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Continue reading The Engadget Podcast, live... now!

The Engadget Podcast, live... now! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 9:28pm GMT

A pair of iPads was just revealed in the FCC's system in perfect synchrony with that little pre-order sitch with which you may or may not already be familiar. Apple, of course, has a track record of timing its FCC filings perfectly so that virtually nothing is revealed before Cupertino wants it to be, and frankly, you're not going to get much here that you didn't already know -- the photographs (both external and internal) and the user manual are both still under confidentiality. Both units were tested for WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth, while one -- model number A1337 -- adds in GSM 850 / 1900 and UMTS 850 / 1900, so it appears that Apple has bundled all of its 3G and non-3G models into just two filings regardless of storage capacity. We caught A1337 flipping through an old issue of 2600, so for all we know, it socially engineered its way to FCC approval -- whatever it takes to make that late-April launch window, right?

Apple iPad -- model A1337 -- phreaks the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | FCC (1), FCC (2) | Email this | Comments

12 Mar 2010 9:17pm GMT

CWmike writes "You can now pre-order an Apple iPad; but do you really want to, asks Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. 'I mean, I get why you'd want an iPad. I'd like one too,' he writes. 'But,' he says, 'when I consider that there are soon going to be literally dozens of cheaper, Linux-powered iPad devices on the market, I find it a lot easier to resist putting $499 on my credit card. On top of that, Apple will be including DRM on some eBooks and other iPad content. I really, really hate DRM. All that said, I agree the iPad is really cool. I predict with absolute faith that the iPad and its clones are going to kill off single purpose devices like dedicated eReaders such as Amazon's Kindle and GPS devices within the next three years. How can it not work out this way? For the same price as a high-end dedicated device you can get a tablet that will do everything they can do and far more. But, and this is the important bit, you don't have to buy an Apple iPad to get all of the iPad's goodies. ARM, a mobile microprocessor power, is predicting that we'll see no less than 50 ARM-processor-powered iPad clones by year's end. And, what will they be running? These ARM-powered entertainment tablets will all be running Linux.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 9:13pm GMT

Lenovo CEO says mobile internet products will soon account for '70 to 80 percent' of sales originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 9:12pm GMT

Netflix has canceled its $1 million contest aimed at finding a better recommendation engine in the wake of a privacy lawsuit settlement. The company informed its users today via the company blog, noting that it had "reached an understanding" with the Federal Trade Commission, leading it to ditch the Netflix Prize contest.

Netflix first announced the contest-actually the sequel to its original contest-in August of 2009. The goal was to crowdsource its active user base to write a more intelligent recommendation engine based on users' past rentals. This is something Netflix already does, of course, but there's always room for improvement; the company wanted to find the Next Big Thing™ by offering $1 million to the person with the best algorithm.

Part of the contest involved Netflix disclosing what it considered to be anonymized user data to those trying to come up with solutions. This, however, led to a lawsuit by a closeted lesbian mother who argued that Netflix had not sufficiently anonymized the information and that she (among others) could be easily outed due to her own rental history. Indeed, within weeks of the data being released, researchers had found a way to use an external data source to decode an individual's viewing history with surprising accuracy, but Netflix did not immediately withdraw the contest.

The FTC eventually got involved and spent the following months discussing the issue with Netflix. That brings us to today: Netflix has officially settled the lawsuit and, as part of the settlement, is giving up the contest. "The resolution to both matters involves certain parameters for how we use Netflix data in any future research programs," wrote Netflix's Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt.

This doesn't mean Netflix is giving up on improving its recommendation engine-Hunt ended the blog post by saying the company would continue to explore better options-but the company will have to come up with new ways to "collaborate with the research community."

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12 Mar 2010 9:04pm GMT

Adjusting skin tones in photos can often be harder than adjusting for other colors, but Photoshop guru Helen Bradley has some quick tips for smoothing skin tones as effectively as possible. More »

12 Mar 2010 9:00pm GMT

AT&T hasn't been quite as forthcoming with the exact details of its next-gen network plans as T-Mobile and Verizon have been recently, but FierceBroadbandWireless appears to have wrested a tidbit from wireless boss Ralph de la Vega in a recent interview. Though the standard HSPA 7.2Mbps deployment is still AT&T's short-term focus, HSPA+ -- which can theoretically take HSPA to 21Mbps and beyond -- is clearly still on its radar prior to LTE. "We will also deploy HSPA+ in certain locations," de la Vega said on no uncertain terms -- without revealing even a hint about where those "certain locations" might be, unfortunately.

Speaking of LTE, the 4G tech still seems to be on AT&T's back burner for the moment with the first commercial markets not scheduled to light up until 2011, a strategy that seems pretty difficult to argue with considering HSPA's considerable room to grow from its current speeds and the lack of LTE devices in the pipeline. Of course, that could end up really hurting these guys a few years down the line when the first generation of LTE is in its prime and they've given Verizon about a year's head start, but -- and this is a huge "but" -- if they can save up some cash by rolling cheaper HSPA upgrades now and really dump unheard-of levels of cash into the network when they're good and ready, it's conceivable that they'll be able to build out a big footprint in short order. Ralph, can we recommend you look to Bell and Telus for inspiration on how to pull that off?

AT&T's de la Vega: HSPA+ coming 'in certain locations' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | FierceBroadbandWireless | Email this | Comments

12 Mar 2010 8:49pm GMT

Phrogman writes "The BBC is reporting that deforestation has 'revealed what could be a giant impact crater in Central Africa, scientists say. The 36-46km-wide feature, identified in DR Congo, may be one of the largest such structures discovered in the last decade.' If you search Google Maps for 'Omeonga Democratic Republic of the Congo,' you will be right in the middle of the suspected crater."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 8:48pm GMT

dcblogs writes "New York state plans to replace as many as 500 IT contract workers with a new type of temporary state worker. The state estimates it can save $25,000 annually for each contracting position that is in-sourced. This is the result of a new law creating 'term appointments,' which strip away some hiring and firing rules that apply to permanent state workers. These term appointment workers are employed 'at will.' Term appointments can be up to five years and workers get state benefits. Proponents of this change said a state IT worker might earn an average of $55 an hour, including benefits, while the state pays its contractors an average of $128 an hour for workers in similar jobs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 8:29pm GMT

Is it an Android tablet? An e-reader? Just a sweet gadget with two screens? Truth is the Entourage Edge is a little bit of everything, and that's exactly why we've been so intrigued with the "dualbook" since we fondled it at CES. Finally ready to make its shipping debut, the $499 dual screen device is aimed at students, but really it's for anyone interested in a combination 9.7-inch E Ink reading / note-taking experience and a 10.1-inch Android web tablet. It's sounded very cool to us for quite a while, but there's always a difference between hype and reality. Does the Edge live up to its promise or attempt to do too much? The only place to find out is after the break in our full review.

Gallery: Entourage Edge review

Continue reading Entourage Edge review

Entourage Edge review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 8:19pm GMT

We've offered our best tips for getting the most from your smartphone's battery, but The New York Times revisits the mobile users' favorite topic. While most of the tips are familiar, he did suggest one somewhat drastic idea we'd never highlighted: More »

12 Mar 2010 8:00pm GMT

New Zealand's government-run Internet filtering system is now running, and two ISPs are already using the system. Seven thousand websites are on the list, most dealing with child sexual abuse, bestiality, and other illegal content, as classified by the country's official censors (you too can be a censor for a day). Such material has been illegal offline in New Zealand for years, so the expansion of the program to the Internet isn't a big surprise. But will it work?

The government runs the filter, but ISP participation remains voluntary. Currently, Maxnet and Watchdog are confirmed to be using the filter, though other ISPs are said to be interested. Maxnet CEO John Hanna explained his company's position to Computerworld New Zealand: "Filtering out child pornography is also very much in line with our company values-our customers would be disappointed to hear if we weren't participating. So participation for us has always been a no-brainer."

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12 Mar 2010 8:00pm GMT

How do we know we're years away from a final resolution to the Nokia / Apple patent lawsuit? It's been six months since Nokia first filed its complaint, and the two parties are just now starting to argue about which specific substantive claims they're eventually going to argue about. Let's do a quick refresh: at the heart of the lawsuit is a conflict over Nokia's wireless patents, some of which are almost certainly essential to how cell data and WiFi operate. As a member of the ETSI and the IEEE licensing groups which oversee GSM and WiFi, Nokia's required to license its patents to anyone who asks on fair terms, but those terms aren't set in stone -- Nokia can negotiate separate licenses as it sees fit, and it apparently wanted Apple to cross-license its touchscreen patents as part of the deal. Apple said no, and now we're all in court, with both sides alleging patent infringement in three different lawsuits (one of which is on hold) and Apple claiming that Nokia is also liable for breach of contract, because it promised fair licensing terms and didn't deliver. Got all that? Right.

So that brings us to yesterday, when Nokia asked the court to dismiss all of Apple's contract-related claims, saying that they're simply a distraction from the real issue, which is patents, and that its license offers aren't unfair simply because Apple doesn't like them. In short: Apple and Nokia's patent lawsuit is currently not really about patents at all, but about whether or not it should also be a fight about contract terms in addition to a fight about patents, and that question won't be resolved for months. And that's why vigilante justice is the future of America's tarnished civilization something like 90 percent of patent cases eventually settle out of court.

P.S. Oh, and in case you're wondering, today Reuters reported that the first trial date isn't expected until 2012. So, yeah.

Nokia asks court to dismiss part of Apple patent lawsuit originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | BusinessWeek, Motion to Dismiss (PDF) | Email this | Comments

12 Mar 2010 7:57pm GMT

An anonymous reader writes "Netflix just announced that they have cancelled the sequel to the Netflix Prize, which was promised last year. Netflix made the choice after they were sued over privacy concerns. The prize involves releasing large amounts of data about users' movie preferences, which raised concerns from the Federal Trade Commission and a lawsuit from KamberLaw LLC. Netflix's Neil Hunt said, 'We have reached an understanding with the FTC and have settled the lawsuit with plaintiffs. The resolution to both matters involves certain parameters for how we use Netflix data in any future research programs.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 7:47pm GMT

Greetings humans! If you've seen The Engadget Show, then you've been privy to some pretty incredible performances by a group of musicians and artists who eschew familiar instruments in exchange for hacked and modded handheld gaming devices. We grabbed our cameras and got a brief look at the history of the chiptunes movement, the difference between Game Boy music and music from Game Boys, and most importantly, how these artists and visualists make it all happen. Kick back and take a look at the segment (featuring the likes of Glomag, Paris, and Outpt) -- you'll be glad you did!

Special guests: Glomag, Paris, and Outpt
Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm
Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger
Edited by: Michael Slavens
Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec

Download the Show: The Engadget Show Segment - 005 (HD) / The Engadget Show Segment - 005 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted)

Subscribe to the Show:

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Continue reading The Engadget Show: Inside chiptunes and 8-bit visuals

The Engadget Show: Inside chiptunes and 8-bit visuals originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 7:34pm GMT

Google Voice turned one yesterday, and in the year since Google reopened the service previously known as GrandCentral, we've:

• Helped you decide if Google Voice is a good fit for you
• Eased your transition to Voice
• Showed you how to make free VoIP calls from Voice
• Detailed how to make unlimited free calls from your cellphone using Voice

More »

12 Mar 2010 7:30pm GMT

It's almost too much to take in all at once. Sure, the $1,999 Cintiq 21UX pen display is priced out of reach for most of us mere mortals who "don't draw good," but the pure lustworthiness of this unit sure makes us try to forget that inconvenient fact. The expanded movability of Wacom's latest is commendable, the pen input is naturally great, the screen is beautiful, and even those new rear-mounted touchpads seem helpful. It would take someone much more familiar with professional draw-ist-ing to really speak to the more specific merits of the 21UX, but from a mere standpoint of inspiring irrational desire in our hearts, Wacom seems to have done a pretty good job this time out. Check out a video of the screen in action after the break.

Gallery: Wacom Cintiq 21UX hands-on

Continue reading Wacom Cintiq 21UX hands-on

Wacom Cintiq 21UX hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 7:12pm GMT

suraj.sun writes with this snippet from an Associated Press report: "China's top Internet regulator insisted Friday that Google must obey its laws or 'pay the consequences,' giving no sign of a possible compromise in their dispute over censorship and hacking. 'If you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to pay the consequences,' Li Yizhong, the minister of Industry and Information Technology, said on the sidelines of China's annual legislature. ... 'Whether they leave or not is up to them,' Li said. 'But if they leave, China's Internet market is still going to develop.' ... Li insisted the government needs to censor Internet content to protect the rights of the country and its people. 'If there is information that harms stability or the people, of course we will have to block it,' he said."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 7:04pm GMT

We love traveling with our pets, but we don't like gambling on whether the hotel where we want to stay allows animals. Web site GoPetFriendly helps figure out where to rest your head without leaving Rover behind. More »

12 Mar 2010 7:00pm GMT

We talk about the FCC a lot here, but usually the ways ye olde Commission affects our lives are indirect. A little extra spectrum here, a nice leaked image there, that kind of thing. Not this time, though, as the FCC is getting involved directly with its own Consumer Broadband Test app, designed to probe network latencies and download speeds on your home connection or mobile device. Part of the hallowed National Broadband Plan, this will furnish the FCC will useful data to show the discrepancy between advertised and real world broadband speeds, and will also -- more importantly perhaps -- serve as a neat way for users to directly compare network performance in particular areas. It's available on the App Market and App Store right now, with versions for other operating systems coming up, so why not get with the program and give it a test drive?

FCC comes through with a Consumer Broadband Test app for iPhone, Android and the home originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 6:43pm GMT

Chinese authorities are pounding their desks over compliance with the law as Google's C-Day approaches. The "C" is for Censorship, of course, which Google plans to lift in China sometime in the near future. The company has been in talks with China ever since the highly publicized hack earlier this year, and although the two may not be in agreement over what to censor, it seems likely that Google will keep at least some of its business in China.

"Google has made its case, both publicly and privately," China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong told the press on Friday when questioned about censorship, according to Reuters. "If you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you."

Translation: in this game of chicken, the Chinese government won't be the one to budge. Meanwhile, a person "familiar with the talks" told the Wall Street Journal that the company isn't likely to pull out of China altogether if this censorship experiment goes sour. Google is apparently putting together a "patchwork agreement" with a number of different Chinese agencies so that it can continue operating to some degree in China.

One thing's for sure: the status quo won't hold. The WSJ's source claims a decision will come within weeks, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt indicated at a press conference in Abu Dhabi that "something will happen soon."

If Google opens the floodgates on previously censored topics like the Dalai Lama or the Tiananmen Square protests, there's little stopping China from taking measures to block the site like it already does with numerous others. There are plenty of workarounds for crafty Internet users, but we wouldn't be surprised to see this happen if China and Google are unable to come to an agreement.

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12 Mar 2010 6:40pm GMT

Earlier this week we asked if you still carried business cards, pointing out that the business card feels more and more outdated in a digital age. Your response: Digital age be damned! Around 70 percent of you still carry business cards-37 percent carrying them wherever you go, 33 percent making sure they're on hand where people commonly exchange them. Only 13 percent of you have gone the "who needs 'em" route, while 14 percent of you have them but don't carry them often. Photo by boblet. More »

12 Mar 2010 6:30pm GMT

itwbennett writes "The takedown of the Mariposa botnet and so-called advanced persistent threat attacks, such as the one that compromised Google systems in early December, were hot topics at the RSA conference last week. What both Mariposa and the Google attacks illustrate, and what went largely unsaid at RSA, was that the security industry has failed to protect paying customers from some of today's most pernicious threats, writes Robert McMillan. Traditional security products are simply not much help, said Alex Stamos, a partner with Isec Partners, one of the companies investigating the APT attacks. 'All of the victims we've worked with had perfectly installed antivirus,' he said. 'They all had intrusion detection systems and several had Web proxies scan content.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 6:23pm GMT

We're a little obsessed with great tools that fit on our keychains, so it's no wonder the Screwpop 4-in-1 keychain multi-tool caught our eye. It's a Phillips-head screwdriver, flat-head screwdriver, a hex nut driver, and a bottle opener in a key-sized package. More »

12 Mar 2010 6:00pm GMT

Call it an inexplicable fascination, or call it all-out geek lust over a screen with three digits in the "diagonal screen size" specification field -- either way, we had little choice but to shuttle over to HDI's nondescript Los Gatos, California headquarters in order to check out what even Steve Wozniak has been quoted as saying is the best 3D solution out there. While stationed on the west coast this week for GDC, we grabbed a camera and bolted down the 280 in order to get a sneak peek at the aforesaid firm, a tight-knit startup that currently has prototype displays in production and plans for far more. We've heard plenty through the grapevine, but we set out to get our questions answered directly, and possibly even provide some insight that has yet to be made available to the public thus far.

For those unaware, HDI's flagship product is a planned 103-inch 3D HDTV that uses a proprietary technology in order to showcase content in the third dimension (or 2D, if you'd like). We sat down with Chris Stuart (Director of Technology) and Edmund Sandberg (Chief Technology Officer) in order to get an overview of the tech, set the story straight in regard to pricing and availability, and dig in a little deeper on its plans for distribution and expansion. We also plopped down in front of the company's prototype 97-inch set and a 46-inch 3D LCD that has remained mostly a myth up until now, and we've certainly got plenty to share in terms of impressions. If you're eager to learn more (and take a behind-the-scenes look at a television R&D lab), give that 'Read More' link a gentle press.

Gallery: HDI 3D prototype HDTVs

Continue reading HDI headquarters walkthrough: details galore on the new face of in-home 3D

HDI headquarters walkthrough: details galore on the new face of in-home 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 5:57pm GMT

krou writes "The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting story about how the University of Wyoming's English Department is helping fund a collective called the Learning Games Initiative to study video games. Jason Thompson, an assistant professor at UW who is part of the group, explains that 'it's a group of people [who] do research on games, do development on games, and keep an archive of games printed matter such as manuals, ... systems, all of it. We really look at games as cultural artifacts; things that reveal theology, things that reveal power. Things that should be studied in the academy.' The English Department has been very open-minded with the project, because they understand that gaming can educate people, and that 'we can expand our notion of what text and study is; the idea that it might be fun doesn't necessarily preclude its study.' Thompson believes that it's important for academia to study gaming, because games could be used in the future as a type of textbook: 'if games can teach, then as teachers shouldn't we understand what kind of teaching's going on?'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 5:43pm GMT

Apple's pushing out a few more scraps of info about the iPad in conjunction with the launch of pre-orders. One of the quirkier details is that what was previously known as the mute switch on the iPad -- similar to the one on the iPhone -- is now known as the "screen rotation lock" on Apple's website. We suppose it makes more sense for this sort of device, both due to the "hold it any way you feel like" marketing push, and since it's less likely to start ringing in the middle of a Remember Me screening than your iPhone is. In other news, it's been confirmed that iBooks will be able to sync free (non-DRM'd) ePub titles in from iTunes, which is good news for people who want to use an existing ePub stash of theirs with Apple's fancy page-flipping interface. Also on the books front, it was clarified today that the iPad can indeed use VoiceOver screen-reading for reading pages of books out loud -- we knew the screen reading tech was on the iPad, but now it sounds as if it will be more directly integrated into iBooks. Apple also clarified today that folks who sign up for the 250MB iPad data plan will receive pop-up alerts when they're running short on data, similar to battery warnings, at the 20 percent, 10 percent and zero marks. There's an account management pane that lets you sign up for or cancel service, add another 250MB, or swap to an unlimited plan. But wait, there's more! Apple's also confirming a few more iPhone OS 3.2 features, like the addition of Google's "Terrain" view in maps and a slightly revamped iPod app UI. 3.2 also brings some nice video tweaks like support for additional formats (AVI and MJPEG) and native uploads to Facebook -- further boosting the iPad's external camera friendliness.

iPad mute switch magicked into a 'screen rotation lock' overnight, a flurry of other tidbits emerge originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Macworld, iLounge, AppleInsider | Apple | Email this | Comments

12 Mar 2010 5:34pm GMT

Another long week under your belt and you deserve a little reward. Grab a warm cup of coffee or tea, turn up your favorite relaxing tunes on your headphones, and step inside. Our weekly open thread starts now. More »

12 Mar 2010 5:30pm GMT

The UK's libel laws, which place the burden of proof onto those who have published inflammatory statements, have had a chilling effect on journalism in that nation, and have led to a closet industry in "libel tourism." As such, there have been repeated efforts to reform the laws, often led by professional organizations of writers and journalists. A 2008 case, however, brought a new community into the fight: science communicators, drawn in when the British Chiropractic Association sued a journalist for calling some of its medical claims "bogus." Although the legal fight has continued, the journalist in question, Simon Singh, has now been forced to quit his job at The Guardian in order to defend himself.

Many of our readers who follow science news carefully are probably already aware of Singh's plight, but we've not covered it at Ars previously, so a recap seems in order. Singh, who was working on a book on alternative medicine, took a look at some of the claims promoted by BCA members, which suggest that chiropractic treatments are effective for diseases for which there is no apparent spinal involvement, like asthma. In an article The Guardian has since removed from its website, Singh wrote:

The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments.

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12 Mar 2010 5:23pm GMT

United puts the kibosh on in-flight video chat, one family seriously 'bummed' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BoingBoing | Battelle Media | Email this | Comments

12 Mar 2010 5:17pm GMT

While getting a big check from Uncle Sam feels pretty cool, it also means that you're probably withholding too much from your paycheck each month. Kiplinger's Tax Withholding Calculator helps you figure out how much in allowances you should be claiming. More »

12 Mar 2010 5:00pm GMT

theodp writes "ComputerWorld reports that IBM has stopped providing breakouts on US employees, closing a door to data that provided insights into the bellwether company's employment shift. In its latest Annual Report, Big Blue only provides its global headcount, and an IBM spokesman confirmed that disclosure of US headcount is a thing of the past. The Rochester Institute of Technology's Ron Hira called the US workforce data critical for policymakers trying to understand the dynamics of offshoring. 'By hiding its offshoring, IBM is doing a disservice to America - through omission the company is providing misleading labor market signals and information to policy makers,' Hira said. Ironically, CEO Sam Palmisano's Letter to Shareholders, which accompanied the Annual Report, touts how IBM's Analytics and 'Smarter Planet' efforts are empowering US government decision-makers. Nondisclosure domestically and abroad seems to be the new rule of thumb for Big Tech, sparking calls for government intervention." IBM laid off about 10,000 US workers last year, and 2,900 so far this year, according to the Alliance@IBM, a labor union.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 4:58pm GMT

We'd had some indication that Europe would be seeing Motorola Milestones running Android 2.1 roughly around this time, and it looks like we are now finally starting to get a few more specifics. According to Mobile Bulgaria, that country's leading carrier, Vivacom, will begin selling Milestones equipped with Android 2.1 "by March 20th," which should no doubt be just part of a broader European rollout in the coming days / weeks (that will hopefully extend to Canada as well). Unfortunately, things still aren't any clearer for Droid users in the US, but you can be sure we'll be watching every development on that front.

Motorola Milestone with Android 2.1 hitting Bulgaria by March 20th, rest of Europe to follow? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 4:54pm GMT

When Apple first introduced the iPad in late January, we noted with much disappointment that the device had no way to lock the screen orientation. This is apparently no longer the case, however-according to an updated iPad specs page, there is now a screen-rotation-lock switch on the right-hand side of the device, seemingly replacing the mute switch that was there when the media first played with it.

In January, Ars confirmed the lack of a screen-lock option with an Apple representative at the iPad event. At that time, the Apple rep reminded us that individual apps give users the option to lock the screen into portrait or landscape mode (which is already the case on a number of third-party iPhone apps), but that the iPad itself had no universal control like on the Kindle or Nook.

As a serial in-bed Kindle and iPhone user, this was disappointing to me and a number of other readers. There are few things on earth more annoying than trying to type on your iPhone at a strange angle and have the screen rotate four times before you're finished.

Apple apparently heard our cries. 9 to 5 Mac first pointed out the difference in specs this morning, which is now reflected on the official iPad spec page. Yep, that sure does say "screen rotation lock," and that option was definitely not there when Ars played with the iPad on January 27.

For those of you who forgot, today is iPad preorder day as well. You can now reserve one to be picked up in-store on April 3 (WiFi only) or you can preorder either the WiFi or 3G versions to be delivered to you. As usual, you can count on Ars to have a review up not long after the iPad launch!

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12 Mar 2010 4:48pm GMT

Sony Japan busts out Mickey Mouse-ified S Series Walkmans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Sony Style Japan | Email this | Comments

12 Mar 2010 4:33pm GMT

One of Google Wave's more powerful features is its extensions-small gadgets and doodads you can embed or include in waves to add great functionality. They used to be particularly difficult to hunt down and install, but no more. More »

12 Mar 2010 4:30pm GMT

Firefox 3.6-the latest version of the popular open source Web browser-was officially released in January, but there are still many users who have not yet updated. In an effort to increase awareness about the availability of version 3.6, Mozilla announced today that it will start rolling out upgrade notifications to its users through the browser's built-in update system.

According to Mozilla's statistics, the new version has already been downloaded over 100 million times since its release in January. That doesn't include the significant number of existing users who have already migrated to 3.6 by using the browser's built-in upgrade system without being prompted to do so.

Firefox is arguably one of the most successful open source software projects. Mozilla celebrated last year when Firefox surpassed 1 billion total downloads. The current number of active daily users is said to be over 350 million.

Getting such a large user base to migrate to the latest version is not an easy task, but Mozilla always manages to get the job done. Studies show that Firefox ranks high in update effectiveness, getting over 85 percent of its users to switch to a new version within 21 days after release. The only browser that has a better upgrade penetration rate is Chrome, due to its highly aggressive background updater.

Firefox 3.6 is a somewhat modest incremental update. It brought several noteworthy new features for users, such as the Personas lightweight theming system. It also offers some compelling new capabilities for Web development, including CSS gradients, client-side filesystem APIs, and the @font-face feature.

For more details about the automated upgrade process, you can refer to the announcement in the Mozilla Developer Center.

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12 Mar 2010 4:20pm GMT

We're pretty familiar with iCub -- the humanoid robot modeled on a two year old -- around here. Just because we know him well, though, doesn't really change the fact that we get the slightest chill running down our spine every time we're reminded of his existence. Well, iCub's getting an upgrade which includes newer, lighter legs which will be more impervious to damage, and smaller hands. That's right, the youngster, who is about toddler-sized, has had until now, the hands of an eight-year old: pretty embarrassing for the little fellow. The new hands are the right size, and have the correct dexterity as well. Regardless, he's still a little creepy, but as you'll see in the video after the break, impressive none the less.

Continue reading iCub gets upgraded with tinier hands, better legs

iCub gets upgraded with tinier hands, better legs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 4:11pm GMT

arcticstoat calls our attention to MIT research that has produced a version of polyethylene that can conduct heat away from computer chips. Polyethylene is the most widely used plastic. It's not clear how practical this research is for industrial-scale use, involving as it does an atomic-force microscope. The work is detailed in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology this month. "The new process causes the polymer to conduct heat very efficiently in just one direction, unlike metals, which conduct equally well in all directions. ... The key to the transformation was getting all the polymer molecules to line up the same way, rather than forming a chaotic tangled mass, as they normally do. The team did that by slowly drawing a polyethylene fiber out of a solution, using the finely controllable cantilever of an atomic-force microscope, which they also used to measure the properties of the resulting fiber. This fiber was about 300 times more thermally conductive than normal polyethylene along the direction of the individual fibers, says the team's leader..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 4:10pm GMT

If you've been trying to incorporate more oven-fresh and less store-bought into your diet, this simple bread recipe will have you eat fresh bread every day. More »

12 Mar 2010 4:00pm GMT

Joystiq and Sony VP Scott Rohde talk PlayStation Move originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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12 Mar 2010 3:49pm GMT

We do a decent amount of social media coverage here at Ars, but not everything that happens with Facebook, Twitter, and the like is worth its own story. Sometimes, though, we happen across things that make us say "huh, that's interesting." It turns out there are a lot of things we thought we knew about social media users, but not all of them are true. Here are a few tidbits we gathered that may surprise some of you.

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12 Mar 2010 3:42pm GMT

santosh maharshi writes "On social networks like Facebook, even if you have kept your profile very private, people can just look at your friends list and infer lots of vital information about you. Most of the social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn allow people to see your picture and your friends list as part of the open access for visitors (the article says that only 5% of Facebook users have bothered to hide their friends list). In a study titled You Are Who You Know: Inferring User Profiles in Online Social Networks (PDF), conducted by Alan Mislove of Northeastern University and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, an algorithm was tested that can accurately infer the personal attributes of Facebook users simply by looking at their friend lists. 'At Rice [University], the algorithm accurately predicted the correct dormitory, graduation year, and area of study for the many of the students. In fact, among these undergraduates, researchers found that "with as little as 20 percent of the users providing attributes we can often infer the attributes for the remaining users with over 80 percent accuracy."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 3:28pm GMT

It's interesting to look at trending topics on Twitter to see what's new and has captured public interest but Twitter is a big place with millions of tweets flying around. Trendsmap drills down through the data to see local trends. More »

12 Mar 2010 3:00pm GMT

About 18 months ago, we discussed a mysterious "dark flow" that was seen in early releases of the data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data. At that time, we remarked that it was little more than a cosmic curiosity and possibly a statistical blip. New research from the same group, using the more complete five-year data set from the WMAP cosmic microwave background imager and X-ray luminosity data, reveals that the dark flow is still there, and that it runs deeper than previously thought.

In a paper published in the March 20th issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the authors report that they have followed the dark flow-which appears to involve matter streaming either into or out of the constellation Centaurus/Hydra-to a distance of 2.5 billion light years. So far, even with the full five-year data set available, the authors can detect motion, but not whether the matter it coming towards us or moving away from us. But they can tell that it is moving, and in a definite direction.

Relative motion of matter in the Universe is to be expected, but motion in a preferential direction is not. According to our best understanding of how the matter in the Universe was distributed, there's no way of accounting for this flow. The obvious alternate explanation is a little unnerving: something outside of our visible universe is pulling on the matter that we can see.

The researchers are currently adding more galaxies to their catalog in order to track the dark flow to twice its current distance. They hope that improved modeling of the motion of hot gas within galaxy clusters will lead to further refinement of the measured speed and direction of motion. Fortunately, we'll soon have even newer data from the WMAP project, as well as upcoming data from the ESA's Planck mission.

The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2010. DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/712/1/L81

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12 Mar 2010 3:00pm GMT

Bruce Schneier's blog links to a few sources for hollow spy coins, one being BoingBoing's Bazaar - where a nickel that can hold a microSD card costs $27. Another is Slashdot's sister company ThinkGeek, where you can get hollow quarters and half-dollars in the low 20s. As if corporate and government security geeks didn't have enough to worry about.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 2:40pm GMT

If your browser supports HTML5 you can opt into the experimental HTML5 video playback on YouTube. Not only will you get smoother video playback-goodbye Flash!-but you'll be able to speed up and slow down your videos. More »

12 Mar 2010 2:30pm GMT

"Good morning, this hearing will come to order, and we welcome all. I notice that there are a few people in the room," declared Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). "We're here to discuss consumers-they're the good guys, right? The people we try to protect."

The Senator's comment about a "few people in the room" was sarcastic, of course. The hall was filled because the subject was, once again, the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal-this one held on Thursday under the auspices of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

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12 Mar 2010 2:17pm GMT

Every night thousands of workers boot down their work stations and return to them the next morning, booting into a fresh system. Reboot your physical workspace in the same way to keep your office tidy and efficient. More »

12 Mar 2010 2:00pm GMT

AnotherUsername writes "The Federal Communications Commission is asking the nation's broadband and smartphone users to use its broadband testing tools to help the feds and consumers know what speeds are actually available, not just promised by the nation's telecoms. At http://www.broadband.gov/, users enter their address and test their broadband download speed, upload speed, latency, and jitter using one of two tests (users can choose to test with the other after one test is complete). The FCC is requiring the street address, as it 'may use this data to analyze broadband quality and availability on a geographic basis' (they promise not to release location data except in the aggregate). The agency is also asking those who live in a broadband 'dead zone' to fill out a report online, call, fax, email, or even send a letter. The announcement comes just six days before the FCC presents the first ever national broadband plan to Congress. Java is necessary to run the test." Lauren Weinstein points out some of the limitations in the FCC's testing methodology.

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12 Mar 2010 1:51pm GMT

If you like taking and sharing panoramic photos-or just enjoy checking out the impressive results others have gotten-GigaPan indexes high-resolution panoramic photos. More »

12 Mar 2010 1:30pm GMT

The bit.trip series of games combines simple graphics with catchy songs, and then blends both together into an addictive soup. The past games in the series for the Nintendo WiiWare service have all been gold, and at GDC we were able to put our hands on the fourth title: Bit.Trip Runner.

The concept is simple: you are a man who has to run from left to right. You can't stop or slow down, but you can jump over and slide under obstacles while collecting the gold bars. Everything you do makes a note, and the notes mix with the music to give you timing cues. Does it seem like a series of jumps is complicated? Simply time your jumps to the music.

The difficulty is not low, but once we stopped trying to force the gameplay and instead listened to the music and moved to the beat, it became easy. The game was on the show floor, in the corner of Nintendo's booth, but it seemed to captivate everyone who played.

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12 Mar 2010 1:20pm GMT

scumm writes "This year's Turing Prize has been awarded to Charles Thacker, whom they describe as (among other things) the 'creator of the first modern personal computer.' From the ACM's announcement: 'ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery today named Charles P. Thacker the winner of the 2009 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his pioneering design and realization of the Alto, the first modern personal computer, and the prototype for networked personal computers. Thacker's design, which he built while at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), reflected a new vision of a self-sufficient, networked computer on every desk, equipped with innovations that are standard in today's models. Thacker was also cited for his contributions to the Ethernet local area network, which enables multiple computers to communicate and share resources, as well as the first multiprocessor workstation, and the prototype for today's most used tablet PC, with its capabilities for direct user interaction.' For further reading, the Wall Street Journal has an article providing more background about Mr. Thacker and the Turing Prize. In the spirit of full disclosure, the submitter feels compelled to point out that this Mr. Thacker is his uncle, and that he thinks this is really cool."

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12 Mar 2010 1:07pm GMT

Windows: If you're not about to manually convert that pile of images in front of you but you've found the batch converters you've tried to be lacking, free and portable Photo Magician offers both fine tweaking and drag and drop simplicity. More »

12 Mar 2010 1:00pm GMT

itwbennett writes "Sony on Tuesday 'rolled out the ability to buy HD movies from the PlayStation Network,' writes blogger Peter Smith. Sony claims they're the first service to offer HD titles to own from all six major movie studios. Smith runs the numbers on 'standard' pricing for titles ($19.99 for new releases; $17.99 for older movies), file sizes (ranging from 4 GB for Zombieland to 7.5 GB for 2012), and resolution (720P as far as he can tell)."

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12 Mar 2010 12:26pm GMT

Final Fantasy games often seem like a mixed bag. One one hand, they tend to take too long to get into; the first ten hours or so always feel like something you have to slog through before things really become exciting. After a while, the battles can start to feel repetitive. They eat up more of our time than we really should allow. But they're also beautiful. And epic. Once the stories get going, they're fascinating. More importantly, they become addictive. Such games are definitely an acquired taste, but they're a delicacy for those of us who have come to enjoy JRPGs.

Final Fantasy XIII is particularly noteworthy in an already extraordinary series, though, because it brings about a number of design changes. While the game retains the amazing production values that the franchise is famous for, its gameplay has been modified to deliver something that feels faster paced than its predecessors and often seems more like an action title than a proper RPG. This might sound worrying to dedicated fans, but rest assured: based on our first twenty hours with the game, the outcome is excellent.

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12 Mar 2010 12:20pm GMT

judgecorp writes "Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, has said that UK government ministers are 'taking action' to get Facebook to add a British child protection button (called CEOP) to its site. The move comes after the UK's Daily Mail withdrew allegations that teenagers on Facebook are continually pestered - though Facebook is still considering suing the paper. The campaign apparently ignores Facebook's assertion that it already has better child protection in place and the CEOP button would be limited to the UK."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

12 Mar 2010 11:40am GMT

Late last year, we described a genome sequencing technique that brought the price of consumables down to under $5,000. That technique, offered by Complete Genomics, has now been put to use: all the genomes have been obtained from a family of four in which both children suffer from two genetic disorders. In addition to identifying likely causative mutations, the full family pedigree has produced new measures of human mutation and recombination.

So far, as each genome has been completed, it's typically been compared to a reference genome that's meant to represent a "typical" human. But the human population is large and diverse, and the differences between a typical person and the reference may have been present in our population for thousands of years. In contrast, by knowing the sequence of a child and both its parents, the changes in DNA that occur as a result of recombinations and mutations in each parent's germ cells can be tracked in exquisite detail.

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12 Mar 2010 3:28am GMT

We played with the PlayStation Move at the party last night, but at Sony's more intimate gathering at the W Hotel today it was easier to get a better picture of the peripheral. The main games on the floor were interesting, but the game we wanted to play with the PlayStation Move was SOCOM 4.

This is a game that is aimed at hardcore gamers, and the guys from Zipper told us that they were able to get this build up in a matter of weeks; the tools Sony was providing its developers for Move support were intuitive. This was also the first time we were able to use the secondary, nunchuk-like controller to add analog movement to the Move. We were able to play the game for about 20 minutes.

Aiming the crosshairs with the Move worked well, and I didn't feel any lag. While I was new to the game, the firefights and encounters were a blast; there is something much more satisfying about aiming at the screen with a controller instead of moving an analog stick. The controller is certainly ready for more mainstream use in shooters, and the fact that Sony already has a high-profile release that uses the technology so well is heartening.

The d-pad allows you to give commands to your squad, and you can send two groups of soldiers to different objectives. It almost felt like a real-time strategy game; you can set up some serious cover fire if you're able to think that far ahead in the combat. "We're looking at gestures," we were told when we asked about things like throwing grenades and the like. "[The Move] leads a lot of accessibility to a hardcore game like this."

The team at Zipper spent three months with the controller, and the work has paid off. Will we use the Move when we're playing online and care about our score? Maybe not. But it adds an extra layer of fun to the gameplay of a title that already looks mature. It took a little bit of talking to get behind the velvet rope to play this demo, but it was worth it. We're starting to see the promise.

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12 Mar 2010 2:10am GMT

With Mafia 2, developer 2K Czech is leaving the optimism to Tony Bennett: this is not intended to be a rags to riches crime story. Don't expect golden dreams to come true. This is the story of a man trying to keep his head above water, a man who returns to America after seeing the devastation of World War 2 Europe, and tries to make his way in an unforgiving city.

When the game opens, Vito Scaletta has just been granted leave from the war to return home to his mother and sister after his father passes away. Settling a $2,000 ($2K) debt his father owed now falls squarely on Vito's shoulders, and he'll need to accept any job from every wiseguy and hoodlum he encounters to make ends meet. It's a deeply personal narrative, and to hear Denby Grace, the senior producer from 2K Czech, describe his team's game, it's more Sopranos than Scarface, more Godfather than Goodfellas.

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12 Mar 2010 1:25am GMT

It's that give-it-to-the-government time of year again, and we want to hear about your favorite tools for making the taxman's sting a little less severe. More »

12 Mar 2010 1:00am GMT

At GDC the Khronos Group announced not one but two new OpenGL specifications. The headline release, OpenGL 4, includes a raft of new features bringing OpenGL in line with Microsoft's Direct3D specification. OpenGL 3.3 was also released, providing as many of the new version 4 features as possible to older hardware.

The Khronos Group, the consortium of hardware and software companies that governs OpenGL, OpenCL, and other related specifications, made no bones about its intentions for OpenGL 4: providing standardized support for Direct3D 11 features to OpenGL developers was the prime concern. Direct3D 11 integrated two key features into the graphics pipeline: hardware tessellation and compute shaders. The former allows the video card to synthesize polygons programmatically, enabling considerably smoother, more natural looking curved surfaces. The latter is a key part in the development of using the GPU for general-purpose computation (GPGPU)-not just for producing graphics, but for performing various kinds of high-performance math.

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11 Mar 2010 11:38pm GMT

The latest data from market research firm comScore shows Apple holding on to a quarter of the US smartphone market, which grew roughly 18 percent over the last six months. That makes the iPhone the number two smartphone in the US, though it still lags well behind number one RIM. Android-based devices are still growing rapidly in popularity.

Over the last few months, comScore data shows RIM and Apple holding pretty much steady, with RIM at 43 percent and Apple at 25.1 percent. Unsurprisingly, Palm (which includes webOS and PalmOS) devices and Microsoft-powered devices continued to decline. Android-based devices, however, continued to rise sharply, enough to eclipse Palm to take fourth place in the US market.

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11 Mar 2010 10:27pm GMT

Many of you have commented that our NewsVac section hasn't been refreshed since the middle of last month. Others have noticed that our story volume has dropped off. Changes are coming to Linux.com, and until they arrive, you won't see any new stories on the site.

01 Jan 2009 2:00pm GMT

The free and open source software community has been waiting for the G1 cell phone since it was first announced in July. Source code for Google's Android mobile platform has been available, but the G1 marks its commercial debut. It's clearly a good device, but is it what Linux boosters and FOSS advocates have long been anticipating?

31 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

Many public administrations already use open source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to let citizens look at public geographic data trough dedicated Web sites. Others use the same software to partially open the data gathering process: they let citizens directly add geographic information to the official, high-quality GIS databases by drawing or clicking on digital maps.

30 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

The Interclue extension is supposed to give you a preview of links in Firefox before you visit them, saving you mouse-clicks and, with a little luck, allowing you to move quickly between multiple links on the same page. Unfortunately, the determination to monetize the add-on and keep its source code closed results in elaborations that make the basic idea less effective, and its constant pleas for donations make Interclue into nagware. As much as the usefulness of the basic utility, Interclue serves as an object lesson of the difficulties that the decision to go proprietary can take.

29 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

Shell programming is heavily dependent on string processing. The term string is used generically to refer to any sequence of characters; typical examples of strings might be a line of input or a single argument to a command. Users enter responses to prompts, file names are generated, and commands produce output. Recurring throughout this is the need to determine whether a given string conforms to a given pattern; this process is called pattern matching. The shell has a fair amount of built-in pattern matching functionality.

26 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

Many religions have some sort of holiday during this season, where we look back at the joyful moments of the year that's coming to a close, and look ahead with anticipation and hope to the year to come. We hope your year is filled with all you wish for.

25 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

Google Maps gives you a quick and easy way to add maps to your Web site, but when you're using Google's API, your ability to display other data is limited. If you have your own data you want to display, or data from sources other than Google, OpenLayers, an open source JavaScript library, can give you more options.

24 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

At a time when new and buggy features cloud basic computer functions, it's refreshing to see a new release of a distro like Slackware that stays true to its core philosophy. Slackware has an unfair reputation of being a distro only for experienced users. Granted it doesn't sport many graphical configuration tools, but it balances that with stability and speed.

23 Dec 2008 7:00pm GMT

Documentation is one area in which free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) is weakest. A project called FLOSS Manuals is trying to remedy this situation. The idea behind project is to create quality, free documentation for free software.

23 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

A next-generation package manager called Nix provides a simple distribution-independent method for deploying a binary or source package on different flavours of Linux, including Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Fedora, and Red Hat. Even better, Nix does not interfere with existing package managers. Unlike existing package managers, Nix allows different versions of software to live side by side, and permits sane rollbacks of software upgrades. Nix is a useful system administration tool for heterogeneous environments and developers who write software supported on different libraries, compilers, or interpreters.

22 Dec 2008 7:00pm GMT

Managing buddies on a few online social networks isn't too much of a hassle, but throw in your contact list from instant messaging platforms and online apps and services like Flickr, Digg, and Twitter, and you have a contact list that'd rival that of Kevin Bacon. Managing so many people can be a headache, but here are three browser plugins that can help you manage your online presence more efficiently.

22 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

As a regular browser of the Firefox Add-ons site, I'm troubled by the apparent proliferation of proprietary extensions in the last year. Maybe I've simply exhausted the free-licensed extensions that interest me, but recently every interesting-looking extension seems to be a proprietary one -- especially in the recommended list. Nothing, of course, in the Mozilla privacy or legal notice prohibits proprietary extensions simply because they are proprietary, but I find them not only contrary to the spirit of free and open source software (FOSS), but, often, annoying attempts to entangle me in some impossible startup.

19 Dec 2008 7:00pm GMT

The past couple of years have seen an explosion of open source programming languages and utilities that are geared toward children. Many of these efforts are based around the idea that, since the days of BASIC, programming environments have become far too complex for untrained minds to wrap themselves around. Some toolkits aim to create entirely new ways of envisioning and creating projects that appeal to younger minds, such as games and animations, while others aim to recreate the "basic"-ness of BASIC in a modern language and environment.

19 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

It's that time of the year again. No, not Christmas -- it's the time of the year we get the latest versions of our favorite Linux distributions. Version 11.1 of openSUSE is being released today. Designated as a point release, there are enough new goodies to warrant a new install or upgrade.

18 Dec 2008 7:00pm GMT

Let's take a look at three projects that are aimed at showing calendar information through a Web interface: WebCalendar, VCalendar, and CaLogic. These projects run on a LAMP server and provide a Web interface to calendar events.

18 Dec 2008 2:00pm GMT

For many years Spamhaus has been top dog in the anti-spam world of DNSBL (Domain Name System Block List; also known as Realtime Blackhole Lists or RBLs). But Spamhaus is no longer a 100% free service. Even small nonprofits are now expected to pay at least $250 per year for a subscription to the Spamhaus DNSBL Datafeed Service. Now a new, free alternative to Spamhaus has arrived: the Barracuda Reputation Block List (BRBL), provided by well-known, open source-based Barracuda Networks. And Barracuda CEO Dean Drako says the company has no plans to charge for the service in the future. He says that BRBL (pronounced "barbell") "does cost us a little bit of money to run, but we think that the goodwill, the reputation and the understanding that Barracuda is providing the service will do us well in the long run."

17 Dec 2008 7:00pm GMT