CrunchGear

CrunchGear

Link to CrunchGear

New chip to boost image quality of cheap TVs

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 02:41 AM PST

In case you can afford an LCD TV but not one of the good ones (I, for example, still have my Sony CRT-TV from 2004), Mitsumi Electric’s new solution might be of interest to you. The company, which is known for manufacturing controllers for video game consoles, is developing an IC chip that can boost the sharpness of images LCD TVs produce.

Once it’s placed on the image processor or the scaler chip, the so-called MRFX-0001 can boost the color, white balance and sharpness of pictures. Mitsumi says the chip automatically emphasizes flesh colors when the TV shows people or green colors when forests are displayed. The chip can be used for pictures with full HD resolution and a frame rate of up to 60fps.

Mitsumi plans to start shipping the first chips to China- and Taiwan-based makers of inexpensive LCD TVs by year-end.

Via Tech-On

CrunchGear Week in Review: Furnishings Edition

Posted: 01 Mar 2010 12:00 AM PST

Shock! Apple admits it uses factories that employ children

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 06:05 PM PST


It seems that quite a few children were discovered working in the factories where they assemble Apple products and components. Why this would come as a surprise to anyone is beyond me. Did people think Apple had a special brushed-aluminum facility surrounded by parks and fountains, where volunteer workers happily put together iPads just for the chance to be part of something magical? No, Apple is a gargantuan electronics company just like any other. I keep telling you! Hold them to a higher standard than Acer or Samsung and you’re bound to be disappointed.

The truth, as John pointed out in his series of articles describing China’s manufacturing districts, is that they’re all sweatshops of varying quality. Even 75% of the workflow is overseen correctly and employs no minors or what have you, what about the subcontracting for this piece of memory or that hinge? Can you guarantee that a fair wage was paid for that, or that kids weren’t involved?

It’s a fact of our globalized and consumer-oriented culture that we need to have stuff created as quickly and cheaply as possible. I’m not taking a position on this, I’m just saying that’s the way it is right now, and stuff like kids getting a dollar a day in Chinese factories is a consequence of it.

World of Warcraft hackers embrace man-in-the-middle attacks

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 05:00 PM PST

Here’s some troubling news for my fellow World of Warcraft players. It seems that hackers, account thieves, and other miscreants have now embraced man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks to further their evil ways. Blizzard says it’s not a widespread issue, and it’s rather difficult to pull off, but it’s something y’all should be aware of.

The deal is that WoW hackers are able to infect your PC—this is a PC-only problem, mind you, so Mac players can more or less ignore all of this—with a bit of malware that’s then able to initiate the MITM attack. The purpose of this is to intercept your login name, password, and authenticator number so that they can log into your account. Once online, they can do whatever it is you’d be able to do inside the game world: sell items, mail gold to other players, etc. They cannot, it should be noted, delete your actual account or anything like that. Still, it’s potentially devastating, selling all your epics for fast gold, then turning around and selling that gold for real money to someone else.

MITM attacks aren’t new or anything. There’s plenty of programs out there can initiate them rather easily, letting people intercept passwords, instant messages, you name it. They work in that they sit in between your PC and the server you’re trying to connect to. So, if you’re playing WoW, instead of your username and password and authenticator number going directly to Blizzard’s servers, they first go to the hacker’s rogue server, which then passes the info onto your intended server, capturing the information in the process. It’s essentially invisible to you, the end-user, which is why the attacks are so dangerous.

Blizzard has already identified the piece of malware that initiates the MITM attack, so be on the lookout for emcor.dll. Be sure to keep your anti-virus software up to date.

One final bit: the odds of you being a victim of such an attack are quite low, if only because it requires so much work for the hacker to pull off; you’d have to be hacked a the very moment he wants to break into your account, and that’s something that simply doesn’t happen. Rather, your account will be compromised on, say, Monday, but it won’t be until the following Saturday that the hacker actually access your account. And again, the worst thing that could happen with this kind of attack would be for someone to sell off your character’s items and gold, then, for good measure, delete your character—your actual account cannot be tampered with. That may be a distinction without meaning, yes.

So yeah, just be sure to keep your anti-virus software up to date, and keep your wits about you. Stay away from the shady parts of the Internet!

via wow.com

Shanzaistudios.com: The next big thing in China is “socialist” production

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 04:18 PM PST

The guys behind Shanzai.com – a blog covering the very best in China and Indian shanzai products – are taking the world of shanzai online with a new crowdsourcing site called Shanzaistudios.com

Basically, its your standard crowdsourcing model or better yet “Social Production” – the site puts up a product they can manufacture in China and everyone visiting the site gets to help form the final design that gets made and sold.

While the first product is very interesting to tablet fans (a tablet bag ‘natch) its how deep they plan to go that is exciting. While in Hong Kong, I was able to chat with one of the founders and they were telling me that ultimately this is the way to get a more personalized cellphone or a tablet device, but starting smaller and building it up is their initial goal.

Said the founders:

“Actually, we see the key to success in crowdsourcing or social production as we call it is finding the right manufacturing partners who understand the business model and have the flexibility to meet the different demands of our community. This is very different approach than mass volume production but it is one that shanzai manufacturers understand instinctively because they themselves have grown by developing niche market products in small-size lots.”

Beyond the tablet bag, they are getting into LED lighting which they have direct contacts at factories in China to manufacture and they are looking to hear what the community that grows really wants to get in to. Don’t like the JooJoo or the iPad, this could be your shot to help make the one you really want.

Crowdsourcing success is going to depend on the quality of the people in the crowd. I’ve not yet seen this work in a true social way, but sites like Crowdspring.com (for logo designs), Kickstarter.com (creative projects investments) and Local-motors.com (the design of a car) are going for it in various ways.

But in a world where the dictatorship of Apple makes the most coveted products, do we need a bunch of wanabee-Jonathan Ives try to make something for a group to buy? Can a group of 10, 100 or 1,000 agree on something they would all buy?

Who’s got Mark Burnett’s number? I’ve got a reality show to pitch him.

Quick! There’s still porn in the iTunes store

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 04:11 PM PST

Reader Dan of the UK sent us this image of the UK iTunes store, where things are a little more Cool Britannia, if you know what I mean.

As I said before, this is all about image in the US. We’re a delightfully prudish people, aren’t we?

Cat Hammock coffee table: why, you ask? Why not?

Posted: 28 Feb 2010 12:04 PM PST


The truth is that cats will make themselves comfortable anywhere. On a bed of coals, or atop Mount Doom, or hurtling through space at 99% of the speed of light, a cat will somehow find a way to curl up and doze off. So the idea of including a special place for your cat to sleep underneath a perfectly good cat bed (in this case a glass coffee table) seems redundant. But let’s be honest — are you going to let a little redundancy keep you from buying a cat hammock?

Alas, like most things worth having, the cat hammock is not real. Sure, there’s one somewhere in Japanese designer Case-Real’s warehouse, but I don’t think they’re going to let you have it.

I think I’m beginning to fall in love with Case-Real — they also designed this stunning amplifier from a few months back. Check out the other stuff on their site; maybe we can convince them to start getting it manufactured.

[via 1designperday and Geekologie]
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)