Archive for July 14th, 2009

There’s not much in the way of official statements on this one just yet, but itp.net is reporting that a recently pushed out update for all BlackBerry users on the UAE-based carrier Etisalat is not a “performance enhancement patch” as advertised, but rather some spyware that could potentially give Etisalat the ability to keep an eye on its customers’ messages. The first suspicions about the update apparently arose when users noticed dramatically reduced battery life and slower than usual performance from their phones, which led to a bit of detective work from programmer Nigel Gourlay, who pegged the software down as coming from electronic surveillance company SS8. While it’s not switched on by default, the software can reportedly let Etisalat flip the switch on phones one by one and monitor their emails and text messages — or it could if it hadn’t completely bogged down the network. Apparently, the software wasn’t designed for such a large scale deployment, which resulted in the slowdown and battery drain as some 100,000 BlackBerrys constantly tried and failed to sign in to the one registration server for the software.

[Via The Register]

Filed under: Cellphones

BlackBerry update in UAE reportedly surveillance software in disguise originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Bing certainly isn’t wasting any time in showing off how much it loves Twitter. The search engine has just launched BingTweets, a new site created in tandem with Federated Media that combines Twitter Search results with Bing Search. The hybrid allows users to browse through Bing while they see a stream of real-time results fly by, which could be particularly useful for researching a current event, or perhaps a new movie.

The top of the site features a listing of popular terms, grouped into a general ‘popular now’ category, and then divided by People Places, and Products. You’re also free to search for whatever term you’d like using the box in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

The resulting site could prove useful, but it’s a little cluttered, with a scrolling list of constantly updated Tweets on the left side and your standard Bing search results on the right. This would be fine, were it not for the large ‘trending topics’ section and ‘sharing’ sections in the header which should probably be tucked along the side. My biggest gripe, though, is that the Bing search results are in a frame — I’d much rather just have the whole page dedicated to the results, even if I had to sacrifice the nice blue border.

We’ve already gotten quite a few glimpses of Nintendo’s forthcoming black Wii but, with that August 1st launch date in Japan now fast approaching, things are now starting to get even more real. Real like packaging. Of course, while the box is nothing more than a black version of the existing Wii packaging, we have to agree with our pals at Joystiq and say that it only makes the system all that more intriguing. Unfortunately, there’s still no word on a release ’round here, but we assume / hope that’s only a matter of time considering the reception this thing has received.

Filed under: Gaming

Black Wii packaging looks as good as its contents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

We’ve already had a look at Samsung’s most interesting camcorder introduction of the day (that’d be the HMX-U10), but those looking for a more conventional alternative may take interest in one of these two. The SMX-K40 and SMX-K45 both take a different approach to capturing clips by logging them at 720 x 480 and offering users “HD upscaling” to the HDTV via HDMI. Both devices also boast a 65x optical zoom for those undercover escapades in voyeurism, while the Optical Image Stabilizer keeps things relatively shake-free. The primary difference between the two is the storage options; the K40 requires that you bring your own SD or SDHC card, while the K45 is equipped with a 32GB SSD. Both units sport 2.7-inch LCDs, USB charging and upload-to-YouTube functionality, and they’ll each ship this August for $329.99 and $499.99, respectively. The full release is after the break.

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Samsung goes bargain hunting with SMX-K40 and SMX-K45 camcorders originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Google is scheduled to announce second quarter earnings on Thursday afternoon, and Citi analyst Mark Mahaney just sent out the handy cheat sheet above showing consensus estimates, as well as his own. The Street is looking for $4.05 billion in net revenues, Mahaney is predicting $3.97 billion. Anything above $4.05 billion would be viewed as positive, and anything below Mahaney’s estimate would be viewed as negative. Similarly, the Street consensus on non-GAAP EPS (earnings per share) is $5.05, while Mahaney thinks it will be 20 cents lower ($4.85). Anything between the two extremes would be viewed as neutral, according to his cheat sheet.

Mahaney is somewhat bearish compared to the consensus view, perhaps because of the continued economic difficulties and the deep funk the advertising industry is in. He expects revenues to increase only 2 percent on an annual basis, and to decline 3 percent on a quarterly basis. (Last quarter was the first time Google ever reported a sequential drop in revenues). His EPS estimate is only 5 percent higher than Google’s second quarter earnings a year ago, and 6 percent less than last quarter’s.

It’s not that ASUS hasn’t dipped its toes in HDTV waters before (by the way, whatever happened to that altogether enticing Eee TV?), but we dare say that the TV Monitor T1 is a fresh, if not unsurprising new direction for the company. Arriving in 22- (22T1E), 24- (24T1E) and 27-inch (27T1E) sizes, this trio of sets features a Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) panel, a 20,000:1 contrast ratio, 300 nits of brightness, five millisecond response time, built-in TV tuners (for the UK market) and a pair of seven-watt speakers. As for sockets, you’ll find VGA, HDMI (x2), component, composite, S-Video and even a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. Per usual, ASUS is refusing to dole out pricing and release date information, but hopefully it won’t be long before Britons can indulge (and North Americans are notified of an NTSC-capable version).

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

ASUS dabbles in HDTV arena with 1080p TV Monitor T1 series originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Who says 140 characters isn’t enough to say something constructive? Matt Stewart is writing an entire novel that way.

Yes, Stewart is publishing his entire 480,000 character book at 130 characters at a time (to leave room for hashtags and links) on Twitter. To be clear, the book, called The French Revolution (being released today, appropriately on Bastille Day), is already written. But Stewart and his agent couldn’t get any publishers to bite, so they decided to go the non-traditional route, to say the least.

Here’s how this works: Every so often, Stewart is tweeting out sentences (or incomplete sentences) from the book. No, he’s not doing this by hand, he got a programmer to help him automate the process. The result is slowly spilling out the entire narrative of the book to his Twitter feed.

In the down economy, the housing market has taken a turn for the worst, with landlords struggling to fill apartments and developers having trouble offloading new properties. iBidCondo is a new site launching this summer that’s looking to help: the site offers an auction system that gives property owners an alternative method to sell their real estate (and make a profit doing it), while also giving users a chance to acquire real estate at very, very low prices. The site just held a test auction in May that sold off a $690,000 condo for only $86,840, and it’s going to begin another auction later this month.

The auction strategy is one that reminds me of Swoopo, a controversial auction site we recently covered that allows users to buy inexpensive ‘tokens’ that they use to make bids (even if you don’t win the item, you’re still out the cost of those tokens). With iBidcondo, the site requires potential bidders to pay for a $100 ‘seat’ to have the right to bid on the real estate auction. The auction itself has no reserve and often sells for much lower than its normal price, and over half of the final auction price goes towards the charity of your choice. If you don’t win, you’re still out the $100 seat fee.

Good Night, States, it seems, are a trusting lot. These indie rockers have not only supplied Noise.io soundbanks for their songs, but if you check ‘em out at Mr. Small’s in Pittsburgh this Friday you can plug your iPhone or iPod into the house sound system and jam along with the group. Noise.io, if you’ve not seen it before, bills itself as a “highly advanced sound synthesis workstation,” with a unique touchscreen interface and all kinds of features sure to make softsynth fans positively giddy. Ready for your fifteen minutes of fame? Pick up your copy at the App Store for $8.99, and then proceed to the read link to get started — but not before you peep the video demonstration after the break.

[Via Speed of the Pittsburgh Sound]

Continue reading iPhone musicians invited to perform live with indie legends Good Night, States

Filed under: Cellphones

iPhone musicians invited to perform live with indie legends Good Night, States originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

On the road? Want to check your website’s traffic? Better yet, answer live chat requests from your online customers? Now you can. SmartMax, a company that provides online live chat and monitoring support for businesses, recently introduced an app for the iPhone that will allow you to do just that: iMaximo SightMax Live Chat. We tested the app this week, and were extremely impressed with its capabilities. It plugs into SmartMax’s existing server product, the SightMax Installable Live Chat and Monitoring product. SightMax (the server software) provides online businesses with the ability to monitor the traffic of their website, and to embed a Live Chat box within the site. Users click on the chat box to speak with a live customer service representative.