Hasta La Gadget!

We know you — you’re that guy (or gal!) who simply can’t resist dipping your toes into whatever’s next, and in the case of AMD’s Fusion, you almost certainly went out and grabbed up an HP Pavilion dm1z as soon as it hit the market. Nah, we aren’t clairvoyant, just rational guessers. At any rate, now that you’ve had a solid two or three months with your Zacate-backed ultraportable, we’re eager to know how you’d change things if given the golden key. Are you satisfied with the build quality? How’s that heat? Feeling any jealousy for those who opted for Atom-based rigs? Are the keyboard and trackpad things you actually look forward to using? Go ahead and vent in comments below; it’s Friday, it’s your birthday, and HP’s got an awfully thick coat of skin.

How would you change HP’s Fusion-powered Pavilion dm1z? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 22:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’ll start by saying that we’ve reached out to Samsung for a response here, but as of now, no reply has been given — neither a confirmation nor a refusal of truth. Why bother mentioning that? If this here story proves true, Sammy could have a serious problem on its hands — a problem that’ll definitely start with a rash of negative PR, and a quandary that could very well end the outfit up in the courtroom. According to a report by Mohamed Hassan over at Network World, Samsung allegedly took the initiative to install a keylogger into his recently purchased R525 and R540 laptops. The app was noticed right away after a security scan on both systems, with StarLogger popping up with the c:\windows\SL directory. Where things really get strange is on the support line; reportedly, a supervisor informed Mr. Hassan (after an earlier denial) that the company did indeed install the software at the factory in order to “monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.” Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say if this is a widespread issue, or if the tale is entirely correct, but we get the feeling that Samsung will have little choice but to respond in some form or fashion here shortly. Naturally, we’ll keep you abreast of the situation — meanwhile, you may want to reconsider that hate-filled comment you’re about to bang out on your Samsung laptop, and instead, feast your eyes on the video just past the break.

Update: Kudos to Samsung for hitting this head-on. An hour after we inquired for comment, a company spokesperson tossed over this official quote: “Samsung takes Mr. Hassan’s claims very seriously. After learning of the original post this morning on NetworkWorld.com, we launched an internal investigation into this issue. We will provide further information as soon as it is available.”

Update 2: Samsung’s official Korean language blog, Samsung Tomorrow, has a posted an update calling the findings false. According to Samsung, the confusion arose when the VIPRE security software mistakenly identified Microsoft’s Slovene language folder (“SL”) as Starlogger, which Sammy was able to recreate from an empty c:\windows\SL folder (see image above). So yeah, move along, it’s much ado about nothing — the R525 and R540 laptops are perfectly safe.

Update 3: Even GFI Software has stepped up and confirmed the good news; furthermore, it’ll be changing the way it structures things so as not to set off any more false-positives.

Samsung reportedly installing keylogger software on laptops (update: it’s a false-positive) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 06:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Network World (1), (2), (3)  | Email this | Comments

We’ll start by saying that we’ve reached out to Samsung for a response here, but as of now, no reply has been given — neither a confirmation nor a refusal of truth. Why bother mentioning that? If this here story proves true, Sammy could have a serious problem on its hands — a problem that’ll definitely start with a rash of negative PR, and a quandary that could very well end the outfit up in the courtroom. According to a report by Mohamed Hassan over at Network World, Samsung allegedly took the initiative to install a keylogger into his recently purchased R525 and R540 laptops. The app was noticed right away after a security scan on both systems, with StarLogger popping up with the c:\windows\SL directory. Where things really get strange is on the support line; reportedly, a supervisor informed Mr. Hassan (after an earlier denial) that the company did indeed install the software at the factory in order to “monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.” Unfortunately, it’s difficult to say if this is a widespread issue, or if the tale is entirely correct, but we get the feeling that Samsung will have little choice but to respond in some form or fashion here shortly. Naturally, we’ll keep you abreast of the situation — meanwhile, you may want to reconsider that hate-filled comment you’re about to bang out on your Samsung laptop, and instead, feast your eyes on the video just past the break.

Continue reading Samsung reportedly installing keylogger software on laptops, privacy advocates flip

Samsung reportedly installing keylogger software on laptops, privacy advocates flip originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Network World (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

An Italian demonstrator gave us hope, but now we’re empty inside — the exceptionally thin 11.6-inch version of Samsung’s 9 Series laptop will indeed come with a puny 64GB solid state drive. Well, perhaps empty is a bit of an exaggeration, as the machine’s gorgeous duralumin curves fill our hearts with joy, as does the comparatively inexpensive $1,199 price tag that Sammy just confirmed on its website. And hey, we know of an Engadget editor making do with just 60GB of storage in his notebook, so it’s not an untenable thing — but when Samsung’s marketing materials proudly boast that “You’ll have room to bring it all with you with the 64GB drive,” it’s hard to repress the tears. That said, if “portable” is your middle name, you’ll find all the pre-orders you need at our source link.

[Thanks, Brian]

Samsung’s 11.6-inch 9 Series laptop official at $1,199, still comes with 64GB SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Samsung  | Email this | Comments

Sony’s top-secret prototype labs must be clocking hours like mad, as Sony Insider reports that the company has two more surprises in store — in addition to a PlayStation tablet, dual-screen clamshell and sliding PC, the skunk works has cooked up a Chrome OS notebook, as well as a “VAIO Hybrid PC” that defies any sort of meaningful explanation in just three words. The Chrome OS device is reportedly modeled after Google’s own Cr-48 reference design with roughly the same dimensions and keyboard but an oh-so-slightly smaller 11.6-inch screen, and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 running the show alongside 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage. Sony’s also shooting for eight hours of battery life, and a weight of just 2.2 pounds.

All of that pales in comparison to what Sony’s plotting for this “Hybrid PC,” though. The publication says we’re looking at a thin-and-light Core i7 notebook with an incredible 8 to 16.5 hours of battery life, Intel Thunderbolt and an internal SSD, all of which plugs into a dock of some sort that adds a Blu-ray burner and external graphics (by AMD) for gaming and multimedia. We don’t have any pictures or proof at this point, but it sounds like a whopper of a tale, and just the sort of thing that Intel was talking about making possible with the 10Gbps of bandwidth that Thunderbolt brings.

Sony crafting VAIOs with Chrome OS, external GPUs and Thunderbolt tech? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Sony Insider  | Email this | Comments