By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Let’s face it: smartphone news nowadays seems to center on the iPhone, even if some analysts don’t label it a smartphone. And with the iPhone’s upcoming Exchange support, RIM has to be feeling some heat, despite its dominance in the Enterprise market. The BlackBerry Bold (known during development as the BlackBerry 9000) has been labeled by some as an “iPhone killer,” but it’s not really that so much as a device aimed at keeping BlackBerry on top of the Enterprise game.

From their press release:

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s support for tri-band HSDPA and enterprise-grade Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks and its next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor make short work of downloading email attachments, streaming video or rendering web pages. The BlackBerry Bold also includes 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory.

Note that unlike the T-Mobile Pearl, Wi-Fi can be used only for data, not voice calls. More:

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone comes with the most vivid and bold display ever introduced on a BlackBerry smartphone. Its half-VGA (480×320 resolution) color LCD is fused to the undersurface of the lens, making images leap out with stunning definition and clarity.

While it has the same resolution as the iPhone, the display is (quite obviously) smaller. The hard keyboard is a plus for Enterprise users, though.

For off-business hours, the Bold has a 2-megapixel camera with video recording capability, built-in flash and 5x digital zoom. It has built-in stereo speakers. According to RIM, when using wired headphones or external speakers, the media player gives the user an equalizer with 11 preset filters.

What else? Integrated GPS, so you can’t say you were lost if you miss an important business meeting.

The big question? When. The somewhat vague answer: summer. I’m thinking sometime close to the 3G iPhone launch, which many feel will be sometime between mid-June and mid-July.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Another lawsuit, more cash out of Apple’s pockets. I wrote earlier about the credit being offered to Canadian owners of older iPods. This case involves faulty power adapters for Powerbooks and iBooks.

A class-action suit, filed in 2006, alleged that Apple misrepresented problems with the power adapters. In 2001, Apple recalled about 570,000 adapters sold with PowerBooks after reports of overheating and sparking.

In court filings, plaintiffs said “the adapter dangerously frays, sparks and prematurely fails to work.”

Apple will pay customers who bought replacements made by Apple or a 3rd party $25 - $79 depending on the cost of the item. It’s unclear as to whether or not you’ll need a receipt, and since it’s been some time since this all happened, it’s unclear if that would truly be fair anyway.

The settlement, which was granted preliminary approval by U.S. District Court Judge James Ware on March 24th, still requires final approval. A hearing on final approval is scheduled for September 8th.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

Depending on how you spin this information, it’s either good news or bad. A study by a decidedly partial observer, security vendor PC Tools Software, showed that Windows Vista, while much improved over Windows XP, is still far too vulnerable.

Not that we needed a study to tell us that …

The study was developed by using data from PC Tools’ ThreatFire program. According to the data, Vista allowed 639 threats per thousand computers through its built-in security, compared with 586 for Windows 2000, 478 for Windows Server 2003, and 1,021 for Windows XP.

So, rather than Windows Vista being Microsoft’s most secure OS, as it’s advertised, it’s really Windows Server 2003?

Simon Clausen, CEO of PC Tools, said in a statement:

“Ironically, the new operating system has been hailed by Microsoft as the most secure version of Windows to date. However, recent research conducted with statistics from over 1.4 million computers within the ThreatFire community has shown that Windows Vista is more susceptible to malware than the eight year old Windows 2000 operating system, and only 37% more secure than Windows XP.”

PC Tools’ flagship product, ThreatFire, is designed to work in concert with standard antivirus programs to protect your PC. ThreatFire uses behavioral analysis to detect malware rather than a signature database. PC Tools says on their ThreatFire site:

Traditional antivirus solutions cannot protect you until after they’ve discovered a new threat and produced a signature to counter it.

ThreatFire is different. It does not rely on signatures, but instead constantly analyzes your computer’s behavior to detect and block any malicious activity. ThreatFire protects immediately so you know your PC and your valuable data is always secure.

While this is the type of protection that I’ve always stressed is important, of the type that might have prevented the recent malware “shipment” in a Firefox language pack, it also means that PC Tools has a vested interest in this type of study.

While ThreatFire is free, PC Tools also sells a anti-spyware product as well as an antivirus product.

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

A story in the New York Times had the blogosphere up in arms, but Microsoft indicates we shouldn’t believe it. The Times said that Microsoft is working to implement an anti-piracy filter into its Zune media players, which would prevent playback of unauthorized videos.

This information came via J. B. Perrette, the president of digital distribution for NBC Universal, who explained to the NYT why NBC chose Zune Marketplace over the iTunes Store.

According to the NYT, he indicated that the first reason was one we already knew: Apple insists that all TV shows have an identical wholesale price so that it can sell all of them at $1.99, while NBC wants to sell its programs for whatever price it wants.

The second reason given was the interesting one. He said that Apple refused to cooperate with NBC on building filters into its iPod player to remove pirated movies and videos. Perrette said that while the filter is still under development and that its exact form is undecided.

However, at a semi-official Microsoft Zune Blog, a blog post denied Microsoft has any such blog:

We have no plans or commitments to implement any new type of content filtering in the Zune devices as part of our content distribution deal with NBC.

We think some folks in the industry were expressing hopes for how the entire industry, not just Microsoft, would come to look at content distribution, and some speculation has ensued. Again, no plans are in place toward this end.

Interesting that it completely contradicts Perrette. Of course, that doesn’t mean Microsoft will never consider such a filter, does it?

By Martin Regtien
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

QSTARZ recently launched the world’s most powerful Bluetooth GPS Receiver.
It can not only be used as Bluetooth GPS receiver but can also be connected to a laptop as USB GPS mouse.
Pretty smart move if you ask us.
With the 1~5Hz adjustable feature, BT-Q818 eXtreme can be switched to 5Hz mode for higher accuracy and is ideal for any activities with extreme motion.

So who will need this BT-Q818 eXtreme? Read here.

By Yan Fortin
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

You’ve been using your cell phone for years, and up until recently, doing so securely was something most people took for granted. But as time flies by, new means of using mobiles to tap directly into someone’s life are becoming easily available on the Web… and the worse thing is, most of these tools are completely free.

It connects you to the world, but your cell phone could also be giving anyone from your boss to your wife a window into your every move.  The same technology that lets you stay in touch on-the-go can now let others tap into your private world — without you ever even suspecting something is awry.

New Web services and software allow people to track your every move and listen to what you say, even if you are not actively using your phone. Kindda makes the future of mobile communications depressing doesn’t it?

Cell Phone Spying: Is Your Life Being Monitored?

By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews

McAfee and Yahoo! announced on Tuesday a new feature for Yahoo! Search which will supposedly make searching safer: the flagging of potentially unsafe Web sites appearing in Yahoo search results.

The initiative uses McAfee’s SiteAdvisor technology to mark risky sites in search results. SiteAdvisor itself is already free, but not having to install it makes life a whole lot easier for those who might move from PC to PC, or even browser to browser.

According to Yahoo!’s press release:

SearchScan will be turned on by default for all users in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Spain, and will scan for three types of risks in our search index:

• Browser Exploits — These are sites that can stealthily harm a user’s computer or install malware simply by visiting the site. Beginning today, any such sites or pages included in McAfee’s data will be removed from search results automatically.
• Dangerous Downloads — SearchScan will display warnings next to search results for sites that offer potentially dangerous software, such as viruses, spyware or adware. Users often may be unaware that these can be passed along with the screensavers, games and other software downloads.
• Unsolicited Email — SearchScan will alert users to scanned sites that send unsolicited emails or inappropriately share email addresses with third parties.

SearchScan will be on by default but users can turn off or even filter all sites with warnings from their results.

This is a feature that’s been available for some time for Google users, as Google has teamed with StopBadware.org. Interestingly, the site flagged above is not flagged in Google’s results. Who are you supposed to trust?