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<title>Haaze.com / Ismarterguy / All</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
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<pubDate>Fri, 27 May 2011 07:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Naztech Bluetooth slide-out keyboard for iPhone 4]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=naztech-bluetooth-slide-out-keyboard-for-iphone-4</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=naztech-bluetooth-slide-out-keyboard-for-iphone-4</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 May 2011 07:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=naztech-bluetooth-slide-out-keyboard-for-iphone-4</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Naztech)Ladies and gentlemen, youriPhone 4 now has a slide-out keyboard. Sort of. If you've been an iPhone detractor because of its lack of a physical keyboard, you may now rest, all thanks to Naztech's Ultra-thin Sliding Bluetooth Keyboard for iPhone 4.The keyboard &quot;easily pairs over Bluetooth using wireless connectivity and features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that includes Search and Home buttons. It's powered by a lithium rechargeable battery and is charged via its Mini-USB port.&quot;(Credit:Naztech)You can turn it on and off independently to help conserve battery power, and it works on any iPhone 4 (Verizon or AT&amp;T). The Naztech Bluetooth Keyboard for iPhone 4 is available from Hypercel for just $79.99, though it currently shows as &quot;Out of Stock&quot; with no indication of when shipping may occur. (Credit:Naztech)Naztech makes a variety of mobile electronic accessories includingcar chargers and cases (also available from Hypercel). Other Bluetooth keyboards for you iPhone are out there, though Naztech's seems to be the most elegant solution.Would you pay an extra $79.99 to add a slide-out keyboard to your iPhone 4 Should the iPhone have a physical keyboard included Let me know in the comments!<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.3 Gingerbread update leaked]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-galaxy-s-android-2-3-gingerbread-update-leaked</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-galaxy-s-android-2-3-gingerbread-update-leaked</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-galaxy-s-android-2-3-gingerbread-update-leaked</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:SamFirmware)The Samsung Galaxy S is officially still chilling with Android 2.2 Froyo. But if you're fed up with frozen yogurt and you want to try a little Gingerbread, an update to bump up the phone to Android 2.3.2 has appeared online at the SamFirmware forum.Read more of &quot;Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.3 Gingerbread update leaked&quot; at Crave UK. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Site-loading speed battle: Motorola Xoom vs. Apple iPad]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=site-loading-speed-battle-motorola-xoom-vs--apple-ipad</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=site-loading-speed-battle-motorola-xoom-vs--apple-ipad</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=site-loading-speed-battle-motorola-xoom-vs--apple-ipad</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[It's tablet time at CES 2011]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=its-tablet-time-at-ces-2011</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=its-tablet-time-at-ces-2011</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 08:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=its-tablet-time-at-ces-2011</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For the Consumer Electronics Show, set for early January, 2011 is shaping up to be the year of the tablet. Yet the most (some would say only) successful tablet to date is the one that won't be at CES. Apple sold 7.5 million iPads in the first six months and no doubt millions more this holiday season. Its shadow will hang over the show, forcing a wide range of companies--chipmakers' computer hardware and consumer-electronics companies' software developers and wireless carriers--to announce plans for tablets. Here's what we're expecting to see.Read more of &quot;It's tablet time at CES 2011&quot; at ZDNet.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Why solar start-ups need Uncle Sam]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-solar-start-ups-need-uncle-sam</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-solar-start-ups-need-uncle-sam</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 08:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=why-solar-start-ups-need-uncle-sam</guid>
<description><![CDATA[More U.S. solar start-ups are finding that the route to the global solar panel market passes through government offices.The meltdown of the financial markets over the past two years means that state, local, and federal incentives are increasingly part of the financial package solar start-ups need to assemble when looking to start manufacturing at large scale. Silicon Valley-based SoloPower expects to hear next month whether its application to the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program will come through. Without the loan, private money, and incentives from its home town of San Jose, Calif., SoloPower would be looking to ramp up overseas, said CEO Tim Harris.&quot;Globally we're competing with the Chinese, and the government there has put billions of dollars into four solar companies in the past few months,&quot; said Harris. &quot;It's a brutally tough environment to raise money...so you have to work all the avenues.&quot;The story at SoloPower, which makes a flexible solar collector designed for rapid installation, is also playing out at many other green-tech companies, which need to get creative about how they bankroll their transition from product development to commercialization. Before the financial crisis, solar challengers were able to build manufacturing facilities using private money--venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds. These sources still exist, but private investors are being pickier about how they place their bets, said Ted Sullivan, solar analyst at Lux Research. Raising money on the public markets with an initial public offering was possible a few years ago, too, but is very difficult now, said Ethan Zindler, head of policy analysis at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Banks, meanwhile, are unlikely to finance the first factory for a solar company if the technology is relatively new and untested. That leaves government programs, such as low-cost loans, and state incentives for economic development to help fill the financing gap in many cases. Manufacturing new solar tech at scale (photos) Even when solar start-ups do manage to land a loan or municipal tax break to build a factory, they still face intense global competition on the price of solar power. Many industry observers expect that many solar photovoltaic companies will go out of business in the face of so many suppliers, as some already have.&quot;Many of the companies that do not get the low-cost government loans will go out of business, as will many of the companies that do receive them,&quot; said Sullivan. &quot;As has been demonstrated amply in the past, governments are bad at picking specific winners.&quot;But the &quot;cream of the crop&quot; will survive and probably thrive if they can use their money wisely, whether some of it's from governments sources or not, he added.Betting on thin-film techIn the U.S., dozens of solar companies were created this decade to pursue low-cost solar power, often by using new thin-film materials for solar cells. Many of these thin-film companies are at the point where they have developed the technology and are now seeking to produce at larger scale. But over the past few years, the price of the incumbent solar technology--panels made with polycrystalline silicon cells--has fallen steadily as a number of Chinese manufacturers have ramped up their operations and the silicon shortage of a few years ago has gone away. That means upstart solar companies with lower cost than silicon need to enter the market fast or they risk losing any technology advantage they have.So far, the DOE's loan guarantee program has given money to two solar photovoltaic manufacturers to build factories, including one to Abound Solar, which last week finalized a $400 million loan guarantee. One condition for the loan was an additional $110 million in equity from private sources. Combined, the financing will allow it to expand its current Colorado plant and build a new factory in Indiana capable of cranking out 640 megawatts a year worth of thin-film solar panels.&quot;It was absolutely critical for us as a company to be able to scale up and be competitive. It enabled us to put this manufacturing capability in the U.S., which is good because the market is growing and the number of jobs it's going to create,&quot; said Russ Kanjorski, vice president of marketing at Abound Solar. He would have liked the loan guarantee process to go quicker than the two years it took, but the process included a rigorous evaluation on business and technical levels, he added.The first solar PV company to access the loan guarantee program, which was created in 2007, is Solyndra, which used a $535 million loan, guaranteed in case of default by the DOE, to build a second factory to make its solar collectors designed for commercial flat rooftops. Solyndra's technology and manufacturing process is unique--thin-film solar cells are coated onto long glass tubes in a highly automated process. But the loan has been heavily criticized in solar industry circles because it's still unclear whether Solyndra's product can compete on price globally. Last month, the company shut down its first factory, which produces products at a higher cost than its second plant.In an interview with VentureBeat, the executive director of the DOE loan guarantee program said that thin-film solar technology gives the U.S. a chance to compete against low-cost silicon panels from China. Shutting down Solyndra's first factory was needed to ensure it could grow and still compete on price, he said. &quot;Manufacturing of any kind is always challenging in this country, but if we're going to have a successful clean-tech sector, we've got to have manufacturing capacity,&quot; said Jonathan Silver, the executive director of the DOE loan guarantee program.Direction in U.S. unclearSome solar start-ups are bypassing government incentives and seeking money from other deep-pocketed sources: large corporations.Silicon Valley-based Stion decided to license its thin-film solar technology to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which invested $50 million in the Stion. The arrangement allows it to get its technology to market through a manufacturing partner in Asia while giving it money to finance product improvements.Lux Research's Sullivan sees more corporations investing in solar start-ups with disruptive technology, either through equity investments, licensing, or acquisitions. &quot;It may not be as sexy as creating the next First Solar, another independent solar giant, but the technology is getting to market,&quot; he said.There are also incentives offered by government programs in other countries. Germany, Japan, and China have aggressively developed the domestic solar industry not for environmental reasons but because those countries are trying to improve their energy security and meet anticipated demand for solar power worldwide, Sullivan said.In an effort to stimulate exports, the China Development Bank has made $40 billion in credit available to six solar companies in the past six months, said Zindler from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The U.S. stimulus program made billions of dollars available to stimulate clean-energy technologies, but the U.S. can't match the amount of money China has made available through these low-cost loans, he said.&quot;Chinese solar companies are grinding down the cost by building plants the size the world has never seen before and deploying unbelievable amounts of capital to do it,&quot; Zindler said. In the U.S., the solar industry scored a victory with the passage of the tax bill last week because it included a one-year extension to a grant that replaces a tax credit subsidy. But it's unclear what the long-term direction on renewable energy policy is in the U.S., which creates questions over how strong demand will be for solar, Zindler said.The Republican gains in the recent election mean that extending subsidies for solar could be tough one year from now, but solar could be part of a large energy bill that includes incentives for natural gas and nuclear, Zindler said.&quot;The presumed super gridlock [in Washington] is a bit overblown only because energy policy is actually less partisan than other things--it's more regional,&quot; he said. &quot;So you could cobble something together with new members of Congress that appeals to regional energy interests.&quot;Many green-technology companies are counting on regional programs that encourage energy manufacturing. SoloPower's Harris said that many states are getting creative about luring companies to their regions. He's still awaiting word on the DOE loan guarantee program, but he thinks he can pull together the funds to build a planned 100-megawatt-per-year plant, which could be expanded to 400 megawatts.&quot;Sovereign wealth funds or governments are willing to subsidize this type of manufacturing in their locations,&quot; Harris said. &quot;We believe you can get an equal or better package if you talk to all people.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[LinkedIn disables passwords in wake of Gawker attack]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=linkedin-disables-passwords-in-wake-of-gawker-attack</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=linkedin-disables-passwords-in-wake-of-gawker-attack</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=linkedin-disables-passwords-in-wake-of-gawker-attack</guid>
<description><![CDATA[LinkedIn is disabling passwords of users whose e-mail addresses were included in the customer data that was exposed in an attack on the Gawker blog sites. The professional-networking site is taking this action to prevent any of its customers from having their LinkedIn accounts hijacked in the event that they used the same password that they used on any of the Gawker sites.  &quot;There is no indication that your LinkedIn account has been affected, but since it shares an e-mail with the compromised Gawker accounts, we decided to ensure its safety by asking you to reset its password,&quot; the company said in an e-mail to users today. To reset your LinkedIn password, go to the Web site and click on &quot;Sign In&quot; and &quot;Forgot Password&quot; and follow the directions.  Gawker's Web site and back-end database were compromised, and passwords, usernames, and e-mail addresses for about 1.3 million user accounts were posted on the Pirate Bay Bit torrent site over the weekend. The passwords were encrypted with technology. However, weak passwords can easily be cracked by brute force attacks. (To find out how to check if you are at risk and get more details about the incident read this FAQ.) People who use the same password on multiple sites are at risk of having their accounts on those other sites compromised. This happened already on Twitter, with some accounts being used to send spam shortly after the Gawker breach was publicized.  Security experts urge people to choose strong passwords, to change them often and to not use the same password on multiple sites. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google says it was cut off from USDA project bid]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-says-it-was-cut-off-from-usda-project-bid</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-says-it-was-cut-off-from-usda-project-bid</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-says-it-was-cut-off-from-usda-project-bid</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google is claiming that it was not given a chance to bid on a cloud-computing project for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for which the contract was awarded to rival Microsoft.Announced yesterday, Microsoft's winning bid will kick off a project to move 120,000 USDA employees to the company's cloud-based Business Productivity Online Suite, a collection of applications that includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office Communications Online.Though Microsoft already counts more than 500 state and local agencies among its cloud-computing customers, the new project marks its first with a cabinet-level federal agency.But the news wasn't well-received at Google headquarters, which said it never had a chance to compete for the business despite its contention that its solution is the more cost-effective one.&quot;We were not given the opportunity to bid for USDA's business,&quot; a Google spokesman said in a statement e-mailed to CNET. &quot;When there has been a full and open competition - as with the General Services Administration, Wyoming, Colorado, and Los Angeles - customers have chosen Google Apps, and taxpayers are saving millions of dollars.&quot; The USDA said that over the past six months it had been working closely with Microsoft and Dell on a plan to move its 120,000 workers to a cloud-based environment. Security, always of paramount important to government agencies, was a key consideration. Microsoft's cloud infrastructure has been given Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Authority to Operate (ATO), which certifies a secure and trustworthy environment for the government. Google Apps for Government is also FISMA-certified.&quot;Migrating an enterprise of USDA's size and complexity from multiple environments, across multiple agencies, requires not only a trusted enterprise-ready solution, but also a partner who is able to work with us and navigate everything from archiving to authentication to mobile phone support,&quot; USDA CIO Chris Smith said in a statement.Microsoft does tend to win most government cloud-computing contracts, according to Reuters. And though Google has increasingly been fighting for its slice of the public sector piece, the company has maintained that it's cut off from the bidding process by agencies failing to look beyond Microsoft. In early November, the search giant filed a lawsuit against the federal government claiming that the U.S. Department of the Interior did not properly consider Google Apps when it was searching for a new Web-based document system.Still, Google has managed to pick up more government business recently. Last year, the company won a $7.2 million contract from the city of Los Angeles to move its staffers to Google Apps for Government. And in the last few weeks, the search giant was part of a team that captured a $6.7 million contract to migrate the U.S. General Services Administration to its Google Apps suite.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[US Military Bans Physical Media To Curb&nbsp'Leaks]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=us-military-bans-physical-media-to-curbnbspleaks</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=us-military-bans-physical-media-to-curbnbspleaks</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ismarterguy</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=us-military-bans-physical-media-to-curbnbspleaks</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In the wake of recent high-profile leaks, some branches of the US military have taken a step that may be end up being as controversial as its cause. Ironically, the news comes via a leaked memo obtained by Wired&amp;'s Danger Room that insists that everyone from grunts to techs &amp;''immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET,&amp;'' under pain of court-martial.SIPRNet would be the military&amp;'s internal network internet-like network used by the Department of Defense for some secure communications, cordoned off from the rest of the world by, I have assume, the most sophisticated firewalls and electronic countermeasures available. Otherwise, how could they think that a simple and unenforceable ban on removable media could possibly stop leaks But I am facetious. The flip side of this TSA-like response to profound hemorrhaging of information is that perhaps we&amp;'ll see some interesting developments in cloud and connective services.Sometimes it takes a bull in a china shop to effect a change in inventory. That&amp;'s not an actual saying, but I think there&amp;'s some wisdom to it. The military is a strange combination of cutting-edge tech and fossil systems, being upgraded as-needed from the tape drives and command-line interfaces of the 80s. A catastrophic change in connectivity requirements might just be the thing that brings the fragmented military systems into harmony.Try completely removing paper from an office, for instance, and you soon find exactly where and how you needed it. That particular step is usually taken as peremptorily as the military&amp;'s was, and with as little preparation. If this ban sticks (though physical media have been banned before, only to be restored), the result would be interesting to observe if it weren&amp;'t classified. In the field, especially, I can see this injunction wreaking havoc, though to be sure, a medic probably isn&amp;'t using SIPRNet to transfer patient information.I watched a nature documentary the other day in which a group of ants took down a well-armored grasshopper, or at least drove it off, by biting it all over until they found the soft joints. The military, like all organizations, has those joints, and was apparently unaware of this one in particular until a private loaded a few hundred megs of classified text onto a disc (labeled &amp;''Lady Gaga,&amp;'' I just learned, how entertaining) and passed it on. Very well, the military says, we&amp;'ll close that gap. But I think they will find that their sense of security is built on shifting sands.Burning data to a disc and passing it on is literally the crudest form of leaking I can think of, unless you count calling someone from within a base and dictating the classified info. And banning physical media is almost as crude a response, though understandable. Although I&amp;'m sure that SIPRNET and its associated networks are reasonably well-protected, I suspect that a little creative thinking by the best minds in the business would (and will) produce more leaks.At all events, the ban is in place and the guys on the ground are already complaining. Sure, the military has a lot of great plans for battlefield communication, secure transfer of rich data, and so on, but a more comprehensive and imaginative approach to preventing leaks may be in order. Perhaps they should consult Apple.Actually, they should probably consult Google or Facebook. The creation from the ground up of a secure yet inherently &amp;''social&amp;'' system like that of a world-spanning military data network has a lot of similarities with what those world-spanning networks have been doing for some time. And they&amp;'ve already learned from mistakes that the military can&amp;'t afford to make. Either way, the Wikileaks affair seems to have been kindling for quite a pile of internet- and tech-related issues, mainly with the wages of inactive defense against an active and fast-moving online world.I should add that the reason I think this worth posting, aside from its simply being interesting, is that the modernization on a system like this will almost certainly bear fruit relevant to daily internet life. In time, anyway, as defense research often results in civilian gain, if at a few years&amp;' remove. The challenges they face are similar to those faced by internet giants, and the development of systems to accommodate a worldwide secure network should be of interest to anyone in the business.[image: Life/Paula Bronstein]<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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