With its customary flair for sexing up the art of gizmo glorification, Macworld 2009 didn’t disappoint with some big reveals today. Topping all the charts was Apple’s latest update to its iLife suite, touting major retrofits of iMovie, iPhoto and GarageBand. The changes range from a better system for organizing photos in iPhoto to more [...]
CES 2009: Boot your computer in hyperspeed
Jan. 6, 2009 1 Comment
The notorious Windows boot time can be an onerous necessity when all you want to do is check e-mail or hit up your favorite magazine (like Blast) for a quick hit of news. Phoenix Technologies latest product, debuting at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, is called HyperSpace. It’s a slick, compact Linux based platform [...]
Lighting the way
April 1, 2008 Leave a Comment
Martin Schubert is going to change the way you see the world [...]
Books vs. video games
March 6, 2008 1 Comment
They’ll rot your brain. They’ll make you lazy. They’ll demagnetize your moral compass and turn you into a sociopathic monster. They’ll sabotage your ability to function in the real world. Sound familiar, gamers? In the 1950s and 1960s, critics claimed a new form of mainstream entertainment, comic books, were going to do just that. However, [...]
The MacGyver crack
Feb. 22, 2008 Leave a Comment
Take a seven dollar can of compressed air from any office supply store. Flip it over, and spray its liquid nitrogen on a computer’s DRAM, or digital random access memory. Reboot the computer, or even extract the DRAM chip and clone it, then run a few relatively simple programs. Nothing that would defeat an intermediate [...]
11-year-old hacks iPhone
Jan. 9, 2008 3 Comments
What appeared to be a legitimate iPhone application, “iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep,” turned out to be a piece of malicious software intended to ruin functionality on affected phones. The programmer of this dangerous piece of code was an eleven-year-old boy. Using the installer.app feature on the iPhone, users can access the diverse world of third-party [...]
DOJ serves karma, indictments to spammers
Jan. 3, 2008 Leave a Comment
On Thursday, some good news hit the battered lungs of a billion junk email filters like pure oxygen: Eleven of the world’s most prolific spammers — nine of whom live in the U.S. — were indicted by the Department of Justice. According to papers unsealed in Detroit, the electronic highwaymen, facing a 41-count indictment, are [...]
The Facebook connection
Nov. 1, 2007 Leave a Comment
After a series of late starts, Microsoft’s recent riposte may be the savviest it’s made in ages. Digging deep after losing out to Google for exclusive advertising rights on the Internet’s number one social networking site, MySpace, Microsoft settled for a $240 million, 1.6% stake in number two, Facebook. The deal follows close on the [...]
Study: Video games don’t cause violence
April 1, 2007 1 Comment
In the last five years, video games have risen to prominence as the whipping boy of choice in the culture wars. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was Hollywood. At that time, the movie industry was under increasing scrutiny due to violence on the big screen. Concerned politicians, at the behest of clamoring [...]
What’s the Deal with the Satellite Deal?
March 1, 2007 Leave a Comment
You’re cruising down a state highway in west Texas flipping through radio stations, but the reception is horrible. A couple of small-town AM warriors are keeping the waves breathing with old standards and second-tier conservative talk shows. Satellite radio would sure pay off right now. The problem is, however, which provider do you choose? XM, [...]
Blast and McAfee talk shop
Feb. 1, 2007 Leave a Comment
Malicious coders and hackers are constantly finding new ways to circumvent security precautions, and this isn’t likely to change in 2007. While a solid anti-virus program is a good bet, the best way to avoid costly mistakes is to stay tapped into the latest developments in the fast changing computer world, said David Marcus, Senior [...]
MediaFACE Online
Jan. 1, 2007 1 Comment
The silent dictum for successful web-based applications thus far has been: make it so easy anyone can use it. While the new web-based CD label building application MediaFACE Online is nifty, I’m not sure it’s worth the price tag at $19.95. Though it represents a definite step in the right direction for the much-anticipated Web [...]
Flowery career path
Jan. 1, 2007 Leave a Comment
Here’s a career path. Start out as a florist searching for the perfect balance of red roses and limonium. Eight years later, end up tracking down the spread of viruses for one of the top computer security companies in the world. After Allysa Myers landed a part-time job as a secretary for McAfee’s Avert Labs [...]
