Only you can help.

For the price of two or three fancy lattes a day you can give a hipster access to Wi-Fi.

Hi. I’m a guy from The Onion’s AV Club forums, here to talk to you about a horrible, unseen evil right here in America: a lack of socially acceptable Internet devices for hipsters in cafes across the country. Today with the economy slow to recover and many know-it-alls in their 20s too bearded, “eclectic,” or adorned in stupid glasses and leggings to be employable we’re facing a shortage of epidemic proportions. But it’s not hopeless. Not as long as there are people like you, and the ViewSonic gTablet.

For a low one-time donation or several monthly donations if you’re not into paying up your credit cards in a timely manner, you can donate this tablet to a hipster in your neighborhood. It runs on Android 2.2; that’s way cooler than any iPhone OS these days. Its 10.1” capacitive touch screen is just big enough for everyone else in the coffee shop to see the live performance video of some indie darling band they’ve never heard of in beautiful 1080p.

Please. Donate now. You’ll receive monthly updates on your hipster via seemingly random photos and “ironic” quotes on their Tumblr. More importantly, you’ll know that you’ve made a difference in helping an entitled, good for nothing, holier-than-thou jerk espouse his worthless opinions online.

Authorized for SquareTrade Extended Warranty

"

Warranty: 1 Year ViewSonic

Condition: New

Features:

• The ViewSonic gTablet has a crisp and vibrant 10.1” capacitive touch screen display with plenty of real estate for even the most demanding tablet users
• Great for multitasking, viewing multiple apps, and browsing web pages in their entirety, including the ability to play Flash videos
• With is 1080p playback resolution, sharing entertainment and photos on this gorgeous display is truly a delight
• Extensive format support includes H.264, WMV, WMA, MP3, DivX and more
• Easy to take anywhere with its super slim and sleek design and smooth beveled edges. Weighing in at 1.5 pounds and just 0.5” thick, just grab it and go
• Newly revised OS gives you the ability to switch between TapnTap menu environment and Droid graphic environment with a single screen touch and results in improved system stability and speed
• Engineered with you in mind, the navigation is practically instinctive. You find the buttons exactly where you would have placed them, which will have you toggling, searching, going back and moving forward all at lightning speed
• On-display buttons include Search, Home, Menu and back. Volume rocker is located on top
• You get an awesome performance from practically any source with this tablet: play music files, watch movies, or upload images from your camcorder and share entertainment with your friends on the go
• Switch between apps and tasks instantly: while checking email, download apps while updating your calendar, jump from reading your eBooks to keeping up with your favorite blogs
• Open multiple apps with the flick of a finger. It is so intuitive, you’ll be able to pinch, scroll, rotate or zoom to your heart's content
• Expandable memory up to 32GB via microSD
• Offers 3.5 mm headphone jack, USB port, and mini USB port
• Direct access to the Apps Store to download thousands of leading Android apps
• Features Google’s Android 2.2 OS with new features and benefits such as faster web browsing, simple app launching and updating, and a completely more intuitive experience
• Improvement in JavaScript loading, better overall performance of Android OS, USB and Wi-Fi Internet Tethering, Microsoft Exchange integration, compass support for Google Maps, improved Google Voice Search that recognizes long and complicated speech
• Now you can contact anyone just the way they like. Use email, video chatting, tweet them on Twitter or update your status on Facebook
• Wi-Fi b/g/n support, video conferencing via 1.3MP camera, and Bluetooth support with 8-10 hours of battery life
• Experience the power of NVIDIA’s latest processor. Designed for mobile applications, you will experience super fast gaming, crystal clear 1080p HD video, blazingly fast web access and surreal HD video chatting
• 1 GHz Dual ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 512MB DDR2 memory, 2D/3D Graphics processing, HD Video encode and decode, Ultra-low power GeForce GPU, 1080p video playback processor, OpenGL ES 2.0, and 32-bit LP-DDR2, DDR2
• Applications and games come alive in your hand with the G sensor. Your gaming imagination never has been this real or this wild. An ambient light sensor also automatically reduces brightness in dim lit settings to conserve power. It follows your every move; it feels what you feel
• The gTablet app is preloaded, which gives you instant access to manuals, user guides, the latest update information, file download resources, support hotline number, source code information for developers, and more
• Quick Start Guide (click here)
• Users Guide (click here)
• How to Use Android (click here)

Additional Photos:

• Power Button, USB Port, Speakers, Headphone Jack, and Power Port
• Speakers and On-Display Controls
• Volume Rocker
• Microphone and Proprietary Port
• Back Profile
• 1080p Resolution Video Playback
• Best use for this and all other PCs
• Package Contents
• Packaging

Specifications
CAMERA:	1.3-megapixel camera
BATTERY:	3650mAh Li-ion polymer battery
OPERATING TEMP.:	32°F to 113°F
STORAGE TEMP.:	-4°F to 113°F
DIMENSIONS:	6.8” (H) x 10.5” (W)
WEIGHT (with battery):	1.55 lbs.
MEMORY:	16GB internal memory
INPUT/OUTPUT:	USB 2.0 (Slave) Mini USB 2.0 (Host) 3.5mm stereo headphone MicroSD DC Input (Power)
OPERATING SYSTEM:	Google Android 2.2 (Froyo)
CPU:	1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2-Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU with 512MB DRR
VIDEO:	NVIDIA Tegra 2, OpenGL ES 2.0, 32-bit LP-DDR2, DDR2
DISPLAY:	10.1” TFT-LCD with LED driver system
NETWORK:	Wi-Fi : 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
RESOLUTIONS:	1024x600 resolution
AUDIO OUTPUT:	Built-in 2 x 1-watt stereo speakers 3.5mm stereo headphone
POWER:	7.4 Voltage Power Adapter
SUPPORTED MEDIA FORMATS:	S1080p H.264/H.263/ VC-1/MPEG-2/4/WMV9/DivX 4/5 Video Decode 1080p H.264/MPEG-4 Video Encode Supports multi-standard audio formats, including AAC, AMR, WMA, and MP3

Included Software

Adobe Flash Player Kindle Pandora Radio G-market Angry Birds Color Note

In the box:

• ViewSonic gTablet 10.1” PC Android 2.2 (UPS300-2.2)
• USB Cable
• Power Adapter
• Cleaning Cloth
• ESD Cover
• User Guide
• Quick Start Guide

 

photo credit: juplife

Is there any way of downloading adobe Flash player on to my Iphone4?

Times Union, Price: $50.00, Dell GX1-This is an older desktop in excellent condition and perfect as an emergency backup or for a young person to learn computing with. Internet ready for HiSpeed or Dial-Up. Dell XP-Pro Operating System with MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Photo Editor & More) It has all the required programs/applications to make a good Internet experience for a novice or pro including Adobe Reader, Flash Player & Shockwave. Also the latest Real Player (Records Internet Videos) & Windows Media Player... Also installed: Microsoft Security Essentials (Anti-Virus), PanicWare Pop-Up Stopper and is set up with a nice functional desktop. Specs: 20GB (7,200RPM) Hard Drive, 768MB RAM, a 700mHz Pentium III. Sound, NIC, Video are on motherboard and a Fax/Phone Modem. 2 USB ports on rear. The CD-RW has a black face plate. Please leave a message & a call back number if I am not in. I will include a keyboard, mouse & 17" CRT monitor which you can put right on top of it (to save space). You will need speakers.

Times Union, Price: $50.00, Dell GX1-This is an older desktop in excellent condition and perfect as an emergency backup or for a young person to learn computing with. Internet ready for HiSpeed or Dial-Up. Dell XP-Pro Operating System with MS Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, Photo Editor & More) It has all the required programs/applications to make a good Internet experience for a novice or pro including Adobe Reader, Flash Player & Shockwave. Also the latest Real Player (Records Internet Videos) & Windows Media Player... Also installed: Microsoft Security Essentials (Anti-Virus), PanicWare Pop-Up Stopper and is set up with a nice functional desktop. Specs: 20GB (7,200RPM) Hard Drive, 768MB RAM, a 700mHz Pentium III. Sound, NIC, Video are on motherboard and a Fax/Phone Modem. 2 USB ports on rear. The CD-RW has a black face plate. Please leave a message & a call back number if I am not in. I will include a keyboard, mouse & 17" CRT monitor which you can put right on top of it (to save space). You will need speakers.

You need Javascript enabled and a copy of the Adobe Flash Player to view this video. var vid = new SWFObject("/global/flash/player-licensed.swf","single","384","308","9"); vid.addParam("allowfullscreen","true"); vid.addParam("wmode","transparent"); vid.addVariable("file","/videoproducts/sib_200tips.xml"); vid.addVariable("shuffle","false"); vid.addVariable("repeat","list"); vid.addVariable("stretching","exactfit"); vid.addVariable("smoothing","true"); vid.write("video-76673"); Get over 200 of the most useful and practical woodworking tips and techniques from the editors of Woodsmith and ShopNotes magazines.

You need Javascript enabled and a copy of the Adobe Flash Player to view this video. var vid = new SWFObject("/global/flash/player-licensed.swf","single","384","236","9"); vid.addParam("allowfullscreen","true"); vid.addParam("wmode","transparent"); vid.addVariable("file","/videotips/video_20110505.xml"); vid.addVariable("bufferlength","10"); vid.addVariable("shuffle","false"); vid.addVariable("repeat","list"); vid.addVariable("stretching","exactfit"); vid.addVariable("smoothing","true"); vid.addVariable("ad","shopnotes"); vid.write("video-53192"); From the Woodsmith Shop TV Show: Make a low-cost clamping aid to simplify cabinet assembly.

Product Category: Portable Disk Drive

Manufacturer: Verbatim

Where to Buy: Amazon [Affiliate]

Price: $75.24 USD

System Requirements: USB 3.0 port

Specifications: Available in 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB capacities. Size 121mm x 80mm x 15mm. Weight: 115g. Supplied cable: 62cm.

Pros:

• Small and light.
• Good value.
• Great warranty (seven years)

Cons:

• Not close to "transfer speed up to 10x faster than USB 2.0"
• Supplied cable is rather short.

Summary: At last, USB 3.0 devices are becoming widely available and at prices close to 2.0 disks. With transfer rates theoretically 10X as fast as USB 2.0, should you consider a USB 3.0 disk for backups and data transfer? Yes, but don't get your hopes too high. Your backups won't be going 10 times faster.

Do You Need a USB 3.0 Portable Drive?

Removable disk storage is all about convenience—both speed and ease of use. Whether you are moving large media files from one system to another or making image backups or archiving your music and video collection, speed and ease-of-use are paramount. This is not a fun chore! Many choices of portable disks with USB and/or Firewire interfaces have been available for a long time. But Firewire needs a power supply, and some of the USB 2.0 disks need a second USB connection or an external power supply to get enough juice. Usually that isn’t a problem but it just makes the backup or copying that much more inconvenient.

Now comes the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface specification, which was completed in 2008. With a maximum transfer rate of 5GB/s, or over 10 times the USB 2.0 rate 480 MB/s, and full duplex (can transfer data in both directions at the same time), it is what a lot of computer users have been waiting for. But it has taken a while for products to come to market, with the first ones showing up around January 2010. Motherboard makers have also been slow to put USB 3.0 chipsets in their products, but now the ports are becoming common on new laptops and desktops.

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is “plug-compatible” with 2.0, meaning you can plug a 2.0 device into a 3.0 port and vice versa. But there are actually 5 more pins in a 3.0 plug that only come in contact with a 3.0 jack, and so you need a 3.0 cable for the high speed. Just like plugging a USB 2.0 device into a 1.1 port, you’ll get a message telling you the device would run faster on a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 device when you plug it into a 2.0 port.

Other than a blue plastic tab in the end of plug instead of the usual white, and a thicker cable, they look the same (Figure 1). Yes, you still have a 50/50 chance of orienting the plug the right way. I seem to have a knack for trying the wrong way 85% of the time; I'd like to know who has my other 35%.

Figure 1. USB 3.0 connectors (left 2) and USB 2.0 (right two). See also this diagram.

So do you need USB 3.0 disk drive? Of course you do!

First Look

This disk drive is packaged in an appropriately sized retail box that is easily opened to reveal a corrugated cardboard insert (Figure 2). Thankfully, there is no excessive hard plastic or foam, just cardboard configured in a way to support the drive away from the exterior. The drive, a short cable, and a small instruction booklet are securely placed inside.

Figure 2: Modest, eco-friendly packaging is easy to open.

It is a good-looking, compact, shiny black device (Figure 3). It feels fairly solid for plastic. In just a few minutes, it is covered with my finger prints, but I’m resigned to frequently wiping off my many glossy black devices and have micro-fiber clothes everywhere, so that doesn't bother me much.

Figure 3: The Verbatim Store 'n' Go SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is only about 50% larger than a smart phone, so it is easy to take your media files or backups wherever you go. [Photo courtesy of Verbatim]

The drive-end if the cable is a Type-B USB 3.0 connector - that's the second one from the left in Figure 1. It is a bit difficult to insert. I plugged the other end it into my laptop’s 2.0 port to take a quick look; it came right on and Windows 7 did not need to find a driver, or found one on it's own without bothering me. There is a single blue LED that is on steadily when there is power, and blinks when the drive is accessed. It is behind the semi-transparent end of the case which makes the light very diffuse, making me think I forgot to put my glasses on. It is on the end with the cable, which make sense when it is being used with a laptop, but when plugged into the back of a desktop with the very short cable, the disk cannot be positioned in a way that the activity light is visible. On top would have been better.

The supplied software is on the disk rather than a CD. You better make a backup of those before using the disk - I don't see the software available for download from Verbatim. Files include a PDF user’s guide, Nero “BackItUp & Burn Essentials”, a "Norton Online Backup" installer, and some kind of “Formatter” utility. It is formatted FAT32, I guess so Mac’s can read it, but you may wish to reformat it as NTFS when you copy the software off it. More about the software later.

Side Note on Add-In Adapters

Many new computers have USB 3.0 built in; soon all will. Until then, a number of inexpensive add-in PCI Express adapters are available. For laptops, there is at least one ExpressCard adapter at about $35; to me, that would be more awkward and expensive than the value. But for a desktop or tower system a PCI Express card is reasonable.

I obtained a StarTech PEXUSB3S2, about $30, then saw a Syba SD-PEX20047 on MeritLine for $15, so I have two to compare. They are about the same, except the StarTech included a half-height bracket, which would be important if your computer took only half-height cards. I was surprised both had an internal L4 molex power connector. The StarTech instructions said to simply connect this to your computer's internal power supply, but mine has none. The Syba instructions said this is optional for devices needing more power (and implied a Y-connect was supplied; it was not). On starting, Windows 7 did not find a driver for the Syba card, but one was easily installed from the provided mini-CD . . . after (reluctantly) reading the printed instructions to find it. I tried the benchmark programs described below on both adapters, and did not find any differences, so only the results for the Syba card are shown.

If you go this route, buy an extension cable so you don't drive yourself nuts reaching around to the back of computer to find the ports. I saw a 3ft "Type A male/female" one for $2 online ($6 shipping). Get a blue one so you can keep it separate from your USB 2.0 cables.

Speed Tests -- Let the Race Begin!

Benchmark Methods

To get a good idea of the relative performance of USB 3.0 vs. 2.0, and of the Verbatim disk, I used two disk benchmark programs, devised some file copy tests and did several disk image backups. A summary of these methods is:

• ATTO Disk BenchMark. The default options were used (particularly Direct I/O).
• CrystalDiskMark (version 3.0.1). Reports sequential and random reads and writes, and takes a long time to run, so it must be good (:-)). The default settings of 5 runs for each test and a test size of 1000MB were used.
• Small File Copy: to test copying many small files, a subset of photos was copied to and from the target disk with the ROBOCOPY command. The data consisted of 6,341 files in 218 folders for a total of 6.42 GB. This replicates a common task I do often to mirror media files between systems and make backups to store elsewhere. To test reading and writing at the same time, which is something USB 3.0 can do but 2.0 cannot, the same files were written to a second location on the target disk while a second process was launched to read the first copy from the target disk to a different drive on the test computer. I’m not sure how often you will do something like this in real life, but since USB 3.0 is full duplex I thought it would be an interesting test. These tests were repeated 3 times and the average times calculated, then converted to MB/s. The system’s file cache of 2GB is much less than the amount of data copied, and copying was to and from a different location than the previous run, so caching effects should have been minimal.
• Large File Copy: here two HD recordings, one 3.90GB and one 7.94 GB were copied to and from the target disk. This is also something real-world and a common thing to do, such as when my little brother was on CNN recently and I wanted to cut the segment out of the 2 hour WTV recording made on my media center (hey, I have to brag about it . . . plus I really do wish I had had a USB 3.0 device when I moved the file!)
• Image backup: Macrium Reflect Free Edition was used to make a backup image of the test computer’s C: drive. This is something I do often. On this test system the C: drive is pretty large because there are other things besides the OS, and the resulting image file was about 63GB.

All reported tests were done on a modest Dell Inspiron 518 with a Pentium E2220 with 2 cores at 2.4GHz and 3GB of memory running Windows 7 Ultimate (32bit). The ATTO and CrystalDiskMark were also run on the Verbatim disk drive connected to a high-end workstation, to see if the small memory, low-end CPU, and 32-bit-ness of the test system made any difference; no difference was seen.

Comparison Devices

Here at the Thoughts Media Product Testing Center Annex #42, we don’t have many USB 3.0 devices to compare with the Verbatim drive. I like to use old internal SATA disks in a docking station for backups, and one day Meritline had a special on a MyGica USB 3.0 SATA docking station for $20 which was too good to pass up. I put a Western Digital 10,000RPM 80 GB SATA drive in that to use for testing. Besides that, I borrowed a Super-Talent USB 3.0 Express DUO 16GB flash drive (about $30), and also compared some USB 2.0 devices, in particular a trusty old Pocketec DataStor SATA USB 2.0 180GB disk that at one time was one of the fastest portable disks available.

So these comparison don’t tell us how the Verbatim disk drive fairs against direct competitors, but they are still informative in helping you decide if a USB 3.0 portable disk drive is worth investing in, and, in general, what to expect with USB 3.0.

Results

ATTO Disk Benchmark

Figure 4 shows the results from the ATTO Disk Benchmarks, where I wanted to see if there was any difference between the two PCIx cards and between FAT32 and NTFS formatting. There was no performance difference between the StarTech and Syba card, so in further tests the Syba was always used. I then formatted the Verbatim disk as an NTFS file system (unchecking the “Quick Format” option); this took a long time, but that’s not surprising for 500GB.

Figure 4. ATTO Disk Benchmark Results comparing FAT32 vs. NTFS formats, and some USB 2.0 devices.

There were some interesting things from this first round of benchmarks:

• The Verbatim disk drive did better when connected to a USB 2.0 port when formatted as FAT32 than NTFS, so maybe you should leave it formatted as FAT32 if you will use it with 2.0 ports often.
• USB 3.0 sure doesn't look like it is going to 10x faster than 2.0.
• The MyGica SATA dock really took a hit when connected to a 2.0 port; the Verbatim faired better in that it ran the same as the dock whereas it wasn't as fast on the 3.0 port.
• A USB 3.0 flash drive, like that Super-Talent, can be very slow to write to.

So there are some puzzling things there. Let's move on.

CrystalDiskMark Benchmarks

This program does 4 kinds of tests:

• Seq : Sequential Read/Write Test (Block Size = 1024KB)
• 512K : Random Read/Write Test (Block Size = 512KB)
• 4K : Random Read/Write Test (Block Size = 4KB)
• 4K QD32 : Random Read/Write Test (Block Size = 4KB, Queue Depth = 32)

I, frankly, don't quite understand the implications of the 3 different random tests, which are labeled R1, R2, and R3 in the chart in Figure 5, but the numbers sure came out differently.

Figure 5. CrystalDiskMark results for the test devices.

Now things are getting interesting.

The SATA dock does much better than the Verbatim disk for all the tests, but both are "off the chart" for most of the random tests. Why the R1 write was OK I don't know, but I checked the results and re-ran the tests. Because the Super-Talent 3.0 flash drive behaved so much differently in the ATTO benchmark, I added a Verbatim 16GB flash drive to the mix. Note how slow the R2 Write and R3 Write test were for both flash drives.

I'm still not seeing anything close to 10X USB 2.0 but, enough benchmarks, let's move on to some real-world tests.

Small File Copy Tests

In this test, the files were first copied to the target disk to have a set for the read test, then copied again to a different directory. The first set was then read back to a different disk on the test computer. So there would be some effect from the OS file cache as well as hardware cache, but each run was repeated 3 times and done exactly the same way for each device. The numbers were close across each run. This took hours and hours, by the way. Let's take a look at Figure 6. The "S-Write" and "S-Read" columns are where two process were started at the same time, one writing to the device and one reading from it (both to and from different directories).

Figure 6. Small File Copy results for writing and reading 6,000 photos, and doing the write and read at the same times (S-Write and S-Read).

Now the Verbatim disk is looking better against the SATA dock, and it is even a little faster when reading. But it falls short in the simultaneous read and write, where the read speed falls to nearly half the speed of the SATA dock. I suspect this is due to the nature of the disk hardware. The SATA dock had a relatively large and heavy 2.5" disk drive with an external power supply and running at 10,000 rpm. It probably has much better seek times and internal transfer rates that the low power and light-weight drive inside the Verbatim.

Some more interesting things:

• Write is 10 times slower to the Super-Talent than reading, but "only" 5 times slower with the Verbatim 2.0 flash drive. Reading during the slow writing doesn't seem to make the writing much worse.
• The Verbatim disk, when plugged into a 2.0 port, does as well as the Pocketec Datastor, so if some of your computers still have 2.0 ports, you won't be penalized for using this 3.0 disk.
• The full-duplex ability of the USB 3.0 connection seems only useful if the disk hardware can keep up.

But it still doesn't look like USB 3.0 is going to be 10 times as fast as 2.0. Maybe twice as fast for reading, on a good day. But a couple more tests are in order, even though I promised the review would be done last week.

Large File Copy and Image Backup

The results from copying the two large HDTV files (3.9GB and 7.94GB) and the Macrium image backup are combined in the chart in Figure 7. The file copies were done in a way similar to the small file copy, repeated 3 times, etc., but the image backup was done only once per device because it was time consuming.

Figure 7. Large file (1=3.9GB, 2=7.94GB) and Image Backup results.

Here the MyGica SATA Dock edges out the Verbatim disk drive a little bit, but now we really see some fast speeds, with the reads of the 3.9GB file exceeding 120MB/s. I didn't believe the "Read 1" numbers so I repeated the tests the next day and in a different order and the times came out identical, and I don't know why the Pocketec on the 2.0 port did better in "Read 1" than the Verbatim on the same port when their write speeds were identical.

Still nothing close to the advertised transfer rate of 480MB/s, but "transfer rate" doesn't necessarily mean "how fast it will actually backup or copy data".

What we can say is the Verbatim SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Store'n'Go disk keeps up with a much larger, bulkier, and uglier SATA disk in a dock and, on average, is going to move your data about twice as fast as a USB 2.0 disk drive.

Included Software

Lastly, let's take a quick look at the software included on the disk. These things are usually worth what you paid for them, but I suppose they do help sell the product in a retail setting.

Verbatim Hard Drive Formatter

I'm not sure what this is for. After installation the installer could not launch the program ("requires elevated privileges") but it did run by launching the desktop icon. Then it said a newer version of Adobe Flash Player for Internet Explorer was required. What? Groan. Well, OK.

The program finds your Verbatim disk and gives you the choice of NTFS for FAT32, then it does a quick format. I'm not sure what use this is, other than it is slightly easier to use than the Windows 7 formatting utility.

Nero BackItUp & Burn Essentials

I installed the Nero software next (again, you'd be out of luck if you ran the formatter from the disk first!) The installer says it requires a reboot...grr! On restart, several more things were installed, plus...what a surprise...a free browser toolbar! How delightful! The program actually looks pretty good (Figure 8) and has functions to backup files and drives manually or automatically, synchronize files, and create an image recovery disk. It also offers encryption options, which is a very good thing for portable media.

Figure 8. Nero BackItUp & Burn Essentials is fairly easy to use and comprehensive, and you even have the opportunity to pay for an upgrade to a better version.

I ran the drive backup on the test computer's C: drive, which is a similar task to the Macrium image backup benchmarked above. Macrium took about 22 minutes and made a 63GB file. The Nero tool took an incredible 2 hours and 39 minutes and made 41 files taking up 70.5GB. Unlike Macrium image files, you cannot restore individual files from the drive backup. It does support encryption while the Macrium Free Edition does not, but you can use BitLocker to secure removable disk drives if your version of Windows 7 includes that feature. Due to the glacial speed if the image backup, I was not inspired to look at other features in Nero BackItUp Essentials at this time.

Norton Online Backup

The disk drive includes a free trial of Norton Online Backup, one of many backup services that store your data for you. If you feel you really should have a copy of your irreplaceable media such as family photos and videos stored outside your house - and you should - an online service is an attractive option. However, most home Internet connections have rather slow upload speeds, and some have limits on total uploads and downloads.

The basic Norton Online service is $50 for "1 year protection for up to 5 PCs", and a limit of 25GB. That might be enough for most households' pictures and documents, but adding music and home videos would easily exceed that. Additional storage has been reported at an additional $50 for 10GB and $240 for 100GB. Dropbox is similar at $20/month for 100GB. For that kind of money you could have 3 or 4 Verbatim 500GB disk drives . . . but you'll still have to remember to routinely take one to a remote location for safe keeping.

The free 60-day trial includes 5GB of space. Launching the provided "Norton Online Backup.exe" simply sends you to their download page where you can download the real installer (5MB). The application is all browser based. I accepted the defaults (various file types in my C:UsersChris folder) and added my large C:mediapicturesphotos directory. It was quick to calculate the total number of files (7239) and size (6.07GB) and tell me it was too large. I removed the photos directory and it recalculated 1227 files and 51.26MB. I then selected "Manual (Use Back Up Now only") under the "When" tab. Once I found the Back Up Now button, it took about 4 minutes. The common usage would be to schedule that for night time. You can schedule an approximate time and it picks the exact time, so now I have one scheduled for daily at 3am. It would be interesting to see if I'm not logged on, or if the computer is asleep, whether the backup runs or not. Regardless, this kind of "trial ware" is not much of a reason to buy the Verbatim disk; anyone can download the Norton Online Backup 60-day trial.

Conclusion

If you need a small, light portable disk drive for backups or moving files, a Verbatim Store'N'Go SuperSpeed USB 3.0 is a good choice, even if you don't have USB 3.0 ports in any of your computers now. With an amazing 7 year warranty, you would have this disk for a long time and would no doubt have USB 3.0 in the near future. But don't expect 10 times the speed of a USB 2.0 disk drive; count on about twice as fast. Maybe the "10" in "10x" on the package is binary! The USB 3.0 protocol will be with us for a long time, and backup speeds will pick up as disk drives, memory, bus speeds, and processor speeds all get faster.

Chris Sacksteder is a systems developer living in central Pennsylvania. Hobbies include keeping automatic commercial skipping working on Windows 7 Media Center and doing backups, lots of backups, of the numerous computers in the house.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.

Team San Jose is seeking a creative and enthusiastic individual to be responsible for developing and driving online e-marketing strategies. We are looking for a social media expert to be a lead for social media presence and the primary writer and editor for our website.
Responsibilities:
• Drive online e-marketing strategies and planning
• Collaborate with sales and marketing to create online strategies
• Monitor industry trends and best practices to ensure sanjose.org maintains industry leadership
• Develop strategies to generate User Generated Content to engage audience with the website
• Provide distinct and unique editorial voice to reinforce brand of organization and destination thereby differentiating from competition
• Prepare and present online marketing plans to management team members
• Take projects from concepts to completion
• Drive design and implementation of company social media platforms
• Lead content development strategy for sanjose.org website
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• Design and execute email and social media marketing campaigns
• Analyze and evaluate website and social media campaign traffic and performance
• Develop and maintain joint online strategies with partner organizations
Qualifications:
• College degree or equivalent experience
• 4-5 years related experience in similar interactive development position
• Experience with web applications strongly preferred
• Experience with interactive design and creative
• Destination or Travel industry experience a plus
• Strong copy writing and editing skills, ability to create copy for multiple platforms and audiences
• Mastery of social networking tools- such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
• Understanding of web usability and information architecture
• Proficient with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Flash a plus.
• Understanding of video production and integration with web content
• A deep understanding of fundamental design discipline and principals
• Deep passion for and knowledge of San Jose
• Creative “Outside-of-the-Box” thinker
• Enthusiastic, dependable, positive team player
• Self-starter with a professional demeanor
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to multi-task
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to take creative direction yet work independently
• Ability to be flexible and adjust to changing work environment
• Customer service oriented


ABOUT TEAM SAN JOSE
Launched in 2004, Team San Jose is a non-profit management corporation that operates the San Jose Convention Center and cultural venues such as South Hall, Parkside Hall, San Jose Civic, California Theatre, Center for the Performing Arts and Montgomery Theater, and serves as the convention and visitors bureau for San Jose. Team San Jose is a strategic partner supporting the success of local events, and drives travel to our community through sales, marketing and public relations efforts.
Team San Jose ensures the success of meetings and events with its unique collaboration between the local hotels, arts groups, and local labor – all working to effectively manage the quality of the customers’ experience from beginning to end. San Jose’s model is changing the way our meetings and conventions industry serves customers - putting them first with one team for all their event services needs - rather than handing them off to multiple organizations after the meeting is booked. Team San Jose’s success has supported the local economy by attracting events and visitors which drive spending in local hotels, cultural and convention venues, restaurants and attractions, which in turn helps create jobs. The organization’s seamless service has received raves from planners, with 98 percent of our customers returning to San Jose.
If you are an enthusiastic and creative individual who is eager to become part of a progressive performance oriented team, please submit resume to: teamsanjosehr@yahoo.com. Please include “Online Content Manager” in the subject line of your email.
For more information about Team San Jose, please visit our website at: www.sanjose.org. Team San Jose is an equal opportunity employer.

• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

The upcoming release of Adobe Flash Player 10.3 will give users of most of the major browsers the ability to delete Flash cookies in much the same way that they're able to erase normal Web cookies...

If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe. Via

Section: Mac Software, Miscellaneous / Other

Macintosh product updates and announcements for May 4, 2011:

Software

• app4mac has announced Imagerie 1.2, a major new version of their image editor built for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Featuring a modern and intuitive interface, Imagerie is built with a very modern core engine featuring layers management, vector tools, gradient editor and an innovative history navigator. Imagerie is especially made to be flexible, very speedy and clear while doing common editing. No complex windows or hidden features. Version 1.2 includes many core improvements.
• Bohemian Coding today announced Fontcase 2.0, a major update to their Apple Design Award-winning font manager. Scrolling, previewing, searching, skimming and activating fonts is now faster and more reliable than ever. In version 2.0 we have done a major overhaul of the interface, yet, people familiar with the first version will feel right at home. New features include Typedia integration and Typesetter; an amazing new way to preview fonts in any combination and on any website.
• Kwiksher has introduced Kwik 1.0, their plugin for Adobe Photoshop CS5 that simplifies the creation of interactive, animated content for both iOS and Android devices. Perfect for designers and illustrators who want to create comics, magazines, and interactive books, Kwik allows users to easily add buttons and animations to static Photoshop compositions. The plugin provides many of the basic sound, camera, and animation capabilities of Adobe Flash or Director without ever leaving Photoshop.
• Media Sign Pro has announced version 4.0 of their Mac based digital signage software. Media Sign Pro simplifies the creation of dynamic digital signage. It is an all-in-one solution providing everything needed to create high quality messaging including a creator, scheduler, and player. Version 4.0 adds a wide array of features including dynamic playlists. Other features include Twitter integration, built-in templates, slideshow captions, enhanced style tools, and more.
• publicspace.net has announced The Big Mean Folder Machine 2.17 for Mac OS X. The “Big Mean Folder Machine” is an essential tool for anyone who works with large file collections, including digital photographers, content creation, post-production, system administrators, and other creative professionals. This latest release adds the option of creating batch folders of specific size or number of files while preserving the existing folder hierarchy.
• ExactCODE GmbH released the next updates of the Mac version of OCRKit as well as the relating equivalent OCRKit Mobile for iPhone. ExactCODE continues commitment to the development and research of advanced recognition and digital image processing. The update vastly improves OCR recognition, accuracy and stability and improves layout recognition as well as the output of special characters to PDF and RTF. The Mac OS X version includes several user interface improvements.
• Eltima Software has announced that SyncMate users can sync their computers not only with Android phones, but with Android tablets too. SyncMate enables anyone to synchronize Mac computers with Windows Mobile and Android devices, Nokia S40 phones, Windows PCs, other Mac computers, Google accounts, Sony PlayStation Portable, USB flash drives and allows backing up Mac data online.
• Karelia Software has released iMedia Browser 2.0.1, an update to its popular iMedia Browser utility which adds a familiar “media browser” experience to almost any Mac app, including the highly anticipated upcoming Sandvox 2. The iMedia Browser 2.0.1 update adds support for iPhoto event skimming, support for the Faces feature in both iPhoto and Aperture, and support for Collection groups in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3. iMedia Browser 2.0.1 is also a maintence release with fixes to reported issues.
• Haase and Martin has announced that the tab bar icon collection made by iconsBerlin was revised recently and 51 useful icons were added. In the section, navigation, different Icons were added which for instance symbolize functions like changing of settings or updating process. The whole collection includes 578 tab bar icons and is available worldwide. All icons support the high resolution of the iPhone 4 retina display. So each tab bar icon appears in a size of 60 x 60 pixels.
• CourseForum Technologies has announced that ProjectForum, a wiki-based collaboration application for small-medium teams, has been updated to version 7.0. This major release provides a substantial user interface facelift, improved theme support, new wiki format tools and more. It is remarkably easy to install on any Mac, yet provides powerful collaboration features for multiple teams in a secure and private environment.
• Singular Software has announced the release of its latest product, Singular Software Presto for Final Cut Pro. The Singular Software Presto application dramatically simplifies the creation of presentation videos. Working alongside Final Cut Pro, Singular Software Presto synchronizes, arranges, and edits the footage of the presenter, presentation slides, and video taken of the screen in just minutes.
• Zevrix Solutions has announced Graphic Inspector 1.7.12,  a maintenance update to its quality control solution which checks entire folders of graphic files for potential problems according to specific workflow requirements. The software provides graphic professionals of any trade with the most exhaustive info on multiple images and vector graphics, saving the time and hassle of checking them manually. The new version improves checkup accuracy of GIF files and images with unknown resolution.
• Nozbe Todo for Mac is a new desktop application developed by Macoscope, which gives users instant access to their Nozbe web accounts. Along with recently updated Nozbe Todo for iPhone, iPod and iPad, Nozbe Todo for Mac makes a unique and super efficient set of productivity apps that not only helps managing tasks, but actually gets them done. Thanks to Nozbe Todo for Mac, users can get their Nozbe out of their cluttered web browsers and put it into separate app, the place it deserves.

Hardware

• Other World Computing (OWC) has announced the immediate availability of high performance OWC PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz Memory Upgrade Kits for the new Mid 2011 iMac models introduced by Apple yesterday. OWC’s first-to-market kits that offer up to 16GB with savings up to 65% compared to factory options; as well as memory configurations not offered as factory build options, are ‘MaxRAM’ lab performance certified and quality assurance backed by a Lifetime Advance Replacement Warranty and Money Back Guarantee.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

---

Adobe released a security advisory warning the users of a zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player Versions 10.2.152.33 and earlier. An exploit targeting this vulnerability was embedded inside Microsoft Excel documents and was used to deliver the malicious code to the victims. McAfee Labs performed a detailed technical analysis of the exploit and learned that Read more...

Let the webOS comeback campaign begin. AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) will exclusively launch the Hewlett-Packard Veer 4G, HP's first smartphone since it acquired Palm last year for $1.2 billion.

Click here for details on the HP Veer for AT&T.

AT&T said it will launch the pint-sized smartphone in white and black May 15 for $99.99 with a two-year contract.  The Veer uses  webOS 2.1 and sports a 2.6-inch screen, making it smaller than a credit card. The phone supports HSPA+, tri-band UMTS and quad-band GSM/EDGE. It also has an 800 MHz Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragon processor, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and 8 GB of storage.  It also has mobile hotspot capability, allowing the phone to share an Internet connection with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices.

The Veer is HP's attempt to reintroduce webOS to the market after Palm's first wave of smartphones, including the Pre and Pixi, fell flat. Those devices did not fare well in the market despite praise for the webOS and its multitasking capabilities and user interface.  

In addition to the Veer, HP also plans to release its first webOS tablet, the TouchPad, along with a more powerful smartphone, the Pre3, later this summer. HP has not indicated which carriers it will partner with for those devices or when they might launch.

For more:
- see this release
- see this HP-Palm blog post

Related Articles:
Rumor Mill: HP to hold Veer launch party May 2
HP's Apotheker: 100M webOS-enabled products per year in the future
HP exec accuses RIM's PlayBook of imitating TouchPad's webOS
HP unveils webOS TouchPad tablet, Pre3 and Veer smartphones
HP CEO Apotheker wants to snag Apple's 'cool factor'
HP's Bradley hints at tablet, other webOS product launches for February

Trailrunner7 writes "The upcoming release of Adobe Flash Player 10.3 will give users of most of the major browsers the ability to delete Flash cookies in much the same way that they're able to erase normal Web cookies, thanks to a better integration with privacy settings in Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. The addition of the ability for users to delete the cookies set by plug-ins and browser add-ons gives them better control of the security and privacy of the content on their machines and is designed to address a serious issue that's been plaguing Flash for some time. Security and privacy experts have warned about the implications of so-called Flash cookies, which are set by Flash and difficult for users to find and delete."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Previous editions of Mountain Biking UK magazine's VooDoo Challenge have seen Rob Jarman race through the Atlas Mountains to Marrakech and take on a commuting bike on the streets of Bristol. Part four pits former World Cup downhill racer Jonny Cheetham against expert fell runner Ricky Lightfoot at Whinlatter in the Lake District.

Jonny had his work cut out against the agile Lightfoot, who has an appropriate name given the speed at which he eats up terrain. He's been a fell runner for a decade and is a member of the Salomon Trail Team, who were crowned world team champions at the Orobie SkyRaid in 2010.

Check out the video below to see how the challenge went. You can read the full story in issue 264 of Mountain Biking UK magazine, out now. To subscribe, click here.

About the VooDoo Challenge

A different challenge awaits VooDoo Cycles each month. Some of them will have a bit of culture and exploring, others a definite man vs the elements feel, and others will just be downright bonkers. You'll be able to follow the series in MBUK and here on BikeRadar. Next month, they head to Moab, USA, to take on the motor-based might of 4x4's on the famous Slickrock trail.

It is no secret that Apple does not like the Flash Player too much, so much so that their iOS devices do not support it. However, the iPad 2 will benefit from Adobe Creative Suite 5.5, as there is HTML5 harmony. This means that Apple’s tablet device will be able to come into its own...

Users of Internet Explorer 9 and IE8 now have a much simpler way to delete Flash cookies, provided that they’re running the latest version of the technology, v10.3. With Flash Player 10.3 Release Candidate, Adobe has embraced support for application programing interfaces that Microsoft made available...

Keeps your hot files hot and your cool files cool!

You know who would be perfect to pitch this? A young, pre-receding-hairline Jason Alexander.

Hey! You say you’re gettin’ tired of tablet computer and e-readers that don’t quite make it?

Try the Pocket eDGe Dualbook Android Tablet from Entourage! (Wait, from what? That’s pretty cool. I wonder if it knows Marky Mark?)

This crazy new giz-mo-ma-dad is a tablet on one side and a reader on the other! It’s a personal digital accessory straight off Doc Moreau’s isle! What wacky abomination won’t science think up next?

With USB, Mini-USB, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, there’s almost no device or network with which this little e-Bi-Beast won’t mate! And its innovative two-screen folding design means your tablet files stay piping hot while your e-books and other reader files stay crisp and cool!

Update your Facebook status! Read a digital copy of Ben Viljoen’s Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War on the bus! Become the Foursquare mayor of the fourth floor men’s room! Then, when you’re finished with your reading and your tablet-computing, you can slather both screens with spicy mayo, fold your Pocket eDGe closed, and enjoy a hearty digital meal!

Assuming, of course, you don’t mind extensive dental trauma and a mouthful of toxic metals.

Look, we didn’t say it was a good idea. We said “you can.”

Could be the best pocket-sized tablet-e-reader amalgamation… ever!

Authorized for SquareTrade Extended Warranty

Warranty: 1 Year enTourage

Condition: New

Features:

• Combines the functions of an e-reader, tablet netbook, notepad, and audio/video recorder and player in one. It’s a comprehensive device that lets you read e-books, surf the Internet, take digital notes, send emails and instant messages, watch movies and listen to music anywhere, any time
• Read and interact with e-books and PDFs
• Take notes right on the book, either by hand or using the virtual keyboard
• Download e-books, apps, and more from the enTourage eDGe store
• Take notes with the stylus on a blank page on the reader screen
• Surf the web
• Store and organize e-books and other types of files
• Open and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents
• Organize your schedule
• Save battery power by turning off the tablet screen to just use the reader screen
• Browse and watch YouTube videos
• Connect USB keyboard or USB Flash Drive
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capable

Technical Specifications:

CPU

1.2 GHz Marvell ARMADA PXA168

Memory

3GB Internal MicroSD Slot

Operating System

Linux with Google Android 1.6 Donut

Display
Tablet Screen:	7" Touchscreen WXGA (800x480)
Reader Screen:	6" E Ink with 16 shades of gray (800x600)
Screen Rotation:	90° and 180° (tablet), 180° (reader)

Audio
Audio Out:	Built-in Speaker
Audio In:	Built-In Microphone

Format
Reader:	ePub, PDF
Tablet Video:	3GP, MP4, Adobe Flash Lite (H.264), AVI (DivX or Xvid encoded), MOV, WMV
Tablet Audio:	MP3, WAV, 3GPP, MP4, AAC, OGG, M4A

Connections

USB Mini-USB 3.5mm Headphone/Headset jack (TRRS)

e-Reader Input Devices

Stylus (Wacom® Penabled®) Virtual Keyboard

Tablet Input Devices

Touch-screen (Resistive touch - use finger or stylus on screen) Virtual Keyboard Optical finger pad

Camera

2MP with video capability (front-facing)

Wi-Fi

802.11 b/g

Bluetooth

Yes

Battery

Lithium-ion Polymer with up to 6 hours life, or up to 11 hours using the reader screen

Dimensions
Closed:	5.5”W x 7.5”H x 1”D
Open:	11”W x 7.5”H x 0.5”D

Weight

1.35 lbs

 

Additional Photos:

• Black Dualbook Closed
• Black Dualbook Top
• Black Dualbook Bottom
• Red Dualbook Closed
• Red Dualbook Top
• Red Dualbook Bottom
• Dualbook Open
• Tablet
• e-Reader
• Black Dualbook Package Contents
• Red Dualbook Package Contents
• Packaging

In the box:

• enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook (choose Black or Red)
• Stylus
• Battery (pre-installed)
• Power Cord
• AC Adapter
• Mini-USB Cable
• Quick-Start Guide

Adobe’s not giving up on Flash.

If you’re an Android user, try not to hit your head on the ceiling fan as you jump for joy. Why? Well, Adobe last night announced the release of Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablets and is available for download in the Android Market. Eventually, [...]

Ahh, isn't it cute?

The HTC Wildfire S could be the darling of the affordable Android handsets. We say could be, because HTC have slightly muddied the water with the similarly-specced HTC Salsa, their touchscreen Facebook phone, as well as pitching out the Wildfire S into a market brimming with devices new and old. In the rawest sense the HTC Wildfire S is an incremental update of last year’s Wildfire, which was a phone that, when we reviewed it, seemed to drag its heels a little.?

The HTC Wildfire S betters its predecessor, now offering a more pleasing design reflecting the changes made to the Desire S, so you’ll find the largely obscure optical key has been removed and there has been just about enough of a facelift to draw admiring glances. It is, it has to be said, extremely pretty for a such a small phone, batting aside some of the budget pretenders with ease when it comes to pure looks.

The Wildfire S sees some of HTC’s characteristic unibody design, but the rear section is simply a plastic backplate. There’s nothing wrong with that, it still looks good, is free from too much flex or creaking, and the white finish we had looked smart enough. It is, it has to be said, a little too slick in the hand and on several occasions it was very nearly skidding across the floor of the drawing room as we put it through its paces.

Internally there have been upgrades too. It now offers Android 2.3.3 (at the time of review) sitting on a Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset clocked at 600MHz with 512MB RAM. They’re entry-level specs and haven’t moved up too much from last year, but with HTC Sense (version 2.1) and Android moving on, the experience overall feels slicker and more efficient than its predecessor. Put next to a high-end smartphone and yes, it does suffer from slowdown when you push it, app opening lacks the snap of more powerful devices and you’ll find yourself waiting fractionally longer than you might expect on occasions, but this is fitting with the phone’s affordable status.

One step for the positive is the move from 320 x 240 to 480 x 320 pixels on the display. It won’t win the resolution race, but at 3.2-inches, it puts in a pixel density of 180ppi, so the final result looks reasonable. The resolution is the same as the rival INQ Cloud Touch, but the smaller screen means those pixels are tighter packed and at this level swapping space for a crisp result works in the HTC Wildfire S’s favour. The screen is admittedly small, too small for heavy browser use or to use as an impromptu ebook reader, but it is backed up by a touch response that means it doesn’t critically fail.

Touch response can make or break a phone, especially when the display is small, but we found that the Wildfire S coped just about well enough. It will never be a device where you can spend a lot of time bashing out messages, but on the flip side we didn’t have a problem with day-to-day text entry either in portrait or landscape. The keyboard in HTC Sense is perhaps a little cluttered, but offers up reasonable suggestions when you mis-key a word. It can be bettered and we prefer the smart approach of SwiftKey, which will not only correct your mistakes, but predict your next word so you save yourself a lot of key presses.

The handset itself measures 101.3 x 59.4 x 12.4mm and tips the scales at 105g. The result is a phone that packs a relatively good experience into a compact package and despite having a fetish for the high-end of Android, we’ve found that the paired-down HTC Sense experience that the Wildfire offers means you can stick to core functions of communication and social networking without missing out too much. Of course there are some major multimedia sacrifices you’ll have to accept along the way.

Although packing a recent version of Android, it falls below the specs that will offer you Adobe Flash Player, so you won’t be getting Flash video in the browser, or the offer of BBC iPlayer. Being a single core device with a small screen it also isn’t going to take chunks out of your HD video collection or offer you high definition recording from the camcorder. You’ll find too that in the trimming of HTC Sense the integrated multimedia is gone: there is no offer of network streaming as the “Connected Media” element is missing.

Video format support on the whole is not great, but then the Wildfire S doesn’t have the power to really get to grips with much video. We downloaded Skifta to take care of media streaming, but as it relies on video support on the device itself we were equally hampered when it came to streaming video. (However, it will serve up your music and photos without issue.)

??

Music is better catered for, with HTC’s skinned music player taking care of your local music without issue, and offering up integrated Amazon MP3 if you fancy buying more tracks. The 3.5mm headphone jack means you can easily hook up your own headphones, which will get the best from the HTC Wildfire S when it comes to sound quality. You’ll also need to use the headphones if you want to take advantage of the FM radio. Thankfully, HTC’s music player sees music control from the lock screen, so you can simply and easily pause or skip tracks without having to unlock the phone and locate the music app.

Of course this being an HTC Sense phone it offers you integration of your social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. Sign-in to these apps provided by HTC and you’ll find that the Friend Stream widget and app will regurgitate your online social life in one place, if you like such an approach. HTC Sense will also pull these details into the likes of People so the contacts listing is rich and you can arrive at a person, see their latest update and checkout their Facebook albums if you so desire.

We’re not huge fans of Friend Stream as we often find that consuming updates through individual apps isn’t a huge bane. Fortunately, both the Android native Twitter and Facebook apps will also offer to integrate with your contacts, so even if you choose not to walk the HTC Sense path in its entirety you won’t find yourself missing out.

In terms of core functions, Android pulls in your Google accounts and the phone populates itself with your account(s) in a matter of minutes. Detailed touches, like being able to pull up a map of the location of an appointment make the Android experience on the HTC Wildfire S feel complete, but in most regards, it’s core functionality that all Android users on recent versions of Google’s mobile OS enjoy. Google Maps is one of the strong points, with integrated GPS on hand to locate you can free Navigation swinging in to provide you with directions when you need them.

Control of the device comes thanks to the four touch buttons across the bottom of the display. Given the small frame of the phone they don’t have much space, but we didn’t find this to be too much of a problem: the occasional brush of the left-hand home button would see us dive out of an app, but this was a rarity. Elsewhere aside from the home, menu, back and search controls you have the power/standby button and the volume controls.?

There is no camera button, so controlling the camera comes in the form of touchscreen controls. This isn’t the basic Android camera either, as it too has had the standard HTC treatment. Rated at 5-megapixels, it holds up its end of the bargain supplying reasonable results adequate for sharing or sending to friends. The camera suffers the regular failings of mobile phone cameras, struggling in bright conditions and not really coping with high-contrast subjects. The on-screen autofocusing and shutter action means that you’ll often experience a delay before the shot is fired, so capturing moving objects leaves a little to be desired.

If comparing devices on spec sheet alone, you might celebrate the fact that the HTC Wildfire S has a single LED “flash” on the rear, so low light capture is a little more possible, but it lacks power and once you get close enough for it to be effective, it tends to blow out details, so isn’t really worth getting excited about.

Fitting the restrained specs of the Wildfire S, video capture is limited to 640 x 480, the results of which are average. You can autofocus during video capture which is a nice feature, so you can touch the screen and it will refocus the camera. Wind noise is something of a problem, but this affects all mobile phones and the day we shot the sample video below was very windy.

In our time testing using the Wildfire S we found it to be stable, and didn’t detect any significant problems with the day-to-day running of the phone. Understand that this isn’t a powerhouse and you’ll get on just fine with the features it has on offer. The battery life isn’t particularly strong and you’ll still need to charge it every night to make it through the day, if you the sort of person who likes to keep your hand in with Twitter and Facebook every 5 minutes. Heavy calling or data use will take its toll on the device so keep your eye on the battery levels. When it comes to calling we didn't experience any problems with no complaints from callers.

Verdict:

Overall the HTC Wildfire S is a tidy little package. The good touch response and design reflect well on what is essentially a budget device. It can be bettered by its rivals - there will be affordable phones with a larger higher resolution display, there will be those that get a higher power processor, but if you’re less interested in consuming movie content or playing mobile games, then the HTC Wildfire S will stand you in good stead.

The most important factor for us is that we’ve found the HTC Wildfire S capable to performing those core tasks without too much of a compromise. However, there are a number of older phones currently available which will offer you more and still at a competitive price. The HTC Wildfire S is best suited to someone who craves a compact device and is looking to talk, text and get social with their phone, with no great desire to push the Android envelope.?

?

Tags: Phones Mobile phones HTC HTC Wildfire S Android

                                       

HTC Wildfire S originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 03 May 2011 16:11:52 +0100

If you follow Web Privacy issues, you’ve probably heard about “Flash Cookies.” In the same manner that Web developers can use HTTP Cookies to store data, developers who use Adobe Flash Player on their Web site can use Flash Cookies to store data.

Internet Explorer users are accustomed to deleting their cookies via Delete Browsing History. However, because Flash is an add-on and not part of standard HTML content, browsers have not been able to delete Flash cookies the same way they delete HTTP cookies. When we released IE8, we added APIs (links here and here) for Internet Explorer so that add-ons such as Flash can respond to Delete Browsing History and InPrivate Browsing, allowing consumers to delete Flash cookies along with other data in browsing history.

Adobe recently announced that Flash Player 10.3 integrates with Delete Browsing History. This means what when you delete your cookies with Delete Browsing History, Flash Player will automatically clear your Flash cookies as well. We applaud the change. It resolves a longstanding privacy issue.

We’ve created a Test Drive demo page that you can use to test this out. Note that you’ll need to download Adobe Flash Player 10.3 Release Candidate and use it with either IE8 or IE9 to try this out.

—Andy Zeigler, Program Manager, Internet Explorer

Clay Porter has been documenting the World Cup scene for the past six years, producing films such as F1rst, Between the Tape and The Tipping Point, and working on the Atherton Project.

His latest movie, 3 Minute Gaps, covers the 2009 and 2010 race seasons. Made with help from fellow film-maker John Lawlor, it's described as a "performance-based documentary about the new-school generation of downhill mountain bike racers". You can check out the official trailer below:

If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe.

Google Android updates don’t often get leaked and are often well kept secrets until the day of official announcment. Not this one though, but it wasn’t Google that did anything wrong, it was Adobe who recently unleashed its new Flash Player 10.2 app update and in it mentions some not yet meant to be disclosed info.

The update says that Flash Player 10.2 supports “hardware accelerated video”, provided that a user is running the unannounced Android 3.1 operating system. This should drastically increase video playback performance, specifically with HD video, on Honeycomb tablets.

There is no word from the search engine giant when Android 3.1 might be unveiled, but possibly in a week’s time at Google’s I/O developer conference in San Francisco. In the meantime, we can start guessing what sugary name is to follow.

[via Engadget]

GadgetLite - Latest technology, gadget news and reviews

Leaked: Adobe tells everyone of video acceleration in Android 3.1

La primera tableta con Android 3.0 Honeycomb y el smartphone más poderoso del mundo ofrecen a consumidores nuevas maneras de mantenerse conectados Motorola XOOM viene a redefinir el concepto de “equipo tipo tableta”, proporcionando al usuario distintas maneras de entretenerse, conectarse con amigos y mantener su productividad en movimiento. Motorola XOOM es el primer equipo en incorporar Android 3.0 Honeycomb, desarrollado desde cero especialmente para tabletas. Con el mejor procesador dual core de 1GHz y 1GB de RAM, cámaras frontal y trasera, capaz de realizar múltiples tareas a la vez y los últimos servicios de Google en una pantalla widescreen de 10.1-inch (25.65cm). Lo último en servicios Google Mobile incluye Google Maps 5.0 con interacción 3D y acceso a más de 150.000 aplicaciones de Android Market. Motorola XOOM también incorpora la versión beta del Adobe Flash Player 10.2, la cual puede ser descargada de Android Market, permitiendo así la entrega de un completo contenido Web basado en Flash, incluidos videos, juegos y completas aplicaciones de Internet. El Motorola ATRIX ha sido diseñado para actuar como el principal concentrador digital del usuario para crear, editar e interactuar con documentos, multimedia y contenido. La aplicación Webtop de Motorola y su increíble e [...]

Adobe Ships Flash Player 10.2 for Android 3.0 Tablets. Thanks Ant via Slashdot.

Would you consider ditching your landline for a cell phone only? Adrian Daily Telegram You need Adobe Flash Player 9 to view this widget. The Daily Telegram | 133 N. Winter St. Adrian, MI 49221 Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted. and more »

A recent Adobe Flash Player 10.2 update has spilled the beans on Android 3.1. The update says that Flash Player 10.2 supports “hardware accelerated video,” provided that a user is running the unannounced Android 3.1 operating system. This should drastically increase video playback performance, specifically with HD video, on Honeycomb tablets. Google hasn’t yet announced Android 3.1, but we expect to hear more it during Google’s I/O developer conference on May 10th and 11th in San Francisco. [Via Engadget] Read

If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe.

Home Front Communications in Washington, DC is looking for a freelance video editors with creative graphics design experience to work with its award-winning production team. Editors available to work independently, nights and/or weekends desired. These highly motivated professionals are comfortable working on a variety of different projects ranging from quick-cutting, graphics-driven, effects-heavy pieces to story-telling videos and news packages. Video editing in SD and HD formats with experience using Final Cut Pro and Adobe After-Effects is a must. Experience with Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as knowledge of video codecs, and presentation software, such as power point and keynote, is strongly desired. Minimum five years experience in a professional organization. We're looking for a team player who is enthusiastic and looking to develop new skills in digital and multi-media production.

• Location: Washington, DC
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Você perde a paciência, quando um banner publicitário em Flash faz sua CPU disparar para lá de 75%? Você gostaria de poder saber sempre que o Flash Player anda consumindo recursos demais e decretar a morte dele quando passasse de um dado limite? Com o FlashFrozen, um pequeno aplicativo à venda na Mac App Store [...]

Section: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Mobile Computers, Hardware, Reviews, Features, Originals

What is being reviewed?

We have the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM’s first effort into the tablet space. We have the baseline WiFi model with 16GB of storage space which will run you $499 in stores and online.

Before we go any further you should know that this tablet was provided to us by RIM for reviewing purposes.

The specs

• 7-inch 1024x768 screen
• 1GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core CPU
• 1GB RAM
• 16GB storage
• 5MP rear-facing camera (1080p video)
• 3MP front-facing camera (1080p video)
• HDMI output

Introduction

The PlayBook is tough to talk about. On one side you have this beautiful industrial design that feels really nice in your hands. On the other side you have an OS that borrows liberally from other mobile OSes and doesn’t have all the features you’d expect in a modern tablet.

Hardware

As I said, the PlayBook feels really, really nice. Its small enough to grab full with one hand, yet just large enough to have difficulty fitting in even some jacket pockets. Holding it feels very nice with the black rubberized back. It never feels too cold when picking it up, and the corners are rounded so it won’t hurt sensitive hands at any point (both are problems I’ve had with the iPad 1 in the past).

You’ve probably heard of issues with the power button on the device, and they are there, but it honestly didn’t bother me too much. I liked turning the device on with a single vertical swipe, and only really used the power button to turn the display off. That being said, the button did seem to stick a bit, so turning it off was difficult at times. Also, it’s really small which can make it hard to find for some.

The cameras on the PlayBook are good enough to take some photos and video. Neither will come out all that great, however. The lenses are fixed-focused, so photos can’t adjust well to different light sources, and video comes our blurry if there’s any sort of movement. There are options for taking photos or video in auto, sports, or whiteboard modes, which are apparently the only settings you need. The whiteboard setting seems like it could prove useful for taking photos to add to a service like Evernote, but there’s no Evernote app available at the moment. (There aren’t many apps at all, but I’ll into that later.)

Also worth mentioning about the hardware are the speakers on either side of the screen when held in the natural landscape. They’re worth mentioning mainly because they sound really good. The sound coming out of the PlayBook sounded much better than my iPad 1. I don’t have any definitive way to measure the sound, but I can say that streaming the Mumford & Sons performance at Coachella this past weekend sounded pretty fantastic for a tablet, I actually almost preferred them to the speakers in my 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Software

That Mumford & Sons performance was running through YouTube, in a Flash player, which also worked very well. Playing Flash video on the device was great. The video performed without stuttering even at 1080p. There were some issues with videos not working correctly, but nothing you haven’t seen on a desktop. Doing anything else in Flash was worthless, however. Flash websites worked, but were very slow and choppy. Playing Flash games aren’t even an option, I tried Zuma Blitz on Facebook, and the animation was essentially nonexistent. There were also instances of the browser crashing, though that was during a time where the OS was still considered in beta according to RIM.

Despite some issues with the browser, the rest of the OS performed amicably. Swiping through the webOS-like cards worked well, even if landing on a specific one was difficult at times. Anything more than a quick nudge in either direction will zoom you past multiples cards, but it becomes a non-issue with some practice. All the swipes and gestures (down for context menu, diagonal down for status bar, up for home screen, up-right diagonal for keyboard, left or right for app switching) take a little while to remember, but become second-nature as well. I actually started using a few of them on the iPhone only to be a bit disappointed every time.

Sidenote regarding gestures: expect to give a quick lesson to anyone who borrows the PlayBook for the first time. Booting up gives you a brief tutorial, but it won’t be obvious to everyone.

Having a snappy new OS with interesting gestures is great, but a new OS isn’t all that great without much uses. I can say that most of the time I was testing the PlayBook was used in the browser. The only other apps included that proved interesting to me were Need For Speed Undercover, Tetris, Slacker Radio, and National Film Board of Canada which streams mostly documentaries from Canadian filmmakers. Decent apps in the App World were almost nonexistent, though RIM is claiming it will have more then 3,000 PlayBook apps at launch. Not all of them were present during my testing, and the ones that were there just weren’t up to par I’ve come to expect on other platforms.

There were also apps from OfficeToGo and Adobe Reader, but none of them proved all that useful to me. Sure, outputting PowerPoint presentations to and HD screen could be cool, and it’s great if you’re a professional who does a lot of presentations, but for a tech blogger it’s not the most useful or interesting tool.

The rest of the apps were good for some quick entertainment, but that’s about it, the PlayBook was used for quick web browsing and media consumption, assuming the media was available for streaming online.

Anything else just wasn’t available or the screen was too small for. There’s no native email app for the PlayBook, only links to web email clients. So, you can use the Gmail website (which defaults to the mobile version), or any other web service, but you’re out of luck if you wanted to get notifications alerting you to new email. There is BlackBerry Bridge, but I was unable to test that out because I lack a BlackBerry to use the feature with.

Sure, some BlackBerry users will want to pick up a PlayBook, but it’s a bit too much to assume everyone who wants the tablet is already using one. Even if there was an email app, it would be great mostly for reading email and sending quick responses. Seven inches is a great size for reading, but is very awkward for typing without a Bluetooth keyboard. Holding the PlayBook in portrait mode feels like an oversized smartphone, while landscape is too small for more than one hand, just too big for thumb-typing.

Speaking of reading, this could potentially be where the PlayBook really shines. There was a preloaded Kobo app, though it didn’t work quite the way I would have liked. Reading articles from the Instapaper website, however, was a fantastic experience. I have no doubt that a Kindle app for the PlayBook could be a really great reading experience. It’s larger and less constrained than something like the iPhone, but smaller than the iPad screen which can be easy to get lost in at times. The pixel density of the 1024x600 screen isn’t too bad, either.

The Bottom Line

The PlayBook is a very nicely designed device. It feels like it could be a professional tablet. The experience just isn’t there at the moment to justify the $500+ price tag. A built-in email app and some better apps in App World would be a bit closer. If you’re a diehard-BlackBerry user you’ll be able to get a lot more out of the tablet, especially if you don’t care about apps. For everyone else, stay away for now. At least wait to see if the App World situation improves.

Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player. KMOV.com Posted on April 19, 2011 at 8:40 PM Updated today at 9:18 PM Riverview and West Florissant 38.706838 -90.24951 View larger map ST.

みなさん、こんにちは。Windows 開発統括部の古内です。
来週の 4 月 26 日 (火) から、いよいよ Internet Explorer (IE) 9 日本語版の提供が始まります。英語版などほかの言語については、すでに米国時間の 3 月 14 日より提供を開始していますが、東日本大震災に伴うインターネット回線への負荷軽減などを考慮して、日本語版についてはリリースを延期していました。

そこで、今回は 「祝! Internet Explorer 9 日本語版リリース」 と銘打って (ちょっと大袈裟?)、IE 9 に関する英語 Blog 記事をご紹介します。今日お届けするのは 2011 年 1 月 4 日に Developing for Windows Blog に投稿された Integrating IE9 Pinning with Adobe Flash という記事の翻訳で、IE 9 の新機能であるサイトの固定 (ピン留め) に関するプログラミングの内容です。明日も関連記事の翻訳を掲載予定ですので、どうぞお楽しみに !

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IE9 のサイトの固定機能を Adobe Flash と統合する

ご承知のように、Internet Explorer 9 では、サイトの固定 (ピン留め) 機能を使用したデスクトップ統合がサポートされています。サイトの固定機能については、さまざまなリソース (MSDN のすばらしい記事 (英語)、Windows Summit での私のプレゼンテーション (英語) (日本語 PPT ファイルはこちら)、Scott Seiber によるピン留めサイトに関するブログ記事 (英語)、そして言うまでもありませんが Internet Explorer Test Drive (英語) 上のすばらしいデモ) で学ぶことができます。サイトの固定機能を使用すると Web アプリケーションを Windows に統合できるため、タスクバーへの統合、ジャンプ リスト、タスク バー プレビュー時のサイムネイル バーのボタンなど、便利な機能を利用できるようになります。

画期的なニュースとして、ピン留めサイトを Adobe Flash から直接利用する方法があります。それを実現するには、IE9 に実装されている JavaScript の固定 API を ActionScript と統合します。サイトの固定機能は IE9 で初めて利用できるようになったため、以下のサンプルは、IE9 で動作する Web ページに Flash コントロールを実装した場合にだけ機能します。JavaScript API と ActionScript の統合については、こちらの KB 記事 (英語) をご参照ください。これを IE9 のサイト固定にどう適用できるかを見ていきましょう。

概念を理解しやすくするために、Adobe Flex (英語) を使った簡単なサンプルを作ってみました。Adobe Flex を使用すると、MXML ファイルに埋め込んだ宣言的な ActionScript を使って、リッチ アプリケーションをすぐに作成することができます。Flash ムービー (ActionScript を含んだ FLA ファイル) を作成する場合も同じ方式が通用します。以下に、私が作成したサンプルの画面を示します。ご覧のとおり、これは Flash として実装されています。

私のサンプルは、以下のようなピン留めサイトの機能を実装しています。

1. オーバーレイ アイコン (このスクリーンショットでは、星が表示されています)。

2. サイトをブラウザーで開き、サイトのアイコン上にマウス ポインターを置くと、サイムネイル バーのボタン ([戻る] と [進む]) が表示されます。

3. カスタム カテゴリ内のジャンプ リスト アイテム ([Custom created items] カテゴリ内の “Microsoft.com”)。

さらに、このサンプルではサイトの固定用のメタタグを実装し、カスタムのお気に入りアイコンやカスタム タスクを、index.template.html ファイルで直接定義しています。

統合について興味深いトピックが 2 つあります。ActionScript からの JavaScript API の呼び出しと、JavaScript からの ActionScript の呼び出しです。1 つずつ見ていきましょう。

ActionScript からの JavaScript API の呼び出し

ジャンプ リスト アイテムを追加したり、サイトが固定モードで動作しているか確認したりするには、JavaScript を ActionScript から呼び出す必要があります。

JavaScript API の呼び出しと戻り値の取得は、ExternalInterface.call メソッド (英語) を使って行います。このメソッドは、2 つのパラメーター、つまり、呼び出す関数と、その関数に渡すパラメーターを取ります。以下に、私が作成した ActionScript コードのサンプルを示します。

ExternalInterface.call("addJumpListItem", "init");

addJumpListItem は、JavaScript で次のように宣言された関数です。

function addJumpListItem (param).

以下のように、ActionScript コードでExternalInterface.call の戻り値をチェックすれば、JavaScript 関数から戻る値をチェックすることもできます。

protected var siteMode:Boolean;

siteMode = ExternalInterface.call("checkSiteMode", "");

もちろん、対応する JavaScript 関数を以下のように宣言する必要があります。

function checkSiteMode ()

この関数は、true または false のいずれかを返します。

JavaScript からの ActionScript の呼び出し

サイムネイル バーのボタンをクリックするなど、ピン留めサイトを操作する際に Flash コントロールで特定のタスクを実行する場合は、Flash コントロールに実装されているメソッドを呼び出します。

ActionScript を JavaScript から呼び出すには、ステップを追加する必要があります。

1. まず、コールバック関数 (JavaScript によって以下のように呼び出される) を登録します。

ExternalInterface.addCallback ("getTextFromJavaScript",

                                getTextFromJavaScript);

2. この関数は、次のように宣言します。

protected function getTextFromJavaScript(str:String) : void {                                 

…

}            

3. 最後に、JavaScript からこの関数を呼び出します。

function thumbnailclick(btn) {

if (btn.buttonID == prev)

window["LeonTest"].getTextFromJavaScript ("previous");

else if (btn.buttonID == next)

window["LeonTest"].getTextFromJavaScript ("next");

}

“LeonTest” は、Flash Player にパラメーターとして渡される、Flash ムービーの ID です。通常、ID にはプロジェクト名が使われますが、必要に応じてもちろん変更できます。

細かい事ですが、ついでに 2 つのことをご説明します。まず、ActionScript を宣言的な MXML で使用する際は、JavaScript コールバックをセットアップする次のような API を呼び出します。

ExternalInterface.addCallback ("getTextFromJavaScript", getTextFromJavaScript);

コールバックは関数のスコープ内で行う必要があります。私が handleCreationComplete() 関数のスコープ内で呼び出しを行っているのはそのためです。この関数は、アプリケーションが生成されるときに呼び出されます。

もう 1 つは、ExternalInterface.addCallback で登録したコールバック関数も ExternalInterface.call によって呼び出される JavaScript 関数も、取る関数は、いずれも 1 つだけということです。つまり、複数のパラメーターを渡す必要がある場合、関数呼び出し時にそれらを連結し、その後、個々のパラメーターに分割する必要があります。私は、新しいジャンプ リスト アイテムを追加する必要があるとき、この方法を使用します。

protected function addJumpList_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void

{

…

ExternalInterface.call("addJumpListItem",

"additem&" + itemUrl.text + "&" + itemText.text);

…

}

ご覧のとおり、ここでは “&” 文字を区切り記号として使用し、3 つの異なる値 (“addItem” 文字列、アイテムの URL、アイテムのテキスト) を連結しています。そして、以下のように、これらの値を JavaScript 内で分割します。

function addJumpListItem (param) {

var myValue = param.split ("&");

…

}

次のステップ

このサンプルを改善し、実用的なものにするには、アイテムの URL とテキストをエンコードし、それら両方の中で区切り記号 “&” を使用できるようにするとよいでしょう (現状では、それらに区切り記号 “&” が含まれていると、値が正しく解析されません)。

また、他の固定機能 (例: ジャンプ リスト アイテムのクリア) を実装し、コードを改善してもよいでしょう。

最後までお読みいただき、ありがとうございました。お役に立てば幸いです。

サンプル コードのダウンロード

YouTube is announcing this afternoon that all videos uploaded to the site are now saved in WebM format, as well as other supported formats including Adobe Flash. 30% of the YouTube archives, making up 99% of the views, is now available in WebM as well and the full archives are being put in the new format as we speak.

WebM is a format that many different companies have been working on, in an effort to create a way to show and view videos that is better suited for the web than Flash and is royalty free. Firefox added support for the format last month and Internet Explorer announced a plug-in that would add WebM support. Google and Opera also offer browser support for WebM. Where's Safari? Google added WebM support to Android's Gingerbread version in December.

Sponsor

Performance improvements may not be readily apparent, however. The WebM project site says that "playback performance and rendering is not yet fully optimized in the browsers that support WebM but improvements are forthcoming."

Frederic Lardinois explained WebM here at ReadWriteWeb last June, when support for it was added to Chrome:

Google introduced WebM at its annual developers conference last month...The WebM project aims to provide online video providers with a royalty free alternative to the H.264 video codec. H.264 has become the de facto standard for high-quality online video and Apple uses it to display videos on the iPad and iPhone. Adobe supports it in its Flash player. As online video continues to move away from Flash and towards HTML5, however, developers need a free and open alternative to H.264. H.264 is currently available for free and owned by the MPEG LA consortium, but this group will likely start to charge royalty fees in the near future.

To counter this threat, Google acquired On2 Technologies last year. On2's VP8 codec forms the basis of the WebM project.

Hopefully this whole experiment will work out and browsers will be optimized to support it. I paid good money for this Macbook Pro I'm running Chrome on, and I'd love to be able to use it to watch videos.

Discuss

HAHAHA! That is awesome! I remember this commercial from way back when. It is hilarious! If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe.

Hewlett-Packard will hold a launch party for its webOS-based Veer smartphone May 2, according to the blog PreCentral. The blog also said AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) will host an online Webinar to discuss the latest version of the webOS platform May 12.

The blog, citing an invitation it said it found online, said the Veer event will be held in Anaheim, Calif. The blog said the invitation promised a three-hour event with "hands-on training, exciting demos and HP giveaways."

As for the AT&T event, the blog said it will be led by Josh Marinacci, from Palm's developer relations team.

An HP spokesman, Alex Hunter, said the company is not holding a launch party for the Veer and did not know what the invitation was referring to. An AT&T spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HP has not said specifically when it will launch the Veer, or its other newest smartphone, the Pre3. The Veer sports a 2.6-inch screen, making it smaller than a credit card. The phone has tri-band UMTS and quad-band GSM/EDGE support, an 800 MHZ Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragon processor, Wi-Fi, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and 8 GB of storage.

In March, HP CEO Leo Apotheker said HP wants to scale up the webOS ecosystem by shipping 100 million webOS-enabled products per year, including smartphones, tablets, PCs and printers. The HP chief said the company still considers Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) "a great partner," but that once HP's TouchPad tablet is launched in June, there will be "wave after wave of technology coming out to support webOS."

For more:
- see these two separate PreCentral posts
- see this HP-Palm blog post

Related Articles:
HP's Apotheker: 100M webOS-enabled products per year in the future
HP exec accuses RIM's PlayBook of imitating TouchPad's webOS
HP unveils webOS TouchPad tablet, Pre3 and Veer smartphones
HP CEO Apotheker wants to snag Apple's 'cool factor'
HP's Bradley hints at tablet, other webOS product launches for February

Article updated April 18 with comment from HP.

After reports of a critical security vulnerability appearing in the wild and affecting Windows users via a Flash file embedded in Word or Excel documents, Adobe has released Flash Player 10.2.159.1. Although only Windows systems were targeted in the attacks, Adobe recommends that all Macintosh, Windows, Linux, and Solaris users of previous versions of Flash update to Flash Player 10.2.159.1 right away. Google Chrome builds Flash Player in; if you’re using Google Chrome, make sure to update to version 10.0.648.205 or later (choose Chrome > About Google Chrome to check the version number and update if necessary). Also affected is Adobe AIR; update to version 2.6.0.19140 or later if you’re using any Adobe AIR-based applications. (Free updates, download sizes vary.)

 

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Affordable Android is Facebook 'appy

The INQ Cloud Touch is a new generation in social mobile from the small UK company who practically invented the connected mobile social experience before everyone else jumped on board. These days there is no shortage of social integration across all mobile platforms, Android especially. So do INQ have what it takes to redefine that social mobile experience again in their popularly-dubbed “Facebook phone?”

INQ is all about detail and lifting the INQ Cloud Touch from the exquisite packaging makes this message clear: they are thinking differently. We don’t normally comment on packaging here on Pocket-lint, but the first word has to go to the box. It’s a box you’ll feel guilty about throwing away and in a world where first impressions count it gets the phone off to a good start, but it is only a box.?

The handset itself comes in a couple of colours and we had the white model, which screams Star Wars at us: its curves and contrasting black and white design make us think of an Imperial Stormtrooper and that’s no mistake. It’s no mistake either that the other handset screams Ferrari Red at you. Like the packaging, these phones are designed to be noticed. On our white handset we were almost disappointed to find it didn’t have OII stamped on the back.?

It is finished in plastic but it feels sturdy enough, certainly better than something like the Orange San Francisco when it comes to build quality, but not quite up to the more established HTC Wildfire S. It is pretty much free from creaks, but there is a hint of movement as you manipulate it in your hand. Sure, it won’t stand-up against some of the high-end devices when it comes to passing off that luxury look and feel, but this is an affordable device: it is designed to be cool and that it is.

Its affordable status is reflected in it’s overall size: measuring 114 x 62 x 13.1mm it is larger than many rivals. That’s not necessarily a negative point as there is something of a toy-like charm in its fun design. The bold controls across the bottom of the screen are a far cry from the subtle touch-buttons you’ll find elsewhere - they also shout out the phone’s identity, the home button replaced with INQ’s logo, flanked by menu and back controls.?

At first glance though, there is a lot of space that surrounding the screen: this isn’t a thin bezel design, but it feels comfortable in the hand. The 3.5-inch display is pretty generous for an affordable model, compared to the common 3.2-inch devices it competes with. That does highlight one issue, and that’s the low resolution and pixel density of the 480 x 320 display, offering 162ppi. The darling of affordable screens is the Orange San Francisco, or ZTE Blade, and we suspect the follow-up - the ZTE Skate will be a popular device offering bang for your few bucks when it comes to the display.

A lot can be forgiven on a device that is so affordable as it is competitive with many of its entry-level rivals. The status is reflected under the hood too, where you’ll find a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor. The same processor finds it’s way into a wide range of devices on this level, such as the HTC Salsa and ChaCha phones that also offer specific Facebook functionality, and the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Mini and Ace (although some devices are clocked at 800MHz).

Internal memory is minimal at only 140MB, which will very quickly dwindle. Of course you get to expand up to 32GB with microSD using but you’ll have to pay attention to where you download and install your apps - more increasingly you can install or move them to the external memory, which is well worth doing where possible.?

Other key specs include a 5-megapixel autofocus camera. INQ haven’t done anything to alter the camera over the stock experience, although you will find various settings to tweak the colour and white balance. The results are average and will be fine for sharing online, but it suffers from the normal problems of struggling with noisy images as the light drops and over-exposing when the conditions are bright. There is no flash.?

Video capture is offered at a limited 640 x 480 resolution and returns pretty much average results, again, fine for sharing online, but lacking the detail and fidelity of more expensive phones offering HD capture. Focus is fixed too, so don’t expect too much outside of casual candid video capture.

But the INQ Cloud Touch isn’t being pushed as a camera phone, or even as top tier device, so the compromises can be accepted as they lead to a more affordable device and being based on Android, it comes with most of the benefits of the Android ecosystem. You miss out on some of the niceties, like Adobe Flash video support, as the phone falls below Adobe’s specs, even though it arrives running on Android 2.2.?

What you do get, however, is one of the deepest and most considered approaches to Facebook integration that we’ve seen so far. The INQ Cloud Touch is synonymous with “Facebook phone”, the two terms being linked in the rumour mill before the truth become fully revealed. Facebook is given top-level visibility, with a number of widgets that feed you Facebook directly on your homepage. Of course, this being Android you can remove them and rearrange them if you don’t like what you see.?

Essentially the main Facebook features get their own widget: News, People, Events, Notifications and Places. Beyond this, INQ have also broken out Facebook Chat, Friends, Messages, News Feed, Notifications, Photos, Profile into direct shortcuts in the app menu (and on their customisable scrollable homescreen bar) so you can basically access any of the Facebook mobile features directly, without having to go back and forth around the Facebook app.?

The INQ Cloud Touch uses a combination of the regular Facebook for Android app and their own Facebook layers which are again linked. The mainstay of this on the homepage is the News widget which will give you live access to the links, videos and photos, either taking you to the Facebook app, or direct to the website for that link. It is a nice, in your face, easily snackable, way of serving up Facebook content from your friends without you having to do anything, but feels a little slow in use.

The other main Facebook widgets - People, Events, Notifications and Places - are mixed in their approach. As widgets they are live, so change when they have something to reflect (in the case of People, Events and Notifications) changing their image so you know there is something to look at. Places is essentially a link through to the existing Facebook Places area of the mobile app and Notifications takes you through to the homepage of the Facebook app, so you can access your notifications at the bottom of the page.

Events in fact opens up your calendar, which is your regular Android Calendar, but with the addition of Facebook birthdays and events integrated from Facebook. The People widget is more interesting, tying into INQ’s People app, which serves up a customised feed from your top friends on Facebook. Apon first opening the app it will auto-populate, giving you the opportunity to chop and change and select those people you want in there. It’s nice clean way of seeing what your friends have been up to. Again, it is really only a top-level offering however, as if you click on comments or the likes section it reverts you to the Facebook for Android corresponding page.

Facebook rolls into one other area of the INQ Cloud Touch user interface too and that’s the Contacts. Enter the Contacts and things are fairly regular - the option to skip across tabs to enter the dialler, call list or favourites, or browse your list of Contacts. If a contact is also a friend on Facebook, then their contact page changes to include extra tabs for access to their Facebook wall and photos. This additional information is on top of the normal integration that Android offers from the likes of Twitter and Skype.

That, in summary is Facebook on the INQ Cloud Touch. It’s a comprehensive approach but it isn’t all encompassing. We feel that the People app could potentially offer up some additional features and you could expand the stock Android gallery to include Facebook galleries, for example. However, for fans of Facebook, you’ll find that having a direct link to different features will serve you very well, especially if you are forever rooting through the mobile app to get to a particular section.

Before we look at other areas of the user interface it is worth mentioning the two shortcut buttons on the outside of the INQ Cloud Touch. The first is an info button that opens up an extremely useful page reflecting the status of your phone, covering useful things like alarm setting, Wi-Fi, battery, memory status and shortcut buttons to toggle vibrate, Bluetooth, GPS and so on. It’s the sort of functionality many manufacturers are adding to the notification bar on their homepage. It’s a great way to easily access settings, something that Android users are often doing.

The second external button is a direct music control. A long press will open up Spotify, which is the default music player on the phone. Thereafter pressing the button will pause the music - even when the screen is off - and a double tap will skip on a track which is a useful feature. If you have a Spotify account already, you can log in directly and make the most of their streaming music service and the Spotify app will also index any local music you have on the phone. It isn’t the best music player when it comes to dealing with local music however.

You’ll find the default Android Music player is in place that you can also use (which makes navigation of your local music collection a little simpler) although this isn’t tied into the external button - if you are using the stock Android Music player and you press the button, it will start playing from Spotify and we couldn’t figure out anyway of changing the priorities of that control button, which would be useful.

Throughout the user interface INQ have made little changes to make the phone distinctly theirs, for example changing the app icons. If this is your first Android phone it will probably be of no significance, but we couldn’t help thinking that the additional colour and detail added to the app icons was slightly overbearing: the mock Picasso gallery icon and the DSLR (with flash) for the camera seem to cram too much detail in too tight a space. There seem to be too many colours in play and we’re not sure that it quite hits the young and edgy intention square on.

One of the changes that INQ have made is to the lockscreen. It offers up three icons: unlock, camera and keyboard. This will let you basically jump into the camera or “INQ Type” straight away, which is a nice touch, but recently eclipsed by the customisable offering of the HTC Sensation and HTC Sense 3.0. It does segway neatly into the next area where INQ have made a change and that’s the keyboard.?

INQ Type that we’ve just mentioned is a neat little app that lets you type first and then figure out what to do with it. Accessed either from the homepage or via the app shortcut/icon, it offers up the keyboard so you can start typing, and then offers you three options: Google search, Share and Save (clipboard, contacts). The search and save options are exactly as they sound, but INQ have missed a trick with Share. As this is social mobile, the Facebook phone, you’d expect Share to offer you some sharing options. It doesn’t: it lets you send by SMS. The SMS sharing option appears as though it could be the first entry on a long list; we’d expect Facebook and Twitter updating to be here, currently they’re not, so it’s not as useful as it first appears.

The keyboard itself is pretty good however. INQ Type is based on TouchType’s tech, which is behind our favourite SwiftKey keyboard. That means that as you type you’ll be offered suggestions and more often than not you can just hit spacebar to accept the suggested word without having to bash everything out on the keyboard. The predictions are intelligent, not just offering the word you’re typing, but going on to offering what it thinks the next word might be.

The keyboard is a little small, and we get the feeling that without INQ Type the experience of using the phone would be for the worse: we found that it could be a little fiddly and it isn’t the fastest or most responsive display out there which can impact on text entry. That’s to be expected on this level of phone and at least the keyboard is ready to roll and make the best of things.?

Like the screen response, general navigation of the phone is typical for it’s specification. It is a little slow, but on the whole it seemed stable enough in operation, being mercifully free from crashes in our tests, although we did hit some errors from Facebook for INQ Mobile when restarting the phone. A selection of gestures are?available, so you can select actions for swipe up, swipe down and double tap. Usefully, you can use one of these to open the dialler, something that by default doesn't find itself represented on the default homescreen. Call quality was fine and we had no problems with call?quality. The external speaker is a little tinny, but we're neither surprised or bothered about that.

What doesn’t stand up so well, given it’s specification, is the battery life.?This took us by surprise as many entry-level devices cope better - smaller screens and lower power hardware draw less juice from the battery - although the INQ Cloud Touch’s display is a little on the dark side too. Even so, the INQ Cloud Touch left us with a dead battery mid afternoon on several occasions, which was somewhat unexpected. This is the sort of problem that can affect the likes of the HTC Desire HD or the LG Optimus 2X and we expect more from the INQ Cloud Touch’s battery life.

We also found the Wi-Fi sometimes needed prompting to be reliable. Far too often we started looking?something?up to find that it hadn't connected to our Wi-Fi network. Despite being logged in to both our home networks, it seemed to ignore them. INQ offer a Wi-Fi manager setting that is supposed to?intelligently detect when and where it should activate Wi-Fi, but we ended up turning it off.??

Verdict:

Overall the INQ Cloud Touch offers up an interesting twist on Android: this isn’t a copycat device, it is original in its design and there are some very positive benefits that INQ have brought to the table. The info button is really useful, the look and feel of the Facebook widgets make Facebook more immediate and if you’re a Spotify user then the direct Spotify control will bring a smile to your face.

However, there is scope to take this further and we believe that these things are already on the INQ radar. Social integration beyond Facebook seems a no brainer and we’d love to see some juicy Twitter widgets. INQ Type is begging for more functionality and it is easily added.?

Is it only for Facebook fans? Not necessarily, but the presentation of Facebook is one of the unique benefits that INQ offer you in Cloud Touch. If you fancy the phone because it is affordable you can easily remove many of the Facebook items if you don’t want them, but then you are left with a number of phones that offer a similar experience, with Spotify and SwiftKey available from?the?Android Market to reproduce some of what INQ have added here.

We’d love to see INQ tackle a higher-power device, weave a little magic into a more comprehensive multimedia offering, but as it is, the INQ Cloud Touch’s performance is befitting of its affordable price, even if its battery life isn’t.

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Android INQ Cloud Touch Facebook Spotify Inq

                                       

INQ Cloud Touch originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:09:48 +0100

Sesame Communications is the premier provider of online services for the dental industry. An emerging growth company, Sesame has steadily achieved substantial year-over-year growth, proving to be the category leader in Patient Connection Systems. Headquartered in Pioneer Square, we continue to expand our team and service offerings to optimize the value we bring to our clients.

We are actively seeking a Graphic/Web Designer to join our small and very active marketing team. At Sesame, the Graphic/Web Designer produces visual solutions for use in marketing materials (print and digital), web content, training manuals, and other mediums. This position performs graphic design duties requiring planning, scheduling, development, editing and execution of graphic design and branding projects. Vital to the role is the application of established corporate branding specifications, ensuring work meets organization guidelines. This position also assists in web design and creating online content, and may produce technical illustrations for manuals, brochures, labels, or other documents.

The Graphic/Web Designer has a variety of responsibilities – here are some of them:

• 
  
• Maintain the Sesame brand and a comprehensive Sesame Style Guide including brand identity elements and voice
• 
  
• Maintain corporate website to be current in terms of content
• 
  
• Track web analytics and produce recurring reports for website effectiveness
• 
  
• Analyze Web metrics to gauge the results of online campaigns, make recommendations, and implement improvements
• 
  
• Collaboratively work with Brand Management on development of effective, well branded and on message MarCom components, including email, print collateral, advertising and promotional communications, tradeshow exhibit booths and social media campaign components
• 
  
• Design effective online marketing campaigns with a cross functional collaborative framework. Campaign to include email, landing pages, banner development, AdWords, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube per Operating Plan objectives
• 
  
• Design all MarCom components in support of sales, educational, professional relations, product development and promotional initiatives

We are looking for candidates with the following qualifications:

• 
  
• Minimum 3-5 years of successful experience as a graphic designer in a fast-paced corporate setting is required
• 
  
• Experience managing rich online media (Flash, Quicktime, Windows Media, MP3)
• 
  
• Minimum 3 years graphic and web development experience using the following:
• 
  • PHP (including knowledge of user-friendly forms)
  • Standards Compliant XHTML, CSS, JavaScript (experience using JavaScript libraries such as jQuery a plus)
  • In Design – Adobe creative suite (collateral)
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Photoshop
  • Flash
  • Dreamweaver
  • HTML (for working on company website, there is currently no CMS)
  • Google analytics and web stats
  • Omnigraffle
  • Microsoft Office Suite (Explorer, Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
  • SharePoint
  • Marketo, or other marketing campaign tracking software
  • Preferable – Sales Force
  
  
• Experience with and knowledge of best practices for Web 2.0 tools such as RSS feeds, blogs, and social networking software
• 
  
• Design print work knowledge, experience formatting all files for output with off-set printers, and ability to provide recommendations for printing methods and materials to best suit the needs of each project
• 
  
• Experience supervising traffic-and-production of MarCom projects for efficient production, budgetary compliance and QA
• 
  
• Team player who practices inclusive communications and collaborates well with other stakeholders cross functionally
• 
  
• Strong organizational abilities and ability to manage multiple projects, under deadlines
• 
  
• Attention to detail and accuracy
• 
  
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Editing experience a must
• 
  
• Must have a passion for communicating our firm’s brand to external audiences
• 
  
• Strong analytical abilities, project management and organizational skills
• 
  
• Must be a self-starter with strong problem-solving skills and ability to switch rapidly between various projects in a fast-paced environment
• 
  
• Ability to work under pressure and effectively prioritize projects and manage throughput

If you are interested, please send a link to your portfolio (or attach as a PDF), a resume and cover letter to the email address above.

• Location: Pioneer Square
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

Adobe Flash software allows users to enjoy complex entertainment CMU The Tartan Online As Adobe has repeatedly stated that the source code for Flash Player is closed-source (meaning that it is kept in-house and not released to the public), some users opt to use open-source alternative Flash players to reinforce their convictions in the ... and more »

• First Quarter PC Sales: Windows Down 2%, Mac (Including iPad) up 250+%
• Mac OS X: Make Snow Leopard (And Apple's Other Cats) Roar Like Lion
• Google Chrome Browser Final Updated To Version 10.0.648.205
• OS X Update And The MacBook Air's 3D Graphics Performance Tested
• Change OS X Mail Settings To Save Hard Drive Space
• OWC Offers Fix For 2011 17 MBP SATA Problems
• Dropbox 1.1.23 Update Released
• Apple Launches Apple Support Communities
• Security Update Available For Adobe Flash Player
• Quicksilver 59 Application Launcher (And Much More) Released
• Sleek, Energy Efficient, MSI X370 Notebook Powered by AMD Accelerated Processor Arrives in North America.......Continue Reading

Tags: News | Tech-Industry |

Reuters

Sixers fall to Heat in Game 1, 97-89 | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-04-17 Philadelphia Inquirer By Kate Fagan By Kate Fagan MIAMI - The 76ers are trying to chop down an oak tree with a butter knife. This content requires the Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Get Flash For almost every minute of Saturday afternoon's Game 1 ... Heat's Opening Win Over 76ers Isn't Without ComplaintsNew York Times Debut of white hot Miami Heat started as white noiseMiamiHerald.com Fast Breaks: Sixers vs. HeatSI.com ESPN (blog) -Yahoo! Sports (blog) -King James Gospel all 2,049 news articles »

An unpatched Flash Player vulnerability is being targeted in attacks on Windows-based computers, Adobe says.

Less than a week after warning that hackers were embedding malicious Flash Player files into Microsoft Word documents to launch targeted malware attacks, Adobe plans to release an emergency Flash Player patch today to fix the underlying problem.

Adobe Flash Player is a cross-platform browser-based application runtime that delivers viewing of expressive applications, content, and videos across screens and browsers.....

Adobe Flash Player Uninstaller is a simple application that does just that - it uninstalls all versions of the Flash player from any of your browsers. The Adobe Flash player can normally be uninstall....

The Tech Herald

Adobe releases security update for Flash Player The H Adobe has released its update for Flash Player to close the critical security issue that emerged last Monday. The company had warned of zero day vulnerability which was already being exploited in web pages and Word and Excel documents. ... Adobe issues security update for Flash exploitGMANews.TV Google squashes Chrome security bugs, updates Flash PlayerInquirer Google releases security fixes for Chrome, including latest Adobe zero-dayInfosecurity Magazine (US) Techlogg.com -Ghacks Technology News -The Mac Observer all 120 news articles »

Adobe has released a security update for Flash Player in order to address an arbitrary code execution vulnerability actively exploited in the wild since last week.The critical vulnerability was confirmed by Adobe on April 11, after having been spotted in targeted email attacks by security reasearchers.The rogue emails contai...

Section: Apple News, Conferences, iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac Software, Audio / Video

Adobe is adding HTTP Live Streaming to Flash Media Server, allowing compatibility with iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad, as well as computers that don’t have Adobe Flash installed. The software will now generate an HTML5 compatible stream. These changes were previewed at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. Adobe, of course, has been campaigning to get Apple to allow Flash to be installed on iOS, citing that people using Apple mobile products were missing out on things like video streams encoded in Flash.

From the Adobe announcement:

As we continue to evolve this technology we will be adding support for another format, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS). HLS is an MPEG2 transport stream (container) used by devices such as the Apple iPad 2. By adding support for HLS within the Flash Media Server, Adobe is reducing the publishing complexity for broadcasters who need to reach browsers supporting HLS through HTML5 (such as Safari) or devices where Adobe Flash is not installed. Where Flash is installed, Flash Media Server packages the stream using MPEG4-fragments (F4F) to deliver video over HTTP to Flash.

Adobe is also previewing the next version of Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder, “... which can capture a live broadcast stream and publish out to multiple devices including Android, Apple iOS and Samsung TVs.” So, is this the end of the “You must have Adobe Flash Player installed to view this video” dialogue box? How will this affect the marketing for the new Google Android tablets, which list Flash video compatibility as a feature (and which just got the Flash mobile plugin)?

Below is a video from Kevin Towes of Adobe, demoing the new protocol, and using it to stream a live video to multiple devices:

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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