Posts in PC & Peripherals
iTunes customers angry over copy protection moves at Apple
Elinor Mills | Nov 20, 2008
Want to watch a high-definition show from iTunes on an older external display? Good luck!
Some Mac users are teed off that they are getting error messages saying the iTunes movie they rented or bought can't be played on their display because it is not HDCP (High Digital Content Protection) authorized.
And some people are complaining they are only able to play certain standard definition iTunes content on their laptop or via an HDMI connection.
As a result, some Apple forum participants have threatened to boycott iTunes.
"And here we are now with Apple users who have spent thousands of dollars on Apple hardware (30" Cinema displays are not cheap!), buying films legitimately through Apple's store only to find themselves screwed when they just want to watch the film!" wrote "non-troppo" on the Apple Discussions Forum.
Forum participant Jim Beggans complained that Apple expanded the usage limitations of iTunes without updating the published usage terms.
"It is imperative that Apple address this customer concern with NEW terms of service (which will require them to offer some remedy for existing purchases) and clarify that HDCP is a now a standard part of their products regardless of which mode of the DisplayPort is in use," Beggans wrote.
ArsTechnica, which first covered the issue, reports that Apple's new MacBook is using DPCP, or DisplayPort Content Protection, which was developed by Philips.
Read more »
Mac OS X Snow Leopard coming early?
Mike Ricciuti | Nov 20, 2008
Apple's OS X Snow Leopard may be on tap for the start of the new year, slightly earlier than expected.
The update appears to be slated for debut in the first quarter of 2009, according to a slide presented by Jordan Hubbard, Apple's director of engineering for Unix technologies, at a conference last week.
Snow Leopard, or version 10.6 of the operating system, is expected to be optimized for multicore processors, include QuickTime X, and offer built-in support for Microsoft's Exchange 2007 software.
A slide presented on Friday by an Apple executive.
Apple previewed Snow Leopard in June. At that time, Apple said that Snow Leopard was "scheduled to ship in about a year."
Read more »
Firefox extension makes Flash games full-screen
Josh Lowensohn | Nov 19, 2008
Flash Game Maximizer turns almost any Flash game window into a full-screen affair, regardless of whether the developer made it an option.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
A new Firefox extension aptly named "Flash Game Maximizer" is a must-have for any Flash game enthusiast. It does one thing, and does it well: Letting you toggle between standard- and full-screen modes on any game--regardless of whether it has been coded with such an option.
Considering that Flash games are hosted all over the place, and rarely with a ubiquitous user interface, you're likely to run into a good number of them that must be played in whatever space they've been given on a Web page. With Flash Game Maximizer, however, you don't have to worry about this at all.
Once the extension has been installed, you'll get a new button on the bottom-right corner of your browser that turns yellow when it detects Flash. Clicking it resizes the game to fit your browser window. A slight caveat here is that it completely restarts whatever Flash module is on the page, which on most games means losing any progress.
Because Flash Game Maximizer is an "experimental" extension, you will need to log in to Mozilla's add-on site to download it.
If you're a Flash game enthusiast, I wholeheartedly recommend giving this a go. It works on my personal favorite, Totem Destroyer, as well as on Desktop Tower Defense.
Via CNET News
Lenovo Vault external hard drive beefs up data security
Justin Yu | Nov 19, 2008
It's difficult for external portable hard drives to stand out against the competition since they're judged mostly on cost per gigabyte, connectivity, and aesthetics. Lenovo jumps into the game by making a case for onboard security.
Its ThinkPad "Vault" USB Portable Secure Hard Drive is protected by the "128-bit advanced encryption security standard" and is actually built into the hardware, similar to the Maxtor Black Armor drive. The Lenovo ThinkPad hard drive also has a built-in USB 2.0, as well as a physical keypad built into the face of the chassis, allowing up to 10 users and one administrator to access the drive using unique keychains.
The drive isn't cheap, though, as the company's asking US$179 for the 160GB drive and US$219 for the 320GB model. Ninety cents per gigabyte is a tough pill to swallow, especially when you consider the Iomega eGo Helium external hard drive only costs 45 cents per gig. Both versions will be available later this month--would you pay double the price just for the peace of mind that your data is totally safe? Let us know in the comments section!
Via CNET Crave
Adobe soups up Photoshop with Pixel Bender
Stephen Shankland | Nov 18, 2008
Pixel Bender enables a new range of effects sped by a PC's graphics chip.
(Credit: Adobe Systems)
Adobe Systems on Monday launched a technology called Pixel Bender that brings new effects to Photoshop--and some new work for computers' often-idle graphics chips.
Pixel Bender, presently an Adobe Labs project, is a new engine for enabling many image transformations. Examples include a kaleidoscopic hall-of-mirrors effect, a twirled distortion effect, a fisheye lens effect, and a ray-tracing effect. Some effects are available at the Pixel Bender Exchange.
Photoshop already has a plug-in architecture for many special effects, but Pixel Bender is designed to be easier on programmers creating effects and faster to show them. The acceleration comes through support not just of multicore processors, but also of the graphics processors that Photoshop CS4 now can exploit.
Last night, Adobe posted the new version 1.1 of the Pixel Bender Toolkit for those who want to create their own effects. Photoshop Senior Product Manager John Nack announced availability of the Photoshop CS4 Pixel Bender plug-in on his blog on Monday.
But Pixel Bender isn't just for the version of Photoshop that runs on PCs. On Monday, Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch demonstrated the technology running on Photoshop.com, the company's online photo-editing site.
"This is under development and will appear in a future update," Adobe spokeswoman Cari Gushiken said of the Photoshop.com.
This abstract pattern shows an image hosted at Photoshop.com altered by two Pixel Bender filters, one for creating a halftone dot pattern and one for the tunnel effect. Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch demonstrated the technology at the Max conference.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)
Via CNET News
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