WD Introduces My Passport AV Designed Specifically For Audio Video Devices

With the ever increasing number of media devices featuring USB ports for USB drives to add storage and play multimedia content from the drive to an HD TV more consumers are opting to add ultra portable drives to their systems. Today WD introduced the new My Passport AV portable media drive designed specifically to meet the requirements of this demanding video streaming environment. These new drives delivers the formatting and low-power consumption that assures out-of-the-box compatibility with many leading CE (consumer electronics) devices.

The new 320 GB My Passport AV portable media drives are designed to operate seamlessly with the Direct Copy feature offered in Sony's new Handycam video recorders Blu-ray Players gaming consoles, televisions and many other popular media players.

My Passport AV Compatibility
My Passport AV portable media drives are formatted FAT32 and are compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X and Apple's Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard. My Passport AV portable media drives utilize the same drive technology found in WD AV drives inside leading cable and satellite set-top boxes and DVRs (digital video recorders) around the world.

The My Passport AV portable media drives are compatible with the following devices:

• WD TV family of media players;
  
• 2010 and later Sony camcorders with Direct Copy functionality;
  
• Sony 2010 Blu-ray Disc Players including BDP-S370, BDP-S470, BDP-S570;
  
• Sony 2010 Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Systems including BDV-E370, BDV-E570;
  
• JVC LT-32P689 television;
  
• Samsung LN32A550 television;
  
• Phillips 42PFLA332D television;
  
• Microsoft Xbox 360 (compatible with the USB media playback feature); and,
  
• Sony PlayStation 3.

For a complete list of devices compatible with the My Passport AV portable media drives, please visit the WD Web site. A product specification sheet and photos of My Passport AV drives are available on the company's Web site at http://www.westerndigital.com/MyPassportAV.

Source: Western Digital

New HDD's Won't Affect XP Users And Why The BBC Has It Wrong

An article provided by the BBC News stating that "Hard drive evolution could hit Microsoft XP users" has garnered a ton of attention this afternoon, most of which is nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to mass media sensationalistic nonsense.

Background on the new format
The BBC article point to an ongoing move by hard drive manufactures to an advanced format where as drives which are typically formatted into 512byte sectors will now be formatted into blocks of 4K sectors. The change means about eight times less wasted space but will allow drives to devote twice as much space per block to error correction.

The problem is this is not new news. Western Digital already made users aware of the new formatting and has already provided an Advanced Format Alignment Tool. In fact most of this was covered by Anandtech (article) and HotHardware (article) as early as Dec of '09.

The issue at hand
The BBC grabbed a lot of attention with their claims, some of which is totally misguided.

First off they claim "Windows XP was released before the 4K format was decided upon." Well this is not true, in fact as MS points out in this KB article and again in the Windows Professional Product Documentation Windows XP does write 4k block segments for all drives over 2GBs. Problem is that XP writes 4K as eight 512 byte sectors and does not start with a multiple of 8 for the first sector. So the drive reads a full 4K then updates the part of the 4K that corresponds to the sector numbers XP sent. Then finally does the write. This creates a lot of overhead and creates unaligned sectors.

Again this is an issue already addressed by WD with their alignment tool.

Secondly, as the article already points out the new advanced format drives utilize 512 byte emulation which is meant to help Windows XP cope (even if it doesn't need to) by pretending they still use sectors 512 bytes in size.

"When reading data from a drive this emulation will go unnoticed." said David Burks, a product marketing manager for storage firm Seagate. He added, "However  in some situations writing data could show a hit performance. In some cases the drive will take two steps to write data rather than one and introduce a delay of about 5 milliseconds." Burks, added that, in some circumstances, it could make a drive 10% slower.

10% slower, this is hardly something that should warrant some of the alarm bells that have rang out across the web.  Look at it this way, you are likely to get a 15-20% boost from newer drive tech over drives that are currently performing very well with XP. So you might drop that by lets say 1/2. You are still seeing a size-able gain in not only performance but available space. Making these claims that "New Harddrives May Force Windows XP Upgrades" pretty unreasonable.

Lets not forget
Most computer users out there that are running Windows XP and have refused upgrades aren't likely to add new drives anytime soon and even if they do there are tons of drives out there now that we can use w/o issues. By the time these drives are dated to the point they are no longer viable Windows XP will be at the end of its life-cycle and we'll likely be running Windows 8, 9 or 10 or whatever and most drives will be ssd's or something better.

So as I said the BBC's article looks like nothing more than sensationalistic, alarmist junk to me!

Biking Geeks Can Now Get Directions Via Google Maps

Today Google has announced a new map feature that should make life for you riding geeks out there a lot easier: Google Maps now offers biking directions!

Yes that's right in addition to the many features Google Maps already has like walking, car, and public transit maps, users can now pull up detailed turn by turn directions specifically meant for a "bike friendly" ride. The new maps uses biking specific algorithms to plot the best way to get from point A to point B on two wheels. The new "bike friendly" maps plot roads and tails that are two wheeled in an attempt to avoid biking obstacles like steep hills, traffic and unnecessary stops.


Here's what you get out of the new biking map tools:

• Bike trails: The new Google maps will contain over twelve thousand miles of biking trails. In cooperation with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Google has managed to map out 12k miles of trails and incorporated them into the routing algorithm. The algorithm is weighted to prefer routing on these trails rather than roads open to automobile traffic, so your directions will try to put you onto a trail as long as it won't take you totally out of your way. On the bicycling layer (found under the 'More' button), these trails show up in dark green.

• Bike lanes: Included in the new maps are dedicated bicycle lanes for more than 150 cities in the US. These too are prioritized when coming up with a routing suggestion so as to keep riders of busy streets without bike lanes. On the bicycling layer, you’ll see these roads indicated in bright green.

• Recommended routes: For many of the included cities Google has worked to provide information on streets that have been designated as "good for cyclists", essentially roads that are more bike friendly than others. These roads are indicated with dashed green lines on our bicycling layer.

• Uphill/Downhill slopes: Most of us would much rather have a nice gradual incline or decline, unless of course you are doing some serious training. However for the average commute rider or day to day rider its nice to know where those killer hills are. Google's new biking directions are based on a physical model of the amount of power your body has to exert given the slope of the road you’re biking on. Assuming typical values for mass and for wind resistance, Google will compute the effort you’ll require and the speed you’ll achieve while going uphill. Taking this data into account the maps will more accurately  determine the time estimate for your journey, as well as presenting the best route possible to avoid an unreasonable degree of exertion. Sometimes the model will determine that it's far more efficient to make you ride several extra blocks than to have to deal with a massive hill. As per example Google uses a ride in San Francisco to show that this does indeed work!

• Terrain Layer:  An added feature for checking your uphill/downhill slopes is the terrain layer. With this feature you can check out the hilliness of an area for yourself. Perhaps you are looking for a more challenging ride, or you want to avoid some steep declines, either way looking at the terrain first had will give you a better feel for what you can expect.

• Busy roads: Cyclists, especially the casual riders, prefer to stay off of fast roads, and most try to avoid crossing them unless it's necessary. This is roughly the inverse of driving directions, where you want to stay on arterials and freeways, so Google had to rework a lot of those fundamental calculations when coming up with our biking directions algorithm.

• Busy intersections: The new mapping system will try to avoid making you cross busy streets with a lot of car traffic and long wait times.

For more details checkout the official announcement on the Official Google Blog

Google Launches Apps Marketplace

Google has announced the addition of a newly formed Apps Marketplace intended to allow small business and website owners the ability to install and share apps on their domains.

The Google Apps Marketplace, announced this evening at Campfire One, allows you to publish applications which integrate with Google Apps and sell them to more than 2 million businesses. Listing your integrated cloud app on the Google Apps Marketplace enables it to have seamless OpenID-based single sign-on with Google Apps, OAuth-authorized access to Google Apps data and makes it easy for customers to access your application from Google Apps' universal navigation bar.

Once installed to a domain, these third-party applications work like any other native Google applications. With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity. Administrators can manage the applications from the familiar Google Apps control panel, and employees can open them from within Google Apps. With OpenID integration, Google Apps users can access the other applications without signing in separately to each. The Google Apps Marketplace eliminates the worry about software updates, keeping track of different passwords and manual syncing and sharing of data, thereby increasing business productivity and lessening frustrations for users and IT administrators alike.

For more information on the Google Apps Marketplace to businesses check out the Google Enterprise Blog post. Developers interested in learning how to integrate with Google Apps can check out the Google Code Blog. Or, you can explore the Google Apps Marketplace directly at http://google.com/appsmarketplace.

ASRock Motherboards Get Core Unlocking Feature UCC (Unlock CPU Core)

ASRock joins ASUS as the second top level motherboard manufacturer to add a simplified way of unlocking disable AMD CPU cores.

ASRock motherboards will feature what the company is calling UCC (Unlock CPU Core) a bios option that simplifies AMD CPU activation. Just a simple switch of the BIOS option ‘UCC’, and with a little luck you can unlock you CPU's disabled cores to enjoy an instant performance boost. Additionally, some CPU can even increase L3 cache size up to 6MB.

The company has gone a step further than ASUS by not only adding the feature on AMD 8xx series motherboards, they have implemented the UCC feature on entry Nvidia N68 series motherboards as well.

Please be noted that UCC feature is supported with AM2+ / AM3 CPU only, also, not every AM2+ / AM3 CPU can support this function because some CPU's hidden core may be malfunctioned.

AMD Foundation to Sponsor Video Game Design Category for The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

AMD today announced the AMD Foundation, in support of AMD Changing the Game, has awarded a grant to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. The $65,000 grant will be used to help fund the Alliance’s new video game design category for the 2010 and 2011 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers is a nonprofit organization that runs The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the most prestigious and longest-running competition in the United States recognizing teenagers’ intellectual creativity, innovation and artistic talent. Through this competition, scholarships and other activities, the Alliance annually reaches more than three million students in seventh through 12^th grades, and 400,000 Art and English teachers. Including the new video game design category in the competition increases the reach of the program to math and science teachers and presents video game production as an art form requiring imagination, technical skill, planning and storytelling.

AMD’s partnership with the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers will help to significantly broaden the reach of the AMD Changing the Game signature education initiative to its target audience. The AMD program is designed to promote the use of youth game development as a tool to inspire learning and improve science, technology, education and math (STEM) skills.

“The Alliance’s addition of a video game design category to its annual competition validates the growth of game design as a creative learning tool for teens,” said Allyson Peerman, President, AMD Foundation. “Digital gaming is the universal language of teens, and teaching them in that language can result in more engaged and better prepared students.”

“The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have always represented the cutting edge of student creativity,” said Virginia McEnerney, Executive Director of the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. “That tradition is well-represented with the addition of the video game design category.”

During its 87-year history, The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has recognized more than nine million creative teenagers, including Andy Warhol, Robert Redford and Sylvia Plath. For the 2011 program year, the Alliance anticipates receiving 700 student submissions for the video game design category. The AMD Foundation grant also will help the Alliance host game design workshops and help fund cash awards and summer program scholarships for students. Each year top video game submissions will be showcased online.

“The ability to design computer and video games taps into a deep-seated passion for today's youth and fosters critical 21st Century skills such as creativity, collaboration and critical thinking,” said Alan Gershenfeld, Chairman, Games4Change. “The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards video game design competition is a phenomenal outlet to spotlight teens’ passion and talent for shaping this powerful new medium. I tip my hat to the AMD Foundation for recognizing that when kids are motivated to learn they can move mountains.”

AMD Changing the Game
 
AMD Changing the Game is designed to take gaming beyond entertainment and inspire youth to learn critical education and life skills by equipping them to create digital games with social content. The program’s purpose is to promote the use of youth game development as a tool to inspire learning and improve science, technology, education and math (STEM) skills. The initiative is rooted in AMD’s commitment to and experience in supporting education, and the company’s passion and expertise in the graphics processor and gaming industries.


Since its launch in June 2008, AMD Changing the Game has:

• Funded 13 organizations that enable youth game development
• Funded the development of a youth game development curriculum with PETLab and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). Earlier in 2010, BGCA chapters in Larimer County, Colorado and Marlborough, Massachusetts kicked off new “Game Tech” programs that teach club members how to understand game design and create their own games.
• Co-sponsored the Malaysian Cybergames Festival 2010, including the “Dare to Create” digital game design and development workshop
• Co-sponsored the 2008 and 2009 Games for Change Festival
• Funded an online toolkit to help nonprofits create games on social issues
• Sponsored a video contest exploring the intersection of education and gaming

 Source: AMD

Adobe Pushing HP's Slate PC

HP along with Alan Tam from Adobe's Flash Product Marketing show off the new HP Slate (HP's new tablet device), featuring Adobe Flash and Adobe Air functionalities.

HP introduced the Windows 7-based Slate back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, but as of yet the company has released few details and so far has not announced a ship date besides "mid-2010." The device is reportedly going to be priced "below $500", a price that was considered underwhelming at the time of its introduction.

Rock Band 3 Coming This Holiday Season

Details are a bit scant at the moment however Harmonix and MTV Games have confirmed via Facebook today that Rock Band 3 is set for release this holiday season. Electronic Arts will once again be handling distribution duties.

Harmonix Communications Manager John Drake has also confirmed the news when he tweeted at 2 P.M. Eastern: "Viacom CEO and President Philippe Dauman has confirmed that Harmonix is working on Rock Band 3, for release Holiday 2010! WOOO!"

Intel Investigating Case Of Newegg Counterfeit Core i7s

Last weekend details of a major snafu at Newegg began to emerged, at the core was inforamtion that several people who had purchased Core i7 processors from Newegg.com had instead received fake chips in the mail. Newegg originally stated that the company had received as many as 300 fake Core i7s in a shipment of 2,000 chips from one of their distributors, IPEX, with whom the company has now severed ties.

Reports were that Newegg originally claimed the fakes were actually demo units sent from D&H Distribution via Intel but more recent reports have Newegg now laying blame on IPEX.

Newegg's Statement Via PC MAG
Newegg is currently conducting a thorough investigation surrounding recent shipments of questionable Intel Core i7-920 CPUs purchased from Newegg.com.

Initial information we received from our supplier, IPEX, stated that they had mistakenly shipped us "demo units." We have since come to discover the CPUs were counterfeit and are terminating our relationship with this supplier. Contrary to any speculation, D&H Distributing is not the vendor that supplied us with the Intel Core i7-920 CPUs in question.

On Monday Intel confirmed the reports and said the company is investigating the issue thoroughly!

"Intel has been made aware of the potential for counterfeit i7 920 packages in the marketplace and is working to how many and/or where they are being sold," a spokesman told PC Mag Monday. "The examples we have seen are not Intel products but are counterfeits. Buyers should contact their place of purchase for a replacement and/or should contact their local law enforcement agency if the place of purchase refuses to help."

At question were images and videos posted by several customers. Including the video posted by Overclockers.com forums, user Dreadlok

As you can see from the video this is clearly not a case of demo models being shipped. For anyone who received one of the defective units, you can contact Newegg's customer service right here.

Cisco Unveil News That Will 'Forever Change the Internet'

Cisco Systems today introduced the companies next-generation Internet core router, the  Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (CRS) , with about three times the capacity of its current platform. The new routers are designed to serve as the foundation of the next-generation Internet and set the pace for the astonishing growth of video transmission, mobile devices and new online services through this decade and beyond.

With more than 12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system, the Cisco CRS-3 is designed to transform the broadband communication and entertainment industry by accelerating the delivery of compelling new experiences for consumers, new revenue opportunities for service providers, and new ways to collaborate in the workplace.

"The Internet will scale faster than any of us anticipate," Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers said during a webcast announcing the product.

Overview:

• The Cisco CRS-3 triples the capacity of its predecessor, the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, with up to 322 Terabits per second, which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
• The Cisco CRS-3 enables unified service delivery of Internet and cloud services with service intelligence spanning service provider Internet Protocol Next-Generation Networks (IP NGNs) and data center.  The Cisco CRS-3 also provides unprecedented savings with investment protection for the nearly 5,000 Cisco CRS-1 deployed worldwide.  Cisco's cumulative investment in the Cisco CRS family is $1.6 billion, further underscoring the company's commitment.
• AT&T, one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, recently tested the Cisco CRS-3 in a successful completion of the world's first field trial of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology, which took place in AT&T's live network between New Orleans and Miami.  The trial advances AT&T's development of the next generation of backbone network technology that will support the network requirements for the growing number of advanced services offered by AT&T to consumer and business customers, both fixed and mobile.
• The Cisco CRS-3 is currently in field trials, and its pricing starts at $90,000 U.S. 

Data sheet and more info on CRS-3.

Source: Cisco

Malware Found On New Vodafone HTC Magic Phone

According to a recent blog post Panda Security researchers have discovered as many as three pieces of malware on a brand new Vodafone HTC Magic with Google’s Android OS.

The discovery was made after a n employee of a software security firm plugged the device into a Windows based PC running Panda Cloud Antivirus. The malware programs were on the phone's 8GB microSD memory card, which mounts as an external drive when plugged into a PC. Panda's Cloud AV instantly detected both an autorun.inf and autorun.exe as malicious. A quick look into the phone quickly revealed it was infected and spreading the infection to any and all PCs that the phone would be plugged into.

Upon further investigation, Panda found that the employee's phone contained three malware programs: a client for the now-defunct Mariposa botnet, the Conficker worm as well as a password stealer for the Lineage game, said Pedro Bustamante, Panda Security's senior research adviser.

It is likely that this is an isolated incident which may have been caused by Vodafone selling a refurbished/returned phone without clearing the old user settings. However at this time nothing has been confirmed and Vodafone says they will be looking into the incident to "make sure that any necessary changes to their security policies are put in place."

Additional Reading:

• H-Online: Researchers show infecting smartphones with malware is relatively easy
• Android App Used In Phishing Attack Steals Bank Login Details
• New Malware Steals Money From Your Cell Phone

iPad On Sale April 3, Available For Pre-Order From March 12

The wait is almost over, Apple much hyped, much anticipated iPad will officially go on-sale this Friday and will be available April 3rd. Apple's online store will accept orders for all models, and Apple retail stores will be accepting orders for Wi-Fi-only models.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.  iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Source: Apple