Sun

Netbook VPC, Fidelity, $250

While most manufacturers are adding features and upping the size of their netbooks — and their prices — Fidelity Electronics is going the other direction. Its newly launched Fidelity Netbook VPC (for “Very Personal Computer”) is true to the mini-notebook origins, but it includes a spreadsheet, word processor, a media player for movies, music and photos, an e-book reader, dictionary, calendar, and other useful items. The display screen is among the smallest in netbooks, at seven inches (17.7 cm) and internal storage is only 2 GB. Its rechargeable battery has a three-hour life, and it has USB, SD and Ethernet ports. At a featherweight 1.5 pounds, it’s among the lightest netbooks out there. The new VPC is scheduled to start arriving on store shelves in March. www.fidelity.com.

Inspiron Mini 10, Dell, $480

Dell’s Inspiron Mini 10 fills the niche between the company’s Mini 9 and Mini 12. On its arrival, it has most of the standard netbook features, but Dell is planning to add options later this year that could make the latest Mini an entertainment machine. Slightly heftier than its junior sibling, at 1.3 kilograms (or 2.86 pounds), it also comes with a larger keyboard at 92 per cent of a full-size one. Including features that are pretty much standard on the growing netbook lineups being rolled out by computer makers, it has built-in WiFi, Webcam, 1 GB of RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive, with Windows XP. It also comes with HDMI output, to be followed up with entertainment options for the Mini 10 later this year that include an internal digital TV tuner, HD resolution, and external USB DVD player options. www.dell.ca. You can also find out more by following Dell’s Canadian Dell sales on Twitter at Twitter.com/DellHomeSalesCA.

SideWinder X8 Mouse, Microsoft, $120

For gamers, Microsoft bills its latest in the SideWinder line as having the best frame rate, speed and acceleration on the market, with a tracking range from 250 dots per inch (dpi) to 4,000 dpi. It adds the BlueTrack technology of the Microsoft Explorer mouse and the Microsoft Explorer mini mouse that lets it work on virtually any surface. Combine that with 2.4 GHz wireless and up to 30 hours of game-playing time on a single charge, or use the play-and-charge cable. www.microsoft.com/canada/hardware.

G-Pen F509, Genius, $110 US

The latest in Genius’ digital tablets, the G-Pen comes with both Windows Vista and Mac software. Meant to make it easy to carry around, with a 13 cm-by-22 cm (5.25 inch-by-8.75 inch) working area, this makes a paperless solution for artists, sketchers, bloggers and others who want to use a digital pen. www.geniusnetusa.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Kris Abel
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Parents, experts and educators question text messaging

Byron Acohido
USA Today

New and nasty banking trojans are on the rise on the Internet and attacking online bank accounts.

The new trojan programs — which wait on your hard drive for an opportunity to crack your online banking account — are different from traditional “phishing” e-mail scams that try to trick you into typing your login information at fake bank websites.

They’re invisible, can steal data multiple ways and require no action by the victim to be launched.

“Phishing doesn’t work as well as it used to,” says Patrik Runald, security specialist at F-Secure, the Internet security firm. “Banking trojans provide a very effective and direct means for the bad guys to get their hands on the money.”

 

Banking trojans can be gotten by clicking on a viral link to a greeting card or video that arrives in e-mail spam. Or, they can be picked up by clicking to a Web page that’s been corrupted by hackers.

F-Secure tallied 59,177 unique banking trojans circulating on the Internet in 2008, up from 15,969 in 2007. The escalation partly underscores how intensively criminal hackers churn out new variants to escape detection by antivirus programs.

Banking trojans “are more advanced and evolving faster than antivirus solutions,” says Gunter Ollmann at IBM Internet Security Systems.

The American Bankers Association acknowledges the rise. Doug Johnson, vice president of risk management policy, notes that most U.S. banks try to make certain that online customers log in from their usual computer.

Losses caused from unauthorized transactions aren’t known. Banks generally don’t disclose them.

A typical banking trojan remains dormant until the customer logs on to a banking website. It then steals usernames and passwords by capturing keystrokes or copying the log-on page after the victim has filled it out.

So-called man-in-the-middle trojans go further. One type makes illicit cash transfers while the victim is legitimately logged on. Another can reproduce a copy of the Web page showing account balances — except with the balances altered to show the numbers the victim expects to see. This buys time for the thief to drain the account and hide his trail, Ollmann says.

Despite the trojans, Johnson of the bankers’ association insists “online banking, on balance, is safe.”

Sun

LaCinema Classic, LaCie, $230

This is a 500-gigabyte multimedia hard drive device that you can load up from your computer and then plug into the HDMI port on your television to see the contents on the widescreen. It lets you digitally store movies, music and photos, making your entertainment collection mobile. It has a high-speed USB 2.0 to plug into any PC or Mac computer. www.lacie.com

Home Media Network Hard Drive, Iomega, $290

More on the home entertainment front arriving in Canada, this hard drive lets you share photos, videos and music around all the devices on your network. Save the files in one spot and play them back on your game console, digital photo frame, your networked television or other devices. It has built-in iTunes support.

www.iomega.com.

iBoo,Speakal, US$90

It somehow seems out of season — the iBoo which launched this month looks like it would be right at home at Halloween. With a built-in iPod docking station, it combines form and function with the smiley mouth a sensor for receiving remote control commands and the eyes mid- and high-range speakers with the subwoofer hidden below. It delivers 15 watts of sound and comes with its own remote control. As well as the iPod dock it includes cradles and the standard auxiliary 3.5 mm input jack to provide connectivity to a range of audio players, cellphones and other devices.

COOLPIX P90, Nikon, $500

Nikon’s new COOLPIX line has the new P90 for photo enthusiasts and others who want features more advanced than the typical point-and-shoot camera. It has a 24-times optical zoom Nikkor lens with 12.1-megapixel resolution. Its three-inch (7.6 cm) vari-angle LCD monitor can tilt as much as 90 degrees upward or 45 degrees downward. Its smart portrait system automatically detects as many as 12 faces in a shot and a smile timer automatically releases the shutter when the subject of the photo smiles. www.nikon.ca.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

 

Download dos and don’ts

Gillian Shaw
Sun

One of the miracles of the Internet is that you can find almost any form of entertainment your heart desires.

At 23, Greg Andrews is of a generation that has grown up with digital entertainment offerings freely available online.

“It is really ridiculous how much is out there and it is not that hard to get to,” said Andrews.

And, he says, online access has led him to spend more money seeing live music.

“The access to music I have been able to get over the past eight years of my life has expanded my musical taste immensely and arguably I have spent more on music because of it — going to live events, which is where artists get a decent share of the ticket sales.”

But while downloading music is now de rigueur, increases in Internet speed and computer power have led to accessing movies on the Internet. And while a lot of people seem to be enjoying films that are still in the theatres, and watching them for free, that is probably illegal under the Copyright Act. So for those content to pay and play by the rules, here’s an introduction to getting movies off the Web, as well as offering some pointers on staying out of trouble.

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Where can I legally download movies?

BitTorrent is a hugely popular form of peer-to-peer file sharing for everything from music to movies to software, but it comes with no guarantees of protecting you from the dangers of copyright infringement or from malware and other potential threats. There are sites available for Canadian consumers that offer legal, pay movie downloading services, including iTunes, Bell Video Store and others that offer movies for sale or rent.

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I have just found the newly released movie Taken on the Internet — free! Can I legally download it?

No. Availability doesn’t indicate legality. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (http://www.cmpda.org) has anti-piracy operations that investigate movie piracy.

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My 14-year-old downloaded Slumdog Millionaire and I got a warning letter from my Internet service provider. What should I do?

Michael Geist, Canada research chair of Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said he gets questions like this regularly. His advice:

“Recipients should understand that this is a notice. While it does not have legal weight, it carries a warning about infringing activities. Recipients do not need to contact the sender, but they may want to consider whether their actions violate the law and whether they want to put a stop to such behaviour. Experience suggests that the majority of people stop the infringements once a notice has been received.”

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I want to buy movies without getting off the couch and without getting arrested.

There are a number of different ways to achieve this and Theo Horsdal, computer buyer for London Drugs, runs through some of the options:

– You can use Apple TV, at $249 for a 40-gigabyte version and $349 for 160 gigs, legally and hassle-free. Plug it into your widescreen television, high-def or not, navigate through a series of menus much like an iPod, and click to start viewing the movie of your choice. You don’t even need a computer, just a wired or wireless Internet connection that is hooked up to your television. Buy or rent from iTunes.

– Stream digital content — whether it’s your summer vacation video, music or photos — over your home network to your Xbox or PlayStation3 to show it on your TV. Iomega’s Home Media Network Hard Drive will be available in Canada next month and at $290 it will act as a hard drive to store all your digital content. You just plug it into your network to share files with your gaming console, networked television or other devices.

– You may be able to find it online now, but by next month London Drugs will have LaCie’s LaCinema Classic, a $230 hard-drive device with 500 gigs that you can simply plug into the HDMI port on your television so you can see its digital contents on your TV. Good solution for those who hyperventilate at the suggestion they set up their own network.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Sun

109 Lips, Mybelle, $24

In case you didn’t get that special kiss for Valentine’s Day, you can get your own Mybelle Lips. Totally old-school corded phone with last number redial about the fanciest feature — but who needs features when you can add these hot lips to your décor. From the United Kingdom‘s Lazerbuilt. www.mybelle.co.uk. We saw these hot lips on shelves at Urban Outfitters.

MX20 camcorder, Samsung, $300

Looking good in red, plus with an optimized recording mode for your YouTube contributions. A Schneider lens with 34-times optical zoom, face detection and image stabilization. Up to 30 hours of recording possible on a 32-GB memory. www.samsung.com.

Wasabi PZ310 printer, Dell, $190

Will you have a side of sushi with that printer? Ultra mobile, Dell’s Wasabi PZ310 handheld printer works with Bluetooth-enabled camera phones, cameras and mobile PCs to churn out instant wallet-size photos. Perfect if you have one of Dell’s Inspiron

Minis or another netbook from the growing number available with various manufacturers. It weighs a mere 200 grams, measuring 12 cm by 7.1 cm and 2.3 cm deep. Prints on sticky-back photo paper for decorating your locker or making a scrapbook, and holds up to 12 sheets of paper especially designed for the printer. No ink, but instead ZINK — Zero Ink — a new technology that uses special ZINK paper with dye crystals embedded inside that are activated by the ZINK-enabled device. Available in pink, black and blue. www.dell.ca

Acoustibuds, Burton Ideas, $13 US

Earphone adapters, these flexible silicone rubber attachments fit on your earbuds to help them fit and sound better. They have five or six little fins making them flex to fit and stay in your ears. They were a Consumer Electronics Show innovations design and engineering honoree for 2009. Compatible with a long list of headsets and earphones, you can check them at www.acoustibuds.com.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

How to fact-check your significant maybe

Ethan Baron
Province

Go ahead, fall in love. But don’t forget to check for skeletons in the closet.

You don’t want to end up being someone’s bloody Valentine.

Tomorrow marks the first Valentine’s Day on which a new online investigative tool has been available to British Columbians. It’s never been so easy to find out if the person who makes your heart throb should make you run for your life.

Meet “Justin,” your best defence against Cupid’s whims.

B.C.’s court services have put the “Justin” provincial court-records system on the Internet. Go to Court Services Online.

Leave the court location blank, so the search covers all B.C., plug in a name, and up comes the criminal history. You can find out if your significant maybe has been charged with a crime, when and where they appeared in court, and what the result was if there has been one.

First-degree murder, sexual assault, uttering threats, criminal harassment, theft, drug-dealing — you can get it all. Justin even shows speeding tickets.

Now, this search works best if your love interest has an unusual name. Search for Mike Smith or Jennifer Jones and you’re going to get a lot of different people. It helps if you know the person’s middle name. You can narrow it down if you know their age — go to the “participants” tab and you’ll get a year of birth for the accused.

If you’re still not sure, you can visit the registry of the court that handled the case, and ask for whatever files are publicly available.

Justin is an excellent new tool to protect yourself from heartbreak, or worse. But, with so many liars, cheats, thieves, con artists, perverts, sociopaths, psychopaths, drug addicts, drunks, deadbeats, derelicts and even gangsters among us, you need additional Cupid-control.

Facebook can be a treasure-trove of personal information, especially if someone doesn’t limit access to their profile, or if you and the other person have become Facebook friends.

Vancouver public-relations consultant Nicole Hall, 24, met a man from Regina while on vacation in the Dominican Republic. Travis assured her he was single. Although Hall typically checks Facebook before dating someone, she was on vacation and let her personal rules slide. But before she flew home, she agreed to Travis’s suggestion that she add him on Facebook. Back home, she checked his profile, which showed he was “in a relationship.”

“He basically flat-out lied about his relationship status,” Hall says. “He’s kind of a sleazebag and not really someone that I would ever really want to associate myself with again.”

Even without access to someone’s profile, you can usually see who their friends are, unless they’re one of the few Facebook users who restrict that from public view. Are his friends smoking joints and throwing gang signs? Are her friends flaunting prison tattoos and drinking straight from the whiskey bottle? You may want to cancel that coffee date.

This Valentine’s Day, listen to your heart. Then go online, and get a second opinion.

© Copyright (c) The Province

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Sun

GoLITE PI, Philips Home Healthcare Solutions, $190

If Groundhog Day came and went and you wanted to crawl back into a burrow, it may be time to break out the light therapy. Blue light therapy is supposed to help banish the winter blues and goLITE PI offers that with its BLUEWAVE technology. Programmable and with adjustable intensity, a carry case and AC adapter.

SnorePro, HBI-USA, $100 US

It’s not much use if the blue light therapy is supposed to help you sleep and your partner is snoring away like a bandsaw. A more sophisticated option than digging your elbow into the offender is the SnorePro, which has somewhat the same effect as a nudge, except delivered with a digital pulse. It’s supposed to make the snorer change positions, and stop the noise. It is worn like a wristwatch and has a LCD screen to track your snoring history. It also helps identify factors that can affect your decibel level — like sleep position, booze and cigarettes.

MFC-990CW Wireless Network Colour Inkjet All-in-One, Brother Canada, $250

A built-in 5.8-GHz cordless handset adds to the convenience of Brother’s latest all-in-one offering. That includes a digital answering machine and a full-duplex speakerphone. Built-in WiFi as well as regular wired interface helps clear the desk clutter. It also has Bluetooth wireless so you can print JPG photos from most hand-held devices that have Bluetooth. It also has on-screen photo editing on the 10.7-cm (4.2-inch) touchscreen colour LCD and a 15-sheet automatic document feeder for unattended faxing, copying or scanning. A plus for techno-phobes is Brother’s toll-free technical support that goes for the lifetime of the machine. www.brother.ca

FinePix A150, Fujifilm, $150

Another in the New Year’s lineup of affordable and high-featured point-and-shoot cameras. Even though these cameras are supposed to be entry-level versions, they offer much of the sophistication we used to expect only in much higher-end cameras. The FinePix A150 is 10-megapixels, with a three-times optical zoom, Face Detection technology with automatic red-eye removal, and high-sensitivity of ISO 1600 for low-light and picture stabilization technology help deliver sharper photos so no one need know you only spent $150 on it, a figure that seems to be the new sweet spot for entry-level point-and-shoot cameras.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun