Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

The latest data released by Microsoft has revealed some interesting truths regarding Vista, XP and security.  Nearly every possible aspect of Vista has been attacked, and it’s been labeled as a failure by many who continue to use XP and campaign for continued support.  However, data released in the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report shows that Vista is in fact less vulnerable to exploits than XP.

The data, which was collected from January to June this year, shows a decline of vulnerabilities from 116 to 77 in a downward trend that mirrors the industry, which, in turn, has a 19% decrease.  Regarding XP and Vista Microsoft found that in computers running XP, Microsoft’s own software contained 42% of the vulnerabilities attacked with third party software making up the other 58%.  However in Vista PCs, only 6% of vulnerabilities were in Microsoft software, and this is due to (according to Vinny Gullotto general manager of Microsoft’s malware protection center) new security technologies.  More after the break.

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Whenever one country receives a highly anticipated piece of technology first, many other countries get jealous and find ways to illegally obtain that device.  Currently, T-Mobile’s G1 was only released several days ago in America and hasn’t been released elsewhere at this time.  Some Chinese are desperate to try out the first phone running Google’s Android and so they have begun buying G1s from American consumers for big bucks, or should I say big renminbi. 

For about RMB 3,999, about $584, you can purchase your own G1.  If you wish to purchase an unlocked G1, then it will cost an additional RMB 500, or $73.  It looks like the price of the G1 will remain high, until T-Mobile officially introduces the G1 to China, even though China is receiving a lot of illegal phones. 

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100 entries.  20 finalists.  3 winners.  1 grand award.  And a confused girl.  You might be having a little chuckle over the confused girl part.  But I really am.

Of the 3,162 exhibitors at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair and all their acres of eye-popping electronics, how does a China Blue High-Definition (CBHD) player win the Grand Award and the Gold Award for Consumer Electronics in a competition as highly touted as the HKEIA Award for Outstanding Innovation and Technology?  Seriously?  The most amazing, can’t live without, new electronic of highest innovation in all the world is a CBHD player?

Half of you reading this are saying, what in the world is a CBHD player?  And I hope the rest of you are shaking your heads with me.

See?  I’m not the only one confused now.

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Recently, Porient announced a new UMPC, which would be a successor to their year old H9 UMPC. On the product page, there wasn’t a whole lot of information, and Pocketables decided to do a little research of their own to find out what Porient’s H12 UMPC featured.

One of the interesting things they found out was that the H12 would run Linux. In addition, it comes with a 520MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor, 4.8 inch TFT touch screen, 800 x 480 resolution, SD/MMC memory expansion, 2GB of internal flash memory, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connectivity. It also measures out at 5.12 inches x 3.35 inches x 0.63 inches. Moving away from all the hardware specs, it comes with the applications you come to expect like a web browser, RSS reader, video/audio player, office software and the rest. Lastly, it can also act like a GPS, and comes with a DAB/DBV-H/DVB-T receiver (this alphabet soup just means you can watch TV on it).

The H12 is already available, but don’t expect this UMPC to leave the Asian market any time soon unless another company rebadges the devices.

Read [Porient] Via [Pocketables]

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Beijing seems to enjoy being in the news a lot.  The city is holding the third annual WiMAX Global Summit on September 18 and 19.  The goal of the summit is to discuss the current state of WiMAX in China, its viability for China, and to keep momentum going.  The Chinese government will issue the new WiMAX policy and an oh-so-exciting white paper at the summit as well.  There will be product demos, a lot of speakers and an Olympic tour just to keep things interesting.

For those of you not familiar with WiMAX (and with so many buzz words going around lately, I can’t blame you), think of it as Wi-Fi that can go for miles.  It uses large cell phone-like towers to transmit a wireless Internet signal.  It can be used for homes where ISPs normally wouldn’t want to run cables, on laptops, or even cell phones.  According to WiMAX.com, the technology has been put into 68 Russian cities.  Sprint recently implemented it into Baltimore, with Boston, Dallas and Philadelphia upcoming.

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Sharp is making some sharp decisions when it comes to marketing their cellular phones in China. This is the second Sharp cellular phone to be marketed in China by Sharp (the first was in June). 

This phone, the Sharp SH8010C is being shown off at two press conferences in the People’s Republic.  The first is in the Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai and one at the Grand Hyatt Beijing.  They used a lot of fashion show tactics as models strutted their stuff with the phones.

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Earlier this month, Sony entered the PMP market in China by shipping out their PMX-M80. Today, they have announced another PMP that they plan to sell there as well, however, this is one is more affordable than the PM-M80 and will accompany the PMX-U50 and U53.

The PMX-U55 sports a 2.4-inch screen with a 320 x 240 resolution, supports a few formats including MP4, H.264/AVC Baseline profile, AVI, MP3, WMA, and AAC. It’s only 7.5mm thick, so it’s pretty thin. Battery life isn’t too bad - 12 hours of audio and 5 hours of video playback. The 2GB model is already available, however, it is only available in pink at this time. It will sell for 498 Yuan, which is about $73 US.

Via [PMP Today]

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Google is trying to increase it’s poor market share in China by offering free legal downloads of licensed songs.  According to the Reuters report, Google’s main Chinese competitor, Baidu, is facing lawsuits for allowing copyright infringement through downloading unlicensed songs.

The new service from Google will allow Chinese internet users to search thousands of Chinese artists and songs, which can then be downloaded from Top100.cn. 

Estimates from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (think international RIAA) estimate that pirated files are currently more than 99-percent of all files downloaded in China.  In a country that recently released numbers putting it at the highest number of internet users in the world, that’s pretty big.

It’s cool that Google is trying to raise its market share by offering free music downloads, but it would be cool if they could do it in the U.S. as well.  Sure, we’re not behind the Great Firewall, but doesn’t the rest of the world deserve free music downloads? Of course, as you would expect, Google will also place ads on the service which will have the revenue shared between Top100.cn and its music partners.

Read [Reuters]

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Sections: Audio, Web, Online Music/Video, Google

Sony has recently began to venture into the Chinese market, and they did this by announcing the new, fancy, and pretty expensive PMX-M80 portable media player.

One of the key features of this PMP is that it comes with preloaded maps, similar to Google Maps, which could be found on the iPhone. These maps also come with POI’s. In addition, it comes with a GPSesque 4.3-inch screen with a 480 x 272 resolution, 16GB hard drive, voice recorder, up to 6 hours of video playback, expandable memory via memory stick, and a lot of format support including SRS 3D audio, MP4, AVI, WMA, MP3, and AAC.

As on now, Sony is retailing the device for 2,260 Yuan, or about $331 US.

Via [PMP Today]

• Sony’s Home beta temporarily shuts down for maintenance
• Sony giving away Qore Episode 7 for free
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While not confirmed, news has been trickling out from Facebook users in China that they were not able to access their data.

A clear picture has yet to be painted but Facebook is close to confirming the phenomenon. “We are disappointed to learn of reports that users in China are having difficulty getting access to Facebook,“

Representatives from the social network reportedly told CIO News. “We have not made any changes to our site that would create access problems and are looking into the situation.“

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Sections: Web, Web 2.0