Android 4.0 Face Unlock fooled by a photo, we’re not surprised (video)

News

  • November 12, 2011 at 4:17 am

0

Android 4.0 Face unlock fooled by photo

If are familiar with the new features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, you’ll probably know that now there is a new way of unlocking a device using its front-facing camera, and well, your face.

So, the question posed was whether the new Face unlock feature could be fooled by a photo, rather than the real thing. Unsurprisingly it can. Those of you that have used the Visidon AppLock Android app already know that it’s possible since the technology only relies in recognizing features. A more advanced implementation could wait for you to blink first, but that’s not the case with Face unlock, yet.

If you have sensitive information on your device, and someone can get to it and your photo, then just don’t use Face unlock. We would see this feature only being used by people who don’t bother to have a passcode/unlock pattern anyway, and well, this is just for putting anyone that wants your data to go through a couple of hoops first, and of course for showing off to your friends.

In any case you needn’t worry about which unlock option you’ll use with your Android 4.0 device yet, unless you’re planning to grab a Galaxy Nexus, once it’s finally released this month — hopefully.

Video of the escapade is after the break.
continue reading

iOS 5.0.1 update released: promises to fix your iPhone battery woes, includes new iPad multitasking gestures

News

  • November 10, 2011 at 4:48 pm

1

iPhone low battery level

A lot of iOS 5 users have complained of poor battery life, and we’ve reported that Apple has been working hard to fix the issue. Devices that could be affected include the iPhone 4S and any iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS that has been updated to iOS 5.

iOS 5.0.1 has been released today and promises to fix any battery woes that you’ve been facing. The update, also available for both iPads and the iPod Touch, includes security patches and various other fixes, while the original iPad also gets some new multitasking gestures.

If the update hasn’t reached your device yet, check Settings > General > Software Update on your device or connect it to a computer and launch iTunes.
continue reading

Panasonic GH2 MFT camera now hacked for video up to ISO 12,800 (video)

News

  • November 10, 2011 at 9:53 am

0

GF2 ISO 12,800 video

We’ve already covered how the Panasonic GH2 had been unlocked, using a custom firmware, and could now record video at an amazing 176Mbps. The latest version of the hack now removes the ISO 3,200 limit when recording video, so that you can push the camera to record up to ISO 12,800. Now, one would think that video at such high ISO would be rife with noise and completely unusable.

Well, it turns out that, although noise is there, it’s not as bad, and the hack allows the GH2 to become an amazing low-light shooter. This is especially true when shooting video in B&W where the noise just looks like film grain. It’s pretty mind-blowing that you can shoot such video with a sub-$1000 digital camera. You can find details on how to apply the firmware in by following this link.

Two videos showing off the GH2’s high-ISO low-light B&W video capabilities await for you after the break.
continue reading

Samsung Galaxy Nexus release date slips past the 21st of November in the UK and Europe?

News

  • November 10, 2011 at 7:35 am

0

Android Ice Cream Sandwich Galaxy Nexus

There’s a lot of anticipation for the release of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and that is no small part because it will be the first smartphone to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich — you might want check out our guide of what ICS has to offer.

Samsung confirmed the 17th of November as the official release date of the Galaxy Nexus in the UK and Europe two weeks ago during their Galaxy Note promotional event in London. It seems that this date has now been pushed forward to the 21st. Handtec, an online UK mobile device retailer, has posted on its blog that it has received confirmation from Samsung distribution that the Galaxy Nexus will arrive to retailers in the week commencing 21st of November, here is their original post:
continue reading

Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core mobile chip revealed: more power, better battery life (video)

News

  • November 9, 2011 at 5:23 pm

0

Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core mobile chip

The Nvidia Tegra 2 monopolized Android Honeycomb tablets this year and we already knew that Nvidia had a successor in the works with the codename ‘Kal-El’. Today Nvidia has come clean with a host of new details on the project and the official Tegra 3 name, and yes mark it down as the first mobile quad-core CPU, yeah ever.

Nvidia is claiming that the new Tegra 3 chip will offer up to five times the performance of the Tegra 2 with its 1.3GHz quad-core Cortex A9 processor and three times the graphics performance with a new 12-core graphics unit. What’s more interesting is that Nvidia has included a fifth, low-power 0 to 500MHz “companion core”. When you don’t need the power afforded by the quad-core unit, the companion core takes over, taking care of light-weight tasks, like listening to music, or during standby. The chip is also intelligent enough to scale the main 4 cores between single, dual and quad-core modes on demand as well.
continue reading

The Criterion Collection brings art house cinema to iTunes

News

  • November 9, 2011 at 1:29 pm

0

The Criterion Collection on iTunes

If you are a film lover it’s almost certain you’ve come across The Criterion Collection. Established in 1984, The Criterion Collection is a video distribution company known for its amazing archive of important classics and contemporary art house cinema. They take great care in restoring film and presenting it in the best way possible. They helped to standardize the letterbox format and with their special editions regularly release extended directors’ cuts and include bonus features such as interviews, trailers, film critic commentary, in a sort of fun film school in a box.

Besides of their amazing quality I love Criterion releases for their incredible cover art.

Criterion had recently began offering online viewing of its masterpieces, with 57 titles on offer, and now the company has started testing the waters with iTunes. It has made pretty much the same collection of 46 world, American Indie and art-house movies available for you to rent or buy from iTunes. Each film costs $2.99 to rent (less than the $5 Criterion demands on its own website) and $14.99 to buy. Prices aren’t surprising as Criterion usually charges high prices leveraging on the niche and quality of its flicks.
continue reading

HTC Edge Tegra 3 quad-core Android 4.7-inch beast-phone to have optically-laminated display, NFC, 8.8mm profile

News

  • November 8, 2011 at 1:22 pm

0

HTC Edge leaked picture

More details have come through on the HTC Edge, a rumored 4.7-inch 720p Android smartphone and the first to sport a quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Well it seems that the 720p HD display is not just any plain LCD but rather an S-LCD with optical lamination.

Usually, there is a gap between the LCD display and the cover glass. Optical lamination eliminates that gap by bonding the screen to the glass, so that the screen appears to be floating on the surface of the device, making the touch experience better by making it more direct. This also improves the clarity and sharpness of the display by eliminating light refraction, otherwise caused by the gap; dust under your screen also becomes history. The same technology was used for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S’ amazing display, but obviously here we’re talking about a 4.7-inch screen rather than a 3.5-inch one.
continue reading

Panasonic Toughpad A1 and Toughpad B1 rugged Android tablets announced (video, specs)

News

  • November 8, 2011 at 12:46 pm

1

Panasonic Toughpad A1 rugged Android tablet

If you find yourself in the freezing snow, under the scorching heat of the desert, getting wet or dropping your thing on the asphalt, then take note. Panasonic has just announced a duo of Android tablets for extreme handling and extreme conditions. Bear in mind that Panasonic is no stranger to rugged computing; it has long marketed the Toughbook laptop to military, law enforcement and heavy industrial users.

The new tablet duo consists of the 10.1-inch XGA LED 1024 x 768 Toughpad A1, which will be available next spring for $1299, and the 7-inch Toughpad B1, which will be coming in the fall of 2011. They both feature a military grade rugged design with water and dust-resistance.

The Toughpad A1 is an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet with a Marvell 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storaga. It has a GPS receiver, optional integrated 4G or 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and 2-megapixel front and 5-megapixel rear cameras. What you would be more interested to know is that it’s military standard MIL-STD-810G and IP65 certified rugged with 4-foot drop rating, water and dust resistant and is safe for use in extreme temperatures from 14 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The chasis is made of magnesium alloy encased with ABS and elastomer.

Panasonic claims a daylight-readable 500nit LCD display with anti-reflective and anti-glare coatings. Embedded hardware security for FIPS 140-2 compliance with hardware encryption and software encryption. Panasonic hasn’t skimped on any features here and course all these add up, making the Toughpad A1 a 10.5x 8.4x 0.7 inch, 2.1 lbs (952g) beast.

Panasonic is marketing the tablet for business use, like law enforcement, healthcare, field sales, utilities and military.

You can catch a video of the Toughpad A1 getting some seriously rough handling after the break.
continue reading

HTC Edge 4.7-inch Android smartphone leaked, could be world’s first quad-core phone

News

  • November 7, 2011 at 1:57 pm

0

HTC Edge leaked picture

Dual-core smartphones are so yesterday, when you can have quad-core wonders that is. And here we have our first rumor of a new HTC device the Edge, which is said to run on an Nvidia Tegra 3 1.5GHz 1.3GHz quad-core processor. So if you were getting comfy with the idea of having the latest and greatest Android smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, HTC Rezound or Motorola Droid RAZR, know that their reign will end soon (well not until early 2012 at least).

So the HTC Edge is said to have a 720p HD 4.7-inch display, an 8-megapixel 28mm f/2.2 lens with rear backlit sensor camera, 1GB of RAM and measure only 10mm thick. It’s supposed to have 32GB of storage and Bluetooth 4.0, though no word on an LTE or HSPA+ radio. Sounds like a dream, huh?

Of course no word whether it will ship with Android Ice Cream Sandwich, though since HTC is already upgrading a host of smartphones to ICS in early-2012, we would consider it a done deal.

The HTC Edge is expected to arrive in early to mid-2012, if the rumors are right that is.
continue reading

B&N Nook Tablet announced, $249 shipping November 18th, a paler shade of grey (video)

News

  • November 7, 2011 at 1:29 pm

0

B&N Nook Tablet

We already saw all the details of the Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble’s response to the Amazon Kindle Fire last week. Barnes & Noble has today officially unwrapped its Nook Color successor, and things are looking good for the book retailer.

The Nook Tablet shares the same unique Yves Behar design like the original Nook Color (which by the way is now selling for $199), save for a lighter grey paint job, and a slightly slimmer design. Inside however it’s been vastly improved. The Nook Tablet runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread underneath, but like its predecessor, the experience is very customized and is content and book centric.

It’s donned with a 7-inch 1024×600 IPS VividView touchscreen display and runs on a dual-core 1GHz processor with 1GB of RAM. It has 16GB of built-in storage and a micorSD card slot for up to 32GB additional space, trumping the Kindle Fire. You can check out how the Nook Tablet fares against the $199 Kindle Fire in our comparison. The Nook Tablet weights 14.1oz and is 0.48 inches thick. Battery life appears to have been boosted with a claimed up to 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video.

The Nook Tablet comes with Netflix and Hulu Plus out of the box, and is capable of playing 1080p HD video. Other loaded applications include, Pandora internet radio, Chess, Crossword, Sudoku, Media Gallery, NOOK Friends and email. As with the Nook Color, you will not have access to the official Android Market, but rather B&N’s own Nook apps market — though it remains to be seen how fast this can get hacked and loaded with custom ROMs for full market access, like the Nook Color. Barnes & Noble is offering a new ‘Nook Cloud’ free storage service with the device and free trials for Rhapsody, MOG and Grooveshark.

You can pre-order the Nook Tablet today for $249 from B&N, shipping on November 18th. The Nook Simple Touch device, with an E-Ink display, is now just $99 (from $149) and has received improved rendering software for faster page turns, while, as we’ve mentioned, the Nook Color can be had for $199 (from $249).

A host of presentation videos are after the break.
continue reading

iOS 5 bug could allow for untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S and iOS 5 upgraded devices

News

  • November 7, 2011 at 11:52 am

0

iOS 5 Notification Center

All those with an iPhone 4S or iOS 5 upgradable devices, like the iPhone 4 or iPad, waiting to break the bonds from their computers and permanently jailbreak their device get a small glimpse of hope today. A ‘developer’ (or should we say hacker), @pod2g, has tweeted that a bug in iOS 5 could finally allow untethered jailbreaking.

Currently, if you have a jailbroken iOS 5 device, you need to connect it to a computer every time you restart in order for the device to start properly. A huge hassle. The developer warns though, that the exploit might not come soon, but we are crossing our fingers here. As the late Steve Jobs said, it’s the developer and hacking community that has always realized the true potential of technology.
continue reading

HTC confirms Vivid, Sensation, Rezound, EVO 3D and others to get Android Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades in early 2012

News

  • November 7, 2011 at 6:13 am

0

HTC Sensation

Aren’t software upgrades a wonderful thing? One day your smartphone is sporting a lowly Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system, and the next, it receives a free update to the shiny, new, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). If you don’t know why you would want ICS on your phone, check out our Android basics column, and our complete guide of all the new features and improvements in ICS.

With all that on the table, it’s pretty normal that any current Android user, would want to get the Android 4.0 update, while HTC had been quiet on its update schedule since ICS was revealed.

Well, the company has now confirmed its upgrade plans on the company’s Facebook page. Obviously HTC’s latest handsets will be getting the upgrade, with the HTC Vivid, HTC Rezound and the HTC Sensation, Sensation XL and Sensation XE all getting Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012. The HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Amaze 4G are also getting ICS. HTC will continue to assess its current line for upgradability, so don’t despair if your device isn’t included in this first wave of upgrades.

There is also no mention of any of the company’s tablets, like the Flyer or the Jetsream yet.

You can find HTC’s statement after the break.
continue reading

Panasonic Lumix GX1 Micro Four Thirds camera and LVF2 EVF announced: new 16MP sensor, December release date (specs, pictures, video)

News

  • November 7, 2011 at 5:20 am

0

Panasonic Lumix GX1 MFT digital camera silver

The Panasonic Lumix GX1 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mirrorless interchangeable lens camera (MILC) has been officially announced. We first saw the true successor of the venerable GF1 in October, while yesterday we managed to catch a good look of the high-end compact GX1 in Panasonic’s presentation video. Specifications are exactly as we had initially reported.

The Lumix GX1 has a 16-megapixel Live MOS sensor, the same that can be found in the Panasonic G3. This would mean more detail but less high ISO noise than the 12-megapixel sensor found in the GF3 (and of course the much older GF1). On the back ,you’ll find a 3-inch 460k dot touchscreen LCD; similar to other Panasonic offerings, you can touch-focus using the screen. You can also control the Lumix X Power Zoom lenses with the touchscreen. The camera uses contrast autofocus, with Panasonic claiming its as fast as 0.09 seconds. The GX1 can shoot up to ISO 12,800 and supports 1080p video in MP4 (20Mbps) and 1080i60 in AVCHD (17Mbps). We’re glad to see that it includes a stereo microphone and an accessory shoe which can host an electronic viewfinder or external flash.

Together with the camera, Panasonic announced the DMW-LVF2, a new 1,440k dot, 90 degree tilting, electronic viewfinder (EVF). The LVF2 offers more than seven times the effective pixels of the older LVF1 (with 202k dots). Unfortunately the LVF2 will not be compatible with any of the current GF-line cameras, (GF3, GF2, GF1); the LVF2 has a different set of connector which are essential in order to support the higher data transfer rate necessary for its higher resolution.

The GX1 is housed in an aluminium body, similar to the GF1, has metal buttons and a substantial textured handgrip. In terms of controls you have a typical Panasonic arrangement with two physical customizable function buttons, a mode dial, while it’s only missing the drive mode selector from the GF1. Though, remember, you can control aspects of the camera using the touchscreen as well, if you so choose. Panasonic has, for the first time, included a horizontal and vertical angle level gauge which will be displayed both in portrait and vertical use.
continue reading

Steve Jobs 1990 interview, talking about the past and the future of computing

News

  • November 6, 2011 at 4:50 am

0

Steve Jobs interview

Steve Jobs was rather camera shy, so only a handful of interviews with the technology visionary remain. One of these interviews was part of WGBH’s The Machine That Changed the World series, while the name of the episode is ‘the Paperback Computer’.

The interview was done in 1990, the year when NeXT released the NeXTcube, which Jobs touted as the first “interpersonal” computer that would replace the personal computer. The interview is an uncut version, so you get a peek at Jobs during all the outtakes.

There are a lot of interesting insights on personal computing and software. Jobs talks about how the success of a platform system is measured by the number of application software written for it. He discusses how the ‘hobbyist’ or as we would say today the ‘developer’ or ‘hacking’ community was one step ahead of the companies in realizing the true potential of hardware technology.

He also talks about how communication is the future of computing, while there are tons of references on the history of personal computers. You can find the entire 50 minute interview after the break.

Steve Jobs had left Apple in 1985 and founded NeXT that same year. Apple acquired NeXT in 1997 and Jobs returned to the company he co-founded, with the NeXTSTEP operating system finally evolving into Mac OS X.
continue reading