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CNET News.com
Toshiba's Android embrace at IFA (photos)
Toshiba has gone all in for Android. At the IFA electronics show in Berlin, it displayed its Folio tablet and its AC 100 Netbook. Here's how they looked.

Gadget makers show their stuff in Berlin (roundup)
At the huge IFA consumer electronics show, the big names in tech show off their newest wares, including an Android-based tablet from Samsung and a cloud-based music service from Sony.

How 'Catfish' filmmakers took Facebook plunge (Q&A)
In an interview, CNET's Ina Fried speaks with the three people behind "Catfish"--that other Facebook movie. This one is both a documentary and a thriller.

Ask Maggie: On buggy Android upgrades
Also in this week's Ask Maggie advice column find out why Verizon Wireless is able to charge more for its service and why T-Mobile gives customers who don't sign a contract a break on their monthly fees.

Toshiba debuts Android-powered Folio 100 tablet
The tablet will cost 399 to 499 euros in Europe when it goes on sale later this year. Here's a hands-on look at it and Toshiba's AC100 Android Netbook.

TI reveals new, teensy projector chip
The new nHD model of the Pico DLP line has better optical performance and lower power consumption, Texas Instruments says.

SD revamp to triple flash card speeds in 2012
The SD Association should rev its flash card specification in 2011 with faster cards arriving the year after. Also at IFA, Toshiba announces faster cards using today's SD technology.

Paris Hilton busted by Twitter pic?
Despite claiming a rather nifty Chanel bag containing cocaine was not hers, it seems the dazzling socialite tweeted a picture of a bag that looks spectacularly similar more than a month ago.

NASA planning mission to visit the sun
Space agency hopes to send a spacecraft into the solar atmosphere by 2018.

IETF: AT&T's Net neutrality claim is 'misleading'
A few days after AT&T said its push toward "paid prioritization" of network traffic is backed by technical standards, the Internet's primary standards body disagrees.

Here come 'Hurt Locker' file-sharing subpoenas
Film's producers subpoena Qwest Communications for Denver man's records, apparently overcoming legal challenges in their pursuit of alleged file sharers.

Google's Schmidt mocked in Times Square ads
Consumer Watchdog produced two cartoony ads slamming Google CEO Eric Schmidt as part of an effort to build support for a "do not track" list.

Audit finds PG&E smart meters accurate
However, the utility's customer service is faulty, according to an independent review of the controversial yet pioneering smart-meter program.

Facebook adds new remote log-out security feature
Facebook users who log in from multiple devices will soon have a way to make sure they are only logged in on the computer they are currently using.

Acer comes back down to earth, Dell rises
Fastest-growing PC company of the last few years stumbles during the second quarter. Observers say it has to do with Acer's reliance on notebook sales as desktops gain.

More evidence that light at night ups cancer risk
New research out of the University of Haifa shows a clear link between light at night and cancer in mice, with the suppression of melatonin playing a key role.

Toshiba recalls 41,000 laptops for overheating
The Consumer Product Safety Commission says 129 cases of Toshiba Satellite laptops melting from overheating have been reported, but no major injuries.

Apple's Ping seems half-baked at launch
A scanty selection of artists to follow and missed opportunities to encourage user interaction are among the early problems.

The mystery of the disappearing Facebook-Ping integration
On Wednesday, Apple said users of its music social network could find friends via Facebook. But the feature has vanished, apparently over a tiff between the companies.

Survey: E-mail eats up your time off
Outlook add-in maker Xobni finds Americans and Britons are having trouble getting away from the workplace because of the reach e-mail has into their lives.



Wired Top Stories
Best Exploitation Flicks: 'Machete' and Its Over-the-Top Ancestors
From bad girls and zombies to circus freaks and killer cars, the shock-and-awful recipe for grindhouse movies' tasty cinematic sausage never fails to satisfy. As Robert Rodriguez's timely homage hits screens, we look back at several decades of surprisingly influential B movies.




Sept. 3, 1976: Viking 2 Lands on Mars
Viking 2, the second mission to Mars, lands on the planet and begins transmitting pictures and soil analyses.




Jargon Watch: Synthia, Teabonics, Flash Crash
Learn the nickname for the first synthetic organism and a derisive term for ungrammatical Tea Party signs.




Alt Text: Make a Nasty World Nice With Virtual Rewards
Using Foursquare to stamp out sexually transmitted diseases is just the beginning of a brave new war on bothersome reality. Just think of all the amazing problems we can solve with the proper mix of badges, exclusive offers and unbridled optimism.




Murdoch Reporters' Phone Hacking Was Endemic, Victimized Hundreds
A phone-hacking scheme involving British royals and reporters working for one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid newspapers went far beyond what was previously disclosed and prosecuted. The British Prime Minister's current media adviser is accused of having encouraged the hacking.




Win Your Fantasy Football League
If it's September, it's football season — which also means it's time for millions of fantasy football drafts around the world to commence. Maximize your in-season points while dealing with the setbacks that are bound to occur by following our guide.




Video Artist Transforms YouTube's TOS Into a Paranoid Nightmare
The video site's ever-evolving terms of service drive an observer mad in this arty clip by Carlo Zanni. No charge for the 1984 references.




Apple TV's Meager Offerings Are Due to Business, Not Tech
This week’s big Apple announcement featured one big disappointment: Apple TV’s relative lack of, well, TV. Out of all of the hundreds of channels available on cable and satellite, only ABC and Fox agreed to offer their programs for rent on Apple TV. The fact that Steve Jobs is the largest single shareholder in, and on the board of, Disney — owner of ABC — perfectly illustrates this digital divide.




Clustered Networks Spread Behavior Change Faster
Unlike infectious disease and information, behavior change spreads faster through online networks that have many close connections instead of many distant ties. Redundancy is key, as people are more likely to engage in a behavior if they see many others doing it. "There has been a lot of theory about the difference between information and behavior spreading," said economic sociologist Damon Centola of MIT and author of the study published Sept. 3 in Science. "We've assumed that they are the same, but you can imagine that behavior is not really like that, that you need to be convinced."




Exotic New Mars Images From Orbiting Telephoto Studio
A new batch of sharp Martian close-ups from NASA's HiRISE camera were released, and we've gathered some of the best in the gallery.




Exoplanet Shows Gas Giants Start as Dusty Behemoths
The atmosphere of a young exoplanet didn't fit any of our existing models for what gas giants should look like. But when astronomers added huge dust clouds, it was a perfect fit, perhaps revealing a larger truth about gas giants.




Earth's Magnetic Field Flipped Superfast
Magnetic minerals in 15-million-year-old rocks appear to preserve a moment when the magnetic north pole was rapidly on its way to becoming the south pole, and vice versa.




Mobile Devices Need Custom Maps
Development Seed is engineering tools to create custom maps that work in a wider variety of situations such as natural disasters and in the developing world.




Mass Extinctions Change the Rules of Evolution
A reinterpretation of the fossil record suggests a new answer to one of evolution's existential questions: whether global mass extinctions are just short-term diversions in life's preordained course, or send life careening down wholly new paths.




First Look: Official Twitter App for iPad Feels Smooth as Butter
The official Twitter app for iPad is finally here, and star developer Loren Brichter has polished yet another gem. Twitter for iPad sports a really elegant interface that's significantly faster and more intuitive than competing Twitter clients we've tested (such as Twitterific and Tweetdeck).




Fujitsu ScanSnap Counts Quality Over Quantity
Fujitsu's scanner is your new (albeit bulky) buddy if you want high-quality images. The sturdy document feeder gets pages in straight, so you get them out right.




Chrome 6 Arrives, Just in Time for Cake
Google is celebrating the second birthday of its Chrome web browser with the release of Chrome 6. Among the new features are an updated user interface, auto-fill for web forms, extension syncing, increased speed and numerous bug fixes.




How Apple Just Disrupted the Cable Guys
People in Silicon Valley have focused on the set-top box as the lever to attack the cable industry. Cable boxes blow, but that's a losing battle. So why is Apple TV different? Because Steve Jobs has not just created a new set top box. He's actually created a whole new media ecosystem built around the mobile phone.




Two-Wheeled Zerotracer EV Is a Wild Ride
It looks like a motorcycle, it performs like a Lotus and it's racing around the world.




String Theory Finally Does Something Useful
String theory has finally made a prediction that can be tested with experiments — but in a completely unexpected realm of physics: quantum entanglement.




Ancient Nubians Made Antibiotic Beer
Chemical analysis of the bones of an ancient Sudanese Nubians who lived nearly 2,000 years ago shows they were ingesting the antibiotic tetracycline on a regular basis — likely from a special brew of beer. The find is the strongest yet to support that antibiotics were previously discovered by humans before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928.




Samsung Introduces Its 7-Inch Tablet to Rival iPad
Samsung has announced the launch of a tablet that could become the first major Android-powered challenger to the Apple iPad.




Heavy European Snowfall Caused by 'Weather Collision'
The uncharacteristically snowy weather that hit Northern Europe and North America in the winter of 2009 to 2010 was caused by a rare combination of two separate weather oscillations in the Atlantic and Pacific, claim meteorologists.




'Earth One' Reboots Superman's Roots for the iGeneration
Superman is a surly noob searching for reality in the digital age in J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis' update of the superhero's origin story. Who knew the Man of Steel would miss the musty Daily Planet more than the rest of us?




Vets Get Ecstasy to Treat Post-Traumatic Stress
Two psychiatric experts think the way to treat troops returning home with PTSD: Have them undergo intensive psychotherapy while they're rolling on ecstasy.




Sept. 2, 1969: First U.S. ATM Starts Doling Out Dollars
Six weeks after landing men on the moon, Americans take another giant leap for mankind with the nation’s first cash-spewing, automated teller machine.




FaceTime Lets You Share Your Point of View
Video calls aren't for people to see you — they're for people to see what you see.




Electric Kettles Are Steeped in the Future
Blazing fast (four minutes and nine seconds!), streamlined and full of highlights, Cuisinart's PerfecTemp puts its kettle competition to shame.




Blackjack Whiz Riffs on Fantasy Sports, Statgeeks and Yahoo
A Q&A with Jeff Ma, the former leader of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team that took Vegas for millions in the mid-'90s. Now a successful entrepreneur and author, Ma talks about his love of fantasy sports, selling his company Citizen Sports to Yahoo (and why he didn't join them), and how young statgeeks can make their way in a sports industry dominated by traditionalists.




Exclusive Gallery: 1983 Nintendo Family Computer Teardown
In 1983 Nintendo released the Famicon console. Now 26 years later we tear it apart to see what makes it tick.




 
Slashdot
HP Backs Memristor Mass Production
neo12 writes with news that Hewlett-Packard is teaming with Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second-largest producer of memory chips, to mass produce memristors for the first time. Quoting the BBC: "HP says the first memristors should be widely available in about three years. The devices started as a theoretical prediction in 1971 but HP's demonstration and publication of a real working device has put them on a possible roadmap to replace memory chips or even hard drives. ... Steve Furber, professor of computer engineering at the University of Manchester, explained that the potential benefits lie in the fact that memristors are 'much simpler in principle than transistors. Because they are formed as a film between two wires, they don't have to be implanted into the silicon surface — as do transistors, which form the storage locations in Flash — so they could be built in layers in 3D,' he told BBC News. 'Of course, the devil is in the detail, and I don't think the manufacturing challenges have been fully exposed yet.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Wireless Power Group Has 'Qi' Prototypes
judgecorp writes "Steady progress on inductive wireless charging. There are now certified prototypes of chargers for Blackberry and iPhone devices that meet the Qi specification of the Wireless Power Consortium, which was announced last year. The spec has advanced from version 0.95 to 1.0, too."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




New Calculations May Lead To a Test For String Theory
dexmachina writes "A team of theoreticians, led by a group from Imperial College London, has released calculations that show string theory makes specific, testable predictions about the behaviour of quantum entangled particles. Professor Mike Duff, lead author of the study from the Department of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London, commented, 'This will not be proof that string theory is the right "theory of everything" that is being sought by cosmologists and particle physicists. However, it will be very important to theoreticians because it will demonstrate whether or not string theory works, even if its application is in an unexpected and unrelated area of physics.' In other words, string theory may finally have shed its critics' most common complaint: unfalsifiability. However, given the second most common complaint, I can't help but wonder: which string theory?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Facebook To Add Remote Logout
angry tapir writes "Facebook users will soon have a new way of knocking spammers out of legitimate accounts. The social-networking company is rolling out a new security feature that lets users see which computers and devices are logged into their Facebook accounts, and then removing the ones that they don't want to have access."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Google Releases Chrome 6, Pays $4337 In Bounties
Trailrunner7 writes "Google has released a new version of its Chrome browser and has included more than a dozen security fixes in the update. The new version, 6.0.472.53, was released two years to the day after the company pushed out the first version of Chrome. Google Chrome 6 includes patches for 14 total security vulnerabilities, including six high-priority flaws, and the company paid out a total of $4,337 in bug bounties to researchers who reported the vulnerabilities. A number of the flaws that didn't qualify for bug bounties were discovered by members of Google's internal security team." (Read on for more, below.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Harvard Ditching Final Exams?
itwbennett writes "According to Harvard magazine, Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted at its meeting on May 11 to require instructors to officially inform the Registrar 'at the first week of the term' of the intention to end a course with a formal, seated exam, 'the assumption shall be that the instructor will not be giving a three-hour final examination.' Dean of undergraduate education Jay M. Harris 'told the faculty that of 1,137 undergraduate-level courses this spring term, 259 scheduled finals — the lowest number since 2002, when 200 fewer courses were offered. For the more than 500 graduate-level courses offered, just 14 had finals, he reported.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Flash On Android Is 'Shockingly Bad'
Hugh Pickens writes "Ryan Lawler writes on GigaOm that although many have touted the availability of Flash on Android devices as a competitive advantage over Apple's mobile devices, while trying to watch videos from ABC.com, Fox.com and Metacafe using Flash 10.1 on a Nexus One over a local Wi-Fi network connected to a 25-Mbps Verizon FiOS broadband connection, mobile expert Kevin Tofel found that videos were slow to load, if they loaded at all, leading to an overall very inconsistent experience while using his Android device for video. 'While in theory Flash video might be a competitive advantage for Android users, in practice it's difficult to imagine anyone actually trying to watch non-optimized web video on an Android handset,' writes Lawler. 'All of which makes one believe that maybe Steve Jobs was right to eschew Flash in lieu of HTML5 on the iPhone and iPad.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Samsung Shows Off Galaxy Tab, Android Allegiance
cgriffin21 writes "Samsung is making no bones about it: Google Android is its future. And with the revealing of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the company is showing that it's all in when it comes to Android. At the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Samsung finally pulled the curtain off the long-rumored and teased Galaxy Tab, the electronics maker's touch-screen tablet and answer to the Apple iPad."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Video Appliance For a Large Library On a Network?
devjj writes "For the past year or so I have been trying (and failing) to figure out a reasonable solution for bringing my large media library to my living room. All of my media lives on an Ubuntu server that sits on my network. It's been very reliable and it's fast enough for streaming purposes. My content is exposed via SMB. It's the living room side where I keep running into problems. I am currently using Windows 7 and XBMC, but the case is too big and noisy, I don't particularly care for Windows, and the whole thing just seems overkill. What I want is a device that can present a decent UI that the non-Slashdot crowd would be able to use, but that is still powerful enough to stream full-fidelity 1080p. I dream of a small box that can transcode video over a network, but that's probably a pipe dream. The new Apple TV would be great if it could connect to network shares. What say you, Slashdot? Is what I'm looking for possible, or should I just give in to the iTunes/Amazon/whatever juggernauts?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Canon Develops 8 X 8 Inch Digital CMOS Sensor
dh003i writes "Canon has developed a 8 x 8 inch CMOS digital sensor. It will be able to capture an image with 1/100th the light intensity required by a DSLR and will be able to record video at 60 fps in lighting half the intensity of moonlight. There are already many excellent quality lenses designed to cover 8 x 10 inches, although Canon may develop some of their own designed specifically for their requirements."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




GameStop Pulls Medal of Honor From Military Bases
donniebaseball23 writes "EA's Medal of Honor reboot doesn't ship until October 12, but it's already seen a fair amount of controversy thanks to the publisher's decision to allow people to play as Taliban in multiplayer. The controversy just got escalated another notch, reports IndustryGamers, as the world's biggest games retailer GameStop has decided it won't sell the title at its stores located on US military bases. The new Medal of Honor won't be advertised at these stores either. GameStop noted that they came to this decision 'out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




GameStop Pulls Medal of Honor From Military Bases
donniebaseball23 writes "EA's Medal of Honor reboot doesn't ship until October 12, but it's already seen a fair amount of controversy thanks to the publisher's decision to allow people to play as Taliban in multiplayer. The controversy just got escalated another notch, reports IndustryGamers, as the world's biggest games retailer GameStop has decided it won't sell the title at its stores located on US military bases. The new Medal of Honor won't be advertised at these stores either. GameStop noted that they came to this decision 'out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




DNA-Less 'Red Rain' Cells Reproduce At 121 C
eldavojohn writes "A new paper up for prepublication from the controversial solid-state physicist Godfrey Louis claims that the cells Louis collected from a Keralan red rain incident divide and produce daughter cells at 121 degrees Celsius. While unusual, this is not unheard of as the paper recalls cells cultivated from hydrothermal vents are known to reproduce at 121 C as well. Of course, caution is exercised when dealing with the possible explanation surrounding the theory of panspermia but the MIT Technology Review says researchers 'examined the way these fluoresce when bombarded with light and say it is remarkably similar to various unexplained emission spectra seen in various parts of the galaxy. One such place is the Red Rectangle, a cloud of dust and gas around a young star in the Monocerous constellation.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Hawking Picks Physics Over God For Big Bang
Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that in his new book, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity. 'Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,' Hawking writes. 'It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.' Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. Writing in his bestseller A Brief History Of Time in 1988, Hawking wrote: 'If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




UN Telecom Chief Urges Blackberry Data Sharing
crimeandpunishment writes "The top man in telecommunications at the United Nations is weighing in on the Blackberry battle ... and he says share the data. The UN's telecom chief says governments have legitimate security concerns, and Research in Motion should give them access to its customer data. In an interview with the Associated Press, Hamadoun Toure said 'There is a need for cooperation between governments and the private sector on security issues.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Ping Could Be Apple's Social Networking Backdoor?
rsmiller510 writes "Could Apple's announcement about Ping, a music-based social network be Apple's social networking trojan horse? Facebook might want to be concerned." Of course it is. Update: 09/02 19:26 GMT by T : Jamie points out this post on Daring Fireball, according to which Steve Jobs blames the non-integration on "onerous terms" suggested by Facebook.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




AMD Hates Laptop Stickers As Much As You Do
pickens writes "David Pogue writes in the NY Times that when you buy a new Windows PC, it comes festooned with stickers on the palm rests: one for Windows, one for Skype, one for Intel, one for the laptop company, maybe an Energy Star sticker and so on. 'It's like buying a new, luxury car — and discovering that it comes with non-removable bumper stickers that promote the motor oil, the floor mat maker, the windshield-fluid company and the pine tree air freshener you have no intention of ever using,' writes Pogue. But the worst thing is that when you peel them off, they shred, leaving adhesive crud behind. 'When you've just spent big bucks on a laptop, should you really be obligated to spend the first 20 minutes trying to dissolve away the sticker goop with WD40?' But AMD has a solution. Starting next year, AMD will switch to new stickers that peel off easily, leaving no residue; after that, it's considering eliminating the sticker program altogether."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




New German Government ID Hacked By CCC
wiedzmin writes "Public broadcaster ARD's show 'Plusminus' teamed up with the known hacker organization 'Chaos Computer Club' (CCC) to find out how secure the controversial new radio-frequency (RFID) chips were. The report shows how they used the basic new home scanners that will go along with the cards (for use with home computers to process the personal data for official government business) to demonstrate that scammers would have few problems extracting personal information. This includes two fingerprint scans and a new six-digit PIN meant to be used as a digital signature for official government business and beyond." That was quick. Earlier this year, CCC hackers demonstrated vulnerabilities in German airport IDs, too.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Facebook Post Juror Gets Fined, Removed, Assigned Homework
eldavojohn writes "A Michigan judge removed a juror after a Facebook comment and also fined her $250 and required her to write a five-page paper about the constitutional right to a fair trial. The juror was 'very sorry' and the judge chastised her, saying, 'You violated your oath. You had decided she was already guilty without hearing the other side.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Cisco Planning To Acquire Skype
rexjoec writes "Cisco is making a bid for Skype. The deal, if successful, would derail a planned initial public offering from Skype and redraw the battle lines in the lucrative market of video communications." The rumored price is $5B.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Another Gulf Oil Rig Explodes
A few readers have noted that another gulf oil rig has exploded. This one is off the coast of Lousiana. So far all the workers are accounted for, but they are in immersion suits waiting for rescue.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Open Source PS3 Jailbreak Released
tlhIngan writes "Despite all the lawsuits and injunctions by Sony to keep the PS3 Jailbreak out of modder's hands, it appears that a third party has made a clone. The best part is, it only requires a cheap (approximately $40) development board by Atmel, and the requisite software is open-source. Get the Atmel code from GitHub and apply a small patch which will enable backup play (the code by itself only lets you run unsigned code, the patch allows for BD backups). The code is GPLv3. It would be highly ironic if someone ported this to Linux USB Gadgets, then you could use a Linux device to jailbreak your PS3, to which Sony removed Linux functionality. An Android phone would be suitable."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Facebook Posting Juror Gets Fined, Removed, Homework
eldavojohn writes "A Michigan judge removed a juror after a Facebook comment and also fined her $250 and required her to write a five page paper about the constitutional right to a fair trial. The juror was 'very sorry' and the judge chastised her saying, 'You violated your oath. You had decided she was already guilty without hearing the other side.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Lineage II Addiction Lawsuit Makes It Past the EULA
We recently discussed a man who sued NCsoft for making Lineage II "too addictive" after he spent 20,000 hours over five years playing it. Now, several readers have pointed out that the lawsuit has progressed past its first major hurdle: the EULA. Quoting: "NC Interactive has responded the way most software companies and online services have for more than a decade: it argued that the claims are barred by its end-user license agreement, which in this case capped the company's liability to the amount Smallwood paid in fees over six months prior to his filing his complaint (or thereabouts). One portion of the EULA specifically stated that lawsuits could only be brought in Texas state court in Travis County, where NC Interactive is located. ... But the judge in this case, US District Judge Alan C. Kay, noted that both Texas and Hawaii law bar contract provisions that waive in advance the ability to make gross-negligence claims. He also declined to dismiss Smallwood's claims for negligence, defamation, and negligent infliction of emotional distress."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Charles Darwin's Best-Kept Secret
beschra writes "BBC writes of 'terra-forming' Ascension Island, one of the islands Charles Darwin visited. He and a friend encouraged the Royal Navy to import boat loads of trees and plants in an attempt to capture the little bit of water that fell on the island. They were quite successful. The island even has a cloud forest now. From the article: '[British ecologist] Wilkinson thinks that the principles that emerge from that experiment could be used to transform future colonies on Mars. In other words, rather than trying to improve an environment by force, the best approach might be to work with life to help it "find its own way."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.






X-bit labs
Toshiba Recalls Laptops Due to Burn Hazard
Toshiba Recalls 41 Thousand Laptops Worldwide

Nvidia Solidifies Positions in the Professional Graphics Market Segment - JPR
Nvidia Quadro Remains Graphics Accelerator of Choice by Professionals

Globalfoundries Tapes Out Industry's First 28nm Chip
Globalfoundries Tapes Out 28nm ARM Cortex A9 Qualification Vehicle

AMD Announces Inexpensive DisplayPort to Single-Link DVI Adapter
AMD Expands Monitor Range for ATI Eyefinity with New Adapter

Nvidia Reportedly Working on a New Core-Logic Set
Nvidia Rumored to Launch GPU with Chipset I/O Functions

Globalfoundries to Start Risk Production Using 20nm/22nm in Late 2012
Globalfoundries on Track for Volume Production at 20nm/22nm Nodes in 2013

AMD Displays Die-Shot of Upcoming Eight-Core "Orochi" Processor for the First Time [UPDATED]
AMD Shows Off Die-Short of 32nm Bulldozer-Based "Orochi" Chip

Graphics Chips to Gain Horsepower and Programmability - Chief Scientist of Nvidia
CPUs and GPUs Will Get Close to Each Other, But Will Not Converge

Globalfoundries Adds Another 28nm Fabrication Process to Roadmap
Globalfoundries New 28nm HPP Process to Boost Performance

Asus Matrix 5870 Graphics Card Review
The majority of powerful graphics accelerators are exact replicas of the reference Nvidia and AMD products, but even here we can sometimes come across very interesting solutions that deserve a closer look. Our today's article will talk about one graphics card like that.

PNY Offers Discounts to Owners of BFG Technology Graphics Cards
Owners of BFG May Get New Boards with 25% Discount

Hynix and HP to Jointly Utilize Memristor Technology in ReRAM
Hynix to Build Memristor-Based ReRAM

AMD Works with Software Vendors to Maximize Performance of Bulldozer Architecture
AMD to Ensure that Bulldozer's "Dual-Core Modules" Achieve Maximum Efficiency

Workstation Market Continued to Grow in Q2 2010 - Analysts [UPDATED]
The Market of Workstations Continues to Rebound

AMD Will Not Compete Against ARM System-on-Chip Devices - Chief Executive
AMD Plans to Power Tablets, But No Intentions to Compete with ARM



Extremetech
Play Retro Games on Your Modern PC
Here's everything you need to know to scratch that nostalgic video game itch—and all you'll need is a recent low-end PC.




Mafia II: Is Applied PhysX Worth It?
The much-awaited (and much-hyped) Mafia II boasts some amazing PhysX effects with Nvidia cards. But do you need them to really enjoy the game?




AMD Introduces Inexpensive Active DisplayPort Adapter
The new dongle will connect any DisplayPort monitor a single-link DVI port, and cost less than $30.




AMD Drops ATI Brand Name for Graphics
Beginning with the next generation, AMD's next line of video hardware will no longer carry ATI branding.




Overclocking the Nvidia GeForce GTX 460
At stock speeds, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 460 offers outstanding performance for under $200—but it has surprising amounts of overclocking headroom.




Triple-Boot Your Mac
Can't decide between Windows 7, Mac OS X 10.6, and Linux? Our answer: Install 'em all.




Thermaltake Level 10 Case Review
Obscenely expensive but also uniquely innovative, the Thermaltake-BMW Level 10 is a one-of-a-kind case that style-conscious builders will find worth its $800 asking price.




Microsoft Issues Advisory and Tool To Address DLL Loading Issue
In response to new developments in the old vulnerability of insecure DLL loading Microsoft has released an advisory describing the problem, actions that may be taken by users, administrators and developers, actions they plan to take and a tool that administrators can use to mitigate vulnerable applications.




AMD Unveils Bulldozer and Bobcat Core Designs
AMD's new Bulldozer and Bobcat cores, slated for release in 2011, utilize new designs to achieve improved performance at reduced power levels.




New Xbox 360 Chip Emphasizes Low Power
On Monday, Microsoft revealed new details of the system-on-a-chip (SOC) within the latest Xbox 360 with 250 Gbytes, with an emphasis on low-power operation.




DailyTech Main News Feed
Human Unconscious Used to Direct Virtual Characters
Could be the future of gaming as well as other useful applications

NVIDIA Unveils New 400M Series GPUs
400M series are the first GPUs to use Fermi

Huawei Goes Populist with Android, Launches "First Affordable Smartphone"
Handset will run between $100 and $200 without a contract

Ford Focus Electric to Have 100-mile Range, Active Liquid Cooling for Battery Pack
Ford gives out some details on the Focus Electric's battery system

T-Mobile G2 to Pack Android 2.2 Froyo, Qualcomm "Scorpion" CPU
Unfortunately this Scorpion doesn't pack much sting

FCC Expected to Delay Net Neutrality Ruling Until After Elections
No proposals expected until after November

Steve Jobs Accuses Google of Lying About Android Activations
Jobs: "We think we are ahead of everyone"; Google says CEO of Apple's claims are inaccurate

Chevrolet Volt Production Kicks Off November 11
Dealers will find out how many they will get on November 17

Samsung Galaxy Tab Android Tablet Gets Official
Another MID competitor offers Apple's iPad a run for its money

New Microfluidic Device Helps to Understand Human Immune System
Device aimed to help researchers understand the immune system's response to injury

Windows Phone 7 Hits RTM
Windows Phone 7 reaches critical milestone

More of the Gulf is Reopened for Fishing as Oil Spill Disperses
Commercial fisherman are back to work

Windows 7 Family Pack Makes a Return
$150 Windows 7 Family Pack returns -- for a limited time

Youth in Asian Countries Forgetting How to Write
"Character Amnesia" result of computer-culture surge.

Sprint Adds 4G Coverage in Three Cities, T-Mobile Adds 3.5G to Nine Cities
Next gen coverage is reaching more users

Apple Announces $99 Tiny Apple TV, 99˘ TV Show Rentals, iTunes Social Network Ping
Steve Jobs has plenty to say, hopes to convert new customers and help TV studios "see the light"

Apple Introduces New iPods
Apple updates its popular media player lineup

9/01/2010 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Wednesday

Report: New iPhone 4 Hardware to Ship September 30 With Fixed Antenna
A Mexican carrier may have just let Apple's big iPhone secret slip

Researchers Develop New Low-Cost, Bacteria-Killing Water Filter
Could purify drinking water in the developing world

India Grapples with RIM, Eyes Google and Skype
India may expect Google and Skype to hand over communications

Plug-in Electric Vehicle Sales to Hit 3.2 million Units by 2015
U.S. will be 26% of the market with China at 27% of the market

NASA's Record-Setting Solid Rocket Enjoys Successful Test-Fire
Rocket will see first action in 2015 delivering new rescue capsule (Orion) to the ISS

HP Unveils Three New Notebook Computers
One of the machines supports 3D

Sony Serves Up Trio of New Touch Screen E-Readers
Sony is ready to take on the Kindle 3

Report: GM Midsize Sedans to Become "4-cylinder Only"
CAFE leads to engine downsizing for GM

Official T-Mobile G2 Pics Leaked
T-Mobile's latest Android smartphone runs HSPA+

Leading Climate Change Skeptic Recants, Wants $100B to Fight Warming
Copenhagen Consensus Project makes Bjorn Lomborg see importance of cutting carbon

Xbox 360 Wireless Controller is Improved, Drops Slightly in Price
Looks like good news all around in the controller department

8/31/2010 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of hardware reviews from around the web for Tuesday

[H]ardOCP News/Article Feed
Chrome Turns 2, New Version Available
Google's Chrome just turned two and the company has released a new version to celebrate. Looking back today on Chrome's second anniversary, it's amazing to see how much has changed in just a short time. In August 2008, JavaScript was 10 times slower, HTML5 support wasn't yet an essential feature in modern browsers, and the idea of a sandboxed, multi-process browser was only a research project. All browsers have come a long way in the last two years and the web has become much more fun and useful. Comments

Dubai Police Chief Calls BlackBerry a Spy Tool
According to the Associated Press, the police chief of Dubai called the BlackBerry a spy tool. Rumor has it that RIM said "what a coincidence, we think police chief is a tool too." The comments by Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim — posted Friday on the Al-Khaleej newspaper website — raise new doubts about a possible deal with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. before an Oct. 11 deadline. Comments

Intel Releases Parallel Studio 2011 Software
Today, Intel introduced Intel® Parallel Studio 2011, an updated development tool suite that makes it easier for software developers to improve the performance and reliability of serial and parallel applications by leveraging the advantages of the latest multicore processors. This release adds Intel® Parallel Building Blocks, a new set of parallel models that offer new ways to exploit parallelism. Intel® Parallel Advisor, a powerful threading assistant, helps developers transition from code from serial to parallel and numerous other enhancements including full support for the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 development environment. Comments

The Most Dangerous Jobs in Technology
The most dangerous jobs in technology? Moderators top the list…ummm, infrastructure work in war zones…not so much. Think of the most disgusting things you've stumbled across online. Now imagine viewing the stuff that nightmares are made of--hate crimes, torture, child abuse--in living color, from 9 to 5 every day. That's the work of Internet content moderators, who get paid to filter out that kind of material so you don't have to see it pop up on a social network or photo-sharing site. Comments

PC Perspective Podcast #120
For those of you that like your news on the go, in audio format or you are just too damn lazy to read, I recommend you try out PC Perspective's weekly podcast. This week the crew talk about various topics from video cards to new processors from both AMD and Intel. Hit the link and check it out. This week we talk about the Palit GTX 460 Sonic Platinum, Maingear F131 System, AMD Llano and Orochi, a new Sandforce Roundup, Our Hardware/Software picks of the week and more!

GameStop Pulls 'Medal Of Honor' From Stores On Base
According to this news item, GameStop is pulling the latest Medal of Honor game from store shelves on military bases because you can play as the Taliban in portions of the game. "Out of respect to those we serve, we will not be stocking this game," said the Army & Air Force Exchange Service's Commander Maj. Gen. Bruce Casella. "We regret any inconvenience this may cause authorized shoppers, but are optimistic that they will understand the sensitivity to the life and death scenarios this product presents as entertainment. As a military command with a retail mission, we serve a very unique customer base that has, or possibly will, witness combat in real life." Comments

Fold With The [H] = Win a Complete i7 920 System
Ever thought about becoming part of the #1 folding team on the planet? Well, here's a little incentive, you could win a complete Core i7 920 system that was donated by members of our awesome folding team. Click the link for the complete specs and a link to the official sign up thread! If you were to buy this system at Newegg, with equal parts, it would cost over $1,300 plus shipping. The motherboard and CPU were donated by tjmagneto! Kendrak was also a big help!! When all the parts are here I will fire it up and see what the PpD will be and post it!! You can also win a GeForce GTX 460 768MB video card too. Hit the link for all the details!

Botnet Takedown May Yield Valuable Data
Researchers believe they can mine valuable information from the loads of data retrieved after taking down the 5th largest bot-net in the world. Wouldn't cash rewards for the people behind the botnets get better results? Just sayin'. Researchers are hoping to get a better insight on botnets after taking down part of Pushdo, one of the top five networks of hacked computers responsible for most of the world's spam. Thorsten Holz, an assistant professor of computer science at Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany, said his group is working on an academic paper focused on methods to figure out what type of malicious spamming software is on a computer that sent a particular spam e-mail. Comments

41,000 Toshiba Laptops Recalled for Overheating
If you own a Toshiba laptop you seriously need to click this link to see if your model is one of the computers being recalled. Certain Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 laptop computers have been manufactured with a potentially faulty DC-In harness. These computers will have model/part numbers beginning with PST3AU, PST3BU, or PST3LU. The defective harness may, in some circumstances, overheat to the point of melting the computer's base at the location where the AC adaptor plugs into the unit. To date there have been no reports of serious injury, but the temperature is sufficient to pose a burn hazard if specific parts of the DC-In Jack or plug are touched when they are overheated. Comments

Nigerian Scam Tops List of Decade's Online Cons
Here's a list of the Top 7 Internet Scams of the last decade. Here is my personal favorite, the "lottery" scam: A play on the Nigerian scam, you receive an e-mail announcing that you've won the lottery. But you need to pay some upfront costs to cover bank fees and other expenses, money that you naturally never see again. Comments

Engineers Turn Robot Arm into F1 Simulator
That's what I get for talking about making an Eyefinity / SLI surround set-up for my car using triple 42" 1080P TVs…someone comes along and shows me this. Damn. Anyone have a spare industrial sized robot arm they aren't using? Comments

Deputy Accused of Choking Wife Over PS3
I'm not saying this guy doesn't have some serious issues but damn man, a woman should know that trying to take the man's PC, Xbox 360 or PS3 is definitely a choking hazard. Duh. Deputy Gary French was not charged or arrested after his wife accused him of choking her with a towel when she threatened to take away his PlayStation 3. Comments

Gaming [H]eadlines
Call of Duty: Black Ops Killstreak Bonuses Revealed @ Joystiq Duke Nukem Forever Complete? @ Blue's News Flight of the Move Controllers @ Kotaku More Medal of Honor Campaign Footage @ Shacknews

Steve Jobs Talks About Facebook's "Onerous Terms"
Hearing Steve Jobs say anything about Facebook having "onerous terms" is comical. As far as I knew, Apple owned the term "onerous." When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions went nowhere. The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted "onerous terms that we could not agree to." Comments

US told EU to Hide ACTA from Public
According to this report, officials from the United States are refusing to let their European counterparts publish the latest draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. American officials blocked European attempts to publish the latest draft of the global Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on an EU website after a Washington-based round of negotiations in August. Comments

SilverStone Strider ST1500 1500W Power Supply Review
SilverStone raises its flagship Strider PSU to what is the near-limit of wattage you can pull out a normal North American wall plug. At 1500 watts continuous and 1600 watts peak this power supply will hopefully get the job done for you. Let's see how it holds up under full load.

ASUS EAH5870 V2 STALKER Edition Video Card Review
ASUS is back making another play for your hard-earned upgrade money. This time, ASUS have brought out the EAH5870 V2 STALKER Edition, a Radeon HD 5870 with an improved cooling device. Does a bundled game and improved cooling device make up for its $100 price premium?

Thermalright HR-02 Passive Processor Heatsink Review
Looking to cool a 130 watt processor with a passive heatsink? I am not sure many of us are, but if you are looking to silence a powerhouse enthusiast system, passive cooling is now a way you can go. We have a look at Thermalright's passive HR-02. And yes, you can put a "silent" fan on it as well if you wish.

ATI CrossFireX Application Profile 10.8a Performance
CrossFireX gets a performance boost in two games thanks to a new CrossFireX Application Profile update. Performance in Aliens vs. Predators and Battlefield Bad Company 2 has been greatly improved, finally. CFX users will want to make sure to check this out. We will have the new CAP file hosted here locally for our readers.

GTX 480 SLI PCIe Bandwidth Perf. - x16/x16 vs. x4/x4
Previously we tested real world gaming with x16/x16, x16/x8, x8/x8 dual video card configurations and compared results. Some of our readers were very surprised with the data. This time we have scaled down to x4/x4 to see if that negatively impacts performance at all in a single display configuration.

GTX 480 SLI PCIe Bandwidth Perf. - x16/x16 vs. x8/x8
In our continuing coverage of Multi-GPU configurations with varying PCIe Bandwidth, we put x16/x16 and x8/x8 PCIe to the test. Does having less PCIe bandwidth make difference in gaming? We know that a "lesser" motherboard can save you money. Using GeForce GTX 480 SLI we show you the real-world differences.

AMD’s Bulldozer and Bobcat Processors Preview
AMD is starting to talk about its new Bulldozer and Bobcat processors. Today we have some notes on the new processors that will interest you as well as give you a peek under the heatspreader. Not a full blown look, but just a glimpse of what is to come, hopefully.

Astro A40 Gaming Headset and MixAmp Review
Astro Studios is famous among console gamers even if you don't know why. It designed the XBOX 360, but can a bunch of design gurus put together a team to build a gaming headset that is worth $250? We have learned that looking cool and sounding great are two different things in our past reviews. Can Astro pull it off?

Gigabyte X58A-UD9 Extreme Motherboard Review
The Gigabyte X58A-UD9 is not only massive, but its easily the most expensive board we've ever seen. In fact the cost of the X58A-UD9 exceeds the cost of most workstation motherboards and I find myself asking, the questions: Why? Who does Gigabyte intend to sell this board to? And...What can this board offer that a $450 board cannot?

GeForce GTX 460 SLI vs. Radeon HD 5870 CFX @ 5760
Last week we showed you that GTX 460 1GB SLI was a better performer than the much more expensive Radeon HD 5870 CrossFireX at 2560x1200 resolution. This week we look at 5760x1200, a super widescreen gaming resolution using both company's multi-display technologies; NV Surround and ATI Eyefinity.

SLI & CFX PCIe Bandwidth Perf. - x16/x16 vs. x16/x8
Have you wanted to space your SLI or CFX video cards farther apart on your motherboard to allow for better airflow? Do you have a motherboard that will not support a x16/x16 PCIe configuration? We put x16/x16 and x16/x8 PCIe SLI and CFX configurations head to head and show you what sacrifice there is to be made.

Intel Multi-Threaded Software Marketing Slides
Have you spent a lot of money on an Intel multi-core processor computer system? Four cores with AMD or Intel is getting to be more and more of the norm now days, and we all know that multitasking on these systems is buttery smooth. But what software can really put your four or six core processor to work?

Seasonic X-Series: X-400FL Silent Power Supply Review
Seasonic, long known for making excellent power supply units has gone silent. Not just quiet, silent. It's new 400 watt unit comes to the consumer complete with no fan. Now let's see if the new silent Seasonic is worth your hard earned cash.

MSI Big Bang XPower Motherboard Review
The XPower is the newest member of the MSI Big Bang series of products, touting support for the latest generation of Intel processors as well as SATA 6G and USB 3.0 devices. With the amount of quality and features MSI poured in to this board, the XPower is almost assured to be a winner.

PC Power & Cooling Silencer MkII 950W PSU Review
We test one of the latest PC Power & Cooling computer power supplies on the market. Does it strike a balance between server and enthusiast needs? We at least know one thing just by looking at the box, this one might actually live up to the "Silencer" branding for a change since the 80mm cooling fan is now gone.


Home - THE INQUIRER
UN telecoms chief sides with governments on data access

THE INQUIRER

All your base are belong to us





Viewsonic unveils a dual-boot tablet

THE INQUIRER

Android and Windows go toe-to-toe





La Cie launches a dinky flash drive

THE INQUIRER

What will they think of next?





Amazon Kindle 3 e-book reader

THE INQUIRER

Review Amazon shrinks the Kindle and adds a budget version





Pocketbook launches five e-readers at IFA 2010

THE INQUIRER

Top model has Android 2.0





Nvidia releases laptop GPUs

THE INQUIRER

Claims to speed up web browsing and video





Skype tries out group video chat

THE INQUIRER

Beta testing





The Chrome web browser is two years old

THE INQUIRER

Google releases Chrome 6 with 14 patches





Dell is back in second place

THE INQUIRER

Acer suffers a setback





Pandigital launches a 7-inch Android e-reader at IFA 2010

THE INQUIRER

E-reader that also has a browser





3D smartphone to launch this year says Sharp

THE INQUIRER

It's the parallax view





Samsung introduces wireless USB

THE INQUIRER

All change please





Toshiba Folio 100 video demo

THE INQUIRER

Comes with gridiron game





Samsung reveals all on Galaxy Tab tablet

THE INQUIRER

It has everything Ipad users wanted but didn't get





HP finally beats Dell for 3Par

THE INQUIRER

Finally wins the tug of war





Samsung will launch Android Honeycombe tablets in 2011

THE INQUIRER

Reveals tablet roadmap at IFA 2010





Toshiba announces its Folio 100 tablet

THE INQUIRER

Videoconferencing is sooo in this season at IFA 2010





IBM boasts world’s fastest production chip

THE INQUIRER

Processor will be in mainframes next month





Microsoft invents the Arc Mouse

THE INQUIRER

The mouse is dead, long live the mouse





Inflection outbreak could hit privacy

THE INQUIRER

The telephone book for the Internet is here





Broadband ads confuse punters

THE INQUIRER

Virgin Media takes aim at unscrupulous competitors





Google sued over Nexus One 3G claims

THE INQUIRER

Does not do what it says on the tin





Huawei announces an Android 2.2 phone

THE INQUIRER

Affordable at Ł99





The FCC queries Google's take on wireless net neutrality

THE INQUIRER

Offers the chance to spin a different line





Samsung launches laptops and netbooks

THE INQUIRER

Shark designs





 

Creative Labs PC Multimedia Remote Control Bundle

Creative Labs PC Multimedia Remote


Office 2003 Screenshots

Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Screenshots


Half-Life 2 Logo

Half-Life 2 Updates


Steelpad 4s

Steelpad 4s Review


fUnc1030 sUrface

fUnc sUrface 1030 Review


Realtime-Spy Image

Spytech Realtime-Spy Software Review


CoolerMaster ATC-210c

CoolerMaster Azure ATC-210c Review


WinTasks 4 Pro

Wintasks 4 Professional Review


Microsoft Optical Mouse Gallery

Microsoft Optical Mouse Gallery


Icemat Mouse Pad

Icemat Mouse Pad Review


Antec SX-1040B Case

Antec SX 1040 B (Black) Case Review


Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer

Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer Review


Replace Wireless IntelliMouse

How to Replace A Broken Microsoft IntelliMouse


Plextor Drive Bezel Black

Plextor Black Drive Bezel Review


Microsoft Office Keyboard Black

Microsoft Office Keyboard Review


Razer Boomslang 2000

Razer Boomslang 2000 Review


Clean Your Keyboard

How To Clean Your Keyboard


Mushkin PC2100 RAM

Mushkin PC2100 CL2 Review


Silver Rounded ATA Cables

Rounded Silver ATA Cables Review


Razer Boomslang 1000

Razer Boomslang 1000 Review


 

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