aes

WinRAR is a lightweight, flexible, and easy-to-use archiving utility that can unpack most archive formats, as well as compress to both RAR and ZIP. Free to try for 40 days ($29 for single license), WinRAR is a top dog in the compression category.

WinRAR's interface is about as simple as it gets. Start creating (or add to) an archive by dragging and dropping your files into the interface or by browsing through the Folder Tree side panel (when enabled). From there, the most common functions are laid out in the form of colorful, mostly intuitive icons along the top, … Read more

In real life a folk singer isn't as loud as a rock band, but once her recording is compressed she might be as loud as Metallica. Of course, with most types of music the sound isn't turned up to 11 all of the time.

There are quiet passages, and only the loudest parts, like the hardest drum hits, are really loud. We have the technology to accurately record music, but few record companies choose to make lifelike recordings.

The Loudness Wars refers to mixing and mastering techniques that squash music's natural soft-to-loud dynamics. Obviously, you can control … Read more

A huge battery bank connected to a wind farm was officially commissioned today in a project that makes wind power more closely resemble a traditional power plant.

Two divisions of energy project developer AES today said that the 98-megawatt Laurel Mountain wind facility in West Virginia is now connected to 32 megawatts worth of lithium ion batteries from A123 Systems. It's the largest project to couple wind power with lithium ion batteries, according to the company.

The shipping container-size batteries will allow AES to gradually adjust power delivery to the grid up and down, rather than have a more … Read more

The Bose AE2i is the iPhone-optimized headset version of the Bose AE2 headphones. The AE2i is identical to AE2 except for the inclusion of an inline remote and microphone. In addition to a microphone for phone calls, the inline remote offers controls for volume and answer/end call.

The AE2i is designed to work with iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Beyond the headphone function, the microphone and remote is not designed nor intended to work with other phones.

The Bose AE2i should deliver identical sound to that of the Bose AE2 headphones.

Read the CNET review of the Bose AE2.

The more secure a password is, the harder it is to remember. This is a problem since the need for strong passwords grows every day, along with potential threats to your PC. Password managers make it easy to create and use secure passwords for all your log-ons, Web sites, and other password-protected points of access. Capp-Ware's RememberMe is a free tool that can store your passwords in a database secured by 128-bit AES encryption. You only need to remember RememberMe's master password to access or edit all your passwords.

During RememberMe's installation process, we were prompted to … Read more

WinRAR is a lightweight, flexible, and easy-to-use archiving utility that can unpack most archive formats, as well as compress to both RAR and ZIP. Free to try for 40 days ($29 for single license), WinRAR is definitely top dog in the compression category.

WinRAR's interface is about as simple as it gets. Start creating (or add to) an archive by dragging and dropping your files into the interface or by browsing through the Folder Tree side panel (when enabled). From there, the most common functions are laid out in the form of colorful, mostly intuitive icons, which can all … Read more

WinRAR is a lightweight, flexible, and easy-to-use archiving utility that can unpack most archive formats, as well as compress to both RAR and ZIP. Free to try for 40 days ($29 for single license), WinRAR is definitely top dog in the compression category.

WinRAR's interface is about as simple as it gets. Start creating (or add to) an archive by dragging and dropping your files into the interface or by browsing through the Folder Tree side panel (when enabled). From there, the most common functions are laid out in the form of colorful, mostly intuitive icons, which can all … Read more

Toshiba will soon debut a series of hard drives that can automatically erase or prevent access to their own data should the drives end up in the wrong hands.

The company's new self-encrypting drive family will include a new feature that detects if the drive is connected to an unknown and undefined computer or other system. If so, the drive can either securely wipe all of its data or just deny access to that data. Customers can apply the feature to specific data on the drive and choose how and when to render the data indecipherable, according to Toshiba.… Read more

SustainX announced today it's received $14.4 million in funding from GE subsidiary GE Energy Financial Services, Cadent Energy Partners, Polaris Ventures, and Rockport Capital.

The New Hampshire-based company is a start-up that grew out of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in 2007, and has been developing a compressed-air energy storage unit intended for integration with smart grids.

Simply put, its innovative storage unit uses compressed air to store, then generate electricity. But unlike other compressed-air storage units, which use a compressor to store air underground, SustainX stores the air in a standard tank located above … Read more