Tag: HARDWARE

Using a well-documented and easily-replicated flaw in the USB specification, a bunch of plucky Canadians have managed to turn innocuous peripherals like keyboards into a hardware trojan horse. The team produced a modified keyboard that was capable of transmitting data in Morse code, using an LED -- but that was just a proof of concept! There's nothing to prevent a keyboard from sending data ...

VLC is an excellent alternative media player, and one that's extremely popular with our readers. That doesn't mean it's issue-free, of course. VLC still struggles from time to time with high def video, though that's about to change with the upcoming 1.1 release. Developers are hard at work bolting on GPU acceleration to the app, and the results look good so far. Forum user riderx's CPU ...

One thing DIYers (myself included) often forget to do prior to reformatting a system is to take a few minutes to make sure all of the necessary drivers for their hardware are at the ready. You pull the trigger on the format option only to realize that, oh crap, you didn't save that .zip file for your TV tuner card, and you'll have to go sift through support pages...again. Double Driver offers ...

Whether you're a professional looking for an easy way to move paper documents from your desktop to web apps like Google Docs, or you just have a large collection of photographs you'd like to post to Flickr, Doxie's new scanner might be the device you've been waiting for. Apart from being small enough to tuck in your laptop bag, Doxie's bundled software provides simple and uploading to loads of ...

I'm sure you've heard about reverse engineering and industrial espionage -- they are the bread and butter of a competitive tech industry! -- but I had no idea there were firms, such as Chipworks, that specialize in the process. They've just released glorious, revealing details of the Apple iPad's hardware, and a complete breakdown of the new, top-secret A4 processor. For the ...

I love Roman Nurik's Android-inspired theme for Google Chrome -- but it's nice to change things up every now and then. Today, I've switched over to a new theme called Hardware which was inspired by (or remixed from) Roman's theme. Instead of Robot's muted grays and greens, Hardware is electric blue on black with a printed circuit overlay. If you're a fan of darker themes, this is one of the ...

It's already been pretty widely reported that Internet Explorer 9 will feature better support for standards -- including HTML5. We also know it's going to take advantage of your GPU via Direct2D and DirectWrite. Now, a blog post from the folks at AMD has revealed the IE9 will support Direct2D hardware acceleration for the <canvas> element. Here's what AMD's Robin Maffeo had to say: "The ...

We've all been there... Those dark, dreary, lonely nights when you're up to date with your video games and you're out of books. You look at your last good friend, your ever-present ally that's seen you through thick and thin: your hand. Just one more time... I'll get a girlfriend soon, I promise... I'm talking, of course, about Rock-paper-scissors: the fairest of compromise, the inexorable ...

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has partnered up with satellite TV provider Dish Network to test out a new set-top device powered by Google software. Although the WSJ doesn't name its sources, they seemed to know an awful lot about Google's plans with Dish. The set-top device would reportedly allow users to organize Dish's TV content, plus web video from YouTube, creating a custom ...

It goes almost without saying that a lot of the people who buy Apple's new iPad will already have Apple's iPhone. Maybe you were thinking, "Well, since I've got an iPhone already, why pay for two data plans? There has to be some way to tether the iPad using the iPhone, right?" According to Steve Jobs, the answer is a big, fat NO. Jobs responded to an email from Swedish DJ Jezper ...

Google first unveiled its Android operating system for smartphones in 2007. But the Google Nexus One, which was launched last month is the first phone with the Google name attached to the hardware. Google sells the phone through its web site and handles tech support for the smartphone, although mobile service is provided by T-Mobile (and soon Verizon) in the US. The Nexus One has a faster ...

digg_url = 'http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/02/22/jazari-the-one-man-wii-band/'; It isn't often that you see the fusion of software, hardware and pure creative genius. You can't deny that this is something else entirely -- seriously, you can stop reading here and just watch the video after the cut. If you're still here, perhaps seeking a little more convincing, get this: Patrick ...

I know, it's the story that never ends -- and really, don't expect it to end any time soon -- but here's another angle: what about Chinese hardware? We now know that either the Chinese government, or a very large privately-funded clandestine operation from Asia, has been hacking Western governments, intelligence agencies, and businesses for a decade. What if the hardware they produce also has ...

One of the things I like about Gmail, Google Reader, and other Google services is that they're easy to navigate using keyboard shortcuts. That means you don't need to lift your hand from the keyboard to use the mouse as often. But what if you have a hard time remembering all the keyboard shortcuts? You could hit the ? key to bring up a list, or you could write down a list and tape it to the side ...

CCleaner has been one of my most used (and most trusted) apps for years. The same goes for Defraggler. There's no denying that the crew at Piriform really knows how to make useful little programs. Speccy is a more recent addition to the family, and it's a handy little tool for gathering information about the hardware in a Windows PC. While it's not as detailed as some other system information ...