New Technology Reviews!.: Project

TazPad Inches Closer to Production, NFC and Fingerprint Biometric Security in Tow

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="136" mce_src="http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/9342/tazpadsg.jpg" src="http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/9342/tazpadsg.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="tazpad-sg" width="300" />There’s approximately a billion trillion tablets on the market now, or so it would seem, the vast majority of them running Android or some presto-change-o OS based on the Android kernel. What manufacturers will have to do if they plan on taking a piece of this pie at this point is one of two things: get a whole new most-powerful processor to become king OR make a unique tablet to carve out a niche. What the team at French NFC and Zigbee specialist TazTag has done is to integrate AuthenTec’s TCS2 TouchChip sensor into its TazPad Android tablet alongside fingerprint biometric security — a tablet with real business intentions.</div>
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The last time we saw this tablet it was back in February where we were to believe it was going to break cover at CeBIT. What we now are to understand is that the developers at TazTag are currently preparing to put the TazPad into volume production but that they’re waiting for investment funding to move forward with the project. On the other hand, they seem pretty confident that they’re going to get it.</div>
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We wanted to offer enhanced security capabilities with the TazPad, which is why we selected AuthenTec’s durable, high resolution TCS2 touch sensor for integration in this unique NFC-enabled Android tablet.” says Eric Fouchard, TazTag’s CEO.</div>
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“No other Android tablet combines fingerprint authentication with the NFC transaction capabilities of the TazPad. Whether a user is interested in convenient yet secure authentication for NFC, ZigBee or Wi-Fi transactions or linking a customer to a back-end system for authentication, the TazPad is a very capable platform for mobile identification. We look forward to supporting TazTag in a successful launch of this new NFC tablet,” notes AuthenTec’s Alan Kramer.</div>
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With talk of the inner workings of the tablet before it’s technically started mass production comes cash to continue. This tablet will feature a 7-inch color screen, multitouch, HDMI, camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, and Zigbee. I don’t know about you, but even though all of this sounds good, I’d still have to be convinced with some more brand-backing or at least a full list of specs before I pick one of these up – or I recommend my multi-million-dollar business “Burns-co” to pick up a batch.</div>
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TazPad Inches Closer to Production, NFC and Fingerprint Biometric Security in Tow

There’s approximately a billion trillion tablets on the market now, or so it would seem, the vast majority of them running Android or so...

CyanogenMod will continue as always, Everyone can relax

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="80" mce_src="http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7919/cmlogo.png" src="http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/7919/cmlogo.png" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" title="CM logo" width="372" />Recently the entire Android community and especially the fans and developers were hit with huge news, that Steve Kondik (aka Cyanogen) was hired by Samsung Mobile. While this is amazing news and everyone is most likely happy for Steve I’ve seen plenty of comments as of late that some are worried this might affect CyanogenMod as a whole.</div>
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Right off the bat I saw Twitter comments from tons of worried fans that don’t want to see the project wither away and die. After the news broke we quickly reminded everyone that they have a huge team and nothing will change. Today the team behind CyanogenMod themselves have confirmed this exact thing with the “State of CyanogenMod” blog post. Basically confirming everything we already said and linked to above. They all have day jobs, families, friends, and other responsibilities and in the end this is a hobby — something they love and will continue to do.</div>
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With key members of CyanogenMod busy with life things have been a little slow, but in no way is anything changing. They have a huge community of supporters and developers alike that will continue to churn out amazing updates and fixes for all of our favorite devices (just like my image above). We’ve seen recent video of CM7 on the Sensation 4G, progress on the Motorola Atrix now the bootloader has been unlocked, and even the LG Optimus 3D is set to receive CyanogenMod.</div>
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Everything over in cyan land should continue just as it always has. Users don’t need to worry that their devices will stop being supported out of the blue or that Samsung will effect the project, because they wont from what we are hearing. This has all been mentioned over on the CyanogenMod Blog today and I just wanted to share the news and help spread the good word.</div>
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Bring on CM7 for my Sensation, I can’t wait!</div>
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CyanogenMod will continue as always, Everyone can relax

Recently the entire Android community and especially the fans and developers were hit with huge news, that Steve Kondik (aka Cyanogen) w...

Facebook acquires iOS publishing platform Push Pop Press

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Push Pop Press, the digital publisher that has the backing of former U.S. vice president Al Gore, announced through its website that it was acquired by Facebook.</div>
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The company received a lot of press earlier this year with the release of Gore's Our Choice, which subsequently won an Apple Design Award.</div>
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Push Pop Press states that while Facebook isn't moving into the digital publishing realm, its technology will be integrated with Facebook services. Our Choice will remain available on the App Store with further proceeds being donated to The Climate Reality Project.</div>
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While deal isn't a surprise, it creates a huge missed opportunity for Apple. Our Choice was one of those innovative apps that showed off the absolute best of the iPad, and while MacStories theorizes that Push Pop Press' systems might be a good fit for Facebook apps, Push Pop Press was just brushing the surface of what it could accomplish on its own. It's quite a difference from dealing with climate change to handling the teeming Farmville masses.</div>
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If anything, I would have loved to see Apple acquire Push Pop Press and use it as basis for its own in-house publisher (akin to Amazon's publishing programs such as Kindle Singles) -- to help authors create and publish interactive books for both the App Store and iBooks.</div>
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Facebook acquires iOS publishing platform Push Pop Press

Push Pop Press, the digital publisher that has the backing of former U.S. vice president Al Gore, announced through its website that it...

Mozilla planning a Chrome OS-like operating system for phones and tablets

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<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="151" mce_src="http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8004/mozillafoundation.jpg" src="http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8004/mozillafoundation.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="180" />The jury is still out on whether Chromebooks will sell like hotcakes (we're guessing<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="em" mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">not</span>), but no matter to Mozilla. The organization behind Firefox has plans to develop its own operating system for mobile devices -- a clear shot across the bow at Google's browser-based Chrome OS. In a page on Mozilla's own wiki, a handful of senior developers announced their intentions to create a "complete, standalone operating system for the open web" running HTML5 apps. The OS, codenamed "Boot to Gecko," will be designed with tablets and handsets in mind, says Mike Shaver, the foundation's VP of technical strategy. And here's the fascinating part: the OS will rely on Google's own Android drivers and kernel to boot the device. In a Google Groups discussion thread, the lead devs said they chose Android over a Linux stack since so many device makers have focused their efforts on Android, and it makes sense to "reuse its lower layers." Still, they insist that they otherwise intend to borrow from it as little as possible. Obviously, don't hold your breath for Firebooks, as the project's very much in its infancy, but in the meantime there's some mighty interesting conversation happening in that discussion thread about Mozilla's lofty end game: breaking "the stranglehold of proprietary devices over the mobile device world."</div>
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Mozilla planning a Chrome OS-like operating system for phones and tablets

The jury is still out on whether Chromebooks will sell like hotcakes (we're guessing not ), but no matter to Mozilla. The organizat...

Google unveils Swiffy: turns high maintenance Flash animations into HTML5

Google unveils Swiffy: turns high maintenance Flash animations into HTML5

Still hanging on to those sweet site loaders hoping they'd be of use again someday? Perhaps the time has come -- for some ads and animat...

Games at Google revealed in job posting

Google is looking for someone to run a new gaming division, an official job posting has revealed.<br/><br/>The posting on Google's website details a position as Project Manager for a new venture to be called Games at Google and offers "a rare opportunity to grow a brand-new business."<br/><br/>A social gaming venture from Google has been long in the offing, and this is the first official confirmation.<br/><br/>It remain unclear whether Games at Google will be an Android-based platform, a future part of the Chrome OS or something universal for all web users.<br/><br/><strong>Interesting and impactful</strong><br/><br/>The broad job posting requires someone to lead the new venture from designing the user experience, working on partnerships with developers and working with the gaming community.<br/><br/>It reads: "We are looking for a strategic, technical and game-loving Product Manager to drive Google's gaming strategy.<br/><br/>"You will design strategies for game distribution and discovery, player identity, game mechanics, and more.<br/><br/>"In addition to designing a great user experience and building out key partnerships, you will be significantly influencing Google's social platform as you work directly with a critical set of early adopters, game developers.<br/><br/>"Interesting and impactful decisions involving social gaming, privacy, virality, business, and technical APIs await you and the strong, passionate team of gamers you will work with."<br/><br/>We'll be keeping our snouts close to the turf on this one.<br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/106215538122/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/16195929/a2.htm"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/3898/31258733.gif" /></a><img alt="" height="1" src="http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/5505/57211695.gif" width="1" />

Games at Google revealed in job posting

Google is looking for someone to run a new gaming division, an official job posting has revealed. The posting on Google's website detail...

Celebrating 20 Years of Linux [INFOGRAPHIC]

<div><br/><div></div><br/><div><img alt="" class="alignright size-full wp-image-582011" height="141" src="http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/792/linuxe.jpg" title="linux" width="225" /></div><br/></div><br/>You’ve come a long way, Tux the Penguin.<br/><br/>The Linux Foundation is celebrating 20 years of the famous FOSS operating system, Linux — or GNU-slash-Linux, depending on how hard-line a fossie you’re talking to — with a slew of special events, both online and IRL. Linux enthusiasts can check out the official anniversary site for details.<br/><br/>The Foundation is also sharing a few other exciting news items, including:<br/><ul><br/>	<li>The new High Availability working group, which will “help define the open-source HA stack and prioritize features.” A range of open-source projects and distros are participating in the working group.</li><br/>	<li>The release of the Carrier Grade Linux 5.0 spec. This release addresses high-end data availability and security. According to the Foundation, “CGL is today a recognized standard for telecom equipment manufacturers who need to know their products will run on Linux.”</li><br/>	<li>The Yocto Project‘s 1.0 release. This is the Yocto Project’s first major release since it began in late 2010. “Improvements to developer interface and build system are included in this common set of tools for building embedded Linux regardless of hardware architecture,” says a Foundation rep.</li><br/></ul><br/>The landmark anniversary celebration is replete with digital goodies. If you’d like to pop a Linux Anniversary badge on your site, just use this handy HTML snippet:<br/><br/>You might also enjoy the commemorative infographic and video (entitled <em>The Story of Linux</em> and featuring Richard Stallman in a cameo as St. IGNUcius) we’ve included below. Take a moment to look them over, and in the comments, reminisce with us about your Linux experiences over the years. I can still remember my first Red Hat box from early 2000…

Celebrating 20 Years of Linux [INFOGRAPHIC]

You’ve come a long way, Tux the Penguin. The Linux Foundation is celebrating 20 years of the famous FOSS operating system, Linux — or GNU-sl...

Recovery.gov iOS app allows citizens to follow how the recovery money is spent

<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="recovery gov Recovery.gov iOS app allows citizens to follow how the recovery money is spent" class="size-full wp-image-219895 aligncenter" height="315" src="http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/8320/recoverygov.jpg" title="Recovery.gov iOS app allows citizens to follow how the recovery money is spent" width="441" /></p><br/>There’s a new mobile app for the iPhone and iPad users, allow them to access maps and data on projects funded by the $787 billion Recovery Act. The application was a result of co-operation between the Board, a GIS mapping software company Esri and a Recovery Board contractor Smartronix.<br/><br/>Using the app, you can access such information as award amounts, the name of the program under which a project is funded, the recipient, and the purpose of the project. Moreover, if you see an indication of fraud, waste and abuse – there’s an option to report that information from within the app, which is cool.<br/><br/>Love the idea but I can’t understand why it’s an iOS thing, only. Sure Apple is a darling of the street these days, but Recovery.gov should be a service accessible by all U.S. citizens. In that sense, it would be better if they used some cross-platform development tool to make sure their mobile app reaches more users.<br/><br/>For the record, Congress approved the Recovery Act in February 2009. The program funds contracts, grants and loans along with entitlements and tax benefits…<br/><br/><img alt="" height="1" src="http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/6858/20583461.gif" width="1" />

Recovery.gov iOS app allows citizens to follow how the recovery money is spent

There’s a new mobile app for the iPhone and iPad users, allow them to access maps and data on projects funded by the $787 billion Recovery A...

My Project in Explorer Won't Open in MS Visual Basic

My Project in Explorer Won't Open in MS Visual Basic

Open your MS Basic program on your desktop and select the "File" tab in the program's main menu. Click "Open" in th...