Sunday, March 31, 2013

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 to include WebGL graphics after all?

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 to include WebGL graphics after all?

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 11 to include WebGL graphics after all?

Microsoft's next version of the Internet Explorer web browser may feature a graphics platform the company had previously derided as a security risk.

In a leaked version of Windows Blue, unearthed last week, the IE11 browser shows evidence that the WebGL tech - used for enabling accelerated 2D and 3D graphics - will be deployed.

The WebGL tech, which is featured in IE's rivals Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome, uses the hardware GPU to assist rendering without the need for additional plug-ins. It is useful for gaming, mapping and other graphics-intense functions.

The leaked IE11 build shows WebGL's DNA is present within the code, but not yet operational, but that could change by the time Microsoft fully details the Windows Blue update at its Build conference in June.

Softening stance

The discovery comes almost 2 years after Microsoft said it would not be pursuing the tech within its browsers due to security vulnerabilities.

In a blog post in June 2011, the company said: "We believe that WebGL will likely become an ongoing source of hard-to-fix vulnerabilities.

"In its current form, WebGL is not a technology Microsoft can endorse from a security perspective."

Last year, the company's attitude app eared to be softening, when it admitted that WebGL was among users' most requested features, and would be implemented if security concerns were allayed. Has that time come?



Apple denied trademark for 'merely descriptive' iPad mini name

Apple denied trademark for 'merely descriptive' iPad mini name

Apple denied trademark for 'merely descriptive' iPad mini name

Apple cannot trademark the iPad mini name in the US because the name only describes features and characteristics of the device, according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

The company filed for the trademark shortly after launching the device in October, but in a letter sent to Apple in January, the USPTO reviewer argued that the name was "merely descriptive."

In denying the application, the reviewer wrote: "Registration is refused because the applied-for mark me rely describes a feature or characteristic of applicant's goods."

Apple already owns the trademark for the iPad in the US, but the USPTO believes the addition of "mini" does not do enough to give it "distinctiveness" and earn a separate mark.

Breaking it down

The reviewer also broke down the smaller device's name to argue that the parts "i" (internet device) "Pad" (tablet computer) and "mini" (something smaller then other members of its class) were all descriptive.

Apple, which has faced a global battle to register the iPad name, has until June to adapt its filing or the application will be officially shot down.

If it can convince the USPTO that the iPad mini name does indeed fall under the "distinctiveness" clause mentioned above then the company may yet be successful in its application.

The letter read: "If applicant believes that a portion of the mark has acquired distinctiveness , applicant may amend the application to add a claim of acquired distinctiveness as to that portion under Trademark Act Section 2(f)."



Review: MSI CX61 0NF

Review: MSI CX61 0NF

Review: MSI CX61 0NF

One of the hardest things to get right in a laptop is the balance between price and power. MSI has never scrimped on the latter - often offering specs that cater to the multimedia masses and the gaming crowd - but this usually means a high price tag.

The MSI CX61 0NF brings a massive amount of power to those seeking a more reasonably priced machine, but it looks as if MSI has cut a number of aesthetic corners as well.

This certainly isn't a laptop for the style-conscious. Burdened with a rather bulky 380mm chassis, the CX61 isn't going to win any awards for its looks. Its exterior is on the plasticky side, and is covered in a grey-black paint that is by no means offensive, but isn't a colour you'd choose for your next car.

Given the large chassis, the CX61 is s urprisingly light. At 2.4kg it certainly won't put your back out, but we can't see you carrying it around too much - and one look at the battery results shows that it won't last long away from the mains. We managed 125 minutes on a heavy load, which isn't ideal if you're thinking about gaming on the go, but that's the price you pay for what are undeniably fantastic specs.

This is where the CX61 comes into its own. There's real power within the chunky exterior, with a Core i7 chip, GeForce GT 645M graphics card and a whopping 1TB of hard disk space. In practical terms, this equates to a laptop that is just as comfortable playing graphics-heavy games as it is handling everyday office tasks.

Build quality

MSI CX61

Unfortunately, this heavy duty nature doesn't carry through to the build of the laptop. A fter a few hours use, we encountered a number of odd creaks and croaks. These mostly came from the laptop's hinges, and while this never felt like it would impinge on daily use, it could be a little sturdier.

The keyboard was rather flat to type on as well, which points to a design that caters more to the gaming side of things than boring, functional tasks like word processing. The focus on gaming is also visible in small changes to the standard keyboard layout.

The [Windows] key (which is used to flit between the Start screen and the desktop) isn't where you expect it to be. It has been shunted to the right to suit gamers, and keys like [Shift] and [Ctrl] have been enlarged. There are also full-size arrow keys to keep the gaming clique happy. These subtle changes worked well in our tests, even if the keyboard was ultimately let down by lack of sensitivity in the touchpad.

The screen on the CX61 is a joy to use. It may take some getting used to - given t hat it has a non-glare finish - but you'll soon be thankful, due to the lack of shine getting in the way of things. It's Full HD too, ensuring your movies and games look fantastic.

MSI CX61 closed

Connectivity-wise, there's a HDMI socket, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, a memory card reader, microphone and headphone jacks and Bluetooth 4.0.

The MSI CX61 is undeniably a powerful machine, but it's wrapped in a bubble of design mediocrity. If you can see beyond the bland chassis, then you'll be gifted a computer brimming with specs that wouldn't look out of place in a laptop costing twice as much.



Snooch to the Nooch! Kevin Smith among celebrity Google Glass winners

Snooch to the Nooch! Kevin Smith among celebrity Google Glass winners

Clerks director Kevin Smith, television stars Neil Patrick Harris and Alyssa Milano and musicians Soulja Boy and Imogen Heap are among the celebrity names invited to become Google Glass Explorers.

Google is yet to officially announce the results of a competition where Twitter and Google+ users could make their case to become the first 4,000 people to own a pair of its Augmented Reality specs.

However, the company has been publicly inviting the selected candidates through its @ProjectGlass Twitter account and PhD student Andrej Kaparthy has compiled a list of winners using Twitter's API.

Among the celebrity winners, there's also some notables from the tech world with Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley and video game designer Cliff Bleszinski on the list, while former speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich also made the cut.

#IfIhadglass

The competition rules required Twitter and Google+ users to outline how they'd use a Google Glass unit (which they still have to pay full price for, by the way) using the #IfIhadglass hashtag.

Silent Bob star Smith, who has 2.3m Twitter followers, entered with: "I'll tell you what I'd do #ifihadglass - I'd document the writing of CLERKS III. Watching writing happen: it'd be both exciting AND boring."

Milano, who is most famous for her role in the TV show, Charmed won with: "#IfIHadGlass I'd take all of you on my humanitarian missions with @unicefusa so we can affect positive change together!"

Neil Patrick Harris who plays Barney in How I Met Your Mother won with: "I'd show what it's like to act on the set of HIMYM all day! #ifihadglass"

App id eas

The list isn't just a who's who of the rich, famous and influential. 26 per cent of the folks on Kaparthy's list have less than 100 Twitter followers.

61 per cent have less than 1,000, while just 7 per cent have more than 10,000.

From the 2,318 people included on the list, many were pitching application ideas relating to healthcare, education, the environment, exercise and more. TechCrunch has compiled a cool list of the best ideas.

Via The Verge

GDC 2013: Apple reportedly in talks with developers to launch proprietary game controller

GDC 2013: Apple reportedly in talks with developers to launch proprietary game controller

Though there are plenty of gaming controllers already available for the iPad 4 and iPhone 5, none of them have come from Apple itself.

While patents have popped up in the past, Apple hasn't seen fit to develop its own gamepad for iOS gaming, and since 2007, has allowed third-party companies to rule the roost.

However, sources speaking with PocketGamer revealed that might not be the case for much longer, as Apple was reportedly testing the controller waters in secret at GDC.

Nobody saw the device as of yet, but the anonymous developers who sat in with Apple at the even t claimed the Cupertino company was seeking day one support for the mysterious controller.

Button-mashing bandwagon

To this point, Apple has seemingly been satisfied with the touch-based controls its iOS devices use for gaming.

However, a recent influx of controllers and consoles from companies like Ouya and GameStick, as well as Samsung's own Galaxy S4 Game Pad may have forced Apple to be reactionary for once.

PocketGamer's sources said Apple was at GDC under a fictitious name, and didn' t bring any hardware along to show off thanks to frequent leaks.

The controller is believed to make a showing at Apple's April event, which is typically home to the annual iPad announcement.

It would certainly make sense to reveal a new controller alongside the iPad 5, but there's also a chance this purported joystick could be part of a larger plan, like the oft-rumored Apple iTV.

Whatever Apple's plans are, the company clearly believes the controller is a secret to be guarded as closely as the next iOS device.

Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio launch as soon as June

Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio launch as soon as June

Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio launch as soon as June

Apple could launch its long-rumored iRadio service as soon as this summer, finally giving iTunes a streaming music app to take on Pandora and Spotify.

"iRadio is coming. There's no doubt about it anymore," an unnamed music industry source told The Verge.

The report says that Apple is pushing hard for a summertime launch of the streaming music app after making "significant progress" in talks with two top labels, Universal and Warner.

Another Apple rumor from today pins the iPhone 5S launch event to June 20, so the company's apparent push to have an iRadio app present at the event would make sense.

iRadio app negotiations

Apple has reportedly low-balled record labels in negotiations, and the record labels have, in turn, allegedly rebuffed the Apple and its ability to launch iRadio.

The initial offer from Apple is said to have been as low as 6 cents per 100 songs streame d when the Copyright Royalty Board's fair rate for non-broadcast companies is 21 cents per 100 songs.

To give some perspective, Pandora pays 12 cents per 100 songs streamed, while Spotify pays 35 cents per 100 songs streamed.

Whether or not Apple secures a much better deal than all of the other music streaming services out there, the unprofitable Pandora and Spotify are going to be seeking reduced licensing fees.

This will especially be the case if Apple's iRadio app takes on the internet radio spectrum.



Saturday, March 30, 2013

Selected Apple iMessage users hit by DDoS attack, forcing iOS app crash

Selected Apple iMessage users hit by DDoS attack, forcing iOS app crash

Selected Apple iMessage users hit by DDoS attack, forcing iOS app crash

A group of iOS developers and hackers are reporting they've become the target of a malicious attack which overwhelms the Apple iMessage application with spam texts.

The attack, which appears to be confined to those directly targeted, sends messages (claiming to be from Anonymous) in such a large volume that the recipient is constantly receiving notifications.

The next level is to send a single 'Zaglo text' so large in size that the iOS iMessage app cannot cope with the load and crashes.

As Apple's iMessage app does not limit how fast texts can be sent, and does not allow users to block senders, there's no mechanism in place to prevent their instant delivery.

Motivation?

This constitues a new kind of DDoS attack, the kind of which we've seen hackers and online activists use to bring down government websites in the past couple of years.

The iMessage pranksters' motivation isn't totally clear at present, but The Next Web reports that the attack originated from a Twitter account "involved in selling UDIDs, provisioning profiles and more that facilitate in the installation of pirated App Store apps which are re-signed and distributed."

The report suggests that the attack was conducted using AppleScript to set up and send the overwhelming num ber of messages using the OS X iMessage client, something one victim said was extremely easy to do.

iOS developer Paul Grant told The Next Web: "What's happening is a simple flood: Apple doesn't seem to limit how fast messages can be sent, so the attacker is able to send thousands of messages very quickly."

Apple has been notified of the issue, but is yet to comment.



GDC 2013: AMD on the PS4: We gave it the hardware Nvidia couldn't

GDC 2013: AMD on the PS4: We gave it the hardware Nvidia couldn't

AMD came roaring into GDC 2013 with a vengeance. Not only did the chipmaker introduce its first branded line of dedicated cloud gaming graphics cards - the Radeon Sky Series - we got a taste of what it claims is the world's fastest GPU.

Attendees of a Tuesday night press conference saw the GPU, the Radeon HD 7990, make its first public appearance. Later, a set of 7990s powered EA's 17-minute introductory Battlefield 4 demo on the big screen.

And though Sony spent more time talking about the PS4's DualS hock controller than AMD's chippy contributions at the conference, Neal Robison, director of ISV relations at AMD, was more than happy to lay it out for TechRadar.

"You don't know how long we've been waiting for that Sony announcement, because we've been working on it for years," Robison said during a sit down in AMD's expo booth. "To finally be able to talk about a culmination of all this effort is really rewarding."

PlayStation 4 parlance

AMD provided the console's CPU design - eight x86-64, low-power Jaguar cores - plus a next-gen Radeon HD graphics card said to have 18 compute units. Beyond putting two individual pieces of silicon into one game box, the company smooshed them together to create a single APU.

"It's not just about an x86 solution, but it's about that Jaguar APU where it's a combination of the graphics and CPU together and being able to create something that's greater than just putting an x86 PC-like architecture together," Robison explained.

Sony, he said, approached AMD based on the company's track record with the Xbox 360, Wii and other consoles, effectively skipping over Nvidia, which provided the chips for the PS3.

"[Sony's] approach - and they've said this publicly over the last couple of days here at GDC - was, 'We looked at some of the ways that we approached hardware in the past, and we wanted to improve.' And they looked at us as being able as being able to provide that."

AMD could provide an integrated solution through its APU that Nvidia couldn't, he continued, by optimizing information flows, generating greater performance, better power and heat efficiency, and by providing tools and dev relationships to provide the PS4 a strong launch.

"We could say, 'Hey look, these guys already k now how to develop on a PC architecture.' It's something that's really familiar to them and we showed Sony the tool chains and the work flows that had been developed by all these content developers that would very easily be able to move over."

Critics' corner

In a recent interview with TechRadar, Nvidia's Tony Tamasi sized up the PS4's specs to "a low-end CPU, and a low- to mid-range GPU" when compared to gaming PCs. The console's innards, Tamasi said, are outdated even now, months before the PS4 launches during the 2013 holiday season.

"Well, of course they're going to do that," Robison said with a laugh when told of the comparison. "They're a little bitter."

He didn't neglect to give a more nuanced response.

"For us, really by looking at that APU that we designed, you can't pull out individual components off it and hold it up and say, 'Yeah, this compares to X or Y.'

"It's that integration of the two, and especially with the amount of shared memory [8GB of GDDR5, 176GB/s raw memory bandwidth] that Sony has chosen to put on that machine, then you're going to be able to do so much more moving and sharing that data that you can address by both sides.

"It's more than just a CPU doing all these amazing calculations and a GPU doing calculations. We are now going to be able to move certain tasks between the two."

Devs, he said, will be able to push the console's capabilities beyond a traditional x86 PC architecture, and multithreading - being able to take advantage of all eight cores - is going "to become a huge deal for a lot of the big blockbuster games."

Robison deflected when asked about AMD putting its stamp on Microsoft's next-gen console, the Xbox 720, but he noted that t he company had "tremendous success" with the Xbox 360.

"It was a great partnership and we enjoy working with them," he said.

We get the sense that this relationship isn't cooling off anytime soon.

TechRadar will have more from our GDC conversation with Robison, so stay tuned.

Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio summer launch

Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio summer launch

Apple could launch its long-rumored iRadio service as soon as this summer, finally giving iTunes a streaming music app to take on Pandora and Spotify.

"iRadio is coming. There's no doubt about it anymore," an unnamed music industry source told The Verge.

The report says that Apple is pushing hard for a summertime launch of the streaming music app after making "significant progress" in talks with two top labels, Universal and Warner.

Another Apple rumor from today pins the iPhone 5S launch event to June 20, so the company's apparent push to have an iRadio app present at the event would make sense.

iRadio app negotiations

Apple has reportedly low-balled record labels in negotiations, and the record labels have, in turn, allegedly rebuffed the Apple and its ability to launch iRadio.

The initial offer from Apple is said to have been as low as 6 cents per 100 songs streamed when the Copyright Royalty Board's fair rate for non-broadcast companies is 21 cents per 100 songs.

To give some perspective, Pandora pays 12 cents per 100 songs streamed, while Spotify pays 35 cents per 100 songs streamed.

Whether or not Apple secures a much better deal than all of the other music streaming services out there, the unprofitable Pandora and Spotify are going to be seeking reduced licensing fees.

This will especially be the case if Apple's iRadio app takes on the internet radio spectrum.

Selected Apple iMessage users hit by DDoS attack, forcing iOS app crash

Selected Apple iMessage users hit by DDoS attack, forcing iOS app crash

Selected Apple iMessage users hit by DDoS attack, forcing iOS app crash

A group of iOS developers and hackers are reporting they've become the target of a malicious attack which overwhelms the Apple iMessage application with spam texts.

The attack, which appears to be confined to those directly targeted, sends messages (claiming to be from Anonymous) in such a large volume that the recipient is constantly receiving notifications.

The next level is to send a single 'Zaglo text' so large in size that the iOS iMessage app cannot cope with the load and crashes.

< p>As Apple's iMessage app does not limit how fast texts can be sent, and does not allow users to block senders, there's no mechanism in place to prevent their instant delivery.

Motivation?

This constitues a new kind of DDoS attack, the kind of which we've seen hackers and online activists use to bring down government websites in the past couple of years.

The iMessage pranksters' motivation isn't totally clear at present, but The Next Web reports that the attack originated from a Twitter account "involved in selling UDIDs, provisioning profiles and more that facilitate in the installation of pirated App Store apps which are re-signed and distributed."

The report suggests that the attack was conducted using AppleScript to set up and send the overwhelming number of messages using the OS X iMessage client, something one victim said was extremely easy to do.

iOS developer Paul Grant told The Next Web: "What's happening is a simple flood: Apple doesn't seem to limit how fast messages can be sent, so the attacker is able to send thousands of messages very quickly."

Apple has been notified of the issue, but is yet to comment.



Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio summer launch

Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio summer launch

Apple reportedly pushing hard for iRadio summer launch

Apple could launch its long-rumored iRadio service as soon as this summer, finally giving iTunes a streaming music app to take on Pandora and Spotify.

"iRadio is coming. There's no doubt about it anymore," an unnamed music industry source told The Verge.

The report says that Apple is pushing hard for a summertime launch of the streaming music app after making "significant progress" in talks with two top labels, Universal and Warner.

Another Apple rumor from today pins the iPhone 5S launch event to June 20, so the company's apparent push to have an iRadio app present at the event would make sense.

iRadio app negotiations

Apple has reportedly low-balled record labels in negotiations, and the record labels have, in turn, allegedly rebuffed the Apple and its ability to launch iRadio.

The initial offer from Apple is said to have been as low as 6 cents per 100 songs streamed when the Copyrig ht Royalty Board's fair rate for non-broadcast companies is 21 cents per 100 songs.

To give some perspective, Pandora pays 12 cents per 100 songs streamed, while Spotify pays 35 cents per 100 songs streamed.

Whether or not Apple secures a much better deal than all of the other music streaming services out there, the unprofitable Pandora and Spotify are going to be seeking reduced licensing fees.

This will especially be the case if Apple's iRadio app takes on the internet radio spectrum.



//PART 2