RedBox

How to Prevent Thumb Drive Security Disasters

2012-01-30T02:35:00.000+07:00

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January 29, 2012

Daily Technology News

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How to Prevent Thumb Drive Security Disasters Some security professionals suggest a radical approach to locking down USB flash drives, but there are other, less drastic options as well. Share:
Facebook Timeline Looms: What You Need to Know Facebook is making Timeline compulsory and is rolling it out to all users in the next couple of weeks, so you'll want to be prepared for all that sharing. Share:
Beware of Malicious QR Codes Cybercrooks are taking advantage of the proliferation of QR codes on posters and marketing material by distributing their own malicious stickers, security researcher says. Share:
FBI to Build Social Network Spy App The bureau is accepting proposals to design a system that tracks social networks to learn more about criminal behavior. Share:
iPad 2 Can Be Wirelessly Charged Using LaunchPort Inductive charging technology had a big presence at the Consumer Electronics Show this month, and one product shown there can wirelessly charge an iPad 2. Share:
iPhone Repair Policy Helps Thieves, Report Claims Apple's policy of replacing broken iPhones plays into the hands of criminals who steal the handsets, damage them, and swap them, analyst says. Share:
Nintendo Finally Embraces Online Play The Nintendo Network will reportedly offer user accounts, online multiplayer games, downloadable add-ons, and eventually full game downloads. Share:
Firefox 12 Tab Features May Have Been Prematurely Hyped A report says both the home tab and new-tab page features reported for Firefox 12, which is to be released in April, may not appear until Firefox 13. Share:
U.S. Charges Latvian Hacker in $2 Million Stock Scam The SEC accuses a Latvian man of online stock fraud and manipulation that cost investors more than $2 million. Share:
Apple iPad: Two Years Old, and Just Getting Started It's hard to imagine that the Apple iPad is a mere two years old, but the reality is that this game changing device is just starting to scratch the surface of what it will one day be. Share:
Need More Storage? Expand with External Drives If your drive is running out of space you can just plug in an external drive to expand capacity. But, there are pros and cons to this approach that you should be aware of. Share:
Macworld \| iWorld: HyperJuice Plug External Battery The HyperJuice Plug is a $120 portable charger that can be used to recharge you phone, tablet, or USB device in a pinch. The portable device is encased in an aluminum enclosure and available from hypershop.com. Share:

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How to Prevent Thumb Drive Security Disasters Some security professionals suggest a radical approach to locking down USB flash drives, but there are other, less drastic options as well. Share:	Facebook Timeline Looms: What You Need to Know Facebook is making Timeline compulsory and is rolling it out to all users in the next couple of weeks, so you'll want to be prepared for all that sharing. Share:

Top Reviews on PCWorld.com
The 12 Greatest PC Shareware Games of All Time From the birth of Duke Nukem to the first great digital pinball game, here are a dozen classics from the shareware era. Share:
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MobileCrunch

2012-01-29T20:14:00.001+07:00

MobileCrunch

Apple’s Off-The-Charts iPhone And iPad Sales

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 02:02 PM PST

Sometimes you have to see things to truly appreciate their magnitude. Apple’s latest quarter was so massive that MG had to write two posts about it: $46 billion in revenues, 37 million iPhones sold, 15 million iPads. The chart above, which comes from Asymco (see a fully interactive version here), shows how unusual this quarter was for Apple.

The quarter was driven by iPhone and iPad sales. And you can see that by looking at the blue and red lines, which show unit sales of each. iPhone sales went from 17 million the quarter before to 37 million. They more than doubled in a single quarter.

But look closely at the iPad line. What I just noticed for the first time is that Apple sold almost as many iPads last quarter as it sold iPhones in the previous quarter. And now it is selling as many iPads as iPods. That red line is going to keep on going up. Will it ever catch up to iPhone sales?

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx Review: 4G LTE With Solid Battery Life Just Got Real

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 11:55 AM PST

Short Version

The Droid Razr Maxx by Motorola is a very special phone. You see, I had a bit of a thing for the Droid Razr when it first came out, but it wasn’t quite perfect. It felt a bit light, and I had trouble holding it in my hand since it was so big and so thin at the same time. Plus, battery life was a bust. It wasn’t awful, but it only lasted about nine hours, meaning most people would need to bring a charger along every day.

The Droid Razr Maxx throws all those problems into the trash can, and only gains about 18g and 1.89mm in return.

Features:

4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced qHD 960×450 display
Dual-core 1.2GHz processor
8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, flash, and 1080p video capture
1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter
Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE
MSRP: $299.99 on-contract

Pros:

Big battery life improvements (more on that later)
Bump in storage from 16GB to 32GB
Feels a bit more like a premium product with the added heft

Cons:

If you liked the size of the RAZR, the thickness might bother you
Poorly placed microUSB charging port
No removable back cover (which has its rough consequences, I recently learned)

Long Version:

If I had to choose between the Droid Razr and the Droid Razr Maxx, I’d go Maxx all the way. Battery life may not be the star spec when you’re reading your reviews, but we all sooner or later realize that it’s probably the most important spec of all. 4G LTE is amazing. If you haven’t tried it, you should (seriously) run down to a Verizon and do a Google search or load an app on to one of the store units. You won’t just notice the difference; you’ll pine for it. But don’t get ahead of yourself. Before the Razr Maxx, every phone with 4G LTE support couldn’t keep up after a few hours of use.

The Razr Maxx crushes that pretty huge problem and finally makes 4G LTE a viable option for the power user.

Battery Life:

I usually save this section for closer to the end, but I figured you guys are just going to scroll to this section anyway, so I might as well get it out of the way.

Yes, the Razr Maxx’s battery life is far better than that of the Razr. I actually still have my Razr from when I reviewed it, and was able to test both phones alongside each other. But before I get into the results, let me tell you about how we tested it. We have a battery test program here that continuously searches Google for images. Once one page loads, another pops up. I can close out of the browser at any time to load apps (which I did), make calls (did that, too), browse the web (yep, that too), and watch some videos.

But the most important thing to remember when I give you these numbers is that both phones, the Maxx and the original Razr, were in constant use from the beginning of the test until they died. No locked screen. No minute to catch their breath.

The Razr lasted for four and a half hours with constant (and varied) use. The Maxx, on the other hand, stuck with me for eight hours and fifteen minutes. For those of you following along at home, that’s almost double the battery life. If I use the phone like a normal human being (read: not Google Image searching random names constantly), it lasted a full day and on into the next day before it needed a charge around 11 am. This is with Wifi and 4G LTE in use.

Hardware:

The phone itself is beautiful. Many of you may be bothered by the fact that its 8.99mm thick compared to the Razr’s 7.1mm waist line, but I actually found the extra bulk to both feel more premium and look… well, better. Because the Razr is so very thin, the classic “Moto hump” on the back is much, much more pronounced than it is on any other Droid. On the Razr Maxx, the hump is actually quite subtle.

The phone is a tad heavier than its predecessor, which I think lends itself to that premium feel, as well. Though, size may still be an issue for me. As I said with the Razr, my hands are pretty big for a girl and I still have trouble performing one-handed actions on the Razr Maxx.

One thing I failed to mention in my Razr review that I’ve since realized annoys me quite a bit is the placement of the microUSB port. Both the microUSB port and HDMI out are placed square on the top of the phone. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this makes it impossible to play a game or work in landscape while the phone is plugged in. Motorola (and others), please start putting your charging ports on the top side, if possible.

As far as the display goes, of course it’s beautiful. There’s very little differentiation between pixels and the size really lends itself to TV/movie viewing. Screens vary from phone to phone (even if they’re technically the “same screen”), and I did notice that the Razr Maxx has a more of a yellowy tint to it, whereas the Razr has more of a bluish tint. These are just my units, though, and if they weren’t side by side I might not have noticed at all.

I’m still a huge fan of the design, and think those boxy corners and that Kevlar fiber casing are a great direction for Moto to be headed in.

Performance::

Alright guys, after two whole sections of (mostly) praise I need to get out a big gripe. While I was testing the Razr Maxx, it froze twice. This isn’t that big of a deal. I’ve spent a good deal of time with the phone and really pushed it to the maxx (heh), and pretty much all phones freeze at some point or another. The problem, however, is that every time the Maxx froze, it stopped responding to touch.

You don’t necessarily need a removable back cover to help with battery life on this thing, but without it there’s no way to manually shut down the device. Each time I held the lock button to turn it off, I couldn’t tap the icon to shut it down. Plugging it in to a PC didn’t jolt it out of its freeze either. This left me waiting for the phone to either cool down and snap out of it, or run out of battery (which can be a helluva long wait with the Razr Maxx, especially when it’s basically sleeping). The Maxx overheats to an extent, just like the Razr, and I assume this was the culprit in my freeze issue.

Basic performance, on the other hand, was just fine. Switching between apps, surfing the web, and watching mobile video was all pleasant. I didn’t experience any serious hiccups (other than those freezes), but the usual Android lag still remains. Luckily, Moto chose to leave Blur out of the equation and laid a rather light, useful overlay onto both the Razr and the Maxx. I say keep ‘em coming like that, Moto.

As far as software goes, everything is the same on the Maxx as it is on the Razr, so I’m going to refer you to the Razr review.

Camera:

I kind of brushed over the camera performance in my Razr review, so I figured I’d show you guys what I’m talking about this time around. Still image quality is very good, especially in bright environments (see below). Even zoomed in, the camera still takes quality shots though it still won’t replace a nice point-and-shoot if you take pictures more than the average bear (that Yogi reference is weak, but I’ll still leave it.)

Low-light pictures aren’t as great, but it still gets the job done as far as stills are concerned (see below). Video capture in low-light environments doesn’t really cut it though. I tried to take a little video at my friend’s birthday party last night in a bar and had no luck. Just a lot of squiggly, blurry darkness.

If you know how to use the camera and focus before you hit the shutter button, the lag between tapping shutter and taking the picture isn’t that bad at all. If you try to focus and hit the shutter to early, you’ll be waiting a while.

Motorola packed all kinds of fun goodies into the camera application, which can be accessed by a rather slick drop down bar that sits right on top of the view finder. It offers up basic settings (like where to save the pic, geo-tagging, etc.), effects (like B&W, negative, and sepia), scenes (some of which help a bit with low-light shooting), modes (including panorama), exposure and flash.

All of this is majorly helpful, but I did have one small complaint with panorama. Unless you’re really steady, the shot can look a bit awkward. If you tilt a bit, for example, while moving from frame to frame, the shot can have bendy lines that should be straight and other strange qualities (in the image below, the train tracks dip a bit toward the right even though they are completely straight and level in real life).

Light:

Dark:

Panorama:

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, I’d say this is probably my favorite new 4G LTE phone, mostly because it actually makes LTE a viable option. Past that, it’s quite beautiful, reliable, and well-built. You won’t scratch the screen by dropping it a few feet (thanks to that Corning Gorilla glass) and the Kevlar fiber casing is not only durable but it adds a nice touch in the design department.

I’m a bit concerned about the overheating issue, but I’m also aware that I was using the phone in a way that most users won’t since I was testing. Still, if you’re a power user, I’d think twice about this and maybe see how others are faring as far as freezing is concerned.

Last, but certainly not least, I want to apologize on behalf of Motorola for screwing over Droid Razr owners. If you’re happy with your Razr and love how thin it is, than just ignore me. But for most of you, I assume that battery life is really bugging you on the original. It’s only been a couple of months since the Razr debuted, and that’s probably the biggest problem I have with this phone. I applaud Motorola for seeing an issue and nipping it in the bud, but you have to be careful that you don’t screw over your original customers in the process.

CrunchGear

2012-01-29T20:10:00.001+07:00

CrunchGear

Kindle Sales Growing Faster Than The Nook’s

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 02:23 PM PST

Barnes & Noble may be challenging Amazon’s dominance of the e-book world, but Kindle sales are still growing faster than the Nook’s — at least if you connect the dots between some of the numbers included in a recently-published article by The New York Times.

The article doesn’t hide the fact that Amazon has the vast majority of marketshare, with Barnes & Noble saying it has 27 percent of the market, compared to Amazon’s share of “at least 60 percent.” At the same time, the article writes that “to the delight of publishers” (who see Amazon as a competitor), Barnes & Noble has “grabbed a lot of market share from Amazon.” In response, Amazon told The Times that Kindle sales (a number that includes both the Kindle Fire tablet and Kindle e-readers) grew 177 percent during the nine-week holiday period, compared to the same period in 2010.

How does that stack up against the Nook? The article doesn’t say, but earlier this month, Barnes & Noble actually reported its own holiday growth numbers. During the same period of time, the company’s device sales grew 70 percent — not bad, perhaps, but a sign that Amazon still has greater momentum.

The Times also reports that Barnes & Noble engineers are “putting the finishing touches” on the next version of the company’s e-reader, due for release sometime in the spring.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx Review: 4G LTE With Solid Battery Life Just Got Real

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 11:55 AM PST

Short Version

The Droid Razr Maxx throws all those problems into the trash can, and only gains about 18g and 1.89mm in return.

Features:

4.3-inch Super AMOLED Advanced qHD 960×450 display
Dual-core 1.2GHz processor
8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, flash, and 1080p video capture
1.3-megapixel front-facing shooter
Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE
MSRP: $299.99 on-contract

Pros:

Big battery life improvements (more on that later)
Bump in storage from 16GB to 32GB
Feels a bit more like a premium product with the added heft

Cons:

If you liked the size of the RAZR, the thickness might bother you
Poorly placed microUSB charging port
No removable back cover (which has its rough consequences, I recently learned)

Long Version:

The Razr Maxx crushes that pretty huge problem and finally makes 4G LTE a viable option for the power user.

Battery Life:

I usually save this section for closer to the end, but I figured you guys are just going to scroll to this section anyway, so I might as well get it out of the way.

Hardware:

I’m still a huge fan of the design, and think those boxy corners and that Kevlar fiber casing are a great direction for Moto to be headed in.

Performance::

As far as software goes, everything is the same on the Maxx as it is on the Razr, so I’m going to refer you to the Razr review.

Camera:

Light:

Dark:

Panorama:

Conclusion:

Apparently it's what everyone is taking about!

2012-01-29T18:25:00.000+07:00

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2012-01-29T18:13:00.001+07:00

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( Bonus Video ) - WOW, I can't believe I didn't think of this ...

2012-01-29T06:34:00.001+07:00

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Car Control Software Chaos Revealed in Major Safety Study

2012-01-29T02:35:00.000+07:00

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January 28, 2012

PCWorld.com » News

Daily Technology News

Our Top Stories
Car Control Software Chaos Revealed in Major Safety Study A U.S. government-commissioned report found that it was 'unrealistic' for the country's vehicle safety agency to be able to maintain the skills to keep up with rapid technology change. Share:
Google Doodle Commemorates Largest Snowflake It's hard to imagine a snowstorm in which the snowflakes are more than a foot in diameter. Share:
Massive Android Malware Op May Have Infected 5 Million Users The largest-ever Android malware campaign may have duped as many as 5 million users into downloading infected apps from Google's Android Market, Symantec said Friday. Share:
Smartphone Tracking Services olso Available on Android, Blackberry Handsets Several carriers offer services similar to the popular "Find My iPhone" app that can track stolen devices or find one dropped between the cushions on your sofa. Share:
Dig Deep Into Lion: 17 of the Best Overlooked and Underrated Features 17 useful features every OS X Lion user should know about. Share:
Microsoft Kinect Motion-Sensing Technology Coming to Laptops, Sources Say If Kinect capability does arrive in laptops, you may soon be able to control programs with the wave of your hand. Share:
Why e-Textbooks Could Cost Students Will Apple's recent attempt to break into the textbook market, and other rapidly evolving e-book distribution models, help to moderate soaring textbook prices? From what I've seen so far, it could do just the opposite. Share:
Google Privacy Policy Claims Challenged by Watchdog SafeGov disputes the Internet search leader's claims that the changes won't affect government workers using Google apps. Share:
Amazon Merchant Caught Bribing Customers for Reviews VIP Deals has been offering customers rebates for reviewing. Share:
How Tweet It Isn't: Twitter's New Censorship Policies Twitter has announced that it will allow governments to censor some (but not all) tweets. Did they really have any other choice? Share:
How to Hack an iPad Most iPad and iPhone owners rely on their Apple ID password to prevent access to their account details. This won't stop a hacker gaining access to your personal account and log in details. Share:
Security Roundup: The Triumph of Hactivists, the Sorrow of Symantec It was another busy week for hactivists attacking the online targets of their ire. Share:
Windows Phone 7 App Fights Malaria Microsoft has awarded an Imagine Cup Grant to a team that developed a custom Windows Phone 7 and application that can diagnose malaria then upload the data to cloud servers that map the data to help track outbreaks. Share:
FTC Evauates Mobile Payment Tools A workshop will examine the security and feasibility of making payments on the fly via cell phone. Share:
Google Slammed for Tainting Search to Hype Google+ Social Networking New "Search Plus Your World" Google feature, which shows Google+ data alongside generic search results, provokes anger. Share:
Android Malware Not Rampant, Lookout Security Says Researchers are refuting a claim from their competitor Symantec, which had warned of malicious apps on the Android Market. Share:
Adscend Denies Facebook, AG Allegations Adscend Media, the defendant in lawsuits filed this week by Facebook and the Washington attorney general, on Friday denied the allegations in the complaints and shifted blame to its affiliates. Share:
Apple Reclaims Top Brand Spot After iPhone 4S Launch, Jobs' Death Apple reclaimed the top spot in a brand listing by collecting an estimated $900 million worth of traditional media, social media and Twitter coverage in the fourth quarter of 2011, a measurement company said today. Share:
Macworld \| iWorld: iKeyboard for iPads iKeyboard is a $35 device that attaches to your iPad's screen to provide a touch keyboard feel without needing a Bluetooth connection. Share:
Marine Breaks Record for Biggest Lego Collection, Gains Huge Geek Cred Think your Lego collection is expansive? Think again when you check out this guy's record-breaking brick bounty. Share:

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MobileCrunch

2012-01-28T20:15:00.003+07:00

MobileCrunch

Android Smartphone Round-Up: December/January Edition
Face.com Launches KLIK, A Real-Time, Facial Recognition Camera App For iPhone
RIM’s New CEO Backtracks: “There Is A Lot Of Change”
Apple Overtakes Samsung As World’s Largest Smartphone Vendor In Q4

Android Smartphone Round-Up: December/January Edition

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 12:04 PM PST

We took a break from the Android round-up in December because, well, to be honest I was on vacation. But January gave us a few extra smartphones and the holidays are over, so we’re back. What we’ve got for you today leans into more expensive turf, and unfortunately, our favorite Android devices for the past two months are also exclusively at Verizon, so Big Red subscribers should pay attention.

Without further ado, these are our favorite December/January releases of the Android persuasion: The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the LG Spectrum, and the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx.

Enjoy!

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Features:

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.65-inch 1280×720 Super AMOLED display
5MP rear camera (1080 video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture)
1.2GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $299.99 with a two-year contract

Pros:

Ice Cream Sandwich is a solid step up from Gingerbread
That 720p display is huge and beautiful
Google Hangouts

Cons:

The phone might be a bit too big for one-handed actions
Feels a bit plastic-y
No pre-loaded Google wallet, but you can download it

If you’re looking for Android, the Galaxy Nexus is where you’ll find it. Ice Cream Sandwich is a joy compared to Gingerbread, and this coming from someone who is quite hard on Android. Of course, the screen on this bad boy is amazing, but as MG points out in his review, sometimes the phone is just too big to perform one-handed actions.

We also expected image quality to be better out of that 5-megapixel rear camera, but it simply can’t compete with the iPhone’s 8-megapixel shooter. (And no, I’m not saying that based on megapixels… Image quality is simply better with the 4S.) But that doesn’t really matter — an Android fan is an Android fan, and this is as good as Android gets.

LG Spectrum

Features:

Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.5-inch True HD 1280×720 Display
8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera
1.5GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $199.99 with a two-year contract

Pros:

Beautiful display
Pre-loaded ESPN Sports Center app in HD
LG Y is actually a nice custom overlay

Cons:

Not a fan of that brushed plastic back panel
The silver bezels don’t handle prints well

I was hard on this phone when I first played around with it, and I still maintain that there’s nothing super special about the Spectrum. It’s not like the Rezound with Beats Audio imtegration or the Razr with its anorexic waist line. That said, you really won’t find these kind of specs on an Android phone for just $200. In fact, I’d be so bold as to call it a steal.

I’m also pretty excited about that display. I have yet to put a Super AMOLED Plus up against this 720p True HD display, but I’d say it’s one of the most (if not, the most) stunning displays I saw at CES. Certainly worth consideration, especially if you are a fan of LG phones to begin with.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

Features:

Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.3-inch Super AMOLED advanced 960×540 display
8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture)
1.2GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $299.99 with a two-year contract

Pros:

3300 mAH battery is a big improvement from the Razr
Less of a “Moto bump” along the back
Bump in storage from 16GB to 32GB

Cons:

1.89mm thicker than its predecessor
UI can slow things down a tad

The Droid Razr Maxx is a very special phone. It kills the few things that were wrong with the original Razr — which is an excellent device, mind you — and then doubles the storage, to boot. I was originally bothered with how light the Razr was. It made premium materials feel cheap, but the extra heft and weight on the Razr Maxx really gives this phone a pricey, solid feel.

A Droid Razr update for Android 4.0 leaked out this week, so if you’re comfortable with tinkering than that’s an extra benefit to the Maxx. We’ll have a full review on this phone up very shortly, but from the short time I’ve spent with it thus far I’d say it has the superior hardware in this particular bunch of Android handsets.

It’ll all come down to what matters most to you. If that giant 720p screen excites you, go Galaxy Nexus all the way. The Spectrum, on the other hand, offers up some pretty killer specs at a much more reasonable price, while the Droid Razr Maxx wins in the hardware/design department.

Face.com Launches KLIK, A Real-Time, Facial Recognition Camera App For iPhone

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:54 AM PST

Facial recognition company Face.com has just released a new mobile application that takes advantage of its technology to identify the faces of your friends in photos. Called “KLIK,” the app is a real-time, facial recognition mobile camera app for iPhone that automatically identifies your friends by name before or after you take their their photo.

To use the app, you have to configure it with your Facebook account, as that’s how it learns who you friends are. You don’t, however, have to immediately share the pictures you take using KLIK on Facebook – that part is optional.

In most cases, KLIK can identify the person in the frame before you snap the photo, and the name will then appear directly over their face in the camera’s viewfinder. (The name does not appear on the saved photo, of course). If, however, KLIK can’t figure out who someone is, tap “Tag Me” on the unrecognized faces in the saved photos to ID them. As you identify unknown faces and save the photos, the app learns and its ability to recognize those same folks in future images improves.

Although the app could have easily been built just as a “proof of concept” of Face.com’s facial recognition technology, it’s clear that that startup has put some time and effort into the app’s design and feature set. The app isn’t just impressive in terms of its technology – it’s pretty, too.

In addition to the facial recognition bit, KLIK supports some Instagram-like photo filters for making your photos seem more artistic. It also offers feeds of nearby photos and friends photos, tagging photos from the camera roll, and social sharing to Facebook, Twitter, email, and publicly on KLIK itself.

Oh, and did I mention it’s pretty? KLIK requires iOS 4.3+ and a Facebook account to work. The app is available for free here on iTunes.

RIM’s New CEO Backtracks: “There Is A Lot Of Change”

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:58 AM PST

On Monday of this week, RIM’s new CEO made a statement that set off a bomb on the blogosphere, and I’m not sure he understood its repercussions at the time. “I don’t think any drastic change is needed.”

If you’ve been paying attention to RIM and its numbers, you know that what the company desperately needs is change. Sales are declining, platform market share is dwindling, and the BlackBerry brand, to a large extent, has lost the power it once had behind it. So in a recent interview with CrackBerry, Heins made sure to clarify exactly what he meant by “no drastic change is needed.”

I think this got into a little bit of the black and white zone. I was talking about drastic or seismic changes. What I was trying to address was that there was some suggestion that RIM should be split up or should even be sold. My true belief is that RIM has the strength and the assets that we can really succeed in this market.

There is a LOT of change. There is a lot of structure change, there has been already a lot of change in terms of our software, our software platform, bringing QNX in. There is no standstill at any moment here at RIM.

What I wanted to make clear to the market is that we believe in our own strength, we are BlackBerry, we are an integrated solution, hardware, software, services, and network.

Perhaps, Mr. Heins makes a point. RIM is clearly trying to change. We just haven’t seen it yet.

A QNX-based BlackBerry 10 operating system is a huge step in the right direction, but it was announced in April 2010 and won’t be ready until the second half of this year. Quite the wait, if I may be so bold.

Then there’s the PlayBook 2.0 OS that’s supposed to make its way to us next month, and refreshed hardware to go along with it which hasn’t been given a clear release date. Again, these are solid changes. PlayBook 2.0 brings everything that the first tablet OS was lacking and does it in a seamless, elegant manner. But… the original PlayBook should’ve launched with this version of the OS, even if it meant the launch would be a bit later. Another case of attempted change, but poor execution.

Another change we’ll soon see from RIM has to do with their launch strategy. RIM usually puts out two or three new phones all on the same day. It’s like a BlackBerry explosion. But according to a leaked roadmap, the company seems to finally realize that a staggered approach is the only way to give each device a moment in the sun. It’s a smart move, we just need to experience it.

Finally, the BlackBerry London. Despite the fact that RIM’s bread and butter lies with its full QWERTY keyboard, the company is expected to debut BlackBerry 10 on an all-touch device, codenamed London. I have to say I applaud RIM for this choice, for now.

RIM’s core audience enjoys the full QWERTY, no doubt, and the company will likely continue to be the de facto when it comes to communication and QWERTY handsets. But (yep, another but)… the world is moving to all-touch whether RIM likes it or not. This is the company’s chance to tap into a different, younger segment of the market.

Of course, the London will need to be just about perfect in terms of hardware to get the ball rolling again, especially since RIM’s found itself in an uphill battle.

Long story short, RIM certainly is in the midst of a change. Whether it’s big enough or coming soon enough is an entirely different story.

Apple Overtakes Samsung As World’s Largest Smartphone Vendor In Q4

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:48 AM PST

According to the latest report from Strategy Analytics, Apple has now overtaken Samsung to become the world’s largest smartphone vendor by volume. Apple achieved 23.9% market share during Q4 2011, narrowly beating out Samsung’s 23.5% share.

In addition, Apple shipped 37 million units in Q4, again going neck-and-neck with Samsung and its 36.5 million units shipped during the same time.

However, notes Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics, “while Apple took the top spot in smartphones on a quarterly basis, Samsung became the market leader in annual terms for the first time with 20% global share during 2011.” Apple’s annual share, meanwhile, was 19%.

In other words, Apple won the quarter, not the year.

Smartphone global shipments reached nearly half a billion units in 2011 (488.5 million units), the firm found, turning the smartphone battle into a two-horse race between Apple and Samsung in terms of units shipped.

Nokia, the one-time smartphone leader, is still holding onto a top spot, in position #3, with 19.6 million units shipped during Q4 and 77.3 million shipped during 2011. But Nokia’s global share has been halved from 33% in 2010 to just 16% in 2011, indicating its ongoing decline.

Although Strategy’s numbers paint the Samsung vs. Apple battle as a tight race between mobile giants, there’s a big difference between the numbers being reported here. As MacRumors points out, Samsung no longer reports its mobile phone sales numbers, while Apple discloses its units sold each quarter. That means analysts are estimating Samsung’s numbers, but Apple’s numbers are provided by the company itself. It could be that Apple’s lead is even greater than what’s seen here.

Update: A report from the analysts at Canalys has just come in, and confirms the same thing – it’s an Apple vs. Samsung battle.

According to the firm’s latest findings, Apple’s record shipment of 37 million iPhones shipped in Q4 beat the previous record held by Nokia of 28.3 million phones shipped in Q4 2010. Another shocking figure: the huge volume of iPhones shipped exceeded the size of the entire market of 4 years ago, when 35.5 million smartphones shipped globally.

The firm also noted Nokia’s shipment of 19.6 million smartphones, calling it “a decent performance given its current transitional state.” However, Canalys stopped short of estimating Samsung’s phone shipments at this time, saying that the company doesn’t disclose these numbers publicly. They did say that Samsung’s quarterly smartphone growth was around 30% and mobile phone shipments were up 10%, though.

Says Canalys Vice President and Principal Analyst Chris Jones, "the numbers are still coming in, but our early take on the state of the smartphone market is that, while Apple and Samsung clearly saw phenomenal performances, many other vendors have struggled. The full impact of this difficult quarter on hardware and software vendors will become clearer over the next week, when final results from the likes HTC, LG, Huawei and ZTE are announced, and Canalys publishes its full Q4 2011 worldwide country-level databases."

CrunchGear

2012-01-28T20:15:00.001+07:00

CrunchGear

Secret Windows 8 Weapon: Kinect Built Into Your Laptop
Android Smartphone Round-Up: December/January Edition
Jon Rubinstein Leaves HP After “Fulfilling Commitment”
A Really Nice Flying Ornithopter Video For Your Friday Enjoyment
Mujjo Conductive Gloves Let You Slide To Unlock With Your Begloved Knuckle
Report: Nintendo Considering Changing The Wii U’s Name
The HP TouchPad Rides Back Into Town On Woot’s Back
NEC Forecasts $1.3 Billion Loss, Ready To Cut 10,000 Jobs Worldwide

Secret Windows 8 Weapon: Kinect Built Into Your Laptop

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 02:39 PM PST

The Windows release of Kinect is coming up in a couple days, but for most people that won’t be a major event: the Kinect they have is sitting on their TV or in a drawer, waiting to be taken out for an impromptu Dance Central 2 party. Of the 10 million Kinects out there, the only ones connected to computers are the ones being fiddled with by the various hackers and students making science projects out the things.

But according to the Daily, Microsoft is hoping to remedy this particular situation by building Kinect sensors right into your laptops. TechCrunch alum Matt Hickey got to handle a pair of prototypes, which were confirmed to be official, not just one of the many experiments that hide within Microsoft’s various lairs.

Unfortunately the laptops were not ready for their debut and no pictures seem to have been permitted. But they are described as netbook-like, with a number of smaller sensors instead of a webcam, and what could be an IR LED at the bottom of the screen.

The inclusion of depth-sensing cameras on a laptop is an interesting idea, and if they can drive the price of the sensor array down, it might become a standard feature. Microsoft has clearly also been focusing on miniaturizing the Kinect hardware, as the bulky original would seem somewhat out of place on a petite netbook. Whether this smaller sensor set has the same capabilities as the larger isn’t clear and wasn’t discussed.

A smaller Kinect would also suggest that Microsoft’s next console, rumored to have Kinect built in, is nearing readiness. While many gaming industry insiders have discounted the idea that the next generation of consoles will be announced this year, the rumor mill says otherwise.

Android Smartphone Round-Up: December/January Edition

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 12:04 PM PST

Without further ado, these are our favorite December/January releases of the Android persuasion: The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the LG Spectrum, and the Motorola Droid RAZR Maxx.

Enjoy!

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Features:

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.65-inch 1280×720 Super AMOLED display
5MP rear camera (1080 video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture)
1.2GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $299.99 with a two-year contract

Pros:

Ice Cream Sandwich is a solid step up from Gingerbread
That 720p display is huge and beautiful
Google Hangouts

Cons:

The phone might be a bit too big for one-handed actions
Feels a bit plastic-y
No pre-loaded Google wallet, but you can download it

LG Spectrum

Features:

Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.5-inch True HD 1280×720 Display
8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera
1.5GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $199.99 with a two-year contract

Pros:

Beautiful display
Pre-loaded ESPN Sports Center app in HD
LG Y is actually a nice custom overlay

Cons:

Not a fan of that brushed plastic back panel
The silver bezels don’t handle prints well

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

Features:

Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Verizon 4G LTE support
4.3-inch Super AMOLED advanced 960×540 display
8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture)
1.2GHz dual-core processor
MSRP: $299.99 with a two-year contract

Pros:

3300 mAH battery is a big improvement from the Razr
Less of a “Moto bump” along the back
Bump in storage from 16GB to 32GB

Cons:

1.89mm thicker than its predecessor
UI can slow things down a tad

Jon Rubinstein Leaves HP After “Fulfilling Commitment”

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:06 AM PST

HP’s had quite a 2011 and Jon Rubinstein, former Palm CEO and a top-level executive at HP after the giant acquired Palm in 2010, was along for the ride. But according to a report out of AllThingsD, Rubinstein has officially left the company.

Here’s the official quote out of HP:

Jon has fulfilled his commitment to HP. We wish him well.

Rubinstein was under contract with HP to complete a 12-24 month commitment post-acquisition. The report claims that Rubinstein doesn’t have any plans so far, but has said that he is “going to take a well deserved break after four and a half years of developing webOS."

On December 9, 2011, HP CEO Meg Whitman announced that webOS, Rubinstein’s main project, would be open sourced after the company killed webOS smartphones and tablets back in August.

A Really Nice Flying Ornithopter Video For Your Friday Enjoyment

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST

These things are pretty old but sometimes it’s nice to see two dudes really happy about a piece of technology that really works. This ornithopter is made by the guys at FlappingFlight and comes in multiple models including the Park Hawk with “instant glide” feature that allows you to stop flapping and swoop around like a bird of prey at the touch of a button.

At $300 they’re not extremely expensive and they’re a nice change from the smoky sturm und drang of traditional RC fliers.

Product Page via Reddit

Mujjo Conductive Gloves Let You Slide To Unlock With Your Begloved Knuckle

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:34 AM PST

We get a lot of PR pitches (“Write about our social media network for fish lovers! If you don’t, we’ll take our exclusive to TetraLover.blogspot.com,” “We’ll give you a private jet if you write good things about Apple – Sincerely, Tim Cook,” “Take a look at these iPhone gloves!”) and there are few I’ve dreaded more than writing about the aforementioned iPhone gloves mostly because the founders kept emailing me about these damned gloves. These things come from a Dutch company called Mujjo and they purport to allow you to interact with your iPhone with any part of your hand, including your wrist, knuckle, and palm. The founders must have used them to punch out emails on the icy Hague metro every day of the past month because they were pretty darn persistent.

The question when dealing with these sorts of pitches, really, is two-fold: a) does the product advertised work? and b) will I write about the product after being literally hounded for three weeks by these guys? In answer to both, I would respond with a resounding (literally) “Yes.” They work and yeah, what the heck, Mujjo, people like gloves, right? Also a post will get Mujjo to stop emailing me.

I tried these during a few colder Brooklyn afternoons and, like most gloves, they kept my hands warm. Unlike most gloves, I could use them to tap my iPhone screen. Could they be used to tap your iPhone screen with your knuckle? Sure. They’re full of conductive thread so smack away. Is that a major selling point? Not really, but if you’re paying $30 (25 Euro) for touchscreen gloves, these things better let you touch the very heavens with your triquetrum so this is an acceptable middle-of-the-road solution. So there you have it: gloves that are good as gloves and iPhone interaction tools. A double whammy.

If you’re still with me, let’s discuss the takeaways here:

1. These gloves work well.
2. If you email us enough we will eventually cave.
3. Don’t try that technique with every stupid thing you’re trying to pitch because if the product is absolutely stupid no amount of badgering will win our hearts.

Product Page

Report: Nintendo Considering Changing The Wii U’s Name

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:05 AM PST

The Wii U brand is a bit underwhelming. At best it builds upon a very successive product. But at worst the name suggests its simply an add-on rather than a completely revamped system. A new report just surfaced that sources a Nintendo insider stating the company is considering renaming the next-gen Wii.

Nintendo is quickly spiraling down. The Wii U — or whatever it’s to be called — needs to be a hit. Nintendo cannot misplace another piece in Tetris.

CVG is reporting that following the 3DS disaster the 100-year old gaming company might change its Wii U strategy prior to E3 in June. The 3DS name is essentially the same naming convention as Wii U — a play on the name of the predecessor. However, consumers have seemingly been put-off by the name causing Nintendo to spend more marketing on the 3DS’ name rather than the 3DS’ features.

That can’t happen with the Wii U. Nintendo experienced a net loss of $630 million between April and December of 2011. It needs the Wii U to be an instant hit. The console is set for a 2012 release. Nintendo just needs to decide if it needs a name change (it does).

The HP TouchPad Rides Back Into Town On Woot’s Back

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:44 AM PST

Somewhere, someone out there is curled in a corner, sobbing because they missed out on the last HP TouchPad sale. Ebay messed up, he says. It wasn’t his fault. He clicked the button but Ebay’s servers crashed. So now he’s alone. Left to sulk in his missed opportunities.

But fear not, friend! I bring you great news from the land of the Internet! Woot finagled another batch of TouchPad tablets! They’re refurbs and priced higher than before, but they’re TouchPads! But you better act quick! Don’t let another chance to own a failed tablet slip between your fingers!

As of this post’s writing Woot has both models listed but the 16GB is already sold out. That leaves just the 32GB available. And at $219 it’s still a fine deal for a 9.7-inch dual-core 32GB tablet that can run Android. Of course only fanboys should apply. A general consumer would likely get more enjoyment out of a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet. But perhaps you’re a starving coder, betting your future on webOS now that its going open-source — by all means, buy the TouchPad and lets never talk about it again.

NEC Forecasts $1.3 Billion Loss, Ready To Cut 10,000 Jobs Worldwide

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 05:39 AM PST

Bad news from Japanese tech powerhouse NEC: the company yesterday announced [PDF] a net loss of $1.13 billion in the three months through December 2011, compared with a net loss of “just” $350 million in the same time frame last fiscal. NEC said it wrote down its deferred tax assets.

For the three-month period, revenue dropped from $9.3 billion to $8.7 billion year-on-year. For the full fiscal (which ends in March this year), NEC now expects a net loss of $1.3 billion. The company says restructuring costs alone will cause a $520 million net loss.

As a reaction to these numbers, NEC said it will cut a total of 10,000 jobs worldwide by the first half of 2013.

To be more concrete, 7,000 NEC employees in Japan will lose their jobs, while the rest will be laid off overseas. Among those 10,000 people, a total of 5,000 are outsourced or part-time workers (the other 5,000 workers are full-time NEC employees). Worldwide, the company employs around 116,000 people currently – full-time, part-time and outsourced workers combined.

ITech News Net

2012-01-28T20:14:00.001+07:00

ITech News Net

Lenovo ThinkPad X130e Student Notebook Now at $429
Samsung Wave Y La Fleur Edition
ZTE Light Tab 2 Android Tablet Heading to the UK

Lenovo ThinkPad X130e Student Notebook Now at $429

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:28 AM PST

Lenovo’s ThinkPad X130e student-oriented notebook is now available for just $429. Built to withstand K-12 education environment, the X130 is MILSPEC-tested for durability and comes with rubber bumper around top cover and stronger corners, bezel, hinges, keyboard and ports. The alway-son Active Protection System also protect the notebook against sudden drops.

The ThinkPad X130e is powered either AMD Fusion E-300 1.3GHz processor with AMD Radeon HD6140 graphics (model , or Intel Core i3-2367M ULV 1.4GHz processor with Intel GMA HD 3000 graphics. Both models sport 4GB of RAM (Max 8GB) and 250GB hard drive (max 500GB). The X130e has a 11.6-inch 1366×768 LED-backlit LCD display and a low-light sensitive VGA webcam. It supports WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth and mobile broadband are available as an options.

The AMD model is priced at $429 and the Intel model costs $549.

[Lenovo]

Related Posts

Samsung Wave Y La Fleur Edition

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 07:47 AM PST

Samsung’s La Fleur Special Edition is back with the new Wave Y S5380 LaFleur Edition feautring floral patterns on its Wine red case. Samsung’s Wave Y is a smartphone running the company’s own Bada 2.0 OS with the TouchWiz UI. It has a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen and a 2 Megapixel camera.

The Wave Y is powered by a 832MHz processor. It supports WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0 as well as NFC. The phone works with quad-band GSM/EDGE and HSDPA 3.5G networks. A 2GB microSD is pre-installed. The phone is now available at Ukraine website rozetka.com.ua for $165. Valentine’s Days is coming, folks in Ukraine may want to get one for lovers.

[SlashGear]

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:04 AM PST

ZTE releases the Light Tab 2 (model V9A) tablet in the UK. The new tablet runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS on a Qualcomm SnapDragon MSM8255 1.4GHz processor and 512MB of RAM. It supports quad-band GSM/EDGE and dual-band HSPA 3G mobile networks, in addition to WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1. GPS is also included for navigation on a large screen.

The Light Tab 2 comes with a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen, 3.2 Megapixel rear facing camera, 0.3 Megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. It has 4GB internal memory for installing apps and storing music, video and documents, and there is a microSD/SDHC card slot for expansion. Other features include micro USB port, G-sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor and a 3400mAh battery.

To be shipped in late February, the ZTE Light Tab 2 is available for order for GBP195.83.
[engadget][Clove]

Related Posts

Apple Accused of Ignoring 'Human Cost' of Manufacturing

2012-01-28T02:35:00.000+07:00

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January 27, 2012

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Leaked: BlackBerry PlayBook, Smartphones for 2012 Here's what's (supposedly) on RIM's roadmap for 2012. Share:
Twitter Prepares To Censor Tweets, Country by Country The microblogging service says it will block tweets when asked to by "an authorized entity." Share:
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Are You at Risk? What Cybercriminals Do With Your Personal Data According to experts, the most likely security risks for consumers range from the annoying (more spam in their email inboxes) to potentially much more dangerous targeted "phishing" emails. Share:
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Symantec's Security Slips Analysis: The recent record includes two major hacks, two major delays admitting fault, and risk to customers. Share:
For the Good of the Nation, Broadband for All Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski recently announced a plan that would expand the Universal Service Fund's Lifeline program to include broadband Internet service. Share:

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FreewareFiles Express - Jan. 27, 2012

2012-01-28T00:15:00.001+07:00

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Bringing you the hottest free software downloads!

January 27, 2012

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In This Issue

Brought to you by FreewareFiles.com

Contents:
1. Free Software Picks
2. Quote of the Week
3. FREE Tech Offer - PC Maintenance Guide (eBook) - Limited Time Offer
4. Software Category Highlight - MIDI Tools
5. Hot Links

Free Software Picks

GPU-Z v0.5.8
Provides you with all the information about your video card and GPU.
OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

LiLi USB Creator 2.8.9
Create a bootable Live USB key with Linux on it.
OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Blank And Secure 3.00
Portable tool to securely and permanently delete data.
OS: Windows 98/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

DNSDataView 1.40
Easily retrieve the DNS records (MX, NS, A, SOA) of specified domains.
OS: Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7

MediaInfo 0.7.53
MediaInfo supplies technical and tag information about a video or audio file.
OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

LiberKey 5.6.0124
A collection of 293 portable apps in a variety of categories to use on any computer.
OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7

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Category Showcase

This week's category showcase is:
MIDI Tools

SynthFont 1.610
A program for editing and playing midi files using various sound source.
OS: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Virtual Midi Piano Keyboard 0.4.0
A virtual piano that is based on Qt4 and RtMIDI.
OS: Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Midi Player Tool 1.05
Play piano with the keyboard/mouse or play midi files.
OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Visa/7

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CrunchGear

2012-01-27T20:21:00.001+07:00

CrunchGear

Disney, Q-pot Choco, Honey Bee: Japan Gets 3 Extra-Cute Android Phones
Dirty Money
Steam Takes First Steps Into Mobile With iOS And Android Apps
BookPlace DB50: Toshiba Introduces Android-Based Color E-Book Reader
Nintendo Reports US$630 Million Net Loss Between April And December 2011, Announces Wii U For 2012
Intel To Spend $120M On Patents, Video Codec Software From RealNetworks

Disney, Q-pot Choco, Honey Bee: Japan Gets 3 Extra-Cute Android Phones

Posted: 27 Jan 2012 04:16 AM PST

Android adoption is growing rapidly in Japan, with local handset manufacturers doing everything they can in order to meet the demands of customers in all segments of the population. One particularly attractive target group seems to be women, given how many Japanese companies say they design Android phones specifically for female users.

Here are three recent examples.

First, Sharp has designed a weird “chocolate bar”-type handset that Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo plans to roll out on Valentine’s Day.

The so-called “Q-pot.Phone SH-04D” [JP] comes with Android 2.3, a 3.7-inch LCD with 540×960 resolution, NFC e-wallet function, Wi-Fi, and an 8MP CMOS camera.

Here are some accessories owners can get:

Second, Japanese carrier SoftBank rolled out Kyocera’s HONEY BEE 101K [JP] today, another handset designed with female customers in mind.

This model features Android 2.3, a 3.5-inch LCD with 800×480 resolution, a 5.1MP CMOS camera, a MP5225 dual-core CPU with 1.2GHz, 2GB ROM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

Third, Disney Mobile has come up with the DM012SH, a Android 2.3 handset (made by Sharp). It comes with a 4-inch LCD with 960×540 resolution, an 8MP CMOS camera, NFC e-wallet function, infrared, digital TV tuner, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, and a microSDHC slot.

Disney Mobile, a Japanese MVNO, is planning to offer the DM012SH (pre-installed with a special Disney UI, Disney apps, wallpapers, etc.) next month. Every buyer will get one the cases below for free:

Dirty Money

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 01:45 PM PST

The New York Times has published a long article on Foxconn which, while it doesn’t provide much in the way of new information, does act as a sobering reminder of just how companies like Apple can make so very much money. When our own John Biggs visited Foxconn, he focused on the company itself, its scale, its intentions. When I wrote about Apple’s suppliers failing to meet environmental standards, it was more about the laxity of regulators within China. Today’s NYT piece depicts Apple as prime mover and potential catalyst of change — but its actions and information from insiders suggest that it is simply unwilling.

There is a certain genius to negotiating down the price of every screw and wire, and never paying a yuan more than is absolutely necessary. As in design and build quality, other companies aspire to Apple’s accomplishment in this area.

Something the article only fleetingly acknowledges is that Foxconn is used by most of the major electronics brands in the world. Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon, and the rest all contract with Foxconn to manufacture, assemble, or finish their products. The threatened mass suicide the other week was, in fact, at an Xbox production facility. The author suggests that HP and Nike “push” their suppliers, presumably in a good way, but Apple does not.

The comparison is made without much in the way of evidence. But it doesn’t appear that Apple is being unfairly targeted: people from within Apple confirm the company’s attitude towards suppliers, and acknowledge that they rarely back up their threats with action. This is for the reason that has been making the rounds over the last week: the suppliers they have are the best in the world, and they are barely able to keep up with Apple’s demands.

There’s a sort of power inversion going on there. Here is Foxconn, which celebrates whenever a client like Apple comes by to make a big order. And here is Apple, which dictates the terms and is, to some extent, the money in the relationship. But which one of these two could fare better if the other backed out? Foxconn would have to spend a few billion reconfiguring its factories to pump out Galaxy Tabs and Kindle Fires. Apple, which has come to rely on Foxconn’s guarantee of millions of products being manufactured at will, and to specs that may change by the hour, would be adrift.

So it has never been a surprise to me when I hear that Apple, and others, only do so much to change the situation in factories and factory towns in China. The simple fact of it is they’re not the ones at the reins. Foxconn and China have our all-important tech companies by the scruff of the neck, and bear the big bad audits by Apple (more likely by people representing people representing Apple) like they’d bear a kitten swiping at their face. It’s a high stakes game, and Foxconn and its like hold all the cards.

Well, not all the cards. As I wrote once, the reason Apple does the things it does is to please us, the consumers. We demand a new iPhone every year that must be better and cheaper. We insist that a thousand dollars is too much for a state of the art computer. We want bigger TVs and external hard drives and slim cameras. And we, almost without exception, fail to care when our demand for more iPads drives Apple to double its orders, driving Foxconn to push more overtime, driving poorly-maintained ventilation systems to their maximum, driving a spark to ignite an aluminum-dust explosion. It’s not our problem, it’s Apple’s or it’s Foxconn’s or it’s China’s. Very reassuring.

One dreamer quoted in the NYT article says: “If they committed to building a conflict-free iPhone, it would transform technology.” Yes, and at the same time, it would transform Apple into a bankrupt company. A conflict free iPhone would cost far, far more and would in all likelihood not be as well-built. Apple knows this. The system we and they have in place works, unfortunately, at least for everyone but the workers coated in N-hexane. And at a twelve to a hundred thousand dollars a pop, they aren’t worth rocking the boat for, especially when you’ve got record profits coming in.

Just don’t forget that we’re in that boat too. Unlike many other companies whose profits come largely from ads, enterprise products, or components, the vast majority of what Apple makes comes straight out of a consumer’s pockets, more or less willingly. More than any other mega-corporation you and I deal with on a daily basis, we are fully in control of our contributions to this company. We’re part of this. Some would say the biggest part.

Steam Takes First Steps Into Mobile With iOS And Android Apps

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 12:43 PM PST

As a gamer with admittedly poor impulse control, the newly-released Steam app for iOS and Android has me very worried. On the one hand, it seems like an ideal way to to keep tabs on the popular gaming service on the go.

On the other though, I could easily see myself going overboard on buying games I don’t need when I should be pretending to be a productive member of society.

The Steam app sports a set of features that should be familiar to many a PC gamer, including gaming news feeds and the ability to browse the extensive catalog. It’s also very geared toward communication, as it allows you to keep in touch with your fellow Steam buddies by poking through their profiles or kicking off a mobile chat session.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have no Steam friends, so the biggest threat that the new Steam app poses to people like me is that it provides up-to-date information about games on sale, which means that my loved ones will soon notice that I’m spending more time checking to see if Cave Story+ is on sale than, y’know, interacting with them.

Yes, I know I have a problem.

My only consolation is that the app is usable by people who have been invited to the beta, so I’ll be safe from the allure of buying cheap games from the park for at least a little while longer. If you’re lucky enough to be among the select few with beta access, the app is already live in the Android and iOS app stores. Download away, but please don’t tell me what I’m missing out on.

BookPlace DB50: Toshiba Introduces Android-Based Color E-Book Reader

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 07:22 AM PST

Following Fujitsu, another Japanese electronics maker is ready to sell color e-book readers: Toshiba announced [JP] the so-called BookPlace DB50 today, a 7-Inch device that comes with direct access to big T’s BookPlace store (which currently offers around 43,000 different Japanese e-books and magazines).

Toshiba says they plan to expand the range of available titles to 100,000 by March this year, the largest in its home market. The store has been available in America since 2010.

The device runs on special versions of Linux (Toshiba hasn’t revealed details yet) and Android 2.3.4 (heavily modified).

It has the following specs:

7-inch color TFT LCD with 600×1,024 resolution and LED backlight (touchscreen)
Freescale i.MX535 CPU (1.0GHz)
8GB memory
1GM RAM
IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
5 buttons: HOME, MENU, BACK, CONTINUE, VOLUME
Bluetooth 2.1
micro USB 2.0 slot, microSD slot
mono speaker (for MP3 playback)
7.5 hours battery life
size: 190×120×11mm, weight: 330g

Toshiba is planning to sell the Bookplace DB50 on the Japanese market on February 10. The price will be US$284 (every buyer will get a US$64 coupon for use in the company’s e-book store).

Nintendo Reports US$630 Million Net Loss Between April And December 2011, Announces Wii U For 2012

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 06:08 AM PST

3DS sales have picked up lately, but Nintendo‘s financial numbers are still weak. Big N today released [PDF] another set of disappointing results for the first nine months of its fiscal year (April to December 2011). The company lost a whopping US$630 million, compared with a profit of US$635 million in the same time frame last fiscal.

Sales were down 31.2% year-on-year to US$7.2 billion.

Nintendo says there are three main reasons for this performance: weak Wii sales, the unprecedented price cut for the 3DS in spring last year, and losses on its foreign currency holdings coming from the very strong yen.

But today, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was able to announce good news, too: Iwata said this company is ready to phase out the Wii and to start selling the follow-up console, the Wii U, in Japan, America, Europe and Australia by the “year-end season” 2012.

Intel To Spend $120M On Patents, Video Codec Software From RealNetworks

Posted: 26 Jan 2012 05:07 AM PST

Intel is to buy “a significant number” of patents (approximately 190 patents and 170 patent applications) and video codec software from RealNetworks for a purchase price of $120 million. Under the terms of the deal, RealNetworks says it retains certain rights to continue to use the patents in current and future products.

Says RealNetworks president and CEO Thomas Nielsen:

“Selling these patents to Intel unlocks some of the substantial and unrealized value of RealNetworks assets. It represents an extraordinary opportunity for us to generate additional capital to boost investments in new businesses and markets while still protecting our existing business.”

In addition to the sale of the patents and software, RealNetworks and Intel agreed to collaborate on future support and development of the video codec software and ‘related products’.