Daniel A. Begun
Daniel A. Begun
Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.
Recent posts
As DVD movie sales continue to slowly dry up, some motion picture distribution companies are looking to make up lost revenue from other mediums, such as from Blu-ray movie disc sales and distribution deals with online media-streaming services, such as Netlfix, Vudu, and the recently announced ZillionTV. Blu-ray isn't anywhere as successful...
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The National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements (NCRP) released a report that states that the average effective radiation dose individuals in the U.S. have received in 2006 has increased about 1.7-times since the early 1980s (from 3.6 mSv to 6.2 mSv)*. Contrary to what many might think, however, this almost doubling in radiation...
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We might not quite be at the point where we can watch whatever we want, when we want, but we're getting a little closer all the time. In addition to the plethora of sites that offer on-demand streaming content to our computers, such as Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon, new devices and services keep popping up that deliver Internet-based streaming...
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Today's big news from Apple are its new iMac and Mac Mini consumer desktop lines and its updated professional-level Mac Pro desktop. But what shouldn't get lost in the shuffle is that Apple has also updated its AirPort Extreme Base Station and Time Capsule automatic wireless backup products as well. The most significant upgrade to both the...
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In addition to its new iMac and Mac Mini consumer desktop lines, Apple has also announced significant updates to its professional-level Mac Pro desktop as well. The new Mac Pro starts at $2,499; but Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing is quick point out that "the new Mac Pro is a significant upgrade...
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Rumors have been circulating for months about new updates to the iMac and Mac Mini desktops, and today Apple finally confirms these rumors with the announcement of updates to both consumer desktop lines. Starting with its most-affordable offering, the new Mac Mini maintains its small form-factor, measuring 6.5x6.5x2.0-inches. The Mac Mini...
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The ability to have a PC turn on instantly, providing immediate access to the operating system, files, applications, and network connections has long been a pipe dream. This pie-in-the-sky concept has only recently started to see some traction with alternative, "instant-on" operating systems (OS) that come built into the firmware of some newer...
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Perhaps it's a bit difficult to fathom, but a technology that was originally developed for "homeland security and defense purposes," is now being unleashed in a consumer product that will let you remotely see what your pet is up to while you are away from the house. San Diego-based, Avaak, today officially announced its first general consumer...
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Those white-hat-wearing, security-exploit-finding folks over at TippingPoint Digital Vaccine Laboratories are at it again. At the CanSecWest 2009, digital security conference to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, next month, TippingPoint's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) team will be sponsoring their third annual Pwn2Own contest. This time...
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In what is sure to cause great debate (and probably a healthy stream of jokes and parodies as well), the founder of a Swedish youth organization is singling out World of Warcraft as a very addictive game. How addictive? He has labeled World of Warcraft as "the cocaine of the computer games world." This claim comes from Sven Rollenhagen, founder...
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Perhaps getting its inspiration from President Obama's joint address to Congress and the American people this last Tuesday, Google has decided to also increase its transparency with the public. In actuality, Google's decision probably has more to do with Tuesday's Gmail outage, which lasted for about two and a half hours. (The fact that both...
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Blu-ray might have won the high-definition (HD) disc format wars, but it still has a long way to go before it wins a place in our living rooms... If it ever does. In fact, physical media is seeing increasing competition for our eyeballs from Internet streaming and download sources, such as Netflix and Vudu. Further complicating matters is...
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Microsoft's latest gaming mouse, the SideWinder X8, is about to hit the physical store and virtual online shelves for an estimated price of $99.95. Microsoft originally announced the 4,000-dpi, wireless, Microsoft BlueTrack Technology-based, gaming mouse last September, and promised that it would be available by February 2009--it looks like...
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Arizona State University (ASU) announced today that its Flexible Display Center (FDC) has created what it claims is the first flexible, touch-screen display. The prototype is a thin active-matrix display with grayscale support, laid out on a "flexible, glass-free substrate." The display is capable of "real-time user input" via finger touch...
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Vudu, a movie and TV show download service provider, has just given us yet another reason why we never need to leave the house. Vudu announced today that it is making high-definition (HD) downloaded titles available for purchase. A number of online movie and TV show sources, such as Apple, Amazon, CinemaNow, as well as Vudu, currently offer...
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The numbers are in for Americans' TV and video consumption, and The Nielsen Company reports that our TV and video watching habits have reached new heights. Whether this is the natural progression of a long-standing trend, a byproduct of more people staying home because of the recession, or perhaps a combination of the two, Nielsen states that...
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If you ever have that nagging feeling that you are being watched, you might not be wrong. But with your watcher being 423 miles above you, you might have a hard time confirming your suspicions. And while being spied upon from such a distance may seem like not much detail can be realized, you might be in for a surprise--the GeoEye-1 Satellite,...
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Few gaming franchises have been as popular as id Software's Quake series has. For some time now, Quake fans have know about the pending release of the next Quake iteration, Quake Live. In fact, some lucky players have been fortunate enough to play the still-in-development game as they participated in id's closed-beta testing program. But in...
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A great debate is raging as to what the future of movie distribution will look like. On one side of the debate are those who claim that physical discs like DVDs, Blu-ray, and whatever format will eventually supplant Blu-ray, will always deliver a superior viewing experience than anything that will be available via streaming or on-demand...
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OCZ Technology's products gets covered a lot at HotHardware.com and on other enthusiast sites, as OCZ regularly churns out high-end system components, such as high-speed system memory, flash memory-based devices, power supply units, and CPU cooling solutions on a regular basis. With all these components devoted to speeding up the innards of...
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If you use your computer for watching TV shows and movies or listening to music--especially when this media is streaming to your PC from over the Internet--there is a good chance that you've at least heard of boxee, or perhaps you even use it. Boxee is a free, open-source, cross-platform, media center application that has quickly become very...
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Perhaps the second-most prevalent reason why people don't back up the data on their computers is that they think it is too difficult or time-consuming. (The main reason why users don't back up their data is that they don't realize that they should--until it's too late--but that's a discussion for another time.) If backing up was truly seamless,...
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