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Archive for September, 2011
The ideal fire-free Ferrari 458 Spider driving experience and why it’s my dream car
September 19th, 2011
Ferrari debut the 458 Spider at this past week’s Frankfurt Motor Show, making it the current topless super car to beat. To officially introduce the folding aluminum roof equipped Ferrari and make us commoners want one even more they also created this promotional video. This impressive footage vaguely outlines everything we would do if somehow we actually got our hands on a 458 Spider—put the top down, fly through tunnels at high speed, set the destination to an exotic locale, and do the best possible job not driving like an asshole on public roads the whole way there. All the more reason to sell off all your limbs and kidneys, but I still don’t think that’s enough to buy this babe. YouTube gets new video editing features
September 19th, 2011
Avid YouTubers will be pleased to hear the video-sharing website has added a few nifty editing features to the site’s upload tool. YouTube has come a long way since the days of shaky home movies. Today, the company took another big step, adding an editing suite that allows users to edit their videos after they’ve uploaded them. “Until now, when you uploaded to YouTube, your video was hosted and shared, but couldn’t really be changed. If you wanted to trim off the end, swap out the soundtrack, or add an effect, you had to edit your video using a separate program and upload again,” said YouTube’s John Gregg. “Starting today, you can edit your uploaded videos right on YouTube and maintain the same video IDs. This means you keep your view count and comments, and all existing links to your video will continue to work. No re-uploading necessary!” The most significant addition is probably the ability to stabilize your hand-held footage. We’ve all experienced those shaky cell phone camera videos that make you feel sea-sick, so this should be a welcome addition even to those who aren’t doing the editing and uploading. After that comes color correction (including an “I’m Feeling Lucky” one-click color correction button), and then filters and effects that should appeal to Instagram users.
Ballmer admits Windows Phone 7 sales are disappointing
September 19th, 2011
It’s been almost a year since Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7. While things have been going okay for the brand new mobile OS, adoption hasn’t been stellar, which Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer readily admitted this week in front of analysts. “We haven’t sold quite as many as I would have liked in the first year. … I’m not saying I love where we are, but I am very optimistic on where we can be,” the ever-enthusiastic CEO said at a financial analyst meeting. Microsoft has had the backing of major hardware partners since Windows Phone 7 launched. HTC, Dell, Samsung and LG all have phones that run the operating system, and HTC has already announced hardware for Windows Phone 7.5, aka Mango. However, it seems Ballmer is banking on Microsoft’s newest partner to really give the OS a boost. “With Nokia we have a dedicated hardware partner that is all-in on Windows Phones,” All Things D quotes Ballmer as saying. “They are not doing something on Android or [any other operating system].” Nokia announced earlier this year that it was adopting Windows Phone 7 as it’s primary smartphone OS. With the first of its handsets set to debut in the fall, the partnership is a chance for both Microsoft and Nokia to boost their respective profiles in the smartphone market. “Today in London, our two companies announced plans for a broad strategic partnership that combines the respective strengths of our companies and builds a new global mobile ecosystem,” the two CEOs said in an open letter published in February. “The partnership increases our scale, which will result in significant benefits for consumers, developers, mobile operators and businesses around the world. We both are incredibly excited about the journey we are on together.” Microsoft hands out 5000 Samsung-made Windows 8 Tablets to developers
September 19th, 2011
During BUILD, Microsoft talked all about Windows 8 and told developers what they can expect from the next iteration of Windows. However, the company also gave developers a little gift to ensure they get off on the right foot with Windows 8. The Redmond company dished out no fewer than 5000 Windows 8 Samsung slates to attendees. Rumors about Microsoft gifting BUILD attendees with a Windows 8 tablet started last month, during Microsoft’s TechEd conference in New Zealand. Microsoft afforded attendees there a glimpse of two Windows 8 tablets and some reported that Microsoft may be giving one out to attendees at BUILD. On Tuesday, right on schedule, Microsoft handed out thousands of free Samsung-made Windows 8 tablets. The tablet will give developers a head start for developing for Windows 8 as well as a chance to try out some new hardware. ComputerWorld reports that the tablet in question is similar to the Samsung Series 7 Slate with a few customizations. Windows President Steven Sinofsky said that the Windows version has more sensors and AT&T has added a 3G-capable radio to the tablets. Devs will get 2GB of monthly data service free of charge for 12 months. Specs wise, the tablet boasts a second generation Core i5 CPU, an 11.6-inch Super PLS 1366×768 display, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD, USB, HDMI port, microSD slot. SOURCE via Samsung Windows 8 has a new and slightly cuter Blue Screen of Death
September 19th, 2011
Those blue screens of death (BSoD) are never a good thing in Windows. It makes pros cringe and casual computer users cry out for help. Unfortunately, system crashes are a part of any computer platform, but Microsoft is making it a little less cryptic and scary. The photo above is what the BSoD looks like in the developer preview of Windows 8 released last week. So it’s still blue and it doesn’t change the fact that the system needs to restart after a crash, but at least it’s not a confusing mess of letters and numbers. SOURCE via Mobility Digest IDF: Intel Announces Enterprise SSD 710-Series
September 19th, 2011
Codenamed Lyndonville, the 710-series drives will be available in 100, 200 and 300 GB capacities for server applications. The new SSDs use 25 nm multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory instead of the single-level cell (SLC) flash that was used in the X25-E series, which was available in 32 GB and 64 GB versions. Since Intel is using MLC, there isn’t much performance gain in this new generation. Instead of 250 MB/s read and 170 MB/s write, the 710-series provides 270 MB/s read and 210 MB/s write data transfer rates. The IOPS count is now at 38,500, up from 35,000. The reliability rating remains at 2 million hours MTBF. There are a few new features in Intel’s enterprise SSDs: The 710- drives can use AES 128-bit to encode data and there is a capacitor which acts as a buffer if there is a sudden power loss. The 100 GB versions will sell for $650, the 200 GB model for $1250 and the 300 GB flagship model for $1900. Webroot Discovers BIOS Rootkit
September 19th, 2011
Called Mebromi, the malware is reminiscent of the IceLord proof of concept BIOS rootkit in 2007, was a late 1990s virus that was able to erase the motherboard software. This new rootkit is a different caliber as it is appears to be one of the most persistent malware programs we have heard so far. According to Webroot, Mebromi targets Award BIOS and attaches itself to it so it can infect a client computer over and over again. The malware then infects the master boot record to be able to infect winlogon.exe or winnt.exe to be able to use Windows to download additional malware. There is no easy way to get rid of Mebromi at this time as traditional anti-virus software won’t reach down to the BIOS level. Webroot said that the rootkit is targeting Chinese users and seems to be modeled closely after IceLord, which was demonstrated in 2007. The company stated that “storing the malicious code inside the BIOS ROM could actually become more than just a problem for security software, given the fact that even if an antivirus detects and cleans the MBR infection, it will be restored at the next system startup when the malicious BIOS payload would overwrite the MBR code again.” Webroot’s Marco Giuliani noted that “developing an antivirus utility able to clean the BIOS code is a challenge, because it needs to be totally error-proof, to avoid rendering the system unbootable at all.” He added: “The job of handling with such specific system codes should be left to the developers of the specific motherboard model, who release BIOS updates along with specific tool to update the BIOS code.” SOURCE via Webroot |
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