personalize

Lodsys files suit against New York Times, five others

Lodsys, the group that's gone after both mobile-application developers and large companies in defense of patents it holds, today filed a new patent infringement lawsuit aimed at The New York Times Co. and five others, all of which have previously taken legal action against it in separate court filings.

The suit (PDF), filed in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division, takes aim at six parties: DriveTime Automotive Group, ESET, ForeSee Results, LivePerson, OpinionLab, and The New York Times Co. In its suit, Lodsys alleges that all of the companies are infringing on one or … Read more

Report: Hackers accessed Citigroup customer data

Citigroup said today that hackers breached the bank's network and may have gained access to the personal data of hundreds of thousands of bank card customers.

Customer names, account numbers, and contact information, including e-mail addresses, were accessed during the breach, which was discovered in May during routine monitoring. However, no Social Security numbers, birth dates or security codes were accessed, Citi said.

Citi said the breach affected about 1 percent of its 21 million customers.

"We are contacting customers whose information was impacted," Citi spokesperson Sean Kevelighan said in a statement. "Citi has implemented enhanced … Read more

Easy office suite

A few big-box suites like Microsoft Office define the competition in productivity software, which generally means an e-mail client, a word processor, and a spreadsheet tool at a minimum. And the competition is actually fiercest at the freeware level, where developers compete to offer Office-like bundles for no cost and with enough unique features to stand out from the crowd. SSuite Personal Office is a free suite with the must-have word processor, spreadsheet, and e-mail client as well as a lightweight Web browser, a PDF creator, a sorting utility, an envelope printer, and even some games.

The first tool we … Read more

Creative's inPerson HD cam is made for Skype HD

Designed to work with HD video calling in Skype, Creative has introduced a $149 high-end Webcam, the Live Cam inPerson HD, which features built-in H.264 video compression.

Creative says by offloading the video processing to the Webcam you get, "Smooth movement and video calls every time."

Here's a look at its key specs:

Full HD 1080p video capturing at up to 30 frames per second Wide-angled glass lens with auto focus Skype HD certified Live Central 3 software (create movies, add special effects, and share media online) Extras: business card scanning software, H.264 decoder, security … Read more

Free Amazon App of the Day - 5/29/11

Looking for a really good fitness application for your phone can be a pain in the butt--and exhausting. At which point, you're done trying. The GPS is off by (insert miles here), Facebook integration doesn't work, it has less than a handful of workout scenarios, no customization...

CardioTrainer has been in the top-apps list in the Android Market since the market was first introduced. CNET reviewed the lite version in May 2009, and a lot of bugs have been fixed in those two years--I mean, you'd hope so right?

On Amazon's Appstore for Android you can download the full, ad-free version of the Pro version (typically $9.99) for nothing. Features include auto-mapping, six levels of interval training, 20 levels of difficulty, audio and video feedback during workouts, pedometer, more than 40 different preinstalled workouts to choose from, and a built-in music player. There's a customization setting if your workout isn't in the predefined list.

There is a precursor to installing this app on Amazon, however. You must download and install the free (or lite) version of CardioTrainer first. Once that's done, download and install the Pro version. And there you go! Unlocked, free and fully-featured.

CardioTrainer Pro will be Amazon's free App of the Day until 3 a.m. ET/12 a.m. PT tonight. Try it out. There's always the option of uninstalling if it doesn't suit your needs, and free is free. … Read more

How to set your iPhone or iPad wallpaper

Changing your wallpaper on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch is a great way to customize the look of your device. Starting with iOS 4, Apple allowed users to set their lock screen wallpaper, as well as the wallpaper of the home screen. This simple guide will show you how to set one or both of these wallpapers.

… Read more

How to create a BitTorrent personal content channel

BitTorrent 8, released last week in beta, contains a sharp new feature that makes it easier than ever to create torrents of your personal files and share them with a personal group of friends or colleagues. The feature implementation isn't expected to change by the time that BitTorrent 8 graduates to its final version, so this How To ought to be viable for some time.

Once you've installed BitTorrent 8 beta (download), take a quick tour of some of the public content channels that come with the program. This part isn't essential, however, it's worth seeing … Read more

One day a robot may ask, 'Paper or plastic?'

Willow Garage's $400,000 open-source PR2 personal robot is a jack of all trades, dabbling in household chores, bartending, and even playing pool.

Now, according to the IEEE Spectrum Automaton blog, a group of researchers from Stanford's AI Lab is looking at putting it to work as a cashier in the retail store of the future.

The primary goal of the research is finding a way for a robot to sort, grasp, and identify objects with minimal programming. To make this work, a 3D sensor on PR2 takes a picture, and from that single frame, the robot is able to use the raw depth data to pick up an item.

The team coined the phrase "autonomous checkout clerk," which is exactly what follows, as the robot locates the bar code by spinning the object in its hands, reading the numeric code, and then putting the item in a bag. No training or model programming is required, and the research revealed a grasping success rate of 91.6 percent when picking up 100 various items.

Just don't let it handle the eggs. As you can see in the video below, the integrity of the item is in question once it leaves the robot's mechanical hand. … Read more

NPD: Don't blame iPad for weak PC market

Though the consumer PC market may be in the doldrums, you can't pin the blame on the iPad, at least according to the folks at research firm NPD Group.

Many analysts have attributed the latest slump in portable PC sales to cannibalization by the iPad, claiming that consumers are opting for the popular tablet instead of buying notebooks and Netbooks. But in a report issued yesterday, NPD's Stephen Baker disagrees, saying that the rate of cannibalization has actually dropped in recent months.

Surveying Apple iPad owners in March, NPD's "Apple iPad Owner Study II" report found that only 14 percent of early iPad buyers (those who've owned one six months or more) chose an iPad instead of a PC. And over the recent holiday season, that number dropped to 12 percent, according to Baker.

Related links • 2010 PC growth sees slowdown, tablet cannibalization • Has Apple's iPad finally killed the Netbook? • The 'post-PC era' might be closer than we think • Tablets are the 'post-PC era'? I beg to differ

Looking further, the cannibalization of Netbooks by the iPad has actually fallen by 50 percent among recent iPad buyers compared with the earlier adopters. Overall, more than 75 percent of the people polled said they bought an iPad without any intention of buying anything else.

So if the iPad isn't the culprit, what's to blame for the downturn in PC sales? Baker looks a bit farther back in time.… Read more