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Handhelds

RIM Announces BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet 184

Posted by Soulskill from the getting-into-the-game dept.
siliconbits writes "Today, at the BlackBerry Developers Conference in San Francisco, company President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis kicked off the event with the widely-anticipated news that RIM is developing a tablet PC of its own. Called the BlackBerry Playbook, the device is a 'Flash-loving,' 'device-paring,' 'enterprise ready' tablet, says RIM, with a 7-inch screen. It is 9.7 millimeters thick and features a 1024x600 widescreen display. It also supports 1080p through HDMI and has a USB port." The tablet will run on a dual-core, 1GHz CPU and have 1GB RAM. Its browser will be WebKit-based, and the device will be running a brand new operating system developed by QNX software. The tablet won't have 3G access of its own when it launches, but will be able to tether to existing BlackBerry devices via Bluetooth.

Comment Re:More Info & Dashboard (Score 1) 1657

by robson (#33074960) Attached to: Global Warming 'Undeniable,' Report Says

And while the humanitarian in me says, "It would be nice to help them," the realist in me says "Our civilizations got to the next level first. If the unadvanced civilizations wither away so that the advanced can prosper, that's how it should be."

Based on your post, I'd be hard-pressed to believe you have a humanitarian in you.

Comment Re:Go! (Score 1) 512

by robson (#30077622) Attached to: Google Under Fire For Calling Their Language "Go"

Google will send the guy a check with several zeroes in it, relieve their guilty conscience and call it a day. C'mon, you know it will happen that way.

So you're saying the original name for the language was "Goooooo", and they then chopped the five extra o's off and stuck them in the check?

Comment Not entirely unreasonable (Score 2, Interesting) 550

by robson (#30023214) Attached to: Visually Impaired Gamer Sues Sony
After reading TFA:

*It seems mostly focused on MMOs, but doesn't name any specific games.

*"Visually impaired" is not a euphemism for "blind" here - he literally means "people who can see, but not well". So much of the backlash is misguided ("Blind people are suing to play video games? LOLWUT? Next they'll want to drive???!!!?")

*His list of things that would make a difference are reasonable - high-contrast display modes, audio navigation cues, audio descriptions of items, and the like.

*HOWEVER... he then proceeds to state that Sony's causing him to LOSE MONEY because he could be selling his in-game items for real-world cash. Ugh.

So this thing isn't entirely over-the-top, but it definitely falls apart when he argues monetary loss.

Comment Re:Who is running Nielsen anyway, Leslie? (Score 1) 248

by robson (#29196157) Attached to: Nielsen Struggles To Track Modern Viewing Habits
"Basically, if you're watching it live, you are paying for the show, to some extent everyone else is leeching."

If you're watching it AND BEING MEASURED, you're paying for the show. So if you're watching it live and you're a Nielsen family, you're paying for the show. Or if you're watching it on the broadcasters' site, you're paying for the show. If you're average Jane & Joe with the TV on and nobody's watching you watch, then it doesn't matter.

Feed Firefly Reborn as Online Universe (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
The canceled sci-fi series enjoys a fan base as dedicated as the show's run was short. Now Firefly fanatics will be able to live in a massively multiplayer online universe carved from Joss Whedon's vision. A Wired News exclusive by Mark Wallace.


PlayStation (Games)

IEEE Spectrum On The PS3 Learning Curve 88

Posted by Zonk from the see-the-cells-divide dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Insomniacs is the cover article in the December issue of IEEE Spectrum, discussing developers ramping up to the PS3 hardware. The article features Insomniac Games, who developed the PS3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man. Despite mixed reports in the press, the Insomniac folks are delighted to be working with Sony's technology, and describe the process of helping to make or break a console launch." From the article: "Despite the delays, there's something inside the PS3 that burnished Sony's reputation as a hardware company. The heart of the machine is the powerful new Cell Broadband Engine microprocessor. Developed over the last five years by Sony, IBM, and Toshiba on a reported budget of $400 million, the Cell is not just another chip: it is a giant leap beyond the current generation of computer processors into a nextgen muscle machine optimized for multimedia tasks."
Security

DHS Passenger Scoring Almost Certainly Illegal 181

Posted by Zonk from the i-feel-safter dept.
Vicissidude writes "At the National Targeting Center, the Automated Targeting System program harvests up to 50 fields of passenger data from international flights, including names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and uses watchlists, criminal databases and other government systems to assign risk scores to every passenger. When passengers deplane, Customs and Border Protection personnel then target the high scorers for extra screening. Data and the scores can be kept for 40 years, shared widely, and be used in hiring decisions. Travelers may neither see nor contest their scores. The ATS program appears to fly in the face of legal requirements Congress has placed in the Homeland Security appropriations bills for the last three years." From the article: "Marc Rotenberg, the director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said he was unaware of the language but that it clearly applies to the Automated Targeting System, not just Secure Flight, the delayed successor to CAPPS II. 'Bingo, that's it -- the program is unlawful,' Rotenberg said. 'I think 514(e) stands apart logically (from the other provisions) and 514 says the restrictions apply to any 'other follow-on or successor passenger prescreening program'. It would be very hard to argue that ATS as applied to travelers is not of the kind contemplated (by the lawmakers).'"

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