Samsung has denied reviews that it has been shipping PCs with key-logging computer software preinstalled.
Mohamed Hassan of protection firm NetSec Consulting says he discovered the StarLogger computer software on two diverse Samsung laptops. When he known as the organization, he says, he was told by a supervisor that it absolutely was there to "monitor the performance from the machine and to discover the way it is getting used."
Composing in Network Entire world, Hassan concluded: "Samsung's conduct may be illegal; even when it can be at some point ruled legal from the courts, the problem has legal, ethical, and privacy implications for each the organizations and individuals who may purchase and use Samsung laptops. Samsung could also be liable should the huge amount of knowledge collected via StarLogger drop to the wrong hands."
But Samsung says it can be now looked to the make a difference appropriately, and also the application basically isn't there.
"The statements that Samsung installs keylogger on R525 and R540 laptop computer personal computers are fake," it says within a statement.
"Our findings indicate the man or woman described in the write-up used a protection plan named VIPRE that mistook a folder designed by Microsoft's Dwell Application for a essential logging application, throughout a virus scan."
It says the confusion arose since VIPRE mistook Microsoft's Stay Application multi-language assist folder - labeled 'SL' folder - for your StarLogger keylogging software. Depending on the language, explains the company, underneath C:\windows folders 'SL' simply stands for Slovene, from the same way as 'EN' for English.
All this nonetheless leaves the query open regarding why the supervisor told Hassan the key-logging software program was preinstalled inside the initial location. Consumers may be reassured to listen to that their every single motion isn't in fact becoming recorded - but they might not be equally impressed by Samsung revenue staff's knowledge of their own goods.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Samsung RV511-S01 laptops review
Five hundred and fifty quid. What does that buy you? Fifty-five thousand penny sweets, or maybe an affordable desktop replacement laptop. Samsung hopes you'll plump for the latter, and drain your wallet for the RV511-S01 -- a Core i3 laptop with 6GB of RAM.
Tubby traveller
Grabbing hold of the RV511, we can tell it's not built to travel. It weighs 2.4kg, which isn't very heavy compared to some other larger laptops, but it's quite bulky in terms of its dimensions -- measuring 382 by 256 by 35mm, it's not particularly thin, and if you have a backpack you can squeeze it into, it'll likely preclude you from lugging anything else around too.
Still, there's a place for laptops that aren't especially portable -- you won't have any trouble lugging this monster around your house from room to room, so you could use this as your single home computer and plug it into your telly for watching video, or plonk it down on your desk when it's time to get your nose to the grindstone.
The design leaves something to be desired, though kudos to Samsung for trying something a little quirkier than usual. The interior is plain silver, with a black gloss surrounding the keyboard.
Lenticular peculiar
The lid, meanwhile, has a big black strip along the bottom, while the rest is a shinier silver hue. It has an interesting texture, which we can only liken to those lenticular 3D-effect pictures -- dozens of tiny raised horizontal lines. It makes a great vwoop noise when you drag your hands up and down along it, but if you're the kind of person who can't stand nails on a chalkboard, this texture may well set your teeth on edge.
In terms of usability, this is impressive stuff from Samsung. The keyboard has a number pad along the right-hand side, and the whole keypad seems intelligently laid-out. Although each key is quite small, there's a wide space between them so you probably won't find yourself making too many mistakes.
Each key is pleasantly springy and responsive, which will make typing at lightning speed easy enough. We did notice a little flex in the keyboard, but nothing catastrophic.
The display is good -- this is a 15.6-inch panel with a maximum resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. It's impressively vivid, with colours looking really vibrant, but even with the brightness cranked up to max, this isn't a particularly bright screen. The viewing angle also isn't up to much, and you might be driven crazy by screen reflections if you're using the RV511 in a brightly lit environment.
All in all, this is an average display. We've seen some Samsung laptops with really ace panels recently, so we're a little disappointed this one isn't similarly spellbinding.
Connect the dots
Around the edges you'll find an Ethernet port, three USB ports, a multi-format card reader, VGA and HDMI outputs, a DVD rewritable drive, 3.5mm sockets for headphones and a mic, and a little webcam sitting above the display.
That's pretty bog-standard connectivity, but bog-standard is fine in this case -- this range of ports will most likely cater to all your everyday needs. The HDMI port is appreciated, as this lets you hook your laptop's video and sound up to an HD telly.
There's a 640GB hard drive inside, and this PC rumbles along on Windows 7 Home Premium.
Power punch
There's some pretty delicious hardware floating about inside this RV511 -- specifically an Intel Core i3-380M CPU clocked at 2.53GHz, plus 6GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 315M graphics card. This lethal triumvirate delivers impressive performance for the price. When we ran our PCMark05 benchmark test, the RV511-S01 achieved a score of 6,387, which is terrific. Anecdotally, we found this PC kept up with all our multi-tasking and ordinary cruising very well, with very little lag.
Graphical performance is decent too -- that Nvidia graphics card helped this laptop score 3,845 when we ran our 3DMark06 benchmark test, which means it'll handle HD video without so much as a whimper. It'll manage a healthy dollop of gaming too, so long as you don't push it too far with cutting-edge titles and graphics ramped up to their maximum settings.
That graphics card features Nvidia's Optimus tech, which is supposedly able to dial the laptop's graphical grunt down, or crank it up depending on what you're doing. The idea is to preserve battery life, and when we gunned the RV511's CPU at a constant 100 per cent using our Battery Eater Classic test, the laptop held out for exactly two hours. That's quite good for a desktop-replacement machine, and you can expect to get at least that much and more if you're using the RV511 more responsibly.
Tubby traveller
Grabbing hold of the RV511, we can tell it's not built to travel. It weighs 2.4kg, which isn't very heavy compared to some other larger laptops, but it's quite bulky in terms of its dimensions -- measuring 382 by 256 by 35mm, it's not particularly thin, and if you have a backpack you can squeeze it into, it'll likely preclude you from lugging anything else around too.
Still, there's a place for laptops that aren't especially portable -- you won't have any trouble lugging this monster around your house from room to room, so you could use this as your single home computer and plug it into your telly for watching video, or plonk it down on your desk when it's time to get your nose to the grindstone.
The design leaves something to be desired, though kudos to Samsung for trying something a little quirkier than usual. The interior is plain silver, with a black gloss surrounding the keyboard.
Lenticular peculiar
The lid, meanwhile, has a big black strip along the bottom, while the rest is a shinier silver hue. It has an interesting texture, which we can only liken to those lenticular 3D-effect pictures -- dozens of tiny raised horizontal lines. It makes a great vwoop noise when you drag your hands up and down along it, but if you're the kind of person who can't stand nails on a chalkboard, this texture may well set your teeth on edge.
In terms of usability, this is impressive stuff from Samsung. The keyboard has a number pad along the right-hand side, and the whole keypad seems intelligently laid-out. Although each key is quite small, there's a wide space between them so you probably won't find yourself making too many mistakes.
Each key is pleasantly springy and responsive, which will make typing at lightning speed easy enough. We did notice a little flex in the keyboard, but nothing catastrophic.
The display is good -- this is a 15.6-inch panel with a maximum resolution of 1,366x768 pixels. It's impressively vivid, with colours looking really vibrant, but even with the brightness cranked up to max, this isn't a particularly bright screen. The viewing angle also isn't up to much, and you might be driven crazy by screen reflections if you're using the RV511 in a brightly lit environment.
All in all, this is an average display. We've seen some Samsung laptops with really ace panels recently, so we're a little disappointed this one isn't similarly spellbinding.
Connect the dots
Around the edges you'll find an Ethernet port, three USB ports, a multi-format card reader, VGA and HDMI outputs, a DVD rewritable drive, 3.5mm sockets for headphones and a mic, and a little webcam sitting above the display.
That's pretty bog-standard connectivity, but bog-standard is fine in this case -- this range of ports will most likely cater to all your everyday needs. The HDMI port is appreciated, as this lets you hook your laptop's video and sound up to an HD telly.
There's a 640GB hard drive inside, and this PC rumbles along on Windows 7 Home Premium.
Power punch
There's some pretty delicious hardware floating about inside this RV511 -- specifically an Intel Core i3-380M CPU clocked at 2.53GHz, plus 6GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 315M graphics card. This lethal triumvirate delivers impressive performance for the price. When we ran our PCMark05 benchmark test, the RV511-S01 achieved a score of 6,387, which is terrific. Anecdotally, we found this PC kept up with all our multi-tasking and ordinary cruising very well, with very little lag.
Graphical performance is decent too -- that Nvidia graphics card helped this laptop score 3,845 when we ran our 3DMark06 benchmark test, which means it'll handle HD video without so much as a whimper. It'll manage a healthy dollop of gaming too, so long as you don't push it too far with cutting-edge titles and graphics ramped up to their maximum settings.
That graphics card features Nvidia's Optimus tech, which is supposedly able to dial the laptop's graphical grunt down, or crank it up depending on what you're doing. The idea is to preserve battery life, and when we gunned the RV511's CPU at a constant 100 per cent using our Battery Eater Classic test, the laptop held out for exactly two hours. That's quite good for a desktop-replacement machine, and you can expect to get at least that much and more if you're using the RV511 more responsibly.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Report: Apple readies iPhone, iPad for mobile payments
Apple is reportedly operating to outfit the following era of its smartphone and tablet with near-field communications (NFC) technological know-how, which would let people make use of the units to produce cellular payments as an choice to cash and credit cards, as outlined by a story right now by the Bloomberg news service.
Richard Doherty, director of the technologies consulting firm Envisioneering Group, informed Bloomberg that equally the iPhone five from AT&T and the iPad 2 would likely include NFC chips, citing engineers doing work on the project.
NFC technological innovation lets units exchange information over a short distance--no more than four inches. As such, a cellular device equipped with NFC could send payment information from a bank account to a register or terminal, allowing people to use them to pay for items and services at stores, restaurants, and other types of retail outlets.
Apple(apple laptop batteries) has apparently been eyeing NFC for for some time. Last summer, the company hired an expert in NFC to join its mobile commerce team at the same time it reportedly was already testing the inclusion on the technological know-how in its subsequent iPhone.
Beyond the benefits to shoppers, companies like Apple stand to gain from NFC, notes Bloomberg. Like any business that accepts credit cards, Apple currently pays processing fees on every iTunes purchase made through a credit score card. By letting people pay for iTunes content on their iPhones via NFC, Apple could cut out the Visa or MasterCard middleman and trim its own expenses.
For tech users, the new technology could also help them more easily transfer and share files and settings between their NFC-equipped smartphones and other units, such as PCs.
Other players have also gotten into the act. Last November, AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile announced the creation of a new mobile payments network that would use NFC. Google soon followed up that up with the launch of its Nexus S Android phone packing an embedded NFC chip and with support for the engineering in Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread.
On its end, Apple is currently looking into launching a cellular payment service as early as the middle of this year, Doherty told Bloomberg.
Richard Doherty, director of the technologies consulting firm Envisioneering Group, informed Bloomberg that equally the iPhone five from AT&T and the iPad 2 would likely include NFC chips, citing engineers doing work on the project.
NFC technological innovation lets units exchange information over a short distance--no more than four inches. As such, a cellular device equipped with NFC could send payment information from a bank account to a register or terminal, allowing people to use them to pay for items and services at stores, restaurants, and other types of retail outlets.
Apple(apple laptop batteries) has apparently been eyeing NFC for for some time. Last summer, the company hired an expert in NFC to join its mobile commerce team at the same time it reportedly was already testing the inclusion on the technological know-how in its subsequent iPhone.
Beyond the benefits to shoppers, companies like Apple stand to gain from NFC, notes Bloomberg. Like any business that accepts credit cards, Apple currently pays processing fees on every iTunes purchase made through a credit score card. By letting people pay for iTunes content on their iPhones via NFC, Apple could cut out the Visa or MasterCard middleman and trim its own expenses.
For tech users, the new technology could also help them more easily transfer and share files and settings between their NFC-equipped smartphones and other units, such as PCs.
Other players have also gotten into the act. Last November, AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile announced the creation of a new mobile payments network that would use NFC. Google soon followed up that up with the launch of its Nexus S Android phone packing an embedded NFC chip and with support for the engineering in Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread.
On its end, Apple is currently looking into launching a cellular payment service as early as the middle of this year, Doherty told Bloomberg.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Nike + GPS app lets you play tag
The Nike+ GPS(GPS Devices) app tracks your speed and distance, maps your runs, and permits your buddies on facebook and twitter to view your progress. It costs $1.99 on itunes and just got a fun new update; it is possible to now play tag with other runners. You challenge a person with time or distance nearby. Whoever runs the shortest distance or runs the least amount of time could be "it."
The Inside Nike Running YouTube channel put up a creepy video to announce the new update. A masculine, movie-commercial voice tells us that, "It can arise at any minute. It knows who you might be. It knows where you might be. It defines you. No one wants to be it. So don't be it. Run."
The video then demonstrates how with the updated app, once they're "tagged" runners will leave their girlfriend/dog/job behind to participate inside the game.
The app is meant to encourage runners to motivate every other, or face the terrible, socially-crippling disappointment of being "it." And encourage people to acquire the app naturally. After all, $1.99 is really a steal in case you paid $85 for Nike running shoes. In case you can get past the video it must be all fun and games.
The Inside Nike Running YouTube channel put up a creepy video to announce the new update. A masculine, movie-commercial voice tells us that, "It can arise at any minute. It knows who you might be. It knows where you might be. It defines you. No one wants to be it. So don't be it. Run."
The video then demonstrates how with the updated app, once they're "tagged" runners will leave their girlfriend/dog/job behind to participate inside the game.
The app is meant to encourage runners to motivate every other, or face the terrible, socially-crippling disappointment of being "it." And encourage people to acquire the app naturally. After all, $1.99 is really a steal in case you paid $85 for Nike running shoes. In case you can get past the video it must be all fun and games.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Will Windows Phone 7 apps smile for the camera?
One of my favorite features in Apple's iOS is the quietly-hidden capability to take screenshots. Back when I was performing deep dives on iPhone apps for stories, the feature was just there, and it worked. Outside of CNET, it let me do things like grab photos from web sites (prior to that feature was officially added), and put together fast step-by-step how-to guides for buddies and family, turning the device into less of a consumptive tool, and into some thing that would aid me get work carried out without a pc.
But in the past couple of months of me putting Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 via its paces as a primary device, I've been missing the feature dearly. So naturally, I asked Microsoft if it was on the short list of features to be added later on down the line.
The short answer? No.
"I have by no means sat in a user group--and I sit in plenty of user groups, plenty of retail groups--I've by no means heard an end user go 'why can't I take a screenshot of that?'" Aaron Woodman, director of Microsoft's mobile communications company, told CNET in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show last week.
Well ahead of a screenshot tool can be a laundry list of features Microsoft plans to add, which includes the ones competitors have already put out, which Woodman referred to as "gaps."
"One of the reasons that personally pulled me over to the Windows Phone space was that there's lots of choices to make," Woodman said. "It's not like we didn't know copy and paste was a feature that people could potentially want, it's a question of how crucial it's to the user experience. When can you get to it?"
According to Woodman, it is also not constantly the users who support Microsoft decide which features must be fast-tracked. "We do a great deal of things for reporters," Woodman said. "I would argue things like the Mac connector software--the software that lets you take your Windows Phone and connect it to an Apple PC of some form, and essentially pull over music from iTunes and photos and that type of stuff--it wasn't built because we thought there was a considerable marketplace chance for Mac loyalists out there who were dying to acquire a Windows Phone. It was built due to the fact reporters would show up with Macs," Woodman said.
The other half of the equation, Woodman explained, is that developers who wanted to take screenshots of their applications have had the means since the introduction of the Windows Phone 7 SDK. "There's a ton of ways to do it in within the emulator, so application developers have no dilemma with that," Woodman said.
If you are thinking to yourself, "this is a niche feature," look no further than Damn You, Auto Correct, a internet site that popped up back in October of last year and is now up to a lot more than 1,300 posts containing unintentionally humorous instances of the iPhone's autocorrect feature gone wrong, snapped and sent in by users.
Nevertheless, something that would let you snap photos of text conversations is one thing. Where Woodman said some problems could arise is with capturing specific kinds of content if there's copy-protection involved.
"The reality is, we have a DRM requirement for our marketplace, which makes things like HDMI and those kinds of things out, additional challenging," Woodman said. "We've made a option to have a more protected set of content on the phone and available to customers, so we do have restrictions within that," he said.
What that would mean for such a feature is that you wouldn't have the ability to snap a shot of what you had been doing if there was a copy protection layer in location. This is comparable to what Apple does with the built-in screen grab software in Mac OS X when movies are playing inside the DVD player application.
Woodman said the feature could wind up in a future create of the OS software though. "Not that we couldn't technically do it. I mean, at the end of the day it is software," he said. "We could surely select to do screenshot capabilities if you're not in these three experiences."
Windows Phone 7's 1st software update since its launch late last year is just around the corner. Besides the addition of copy and paste, you can find out far more about what type of benefits it'll bring to things like application load times as well as the Marketplace search tool in our other chat with Woodman from last week.
But in the past couple of months of me putting Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 via its paces as a primary device, I've been missing the feature dearly. So naturally, I asked Microsoft if it was on the short list of features to be added later on down the line.
The short answer? No.
"I have by no means sat in a user group--and I sit in plenty of user groups, plenty of retail groups--I've by no means heard an end user go 'why can't I take a screenshot of that?'" Aaron Woodman, director of Microsoft's mobile communications company, told CNET in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show last week.
Well ahead of a screenshot tool can be a laundry list of features Microsoft plans to add, which includes the ones competitors have already put out, which Woodman referred to as "gaps."
"One of the reasons that personally pulled me over to the Windows Phone space was that there's lots of choices to make," Woodman said. "It's not like we didn't know copy and paste was a feature that people could potentially want, it's a question of how crucial it's to the user experience. When can you get to it?"
According to Woodman, it is also not constantly the users who support Microsoft decide which features must be fast-tracked. "We do a great deal of things for reporters," Woodman said. "I would argue things like the Mac connector software--the software that lets you take your Windows Phone and connect it to an Apple PC of some form, and essentially pull over music from iTunes and photos and that type of stuff--it wasn't built because we thought there was a considerable marketplace chance for Mac loyalists out there who were dying to acquire a Windows Phone. It was built due to the fact reporters would show up with Macs," Woodman said.
The other half of the equation, Woodman explained, is that developers who wanted to take screenshots of their applications have had the means since the introduction of the Windows Phone 7 SDK. "There's a ton of ways to do it in within the emulator, so application developers have no dilemma with that," Woodman said.
If you are thinking to yourself, "this is a niche feature," look no further than Damn You, Auto Correct, a internet site that popped up back in October of last year and is now up to a lot more than 1,300 posts containing unintentionally humorous instances of the iPhone's autocorrect feature gone wrong, snapped and sent in by users.
Nevertheless, something that would let you snap photos of text conversations is one thing. Where Woodman said some problems could arise is with capturing specific kinds of content if there's copy-protection involved.
"The reality is, we have a DRM requirement for our marketplace, which makes things like HDMI and those kinds of things out, additional challenging," Woodman said. "We've made a option to have a more protected set of content on the phone and available to customers, so we do have restrictions within that," he said.
What that would mean for such a feature is that you wouldn't have the ability to snap a shot of what you had been doing if there was a copy protection layer in location. This is comparable to what Apple does with the built-in screen grab software in Mac OS X when movies are playing inside the DVD player application.
Woodman said the feature could wind up in a future create of the OS software though. "Not that we couldn't technically do it. I mean, at the end of the day it is software," he said. "We could surely select to do screenshot capabilities if you're not in these three experiences."
Windows Phone 7's 1st software update since its launch late last year is just around the corner. Besides the addition of copy and paste, you can find out far more about what type of benefits it'll bring to things like application load times as well as the Marketplace search tool in our other chat with Woodman from last week.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Mac App Stone now live with over 1000 apps
The Mac App Retailer has as a final point gone dwell nowadays. The store brings over a 1000 applications, both compensated as well as absolutely free straight onto your Mac. To obtain the Mac App Retailer, you'll have to make use of the Program Update function on your Mac and then upgrade your Snow Leopard to v10.six.6, which will set up the App Keep app.
The new App Retailer brings several applications, like Apple s very own for example iLife 11, iWork eleven and Aperture three amongst other folks. Then there are actually also others which include Flight Handle HD, Pixelmator and Points you could obtain. You could pick from equally paid at the same time as free apps. The variety of excellent apps could be bit restricted as of now but will of course expand in the coming days.
We are at this time installing the update on our MacBooks and can undoubtedly let you know extra about it after we consider it out. Preserve reading Techtree for additional information on the Mac App Keep.
We are at this time installing the update on our MacBooks and can undoubtedly let you know extra about it after we consider it out. Preserve reading Techtree for additional information on the Mac App Keep.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Turn off Bluetooth to save iPhone 4 battery
If you're wondering why the supposedly substantially longer-lasting battery life of you shiny new iPhone 4 just is not as great as you thought it would be, check your Bluetooth utilization prior to you condemn your phone.
The battery for the iPhone 4 is considerably larger than those on previous models, and is advertised to work for a lot longer, in both talk/ use time and standby than on older iPhones. When you may well have gotten your new iPhone (and especially some new accessories) and come across that your battery life is just not living up to your expectations, you'll discover a couple of issues that you should take a look at initial. These consist of your Bluetooth utilization, use of GPS systems, push notifications, WiFi settings, and display settings.
Let's just speak about Bluetooth utilization for now. In case you may possibly have introduced your system to any Bluetooth gadgets, and in case you may well have Bluetooth turned on in settings, your iPhone will likely be making use of energy checking to see if those gadgets are readily offered every and every single few seconds. Inside the event you're not making use of the defined devices, you are incredibly significantly a lot better off, battery-wise, to turn Bluetooth off. That also means that you'll be ahead to turn Bluetooth processing off as soon as you stop utilizing a Bluetooth device.
To turn off Bluetooth entirely, tap on the "Settings" icon, then on "General" on the Settings display. Part way down the General page, you will see the "Bluetooth" entry. To the proper, it says regardless of whether Bluetooth is On or Off. If it is On, tap about the word "Bluetooth" and then once around the On / Off slider 0n the resulting display. Which will flip Bluetooth completely off. When you as soon as again need to use a bluetooth gadget, just reverse that process to turn Bluetooth back on.
The battery for the iPhone 4 is considerably larger than those on previous models, and is advertised to work for a lot longer, in both talk/ use time and standby than on older iPhones. When you may well have gotten your new iPhone (and especially some new accessories) and come across that your battery life is just not living up to your expectations, you'll discover a couple of issues that you should take a look at initial. These consist of your Bluetooth utilization, use of GPS systems, push notifications, WiFi settings, and display settings.
Let's just speak about Bluetooth utilization for now. In case you may possibly have introduced your system to any Bluetooth gadgets, and in case you may well have Bluetooth turned on in settings, your iPhone will likely be making use of energy checking to see if those gadgets are readily offered every and every single few seconds. Inside the event you're not making use of the defined devices, you are incredibly significantly a lot better off, battery-wise, to turn Bluetooth off. That also means that you'll be ahead to turn Bluetooth processing off as soon as you stop utilizing a Bluetooth device.
To turn off Bluetooth entirely, tap on the "Settings" icon, then on "General" on the Settings display. Part way down the General page, you will see the "Bluetooth" entry. To the proper, it says regardless of whether Bluetooth is On or Off. If it is On, tap about the word "Bluetooth" and then once around the On / Off slider 0n the resulting display. Which will flip Bluetooth completely off. When you as soon as again need to use a bluetooth gadget, just reverse that process to turn Bluetooth back on.
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