leak

Can peer-to-peer coexist with network security?

Security experts have long cautioned about the risk posed by the use of peer-to-peer file sharing by individuals working in corporations, warning that the practice creates holes that let malware in and sensitive data out.

Their message may be having an impact in the P2P development community.

A trade group representing peer-to-peer file sharing providers next week will publish a report that finds P2P software companies are modifying their programs in an effort to make it harder for users to inadvertently share sensitive information.

For corporate IT administrators, that shift can't come soon enough. The problem was highlighted by … Read more

Windows 7 beta 1 makes early debut

The first beta of Microsoft's next operating system has apparently been spotted in the wild.

Windows 7, which is expected to hit retailer shelves in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season, has reportedly popped up on torrent trackers as an ISO file. ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes also reports having a copy and has posted his first impressions of the beta.

Overall, Kingsley-Hughes wrote that he likes Windows 7, calling it "solid and fast." But he does take issue with a few new features:

The new revamped taskbar is visually very interesting (and certainly a lot easier … Read more

Photos: The damage that halted the LHC

On Friday, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) released photos of damage to the Large Hadron Collider, CERN's flagship particle accelerator. The particle accelerator was damaged by a liquid helium leak in September, nine days into an experiment to test fundamental theories of physics by colliding beams of protons inside a 17-mile ring.

Picture 1, above, shows two of the most severely broken interconnects, which are between the magnets in LHC sectors three and four. The superconducting magnets, used to direct and focus the proton beams in the experiment, are cooled by liquid helium. An electrical fault caused … Read more

New MacBook chassis pics--the real deal?

We all know that Apple is gathering the chattering classes together Tuesday in Cupertino, Calif., to unveil the latest MacBooks. But unlike many previous Apple product debuts, the Interwebs have been awash recently with reasonably believable-looking leaked spy shots of the laptops, or their component parts.

The latest comes from Chinese site MacX.cn, which purports to show the new aluminum chassis of the 13-inch MacBook. Interesting to note that the side view (pics are after the break) seems to omit the FireWire port currently found on the standard MacBook. … Read more

Another day, another purportedly leaked MacBook Pro shot

This time via a Chinese Web site (which is now timing out, perhaps due to heavy traffic), and reposted on MacRumors.com, Engadget, and others. Just what this photo purports to show seems a little unclear to us, but it may very well be the left side and keyboard tray (minus the actual keys) of a new MacBook Pro.

This does seem to fit in with recent rumors that the new MacBooks will be made from, if not one, then a very small number of aluminum sheets, bent into shape using a process referred to as the "brick." (… Read more

Is this the new MacBook Pro?

The Interwebs are atwitter with a single blurry cell phone shot of what may or may not be one of the newly redesigned MacBook laptops we've been reading about.

The pic briefly showed up on a French Web site, and just as quickly vanished, but not before several sites (from Valleywag to Wired) were able to grab copies of the photo. (The original post is now up again.)

Some Apple faithfuls are crying "fake!" while others think it's the real deal--we should all know for sure at Apple's next big press event in mid-October.

We … Read more

Sony's turn to leak a laptop--the Vaio TT

We've seen a bunch of new laptop models from Sony in the past couple of weeks, including the 15-inch Vaio NS, the 14-inch Vaio CS, and the whopping 18-inch Vaio AW.

Sony's apparently has one more new laptop model in the offing (that we know of), and this one is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the 18-inch Vaio AW. It's the ultraportable 11-inch Vaio TT, and according to the online rumor mill, Sony is going to officially announce it sometime Monday. … Read more

Blackberry Storm touchscreen video leaked

The Crave blog discussed the upcoming Blackberry Storm launching soon on Verizon and just a few hours later a leaked version of the launch video is up on YouTube.

The Storm looks like a decent challenger to the consumer-y iPhone with all the nice Blackberry features. I'm still not convinced on the whole touchscreen thing, but it's nice to see the iPhone have some competition and RIM get a sense of design.

Via Gizmodo

New Dell leaks: XPS Studio 13 and 16

To give credit where credit is due, Dell's recent reveal of its new Latitude E-seriesbusiness laptop line was the first new laptop announcement in a long time to not completely leak a few days or weeks early. (There were some photos and rumors a few months ago, but overall, it was a successful launch.)

The same cannot be said for Dell's consumer side -- every new product is leaked, usually with detailed photos and spec sheets, leaving little actual news for the system's launch day. Case in point -- these new photos and details (purportedly from an internal PowerPoint) of something called the Dell XPS Studio line.

We're familiar with both the XPS and Studio brands, and we're curious to see if this new hybrid is the beginning of the end of one or both as a standalone. These slides, from notebookreview.com, show slot-loading Blu-ray drives, edge-to-edge glass displays, hybrid SLI graphics (that's a GPU and the motherboard's integrated graphics working together), and backlit keyboards. In addition, the 16-inch model is shown with some cool-looking wood accents on the lid.

According to the leaked docs, you can expect the Studio XPS 13 and 16 sometime in November. Check out the purloined PowerPoint slides after the break.… Read more

Canon 50D rumors heat up in a big way

Whoops. It looks like Canon's China site accidentally posted specs for the company's upcoming Canon 50D dSLR, which seems all but confirmed. The Web page that the specs were on has been taken down, but the Photography Bay grabbed them before it disappeared. The biggest highlights include a 15.1-megapixel CMOS sensor (yes, you heard right, 15), ISO 100-12,800, and a 920,000 points VGA 3.0-inch LCD monitor.

No word on price, when the 50D will actually be available, or whether it will replace the 40D--but stay tuned.

Find the full leaked specs at Photography Bay. … Read more