Technology and Life

Google has stepped into the smartphone navigation app market with Maps Navigation, which is based on its Maps for mobile app and gives the user live turn-by-turn directions, among other features. Though Maps for mobile is available on many smartphone platforms, for the time being, only Android 2.0 phones like the upcoming Droid will be able to use Maps Navigation. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) on Wednesday announced the beta release of a GPS navigation application for Android 2.0 devices.

Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0

The application is part of Google Maps for mobile. Android version 2.0 will appear on the upcoming Droid handset from Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Verizon, and other manufacturers also plan to release handsets carrying the updated, Google-backed mobile OS.

Although Google makes other mobile applications that work on a variety of mobile platforms, it’s unclear when or if its new nav app will make its way to Android rivals like the iPhone or Research In Motion’s (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry devices.

Continue Reading »

Amazon’s Kindle software isn’t going to be limited to the e-reading device: following Amazon’s announcement at the Windows 7 launch that it has released a version of the Kindle Reader software for PCs (”Kindle for PC“), the company has also revealed that it’s building a Mac version of the software. Neither version requires that you own a Kindle in order to download books.

An Amazon spokesperson in contact with Fast Company told the magazine: “Yes, we are working on a Kindle () app for Mac.”

The move is a smart one: having the Kindle software available on all PCs and Macs radically extends the range of devices that can connect to the Kindle Store. But whether this is a move towards being more open is debatable: for now, anyone switching from a Kindle to another e-reader cannot move their books over.

The incident is being investigated by the police

Computer hackers have targeted the Guardian newspaper’s jobs website in a “sophisticated and deliberate” move, the company has said.

The breach put the personal details of some of the site’s users at risk, and those who may have been affected have been identified and e-mailed.

The Guardian said it had since been “assured” by the supplier that runs the site that the system was now secure.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s e-crime unit are investigating.

The Guardian says its jobs site attracts more than two million unique users a month.

The company e-mailed those affected, saying: “You have used the site to make one or more job applications and we believe your personal data, relating to those applications, may have been accessed.”

It said there was “no reason to believe” financial or banking data was compromised, but passed on police advice about taking precautions, such as contacting creditors and asking them to monitor users’ accounts.

Recipients of the e-mail were also given the details of several organisations offering advice and services on identity fraud. Continue Reading »

Users may not be able to add Apple features to an unlocked phone

An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use.

Earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device “permanently inoperable”.

Thousands of iPhone owners hacked their expensive gadget in order to unlock it for use with other mobile carriers and to run a host of unsupported programs.

There are also reports of the update causing issues with unaltered iPhones.

On Monday Apple issued a statement in which it said many of the unauthorised iPhone unlocking programs caused “irreparable damage” to the device’s software.

The company said this would “likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed”.

Continue Reading »

VGA is the shimmer with a chip processingnya using 40nm manufacturing so that it can accommodate more transistor in the total is 826 million, proportionate 9800GT still using the 65nm and 55nm manufacturing. Additionally Radeon HD 4770 provides GDDR5 memory faster, but unfortunately the amount of video memory (frame buffer size) have provided a new 512 MB, the process of reaching 960 GLOPs, clock speed at 750 MHz and memory clock of 800 MHz using the memory bus 128 -bit, and power consumption about 80 watts.

ATI Radeon HD 4770

Continue Reading »

The eDGe device will fold like a book and will be used as an e-reader and a netbook.

Like Harvey “Two-Face” Dent, a new dual-screen device has two faces to match its double identity: It promises to be an electronic book reader and a netbook at the same time.

The Wi-Fi enabled device, called eDGe, will fold like a book and can be used as an e-reader. It will also serve as a digital notepad you can use to write notes or highlight text, send e-mails and instant messages, browse the Internet and run apps, say the device’s creators. Under the hood, eDGe will be powered by Google’s Android operating system.

The left half of the eDGe will have a 9.7-inch E Ink e-paper display. Users will be able to read e-books in PDF and EPUB format and take notes or draw diagrams using a stylus. The right side of the device is a 10.1-inch LCD touchscreen that can be used to check e-mail and surf the Web.

The $490 eDGe won’t be available until February, 2010, says its creator, Entourage Systems, a startup based in McLean, Virginia. But the company is taking pre-orders for the device.

Continue Reading »

Windows 7, the new Microsoft operating system that went on sale Thursday, is getting good reviews. But is it right for you?

After eight years and a lot of grumbling — Vista, anyone? — Microsoft has finally released a new operating system that people seem excited about.

Windows 7, which went on sale Thursday, promises a smoother user experience, multi-touchscreen capability and more seamless networking with other computers.

Early reviews have been good.

“We think it’s a far superior product to the previous Microsoft operating systems,” says Vishal Dhar, co-founder of iYogi, a tech services company. “It’s got a more intuitive interface.”

Great. But it is right for you? Which version of the software best fits your needs? And are there tricks to installing Windows 7 and navigating its new features?

We anticipate seven of the most common questions about Windows 7 and offer some advice: Continue Reading »