Sony brings visual add-on to PlayStation 3
ATLANTA – Sony Corp.’s U.S. video game division is adding a slick visual program to the PlayStation 3 game system that delivers news headlines, weather reports and webcam views from around the globe.
The new touches come as an upgrade to Folding(at)home, an earlier PS3 feature that benefits Stanford University’s protein research project. Users donate a bit of their PS3′s processing power when they’re not gaming to help researchers study the effects of protein folding on diseases.
Google releases software kit for new phone
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Google has released a kit for software developers to create fun, hip or functional programs for the “G-phone” due out next month in a direct challenge to Apple’s hot-selling iPhone.
The Android 1.0 software developers kit lets computer programming wizards customize applications that will work on the open-source platform built into the G1 handsets being brought to market by telecom carrier T-Mobile.
The T-Mobile G1 phones are heralded as the first of a generation of devices built on the Google-led Android operating platform.
Cell phone can unlock car, start engine
Filed under: Mobile Phone, New Product, New Technology
TOKYO – A new Japanese mobile phone will automatically unlock the doors of its owners’ cars and let drivers start their engines without using an ignition key.
The phone, built by Sharp Corp., uses a technology previously developed by Nissan Motor Co. called “Intelligent Key” that allows drivers enter and start their cars without removing their keys from their pockets or bags.
RIM to launch touchscreen BlackBerry "soon": Verizon
TORONTO (Reuters) – Research In Motion (RIM.TO)(RIMM.O) is preparing to launch the long anticipated touch-screen version of its BlackBerry smartphone, according to an official promotion e-mail from U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless (VZ.N)(VOD.N).
The device will be known as the BlackBerry Storm 9530 and will feature “global capabilities”, Verizon said, without providing specifics. It also did not give an exact launch date, saying only that the smartphone is “coming soon”.
Google, T-Mobile Launch ‘Game Changing’ G1 Phone
Turn off the rumor mills, pull down the mocked-up artwork, and say goodbye to the blogger speculation. Google and T-Mobile’s G1, the first mobile phone built around Google’s open-source, Linux-based Android platform, is officially a product.
Before a warm, if not entirely enthusiastic crowd in Manhattan, executives from T-Mobile, HTC and Google (including a surprise appearance by company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page) officially unveiled the T-Mobile G1.
Update: Visa Unveils Massive Mobile Payment Plans
Visa unveiled several partnerships on Thursday to move payment processing from the PC to the mobile phone.
The world’s largest credit-card organization said a partnership with Nokia would allow consumers to make payments with next year’s Nokia 6212 Classic and other next-generation Nokia phones. Visa will also develop an application with Google’s Android platform that will allow mobile payments, as well as deliver financial information to Android-based phone owners who also hold Chase Visa cards.
Oracle, Red Hat spar over Linux
San Francisco – It was nearly two years ago at the 2006 Oracle OpenWorld conference that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison unveiled a plan to have Oracle provide support to Red Hat’s own Linux customers.
The controversial plan sparked debate over whether Oracle was trying to kill off Red Hat by taking away Red Hat’s revenue stream. Oracle and Red Hat representatives questioned during this week’s Oracle Open World conference in San Francisco offered strikingly different perspectives on how well Oracle’s plan has worked out.
Asked if there has been any measurable impact on Red Hat, Andrew Cathrow, Red Hat product marketing manager, responded, “To be quite honest, not at all.”
Nokia spreading software bets after Symbian buy
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia (NOK1V.HE) is quietly extending its knowledge base in the free Linux operating system to give it extra options in the battle for mobile software supremacy with Google (GOOG.O) and Apple (AAPL.O).
The world’s leading handset manufacturer has publicly made a big bet on Symbian software, offering $410 million to buy out other shareholders in the consortium and committing to opening the software up for free use when the deal is approved.
Nokia says Symbian plays a central role in its software strategy, but analysts say the role of Linux in the company’s Nokia phones is also set to increase, reflecting a mindset shift for a company that has long shunned using software from multiple vendors.
Facing down our newest cyber threat. Really?
What really drives me crazy about our government–and it applies to Republicans and Democrats alike–is the blithe insouciance of empowered apparatchiks who run their respective fiefdoms as if they have all the time in the world to get things done.
When the president proposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, supporters of the idea predicted that among other things, it would spur a vigorous drive to rebuild the nation’s cybersecurity. Yes, it would be part of a huge bureaucracy, but just think of the outcome by combining such a reservoir of talents and resources under one roof. The skeptics were less sure, warning this project had all the makings of a bureaucratic clustermuck.
Kaspersky: Worry About Trojans, Mobile Phone Worms
Russian security giant Kaspersky Lab, publisher of the well-regarded Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, on Wednesday released its mid-year report on current trends in malware along with a report on spam trends.
The full two-part report is quite lengthy; here are some of the high points.
New Malware Categories
Kaspersky divides active malware threats into two main groups, TrojWare and VirWare. VirWare refers to viruses, worms, and any malicious software that can propagate independently. TrojWare includes backdoors, rootkits, Trojans, and any malicious software that only propagates if it can trick a user into launching it. The average consumer may fear viruses more, but 92 percent of threats observed by Kaspersky fall in the TrojWare category.