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<title>Haaze.com / minisa / Published News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Nintendo celebrates 25 years of Zelda]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nintendo-celebrates-25-years-of-zelda</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nintendo-celebrates-25-years-of-zelda</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nintendo-celebrates-25-years-of-zelda</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)Nintendo commenced its E3 2011 press conference in grand fashion today, revealing many details about the future of the Zelda franchise. The Japanese video game company first showed off a four-minute video montage tribute, complete with a live symphony orchestra performing &quot;The Legend of Zelda&quot; theme song music to gameplay clips from 25 years of Zelda titles.Shigeru Miyamoto (right) takes the stage with an interpreter at Nintendo's E3 press conference.(Credit:Screenshot by Josh Lowensohn)Senior Managing Director Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage afterward and seemed downright giddy at the premise of a full orchestra before him. It wasn't long before he gleefully asked the instrumental ensemble to play various Zelda sounds, including: solving a puzzle, getting an item, and the melody from the Fairy Fountain. It was truly hilarious to watch Miyamoto act like Link picking up an item while the orchestra played the related sound.He then thanked everyone &quot;for remembering these 8-bit Zelda tunes in this age of high-end gaming machines.&quot; Miyamoto revealed later that a touring symphony, exclusively playing Zelda music, will come to U.S., Japan, and Europe in the fall.During the press conference, Nintendo discussed upcoming Zelda games for each of its hardware devices and an upcoming special &quot;The Legend of Zelda&quot; 25th anniversary music CD.Starting today, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening will be available to download for the Game Boy Color virtual console lineup (eShop). Miyamoto prefers this game for beginners as it helps one learn the &quot;basics&quot; of Zelda gameplay.The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (E3 2011 trailer above) is &quot;finally done,&quot; according to Miyamoto, and will arrive this Holiday season for theNintendo Wii. A special gold Wii remote with a white Skyward Sword logo will be available as well.The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the Nintendo 3DS will launch on June 19, complete with touch screen and gyro sensor controls. An improved framefrate and updated graphics have been implemented in the remake of the classic Nintendo 64 game, according to Miyamoto. Additional content, such as help videos, a mirrored master quest mode, and a boss challenge mode are also included. An official soundtrack will be given as a gift for those first few players to register the game on Club Nintendo. Slated for September, Nintendo DSi (via DS Ware) owners will have access to a four-player co-op Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords for free.Miyomoto wrapped up the Zelda portion of the press conference by thanking 200 people who worked directly on the series and brought several key members of the Zelda team on stage to thank the fans who have played The Legend of Zelda series over the years.Nintendo also teased in a short video what a Zelda game could look like on its upcoming Wii U console, which is set to debut in 2012. No further details about the game have been officially announced.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[GM to use landfill gases as an energy-saver at Orion plant]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gm-to-use-landfill-gases-as-an-energy-saver-at-orion-plant</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gm-to-use-landfill-gases-as-an-energy-saver-at-orion-plant</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 May 2011 07:10:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gm-to-use-landfill-gases-as-an-energy-saver-at-orion-plant</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As production of the fuel-efficient 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano begins this fall at the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant, 40 percent of the energy required to build the vehicles will come from burning gas from a nearby landfill.(Credit:General Motors)General Motors has taken steps to make the Orion Assembly Plant even more energy efficient including using landfill gas to cut energy costs.The plant will begin assembling the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano this fall. With an upgraded paint shop that is heated by natural and landfill gas, the painting process will use half of the energy per vehicle of the one it replaced. The system runs exclusively on landfill gas primarily to generate steam for heating and compressed air for most of the year.According to GM, both the Sonic and Verano use a new eco paint that eliminates the need for a primer oven and increases quality and appearance due to waterborne base coats.Running a full three-shift capacity, the Michigan plant will reduce greenhouse gas production by about 80,000 metric tons, the equivalent of 14,000 vehicles per year, and the electricity reduction equals the output from 3,500 homes. This will save the automaker $1.1 million a year in energy costs.From 2005 to 2009 Orion Assembly Plant workers reduced total waste by 26 percent. (Credit:General Motors)&quot;Orion is a great example of the latest technologies employed by GM manufacturing around the globe,&quot; said Eric Stevens, GM vice president of Global Manufacturing Engineering. &quot;As we converted the facility to support the smallcar program, we took every opportunity to engineer in flexibility and lean manufacturing concepts.&quot;Use of landfill gas is just one of the ways the plant lessens its environmental impact. GM has also made lighting system upgrades that save more than 5,944 megawatts of electricity per year (at a cost savings of $430,000) and has cut carbon dioxide by 3,676 metric tons.Plant workers track energy use on an hourly basis with sophisticated software, enabling them to see real-time usage by department to improve their equipment shutdown activities, GM said.&quot;Environmentally friendly choices often translate to higher efficiency and quality,&quot; said Maureen Midgley, GM executive director of Global Manufacturing Engineering.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Mozilla prepares to push Firefox 4]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozilla-prepares-to-push-firefox-4</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozilla-prepares-to-push-firefox-4</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozilla-prepares-to-push-firefox-4</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mozilla updated Firefox 4 today to release candidate status, meaning that the features are locked, and barring the discovery of any major bugs, this version is likely to become the browser's official release. Available to download for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Firefox 4 release candidate 1 contains no major bug fixes, and instead offers a series of stability, compatibility, and performance tweaks.Mozilla&amp;39's Web o&amp;39' Wonder notifies you at the top of the page if your graphics card drivers are out of date, an essential upgrade to perform to take advantage of hardware accelerated browsing.(Credit:Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt)Longtime Firefox 4 beta watchers will notice a squaring off of the browser's tabs, and for those who missed it in the last beta, the browser will now automatically pin itself to your Windows 7 taskbar if the default browser option is checked off during installation. Mozilla has also put together a series of &quot;future-Web&quot; demos at the company's &quot;Web o' Wonder&quot; site, which actually has at least one legitimate use: it warns you when your hardware drivers are out of date, an essential update for taking advantage of the hardware acceleration that most major browsers are developing to speed up Web browsing. Not updating graphics card drivers can end in any hardware accelerated browser crashing.One concern with Firefox pushing a major update is that add-on developers must update their older add-ons to work with the new browser. Instead of waiting for developers, though, Mozilla recommends that you install the Add-On Compatibility Reporter to ensure that the developers of your favorite add-ons get notified if their code is broken for Firefox 4.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Streaming Netflix on the iPad via Verizon iPhone 4]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=streaming-netflix-on-the-ipad-via-verizon-iphone-4</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=streaming-netflix-on-the-ipad-via-verizon-iphone-4</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=streaming-netflix-on-the-ipad-via-verizon-iphone-4</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Patrick Stewart as Macbeth Indeed. I have to say, though, that half the time I was watching the movie, I thought I was viewing a holodeck sequence.(Credit:Eric Franklin/CNET)One of the most exciting advantages theVerizoniPhone 4 has over its AT&amp;T counterpart is its ability to become a mobile hot spot. A mobile hot spot allows several devices to connect to it via Wi-Fi and then uses a cellular signal to connect those devices to the Internet. Essentially the hot spot becomes a wireless router.I was curious about the strain something like this would have on the iPhone 4's battery, so I decided to run a little test. I turned on the iPhone 4's hot spot and then connected a Wi-Fi-onlyiPad to its network. I then streamed a movie through Netflix (&quot;Macbeth&quot;' the Patrick Stewart version, which is surprisingly ambitious, by the way), until the battery on the iPhone 4 died. The movie is only about 2.5 hours, so periodically I'd have to scrub it back toward the beginning. For comparison, I used the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G, as it was the only hot-spot-capable phone available for testing at the time. I used the same methodology to kill the MyTouch 4G's battery life. To provide context, I'm also including how long each phone's battery took to die while playing a movie. The movie, &quot;Toy Story 3,&quot; on the iPhone 4 was optimized for iPhone 4, whereas &quot;Toy Story 3&quot; on the MyTouch 4G was encoded at 720p.TestsApple iPhone 4 (Verizon Wireless)T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Hot-spot battery life (in hours)5.25.1 Video battery life (in hours)10.36.6 While each phone lasted a bit over 5 hours as hot spots, as video players, things were a little different. The iPhone 4 lasted more than 10 hours, whereas the MyTouch 4G lasted only 6.6 hours. This is an interesting difference that could have to do with the type of videos used by each phone. I simply felt that each phone should be tested with the best quality video it's capable of displaying. Each test was run up to three times, with the final results an average of the best two times, as long as they were within 5 percent of each other. During the video battery test, each phone was placed in airplane mode, with their respective brightnesses adjusted between 140 and 150 candelas per square meters (cd/m2). While running as hot spots, the phone screens were set to shut off after a minute and were never turned on until after their batteries died.  We should also note that we noticed a difference in quality between the two phones while streaming &quot;Macbeth.&quot; When using the iPhone 4, the movie looked to display at Netflix's lowest quality setting. Netflix is known to dial back the visual quality of its streaming signal depending on network traffic or the amount of devices steaming off the network and the speed of your connection.  When streaming using the MyTouch 4G, the image was much clearer. I've attempted to illustrate that difference using a couple of pics. The iPhone 4's playback has tons of artifacting as Netflix struggled to continually deliver an image without interruption. Netflix places a priority of the user getting the image (no matter how compromised) over the quality of the image, when the connection is in question.(Credit:Eric Franklin/CNET) The MyTouch 4G had much better picture quality, as its 4G connection was able to handle much more data at a given time than the iPhone 4 was.(Credit:Eric Franklin/CNET) The iPhone 4's battery is able to put an impressive foot forward if watching movies on the device itself, lasting about 35 percent longer than the MyTouch 4G in video playback battery life.  In hot-spot mode, while the iPhone 4 and MyTouch 4G's batteries lasted about the same duration, the MyTouch 4G will make for a more pleasant experience if streaming movies. The Verizon iPhone 4's 3G signal just isn't fast enough (at least in San Francisco) to deliver a consistently high-quality streaming video image. At least not through Netflix. The Verizon iPhone 4's hot spot worked as expected, just don't expect it to deliver a superfast speed. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[SunShot solar research targets $1 per watt]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sunshot-solar-research-targets-1-per-watt</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sunshot-solar-research-targets-1-per-watt</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:10:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sunshot-solar-research-targets-1-per-watt</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Photovoltaic research at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.(Credit:Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Roy Kaltschmidt)The Department of Energy announced a $27 million research program to slash the cost of solar power by 75 percent in 10 years, making utility-scale solar the same or cheaper as fossil fuel-generated electricity.Energy Secretary today detailed the SunShot initiative, choosing SunPower co-founder and solar industry pioneer Richard Swanson to speak with him during a conference call. Silicon Valley-based SunPower received DOE research funding dollars early in the company's development and now makes the highest efficiency solar panels.SunShot seeks to bring down solar costs to $1 per watt installed, by focusing on advances in materials and manufacturing efficiency, Chu said.&quot;If it gets down to $1 per watt, it really means that you're generating electricity that's comparable to or lower than other sources of generating electricity, so it becomes the low-cost option. We want this to be competitive without subsidies,&quot; he said. By improving existing solar cells and manufacturing techniques, the cost will continue to fall by about half, he said. But cutting it far further than that will require a jump in cell efficiency, he said. Either thin-film solar materials need significantly better efficiency or silicon cell manufacturers need to reduce the amount of wasted silicon in existing processes, he said.The bulk of the research funding, or about $20 million, will be dedicated to new manufacturing processes in the U.S. industry solar supply chain, which includes the power electronics needed for solar installations.The SunShot initiative will seek to coordinate across different energy research agencies, including national labs, and work with solar companies, according to the DOE.Chu's announcement of details around the SunShot Initiative come during a week where the Obama administration is trying to build public support for its plan to invest in clean energy research and development to spur economic growth.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[preGame 39: Sony NGP wrap-up' InFamous 2]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pregame-39-sony-ngp-wrap-up-infamous-2</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pregame-39-sony-ngp-wrap-up-infamous-2</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:10:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pregame-39-sony-ngp-wrap-up-infamous-2</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Busting (or not) 10 top myths about technology]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=busting-or-not-10-top-myths-about-technology</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=busting-or-not-10-top-myths-about-technology</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:10:37 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=busting-or-not-10-top-myths-about-technology</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Do you have to wait at least 15 seconds before rebooting your computer Experts weigh in on that myth and others.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)For as long as I can remember, whenever I've needed to reboot my computer, I've always shut it down, counted off 15 seconds, and then started it back up.Why Because at some point in the distant past, someone somewhere told me that to avoid damaging them, computers need a minimum of 15 seconds of downtime whenever they're rebooted.Whether or not that was true, I've followed the advice ever since, and I can't tell you how many times I've powered down, counted off &quot;one-one thousand, two-one thousand, three-one thousand...&quot; for 15 seconds and then powered back up.Not long ago, I started thinking about that habit. Why did I do that Even if it had once been a necessity, was it still Or was that 15-second &quot;rule&quot; nothing more than a myth. And that, in turn, got me thinking about what other great myths about technology are floating around our geared-up worldSo, in no particular order, what follows is an anthology of sorts of some of the best myths about tech that my friends, my Twitter followers, my co-workers, and I could come up with.You must wait 15 seconds before rebooting your computer Since this is the myth that got me started on this, it's the first one I'll address.I decided that since this was a hardware question, the best place to turn was to the Geek Squad, those hearty IT folks in the black and white VW Beetles. Last week, I spoke with Ismael Matos, a Geek Squad deputy field marshal, and asked him about the 15 seconds myth, as well as several others having to do with hardware.Matos said that the question of how long to wait before rebooting a computer has to do with the health of the plates of the hard drive. Since the plates are spinning at speeds of up to 10,000 rpm, and need to come to a stop before rebooting, &quot;it's definitely good that you wait just a little while&quot; before restarting the machine. But 15 seconds That might be overkill, Matos suggested, though it certainly couldn't hurt.&quot;I'd say 5 seconds is [OK],&quot; Matos said, &quot;but 15 seconds to be on the safe side. If you want peace of mind, then 15 seconds is OK, but it's not a rule that's set in stone.&quot;Size matters (in megapixels) If you've listened to any camera marketing, you've probably had it pounded into your head that with megapixels, more is better. And of course, the more megapixels you want, the more you have to spend. What a coincidence.Do megapixels matter But the reality may not back the camera companies' marketing.As photographer and self-described photography expert Ken Rockwell puts it, &quot;sharpness depends more on your photographic skill than the number of megapixels, because most people's sloppy technique or subject motion blurs the image more than the width of a microscopic pixel.&quot;Even when megapixels mattered, there was little visible difference between cameras with seemingly different ratings. For instance, a 3-megapixel [photo] pretty much looks the same as a 6-megapixel [photo], even when blown up to&quot; 12 inches by 18 inches.The Geek Squad's Matos would seem to agree. While he says that megapixels might matter if you're trying to put together a mural--or its cousin, a billboard--the average camera user would almost never see the difference between photos taken with most lower-megapixel and higher-megapixel cameras.&quot;You really start noticing the differences when you blow the picture up,&quot; Matos said. But &quot;it really depends on the size of the image, and how much you plan on blowing it up...If you blow it up to 16 by 20 [inches], you'll still maintain the quality, and you won't notice any difference in quality&quot; with fewer megapixels.You have to run your battery all the way down before you charge it This is one I've heard for a long time, especially when you're talking about what to do when you first get a new battery-operated gadget. And while it's not that hard to imagine running the juice on a new device all the way down before charging it the very first time, that's not at all an easy thing to do on an ongoing basis given that we often find ourselves fearing being away from a power source and, therefore, charging up as a precautionary measure.But Matos said that the best possible thing you can do for your device's battery is, in fact, to run it down to zero before re-charging, each and every time.&quot;If you start plugging an AC adapter in while it's half-charged,&quot; Matos said, &quot;components in the battery start to settle, and so it doesn't maintain its ability to re-charge, and so you end up weakening the battery a lot quicker.&quot;Matos said that, ideally, we'd all run our batteries down all the way every time, but he acknowledged that's not realistic for most people. So he nods to reality: &quot;It's recommended, so whenever possible...just let the battery drain completely before you charge it up.&quot;No need to cry over spilled coffee on your keyboard. You can put a keyboard you've spilled coffee on in the dishwasher Though this might be a myth that would get you to shake your head in pity at anyone who believes it--let alone practices it--Matos said that, in fact, it's true.It only applies to wired keyboards, though' Nothing with a battery, or wireless components in it will keep operating after being run through your dishwasher.But Matos said that as long as you don't use soap or warm or hot water, a cycle through the Kenmore will wash away the coffee and get you pounding away at the QWERTY before you know it.Anything stored digitally will last longer than that on analog media It's a lovely idea that once you've put something on your hard drive, or some other form of digital backup, you can depend on it being there in perpetuity. It certainly seems like it should be true. After all, digital seems impervious to the passage of time, rightBut counting on ever-lasting storage of your crucial 1s and 0s may well be a fool's game. According to the Associated Press, many important digital recordings are &quot;at risk of being lost much faster than older ones on tape, and many are already gone.&quot;The problem, the study cited by the AP reported, is that digital files run the risk of being corrupted, and some physical forms of digital media, such as CD-R discs, can begin breaking down in as little as three years.And the same seems to be true of online recordings. &quot;I think we're assuming that if it's on the Web, it's going to be there forever,&quot; Sam Brylawski, the co-author of a Library of Congress study on sound, told the AP. &quot;That's one of the biggest challenges.One part of the dilemma surrounding digital storage of audio and other important records, is that we've become trained to use such media given its ubiquity and its ease of use. &quot;But the problem,&quot; Brylawski told the AP, &quot;is they must be constantly maintained and backed up by audio experts as technology changes. That requires active preservation, rather than simply placing files on a shelf.&quot;Turning a computer on and off regularly is bad for it Another myth I heard when I canvassed my social networks was that a computer can be damaged over time by being regularly turned on and off. In fact, said the Geek Squad's Matos, it's specifically recommended that you do power your machine off on a daily basis, for example at the end of each work day.According to Matos, &quot;Every computer needs its rest time,&quot; in part to be sure that if you're away from it and there are power fluctuations or surges, it isn't damaged by them.As well, he said, it's recommended that if you're going to be away from your computer for small periods of time, you let it go to sleep while you're gone. But in any case, he said, a regular on/off pattern is definitely good for the computer, not bad.Macs are immune to viruses This myth is one that is pushed relentlessly, both overtly and subtly, byMac fans, and, of course, by Apple. Everyone knows that Windows machines are constantly being bombarded by malware and that keeping them secure is a never-ending task.But you rarely hear about such things from Mac users, and the common theory is that it's because Apple's computers are simply safe from being attacked.Not so fast. It does seem, as has been well-reported, that that are far fewer exploits hitting Macs than their Windows-based cousins. But it's hardly because Macs are immune from attack. Indeed, according to security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, it has much more to do with market share--there simply aren't anywhere near as many Macs out there as there are Windows machines. &quot;If we were to flip the market share, we would see a lot more exploitation in the wild,&quot; Dhanjani told my CNET colleague Elinor Mills earlier this year. &quot;More specifically, browser security is one of the more important items to consider today from a risk perspective. I know Internet Explorer has had a considerable share of vulnerabilities, but theSafari Web browser also has a lousy reputation in the security community--it almost seems a child's play to locate an exploitable condition in Safari. Apple really needs to get its act together with Safari since OS X is enjoying a healthy market share climb at the moment.&quot;Other security experts seem to agree that Macs' relative lack of virus problems has much more to do with the computer's market share than any kind of actual fortitude against attack. As Halvar Flake, head of research and CEO of Zynamics, told Mills, &quot;Vista/Win7 has more extensive countermeasures against attacks and a codebase with presumably fewer security issues. But it's the operating system of the majority of users, hence making it profitable to attack. Attackers will therefore spend lots of time bypassing the countermeasures. Mac OS has fewer countermeasures and lots of easily exploitable bugs, but the market share is low, making it a less likely target.&quot;Then again, the market share dynamic does, in fact, mean that Macs are less likely to get hit, so in that sense, they are safer. &quot;For an everyday consumer that just wants to use a computer and not worry about getting owned with every click of the mouse, I'd go for a Mac,&quot; Joe Grand, president of Grand Idea Studio, told Mills. Is your ISP tracking everythingYour ISP is tracking everything you do This may not be something most people are thinking about, but for those constantly worried about digital privacy, it is a signature concern, since, if true, everyone would be subject to tracking because we almost all have to get online through an Internet service provider. Your ISP &quot;is your local link to the worldwide computer network known as the Internet,&quot; Dave Roos wrote on Get Stuff. Every page request you make and every e-mail you send must travel through your ISP's routers first. It would seem, therefore, that your ISP has the power to scan and save every piece of data that flows through its system.&quot;But before you get alarmed, Roos also wrote: &quot;The truth is that it does have the power. Fortunately for us, it doesn't have the money or the desire to archive every bit of information that comes its way. ISPs in the United States don't routinely save the Web surfing histories and e-mail conversations of their users. It would simply be too expensive to save all of that data and the public outcry from privacy rights and civil liberties organizations would be deafening.&quot;Girls don't play video games The stereotype of gamers is clearly a teenage boy sitting in front of hisXbox, pounding away at one Halo or Call of Duty game or another for hours and hours on end. And while the industry certainly brings in many, many, many millions of dollars because of that pimply-faced teen, he's by no means the only face of the gaming community.Indeed, women and girls make up a very large bloc of gamers--they just are a little more quiet about it.&quot;Girls and young women are a 'pot of gold' for the [video game] industry,&quot; George VanHorn, a senior analyst at market research firm IBISWorld, told Reuters. &quot;The gaming industry has market characteristics that many would die for.&quot;Reuters reported that in an IBISWorld study, &quot;38 percent of U.S. gamers are female, up from 33 percent in just five years. From January through August of 2008, females ages 18 to 45 made up 28 percent of the total industry revenue, ranking second to males ages 18 to 45, who made up 37 percent.&quot;So while they may not be the largest group of gamers, it's clear that women and girls are spending their fair share of time playing.Anything you delete from your hard drive is gone forever Given that we lay our lives bare on our computers--what with doing personal banking, storing family photos, researching our medical conditions, and so forth--it would be comforting to be able to believe that if we erase something on our computers, we don't have to worry about that data being available to anyone who might want to access it later. Sadly, that would be a naive assumption. The truth is, it's very difficult to permanently get rid of your data. And if you want to do so, you probably need to go get a drill.That's the advice of the Geek Squad's Matos, who said that, &quot;When you delete [data], yes, [its] icon may be gone, but that information is still intact on the hard drive. The only thing the computer does is [mark] that section to be overwritten. It just gives the operating system the OK to write over that area.&quot;So if the operating system isn't actually removing the data from your hard drive, how can you get rid of itMatos said it's not so easy, and you may not ever want to just hand an old computer off to someone else if you're worried about them accessing your private data. The only way to ensure that no one can ever access it is to bring tools to bear. &quot;Let's say you're getting rid of an old computer,&quot; Matos said. &quot;You're going to want to take the old hard drive, take a drill, and drill 10 to 12 holes through the drive--and not in a straight line. Scatter the holes and make sure they go straight through.&quot; <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Robot's singular job: Cutting flesh from pig bone]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robots-singular-job-cutting-flesh-from-pig-bone</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robots-singular-job-cutting-flesh-from-pig-bone</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robots-singular-job-cutting-flesh-from-pig-bone</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Insert Sarah Connor joke here. (Credit:Video screenshot by Matt Hickey/CNET)Sure, we've got robots programmed to make cars, vacuum our floors, and even make sweet, sweet love, and on some level I'm frightened of all of them. But there's a new beasty that will haunt my dreams tonight: the multijoint pork de-boning robot.It's an articulated arm with a razor-sharp knife at the end. It's called the HAMDAS-R, and it's made by Japan's Mayekawa Electric. The thing is programmed with one purpose: separating pork flesh from thigh bone, a task that's supposed to be tough for humans.  It just won the top prize in the small business and venture category at the 4th Robot Awards sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.  This HAMDAS-R system has achieved a higher yield of deboned pork than skilled workers do, according to Mayekawa. It's smart enough to change its instructions on-the-fly to account for different meat forms and bone sizes, which means it autonomously learns the best way to cut up formerly living things. That means it could very easily make work of a human, like me, even if it's never been programmed to. See why I'm so scaredAnd why yes, we do have a video of the monstrosity in action. You can view it below.(Source: Bot Junkie)         Matt Hickey    Full Profile E-mail Matt Hickey   E-mail Matt Hickey If you have a question or comment for Matt Hickey, you can submit it here. However, because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests, we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.   Submit your question or comment here: 0 of 1500 characters       With more than 15 years experience testing hardware (and being obsessed with it), Crave freelance writer Matt Hickey can tell the good gadgets from the great. He also has a keen eye for future technology trends. Matt has blogged for publications including TechCrunch, CrunchGear, and most recently, Gizmodo. Matt is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CBS Interactive. E-mail Matt.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Cheezburger transforms Internet memes into $30M of funding]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cheezburger-transforms-internet-memes-into-30m-of-funding</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cheezburger-transforms-internet-memes-into-30m-of-funding</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cheezburger-transforms-internet-memes-into-30m-of-funding</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Sites like I Can Has Cheezburger, Fail Blog, and The Daily What may seem frivolous (because, well, they are), but theya4a4ve just attracted $30 million in venture funding for Cheezburger Network, the company that owns them.Cheezburgera4a4s flagship site was founded in 2007 as a place for users to post &amp;''LOLcats&amp;'' &amp;8212' pictures of cats with funny text, like the image accompanying this post. Chief executive Ben Huh and his initial investors purchased the I Can Has Cheezburger site and founded the Cheezburger company in September of that year. The Seattle-based startup has been profitable since them, and it now attracts 16.5 million monthly visitors adding up to 375 million pageviews and 110 million video views.Still, Huh said that without substantial funding, the company has had to think relatively small. The new money will allow Cheezburger to experiment and take more risks, he said. I asked if that means launching or buying more sites (after all, Huh offered to buy popular news aggregator Reddit last year) but he said hea4a4s more interested in hiring engineers to improve the existing sites. For example, he said that ita4a4s time to upgrade the LOLcat image building tool on I Can Has Cheezburger, because it hasna4a4t been improved in more than a year.The funding was led by Foundry Group. Avalon Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, and SoftBank Capital also invested. $30 million seems like a lot of money for a blog network, but Huh said the investors arena4a4t pressuring him to hit a specific revenue target, rather they&amp;'re encouraging him to continue building the best company he can. Here&amp;'s how he explained his plan for building that company:The first generation of the Web was about e-commerce and news, it was about information gathering. The second generation is more about expression, and ita4a4s creation-driven. It was really the formation of Internet culture.Now we see something bigger there that we want to be a part of. How do we get there I dona4a4t really have the answer. Thata4a4s why this money is important to us, to try to experiment, to try to understand the market.Previous Story: Perfect Market raises $9M to fund newspaper moneymaking toolsPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Fail Blog, I Can Has Cheezburger, memes, The Daily WhatCompanies: Avalon Ventures, Cheezburger, Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, Softbank CapitalPeople: Ben Huh          Tags: Fail Blog, I Can Has Cheezburger, memes, The Daily WhatCompanies: Avalon Ventures, Cheezburger, Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, Softbank CapitalPeople: Ben HuhAnthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Shortages coming for Microsoft&'s Xbox 360, Kinect]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=shortages-coming-for-microsoftrsquos-xbox-360-kinect</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=shortages-coming-for-microsoftrsquos-xbox-360-kinect</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=shortages-coming-for-microsoftrsquos-xbox-360-kinect</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ Microsoft confirmed today that its Xbox 360 game console and Kinect motion-control system sold in such large numbers during the holidays that it expects shortages in the near term.Microsoft saw huge demand for the Xbox 360 and Kinect after the Nov. 4 launch of the motion control system. To deal with that, it pulled production of consoles that were previously planned for January and February, said David Dennis, a spokesman for Microsoft. The company found ways to expedite the shipments of Kinect systems directly from manufacturing to retail locations, for instance, in order to replenish the systems that were being sold out.In its first 60 days or so, Microsoft shipped 8 million Kinect systems to retailers. Most of those sold through, as spot shortages appeared in late December. Now, Microsoft has the same problem that Sony had a year ago when it saw high demand for its slimmer PlayStation 3 console. But Microsoft&amp;'s position is a little more severe since Kinect sold so well and because the slimmer version of the Xbox 360 has been selling well since its introduction in June. Microsoft said today that the the Xbox 360 sales were up 42 percent for the year, and in December the company sold 1.9 million consoles.It ended the year with 30 million Xbox Live members and 50 million consoles sold to date.Next Story: Will Facebook ever be rid of the Winklevoss twins Previous Story: Intel showering employees with 4X bonusesPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Kinect, xbox 360Companies: MicrosoftPeople: David Dennis          Tags: Kinect, xbox 360Companies: MicrosoftPeople: David DennisDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The Game Developers Conference in pictures (photo gallery)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-game-developers-conference-in-pictures-photo-gallery</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-game-developers-conference-in-pictures-photo-gallery</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-game-developers-conference-in-pictures-photo-gallery</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Game Developers Conference drew around 19,000 game developers to San Francisco&amp;'s Moscone Convention Center this week. The show captured an industry in the midst of transition, as games spread out to a variety of platforms, including smartphones, tablets, Facebook, and digital distribution via the web. The GDC draws talent from across the industry, and it&amp;'s always a good way to measure the pulse of games as they evolve. You can check out some of the trends and people from the images below.At the Sony booth, fans got trained in how to use the rifle accessory for the PlayStation Move controller for Killzone 3. The attachment makes it lot easier to shoot at the nasty Helghast enemies in Killzone 3. Motion-sensing has a big future in games, but I have to say that having a bright pink ball at the end of your gun is not exactly menacing.The GDC is quite an international affair. Rajesh Rao, chief executive of Dhruva Interactive, came out from Bangalore, India. His company is India&amp;'s oldest and most-experienced game company, providing art outsourcing for games like Dead Rising 2 and making digital online games such as Conga Bugs.Tom Hall (left) and John Romero gave one of many post-mortem talks on classic video games. They talked about how they made Doom, the classic first-person shooter titles from 1993.This developer had a good line. As he was showing off Resistance 3, he told the crowd of journalists he was shy. And when he gets nervous, he said, he tends to vomit. So he said he asked Sony to provide parkas to the front row.Sony Ericsson showed off its Xperia Play phone with the pitch &amp;''Android games with PlayStation controls.&amp;''YouWeb&amp;'s CrowdStar and OpenFeint teamed up to recruit potential game developers from above.These folks look like street performers, but they&amp;'re really game developer recruiters in disguise.James Gwertzman has been the lonely American guy in Beijing for PopCap Games, which threw a party with the Plants vs. Zombies theme at 111 Minna. But Gwertzman says cool things are coming for games in the Chinese market.Deliberate or intentional All week, everyone was wondering if Apple deliberately planned its iPad 2 press conference to happen at about the same time as the keynote speech of Satoru Iwata, chief executive of Nintendo. Apple&amp;'s event was next door to the GDC, and lots of journalists such as Marc Saltzman (picutred) attended the Apple event. Apple has made it clear that the iPod Touch and its other devices have become the most popular portable gaming devices. Nintendo&amp;'s Iwata fired back in his speech, saying that low-quality smartphone games were ruining the market for developers.Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance at the iPad 2 event and received a standing ovation when he walked on stage. He said, &amp;''We&amp;'ve been working on this one for a while and I didn&amp;'t want to miss it.&amp;''The iPad 2 has a cool cover that comes in lots of colors. The cover is smart' it has micro fibers that clean the screen, and it wakes up the iPad 2 when you peel it back. Oh, and it can play cool apps too.Mark Rein, vice president at Epic Games, said that the iPad 2 will be a great gaming machine. But Epic isn&amp;'t giving up on high-end games at all. Epic also showed off a jaw-dropping demo of a fighting scene with outstanding graphics. The demo was Epic&amp;'s proposal for the kind of content that could run on next-generation game consoles. For now, however, no one is talking about when those consoles might arrive. Nintendo was mum on the subject during the show, while Microsoft and Sony hope that their new motion-sensors will keep gamers happy for a while. Nobody really wants to introduce a new game console right away. Still, the Epic technology runs on a high-end PC now.Times are good for social game maker Zynga, which threw quite a soiree on Tuesday evening. Zynga has more than 1,700 employees now and it&amp;'s still hiring like crazy.Randy Stude of Intel still loves the PC. The smallest example of that is the Razer Switchblade, a small mobile device that runs on an Intel Atom processor and Windows 7. It will play just about any PC game.Ian Lewis, the game evangelist on the Google Developer Relations team, showed up to say that Google cares about game developers and is excited about web-based game technologies such as WebGL, which will let gamers play hardware-accelerated 3D games on web sites without the need to download a plug-in.Booth dudes!Trip Hawkins, chief executive of Digital Chocolate, warned game developers in his own &amp;''rant&amp;'' session at GDC that not everybody is going to get rich from mobile games. It&amp;'s nice that Apple has paid developers more than $2 billion for their app sales. But there are more than 350,000 apps. If you do the math, Hawkins said, that comes out to around $4,000 per app. That&amp;'s not enough to support real companies. Sure, it&amp;'s a hit-driven business with big games such as Angry Birds. But the platform maker has to do more to make the ecosystem pay off for larger numbers of developers. Otherwise, it&amp;'s like American Idol, with just one winner and lots of losers.Mark Skaggs has led teams that made games such as FarmVille and CityVille for Zynga. Social game developers didn&amp;'t get much respect in past years. But now that titles such as CityVille and FrontierVille have real game play, they&amp;'re getting respect. And it doesn&amp;'t hurt that everybody is playing social games and that console games are not dying off. CityVille got to 100 million users in six weeks.Will Wright provided some brilliant comic relief and insight as he deconstructed how he built Raid on Bungeling Bay, his first major game that debuted on the Commodore 64 in 1984. Wright showed how he built the game to a huge crowd at the GDC and joked about how helicopters have appeared in just about every game he has done since then. In the game, you pilot a helicopter and attack air, land and sea enemies across an archipelago of islands. It became famous because Wright decided it was more fun to play with the island editor that he created for the game than to play the game itself. He worked on that some more and it became the smash hit Sim City. But Wright didn&amp;'t have many artifacts to show, since the game and all of his files were destroyed by fire in the Oakland Hills blaze of 1991. Wright said he sold 20,000 copies in the U.S., and 800,000 in Japan on the Nintendo Entertainment System.Cliff &amp;''CliffyB&amp;'' Bleszinski is design director for Epic Games and the chief visionary for games such as Gears of War. He talked about how game developers can become a &amp;''power creative,&amp;'' or someone who can be the &amp;''front man&amp;'' for major games and call the shots when it comes to creating new titles. Bleszinski says that doing PR right and being an aggressive &amp;''soft seller&amp;'' will help a developer gather friends in the right places and earn as much clout as major game publishers.It&amp;'s a kind of News Corp. reunion here. At the IGN party at the W Hotel, John Welch of Making Fun, Roy Bahat of IGN Entertainment, and Sean Ryan (former News Corp. game chief) were all smiles. Ryan recently left to become the head of game developer relations at Facebook.Brenda Brathwaite gave a nice &amp;''can&amp;'t we all get along&amp;'' rant, as she defended social games from its haters. Social games have been demonized for ruining the game industry (i.e., becoming popular even as console game companies laid off a lot of people in the past two years). But social games and mobile titles were largely accepted at the GDC this year. Brathwaite said that outsiders constantly seek to divide the game industry, with a long history of demonization, but developers should not fall into that trap. Check out Brathwaite&amp;'s nice manicure.Uh, can you guess which person is the game developer recruiterThe GDC flies its colors at the Moscone Center.THQ decorated a burrito wagon to market its upcoming Homefront shooting game.Steve Perlman, chief executive of OnLive, held a party at Harlot for friends of the company. He debuted his cloud gaming company two years ago at GDC amid much skepticism. But OnLive launched in mid-2010 and is now spreading out across a bunch of platforms. Perlman said it was gratifying to see more acceptance from the game industry as his company tries to disrupt traditional game retailing and game consoles. Now OnLive is possibly worth as much as $1.8 billion.John Vechey of PopCap Games and Dave Rohrl of Playdom were party animals. Vechey&amp;'s best quote ever was, &amp;''Venture capitalists are stupid.&amp;''Next Story: RIM marketing chief drops out weeks ahead of PlayBook launch Previous Story: Week in review: A bigger display for the iPhone 5PrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Game Developers Conference, GDCCompanies: Apple, Digital Chocolate, Facebook, Google, IGN, Intel, Making Fun, OnLive, ZyngaPeople: Brenda Brathwaite, Dave Rohrl, Ian Lewis, John Vechey, John Welch, Mark Skaggs, Randy Stude, Roy Bahat, Sean Ryan, Steve Jobs, Steve Perlman, Trip Hawkins          Tags: Game Developers Conference, GDCCompanies: Apple, Digital Chocolate, Facebook, Google, IGN, Intel, Making Fun, OnLive, ZyngaPeople: Brenda Brathwaite, Dave Rohrl, Ian Lewis, John Vechey, John Welch, Mark Skaggs, Randy Stude, Roy Bahat, Sean Ryan, Steve Jobs, Steve Perlman, Trip HawkinsDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[It could be 2012 before 4G LTE Verizon iPhone arrives]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=it-could-be-2012-before-4g-lte-verizon-iphone-arrives</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=it-could-be-2012-before-4g-lte-verizon-iphone-arrives</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>minisa</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=it-could-be-2012-before-4g-lte-verizon-iphone-arrives</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Verizon Wireless and Apple finally launched their iPhone for the Verizon network today, but a lot of folks were disappointed to hear it was a code division multiple access (CDMA) phone and not a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) phone, which has faster data speeds.Apple and Verizon officials said that an LTE version would have required &amp;''design compromises&amp;'' that Apple didn&amp;'t want to make. Instead, they chose to create an iPhone that was pretty much the same as the AT&amp;amp'T iPhone 4 version, except for the CDMA network and its ability to support mobile hot spots.The LTE advantage is that it could support download rates in the multiple megabits a second, far faster than current data networking on smartphones and faster than many broadband lines for homes. Verizon Wireless launched its 4G LTE network in December in 38 markets with download speeds of 5 megabits per second to 12 megabits per second. AT&amp;amp'T says it will launch its 4G LTE network in the second half of 2011. Verizon plans to be in 100 markets with 4G LTE by year-end.But the LTE iPhone version would likely have required more silicon and therefore more space inside the phone. That would have made it bigger, said Tina Teng, analyst at market researcher iSuppli. On top of that, Apple would have had to pay more for the chips inside the phone, driving up its cost. That would have meant that the Verizon version would have been more expensive than the AT&amp;amp'T version, even though the functions are pretty much the same. Consumers wouldn&amp;'t have been happy about that.In fact, one big drawback of the Verizon iPhone is that you can&amp;'t get simultaneous voice and data multitasking. The introduction follows a familiar pattern as well. When Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, it used the older but more stable EDGE network for data networking.Some companies such as Samsung and LG have LTE phones. But those phones use complex chip solutions, like one chip to handle the LTE baseband tasks and another chip to make the phone backward compatible with older networks. That&amp;'s more expensive. Another solution is to integrate LTE into a larger radio chip with all of the networks integrated. But that&amp;'s more expensive and solutions won&amp;'t be available for some time.The bottom line is that it may be 2012 before the costs come down and the integration can be done more cheaply, Teng said.Next Story: Founders Den classes up San Francisco&amp;'s co-working scene Previous Story: Music app maker Smule: The Verizon iPhone sets us freePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: CDMA, iPhone, LTE, Verizon iPhoneCompanies: Apple, Isuppli, Lg, Samsung, Verizon WirelessPeople: Tina Teng          Tags: CDMA, iPhone, LTE, Verizon iPhoneCompanies: Apple, Isuppli, Lg, Samsung, Verizon WirelessPeople: Tina TengDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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