PC-Linux podría ser la menor computadora del mundo

El PC de la fotografía incorpora una versión especial de Red Hat Linux y una CPU de 200 MHz, que puede ser optimizada hasta 300 MHz.

El aparato tiene una memoria integrada de 16 mega bytes, en tanto que incorpora una memoria 64MB en DDR SDRAM. La carcasa en sí está hecha de metal, y según la publicación pcpro.co.uk sería bastante robusta.

En uno de los puertos USB es posible instalar un HUB, obteniendo así 3 entradas. Aparte de ello, el PC incluye entrada VGA y LAN.

El precio de esta mini computadora es de aproximadamente € 250, y estará en venta en Europa dentro de las próximas semanas.

fuente:diarioti.com

Intel Buys British Linux Developer Opened Hand

Intel has snapped up British Linux house Opened Hand in another sign of the growing interest in the use of the operating system on mobile devices.

Last month, research from ABI Research said that Linux was set to take the lion's share of the market for the so-called mobile internet devices, those bigger than a cell phone but smaller than a laptop.

Intel had already invested in this area by setting up Linux project Moblin for the development of these devices.

In a statement posted on Opened Hand's website, the company said that it was looking forward to working with the chip giant. "The OpenedHand team will join the Intel Open Source Technology Centre and will focus on the development of the Moblin Software Platform, the optimised software stack for Intel Atom processors."

Rob Bamforth, principal analyst at Quocirca said that the move was a demonstration of the interest in Linux as a mobile platform. "We saw it earlier this year with Nokia buying Trolltech, it's a sign that the mobile space is not as clear cut as the something like the PC one. There you have a market dominated by PCs with Macs for some specialist users, but mobiles are not like that - there's a diverse range of products, and, if anything, it's becoming more diverse," he said.

He said that he thought that Intel's purchase was a way for the chip giant to keep its own options open. "We don't know how this market is going to shape up and it's important to have that diverse range of platforms.

OpenedHand employees will continue their existing projects. The statement said that Intel will continue supporting open source projects currently led by OpenedHand staff, such as the Clutter and Matchbox projects, and in most cases, will accelerate these projects as they become an integral part of Moblin.

Bamforth said that the problem with multiplicity of mobile devices was that it made it more awkward for IT directors looking to incorporate mobile products within a corporate comms network. "The IT manager will need to look for more powerful tools to manage these devices, otherwise it's like herding cats. The other option is outsourcing that management and I expect to see a few more companies adopt that approach."

Intel was approached for comment but had not responded by the time we'd gone to press.

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Samsung lanza portátil X360

X360 cuenta con una innovación de Samsung: la tecnología Silver Nano. La pulverización de un polvo formado por nanopartículas de iones de plata sobre el teclado hace que su sistema permanezca “sin bacterias" incluso durante más tiempo.

Samsung Electronics ha presentado su apuesta más innovadora en la gama de ordenadores portátilesde la compañía, el ultraligero Samsung X360 de 13,3 pulgadas, que pesa 1,27 kg.

Samsung X360 incorpora las funcionalidades que demandan los profesionales, estando equipado con 3 puertos USB, un conector HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) incorporado, una ranura de 34 mm para tarjetas de memoria y una salida VGA, incorpora un lector de tarjetas de memoria 7 en 1 flexible, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) y tecnología inalámbrica 802.11n. También dispone de cámara digital integrada que detecta el movimiento.

“X360 rompe las barreras en cuanto a forma y funcionalidad", afirmó HS Kim, Vicepresidente Ejecutivo de Samsung Computer System Division. “Ofrece una extraordinaria reducción de tamaño y peso, sin comprometer la funcionalidad, de modo que los usuarios que requieren un alto grado de movilidad tengan todo lo que necesitan", agregó Kim.

fuente:diarioti.com

Todo el tráfico de Internet puede ser objeto de escuchas

Los enrutadores de Internet confían ciegamente en las informaciones que intercambian entre sí sobre direcciones en la red. Esta situación puede ser aprovechada por intrusos para escuchar y manipular el tráfico digital.

Dos expertos en seguridad informática han demostrado que el tráfico de la red puede ser objeto de escuchas y manipulación sin que el remitente ni el destinatario se percaten. En esta oportunidad no se trata de un error de software o de un agujero de seguridad tradicional. El nuevo ataque aprovecha una función en el protocolo de enrutamiento Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), basado en que el sistema siempre tiene confianza en otros enrutadores de la red. Esta situación puede ser explotada para enviar información falsa sobre direcciones y captar el tráfico dirigido a otras direcciones IP.

En un artículo en Wired News se despiden los detalles del nuevo ataque. Según los expertos en seguridad informática Anton Kapela de Nines Data y Alex Pilosov de Pilosoft, en teoría es posible escuchar todo el tráfico de Internet no cifrado a escala mundial. La vulnerabilidad fue demostrada durante la conferencia Defcon realizada en Las Vegas, Estados Unidos, este mes.

Los enrutadores BGP se comunican entre sí para detectar el camino más rápido para un paquete de datos. Cuando un usuario de Internet intenta contactar a una dirección de la red, o enviar un mensaje de correo electrónico, el nombre del dominio es traducido primeramente a una dirección de Internet. Luego se consulta la propia tabla BGP del proveedor de direcciones IP, misma que está basada en las notificaciones de otros proveedores de accesos y redes. Sin embargo, nada impide que una red pueda declarar que está en condiciones de dirigir tráfico a direcciones IP con las que no ha tenido contacto. Esto hace posible dirigir el tráfico a la red (a una red) falsa. Este procedimiento es conocido como »IP Hijack« y no es en sí una novedad.

La novedad es que Kapela y Pilosov han desarrollado un método que puede dirigir a los usuarios a las direcciones por ellos determinadas. Entonces, un intruso o atacante estará en condiciones de escuchar el tráfico digital y manipular el rumbo de los usuarios, sin que éstos detecten la situación.

El agujero no puede ser cerrado sin más, debido a que no se trata de un clásico error de software. Corregir esta situación requeriría modificar todo el sistema de enrutamiento de Internet, de forma que éstos sean certificados antes de recibir tráfico digital. Los enrutadores actuales carecen de memoria y capacidad de cálculo como para generar y validar firmas.

Hasta que el problema sea solucionado, la única forma de proteger el tráfico digital es usando cifrado fuerte.

fuente:diarioti.com

Google Browser Will Be Available Tuesday

Google is launching a beta version of its own Web browser on Tuesday in more than 100 countries, the company announced Monday in a blog posting.

The open-source browser, called Chrome, first appeared on an unofficial Google blog in the form of a comic book. "As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit 'send' a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome," the company said in the official announcement that appeared late Tuesday afternoon after the Internet began buzzing about the comic-book site. The blog posting was by Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director.

The browser window is "streamlined and simple," they said, describing in words what can be seen visually at the unofficial blog, Google Blogoscoped. "To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the Web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go," the blog posting said.

Chrome will run Web applications "much better," they wrote, with tabs kept in an isolated "sandbox," which will prevent "one tab from crashing into another and provide improved protection from rogue sites." Better speed and responsiveness are also part of Chrome, which features "a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of Web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers."

Components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox are part of the open-source Chrome, they said.

Updated information about the browser and its availability Tuesday will be provided at the company blog, they said.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Ultraportable Laptop

Equipped with the new Centrino 2 processor, Lenovo's ThinkPad X200 looks a mild-mannered ultraportable, and yet it can leap tall workloads in a single bound. Its battery life is phenomenal, and the keyboard is huge. In short, this is a much better notebook than the ThinkPad X61, which it replaces, and a surefire winner for on-the-run execs.

Because it bears a lower model number, you might imagine that this a less-powerful version of the ThinkPad X300, but the X200 actually has a more recent processor. The X300 has a 13.3-inch display, however, while the X200 has a 12.1-inch screen. Ah, but what you'll see when you fire this baby up!

At just under 3 pounds with its lightest battery installed, the X200 weighs a few ounces less than the ThinkPad X61, despite offering the same 12.1-inch wide screen and a bigger keyboard. The bright little screen has an easy-to-read 1280-by-800-pixel resolution, making it quite comfortable for work on the go. And the built-in Webcam keeps you in visual touch with your colleagues.

The redesigned keyboard is as big as the ones that members of Lenovo's ThinkPad T series carry, and it has all the same amenities: spill resistance, dedicated page up and page down keys, and the all-important ThinkVantage button. The ThinkVantage application suite offers one-touch access to the onboard user manual as well as to recovery, security, and other crucial utilities. A fingerprint reader rounds out the package. What's missing: a touchpad. Many ThinkPads offer both a touchpad and aneaserhead as pointing devices, but not the X200.

The review unit Lenovo sent us came with 2GB of RAM and a 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, and it notched a WorldBench 6 score of 88, putting it only 14 points behind the fastest laptop we've tested to date. As you might expect, the X200's integrated video graphics can handle only simple games. But the X200's battery life soars. Lenovo has expanded its battery line to three choices, topped by the powerful nine-cell model that our X200 carried. Though this battery extends the back of the notebook by about half an inch and brought our unit's weight to 3.7 pounds (not including power adapter), the payoff was almost nine hours of juice on a single charge.

Unless you already have a spare external USB optical drive on hand, you'll have to shell out $219 extra for Lenovo's Ultrabase docking slice to get an internal drive bay. (A Blu-ray optical drive costs even more). On the bright side, the modular bay accepts other devices like a second battery or second hard drive. But the docking slice also offers some nifty new connections, most notably a place to charge yet another battery and a DisplayPort display interface that combines high-def audio and video in a single connector.

Of course, ultraportable ThinkPads have always used the space they save by omitting a built-in optical drive to add lots of laptop features that are missing from same-size competition. The X200 features three USB ports, microphone and headphone ports, a VGA port, and an ethernet connection. You have your choice of a modem jack with a five-in-one memory card slot, or a less expensive configuration offering an SD Card slot but no modem.

The X200 feels tough as nails, thanks to a magnesium alloy lid and bottom. A crash-proof solid-state hard drive up to 64GB is optional (we got a standard 160GB platter-based hard drive, however). For future upgrading the X200's two memory chip slots are located in an easy-to-access bottom compartment, and the hard drive can be removed from the right side of the unit after unscrewing one bottom screw.

A full array of wireless communications options come built in: 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, WWAN, and even GPS. Before the end of the year Lenovo should offer WiMax, too--and a tablet version of the X200. But if all you need is the world's best travel laptop right now, you're looking at it.

MSI Wind NB U100 Mini-notebook

MSI's Wind NB U100 is one of the first Intel Atom-based mini-notebooks to appear. And like the Acer's Aspire One, it gives a clear idea of what the bargain-priced CPU can handle. Other components include 1GB of RAM, an 80GB 2.5-inch hard drive, and Windows XP--not too shabby for $550. The Wind is roughly the size of a super-small ultraportable laptop, like Lenovo's IdeaPad U110, but mini-notebooks and ultraportables by no means overlap in price or performance.

The Wind manages to one-up earlier mini-notebook designs with a 10-inch, 1024-by-600 resolution display and a keyboard reasonably appropriate for human hands to type on. It's also larger (10.23 by 7.08 by 1.24 inches ) than most other mini-notes, and its construction seems solid (bonus points for the well-constructed hinges inside the case). The Wind comes with three USB ports, a Webcam/mic that camps atop the display, an SD Card slot, and ethernet and VGA-out jacks. Most current mini-notebooks offer the very same features.

The bundled software is pretty skimpy: a trial version of Microsoft Office 2007 and a BurnRecovery App that crafts a recovery CD (not much good on a computer that lacks an optical drive).

In the past we haven't been able to squeeze WorldBench 6 onto the miniscule hard drives of most mini-notebooks. With the Wind we succeeded, but its performance was predictably weak. It earned a wimpy overall score of 36, and some tests simply wouldn't run properly on the device.

The Wind's most touted feature is TurboDrive--a feature that amounts to overclocking at the touch of a button. Essentially, TurboDrive appears to be a power management shortcut that shoves the Atom processor into its (relatively) high-power mode. Battery life was a letdown: The three-cell battery that shipped with our unit lasted for just 2 hours, 24 minutes.

Navigating documents and files was reasonably painless. I even liked the single bar at the bottom of the mousepad, which serves as both the left and right mouse click--a far better solution than what HP's 2133 and Acer's Aspire One came up with for their mouse button layouts. However, the Acer Aspire One came through with a slightly bigger (and slightly better) keyboard.

There are some solid reasons to consider MSI's Wind. It's small and fairly light (about 2.6 pounds), and it's sturdy enough to take a beating. But other solidly-built mini-notebooks are just around the corner, including Lenovo's S10 and probably an entry from Dell this fall. My advice? If you can, wait.