February 02, 2006, 7:01 PM PST
Cingular gets LG F9200
Posted by: Kent German

Cingular is now offering the LG F9200. Modeled on the earlier LG F9100 instant-messaging phone, it hides a full QWERTY keyboard, but it improves upon its predecessor in a number of ways. Most significantly, it supports access to AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail e-mail accounts, a feature that was sorely missing from the F9100. Besides e-mail, you get text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging, a speakerphone, voice dialing, and a refined numeric-keypad design. Bluetooth is sadly missing, but text-messaging addicts may not miss it anyway. I'm not thrilled, however, with the addition of the VGA camera. For one thing, as megapixel camera phones continue to explode in numbers, I'm a bit skeptical when a manufacturer includes a simple VGA model instead. Also, one of the great things about the F9100 was that it was one of the few cell phones with a keyboard but not a camera. As more businesses restrict camera phones on their premises, we need more feature-rich mobiles that ditch the camera altogether but not the keyboard.

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February 02, 2006, 12:57 PM PST
Move over, Front Row
Posted by: Dan Ackerman

Thanks to the nature of the Web, several DVR blogs today had almost simultaneous mentions of a new media management app for Macs. It's called MediaCentral (not to be confused with Microsoft's Media Center), and it's from a company called Equinux.

This app performs most of the same media organizing and playback functions as Apple's Front Row but adds support for popular video formats such as XVID, DIVX, and even DVDs. It's also compatible with Elegato's EyeTV external TV tuner devices, so there's no reason for Mac users to feel left out of the DVR revolution. Heck, you can even control it with an ATI Remote Wonder.

Best part? It's freeware and available for download on the Equinux site.

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February 02, 2006, 11:49 AM PST
Pentax *ist DL price drop
Posted by: Will Greenwald

Pentax has dropped the list price for its *ist DL digital SLR camera kit from $800 to $600. The kit, which includes the 6-megapixel *ist DL camera and an 18mm-to-55mm zoom lens, is now one of the cheapest digital SLR packages available. It's even less expensive than the budget-priced Olympus Evolt E-300. This price drop gives amateur photographers a great chance to work with an SLR camera without spending an obscene amount of money.

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February 02, 2006, 10:18 AM PST
A CNET FAQ on the Kama Sutra worm
Posted by: Robert Vamosi

There's a computer worm set to damage computer system starting midnight local time on February 3, 2006. There has been a lot of confusion surrounding this worm, especially because media organizations and antivirus vendors haven't determined a common name. CNET has settled upon Kama Sutra; however, aliases include CME-24 (US-CERT), MyWife (McAfee), Tearec (Panda), Nyxem (Sophos), Blackmal (Symantec, Computer Associates, Vet), and GREW (Trend).

Infections: Security vendor LURHQ has metrics on the spread of Kama Sutra in specific countries through January 26, 2006. The data suggests that India, Peru, Italy, and Turkey are the most vulnerable to Kama Sutra; today, however, antivirus vendor F-Secure posted data suggesting that the United States and Europe may be equally vulnerable.

Who's at risk?: Kama Sutra affects all versions of Windows; it does not affect users of Mac OS, Linux, or Unix.

How does it infect?: Windows users who receive sexually suggestive e-mail and proceed to open the attached file may find themselves infected with Kama Sutra. Unlike some e-mail worms, Kama Sutra will not automatically spawn; you must open the file yourself.

Expected damage: Kama Sutra contains a dangerous payload. On the third day of the month all files with the extensions DOC, XLS, MDE, MDB, PPT, PPS, RAR, PDF, PSD, DMP, and ZIP will be overwritten with an error message "DATA Error [47 0F 94 93 F4 K5]." These files--which include the default file formats for Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat applications--cannot be restored once they are damaged.

CNET Virus Threat Meter: Despite the danger presented by Kama Sutra, infection rates remain relatively low worldwide. Therefore we are keeping the Threat Meter on Low for the time being.

Prevention and cure: Read our prevention and cure alert for links to specific antivirus vendors. For a more comprehensive analysis, see the page posted at Sans.org.

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