Items tagged with can
The greatest name in sound? The only name in sound? Yeah, something like that. Whatever Bose's slogan happens to be these days, the company is doing itself proud by introducing yet another glorified set of cans designed to help you tune out mortar fire and crumbling buildings, not to mention airplane noise and rowdy children.Dubbed the "quietest Bose headphones ever," the fresh QuietComfort 15 acoustic noise-cancelling headphones are said to be the company's best performing, ever. While details are scant on the product itself, Bose tells us that the QC 15s "offer more attenuation in louder environments and across a wider range of frequencies -- without compromising the audio quality and comfortable...
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It should be common sense that electronic devices can cause interference with other electronic devices (remember the old pacemaker / microwave problem?). After all, an earlier study about RFID tags interfering with medical devices has been released, and a new study released on Sunday shows that headphones might throw off pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) when placed within an inch of the medical devices. The presentation, titled Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) of Implanted Cardiac Devices by MP3 Player Headphones was shown at the American Heart Association's annual scientific sessions in New Orleans on Sunday. It took a look at the possible interaction between the...
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Many techs will agree: antivirus programs can be a hassle. Mostly, the issues tend to stem from slower performance and similar issues that result from using an antivirus program. Still, it’s a bit of a lesser of two evils deal: you can risk getting a virus, or you can deal with lags in performance. Usually, you can count on well-known antivirus programs to only touch malicious files, but this isn’t always the case.AVG, a free antivirus scanner, recently created problems for some of its users when it mistook user32.dll, a critical Windows component, for a container for the Trojan Horses PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN. When the scanner activated, it assumed this critical file was a virus and deleted...
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ASUS and Sam’s Club Canada Join Forces to Deliver Green Computing to Canada-- World’s first bamboo notebook to be sold exclusively at Sam’s Club Canada -- Fremont, California (November 10, 2008) – ASUS, a world leader in the notebook design and one of the fastest growing notebook brands, today announced that Sam’s Club Canada will give eco-friendly Canadians a chance to purchase a limited number of ASUS’ highly-anticipated U6V bamboo notebook. The partnership is a “win” for ASUS, Sam’s Club Canada, and consumers, as it allows ASUS to expand its market presence further into Canada, and gives Sam’s Club Canada and its Members access to an exquisite, environmentally-friendly notebook that truly...
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Aha, here's a Gmail Labs option that we don't need to joke about. The last one, Mail Goggles (we don't know about anyone else, but we keep typing Mail Googles) we felt was worthy of an April Fool's Day launch. But this one could be pretty useful.It's called "Canned Responses." To access it, go into your Settings, then Labs, and scroll down a little until you see the above, and enable it.Once enabled, as you see above, you get a new option when composing email. You can save the email body you are currently typing as a "Canned Response," that can be selected when emailing someone.Or, even better, you can create a filter that might send back a "Canned Response" to someone based on a set of parameters....
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Obviously all the extra searches and scans at airports which have followed 9/11 mean that getting through an airport has become a marathon process. One such part of an airport visit may be reduced in duration, thanks to technology.It all began with Richard Reid. Reid was arrested on December 22, 2001 for attempting to destroy a Boeing 767 on American Airlines Flight 63, a flight from Paris, Charles De Gaulle International Airport to Miami International Airport, USA, by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes. And since then, examining shoes has become a constant at not just airports, but at some courthouses and other secure facilities.Israel has introduced a step-on scanner...
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Just a reminder everyone--tomorrow October 6, 2008 is the last day for entries into the Tech Makeover giveaway! Contest details are below!Is there someone in your life insisting that technology, like a fine wine, only improves with age? Are you carrying a cell phone the size of a brick or trying to surf the net on a computer that fills an entire room? Do your mom or dad print your e-mails and reply by phone? Is your best friend the only person you know who still listens to cassettes on a boom box or watches movies on Betamax?Do you need a tech makeover? Does someone you know need one?Intel invites you to submit your story or nominate someone you love for a chance to win a $5,000 tech makeover...
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There's nothing like a little light reading to help pass the time on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The folks over at Crave have posted an article entitled, "The 50 most significant moments of Internet history". Unfortunately, they don't have the days we launched our video channel or when we gave away a fully loaded Skulltrail rig, but we'll forgive them..."Back in 1995, Time magazine published a cover story called 'On A Screen Near You'. It highlighted the results of an 18-month Carnegie Mellon University study (with the dated title 'Marketing Pornography on the Information Superhighway') that looked at how much porn there was on the Net. And as demonstrated by the magazine's cover image of a shocked...
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So just how did the Yahoo! email account of Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, get hacked? It wasn't by brute force, or because the password was obvious (like if she used her own name, Palin). No, it was social engineering that done her in. According to hackers posting to the /b/ board (or Random board) at 4chan.org, they didn't hack her password, they reset it. Using the Yahoo! Mail option to reset or recover one's user name and password (above), they were able to reset her password. As she is a public figure, determining her birthday --- no problem. Zip code? Only two of them in Alaska. And her secret question, the one she set up? "Where did you meet your spouse?" It took the hackers...
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There was a time when many people would have bet on Gateway to become the largest direct retailer of computers in America, instead of Dell. They even opened up a few boutique retail outlets along the way. They had a funky vibe going with their black and white cow-spotted boxes, and the future seemed very bright indeed. That future never materialized, and Gateway was acquired by Acer last year for a comparatively modest $710 million. Now Gateway has completely ended the business model that put them on the map: Direct Sales. “We believe that our retail and e-tail partners offer consumers the best, easiest and most effective way to purchase Gateway products,” said...
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You may recall the case of Sebastien Boucher? He was stopped in 2006 while crossing the U.S. - Canadian border and charged with transporting child pornography on his laptop across the border. Unfortunately for the prosecutors, the data on the laptop is encrypted, and he now refuses to enter the necessary password to allow access to the files. Additionally, a judge ruled late last year that he could not be compelled to reveal the password.Based on this ruling, and the recent policies enacted by the Department of Homeland Security, might we see more interest in disk encryption? A pair of DHS policies from last month say that customs agents can routinely--as a matter of course--seize,...
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The Antikythera Mechanism was salvaged out of a shipwreck in 1900. It's the original HotHardware -- the first known example of an analog computing device. Scientists estimated it was made in 100 BC. Researchers are still trying to find out exactly what the device can do, and identify who might have made it, but according to an article in the journal Nature, newly deciphered markings on the crusty old thing's dials suggest it was likely made in Syracuse, a Sicilian city that was then a colony of the Greek city of CorinthThe mechanism’s connection with the Corinthians was unexpected, the researchers said, because other cargo in the shipwreck appeared to be from the eastern Mediterranean, places...
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A judge has sided with Blizzard in its lawsuit against the maker of a third-party leveling-app, Michael Donnelly of MDY Industries, which sells the WoWGlider (or MMO Glider) utility for $25.U.S. District Judge David Campbell ruled that because using the Glider 'bot is prohibited by Blizzard's World of Warcraft license, "Glider users therefore infringe Blizzard's copyright."He did, however, reject part of Blizzard's attempts to invoke the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's controversial anti-circumvention sections against Donnelly. (The DMCA follows a parallel track to traditional copyright law, meaning it's possible to infringe a copyright without violating the DMCA too.) The case is relatively...
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Nintendo's Wii console game is an interesting piece of technology, and a fascinating business phenomenon as well. While Nintendo's competitors produced consoles as powerful and versatile as they could, charged a small fortune for them, and still didn't make much money on them, the Wii concentrated on simple, fun, intuitive gameplay, introduced an innovative controller, and made money hand over fist even though they had the cheapest console. But let's face it. The minute you saw that controller, everybody had the same idea: I want a lightsaber! LucasArts has finally decided to make themselves and Nintendo even richer, and all of us living room Jedis happy, with Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber...
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Two lawsuits mean a small credit ($45) will be due to Canadian owners of older iPods: first-, second- or third-generation iPods purchased before June 24, 2004.Apple agreed to a settlement covering both claims. The deal has to be finalized in court in Montreal on May 26 and in Toronto on June 20.As many as 80,000 Canadians could be eligible, including 11,310 Quebecers, said Montreal lawyer Philippe Trudel, who represented Lenzi.A Toronto firm that handles public relations for Apple Canada did not return a call yesterday.The $45 offer is considerably less than the amount sought by the Montreal plaintiff. Lenzi initially asked for $137.77 from Apple for a replacement battery, plus shipping and handling,...
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The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign is a hotbed of high-tech research these days. They've recently demonstrated a process for "growing" upright copper nanowires on surfaces made from a wide array of materials. These nanowires could be used to make Field-Emission Displays, brighter and sharper than existing flat panel displays, by using the nanowires to shoot electrons at phosphor particles on a screen. The copper nanowires are suitable for use in FEDs because they are uniform and have a very pointed tip. "The smaller the tip size the stronger the electric field," Kim says. "That is why even with a very small voltage...they will become very efficient electron emitters."...
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If looks could kill? Or rather, now looks can kill, at least in video games.Technology is being developed to allow people with severe motor disabilities to play 3D computer games like World of Warcraft using only their eyes.Since the 1990s, gaze technology has helped people with conditions such as motor neurone disease (MND), cerebral palsy and other "locked-in syndromes" to control 2D desktop environments and communicate using visual keyboards.Users typically guide a cursor with their eyes, staring at objects for a time to emulate a mouse click. But that is too laborious to let users to match the speed and accuracy of real-time 3D games, says lead researcher on the project, Stephen Vickers,...
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Hopefully you read that title the way Steve Ballmer probably meant to say it on Thursday. You know, emphasis on the "HAVE" in a sarcastic way. Although we're sure he didn't say it that way, he probably wanted to.Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer offered a glimmer of hope on Thursday to fans of the company's Windows XP operating system, saying the company may reconsider its decision to stop selling it soon.But Ballmer was adamant that most people who buy PCs today buy them with XP's successor, Vista."That's the statistical truth," he told reporters at a news conference at Louvain-La-Neuve University. "If customer feedback varies, we can always wake up smarter."We hope they wake up soon, period. ...
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The proposed cyber-attack against CNN has been called off, but it probably just goes to prove their initial point regarding basic rights issues such as freedom of speech & freedom of the press. If you haven't followed the story up until now, here's a little background:"Pro-China hackers had called for the attack in protest of the news network's coverage of Tibet, which they believe has been overly critical of China. Participants had been instructed to flood CNN's Web site with Internet traffic in hopes of knocking it offline, something known as a distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack."Some hackers even jumped the gun and started a little early. The net result was that CNN's web site...
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The end may be near for Windows as we know it, according to research firm Gartner:"Because Microsoft Windows is so large and complex, covering 20 years of legacy code, it can no longer adequately respond to market forces, and Windows needs to be securely redesigned, said Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald. They delivered the news at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008 in Las Vegas this week."We’re not entirely sure that this is the case just yet, but we could certainly see the argument for this happening eventually. So the question then would be, what will have to happen?Will MS eventually write a whole new version of Windows and include some legacy support via emulation, much...
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Now that HD-DVD is out of the way, is it possible for Sony to garner a 50% share vs. DVD? Sony seems to think so.Maybe that price cut in Blu-ray players is coming sooner than we think because Digitimes is reporting that Sony has set some very ambitious goals for Blu-ray in 2008. And by ambitious I'm talking a 50-50 split with DVD.The short article, which carries the headline, "Sony looks to 50% global market share for its Blu-ray products in 2008," says that "Sony will offer Blu-ray Disc (BD) devices in a wide range of product lines and prices and aims to increase the global market share of its BD products from 20 percent currently to 50 percent by the end of 2008." If Sony would reduce...
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Good question, isn't it? Although Microsoft has listed a set of drivers that will prevent you from being offered SP1, it's not always clear why a user can't get it.The service pack is being withheld from machines containing one or more of the listed drivers, because, as Microsoft put it in a support document, "these device drivers are problematic on Windows Vista-based computers when you update to Windows Vista SP1."That made an industry analyst wonder about Microsoft's driver-testing process. "When Microsoft said there were problems with drivers, I assumed it was some odd scanner or camera, or an ancient printer or something," said Michael Cherry, analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a...
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