Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

So you wanna shoot in the wild?  Long gone are the days of the plain black flip-top camera bag. Now-a-days, photographers have a choice of resting spots for their Precious. And this new carrying case, touted the “Adventure Bag” by Tamrac, is really rather impressive.

To start off, the simple design of the bag is a masterpiece in it’s own right. Sleek and well balanced, with a youthful design… it looks more like a regular backpack than a camera bag, which is actually a good thing for those carrying around pricey equipment and not especially wanting to advertise that fact.  The Adventure Bags feature separate sections to hold all of your goodies. The bottom section is totally foam-padded to safely transport your camera gear, while the top section is built like a standard backpack and can be used to easily carry your snacks, maps, sunscreen, jacket or any other items you may need for your photo jaunt.

The main compartment has a weather flap along with quick-release buckles for super security and weather protection. This is definitely a plus when you are out in the elements on a long hike. The Bag also features Tamrac’s patented Memory and Battery Management System that uses red flags to identify available memory cards and batteries. For those photographers that really like to take their tech with them, the Adventure 9 and 10 also hold up to a 17-inch screen laptop. The Adventure Bag is available in Red/Black or Gray/Black.  Happy shooting!

Read [Tamrac]

Although we have previously mentioned Toshiba’s face recognition technology in our coverage of the Satellite A300 and M300 and P300, it is only now that Toshiba is officially promoting the said feature. Toshiba has employed this technology to provide Satellite owners an additional way of securing their dear Toshiba machines from unauthorized users. The technology grants or denies access to people who might use the laptops depending on whether they are registered users.

To use the face recognition technology to secure their laptops, users need to have their face profiled by the laptop’s webcam during a short setup process. Once profiled, the laptop’s webcam would use this to reference people who are about to use the laptops as recognized by the laptop’s webcam. If a user’s face has not been profiled before, then the laptop would deny them access to the machine.

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As predicted Facebook have already got off to a bad start in 2008, with news that in the UK the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is to look into how easy (or not as the case seems to be) it is to delete your information off Facebook once you have deactivated your account. The fear is that people will think that once they deactivate their account that will remove all their information but that isn’t the case.

“Those who wish to wipe out all information are advised to “log in and delete all profile content”, which involves manually removing everything from messages to pictures.

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Microsoft’s Windows Vista security looks tighter than ever. It contains a number of new security features that, taken together, are designed to make Windows Vista-based PCs more secure and your online experiences safer. The improvements are designed to help you have:

• Protection from viruses, worms, spyware, and other potentially unwanted software.


• Stronger Parental locking system.


• An understanding of when your PC is unsafe, and the control and guidance to help improve your security. Means windows automatically detect and upgrade to fight security holes. An early warning will be also given to use on upcoming instability.

User account control

It remain almost same as Windows XP SP2 but additionally Vista giving you the ability to decide if certain potentially dangerous software is allowed to make changes to your computer. It works with Windows Defender and Internet Explorer to help reduce the impact of viruses, spyware, and other threats. With User Account Control and the new Parental Controls in Windows Vista, you can easily create a separate account for each member of the family and control which websites, programs, and games each person can use and install. This helps protect your family and keeps your computer running smoothly. In Vista’s RC1 test I found that if the parental lock is on, certain games will install but won’t run, the screens remain blank. For web address containing adult media, it doesn’t even allow access, straight locked out. This seems to be a very good parental lock system—good for family used PC’s.

Malware protection

Microsoft introduces layer security features to fight Malware, viruses, Trojan, spyware etc. Windows Vista contains many security features that help prevent malware from installing, and that help find and remove malware if it has already been installed.

Security alerts enable you to quickly resolve potentially damaging issues that can harm your Windows Vista PC. Three rough and tough tools come into light for protection:

• Windows Vista firewall. As I have seen it in action in Vista RC1 testing its looks stronger and not annoying.


• Windows Defender, you will love this one. Superior Spyware protection plus not even a single file will be copied or install in your pc without your concern. It checks the digital signature of the file.


• Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), delivered through Automatic Updates, periodically scans your PC looking for known prevalent viruses. Till 3^rd October,2006 in my Vista RC1 testing its holding some more virus than popular virus software.

A few other important issue

Though in Microsoft’s web site they declared that you may use other security and virus software who are Microsoft’s partners, like-MacAfee and Norton, anti-virus companies have raised issues about Vista’s core accessibility. Vista does not give core access to any software, even its partner programs like Norton’s software. So it will be most likely that you can’t use any other antivirus programs with Vista upon launch (but I doubt that will last for long). Since Microsoft is introducing those security features for the first time, it will be very reasonable to doubt their ability to fight malware/viruses. Though this step of Microsoft is criticized as abomination attempt, the EU has yet to decide if Vista will be available for EU users on January, 2007 for this issue.

I have just got word on VISTA RC2 is available for testing. I am hoping some additional interesting features will pop up.

Source [Windows Vista]