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Earlier Monday, Intel acknowledged that a supporting chipset for the next-generation Core processors contained a flaw in the Serial-ATA (SATA) controller. The bug can cause poor hard drive performance or even make the drive invisible to the system.
Intel said it has stopped shipments of the flawed chipsets and retooled the chipset. It will begin shipping the fixed version late next month, and said that it "expects full volume recovery in April."
The design gaffe could effect Apple's next MacBook Pro refresh if the notebook line is to get new processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture, as many speculated last month.
According to Kevin Krewell, a senior analyst with the Linley Group -- the publishers of Microprocessor Report -- the mobile version of the supporting chipset may have been flawed.
In an e-mail reply to questions, Krewell pointed out a pair of Intel documents that note the mobile versions of the chipset use the same 6Gbps and 3Gbps ports as those used in the desktop versions.
Andantech.com, meanwhile, said today that the flaw affects only the 3Gbps ports -- the chipsets' SATA controller also offers faster-speed 6Gbps ports -- making the likelihood of an impact on notebook makers even higher.
While the signs point to a problem for Apple, analysts split today on whether a MacBook Pro refresh would be delayed.
"It could mean a delay of two to three weeks," said Martin Reynolds, a vice president with Gartner, assuming Apple intended to launch new MacBook Pros in March or even April.
Dan Olds, a senior analyst with Portland, Ore.-based Gabriel Consulting Group, disagreed.
"I don't think Intel has shipped any [Sandy Bridge] chipsets for mobile yet," Olds said. "I haven't heard any chatter from the major players [about upcoming notebooks that use the chipsets], like Dell, for example."
The unknown, of course, is when Apple was planning to launch revamped MacBook Pro models that rely on the Sandy Bridge architecture, and thus, the flawed chipsets.
Most close Apple watchers have been expecting an imminent refresh. Although Apple doesn't hew to a set schedule for upgrades, the last time it boosted the MacBook Pro was in April 2010, nearly 300 days ago.
MacRumors, which monitors Apple product timelines, said today that the average time between MacBook Pro refreshes is just 208 days, and currently recommends that buyers delay purchases because a refresh is likely.
"If you're Apple, this is actually good news," said Olds. "You'd rather have it happen now than in April, May, June or July when systems have been shipped."
Reynolds echoed that. "Intel is lucky they caught this now, that the ports failed as soon as they did," he said, noting that the flaw escaped Intel's usual pre-shipping tests, probably because the symptom -- a hard drive issue -- could have been blamed on the drive not the SATA controller.
To Olds, the problem was a big deal no matter how you looked at it.
"This affects everyone involved, Intel and OEMs," he said. "When this happens, you simply don't see your drive anymore. It turns the computer into a brick."
But Olds was confident Intel would quickly get new, fixed chipsets to computer makers. "You have to assume that Intel will be rolling with all due speed on this," Olds said. "Ever since they had that Pentium math error years ago, they've attacked problems pretty aggressively."
The Pentium problem Olds mentioned came to light in 1994, when a Virginia math professor discovered a bug in the processor's calculations.
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While large enterprises have full-time staffers to operate monster machines that digest the contents of reams of paper and place it on company networks, many companies rely on department multifunction printers (MFP) that handle copying and printing tasks for networked users. About the size of a Smart car, these powerhouses can scan pages so that their contents can be saved as electronic data. To take full advantage of this capability, however, you need dedicated software that can simplify and automate the operations. And that's where eCopy ShareScan Suite v5 comes into play.
eCopy ShareScan lets you track all scanning activities by user or by device, either for security or cost-recovery reasons. This is the first version of this powerful scanning software package to be released since Nuance Communications acquired eCopy just over a year ago. Nuance (formerly ScanSoft, formerly Visioneer) has grown to be a dominant power in optical character recognition (OCR) through a long history of mergers and acquisitions. It also picked up the Dragon speech-recognition software when it acquired Lernout & Hauspie. (As it turns out, the algorithms required for speech recognition are also very helpful in OCR processing.)
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Computerworld - Despite e-mail and access to shared databases, the daily tidal waves of paper that businesses have to deal with have not subsided. From purchase orders to contracts, correspondence to catalogs, the average office has stacks of paper full of information to manage and maintain.While large enterprises have full-time staffers to operate monster machines that digest the contents of reams of paper and place it on company networks, many companies rely on department multifunction printers (MFP) that handle copying and printing tasks for networked users. About the size of a Smart car, these powerhouses can scan pages so that their contents can be saved as electronic data. To take full advantage of this capability, however, you need dedicated software that can simplify and automate the operations. And that's where eCopy ShareScan Suite v5 comes into play.
eCopy ShareScan lets you track all scanning activities by user or by device, either for security or cost-recovery reasons. This is the first version of this powerful scanning software package to be released since Nuance Communications acquired eCopy just over a year ago. Nuance (formerly ScanSoft, formerly Visioneer) has grown to be a dominant power in optical character recognition (OCR) through a long history of mergers and acquisitions. It also picked up the Dragon speech-recognition software when it acquired Lernout & Hauspie. (As it turns out, the algorithms required for speech recognition are also very helpful in OCR processing.)
The addition of eCopy gave the company a departmental solution, and one that works with all major networked MFPs, including those from Canon, Konica Minolta, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and Ricoh. ShareScan has embedded software available for all of these (except HP), which means that the software can be controlled right from the user panel on the MFP.
I had the opportunity to spend a day putting ShareScan through its paces. Nuance provided help in the form of two company experts. We met at the Canon Business Solutions center in Jamesburg, N.J., where I was given free run of the demonstration systems, including departmental MFPs and a complete network.
ECopy ShareScan v5 comes in three different versions. ECopy ShareScan Elements has a list price of $795, and handles capture and send tasks. ECopy ShareScan Office lists for $1,495, and adds the ability to connect the MFP to basic office applications. ECopy ShareScan Suite lists for $2,995 and has the features required for advanced automation of workflows. Each license is good for one networked MFP device; annual maintenance and support fees are extra.
I tested the Suite version so that I could see all the available features.
(For companies whose employees may have MFPs and desktop scanners that do not support the ShareScan software, Nuance offers the eCopy ScanStation, a kiosk-style device that holds an MFP or scanner, provides network access and supports all the features of ShareScan.)
The key to efficient paperwork management is to handle each sheet as little as possible. ShareScan has remarkable versatility to help make that happen through the use of "connectors," which integrate with business applications, and "extenders," which perform various processing tasks on the scanned data. Both can be created for business customers by Nuance for additional fees, or by third-party developers; there are also SDKs so that customers can create their own.
Some connectors are straightforward; for example, you could use connectors to automatically take a scanned image, place it in a target folder on a networked storage location and notify someone that the document is now available. You could develop this workflow to send a PDF version of the file, or use eCopy's OCR functions (based on the OmniPage engine) to create a Microsoft Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Or you could define a workflow that would create the file and then send it as an attachment via e-mail to someone.
ShareScan v5 has native integration with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, so you can use your familiar e-mail system. And since ShareScan works off the same network authentication as the office programs, you have access to all your address lists, right at the MFP console. It even uses a "type-ahead" interface to make it easier to select recipients.
Connectors are available that interface directly with other major software systems, including Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum and Xerox DocuShare. And if you're looking for, say, automatic Bates numbering of scanned documents, it can do it. It can also recognize and read 15 different types of bar codes, including 2D formats, so that individual documents can be identified automatically and routed accordingly.
The rule states that when only five large blocks of IP addresses remain, one will be handed out to each of the world's five regional Internet registries. With the latest allocation to APNIC, the number of remaining IP address blocks is down to five.
IANA is expected to assign the remaining blocks within a matter of days or less. After that, the regional bodies will have no higher source of addresses to turn to when they have assigned the addresses they hold.
IPv4's address space allows for only about 4.3 billion unique Internet addresses, which client and server computers use to connect with the Internet. The remaining IPv4 addresses have been dwindling over the past few years. The latest version of Internet Protocol, IPv6, has a nearly unlimited number of addresses but is not yet widely used.
As expected, APNIC, the regional Internet registry for Asia, has requested and been assigned two "/8" -- or "slash-8" -- address blocks, each of which contains about 16 million IP addresses. The newly assigned blocks are 39/8 and 106/8, which as recently as last week were unallocated. Now only 102/8, 103/8, 179/8 and 185/8 remain unallocated. Some other /8 blocks are reserved for special purposes such as multicasting.
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com
Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.At the low end of the spectrum, Windows Phone 7 (WP7) didn't even gain more share than its predecessor Windows Mobile in the fourth quarter, according to a report from The NPD Group. Windows Mobile phones are still sold by all the four major U.S. Carriers.
The WP7 rankings came out amid online speculation that the mobile OS will get an update next Monday to bring copy-and-paste functionality and other improvements to the phones.
Android became the bestselling smartphone OS with 32.9 % of the global market and 33.3 million phones shipped, Canalys reported. That was ahead of Nokia's Symbian with 30.6% of the market, or 31 million phones shipped, and double Apple's 16% market share (with 16.2 million phones shipped). Research in Motion had 14.4% of the market and shipped 14.6 million phones, and Microsoft had 3.1%, shipping 3.1 million phones.
In total, Canalys said 101.2 million smartphones shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Meanwhile, NPD said that in the U.S., Android took 53% of the sales in the fourth quarter. The Apple iPhone had 19% of sales -- the same as RIM -- Windows Mobile had 4% and WP7, which debuted mid-way in the fourth quarter, had 2%. Palm WebOS phones also had 2%, NPD said.
The Android impact in tablets came at the expense of the iPad, according to U.K.-based Strategy Analytics. It found that 9.7 million tablets shipped in the fourth quarter globally, with the iPad accounting for 75% of those sales and Android grabbing 22%. The Samsung Galaxy Tab, running Android, was a big factor in Android's growth, appearing in the fourth quarter in many countries.
Samsung said it sold 2 million in the quarter.
WP7 hit the market in devices at the "epicenter of competition between iOS and Android at AT&T," said Ross Rubin, an analyst at NPD. WP7 is also sold by T-Mobile USA.
Even though Android phones in aggregate outdid the iPhone, the iPhone 4 was the top-seller in the U.S. in the fourth quarter, NPD said. That put it ahead of the Motorola Droid X and the HTC Evo 4G, both of which run Android. The Apple iPhone 3GS came in fourth, followed by Motorola Droid 2, NPD said.
Rubin said WP7 needs to offer exclusive capabilities and "must close the feature gap" with other devices. A Feb. 7 update for Wp7 update seems logical, coming a week before Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to speak at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Some sites have estimated that about two million WP7's have shipped, although they might not yet have been sold. But that figure would likely be a high estimate if Windows Mobile devices have outsold WP7, as NPD claims for the U.S., and if three million Windows Mobile and WP7 phones were sold in the fourth quarter, as Canalys claims.
Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at 
@matthamblen or subscribe to 
Matt's RSS feed. His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.
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Google, which purchased SayNow just last week, has hacked together a "speak-to-tweet service" for Egyptians who still have working telephones but who can't connect with Twitter because ISPs in the country were ordered to disconnect from the Internet.
The last remaining major ISP (Internet service provider), Noor Group, abruptly disconnected its service on Monday.
"[A]nyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers ... and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt," Google said in a blog posting. "No Internet connection is required."
The speak-to-tweet service automatically puts the voicemail on a Web page that is then linked in a Twitter message posted to Google's Speak2tweet Twitter account.
By Monday afternoon Pacific Time, the service was posting new Twitter messages every few minutes -- many of them in Arabic -- including commentary and reports from Egypt.
It's one of several alternative techniques that have been set up to keep Egyptians connected as people take to the streets to call for democratic reforms to the unpopular government of President Hosni Mubarak.
Other service providers have set up free international Internet dial-up numbers, and even harnessed ham radio communications systems for Egyptians.
Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com
Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.Motorola Mobility has updated that freedom theme in a new one-minute ad to air during this year's Super Bowl. Motorola contrasts its upcoming Xoom tablet with the Apple ipad by referencing 1984, the year.
In the 1984 ad, Apple itself was attacking a Big Brother image, explained by CEO Steve Jobs as IBM -- "IBM wants it all," he said at the time. But many viewers saw the ad as a shot at Microsoft, which made software running on IBM PCs. (This video shows Jobs introducing the 1984 ad and the ad itself. )
Today, the iPad dominates the tablet market.
Motorola is clearly challenging that iPad domination in the Xoom ad, but with a bit of humor: It opens with an image of a spinning Earth wearing recognizable white Apple earbuds.
No images of either tablet actually appear in the commercial, but the comparisons between the Android Honeycomb-enabled Xoom and the iPad are there.
The text in the ads notes, "2011 looks a lot like 1984...One authority...One design...One way to work...It's time for more choices."
Against a heavy drumbeat of music, the Xoom is further described in text as offering more speed with a dual-core 1GHz processor and 1080p video playback, while starting at 3G speeds that are upgradable to 4G. Further, the ad says it will have "more flexibility" with Honeycomb (Android 3.0), the Adobe Flash multimedia player, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
It concludes: "More Freedom.... It's time to explore.... It's time to live a free life." The ad signs off with Motorola's latest slogan: "Life M-powered" which uses the Motorola M logo and references to Xoom and Super Bowl 45.
With all those contrasts, the ad omits that the Xoom has 10.1-in. screen, slightly bigger than the iPad's 9.7-in. screen.
Xoom is scheduled to appear Feb. 17, according to leaked documents, and could be priced starting at $700. Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha told investors last week that he anticipated a launch in February.
Motorola's Super Bowl 2011 ad for the Xoom tablet harkens back to Apple's own 1984 Super Bowl commercial, each casting themselves as the underdog.Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.
Read more about Hardware in Computerworld's Hardware Topic Center.
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Google offers voice-tweeting service for Egyptians
SayNow may be better known for helping the Jonas Brothers and the NBA leave short voicemail messages for their fans, but on Monday it found another purpose: helping Egyptians communicate with the rest of the world.
Egypt goes dark as last Internet company pulls the plug
Four days after the Egyptian government ordered Internet service providers to disconnect from the Internet, the country's last working Internet company has abruptly vanished from cyberspace.
Vodafone says it had to cut mobile service in Egypt
Vodafone made it clear to a world watching deadly protests in Egypt that no matter how sophisticated and secure a privately-run communications network may be, it is still under the government's thumb.
Mobile phone service restored in Egypt
Vodafone and France Telecom say mobile phone service was restored in Egypt on Saturday as demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's government continued across the country on Monday.
Microsoft shifts some work out of Egypt
Microsoft, one of the companies located in Cairo's Smart Villages hi-tech office park, has begun shifting work to other locations in the wake of the on-going unrest in Egypt.
Without Internet, Egyptians find new ways to get online
Despite the government having shut down most of the Internet, people around the world are offering dial-up modem numbers and other primitive tools for people in Egypt.
How Egypt pulled its Internet plug
To sever its link with the outside digital world, Egypt "raised the drawbridge" in mere minutes by forcing the country's providers to make simple changes to their routers, experts said on Friday.
Egypt's 'Net shutdown a wakeup call for CIOs
Reading the news of Egypt's Internet crackdown, CIOs around the world may be wondering how their companies would fare if such a situation happened in their home countries.
Secy. Clinton wants end to 'Net blackout in Egypt
Political leaders are raising concerns about the Egyptian government's blocking of the Internet in response to unrest.
Anatomy of an Internet blackout
The shutdown of Egypt's ties to the rest of the global Internet was not announced by the government -- instead, 3,500 Internet routes suddenly vanished, with more continuing to wink out, leaving network operators in North America to wonder what exactly had happened and what the ripple effects might be.
Egypt's Internet block aims at social media
Through its broad attempt to shut down Internet communications, Egypt's government has not only successfully blocked Twitter but also significantly limited access to Facebook, Yahoo and Google, as it scrambles to squelch political unrest.
Egypt's tech workers stay home as turmoil spreads
The growing anti-government protests in Egypt are disrupting the growing tech industry in the country, according to a tech executive in the country.
Egypt unrest threatens status as rising outsourcing star
What happens if the country you outsource to suddenly goes dark? Early adopters of Egyptian IT and business process services are finding out.
Egypt's 'Net blockage an 'Armageddon approach'
The Internet blockade imposed by the Egyptian government following civil unrest is unprecedented, both in its nature and scope, according to network monitoring firms.
With wired Internet locked, Egypt looks to the sky
The Egyptian government continued an unprecedented block on Internet traffic and mobile communications providers today following demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarek.
Vodafone, others ordered to stop cell phone service in Egypt
Vodafone Group has shut down cell phone service in Egypt after being ordered to do so by the government, which is under siege by protesters.
With protests growing, Egypt cuts links to Internet
As protesters continue to clash with police in anti-government demonstrations, Egypt has pulled the plug on the Internet.
Egypt's move to block Twitter a sign of social media influence
The Egyptian governments move to shut down access to Twitter in the country indicates how powerful social media can be as a protest tool.
Twitter blocked in Egypt after political unrest
Twitter was blocked in Egypt on Tuesday as the country witnessed a large protest against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak.
Protests in Egypt challenge assumptions about social media influence
The unprecedent Internet clampdown in Egypt appears to have done little so far to stymie the protests in the country.
read more
Get Internet access when your government shuts it down
Does your government have an Internet kill-switch? Read our guide to Guerrilla Networking and be prepared for when the lines get cut.
read more
Egypt: You can’t Tweet if there’s no Internet.
The Internet shut down in Egypt shows how trivial it can be to neutralize Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and a whole lot else besides.
read more
The settlement involves allegations dating back to 2004 that Sun paid kickbacks to systems integrators in return for their recommendations of Sun products to federal agencies. Consulting companies received payments from Sun each time they influenced a government agency to purchase Sun products, the DOJ said in a press release.
The complaints stem from a whistleblower lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas by Norman Rille, a former manager at Accenture, and Neal Roberts, a former partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. They alleged a widespread kickbacks scheme among dozens of IT vendors and systems integrators vying for U.S. government contracts.
Six other companies, including IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Computer Sciences, have reached settlements with the DOJ over similar charges. IBM agreed to pay $3 million, PwC agreed to pay $2.3 million and Computer Sciences agreed to pay $1.4 million in their settlements.
Monday's settlement with Oracle also resolves claims under the False Claims Act that Sun's 1997 and 1999 U.S. General Services Administration Schedule contracts were defectively priced because Sun provided incomplete and inaccurate information to GSA contracting officers during negotiations, the DOJ said. The settlement also resolves complaints that the inaccurate information led to defective pricing in Sun reseller contracts with the GSA and U.S. Postal Service.
U.S. regulations required Sun to disclose how it priced products in the commercial marketplace so that GSA could negotiate a fair price, the DOJ said.
"Kickbacks, illegal inducements, misrepresentations during contract negotiations -- these undermine the integrity of the government procurement process and unnecessarily cost taxpayers money," Tony West, assistant attorney general for the DOJ's Civil Division, said in a statement. "As this case demonstrates, we will take action against those who abuse the public contracting process."
Oracle representatives did not immediately return a phone message and an e-mail seeking comment on the settlement.
Under the False Claims Act, private citizens may file complaints on behalf of the U.S. government and share in the recovery of funds. The DOJ joined the lawsuit by Rille and Roberts in 2007.
The government's defective pricing allegations against Sun were based on an audit conducted by the GSA Office of Inspector General, which concluded that Sun provided inaccurate information during contract negotiations.
"Our auditors did not waver," GSA Inspector General Brian Miller said in a statement. "They pursued the facts until they got to the truth. This case shows that with a lot of hard work and tenacity, justice will prevail."
Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.
Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.Four days after the Egyptian government ordered Internet service providers to disconnect from the Internet, the country's last working Internet company has abruptly vanished from cyberspace.
Noor Group, a small service provider that hosted Internet connections for the country's stock exchange and other businesses, became completely unreachable at around 10:46 p.m. Cairo time (Eastern European Time), according to Earl Zmijewski, general manager with Internet monitoring company Renesys.
"It looks like they're completely lights-out now," he said in an interview.
Renesys operates a network monitoring system that can track how connected Egypt is to the rest of the Internet. Before it disappeared, Noor was the last company running data in and out of the country, Zmijewski said. Now e-mail, Web traffic and other Internet services are unable to reach any network in the country, he said.
Other Internet observers reported Noor's disappearance too on Monday.
Thought to handle only about 8 percent of the county's Internet connections, Noor had served as a critical lifeline to the country since the government had ordered service cut early Friday morning.
Nobody is sure how Noor was able to keep operating, even as larger ISPs such as Vodafone and Telecom Egypt voluntarily cut their Egyptian networks off from the rest of the world.
As protesters in Egypt continue to march in the streets, the government has apparently ordered the country cut off from the Internet in an effort to prevent information from getting in or out of the country. Protesters had been using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to organize themselves.
Even with the Internet restrictions, Egyptians had been finding ways to connect with the outside world. After being cut off late last week, mobile-phone service is now working again. And landline telephone service has been operational throughout the crisis.
Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Robert on Twitter at @bobmcmillan. Robert's e-mail address is robert_mcmillan@idg.com
Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2010 International Data Group. All rights reserved.Motorola Mobility has updated that freedom theme in a new one-minute ad to air during this year's Super Bowl. Motorola contrasts its upcoming Xoom tablet with the Apple ipad by referencing 1984, the year.
In the 1984 ad, Apple itself was attacking a Big Brother image, explained by CEO Steve Jobs as IBM -- "IBM wants it all," he said at the time. But many viewers saw the ad as a shot at Microsoft, which made software running on IBM PCs. (This video shows Jobs introducing the 1984 ad and the ad itself. )
Today, the iPad dominates the tablet market.
Motorola is clearly challenging that iPad domination in the Xoom ad, but with a bit of humor: It opens with an image of a spinning Earth wearing recognizable white Apple earbuds.
No images of either tablet actually appear in the commercial, but the comparisons between the Android Honeycomb-enabled Xoom and the iPad are there.
The text in the ads notes, "2011 looks a lot like 1984...One authority...One design...One way to work...It's time for more choices."
Against a heavy drumbeat of music, the Xoom is further described in text as offering more speed with a dual-core 1GHz processor and 1080p video playback, while starting at 3G speeds that are upgradable to 4G. Further, the ad says it will have "more flexibility" with Honeycomb (Android 3.0), the Adobe Flash multimedia player, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
It concludes: "More Freedom.... It's time to explore.... It's time to live a free life." The ad signs off with Motorola's latest slogan: "Life M-powered" which uses the Motorola M logo and references to Xoom and Super Bowl 45.
With all those contrasts, the ad omits that the Xoom has 10.1-in. screen, slightly bigger than the iPad's 9.7-in. screen.
Xoom is scheduled to appear Feb. 17, according to leaked documents, and could be priced starting at $700. Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha told investors last week that he anticipated a launch in February.
Motorola's Super Bowl 2011 ad for the Xoom tablet harkens back to Apple's own 1984 Super Bowl commercial, each casting themselves as the underdog.Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt's RSS feed. His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.
Read more about Hardware in Computerworld's Hardware Topic Center.
Eliminate disparate tools and maximize return on your software and hardware investments.Learn more.
Innovation matters - learn how to rapidly deploying cost-effective, energy-efficient data centers. Click here to find out more! Read now.
This guide explains how to simplify the migration process, ensure backup and restore procedures, and confirm post-migration verifications. Learn more! Read now.
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A news addiction is one of the few dependencies that it's actually good to indulge. And to a news junkie, a smartphone is like a wide-bore hypodermic needle.
Reeder
Those of you who are already on the RSS bandwagon, it's time to try Reeder. It's simply the prettiest and best-syncing Google Reader-based RSS app available for the iPhone. Those of you who haven't yet tried RSS, or ran out of patience for it, trust me: spend a few minutes gathering your favorite news sources into Google Reader, download Reeder, and watch the news pour into your phone. It's great. A a bonus, the text and image formatting in Reeder is much better than most mobile sites and even dedicated news apps, so it's sort of like a catch-all mobile interface for everything you read online. Plus, hey, no more BIAS JOURN-O-LIZM, because you choose the sources! $3, iPhone.
CNN
I usually shy away from single-source news apps, but I make an exception for CNN's. Its video content is nice, but where it really succeeds is in fast, simple news delivery. It's probably the quickest way to get a handle on what's going on in the world (on your phone), with an intelligently laid-out interface, smart story selection and super-fast updates. It'll also send you push updates as soon as news breaks. Some are dumb; most aren't. Either way, this a is useful weapon in a know-it-all news hound's arsenal. Free, iPhone.
NPR News
NPR's news app easily does the work of two. As a text and image pusher, it provides a decent news digest—assuming you don't abhor its (mild!) politics. It'll run neck and neck with apps like NYT and AP in terms of straightforward news delivery. But this is an NPR app, and you probably won't download this to read more. You want to listen. And you can! Forever, to everything, always. It's amazing. You can listen to pretty much any NPR station you want from anywhere in the country. OR you can stream the shows on demand, and build playlists of your favorite shows. However, as with any sedative, mixing must be undertaken with extreme caution. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Free, iPhone
OTHERS TESTED:
• FLUD: An app that takes the "RSS" out of "RSS." I found it very pretty, but abandoned it quickly.
• NYT: A hefty chunk of the Times, squashed into a simple and readable little app. You weren't going to read the rest, anyway.
• Flipboard: A beautiful app that formats various sources, including feeds, into a sort of digital paper. It's a nice way to consume news, to be sure, but it's only available on the iPad.
Pulse
Pulse takes a bunch of news sources and transforms them into a pretty gorgeous collection of tiles. It's best to use when you're scanning a limited number of feeds (it maxes out at 20 anyway) because the interface is so graphic heavy, handling anything more than 10 can get a little complicated. The idea is less RSS reader and more Newsy and there's a bunch of great sources to pick from (ahem, Gizmodo). It's a pretty great app to have when to casually scanning news, plus news hasn't ever looked this good. Free, Android.
USA Today
A great app to find the latest headlines, sports scores and weather reports because everything is laid out right smack in front of you. It's well designed too, news isn't buried and the layout makes sense. USA Today's app is much like USA Today itself, all the relevant news whittled down and easy to understand. If you're looking for basic news and just staying current with the world, this is where you start. Not to mention, it's got some pretty sweet photos in the "day in pictures" section to comb through. Free, Android.
Google Reader
Finally! After years of only having a web app (that's admittedly decent!), Google just released a full fledged app for Google Reader. If you're familiar with using Google Reader, it's exactly what you expect, only translated for the smaller screen. It doesn't have the style and pizazz of some other RSS apps but it's everything you need to get the news from your feeds (it supports multiple accounts too) and wonderful for any Google Reader user. One super cool feature: using the volume keys to navigate through feeds. Free, Android
The author of this post can be contacted at tips@gizmodo.comOTHERS TESTED:
• BuzzBox: Has a similar idea to Pulse but it's not as pretty. Can juggle more feeds at once since there's more text than images.
• NY Times: It's actually one of my favorite apps to use but only because of the content, not the app itself. I'd like a much more upfront app instead of things buried in menus (they could also add the offline feature that's in the iPhone)
• NubiNews: It's useful in reading news super quickly but it's terribly ugly and feels like it was made for BlackBerry
• SkyGrid: A pretty neat way to keep up with the topics YOU care about by giving you notifications and alerts
• Fox News: Fair and balanced news for the conservatives in a pretty basic layout
• NPR News: Now what's better than listening to the soothing NPR? Getting your listening fix, creating playlists and even reading news (!) to stay opinionated, that's what.
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You are not who you think you are. Your personality and identity is significantly more malleable than you realize. With a few simple tricks, you can exploit your brain's innate functionality to change just about anything about yourself. Here's how.
You are not who you are, but rather the product of many influences. The saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" exists for a reason: the longer you've been the person you think you are, the harder it becomes to change. The thing is, you can dramatically change who you are. It's actually not so much that it's difficult to change, but that you've developed patterns and habits that make it easier to do things the way you do them. Trying something in a new way can feel very awkward, it will be generally less efficient by virtue of being something new to you, and it often lacks excitement for you when it involves giving up the comfort associated with your way.
That's not to say you aren't born with some inherent abilities, but most of what you consider part of your identity is a product of influence. While we don't know the exact ratio of nature to nurture, there is undoubtedly a combination of both that makes us who we are. We have a tendency to think that change is difficult, but it's really just a matter of changing your influence. You're probably familiar with Stockholm syndrome-the term used to describe how hostage victims tend to develop positive feelings towards their captors. Stockholm syndrome isn't a kind of brainwashing by the captor; instead, the victim adapts to the poor situation he or she is in. If most people can adapt to something as awful as being kidnapped, most people can adapt to smaller positive changes in their own lives. You can even make enormous changes if you're willing to put in the work and you provide yourself with the proper influences. We're going to look at how to do that on high and low levels, from priming your brain to manipulating your own emotions, and also look at how your environment and the people you know shape your life.
Most of these methods won't make you feel comfortable, and, at times, they may sound a bit crazy, but it is possible to "hack" your own brain. Here are just a few ways to do it.
Priming is a ridiculously simple technique because all it involves is talking to yourself. On the dull end of the spectrum, it's similar to self-affirmation. On the crazier end of the spectrum, it bears some similarities with neuro-linguistic programming. Priming your brain involves reciting a given set of words that are designed to alter your mindset. It is not brainwashing and it cannot make you do anything you don't want to do. What it can accomplish, however, is putting you into a state of mind that will be more useful to you with a given situation or task.
Before we get into the specifics of how to prime your brain, let's talk about how and why it works. If you were to say the word mustard out loud, and then you were to see a portion of the word later, you'd be reminded of mustard. For example, if you were to say "I must have this" you might be reminded of mustard because of the word must. If you were hungry and liked mustard, you may even want some. It's the same phenomenon that compels you to buy a particular brand of shampoo that you saw on television even if you 1) don't remember seeing the commercial, and 2) couldn't care less what kind of shampoo you use. This is essentially how priming works, and it's all thanks to your memory.
While you're not going to remember everything you say, that doesn't mean what you say is gone forever. While everything stored in your recent memory may not be immediately accessible, all you really need to bring something up is a trigger word. This is conceptually similar to using acronyms as a memory tool (e.g. Roy G. Biv) but isn't designed to help you actually remember anything. Instead, the goal is to place common words that, when apart, have no real specific value, but when together, have an associative value that make you think of happy things, sad things, specific people, or ambition. If any of those common words come up again later in the day, you'll immediately associate that word with the associative value of the group. Here's an example:
This is a list of words synonymous with or related to ambition. It's designed to be read aloud to put you in a more ambitious mindset, focusing your thoughts and priming your brain to react ambitiously when these words, or portions of these words, come up later in your day.
Another exercise involves taking a shorter list of priming words and making a sentence with it. Here's an example:
These words can form the sentence "the girl looked and smiled," which should bring to mind pleasant associations for most people. Constructing sentences out of word lists (which you can create yourself) can help put you in the right mindset.
These two methods can be used to prime your brain. They are not magic tricks that will instantly make you feel happy, ambitious, or whatever, but they can help to provide you with the mindset you need to better accomplish your daily tasks.
For more reading on priming, and a look at some really interesting studies, don't forget to check out the references for this article.
If you've ever found yourself making out-of-character decisions based on your emotional state—such as binging on ice cream after a breakup—you know how easily your feelings can overtake you actions. Rather than letting your emotions lead you towards poor judgment and irrational behavior, however, you can learn to compensate for different emotional states and to fabricate emotions to alter your mood. In order to do that you need to, simply put, get in touch with your feelings. The idea isn't so much to cry into a pillow about your wasted childhood, but understand what you're feeling when you're feeling it, what the root cause is, and what you can do about it. We're going to take a look at how you can dissect your emotional state to use it to your advantage, and also look at how you can fabricate emotion to change how you're feeling.
You can't really control your emotions if you don't understand them, and one of the best ways to understand them is to take an acting class. To some this may sound fun, and to others this may sound like hell. Love it or hate it, acting lessons are one of the best ways to explore how and why you feel certain things. Your goal should be to find a class that will make you uncomfortable every time you go. In my experience, any class teaching the Meisner technique is very effective if you put a lot of effort into the exercises. It can be slow, tedious, and uncomfortable, but it's capable of bringing out emotion you might not realize you had.
Your emotions aren't in full force if you're not really doing anything, so you need to put yourself in uncomfortable situations in order to bring them out. This doesn't mean you should make yourself feel horrible, but that you should go out and do things that you might resist because you're worried about the downsides. Meeting new people is something that makes most people uncomfortable, and it's a great place to start, especially if it's a first date. Try new things that scare you. If you notice you're glued to the couch and don't want to get up, do the opposite. Spend time with people you don't like. Go to a movie you're sure you'll hate. Your experiences won't always be pleasant, but they should incite emotion that you can later analyze and better understand.
Like an abbreviated diary, every time you have an emotional reaction to something, write it down. You don't need much detail, but just a sentence or two noting the emotion you're experiencing and the (possible) cause. For example, I get extremely irritable when I'm hungry. I will lose my temper far more easily when I'm hungry, so whenever I notice myself thinking irrational (and sometimes hateful) things, I always remind myself that I'm just hungry, I'll eat in a minute, and the "asshole" who accidentally missed the garbage can and didn't notice is mostly a result of my frustrated stomach. Until I started to pay attention, I never really noticed that I was a jerk whenever I was hungry. Instead, I just thought I was a jerk. This is a simple example, but the point is this: pay attention to how you feel and the other issues currently present, and you'll find it much easier to manage your negative emotions.
Fabricating emotion is difficult. Once you understand your emotions you'll find it a bit easier, but it helps to be able to recall how it feels, physically, to emote. We all know how to smile, for example, but you can probably count more fake smiles in family photographs than you can real ones. If you don't know how to create an authentic smile (also known as the Duchenne smile), it will be very obvious to everyone around you.
The easiest way to learn to fake expressions is to practice them in the mirror. You can try them out to see what you look like and you'll immediately know if they're passable or not. You'll also note that it feels physically different to create an authentic-looking emotion than it does to create a fake-looking emotion. For example, an authentic smile shows more in the eyes than it does in your mouth. When someone smiles a true smile, their eyes wrinkle (creating "crows feet") because a new musicle—the orbicularis oculi muscle—is used. You'll come to remember this feeling and be able to replicate it away from the mirror after a little practice.
It's not necessarily easy to emote in front of the mirror, but that's not as hard as you think. If your goal is simply to learn to smile better, you'll get there if you just stare at yourself for awhile. Eventually it will get so ridiculous that you'll have to laugh. If you're less patient, you can try to make yourself laugh by making strange faces or just being ridiculous. If you're comfortable, have a friend over to help. For other emotions, you simply need to find a source of that emotion and bring it into play in front of the mirror. If you've employed any of the previously discussed techniques, you may already have a reserve. Alternatively, watch a movie that makes you laugh or cry and do it by the mirror. (Yes, this is absolutely a strange thing to do, but it'll work.) If you're interested in anger, you should have no problem getting there by just complaining to yourself or to a friend on the phone.
Emoting in front of the mirror is going to be strange and awkward at first, but after a few tries you'll get the hang of it and be able to create authentic expressions on demand. These expressions do surface from genuine emotion, so repeating them can actually make you feel happier/sadder/angrier/etc. through repetition. If you need to change your mood and your mindset, the ability to fake it ‘til you make it is very, very useful.
Anything you do is much easier if you're healthy—and that goes for mental as well as physical health. These methods won't be terribly helpful if you're seriously depressed. If you're not sleeping, eating well, and/or getting a reasonable amount of physical activity in each day, you're going to find them difficult as well. You can do pretty much everything better if you take care of your mind and your body, so don't look at anything you've read here as a panacea for the problems in your life. Everything here assumes that you take reasonably good care of yourself and generally start your day in a good place. If you're not feeling good on most days, you need to take care of those problems before you decide to start playing mind tricks with yourself. Always be healthy first.
You can contact Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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Modo Pocket is the world's smallest tripod, a result of Bogen Manfrotto's sensitivity and years of experience in the world of photography. Modo Pocket gives a wide variety of solutions for the amateur photographer, providing an answer to the need to have stable, yet very versatile support whatever the situation may be.Price:
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