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The SIM -- that tiny card that holds your contact info and account information that you find in your GSM handset -- is a 15 x 25mm plastic card whereas the new Micro SIM (also known as a 3FF SIM) is a diminutive 12 x 15mm, about 52% smaller. Needless to say, it's not physically compatible with your current phone. This card was developed by the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) to offer things like more storage space on-chip for provider applications, increased control and security functions -- over what, we don't know -- and the new smaller form factor allows it to fit in tiny devices. Frankly, we wouldn't call the iPad "tiny" and we have absolutely no clue what justification Apple had to switch to it other than a desire to be different -- this is the company that pioneered Mini DisplayPort, after all -- but the long and the short of it is that you're going to have a hard time finding a carrier offering Micro SIMs in the short term since the GSMA doesn't appear to be actively spearheading a mass conversion.

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Even though this morning's presentation had Apple calling themselves the "largest mobile device company" in the world, apparently they're in the processor business now, too. The just-announced iPad doesn't carry any special Intel or Nvidia CPU -- it's a homecooked 1GHz chip called the Apple A4. Apple says it's designed for high performance and low power, which is probably how they got that crazy 10 hour battery life and one month (!) standby life. We guess that PA Semi acquisition was a good idea.

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All of the built-in apps on iPad were designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large, Multi-Touch screen. And they’ll work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps you can’t do on any other device.

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EA’s The Sims Studio is thrilled that The Sims 3 was named the worldwide #1 best-selling PC game of 2009*. This marks the sixth time this decade that The Sims franchise was named the best-selling PC title. The original The Sims was the bestselling PC game worldwide from 2000 to 2003, until it was dethroned by its own sequel The Sims 2, which was the best-selling PC game of 2004 and held the #2 spot for 2005 and 2006. Additionally, The Sims 3 World Adventures holds a position on the top 10 PC lists around the world.

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The furor over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego began on Thursday, January 7, when an anonymous writer or writers, referring to themselves as "Determined Devoted Wives of Rockstar San Diego employees," published a screed against the studio in a user-blog on website Gamasutra. Echoing widely-publicized complaints made in 2004 about working conditions at publisher Electronic Arts, the user-blog was entitled "Rockstar Spouse."

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Electronic Arts' support for celebrity spokesperson Tiger Woods has been unwavering since the professional golfer confessed to marital transgressions and took an indefinite leave of absence from the sport last year. However, there was some speculation about whether the publisher would be as vocal as in years past with promoting the series before the scandal blew over and Woods returned to action.

It seems that speculation was unfounded. EA Sports today officially announced Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and iPhone and launched its open beta for the browser-based PC game Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. If that wasn't vocal enough, EA Sports president Peter Moore spoke with GameSpot this afternoon about the new games, the company's ongoing relationship with Woods, and PGA Tour 11's fate on the PlayStation 2 and PSP. Rarely at a loss for words, the executive also fielded questions on his interest in the Major League Baseball license, Mark Turmell's relationship (or lack thereof) with the new NBA Jam, EA Sports MMA, and the in-limbo Grand Slam Tennis for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

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Editor: Perhaps a couple of DLCs for each mistresses....

Word on the street is that Electronic Arts is going to have a big presence when Apple gets around to unveiling its tablet computer next week. So let's take a look at some of the games we'll hopefully be seeing. While conjecture has settled on the device being little more than a giant iPhone, both in terms of input (almost entirely through the touch-screen) and its operating system, there's one key difference at play: the size of the screen.

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I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3. The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I've also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip.

3 years, 2 months, 11 days...thats a pretty secure system

Took 5 weeks, 3 in Boston, 2 here, very simple hardware cleverly applied, and some not so simple software. Shout out to George Kharrat from iPhoneMod Brasil for giving me this PS3 a year and a half ago to hack. Sorry it took me so long :) As far as the exploit goes, I'm not revealing it yet. The theory isn't really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can't post dumps. I'm hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone's KBAG.

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Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different. First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

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Looking to build on the momentum of its iPhone and iPod, Apple Inc. will unveil a new multimedia tablet device later this month, but isn't planning to ship the product until March, say people briefed by the company.

While the device's ship date hasn't been finalized and could still change, people briefed on the matter said the new product will come with a 10 to 11-inch touch screen—which would make it closer in size to Apple's line of MacBook laptops than its smart phone.

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The VR38 DETT displaces 3,799cc, uses 24 valves with variable timing on the intakes and dual overhead camshafts. With the aid of two parallel Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries turbochargers delivering a maximum boost of 17.4 PSI it develops 474 HP at 6,400 RPM and 434 Lb-Ft between 3,200 and 5,300 RPM. Each 608-pound engine is assembled by hand by a single technician per engine at Nissan's factory in Yokohama, Japan.

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According to one analyst's "supply chain sources," mass production of Apple's long-rumored "iPad" is scheduled to ramp up in February, with release to follow in March or April. So says Yair Reiner, senior analyst for Applied Technology and Apple specialist at the Oppenheimer & Co. investment firm.

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Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft and Suzuki Motor Corporation have reached a common understanding to establish a close longterm strategic partnership. A framework agreement has been signed by representatives of both companies today.

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When you use Google Public DNS, you are changing your DNS "switchboard" operator from your ISP to Google Public DNS. In most cases, the IP addresses used by your ISP's domain name servers are automatically set by your ISP via the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). To use Google Public DNS, you need to explicitly change the DNS settings in your operating system or device to use the Google Public DNS IP addresses. The procedure for changing your DNS settings varies according to operating system and version (Windows, Mac or Linux) or the device (computer, phone, or router). We give general procedures here that might not apply for your OS or device; please consult your vendor documentation for authoritative information.

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Editor: I might switch, but I'm happy with OpenDNS now.

The search giant has quietly rolled out Google Dictionary, which presents definitions and synonyms. Exactly what you'd expect from a dictionary. In addition to Google's own database of definitions, looking up a word on the Dictionary website provides a list of definitions pulled from a variety of academically authoritative sources (oh, and Wikipedia).

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Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 1 delivers improved compatibility, security, and reliability by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_17.

Please quit and relaunch any web browsers and Java applications after installing this update.

For more details on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3892

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

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With another month gone (boy that one flew by), it's time to take a look at what Microsoft Careers, a great source for scraps on future Microsoft products, had to say about Windows 8 over the last 30 days or so. This month we saw seven job postings regarding the successor to both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, each one offering a small glimpse into what Microsoft is thinking about. Before we go through them in chronological order, we should note that some of them have already been removed and others have been slightly reworded, so what you see below is the original unedited versions Microsoft first posted and which we saved until now.

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As you know, we’ve been big supporters of HTML5 for a while now and we’re excited that a lot of the features that we launched with Gears a few years ago are now making their way into the HTML5 spec in an open and standard way. To be clear, we’re continuing to support Gears so that nothing breaks for sites that use it. But we expect developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it’s a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers.

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Fudzilla claims that Intel is planning on launching three Arrandale-based processors on January 3rd, 2010. These Arrandale processors are based on the advanced Nehalem architecture first introduced into desktop Macs earlier this year, and should represent a significant performance improvement over the Core 2 Duo processors that are currently found in Apple's MacBook Pros. The three new processors will be branded under the "Core i5" and "Core i7" names and range from 2.4GHz to 2.66GHz with prices ranging from $225 to $332 in quantities of 1000. While Fudzilla describes their TDP (thermal design power) of 35W as "not so attractive", it matches up with the current high-end processors used in the MacBook Pro. This means Apple could use these processors in a new MacBook Pro update. These new mobile processors are said to eventually also come in low-voltage variants that will also make them suitable for ultra-thin notebooks such as the MacBook Air.

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Gamers could be joining in a real televised sporting event from their homes early in 2010. Real Time Race has been developing a system that places players side-by-side with the drivers in real races. The firm's technology would map the circuit just before the race so the virtual track would match up to the one on TV. The video recording of the track would then be manipulated by the gamer during live coverage. This data would then be streamed to the player's computer or straight to a television via the internet. "We can put you in your own car, within real TV coverage of a real race, and in real time against the professionals," said Chris Leigh, the company's head.

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It’s not out in the wild yet, but 10.6.2 has been confirmed to kill support for the Intel Atom processor, this is especially important for Hackintosh users who have hacked various Atom based netbooks to run Snow Leopard.

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Sony Ericsson unveiled the Xperia Pureness, a feature phone that demonstrates new concepts in mobile phone design, including a transparent display and a blank keypad that lights up when used.

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Not only will the first few months of 2010 play host to the release dates of a squadron of delayed aught-nine blockbusters, it's also when we can expect to see the recently announced, seriously embiggened DSi XL hit North American and European store shelves. According to a Nintendo spokesperson, the new model of the handheld will be released stateside (and ... union-side?) in the first quarter of 2010.

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Zinc-air batteries need oxygen from the air to generate the current. They are safer than lithium-ion batteries because they do not contain volatile materials, and therefore do not catch fire. Non-rechargeable zinc-air batteries have been available for some time, but rechargeable versions have proved more difficult to develop. The battery consists of an "air" electrode, an electrolyte, and a zinc electrode, all set in a casing that lets in air. When the battery is discharging the air electrode (with the help of catalysts) produces hydroxyl ions in the aqueous electrolyte. At the zinc electrode the hydroxyl ions oxidize the zinc, a process that releases electrons to form an electric current. During recharging the process is reversed, with oxygen being released at the air electrode.

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Probably more exciting than SATA 6G is the upcoming adoption of the new USB 3.0 specification that will greatly reduce a bottleneck in external storage that exists today on almost all PCs. USB 2.0 is limited to 480 Mbps (or 60 MB/s) and in reality very few components were ever able to go much faster than 40 MB/s on a good day. The new USB 3.0 standard runs at 4.8 Gbps (or 600 MB/s) - this is obviously a HUGE jump in performance and has the potential to make external storage a more reasonable high speed solution. Backing up a 2TB hard drive over current USB 2.0 would take about 10 hours or so; with USB 3.0 that could move to as little as an hour.

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