Microsoft has been testing Vista’s defenses to the top malware threats as reported by Sophos on November 30. According to Microsoft’s Jim Allchin, Vista was immune to all ten of the malware threats during testing, while using a clean install of Windows Vista with no third-party security applications installed.

When using Outlook or third-party email applications which prevent users from running executables known to be malware threats, Vista was protected eight out of ten times. Bagle-Zip and Mydoom-O were the culprits in this test. Microsoft contends that it’s not the fault of the Windows Vista operating system, but rather a function of the email program and users who open up suspicious .ZIP files and then run the executables found within.

It’s interesting to note that Windows Mail, which comes standard with Vista, blocks .ZIP attachments. Microsoft’s Outlook client does not do the same.

Microsoft does note, however, that email clients can support .ZIP blocking via its Attachment Manager API. Jim Allchin in closing gives these tips for users to abide by when it comes to Windows Vista:

1) stay on top of security updates.
2) use a firewall.
3) use anti-virus software.

All of these are pretty much common sense — however, if common sense was employed more often in computing, we wouldn’t have large malware breakouts via email in the first place. Most of us have to wait until January 30, 2007 to get Microsoft Vista retail copies, while they has been released already for business.

Via Daily Tech.

Samsung Electronics has launched the world’s first mobile phone SCH-V960 with an optical joystick that they claimed may revolutionize the way users interact with the menu and user interface of mobile handsets. Users utilize the optical joystick key by moving a cursor with their finger to navigate through the menu, similar to a mouse on a PC.

This new technology will breaking down the traditional four-way menu navigation and providing 360 degrees of freedom.
This Samsung V960 also includes a ‘Smart Lighting’ feature that automatically controls the brightness of the LCD screen and keypad.

Result : users are protected from eye strain and will minimize power consumption for increased efficiency. In addition, the V960 also supports a 2 megapixel camera, GPS and Bluetooth ® function.

The V960 will be launched in the Korean market at the end of December.

Quiet PC aficionados rejoice as PowerColor is expected to release two passive-cooled graphics cards in Q1’2007. The new passive-cooled graphics cards are based on AMD’s ATI Radeon X1950 Pro and X1950XT.

Cooling the ATI Radeon X1950 Pro and X1950XT is a cooler designed by Arctic Cooling. The cooler occupies an adjacent slot below the physical graphics card.

With the Arctic Cooling passive cooler the Radeon X1950 Pro runs approximately 4 degrees Celsius cooler than the stock AMD graphics cooler. This isn’t too surprising as the passive cooler takes advantage of four heat pipes to transfer heat from the 80nm ATI Radeon X1950 Pro GPU.

It is unknown how well the passive cooler performs with the ATI Radeon X1950XT though. In addition to the new GPU cooling the new passive-cooled Power Color graphics cards feature passive heatsinks on the memory and voltage regulators as well.

Expect the passive-cooled PowerColor graphics cards to be available early next year. Pricing is of the AMD ATI Radeon X1950 Pro powered variant is expected at $209–$10 higher than the stock cooler equipped model.

Pricing of the passive-cooled ATI Radeon X1950XT powered model is unknown at the moment.

Via Daily Tech.

Recently, Fujitsu had launched the MHX2300BT series of mobile hard disk drives feature of 250GB and 300GB and this is the the first 2.5″ PMR hard disk drives in the industry to attain these high levels of capacity.
Engineered using perpendicular magnetic recording technology (PMR), which is essential to achieving the increased capacity per platter, the new small form factor HDDs will address the growing demand for higher capacity storage solutions.

Additional benefits of the Fujitsu second generation PMR products include best-in-class low power consumption at 1.6W as well as high shock tolerance and near-silent operation. These qualities make the MHX2300BT series highly desirable for audio/video (A/V) applications such as gaming, video editing, audio recording and DVR functionality, as well as for the high-end personal computing market.

“Due to our strong focus on innovation, Fujitsu remains at the forefront in promoting advanced technologies such as perpendicular recording and SATA, while at the same time continuing to meet the industry’s insatiable demand for high-capacity products,” said Joel Hagberg, vice president, marketing and business development, Fujitsu Computer Products of America. “Our commitment to R&D has not only spurred the development of the industry’s first 2.5″ 300GB capacity perpendicular hard disk drive, but it will allow Fujitsu to continue to achieve these aggressive milestones in advance of the rest of the industry.”

Via Prnewswire

Intel to integrate WiMAX into its Centrino Platform.

Intel unveiled a new single-chip – multi-band WiMAX/WiFi radio. This new mobile solution will combine long-range and short-range wireless connectivity in the form of the Intel WiMAX Connection 2300 chipset.

What is the WiMAX’s range so far? About 10Mbps at 10km.

The Intel WiMAX Connection 2300 will be the focal point for Intel’s next generation Centrino mobile platform. Not only will (IEEE 802.16e-2005) and (802.11n draft) be supported, but the chipset will also feature connectivity by incorporating HSDPA. Intel said that this WiMAX Connection 2300 will help speed the deployment of mobile WiMAX, and accelerate the availability of a new wave of ‘personal broadband’ laptops and mobile devices that deliver the real Internet.”

Intel’s latest chipset supports MIMO technology for increased WiFi bandwidth and signal quality as well as low-power requirements and a reduced thermal envelope making it suitable for installation in thin and light notebooks. WiMAX and WiFi functionality will also be controlled from the same central software application for better connectivity management.

Intel is currently in the process of validating the module and hopes to sample the card by the end of 2007

via Daily Tech.