Apple Peel Transforms iPod Touch into iPhone

Apple Peel Transforms iPod Touch into iPhone

Pan Lei and Pan Yong, the Chinese brothers who invented a device to convert Apple's iPod Touch into an iPhone, say they are innovators, not copycats.

Their Apple Peel 520 is a case including a circuit board and battery that wraps around the iPod Touch media player, allowing calls to be made after software is installed. The device, which requires breaking into Apple's operating system, isn't a counterfeit iPhone, Pan Lei, 25, told Bloomberg Television.

“We're capable of coming up with something original,” Pan Lei, who quit his job as an interior designer to found Shenzhen, China-based Yosion Technology with his 23-year-old software- engineer brother, said in an interview broadcast today.

The iPod music player has sold more than 220 million units since it was first released in 2001, according to the company. Apple first released its iPhone in 2007, climbing to 2.7 per cent of the global market by June this year and sparking copycat models from Chinese grey market, or Shanzhai, vendors.

“The brothers who invented this Apple Peel probably ran down a list of how many ways could they annoy Steve Jobs,” said Jonathan Hudis, chairman of the American Bar Association's Trademarks and Unfair Competition Division. “I could not see Apple standing by to let this continue, especially if it results in product shipping into the United States.”

U.S. users can save at least $US770 by using the device to be priced at $US60. Jill Tan, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Apple, said any product that's been tampered with won't receive warranty support. Apple is aware of Apple Peel, she said, declining to comment further.

'We're very creative'

Apple Peel sells for $US78 on Taobao.com, China's largest online shopping site. Yosion agreed to offer the device in the U.S. with New Orleans-based Go Solar USA, whose website teaches users to “jailbreak” the iPod Touch in preparation for installing Apple Peel software.

U.S. users must sign a two-year contract with AT&T for the iPhone, paying at least $US39.99 a month and $US99 for the iPhone 3GS, or a total of $US1059. The iPod Touch sells from $US229.

“We're also very creative,” Pan Lei said. “Not just getting a Nokia phone and copy, getting Apple and copy, or a Samsung phone to copy as well. It shouldn't be like that.”

A clever concept for Wi-Fi hot spots

www.fon.com

There are dozens of Wi-Fi routers out there. I have a couple of different models like the LinkSys and a 3Com on my shelves. Recently, a friend lent me another wireless router called Fonera 2.0n.

At first glance, it seems like any old-fashion router — a box with four RJ-45 ports for wired connection, with one RJ-45 for a broadband connection at the back and aerials.

The only thing that sets the Fonera apart is the USB port on the front panel.

It turns out this product features many technological advances. We need to spend a bit of time flicking through the manual before understanding how this technology works.

Before we continue, let me backtrack a bit and describe how companies like AT&T now serve their mobile customers worldwide.

If you are a globe-trotting professional and you need an Internet connection in your hotel room, you need to first access the hotel’s welcome page, find the Wi-Fi service page, specify the length of Internet connection and then enter your credit card number. If you stay in a budget hotel, you may even have to go to the front desk and buy a voucher.

Service providers are clever. They have created a pricing scheme that almost always tries to lead us to buy a voucher for 24 hours when in reality we will only use the internet a couple of hours each night. To help traveling employees stay connected without the hassle of having to look for a hot spot and pull out their credit card, AT&T has built 25,000 hot spots in countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, UK, China and more, available in coffee shops, bookstores, hotels, airports, restaurants and convention centers — all paid for by their headquarters.

Enter a company from Spain called Fon (www.fon.com). Fon also wants to make available a network of hots pots around the world. The main difference is that Fon does not need to build and maintain Wi-Fi networks.

It works like this. If you are an owner of a Fonera router, you are a member of the Fon Community and can access the Internet through a growing number of Fon hot spots, around the world.

The community reportedly has two million members and one-and-a-half million live hots pots globally. Fon community members can share their hot spots. They can even sell the service to non-members and earn some money — provided their ISP permits it.

A Fonero — a Fon user — can use the Fon Spot service for free to browse the Internet, make calls using Skype, send and receive emails or communicate with instant messaging.

So, the basic principle is “I let you use my Fon Spot, in return I can also use your or someone else’s hot spot.”

How does Fon generate additional revenue besides the sale of routers? Here is the scheme: A Fonero can register as a Linus (the pioneer of the Open Source movement) or a Bill (the founder of Microsoft). All Linuses can use Fon Spots for free, as described above. All Bills, on the other hand, will be charged a small amount that will be split 50-50 between the owner of the hot spot and Fon. Does it sound complicated? It’s not.

Even if you do not want to share your Fon Spot with Linuses or Bills — they are password secured — you still can enjoy several powerful features of the Fonera 2.0n router.

First, the router allows owners to up or download torrents and files from the Internet without having to turn on your PC or notebook. The data can be stored in any USB 2.0 storage device such as an external hard disk or a thumb drive.

You can also directly upload photos, videos and other materials directly to web 2.0 services such as YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, bypassing the computer. If you need to download a large file from RapidShare, all you have to do is create a RapidShare account.

You can also connect a USB webcam and a printer to the Fonera 2.0n using the USB hub, and it will host them all. What is also amazing is that, if you do not have fixed broadband in your home, you can use your 3G connection and convert it into Wi-Fi. Just plug your 3G modem dongle into the router’s USB port.

How do we know if someone is using our Fon Spot or that our file download is complete without turning on the computer? Owners can set up their account to receive updates over Twitter.

Fonera 2.0n costs Rp 899,000 (US$100), which quite reasonable given the benefits of being a Fonero. In comparison, LinkSys WRT120N-SG costs $55, but does not come with the functionality of the Fonera 2.0n.

If you frequently travel abroad, I would highly recommend this product so you can make the most of other Fonera’s Fon Spots in the global Fon Community.

No more reasons not to use a UPS

“Would you be interested in reviewing a Back-UPS?” a lady from Karyaku, the public relations agency hired by APC, asked me over the phone. “What?” I responded in surprise. “How can I test drive a UPS?”

Well, actually, it should be easy. First, the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is made by APC, one of the top leadersUPS products, so there are many aspects to talk about. Second, the only thing to do would be to unplug the UPS from the wall outlet and see how long the battery would provide my PC with power. So, why not?

A couple of days later, a box arrived at my home. It was more or less as big as the box for a small car battery. When I took the unit out of the box, I got my first surprise. Unlike the UPS I had bought in the past, this one felt much lighter. Perhaps it was because the casing was made of fiberglass.

In the past, most UPS devices came in metal casing. Another possible answer is because the rechargeable battery inside the unit was also smaller.

The Back-UPS I received was RS 500. It is a high performance UPS with 500 VA, three outlets at the back, and comes with two power cords for the PC and a monitor.

A circuit breaker helps preserve battery power when the unit is not in use. Even the transfer voltage and sensitivity settings can be adjusted just by pressing and holding the only button on the front panel.

I planned to test it with my own work desktop PC. The power-consuming components on that PC are an Intel Core 2 Quad processor running at 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM and a 160 GB SATA hard disk.

The monitor is a FlexScan L685 from Eizo. Although the LCD is only 18 inches in diameter, the monitor is already a couple of years old. I do not know its power rating, but because it uses old LCD technology I would assume it consumes as much power as a 22-inch LED backlit monitor of today.

So, I did exactly what I thought I should do. I pulled the plug of the UPS power cable and checked the time. I kept working on this article, pressing Ctrl-S after typing a few words to save my work. At the same time I continued to watch the clock on the system tray.

An intermittent beep sound was produced when the UPS was drawing the power from its battery pack. Lo and behold, the PC was still working 15 minutes after I unplugged the UPS. That should be more than ample time to safely save work.

At 16 minutes, a rapid beep told me the battery juice was already at a critical level. It went totally dead after 19 minutes, exactly as specified on the box.

APC offers different types of UPSs for home users, small offices to large data centers. There are two value lines as well, the Back-UPS ES Series for the home and the Back-UPS CS for the office. The price of the RS 500, I was told, was around Rp 300,000 but I think it was incorrect or the product had actually been discontinued. At any rate, you can buy a slightly different model, BE500R AS, for Rp 556,000 from bhinneka.com.

Strange as it seems, even in the country’s capital city many of us are suffering losses due to the poor quality of electricity provided by the grid. Computer components including hard disks get burned out. Data files including family photos and videos become damaged, work is lost.

In my case, the situation is worse. My house is just at the end of the line, the farthest away from the nearest transformer. Between the transformer and my house, there must be people who steal electricity by dangerously tapping the gridlines and pushing my average voltage down below the safe limit.

Worse, the voltage is so unstable that I have to use a huge stabilizer for the entire home. A UPS is also a must for me, as the circuit breaker often drops due to overload.

Keep in mind that a good UPS does not only supply clean power to the computer and monitor, it also guards against potentially damaging spikes and surges in the electrical current. It takes over the house current when there is sustained over- or under-voltage.

It also protects our computer equipment from lightning. A more complete UPS provides protection to modems and fax machines as well by keeping the telephone line safe from lightning. Some models provide software that will automatically shut down all running applications when the battery power level is dangerously low.

In general, two main types of UPS’s are available. One type only kicks in and begins using its battery power when it detects problems in the house current.

The other type continuously supplies electricity to the PC from its battery pack that is at the same time continuously recharged with the house current. The earlier is called the “standby UPS” and the latter the “online UPS”. There are also other variants in between.

The drawback of the standby UPS is that there may be some milliseconds of interruption during which the unit detects the lost utility voltage and switch on the DC-AC inverter.

For this reason, it is highly important to use a good-quality power supply inside your PC. It can hold up much longer to prevent data loses. The online UPS is much more expensive and is used primarily for highly sensitive equipment.

If you want to calculate how big a capacity you need for your PC or server, you can go to www.apc.com/sizing for guidance. However, you can spare yourself the formula for converting VA to watts or vice versa by following these general rules: The RS 500 will keep a mini tower PC with a 15-inch monitor running for 11 minutes.

A CRT monitor consumes much more power, so the same PC with a 17-inch CRT will continue to run for five minutes after the electricity goes out.

What all this means, is that if you still have not put a UPS between your wall outlet and your desktop PC, now you should seriously consider doing it.

There are several reputable UPS brands on the market, including ICA and Liebert. There are also many dubious brands from China that may last for a year or two.

They have become quite affordable nowadays.

Demand for Cars in Indonesia Increases

Demand for Cars in Indonesia Increases

In Indonesia, the demand for cars has continued to increase over the past two months and it is expected to increase with a sales projection of 55,000 - 60,000 units this month, a businessman said. "The domestic car market continues to improve. In January sales reached 52,000 units and in February 55,000 units," associate chairman of the Indonesian Motor Vehicle Industries Association (Gaikindo), Johnny Darmawan said here on Sunday.

He said he was convinced sales in March would reach 57,000 units because domestic demand for cars was now showing an upward trend. "I predict car sales this year would reach an average of 50,000 units per month. So, unless in case of economic and political instability, car sales could reach 600,000 units this year," he said.

He also expressed conviction that Indonesia would appear as the biggest car market in Southeast Asia, defeating Thailand, if political stability could be maintained and the government did not impose a progressive tax. "Car market in Thailand has begun to reach a weak point due to political instability while Indonesia still has the big potentials," Johnny who is also president director of PT Toyota Astra Motor, said.

Why Apple Can't Control Its Chinese Factories

Why Apple Can't Control Its Chinese Factories

Last year, after a 25-year-old Chinese university graduate committed suicide at one of the factories that makes Apple's iPhone, executives from the Californian company flew in for an urgent review.

Sun Danyong threw himself from the 12th floor window of his apartment block after an iPhone prototype went missing on his watch. Before he jumped, he sent a message to a friend claiming that security staff at Foxconn, the notoriously secretive Taiwanese company that makes all of Apple's mobile phones and the upcoming iPad, had beaten him severely.

The allegations deeply shocked Apple's management, and there were calls for Foxconn to be fired. The Taiwanese firm, which operates a series of mega-factories on the Chinese mainland, has been described as "inhumane and militant" by China Labour Watch, a US-based NGO.

However, at the end of the day, Apple was powerless to change the situation. According to analysts, Foxconn and its two rivals, Quanta and Pegatron, are the only three companies in the world that are capable of quickly mass-manufacturing Apple products of the right quality.

Industry insiders said it is this triumvirate, and not Apple, that really holds the power in the relationship. "In the near term, there is absolutely nothing that Apple can do to shift away from these companies," said Edward Yen, a technology analyst at UBS.

"Apple's biggest concern is whether the factories can deliver on time, and get the quality right. There really aren't that many players who can do that, major players who have the skillset and flexibility," he added.

Apple's lack of power over its suppliers came under the spotlight again last week, when the company's own investigation revealed widespread allegations of abuse among the 102 factories that manufacture its goods.

Apple's 2010 Supplier Responsibility report listed claims of child labour, excessive working hours, environmental abuses and very low wages at many of its suppliers.

And while Apple deserves credit for transparently auditing its suppliers and publishing the results, it was notable how little the US company could do to resolve the problems. Many issues had worsened in the last year, but Apple only terminated the contract of a single supplier.

"Apple can't do anything about it, it has nowhere else it can turn to to make its products," said one expert in sourcing from Chinese factories. "If they try and move business away from Foxconn, Foxconn can simply go out and buy whichever supplier they turn to".

Although Apple carefully chooses the smaller component companies that make the parts that go into its computers, iPods and iPhones, it is the triumvirate of big suppliers who are in charge of running the system day-by-day. If Apple tried to take its business elsewhere, it would risk losing its entire supply chain.

The three companies are behemoths in their own right, producing goods for a roster of blue-chip brands, including Sony, HP, Dell, Acer and Nokia. Quanta is the world's largest laptop maker, and manufactures 90pc of Apple's Macbooks, according to Mr Yen.

Foxconn, meanwhile, makes all of the iPhones and the two companies split the production of Apple's iMac desktop computers half-and-half. Pegatron makes some of Apple's iPod models.

All three companies are deeply secretive. Foxconn did not respond to requests for a comment on its relationship with Apple, while Elton Yang, the vice president of Quanta said: "We strictly follow up any core policy stipulated by our customers. Meanwhile we shall not and could not comment on anything regarding our customers."

Apple, asked about the abuses in its report, said: "Last year Apple proactively audited more than 100 supplier facilities around the world to ensure that they comply with Apple's strict standards. We have also created extensive training programs to educate workers about their right to a safe and respectful work environment."

Apple controls its research and development, dreaming up its products in Cupertino, California, and then passing the blueprints to its suppliers.

However, elsewhere in the technology industry, the relationship between big name brands and the triumvirate is changing rapidly. Analysts said Apple's rivals, HP and Dell, have even less control of their supply chain. "With Dell, HP and Acer, they pretty much say to Quanta and Foxconn: 'Show us what you've got'," said Mr Yen. It is the suppliers, rather than HP and Dell, who come up with new designs and technology. Both Quanta and Foxconn have heavily invested in making sure they are at the cutting edge.

Quanta, for example, made a $10m (£6.65m) investment last year in Tilera, a chip-maker whose technology may allow users to control their computers by waving their hands in front of their screen. Foxconn has backed Innovation Works, the technology incubation firm started by Kaifu Lee, the former head of Google in China.

Nevertheless, Mr Yen predicted it would take Apple a long time if it wanted to change the practices in the Chinese system. "If they genuinely do not like what is happening, they can build up the capabilities of another supplier, feeding it a few projects here and there. They can't do it overnight though. It would take a couple of years."

CyberSecurity Malaysia Alerts Internet Users on e-mails from "Banks"

CyberSecurity Malaysia Alerts Internet Users on e-mails from "Banks"

CyberSecurity Malaysia has advised Internet users to be wary of e-mails from "banks" asking them to update personal details, reactivate online banking accounts or participate in surveys offering cash rewards.

Those who received such e-mails are advised to delete them because by responding to these messages, they could become victims of phishing attacks, which are on the rise in the country.

CyberSecurity Chief Executive Officer Husin Jazri said consumers who responded to such messages would be asked to click a link that would open up phishing or fake e-banking websites in which they would be asked to key in personal details such as the usernames and passwords of their e-banking accounts.

Once the culprits obtained these details, they would "phish" away money from the victims' accounts, he added.

"As these fake websites look exactly like the original, customers are tricked into entering these confidential information," he told Bernama.

Husin said last year, a total of 3,564 reports of Internet-related incidents were received through the Cyber999 Help Centre, an increase of 68 per cent from the same period in 2008.

Husin said phishing or fake websites were created to look like the design of some of well-known banks' e-banking websites to manipulate the weak side of human being's sense of security by masquerading as a trustworthy entity.

"Usually, phishing attacks also utilise a kind of 'social engineering tactic' such as sending spam e-mails that look as though they are legitimate e-mails from well-known banks.

"The fraudulent e-mails use convincing words to trick people into clicking a link that would open up the fake websites.

"Banks will never ask their customers, particularly their e-banking users, to do any account update, password reset, account unclocking or to reveal any personal information in relation to banking, via e-mails or URLs," Husin noted.

Husin said that CyberSecurity, an agency under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry, was monitoring the situation.

The agency was also working closely with various authorities namely the police, Bank Negara, Securities Commission and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to provide specialised and in-depth technical support on how to tackle cyber threats, he said.

As phishing activities had become more rampant each year and considered as one of the major threats to the country, Husin said, the government had taken steps to combat the scams, including setting up CyberSecurity and the formulation of the National Cyber Security Policy.

"In an effort to educate the people and to increase awareness on Internet security, CyberSecurity has developed a program called CyberSAFE where the public can get information on Internet safety issue at its portal www.cybersafe.my," Husin said.

The Public can also contact CyberSecurity at Cyber999 Help Centre or e-mail at cyber999@cybersecurity.my where technical advice and support will be provided.

Why Young Drivers Need Compulsory Brain Tests

Why Young Drivers Need Compulsory Brain Tests

T

A LEADING psychologist has called for mandatory neuropsychological testing of young drivers to ensure only those with ''mature'' brains are granted licences. Figures show that 19 people have died in NSW, Australia, this year - three a week - in crashes involving P-plate drivers.

John Reid, of Monash University, said the only way to reduce the number of P-plate fatalities would be to identify young drivers at risk of behaving irresponsibly. He said brain maturation varied considerably, although it was normally complete between the late teens and mid- to late-20s. Anywhere from 5 to 70 per cent of young drivers could have immature brains.

''Five per cent of people who are likely to have a fatal crash is still a high proportion,'' Dr Reid said.

The tests, different from the Hazard Perception Test, would probe what was going on in the brain and how young people thought through consequences of actions. Dr Reid said the test should be mandatory for all licence applicants but ''whether you've got the political will to do that, I don't know, because there would be an outcry''.

Simply raising the legal driving age would be ''unfair'' as it would penalise those teenagers whose brains had fully developed. Those who failed the test could be put on restricted licences or undergo an expensive brain imaging scan, called diffusion tensor imaging, at their own cost if they believed they had been unfairly classified.

Meanwhile, founders of school-based and extracurricular education programs say driver's education should become part of the curriculum or be mandatory. Singleton High introduced a Crossroads program after a student, Simone Wadsworth, died in a car accident that traumatised the Hunter Valley community.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) teacher Grant Godfrey, who co-ordinates 10 one-hour sessions in terms 2 and 3, hopes to introduce it to other schools this year. It includes units in crash statistics, crash impacts, better driving skills, understanding risk-taking, car maintenance, distractions, drugs, handling pressure, defensive driving and coping with other road users.

''We'd love to have it go further, considering road statistics are going through the roof,'' Mr Godfrey said.

The Rotary Club Youth Driver Awareness program has expanded to 40 venues, with 140,000 mostly year 11 students going through the course, since beginning on Sydney's north shore in 2001. Operations director Greg Cantwell wants to make the program available to all schools.

''We see a great importance of the education before there is any penalty,'' Mr Cantwell said. ''There has been lots of legislation introduced but there needs to be education.''

Maitland mother Michelle Davis lost two sons Brendan, 19, and Mathew, 16, in the same July 2005 crash. Brendan had been driving 120 km/h in a 70 km/h zone.

''It is a parent's worst nightmare,'' she said. ''I remember looking at the kitchen floor thinking, 'This doesn't happen to me.' But it can happen to anyone.''

Ms Davis now leads the one-day ROADWhyz safe-driving program taught in schools to L- and P-plate drivers. Since 2007, the organisers have spoken to 5500 teenage drivers and do presentations on average to 12 schools a year. The program includes graphic displays from ambulance and police officers.

Ms Davis said teachers and parents often asked her why the program was not mandatory for all children going for their licences. ''It has to be that education is going to be the key otherwise we'll just throw our hands up and say we give up,'' she said.

An RTA spokesman said that the issue of whether the licensing age should be increased would continue to be monitored. The director of the NSW Centre for Road Safety, Soames Job, said that the increase in the road toll from 374 deaths in 2008 to 460 deaths last year was largely due to speeding.

''If everyone made the commitment to stick to the speed limit, we would see more than 100 fewer people die on our roads and thousands fewer injuries each year,'' Dr Job said.

What It's Like to Drive at 1000 Km/H

What It's Like to Drive at 1000 Km/H

Be honest now. We all know the very real dangers of speeding but chances are at some stage in your life you've found yourself on a quiet, desolate country road and planted the accelerator to the floor.

As the speedo crept up and the wind whistled past, it felt just for a second like you were riding a rocket, right? Well, imagine how it feels to be Andy Green.

The Briton is the current land speed record holder, a title he earned by steering a jet-powered lump of metal through the Nevada desert at speeds 10 times the freeway average. His 1997 achievement was to hit just under 1228km/h, so becoming the first person to break the sound barrier on land.

As if breaking the record once in his life was not enough, Green now hopes to top that achievement by going not one hundred, not two hundred but 382km/h faster. In an effort scheduled for 2011, he aims to break the 1000mph mark, achieving a speed of 1609km/h.

"There's no point in us going slightly faster than last time," he says. "We hold the record and it's arguably still the most impressive ever because it was the one that proved you could go supersonic.

"What we're trying to do is push the boundaries of technology to explore what's possible."

So how does one become the fastest man on the planet? For Green, it helped having a background as a pilot.

He graduated from Worcester College, Oxford, with first-class honours in mathematics in 1983 and then began full-time flight training with the RAF. He qualified as a fighter pilot on F-4 Phantoms and F3 Tornadoes.

He applied for a role with the Thrust SSC team - who were chasing the land-speed record - after reading a newspaper article in 1994.

"These guys were looking to recruit somebody to drive a twin-jet, supersonic, 10-tonne vehicle, which is outside anybody's normal experience. Where are you going to find somebody qualified to do that? And I'm actually sitting there, on a fast-jet base, with twin-jet supersonic fighters sitting outside. I thought: 'Actually, if I'm not qualified to do that, who would be?' I got picked as the driver in '95 and it's been life-changing since."

Despite the risks, Green says breaking the land-speed record was probably more fraught for his crew than himself.

"Doing anything for the first time ever has to have a certain area of uncertainty," he says. "And when it's going supersonic on land, a lot of world experts said: 'No one will ever survive, someone's going to get killed but you can try.'

"There was a degree of psychological challenge in overcoming that. But as curious as it might sound, if it all goes horribly wrong the driver actually doesn't have to live with the consequences. Real long-term courage has to come from the team."

Green says he recalls the record-breaking ride vividly. "Being strapped in a small cockpit, you sort of have a sense that the car is an extension of yourself," he says.

"There's an awful lot of noise but curiously not from the jets in Thrust SSC. Most of the noise came out of the front at slow speed and at the back at high speed. Then, of course, as we started to go supersonic, as the shock wave formed over the cockpit, it transmitted the sound into the cockpit and the noise levels were very, very high.

"You really do have the impression you're going at an unimaginable speed. Until you've seen it, you cannot imagine how fast the land is going past."

For Green to crack the 1000mph mark, he is pinning his hopes on the Bloodhound SSC - a new 12.8-metre-long, pencil-shaped, rocket- and jet-powered vehicle.

He hopes the endeavour will inspire future mathematicians and physicists. "[The idea is] to get kids all over this country and indeed all over the world - because that's what the internet offers now - involved in the science and the technology," he says. "It's difficult to make science and technology sexy in schools nowadays and we're trying to produce a project that will do that."

So given his experience of high speed, is Green more or less likely to put his foot down on the road? He says he drives slower these days.

"It doesn't matter whether you drive at 50km/h or 100km/h - when you've done 1200km/h it still feels slow," he says. "In the real world there's a whole bunch of hazards you have to deal with, so it would be stupid to get killed in a 50km/h accident because I was going too fast, or indeed get stopped by the police. And I've met a whole bunch of police [since the record] who have said: 'It'd be great to stop you and give you a ticket."'

Race is on to starting line

Andy Green will have to beat an Aussie challenge if he wants to take the 1000mph record. Perth man Rosco McGlashan (below) is also preparing a vehicle to break the record, a seven-metre steel missile on wheels called the Aussie Invader 5R, which is powered by four rocket thrusters.

He hopes it can accelerate from a standing start to 1000mph (1609km/h) in just 20 seconds.

The race is now on to see which car will be ready to roll first and break the record. "Our car is beautifully simple," McGlashan says. "Theirs is obviously a nightmare, with three different engines on it."

Facebook deletes 30 UK inmates' pages after taunts

Facebook has deleted the pages of 30 UK prisoners at the request of the British government, the justice minister announced Thursday, after several incidents in which inmates reportedly used the Internet to plot with criminals and intimidate victims.

Justice Minister Jack Straw said the convicts' pages had been removed within 48 hours of the government demand but he's working with the popular social networking site to remove objectionable pages even faster.

"What we've got to is set up a better system with Facebook so that if they get a notice from us that this site is improper than all they have to is not make a judgment about it but press the delete button," he told the BBC in an interview Thursday.

Repeated calls to Britain's Ministry of Justice seeking an elaboration of Straw's remarks were not immediately returned.

Facebook also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Straw said British inmates are generally barred from using sites like Facebook, but according to reports some prisoners have been able to update their personal pages via their family or by using cell phones smuggled into jail.

Last month, The Sunday Times reported that a British gangster serving time for conspiracy to murder had been communicating freely with his 565 Facebook friends and making threats.

"I will be home one day and I can't wait to look into certain people's eyes and see the fear of me being there," the paper quoted the criminal as saying in one message.

"Some (of you) have let me down badly, and will be named and shamed," he was quoted as saying in another.

The news followed a separate report that the family of a stabbing victim had expressed outrage over his killer's Facebook boast.

Toyota Finally Submits Recall Notifications

Toyota Finally Submits Recall Notifications

The President of Toyota Motor Corporation Akio Toyoda announced the recall notification of four models Tuesday.

"We submitted recall notifications earlier today to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in regard to four models: the “Prius”, the “Prius Plug-in Hybrid”, the “Sai” and the “HS250h” sold in Japan. The notifications are in regard to the issues in braking systems employedin those models."

"Our dealers will inform customers who have purchased the Prius model in question over the next few days," uttered him. "We urge the owners to take their vehicles into the dealers for a repair to resolve the problem."

"I regret the quality and safety issues that have caused concern for our customers. Regarding the four models recalled, although it is very difficult to describe, a phenomenon occursin which the brakes seem to “soften” for a split second when the antilock braking system comes intoplay at slow speeds on snowy or otherwise extremely slippery road surfaces."

"We have heard concerns from customers about this issue, and we are recalling the cars in questionto resolve the problem completely. We are determined to ensure that our customers can feelabsolutely at ease with their vehicles."

According to him, this recall pertains to about 400,000 vehicles worldwide. He stated that Toyota will take appropriate measures assoon as possible for the good of our customers in the United States, Europe and other regions.

"In addition to the Prius, we are now preparing remedies for the other three models. We will suspend sales of those three models, or suspend deliveries to customers in the case of completed purchases, until we have prepared the solutions."

"I apologize for the uncertainty that vehicle owners will experience while awaiting the repairs. Please know that sustained pressure on the brake pedal will bring the car to a stop, even in the kind of conditions that I have described. Please keep that in mind when driving in such conditions."

"For us at Toyota, this episode is an occasion for redoubling our commitment to quality as our most fundamental principle—indeed, as the very life of our company. I will take charge personally of a coordinated effort by everyone at Toyota, at our dealers, and at our suppliers to regain the confidence of our customers. And I assure you we will devote ourselves—heart and soul—to that effort. Thank you."

Fastest Porsche Yet

Fastest Porsche Yet

The Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald

The Sydney Morning Herald

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2010 Porsche 911 Turbo S

2010 Porsche 911 Turbo S

2010 Porsche 911 TurboS

Porsche has released pictures of its fastest 911 yet, ahead of the supercar’s debut at next month’s Geneva motor show. The Porsche 911 Turbo S clips a tenth of a second off the claimed 0-100km/h time for the 911 Turbo, completing the sprint in a V8 Supercar beating 3.3 seconds.

The S, which will be available locally in coupe and cabriolet form from August, gets a tweaked version of the Turbo’s 3.8-litre flat six. Power is up from 368kW to 390kW, while torque jumps from 650Nm to 700Nm. Despite the extra performance, fuel consumption stays the same at 11.4 litres per 100km.

The Turbo S comes standard with Porsche’s new seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, with power driven through all four wheels. Other standard go-fast goodies include dynamic engine mounts, launch control and Porsche’s torque vectoring mechanical rear differential. The trick differential divides torque between the rear wheels to provide better cornering stability and improved drive out of corners.

Top speed has risen 2km/h to 315km/h while Porsche claims the Turbo S will reach 200km/h in 10.8 seconds, half a second quicker than the standard 911 Turbo. The new Porsche will stop as quickly as it goes, with standard ceramic composite brakes that offer superior stopping power and fade resistance to the standard brakes.

But the extra performance comes at a considerable cost: the Turbo S coupe costs $423,300, more than $60,000 more than the standard Turbo, while the cabriolet will set buyers back $442,800. The standard Turbo 911 coupe and cabriolet have just gone on sale in Australia, priced from $360,100 and $386,200 respectively.

The cars will be shipped to Australia only as they are ordered by customers. Last time there was an S model in the 911 range, Porsche sold roughly 20 cars a year. Porsche spokesman Paul Ellis says the S is the last of the regular production models in the new 911 line-up and the car will appeal to buyers who want the latest and greatest Porsche.

“The people that buy these cars want to have the fastest and the best. They are usually existing Turbo customers who want to trade up,” he says.

Toyota recalls 437,000 Priuses, hybrids globally

Toyota says it is recalling about 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems - the latest in a string of embarrassing safety lapses at the world's largest automaker.

"I don't see Toyota as an infallible company that never makes mistakes," President Akio Toyoda said at a news conference Tuesday. "We will face up to the facts and correct the problem, putting customers' safety and convenience first."

With the Prius announcement, the number of vehicles recalled globally by Toyota Motor Corp. has ballooned to 8.5 million, including for floor mats which can trap gas pedals and faulty gas pedals that are slow to return to the idle position. The 2010 Prius wasn't part of the earlier recalls.

There have been about 200 complaints in Japan and the US about a delay when the brakes in the Prius were pressed in cold conditions and on some bumpy roads. The delay doesn't indicate a brake failure. The company says the problem can be fixed in 40 minutes with new software that oversees the controls of the antilock brakes.

"Let me assure everyone that we will redouble our commitment to quality as the lifeline of our company," Toyoda said.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Tuesday that Toyota's leaders have assured him they are taking safety concerns "very seriously." The statement said LaHood's agency will stay in constant communication with Toyota to hold the company to its promise.

Also, State Farm, the largest auto insurer in the US, said it alerted federal regulators late in 2007 about a rise in reports of unexpected acceleration in Toyota vehicles. Congressional investigators are looking into whether the government missed warning signs.

Toyota officials went to Japan's Transport Ministry earlier Tuesday to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid - the world's top-selling hybrid car. The automaker is also recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the US and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan.

The 223,000 cars being recalled in Japan include nearly 200,000 Priuses sold from April last year through Monday, according to papers the automaker filed with the ministry. The Prius is Japan's top-selling car.

In the US, Toyota will recall 133,000 Prius cars and 14,500 Lexus HS250h vehicles. Nearly 53,000 Priuses are also being recalled in Europe. Toyota is suspending production of the Sai and Lexus HS250h in Japan until the updated software for those models is ready.

Fujitsu LifeBook brings the best of Intel Core

Fujitsu LifeBook brings the best of Intel Core

Like most shrewd generals’ plan to create a super army that knows no mercy, Fujitsu has managed to get the latest releases of Intel Core Processors onto the new group of LifeBook series, making them undefeatable in both speed and power.

The first powerful twin is the LifeBook SH760 and SH560. Powered by Intel Core 17-620M and i3-330M processors, the twin’s strength is hidden under the glossy application panel and the slick silver lining. Weighing less than two kilos, an arsenal of features is ready to speed up the deed, including its USB-charging functions for all applications, the custom scroll wheel and a HDMI output.

The 14.1-inch LifeBook LH700 is another elegant assassin in the series. With a beautiful custom-finished and high-gloss pink or white exterior, the same color keyboard and the classy chrome logo can simply bring pride to its user. It’s got the Intel Core i5-520M processor and, similar to the twin, it has NVIDIA GeForce 310M GPU and 512MB of VRAM to guarantee its graphic quality.

The other three are the LifeBook LH530, the LifeBook MH380 that can replace your gaming PC with ease, and the 500 gram LifeBook UH900. These series are powerful indeed, but Fujitsu has been quite clever in wrapping them, giving a luxurious look throughout to emphasize that some mean machines don’t have to look mean to begin with.

Toyota Preparing to Announce Prius Fix Next Week

Toyota Preparing to Announce Prius Fix Next Week

Toyota has told dealers it's preparing a plan to repair the brakes on thousands of hybrid Prius cars in the U.S.

In a message sent Friday night to dealers, a Toyota group vice president, Bob Carter, said the company is working on a plan and will disclose more details early next week. More than 100 drivers of 2010 Prius cars have complained that their brakes seemed to fail momentarily when they were driving on bumpy roads. The U.S. government says the problem is suspected in four crashes and two minor injuries.

Public awareness of the problem "has prompted considerable customer concern, speculation, and media attention due to the significance of the Prius image," Carter said in the e-mail. "We want to assure our dealers that we are moving rapidly to provide a solution for your existing customers."

Toyota blames a software glitch and says it has already fixed vehicles in production. But it's still deciding how to handle repairs on 270,000 Priuses that were sold in the U.S. and Japan starting last year. The company could announce a full-fledged safety recall or simply ask owners to bring their vehicles in for repairs, since the brakes aren't failing completely.

The problem isn't related to separate recalls involving millions of Toyotas with defective gas pedals and floor mats that could cause unintended acceleration.

Crème de la crème of scanners

I still remember the first scanner I ever bought. It was an HP ScanJet, from the US, which I brought back to Indonesia when I repatriated.

It was pretty heavy. I felt so proud to have it, as it was perhaps the first scanner anybody had in Indonesia at that time. It had its own SCSI card. Scanners have evolved a lot since then.

We know a scanner comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. For example, if we need to scan an image, we have to use an image scanner. A scanner of this type is suitable for this purpose. If we need to scan a document, then a flatbed scanner would do the job well. A flatbed scanner looks like a copier. In fact, a copier also has a scanner, and a scamer is also used in barcode scanner. Have I lost you yet?

A scanner, as you should know, makes a digital image of whatever we place on its screen. What we do not always know is that they come under different brands. We have scanners from Canon, HP and Epson. Another brand that may sound a bit alien to us is Bowe Bell+Howell, which is now part of Kodak.

Another brand that we are not so familiar with is Fujitsu.

Fujitsu makes a variety of document scanners, most of which are intended for special uses. They have scanners for medical and healthcare, government, financial services, insurance and education.

Document scanners usually come with an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), so we do not have to manually place the documents on the bed. A good ADF should have a straight paper path in order to prevent paper jam. Some more sophisticated scanners also have the duplex scanning capability, which enables them to scan both sides of the document at the same time.

In addition to the ADF, Fujitsu scanners also have different specifications. For example, they may differ in the speed at which they scan documents. This is indicated by the page per minute (ppm) number.

Another indicator of the speed is the image per minute (ipm). The so-called Production Model, which is used in organizations that do mass production scanning, has a high 100 ppm speed. Individual or small office home office (SOHO) users can buy the 20 ppm entry level scanner.

Workgroups in larger organizations can buy the network scanners, so they can share a single scanner without having to add a Belkin Network USB Hub that was reviewed last week.

For the Indonesian market, Fujitsu offers three scanner models: the fi-6140, fi-6240 and S310. The fi-6140 and fi-6240 models can digitize the image of photos, business cards and documents as large as A4-size. They are also equipped with an ADF with the 50 ppm scanning speed, can read barcodes and patchwork.

The two of them can certainly scan in color, grayscale and monochrome (black and white), with the resulting document in PDF format too.

If we need a scanner to go with our notebook, we can buy the ScanSnap S300.

Most scanners work with Microsoft Windows. However, Macintosh users can also use Fujitsu scanners.

The “M” at the end of the model name, such as Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M, tells us that it is meant to be used with an iMac, for example.

The fi-6240 can scan at 60 ppm or 120 ipm in grayscale and monochrome, or 40 ppm or 80 ipm in 300 DPI. It also has Fujitsu’s Paper Protection Technology, which helps preserve the paper document by stopping the scanning process when it detects an imminent paper jam.

Fujitsu is strong in research and development (R&D). Its Intelligent MultiFeed Function (iMFF), implemented on the fi-6140 and the fi-6240 simplifies pre-scanning preparation and improves efficiency by ignoring documents that trigger false multi-feed alerts. This usually happens when we have a photo or sticky note on the multipage document that we are scanning.

Fujitsu’s Intelligent Capture Correction Function (iCCF) automatically recognizes color and detects document size.

What many of us like most is the auto “de-skew”. One of the problems we usually have when scanning photos for Facebook is the vertical and horizontal alignment. The auto de-skew feature helps solve the problem.

Incidentally, according to the latest press release posted on the company’s website, the US Buyers Laboratory has selected Fujitsu as the First Ever “Scanner Line of the Year” Award Winner.

To receive the award, the company must have collected the largest number of “Highly Recommended” and “Highly Reliable” office equipment.

Finding a smart GPS phone

In the past, each time you had to meet someone in an obscure corner of Jakarta, you would ask him for a map.

He would then draw a map to show you how to proceed from the nearest point that you were still familiar with. You would study the map and, subconsciously, create a mental image of the roads.

You would begin to feel less confident. You would stop, get out of your car and ask the people for directions.

The people would either say they were not sure or would simply give you the wrong directions. Three minutes later, you would have stopped three more times and still find you were in the middle of
nowhere.

Then you would approach a group of ojek (motorcycle taxis). You ask them for directions, and they would tell you, “It’s not far, but it’s difficult for me to explain. Why don’t you pay me and I’ll lead you there”.

Then, after some negotiation over the “fare”, you would start again with him riding right in front of you. You arrived 40 minutes late.

You know what? You should have done it the moment you saw a group of ojek drivers. Often, they are the most effective GPS.

Still, it may not always work. What if you are out in the wee hours of the morning and there is simply no ojek in sight? What if you stray into an area rife with criminals, and the last thing you should do is stop and get out of your car? This is where a GPS can be a lifesaver.

Absolutely, a GPS device is not a groundbreaking innovation. For many years we have had Garmin, Tomtom, Magellan and others. Most smartphones from Nokia, RIM and Apple also have fairly sophisticated GPS functionality already built in.

Increasingly, GPS handhelds come from Taiwan, too. Among others, we have Mio, which is one of my favorites. What about an alliance between East and West?

Recently, I found out that Garmin, one of the top leaders in GPS, had joined forces with ASUSTek Computer from Taiwan to make Nuvifone GPS/GSM phones.

Announced in February last year, I think the alliance is a great mutual symbiosis. ASUS has not been able to grab a significant market share now crowded by those from mainland China. By hooking up with Garmin, it now has a better chance to grab a bigger share of the smartphone markets in Asia and the United States.

Courtesy of ASUS Indonesia, I was able to casually test-drive a Nuvifone G60. Interestingly, although it is not made in Germany, the “u” in the name is with an umlaut. It supports HSDPA and has both
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, so it has a complete connectivity arsenal.

The first time I lay my hand on it, I was pleased to see how solid it felt. I liked the rather rectangular shape. The user interface is quite simple and intuitive.

Too bad there is no hardware keypad; in my case, that was a turn-off because I always make mistakes when entering characters using the screen keyboard. Sending text messages can be a challenge for people with fat fingers like mine. On the other hand, I like the return, menu and scroll icons along the bottom of some screens.

On the home screen, there is a primary button for making calls, another for searching points of interest (POIs), favorites, nearest intersections, contacts, addresses etc. The third main button will let us view the map.

On the same screen we have four smaller shortcut icons for looking up our contact list, sending text messages, composing email and loading the Web browser.

The strength of the collaboration between Garmin and ASUS seems to concentrate on the GPS side, for which Garmin has a lot of expertise. We can send our location in terms of longitude and latitude. So, if we are stranded on a desert island, we can easily tell others where we are. This is actually what makes a GPS/smartphone combination such a great idea. The problem, of course, is that on a desert island it is unlikely we will have GSM coverage.

In their attempt to preserve battery power, the engineers must have made the screen go blank after a few seconds, while the device continues to give voice directions. I found it a bit disconcerting at first, but later on I realized that we do not really have to see the map all the time to stay on track.

I found that the device took some time to get the information from the satellites. Once it is locked in, it works fine. This Nuvifone is also a Location-Based Service (LBS) device. It has the ability to keep track of its own whereabouts. Not surprisingly, we can send our exact location to a friend using SMS.
An application called Ciao! lets us find out the location of a friend and then navigate to where he is.

We can also insert the location information, called geo-tag, into photos that we take with this GPS smartphone.

The camera is just a 3 MP version. It cannot capture video and it does not have a flash, which might be considered a bit too limited by today’s standards. In addition, I managed to make the operating system hang up a couple of times, although after a while it would start up again on its own. I am sure the two companies are working hard to solve the problem.

More seriously, this GPS and GSM device has an Achilles heel in the most important area of a smartphone, which is the battery.

I could not tell whether it was because my demo unit had passed through a number of reviewers’ hands, but the battery life seemed to be quite short.

With the GPS function actively telling me where to go turn-by-turn, the battery juice seemed to last only around four hours. We need to have the bundled cigarette-lighter charger in the car if we plan to use it on a day trip.

This makes the G60 clearly a Portable Navigation Device (PND) first and a smartphone second. If you are looking for an intelligent smartphone, I guess you had better look elsewhere.

Software bug hits millions of German bank cards

Software bug hits millions of German bank cards

Millions of German bank cards have been affected by a "millennium bug"-like problem because they contain software that can't process the number 2010, an industry group said Tuesday.

The DSGV group, which represents public-sector banks, said some 20 million debit cards issued by those banks were affected, along with around 3.5 million credit cards - nearly half of the total number of cards issued by those banks.

The group said cash machines were adjusted hours after the problem emerged to ensure that customers can withdraw money, but there may still be problems using some debit-card terminals. Those should be fixed by Monday, it said.

Problems remain with credit cards and customers should use debit cards instead for now, the group added.

Computer experts widely believed that hardware and software systems would fail as the clocks rolled over to the year 2000.

The problem, they said, would be caused when computers and other devices, which used only two digits to represent the year, mistook the year 2000 for the year 1900. In the end, however, the so-called "millennium bug" caused few problems.

Google Phone Debut This Week

Google Phone Debut This Week


GOOGLE is expected to ring in the new year by unveiling its own smartphone on Tuesday, the Nexus One, in a bid to expand its powerful Web brand in the booming mobile arena. The Internet search and advertising giant has already gained a foothold in the market with its Android mobile operating system, featured in a number of phones starting with T-Mobile's G1 in October 2008 and more recently with the Droid from Motorola.

But the Nexus One, designed by Taiwanese handset maker HTC, represents a significant departure in that Google is expected to sell the Google-branded phone directly to consumers who will not be tied to any one telecom carrier. Apple's popular iPhone, for example, is available exclusively in the United States through AT&T, but buyers of the 'Google phone' will reportedly have their choice of wireless carriers.

Technology blog Gizmodo, citing leaked documents, said the Nexus One will cost US$530 'unlocked' - meaning it isn't tied to a specific carrier - or US$180 with a two-year service agreement with T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG.

Google has been coy about any plans to jump headfirst into the fast-growing smartphone market, dropping hints but not confirming its intentions outright.