fat

Microsoft and Research In Motion today said they have signed a patent licensing agreement that gives RIM access to Microsoft file system technology.

That technology is called Extended File Allocation Table -- or "exFAT" for short -- and Microsoft says it optimizes files for use on flash storage, which is overwhelmingly the storage of choice on smartphones and tablets.

"Today's smartphones and tablets require the capacity to display richer images and data than traditional cellular phones," David Kaefer, the general manager of intellectual property licensing at Microsoft said in a statement. "This agreement with … Read more

DiskTune is a simple, free disk defragmentation and optimization utility from DIY Datarecovery. It's a fast, on-demand tool built upon the Windows defrag API, so it's safe but thorough. But DiskTune is no mere clone; its VSS safe-mode minimizes the tool's interaction with stored shadow copies, and its thermal monitor detects when your hard drive gets too hot and shuts down the defragmentation process. It can defragment FAT, FAT32, and NTFS volumes, so it works with a wide range of disks, too.

DiskTune's installer lets you include the program on context menus in Windows. We selected … Read more

A German court has found Motorola Mobility in violation of a Microsoft patent, according to a new report.

Judge Andreas Voss of the Mannheim Regional Court today ruled that Motorola's Android-based devices are infringing upon a File Allocation Table (FAT) patent related to "a common name space for long and short filenames," according to FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who first reported on the case.

According to Mueller, who has aided Microsoft in intellectual property matters in the past, the software giant can enforce an injunction against Motorola's infringing devices after posting a 10 million euro bond. … Read more

All fat is not equal. Brown adipose tissue, more commonly called brown fat and abundant in both newborns and hibernating mammals, is the good fat, playing a prominent role in how quickly our bodies burn calories.

Brown fat also produces as much as 300 times more heat than any other tissue in the body, according to scientists at the University of Nottingham, so these scientists have developed a thermal imaging technique to measure not only a person's brown fat stores but also how much heat that fat produces.… Read more

The world is out for your wallet, but we'll never raise our prices. That's a Wednesday Update promise!

It's been a year since Netflix got itself in a mess with a bungled price-hike announcement, followed by the Qwikster embarrassment. I sat down with colleague Greg Sandoval to discuss his report on what went wrong at the once-beloved tech company. You can read his story and catch our full interview here: The inside story of Netflix's price-hike train wreck.

Games on Amazon's Kindle Fire will be adding achievements, leaderboards and the ability to save game progress … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Fitbit, maker of a wireless clip-on activity tracker, is adding the Aria Wi-Fi scale to its lineup this April due, according to the company, to user requests.

The Aria has competition in the "smart" scale department, with the Withings booth and its very similar scales for adults and yes, even babies, just a few yards away.

But Fitbit has introduced a multiple-user feature that recognizes--out of as many as eight different users--who is standing on the scale. Think large households, dorm quads, sports teams, etc.

Priced at $129.99, Fitbit's first Wi-Fi scale can tally weight, body fat, and body mass index, and automatically uploads that info with every step on the scale to an online tool with graphs that perhaps too-handily track one's progress (or lack thereof). The online and mobile tools are free and also include weight goals and a food and exercise log.… Read more

Learning to cook is challenging enough, what with ingredients, measurements, and cooking techniques.

But there's something even seasoned chefs struggle with: timing. How do you make sure that all the dishes you're serving during your meal are ready at the time you want to eat them? You don't want your meat to get cold while you wait for your potatoes to roast. You really have to choreograph it to make sure your meal comes together. I usually just set the timer on the microwave and hope for the best.

But if you're someone who needs some help coordinating the timing of your recipes, then this is for you: the DoneRight 5-in-1 Digital Kitchen Timer. … Read more

Fatbooth will make you look fat in pictures. Intrigued yet?

Using what can only be described as state of the art technology, Fatbooth detects a face in your photos, and adds to it a disproportionate amount of chin and cheek girth. Purely meant for entertainment, not embarrassment, the app performs its singular function perfectly. It runs smoothly, is easy to use, and produces an LOL moment almost every time. Fatbooth can also run its face detection and fattening magic on existing photos from your gallery. If you want to see the before picture, just shake your phone. To fatten that … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Childhood obesity is a concern throughout most of the U.S., and yet most scales are not child-specific, nor do they take body fat measurements.

So Tanita's BF-2000 IronKids Wireless Body Fat Monitor, for children ages 5 to 17, is an intriguing concept. Just unveiled at CES this week, the monitor is set to be released in March for $150.

Company reps tell me the monitor uses alternating current signals to measure body impedance (a process known as biometric impedance) for body fat calculations. The whole process takes about three seconds for a reading.

Tanita is actually releasing … Read more