active

Buzz Out Loud 852: Tempest in a Twitter teapot

Turns out a lot of people are all too happy to hand over their password to some unknown Web site just to find out if they're popular. Oh, people. When will you learn? Also, Microsoft Live gets a purpose, Valleywag loses its teeth, the BlackBerry Storm gets a release date, and we're all going to become (a) elves in the Wrath of the Lich King or (b) total buffsters on the new EA Sports Active Wii game. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 852

BlackBerry Storm gets release date http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/11/13/verizon-announces-blackberry-storm-release-date-november-21st-199/… Read more

Move over pinochle, Web surfing stimulates aging brains

The University of California at Los Angeles this week gave us the perfect antidote to Nick Carr's musings in The Atlantic about how the Internet is turning us into multitasking scatterbrains with diminishing attention spans.

A group of scientists found that searching the Internet doesn't make computer-savvy, middle-aged and older adults stupid. It actually triggers key centers in the brain that control decision making and complex reasoning. In other words, we might not have to resort to word puzzles and pinochle to fend off senility.

The study, reportedly the first of its kind to assess the impact of … Read more

T-Mobile's Motorola Active

Motorola took the wraps off its new Active W450 handset for T-Mobile on Wednesday. The flip phone features a durable design, with rubber sidings for those with (dare we say) active lifestyles. On the outside, you'll find a standard white-and-black color scheme, but on the inside, the phone features a rubberized keypad in either yellow or orange.

Features include a 1.3-megapixel camera with an 8x zoom and video capture, a digital music player, a wireless Web browser, a microSD-card slot, USB mass storage, PC syncing, Bluetooth (no stereo profile), personal-organizer applications, and a speakerphone. Also, the W490 is … Read more

Quest Software aquires NetPro

Quest Software announced Friday it acquired NetPro Computing in a $78.7 million cash transaction.

With the acquisition, Quest Software aims to enlarge its offerings in such products designed to integrate and manage Microsoft Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server.

Quest will continue to develop, market, and support NetPro products while it develops an integration plan and road map. The combined company expects to unveil a new technology roadmap around October 15.

Back in 1998, NetPro attracted the attention of Novell, which invested $1 million in the company.

Apple stomps bugs with iPhone 2.1 software release

Apple has released version 2.1 of its iPhone software, promising a wealth of bug fixes for a pioneering device that suffered a number of problems.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs had promised the iPhone update in a speech Tuesday during a launch event for next-generation iPod music players, saying, "This is a big update, and it fixes lots of bugs."

The company's software update page shows just how big:

Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls Significantly better battery life for most users Dramatically reduced time to back up to iTunes Improved e-mail reliability, notably fetching … Read more

Nokia offers Microsoft e-mail on smartphones

SAN FRANCISCO--Nokia took aim at smartphone rival Research in Motion Tuesday with plans to expand the number of devices that will automatically be capable of accessing Microsoft corporate e-mail.

On the eve of the CTIA I.T. & Entertainment tradeshow here, Nokia announced it will embed Microsoft Exchange Activesync on all Nokia phones that use the S60 Symbian operating system. As a result, 43 different models of Nokia phones will have easy access to Microsoft corporate email. Nokia will also add the Microsoft Exchange support to all new N-Series and E-Series phones that hit the market in the future.

Until … Read more

McAfee brings nearly instant malware updates

What if your desktop security application could detect and remove a new threat that was only minutes old? That's the impetus behind McAfee Artemis Technology, announced on Monday.

Artemis, which McAfee plans to market within its 2009 consumer products as "Active Protection," is not focused on hourly updates, or even 15-minute updates, as rival Symantec has. It means instant detection, said Dave Marcus, director of security research and communications for McAfee Avert Labs.

McAfee's use of Artemis is similar to Trend Micro's use of cloud-based computing to analyze and produce new signature files within 15 … Read more

IE 8 beta gives other browsers a run for their money

Don't count Internet Explorer out just yet.

On Wednesday, Microsoft released the second public beta for Internet Explorer 8. If anything, this release brings IE up to par with alternative browsers such as Opera, Apple's Safari, and Mozilla's Firefox in terms of security and features. It also pushes Microsoft a little ahead of the competition.

The user interface hasn't changed much since Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1, except to add a Security pull-down menu between Page and Tools on the main toolbar. In addition to blocking phishing sites, IE 8 now highlights the main domain of … Read more

Xbox and Rock the Vote partner to get gamers to the polls

Microsoft wants Xbox 360 owners to get up off their couches, put down the controllers, shut off Halo 3, and vote in this November's election.

Redmond's video game console division has partnered with activist organization Rock the Vote as a way to get more young people to register to vote. Promotions will start hitting its Xbox Live online service starting on August 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention. Xbox Live owners will be able to register to vote as well as participate in presidential polls and opinion surveys.

Microsoft will be promoting the Rock the … Read more