Amoeba Modular USB Flash Drive Concept!

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NeoGeo X is real and costs a small fortune !

In January details leaked of a new portable gaming device carrying the Neo-Geo name. It looked a lot like an iPhone, yet was purely focused on playing games and would ship with 20 classic Neo-Geo titles on board.
It now looks as if that rumor was true. Blaze, who specialize in video games accessories, has signed a deal with SNK Playmore and distributor Tommo to launch the NeoGeo X. The only problem is, the price we can expect to pay renders this device dead on arrival.
The leaked specs for the NeoGeo X were slightly off. Instead of a 4.3-inch display it will only have a 3.5-inch LCD. There’s A/V output though, as well as an SD card slot. Other details about the hardware have not been confirmed, but the original leak stated there would be 2GB of on-board storage, a 2200mAh battery, and an ARM chip as the central processor.
As for the games included with the unit, they have been confirmed as:

• The Art of Fighting
• Baseball Stars Professional
• Cyber-Lip
• Fatal Fury
• Fatal Fury Special
• Football Frenzy
• King of Monsters
• Last Resort
• League Bowling
• Magical Lord
• Metal Slug
• Mutation Nation
• Nam-1975
• Samurai Shodown
• Sengoku
• Super Sidekicks
• The King of Fighters ’94
• Top Player’s Golf
• Ultimate 11
• World Heroes

As for the price, Blaze has confirmed we can expect to pay £500 (US$785) for the privilege of owning a NeoGeo X. If that remains the case, no one will buy it. If you consider the vastly more powerful PS Vita costs only $299.99 with 3G, how can Blaze warrant pricing this retro-gaming unit so high? It makes little sense.
Hopefully that price will be revised downwards considerably before launch and I’m also hoping for an online store offering the rest of the 158 Neo-Geo games that got released.

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Seagate breaks 1 terabit barrier, 60TB hard drives possible !

In the world of hard drives storage, density is king and Seagate has just achieved a major breakthrough that guarantees major storage gains for the next decade.
That breakthrough is managing to squeeze 1 terabyte (1 trillion bits) of data into a square inch or space, effectively opening the way for larger hard drives over the coming years beyond the 3TB maximum we currently enjoy. How much of an improvement does this storage milestone offer? Current hard drives max out at around 620 gigabytes per square inch, meaning Seagate has improved upon that by over 50%. However, that’s just the beginning.
The 1 terabyte barrier has been broken due to the use of a new type of recording known as heat-assisted magnetic recording, or HAMR. We first heard about HAMR back in 2009 when Seagate started discussing their research into laser heating. Then in October last year TDK introduced the tech.
HAMR works by adding a small laser in the drive head that heats the surface of the platter. By doing so the magnetic field intensifies and it’s possible to pack many more bits into the same area.
Initially the use of HAMR in Seagate’s drives should see their capacity double. So a 3.5-inch drive will be offered at up to 6TB and a 2.5-inch drive at up to 2TB. The HAMR tech does scale very well though, with the upper limit eventually being 10 terabits per square inch. At that density we would see 3.5-inch drives with 60TB of capacity and 2.5-inch drives would max out at 20TB.
With the introduction of HAMR, Seagate has effectively guaranteed hard drives will continue to play a role in the storage market for the next decade. Within 5 years we could all be carrying around double-digit terabyte drives in our laptops.

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Too Much TV, Computer Time May Hurt the Heart!

Study Shows Sitting in Front of a Screen May Be Linked to Heart Risks
Hours spent lounging in front of a computer or television may hurt the heart, a new study shows.
The study shows that adults who averaged more than two hours sitting in front of a television or computer screen that was not related to their job or schoolwork had roughly twice the risk of having heart attacks, heart surgeries, strokes, or other cardiovascular events, compared to those who logged less than two hours of daily screen time.
What’s more, the risk did not drop appreciably when researchers factored in other variables, like a history of diabetes or high blood pressure, smoking, body weight, socioeconomic or marital status, or even a regular exercise routine.
Public health experts and cardiologists say the study offers more proof that people may need to shift their wellness goals slightly, beyond simply making sure they get a daily workout to also reducing the amount of time they are sedentary.
“It’s not even about the exercise. It’s about not sitting,” says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, a preventive cardiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “I think that sort of points us in a little different direction. In order for you not to cause harm to yourself, you really need to focus on getting up and moving.”

Heart Health Goes Down the Tubes of your Computer Screen!

For the study, which is due to be published in the Jan. 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers at University College London and the University of Queensland in Australia followed more than 4,500 adults who took part in the Scottish Health Survey.
Participants were over age 34 and were followed for an average of 4.3 years.
To figure out how much leisure time was spent sitting, researchers asked: “Thinking of weekdays, how much time, on average, do you spend watching TV or another type of screen such as a computer or video game? (Please do not include any time spent in front of a screen while at school, college or work.)”
Researchers also asked about physical activity both at work and outside of work, including any heavy housework like scrubbing floors, heavy gardening like digging, walking, and leisure time exercise, such as cycling, swimming, aerobics, dancing, and football.
They then linked the survey results to hospital data on admissions and deaths in Scotland from 1981 through December 2007.
Compared to people who spent less than two hours a day in front of a TV or computer, those who spent four hours a day on screen-based entertainment had a 48% risk of dying for any reason; those who spent more than two hours a day sitting in front of a screen had 125% greater risk of experiencing cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes.

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Will computer be your life?

Secure Your Life in these Steps!

Lock down your computer, your home network, your identity--even your phone.

Good security advice can be hard to find. Lots of security experts offer help, but not all of their tips are accurate or up-to-date, and many address PC security only. So even if you follow their advice, you may be more vulnerable than you think. That's where we come in. We've assembled a dozen simple but essential tips--a 12-step security program--to keep your PC, smartphone, gadgets, and identity safe. The steps are practical and fairly easy to perform, so you can strengthen your security without losing your mind in the process.

1. Use Virtual Credit Card Numbers to Shop Online

You have good reason to be nervous when using your credit card number to shop online. After all, you may know little or nothing about the company you're buying from, and your credit card information is at risk of being comprom­ised in a data breach. Using a virtual credit card number is one way to make your Internet shopping excursions more secure.
Essentially a wrapper for your regular credit card or debit card account, a virtual card number is good for one use only. When you use the virtual number, the bank that supplied it charges your purchase to your regular credit or debit card, but hackers never gain access to the underlying credit card information.
Various financial institutions maintain some sort of virtual credit card program. Bank of America, for instance, offers a ShopSafe service, and Discover has a similar service built around what it calls a Secure Online Account Number. Check with your bank or card issuer to see what options are available. Alternatively, consider Shop Shield, a virtual card number service that you can use with any credit card or checking account.

2. Secure Your Wi-Fi

Is your Wi-Fi network at home password-protected? If not, it should be. You might not care if your neighbors use your Wi-Fi connection to surf the Web, but someone with more sinister motives could take advantage of your generosity (and lack of protection) to gain access to data stored on your home PCs.
The easiest way to guard against Wi-Fi interlopers is to encrypt your Wi-Fi network. Afterward you'll have to enter a password whenever you connect to your Wi-Fi network, but that's a small price to pay for improved security. Most Wi-Fi routers support WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption standards. Be sure to use either the WPA or WPA2 encryption settings, which provide a much higher level of security than WEP encryption.
Another safeguard is to set your router not to broadcast the SSID (your network's name). With SSID broadcasting disabled, your wireless network won't be visible to computers nearby, and only people who specifically know your network's name will be able to find it. The procedure for locking down your Wi-Fi will vary depending on your router's model and manufacturer. Check the router's documentation for instructions.

3. Encrypt Your Hard Drives

Hard drives and USB flash drives are treasure troves of personal data. They're also among the most common sources of data leaks. If you lose a flash drive, external hard drive, or laptop containing sensitive personal information, you will be at risk. Fortunately, en­­crypting your hard drive can give your data an extra layer of protection be­­yond setting up a system password. Encryption will conceal your drive's data and make accessing the files almost im­­possible for anyone who does not know your encryption password.
LaCie’s Rugged Safe hard drive has a fingerprint reader that you can use to unlock your data securely.The Ultimate and Business editions of Windows 7 and Vista come with BitLocker, a tool that lets you encrypt your entire hard drive. If you don't have the Ultimate or Business version, another alternative is to use TrueCrypt, a free, open-source tool that can encrypt your entire disk, a portion of a disk, or an external drive. For its part, Mac OS X includes FileVault, a tool for encrypting your Mac's home folder; Lion, the next major Mac OS X release on the horizon, will be able to encrypt a whole hard drive.
Another option is to buy external hard drives and flash drives equipped with en­­cryption tools. Some of these drives have built-in fingerprint readers for additional security. See "Secure Flash Drives Lock Down Your Data" for more about secure flash-drive options.

4. Keep Your Software Up-to-Date

One of the simplest but most important security precautions you should take is to keep your PC's software up-to-date. I'm not talking exclusively about Windows here: Adobe, Apple, Mozilla, and other software makers periodically release fixes for various bugs and security flaws. Cybercriminals commonly exploit known vulnerabilities, and Adobe Reader is a constant target of such assaults.
Sure, regularly updating your computer’s software is a pain, but installing updates can go a long way toward keeping your PC safe. Not infrequently, the latest version of a popular program introduces entirely new security features. For example, Adobe Reader X, the newest version of the company's PDF reader, uses something called Protected Mode to shut down malware attacks. If you still use an earlier version of Adobe Reader, you aren't benefiting from Reader X's security enhancements.
Most major commercial software packages come with some sort of automatic updating feature that will inform you when a new update is available. Don't ignore these messages; install updates as soon as you can when you're prompted to do so. It's a little bit of a hassle, but it can prevent major headaches later on.

5. Upgrade to the Latest Antivirus Software

If you're running antivirus software from two or three years ago, you should up­­grade to the most recent version, even if you still receive up-to-date malware signature files for the older edition. The underlying technology for antivirus software has im­­proved significantly in recent years.
To detect threats, antivirus products today don't rely solely on the traditional signature files (regularly updated files that identify the latest malware). They also use heuristic techniques to de­­tect and block infections that no one has seen yet. Given how frequently new viruses crop up in the wild, the ability to protect against unknown malware is critical.
Not sure what to use? Consult our latest reviews of antivirus software and security suites. And you don't even have to spend money to protect yourself, thanks to various free antivirus options.

6. Lock Down Your Smartphone

If you use your smartphone the way I use mine, your handset probably contains lots of personal information--e-mail addresses, photos, phone contacts, Facebook and Twitter apps, and the like. That accumulation of valuable data makes smartphones a tempting target for thieves and cybercriminals, which is why the smartphone is shaping up as the next big security battleground.
Apps like Lookout Mobile Security provide basic security tools for your smartphone.Android phones are already being hit with Trojan horses and other types of malware, and security experts agree that mobile malware is still in its infancy. Worse, many users don't think of their phones as computers (though that's what the devices are), so they don't take the same security precautions they would with a PC. If you haven't downloaded a security app for your Android phone, you should. Most smartphone security apps are free, and it's far better to have one and never need it than to get caught off-guard and exposed without one.
If you have an Android phone, the first app you should install on it is an antivirus program. Besides scanning for malware, mobile antivirus apps may support such features as a remote wipe (so you can securely remove all data stored on the phone if you lose it), GPS tracking (for locating your phone if you misplace it), and SMS spam blocking.
Our favorite freebie in this category is the Lookout Mobile Security app. Lookout scans your phone for existing malware threats and automatically scans any new applications you install on your handset. Other popular antivirus apps, available for a subscription fee, are Symantec's Norton Mobile Security (beta version), AVG's Antivirus Pro, and McAfee's Wave­Secure.
Because Apple's App Store takes a more restrictive approach to apps offered for sale there, iPhone owners generally don't have to worry as much about malware, though it's always possible for something to slip through the cracks. Apple hasn't allowed any proper antivirus applications into the App Store, either, but you do have some security options.
One is a device tracking and remote-wipe service from Apple called Find My iPhone. It comes as part of Apple's paid MobileMe service ($99 per year), but Apple also offers it to any iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch owner, free of charge. With Find My iPhone, you can lock and remotely delete data stored on your iPhone, track the device via GPS, remotely set a passcode, and display an on-screen message with an alarm sound (so you can find it if you misplace it around your house or office).

 

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Computerwiz animation

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