IBLOG SPACE

Back during CES, Microsoft outlined new game titles that were coming as downloads to the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. Some of those games sounded really cool. Gamers in the UK now have a schedule that they can look forward to for downloading the games. The games will start hitting the Xbox 360 on February 15. More details on the games can be found here. Each week a new game will land from that start date until March 7. Microsoft is now offering the pricing details on the download content and gamers that buy all the House Party on Xbox Live titles offered during that time frame will get a special bonus of 800 Microsoft points. That is like getting one of the titles freBack during CES, Microsoft outlined new game titles that were coming as downloads to the Xbox 360 Live Arcade. Some of those games sounded really cool. Gamers in the UK now have a schedule that they can look forward to for downloading the games. The games will start hitting the Xbox 360 on February 15. More details on the games c

I would be willing to bet that most of us have been looking for a specific type of app for an Android device at some point and not been able to find exactly what we wanted. This typically leads the user to the notion that if they knew how to program, they could make a large profit off whatever their app idea is. If you are this sort of armchair developer, you might want to check out the MIT App Inventor. The software is a developer platform that is now available to anyone who wants to grab it as open source. Apparently, when Google handed over the reins of Sky Map to the open source folks out there, it handed App Inventor code off as well. This app gives people a tool set that allows them to create their own apps without needing any coding skills to make the apps work. It appears that the app gives you different code chunks for things like images, checkboxes, and a bunch of other things. The user just adds those code chunks to the screen that you want and type the text you want the scr

New RIM CEO Thorsten Heins will jump straight into finessing the reworked BlackBerry PlayBook for a launch early this year, ex-CEO Jim Balsillie has confirmed, though the prospect of a refreshed tablet hasn’t helped the company’s diving share price. Described as “a revamp of the poorly selling PlayBook tablet expected early this year” by the WSJ, the new PlayBook is believed to be the replacement 7-inch “3G+” model tipped in a leaked RIM roadmap earlier this month. The new PlayBook won’t pack LTE – like RIM’s first BlackBerry 10 smartphones, there’s said to be a chipset limitation that is preventing the company from including true 4G connectivity – which will instead be saved for another new PlayBook, this time a 10-inch model, expected toward the end of the year. Previous leaks have suggested RIM is preparing PlayBook OS 2.0, the updated software for the tablet that will arrive next month, with 1280 x 800 screen support, indicating one or both of the new slates will have a higher-reso

I have never been a big fan of the points system that Microsoft uses. The thing that has always annoyed me is that it seemed I always had to spend more than I really should have for things purchased on Xbox since you had to buy at least 400 points at $5. Inevitably, I would need only a few more points to complete a purchase and had to buy 400 even if all I needed was 100. I am not the only one bothered by that and Microsoft is set to end the Points program this year according to a source. The source tips that by the end of the year all transactions on the Xbox will be moved over to normal currency. The money that players need to spend to get their downloadable content will be based on whatever their local currency is. Gamers that have points left at the time that the system converts will be granted the monetary value of their Points stash. Microsoft has offered up no official statements other than saying it doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation. Microsoft has been using a confusing

Google’s advertising ambitions with Android are well known, but carrier KDDI is hoping to get in on the promotional action too with the addition of potentially obtrusive ads popping up in the notification bar. The promotions are flagged up to Japanese users in the drop-down notification area, Asiajin spotted, complete with vibration, noise and icon alerts as if it was a new SMS or app update. The culprit is apparently the Au One Market, one of the increasing number of third-party app stores available for devices not eligible for Google’s own Android Market. This particular download store is a common preload on KDDI smartphones sold in Asia, with the most recent Au One update adding support for the push advertising. The frustration for users, however, is that there’s no obvious way to turn the adverts off, nor indeed to uninstall the Au One Market baked into the ROM (or at least not without voiding the warranty). In fact, the opt-out is hidden in the EULA (End User License Agreement), a

Twitter has acquired web security firm Dasient, a real-time link checking system that scans URLs for malware and other online threats, in a move that will likely make clicking a link on the terse social network safer in future. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dasient’s technology scans both web addresses and sites for potentially harmful content, as well as operating a service that keeps web-based advertising malware-free. The acquisition is not Twitter’s only security-related buy in recent months. Back in November 2011, the short messaging service bought Whisper Systems, an Android security and encryption app specialist. No indication of exactly what Whisper’s tech – which includes modifying the core Android kernel to lock down user date – will be used for at Twitter has been given. Use-cases for Dasient are far easier to envisage, however. Twitter continues to struggle with malware links shared by fake accounts, masked by the general use of URL shorteners to get longer web addr

UK retailer Carphone Warehouse has yanked a pre-registration page for the launch of the Nokia Lumia 900, indicating the 4.3-inch Windows Phone will go on sale in non-LTE form come June 2012. Beyond the lack of LTE, the Lumia 900 details - previously found here but now only a memory in Google’s cache - were identical to the AT&T model announced earlier this month, with an 8-megapixel camera along with a front-facing camera for video calls. Although the UK was among the countries to get the original Nokia Lumia, the 800, first, neither it nor the Lumia 710 include a front-facing camera. Right now little in Windows Phone actually makes use of that secondary camera, but that’s expected to change as Microsoft readies a version of Skype for the platform. Otherwise, it’s the familiar polycarbonate unibody casing and a ClearBlack AMOLED display, still running at WVGA resolution but using an RGB matrix panel for improved visuals. It seems Carphone Warehouse jumped the gun in announcing the

Intel has acquired QLogic’s InfiniBand business, splashing $125m on the high-speed switch company in a move that will see future Intel-powered servers bust through existing speed barriers. The deal, expected to close by the end of Q1 2012, will ”enhance Intel’s networking portfolio and provide scalable high- performance computing (HPC) fabric technology” the company says; however, in the longer-term it will also “support the company’s vision of innovating on fabric architectures to achieve ExaFLOP/s performance by 2018″ An ExaFLOP/s capable computer – a quintillion computer operations per second – would be a hundred times faster than current supercomputers, Intel points out, and demand each possible source of latency and delay to be ironed out. To do this, rather than using switched networks as in ethernet connections, InfiniBand relies on switched fabric network topology, spreading traffic over a number of links simultaneously. There’s more on InfiniBand tech at Wikipedia. QLogic says

Engineers at Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have joined the protests against Google’s search integration ofGoogle+ results, crafting a browser add-on called “Don’t Be Evil” that adds a far broader range of social into search. The tool, distributed at a site called Focus on the User, argues that rather than just pull Google+ profiles and topics into the search engine, Google would better serve actual users by integrating far more social networks: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr and more. Rather than see exactly what Google wants you to see through its forced Google+ promotion, you can be shown what the company’s pure algorithm believes is relevant. Currently, Don’t Be Evil is a bookmarklet that works on a per-visit basis to Google. Users click the bookmarklet and, rather than being shown Google’s specially crafted results, see a purer set of results that have not been refined according to the search company’s own social promotion. That promotion has already got Google into hot water wi

It’s the first of the Chinese New Year today, ladies and gentlemen, and we’re glad here at SlashGear to wish you a happy and extra lucky Year of the Dragon from all of our places of work and play across the earth! The Year of the Dragon, for those of you that do not know, is more than just a year of great luck for those born in it, it’s a time when new children are granted a life of innovation, passion, confidence, and fearlessness. We’re hoping the goodness pours over into the tech world in a period that’s being heralded as an innovation-less time in history. What we’ve got for you to celebrate with is nothing less than the everyday barrage of good tidings from the gadget world, everything being good as we continue our journey past the singular person and into the cloud-connected singularity of our one society. In that each person reading the post you’re in now is almost certainly reading it from a different device entirely from the next person reading it, you can bet we’re in the eve

There’s not really anything to fear from the solar eruptions that are now taking place off the surface of our closest star otherwise known as The Sun, but a radiation storm literally hurling itself at the earth and millions of miles per hour does sound sinister, doesn’t it? It’ll be January 24th, tomorrow, when we find out the full effects of the largest radiation storm since 2005. The effects are coming from what NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught in their sights at 0359 GMT January 23: an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun. What will be hitting the earth is a collection of charged particles that’ll be smashing in at right about 9AM EST, this according to the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA notes that this event will have polar flights here on Earth re-routed in plenty of time to avoid any mishaps. The worst that could happen and has happened in the past is satellite disruption (in orbit) and wid

Google has announced that it will begin supporting nicknames and pseudonyms for user accounts on itsGoogle+ social network. This has been a sticky subject since the network launched seven months ago with a strict real name policy that saw violating accounts flagged and deleted. The revised Google+ name policy will begin rolling out this week. Google’s VP of Product Bradley Horowitz made the announcement today, revealing that the number of users that take issue with the naming policy has been small, only about 0.1% submit name appeals. Of those appeals, 60% simply want to add nicknames, 20% are inadvertently trying to set up a Profile instead of Google+ Pages for their business, and the remaining 20% actually want to use a pseudonym or some other unconventional name. Hence, starting this week, Google+ will begin rolling out support for alternate names, such as nicknames, maiden names, and names in non-Romanized languages. To add an alternate name, you go to your Google+ profile, click o

We’ve spoken about the Powertrekk a couple of times before, but up until now we’ve seen not hide nor hair of the release date or the cost – and what more do we want than a water-powered battery charger that works via USB? We want it actually released to the public! That’s why news from Powertrekk that the device will be coming out this spring and at a cool $229 plus $12 per “puck” comes as a welcome addition to the legacy of water-powered batteries everywhere. This type of technology doesn’t come cheap, as you can see, but what we’re getting here is more than just a simple bit of science fiction made real. The Powertrekk actually takes the hydrogen in water and turns it into electricity with myFC’s “FuelCellSticker” technology. The group myFC is a fuel cell technology company that specializes in solutions for powering portable electronics, and will certainly be a team to watch in the coming years for mobile devices. The device works by converting hydrogen into electricity with a Proton

New details have leaked on the much anticipated Olympus next-gen Micro Four Thirds camera called the Olympus OM-D. We saw part of the camera’s build in a leaked image last week and now we get word from Wells Fargo advisors on the release time frame and approximate pricing for the camera. According to the Wells Fargo post, which cited Kyodo News International, the Olympus OM-D will be the company’s top digital mirrorless interchangeable lens camera series, resembling the OM-1 film camera but equipped with high-speed auto focus, image stabilization, and a 16-megapixel sensor. It will be the first digital version of the company’s legendary OM series single-lens reflex film cameras, which have been popular since the 1970s thanks to its small size and durability. The new digital OM-D will be available this spring in the US, Europe, and some Asian countries as a top-tier model selling for more than 100,000 yen in Japan, or about $1,300 USD. The camera is expected to be unveiled at an event s

In the world of MMORPGs, there can be no denying that the leaders in the art are currently housed at Blizzard Entertainment, and their next release, Diablo III is being set up as one of their biggest releases in the history of the environment. But when we can no longer count the amount of setbacks this game has had before it launches on fingers and toes, it’s time to start doubting in the integrity of the creators. That said, one of the creators of the game, the lead producer in fact, has declared that he’ll be leaving Blizzard and the D3 project after having worked on it for 5 years. In addition to this exit by mister Steve Parker, Blizzard has announced a set of updates to the Diablo 3 world as it exists in beta form. There are currently a set of users out there playing the game, beta testing it to the max to make sure the game comes out as perfect as possible come the day later this year. Our last note for release on this game was February first, mind you, but that being unofficial

According to the Wall Street Journal, AT&T and T-Mobile have filed a request with the FCC, seeking approval for the transfer of $1 billion worth of AWS spectrum. The spectrum is owed to T-Mobile as part of AT&T’s failed $39 billion merger deal. AT&T had called off the merger in December after facing several hurdles, including lawsuits brought on by the US Department of Justice, state attorneys general, and rival carriers. The company finally buckled on the merger when the FCC threatened to request an administrative hearing. As part of the deal, AT&T had promised to fork over a $4 billion breakup fee should the acquisition fall through. That break-up fee includes $1 billion of spectrum and $3 billion in cash. T-Mobile has said it needs the spectrum to keep up with competition.

It’s always a great day when you’re out on safari in Africa, and even a greater day when you see not only a collection of fabulous animals, but a brand new camera with which a cohort of yours seems to be taking some of the most advanced photos on the trip! What we’re seeing here appears to be, as The Verge’s David Pierce says, a brand new Canon EOS 5D Mark III. Though this camera has not been leaked or released officially before so we can’t comment on actual specifications, we can see some advanced features quite plainly from here. This device will be looking rather similar to the current 7D and the 5D Mark II of course, but with a slightly larger display than either of them, appearing also to have a different aspect ratio than we’re currently used to seeing on either device. There’s a few button re-arrangements as well, starting with a “rate” button on the left, a joystick on the removable battery grip on the bottom, and no pop-up flash anywhere to be seen, not one! There’s a brand ne

The same fellow that brought you and continues to bring you the most famous ROM handler on the hacked Android circuit ROM Manager, Koushik Dutta, aka Koush, has been developing an app store for the relatively small number of banned Android apps out in the wild today. Included in this sort of rogue appstore will be not only gaming emulators that’ve been tossed from the official market, but Visual Voicemail apps, one-click rooting apps, and other such gems that have otherwise found themselves on the short end of the banning stick ala Google. Full fledged ROMs will MAYBE be included in this app store as well, and should it take off, a full collection of flash-ready modifications for your already hacked Android device. For there is a large population of modification-loving Android citizens out there today, Koush right there in the midst of them, working to bring the most complicated situations down to a couple of taps and the doors open to the public. What you’ll be able to do with this ne

AT&T has made a small adjustment to its 3G data plan pricing for Sony’s PlayStation Vita portable gaming console, which is set to launch in the US on February 22. The carrier originally announced the Vita’s data plan pricing during CES earlier this month, but has now bumped up the top-tier plan. The original data plans announced include one that offered 250MB per month for $15 and another that offered 2GB of data per month for $25. This second plan has now been adjusted with the bandwidth and cost increased to 3GB per month for $30. But other than that, the plans remain the same with free WiFi hotspot access, no contract, and recurring opt out. It’s not clear what inspired this change and it forces customers to pay more for an extra GB of bandwidth they may not need. The PS Vita has already launched in Japan, where its weekly sales numbers have dropped significantly since launch. It’s set to launch in the US on February 22, with the 3G model priced at $299.99, while the WiFi-only m

In a brand new video which comes along with a message bringing tidings of an oncoming storm in the face of Facebook, Anonymous has dropped their newest threat. Later in this post I’ll speak for a moment on whether or not this is actually the same Anonymous we’ve been talking about for the past few months, but know this: it doesn’t matter, as the attack that they speak of will be run not by the hackers themselves, but by the public. In this way it is the democratic takedown that Anonymous speaks of each time they represent the greater whole – a perfect crushing of Facebook by the masses that would otherwise make Facebook thrive. UPDATE: This attack has been denied in kind by sources we’ve trusted in the past to provide Anonymous-run operations. What this attack will do is to make their DDoS more widespread than its ever been before, inviting anyone who has a computer to join in on the project with but a few clicks. A DDoS attack is what’s also known as a Distributed Denial of Service, t

Epson has unleashed an iOS app that will allow you to wirelessly project content from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. The app is called iProjection and works with any Espon wireless projector, making it easy for the traveling professionals and educators to present without the bulk of a laptop and cables. The iProjection app works with devices running iOS 4.2 or later, which includes the iPad 2, iPhone 4S, and iPod touch. It integrates cloud features that let users access files from cloud services such as Dropbox and email applications such as Gmail. The app supports full Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Keynote, and PDF documents. Image files such as JPEG, TIFF, and PNG are also supported. The app is free to download and is available now in the iTunes App Store.

In a move on a ruling that very well may put Batman’s tights in a bundle, the Supreme Court voted unanimously this week that police, private investigators, and anyone else with a sweet tooth for tracking will have to get a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a vehicle they do not own. Of course monitoring a vehicle’s movements had previously been called legal in a case against a drug dealer that’d been tracked for a month without a warrant, but now according to the Supreme Court, this tracking has been deemed “unreasonable.” Tracking a person with a GPS device without a warrant is now deemed illegal under the 4th Amendment. What this ruling does is take GPS devices and place them in the same category as a Police officer demanding that a person empty their pockets if they’ve got no real reason to do so. The word “search” is what’s important here, and the Supreme Court has found it unreasonable to search a person, or track a person, as it were, without justifiable intent. Have a pee

When we first reviewed the original LG Optimus 3D device last year, it was an interesting adventure to be sure, but not exactly one we expected LG to be bringing us on again – that’s the case though it does appear as the LG CX2 has appeared in press photos with the same (or improved) 3D capabilities on front and back. While the original relied on the 3D content it captured on its own as well as some applications developed specifically for its 3D engine, this new LG 3D smartphone will be able to convert 2D objects to 3D and has an improved collection of specifications besides to entice the masses once more. Has the 3D revolution continued past its big year in 2011 to re-invade in 2012? This newest model is being said to have the newest Texas Instruments dual-core processor, that OMAP 1.2GHz SoC you know and love. It’ll have the same dimensions as far as screen size and overall heft and bulk, but the display this time will be a NOVA, that meaning its power is far beyond that of the origi

It’s a great day when you find that though your old scooter has been busted beyond repair, you’re able to turn it into a place where you can sit in the house comfortably and take a typing on your laptop without trouble. What a brilliant cut and sew artist and industrial designer has done here is to cut up a 1968 bright red Vespa and use it twice: once for the workstation, and once for another seat entirely. What this technological marvel consists of is nothing more than cutting apart and soldering back together! Of course it’s a bit more complicated than that, but the point of it is this: while the world is pushing you to buy new electronics, new automobiles, even new furniture, you have the option to use one piece and turn it into the other. This 1968 Vespa sprint had a lot of potential that its owner, known only as “Reinventing Wheels”, brought out with a bit of spit polish and a whole lot of ingenuity. So here’s my question for you, ladies and gentlemen: when you’re done with your o

There’s one whole heck of a lot of iPod opponents out there these days, but not exactly the same amount of contenders in the headphone amplifier world. What we’ve got here is the announcement for the FiiO E17, made to satisfy, complete with a hardcore body and all the features you audiophiles will love. This device also goes by the name Alpen and is made to work as a headphone amplifier and a USB sound card for ultimate cut-down excellence. You’ve got a two-color OLED display, brushed metal housing, and two parallel 3.5mm headphone outputs, right out of the box. This device also has a S/PDIF input, a line input, and for power and connections you’ve got FiiO’s own proprietary 18-pin port. This port works with FiiO’s L7 dock and E9 desktop amp, but there’s also a standard USB input so you’re not limited in any way. This device is made for you audio maniacs, mind you, with 24/96 over USB and 24/192 over S/PDIF, sounding just fantastic, we can imagine. You can change the firmware also if y

Earlier this month we got a chance to peek at one of Sony Ericsson’s newest hero devices, the Xperia Ion, complete with AT&T LTE speeds to back up its collection of top of the line specifications in a smartphone body. What we’re seeing here is that the device will cost you something like $570 in pre-order dollars to get the whole device off-contract. What that money gets you is some rather enticing bits and pieces that make up one monster of a phone. The price you’re seeing here comes from Negri Electronics, a store which your humble narrator has never before dropped cash on so cannot vouch for personally, but the price is telling. Inside this device you’re going to get a smashingly sized 4.55-inch HD display, a fabulous dual-core processor from Qualcomm, and a gigantic camera on the back. The camera is set at a whopping 12 megapixels strong and works with an Exmor R sensor while the processor is a dual-core Snapdragon clocked at 1.5GHz. Popout We’ve got our very own hands-on with

There’s a new voice assistant warrior in town, and it’s name is Evi, bringing nothing less than a Siri contender using True Knowledge tied with Nuance voice recognition for a one-two punch that will give the rest of the fighters in the ring a run for their money. As Techcrunch writer Mike Butcher notes, the team at True Knowledge have been working on a Siri competitor since the iPhone 4S was released, and probably before that as well. What’s out today is not only an iPhone application (that also works on iPad, mind you), but a Beta version of an app for Android. This application runs in a way very similar to Siri in its current form, allowing you to tap a microphone and speak on whatever comes to mind, it then deciphering what you want with its vast knowledge of the English language. While we’ve not done a massive amount of testing with the application at the moment, what we’ve seen thus far is very, very impressive. True Knowledge has licensed Nuance to bring forth not only an engine

Chevrolet’s electric-powered Volt has been cleared by US federal safety investigators, with the plug-in car deemed to present no more significant fire risk than its gasoline-powered counterparts, and leaving Chevvy with the unenviable task of re-marketing the vehicle. “No discernible defect trend exists” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said of the Volt, going on to highlight General Motors’ improvements to the structure of the car and the battery cooling systems. The investigation – perhaps uncomfortably public for GM – will educate new NHTSA guidelines on dealing with electric car safety. “The agency’s investigation has concluded that no discernible defect trend exists and that the vehicle modifications recently developed by General Motors reduce the potential for battery intrusion resulting from side impacts” NHTSA Those guidelines will be targeted at emergency response teams and others who may come into contact with electric vehicles. With the Volt, the particular

The netbook isn’t dead, HP reckons, but it is getting marginalized into business and education environments, with the new HP Mini 1104 targeting schools and suits rather than home users. A 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 machine running Intel’s 1.6GHz dual-core Atom N2600 processor with GMA 3600 graphics and up to 2GB of RAM, the Mini 1104 promises durability and performance for those who may be frustrated by text-entry on a tablet. So, you get a 93-percent full-sized keyboard and a multitouch trackpad, as well as a battery that’s apparently good for up to nine hours of runtime. Connectivity includes three USB 2.0 ports, VGA and audio in/out, along with an ethernet port, and there’s a microphone and stereo speakers along with the VGA-resolution webcam. Wireless options include WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0+HS, and there’s the choice to add HSPA+ mobile broadband with GPS too. Storage is courtesy of a 320GB 5,400rpm hard-drive, though HP is happy to sell you a USB DVD burner as well. A spill-resi

It’s been nearly 3 years in development and thousands of hours of blood, sweat, and fun had in the process, and it’s finally here: the complete re-make of Star Wars: A New Hope constructed entirely of fan-made 15 second clips. This project was originally called Star Wars Uncut, and this final product is of course called Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut, and stitches together the entire set of hundreds of clips into one perfected bunch. This version is the “final” version of the film, and is available for you to watch 100% for free and in its entirety. This crowd-sourced bit of genius is available to watch both on Vimeo and on YouTube, both versions being dropped into this post here for your enjoyment and just incase one or the other is knocked out by the authorities that be. That said, it does appear that they’ve run into little to no trouble in creating and publishing this fan film, more than likely because there’s so much love in every bit of the process that no Empire could possibly

President Obama will deliver a live Google+ hangout answering questions from US citizens, the White House has announced, the first entirely virtual interview staged by the government. Set to take place on Monday, January 30, the President will answer questions submitted via the government’s YouTube channel , particularly those concerning the topics Obama is set to discuss at the State of the Union address tomorrow. The White House only joined Google+ on January 20, last Friday, but has already accrued around 17,000 +1′s at time of writing. It has also gathered a fair number of comments, both positive and negative, and we can see Obama’s online interview being a hotly-discussed event. That the administration has decided to use Google+ is quite the coup for Google, which is still facing questions around antitrust behavior after integrating results from the social network into general search. Google+ broke the 90m user mark last week, a figure which is likely to increase rapidly since

After listening to RIM’s new CEO Thursten Heins talk this morning, you could almost hear investors kicking themselves for not being specific enough in their demands for refreshed leadership at the BlackBerry company. “We shouldn’t have just asked for a new CEO” shareholders are no doubt muttering, “but made clear we wanted one with new ideas too.” Heins, for all his hyperbole about the BlackBerry advantage being its “integrated solution” of hardware, software and services, showed his true colors when he argued that “I don’t think there is a drastic change needed.” Those colors, it seems, are exactly the same shades as Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie preferred during their tenure at the top. So, is this new CEO simply a temporary placeholder or a sign of fresh misery to come? Heins’ arguments make sense – up to a point. He’s right in that few of RIM’s contemporaries have a complete grip on each element of the mobile experience; only Apple and RIM can really boast that. “We’re strong be

Tablet and ereader market share in the US almost doubled after strong holiday 2011 sales, new research suggests, with 19-percent of adults now owning at least one of the devices. Lowered cost of dedicated ereaders contributed to the increased demand, Pew Research claims, while low-cost tablets such as the NOOK Tablet decreased the cost of entry to slates and helped drive demand for Android models. Pew conducted surveys among 2,986 people aged 16+ between November 16 and December 21, finding 10-percent of those questioned owned a tablet and 10-percent owned an ereader. That increased to 19-percent apiece when Pew resurveyed earlier this month, consulting 2,008 people overall. “These findings are striking because they come after a period from mid-2011 into the autumn in which there was not much change in the ownership of tablets and e-book readers” Pew suggests. “However, as the holiday gift-giving season approached the marketplace for both devices dramatically shifted.” Interestingly, t

Synth manufacturers Teenage Engineering are best known for their OP-1, a compact instrument the sounds from which belie its toylike exterior, but the company has also revealed Oplab. Intended to make experimenting with audio more straightforward and flexible, the MIDI-enabled Musical Experimentation Board allows you to hook up both traditional and unusual sensors – including pressure, CV and more – and outputs and create suitably offbeat audio. The core board has two USB Host ports and a USB device port, two CV inputs (or any analog input), two CV outputs (or any analog output), MIDI in, MIDI out and various program selection switches, all on a 92 x 92 mm square. Then there are three Oplab sensors, the TS-2 Tap with a percussion/motion-sensitive microphone, the TS-3 Flip with an accelerometer, and the TS-4 Poke, with a pressure sensor. There’s also the TS-1 Team Sneaker, an actual shoe with a side-pocket for a sensor, so that you can create music while dancing around like a loon. Each

Apple’s iBooks 2 digital textbook launch last week may not have convinced everyone that the classroom is the best place for the iPad, but over 350,000 downloads of textbooks in the first three days of availability suggests there’s big demand for learning on the iOS slate. The figures were tracked by Global Equities Research’s proprietary monitoring system, AllThingsD reports, while downloads of the free iBooks Author tool have also apparently been successful. The free ebook creation tool, which is Mac-only and requires OS X Lion, was apparently downloaded 90,000 times since it was released on Thursday. The app allows digital books to be created by dragging-&-dropping Word files, photos, video clips and Keynote presentations, though the resulting interactive titles can only be distributed via Apple’s own iBookstore. That limitation may not dissuade many publishers, however, given the potential savings on offer. The research firm reckons production using iBooks Author is around 80-pe

A new Anonymous tool deployed in recent days can inadvertently turn casual browsers into participants in a distributed denial-of-service attack, and is believed to have been at least partially responsible for taking Universal Music and other sites offline in MegaUpload-related protests. Although until now Anonymous has focused on the so-called LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Canon) tool to carry out DDoS attacks, a freely downloaded app that helps bombard sites with hits until they are overwhelmed and unresponsive, a new browser-based strategy has surfaced, CNET reports, that creates a DDoS-fueling webpage. The new system involves directing people to specially constructed webpages that rely on JavaScript to redirect visitors to any site to be targeted, the page repeatedly attempting to access that target until the window is closed. A variation on the theme offers more control to the user, allowing them to set their own target by URL or IP address. Because the attack can be triggered inadvertently,

If you are a big fan of the awesome BioWare MMORPG SWTOR, you will be glad to hear that updates to fix a couple of issues that many gamers are having are inbound. The specific issues that are being addressed in the updates include the issue with Ability Delay and an issue with a glitch that let people gain more Valor than they should have by exploiting the glitch. The Ability Delay issue has apparently been around since the game launched. The issue is when abilities that are listed on cool down are actually still usable. Another issue is with instant abilities failing to trigger in combat. There are two fixes out of three that will be coming in the next update to address those problems. The Valor glitch issue called Ilum PvP that happened after a patch not long ago is going to be addressed as well. The developers aren’t just going to roll back Valor gained during the glitch period since some gamers might have gained the Valor and abilities legitimately. However, the logs that the game