It’s Pretty Spatial -Kinect for XBOX 360

Image via Wikipedia

The hubby and I splurged this Christmas and bought a family gift (on top of all the other gifts we went into debt for with three kiddos).  But this particular family gift –a Microsoft Kinect –was pretty darn special, or better yet –might I say pretty darn “spatial.” 

With just a small camera on a slim black streamlined device, a whole new world of control through physical movement has arisen.  There are no more exhausted arms from trying to hold onto a controller and gyrate at the same time.  The Kinect is effortless! 

We wave our hands in the air and move seamlessly through social media, video, music and gaming.  I feel like Spock on the Starship Enterprise or Neo from the Matrix as my limbs begin to move with more fluidity and precision.  I’ve discovered there is an art to spatial gesturing, because herky-jerky movements will leave the user frustrated and dancing to the wrong beats.

And while the beauty of the Kinect is a hand’s free experience, the voice control doesn’t hurt either.  If I get lazy after too many rounds of Just Dance 3 or Fruit Ninja, I can plop on the sofa and bark out commands to my X-Box. 

“X Box…Go to fridge.  X Box…Get Diet Coke.” (Ok, maybe I exaggerate)

According to CNN tech news, we should see more of these nifty devices in the near future and it will probably become one of the top trends of 2012.  Those crazy hackers out there have already been working hard, dicing and slicing up the Kinect technology to mainstream spatial gesturing into alternative platforms. 

I for one can’t wait to see what’s next!

Related articles

• Best Kinect games so far – the 5 hottest Kinect games for Christmas 2011 (bluearchipelagoreviews.com)
• …Re-Kinect (the2womancrusade.com)

Is it time to Unthink?

Image via Wikipedia

Getting tired of Facebook and all the drama?  Still confused about Google+ circles?   It may be your lucky day. Just to up the ante in the “like” rat-race, a new social media contender has emerged called Unthink.

Unthink’s manifesto is to be all that Facebook and Google+ is not. I’m a little fuzzy about what this actually entails, but I believe it has to do with privacy controls and Facebook selling out to advertisers who know what kind of toilet paper you like to use based on complex algorithms of data mining our shares and posts.

Unthink has launched a campaign suggesting a “social revolution” is at hand and it promises to be a ”secret project” that will go viral.

I get the impression that Facebook has begun to represent the “Man” to a generation of “Occupiers.” Ironic? I think so.

Currently in beta testing, it’s not yet open to the public.  I requested an invite and have been put on a waiting list to wither until I am deemed cool enough to get in (or they get the bugs out, whichever happens first).

Unthink, in a very unFacebooky move, asserts that all content property will remain under control of the user.  An app will be available to seamlessly allow users to transfer pictures and info from other sites (like Facebook). 

“We worked hard for more than three years to research people’s needs and present them with a solution that will empower them,” Unthink CEO and founder Natasha Dedis states on the Unthink website. “Our mission is to emancipate social media and unleash people’s extraordinary potential. Our — not so covert — mission is to spark a social revolution. We believe in people.”

But how will Unthink survive? Corporate sponsorship will be the driving force behind the site.

Are you ready to make the switch or is Facebook still the reigning monarch of media?

Related articles

• Anti-Facebook Social Network “Unthink” Launches To Public (techcrunch.com)
• Opinion: Unthink, Occupy Wall Street and the coming age of the anti-Facebook (digitaltrends.com)

Power Outage and Disaster Recovery

Image via Wikipedia

Where were you when the power went out? Most of the outage victims in South Orange County have tales to tell of brutal commutes on the way home from work due to stoplight failure, cold dinners by candlelight, and getting locked out of the house because they couldn’t get in through the garage door. Discomfort, in any measure, makes the headlines in southern California. In my own neighborhood, an impromptu block party shot up in my own front yard. Kids with air-soft guns armed with fireworks roamed the street and were treated to parents emptying out their freezers of popsicles and Gogurts. It was chaotic, bonding, and a little bit scary. Though we were only down for about eight hours, the looming thought of a much larger scaled disaster lurked in the back of my mind. Are we really prepared for the Big One? Working in the tech industry, I was also apprehensive about the detrimental effects to our clients and their data centers. The internet was down, our cell phones didn’t work, and all local businesses, including gas stations and supermarkets closed. Business ground to a halt. Many companies do not a backup or disaster recovery plan in place. When the lights go out, so do they. And while a few hours offline might not be catastrophic, hurricane Irene just took out many parts of the East Coast for up to a week. A week down might mean the difference between making it and closing up shop in this economy. The power outage is a big wakeup call regarding our reliance on power and the importance of a disaster recovery plan. Is it time to upgrade your disaster recovery plan?

Related articles

• Disaster Recovery Plan for a Small Business (thinkup.waldenu.edu)
• A Better Way to Recover from Hurricanes (datacenterknowledge.com)

Hacker Security

Image by hubert.tw via Flickr

James Bond has met his match in catching bad guys.  And who is this new guy in town?  Micro, Trend Micro to be exact.

“Trend Micro claims it can catch hackers in action breaking into networks and trying to steal secrets with a new line of line of network-analysis tools and security services.”-Network World

This new line from Trend is called  Branded Real-Time Threat Management Solutions. 

Trend’s all encompassing approach includes network appliances that monitor internet traffic for obvious signs of entry or malware, such as outbound (botnet) traffic pinging  back to its master..

Trend’s featured appliance is called the Threat Management System.  It provides visibility and monitoring to detect real-time evidence and alert of hacker break-ins or malware infections. This appliance can be set up in conjunction with a Threat Discovery Appliance, to automatically launch a mitigation and cleanup effort. Trend Micro admits it’s out to compete with products such as the NetWitness NextGen visibility monitoring system.

“This is about Advanced Persistent Threats,” states Dan Glessner, vice president of enterprise marketing at Trend Micro, describing the stealth like attacks aimed at stealing sensitive information and intellectual property of economic or military value.

“Trend Micro also shared a new offering-a software-as-a-service called Threat Intelligence Manager that can used to identify centrally collected logs in order to discern suspicious events. At present, this log collection is only being done for Trend Micro products, specifically its new threat-management line, plus OfficeScan and Deep Security The service starts at about $15,000 and the appliances at about $20,000.”

 Enhanced Tech is a Trend Micro reseller and partner.  For information please contact:  sales@enhancedtech.com

Round two for the HP Tablet

Image by coolinsights via Flickr

Like a phoenix, the HP Touchpad has emerged from the ashes, or in this case, HP’s earlier decision to discontinue its mobile hardware solutions.

HP has released that it will produce another round of Touchpads before the end of the year.

“Despite announcing an end to manufacturing web OS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand,” HP spokesman Mark Budgell wrote in a company blog post. “As we know more about how, when and where TouchPads will be available, we will communicate that here and through e-mail to those who requested notification.”

Budgell stated the next run will be available for purchase in a few weeks.

HP previously slashed prices on the Touchpad after announcing that it would end production of the line. Since the announcement, retailers have not been able to keep Touchpads in stock, reducing inventory and in many cases completely selling out. All of this popularity may have forced HP to reconsider, however there is no guarantee that the newest release will remain under $150.

Currently, the TouchPad is now the No. 2 best-selling tablet, second only to the iPad, according to Fast Company.

Who knows?  If sales are good enough, maybe a round three for the HP Touchpad?

Related articles

• The $99 HP TouchPad Tablet Rises From the Dead (pcworld.com)
• HP to Make More TouchPads (forbes.com)

The Screamin’ Galaxy Tab 4G

The newest tablet release bears a striking resemblance to the iPad, but this baby is the iPad’s high-speed brother from another mother (yes, we’re talking about Samsung here).

This is the first Android tablet to play off of Verizon’s super-sonic wireless 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution), recently rolled out across the country. Basically—it’s fast. Really fast!

The main draw to the Galaxy Tab boils down to two things-speed and price (though the Galaxy Tab is pretty fancy looking too).  The 16GB is priced at $529.99 and the 32 GB at $629.99. There is a catch though; Galaxy owners are required to sign up for a two-year mobile broad-band data plan.  As of Aug 4, 2011-08-04, Verizon is also offering a 16 GB (Wi-Fi only) Galaxy online for $499.99.

The Galaxy Tab has a 10.1” widescreen display, customizable home screen panels, a 2-megapixel front facing camera and a 3-megapixel rear facing camera with flash.  You can watch, rent or buy movies through Samsung’s Media Hub store.

The Galaxy is a sleek 1.25lbs (available in metallic gray or white) and a just a smidgen thinner than the iPad.

You can also use the tablet as a mobile hot spot with capability to connect up to 10 Wi-Fi devices in 4G or up to 5 devices in 3G. 

Now what about that precious battery life you ask? Verizon claims up to 12 hours, but Edward C. Baig, technology guru for USA Today, claims it’s more like 4 ½ hours of real hard use (the kind where kids play non-stop games interspersed with Toy Story 3). 

The truth is, all we really want to know is can I make it across the country on a plane or to grandmas’ house in the car and not have the tablet die on me?

Maybe- is the closest answer I can discern.

But as far as an Android tablet is concerned, and if you are in the market for one, this might be the best option out there.

Related articles

• Review for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE from Verizon (android-tablet.org)
• Samsung Releases New Software for Galaxy Tablet (allthingsd.com)

Securing Mobile Devices

Image via CrunchBase

Trend Micro is heading towards mobile mania with the recent unveiling of Mobile Security 7, geared towards partners who want to support businesses struggling to guard corporate data housed on Android and Apple’s  iOS mobile devices.

Mobile Security 7 encompasses both security and management functionality for a host of new mobile devices, including iPhones, Android, and iPads, offering threat prevention, data protection and mobile device management operated by a single console.

The new release coincided with the result of a recent Trend Micro study on the consumerization of IT, which revealed that almost two-thirds of businesses have succumbed to mounting pressure and now allow employees to use personal mobile smartphones and tablets for business functions.

There are challenges to consumerization that expose organizations to greater risk,” states Patrick Wheeler, Trend Micro, senior product marketing manager for mobile device management. “These devices are like unprotected PCs. Why would I lower the bar? You have full browsers, word processing tools, spreadsheets, collaborative tools—we’d be crazy not to try to secure them. That’s the approach that we take.”

Most of what you hear in the industry is about mobile device management,” Wheeler said. “But protecting data is the next big challenge. As much as you think your iPhone is physically attached to you, it’s not.”

To better address the risk, the product includes firewall/IDS call and message filtering, malware protection and intelligence infrastructure, and logging and password enforcement.

 

Related articles

• Personal Mobile Devices Still Vex IT (informationweek.com)

The easiest video-chat ever…

Image via CrunchBase

For all the extroverts out there-good news, Facebook is truly going to be an up front and in your face experience. But for all the quasi-introverts like me, our hiding days appear to be over.

Thanks to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s latest announcement, video-chat from Skype will now be featured.

Much of the appeal will be in the user-friendly approach. Users can click on the “call” button at the top of their profile or by finding someone in the new “buddy list” on the right hand side and clicking on their name. As long as both parties have webcams video-chat will commence. It’s so easy, both grandma and the kids can join in.

This is “the world’s easiest one-click way” to chat face to face over the internet, Facebook engineer Philip Su asserts. The Seattle programmer was Facebook’s only full-time engineer dedicated to its development along with Skype, a Facebook representative said.

The company began implementing the new service on Wednesday.

Facebook, on Wednesday, also revealed modifications to its instant-messaging service, now allowing users to create on-the-fly group conversations. Pundits are suggesting this move is in response to Google+ which allows video-chat by invitation. Google+, unlike Facebook, offers group discussions with up to ten people.

Related articles

• HOW TO: Launch Facebook Skype Video Chat [PICS] (policyabcs.wordpress.com)

Rootkit Virus

Image via Wikipedia

My boss forwarded an e-mail to the staff yesterday which was met with a universal groan.

Microsoft says Rootkit infection will require Windows reinstall

Shut the front door?  The virus, named Popureb, is a deviant form of malware that hides in the PC’s Master Boot Record and prohibits any attempt to clean it up. 

Bummer!

But, what I really want to know, beyond how to fix it-which we’ll get to, is who names this stuff? (the virus, that is)  Popureb sounds like a cold war enemy who was such an incredible bad-ass he resisted repeated assassination attempts.  Thus, this nasty virus now has the illustrious privilege of his Chuck Norris-esque legacy.

Chun Fong, an engineer with the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) states on the Microsoft blog, that the Trojan burrows itself so deeply into the system that the only way to get rid of it is to return the operating system back to it’s out of the box pristine state.

“If your system does get infected with Trojan:Win32/Popureb.E, we advise you to fix the MBR and then use a recovery CD to restore your system to a pre-infected state,” suggests Feng.

Basically, you can’t just kill it.  You have to rip it out at the root and annihilate it.  (Recovery disks are available to return Windows back to its original settings)

According to Greg Keizer, with Computer World, rootkits are planted by hackers to conceal follow-on malware, for example-banking password-stealing Trojans.  They are also the hardest infections to detect because they compromise the PC at such a deep level.

A similar rootkit titled “Alureon” hit machines in February of 2010 and Microsoft’s recommendation to absolve the situation was similar to what they are instructing users to do now-backup your files and completely restore the system from the recovery disk.

Sounds like my sales for backup and recovery will be pretty good this month.

Thanks Mr. Popureb!

When the Chuck Norris malware does finally reveal itself, the PC will be so messed up you will have to buy a new computer. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Related articles

• Rootkit infection requires Windows reinstall, says Microsoft (infoworld.com)

Facetime on my iPhone 4

FaceTime is my absolute favorite new obsession! For those of you technically challenged, myself included, the iPhone 4 includes straight out of the box (no messy apps) video chat, face to face.  With the simple tap of a digit, you can argue with your spouse and see the fire dancing in his eyes, smile at your kids and blow them a kiss when they get a boo-boo (if you are far away at the office), and stare into the nose of your best friend as you swap secrets. It’s awesome!

The iPhone 4 has two built-in cameras, one on the front above the display and the other on the back, beside the LED flash. The front camera has been tuned for FaceTime. It has the perfect field of view and focal length to focus on your face at arm’s length. (Just keep your head down to avoid the nose hair issue) See picture here for proper head posture.

This is a pic I snapped from my FaceTime camera.  This is exactly what your FaceTime buddy will see. Sometimes it can be a little disturbing to see yourself that close, so be prepared.

The only drawback is you do need to be on Wi-Fi to do FaceTime.  It will not work over the 3G airwaves.

You can also tap a button and the camera will switch to the outer lens to capture moments you want to share with your FaceTime buddy. Hello shopping!  Now my husband can show me the item he just has to have before he purchases it.

I am generally not a gizmo geek, but I do adore FaceTime on my iPhone 4, because in this case, it builds relationship and not isolation like so many media devices.  Sometimes, technology exceeds our expectations and this device certainly delivers.  I can’t wait to be able to call my kids and see their cute little faces when I am on my next vacation. That’s after I put down the Mojito of course, because now they can actually see what mommy is doing!

Related articles

• FaceTime in 3G finally comes with iOS 5 (netwidz.com)
• iOS 5 To Bring FaceTime on 3G? Better Video Quality? (macstories.net)