TechSpot

60 percent of Americans don't trust Facebook to keep their data private

Shawn Knight — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:30:00 GMT

A recent poll conducted by the Associated Press-CNBC shows that Facebook has a long way to go in earning the trust of their users. Nearly 60 percent of people questioned had little or no trust in Facebook’s ability to keep their personal information private.

Diablo III server debacle demonstrates the problem with Âalways-onlineÂ games

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 16 May 2012 03:44:00 GMT

We were all excited last night. After a 12-year wait, Diablo III, Blizzard's much-anticipated action-fantasy loot-fest, had finally arrived. It was sitting there installed on our hard drives, waiting for midnight to come, for Blizzard to unlock the game so we could play it.

GeForce Grid will let you stream games on a Kepler-based GPU

Matthew DeCarlo — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:11:00 GMT

We've already seen Nvidia's latest graphics architecture in action on standard gaming rigs, but the company shared some of Kepler's cloud-centric benefits during the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California today. Nvidia says that first-generation Fermi-based game servers, such as those run by Gaikai, only have one GPU per...

Psystar loses latest appeal, hackintoshes remain forbidden fruit

Matthew DeCarlo — Tue, 15 May 2012 22:30:00 GMT

It's been a long time coming, but the US Supreme Court drove the final nail into Psystar's coffin Monday. Launched in 2008 by two Miami brothers, Psystar sold the first commercial hackintosh systems, dubbed "Open Computers," that could be purchased with Mac OS X Leopard preinstalled -- a strict violation...

FXI Cotton Candy computer-on-a-stick to ship later this month

Shawn Knight — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:30:00 GMT

Not to be outdone by the recently-shipped Raspberry Pi, FXI has announced that their computer-on-a-USB-stick known as Cotton Candy will begin shipping later this month. The first batch to come off the assembly line will be used to fulfill preorders that were accepted in February.

Tuesday tech deals: $100+ off Olympus E-PL1, $55 off Dell Streak 7

Matthew DeCarlo — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:30:00 GMT

Olympus E-PL1 12MP Micro 4/3rd Camera Body for $150 + free shipping

Google Chrome 19 stable ships with tab syncing, bug fixes

Jose Vilches — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:30:00 GMT

Keeping with its fast-paced development cycle, Google has released the latest stable build of Chrome — version 19 for those still counting. The release fixes as many as 21 vulnerabilities, including eight high-risk bugs and another eight considered medium risk. In all, Google paid security researchers around $16,500 in rewards as...

Kodak maintained an underground nuclear reactor for over 30 years

Shawn Knight — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:30:00 GMT

It’s no secret that Eastman Kodak Co. has fallen on hard times in recent memory, but despite all of that, the ailing photography company has been able to keep one secret closely-guarded for more than 30 years. Kodak maintained a small nuclear reactor filled with 3.5-pounds of weapons-grade enriched uranium...

Apple releases Flashback Trojan patch for OS X 10.5 Leopard

Jose Vilches — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:30:00 GMT

Apple released a patch for the much-publicized Flashback Trojan back in April covering the most recent versions of its operating system, OS X 10.7 “Lion” and the almost three-year-old 10.6 “Snow Leopard”. That still left a number Mac owners running OS X 10.5 (about 16.4%) relying on third-party tools to...

Diablo III launch marred by server issues, #error37 trends on Twitter

Shawn Knight — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:30:00 GMT

It’s been 12 years in the making but fans of the popular Diablo series are finally getting their wish. Diablo III servers were activated at midnight PDT / 3am EDT but unsurprisingly, the launch has been marred by a high volume of traffic that crashed servers in the US.

Amped Wireless launches R20000G dual-band router with 10,000ft-2 coverage

Lee Kaelin — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:30:00 GMT

U.S. manufacturer of long-range wireless communications products for the home and office Amped Wireless yesterday announced the release of their new flagship router, the R20000G, a high-performance Wireless-N dual-band router. The device features a 620MHz internal processor, four gigabit Ethernet ports, one gigabit modem Ethernet port, dual 2.4GHz and dual 5.0GHz...

Lenovo announces world's thinnest Ultrabook, ThinkPad X1 Carbon

Lee Kaelin — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:30:00 GMT

Lenovo announced a wave of notebook updates this morning, including new range of ultrabooks set to run Intel's brand new third-generation Ivy Bridge processors. Among the models released is a new 14-inch ultrabook, the ThinkPad X1 carbon, which the Chinese firm claims is the "thinnest ultrabook in the world." ...

Prepaid "Steam Wallet" cards now available at GameStop

Shawn Knight — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:30:00 GMT

Gamers that might not have the means or desire to make payments online through Steam can now pick up prepaid cards at their local GameStop. The cards, known as “Steam Wallet” are available in $20 and $50 denominations and should be available at all locations across the US as of...

AMD revamps APU offerings with Trinity

Shawn Knight — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:05:00 GMT

AMD has launched their second generation Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) for mainstream and ultrathin notebooks, traditional and all-in-one desktops, HTPCs and embedded designs. Codenamed “Trinity”, the new APUs are described as a ground-up improvement over first generation components with double the performance per watt of Llano parts.

NAS at 10GbE Speeds: QNAP TS-879 Pro & Synology DS3612xs Review

Steven Walton — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:40:00 GMT

Hoping to drive small and medium business sales, NAS-makers have been pushing to deliver enterprise features such as cloud storage, virtualization support, automated backup software and iSCSI support. There's also been an effort to include technologies such as Link Aggregation, which can increase network bandwidth when dealing with multiple users...

Microsoft to provide cheap upgrade path to Win 8 for new PC buyers

Shawn Knight — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Are you on the fence about buying a new computer because you don’t want to be stuck with yesterday’s OS when Microsoft releases Windows 8 later this year? Fear not for Microsoft will be providing a cheap upgrade path to Windows 8 if you purchase a new PC running Windows...

Genetically-engineered viruses may power devices of the future

Rick Burgess — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Riding along a fine line between modern day technology and creepy science fiction, Department of Energy researchers unveiled a device which generates energy by harnessing the electro-mechanical properties of genetically-engineered viruses. The nanotechnology-based power generator leverages piezoelectric principles, an old concept used in everything from guitar pickups to automobiles. In short,...

Best Buy founder and chairman to step down next month

Shawn Knight — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Best Buy has announced that its founder Richard Schulze will be stepping down as chairman following the company’s annual shareholder meeting scheduled for June 21. Schulze will be replaced by Hatim Tyabji, the current chair of the audit committee and chairman and CEO of Bytemobile.

Nvidia, Intellectual Ventures acquire 500 wireless patents from IPWireless

Shawn Knight — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Nvidia has joined forces with patent-portfolio buyer Intellectual Ventures to jointly purchase nearly 500 wireless communications patents from IPWireless. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed but we do know that the patents are related to 4G LTE technology.

Iran bans select industries from using foreign e-mail providers

Rick Burgess — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:30:00 GMT

Over the weekend, Iran's telecommunications minster warned that in-country financial institutions, insurance firms and communications companies will be limited exclusively to .ir domains for hosting and email purposes. For better or worse, the national mandate will prevent applicable organizations from utilizing email services such as Gmail and Yahoo while Iran...

Buffalo ships first 802.11ac wireless router and media bridge

Jose Vilches — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Netgear may have been first to announce a 802.11ac wireless router, but Buffalo has beaten them to the punch by actually delivering one to market. The AirStation WZR-D1800H wireless router and WLI-H4-D1300 wireless media bridge are on sale now at Fry's, Frys.com and Newegg.com, each priced at $180. ...

Benchmarks suggest Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro, iMac coming soon

Shawn Knight — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT

Several clues are indicating that Apple’s updated MacBook Pro and iMac could be just around the corner. Perhaps the most compelling hints are a couple of benchmark scores recently uploaded to Geekbench that show two unidentified Apple systems utilizing Intel Ivy Bridge processors.

LG preparing flexible OLED display plant for production

Shawn Knight — Mon, 14 May 2012 18:00:00 GMT

LG is in the process of outfitting a production facility that will be used to create flexible OLED displays. The 3.5 Generation OLED (730x460 mm) line is being installed in LG’s Paju plant in Korea as an extension of the pilot line already in place.

Intel R&D envisions 10nm chips by 2015, already developing 14nm process

Jose Vilches — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

Intel just started shipping its first 22nm silicon with the release of Ivy Bridge in April, but the company is already looking ahead to the next advancements in process technology. In fact, the roadmap for 10nm, 7nm and 5nm processes is already locked down, and the company is preparing to...

Apple drops new iPad's "4G" label, now called iPad + Cellular

Lee Kaelin — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT

Apple appears to have given in to regulatory pressure after the UK's consumer watchdog, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), as well as Australia's counterpart, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched investigations following a wave of complaints from consumers about the advertising of the Cupertino-based firm's new iPad 4G...