe Mode. Windows users can do so by selecting Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode) from the Mozilla Firefox folder.

Status

Mozilla developers are working on a fix for this issue and a Firefox security update will be sent out as soon as the fix is completed and tested.

Source: http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2009/07/14/critical-javascript-vulnerability-in-firefox-35/

Link exchanges: The poor man's SEO

2009-07-14T09:08:00.001-07:00

If you are looking to get more hits on your website, this article touches on some ways that you can do it. Computer Renaissance thinks that this may be helpful to you:

Large Internet companies spend millions on consultants and technology trying to get their sites to rank among the highest results on Google. Everyone else has to rely on the poor man's search-engine optimization: the link exchange.

If you've ever hung up your own shingle on the Web, you've probably gotten an e-mail to this effect at some point: "Dear So-and-so, I believe your site and mine could benefit from exchanging links." We probably get eight to 10 a week in the CNET News general mailbox, mostly from technology-related companies but occasionally from auto-parts suppliers and watch retailers who either have no idea what we do or few moral qualms about spam.

The idea is that if you can coax a link out of a large site like CNET, Google and other search engines will record that link as a vote of confidence in your site's worthiness and improve your ranking in searches for certain topics, thereby boosting traffic to your site. The technique is quite old, dating back even before Google and its PageRank system emerged as the Web's dominant search engine.

But does it still work? And at what point do two or three sites struggling to get off the ground veer off the road from mutual assistance to a full-blown spam operation designed to game the system?

Evan Duffield, for one, thinks it still works. He contacted us trying to get CNET to exchange links with WarpedAI.com, a site he has launched to promote stock-trading tools for day traders, and says he has been able to slowly build up the PageRank of another site he owns using techniques that don't run afoul of Google's Webmaster guidelines.

"It's kind of a vicious circle," he said. "To start a new business you need PageRank, but to get PageRank you need links to your service. You have to get the ball rolling."

PageRank is the currency of the Web. Google's novel approach to site indexing way back when was to evaluate the worthiness of a site based on how many other sites were linking to it, also taking into account the worthiness of the sites passing along the links. This meant, and still does mean, that a link from a site with a high PageRank counts for way more than a link from a site with low PageRank.

But how do you get a link from one of those sites? Google's official advice: "The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community." That, of course, sounds like something your mother would say.

In a Web as vast as this one, getting attention for a new site, even one with superb content, is a very difficult undertaking. Bloggers can discuss each other's work and help each other build up a following, but if you're selling a product or service it can be much more difficult to climb the ranks of search results for things like "day-trading software" when you're starting from scratch.

So Webmasters like Duffield turn to solicitations for links. Danny Sullivan, who writes about search-engine optimization for Search Engine Land, says "if you're a new site, absolutely you want to be doing link building. But you need to be doing that in a smart fashion."

Duffield says he's very careful to only solicit links from sites that are related to his product: his pitch for exchanging links that somehow wound up at our doorstep was addressed to computer-go@computer-go.org, a mailing list for hobbyists trying to tackle the difficult chore of building a computer AI system for the ancient game of go.

That was a mistake, he said; the result of prematurely hitting send on an e-mail template. Duffield compiles his targets by searching for sites that are related to finance and stock trading, and attempts to contact a general e-mail address to pass along his site's information and offer a link exchange.

"It's not about the actual links so much as it is optimizing search queries," Duffield said. "When I figure out a query I want from Google, I can see the top three positions have this much page rank and this many positions, and try to beat that out."

As long as people like Duffield are exchanging links without offering payment, or crossing obvious lines such as breaking captchas and posting spam links in guestbooks or comment forums, they're following the spirit of Google's Webmaster guidelines.

"Where it tends to get into tricky issues is where people are doing it primarily for payment," Sullivan said. "Search engines would see links as votes. Google does not like that people would simply be buying links to do better.

While paid links are clearly off-limits, Google appears to ban link exchanges in general, saying it does not allow "excessive link exchanging" but failing to define exactly what constitutes "excessive." Other practices that are verboten include links to "bad neighborhoods" on the Web and complicated networks of several Web sites with little content but pages and pages of links amongst themselves that Google can usually identify.

For the most part, however, the practice is rampant enough that only the most egregious violations get snagged. "If you start thinking too much about not getting caught, you're probably doing things you shouldn't be doing," Sullivan said.

In an era where SEO is a budding industry unto itself, link exchanges are perhaps the most basic approach. Far below the realm of those dithering over Google's search index are those like Duffield trying to make something out of literally nothing.

While he needs to build PageRank equity to get started, Duffield acknowledges that at a certain point that Google is right: a site will live or die on its content. Link exchanges only work to get one's name out there: the real boost needed to turn a Web site into a business comes when real people start discussing and linking to a service on blogs, message forums, and social-networking sites.

That's when your search ranking (and therefore traffic) really starts to grow, he said. "If you can make Google see that something is being talked about all over the Internet, what choice do they have?"

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10285606-2.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Android, Chrome OS Relationship Confusing Everyone, Including Google

2009-07-10T13:55:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance has been buzzing with talk about the new Chrome OS. Here is some info on its relationship to the OTHER Google OS shipping on netbooks. Sounds like there is to many hands in the pot.

Just as companies were starting to get serious about installing Android, a mobile Linux OS, on netbooks, Google announces Chrome, a netbook Linux OS. The relationship between the two OSes is already getting tense, or at the very least, awkward.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is now admitting that it took him quite a while to warm to the idea of Chrome the browser, even longer to come to terms with the possibility of Chrome the OS, and in both cases only after Larry Page Sergey Brin literally nerded him into submission:

I just gave up, but there is no question I am hugely supportive of Chrome and Chrome OS. They are game-changers. They change the way you think about your computer.

Meanwhile, Android's perceived role in the world was expanding. After all this soul-searching, though, Schmidt must have a clear vision of parallel, non-conflicting roles for Android and Chrome OS, right?:

Although it appears they are two separate projects, there's a great deal of commonality. Eventually they may merge even closer."

This is somewhere between "oops!" and "I have no idea."

But hold on! There could be a third way! Digitimes is reporting that Intel is in talks with Google to help adapt Android for use in MIDs, the so-far ill-fated bridge devices between netbooks and smartphones. Technologically, this seems like a reasonable secondary use for Android. Commercially, though, MIDs are something of a ghetto; a category broached by few manufacturers, and unfamiliar (or unattractive) to most customers.

The most obvious conclusion to all this is for Android (and Android enthusiasts) to narrow ambitions and focus on what we know it's good at: cellphones, and possibly portable media players. This is something that will probably happen organically, but only after a few more news cycles worth of bewildering quotes and announcements from Google, which we will gleefully document.

source: http://gizmodo.com/5311682/android-chrome-os-relationship-confusing-everyone-including-google

Search engines for the music lover

2009-07-09T10:56:00.001-07:00

We use search engines every day to find out all types of information such as news, sports, and research. Did you know that there are also search engines to help you find your favorite music? Computer Renaissance found this out:

If you have trouble finding music on the Web, you'll be happy to know there are search engines designed specifically for finding your favorite tunes. They can help you stream everything from Top 40 hits to classics.

Find your music

MP3 Realm is a music search engine that helps you find MP3 tracks from across the Web. To do so, you'll need to search the site for either an artist or a song. A results page will then give you the option of downloading the track or embedding the tune into your blog. You can also stream the song on your site. All of the songs MP3 Realm finds are hosted on servers across the Web, so download times do vary. It can be quick but can also make you endure a brutally long wait. MP3 Realm is a fine site, but it's not the best music search engine in this roundup.

Mp3 Realm has a fine selection, but download times vary widely.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Project Playlist is one of the most convenient music search engines on the Web. Simply input an artist or track you like into the search engine and chances are that Project Playlist will have what you're looking for. I searched for a variety of titles, including some that are obscure and, in every case, Project Playlist had at least one matching track.

After you find the track you're looking for, you can stream it or add it to your playlist for future listening. If you can't get enough of the song, you can have Project Playlist send it to you as a ringtone. That will take just a few seconds. Overall, Project Playlist is a stellar music search engine.

Project Playlist has a great search engine.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

SkreemR won't blow you away with its design. In fact, it's an ugly site. But finding songs you might want to listen to is quite easy. It doesn't offer as many songs as a site like Project Playlist, but I was generally pleased with the selection. SkreemR also features the option to create a ringtone from the song and to share your favorite tunes with your Twitter followers. Both features add some more value, but I had a hard time getting over SkreemR's poor design.

SkreemR is just plain ugly.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

Songza allows you to search for artists or songs. It returns several results. When you hover your mouse over those results, you have the option of streaming the track, sharing it with your Twitter and Facebook friends, adding it to a playlist, or rating it. Playing a song takes just a few seconds. The site's playlist feature is outstanding. And thanks to the YouTube window to the right of the search results, you can watch songs being performed. Songza is a neat site. Check it out.

Songza lets you listen to songs and watch videos.

(Credit: Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)

My top 2

1. Project Playlist: Whether you're looking for popular or obscure music, you'll like Project Playlist's convenient, thorough search engine.

2. Songza: Songza's playlists make it worth checking out.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10281031-2.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

Nielsen: Kids' online time leaps dramatically

2009-07-08T10:13:00.001-07:00

Younger kids are using the internet more and more lately, spending an average of 11 hours a month in May 2009 when they only spend 7 hours in May 2004. Computer Renaissance thinks you may find this article interesting:

Kids from two to 11 years of age are spending 63 percent more time online than they did five years ago, says a report released Monday from Nielsen Online. Children in that age range were online an average of 11 hours in May 2009 versus just 7 hours in May 2004.

Over the past five years, the total number of kids surfing the Net has shot up 18 percent to 16 million, says the report, while the overall Internet population has risen only 10 percent. The younger set now represents 9.5 percent of the online community.

Online use among kids surged despite a projected decrease of 1 percent in the population of children under 14 for 2004 to 2010, says Nielsen, citing an estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Results were split pretty evenly by gender. For May 2009, boys 2-11 spent 7 percent more time online than did girls in the same age group, though girls surfed 9 percent more web pages than did boys.

Online video has proven popular among kids, especially boys. Among all children, boys watched 61 percent of videos on the Net in May 2009, accounting for 57 percent of the time the children spent viewing online video.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-10281882-235.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Chrome's new-tab page gets more interactive

2009-07-07T16:39:00.001-07:00

Computer Renaissance read that Chrome has updated their tab-pages to help make your browsing experience better. Read the details below:

Opening a new tab in a browser is a moment ripe with opportunity, and Google has begun testing a version of Chrome that can present new options when users do so.

Chrome's current new-tab interface, which also shows by default when the browser is first launched, displays a three-by-three array of thumbnails of the most commonly visited Web sites. It also sports a history search box, a list of recent bookmarks, and a list of recently closed tabs. That changes in Chrome 3.0.191.3, a developer preview version released Monday.

The new layout, though, features a thumbnail grid four wide and two down, placing lists of closed tabs and recent downloads in a "recent activities" section below and offering an area for "tips and suggestions" next to it. This instructional section probably makes sense, given that Chrome is somewhat alien to most users, but so far it doesn't show any actual tips or suggestions.

Also new is the ability to delete specific thumbnails with a close box, pin them so they're permanently shown, and reorder them using a drag-and-drop interface. Chrome users also can opt to show Web pages in as a list rather than as thumbnails, and they can hide either the "recent activities" or "tips and suggestions" boxes.

The new-tab page historically has been left empty, but now browser makers see it as prime real estate for prompting users with ideas for what they might want to do or offering them what they might need.

Apple's Safari 4 offers a 3D array of thumbnails, which debuted the pinning, deleting, and reordering features with its January beta debut. Mozilla developers also have been toying with Firefox's new-tab behavior. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 asks "What do you want to do next?" and offering choices such as enabling InPrivate browsing, reopening closed tabs, and installing accelerators that let people take actions with Web page text.

The new new-tab view isn't available by default in Chrome. To use it, launch Chrome with the "--new-new-tab-page" command-line option.

The new version also fixes some issues with printing on Windows and with animated GIFs, according to Chrome Engineering Program Manager Jonathan Conradt.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10281129-2.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

10 Ways to Clean Your Keyboard

2009-07-06T16:02:00.001-07:00

Getting all the dirt and grime out from the inside of your keyboard can be a grueling task. Computer Renaissance found an interesting article that provides 10 ways to de-grossify your keyboard. Read more below…

1. Use an air compressor

Get rid of the mysterious sticky stuff under your keyboard with compressed air equipped with an extension nozzle. Turn the can at a 45-degree angle and spray between the keys. Tap and shake the keyboard and then repeat spraying. Finish by cleaning the piled up grime with a damp cloth.

2. Use isopropyl alcohol

It's easy to use isopropyl alcohol (never ethyl alcohol because you might remove the printed letters/numbers) with a damp cloth and Q-tips to remove the built up dirt. Always use a cloth rather than applying the alcohol directly to the keys.

3. Use a USB vacuum cleaner

USB vacuum cleaners to do the hard part of sucking up potato chip and pretzel debris. Just plug into your USB port and use the thin keyboard tool to make your keyboard look like new again. Also includes a built in LED light.

4. Use CyberClean

CyberClean makes cleaning fun! Just take the yellow gel blob that looks like Play-Doh and press it over the keys to lift out dirt and bacteria. The patented sticky formula from Switzerland even kills germs on contact. It's also good on cell phones and any other potentially infectious surface.

5. Remove all of the keys

This tip is for folks with a lot of patience. First make a copy of your keyboard layout and turn your computer/keyboard off. Next, remove the keys with a screwdriver. Clean out what's underneath the keys and then clean each key with a damp cloth and Q-tip.

6. Clorox Wipes or household disinfectants

If you eat at your keyboard or type with dirty hands or if multiple people use your keyboard, you need to protect yourself daily with Clorox or a disinfectant spray (on a cloth) to control the germ invasion.

7. Use the dishwasher

Yes, it does sound extreme, but it works if you want to save time and don't need your keyboard for a few days. Wash the keyboard using only water and remember to remove all of keys. Then let it dry out for two or three days.

8. Use Post-it Notes

If there's an ample supply of Post-it Notes around, they'll come in handy when you want to clean your crumb-filled keyboard fast. Just turn the sticky edge of the Post-it towards the hard-to-remove specks and voila!

9. Use a hairdryer

Using a hairdryer is great for general dusting and debris-clearing. It also saves time. Just point it at the keyboard and go with the heat on or off. Can be used with or without the compressed air can.

10. Use Scotch Tape

Using Scotch Tape or another brand of transparent tape can help you quickly remove dirt and crumbs. First give the keyboard a good shake and then start applying the tape.

Source: http://www.inc.com/ss/how-clean-your-keyboard?slide=0#1

Yahoo enables twittering via Flickr

2009-06-30T15:09:00.001-07:00

A lot of people have twitter and a lot of people have photos. Yahoo’s Flickr is bringing the two together. Computer Renaissance thinks that you may find this helpful the next time you want to “tweet” a picture to someone.

Yahoo has released a feature that lets people post Flickr photos to their Twitter accounts.

The Twitter2Flickr feature requires that you enable Flickr as an approved application that can tweet under your username.

Then, when you click the "blog this" link above a photo at Flickr, you're presented with the option to twitter it. The tweet will come with a "flic.kr" shortened URL.

Flickr has a large number of users, and its use is amplified by the fact that other sites can make use of Flickr data through an API (application programming interface). The Twitter integration is a modest example of Yahoo's attempt to make its sites less of a walled garden by working better with other Web properties.

A Twitter search for Flickr photographs indicates that a lot of people are making use of the integration, which had been in beta testing since earlier in June.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10276236-2.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0