So the annual CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is upon us again

For those not in the know, it’s a huge celebration of all those shiny toys designed specifically to engender yearning in your inner geek ~ drooling is optional…

This year has shown some interesting bits of techno goodness, with a waterproof covering for smartphones (finally!), a funky thermostat that learns your schedules and preferences and saves you some money (and looks waaaay cool  ) and some really sexy (?) looking laptops from Intel.

And for the budding Über geeks out there, there’s an interesting little design for a workstation ~ Have a look at this Emperor 1510 Workstation

For those of you with a more healthy mindset (psychos), there’s the Basis Health Band, to monitor just how much torture you can bear and not die, and some new in the ear style headphones for bopping while you drop.

Finally, a bit of a no brainer this one – how about using social media technology to map the locations of speed traps ~ then whack this info on a in-car device. Genius!

Oh, I also discovered a little known fact. Which country would you think provides the vast majority of processors that smart phones are created on? China? USA?? How about dear old Britain!
Arm Holdings provide most of the smartphone industry with it’s processors

Nice

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  Research into producing electricity from urine has been carried out by scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol.
- BBC news article

This made me both laugh and think, all at the same time..!

Have a read of this…

Now prepare yourself ~ this is the best excuse I’ve ever had for bombarding you with wee jokes!

Basically, the boffins at Bristol University have managed to create power from urine – this gave me some rather horrific memories of some long car journeys as a child and their inevitable ‘rest stops’.

Once this is in operation I think parents world wide will be plying themselves and their offspring/partners with liquid before the journey – no longer will mother ask if you’ve ‘been before we set off’.

It’s only a start, and only produces little power at the moment, but looks like being a runner for Microbial Fuel Cells (or MFCs as they are known).

Finally we have “Power from the P(eople)” 

 

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For so long Apple owners have grinned in a smug manner at PC users, over the amount of security issues PC owners have to deal with, even though it is a fallacy that Macs are immune to malware; a fallacy that is being exploited more and more as time goes on.

In a blog post by security form Sophos on Monday, it was revealed that a new ‘sophisticated’ malware threat was targeted at Macs and downloaded via a legitimate image manipulation app. from a dodgy source.

This malware, known as ‘DevilRobber or OSXMiner-D’ was designed to steal and ‘mine’ the digital currency known as ‘Bitcoins’.

In addition to Bitcoin mining, OSX/Miner-D also spies on you by taking screen captures and stealing your user names and passwords. More-so it runs a script that copies information to a file called dump.txt regarding truecrypt data, Vidalia (TOR plugin for Firefox), your Safari browsing history, and .bash_history.

The post goes on to say “Clearly, Mac users – like their Windows cousins – should practice safe computing and only download software from official websites and legitimate download services. But, in addition to that, it’s becoming clearer every week that Mac users need to take malware protection more seriously by running anti-virus software.”

This is just another example of the increasingly more sophisticated, Mac assaults. Other malware threat discovered this month targeted at the Apple machines include ‘Tsunami’ and ‘FlashBack’.

The posting ends with “There may be a lot less malware for Mac OS X than there is for Windows, but many Mac users are making themselves an unnecessarily soft target by imagining that they are somehow magically protected from threats.”

We sell the Eset Security products which offer Mac versions – Contact us through the main site here to arrange a free 30 day trial…

 

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Nokia, that once darling of the mobile telephone market, has released new smart phones in to the crowded market place.

These are running the Microsoft Windows Phone operating system, the 3rd player in the big OS battle (the others being Apples iOS and, Googles Android).

This comes as quite a gamble for the mobile giant, as it has seen its profits drop, and demand for it’s products reduce, in the light of the iPhone and other Android based devices. It would seem that Nokia have placed their flag and their new CEO, Stephen Elop, said the “Lumia is the first real Windows phone” and predicted the company would be the leader in “smartphone design and craftsmanship”.
- Erm, there might be a little competition in that Mr Elop!

My GF has a Windows Phone based model and, having played with it extensively, in my opinion, the Windows Phone OS is really clunky in comparison to the other 2 products. It’s the usual case of Microsoft massively over complicating the thing.

Where the Android and the iOS phones win, is in the simple intuitiveness (is that a word?) of the OS when using the phones. Something that Microsoft seem to be way behind in. With iOS and Android you can just do what you want, with the MS phone you’ve got to think for a moment.

Key among the differences offered by Nokia, is the integration of location-based services like Nokia Maps, real-time navigation software Nokia Drive, a live-streaming music service Mix Radio and Liveview, an augmented reality service.
The biggest innovation, though, could be Nokia Pulse, a service that combines elements of social networking with location services. It allows users to share with friends and family experiences – from pictures to whereabouts to activities, integrated with Nokia’s mapping service.
Sadly things that I am not interested in ~ I guess I’m getting old!

Still, only time will tell, there’s a huge amount of competition in that particular market, so it’s just a matter of time to see what we, as consumers, think of Nokia’s products.

(Thanks to the BBC for some of the information posted here )

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Even though it’s an extremely early start to the day, it’s going to be a sad one for many millions of people.

Just now Apple have released information saying that their much loved co-founder Steve Jobs, has died.

He was diagnosed as having Pancreatic Cancer in 2004, and lived to be 56.

Rest in Peace Steve – you will be remembered with love by millions of people across the globe.

Remembering Steve Jobs

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