Softpedia News - Global

Softpedia Recommended Mac Apps of the Week – 06.09.2008

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 12:05:00 GMT

As every week goes, we have three new Mac apps for you to download and use, all free of charge. Although one of the programs showcased below has been released for quite some time, additional enhancements and tweaks have made it worthy of discussion. Read on for the details.

Local Switcher – easily switch between several tex sources

Local Switcher is a free Mac app that allows you to switch... (read more)

Nokia N96 Unboxed and Almost Reviewed

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 11:58:00 GMT

Nokia's new Nseries smartphone, the N96, which should be now in stores across Europe and some Asian countries, has appeared in an unboxing video. Moreover, a semi-review (more like a first impression) of the N96 has been spotted on the Web. Thus, if you want to know what you will get after buying an N96, read on.

First of all, regarding the unboxing video – this might seem a bit boring to some, but Nokia fans... (read more)

Biggest Identity Theft Criminal Ring Charged

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 11:40:00 GMT

Eleven people that are believed to have conspired in the largest hack and identity theft in history had been charged. According to the authorities, some of the numerous counts the men were charged with are conspiracy, computer intrusion, fraud and identity theft. The nationality of ten out of the 11 defendants has been revealed: three are from the US, another three from Ukraine, two are Chinese citizens, one is from Estonia and one from Belarus. The citizenship of the 11th remains a mys... (read more)

Microsoft: Windows, Windows, Windows

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 10:51:00 GMT

The Windows marketing earthquake is coming, with Windows Vista, Windows Mobile and Windows Live at the epicenter. Just because Microsoft is on a brand rebuilding mission, a mission involving telling the real Windows story and the truth about the Redmond company's flagship brand and product. As early as the start of July 2008, Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows Consumer Product Marketing, promised that Microsoft would start to “free the people.” The recipe? Just a... (read more)

Fly's DS500 and DS400 Dual SIM Handsets Unveiled

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 10:50:00 GMT

Fly Mobile might not be among the biggest names in the handset industry, but this doesn't stop the company from releasing new products. The latest two phones to come under the Fly brand are both packing dual SIM capabilities, hence allowing users to put two SIM cards at the same time in any of them.

Named Fly DS500 and Fly DS400, the new handsets were released in Russia – one of Fly's major markets, alongside the UK, India and Uk... (read more)

Webcam Voyeur Spends Four Years in Prison

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 10:45:00 GMT

A 47-year-old man from Cyprus will spend four years behind bars for spying on a teenager on her webcam and threatening her. The man, whose name was not disclosed, was arrested back in 2005 for infecting the computer of a 17-year-old, at the time, with a Trojan horse, which was attached to an email the man had sent to her. After downloading the malicious software, her computer got infected and images taken by her webcam, which was remotely controlled, were at the disposal of the attacker... (read more)

Blind Spot Eye Identification to Be Employed in Security Systems

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 10:16:00 GMT

According to Japanese researchers working in the field of biometrics, the current security methods are far from being safe. And we're not talking here about easily hackable passwords, but iris or fingerprint identification. As specialists claim, with a little help from technology, people could easily imitate someone’s features, even if this would imply drastic changes in a person’s body, such as invasive surgery. Another obstacle could be that, say someone decides to go unde... (read more)

Sony Ericsson TM506 Out Now in the US

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 09:28:00 GMT

Sony Ericsson TM506 has hit the shelves of T-Mobile USA, coming as T-Mo's first 3G Swedish-Japanese handset. Although on the mobile operator's official website the phone is still "coming soon," users can find it in the carrier's stores from across the US as of now.

According to read more)

Phishers Update Their Infrastructure

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 09:17:00 GMT

The RSA FraudAction Research Labs claims that the Eastern European Rock Phish team is preparing for something big and that it is upgrading its infrastructure to integrate the Asprox botnet. According to their report, this upgrade might be the reason why its phishing activity has decreased for the past several months, but once finished a new wave of more powerful attacks is likely to hit.
read more)

Leaked Information on Intel CPU Roadmap

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 09:15:00 GMT

It seems that a few more pieces of info on Intel's roadmap for the 2008-2010 timeframe have leaked to the web and, although they have not been yet officially established as accurate, some sites already jumped on publishing articles on the matter. Looking at the chip manufacturer's already confirmed plans, the leaked information seems to be reliable enough, at least for what Intel has in mind at this moment, but no one can say for sure that changes will not appear in the future.
<... (read more)

Apple Seeds New OS X 10.5.5. Build (9F32)

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 09:11:00 GMT

Apple has seeded developers with a new pre-release build of the next maintenance and security update to Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5.5. Build 9F32 packs minor fixes bringing the total number of code corrections to 129, but none of the fixes address the Mail.app bug, reported as "known" in previous beta releases of OS X 10.5.5.

"The latest version (build 9F32) provides more minor fixes but continues to have at least one known issue with Mail search," MacRumors reveals... (read more)

15-Year-Old Charged for $250,000 Fraud Attempt

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 08:54:00 GMT

An Australian boy pleaded guilty to 33 counts of fraud. Between March 10 and July 3, the 15-year-old attempted to trick several banks into accepting fake checks. Although he was planning to gain 300,000 Australian dollars, the equivalent of 250,000 USD, fortunately for the institutions, only few of his checks were honored, but he still managed to get 13,000 Australian dollars, which is over 10,000USD.

The kid, whose name is being held secret, due to th... (read more)

Toshiba 824T, a Phone for Japanese Dreamers

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 08:14:00 GMT

Toshiba, the giant Japanese manufacturer of electronic devices and consumer products, has recently unveiled a new mobile phone that will surely make the delight of dreamers from across Japan. Named Toshiba 824T, the handset is a clamshell that comes in two hues of pink (Pastel Pink, Vivid Pink), Pastel Blue and Pastel Purple – colors chosen by Tamio Suenaga, who is presented as a “renowned color psychologist” from Japan.

ATI Radeon HD 4670 Listed at Retailers

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 07:56:00 GMT

The first Radeon HD 4670 already made its appearance on retailers' sites. The card was spotted for the first time at the Dutch retailer Komplett.nl, and it is an HIS model, featuring HIS' IceQ cooling, which seems to be a factory overclocked graphics solution, as it has the "Turbo" label on it. The board comes with 512MB of GDDR3 memory, but this is the only specification the retailer listed on its site. We should notice that the reference design is said to come with a 750MHz core clock... (read more)

Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 5 Screenshot Tour

Softpedia News — Sat, 6 Sep 2008 03:54:00 GMT

Delayed one day, the fifth alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 8.10 (codename Intrepid Ibex), which is scheduled for release in late October this year, was made available a few hours ago and, as usual, we intend to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 8.10 development. Compared with the fourth alpha, which brought Private Directory Encryption, Guest sessions... (read more)

Freeware Pick - Speed Reading III

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 21:01:00 GMT

Developed by Custom Solutions of Maryland, Speed Reading allows users to measure their reading speed, and to use different methods to increase it, as well as improve comprehension. The latest iteration of the app, released earlier this year, enhances Leopard support.... (read more)

CEDIA 2008: JVC's DLA-SH4K Projector Delivers Images Four Times Better than Full HD

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 20:21:01 GMT

The CEDIA show is the best place for the major players on the consumer electronics market in general and the A/V solution market in particular to showcase their latest developments, which, in some cases, are pretty much breathtaking. And that's also the case with JVC, which, besides its full-HD projectors, has also unveiled at CEDIA the DLA-SH4K, which, by all accounts, is the world's smallest 4K2K ultra high definition projector, capable of delivering images at an astounding 4096 x ... (read more)

ZeusDraw 1.3.1 Back-to-School Discount Announced

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 19:11:02 GMT

Chromatic Bytes, the makers of ZeusDraw, have announced a back-to-school sale for their flagship vector drawing program, ZeusDraw. The software offers a fluid, graceful interface, great brushes and a host of other features. ZeusDraw will be on sale for US$59.99 starting now and ending September 21.

Last updated on April 5, 2008, ZeusDraw offers two dockable tool palet... (read more)

Magic Dice 1.5.3 Enhances Visuals

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 18:11:01 GMT

Yenko has updated its addictive Dice game to version 1.5.3. The update addresses a visual bug with artwork in setup and score screens. Magic Dice is based on a popular dice game that consists of 13 rounds, at the end of which the player with the highest score is the winner.

Magic Dice is "a 5 of a kind game for 1 of a kind fun!" Yenko says. Based, as noted above, on a... (read more)

HSC Edit for Aperture Gets Updated

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 18:01:02 GMT

Human Software has released a new version of its edit plug-in, HSC Edit (1.4), for users of Apple's professional photography solution, Aperture. HSC Edit offers more than 4,000 effects to apply on one or a set of images. The new release adds mere UI tweaks and speed improvements.

HumanSoft Edit lets users preview their image and quickly examine the effects, w... (read more)

Analyze That: Why an Xbox 360 Price Cut Will Not Help

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 17:41:01 GMT

In what's seen as the first step towards a worldwide price cut, Microsoft has slashed the prices of the Xbox 360 gaming console on the Japanese market by margins that go up to 30%. Now the Xbox 360 Arcade is cheaper than the Nintendo Wii. And many analysts, like Colin Sebastian from Lazard Capital Markets and the ubiquitous Michael Patcher from Wedbush Morgan, are saying tha... (read more)

CEDIA 2008: Panasonic Does Blu-ray Too, Releases Two New BD-Live Enabled Players

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 17:31:02 GMT

What's the use of providing the largest and most advanced plasma displays in the world if you don't offer your customers a video signal source to match? Well, looks like Panasonic is keen to provide a complete and comprehensive home-entertainment solution, since, besides the huge widescreen PDPs it has been introducing lately, the company formerly known as Matsushita has also come up at CEDIA with two new 4th generation Blu-ray players, packed with the all-important BD-Live feature.<... (read more)

Fallout 3 Shows, Doesn't Tell

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 17:01:03 GMT

I had my doubts about Fallout 3, especially when the less than stellar E3 videos appeared earlier in the summer. Now we have new videos from the PAX show and the game seems to be much more of a successor to the previous two versions than a simple, mod-like, Oblivion with guns game. What's still missing is a few more details regarding the way the writing is being worked into the game.

Emil Pagliarulo, who is the read more)

LG Prada II Getting Closer, QWERTY Keyboard and 5MP Camera On Board

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 17:00:00 GMT

LG Prada II, successor of the Prada phone released by the South Korean company last year and sold in about 1 million units so far, will bring lots of new and improved features. Although, at the moment, we have nothing official regarding the Prada II, an almost complete list with its specs has appeared on the Web, via Boy Genius Report.

The new Prada will ... (read more)

Dead Space Arriving Even Earlier than Reported

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 16:31:01 GMT

So Electronic Arts thought that if it launched space based horror title Dead Space on Halloween people might be a) too scared because of the costumes and the pumpkins or b) too full because of all the candy and the lavish dinners to play it, so it has decided to put the game out a week earlier, on October 21.

The idea was to launch the... (read more)

Microsoft: a "Good Enough" Windows 7 Beta with Room for Refinement

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 16:08:00 GMT

Microsoft is in no rush to deliver the first beta of Windows 7. Even according to the official time table for the delivery of Windows Vista's successor, the Redmond company is just a few months short of the final deadline, and yet there is no Beta on the immediate horizon. This, even if at the end of 2007, Windows 7 Milestone 1 was offered for testing to the software giant's closest partners, as well as antitrust regulators. However, the first contours of the Windows 7 Beta are begin... (read more)

New Xperia X1 Video Unveils Upcoming Goodies

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:56:00 GMT

Sony Ericsson's most advanced mobile device to date, the Xperia X1, has appeared in a new and official video presentation, which offers us a general view on what the handset will be able to do, once released.

One of the coolest things about Xperia X1 is the fact that it will come with the so-called Xperia panels. These will run the Windows Mobile 6.1 show, allowing users to personalize the handset and transform it to better suit their needs – in ter... (read more)

Deployment Toolkit 2008 Update 1 for Vista SP1 and XP SP3

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:25:00 GMT

A new release of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008 Update 1 has gone live on the Microsoft Download Center. The collection of process and toolset bundled as a Microsoft Solution Accelerator designed to enable an automatic deployment process for the latest of the Redmond company's software solutions has been made initially availa... (read more)

Woman Takes Internet Provider Employee Hostage

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:22:00 GMT

A woman whose Internet connection dropped when she needed to do a month's work in six days apparently took hostage the technical support employee who came to fix the problem. Carol Sinclair, a 53-year-old Canadian actress and playwright, called her Internet provider when she realized that she couldn’t manage to access the Web.

The company said that nobody was available at the time of the call, but, changing her voice and pretend... (read more)

CEDIA 2008: Epson PowerLite 6100 Claims to Be World's First 1080p Projector Under $2,000

Softpedia News — Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:21:01 GMT

Since Epson is among the world's best-known manufacturers of projection solutions, it's actually no wonder that it prepared several interesting products for one of the world's biggest trade shows dedicated especially to the A/V segment. And by far the most important and interesting announcement from the company is the one related to the PowerLite Home Cinema 6100 model, which Epson claims to be the world's most affordable Full HD projector, at a price tag of just 1,999 US dollars.read more)