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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It looks like good things come to those will a little patience when it comes to a US-based 3G capable Touch Diamond. We had recently seen a home-brewed ROM update that enabled the 850Mhz frequency on the euro-spec’d Touch Diamond, only to have HTC issue an official update that offered EDGE support over the 850Mhz band. That by itself was good news, but still not what many had been hoping for, however that has recently surfaced at the FCC.

That’s right a US 3G capable Touch Diamond has recently been given the seal of approval from the FCC. Of course we are still not sure when this will make its way to an available status, or even how much it will retail for, but that should all come in time. For now at least we can be sure its coming.

Just to recap some of the features, the Touch Diamond offers a 2.8-inch VGA (480 × 640) touchscreen display, a 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera on the rear with a VGA camera on the front, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR,  Wi-Fi, eGPS, orientation sensor and an FM radio. It is powered by a 528MHz Qualcomm MSM 7201A processor and is running Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with the TouchFLO 3D interface. The Touch Diamond also has 256MB ROM / 192MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a microSDHC card slot for additional storage.

Via [IntoMobile]

• BlackBerry 8900 Curve passes through the FCC, on the way to US availability
• HTC, Russian carrier Scartel intro world’s first GSM/WiMAX phone
• Need cash?  Pawnshop your iPod - online

In most places across the world, at any given time of day, you can walk up to any random person and be sure that he/she owns a Nokia. Then when you ask that person why he/she owns a Nokia, you’ll be given an anecdote about its user-friendly interface, nice styling, satisfactory performance, etc. And it shouldn’t surprise you, because those are the reasons why Nokia skyrocketed in the mobile phone making game.

Another thing that’s not surprising is Nokia’s apparent low profile in the North American handset market, mainly because it just would not succumb to the carriers’s requests to modify their phones in order to match some “specific criteria.“ This will soon change, however, as Nokia finally decides to change it’s tactics in order to recover their stronghold on the US market.

“We are literally repositioning our entire approach to the US,“ says Mark Louison, the company’s North America chief. And they had better do it soon. Unless they want to keep seeing underdog Motorola beating them at their own game.

Read [Business Week]

• Rogers announces Nokia E71 upcoming availability
• Nokia losing ground to Apple, RIM in the smartphone marketshare
• New Nokia E63 hits the scene trying to un-Blackberry the masses

The Government Accountability Office recently sent out a report that there are stolen US military items currently being sold on Craigslist and eBay. However, there is no clue as to where these items came from or who is selling them. This comes after government investigators posed as buyers who successfully purchased prohibited items such as night vision goggles, army combat uniforms, special enhanced body armor vests and two F-14 fighter jet components. Investigators fear that these items, if sold to non-military personnel or civilians, could be used directly against the US troops and their allies.

Important discussions have arisen since such items were posted for sale. At present, eBay and Craigslist do not follow any official state rules as to selling prohibited items but are still trying to keep such off the site. Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craiglist even told the House National Security and Foreign Affairs subcommittee that the rules on what cannot and can be sold on the website are somewhat confusing.

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It was just a few weeks ago that finally saw the HTC Shift officially land here in the US and now we learn of a second version. The latest addition will be a Sprint-branded offering and come with built-in EV-DO support. Overall the specs will remain the same as the ‘standard’ Shift, which features a 7-inch touchscreen display, a full QWERTY keyboard, 800 Mhz processor, 1GB RAM, a 40GB hard drive, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0. The EV-DO Sprint, well actually the “HTC HTCX9000 Shift CDMA” version will retail for $1500, and is already available for pre-order on Amazon.

Via [jkOnTheRun]

• Sprint: Plug into widget overload
• Dell Inspiron Mini 12 now available in the US, priced from $549
• HTC, Russian carrier Scartel intro world’s first GSM/WiMAX phone

It seemed like forever before HTC released the Shift, and then it was initially only available in Europe, leaving all of here in the US to sit back, drool and continue to hope and wait. Well good news for anyone that was holding their breath on this one, that wait is now over and the Shift is officially available here in the US.

The features remain the same and include a 7-inch touchscreen display, a full QWERTY keyboard, 800 Mhz processor, 1GB RAM, a 40GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE along with HSDPA/UMTS.

Sadly the same factor that limits the desire for owning the Shift in Europe will be the same for potential US customers, the price is more than a lot of standard laptops. The HTC Shift will retail for a little more than $1600.

Via [Gizmodo]

• Like Bigfoot, Windows Mobile 6.5 exists.  Has same problems.
• Dell Inspiron Mini 12 now available in the US, priced from $549
• HTC, Russian carrier Scartel intro world’s first GSM/WiMAX phone

After the recent bad news regarding Intel for the OLPC project it is good to see that they have set up offices in the US and are looking to expand through state governments and get the XO laptop into the hands of the poorest kids in the US.

The XO laptop costs $188 which is almost double the initial target of $100, and with $10,000 spent per annum on each primary school child in the US compared to $20 in Bangladesh it is likely that the project is looking to boost sales of the XO in the US to help support the sales in the poorer nations, but as the poorest kids in the US benefit at the same time it seems like a win-win situation to me.

Via [BBC]

• Colombia orders up Windows XP based XO laptops
• Vista showing its worth
• Believe tech can change the world?  Buy one of these this holiday season.