News In Brief
Product Pipeline
Safe: Trekstor is now shipping its security-focused USB 1.1 Trek ThumbDrive Touch, which employs biometric technology to authenticate and verify users. Its sensor uses your body's natural electrical charge to measure the difference in potential energy between the ridges and valleys in a fingerprint, and then creates a set of data points to recognize you. Drive sizes range from 16MB for $69 to 128MB for $199, and up to three other users may be authenticated to share a drive.
Get Real: Media-savvy PC users tired of launching different applications to access RealVideo, QuickTime, and Windows Media files online can now run all those files with a single tool, RealNetworks' new RealOne PlayerPlus Version 2. In addition to playing the three popular media types (and 50 others), the software offers DVD playback and new tools for CD burning. Free to subscribers of RealNetworks' monthly $10 SuperPass service and its $6 RadioPass service, the player also is available for a one-time fee of $30.
Tidbytes
Zoom: Want to see what your neighborhood looks like from a satellite? With Keyhole's EarthViewer3D installed on your PC, type in an address and watch the viewer zoom in from outer space to just a few thousand feet above the chosen location. The images shown are built from recent satellite photographs. To use the viewer, your PC must have an NVidia graphics processor (either NForce or a GeForce2 card--or better). You pay nothing for the first 30 days, then $80 for 12 months.
Tiny: The Nomad Muvo from Creative Labs is both an ultraportable MP3 player and a USB storage device in a 1-ounce package the size of a pack of gum. A 64MB shipping unit sells for $130; a 128MB model runs $170. For storage, you slide the memory portion out of the player casing, plug it into a USB port on your PC, and watch it appear as a drive (all versions of Windows 98 require included drivers). For music, you drag your MP3 or WMA files to the drive and then plug it back into the player casing. The downside: You get only basic controls and no LCD.
Did You Know?
In a global survey of more than 225 companies, nearly one-third admitted that they may not be adequately equipped to deal with cyberterrorist attacks on their networks.
Source: Internet Security Alliance, National Association of Manufacturers, and RedSiren Technologies.
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