beyond

News Corp.--the newspaper, TV, and film company built by media mogul Rupert Murdoch--sees something in digital music it likes.

News Corp. has acquired a small stake in music start-up Beyond Oblivion, which plans to enable consumer electronics makers to preload music on handhelds, computers, and other gadgets, according to multiple music sources.

Beyond Oblivion did not respond to interview requests. Allen & Co., the well-known boutique investment bank, was also part of the $10 million series B funding round.

With MySpace Music, News Corp., already has acquired a significant position in digital music. That site is run in partnership … Read more

Two constants endure despite the unceasing change in the computing industry: our need for backing up data and our persistent failure to actually do it.

One company hoping to profit from the situation is Data Robotics, which on Tuesday launched the new Drobo FS model of its multi-drive storage system family. It's geared specifically for backing up multiple computers over a local network and for sharing files among those computers.

The eight-pound, five-drive device is the latest generation from a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company whose claim to fame is a novel method of storing data on multiple hard … Read more

Ninety percent of critical Microsoft Windows 7 vulnerabilities can be mitigated by configuring the operating system for standard user rather than administrator, according to a new report released on Monday.

Removing administrator rights would also protect against exploitation of all of the Office holes reported last year, 94 percent of Internet Explorer flaws and 100 percent of IE 8 flaws reported last year, and 64 percent of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in that time period, according to BeyondTrust's 2009 Microsoft Vulnerability Analysis (PDF).

There are trade-offs to removing administrator rights. For instance, standard users typically can't install software … Read more

Back when we first saw the Duet D8 on the Beyond E-Tech Web site, we pegged it as an iPhone clone. After all, it looked a lot like Apple's device so we were intrigued by what it might offer. But after some study, we realized someone had photoshopped the iPhone's menus into the D8's frame and our interest began to wane. And now after putting the D8 through its paces, we can report that it's not worth much of a look at all.

Like the Duet D888, the D8 offers the welcome ability to make calls … Read more

We promised it to you last month, and here is CNET's first review of a dual SIM card cell phone. We know the Duet D888 from Beyond E-Tech is not the first dual SIM phone ever, but it is the first one we've reviewed. Even better, it is the first dual SIM card phone widely available in the United States. You can get it for $199 from National Geographic and Cellular Abroad.

With the D888, you can make calls and send texts from two numbers on the same handset. Outside of a few usability quirks, the arrangement works … Read more

iPhone clones (or iClones) are a dime a dozen, but this model caught my eye. Sold by Houston-based Beyond E-Tech, which also produces the Duet D888, the D-8 only would confuse someone who's been living in a bunker for the last three years.

It's about the same size as the iPhone, but the display is much smaller (2.8 inches) to make room for a calling controls, a dedicated music player button, and what look like soft keys. And to be honest, while the D-8 apparently has an accelerometer, I'm not even sure the 65,000-color display … Read more

Beyond Compare provides users with extensive side-by-side file comparison and management. Novice users might find its interface a little overwhelming, but a visit to the Help menu provides all the necessary details for getting started.

The program consists of two interfaces. The first provides a list of sessions that you can employ, from folder comparisons to text and data comparisons. It also provides summaries of any saved sessions. Clicking a session button introduces the second interface. At first glance, the second interface was a little overwhelming, especially when the files were added. But after spending a little time with the … Read more

Though dual SIM card cell phones have been around for a while, I've only seen them while traveling abroad and at trade show booths. The premise is simple and very attractive: with slots for two SIM cards, a single phone can have two phone numbers. You can receive and make calls on both lines and the SIM cards can even be from separate carriers.

It's a great option for anyone who wants to combine their work and personal phone and it's perfect for frequent international travelers who want a local number while retaining their U.S. number.

With such advantages, it's no surprise that a lot of CNET readers have asked how they can get such a phone. But outside of a handful of unlocked models, and a few crude adapters for regular handsets, dual SIM card phones remain relatively scarce in the United States. No U.S. carrier sells them and you can bet that no carrier would give up that kind of control.

But leave it to National Geographic to come up with another option. The organization has partnered with Cellular Abroad to offer the Duet D888. Made by Beyond E-Tech, the unlocked Duet accommodates two SIM cards: one for the Cellular Abroad intentional SIM card and one for another card of your choice. You could use your own SIM card for a GSM carrier like AT&T or T-Mobile or you could buy a prepaid card during your travels. … Read more

I reviewed the Drobo awhile ago and was very impressed with Data Robotics' proprietary BeyondRAID technology used in the device.

Basically, it lets you mix hard drives of any capacity together into a volume that's well-balanced between the largest possible amount of storage and maximum data redundancy. While the Drobo's performance didn't meet our expectations, its technology offers a lot of potential.

Data Robotics on Tuesday expanded that potential into an all new product for the business environment, the DroboPro.

This is the company's first foray into the business sector, and it calls the DroboPro the "business class storage array that manages itself."

Much like the Drobo, the DroboPro also allows for mixing hard drives of different capacities, and you can hot-swap any of them without having to restart or interrupt the data access. This translates into no-downtime expansion of the storage volume. Moreover, unlike the Drobo, the DroboPro now includes protection against multiple concurrent drive failures.

While the Drobo is a pure external direct attach storage (DAS) device with USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 connections, the DroboPro also includes the iSCSI interface (via a Gigabit Ethernet connection). This makes the DroboPro one of a few hybrid devices that support both network attached storage and DAS. As you need to buy the DroboShare to make the Drobo work with a network, personally, I think the addition of the network port is the most welcome feature of the DroboPro.… Read more