2013 iMac teardowns reveal SSD slots, soldered-in CPU in the 21.5” model

All iMacs now leave you an empty PCIe SSD slot to use if you don’t go in for the Fusion Drive or SSD upgrade, but it’s still hard to get at. iFixit Just one day after Apple quietly refreshed its iMac lineup with Intel’s new Haswell processors, the teardown artists at iFixit have pulled both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch models apart to see what makes them tick. One of our chief complaints about last year’s 21.5-inch iMac was how difficult it was to upgrade, and that remains true of this year’s model. You can still access the computer’s two RAM slots if you’re brave enough to attempt the teardown process (which includes tearing apart and replacing some foam padding), and Apple has included an empty PCIe slot on the base model where last year’s model only had an empty spot on the system board. However, the low-end iMac’s use of Intel’s Iris Pro 5200 integrated GPUs means that it uses one of Intel’s R-series CPUs, and those CPUs only come in a soldered-on ball-grid array (BGA) package. The 27-inch model proves a bit easier to upgrade: it still has four user-accessible RAM slots, still leaves people who opt out of the Fusion Drive or SSD upgrades an empty PCIe slot to use, and still uses a socketed Intel CPU for those of you who want to take the trouble to upgrade that component yourselves after the fact. Both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs were also confirmed to be using triple-antenna (3×3:3) 802.11ac configurations, meaning the iMacs will be capable of the standard’s maximum theoretical transfer speed of 1.3Gbps where the 2013 MacBook Airs used a two-antenna setup capable of 867Mbps speeds. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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2013 iMac teardowns reveal SSD slots, soldered-in CPU in the 21.5” model

Mozilla announced today that, similar to Chrome, Firefox will be blocking plugins by default in a fu

Mozilla announced today that, similar to Chrome, Firefox will be blocking plugins by default in a future version of the browser. However, most plugins will be available through a “click to allow” feature, at least for the time being. Flash will still be enabled by default. You can read more here . Read more…        

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Mozilla announced today that, similar to Chrome, Firefox will be blocking plugins by default in a fu

Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle

Live support has always been a dream for major retailers. While chat solutions already exist, today Amazon announced a new support service available on Kindle HD products called Mayday. It is a single-click, hardware-support solution that lets users work with a remote tech support representative to solve problems with their tablets. The service allows you to see the remote tech support person in a small window on your screen and also displays your screen on the support person’s computer where they can watch what you’re doing online, annotate the screen, and even tap through the interface. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said it’s like “actually very similar to having someone standing next to you” and offering tech support. The service is unique to Amazon, and the company built a full infrastructure to support it at their HQ in Seattle and on board the hardware. By compressing the video signals, they are able to send more data to the devices from tech support and allow tech support to see the data remotely. Amazon’s goal is a 15-second response time, and they will ramp up staffing around major holidays when Kindles are flying fast and furious under the Easter tree. While some may be concerned about privacy, rest assured the support person will not be able to see out of your camera, and you can mute your audio at any time. Bezos equated the experience to going into a store for tech support. “If you went to some physical store location to ask for help for your device, they’re going to see everything, ” said Bezos. More important, however, is how many people the service will help. “Are we in charge of our devices or our devices in charge of us? Getting good tech support isn’t easy, but it’s important, ” he said. The service will be available on the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets. You can read more about the service at Amazon’s Mayday page .

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Amazon Introduces Mayday, A Unique And Amazingly Useful Live Tech Support System For Kindle

YouTube debuts royalty-free music library, get your free tunes right here

If all your awesome dance-troupe videos keep getting bumped off of YouTube for copyright violation — there’s finally an answer. The video-sharing site has just announced the launch of a new audio library, with 150 royalty-free music tracks for use on your videos. You can browse the library direct from your video manager page, and sounds can be sorted by genre, mood, instrument and so on. YouTube’s even making a call out to musicians that would be interested in having their work added to the list. That dancing though? Let’s just keep that private. Filed under: Internet Comments Source: YouTube Creator Blog

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YouTube debuts royalty-free music library, get your free tunes right here

End of support for Java SE 6

​If you’re running Java SE 6, we have some news for you: Oracle stopped providing public updates to it after February 2013. Enterprise customers will still have access to long term help through their support channels. For everyone else,  you should upgrade to Java SE 7 and remove Java SE 6 – remember Java doesn’t remove older versions by default.  Malware exploiting vulnerabilities in Java isn’t new. We’ve written about Java vulnerabilities on this blog before. In fact, since July this year Exploit:Java/CVE-2013-2465 has been making the rounds and targeting Java SE 6. Oracle has done a great job of releasing Java updates to patch these vulnerabilities. However, Java SE 6 is about seven years old, and Java SE 7 was released more than two years ago. This means it’s time to think about alternatives for the aging version. While we’re talking about end-of-support software – technical assistance for Windows XP will no longer be available from April 8, 2014 . This includes the updates that help protect your PC against security risks and malware. It’s a good time to think about installing Windows 8 on your PC.  

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End of support for Java SE 6

Here’s a Leaked ‘Space Gray’ Version of the Next Full-Sized iPad

We’ve already seen a possible ‘Space Gray’ version of the upcoming iPad Mini 2 floating around and now it’s time for the big brother version to get covered in gray steel too. Read more…        

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Here’s a Leaked ‘Space Gray’ Version of the Next Full-Sized iPad

According to Forbes, Microsoft will be giving away 200 bucks of in-store credit to anyone who trades

According to Forbes , Microsoft will be giving away 200 bucks of in-store credit to anyone who trades in a used iPhone 4S or iPhone 5. Microsoft already has a standing trade-in offer for the iPad , so it’s pretty obvious that Microsoft is willing to throw money at you to get you to switch from Apple. Read more…        

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According to Forbes, Microsoft will be giving away 200 bucks of in-store credit to anyone who trades

Your Gmail Was Down Because of a "Dual Network Failure"

Over the last 24 hours, you’ve probably noticed that your Gmail has been acting a little funky. It wasn’t just you. In a blog post , the Gmail team explains the issue, saying that a rare, double-SNAFU was to blame for a widespread issue that caused significant delays in the delivery of some email. Read more…        

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Your Gmail Was Down Because of a "Dual Network Failure"

Nvidia seeks peace with Linux, pledges help on open source driver

Will Nvidia give Linus a reason to lower his finger? aaltouniversityace Few companies have been the target of as much criticism in the Linux community as Nvidia. Linus Torvalds himself last year called Nvidia the ” single worst company ” Linux developers have ever worked with, giving the company his middle finger in a public talk. Nvidia is now trying to get on Linux developers’ good side. Yesterday, Nvidia’s Andy Ritger e-mailed developers of Nouveau, an open source driver for Nvidia cards that is built by reverse engineering Nvidia’s proprietary drivers. Ritger wrote that “NVIDIA is releasing public documentation on certain aspects of our GPUs, with the intent to address areas that impact the out-of-the-box usability of NVIDIA GPUs with Nouveau. We intend to provide more documentation over time, and guidance in additional areas as we are able.” The first step was releasing documentation of the Device Control Block (DCB) layout in Nvidia’s VBIOS, describing the board’s topology and display connectors. Ritger continued: Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments        

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Nvidia seeks peace with Linux, pledges help on open source driver