Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been tipped today that the next generation iPad mini (not yet announced by Apple, mind you), will be joined relatively silently by a 4th generation full-sized iPad. This new iPad, having been revealed then less than a year after the 3rd Generation iPad was revealed, will have the same smaller dock at the bottom of its body that the new iPhone has been tipped to have. It’s also been noted by a source speaking with iLounge that this iPad will have enhancements to its back-facing camera as well.

This update may come as a bit of a shock for those who just recently picked up to 2012 iPad revealed this spring, but there’s a catch. Though this 4th generation iPad is being pushed for a reveal with the iPad mini, this same source is saying that it wont be until the Spring of 2013 that the full-sized iPad 4 will be up for sale. This piece of the puzzle is one that we doubt very much, especially due to the cannibalization and destruction of sales that such a situation would create.

Above: Supposed iPhone 5 with miniature dock connector as revealed by iLounge this past weekend.

Instead we’re imagining that if such an iPad were revealed, it’d be shown off in the spring right next to the iPad mini (if it does ever exist) where both devices will be put up for sale as instantly as Apple products always are. This updated iPad is also said to have a new rear-facing microphone to aid with noise cancellation for video filming as well as video chat.

The 4th Generation iPad is said to be very likely coming with essentially the same look and feel as the 3rd Gen iPad while the battery technology inside will be once again enhanced for longer life. Of course there’s no end to the possibilities with what will pop up then for new cases and accessories as all old ones will once again be made completely obsolete – if the new mic does, in fact, exist. Of course.

Have a peek at our most recent collection of iPad mini posts to see if you can track where and when the next-generation of iPad devices will be revealed!

iPad 4 tipped to adopt mini-dock connector this year is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Owners and stakeholders of Big Media have thick skins. So the persistent trending of #NBCFail, and the riotous reading that the tweet stream provides, is probably bouncing right off their leathery hides. For one thing, the complaints were surely foreseen. They are largely the same criticisms NBC withstood in previous Olympics — over-curating, ill-placed commercials, tape delays, scandalously inane commentary, and a generally inferior Olympics presentation compared to other countries. The unspoken shrugging answer, of course, is financial. The lessons learned from that answer say things about how slowly institutional power inches into the future, the impatience of the digital class, brand ecosystem as a preeminent business battleground, and the ideology breakdown of the International Olympic Committee.

Continue reading Editorial: NBC’s Olympics and the steely grip of old media

Editorial: NBC’s Olympics and the steely grip of old media originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s already pretty easy to hate Ubisoft‘s UPlay DRM, which requires PC gamers to remain connected to the Internet at all times while playing, but today hating it got a whole lot easier. As it turns out, the UPlay client has a pretty major security vulnerability that could allow malicious websites to take control of your computer. The problem stems from the browser plugin that is installed by the UPlay launcher – instead of only granting access to UPlay, the plugin could potentially give a wide range of websites privileged access to your computer.

That’s according to Google information security engineer Tavis Ormandy, who explains on Seclists.org that he discovered the vulnerability as he was installing Assassin’s Creed Revelations. “While on vacation recently I bought a video game called ‘Assassin’s Creed Revelations’. I didn’t have much of a chance to play it, but it seems fun so far. However, I noticed the installation procedure creates a browser plugin for it’s accompanying uplay launcher, which grants unexpectedly (at least to me) wide access to websites.”

Obviously, this is a major problem. The vulnerability affects all of the games that use Ubisoft’s UPlay DRM (Geek.com counts 21 in total), ranging from all of the Assassin’s Creed games since AC2, a handful of Tom Clancy games, and more recent titles like Driver: San Francisco. Thankfully, Ubisoft has since fixed the vulnerability, updating UPlay so that the browser plugin can only access the UPlay application.

Still, despite Ubisoft’s quick delivery of a patch, this is an extremely scary development. We’re willing to give Ubisoft the benefit of the doubt and assume that it didn’t leave that backdoor in on purpose, but whether it was intentional or not, that doesn’t change the fact that UPlay housed a potentially devastating security vulnerability in the first place. The publisher catches enough flak for its use of always-on DRM, and we’re sure that already-disgruntled gamers aren’t going to let Ubisoft forget about this oversight anytime soon. Stay tuned, because we have a feeling that the vitriol hasn’t even begun to fly yet.

Major security vulnerability discovered in Ubisoft UPlay DRM is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Email is something many of us have only been using for the past 20 years, but its roots go back much much further than that. The earliest traces of email even date back to the 1960s. And according to Wired, computer engineer Ray Tomlinson was responsible for many of email’s earliest innovations, including the use of @ in email addresses. More »

Facebook’s photo interface is getting a lovely, much-needed makeover. Starting today, it’s rolling out a much cleaner layout, with a mosaic view off all your images as well as three simple tabs at the top of the page—one for photos of you, another for all the pics you’ve posted, and another for your albums. More »