How to put all your data on the Web—without storing it in the cloud

 interface, Internet News, Tech News  468 Responses »
Sep 282012
 

Local alternatives to Dropbox are worth looking into for those concerned about the security risks of uploading data to a cloud storage provider. We recently profiled AeroFS, which integrates a Dropbox-style folder into your file system and syncs it across computers. While it works quite well, the service is still in a limited beta, does not yet enable mobile or Web-based access, and isnt the only useful approach to building a “personal cloud.”

Another approach a lot of users might find interesting makes every file on your desktop, including those in external hard drives, available to any other computer, smartphone, or tablet. Luckily, this is quite easy these days—even if youve never set up a server, typed a line of code, or learned what NAS stands for.

For the purposes of this article, well look at two services: Tonido and PocketCloud. We chose them because they are cross-platform on both desktop and mobile, friendly to non-techie types, and provide their core services for free without requiring any hardware other than your desktop. At the end, well also briefly discuss some other options for secure file sharing.

Tonido and PocketCloud both keep your data on your own machines, never uploading files to their own servers except in one limited case involving PocketCloud.

MORE: How to put all your data on the Web—without storing it in the cloud | Ars Technica.

 

Adobe’s New ‘Edge’ App Suite Doubles Down on HTML

 Tech News, Web Design  438 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Adobe may be best known among web developers for its much-maligned Flash Player plugin, but in recent years the company has begun shifting its efforts away from Flash to open web tools like HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Now Adobe is launching a new suite of apps for web developers working with the latest web standards.

The new Adobe Edge suite of HTML5 development tools includes Edge Animate 1.0, a tool to create HTML, CSS and JavaScript-based animations, and Edge Inspect (formerly known as Adobe Shadow), a handy tool for testing your sites on multiple devices at once. There’s also Edge Code, a fork of the Brackets code editor that’s now included in Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite.

As part of the announcement at Adobe’s Create the Web conference in San Francisco the company also showed off a demo of the still-in-development Edge Reflow, a new tool for working with responsive design layouts.

MORE: Adobe’s New ‘Edge’ App Suite Doubles Down on HTML | Webmonkey | Wired.com.

 

Yet another Java flaw allows “complete” bypass of security sandbox

 Internet News, Tech News  262 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

Researchers have discovered a Java flaw that would let hackers bypass critical security measures in all recent versions of the software. The flaw was announced today by Security Explorations, the same team that recently found a security hole in Java SE 7 letting attackers take complete control of PCs. But this latest exploit affects Java SE 5, 6, and 7—the last eight years worth of Java software.

“The impact of this issue is critical—we were able to successfully exploit it and achieve a complete Java security sandbox bypass in the environment of Java SE 5, 6, and 7,” Adam Gowdiak of Security Explorations wrote, claiming the hole puts “one billion users” at risk.

Gowdiak wrote that Security Explorations successfully pulled off the exploit on a fully patched Windows 7 32-bit computer in Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari. Although testing was limited to Windows 7 32-bit, Gowdiak told Computerworld that the flaw would be exploitable on any machine with Java 5, 6, or 7 enabled (whether it’s Windows 7 64-bit, Mac OS X, Linux, or Solaris).

MORE: Yet another Java flaw allows “complete” bypass of security sandbox | Ars Technica.

 

Robot cars now officially legal in California

 Tech News  284 Responses »
Sep 262012
 

At a signing ceremony at the Google headquarters on Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law state legislation that officially makes the Golden State the second in the nation to legalize and regulate autonomous cars.

Google, of course, has already developed a fleet of a dozen cars (mostly modified Toyota Priuses) and has already logged over 300,000 miles of autonomous driving on state roads.

The new law obliges the California Department of Motor Vehicles to draft regulations for autonomous vehicles by January 1, 2015.

“These vehicles have the potential to avoid accidents—we can save lives, create jobs, and reduce congestion,” said Google co-founder Sergey Brin at the event. “I expect that self-driving cars will be far safer than human-driven cars.”

MORE: Robot cars now officially legal in California | Ars Technica.

 

iPhone 5, Galaxy S3 displays go head to head — iPhone wins

 Tech News  314 Responses »
Sep 252012
 

Apple’s iPhone 5 beat Samsung’s Galaxy S3 in a display tech “shoot-out” at screen testing firm DisplayMate Technologies.

The iPhone 5’s Retina screen is the best smartphone display that DisplayMate has tested to date, according to results the firm posted today.

iPhone 5: “It is a significant improvement over the display in the iPhone 4,” said DisplayMate’s Raymond Soneira, who cited much lower screen reflections, much higher image contrast and screen readability in high ambient lighting — the latter, the highest he’s ever tested.

DisplayMate — which gave the display an “A” — also cited improved color gamut and factory calibration that “delivers very accurate colors and very good picture quality.” The Retina iPad is the only thing that beats it in accuracy, according to Soneira.

MORE: iPhone 5, Galaxy S3 displays go head to head — iPhone wins | Apple – CNET News.

 

Verizon ships its iPhone 5 unlocked

 Tech News  262 Responses »
Sep 242012
 

Reports are surfacing that iPhone 5s purchased from Verizon are arriving unlocked usable on any GSM cell network. Jeff Benjamin at iDownloadBlog notes that he was able to insert a cut-to-size AT&T SIM into his new Verizon iPhone 5 and connect to AT&T’s HSPA+ cellular network, without having to pester Verizon for permission. When contacted about the matter, Verizon confirmed to him that the device was indeed fully unlocked.

This is a tremendous boon to US customers, who have in the past had to argue long and hard for the privilege of detaching their iPhones from their primary carrier’s network.

MORE: Verizon ships its iPhone 5 unlocked | Ars Technica.

 

With iPhone 5, Apple Has Chiseled The Smartphone To Near Perfection

 Tech News  553 Responses »
Sep 192012
 

The iPhone 5 is here.

I’ve had the opportunity to play around with the latest iPhone for the past several days. I won’t beat around the bush: it’s fantastic.

Of course, you’re probably expecting me to say that. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong. The fact of the matter is, you can either listen to me or lose out. You’re going to want this phone.

Reading the press coverage since the unveiling, you may have heard that the iPhone 5 is disappointing, or boring. Those people, quite frankly, are fools. They either haven’t actually used the device, or only played with it for a few minutes in the hands-on area after last week’s event. (Or worse, they’re projecting their own boredom in their jobs due to Apple’s dominance of the tech scene these past few years.) Using a device on a regular basis is what really matters. And in that regard, the iPhone 5 shines in just about every conceivable way.

In fact, I’ll go a step farther: I really do believe this is the best iPhone upgrade that Apple has done yet (besting the iPhone-to-iPhone 3G jump and the iPhone 3GS-to-iPhone 4 jump). As such, it’s the best version of the iPhone yet. By far.

MORE:  With iPhone 5, Apple Has Chiseled The Smartphone To Near Perfection | TechCrunch.

 

Lexar announces $900 256GB SD card for pro video

 Tech News  387 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

Three words describe the Lexar Professional 400x SDXC UHS-I memory card: big, fast, and expensive.

The company is pitching the $900 card at those who need to shoot lots of 1080p or 3D video, a market noted for its capacity-gobbling files, intolerance for hiccups in data transfer, and deep pockets.

The card can transfer data at a sustained speed of 60MBps, and it will ship in October, the Micron subsidiary said. The company does offer faster cards with a 600x rating, but they top out at 64GB capacities.

MORE:  Lexar announces $900 256GB SD card for pro video | Crave – CNET.

 

iPhone 5 benchmarks surface: Performance doubles

 Tech News  279 Responses »
Sep 172012
 

The iPhone 5‘s A6 processor appears to be roughly twice as fast as any chip in an existing iOS product, if results posted by Geekbench prove to be accurate.

The results show a score of 1,601, beating the dual-core A5 and A5X processors in the iPhone 4s and third-generation iPad (Retina), respectively.

Previous benchmarks of the Retina iPad show a score of 794 (iPad with 3G/4G). The iPhone 4S posted a score of 631.

If these iPhone 5 benchmarks are legitimate, they would match Apple’s claims. “With the new A6 chip, just about everything you do on iPhone 5 is noticeably faster — up to twice as fast compared with the A5 chip,” Apple states on its iPhone 5 features page.

MORE:  iPhone 5 benchmarks surface: Performance doubles | Apple – CNET News.

 

AMD Stays in the Game with Another Round of Radeon HD 7000 Series Price Cuts

 Tech News  339 Responses »
Sep 172012
 

Talk about a buyers market if youre a gamer. Its great to time to go videocard shopping, both because there are new GPUs landing on store shelves, and also due to the fact that prices are coming down. Perhaps looking to steal some thunder from Nvidias Kepler-based GeForce GTX 660 and GTX 650 launch, Advanced Micro Devices AMD is reportedly reducing the price of its Radeon HD 7000 series.

MORE:  Maximum PC | AMD Stays in the Game with Another Round of Radeon HD 7000 Series Price Cuts.

 

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