Sunday, August 19, 2007

Introduction to iPhone's

Image courtesy Apple
The Apple iPhone.
See more iPhone pictures.

In January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPhone during his keynote address at the Macworld Conference and Expo. In its first appearance onscreen and in Jobs's hand, the phone looked like a sleek but inanimate black rectangle.

Then, Jobs touched the screen. Suddenly, the featureless rectangle became an interactive surface. Jobs placed a fingertip on an on-screen arrow and slid it from left to right. When his finger moved, the arrow moved with it, unlocking the phone. To some people, this interaction between a human finger and an on-screen image -- and its effect on the iPhone's behavior -- was more amazing than all of its other features combined.

And those features are plentiful. In some ways, the iPhone is more like a palmtop computer than a cellular phone. As with many smartphones, you can use it to make and receive calls, watch movies, listen to music, browse the Web, and send and receive e-mail and text messages. You can also take pictures with a built-in camera, import photos from your computer and organize them all using the iPhone's software. Although it's not a turn-by-turn GPS receiver, the iPhone also lets you view map and satellite data from Google Maps, including overlays of nearby businesses.

A modified version of the Macintosh OS X operating system, also used on Apple desktop and laptop computers, lets you interact with all of these applications. It displays icons for each application on the iPhone's screen. It also manages battery power and system security. The operating system synchs the phone with your computer, a process that requires a dock much like the one used to synch an iPod. It also lets you multitask and move through multiple open applications, just like you can on a laptop or desktop computer.

The Apple iPhone vs. the Cisco iPhone
When Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007, it quickly got the attention of computer technology company Cisco. Cisco was already using the iPhone name on a range of VoIP products and services. Cisco filed a lawsuit, but the two companies eventually reached an agreement with undisclosed terms in February 2007. The agreement allows both companies to use the iPhone name.

But instead of using a mouse or a physical keyboard, the iPhone uses virtual buttons and controls that appear on its screen. This isn't really a new phenomenon -- touch screens have been part of everything from self-checkout kiosks to smartphones for years. But the iPhone's touch-screen is a little different from many of the others currently on the market. When you touch the screen on a PDA or a Nintendo DS, you typically use a slender, pointed stylus. The iPhone, on the other hand, requires you to use your fingers. It can also detect multiple touch points simultaneously, which many existing touch-screens cannot do.

This article will explore exactly how the iPhone's touch-screen carries instructions from your fingertips to the phone's internal circuitry. We'll also look at the iPhone's features, its hardware and how it compares to smartphones and other electronic devices.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

WARNING SIGNS OF AN INTERNET ATTACK

Warning Signs of an Internet Attack

Online crooks are constantly switching tactics in an attempt to invade your PC. Be on guard for these latest sneaky tricks.

1 of 9

Internet Threat Protection Guide

Internet attacks have become a business. And as with any business, the product must be ever-changing in attempting to entice you. But where a slick legit ad campaign might sway you into buying a gadget you don't really need, these social engineering techniques try to trick you into infecting your computer with malware you surely don't want. Look through these images of some of the latest tricks from malware pushers and phishers so that you can keep your most important security tool--you--up-to-date. And if you receive any of these messages, be sure not to click any links in them or follow their instructions.

HDMI EXTENDER

HDMI 'Extreme' Extender Uses Cat 5 Cables

Gefen's HDMI CAT-5 MS Extreme lets you put your display or projector up to 300 feet away from an HDMI source, such as an Apple TV or set-top box.

Peter Cohen, Macworld

Tuesday, July 03, 2007 12:00 PM PDT

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Gefen’s new HDMI CAT-5 MS Extreme enables users to put up to 300 feet between a high definition video source and its display, using industry-standard category 5 network cabling. It costs $549 and is now available for pre-order.

The HDMI CAT-5 MS Extreme consists of a sender unit and receiver unit; both plug in together using two cat-5 cables. The sender then plugs into a High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)-equipped source, such as an Apple TV, set-top box or other device, and the receiver plugs into an HDTV. The system is fully compliant with High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP).

The system is capable of sending a 1080i signal up to 300 feet, according to Gefen, or it can send a 1080p signal up to 150 feet. It also sends digital audio to the extended display or projector, without any signal loss or delay.

LOW-END HIGH-DEF DVR

TiVo Announces Low-End High-Def DVR

TiVo HD holds up to 20GB of high-def programming, will sell for about $300.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007 7:00 AM PDT

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo Inc. introduced a trimmed-down, less expensive version of its digital video recorder for high-definition televisions on Tuesday, hoping to spur mainstream demand 10 months after a pricey first foray was received coolly.

The company said its TiVo HD model, capable of recording up to 20 hours of high-resolution TV signals, would sell for about $300, starting in August.

That contrasts with the nearly $800 price tag of its TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder, which holds about 30 hours of HD programming and has more high-end audio and video features.

Still, both models are expensive for a cable set-top box, a device that many consumers receive for a negligible monthly fee from their cable or satellite TV provider.

TiVo is aiming to differentiate itself from digital recorder services offered by cable operators, even as it seeks to land more cable distribution deals. Monthly fees for TiVo's service are generally higher than its rivals, but it offers many unique Web-related and home networking features, such as being able to control TiVo from a mobile phone.

Jim Denny, vice president of product marketing for TiVo said he was unsure if TiVo was building new Series3 boxes, but believes existing inventory should keep the device available through the start of 2008.

4-PORT AUTOMATIC HDMI SWITCH

Iogear Offers 4-Port Automatic HDMI Switch

Iogear is now offering a four-port automatic HDMI switch for $189.95.

Peter Cohen, Macworld

Monday, July 30, 2007 12:00 PM PDT

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Iogear on Monday introduced a new four-port automatic HDMI switch, for consumers with more than one High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)-equipped peripheral but only one input in their home entertainment system. It costs $189.95.

HDMI is used on the Apple TV and is increasing popular as a way to connect devices capable of displaying HDTV signals. However, the rapid proliferation of HDMI-equipped devices is outpacing the availability of reasonably priced HDMI-equipped receivers.

The Iogear switch lets you select up to four different HDMI sources using a wireless universal remote. It's High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP)-compliant and supports 1080p resolution. LEDs on the front of the display show you which HDMI device is being used.

HDTV TECHNOLOGIES WORTH WAITING FOR

Two HDTV Technologies Worth Waiting For

LED backlighting and 120-Hz refresh rates are coming to mainstream HDTVs like the ones Samsung showed off this week.

Eric Dahl and Melissa J. Perenson, PC World

Friday, July 27, 2007 6:00 AM PDT

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If you're planning an HDTV purchase this fall (or looking ahead to one this winter), keep an eye out for two emerging technologies. 1080p is now everywhere, LCD HDTVs are taking over, and 40-inch displays are evolving into the new sweet spot. But new sets slated for this fall and winter are will be among the first mainstream displays to incorporate several new technologies that can significantly improve picture quality.

Samsung, for example, recently showed off its latest lines of LCD HDTVs due out in August. One line sports a 120-Hz refresh rate--double the 60 Hz of standard LCD TVs--which makes for sharper fast-moving images. Another line uses LED backlights, which dramatically boost contrast and allow for a wider range of colors.

Both technologies should be available from a wide variety of vendors this fall, including LG Electronics, Philips, and Sharp. And as these enhancements make their way into more and more TVs, the price difference between standard LCD TVs and these newer models should shrink rapidly. Here's a look at Samsung's plans for 120-Hz HDTVs and LED backlighting, and why you might want to wait for a television that makes use of either technology.

120-Hz Displays

Momentum behind 120 Hz has been building since early this year. JVC was among the first vendors to ship a 120-Hz display, and Sharp's Aquos D82U and D92U series televisions began shipping back in February. This summer, Philips, LG, and Samsung all announced their respective 120-Hz technologies, with products coming by this fall.

At 120 Hz, the television's refresh rate is double the previous standard rate for displaying video content. By doing so, it can smooth out any residual motion blur that results from fast-moving action found in such content as sports and a scrolling news ticker on the bottom of the screen. Video content is filmed at 30 frames per second, which means such content is best shown at 60 Hz or 120 Hz.

Samsung showed a split-screen demonstration of its 120-Hz technology at an event here in San Francisco, with one side showing the 120-Hz technology, and the other side showing 60 Hz. The difference between the two was noticeable: At 120 Hz, the ticker moved more smoothly and fast-moving video appeared sharper.

The 71 series displays that Samsung is launching in August use a technology called McFi--short for Motion Compensated Frame Interpolation--to create new interpolated video frames and insert them between each frame of video to smooth out fast motion. Samsung's technology looks for any movement, then it creates an average of those movements to insert a frame in between them. Other HDTV makers insert a black frame in between frames, an approach Samsung claims fixes the motion-blur issue, but degrade the panel's brightness.

LED Backlighting

If you're less concerned about fast-moving images, a display with an LED backlight may be more to your liking. The big advantage to LED-backlit TVs is improved contrast ratio. Samsung says its 81 series of displays can automatically adjust the backlight for specific parts of the picture, depending upon the source content. This allows the display to achieve deeper blacks and crisper whites than can be achieved with the Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp technology (CCFL) traditionally used by LCD HDTVs.

In CCFL, the tubes light up the back of the display; those tubes can be all on, or all off, and they allow some degree of light leakage. But LED backlighting allows a greater degree of control, which enables Samsung to claim a dynamic contrast ratio of 100,000:1, a four times improvement over its CCFL displays.

Price Premiums

While 120-Hz displays won't be that much more expensive than standard 1080p displays are today, you will pay a premium for an LED backlit display. The 40-inch model in Samsung's 120-Hz 71 series line should retail for $2699 when it ships in August, for example, while Samsung's 40-inch LED backlit model from the 81 series will go for $2999.

At least with TVs in that price range, other key HDTV technologies have become standard. A year ago, 1080p resolutions were still a rarity--and available in to higher-end models only. As we head into the fall, 1080p is de rigueur on HDTVs at sizes of 40 inches and up. Samsung, for example, will have only three non-1080p models going forward in that size range. HDMI 1.3 is also getting more pervasive across a wide spectrum of LCD (and for that matter, plasma) displays.

Leaked Vista Hotfix Packs Now Official

You may now download two Windows Vista updates that had leaked to the Internet at the end of July. No word on when they reach Windows Update.

Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Wednesday, August 08, 2007 10:00 AM PDT

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Microsoft Corp. Tuesday released the two Windows Vista updates that had leaked to the Internet at the end of July, but won't say when it will begin pushing them to users via Windows Update.

Pegged as performance and reliability packs, the pair install a long list of non-security bug fixes, among them speed improvements to wake-from-hibernation, a patch that eliminates the long wait to calculate the time it will take to copy or move large directories, and several that target compatibility glitches with video drivers.

Microsoft even described one of the quashed bugs with the vague but ominous-sounding: "The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations."

All of the fixes, said the company, are new to Vista, and do not replace any existing updates. Users must restart their computer after each update is installed.

The performance update, designated KB938979, weighs in at nearly 10MB, and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. The accompanying support document is also available.

Vista's reliability update, KB938194, is petite by comparison -- just 2.1MB. It's also now available for downloading, and has a KnowledgeBase document that spells out changes.

Previews of the now-official updates had leaked to the Web at the end of July, fueling speculation that they were connected to the highly-anticipated Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), and might even be harbingers of SP1's release. A day later, July 31, a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that the hotfix packs would end up in user's hands "in the near future," but declined to answer questions about any link to SP1.

The company did recently confirm, however, that it has released preview code for Vista SP1 -- as well as the same for the long-delayed Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) -- to small invite-only groups of testers. But it would not say when the updates to each operating system will release in final versions.

Vista SP1, which Microsoft has so far committed only to provide in beta "sometime this year," has consistently been downplayed by the company, to the point of stifling talk of the security rollup. Many corporations, on the other hand, appear to be waiting for SP1 before deploying the new OS.

Windows XP SP3 has an even longer, and more troubled, history. Last October, Microsoft announced a delay of SP3, and pushed the release into the first half of 2008, more than a year after the retail release of Vista and about three-and-a-half years after SP2 appeared. Hints of XP SP3's progress were tucked into a status report filed with the federal judge overseeing the 2002 antitrust settlement struck between U.S. regulators and Microsoft, but details were slim. The report confirmed the existence of SP3 and said some code would be finalized in the summer of 2007, but did not specify either beta or final release dates.

Tuesday, in fact, a Microsoft spokesperson called the first-half 2008 date for SP3 "preliminary" and declined to disclose more details.

Microsoft did not respond today to queries about when the Vista performance and reliability updates would migrate to the company's automatic patching services, including Windows Update. Some bloggers and users have been betting that the hotfix packs will be offered up next Tuesday, the already-scheduled monthly patch day for Microsoft. But others have discounted that date, saying Microsoft would not overtax users or the automatic update systems with such large downloads.

Elizabeth Montalbano of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.