News Archive for 08/12/31
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Nokia's handsets running on the Symbian S60 operating system are vulnerable to what is being called the Curse of Silence attack that knocks out the devices' ability to receive SMS and MMS messages, a German group has found. The Chaos Computer Club has somehow discovered this weakness which allows a specifically formatted incoming e-mail message that contains at least 33 characters to disable the handset's ability to receive any further messages. Devices running S60 version 2.6 and 3.0 lock up after receiving just one message, while 2.8 and 3.0 versions of the software will stop the functionality after receiving 11 messages.
Motorola announced it would lay off a total of 1,900 employees in the fourth-quarter, which is 400 more than it originally planned to before the end of the fiscal year, says a Tuesday report. The move is meant to save the company $800 million in 2009 and does not affect the previously announced total job elimination of 3,000 jobs, 1,100 of which will be made next year.
A leaked image posted on Tuesday revealed the upcoming release dates for a number of new cell phones coming to wireless provider T-Mobile. While some of the releases range from the relatively unexciting news of a new color option for an entry-level flip phone, the Sony Ericsson TM506 in a scarlet color on January 21st, and the release of Nokia's music-capable clamshell, the 7510, on the same date, they do include much-anticipated handsets such as the Shadow on January 28th.
Apple will likely offer a new iPhone in the first half of 2009, with a lower price-point and new baseband processor, according to analyst Craig Berger of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. The forecast adds more fuel to the speculation of an iPhone "nano", to which Berger noted that "we believe this device is on its way." He expects the new phone to be preceded by a smaller version of the iPod shuffle that could be launched sometime in the first quarter of the year.
ASUS will launch a variant of its 10.2-inch netbook, the S101, with a conventional hard disk instead of a solid-state drive, reports say. While the capacity of the disk in the upcoming computer -- due to be called the S101H -- is unknown, the netbook's thinness will likely constrain the disk to a smaller, slower 1.8-inch format. Its capacity should be much larger than the current maximum 64GB SSD option, which is also paired exclusively with Linux. S101 buyers who opt for Windows XP are limited to 16GB SSDs, due to rules imposed by Microsoft.
India has postponed the auction of its 3G spectrum from an original date of January 16th to the 30th, following requests from potential bidders to have more time to review related documents and rules. At the same time, the deadline for applications to become a bidder has been extended from the 5th to the 15th. The auction will give domestic and foreign companies the option to acquire the 2.1GHz wireless frequency, used for HSPA-based 3G data network services.
Garmin has posted screen captures for its upcoming GPS-based cellphone, the nuvifone, providing hints as to the handset's features and capabilities. The screenshots come ahead of an expected official look at the device at next week's CES expo in Las Vegas. The nuvifone features a 3.5-inch touchscreen, the same size as that the screen on Apple's iPhone; the interface also appears to be familiar, with a layout that mimics the iPhone in terms of buttons, icons and window dimensions.
DigiFi has launched its Opera wireless earphones in the United States market. The system, previously only available in Korea, features Kleer wireless technology that is claimed transmit uncompressed CD-quality audio over the 2.4GHz band, with a frequency range of 20Hz to 20KHz and an 86dB signal to noise ratio. Users can connect the transmitter to any iPod, PMP, or laptop, without requiring any software installation. Up to four Kleer-enabled receivers can be simultaneously connected to the same source and the battery life is claimed to reach 10 hours.
Portable device maker EMTEC is due to release its Gdium Liberty 1000 netbook in the US in the near future, according to a Tuesday report. The Mandriva G-Linux-based netbook, set to debut at CES next week, offers a 10-inch display with 1024x600 resolution, and should weigh just over 2.6lbs. Processing power comes courtesy of a 900MHz Loongson CPU and 512MB of RAM. As there is no permanent onboard storage, the Gdium will ship with a G-Key: a USB drive that stores the Linux operating system, and all applications and personal data. Users will need to plug it into the netbook before the latter will boot up.
LG has announced the addition of two new entertainment options to its network-enabled Blu-ray players, CinemaNow and YouTube. CinemaNow offers some 14,000 movies, TV shows and other videos, and should join YouTube on LG players in the first half of 2009. LG’s only instant-streaming entertainment option is currently Netflix, which provides over 12,000 movies and TV shows, a portion of which are available in HD.
Swann Communications has announced its latest security monitoring device, the PenCam DVR. Designed with the look and capabilities of a normal pen, users can also record over three hours of color AVI video footage. Unlike the previous PenCam, which forced users to send the footage into a receiver up to 328 feet away, the PenCam DVR contains 2MB of built-in memory, along with a USB connector to transfer the videos into a PC or notebook. The pen can additionally record audio from up to three feet away using a tiny microphone.
As soon as January 1st, a number of Time Warner cable subscribers could find themselves without some of the most popular TV channels, writes the LA Times. Viacom -- which owns networks such as Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV -- has threatened to withdraw its programming should it be unable to reach a new contract agreement with Time Warner by midnight of December 31st. "We've been attempting to negotiate in good faith but they seem to taken it to the brink," claims Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman.
As part of cutbacks and reorganization due to a weakened economy, Dell has announced that its president of global operations, Mike Cannon, will retire as of January 31st, while marketing chief Mark Jarvis will leave the company as well. Jeff Clarke will step in to fill Cannon's role, though Cannon will be retained as a consultant. Jarvis will be succeeded by Erin Nelson, the former vice president of marketing for Dell Europe, Middle East and Africa. Early last month, Dell exposed plans to cut more than its previously-slated $3 billion by 2011; layoffs have so far seen the elimination of 2,200 jobs.
Hundreds or thousands of Zunes appear to be failing simultaneously, according to accounts from official forums and other websites. The errors began at approximately midnight Eastern time, after which turning on a number of 30GB players results in them locking and hanging towards the end of the initial boot process. Critically, none of the standard reboot or reset commands appear to be useful in troubleshooting.
Finland's Nokia has revealed the existence of the 6208c, a new touchscreen phone. The phone is aimed primarily at Chinese speakers around the world, and supports Chinese-language input from a stylus designed to resemble a bamboo slip. The phone's color display, otherwise described only as "large," is said to be modeled after a traditional Chinese ink stone. The rest of the device uses more modern design cues, and is built of material such as stainless steel.
Amid the speculation of a possible Apple netbook, rumors suggest that the company may be working on a large form-factor iPod touch that features a seven to nine inch screen, according to TechCrunch. Three separate sources have allegedly corroborated the story, including one that claims to have handled a prototype and suggested that Apple is in the process of communicating with Asian OEMs to work out details for large-scale manufacture. If true, the anticipated production time-frame could lead to a release sometime late in 2009.
An Apple netbook may yet be in the works, wording from the Taiwanese government suggests. The country's Government Information Office recently issued a new report, in which it claims that local manufacturer Quanta is "expected to add Sony and Apple as clients for the contract manufacture of Netbook computers in 2009." Although the Sony netbooks could likely be from the new VAIO P series, Apple has not officially announced any plans to release a netbook.
UMPC maker OQO will soon release the successor to its Model 02 portable PC, which is expected to be as much as twice as fast. The Model 2+ is reported to sport an uncommon 1.86GHz Intel Atom CPU along with 2GB of RAM. In comparison, the fastest chip offered in the current device is a 1.6GHz CPU from VIA, and the model is restricted to just 1GB of RAM. Further differentiating the new model from the older one is the new embedded OLED touchscreen which replaces the older active digitizer.
Chip manufacturer VIA will begin sampling a dual-core version of its Nano CPU in the second half of 2009 and shipping the next-generation processor in volume in late 2009 or early 2010, slightly earlier than previous a roadmap leak indicated. Like rival AMD which recently outlined new Atom-competitors, VIA's X86-compatible Nano chips debuted in May to compete with Intel's Atom and lower-end Celeron M chips. VIA hopes to stem the growing adoption of Intel's Atom processor (and dual-core nettop PC variant); VIA, the report says, expects to deliver samples ahead of the previously reported June 2010 launch. Digitimes reports that the new dual-core Nano chips will arrive before the end of the first quarter of 2010, while a next-generation SSE4-enabled Nano CPU will arrive in the third quarter of 2009.
Users may find Intel's mobile CPU in more notebooks if market leader Hewlett-Packard has its way: a new report says that HP is in negotiations with Intel to expand the use of Intel's latest mobile processor. Current restrictions limit the use of Atom series processors only in netbook PCs with up to 10.2-inch panels and HP hopes convince chip giant Intel to allow it to use Atom in new mini-note PC models with larger screen sizes. Taiwan-based notebook makers told Digitimes that HP's high-profile brand may help it succeed in convincing Intel to allow the use of the new mobile CPU in more HP mini-notebooks.
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