Tough iPad Alternative

For those people who want to have a tablet computer but afraid that it might break easily might consider this especially for those who always misplace their stuff.

Panasonic unveils Android Toughbook slate for Q4, sledgehammer sold seperately

Tired of handling your tablet with kid gloves? Go ahead, take them off -- a Toughbook slate is heading your way. Strutting its stuff at InfoComm this week, Panasonic's Android Toughbook tablet boasts a sunlight-friendly 10.1-inch multi-touch display, satellite-based GPS, full-shift battery life and optional 3G / 4G connectivity. Wrap it up in the same badass durability as its snowmobile-abused, tiger-gnawed brethren, and you've got a Android slab for the everyman. No specifics on pricing or release just yet, but feel free to hit up the press release after the break for a slew of feel-good factoids.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/16/panasonic-unveils-android-toughbook-slate-for-q4-sledgehammer-s/

A USD$25 computer

Don't expect much when you see it.

Raspberry Pi Computer only USD$25 a Pop

Finally here’s a solution you can give to those pesky little people asking you what computer they should buy before telling you they want something small, basic internet usage and do not want a netbook: this Raspberry Pi computer that is barely larger than an average USB stick. Do not look down on it’s boring appearance that could do better with at least a casing, the Raspberry Pi (do you feel like you’re suddenly craving for raspberry pies?) is actually functional enough for modern use with a 700MHz ARM 11 processor, a USB port, a HDMI port and an install of Ubuntu Linux.

 

To get this thing working, all you need to do is plug it into a display via the HDMI port and a keyboard via the USB port and voila! You have yourself a new computer. While I guess a normal user won’t fancy a thing like that, it’s actually designed to encourage schoolchildren to hack and modify it to unlock its true potential.  Yes, schoolchildren because you must start them off young. 

 

The Raspberry is packed with 128MB of SDRAM, OpenGL ES2.0, 1080p HD decoding, composite output, SD card slot and other software such as Iceweasel and Python. Additionally, a 12MP camera sensor can be connected to it too. Oh and not forgetting the price, the ultra-small computer comes with an ultra-affordable price too at USD$25; well, rather affordable at least for a computer at least.

http://www.lowyat.net/v2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4380&Itemid=2

 

Trade in Promo by Acer

If you have an old Pentium PC that you need to get rid of and thinking of buying a new PC, now is the best time to do so.

Do you have any old computers that you would like to dispose? Your timing is just right then. Acer has just kicked off a trade-in program that not only benefits you but also a number of charity organizations across the country. Held in conjunction with the recently launched joint education and community program with Microsoftcalled I’m Inspired, customers are entitled to purchase selected desktop PC, laptop and all-in-one PCs for a discounted price with each trade-in.

While the RM 200 rebate might not sound much, what made this program special is that all the computers that Acer received through this event will be refurbished by them and Microsoft before they are donated to the said charity organizations. However, don’t think of this program as a place to dump your poor old PCs though since Acer are only accepting those with their main components such as motherboard, hard drives, processor, RAM, battery pack and power adapter still intact even though they can be either in working or non-working condition.

The Acer trade-in program is happening right now until 13 April 2011 at selected Acer dealers nationwide. For further information, check out the program’s website HERE.

http://www.acer-iconize.com.my/info_tradeinpromo.html

http://www.lowyat.net/v2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4180&Itemid=1

iPad Unveiled

Apple unveils the iPad which looks like an oversized iPhone but with much more features.

Apple shows off the iPad at last

UNVEILED: Jobs showing off the new iPad during an Apple event in San Francisco yesterday. — AP

By CHONG JINN XIUNG intech@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: After weeks of speculation and anticipation by consumers and industry pundits, the worldwide wait ended when Apple chief executive Steve Jobs finally unveiled the iPad tablet computer in San Francisco yesterday.

The iPad is all that everyone has been anticipating it to be — a large-form tablet that is only 0.5in thick and weighs just 680g.

It features a big 9.7in LED backlit display (1,024 x 768-pixels) with multitouch capabilities and has a built-in accelerometer that allows the device to adjust the screen orientation either in portrait or landscape mode depending how the device is held.

The device runs on a custom 1GHz Apple A4 processor chip that handles both processing and graphics performance. It is also fully network capable with 802.11n WiFi and 3G connectivity.

It will ship with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of Flash memory. Apple claims the device has up to 10 hours of battery life and that it can sit for a month on standby without needing a charge.

Interestingly the iPad syncs with a Mac or PC over the same 30-pin sync cable that the iPhone uses, so it can sync all your photos, music, videos and applications in the same manner.

Apple also said that all applications and files from the App Store, iTunes store and the newly announced iBookstore will automatically sync to a user’s iTunes library.

BRAND NEW: The much anticipated Apple iPad. — AP

The iPad doesn’t completely overhaul the iPhone’s touch-driven interface. It is still very much a touch-driven experience so just about anyone who’s used an iPhone will immediately be familiar with the iPad’s interface.

The works

Like a Swiss army knife, the device has a long list of functions that include web surfing, gaming, and reading e-books.

Confident in its web surfing capabilities, Jobs said web browsing on the iPad is like holding the Internet in the palm of your hands.

Users can browse entire webpages using Apple’s Safari browser on the iPad and employ the same finger gestures used on the iPhone to scroll up and down, or flick pictures and pages.

SIMILAR: The iPad has the same touchscreen driven interface as the iPhone. — AP

Leveraging on Apple’s large collection of existing applications, the iPad can readily run any native iPhone application from the App Store. The iPad can run them either in their native resolution of 320 x 480-pixels or scale up them up to fit the entire screen.

Apple had several developers to showcase their applications during its press event in San Francisco with Electronic Arts showing off an iPad-optimised Need for Speed: Shift car racing game.

Initial impressions show a rather smooth-running game with high-resolution graphics. Driving the cars in the game is by both touch and motion controls.

Other applications announced for the iPad include a new version of iWorks featuring Pages, Keynote and Numbers that allow users to create text documents, presentations and spreadsheets.

The three applications will be available separately through the App Store for US$9.99 (RM34) each.

March date

Giving the Amazon Kindle a run for its money, the iPad also functions as an e-book reader, courtesy of Apple’s new iBooks application. The iPad will use Apple’s new iBookstore that will feature books from major and independent publishers.

The iPad comes in two versions — one with WiFi and the other with both WiFi and 3G.

It will go on sale in late March, with prices starting at US$499 (RM1,697) for WiFi-only models and up to US$829 (RM2,818) for the WiFi- and 3G-enabled 64GB model.

There was no announcement at the San Francisco event about when the iPad will be available in Malaysia.

++++ www.apple.com/ipad/

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2010/1/28/technology/20100128095723&sec=technology

Opera 10:Fast Browser For your computer

For people who use Windows, we are mostly stuck between using Mozilla Firefox or

Microsoft Internet Explorer.

However, if you have been using both for a long time there are pros and cons.

For IE, there is always security issues where loopholes seem to appear very often as hackers always target it.

As for Firefox, you will notice a slow down if you have a lot of add ons.

As for Opera, it is proclaimed as the fastest browser and in version 10, they added Opera Turbo function which will speed up web page loading time but lower quality of pictures.

Another thing is they have Opera Mini which you can use for your web-enabled mobile phone for a better experience and Opera Link to synchronize your PC and mobile phone configurations.

You can try it now for free here:

http://www.opera.com/browser/

Auslogics Disk Defrag

Ever wondered why your computer slows down?

One of them is disk fragments scattered around your hard drive which is the main storage component of your PC.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is a free disk defragmenter which is fast and easy to use compared to Windows disk defrag which is very slow.

So give it a try and visit:

http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag

Last 2 days to win an iPhone 3GS

Contest ends 14/9/09
A contest that I joined from Exabytes.
========================================================================================

iLoveMalaysia

This year is Malaysia's 52nd Independence Day! Yay! As always, we will be running a few special campaigns to commemorate this special day.

Stand a flag in front of the house,.. check.
Stick a flag on the car rooftop,.. check.
Put an iLoveMalaysia logo on website to win iPhone 3GS,.. REALLY?

YES! This is a chance for you to win yourself one fancy, must-have smartphone - iPhone 3GS worth RM 2500 each! That's not all. The best part is, you can also refer someone to join this campaign, and if they are selected as winner, you as the referer will win the exact same prize! - all while expressing your love to the country!

Don't be disheartened if you fail to get the grand prize. We still have other cool and expensive consolation prizes waiting for you. We hereby kick off this campaign today!

===================================================================

Click here:http://www.exabytes.com.my/merdeka/2009/refernwin.php

and add my email: lzc1991_8(at)hotmail.com

Change the (at) to @. This is to prevent spam.

iLoveMalaysia. Do You?

A contest that I joined from Exabytes.
========================================================================================

iLoveMalaysia

This year is Malaysia's 52nd Independence Day! Yay! As always, we will be running a few special campaigns to commemorate this special day.

Stand a flag in front of the house,.. check.
Stick a flag on the car rooftop,.. check.
Put an iLoveMalaysia logo on website to win iPhone 3GS,.. REALLY?

YES! This is a chance for you to win yourself one fancy, must-have smartphone - iPhone 3GS worth RM 2500 each! That's not all. The best part is, you can also refer someone to join this campaign, and if they are selected as winner, you as the referer will win the exact same prize! - all while expressing your love to the country!

Don't be disheartened if you fail to get the grand prize. We still have other cool and expensive consolation prizes waiting for you. We hereby kick off this campaign today!

===================================================================

Click here:http://www.exabytes.com.my/merdeka/2009/refernwin.php

and add my email: lzc1991_8(at)hotmail.com

Change the (at) to @. This is to prevent spam.

PC Fair Day One Summary: My version

Malaysia has recently made August the ICT month and one of the highlights is PC Fair that is held at least two times a year for three days each.

Friday was the first day of PC Fair organised by Pikom at KLCC. I reached there from my college at about 12.40pm and waited for a friend.


After he (Lam) arrived, we searched the food court,to have lunch, for a few minutes but gave up due to the increasing amount of people who were coming in and decided to go to Burger King instead.

During lunch, Lam had a bit of trouble with the imperfect dispenser machine there and got his hand stained with some carbonated drink. Apparently, the stain did not come off after washing with water.

After having lunch, we walked to the fair.
(As we all know, KLCC is beside KLCC. The first one is Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre while the second is Kuala Lumpur City Centre which is either weird or convenient.)

While walking up the floors, me and Lam joked about how there was a bridge which was at one of the levels and seemed very low. From that we talked about how if the world's tallest man were to arrive and hit his head on it.
The headlines: "World's tallest man hits head on former world tallest building",comes to mind.LOL. Lame.
Somehow I think because we criticized the building or rather the poor management of escalators, one of the escalators suddenly stopped when we were traveling up the floors. I did not get injured but Lam got some cuts.

Anyways, we started from the top floor where most of the laptops and smartphone booths are. The brands that are available are Dell, Acer, HP, and Samsung if I'm not mistaken.
While walking there I saw a friend who is from the same college but different class and she just asked me to survey the booth she is promoting. I forgot which booth it was but I remember that it was for laptops.

After that we continued exploring the area while asking whether the laptops have international warranties (Lam needs it as he is going overseas soon).

We finally reached the ground floor which is where most of the noise came from and also where we get to see more interesting stuff. Compared to the hall at the top floors, the air con was slightly cooler in the hall here.

There seems to be a few things that become quite popular which are high capacity hard disks combined with a RMVB player which you can play all the movies you own.
Some of them even have the nerve to call RMVB players as MP 5 players. LOL



Also, it seems that LCD monitors seem to have a lower price tag. A Samsung 18.5" monitor with 16:9 ratio costs RM390.

We went to check out a few booths for a pair of headphones that Lam was searching for his MP 3 player and while checking I met with a few other friends form secondary school and college. Two of them who were working with Avira is Wei Phang and VJ who are from my secondary school.
Another two friends I met there from are from my class from college who works for Kapersky who are Grace and ChingYee. It seems Kapersky is now having Jackie Chan as a spokesperson which weird but true. The Video is below:



It seems both sides want me to buy from them so I just settle with not buying anything. Avira antivirus had a spin and win game which makes me think that I can get the prize without spinning as I have friends there. Besides they also have this.

After viewing most of the booths, Lam got his headphones and both of us are satisfied.
Besides the hordes of broadband promoters who swarm to you like your sugar and the myriad of sounds from the speakers booths, everything was quite OK.

Still I was planning to buy this:

Samsung Smx-C10. It is small in size and quite cheap: RM899. The only drawback is that it cannot take photos.

I can say that this trip was a success as we get updated with the latest prices on IT equipment and I give a thumbs up for this event.

PS. I heard that there was a lot of traffic jam on Saturday and most of the roads are closed. Seems that I can can't go today by car and need to rely on the train. Haiz, that means I have to use the KTM which becomes slower during peak hours.

Anyways, anyone who is going by car can see this:

Parking at KLCC:
http://www.pikom.org.my/cms/PCFair2009/CarPark_KL.gif

Finally a new computer

Yeah. Finally got a new computer after my laptop was stolen.

Here are the specs:
Intel E5200 2.5ghz
160gb hdd
dvd burner
2gb ram

My only regret is that I can't get a graphics card because somebody did credit card fraud at my dad's shop. Haiz

Lost Laptop

(Image from http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/laptop_security.jpg)

In the age where mobile computing becomes more and more widespread, one thing that comes to mind is that the laptop you bought may one day get stolen in a multitude variety of ways. Search Google with 'stolen laptops' as tag and you find laptops commonly taken from vehicles,homes etc...


A better post on how to

Protect Lost or Stolen Laptop

(http://www.solutionheaven.com/mobile/protect-lost-or-stolen-laptop/)

However, in the event that your laptop is stolen, go to this link:

http://www.ccmostwanted.com/report/serial.htm

Register here and pray that your laptop will come back...About 97% of stolen laptops never get back to their owners....So if you do get back your laptop, buy a lottery.

Some extra info:

(http://www.absolute.com/resources/computer-theft-statistics.asp)

Computer Theft & Recovery Statistics

Business Practices

Seven in 10 government mobile devices are unencrypted.
Government Accountability Office (GAO), IT Security: Federal Agency efforts to encrypt sensitive information are under way, but work remains, June 2008

53% of mobile professionals carry confidential company information on their notebook PCs and, of those, 65% don’t take steps to protect the data.
Dell & Ponemon Institute, Airport Insecurity: the case of lost laptops, June 30, 2008

66% of US employees write down passwords in unsafe places.
IT Facts, 66% of US employees write down passwords in unsafe places, March 21, 2008

34% of the businesses have no tools/procedures in place to detect identity fraud.
Ad-hoc News, Business Owners Have “False Sense of Security’’ When It Comes to Data Breaches, May 27, 2008

85% of privacy and security professionals had at least one reportable breach in the past 12 months.
Deloitte, Enterprise @ Risk: 2007 Privacy & Protection Survey, 2007

63% of privacy and security professionals experienced multiple reportable data breaches – between 6 and 20 breaches – in 2007.
Deloitte, Enterprise @ Risk: 2007 Privacy & Protection Survey, 2007

Data Loss & Costs

66% of breaches involved data the company did not know was on their system.
Verizon, 2008 Data Breach Investigations Report, 2008

The cost of recovering from a single data breach now averages $6.3M - that’s up 31 percent since 2006 and nearly 90 percent since 2005.
Ponemon Institute, U.S. Costs of a Data Breach, November 2007

Computer & Handset Loss & Theft

Laptop theft accounted for 50% of reported security attacks.
CSI, The 12th Annual Computer Crime and Security Survey, 2007

Lost or stolen laptops and mobile devices are the most frequent cause of a data breach, accounting for 49% of data breaches in 2007.
Ponemon Institute, U.S. Costs of a Data Breach, November 2007

12,000 laptops are lost in U.S. airports each week, and two-thirds are never returned.
Dell & Ponemon Institute, Airport Insecurity: the case of lost laptops, June 30, 2008

Recovery Stats

Fastest recovery by Absolute was 47 minutes.
Absolute Software, 2008

Absolute recovers 3 out of 4 missing computers.*
Absolute Software, 2008

Internal Theft

62% of breaches were attributed to significant internal errors.
Verizon, 2008 Data Breach Investigations Report, 2008

The majority of data breaches (61%) originate from internal sources, as a result of enterprises’ inability to enforce their IT policies or due to problems with the policies themselves.
Data Monitor, Mitigating the Risks of Data Loss, August 2007

Hope you learnt something. And here are some must have laptop recovery software. Install before it gets stolen. Adeona from http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/ is an example and also make sure you have a built in webcam for proof of the the person who stole your laptop.They track the ip address and your laptop sends a distress signal when it is online after you report it missing.

You can also buy insurance for your laptop. Some vendors offer them (saw one in acer's website).

Depending on the premium, you can get a replacement if it gets stolen on broken.

That concludes this week's post and thanks for reading