Microsoft will launch a public beta of its anti-malware service, Microsoft Security Essentials, on Tuesday as it phases out its Live OneCare suite in favor of a simpler free consumer security offering.
The service is just like any antivirus which monitors programs on a PC. When something changes on the computer, such as files being downloaded or copied or software trying to modify files, the system checks against a set of malware signatures in the client program to see if the code matches the signature for known malware. If so, it blocks it from getting downloaded.
The service also includes new technologies that help protect against rootkits, programs that are designed to hide the fact that a PC has been compromised, and is also designed to run efficiently by scanning when the PC is idle and conserving on memory usage.
Microsoft Security Essentials will be available for download from Microsoft's Web site [ Coming soon ... On tuesday ]
If you are someone who does not bother to install and update your own antivirus definitions, this is for you.
Newegg Bargains
This is a pair of spectacles that allow you to watch videos by simply wearing it. Something real Cool when you don it. Especially, if you are a travel freak and love to watch movies on a hand held device.
It basically works with any device with a RCA composite output. It is not as amazing as you would probably imagine it to be. What you see when you put on this would be as if you are in a cinema, however with a square screen and you are seated all the way to the end. It would not be better than watching movies off a normal TV but it is a lot better then trying to hold a portable device in one hand and squinting at a small screen with your hand shaking if you are commuting. What's impressive about this goggles is that the corners actually allow you to see the outside world, thus not cutting you off from the real world. So if you still can be aware of what's happening around you.
It comes with earphones that block out the sound which are of decent quality, however, I believe you should enjoy using your own favorite earphones. One of the problems of using the earphones from the device is that while taking off the goggles, you will tend to jack off the earphones that are still stuck on to your ear.
Now for a few cons about this device.
1) The cable clutter is quite a handful, If you go with composite connections. It would get quite cumbersome and packing it up takes some effort. Unless you are using a ipod or small device that can be hooked up using a single connection.
2) Users wearing specs will have problems as despite viewing it in such a close range, the image is still blurry and depends on how bad your eye sight is. However, if you do not wish to purchase the special spectacle bridge from the developers, one simple way out is to tie 2 cable ties on the viewer frame just in front of the ear plugs. Do not fully tighten the cable tie, just enough to hold your specs. Slide the legs of your specs into the cable tie and push the cable tie upwards to lock it in place, as the viewer's legs are thicker as it is nearer to the lens. Then wear the viewer with your specs as the main frame, You will be able to watch it this way. But I suggest you don't do this outside as it does look real stupid . :P
However, you can always purchase Myvu lens Clip on to enhance viewing pleasure. The lenses come in a 3 piece pack that consists of degrees with one with around 200 degrees range and one with 400 degrees range. The 3rd one is a zero template which you can bring to a spectacle shop for a custom made lens that you can clip on to the viewer.
How to clip this myvu lens? I had some time figuring out this too. First, you will need to put the frame of the lens at the mid section of the viewer right at the nose support area, which can be swapped out with the other sizes included in the package.
Once you put the frame of the lens in the gap at the mid section of the nose section, push the 2 ends of the lens legs which is in the shape of a hook to the bottom part of the viewer. Now the lens is secure.
If on putting the myvu on, your eyes actually can touch the lens, you will need to swap the nose support with another smaller size included in the myvu package. There's 3 sizes to swap with.
3) You cannot charge and watch at the same time, unless you are providing only the low charge current, which means connecting the viewer to a extension like a usb hub which does not provide enough power to being a charge, However , it is able to maintain the viewer to watch an entire movie. [ ODD :S ]
4) The device itself comes without any battery indicator, You have no idea how much battery is left. And charging is a huge mystery to how much is being charged. The user manual does not even have this stated.
Here's the details.
Blue blinking light - Power on but no source is detected [ Will switch off in a while ]
Magenta Blinking - No video source and the battery is very low
Blue stable light - Power on and video is being transmitted
Orange blinking - Low charge/Low battery life/ or charging in progress
Blue light - Battery is fully charge.
How long does it take to charge?
2 hours if you charge using a wall usb socket.
3 hours if you charge off a usb using a computer.
Note that if you pull out the usb while it is charging, it will recharge for another few hours even though it is full.
The odd part about this package is that is does not come with a wall adapter for usb charging, but just a usb cable. I guess you have to buy a usb charger from a handphone that uses a usb socket, like HTC phones.
As this device uses a rechargable battery concept, I suggest uses, discharge it off, if you intent to store it to prevent damage to the battery, It would be terrible, if the battery becomes weak due to memory effect and how are you going to watch a movie if it does not even last 1 hour?.
Simply , hook up to a simple output device, ( portable DVD players, or even.. your TV set ).
Most TV's now, have a video output at the rear. Simply, hook up the yellow jack to the rear output of your TV and leave it along side your TV set just for your MyVU glasses, Then hook it up as you would do to any portable device, and turn it on to drain itself while you carry on watching your TV. If you want, you can even watch your TV through the MyVu glasses. Then take it off anytime and leave it to drain off itself.
If you feel that there's interference, in the image of your glasses, turn and twist the composite cables to get a clearer image, or change a new set of cables.
The new iphone 3G s sounds like a super upgrade from the old iphone 3G, and yes it is indeed. It is certainly worth the buck for those who had not bought an iphone before. The most obvious upgrade that the new iphone 3G S would be a 600Mhz processor and a Power VR SGX graphic chip. It has also doubled its ram to 256 megs.
Don't be too happy with the new chip as it does not really mean that you can run the most demanding games out there for mobile phones. Sadly, games are developed as respect to the graphic level that is out there. So it goes to say, this phone cannot run old games or may end up rendering it poorly. But the good news is that your phone is all ready to play all the newest OpenGL ES 2.0 games for mobile phones.
Specs wise, every thing has been scaled up for a lot more , faster HSPDA, more battery life, and a better camera. It also has a whole lot more souped up applications like the new Find my phone service that can allow you to locate your phone using any browser and remotely executes data deletion or showing of messages.
Opera mobile 9.5 has been a very good windows mobile browser and my all time favourite. It is still my best browser for my PDA phone. Here comes 9.7beta. It improves on a new feature called Turbo and widgets. What is turbo? For those who have used opera mini before, you will know how fast it's loading of pages would be. Using Blazing fast is not exaggerating. It simply sends the data to a dedicated server before crunching it to a smaller bits and loading it super fast in your phone. Now, this feature comes to opera 9.7.
As for Widgets? Need I explain more? Words say a thousand words. Take a look and I think you will love it. Ain't it cute?
But before you jump into it, it is best to know the problems with this beta.
- Opera Turbo in Opera Mobile is still a preview-feature;
- Downloads don't work while Opera Turbo is enabled.
- Some settings (such as toggle on/off images) do not apply when Opera Turbo is enabled.
- On older WM 5.0 Devices with 480x800 resolution, switching between portrait and landscape may cause display errors. This is due to lack of support for this resolution in early versions of Microsoft's driver.
- Some input method editors are known not to work well with Opera because they do not comply with Microsoft's SIP and/or IME standard. When such an editor is detected by Opera, Opera will use a known (default) input method instead. An exception is EzInput v1.5, where the phone keypad and compact QUERTY, ABC mode doesn't work, but the rest of the modes work fine. We recommend upgrading to EzInput v2.0 to avoid this.
- Only support for FlashLite 3.x. No Flash plugin included.
With Microsoft showing off its Project Natal, Sony simply refuses to be outdone.
Sony demonstrated its own next-generation motion controller for the PlayStation 3. Sony's controller is a wireless, microphone-shaped device with several buttons and a glowing sphere on the top. The motion controller's sphere is tracked by the PS3's PlayStation Eye camera, and, based on Sony's demo, the controller looks like it can be used in almost any gaming genre.
Sony representatives said at E3 the company believes "some experiences still need buttons," and so it developed a controller that looks more advanced than Nintendo Wii's motion controllers, but stopped short of going completely device-free like Microsoft. Sony also used live demos for a variety of gaming scenarios, while Microsoft's live presentation included more basic gaming situations.
Project Natal, as you probably know by now, was Microsoft's big announcement at its E3 press briefing here. It has gotten a lot of attention because of its promise to make it possible to incorporate all kinds of hands-free control into a wide variety of games: Racing games, painting games, shooting games, sports games and so on.
All the gaming would be done without the need to use any controllers. The game console itself would detect your movement using a sensor and execute it in the game itself. This is Microsoft's challenge against Nintendos Wii.
Project Natal (see video below) is designed to be a one-to-one avatar control system, Tsunoda said. Wherever you move your hands, your body or your legs, the system captures it and mirrors it on the screen and in whatever game you're playing. "No (other) controller in the world allows you to control your whole body," he said. "Every part of the body is in play."
For those who use touch screen phones would know, the frustration of mastering the "Wushi finger" one peck skill at the letters when trying to SMS. Even if you have a built in keyboard, the keys are usually too small to allow the user to do a speedy text comfortably.
HTC users might be familiar with the transcriber technique which allows the user to scribble on the whole screen and the machine will guess the word you are trying to write. But you still need to pull out the stylus, which makes it quite difficult if you are commuting on a train or bus. There's a risk of dropping the stylus.
A new name is coming soon. Swype
Instead of having to find and press on-screen keys one by one, Swype simply has users slide (or swipe) their fingers across the screen. Its algorithm does its best to figure out what you were trying to write, then fills it in for you. With a growing number of handsets shipping without a physical keyboard, this software could boost typing productivity and data usage by mobile phone users. Best of all, it doesn't have to replace the existing keyboard paradigm, meaning users can still peck if they like.
You can go and ask for a trial now by clicking on the link here.