Malwarebytes 1.51: Faster malware scanning, free 'Pro' trial
It seems like the beta had only just appeared, but the final build of Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.51 released to the public today.
Highlights for the free version include "much more efficient" updating, says Malwarebytes, and it does seem noticeably faster in our initial tests.
EASEUS bulks up Todo Backup Free, offers more for less
EASEUS has decided to give away the commercial Home edition of its EASEUS Todo Backup for free, replacing the previous function-limited free edition with a fully featured backup tool.
EASEUS Todo Backup Free now provides both file- and image-based backup functionality in one program, allowing users to back up selected files and file types alongside entire partitions and hard drives. It also includes partition and drive-cloning tools for upgrading hard drives, as well as a WinPE-based rescue disc for access to the program outside of Windows.
Nvidia improves performance, not power, ahead of E3 with new notebook GPU
Next week in Los Angeles, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo -more familiarly known as E3- begins. Graphics company Nvidia chose Computex in Taipei this week to unveil its new GeForce GTX 560M mobile graphics processor for notebook PC gaming.
Nvidia has two lines of mobile processors, GT and GTX, respectively designed for lower and higher performance gaming. The GTX 560M that Nvidia launched this week is a semi-upgrade to the high performance line that offers a 1550MHz Processor Clock, a 775MHz Graphics Clock, 192 CUDA Cores, and up to 3GB of 192-bit 1250MHz GDDR5 RAM. Nvidia says it has better performance per watt than all previous generations of its notebook GTX GPUs, which means higher frame rates with similar battery consumption.
Google Offers beta should scare the crap out of Groupon, other startups
Do you remember the days when every startup had to ask: "If we're successful, will Microsoft move into our market?" With its new Groupon competitor, time has come -- and perhaps long past it -- to ask the same about Google.
Last night during the opening of the D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Stephanie Tilenius, vice president of Google commerce, demonstrated Google Offers, which begins beta testing today in Portland, Ore. D9 cohost Walt Mossberg asked Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt why Portland? Schmidt said that Portland is a surprisingly good place to test tech products.
Acer shows off Windows Phone Mango handset, MeeGo tablet
Taiwanese PC maker Acer took a rather sudden hit last April when Gianfranco Lanci resigned as CEO of the company, saying it should have been focused on competing with HTC and Apple in the mobile space instead of with HP in the PC space.
At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Acer this week has shown off its scattershot approach to covering the mobile device market, which will include, among other things, a 10" tablet running Intel's MeeGo operating system, and a Snapdragon-powered smartphone running Windows Phone 7 "Mango."
Eric Schmidt talks "gang of four" platform companies at D9
Google's Eric Schmidt dodged questions about U.S. antitrust investigations tonight during one of the country's major tech conferences and answered tough questions about privacy. He went on to talk about "the gang of four" companies that are dominating consumer technologies.
New Platform Economics
This time Apple public relations has gone too far
Earlier today, Apple debuted iWork for iPhone and iPod touch. The iPad version has been available since the tablet launched 13 months ago. I was going to skip this one, since it's such a busy news day because of Computex and D9. But something in the press release is so outrageous, I had to write something. Do the mouthes of public relations people drip honey when they write these things?
"Pages is the most beautiful word processor ever designed for a mobile device and has everything you need to create amazing documents," the PR reads. Cough. Cough. What an audacious claim to make. Most beautiful word processor ever designed for a mobile device? By what measure, bud? Beauty is subjective, right?
Opera Next is now -- download the 11.50 beta
We love to report about betas here at Betanews. Opera has released Opera Next 11.50, codenamed "Swordfish." Opera Next, which is the beta version of the renowned Opera browser, installs alongside Opera, allowing users to road test new features without affecting their main Opera installation.
Opera Next 11.50 introduces two major new features: support for (secure) password synchronization through Opera Link, and support for Speed Dial extensions. These changes are accompanied by numerous minor feature updates and standards improvements, such as enhanced support for HTML5 and CSS.
Maybe Steve Jobs should reconsider the iPhone radiation app after all
Now that the World Health Organization and The International Agency for Research on Cancer have classified mobile RF radiation a Class 2B carcinogen, it might be time for Steve Jobs to reconsider his interest in tawkon, the cell phone radiation gauge he personally rejected from the iTunes App store.
Israel-based Tawkon Ltd. has devised an application that turns a smartphone's RF baseband processor data into an an easy-to-read graph that tells you roughly how much radiation your mobile phone is emitting. Though the developers had several "encouraging" meetings with Apple executives, and the app was already available both for BlackBerry and Android, the app was ultimately rejected by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
Mobile phones are as cancerous as HPV, engine exhaust, says WHO
The World Health Organization on Tuesday reclassified radio frequency electromagnetic fields generated by radio, television and wireless telecommunications as being possibly carcinogenic to humans.
A working group for The International Agency for Research on Cancer met over the last four days in May to assess and classify RF electromagnetic fields as a potential carcinogen, and the group found there to be positive, but limited causality between exposure to RF electromagnetism and glioma (glial cell tumors) and acoustic neuroma (intracranial tumor).
It's tablet overload at Computex
At Computex in Taiwan this week, it seems like every manufacturer is set to jump on the tablet train. By some counts, as many as 50 new tablet devices have already been announced at the show -- and many more previously announced entrants are on display.
We'll attempt to work through the clutter here and show you what's caught Betanews' eye -- trust us, it's difficult. We're noticing Honeycomb is playing a big part in these tablet announcements, and many seem to be trying gimmicks in order to grab consumer's attention. After all, Apple's leaving little of the current tablet market to fight over. Being different is certainly a positive.
Perhaps Microsoft didn't overpay for Skype after all
According to Pew Internet, nearly one quarter of American adult Internet users have placed phone calls online. That works out to 19 percent of U.S. adults. Hell, this is but one country -- with huge built-up telephony infrastructure. What about the world?
"On any given day 5 percent of internet users are going online to place phone calls," according to Pew. That may seem like a small number, but it's part of a big trend. The chart above -- and the steep climb in number of people who call online -- is graphic enough. The number of Internet users making online calls since April 2007 climbed from 8 percent to 24 percent three years later.
Test CyberLink PhotoDirector 2011 beta, get final code for free
There are few news stories I get to write that are more appropriate for Betanews readers than this one. Today CyberLink released PhotoDirector 2011 beta with a simple promise: Any tester offering "valid feedback" before June 20 will receive the software for free. Doh. Why aren't more software developers making such offers?
It's a no-brainer for you geeks and digital media enthusiasts living on the bleeding edge -- download the software, test it and offer CyberLink feedback. It's also no-brainer that more developers should look to so enticingly engage the beta software/service elite. As I've expressed for years, enthusiasts are any company's best marketers. But in the 2000s, unlike the 1990s, they haven't received much reward for their loyalty.
SanDisk unveils 128GB mobile tablet module
Currently, a mobile tablet is likely to offer on-board storage in one of three sizes: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. At Computex in Taipei today, SanDisk revealed a new SATA III SSD for mobile tablets and ultraportables that bumps storage up to the 128GB generation.
Sandisk's i100 drive is part of the company's integrated storage device series (iSSD) especially designed for tablets and ultrathin notebooks, which debuted last year. Claiming to be the world's smallest, fastest 128 GB SATA III BGA SSD, SanDisk says these units require as little as 10mW of power when their parent device is in sleep mode.
You hack us, we bomb you -- what's the right way to respond to cyberattacks?
Today's Wall Street Journal discusses the Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy. The interesting part is that it takes the position that some acts of computer sabotage ("cyberattacks") --shudder! I hate that term -- are "acts of war" and may be dealt with through conventional military force.
This is both obvious and frightening at the same time. The idea that you respond with literally lethal bombs in an attempt to shut down civilian or military infrastructure facilities is going to strike many as "disproportionate." There's something to proportionality, but you can take it too far. Recently, Palestinians in Gaza fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus. Would the proportional Israeli response have been to fire an anti-tank missile at a Palestinian school bus? If you feel you've been attacked wrongly you have every right to hit back hard, is there no good reason to limit yourself to the weapons of the enemy?
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