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AfterDawn: News

Wal-Mart starts own wireless plan

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Sep 2010 10:29

Wal-Mart starts own wireless plan Wal-Mart has introduced their own wireless plan today, using Wal-Mart branding.

The Wal-Mart Family Mobile service will run on the T-Mobile USA network, with the giant retailer giving users unlimited calling and texts for $45 per month, and $25 for each additional line in the family.

Wal-Mart will begin offering the service next week in most of its stores.

Starting in 2009, the retailer began selling the Straight Talk and Common Cents services, which run through Verizon and Sprint. The difference, however, is both those services are prepaid plans.

Family Mobile is like a traditional "contract" cell plan, with families being billed at the end of each month, however there is no set amount of contract months.

The cheapest phone available for the service will be a Nokia for $35, with the most expensive being the Motorola Cliq XT, for $249.

Family Mobile users will only get a small amount of free Internet data, with each extra 1GB costing a massive $40.




AfterDawn: News

Apple to begin selling iPad in China

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Sep 2010 9:54

Apple to begin selling iPad in China Apple has announced today that it will begin selling the Wi-Fi version of the iPad in China, via Apple Stores and authorized resellers.

The company will sell the 16GB version for 3,988 yuan ($589 USD), the 32GB version for 4,788 yuan ($707 USD) and the larger capacity 64GB version for 5,588 yuan ($825 USD).

Additionally, Apple will continue rolling out the iPad to other nations, announcing those release dates at a later time.

A recent rumor circulating says that an iPad with a front-facing camera and FaceTime will likely be released soon, breaking Apple's traditional 12-month product cycle for "i" devices.

The sources claim that the refreshed iPad is already in advanced testing stages, just five months after the launch of the first-generation tablet.

Expected launch date for the second-generation iPad? The Q1 2011.




AfterDawn: News

JPMorgan, UBS to test Android, iPhone as alternative to BlackBerrys

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Sep 2010 12:04

JPMorgan, UBS to test Android, iPhone as alternative to BlackBerrys According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan Chase is looking into alternatives for their corporate email needs, moving away from BlackBerrys whilst testing out the Apple iPhone and Android alternatives.

The move would be significant as the bank has 22,000 employees worldwide.

UBS, Switzerland's largest banks, has also said it is testing iPhones to connect to the company's email. UBS has 63,000 employees.

Earlier this year, Standard Chartered Bank Plc distributed 15,000 iPhones to employees that had been using BlackBerrys.

Responds one analyst: "This phenomenon is very new and we expect it to put increased pressure on RIM’s performance," says Pierre Ferragu, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. "BlackBerry isn’t the only alternative to offer employees mobile e-mail."




AfterDawn: News

Japan to get Nintendo 3DS on November 20th?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Sep 2010 9:14

Japan to get Nintendo 3DS on November 20th? Thanks to a tweet from a Japanese product designer, we have a new rumored Nintendo 3DS release date, at least for Japan.

Reads the tweet (translated by 3DSblog): "On November 20th, the 11 goods I designed for use with the 3DS will go on sale simultaneously. Those of you buying the 3DS, please buy them while you’re at it! This will be officially announced on the homepage eventually, lol. Best regards."

That designer works for keysfactory, an accessory maker that has built screen protectors, cases and chargers for the DS line.

The date is still speculation for now, but Nintendo has promised to unveil the pricing and release date for the handheld on September 29th.

In the past, Nintendo has released new hardware on Saturdays, so the 20th of November seems even more possible.

The DSi XL was released on Saturday, November 21st, last year.




AfterDawn: News

Target to begin selling iPad on October 3rd?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Sep 2010 8:50

Target to begin selling iPad on October 3rd? According to a new report by Engadget, the Apple iPad may be headed to retailer Target starting October 3rd.

The source sent in a picture of Target's inventory system, which shows six versions of an unknown device coming soon, each of which lines up with current iPad prices.

Another photo of a Target PDA shows that the devices are headed to the "Digital Audio" section of the store, right next to the Amazon Kindle, the most popular e-reader on the market.

Both Apple and Target declined to comment on the rumor.

The Kindle is available from Amazon, through Staples, Target and now Best Buy. The iPad is available through Apple and Best Buy, currently.




AfterDawn: News

New security flaw exploited on Adobe Reader and Acrobat

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Sep 2010 8:09

New security flaw exploited on Adobe Reader and Acrobat Adobe has warned this week that a new security flaw in Reader and Acrobat is now being exploited, allowing for hackers to take over victim's systems.

The company says the vulnerability can "cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system."

Affected softwares are Adobe Reader 9.3.4 and earlier for Windows and Mac, and Acrobat versions 9.3.4 and earlier for both operating systems.

While Adobe would not give technical details on the flaw, security firm Secunia said it was caused by a "boundary error within the font parsing in CoolType.dll and can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by ... tricking a user into opening a specially crafted PDF file."

Adobe says they are working with the security community to work on a patch.




AfterDawn: News

Android 2.2 tablets will not have access to the Market?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Sep 2010 7:29

Android 2.2 tablets will not have access to the Market? Google has noted today that current versions of Android are not suitable for tablets, and devices released now will likely not be able to compete with the popular Apple iPad.

One of the main reasons it will not be able to compete is the fact that the Android Market will not work well on tablets.

Says Hugo Barra, director of products for mobile at Google: "Android is an open platform. We saw at IFA 2010 all sorts of devices running Android, so it already running on tablets."

"But the way Android Market works is it's not going to be available on devices that don't allow applications to run correctly."

Continuing on about Froyo, in regards to tablets, Barra says:

"Froyo is not optimised for use on tablets. If you want Android market on that platform, the apps just wouldn't run, [Froyo] is just not designed for that form factor.

"We want to make sure that we're going to create a application distribution mechanism for the Android market, to ensure our users have right experience."


Despite those words, Google has already stated that upcoming software updates, Gingerbread and Honeycomb will be tablet-optimized.




AfterDawn: News

PSP emulator for the PS3 in the works

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 Sep 2010 6:53

PSP emulator for the PS3 in the works PSX-Scene forum user "dimmudroid" has posted this weekend that he his actively working on a PSP emulator for the PlayStation 3, however, the emulator is still in very early stages.

Says dimmudroid:

"I'd like to announce a project i've been working on, PS3P. Basically it's the ability to load PSP games on PS3.

As you may know, the PS3 can play PSP Minis, which are installed just like any other package. And most PSP games have nearly identical structures and files as PS3 games.

Thus far I've been able to achieve a few steps in the right direction, but I'm not ready to share my work just yet. I've been working on this in my free time (aka outside of work and family) and it will be done when it's done.

If you'd like to know more, or keep on the up and up, feel free to find me on Twitter.com/dimmudroid

I may need a few alpha testers soon, I'll post requirements and such later today."


The user has posted a few updates this morning, which you can find at the source.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Vulnerability in OpenX advertisement server - AfterDawn's ads affected as well

Written by Jari Ketola @ 12 Sep 2010 6:40

Vulnerability in OpenX advertisement server - AfterDawn's ads affected as well There is an un-patched vulnerability in OpenX advertisement server that affected the advertisement delivery at AfterDawn.com for short while today. The vulnerability was used to tamper specific files on our advertisement server, which caused advertisements fail to load. Advertisements are served from an isolated server, and no other AfterDawn services were affected at any stage.

The vulnerability is not in OpenX itself, but in an included component of Open Flash Chart 2. The vulnerability has been known for a long time but has not been patched to date. It's effects to OpenX and instructions for fixing and cleaning up after the issue are explained at kreativrauschen.com blog.

In our case the advertisement server simply broke down and delivered no advertisements at all. Access to the server caused Chrome to throw an "Error 330 (net::ERR_CONTENT_DECODING_FAILED): Unknown error" error while Firefox displayed "Content Encoding Error: The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because it uses an invalid or unsupported form of compression."

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

iPhone owners have more apps than Android, BlackBerry

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Sep 2010 9:56

iPhone owners have more apps than Android, BlackBerry According to a new study from Nielsen, iPhone owners have the most installed apps in the smartphone market.

After surveying 4000 people, the survey found that iPhone users, on average, have 40 apps installed.

Android users have, on average, 25 apps installed. BlackBerry owners round out the list at an average of 14 apps per user.

Numbers are up across the board, showing off a growing interest in applications, as a whole.

Games headed the list of most downloaded apps, with 61 percent of those surveyed having downloaded at least one. Weather followed closely at 55 percent, followed by mapping/search apps at 50 percent. Social networking and music rounded out the list, at 49 and 42 percent, respectively.




AfterDawn: News

T-Mobile G2 now official, rumored early October release

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Sep 2010 8:26

T-Mobile G2 now official, rumored early October release T-Mobile has officially confirmed the G2 this week, the long-awaited successor to the first ever Android device, the G1.

The G2 will be T-Mobile's first device to support HSPA+, the carrier's very fast 3.5G/4G data network.

Furthermore, the device will have an 800MHz Snapdragon MSM7230 processor, which has the HSPA+ support built-in. While slower than current 1GHz chips, the processor can still record 720p video and handle Flash videos.

The G2 will also run a stock Android 2.2 (with no custom UI) and will have Swype as the default keypad.

Made by HTC, the phone has a 3.7-inch multi-touch screen, an optical trackpad, a 5MP camera with LED flash, 4GB of internal memory and an extra 8GB microSDHC card.

Although the price and release date have not been confirmed, leaks have priced the device at $200 with contract ($500 without) with an October 6th release date.




AfterDawn: News

Video Daily: PSGroove working with TI-84 Plus calculator

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Sep 2010 7:14

Video Daily: PSGroove working with TI-84 Plus calculator Last month PSJailbreak showed the world that the PS3's security model was open to be exploited, and Sony was quick to shut down the project.

Last week, PSGroove, the "open source PSJailbreak," was released to the masses, giving owners a chance to jailbreak their PS3 for a lot cheaper than the $170 PSJailbreak.

The code can be run on a hacked a $25 Teensy++ USB development board or a $30 AT90USBkey, and now, on a TI-84 calculator.

Writes Brandon Wilson, who created the jailbreak for the calculators: PS3JB is a FLASH application for the TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition that implements the PSGroove exploit for the Playstation 3 console. By connecting a USB cable between a PS3 and your calculator and running the application, you can trigger the PSGroove exploit from your graphing calculator.

There is more info (if you are a TI-84 owner) here: PS3JB - PS3 Jailbreak for TI-84 Plus and TI-84 Plus Silver Edition




AfterDawn: News

Apple to begin using Qualcomm chips in their iOS devices?

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Sep 2010 6:37

Apple to begin using Qualcomm chips in their iOS devices? According to a recent China Times article, Apple may be moving to Qualcomm for the iPhone's next baseband chips.

Currently, the company uses Infineon chips for their iOS devices.

Infineon was recently purchased by Intel for $1.4 billion, with Intel having the idea in mind of having a built-in stake in the smartphone market.

"The acquired technology will be used in Intel Core processor-based laptops, and myriad of Intel Atom processor-based devices, including smartphones, netbooks, tablets and embedded computers," said Intel after the purchase.

Infineon chips support GSM only, while Qualcomm makes chips for both GSM and CDMA, which could mean Apple is finally looking to create devices for Sprint or Verizon.




AfterDawn: News

VLC for iPad app submitted to App Store

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Sep 2010 6:01

VLC for iPad app submitted to App Store Videolan has submitted their VLC for iPad app to the App Store this week, giving users a chance to playback all different types of video files on their tablet.

While we still wait for Apple's official blessing, the site AppAdvice was given a test build of the universal binary, and they put up a small preview.

The app supports Xvid, AVI, and DivX file formats flawlessly, as well as MKV, a container normally used for high-resolution video.

Unfortunately, unlike other third-party media players, VLC will not let you access your videos wirelessly from other computers, but that is hardly a deal breaker.

VLC for iPad is still pending approval, but should appear in the App Store next week, for free.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

GoDaddy.com goes up for sale

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Sep 2010 5:30

GoDaddy.com goes up for sale GoDaddy.com, the extremely popular site used to register domain names online, has said this week that it is putting itself up for sale.

The site is expected to receive a bid over $1 billion.

GoDaddy, the world's largest domain name registrar, has 43 million domains under management.

The privately-held company was started by CEO Bob Parsons in 1997, and is well known for its advertising campaigns, such as the "Go Daddy Girls" ads shown off during recent Super Bowls.

Because the company is private, it does not have reveal its finances, but sources close to the site say the site posted revenue of almost $800 million last year.

Small rival Register.com was sold earlier in the year for $135 million.





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