essentials

Garmin Nuvi Essentials series: Simple, yet effective

Sometimes, you don't want a ton of bells and whistles on your GPS device. Sometimes, you just want to reliably and cheaply get from point Alpha to Bravo.

Enter Garmin's Essentials series of Nuvi GPS navigators. Specifically, we're taking a look at the largest model in the entry-level Essentials series: the 5-inch Garmin Nuvi 50.

There aren't many surprises here where design is concerned. If you've handled a Garmin Nuvi in the last half decade, you'll know exactly what to expect from the 50. The icons are all where you'd expect them to … Read more

Microsoft recruiting users to beta test new Security Essentials

Microsoft is unveiling a beta of the next version of its Security Essentials anti-malware program and is hunting for people who can give it a test drive.

Users interested in trying out the beta can officially register at the sign-up page. A Microsoft Live account is required, and the company promises to send out e-mails when the beta is available to download.

The number of initial beta testers required will be limited, according to a recent Microsoft blog. But the company expects to release the beta to the general public by year's end.

Microsoft is touting several new features … Read more

Fondue and fry too

Some appliances provide a means to prepare a wide variety of foods. Consider the myriad possibilities for meals from the oven, stovetop, or even the microwave and it becomes apparent that their use in daily life is rich and varied. The flip side to that coin is that there are plenty of appliances that are capable of only doing one thing, such as deep-fry foods or keep a pot of fondue happily bubbling away. But when two features are combined, then the resultant fusion can lead to something more than the sum of its parts.

Providing a means to deep-fry … Read more

The 404 909: Where we get evicted out of Starbucks (podcast)

Walk into any Starbucks and you'll see the usual Internet leeches sipping on $5 cups of coffee, but not all of them are shopping for designer handbags on eBay or checking the scores from last night's game--sometimes you'll see a student working on homework because his or her family can't afford broadband Internet access at home.

For these individuals, Comcast is offering discounted monthly Internet plans for $9.95 a month with its new Internet Essentials Program. Participating families of three must quality for the national free lunch program and make less than $24,000 a year, which also allows access to discounted computers from Microsoft, Dell, and Acer for just $159.

On today's episode of The 404 Podcast, we'll also tell you about a first-person shooter game coming out of Australia that does away with firearms and instead puts you in the eyes of a photojournalist embedded in a war zone.

The game is called Warco, which stands for "war correspondent," and the object of the game is to film conflicts and create a story from start to finish alongside other journalists covering the same story.

It's up to you to choose which side should be framed as evil and good since there's no obvious protagonist, but we're doubtful that mainstream gamers are willing to forego a gun for a camera, especially since part of the game involves editing the footage you shot earlier.

Next, we'll chat about a gang that used 3D printers to produce their own ATM skimmers. For those unaware, skimmers consist of a plastic card acceptance slot that fits over the ATM machine and can read the data stored on any card's magnetic stripe, while a pinhole camera next to the ATM key pad records the associating code.

Making clever use of a 3D printer in action, a group of four men from South Texas are currently serving time in Houston for stealing over $400,000 between August 2009 and June of this year. It's unclear whether the men built their own 3D printer or bought one online, but KrebsonSecurity.com speculates that a high end device costing anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 would do the job. Don't get any ideas.

We've got a handful of voice mails to play after the break, and Mickey Mouse pays us another visit, so if you want to be heard on the show, phone us up at 1-866-404-CNET and tell us what's up!

The 404 Digest for Episode 909

Warco: an FPS where you hold a camera instead of a gun. Comcast offers cheap broadband to poor families. Facebook employee leaks music service details on Twitter. Gang used 3D printers for ATM skimmers.

Episode 909 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Comcast offers cheap broadband to poor families

Cable giant Comcast is making good on its promise to help the U.S. boost broadband adoption rates and eliminate the so-called digital divide by offering poor families more affordable broadband.

The company announced today its Internet Essentials program that will target low-income families with school-age children and help them get connected to the Internet by offering a combination of discounted broadband service, low-cost computers, and free training programs to teach people how to use the technology.

The company kicked off the program at Ballou High School in the District of Columbia. David Cohen, an executive vice president at Comcast, … Read more

Windows 8 to offer built-in malware protection

Microsoft is including a beefier version of its malware protection in Windows 8.

The company is tweaking its Windows Defender tool, which has been part of the last few versions of Windows, by essentially adding some of the more robust features from its free Security Essentials product. Launched in 2009, Security Essentials has garnered generally positive reviews but requires a separate download, while the built-in Windows Defender has lacked certain key elements as a defense against malware.

At a demo of Windows 8's security at Microsoft's Build conference on Tuesday posted by The Register, Steven Sinofsky, president of … Read more

Verizon workers go on strike

Comcast offers a $9.95 Internet Essentials service to low-income families, the FBI releases an iPhone app that helps parents with a missing child, and Verizon workers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic go on strike after negotiations fail to produce a contract.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Verizon workers go on strike HP TouchPad 4G and $50 in the App Catalog Education iMac? AntiSec hackers post police data Comcast $10 Internet Essentials plan FBI Child IDapp in App Store Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS HD

Look forward to ice cream twice as much

Some things are fun to look forward to. The promise of ice cream is certainly one of them. The mere mention of a trip to the ice cream store gives everyone within hearing distance a delicious idea to focus on no matter what they may have been doing before. Suddenly thoughts drift to favorite flavors...and indecision: one scoop or two?

The answer, of course, is two. The Cook's Essentials Double Ice Cream Maker gives those making homemade ice cream two delicious options. The double-barreled kitchen gadget makes two separate batches of ice cream with each container holding .75 … Read more

The 404 750: Where it's the Battle Hymn of the Rabbit Mother (podcast)

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year! According to the lunisolar calendar, this year's animal zodiac celebrates the rabbit, the fourth animal in the 12-year cycle. Jeff can't get enough talk about Chinese cultural traditions, although this day of celebration is a little bittersweet for me thanks to a present I received today from Amazon.com.

Rabbit Mothers aside, Verizon subscribers and AT&T haters are celebrating today for the release of the Verizon iPhone. Early reviews are already in, and it turns out the Verizon iPhone is indeed...a phone; which is more than we can say for the AT&T version.

CNET's cell phone expert Kent German already ran anecdotal testing to compare the data and call quality of the Verizon handset, and Big Red's version definitely has the advantage in almost all of the trouble-prone test sites in San Francisco. Keep in mind that this may change depending on your location, but if you were waiting to see if Verizon would deliver on its promise for better service, it did.

Like a good Apple fanboy, Wilson already has a digital copy of News Corp.'s experiment iPad-only newspaper, The Daily. He played around with it for a little while before the show, and even though he refuses to say anything bad about it on the recorded segment, I'll throw him under the bus to tell you that he wasn't entirely happy about the loading speed of the category carousel on the front page. We're also wary of a daily newspaper that updates itself at noon every day...is this today's news tomorrow?

We can't say anything too incendiary about The Daily since we live in fear of Peter Ha, a friend of the show who's also the tech editor for the good afternoon paper. He's booked to guest host tomorrow's episode of The 404, so we'll wait to grill him on it then.

Google also gave its Android Marketplace a makeover yesterday, and although it's been criticized in the past for being too difficult to install and pay for apps, the company hopes to change that with a new interface that allows users to access the store with their Google IDs. You can search for apps on desktops or laptop computers, and the apps will automatically download and install on your Android phone.

The new Android Market will also allow in-app purchasing, so you can add levels to games and other enhancements to existing apps over Twitter to all your friends. Check it out at http://market.android.com.

Mubakalar finally approves of a few voice mails that we listen to after the break, so keep them coming! The phone number to call is 1-866-404-CNET.

Finally, if you're looking to back up your data so this doesn't happen to you, consider today's Deal of the Day, brought to you by Kodak.

It's the Western Digital 1TB Portable USB Hard Drive for $99.95 from B&H Photo and Video. The drive is portable, easy to use with any USB 2.0 port, and is made from recycled materials to decrease your digital footprint on the environment. Enjoy!

Episode 750 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more