AdminSpy Latest Gadgets and Gizmos

Dell desperate to acquire 3Par

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:14:00 +0100

Last week Dell offered $18 a share but then Hewlett Packard decided that they want it too and offered $24 a share which is 33 percent higher than Dell's offer.

Dell's original bid agreement had a provision for matching any competing bids.

Dell has raised its offer to $24.30 a share, narrowly beating a bid submitted by Hewlett Packard.

In a statement released on Thursday morning Dell said that data storage provider 3Par accepted their latest offer.

3Par is the second storage company Dell managed to acquire.

Back in 2007 Dell acquired EqualLogic for $1.4 billion, and in 2008 Hewlett Packard bought LeftHand Networks for $360 million, a company with similar storage technology.

Article Source Dell desperate to acquire 3Par

Apple iPad Goes on Sale today

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:06:00 +0100

Apple’s new iPad is available in all 221 US Apple retail stores and most Best Buy stores from today.

Starting price for a new iPad is $499 which is sort of reasonable price for normally overpriced Apple's products but what do you get for that money?

For those of you who don't know Apple iPad lets you browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos and movies, listen to music, play games and read ebooks, all using iPad’s Multi-Touch user interface.

Apple iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds and is thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook currently available on the market. Battery life is not so great, Apple says the battery will last for up to 10 hours but we know that is not true.

So what is available today? Today you can buy only 16GB, 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi enabled Apple iPads.

3G enabled Apple iPads will go on sale later on this month and they won't be as affordable as Wi-Fi only iPads. 16GB 3G iPad will retail for $629, 32GB for $729 and 64GB iPad will cost you $829.

Bear in mind that you won't be able to see Flash content on your iPads and flash videos because Apple won't allow Adobe and other developers to interact with the underlying hardware so Adobe is unable to produce flash plugins for iPhone and iPad devices.

Have you bought an iPad today? Tell us what you think in the comments area below.

Article Source Apple iPad Goes on Sale today

Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise completes her first flight

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:15:00 +0000

Virgin Galactic announced today that VSS Enterprise has completed her inaugural captive carry flight over California’s Mojave Desert.

The flight lasted almost 3 hours and the spacecraft reached an altitude of 45000 feet.

According to Virgin this very first flight was a huge success and both the mothership and spaceship looked absolutely stunning against the blue back drop of the Mojave skies.

The VSS Enterprise test flight programme will continue through 2010 and 2011, progressing from captive carry to independent glide and then powered flight, prior to the start of commercial operations.

Article Source Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise completes her first flight

FCC Reveals New Broadband Plan

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:56:00 +0000

The US Federal Communications Commission has officially released country’s first national broadband plan which will provide Americans with the fastest and most extensive wireless network in the world.

The plan, 360 pages long, aims at assuring that at least 100 million homes have affordable access to broadband networks by 2020.

The access to broadband network will allow users to download data from Internet at speeds of at least 100Mbps, about 25 times faster than the current average.

Currently, average speed is at 4 Mbps, even Internet services over cable or fiber offers speeds of between 5-6Mbps.

The FCC blueprint says, "Like electricity a century ago, broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life."

The national broadband plan would phase out the telephone subsidies in the US$4.6 billion-a-year program over 10 years and put the money into a new broadband deployment program.

Article Source FCC Reveals New Broadband Plan

Apple iTouch users forced to pay £5.99 if they want the latest update

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:14:00 +0100

The other day a friend of mine, who is not very computer savvy, asked me to update iTunes on his PC and then download the latest version of software for iPod Touch and iPhone (V3.0).

Being very technical and also a sad owner of an iPhone 3G I thought “No probs buddy, I can quickly do that for you”. BUT SHOCK. Found that Apple wants to charge £5.99 for installing the latest update which covers lots of security flaws discovered in the previous version and some new “fancy features” that mask the fact that they are charging you for updates!

You should be able to get the updates for free and then if you want to watch Movies on your iPod/iTouch or be able to copy and paste (whoopee doo!), then surely have a separate option to purchase these for the extortionate amount of £5.99!! What do they take us for! Really!

SO let me clarify: I design a very buggy application and then offer you an update for £5.99. So it’s up to you if you wanna surf the web with a buggy version of Safari with lots of known vulnerabilities OR you can give me your hard earned £5.99 and have a working iTouch/iPod but feel like a right jackass. Surely that must be illegal?

V3.0 update allows the devices to use new apps, and it also unlocks the Bluetooth functionality on the second-generation iPod Touch. Pay attention here (UNLOCK) – means that the hardware and everything else required for Bluetooth was already there apart from willingness from Apple to give it to you for free.

Just imagine if Microsoft was to charge for every single security update they release, how much would that cost you. Apple shame on you. Apple even charged iPod users for a Bluetooth functionality which was already built into their devices but disabled on purpose by Apple while working out how to make more money on that “technology” and how to restrict it so it uses only “Apple certified Bluetooth devices”.

Apple behaviour is really doing my head in lately. First there was an iPhone with no MMS, Skype, Bluetooth, rubbish battery life, no video recorder, poor camera quality and poor signal and they charge lots of money for products that look nice but don’t perform that well. Bluetooth headsets that cost £60+ (Like my Nokia headset is not good enough???) and then this latest stunt where they charge people £5.99 to update their ipods.

£5.99 x 152 million sold iTouch/iPods = £????? Kerching!!!! Who is the crazy one here? I think Apple are – and I can see how crazy they could get rolling around in all of those notes! :-/

Anyone fancies buying my iPhone? I have decided to stay away from everything that has that tiny Apple logo stuck on it.

Please spread the word. This can not be tolerated.

Nenad Rajsic

Article Source Apple iTouch users forced to pay £5.99 if they want the latest update

Oracle buys Sun Microsystems for $7 billion

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:45:00 +0100

The announcement on Monday surprised many Oracle watchers, who believed the company can boost profitability at Sun’s software businesses but were unsure if it can be as successful with Sun’s hardware unit amid stiff competition against IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and new entrant Cisco Systems Inc.

“It’s an out-of-the-box, left-field type of a deal because Oracle is buying a predominantly hardware business,” said Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan. “The push-pull of the deal is the uncertainty of the hardware business with the earnings accretion of the software business.”

Oracle will pay $9.50 a share for Sun, which values the high-end server and software maker at about $7.06 billion, based on 743 million shares outstanding as of the end of its second fiscal quarter on December 28, according to Sun.

Sun had previously rejected IBM’s offer to pay up to $9.40 a share, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

Shares of Sun jumped 35.7 percent to $9.08 in morning Nasdaq trading, while Oracle shares fell 3.7 percent to $18.36. Shares of IBM, which did not immediately return calls for comment, fell 1.8 percent to $99.49 on the NYSE.

Oracle President Safra Catz said on a conference call that Oracle intends to make the hardware division profitable. Sun’s top-selling products are high-end servers and storage equipment.

Source: Routers

Article Source Oracle buys Sun Microsystems for $7 billion

PUMA - 2 Seater Electric Vehicle from Segway

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:17:00 +0100

Anyhow PUMA is a two-wheeled, two seater electric vehicle developed by GM and Segway Inc. Last week they unveiled a prototype of PUMA vehicle for which they say will be a safe, clean alternative to regular automobiles.

For those of you who don't know Segway is the maker of Segway Personal Transporter (PT) which only rich people can afford and one of them is Apple co-funder Steve Wozniak - (he is too fat to walk :).

According to Segway, PUMA is capable of traveling at speeds of 25 to 35 mph and it can be driven for 30 miles on a single charge.

PUMA uses lithium-ion batteries and according to Segway it will cost around 60 cents in electric costs each time it is recharged.

If you have rich parents then you might be able to drive this thing one day.

Article Source PUMA - 2 Seater Electric Vehicle from Segway

Toshiba launches 512 GB SSD drive for notebooks

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:37:00 +0000

The drives also will come in capacities of 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB, which will be available in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch enclosures. Samples of the new products will be available in the first quarter of next year, with mass production scheduled for the second quarter.

Toshiba plans to showcase the storage device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The new drive is one of a series of SSDs built with Toshiba’s latest 43-nanometer manufacturing process.

Toshiba’s second-generation SSDs include a multilevel cell controller that achieves read/write speeds of 240 MBps and 200 MBps, respectively. The drives also offer data encryption that complies with the Advanced Encryption Standard.

Other specs include a serial ATA-2 interface and a mean time between failures of 1 million hours. Depending on the model, the drives weigh from a half-ounce to about 2 ounces. SSDs are typically lighter, are more durable, consume less power, and deliver higher performance than traditional hard-disk drives.

The technology, however, costs much more per gigabyte than HDDs. As a result, SSDs are used in select applications, such as mini-laptops where less weight and more durability in a storage device are important.

Article Source Toshiba launches 512 GB SSD drive for notebooks

Facebook VS Canadian spammer

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:19:00 +0000

Facebook wins $873m judgment against a Canadian spammer who spammed users of the social networking site with “sexually explicit” messages after hacking into the profiles of its members.

Adam Guerbuez was ordered to pay 873m by US District Judge Jeremy Fogel last Friday.

Adam Guerbuez did not contest the case, which also resulted in an injunction against him that effectively prevents him from accessing Facebook for any reason ever again.

Guerbuez bombarded Facebook users with four million messages promoting male enhancement pills and other related products.

He tricked users into coughing up their login details using a variety of phishing tricks, then used these compromised profiles to bombard other users with invasive messages.

Facebook have little hope recovering anything but a tiny fraction of the award but are still gunning for Guerbuez.

Source: Register

Article Source Facebook VS Canadian spammer

USB 3.0 Specifications Announced

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:46:00 +0000

A USB 3.0 host adapter will still be compatible with the high-speed transfer mode introduced officially with USB 2.0, which goes up to 60 MB/s (480 Mbit/s).

The SuperSpeed mode requires new USB cables (pictured) which, in addition to the existing pair of data lines (D+/D-), which only had to be implemented as an unshielded twisted pair (UTP), now use a separate shielded pair of conductors for each direction of transfer, and a common shield covers the whole cable to give compliance with electromagnetic compatibility limit values.

USB 3.0 plugs will also have five additional contacts, while remaining compatible with existing USB sockets, because the new contacts have been squeezed into previously unused positions.

Article Source USB 3.0 Specifications Announced