wing_zero_c blog's

Samsung to Ship Wi-Fi-Only Galaxy Tab April 10

2011-04-07T07:59:00.001+07:00

Samsung said Wednesday that it will launch the Wi-Fi-only version of its Galaxy Tab tablet in the United States on April 10 for $349.99.

The Galaxy Tab is powered by the Android 2.2 operating system and has a 7-inch TFT display with a 1,024-by-600 resolution. It weighs just 13 ounces and is 12 millimeters thin. It also includes 32 GB of internal storage and offers microSD expansion to allow for up to 32 GB of additional storage.

The 7-inch version of the Galazy Tab launched last September - ages ago in technology time. Sprint sold the first Tab for $399.99, but required a two-year commitment to a data plan that cost a minimum of $29.99 per month. The Tab has since launched on all of the major U.S. carriers.

"We are excited to have the WiFi version of the Galaxy Tab join our growing portfolio of Galaxy-branded devices," said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Mobile, in a statement. "The 7-inch Galaxy Tab is the first truly mobile tablet on the market, allowing users to comfortably hold the device in one hand while typing or navigating the Web with the other."

Samsung has announced the upcoming 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab, plus an 8.9-inch model, as well as the 5-inch and 4-inch Galaxy Player models.

Fedora 13 Linux: Its Five Best Features

2010-05-20T00:05:00.000+07:00

The next version of Fedora Linux will make new users feel right at home.

When Fedora 13, Goddard, is released on May 25, it's not going to be your usual Fedora Linux release. In the past, Fedora has been seen as a great Linux distribution for Linux experts. Paul W. Frields, the Fedora Project leader, told me though that this release is more new-user-friendly and that is no longer just for experienced Linux users. Based on my early look at this Red Hat community Linux distribution, I agree.

You will be able to see it for yourself soon. After several delays, Frields has no doubt that this time, the Fedora final will be available for download soon. Frields explained to me that the delays were because Fedora has adopted much more "detailed and fleshed-out release criteria. In the past, we would release releases when it felt right. Now, we have criteria that make the process both more transparent to the community and provide strong release guidelines."

Fedora was thrown off its most recent release schedule by an issue with an obscure way of installing Fedora. Frields said that that, in the event, the problem didn't turn out to that bad. "So long as they were at it, there was a silver lining: the developers had time to fix more bugs. So, the delay helped us provide as strong a release as possible."

From what I've seen, Fedora does have a very strong release. Here are the five best features I've seen in it.

1. Professional-level color management

One long-time Linux problem has been that, while it has first class graphics programs like GIMP, it hasn't had great color management. Sure, you could get color to look great on your screen, but getting that same color palette to show up on your printer, that was an image of a different color.

Now, thanks to the work of Richard Hughes, Fedora includes the new and outstanding GNOME Color Manager. This allows people to work in ICC (International Color Consortium) colors across devices. Best of all, it's not just for experts. You can easily set up color profiles for your screen and printers to put together a true color workflow. According to Frields, Fedora will be release a design suite spin of Fedora just for graphic designers.

2. Better printer driver support

Linux would always support almost any printer's basic functionality. What it wouldn't do is load the best possible printer driver - until now. In Fedora's Easy Printing, all you have to do is plug in your printer, Fedora will figure out what printer you have, and it will automatically invoke PackageKit to find, download, and install the printer's appropriate driver and, if available, other software. In short, plug-and-play has finally come to Linux. Nice!

3. Improved open-source graphic drivers

You've long been able to use any graphics card with desktop Linux. You could often use these cards and chipsets advanced 3D and graphic acceleration features as well, if you were willing to use proprietary drivers. Now, Fedora's programmers have been working with other open-source developers to create high-quality 3D-capable drivers for NVIDA cards in the Nouveau project.

You may be wondering why this is such a big deal since probably most Linux users can live with using proprietary graphic drivers. According to Frields, "What users don't understand is that we can't help fix a problem with proprietary driver, but we can and do with open drivers ... Proprietary drivers require low-end sub-system changes that can cause more trouble for free software audio systems or media players." Linux simply works better, Frields argued with "Free software in every part of stack."

4. Improved KVM support

Red Hat has decided that KVM is its virtualization path in the future. You can see the first fruits of that decision in this Fedora. For example, in Fedora 13's take on KVM, you can declare and reserve PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) addresses, the industry-standard bus for attaching peripherals to computers for guest virtual machines. That won't matter to desktop users, but it's a great feature for production servers running multiple machines. If it works out well in Fedora 13, you can expect to see it in RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 6 or 6.1.

5. Easier to use and more stable to boot

Frields told me, and I believe him that Fedora is both much easier for Linux newbies to use and far, far more stable. Frields claims that even in alpha, Fedora 13 was more stable than some Fedora final releases. All I can say is I've been running the late betas for several weeks now on both virtual machines and on PCs and I've yet to see a stability problem.

It's also quite simple to use. While I wouldn't say it's as easy for a new user to pick up as Ubuntu 10.04, I also can see handing a new user a Fedora 13 USB stick or DVD and not having to worry about them getting good use out of it.

If you've never tried Fedora, or you haven't used it in a while, now is the time to give it a try. I think you'll be impressed.

pcworld

Sony Sued for Removing Linux Support in PS3 Upgrade

2010-05-01T18:21:00.001+07:00

Sony Computer Entertainment is under fire by PlayStation 3 owners. A class-action suit has been brought against Sony for removing Linux support from PS3 consoles in its latest upgrade.

An attorney for PS3 owner Anthony Ventura filed the suit against Sony in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Wednesday after Sony removed support for Linux in its PlayStation 3.21 software update.

After Sony announced the update on March 28, unhappy PS3 owners took their frustrations to the web by flooding Sony's official PlayStation blog with angry comments. A total of 7,454 comments were posted as of Thursday. While some are upset with losing Linux support, others are more angry with Sony for removing a feature for which they paid.

Ventura, however, took his frustrations straight to a lawyer who filed the class-action suit on his behalf.

No Joke

PlayStation 3 owners were anticipating the PlayStation 3.21 upgrade slated for April 1, but thought Sony was playing an April Fools' Day joke when it said the upgrade would remove support for Linux.

Sony quickly warned users that the upgrade was no a joke and, in fact, was an attempt to protect the intellectual property of the content offered on the PS3 system as well as to provide a more secure system. PS3 owners who chose not to upgrade risked losing other PS3 features, according to Sony, including access to the PlayStation Network, newer games, and Blu-ray movies. Gamers who decided not to upgrade also risked losing playback of copyright-protected videos stored on a media server, the company warned.

If Judge Edward Chen allows the class-action suit, it would include all individuals who bought a PS3 between Nov. 17, 2006, and March 27, 2010, according to reports. The suit does not specify any amount in requested damages, but does state damages will not exceed $5 million.

Julie Han, a spokesperson for Sony, said the company does not comment on pending litigation. Rebecca Bedwell Coll, who is listed as Ventura's lawyer, did not respond to requests for comment.

Little To No Impact

Sony Entertainment has had great success with its PS3, with 12 million units sold in the U.S. to date, according to the company. Except, however, for a few bumps in the legal road.

In October 2009, Sony faced a class-action suit brought by John Kennedy, who said a firmware update caused damage to thousands of PS3 systems. After downloading the update, owners said it caused the system to malfunction. The damage resulted in Kennedy having to cough up $150 in repair fees.

Analysts don't expect the new class-action to negatively impact Sony PS3 sales. "I doubt it'll have much impact -- certainly a nuisance and cost, but having Linux on a PS3 was always way down the list of priorities for most gamers," said Lewis Ward, an IDC analyst.

yahoo

Are you ready for a GPS app store?

2010-05-01T18:18:00.000+07:00

It’s the hottest thing to come along in the tech world since blogging: The app store. And soon you might just have an app store for every gadget in your arsenal.

TomTom is the latest gizmo maker to get in on the app-tion, saying this week that it is now planning to launch an app store specifically designed for its Go Live GPS navigation hardware. The idea: Allow drivers to upgrade the old "drop in an address and tell me where to go" functionality of their GPS units.

The catch with GPS devices, of course, is that you don’t really want people playing games or otherwise mucking about with these units while they’re behind the wheel. TomTom acknowledges that broad GPS apps may be “impractical”; others might say these kinds of applications could be downright dangerous.

So what might the contents of a GPS app store look like, really? Enhanced point-of-interest apps immediately come to mind — think restaurant reviews (“take me to the nearest four-star restaurant”) and real-time gas-price applications. Traffic-planning apps would be a must, and geocachers would certainly love an app that integrates cache locations and contents directly with a GPS unit. I can even imagine a few augmented reality-style games designed for the devices. The possibilities aren’t exactly endless, but there’s more to this idea than there seems to be at first blush.

TomTom hasn’t announced a time frame for the app store’s launch, but it’s speculated it will arrive before the end of the year. Information on typical application pricing is obviously still a ways out as well.

Will apps reinvigorate interest in the stumbling stand-alone GPS market? Apps alone won’t make people put down their iPhones and Nexus Ones, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. North-north-westerly, perhaps.

Yahoo

Antivirus: Free vs. Paid Detection

2010-04-03T11:41:00.001+07:00

Taking care of your system these days seems to be a less complicated task than it used to be a few years back. Now, protection against malware begins the moment you install your operating system. Windows 7 offers some basic security through Windows Defender and also provides a better solution under the shape of Microsoft Security Essentials, which is free of charge and can be installed on systems passing genuine validation. So, going with Windows 7 may be the winning hand after all.

security software is the way out for most users. The reason behind this choice is given by the extended set of options such solutions come with, but also by the myth that paid antivirus comes with better detection and elimination capabilities. Although the engine is the same, there are some differences between the paid and free versions of security software of the same company with regards to the protection components offered.

In other words, the engine components available in the products are what you are paying for. Thus, free apps may have antivirus or anti-spyware capabilities, but a paying customer definitely receives increased protection for the system through a bunch of components (such as email scanner, web shield, behavioral analysis, etc.) not included in the free edition of the product. Moreover, there are currently no freebies with a EULA that extends their use to corporate environment. So, you are bound to run them for personal use only.

To blast the misconception that freeware antivirus is not equally talented at recognizing malware as paid products, we grabbed five antivirus solutions for comparison and threw them in the ring with 16,704 malware samples (trojans, backdoors, exploits, spyware, worms, etc.). The purpose of the test was not to reveal detection differences between the free and paid product from the same company, but compare a free product from one company with a paid product of another.

In the freeware corner, there was Microsoft’s Security Essentials and Avira’s AntiVir Personal (version 9, as the test was conducted before version 10 came out). Paid products included Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 and ESET’s NOD 32 at first. The fifth product included has a little of both worlds: avast! Pro Antivirus 5.0 brings script shield and sandbox capabilities to the table on top of the features included in the free version. However, none of the two features were relevant for our experiment, which consisted in simply feeding the malware database to each of them and checking up the amount of threats left behind.

The malware database used during the tests was formed by both new and older threats, collected throughout a period of 2 years (2008 and 2009) and included vicious items like Waledac or Downadup. Prior to the experiment, all products were updated to the latest definitions available on March 1, 2010. A second test was carried out on March 22 in order to notice detection improvements with a new set of signatures.

All products benefited from the same treatment and scanned the database offline. To ease their job and quicken the entire process, we eliminated all archives, giving the threats full exposure. So, it all boiled down to the level of detection and elimination each product could offer.

With signatures updated on 3/1/2010, the first antivirus thrown in the malware cage was Microsoft Security Essentials. We have to mention from the beginning that MSE proved to be by far the most problematic of all tested products. Despite its intuitive interface, scanning and elimination of the threats took much longer than we expected. Scan results, however, were pretty good, as MSE managed to kick out more than 14,000 samples, leaving a total of 2,662 threats available on the test system.

Moving to Avira AntiVir Personal 9, the experience improved exponentially, as the application took a little under one hour and a half (1h23’) to clear 15,707 samples. In this case, there was no need for multiple scans as the application took care of the threats from the first pass. Out of the total amount of threats discovered, AntiVir Personal marked 61 as suspicious and they were automatically locked to quarantine.

Both MSE and Avira AntiVir Personal offer an intuitive interface that does not require any effort to handle. Malware management upon detection can be set to an automatic action of your choice, while scan scheduling is supported by both applications. One inconvenience on Avira AntiVir Personal’s side is the advertising window that pops after certain activities have completed. As for MSE, you cannot escape joining Microsoft Spynet and avoid sending anonymous information to Microsoft’s servers about detections and actions taken.

The first paid product put against the malware load was Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010. All the options integrated in the application are the clear sign of paid quality. Besides anti-malware protection, this product can also scan incoming and outgoing mail messages for the presence of malicious code, check HTTP traffic, and verify data sent/received through IM programs. Anti-phishing, a component not seen in free security products, is included in Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus was also faced with our threat database and it did pretty well on the job, which took 3h49'23'' to complete. Although we expected outstanding results, or at least better than in the case of freeware products, there was nothing like that. The set of 16,704 samples was mutilated, leaving behind 1,523 threats.

Just like in the case of Kaspersky, ESET's NOD 32 brings a sturdier collection of options, which includes protection against threats coming through email (POP3 checking), HTTP/HTTPS, not to mention heuristics management. For testing purposes, the application was set up to maximum alert: ThreatSense parameters configured to check out all sorts of files, advanced heuristics enabled and the same goes for Anti-Stealth technology (rootkit detection).

Although we had our hopes up, with NOD 32, things did not get better either when it came to rooting the nasty stuff out of the system. On the contrary, the application managed to chop only 7631 threats in our database.

This sure looks like definite proof of inefficiency in protecting your system, but it is not exactly so because NOD 32 relies quite heavily on behavioral detection, which means that malware content had to be executed for the application to pick it up, which we did for the samples that would initiate the infection procedure immediately. To our surprise, they were promptly detected and eliminated from the damaged system. Unfortunately, because the testing process would have taken too long to complete, we chose to drop NOD 32 from the comparison experiment.

avast! 5 is kind of playing for both teams as the only limitations of the free version compared to the Pro edition are the lack of the script shield, sandbox, firewall and spam protection in the former. Despite the fact that none of these tamper with our experiment, we decided to go with avast! Pro Antivirus instead of the free edition.

With the application updated to the latest files available on March 1, we followed through with the trial. No more than 8 minutes and 13 seconds passed and the avast! lady announced the scan completed, while the Scan window agreed to the statement; we did the test again and this time glued our eyes on the process just to make sure nothing went wrong. With a processing speed of over 9MB of data per second, it couldn't have gone wrong.

The results were pretty encouraging, with a total of 15,305 dormant threats eliminated. That translates into 1,399 malicious items still present on the system. All this in a little over eight minutes.

After the first round of experimenting, the percents recorded were as follows: Avira AntiVir Personal 9 leads with 94% detection and elimination rate, followed by avast! Pro Antivirus with 91.6% and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 with 91%. Falling on the last spot is Microsoft Security Essentials, with 84% detection and elimination rate. It looks like paid products stick close together, while the two freebies are a 10% gap apart.

Running the second test (on March 22) on the set of malware that had not been eliminated the first time made absolutely no change in the statistics. MSE managed to nab another nine samples; Avira reduced the remaining threats by five items, leaving 992 threats behind. Kaspersky had the greatest improvement in the second test because it succeeded in eliminating another 78 items from the test database, thus increasing detection/elimination rate to 91.3%. avast! Pro Antivirus registered the smallest improvement, as it eliminated only three samples after the update.

Conclusion

Judging strictly by the detection/elimination rate on a locally stored malware database, it looks like the freebies are in control. However, paid products, despite less powerful efficiency, provide protection against threats that come your way through various distribution means, such as drive-by downloads, email, scripts, etc.

Additionally, some of them (such as Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010) feature behavioral detection of threats, which increases its efficiency as it can bust malware not yet signed. In other words, security software developers will integrate extra tools in different versions of the same application to convince you to open your wallet.

Security products under freeware license are not without flaws either. Some of them may come with nagging pop up screens, such as Avira AntiVir Personal’s notifier, or simply do not count in protection modules designed to increase security and improve detection. In the end, choosing between a paid or free of charge antivirus depends entirely on your needs and computer usage knowledge.

The test conducted is just a mere example that freeware antivirus products have what it takes to sit at the same table with paid ones. All the products included in the experiment were chosen based on the popularity statistics on Softpedia.

softpedia

Google Chrome 5.0.360.4/5 Dev with Integrated Adobe Flash Player

2010-04-01T10:27:00.000+07:00

The rumors yesterday tuned out to be accurate, Google has just announced a deeper integration of the Adobe Flash Player in Chrome. Specifically, the latest development builds now come bundled with the Flash Player, though the feature is not enabled by default. Google says this path is more convenient for users, who don't have to download and install the plug-in separately, but there aren't that many other benefits at this moment. Google Chrome 5.0.360.4 dev for Windows and Mac and Google Chrome 5.0.360.5 dev for Linux now come with the Flash plug-in pre-installed.

"The traditional browser plug-in model has enabled tremendous innovation on the web, but it also presents challenges for both plug-ins and browsers. The browser plug-in interface is loosely specified, limited in capability and varies across browsers and operating systems," Linus Upson, VP Engineering at Google, wrote.

"That’s why we are working with Adobe, Mozilla and the broader community to help define the next generation browser plug-in API. This new API aims to address the shortcomings of the current browser plug-in model. There is much to do and we’re eager to get started. As a first step, we’ve begun collaborating with Adobe to improve the Flash Player experience in Google Chrome," he announced.

Google Chrome 5.0.360.4/5 dev

Google Chrome 5.0.360.4/5 dev is a very small update focused exclusively on the new plug-in integration. It bundles the latest Adobe Flash Player 10.1.51.95 (10.1 beta 3) and comes with a basic plug-in manager that allows you to see all the installed and active plug-ins. The integrated Flash Player is not enabled by default. You have to launch Chrome with the --enable-internal-flash command line switch to get the integrated plug-in instead of the global one you may already have installed on your system.

The new plug-in manager lists all the plug-ins you have installed, like video players, Java and Adobe Flash, of course. You can disable any of them, for troubleshooting, for example, and also see where they are installed and what MIME types they handle. It is the first iteration of the newly integrated Flash plug-in, so there are still some issues. The plug-in may be enabled even if you decline the license agreement or specifically disable it in the manager. The integrated plug-in is not available for 64-bit Linux users.

Google says that integrating Adobe Flash saves users the hassle of having to download and install it manually, which can be a problem especially on some Linux systems. There is also the added benefit of having the plug-in updated automatically using Google Chrome's existing update system. The Chrome developers will work with Adobe engineers to make Flash play nice with Chrome's sandbox environment, which isolates web pages from each other and from other software or system components that may be running. The sandbox is one of Chrome's most touted features and is a big improvement to browser security and stability.

Next-generation NPAPI

Google says this is just the first step in creating a "next-generation browser plug-in API," which is currently being discussed by Mozilla along with Adobe and "the broader community." Mozilla is proposing an overhaul of the rather ancient NPAPI (Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface) on which all platform-independent plug-ins are based today. The changes would create a safer and more secure platform and also provide more advanced functionality. The project is at the very early stages.

Two new Sharkoon Stereo Headsets for Gamers

2010-03-30T01:13:00.000+07:00

March 17, 2010 - Sharkoon is expanding its “Rush” product line to now include two new stereo headsets, which provide a rich sound reproduction during play, but also offer Multimedia and voice applications such as VoIP or TeamSpeak.

Sharkoon RHS100

The compact and lightweight Sharkoon RHS100 with foldable neckband,cushioned ear pieces, and infinitely rotating microphone comes in flat black with bright optical accents in the typical Rush-orange application on both earpieces. With its built-in sound chip, the RHS100 is simply connected via the USB port on a PC or Notebook, replacing an absent or inferior soundcard, and saves time from having to switch the lengthy cable between the PC-speakers and headset. The speakers Bass effect can be controlled on the RHS100 through the switchable vibrations function. The Bass proportion can be regulated by the cable integrated controller between medium and maximum effect. The two meter long cable also functions with an included volume knob and an orange illuminating microphone mute. The required drivers for Windows 7, as well as configuration software, are provided on the Sharkoon website
for download.

Sharkoon RHS200

The noble Sharkoon RHS200 model offers a padded, adjustable headband and aural earphones provide comfort during prolonged periods of wear. Thanks to the open design of the padded earpieces, gamers can also sit around and not have to stress their ears furthermore to hear other gamer’s offline. For a special look, the frame assumes a high-gloss design with luminous orange applications on the earpieces. The pivoting microphone is equipped with a
mute button on the cable controller. The connection to a PC or Notebook occurs through a 3.5mm stereo jack.

End customers can find the Sharkoon Rush Headsets available immediately from authorized retailers.

Price

Sharkoon RHS100 Gaming Stereo USB Headset MSRP: 23.49 euros
Sharkoon RHS200 Gaming Stereo Headset MSRP: 18.49 euros

Specifications

Sharkoon RHS100 Gaming Stereo USB Headset

Headset

Speaker: Ø 40 mm
Sensitivity: 112 +/-4 dB
Impedance: 32 ?
Frequency: 20 Hz - 20.000 Hz
Max. Output: 100 mW
Connection: USB plug (Type A)

Microphone

Antenna: omni-directional
Sensitivity: -54 dB ± 3 dB
Impedance: 2,2 K ?
Frequency: 100 Hz to 10.000 Hz

Sharkoon RHS200 Gaming Stereo Headset

Headset

Speaker: Ø 40 mm
Sensitivity: 120 +/-4 dB
Impedance: 32 ?
Frequency: 20 Hz - 20.000 Hz
Max. Output: 100 mW
Connection: 3.5mm Stereo jack (stereo)

Microphone

Antenna: omni-directional
Sensitivity: -54 dB ± 3 dB
Impedance: 2,2 K ?
Frequency: 100 Hz to 10.000 Hz

Source: CHIP

Lapangan Banteng Macet Parah Gara-gara Sop Buntut Hotel Borobudur

2010-03-23T22:03:00.001+07:00

Jakarta - Apa hubungannya macet dengan sop buntut? Tentu ada. Kawasan Lapangan Banteng, Jakarta Pusat, malam ini macet parah gara-gara antrean mobil yang ingin masuk Hotel Borobudur. Hotel bintang lima tersebut sedang mengadakan acara diskon masakan murah.

Pantauan detikcom di kawasan Lapangan Banteng, Selasa (23/3/2010), pukul 21.00 WIB, ujung antrean mobil yang ingin masuk hotel, sampai dengan depan gerbang Masjid Istiqlal, Jl Veteran. Banyaknya mobil yang parkir di jalan sekitar hotel juga menambah ruwet lalu lintas.

Humas Hotel Borubudur, Fransiska Kansil, mengatakan acara diskon makanan ini diadakan dalam rangka HUT ke-36 hotel. Berbagai masakan seperti masakan China, Italia, dan Jepang dibanderol dengan harga Rp 36 ribu.

"Di sini kebetulan khasnya Sop Buntut," katanya tentang masakan yang juga dibanderol Rp 36 ribu itu.

Di dalam hotel, para pengujung yang ingin menikmati sop buntut mengisi daftar untuk kemudian dipanggil satu persatu ke dalam ruangan untuk menikmati masakan yang biasanya dihargai Rp 108 ribu itu. Tampak sekitar seratus pengunjung memadati ruang Timor, khusus menikmati sop buntut.

detik

Internet Explorer Loses Share in European Markets

2010-03-23T14:37:00.000+07:00

Microsoft's delivery of a browser choice screen to European PC users this month is already beginning to have an effect on the software giant's market share within the European Union. For example, the latest statistics from StatCounter suggest that the new browser ballot is driving Internet Explorer share declines in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and elsewhere.

Mozilla's Firefox browser appears to be the major beneficiary of Microsoft's declines in France, where IE has lost 2.4 percentage points of market share since February 9. Firefox also has received small market-share bumps in Italy and the U.K.

"Early data suggests 50,000 to 100,000 new users chose Firefox as a direct result of seeing the ballot choice screen," said Mozilla spokesperson Erica Jostedt. "We expect these numbers will increase as the ballot choice rolls out in additional countries and will share updated metrics as they become available."

A Steady Global Share

Opera Software said it has been experiencing a dramatic uptake on downloads of its new Opera 10.50 browser, with the increase more than doubling from normal download numbers. "The greatest gains are in countries like Poland, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Netherlands and Portugal," said Opera spokesperson Falguni Bhuta.

StatCounter's latest data also shows that browser users in France and Italy are beginning to turn to Chrome, Opera and Safari. For example, IE's market share in Italy slipped by 1.25 percentage points in the past month, even as Chrome's share rose 0.7 percent.

From a global perspective, however, the Dublin-based web-metrics firm reports that IE's market share has remained steady at about 54.5 percentage points over the past month. So Microsoft's browser losses in Europe are being offset by gains in other markets worldwide.

Microsoft previewed its forthcoming IE9 browser before MIX10 conference attendees in Las Vegas last week. The software giant clearly hopes that the release of its next-generation browser, which does not yet have a firm date, will help it maintain its dominance over the global browser market.

On the downside, IE9 will not be compatible with machines running Windows XP, which continues to be the world's most popular PC operating system. So the incompatibility will limit IE9's initial uptake when it eventually comes to market.

A Wise ROI Calculation

Given that most people never change the browser that comes with their machines, the majority of IE9 users in the long run will be people who get new hardware, noted Al Hilwa, program director of applications development software at IDC.

"For the small subset who actually upgrade a browser and who will specifically upgrade to IE9, they will largely be motivated by graphics performance considerations and will unlikely be the ones running Windows XP at this late stage and less so down the road," Hilwa said.

Supporting Windows XP would not yield the performance improvements that the newer Windows operating systems will deliver through IE9 because of XP's lack of support of Direct2D, Hilwa observed. "Thus the offering would not be so attractive in the first place without a significant chunk of what is new in IE9," he said.

Hilwa thinks Microsoft is making a fairly wise return-on-investment calculation in this instance. "It may be more important for the IE team to support the Macintosh in the long run and to invest their efforts in mobile browsers for the major smartphone platforms," he explained.

yahoo

Microsoft Bangun 'Markas' di Sarang Software Bajakan

2010-03-02T16:48:00.003+07:00

Guna meredam penjualan software bajakan yang merajalela, Microsoft membuat langkah taktis. Vendor software raksasa itu membangun 'markas' di salah satu sarang software bajakan di Indonesia.

Markas yang dimaksud bernama Microsoft Zone dan dibangun di pusat penjualan elektronik Mangga Dua. Memang dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, tempat ini menjadi sarang jual beli software bajakan.

Microsoft Zone merupakan salah satu upaya perusahaan milik Bill Gates ini untuk memberikan pengetahuan yang mendalam tentang penggunaan software asli bagi pasar konsumer.

Di tempat ini, konsumen bisa mencoba teknologi baru Microsoft, mengikuti klinik diskusi dan pelatihan serta menjadi tempat mejeng bagi produk baru vendor elektronik mitra Microsoft.

"Pokoknya kita ingin berada di tengah-tengah konsumen, biar mereka kenal kita. Ini (Mangga Dua-red.) kan tempat strategis," ujar Sutanto Hartono, Presiden Direktur Microsoft Indonesia dalam pembukaan Microsoft Zone di Mangga Dua, Jakarta, Selasa (2/3/2010).

Microsoft Zone sendiri dilengkapi dengan 14 unit PC dari berbagai merek seperti Acer, Axioo, Byon, Dell, HP, Sony, Toshiba, dan Wearnes.

"Kami sangat serius dalam mengkampanyekan penggunaan software asli di Tanah Air dengan membawa produk asli lebih dekat dengan konsumen karena negara dengan tingkat pembajakan yang tinggi akan rentan terhadap ancaman keamanan berkomputasi," pungkas Sutanto.

Menurut lembaga analis IDC, tingkat pembajakan software di Indonesia pada 2008 lalu mencapai 87%.

Presentase ini tentu terbilang tinggi, bahkan menempatkan Indonesia di posisi ke-12 dalam negara dengan tingkat pembajakan software tertinggi di dunia.

detik

Windows 7 RTM Cracks Killer Now Live

2010-02-26T13:12:00.000+07:00

Microsoft has kicked off the automatic distribution of its Windows 7 RTM cracks killer, namely an update designed to make over 70 illegal activation exploits for the latest iteration of the Windows client go the way of the dodo bird. In the first half of this month, the Redmond company announced theWindows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7, noting that it would be released on the Windows genuine website on February 16th, and on the Microsoft Download Center the next day. Earlier this week, namely on February 23rd, the update was scheduled to go live on Windows Update.

Users of Windows 7 with Automatic Updates enabled will have the refresh automatically downloaded and installed. The Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7 is designed to detect more than 70 activation exploits which Microsoft considers potentially dangerous, and to inform the user of their presence.

It is critical to note that the installation of the update is voluntary. Users that don’t want the refresh need only identify it among the updates served by Microsoft, and hide it in the Windows Update dialog window so it will never be deployed on their computer. In the WU window, the update in question bears the following label “Update for Windows 7 for x64/x86-based Systems (KB971033)." Once identified on the update list, Windows 7 customers can right click KB971033 and choose to hide the refresh.

Microsoft explained that the update was designed to enable Windows 7 customers that acquired a pirated copy of the operating system believing that they were buying a legitimate copy to check their operating systems. The Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7 is already available for download as a standalone refresh, for users that want to grab it and manually deploy it instead of waiting for it to be served through WU. (Here are the links for Windows 7 for x86-based systems, and for Windows 7 for x64-based systems. )

In addition, the Redmond company also noted that it had witnessed an increasing trend for pirated copies of Windows 7 distributed through various illegal sources including torrent trackers, to come bundled with malware. Following the RTM of Windows Vista’s successor, the software giant has been hard at work collecting information on over 70 cracks and activation workarounds, and is attempting to thwart them with the Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7.

softpedia

Cacat, Kingston Tarik 3 Model USB Flash Drive

2010-02-25T15:53:00.001+07:00

Kingston baru saja melakukan penarikan 3 tipe USB drive mereka. Masalah keamanan menjadi alasan penarikan produk-produk tersebut.

Pemberitahuan mengenai 'cacat' yang terjadi, dipublish Kingston di website resmi mereka, Kingston.com. Perusahaan ini mengakui bahwa "orang yang memiliki keahlian tertentu dengan piranti yang memadai dan akses secara fisik, bisa mengambil data yang dilindungi di dalamnya".

3 tipe yang dimaksud ialah:

- DataTraveler BlackBox (DTBB)
- DataTraveler Secure – Privacy Edition (DTSP)
- DataTraveler Elite – Privacy Edition (DTEP)

Kingston tidak merinci bagaimana produk tersebut bisa rawan dibobol. Padahal sebelumnya Kingston mengklaim drive Data Traveler Secure mereka sebagai USB flash drive pertama yang mengamankan datanya 100% via hardware 256 bit yang berbasis enskripsi AES.

Sebelum mengakses data, drive ini meminta usernya untuk memasukkan password yang kuat miniminal 6 karakter. Data akan otomatis terhapus jika user salah memasukkan password sebanyak 10 kali.

Selain menginformasikan mengenai cacat pada produknya itu, Kingston dalam situsnya juga menawarkan penanganan produk pada konsumennya. Mereka menyediakan nomor kontak technical support yang bisa dihubungi di tiap-tiap negara agar para konsumen bisa mengembalikan drive-nya untuk dimodifikasi.

detik

OCZ Siapkan Eksternal SSD dengan USB 3.0

2010-02-25T15:51:00.001+07:00

Teknologi SSD dirasa bakal berkembang di tahun-tahun mendatang. Kini SSD yang menggunakan interface SATA berkecepatan 6 Gb/s dari OCZ, telah dilirik banyak orang. Tak hanya berhenti di situ, OCZ berencana mengeluarkan eksternal SSD terbarunya yang konon memiliki kecepatan transfer 4 Gb/s

Dengan hal itu OCZ akan memiliki barang yang diinginkan beberapa maniak dengan eksternal storage. Pasalnya kepraktisan serta ketipisan SSD OCZ, kini didukung dengan interface berkecepatan tinggi dari USB 3.0

USB 3.0 yang juga dikenal sebagai SuperSpeed USB ini, digadang-gadang mampu melakukan transfer data sampai 4,8 Gbps. Berarti ini merupakan peningkatan signifikan daripada kecepatan 480 Mbps pada USB 2.0 yang saat ini umum dipakai.

2010-01-22T11:44:00.002+07:00

The final development milestone of Firefox 3.6 has been released to web and is currently available for download for users of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Earlier this week, Mozilla was considering either January 21st, or January 25th, for the general availability of Firefox 3.6, formerly codenamed Namoroka. The January 21 deadline was decided just a couple of days ago, and today, Mozilla is moving forward with the release of the latest iteration of its open source browser. At this point in time, Firefox 3.6 is in the first stages of the official launch, but make no mistake about it, the final bits for version 3.6 are indeed available for download.

Yesterday, when I was telling you that Firefox 3.6 Final is scheduled to drop on January 21st, 2010, I also promised that Softpedia would do its best to get the bits to you before the official release. Currently Mozilla’s webpage for version 3.6 still notes: “Firefox 3.6 is coming soon!” and adds “We still have a few things left to do before it's ready. Here's a short video to show you what's new. If you can't wait, download a release candidate for a sneak peek!” Of course, the official deadline when downloads are scheduled to go live is Thursday, January 21st at 9:30am Pacific Standard Time.

However, Mozilla has already published the final development milestone of Firefox 3.6 to its FTP servers, and as a result users can already download the release. Firefox 3.6 is designed as a minor update to Firefox 3.5 which was released in the first half of 2009. Version 3.6 was initially planned for availability in November 2009, a deadline which Mozilla missed due to a variety of blockers (severe bugs) which needed to be resolved prior to GA. But now, Firefox 3.6 Final is here.

Mozilla has enumerated a range of improvements marking the evolution from Firefox 3.5 to Firefox 3.6:

“- Made some changes to how we allow third party software to integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.
- The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
- Users can now change their browser's appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
- Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
- Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
- Support for the WOFF font format.
- Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
- Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.”

UPDATE: Mozilla has cut access to Firefox 3.6 via FTP, most probably due to the overload on their servers. At the time of this refresh, v3.6 is still only offered officially for download, albeit the release is not just hours away. However, using the links below you will have no problems in downloading Firefox 3.6 Final.

softpedia

Avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 Compatible with Windows 7

2010-01-21T01:24:00.000+07:00

At over a month since it hit the milestone of 100 million users globally, Avast! has released its latest lineup of security products, version 5.0. There are no less than three flavors to the new security solution: Free Antivirus 5.0, Pro Antivirus 5.0, and Internet Security 5.0, with the first one, as the moniker implies, available free of charge to customers. In fact, Avast! Free Antivirus is one of the most comprehensive security products offered completely for free, and the promise from the company building the solution is that version 5.0 takes its free offering to a whole new level.

“With the new Free Version 5.0, we attempted (and we think succeeded) to raise the bar on free security products. We decided that our new free product needed to be the best antivirus product in the world—not just the best free product. We think we have succeeded, or come darn close. Now you the users (and of course the reviewers) can let us know,” revealed Vince Steckler, chief executive officer of Alwil Software, the makers of Avast!.

Users of Avast! are undoubtedly already familiar with the Pro Antivirus edition of the solution, which also got upgraded to 5.0. Avast! Pro Antivirus 5.0 is available for purchase for $39.95, the price covering a license for one year and just a single computer. At the same time, the security company has introduced a new product, Avast! Internet Security 5.0 with a price tag of $59.95 for a 1-year license, but which provides protection to no less than there computers. All the editions of Avast! 5.0 are fully compatible with Windows 7.

“This is our new flagship product and replaces Avast Home Edition (we changed the name to emphasize the product is free). We focus this product on users that use the internet for web browsing and email. If that is what you do on the internet, this is the product you need. We are very proud of this product and we stack it up against anyone else’s paid antivirus,” Steckler added.

Customers will be able to download Avast! Free Antivirus 5.0 either as a standalone product, and update to version 4.8, or through the Google Pack package, since this is the free antivirus that the Mountain View-search giant has chosen for its bundle of free apps. Avast! Pro Antivirus is designed to be the update to the Professional Edition, and is essentially identical to Avast! Internet Security minus the firewall and anti-spam capabilities.

Avast! Internet Security 5.0 “is our brand-new product and is focused on users that do on-line banking or shopping or that have sensitive data on their computer. This product takes the free antivirus and adds a 2-way silent firewall, a sandbox, and anti-spam. The firewall ensures that only trusted applications are able to receive or send data across the internet. The sandbox provides a means of executing your browser (or any other application) in a protected environment—thus even if you get infected, the infection does not leave the sandbox and does not harm your computer. And the anti-spam helps you get rid of all that irritating email you receive every day,” Steckler noted.

softpedia

HTC Touch Pro2

2010-01-14T17:19:00.001+07:00

Plus
Feature lengkap

Minus
Dimensi cukup tebal
No Flash

HTC kembali berinovasi dalam dunia ponsel untuk mengisi jajaran handphone kelas atasnya dengan meluncurkan HTC Touch Dual Pro2 yang memiliki desain glossy dengan material berkualitas tinggi. Produk ini memiliki dimensi 116 mm x 59.2 mm x 16.65 mm (4.57 inch x 2.33 inch x 0.66 inch) dan berat 178.5 g (6.3 ounce with battery.) Ukuran layar 3.6-inch TFT LCD touch-sensitive screen dan resolusi 480 x 800 WVGA dan adjustable tilt screen akan menambah kenikmatan Anda dalam bermain game atau pun menyaksikan film kesayangan pada device ini.

Kehadiran prosesor Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 MHz, ROM 512 MB, dan RAM 288 MB, sehingga untuk menjalankan sistem operasi Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional bukan masalah yang berarti bagi HTC Touch Pro2. Produk ini juga dilengkapi dengan TouchFLO 3D dan Zoom Bar, mempermudah penggunaan produk ini. Hal ini berpengaruh cukup signifikan mengingat OS yang dipergunakan adalah Windows Mobile 6.1 dengan menu dan navigasi sedikit menyulitkan bila tidak mempergunakan stylus.

Produk ini juga mempersenjatai dirinya dengan kamera utama 3.2 MP dan secondaryVGA CMOS camera. Hasil jepretan dari kamera ini memang cukup bagus, namun akan lebih baik bila device ini memiliki flash yang dapat dipergunakan pada kondisi low light. Sementara itu, kualitas suara yang dihasilkan oleh device ini akan memanjakan telinga Anda. Dengan dukungan file audio berekstensi AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, MIDI, M4A, device ini mampu bertahan selama lima jam untuk memutar sebuah lagu dengan ekstensi MP3 dalam keadaan idle.

Kualitas video yang ditawarkan oleh device ini juga memuaskan, dengan dukungan file berekstensi WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI, device ini mampu mencapai angka tiga jam penuh untuk memutar sebuah file berekstensi WMV. Produk ini juga dilengkapi dengan FM radio stereo untuk kepuasan Anda. Sementara itu, kapasitas battery yang disediakan oleh HTC sebesar 1500 mAh. HTC sendiri menjanjikan device ini dapat bertahan sampai dengan 390 menit WCDMA dan sampai dengan 510 menit GSM untuk talktime. Waktu yang dijanjikan oleh HTC untuk standby time up to 750 jam (WCDMA) dan up to 500 jam (GSM), sedangkan untuk penggunaan video call sendiri mencapai 160 menit.

HTC menyediakan bluetooth 2.1 with enhanced data rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g, dan 11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, dan TV Out in one (membutuh HTC Kabel TV Out) sebagai konektifitas device ini. Untuk keperluan berinternet ria, device ini dipersenjatai dengan HSPA/WCDMA pada range frekuensi 900/2100 MHz dengan kecepatan sampai dengan 2 Mbps uplink dan 7.2 Mbps downlink, sedangkan range frekuensi yang disediakan untuk GSM/GPRS/EDGE adalah 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.

Kualitas video yang ditawarkan oleh device ini juga memuaskan, dengan dukungan file berekstensi WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI, device ini mampu mencapai angka tiga jam penuh untuk memutar sebuah file berekstensi WMV. Produk ini juga dilengkapi dengan FM radio stereo untuk kepuasan Anda. Sementara itu, kapasitas battery yang disediakan oleh HTC sebesar 1500 mAh. HTC sendiri menjanjikan device ini dapat bertahan sampai dengan 390 menit WCDMA dan sampai dengan 510 menit GSM untuk talktime. Waktu yang dijanjikan oleh HTC untuk standby time up to 750 jam (WCDMA) dan up to 500 jam (GSM), sedangkan untuk penggunaan video call sendiri mencapai 160 menit.

HTC menyediakan bluetooth 2.1 with enhanced data rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g, dan 11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, dan TV Out in one (membutuh HTC Kabel TV Out) sebagai konektifitas device ini. Untuk keperluan berinternet ria, device ini dipersenjatai dengan HSPA/WCDMA pada range frekuensi 900/2100 MHz dengan kecepatan sampai dengan 2 Mbps uplink dan 7.2 Mbps downlink, sedangkan range frekuensi yang disediakan untuk GSM/GPRS/EDGE adalah 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.

Feature lain yang cukup menarik disertakan pada device ini adalah G-Sensor, straight talk, dan noise-cancelling dual microphones serta speakers. Tidak ketinggalan GPS disertakan untuk Anda bernavigasi. Software Google Map pun ikut disertakan dalam device ini.

Kesimpulan: Produk dari HTC ini memiliki semua kebutuhan yang Anda butuhkan baik untuk entertainment atau pun bisnis. Dengan feature yang ditawarkan, nampaknya HTC memang tidak main-main memproduksi device ini. Bagi Anda yang menginginkan sebuah device dengan budget tidak terbatas, HTC menawarkan produk ini sebagai solusinya.

CHIP

Samsung B2100 Xtreme: Tahan Banting

2010-01-12T13:59:00.000+07:00

Kata si produsen, Samsung B2100 Xtreme bisa tahan sampai 30 menit di kedalaman 1 meter lagi. Nah, kesempatan ini Sinyal mau jajal seberapa ekstrem nih. Niatnya mau direndam dan dijatuhkan pada ketinggian kurang lebih 2 meter.. Lebih ekstrem lagi, kita taruh pada suhu yang abnormal yuk…

Desain
Dilongok dari bodinya yang berbalur warna merah hitam, kesan macho memang terlihat ketika memegang desain tambunnya. Kokoh memang. Enaknya lagi penuh gelombang, jadi memungkinkan untuk tidak terpeleset dalam cengkraman tangan.

Gaya bebas dan tipikal hape ala outdoor melekat dalam tekstur secara keseluruhan. Mulai dari bagian depan hingga belakang semuanya terbungkus rapat dan tanpa sela. Sepertinya sengaja, biar selalu kedap air dan tak kemasukan debu.

Sekarang kita sisir sama-sama, cover depan B2100 Xtreme tampil dengan display layar yang tak terlalu lebar bila tidak mau dikatakan sempit, cuma 1,77 inci dengan kerapatan piksel 120x160, serta hamparan keypad karet yang didesain untuk terlindung dari semua kotoran dan cairan. Tombolnya nyaman ketika dipencet, dan tak terlampau keras, begitupula navigasinya dan tombol eksekusi yang berada di tengahnya.

Pindah ke bagian pinggir hape, B2100 Xtreme mengesankan hape outdoor minimalis dan tak perlu banyak ornamen. Di tepi kiri hanya tombol pengaturan volume plus tombol menghidupkan dan mematikan lampu senter. Tepi kanan, port dual fungsi untuk headset dan charger sudah disiapkan. Sementara di belakang, hanya speaker dan lensa kamera 1,3MP yang disematkan. O ya, satu lagi lampu senter terletak di tepi atas hape.

Uji Xtreme
Nah, sekarang Kita sidik satu satu ketahanannya. Pertama, Sinyal langsung jajal dengan membantingnya pada ketinggian kurang lebih 2 meter. Hasilnya, ancur bro...hahaha...Nggak deng...semuanya fine-fine aja tuh, gak ada masalah berarti dan semua fitur masih bisa jalan normal dan tokcer. Bodinya pun tak tergores..Ujian pertama lolos nih dengan hasil yang memuaskan.

Kedua, Sinyal melakukan eksekusi dengan menggunakan air yang dituang ke dalam gelas kemudian mencelupkan B2100 Xtreme ke dalamnya. Hasilnya, hape tersebut masih sehat wal afiat dan bisa kembali beroperasi seperti sedia kala. Kalau dua sesi pengetesan sudah dilewati, tinggal uji yang paling ekstrem lagi bro...

Sinyal mencoba memasukkan hape B2100 ke dalam lemari pendingin alias kulkas di bagian freezer-nya. Selang waktu 5 menit, dengan titik beku standar membuat es batu ternyata B2100 bisa berjalan sebagaimana mestinya, tak ada yang tak berfungsi semua berjalan sesuai yang dikehendaki Sinyal. Widiiih, beneran tahan banting nih hape, mau tau kenapa? Karena B2100 memang sudah diuji ketahanannya dan memenuhi standar IP57, yakni sebuah sertifikasi ketahanan melalui ujicoba tertentu pada perangkat elektronik di sebuah laboratorium di Eropa.

Bahkan klaim si produsen, dengan sertifikasi IP57, hape B2100 mampu memproteksi dirinya dari debu dan air untuk kedalaman 1 meter selama 30 menit. Termasuk beradaptasi dengan cuaca tak menentu, termasuk bertemperatur sangat dingin atau panas, sesuai dengan standar militer 810F (MIL-STD-810F).

Kamera
Masuk ke fitur, di kamera Anda hanya menemui kualitas 1,3MP. Memang banyak yang menyayangkan kenapa cuma segitu kehandalan sebuah hape outdoor yang seharusnya ditunjang dengan kerapatan piksel maksimal, ya tentunya untuk mengabadikan momen outdoor juga. Ya minimal kalau rentang harga sejutaaan, 2MP bisa jadi kekuatan piksel terendah.

Meski, ditepis oleh hasil foto dari luar ruang yang cukup baik, ketika Sinyal menjajalnya dengan modus normal, serta kerapatan maksimal 1280 x 1024 pixels di siang hari kualitas gambar tergolong lumayan baik di hape, tapi tidak ketika dilakukan pembesaran via komputer, kualitasnya kurang baik.

Kualitas yang minim di segi piksel sepertinya coba ditutupi dengan hadirnya beberapa sub fitur kamera yang ada pada B2100. Anda bisa memanfaatkan variasi efek yang bisa membantu Anda berkreasi dalam menentukan hasil akhir pada foto.

Tambahan lainnya, Anda bisa memainkan bingkai agar mendapat pola gambar lucu yang menampilkan wajah Anda dalam template gambar yang sudah disediakan. Untuk Video, perekam video (15 fps) bisa digunakan untuk memutar gambar bergerak berformat MPEG4, H.263, 3GP.

Audio Player
Seperti yang Sinyal bilang sebelumnya, jika hape outdoor memang tak sepenuhnya dibenamkan fitur-fitur maksimal. Tak terkecuali fitur multimedia!dengan keterbatasan nya, Samsung B2100 coba memberikan sarana hiburan lain lewat perangkat pemutar audio. Beragam format audio pun bisa dimainkan pada B2100. Misalnya, MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, AMR, MIDI, dan WAV. So, Anda bisa memanjakan telinga lewat lagu kesayangan. Selain itu, terdapat radio FM sebagai pelengkapnya.

Kualitas Audio pun masuk kategori pertengahan, tak terlalu bagus tapi bukan berarti jelek juga. Dari hasil trial yang Sinyal lakukan pada uji suara langsung dari bawaan vendor yang bersangkutan bisa dimuntahkan dengan baik oleh speaker bodi. Hanya saja, tak sejernih ketika menancapkan headset pada port sebelah kanan B2100 dan mendengarkannya lewat kualitas stereo-nya. Sayangnya, ketahanan baterai agak kedodoran ketika musik terus dimainkan.

Pendapat Kami
Secara menyeluruh, kualitas hape outdoor dari B2100 memang sudah teruji dalam tes yang dilakukan Sinyal. Benturan, rendaman, dan suhu ekstrem di dalam lemari pendingin adalah buktinya. Yang perlu disangsikan hanyalah ketangguhan baterainya dalam menunjang kegiatan luar ruang. Karena tak terlampau tahan untuk kondisi aktif, sesuai dengan tampilan eksteriornya.

Sumber: Sinyal

PLUS: Tahan banting untuk segala kondisi

MINUS: Baterai boros, minim multimedia.

SPESIFIKASI Samsung B2100 Xtreme
Dimensi : 113x48,9x17,4 mm
Bobot : 102,8 gram
Baterai : Li-Ion 1000 mAh
Jaringan : 2G GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Layar : TFT, 256 ribu warna, 120x160 pixel, 1,77 inci
Memori internal : 7MB
Memori eksternal : microSD (TransFlash), up to 8GB
Konektivitas : GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps, v2.1, Bluetooth dengan A2DP.
Kamera : 1,3MP, 1280 x1024 pixel
Messaging : SMS, MMS
Aplikasi : JAVA MIDP 2.0
Isi paket : Handset Samsung B2100, Baterai Li-ion 1000 mAh, handsfree, charger, manual book, kartu garansi.
Waktu bicara : 600 jam
Waktu siaga : 9 jam
Lain-lain : Audio Player MP3/e-AAC+/WMA/WAV, Stereo FM radio with RDS , WAP 2.0/xHTML, Shock, water and dust resistant (IP57, MIL-STD-810F), Water proof up to 1 meter and 30 minutes, Anti-shock materials (urethane), Noise cancellation with dedicated microphone, Flashlight with dedicated key, MPEG4/3GP/M4V player, Polyphonic(64), MP3 ringtones, Voice memo, Stopwatch, T9.

kompas

Gandy Steak

2010-01-12T01:35:00.001+07:00

Puding Busa Cokelat

2010-01-07T18:09:00.001+07:00

PERUT si kecil mulai “keroncongan”, pertanda ia sudah lapar. Masalahnya, mereka sering kali ogah kalau langsung diajak makan nasi, malah maunya ngemil. Kreativitas dan kecerdikan orangtua ditantang untuk mencari siasat melalui perencanaan camilan sehat untuk si kecil.

Tak usah bingung menyediakan camilan sehat. Puding, selain terkenal menjadi makanan penutup, bisa juga dimakan sebagai camilan. Bila sudah bosan dengan mengolah menu puding yang itu-itu saja, Anda bisa coba membuat puding dengan campuran cokelat dan nanas. Rasa manis dan kecut yang hadir dalam satu sajian akan menghadirkan citarasa berbeda.

Bahan:

2 bungkus (14 gr) agar-agar bubuk warna cokelat

2 sdm cokelat bubuk

200 gr gula pasir

1/8 sdt garam

1 liter susu

5 butir telur, ambil bagian putih telur, lalu kocok kaku

150 gr nanas kalengan, tiriskan, lalu potong kasar

Bahan saus leci:

1 kaleng (427 gr) leci, blender beserta air buahnya

350 ml susu cair

2 sdt essence mint

3 butir kuning telur ayam

1 sdm tepung maizena, larutkan dengan 1 sdm air

Cara membuat:

1. Aduk rata agar-agar bubuk, cokelat bubuk, gula pasir, dan garam. Tuangkan susu sedikit demi sedikit sambil aduk terus hingga semua bahan larut.

2. Didihkan larutan di atas api sedang sambil terus diaduk agar susu tidak pecah dan agar-agar matang. Angkat, sisihkan.

3. Tuangkan larutan agar-agar mendidih sedikit demi sedikit ke dalam putih telur kocok sambil terus diaduk dengan mixer hingga rata. Tambahkan potongan nanas kalengan, aduk rata.

4. Tuangkan adonan agar-agar ke dalam loyang bervolume 2000 ml yang sudah dibahasi air matang. Biarkan dingin dan simpan dalam lemari pendingin hingga waktu penyajian.

5. Sementara untuk saus leci, cara membuatnya didihkan jus leci, susu cair, dan essence mint sambil diaduk terus agar susu tidak pecah. Ambil sedikit susu panas, tuangkan ke dalam kuning telur, lalu aduk hingga rata. Tuangkan kembali kuning telur ke dalam larutan susu panas. Masukkan larutan maizena untuk mengentalkan saus. Didihkan sekali lagi hingga semua bahan matang. Angkat dan biarkan dingin.

Cara penyajian: Potong puding sesuai selera lalu siramkan bagian atasnya dengan saus leci.(ftr)

Nasi Tiwul Plus Kalakan Hiu

2010-01-06T12:08:00.002+07:00

Hidangan sederhana khas Pacitan ini memang membuat mata merem-melek. Daging kalakan hiu yang gurih sangat pas beradu dengan sambal mentah yang pedas menyetrum lidah. Nasi tiwul, kenikir plus siraman kuah jangan kalakan hiu membuat makan siang kali ini... uenake poll!

Pulang kampung selalu menjadi primadona bagi para perantau termasuk saya tentunya. Salah satu yang membuat saya rindu pulang kampung ke Pacitan adalah makanannya yang kebanyakan sulit didapati di perantauan. Untunglah liburan kemarin saya pun berkesempatan untuk pulang kampung lagi.

Siang itu sekitar pukul 10 pagi seorang teman mengajak keliling kota pacitan tercinta. Mencoba mendatangi teman lama SMA yang lama tak jumpa namun tak menunjukkan hasil. Akhirnya temanku mengajak untuk mencari warung makan. Sayapun mendukung penuh ide teman saya tersebut karena saya baru ingat ternyata dari pagi saya belum makan.

Pencarian warung membuat perut ini semakin keroncongan. Akhirnya kami berdua tiba di sebuah warung yang berada di atas bukit pantai Teleng Ria Pacitan. Warung ini bernama Warung Tiwul Bu Gandos. Setelah memarkir mobil di pinggir jalan karena memang tidak ada tempat khusus parkir, kami berdua memasuki warung Bu Gandos yang ternyata sudah dipenuhi pengunjung.

Konsep warung lesehan ini memiliki pemandangan langsung pantai teleng ria. Angin pantai yang semilir sungguh menjadi nilai tambah tersendiri bagi warung ini. Dikarenakan lagi ramai pengunjung teman saya mengajak untuk mengambil sendiri ke dapur warung. Ternyata teman saya sudah sering datang ke warung ini dan akhirnya sudah hapal dengan seluk-beluknya.

Sayapun memulai mengambil tiwul yang terlihat mringin kemebul dan sedikit saya tambahi nasi putih sebagai pelengkap. Ketika pindah ke meja berikutnya pemandangan urap kenikir campur kacang panjang kesukaan saya tersaji menggoda. Nasi tiwul yang sudah ditemani urap kenikir selanjutnya diguyur jangan kalakan hiu .

Tak banyak kuah yang saya siramkan tetapi hanya sekedar membuat nasi tiwul sedikit nyemek-nyemek yang kemudian dilengkapi beberapa potong ikan kalakan. Sayur kalakan sendiri merupakan salah satu makanan khas kabupaten Pacitan. Sayur ini terbuat dari daging ikan kelong (hiu) muda yang di potong-potong kecil. Kemudian ikan setengah dibakar atau diasap sampai sedikit sangit dengan tampilan layaknya sate. Nah, setelah itu barulah kalakan hiu disayur dengan kuah santan puedes.

Saya rasa makanan yang saya ambil sudah cukup namun pandangan saya terhenti pada udang goreng besar-besar yang terlihat menggiurkan. Saya pun tak tega jika tidak mengikutsertakan udang goreng dalam petualangan kali ini. Sebagai penutup sambal mentah berada di samping udang goreng.

Suapan pertama sungguh menggetarkan lidah. Paduan tiwul, kenikir, kalakan, dan sambel, hmm... membuat lidah bergoyang. Rasa pedes krenyes-krenyes kenikir mendominasi. Rasa yang begitu dahsyat membuat saya terpaksa meninggalkan sendok. Ternyata menikmati hidangan ini pakai tangan membuat saya lebih lahap lagi menyantapnya.

Saya yang doyan pedas sangat kagum dengan tonjokan sambel mentahnya. Daging kalakannya juga terasa gurih. Tak butuh waktu lama untuk menghabiskan menu yang ternyata sangat pas dengan lidah saya. Apalagi sangat sulit mendapati menu seperti ini di perantauan wah uenake poll.

Sebagai penutup es kelapa perawan menetralkan rasa pedas di lidah. Pemandangan pantai dengan angin yang semilir makin menambah nikmat makan siang kali ini. Setelah selesai makan kami berdua pun menuju kasir dan betapa terkejutnya ketika membayar makan siang kali ini. Total habis hanya Rp 20.000,00 saja.

Dipikir-pikir menu yang pilih temanku sama dengan apa yang saya ambil, artinya per orang hanya menghabiskan Rp 10.000,00. Murah banget bukan? Dalam perjalanan menuju mobil saya masih geleng-geleng kepala seakan tak percaya akan harga murah yang barusan saya bayar untuk sebuah hidangan yang menurut saya uenake poll. Lain kali kalau pulang kampung pasti saya akan kembali untuk menikmati nasi tiwul Bu Gandos dengan kalakan hiunya.

Warung Tiwul Bu Gandos

Jl. Raya Pacitan Solo KM 5

Pacitan (Barat Pantai Teleng Ria)

detik

2009-12-24T12:32:00.000+07:00

Selain identik dengan pohon cemara, Natal juga identik dengan ginger bread. Ginger Bread alias kue jahe di Eropa sana dibuat menyerupai rumah-rumahan. Selain merupakan salah satu kue khas Natal yang biasa disajikan bersama stolen cake, kehadiran ginger bead house yang unik juga berfungsi memeriahkan suasana Natal!

Tradisi pembuatan ginger bread alias kue jahe di Indonesia ini sebenarnya datang dari Eropa. Sebab di Eropa sana pembuatan ginger bread house telah berlangsung selama berabad-abad lamanya.

Seperti namanya ginger bread , bahan utama pembuatan kue ini adalah dari jahe. Selain itu tak ketinggalan rempah-rempah lainnya seperti kayu manis. Biasanya adonan kue ini berbeda di setiap negara. Misalkan saja di Inggris kue ini dibuat tipis dengan rasa yang lebih renyah berbeda dengan di Jerman yang dibuat dengan tekstur yang lebih lembut.

Dalam tradisi tersebut para ibu membuat ginger bread dalam berbagai bentuk unik dan lucu. Mulai dari yang klasik berbentuk panjang dan tipis hingga beraneka bentuk yang lucu dan unik seperti bentuk hati, bintang, bunga, lonceng, orang-orangan, dll. Selain itu agar cantik kue ini juga bisa dibentuk sesuai selera seperti ditambahkan taburan icing sugar atau topping chokelat chip, raisin, dll.

Nah, kue-kue itu tidak hanya dibagi-bagikan pada anak-anak yang menyanyikan lagu-lagu natal di lingkungan rumah. Ginger bread j uga bisa dibuat sebagai bingkisan, hiasan pohon natal, hadiah spesial, atau hiasan di meja makan. Salah satunya adalah dengan dibuat ginger bread house.

Ginger bread house ini dibuat dengan menempelkan gingger bread sehingga menyerupai rumah. Agar menempel biasanya yang menjadi 'semen' adalah adonan gula yang lengket. Untuk mempercantik ginger bread house bisa dilakukan dengan berbagai cara. Bisa diberi taburan icing sugar, aneka cokelat dan glazuur berwarna-warni, serta aneka hiasan kue yang berwarna perak dan emas.

Sekarang ginger bread house juga sering dibuat berukuran sebesar rumah dan dijadikan maskot saat menyambut Natal di hotel maupun mal. Selain itu membuat ginger bread house sendiri juga bisa jadi kegiatan yang menyenangkan bersama anak-anak saat liburan Natal nanti. Tapi, buat yang tak sempat membuat sendiri, ginger bread house juga banyak dijual di cake shop baik yang ada di mal maupun hotel.

detik

Google's Nexus One Details: What We Know So Far

2009-12-24T12:09:00.001+07:00

Google's pretty good at keeping its Web and search developments secret, but it's quickly learning that hardware's a different beast, as details on the Nexus One, a.k.a. the Google Phone, are leaking all over the Internet.

The Official Story

Google has developed an Android phone exclusively for its employees, for the purpose of testing and collecting feedback. An unnamed hardware partner has created what Google calls a “mobile lab” to “experiment with new mobile features and capabilities,” with employees around the globe chipping in. Everything else you've heard, from the name to the photos to the specs, comes from unnamed sources via the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Engadget, Gizmodo, Boy Genius Report and others.

The Specs

According to Engadget, the Nexus One measures a little over 0.45 inches thick, and has a 3.7-inch OLED touch screen. It could possibly run Qualcomm's 1GHz QSD 8250 “Snapdragon” processor, and has 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM and a 4 GB microSD card included, expandable to 32 GB. The camera has a 5-megapixel sensor, mechanical auto focus and LED flash, and could also include 2x optical zoom (this wasn't mentioned in a hands-on report from Gizmodo). Unsurprising frills include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometers and a compass.

The Interface

I'd recommend you check out the YouTube video, which was uploaded yesterday. The Android 2.1 interface isn't a dramatic change over Android 2.0, but it looks smooth given the shaky camerawork. A hands-on report from Gizmodo notes that the phone is considerably faster than the Droid, and even beat out the iPhone in multiple Web page loading tests. The screen is also noticeably better than that of the Droid, despite being the same size and resolution. This could be the rumored 1 GHz processor at work. Multitouch was not evident in the browser or map.

The Carrier

Reuters has reported that in addition to the usual carrier subsidy route, Google will sell the Nexus One unlocked and unsubsidized, but all signs point to T-Mobile as the carrier of choice. The HSPA 900/1700/2100 support cited in Engadget's specs suggest that only T-Mobile's 3G service will work on the phone, so AT&T users would be stuck with the slower EDGE.

The Price and Release Date

A T-Mobile source tells PC World that the carrier won't have anything to announce at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, so don't hold your breath. We don't know how much this phone will cost, and suggestions that the Nexus One will subsidize itself with ads are just speculation. A rumor at Android and Me says the price will be $199, but it's a vague report that doesn't describe how the subsidy will work. For all that we know about the Google phone, its business model -- arguably the most interesting thing about it – remains a big question mark.

pcworld

50 Roti Eropa Tersedia di Kempi Deli & Cafe

2009-12-06T20:33:00.002+07:00

Kabar gembira buat penggila roti. Kini tersedia 50 jenis roti Eropa yang 'fresh from the oven' dan bisa dikimati tiap saat. Dengan beragam keju atau aneka daging olahan. Semuanya dibuat langsung oleh Pastry Chef dari Jerman!

Jika Anda sering berkunjung ke Grand Indonesia, pastilah ada yang berbeda di sudut lantai dasar lobby East Mall. Sebuat cafe mungil dengan kanopi-kanopi putih kini menempati pojok tersebut dengan anggunnya. Ya, itulah outlet Kempi Deli & Cafe yang merupakan kebanggan Hotel Indonesia Kempinski.

Kempi Deli & Cafe pertama kali dibuka tepatnya pada tanggal 25 November 2009 lalu. Kempi Deli yang berkonsep kafe ini menyediakan berbagai pilihan roti dan pastry Eropa yang berkualitas. Tak hanya itu berbagai jenis keju, daging, dan sosis buatan sendiri juga ditawarkan sebagai pendamping menikmati roti.

"Kempi Deli & Cafe ini kami tawarkan bagi mereka yang ingin menikmati 'quick lunch' atau camilan untuk take away. Karena itu tempatnya memang tidak begitu besar namun yang istimewa adalah roti-roti Eropa yang ditawarkan. Mengingat saat ini untuk memperoleh roti dan pastry Eropa masih belum banyak dijumpai," ujar Hanny Wahyuni selaku Director of Public Relations panjang lebar.

Lebih dari 50 jenis roti Eropa yang baru dipanggang ditawarkan kepada pengunjung. Misalkan saja Ciabatta yang bisa disantap dengan irisan smoked salmon, Baquette yang bisa dinikmati bersama buffalo mozarella, atau sekedar Schnitzel bread roll. Sedangkan beberapa roti berukuran besar seperti 'Danish apricot crumble' atau 'German Sourdough' juga bisa dipesan take away untuk dinikmati bersama teman atau keluarga di rumah.

Sedangkan mereka yang sedang menjalankan diet juga bisa memilih roti-roti yang terbuat dari whole grains seperti Multi Cereal Bread atau Ciabatta. Kesemuanya bisa dikombinasikan dengan salad, pastrami, hungarian salami atau parma ham. Untuk pelengkap kesemua hidangan ini berbagai minuman seperti juice, tea, atau espresso bisa jadi pilihan.

"Selama masa promo sejak grand opening, kami memberikan diskon sebesar 20% untuk semua pembelian. Jadi buat mereka yang ingin menikmati semua roti Eropa yang fresh dan lezat silahkan datang ke Kempi Deli," pesan Hanny.

detik

Super-Speed CompactFlash and SDHC Introduced by Team Group

2009-12-06T01:42:00.002+07:00

Secure digital (SDHC) and CompactFlash cards are used for providing high storage capabilities to digital cameras, video cams, MP4/MP5 players and DSLRs among others. Team Group, in line with its reputation as a manufacturer of high-quality storage products, introduced three new storage cards, the CompactFlash 600X and two SDHC cards. The products are EoHS-compliant and equipped with the ECC error reporting and recovery technology for increased data reliability.

The old Class 6 SDHC at 6MB/sec can no longer meet the need of today's high-performance multimedia devices. Well aware of this, Team Group released the Class 10 secure digital card, which, besides being RoHS-compliant and equipped with ECC, can fulfill the requirements of HD picture quality and allow DC and DV users to more easily and quickly record their favorite moments. This is achieved thanks to the significantly superior speeds, compared with those of the Class 6, of 22MB/s read and 18MB/s write. The data cards are SD3.0-compliant and come in models of 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and even 32GB.

The second and more capable product, besides consuming very low amounts of power, the CF 600X uses the exclusive Turbo MLC technology and the CF4.1 high-speed interface in order to reach read/write speeds of 90.93 MB/s (400X). The card comes in a 16GB model that can handle the RAW high-resolution format with ease, and also in a mainstream 8GB model with read and write speeds of 60 and 55 MB/s, respectively.

The CF 600X cards reach their high transfer speeds thanks to the aforementioned Turbo MLC, which boosts the 4-channel transfer rate, and the Ultra DMA 0-6 mode support offered by the CF4.1 interface. This speed allows the cards to cope with even the rigorous 8-shot per second continuous shooting demand of DSLR photographers. Also, besides the error correction code already mentioned (ECC), the CF 600X cards are constructed with advanced leveling algorithms, which ensure data transfer reliability and overall increase the products’ lifespan.

Microsoft, Yahoo Finalize Search Deal

2009-12-05T16:12:00.000+07:00

Microsoft and Yahoo have finalized the terms of a broad search and advertising agreement intended to help them compete more effectively with Google.

The companies announced the agreement, which Microsoft's Bing search engine would power Yahoo's search results, and Yahoo would provide premium search-advertising services for both companies, in July.

They had hoped to finalize the deal in late October but needed more time to work out the details.

In a statement on Friday, the companies said they hope that the transaction will close in early 2010 and that they welcome the broad support the deal has gotten from key players in the advertising industry.

"Microsoft and Yahoo believe that this deal will create a sustainable and more compelling alternative in search that can provide consumers, advertisers and publishers real choice, better value, and more innovation," the partners said.

In October, four ad executives and the president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in support of the agreement. The DOJ is still reviewing the deal for possible antitrust concerns.

The agreement was nearly a year-and-a-half in the making, during which time Yahoo rejected acquisition offers from Microsoft. The stated goal of the arrangement is to offer stronger search competition to Google, which has about 70 percent market share. Combined, Microsoft and Yahoo make up most of the rest.

pcworld

Public DNS Service from Google Raises New Concerns

2009-12-04T22:14:00.001+07:00

It's not exactly a surprise that Google wants to be involved with everything that has to do with the Internet, even marginally, and so far it's been building towards this goal. From the front end, the web browser and now even a dedicated operating system, to the very basics of Internet communications, the HTTP protocol, Google has its hands on everything. Now it's taking it one step further by launching its own DNS service, Google Public DNS, which it says can be faster and safer than the ones provided by the ISPs or the other DNS providers.

The vast majority of users aren't even aware what DNS (Domain Name System) is, not to mention why they would want to switch to Google's offering. In a simplified view, DNS translates domain names like www.google.com into IP addresses which is what computers and networking hardware use to identify themselves in a network environment. Regular, everyday web browsing involved hundreds, even thousands of DNS lookups, but these are handled by the ISPs, most of which provide their own DNS services, so the process is invisible to the user.

“The average Internet user ends up performing hundreds of DNS lookups each day, and some complex pages require multiple DNS lookups before they start loading. This can slow down the browsing experience. Our research has shown that speed matters to Internet users, so over the past several months our engineers have been working to make improvements to our public DNS resolver to make users' web-surfing experiences faster, safer and more reliable,” Prem Ramaswami, product manager, explains Google's motivation behind the project.

But if your ISP already provides the service, why is there a need for a Google one and why should you use it? Google lists several reasons why it believes its service is superior to the ones provided by ISPs and even other open providers. The first one is speed, Google says that it has implemented a number of methods to make things faster and that, even though DNS lookups are just a small portion of the time a site needs to load, it can add up to a lot of wasted time.

The other big reason to switch providers, Google says, is security. Though rare, DNS servers are vulnerable to a number of attacks which could poison the cache in turn sending users to potentially malicious sites instead of the site they wanted to visit. Google claims it has taken several measures to ensure that its service is safer.

Finally, Google claims its service will always provide its users with accurate results and “never blocks, filters, or redirects users, unlike some open resolvers and ISPs.” This last reason may be the most important but also the most controversial. Some ISPs or DNS providers engage in the shady business or redirecting a misspelled domain name to a landing page filled with ads and perhaps some sort of search. Of course, some go even further and redirect even valid domain names or block them altogether, but these cases are a lot rarer.

However, Google's latest venture isn't without its opponents especially as more and more voices are starting to question Google's increasing power. The main argument is that, even though the company claims the best intentions, it would be naïve to think that its intentions are purely philanthropic, there is a lot of money to be made from a DNS service. A commercial version would be an option, though this sounds a bit unlikely. But, even if it won't redirect users to its search engine or something similar, it could still benefit from all the usage data it's bound to gather. Google has come out with a very detailed description of what data it stores and for how long, but there are still those who believe that it would be hard for a company, with the kind of power Google controls at the moment, not to be tempted to abuse it, or at the very least, use for its advantage.

softpedia

AT&T Launches 1GHz-Powered LG Expo

2009-12-03T12:57:00.001+07:00

Wireless carrier AT&T announced on Monday the upcoming launch of LG eXpo, the first handset that arrives in the United States with a 1GHz processor on board. Starting with December 7, AT&T enterprise customers will be able to purchase the new handset from the company's website, while enjoying its High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 Mbps technology support, through which any user will benefit from considerable speed capabilities.

At the same time, the new LG eXpo comes to the US market with support for an integrated pico projector. Placed on the back of the phone, the LG Mobile Projector enables users share presentations, as well as slideshows or videos, all directly from the handset. The LG Mobile Projector comes with a compact design, and can project images eight feet away.

“LG eXpo adds to our growing portfolio of smartphones that operate on the latest upgrade to our 3G network and offer customers a great choice,” said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “As we move to HSPA 7.2 technology, it is crucial to provide our customers innovative and future-proof smartphones.”

The new LG eXpo comes to the market running under Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional operating system, delivering popular features and apps to users, including Microsoft Office Mobile. Moreover, users will be able to stay connected at all times with the email and calendar features of the deliver, while also having the possibility to display Web pages, documents, photos and videos while on the go with the phone’s projection capabilities.

The HSPA 7.2 technology included with the new mobile phone will power AT&T's network starting with this year. The company aims at making enhancements to its network in 2009 in markets like Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami, and will deliver HSPA 7.2 in almost all of the country's largest markets by the end of 2010. At the same time, the carrier also aims at upgrading about 90 percent of its network to about HSPA 7.2 by the end of 2011.

The specifications list of the new handset includes a 1GHz processor, a 3.2-inch touchscreen display with support for 16 million colors, a full QWERTY keyboard, a 5.0-megapixel photo snapper with auto flash, aGPS, and a microSD memory card slot with support for up to 16GB of additional storage space. AT&T's enterprice customers will have the possibility to purchase the new handset starting with December 7, for a price tag of $199.99 after mail-in rebate, with a two-year contract agreement on a minimum $69.99 plan. The LG Mobile Projector is expected to be priced at $179.99.

softpedia

The State of Windows 7 Satisfaction

2009-12-03T12:52:00.002+07:00

Windows 7 is scarcely more than a month old. Most of the people who will eventually use it haven't gotten around to trying it yet; those that have are still settling in. And the Win 7 experience will change rapidly as remaining bugs are squashed, missing drivers arrive, and compatibility glitches are ironed out. Even so, it's not too early to start gauging what real people think of Windows Vista's replacement.

So to riff on Ronald Reagan's famous question from his 1980 debate with Jimmy Carter, Are Windows users better off today than they were a few weeks ago, back in the Vista era? We decided to ask the Technologizer community, a group of tech enthusiasts with a high propensity to acquire new operating systems quickly and push them to their limits. Starting on November 16th, we surveyed our readers (and Twitter followers) about their experiences with Windows 7. Our goal: to do a reality check on the mostly favorable initial reviews of the new OS (as well as our own survey of largely enthusiastic Windows 7 beta testers back in March).

The 550+ Windows 7 early adopters who took our survey mostly echo the positive response that the upgrade has received from professional reviewers, pundits, and users of pre-release editions. A sizable majority say they're extremely satisfied with the OS and rate it as a clear improvement on both the beloved Windows XP and the widely-panned Windows Vista. Crippling installation problems-the bane of every upgrader's existence, and always a legitimate reason to postpone switching OSes-were rare.

Our full report follows. But first, some quick facts on the folks who took our survey:

Prior to using Windows 7, forty-six percent of respondents ran Windows Vista, and thirty-two percent ran Windows XP. Seventeen percent ran Vista and XP about equally, five percent ran an OS other than Windows, and a whopping 0.7 percent used a version of Windows other than Vista or XP.
Seventy-three percent upgraded an existing PC to the final version of Windows 7, and eight percent are running it on a PC that came with the OS pre-installed. Fourteen percent are still using a pre-release version, and six percent are running it on a Mac via Boot Camp or a virtualization program.
Sixty-four percent of respondents rate themselves as expert Windows users; thirty-five percent say they're intermediate ones. Less than one percent call themselves beginners.
Sixty-one percent are using Windows 7 entirely or mostly for home/personal use. Twenty-five percent are using it about equally for home/personal and business use. Just fourteen percent are using it entirely or mostly for business use.
Sixty-one percent are using a 64-bit edition of Windows 7, and thirty-one percent are running a 32-bit version.
Eighty-two percent did a "clean" install of the OS from scratch; nineteen percent installed it over Windows Vista.
Fifty-nine percent say they've used Windows 7 extensively, and thirty-six percent say they've done so a fair amount. Five percent say they've just used it a little so far.

It's important to note that our goal wasn't to survey a representative, projectable, normalized sampling of allWindows 7 users. The responses that follow are from members of the Technologizer community who chose to take our survey. Their opinions are their own-but we think they make for interesting reading even if they're not the last word on how average users will react to Windows 7.

Getting Up and Running

As with all things, first impressions count with operating systems. And if you've bought an OS as an upgrade, the first impressions it makes come in the form of the installation process.

As I've written before, there's no such thing as an operating system upgrade that doesn't cause headaches for some percentage of the people who install it. In the case of our survey takers who installed Windows 7, however, the number who encountered major hassles was very small-presumably in part because Windows 7 is so similar to Vista under the surface. The fact that the vast majority of respondents performed clean installations rather than installing on top of Vista surely helped, too.

Eighty-four percent say the process went off without meaningful hiccups; thirteen percent say it went fairly well. A total of three percent reported major problems, two-thirds of which were resolvable. Pretty impressive-when PC World surveyed Windows XP users shortly after that OS shipped, half reported installation difficulties.

The fact that respondents' upgrades tended to go smoothly doesn't mean that they didn't encounter any issues with their new operating system. Two problem areas stand out: More than forty percent had to try and resolve driver issues, and more than a third needed to deal with software incompatibilities. Other problems, however, were reported by a much smaller percentage of respondents. For instance, eleven percent reported crashes or blue screens of death. And only six percent said that Windows 7's performance was poor, which is a relief given that the original version Windows Vista quickly developed a reputation as a poky resource hog.

Are the percentages of users who reported problems impressively low, or unsettlingly high? That's subject to debate. But here's something that isn't: Both Windows XP and Windows Vista also suffer to some degree from all the gotchas that respondents said they encountered in Windows 7.

(In this infographic and those that follow, the scale of 0% to 100% represents the percentage of survey respondents who answered a particular question as indicated by the bars.)

Judging the Features

We asked respondents to rate eleven specific Windows 7 features that were new or substantially revised. (In retrospect, we should have also asked about Windows 7's DeviceStage, the peripheral-wrangling feature which I've found disappointing so far.)

Most of the features were well-received, especially the Taskbar, System Tray, window tiling, and desktop-revealing Aero Peek feature, all of which received Excellent or Very Good ratings from at least two-thirds of respondents. Even the new version of Vista's much-maligned User Account Control received an Excellent or Very Good from more than half of users, and only three percent said it was poor.

The Windows 7 feature which survey-takers were most lukewarm about isn't a Windows 7 feature, exactly-it's Internet Explorer 8, which first shipped back in March for Windows Vista and XP. While fifty percent of respondents say it's at least good, only nine percent rate it as excellent. Twenty percent said it's only fair and thirteen percent say it's downright poor, by far the most negative verdict given to any feature.

In the infographic below, the length of each bar indicates the percentage of respondents who say they've used each feature (virtually everyone rated the Taskbar, for instance, but only fifty-five percent have tried HomeGroups.) Features are ordered by the percentage of respondents who rated a feature as Excellent or very good. The more green the better; yellow and red indicate lukewarm and negative reactions, respectively.

Happiness Is...

Most of our survey respondents had no trouble setting up Windows 7, weren't crippled by problems once they got it installed, and found much to like in its changes. And that translated into impressive numbers for overall satisfaction. Seventy percent say they are extremely satisfied with the new OS, and twenty-four percent say they're somewhat satisfied, for a total of ninety-four percent who are satisfied to some degree. Four percent say they are neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and two percent are somewhat or extremely dissatisfied. (When PC World surveyed Vista early adopters in 2007, it reported that only a little over one third of them were "very satisfied," and almost a quarter were "unimpressed.")

We asked respondents who said they were dissatisfied with Windows 7 to tell us why, but so few people were unhappy campers that the information we collected isn't statistically significant, so we won't chart it here. (Don't tell anyone we told you, but the majority of them said that Windows 7 is too expensive and doesn't have enough new features to warrant the cost.)

Does respondents' satisfaction with Windows 7 vary depending on whether they came to the OS from Vista or from XP? Yes-both groups are strongly favorable, but XP users are meaningfully less ecstatic. Seventy-nine percent of Vista users say they're extremely satisfied, while only sixty-one percent of XP users do.

We also gauged respondents' bottom-line appraisal of Windows 7 by asking them whether they'd willingly give it up for their old operating system. The vast majority-seventy-three percent-said they definitely wouldn't. Another eighteen percent said they probably wouldn't. Three percent said they probably would go back, and another three percent said they definitely would, or already had.

As with our question about overall satisfaction, Vista users gave Windows 7 a particularly hearty testimonial: Eighty-six percent of them say they definitely wouldn't go back. The percentage of XP users who say they've switched to Windows 7 permanently isn't quite that overwhelming, at sixty-one percent. XP users are also more likely to say they're probably or definitely abandoning Windows 7, although the overall percentage doing so remains low.

IE8 Blocked 275 Million Pieces of Malware

2009-12-02T17:04:00.000+07:00

Microsoft continues to beat the drum of Internet Explorer 8’s superiority in terms of security compared to rival browser. The Redmond company has used the Black Friday and Cyber Monday days, and the boost in online shopping associated with the two post-Thanksgiving dates, to stress the importance of running a secure browser for end users that do their shopping online. According to statistics made available by the software giant, IE8 managed to block in excess of 275 million pieces of malware since the browser was introduced.

“To date, Internet Explorer 8 has delivered over 275 Million malware blocks. And as of September, Internet Explorer 8 is blocking 1 in every 200 downloads that appear as malicious. Internet Explorer 8 also helps protect your privacy with InPrivate Browsing,” explained Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team.

Internet Explorer 8 comes with the SmartScreen, a security feature designed to keep end users safe from online attacks, and especially to protect them against phishing attempts. Phishing is a term describing an attack based on a social engineering schemes in which victims are tricked into revealing sensitive information, including credit card data, to malicious websites masquerading as legitimate sites. However, at the same time, IE8 is designed to protect against additional types of online-based attacks.

“There are 3 major threats people shopping online should be aware of: Malware, Cross-site Scripting (XSS), and ClickJacking. Internet Explorer 8 protects against each of these threats (via SmartScreen), making it rated #1 for malicious software and phishing protection,” LeBlanc added.

At the end of November 2009, Microsoft noted that IE8’s SmartScreen was blocking on average approximately two million malicious websites on a daily basis. In combination with Windows Vista or Windows 7 with User Account Control turned on, Internet Explorer 8 can also prevent attacks from the Internet from writing anything locally to disk, as it is running with standard user privileges.

softpedia

Latest Microsoft Patches Cause Black Screen of Death

2009-12-01T00:52:00.001+07:00

Microsoft's latest round of security patches appears to be causing some PCs to seize up and display a black screen, rending the computer useless.

The problem affects Microsoft products including Windows 7, Vista and XP operating systems, said Mel Morris , the CEO and CTO for the U.K. security company Prevx.

Prevx was alerted to the problem by users of its security software last week, Morris said. Microsoft apparently made changes to the Access Control List (ACL), a list of permissions for a logged-on user. The ACL interacts with registry keys, creating visible desktop features such as a sidebar.

However, the latest patches appear to make some changes to those registry keys. The effect is that some installed applications aren't aware of the changes and don't run properly, causing a black screen, Morris said.

Security applications seem to be particularly affected. Morris said users of other security products have also complained about the issue, even going so far as trying to reinstall the operating system to fix it.

"If you've got this problem, it's massively debilitating," Morris said.

Prevx has released software that fixes the registry to match the ACL settings, which should resolve the problem, Morris said. Users could do this on their own by modifying their registry settings, but making alterations to those settings is risky since it can severely affect how the operating system runs.

On Nov. 10, Microsoft released 15 patches for vulnerabilities in Windows, Windows Server, Excel and Word.

Morris said Microsoft was likely just trying to fortify the security of the operating systems when it inadvertently made the error in its patches. "It's one of those things that happens from time to time when you have a dynamic operating system," he said.

Morris said his company hasn't contacted Microsoft yet but will send the company a copy of the software fix.

Prevx has more detail on the issue on its blog and posted the software fix, which is free.

Windows has at least 10 different issues that could potentially cause a black screen, wrote Dave Kennerley who works in support for Prevx.

"Our advice is try our tool first," Kennerley said. "If it works, great. If it doesn't, you are no worse off."

Microsoft officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

pcworld

2009-11-30T12:48:00.002+07:00

Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson announced officially at the beginning of this month that it would soon deliver to the market a handset powered by Google's Android operating system, the Xperia X10, a device previously known as Xperia X3. Just as other phones in the Xperia series, the upcoming X10 seems poised to make our hearts beat faster, both due to the handsets's looks and courtesy of the raw power it is said to come around with.

The company hasn't unveiled an official release date for the phone, yet rumor has it that we will have to wait until February next yer to be able to snag one of these beauties. However, until that happens, we can still enjoy a wide range of live photos and hands-on videos the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has seen, a new series of which has just emerged into the wild. A gallery of new photos with the device, taken at an official X10 press event, has surfaced on SE-blog, while the guys over at TechBlog.gr have published two videos with the phone.

The one thing that is certain when it comes to the high-end Android phone is that it has all that it takes for a handset to become a very popular device on the market. A large touchscreen display has been included in the package, along with a powerful processor (1GHz Snapdragon), and a very appealing user interface, the Nexus UX, which has been encountered before as the Rachael UI.

However, Sony Ericsson seems to be a little late to the Android party with its Xperia X10. There already is a wide range of such devices available on the market, perhaps not as appealing as Sony Ericsson's Android phone seems to be, but which can deliver the enhanced user experience one would wish for. Not to mention that the recently reported problems with the company's Aino and Satio phones might make users think twice before making a Sony Ericsson acquisition. Hopefully, Xperia X10 will be able to live to the expectations, for it seems to promise a lot to anyone who waits for it.

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Early Preview

2009-11-30T12:37:00.001+07:00

Much to everyone’s surprise, Microsoft shared details about Internet Explorer 9 very early on in the browser’s development process. Dean Hachamovitch, general manager, Internet Explorer, explained that the first IE9-related information offered via official channels was simply the Redmond company joining the discussion of browsers. The software giant choose its Professional Developers Conference 2009, in Los Angeles, to showcase a preview of IE9, but no bits were released as the browser is merely just weeks old.

“The topics that we’re going to talk about pretty much choose themselves, when you look at the conversations that happened throughout IE8,” Hachamovitch noted. More specifically, Microsoft touched three topics, in particular, standards support, performance progress, and the introduction of graphics hardware acceleration.

You will be able to watch the first public demonstration of Internet Explorer 9 via the video embedded at the bottom of this article, courtesy of Microsoft. Obviously the company did not single out the content focused only on IE9, so the video covers the entire PDC 2009 Day 2 Keynote, featuring such Microsoft executives as Steven Sinofsky, president, Windows and Windows Live Division, and Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET Developer Platform. It will be Sinofsky demoing IE9, as along with the Windows project, the Microsoft president is also responsible for the development of the next iteration of the Internet Explorer browser.

As far as I’m concerned, the entire PDC 2009 Day 2 keynote is well-worth watching, but I do realize that you have to dedicate a consistent portion of your time in doing so, as the video goes on for about two and a half hours. So, for those that just want to skip directly to the IE9 demo, just go ahead and jump to minute 40 in the presentation and take it from there (spoiler alert – IE9 has no GUI as of yet).

Standards

“The primary focus for our team is providing rich capabilities, the kind that developers really want and use in an interoperable way,” said John Hrvatin, program manager for the IE team.

Acid3 is one of the tests designed to assess the browser performance when it comes down to standards support. At the time of this article, Internet Explorer is lagging rival browsers in relation to the Acid3 test score, being inferior in the level of modern standards adoption. With the advent of Internet Explorer 8 Microsoft choose to simply ignore Acid3, and focused exclusively on acing the Acid2 test, arguing that it would not provide support for standards that were incomplete at the time such as HTML5 and CSS3.

The IE9 demo indicates that Microsoft has now had a change of heart and that it considers passing the Acid3 test one of the priorities in developing the next version of Internet Explorer. Already, IE9 is faring better than IE8 in the Acid3 test, obtaining a superior score. “Developers need not just a strong platform that’s got great performance and great capabilities, but they also have expectations around how the code will work,” Hachamovitch noted.

But in all fairness, embracing HTML5 and CSS3 is a move that Microsoft is doing largely to close the gap separating IE from Firefox, Chrome, and Opera, while also attempting to tone down the level of criticism from web developers which can’t leverage modern web standards simply because of lack of IE support for them. As far as end users are concerned, the benefits they will be able to enjoy won’t be extremely evident to them. Fact is that the vast majority of users won’t be able to tell which websites use CSS2.1 for styling and formatting and which leverage CSS3. But inherently, advantages will be offered through the simple evolution of the user experience.

“We want to focus on those capabilities that developers are really most interested in, but doing it in an interoperable way, and standards are really one of the ways in which we achieve that. But it’s still people building the standards, and there could be places where parts of the specification aren’t clear, and different browser vendors interpret them in different ways,” Hrvatin added.

Performance

“So there’s performance, and we’re going to talk about the progress that we made. Everybody cares about performance, everybody benefits from performance improvements. And performance is a super complex problem. I mean, there are so many subsystems in the browser,” Hachamovitch said.

With Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft lost the race on performance, simply because it failed to play the same game as its rivals. While Mozilla and Google were running to benchmarks such as the SunSpider test, the Redmond company attempted to convince the world that benchmarking results are in no way representative of actual browser performance. Instead, the software giant argued that its approach, to target IE8 performance to real world scenarios, and to increase IE8 speed in situations most common for its end users, had delivered superior results to Firefox and Chrome. Needless to say the world failed to agree with Microsoft.

Consequently, the Redmond company will, with IE9, play the same game as competitors, namely pour additional horsepower into the next version of IE’s script engine, and ensure that script performance for IE9 is at least on par with rivals, if not even better. Nothing short of an excellent move from Microsoft, the IE9 performance boost needs to be not only consistent, but also continually updatable. The Redmond company has to understand that performance, much like standards support and interoperability is an ongoing effort, but one that requires fast pace upgrades.

“We’ve been working on performance optimizations around the JavaScript engine for the next version of Internet Explorer. One of the things we’ve heard pretty clearly from customers is we need to get better there, so we.ve done a bunch of work in the core JScript engine,” revealed John Montgomery, general product manager.

A change is needed either in the frequency at which Microsoft delivers major versions of Internet Explorer, or in the introduction of minor updates, after the model v9.1, v9.2, v9.3, and so on and so forth, in order to keep Internet Explorer 9 at least on par with rivals in terms of the performance level. In short, IE needs to evolve faster, and appear less out of breath when playing catch up with the likes of Firefox and Chrome.

“Performance is just one dimension. Ultimately it’s about the users that are running the browser to do more of their work on the web and developers who are building those experiences. Performance is one element of that, to make the experience better for users and developers,” said Shanku Niyogi, Microsoft GM.

Hardware Acceleration

“The power of modern hardware with Windows and all the energy that goes into the ecosystem to make PCs great, and how all of that can make the PC better. All the improvement around modern PCs and Windows shows up in the browser available for web developers. Developers who write the web can get all the goodness of DirectX [DirectX 11], all the goodness of the GPU, and all this amazing acceleration using the patterns that they already have and that they already use,” Hachamovitch said.

Hardware Acceleration is about Windows, DirectX 11 Windows APIs and the GPU (the computer’s graphics processing unit), and IE9 will take advantage of all these resources in concert. Microsoft’s PDC 2009 IE9 demonstration involves technologies such as Direct2D and DirectWrite for text rendering, and as the video shows, the improvements are amazing. Essentially, in the evolution from Internet Explorer 8 to IE9, Microsoft has swapped the rendering engine from leveraging GDI to DirectX.

The graphics cards on computers running IE9 will no longer simply sit unused, as the browser will turn to the GPU for webpage rendering. By embracing the GPU, IE9’s performance will get a boost, but as the demo unveiled, the fidelity of the rendering is unmatched. Ultimately, IE9 will deliver a superior users experience to IE8, and to all current competitive browsers available on the market. However, in all fairness, Mozilla has also been flirting with hardware acceleration for a future version of Firefox that is planned for availability following the release of v3.6.

video link

softpedia

Advanced Antivirus

2009-11-24T13:48:00.000+07:00

Hackers have shown that they can plant their malware even on mainstream sites--proving that you need antivirus protection now more than ever. We lab-tested eleven top security programs to find the best guardians for your PC.

threatscape of duplicitous Trojan horses, invisible exploits, and slithering worms make antivirus protection a must. But that doesn't mean you have to pay top dollar for a security suite that may have features you don't want or need.

Stand-alone antivirus apps focus on blocking malicious software, without loading up on the extras that come with a suite. You typically won't find--or have to pay for--parental controls, system tuners, firewalls, or other options. That frees you to mix and match your own suite of apps, or even just stick with an on-its-own antivirus program and the built-in Windows firewall. See "Picking the Right Security Software" for more on this topic.

First, though, you need to know which programs will protect you and which could fall down on the job. To find out, we poked and prodded a large batch of applications--eleven in all, from not only the United States but also Europe and Japan. In partnership with AV-Test.org, we determined the products' detection rates for malware both known and brand-new. We also measured scan speed and disinfection performance, along with the rate of false alarms. For results on all products we tested, see our chart.

While any antivirus program is defined by its ability to keep a PC safe, we also dug through each app's user interface and simulated a variety of scanning scenarios to make sure a program wouldn't drive you crazy as it did its job.

G Data AntiVirus 2010 took top billing in our ranked software chart, doing the best job at malware detection, both in traditional, signature-based tests and in proactive protection tests that gauge how well an app can detect new malware without a full signature. However, while the program has a straightforward interface, it also asks more questions of the user than many of the other antivirus applications we tested, and it therefore may be best suited to a more technically oriented person.

Our close second-place finisher, Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus 2010, on the other hand, is smooth and simple to use. It does a generally good job of blocking and removing malware, though it trailed G Data in one type of proactive protection. And it has some appealing extras, such as a tool that can help you decide whether you think that a new download is from a reputable source and likely safe to install. Though it just barely lost out to our top recommendation, Norton would be a good choice for computer owners who want a minimum of fuss from the software they use.

Our scoring emphasized performance--or effectiveness--over all other considerations. After all, it doesn't matter how nice an antivirus program looks if it can't block malware. Based on our test results, we found that almost all of the programs were fully capable of detecting malware with known signatures. When confronted with more than 650,000 Trojan horses, spyware samples, and other baddies, seven of the ten apps detected more than 99 percent of the samples. And no program had a detection rate of less than 94 percent.

But these days, online crooks are good at staying ahead of signatures. Month-old malware may as well be a dinosaur, and Panda, maker of one of the apps we tested, says that a whopping 52 percent of the malware it sees has a digital life expectancy of less than 24 hours. So we gave weight to tests that measure how well programs can detect newer malware for which a signature doesn't yet exist. Some of those tests gauge an app's ability to identify malicious software based solely on how it acts. Absent that crucial ability, a program had no real shot at a top ranking.

pc world

Google Chrome OS vs. Windows, and So It Begins

2009-11-20T18:13:00.000+07:00

Inevitable, the advent of a new operating system has to be branded with certain coordinates that position the platform in relation to the ubiquitous Windows OS from Microsoft. Google Chrome OS has in this manner joined the club of non-Windows operating systems, and don’t think for a minute that this does not apply to Microsoft’s itself. The Redmond company is also cooking non-Windows platforms (Singularity and Midori), and time will come when the software giant will have to go against itself on the OS market. However, which such a scenario is most probably reserved for the next decade, the Google Chrome OS has become tangible.

Almost tangible, because the actual bits for the Google Chrome OS aren’t yet available for download. Instead, what the Mountain View-based search giant did was release the source code associated with the Chromium OS project. Users and developers, familiar with the way that the Google Chrome browser is built, already know that it too has a Chromium underlining project. And in fact, the similarities between the Chrome browser and the Chrome OS doesn’t stop at this.

“We released Chromium OS, the open source project behind Google Chrome OS. Google Chrome OS is an operating system that is intended for people who spend most of their time on the web. It aims to provide a computing experience that is fast, simple and secure. The Chromium OS project as you'll see it today is comprised of the code that has been developed thus far, our early experiments with the user interface, and detailed design docs for many parts that are under active development,” said Kan Liu, product manager.

Don’t expect to start running Google Chrome OS on your computer anytime soon. According to Caesar Sengupta, group product manager and Matt Papakipos, engineering director, the actual bits for the operating system won’t be delivered for approximately a year. It will be only ahead of the 2010 holiday season that the first machines equipped with Google Chrome OS will hit store shelves.

Moreover, there will be additional impediments preventing end users from embracing Google Chrome OS. In this regard, the Mountain View-based search giant explained that its own breed of open source OS would be intimately connected with a specific hardware reference. What this means is that the platform will not run on legacy hardware. Computers capable of playing nice with Chrome OS will have to be powered by x86 or ARM CPUs while sporting SSDs. In addition, don’t think for a moment that you’ll be able to install your favorite Windows-based game and start playing, because this will not be the case.

“First, it's all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs,” Papakipos added. “Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn't trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.”

softpedia

iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Droid vs. Pre: Smackdown!

2009-11-16T11:51:00.002+07:00

The latest Android 2.0-based "iPhone killer" won't kill the iPhone or the -- and the cheaper HTC Droid Eris is the new smartphone that I think Apple should be concerned about. But there are now six smartphones on the market that will appeal to business and professional users, each with different strengths and weaknesses. This article gives InfoWorld's ratings for all six -- the Apple iPhone, HTC Droid Eris, Motorola Droid, Palm Pre, Research in Motion BlackBerry Bold, and RIM BlackBerry Storm 2 -- plus an interactive ratings form in which you can enter your own weighting for each category in our exclusive Mobile Deathmatch Calculator and get a customized score for each smartphone.

Our buying advice is simple:

If you want a mobile device that takes full advantage of Web connectivity, applications, and personal media that you can also use for business connectivity such as e-mail and calendaring, get the iPhone, even with the inferiority of AT&T's 3G network.
If you're subject to high security requirements, such as for regulatory compliance, need to manage lots of devices, or just can't handle using a touch-based screen keyboard, you want the BlackBerry Bold, which is available from several U.S. carriers.
If you can't stand the thought of using the AT&T 3G network and don't need to access corporate e-mail (outside of POP and IMAP mail servers), you want the HTC Droid Eris, which, like the Motorola Droid, is available only from Verizon Wireless.

[ Read InfoWorld's in-depth mobile deathmatch series: BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone | Palm Pre vs. iPhone | Motorola Droid vs. iPhone. And see our deathmatch slideshows' head-to-head comparisons: BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone | Palm Pre vs. iPhone | Motorola Droid vs. iPhone | Read our review of the HTC Droid Eris. ]

The WebOS-based Palm Pre was innovative last spring but has been bested by the new generation of Android devices. (Its sole U.S. carrier, Sprint, appears to have moved on from the Pre, now focusing on Android devices.) The Motorola Droid's keyboard is unusable, and the lack of multitouch support in its included apps makes its few technical advantages over the HTC Droid Eris -- basically, a few extra security features -- a lousy bargain. The BlackBerry Storm 2 was supposed to fix an unusable clickable touchscreen in the original version, but the solution doesn't address the core issue: Tapping is very slow on the screen, to the point that sustained text entry is out of the question. It's not surprising that within weeks of its release, carriers are selling it as part of two-for-one specials.

Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian devices are also out of the picture. Microsoft's long-delayed Windows 7 Mobile remains vaporware, and making purchase decisions on Microsoft's promise is foolhardy. Nokia's Symbian OS has evolved slowly in the last decade and simply isn't in the same league as modern mobile OSes; Nokia knows that and has a plan to move -- over several years -- to a new OS called Maemo. Someday we'll see what Maemo has to offer; in the meantime, Nokia has been unable to get U.S. carriers to sell its smartphones.

Web and Internet Support

One of the iPhone's revolutionary advances was in bringing the Web to mobile devices in a capable, effective way. All of a sudden, the mobile Web was real. The WebKit browser that underlies the iPhone's Web experience is now used by the Palm Pre and Android devices, and it seems destined for BlackBerry. For now, however, the BlackBerry series are the only holdouts for the old, hard-to-use mobile Web. The BlackBerry OS's ability to reformat Web pages into a stack helps overcome some of its inability to deal with real Web pages, but it's no substitute for the real thing. The Motorola Droid's lack of multitouch support makes navigating Web pages awkward; furthermore, the Droid's multistep process to copy text and the inability to copy graphics fall short of the iPhone's standards.

Likewise, the ability to access Internet services like Facebook, search, YouTube, and so on (another area iPhone pioneered) is pretty much standard across all modern mobile devices today. The same is true for JavaScript support, though this capability is turned off on many BlackBerry models by default and must be activated by the user. Some carriers disable JavaScript support completely.

The one common Web technology in which the iPhone OS is at a disadvantage is Flash Player support -- it doesn't have it. Neither do the Droids. The other devices can display Flash video. All but the BlackBerrys can display QuickTime Video, though there's a third-party app that lets the BlackBerry view QuickTime videos.

Business Connectivity

Where stark differences between the current mobile contenders show is in support for corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts. The BlackBerry, if you use the extra-cost BlackBerry Enterprise Server, lets you access these services whether your business uses Microsoft Exchange, IBM's Lotus Notes, or Novell Groupwise. It's the most enterprise-capable mobile platform for business connectivity.

The iPhone is second-best for business connectivity. It supports Exchange ActiveSync for e-mail, calendars, and contacts, though there are no clients as yet for Notes or Groupwise. The iPhone OS 3.1 fixes a bug that falsely reported support for ActiveSync on-device encryption policies; the 3G S supports such encryption, but older iPhones do not and thus can't access Exchange if encryption is set as an ActiveSync policy requirement.

The Palm Pre claims to support Exchange, but it supports only a few ActiveSync policies and thus can access only low-security Exchange servers. The two Droids also claim Exchange support, but I could not get the HTC Droid Eris to connect at all, while the Motorola Droid could only send messages, not receive them, a common complaint on the Droid user forums as well. The likely culprit is lack of support for ActiveSync policies. (My colleague Paul Venezia was able to establish a connection between a Droid Eris and an Exchange server that had no ActiveSync policies enabled.)

Note that Verizon enforces an extra $15-per-month fee to access corporate e-mail; if you don't tell Verizon you're using Exchange and don't call tech support for help on using Exchange, you can probably avoid the fee. But given the poor Exchange compatibility, it's pretty much a moot issue. The Motorola Droid does work with Exchange calendars through ActiveSync, but it won't let you respond to invitations.

All six devices support POP and IMAP e-mail accounts, so they're fine for personal and small-business e-mail access. They all support Google's Gmail as well, though BlackBerry owners will want to download RIM's "enhanced" Gmail client. To sync the iPhone to your PC's e-mail and calendar (as opposed to an Exchange server), you have to use either iTunes or the $99-per-year MobileMe service. The two Droids will directly sync to Outlook calendars and e-mails over a USB connection, as well as via Google Apps. BlackBerrys also can sync to Outlook on your PC, and to iCal and Address Book on your Mac, via a USB cable, using the BlackBerry Desktop software.

Application Support

Two billion downloads and counting -- that pretty much says it all about the wealth of available iPhone apps. No device comes anywhere close to the iPhone regarding the variety of third-party apps, and Apple keeps enhancing what apps can do, such as by enabling in-app purchases and subscriptions this summer.

The Google Android Market is looking good in its early days, with several high-quality programs available that match the better iPhone apps' quality, though often with fewer capabilities than their iPhone equivalents. HTC loads the Droid Eris with more than a dozen cool widgets that work only with its Sense UI enhancements to the Android OS; these bring real sophistication to the Droid Eris. Examples include a weather-and-time widget for the home screen, an integrated console for accessing all your messages, a favorites quick-access widget for contacting people with one click, and a mail-preview widget that means you don't have to keep opening the Email app.

Apps for the Pre have largely stalled, though the early ones showed promise. The BlackBerry has the weakest selection of apps, many of which are ungainly and hard to use, reflecting the platform's lack of respect for usability.

The BlackBerry does support unzipping of zipped file attachments in e-mail, unlike the other devices. The iPhone supports viewing of more document types than any of the devices, by dint of supporting its iWork productivity apps in addition to Microsoft Office and PDF documents. The two Droids and the BlackBerrys require that you use a third-party app to view such documents, but they come with this software pre-installed (Quickoffice for Android and Documents to Go for BlackBerry, respectively). The Pre, like the iPhone, comes with its own app for file viewing.

[ When you're on the go, read InfoWorld at our beta mobile site: iphone.infoworld.com. It's compatible with the iPhone, Palm Pre (WebOS), Android-based smartphones such as the Droid and Droid Eris, and other WebKit-based devices. ]

In some -- but not all -- cases, these viewers can also edit documents. Further, editing capabilities can be quite limited. For editing documents, DataViz Documents to Go for BlackBerry is the easiest to use, as it works with e-mail attachments and zip files. The Quickoffice app for the iPhone is a better editor, but it work only with files stored on the iPhone, not directly with e-mail attachments, due to an Apple-imposed limitation. However, Quickoffice for Android is more limited still -- it only supports document viewing. The sole editing app for the Android platform, Documents to Go, can merely edit e-mail attachments in Gmail messages.

The iPhone's copy and paste is the best of the bunch; it's intuitive and works on all sorts of content in almost every app. The BlackBerry's copy-and-paste capabilities are comparable to the iPhone's, but the menu-based interface is harder to use. The Palm Pre and the two Droids have limited copy-and-paste capabilities.

The Motorola Droid boasts an included turn-by-turn navigation app that doesn't require a monthly subscription, unlike the other devices. You can buy such apps for the iPhone and BlackBerry, for between $80 and $130.

All six devices offer the basics when it comes to apps: e-mail, calendar, address book, social networking, test messaging, maps, media player, and photo gallery.

The Palm Pre and HTC Droid Eris go a bit further than the others in their communications-oriented apps in letting you easily manage your contacts across communciations channels. You can even have a conversation that moves from one channel to another with the Pre. Only the Pre makes it easy to move among apps when you have several running, thanks to its "cards" interface.

Security and Management
Although security and management concerns can be used as an excuse not to deal with something new, the truth is that companies subject to regulatory requirements -- such as hospitals, defense contractors, and financial officers -- have to follow those requirements. If those needs apply to you, no other device capabilities can trump security, and that means you're all but certain to choose a BlackBerry. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) can track and enforce security policies, such as requiring that data stored on the device be encrypted, and it can initiate a remote wipe of a device after a specified number of failed password attempts, for example. Plus, BES can push security, policy, and app updates, as well as monitor device usage.

The iPhone comes in second place for security and manageability, despite its poor reputation. It supports Exchange ActiveSync policies, such as requiring a complex password or on-device encryption. The iPhone 3G S and the late-2009 iPod Touch support on-device encryption, a common security requirement. The iPhone offers more security capabilities than are initially apparent, because many policies can only be set through Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility, a free download. The utility creates policies that iPhone users can install via e-mail, URLs, and USB syncing -- but there's no way to force, confirm, or track installation, so many enterprises can't prove security compliance without physically checking each device.

The Pre, Droid, and Droid Eris have limited security capabilities (the Pre has the most and the Droid Eris the least) and no management tools. Companies that offer mobile management tools are increasingly adding iPhone and Android support, but the scope of these tools remains less than regulation-concerned enterprises require.

The BlackBerrys, iPhone, Pre, and Motorola Droid all support VPN connections; only the HTC Droid Eris doesn't. The BlackBerry's support is superior, as its VPN settings can be remotedly managed by IT. Using the free iPhone Configuration Utility, IT can also send iPhone users VPN profiles to install, but can't remotely manage them.

Voice Capabilities
Although what distinguishes smartphones from cell phones is data access, smartphones still must function as phones and handle voice calls. Except for the iPhone, all have good voice and speaker quality. The iPhone stands apart: Even rabid fans complain about its poor voice quality and frequent dropped calls. It's tempting to blame AT&T for that, except that the BlackBerrys don't suffer these issues on AT&T's network.

All the devices integrate the phone with their address books and search functions. But the Droids' search capabilities are more primitive than those of the other devices, You can't search just your contacts, for example.

Usability
The iPhone set the bar for mobile usability upon its debut and has continued to raise it with the two major OS releases since. The gestures make sense, and the OS and apps are full of little enhancements that bolster ease-of-use, such as the quick-delete swipe and ability to bulk-delete and bulk-move messages, as well as the ability to add Web pages to the home screen's apps grid for easy access. More recently, the iPhone added very intuitive, "smart" copy and paste that works for text and graphics. Where the iPhone falls short is its lack of support for running multiple apps simultaneously, which means switching apps can essentially close an app rather than freeze its current state for later resumption; this one-app-a-time limitation prevents the iPhone from being able to open file attachments and edit them from e-mail, for example. As previously noted, the Pre is the only device that makes it easy to move among multiple apps simultaneously -- as if you're using Mac OS X or Windows. The Droids' ability to pop up a menu of active apps (by holding the Home button) is not as good as the Pre's approach but still better than the iPhone's.

The HTC Droid Eris is surprisingly easy to use and full of well-designed applications that come in very handy. HTC has created its own Sense UI that extends the Google Android UI. While there are a lot of naked rip-offs from the iPhone, the UI is no mere collection of robotically stolen features. As mentioned earlier, the many widgets bring capabilities together intelligently, with many pleasant surprises in terms of options and display. The Motorola Droid has none of these, using the raw Android UI instead. It's a decent OS, but rougher by comparison to what HTC has done. But do note that the HTC Drid Eris has a slower processor than the Motorola Droid, so it's not as snappy switching among or running complex apps.

The Palm Pre's UI is clunkier than either the iPhone's or the Droids'. It shares many of the same principles, but is less consistent in, for example, its use of scrolling and menu access. Also, the separate swipe area for some gestures is confusing, as it's hard to remember which swipes work where on the split screen.

The BlackBerry UI is vintage, and not in a good way. Very reminiscent of Windows 3.0, it uses clunky menus, keyboard shortcuts, and primitive imagery. The trackball is jumpy and inaccurate, so scrolling, selecting, and zooming are imprecise activities. Keyboard aficionados like its extensive use of shortcuts, but there's no reason the BlackBerry OS couldn't retain those while introducing a modern graphical UI.

Beyond UI, the iPhone has also introduced some cool capabilities that let it and its apps do more. For example, an accelerometer allows player-style games and even tools such as carpenter's levels. Also, the built-in compass lets map-based applications become direction assistants. The Palm Pre and the two Droids have copied both capabilities, and the BlackBerry Storm has an accelerometer.

For some users, one major usability issue on the iPhone is the lack of a removable battery and memory card. I haven't had a need for more memory or to replace the battery on my two-year old device, but the proliferation of SD cards for storing and sharing photos -- even the newest Apple MacBook Pros have SD card slots -- makes the memory card omission a legitimate demerit for the iPhone's usability.

But the most divisive issue for usability is the keyboard. Many people hate touch keyboards, such as that pioneered in the iPhone. The BlackBerry Bold's QWERTY keyboard is much easier to use off the bat, though I became as proficient on the iPhone's touch keyboard as I am on the Bold's physical keyboard after several weeks.

The Motorola Droid's touch keyboard is similar to the iPhone's, lacking only the latter's multilingual capabilities. The HTC Droid Eris's QWERTY keyboard is easier to use than either the Motorola Droid's or the iPhone's, thanks to a cool hold-and-press feature to get fast access to common special characters such as numerals, $, and !. The Motorola Droid's physical keyboard is very hard to use, with low-travel keys and flat surfaces that make touch-typing difficult due to lack of tactile feedback. Using it slowed me down immensely, and I quickly abandoned it in favor of the much faster touch keyboard. The difference between the Motorola Droid's physical keyboard and the BlackBerry Bold's is night and day.

The Palm Pre's keyboard is similar to the BlackBerry Bold's, but the glossy keys and red-on-black print make it harder to use, especially when you're hunting for a symbol. The BlackBerry Bold's matte finish and clearer text avoid that problem. But the Storm 2's traditional multiple-characters-per-key BlackBerry keyboard is difficult to work with, as the device has to predict which letter you want on each key. There's no reason RIM couldn't use the Bold's keyboard on the Storm 2, and it should have, especially because its touch keyboard is unusable, due to how the screen must flex and rebound as you tap each character. That creates a delay for each and every character, so it's slow as molasses. (The original Storm's screen actually had to click for each character, and the flex action was meant to be less intrusive -- it isn't.)

The other major input advance from the iPhone was the use of a multitouch screen, which lets you do gestures involving more than one finger. The use of gestures opens up almost unlimited possibilities for what you can control via touch. Most of the other touchscreen competitors (the HTC Droid Eris, BlackBerry Storm 2, and Pre) have adopted the same approach -- with the glaring exception of the Motorola Droid, whose bundled apps don't support gestures. That ill-advised decision puts the Motorola Droid at a major usability disadvantage.

Finally, the physical devices vary in size, shape, and button arrangement, but by and large, they all have good designs. The Palm Pre feels the cheapest of the bunch in terms of finish and materials quality, and its fuzzy screen is an issue. The Motorola Droid auto-adjusts for brightness, using a light sensor to determine the screen intensity, but I found that it often flickered as it continually adjusted brightness in naturally lit rooms. Its on/off buttton is also hard to access.

Personal Technologies
Although these devices are attractive for potential business or professional use, they're also meant to be fun personal devices. The iPhone leans heavily on iTunes for access to music and videos -- after all, the iPhone is also an iPod. There's a reason the folks at Palm keep trying to hack iTunes to allow syncing to the Pre.

The other devices can all play music and videos, using Internet and carrier services for over-the-air access and USB syncing and SD cards for access to PC-based files. (Android users should get the DoubleTwist app for Macs and PCs that syncs Android devices with iTunes libraries.)

The Motorola Droid boasts a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, giving it the most capable built-in camera based on the specs. But as my Chicago Sun-Times colleague Andy Ihnatko has shown, the iPhone 3G S's 3-megapixel camera takes better pictures most of the time, likely due to its software's correction capabilities. The Pre, BlackBerry Storm 2, and HTC Droid Eris have midquality 3-megapixel cameras, while the BlackBerry Bold has a low-quality 2-megapixel camera. All but the Bold's are capable of video capture as well.

The iPhone stands out for its gaming and entertainment capabilities. There are hundreds of cool games and playtime apps that can amuse you for hours. The other devices have a much more limited selection of playthings.

pcworld

Free Tools for Fine-Tuning Your Windows 7 Setup

2009-11-09T00:27:00.000+07:00

Last week I told you how to migrate to Windows 7 at your own pace--there's no need to jump into the deep end right away. Now that you've got Windows 7 up and running on your newly partitioned, dual-boot PC, it's time for the next big step in any OS migration: reinstalling your software.

I've always hated this part, as it involves digging out CDs, downloading apps from lots of different sites, and then manually installing everything. Takes forever.

Thankfully, I've found salvation in the form of Ninite, a new service that automatically downloads and installs popular software.

All you do is scroll through Ninite's list of 70-odd apps, check-marking the ones you want. The service offers the most current versions of nearly every popular mainstream program, including Firefox, Skype, OpenOffice, iTunes, Picasa, Steam, and Revo Uninstaller.

Once you've made your picks, click Get Installer to download a small executable file. When you're ready, run that file and sit back while Ninite goes to work.

How long does it take? That depends on how many programs you've selected. I chose a baker's dozen (including the trial version of Office 2007 Standard, which I already own--now I just have to type in the security key), and I'd swear Ninite was done in all of 10 minutes.

I'll bet the service saved me a couple hours of manual labor. It worked flawlessly, and it installed 90 percent of the programs I use regularly. Awesome. Just awesome. And did I mention Ninite is free?

Migrating Your Bookmarks

I'd argue that the first thing a user wants upon migrating to a new PC--or, in this case, a new operating system on the same PC--is his or her bookmarks.

Fortunately, that's perhaps the single easiest chunk of data to move as part of our "slow" migration to Windows 7. All you need is Xmarks.

Available for both Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer, Xmarks automatically and effortlessly synchronizes your bookmarks between PCs and the Web.

If you were already using it, just install the program in your new Windows 7 partition, sign into your account, and presto: All your bookmarks will magically appear in your browser. (All your Web-site passwords, too, assuming you configured the tool to sync passwords.)

If you weren't using Xmarks before, start by booting back into your previous version of Windows, installing Xmarks, and setting up an account. (Don't worry, it's free.) Then you can jump back into Windows 7 and install Xmarks there.

There are other ways to copy bookmarks, but this is by far the fastest and easiest--and you get the added benefit of having a password-protected copy of your bookmarks on the Web, accessible from any PC.

Bonus Tip: Make Windows 7's Taskbar More Like Vista's

I like most of what Windows 7 brings to the table, but there's one thing I definitely don't like: the new taskbar. Specifically, I miss the text labels that accompany each running program. Without them, it takes me an extra second or two to figure out what's what. Fortunately, there's an easy way to make the Windows 7 toolbar look a lot more like the one in Vista (and, for that matter, XP). Here's how.

Right-click on any open area of the toolbar and choose Properties.
Click the "Taskbar buttons" pull-down and choose Never combine.
If you really want a more Vista/XP-like taskbar, check the "Use small icons" check box. Me, I like the bigger icons.
Click OK.

Now, this won't give you exactly the same taskbar you remember (Windows 7's pinned icons tend to interrupt the "flow" a bit), but at least you'll have the text labels and bigger buttons back.

pcworld

The Best of Today's E-Book Readers

2009-11-04T15:38:00.000+07:00

If you think the universe of e-book readers begins with the Kindle 2 and ends with the Kindle DX, think again. That universe is expanding rapidly. We recently completed thorough hands-on testing of seven of the top e-readers available today and came to a surprising conclusion: Our number one choice isn't from Amazon at all; it's the Sony Reader Touch Edition.

Sony's $300 reader matches the Kindle 2's screen size and quality but adds a touchscreen and support for free e-books and Adobe ePub, an e-book file format that book publishers and resellers have widely embraced. Whereas Adobe's PDF reproduces a fixed image of a page, ePub permits text to reflow in order to accommodate different fonts and font sizes.Certainly the wireless connectivity in Amazon's Kindle models makes buying new books a breeze, but to this point Amazon's readers support only Amazon's format, locking you into buying exclusively from the online giant.

Of course, no company's lead in the rapidly evolving e-reader market is safe. Barnes & Noble looks to be one of Amazon's chief competitors. The giant bookseller announced its Nook e-reader last month, and most people who got a peek at the device seemed to love it. The Nook isn't yet available for thorough testing, however.

E-books have numerous benefits. Eliminating paper saves resources. E-book readers take up little room in travelers' backpacks and purses, and yet can store the equivalent of a whole bookshelf. You don't have to go anywhere to buy or borrow an e-book title. For the vision-impaired, the ability to adjust font size can mean the difference between being able to read a book and having to hope that the publisher will eventually release an audio version. Some e-book readers double as music players, and some even have a speech capability for reading books aloud.

Unfortunately, the world of e-books is Balkanized, with multiple incompatible file formats and digital rights management (DRM) technologies, and devices with varying support for both. Books in the public domain are widely available in PDF and other standard formats. But copyrighted material is another story. Amazon's current Kindles can obtain commercial e-books in Amazon's AZW file format via wireless download only in the United States (in early October, however, the company announced a Kindle capable of downloading content in most countries).

Adobe offers a DRM technology called Adobe Content Server 4. Sony and a number of other online bookstores--most notably Borders--sell commercial titles in ePub/ACS4 format, and some libraries let patrons check out ePub books. As of early October, 17 e-book readers supported ePub and ACS4, making that combination the closest thing the industry has to a standard for DRM-protected books. Aside from the Amazon Kindles and Foxit's eSlick, all of the e-book readers in this collection of reviews support ePub/ACS4.

We compiled a comparison chart of the five highest-ranking e-readers at the conclusion of our evaluations. For the details, see our Top 5 E-Book Readers chart. And for individual reviews of the seven e-readers we put through their paces, click the links in the list of products in the floating contents bar on this page (above right).

pcworld

Gedit: Don't Get Tricked by Its Simple Looks

2009-10-31T23:41:00.001+07:00

Every Linux user that has used the GNOME desktop environment must have had at least an encounter with its default text editor, Gedit. You start it up, and it looks like a simple notepad type application with a toolbar added on top. However, don't let yourself fooled by that simple appearance. If you know how to customize this application, it can be modified to serve almost any text exiting purpose, and you can even create an IDE-like environment.

With Gedit, it's not the general appearance that counts, it's all the little details that make a great application. As a programmer, I know that simple things like auto indentation and syntax highlighting can make your job much more easier. Gedit's can do syntax highlighting for quite a large number of programming languages or file formats, over 70 in fact. Also, the customizable tab width makes it easy to structure your texts, and the option to fill tabs with spaces makes it so much friendly to many environments in which your files could end up. The line numbers make it easy to collaboratively edit text files like source code, and along with the jump to line function it provides a way to refer and return to a certain section of the document without scrolling

through to it.

Many text editors have trouble opening files that were created on other platforms, or with specific encodings, and this can go as far as replacing a specific set of characters with jibberish, which can be very annoying. Gedit tries to detect the appropriate encoding for the file that is opened, and the in-built UTF-8 support means that you can use any type of characters that aren't in the default ANSI set without worrying about compatibility.

Modifying a file means that there is a risk of accidentally overwriting a section or, even worse, saving those unwanted modifications. Gedit has provisions for that too, with multiple Undo/Redo levels, automatic backup and even an autosave function which has customizable time intervals. The backup files are saved in the same directory like the originals and they only have a tilde ("~") appended to the file name. Unfortunately, most file browsers hide these files by default, so they are often left behind and they clobber up the filesystem.

If you feel that the default color scheme, black text on white background, isn't comfortable for your eyes, there are others that you can pick from. Unfortunately, defining a new color scheme isn't as simple, because it has to contain all the rules by which the syntax highlighting is done, so custom setting files have to be created.

By default, Gedit is a pretty useful text editor, but its real power lies in its plug-ins. They range from spell checking support and document statistics to integrating a terminal or a file browser right into the text editor. With the functions that this plug-ins can provide, you can turn Gedit into a programming-friendly IDE, automate certain tasks or keep tabs on the character, line, word or even byte count of your document.

If you feel stuck at any point, the application ships with minimal documentation, but on Gedit's website you will find a wiki with more comprehensive guides and even a keyboard shortcut list for handy reference. Moreover, if you need to continue your work on another platform, you will be happy to find out that you can take this great text editor with you, because Gedit can also work on Windows and MacOS X, saving you the hassle of getting used to a different application.

softpedia

Windows 8, and So It Begins

2009-10-31T22:43:00.000+07:00

Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, and hit the shelves on October 22, generating obvious questions about what’s next for Microsoft’s proprietary operating system. And the answer is rather simple: Windows 8. This time around, the Redmond-based company made little efforts to hide the moniker associated with the next generation of the Windows client. Not that it could, given that the codename aspect of Windows development efforts is the only transparent aspect of the otherwise translucent communication strategy set in place by Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows and Windows Live Division.

Back in early 2007, after Windows Vista shipped to customers worldwide, Microsoft shifted its focus on what was at the time referred to as Windows codename Vienna, and which ended up as Windows 7. The company delivered a taste of early plans, noting that it was aiming for a release ahead of 2009, but nothing more after that. In fact, it wasn’t until August 2008 that Sinofsky started sharing crumbs from the development process of Windows 7, at a time when the operating system was between the Milestone 2 and Milestone 3 development stages.

In this regard, it is interesting to understand just how early Microsoft actually started building the successor of Windows Vista. According to Larry Osterman, Microsoft Principal SDE, the Windows team was hard at work coding for Windows 7 within 4-5 months after the general availability of Vista. “In June of 2007, we started working on actual feature planning – the planning team had come up with a set of tentative features for Win7 and we started the actual design for the features – figuring out the user experience for the features, the internal implementation details, etc.,” Osterman noted.

With Windows 7 wrapped up, Sinofsky was upgraded to the President position from senior vice president of the Windows and Windows Live engineering group, but just as it was the case for Windows 7, Windows 8 will be developed in accordance with his vision. With Sinofsky at the helm of the Windows 8 project, Osterman could even expect the same development experience as for Windows 7.

“The remarkable thing about Win7 development was that it was almost friction free. During the Vista development process (and in every other product I’ve worked on) development was marked by a constant stream of new issues which were a constant drain on time an energy. It felt like we moved from one crisis to another crisis,” Osterman recalled. “For Win7 it was different. I think it was some time during the second milestone that I realized that Win7 was ‘special’. The newer development process that was deployed for Win7 was clearly paying off and my life was far less stressed. In fact I don’t think I worked late or came in on weekends once during the entire 3 years that Win7 was under development – this was a HUGE change. Every other product I’ve ever worked on has required late nights and weekends (sometime it required all-nighters). But for Win7 it just didn’t happen. Instead we set a set of goals that were reasonable with achievable schedules and we executed on those goals and delivered the features we promised.”

Revolutionary vs. evolutionary

When it moved forward from Windows Vista (version 6.0) and Longhorn (Windows Server 2008) to Windows 7 (v6.1) and Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft chose the path of evolution rather than build a revolutionary OS. Another legitimate question about Windows 8 is whether the platform will continue to evolve, or whether Microsoft is ready for a revolution in Windows, even though the memory of what revolutionary meant for Vista is still fresh for customers. While only time will tell whichever way Microsoft will take Windows 8, one thing is clear, the Redmond-based company started planning for the next generation of Windows long before Windows 7 was finalized.

In addition, the software giant is also hiring people to start coding for Windows 8. If the development process described by Osterman still applies, Microsoft will begin building Windows 8 early in 2010, if not even earlier. However, just as is the case with all Windows platforms, the successor of Windows 7 will too have to go through a planning phase, where coding is left in the background, and the priority is putting together the actual feature set for the operating system. Still, don’t expect Microsoft to start talking Windows 8 until well into 2010, if not even 2011. After all, it took over a year since the Windows 7 coding had started for Sinofsky to share the first details on the engineering process of the project.

Just in October, Microsoft mentioned Windows 8 in a number of job posts:

- “IIS team is looking for an experienced PM to join our core platform team. Your role will span across driving key features into Windows 8 as well as owning several out-of-band modules, including web analytics that will bring business intelligence for the customers that host applications and contents on IIS. Your work will help differentiate IIS and Smooth Streaming from Apache and Flash. You should also be ready to work in a fast-paced environment and have a strong desire for quality, security, and performance. Your feature will be used by millions of customers,” for the position of Senior Program Manager.

- “The Windows Live Mail team is looking for a seasoned Lead Program Manager to drive our next generation Mail client, and manage five stellar PMs. Our client has over 40M users world-wide, and serves as a key component of our Windows Live “light up Windows” strategy. Our current release is centered on hot new consumer features & better synergies with Hotmail & Windows 7, and our future releases will likely be tightly designed to work best with new Windows 8 platform technologies. We will also work closely with the Outlook team on ways to bring Windows Live to Outlook,” for the position of Principal Lead Program Manager.

- “The TAG team provides the foundation services and infrastructure to support a unified test and dev workflow. This team’s charter includes - developing and running a unified test submission and execution system for Windows 8, Automating Test pass scheduling & execution, results analysis & automated triage, Windows code coverage services, Developing and running the eBVT quality gate, supporting WinSE’s Windows 7 sustained engineering test needs,” for the position of Test Lead 2.

- “The Application Experience Bug Investigation Team, AEBit, is looking for passionate SDETs that want to make an impact on Windows 8. On the AEBit team you will get the unique opportunity to challenge and grow your debugging skills on issues that span the entire OS. You will have the opportunity to engage with software vendors, OEMs, as well as internal component teams. You will also be applying and enhancing your knowledge of system internals. As part of the AEBit team you will be responsible for driving and ensuring compatibility in Windows by engaging with component teams, root causing application bugs, and authoring mitigations,” for the position of Software Development Engineer in Test.

softpedia

Kaskus Badge

2009-10-31T21:56:00.002+07:00

Vertical version:

Code:
[IMG]http://ngask.us/kaskusv.php?u=3[/IMG]

Horizontal version:

Code:
[IMG]http://ngask.us/kaskusv.php?u=3[/IMG]

The image above can also be placed on your site/blog with slightly different HTML code.
Thanks to chmdznr

TrueCrypt

2009-10-31T21:26:00.002+07:00

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
Main Features:

Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.

Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.

Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).

Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.

Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.

Provides plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:

Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.

Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS.

Further information regarding features of the software may be found in the documentation.

download : http://www.truecrypt.org/

Android 2.0: Your Complete Primer

2009-10-28T23:16:00.001+07:00

Feeling hungry? Try a taste of Eclair, Google's brand new Android operating system.

Google took the wraps off its tasty-sounding OS, also known as Android 2.0, on Tuesday. The software is expected to officially debut on Verizon's Motorola Droid smartphone -- you know, the one that does all those things Apple's phone doesn't -- early next month.

Android Eclair adds a host of features into the open source OS (and, despite its mouth-watering name, appears to be fairly low-calorie if eaten). Here's a look at what's new.

Quick Contact for Android

Android 2.0 includes a new "Quick Contact" feature that simplifies communication throughout your phone. The feature creates a menu bar with easy icons showing your contacts' communication modes -- e-mail, instant messaging, and whatever other venues you have listed for each person. The new bar pops up every time you tap on a contact's image anywhere on the device, whether you're in your actual contacts list, your e-mail, or even your calendar. Developers will also be able to incorporate the Quick Contact feature into third-party applications.

Multiple Account Support

Android 2.0 lets you manage multiple accounts throughout your device. That means you can sync up several e-mail addresses, Exchange-based or otherwise, and keep track of your messages and contacts together.

With the multiple account support, the 2.0 OS will allow you to create a combined inbox that displays messages from all of your accounts on a single page.

Camera Improvements

Android 2.0's camera controls support flash and digital zoom. The software also includes options for scene mode, white balance, color effect, and macro focus.

Better Keyboard

While the Verizon Droid will include a physical keyboard, other upcoming Android devices won't (and other existing Android devices don't). The Android 2.0 edition makes typing on the virtual on-screen keyboard easier, with a tweaked layout built to improve key-pressing accuracy and allow for faster typing. It also relies on a retooled dictionary that "learns" from your typing habits and includes names of your contacts as suggested words.

Better Browser

The default browser in Android 2.0 features a "refreshed" user interface. A new address bar offers support for instant tap-driven searching and navigation, and double-tap zoom is supported throughout the browsing experience. The browser also supports HTML5 standards, including the usage of the geolocation API and video tag.

Better Bluetooth

Bluetooth gets a boost in Android 2.0: First, Bluetooth 2.1 is fully supported. Second, developers will be able to better integrate Bluetooth functionality into their apps. With the Android 2.0 update, applications will be able to activate Bluetooth on your phone, search for other Bluetooth-enabled devices, and send and receive Bluetooth data. That addition, according to Google, should allow for stronger peer-to-peer communication and "proximity-based social interaction."

Other Additions

Android 2.0 introduces a new graphics architecture with better performance and improved hardware acceleration. It also brings SMS/MMS search and a handful of calendar improvements into the OS.

You can take a video tour of some of the new features in Google's Android 2.0 developer's video. Just be sure to wipe your hands when you're done -- all that Eclair is bound to leave some grease behind.

pcworld

The TV You Want Today

2009-10-27T02:04:00.001+07:00

When you stroll into your local store to shop for a new TV, dozens of big, glossy screens will greet you, each one trying to draw you in with its bright, colorful pictures. And a bewildering bevy of new features promise a multitude of benefits. Which ones will make a difference in what you watch and in how it looks on the screen? We'll help you sort out what's important. (If you haven't bought an HDTV before, see our previous article package on setting up an HDTV.)

The Changing World of Television

It's official: The (television) world is flat. The market has just about completed the transition from the large, heavy, cube-shaped, standard-definition CRT (picture-tube) television set to the sleek, thin, light, high-definition flat-panel set. According to market research firm DisplaySearch, worldwide shipments of flat-panel televisions shifted from about 5 percent of all sets in early 2004 to nearly 75 percent of the total last spring. In terms of revenue, flat panels now account for more than 90 percent of the worldwide television market. The Consumer Electronics Association says that 52 percent of U.S. households have an HDTV today. And now that the digital transition is complete, HDTV adoption continues apace.

For many shoppers, this year's television purchase may bump a previously purchased HDTV down to some other area of the house, such as the kitchen or a bedroom. But whether this is your first HDTV set or your third, it pays to get a model that's packed with all of the latest features. You'll likely find some eye-popping HDTV deals this holiday season, but don't expect prices to plummet, even if HDTV prices today are 20 percent lower than they were last year. According to DisplaySearch analyst Paul Semenza, the LCD panels used in HDTVs are actually getting more expensive. So far, prices of models on store shelves haven't reflected this shift--but it could inhibit the deep discounts that often appear during a holiday buying season.

Another recent trend is full-resolution HDTVs: All but a few entry-level, low-cost models with screen sizes greater than 40 inches have the 1920-by-1080 resolution of "full HD" (1080p). At smaller screen sizes, 720p remains common: On Best Buy's Web site, I found that 18 of the 35 sets between 30 and 39 inches were 720p, including models from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony.

40" Samsung LN40B650T1f: It's the priciest 40-inch model on our Top 5 chart of 40-to-42-inch HDTVs, but this television offers first-rate picture quality, along with a slew of ports for Internet features and other network connections, all while being very usable.

Beyond entry-level sets, today's HDTVs differentiate themselves with features that can enhance your viewing experience and improve the TV's performance. Several capabilities--such as fast-motion response times and LED backlighting--that were once exclusive to super-pricey high-end models are now showing up in more-affordable mainstream units. But what do these new features mean, and will they make a noticeable difference in your viewing? Which features are merely nice to have, and which ones are worth paying extra money to get?

(Note: For this feature overview and our latest roundup of HDTVs, the PC World Labs developed a new, up-to-date suite of tests, described in "How We Test HDTVs.")

Rising Refresh Rates

According to DisplaySearch, about half of all LCD HDTVs with 40-inch or larger screens now have refresh rates of 120Hz or higher. It took a couple of years for 120Hz to reach the mainstream, but today only entry-level and economy models at these large sizes have the standard 60Hz refresh rate. The picture changes for sets under 40 inches, though: DisplaySearch says that among all such LCDs shipped in the second quarter of 2009, only 14 percent were capable of 120Hz. The company expects that figure to grow to 24 percent by the year 2013.

Some manufacturers have made a full-on push to 120Hz. Sony, for example, has only one series--the Bravia S5100--that doesn't have 120Hz or 240Hz models.

Note the emphasis here on LCDs (versus plasma screens): Since LCDs have the lion's share of the flat-panel market at more than 90 percent, it makes sense that they get most of the attention. But LCD technology has a known issue with fast motion, stemming from the fact that it relies on moving tiny molecules around to block or to transmit the light from the panel's backlight. And these molecules need time to move from one position to another. As a result, traditional panel designs ran into a problem with motion blur. Commonly, the leading and trailing edges of a fast-moving object in an image looked soft, an unwelcome artifact--and not just for hockey fans trying to follow a speeding puck on the screen.

Refresh Rates, Continued

Panel manufacturers found that changing the cell structure and the formulations of liquid crystal material wasn't enough to overcome this problem: The trick was to refresh the image twice as often, doubling the refresh rate from 60 to 120 times a second. In addition, manufacturers improved their televisions' controlling circuitry so that it would look at the two original frames in the 60Hz image stream, and interpolate a new frame to provide an intermediate image.

This approach produced a marked improvement over traditional 60Hz sets, one that's well worth the extra investment in a set with a minimum of 120Hz. The price difference has narrowed, but you can still expect to pay approximately $100 to $200 more to step up to an HDTV set with this feature in the 40- to 42-inch range. It's a must-have feature if you plan to watch sports, but any content that includes panning scenes and fast action will benefit from this technology.

If 120Hz is good, then 240Hz must be twice as good, right? The answer is a lot murkier than that. The manufacturers that offer 240Hz refresh technology are divided into two camps, each with a different approach. Samsung and Sony use a true 240Hz technology, in which (as in 120Hz sets) the controller starts with a pair of frames from the 60Hz content stream--but then creates three additional intermediate frames, not one. This means that for each of the original frames, the set actually displays four frames. (The math changes for 24p signals, such as those piped out by Blu-ray Disc players, but the concept is similar.)

Adding these extra frames causes the liquid crystal material to move more quickly than it otherwise would, which in turn reduces the blur effects. The difference may be noticeable compared with 120Hz, but in our tests it wasn't as dramatic as the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz, even when we looked at the sets side by side. As such, 240Hz is probably not worth paying a lot more for over the cost of a 120Hz model. (Right now, the jump from 120Hz to 240Hz is about $300 to $600, a large premium compared with the step from 60Hz to 120Hz.)

LG 42LH50

LG approaches 240Hz by a different path: Its models with 240Hz performance generate one interpolated frame for each of the standard 60Hz frames, just as 120Hz models do, but they flash their backlights twice for every frame. Thus, 60 original frames plus 60 more interpolated frames make 120 frames, and then the backlight flashing twice for each frame yields 240 flashes per second. Like a strobe light in a disco dance hall, the flash of the backlight helps freeze the action on the screen and reduce motion blur. But this eye trick still presents only 120 frames per second, so asserting that its refresh rate is faster than 120Hz rests on rather shaky science.

Panels with 120Hz (or faster) refresh rates have one additional benefit: Most television programming is recorded at 30 frames per second (fps), which is easy to double for the 60Hz refresh rate that most HDTVs have used. Movies, however, are filmed at 24 fps, which poses problems for technicians seeking to digitize them for DVD or broadcast formats. To fit the 30-fps timing, every four frames of movie film must be stretched to fit five frames of video. The process employed to achieve this, called "3:2 pulldown," uses two interlaced fields of the first film frame and then three interlaced frames of the next frame to produce the stretch.

This awkward conversion can create a motion artifact called "judder," a jerkiness or slight stutter visible in the finished image. But since 120Hz, unlike 60Hz, is an even multiple of 24, these panels can display 24-fps material without requiring any conversion; each frame just gets shown five times.

Note also that plasma does not have this problem. The individual plasma pixels can actually turn on and off much faster than an LCD pixel; in fact, Panasonic has taken to describing their panels as "600 Hz". Plasma needs this extra speed because a pixel can only be on or off, and so must be turned on and off rapidly during each frame of an image to create the correct shade of color. So in theory, motion blur is not a problem for plasma models. However, the PC World Labs' tests showed that, at least in the case of the two plasma models we tested from Panasonic--the TC-PS461 and the TC-P42X1--some plasma sets could learn a thing or two from LCDs.

LED Backlighting

Another feature growing in prominence is the use of LEDs as backlights for LCD TV panels. Both Samsung and Toshiba call their models with this feature "LED TVs," which has confused many consumers. LED TVs are not a new technology; they're just LCD TVs with a different type of backlight. LEDs have some distinct advantages over traditional cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) designs, which many LCD TVs use. Compared with CCFL technology, LED backlighting results in TVs that require less power (by up to 40 percent for a 40-inch television) and provide improved color performance: LED TVs handle red and green hues better, resulting in more-natural, more-lifelike picture quality.

46" Samsung LN46B750U1F: The top-ranked model on our chart of larger high-definition sets, this 46-inch HDTV earned plaudits for superb picture quality, Internet connectivity, and an array of functions on its full-featured remote control.

Perhaps the foremost advantage of LED backlighting is its ability to enhance contrast and produce darker blacks. This capability closes the gap between LCD screens and plasma displays, which traditionally have offered deeper blacks than LCDs. Here again, manufacturers have adopted two different approaches to implementing LED backlights. One design puts the LED lights behind the LCD panel in a big matrix layout. This approach permits the use of "local dimming": If the controller recognizes that a portion of the image is generally dark, it can automatically dim the LEDs behind that one small segment of the image. This helps keep black levels low, increasing the apparent contrast.

The other way to use LEDs with LCD panels is to put them along the edge behind the panel, as Samsung's 1.2-inch-thick, 46-inch UN46B8000 does. This approach requires sophisticated diffusers to spread the light evenly behind the LCD layer, and it reduces or eliminates the ability to improve apparent contrast through localized, content-based dimming. It does keep the part count much lower, however, and it can make the heat that the LEDs generate easier to manage.

Though LEDs have their benefits, they come with their own issues. For one thing, LED TVs cost appreciably more than CCFL-based models--about $300 more, on average--due both to the cost of manufacturing the LEDs and to the cost of installing these arrays. Also, LED production processes cannot yet make units with consistent color output, so manufacturers must inspect each LED and "bin" it--grouping it with other LEDs of similar color. The more consistent and accurate the color output required, the more the individual LEDs cost. Until the industry solves this problem, LCD TVs with LED backlights are likely to cost more than CCFL sets.

If you care about color quality and are willing to tweak your television, an LED-backlight model may be worth the extra money. Even at a $300 premium, you would be paying less than $30 a year extra over the set's expected lifetime, or less than $2.50 a month. We've seen some lovely images produced by LED-backlit HDTVs--on the Samsung LN-A950, for example. Note, however, that none of the models we tested for this roundup included LED backlights.

Connectivity

Another big trend this year involves connections to bring the Internet to your TV. Many HDTVs have an ethernet connection on the back, plus integrated software for dealing with Web content. If you connect to the Internet via your home network's router, your TV can gain access to a range of Web-based content, all without going through a computer.

According to data from Nielsen, 90 percent of U.S. homes now have access to broadband Internet connections, so the connected TV is entirely feasible with today's technology, especially if the HDTV set has a Wi-Fi capability, as many do.

The TVs shipping today that have Web access limit the locations you can visit online. This approach simplifies navigation, which is important because you have to use a remote control instead of a keyboard, mouse, and full-on Web browser.

This year marks the debut of Yahoo Connected TV's Widgets; the Widgets are now offered on Internet-capable sets from LG, Samsung, Sony, and Vizio. The services and presentation vary from one brand to another, as manufacturers make different choices about which Widgets to offer. Widgets are available for news, weather, and sports information, as well as for access to popular sites like YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook.

Yahoo Widgets isn't the only Internet connectivity going. Sony has continued to develop its Bravia Internet Video Link version of streaming, Web-based content--which includes modules for Amazon Video on Demand, CBS, Netflix, Slacker Internet Radio, YouTube, and more. Other sets, such as units developed by Panasonic and by LG Electronics, have modules for services as well; the most popular inclusions are Amazon Video on Demand, Netflix and Vudu, along with photo sharing sites such as Flickr and Picasa, and streaming music Websites like Pandora and Slacker Internet Radio.

Network connectivity can give you access to the content you've stored on your home network, including CDs you've ripped, digital photos, and digital home movies. Some sets can access those items, as well. The Digital Living Network Alliance certifies most connected TVs; put your files on a DLNA-certified storage device on your network, and a DLNA television will be able to play your music and screen your photos and videos. According to the Alliance's Website (www.dlna.org) more than 500 DLNA-certified television models are available. Windows Media Player 11 and 12 are DLNA servers too, so using a PC that runs XP, Vista, or Windows 7 will work, if you use WMP 11 or 12 for your media library.

Integrated ethernet has another advantage: Upgrades to your television's software can download automatically, so the updated firmware, or a new Widget or other service, will be available the next time you turn on your HDTV.

Network connectivity will give you access to an enormous amount of additional content--much of it on-demand and free--but do some research before plunking down your cash if you want specific services or capabilities. Having an ethernet connection doesn't automatically mean that an HDTV will stream media through your home network, or have all the Web services you seek.

Going ‘Green'?

Consumer electronics are going green, and the HDTV market is no exception to the trend. While plasma flat panels continue to consume more electricity than LCD models, both technologies have made notable strides in energy conservation.

For example, "eco modes" dim the picture to save energy when the viewer doesn't need full brightness, working in much the same way as a draft mode on a printer. Automatic ambient light sensors can adjust an image's brightness, saving energy. And plasma manufacturers have developed some more-efficient technologies that reduce the power a plasma television consumes.

Most manufacturers are not shy about touting their "greenness," whenever possible. To check for lower power consumption, look for the Energy Star 3.0 logo. To qualify for this optional program, run jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy, an HDTV must not exceed a specified maximum power consumption limit. This limit differs somewhat depending on the set's screen size, and the Energy Star program breaks out HDTVs into three segments: smaller than 40 inches, 40 inches to 58 inches, and larger than 58 inches. (Click for a list of models that qualify for Energy Star logos.)

The next revision of Energy Star, Version 4.0, is due to take effect on May 1, 2010, and Version 5.0 will replace it on May 1, 2012. These new specifications further reduce the maximum allowable amount of energy that a qualifying set can use.

Other industry groups are promoting their own energy consumption guidelines and logos. The LCD TV Association's "Green TV" initiative currently requires that a TV have an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust the screen's brightness in response to room lighting conditions; dimming the screen in darkened rooms helps save energy (more stringent guidelines are in the works). So far, only LG Electronics has qualified its televisions--four lines, to be precise--for this logo. Of course, the "Green TV" logo alone doesn't determine whether a TV has this capability: Sony's VE5 series of televisions has an ambient light sensor, too, among other eco-friendly modes.

Meanwhile, the California Energy Commission (CEC) has proposed legislation dictating its own energy consumption limits for televisions. Differing from optional programs like Energy Star and Green TV, the CEC's proposed regulations would be mandatory. Under the CEC's proposal, it would be illegal to sell nonconforming products in the state of California. (Because California is so big, such regulations could afffect sets nationwide, as well.)

The CEC has stated plans to make a final decision about the specifications--which would likely place limits on the maximum operating power consumption for all flat-panel televisions, as well as other modes such as standby--this November. All flat-panel TVs--especially larger plasmas--could be impacted by this legislation; some models meet the requirements, and others do not. Meanwhile, plasma TVs remain, on average, less-expensive than same-size LCD TVs (a 50-inch plasma can be about $300 less than a comparable LCD).

According to some sources, consumers can save $15 to $30 a year on their electricity bills by choosing a set with lower power consumption. This may not seem like a big deal, but consider that the average U.S. consumer keeps a television for ten years or longer. A savings of $150 to $300 on a set that originally cost $500 to $1000 is a significant amount.

Whither OLED?

What about the new, revolutionary flat-panel technologies--such as OLED--that you may have heard of and that are supposed to arrive "any day now"? The answer is that they're not coming any time soon, at least not a way that will have any significant impact at present on your buying decision.

In recent years, we've had an alphabet soup of new technologies, including FED and SED, paraded around at fancy demos. These promising advances have fizzled for many reasons, but perhaps the unrelenting decline in LCD and plasma prices is most to blame for their failure to come to market. A set that was targeted to sell for $2500 a few years ago must now sell for under $1000, wiping out any profit that would have been made at the higher price. As LCD and plasma manufacturers continue to improve production efficiencies and economies of scale, it becomes increasingly difficult for new display technologies to gain a foothold.

Most Promising (Maybe): OLED

The most promising technology that might yet catch on remains organic light-emitting displays (OLEDs). OLEDs are emissive like a picture-tube (CRT) television, which eliminates issues with viewing angles; and the technology is fast and highly responsive, so it lacks motion blurring. OLED displays are incredibly thin; the entire display is just a thin layer on the back of a sheet of glass (or plastic or other substrate). Blacks are deep and endless, colors are stunning, and the whole thing requires very little power.

Sony has been selling the XEL-1 OLED TV for a couple years now, and it is the first and (still) the only OLED TV on the market. (OLED screens are used primarily in mobile devices such as cell phones and media players like the Microsoft Zune HD.) The problem with the XEL-1 is that it's about one-sixteenth the size of a 42-inch flat panel, yet costs two to four times as much. It measures only 11-inches diagonal, or about the size of a netbook screen, so it's barely large enough for a personal TV. It also carries a mere 960-by-540-pixel resolution, so it's not even high definition. And with a $2500 price tag, it's impossible to get excited about the value proposition.

While many companies have set (and missed) delivery dates for larger-format OLED HDTVs, the only company with anything promised is Samsung, which plans to sell a 15-inch, 720p-capable model in Korea this year. Samsung hasn't yet announced pricing, but some sources have predicted that they will be in line with the Sony model. Other sets are rumored for delivery in 2010, but as past experience has shown, don't believe they're coming until they hit the store shelves. While small-screen production for mobile devices is proceeding well, manufacturers are finding it more difficult than expected to transfer that experience to manufacturing the larger panels necessary for an HDTV. The fabrication costs are higher and the yields lower than hoped, and this makes it nearly impossible to make a TV-sized panel at a competitive price. At least for now.

So today, your choices are LCD and plasma for flat panels. LCD is just about the only choice for sets smaller than 40 inches diagonal. Plasma continues to have a price advantage in sets 40 inches and larger, so compare carefully when choosing between the two technologies.

Beyond the Core

Manufacturers continue to find ways to differentiate their products. For example, most flat-panel TVs now have extensive settings that allow the image to be adjusted to optimal settings for a given room or piece of content (video or film, say). Some will even store different configurations for day and night viewing. In the past, these were locked up so that only qualified technicians could access them, and a professional calibration service could cost hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars. Now, most people buy and install their flat panel themselves--so manufacturers are opening up the advanced configuration settings to the end user.

Note, however, that such do-it-yourselfers can get lost in the maze of settings and end up with an image that is far less than optimal. Get the edge enhancement settings too far off, and objects on the screen can develop comic-book outlines. Misadjust the motion compensation settings, and you can introduce noticeable artifacts (even though you'll fix other, also noticeable, artifacts). If you do change any of the settings, make sure you know how to get back to the factory defaults in case you get it hopelessly entangled. You can also find DVDs that will provide test images and instructions that will help you adjust your HDTV's settings with more precision than just eyeballing it.

Another feature area is the quality of the sound the set can produce. Some can simulate multi-channel surround sound, while others just have simple stereo speakers (and not always of outstanding quality at that). Some models, such as the Toshiba REGZA XV648 series, include volume-leveling features that even out the quiet and loud parts of programming. Toshiba uses technology from Dolby for this, though other companies offer similar technology. If you're serious about sound, you'll still want a separate surround sound setup.

A feature coming to sets in the near future is 3D capability; for a discussion, see "3DTV: The Next Big Thing?"

Final Word

Some of the newfangled features we've discussed here will help you experience your entertainment content differently, or improve how it looks on screen. In general, as you try to decide what to buy, resist being dazzled by shiny, sparkly things. Focus instead on the attributes that will matter when you're watching various kinds of content on your new TV.

pcworld

Sate Ayam Blora, Komplet dan Sedep

2009-10-26T17:52:00.001+07:00

Jika tergolong penggemar sate, siang ini anda bisa menguji kelezatan sate racikan kabupaten Blora, Jawa Tengah. Irisan daging ayam kampung yang tipis diadu dengan bumbu kacang dan dinikmati panas dengan kuah kuning yang gurih enak. Bisa dimakan dengan nasi atau lontong. Mau coba?

Kalau sate ayam Ponorogo terkenal karena potongan dagingnya yang besar dan mantap, maka sate ayam dari Blora ini sangat berbeda. Satenya terbuat dari daging ayam kampung yang dipotong kecil-kecil.

Di warung makan sate ini biasanya sate ayam dipanggang langsung di depan pelanggan komplet dengan angkringan sate yang khas. Bahkan di keliling angkringan ini ditaruh bangku-bangku kayu panjang untuk makan sate sehingga kalau mau menambah pesanan bisa langsung dari angkringan.

Bumbu sate ini juga tak sekedar olesan kecap manis tetapi memakai bumbu bawang putih, gula merah dan ketumbar. Tentu saja saat dipanggang bukan hanya aroma bawang dan gula gosong yang menebar tetapi juga wangi ketumbar yang unik.

Pelengkap sate yang biasa disajikan di atas sepotong daun jati ini adalah sambal kacang, kecap manis, bawang merah goreng, bawang merah mentah dan sambal rawit. Setelah saus kacang diaduk dengan semua pelengkap, barukan sate dicocolkan ke dalam saus tersebut.

Hmmm... rasanya gurih-gurih, sedikit manis dan pedas beradu dengan liat gurih daging ayam kampung. Keunikan lainnya terletak pada kuah kuning yang menjadi pelengkap. Kuah yang terbuat dari santan encer dengan bumbu bawang ini juga gurih enak. Jadi, lontong atau nasi disiram kuah kuning ini lalu dinikmati dengan sate yang sudah dibalut bumbu. Tentu saja rasanya makin enak!

Kalau siang ini ingin mengcicipi keunikan sate ayam ini, mampir saja ke salah satu rumah makan dan warung sate Blora yang ada di Jakarta ini.

Sate Blora Cirebon
Jl. Pesanggrahan 24
Jakarta Barat

Pondok Sate Blora 'Remaja'
Jl. Panglima Polim Raya No. 62
Jakarta Selatan

Sate Blora AGUS Klender
Samping Mal Klender
Telp: 021-8621387
Gading Batavia Kelapa Gading, Jakarta Utara
Telp: 021-8621387
PTC (Food Court) Pulo Gadung, Jakarta Timur
BSD Plaza, Tangerang
HP: 08159174729

Sate Blora
Jln Balai Pustaka Timur Rawangmangun
Jakarta Timur

detik

5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything

2009-10-26T01:37:00.000+07:00

While sipping a cup of organically farmed, artisan-brewed tea, I tap on my gigabit-wireless-connected tablet, to pull up a 3D movie on the razor-thin HDTV hanging on the wall. A media server streams the film via a superspeedy USB connection to a wireless HD transmitter, which then beams it to the TV.

That actor--who was he? My augmented-reality contact lenses pick up the unique eye motion I make when I have a query, which I then enter on a virtual keyboard that appears in the space in front of me. Suddenly my field of vision is covered with a Web page showing a list of the actor's movies, along with some embedded video clips.

These technologies will come to life in the distant future, right? Future, yes. Distant, no.

Speed and content (much of it video) will be paired consistently across mobile, laptop, desktop, and home-entertainment systems. New ways of using video--including adding 3D depth or artificial visual overlays--will require more speed, storage, and computational power.

In our preview of technologies that are well on their way to reality, we look at the connective tissue of USB 3.0, 802.11ac, and 802.11ad for moving media--especially video--faster; at HTML5 for displaying video and content of all kinds consistently across all our devices; at augmented reality to see how the digital world will stretch into our physical reality by overlaying what we see with graphics and text; and at 3D TV, which will add image depth and believability to the experience of watching TV.

USB 3.0

The new USB 3.0 standard preserves backward compatibility by allowing older cables to plug into newer jacks; but newer cables like this one have extra pins that boost the data rate to 4.8 gbps.

Before you leave work, you need to back up your computer. You push a button, and 5 minutes later, while you're still packing up, your system has dumped 150GB of data onto an encrypted 512GB superfast solid-state drive, which you eject to take with you for offsite backup. On your way home, you stop at a movie kiosk outside a fast-food restaurant and buy a feature-length 3D video download on sale. You plug in your drive, the kiosk reads your credentials, and while you watch a 90-second preview of coming attractions, the 30GB video transfers onto your SSD. You pull out the drive and head home.

USB may be one of the least-sexy technologies built into present-day computers and mobile devices, but speed it up tenfold, and it begins to sizzle. Cut most of the other cables to your computer, and the standard ignites. Bring in the potential of uncompressed video transfer, and you have a raging fire.

Any task that involves transferring data between your PC and a peripheral device--scanning, printing, or transferring files, among others--will be far faster with USB 3.0. In many cases, the transfer will be complete before you realize it has started.

The 3.0 revision of USB, dubbed SuperSpeed by the folks who control testing and licensing at the USB Implementors Forum (USB-IF), is on track to deliver more than 3.2 gigabits per second (gbps) of actual throughput. That transfer rate will make USB 3.0 five to ten times faster than other standard desktop peripheral standards, except some flavors of DisplayPort and the increasingly out-of-favor eSATA.

In addition, USB 3.0 can shoot full-speed data in both directions at the same time, an upgrade from 2.0's "half duplex" (one direction at a time) rates. USB 3.0 jacks will accept 1.0 and 2.0 plug ends for backward compatibility, but 3.0 cables will work only with 3.0 jacks.

This technology could be a game-changer for device connectivity. A modern desktop computer today may include jacks to accommodate ethernet, USB 2.0, FireWire 400 or 800 (IEEE 1394a or 1394b) or both, DVI or DisplayPort or both, and--on some--eSATA. USB 3.0 could eliminate all of these except ethernet. In their place, a computer may have several USB 3.0 ports, delivering data to monitors, retrieving it from scanners, and exchanging it with hard drives. The improved speed comes at a good time, as much-faster flash memory drives are in the pipeline.

USB 3.0 is fast enough to allow uncompressed 1080p video (currently our highest-definition video format) at 60 frames per second, says Jeff Ravencraft, president and chair of the USB-IF. That would enable a camcorder to forgo video compression hardware and patent licensing fees for MPEG-4. The user could either stream video live from a simple camcorder (with no video processing required) or store it on an internal drive for later rapid transfer; neither of these methods is feasible today without heavy compression. Citing 3.0's versatility, some analysts see the standard as a possible complement--or even alternative--to the consumer HDMI connection found on today's Blu-ray players.

The new USB flavor could also turn computers into real charging stations. Whereas USB 2.0 can produce 100 milliamperes (mA) of trickle charge for each port, USB 3.0 ups that quantity to 150mA per device. USB 2.0 tops out at 500mA for a hub; the maximum for USB 3.0 is 900mA.

With mobile phones moving to support USB as the standard plug for charging and syncing (the movement is well underway in Europe and Asia), and with U.S. carriers having recently committed to doing the same, the increased amperage of USB 3.0 might let you do away with wall warts (AC adapters) of all kinds.

In light of the increased importance and use of USB in its 3.0 version, future desktop computers may very well have two internal hubs, with several ports easily accessible in the front to act as a charging station. Each hub could have up to six ports and support the full amperage. Meanwhile, laptop machines could multiply USB ports for better charging and access on the road. (Apple's Mac Mini already includes five USB 2.0 ports on its back.)

The higher speed of 3.0 will accelerate data transfers, of course, moving more than 20GB of data per minute. This will make performing backups (and maintaining offsite backups) of increasingly large collections of images, movies, and downloaded media a much easier job.

Possible new applications for the technology include on-the-fly syncs and downloads (as described in the case study above). The USB-IF's Ravencraft notes that customers could download movies at the gas pump at of a filling station. "With high-speed USB [2.0], you couldn't have people waiting in line at 15 minutes a crack to download a movie," Ravencraft says.

Manufacturers are poised to take advantage of USB 3.0, and analysts predict mass adoption of the standard on computers within a couple of years. The format will be popular in mobile devices and consumer electronics, as well. Ravencraft says that manufacturers currently sell more than 2 billion devices with built-in USB each year, so there's plenty of potential for getting the new standard out fast.

Video Streaming Over Wi-Fi

Today's Wi-Fi will be left in the dust by 802.11ac and 802.11ad, both of which will be capable of carrying multiple video streams and of operating at far higher data rates.

When you get home--with your high-def, 3D movie stored on a flash drive--you plug the drive into your laptop and transfer it to your network file server over a gigabit Wi-Fi connection. A couple of minutes later, the movie is ready to stream via a 60GHz wireless link from your networked entertainment center to your wall-mounted HDTV.

Wired ethernet has consistently achieved higher data speeds than Wi-Fi, but wireless standards groups are constantly trying to figure out ways to help Wi-Fi catch up. By 2012, two new protocols--802.11ac and 802.11ad--should be handling over-the-air data transmission at 1 gbps or faster.

As a result, future users can have multiple high-definition video streams and gaming streams active across a house and within a room. Central media servers, Blu-ray players, and other set-top boxes can sit anywhere in the home, streaming content to end devices in any location. For example, an HD video display, plugged in with just a power cord, can stand across the room from a Blu-ray player, satellite receiver, or computer--no need for expensive, unsightly cables.

The 802.11ac and 802.11ad standards should be well suited for home use, though their applications will certainly extend far beyond the home. The names reflect the internal method of numbering that the engineering group IEEE uses: 802 for networking, 11 for wireless, and one or more letters in sequence for specific task groups (that's how we got 802.11a, b, g, h, n, and others).

The 802.11ac standard will update 802.11n, the latest and greatest of a decade's worth of wireless local area networking (WLAN) technology that began with 802.11b. With 802.11ac, wireless networking performance will leap from a theoretical top speed of 600 mbps to a nominal maximum of more than 1 gbps. In practice, the net data carried by 802.11ac will be likely be between 300 mbps and 400 mbps--up from 160 mbps or so for a good real-world 802.11n setup, and more than enough capacity to carry multiple compressed video streams over a single channel simultaneously. Or users may assign individual streams running on unique frequencies to a number of separate channels. Like 802.11n, 802.11ac will use many antennas for receiving and sending data wirelessly.

The 802.11ac flavor still won't have the capacity to carry lossless high-definition video (video that retains the full fidelity and quality of the raw source), however. Today, lossless video is common over wired connections after decompression or decoding of a data stream from a satellite, cable, or disc. The right hardware will be able to take the 802.11ac compressed data stream and send it directly to a decoder in an HDTV set; some HD sets already have this capability today. But when uncompressed video has to stream at a rate faster than 1 gbps, a speedier format must be used.

That's where 802.11ad comes in. It abandons the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands of the spectrum (where today's Wi-Fi works) to the newly available 60GHz spectrum. Because the 60GHz spectrum has an ocean of frequencies available in most countries--including in the United States--you'll be able to use multiple distinct channels to carry more than 1 gbps of uncompressed video each.

Unfortunately, the millimeter-long waves that make up 60GHz signals penetrate walls and furniture poorly, and oxygen readily absorbs the waves' energy. So 802.11ad is best suited for moving data across short distances between devices in the same room. Apart from supporting fast video transfers, 802.11ad will permit you to move files or sync data between devices at speeds approaching that of USB 3.0--and 1000 times faster than Bluetooth 2.

The 802.11ad spec is one of three competing ideas for using the 60GHz band of the spectrum. The Wireless HD trade group, a consortium of consumer electronics firms, is focusing on video use of the 60GHz band, while the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) is looking at networking and consumer uses. Membership in the various groups overlaps, making an interoperable and perhaps unified spec possible. Though 802.11ad doesn't specifically address video, it will be a generic technology that can accommodate many kinds of data. At a minimum, each group will work to prevent interference with one another's purposes.

The combination of 802.11ac and 802.11ad, coupled with USB 3.0, will allow you to position clusters of computer equipment and entertainment hardware around your home. USB 3.0 and gigabit ethernet might connect devices located in a cabinet or on a desk; 802.11ac will link clusters across a home; and 802.11ad will carry data to mobile devices, displays, and other gear within a room.

Allen Huotari, the technical leader at Cisco Consumer Products (which now includes Linksys products and ships millions of Wi-Fi and ethernet devices each year) says that the change in home networks won't result from "any one single technology in the home, but rather a pairing of technologies or a trio of technologies--wired and/or wireless--for the backbone and the wireless on the edges."

This means fewer wires and cables, better speeds, and higher-quality video playback than anything possible today. By 2012, both specifications should be readily available.

3D TV

Panasonic and other high-definition TV makers are looking to faux 3D technology to provide stereoscopic depth--and a reason for consumers to buy a newer set.

Disconnecting your active-shutter 3D glasses from a charger, you slip them on, eager to check out your downloaded copy of Hulk VI: Triumph of the Stretch Fabrics,the latest entrant in the green antihero's film franchise. You drop into a comfy chair, tell the kids it's time for a movie, and twist the heat pouch on a bag of popcorn to start it popping. The kids grab their own glasses and sit down to watch the Hulk knock the Predator practically into their laps!

When television makers introduced HDTVs, it was inevitable that they would figure out a way to render the technology obsolete not long after everyone bought a set. And they have. The next wave in home viewing is 3DTV--a 2D picture with some stereoscopic depth.

As 3D filmmaking and film projection technology have improved, Hollywood has begun building a (still small) library of depth-enhanced movies. The potential to synthesize 2D movies into 3D could feed demand, however--the way colorizing technology increased interest in black-and-white films in some circles in the 1980s. For movies based on computer animation--such as Toy Story 3D, a newly rendered version of the first two movies in the series--it's already happening.

The promise of 3D is a more immersive, more true-to-life experience, and substantively different from almost anything you've watched before. In commercial theaters, 3D projection typically involves superimposing polarized or distinctly colored images on each frame and then having viewers wear so-called "passive" glasses that reveal different images to each eye. The brain synthesizes the two images into a generally convincing notion of depth.

In contrast, 3D at home will almost certainly rely on alternating left and right views for successive frames. HDTVs that operate at 120Hz (that is, 120 cycles of refresh per second) are broadly available, so the ability to alternate left and right eye images far faster than the human eye can follow already exists. Fundamental industry standards are in place to allow such recording, says Alfred Poor, an analyst with GigaOm and the author of the Web site HDTV Almanac.

Viewing 3DTV displays will require "active" glasses that use rapidly firing shutters to alternate the view into each eye. Active glasses are expensive today, but their price will drop as 3D rolls out. Meanwhile, designers are in the development phase of producing a 3D set that doesn't require the glasses.

Sony and Panasonic have announced plans to produce 3D-capable displays, and Panasonic recently demonstrated a large-screen version that the company expects to ship in 2010. As happened when HDTVs rolled out, premium 3DTVs will appear first, followed by progressively more-affordable models.

Creating and distributing enough 3D content to feed consumers' interest may be more of an challenge. Poor noted that filmmakers are currently making or adapting only a handful of features each year for 3D. But techniques to create "synthetic 3D" versions of existing films (using various tracking, focus, and pattern cues for splitting images) could fill the gap.

Existing terrestrial cable and IPTV networks should be able to distribute 3D content. The bandwidth that such networks use to deliver typical HD broadcasts will be adequate for delivering 3D video once the networks upgrade to newer video compression techniques. Satellite may face a more difficult road, since such systems already use the best levels of compression.

For physical media playback, Blu-ray can store the data needed, and 3D Blu-ray players are already on the drawing board. No fundamental changes in Blu-ray will be necessary, so the trade group that created the standard is focusing compatibility--such as ensuring that a 2D TV can play a 3D disc.

Standards issues might not end up being very troublesome, so long as the 3DTVs are flexible enough. An industry group is working on setting some general parameters, much as digital TV was broken up into 480, 720, and 1080 formats, along with progressive and interlaced versions. A 3DTV may need to support multiple formats, but all will involve alternating images and a pair of shutter-based glasses.

Poor expects that 3DTV will be but a minor upgrade to existing HDTV sets. The upgraded sets will need a modified display controller that alternates images 60 per second for each eye, as well as an infrared or wireless transmitter to send synchronization information to the 3D glasses.

"Augmented Reality" in Mobile Devices

Babak Parviz, a professor at the University of Washington specializing in nanotechnology, is working on a bionic contact lens that would paint imagery and information directly on the eye to augment reality.

You enjoyed Hulk VI so much on your home theater setup that you decided to see it on the big screen. The movie is still playing, but you’re not sure how to find the movie theater where it’s playing. In the old days, you might have printed out directions from MapQuest; but nowadays you don't need to do anything so primitive. Instead, you dock your smartphone on the dashboard as you slip into your car, and instantly it superimposes driving directions to the theater are superimposed on your car's windshield. As you approach your destination, you see a group of tall buildings. Superimposed on the windshield over one of the buildings is the building’s name, the name of the movie theater inside it, the name Hulk VI, and a countdown to show time. "Turn left in 100 yards," the navigator speaks through your stereo as a large turning arrow appears, guiding you into the parking structure.

In Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash, "gargoyles" are freelance intelligence gatherers who have wired themselves to see (through goggles that annotate all of their experiences) a permanent overlay of data on top of the physical world. In less immersive fashion, we may all become gargoyles as “augmented reality” becomes an everyday experience.

Augmented reality is a catchall term for overlaying what we see with computer-generated contextual data or visual substitutions. The point of the technology is to enhance our ability to interact with things around us by providing us with information immediately relevant to those things.

At work, you might walk around the office and see the name and department of each person you pass painted on them--along with a graphical indicator showing what tasks you owe them or they owe you. Though many case scenarios involve “heads-up” displays embedded in windshields or inside eyeglasses, the augmented reality we have today exists primarily on the “heads-down” screens of smartphones.

Several companies have released programs that overlay position- and context-based data onto a continuous video camera feed. The data comes from various radios and sensors built into modern smartphones, including GPS radios (for identifying position by satellite data), accelerometers (for measuring changes in speed and orientation), and magnetometers (for finding position relative to magnetic north).

In an application called Nearest Places, the names and locations of subway stops, parks, museums, restaurants, and other places of interest are shown on top of an iPhone's video feed. As you walk or turn, the information changes to overlay your surroundings.

"Smartphones and the related apps are the trailblazers for augmented reality," says Babak Parviz, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in nanotechnology. "In the short to medium term, my guess is that they will dominate the field."

Other prototype applications display information dropped at particular coordinates as 3D models that the user can walk around, or as animations whose details update in 3D relative to the user's position. But the technology for those apps isn't ripe yet; handhelds require a more-precise positioning mechanism in order to handle that kind of data insertion. Fortunately, each smartphone generation seems to include more and better sensors.

In other realms, augmented reality may serve to provide not just additional information, but enhanced vision. One day, infrared cameras mounted on the front of a car will illuminate a far-away object represented as a bright-as-day image on an in-windshield display. Radar signals and wireless receivers will detect and display cars that are out of sight; and one piece of glass will host GPS and traffic reporting.

Leaping past displays, Parviz and his team are working on ways to put the display directly on the eyeball. They’re trying to develop a technology for embedding video circuitry into wearable contact lenses. While wearing such contact lenses, you would see a continuous, context-based data feed overlaid on your field of vision.

Before Parviz's lenses become a reality, augmented reality is likely to become a routine navigation and interaction aid on mobile devices. In addition, game developers may use the technology to overlay complete digital game environments over the reality that gamers see around them.

HTML5

Web pages built with HTML5 will display the same on any browser--desktop or mobile.

Hulk VI was great, but w hat should you watch this evening? Before heading off to work in the morning, you click to some trailers on a movie Website, but you don't have time to watch many. So you use your mobile phone to snap a picture of the 2D barcode on one of the videos; the phone's browser then takes you to the same site. On the commuter train to the office, you watch the previews over a 4G cell phone connection. A few of the movies have associated games that you try out on your phone, too.

Remember when every Website had a badge that read "optimized for Netscape Navigator" or "requires Internet Explorer 4"? In the old days, people made Web pages that worked best with--or only with--certain browsers. To some extent, they still do.

The new flavor of the HTML--the standard program for writing Web pages--is called HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language version 5); and HTML5 aims to put that practice to bed for good.

Specifically, HTML5 may do away with the need for audio, video, and interactive plug-ins. It will allow designers to create Websites that work essentially the same on every browser--whether on a desktop, a laptop, or a mobile device--and it will give users a better, faster, richer Web experience.

Instead of leaving each browser maker to rely on a combination of its in-house technology and third-party plug-ins for multimedia, HTML5 requires that the browser have built-in methods for audio, video, and 2D graphics display. Patent and licensing issues cloud the question of which audio and video formats will achieve universal support, but companies have plenty of motivation to work out those details.

In turn, Website designers and Web app developers won't have to deal with multiple incompatible formats and workarounds in their efforts to create the same user experience in every browser.

This is an especially valuable advance for mobile devices, as their browsers today typically have only limited multimedia support. The iPhone’s Safari browser, for example, doesn't handle Adobe Flash--even though Flash is a prime method of delivering video content across platforms and browsers.

"It'll take a couple of years to roll out, but if all the browser companies are supporting video display with no JavaScript [for compatibility handling], just the video tag and no plug-in, then there's no downside to using a mobile device," says Jeffrey Zeldman, a Web designer and leading Web standards guru. "Less and less expert users will have better and better experiences."

Makers of operating systems and browsers appear to be falling into line behind HTML5. Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera, and WebKit (the development package that underlies many mobile and desktop programs), among others, are all moving toward HTML5 support.

For its part, Microsoft says that Internet Explorer 8 will support only parts of HTML5. But Microsoft may not want to risk having its Internet Explorer browser lose more market share by resisting HTML5 in the face of consensus among the other OS and browser makers.

HTML5 is now completing its last march toward a final draft and official support by the World Wide Web Consortium.

Microsoft unwraps netbook Windows 7 upgrade tool

2009-10-26T01:22:00.000+07:00

Microsoft has released a tool that lets netbook owners install Windows 7 on their machines using a USB flash drive, sidestepping the usual requirement of a DVD drive.

The utility, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, creates a bootable flash drive from a downloaded .iso file, or disk image, of Windows 7, and can be purchased from Microsoft's online store.

"This tool allows you to create a copy of the .iso file to a USB flash drive or a DVD," said Microsoft in the instructions accompanying the tool. "To install Windows 7 from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive."

The USB/DVD Download Tool solves the problem facing netbooks users who want to upgrade to Windows 7, since virtually all netbooks lack a DVD drive. Earlier this year, rumors circulated that Microsoft might offer Windows 7 upgrades on a flash drive, but the talk turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking.

Users need a 4GB USB drive to install Windows 7 on a PC without an optical drive, Microsoft said. Other requirements include .NET Framework 2.0 or later, and the ability to run as administrator on the to-be-upgraded netbook.

The netbook's BIOS must also be modified to set the boot order so that the USB drive is first on the list. "Please see the documentation for your computer for information on how to change the BIOS boot order of drives," Microsoft recommended.

Last Thursday, Microsoft warned users to seek help if they were unfamiliar with tweaking the BIOS. "If you are not comfortable making this type of BIOS change, I recommend you seek some assistance from your favorite 'tech geek,'" Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc urged in an entry to the Windows 7 blog.

Because most netbooks run Windows XP, only a "clean" upgrade to Windows -- Microsoft dubs it "Custom" during the installation -- is possible. That requires users to back up data and application settings before upgrading, then restore the data and settings, as well as reinstall all applications.

computerworld

Apple Terancam Bayar 'Upeti' US$ 1 M ke Nokia

2009-10-25T15:31:00.001+07:00

Nokia menggugat Apple terkait tuduhan pelanggaran hak paten teknologi di iPhone. Jika Nokia memenangkan gugatan hukum ini, Apple kemungkinan akan pusing kepala karena diperkirakan, mereka harus membayar Nokia sampai sejumlah US$ 1 miliar.

Dalam gugatannya, Nokia mengklaim Apple melanggar 10 paten dalam teknologi seperti transfer data nirkabel. Neil Mawston selaku analis di Strategy Analytics menyatakan, jika terbukti bersalah, Apple mungkin harus membayar antara US$ 200 juta sampai US$ 1 miliar karena paten digunakan di sekitar 34 juta iPhone.

Nokia sendiri memang termasuk pemegang paten kunci di ranah teknologi mobile, di samping Qualcomm dan Ericsson. Ini membuat posisi Nokia cukup kuat dalam melayangkan gugatan pada pihak Apple.

"Hampir tak dapat dibayangkan sebuah pihak dapat memproduksi ponsel tanpa menggunakan paten teknologi milik Nokia," tukas Ben Wood, Direktur Riset di CSS
Insight.

Nokia sendiri menyatakan bahwa sebenarnya, mereka sudah berusaha menawarkan jalan damai dengan syarat Apple mau membayar paten milik Nokia. Namun vendor asal Amerika Serikat tersebut tidak menyetujuinya.

Nokia mengklaim semua produk iPhone, termasuk versi original dan 3G, menggunakan teknologi paten kepunyaan perusahaan Finlandia ini. Demikian yang dilansir Reuters dan dikutip detikINET, Minggu (25/10/2009).

detik

Cassava Fritter dan Crepes Suzette

2009-10-24T16:54:00.000+07:00

Ingin bersantai di sore hari? Ditemani camilan ringan yang enak sore ini siapapun tak bisa menolak. Cassava Fritter ataupun Crepes Suzette yang lezat bisa menjadi teman setia sore ini. Coba yuk!

Siang kemarin, saya sedang bertandang ke Taman Ismail Marzuki. Sudah lama sekali tidak pernah mampir ke tempat ini. DUlu biasanya saya mampir ke tempat ini untuk melihat beragam pertunjukan yang di gelar disana. Berbeda kali ini, saya sedang ingin menonton di gedung pertunjukkan yang ada disana.

Berhubung jadwal pemutaran film masih cukup lama saya mencoba mencari tempat makan di sekitar TIM. Mata saya terpaku pada sebuah cafe yang tampak teduh sekali. Maklum saja cuaca di luar cukup panas, jadilah saya masuk ke cafe ini untuk 'ngadem'. Galeri Cafe namanya, sempat ragu pada awalnya karena cafe tampak sepi saya berpikir cafe ini belum beroperasi.

Di bagian luar cafe tersedia banyak sekali sofa nyaman dengan canopi-canopi cocok sekali untuk bersantai sore hari. Tapi karena cuaca siang itu cukup terik, saya lebih memilih di bangunan dalam cafe. Saat masuk, ternyata sudah banyak sekali pengunjung di dalam cafe ini.

Saya memilih tempat duduk yang dekat dengan meja bartender. Suasananya temaram, dengan alunan musik yang merdu membuat semua orang betah untuk berlama-lama di sini. Kalau melihat dekorasi nya tak heran jika cafe ini dinamakan Galeri Cafe. Banyak sekali lukisan, dan kerajinan yang digunakan untuk mempercantik dekorasinya. Selain itu juga banyak grafiti tak hanya di dinding tapi hingga ke langit-langit bangunan.

Seorang pelayan langsung menghampiri saya untuk memberikan daftar menu. Menu yang ditawarkan lumayan lengkap. Mulai dari aneka pasta, sandwich, nasi campur, sup bunut sampai tongseng kambing dan gurami sangkuriang. Karena sedang tak ingin makan besar, pilihanpun jatuh pada makanan ringan. Cassave Fritter, camilan yang bernama unik ini langsung menarik perhatian saya. Akhirnya Cassva Fritter dan Crepes Suzzete yang klasik jadi pilihan saya.

Tumpukan majalah tertata rapi di atas meja untuk menemani pengunjung sambil menunggu pesanan tiba. Lagu-lagu hits saat ini mengalun merdu menemani pengunjung Galeri Cafe siang itu. Di sudut ruangan ada sebuah panggung kecil lengkap dengan alat-alat musiknya. Biasanya akan ada live music setiap akhir pekan, sedangkan hari biasa hanya di waktu-waktu tertentu saja. Sayangnya saya kurang beruntung melihat live music mereka.

Tak lama berselang, semua pesanan saya datang. Cassava Fritter tampilannya sungguh meriah, cokelat leleh dan serutan keju di atasnya. Sedangkan Crepes Suzette lebih sederhana, dua buah crepes gulung disajikan bersama dengan wheap cream diatasnya tak ketinggalan buah cerry sebagai pemanis.

Awalnya saya mengira Cassava Fritter ini adalah makanan yang diolah berbahan dasar singkong. Tapi saat melihatnya, ternyata berupa tapai singkong yang dihaluskan yang dibungkus dengan kulit lumpia dan digoreng kering. Meskipun begitu, rasa tapenya manis wangi serta lembut dan renyah di bagian luarnya. Apalagi saat bercampur dengan parutan keju dan juga lelehan cokelat. Nyam..nyam..

Beda lagi dengan Crepes Suzette, kulit crepes yang tipis membalut es krim vanila. Jadi saat dipotong dengan sendok, lelehan es krim vanila langsung keluar. Kulit crepesnya tipis dan lembut cukup enak berpadu dengan es krim vanilanya. Orange juice yang saya pesan tak terlalu istimewa, tapi cukup segar untuk menemani saya di siang yang cukup terik.

Untuk menikmati seporsi Cassava Fritter dan Crepes Suzette saya harus merogoh kocek sedikit dalam. Seporsi Cassava Fritter dihargai Rp 23.000,00 sedangkan Crepes Suzette Rp 22.000,00 dan Rp 10.000,00 untuk segelaaas orange juiice. Tapi suasana yang diciptakan cafe ini memang bikin setiap pengunjung betah untuk berlama-lama.

Galeri Cafe
Komplek Taman Ismail Marzuki
Jl. Cikini Raya No.73, Jakarta Pusat
Telp: 021-3146263

detik

Steve Ballmer Confirms Blu-ray Drives for the Xbox 360

2009-10-22T23:52:00.002+07:00

One of the advantages that the PlayStation 3 has publicized since the beginning of the console battle of this generation has been the presence of an integrated Blu-ray drive, which allows for bigger capacity disks to be used and for the game console to play high-quality movies.

The Xbox 360 has tried to counter by backing the HD DVD format, but, with that no longer supported, Microsoft has long been rumored to be preparing to get a Blu-ray unit for the Xbox 360.

Now, Steve Ballmer, who is the chief executive officer of Microsoft, has told Gizmodo as part of an exclusive interview that Blu-ray is a definite possibility for the Xbox 360 home-gaming console. When asked about getting the format on the Microsoft device he has said, “Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there – you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.” In other words, Microsoft does not intend to integrate the high-capacity drive in the console itself, but it might offer an add-on like the HD DVD one, which it sold for a while with little success.

A Microsoft spokesperson has then clarified Ballmer's comments by stating that, “Our immediate solution for Blu-ray-quality video on an Xbox 360 is coming this fall with Zune Video and 1080p instant-on HD streaming. As far as our future plans are concerned, we're not ready to comment.”

Ballmer clashed with the heads of the Xbox division in the past about the possibility of integrating Blu-ray. The CEO has been quoted as hinting the drive could be added to the device at some point, considering that HD DVD is all but dead, but, on every occasion other Microsoft bosses have said that Ballmer is overenthusiastic in his comments.

Fable III Dipastikan Bakal Gunakan 'Project Natal'

2009-10-22T15:33:00.002+07:00

Setelah sebelumnya hanya gosip, pengembang game Lionhead Studio, telah memastikan akan digunakannya sistem kendali gerak Project Natal pada sekuel terbaru seri Fable.

Fable III merupakan sekuel ketiga dari serentetan game Fable yang telah dikembangkan oleh Lionhead Studios. Game yang telah diterbitkan oleh Microsoft tersebut, kini dipastikan bakal memanfaatkan teknologi Project Natal.

Hal tersebut diutarakan oleh Bos Lionhead Studios, Peter Molyneux. Pada pidatonya di ajang British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) yang diselenggarakan di London, Molyneux memastikan bahwa Fable III sudah dapat memanfaatkan teknologi project natal.

Seperti dikutip detikINET dari Joystiq, Kamis, (22/10/2009). Pada acara terebut Molyneux juga sempat mempertontonkan bagaimana kemampuan Project natal menangkap objek dalam suatu ruangan yang minim cahaya.

Project Natal, memang memanfaatkan sistem gerak tubuh untuk mengendalikan game. Lalu seperti apa kira-kira jika kendali tersebut diterapkan pada game Action RPG seperti Fable? Agaknya, publik penggemar game masih harus menunggu pengumuman selanjutnya.

detik

Harga Windows 7 Rp 900 Ribu - 3,5 Juta

2009-10-22T15:30:00.000+07:00

Microsoft boleh saja mengklaim telah memberikan harga khusus untuk Windows 7 di Indonesia. Namun harga yang ditawarkan sepertinya masih tetap merogoh kocek user cukup dalam.

Lukman Susetio, Windows Client Product Manager Microsoft Indonesia menjelaskan, harga Windows 7 untuk Indonesia dimasukkan ke dalam kategori emerging market alias negara berkembang.

Dari keempat varian OS ini yang ditawarkan, yakni Windows 7 versi Home Basic, Home Premium, Profesional dan Ultimate, harga yang dibanderol mulai dari Rp 900 ribu. "Sementara untuk versi Ultimate antara Rp 2 juta - 3,5 juta," ujarnya kepada beberapa wartawan di sela peluncuran Windows 7 dan Windows Phone yang berlangsung di Hard Rock Cafe Jakarta, Kamis (22/10/2009).

Harga tersebut, kata Lukman, terbilang lebih murah jika dibandingkan dengan negara lain yang dikelompokkan ke dalam mature market. Selisihnya bisa mencapai 10-20 persen.

"Bahkan kalau Anda beli di online store seperti Amazon misalnya, harga jualnya bisa lebih mahal karena bisa jadi harga yang ditetapkan untuk mature market," tukasnya.

Pun demikian, Chief Operating Officer Microsoft Indonesia Faycal Bouchlagem mengaku juga mempunyai paket harga khusus bagi sejumlah kalangan penggunanya. Seperti untuk kalangan pendidikan, pemerintah, hingga enterprise. Namun berapa harga paket khusus tersebut tak diungkapkannya.

detik

32 Ribu Desa di Indonesia Masih Blankspot

2009-10-21T18:30:00.000+07:00

Sedikitnya ada 32 ribu desa di wilayah Indonesia bagian timur yang dilaporkan masih blankspot. Hal itu disebabkan belum meratanya pembangunan infrastruktur telekomunikasi.

"Ada sekitar 32 ribu desa di Indonesia yang blankspot. Itu sebagian besar berada di wilayah Indonesia bagian timur," kata Staf Khusus Menteri Komunikasi dan
Informatika Depkominfo Sukemi, dalam sosialisasi UU No 14 tahun 2008 tentang Keterbukaan Informasi Publik di kampus Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Bulaksumur
Yogyakarta, Rabu (21/10/2009).

Menurut Sukemi, masih adanya desa-desa blankspot karena sampai saat ini pembangunan menara telekomunikasi belum bisa merata. Lucunya, meski menara
belum dibangun, kebanyakan dari masyarakat di desa-desa blankspot justru telah siap menerima bila suatu waktu di tempat itu akan dibangun prasarana teknologi informasi dan komunikasi.

"Masyarakat kita itu sebenarnya sudah siap. Hanya saja pembangunan infrastruktur saja yang belum siap," katanya.

Sukemi kemudian menceritakan sebuah kisah di desa dekat perbatasan Timor Leste dan Kupang, NTT, yang pada bulan Agustus lalu baru bisa berkomunikasi dengan
seluler. Awalnya, pihak operator selular pesimis, namun dalam waktu satu minggu penggunaan banwidth melebihi kapasitas menara BTS.

"Usut punya usut, ternyata selama ini mereka sudah punya handphone. Sebelum ada sinyal, handphone mereka digunakan untuk mendengarkan musik melalui MP3 yang ada fasilitasnya," ujarnya.

Sementara itu Direktur Kelembagaan Komunikasi Sosial Depkominfo James Pardede menambahkan salah satu usaha yang dilakukan Depkominfo untuk mengurangi jumlah
desa blankspot dengan cara melakukan program Universal Service Obligation (USO). Program ini merupakan pembangunan telekomunikasi perdesaan yang bertujuan untuk mengurangi kesenjangan akses telekomunikasi di daerah-daerah, termasuk daerah terpencil.

"Biaya program ini diambil dari hasil keuntungan operator selular yang didorong untuk turut membangun pemancar di daerah," tambahnya.

Selain membangun menara telekomunikasi, kata dia, pihaknya akan terus mendorong pembangunan lembaga dan media penyiaran di daerah terpencil. "Kita juga
terus mendorong radio dan media komunitas di daerah perbatasan," ungkapnya.

detik

Manis Gurih Satai Lilit Bali

2009-10-21T17:52:00.000+07:00

Bali tak hanya dikenal dengan panoramanya yang indah tetapi juga hidangannya yang lezat menggoyang lidah. Sate lilit adalah salah satu hidangan Bali yang populer. Aroma wangi sereh dan rasanya yang manis gurih enak dijamin menambah selera makan siang kali ini!

Siapa yang tak kenal satai? Makanan yang terbuat dari potongan daging ayam, sapi, kambing, ikan, dll ini memang terkenal akan rasanya yang lezat. Beberapa jenis sate dari daerah yang sudah kita kenal ada Sate Madura, Sate Tegal, Sate Klatak, Sate Padang.

Satu lagi yang tak kalah populer adalah pulau dewata yang terkenal akan Sate Lilitnya. Berbeda dari sate lainnya satenya orang Bali ini cukup unik dan memiliki cita rasa yang berbeda.

Sate sebenarnya tidak selalu berupa daging yang dipotong-potong lalu ditusuk sebelum dibakar. Sate lilit ini contohnya bukan ditusuk melainkan menggunakan daging cincang yang dililitkan dalam sebatang bambu. Karena sapi dianggap sebagai hewan suci setara dewa yang tidak boleh dibunuh. Sate lilit biasanya menggunakan seafood seperti daging ikan, udang, atau ayam.

Kekhasan lain dari sate lilit juga terletak pada bumbu-bumbunya yang terdiri dari kunyit, kencur, sereh, pala, gula aren, dan minyak kelapa. Setelah daging ikan cincang dilembutkan, diberi bumbu, santan, dan parutan kelapa, barulah dililitkan dalam sebatang bambu dan kemudian dibakar diatas arang.

Masyarakat Bali percaya bahwa dibalik setiap hidangan ada filosofi yang tidak boleh ditinggalkan. Begitu pula dengan sate lilit yang dipercaya melambangkan senjata para dewa dalam hal ini dewa Brahmana. Oleh karena itu di Bali, sate lilit biasanya turut dihidangkan pada saat upacara-upacara keagamaan.

Satai lilit biasanya disantap bersama nasi campur, ketupat, atau plecing kangkung. Rasa satai yang manis-manis gurih ini dijamin lezat menggoyang lidah. Mau?

Ayam Betutu Khas Gilimanuk-Bali
Jl. Woltermonginsidi (Seberang Pasar Swalayan Santa)
Jakarta Selatan
Telp 021-7233245

Restoran Bebek Bengil Bali - Jakarta
The UBUD BUILDING
Jl. Agus Salim No.132, Menteng
Jakarta Pusat
Telp: 021-3918016/3918091
Jam buka: 11.00-23.00

Le Seminyak
Pacific Place Lt.5, Unit 38
Sudirman Central Business District
Jl. Jend Sudirman Kav. 52-53, Jakarta 12190
Telp: 021-51400610

Ajengan
Jl. Panglima Polim I, No. 65
Jakarta Selatan
Telp: 021-7220227

Ancol Jimbaran Resto
Pantai Carnaval Ancol
Jakarta Utara
Telp: 021-6401040

Warung Bali
Jl. Lebak Bulus Raya Kav. 17
Jakarta Selatan
Telp: 021-7510812

Pura Aditya Jaya
Jl Daksinapati Raya No.10
Rawamangun
Jakarta Timur
Telp: 021-47866963

( dev / Odi )

detik

Ngopi dan Makan Vietnamese Pancake

2009-10-20T01:55:00.001+07:00

Pax Xiu Da alias campuran kopi dan susu dingin a la Vietnam ini memang nikmat dan segar. Kudapan ringan Vietnamese Sandwich yang renyah atau Vietnamese Pancake yang lezat bisa jadi pasangan yang sempurna. Acara ngopi sore pun tak hanya makin istimewa namun juga mengasyikan!

Saat meluncur menembus kemacetan dan teriknya kota Jakarta tiba-tiba saya membayangkan segelas Ca Phe Sua Da dingin. Hmm... racikan kopi a la Vietnam ini memang sungguh nikmat. Apalagi saat diteguk saat cuaca terik seperti ini. Jadilah siang itu saya memutuskan untuk bersantai sejenak menyeruput kopi dingin.

Ditilik dari namanya 'Vietopia' mungkin sudah bisa ditebak kalau restoran ini menyajikan hidangan Vietnam. Letaknya berada di Jl. Cikini Raya menempati jejeran bangunan lama yang kebanyakan dijadikan restoran. Dari luar restoran dicat putih bersih, tampil memikat dengan keanggunan tempo doeloe.

Sederhana, itulah kesan pertama saya saat mengedarkan pandangan. Kesan polos dan sederhana tersebut terlihat dari minimalisnya pernak-pernik yang menghiasi restoran ini. Hanya pilar-pilar putih di sudut ruangan, deretan sofa kulit yang menempel dinding dan meja kursi kayu ditata berjejer memenuhi restoran yang berlangit-langit tinggi.

Dalam buku menu hampir semua menu yang ditawarkan berbahasa Vietnam seperti Bo Luc Lac, Pho Bo, Goi Du Du , dll. Namun buat yang tidak familier dengan hidangan Vietnam tak perlu khawatir, karena ada keterangan bahasa Inggris pada setiap menu.

Sebenarnya saya bukan tergolong pencinta kopi. Namun pengalaman pertama kali mencicipi Vietnamese coffee membuat saya langsung jatuh cinta pada minuman ini. Selain kopi Vietnam yang disajikan panas dan dingin, ada pula minuman lainnya seperti aneka jus, soda, home made lemon tea, dan smoothies.

Saat akan memesan saya cukup dibingungkan oleh perbedaan Ca Phe Sua Da dan Pax Xiu Da . "Pax Xiu Da ini merupakan versi ringan dari Ca Phe Sua Da (Vietnamese Coffee) karena menggunakan susu lebih banyak," jelas sang pelayan saat saya menanyakan perbedaannya.

Akhirnya pesanan saya jatuh pada Pax Xiu Da dan segelas home made ice lemon tea untuk teman saya. Sayang saat ingin menyandingkan Pax Xiu Da dengan Banh Mi Thit, yaitu sandwich Vietnam yang renyah ternyata hidangan tersebut sudah habis dipesan. Wah... rupanya sandwich tersebut merupakan salah satu menu favorit disini tak heran kalau cepat habis. Karena tidak ingin menyantap makanan berat saya memilih Banh Xeo, pancake Vietnam yang membuat penasaran. Lalu seporsi Gui Cuon dan Chan Ga Chien Nuoc Mam.

Pax Xiu Da tersaji unik dalam sebuah gelas berisi susu kental manis dan sebuah teko kecil yang mirip dengan saringan teh bernama 'ca phe phin'. Saringan ini terbuat dari baja tahan karat dan digunakan untuk menyaring kopi bubuk yang sudah dituangi air panas.

Saya pun menikmati pemandangan khas air kopi yang menetes perlahan dari saringan dan langsung ditampung dalam gelas. Setelah itu barulah kopi diaduk dengan susu dan dituangkan ke dalam es batu dalam gelas terpisah. Slurpp... perpaduan pahit manis dan dinginnya kopi meluncur melegakan tenggorokan... suegerr!!

Gui Cuon alias lumpia yang dibalut bahn trang yaitu kulit lumpia putih bening yang terbuat dari tepung beras. Lumpia ini berisi bihun, sayuran segar, udang, ayam, irisan telur dadar, dan daun mint. Sebagai pelengkapnya ada saus hoisin berwarna kecoklatan beserta gerusan kacang tanah.

Rasa lumpia yang segar berpadu serasi dengan saus hoisin yang manis-manis enak. Meskipun sayang menurut saya bihunnya terlalu banyak sehingga saat dinikmati berhamburan keluar. Sedangkan Chan Ga Chien Nuoc Mam yaitu sayap ayam yang dibalut tepung digoreng kering kemudian diberi bumbu karamel yang wangi dan legit. Sebuah sensasi manis yang harum dilidah.

Yang saya tunggu-tunggu akhirnya tiba, Banh Mi Thit disajikan dalam piring putih seperti omelet yang dilipat dua. Kulitnya kekuningan dengan sembulan isi berupa cincangan daging ayam dan udang dengan sayuran seperti bawang bombay dan daun mint. Rasa pancake yang terbuat dari tepung beras tipis ini begitu crispy serasi berpadu dengan isiannya yang royal. Cocolan saus nuoc cam yang asam manis pedas menambah lezat rasanya nyam.. nyam.. saya pun jadi tak bisa berhenti mengunyah!

Rupanya hidangan Vietopia yang lezat dan suasana restoran yang menyenangkan di Vietopia membuat saya betah berlama-lama. Apalagi sambil menghirup segelas kopi dingin saya pun bisa berinternet ria mengecek pekerjaan berkat layanan free wifii yang disediakan. Nah, tertarik menikmati secangkir kopi Vietnam sore ini?

Vietopia
Jl. Cikini Raya no.33
Jakarta Pusat
Telp: 021-3915893
Jam Buka: 11.30 - 22.00
Range Harga Makanan dan Minuman: Rp 11.000,00 - Rp 59.000,00.

Jl. Senopati No.66
Jakarta Selatan
Telp: 021-7261162

Utilization Of DVD ROMs By Computer Game Developers

2009-10-18T03:09:00.000+07:00

Computer games are a hit with all generations of people. Before the invention of computer games, there were the video consoles like Sega, Dreamcast, Gameboy and others.

The video consoles were only a hit with the younger generation. Due to the poor quality, DOS like graphics, they could not spread among all of age groups. Programmers were limited by the lack of storage space. The utilization of DVD-ROMs by computer game developers opened a whole lot of ideas to the game developers.

Computer Games are no longer limited to a tiny amount of storage space, which prevents the usage of high quality graphics. The fan following that the latest computer games generate is tremendous. The graphics from the time of Wolfenstein has improved by leaps and bounds. Right now, there is Halo 3 for Xbox 360; which will shortly be available for the PC platform. The game is packed with high definition graphics, improved AI, a superior lighting engine, new artillery, characters, and confrontation.

Earlier, in the computer motherboard there was a VGA slot which was limited to 4x speed. The newer PCI express slots replaced it. The PCI express slots could support up to 16x speed. The single PCI express graphics card has been replaced by the SLI system that boasted of dual graphic cards with identical specification.

The utilization of DVD-ROMs by computer game developers has enabled concepts like Pixel Shader, Hardware Texture & Lighting technology, Vertex Shader and Stream Processors that greatly enhance the quality of what we see. The Microsoft Corporation has bundled Direct X 10 along with its Windows Vista, the next generation operating system. It is expected to support the next generation of graphics and sound.

Game developers are nowadays not limited to making games for CDs only. The scripting for the object oriented programming or OOP has greatly been modified to suit the hardware that is coming out to meet the needs of a hardcore gamer.

Three-dimensional games are of immensely better quality than the likes of say Unreal Tournament, 2002. Unreal Tournament revolutionized the First Person Shooter genre with its Unreal Game Engine. It supported a lot of system configuration, yet produced high quality graphics on lower end machines. The size of the game was just over 600 MB. The new Unreal Tournament 3, which has hit the market at the end of the year 2007, is sized over 4 GB, with installation being double.

Nowadays the utilization of DVD-ROMs by computer game developers has dumped the CDs for game packaging. Single layer DVD has become an industry standard. However, game developers are putting their games on dual size or double-layered DVDs. The high performance game engines are taking a lot of space to perform. They are bundled with lot of things in additional to tools that run the game. The developers now have the luxury to spread their creativity without having to think about output storage systems.

Another industry standard construction is the half-life and the quake game engines. Half-life was the first FPS game, which took the market by storm with its superior game play and then incredible graphics. It went on to become the game of the year. Quake also revolutionized the team game along with its counterpart the Unreal Engine.

The game engines are taking the multi threading technology of the processors to the max. The games, which are sized almost a DVD, eats up at least double the size in the hard disk. Earlier a 700 MB game took around 500 MB to 1400 MB of Hard Disk space for installation. Now a 2 DVD game can eat up a whole partition of the hard disk.

Departemen ESDM Siapkan Migrasi ke Open Source

2009-10-18T03:08:00.000+07:00

Pada tanggal 15-16 Oktober 2009 bertempat di Jogjakarta, teman-teman dari Departemen Energi Sumber Daya Mineral (DESDM) yang di motori oleh teman-teman di Pusat Data dan Informasi (PUSDATIN) ESDM menyelenggarakan workshop untuk sosialisasi IT dengan titik berat open source. Workshop ini di maksudkan untuk mempersiapkan implementasi open source software di Departemen ESDM di masa depan semoga menjadi kenyataan di kabinet mendatang.

Peserta yang terlibat ada sekitar 75 orang yang merupakan pengelola teknologi informasi di dalam lingkungan Departemen ESDM. Mereka berdatangan dari beberapa kota, seperti, Cepu, Jogja, Bandung, Jakarta dan Ombilin.

Pembicara yang terlibat adalah Ibu Lolly DEPKOMINFO, Pak R. Santoso IPTEKNET, PUSILKOM UGM, dan Onno W. Purbo. Teman-teman dari DEPKOMINFO, IPTEKNET, PUSILKOM UGM lebih memfokuskan pada pentingnya open source & keuntungannya. Kisah seperti kemudahan, bebas virus, keamanan jaringan terutama keamanan data menjadi bahan diskusi yang menarik. Pak Toto (R. Santoso) dari IPTEKNET menjelaskan dengan berkali-kali bahkan open source bukan berarti tidak aman, justru sebaliknya bahkan sangat aman karena semua orang jadi dapat memperbaiki dengan mudah jika ada bug atau kesalahan software.

Ibu Lolly (DEPKOMINFO) menjelaskan betapa pentingnya open source untuk mengefisienkan penggunaan anggaran belanja negara, supaya instansi pemerintah tidak perlu lagi menduplikasi pembelian software, cukup mengalokasikan dana untuk developer lokal di Indonesia untuk sebuah aplikasi dan langsung dapat digunakan untuk semua instansi di Indonesia.

Tidak heran, open source juga akan memungkinkan industri dalam negeri menjadi berkembang. Tidak hanya membuat Industri software luar negeri menjadi kaya.

Sementara Onno W. Purbo kebetulan mendapat jatah siang hari sampai magrib, lebih memfokuskan pada demo yang sifatnya hands on dilakukan secara langsung oleh salah satu peserta yang belum pernah menggunakan open source software sama sekali. Tidak pernah terbayangkan sebelumnya bahwa untuk menggunakan open source software tidak perlu di install ke PC, hanya dari live CD atau liveDVD bisa langsung jalan.

Di akhir-akhir waktu demo, di perlihatkan cara membuat server FTP, server file maupun Distro SchoolOnffLine. Termasuk yang diterangkan adalah cara membuat sendiri sebuah Distro menggunakan Ubuntu Customization Kit (UCK). Bagi mereka yang sering membuat Distro dibutuhkan waktu sekitar 2 jam-an untuk membuat sendiri sebuah Distro menggunakan UCK.

Beberapa komentar yang masuk dari teman-teman peserta antara lain:

Rosalin, PUSLITBANG Ketenaga Listrikan DESDM: "Ubuntu oke. Tapi Server yang berbasis command prompt based nyerah. Ada baiknya dilakukan technical training untuk Administrator di Unit khususnya untuk Server."

Donny, PUSDATIN: "Merupakan pengalaman pertama kali mengoperasikan Open Source Software. Ternyata sangat mudah."

Melihat antusias yang demikian tinggi, mudah-mudahan melapangkan jalan ESDM maupun institusi pemerintah lainnya dalam melakukan migrasi ke software open source dengan mudah di tahun 2010-2012.

2009-10-18T03:05:00.000+07:00

Bay Tat, kue yang satu ini merupakan kue khas Bengkulu. Tampilannya berbentuk segi empat seperti tart namun dengan tampilan seperti pie, biasanya bertopping nenas atau keju. Konon kue ini dulu merupakan makanan khas para raja Bengkulu. Hmm... penasaran?

Setiap daerah tentunya memiliki makanan unik dan khas tersendiri, termasuk Bengkulu tentunya. Salah satu yang khas di Bengkulu ini adalah kue yang bernama Bay Tat. Nama yang cukup unik bukan?

Meskipun nama Bay Tat sedikit beraksen oriental namun Bay Tat ternyata merupakan nama daerah asli di Bengkulu sana. Kata 'Bay' sendiri berarti induk sementara 'Tat' berarti kue tart. Nah, boleh dibilang kalau Bay Tat merupakan kue tartnya orang Bengkulu.

Bay Tat, kue berbentuk segi empat ini terbuat dari tepung gandum, gula pasir, telur ayam dan mentega. Setelah kue jadi kemudian barulah dioleskan diatasnya. Rasanya lembut dan sedikit renyah dengan manis selai nenas yang manis mengigit membuat kue ini banyak disukai.

Sayangnya kue Bay Tat belum sepopuler kue-kue tradisional lainnya yang bisa mudah dijumpai di Jakarta. Meskipun Bay Tat sudah ada sejak jaman dahulu dan menjadi makanan khas para raja Bengkulu. Sekarang Bay Tat banyak dijual di kedai oleh-oleh Bengkulu yang menjual snack seperti punai, manisan terong, kue siput, dll.

Kecintaan masyarakat Bengkulu terhadap Bay Tat membuat makanan ini menjadi simbol pariwisata Bengkulu. Selain banyak dihidangkan pada saat acara kebesaran Bengkulu, Bay Tat juga menjadi oleh-oleh yang paling banyak dicari. Nah, kalau jalan-jalan ke Bengkulu jangan lupa beli Bay Tat ya!

detik

Sony VAIO Seri X: Tipis, Ringan, dan Elegan

2009-10-16T17:50:00.000+07:00

Tipis, kecil, dan ringan. Itulah keutamaan notebook Sony VAIO seri X ini. Dengan ketebalan 13,9 mm dan lebar layar 11 inci, laptop ini mengawali konsep bisnis baru Sony, yang kini menggunakan tag line baru: make.believe (make dot believe).

Seri X merupakan seri terbaru dari mobile PC buatan produsen asal Jepang tersebut pada tahun ini. Sebagaimana pada dua seri sebelumnya, VAIO U dan VAIO P, Sony membuat seri anyar ini untuk pengguna yang memerlukan mobilitas dan desain elegan pada sebuah perangkat jinjing. Dibanding laptop tipis pesaingnya, laptop dengan empat pilihan warna ini merupakan komputer jinjing paling ringan, dengan bobot hanya 655 gram.

Konektivitas yang terpasang di dalamnya meliputi konektor WiFi dan Bluetooth. Untuk menyesuaikan dengan perangkat digital lain buatan Sony, laptop ini juga menyertakan slot pembaca kartu memori Memory Stick Duo, di samping pembaca kartu memori jenis SD sebagai standar laptop masa kini.

Karena dibuat untuk keperluan mobile, laptop berprosesor Intel Atom Z540 ini menggunakan teknologi baterai berdaya tahan lama. Dua model pada seri ini masing-masing memiliki baterai dengan durasi hidup 3,5 jam dan 7,5 jam. Tersedia baterai optional yang dapat mendongkrak daya tahannya menjadi 16 jam.

Selain meluncurkan seri X, Sony juga memperkenalkan tiga model seri CW dengan layar 14 inci. Komputer kompak dengan desain warna-warni (hitam, putih, merah muda, dan merah) ini memiliki keunggulan berupa spesifikasi teknis yang mampu mendukung kebutuhan bermain game tingkat tinggi. Prosesor Intel Centrino Core Duo T6600 2.20 GHz dan P8700 2.53 GHz di dalamnya bersinergi dengan kartu grafis NVIDIA Ge Force G210M maupun G230M.

Dibundel dengan sistem operasi Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, komputer dengan lebar penampang hampir sama dengan kertas ukuran folio ini menawarkan memori sebesar 4 GB dan harddisk drive SATA berkapasitas mulai 250 GB. Seri ini, dan juga seri X, dilengkapi aplikasi multimedia Media Gallery yang mudah diakses melalui tombol pintas pada kibor.

Untuk sementara, semua seri tersebut belum tersedia di pasar tanah air. Sony baru mulai memasarkannya mulai 30 Oktober 2009. Seri X dibanderol dengan harga 1.299 dollar AS dan 1.399 dollar AS, sementara seri CW dilabeli dengan harga mulai 899 dollar AS hingga 1.299 dollar AS.

kompas

Gurih Hangat Vietnamese Beef Noodle

2009-10-16T14:20:00.001+07:00

Ingin mencicipi yang hangat-hangat gurih siang ini? Mungkin Pho Bo bisa jadi pilihan. Meskipun noodle soup khas Vietnam ini biasa disantap sebagai sarapan pagi. Tetapi isinya yang komplet berupa mi, irisan daging, dan sayuran membuatnya bisa jadi makan siang yang mengenyangkan.

Buat para pencinta kuliner pastinya sudah tak asing dengan hidangan bercita rasa Vietnam. Pasalnya kini sudah banyak restoran Vietnam yang ada di Jakarta. Salah satu hidangan Vietnam yang cukup populer adalah Vietnamese Beef Noodle atau yang dikenal dengan nama Pho Bo.

Pho Bo adalah sejenis hidangan mi berkuah a la Vietnam. Biasanya pho bo disajikan dalam mangkuk besar dengan porsi yang cukup besar dengan isi berupa mi, sayuran, irisan daging, dan bakso. Untuk minya terbuat dari tepung beras hingga warnanya putih pipih seperti kewtiaw namun berukuran lebih kecil. Saking mulus dan lembutnya saat disantap mi seakan meluncur mulus di tenggorokan slurpp...

Sebagai pelengkap Pho Bo bisanya ada daun selada, daun mint, tauge, jeruk nipis, irisan cabai rawit, dan saus BBQ. Setelah semuanya diracik dan dicampurkan menjadi satu dalam mangkuk maka mi pun siap untuk disantap.

Kuah noodle soup yang berwarna bening kecokelatan ini berasa kaldu yang gurih lembut. Aroma pekak dan bawang biasanya menjadi sensasi saat menghirup kuahnya slurpp... segar. Irisan daging sapi yang royal membuat hidangan ini bertambah lezat menggoyang lidah!

My Hanoi House 'Vietnamese Bistro'
La Piazza, lantai 1/8
Jl. Bulevar Kelapa Gading Blok M3
Jakarta Utara
Telp: 021-45864963

Pho2000
Senayan City Lantai 5 Unit 48
Jl. Asia Afrika No.19
Jakarta Pusat
Telp: 021-72781500

Red Pepper
Plaza Indonesia Level Basement
Jl. M.H Thamrin Kav.28-29
Jakarta Pusat
Telp: 021-3107178/3107574

Pho24
Mall Pondok Indah 1 Blok UA Unit 35
Jl. Metro Pondok Indah Blok 3B
Jakarta Selatan
Telp: 021-7505909

Orient8
Hotel Mulia Senayan Jakarta
Jl Asia Afrika
Jakarta Selatan
Telpon : 021-5707440

Do An Vietnamese Experience
Mal Artha Gading Lantai 2 Blok A2 Unit 8
Jl. Boulevard Artha Gading Selatan No. 1
Jakarta Utara
Telp: 021-70006100

Vietopia
Jl. Cikini Raya No.33
Jakarta
Telp: 021-3915893

detik

Sagu Lempeng Asli Maluku

2009-10-15T22:34:00.004+07:00

Rasanya gurih tapi ada juga yang tawar. Biasa dijadikan teman minum kopi kala sore. Tapi hati-hati bagi yang tak biasa dengan makanan keras, karena lempengan ini cukup keras digigit. Seperti apa sih makanan khas nyong Ambon ini?

Siapa yang tak kenal dengan sagu? Makanan asli khas Maluku ini memiliki teksyur yang kenyal-kenyal jika sudah dimasak. Banyak sekali makanan yang bisa dihasilkan dari tepung sagu. Mulai dari bagea, sinoli (karu-karu), sagu mutiara, dan sagu lempeng. Sinoli terbuat dari tepung sagu segar yang diremas-remas, kemudian disangrai sehingga berbentuk butiran atau gumpalan tak beraturan.

Nah, kalau yang ini tepung sagu diolah menjadi sagu lempeng. Sagu lempeng adalah salah satu jenis makanan yang proses pemasakannay dengan cara dibakar di dalam cetakan yang terbuat dari batu atau tanah liat yang disebut dengan forna. Sehingga menghasilkan lempengan sagu berwarna kecokelatan.

Tapi kini sagu lempeng tidak hanya berwarna kecokelatan saja, tapi ada juga yang berwarna merah muda agar tampilannya lebih menarik. Sagu lempeng biasanya dimakan sebagai camilan ringan bersama dengan kopi atau pun teh. Rasanya agak sedikit keras, jadi berhati-hatilah bagi Anda yang tak bisa makan-makanan yang keras!

detik

Rahasia 6 Hidangan Top Resto Asia

2009-10-15T22:34:00.001+07:00

Hidangan Asia menjadi primadona di dunia kuliner saat ini. Pernah mencicipi Hainan Chicken Rice, Clay Pot Rice, Char Kwe Teow? Seorang chef yang handal dalam mengolah hidangan Asia akan memberikan resep-resep andalannya. Termasuk tips dan cara penyajian berkelas resto. Buruan saja daftarkan diri Anda, tempat terbatas!

Makanan dari dapur Asia atau oriental memang memiliki keunggulan karena mudah diterima oleh hampir semua bangsa di dunia. Tak heran jika kini hidangan Asia menjadi populer. Termasuk yang paling digemari oleh orang Barat.

Restoran bermenu Asia pun lebih sering bermunculan dibandingkan dengan yang bermenu Eropa. Karena itulah kami ingin mengajak Anda mengenal lebih dekat makanan Asia terutama yang popoler dalam menu resto. Untuk itu kami mendapat dukungan penuh dari Mr Eric Leong , General Manager ChatterBox Cafe dan Mr. George Lee sang chef yang kaya pengalaman.

Secara khusus cooking class akan dibuka dengan peragaan resep Chicken Ginger Sasame . Sajian ayam yang lezat dengan bumbu jahe dan wijen ini akan diberikan langsung oleh Mr. Eric Leong sang General Manager . Selanjutnya secara khusus Anda akan diajak beliau melihat-lihat isi dapur ChatterBox dalam 'Kitchen Tour'.

Sang Chef George Lee dengan cermat memilihkan resep-resep andalan yang sudah cukup lama menjadi best-seller di semua outlet ChatterBox Cafe yang memiliki berbagai cabang di Jakarta. Caly Pot Rice , sajian lauk dalam periuk tanah liat ini merupakan salah satu resep kuno yang populer saat ini. Nasi dengan lauk dimatangkan perlahan hingga cita rasanya sempurna.

Tiga resep ClayPot yang sedang populer akan diperagakan oleh Chef George Lee. Chicken Claypot , Seafood Tofu Claypot dan Schezuan Oxtail Claypot. Trik memasak bahan-bahan dengan claypot akan diperlihatkan oleh sang chef. Juga memasak nasi bersama lauk di dalam calypot. Pemilihan bahan, penambahan bumbu dan pemakaian claypot akan dijelaskan secara detil oleh sang chef.

Resep keempat, Hainan Chicken Rice yang sangat populer di Singapura, Malaysia hingga Thailand. Hidangan asal Hainan Cina yang sudah mengalami adaptasi ini memang sangat enak karena alami citarasanya. Bagaimana menanak nasinya yang pulen dan wangi? Atau bagaimana mengukus ayam agar tak anyir dan empuk? Semuanya akan dituturkan lengkap.

Sebagai resep terakhir akan dibeberkan rahasia pembuatan Char Kwe Teow, alias kwetiau goreng yang jadi makanan populer di Singapura, Malaysia dan Indonesia. Meskipun tampak sederhana membuat kwe teow yang garing tetapi tidak kering dengan rasa gurih yang enak perlu trik tersendiri. Rahasianya akan diungkap habis oleh sang chef.

Sebagai penutup tentu saja makan siang bermenu lengkap akan bisa Anda nikmati bersama. Selain makanan yang diperagakan ada beragam hidangan lain, dari pembuka hingga penutup yang dijamin bakal membuat Anda kenyang dan puas. Hadiah-hadiah kejutan menarik juga kami siapkan untuk Anda!

Catat dulu waktunya, Sabtu, 7 November 2009, pukul 10.00 – 14.00 di ChatterBox Cafe Plaza Senayan Lantai 5, Jl, Asia Afrika, Jakarta Selatan. Kami menyediakan tempat terbatas. Karena itu segera saja, catatkan nama Anda di ticketbox@detikshop.com atau telepon 021-7944473! Jangan sampai kehilangan kesempatan istimewa ini!

detik

Kue Kohjo dan Bistik Jawa Sindoro

2009-10-15T22:32:00.001+07:00

Toko kue dan katering yang sudah berdiri hampir 50 tahun ini memang legendaris. Ada kue lapis kohjo dan engka ketan yang legit harum. Gudeg komplet, empal gepuk, urap dan bistik Jawa yang sedappun sangat menggiurkan. Semuanya bikin lidah bergoyang dan ketagihan!

Berada di kawasan Jl. Tanah Abang mengingatkan saya akan Toko Kue Sindoro yang cukup legendaris. Berbekal ingatan seadanya, saya menelusuri Jl. Tanah Abang II untuk mencarinya. Tepat di depan markas PasPamPres, toko mungil berbentuk rumah sederhana bertuliskan Sindoro di papannya yang tak terlalu besar. Area parkirannya sudah dipadati oleh pengunjung yang ingin makan siang ataupun hanya sekedar mampir untuk membeli aneka kue.

Benar saja, begitu masuk ke dalam sudah banyak orang yang menempati bangku-bangku yang berjajar rapi. Di bagian kiri terdapat ruangan yang dijadikan toko kue tradisional dan juga kue kering hasil produksi Sindoro Bakery. Bermacam-macam kue basah dan juga kue kering berjajar rapi dalam etalase.

Awalnya, Sindoro ini memang toko kue dan juga roti. Adalah Ibu Maria Darmo Rahardjo yang merintis usaha ini sejak tahun 1960. Perlahan-lahan, usaha kue ini berkembang menjadi usaha katering dan sekarang menjadi rumah makan yang cukup terkenal. Kue-kue kuno seperti lapis kohjo, engkak ketan, apem, centik manis, kue pisang, dan masih banyak lagi bisa dipilih dengan harga yang cukup terjangkau.

Di sisi lain toko kue, adalah rumah makannya. Rumah makan ini cukup unik, tak ada pelayan yang mencatat pesanan, atau wara-wiri mengantarkan pesanan pengunjung. Semuanya self service alias prasmanan, pengunjung yang datang langsung memilih makanan yang ada di bagian depan resto dan langsung membayarnya. Hmm.. lebih mirip seperti food court yang ada di pusat perbelanjaan.

Semua makanan yang disajikan bernuansa Jawa Tengah-an. Ada bistik daging, empal gepuk, gudeg komplet, lumpia, urapan, pecel, tempe tahu bacem dan masih banyak lagi. Hmm.. bingung juga nih menentukan pilihan! Melihat begitu banyak makanan yang tampak menggiurkan membuat saya ingin mencicipi semuanya.

Akhirnya saya dengan mantap memilih, bistik daging, uraban, tempe bacem, kering ikan kalapan, dan sambal. Bistik dagingnya cukup komplet. Dua buah daging yang diolah menyerupai daging burger ini berukuran cukup besar. Kuahnya berwarna kecokelatan sedikit pekat.

Rasanya manis-manis gurih, mirip dengan rasa kuah selat Solo. Kentang goreng yang dipotong memanjang, wortel, buncis rebus, irisan tomat, beberapa lembar daun selada, dan mustard jadi pelengkapnya. Rasa manis kuah bistik menjadi makin enak dengan rasa asam acar dan gurih mustard. Urapannya terdiri dari rebusan kol, kacang panjang, tauge, dan bayam diaduk bersama dengan kelapa berbumbu yang rasa manis, pedas dan gurihnya pas tidak berlebihan.

Yang paling saya suka adalah kering ikan kalapan. Ikan asin kapasnya digoreng kering barulah dimasak dengan bumbu yang manis-manis pedas. Dan diberikan sedikit taburan wijen. Rasanya kres..kres renyah manis gurih dan pedas enak! Apalagi setelah diadu dengan nasi putih hangat dan sambal goreng terasinya, makin mantap saja rasanya!

Sebagai pencuci mulut, kue lapis kohjo dan engkak ketan pun saya cicipi. Lapis kohjo ini berwarna hijau sedikit kecokelatan dengan aroma wango pandan suji. Setelah dikunyah terasa lembut denga rasa manis yang tak terlalu tajam. Tak beda jauh dengan engkak ketan yang warnanya kecokelatan. Sayang perut sudah mulai penuh sehingga jajan pasar dan kue yang saya beli saya kemas untuk oleh-oleh.

O ya, selain rasanya enak harga yang mereka bandrol pun tidak terlalu mahal. Untuk seporsi bistik Jawa komplet hanya dibandrol Rp 25.000,00 saja. Sedangkan aneka makanan pelengkapnya seperti uraban, tempe bacem, dan kering ikan kalapan hanya dihargai Rp 4.000,00 saja masing-masing.

Sebelum pulang, engkak ketan, lapis kohjo, centik manis, dan juga kue pisang saya beli sebagai oleh-oleh. Masing-masing kue tadi harganya Rp 3.000,00 saja. Cukup ramah di kantong bukan? Hmmm.. kalau ingin merasakan kenikmatan tradisional masa lampau, resto ini patut jadi persinggahan!

Sindoro
Bakeries-Catering-Restaurant
Jl. Tanah Abang II No. 13, Jakarta 10160
Telp: 021-3849260
Buka: 08.00-18.00 (toko kue)
09.00-15.00 (resto)

detik

Oktoberfest 2009

2009-10-13T23:53:00.000+07:00

Nasi Krawukan

2009-10-13T23:49:00.001+07:00

Nasi rames komplet gaya Jawa Timur ini sudah mulai populer. Lauknya sederhana dan tiga macam serundeng yang jadi bumbunya bikin nais ini unik dan enak. Apalagi ya keunikan nasi yang sedpa ini?

Di Indonesia banyak sekali jenis nasi rames atau nasi dengan beragam lauk pauk. Begitu juga di Gresik, di daerah ini ada nasi rames yang cukup terkenal, namanya nasi Krawu. Nasi krawu sepintas mirip dengan nasi langgi. Disajikan di atas daun pisang dengan beragam lauk pauk yang menggugah selera.

Kata krawu sendiri menurut cerita berasal dari kata 'krawukan' yang berarti mengambil nasi atau lauk dengan tangan langsung tanpa bantuan sendok atau lainnya. Alias makan ramai-ramai dengan mencomot lauk-pauk secara langsung.

Sebenarnya, nasi Krawu ini justru makanan khas Madura. Tapi justru di daerahnya sendiri nasi krawu sudah sulit dijumpai bahkan hampir tak ada. Mungkin beberapa dari penjualnya sudah bermigrasi ke daerah Gresik, Jawa Timur sehingga banyak orang mengenal nasi Krawu ini adalah makanan khas Gresik.

Lauknya cukup komplet seperti daging sapi yang dimasak dengan bumbu empal manis ini disuwir-suwir, dagingnya sangat empuk. Tak ketinggalan telur asin, tempe goreng tepung, dan juga serundeng kelapa. O ya, yang paling menarik dari nasi krawu ini adalah tiga jenis serundeng yang digunakannya.

Serundeng ini bernama krawu, abon, dan juga mangot. Krawu adalah serundeng yang terbuat dari parutan kelapa yang merah dengar rasa sedikit pedas karena diberi cabai merah. Sedangkan abon berwarna kuning dengan rasa sedikit manis gurih karena diberi kunyit, dan mangot kelapa yang tidak di parut melainkan di tumbuk dicampur dengan kluwak, sehingga membuat rasanya gurih dan berwarna agak kecokelatan.

Di Jakarta, nasi krawu cukup populer. Bisa dibeli di food court mal besar dengan menu kahs nasi krawu. Atau di usaha catering yang mengkhususkan diri pada makanan Jawa Timur dan Madura. Per porsi harga sekitar Rp. 20.000,00. Jika melintas di jalan raya Condet, bisa mampir ke warung Gresik.

detik

Gala Dinner Bersama Miss Universe 2009

2009-10-13T23:47:00.001+07:00

Sebuah gala dinner digelar di ballroom salah satu hotel berbintang di Medan. Tak hanya dihadiri oleh ratusan pengunjung, aksi musikal dari para artis serta penggalangan dana turut menjadi agenda. Kehadiran Miss Universe 2009 dan Putri Indonesia 2009 makin membuat moment ini tak terlupakan!

Tepatnya pada hari Senin, 12 Oktober 2009 sebuah gala dinner istimewa digelar di ballroom, Hotel JW Marriott Medan. Gala dinner yang menghadirkan dua orang wanita cantik, yaitu Stefanie Fernandez (Venezuela), Miss Universe 2009 dan Qory Sandioriva (Aceh), Putri Indonesia 2009 membuat event kali ini begitu spesial.

Acara dibuka oleh pidato singkat oleh Bpk. Syamsul Arifin, SE selaku Gubernur Sumatera Utara. Sekitar 800 orang yang terdiri dari para undangan dan pengunjung hadir memeriahkan malam tersebut.

Mendapat dukungan dari Mandiri Grup, Pemrprov Sumut dan PPMLI Medan tak hanya dimeriahkan oleh parade makanan dari JW Marriott Medan, sejumlah aksi musikal memukau dari para artis seperti Bob Tutupoly, Edo Kondologit, Denada, Alena, dan Medio Band ikut memeriahkan suasana.

Ada pun maksud daripada diselenggarakannya 'Charity Gala Dinner' ini adalah untuk disumbangkan serta mendukung sebuah program amal dari 'Loins Club Donation. Badan amal untuk Operasi Mata Katarak, "Conquering Blind Support" yang ditujukan bagi mereka yang tidak mampu.

Kegiatan amal ini kedepannya juga akan membantu menyediakan pelayanan terhadap setiap orang yang tidak memiliki asuransi kesehatan atau orang orang yang membutuhkan bantuan diluar pembiayaan asuransi. Selain itu Loins Club Donation juga akan menyediakan pengobatan darurat, makanan, pakaian, tranportasi, dan perlengkapan kesehatan untuk masyarakat yang membutuhkan.

Pedas Gurih Ramen Sanpachi

2009-10-13T02:50:00.000+07:00

Ramen alias mie a la Jepang ini memang banyak disukai. Ada yang berkuah bening, berbumbu shoyu, miso dan ada juga yang diberi cabai hingga rasanya pedas. Soal isi selain mie ada pula irisan daging rebus, tempura, hingga aneka sayuran membuatnya makin lezat dan mengenyangkan!

Kedai ramen kecil yang selalu penuh antrian saat jam makan siang ini mengundang rasa penasaran. Sehingga suatu hari saya dan seorang teman akhirnya tertarik untuk mencoba. Restoran atau lebih tepatnya disebut sebagai kedai mie ramen ala Jepang ini berlokasi di lantai atas supermarket Kamome di kawasan Melawai Raya.

Begitu kaki melangkah masuk, suasana restoran ini mengingatkan kami dengan adegan di film dorama Jepang! Hanya ada sederetan kursi yang mengelilingi bar open kitchen dengan pemandangan para koki lokal berseragam merah menyala yang sibuk meracik masakan! Selebihnya hanya ada beberapa meja dan kursi. Minimalis tanpa interior berlebihan.

Saat melihat menu dan dibantu waiter yang sangat membantu menu andalan disini adalah JIGOKU Ramen dengan tingkat kepedasan 1-20! Wah menantang sekali... bahkan di buku menu tertulis jika ada konsumen yang berhasil menghabiskan semangkuk jigoku level 15 keatas akan diabadikan! Hmm... semacam wall of fame mungkin?

Varian mie ramen yang ditawarkan ada bermacam-macam dengan kuah soyu, miso dan topping daging ayam maupun pork (non halal). Selain itu ada juga salad, gyoza, nasi goreng, onogiri, curry katsu dan lainnya. Mereka juga menyediakan paket lengkap berisi nasi goreng porsi mini, semangkuk ramen, gyoza plus pickles! Porsinya cukup besar untuk ukuran perut pria dewasa.

Hari itu kami mencoba house salad yang berisikan selada hijau, potongan crabstick, timun jepang dan bawang bombay plus green pepper . Salad dressing -nya istimewa dengan cita rasa segar dan sedikit asam. Sangat cocok sebagai hidangan pembuka.

Untuk jigoku ramen disajikan dalam mangkuk jumbo dengan warna kuah super merah (kami mencoba level 10). Pilihan mie jatuh pada mie keriting dengan tingkat kematangan setengah (sesuai rekomendasi dari waiter) hingga rasanya sedikit kenyal dan sedikit chewy ! Di dalam mangkuk berisi banyak rajangan daun bawang, potongan cabai merah, dan beberapa slice daging.

Rasa pedas di kuahnya begitu diseruput langsung menghangati tenggorokan hingga ke perut. Hmm... luar biasa efeknya. So far I must admit this is the best ramen in town! Untuk gyoza tampil memikat dengan efek smokey dari panas wajan. Dipping -nya berupa vinegar dan serutan bawang putih plus kecap asin yang disediakan di meja. Rasanya lumayan walaupun sedikit oily.

Untuk mentralisir hidangan tersebut hot ocha bisa jadi teman yang ideal (di sini air putih disajikan gratis dengan jug yang disediakan di meja bar). Sebagai complimentary dessert kami mendapatkan segelas kecil berisi 2 potong konyaku jelly yang manisnya pas sebagai penutup.

Sayangnya hiburan satu-satunya di ramen sanpachi adalah siaran TV Jepang yang menayangkan acara-acara lokal mereka. Ada juga beberapa majalah berbahasa Jepang di dekat kasir untuk dibaca sambil menunggu antrian.

Karakteristik pengunjung yang datang ke sini juga sangat bervariasi. Mulai dari pekerja pria Jepang sendirian yang menyantap ramen sambil membaca komik ditemani rokok dan sake, keluarga muda dengan anak remaja, hingga tamu lokal seperti kami.

Kalau Anda ingin menyantap semangkuk panas mie ramen ala Jepang dengan suasana yang cukup autentik, kedai ini bisa jadi alternatif kuliner yang memuaskan lidah dan tidak bikin kantung jebol. Selain di Melawai, Ramen 38 juga membuka cabang di beberapa tempat seperti di Plaza Pondok Indah, FX, dan Pacific Place.

Ramen Sanpachi 38 (non halal)
Gedung Kamome Lt. 2
Jl Melawai Raya 189 B
Telp: 021-7280268

Microsoft Office Web Apps vs. Google Docs and Zoho: Office suites in the cloud

2009-10-13T02:44:00.002+07:00

Web-based office suites at a glance

	Google Docs	Microsoft Office Web Apps	Zoho Writer, Sheet, Show
Cost	Free; $50 per user per year with Google Apps Premier Edition	Will be available free via Windows Live, at a cost TBD as a SharePoint-based service from Microsoft Online Services, and as part of Office 2010 volume license purchases	Free for 1GB; $3 per user per month for 5GB with Zoho Docs; other business subscriptions available
Web browsers supported	Google Chrome, Firefox 2+, Internet Explorer 6+, and Safari 3+ with some exceptions (more info)	Firefox 3.5+, Internet Explorer 7+, and Safari 4+	Firefox 2+ and Internet Explorer 6+ (more info)
Pros	Spare and easy to use UI Presents chronological view of documents Maintains version history of each document Can import documents via e-mail or the Web Docs are easy to embed in blogs and Web sites	Same ribbon bar UI we all know Reproduces Word and PowerPoint files, and embedded graphs in Excel, with absolute fidelity Excel Web App displays updates to multiple authors in real time Printing is flawless	Provides a few advanced features such as mail merge, pivot tables, charts Beta VB Macro support for spreadsheets Can insert HTML and CSS directly from Web pages Blog posting via MetaWebLog and Blogger APIs Complemented by a wide range of business apps
Cons	Almost completely lacking in advanced features Fails to preserve all but the most rudimentary Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formatting Printing is unreliable	Word and PowerPoint Web Apps are read-only in the Technical Preview Excel Web App cannot edit files containing VBA, shapes, and other objects	UI is inconsistent across apps Light on sophisticated features Preservation of imported Office documents only slightly better than Google Docs Printing is unreliable

Google Docs: Your desktop, online

No company is more jazzed about Web-based applications than Google, so you'd expect its suite to be the best, right? Wrong. In fact, the most amazing thing about Google Docs turned out to be just how woefully inadequate for serious work it actually is.

When you log in to Google Docs, you're greeted with a familiar, Google-style UI: spare, reserved, understated, even elegant. But while this trademark approach works wonders for Google's search products, with Google Docs it belies a paucity of features that's instantly frustrating.

Just for starters, forget about a smooth migration away from Microsoft Office. Google added support for Office 2007 file formats in June, but so what? Even with the older Office formats, Docs chokes on all but the most rudimentary formatting. I tried importing various real-world files from my archives -- not mock-ups or demos, but actual work -- and anything more complicated than a simple column of text came up distorted.

A demo file created in Word 2007 revealed just how many features Docs gets wrong. Tab stops, paragraph spacing, page margins, and placed images all move around indiscriminately. Curly quotes import properly, but that's actually a minus because there's no way to type them in Docs.

Revisions made using Word's Track Changes feature appear all jumbled together as plain text; ditto for Comments. Page headers and footers are converted to inline text at the top of the document -- no surprise, because Docs doesn't even preserve pagination. Macros? Auto-update fields? Dream on.

A demo file created in Word 2007 reveals just how many features Google Docs gets wrong.

The same goes for Excel files. Basic figures and formulas import properly -- which would be great if you were migrating from Lotus 1-2-3 -- but don't expect much else. Images are discarded, along with any formatting beyond simple cell sizing and shading. Charts embedded in Excel 2007 appear as big, white boxes labeled "No Data."

Charts embedded in Excel 2003 or earlier simply disappear. It's often possible to tweak the Excel 2007 charts by hand so that they draw from the right columns, but even then, Docs' graphing engine is mostly a toy. There's no support for features like trend lines, no formatting options, and the output is hardly presentation-ready.

Charts embedded in Excel 2007 appear as big, white boxes labeled "No Data."

With PowerPoint files, Docs does an adequate job of preserving the basic look and feel of presentations, but again, it's a poor substitute for the original. Graphics appear blurry and re-sampled, text moves around without warning, and animations and transitions are eliminated. And here, Google doesn't bother making a pretense of supporting PowerPoint 2007.

Despite its faults, Docs does incorporate some intriguing, even revolutionary ideas. If the goal was simply to mimic the current office paradigm on the Web, Docs would be a miserable failure, but Google is looking at the bigger picture. If outside-the-box thinking excites you, you may want to give it a try.

For example, in keeping with Google's idea of working in "the cloud," Docs discards the usual files-and-folders desktop metaphor. Instead, it presents your documents in a chronological view resembling an e-mail inbox, based on what you worked on most recently. Similarly, you don't need to save multiple copies of documents as you make revisions because Docs maintains an internal version history for each document that allows you to view or revert to an earlier draft at any time.

Rather than simply re-creating desktop apps in the browser, Docs is Web-centric. You can import documents via e-mail or from the Web, or embed them in blogs or Web sites to share with the public. There's a UI for embedding YouTube videos in your presentations. There's basic version control to allow multiple authors to work on the same document. Forget paper; with Google Docs, it's all about sharing, collaboration, and online publishing.

But most of us in the real world have given up on the "paperless office," and once your feet land back on the ground, Docs disappoints once again. In keeping with its Spartan feature set, printing is thoroughly mediocre. As already noted, Docs seldom gets pagination right, particularly where images come into play, and it thinks nothing of breaking a page midtable. Fonts that render correctly onscreen might not print, and graphics come out blurry and jaggy.

Joel Spolsky once wrote that the problem with lightweight office suites is that 80 percent of users need only 20 percent of the features of Microsoft Office, but it's a different 20 percent every time. Google Docs doesn't give you all of the features of Office and it doesn't try to. Unfortunately, in its present state it's missing so much that it's sure to lack something for just about everybody.

Zoho: A SaaS back office for small business

Zoho offers a slightly different take. While Google Docs presents a Spartan UI that emphasizes the online aspect of the suite, Zoho makes more of an effort to mimic the look and feel of traditional desktop applications. The results might seem more familiar to new users, but they also underscore the limitations of this strategy.

One problem is that Zoho's offering seems to have grown rapidly, with little thought to consistency. One application's menu might resemble a panel of buttons, while the next looks like tabs, and a third favors a drop-down layout. Icons and menus move around the toolbars from one app to the next. The spreadsheet's interface offers a choice of colored themes, but the other applications do not. A pull-down menu makes moving between applications simple enough, but the lack of a common UI undermines the illusion that this is an integrated suite.

Zoho has a few features that Google Docs lacks, but most are minor. For example, Google's word processor offers a robust equation editor based on the TeX language, but Zoho's equation editor is better. Zoho's thesaurus gives the part of speech for synonyms, while Google's does not. And Zoho allows you to insert HTML and CSS directly from files on the Web, rather than simply editing it in your browser as Google Docs allows you to do.

Like Google Docs, Zoho encourages Web-based publishing and collaboration. Here, Zoho's minor advantages include the ability to post to blogs directly using the MetaWebLog or Blogger APIs, the ability to generate a "doc roll" of recent documents for embedding in a Web site, and integration with EchoSign for digital signatures.

Zoho is slowly implementing more advanced features, too. Its spreadsheet offers rudimentary support for pivot tables and charts, while the word processor features a very basic mail-merge facility. Most remarkable, however, is the spreadsheet's elementary support for Visual Basic macros. I have to confess that when I saw some of my macros running automatically in the browser, I was stunned; still, other scripts failed with error messages.

All of these strengths aside, however, the overall problems with Zoho's applications are similar to those of Google Docs. While the suite is amazing as a Web-based curiosity and passable as a lightweight set of productivity applications, power users will be dismayed by its lack of sophisticated features and its halfhearted implementations of existing ones.

Zoho's support for Microsoft Office file formats is better than that of Google Docs, but only slightly. Page layout and image placement in the word processor are questionable, and revisions made using Track Changes get corrupted, just as in Google Docs.

Page layout and image placement are questionable in Zoho's word processor.

Support for Excel 2007 embedded graphs is a bit better than Google's, but the output is similarly disappointing. Imported presentations are reduced to static slideshows, losing their animated transitions. And as with Google Docs, printing is unreliable, particularly where fonts and images are concerned.

Zoho's support for Excel 2007 embedded graphs is better than that of Google Docs, but only slightly.

The beta status of Zoho's applications might also be an issue for some. I'd hardly call Google Docs bulletproof, but Zoho did seem to freeze up the browser more often (though a page reload would usually solve the problem).

Zoho's real strength lies not in the merits of its individual applications, however, but in its offering as a whole. In addition to its productivity suite, Zoho offers a whole range of back-office business applications, including groupware, conferencing, invoice management, project management, CRM, and more. Most are free for limited use with a modest amount of storage space; for increased capacity and a greater number of users, Zoho charges a per-head subscription fee.

As such, Zoho could appeal to small businesses who like the idea of a suite of a la carte business applications that don't require a dedicated IT staff to install and maintain. Although it seems unlikely that Zoho's online productivity apps will meet your needs as well as desktop software would, if the SaaS way of doing things is attractive to you, Zoho could be a cost-effective option that provides a wide range of business functionality with a minimum of hassle.

Microsoft Office Web Apps: Office, everywhere

Although Google Docs and Zoho are both flawed, Microsoft could hardly have expected to take this competition lying down. The Redmond-based giant is currently in the process of readying a fully Web-based version of its Office productivity suite, due to launch simultaneously with the release of Office 2010. While the Office Web Apps are currently only available as a Technical Preview (with a formal beta program to be announced later this year), they're already shaping up to become a formidable challenge to Zoho and Google Docs.

Nowhere is this more evident than when you import your first document into Word Web App. Unlike its competitors, Microsoft's online suite reproduces .doc and .docx files with absolute fidelity, down to the smallest detail. The results are jaw-dropping. Fonts, page spacing, headers, footers, auto-text entries, footnotes -- everything appears exactly as it does in the desktop version of Word.

Images show up where they should, even when placed above or behind text. Documents that mix page sizes, or that alternate portrait and landscape modes from page to page, load correctly. And, most miraculous of all after experiencing the competition, printing is flawless.

The PowerPoint files I tried yielded similarly impressive results. Images retained most of their quality, and text remained where it should. And unlike Google Docs or Zoho, the PowerPoint Web App managed to preserve animated transitions between slides.

You'd be forgiven for assuming that Microsoft relies on ActiveX controls or other IE-only trickery to achieve all this, but you'd be wrong. Internet Explorer users are offered an improved file upload UI, but other than that, everything renders the same in all of Microsoft's supported browsers, which includes not just IE 7+ but Firefox 3.5+ and Safari 4+, as well.

Just for fun I tried Google Chrome, too, and even though that browser isn't formally supported, everything looked fine. That's it; no add-ons or plug-ins are required -- but if you do install Silverlight, fonts look crisper and document load times improve somewhat.

Microsoft's Word Web App reproduces .doc and .docx files with absolute fidelity, down to the smallest detail.

But there must be a catch, right? Sure, and it's a doozy: Microsoft's applications don't really work. During the Technical Preview, documents imported into the online versions of Word and PowerPoint are read-only. Mind you, that's nothing to sneeze at; if you're looking for a surefire way to read and print Word 2007 documents from Linux, for example, these apps are already a godsend. But whether Microsoft can re-create the editing experience of its desktop apps remains to be seen.

The Excel Web app does allow editing, and the results are mixed. Like its siblings, it reproduced Excel files with far greater fidelity than either Google Docs or Zoho. This was especially true for embedded graphs, which rendered exactly as they do in Excel 2007, down to the fonts and coloring. Changing figures on the worksheet caused the graphs to be redrawn in real time, which was impressive to watch.

The Excel Web App is also impressive, but the results were more mixed.

Equally impressive were the app's collaboration capabilities. Multiple authors can open the same document simultaneously, and when one author makes changes, all the other browser windows are updated with the new figures in real time. (It's worth noting, however, that Microsoft says a similar capability will not be available in the Word Web app at launch time; apparently there are limits to Microsoft's AJAX approach.)

Notably absent was any kind of revision history like what Google Docs and Zoho offer. It was fairly trivial to corrupt an entire worksheet with a few clicks of the mouse, and given that the document saves itself automatically at regular intervals, the Revert to Saved button wasn't much comfort. Hopefully this situation will improve as the suite matures.

More troubling were the features the suite didn't support. While the other suites generally discarded elements of spreadsheets they couldn't parse, Excel Web App warned me that files containing "VBA, shapes, or other objects" might not import properly. Worse, when such files did load, the presence of such objects meant they couldn't be edited. It seems the complex Office file formats can be a bit much for online applications to handle -- even for Microsoft itself.

The final version of the Office Web Apps will also include a Web-based version of OneNote, but that application isn't part of the Technical Preview and wasn't available to demo.

Microsoft plans to offer several versions of its Web-based Office at launch. The consumer version will be ad-supported and offer similar Web-publishing features as its competitors (including the ability to embed Word documents in Web pages, formatting and all). Microsoft will also offer a hosted subscription version for businesses, with improved document management and workflow features. Customers who prefer to run the suite on their own servers will be able to do so if they buy a volume license to Office 2010.

That last option underlines Microsoft's view of Office Web Apps as a companion to the traditional desktop suite, not a substitute. Promised integration between Office Web Apps and Office 2010 will allow Office 2010 users to save documents to the Web and open them from the Web directly.

I didn't manage to get Office Web Apps working with the Technical Preview of Office 2010, but I did get it working with Office 2007 on Vista. I needed to be using Internet Explorer to make it work. I could click "Open in Word" in Word Web App and the document would download and open in Office 2007. From there I could make changes, and when I hit Ctrl-S the changes would be saved back to the document stored online. If I then reloaded the document in the Word Web App, I would see all the changes.

It's nothing more impressive than what you can do right now when you open a Word document from a networked share, but it shows how Microsoft is thinking about Office Web Apps and the desktop apps as a unified whole.

Why the Web?

When it came down to it, none of the three Web-based productivity suites I tried proved an adequate substitute for traditional desktop software. To be fair, all three are works in progress. But as someone who spends most of his day in Microsoft Office, I needed mere minutes to find some area where each of the online alternatives failed to live up to what I can already do on my desktop today.

So what do these three efforts, ambitious though they are, really hope to achieve? The answer may lie in the disparate business models of the three competitors and the separate niche that each hopes to carve for itself.

Google believes the Web is the future and it's inevitable that document creation, publishing, and collaboration will move online. If you agree with that vision, then an online productivity software offering from a company as prominent as Google will naturally be attractive to you. Just realize that Google's vision is also self-serving: Its core business is search, so it prefers your documents to be online, regardless of whether that's really an advantage.

Zoho's is more of a pure SaaS play, in which the whole may be more important than the quality of its parts. In other words, although Zoho's broad suite of Web-based apps may not give you everything you can get with desktop software, it might be enough. More important, its pricing structure and the fact that SaaS eliminates the need for in-house IT staff may be appealing enough to small businesses on tight budgets that they'll be willing to forgo some of the capabilities of more traditional applications.

Microsoft, on the other hand, is undoubtedly moving to the Web as a defensive measure, but its goal is not to replace the Office we have now. Rather, it plans to augment its current offering with an online option. In that sense, the Office Web Apps will probably fill much the same niche as Outlook Web Access: They'll be invaluable for mobile workers, but where possible, most will stick with the desktop versions. In addition, by bringing support for the Microsoft Office file formats to the Web, Microsoft further cements its status as the de facto standard for office documents.

I suspect Microsoft's model will resonate best with most customers. Don't be surprised if you find yourself using Web-based productivity software in the near future; the online publishing and collaboration features are too valuable to ignore. At the same time, don't wipe your current office suite from your hard drive just yet. Although the current offerings are impressive, browser-based apps have a long way to go before they become the standard for business users.

Microsoft plans monster Patch Tuesday next week

2009-10-09T03:32:00.001+07:00

Microsoft today said it will deliver its largest-ever number of security updates on Tuesday to fix flaws in every version of Windows, as well as Internet Explorer (IE), Office, SQL Server, important developer tools and the enterprise-grade Forefront Security client software.

Among the updates will be the first for the final, or release to manufacturing, code of Windows 7, Microsoft's newest operating system.

The company will ship a total of 13 updates next week, eight of them pegged "critical," the highest threat ranking in its four-step scoring system, beating the previous record of 12 updates shipped in February 2007 and again in October 2008.

"Thirteen is not a lucky number," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, reacting to the massive slate scheduled for Oct. 13. "They've been a busy bunch at Microsoft, that's for sure."

Storms was unable to parse today's advance notification -- Microsoft's way of forewarning customers with the barest of details, including the number of updates, their ranking and the software they impact -- to determine whether the company will patch the still-unfixed vulnerability in SMB 2. "There's just too much data here to use the deduction method," said Storms. "But with all that's here, you have to imagine that it's going to be patched."

The bug in SMB (Server Message Block) 2, a Microsoft-made network file- and print-sharing protocol that ships with Windows, was first revealed by Microsoft Sept. 7. Since then, attack code has gone public, although security researchers have not seen any in-the-wild attacks. The flaw affects Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and preview releases of Windows 7.

Of the 13 updates, Storms put the patches scheduled for SQL Server, Visual Studio and IE at the top of his list.

"The SQL Server update will affect a lot of people, especially those who use it as the back-end for their Web sites. And the Visual Studio update makes me wonder if it's another fix for ATL," Storms said, referring to the Active Template Library (ATL) bug that Microsoft itself introduced in its popular development platform.

Microsoft patched a number of bugs in the ATL code "library," which the company and others rely on to create their programs, in August.

"There's also the token IE update," added Storms. "Even IE8 is critical this month."

Windows 7 will receive its first official patches next week: Five of the 13 bulletins were marked today by Microsoft as affecting the new operating system. "At this point, Windows 7 is essentially released," said Storms.

Although Windows 7 won't reach retail or be available on new PCs until later this month, some customers -- primarily enterprises with volume licensing agreements -- have been able to obtain the OS for the last two months.

Both consumers and company administrators should gear up for a busy Tuesday, Storms warned. The latter will especially have a tough time with the monster update, since businesses typically try to test updates before they roll them out to their servers or client systems. "The problem for enterprises will be staying diligent with their patch management policies," said Storms. "But with this many updates, there should be places to cut corners to get the most critical updates out according to their own schedules."

Testing 13 updates may also give system administrators fits, he warned. "There are so many potential interactions with this many," Storms concluded. "It's going to be a full month of testing for some."

Microsoft will release the 13 updates at approximately 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 13.

computerworld

Microsoft: No TCP/IP patches for you, XP

2009-10-09T03:30:00.000+07:00

Microsoft late last week said it won't patch Windows XP for a pair of bugs it quashed Sept. 8 in Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

The news adds Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and SP3 to the no-patch list that previously included only Windows 2000 Server SP4.

"We're talking about code that is 12 to 15 years old in its origin, so backporting that level of code is essentially not feasible," said security program manager Adrian Stone during Microsoft's monthly post-patch Webcast, referring to Windows 2000 and XP.

"An update for Windows XP will not be made available," Stone and fellow program manager Jerry Bryant said during the Q&A portion of the Webcast (transcript here).

Last Tuesday, Microsoft said that it wasn't patching Windows 2000 because creating a fix was "infeasible."

The bugs in question are in Windows' implementation of TCP/IP, the Web's default suite of connection protocols. All three of the vulnerabilities highlighted in the MS09-048 update were patched in Vista and Server 2008. Only two of the trio affect Windows Server 2000 and Windows XP, Microsoft said in the accompanying advisory, which was refreshed on Thursday.

In the revised advisory, Microsoft explained why it won't patch Windows XP, the world's most popular operating system. "By default, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP SP3 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition SP2 do not have a listening service configured in the client firewall and are therefore not affected by this vulnerability," the company said. "Windows XP SP2 and later operating systems include a stateful host firewall that provides protection for computers against incoming traffic from the Internet or from neighboring network devices on a private network."

Although the two bugs can be exploited on Windows 2000 and XP, Microsoft downplayed their impact. "A system would become unresponsive due to memory consumption ... [but] a successful attack requires a sustained flood of specially crafted TCP packets, and the system will recover once the flood ceases."

Microsoft rated the vulnerabilities on Windows 2000 and XP as "important" on Windows 2000, and as "low" on XP. The company uses a four-step scoring system, where "low" is the least-dangerous threat, followed in ascending order by "moderate," "important" and "critical."

The same two bugs were ranked "moderate" for Vista and Server 2008, while a third -- which doesn't affect the older operating systems -- was rated "critical."

During the Q&A, however, Windows users repeatedly asked Microsoft's security team to explain why it wasn't patching XP, or if, in certain scenarios, their machines might be at risk. "We still use Windows XP and we do not use Windows Firewall," read one of the user questions. "We use a third-party vendor firewall product. Even assuming that we use the Windows Firewall, if there are services listening, such as remote desktop, wouldn't then Windows XP be vulnerable to this?"

"Servers are a more likely target for this attack, and your firewall should provide additional protections against external exploits," replied Stone and Bryant.

Another user asked them to spell out the conditions under which Microsoft won't offer up patches for still-supported operating systems. Windows Server 2000 SP4, for example, is to receive security updates until July 2010; Windows XP's support doesn't expire until April 2014.

Stone's and Bryant's answer: "We will continue to provide updates for Windows 2000 while it is in support unless it is not technically feasible to do so."

Skipping patches is very unusual for Microsoft. According to a Stone and Bryant, the last time it declined to patch a vulnerability in a support edition of Windows was in March 2003, when it said it wouldn't fix a bug in Windows NT 4.0. Then, it explained the omission with language very similar to what it used when it said it wouldn't update Windows 2000.

"Due to these fundamental differences between Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 and its successors, it is infeasible to rebuild the software for Windows NT 4.0 to eliminate the vulnerability," Microsoft said at the time.

computerworld

Heroes Session 4 eps 1-4

2009-10-08T00:36:00.003+07:00

Eps 1-2 download
http://www.indowebster.com/Heroes_S04E01E02_OrientationJump_Push_Fall_HDTV_XviDFQM_.html
Eps 3 download
http://www.indowebster.com/HeroesS04E03InkHDTVXviDFQM.html
Eps 4 download
http://www.indowebster.com/HeroesS04E04AcceptanceHDTVXviDFQM.html

Gurame Bakar

2009-10-07T15:37:00.003+07:00

Bosan dengan gurame goreng garing? Anda bisa mencoba sajian gurame bakar yang lebih sedap dan sehat. Daging ikan gurame yang tipis dioles bumbu dan dibakar di atas bara api. Hmm... rasanya tentu saja makin gurih enak. Mau coba siang ini?

Menu andalan resto Sunda biasanya adalah olahan ikan air tawar. Biasanya dibuat pepes atau digoreng kering. Ikan mas, ikan gurame, atau ikan lele sudah sangat banyak variannya. Ikan air tawar yang jadi primadona adalah ikan gurame.

Ikan ini dagingnya tipis lebar tetapi sangat gurih. Karena itu biasanya daging ikan disayat melebar lalu digoreng dalam minyak panas hingga merekah seperti kipas atau bunga. Jika bosan dengan ikan gurame goren yang hanya gurih renyah, coba saja ikan gurame bakar.

Kedua sisi ikan gurame disayat-sayat di beberapa bagian. Kemudian ikan dilumuri bumbu bawang putih dan garam. Ikan gurame kemudian dibakar di atas bara api arang dengan olesan bumbu kecap manis dan cabai. Hasilnya, ikan kecokelatan, garing dengan semburat karamel di bagian kulitnya. Penyajiannya ada juga yang ditaruh di atas cobek atau hot plate alias piring panas.

Rasanya tentu saja lebih enak, sedikit manis, gurih dan pedas. Menyantap ikan gurame bakar ini paling enak tentu dengan nasi putih yang hangat, sambal dadak, lalap sayuran segar. Kalau mau komplet bisa ditambah oseng genjer dan ulekuteuk oncom. Hmm.. sangat sedap menggiurkan!

Jika memang ingin mengisi perut lebih kenyang siang ini, mampir saja di salah satu restoran atau rumah makan berikut ini.

Pondok Laguna
Batu Tulis Raya no. 45.
Jakarta Pusat
Telpon: 021-345-9991

Warung Makan Bi Bet
Ampera Raya No. 120
Jakarta Selatan
Telpon: 021-7884-0615

Gubug Makan Mang Engking
Special Udang Galah/Ikan (hidup)
Danau Salam Kampus UI Depok
Telp: 021-99569150

Rumah Makan Riung Sari
Jl. Ir. H.Juanda
Jakarta Pusat
Telpon:021-381-4352

Dapur Sunda
Jl. Cipete Raya No. 13
Jakarta Selatan
Telpon: 021-769 4834

detik

Takoyaki

2009-10-07T02:28:00.001+07:00

Camilan populer pinggir jalan asal Jepang ini ternyata sudah mendunia termasuk di Indonesia. Bentuknya yang bulat, empuk dengan isian daging octopus yang kenyal-kenyal enak ini memang menggoyang lidah. Taburan katsuobushi dan mayonaise membuatnya makin yummy...!

Takoyaki, camilan yang biasa dijual di pinggir jalan di negara asalnya Jepang ini memang sudah mendunia. Konon awalnya camilan ini berasal dari Kansai yaitu suatu daerah di Jepang sana. Namanya sendiri diambil dari 'tako' yang berarti octopus, karena aslinya memang berisi irisan daging gurita. Sedangkan kata 'yaki' berarti bakar.

Cara pembuatan takoyaki sebenarnya sederhana saja namun sedikit unik. Bahan utama yang digunakan untuk membuat camilan ini adalah tepung terigu, telur, dan dashi soup. Yang tak boleh ketinggalan alat khusus memanggang takoyaki yang berbentuk cetakan setengah lingkaran, serta tongkat besi dengan pegangan dari kayu untuk membolak-balik adonan.

Bahkan cara pembuatan takoyaki pun bisa jadi tontonan yang menarik pembeli. Adonan dituang dalam cetakan takoyaki dan dibolak-balik hingga berbentuk setengah lingkaran. Setelah adonan sedikit matang lalu diberi irisan daging octopus, acar jahe, dan daun bawang. Kemudian ditutup kembali oleh adonan dan dibolak-balik hingga akhirnya berbentuk bulat dengan diameter sekitar 4-5cm.

Kini tak hanya octopus, takoyaki juga dijual dalam beragam isi seperti smoked beef, cheese, kani crab, prawn, dll. Setelah matang takoyaki dilumuri saus khusus takoyaki yang berwarna kecoklatan. Lalu diberi topping mayonaise, taburan katsuobushi, dan nori sebagai penambah selera.

Seporsi takoyaki ini biasanya berisi 6-12 buah dan ditaruh dalam box atau kemasan transparan. Dimana untuk menikmatinya biasanya diberikan sebatang tusuk gigi atau sumpit sekali pakai.

Jika di Jepang sana takoyaki biasa dijual di gerobak kecil atau Takoyaki-ya dan stand-stand saat musim panas atau Yatai. Di Indonesia penjual takoyaki kerap dijual di booth yang ada di mal-mal dan dihargai sekitar Rp 15.000,00-Rp 25.000,00 per porsi. Selain menjual takoyaki biasanya dijual pula jajanan khas Jepang lainnya seperti okonomiyaki atau gyoza.

detik

Roti Antioksidan di Shokupan Bakery

2009-10-07T02:27:00.002+07:00

Roti Taiwan Vanila Bakery

2009-10-07T02:21:00.001+07:00

Nama bakery yang menawarkan roti manis a la Taiwan ini adalah Vanilla Bakery. Letaknya berada di Jl. Agung Utara Raya D1/5A, Sunter.

Nostalgia Cita Rasa Tempo Doeloe

2009-10-06T15:41:00.000+07:00

Rumah makan sekaligus toko kue yang menyajikan kue-kue kuno ini memang sangat mengundang selera. Mulai dari bangunan tua yang ditempatinya hingga berbagai hidangannya khas Belanda yang ditawarkan. Pengunjung pun serasa diajak bernostalgia mengulang cita rasa tempo doeloe!

Liburan yang cukup panjang membuat saya lebih leluasa menikmati Bandung, kota kelahiran tercinta. Maklumlah sejak menetap di Jakarta 15 tahun silam untuk mencari nafkah saya hanya bisa berkunjung ke Bandung selama 1-2 hari saja. Saat itu pun waktunya lebih banyak dihabiskan bersama keluarga.

Nah, menjelang tahun baru 1430 Hijriah dengan naik angkot jurusan Sadang Serang - Stasiun Bandung yang berhenti tepat di perempatan Braga, dekat Gedung Landmark. Berbekal kamera saya mulai berburu foto bangunan-bangunan tua di sepanjang Braga.

Saat itu waktu menunjukkan pukul 10.15 wib. Cuaca sedikit mendung sehingga saya tidak perlu repot-repot menggunakan tabir surya. Long time no see, ternyata jalanan aspal di Braga telah berganti dengan batu andesit, konon kabarnya meniru struktur jalan kota-kota di Eropa. Sayang, sebagian bangunan-bangunan itu kurang terurus meskipun minggu lalu salah satu perkumpulan di Bandung telah mengecat sebagian bangunan hingga terkesan menjadi lebih bersih.

Setelah mengambil foto beberapa bangunan tua, saya beristirahat sejenak di Sumber Hidangan, sebuah toko kue yang menyajikan aneka roti dan kue-kue tempo doeloe. Wow, dari tampilan bangunannya saja menarik banget, bener-bener jadul. Ketinggian langit-langit sekitar 5 meter, bagian depan sebelah kiri digunakan untuk display roti dan kue-kue yang dibuat fresh from the oven. Sementara di sebelah kanan ditempatkan beberapa meja yang masing-masing dilengkapi empat kursi besi yang tidak kalah kunonya.

Belum semenit duduk, seorang pelayan tua datang membawa daftar menu. Hmm... ternyata menu yang disajikan cukup lengkap. Ada aneka mie, bihun, steak, nasi goreng untuk hidangan utama. Sedangkan berbagai jenis minuman ada kopi, teh, coklat susu dan minuman bersoda. Untuk pencuci mulut tersedia beraneka rasa es krim.

Sayang karena di salah satu menu ada yang tidak halal, akhirnya saya dan adik hanya memesan coklat susu panas dan es krim tutti frutti. Untuk kudapannya ada roti kismis dan cake kacang yang saya deskripsikan berdasarkan tampilannya. Nama aslinya sendiri saya tak begitu ingat karena menggunakan bahasa Belanda.

Sambil menunggu pesanan tiba, tidak lupa saya menjepret spot-spot menarik di toko ini. Tidak banyak pengunjung yang datang saat itu. Selain saya hanya ada dua orang lelaki muda yang sedang mengobrol sambil menikmati minumannya.

Akhirnya datang juga pesanan saya. Awalnya saya membayangkan secangkir coklat susu hangat seperti yang biasa disajikan di kafe, ternyata dugaan saya salah. Coklat susu terhidang dalam gelas belimbing berukuran 150 ml beralas pring kecil dengan sendok untuk mengaduk coklat bubuk yang masih tersisa di dasar gelas.

Wuih, rasa dan tampilannya sama persis dengan coklat susu yang biasa saya minum di masa kecil dulu. Coklat bubuk yang terkenal di masa itu adalah merek Van Houten. Sedangkan sajian es krim tutti frutti berupa satu scoop es krim vanila dengan taburan buah kaleng. Rasanya manis segar dan lembut membelai lidah. Mirip dengan es krim Rasa di Jl. Tamblong, Bandung.

Nah, untuk kudapannya roti dengan taburan kismis di sana-sini sedikit menghentak ketika digigit. Jangan bandingkan dengan roti versi bakery modern. Meskipun kalah empuk, saya tetap memilih roti jadul ini karena pembuatannya begitu alami tanpa menggunakan bahan pengawet dan harga yang lebih murah. Sedangkan cake kacangnya beraroma kayu manis dan bumbu spekuk dengan saus/vla kacang di bagian tengahnya. Sayang rasanya terlalu manis di lidah saya.

Segelas coklat susu Rp 5.000,00, es krim tutti frutti Rp 8.000,00, roti kismis Rp 3.000,00 dan cake kacang Rp 6.000,00, dengan total sebesar Rp 22.000,00. Suatu harga yang begitu murah mengingat kenyamanan yang didapatkan saat menikmati Braga di balik jendela kaca resto jadul ala Belanda.

Mungkin akan lebih baik apabila di masa mendatang kota Bandung menjadikan area sepanjang Jl. Braga bebas kendaraan bermotor dan tempat parkir. Membuat area ala alfresco dining sehingga mengundang pengunjung untuk bercengkrama sambil menikmati keindahan bangunan tua, sekaligus menjadi tempat hang out favorit.

Sumber Hidangan
Jl. Braga No. 20-22
Bandung
Telp: 022-4236638
Buka setiap hari (kecuali Minggu)
Jam buka: 08.30-19.00

detik

Anti Aliasing/ClearType text atau font pada Wine (linux)

2009-10-06T15:15:00.005+07:00

Mungkin selama ini anda menggunakan Wine di Linux tidak merasa nyaman karena text yang dihasilkan oleh Wine kasar atau tidak menggunakan anti aliasing. Fitur tersebut sebenarnya sudah ada pada Wine, namun belum diaktifkan.

tanpa anti aliasing

dengan anti aliasing

Cara untuk mengaktifkan fitur anti aliasing untuk text pada Wine:
jalankan regedit, dengan cara mengetik "wine regedit" pada console.
lalu ganti :
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"FontSmoothing"="2"
"FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002
"FontSmoothingGamma"=dword:00000578
"FontSmoothingOrientation"=dword:00000001

Cara yang ke 2 :
bisa download script winetricks
untuk keterangan lbh lanjut tentang cara installasi/pakai bisa ke sini

untuk mengaktifkan fitur anti aliasing dengan wintricks :

sh winetricks fontsmooth-rgb

ketik perintah tersebut pada console.


[wing_zero_c]

Eugene Kaspersky akan ke Jakarta, Mau Ketemu?

2009-10-06T00:27:00.001+07:00

Bila tak ada halangan Eugene Kaspersky, pendiri perusahaan penyedia antivirus terkemuka asal Russia-Kaspersky, akan datang ke Jakarta untuk pertama kalinya minggu ini. Ia akan meluncurkan K-Klub Indonesia, komunitas online yang baru didirikan Kaspersky untuk para pengguna dan fans bertukar pikiran soal keamanan komputer dan jaringan.

Chief Executive Officer Kaspersky Labs itu akan turun ke Jakarta untuk menyapa semua fans pada 9 Oktober 2009 di Bhineka.com Store, mal Mangga Dua. Ia akan menghabiskan waktu selama dua jam dari waktunya yang berharga dari pukul 14.00 hingga pukul 16.00.

Selama acara berlangsung tanggal 9 Oktober 2009, 5 pembeli produk Kaspersky 2010 Special Edition dan Kaspersky Mobile Security 8.0 di Mall Mangga Dua dan Orion Dusit akan mendapatkan kesempatan untuk memenangkan hadiah menarik berupa handphone dan kesempatan berfoto bersama dengan Eugene Kaspersky.

Kompas

Firefox 3.7 Preview with Anti-XSS Security Enhancements

2009-10-05T22:17:00.002+07:00

Preview builds of Firefox 3.7 are now available for download, offering the first fruits of Mozilla’s efforts to bulletproof systems against cross-site scripting related attacks. At the end of the past month, Brandon Sterne, Mozilla security program manager, revealed that the work necessary to turn the Content Security Policy specification into working Firefox code was nearly complete. In this regard, Sterne pointed end users and web developers to preview releases of Firefox 3.7, the “next next” iteration of the Mozilla open-source browser.

Via the Content Security Policy (CSP) Mozilla has been working on a technology set up to provide web admins and website owners with a mechanism designed to permit the website to tell the browser which of the content it serves is legitimate. Cross-site scripting, also referred to as XSS, is the process in which an attacker injects malformed code into a webpage through vulnerabilities, or via improperly filtered and sanitized form user input. However, with CSP the website will identify the secure content, and enable the browser to ignore additional code.

“In order to differentiate legitimate content from injected or modified content, CSP requires that all JavaScript for a page be 1) loaded from an external file, and 2) served from an explicitly approved host. This means that all inline script, javascript: URIs, and event-handling HTML attributes will be ignored. Only script included via a <script> tag pointing to a white-listed host will be treated as valid. Additionally, CSP allows several other common-sense security restrictions to be enforced,” Sterne noted in mid-2009.

Any server administrators or web app security researchers that want to try the anti-XSS Content Security Policy enhancements of Firefox 3.7 are able to do so by grabbing the preview builds from Mozilla’s FTP servers. Mozilla is currently laboring to offer Firefox 3.6 in November of this year, with Firefox 3.7 planned for availability in the first half of 2010, ahead of Firefox 4.0.

softpedia

Inilah Simbol Plastik Aman Untuk Makanan!

2009-10-05T16:37:00.000+07:00

Google Chrome OS Arriving Next Month?

2009-10-04T17:38:00.000+07:00

Google first announced its entry into the the operating system space back in July. At that time, Google stated that Chrome OS would not be available to consumers until sometime in 2010. However, various Chinese sources have today claimed that devices running the upcoming open-source OS could be seen as early as next month.

Accoridng to Shanzi.com, Chinese hardware manufacturer Lemote may ship its line of budget netbooks with preview builds of Google's Chrome OS. These Chome OS-based netbooks could hit the market in late October. Chinese manufacturers, as Liliputing speculates, may be more willing to try new, untested technology, whereas western manufacturers may be more hesitant to take new tech on board without performing rigorous testing first.

Rumors regarding the early release of the Chrome OS are, of course, nothing new, and Google has not responded to any of the supposed claims, including those of various 'leaked' screenshots. So with Google being tight-lipped and providing no solid hint as to when we can expect to see the final OS on shelves, reports such as these can only be taken with a pinch of salt.

pcworld

Masakan Solo

2009-10-04T15:18:00.001+07:00

Restoran ini berada di jejeran ruko yang berlokasi di di Jl. Danau Sunter Utara R 35-37, Jakarta Utara. Restorannya cukup besar dengan konsep minimalis dan apik sehingga dijamin membuat betah pengunjung.

detik

Pancious Pancake

2009-10-04T14:39:00.001+07:00

Blu-ray: 3 Reasons the Winner is an Also-Ran

2009-10-04T11:34:00.001+07:00

Sony may have won the standards battle against HD, but the war may not be over because it isn't the victor yet.

Will Apple release Blu-Ray-equipped iMacs for the holidays? Maybe-and it probably makes sense, since it's been a while since iMacs got meaniapple imac blu-rayngful new features other than ongoing refinement of their industrial design. But to abuse a famous Steve Jobs quote, Blu-Ray still feels like a bag of boring to me. It's one of the few high-profile examples of gadgetry I have no impulse to invest in. Here's why:

It's Not Truly Part of the Digital World. These days, I'm less interested in getting better image quality, and more interested in doing stuff with content-sending it via wireless networking to multiple screens in my house, sticking it on my iPhone, storing it in the cloud. Blu-Ray doesn't help with any of that. In fact, it's designed specifically to prevent me from doing it.

The Content isn't There. At least not for me. I admit that I'm not representative of the Average American Consumer here, but I'll never buy any blockbuster movie on Blu-Ray. I like obscure animation and box sets that aren't going to sell by the million. For now, they come out on DVD, not Blu-Ray. That'll change. Eventually. Probably. But if I bought a Blu-Ray player today, I'd mostly use it to watch DVDs.

It's a Stopgap. Like the 2.88MB floppy disk, Blu-Ray is ultimately an impressive (and pricey) improvement on a technology that's going to go away. By 2012, it's going to look almost as retro as VHS. Okay, it might take a year or two more than that. But no more.

I'm not saying that Blu-Ray will never show up in my living room or inside a computer I own. (Hey, I was a late adopter of DVD, too.) But I'd say the odds are less than fifty percent that I'll ever get it-at least as a conscious decision which I'm excited about. (The day will presumably come when all computers that sport optical drives have DVD.)

PCWorld