The move was intended to enhance security, but Matthew Garrett, a leading kernel developer believes that UEFI is bloated, buggy and even “awful” especially for Linux, just like what he said during the conference of Linux.conf.au 2012 at Ballarat. Codenamed Tiano, the UEFI reference implementation of Intel is where hardware vendors will base their UEFI implementations.

Tiano presently contains 7061 individual files which when summed up is a code of around 100 megabytes which is approximately 10 per cent of the entire size of the Linux kernel. Nevertheless, Tiano is still just the part of UEFI which is hardware-independent as it has no device drivers. When stripped out from the Linux kernel drivers, the remaining Linux piece which is device-independent is still smaller when compared to Tiano. Once compiled, a UEFI code could still be larger compared to many Linux kernels by “several megabytes.”

Garret told audience, “Files contain code, [and] code, as we all know, contains bugs. Always. So from this we can conclude that UEFI contains bugs. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, other than the Linux kernel which obviously contains no bugs at all ever.”

Accordingly, the UEFI implementations made by some vendors had very bad bugs that won’t even install Windows by means of UEFI, all the more Linux. “It indicates that nobody ever tested this code at all, ever,” added Garrett.

UEFI in secure boot mode also showed problems. In the UEFI specification, it is the hardware vendor or the platform owner who is in control of the master platform key (PK) which is used to sign software modules in the trusted mode. As a result, only one PK is available on any system leaving a possibility for problems once keys are revoked just like the hacking problems experienced by the RSA SecurID which happened in early 2011.

This is a bad situation for Linux developers as they have to allow kernels loading in unsigned modules as they can’t have the vendor’s PK sign every code. Garrett shared, “In a secure boot environment, if you have a signed kernel that loads unsigned modules, your signed kernel is effectively a signed malware loader.”

The operating system for Microsoft’s Windows gets around the problem as it has required signing of drivers for the past five years. Garrett mentioned, “Coincidentally, the UEFI-signing mechanism is completely identical to the Windows driver-signing mechanism — to the extent that the structure members start with ‘win’.”

Linux developers also can not result to building their own motherboards, become vendors and generate their own PKs as manufacturers are required (for the x86 Microsoft architecture) to allow users to disable UEFI secure boot so that they can add their own keys to the system which according to Garrett isn’t a particularly valuable solution saying, “It’s fine for enthusiasts. If you’re happy to be going into your firmware and changing options, that’s great. You’ll be able to do this.”

UEFI however doesn’t specify which key format, naming convention or firmware interface they have to be in. Garrett shared, “A vendor could require that [the keys] be in ROT-13 Base-64 … To get into secure boot [and disable it] you need to get into your firmware, which requires you to hit a key on your keyboard, we’re not sure which.”

“Once you’ve done that and got into your firmware you’re then going to need to find a menu which might be called ‘Security’, which might be called ‘Boot’, which might be called ‘Advanced’, which might be called ‘Beware of the leopard’.”

When one turns off UEFI’s primary goals, which is secure booting, they defeat UEFI’s primary goals which is to make bootkit malware impossible.

According to FXI Technologies, the device just weighs 21 grams, just like that of a bag of fairy floss. The stick also works on games consoles, set-top boxes and television sets.

Borgar Ljosland, FXI Technologies’ founder and chief executive said, “We’ve turned things upside down, eliminating the screen and delivering the power of a PC and the web to any screen.”

The device operates using Google’s Android operating system. It retails for $US200 and is expected to be available by mid-2012. The “Cotton Candy” is just one of the ways that Google lets their Android OS work on a wider variety of electronic devices, and not just on tablets and smartphones.

Wired magazine wrote, “From TVs to car stereo head units to refrigerators and lighting fixtures, it seems no piece of consumer electronics is out of Android’s reach. And, ultimately, getting Android on as many devices as possible gets Google’s search bar and services on to multitudinous screens beyond the desktop environment. This potentially means more ads served, and more revenue for the search company’s core business.”

FXI Technologies detailed the device’s specifications which were the following:
Android operating system, ARM Mali(TM)-400 MP (Quad-core) GPU, ARM(R) Cortex(TM)-A9 (1.2GHz) CPU, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and HDMI output.

The H.264, MPEG-4, and other video formats can be decoded by the device. It also has the ability to display HD graphics on any screen which are HDMI capable.

A secure FXI web portal can access the device contents and smartphones, mice, keyboards and other USB peripherals can control the gadget.

The merciless flood waters claimed another HDD supplier, Nimec. Analysts have Nimec as the main supplier responsible for producing 70% to 80% of the world’s hard drive components. Toshiba, Seagate, Hitachi and other hard drive manufacturers are preparing themselves. The worst case scenario is being expected as Western Digital and Nimec’s operations ceased.

At a report in CNET, IHS-iSuppli and DisplaySearch’s analysts are expecting for hard drive prices to increase rapidly beyond the typical inventory of manufacturers which are good for four weeks. Prices will still be manageable in the short term. After the four week period, things will get uncertain.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO acknowledged the situation and said, “Like many others, we source many components from Thailand and have multiple factories that supply these components. There are several factories that are currently not operable, and the recovery timeline for these factories is not known at this point,” last week.

“We would say that our primary exposure is on the Mac…I’m virtually certain there will be an overall industry shortage of disk drives as a result of the disaster,” Cook added.

Vivian Hung, Asus’ system business group regional head revealed the four areas the Zenbook’s development team looked hard into while still at design phase; the performance, design, transcending sound and going Green.

The Asus Zenbook is the thinnest Ultrabook on the market with front thickness of 0.28cm and 0.89cm at the rear. The Zenbook comes in silver with a concentric circle design. It is light; it uses Intel’s second generation Core processors, Windows 7 OS, Bluetooth V4.0, SATA Revision 3.0 solid state storage drive, a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, Wi-Fi (b/g/n), 0.3MP webcam, VGA and Ethernet adaptors, a sleeve and a Bang & Olufsen technology audio subsystem.

There were two models introduced to the Australian market on Friday, November 10, 2011. A cheaper model which retails at $1,399 weighs 1.1 kilos, with an 11.6-inch (1366 by 768 pixel) screen, a 4GB DDR3 RAM, a 128GB SATA III SSD, two USB ports (USB 3.0 and USB 2.0) and a 5-hour battery life. The other model worth $1999 weighs 1.3 kilograms, has a 13.3 inch (1600 by 900 pixel) screen, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 256GB SATA III SSD, an SD card reader, a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports and a 7-hour battery life.

The Asus Zenbook was unveiled while being compared to another competitors’ main ultraportable computer, the Apple MacBook Air. First was the price; the Asus Zenbook has accessories that come for free, a VGA adaptor, a LAN adaptor and an Asus sleeve. Second was the Zenbook’s coolness, emitting less that 7 degrees heat while watching a clip on YouTube connected through Wi-Fi. The USB 3.0 port is also faster when transferring data compared to other ultraportable computers’ standard USB 2.0 port.

The Zenbook also has a longer battery life compared to its competitors. Shawn Yen, Asus Australia’s notebook product manager said that the Zenbook uses a patented Super Hybrid Engine II technology. This allows battery life conservation and a battery life 25% more than other designs of the Ultrabook. It can last of up to two weeks standby time. It also has an “instant on” feature, which allows it to power on and shows the home screen below 2 seconds when in standby mode.

Asus, Samsung, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo and others have all came up with their own ultrabooks. Ultrabook computers are lighter, thinner and faster, with longer battery life. Ultrabook is a term created by Intel for a new classification of ultraportable computer which comes with a series of stringent rules to guide vendors.

Let us help you with your media file handling and ways you can download, store, manage, and access your files even across the world. Bat Tech Express can help with all the latest tech tools and more. As always we can also help with larger IT equipment leasing and sales.

A CMS Plugin
When your site has been built with a favourable Content Management System (CMS) like Joomla or WordPress you are in luck. With the simple addition of plugs in, such as WPTouch, and you can quite quickly establish a mobile website version. You can then spend the time on how the mobile version will be utilised as opposed to excessive developer costs. Generally plug ins work by ignoring larger items such as flash and Java as well as providing better navigation methods. Consider as well that plugins will especially maximise the important information to the most exposed areas and make pages such as main selling highlights highly visible.

Dedicated site
A highly customised mobile website version, although more expensive, can provide some excellent results for iPhone or iPad users.. If you don’t have a CMS and can’t utilise a plugin, a mobile website option can be created from the start and highly customised. A mobile website version will hosted as m.thewebsite.com so users can see in the URL they are visiting the dedicated mobile site. Excellent dedicated mobile sites can be tested perusing the technical innovators out of the major banks, as well as insurance companies who create the site more like a dedicated App as opposed to using a website at all.
Don’t Forget
however you go about a mobile website version, try to keep the following items in mind.
1)    Do not aim to have all the information from your main site available.
2)    Should have a link to your usual website as an option.
3)    Explain to visitors that they are using the mobile website version.
4)    Increase functionality to access important details such as contact details.
5)    Make use of handy links for phone numbers & emails so visitors can simply click to contact.
6)    Support current and possibly future devices if possible
7)    Don’t over complicate the mobile site with music, graphics etc.
8)    Thouroughly test the functionality and usability of the website.

Always keep in mind the mobile version is there to compliment your main site and increase sales conversion rates. Making it easier for mobile customers to view your latest blog RSS feed is only going to help attracting new customers. Keep in mind the 8 tips mentioned and you stand a good chance of easily achieving this goal. Additionally contact us 7 days for help as well as for new computer deals.

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