Asus Transformer Prime Tablet Review

Amplify’d from www.ubergizmo.com

The Asus Transformer Prime has finally landed, and it’s no wonder why it has been one of the most searched topics in the past couple of weeks: it a fabulous tablet and a concept that has come to maturity. If you haven’t seen it before, the Asus Eee Transformer Prime is the world’s first Tegra 3 powered quad-core tablet that can turn into a small laptop, thanks to a keyboard-dock accessory.

The story is good, but it gets better: the keyboard virtually doubles the already long battery life of the tablet while keeping the overall shape elegant and thin. This sounds great, but how does it behave in the real world? In this review, we will look at the strengths, weaknesses and real world usage of the Asus Eee Transformer Prime – are you ready?

NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1.3GHz (read our Tegra 3 overview) 10.1” 1280×800 Super IPS+ display, Gorilla glass 8 MP camera with LED light in the back, 1.2MP front camera 32GB to 64GB of internal storage + microSD slot 1080p MPEG-4/H.264 “High Profile” (Blu-Ray) decode, 1080p video capture WiFi B/G/N, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR 263 x 180.8 x 8.3mm, 586g 25WHr Li-Polymer battery Read more at www.ubergizmo.com

 

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Are You a Video Game War Criminal?

Amplify’d from technorati.com

In a recent article on the Video Gaming news site Kotaku an article entitled, "War Crimes in Video Games Draw Red Cross Scrutiny" caught my attention.  You can read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions but as a gamer I find the premise of the International Red Cross' argument without merit.

There's no denying that the International Red Cross is compelled by its charter to "...protect the victims of international and internal armed conflicts. That includes war wounded, prisoners, refugees, civilians, and other non-combatants."

It now seems that may move to extend that charter to the realm of video games,

"... The question they debated this week is whether their mandate should be extended to the virtual victims of video game wars." Read more at technorati.com

 

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Most Facebook Subscribers Don't Trust Facebook

Amplify’d from technorati.com

One important part of the FTC complaint against Facebook that hasn’t received as much attention as it should is count 7:

Facebook has provided third parties with access to a user’s profile information – specifically photos or videos that a user has uploaded – even after the user has deleted or deactivated his or her account.

A study of Facebook subscribers I conducted this summer finds that 80% of subscribers don’t “trust” Facebook to follow through with their promises. When asked whether they believed Facebook would delete their records immediately after the subscriber deleted their account, 119 people out of 150 surveyed, or 80.41% said they did not. 56% did not believe Facebook immediately removed posts after they were deleted, and 65% believed their records would still be available on backup tapes after they deleted them.

See more at technorati.com

 

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Cloud Computing to Grow 1200% by 2015

Amplify’d from technorati.com

According to the first Cisco Global Cloud Index, cloud computing traffic globally is expected to grow 1200% from 130 exabytes to 1.6 zettabytes annually by 2015. This is about a sixty-six percent growth rate per year.

One zettabyte is a sextillion bytes or a trillion gigabytes. And 1.6 zettabytes is around 22 trillion hours of streaming music or 5 trillion hours of business web conferencing with a web cam or 1.6 trillion hours of online high definition video streaming.

Today, cloud computing is estimate to be eleven percent of data center traffic and is estimated to be more than thirty-three percent of data center traffic by 2015. Cloud computing is the future of information technology for delivering video and content. Read more at technorati.com

 

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Android Smartphones have Big Security Holes

Amplify’d from mashable.com

If Google was just starting to forget about the Android malware threats from earlier this year, now it has another security headache: Researchers at North Carolina State University just discovered a new vulnerability in some of the most popular Android phones being sold today.

The security flaw, described in detail in this white paper, is specific to a certain implementation of the Android operating system, the researchers say, so it doesn’t necessarily affect all Android phones. Most Android handset makers integrate their own software (sometimes called “bloatware”) on top of the basic Android OS (for example, HTC’s Sense interface) to serve up various services and differentiate themselves.

What sort of problems could arise? That depends on what sort of malware those hackers use. Theoretically, the vulnerability could be used to install software that records phone calls, send text messages, or even wipe the phone’s settings, according to Science Daily. It’s not clear if hackers could use the backdoor to actually “root” the phone, but if it’s possible, all bets are off.

But that software is exactly what’s opening up certain phones to malware threats, the research says. Dr. Xuxian Jiang led a team that looked at multiple Android devices, and found that some of the pre-loaded applications that various manufacturers put in, like text-message notifiers, created a “backdoor” to the phone that third parties could exploit. Read more at mashable.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1j70j

Android Smartphones have Big Security Holes

Amplify’d from mashable.com

If Google was just starting to forget about the Android malware threats from earlier this year, now it has another security headache: Researchers at North Carolina State University just discovered a new vulnerability in some of the most popular Android phones being sold today.

The security flaw, described in detail in this white paper, is specific to a certain implementation of the Android operating system, the researchers say, so it doesn’t necessarily affect all Android phones. Most Android handset makers integrate their own software (sometimes called “bloatware”) on top of the basic Android OS (for example, HTC’s Sense interface) to serve up various services and differentiate themselves.

What sort of problems could arise? That depends on what sort of malware those hackers use. Theoretically, the vulnerability could be used to install software that records phone calls, send text messages, or even wipe the phone’s settings, according to Science Daily. It’s not clear if hackers could use the backdoor to actually “root” the phone, but if it’s possible, all bets are off.

But that software is exactly what’s opening up certain phones to malware threats, the research says. Dr. Xuxian Jiang led a team that looked at multiple Android devices, and found that some of the pre-loaded applications that various manufacturers put in, like text-message notifiers, created a “backdoor” to the phone that third parties could exploit. Read more at mashable.com

 

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Goodbye, Google Bar: Black Strip Turns Into Pop-Up

Amplify’d from mashable.com

If you use Gmail, Google Reader, Google+, Google Search, Google Maps — indeed, just about any Google product — you’ve likely become familiar with that black strip across the top of the screen with links to the company’s other services. Google introduced it back in June. Opinions have varied ever since, but many of us have gone with: what on Earth is that ugly thing?

Wonder no longer, because the black bar is going away. In a blog post Wednesday, Google announced it would be replaced with a pop-up that appears when you mouse over the Google logo. There will also be a smaller, less obtrusive light grey bar dominated by a search box. Read more at mashable.com

 

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