witnesses

Making sense of the PS4 game lineup

NEW YORK--So the world didn't exactly get what it wanted out of Sony's PlayStation 4 debut tonight. There was no sight of the actual console itself and details about its specific release date and price were also nowhere to be seen.

Sony's team-up with Gaikai is sure to net some interesting ideas and implementations with cloud streaming, the sharing of game screens, remote play, and other concoctions, but the games themselves were what made the biggest impact.

Those pondering the PS4's gaming prowess were served an interesting dish. Ten or so major developers were represented in … Read more

Mac designer: Samsung phone fooled me

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- One of Apple's early designers apparently picked up a Samsung device believing it had been made by Apple.

That anecdote, shared in court this morning, came from Susan Kare, who is perhaps best known for designing the original set of icons for Apple's first Macintosh. Those designs include the "happy Mac" icon users saw when booting up the machine, as well as the bomb icon when something went wrong.

Apple tapped Kare specifically to compare Apple's patented iOS user interface with Samsung's devices. Kare said she examined phones from both … Read more

Apple v. Samsung: Meet Apple's next 7 witnesses

After its first real break, court is back in session later today in the case between Apple and Samsung.

The trial is currently in its testimony phase, as both sides break out a string of witnesses. So far that's included testimony from Apple's Christopher Stringer, one of the designers of the iPhone, the iPad, and numerous other Apple products. And just before the break it was Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller, who is slated to the stand once again this morning.

There are six others testifying after Schiller, though you might not know all of them. Here's … Read more

iWitness app claims to be 'ultimate deterrent to crime'

As the saying goes, there's an app for that, and now there's one that claims it can deter crime.

The app, iWitness, is free to download for iPhone users (it's coming to Android soon), but requires a subscription to use. Basically, it works like this:

When you're about to enter a "potentially threatening environment" you launch the app and "arm" it. A blinking light emanates from the phone, alerting you -- and hopefully anybody up to no good -- that the phone is armed. If you feel threatened, you then touch your … Read more

Kindle and Nook readers bash high e-book pricing with angry one-star reviews

Kindle and Nook users share one thing in common: a number of them are rather upset about high e-book prices and are voting their displeasure in their user reviews.

Case in point is Michael Connelly's new legal thriller, "The Fifth Witness," which is getting hammered in both the Kindle and Nookbook stores despite strong reviews from "real" reviewers. "The Fifth Witness" costs $14.99 while the hardcover currently runs $14.28 on Amazon and $14.73 on BarnesandNoble.com. Sure, $15 is a lot to spend on an e-book but the even bigger … Read more

EMC acquires NetWitness, combines with RSA

EMC said today that it has acquired NetWitness, which provides network security software.

The purchase, which won't impact EMC's revenue or earnings in 2011, was closed on April 1. NetWitness will be included in EMC's RSA unit.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

With the acquisition, EMC will delve deeper into network security monitoring and analysis. NetWitness aims to spot everything from insider threats to target malware to data leakage.

On the product front, NetWitness will become part of RSA's advanced security management lineup, which includes EnVision, RSA's Data Loss Prevention Suite and CyberCrime … Read more

Saving the world with your phone and the Internet

Witnessing a crime in New York is unfortunately common. Luckily, so is having a camera phone.

To take advantage of that, last Wednesday New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a program that lets witnesses of crimes or other "dangerous living conditions" use their camera phones to transmit images or video to the police by using 911 or by uploading their shots to the city's Web site.

I propose New York creates a mashup of sorts. Think Flickr and Yelp together. A place that lets people easily tag and geotag their media, along with creating an easy … Read more