Wednesday, April 16, 2014

MSI AM1I: socket AM1 in Mini ITX


After Asus motherboard and AM1I-A , it's time to make a MSI mother AM1 card Mini ITX format: the AM1I.

Aimed at Kabini processors on socket AM1 (ie all new Sempron and Athlon AMD), the AM1I has two DDR3 connectors (for up to 16GB of memory DDR3-1333/1600), two SATA 6Gbps ports, a miniPCIe connector and a PCI-Express 2.0 x16. There are also audio and Gigabit Ethernet controllers, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports or VGA, DVI and HDMI 1.4a outputs. PS / 2 connectors are even present.



The only regret is that MSI has not yet indicated price or availability date for this new motherboard. As a reminder, the Asus AM1I-A is displayed at a rate of only 34 euros

Intel profit down

Intel has released its financial results for its first quarter 2014 are not brilliant. Turnover has increased by only 1.5%, but profits fell 4.8% to 12.76 billion dollars respectively and $ 1.95 billion (9.2 billion euros and € 1.4 billion).

Significant losses due to smartphones and tablets

If we go into detail, what surprises most is probably the fact that the mobile communication division and is responsible among other mobile chips for tablets and smartphones has lost 929 million dollars (672.5 billion of euros) in the quarter which is an increase compared to the same period last where Intel had lost $ 703 million (€ 510 billion) year. We know that the company is trying to be more popular with OEM (see " Intel drops prices of its chips for tablets "), but it continues to be more and more difficult in this market.

Decrease in the average selling price of chips for PC

The rest of the company is doing well. The consumer division grew by 12.6% and data centers took 15.1%. The renewal movement within companies has enabled the data center to increase its deliveries department 3% a year to another and if the supply of chips for PCs increased by 1%, the average selling price dropped 3%, which partly explains the decline in profits.

Google offers Titan Aerospace and future solar drones


Google confirmed on Tuesday the acquisition of Titan Aerospace, a company specializing in the design of UAV powered by solar energy. They could be used to bring Internet in many white areas of the planet.

They said Facebook interested : it is Google that has finally got his hands on Titan Aerospace, a company specializing in the design of UAVs flying at very high altitude. Still developing, they should eventually be able to fly for several years at 20 Km altitude, powered by solar panels. According to the buyer, they may in particular allow people to connect to the Internet today too far from traditional infrastructure.





"Titan Aerospace and Google share a deep optimism about the potential of technology to improve the world. It's still early, but the weather satellites could help bring Internet to millions of people and help solve other problems, including natural disasters and environmental damage such as deforestation, "said a door- word search engine.

The project to provide Internet access by air takes seriously some of the teams at Google. In 2013, the search was announced Loon initiative , aimed at using stratospheric balloons inflated with helium as communication relays, a few weeks after the acquisition of a company specialized in wind energy Makani .

Facebook, who rumor lent inclination to buy Titan Aerospace is also working on this issue through its Connectivity Lab. The social network is also also offered a specialist high altitude drones, the British Ascenta for approximately $ 20 million in March.

Mozilla chooses its new interim CEO

The Mozilla Foundation announced the selection of a new CEO who will be responsible for interim chair of the board and replace Brendan Eich.

The former CEO of Mozilla Brendan Eich will ultimately remained barely two weeks at the head of Mozilla. Indeed, its position towards gay marriage has been put in front of the stage and the man was forced to resign under pressure. On its official blog, Mozilla announced it has appointed an interim successor.

The co-founder of Mozilla Mitchell Baker, co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman and director of the German magazine Spiegel Online Katharina Borchert has named Chris Beard as CEO ad interim. The man arrived at Mozilla in 2004 to launch version 1.0 of the Firefox browser. It was then marketing director. Previously he worked at HP and Sun Micro systems.

Chris Beard was especially responsible for guiding the activities of community members and developers. He also participated in the launch of Firefox OS at the Mobile World Congress. Mitchell Baker explains that in the long term, the Board will select a new full-time CEO and new members to the board after the departure of former CEO Gary Kovacs Lily and John and Ellen Siminoff, CEO of Shmoop startup . One would imagine that if Chris Beard proven it will retain its current position.

Gmail integrates scan emails in its conditions of use


A new update conditions Gmail states that the service now automatically scans incoming and outgoing mails to better target advertising. An approach that is not new but was previously not openly discussed by the service.

Since 2010, Gmail regularly attacked in court because of his habit emails scanner users to better target advertising present on the service. For a long time, this practice was totally in the back of the web, and was nowhere explained in the courier. Now, it appears in its conditions of use.

Google has indeed updated document on April 14, to inform users that the incoming and outgoing emails are scanned automatically by software loaded to target advertising. "We want our policy is simple and easy to understand for users. These changes will provide clarity to users, and are based on the feedback we have had in recent months, "says Matt Kallman, a spokesman for the company.


The fact of the scanner also allows Gmail mails to identify spam and detect malware circulating through emails.

Last month, a U.S. judge has decided not to group several class actions by disgruntled users. Google argued that people had implicitly consented to this activity using Gmail. Now that this aspect of the messaging service is fully integrated with the conditions of use, Google will be able to strengthen his defense in such cases.

Samsung Galaxy S5′s fingerprint scanner can be easily hacked

Samsung did not learn from the mistake of Apple. SRLabs has released a video on YouTube showing visible below it is easy to deceive the reader fingerprint Galaxy S5 and take control of PayPal. They first train the phone to recognize their finger, then immediately test the sensor with a rubber stand-in. Sure enough, they get right in.





The footprint provides access to more information on the Galaxy S5

The big difference between the system and the Samsung and Apple TouchID is only used to register on the phone and on the App Store. The worst that can happen is to purchase an application. By cons, Samsung delivers a PayPal application with the phone using the fingerprint reader to replace the use of a password. As shown in the video, a copy of the footprint can register with PayPal and access to bank accounts of the user


It should take a step back. The flaw is only exploitable if we manage to get the user's finger, which is not an easy task. PayPal is already cracked a statement to say that the fingerprint authentication is "easier and safer".

Amazon dream to facilitate online payment

Certainly Amazon is positioned on all fronts and the cyber merchant would reveal his own method of payment.

Amazon company she positioned about the online payment? Judging by an interview of Re / magazine Code, the giant online consumption could offer an alternative to Paypal or mechanisms put in place by the editors of bank cards such as Visa.

For the founder and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos, payment online would become a priority to change the site according to some sources. These statements have been confirmed by the director of the division Amazon Payments Tom Taylor. "Jeff told us that this is something that we must succeed," said the man.

Amazon says Mr. Taylor looks closely the phenomenon of crypto-currency such as Bitcoin. However, the company does not believe that this is a particularly strong demand from its wide consumer base. It recognizes that a single currency has certain advantages but Amazon seems to remain more down-to-earth and wants to solve other types of problems such as exchange rates internationally.

Tom Taylor added: "I think we can offer a better solution Amex and Visa and if it made ​​customer service then this is something that we would (...) but it would have to be much better."

Other sources report that there is truly only a matter of time before the cyber merchant unveils ambitious new project for its own payment system current online.

BitTorrent Sync sign with Netgear and formalize the management of NAS

BitTorrent developers announced that it is now possible to use the client to synchronize directly with a NAS and especially those NetGear.

Unlike storage solutions and traditional synchronization, Dropbox or OneCloud type, open source BitTorrent Sync utility does not rely on a central server. Via a secure encryption AES-256 connection is made directly in peer-to-peer communication between multiple machines.

Currently, BitTorrent Sync is available on Windows, OS X or Linux as well as iOS and Android. Memory, a version is currently under development on Windows Phone. For synchronization to be effective, however, will require that the computer from which you want to access files or constantly lit ... unless it does a media server ... in which case the problem does not arise.

At PRISM, network drives have the wind in their sails and, via its official blog, BitTorrent announced it has signed a partnership with the specialist in the field NetGear. The utility BitTorrent Sync is thus proposed as an extension on the official website Ready NAS and can be installed on servers with version 6 of the internal firmware. Among the compatible models, we find:

  • ReadyNAS 102;
  • ReadyNAS 104;
  • ReadyNAS 312;
  • ReadyNAS 314;
  • ReadyNAS 316;
  • ReadyNAS 516;
  • ReadyNAS 716X;
  • ReadyNAS 2120;
  • ReadyNAS 3220;
  • ReadyNAS 4220.

Note in passing that BitTorrent Sync can also be installed on the Synology NAS. To do this it is sufficient to activate the directories created by the community in third-party sources of package managers. The team BitTorrent Sync adds that other partnerships will be announced later. The thus imagine that Synology should officially be part of.

NOKIA X at Rs. Rs. 7,729

A month after its launch in the Indian market, the Nokia X Dual SIM has received a price cut, and is now available at Rs. 7,729 (prices vary to as low as Rs. 7,200 on online retailers) on the company's online store - a drop of roughly Rs. 900.

Notably, the Nokia X - the Finnish giant's first Android-based phone - was launched in India on 10 March at Rs. 8,599 for its dual-SIM variant. The drop in price might presage the imminent launch of the Nokia X+ and Nokia XL, due to launch in a month's time.




Dimensions

Height: 115.5 mm
Width: 63 mm
Thickness: 10.4 mm
Weight: 128.7 g

Photography

Main camera sensor: 3 MP
Camera resolution: 2048 x 1536 pixels
Main camera focus type: Fixed focus

Display

Display size: 10.16 cm
Display features: Brightness control, Tactile feedback, Orientation sensor, Nokia Glance screen, Screen double tap, Wide viewing angle

Power management

Maximum standby time with dual SIM: 17 days
Maximum standby time: 28 days
Maximum talk time (2G): 13.3 h
Processor name: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ S4
Maximum talk time (3G): 10.5 h
Maximum music playback time: 26 h

Twitter is growing in data analysis and redeems Gnip

The microblogging service announced the acquisition of Gnip. The acquisition of this specialist data analysis will allow Twitter to better use, and possibly sell later.

Twitter announces that it is the acquisition of Gnip . This American company was already a partner of service microblogging but will become part of the group. The deal was confirmed by Twitter but the amount was not specified by the two parties.

Gnip is one of the companies benefiting from preferential access to the Firehose, the full flow of messages posted by users. After collecting this information, the interest for brands is that a company can analyze the behavior of its customers. This is where the emphasis of a company such as Gnip.

For Twitter, the value of this acquisition is to continue to monetize the messages and interactions published on its service. These can indeed be sold to companies wishing to test the success of a particular campaign.

A picture of a Topsy ( acquired by Apple in late 2013 ), also proposed Gnip data from Tumblr, Foursquare or even Disqus. The company has not indicated whether it would continue to operate these platforms become the exclusive or otherwise to Twitter.

Amazon 3D smartphone coming soon

Speculation about an upcoming smartphone signed Amazon started again in recent days and some details have leaked on the web.

If there is a well expected to turn on the smartphone market actor is Amazon. Rumors speculating about his ambitions in this area date back several years. In 2013, several reports gave the impression that the cyber-profit working in partnership with HTC to produce two terminals. One of them placing on the high end would feature a 3D interface and an eye tracking technology with 6 sensors. Last month, a spotted Information The paper suggested that cyber-merchant market them this year and the Wall Street Journal recently confirmed this information.


According to information collected by BRG , Amazon plainchant well on both smartphones. The high-end terminal would have a 4.7-inch slab but does provide a definition in 720p. It is powered by a Snapdragon chip (unspecified model) and host 2 GB of RAM. Previous reports made mention of a 801 Snapdragon.

The unit would have good 6 cameras whose main sensor is 13 megapixels coupled to a conventional front camera. Four others, supported by various sensors are located at the four corners of the machine front and would achieve rendering 3D auto stereoscopic or without special glasses. The device inserted within a protective shell deliberately hiding its final design, made its appearance in images.




 Unsurprisingly, Amazon would use Fire OS, the Android fork already on its Kindle Fire HD / HDX and it would be optimized at several levels to display 3D elements. To notably wallpapers and more dynamic applications specially optimized, particularly with regard to the rendering of buildings in the mapping service.


Amazon would also optimized its stores to allow users to see more realistic images of products and to display details not visible in 2D. Then it is sufficient to tilt the screen of the device. The 3D effect is also applied to different system icons, I must say that the carousel shelves Kindle Fire lends itself quite well already.

In addition, the company would provide to publish a special development kit to third-party developers so they can actually take advantage of all these new features and optimize their applications.

In the United States, the company will embark his MayDay system service 24/7 support made directly videoconference with Amazon adviser. The device could be announced later this summer.