http://www.solarstats.net Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 04 Sep 2010 05:24:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en (Credit: Sony) Sony S-Series Walkman The first sign of fall in CNET's San Francisco office isn't the turning of leaves--it's the ever-increasing waves of new product announcements. MP3 players in particular start cropping up in late summer, perhaps in an attempt to get a jump on Apple's typical September iPod announcement. ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/09/04/sony-announces-new-b-e-and-s-series-walkmans/ Grab your board; another wave of netbooks is coming! In Reviews, we continued through the queue of off-the-shelf laptops for the back-to-school season. Up this week: the 15.4-inch Compaq Presario CQ50 and Toshiba Satellite L305-S5875, plus the 14.1-inch HP Pavilion dv2945se. We've also declared our favorite back-to-school laptops for the $600-$700 ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/29/return-of-the-little-guys-the-week-in-laptops/ As Steve noted, the pace of adoption of open source is only going to increase, with two particular things of interest: Steve went on to describe three projects that it has moved to open source. It turns out that the company's adoption of open source has evolved over time, based on ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/osbc-report-cbs-interactive-open-source-and-inn/ Mi5 sells a Web security appliance that protects corporations against Web-based threats. Symantec will integrate the technology into its offerings later in 2009 and offer it as a stand-alone product, Joan Fazio, director of product marketing for Symantec Endpoint Security, said in an interview. Updated 9:40 a.m. PDT April 21 ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/symantec-acquires-mi5-expands-security-offerings/ Intel's Montevina processors are due in May. Talk--or speculation in this case--is cheap, but it's a starting point. Only Apple knows what form the next MacBook Air will take but big hints are out there already. Another piece of hardware that will likely be updated is the solid state drive (SSD). Samsung ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/next-macbook-air-comes-into-view/ (Credit: Amazon) Own one of the best sci-fi shows ever for less than $20. DVD: Amazon has "Firefly - The Complete Series" on sale for $19.99 shipped. This is one of my all-time favorite shows. And check out the five-star ratings from nearly 3,000 reviewers! Game: Like first-person shooters? Newegg has Prey (PC) ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/four-cheap-ways-to-entertain-yourself/ Fertile soil in foreign lands That said, experts see mobile banking and other mobile financial services taking off outside the United States, where access to communications infrastructure and banks is limited. AT&T launched a mobile-payment application made available through Firethorn, which has since been acquired by Qualcomm, in March 2007. ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/will-americans-ever-call-on-mobile-banking/ I suspect that in most marketing organizations the ratio of hardware to software will approximately be 70 to 30. If marketers are serious about their new mantra of adding value for consumers rather than just promoting a product or brand, then they must alter this ratio and shift their investments. ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/marketing-software-vs-marketing-hardware/ (Credit: Microsoft) To change your Windows Update settings in Vista, press the Windows key, type windows update, and press Enter. Click Change settings in the left pane, and choose either "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" or "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download or ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/put-a-leash-on-windows-automatic-updates/ Until then, Raff suggests iPhone users "avoid clicking on links in the Mail application which refers to trusted Web sites (e.g. bank, PayPal, social networks, etc.). Instead, a user should enter the URL of the Web site manually in the Safari application." Security researcher Aviv Raff said on Wednesday that the iPhone's ... http://www.solarstats.net/index.php/2010/08/24/iphone-vulnerable-to-phishing-attacks/