| Appeals Court Empowers Police to Track Suspects by Cell Phone Sans Warrant Posted: 15 Aug 2012 11:48 AM PDT  Privacy advocates aren't going to like this one, but a 2-1 ruling in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has given law enforcement officials the legal right to track suspects by cell phone in real-time without first obtaining a warrant. The ruling revolves around a case in which Melvin Skinner, a convicted drug trafficker, sought to have his charges dismissed on the basis that his arrest ran afoul of the Fourth Amendment.
According to court documents (PDF), Skinner transported illegal drugs between Arizona and Tennessee. DEA agents were able to track Skinner's location using data emanating from his pay-as-you-go cell phone, which ultimately led to his arrest in a motorhome filled with over 1,100 pounds of marijuana. "When criminals use modern technological devices to carry out criminal acts and to reduce the possibility of detection, they can hardly complain when the police take advantage of the inherent characteristics of those very devices to catch them," the judges wrote in their ruling. "This is not a case in which the government secretly placed a tracking device in someone's car. The drug runners in this case used pay-as-you-go (and thus presumably more difficult to trace) cell phones to communicate during the cross country shipment of drugs. Unfortunately for the drug runners, the phones were trackable in a way they may not have suspected. The Constitution, however, does not protect their erroneous expectations regarding the undetectability of their modern tools." Part of the ruling comes down to interpreting Skinner's ignorance of pay-as-you-go cell phones. The analogy the court used is that of dog hounds, suggesting that Skinner can't be entitled to rely on the expected untrackability of this tools (cell phone), otherwise it would be like saying dog hounds would not be allowed to track a fugitive if the fugitive was unaware the dogs had his scent. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Razer Releases Software Development Kit (SDK) for Switchblade UI Posted: 15 Aug 2012 11:17 AM PDT  Razer, a well known maker of PC gaming peripherals, has made available to developers its Software Development Kit (SDK) for its Switchblade user interface (UI). The Switchblade UI is featured prominently on the company's 'Razer Blade' gaming laptop, as well as its Star Wars: The Old Republic gaming keyboard and newly announced DeathStalker Ultimate plank.
"With the development of the SDK for the Switchblade UI, we are pleased to offer every game developer the ability to create applications that will enhance their immersive experience for their favorite games," said Robert 'RazerGuy' Krakoff, president of Razer USA. "I am eager to see the types of applications that can be made by our passionate and creative fans inside the development community." Using the newly developed SDK, developers savvy in C++ and C Sharp programming can create all sorts of new applications for the Switchblade UI, from mini-maps and inventory slots, to information guides and whatever else they can think of, "all based in a free and open development model." If you're interested in playing around with the SDK or learning more about it, Razer posted an online guide that goes into more detail. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Patent Judge Encourages Apple and Samsung to Settle Differences Over Phone Posted: 15 Aug 2012 10:56 AM PDT  It's another day, and the way things have been going lately, that usually means another development in the patent trial between Apple and Samsung. Today is no exception, though if the presiding judge gets her wish, all this nonsense will come to an end, and not by way of a jury verdict. Instead, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh urged both companies to get on the horn one more time to see if they can come up with a settlement agreement.
"I'm going to make one more request that CEOs from both sides speak by phone," Koh said in court today, according to Bloomberg. "I see risks here for both sides." This isn't the first time Koh has encouraged Apple and Samsung to try and talk things out. Earlier this year, Koh instructed Apple CEO Tim Cook to meet with Samsung's Choi Gee-sung, though the ensuing discussion didn't prove fruitful in the slightest. As we've been covering extensively here on Maximum PC, Apple is suing Samsung for allegedly infringing on design patents and is seeking no less than $2.5 billion in damages and a permanent ban on several Galaxy devices. Samsung filed a counter-suit, also on the basis of infringement, and is seeking damages as well. "If all you wanted is to raise that you have IP on these devices, message delivered," Koh said. "In many ways, mission accomplished. It's time for peace." Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Why a $199 Microsoft Surface Tablet is Probably Wishful Thinking Posted: 15 Aug 2012 09:13 AM PDT  You know how pessimists like to point out that if something is too good to be true, then it probably is? As much as we hate to admit it, that idiom most likely applies to a recent rumor suggesting Microsoft finalized plans to price its Windows RT-based Surface tablet at a mere $199. It's fun to speculate on what kind of impact that would have on the tablet market, but at the end of the day, all that rhetoric would be for naught because it's just not going to happen, according to several analysts.
Once such analyst is Rick Sherlund over at Nomura Equity Research. Sherlund makes it his business to keep his finger on Microsoft's pulse, and in this instance, he believes Surface will bubble at a much higher price. "We do not believe that Microsoft will price Surface at $199, but rather that it would be priced in similar range with the iPad (around $500)," Sherlund wrote in a note. "The report suggests that Microsoft would potentially price its announced Surface device at $199; this is well below the BOM of probably $300 and would, we think, undermine its OEM partners and thus we firmly believe this will not be the case." The only hint Microsoft has provided to date is that Surface will be priced competitively with other ARM-based tablets, and there aren't any comparable 10-inch slates selling for a pair of C-notes. That's 7-inch tablet territory, which, incidentally, Sherlund says he "would not be surprised to see Microsoft ship a 7-inch device." One other scenario that's been talked about online is that Microsoft could subsidize Surface to hit the rumored $199 price point. It's not totally farfetched, considering Microsoft recently started doing this with its Xbox 360 console, which gamers can grab for just $99 up front plus $15/month (it also includes Xbox Live Gold service and a Kinect). What do you think, is a $199 Surface tablet feasible, or just wishful thinking? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| AVADirect Expands All-In-One Portfolio with Touch Friendly Intel CAP08 System Posted: 15 Aug 2012 08:33 AM PDT  Just in time for the back-to-school shopping season, boutique system builder AVADirect out of Ohio announced today a new all-in-one (AIO) system with a 21.5-inch Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) LED touchscreen display, the Intel CAP08. AVADirect's latest AIO is built around Intel's Q77 mini-ITX platform and sports a metric ton of upgrade options, just in case the default $777.64 configuration doesn't float your back-to-school boat.
That's relatively inexpensive for an AIO with a touchscreen display, though you're not going to burn any benchmark records with the standard config. If you don't change a thing, the system will ship with an Intel Pentium G620 dual-core processor clocked at 2.6GHz, 4GB of DDR3-1600 memory, 750GB Seagate Momentus hard drive (7200 RPM, 16MB cache, SATA 3Gbps), 8X DVD burner, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. It's a respectable setup, but depending on how many Benjamins you have to throw at this thing, you can up the ante by configuring it with up to a Core i7 3770S (Ivy Bridge), up to 16GB of RAM, up to a 1TB hard drive or 512GB solid state drive, a TV tuner, and various other amenities. In an attempt to strike a balance between price and performance, we played around with the configuration options and came up with a $1,132.27 config that consists of an Intel Core i7 3470S quad-core processor (Ivy Bridge), 16GB of Crucial DDR3-1600 RAM, 750GB Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive, Blu-ray reader/DVD burner combo, Wireless-n connectivity, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. If you want to configure your own, you can do so on AVADirect's website. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| FCC Filing Hints at Larger Size Kindle Fire Tablet Posted: 15 Aug 2012 08:04 AM PDT  It's looking increasingly likely that Amazon is gearing up to launch a full-size Kindle Fire tablet to sell alongside its existing 7-inch model that's been so popular up to this point. Courtesy of some savvy online detective work, it was discovered that Amazon once again may have used a shell company to sneak through paperwork for its next generation Kindle Fire device, though details are fairly light at this point.
The folks over at The Digital Reader received an anonymous tip concerning FCC documents recently posted, and when tracing the paper trail, it led to a company called Harpers LLC. We won't rehash the mundane details, but suffice to say, Amazon has a long history of using front companies to file paperwork with the FCC for unreleased Kindle devices, and it looks to be that way again. Unfortunately, the paperwork is more than a little sparse, though the dimensions listed indicate it's likely this is a 9.7-inch or 10-inch tablet, probably with a 4:3 screen. If that's the case, the Kindle Fire 2 (or whatever Amazon decides to call it) would go head-to-head with Apple's iPad, along with the plethora of Windows 8/RT tablets on the horizon. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Google Play Store to Bid Adobe Flash Player Farewell Posted: 15 Aug 2012 06:39 AM PDT  Time is running out if you're a fan of Adobe's Flash Player plugin for Android and haven't yet downloaded it. On August 15 (tomorrow), Adobe will yank its plugin from Google Play as a readily available download, and only devices that already have Flash Player installed will see any future updates. The move is intended to avoid any compatibility conflicts with Google's Jelly Bean build (Android 4.1).
"Devices that don't have the Flash Player provided by the manufacturer typically are uncertified, meaning the manufacturer has not completed the certification testing requirements. In many cases users of uncertified devices have been able to download the Flash Player from the Google Play Store, and in most cases it worked. However, with Android 4.1 this is no longer going to be the case, as we have not continued developing and testing Flash Player for this new version of Android and its available browser options. There will be no certified implementations of Flash Player for Android 4.1," Adobe explained in a blog post. Adobe is slowing its effort to support the Flash platform on mobile devices, having essentially conceded defeat to HTML5 and focusing future efforts on its Adobe AIR runtime. After August 15th comes and goes, if you still want to install Flash Player on your Android device (or if you're a developer that needs access to it), they'll remain available in Adobe's Flash Player archive. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Component Delays Force Toshiba Out of Windows RT Race Posted: 15 Aug 2012 05:48 AM PDT  Microsoft has revealed the names of its Windows RT OEM partners and there are a few big names missing from the list. While we already know the reasons behind HP and Acer's absence, the absence of Japanese company Toshiba, which was recently rumored to be among Microsoft's Windows RT launch partners, is bit of a mystery.
Actually, it was a mystery up until Tuesday morning, when the company revealed the exact reason for its omission from the list of Windows RT OEM partners. Apparently, the Japanese company has decided to steer clear from the Windows RT fray for the time being, owing to component delays. "Toshiba has decided not to introduce Windows RT models due to delayed components that would make a timely launch impossible," the company announced Tuesday. "For the time being, Toshiba will focus on bringing Windows 8 products to market.We will continue to look into the possibility of Windows RT products in the future while monitoring market conditions." Like Toshiba, HP too has no plans for a Windows RT product at this stage, albeit the latter's "decision to go with x86 was influenced by input from our customers." Then there is Acer which, while not averse to building a Windows RT tablet, has said that it's unlikely to enter the market this year. |
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