Conflicker has gone through various stages of development that make it harder to understand; credits to the use of P2P mechanism encrypting the traffic using the latest and greatest MIT MD6 algorithm. A noteworthy mention about the client on an infected machine is that, it uses an intelligent algorithm that creates a daily list of 250 random domain names to communicate with its mother ship that advertises different domain names each day. Guess what, it gets even better, the newer variant Conflicker. C just upped that number from 250 to 50,000.

What makes this one extra special is that no one seems to still know what its gonna do on “D day”. Experts guess that April 1 could probably be that D day, but we never know…

Let the guessing games continue; in the meantime, if you don’t have the habit of installing Microsoft Windows security fixes or keep you Windows auto update OFF, it’d be a good idea to get to the Symantec website and attempt a removal of a possible infection.

Cheers, and have a SAFE April 1.

[ via TechRepublic ]

Last year they brought the largest at 103″ inches. This year they broke it by far and now claims to be the world’s largest plasma at 150″ and that too at super full HD. Even the model of average hieght looks tiny in front of this massive screen. This massive plasma sports a  2,160 X 4,096-pixels. Now that is 4 times more than current HD platforms. It is made of a single sheet of hand made glass. But guess what, it will be hitting the assembly lines early 2009, which means, you could get your hands on one of these massive wall size screen  as soon as May 2009 and tha too in Super Full HD. Wonder how Blu-Ray will score on Super HD’s.

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The Gitex, Dubai, had a lot of contenders in the USB Flash drives arena, and to be frank, I was amazed at what I saw in terms of design, technology, sizes and even prices of these gadgets.  Ritek (www.ridata.com) featured some of their latest technology in USB storage drives and shown above is the Yego, which uses an innovative design that includes two additional USB ports. This way you can add more USB drives to the existing USB drive and increase capacity. This works well especially if your laptop comes with very few USB ports. A Tie-style LED indicator shows usage status. Check out more drives after the jump.

A full range of Ultra mini USB flash drives from PQi. Head for more details at (www.pqi.com)

Business card size USB flash drives from PQi, available in sizes upto 8GB

USB flash drives from Pleomax Samsung ranging from 2GB to 8GB

Check out the customized versions of USB flash drives. The spokesman from company (MEC) claimed that they could do any shape according to your preference. Now that’s something I’d like to do. Head to their site for more details.

The Ultra mini 16GB USB flash drive from Toshiba, also available in 32GB.

A spokesman from Imation ( Delta in Dubai) shows off the new Imation Atom Flash drive loaded with 8GB of memory.

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ATi and nVidia showcased their latest graphics card series and is expected to hit the market in the coming months. Here’s the highlights.

ATi Radeon 4870 X2

HIGHLIGHTS

Dual TeraScale graphics engines work in tandem to deliver blazing frame rates, putting the power of graphics ‘supercomputing’ in the hands of extreme gamers.

Unparalleled anti-aliasing (AA) and anisotropic filtering delivers striking graphics with extraordinary realism so you can max out the settings of the most demanding next-generation games.Regardless of platform, these graphics cards delivers the power needed to blaze through games while dynamically conserving energy at idle or when demand is low.

Watch the latest Blu-ray and HD movies play with incredible fidelity and have the freedom to edit videos and convert video formats at lightning-fast speeds.

KEY FEATURES

2 GB of GDDR5 memory
2.4 teraFLOPS of GPU power
DirectX® 10.1
1600 stream processing units
2 x 256-bit memory interface
24x custom filter anti-aliasing (CFAA) and high performance anisotropic filtering
Dual mode ATI CrossFireX™ multi-GPU support for highly scalable performance
PCI Express® 2.0 support
Dynamic geometry acceleration
Game physics processing capability
ATI Avivo™ HD video and display technology1

* Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD 2) for Blu-ray™ and HD Video
* Accelerated Video Transcoding (AVT)
* DVD Upscaling
* Dynamic Contrast
* Built-in HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support
* Integrated DisplayPort2

Dynamic power management with ATI PowerPlay™ technology (www.ati.com)

nVidia GTX 280

HIGHLIGHTS

With more gaming horsepower than ever before and 1GB of memory, the GeForce GTX 280 GPU’s 240 processing cores make games such as Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Bionic Commando® feel like the real thing. Its powerful NVIDIA PhysX™ technology creates rich, immersive physical effects with stunningly accurate realism. Experience absolute immersion and a 50% pure performance boost than prior generation GPUs with the GeForce GTX 280 GPU.

KEY FEATURES

1 GB of GDDR3 memory
512-bit Memory Interface Width
240 core processors
141.7 GB/sec memory bandwidth
1296 MHz processor clock
602 MHz graphics clock
PCI Express® 2.0 support (www.nvidia.com)

Obviously nvidia lacks the DDR5 memory and is less by 1GB of RAM. You could look forward to seeing DDR5 on nvidia in the coming chip sets. Here’s a performance chart comparing both graphics cards and if you’d getting one now, you’d know which one to get!

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Hello fellow geeks. We’re now in Dubai for the GITEX TECHNOLOGY WEEK, 2008 and there’s a lot of stuff happening here. Don’t worry, we’ve got most of it covered and you’ll can see it right here! GITEX in Dubai is most awaited technology event, covering everything from consumer electronics, office and home solutions, ICT,networking, communications and global conferences on the latest technologies and trends that’s booming in this region. So watch this space for more coverage of the event (well almost). For those of you who’d like to know more about the GITEX head to their site here. Check out some of the pics taken at the event right after the jump!

The Touchmate Stall

The dancers from Los Angeles at the Sharp Stand

Stuff Magazine Stand

The T3 Magazine, Gadget Glam show

Right from the early 17th century, man has invented various forms of flying machines, some have succeeded and the rest ended up in crashes. Recently Yves Rossy a.k.a. Fusionman successfully crossed the English Channel, the first man to do so with a carbon based jet-propelled wing. Rossy was dropped from a plane at 8,200 feet and flew 22-miles in under 10 minutes from Calais to Dover. Check out the video after the jump for a peek into the real deal!

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[Source]

Howdy fellow geeks. It’s been sometime since we had some updates. Well the summer’s over and we’re back on track. And guess what, we got some great updates lined up just for you.

Here’s the biggest one to hit the market. We’ve all heard rumours of Google’s mobile operating system launching soon. We’ve also heard of mobile manufacturers lining up to create the hardware for it, but here’s the real deal.

T-mobile has raced the rest to unveil the first handset to sport Google’s operating system with HTC’s hardware. Here’s the breakdown…

The Hardware

The phone is clad in premium plastic and has a rubberized finish with

Dimensions of 117 x 55.7x 17.1 m, that means 17.1 thickness

Weight : 158g.

Screen: 3.2 inch touch screen, 65K colours supporting hand recognition, trackball, and auto rotate

Camera : 3.15MPX

Keyboard: Full QWERTY keyboard

Data support : WLan, 3G, EDGE, Bluetooth, miniUSB

Network :  Quadband and 3G Networks

Audio : works only through the miniUSB

GPS : Yes

The Software

Google’s Android was built  to introduce an alternative mobile platform to rival the iPhone and its touch screen interface. The demos shows the simplicity of the menu options, finger friendly icons and iPhone like momentum animations.

The home screen consists of a Clock display occupying the main part of the screen and a list of icons for launching applications resides below. Running along the top of the screen is the status notifications bar, which can be dragged up and down when needed – new emails, missed calls and download progress are all listed here. At the bottom, a pop-up menu bar can be launched with finger buttons for launching further applications.

The webpages, renders in full, similar to the iPhone. Zooming in and out is either controlled by a magnifying glass at the bottom of the screen or through the zoom in and out controls. Unfortunately the Android, still doesnt support multi touch, but that’s where the full QWERTY keyboard comes in and it works like a charm.

Android supports push email on Gmail accounts, so you’ll be updated constantly when a new message arrives. But that’s not all. It also synchronizes with your Google calender and contacts, so you don’t have to dock it to your machine to update them like the iPhone. It also includes, Google talk and maps and ofcourse a YouTube application.

The Android G1 will hit the markets within the next few months and some people have already got their hands on it. Check out the demos below!

Android User Inter phrase

Android Browser

[source]

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Behold the new smartphone from Sony Ericsson, a.k.a Paris, also known as the Sony Ericsson P5i. It looks closer to reality and seems to be directly targeted at Nokia’s N96 or its successor. We don’t have the complete spec list, but here’s the highlights, AGPS, working alongside Google maps. a 5 megapixel camera under a sliding lens cover. Wireless features are enabled by 802.11 B/G WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and HSDPA( wireless internet). The QWERTY keyboard features a series of multifunction keys, as in special keys for other applications. Local data transfers are made possible through USB 2.0, which probably would charge it too! Check out the video for an up close look after the jump while we dig for more updates.

Source [Electronista, Techfresh]

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We love movies as much as we love gadgets and to top it all, there’s nothing like one that’s filled with gadgets and technology from the future. Thats why we’re introducing the “Gadget Movie” section. We’ll be reviewing/blogging movies that revolve around gadgets and technology, both new and classics. So, bloggers and reviewers who’d like to participate and add their inputs are most welcome.

We’re starting this section with this month’s latest release Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, a multi billionaire weapons manufacturer and a genius inventor. He lives in a mansion that’s powered by the latest state of the art artificial intelligence. Things start to spice once he gets abducted by terrorists after showing off his latest missile to the U.S. military. He manages to escape them thorough combat, after putting together a iron suit fitted with jetpacks and flame throwers only to reach home to create the real masterpiece. The process and the test runs he goes through to create the ultimate suit, is a delight for any gadget fan. Finally what you see is a stunning suit of armor, built with titanium and features jet-packs on the feet, rockets in his arms and shoulders, pulse lasers in the palm of his hands, and an AI super computer in the helmet. The rest of the movie is all about how he tries to save the world from the terrorists who posseses the same weapons made by his company.

The final combat is between the Iron Man and his partner, Jeff Bridges who has also created a similar suit, but much bigger, whose only motive is, world domination. Other supporting actors includes Terrance Howard, a weapons specialist from the US military and a good friend to Tony Stark. And of course Gwyneth Paltrow, as Tony’s executive assistant, who takes care of all Tony’s mess and eventually falls in love with him.

The CGI effects is spectacular and mind boggling. I’d say it is a must see for all gadget freaks out there! Do key in your comments and share your opinions and for those of you who want to know more head to the official site right here.

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I remember the last time we went “Wow” when Belkin came out with the N1. It had set a trend for routers when it came to design. Here’s another leader in routers who took the same path. It’s none other than Linksys.

Introducing the all new designer Wireless routers from Linksys. The two new models are the Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router (WRT160N) and Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Gigabit Broadband Router (WRT310N). It works as a wireless access point, which lets you connect to a wireless network. It still retains a 4 port full duplex 10/100 switch, or a gigabit wired ethernet, depending on the model and allows you to share a high speed connection on both your wired and wireless networks.

But the biggest feature of all is the Linkysis Easylink Advisor. Code named LELA, this advanced software now bundled with these routers watches over your network. Check out a sample after the jump

LELA is also designed to alert you to new devices being added to the network, potential problems, security breachers and updates.

The routers use the latest in wireless technology: Wireless-N(draft 802.11n) and by overlaying signals of multiple radios, they increase the data rate by using “Multiple in, Multiple out “(MIMO) technology. Unlike traditional wireless technologies that get confused by signal reflections, MIMO actually uses them to increase the range and avoid dead spots within the coverage area. It works fine with Wireless-B and G devices, but with those equipped with Wireless-N, it works wonders. It enables a double-speed mode for Wireless-N devices, while still connecting to other wireless devices at their respective speeds. This means with Wireless-N speeds you can now stream videos, play faster gaming, VOIP and much more simultaneously without any degradation in performance.

For protection of data and piracy these routers are equipped with industrial-strength 256 bit encryption. And finally the design. Linksys has moved away from its conventional design queus and has now encased the antennas too into a nicely done compact case with the current trend, the black piano gloss finish. What’s next?

Source: Linksys

I recently came across an article on Steve Jobs called ” The trouble with Steve” in the Fortune magazine. It was a good read and gave me a lot of insights on how it is to work with Steve Jobs and what made Steve one of the most successful CEO’s in the business. Along with the article came this brilliant mosiac work by Tsevis Visual Design, where he uses all Apple products and icons from the MacOSX to create a portrait of Steve Jobs. Googling his work on the net led me to lot more interesting stuff created by the same artist. Do check them out at Flickr

For people out there who’d like to create mosaics of your own, here’s a software called MosaiX that’ll do just that and its fairly simple to use. Have fun!

Source: © Fortune magazine, Tsevis Visual Design , Flickr

LG recently launched its new LCD range at th London fashion week and I must say they’ve got the looks too. The range includes  the flagship model LG6000 and Plasma PG6000. The LG6000 is HD ready with 1080p resolution cased in a slim form factor and features an unique red-coloured back. It also features a soft red pulsating glow formed from a round LED light orifice. The plasma PG6000 features a slim, frameless design, giving it that sophisticated look. Mark Levinson tuned in an invisible speaker system in place of ordinary speakers behind grills. It in corporates speaker actuators around the perimeter of the bezel offering a wider “sweet spot” by creating a virtual wall of sound. Check out the specs and more pics of these beauties right after the jump.

LG6000 LCD HDTV Series (Comes in sizes: 32-, 37-, 42-, 47-inches)
• 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio
• TruMotion 100Hz technology (42- and 47-inchers)
• Invisible speaker system
• Intelligent Sensor for automatic optimisation of brightness and colour
• 24p TruCinema
• Four HDMI 1.3 with Deep Colour
• USB 2.0 jack for viewing JPEG photos or listening to MP3 music files
• Clear Voice technology to enhance dialogue when background
noise swells
• LG SimpLink connectivity to control other LG SimpLink-compatible equipment
• AV Mode allowing choice of movie, game and sport mode

LG PG6000 Series (Comes in sizes: 42- and 50-inch)
• 30,000:1 contrast ratio
• 100,000-hour panel (approximately 30 years)
• Dual XD Engine
• THX Display Certification
• Four HDMI 1.3 with Deep Colour
• AV inputs AV Mode allowing choice of movie, game and sport mode
• USB 2.0 jack for viewing JPEG photos or listening to MP3 music files
• Clear Voice technology to enhance dialogue when background
noise swells
• Invisible speaker system
• LG SimpLink connectivity to control other LG
SimpLink-compatible equipment

However one still can’t decide on which one to go for? What do you sacrifice on? Image quality vs long life? Moving Image quality? True Motion vs Dual XD engine? Number of ports? What do you geeks think? 

[Source]

Just when we thought, that Sony Ericsson wasn’t capable of building a mega phone, beyond the P1i or the Walkman series, they’ve just unveiled the XPERIA X1. We’ve been doing a lot of digging info on this phone to get a bigger picture of the XPERIA X1 and what it’s capable of.

Let us take you through a tour and share its dazzles and features. The first thing you’d notice of the X1 is its 3 inch wide screen format touch screen at a resolution of 65K. The next big thing you’d notice is the arc sliding QWERTY keyboard that slides out horizontally. So far the keypad looks like a charm to use. But that’s not all. Keep reading to get a closer look and the specifications of the loaded X1 after the jump.

The X1 is positioned to give the complete mobile experience and with the long list of features, I’m sure it will deliver the same. Sony Ericsson has recently tied up with Microsoft for the Windows mobile Operating system, and the X1 is the first one that uses it. I’m not so sure, how successful Windows mobile would be in the multimedia sector, but that’s where Sony Ericsson comes in. Other than the Windows counterpart, there ’s a huge list of eye opening features all loaded into the considerably small form factor. Here’s a list of features specified on the Sony Ericsson X1 site.
Camera

• Auto focus
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Photo light
• Video recording

Music

• Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
• Media player
• Music tones
• PlayNow™
• Windows Media Player Mobile
• 3D games
• FM radio
• Java
• Video streaming
• Video viewing

Internet

• Internet Explorer® Mobile
• RSS feeds

Communication and Messaging

• Polyphonic ringtones
• Speakerphone
• Vibrating alert
• Video calling
• Email
• Picture messaging (MMS)
• Predictive text input
• Text messaging (SMS)

Design

• XPERIA™ panels
• Optical joystick navigation
• Navigation key
• Picture wallpaper
• Touch navigation

Organiser

• Alarm clock
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Document editors
• Document readers
• Flight mode
• Handwriting recognition
• Notes
• Phone book
• Tasks
• Touchscreen

Connectivity

• Assisted GPS
• Bluetooth™ technology
• Modem
• Synchronization
• USB support
• WLAN

Windows® Mobile® Operating System

• Microsoft® Outlook Mobile: email, contacts, calendar, tasks
• Microsoft® Office Mobile: Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Internet Explorer® Mobile
• Windows Media™ Player Mobile
• Windows Live™
• Exchange ActiveSync®
• Voice control
• Utility Applications: file explorer, calculator, pictures & video, notes

Facts and Figures

• Size: 110 x 53 x 16.7 mm
• Weight: 145 grams

Available colours

• Black
• Silver
• Main screen: 65,536 color TFT
• Resolution: 800 X 480 pixels
• Size: 3 inches

Memory

• Phone memory: up to 400 MB
• microSD™ memory card support
• Availability and versions

Networks

• GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA 900/1700/1900/2100 MHz
• UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA 850/1700/1900/2100 MHz

So there you have it, the X1 has all the works you can think of, HSUPA, HSDPA, 3.2 MPX camera, WLAN, touch screen navigation, QWERTY keyboard, stylus, 400 MB inbuilt and M2 expandaility.

On the design side of X1, Sony Ericsson has taken a lot of effort to make it appealing to both business and multimedia users, unlike the E90 communicator which appeals only to the tech business freaks. Clad in brush metal and chrome accents, the X1 has got class and has a sturdy build for today’s world.

All that’s left to consider is the user friendliness of the “panel interface”. Let’s see how Microsoft and Sony Ericsson take on iPhone’s simplicity and ease of use. Check out one of the first videos by Aving.net on the X1. As I mentioned before, let’s hope the X1 is the best of both worlds.

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[Source: Sony Ericsson, Aving]

After pictures of the N96 was leaked a couple of months ago, Nokia yesterday unveiled the Nokia N96, a multimedia computer. The N96 sports a slightly bigger 2.8″ screen compared to its predecessor the N95, and 16 gigabytes of inbuilt flash memory expandable to 24GB using a micro SD card. We predict it to hit the market by September 2008 with an estimated price tag of around 600 Euros in Europe.

Apart from the stunning 5 Mpx Carl Ziess optics it will feature near high definition video capture at 30 frames per second. It features a 3.5mm audio jack so that you can listen to your favorite music with the most comfortable headset of your choice. Nokia is also highlighting Ovi, its online media and software sharing portal which would be integrated to other services like flickr and media store. Ovi in Finnish would mean “door” and that’s what it aims at achieving. All this highlights Nokia’s commitment in delivering a media powerhouse.

The N96 will come preloaded with Nokia Maps 2.0 with inbuilt maps for over 150 countries (and growing) that will feature geotagging with Assisted GPS (A-GPS); something on lines with tagging the places you have been. Nokia maps will also help you with road routes and will include an interesting feature, “Walk”; with an inbuilt accelerometer and a compass the device will guide pedestrians as they progress on their route.

On the look and feel front, it sports a shiny neat black stone finished surface with a steel rim and unique flat keypad with illuminated labels. It has a handy kickstand that pops out from the back to allow you to rest the device on a flat surface to hand free viewing of your favorite videos and television programs over integrated Wifi or HSDPA.

In all, this would be an interesting device you would want to watch out for.

[ Source ]