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16GB Samsung P2 now available from Best Buy Canada

Thursday, March 27th, 2008 by admin

Harris Corp. may have nothing but good things to say about the HTC-made PDAs it’s planning to supply for use in the 2010 census, but it looks like the handhelds are already starting to cause plenty of headaches for census officials, who are reportedly even considering a return to pencil and paper if things can’t be resolved. As the AP reports, the problems start with the contract for the devices, which originally clocked in at $596 million, has since grown to $647 million, and could eventually balloon to as much as $2 billion. As if that wasn’t enough, the handheld has also apparently proven to be “too complex” for some of the temporary census workers that took part in a test last year, and the device was reportedly “not initially programmed to transmit the large amounts of data necessary.” As a result, census officials are now said to be considering a number of different options to scale back the use of the devices, only, one ,of, which ,apparently, actually, has ,the,headcounters, entering ,data, into ,’em, as, they, go ,door-to-door.

You may still not be able to get an iPhone in Canada (at least officially), but you can now at least grab a spiffy new 16GB Samsung YP-P2, which is a whole 8GB bigger than the model currently available in the US. From the looks of it, Best Buy Canada is the among the first to offer the beefed-up, Bluetooth-packin’ PMP, with it currently demanding $330 Canadian (a $40 discount off the $370 list price) on the retailer’s website. Apart from the bump in storage, however, there doesn’t look to be any other changes to the player, with it boasting the same 3-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth 2.0 support, and H.264, OGG, and WMV playback as before. Of course, it’s not very likely this’ll be a Canadian exclusive for long, though we’ve still yet to hear anything official on that from Samsung.
source:engadget

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New law makes “malicious” RFID spying illegal, corporations can do as they please

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 by admin

minotiry-report-gap.jpg

When did the practice of lawmaking require an accompanying press release issued by a professional PR firm? An embedded photo of the sponsoring state official, too? Shameless. Nevertheless, it did bring our attention to a new law in the state of Washington which prohibits “malicious” RFID spying. When the new law (said to be a first of its kind in the US) goes into effect in July, anyone caught scanning a person remotely “without his or her knowledge and consent, for the purpose of fraud, identity theft, or some other illegal purpose” will be charged with a Class C felony. Great, so that covers the obvious criminal abuse of the technology. However, the original bill also included an opt-in measure that would require your approval before retailers and others could track your activity via that handy, store-issued discount card you carry, the implant you received during that stint in the joint, new credit card, or personal ID card you’re required to carry. Unfortunately, the opt-in requirement was stricken from the bill (and therefore not in the final law) after succumbing to heavy corporate lobbying. You thinking what we’re thinking? Contact information posted in the read link below.
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source:engadget

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