LG Flatron E2260 Review

Priced at a large $320, LG’s newest Flatron LED E2260 props itself among the top brass of the monitor business, namely the Samsung PX2370, which I consider to be the best LED-LCD monitor currently available in the market. The E2260 boasts an impressive list of features, such as an HDMI port, built-in headphone jack, 5000,000:1 “mega dynamic” contrast ratio and above all an IPS panel. However, specs are only half the story and the actual performance is what counts in the end. Unfortunately, despite its pricey tag, LG falls short on many counts compared to the PX2370.

Design and features
Pulling it out of the box, the E2260’s slim profile is immediately noticeable. From the side, the panel is about 0.5 inches deep, or just about the size of my index finger. The back protrudes to accommodate the connection ports, which adds another 0.5 inches, but hardly makes any difference to its size and shape. The bezel runs 0.6 inch wide, with the screen coming at around 20 inches diagonally.

The LG takes a bit of inspiration from the PX2370 and features a translucent neck stand reminiscent of a plastic crystal bowl. Instead of a circular shape, LG has gone with a rectangular look that reflects the monitor’s power light on its smooth front base. The effect gives an illusion that the light is coming from within the glass; however, it is merely reflecting the light hidden just behind the LG logo in the middle.

It may not be much but it adds a much needed flare to the monitor’s overall looks, which by all means and standards, in my opinion, is pretty darn boring. The bezel and the foot stand (running 9.5 inches by 7.75 inches) dons a black glossy plastic as that of a PS3 but LG has done nothing with it to make it look good or at least appealing in any sense of the way. The quality of the plastic feels cheap as well, making it look like you are staring at a screen embedded around black tape. The only angle the monitor manages to look passable is if you are looking at it from the side, preferably with the power lighted switched on (this can be turned off in the menu, by the way – yay for late night gaming!).

Adding to the cheap-feel quality of the display is the wobbliness of the stand. If you flick it, it will start vibrating for a good 4-5 seconds. A child could easily drop it by a little push of the hand.  The foot and neck do not stabilize the structure at all and have no grip on the surface as well. If you are fighting for desk space, be prepared for causalities. Honestly, for its price tag, the LG E2260 does not quite look the part, nor does it feel so.

The menu buttons are located on the bottom right corner, with little ticks indicating their place. They are not traditionally marked but rather rely on the display to show their functions on top of them when the OSD is brought up. The array consists of five grids: Menu, Mode, Auto, Input and Exit. The controls gives you access to basic features like brightness, contrast, color, temperature, sharpness, etc. The display also features four image quality presets, namely Normal, Movie, Internet, and Demo. Needless to say, like most monitors, they are pretty useless and should be turned off.

Kaspersky: Mobile threats have doubled since 2009

Press release:
Kaspersky Lab data shows that the number of malicious programs targeting mobile devices has more than doubled between August 2009 and December 2010.  In 2010, over 65% more new threats targeting mobile devices were detected than in the previous year; and over 1,000 variants from 153 different families of mobile threats were included in Kaspersky Lab’s databases by the end of 2010.

As noted by Denis Maslennikov, a Senior Malware Analyst at Kaspersky Lab and author of Mobile Malware Evolution: An Overview, Part 4, “The list of platforms targeted by malicious programs expanded considerably in 2010.”

The growing popularity of the Android platform has inevitably drawn the cybercriminals attention: in August 2010, the first malicious program targeting Android was detected, and since then, that number has reached 15 programs from a total of 7 families. The first threats targeting Apple’s iPhone OS also appeared during this last reporting period, but infected only devices that had been jailbroken in order to install third-party games and other software not manufactured by Apple. Most mobile threats continue to target the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform, which is supported by a huge number of mobile devices. That means it is not only smartphones that are at risk of infection, but basic mobile phones as well. The second most-targeted platform is Symbian, with Python in third place.

“The use of SMS Trojans is still the easiest and most effective means by which malicious users can earn money. The reason is relatively simple: any mobile device, be it a smartphone or a basic mobile phone, has a direct connection to its owner’s money via their mobile account. It is this ‘direct connection’ that cybercriminals actively exploit,” explains Denis Maslennikov.

From 2010 onwards, sending fee-based text messages ceased to be the sole illegal money-making scheme for virus writers developing threats targeting different platforms. Other unlawful schemes such as redirecting mobile Internet banking users to phishing sites and stealing passwords sent by banks to mobile phones were also used. Mobile threats have become more complex than ever and include the emergence of mobile bots and other remotely-controlled software. According to Denis Maslennikov “This means that attacks launched by mobile threats have reached a completely new level.”

Kaspersky Lab predicts an increase in the number of vulnerabilities found on mobile platforms, as well as an increase in the number of threats for Android and the continued use of short numbers by cybercriminals.

You can find the full text of Mobile Malware Evolution: An Overview, Part 4 on Securelist.com. Kaspersky Lab gives its consent to reprint our articles as long as it is properly attributed (citation of the author, the company and the primary source of publication). This text may not be republished without the consent of the company’s Information Service.

Priority Pass launches iPhone and iPad apps for the Middle East

Press release:
Priority Pass, the world’s leading independent airport lounge program, announces the launch of an enhanced iPhone app and a brand new iPad app, which enable travellers to locate and see details of all available lounges in the program in the Middle East and worldwide.

Both apps have a ‘Find Nearest Lounge’ tool which uses GPS technology to locate the nearest lounge based on the user’s current location.

For those who prefer to plan ahead, the app allows a fast, offline search for lounges available at any airport. Plus new features mean users can add ‘Favorites’, review ‘Recent Searches’ and even view lounge images.

The app is free to download from the iTunes store. Simply search for “Priority Pass”.

“We have members throughout the Middle East, who are constantly on the move and these apps are ideal for quickly finding a bit of peace and quiet at the airport.” commented Jonathan French, Head of Brand at Priority Pass.  “With 28 lounges available to member’s at all major airports in the Middle East, and more than 600 throughout the world, our new apps are ideal to have the information needed at their fingertips.”

HTC Pyramid pictured, specs out

Folks at XDA Developers have landed their hands on a HTC Pyramid, an unannounced Android smartphone device from the manufacturers.

The Pyramid features a 4.3″qHD display with 960×540 resolution, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 768MB of RAM, 8 megapixel camera, a front-facing VGA camera, WiFi n support and will run on Android 2.3.3 with Sense UI 3.0.

Since HTC has yet to acknowledge the device details on when one should expect it is scarce. But with the device almost seemingly ready to go, HTC should go official pretty soon we guess. Pictures of the device embedded below.

Internet Explorer 9 most ‘energy efficient’ browser

Internet Explorer 9 may not be the fastest, lightest or the most feature packed browser of them all, but apparently, it surely is the “industry leading” one in energy efficiency. Have you ever looked at that feature when selecting your default browser? No? Tsk tsk.

According to IE Blog, the Internet Explorer team performed a series of test among the whole breath of popular browsers available on Windows to see which one was more energy conscious. They tested the amount of power the browsers consumed when idling on about:blank pages, when loading news sites, and during two HTML5 applications offered on the IE Test Drive site.

During about:blank pages tests, Chrome 10, IE9 and Firefox 4 remained pretty light on system resources, while Opera 11 and Safari 5 showed much larger spikes comparatively. For news sites, Firefox 4, Safari 5 and IE9 evened out, with Chrome 10 and Opera 11 using the most CPU resources. In HTML5 tests, IE9 edged out Firefox 4 slightly, but performed much better than Chrome 10 and Safari 5, with both of them hogging at least 30 watts of power on avg.

Finally, the browsers were put to test on how much battery life it would saved on a standard 56 Watt laptop. Opera 11 performed the worst of them all with an estimated battery life of 2:43 hours. Chrome 10 and Safari 5 performed equally, with an estimated time of 2:55 hours. Firefox 4 closely matched IE9′s run time with 3:35 hours, with IE9 performing the best with 3:45 hours.

Compared to Chrome, Opera and Safari, IE9 saves more than an hour of battery life, which is really impressive. It can be safely assumed that if you are running on battery, it would be wise to either use Firefox 4 or Internet Explorer 9 to save as much power as possible.

Samsung admits to installing keyloggers on laptops

Keyloggers are basically tiny applications that run unknowingly in the background and save every keystroke made on the computer that it’s installed in. Apparently, Samsung have been caught using such a software on their new laptops and have even admitted doing so.

According to a story run by Network World, Mohammad Hassan, a graduate of the Master of Science in Information Assurance program at Norwich University, discovered an application called StarLogger on his brand new Samsung laptop. The software was located in C:\Windows\SL\ folder and had been recording every email, document, usernames and passwords typed on the PC.

After registering a complaint with Samsung Support, the customer care first tried to divert blame to Microsoft saying “all Samsung did was to manufacture the hardware.”. When the incident was escalated to a supervisor, Hassan was told that they weren’t sure how the “software ended up in the new laptop” and then later admitted that “yes, Samsung did knowingly put this software on the laptop to monitor the performance of the machine and to find out how it is being used.”

If the story turns out to be true, Samsung stand to face a plethora of lawsuits for unlawfully monitoring public information and of privacy breach.

It is usually recommended to perform a clean install on pre-built systems. It will not only protect you from any such suspicious attempts by manufacturers but also will get rid of the junk that they usually ship with the machine.

Windows 8 to feature History Vault

With Windows 8 now available to users from Microsoft Connect, expect a lot of information to be leaked out. One of the first to slip past is a feature called “History Vault”, a automatic backup solution that allows users to backup their entire drives, on a daily basis, on an external or networked HDD.

The feature is similar to Apple’s Time Machine application on Mac OS. Basically, the application copies contents of the entire hard drive and files them on a daily basis. The user can then choose to restore a file, or the entire hard drive for that matter, from a particular day. There are plenty of PC security suites and separate applications that provide such functionality on Windows, but it will be the first time Microsoft will be offering so.

Windows 8 is expected to enter beta stage this year, with possible retail availability in Jan 2013.

Google allows you to +1 search results

The most commonly used phrase after ‘first!” on discussion boards or article comments especially is ‘+1′, a quick and short way for a user to agree or ‘like’ the above article or comment. Inspired from this manual concept of ‘liking’ something on the Internet without having an actual ‘like’ button, Google has rolled out a similar feature for its search engine. Yup, soon you will be able to +1 your search results. And it is actually called +1, by the way.

So here’s how it works: Once you have a public Google profile up and running (which you probably already have), you can +1 a search result which will be then shared with your Google friends. So, for example, if Jane has +1′ed a search result for a recipe, Sarah, who is a friend of Jane, will be able to see which link she liked and be able to find that particular link faster.

Currently, the feature is restricted to Google search results but the company is promising to embed the feature on other Internet objects soon.

Interesting feature Google! +1!

Microsoft Gulf launches Internet Explorer 9 in UAE

Press release:
Microsoft Gulf today announced the launch of the latest version of the world’s most-used browser with the release of Windows Internet Explorer 9 for consumers across the UAE in partnership with leading websites namely Dubizzle.com, Gulfnews.com, Nahel.com, anaZahra.com, Timeout.com and Dubai Financial Market (www.dfm.ae).

Through this partnership, Microsoft and these leading consumer websites will further leverage the power of the whole PC and enhance online experience for consumers with many featured on www.beautyoftheweb.ae.

“The best experience of the Web is on Windows with Internet Explorer 9,” said Samer Abu-Ltaif, Regional GM, Microsoft Gulf. “Today, the Web can unlock the power and performance of the best PC hardware through Windows and Internet Explorer 9. Websites also can act more like applications within Windows 7, with features such as Pinned Sites. In less than a year, Internet Explorer 9 went from early preview to final release with the help of hardware partners and the Web community. We are pleased to have launched Internet Explorer 9 in partnership with prominent sites in the region to ensure providing the consumer with the ultimate browsing experience. ”

Partner Websites – IE9 in Action Across the Gulf

Saeid Nejazi, Founder and Director of Nahel.com, said: “Heightened security, speed and user experience are three of the most important factors for an e-Commerce website. These are inherent with IE9, so it makes sense for Nahel.com to take advantage of the latest browser, and we’re very excited to hear the feedback from our customers. IE9 has allowed us to take a completely new approach to development, and enabled us to become more creative with its heightened features.”

“At anaZahra.com, we constantly strive to create and offer our readers a fuller experience about the things they love. With IE9 being one of best makeovers the web can get, we couldn’t wait to experiment with it in our video gallery, and share it with our users. It’s fast, well-designed and highly functional; it feels natural and effortless,” said Zoya Sakr, the Editor-in-Chief of anaZahra.com.
Will Milner, Group Editor, ITP Digital commented: “With new restaurants opening every month choosing a restaurant has never been so difficult. The Dubai Restaurant Explorer takes the pain out of making the decisions by using the power of cutting edge HTML 5 technology and social media interactivity to give readers inspiration. Time Out teamed up with Microsoft to give readers using the latest version of Internet Explorer 9 an innovative way of choosing a restaurant in the city as well as build an archive of places they have been and the places they still want to visit.”

“Prior to the IE9 launch, we teamed up with Microsoft to enhance our users’ online experience by leveraging the browsers new features. Our developers rapidly appreciated the benefits of IE9s ‘pinning’ and ‘jump list’ features. Implementation was quick and simple. Now Dubbizle’s IE9 users can access our website’s features very quickly,” said JC Butler, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Dubizzle.com, the Middle East and North Africa’s largest classifieds and community website.

Ian Wallace, Business Development Director, Gulf News, said: “We’re glad to be a regional partner with Microsoft on the launch of Internet Explorer 9 here. As a leading news website in the region, gulfnews.com visitors not only demand up-to-the-minute news and information but also a design and user experience that evolves with the evolution of the web. Microsoft allowed us to try new features in IE9 that aided us to evolve our product and offer a richer web experience to our readers.”

Internet Explorer 9 is designed to bring sites front and center through Windows 7, enabling a more immersive, more beautiful Web experience. Features such as Pinned Sites and Jump List enable people to put their websites directly on the Windows 7 Taskbar, as though they were native applications, and then to quickly and easily perform tasks related to those websites, such as check their inbox, change the music station, accept a friend invitation or see breaking news.

“What people care about on the Web is their sites, not their browser. That’s why Internet Explorer 9 is about making those sites shine. The browser is the theater and the sites people visit are the play, and that is what Internet Explorer 9 makes better — your favorite sites,” said Kerim Ozbakirci, Product Marketing Manager, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Middle East and Africa.

Cooler Master Choiix Cruiser Mouse Review

“The Choiix Cruiser mouse does exactly what it is designed to do, which is provide smooth and accurate cursor movements on a wide variety of surfaces. That alone makes it a great choice for traveling laptop users, and the tiny USB receiver and adjustable height round out a well-made, affordable input device.”

Article Url: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/cooler_master_choiix_cruiser_review/

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