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Conceptual QWERTY Hard Keyboard For iPhone

Apple’s iPhone is famous for its multi-touch technology that enables quick function control using fingers scrolling. However, it doesn’t seems to be able to compete against keyboard based smartphones such as Blackberry when comes to speedy typing. And that is how the designer, Altamash Jiwani came out with a brilliant idea of having a conceptual QWERTY keyboard accessory tailored for iPhone design.



The keyboard is specifically designed and nicely fitted (conceptually) into iPhone body form factor with an extendable sliding keyboard at the bottom. When typing is needed, just slide it down and it is ready for use. Otherwise, just keep it in close position that will cover the only ‘Home’ button on your iPhone. To make it simple for use, the sleek and stylish keyboard can dock well to iPhone existing connector and without the need to manually control mode switching, it can be automatically changed between physical and its original virtual keyboard, making it easier for convenient use. That is not all, an external jack has been integrated that will allow phone charging directly.

However, it may be still too early to confirm if there is any plan to turn the concept into actual product, but obviously, this could be quite useful especially for those users that have always prefer to use the hard keyboard for speedy typing.


Source: MDL

Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W3 Digital Camera With HD 3D Movies Capture

FUJIFILM has announced the upcoming availability of its new 10 megapixel FinePix REAL 3D W3, which the corporation claims as the world’s first 3D digital camera complete with high-definition (720p) true 3D movies recording capability, thanks to its built-in twin 10 MP CCD image sensors and dual FUJINON 3x optical zoom lenses. The FinePix REAL 3D W3 is featured with a large 3.5-inch Autostereoscopic 3D widescreen LCD display, horizontal lens cover doubling as on/off switch, and mini HDMI 1.4 port for easy playback on a large 3D-capable TV.



“Last year, Fujifilm introduced the first real, complete solution for 3D digital photography, once again showing our commitment to the evolution of imaging technology,” commented Go Miyazaki, division president for Imaging and Electronic Imaging Divisions at FUJIFILM North America Corporation. “With the new FinePix REAL 3D W3 digital camera, we have made 3D imaging more accessible to all consumers, enabling them to shoot in 3D HD and making it easy to view their photos and movies on most 3D TV systems.”

Fujifilm FinePix REAL 3D W3 digital camera which measures 124 (W) x 65.9 (H) x 27.8 (D) mm and weights just 230 grams will be available by early September 2010 for about $500.


Source: MDL

MICROSOFT OFFICE 15 (2014). First Infos!

Leaked Office 15 / Office 2014 Screenshots and Details by Wzor.net from Russia. Wzor is very well know for it's leaks of First Class informations regarding new MS projects. The following is direct translation fron Wzor's Website:

Quote

Source: wzor

For those who like to enter that site, a login is required:

• Username: Ky!
  
• Password: Ky!

Mozilla to release Firefox beta 4 on Monday

Mozilla is planning on releasing Firefox beta 4 on Monday with two major new features: hardware-accelerated graphics for Windows users and tab sets, or better known as tab candy. Hardware-accelerated graphics done with Direct2D will not be turned on by default, as Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, sent a tweet stating "b4 won't have D2D on by default after all; just not quite ready to send it to that many users. soon!"

If you wish to enable Direct2D rendering, you can follow Mozilla's instructions on their wiki, which consists of this:

Type "about:config" into the URL bar, type in "gfx.font" in the Filter box, set "gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled" to true by double clicking. Then below that, right click and select New >> Integer, name it "mozilla.widget.render-mode" and set the value to 6 then restart the browser.

Code for Firefox 4 beta 4 is frozen and the release should be on Monday, August 23rd. A major goal for Mozilla for their next browser was speed. Enabling Direct2D hardware acceleration helps with the display of text and graphics, which if you follow the Internet Explorer 9 previews, Microsoft is already touting that feature and speed of their next browser.

Mozilla also had the goal of ultimate user friendliness by implementing tab sets, or as it was called early on, tab candy. Tab sets allow you to group your tabs together into different sets, such as "Work", "Research", "School", "Home", or anything you wish.

Firefox users will be able to look forward to one more beta after this which should be the last with new features. That beta will also consist of fixing any bugs that Mozilla has found along the way.


Source: neowin

Google opens the Chrome Web Store doors for devs

Google announced in May that they would be launching a web app store for their browser, Chrome, and Chrome OS. Today, the company announced that they are making a developer preview of the Chrome Web Store available. In a blog post, Google said "Developers can now start uploading apps and experiment with packaging them, installing them in Chrome...and integrating our payments and user authentication infrastructure". The store is reported to open up in October, but Google has neither confirmed nor denied that date.

The Chrome Web Store will eventually become a replacement for the Chrome extensions gallery, and will work quite like it as well. Available offerings in the store will be extensions, browser themes, and a new category, "installable web apps." These new web apps will work mostly like web apps currently do, however since they are integrated with the browser this could allow more OS incorporation than traditional web apps have had, or even Mozilla's Prism had.

Google's new store will feature both paid and free web applications. For developers who wish to charge, Google will take a five percent cut of all app sales. For reference, Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all app sales, so developers will jump for joy at that bit of information. Google will add a 30 cent per transaction fee and a one-time registration fee of $5 For Chrome Web Store's developer preview, anything that you create will only be visible to you. Everything will be hidden from other developers.

If you are a developer you can go ahead and try out the preview here. Google has a video detailing the store more here:




Source: neowin

40 Windows apps affected by critical security flaw, researcher claims

A Texas-based researcher claimed he had discovered that about 40 different Windows apps, including the Windows shell, suffer from a critical vulnerability that could open up users to attacks by hackers. The flaw was originally discovered in iTunes for Windows, and was patched by Apple four months ago with iTunes 9.1.
Rapid7 chief security officer HD Moore detailed his findings to Computerworld in an interview on Wednesday. He said a wide range of applications are affected, and it was found while looking into another flaw involving Windows shortcuts, which Microsoft patched in an emergency update.
The flaw exists in how the programs handle malformed DLLs. While the methods to trigger the hole differ slightly from application to application, execution causes the hole to open which allows the hacker to execute arbitrary code and/or install malware on the infected machine.
Apple said at the time that the issue only affected Windows versions of iTunes, and not the Mac. Since Mac OS X does not use DLL files, the attack does not work on that operating system. There is no reason to believe that a similar flaw exists on that platform, either.
A single patch from Microsoft will not fix the problem: Moore said that each application would have to be patched on its own. He also would not disclose the names of those applications affected in order to prevent any attacks from occurring.
Users concerned with this vulnerability should block outbound TCP ports 139 and 445, as well as disabling the WebDAV client. This was a similar suggestion given to users as a workaround if they could not install the update to patch the shortcut vulnerability.
It is not immediately clear why the issue affects so many applications, or what these applications may share in terms of development that could give clues to its origin. So far, those working on the flaw have stayed quiet, leaving only speculation as to what may be the cause.


Source: BetaNews

Toshiba's hard drive breakthough could herald mega-capacity drives

Toshiba said Wednesday that it had made a breakthrough in hard disk design that will allow hard drives to have much higher capacities than what is currently possible today. The research is in something called bit-patterned media, a magnetic storage technology.
The recording surface is broken up into tiny magnetic bits, each of which can hold a single bit of data. The bits are made up of several grains, which are organized in rows. This organization is what makes it possible for data to be found easily.
Current technologies require the data to be spread across a broader section of the disk, requiring hundreds of magnetic grains to store bits of data. However this technology is reaching its upper limits, requiring drive manufacturers to look for new ways to store data.
Bit-patterned drives could hold some 2.5 terabits of data on every square inch of recordable space. Contrast this with the highest densities that Toshiba has currently been able to squeeze out of current technologies -- 541 gigabits -- and the company's breakthrough seems even more stunning.
Such a breakthrough would mean a current standard 3.5-inch HDD could hold at least 8 terabytes of data, far above the current limits of 2 and 3 terabytes. The technology is still a good ways off though: Toshiba doesn't expect the drives to hit the market until 2013.
A lot of work still remains. The company has yet to be able to read or write data to the prototype drives it has made, although it has been able to detect a track. That track detection is important though: it is the first step towards making the technology usable.
The announcement was made at the Magnetic Recording Conference, underway this week in San Diego. While Toshiba's competitors, such as Seagate and Western Digital, are working on bit-patterned drives, they claim the technology is far from becoming a standard.
Instead, those companies are working on competing technologies, such as single magnetic recording and heat-assisted magnetic recording -- despite the fact that there too questions remain as to their viability and cost-effectiveness.


Source: BetaNews

Intel seeks to change cybersecurity with $7.6B McAfee acquisition

Intel Corporation Thursday morning announced that it will acquire security software and management company McAfee Inc. for $7.68 billion in cash. Intel says the move reflects the changing security climate as more non-PC devices connect to the Internet, like cars, TVs, and medical equipment.
"With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of Internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences." Intel says there needs to be "a fundamentally new approach involving software, hardware and services," for the increasingly connected world.
McAfee shared that sentiment in a statement to investors on Thursday:
"The current cybersecurity model isn't extensible across the proliferating spectrum of devices -- providing protection to a heterogeneous world of connected devices requires a fundamentally new approach to security. Frankly, the industry needed a paradigm shift -- incremental improvements simply couldn't bridge the opportunity gap. McAfee and Intel Corporation are joining forces to tackle this next generation cybersecurity issue which impacts everyone and anything connecting to the Internet."
While it sounds like the companies are planning a major change to the current security model, it is still unclear what it will mean to McAfee's portfolio of intellectual property after it becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel.


Source: BetaNews