update your technology

Clipboards hijacked in web attack

2008-08-28T12:44:00.000-07:00

Computer security firms are warning about an attack that hijacks the clipboard where copied text is stored.

The attack puts a hard-to-delete weblink into the clipboard that, if followed, leads people to a website selling fake security software.

The code that inserts the link has been found in flash-based adverts seen on many legitimate websites.

The attack on the clipboard has hit both Windows and Mac users of the Firefox web browser.

Fake software

The attack has come to light as victims log reports in discussion forums of a weblink that appears in the clipboard in place of text they thought they had placed there.

It seems to work by exploiting Adobe Flash files used to make display adverts in such a way as to endlessly flush the clipboard of other text and constantly re-insert the malicious link in its place.

Getting rid of the link has proved problematic. Some report resorting to re-booting their machine to free themselves of it but others stopped it by killing the Firefox process thread.

"It's an interesting attack, but doesn't seem to be very widespread at the moment," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at security firm F-Secure. "I don't remember seeing this before."

"It is a pretty clever technique," he said. "Our work would be so much easier if our enemy would be stupid."

Chris Boyd, director of malware research at Facetime Security, said he had been following the attack for several days.

Mr Boyd said he had seen many spam e-mails being sent out that had links to sites hosting the booby-trapped adverts.

"There's been quite a rash of rogue antivirus hijacks lately related to the fake CNN/MSNBC spam," he said.

Those following the link get taken to a page advertising a bogus anti-virus security program that erroneously tells people their machine is riddled with malicious software.

Computer viruses make it to orbit

2008-08-28T12:42:00.001-07:00

A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS).

Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG.
The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games.
Nasa said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected.

Orbital outbreak

Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS.

Nasa told SpaceRef that no command or control systems of the ISS were at risk from the malicious program.

The laptops infected with the virus were used to run nutritional programs and let the astronauts periodically send e-mail back to Earth.

The laptops carried by astronauts reportedly do not have any anti-virus software on them to prevent infection.

Once it has scooped up passwords and login names the Gammima.AG worm virus tries to send them back to a central server. It targets a total of 10 games most of which are popular in the Far East such as Maple Story, HuangYi Online and Talesweaver.

Nasa is working with partners on the ISS to find out how the virus got on to the laptop in the first place.

The ISS has no direct net connection and all data traffic travelling from the ground to the spacecraft is scanned before being transmitted.

It is thought that the virus might have travelled via a flash or USB drive owned by an astronaut and taken into space.

The space agency also plans to put in place security systems to stop such incidents happening in the future.

Nasa told Wired News that viruses had infected laptops taken to the ISS on several occasions but the outbreaks had always only been a "nuisance".

iPhone 3G customers receive texts about 'important software update'

2008-08-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Owners of Apple’s iPhone 3G began receiving text messages Friday from Apple and AT&T telling them to upgrade their phone’s software to deal with “bug fixes” for the new device.

Some owners of the phone, which went on sale July 11, have complained about problems with dropped calls and poor reception, and said the phone’s 3G, or third-generation wireless, network is not working as fast as was promised.

Apple issued a 2.0.2 iPhone software “update” Aug. 18 to deal with what it only describes as “bug fixes” with the new device. To get the update, customers need to sync their iPhones with Apple’s iTunes program on their computers.

Smartphones like the iPhone are mini-computers themselves, and require similar extra care and feeding than a regular cell phone.

And because smartphones, which handle e-mail, Web surfing and software programs, are relatively new to many users, they’re not in the habit of backing up the phones’ data to their computers, or going to their computers on a regular basis to check for software updates to the phone.

Last Wednesday, I suggested in this space that because of those factors, two of America’s gynormous companies should let the million-plus owners of the new iPhone know about the software update by texting customers, especially since the companies certainly know how to reach them all. AT&T is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States.

I had heard about the software update by checking Web message boards, something I have more time to do than most folks because of what I do.

I sync my iPhone with Apple’s iTunes software on the computer on a regular basis, but the last time I did so was three days before the update was issued. If I hadn’t heard about the update via the Web world, I wouldn’t have known about it.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said that the free text message “went out on Friday,” to let customers know to “sync their phones to iTunes so they can get the software update Apple issued last Monday.”

I received the text message on Saturday, but heard from others who got it on Friday.

Can we expect the same notification to happen the next time such an update is available?

Siegel said he doesn’t know.

“I just can’t speculate on what we might do in the future,” he said.

Telecom upgrades bring community eyesores

2008-08-25T13:19:00.000-07:00

Towns and residents are fighting back with cries of 'Not in my front yard!'

PHILADELPHIA - The road to advanced video, Internet and phone services is bumpy — and the bumps can be almost as big as refrigerators.

As cable and phone companies race to upgrade services or offer video for the first time, they're doing it by installing equipment in boxes on lawns, easements and curbs all over American neighborhoods. Telecommunications rollouts have always been messy, but several towns and residents are fighting back with cries of "Not in my front yard!"

AT&T Inc.'s nearly fridge-sized units, which route its new U-verse video product to customers, are drawing particular ire. A few caught fire or even exploded. AT&T said it has fixed that by replacing the units' backup batteries.

That's not much comfort to David Crommie, who thinks the boxes are an eyesore. Crommie, who is president of a San Francisco neighborhood group called the Cole Valley Improvement Association, complained after seeing some boxes sprout in town and managed to delay AT&T's plans to install up to 850. AT&T now is expected to reapply for an exemption to the city's environmental-review procedures.

"We have nothing against the technology. We just don't want that delivery system," Crommie said. "It's 19th-century packaging for 21st-century technology."

AT&T's rival Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable company, apparently thought so too. It ran ads in Illinois calling the cabinets "giant utility boxes." In most locations, U-verse cabinets are 4 feet tall, 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep.

AT&T didn't think it was funny and sued Comcast in March for running a "false, deceptive and disparaging advertising campaign." The companies signed a standstill agreement in May.

But Comcast has utility box problems of its own.

Several residents in Lower Makefield Township, about 30 miles northeast of Philadelphia, got upset when new green boxes from Comcast popped up around town, sometimes between driveways.

"All of a sudden we have cable boxes appear," said 64-year-old resident Bernie Goldberg. "They seem to think our community is their open job site."

He wants to know why Comcast can't bury the new boxes, which are about a foot tall and wide, and 2 feet long. Comcast said aboveground boxes can be accessed more easily and are more reliable.

But Goldberg noted that Verizon Communications Inc. was able to bury its fiber-optic boxes underground in town — a fact the phone company was more than eager to confirm. (Of course, Verizon also has had installation mishaps with its new FiOS service, such as fires at homes in Pennsylvania and Virginia.)

For Goldberg and other residents of Lower Makefield Township, arguing with Comcast over cable boxes is a familiar fight. They battled the installation of aboveground boxes in the 1990s with Comcast's predecessor and won.

This time, Township Supervisor Matt Maloney said residents felt Comcast's boxes were an "intrusion."

"They're putting it in without permits," he said. "It is their contention they are not required to do so. It's our contention that they are."

Comcast, which has installed 50 boxes and doesn't plan to add more, said it is working with the township to resolve these issues.

A resolution has yet to come to Geneva, Ill., where Mayor Kevin Burns is furious with AT&T.

A few years ago Geneva passed a 180-day moratorium that effectively stopped installations of AT&T's U-verse cabinets. The phone company sued Geneva and six other Illinois municipalities for restricting its plans. AT&T claimed it had the right to use public rights of way for its telecom network.

Burns said his city merely wanted some say.

"If we were going to have our landscape dotted with refrigerator-size boxes, we should have some control over them," Burns said.

Illinois passed a law last year fast-tracking approval for cable rivals to enter the pay-TV market, stripping away much of the clout wielded by municipalities. Burns said Geneva responded by giving AT&T necessary permits for installing U-verse boxes months ago. Yet AT&T has not begun offering U-verse in Geneva — and is still suing the city. Burns said that "is beyond my comprehension."

An AT&T spokesman would not comment on the lawsuit.

There are signs AT&T is learning from its earlier missteps.

In Springfield, Ill., AT&T has agreed to pay the city $1,500 for each of the 75 to 100 U-verse cabinets it plans to install. The money will be used for landscaping that can make the boxes blend with the environment, said city spokesman Ernie Slottag.

iPhone launches in India, minus hysteria

2008-08-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI - Apple Inc.'s hugely popular 3G iPhone made its debut in India on Friday, but with a price tag of $700 there was none of the mass hysteria that marked its launch in the United States, Europe and parts of Asia last month.

At about three times the U.S. retail price, and twice the monthly salary of white-collar middle managers, the phone may still find buyers among affluent young professionals who are snapping up iconic brands and luxury items and helping fuel the Asian giant's trillion dollar economy.

A midnight launch in the Indian capital drew a small but enthusiastic crowd to Vodafone Essar, one of the two retail distributors in India, at the city's Connaught Place commercial district.

In Jaipur, capital of the desert state of Rajasthan, the local Maharaja was seen waiting in line at midnight.

Local television showed onlookers jostling for a glimpse of the phone at a mall in Gurgaon on the outskirts of the capital while retailers took out ads for it on the front pages of some of India's biggest newspapers.

"I can't wait to show it off at school, it's way better than having a PlayStation, said Rudra Khurana, a 14-year-old Delhi high school student, standing next to his beaming father.

India is the world's fastest-growing wireless market and with nearly 300 million subscribers is the second-largest market for such services after China.

Operators have been adding more than 8 million customers a month, but most of them are low-paying users, who use their phone just for calling and not for data and multimedia services.

The country's new rich, however, flaunt new mobiles as symbols of status and success and smuggled iPhones have been available in the black market in India for months.

"Indians tend to buy the most fancy cell phones, and the iPhone has a massive fan following everywhere," said Pinaki Mishra, head of retail & consumer practice at Ernst & Young.

"It is seen as a status symbol, an aspirational product, so you can expect to see not just the rich, but also tech-savvy youngsters and people in small towns buying it."

Sanjay Kapoor, Airtel's president for mobile services, said the company received more than 200,000 pre-bookings for the new iPhone before prices were announced.

The phone sells for as little as $199 in the U.S., with customers often buying mandatory data-service plans. India's top mobile operator Bharti Airtel and third-ranked Vodafone Essar are selling the 8GB model for around 31,000 rupees ($716) even though 3G services are not yet available.

Nishant Arya, a 22-year-old entrepreneur, said he bought six iPhones, one for himself and the others as gifts for his friends.

"We can't change phones on a daily basis. We have to keep the future in mind and 3G will come to India soon," he said.

The first version of the iPhone was snapped up by 270,000 people within days of a June 2007 U.S. launch. Analysts expect it could draw as many as 10.5 million buyers worldwide this year.

But in India, not everyone shared the excitement.

Observing the hubbub at the store, its entrance festooned with red balloons and a live band playing inside, an autorickshaw driver looking for passengers asked: "What's the big deal?"

The iPhone was also launched in Singapore on Friday with Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Southeast Asia's largest telecoms firm, the first to sell it.

Latest software update for iPhone is out, but how would you know?

2008-08-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Word-of-mouth is often how dismal news spreads. But when you have more than 1 million people to whom the information needs to get to, worth-of-mouth doesn’t cut it. Web message boards don’t cut it. Not commenting doesn’t cut it.

And if the news involves iPhone problems, Apple and AT&T, wouldn’t a text message from those two companies to the million-plus users of the new iPhone make sense? It’s certainly easy enough for them to do. It’s not like they don’t know customers’ phone numbers.

That text message could say: “Hi, we’re Apple and AT&T. We know you knocked yourself out to buy the iPhone 3G or to upgrade your old iPhone to the new software. Right now, it’s not working so swell for some of you. We can’t (optional add: or don’t want to) say whether it’s the phone or the network or both.

“But we want you to be happy. So, we’ve got a fix available, a 2.0.2 software upgrade. You need to go to your computers, to the iTunes Store online and download this software for the phone. It should help it run better. Whether it will fix everything, we can’t say yet.”

OK. That’s too long for a text message. Send a shorter one — “Please download iPhone 2.0.2 software for improvements” — or send an e-mail.

Let those of us who have spent good money and time on this device and phone service know what is happening, rather than leave it up to the Web’s message boards and blogs, and tell us a) you recognize there’s a problem; b) you are trying to solve it, and c) there is action we can take.

The software update will show up when you sync your iPhone with your computer. But lots of iPhone users don't regularly do that. You can argue it’s the customer’s responsibility to regularly check for software updates. Fair enough. But the reality is, phone users aren’t in the habit of doing that — yet — in the same way they are for their computers.

3G speed, spotty reception concerns
It seems at least thousands of iPhone 3G users are finding the reception they’re getting has been spotty, that some are having dropped calls, and that the vaunted speed boost of 3G, third-generation wireless, for Web browsing and e-mail apparently is not working as well as it should.

Web message boards have been abuzz with these issues for a few weeks, but both Apple and AT&T were largely silent until late Tuesday, when Apple told the Associated Press about the 2.0.2 software update, saying it offers "improved communication with 3G networks," but revealing little else.

Last week, news reports said part of the problem could be from the phone’s chip, made by Infineon, a German company. An Infineon spokesman declined comment to a Reuters reporter, but did say that Infineon has provided 3G chipsets to other phone manufacturers and there have not been any snags.

Apple didn't comment on the chip report. AT&T Mobility, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States, said little other than it hadn’t received “a lot” of complaints about the speed or quality of its service.

On Monday, Apple released the software upgrade, dubbed only as "bug fixes." The word went out first on the Web, something you'd only learn by trolling iPhone-related Web sites or setting up a Google news alert for “iPhone fixes.”

Nope, sorry, not good enough. There has to be a better way to get the word out.

There are an estimated 6 million users in the United States of the original iPhone, which came out last year. AT&T gained another 1 million users in the first three days alone after the new iPhone went on sale.

Apple also is selling the phone in 21 other countries, and on Friday, the company launches the phone in 20 more.

The iPhone is big business. Apple wants to make it an even bigger business, and AT&T wouldn’t mind either, as it vies with Verizon Wireless to be the largest wireless provider in this country.

Odds are, this week’s "fix" isn’t the last to come for the iPhone. That’s OK. It’s a terrific device. It’s easy to use. But don’t make it hard for customers to figure out what they need to do in order to keep their phones up to snuff.

MobileMe: Better communication
Apple has done somewhat better on the customer relations front with its MobileMe program, which has suffered its own share of woes.

MobileMe, released the same day as the new iPhone, is Apple’s $99-a-year online service which stores e-mail, contacts, calendars and photos, and provides each user with 20 gigabytes of storage. One of MobileMe’s most appealing features is the ability to synch e-mails, calendar and contact information to multiple devices, including a user’s iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs.

Last month, customers lost access to their e-mail for at least a day, some longer, because of problems with Apple’s servers. Some of that e-mail was not recoverable for 1 percent of customers.

On July 25, the company had the good sense to start letting people know what was going on through its Web site.

Another e-mail outage happened this month. As a way of making amends, on Monday Apple said it is giving every MobileMe customer a free 60-day subscription extension, in addition to the 30-day subscription extension the company issued last month when the first outage happened.

“We appreciate our subscribers' patience while we turn things around,” Apple said at its new MobileMe news site. “We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of.”

It’s a good sentiment, and the subscription extension is a good step toward soothing customers’ ire. Apple and AT&T may want to keep it in mind for the iPhone as the situation continues to unfold.

This week’s software update may not be the last, but let’s hope it’s the last time we have to learn about in a circuitous way.

New York Talk Exchange collected communications from New Yorkers

2008-08-24T12:12:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK - For the past two months, 24 hours a day, MIT researchers have been collecting the electronic communications of millions of New Yorkers — but not for salacious gossip or to protect national security.

They've been building a census that shows, neighborhood by neighborhood, New York's telephone and Internet links to other cities across the planet and how those connections change over time.

"Our cities and the globe are blanketed with flowing bits of digital data, and looking at this data, we're able to better understand the physical world," said Carlo Ratti, director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Visualizations from the New York Talk Exchange (NYTE) project are part of a new exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art called "Design and the Elastic Mind." Open through May, the exhibition examines how designers use technology in ways that change lives.

Researchers stress that no information about individuals or actual conversations and messages are being collected. AT&T Inc. is giving MIT only aggregate data from its switches in the city.

The information reveals a trove of interesting population patterns. By looking at the neighborhoods where the data came from, researchers determined that New Yorkers who engage in global gab tend to be on the high end of the socio-economic scale or struggling to make ends meet. Translation: international business and professional people or poor immigrants.

"The striking piece of evidence coming out of this project is that global talk happens both at the top of the economy and at its lower end," Saskia Sassen, a Columbia University professor and globalization expert, wrote for the project catalog. "The vast middle layers of our society are far less global. The middle talks mostly nationally and locally."

The MIT team started monitoring billions of electronic streams flowing to and from New York about two months ago, relying on information provided by AT&T, one of the world's largest providers of communications services.

AT&T Labs, based in Murray Hill, N.J., collects the data on phone calls, e-mail messages, cyber-phone connections and Web browsing, then transfers only that information — which has no personal, identifying details — to MIT in Cambridge, Mass., for processing and analysis.

As the data accumulate over the next few months, the team hopes to see a reflection of human migration — essentially, a snapshot of globalization.

Already, graphs on display at MoMA — and on the Web — show clusters of intense activity from New York to South America, the Caribbean, Canada, and parts of Europe and Africa, matching neighborhoods across the city with more than 170 ethnic groups.

Nayan Chanda, an expert on globalization, said such research "is absolutely worthwhile."

"This fast communication that links the world has made globalization much more intense and much more visible. It gives you a very valuable footprint of the extent to which a country is involved in global communications. It's interesting for demographers, for people studying economics, telecommunications and business," said Chanda, director of publications at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

The first graph — Globe Encounters — uses 3-D real-time animations to show New York's links to world cities. The second — Pulse of the Planet — shows how those connections change as day turns to night across the planet. The third — World Inside New York — zooms into New York's five boroughs and explores how the global connections vary from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Among the findings:

Communication between Manhattan and the world surges each morning after the New York Stock Exchange opens.
From Manhattan, the most-called city is London, which represents about 8 percent of all calls overseas. The second most-called city from Manhattan is Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, with more than 5 percent of all calls.
Half of all calls from Manhattan are to Canada, Great Britain, the Dominican Republic, Germany and Japan.
In Queens' ethnically diverse Flushing, almost 12 percent of data went to and from Seoul, South Korea, while 8 percent were with Porto, Portugal.

As other data flood in, the team hopes to answer questions like: How are global cities evolving? How does electronic communication across the globe affect travel? Can digital activity signal financial and other upheavals?

"In the end, the NYTE project reveals as much about the city of New York as it does about its worldwide counterparts, in areas such as business, culture and immigration," Ratti said. "In other words, our visualizations demonstrate that in the information age, urban life is as global as it is local."

Which cell phone should you get for your kid?

2008-08-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

Sloan Barnett lists and compares different service plans for your little ones

When we were kids we wanted to play with adult gadgets — our parents’ telephones, typewriters, anything in the kitchen, the vacuum, etc. Kids today are no different — they see us on our BlackBerrys or cell phones and they want one for themselves. It’s a scary thing to think your 5-year-old child wants a cell phone, so what do you do when they ask for one? And what about your teenagers who demand one? First you must decide if you are going to get them one.

Cons: Several children's advocacy groups are worried about:

Children’s safety, privacy, education and health.
Privacy advocates worry that pedophiles may use cell phones to contact children.
Cell phones could become a vehicle for showing advertisements to children, ultimately reaching their parents’ wallets.
Advocates also worry about potential health risks: radiation, brain tumors …

Pros:

Cell phones let you stay in touch with your child almost all the time.
Having a cell phone can help you easily get in touch with your kids in case of an emergency.
In the event of a real tragedy, like a school shooting or terrorist attack, a cell phone can be your only lifeline to your kids.
A cell phone can also be a way to stay in touch with your teen who might be driving … the GPS feature can help you figure out where your teen is at all times.

The cell phone industry does offer some helpful options. Check with your current cell phone carrier to see if they offer any type of parental control on their cell phones.

Sprint
This service offered by Sprint comes with a parental control option. It’s one of the most popular phones purchased for kids at Sprint. It gives parents a simple security feature that allows you to set wireless usage boundaries for your child's phone and also:

Controls what contacts are in the phone book.
Restricts calls to only those that are programmed into the phone book by the parent.

Cost: With rebates, the phone costs $79.99; the parental control feature is part of the phone and can be added to your family plan.

Verizon
This service offers a Chaperone feature for $9.99 a month. With Chaperone, you can restrict numbers, calling times and also use such features as:

“Child Zone,” which allows you to easily locate your child’s phone from your phone or computer. You set up the locations such as home or school and receive text messages when the phone leaves those areas.

Cost: The Chaperone service must be activated by a Family Share account, which is $9.99 per month. Chaperone with Child Zone feature costs $19.99 a month.

AT&T
AT&T is soon going to offer parental control service called Smart Limits. You can set limits for:

Number of text and instant messages
Dollar amount of downloadable purchases (ringtones, games and more)
Times of day the phone can be used for messaging, browsing and outbound calling
Who the phone can call or text (incoming and outgoing) by blocking or allowing certain numbers
Internet content access

There are phones designed for kids out there! But you must check with your provider first to see if you can use the phone on your current provider’s network. Most of the child phones do offer a phone service separate from your provider.

FireFly — Basic FireFly phone for $39.99

Has 5 buttons and stores up to 20 numbers, including dedicated keys for Mom and Dad and emergency.
PIN protection allows parents to limit incoming and outgoing calls to numbers stored in the phone book.

GlowPhone, $49.99

Full color screen, built-in games, customizable ringtones and wallpapers, has a flashlight.
Stores up to 50 numbers, including dedicated keys for Mom and Dad.
PIN protection allows parents to limit incoming and outgoing calls to numbers stored in the phone book.

FlyPhone, $99.99
This is a multimedia cell phone with full color screen and built-in camera. The phone also comes with the ability to:

Play games, take pictures, listen to MP3s, watch videos and text.
The FlyPhone features a unique keypad that automatically switches between game controller, MP3 or video controller and number pad.
FlyPhone also includes PIN-protected parental controls. Parents can chose to limit incoming and outgoing calls to numbers stored in the phone book while preventing additional numbers to be added. Parents can also restrict texting.

Cost: You can pay monthly at a rate as low as 10 cents a minute; they offer prepaid minute plans. They estimate that each family spends around $20 dollars a month on the phone service. You can buy these phones at Target and Toys "R" Us.

TicTalk
Only on the AT&T network; can be added to the family plan for $9.99 a month. It's designed for kids ages 6 and up and comes loaded with five educational games including Hangman and other spelling games and math games.

Parents can load the child’s spelling list into the phone to be used in Hangman.
Parents control the phone functions and features — who can call the phone, who kids can call, the times of day the phone can be used, such as after school
There are also plenty of high-tech features, including a built-in speakerphone, a variety of ringtones, and the ability to download photos.

Cost: TicTalk is priced at $99 with prepaid phone cards starting at $25 for 100 minutes (expiring 90 days from purchase). There is no activation fee.

Whereifone
For ages 6 to 10 and great for seniors — it's a great locator phone. Parents can locate their child with a built-in global positioning capability. You can quickly and precisely find your child’s phone via Web or phone access, and see its location on a street map or an aerial photo. You can also see where the phone has been throughout the day, and program for periodic updates.

The phone has 3 buttons for easy dialing
A 20-number phone book where parents can restrict calls
There is also an "SOS" panic button for emergencies.

Cost: As low as $20 a month. We found the phone for $80 online at Toys "R" Us.

Conclusion: Only you can decide if a cell phone is right for your child. But there are many good options out there. It's always best to talk to your kids about the dangers, the costs, etc. Even the little ones can understand if you give them a chance.

So try to pick the right one the first time, especially since these phones can be expensive in the initial purchase. Also, with millions of phones — containing dangerous metals and chemicals — ending up in the landfill each year, choosing the right one helps the planet, too!

Those little laptops

2008-08-24T12:00:00.001-07:00

Last fall, when the Asus Eee PC, a 2-pound, $299 laptop with a 7-inch screen, debuted it made history and created a new niche market for ultra-lightweight and inexpensive PCs, geared to users who mainly want to surf the Web and do e-mail.

It’s a type of computer that some call “netbooks,” with their lightweight, desktop counterparts being known as “nettops.”

The $299 price tag is long gone, but there are a variety of ultra-mobile, low-cost PC offerings from companies including HP, Acer and Lenovo, which are making a strong showing, with prices starting at around $350.

The 2- to 3-pound laptops are appealing because of their weight and price. Downsides include their smaller screens, keyboards and hard drives.

The devices are “more for people who say, ‘I want to have something smaller and lighter that I can carry with me more often than my 6-pound, 15-inch notebook,’ ” said Bob O’Donnell, vice president of IDC technology research firm, in a recent msnbc.com interview.

Some of the little laptops use flash-memory solid-state drives instead of traditional hard drives, which have rotating, magnetic platters.

Solid-state drives weigh less and are heartier and less likely to be damaged than hard drives, both plusses for laptop user on the go. They also cost more per gigabyte than hard drives, but that cost is expected to come down over time.

Attention was drawn to solid-state drives earlier this year when Apple came out with its 3-pound MacBook Air with a 64-GB solid-state drive, as well as a model that has an 80-GB traditional hard drive. The 80-GB model is $1,799. The solid-state model, which started out at $3,098, now sells for $2,598.

Dell is expected to unveil a 12.1-inch, 2.2-pound laptop, the Latitude E4200, that uses a solid-state drive, in the coming weeks. There is no word yet on pricing.

Other major computer manufacturers, including Sony, Acer, Toshiba and Fujitsu, are using solid-state drives as well in laptops. There are also some “hybrid” models, which come with both SSD and hard drives.

Hybrid drives add “very little difference in weight,” said John Rydning, hard disk drive research director for IDC Research. “You’re basically adding one silicon chip onto the hard drive.”

Another plus of a solid-state drive is that it doesn’t eat into a laptop’s battery life the way a hard drive does. And battery life is always something manufacturers are working to improve.

Last week, Dell announced its business-class Latitude E6400 laptop (starting at $1,139), which it claims can run for up to 19 hours without recharging.

The company said it achieved that result, in part, by using a solid-state drive and a larger nine-cell battery (vs. a standard six-cell battery) with the laptop, as well as having an additional battery “slice” attached to the bottom of the computer.

Blu-ray not ubiquitous yet

2008-08-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

Blu-ray players are showing up in more computers, but so far, they’re not a must-have for most consumers, said Baker of the NPD Group.

That’s reflected in the lackluster sales of Blu-ray DVD players, despite Blu-ray winning the high-def DVD format war over rival HD DVD earlier this year.

Many consumers are still content to watch movies on their standard DVD players and not incur the extra cost of Blu-ray, with most stand-alone players starting at around $400.

On Dell’s Studio Hybrid, an optical drive that can play Blu-ray high-definition DVDs is a $250 add-on, a “pretty affordable way to get Blu-ray into the household, much less expensive than going out and buying a Blu-ray player,” said New of Dell.

For families that share a home PC and a keyboard, Lenovo’s IdeaCentre K210 ($500 retail, sans monitor) comes with an anti-microbial keyboard.

Most of us know the kinds of things that wind up on a keyboard, and they’re not pretty — or healthy.

“Specifically with the IdeaCentre K210, we are focused on the concept of a family PC where individuals use the desktop for everything from online shopping to homework to keeping track of bills,” said Kristy Fair of Lenovo. “With multiple users, antimicrobial keyboards are a good way to keep germs at bay.”

Wipes and sprays are widely available for eliminating bacteria on keyboards, but the IdeaCentre K210’s does not need maintenance other than standard cleaning, said Douglas Bell of Lenovo.

And, while more and more laptops and desktops come with fingerprint readers for secure log-ins, the IdeaCentre K210 uses facial recognition, a “convenient” and “fun” approach, said Fair.

Making way for LEDs

2008-08-24T11:58:00.001-07:00

LCDs as we know them are a dying breed, particularly for laptop PCs. Standard LCDs are backlit by cold cathode fluorescent lamps, or CCFLs. The problems with CCFL backlighting include a limited color spectrum, relative bulk and the presence of mercury, a toxic element.

Light-Emitting Diode, or LED, backlighting is starting to gain ground as an alternative in LCD displays. Many individual LEDs illuminate the display, as opposed to a few larger CCFLs diffusing the light.

While LEDs produce a broader color spectrum and increased brightness while consuming less power than CCFLs, LED backlit displays are more expensive to produce. Samsung's 20” LED-backlit XL20 model retails for $1,600, for example, while the company’s 20” LCD monitors range from $270 to $370.

“As the cost differential between LED and CCFL backlights narrows, LED-based notebook PC panels will gain market share due to their thinner form factor, lower power consumption and lack of mercury content,” wrote Sweta Dash, iSuppli director of LCD and projector research, in a recent report.

iSuppli estimates that 90 percent of notebook PC displays shipped in 2012 will have LED backlighting, compared to just 4.7 percent in 2007. Larger LED backlit desktop displays will follow suit, but for now they are limited to a handful of pricey, professional-grade models.

HP’s 24-inch widescreen DreamColor LP2480zx ($3,500), designed with the help of DreamWorks Animation, is aimed at game developers, animation and graphics artists and product designers.

“LED backlighting is a key technology for next generation displays,” said Ellis of HP. The DreamColor “helps insure the integrity in color from what a user sees on their display versus what is printed out. You want to make sure that what you see is what others will see, and making sure that your colors are accurate to begin with is the first step.”

Improved LCD monitors, evolving OLED displays help light the way

2008-08-24T11:55:00.002-07:00

Bigger, thinner, sharper and brighter — the goals driving PC display development haven't changed much over the past decade.

However, the technology used to push the boundaries of a monitor's features is charging forward on the R&D bullet train.

New acronyms and abbreviations have popped up; in addition to LCD, now there’s LED-backlit, OLED and E Ink.

“These days, when consumers walk into a electronics retailer, they can’t help but notice the elegant, wide, flat-panel LCDs,” said Pete Ellis, HP displays’ worldwide product manager. “Those looking for either a new computer, a second display or perhaps a CRT replacement, often wonder why there is a difference between LCD monitors. After all, they are a piece of glass that displays data, right? Well, it has been a little more complicated than that.”

With PCs used for a variety of roles — Web surfing, watching video, viewing and editing digital pictures, creating documents and playing games — a monitor needs to produce accurate colors, sharp detail and smooth action.

LCDs, or Liquid Crystal Displays, are the undisputed kings of laptop and desktop displays. LCD technology — thin and light, with relatively low power consumption — replaced a previous generation of heavy, bulky CRT desktop displays and made the svelte laptop form possible.

The latest trend in LCD displays is big widescreens with dazzlingly sharp resolutions. Oh, and let's not forget the big, wide, dazzling price tags.

Dell and Apple both offer 30-inch widescreen monitors that produce near hallucination-grade colors and stunning clarity.

Dell's 3008WFP ($2,000) edges out the Apple 30-inch Cinema HD ($1,800) in connection options, fast-motion video reproduction and contrast, making it a sublime HD video and gaming display, while graphics professionals swear by the color accuracy of Apple's Cinema HD.

Both displays feature variations of In-Plane Switching panels — the technological guts of the LCD screen. In-Plane Switching, with the widest viewing angles and best image quality, is considered superior to mid-range Vertical Alignment and cheaper Twisted Neumatic panels.

At work, you may be forced to work on monitors with a standard — but meager — 1,024-by-768-pixel resolution. But these 30-inch giants sport a whopping 2,560-by-1,600 resolution. The images and video displayed can be jaw-droppingly detailed.

Acer’s new Aspire 8920 notebook (starting at $1,300) strains the concept of portability. The 9-pound beast features an 18.4-inch widescreen display, the largest on the market.

Portability, gender and price

2008-08-24T11:55:00.001-07:00

To a large degree, their appeal comes from their portability, being able to be easily placed in a backpack or even a large purse.

“There is sort of a gender story here,” said O’Donnell. “Women with smaller hands looking for a lighter device are seemingly more interested in this kind of notebook than men. Many men’s hands are larger, and the keyboards on these are difficult for them to work with. For them, they’ll likely still opt for a lighter notebook, but a bigger one.”

The $299 price point that drew attention and buyers to the ultramobile market is no more, although versions of the original EEE can be found online in the $300-plus price range.

Among Asus’ latest Eee offerings is the 2.4-pound PC 901, with an 8.9-inch screen and a 20-gigabyte solid-state disk drive. It retails for $599. Another new model, the Eee PC 1000, with a 10-inch screen and 40-gigabyte solid-state drive, is going for $699.

At that price, it matches many full-size, budget laptops that have the capacity to run standard programs.

“Consumers can spend $500 or $600 and get a low-end, full-function notebook,” said Mikako Kitagawa, lead PC analyst for Gartner Research.

The average price for a notebook at the end of the first quarter of this year was $939, a price that is expected to drop below $900 when second-quarter results are tallied, she said.

“For that amount, you can get pretty much a decent system, with a really good-size hard drive, 15-inch screen and run almost every kind of program,” Kitagawa said. “You don’t have to give up on anything.”

“The big question is if this is a sustainable market,” she said. “For it to be sustainable, the prices of these (ultraportable) devices needs to be in the $300-to-$350 range.”

In United States, ultramobile PCs find favor as a secondary computer

2008-08-24T11:53:00.001-07:00

They’re known by several different names: Ultramobile PCs, ultralow-cost PCs, low-cost ultraportable PCs, ultra-low power PCs and netbooks, among them.

No matter their title, this segment of lightweight, compact and relatively inexpensive laptops represents a small, but growing, number of PCs that is appealing to American consumers, as well as to those in countries like China, India and Japan, once thought to be the primary market for such devices.

Last fall, a Taiwanese company called Asustek came out with a 2-pound, $299 laptop with a 7-inch screen, 4-gigabyte solid-state drive and a cute name, the “Asus Eee PC.” It became a holiday hit, selling several hundred thousand of the devices at Amazon.com alone.

Until then, the types of low-cost, little notebooks in that price range were largely associated with programs like One Laptop Per Child, which seek to bring inexpensive laptops to children in developing countries.

In the United States, “for the most part, the appeal has been to gadget people buying a new toy or adults who are looking for a secondary notebook” in the 2- to 3-pound range for Internet and e-mail use, said Bob O’Donnell, vice president of IDC technology research firm.

“It’s more for people who say, ‘I want to have something smaller and lighter that I can carry with me more often than my 6-pound, 15-inch notebook,’ ” he said.

Leading PC makers HP, Dell and Acer, as well as others, are jumping into the market to get a piece of it, and chipmaker Intel is heavily pushing its small, low-power Atom processor for the new notebooks.

The devices are better at handling “lite” or Web-based versions of software programs, such as productivity suites, that don’t require as much room or speed on the PC as their bigger, more powerful software siblings.

The computers generally run on the Linux or Microsoft Windows operating system. (Msnbc.com is a Microsoft-NBC Universal joint venture.) They generally don’t come with a full-size keyboard or a built-in DVD or CD drive. Most have Wi-Fi for almost-anywhere Web surfing.

From budget to stylin’

2008-08-24T11:51:00.003-07:00

The big names in computers all offer configurable home theater PC models in their line-ups.
HP’s Pavilion Elite m9300t series, for example, starts at $800 for a bare-bones home theater PC. Plan to spend closer to $1,600 for desirable upgrades like an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 processor, 512-megabyte NVIDIA 9500GS video card, 1-terabyte hard drive storage and a Blu-ray player and DVD burner combo drive.

Dell’s XPS 420 is priced in line with HP’s low-end home theater PC. A similarly equipped premium configuration runs about $1,700. The only major difference is that the high-performance XPS 420 uses an equally capable 512MB ATI HD3870 video card.

If you feel the need to make a fashion statement, the impeccably designed Sony VAIO TP25 Home Theater PC says it all.

This $3,000 machine has an Intel Core 2 duo processor, 500-GB hard drive and a 256-megabyte NVIDIA 8400M GT laptop video card.

While the components aren’t as beefy as HP and Dell’s PCs, everything is encased in what looks like an oversized hockey puck. Haute couture doesn’t come cheap.

Sony’s higher price is also justified by a Blu-ray burner for archiving video, and two external HDTV tuners that accommodate digital cable via a regular coaxial or cableCARD connection.

The home theater PC profile

2008-08-24T11:51:00.001-07:00

Whether you choose an off-the-shelf model or bravely decide to build a custom DIY special, all home theater PCs share some common features:

A TV tuner PCI-E card — or two if want to watch and record two different programs — enables TV recording.

Jumbo hard drives totaling 2 terabytes — equivalent to 2,000 gigabytes — and larger are handy for storing all that video. When determining your needs, consider that an hour of HD programming occupies about 6GB of space.

If you have a high-definition TV with HDMI digital audio/video connections (and all newer models do), make sure the home theater PC comes with an HDMI output for maximum fidelity and one-cable connection convenience.

For the most eye and ear-popping Blu-ray and HD programming playback, standard integrated video and audio hardware doesn’t cut it. Video cards from arch rivals NVIDIA and ATI, including NVIDIA’s GeForce 9000 and ATI’s Radeon HD3000 series, will provide plenty of graphics muscle.

While most integrated audio processors in PCs will output 7.1 channels of surround sound, a dedicated PCI sound card will take some of the workload off of the computer’s CPU and produce higher-quality audio. Creative Technology’s X-Fi cards are among the best.

Combine it with a high-definition TV and you've got your own cinema

2008-08-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

A home theater PC may sound oxymoronic, but a computer in the living room makes more sense than you might think.

A properly configured PC can serve as a TiVo-style recorder, Blu-ray and DVD player, digital video archive and, lest we forget, a PC — all in one box. Pair a big-screen high-definition TV with a home theater PC, and you have a monitor that puts even those monster 30” PC displays to shame.

In the United States, between 1.5 million and nearly 2 million households have home theater PCs, out of 83 million households owning at least one PC, according to Parks Associates, which researches digital lifestyles.

Parks defines a home theater PC household as one with a computer running Microsoft Windows Media Center (a special edition of the XP operating system, or included with Vista Premium and Ultimate) that is connected to a TV and used for recording TV programming. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Windows Media Center may be the most popular application powering home theater PCs, but there are other similar software packages, such as MythTV and SageTV, that work with computers that run Mac and Linux, as well as Windows.

All the programs provide similar services: TV guide listings, recording scheduling, video playlists and integration with video, music players and photo viewers. Windows Media Center continues to add services, such as movies and TV programs on-demand.

Home theater PCs aren’t for everyone, especially if your PC is usually relegated to e-mail and spreadsheet duties.

But this is one niche product that’s worth a careful look for anyone with a high-def TV.

The palette of the PC

2008-08-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Meanwhile, Dell’s Studio Hybrid desktop computer, which starts at $499 (without a monitor), is about 6-1/2 pounds, and its curved design and small footprint makes it look more like a portable external hard drive than a CPU.

The Studio Hybrid is about 80 percent smaller than “the typical desktop minitower,” and uses up to 70 percent less energy, Dell says. The computer can be situated horizontally or vertically, and there are several colors of “sleeves,” from red to bamboo, that are available to further personalize the unit.

Multiple color choices area also available for Dell’s laptop line, including “espresso brown” and “flamingo pink,” as well as notebooks that come with cover designs imprinted on them. HP, too, has a number of such offerings.

“Because people are more accustomed to personal computers being part of their day-to-day life, they are getting a lot more personal in the sense that the system you choose can sort of represent who you are,” said New of Dell.

Buh-bye, gray boxes and laptops; hello, color and sizes and shapes to suit

2008-08-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

In a world of look-alike PCs, manufacturers are aiming to differentiate their computers more than ever with features such as antimicrobial keyboards (for the “Monk” in you) to facial recognition security, as well as colorful shapes and designs.

Buyers have an array of options, from all-in-one desktops that eliminate the standard rectangular, gray or silver CPU boxes, to laptops with Blu-ray players and widescreens.

In the United States, the laptop market continues to grow and dominate over desktops, with notebook computers representing about two-thirds of all sales, said Steve Baker, NPD Group’s vice president of industry analysis.

“The last time desktops were ahead was in 2004, when the market was 55 percent desktops, 45 percent laptops,” he said.

“As the prices come down on portable computers, they become more within reach, and because of people’s mobile lifestyles, you’re definitely starting to see a bias toward them,” said John New, Dell’s senior manager of global product marketing.

A no-frills laptop — one with a 15.4-inch screen, 2-gigabytes of memory and a 160-gigabyte hard drive — can cost anywhere between $450 and $600, depending on rebates and other special offers.

Many desktop models, without monitors, start in the same price range, and cost even less in some cases.

Desktops are still a good option for those who want a larger screen at home, especially for playing video games, or for those who prefer an upgradeable computer with a large hard drive of 250 and 500 gigabytes to house a family’s music, photos, videos and documents.

Some desktops are starting to resemble laptops in terms of being thinner and taking up less space on home office shelves and desks, especially all-in-one units inspired by Apple’s iMac. And some notebook computers are providing the same kind of functionality as desktops, with large screens and hard drives, although mobility is not among their strengths.

“The one-size-fits-all metaphor of computers is definitely long-gone,” said Stephen DeWitt, HP’s senior vice president for the Americas region, Personal Systems Group.

A good example of that is HP’s Pavilion HDX Entertainment notebook PC with a 20.1-inch diagonal display, built-in HDTV tuner and four Altec Lansing speakers. The computer, which starts at $1,400 and weighs 15.3 pounds, and is being purchased by some as a desktop replacement.

At that weight, it’s not the kind of notebook that can easily be carried in a backpack or briefcase.

DeWitt calls it a “home theater laptop,” and said “there is a class of customer that wants that kind of system,” just as “there is a class of customer that wants to watch movies on a 2-inch screen,” meaning portable media players or cell phones.

The Caterpillar mobile phone

2008-08-21T07:03:00.001-07:00

Technology selular quite developing very fast. Beforehand, 10 years ago the video call only was in the Power Ranger film and the film - the child's film - the other child. Now the technology grows and continues to develop by more sophisticated technology. Communication nirkabel that was first was cypher delivery morse with radio waves. After that, Alexander Grahambell created the cable telephone for voice communication.
Are you ever thought, who the discoverer of the communication object in your hands grasp? He is Lars Magnus Ericsson from Sweden (1910). He also that established the Ericsson company. After the Ericson Company stood, afterwards in followed the establishment of several Selular Telephone companies that were other like Motorola and Nokia.Perusahaan-company the Cellular Phone currently races - the race created the flexible Mobile Phone, could be folded - the fold like keyboard rubber that often has been found by us. Possibly these mobile phones were more exact was considered to be the "caterpillar" MOBILE PHONE.

Nokia 888 Communicator
Nokia was convinced had the concept of the most interesting telephone. Nokia 888 communicators were a concept of the mobile phone that futuristic. The mobile phone that used the liquid battery, the introduction to the voice, touchscreen flexible and touch-sensitive cover this was drafted by Tamer Nakisci and won Nokia Design Award.

The cellular phone of Google Android was present from November

2008-08-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

Federally Communications Commission (FCC) U.S released the document that contained that the Android telephone will begin to be marketed in U.S in November. This document indicated that FCC agreed to the sale of this HTC dream cellular phone. This Android cellular phone will become the cellular phone the first time that will undertake software Android in Linux belonging to Google.
HTC hoped that FCC could maintain the secret of details from Android phone this, including the picture and the manual user, at least to November 10 tomorrow. This was caused so that Android phone continue to up-to-date. Well HTC and Google confirmed that this cellular phone will undertake Android, and the FCC document did not make an announcement software any that including in handset this. However, many rumours in blog that said that Android had fitur the video and the good photograph.
The FCC document including concerning information about the Android cellular phone in the test teknikaln him, like the grating of frequency emissions of radio, Wi-Fi, a camera, Bluetooth wireless, and the network wireless 3G. Android also had ‘jog ball’, one trackball small to naavigasi and the election fitur the cellular phone. This Android cellular phone have the shape of slider, that to fitur the public in smartphone HTC.
According to Google, this Android cellular phone will it was confirmed emerge this year. The Nextel sprint and T-Mobile also was member the group of the Android industry, and both of them also sold the cellular phone of HTC. Sementara Itu, this Android cellular phone also met the rival from iPhone Apple. Google and Apple were the newcomer in the cellular phone market, far from dominator main, Nokia, that made the cellular phone for years.

The Ego Bentley, Laptop cost like a Car

2008-08-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

When many people let Centrino Intelligence loose 2 and the growth of the market netbook that increasingly increases, currently was present one laptop that came with the label brand Bentley. A company released the system kmputer portable that was complete, that will become one of the luxury from the Bentley car.
The Bentley company created notebook just by the name of the Bentley Ego. Every time laptop the Bentley Ego was made by the hands that were original from Bentley. To make the integration that was harmonious from the design laptop the Bentley Ego, then the colour scheme laptop the Bentley Ego was made according to the colour of the car lux Bentley.
Laptop Ego Bentley this could go with processor 65 bit and provided the capacity harddisk 160GB. Selain Itu, also was met 12 keys to direct access to faster undertook various applications that were wanted. The configuration laptop this Bentley Ego actually was not that special, only like the LCD screen 12.1 inch wide screen, and the Bluetooth connection. Laptop Ego Bentley this will go in the operation system of Windows Vista and one interchangeable skin.
Now the price laptop this Bentley Ego might be counted had the price that almost was the same as the price of the luxurious Bentley car, that is revolving £10,000 or around Rp 180 million, the quite amazing price so as to make him to laptop most expensive the Bentley version. However, unfortunately did not yet have the specification was more complete at this time, and according to the Bentley side, the more specific matter will be announced to British Motor Show, where notebook will officially be launched.

Fujitsu Siemens Producting Zero Watt LCD

2008-08-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

After being released more than in the last three months, finally currently the monitor zero watt first was present at the market. Produced by Fujitsu Siemens, this LCD monitor was available in two types: P20W-5 TASTY and P22W-5 TASTY, that was their respective measuring 20 inch and 22 inch.
Said zero watt because in the condition standby, this monitor did not need consumption of the electricity power completely. Both of them carried the resolution native 1680×1050, response time 5ms, and had konektivitas HDMI.
How zero watt this worked in fact simple. Fujitsu Siemens only provided one switch that was automatic deadly the monitor during CPU that terkoneksi with this monitor was killed, begitupula when CPU was brought back to life, then the monitor also took part in living. Because of this the two monitors did not have the switch power.
The two newest monitors from Fujitsu Siemens this appeared simple but was luxurious enough. Only his price was moderate high. The model 20 inch was defined with the price of the range US$ 610. And this coming September, Fujitsu Siemens promised to produce the type 24 inch and 26 inch.

Fullcolor with Toshiba Satellite and Portege

2008-08-19T09:19:00.000-07:00

Toshiba today launches the variant of the colour notebook just that was impressive from the Satellite series and Portege. Satellite M300, one of them, was notebook with the measuring screen 14,1 inch that was present with the new Crimson Red colour, now Portege M800 with the measuring screen 13,3 inch was present with the new Candy Pink colour. Like his predecessor who had the Glossy Mercury Sliver colour and Cool Pearl White, the two variants of this new colour were also supported by the Toshiba Fusion Finish design and the design of the exterior that really shone (super high-gloss).
“Jajaran the product of Toshiba notebook PC that used the Fusion Finish design has widely was accepted well by customer, and the distributor and dealer since his launching in April this year, so has been normal if we widened the rank notebook this PC with the variant of the new colour that mengesankan,” said Wong Wai Meng, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Toshiba’s Computer Systems Division.
The two variants of the Crimson Red colour to Satellite M300 and Candy Pink to Portege M800, had been available in the Indonesian market since early August 2008 with the price beginning with US$ 1.449.

LifeBook U2010 Keep till 8 hours

2008-08-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

For you the lover Fujitsu, the Ultra Mobile PC presence (UMPC) U2010 definitely has been looked forward to. The newest series that was allocated for this business class was continuation of the series U1010, so as to promise the better specification.
As UMPC most anyar, U2010 was supplemented with the LCD screen touched measuring 5.6 inch (1280 x 800 piksel), 64 GB SSD and the camera 1.3 megapiksel to equip the closeness when having a cheerful chatting. Notebook light that berprosesor this Centrino Atom Intelligence went with the Microsoft Origami Experience application 2,0 and the battery that could remain till 8 hours.
Not only was cute and substantial light, UMPC that tampilan him interesting this also could terkoneksi in a wireless manner to the FM station radio and audio output that used the system home entertainment or FM available stereo in the car.

Fujitsu offered fitur the security with the existence of the lock 2-level BIOS and Anti-Theft Lock Slot. Moreover, LifeBook U2010 had Fingerprint the Censor to protect the important data with the system enkripsi.

U2010 has been released mid this August, but the Fujistu side did still not announce the availability along with his price in the market. Perhaps was waiting for the reaction of the market beforehand. So, how your reaction to this product?

The tablet for the Professional designer

2008-08-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

G-Pen M609 from Genius was the amazing tablet that was supplemented with the function of multimedia. G-Pen M609 offered the high resolution 4000 LPI and the performance of the graph that was good for designed in a professional manner. The function dual mode him that was unique could change the active area from wide to the standard and again like originally. The area of the work of 9″ x 5.5″ (wide) or 7.25″ x 5.5″ (the standard) and one pen without the cable really ideal for Windows and the Mac user to write, draw and sign the electronics letter.
You will get the control that was better with used this tablet pen compared to used one mouse. His cursor could move exactly in accordance with the position where you placed this pen.

Two rolling pad that was located on the quite comfortable tablet was used by the two hands. Instantly you pressed hot keys (Scroll, Zoom and the Volume), LED light was blue will blink and you can use rolling pad this to operate scrolling 4D with the ease, zoom in/out or the function of the volume rose/descended.

His design that was black captured with the active area dual-mode was the blend that was suitable for the flat screen and the standard. And you too will come across 26 fast shortcut-keys that could be chosen by using the pen for direct access to Office, Internet and the function of the Vista.
The pen was without his cable supplemented with two switches and the level kesensitifitasan through to 1024 levels to draw or wrote. Now drew or wrote with the digital pen, And You Too could control the form and the picture acuteness easily.

Gigabyte M704, the Unique design sailed Touch

2008-08-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

U60, Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) the first generation Gigabyte was launched last year. But unfortunately, the consumer's response was more displeasing. Through the newest series M704, Gigabyte hoped UMPC they this could receive the positive response because of packing many improvements that were not owned U60.

M704 indeed was seen more unique. Berdimensi 190 x 120.8 x 30.3 mm and heavy around 780 gram, his screen could be shifted, lay downed or established. His capacity has then been enough mumpuni, so as M704 in fact was notebook in the form of small. Special him, the measurement screen 7 inch him technology TFT WXGA with technology touched (touchscreen) beresolusi 1024 x 600.

The bowel Gigabyte M704 consisted of the processor VIA Esther ULV C7-m. 1.2Ghz, the memory DDR2-533 have a capacity 768 MB and the Windows XP Home Edition operation system that went tight. UMPC this also already berharddisk the capacity 60 GB, provided CMOS webcam 1,3 megapiksel for you that be fond of chatting or had video conference. To connecting or moved the data from other equipment, M704 complete with port card reader, USB, VGA output and audio Jack.
Menurut rencana, Gigabte akan memasarkan produk pintar ini seharga US$ 350.

I-Mate 6150, appeared simply look without Keyboard

2008-08-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

This cellular phone was introduced without keypad or keyboard, and appeared so simple. Possibly could become the choice for the user who wanted the design that not "neko-neko". Without keyboard, all the applications could be operated on with virtual keyboard with help of the pen stylus.
Because all was operated on in his screen, it is not surprising that this cellular phone screen was wide enough, that is 4 x 5,4 cm or 2,8 inch, with the acuteness 262,000 colours. The image and the video can be seen well. The Microsoft Office Mobile operation system brought several applications of the gift like Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, Word Mobile and the Player Mobile Media.
I-Mate 6150 carried entertainment facilities like Windows Media Player Mobile 10, it was supportive several formats audio like MIDI, MP3, AAC, WMA and AMR, as well as had single speaker to output audio that located behind, or by light flash the camera. To wireless headset could use equipment of Bluetooth A2DP.
For you who always must check the email, i-Mate 6150 were buried the Explorer Internet browser from Microsoft and tersinkronisasi with ActiveSync. Moreover this equipment could be made the HSDPA internet modem have a speed high, and had setting Wizard to make the supportive email account of POP/IMAP. Or the email webmail like Yahoo Mail or Gmail.

The Cheap musical cellular phone from Motorola

2008-08-19T06:44:00.000-07:00

Motorola W230 was considered to be simple. The measurement 111 x 45 x 15 mm seriously 82 gram in fact was ideal enough, but like the lower-class cellular phone most, the cellular phone had a design candybar this appears normally with the screen 1,6 inch, CSTN, 128 x 128 pixel and broadcasted 65 thousand colours.
Saw switches that guided the user to immediately entered the musical service, reinforced the impression that Motorola W230 was the series cellular phone of music. If pressing the switch in available in the left part the screen, then you will at once open Library music. While radio was other facilities to listen to music but also other important information. The Recorder presence to record the radio broadcast and the Data System Radio support (RDS) that showed the name of the radio station, so special added value.
Availability headset 2,5 mm enabled us could use headset made by the other manufacturer, if being needed. Motorola also planted WebAccess that enabled you browsing from the cellular phone. Google services that was available will take part in enriching the function of the internet. Unfortunately, Motorola did not supplement this cellular phone with the camera, so as for you who needed the communications equipment and did not consider an integrated camera important, was suitable to bring this series. Nevertheless, Motorola facilitated the user to have SMS by providing the special switch that at once made you enter the Message menu. Compared, if most cellular phones low-end did not enable to move the SMS from the cellular phone memory to the SIM memory card, then this one already could. Be opened the option menu and chose Move to SIM.
You could then use Chat, even Lock to protect the message. Fitur the Motorola mainstay, CrystalTalk, also has been owned W230. His capacity was mereduksi the disturbance of the background voice, so as our voice canned be heard clearer. The other surplus was to have been received slot MicroSD and port USB mini to do the repeated contents of the battery. And spoke about the battery, Motorola promised alert time up until 450 hours or talktime up until 9 hours. All of his capacities might be obtained by you, only by exchanging Rp money. 590,000. Cheap isn't it?

BlackJack Ii Without WiFi

2008-08-19T06:29:00.000-07:00

The continuer BlackJack immediately will be released by Samsung. BlackJack the version of early circulated in 2006, whereas BlackJack Ii was named was smartphone 3G UMTS/HSDPA that operated to Windows Mobile 6.
Samsung became knotted fitur-fitur latest that was competent like Push Email System, web browser, and GPS that all of them walked good in handset this. BlackJack Ii also was present as the supporter of the mobility of the user of the daily because of being complete with Microsoft Office Mobile for the processing of the document. But unfortunately equipment that his design was practical and postured brief but also light this tidak supportive WiFi and non touchscreen.
Samsung BlackJack Ii supplemented himself with the Dual Core ARM processor 9, 260 MHz, the memory 128 MB RAM and 256 MB CREAM that meaning that bigger than the previous version that only 64 MB RAM and 128 MB ROM. for the internal memory affair only 155 MB but could be enlarged by using microSD Card to 8 GB.
For them who needed the camera in the cellular phone, Samsung added this series with the camera 2 megapixel.

Nexian launched Dual Mode

2008-08-19T06:21:00.000-07:00

Nexian memperkenalkan beberapa produk handphone terbarunya. Salah satu produk andalannya seri NX-2000D, handset yang bisa berjalan di dua jalur komunikasi CDMA dan GSM. Sehingga keduanya aktif secara bersamaan. Produk lainnya NX-970 dengan desain tipis yang fashionable. Pengenalan produk Nexian bersamaan di gelarnya ajang eksibisi ICS 2007. Nexian memulai kiprahnya di Indonesia pada tahun 2006. Nexian berhasil membukukan penjualan lebih 200.000 unit dengan mengandeng operator Esia dan menyediakan perangkat telepon wireless untuk Flexi Home.
Until now Nexian was known as handset especially CDMA, in a startling manner vendor that had the factory in this Karawang area dismissed handset that could be active in CDMA and GSM. Produk this was believed in will satisfy the requirement for the consumer, NX-2000D was equipped by Bluetooth and the data cable as the connection implement. So as to enable the user to transfer the data from the cellular phone to other equipment. Plus the memory ekstrenal 256Mb to increase the power kept handet was given during the purchase of the product.
Martono Jaya Kusuma, Presdir PT. Inti Pisma as the holder of the Nexian production right to say, not only the CDMA cellular phone that was produced, but also fix wireless and dual mode. His side continue to the focus to CDMA because in handset this not yet too many of his competitors. The other reason for entering GSM was enough to be difficult because of our community to have been used to it artificially foreign.
The Nexian production in Indonesia pocketed permission from two companies tekemuka that is, Qualcomm and Viz that were the CDMA developer in the world. According to him, the quality of the domestic work was not inferior artificially foreign. His price was then far more cheaper compared to the thing import. For the category of the cellular phone dual mode, in the market also had the player from Korea that the selling price reached 4.5 million more, whereas Nexian around 2,5 million rupiah. There was no related article.

Huawei provided the Network of WiMAX 16e for Pakistan

2008-08-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

Huawei announced that Huawei was chosen by Mobilink, the operator GSM biggest in Pakistan, to develop the commercial network of WiMAX 16e. This network covered the area of the centres of the business, and hot spot in six main cities in Pakistan including Islamabad, Karachi, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi.
Was based on the contract, Huawei will provide the solution WiMAX that was complete for Mobilink including the provisions of means base station, a service of network access -Gateway and the system of the network management. The solution WiMAX from Huawei could help Mobilink in filling this country would the requirement for the wide tape that increasingly increased.
In Pakistan, the land was owned personally and only was available some continuation of the copper cable. Therefore, to save the cost and time, Mobilink adopted technology WiMAX to provide the service of internet access have a speed high for his customers.
The solution WiMAX moving that was had by Huawei united technology 4G that was most sophisticated by multi-capital platforms, to provide the quality network high for Mobilink. But also could unite the network 2G that has been had by Mobilink with the network of the wide tape capacity that was high in time that as briefly as possible.
Quoted from his release, until this, Huawei won 19 contracts WiMAX commercial in Europe, Asia, North America, the CIS, the Middle East and Africa and carried out the trial totalling 35 times all over the world. Since 2001, Huawei became standard-tracking IEEE 802,16 and carried out the research into key technologies. With more than 1.200 engineers that was involved in WiMAX R&D, Huawei gave the contribution of 5% from all over copyright that be connected with WiMAX in the world.

K-Touch, Ponsel China with the No. Sale 1

2008-08-19T06:01:00.000-07:00

Jakarta - in Indonesia, K-Touch (read: kei-tach), the make of the original Chinese cellular phone was claimed as the only cellular phone that it was considered dared to dispute directly disegmen GSM normally. Now the make lai him only berkutat in the TV cellular phone, Dual Mode and Dual ounce. In his origin country, the cellular phone by the name of Tian Yu this became the original China make cellular phone with the sale of the number of one to the middle of the first year 2007 in China. Just was learnt, his manufacturer's factory was located in the Beijing city by the name of Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co Ltd.
Nah, when the other player, just introduced his product of one or two type, K-Touch even dismissed six series terbaru him at the same time from eight available cellular phones. The strength that was owned other, was the price was not too expensive, although fitur-fitur him had the quite high class. Not only that, to facilitate the user in the matter of the service and complained the product, K-Touch was opened service center by taking PT Dian Graha Elektrika by the hand.
Mengenai spare part, tak perlu khawatir K-Touch bertanggung-jawab atas layanan purna jualnya. Bahkan, demi menjawab keraguan bahwa ponsel merek baru dikenal sulit untuk dijual kembali, K-Touch bersedia membeli ponsel second K-Touch dengan harga yang sedang berlaku.
So, although just entered six big in Indonesia, but K-Touch that occasionally preceded vendor that has been more established, believe in will pan for gold the success like in his country will be followed with the success of K-Touch in other countries.
The data of Ministry of Information Industry of Peoples Republic of China (MII), K-Touch could gain the market share in the first place for the original China make. Touched on six newest series of K-Touch that just was released that, respectively type A691, A650, A615, A933, A905 and B832. Among the series of his cellular phone, differed for each one of his segments because fitur that was drowned also very supportive and was not far be different from fitur-fitur that also was met in brand-brand famous.
Increased also, K-Touch was sold with the range of the price middle end although used fitur the standard of the cellular phone high-end. For example A615, the selling price below Rp1,5 million, but was supplemented with the screen touched 2,4 inch, TFT technology with 262 thousand colours and the resolution 240×320 piksel, the camera 3 megapiksel plus the flashlight at the same time the torch, the CIF quality video, Bluetooth A2DP, the external memory MicroSD with the capacity reached 2GB, pemutar audio (MP3, ACC) complete with ekualiser that could in edited, the Out TV and other.
Possibly, this that made K-Touch find it easy to be recognised in the head of the consumer. As a product, K-Touch was considered to be new, but slow but must begin to seize the heart of the user with the quality of the product, fitur and the competitive price.