OtterBox 3500 Series @ TechwareLabs
Mini-Box.com M350 Universal Mini-ITX Chassis @ Bigbruin.com
Cooler Master ATCS 840 Case @ TechwareLabs
Kingston HyperX 1600MHz 12GB Triple Channel Memory @ TestFreaks
All Atom Models @ Hardware Secrets
Thermaltake 750W TR2 RX PSU @ OCModShop
Thermaltake SpinQ VT CPU Cooler @ Hardware Secrets
AMD Athlon II X4 635 @ Rbmods
ASUS M4A785G HTPC/RC Motherboard @ iXBT Labs
NZXT Hades PC Case @ TweakPC
Microsoft Explorer Wireless Rechargeable Mouse @ Tweaknews
Intel Core i5 661 LGA1156 Processor @ ThinkComputers.org
Samsung PN58B850 58" Plasma TV @ Tweaknews
Foxconn Inferno Katana P55 Motherboard @ Ninjalane
Scosche solCHAT II Solar Powered Bluetooth Speakerphone @ TestFreaks
Ultra X4 1050W PSU @ TechwareLabs
Noctua NF-P14 FLX Case Fan @ Verdis Reviews
NZXT Beta Evo Midi-Tower Case @ Technic3D
Spire TherMax Pro CPU Cooler @ Tech-Reviews.co.uk
QNAP NMP-1000 Network Media Player @ techPowerUp
EFO RF Wireless Handheld Keyboard-Touchpad @ MissingRemote.com
Mushkin PC3-12800 6GB Memory Kit @ Rbmods
Jetway NC63-330-LF Mini-ITX Motherboard Video Review @ eTeknix.com
Athlon II X4 635 and Phenom II X2 555 CPU @ Hardware Secrets

From CNET News.com: Verizon temporarily blocked traffic from some Web sites affiliated with the 4chan online forum on Monday after finding that some affiliate sites were apparently launching network attacks.

"Our network security system found traffic from some 4Chan Web sites that had strong potential to disrupt the Verizon Wireless network, affecting our customers' use of their services," Verizon spokesman Jeffrey Nelson wrote in an e-mail to CNET. "With continuing investigation, and ensuring no current risk of harm, we are giving the green-light to all 4Chan traffic. We will continue to monitor for any possibility of network harm."

He also posted an explanation on Twitter: "Never a block on 4Chan but some of its other sites were launching network attacks."

It was unclear which sites were affected and exactly what the trouble was. The sites appear to have been "explicitly blocked" for as long as three days, according to the 4chan status page.

In July, AT&T blocked a 4chan server after another site launched a denial-of-service type of attack called a SYN Flood attack on the site. 4chan users, notorious for their Internet pranks, responded angrily by posting a fake story on CNN's iReport citizen journalism site alleging that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had died.

View: Article @ Source Site

From PC World: Oracle on Monday fattened up its already burgeoning middleware stack, announcing Monday that it has purchased SOA (service oriented architecture) management vendor AmberPoint. Terms were not disclosed.

SOA refers to a systems design approach that eschews monolithic applications and instead designates various processes, such as running a credit check on a customer, as interoperable "services" that allow code to be flexibly reused.

AmberPoint's software is used to monitor the performance of SOA-driven applications and help users solve problems. It is "highly complementary" to Oracle's own SOA software and will "enable increased control and performance of critical applications across the enterprise," according to an FAQ document Oracle released Monday.

It is not clear how the deal will affect road maps for AmberPoint's products. A review is under way and more details will be forthcoming, Oracle said. Investment in the products is expected to increase, according to the FAQ.

"AmberPoint was one of a dwindling group of still-standing independents delivering runtime governance for SOA environments," analyst Tony Baer said on the OnStrategies Perspective blog.

The move "patches some gaps in its Enterprise Manager offering, not only in SOA runtime governance, but also with business transaction management – and potentially – better visibility to non-Oracle systems," he added.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of this year.

View: Article @ Source Site

From DailyTech: Canon is a big and popular maker of many types of digital cameras from the cheap point-and-shoot cameras to more complex and expensive D-SLR cameras. The new D-SLR camera from Canon is called the EOS Rebel T2i. The camera is described as a D-SLR that can grow with a photographer as they learn more and expect more from the camera.

The camera can shoot bursts at 3.7 fps and has an ISO range of 100-6400 and a 63-zone dual layer metering system. Canon is positioning the camera as a bridge between entry-level D-SLRs and prosumer cameras. The T2i can record 1080p HD video and has a Movie Crop mode that offers 7x additional zoom with no lost image quality when shooting in SD resolution.

The camera has an 18-megapixel sensor and features an expanded +/- 5 EV exposure compensation range for more versatility when showing. The cam has selectable image quality settings and can store JPEG images and RAW images. The LCD is a 3-inch model and has 1.04 million dots and a 3:2 aspect ratio. The camera is the first EOS model to support SDXC memory cards. The T2i will ship in March for $799.99 in a body only kit. A kit with an 18-55mm lens will sell for $899.99.

Canon also unveiled a new line of point and shoot cameras that include the PowerShot SX210 IS, PowerShot SD3500 IS, PowerShot SD1400 IS and PowerShot SD1300 IS. The SX210 IS is a compact camera with 14x optical zoom and a 28mm wide-angle lens with optical lens stabilization. It has a 14.1-megapixel sensor and a 3-inch LCD on the rear. It will ship in March for $349.99.

View: Article @ Source Site

From DailyTech: Did you fall in love with the Nexus One's brilliant AMOLED screen? It's easy to see why you might -- the active matrix organic light emitting diode screens features lower power consumption, lower cost, and superior image/color quality to traditional TFT LCD screens found in other smartphones such as the Blackberry or the iPhone.

Now Samsung is looking to push more AMOLED smartphones onto the market with a superior iteration of the technology. Photos have leaked of the company's new mass produced 3.3-inch AMOLED displays. While these displays are slightly diminutive when compared to the 3.7-inch Nexus One AMOLED display, they are the first mass-produced AMOLED displays to directly incorporate touch into the screen (Google's phone uses a separate capacitive layer).

The new displays feature .001mm thin touch sensors on-cell sandwiched between the panel's substrate and the bottom polarizer film. That means you no longer need the bulky layer on top of the screen. It could be eliminated altogether, or, more likely, replaced with a more robust protective layer.

Samsung's AMOLED panel is five times as bright as a comparable LCD TFT panel, and it performs 20 percent better under sunlight.

The company is expected to formally announce new AMOLED products at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The new screens are reportedly codenamed "Super AM OLED panel".

Not to be outdone, LG Display, Samsung's big display rival, is cooking up AMOLED displays of its own. Describes a spokesperson in an interview with The Korea Times, "LG Display will put more focus on AM OLED panels due to higher consumer appetite for advanced products."

View: Article @ Source Site

From CNET News.com: Adobe Systems, evidently stung by recent criticisms of its widely used Flash Player browser plug-in, has promised better performance on Mac systems.

"Given identical hardware, Flash Player on Windows has historically been faster than the Mac, and it is for the most part the same code running in Flash for each operating system," said Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch in a follow-up comment to his own blog post. But Adobe and Apple have been cooperating to make things better, he said. "In Flash Player 10.1 we are moving to Core Animation, which will further reduce CPU usage and, we believe, will get us to the point where Mac will be faster than Windows for graphics rendering."

Things should get better with video, too, one of the primary reasons Flash has thrived on the Web. "Video rendering is an area we are focusing more attention on--for example, today a 480p video on a 1.8Ghz Mac Mini in Safari uses about 34 percent of CPU on Mac versus 16 percent on Windows (running in BootCamp on same hardware). With Flash Player 10.1, we are optimizing video rendering further on the Mac and expect to reduce CPU usage by half, bringing Mac and Windows closer to parity for video."

The words reflect an Adobe effort to explain itself while under competitive threat. HTML is gradually encroaching on the turf Flash has had largely to itself, and some are taking advantage of the opportunity to bash Flash.

Adobe also is taking on the matter of bugs.

In particular, it's answering a security problem Matthew Dempsky reported in September 2008, shortly before Flash Player 10 was issued. Dempsky took Lynch to task for his statement in the comment that "we don't ship Flash with any known crash bugs, and if there was such a widespread problem historically Flash could not have achieved its wide use today."

View: Article @ Source Site

From X-bit Labs: Intel Corp. is the world’s largest maker of central processing units (CPUs), core-logic sets, graphics adapters and is also a leading supplier of Wi-Fi controllers and some other chips. The company believes that in the coming years, as popularity of solid-state drives (SSDs) will continue to grow, it will also become the leading supplier of SSDs.

“We want to be a leader in SSDs. We want to bring SSDs out of the niche markets and into the mainstream,” said Tom Rampone, the general manager of Intel's NAND solutions group, reports EETimes.

At present Intel claims to be the top player in the U.S. retail SSD market and the second largest supplier worldwide. Intel and Micron form IM Technologies manufacturer of NAND flash memory and at present IM produces flash using the most advanced process technology possible. Intel believes that this is an indisputable advantage that will not only help to boost shipments of SSDs, but will also allow to make a profit.

“We do view NAND as a growth business. It is not strategically important to be the number (in terms of market share.) Our focus is on technology. Technology leadership is our focus,” added Mr. Rampone.

Analysts believe that solid-state drives will quickly replace hard disk drives (HDDs) in enterprise storage market thanks to improved performance, lower power consumption and lower complexity. As a result, SSD’s addressable market share will only get bigger, which is good for IM Flash, Intel and Micron.

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From InfoWorld: Microsoft is offering a second release candidate for its ASP.Net MVC 2 technology, which enables developers to build Web applications using a model view controller pattern.

Released last week, Release Candidate 2 of ASP.Net MVC 2 follows a release candidate build shipped in December, said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the Microsoft developer division, in an entry on his ASP.Net blog. The release is built for use with Visual Studio 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5.

"[The second release candidate] includes a bunch of bug fixes, performance work, and some final API and behavior additions/changes," Guthrie said. Significant performance tuning improvements have been made, such as lambda-based strongly typed HTML helpers being much faster.

Among other changes between the first and second release candidates is an ASP.Net MVC 2 validation feature that performs model-validation instead of input validation, Guthrie said. This means when a developer uses model binding, all model properties are validated instead of just validations on changed values of a model.

View: Article @ Source Site