Suit alleges salary fixing among major tech companies
Several tech companies are again finding themselves in hot water over their hiring practices, as they were sued in California Superior Court on Wednesday over allegations of conspiring to fix employee pay. Named in the suit are Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Inuit, Lucasfilm, and Pixar, among others.
Former Lucasfilm employee Siddharth Hariharan is the lead plaintiff in the suit, which seeks class action status. He says the companies over the years signed deals with one another that eliminated competition in the job market, as well as placed caps on the pay of skilled workers.
Fujifilm FinePix X100 first impressions review
Few digital cameras have caused as much stir as the retro-styled compact now available in the United States on a limited basis. The Fujifilm FinePix X100 joins the Leica X1, Sigma DP1x and DP2x, Sony Alpha NEX-3 and NEX-5 and micro four-thirds cameras like the Olympus PEN E-PL2 and E-P2 or Panasonic DMC-GF2 in a newer class of mirrorless digicams. I used or owned the DP1, DP2s, E-P2, GF1 and X1.
However, like the Leica X1 or Sigma DP series, the X100 is eccentric -- the lens is fixed and cannot be changed. Who on earth would buy a digital camera without telephoto? I, for one. Many professional photographers for another. I'm no pro, but I have specific needs as a journalist for which the X100 is ideally suited. The X100 is the only camera I own. Whether or not it will be sufficient for my needs, or possibly yours, will be focus in my follow-up review. For now, I offer some first impressions and explain what are this camera's major benefits.
Sony Ericsson shows off 2nd gen miniature Android phone, Xperia mini
When many companies were pushing the boundaries for bigger and higher resolution screens on Android smartphones, Sony Ericsson went against the grain and made a smaller Xperia X10 phone. Now that other companies have jumped on board and introduced their own more pocketable smartphones, Sony Ericsson on Thursday moved into its second generation with two new Xperia minis.
Like the previous generation X10 Mini, the Xperia mini line has two options: the standard version, and the "pro" version which has a slide-out keyboard. In many other respects, however, these devices have undergone quite a bit of change.
Chinese giants lock horns over mobile tech patents
Chinese mobile communications companies Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corporation, amicable competitors in the telecommunications business, are now engaged in competing patent infringement lawsuits in Europe.
At the end of April, Huawei filed lawsuits against ZTE in Germany, France, and Hungary for patent and trademark infringement. Huawei accused ZTE of infringing on its data card and LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology patents, and that it had even used one of Huawei's trademarks on some of its products without permission.
Artboard: Mac vector graphics for the budget-minded
Standard images editing tools are not hard to come by -- in fact Mac users are almost spoiled for choice in this field. But when it comes to vector graphics packages, the choices are slightly more limited. If you don't fancy the idea of forking out fortune on an expensive package, Artboard may be of interest. It offers an impressive range of creative tools at a fraction of the price of comparable software.
Whether you're looking for a quick and easy way to create scalable posters, or would like to design your own logos or web graphics, Artboard includes a number of templates to help get you started. The fact that the templates include designs for invitations and fliers as well as business cards and signs gives some indication of the target audience of the app.
Tiny Burner: When the disc job's not too big
When it comes to burning discs, the likes of Nero and Roxio have their place. However, while it is possible that you will occasionally need the features provided by such suites --if you are creating video discs or photo slideshows, for example -- it is more likely that most of your burning sessions involve little more than copying a few files or folders to disc. This is where a lightweight tool such as Tiny Burner is ideal.
Rather than overwhelming users with endless features, Tiny Burner focuses on the basics of disc burning -- the process of getting files from your computer onto CD, DVD or Blu-ray. There are no fancy extras to be found here, and if you are looking to work on complicated disc projects, this is certainly not the tool for you. However, if you have found the built-in disc burning support offered by Windows to be a little too basic, Tiny Burner may be for you.
Are you a Windows expert?
You are? Then why are you reading this? You should be hanging out at Microsoft's Windows Experts Community.
I dunno how long this thing has been around, but Microsoft blogger Paul Donnelly calls it a "new site." Donnelly describes Windows Experts Community as "a collection of online forums geared for advanced users, enthusiasts, experts and so on -- those that are doing fantastic and amazing things with their Windows PCs and other ecosystem devices. We're also rolling out a community-driven wiki where members can create and edit articles and explainers on how they've set-up their PCs, created scenarios, or established their own best practices."
iOS update attempts to put location tracking controversy to rest
Apple on Wednesday released the iOS 4.3.3 update, the biggest of changes having to deal with the location database that has made the company a target of a good deal of criticism as of late. As part of the changes in the new software, a user can now choose to have the database deleted altogether.
"The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it's maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location," Apple said in a Q&A last week. It stated that a bug was causing the file to continue being maintained even after location services was turned off, and would be fixed shortly.
Firefox 5 beta 1 now available after first 'Aurora' run. (Actually...)
Just over one month after the final version of Firefox 4 was released, first beta of Firefox 5 has become available. This newest version of the iconic Web browser is the first one to go through Mozilla's new release schedule.
Previously, Mozilla staggered Firefox releases in three different channels: nightly (most frequent, no quality assurance), beta (less frequent, more stable) and final release (least frequent, most stable).
PSN Hack: Fun and games don't have to end when someone breaks in
Hard-core players hate to lose games. But what happens when they're the sport -- the object of play? That increasingly is the state of PlayStation Network subscribers, following a hack that swiped personal data. If that's you, there are ways to protect you now and from future data theft anywhere on the Internet. Fun and games don't have to end when someone breaks in.
It all started so innocently. Two weeks ago, PlayStation Network went down. The next day, Sony promised the outage would last for a "day or two" to the despair of the fun-loving millions who use the service to access multiplayer games, movies, music and other downloadable entertainment. At the time, Sony raised the possibility that a hacker instigated the outage, but it took six days and outside help before it was revealed that PSN had indeed been the victim of a hack -- one that compromised the personal data of as many as 77 million customers. Today, new details emerged that, despite denials, Anonymous may have been responsible for the hack and data theft.
As Sony struggles to get PSN back up, new details emerge
With the PlayStation Network expected to be back up within a matter of days, Sony's statements to a US House subcommittee seem to point the finger on responsibility back at hacktivist group Anonymous, which initially denied involvement.
PlayStation chief Kazuo Hirai told Congress in a letter that the company was a victim of a sophisticated attack. As part of the hack, a file was planted on the company's servers named "Anonymous" with the words "We Are Legion." He said the company understood the full scope of the attack by April 25, but could not rule out the compromising of credit card data.
Intel's new transistors mean smaller, more efficient chips this year
After more than a decade in development, Intel's three dimensional "Tri-Gate" transistor design will finally be used in a mass-produced microprocessor, the company announced on Tuesday.
Transistors are perhaps the most basic element of computer hardware. They are the physical mechanism that translates the ones and zeroes into "on" and "off" for the electrical current. In a basic transistor, the electrons flow in, encounter a "gate" that can act as a resistor if it has been told to do so, and then flow out.
If Android wins Asia, will it take the world?
That's the question to ask, following Canalys' release of first quarter 2011 smartphone shipments, today. Asia has long been Nokia's stronghold but that may rapidly change during the transition from Symbian to Windows Phone -- at a time when Asia is the world's largest region for smartphones.
Smartphone shipments to Asia grew 98 percent, to 37.3 million units, during Q1, with volumes strongest in China, India and South Korea. India has been a Nokia stronghold, with as much as 70 percent overall handset market share, as well as China.
Find shared files' hidden metadata before hackers do
Document metadata can be very useful on your own PC. Tag yourself as the author of a report, say, or enter some relevant details in its description, and the file should be much easier to find later. When you need to share documents online, though, it's a very different story. Without knowing it, you could be giving all kinds of information away to hackers: usernames, network details, email addresses, software information and a whole lot more.
So does any of this apply to you? Manual checking is tedious, and could take a very long time, but, fortunately, it isn't necessary. FOCA Free is a simple tool that automates the process of checking any websites for metadata issues, and it's both quick and easy to use.
7digital steps up to Amazon, opens Android MP3 store
UK-based music and video download site 7digital on Tuesday updated its Android music player application, making its MP3 download store available to Android devices in the US, UK, Canada, and 13 other countries.
Open source software users should already be familiar with 7digital, since it powers the Ubuntu One Music Store and is the default download store for media management software Songbird. Like Amazon, it offers DRM-free music downloads from all of the "big four" record labels, and the updated Android app lets users browse and preview all of the downloadable albums and songs.
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