Technotell - Latest Technology news, Mobiles, Software, Games, Gadgets, Hardware, Web, Design, Deve

2015-01-29T04:47:00.001-08:00

http://www.filehippo.com/download_vlc_32

Next Generation Consoles Need to Provide Freedom for Updates | Technology News

2012-04-03T02:00:00.001-07:00

The next wave of home consoles, including Xbox 720 or PlayStation 4 (PlayStation Orbis) need to make better conditions and more open to offer when it comes to free updates for games, at least according to some developers and publishers.
To update or patch for games on current consoles, including Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, Fri developers and publishers need to do it and submit for approval from Microsoft or Sony.
The company said it could take several weeks, during which players of games left with real problems and bugs.
According to several developers recently, what needs to change with the next generation of devices, because they want the same freedom they get on platforms such as PC, Facebook or mobile ones.
"Sometimes it's expensive, there are a lot of bureaucracy, even if you want those little things to do," said Ubisoft Massive David Polfeldt Gamasutra's policy update on the current consoles.
His voice is supported by Christian Svensson, senior vice president at Capcom, who also wants the update to a job without experience.
"I hope for a much smoother for updates to the consumer, capable of a much faster recovery between the two as content is submitted and when the content is online for the consumer, a superior level of service to offer" he said.
These applications can be solved by implementing a number of systems in the wings, enabling developers to make their games on the fly, without you through the approval, as executive Capcom.
"I hope that the networking process and in the future are built with this in mind," said Svensson. "I would like more server-based backends that more developer and publisher control to see, rather than being forced through systems that are little more pre-defined by the first party. This would be the online experiences that are not currently available on the console market. "
At present, however, nothing concrete is known about the next generation consoles, since neither Sony nor Microsoft are willing to admit they are working on new devices.

Samsung GALAXY Note in White Coming to TELUS on April 4 | Technology News

2012-04-03T01:54:00.001-07:00

Samsung introduced the note by Galaxy in Canada in February. All three major carriers, Telus, Rogers and Bell added the smartphone to their portfolios.
Like AT & T variant, the Canadian version comes with an upgraded processor and a slightly different design compared to the European model.
From 4 April, TELUS customers to write the note on the white Galaxy theme. MobileSyrup people got hold of an internal document that the note Galaxy flavored white wave comes tomorrow TELUS confirms.
Customers who prefer the white on blue carbon can buy the ticket for the Galaxy $ 779.99 CAD even suggested selling price.
Those who do not pay the price without the smartphone term can refer to the Galaxy notes for as low as CAD $ 199.99 with a new three year agreement.
It is clear that the white version comes with the same features as the variant blue carbon. The phone has a dual core processor Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8660 clocked at 1.5 GHz, which is complemented by an Adreno 220 GPU and 1GB of RAM.
TELUS internal documentEnlarge image
The amount of storage of 16 GB is enough for the average user, but the amount can be further improved by using a microSD card up to 32GB.
Software-wise, says Galaxy is powered by Google Android 2.3 operating system Gingerbread and Samsung's TouchWiz UI. However, the smartphone already scheduled for an upgrade Ice Cream Sandwich, which should arrive within weeks.
The phone comes with a stylus S and a large 5.3-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touch screen that HD (800 x 1280 pixels) supports, and is equipped with Corning Gorilla Glass coating.
Another strong point of note is the Galaxy impressive 8-megapixel autofocus camera with flash back, and LED Full HD (1080p) video recording. The phone features a high capacity 2500 mAh Li-Ion, who is the manufacturer for up to 250 hours standby time or up to 10 hours talk time.

Twitter for BlackBerry 3.0.0.20 Now Available for Download in App World | Technology News

2012-04-03T01:51:00.000-07:00

Twitter has just released an official update is now available for download in BlackBerry App World. In fact, the application can be found in both App World and on the website of Research In Motion.

The latest update brings a new layout and support tweet on Twitter photo service. The application was also included in BBM.

The BlackBerry client of the social application comes with following features: automatic link shortening, tweets promoted and improved messages for users Wi-Fi only.

Those who already have the application installed on the smartphone can update the options menu. Otherwise just go to BlackBerry App World and search for Twitter client.

Twitter for BlackBerry 3.0.0.20 is now available for free download on BlackBerry App World and should be fully compatible with all devices running BlackBerry OS 5.0 or higher.

Sony Details Technical Changes in Ice Cream Sandwich for Xperia Phones | Technology News

2012-04-03T01:35:00.001-07:00

This month, Sony will begin shipping 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Android mobile operating system for all owners of the Xperia arc S, V and Xperia Xperia neo-ray devices.
The company has officially confirmed its plans in this area, as well as his intention of releasing the same update for the Xperia arc, Xperia PLAY, neo Xperia, Xperia Xperia mini mini pro, Xperia Pro, Xperia Sony Ericsson Walkman active and live with the end of May / early June
These devices are powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the moment, and the upgrade will allow users with many improvements over the older version of the OS.
To ensure that users are aware of what is coming the way, Sony has provided a mobile variety of details about this update in a recent blog.
"When it comes to the ICS is a major update of Android, and there are many things that have changed with the release of gingerbread. Some of these changes affect the performance and stability of the system, eg by using more CPU power and RAM, "the holding.
"We are currently adapting our ICS Xperia smartphones to work in 2011, all of which are built on a platform with a single core Qualcomm and 512 MB RAM."
Sony also notes that the use of resources in ICS is sometimes heavier in comparison with Android 2.3, but they managed to correctly make the operating system optimized for use on devices Xperia find.
Some of the major changes that users will face during the update to ICS relate to the user interface, which includes the theme Holo. "More than a thousand icons have been changed" to fit the new OS, Sony says, adding that there are also new wallpapers and backgrounds of applications available to users.
The manager of the activity has a new user, and there is also applicable new face of release that protection in combination with face and is included in ICS for all devices with a front camera.
In addition, users will have access to more information about contacts in your contact list, including updates from social networks. The calendar features a new color coding, and there is also support for a new form of voice mail.
ICS also comes with graphics hardware acceleration enabled by default for all applications of the 14-level API, which makes a smoother UI, but leads to more RAM memory.
And with 340MB of RAM to 512 are reserved for the Linux user space in the ice cream sandwich, heavy RAM usage can sometimes be a bit of a problem.
However, as mentioned above, Sony says that they were able to address some of these gaps to answer, and that users will experience in making Android 4.0 will live up to expectations.
"So we not only optimize the management of RAM using RAM for internal applications as well as possible, but we will also introduce a performance assistant at startup when running ICS," the company notes.
"In this wizard performance, you can enable and disable some services that you might not want to run on your phone, the phone performance optimization."

Sony Details Technical Changes in Ice Cream Sandwich for Xperia Phones

2012-04-03T01:31:00.001-07:00

Download Facebook 4.1.1 with Retina Display Support for iPad | Technology News

2012-04-03T01:29:00.002-07:00

Facebook fans can access their profiles on a new generation iPhone can now see everything crystal clear thanks to a recent update to the client iOS.

Facebook has released version 4.1.1 of its iPhone and iPhone-specific application that a ton of new features and enhancements including the ability to login to the chat, the ability to change your language (Czech, Danish includes, Greek, Indonesian , Malaysian, Norwegian, Portuguese, or Thai), and a "bright, high resolution interface" for the new iPhone.

Corrections include: "the profile picture appears right for everyone, your friends list always contains all your friends, photo series, your name appears correctly, pictures of people who love Facebook pages to properly load, your friend request notification lights up only if you have a request. "

HDD Sales Will Increase This Year, Despite Prices | Technology news

2012-04-03T01:11:00.001-07:00

Even if the HDD market is expected to have more problems this year, with rising prices and all, IDC estimates that the opposite will occur.
Not that those responsible for these storage devices will not go through difficult times, of course, but analysts still believe in the general level of navigation for the year will increase.
The percentage is estimated at 7.7%, although this is true, it will not be due to the interest of consumers as it will be for both the natural disasters of 2011.
The earthquake in Japan (March 2011) and floods in Thailand (fourth quarter), shipments fell 4.5% last year.
As such, even if prices are high across the hard disk (and will remain so even after the fall in April), analysts are optimistic from that perspective.
Meanwhile, hard drive vendors use this mess as an opportunity to the standard price reset after the "erosion" that began in 2009.
"In many ways, the HDD industry will jointly press the" Reset "button. A reset of the structure of the HDD industry should enable the participants remaining HDD industry to reduce prices slowly drive the current level with a rate that has value to customers while at the same time sufficient funds are available to new HDD technology needed for the hard drive capacity, performance, reliability, energy consumption and improve security to develop, "said John Rydning, Vice- president of research, hard drives at IDC.
"However, the growth in the long term can only be achieved if the other participants storage and storage solution providers with a wide range of products for a wide range of markets."
Cleaning and repair of factory buildings will be flooded in the first half of 2012, which means that the supply level before the flood of components and complete assemblies will not return until the third quarter of this year.

IBM Power 7+ Pictured | Technology News

2012-03-26T02:39:00.001-07:00

IBM is still the king of the pack as they are for the last ten years. They were the first to market with a really great module MCM "bubble memory" back in the 70s, a server design using their immense Power5 MCM architecture in 2003, and now they are back with new packaging technology.

On Friday, a camera of Charlie Demerjian from Semi Accurate made IBM eyes new baby, completely exposed.

The chips represented here are part of the POWER7 + new family and they are, from left to right: four P7 + CPU die to an intervention without a lid, four P7 + CPU die with organic packaging, even without a lid, and right, an unspecified said current stacked with and without the heat spreader.

No one else can now demonstrate such technology on a large scale, so that IBM is again at the forefront of the design of silicon integrated circuits.

It is said that the joints between an active part of the inclusion of large amounts of ERAM communicating over a very large bandwidth.

“The Hunger Games” Is Third Biggest Opening Ever in the US | Technology News

2012-03-26T02:35:00.002-07:00

They do not call it the most anticipated film of 2012 for nothing: "The Hunger Games" is the official opening of the third largest U.S. always, extrapolation of $ 155 million (€ 116, 9 million) in the weekend.
The figures cited by Box Office Mojo shows that the "hunger" is the third most popular film will be released in the U.S., after "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" and "The Dark Knight."
The total cume is $ 214.3 million (€ 161.65 million) in its first weekend, but insiders believe that the things to come, because the film is not even in most areas.
While setting a new record for opening the third largest in the U.S., the film also marks a new stage for Lionsgate: "The Hunger Games" has surpassed "Fahrenheit 9/11" in the domestic sales of the first week.
"It is remarkable that he debuted at the top of the Twilight movies, and he overcame Alice in Wonderland ($ 116.1 million / € 87.5 million) for the highest debut ever for a non-suite," Bom reports.
The comparison is not arbitrary, because for the release, "The Hunger Games' is often referred to as" the new Twilight "in the sense that it is designed as a future franchise as successful as the saga of vampires.
Chances are it will be even greater. The fact that it targets a wider audience will certainly contribute to the "Twilight" to overcome.
"The film has an incredible influence on the Saturday - it fell 25 percent to 51 million [€ 38.4 million], which second all time behind Spider-Man 3 (state at $ 51.3 million / € 38.69 million) , "the same movie-oriented e-zine says.
"This suggests that the demand for The Hunger Games is through a wide range of viewers, and it's not only rooted in the nature of the rabid fans who pressed the front-loading openings for the latest Harry Potter movies and Twilight "BOM says.
Also good money to the American box office this week, "21 Jump Street," "Dr. Seuss' The Lorax 3D", "John Carter 3D," "courage," "Project X", "A Thousand Words," " Baby October "," Safe House "and" Journey 2. "

Colorful GTX 680 iGame Kudan Graphics Card Pictured | Technology News

2012-03-26T02:30:00.003-07:00

Although it has been several days since the official launch of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, there seems no way to stop the rain templates.

On the other hand, it's not so much a report on a new video card, but a rumor about a model that has yet to occur.

Like Galaxy, colorful develops a particular iteration of the Kepler-based graphics card.

It will be called GTX 680 iGame Kudan and use of the best air cooler that the company has in its collection.

IGame called Kudan (hence the name of the card) cooling solution is actually modular, allowing owners to change somewhat.

The radiators can be treated independently (VRM and memory can be covered with their own) and even the color can be changed (a pastel set is included).

If people are now believed, will not waste his colorful best cooling on a board of reference specced.

Unfortunately, if we can not say with certainty that the factory overclocking will be involved, we do not know how much faster than the shares of the GPU, shaders and memory function accelerates.

We assume that it is not in the range of 2 GHz, but that's fine, because buyers will get everything they need to improve the performance of their own tune.

Speaking of which, the colorful GTX 680 iGame Kudan get a digital 8-phase VRM can be increased with a homer in four phases, through a daughter card attached to a modified SO-DIMM.

The daughter card at the rear of the product, parallel to the plane of the printed circuit board.

People familiar with the company will know that only sells colorful video controllers in Asia and Europe, so U.S. citizens will need to seek alternatives.

Reference specifications for the Kudan want to leave in the dust, here where we covered the official launch of the invention of NVIDIA.

Stanford University Hacked Again, 978 Users Exposed | Technology News

2012-03-26T02:26:00.002-07:00

A number of 978 sets of records were released from the servers at Stanford University, after a hacker known as GreyerSting successfully identified a SQL injection vulnerability in the forum of the official institution computer.

"I just get bored and saw the vulnerability and decided to exploit," said the pirate.

The data dump contains the full name, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses and other details.

Readers may recall that the site of Stanford University has also been hacked and defaced on 16 March. At the moment, the security researcher Shadab Siddiqui provided information that the weaknesses that have affected the site demonstrated.

It is not clear whether in the meantime Stanford team information on the issues that we reported, because they have not responded to our emails, but it is clear that some dangerous gaps do not exist yet on the site.

Grandma Smashes Her Face into Apple Store, Sues | Technology News

2012-03-26T02:21:00.001-07:00

Paswall is one of the few people worldwide who donate AOT much care for iconic all-glass Apple OSA stores.

And she has every reason to think that way after walking into a shop, glass door of the participant nose broken in the process.

Mrs. Paswall was the return of an iPhone in the store in Manhasset, New York in December last year. If they go to the store, entered the participant, the glass door and Mrs. Paswall suddenly.

In Australia, news.com.au OSA, the octogenarian literally hit her face against the door and broke his nose.

She went on to sue Apple for $ 1 million, claiming that the Cupertino tech giant would have had to find that on the glass so the elderly can be the difference between the building and to the thin air.

"Apple wants to be cool and modern and the nature of the architecture that appeals to the technology crowd," said his lawyer, Derek T. Smith "But they must realize the danger that this high-tech modern architecture installation in some people."

"The defendant was negligent in allowing ... a clear, transparent glass wall and / or door to exist without adequate warning," said the costume.

"There were no marks on the glass or inadequate," said Smith. "My client is an octogenarian. It is clear, but she sees no glass."

"The stereotypical Apple customer is someone who is Gen-Y or a teenager or student, but they must realize that the older generation are their customers, too," he added.

According to MacRumors, Mrs. Paswall request for $ 75,000 in medical expenses and damages for negligence to $ 1 million.

Double-Slit Experiment Carried Out with 114-Atom Molecules | Technology News

2012-03-26T02:15:00.001-07:00

Physicists from the University of Vienna in Austria to announce the completion of the major iteration of the famous double slit experiment (DSE). They managed to very large molecules consisting of a 58 or 114 atoms to use, while replicating the study centuries old.
The SPD is one of the most important basis for quantum mechanics today. It was first performed in the 1800s by the English scientist Thomas Young. The goal was to determine if light is composed of particles or waves.
He noted that the photons act as both particle and wave, a discovery that has contributed to the development of principles such as quantum entanglement and superposition. The latter means that a particle can be simultaneously in two states (namely, waves and particulates, as opposed to particles or waves).
What the team has recently UV duplicate experiment with photons of Young, but very large molecules. The researchers were intrigued when they discovered that the same interference patterns were known scale of molecules observed not only with subatomic particles.
"In some ways it's a bit surprising, because these are very complex and flexible molecules, they change their shape as they fly into the machine, 'expert says Markus Arndt.
"If you talk to the community, maybe 50 percent say it is normal because it is quantum physics, and the other 50 percent would be really scratching their heads, because it is quantum physics," adds the researcher, a leader in new project.
Historically, Young experiment showed that light is a wave, a. Search disagree with the beliefs 17th and 18th centuries, but Albert Einstein showed in 1905 that light is a particle, and thus the concept of wave-particle duality is born, reports LiveScience.
In 1961, the German physicist Claus Jönsson determined that the interference patterns caused by light from the DSW is not exclusively to photons, but may be achieved by using electrons. This also caused a revolution in physics.
"Seeing the experience of two slots, it's like watching a total eclipse for the first time, a chill runs through you and primitive hairs on your arms stand You think this thing is true wave and particle. the foundation of your ability to move and sway, "said Alison Campbell.
She has an appointment as an astronomer at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. Details of the new study appearing in the March 25 online issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology high.

Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 190 | Technology News

2012-03-22T03:17:00.000-07:00

The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: CentOS 5.8 and Linux Mint 12 LXDE. In other news: CodeWeavers released the CrossOver XI software with support for Microsoft Office 2012. Softpedia Linux Blog news includes articles about SliTaz 4.0 RC2, Skolelinux 6.0.4 RC3, Unity Linux 2012 Alpha 1, FreeNAS 8.2.0 Beta 1, AntiX M12 test 2, Deluge 1.3.4, Linux kernel 3.3 RC6, TinyMe 2012 Alpha, Knoppix 7.0, IPFire 2.11 Core 57, FreeBSD 8.3 RC1, Heaven DX11 Benchmark 3.0, AMD Catalyst 12.2, Bazaar 2.5.0, Snowlinux 2 RC, Zentyal 2.3 Beta, Zenwalk Live Edition 7.2 Beta 2, Zorin OS Educational Lite 6 RC, Midori 0.4.4, Linux Mint 12 LXDE, , and much more. For this week we've also prepared a very nice tutorial about how to install Firefox 11 on Ubuntu OSes, and an interesting review for the Clementine 1.0.1 application. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.

Summary:

· Announced Distro: CentOS 5.8
· Announced Distro: Linux Mint 12 LXDE
· Other News: CrossOver XI
· Softpedia Linux Blog: Ubuntu User Survey 2012, KDE SC 4.8.1, Wine 1.4, Ubuntu 10.10 EOL, and more...
· Tutorial of the Week: How to Install Firefox 11 in Ubuntu
· Review of the Week: Clementine 1.0.1
· Video Clip of the Week: Release: Linux Mint 12 LXDE
· New Distributions: Snowlinux Xfce 2 RC, Window Maker Live CD 2012-03-05 and TLD Linux 2010.01
· Distributions Updated Last Week: Brasa OS 0.8, ttylinux 10.0, Tails 0.10.2, and more...
· Development Releases: Unity Linux 2012 Alpha 1, Comice OS 4.0 Beta 2, TinyMe 2012 Alpha, and more...

On March 7th, Johnny Hughes announced the immediate availability for download of the CentOS 5.8 Linux operating system. CentOS 5.8 is available as an installable DVD ISO image (see download link at the end of the article) for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures and it is based on the upstream release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8.

Released within a week from the Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.8, the CentOS 5.8 distribution contains lots of updated packages, bugfixes and new functionality. As usual with a new CentOS release, this one also includes packages from all Red Hat Enterprise Linux variants, including Client, Server, Clustering and Virtualization. The upstream software repositories have been combined into a single one for this release, helping end users to work easy with it.

CentOS Linux

Download CentOS 5.8 now from Softpedia.

On March 9th, Clement Lefebvre proudly announced a few minutes ago the immediate availability for download of the Linux Mint 12 (Lisa) LXDE Edition operating system. Linux Mint 12 LXDE brings updated applications and provides refinements, as well as new features, in order to make your desktop environment much more comfortable to use.

Highlights of Linux Mint 12 LXDE:

· Based on Ubuntu 11.10;
· Linux kernel 3.0;
· LXDE 0.5.0 lightweight desktop environment;
· Hybrid ISO images;
· Search engines;
· Upstream components.

Linux Mint 12 LXDE

Download Linux Mint 12 LXDE now from Softpedia.

Other News:

· On March 6th, CodeWeavers proudly announced that the CrossOver XI software has been officially released for both Linux and Macintosh platforms, bringing initial support for Microsoft Office 2010. Based on Wine 1.4, CrossOver XI (version 11.0.0) is not only a major update to the popular application, but it also marks a step forward in its evolution, by simplifying the CrossOver product into a single one, uniting all CrossOver editions. Read more about it here.

Softpedia Linux Blog:

· Wine 1.4 RC6 Available for Download
· SliTaz 4.0 RC2 Is Available for Download
· Skolelinux 6.0.4 RC3 Officially Announced
· Unity Linux 2012 Alpha 1 Has Linux Kernel 3.2.7
· FreeNAS 8.2.0 Beta 1 Available for Download
· AntiX M12 test 2 Has Linux Kernel 3.2.9
· Deluge 1.3.4 Fixes Problem with FreeBSD
· Download Linux Kernel 3.3 RC6 Now
· Download Linux Distributions for Raspberry Pi
· OMAP4 Kernel Vulnerabilities Fixed for Ubuntu 11.04
· Introducing Ubuntu Dictionary Lens for Unity
· TinyMe 2012 Alpha Has Linux Kernel 3.2.7
· Knoppix 7.0 Presented at CeBIT 2012
· IPFire 2.11 Core 57 Fixes Potential DDoS Attacks Vulnerabilty
· KDE SC 4.8.1 Is Now Available for Download
· New Kernel Vulnerabilities Affect Ubuntu 10.04 and 8.04 LTS
· FreeBSD 8.3 RC1 Available for Download
· The Linux Foundation Joined by NVIDIA, Fluendo, Lineo Solutions, and Mocana
· Wine 1.4 Has Support for Microsoft Office 2010
· UNIGINE Releases Heaven DX11 Benchmark 3.0
· Download AMD Catalyst 12.2 Video Driver for Linux
· Bazaar 2.5.0 Available for Download
· Snowlinux 2 RC Xfce Has Ubuntu Font
· Zentyal 2.3 Beta Has Samba 4
· Ubuntu One Gets Redesigned in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
· Zenwalk Live Edition 7.2 Beta 2 Avaiable for Download
· Zorin OS Educational Lite 6 RC is Based on Lubuntu 11.10
· Midori 0.4.4 Has GTK+ 3 Improvements
· Linux Mint 12 LXDE Screenshot Tour
· Introducing Ubuntu Launchpad Lens for Unity
· Ubuntu 12.04 LTS ISO Will Still Fit on a CD
· Calibre Plugin of the Week: MobiUnpack
· Take the Ubuntu User Survey 2012 Now
· Goodbye Ubuntu 10.10

Tutorial of the Week: How to Install Firefox 11 in Ubuntu

· At the request of many of our readers, we've created the following tutorial to guide them with the installation of the upcoming Mozilla Firefox 11.0 web browser in the Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal), Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating systems.

Firefox 11 on Ubuntu 11.10

Mozilla Firefox 11 has not yet been released, but it will bring features such as the ability to migrate history, bookmarks and cookies from Google Chrome, automatic synchronization of your add-ons, support for SPDY protocol to load webpages faster, support for CSS text-size-adjust property, support for outerHTML property on HTML elements, HTML5 parser used to view source syntax highlighting, added Style Editor to easily edit CSS, added Page Inspector 3D View to visualize webpages in 3D, HTML parsing support for XMLHttpRequest, and much more.

Read the entire tutorial here.

Review of the Week: Clementine 1.0.1

· Clementine is a free and open source music player built with one foot in the past and the other in the future. It represents what music players should be and not what they have become in the past years, with the advent of multimedia complete alternatives.

Clementine 1.0.1

Clementine has a spartan UI (user interface) and it doesn't bother users with a lot of unneeded visual information, like lots of window panes with radio channels and the library of some online music shop.

Read the complete review here.

Video Clip of the Week: Release: Linux Mint 12 LXDE

· This week we've decided to post a video clip that showcases the new Linux Mint 12 LXDE operating system. The video has 10 minutes and 15 seconds, and it was posted by LinuxSpatry.

New Distributions:

· Snowlinux Xfce 2 RC
· Window Maker Live CD 2012-03-05
· TLD Linux 2010.01

Distributions Updated Last Week:

· Turtle Kevux 0.9.5
· Brasa OS 0.8
· ttylinux 10.0
· IPFire 2.11 Core 57
· Tails 0.10.2

Development Releases:

· Unity Linux 2012 Alpha 1
· Skolelinux 6.0.4 RC3
· antiX MEPIS M12 Test 2
· Easy Peasy 2.0 Alpha
· Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.12-29
· TinyMe 2012 Alpha
· GParted LiveCD 0.12.0-5
· Comice OS 4.0 Beta 2
· 4MLinux 3.2 Beta
· Zentyal 2.3 Beta
· Zenwalk Live 7.2 Beta 2
· Zorin OS Educational Lite 6 RC
· Elastix 2.3.0 RC1

See you again at the end of next week for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.

Toshiba’s Tegra 3 Powered 13.3-Inch Tablet Pictured | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:53:00.002-08:00

The AT200 now successfully launched its line of shelf Toshiba wants to expand with some new equipment this year, including a 13.3-inch slate that will be powered by NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core chipset.

The 13.3-inch specimen was presented by the company during a press conference held recently in the UK.

Despite its impressive screen size, Pocket Lint reports that the tablet seemed very light as hand held without as heavy as you might expect.

On the sides of the tablet, Toshiba placed the usual USB and HDMI ports and an SD card slot. Front and rear cameras were also present.

The 13.3-inch Toshiba tablet presented at the event was just a concept at first, but a spokesman said the company Pocket Lint that if consumer response has been good, the slate is in production.

"We are customer feedback to gauge for now. We can not say whether we are actually the size of product launch, but it is an idea of what we currently consider," said Paul Hicks, product manager for Toshiba tablet business of the company .

In addition to the 13, 3 3-inch Tegra powered tablet concept, Toshiba has also presented at the event of a prototype 7.7-inch slate that same Nvidia quad-core processors ran.

However, the Japanese company doesn’t plan to stop here and is looking beyond these two models, even considering multiple operating systems for its future products.

"We are looking at variable sizes of tablets and various operating systems," said Hicks.

"It’s a very interesting market for Toshiba. We will be launching further models throughout 2012, and it’s a market that we’re very much investing in.

"The tablet concepts that we’re showing here today just show what we’re potentially looking at launching in the future, or products that we’re considering and gauging feedback from customers."

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Developer Is Sorry About the Boss Fights | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:51:00.001-08:00

Eidos Montreal, the developer of last year’s impressive Deus Ex: Human Revolution role playing shooter has once again admitted that the title’s boss fights weren’t exactly up to par with the rest of the game, apologizing to fans during this week’s Game Developers Conference.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was among the best games released last year, managing to impress millions of people, both fans of the first titles in the series and new ones, with its sharp story, great gameplay, and amazing visuals.

Sadly, it wasn’t perfect, as the boss fights were quite annoying, feeling like a totally different experience than the regular game. The developer apologized for the mistake at the time and it was later revealed that the battles were made by another studio altogether.

Now, as part of his “Reimagining a Classic” GDC lecture, Francois Lapikas, the gameplay director of Human Revolution, has once again talked about the boss fights.

According to him, while the actual game allowed players all sorts of options, the boss fights were intended to restrict them to a certain degree and make them feel like they were going up against tougher opponents.

“We saw them as a thing to break up the pacing more than a way to test the player’s skill,” Lapikas said, via Game Informer. “[The boss fights] were a big part of the game, and we should have put more effort into them. I’m truly sorry about that. Next time we’re going to think about it more.”

The Eidos Montreal director also confirmed that special steps were taken to ensure players would defeat the bosses, like adding more ammo boxes or health bars, but the battles still gave players plenty of problems.

What’s more, it seems that quite a few testers spotted the problem with the boss fights, but no one actually told the development how severe it was.

Even with the clunky battles, however, Deus Ex: Human Revolution remains a great game that should be experienced by anyone on the PC, PS3 or Xbox 360.

Intel Prepares to Retire 510 Series “Elm Crest” SATA 6Gbps SSDs | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:49:00.002-08:00

No longer than a year after the introduction of the 510 Series of SATA 6Gbps SSDs, Intel has announced that it will soon retire these drives to replace them with the much faster 520 Series built around SandForce’s SF-2281 controller.

Intel announced its decision in a recent “Product Discontinuance Notice” which states that the last orders for these SSDs can be placed on June 7, 2012.

The chip maker will continue to ship these solid state drives until September 7, 2012.

Both the 120GB and the 240GB 510 Series SSDs are affected by this decision, with customers being advised to direct their attention towards the company’s new drives based on SandForce controllers.

The 510-series of solid state drives was designed by Intel to cater to the needs of high-end users and enthusiasts and can reach a maximum sequential read speed of 470MB/s, while sequential write speed is rated at 315MB/s.

In addition, 4K random write performance has been measured to reach 20,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second), while 4K random read is rated at about 5000 IOPS.

The SSDs connect to the system via a SATA 6Gbps interface and use the regular 2.5-inch form factor.

Their replacements in the 520 Series, also known as Cherryville, utilize the same interface and form factor, but are built to deliver much greater performance.

According to Intel, these drives can achieve a maximum sequential read speed of 550MB/s, while their sequential write speed is rated at 520MB/s.

In addition, 4K random write performance has been measured to reach 80,000 IOPS (input/output operations per second), and 4K random read is rated at about 50,000 IOPS.

Contrary to most other SandForce-based SSDs out there, the 520 Series drives were also tweaked in order to deliver improved reliability.

Right now, Intel’s 120GB and 240GB 5120 Series SSDs retail for $239.99 and $584.99, respectively, while their Cherryville counterparts are listed at $199.99 and $369.99.

CeBIT 2012: Caterpillar Showcases CAT B10 Indestructible Android Phone | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

Caterpillar, yes you got that right, has just announced the upcoming availability of its rugged Android phone called CAT B10. The smartphone will be released on the market at the end of May.

Potential customers who want to purchase the device would have to shell out no less than 380 EUR (about 500 USD). The folks at The Verge had the chance to play with the phone at the CEBIT 2012 exhibition, in Hannover, Germany.

According to them, CAT B10 runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread operating system and sports a 3.2 capacitive touchscreen display that features Asahi coating, which protects it against scratches and scrapes.

It has all sorts of rugged certifications and is powered by an 800 Mhz single core processor. It also sports a 5-megapixel rear photo snapper and a VGA front-facing camera.

The good news is that it will receive an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade by the end of the year. For more pictures check out The Verge's gallery.

Samsung Confirms Android 4.0 ICS for GALAXY S II for March 10 | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

Rumors on the long-awaited Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update for Samsung Galaxy S II have come and gone, but the Korean handset maker did not confirm any release dates.

It was originally believed that Samsung will deploy an Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Galaxy Note on March 1, followed by an update for the Galaxy S II within the next few days.

It appears that the information wasn't that accurate, as Galaxy Note is still stuck on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. However, Samsung Galaxy S II has just been confirmed for an ICS update on March 10.

According to Samsung Philippines, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 upgrade for Galaxy S II will be available on March 10.

The update can be downloaded via Kies 2.0, but users are recommended to download and install the latest version of Samsung's desktop sync software.

Keep in mind that Samsung Kies 1.5 does not supports upgrading to Ice Cream Sandwich. There's a chance that the update will be delivered FOTA in some regions, but that will require users to connect to a high-speed, reliable Wi-Fi network.

Although the information comes through official channels, it's unusual that the announcement was published solely by Samsung Philippines.

In fact, they already pulled it from their site, but the folks over at Engadget managed to get a screenshot which confirms the intel.

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will bring Samsung Galaxy S II several new features, including Face Unlock and Android Beam. In addition, the Mobile Network Data usage function has been added as well.

Curiously, the update's changelog states that “because of ICS OS feature, Adobe flash and Bluetooth 3.0 HS” will not be supported (Bluetooth 3.0 will work).

The update requires at least 60MB through Kies, and 250MB if the update is made FOTA. This Ice Cream Sandwich update will only be available for Samsung GT-I9100, which means that carrier-bounded models will receive the update in the following weeks.

Max Payne 3 Will Be Supported by Huge Marketing Campaign | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:43:00.000-08:00

Rockstar is getting ready to launch a solid marketing push for its upcoming Max Payne 3 and plans to deliver a bigger campaign it has done for L.A. Noire and for Red Dead Redemption, other middle of the year releases that managed to do well with both critics and gamers.

The actual marketing effort will start in early May and gamers can expect to see spots appear during high profile events, including the final of the Champions League, which is one of the most watched football matches in the world, especially by European fans.

Rockstar plans to use the campaign to build on the anticipation that the player base has created around Max Payne 3, which has been in development for the better part of an entire decade.

A statement from Rockstar to MCV says, “Max Payne 3 will be our biggest and boldest marketing effort thus far and we’ve looked to improve across all areas on what we did for Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noire. A massive media investment has already started, but the main launch thrust will coincide with Easter all the way through to beyond the PC release on June 1st.”

The developer added, “We have very high expectations. The response from retail has been overwhelmingly positive and for that we are incredibly grateful for their trust and belief in us and Max Payne 3.”

Rockstar wants to make Max Payne relevant again and has created a game that uses the core acrobatic movements that defined the franchise while adding a cover system and a more serious tone.

Max Payne 3 will be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft on May 15 in the United States and three days later in Europe.

The PC version of the game will be introduced later, on May 29 in the United States and on June 1 in other territories.

Paradox Interactive CEO Says GAME Trouble Shows Digital Distribution Advantages | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:41:00.000-08:00

United Kingdom based retailer GAME has been in trouble recently and the leader of one major developer and publisher believes that karma is to blame for them and that something similar could happen to other big video game chains.

Talking to GamesIndustry International at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Fredrick Wester, who is the chief executive officer at Paradox, said, “GAME has basically been bullying people around and now it comes back to bite them on the ass. It’s been abusing their situation in the UK for a long time but it always come back to you.

“Look at EA and Nintendo, they’re not even willing to help. They will take the hit just to get rid of GAME and start over. One of the biggest problems is they haven’t behaved nicely to other people, so it’s karma.”

Wester also talked about new retail channels and the rise of the Xbox Live Arcade service and the PlayStation Network, saying that both Sony and Microsoft use too many filters when it comes to allowing games to be launched on their consoles.

Wester added, “On the App Store you end up with a lot of crap, but you’re not forced to buy it. The customer decides. Angry Birds would never have made it to XBLA, Minecraft would never have made it to XBLA. There are so many games that are million sellers that would never have made it to XBLA.”

He also said that independent developers were not able to get on XBLA and the PSN and that even Paradox Interactive had trouble getting its titles on the services, despite the fact that it has the money to support the certification process.

Paradox Interactive has long bet on digital distribution and the company has recently reported that launching games via download channels has managed to drive up its revenue while expanding its audience.

Windows Phone App Devs Can Now Target Low-End Devices | Technology News

2012-03-08T20:38:00.002-08:00

Windows Phone developers can now start building applications for lower-end devices that run under the newly launched Tango platform release.

The new OS flavor was made official at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the first handsets to run under it went official (Nokia Lumia 610 and ZTE Orbit among them).

These devices pack lower hardware inside, including a reduced amount of RAM, but Microsoft claims that the experience they will be able to deliver will be similar to the one available via higher-end Windows Phone devices.

However, lower hardware capabilities involve limitations when it comes to running software, and Microsoft is offering some general guidelines for developers who would like to make sure their applications can run on these devices.

For example, they should ensure their applications feature fast startup times. “Minimizing code in App/Page constructors and keeping Launching/OnNavigatedTo activity minimal” are great ways of achieving that, Mike Battista explains in a blog post.

“Adding a splash screen can additionally improve startup time since this frame is drawn by the OS itself as part of the launch sequence. Furthermore, simplifying and removing unnecessary XAML from your pages will reduce the impact of XAML parsing which can prolong startup significantly,” he continues.

Moreover, he notes that apps designed for the new OS flavor should not eat more than 90MB of memory, which is a lot altogether for devices that pack only 256MB of RAM.

Developers should consider using memory profiler and memory-related API’s to profile the app’s memory usage. They should also make sure there are no memory leaks in their apps, as they might result in crashes.

Microsoft has freed up RAM for foreground processes in Windows Phone Tango by disabling generic background agents. Users can disable these agents for applications through the Settings control panel, thus freeing up even more memory.

“On 256MB devices, the app receives the same InvalidOperationException received in the maximum exceeded case above when trying to schedule a background agent (since the maximum number of supported background agents is 0),” Battista notes.

Applications that have been written to handle the maximum exceeded case will work on devices that feature 256MB of RAM unchanged.

“Make sure your apps handle this exception path and degrade gracefully when these features are unavailable. This will benefit your app experience both on today’s generation of devices as well as on new lower cost devices. The 256MB emulator introduced in the WPSDK 7.1.1 enables you to easily test this code path,” he also notes.

Live Photos of HTC Vigor (Rezound) Now Available | Technology News

2012-03-03T22:26:00.003-08:00

Verizon Wireless is expected to add a new highly appealing mobile phone to its airwaves in the near future, namely the HTC Vigor, currently rumored to be on its way to the wireless carrier as the HTC Rezound, and a new set of live photos with the mobile phone is now available for your viewing pleasure.

The new device should arrive on the market before the end of the ongoing year, rumor has it, and should pack high-end capabilities and hardware specifications.

The handset is expected to hit the market with a large 4.3-inch touchscreen display, one that should deliver a 1280 x 720 pixel HD resolution (initial reports suggested that it might be a larger screen).

Moreover, the new phone is expected to arrive on shelves with a fast 1.5GHz dual-core application processor, complemented by 1GB of RAM.

The available rumored specifications on this device also suggest that it will sport an 8-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with support for full HD video recording, as well as a 2MP front-facing camera for video calling.

Moreover, the handset should include support for the wireless carrier's 4G LTE network, and will also pack WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity capabilities, as well as built-in GPS receiver, and the usual set of sensors that high-end smartphones include.

Moreover, the HTC Rezound should arrive on shelves with microSD memory card slot for expanding the available storage space, and with Google's Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread operating system on board, with HTC Sense 3.5 on top.

It will also arrive on shelves with support for a wide range of Google Mobile services, as well as for applications available for download via the Android Market.

No official confirmation on the existence of this mobile phone has emerged for the time being or on its arrival at Verizon. Info on the price tag is still shrouded in mystery, though we wouldn't expect for this mobile phone to be cheap, that's for sure. More photos with the device are available via teambamf.

T-Mobile USA Announces 3-Day ‘New Year, New Phone’ Sale, In-Store Only | Technology News

2012-03-03T22:22:00.003-08:00

It looks like T-Mobile USA will be among the first carriers to kick-off a new promotional offer this year. The operator has just announced that starting January 6 through January 8 it will offer lots of interesting deals on some of the most popular devices in its portfolio.

In fact, almost the entire T-Mobile USA catalog will be discounted, so customers will be able to purchase their favorite handset for no more than $49.99 (38 EUR). In addition, the carrier also offers quite a number of devices for free.

Obviously, all deals require customers to commit to a new two-year Unlimited Value plan, monthly fees starting at $10 on phones and $5 on mobile hotspots.

T-Mobiles USA’s timing for this promotional offer is pretty smart in light of the CES 2012 announcements, which are expected to bring new devices that will probably make the current ones obsolete.

Either way for potential customers who do not want to wait until the big brands make their roadmaps for 2012 known next week during CES, this is big opportunity to replace their old phones with new ones.

However, it should be noted that these might be outdated several days after by the new devices announced at CES 2012.

All in all, T-Mobile USA customers will have the chance to grab a Windows Phone, Android or BlackBerry smartphone or tablet beginning this Friday, January 6.

Some of the free devices offered by T-Mobile USA include, the HTC Radar 4G, LG myTouch Q, T-Mobile Sonic 4G, Samsung Exhibit II 4G, LG Optimus T, LG DoublePlay, HTC Wildfire S, T-Mobile Sidekick 4G or BlackBerry Curve 9360.

The rest of the products included in the promotional deal are available for purchase for $49.99 (38 EUR): HTC Amaze 4G, Samsung Galaxy S II, BlackBerry Torch 9810, Samsung Galaxy S 4G, HTC Sensation 4G, T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide, T-Mobile G2x and BlackBerry Bold 9900.

Two tablets are also available for $49.99 (38 EUR), the T-Mobile G-Slate and the SpringBoard. More details on the promotional offer can be found here.