pentax optio a40 12mp digital camera

If you are looking for a camera with more than 8 megapixels, you have come to the right place. PureGadgets presents the Pentax Optio A40 12MP Digital Camera at a fraction of the price that you would pay for a Panasonic with the same features.

The Pentax Optio A40 12MP Digital Camera has a number of features, all designed to improve the quality of the image that you take. Some of these exciting features include 3X optical zoom lens, Intelligent Zoom function, Shake Reduction technology, Sensor SR, Digital SR, and Movie SR, Enhanced Face Recognition and DivX Recording.

The Pentax Optio A40 12MP Digital Camera has a 2.5 inch LCD screen , which has a Bright mode making it easier to see the screen in low light conditions. You can get the Pentax Optio A40 for $119.99 over at Woot.

microsoft.com ie security patch

Microsoft Corp. quickly released an emergency Microsoft patch for internet explorer Wednesday to fix a major security flaw in its Internet Explorer Web browser that has permitted hackers to infect millions of computers with viruses as well as steal personal information.

Until now, the vulnerability has not led to the widespread infections common a few years ago. But an expert from central florida said it was the most serious computer-security threat in years.

The flaw, which was first discovered in China, enables hackers to infect a Windows user's computer through certain Web sites. So far, more than 10,000 Web pages have been infected, with many of them devoted to pornography and gaming. According to news reports, about 2 million computers have been infected so far.

Unlike with past viruses, the user does not have to download or click on anything, and nothing pops on the screen to announce you've got it. But once the computer is infected, the hacker has total control and access to everything, including tax records, bank passwords and Social Security numbers.

The security flaw has been characterized by microsift.com as a "zero-day vulnerability," which means it was exploited immediately after it was discovered.

Typically, Microsoft has time to respond to security flaws and releases patches on the second Tuesday of the month. This flaw was so serious that Microsoft decided not to wait.

"A zero-day vulnerability is like finding out your house is unlocked and then on the same day thieves are ready to move in and steal your stuff," Miller said.

"In a non-zero-day situation, it's like having your doors unlocked, but nobody can get in yet because you have some things protecting the house, such as dogs, and it buys you some time."

Hackers increasingly have used Web sites to infect computers for a few years. For instance, last year, the Web sites of Dolphin Stadium and the Miami Dolphins were hacked to try to infect the computers of people who visited them.

Miller said Orange County has been tracking the flaw, and so far, none of the county's nearly 6,000 PCs has been infected. When Microsoft releases patches, the county's IT staff usually take about a day or so to test patches before deploying them. But in this case, Miller said they would deploy it after just an hour or two of testing.

Alex Veletsos, chief technology officer at Orlando Health, said he was very concerned when he first heard about the security flaw last week.

"The worst possible scenario could have been that an outsider could have gotten in our network," Veletsos said. "You can cause damage to computers, bring down servers and remove key information without people knowing about it."

This is an urgent update. If you use Windows, apply this patch now.

pure digital flip ultra series f 230 camcorder

Woot just got good news to all gadget lovers out there. Today's deal is certainly an outright winner because (today only) you can get a recertified Pure Digital Flip Video Ultra F230 pocket camcorder for $59.99, plus $5 for two-day shipping. You can even pick the color you want.

In case you are unfamiliar with it, the Flip Video Ultra records VGA-quality video to internal memory, then plugs into your PC via a stowaway USB plug for easy uploading to friends, relatives, YouTube, etc. A simple built-in software makes all this possible.

The F230 model holds only 30 minutes of video, which is good enough for short-burst clips you're likely to shoot with this gadget.

And let's be honest: It's a toy. You wouldn't use this to record, say, a wedding, but it's fantastic for goofing around with friends, sharing cute clips of the kids with faraway relatives, and the like.

But because this is a refurbish item, it carries a 90-day warranty. The Flip Ultra makes for an awesome stocking stuffer, IMHO, and at $59.99 it's quite a bit cheaper than you'll find it elsewhere. These will surely sell out before the day is done.

AOL.com Mail

AOL Mail is currently one of the most searched items in the internet so I decided to discuss deeper on AOL mail. You can get a free email address from AOL now. You no longer need to be an AOL member to take advantage of great AOL Mail features such as industry-leading spam and virus protection, anytime-access on your mobile device, flexibility to work with other email clients using IMAP and more.

Why you need AOL Mail:
· Unlimited Storage - Keep important messages as long as you like.
· Access Your E-mail anywhere - Send and receive messages from your mobile device.
· Integrated Buddy List - Send friends an instant message with just one click.

What Is AOL Certified Mail?

It's the latest technology in AOL's ongoing efforts to combat spam and online 'phishing' scams

AOL Certified Mail is an industry-standard class of trusted email, designed to provide a safe and reliable way for consumers to easily identify authentic messages from legitimate commercial, nonprofit and government email senders. This additional choice in mail authentication offers much-needed uniformity, consistency and security for both AOL users and commercial e-mailers.

Yahoo's free email gets more social

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Yahoo has began weaving trendy social-networking features into its popular free email service as it vies to be the preferred launching point for Internet surfers.

Yahoo says it is providing tools that let people use its email service to build interactive communities based on friends and interests.

"Mail is the largest dormant social graph," Yahoo Mail vice president John Kremer said while outlining enhancements to the service used by 275 million people worldwide every month.

"This is the first time we are exposing that in a significant way."

A "smarter inbox" puts messages from friends or family in a separate, tabbed file so they don't get buried under mountains of spam or work email.

The inbox for the the first time lets people install third-party applications such as movie-recommendation service Flixster and blogging tools from WordPress.

Technology from startup Xoopit (pronounced swoop-it) will fetch all pictures buried in stored emails, even retrieving images from website links found in messages.

"Email is a place where a lot of people live," said Xoopit co-founder Bijan Marashi.

"Yahoo users have years of gems in old emails. There are hundreds of millions of people not on social networks, but with years of data in their email."

Marashi pulled up his three-year-old email account as an example, revealing it held 7,745 pictures.

Yahoo Mail is being infused with a "social dimension" that builds on similar features being added to the California firm's other Internet properties, according to Open Strategy director of product development Cody Simms.

Mirroring a winning move by social-networking star Facebook, Yahoo opened up its platform this year to let third-party developers create fun, hip, or functional applications adapted to its online offerings.

Yahoo wants to enhance the social aspects of its website in order to attract new people to its online services and get existing users to spend more time on its advertising-supported pages.

Yahoo claims more than 500 million users worldwide but has been struggling to cash-in on its popularity.

Yahoo isn't trying to be a MySpace or Facebook, but wants to add "the right bits of social that make sense to our audience," said Yahoo Audience Product Division vice president Ash Patel.

"There are maybe 150 to 250 million users on those networks," Patel said of the top two social-networking services. "With the billion people on the Web, that means some 800 million don't use those services."

Yahoo is aiming to give its half a billion users tools that let them better connect as a community while using its Web pages, according to Patel.

"To be a starting point in this day and age you have to add the best of the Web -- social elements," Patel said, referring to Yahoo's stated goal of being the preferred launch point for Web surfers.

"Yahoo started off linking people to the rest of the Web. It is part of our culture. It is part of our heritage."

Yahoo's move is the latest salvo in an escalating war to become the preferred base of operations for people's increasingly immersive and diverse online activities, according to Flixster co-founder Joe Greenstein.

Facebook Connect lets people link profiles to outside websites so they can flit about the Internet without straying from the social networking website.

Internet search firms treasure their slots as "default" pages set to automatically open in Web browsers.

"It is going to be a really interesting war to see where the user bases end up," Greenstein said. "My guess is we will see multiple winners by demographics. Yahoo has one of the clearest visions as a starting point."

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Source: Yahoo Technology News

The New Benz

The new Mercedes Benz



You can have it, you can buy it cheap but...

Can you drive it?

Videogame sales shine despite economic gloom: report

US videogame sales were a bright spot on November's bleak economic landscape, climbing to nearly three billion dollars, according to market research firm NPD Thursday.

Videogame sales so far in 2008 topped 16 billion dollars at the end of November and are on pace to crest 22 billion dollars for all of 2008, according to the industry tracking group.

Sales in November were 10 percent higher than the same month last year, before a financial storm slammed the economy.

"The video games industry continues to set a blistering sales pace," NPD analyst Anita Frazier said, citing research that showed videogames were "the category consumers are least likely to cut back on this holiday."

Videogame sales are up 31 percent for the year, driven by demand for titles such as "Gears of War 2" and "Call of Duty: World at War," according to NPD.

Videogames crafted for Nintendo's coveted Wii consoles made up half the top 10 best selling titles.

Wii sales in November were more than double those of Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles and more than five times those of Sony's PlayStation 3 systems.

Still, each of the rival videogame console makers "had something to brag about" in the robust sales figures, Frazier said.

Videogame sales are being bolstered by an industry trend of expanding the audience beyond "hardcore gamers" by designing offerings for families, girls, seniors, and others aside from young-male fans of shooter titles.

"Economic factors are also at play given that a video game is a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment for the hours of value it provides," said Frazier.

A freshly released "Fallout 3" videogame from Bethesda Softworks lets people immerse themselves in the roles of heroes or outlaws in a vivid post-apocalyptic Washington for scores of hours.

At a price of 60 dollars for a copy of the videogame, the cost breaks down to less than a dollar an hour for entertainment as compared with five or so dollars an hour to go to a film.

"It's clear there can be more multiple victors this generation (of consoles)," Frazier said.

"While price is certainly a strong factor, particularly as the current economic situation continues to prevail, the most important factor that will drive success in 2009 will be the line-up of compelling games that will keep consumers involved in the industry."


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Source: Yahoo News

spybot search and destroy

Spybot - Search & Destroy is a very powerful tool that searches your hard drive for so-called spy- or adbots; that is, little modules that are responsible for the ads many programs display. Many of these modules also transmit information, including your surfing behavior on the Internet. If it finds such modules, it can remove them. In most cases the host still runs fine after removing the spyware/adware.

Another important feature of Spybot – Search & Destroy is the removal of usage tracks, which makes it more complicated for unknown spybots to transmit useful data. The list of last visited websites, opened files, started programs, cookies, all that and more can be cleaned. Supported are the three major browsers Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator, and Opera.

Download your copy of Spybot - Search & Destroy here.