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On the brighter side, Sony has teased the PlayStation 4, and it looks like we may be seeing what it looks like sooner than expected. Junction Point Shut down, Disney Interactive Layoffs Junction Point was as studio in Austin, TX that developed Epic Mickey for Disney. Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two reportedly didn’t sell well. The studio was closed, and everyone was laid off. That same day, Disney Interactive, which is the gaming side of Disney, laid off an additional 50 employees....

Note: Your display’s maximum resolution will determine how many rows you can add. I was able to add a maximum of six rows on a display of 1600 x 1024 to 1920 x 1080 and five rows on 1400 x 900 or higher. Display More Start Screen App Rows Note: As always, make sure to Back Up the Registry before making any changes to it. First use the keyboard shortcut Windows Key + R and type: regedit and hit Enter....

Price: Available now for pre-order at amazon.com Display: Seven-inch color display uses in-plane switching technology, 1024 x 768 display, capable of showing 18 million colors. Weight: 14.6 oz (for our international readers, that’s 413 grams) No System Requirements: The Kindle Fire Tablet requires no computer. Wifi Connectivity: The Kindle Fire tablet supports 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11g, 802.11n or the 802.1x standards. Support for WEP, WPA and WPA2 security is available. No support for ad-hoc (p20) Wifi as I noted above....

Avast! is one of the most downloaded free security suites available on PC, and now on Android. But I have one complaint about the avast! mobile security suite: it’s so robust, some people might find it too complicated to utilize. Other than that though, it seems pretty groovy. Let’s take a look. When it comes to Android security, Avast! is the full package deal. It features a Virus Scanner, a Privacy Advisor, Application Management, a Web Shield, a SMS and Call Filter, a Firewall and an Anti-theft utility....

Apple also fixed security vulnerabilities in iOS 10.2, which span accessibility, accounts, Find my iPhone, graphics drivers, image capture, local authentication, mail, media player, profiles, and springboard. Of note are some nasty sounding exploits that could potentially cause a denial of service from a maliciously crafted video, arbitrary code being executed from a malicious certificate, and a few holes that let people with physical access to your phone access some content without unlocking the screen....

As expected, at 1:20pm EST Apple officially pushed iOS 5 to download-ready status via iTunes. Before you upgrade you’ll need to upgrade iTunes to version 10.5 first. For instructions, read our guide on preparing iTunes for iOS5. Below are the update notes directly from Apple. Stay tuned! As the day goes on we’ll be covering these in-depth on every device; the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. This update contains over 200 new features, including the following: • Notifications ◦ Swipe from the top of any screen to view notifications in one place with Notification Center ◦ New notifications appear briefly at the top of the screen ◦ View notifications from lock screen ◦ Slide the notification app icon to the right on the lock screen to go directly to the app • iMessage ◦ Send and receive unlimited text, photo, and video messages with other iOS 5 users ◦ Track messages with delivery and read receipts ◦ Group messaging and secure encryption ◦ Works over cellular network and Wi-Fi* • Newsstand ◦ Automatically organizes magazine and newspaper subscriptions on Home Screen ◦ Displays the cover of the latest issue ◦ Background downloads of new issues • Reminders for managing to do lists ◦ Syncs with iCloud, iCal and Outlook ◦ Location-based reminders when you leave or arrive at a location for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 • Built-in support for Twitter ◦ Sign-in once in Settings and tweet directly from Camera, Photos, Maps, Safari and YouTube ◦ Add location to any tweet ◦ View twitter profile pictures and usernames in Contacts • Camera improvements for devices with cameras ◦ Double click the home button when device is asleep to bring up a camera shortcut on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation) ◦ Volume Up button to take a picture ◦ Optional grid lines to line up shots ◦ Pinch to zoom in the preview screen ◦ Swipe to camera roll from preview screen ◦ Tap and hold to lock focus and exposure, iPad 2 and iPod touch (4th generation) only support exposure lock • Photo improvements for devices with cameras ◦ Crop and rotate ◦ Red eye removal ◦ One tap enhance ◦ Organize photos into albums • Mail improvements ◦ Format text using bold, italic, or underlined fonts ◦ Indentation control ◦ Drag to rearrange names in address fields ◦ Flag messages ◦ Mass mark messages as flagged, read or unread ◦ Customize mail alert sounds ◦ S/MIME • Calendar improvements ◦ Year view on iPad and new Week view for iPhone and iPod touch ◦ Tap to create an event ◦ View and add event attachments • Game Center improvements ◦ Use personal photos for your Game Center account ◦ Compare your overall achievement scores with your friends ◦ Find new Game Center friends with friend recommendations and friends of friends ◦ Discover new games with custom game recommendations • AirPlay Mirroring for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S • Multitasking Gestures for iPad ◦ Use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen ◦ Swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar ◦ Swipe left or right to switch between apps • On-device setup, activation and configuration with Setup Assistant • Software updates available over the air without tethering • iCloud support ◦ iTunes in the Cloud ◦ Photo Stream ◦ Documents in the Cloud ◦ Apps and Books automatic download and purchase history ◦ Backup ◦ Contacts, Calendar, and Mail ◦ Find My iPhone • Redesigned Music app for iPad • Hourly weather forecast • Real-time stock quotes • Wireless sync to iTunes • Keyboard improvements ◦ Split keyboard for iPad ◦ Improved autocorrection accuracy ◦ Improved Chinese and Japanese input ◦ New Emoji keyboard ◦ Personal dictionary for autocorrection ◦ Optionally create keyboard short cuts for frequently used words • Accessibility improvements ◦ Option to light LED flash on incoming calls and alerts for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 ◦ Custom vibration patterns for incoming calls on iPhone ◦ New interface for using iOS with mobility-impairment input devices ◦ Option to speak a selection of text ◦ Custom element labeling for VoiceOver • Exchange ActiveSync improvements ◦ Wirelessly sync tasks ◦ Mark messages as flagged, read or unread ◦ Improved offline support ◦ Save a new contact from a GAL service • More than 1,500 new developer APIs • Bug fixes Products compatible with this software update: • iPhone 4S • iPhone 4 • iPhone 3GS • iPad 2 • iPad • iPod touch (4th generation) • iPod touch (3rd generation)...

So if you’re a PC owner and looking to get something new from Apple you can, as the company released iTunes 12.0.1 on Thursday. Here’s What’s New in iTunes 12 This new version of iTunes is obviously designed for OS X Yosemite which was released this week, but Windows users can update their version of iTunes too. While iTunes won our Worst Software of 2012 Award for Windows, it’s still moving forward....

I had a lot of good and not so good times with XP. When it first came out I had horrendous driver issues and not to mention multiple Blue Screen’s of Death. Service Pack 1 addressed some of the issues, but there were still a lot of holes and vulnerabilities. Service Pack 2 did a good job of shoring things up at the time, however at that point I had already switched my browser to Firefox…I had actually switched to it before it even reached version 1....

To enable this feature you’ll need to open the Options menu. You can get there by clicking the Gear button near the toolbar at the top of the Lync window. From the Options window click on Audio Device. At the bottom of the audio device window there will be an option for a Secondary ringer. This feature is disabled by default. Just check the box to enable it and select your speakers from the drop down list....

The new Asus devices announced appear to be the ideal Windows 8 scenario — Ultrabook or Macbook Air like notebook with a full keyboard, serious horse-power and a touchscreen which allows you fully leverage the new Windows 8 interface. There’s also the VivoTab RT, which is running the Windows 8 RT Edition however personally, I’m just not ready to lose my keyboard yet and if I was, I would probably just go with the Microsoft’s Surface and grab the keyboard/case combo just in case....

Originally, I was using SyncToy to keep my main multimedia library in sync with the network drive library. But for inexplicable reasons, SyncToy has been running monstrously slow ever since I upgraded to Windows 7 and Windows 8. Since Microsoft stopped supporting SyncToy about four years ago, it’s unlikely that it’ll be fixed. So, I’ve started using Robocopy instead. And so far, it works great. I can sync a folder pair consisting of my main photo library and a folder on my network drive....

If you’re new to Roku, make sure to learn all about Roku TV before you start browsing the list below. If you’re ready to start sifting through everything from old TV classics to the latest popular series or blockbuster movies, then let’s get started! Finding Free Roku Channels If this is your first time using a Roku streaming device, then you should know where to look for additional channels. When your Roku first launches, it’ll start at the Home screen, which you can see below....

Step 1 – Installing the appropriate drivers Mac or PC, OSX or 7, your tablet will not function fully just with the drivers your operating system assigned it. You should install the additional drivers that often come on a disc with your Tablet. If you didn’t get a CD/DVD, Google Search for the win. Make sure to reboot after installing the drivers as well just in case. Below – disc and disc case that came with my Wacom Bamboo tablet....

I’ve placed my bets on two well-known third-party offerings: Macrium Reflect and EaseUS ToDo Backup. Both are available in free versions with even more options than what Microsoft offers. How to Use Free Third-Party Alternatives to System Image for Backup in Windows 10 – Macrium Reflect and EaseUS ToDo If you depend on Microsoft’s System Image, File History, or Backup and Restore tools, you need to reconsider since Microsoft will be removing them in a future Windows 10 release....

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules is an all-animated movie based on the second book in Jeff Kinney’s popular book series and premieres on December 2nd on Disney Plus. Disney dropped a trailer (shown below) and key art for “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules,” which is a fully animated film based on Jeff Kinney’s popular book series. Diary of a #WimpyKid: Rodrick Rules, an all-new Original movie is streaming this December 2 exclusively on @DisneyPlus....

Things like this have happened lately to other Internet giants, like Yahoo and Twitter, but they were much more serious than it is in Dropbox’s case. Still, the company has decided to take more security measures before something more serious happens. It looks like everyone’s favorite cloud storage service has escaped almost unscathed. According to a post on the Dropbox blog, the company’s users started sending emails to customer service reps, letting them know that they were getting spam emails on addresses they were only using with Dropbox....

Wubi (Windows-based Ubuntu Installer) is a free, open-source program that will automatically set up ubuntu as a disk image on your computer. This means that you can install ubuntu on your computer, but easily move or remove it if you need to. And don’t worry, when you install ubuntu using Wubi, you can easily switch back and forth into Windows (XP, Vista, or 7) without any trouble at all. When compared to a traditional Ubuntu installation it’s relatively similar, and Wubi’s only setbacks are a lack of Hibernation mode and slightly decreased performance....

At the start of a meeting, Right Click the calendar item and Click OneNote OneNote will automatically create a new Note in your Default Notebook and Section with the main details from the Outlook Calendar Item including the subject of the meeting, attendees, time and location and any text in the invite. And because the notes are linked to the Outlook calendar item, just click the Link to Outlook Item hyperlink to return back to the calendar item....

One of the things I like about Google’s new social platform Google+ is the ease of locking down the profile information. The controls are simple to use and allow you to keep things as locked down or open as you want by specifying who (including circles) can see what field. Full the full write-up, see my How-To on BYTE.com. How-To Make your Google+ Profile More Private via BYTE.com Comment Name * Email *...

The Bad The first thing that caught my eye was what looked to be a rip-off from Opera. Take a look at the new Firefox button compared to “Opera” button at the upper left of the browser. Both buttons have the same look, but unlike Opera which has everything packed in there, Firefox has only some basic features. I assume as the beta goes gold, more will get added. It looks like they are also still working on Theme support....