Geek With Laptop

Geek With Laptop Weekly Roundup 11.20.09

Mike — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:00:30 +0000

The Geek With Laptop weekly roundup of the web’s best tech news includes the fantastic looking Dell Zino, Steampunk’s latest sweet project (a metal web-head), a listing of top Windows applications and a really cool looking and eco-friendly sign. Geek with Laptop has found the web’s best, check ‘em out!

Dell Inspiron Zino HD HTPC

If you’ve been eying for a compact and budget media server or nettop for your home, the Dell Inspiron Zino HD (Inspiron 400) nettop PC or HTPC should be one of the best choices. It just gets released in the US market which starts at a price of $299.

T Mobile data breach is biggest of its kind

Sasha — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:00:54 +0000

There’s a new data breach hitting the headlines and this time it affects customers of mobile phone company T Mobile.

Members of staff at the mobile giant have apparently been passing on millions of customer records to third party brokers without the knowledge of T Mobile. These brokers can then sell on the info to other phone companies.

Mr Graham, who was recently appointed to his role as watchdog responsible for safeguarding personal information said it was the biggest breach of its kind and that his office was preparing to prosecute.

When the news first broke, Mr Graham wouldn’t divulge the name of the phone company involved as it could jeopardise criminal proceedings.

Understandably, given the serious nature of the breach, the other major players in the mobile phone industry such as Orange, O2, Vodafone and Virgin quickly came out and said it wasn’t their companies being investigated.

T Mobile finally confirmed that they had reported suspicions that their data was being traded unlawfully. Investigators then obtained search warrants to enter the premises and interviewed staff.

A spokesman for T-Mobile said the sale of the data had been “deeply regrettable” and also explained that they had been asked to keep it quiet. “T-Mobile takes the protection of customer information seriously” he said.

“When it became apparent that contract renewal information was being passed on to third parties without our knowledge, we alerted the Information Commissioner’s Office” said the spokesman.

Information on customers contact details, their current and past contracts, their contract expiry dates and so on can prove priceless for competitors if they can get their hands on it, they can then jump in and try to nab new customers as their contracts expire.

“Many people will have wondered why and how they are being contacted by someone they do not know just before their existing phone contract is about to expire” said Mr Graham.

“We are considering the evidence with a view to prosecuting those responsible and I am keen to go much further and close down the entire unlawful industry in personal data.

“But, we will only be able to do this if blaggers and others who trade in personal data face the threat of a prison sentence.

“The existing paltry fines… are simply not enough to deter people from engaging in this lucrative criminal activity. The threat of jail, not fines, will prove a stronger deterrent” says Mr Graham.

Manufacturer is the most reliable indicator of how long a laptop will last says study

Sasha — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:05:46 +0000

Laptops don’t come cheap and we don’t buy them every day, so the last thing you want to hear after you have spent a small fortune is that your new laptop could break down on you in the first thirty six months.

A recent study buy SquareTrade, an independent company based in San Francisco that specialises in providing warranties, found that one in three laptops will fail within the first three years and that netbooks break down more often than laptops.

Ok so we generally don’t pay out a lot for Netbooks but that’s not the point, we still rely on our devices for business, pleasure and for keeping in touch.

So let’s take a closer look at the study and see what is likely to go wrong and if any particular brand is more likely to fail than another.

SquareTrade based the study on 30,000 randomly chosen laptop and netbook computers that they had provided warranties for and only included break downs that were reported to them under warranties, not ones that may have been reported directly to the manufacturer.

Apparently most of the failures recorded in the study, two thirds of them in fact, were actually due to hardware malfunctions. The other third failed as a result of accidents.

The most reliable laptops and netbooks according to the results of the study came from Taiwan and Japan courtesy of Asus and Toshiba. Less than 16 percent of these laptops had hardware malfunctions of any kind in the first 3 years of use.

Next in the line up for reliability were Apple and Dell. Laptops and Notebooks from these companies had an 18 percent hardware failure rate in the first three years.

Finally bottom of the list for reliability and top of the list for breakdowns were Hewlett Packard laptops, with an embarrassing result of more than 25 percent of their laptops having shown a hardware failure in the first 36 months.

As for Netbooks, well the news is not so good either. For the purposes of the study, SquareTrade classified a Netbook as any laptop that cost less than $400 which is as fair a classification as any.

Netbooks failed more often than laptops in the first 12 months of ownership.

The study found that if you’re looking for a laptop or a netbook that will last the pace, the manufacturer is the most reliable indicator.

New Wi-Fi sticking plaster could monitor our health

Sasha — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:00:40 +0000

Nowadays if you’re in hospital being monitored by technology then you could find yourself wired up to all sorts of machines to do the job.

Not only are you restricted in movement as a result of the wires, you have to listen to constant bleeping and ticking too, which can be a bit unnerving for anyone.

Imagine then if you could say goodbye to the wires and just wear a sticking plaster all day that looked just like an ordinary plaster but which actually had sensors embedded into it?

These sensors could monitor your vital signs and wirelessly send that info back to a central point for immediate analysis? Sounds a much better option doesn’t it and you don’t have to be bedridden.

This is exactly the technology that Professor Chris Toumazou has developed at Imperial College, London and clinical trials are now underway to test it out.

The trials, which will be led by clinical research fellow at Imperial College’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Dr Nick Oliver, will look at how the gadget performs in different scenarios and will also test the accuracy of the readings given by the plaster.

“We’ll look at the data in far more challenging circumstances,” said Dr Oliver. “We need to challenge the device a little bit and make sure it is reliable.”

Professor Toumazou, the creator of the Wi-Fi enabled plaster, who incidentally recently received the World Technology Award for Health and Medicine 2009, has a vision of the “Smart” plaster eventually replacing the wired monitors we currently have.

He wanted to increase the amount of data that could be obtained from a patient without having to wire them up to yet more machines.

Professor Toumazou’s creation could continuously monitor blood pressure and heart rate and could be used to identify other much more subtle indications of a person’s condition.

According to Keith Errey, co founder of Toumaz Technology, the company that is developing the product, the wireless plaster is a “platform” that can be loaded with sensors.

For example it could also monitor blood pressure in various parts of the body, glucose levels, and tiny indicators in the body that could show if an individual was improving or getting worse or it could even be used to monitor the location of a patient.

According to Mr Errey, professional sports stars have also shown an interest in using such a device so that they can monitor their body’s responses during training regimes.

Cool stuff!

Email targeting Vodafone and Verizon customers is a Trojan

Sasha — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:25:34 +0000

Spam emails are commonplace these days, we all know that, and most of the time our spam filters or our own eagle eyes can spot a spam message without too much difficulty.

The problem with spam is that the spammers are always thinking of new ways to dupe us into believing that their latest attempt is the real deal. Complacency can have dire consequences so anyone using email has to always be on guard.

The latest dodgy spam email doing the rounds is aimed at Verizon and Vodafone customers so look out for an email arriving in your inbox telling you that your account is over the limit.

The email looks like it has come from either Verizon wireless or Vodafone with the subject heading “Your credit balance is over the limit” and will offer you a “balance checker” to review your payments but the attached zip file is actually a Trojan that can do more damage than any over the limit account ever could.

The body of the email to both Verizon and Vodafone customers is the same except for the references to the mobile service operator.

“Please use the attached [Operator Name] Balance Checker Tool to review and analyze your payments,” it reads.

“If you run the tool, obviously, your computer is toast” said Nick Bilogorskiy, the manager of antivirus research at SonicWall.

“You get infected with a Trojan that SonicWall catches under the name of Regrun.”

Anyone who does happen to download the so called Balance Checker will open up a backdoor in their computer where other malicious software can be downloaded from the Zbot botnet.

“There is a danger that unsuspecting mobile phone owners might fall for the trap, perhaps convinced by the use of Vodafone’s logo which is embedded in the email, and launch the file attachment, thus infecting their computers” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos,

The version of this Trojan is detected by Sophos’ products as Mal/Zbot-P.

The Zbot botnet is infamous for capturing online banking details and emptying bank accounts, which can be highly lucrative for the spammers.

Recently the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said that around $100 million USD has been withdrawn from bank accounts in the US using this method.

This latest billing cycle scam is simply the latest tactic that criminals are using in order to trick people into downloading their software Bilogorskiy said.

The usual advice always applies. Be suspicious of any unsolicited emails containing attachments or asking you to download something.

Dell’s first SmartPhone to be launched in China and Brazil

Sasha — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:03:50 +0000

Rumours of Dell’s new SmartPhone have been surfacing for months but now it is official, Dell’s first SmartPhone device is about to be launched.

Traditionally a computer company selling desktops, laptops and netbooks, it isn’t such a leap in the dark for Dell to move into the SmartPhone market as these days SmartPhones operate more like mini computers.

Consequently, phone companies too, Nokia as an example, are starting to produce mini computers in the form of Netbooks, it’s sort of a natural progression as the boundaries between these devices start to merge.

What is surprising for some though is that Dell’s first mobile phone will be launched not in the USA or in Europe but in China later this month and in Brazil next month.

So why launch it in these two countries first? According to a Dell blog post, it’s because these two countries have a very large subscriber base and Dell already has existing partnerships in these countries.

It’s true, China Mobile who will be carrying the phone in China has a huge subscriber base that amounts to nearly double the market in the whole of the US.

In Brazil too, America Movil, the parent company of the mobile phone carrier that Dell will use in Brazil, has more subscribers than both Verizon and AT & T put together.

The problem is of course that in the US and in Europe, competition will be tough, and as it is Dells first tentative steps into the SmartPhone market they probably want to be more sure of a solid start.

“I think it’s going to be difficult for anybody without a big wealthy software and app base of support to get customers interested, at least in the U.S. and Europe,” said Avi Cohen, managing partner of Avian Securities.

Dell already has partnerships with AT & T and Verizon in the US and with Vodafone in Europe which will no doubt give them more opportunities in the future.

“This is a global strategy” said Dell spokesman Matt Parretta.

Dell’s Mini 3 as the new SmartPhone is called, uses Android, Google’s operating system software and this too may be part of the reason they chose China and Brazil first.

According to Hapoalim Securities USA analyst Kevin Hunt, Dell will find it difficult to compete with established phone companies already using Android such as the likes of Motorola, HTC and Samsung.

“They could have modest success. I wouldn’t see it being a big driver” Hunt said.

We don’t know yet when the Mini 3 will be available in other countries but will keep you posted.

Rumours that Google’s Chrome OS will be available for download in a week

Sasha — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:58:06 +0000

There has been much hype and speculation surrounding Google’s operating system dubbed Chrome, so we’ve got used to the rumours. The latest though, is that it could actually be available for download next week. Is it true?

Some months ago, Google said that Netbooks running Chrome would not be available until the second half of 2010.

Then last month there were reports emanating from China that some devices carrying the new operating system would be available this November, which just happens to be this month.

Now according to Michael Arrington from TechCrunch, the latest site to bring us news of an imminent Chrome launch, an early version of the Chrome operating system will be publicly available for download next week.

Arrington, who says their information comes from a “reliable source,” also says that this early version would lack certain hardware drivers so may only work on a limited number of computers to begin with, which of course isn’t much use to most of us.

“A robust set of functioning drivers is extremely important to Chrome OS’s success” Arrington said.

“People will want to download this to whatever computer they use and have it just work.”

Obviously without the drivers, the operating system isn’t going to work so what’s going on?

By the sounds of things, it may only be the source code that is being released for developers to start working on it and not the full version so not everyone will be able to download and use the new operating system, you’d have to be tech savvy for a start.

Regardless, we’re just going to have to wait and see but a question on many people’s minds is, is there anything special about Google Chrome Operating System and will it knock Microsoft off it’s high perch?

Google’s Chrome will rely on many cloud based applications via the internet so the good news is you won’t need a particularly powerful computer but you will need a good Internet connection.

As to whether Google’s Chrome can realistically rival Microsoft’s Windows, well as far as Netbooks are concerned, it just might make a massive difference.

Netbooks are web machines that don’t have a lot of power or storage, Googles Chrome is essentially a web operating system that doesn’t need either, and the two may well turn out to be perfect partners.

Windows XP wins over Windows 7 in Netbook battery life

Sasha — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:37:33 +0000

There has been quite a bit of hype about Windows 7 ever since it was launched last month and we’ve been hearing over and over again how it will run equally well on Netbooks.

According to Microsoft if you install Windows 7 on your Netbook it will even improve the battery life. That’s a big advantage as anyone who has ever had their machine die on them when out and about will know only too well.

Now tests have been run by Laptop Magazine and others that casts doubt on whether Microsoft’s claims are totally true.

It would seem that yes Windows 7 will improve battery life on a Netbook, but only when compared with Windows Vista, not Windows XP.

The latest is that if you have Windows XP on your Netbook, you might be better off sticking with that instead of upgrading to Windows 7.

So how much battery life are we talking about here?

Laptop Magazine tested Windows 7 and Windows XP on a Toshiba mini NB205 and Asus Eee PC 1008HA and the HP Mini 311.

They browsed the internet on each of these machines using both operating systems and the results were pretty conclusive.

The Toshiba Mini’s battery life was reduced by over half an hour and in the case of the Asus Eee PC and the HP Mini, a full hour of battery life was lost when running Windows 7.

Laptop Magazine are not alone in their findings either. Liliputing and jkOnTheRun also tested Windows 7 on netbooks and said that they also got a longer battery life with Windows XP than with Microsoft’s latest operating system.

Although the exact times on each machine can vary, the consensus is that Windows 7 uses up more battery juice than Windows XP.

So what does this mean for Netbook users?

Well considering that these ultraportable highly convenient mini computers are designed for easy access to the web when on the move, the last thing anyone needs is to be stranded without a socket to recharge them.

The whole idea behind Netbooks is that they can be taken anywhere and everywhere so anything that shortens battery life is a serious issue worthy of much consideration.

These latest tests will no doubt irritate Microsoft who has been openly bragging about Windows 7 and how it will improve performance. It would seem that where Netbooks and Windows 7 are concerned, they may have some back tracking to do.

New PC developed specifically for the over 60’s

Sasha — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:17:08 +0000

In recent years we’ve been bombarded with a variety of computers, netbooks, laptops, SmartPhones and an endless number of gadgets and new technologies so even for the geekiest of geeks it can be quite a task keeping up with them all.

The ones that seem to suffer the most where new technology is concerned are the older population.

Apparently more than 6 million people in the UK over the age of 65 have never used the Internet according to a survey by the Office for National Statistics in August of this year.

In an age where primary school kids and even younger are running around with netbooks, gadgets and gaming consoles, it seems unthinkable that anyone could be left behind.

However there’s hope on the horizon. A new computer has been developed by Wessex Computers and a website called Discount-Age which is being aimed specifically at the over 60’s.

SimplicITy as it has been called has an incredibly simple desktop called “square one” and has only six buttons to manipulate.

Basically the clickable buttons will take the user directly to things like files, email, and the internet and to chat.

The email is a modified version of Eldy and users can set up an eldy.org email address.
Chat will be easy to operate as each person with an eldy.org email address and a SimplicITy computer will be able to chat to each other simply by clicking the “chat” button.

SimplicITy runs on Linux, the free open source operating system, it has no log in screen to have to deal with and no drop down menus to confuse people.

It also comes with no less than 17 video tutorials with well known personality Valerie Singleton as the presenter.

“I think people just don’t understand them,” Valerie Singleton told BBC News.

“I’ve been using a computer for quite some time and I don’t understand everything.

“Every time I learn a new thing to do on my computer I have to write it down so that I can remember it.”

Andrew Harrop, head of public policy for Age Concern and Help the Aged thinks SimplicITy is a great idea.

“Pensioners who aren’t online are missing out on hundreds of pounds in potential savings by shopping around and can also often miss out on the best interest rates for savings accounts, not to mention the social benefits of being online” he said.

Microsoft bans modified Xboxes from accessing Xbox Live

Sasha — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:10:44 +0000

Up to 1 million Xbox users are switching on their consoles to find they can no longer connect to Xbox Live although they will still be able to play their Xbox offline.

What has happened is that Microsoft has permanently barred consoles that have been modified to accept pirate games. The only way that people with modified boxes will be able to connect again is if they buy a brand new console.

Those who are worried that their profile will be lost forever if they buy a new machine can take some comfort though.

“Users of banned Xbox consoles can recover their profile to another, unmodified Xbox 360 console to resume their Live service,” the firm told BBC News.

“The banned console will be unable to connect to Xbox Live.”

The latest move is part of a strategy implemented by Microsoft to crush the increasing and widespread problem of piracy.

The timing of this move has obviously got something to do with the new game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which was released earlier this week and which has already sold more than 4.7 million copes with 1.23 million in the UK alone.

A statement from Microsoft says “We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of Modern Warfare 2 and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken,” said Microsoft.

“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft said in a statement.

“The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them.”

However, not all users who have modified their boxes have done so with the intent of playing pirated software.

Some have done it in order to make back ups of games they already own and some have done it to be able to run programmes and games that are not exactly official but which are perfectly legal.

Reports are already circulating that there will be a workaround to the ban before too long. You’ve got to admit, avid gamers are unlikely to just give up and concede defeat are they?