It's always a good thing to open our mailbox and get a surprise invite to a hot new event set on announcing something new and exciting. Well we just got surprised today by an invitation to an event held by Prada and LG on Wednesday, December 14 in London.
To get right down to it - we expect to see the chic LG Prada K2. It should feature a 4.3" IPS LCD capacitive display of WVGA (480 x 800) resolution, 8 MP sharpshooter on the back, Android under the hood and a thin profile of 8.8 mm.
We're waiting to see what kind of processor it will utilize and the exact number of cores . The Prada phones were among the first non-Apple devices to use capacitive screen technology back in 2008 and2009, you know.
We'll be there to cover the event, so be sure to check back in 12 days from now.
A group of hackers who have identified themselves as 'Teampoison' have posted more than 100 email addresses and login details that they claim to have extracted from a United Nations database.
Many of the released emails appear to belong to members of the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP).
The details were posted on the website Pastebin under the Teampoison logo.
A spokeswoman for the UNDP said the agency believed "an old server which contains old data" had been targeted.
"The UNDP found [the] compromised server and took it offline," said Sausan Ghosheh.
"The server goes back to 2007. There are no active passwords listed for those accounts.
A group of hackers has posted more than 100 email addresses and login details which it claimed to have extracted from the United Nations.
Many of the emails involved appear to belong to members of the United Na tions Development Programme (UNDP).
The group, which identified itself as Teampoison, attacked the UN's behaviour and called it a "fraud".
A spokeswoman for the UNDP said the agency believed "an old server which contains old data" had been targeted.
"The UNDP found [the] compromised server and took it offline," said Sausan Ghosheh.
"The server goes back to 2007. There are no active passwords listed for those accounts.
"Please note that UNDP.org was not compromised."
The United Nations Development Programme says i
t is "in the process of validating this claim"
'Leak'
The details were posted on the website Pastebin under the Teampoison logo.
The message preceding the login details accused the UN of acting to "facilitate the introduction of a New World Order" and asked "United Nations, why didn't you expect us?"
Many of the email addresses given end in undp.org, but others appear to belong to members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The poster noted that several of the accounts had "no passwords".
The message ended with the taunt: "The question now is how? We will let the so called 'security experts' over at the UN figure that out... Have a Nice Day."
Credit card attacks
The security company Sophos noted that Teampoison hackers had previously attacked the maker of the Blackberry smartphone's website and had published private information about former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Teampoison recently announced they were joining forces with Anonymous on a new initiative dubbed 'Operation Robin Hood', targeting banks and financial institutions," the firm's senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley wrote on Sophos's blog.
The groups said at the time that their operation aimed to take money from credit cards and donate it to individuals and charities.
They said people would not be harmed as the banks had to refund fraudulent charges.
Teampoison added a "shoutout" to Anonymous in its UN attack posting, adding a link to a Youtube video with more information about its banking attack plan.
These latest moves serve as a reminder that so-called hacktivists are skilled and willing to collaborate to take down their targets, according to Professor Alan Woodward from the University of Surrey's department of computing.
"One of the big problems is that there is so much data around that people forget about their older systems that still have valuable data on them," he said.
"The lesson here is that anything that holds any data of any value must be protected."
Six months ago we started rolling out a new look and feel for Search, News, Maps, Translate, Gmail and a bunch of other products. Our goal was to create a beautifully simple and intuitive user experience across Google.
We’re now ready for the next stage of our redesign—a new Google bar that will enable you to navigate quickly between our services, as well as share the right stuff with the right people easily on Google+.
Instead of the horizontal black bar at the top of the page, you’ll now find links to your services in a new drop-down Google menu nested under the Google logo. We’ll show you a list of links and you can access additional services by hovering over the “More” link at the bottom of the list. Click on what you want, and you’re off.
To find out more about the new Google bar, take a look at this video or read our Help Center article.
Making navigation and sharing super simple for people is a key part of our efforts to transform the overall Google experience, which is why we’re very excited about this redesign. Enjoy!
The company has started shipping the new Pentium 350 dual-core chip for low-end servers
Intel is giving new life to its Pentium processor for servers, and has started shipping the new Pentium 350 chip for low-end servers.
The dual-core processor operates at a clock speed of 1.2GHz and has 3MB of cache. Like many server chips, the Pentium 350 lacks features such as integrated graphics, which are on most of Intel's laptop and desktop processors.
The iconic Pentium line of processors has been around for more than a decade, but now is mostly targeted at budget laptops and desktops. Pentium was Intel's flagship PC processor line, a mantle now held by the Core chips. The company once offered Pentium III and Pentium II Xeonprocessors for servers.
An Intel spokesman said the chip is targeted at microservers, which are low-power, compact servers for Web serving and content delivery services. Intel already offers Xeon E3 chips and is soon expected to launch new chips based on Atom for microservers.
The new processor is an acknowledgement of the Pentium brand's staying power, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. Besides microservers, the Pentium 350 could also be used in inexpensive, task-specific servers for storage, printing or document sharing, according to McCarron.
"What we're seeing is a repurposed part," McCarron said. The Pentium 350 is a cheaper alternative to Intel's PC chips, which could also be used in servers but are more expensive with additional features, such as integrated graphics.
The new processor draws 15 watts of power and there's a remote chance it could be used in blades, McCarron said. The processor is, however, not a replacement to Intel's current low-power Atom processors. These are typically for netbooks and tablets, but are also being used in high-density servers such as SeaMicro's SM10000-64HD to process cloud transactions.
Targeting the new Pentium chip at servers could also be a tacit acknowledgement that Intel wants Pentium to replace the Celeron brand, which is the lowest rung of Intel's processors. Celeron processors are used in low-cost desktops and laptops, and in a few cases, low-end servers.
Intel declined to provide pricing for the Pentium 350.
Technology is constantly improving. New processors, improved memory, massive hard disc space; we're used to hearing about these every changing elements within our PC computers, but what about our consoles? The Xbox 360 is now more than seven years old, and though the developers argue that its full potential still hasn't been realized there have obviously been technological advances since its launch.
It's unsurprising then that rumors are already starting to circulate regarding the next generation Xbox, fondly dubbed the Xbox 720 until the true name is released from Microsoft. This new console from our favorite games manufacturer will arrive packed full of technology to allow for extraordinary graphics and performance. Although the details are still sketchy given Microsoft's tendency to keep their new projects on the quiet side, this overview should give you an indication about what to expect when this new console reaches the high street.
Suspected Specs So first things first, let's think about the specifications that we can expect to see the Xbox 720 offer to us. The very first Xbox 360s were released with triple core 3.2GHz processors, and a separate Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) from AMD. Nothing is confirmed as yet, but it looks likely that the 720 could benefit from a Fusion chip, combining the CPU and GPU into one mega-powerful space. The Xbox 360 slim already features a Vejle all-in-one processor, so it seems logical that Microsoft might continue down the same path.
We aren't sure exactly how we'll be receiving the games for our new console, be it through Blu-Ray (doubtful; Microsoft isn't exactly keen to start using a Sony technology), HD-DVD or even Flash drives. There are even some rumors that gaming could be more Cloud based, working in a similar fashion to the Steam system for PCs.
Although we don't doubt that the classic controller for Xbox will be around for many years to come, it is highly likely that the Xbox 720 will feature improvements to the Kinect technology. Will every unit come with the Kinect built in? This seems likely if the developers can make it affordable.
A New Generation of Games
We've established that the technology powering the new console is going to be intense, but what sort of games can you expect to enjoy with it? No one knows for sure, but here are a few titles we expect to see launched onto this new platform:
Halo 5 (or 6? Or 7?) - Everyone loves a bit of Halo, with sales from Halo Reach topping $200 million on its first day! The announcement that developer Bungie was retreating from the scene left fans devastated, but with new developer 343 Industries taking hold of the reigns we can expect a lot more from this series yet.
Gears of War 4 - Gears of War was initially announced as a trilogy, culminating in the new Gears of War 3 for Xbox 360, but we really don't believe we've seen the end of it just yet. Even the developers have hinted that the world can continue after the culmination of the last game of the original three, strongly suggesting a sequel to come.
Assassin's Creed 3 - We've loved Altair and we've loved Ezio. Soon it will be time for Ubisoft to introduce us to a third character in Assassin's Creed 3. With the new processor for the Xbox 720 boasting the ability to vastly improve the artificial intelligence of individual subjects in a created world, we are keen to see exactly how successful this particular title could be.
These are just a few of our ideas; there will undoubtedly be many more games to hit the Xbox 720 swiftly, along with new and improved games to enjoy with the Kinect motion sensor technology.
Our Hopes for a Release Date
By now we should have whet your appetite for the new and improved Xbox 720, but unfortunately there is still a bit of a wait for its release. The Wii U from Nintendo may be headed for a 2012 launch, but we aren't expecting the 720, and rival the Sony PS4, until 2013 at the earliest. Microsoft is suggesting that there is likely to be an overlap between the 360 and the next model, the 720. As the Xbox 360 did start its life as a bit of a flop, costing the company more than $1.2 billion at its launch, Microsoft will be trying to squeeze every ounce of life from this console.
But don't worry. Our sources suggest that Microsoft has recently upped its intake of staff within its console development wing, so before you know it you'll have an all new Xbox to splash your cash on!
The next generation PlayStation may arrive sooner than we think.. maybe even in 2009! But based on the past release cycles ( 6 years ), it should come out anywhere between 2011-2012, concluded from the study below -
PS1 was released in 1994
PS2 was released in 2000
PS3 was released in 2006
PS4 will be released ____ probably in 2012 ?
However, taking accelerating technology and growing demand into consideration, it's safe to assume that the PlayStation 4 console may very well be released before 2010.
The PlayStation4 could either turn out to be the state of the art All-in-one media center with Blue-Ray disk support, IP TV and direct downloads or it may be angled towards a hardcore gaming machine with much better graphics capabilities by adding more Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs) using their Cell architecture ; And also increase the storage capacity to something like 1 Terabyte or more.
To imagine what a PS4 might be capable of we should look at what the current PS3 doesn't have or doesn't do well ..
Hardware / Software Integration
According to SCEA's CEO Jack Tretton: "The hardware guys developed the [PlayStation 3] fairly independently, then dumped it onto the software guy's lap, effectively saying 'do something with it.'"
The PlayStation4 could either incorporate multiple cell chips or increase the number of on-ship SPEs.The advantage of recycling the Cell is that Sony could retain a familiar development environment and use existing code libraries.
Technology Upgrades
Some obvious technology upgrades would include -
- 802.11n to replace the existing 802.11b/g chipset.
- An external power supply (to reduce the size of the box and to improve cooling).
- A massive hard disk.
- New graphics processor.
- Increase in the onboard memory.
The memory architecture in the PS3 splits 512MB equally between graphics and application use and this limits developer freedom. We can expect the PS4 to address this issue, giving developers more dedicated memory in which to load game levels. Although it's worth pointing out that the PS3 (and any future Cell-based consoles) can use the SPEs for maths-intensive tasks like physics.
The New Graphics Processor
The PS3 uses the NVIDIA-built RSX graphics processor.Rumours suggest that Intel is trying to sell its Larrabee to Sony for the PS4.
Blue-Ray Capability
While the PS3 was instrumental in helping Blu-ray beat off HD DVD, there's a strong argument for dropping an optical drive from the PS4 altogether.Along with the Cell processor, the Blu-ray drive is one of the PS3's most expensive components. The PS3's high price has forced it into third place behind the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360. Sony will be keen not to price itself out of the next console battle.Console owners are already downloading gigabytes-worth of game demos, video trailers, full-length movies and TV shows. With a giant hard disk in the PS4, games could simply be piped straight to the console on release day; long install/level load times would be eliminated.
Overall Features
Will the PlayStation4 turn out to be an All-in-one media center or the console where the best games are played. The choice needs to be made as satisfying both the demands will push the PS4 's price tag much higher than its competitors , a mistake Sony Corp. may not be willing to repeat.
It isn't just the extra year that puts Xbox 360 on the top of the HD consoles
Last week, IGN's Colin Moriarty published an opinion piecesuggesting that the PS3 will beat the Xbox 360 before this generation is over. Citing worldwide averages and conjecture of lifetime sales, Colin makes a compelling argument, stating that the 360's year head start is the main reason for the system's lead over the PS3. However, as he said, you can't ignore the numbers, so let's take a look at what they really say.
For sure, some of the 360's current lead in sales versus the PS3 can be attributed to launching a year sooner; but what that argument doesn't mention is the fact that the system was able to achieve more than just a market share handicap; it was real estate in the gaming community. People rushed out to buy the 360 because it was the next big thing, the first HD console, and the first next-gen home to stellar games like the Call of Duty franchise (on console, at least), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and other great titles.
These early adopters backed the Xbox 360's horse from the beginning, and as Xbox Live continues to build an active and dedicated online community, the system's growth hasn't slowed. According to NPD sales data released two weeks ago, October 2011 sales data showed Xbox 360 hardware up more than 20 percent from last year, with the system poised to be the best-selling console of the year, holding more than 40 percent of the current-generation market share.
With October hardware sales up 20 percent from last year, the Xbox 360 is not on the decline.
Also in speaking on that year head start, let's look at the time period when the 360 launched. The system's most expensive SKU came out with a $400 price tag; not very cheap, but considerably less than the top of the line PS3 which came out at $600 in the US a year later. First year sales peg each platform at around the 6 million mark with a slight edge going to the PS3, but that can be attributed to supply outstripping demand at the Xbox 360's launch, and the PS3's position in the market at the cheapest Blu-ray player at the time. A look at tie ratios, or the number of games sold per system sold, for the first 23 months of each system's availability, shows the PS3 with 5.3 games per console sold (in third place behind the Wii) and the Xbox 360 with 6.6. It's also worth noting that at the time of the report (the PS3's 23rd month of availability), the Xbox 360 had an impressive tie ratio of 8.1. While each launch had similar unit sales, it's clear that Xbox 360 owners bought more games.
Had the tables been turned and the PS3 launched first in 2005 instead of the Xbox 360, would their head start have fared better than Microsoft's? Considering that the strength of the PS3's launch relied heavily on its ability to play Blu-ray movies, it's likely not. Here's why; by April 2007, HDTV ownership in American households jumped to a whopping 28 percent, thanks to some aggressive holiday 2006 pricing. Considering that Blu-ray films won't give you any additional benefit when watching on a standard def television and the aforementioned lower tie ratio, it can be safe to assume that many of the early adopters who snagged a PS3 in that early window simply wanted a cheap(er) way to watch high-def movie content on their new HDTV. Had the PS3 launched in 2005 without the support of the HDTV surge, it simply wouldn't have fared nearly as well; real estate as the first HD gaming console or not, it simply wasn't worth the $600 investment for many non-HD gamers.
Another big point of contention when it comes to the PS3 pulling ahead of the Xbox 360 is console exclusives. Sony has come a long way this generation, offering up some amazing new IP. However, let's turn again to the numbers to see who has really pulled ahead in this particular race. A quick polling of the top 50 games for each platform reveals that the PS3 has 16 exclusives on the list, with total sales of 57.09 million units worldwide of those exclusives. The Xbox 360 has one less at 15 on its top 50 list; but the total sales of these exclusives hits 82.23 million units; a considerable spread.
Exclusive franchises like Gears of War continue to sell extremely well on Xbox 360.
It's no secret that the Xbox 360 has struggled in Japan. To be sure, the system has failed to gain any foothold in the Japanese market whatsoever, and has been vastly outshined by other platforms. However, the Japanese market in general seems to be shying away from consoles and gaming as a whole has been floundering in the land of the rising sun. As of April this year, the PS3 had sold 6.3 million units total in Japan compared to the Xbox 360's 1.4 million; a healthy margin, but a drop in the bucket compared to worldwide sales where each system has sold well over 50 million units.
While the PS3 has made some great gains in this console generations, having fought against poor decisions early on and some general marketing mismanagement, the Xbox 360 still looks to be the top dog in the battle of this generation of HD consoles.
Facebook are investigating reports that some pornographic and violent images are being posted on users' newsfeeds.
The material is thought to have been spread widely in the last 24 hours via a 'linkspam' virus when users click on a seemingly innocuous story link.
Thousands of users have complained via Twitter of the security breach which is allowing photoshopped porn images and, in some cases, pictures of the violent mutilation of animals and people.
No one has yet claimed responsibilty for the breach, although several people have linked the attack to hacking activist group Anonymous after a video appeared on YouTube threatening to "kill" the social network.
However, experts have questioned whether the video was authentic.
A spokeswoman for Facebook said: "[We are] aware of these reports and we are investigating the issue".
Google has released an update for Chrome 15 which addresses a high-risk vulnerability. The security issue is the result of an out-of-bounds memory write in the browser's JavaScript engine.
Under normal circumstances such a vulnerability would allow remote code execution and would be considered critical. However, because Google Chrome uses a native sandbox that prevents attackers from executing malicious code, the severity of the bug was downgraded.
The vulnerability was discovered by Mozilla security engineer Christian Holler, who was paid US$1,000 through the Chromium Vulnerability Rewards Programs for reporting it.
The new Google Chrome 15.0.874.121 for Windows, Mac, Linux, also addresses a non-security issue that causes SVG elements loaded within iframes to ignore specified dimensions. This is actually a regression bug introduced by recent code modifications.
Other fixes contained in this release deal with the browser's behavior on Chrome OS, Google's cloud-oriented operating system, and include changes to the default NAT traversal policy used by the Chromoting remote access feature, the downloads folder display, the login process, and the GPU blacklist. The update also includes some minor bugfixes in the V8 JavaScript engine.
Home users are advised to upgrade to the new version by using the built-in Chrome update mechanism, which can be triggered by restarting the browser. Corporate network administrators can deploy it by using the Google Update for enterprise policy.
Rest assured cameraphone fans, Nokia is still thinking about you. The manufacturer of the N8 is already working on its successor, which will come out some time next year. The confirmation came at the Nokia Lumia 800 launch event in Russia and was brought by the company VP Eric Bertman so it's pretty official.
According to him, next year Nokia will be releasing something even better than the N8 in 2012. He didn't provide any more details, like the OS that the device will be using. Previously we heard that Symbian is very much on the cards, but Windows Phone certainly seems the more probable platform of choice of the new cameraphone king.
You can check out the full interview in the following video. The N8 bit comes at about 1:36.
So what’re your thoughts on the matter? Is a great camera all that is preventing you from going for a Nokia WP smartphone? Or would you have rather had it in MeeGo flavor? Tell us in the comment section below.
Apple have recalled their first generation iPod nanos after fears over a battery safety issue.
The 'at risk' nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006, the original nanos were only made in black or white and has a plastic front and a metal back.
Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk.
Customers who think they are eligible for a replacement are being advised to check their model number and fill in the relevant form on Apple's support page at; https://supportform.apple.com/201110/
