Viewsonic VOT132 nettop review

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/24/viewsonic-vot132-nettop-review/

You don't need booming sales figures to tell you that netbooks have taken over the world -- the mobile computing world, at least. Their screenless and battery-free brethren, however, have yet to find quite the same success. Nettops are great tiny little machines but in general they've been under-powered and, while people love eking out another hour or two of battery life on the road, few sadly care whether their desktop computers pull down 17 or 71 watts of juice. Still, it's hard to deny the appeal of a fully-functional computer that's half the size of a Wii -- especially when it can manage 1080p output over HDMI. Viewsonic's VOT132, with its Ion graphics and trick magnetic DVD drive, is tiny, efficient, and powerful. The perfect media PC? Read on to find out.

Gallery: Viewsonic VOT132 unboxing

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Viewsonic VOT132 nettop review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos 9 reviewed: too big, too slow, too 'Starter'

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/24/archos-9-reviewed-too-big-too-slow-too-starter/

We hate to be the bringers of bad news, but it looks like the Archos 9 might be serving as a bit of a morality tale, showing why and how PC hardware and software might not be quite ready for the large form factor tablet experience. That's not to say there aren't some plusses to the device pointed out by UMPC Portal in its review, like the great build quality and style of the tablet, the sensitive, flush touchscreen, and some great connectivity, but the sum seems less than its parts. The primary blame can be laid at the feet of the 1.1GHz Atom Z510 processor, which is sluggish and single-threaded, and Windows 7 Starter, which is lacking in the standard Windows 7 tablet functionality. We don't know all the reasoning at play here, but the result is a slow computer with a hacked-on touchscreen keyboard at a $550 pricepoint that doesn't the hit handheld UMPC size sweetspot and can hardly stand against a netbook in cost or utility. Sounds kind of mean when we say it like that, doesn't it?

Archos 9 reviewed: too big, too slow, too 'Starter' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Botnet Baddies Setting Up Own ISPs For Unfettered Spamming [Spam]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/gJztfE7kJgQ/botnet-baddies-setting-up-own-isps-for-unfettered-spamming

Well, this is equal parts frightening and annoying: malware writers and their lot have been buying up data centers and getting approved for large blocks of IP space. What's that mean? That they can pretty much run rampant.

While local registries are supposed to screen IP applications, in some parts of the world *cough* Eastern Europe *cough* there's not much of a vetting process. The result is that criminals can spam away while victims have no hosting provider or ISP to complain to. And when the tainted IP finally does get shut down—by being effectively quarantined by other ISPs and security folk—the bad guys just walk away, leaving it to rot until a legitimate business can come in and start it back up again.

The fight against botnets and malware is one where we're outspent and undermanned, and if we don't hurry up to evolve with the other team's strategies, we're all in a heap of trouble. [Threat Post via Boing Boing]

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Swann DVR4-2500 Home Security System Has Four Cameras and iPhone Streaming [Swann]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/0w3pGZUvGY4/swann-dvr4+2500-home-security-system-has-four-cameras-and-iphone-streaming

Do you enjoy dominating your house like the Trinity killer on Dexter, knowing exactly what each of your family members are doing at all times? Then Swann has the four camera security system for you.

The $700 setup has four cameras, a remote, a 500GB hard drive to record continuously for 30 days, a USB port for backing up said video and even 27 infrared LEDs to enable nighttime viewing.

What's special bout this model is the iPhone support, which you can use to stream live and recorded video from any of the cameras to your handheld screen. I would put one in the fridge so I could know exactly what to get from the supermarket on the way home from work. [Swann]

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Next-Generation iPhone May Have 5-Megapixel Camera, Sources Claim [Rumor]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cmpbEFkKYKg/next+generation-iphone-may-have-5+megapixel-camera-sources-claim

Digitimes' patchy sources are claiming that OmniVision Technologies—the current manufacturers of the iPhone 3GS' 3.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor—has won a new contract with Apple to provide the Cupertino company with new sensors for the next-generation 2010 iPhone.

They claim that the new CMOS image sensors are 5 megapixels. OmniVision Technologies say the orders will increase too, from 20-21 million estimated this year, to 40 to 45 million CMOS for the 2010. [Digitimes]

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