Photo: interface

Intrepid hackers have found a couple surprising functions buried inside Amazon’s new e-book reader, the Kindle. Apparently, the ugly-but-popular gizmo can use its cellular communications equipment to determine its own location and find nearby gas stations, restaurants, etc.

Here are full though technical details on how to hack your Kindle. I’m not sure this is enough to change the recommendation I made when I reviewed the Kindle earlier this month — wait for the next-generation device — but it could be handy for folks who don’t have Internet access via their cellphones.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

AOL has announced that it will stop updating Netscape Navigator, the browser that first brought the commercial Internet to the masses in 1994. Netscape, which once commanded more than 90 percent of the browser market, has fallen below 1 percent, far too low to justify the expense of ongoing improvements.

Netscape will always have its place in history, though. In addition to giving regular people easy access to the World Wide Web, Netscape also played a pivotal role in the U.S. government’s antitrust action against Microsoft. What’s more, a part of the company lives on in Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the open-source Web browser Firefox.

Mozilla was spun off from Netscape with $2.3 million in capital back in 1998, the same year that AOL paid $4.2 billion for Netscape. Firefox now has about 16 percent of the browser market with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has about 77 percent.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

Most companies try to minimize the amount of money they spend on customer service, which is why they conceal their telephone numbers and use those &^%$# automated call routing systems.

But the same technology that has enabled companies to dehumanize customer service now allows customers to fight back. The invaluable Web site gethuman tells you the fastest way to get a real, live customer service representative at hundreds of companies.

Get in the habit of visiting this site before you call for service and you may never again listen to the words “If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it at any time — followed by the pound sign.”

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

Users tinkering with their Windows Home Servers (WHS) over the holiday weekend might have uncovered a nasty surprise in the form of a file corruption, according to Microsoft. The software giant released a document last week that said users saving information on certain programs were running into problems.

“A few people in the Community Forums have reported data corruption when saving files [on WHS] from applications including Windows Vista Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 and SyncToy 2.0 Beta,” the WHS team wrote in a blog post. “Additionally some applications, like Microsoft Money and Microsoft Outlook, do not support storing files on shared folders.”

The WHS product was announced earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show. It is designed to be a thin version of Microsoft’s Windows Server, which typically uses an Intel Xeon or AMD Opteron server processor as a foundation for enterprise software. It made its consumer debut in October.

Microsoft also reported that WHS users might encounter problems with Torrent applications, Intuit Quicken, and QuickBooks program files.

“Until an update for Windows Home Server is available, we recommend that do not use the programs that are listed in this article to save or to edit program-specific files that are stored on a Windows Home Server-based system,” according to Microsoft.

WHS team members are “working diligently to solve the problem,” according to a WHS spokesman. “At this point, there appears to be a few isolated incidents, but we wanted to inform our customers immediately while we investigate and resolve this issue.”

Source Article

Share This

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

Just when you thought that you have spent enough during the holiday season, in comes the post-Christmas sales rush. This is the time when another slew of price drops and great bundles begin to tease what’s left, if any,of your christmas budget. But if you’re looking to score a sweet deal for the new year, you might do well to check out some sweet budget desktop PCs.

PC Magazine says: “Budget PCs are a force of commerce. They don’t come with the same bells and whistles as their high-end/gaming brethren, but you’d be surprised at the feature set and performance in a modestly-priced system. Much of the PC-computing public, particularly the less demanding users, will like these choices. Three of them (the Compaq, eMachines and Everex) will be easy to find in big-box stores across the U.S.. The Dell system, you’ll have to wait for, as they have to build it for you. ”

Read the Whole article here

Share This

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

Looks like Samsung is trying very hard to catch the iPhone fever and offering a whole range of iPhone lookalikes. The touchscreen Wonders Samsung F490 and Samsung P720 have been manhandled by some dude in a Ukraine press conference a few days back. Catch the video below.

Left: The Samsung F490 features 3.2 inch 240×432 display, 5 megapixel camera, no keyboard, no built in flip cover, HSDPA network.

Right side: The Samsung P720 is an Armani designed phone, features a 2.6 inch full touchscreen, tactile feedback, 3 megapixel camera, and built in flip cover. It has a dual SIM card function that allows 2 phone lines to be active at the same time, just like on the SAMSUNG SGH-D880.

Touchscreen Wonders Samsung F490 and Samsung P720 source

Share This

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

Looks Ferrari is endorsing a lot of products, from perfumes to Acer laptops nowadays. For those who can afford, the Limited Edition Ferrari Motorola Z8 is definitely a must-have for gadget lovers with big pockets. The mobile phone is expected to be available around Q1 2008 and includes an array of videos, custom wallpapers and ringtones of the F1 Team. No word on the price yet but hopefully it costs less than the steering wheel of a Ferrari 599.

Interestingly, the Motorola Z8 slider uses the new Symbian 9.2 UIQ 3.1 version of the operating system, while the rest of us will be just pleased to know it is considerably faster, stable and user friendly than previous incarnations seen on other Smartphones. Applications include the Opera browser and email, a PDF viewer, an organiser, a 2MP camera with video and 90MB of onboard memory. Just wished it sported at least 3.2 MP on the camera lens but I am sure Ferrari lovers will still buy it to support the Team.

Limited Edition Ferrari Motorola Z8 specs:

* Quad Band
* Ferrari emblem
* 2 Megapixel Camera
* MP3 Player
* microSD Card Slot (TransFlash)
* HSDPA for super fast access
* 3G and EDGE
* Symbian OS v9.2, UIQ 3.1
* Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
* Dimensions: 109 x 50 x 15 mm
* Weight: 112 grams
Limited Edition Ferrari Motorola Z8 source

Share This

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

Looks like the iPhone is getting GPS features in the next firmware update 1.1.3 around early 2008. What does this iPhone firmware update 1.1.3 do ? It’s reported to add semi-GPS capabilities, based upon cell triangulation and multi-destination SMS texting capability to the iPhone.

I call the GPS function semi-GPS since there’s no GPS receiver on the Apple iPhone and it will only be using 3 Cell towers from the Mobile Providers triangulate and provide GPS-like coordinates. It won’t be as accurate as GPS tracking but at least it will work in subways and tunnels that have mobile reception.

iPhone getting GPS feature - so? via

Share This

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

It’s easy to be on the bleeding edge of the latest

technology based in San Francisco, but I tend to be more of a follower in other

areas, such as music.

I always seem to be one step behind a friend here, who

recommends the latest hot bands and the best way of being educated on and

acquiring music.

It was him who first recommended Pitchfork to me for music

reviews and eMusic for downloads free of digital rights management (DRM)

software.

He was ahead of me in switching back to buying CDs and

ripping them to portable media players as we became disillusioned with

subscription services and restrictions on the portability of music.

So I took note when he said he was buying a lot of music

from Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 service these days.

An album generally costs $8.99, or 89 cents a track, cheaper

than regular CDs and the music can be burned to your own CDs an unlimited

number of times or transferred to any device.

The service has just gained extra appeal with the news that

Warner Music Group is making its catalogue available. It joins EMI, Universal

Music Group and a host of independent labels, significantly increasing the

choice available.

In contrast, Apple’s iTunes store only offers DRM-free music

from one of the majors – EMI.

Amazonmp3 is therefore becoming a strong alternative

to iTunes and the iPod universe, which is due in no small part to the majors not

wanting to be held hostage to Apple’s pricing policies. And it is finally

giving consumers what they really want – music without restrictions on their

use of it.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This

Do you really know what’s running right now on your PC? In all likelihood the answer is no. It’s like not knowing who’s living in your own house. Dozens of processes or services may run in the background without your being aware of it. And though it can show you what’s running, Windows’ Task Manager is a poor tool for diggng deeper than that.

Process Explorer (a free download) provides exceptionally detailed information about every process and service, as well as identifying any applications associated with them. In Task Manager, you have no idea what each process and service do. But because Process Explorer often shows applications associated with each process and service, you’ll be able to tell whether shutting them down is safe. The tool can also uncover clues indicating that a service or process may be spyware or malware.

Download Process Explorer | Price: Free

Share This

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share This