Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Viral videos are cool and all ... but ... http://ping.fm/DCL5O

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Monday, July 06, 2009

7-Inch Viliv X70 Tablet Reviewed, Found Viliviciousesquer [NetBooks]

7-Inch Viliv X70 Tablet Reviewed, Found Viliviciousesquer [NetBooks]

I'm not watching this 30-minute review of the Viliv X70 (info here), and I bet you aren't, either. But there's one huge Viliv fan reading at this very moment who is fist pumping like a mo fo. [JKKMobile via BBG]




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Vue Wireless Home Video Monitoring Lightning Review [Review]

Vue Wireless Home Video Monitoring Lightning Review [Review]

The Gadget: A wireless monitoring system called Vue that consists of one central gateway and two tiny battery-powered wall-mountable wireless cameras. They're meant to let you monitor your house from anywhere, as long as you have a network connection.

The Price: $300 for two cameras and four magnetic wall mounts

The Verdict: It works and it's easy. The three pieces are self-configuring, and all you need to set it up is to plug the main gateway into an Ethernet jack and the wireless cameras will all hook up seamlessly. Here's the video quality:

It's not bad, especially for a wireless video recording from such a small camera. It's on par with a mediocre webcam, and is definitely good enough for a "security" cam. It's nothing you want to use for actual webcamming, but it's great for seeing whether or not your kids are doing their homework.

There are a few other interesting features, like video sharing and video recording. Recording is obvious, but sharing works by inviting your friends to view either live streams or recorded clips. You and your friends interact with the system via the Vue website, which is accessible inside or outside your network. The batteries are supposed to last a year (they're not rechargeable), but you can buy replacement CR123 batteries. You turn on recording from the interface and there is scheduling.

So is this worth $300? Probab! ly, depe nding on how much you need something like this. There are cheaper solutions like hooking up a webcam yourself to a computer and somehow routing that online so you can access it anywhere. This involves port forwarding and all kinds of more technical workarounds. So for ease of use, performance and convenience (it's wireless and reaches 300 feet), it's hard to beat the Vue. We only wish that, for $300, this would come with four wireless cameras instead of just two. Available later this summer. [VueZone]




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Microsoft Warns Users of Serious Security Hole in Software [Security]

Microsoft Warns Users of Serious Security Hole in Software [Security]

Microsoft is warning users of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 that a security hole in certain parts of Internet Explorer allows hackers to remotely install malicious viruses on unsuspecting users. The company is currently working to fix the breach.

The hole, apparently caused by the interaction of IE and ActiveX, has been used for about a week to install viruses on users who click certain links in spam emails. Microsoft's stopgap solution, available here, is to disable that video software, and the company is hard at work to fix the problem. Doesn't bode well for Microsoft's push into antivirus software, does it? [via AP]




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Google G0 Android Smartphone Concept: If Only the G1 Was So Slick [Concepts]

Google G0 Android Smartphone Concept: If Only the G1 Was So Slick [Concepts]

Tryi Yeh's Android smartphone concept, cheekily dubbed the G0, is a touchscreen slider, but the slide-out section isn't a hardware keyboard. Instead, it's got a camera and four customizable smartkeys. Still, we like the design, and it looks fairly realistic.

The G0 concept comes with a few equally-conceptual accessories, including what seems to be an inductive charger a la the Pre's Touchstone, as well as some kind of media hookup that uses a very Windows Media Center-like interface. We can't exactly tell what's going on with the slider: It might actually be detachable, though we can't be sure. Make it a hardware QWERTY and we're sold. [Tryi Yeh via DVICE]




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