Amazon enables Kindle e-book lending in the US

Honda data breach sees 2 million car registrations and addresses exposed

Japanese car manufacturer Honda has warned its customers that personal details, which includes vehicle registrations could have been compromised by hackers.

It is thought that over 2 million customers have had their details stolen from an e-mail database, a database that is thought to be hosted by SIlverpop Systems.

Silverpop Systems is the company that found its servers compromised two weeks ago, with private records of both McDonalds and DeviantArt customers and 105 other companies stolen.

Names, login names, e-mail addresses and vehicle identification numbers where stolen from Honda with another list containing three million email addresses of Acura owners also being copied.

Customers have been warned to be on the lookout for phishing attacks as a result of the breach ? with it likely that the details will have been sold on to spammers or phishing companies that will use personalised emails containing vehicle registration numbers and addresses to trick additional information from the account holders.

TechEye details Honda?s statement:

?Be cautious of unsolicited emails requesting personal information. Often, these communications can look official. Be cautious of unsolicited emails requesting personal information.

If ever asked for this information, you can be confident it is not from us.?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2010/12/30/honda-data-breach-sees-2-million-car-registrations-and-addresses-exposed/

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10 tips get the most out of your laptop battery [TNW Lifehacks]

When manufacturers talk about how great their laptops are one of the feature they all highlight is battery life. Remember when getting a couple hours out your laptop battery was awesome? Yeah now getting something less than 5 or even 8 hours isn?t acceptable. The only problem is that in the real world it?s often hard to get those kinds of results, unless you know a few tricks.

It doesn?t take too much to get a lot more time out of your battery, just, well, 10 simple things:

  1. Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth if you don?t need them. Obviously if you?re trying to be online when you?re on battery power you need to keep these on, but if you?re on a flight or someplace where you aren?t going to be online, just turn the WiFi off. Same goes for Bluetooth, if you don?t need it on, turn it off.
  2. Turn down your screen brightness. While screens are a lot more efficient than the used to be, you can still squeeze more time out of your battery if the screen isn?t at full power. The trick here is turn down the screen until it?s too dark to use, then bump it up a notch or two. That should give you the right balance of brightness and power saving.
  3. If you have a backlit keyboard, turn the light off. Just like the screen, the keyboard light drains the battery pretty quickly.
  4. If you?re not using it, quit it. Every app that is running needs a little processor and hard drive time to stay running, all those apps add up to more drain. And don?t just quit the apps you can see all the extras like Dropbox or mouse tools or other add ons use power too?if you don?t really need them, just quit them.
  5. If your laptop has a ?power saving mode? use it. For example on MacBook Pros there is a setting for More Performance (it can tap into the graphics chip) or Better Battery (no graphics chip). Better battery is clearly the choice here.
  6. Set your screen to turn off if not used in a couple minutes. I know it seems extreme, but if you can set your screen to turn off if you?re idle for a minute or two?believe it or not it will make a difference.
  7. Have your computer go to sleep if idle for five minutes. Yes, I know, it sounds extreme, but still the idea is that if you?re not actively using your machine, then turning the screen off and going to sleep will help you eek out more power.
  8. Avoid connecting things to USB ports or the DVD drive. You want to suck your batter dry in a flash? Connect a phone that needs to charge into your machine and watch a movie off the DVD drive at the same time. Those two are huge power draws, especially USB drives and phones that need charging (obviously a charging phone will suck power straight out of your battery). Just try to put off or avoid using them for long.
  9. Use a RAM disk. This is a little geeky, but here?s the idea. If you need to work on a document instead of constantly reading and writing to your hard drive, a RAM disk is a temporary disk that is saved all in RAM. Not accessing the drive means less power usage. Back in the day we used to use RAM disks to speed up all sorts of functions on our machines (an old trick was to put your Firefox cache on a RAM disk), but the trick seems to have fallen out of favor. The utility I used on my Mac (and unwisely deleted) doesn?t seem to be available, but OS X Daily has simple instructions for Mac users. For Windows users I haven?t been able to find something that looks reliable (suggestions are welcome).
  10. Run your battery down once a month. I know this is controversial. Yes, it was certainly true that older batteries had a
    ?memory effect? problem, but it was thought that new ones didn?t. I guess we were wrong because even Apple recommends draining your battery once a month. In fact, I?m draining my battery as I?m writing this post. Not only that I?ve disregarded all the advice here (well except for using the DVD drive). It?s still taken nearly two hours to run the machine until it?s down to reserve power. The next step is to just let the the machine drop into sleep and run the battery completely down, then charge it back up.

I hope these tips help you, for myself when I follow the advice here I can still get 3 or 4 hours out of my 2008 era MBP. Which is pretty good I think.

Just remember the basic precept: if you don?t need it, turn it off, turn it down, or quit it.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/2010/12/30/10-tips-get-the-most-out-of-your-laptop-battery/

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Who Do You Call? Expand your child?s vocabulary using an iPhone [TNW Apps]

TNW Quick Hit

Who Do You Call? ($2.99) is an educational game for iDevices designed for children ages 4+, assisting them with career exploration and vocabulary expansion.

Hits: Grand interactive learning tool for children which can be used anywhere you, your child and your iPhone, iPod Touch and/or iPad happen to be.

Misses: Price is a little steep for an app lacking a tremendous amount of features.  Music could drive parents bonkers, but children seem to enjoy it.

Overall: 4/5

The Details:

I use the iPhone for many things.  Taking photos, capturing video, playing games, updating social networks, sending emails, browsing the internet, and the list goes on and on and on.

As one whose children are of the four-legged variety (dogs and cats, not mutant humans created due to a nuclear accident) my exposure to the iPhone as a learning tool is limited to times when I am around the children of others.  Thankfully the holiday season provided me with access to children, allowing me to observe them using my iPhone to learn themselves.

Who Do You Call?, from Aqility Group, is an app for iDevices which provides children with the opportunity to learn not only about various careers, but also affords them with the chance to grow their vocabulary.  Doing so using both flashcard and gaming elements, Who Do You Call? brought the little ones who used it a great deal of enjoyment.

After launching the app, children can explore various careers in flashcard-style where children can study career vocabulary.  The careers are varied, feature well-designed characters and, to help children with vocabulary expansion, speaks the career name in addition to providing the written form of the word.

Pretty straightforward, and a quick way for kids to cycle through career-types at whatever speed they choose to do so.

The gaming element to Who Do You Call? is as enjoyable and educational as the flashcard feature.

How does it work?  By selecting ?Play Who Do You Call? children are prompted with tasks in need of completion.  For instance, below a child is asked who they should call to ?Heal the sick patient.?  A child then has to match a career with the corresponding task, but also create the proper character?s image from the separate sections presented.

Who Do You Call? Task

After creating the character, the child can hit the ?Call? button where they will receive game feedback and a response from the created character.

The only issues I have with Who Do You Call? are minor.  The app is $2.99.  Not a tremendous amount to pay for an app, and I suspect for those with children, not a great deal to spend when the fate of your children?s vocabulary is at stake, but it still seems a little high for an app with really only two sections, a flashcard and a gaming element.  Second, and this holds true for most things children seem to enjoy, after listening to the app?s music for a great deal of time, I quickly grew tired of it to say the least.  Could I be considered a killjoy for becoming annoyed by a children?s game?  Certainly.  Am I a killjoy?  I don?t believe so.

Despite those small annoyances, Who Do You Call? is certainly an entertaining and rewarding iDevice educational experience for children and parents alike!

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/12/30/who-do-you-call-expand-your-childs-vocabulary-using-an-iphone/

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Canadians Design a Portable Radio Station in a Box [TNW Canada]

microphoneTwo Canadians have designed a portable FM radio station that is small enough to fit inside a briefcase and will transmit a broadcast from 30 to 100 kilometres.

This carry-on broadcasting unit is an 18-kilo (40 lbs) FM radio kit that can either be powered by electricity, battery or even solar power.  As of today, the units will run you between $10,000 to $70,000 however these stations weren?t designed as a luxury item for wannabe DJ?s ?it was designed to educate people living in rural areas in Africa.

The idea for the portable radio station was born following a troublesome election in Kenya, the co-founder Peter Onguti told CBC news. He was concerned with the fact that remote areas of Kenya were completely shut-off from information so he approached a telecommunication engineer to build it, and funded the entire project with his own personal savings.

A few dozen of the units have recently been donated and will be used to inform and communicate pertinent information to Africans living in remote areas.  The ability to share information is highly critical and this portable FM radio station is another shining example of why I love technology.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/ca/2010/12/30/canadians-design-a-portable-radio-station-in-a-box/

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Who Do You Call? Expand your child?s vocabulary using an iPhone [TNW Apps]

TNW Quick Hit

Who Do You Call? ($2.99) is an educational game for iDevices designed for children ages 4+, assisting them with career exploration and vocabulary expansion.

Hits: Grand interactive learning tool for children which can be used anywhere you, your child and your iPhone, iPod Touch and/or iPad happen to be.

Misses: Price is a little steep for an app lacking a tremendous amount of features.  Music could drive parents bonkers, but children seem to enjoy it.

Overall: 4/5

The Details:

I use the iPhone for many things.  Taking photos, capturing video, playing games, updating social networks, sending emails, browsing the internet, and the list goes on and on and on.

As one whose children are of the four-legged variety (dogs and cats, not mutant humans created due to a nuclear accident) my exposure to the iPhone as a learning tool is limited to times when I am around the children of others.  Thankfully the holiday season provided me with access to children, allowing me to observe them using my iPhone to learn themselves.

Who Do You Call?, from Aqility Group, is an app for iDevices which provides children with the opportunity to learn not only about various careers, but also affords them with the chance to grow their vocabulary.  Doing so using both flashcard and gaming elements, Who Do You Call? brought the little ones who used it a great deal of enjoyment.

After launching the app, children can explore various careers in flashcard-style where children can study career vocabulary.  The careers are varied, feature well-designed characters and, to help children with vocabulary expansion, speaks the career name in addition to providing the written form of the word.

Pretty straightforward, and a quick way for kids to cycle through career-types at whatever speed they choose to do so.

The gaming element to Who Do You Call? is as enjoyable and educational as the flashcard feature.

How does it work?  By selecting ?Play Who Do You Call? children are prompted with tasks in need of completion.  For instance, below a child is asked who they should call to ?Heal the sick patient.?  A child then has to match a career with the corresponding task, but also create the proper character?s image from the separate sections presented.

Who Do You Call? Task

After creating the character, the child can hit the ?Call? button where they will receive game feedback and a response from the created character.

The only issues I have with Who Do You Call? are minor.  The app is $2.99.  Not a tremendous amount to pay for an app, and I suspect for those with children, not a great deal to spend when the fate of your children?s vocabulary is at stake, but it still seems a little high for an app with really only two sections, a flashcard and a gaming element.  Second, and this holds true for most things children seem to enjoy, after listening to the app?s music for a great deal of time, I quickly grew tired of it to say the least.  Could I be considered a killjoy for becoming annoyed by a children?s game?  Certainly.  Am I a killjoy?  I don?t believe so.

Despite those small annoyances, Who Do You Call? is certainly an entertaining and rewarding iDevice educational experience for children and parents alike!

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/12/30/who-do-you-call-expand-your-childs-vocabulary-using-an-iphone/

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Who Do You Call? Expand your child?s vocabulary using an iPhone [TNW Apps]

TNW Quick Hit

Who Do You Call? ($2.99) is an educational game for iDevices designed for children ages 4+, assisting them with career exploration and vocabulary expansion.

Hits: Grand interactive learning tool for children which can be used anywhere you, your child and your iPhone, iPod Touch and/or iPad happen to be.

Misses: Price is a little steep for an app lacking a tremendous amount of features.  Music could drive parents bonkers, but children seem to enjoy it.

Overall: 4/5

The Details:

I use the iPhone for many things.  Taking photos, capturing video, playing games, updating social networks, sending emails, browsing the internet, and the list goes on and on and on.

As one whose children are of the four-legged variety (dogs and cats, not mutant humans created due to a nuclear accident) my exposure to the iPhone as a learning tool is limited to times when I am around the children of others.  Thankfully the holiday season provided me with access to children, allowing me to observe them using my iPhone to learn themselves.

Who Do You Call?, from Aqility Group, is an app for iDevices which provides children with the opportunity to learn not only about various careers, but also affords them with the chance to grow their vocabulary.  Doing so using both flashcard and gaming elements, Who Do You Call? brought the little ones who used it a great deal of enjoyment.

After launching the app, children can explore various careers in flashcard-style where children can study career vocabulary.  The careers are varied, feature well-designed characters and, to help children with vocabulary expansion, speaks the career name in addition to providing the written form of the word.

Pretty straightforward, and a quick way for kids to cycle through career-types at whatever speed they choose to do so.

The gaming element to Who Do You Call? is as enjoyable and educational as the flashcard feature.

How does it work?  By selecting ?Play Who Do You Call? children are prompted with tasks in need of completion.  For instance, below a child is asked who they should call to ?Heal the sick patient.?  A child then has to match a career with the corresponding task, but also create the proper character?s image from the separate sections presented.

Who Do You Call? Task

After creating the character, the child can hit the ?Call? button where they will receive game feedback and a response from the created character.

The only issues I have with Who Do You Call? are minor.  The app is $2.99.  Not a tremendous amount to pay for an app, and I suspect for those with children, not a great deal to spend when the fate of your children?s vocabulary is at stake, but it still seems a little high for an app with really only two sections, a flashcard and a gaming element.  Second, and this holds true for most things children seem to enjoy, after listening to the app?s music for a great deal of time, I quickly grew tired of it to say the least.  Could I be considered a killjoy for becoming annoyed by a children?s game?  Certainly.  Am I a killjoy?  I don?t believe so.

Despite those small annoyances, Who Do You Call? is certainly an entertaining and rewarding iDevice educational experience for children and parents alike!

Online Business Consulting | Internet Business Consulting

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/12/30/who-do-you-call-expand-your-childs-vocabulary-using-an-iphone/

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