Apple laptop batteries have a security vulnerability that allows a hacker to damage or brick the laptop battery to be unusable or overcharge the laptop battery to where it can potentially start a fire. Security expert Charlie Miller discovered the security risk by successfully reverse-engineering Apple laptop “smart batteries,” which has allowed Miller to rewrite the embedded controllers for the laptop batteries.

Miller discovered the security flaw with an Apple firmware update in 2009 and noticed the default password used for securing the batteries were the same. This allowed Miller to learn how to read values from the firmware and changed how the battery firmware interacts with the laptop. Miller has successfully bricked over seven Mac laptop batteries. The security vulnerability is focused on the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air laptops.

Miller plans on releasing a firmware update with a utility called “Caulkgun,” which will allow Apple users to change their laptop battery passwords to prevent a security vulnerability. The only downside is that any future Apple patches and updates for the laptop battery would be blocked.

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/231002536

http://www.spamfighter.com/News-16540-Security-Flaws-in-Apple-Laptop-Batteries-May-Invite-Vulnerability.htm

http://www.fiercecio.com/techwatch/story/apple-laptop-batteries-can-be-hacked-and-killed/2011-07-26

The release date rumor for the new Apple iPhone 5 is proposed for late September to early October 2011. The iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S are slated to be released at the same time. At the very least, there will be an iPhone 4S released this fall, and the iPhone 5 could be delayed until mid-2012.

There are a lot of rumored upgrades and features to look forward to with the new Apple iPhone 5 cell phone.

• Curved Glass Display.
• 8 Mega-Pixel Camera with a Dual-LED Display.
• A5 Dual-Core Processor.
• Worldphone Design.
• 4G LTE iPhone.
• Voice Recognition.
• Glasses-free 3D.

The iPhone 4S cell phone will also have a few possible upgrades of its own.

• Minor cosmetic changes.
• Better front and rear facing cameras.
• A5 Dual-Core processor.
• HSPA+ Support (Not exactly LTE+, but will be established as a 4G cell phone by carries like AT&T).
• Addition of Sprint, T-Mobile and China mobile carriers.

September / October is coming up fast with the new release for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S cell phone. With many Andorid powered cell phones taking up market share, Apple better come up with something good for the iPhone 5.

Sources:
http://www.slashgear.com/apple-iphone-4s-not-iphone-5-13151884/

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/171338/20110629/apple-iphone-5-ios-5-android-ice-cream-sandwich-andy-rubin-500-000-htc-sensation-evo-3d-thunderbolt.htm

American Automobile Association now offers a new type of roadside-assistance which is targeted for Electric Vehicles (EV). The new AAA truck is capable of recharging batteries for stranded drivers of electric vehicles. With Nissan, Chevy, Tesla, and other manufacturers growing in the EV market, AAA is showing interest by offering roadside-assistance in 6 major U.S. metropolitan areas for the EV program beginning later this summer. The six major U.S. metropolitan areas covered will be Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Tampa Bay, Florida.

The AAA trucks will be able to perform regular services that include traditional repairs, battery testing and jumping, tire replacements, fuel delivery, lockout service, etc. The additional EV recharging service will be able to recharge your EV in 10-15 minutes and provide a range of up to 15 miles to get you to the nearest EV charging station.

Source:

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20110718/CARNEWS/110719889
http://www.calif.aaa.com/westways/2011-05/Pages/current-cars.aspx

Buy Duracell battery chargers for cars, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles on eBatts.com.

HP has released some new toys for network administrators that include the HP R1500 G3 and R/T3000 G2 Uninterruptible Power Systems with power protection support for virtualized environments. These new rack mount UPS units are very efficient and compact providing backup power in a space constrained rack environment. The new R1500 G3 and R/T3000 G2 Rackmount comes with new firmware, auto shutdown protection software, and an optional network management card to run and maintain networking environments.

The HP R1500 G3 UPS provides maximum uptime, performance and minimal 1U rackspace during brownouts and blackouts. The batteries are hot swappable and an enhanced battery management system will provide a 60-day notification when the UPS batteries need to be replaced. The HP R1500 G3 UPS provides up to 1050 watts of power with a pure sine wave output for quality power to servers and equipment, even during electrical surges and brownouts. HP offers a 3 year warranty on the R1500 G3 UPS.

The HP R/T3000 G2 UPS packs up to 3000 watts into a 2U rackmount space to protect more servers during a brownout or blackout. Serial and USB support allows increased flexibility for UPS management and hot swappable batteries for easy battery replacement. The R1 R/T3000 G2 UPS also comes with a Tower conversion kit for high powered Tower servers and BladeSystems that are not rack mounted. HP offers a 3 year warranty on the R/T3000 G2 UPS.

Check out the Hewlett Packard Web site for more information on HP Rack-mountable UPS Uninterruptible Power Systems.

Source: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/power-protection/rackups/index.html

Find Replacement UPS Batteries on eBatts.com under the UPS category.

Focusing on an object with your digital camera can be frustrating at times when you are trying to get that perfect shot. Instead of ending up with a blob image on the digital camera LCD display, now you can just point, shoot, and focus the image later. Lytro, a new Silicon Valley company has a new light field camera that captures every light ray in the scene with a light field sensor. Instead of recording images in 2D, like current digital cameras on the market, capture everything with the Lytro light field camera.

“Light field cameras offer astonishing capabilities. They allow both the picture taker and the viewer to focus pictures after they’re snapped, shift their perspective of the scene, and even switch seamlessly between 2D and 3D views. With these amazing capabilities, pictures become immersive, interactive visual stories that were never before possible – they become living pictures.”

The great part about this technology is you can have your picture already shot, and then just click anywhere on the image to focus on the object. The demo picture below shows two different focusing points. Check out the Lytro magic image focusing demo pictures gallery.

Source:

http://www.lytro.com
http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery
http://blog.lytro.com

Find Replacement Digital Camera Batteries and battery chargers for your camera on eBatts.com.