Green orange e life

RIM Customers Working On Contingency Plans

RIM Customers Working On Contingency Plans

By Scott Moritz and Olga Kharif

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) customers from GoDaddy Group Inc. to asset manager Thames River Capital UK Ltd. are preparing for the worst: the loss of the BlackBerry service their employees depend on to communicate.
RIM's stock has slumped more than 70 percent in the past year, and tumbled 19 percent on June 29 after the company posted a quarterly loss and delayed the BlackBerry 10 operating system, increasing the pressure on RIM to find a buyer or sell assets. While RIM has built infrastructure to ensure continued service, some customers are devising backup plans as RIM prepares to face shareholders at its annual meeting tomorrow.

"In the past three months there's been a lot of concern that the BlackBerry platform won't be around in the future," said Maribel Lopez, founder of Lopez Research, a wireless- industry consultant based in San Francisco. "It's not unheard of for a large phone manufacturer to go out of business."

Corporate customers, the backbone of RIM's business, are fortifying contingency plans so they won't be affected by a possible breakup of the BlackBerry-maker or other setbacks. With millions of employees connecting to the office through mobile e- mail, companies have been eager to establish a fallback or replacement plan, said Avi Greengart, a technology research director at Current Analysis.

Thames River Capital supplies about 140 of its 170 employees with smartphones, most of them BlackBerrys, said Robert Cockerill, head of infrastructure at the London-based money manager. With the delay of BlackBerry 10 and a service contract with RIM expiring this year, Cockerill said he expects much of his staff to switch to Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone or devices based on Google Inc.'s Android platform.

Service Disruption

Cockerill has brought in MobileIron Inc., a Mountain View, California-based developer of software that helps companies manage and protect data on mobile devices and tablets. MobileIron provides security for Thames River Capital including encryption and password protection for non-BlackBerry devices such as iPads, he said.

Thames River Capital is preparing for scenarios where BlackBerry service may be shut down, disrupted, or if a competitor such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) acquires RIM and converts the operating system to its Exchange e-mail service, he said.

"There is a risk of RIM getting bought," Cockerill said in an interview. "But if you have the right support you can be agnostic and it won't really matter."

MobileIron Chief Executive Officer Bob Tinker said his customer list includes 100 Fortune 500 companies, and about a quarter of those customers are financial services firms.

Embrace Innovation

"Large enterprises don't want to be locked in with a single vendor anymore," Tinker said in an interview. Customers want to embrace all the innovation in mobile and RIM's delay of BlackBerry 10 doesn't help that, he said.

"CIO's are now asking us: 'What do we do if RIM gets acquired or if they restructure,'" said Tinker.

Norton Rose LLP, a law firm with 6,000 BlackBerry-equipped employees, is using MobileIron's software to support iPhones and iPads, which were given to some staff members as secondary devices, said Vlad Botic, group enterprise architect at the London-based firm.

Botic, who said Norton Rose would like to continue using BlackBerrys, began exploring alternatives last year after the three-day BlackBerry outage that caused users around the world to lose data services amid a network failure.

"RIM isn't in a good position right now," Botic said in an interview. "The problem with BlackBerry, which was highlighted when the service went down, was that the only way to solve it is with an entirely new device."

'Significant Outage'

While the chance of BlackBerry service getting shut down is slim, Botic said he has scheduled a meeting with RIM this week to seek assurances that there won't be a disruption in the event of a takeover.

GoDaddy, an Internet domain-name and hosting company, could switch users to iPhone or Android devices "within hours," said Auguste Goldman, chief infrastructure officer at the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company.

In the event of a "significant outage" for BlackBerry devices, GoDaddy has a plan to migrate users to other platforms, Goldman said in an interview.

"The BlackBerry infrastructure and services are among our most valuable assets," said Nick Manning, a spokesman for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM. "BlackBerry customers depend on our robust network and they can continue to depend on it going forward."

RIM shares fell 5.3 percent to $7.67 at the close in New York.

iPhone, Android

Six staffers at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. first began planning for the possibility of a disruption in BlackBerry service last year. To prepare, Nationwide retained Good Technology Inc., whose software for servers and phones can provide secure corporate e-mail and calendar services to iPhones and Android devices.

"You could see that RIM started to decline," Robert Burkhart, director of new technology innovation at Nationwide, said in an interview.

Today, the number of BlackBerrys Nationwide associates use is down to 7,000 from about 8,500 a year ago, while the number of non-BlackBerry devices used has risen from zero to 4,450, Burkhart said.

"We are well on our way to having a dual environment, so if RIM did go out, we'd be okay," Burkhart said. "If people are starting contingency plans now, they are behind the eight ball. They should have been looking at this all along."

Good Technology, which works with 4,000 corporate customers worldwide, including eight of the top 10 financial services companies, has seen an inflow of customers concerned about RIM's prospects and making contingency plans.

Contingency Plans

"We've had two meetings this month with large financial services firms on this topic," Brian Carr, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Sunnyvale, California-based Good Technology, said in an interview. "In the last year, I talked with half of Fortune 100 companies, and it's a concern for all of them. Every single one of them is looking at contingency plans."

The concerns are prompting many companies to speed up their transition from BlackBerries to other types of mobile devices, Carr said.

RIM has struggled to keep up with Apple's iPhone and devices based on Google's (GOOG) Android platform. Last month, RIM said it would cut 5,000 jobs and posted a quarterly loss that was five times bigger than projected. Sales last quarter plunged 43 percent as RIM's share of the global smartphone industry fell by more than half to 6.4 percent in the first three months of the year, according to research firm IDC.

BlackBerry Migration

"RIM's situation is dire, but even in a worst-case scenario, RIM's servers aren't likely to get turned off anytime soon," said Current Analysis's Greengart. "Still, IT managers are looking more seriously at alternatives to BlackBerry. There's a whole industry ready to provide security and management around Apple and Android," he said.

The migration from BlackBerrys started two years ago for Ken Lawonn, senior vice president of strategy and technology at Alegent Health, an Omaha, Nebraska-based health-care provider.

The shift was prompted by user preferences, rather than concerns about the future of RIM, said Lawonn who uses Good Technology's software. The number of Alegent's 300 smartphone users with BlackBerrys has shrunk to 10 percent from about 50 percent two years ago, he said.

"Should something occur, we believe that's going to be a fairly easy transition," Lawonn said. "If my BlackBerry broke down, I'd look at the options, and if a BlackBerry wasn't available, I'd pick up an iPhone and be on my way."

Yahoo Defends Android App, Botnet Questions Remain

Security firm traces torrent of spam to Yahoo's failure to activate HTTPS by default in its Android app.

By Mathew J. Schwartz

Is a big, bad Android botnet sending mountains of spam to unsuspecting email users?

That was the warning issued by Microsoft researcher Terry Zink last week, who said that spam traps had been capturing inordinate amounts of bogus email that had been sent using Yahoo IP addresses associated with the search giant's Android app. As security experts questioned what exactly might be happening, a Google spokesman cautioned that the available evidence didn't add up to a botnet, but rather "that spammers are using infected computers and a fake mobile signature to try to bypass anti-spam mechanisms in the email platform they're using."

Facing criticism for suggesting that there was a new Android botnet sending spam, Zink fired back, saying that whether or not the email signatures are faked, something's been sending spam via Yahoo's Android channels. "The reason these messages appear to come from Android devices is because they did come from Android devices," he said in a blog post.

Other information security researchers backed up that finding. "Many, including Google, have suggested the messages are forged. We see no evidence of this. The messages are delivered to our spam traps from genuine Yahoo! servers with valid DKIM [DomainKeys identified mail] signatures," said Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor at Sophos Canada, in a blog post.

Yahoo, meanwhile, defended its Android app. "While our investigation into claims of a potential malware compromise operating as a botnet is ongoing, we can confirm that there is not a problem with our official Yahoo! Mail app for Android and there is no reason for users to uninstall the app," said a Yahoo spokeswoman Friday via email.

What's going on? "One of two things is happening here," said Wisniewski at Sophos. "We either have a new PC botnet that is exploiting Yahoo!'s Android APIs or we have mobile phones with some sort of malware that uses the Yahoo! APIs for sending spam messages."

But in fact, the culprit may not be malware-infected PCs, botnets, or some never-before-seen type of Android malware. According to mobile security firm Lookout Security, in fact, the problem is rather the Yahoo mail Android app's default use of HTTP. "Yahoo! Mail for Android does not encrypt its communications by default--it performs all its functions over HTTP, not HTTPS," according to a blog post from Lookout. "This means that any traffic that is sent by the Yahoo! Mail Android app can easily be intercepted over an open network connection such as a public Wi-Fi network. This exposes Yahoo! Mail for Android to session hijacking, a form of attack that gained mainstream attention with Firesheep."

Introduced in 2010, Firesheep is a Firefox plug-in that can be used on any unsecured Wi-Fi connection to hijack the session cookies of anyone sharing the same connection who logs onto a website that uses HTTP, but not HTTPS. Created by Eric Butler, the plug-in was designed to illustrate how--in his words--"on an open wireless network, cookies are basically shouted through the air, making these attacks extremely easy." Attackers had long been able to execute credential-hijacking attacks using free, open source tools. But in the wake of Butler's plug-in release, numerous online service providers, including Facebook, added HTTPS as an option--if not always a default.

A Yahoo spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Lookout's theory. But according to Lookout, Yahoo's failure to use HTTPS by default means that an attacker could easily create an open Wi-Fi network, then wait for people using the Yahoo Mail app on Android to join the network, and check their email. "The attacker intercepts a particular cookie and can use it to impersonate that user, over whatever networks are available to them, including by tethering to a mobile network," said Lookout. "This allows the attacker to send spam emails that appear 100% legitimate."

Given that revelation, all Android users who employ the official Yahoo Mail app on their smartphone or tablet should immediately set the app to only check for email using HTTPS, as opposed to the default HTTP setting. According to Lookout, "from within Yahoo! Mail, simply open Options > General Settings and select 'Enable SSL.'"

Furthermore, while this latest attack targets only users of the Android Yahoo Mail app, it reinforces the need to use HTTPS whenever possible. "All mobile users should exercise caution when connecting to open Wi-Fi networks from a laptop or mobile device. We recommend that desktop users of Firefox or Chrome install the plug-in HTTPS Everywhere to ensure that their traffic to popular sites is properly secured," according to Lookout.

2012 Nissan Leaf SL needs to turn over a better new Leaf

2012 Nissan Leaf SL needs to turn over a better new Leaf

By Warren Brown

You are a patient man, putting up with all of those questions about why your Nissan Leaf car "isn't selling."

It seems everywhere you go, some blogger or content provider is pushing a variation of the theme: "Is the Nissan Leaf, a mass-market all-electric car launched a year ago, a flop?"

Some even try to stick it to you with numbers: "You have a U.S. sales target of 20,000 to 25,000 Leaf cars in 2012. Yet, it's mid-April, dude, and you've only sold 1,733. What's up with that?"

You've gamely defended the Nissan Leaf in particular and all-electric cars in general. You say they are the future of sustainable personal transportation. I'm with you on that.

But, hey, Carlos, we have a problem.

That much became clear to me during a week in the 2012 Leaf SL hatchback, which costs $3,530 more than last year's model because it comes with more "standard" equipment.

Aside: If what was once offered as "optional" is now sold as more expensive "standard," should I be happy?

PA3842U-1BRS PA3830U-1BRS PABAS062 Battery PA3442U-1BRS PA3442U-1BAS Toshiba Libretto U105 Battery Toshiba Libretto U100 Battery

But that's beside the point. The problem for me and a lot of people is that your new Leaf SL starts at $37,250. If I add the still optional front and rear bumper protectors ($225), splash guards ($140), and cargo net ($20), and the obligatory $850 transportation charge, I'm looking at $38,485!

And that's for a subcompact car that can travel 100 miles on a single charge on a good day! On a bad day, say when the weather is a little chilly and the car's heater is needed, mileage available on the Leaf's distance to discharge meter automatically drops by 12 to 14 miles.

You see the problem?

I'm with you on all of that stuff about "innovation for the planet, innovation for all." But nearly $39,000 for a little car that can barely travel 100 miles on a single charge is a tough sell. You are asking me to pay too much for what I perceive to be too little.

And I live in one of those wonky Northern Virginia neighborhoods where people value greenery and clean air as long as it surrounds their mini-mansions, where folks like the idea of what essentially is a neighborhood electric car, but gag on the price.

There's something else, Carlos. You all didn't make a good impression on the neighbors when your agents delivered my Leaf SL by car carrier. The only other cars delivered to me that way are super-exotics whose manufacturers thought nothing about outfitting them with excessively high-horsepower gasoline engines, but who were worried about their expensive trailer queens getting scratched in regular commuter traffic.

The car-carrier drop-off of the Leaf SL engendered much head-scratching. Some wags asked: "Is it broken?" Others wanted to know if it had an electrical cord that extended to the nearby Harris Teeter grocery store, assuming that was as far as I could drive it. Still others succinctly surmised: "Looks like you won't be taking that one on any long road trips." But, again, they all gasped and turned away when I revealed the price.

Toshiba Satellite T210D Battery Toshiba Mini NB500 Battery Toshiba PABAS232 Battery Toshiba Satellite T235D Battery Toshiba PABAS231 Battery Toshiba Satellite T235 Battery PA3820U-1BRS

That's too bad, because the Leaf SL and its slightly less expensive sibling, the Leaf SV ($35,200), technically make perfectly good sense for clean, fun, fossil-fuel-free, everyday commuting. All-electric power means 100 percent torque turning the front-drive wheels at all times. Start-from-stop is an exhilarating hoot. But that is not what the car is about.

Ghosn and other electric-car advocates, me included, would have us all imagine a commuting region in which no one burns gasoline or diesel fuel and spreads mobile-source pollution in the process; in which we can go about our daily lives without having to thank the enemies of democracy for our daily barrel of oil. But we have a very long way to go before any of that can become a reality.

U.S. consumers are rational economists, which is another way of saying they are inherently selfish. If they can spend $25,570 on a fully loaded 2012 Nissan Altima SR midsize sedan with a splendiferous 270-horsepower V-6 engine that can carry them from Northern Virginia to New York City on one tank of gasoline, they'd choose to do that over spending $37,250 for a little electric car that, without quick-charge access, would have to wait about eight hours before it could go another 100 miles.

I like the Leaf, especially the fully loaded SL version. If I traveled only within my Northern Virginia neighborhood, I theoretically could do so without buying another ounce of gasoline.

The Leaf SL is a comfortable driver for motorists tall and short. It's safe and has reasonable utility. Federal and local governments are offering tax breaks to help you pay for it. But it's not ready for prime time in an American psyche in which big remains better, the illusion of the open road remains a reality, and pandering politicians think it is smart to blame one another for high gasoline prices over which they have no control or, worse, to promise super-cheap gasoline for American drivers in a developed world where their counterparts are paying twice as much.

PA3821U-1BAS Battery Toshiba Satellite T230 Battery PA3821U-1BRS Battery Toshiba Mini NB550D Battery Toshiba Satellite T215D Battery Toshiba PA3820U-1BAS Battery Toshiba Mini NB505 Battery Toshiba Mini Notebook NB305 Battery PABAS220 Battery

Game of Thrones Power Shift: Tyrion Snares a Bearded Rat

By Hanh Nguyen, TV GUIDE

"A small man can cast a big shadow," Varys told Tyrion, and in Sunday's episode of Game of Thrones, we certainly saw that The Imp has strengthened his power as the Hand of the King.

With his latest political triumph, Tyrion once again undermined his sister, Queen Regent Cersei and by extension, her teenage son, King Joffrey. Who else triumphed? Who suffered an embarrassing setback (besides Theon, of course)? Check out TVGuide.com's breakdown of the power shifts in "What Is Dead May Never Die":

Power Tripping

Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage): Best. Hand. Ever. Tyrion tells Varys, Littlefinger and Grand Maester Pycelle plans to broker a political marriage for Princess Myrcella with the caveat that "The Queen mustn't know!" When Cersei herself confronts Tyrion about the Dornish plans, his masterful scheme is revealed: He told a different plan to each man, and since he discussed a Dornish marriage only with Pycelle, then the Maester is the Queen Regent's informant. Bye, bye, Pycelle! Enjoy prison.

Shae (Sibel Kekilli): The W scores a sweet gig as Sansa's new handmaiden just because she withheld affection when Tyrion initially offered to get her work as a kitchen scullion. The Imp may be a strategist, but Shae knows how to play him.

Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie): This towering lady is more of a knight. Skilled at combat, she defeats Loras to win the tournament Renly holds and subsequently a place in his kingsguard. We think she and Arya would get along nicely.

PA3784U-1BAS Battery Toshiba Mini Notebook NB304 Battery PABAS218 Battery PA3783U-1BAS Toshiba Mini Notebook NB303 Battery PA3783U-1BRS Toshiba Mini Notebook NB302 Battery

Game of Thrones' Kit Harington discusses the weird fixation with Jon Snow's hair

Power Failure

Grand Maester Pycelle (Julian Glover): As mentioned above, Tyrion totally played the Maester and then humiliated him by busting in on him and a W unannounced, slicing off his beard and packing him off to a cell. And for anyone who's counting, this is the second time we've seen the old dude in his nightshirt.

Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey): Dear little brother Tyrion has stripped her of yet another ally and her daughter.

Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen): We still can't get over Theon's "hands-on" approach to dealing with his family in the last episode, and he's not faring much better this time around. His sister Yara has been entrusted with 30 ships in order to attack Deepwood Motte in the North, while Theon only gets one measly ship, the Sea Bitch, to attack a seaside village. Also, Daddy Balon really, really doesn't love him.

PA3784U-1BRS Toshiba Mini Notebook NB301Battery PA3785U-1BRS Battery

Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony): How shall we say this? He couldn't get the royal battering ram to breech his wife Margaery's defenses. As she so wisely counseled him, "The best way to stop enemies is to [impregnate her]." Until then, the great political marriage he's made with House Tyrell doesn't mean much without a potential heir on the way.

The Night's Watch: Up north, Jon Snow's snoopiness gets the Watch thrown out by Craster, who has much-needed supplies and shelter. Down south along the King's Road, the Night's Watch recruits are attacked -- some killed, some captured -- by those searching for Gendry.

From Game of Thrones to Spartacus: Spring TV eye candy

Power Outage, aka The Fallen

Epiosde 3: Yoren, Lommy
Episode 2: Rakharo
Episode 1: Daenerys' horse, Maester Cressen, King Robert's bastards

Bonus Episode Highlights

Spot the W! W Count: 2. We believe it's Daisy the W who was warming Pycelle's bed, and of course there's Shae. Some argue that she's not really a W. And though it's true she doesn't work as a straightforward prostitute like the ladies from Littlefinger's brothel, Bronn did pick her out among the camp followers to offer Tyrion companionship of a nature.

Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

What was your favorite highlight? Are you sad to see Yoren go?

Laptop Battery , Laptop Batteries , etc.

Toshiba Mini Notebook NB300 Battery Toshiba PA3785U-1BAS Battery Toshiba NB200 Battery

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (32GB)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (32GB)

Reviewed by: Eric Franklin

The good: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 delivers a mostly pure Ice Cream Sandwich experience for only $250. The tablet also trumps the Kindle Fire in extras by including dual cameras, expandable memory, and TV remote control functionality.

The bad: The screen doesn't look as pretty as other PLS displays, and its camera performance is lacking compared to other tablets in the line.

The bottom line: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 offers an excellent value and a full Android experience that no other tablet can currently match for the price.

Review:

Photo gallery: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)
Photo gallery:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)

I guess we have Amazon to thank for proving that you don't need a premium tablet to be successful. While Samsung tried competing on the premium tablet front for the last year and will continue to do so, it's finding this strategy to be more difficult than anticipated.

With the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, the company is, thankfully, learning from its mistakes and taking a price cue from Amazon by offering a full-featured tablet for $250. The market isn't stagnant, though, so will Samsung actually have time to ... Expand full review

Photo gallery: Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)
Photo gallery:
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0)

PA3904U-1BRS Toshiba Tecra R850 Battery PA3904U-1BAS Toshiba Satellite Pro R850 Battery Toshiba PA3905U-1BRS Battery Toshiba PA3905U-1BAS Battery

I guess we have Amazon to thank for proving that you don't need a premium tablet to be successful. While Samsung tried competing on the premium tablet front for the last year and will continue to do so, it's finding this strategy to be more difficult than anticipated.

With the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, the company is, thankfully, learning from its mistakes and taking a price cue from Amazon by offering a full-featured tablet for $250. The market isn't stagnant, though, so will Samsung actually have time to capitalize before more powerful and still cheap alternatives enter the fray?

Design

The Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 sports a slightly altered design from the 7.0 Plus, but you'd be hard-pressed to notice those differences at first glance, unless of course you were as intimately familiar with the Plus as I am.

The shape and weight are about the same with some slight dimensional differences. The new tablet's outer plastic shell spills a bit into the bezel at the right and left sides and the power/sleep button and volume rocker are more pronounced and feel slightly more responsive. Also, the IR blaster is a bit larger than the one on the Plus.

Aside from that, they're pretty much physically identical. The Tab 2 7.0 is fairly thin, although not Tab 7.7-thin. It's also comfortable to hold with smooth, rounded corners. Samsung identifies the color that covers the back of the tablet as "titanium silver," which seems fitting enough.

The Tab 2 7.0 retains the 7.0 Plus' thin design.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Amazon Kindle Fire Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
Weight in pounds 0.74 0.76 0.9 0.74
Width in inches (landscape) 7.6 7.6 7.4 7.75
Height in inches 4.8 4.8 4.75 2.25
Depth in inches 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.37
Side bezel width in inches (landscape) 0.76 0.74 0.78 (Power button side), 0.6 opposite side 0.68

PABAS246 PABAS245 Toshiba Qosmio X770 Battery Toshiba PA3928U-1BRS Battery Toshiba PABAS248 Battery PA3928U-1BAS

The microSD card slot allows you to add an additional 32GB of storage on top of the built-in 8GB. Samsung provides 50GB of free Dropbox storage for a year on top of that. The door to the microSD slot is easier to open now and doesn't get stuck as often as the Plus' did.

Take that Kindle Fire! With expandable memory up 32GBs, you shouldn't have to worry constantly about running out of space.

The 2-megapixel front camera from the Plus has been replaced with a VGA one here, but the rear is still rated at 3-megapixel, albeit sans an LED. Thankfully each camera is located in the upper left corner when holding the tablet in landscape, thus allowing them to avoid unwanted fingers creeping into the camera frame when taking a picture.

The 3-megapixel back camera honestly takes pretty crappy pictures.

Equidistant from surrounding dual speakers on the right, sits a dock connector and the left edge houses a headphone jack and microphone pinhole. The ambient light sensor sits about an inch away from the front camera on the bezel. However, the ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts the tablet's brightness when auto brightness is turned on is calibrated too sensitively. When typing, my hand would occasionally cover the sensor making the screen darken. This was so consistent (and annoying) that I was forced to turn off auto brightness on the tablet while I used it.

Sadly, as with most Samsung tablets, there's no HDMI port, requiring you to purchase an adapter if you'd like to play video from your tablet on your TV.

Software features

Possibly the biggest selling point (other than its price) of the Tab 2 7.0 is that it ships with Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.3 to be precise) installed, making it the first Samsung tablet to do so.

Samsung's Touchwiz UI skin is of course included and comes with custom Samsung apps like Music Hub, Media Hub, and Game Hub, a built in screenshot app, and the Mini Apps tray located on the bottom of the screen. Tapping it brings up a tray of apps consisting of a calculator, notes, calendar, music player, and clock. However, the most useful of these is still the task manager, which allows you to quickly kill any app running in the background; this comes in handy when apps become otherwise unresponsive.

The basic look and design of ICS is retained, just with a Touchwiz skin and a few extra shortcuts for quickly turning off Wi-Fi, GPS, screen rotation, etc.

Toshiba Qosmio X775 Battery Toshiba Satellite Pro S500 Battery Toshiba PA3788U-1BRS Battery Toshiba PABAS223 Battery Toshiba PA3788U-1BAS Battery Toshiba Tecra A11 Battery

Peel's Smart Remote app

The IR blaster found on the Tabs 7.7 and 7.0 Plus makes its way to the Tab 2 7.0 and in conjunction with Peel's included Smart Remote app, helps turn your tablet into a remote control for your TV. Peel can take the place of your cable or satellite channel guide and display a list of shows currently playing locally on your cable or satellite provider's channels. Go to the currently playing tab and click on a show, and your TV switches to the appropriate channel. Peel does a great job of holding your hand initially through a step-by-step setup wizard. The setup only requires that you know your TV's manufacturer's name, your cable/satellite provider, and your ZIP code. Thankfully, Peel spares us from having to know any more detailed information; however, be aware that Smart Remote does not work with regular monitors and only TVs or monitor/TV combos.

Once it's set up, you can browse shows by category, mark shows as favorites, or prevent shows you'd rather not see on the list from showing up again. Thankfully, Smart Remote now syncs with over-the-air listings, but its accuracy as to which shows and channels were available to me left a bit to be desired.

Navigating the interface took some getting used to, but was easy enough to pick up; however, I took issue with the method by which cable TV screen menus are controlled by the interface. Peel went with a swipe interface that requires you to flick the screen in one of four directions to highlight different menus. While this method works and after some time could be gotten used to, I would have much preferred more-direct directional controls.

As I learned with the Tab 7.0 Plus and 7.7, Smart Remote's accuracy is very closely dictated by the information cable and satellite providers choose to release. So, while the Smart Remote guide may indicate that "Law and Order" is on right now on Channel 12, selecting it didn't always take me to the appropriate channel. In addition, sometimes the channel wasn't available to me or there was a different show on the channel at that time.

Toshiba Tecra M11 Battery Toshiba Tecra S11 Battery Toshiba Qosmio F755 Battery Toshiba PA3757U-1BRS Battery Toshiba Dynabook Qosmio V65 Battery PA3757U-1BAS

Budget troubles force redrawing of plans to Mars

Written by Alicia Chang Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Know how to go to Mars cheaply? NASA can use your help.

The space agency on Friday put out a call for ideas for the next Mars mission in 2018. The fine print: The cost can't be astronomical and the idea has to move the country closer to landing humans on the red planet in the 2030s.

The race to redraw a new, cheaper road map comes two months after NASA pulled out of a partnership with the European Space Agency on two missions targeted for 2016 and 2018, a move that angered scientists. The 2018 mission represented the first step toward hauling Martian soil and rocks back to Earth for detailed study - something many researchers say is essential in determining whether microbial life once existed there.
Financial reality

Agency officials said returning samples is still a priority, but a reboot was necessary given the financial reality.

In the past decade, NASA has spent $6.1 billion exploring Earth's closest planetary neighbor. President Barack Obama's latest proposed budget slashed spending for solar system exploration by 21 percent, making the collaboration with the Europeans unaffordable.

A team will cull through the ideas and come up with options by summer when NASA's latest mission, a $2.5 billion car-sized rover Curiosity, will land near the equator on Mars.

Toshiba Dynabook Qosmio T750 Battery Toshiba Dynabook Qosmio T751 Battery Toshiba PABAS213 Battery Toshiba Dynabook Qosmio T851 Battery Toshiba Qosmio F750 Battery Toshiba Qosmio F60 Battery

Space Shuttle Discovery Mounted Atop Jumbo Jet for Ride to Smithsonian

by Robert Z. Pearlman

NASA mounted space shuttle Discovery on a jumbo jet Sunday (April 15), in preparation for the retired orbiter's delivery to the Smithsonian. The paired air- and spacecraft are expected to depart Florida for Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning (April 17), weather permitting.

Discovery's mating to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), NASA's modified Boeing 747 jetliner, came a day later than the space agency had planned. On Saturday, wind gusts at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility set the 167,000 pound (75,300 kilogram) Discovery swaying under its lift sling, posing a risk that it could impact the Mate Demate Device (MDD), the gantry-like steel structure used to hoist the shuttle onto the jetliner.

Workers reconvened at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on Sunday, to finish retracting the shuttle's landing gear. They then raised the orbiter 60 feet (18 meters) off the ground so that the carrier aircraft could be positioned underneath. Discovery was then lowered onto the jumbo jet's three protruding attach points to achieve a "soft" mating.

Work continued throughout the day Sunday to secure, or "hard" mate, Discovery to the 747, before removing the hoist sling and backing the paired vehicles out of the MDD on Monday morning.

Laptop Batteries , Red Store , Toshiba Laptop Batteries , etc.

Toshiba PABAS240 Battery PABAS233 Battery PA3830U-1BAS Toshiba Libretto W100 Battery PA3842U-1BAS Battery Toshiba Libretto W105 Battery .