Written by Luke Ponio
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010 16:06 |
Web and Industry News
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People who wanted to make phone calls anonymously used to use pay phones. With pay phones being removed in most places and dirt cheap prepaid cellphones being available almost everywhere, it is only natural that people would start buying prepaid phones for disposable, anonymous use. The FBI has now endorsed legislation sponsored by Senators Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would require personal identification to be required at the point of sale for prepaid cellphones. FBI Director Robert Mueller has endorsed the bill for fighting terrorism and called it essential to the success of investigations.
Every day it seems like more and more of our privacy is being stripped away in the name of anti-terrorism. How exactly is the government going to know who purchased the cell phone at your local store? Are they going to require businesses to scan the personal identification and record it? This isn't like age checking with alcohol and tobacco. The government wants to keep track of the data. It is sad that because something is used for nefarious acts, restrictions are imposed upon everyone. Similar to gun control laws, the bad guys are still going to get their prepaid cell phones without ID or with fake ID. It is the rest of us that are going to be restricted.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010 15:49 |
Web and Industry News
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Firefox 4 Beta 2 is now available for download. The beta update includes some of these new features from the previous Beta 1:
The biggest feature of the update is the addition of "App Tabs" which open every time you open a browser window and take up less room than a tab. You also can't accidentally close them. This is great for things like webmail and streaming radio services that you might like to have off to the side while doing other browsing. When the feature is complete it will be persistent across browsing sessions.
Remember that all your add-ons still might not work right away. If you have something that you want the Firefox dev team to know about make sure you use the feedback button to the right of the navigation bar. A full set of release notes can be found on the Firefox 4 Beta 2 release notes page.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010 15:22 |
Affiliate News
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First half of the week is over. Here are some reviews that have been posted so far.
Case
Thermaltake Armor A90 Review @ HardwareLogic
Enermax Volcanus Case Review @ Hardware Secrets
ProlimaTech Super Mega Heatsink CPU Cooler @ Benchmark Reviews
Cooler Master HAF-X Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
Antec DF-30 Dark Fleet Computer Case @ Benchmark Reviews
Corsair Obsidian 700D Case Review @ HardwareHeaven.com
NZXT Phantom @ PureOverclock
Silverstone Sugo SG07 Review @ KitGuru
Cooling
Thermaltake Frio @ techPowerUp
Spire TherMax Eclipse II Cooler Review @ KitGuru
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Sunday, 25 July 2010 21:11 |
Cooling
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Scythe's latest towering heatsink has been put to the test at InsaneTek. It has a different design than its predecessor with more fins and heatpipes. Will it be enough to improve over its older brother? Read more to find out.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Friday, 23 July 2010 14:29 |
Web and Industry News
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Arctic Cooling has launched a bunch of products over the past few months but it has been quite a while since they launched a product related to computer cooling. That has changed with the introduction of two new cooling products. The Silentium T11 PC case and Arctic HC01-TC hard drive cooler bring Arctic Cooling back to their roots. We reviewed the Silentium T1 case way back in 2005 and thought it was a good value and well-built besides a lackluster included power supply. The T11 doesn't include a power supply and is priced affordably at $59.95 MSRP. The case comes in black or white and sports two 120mm fans, front USB/audio ports, steel construction, and tool-free installation.
The Arctic HC01-TC hard drive cooler fits in a 5.25" drive bay and is compatible with 3.5" SATA hard drives. A 40mm temperature-controlled fan provides cooling for the hard drive. Most of the time the fan remains silent but when the thermal probe detects temperatures above 47C it will speed up to 4600 RPM from 1600 RPM. There is also foam inside the cooler to eliminate vibration for noise reduction. The HC01-TC MSRP is $22.95.
Read more for pictures.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Friday, 23 July 2010 14:00 |
Affiliate News
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There was a huge amount of reviews released this week. Unfortunately I couldn't do a daily post but here they all are in one giant package. Click read more to see them all.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 15:24 |
Web and Industry News
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Remember that Xbox Live project where Windows Live PC gamers could play with their console friends and everyone could happily frag each other in a Microsoft gaming utopia? Well you might not remember since according to Rahul Sood, founder of Voodoo PC and CTO of HP's gaming division, it was a secret project that didn't pan out like it was supposed to. The reason why the plan failed? Console gamers can't match up to PC gamers.
Some people argue skill and others argue input device but nevertheless, during development, Microsoft pitted the best console gamers against some mediocre PC gamers and the console players got destroyed every single time. Unreal and Gears of War are mentioned as some of the games tested. So thanks to Microsoft it is now a fact that PC gamers are better than console gamers.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 14:34 |
Web and Industry News
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ADATA is the first to launch a Solid State Drive based on the JMicron JMF616 controller. The S596 Turbo SSD has a SATA II and mini-usb interface for flexibility and can be used as portable storage or as a main system drive. The S596 Turbo has a DDR2 128M cache buffer and JMicron's JMF616 controller chip that enables the SSD to read at 260MB/s and write at up to 210MB/s. Those speeds are 20% higher than the older S596 model. The S596 Turbo's firmware supports Windows 7 TRIM command for fast boot times. For reliability, the new JMicron controller has increased stability over former models and static wear-leveling technology extends the drive's life. The S596 Turbo is available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities and is backed by a 3-year warranty.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Tuesday, 20 July 2010 14:58 |
Web and Industry News
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Redbox is devising an internet strategy to compete with Netflix. Redbox only has about 200 titles in each of its approximately 24,000 DVD rental kiosks and an internet streaming service would allow them to increase that catalog and attract more business.
Netflix currently has over 100,000 titles available by mail and 20,000 by internet. In order to compete, it is necessary for Redbox to have some type of online presence. President of Redbox, Mitch Lowe, said in an interview with Bloomberg that Redbox is losing business to Netflix as consumers try to find older titles.
Redbox will face stiff competition from not only Netflix, but Apple, Best Buy, Sears, and Wal-Mart too. There is little detail about what Redbox plans to do on the web. Will it go with a subscription plan or pay per view? If Redbox can get online rentals down to their physical disc price of $1 per night it might be on to something.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Tuesday, 20 July 2010 14:33 |
Web and Industry News
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Microsoft has released official prices for their newest Kinect product and a new Xbox 360 model with 4GB of storage. The Kinect will be bundled with "Kinect Adventures" and sell for $149. A new Xbox 360 SKU with 4GB of flash storage and integrated Wi-Fi N will be bundled with a Kinect device and "Kinect Adventures" for $299. You can buy the 4GB Xbox 360 for $199 without the Kinect bundle. There will be 15 Kinect games at launch including "Kinectimals," "Kinect Sports," Kinect Joy Ride", and "Dance Central" for $49.99 each. You can pre-order the Kinect now and buy a 4GB Xbox 360 by itself on August 3rd.
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Written by Luke Ponio
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Friday, 16 July 2010 18:03 |
Web and Industry News
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Apple announced a remedy to the iPhone 4 antenna debacle today at an iPhone 4 press conference. Everyone who orders or has already ordered an iPhone 4 can get a free iPhone 4 bumper until September 30. Anyone that has bought a bumper before the announcement can receive a refund. If you don't like the iPhone 4 you can get a full refund within 30 days of purchase.
AppleCare figures show complaints about the antenna problem are at 0.55 percent of iPhone users. Although large amounts of iPhone 4 owners might not be complaining, Apple obviously doesn't like the negative press. Unfortunately, Apple can't make enough bumpers for every iPhone 4 so Apple will find some other cases that also remedy the problem and give users a choice to pick which one they want. iPhone 4 owners will be able to apply for a free case late next week.
If you have been following Consumer Reports non-recommendation of the iPhone 4, this announcement hasn't changed anything.
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