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13 Sep 2010 10:55

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World: Russian cops use Microsoft software as vector for raids

  • bad Russian police have been raiding various organizations such as NGOs and newspapers not faithful to the state.
  • worse They’ve been doing it under the guise of looking for unauthorized Microsoft software on their computers.
  • worser The computers often weren’t even looked at before or after they were confiscated. How sketchy is that? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Jul 2010 21:11

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Tech: The Library of Congress made iPhone jailbreakers’ collective days

  • yes They’re now allowing people to legally jailbreak their spiffy phones without fear of retribution. iPhone users win.
  • no That doesn’t mean Apple has to make it easy for you to jailbreak it. They can still void your warranty.
  • yes They’ve also made cracking and ripping DVDs totally legal, and expanded unlocking rights. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Jul 2010 11:35

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Tech: Apple’s stance on the antenna thing: The signal bars are a lie!

  • We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising. Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong.
  • A press release from Apple • Explaining what they think is causing the real problem with the iPhone’s reception (kinda). It’s not the reception itself that’s bad, they say, but the way it was presented. Engadget explained a little of what was happening yesterday. Basically, the levels at which it displays five bars are much higher than where it displays four bars, but everything else is at a fairly similar level. We’re guessing this doesn’t explain everything, and it’s not going to completely placate iPhone users. Give them all bumpers! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 Apr 2010 21:21

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Tech: Nerds come up with new definitions for the word “hypocrisy”

  • That being said, Jobs’ letter is incredibly two-faced, hypocritical, and very misleading. It’s clearly a marketing trick to pull the wool over the eyes of consumers, and while that’s okay (they’re in it to make money, after all), it’s our job to remove that wool from our eyes.
  • OSNews blogger Thom Holwerda • In a response to the Apple vs. Flash saga that has been chewing up most of the online attention today. He points out that Apple has been slow moving some of its software to the Cocoa platform (which Jobs criticized Adobe for being slow to do), Apple’s use of the H264 video codec (because it’s not really open, something Holwerda has covered at length), and the suckitude of iTunes. Despite Holwerda’s take, which has been getting a lot of attention due to the fact it’s harshly written, there’s been a debate about whether or not Jobs was actually hypocritical. Don’t think about this too hard; it’ll numb your brain. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Feb 2010 09:55

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Tech: Apple releases Aperture 3, photographers collectively freak out

  • Sure, it’s a product Steve Jobs doesn’t show off, but it doesn’t mean people still aren’t excited. The photo-editing tool, which is available as a free trial, reportedly has 200 enhancements big and small. It also hasn’t been updated in a couple of years. So it’s due. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Jan 2010 11:18

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Offbeat: Breakups with rich software execs more expensive, more public

  • mistress For eight and a half years, Oracle co-president Charles E. Phillips was cheating on his wife with YaVaughnie Wilkins. He almost got divorced, but never did.
  • breakup After Phillips broke up with Wilkins, Wilkins bought a bunch of billboards about their now-public relationship, complete with a Web site full of love letters. Ouch. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Dec 2009 21:35

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Tech: What piece of software is the most vulnerable? Firefox, of course!

  • 102 vulnerabilities were found in the slow, bloated (but good) Web browser
  • 45 vulnerabilities were found in Adobe Reader, which should scare you, PDF fans
  • 41 vulnerabilities were found in Microsoft Office, which is freaking obvious source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

15 Dec 2009 21:20

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Tech: Microsoft: Uh, yeah, we totally Plurked that code. Sorry.

  • The company blames a Chinese vendor for the theft. A day after basically getting emasculated by a small developer called Plurk, Microsoft admitted that some of the code for their new Chinese microblogging program, Juku, had been taken from the company. “In the wake of this incident, Microsoft and our MSN China joint venture will be taking a look at our practices around applications code provided by third-party vendors,” they said. Probably a good idea. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

20 Nov 2009 21:08

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Tech: Is Google’s Chrome OS really just Android OS with less paint?

  • It is easy to understand why Google wants to keep Chrome OS and Android separated in our minds: Chrome OS seems revolutionary, if a bit far-fetched. Android, by comparison, is the evolution of what are already doing.
  • PC World tech columnist David Coursey • Explaining the issue that rears its ugly head with Chrome OS – people don’t understand the difference between Google’s two operating systems. Coursey’s argument? Google is essentially selling the same thing twice, but Chrome OS does significantly less than Android OS does. Source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Oct 2009 20:31

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Tech: Google’s on a tear today thanks to Android and the Motorola Droid

  • $199 the cost of Motorola’s new Droid phone, which uses the Android 2.0 software officially launched today
  • -20% the drop in stock price for TomTom, whose GPS navigation software was just made obsolete by Android 2.0 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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