October 11, 2005, 5:49 PM PDT
Samsung's new SCH-A950
Posted by: Kent German

Samsung today formally announced its new SCH-A950 for Verizon Wireless. Billed as "the perfect music phone for turning customers into mobile DJs," the A950 is clearly an answer to handsets such as Cingular's Motorola Rokr E1 and the Sony Ericsson W800i. I like the style, particularly the red and silver color scheme and the smooth rounded edges, but it's the multimedia features that sound promising. You get a speakerphone, a 1.3-megapixel camera with video, support for Verizon's 3G V Cast service, and stereo speakers. The MP3 player will hold as many songs as it can fit on the TransFlash memory card (can be purchased separately), which at 512MB should store about 110 tracks in all. There's also Bluetooth, but since this is a Verizon phone, you won't be able to use it to transfer files wirelessly. The A950 is available for $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year customer agreement.

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October 11, 2005, 5:07 PM PDT
Thank goodness, more iPods
Posted by: Molly Wood

Apple's executive vice president says the iPod Nano is not the last iPod of the year. But he wouldn't specify whether today's mysterious announcement of the month will indeed be a new iPod. But golly, let's hope so, because there are hardly any to choose from.

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October 11, 2005, 4:15 PM PDT
Linksys untethers Skype
Posted by: Felisa Yang

Skype, provider of free Internet telephony services, and Linksys, provider of networking and Wi-Fi gear, announced today a partnership to help Skype users walk away from their computers and wander pretty much anywhere in the house. Unlike the Actiontec Phone Wizard, the CIT200 Internet Telephony Kit includes not just an adapter, but a handset, as well.

The CIT200 kit comprises a USB base station that plugs into your PC's USB port, a charger, and a cordless handset that supports many features available on regular cordless phones, such as call waiting, multiple ring tones, speakerphone, and an LCD panel.

On the downside, unlike the Actiontec adapter, the CIT200 doesn't support regular landline calls. But the prospect of making Skype feel more like using a regular phone? Probably worth the estimated $129.99 street price. Units will be available starting on October 17, and we're eager to get our little hands on it.

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October 11, 2005, 1:12 PM PDT
Microsoft posts nine security updates
Posted by: Robert Vamosi

Today Microsoft published its October list of security bulletins. There are nine, three of which are ranked Critical by Microsoft, four are Important, and two rank as Moderate threats. The list includes an update of the vulnerability found in August 2005 within Windows Plug-and-Play, MS05-039. The most critical flaws announced today, MS05-050, MS05-051, and MS05-052, affect Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft DirectX 8.1, the latter two apps can be found on most Windows machines, versions Windows 98 through XP inclusive. Patches are available via Microsoft Update .

MS05-044: Moderate

Entitled "Vulnerability in the Windows FTP client could allow file transfer location tampering," this bulletin affects Windows XP SP1, and Windows Server 2003. It can lead to file tampering on unprotected machines.

MS05-045: Moderate

Entitled "Vulnerability in network connection manager could allow denial of service," this bulletin affects Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, and Windows Server 2003. It can lead to a denial-of-service attack on unprotected machines.

MS05-046: Important

Entitled "Vulnerability in the client service for NetWare could allow remote code execution," this bulletin affects Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, and Windows Server 2003. It can lead to remote code execution on unprotected machines.

MS05-047: Important

Entitled "Vulnerability in Plug-and-Play could allow remote code execution and local elevation of privilege," this bulletin affects Windows 2000 and Windows XP users. It replaces MS05-039 and allows for remote code execution and local elevation of privilege on unprotected machines.

MS05-048: Important

Entitled "Vulnerability in the Microsoft collaboration data objects could allow remote code execution," this bulletin affects Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, Windows XP Professional x64, and Windows Server 2003. It could lead to remote code execution on unprotected machines.

MS05-049: Important

Entitled "Vulnerabilities in Windows shell could allow remote code execution," this bulletin affects Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, Windows XP Professional x64, and Windows Server 2003. It could lead to remote code execution on unprotected machines.

MS05-050: Critical

Entitled "Vulnerability in DirectShow could allow remote code execution," this bulletin affects Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003. It could lead to remote code execution on unprotected machines.

MS05-051: Critical

Entitled "Vulnerabilities in MSDTC and COM+ could allow remote code execution," this bulletin affects Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003. It could lead to remote code execution on unprotected machines.

MS05-052: Critical

Entitled "Cumulative security update for Internet Explorer," this bulletin affects Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP1 and SP2, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003. It could lead to remote code execution on unprotected machines.

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October 11, 2005, 12:08 PM PDT
PDF document creation for less
Posted by: Dorian Benkoil

I'll believe you're truly a small business if you tell me you're looking to save even a few hundred bucks on software.

One of the most important formats for business documents can be PDFs. They make your docs look great, and you know that when you send one, the receiver will see it as you created it--not messed up because of browser or incompatible word processor issues or color settings and whatnot.

But you also may balk at buying a full PDF creation package, which can run into the hundreds of dollars for the latest versions. New York-based tech guru Sree Sreenivasan here points out some ways to create PDFs for free, and the comments from his readers tell more ways to make PDFs cheaply or for free.

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October 11, 2005, 9:52 AM PDT
Skype goes for small business
Posted by: Dorian Benkoil

We told you you that small businesses are using Skype. Now, according to this report, the Internet telephony company is making it official by trying to go after small businesses. The VoIP service, recently acquired by eBay, lets users talk via computers as if they were using phones for little or no cost, compared to other VoIP services that charge higher fees.

Today's story, if we understand it correctly, is that Skype is going to let users not only talk to each other from their computers, but also let them use the service to access their corporate networks seamlessly.

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October 11, 2005, 9:32 AM PDT
Sony VAIO FJ series: not for licking
Posted by: Michelle Thatcher

Who could be blamed for wanting just a little taste of these colorful laptops? With three cotton-candy shades (and, for the more conservative, black and white), Sony's new 14.1-inch wide-screen VAIO laptops are enough to spark a Pavlovian craving for sugar.

Beneath the sweet exterior lies a bit of spice: 1.73GHz and 1.8GHz Pentium M processors, 512MB of RAM, 100GB hard drives, and double-layer, multiformat DVD burners. Like the new BX series, the FJ-series lids have a built-in microphone and camera for video chats. Pricing for these candies starts at $1,499.

You'll have to curb your sweet tooth for just a little while, though: only the "onyx black" version will be available this month, with the other colors to follow in November. We've got our sticky mitts on the VAIO VGN-FJ170, so expect a full review soon.

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October 11, 2005, 9:18 AM PDT
HDTV is not kind
Posted by: Molly Wood

It's mean, but it's so true. TVPredictions.com has its second annual Best and Worst HDTV list out, and we're not talking careful reviews of TV models. Nope, it's the celebs who will benefit the most and suffer the most from appearing on HDTV. No. 1 under "horrible"? Teri Hatcher. Harsh!

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October 11, 2005, 7:55 AM PDT
ATI limps, Nvidia tattles
Posted by: Rich Brown

If case you haven't been following the release of ATI's CrossFire and Radeon X1000-series 3D cards, the latest is that despite alleged for-sale dates on October 5 for both new products, there's only been a slow trickle of availability. There also seems to be a disparity in pricing. This is all interesting, of course, but it's also been amusing how much Nvidia has been helping us stay on top on the info as it's developed.

Although ATI said its CrossFire cards would appear for sale on October 5 for $349, they didn't appear on shop.ati.com or NewEgg.com until October 7. As of today, the CrossFire X850 goes for $399 on ATI's site and on Newegg.com. Worse, no X1000-series Radeon cards show up on ATI's site, and Newegg has only the Radeon X1800 XL for $439, (incidentally, $10 below the MSRP). We were supposed to have almost all of the Radeon X1300 series available by now as well, but we haven't seen them anywhere.

This isn't the first time that ATI has flubbed or mislead on a release date, and the disparity hurts ATI's credibility moving forward. It also makes Nvidia look even better as GeForce 7800 GTX and 7800 GT cards were available in quantity on their own days of launch and at their suggested prices. ATI has said that the rest of the X1000-series cards will make it to market before the end of the year. We hope that's the case.

For Nvidia's part in all of this, we would like to thank its PR staff for all the e-mails regarding this information. We actually had been keeping up all by ourselves, but the help is always appreciated, especially when it's given with such enthusiasm and apparent glee.

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