Personal Computing

While fans of Android mobile phones may be taking some satisfaction in the current location-tracking controversy surrounding Apple’s iPhone, they perhaps might not be aware that their own phones are also tracking their movements. Although users reportedly must opt into the Android feature, Detroit-area residents Julie Brown and Kayla Molaski believe that the average user wouldn’t grasp the implications of doing so. To that end, last Wednesday (April 27, 2011) the pair filed a US$50 million class action lawsuit against Android’s parent company, Google. Read More

Apple's desktop lineup has typically pushed users requiring plenty of fast I/O towards the Mac Pro - but the latest iMac refresh has broken the tradition. While quad-core Sandy Bridge CPUs and faster ATI Radeon HD GPUs are welcomed, it's the addition of Thunderbolt ports (one in the 21.5-inch and two in the 27-inch) that really ups the ante for a number of professional users. Read More

Japan's Minebea has announced that the utterly gorgeous concept COOL LEAF touch panel keyboard designed by Dr. Kazuo Kawasaki is to be released next month. Initially available to Japanese Windows users only, the company says that a Mac version is on the way. Other language layouts are scheduled for release later in the year. Read More

Adding that spark of magic to digital devices is the secret ingredient in the success of many products and services. That spark is often personalization; the concept of a device or service being mine and for only me, building an attachment to transcend the mere bundle of plastic and circuitry in front of you. Researchers at the University Of Newcastle have been working on ways to make more emotionally meaningful forms of digital communication by producing what they are calling "Lovers' Boxes". Resembling an antique wooden jewellery box, each conceals the latest technology to play back messages recorded by a loved one. Read More

As our use of mobile technology increases, so does our demand for more built-in device storage capacity in smaller and smaller form factors. Only a few weeks have passed since Intel began using its 25 nanometer (nm) NAND flash memory in its 320 series SSD storage solutions and just days since the company joined with Micron Technology to announce the breakthrough 20nm process technology. Now SanDisk and Toshiba have developed and fabricated NAND flash memory modules with 19nm process technology. Read More

Even if you're using IMAP to access your email, certain newer email clients like Thunderbird 3 and Postbox will download and store your emails locally in plain text. This leaves many users making a difficult choice between leaving sensitive data unencrypted, or venturing into overkill territory by using a tool like FileVault, PGP Whole Disk Encryption or TrueCrypt - which see you encrypting your entire home directory or hard drive and dealing with a performance overhead. This article will show you how to encrypt only your Postbox email on a Mac, but can easily be adapted to other email clients (or other folders like your Documents folder). Read More

Anyone who has finger-painted, sketched with a pencil and painted with a brush will tell you that the three activities feel different when you're doing them, and that feel influences the look of the finished piece of artwork. It would seem to follow that if you were trying to simulate the experience of using a paintbrush when creating art on a touchscreen device, you would use a brush, and not a stylus or your finger ... that's the thinking behind the Flow, a capacitive paintbrush designed for use on the iPad and similar devices. Read More

For the last few years, data security breaches by those who are supposed to safeguard our personal data have never been far from the front pages of the popular press. Incredibly, on numerous occasions employees entrusted with sensitive data have been exposed circumventing strict security procedures put in place to keep our personal information confidential. Now, Kingston has launched a new Flash drive storage solution which offers ease-of-use functionality to users and allows security to be managed centrally by employers. Read More

The accidental loss or deliberate theft of notebooks with drives full of sensitive information is not just the cause of red faces (or worse) for government or military officials around the globe, as the world of business has also been touched by such security breaches. Self-encrypting drives have done much to help lock down important files, but Toshiba has gone a step further by developing a technology that securely erases data rather than let it fall into unauthorized hands. Originally announced last August, Wipe Technology has now been incorporated into a new range of self-encrypting hard drives which will go into mass production at the end of June. Read More