At the moment there is no greetings card for Data Privacy Day, but this is its second year and 27 countries around Europe, Canada and here in America will use it as a springboard to educate and make users aware of the best way to protect their information online. As the first state in the nation to set up an office of privacy protection, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proclaimed Wednesday “California Privacy Day.”

A range of events are being held throughout the world to mark the day from panel discussions to cocktail parties and from outreach projects to seminars and workshops. With a constant barrage of reports of how cyber criminals are wreaking havoc on the internet, there is a renewed effort by privacy advocates to push for more to be done to protect consumers and to hold companies accountable for what they do with information that is gleaned from our online activities.

The year’s big photography expo, better known as PMA, has yet to kick off in Las Vegas, but Panasonic’s not waiting for March. Instead, it’s delivering an all new family of LUMIX point-and-shoots, and we’ll be breaking the whole crew down right here. The party gets started with the creation of the ZS-Series, which is being introduced with two members. First is the LUMIX DMC-ZS3 (shown above), which offers a 10.1 megapixel sensor, 25mm ultra-wide-angle LEICA DC VARIO-ELMAR lens and a 12x optical zoom. It also

If cloud computing truly is the future, then this means that we’ll likely be accessing our data from many different computers and devices–a number of which might belong to other parties. If you are like us, we get a little nervous when accessing our data on someone else’s PC–it sort of feels like handing our wallet over to a stranger for a moment. For those who tend to use third-party PCs on a regular basis–such as at Internet Cafes or libraries–one way to feel a little more protected is to use portable

When AMD launched the Radeon HD 4870 X2 a few months back, the company hinted at the impending release of another, more affordable, dual-GPU powered card aptly named the Radeon HD 4850 X2. Like the more powerful 4870 X2, the 4850 X2 would sport a pair of RV770 GPUs on a single PCB, but on the 4850 X2 they would be clocked somewhat lower and would be linked to more affordable GDDR3 memory. At the time, AMD planned to release the card at a slightly lower price point than the competing GeForce GTX 280, but it took

While we’re hardly in favor of the Senate’s approval of a four month delay on the has-to-happen-sometime digital TV transition, this is one political agenda we can definitely stand behind. Reportedly, United States lawmakers are mulling a plan that would provide tax credits for Internet and wireless companies as part of a “broad stimulus package to boost the ailing economy.”Specifically, AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile and Sprint were named as examples, though any firm with the willingness and ability to “build

T-Mobile USA has launched its new (and long-awaited) T-Mobile Shadow smartphone, an updated and redesigned replacement for the first generation Shadow. 

Rather than calling it the the Shadow 2 or Shadow 2009, as had been suggested in past months, T-Mobile has chosen to call the new smartphone the T-Mobile Shadow, the same name as its predecessor.  No points for clarity.

Built by HTC, the new Shadow runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard (non-touchscreen) and offers HotSpot@Home support, EDGE mobile data connectivity, up to 7 hours of talk time, Wi-Fi, and a microSD memory card slot.  Like the previous Shadow, the new smartphone has a downward-sliding dial-pad that pulls double duty as a SureType-style keyboard.

The T-Mobile Shadow is available in two colors: White Mint and Black Burgundy (shown). You can grab one now @ T-Mobile’s web site.

It’s not the first time a used storage device of some type has yielded sensitive information, and it won’t be the last. Chris Ogle from Whangerei, NZ (pictured) got a surprise after he bought a used MP3 player from an Oklahoma thrift store for $18. Upon hooking it to his PC, he found 60 files of military information in total, including the names and personal details of American soldiers. While it’s bad enough that the information was on the device in the first place, it’s also hard to understand why they would

It seems that we Americans could learn a thing or two from Denmark. Not only are Danish citizens amongst the happiest in the world, but they’re also amongst the most energy conscience. In a landmark deal announced today in Copenhagen, Better Place — the same outfit responsible for planning an EV network in Hawaii — has teamed with DONG Energy in order to begin deploying an electric car charging network in Denmark. The €103 million ($135.7 million) deal outlines obligations for DONG Energy to “assist

When Amazon announced today that it would hold a press conference Feb. 9 at the Morgan Library and Museum in Manhattan, the rumors started flying fast and furious, and the consensus seems to be:Kindle 2 is to be released soon.A quick trip over to Amazon.com also shows that the Kindle just happens to be “sold out.” How convenient that it isn’t likely to ship for another four to six weeks. And the last time Amazon held a press conference in New York City, it was to announce the first Kindle, several folks have

G.Skill TITAN 256GB 2.5-inch MLC Solid State Disk @ TweakTown and other reviews from around the web can be found by visiting our forums!

“The SSD market is on fire, burning faster than even the most optimistic analysts could have predicted. G.Skill has played a large role in the solid state transition with their above average products at below average costs. Not only that, but we are really starting to see SSDs become user friendly as far as capacity goes. Last year we were talking about 32GB SSDs and how the speed was very impressive, but the capacity left room for doubt. Here we are a year later and we are already seeing close to a 10x increase in capacity for drives costing the same as the 32GB drives last year.

In G.Skills latest SSD, capacity will have to just be a footnote in the overall scheme of things. The real story sits with the technology and what the company was able to do with JMicrons somewhat problematic controller. In essence, G.Skill was able to use two JMicron controllers with two separate banks of memory that work in tandem to reduce or eliminate the issues associated with writing multiple small files to the drive. I have seen the term RAID used a few times in other reviews and while the concept seems similar, it is not the case.”