Archive for January, 2011

Call for boycott of: Sony!

Saturday, January 15th, 2011

Sony is suing computer scientist and programmer George Hotz for getting Linux to work on his personal PS3, again - performing an in-depth security analysis of the system on the way and uncovering a bunch of beginner programmer mistakes while at it.

If anyone should have sued anyone in this case, then it should have been the general public in a class action suit against Sony for taking away an formerly advertised “Other OS” feature, a function that allowed the use a real OS, such as Linux, on the “computer system” that is the PS3. A feature taken away by Sony on April the 1st 2010.

If anything, Sony should have silently taken the in-depth security analysis by Hotz and the fail0verflow group and hardened their next gen console, such as an PS4 or PSP2, with the lessons learned form all their sloppy mistakes, such as not using random data for the crypto, … [or for delivering rootkits with their Windows software, …]

I would be all for upgrading my fat PS3 that I intentionally did not update since May 2010 to still be able to boot to my Linux, and thereby save some Euro on my electricity bill due to the more efficient PS3 slim. However, Sony’s customer limiting feature removal does prevent my living room setup from going green, …

Due to Sony’s latest actions, I call to boycott Sony, until they stop suing their customers!

Instead there are plenty of other companies delivering aesthetic, feature rich, and often more affordable consumer electronic products for home entertainment and business computer equipment. Until Sony stops their latest actions against free speech, fair use and the internet I recommend supporting more customer oriented companies. Companies that do not sue their customers for doing whatever they want with the expensive equipment investment.

BREAKING: Verizon iPhone 4 w/o SIM slot?

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

As one can (not) see in the hands on shoots of Engadget, the iPhone 4 Verizon edition apparently does no longer spot a SIM card slot, maybe actication time programmed as rumored earlier?

AMD Fusion to end Atom performance stangation

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Finally, with the CES 2011 AMD finally set free the new Fusion APUs built from the power-efficient Bobcat micro architecture. The new AMD C-50 and E-350 set off to finally end the performance stagnation that is the Intel Atom.

One certainly does not need exorbitant number crunching performance while on-the-go. However, enough performance for a snappy web browser and video playback is certainly welcome as are more than 1024×600 pixel real estate to view more than a Twitter tweet as well as to drive more than an aging VGA link on your favorite desktop to do real work.

It looks like the VIA dual-core Nano X2 will again arrive late to the party, and the more performant Bobcat will not leave much niche for VIA to play (abysmal open source 3D drivers will do it’s rest).

Cheers from my side -to booth of them- putting some real pressure on Intel, and I am desperately looking forward to sub 10W, slim & light AMD ultra portables:

Acer Aspire One 522
Acer Iconia Tablet
Fujitsu Lifebook PH50/C
Lenovo ThinkPad X120e
Hewlett Packard DM1
MSI Wind U270
MSI CR650
Sony VAIO Y
Toshiba Satellite C655D

And who knows, maybe we will eventually see AMD’s latest, greatest shipping in one or the other Apple, too …

Update: initial performance impressions!

Update 2: and another one, …

Update 3: wow, just wow, less than an inch thick Compulab PC3, with AMD Fusion Embedded G series APU