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After years of pleading, the fine folks over at Data Robotics finally gifted you with a Drobo NAS. They called it the Drobo FS, but we all know what the real skinny is. But is the five-bay, Ethernet-friendly storage robot really a dream come true? We've had nothing but success with it in our Time Machine setup, but as with pretty much any networked drive, we've heard reports here and there of frustrations and complications. For those who have sprung for the FS, we're curious to hear what you'd change about the setup. Need more drive bays? Would you prefer a few extra interface options? Would you make the box a little less noisy? Go ahead and get honest down in comments below -- we know you need an avenue to vent after the week you just survived, right?

How would you change the Drobo FS? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The pool of choices for WiMAX hotspots continues to expand, and thanks to the FCC, we now know of another up-and-comer. The Rover Puck -- trademarked by Clearwire and previously unheard of -- joins the ranks Sprint's Overdrive and its various rebrandings by providing pocketable 4G WiFi service. Unlike its predecessors, however, we finally have a new, more aerodynamic form factor. There isn't much to the glean from the user manual at this point, and the oft-referenced Rover website still isn't live -- a WHOIS lookup reveals it was last updated via GoDaddy on July 2008 with no other details disclosed. So, until we get some word from the official news pipelines, a plethora of external / internal photos and user manual screenshots are only a mouseclick away.

Gallery: Rover Puck user manual

Gallery: Rover Puck external / internal photos from FCC

Rover Puck WiMAX hotspot gets FCC'd, traction on ice subject of fierce debate originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Back in September of 2004, we ran a sidebar in the Dream Machine issue where a couple of editors made their predictions about what the Dream Machine of 2010 would look like. Well, it just so happens that the 2010 Dream Machine issue is on newsstands now, so we thought we'd take a look at how those predictions held up. First, the predictions in question:

So how'd we do? Well, Logan (now the Editor in Chief of PC Gamer) pretty accurately described the modern smartphone. Still, don't expect to see an iPhone on the cover of the September issue of Maximum PC any time soon. Josh Norem.... Well, the less said about his predictions, the better. We will, unfortunately, have to wait for another 90 years before we can test Will's predictions.

But Gordon's predictions... Not half bad! Being as he's right here in the office, we asked him to tell us about his predictions, and about the reality of this year's Dream Machine. Here's what he had to say:

"As some of you may know, I successfully predicted many months before the iPad launched that it would have an Apple OS, CPU, and no keyboard. 

But how did I do in my 2004 prediction of what Dream Machine 2010 would have? Let’s take a look:

Cooling: I predicted that liquid or phase-change would be standard in power rigs and I was right. I haven’t seen a high-end gaming rig without liquid-cooling. Of course, most of that is due to the hotter than hell GPUs, but the CPU also gets a lift from it.

CPU: I predicted a CPU with four cores on a single-die. Sure, I was off a couple of cores but my single-die prediction was right. That may not seem like much of a prediction now, but in 2004, a single-core 90nm Prescott was state of the art. From there Intel went to two chips on a die, but still connected to a front side bus, to dual-cores on a die and then two dual-cores in a chip. We didn’t really see the first “real” quad-cores from Intel until the Core i7 was introduced. AMD, of course, got there first.

RAM: I predicted 16GB would be the high-end with 8GB as standard. I’m off a bit. Today, I really believe that the standard enthusiast machine packs 4GB/6GB with power users running 8GB and 12GB.

HDD: OK, right on the money here. I predicted 4TB of “storage” running on “SATA III.”

Motherboards: I predicted that the BIOS would be gone by 2010 and I’m wrong – by a bit. Obviously, we’ll soon be moving to UEFI in the next 12 months so I was a little ahead of the curve.

Interface: Right on the money. The mouse and keyboard is still the premier way to game then and it is now.

Formfactor: You know, it didn’t even take more than a couple of years for my prediction of BTX being standard to proved wrong. I was wrong technically but I am right morally. I still see our clinging to ATX as irrational considering the needs of today’s computers. BTX may not be the answer but there needs to be some evolution.

But enough about today. I’ve been experimenting with overclocking to FTL  speeds using trilithium thermal grease and having returned from 2015 I can pronounce that Dream Machine 2015 will have:

CPU: a single 24-core CPU with graphics functionality.

GPU: a single multi-GPU card with a 6GB frame buffer.

HDD: Three 10TB hard drives on SATA9 and a 2TB SSD

Formfactor: ATX.

RAM: 72GB of RAM.

Don’t believe me? I’ll meet you here in 2015."

 

The Black Hat security conference attracts the creme de la creme of the security industry. This year the organizers even offered a paid live stream for those unable to make the trip to Vegas. Called Black Hat Uplink, the service carried a $395 price tag. But as security expert Michael Coates found out, the price could be waived entirely, thanks to “a combination of logic flaws and misconfigured systems which provided access to a testing login page that could be used with user credentials that were not fully "registered" (e.g. no payment received). “

Coates, who oversees web security at Mozilla, wrote on his blog that he was unable to attend this year's event and so decided to closely monitor it online. “In this process I noticed the new "Black Hat Uplink" service that would allow remote individuals access to streaming Black Hat talks from two select tracks,” he wrote.

“I identified a series of flaws that would enable the creation of an account with only providing an email address (e.g. no name, address, phone etc) and I was never asked to enter any credit card data. Odd I thought, perhaps you enter the credit card info upon your first login.” Upon completing the registration, he was faced with a slight problem: he didn't have a registration email do direct him to the login page.

“A few select Google searches and I ended up on a relatively vanilla looking login page. I have a username and a key, let's give it a shot. To my surprise the login was accepted and I was now sitting in front of the live Black Hat video stream.”

He wasted little time in contacting the event's organizers, holding off the public disclosure until they had fixed the flaw. He also revealed that Black Hat used a third-party solution for the video feed. Can't see them using the same vendor for the next event, though.

 

Every year, a wave of nostalgia comes crashing down as we make the final tweaks and finishing touches to our annual Dream Machine. Because we remember the amazing machines we built in the past, and know that the knowledge we gained and the lessons we learned directly influence our newest ultra-beast computers, year after year. So, as we wipe the sweat from our brows for 2010, we invite you to take a look back at four awesome Dream Machines of the past couple of years. Click to enlarge if you'd like to pick up some spiffy new wallpapers. Enjoy!

 

It's taken quite a bit of chasing (and Kmart stalking) this week to score Augen's $150 Gentouch Android tablet, but lo' and behold, the gadget is now in its rightful home... our home! We don't need to tell you that we ferociously ripped open the box to finally see how the Android 2.1 tablet performs, test out its touchscreen and see if it actually has access to app stores (unlike Augen's smartbook which we toyed with earlier this week). We're assuming you're just as eager to find out the answers to those questions, so hit that read more button for some early impressions as well as a hands-on video.

Gallery: Augen Gentouch 78 preview

Continue reading Augen Gentouch 78 preview

Augen Gentouch 78 preview originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple's Magic Trackpad isn't the first of its kind -- in fact, Wacom has been playing this game for awhile -- but it's the first of its kind from the cats in Cupertino, so obviously people take notice. The premise of such a device is stupidly simple: it's a laptop trackpad that lives on your desktop. Over the past few years, there have been rumors that Steve Jobs has his sights set on eliminating buttons from Apple products altogether, and this certainly feels like the next step in the plan. But does it make sense? Is this an improvement over standard input devices like a mouse or trackball? More importantly, in the age of iPads and netbooks, does anyone even need an external input device like this? We're going to try and answer those questions (and more), so read on for our full review!

Gallery: Magic Trackpad first hands-on

Continue reading Magic Trackpad review

Magic Trackpad review originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Like we said, you don't have to wait until August 3rd to get your Android 2.2 Froyo update for the EVO 4G. You can grab the update file right now from HTC's servers (via source link). All you gotta do then is move the file to the root directory of your SD card, boot the phone into recovery mode (hold the "up" button while the phone is turning on), and select apply update from the associated .zip file -- you might also have to rename the file "update.zip" and expect a few other variations in the instructions, user depending. Too much thought process for Friday evening? Feel free to take a crack at it tomorrow, or simply wait for Sprint to give your phone the head's up next week.

Update: HTC just shot us a message to clarify that this is not the final ROM version and that the company is strongly recommending not to install this. Additionally, a request has been put in to remove the file from the server, so if you still want to try at your own risk, better download now while it's still available.

Update 2: ... and now it's gone. We're sure crafty internet users can still find the file lingering elsewhere, but you won't be getting it from HTC's servers this weekend. You know the old saying, ye who snoozes, something something, tough luck.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

EVO 4G's Froyo firmware was available for download, manual install (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Sony VAIO VPC-F121GX is the fastest laptop in Sony's arsenal, but other brands will give you better bang for the buck.

The Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8100 offers an extraordinary level of capability for the price.

The Mobile Edge EVO Backpack is great for carrying around your laptop and other accessories you'll need.

Poor phishing protection. Antispam limited to Outlook and Outlook Express. Firewall displays innumerable popup queries about behavior of valid programs.

For the same price as a smartphone or multimedia tablet, the eMachines Mini-e ER1402-05 gives you a full-fledged PC computing experience.

The Asus U33Jc-A1 is an elegant bamboo-clad laptop that's eco-friendly, and durable, but is it worth the $100 premium over the U30Jc-A1?

If you're a Mac user who's more comfortable using a trackpad than a mouse, get yourself to your local Apple store and pick up the Magic Trackpad.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty returns players to the sci-fi world they've been pining for for more than a decade. It was worth the wait.

If you're looking for a light day bag and a fresh design, this backpack delivers.

Trillian could be the most feature-laden instant messaging client on earth, but is it the most usable? And is it worth $25 when the competition is free?

With a great design, stellar performance, and pretty kickass price, the Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Core i3) is the system that can convert your friend/relative/significant into a Mac-faithful.