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More news →Laptop theft did not put space station in peril: NASA
A stolen US space agency laptop containing codes that control the International Space Station did not put the orbiting lab in peril, a NASA spokesman said on Friday. The unencrypted notebook computer went missing in March 2011 and "resulted in the loss of the algorithms used to command and control the International Space Station," NASA Inspector General Paul Martin told lawmakers this week. But the US space agency insisted that international astronauts were never at risk aboard the research outpost. "NASA takes the issue of IT security very seriously, and at no point in time have operations of the International Space Station been in jeopardy due to a data breach," spokesman Trent Perrotto said. The theft was alerted to Congress on Wednesday along with 5,408 computer security "incidents" that resulted in unauthorized access to NASA systems or installation of malicious software in the past two years, Martin said. Perpetrators are suspected to include small-time hackers, organized criminal networks and foreign intelligence services. The attacks affected thousands of NASA computers and cost the agency more than seven million dollars in 2010 and 2011, he said. Over the past few years, investigations have resulted in the arrests and convictions of hackers from China, Great Britain, Italy, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Turkey, and Estonia, he said. One cyber attack still under investigation happened in November 2011, when NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California reported "suspicious network activity involving Chinese-based IP addresses," he said. "Our review disclosed that the intruders had compromised the accounts of the most privileged JPL users, giving the intruders access to most of JPL's networks," he added in testimony to the House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee. "In other words, the attackers had full functional control over these networks." To better guard against such attacks, "NASA needs to improve agency-wide oversight of the full range of its IT assets," and must encrypt more of its mobile and laptop devices, of which just one percent are currently encrypted, he said. Until then, NASA "will continue to be at risk for security incidents that can have a severe adverse effect on Agency operations and assets." NASA's spokesman said in response that the space agency is in the process of implementing his recommendations and has made "significant progress to better protect the agency's IT systems."
Divya loses her laptop
Actor Srikanth recently missed his mobile phone. He was followed by Namitha, who lost her valuable mobile phone. Now it is the turn of actress Divya aka Ramya too lost her precious belonging. The actress had lost her laptop at Chennai airport, when she was about to Bangkok for shooting a song sequence for Thoondil. Directed by Adhiyaman, Thoondil stars Shaam in the lead role. Divya was all set to board the flight, when she found out that her laptop was missing. She immediately tried to locate the laptop. But could not find it. Divya, grand daughter of former Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, is busy acting in Thoondil, Varanam Aayiram with Suriya and Polladhavan opposite Dhanush.
A Lenovo laptop that's lighter than Apple’s MacBook Air
Tradition dictates that the heavyweights in the computing world are always the ultra lightweights, which is why the Lenovo LaVie Z is such a knockout. The feather-weight 13.3-inch laptop weighs less than 2 pounds, tipping the scales at 1.87 pounds. That's more than a full pound lighter than Apple's 13.3-inch MacBook Air, which weighs 2.96 pounds. It may not sound like a significant difference, but after you've worked with the LaVie Z, the MacBook Air feels as if it's nailed to the floor. To achieve such a trim form (it’s just 12.56 inches by 8.35 inches and just over half an inch thick), the $1,499 LaVie Z is constructed out of magnesium-lithium alloy, and the display and keyboard are essentially built into the chassis to eliminate additional parts. You can pick the laptop up with just two fingers, although the backing tends to flex more than a heavier aluminum chassis. Still, it's much tougher than a plastic case (and, for the record, I haven't broken the one I'm testing yet.) In spite of the light weight, Lenovo has not compromised on the performance of the LaVie Z. Its snappy and responsive behavior running Windows 8.1 is thanks to a 2.4 GHz Intel Core i7 processor with 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB solid-state drive. Most slim laptops use the tardier Intel Core M processor, which lacks punch in dealing with photo editing software or when running multiple tasks. While there's no optical drive (most svelte laptops have eliminated the DVD player), there's more connections available on the Lenovo model than you'd see on similar-sized competitors. The LaVie Z has two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI connection, and an SD memory card slot. It also has built-in support for the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard and Bluetooth 4.0. The LaVie Z's screen is also impressive. The 13.3-inch LCD goes beyond standard HD with 2,560 by 1,440 pixels. That's just a tad fewer pixels than the Retina Display of the Apple MacBook Pro, which has 2,560 by 1,600 pixels. I found the LaVie screen's flat matte finish also eliminated a lot of annoying reflections, and it was particularly good at displaying crisp text. No product is perfect, and the LaVie Z has its shortcomings. Touch typists will find the keyboard requires making some adjustments, such as learning to avoid the backward slash button on the right side that intrudes on the space where the enter key should be. The laptop also doesn't have a touchscreen, although some people may see that as an advantage. And the LaVie Z's battery lacks the longevity one would hope for in such a tiny package. I typically squeezed just under 8 hours of life out of it, versus, say a 13-inch MacBook Air, which will last for about 15 hours. There will be a new wave of laptop introductions at the end of July to coincide with the official release of Microsoft's repaired operating system Windows 10. And there will be some attractive younger models with stunning 4K screens strutting their stuff then. But, for now at least, I'm in love with the LaVie Z, shortcomings and all.
iPad Pro review roundup: Inching closer to a laptop replacement
With the iPad Pro, Apple is still striving to make the tablet your primary computing device, according to the first round of reviews. When it was introduced in 2010, the iPad immediately became a must-have. That surge of consumer interest was fueled, in large part, by a belief that you could finally leave the decades-old clamshell laptop behind. Alas, for most, that never happened definitively. I tried for years (with every iteration of the iPad) to sideline my laptop. But here I am in late 2015 and I’m writing this on an HP EliteBook Folio 1020 laptop – not my iPad. That’s because the Elitebook has a great keyboard-trackpad, boasts a touchscreen like a tablet, and weighs under 2.7 pounds – not much more than a tablet with a keyboard accessory. Products like the EliteBook have made tablets a negative-growth device category in 2015, according to tech research firm IDC. So, will the big 12.9-inch,1.6-pound iPad Pro revive consumer interest in the tablet and finally allow you to break your ties with the laptop? Here’s what a sample of the first reviews say about the tablet. CNET: While the iPad Pro is great for certain professionals like graphic designers, it has yet to “achieve laptop-killer status,” according to CNET, which cites a lack of optimized apps and accessories (like a keyboard with a trackpad). “Right now, the iPad still can't fully replace my laptop. And it probably can't replace yours, either. But at times, it comes close,” CNET said. The review also takes issue with the high cost. The starting price of $799 is little more than a mirage after you add the Smart Keyboard ($169) and the Apple Pencil ($99). On the upside, the Apple Pencil delivers. Anyone “who draws or works with images” is going to want the iPad Pro. The Apple Pencil is “glorious” and “blows away” other styluses, CNET said. ARS Technica: This review is also not convinced that the iPad Pro will replace your laptop, as CEO Tim Cook has been insisting at almost every opportunity this week. “Even with a bigger screen and new accessories, the iPad still feels like a ‘sometimes computer,’” ARS Technica said. While the review said it’s possible to leave your laptop at home and rely only on the Pro, it’s not necessarily a satisfactory experience when you do that. That’s because the iPad runs iOS not OS X like the MacBook. “That’s true for larger things like the limited multitasking UI and the lack of a precise finger-friendly pointing tool like a trackpad,” the review said. But these limitations could be fixed later in iOS 9 or iOS 10, the review adds. “Most of [the issues] can be fixed given enough time and enough feature requests.” The review had mostly good things to say about the Smart Keyboard, which provides a good typing experience and is easy to use on your lap. The Verge: This review pretty much repeats what the reviews above say about replacing your laptop. Again, the gotcha is iOS, which is not a desktop operating system. Even the new split-screen multitasking on iOS 9 “isn’t enough for lots of the ‘laptop’ things I need to do on a daily basis,” the reviewer said. And, like other reviews, it cites the lack of a true trackpad. The Wall Street Journal: The iPad Pro or something like it will eventually be your primary computer, the Wall Street Journal review claims. “It will be your main computer in the future,” the Journal writes. In other words, as Apple improves the iPad, makes iOS more capable, and adds accessories, the laptop will quietly fade away. (It should be noted that Microsoft may have gotten there already for many consumers with the Surface Book - it’s a tablet that can be transformed into a fully-functional laptop.) The Journal had a lot of good things to say about the Apple Pencil. “Leave it to Apple to poke fun at styluses for years and then go create the new stylus gold standard,” it said. “The $100 Apple Pencil enables the best digital writing and sketching experience I’ve ever had on a tablet.”
Film like 'Manjhi' can't be watched on laptops: Nawazuddin
Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui says watching a film like "Manjhi - The Mountain Man" on a small laptop doesn't justify the purpose of watching a movie of that huge scale and depth. Interacting with journalists during the film's promotion, Nawazuddin was asked about business getting hit due to the film's leak. "All I can say is that, a story and a film like this cannot be watched on a small laptop. A story where there is a mountain and a person is standing in front of it, the depth of such a visual can't be seen on a small laptop screen. So it's my sincere request to people who have already seen the film that they come to the theatres to watch it again," he said. "The pleasure can be felt only on the big screen. The film will make you cry and laugh and crack all your emotions and that's why you should watch it on the big screen," he said. The full version of the film was leaked online a week back. Nawazuddin said Viacom 18, the film's distributors, were handling all legal matters related to the incident. Director Ketan Mehta echoed Nawazuddin's views. "The film has a huge scale and if people prefer to watch such a film on their laptops, then I don't know what to say. The experience of such a film is best felt on the big screen. All I want to say is that we have made the film with a lot of passion and now we only hope is that the film reaches the audience." The film, which also stars Radhika Apte, releases on August 21.
4 men accused of stealing nearly 1,200 student laptops
A pair of brothers and two other men have been charged with stealing nearly 1,200 laptops bound for public school students in New Jersey after investigators determined their story about a theft didn't add up. Anton Saljanin, 43, and Gjon Saljanin, 40, were due to appear in court Thursday with Ujka Vulaj, 54, and Carlos Caceres, 37, on charges including conspiracy and theft from an interstate shipment. In January 2014, the Saljanins drove a truck from New York's Yorktown Heights to Massachusetts to pick up a shipment of 1,195 Apple MacBook Air laptops worth more than $1 million that were meant for two public high schools in New Jersey, according to prosecutors. The next day, Anton Saljanin reported to Yorktown police that the truck had been stolen. Later that day, he told police he spotted the truck in a Danbury, Connecticut, parking lot, but a window was smashed and the computers were missing, investigators said. But prosecutors say the brothers' story began to unravel as investigators looked into the case. Detectives found broken glass in the Danbury parking lot but not in the Yorktown Heights lot where they said the theft occurred. Surveillance video showed the yellow truck taking a detour toward the home of a friend of the men on the night it was said to have been stolen, prosecutors said. Investigators tracked down the buyers of the stolen laptops through an Apple registry and found Vulaj and Caceres sold them to more than a dozen people for as little as half their usual $1,000 price, prosecutors said. Lawyers for the brothers told The New York Times they expect their clients to plead not guilty at a hearing. Attorneys for the other men didn't respond to phone messages seeking comment.