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18:26 |
Friday, October 31. 2008
PCWorld - Mozilla will push out just two more security updates for Firefox 2.0 before it retires the popular web browser in December.
"We're starting to consult the development community for feedback," said Mike Beltzner, the director of Firefox, prior to setting a final 'end-of-life' date. If all goes according to plan, the last update for the older browser will be Firefox 2.0.0.19. The current build of Firefox 2.0 is 2.0.0.17, which was released last month to patch 14 vulnerabilities.
Mozilla's policy is to support a browser for six months after it's been superseded by a new version. The company unveiled Firefox 3.0 in mid-June; shortly after that, Mozilla announced that it would stop patching Firefox 2.0 later in the year.
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18:25 |
Friday, October 31. 2008
PCWorld - If you thought democracy was only a political term, Taiwanese notebook manufacturers Asus beg to differ. Asus have launched the WePC program in collaboration with Intel, an initiative that allows to users to design their own PCs and have Asus build it for them.
Interested users can visit the website www.wepc.com where they will be given a host options to customize and design their own laptops including the specs, color etc. Users will be able to choose if they want to build netbooks, notebooks or gaming laptops. The website also has a section where you can draw a rough sketch of what you want the laptop to look like. After receiving submissions Asus hopes to select the best few designs and award the contributors.
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18:24 |
Friday, October 31. 2008
PCWorld - Three of the biggest laptop computer makers are recalling certain batteries because of a risk they may overheat and catch fire. Sony made the batteries and the recall mirrors -- yet appears a lot smaller than -- a similar one that occurred two years ago.
This time, around 100,000 batteries are affected, a fraction of the 9.6 million [m] recalled in 2006. Dell, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Toshiba have already issued recalls for the batteries that were used in their products and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said "consumers should stop using recalled products immediately."
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13:44 |
Thursday, October 30. 2008
Google - Currently users are required to create individual passwords for many websites they visit, but users would prefer to avoid this step so they could visits websites more easily. Similarly, many websites on the Internet have asked for a way to enable users to log into their sites without forcing them to create another password. If users could log into sites without needing another password, it would allow websites to provide a more personalized experience to their users.
In September we announced some research that we shared as part of an effort by the OpenID community to evaluate the user experience of federated login. Other companies like Yahoo have also published their user research. Starting today, we are providing limited access to an API for an OpenID identity provider that is based on the user experience research of the OpenID community. Websites can now allow Google Account users to login to their website by using the OpenID protocol. We hope the continued evolution of both the technical features of OpenID, as well as the improvements in user experience. will lead to a solution that can be widely deployed for federated login. One of the companies using this new service is www.zoho.com. Raju Vegesna at ZoHo says that "We now offer all our users the ability to login to ZoHo using their Google Account to avoid the need to create yet another login and password."
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13:43 |
Thursday, October 30. 2008
PCWorld - It's no secret that the faltering economy is taking its toll on the tech world. You may not have noticed, though, how often your wallet has been hit with sneaky fees as a result. We've identified seven recently introduced surcharges on tech-related products--add-ons that vendors aren't exactly trumpeting. Ready to see where companies are hiding the new fees?
Sneaky Fee Philosophy
Sneaky fees are by no means new. A study two years ago found that American consumers, on average, pay almost $950 each in cloaked costs every year. Now, with the mangled state of the economy heralding hard times ahead, corporations are have even more reason to try to bump up the price of their goods by subtly tacking on a few cents here and there for various nominal services and extras. "Companies are struggling with this new economic environment in the last 12 months," says Bob Sullivan, author of Gotcha Capitalism and columnist of MSNBC’s Red Tape Chronicles. "They'll really be willing to do anything to survive."
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13:39 |
Thursday, October 30. 2008
PCWorld - The BlackBerry Bold sports a revamped design and interface, but it falls short in other areas.
The BlackBerry Bold 9000, Research in Motion's formidable contender in the 3G market, has finally arrived. And though the Bold boasts a sleek design, a sharp display, and high-speed connectivity, it fails to impress in other areas--particularly, its call quality and its camera's image quality. As enticing as this phone is, its faults may prevent the Bold from justifying its steep price tag (the phone costs $300 with a two-year AT&T contract, and $680 with no contract).
(The PC World Test Center is currently tesing this smart phone's battery life. We'll update the review and assign an overall PCW Rating for the Bold when testing is complete.)
The most stylish BlackBerry yet, the Bold comes with a removable black leatherette cover that gives the phone a classy, sophisticated look and makes the handset comfortable to hold. (You can personalize the back cover with an optional blue, brown, green, gray, or red back.) At 4.5 inches by 2.6 inches by 0.55 inch, the Bold has roughly the same dimensions as its predecessor, the BlackBerry Curve 8300; it also has curved corners and a glossy face. The phone weighs 4.8 ounces, making it heavier than the the BlackBerry Curve 8320 (which weighs about 4 ounces) but equal in weight to Apple's iPhone 3G.
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12:40 |
Tuesday, October 28. 2008
Engadget - Here in the US of A, most netbooks come stocked with a predictable array of hardware: a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 80GB HDD, 1GB of RAM and a price tag ranging from $399 to $699. Elsewhere on the planet, things are a bit different, and if VIA has anything to say about it, it will be the name people think of when hearing "netbook" in Asia and beyond. Said outfit has just cranked up a Global Mobility Bazaar program to "drive [global] mobile computing adoption," and it has already managed to pull 15 companies (including Microsoft, for a little thing called WinXP) onboard. In essence, the program will enable second-tier vendors to get in the netbook game and offer products with shorter life cycles and lower prices -- both of which are mighty useful in emerging markets. In somewhat related news, we're also hearing a sketchy report that HP has chosen the Intel route for its future netbooks, and considering that the Vivienne Tam Digital Clutch has already selected Intel, we suppose the forthcoming Mini 1000 will likely be the real confirmation / denial.
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12:38 |
Tuesday, October 28. 2008
Engadget - Look, here's what you need to do: reach into the appropriate pocket on your personage, take out your phone, and throw it into the nearest wall. It sucks. The N70 from Lanye (or ChinaKing, or... somebody from China), which we've drooled over previously, is a candybar phone with a 2.4-inch screen, Bluetooth 2.0, and a little bit of dual-band GSM. Oh, and a built-in projector. And an interface that almost perfectly mirrors that of the iPhone with the addition of voice recording and MMS. It's awesome, and it's now available for import for a mere $345. A bargain at any price.
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12:34 |
Tuesday, October 28. 2008
Engadget - We knew good and well Microsoft was gearing up to drop a pre-beta release of Windows 7 in developers' laps at its Professional Developers Conference, but now we're being treated to a host of details from Redmond itself. For starters, it's showing off (for the first time, mind you) its new Web applications for Office. As you'd expect, said apps are "lightweight versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are used from within standard web browsers." According to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, it's aiming to bring "the best of the web to Windows, and the best of Windows to the web." 'Course, we're also told about improved navigation, a new taskbar (preview shown), support for multi-touch gestures, Device Stage and enhanced AV integration -- all things that have our interest decidedly piqued. Hit the read link for the full spill direct from the horse's mouth.
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17:31 |
Monday, October 27. 2008
PCWorld - Traveling a lot, and feeling lost? You don't have to remain directionless--and you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars on a dedicated GPS navigation device, either. AT&T Wireless, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless all have their own navigation applications for their GPS-enabled phones.
To see how they stacked up, I tried all three apps on BlackBerry Curves, and I found that they all worked as promised--mostly. They weren't identical, however, and though I'm not ready to give up my Garmin Nuvi, I'd recommend AT&T Navigator to anyone who wants to use their phone as a navigation system.
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