News Roundup 16th May 2006
Today's news, cool stuff, and a pretty picture. You dont happen to own any illegal music, warez or porn by any chance? If you do, then watch out for Trojan/Erazor-A. Its spreading through P2P file sharing apps like limewire, kazaa and co. and chat programs. It will delete files from your computer, namley anything in your P2P sharing folder, infests your computer with yet more malware and deactivates various security programs. Its currently not spread to far, but better safe than sorry, update your AV and run a scan just to make sure. For more info: http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/trojerazera.html
Microsoft are set to have their DRM technology used in all i-mode handsets from DoCoMo, and with roughly 50 million people using i-mode, thats a lot of DRM. Not only that, but the GSM Association are considering reccomending Microsoft's DRM technology to all its members. Put those two together and it appreas Microsoft is set to become one of the main players, if not the only player in the mobile DRM market. For more info: http://www.telecoms.com/itmgcontent/tcoms/expertview/articles/20017351977.html
Now for some nice stuff, Apple unveiled the new MacBook. Thing that strikes me is, why release the MacBook Pro, then the MacBook? Anyway, There are three models available currently, starting at £749, which packs a 1.83 GHz intel Duo core processor, 512MB of ram, 60GB of storage space, An iSight camera, Gigabit Ethernet, Wifi, Bluetooth, 1 Firewire 400 Port, 2 USB 2 Ports and a 13" display. One of the very clever things Apple has done with the MacBook and its bigger brother, the MacBook Pro, is the magsafe powercord. Say you walk into the powercord. Instead of your lovley new MacBook going flying off the desk and getting smashed up, the powercord is attached with a magnet, so it just pulls out and your MacBook stays where it is. However sexy it looks in white, the 2GHz one is by far sexier, in a gorgeous black case. White may be apple's trademark colour, but black Macs and iPods look so much cooler. To see it head over to: http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/6134040/wo/pC7gzDxsIv2w3XHQJQv1pFfL9lu/0.PSLID?mco=68EE7002&nclm=MacBook
Who here wishes that they could carry speakers with them? I know some people who do, so this seems just the ticket. With the Nimzy Vibro Blaster all you need is a solid flat surface and your good to go. this baby packs 15-watts of sound reproducing power, but this sort of thing has been done before by the likes of the SoundBug, which from what I hear is rather tinny. It's £69.99 and available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000E42MLC/026-7658564-5082859
Samsung announced today that their new hybrid harddrive will be inside notebooks by 2007. By combining flash memory and a harddrive, Samsung claim to be able to squeeze an extra half hour from notebook batteries, and allow applications to start up much faster. It does this by storing some data on a flash memory chip which means instead of having to read data from a constantly spinning hard driuve, the computer can read it in a few milliseconds from the flash memory instead, meaning that when it isn't loading data into its memory, the harddrive can be idle and not spinning, saving tons of power for the important tings in computing, be it work of play. To read more, head over to: http://news.com.com/Samsung+goes+commercial+with+hybrid+hard+drive/2100-1044_3-6072557.html?tag=nefd.top
Now to end things with that pretty picture I promised. Its a high res shot of the International Space Station in orbit above the Caspian Sea. To take the strain away from NASA, I've put it in my photobucket, so its a lot smaller now, but it's still pretty stunning. http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g225/shadowoflinux/iss2_sts114_big.jpg
