ERIC KOHANIK
Sun

This is a story about a gizmo that is changing the way I watch my TV at home. In fact, I can watch my TV even if I’m not home. Over the years, a lot of technology has altered how we consume television: VCRs, DVDs, PVRs/DVRs and iPods have all had a hand in that. But the Slingbox is in a whole other league. For the uninitiated, here’s the lowdown. A Slingbox is a nifty device from Sling Media (www.slingmedia.com) that lets you link video sources – say, cable or satellite service, a PVR/DVR, DVD player, camera or other unit – from your TV to the Internet and, ultimately, your computer. Or, for that matter, almost anything that can access the web. You can then watch any shows you might normally watch on your TV – but watch them on a computer or mobile device. It’s not a big deal if you’re at home. But, imagine that you and your laptop are in some faraway place. You’re dying to watch the local news back home, or an episode of a favourite show you just recorded. With a Slingbox, you can watch it all via your computer, anywhere in the world, with onscreen remote controls that can do everything your real ones back home can do. Tech-savvy TV junkies have known about the Slingbox for a while. TV stations are even using them in their news operations, hooking a camera up to a Slingbox instead of using a satellite or microwave truck. The Slingbox is available in various models. We grabbed a top-of-the-line, HDTV-compatible Slingbox Pro, purchased through BestBuy.ca for $259.99 ($284.99 minus a $25 online coupon). Plus tax, of course. To access your HDTV source, you also need a Sling Media HD Connect, which we got for $53.99 at Best Buy’s sister chain, Future Shop. (It was two bucks cheaper there.) The hookups are easy; the wiring comes with the Slingbox unit. You’ll likely need a hub or router to link it to your modem or home computer network. High-speed cable or DSL Internet service is a must-have, too. A disc with the necessary SlingPlayer computer software is included, although it contains only the PC-based Windows version. Macintosh and mobile versions can be downloaded from Sling Media’s website. We installed the SlingPlayer on a PC with a Pentium D dual processor using Windows XP. The Mac version went onto an iBook G4 that is running OS X 10.4. The onscreen setup and appearance are slightly different in each case. And using wireless Internet access may limit the streaming speed. Nevertheless, both SlingPlayers passed with flying colours in steady, day-to-day use. And, believe me, mine sure gets a lot of steady, day-to-day use. There are those who say there’s no place like home to watch TV. If you can’t be home, though, a Slingbox is a great way to take a little bit of home along with you.

Uses cellular technology, human trackers to find cars

Laura Payton
Province

A device that uses cellular technology to track stolen cars is now available in B.C,

The LoJack, already in use in Quebec and Ontario, is a small radio transceiver that allows your vehicle to be traced.

“It’s about the size of a chalkboard eraser,” said Craig Armstrong, general manager of Boomerang, the company that distributes LoJack in B.C.

“It’s a device that’s hidden in your vehicle . . . in one of about 20 or 30 spots, depending on the type of vehicle that you have, so that thieves do not know that there’s something hidden in the car.”

A car is stolen every half-hour in B.C., according to the Insurance Corp. of B.C. Calculated per person, that’s two and a half times the theft rate in Toronto.

But while Armstrong says the trend elsewhere is to strip cars for parts or ship them overseas, B.C.’s thieves still mainly use the cars for short-term transportation or to commit other crimes, said Kate Best of ICBC.

“We’re dealing with a bit of a different auto-crime problem than they see in other parts of Canada,” she said. “Generally speaking, about 90 to 95 per cent of stolen vehicles in B.C. are recovered.”

Best said most cars are found within a week.

ICBC suggests using an engine immobilizer to prevent the theft in the first place. They cost between $200 and $300.

The LoJack costs $699. After one year, there is an additional $12-a-month service fee.

For another $200, the company sells a key fob device. If the car moves without the fob being swiped, the company phones the owner.

Each time your car is stolen, the bill for tracing it and recovering it is $250.

When The Province tested the LoJack, the car was parked three levels down in the Pacific Centre to minimize the cellular signal.

The trackers found it in 20 minutes by looking at which cell tower last transmitted the car’s location and the direction in which it was transmitting. Then they drove around the area looking for the vehicle in underground parkades.

“Undergrounds are definitely more difficult,” said Bruce Funk, a tracker for LoJack and expert in cellphone security. “You just need to have more patience.”

ICBC advises prevention methods like investing in a good anti-theft device, not leaving anything inside your car and parking in well-lit areas. It also has a list on its website for most-stolen vehicles. The 1994 Dodge Caravan and 1995 Honda Civic top the list.

© The Vancouver Province 2007

 

NEW FEATURE: Website adds astronomical program

Sun

VONAGE V-PHONE — $30 CDN

Vonage is billing its V-Phone as the students’ pizza-priced solution for keeping in touch with anyone around the world. It’s facing tough competition from Skype but the little USB plug-and-play device fits on a keychain and lets students take their phone service and their number wherever they go. The phone plans are extra.

BELKIN WASHABLE MOUSE — $40 CDN

We’re certain our grimy computer mouse carries roughly as many germs as the real thing so perhaps a mouse that you can wash isn’t a bad idea. And the folks at Belkin aren’t just talking about a little drop of water — they put the mouse under the tap. So perhaps that little drop of coffee won’t destroy this water-resistant rodent. Plugs into a USB connection.

CANON PIXMA MP470 ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER — $150 CDN

For the photo-taking-challenged among us, Canon’s new all-in-one printers have “autoimage fix,” a feature that analyzes and categorizes scenes and optimizes them according to their type — whether it’s portraits, scenery or something else. The MP470 and the MP210, both new releases and sharing the autoimage fix and “quick start,” a feature that fires up the machine for use without a delay, are expected on store shelves this summer. The MP470, which has a 4.6-cm flip-up LCD panel making it easy to view photos straight from memory cards before printing them, has an optional Bluetooth adapter for an extra $100. The MP210 all-in-one, an even more budget-student version is $100.

KENSINGTON FLYLIGHT USB NOTEBOOK LIGHT — $20 US

It used to be we only needed a little book light to keep reading after everyone else was asleep. Now we need the laptop computer version to see the computer when the lights are out. Also helpful for those road trips where someone else has to do the nighttime driving and you want to check e-mail or play games without blinding the driver. It plugs into the USB port on your computer, delivers an LED light and doesn’t drain your battery.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Edward C. Baig
USA Today

Apple’s svelte iMac computers always turn heads. But I’m also smitten with the Mac’s rock solid OS X operating system and top-shelf iLife software suite — programs that tame pictures, videos and more.

Last week, Apple unveiled beautiful new iMac models. And it introduced the iLife ’08 lineup that is preloaded free on those machines (or sold separately for $79). Apple trotted out the new computers and software a mere two months or so before releasing the next version of OS X, dubbed Leopard.

Enhancements to some iLife programs were relatively modest: In iWeb, you can add Google Maps, Google AdSense targeted ads and other live “widgets” to your website. The iDVD program has new animated themes. And GarageBand added a fun Magic GarageBand feature that lets you “audition” with a virtual band by selecting a musical genre and then clicking on various software instruments, or using real ones.

Changes to iPhoto and iMovie were more dramatic. The makeover of iMovie was so substantial — dumbed down, some will say — that in eliminating features found in previous versions, it may frustrate advanced users. But the old version is still at hand.

A closer look at Apple’s latest:

•iMacs. With Apple set to uncage Leopard come fall, it may make sense to wait to buy an iMac then. This latest Mac operating system will presumably be preloaded. Apple isn’t saying whether folks who buy today will be able to upgrade to Leopard for free or at a discount.

Under the hood of the new iMacs are faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors. But what you’ll notice are the aesthetics: anodized aluminum frame, glossy glass cover, black bezel surrounding the display. The way-thinner, but still comfortable, flat keyboard now has one-touch keys to access the Mac features known as Exposé and Dashboard.

Among standard configurations, a 20-inch widescreen model starts at $1,199, a 24-inch model at $1,799. They all support the latest wireless networking standards and Bluetooth.

Quibble: I’d have liked slots for common digital camera memory cards to copy pictures without connecting a camera.

•iPhoto. It’s not unusual to have thousands of pictures on your computer, making it a challenge to find the images you want to look at. IPhoto addresses the problem.

Photos are automatically grouped into “Events,” each with a day’s collection of photos, unless you specify otherwise. You add the event label (Little League, birthday party, etc.).

You can split pictures to create more than one event in a day (dance recital in the morning, say, and wedding at night). And you can merge events across multiple days into one (ski trip). It’s taking awhile to organize all my old photos into events, but it’ll be much easier when I load pics in the future.

Events are represented as interactive thumbnails. By rolling your mouse over them, you can speedily skim forward or backward to see what’s underneath. Or double-click on the thumbnail to bring up all the pictures from an event. You can still view all the photos in your library as before.

Apple also now lets you reduce screen clutter by hiding (without deleting) least-favorite images.

Subscribers to Apple’s $100-a-year .Mac online service can upload photos to the new .Mac Web Gallery. With your permission, pals can download print-quality images from the gallery, or contribute their own pics, even if they’re using a Windows PC.

•iMovie. The name’s the same, but an icon change is your first hint this is a completely revamped program. The result is sort of iMovie on a diet, simpler for beginners to create polished videos quickly but lacking editing tools that more-seasoned video editors have come to appreciate, notably video and audio “timeline” tracks. Installing iMovie ’08 as an upgrade leaves the previous version, called iMovie HD, intact on your system. Or if you buy a new Mac with iLife ’08, Apple lets you download iMovie HD for free.

The new version has several welcome features, including a unified library for all your video and the ability to skim through footage in faster-than-real time, by mousing over the dynamic “filmstrips” that represent your footage. Just drag the clips (or portions of clips) you want in your movie. You can easily add titles, transitions and a soundtrack from GarageBand or iTunes later.

Subscribers to .Mac can share finished movies in the gallery; you now have up to 10 gigabytes of storage. Alas, slow-to-load videos sometimes hiccupped. You can also easily share video on YouTube, Apple TV, an iPod or iPhone.

The latest iMovie also works with the high-definition format techies call AVCHD. I couldn’t initially transfer this footage from my Sony camcorder to the Mac because the camera also had standard-definition video onboard. I had to delete the lower-quality clips before I could transfer the high-def scenes into iMovie. Apple is aware of the bug with this Sony model and has posted a note on its website.

Taken as a whole, iLife remains the best collection of multimedia software. And in looks, design and pizazz, the iMac is still the best desktop computer for home users.

Latest trends means users are able to remove the shackles of their service providers

Roberto Rocha
Sun

MONTREAL — There’s a mutiny quietly brewing in the cellphone world. Users are rising up to liberate their phones from the shackles of their service providers.

Hugo Vilchez is one of the rebel leaders. He unlocks customers’ handsets, making them capable of operating on other networks.

Cellphones are programmed by service providers to work only in their own networks. But an unlocked phone that works on Rogers Wireless, for instance, can easily be switched over to AT&T in the U.S.

“People are free to use their phones with any provider,” said Vilchez, owner of a Citi Mobility store in Montreal.

Well, not any provider. Only phones that work in the GSM standard can be unlocked. In Canada, that’s Rogers and Fido. In the U.S., it’s AT&T and TMobile, and in Europe and Asia, just about every carrier uses GSM, which relies on a tiny card to activate a phone.

An unlocked phone can thus accept the so-called SIM card from any GSM carrier. Phones from Telus and Bell Mobility, which use a different technology, are nearly impossible to unlock.

The business of unlocking mobile phones isn’t new. But as cellphones evolve into multifunction gadgets, consumers are becoming more aware of how carriers fence them in. Some disable functions that were built into the device, such as Bluetooth or wireless Internet connectivity, which allows users to share photos or music without eating up their minutes. Others limit the selection of ringtones, supposedly to push users to buy new ones.

“The companies want you to pay to use their networks,” says John Stan, owner of the Xpress Mobile booth in downtown Montreal.

“GSM means Global System for Mobile communications. But that’s a joke. If it’s locked, it’s not global, it’s local.”

As a counterpoint to this trend, small operations have sprung up to hack phones’ inner brains and remove their digital constraints. Today, a shopping mall booth can do it in a few minutes to a few hours, depending on the model.

While it’s perfectly legal to unlock a cellphone, no wireless company will advertise it. The reason is simple. Locking a phone also locks a customer in.

“It keeps the annuities coming,” said Kevin Restivo, a telecom analyst at the SeaBoard Group in Toronto.

Carriers have a different explanation. Rogers says it locks phones to ensure the quality of service offered to their customers over the network.

Carriers also feel that locking users to the network is a fair trade-off, since these companies normally swallow some of the cost of a new device.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

Michelle Kessler
USA Today

Dell  and Lenovo  plan to launch the first mainstream laptops equipped with Wireless USB in the next few months. The technology allows electronics, such as a PC and a printer, to communicate without cables.

Sound familiar? Bluetooth, Wi–Fi, WiMax and several other wireless technologies all do essentially the same thing: They use radio waves to send bits of data through the air.

The difference is that Wireless USB can transmit bigger chunks of information at a time. It’s fast enough to easily stream a movie from a PC to a TV. Or it can send a huge document from a PC to a printer in seconds. Most other kinds of wireless, such as Wi-Fi, are slower.

The catch: Wireless USB works well only at distances of up to about 30 feet.

The Wireless USB name may be a bit confusing, since most PCs already have USB (universal serial bus) connections. These are the paper-clip-size ports usually found on the side or back of a computer. They’re used to plug in digital cameras, music players and other electronics.

Wireless USB is designed to eventually replace these corded connections.

Much of the underlying technology behind USB and Wireless USB is the same — one version just uses wires and one sends information through the air.

Eventually, Wireless USB will be built into the inner workings of many electronics, says Dan Kelley, marketing director for network-gear-maker D-Link. When that happens, a digital camera owner may need to simply push a button to transmit photos to any designated PC within 30 feet.

But that will take a few years, because Wireless USB faces a chicken-and-egg problem, Kelley says. Few people will buy Wireless USB before there are a lot of products that have it.

But electronics makers won’t start installing Wireless USB until there’s demand. Wireless USB parts cost $5 to $15 wholesale, a sizable sum in the fiercely competitive electronics market, says tech analyst Ken Dulaney at researcher Gartner.

In the short term, add-on adapters can add Wireless USB capability to some electronics. In most cases, the adapters will plug into a regular USB port. Plug an adapter into the USB port on a digital camera, for example, and it will be able to communicate with a Wireless USB-equipped laptop. D-Link plans to launch an early model in a few weeks.

For Wireless USB to take off, electronics makers will also have to explain to consumers how it’s different from other kinds of wireless.

“There’s a lot of confusion,” says Dulaney.

There are so many different kinds of wireless technologies because each one does one thing well, says Tom Ribble, a marketing director at Lenovo.

It will take years for the many types of wireless to work out their differences and for the new technologies to become the norm, says tech analyst Bob O’Donnell at researcher IDC.

But, eventually, “there will be a whole rash of things” without wires, he says.

“It will really improve the experience (of using electronics),” Ribble says.

Byron Acohido
USA Today

LAS VEGAS — Laptop road warriors beware: Wi-Fi hot spots that let you hop onto the Internet anywhere you travel leave you wide open to hackers.

The basic problem: T-Mobile and AT&T (T)— the largest providers of Wi-Fi hot spots in coffee shops, bookstores and airports — don’t require encryption of data traveling wirelessly between laptops and the Internet. Neither do hotels and municipalities with free Wi-Fi hookups in public areas. T-Mobile and AT&T do recommend customers download and use their free encryption software.

“If you’re using Wi-Fi in a public place and you’re not getting hacked, it’s only because there’s nobody around bothering to do it,” says Robert Graham, CEO of consultancy Errata Security.

Wi-Fi eavesdropping has long been a security concern. Anyone with a Wi-Fi-equipped laptop can download free Wi-Fi monitoring programs. An eavesdropper can sit up to 100 feet away and monitor what you do on the Net, says Rick Farina, security engineer for wireless security firm AirTight Networks.

There are no estimates of how often this happens. No one has ever been arrested for Wi-Fi hacking. But with Wi-Fi now in mainstream use — T-Mobile and AT&T supply hot spots at more than 15,000 locations in the USA, and cities such as New York and San Francisco supply free public access points — intruders are starting to take advantage, said security experts at recent Black Hat and DefCon security conferences.

Wi-Fi hot-spot hacks “are absolutely taking place,” says Tom Brennan, technology risk manager for security consultant Access IT Group. “It’s easy to do, and the reward is very high.”

Brennan cites an example of a tech systems manager on a lunch break in New York‘s Bryant Park, who used his laptop via the city’s free hot-spot hookup. The manager logged onto his company’s network to troubleshoot a computer server. An eavesdropper nabbed his username and password. Later, someone used the information to access the server. “People are on the road using wireless, they get breached, and when they go back into their network, they’re owned,” Brennan said.

Crooks are using off-the-shelf routers, equipped to broadcast Wi-Fi hookups around the home, to spoof the popular paid services. The spoofer broadcasts a bogus T-Mobile or AT&T connection signal, then captures data transmitted by victims, says Pravin Bhagwat, AirTight’s chief technology officer.

“If I’m at a location where a particular hot-spot provider does not provide a service, but still I see its service being advertised, that means it’s a spoof,” says Bhagwat.

Farino estimates 95% of Wi-Fi data traffic is unencrypted.

Gillian Shaw
Sun

1. Strike Alert personal lightning detector, $85 US

We could have used this that day on the soccer field when we counted the seconds between the blasts of thunder and the flashes of lightning. This handheld lightning detector saves the counting and promises to deliver an audible warning when lightning is getting within striking distance. If the LED display goes from green to red, it’s time to head for cover — no standing under trees though — and get rid of those iPod headphones. The Strike Alert tracks the storm direction and the lightning strike distance and runs on two AAA batteries. It’s impact resistant so you can sling it in with your gear. However, it is affected by electromagnetic emissions so if you’re planning on nothing more strenuous than being a couch potato in front of the TV, turn it off. Check www.strikealert.com for retailers.

2. Targus Mobile Power Inverter $70 Cdn

Portability demands power and one way to get it is with this little 90-watt inverter from Targus that is designed to fit into any standard cup holder or lie flat on its side. Using the cigarette lighter in your car, it has a single AC outlet to power or charge your notebook computer, portable DVD player, game console or other device. It has built-in surge protection so there are no worries when the car starts up or turns off.

3. Planon DocuPen RC800 pen scanner, $300 US

You’ll feel like a spy with this tiny pen that can scan a page of text and graphics in colour in a mere four seconds. At 57 grams and 20 cm long it has eight megabytes of flash memory and can recharge while you’re downloading scanned information through the USB port of your PC or Mac. At www.planon.com.

4. Mophie Bevy Shuffle case and bottle opener, $15 US

How handy is that: Protect your iPod Shuffle, keep the headphone wires knot-free, carry your keys and open a bottle all with this key-chain device. Made of clear polycarbonate with a stainless steel insert, the Bevy comes from the Illuminator project from Mophie, a company founded by 18-year-old Ben Kaufman with the idea of developing products based on designs generated by Apple users. The Bevy started off as a simple doodle by a 17-year-old visiting MacWorld. Now it’s available in five colours at Apple retail stores and Apple retailers.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007

 

‘Healthy dose of suspicion’ the best way to protect computer

Vito Pilieci
Sun

Hackers have taken the computer virus to a new level with an elaborate “pump-and-dump” scheme that manipulates stock prices, experts say.

The Storm, a worm program which masquerades as an Internet greeting card from a friend or relative, has already infected millions of computers around the world and its reach is said to be expanding daily.

The worm relays contact information to a hacker who uses the addresses to e-mail documents recommending hot stock tips — driving up prices so he can profit.

“This is all controlled by one group or person,” said Joe Stewart, senior security researcher for Internet security firm SecureWorks. “They target a stock, then send out these messages. Then they go and cash out.”

The Storm worm appeared in January but was slow to take root, Stewart said. By the end of May it had affected only about 2,800 of his clients’ computers.

However, in the past two months it has infected more than 1.7 million of the computers he monitors for clients. This means the actual number of infected machines is far higher, he said.

He said having a current antivirus program is no safeguard against new threats such as Storm.

“Up-to-date antivirus is the least effective measure. A healthy dose of suspicion is your best bet,” said Stewart. “You really need to be suspicious of any links or attachments from anyone. Shoot an e-mail back to that person.”

Storm distributes official-looking documents that appear to come from reputable source of financial information. The documents, in attachments such as Adobe .pdf files or Microsoft Corp. Excel files, promote a promising company that has just cleared some huge regulatory hurdle, made a major new gold discovery or completed a big sale. The reader is urged to buy stock while the share price is still low.

In one recent example, Storm pushed out a “tip” about a penny-stock company called Vision Airships Inc.

“The key is, knowing when to get on and when to get off a stock,” reads the message from Storm. “This ride is not over. Jump on now and ride the price up on the highest return ‘day trade’ we have featured this year.”

Companies touted in the messages are usually worthless. But the hacker is holding on to a mountain of shares he can sell when they jump in value.

The virus also leaves a back door open on computers so the hacker can come back at any time.

Catching the hackers is difficult.

“They are using stolen accounts,” said Stewart. “They are taking other people’s accounts and use that to channel the money.”

The Ontario Securities Commission regularly gets complaints from concerned investors about strange e-mail messages, said Scott Boyle, assistant manager of investigations. The OSC is the regulator responsible for protecting investors in Ontario.

He encouraged investors to do their homework.

“At the end of the day, it’s just spam,” said Boyle. “It’s a simple process to contact the regulator and see if they are licensed to do business.”

A similar scam was broken up by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission in March.

© The Vancouver Sun 2007