Mozilla has delivered a new update to the Firefox 4 Beta, which features faster graphics, new audio capabilities and enhanced security. Mozilla continues to hone its browser with new beta updates every few weeks.

Mozilla has delivered a new update to the Firefox 4 Beta, which features faster graphics, new audio capabilities and enhanced security.

In a Sept. 7 blog post, Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s director of Firefox said the new update to the latest beta of the company’s popular open-source browser takes advantage of the built-in graphics hardware in Windows computers with DirectX 10 to improve performance on graphics-heavy websites.

“On supported hardware, Firefox will use Direct2D by default to speed up the display of content on graphically intensive websites, giving more power to the Web,” Beltzner said.

In a separate post, Bas Schouten, a Mozilla developer that works on the Firefox graphics engine, said: “Usually when we talk about hardware acceleration we mean using the graphics card of your computer to accelerate certain graphical operations. Nowadays the graphics cards in most people’s computers have an immense amount of computational power, often many times more than the normal processor. This computational power is very specialized and cannot just be used for anything. It’s most commonly used for video games, but obviously as web browsers use more and more graphical effects, we want to use it inside Firefox as well!”

Schouten describes Direct2D as a rendering system part of the DirectX package that is shipped with Windows. “It was introduced in Windows 7 and ported back to Windows Vista in the Vista Platform Update,” he said. “It allows us to access the hardware with a simple 2D graphics drawing API for all Mozilla drawing code, allowing hardware acceleration for a very large number of scenarios.”

Meanwhile, Beltzner said a new Audio API exposes the raw audio data housed within the and elements in HTML5; developers can use the API to build add-ons that will completely redefine how we experience sound on the Web.

“Until now, people haven’t had the ability to interact with sound on the Web in all the creative ways that video and images allow,” Beltzner said in his post. “Firefox 4 Beta introduces a new audio API to expose the raw audio data housed within the and elements in HTML5 to redefine how people experience sound on the Web. With this new API, developers can read and write raw audio data within the browser, presenting audio information in completely new ways that could allow, for example, for people to visually experience a speech or a song through Firefox.”

In addition, with this latest update of Firefox 4 Beta, the browser now supports the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) protocol for additional security, enabling sites to automatically direct the browser to an encrypted connection, Beltzner said.

“HSTS is a new security protocol in Firefox 4 Beta that allows websites to insist that Firefox always use secured connections,” Beltzner said. “Firefox 4 Beta now remembers what sites use the HSTS protocol and will only connect to those sites using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) in the future, helping to prevent“man in the middle” attacks.”

Source:http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/New-Firefox-4-Beta-Bolsters-Graphics-Audio-and-Security-263928/

Dell said on Tuesday that it plans later this month to stop selling PCs downgraded to Windows XP, ahead of next month’s deadline to stop nearly all shipments of PCs running the older operating system.

Microsoft ended sales of Windows XP some time ago, but has continued to allow PC makers to sell Windows 7 machines that are “factory downgraded” to the older operating system. However, even that option is set to end October 22 for Dell and other PC makers.

“This means that we will stop offering XP as an option for customers starting this month in preparation for next month’s deadline,” Dell said in a blog post. The company plans to continue offering driver support for Windows XP until December 2012.

Although Microsoft is requiring PC makers to stop selling PCs with Windows XP running, the computer maker has agreed to continue to give customers with Windows 7 Professional the right to downgrade to XP through the entire life cycle of Windows 7. It had originally planned to end that right with the shipment of Windows 7 Service Pack 1–a move that would have meant that companies’ right to downgrade machines would have varied from computer to computer.

Volume licensing customers have always had additional options when it comes to running older versions of Windows–including XP. Dell will continue to offer some customers the ability to use a Windows XP image on their corporate computers.

“After the October 22 date, qualified customers will still be able to get systems with Windows XP through Dell’s Custom Factory Integration service,” the company said.

The nearly decade-old Windows XP has been slowly exiting the stage for some time. Sales of most PCs running XP ended in 2008, although Microsoft allowed sales to continue longer on Netbooks and in some emerging markets, in addition to allowing the downgrade option to continue.

Although it has now been superseded by both Windows Vista and Windows 7, XP remains the most used version of Microsoft’s operating system. According to Net Applications, XP is used on three in five computers accessing the Web as compared to Windows 7, which runs on nearly 16 percent of machines and Windows Vista, which is used on 14 percent of computers.

Source:http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20015725-56.html

It’s Apple versus Google in a growing battle for the living room — and consumers could reap all the benefits.
Last week Steve Jobs unveiled a revamped Apple TV product, which aims to cross the divide between your TV and your PC. Not to be outdone, Google CEO Eric Schmidt demonstrated a new service Tuesday designed to do more or less exactly the same thing — and set to hit U.S. living rooms and TV screens this fall.
Google or Apple? Who do you want in your television? The conflict is bound to confuse consumers, but ultimately these emerging devices could transform the way we find and watch videos.
Speaking at the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin, Schmidt said Google’s free service would allow full Internet browsing via the television, and that Google would work with a variety of programmers and electronics manufacturers to bring it to consumers.
“We will work with content providers but it is very unlikely that we will get into actual content production,” Schmidt told journalists after his keynote speech. Manufacturers such as Logitech, Sony and Samsung have already announced that they are looking into or working with the company to develop hardware in time for this holiday season.
The announcement came less than a week after rival Apple unveiled its latest Apple TV product, and heats up a battle for a television advertising market analysts that say could be $180 billion globally. Apple’s latest device, a compact box that hooks into TVs and will cost just $99, allows viewers to stream shows and movies that they have rented or downloaded from iTunes. It can access YouTube, Flickr and other sites as well.
Google TV will allow viewers to search and watch programs from the Internet and their DVR recordings. Sony TVs and blu-ray players, as well as Logitech TVs, will come with Google TV installed, though a separate stand-alone device will also be available, the company said.
Which device will win? It’s anyone’s guess at this point, though the two devices seem to have slightly different slants. If Apple pursues a strategy similar to that behind the iTunes music store, it will partner with all major television providers and bring cheap uniformity — something consumers will love. Google appears to be opting for ubiquity, allowing open access to all Internet content. it’s the same division seen in smartphone platforms from the two companies — and the Android platform has proved wildly popular lately.
Google and Apple have increasingly faced off in consumer electronics and software programs of all stripes. For one thing, there was the surprise revelation of Apple’s Ping last week, a social network all about music that’s integrated with the latest version of iTunes. Schmidt declined to comment on Google’s plans for a social network of its own, though rumors of a “Google Me”service have swirled for months.
Then there’s a report by Reuters that Google was in talks with music labels for a music download store and a digital song locker — space that Apple clearly has a vested interest in. (Apple declined to comment on Google’s announcement.) Schmidt acknowledged that the company did have plans to expand into music, but he would not elaborate.
The only missing piece of the television puzzle is the stuff consumers are most interested in — mainstream content. During the unveiling of the new Apple TV, Steve Jobs said consumers would be able to rent first-run movies for $4.99 or high-definition TV shows for just $0.99, initially just from ABC and Fox.
“We think the rest of the studios will see the light and get on board with us pretty soon,” Jobs said. Google has yet to announce content partners, stressing instead the world of free online videos.
Schmidt also said Google would announce partnerships later this year with makers of tablet computers that would use Google’s new Chrome operating system, due to be launched soon, rather than its Android phone software that has been used for mobile devices until now.
Google plans to make its Chrome browser, which competes with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, the center of an operating system that would offer an alternative to Microsoft Windows.

Source:-http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/07/google-launch-tv-service-fall/?test=latestnews

As with any new software, there are bound to be some initial problems people experience, either with the software itself or with compatibility with other software and hardware. A few of these are surfacing, which include problems with media servers, music not syncing with iPhones, and music not importing from various sources.

Many people have massive iTunes libraries that they store on media server devices such as an external RAID array attached to a computer running media server software like FireFly. While these servers are technically supposed to work with iTunes, there may be some small changes in how the protocols are handled which are preventing them from working with iTunes 10, at least until an update fixes the issues. This could be because of problems in either the server or iTunes, and updates to both may be required for full functionality to be restored.
Some people who have tried syncing their iPhones after upgrading to iTunes 10 have found the program will change its status to “Synching iPhone” or “Preparing to Sync” and then just sit there or go back to the normal iTunes window without doing anything. The phone ends up with no music or other items on it.

If this happens, you can try resetting the iPhone and optionally resetting the sync services on your Mac. To reset the iPhone, go to the settings and select “General.” Then go to the “Reset” section and choose the “Reset All Settings” option. When this is done, connect the phone to your system and try to sync the music and other data again.
To reset the sync services in OS X, follow the instructions outlined in this Apple Knowledgebase Document.
Some people are having issues importing CDs to iTunes, where the program will act erratic and switch views between the CD and the iTunes library. This is clearly not a desired behavior. Additionally, others have complained that iTunes will not add items to the iTunes library when thye are dragged to the iTunes window.
This could be an issue with the location of the iTunes library, so be sure to check the “Advanced” section of the iTunes preferences and ensure the library being referenced is available to the system.
Some of these and other problems may be caused by conflicts with configuration files and other resources in the current user’s account, or could be from bugs in the program. To test for account-based problems, create a new user account and try importing, syncing, or connecting to media servers from that account.
If the problem is somewhere in the user’s account, some approaches that may work are to try removing the iTunes preferences and relevant settings files. For iTunes, these are the “com.apple.iTunes.plist”, “com.apple.iTunes.eq.plist”, and “com.apple.iTunesHelper.plist” files located in the /username/Library/Preferences/ folder. Additionally, you can try removing the CDDB settings files (“CD Info.cidb” and “CDDB Preferences”) from the same preferences folder, which may help if you are having troubles with audio CDs. In addition to the standard preference files for iTunes, there is an additional one in the /username/Library/Preferences/ByHost folder which can be deleted.
As mentioned before, resetting sync services may also help some problems, especially if you have issues with devices like iPods and iPhones. In addition to resetting the sync services, you can try using a maintenance utility like OnyX, MacCleanse, or MacKeeper to remove user caches and other temporary files.
If iTunes is still unsuccessful when testing in a new account, then you can look at more global options like iTunes-related plugins, utilities, or other add-ons. Try removing any third-party add-ons, and booting to Safe Mode to try some of the iTunes functions without third-party extensions loaded. You can also try reapplying the latest Combo updater for your version of OS X, to see if that replaces any corrupt system files that could be contributing to the problem.

Source:-http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20015756-263.html

The fifth Firefox 4 beta makes some small feature changes to the in-development browser, bringing a new audio API to the table, revamping its menu, and turning on hardware acceleration by default. Available for Windows,Mac, and Linux, Firefox 4 beta 5 continues Mozilla’s new beta release schedule, marked by more frequent releases and smaller feature revisions per update.

The most visual change to the beta is the redone menu in the Windows version, which returns a lot of functionality that had been missing from the menu in previous betas. The single-column menu has been replaced with a two-tiered, two-colored menu. The locally stored Help menu options have returned, and the add-ons menu is available in a tweaked color scheme as a secondary window again, too. Cut, copy, and paste have returned to the menu in icon-only form, and more of Firefox’s feature managers, such as bookmarks, history, and the Options menu, have their previous access options restored.

The audio data API is an under-the-hood coding option that gives programmers the ability to “interact with sound…in all the creative ways that video and images allow,” according to a blog post by Mozilla’s director of Firefox, Mike Beltzner. The API will allow developers to expose raw audio data, display the data visual using the HTML5 tag, calculate and visual demonstrate audio spectrum, apply audio filters, and other visual representations of the audio content.

Source:-http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20015769-12.html

Apple’s smallest portable media player has been put under the microscope, with a thorough disassembly offering a peek inside the fourth-generation iPod shuffle.

As usual, iFixit got their hands on Apple’s latest hardware and wasted no time in taking it apart. The new hardware carries a model number of A1373, updated from the A1271 designation of the previous generation hardware.

The updated iPod shuffle marks the return of buttons to the media player, which were absent from the previous generation. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs even conceded last week that “people clearly missed the buttons.

The tightly packed hardware is particularly difficult to open, iFixit noted. “It took us a good half hour of prying and heat-gunning to open the little guy,” they said. This is because back clip was is press-fit and glued onto the body of the device.Other details noted by the solutions provider in its teardown.

Source:-http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/09/07/apples_fourth_gen_ipod_shuffle_disassembled_teardown_photos.html

Feeding speculation that Amazon.com is planning a gaming push, the company has snagged Microsoft’s director of game platform strategy.Andre Vrignaud announced his departure Friday on his personal blog. “Can’t really talk about details at this point, but it’ll become pretty evident soon enough…and you all know where my passions lie,” he said in the blog.

He added that he is “excited about where Microsoft is going in the next few years” but is “very intrigued about what Amazon is looking to do.Vrignaud’s departure from Microsoft is potentially a major blow to the company. Vrignaud, who has worked in the game industry for more than 20 years, had been at Microsoft since 2002 and helped oversee the game platform strategy for Xbox, Xbox Live, and Windows. During that period, Microsoft has gone from a hopeful contender to a major player in gaming.

Earlier this year, Engadget found that Amazon had posted a job opening for a “stealth project” in its digital video game business. Currently, Amazon lists several game job openings, including a senior product manager posting that mentions the “launch of a new initiative in our digital video games business.” So far, Amazon has been tight-lipped about any such plans. But those job openings and Vrignaud’s arrival seem to indicate that Amazon has something planned.

Source:-http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20015677-17.html

Sometimes thousands of dollars worth of gaming hardware just isn’t hardcore enough and you need a whole other platform in your gaming rig.

Are you a PC gamer with thousands of dollars just lying around collecting dust? If so you might be interested in Origin’s “Big O” PC, a rig that incorporates some of the finest technology outside of sci-fi movies, and still managed to find room for a liquid-cooled Xbox 360.

For just a smidge over seven and a half thousand dollars, you can get the entry-level model, which has a 4.0 GHz quad core processor, 6 GB of memory and a 2 TB hard drive. If you’ve got a little bit more to spend – and by a “little bit,” I mean nearly $10,000 – you can get a monstrous machine with more cores than you have fingers and four graphics cards. You can also customize the system to better suit your budget, which is handy if you only have, say, twelve thousand to spend, rather than the full seventeen. All configurations come with the 360 though, and apparently you can run both at the same time – good news if you want to try and play two games at once, or perhaps two versions of the same game.

I’m not really up to date with PC hardware, but I’m pretty certain that even the entry-level system is overkill, and will be for years. Not only that, but the Xbox 360 is pretty much superfluous, unless you want to play the handful of 360 games you can’t get on PC as well. But if you’ve got the money to burn, and quite like the idea of a PC that will probably be top spec for the next decade or so, then go right ahead. Just don’t be surprised if it becomes sentient and wilful somewhere down the line.

Source:-http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/103302-Ridiculous-Gaming-PC-Stuffs-Xbox-360-Into-the-Case-as-Well

If there’s anything that’s different about Windows Phone 7 than previous iterations of Windows Mobile (besides aesthetically, of course) it’s that Microsoft is controlling the hardware specs. Of course, they don’t have full control over it like Apple’s iPhone, but they do require a minimum standard of hardware to sell a license for the OS. What does that mean? Well, in layman’s terms: it’s a good thing.
Before, Windows Mobile ran slow and stuttered because the hardware just could not keep up with the software and the operating system. Now, that’s all changed. We should expect nothing less. Just like Apple, which caters every hardware need for its iPhone and therefore does not usually receive many complaints about sluggishness (although, don’t even talk to me about older phones like the iPhone 3G!).
More so, just like Android and unlike iPhone, there will be several devices to choose from. Windows Phone 7 has yet to make its debut and already there are a variety of rumored phones to hit the market later this year; ranging from Asus to LG to Dell, it seems like there will be a plethora of phone–and users will be able to find one that’s “just right.” The downside to a company making one OS and one phone is that, even if you like the OS, you can’t ever change devices because you’re unsatisfied with its hardware. That does not seem to be a factor with Microsoft’s latest game-changer, WP7.
Say you have the Asus and you find that you think LG’s Optimus 7 has better entertainment features (for example, how it supposedly streams media to TVs). Well, ceteris paribus, you would understandably return the Asus and go for the LG. And with HTC, Samsung, and other companies jumping on the Windows Phone 7 bandwagon, it’s hard to think that won’t happen–because it definitely will.
The best part is that even if you decide to switch, you know the what each phone’s hardware has, or the bare minimum of its hardware capabilities. Microsoft outlines their minimum requirements as: Capacitive touch screen with four or more contact points; A-GPS (assisted GPS); accelerometer; a 5 mega pixel camera with flash; 256mb of RAM; 8gb of flash memory; and much more.

Source:-http://zunited.net/2010/09/7for7-5-hardware-and-devices/

To keep with the fast-evolving computing landscape, Microsoft (News – Alert) Corp. has come up with its latest offering- the Arc Touch Mouse. According to Microsoft, its new mouse is designed to flatten for portability and pop up for comfort.

Microsoft’s Arc Touch Mouse features Microsoft’s first touch scroll strip for easy navigation. The users simply need to move a finger slowly for controlled scrolling or flick for hyperfast scrolling.

With Arc torch, the Windows-based PC users will no longer find it difficult to carry a mouse inside their laptop bags. By getting flattened with just the touch of a finger, the Arc Torch fits into the bag without the added bump of traditional mouse. Contrary to industry buzz that the mouse’s days are numbered, with the launch of its Arc Torch, Microsoft proves that mice are not only very much alive, they are going great guns.

Whether using touch screen or touch pad, people basically want ease of use and precision while using a computer and according to Microsoft, only a mouse can provide that.

“This is not the first time that the mouse has been threatened — look at 10 years ago when people started buying laptops that had integrated pointers and touch pads. Still, the mouse category continued to grow and grow. The reasons people need external mice will not change: comfort and precision. The Arc Touch Mouse just demonstrates again how committed Microsoft is to continuing to bring great new mice to consumers,” Brett Ostrum, general manager for the Hardware Group at Microsoft, said.

According to Microsoft, Arc Torch is designed for the mobile lifestyle.

At less than 15 millimeters thick at its widest point, the Arc Touch Mouse was designed to deliver ultimate portability to easily slip into a bag, purse or pocket. It also goes from curved to flat with one simple movement, so working on the go is easier than ever — just collapse the Arc Touch Mouse to turn it off, and pop it up to turn on. It’s also extremely durable, tested to ensure years of performance.

Another interesting point about Arc torch is: it allows the users to take control with touch scrolling. With the Arc Touch Mouse’s touch strip, consumers can take control of their scrolling with a flick of a finger. Using a capacitive sensing technique and sensor pads, the strip corresponds to each position and velocity change to give users accurate, controlled scrolling no matter how fast or slow the movement. Move a finger slowly on the strip for controlled scrolling, or flick a finger for hyperfast scrolling that can be stopped with just a simple tap. The strip also has three tap “buttons” for added functionality: page up, page down and the middle click area, which is reprogrammable for whatever mouse function the user needs most. Switching from a scroll wheel to a touch strip is made easier with haptics, a vibration technology that simulates the bumps users would feel while using a traditional scroll wheel.

The Arc Touch Mouse comes complete with BlueTrack Technology, which allows consumers track on virtually any surface, and a tiny magnetic snap-in Nano transceiver stores conveniently on the bottom of the mouse. Two AAA batteries give the Arc Touch Mouse more than six months of battery life, and the two-color battery life indicators let people know when the power is running low.

Regarding the pricing and availability of this product, Microsoft announced that Arc Touch Mouse will be available for the estimated retail price of $69.95. Currently it is available now for presale on Amazon.com (News – Alert), BestBuy.com and Buy.com, and it will ship in early December in time for the U.S. holiday season. It will be broadly available online and in stores in January 2011. Microsoft backs this mouse with a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty.

Source:http://it.tmcnet.com/topics/it/articles/100156-microsofts-launches-arc-touch-mouse-that-pops-up.htm

Sony Computer Entertainment’s U.S. and European divisions both said that a new PlayStation 3 firmware update arrived on Tuesday, a download that will address certain console security concerns.

PS3 software update version 3.42 is a 168MB download that when installed will patch the console to “address security vulnerability in the system software,” according to PlayStation’s official European blog.

John Koller, director of hardware marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America said on the official U.S. PlayStation blog the update will include unspecified “additional security features.”

The firmware update comes shortly after the August reveal of a fully-functional PS3 USB modchip — dubbed “PS Jailbreak” — that purportedly allows users to play “backups,” or copied versions, of disc-based PS3 games, a situation that opens the door for software piracy on the console.

Shortly after a video demonstration of the modchip surfaced on the web, the Australian federal court granted Sony a temporary injunction against three Australian distributors that would stop them from further importing or selling the devices.

On Friday, a judge extended the temporary injunction from the end of August until “further ordered,” a separate report said on the International Business Times.

After the initial court order, creators of an open source code called PSGroove released their code onto the web. While PSGroove in its native form reportedly allows for playing homebrew, unlicensed games on PS3, hackers quickly modified the code to allow users to play illegal copies of games, according to a Tuesday BBC report.

But the new 3.42 update apparently solves the issue — at least for now. Users can still use the hacks if they don’t update their consoles, but if they don’t, they also won’t have access to PlayStation Network features such as online multiplayer and further system updates.

On PlayStation’s blogs, some commenters showed resentment towards Sony for the added measure, while others welcomed the move, believing it would reduce in-game cheaters.

Sony made another notable PS3 security move earlier this year when it removed the console’s “Other OS” feature, which previously allowed users to install on the console the open source Linux operating system.

Source:http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30289/Sony_Updates_PS3_Security_Following_Console_Jailbreak.php

In theory, 802.11n can zip by your 100Mbps Fast Ethernet at a real-world 160Mbps, but the practice it’s usually much slower. No, the Wi-FI vendors aren’t lying; the problem is that you have to set 802.11n up just right to really get fast performance.

First, you need to make sure that you’re using up-to-date 802.11n hardware. Older 802.11n equipment, built before the 802.11n standard was finalized in late 2009, may not work and play well with your newer devices. There were many 802.11n draft access points (APs), network interface cards (NICs) and chipsets and each vendor used its own best guess on what the standard would eventually look like.

Thanks to all this older, not quite standard 802.11n hardware, we have two problems. The first is that some older hardware, unless the firmware can be upgraded, won’t work at full 802.11n speeds with your newer standardized equipment. The other is that you can be almost certain that older APs, switches, or routers from one vendor won’t work well with another vendor’s equipment. Oh, it may look like it’s working, but if you check you’ll often find that your Wi-Fi’s connection is only running at 802.11g’s 54Mbps.

Of course, if your office is like most, you almost certainly still have a lot of 802.11g compatible laptops in work. You might think that since 802.11n is backwards compatible with 802.11g that you’ll do just fine by replacing your 802.11g APs with 802.11n hardware. You’d be wrong.

802.11n AP will support 802.11g client hardware just fine, but letting 802.11n AP support 802.11g comes with a painful performance hit. While 802.11n devices working in the 2.4GHz band are backwards compatible with 802.11g, or even 802.11b, faster 802.11n equipment will lose about its potential speed. So, instead of seeing say 100Mbps of throughput from 802.11n AP to the 802.11n laptops, you’ll only see 50Mbps.

My fix for this is to keep 802.11g APs running until the last of the 802.11g PCs go to that big junk-pile in the Wi-Fi sky. It’s worked well for me.

You also should use 802.11n’s channel bonding to increase throughput. On your APs, you’ll find this option labeled ‘double-wide’ channels. This in an ancient technique that’s used to increase throughput by using two channels at once to deliver data. Then, as now, it works well.

There’ a ‘gotcha’ though. A Wi-Fi’s channel is required to be 20MHz. Thus, just like the name says, a ‘double wide’ takes up 40MHz of radio room instead of the usual 20MHz. The problem is that there’s only room for three 20MHz channels in 802.11b/g/n’s 2.4GHz radio spectrum. If you run out of Wi-Fi spectrum room, your overall network throughput will decline. Even if you’re doing a good job of managing your network space, your available channels are likely to also be used by your next-door neighbors’ Wi-Fi set-up.

The easiest way to dodge this potential problem, for now, is to use the higher 5GHz range. Far fewer people are currently using the 5GHz range. This will change as more people switch over to 802.11n, but for now it’s the easiest way to use wide channels to increase your effective bandwidth without running into interference. The one downside is that 5GHz has less range than 2.4GHz.

That’s why I prefer to use dual-band APs that support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Best of all is equipment that supports using both 2.4GHz and 5GHz at the same time for the maximum in flexibility, such as the Linksys Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router WRT610N. Older 802.11n hardware, such as the first generation of Apple’s AirPort Extreme, as well as some entry-level APs, can only support 2.4GHz or 5GHz

High-performance 802.11n equipment also comes with a larger number of multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antennas . The 802.11n standard allows for up to four antennas, which can handle up to 4 simultaneous data streams. Typically, the number of antennas is described in the technical specifications as 4×4, 3×3, and so on depending on the number of antennas. But, you can’t tell just by looking, you have to check the documentation. Generally speaking the more antennas, the more simultaneous Wi-Fi connections the AP can handle, and the better the overall network performance.

It’s not just how many antennas you have though. Higher-end APs use techniques like beam-forming to automatically work out the best use for those multiple antennas. In fact, ’smart antennas,’ like D-Link’s Xtreme N ANT24-0230 Antenna, will help compatible 802.11n APs perform better.

Last, but never least, the fastest 802.11n is only as fast as its slowest link . So, for instance, if your office is still using a T1 with its 1.544Mbps no one is likely to see any significant Internet speed increase when switching from 802.11g to 802.11n.

The bottom line: While it may look like simply adding 802.11n to your network may look like a cheap and easy way to expand and speed-up your network, it’s really not. You still need to plan your network in detail, use higher-end network equipment. and possibly upgrade your Internet backbone to make the most out of 802.11n’s potential for higher speeds.

Still, if you do your homework, you really can get a Wi-Fi network that will answer your in-house network expansion needs while still providing close to Fast Ethernet’s 100Mbps speeds. Just as long as you keep in mind that 802.11n, by itself, isn’t a silver bullet for your network speed needs, you’ll do fine.

Source:http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/four-ways-to-get-the-most-from-your-80211n-wi-fi/122

We here in Republic of webOS are looking with envy at our frienemies in Applestan and Androidia. It’s not their operating systems that are the object of our desire, though there are some features we’d like to copy. No, it’s the tablets that have drawn our eye. While Applestans may only have the iPad to play with, that certainly hasn’t stopped the 10-inch tablet from being a success.

Meanwhile, Androidians have to cope with a new tablet a week, from the 5-inch Dell Streak to the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab to the just-announced ten inches of Toshiba Folio 100 (really, guys, Folio?). All this tablety fun has us longing for our own big screen webOS action here in the Republic, and thankfully HP has at least let us know that we can expect to see that mythical webOS tablet early in 2011.

Next year is still a ways off and while we’re sure it’ll be here before we know it, there’s still the question of how will the PalmPad/Hurricane/whatever look when it arrives. So we are asking you, of citizens of the Republic of webOS: what size screen do you want on your webOS tablet?

Source:http://www.precentral.net/5-7-10-inches-what-size-do-you-want-webos-tablet

Oracle has hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd to be its president, replacing Charles Phillips, who has resigned. Hurd will take the reins of Oracle’s strategy of combining software and hardware, as it battles IBM.

Capping a weekend’s worth of speculation, Oracle on Monday evening announced it has hired ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd to be its new president. In a separate press release, Oracle revealed that current president Charles Phillips has resigned that post.
Hurd’s emergence as a candidate for employment at the enterprise-software powerhouse was telegraphed during the saga surrounding his exit from HP in early August. At the time, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison famously criticized HP’s board of directors, telling The New York Times that Hurd’s forced resignation was “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”

Ellison’s high opinion of Hurd was similarly in evidence in the Monday press release trumpeting his new job. “Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle,” said Ellison’s statement. “There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark. Oracle’s future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise. Mark pioneered the integration of hardware with software when Teradata was a part of NCR.”

Hurd will actually be one of two executives holding the title of president at Oracle. Safra Catz, who has served as co-president alongside Phillips, will maintain that title going forward. As former CFO of Oracle from 2005 to 2008, Catz brings deep financial expertise to the executive suite. As for Hurd, he’s expected to focus on boosting the company’s strategic product initiatives.

Source:-http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/database_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227300221&cid=ref-true

Apple generally puts out two sets of updated product every year in the run up to Christmas — new iPods, which we’ve already seen, and spec bumped Macs, which haven’t yet been outed. That said, the best time for the mothership to introduce software for the Mac would be alongside new hardware.

A sharp-eyed fan came across iLife ’11 Family Pack on Amazon. It’s tagged at $99 — no surprise there — and has been listed since July 27.There’s no image available and no inkling about when iLife ’11 will be available for purchase.

On Wednesday of last week, Steve Jobs introduced new iPods, saying that they’d be available this week along with iOS 4.1 for the iPhone and iPod touch. Whereas the precise timing varied somewhat from years past, we’ve seen this chain of events play out year after year.

Given that Apple is a creature of habit and generally announces updated Mac hardware around the first week of October that would seem a reasonable timeframe for the delivery of iLife ’11 and, one supposes, iWork ’11. So, yes, it’s been a bit short of two years since iLife ’09 shipped and there is a Mac hardware update likely just around the corner.

Although we’ve seen a steady stream of iLife ’10 placeholder pages on Amazon, etc. since Spring that came to naught, if you quint a little, it would appear that the stars are aligning for a Mac software update…
[u] Various sources now report the placeholder page has vanished.

Source:-http://mac.blorge.com/2010/09/06/ilife-11-family-pack-placeholder-appears-on-amazon/

Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd was hired Monday as a co-president of Oracle, in a move that could fuel a new competition between the two giant tech companies.
“Mark did a brilliant job at HP and I expect he’ll do even better at Oracle,” Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said in a statement announcing Hurd’s hiring Monday night.
The move comes exactly one month after Hurd’s stunning resignation from HP in a scandal over his relationship with a part-time marketing contractor. Though HP officials said an internal investigation found that Hurd submitted inaccurate expense reports and showed a “profound lack of judgment,” Ellison had publicly defended his friend and said HP’s board made a huge mistake in

Hurd’s hiring comes at a critical time for Oracle, as it tries to expand from its traditional software business into the broader market for selling commercial computer systems, putting it head to head with companies like HP, as well as IBM and Cisco Systems, in the race to sell equipment for the massive data centers that corporations increasingly rely on to run their businesses. Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems earlier this year in a bid to jump-start that effort.
“There is no executive in the IT world with more relevant experience than Mark,” Ellison said, adding: “Oracle’s future is engineering complete and integrated hardware and software systems for the enterprise.

Source:-http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16006478?source=rss&nclick_check=1

S.C. — For three years, Terry Reynolds has watched sales dwindle at his West Columbia ACE Hardware store.We get tired of fighting and trying to survive,” Reynolds said.The thought of whether he will be next is always sitting on a back shelf, but it’s not an option he wants to think about. Reynolds said he believes his community needs a local hardware store — even if his store has a Lowe’s or Home Depot within five miles of it in three different directions.

Beyond the bolts and brass knobs, the mom-and-pop hardware store sells itself on service and specialty products. It is a place where shoppers can find a mishmash of garden gnomes, garbage disposals and good advice.They can come in and say, ‘I woke up this morning and didn’t have water. What’s wrong with my well?’ We’ll kind of walk them through it,” said James Rimer, who owns the 34-year-old Blythewood Feed and Hardware with his mother, Neysa, in Blythewood, S.C. “That’s something they’re not really going to find somewhere else.

The local hardware store is a slice of Americana that is quickly fading as large chains have swooped into smaller communities and as customers have put their wallets under lock and key in a lasting economic downturn.”I’ve never seen it this bad sustained for coming up on two years,” said Rimer, who has seen customer spending drop an average of 10 percent this year.The ones that survive, said Scott Wright, spokesman for the North American Retail Hardware Association, carve out a niche as the place to go for advice – and parts – to complete home projects and make emergency repairs, which more customers are attempting to do themselves in a down economy.

It’s service and product know-how, whereas they might not be able to get that from the big-box retailers,” Wright said. “When your toilet breaks, you need to fix it. You can’t wait for the economy to improve.But as some struggling hardware stores close down, others are preparing to fight for customers and their limited dollars.Business overall is down. It’s nowhere close to where it was last year or the year before,” said Ronnie Boland, who operates Boland’s True Value Hardware in Chapin, S.C. “We’ve got to find ways of doing business that we haven’t done before.Boland recently broke ground on a 20,000-square-foot building about a mile closer to the Ballentine side of Chapin.It was either move or get ready to face the demise,” Boland said.

Boland will create a softer hardware store to appeal more to women, who often control the purse strings in a home, research has shown. The store – a new Destination True Value model – will put an emphasis on home decor, paint and kitchen fixtures, Boland said.”It’s got a lot of dream aisles – an opportunity to dream about, ‘How will this look in my house?”‘ he said. “But we’ll still have all the good-old-boy hardware we always had right down to the brass valves and nuts and bolts. In fact, we’ve got more nuts and bolts.I think we found a fine line we can survive on.

Source:-http://www.pressherald.com/business/local-helpful-and-hurting_2010-09-07.html

Asked if he was a computer nerd or a computer trouble-shooter, Shaun Minifie – manager of Kuripuni’s computer retail outlet Computer Troubleshooters – takes time to consider.

If you label yourself a computer enthusiast, you tend to end up as every one’s trouble-shooter,” he says.

“My view regarding people’s lack of knowledge regarding computer use is not one that labels them ‘lacking intellectual ability’, and I must say that often people come to us for advice, suggesting that they are ‘a bit slow’ when it comes to dealing with the complexities of their particular programmes and this is rarely the case. Today’s electronic technology is often quite complex.”

Mr Minifie says besides being involved in the management of Computer Solutions and assisting his staff of one, Zac Bruce, he is also a computer technician who is on call for “mostly home users”.

“The main problem out there appears to be connected with viruses or a need for advice on how to do certain things, or problems with hardware – a technical term not always fully understood.”

Mr Minifie suggests there’s no need to panic when hearing the terms “hardware” and “software”.

“Computer hardware can be described as no more than anything you can touch, including monitors, printers, disks or disk drives.
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Software is the stuff you can’t really see – it’s the magic component that instructs the hardware to carry out certain tasks.

“A piece of software is called a ‘program’ and these come on disks or CDs – or they can be copied to your computer from the internet.

“So don’t panic when some computer nerd says, ‘it’s probably a hardware problem’. Translating the techno speak, this means there’s something wrong with the computer, for example, a disk drive, keyboard or central processing unit [CPU]. And, the dreaded comment, ‘it must be a software problem’, this refers to a problem with the program you are trying to run.”

Mr Minifie adds assistance can be given to “the bewildered” by telephone, by call-out or by using a new technology – remoting to people’s computers.

“What we do is install the software on the user’s machine. If we get a phone call requesting some help I can connect directly with their computer and nine times out of 10 can sort out the problem – no need to do a call-out or alternatively, the user does not need to unplug their computer and bring in the hard drive to us.”

Mr Minifie adds: “We find that many of our clients have problems with hardware. They may be running machines that are five or six years old and of course electronics are like everything else, they do wear out.

“Often troublesome computers just need a good clean out and everything will be fine. With experience you can tell when a computer starts up where the hardware fault will be or even pinpoint an operating system error.

“There’s also a worrying baddie out there, the computer virus,” he says. “Current at the moment is one called Antivir.

“Many are pretending to be anti-virus software – it looks real, it looks pretty, but does not actually do anything helpful. The main emphasis is to con you into paying for the right to use the software. It is, however, a lethal virus which takes passwords and key strokes. It’s tenacious and very difficult to get rid of.”

Mr Minifie suggests many of these lethal viruses originate from Eastern Europe, products of organised crime. A lot of money can be made from electronic crime.

“There’s also a huge black market in what’s called ‘Botnet’ which are machines that the hackers can control. I would suggest that 90 per cent of the spam emails that are sent are Viagra ads. Everybody gets those!

“These are sent out by your everyday computer user who, of course, has no idea that their machines have been interfered with.”

Mr Minifie describes the problem as a cyber-war – a constant battle between the companies attempting to prevent the movement of viruses and the criminals trying to infect machines – with the general public caught in the middle.

The enthusiasm for his job is evident, especially when Mr Minifie explains his job is a direct result of a love for electronic technology.

“When I first set eyes on a computer, going back to 1982, I was hooked. Other than a brief time selling these machines in the 90s none of my jobs have been technology-related,” he says. “You might say I’m a gifted amateur,” he adds with just a hint of a smile.

Mr Minifie joined the Kuripuni business two years ago, eight years after it was established by a previous owner. During the two years he has observed computer technology going ahead in leaps and bounds.

“The rate of change is phenomenal. Take, for example, the introduction of the internet and broadband – although both technologies have been around for a length of time – these are the ones that are having the most impact on people’s lives at the moment.

“You can source almost any type of world news when you want without having to wait for the six o’clock news on television or radio and if you are after other types of information it’s all there for you, invariably compiled by those in the know.”

Mr Minifie sees a challenge in the future as more readers move from the print media to the electronic media. He labels the challenge as “a double-edged sword” as although there is considerably more freedom of subject matter on the internet, the downside is some people are much more prone to believing everything they read on their screens.

“We know, of course, that information is only as good as the source from which it comes – it’s a matter of not believing everything that you read and checking out the source. On the positive side, access to the internet is a great tool for children doing homework research and of course, a means of keeping in contact with friends, family and colleagues.”

From here on things get technical and Mr Minifie adopts his Computer Geek role as he explains the current state of the internet as we know it may be running out of steam.

“To explain what is happening, in relatively simple turns, every computer that is connected to the internet has a unique identifier. The identifiers that we have at the moment are called IP addresses – these have the name of IPV4 – that’s a particular system that it uses. Currently there are not enough of those systems to go around.

“Even 10 years ago it was never envisaged that the internet would be such a colossus. We never thought then that we would have televisions and cellphones connected to the internet, would also need IP addresses.”

Mr Minifie explains the new system, called IPV6, is a new way of addressing internet capable devices. This new technology may well demand changed electronics for computer users.

“I have to admit that New Zealand internet providers are way behind as far as updating their technology. I think they are waiting to see what is in store for us in the future.

“However, it’s inevitable that eventually users will have to redo their modems – the modem is the device that plugs into your phone line and brings the internet to you. Older modems may not be capable of using IPV6.

“New technology includes more of the same but faster,” Mr Minifie says.

“Take for example the new operating system Windows 7, which obviously has had an enormous amount of work put into it and is fantastic. Microsoft have paid a great deal of attention to how the average user wants to do things and Windows 7 enables people to decide what they do.”

Mr Minifie insists the computer has gone from being a “nerdy, hobby piece of equipment” to a useful appliance in many households.

“In fact, many of our clients are housewives and mums who use the internet for banking, paying bills and keeping in contact with others, for example, social networking – Facebook.

“So if problems arise, nine times out of 10, we are approached by the woman of the household.”

Source:-http://www.times-age.co.nz/local/news/nerd-now-net-knight/3921630/

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is the latest device to fall prey to a console hack. Using a USB stick you can switch the console into a developer “debug mode”, which lets you copy disc-based games to the hard drive and then play them without the disc. Sony has called in the lawyers and will obviously try to close the loop hole with the next firmware update but that’s unlikely to be the end of it. The source code has been published online under the name PSGroove, which people will continue to modify, and Sony won’t be able to put the genie back in the bottle.

The real surprise here is that it took so long for this hack to emerge, as the PS3 has proved a tough nut to crack. We saw hardware modchips for the PS1 and PS2 to allow you to play copied games, plus there are chips available for contemporary consoles such as the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Sony has obviously learned its lessons on the hardware front if console hackers were forced to go down the debug mode path instead.

Gamers looking to modify their consoles tend to fall into two groups – pirates and libertarians (although many people would have a foot in each camp). Pirates generally just want something for nothing, while libertarians are more concerned about their rights regarding hardware and content they own.

Sony recently put libertarians offside by removing the ability to run Linux on the PS3, which would have been a key selling point for some people. If you read between the lines it was clear that Sony removed the Linux option in an effort to close loopholes for hackers, but it still didn’t sit well with people that Sony was stripping out legitimate features. Hackers set out to restore the Linux option and one can only wonder whether Sony’s actions motivated efforts to develop the wider debug mode hack.

If the Digital Rights Management wars have taught us anything it’s that anti-piracy efforts generally penalise honest users while failing to stop the pirates getting their own way. Sony’s strike against Linux is a classic example of such an effect and appears set to haunt Sony for quite some time.

When it comes to console hacks, where there’s a will there’s a way. Do you think Sony’s axing of Linux merely strengthened the hacking community’s resolve to crack the PlayStation 3? Is Sony fighting a war that can’t be won by superior fire power?

Source:-http://digihub.brisbanetimes.com.au/node/1826

When Apple recently revealed the fourth generation iPod Touch they were keen to promote the FaceTime support and retina display, we are now hearing that hardware within should allow vibration alerts.
This was discovered by two members of iPodTouchFans’ forums, they done some digging around which seems to have pretty much confirmed that the vibration alerts are coming to the new iPod Touch.

Let’s start with the hard evidence, if you check out the iPod Touch 4G’s accessibility page it clearly stated “If somebody wants to start a video call with you, you’ll receive an invitation — along with a vibrating alert”.
If you check the image embedded at the end of this post you will see some of the new iPhone Touch’s internals, I am by no means an expert on electronic components, however I am reliably informed that one component is a vibrating motor (if anyone reading this could confirm that this is a vibrating motor that would be great).

Finally someone who writes for iPodTouchFans spoke directly to Apple, the writer asked under the ‘video calling with facetime’ it lists vibration as a feature. Is that true?“, and the Apple customer support representative answered “Yes, that is correct- as a notification feature when you get a video call!

Source:-http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/09/07/new-ipod-touch-4g-facetime-vibration-alert/