Hasta La Gadget!

You know what’s cool? Handing out 5,000 Android tablets to your most loyal developers at Google I/O. You know what’s not cool? Handing out 5,000 Android tablets that can’t have files loaded onto them. Believe or not, that’s exactly what happened at this week’s I/O conference, where hordes of developers were handed a Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition that cannot currently interface with OS X, and has a whale of a time doing so with Windows 7. During our initial preview of Music Beta, we noticed that our MacBook Pro (OS X 10.6) wouldn’t actually recognize the tablet, even after installing Android File Transfer. Given that we didn’t actually need that functionality for the purpose of said article, we threw it on the backburner.

For those unaware, Android File Transfer is a small app that’s required to transfer content between OS X and Android 3.0. Avid users of Froyo and Gingerbread may be appalled that any Honeycomb device they buy will require a piece of software to interface with it, but hey — there it is. At any rate, it seems to us that the latest build of Android File Transfer doesn’t include the device ID for Samsung’s heretofore unreleased Tab 10.1; if you’ll recall, the standard edition of this thing isn’t slated to hit consumer hands until June 8th. Regardless of what tricks we tried (installing a Mac version of Kies Mini, for example), we couldn’t get a single Apple in our stable to recognize the thing. In one instance, a Mac viewed the device as a “Samsung Modem” within the Networking pane — that’s as close as we could come to getting the two to mingle. AllThingsD‘s Ina Fried said her Tab 10.1 LE was merely recognized as a camera-like device within Aperture.

Over on the Windows side, things are only marginally less awful. We’ve had a couple of Wintel boxes outright refuse to play nice with this “mysterious USB device,” while others required multiple reboots and driver searchers to finally mount it as an external storage device — and only with USB Debugging disabled. The upside is that those with patience (and a Windows 7 rig) can look forward to a single method of transfer, but it’s certainly less than ideal.

We’re surmising that Google’s cooking up a new version of Android File Transfer as we speak that’ll take care of the compatibility issues, hopefully long before consumers start seeing these in early June. But for developers in the here and now? Stop wasting your afternoon trying to figure out why your Mac just won’t cooperate, and give that Win7 system a little love.

Update: After a bit of additional digging, we noticed that it’s possible to access the Tab’s file system from a Mac or Windows PC by using the Android SDK, putting the tablet in USB debugging mode, and running ddms. It’s not the most convenient solution if you want to quickly and conveniently transfer some content to / from the device, but it should work until AFT sees an update. Alternatively, we’re hearing that XNJB — an older open source project originally built for Creative Nomads — enables files to be transferred whenever it’s in a good mood.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition not seen in Android File Transfer, Windows usability is spotty originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 May 2011 15:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on April 19, 2007 by CyberNet.

The first result from the Dell IdeaStorm site has finally been implemented, but it doesn’t have to do with Linux. In fact, it has to do with another operating system…Windows XP. Just when you thought that Dell had completely phased Windows XP out they have now started to bring it back for consumers.

I remember checking out the Dell site shortly after Vista launched and noticed that they had switched everything over to Vista. A few weeks later they decided to bring back Windows XP for business users, but still had Vista as the only option for home users. As a result of the IdeaStorm site Windows XP has been added back onto the following computers:

• Dell Inspiron Notebooks: 1405, 1705, 1505, 1501
• Dell Dimension Desktops: E520, E521

When visiting those pages you’ll see a quick comparison chart (pictured above) between Windows Vista and XP…with Vista taking the cake. The systems all include Windows XP Home Edition with an optional upgrade to XP Professional for $149.

I am happy to see Dell listing to the feedback of their users, but they are definitely trying not to promote Windows XP. To choose from Windows XP systems you either need to use the direct links above, or on some of the Dell pages you’ll see a small link in the sidebar that says “Still looking for Windows XP?” that you can click. I thought that they could just add XP to the list of operating systems to choose from when customizing a computer, but apparently they didn’t want to do that? The only reason I know of why they did that is because they didn’t want someone inadvertently choosing XP just to find out later that their new computer didn’t come with the latest operating system.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on May 21, 2008 by CyberNet.

In about another month Windows XP will no longer be an option for people and businesses looking to buy a new computer, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition wanting to keep XP alive. In Israel today Steve Ballmer told the press that Vista is selling very well, and that it is the operating system of choice for nearly 100% of new consumer PC’s. Well, duh! Trying to find retailers that are still selling computers with XP is rather tricky, but you would expect that after a new operating system has been available for a year and a half.

The real dagger for Microsoft has got to be the fact that, according to Ballmer, 45% of businesses are buying new computers with Vista on them. It doesn’t sound all that bad when it’s worded that way, but it means a majority still find comfort in running a more mature operating system. He cited application compatibility as the main reason Vista has had a bit of a rough start, but went on to say that’s changing as the programs are getting upgraded.

What will be interesting to see is whether there is a surge in computer purchases as the end of June 2008 rolls around. Are businesses going to push to get new computers before the looming XP deadline is reached? Should we all be stocking up on retail licenses of XP to sell on eBay after the deadline hits?

In my eyes this is all a natural progression of technology. If everyone always had the chance to stick with using XP then they would probably never upgrade, and ten years down the road we may not be any better off than we are right now. Hopefully the move to end XP sales will get the Windows community to unite and find solutions to the problems some Vista users are having, and we’ll be able to live in peace… until the next version of Windows is released.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on April 24, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

Microsoft has made some good efforts to make Vista a lot more secure than previous versions of Windows by locking down files and folders on your system. They must have figured if it’s verging on painful for you to move or delete the files then it would probably be difficult for viruses to do the same. What if you wanted to modify or delete a system file for one reason or another?

This can be done by taking ownership of the file or folder. Taking ownership will not only let you manage the file or folder, but it can also be used as a way to avoid the User Account Control (UAC) prompt. For example, if you take ownership of the “Mozilla Firefox” folder in the “Program Files” you’ll never see the UAC prompt when dealing with that particular folder.

Important: It should be noted that whatever files you take ownership of could become more vulnerable to attacks.

–Manual Steps–

There are two ways to do this manually, and neither are much fun. The next section of this article offers a one-click solution, but I’m sure many of you are curious as to what taking ownership of a file or folder actually entails.

• GUI (Graphical User Interface) – As expected being able to take ownership of a file can be done through the file properties window. We’ve already put together instructions on how to do this before, but it can be a rather daunting 5-step process if you have to do it repeatedly.
• Command line – The How-To Geek has a great set of instructions as to how you can use the command line to take ownership of a file. It’s pretty much a two-line job, but it’s not the easiest thing in the world to remember.

–XdN Tweaker (Homepage)–

So how can we make taking ownership a little easier? There are all kinds of registry hacks floating around out there, but I’m going to point you to one of my favorite tweaking utilities for Vista. It’s called XdN Tweaker, and not only is it free but there is also a version that requires absolutely no installation.

After you get the program up and running the first thing you’ll want to do is jump to the Files & Folders section in the sidebar. In the lower-half of the screen you should see the Take Ownership option, and all you have to do is click the Add Option button:

(Click to Enlarge)

There’s no need to restart your computer once the option has been enabled. You can see the new menu item that was added whenever you right-click on a file or folder:

Clicking on the Take Ownership option will essentially duplicate the tedious manual steps that we mentioned above, but it is a lot faster than going through it all yourself. If for some reason you decide that you don’t want the Take Ownership option to show up anymore it can be removed by simply running XdN Tweaker again and choosing the Remove Option button.

Now if only Microsoft would fine tune UAC so that it is a little easier to use, but that won’t be happening anytime soon. I guess it’s a tradeoff you have to make for the added security.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on February 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

Last week, Newsweek sat down to interview Bill Gates for the launch of Vista.  He was asked about all of the typical questions regarding Vista like security, upgrading, and whether or not he was satisfied with the outcome of Vista. The one part that caught my eye was when he was asked how he felt about the infamous “Get a Mac” campaign that Apple has started with the most recent commercial showing the PC going in for surgery. This of course is in regards to upgrading to Vista.

Everybody takes the commercials differently. Some look at them and can’t help but laugh, others get infuriated over the serious jabs and sometimes untruthful lies that fill the commercial. One of the first things you’ll notice in any of the commercials is that the Apple is portrayed as a “cool stud” and the PC is portrayed as a “geeky dud.” This is the first thing Bill addresses. He was asked by Newsweek:

Are you bugged by the Apple commercial where John Hodgman is the PC, and he has to undergo surgery to get Vista?

I’ve never seen it. I don’t think the over 90 percent of the [population] who use Windows PCs think of themselves as dullards, or the kind of klutzes that somebody is trying to say they are.

How about the implication that you need surgery to upgrade?

Well, certainly we’ve done a better job letting you upgrade on the hardware than our competitors have done. You can choose to buy a new machine, or you can choose to do an upgrade. And I don’t know why [Apple is] acting like it’s superior. I don’t even get it. What are they trying to say? Does honesty matter in these things, or if you’re really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it? There’s not even the slightest shred of truth to it.

And finally, the last and probably the most interesting question addressed some of the features in Vista which are very similar to those in the Mac.

In many of the Vista reviews, even the positive ones, people note that some Vista features are already in the Mac operating system.

You can go through and look at who showed any of these things first, if you care about the facts. If you just want to say, “Steve Jobs invented the world, and then the rest of us came along,” that’s fine. If you’re interested, [Vista development chief] Jim Allchin will be glad to educate you feature by feature what the truth is. I mean, it’s fascinating, maybe we shouldn’t have showed so publicly the stuff we were doing, because we knew how long the new security base was going to take us to get done. Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine. So, yes, it took us longer, and they had what we were doing, user interface-wise. Let’s be realistic, who came up with [the] file, edit, view, help [menu bar]? Do you want to go back to the original Mac and think about where those interface concepts came from?

Now, perhaps I’m just under-educated with the Mac, but I haven’t heard about that many exploits. Every single day? Clearly hackers/attackers go after vulnerabilities in PCs because that’s where the market share is, but every single day a total exploit is found for a Mac? I’ve always heard people say that you’d never need an Anti-virus for Linux, simply because the general population is not using it, therefore creating viruses would be a waste of time. It’s a similar situation for Apple as well (although they definitely have more of the market share than Linux), but obviously, if what Bill Gates said is true, perhaps Apple needs to take a good look at their security.

There’s been quite the collection of these “Get a Mac” ads.  You can find clips of all of them here. And, if you’re interested in reading the entire interview with Bill Gates, you can find that here.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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