Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Charlie Miller finds MacBook battery security hole, plans to fill with Caulkgun

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/charlie-miller-finds-macbook-battery-security-hole-plans-to-fil/

Those batteries have probably met a worse fate than the white MacBook line they came from. According to Forbes, Charlie Miller's managed to render seven of them useless after gaining total access to their micro-controllers' firmware via a security hole. Evidently, the Li-on packs for the line of lappies -- including Airs and Pros -- are accessible with two passwords he dug up from an '09 software update. Chuck mentions that someone could "use them to do something really bad," including faulting charge-levels and thermal read-outs to possibly even making them explode. He also thinks hard-to-spot malware could be installed directly within the battery, repeatedly infecting a computer unless removed. Come August, he'll reportedly be detailing the vulnerability at the Black Hat security conference along with a fix he's dubbed Caulkgun, which only has the mild side-effect of locking-out updates by Apple. Worth being safe these days, though. Right? Full story in the links below.

Charlie Miller finds MacBook battery security hole, plans to fill with Caulkgun originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Electronista | source

Forbes | Email this | Comments

LG promises 55-inch OLED TV in 2012, just in time for the next b'ak'tun

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/23/lg-promises-55-inch-oled-tv-in-2012-just-in-time-the-next-bak/

LG is apparently tired of this tiny OLED stuff. 15-inch TVs and 4-inch cellphones? What is this, 2009? The company has decided it's time to super-size the organically-powered panels and plans to introduce a 55-inch HDTV in mid 2012. We've got faith it can deliver too -- last summer the Korean manufacturer was showing off a 31-inch model (above) and it sounds like it's shifting focus completely towards larger sizes. CEO Kwon Young-soo has said that IPS technology is much better suited for the mobile space. Of course, LG has promised impressively-sized panels before and, even if such a set does make it to market, chances are you'll have to take out a second mortgage to afford one.

LG promises 55-inch OLED TV in 2012, just in time for the next b'ak'tun originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jul 2011 05:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Slash Gear | source

What Hi-Fi | Email this | Comments

Friday, July 22, 2011

Droid Bionic's secrecy betrayed on Amazon, by simple dock listings

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/droid-bionics-secrecy-betrayed-on-amazon-by-simple-dock-listin/

We had our hands on a raw version of the Droid Bionic way back at CES, but two listings on Amazon for desktop and car docking stations, uncovered by Android Central forum posters, may give the clearest look at the phone so far. As you can see in the shot above of the desktop dock Motorola's slab appears to have a chrome ring running around the outside, while the dock itself has a 3.5mm audio out, HDMI output and USB ports. There's no price or release date listed for either accessory but if you've been lusting over the beast and its rumored specs we're figuring some quiet time with these shots is just what the doctor ordered -- check after the break for a shot of the car dock and the back of the desktop docking station.

Continue reading Droid Bionic's secrecy betrayed on Amazon, by simple dock listings

Droid Bionic's secrecy betrayed on Amazon, by simple dock listings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

Android Central ! ;| source

Android Central forums, Amazon - Car Dock, Amazon - desktop | Email this | Comments

Wolfram launches open CDF format, adds visual pizzazz to charts and graphs

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/wolfram-launches-open-cdf-format-adds-visual-pizzazz-to-charts/

Amazon's Kindle DX and RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook were supposed to be the business world's answer to an on-the-go office. Turns out, PDFs viewed in e-ink or on a tethered slate don't offer much in the way of interactive app experiences -- they're still just documents, no matter the tablet they're wearing. Well, Wolfram Group's got an open format contender to Adobe's throne and it's hoping you'll adopt it. Introduced today, the Computable Document Format "puts easy-to-author interactivity at its core," breathing animated life into otherwise static infographics. Not a programmer? No need to worry, the company promises the two-way diagrams are "easy enough for teachers, journalists, managers, [and] researchers to... create." We've seen Microsoft's XPS take a similar crack at dethroning the reigning format king, only to find itself in portable document oblivion. We'll just have to wait and see if CDF's a more noble contender. In the meantime, head on over to the source to download the free player and see for yourself the possible future of live textbooks, tables and charts.

Continue reading Wolfram launches open CDF format, adds visual pizzazz to charts and graphs

Wolfram launches open CDF format, adds visual pizzazz to charts and graphs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 02:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink

ZDNet |

Wolfram | Email this | Comments

IBM rig doesn't look like much, scans 10 billion files in 43 minutes

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/ibm-rig-doesnt-look-like-much-scans-10-billion-files-in-43-min/

Someone ought to gift these IBM researchers a better camera, because their latest General Parallel File System is a back-slapping 37 times faster than their last effort back in 2007. The rig combines ten IBM System xSeries servers with Violin Memory SSDs that hold 6.5 terabytes of metadata relating to 10 billion separate files. Every single one of those files can be analyzed and managed using policy-guided rules in under three quarters of an hour. That kind of performance might seem like overkill, but it's only just barely in step with what IBM's Doug Balog describes as a "rapidly growing, multi-zettabyte world." No prizes for guessing who their top customer is likely to be. Full details in the PR after the break.

Continue reading IBM rig doesn't look like much, scans 10 billion files in 43 minutes

IBM rig doesn't look like much, scans 10 billion files in 43 minutes originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments