Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on October 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

A recent study by Antivirus developer McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance found that while people think their home computers are safe from viruses and malware, they’re really not.  Over 90% of the people that participated in the study believed that they had antivirus or anti-malware software installed and that it was updating at least weekly.  As it turns out, only 51% of those people actually were protected.

Before we discuss this study further, I think it’s worth pointing out McAfee’s involvement and the fact that the results of this study benefit them. As one Slashdot commenter points out, “How often have you seen a study that was spontaneously initiated and paid for by a company turn out to be against the company’s best interests?”

With that said, it’s not hard to believe that people think they’re protected when they’re really not.  Think about all of the software that comes pre-loaded on computers these days. Consumers see that there’s an anti-virus installed, yet they rarely pay attention to the fact that it’s just a free trial that won’t last forever if there is even one to start with. Another big issue is simply the lack of education.  The majority of consumers don’t realize, and haven’t been educated on anti-viruses to know that there are great free alternatives out there and that there’s no need to pay for a security solution which often times keeps them from getting an antivirus in the first place.

Aside from looking at antivirus protection, the study looked at firewall and anti-spyware solutions and found that 73% of Americans think that they have a firewall installed when only 64% really do. Similarly, 70% of Americans think that they have anti-spyware software when only about 55% actually do. At this point, it’s inexcusable that consumers still haven’t been educated enough on keeping their computers secure.

On a more positive note, this study did reveal that Americans do know about other online dangers that exist, which is promising.  Out of the people surveyed, 99% have at least heard of Spyware before while 75% have at least heard of phishing attacks which are both serious threats. Now if we could just get everybody educated on how to keep themselves safe from viruses, spyware, and phishing threats, we’d be much better off!

I think it’s safe to assume that many of you are the designated “computer fixer” for your family and friends, so what do you generally find when you go to work on their computers? Do they have good anti-virus software installed, and is it updating regularly? Or would they be part of the 51% of people who think that their computer is safe when it really isn’t? While your computer may be safe, you may want to remind your family and friends to double check that they are in fact protected.

Thanks for the tip Cory!

Source: Slashdot

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Why confine your nerdy sloth to your living room, where large robots mime fake guitar and serve you sloppy mixed drinks? Take that zest for the sedentary life with you on the road by having one of your robot ninjas steal this iPhone Rock Band robot from its ingenious creator, Joe Bowers. The Arduino-based device uses ambient light sensors to detect the falling notes and then taps out the music with some conductive foam attached to some squeaky fake fingers. Joe did a fairly detailed write-up, and even uploaded his code, so there’s presumably nothing stopping you from actually doing something with your life and building one of these with all that free time you’ve saved up by hacking your way through all the console-based guitar games. Video is after the break.

[Via Daily Mobile]

Continue reading Laziness on the move: robot plays Rock Band on the iPhone

Filed under: Cellphones, Robots

Laziness on the move: robot plays Rock Band on the iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First the Nook (pictured), now the MediaBook?

(Credit:
Barnes & Noble)

The question is, who isn’t getting in on the e-book reader action these days? Less than two weeks after we met Barnes & Nobles’ Nook and just a few days after hearing of tire maker Bridgestone’s plans for a …

Each month, the best new iPhone apps—and some older ones—are considered for admission into Gizmodo’s Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die?

The Month’s Best

Layar: There’s the obvious reason to be excited about this:

Layar, the first camera-based AR app to really blow us (or anyone) away, has quietly slipped into the App Store. As with the Android version, the app overlays all kinds of information onto a live view of the world around you.

And the less obvious, but ultimately more important one: Layar layers, which let you install user-generated overlays of all different kinds of information, like this one, which tracks government bailout spending. Free.

Tweetie 2: From Matt’s review:

It’s the most polished Twitter app yet, oozing slickness with every swipe. Yet, it’s exploding with new features, and still really fast. It manages to cram in every possible feature you could possibly want in a Twitter app-offline reading!-without feeling too complicated or bloated.

It’s three dollars, even if you had the previous version, but totally worth it.

Photoshop: To call this app Photoshop is almost a misnomer—you can’t have anything resembling desktop Photoshop on the iPhone, but you can have a decent photo processing app:

The tools are basic-you can crop, adjust exposure, saturation, and tint, among others, with some standard special effects like soft focus, colors and filters like “warm vintage” and pop-but using entirely swipe-based gestures as a virtual slider for how intensely or lightly the effect is applied is natural and easy

This, combined with ties to an online service and the fact that this, unlike almost any other similar app, is free, make it a must-download.

MotionX GPS Drive: At $3 a month without any kind of long-term commitment, this is currently the cheapest decent turn-by-turn app in the App Store. And it works, pretty well! Until Google Navigation for Maps hits the iPhone, this’ll be the cheapest, least-risky turn-by-turn option out there.

NASA: Pure, welcome information overload for space geeks, in an app. NASA’s really been killing it with their online strategy lately—lots of news, downloadable media and Twitter action—and this app is a wonderful extension.

Squareball: If Pong grew into a platformer, or Breakout into a sidescroller. You can pick it up quickly, but it gets progressively harder over time without ever getting frustrating. In other words, it’s pretty close to a perfect game. Try the free demo before dropping the two dollars though, since with its retro graphics and soundtrack, dead-simple gameplay concept and fast face, this one can be polarizing.

Rock Band: It’s not perfect—controls can be awkward, and the singing mode isn’t really a singing mode, but it represents the first major rhythm franchise to hit the iPhone, and it bear gifts: Great graphics, decent, familiar, song selection, and multiple instruments.

NASDAQ: It’s much more intensive that the stock stock (stock stock stock) app, and comes with StockTwits integration, which provides a little crowd-sources insight to go along with your stream of numbers. Best of all, it’s free.

ReelDirector: This is as close as you’re going to get to iMovie on your iPhone. (Which isn’t very close, to be honest!) Video stitching alone, will be worth the ($8) price of entry for many people, but keep in mind that Apple instantly render this app obsolete if they just built decent editing into their OS.

Nikon Learn and Explore: It’s heavily branded and obviously intended to promote the Nikon name, but hey who cares: Nikon’s Learn and Explore app is actually a great, free photography primer no matter what kind of camera you carry.

App Directory Inductees

So, who will join the illustrious ranks of Gizmodo’s Essential iPhone apps? I’ve sifted through user submissions, app updates and new arrivals to find our newest inductees:

• MotionX Drive, for its brilliant value-to-functionality ratio.

• Photoshop, for undercutting almost all of the overcrowded, underinnovating photo app field with something decent and free.

• Layar, for being a free, solid platform for augmented reality on the iPhone, which will be made great by new layers.

• Tweetie 2, for being even better than it was before, and for being the best iPhone Twitter app out there, assuming you’re willing to shell out a few bucks.

• Instapaper, for its tragic exclusion in the last update: the ability to save pages for offline reading is useful for just about anyone, but absolutely essential if you’re a frequent flyer or subway rat.

• Runkeeper, for simultaneously offering the most feature-complete outdoor exercise app I’ve seen in a while and offering a decent free version as well.

• Backgrounder, a jailbreak app, for giving everyone a taste of what a multitasking iPhone is like. (Hint: pretty great)

And Farewell To…

• Twitterfon, not because it’s bad—it’s still the best free Twitter app, but because it’s not called Twitterfon anymore. Hello, Echofon.

• TomTom, because Navigon has done more to innovate in the last few months, and because with great, cheap options nipping at their heels, expensive iPhone apps like this are harder to justify.

• Tweetie, for you have been replaced; cannibalized by your own child.

• CameraBag, for being two whole dollars more than Photoshop. (Sorry!)

What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we’ve missed anything huge, or you’ve got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We’ll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!

[Gizmodo’s Essential iPhone Apps]

Whoa, is that webOS 2.0 we see on the horizon? No, sorry, it definitely isn’t — but we can say with relative confidence that the upcoming Pixi will be shipping with a newer, slightly more feature-rich version of webOS than its Pre brethren around the world; if nothing else, Synergy supports Yahoo on the new model, as PreCentral observes. What remains to be seen is the exact version number that’ll be shipping out of the gate — recent DSLReports user agent logs suggest that 1.2.9 might be the gold build (for the record, the Sprint Pre currently rocks 1.2.1), but apparently there’s some chatter going on about a 1.3 as well. Doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but a 0.1 increment usually means more features, fixes, and changes than a 0.01 increment does, so naturally, we’re pulling for a bigger number. There isn’t any intel on what this mythical 1.3 might contain just yet or whether it’d be heading to Bell, Sprint, and O2 Pres, but we’ll keep an eye out.

Filed under: Cellphones

Palm Pixi definitely shipping with a new webOS version, but which? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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