Pirate Against Pirate (Bay) 

The news is that the Pirate Bay was hit by DdoS attack and largely inaccessible for the last 24 hours. I bet you know everything about TPB (The Pirate Bay), probably the most popular file-sharing website, although several courts tried to fully close it.  I have to mention that DDoS is a Distributed Denial of Service, rated below viruses and malware, but powerful enough to put in a mess a site like TPB.

Since the last attack during today, TPB is still intermittent in the UK. If you are dying to download something, it's better to wait another day, until the damaged is fixed. The Pirate Bay has confirmed the attack on its Facebook page, saying that it didn't know who was behind it, although it had its suspicions. Indeed, you are thinking at the same thing as me: Anonymous. If you analyze it a little bit, Anonymous thought for eliminating censorship, if it was behind, the group would have actually used censorship to make clear its attitude.

Pirate Against Pirate (Bay) 

A provider of DDoS defence systems said that it was unlikely that the attack came from hacking group Anonymous. Andre Stewart from Corero Network Security totally believes it's not about the masked group this time. Instead, it could be the record labels, or a government somewhere, it could be just one person who had rented some cloud power from Amazon and is sitting in a café, having fun in attacking TPB.

Being an illegal file-sharing site, TPB allows users to obtain songs, films and other content free, thus angering copyright holders who end up losing money. Virgin Media is one of the producers kneeling TPB for intellectual property, users trying to access The Pirate Bay are shown a message explaining why it is blocked.

Virgin Media began preventing access to the file-sharing site following a High Court order last week. On the other hand, there are bloggers, journalists, IT managers stating that governments could be frustrated because they haven't been able to see TPB close down, so it's like a countdown for revenge

Virgin Media might have won a victory, but let's not forget that its website suffered a hack attack that many thought was organized as a protest against efforts to block access to the very TPB. But ironically, the Pirate Bay criticized the masked pirates, Anonymous, for the attack, writing on its Facebook page that it believes in the open and free internets, where anyone can express their views. Much more, TPB strongly disagrees with them and recommends not to usr their ugly methods. In the end, DDoS (exactly what happened today) and blocks are both forms of censorship, maybe more powerful, since they don't sound and act as a revenge.

Apple Upgrades ICloud

Apple tries to push its position into online services, thanks new photo-sharing and video-sharing features, but since Facebook already shows off with Instagram and Lightbox, it's hard to believe that Tim Cook's will capture attention on this field.

The new features could be announced at Apple's world-wide developer conference beginning June 11. All in all, Apple's new magic will allow iCloud users to share sets of photos with other iCloud users and to comment on them, besides the current storage in Photo Stream designed for synchronizing media contents on your gadgets.

Apple Upgrades ICloud 

Expectations regarding new MacBook Pro models (that 15-inch Retina display series) are increasing, and Apple's upcoming event would be the perfect opportunity to present a revamp for iOS and iCloud. But in addition to new products, Apple may want to also consider a new approach to security, considering the recent attack on Mac platform.

No doubt, new iCloud's features would be part of the company' upcoming mobile operating system, iOS 6, which Apple is expected to preview at its developer conference in June. The new set of features would be the first major addition to the service, since Apple launched iCloud last update.

The current upgrade won't come without a cost, but for the moment has to promote it as very affordable service, than when people would have got used to it, to ask much more money.

Nvidia Moves Into The Cloud 

The Silicon Valley company, known for high-advanced chips managing graphics, has taken as mission an ambitious target: sharing in a second, by multiple users over the Internet. The main idea is that a customer using NVIDIA Cloud service will receive a speedy feedback from its online contents, either we talk about a classical software for work or a game.   

I have to remind you that Nvidia isn't the pioneer in this field. Onlive and Gaikai have already started providing streaming games for reasonable prices and besides the quality is ok, even for an online experience. For instance, Onlive plays high end video games instantly on PCs, Macs, TVs or mobile devices. It's comfortable to have all your entertainment at one click away.

Nvidia Moves Into The Cloud

Nvidia knows that is a wild world outside, in cloud field, so has signed a partnership with Gaikai, that would see the cloud gaming company make use of the new Kepler architecture as well as dedicated video encoding via CUDA. Is it wise, could Nvidia succeed on its own?! I leave you the freedom to answer.

One thing is sure: Nvidia enters cloud, more precisely the gaming section, with GeForce GRID. The two Kepler GPUs on the GRID card will be able to crunch their way through the latest games without too much trouble, while CUDA performs H.264 video encoding in real time. Nvidia believes that its new product will reduce energy consumption, speed streaming down to just 10ms.

So what’s Nvidia planning after all? The graphics manufacturer and Gaikai showed off a virtual console, streaming games to an LG Smart TV controlled by a wireless game pad. Several game developers seem to be onboard with the scheme, such as Epic Games, Capcom, and THQ, although it remains to be seen when the final app will appear.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Review

Let’s start with the design, because a tablet that looks stylish and is comfortable to use for hours in a row is always desirable. Well, from this point of view the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is not that impressive because it’s actually a little heavier and less slim than its predecessor. What hasn’t changed is the plastic backside that’s now silver instead of white. However, the Tab 2 10.1 manages to pass the comfort test pretty easily although its width makes it a little difficult to hold it and type in the same time. That’s the price you have to pay for the larger screen. If you take the time to examine the edges you will notice that in landscape mode the top edge accommodates five controls and ports: the Power/Sleep button, the Volume rocker, the microSD card slot that can support capacities up to 32GB, the IR blaster and the headphone jack. Besides these controls, you will also find a dock connector and a microphone pinhole on the bottom edge and two-inch speakers on both the right and left bezel. That means you will have at your disposal all the physical functionalities expected. What disappoints is the front-facing camera that instead of offering a resolution of 2MP like the original Tab 10.1, it supports only VGA quality. The rear camera has also been affected by negative changes, because it may still have a resolution of 3MP but it lacks the LED flash you can find on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. What I find even more disappointing is the lack of HDMI port. That means you will have to purchase a special accessory in order to connect this tablet to your TV.

About the software put at your disposal I can tell you that you will be enjoying Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The TouchWiz UI is also added to the equation, so you should expect to find on this tablet all the usual Samsung apps including the Music Hub, the Game Hub and the Media Hub. However, the UI doesn’t change much the basic look and functionality of ICS, so besides a few extra shortcuts you won’t discover any major changes. The only change that you will impress you more is the generosity of Samsung that has decided to give every buyer of this tablet 50GB of free Dropbox storage usable during the first year of ownership. Also worth mentioning is the pairing between the IR blaster mentioned and Peel’s Smart Remote app. This pairing has led to the possibility to use the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 as remote control for a TV. The friendly interface of the app makes available even a satellite or cable channel guide, so you will definitely feel better served than by the usual remote control of your TV.

Let’s also take a look at the hardware that’s supposed to support all these features. The main core of the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is the dual-core OMAP 4430 CPU clocked at 1GHz. The CPU mentioned is accompanied by 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Also included is support for Bluetooth 3.0, GPS and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. I think you will also find useful the accelerometer, the digital compass and the gyroscope put at your disposal. And don’t think that I forgot about the 10.1-inch touchscreen that’s designed to support a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels because I didn’t. It’s just that I am a little disappointed by its quality. It seems that Samsung hasn’t taken the time to properly calibrate its color so the images displayed tend to look washed out and covered by a green shade. It’s actually a poorer image display than that made available by the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. At least responsiveness is not a problem while app launches aren’t marked by any delays.

When it comes to web performance and app downloads you will also be impressed because the signal stays strong even if you are up to 20 feet away from the router. What’s also nice is that web page scrolling is smooth although from time to time a little clipping lets you know that the processor is trying hard to keep up with its rendering duties. There’s also the matter of camera performance, but as expected there’s nothing impressive to report. The VGA front-facing camera will never deliver the detail level of a 2MP camera while the rear shooter can ensure only 720p video recording.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Review

Bottom line, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is not as impressive as expected and even a little overpriced. It’s certainly not strong enough for the competition.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

As far as the design goes I think you will find the Galaxy Note 10.1 to be pretty similar to the other Samsung gadgets available on the market. That’s because you will notice the same tendency to release a tablet that’s extremely thin and light and comes with rounded corners. From this point of view the Note tablet is pretty exciting because it’s only 8.9mm thick and weights 583 grams. You will also notice that the rounded back is accentuated by sliver strips, so it seems that Samsung has thought about everything. Unfortunately that’s not true, because if you are interested in using the stylus that accompanies the tablet you will notice that there’s no special storage space included for it in the tablet’s design. Not even the sneaky slot of the 5.3-inch Note has made it. That means the stylus provided is very likely to soon become one of the items that you easily lose inside your house or on your messy desk if you don’t purchase a case with adequate support.

Because I have mentioned the S Pen stylus made available along with the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, let’s see what you should expect from it. Well, I must admit that tests have shown it’s pretty accurate, so it can be used for drawing. You will also notice that you can alter line thickness by applying more or less pressure. That means this S Pen can support artists willing to create artworks on the tablet’s touchscreen. However, although the S Pen is functional, many are wondering if it’s worth keeping it around. That’s because they see it useful mostly for artists who like to work online and children that want to have fun. Well, in my view that’s not entirely true, because Samsung has tried to make sure that the stylus can be used for serious purposes by making available some pretty interesting apps like Photoshop Touch and Adobe Ideas. Now what’s left to do is wait and see exactly how useful these apps can be.

The hardware also matters no matter if we are talking about a smartphone or a tablet, so I made sure it has its own dedicated paragraph. The first hardware element that I want to mention is the 10.1-inch screen that supports a resolution of 1,280 x 800 pixels. The processor is as impressive because it’s a dual-core processor clocked at 1.4GHz that should be perfect for watching hi-definition videos and playing games with demanding graphics. However, it can’t be compared with the current quad-core processors that are starting to be released inside smartphones and tablets. More disappointing are the cameras available, because while the 2MP front-facing camera supports quality video calls, the 3MP rear camera is not that impressive. At least Samsung promises to make available the tablet in a Wi-Fi only version as well as a Wi-Fi + 3G version. In addition, just like the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is expected to offer various storage capacities: 16, 32 and 64GB. The downside is that you won’t have at your disposal a microSD card that can help you expand the storage area available.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

About the software made available I can happily tell you that you won’t have to wait for an Android upgrade to ICS, because the Note tablet comes with Ice Cream Sandwich as preloaded OS. That means you will be able to enjoy from the get-go all the new features and tweaks that Google has integrated in Android 4.0. You will even have the possibility to unlock the device using your face. Not to mention the wide variety of tablet-optimized apps that you can find in the Android Market. You will also find a few pre-loaded apps that will help you discover the tablet’s capabilities from the moment you purchase it.

On the whole, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is a pretty intriguing release because it’s powered by Ice Cream Sandwich and puts at your disposal a powerful processor, capable of supporting most of the activities that a user is interested in performing on portable tablets. The S Pen’s use is still a little mysterious, so we will have to wait the tablet’s official release that’s expected to take place somewhere between April and June of 2012. I hope that in the near future I will be able to provide more details and help you to decide if this tablet is worth the investment or not. In the meantime you are left enjoying the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone and its gorgeous 5.3-inch touchscreen paired with an S Pen and a few useful apps.

Android App Barcodes

I must first of all make sure that you are aware of the availability of Barcode Scanner+. This Android app is able to deliver about the products you scan a wide variety of information including competitive pricing and reviews. To get the job done, Barcode Scanner+ uses the camera of your smartphone. The actual scanning can even take place in both landscape and portrait. What I must also mention about this app is that its developers have made sure it comes in versions optimized for Honeycomb tablet use as well as in versions optimized for Android versions currently used. Some of these versions are even able to retrieve product details by finding out the barcode from an image that a friend sends you as long as the image is focused on the product’s barcode. Also included is support for NFC tags and for light-on-dark barcodes. Having mentioned those advanced capabilities I think it’s obvious that support for QR codes is also integrated.

Another barcode scanner app that you should consider installing on your Android smartphone is ScanLife Barcode & QR Reader. This app is considered to be an “all-in-one” barcode reader that can help you become a smart shopper. That’s because it retrieves reviews from online websites like Amazon and Best Buy and pricing from around 25 online retailers about every product you scan. All the information it retrieves seem to be focused on the goal of helping you make the best deal possible for your money. You can even use its interface to actually make the purchase if the product reviews and pricing make you realize that you can’t find anywhere else a better deal. With the help of this app you will able to scan 2D barcodes such as QR and Datamatrix codes. You can even customize the interface by choosing one of the themes available.

Android App Barcodes

Because you should never be limited to two choices when the Android Market accommodates so many possibilities, I feel the need to also mention RedLaser Barcode & QR Scanner. This barcode scanner claims to offer a superior accuracy level than the other options available on the market and is able to provide about the product of interest details that are available on websites like Shopping.com, eBay, Milo and Google. If you aren’t only a shopping fan but also a social networking fan, you will definitely also find useful the possibility to create lists of objects and share the information with your friends via Facebook and Twitter. You can also send the information from within the app via email or text message. The other good news is that you will be able to use it for conducting product searches even if you don’t have available the barcode. That’s because RedLaser Barcode & QR Scanner also allows you to launch keyword, voice and image searches. That means it can help you find the best pricing as long as you have at least one piece of information.

The list wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t also mention Google Goggles. This Google service is an interesting barcode scanner app that at the time of its release was considered impressive due to the image recognition technology it uses. The reason why I like this app is because it’s created to offer information about more than just usual products. For example, if you are passionate about travelling you will be able to use it for finding out more details about paintings, monuments and the places of interest available in your current location. In the same time Google Goggles can read QR codes with the help of your smartphone’s camera and deliver links and information that will help you get your hands on the product of interest. You can even use this app for scanning business cards and having the information included as part of a new contact entry in your phone’s contacts list.

Android App Barcodes

I also think you should consider NeoReader that may not be as impressive as the other options listed, but when it comes to accuracy it’s an excellent choice. This is the type of app that you should use if you want to be able to scan one-dimensional barcodes in the market. However, that doesn’t mean the app can’t also support 2-dimensional codes such as QR and Aztec codes.

The Trinity APU can have up to four Piledriver CPU cores and comes with a dual channel DDR3 memory controller, as well as a unified northbridge and an AMD HD Media Accelerator. The graphics muscles are provided by the Radeon HD 7000 graphics which Advanced Micro Devices says that it is up to 56% faster in comparison to the previous generation that the Llano has. In addition, the CPU is now about 28% faster than before.

AMD Trinity APU

For mainstream notebooks, AMD has three different Trinity APUs to choose from, in the form of the A10-4600M, A8-4500M and the A6-4400M. As for ultrathin notebooks, AMD has prepared the A10-4655M and the A6-4455M. All these APUs are built using the 32nm manufacturing process and their size is bigger than the previous generation, measuring 246 square millimeters in comparison to Llano’s 228 square millimeters size.

AMD says that this new lineup of APUs is considerably more power efficient than before. Llano APUs need 35W for dual cores and 45W for the quad cores on notebooks, while Trinity requires only 17W for dual cores and 35W for quad cores. As for the wattage requirements for desktop computers, the figures have remained the same, varying from 65W up to 100W, depending on the APU.

To give you a few examples, in Spain the market share went up by a whopping 72%, in Germany by 62% while in Italy the Android market share has risen by 49%. As far as Apple’s iPhone is concerned, it allowed the multi-billion dollar company to maintain its second place in the United States and the United Kingdom, but the position of the iOS weakened in continental Europe. There was a strong demand in the UK for the HTC One X, and we can only imagine what’s going on at the moment when the Samsung Galaxy S III has finally hit the market across Europe.

Android

Now that Nokia is focusing on the Windows Phone OS, this platform is slowly gaining some attention, as in Germany it managed to double its share to 6%, while in countries like US, UK, Italy and France the market share grew to about 3-4%. However, this increasing popularity of the Windows Phone operating system came at the expense of Nokia’s Symbian OS, as well as RIM’s BlackBerry. Kantar WordPanel mentions that the Canadian company now has a 3% smartphone market share, going down by 6%.

This decrease in the production rate of the iPhones is suggesting that Apple has decided to give its suppliers a two-quarter pause before the new iPhone hits the market, which according to Shaw Wu will occur sometime in September or October. This pause is intended to allow Apple’s suppliers to manage better their inventory and do the necessary preparations for the next model. This is the exact same thing that Apple has done before launching the 4S, when they slowed down the production rate of the iPhone 4.

iPhone 4S

As a consequence, Shaw Wu believes that the company will deliver 26 – 28 million iPhones, which is lower than the 30 – 31 million average estimated by the Wall Street. Wu said that this decrease in production rate is mostly because of the upcoming model it has nothing to do with a decrease in interest for the current model.

Thanks to the addition of a new supplier, Apple is increasing the production rate of the new iPad, according to Wu. When the new tablet came out the company had some problems due to the limited supply of the gorgeous Retina Display but now it seems that this issue has been fixed. Wu increased his estimate as far as iPad shipments are concerned in the quarter from 14 million units to 15 million tablets.

To give you more details, when playing a Demon Hunter, those who equip a Templar with a shield are risking to be disconnected from the game’s servers. Blizzard said that they are at the moment investigating this problem and a fix will be launched pretty soon, according to the developer’s European customer service Twitter feed.

Diablo III Collector's Edition

As most of you know, Diablo III came out yesterday for the PC and Mac platforms. This is the first game since Diablo II: Lord of Destruction which came out in 2001. It brings a lot of new features, a new auction house system and new character classes. We remind you that in order to play Diablo III you must have a permanent Internet connection so slim chances of being able to run the game on a pirated copy.

If you are wondering if the game will be launched on consoles, game director Jay Wilson mentioned in an interview given to Gamasutra that Blizzard is not working on such a version right now.