A Samsung smart watch and smartphones with bigger screens expected in Berlin

A smart watch from Samsung Electronics, an Acer smartphone that can shoot 4K video and a Sony one with a 20-megapixel sensor, plus a plethora of tablets and TVs are all expected at this year's IFA consumer electronics show.

Consumer electronics manufacturers from all over the world are once again heading to Berlin for the show, which doesn't open its doors to the public until Friday. By then, though, most of the new products will have already been announced at news conferences on Wednesday and Thursday.

Pebble E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android Samsung is expected to launch a smart watch, the voice-controlled Galaxy Gear, rumoredto allow users to keep track of calls, messages and social networks. The device will also have calorie and pulse monitors, and apps that take advantage of those features, according to media reports. The smart watch segment is being increasingly hyped, but expectations should in this case be tempered by the fact that the Galaxy Gear is a first generation device, and few vendors get everything right the first time.

The Korean company is expected to launch a new Galaxy Note too. When it launched the first phone-and-stylus combination back at IFA in 2011, the form factor had its detractors. But Samsung has managed to create a new product category, in which it now faces stiff competition from the likes of Sony and LG Electronics.

The Note's screen size has increased from 5.3 inches to 5.5 inches and is expected to be 5.7 inches on the Galaxy Note 3, with a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution. The Note 3 will have a 13-megapixel camera and Samsung is also expected to stick with a MicroSD card slot, in addition to the 32GB or 64GB of integrated storage.

The device will be powered by either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 or Samsung's own Exynos 5 Octa processor. The company demonstrated a new model of the latter in July. The Exynos 5420 has four Cortex-A15 processors running at 1.8GHz and four additional Cortex-A7 cores at 1.3 GHz. It also has a six-core Mali-T628 GPU for improved graphics performance. Compared to its predecessor, the Exynos 5420 will also be more power efficient, according to Samsung. At the time, Samsung said the processor was scheduled for mass production in August.

Any large-screened new Samsung smartphone will probably have to duke it out with the Xperia Z1 Sony is expected to launch at IFA. In an effort to differentiate its new flagship from the competition it looks like Sony is taking a note from Nokia's play book by focusing on the camera, which will have a 20-megapixel sensor. The smartphone's specification is also rumored to include a 5-inch full HD screen and a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor.

Some smartphone and tablet vendors didn't want to get drowned out at IFA, so they have already announced products ahead of the show.

From LG Electronics comes the G Pad 8.3 tablet, which has an 8.3-inch screen with a 1,920 x 1,200 pixel resolution. It is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 600 Processor running at 1.7GHz and has inherited some features from LG's recently announced G2 smartphone, including the ability for users to knock on the screen to turn on the device. With a feature called QSlide, users will be able to control "up to three different apps in one window with no interruption."

The tablet will be rolled out in North America, Europe and Asia as well as other regions starting next quarter. Prices will be announced at launch time, according to LG.

Archos also wants a bigger piece of the tablet market and will show a number of new products in Berlin. Android-based tablets in its Platinum range will be made out of aluminium and have quad-core processors and screens with resolutions of up to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels. The tablets in the new ChildPad range feature a user interface designed for children, parental controls as well as a filtered version of the Google Play app store.

The rapid growth of the tablet market has left the PC sector struggling. Vendors are looking for new ways to lure consumers into buying a PC as well as a tablet.

Acer has announced the DA241HL, an Android-based all-in-one PC that has a 24-inch Full HD touchscreen and is powered by a Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Via an HDMI connector it can also double as a display for a Windows 8-based laptop or desktop computer. The DA241HL will be available mid-October and cost from €429 (US$570).

LG, on the other hand, is hoping a screen with a 21:9 aspect ratio will help. Consumer interest in the format has increased since LG launched its first monitors last year, it said. Last week the company unveiled the V960 all-in-one PC, which has a 29-inch, 21:9 screen with picture-in-picture functionality, allowing users to browse the Internet while watching TV, the company said. LG didn't announce any details on when it will ship or what it will cost.

The TV sector is another part of the consumer electronics industry that has been struggling in the last couple of years. The addition of 3D has largely been a failure, so TV manufacturers have instead set their sights on 4K resolution sets, which have a 3,840 x 2,160 pixel resolution.

They face two main challenges -- lack of content and getting the price down to something a majority of consumers can afford. Recently, Samsung and Sony both dropped the cost of their 4K products, in Sony's case to around $4,000 for a 55-inch model.

Just like last year, all the major vendors are expected to show new 4K TVs, although it remains to been seen whether they have cheaper models in store. Rumors ahead of the show are mostly about 4K products that are out of reach for most consumers, including a 98-inch TV from Samsung.

One way to get around the shortage of 4K video content is to allow users to create their own, which is what Acer's Liquid S2 does. The device will be unveiled at IFA, and is the first smartphone capable of recording 4K video. The device has a 6-inch full HD screen and is also powered by 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor. The Liquid S2 version will be available at the end of October. Pricing was not announced.

Sony Xperia Zl C6502 White (Factory Unlocked) 13mp *Snapdragon S4 Pro* 5" Hd, 3g Fast Shipping All the World By Fedex Sony's Xperia Z1 is also rumored to be capable of 4K video recording.

IFA opens in Berlin on Friday and will continue through Sept. 11.

Denial-of-Service attacks trend to bigger scope, shorter times

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are getting bigger, but their duration are getting shorter, according to an analysis released last week by Arbor Networks.

During the first six months of 2013, the average size of DDoS attacks remained solidly over the 2Gbps, Arbor reported—something the company has never seen before.

Although the average may have been skewed during the period by the massive attack on Spamhaus in March, which reached 300Gbps at its zenith, large attacks in general have been going up too, Arbor found. From January to June this year, it said attacks exceeding 20Gbps more than doubled over 2012.

Several security experts agreed with Arbor's analysis. Michael Smith, CSIRT director for Akamai Technologies, cited two factors affecting DDoS numbers during the period. "It's just easier to do these days," he said in an interview. "You can rent a botnet for $20."

He added that a hacktivist group known as the Izz ad-Dim al-Qassam Cyber Fighters (QCF) has adopted a strategy that is also driving up the raw number of attacks and depressing their duration. "They attack multiple targets during the course of a day," Smith explained.

Not only do they attack multiple sites, but they don't prolong an attack if they don't see immediate results. "They'll move from target to target after 10 or 20 minutes until they find one they can cause an immediate impact on," Smith noted.

Attacks are becoming bigger because hackers have more resources to mount attacks than ever before, said Marc Gaffan, founder of Incapsula. "There's more ammunition for hackers in the wild which is why attacks have grown in size," he said.

New techniques have also contributed to the size of the attacks. For example, in the Spamhaus attack, hackers exploited openings in DNS servers to amplify the magnitude of their attacks on the website.

They do that by sending a request to a server with an open DNS resolver. In the request, they spoof the address of their target so when the server answers the request, it sends its answer to the target.

"When the resolver sends back the answer, which is larger than the question, it's amplifying the attacker's request," Gaffan said. "Sometimes the answer can be as much as 50 times larger than the request. So an attack can be 50 times the original firepower used for the request."

In addition to improving their techniques, hackers have also increased their efficiencies by shortening their attacks. They will hit a site long enough to bring it down, disappear into the ether, then return to take it down again just as it's recovering from the initial attack.

"When a website goes down, it takes time to bring it back up," Gaffan said. "There's no point continuing to fire at that target when it's down. You want to conserve your ammunition and fly under the radar, because the more you fire the greater the chances of someone identifying you as the source of the fire."

The technique also allows the attackers to get better mileage from their resources. "They could hit multiple targets with a single piece of infrastructure as opposed to hitting one target for an hour," Gaffan said.

Part of the reason attackers are sharpening their skills of deception is that defenders are getting better at blunting DDoS attacks. "The Internet as a whole is getting better at responding to these attacks," said Cisco Technical Leader for Threat Research, Craig Williams.

"We've seen DNS amplification shoot through the roof, but I suspect that's going to start dropping with the addition of RPZs that can mitigate queries and people getting better at closing down open resolvers," Williams told CSOonline.

Review Roundup: Get a bigger picture with an ultrawide 29-inch display

When you’re multitasking like mad, a standard-aspect-ratio monitor can’t provide enough real estate to display every open window without many of them overlapping and obscuring one another. For this reason alone, most Macworld editors and designers use more than one display. Constantly rearranging multiple browser, text editor, chat, and photo-editing windows as you search for the one you need saps productivity and invites frustration.

But using multiple displays isn’t a panacea, either. First, you need a graphics card that can meet the demands you may have for two displays. Second, multiple video and power cables add clutter to your work environment. Third—and most important—a gap between the displays is inevitable, no matter how carefully you arrange them. Even the narrowest bezel creates a blind spot as your mouse pointer crosses from screen to screen.

The new 29-inch, ultrawide displays featured here—each delivering a resolution of 2560 by 1080 pixels on a single screen—are designed to take the place of two smaller monitors. Using one longer monitor instead of two smaller ones lets you use a single connection from your computer and removes the problem of pesky bezels that break your concentration as your eyes scan from left to right across the screen. Ultrawide displays are just the ticket for productivity apps, and they’re not bad for gaming, either.

Four ultrawide displays recently passed through our Macworld Lab: the Dell UltraSharp U2913WM, the AOC Q2963PM, the NEC MultiSync EA294WMi, and the LG 29EA93P Ultra-wide IPS Monitor. Each display measures 29 inches diagonally and has an aspect ratio of 21:9. That’s much wider than the 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios you’ll find on more-conventional monitors—and of course vastly wider than the 4:3 aspect ratio that old-school displays deliver.

Each of the models I evaluated incorporates a high-quality IPS (In-Plane Switching) LCD panel that delivers a very wide range of acceptable off-axis viewing angles (an especially important feature when you’re dealing with an ultrawide display). And each screen uses environmentally friendly LED backlighting, which shortens warmup time, lowers energy costs, and reduces the quantity of damaging chemicals that eventually find their way into landfills at the end of a product’s useful life.

I liked all four displays, but one delivered more features and performed better than the others.

The Q2963PM ( ) is one of the most full-featured displays in the group, providing DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, MHL, and VGA connectivity.

Text on the Q2963PM was crisp and clean, and games and movies played smoothly; but it rendered stark whites with just a hint of yellow. You won’t want to use this display for tasks such as photo editing where color fidelity is essential.

The stereo speakers on the Q2963PM are poorly located on the left and right sides of the base, behind the center of the display. They don’t sound terrible, but they emit sound parallel to your ears instead of toward them. You’ll be happier with the audio from even the most modest set of desktop speakers.

The Q2963PM’s stand supports little in the way of ergonomic adjustment: There are no options for adjusting the height, for pivoting, or for swiveling—and it allows just a few degrees of tilt.

The Q2963PM has a lot of non-Mac related features. MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) pernits mirroring of Android devices (AOC provides the necessary cable). The monitor also supports DisplayPort 1.2 multistreaming, which allows you to chain several monitors together—as yet, Macs don’t support this feature. And AOC’s bundled, PC-only Screen+ software lets you divide your screen into multiple zones.

Dell’s UltraSharp U2913WM ( ) offers a generous amount of ergonomic flexibility, with several inches of height adjustment and a stand that both tilts and swivels.

The monitor has all of the inputs you’re likely to need: DisplayPort In, DisplayPort Out, dual-link DVI, Mini DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA. You’ll also find a handy USB 3.0 hub for connecting peripherals such as mice, keyboards, and external hard drives. Dell provides a Mini-to-Standard DisplayPort cable and a USB 3.0 cable in the box.

The U2913WM’s IPS panel afforded great off-axis viewing, with very little color shift as my eyes moved left or right from the center of the screen. Colors were saturated and looked pleasing, once I figured out how to turn off the annoying Autocolor feature that tries to optimize the screen settings according to the application being used.

Dell UltraSharp U2913WM

I found Autocolor to be a little freaky, to be honest. After looking at a test photo, I clicked a browser window—and the whole screen turned a pinkish color. When I tapped back to Photoshop, the colors returned to their prior values. On a display designed for multitaskers, having automatic color shifting turned on by default seems distinctly odd. On the positive side, text was easy to read, even at small font sizes, and movies and games played back smoothly.

When I ran DisplayMate’s black-screen, stuck-pixel test, I encountered two stuck subpixels: one blue and one red. They weren’t in the same area of the screen, and I could detect them only when running the test screen. Dell’s website has details on how it handles displays with stuck pixels.

PC-only features include DisplayPort 1.2 daisy-chaining support and the bundled Display Manager application, which lets you select zones that windows snap and expand to as you drag them.

NEC’s new ultrawide display, the MultiSync EA294WMi ( ) uses LED backlights, a high-quality IPS panel, and multiple inputs. But what sets it apart from its ultrawide rivals is its exceptionally flexible stand, which offers height adjustment, tilt, and swivel capabilities and can even pivot into a very tall portrait orientation.

NEC MultiSync EA294WMi

The EA294WMi provides five types of connections: DisplayPort, single-link DVI-D, dual-link DVI-D, HDMI, and VGA (two ports). The display comes with niceties like a four-port USB 2.0 hub and integrated speakers. The speakers sounded okay and would be perfectly fine for playing system alerts; but for listening to music, I preferred the sound from my MacBook Pro’s internal speakers.

Using various test images on both Mac and PC systems, I found no stuck or dead pixels on the EA294WMi’s screen. Text was clear and legible, colors looked accurate, and grays appeared neutral. I encountered no issues with color uniformity across the wide display.

The EA294WMi’s IPS panel, which supports a 178-degree range of viewing angles from the sides and top to bottom, enables the display look great from virtually any screen-facing viewpoint. Even when I pivoted the monitor into portrait mode, colors remained consistent as I moved from side to side of the screen.

A 29-inch ultrawide monitor in portrait orientation is extremely tall. I’m not sure who would want to use the screen in this manner on a desktop, but having the option is always nice.

The EA294WMi supports MHL, which allows you to connect a compatible Android device to the display’s HDMI port to enjoy the content from your mobile device on the big screen. The monitor doesn’t support daisy-chaining monitors via DisplayPort 1.2, but it does come with a ControlSync cable that lets you control multiple NEC monitors.

The 29EA92P ( ) has the most stylish design of the four ultrawide displays I examined. From the front, its thin black bezel looks similar to those on the AOC and Dell monitors; but the back of the case is composed of white plastic, and its edges and stand are chromelike. The stand, though attractive enough, offers a very limited adjustment options, with just a few degrees of tilt. You can’t alter its height, and it doesn’t swivel or pivot.

LG 29EA93P

Being an IPS panel, the 29EA93P provides a generous range of good off-axis viewing angles, exhibiting minimal color shift and loss of contrast when your eyes move leftward or rightward from the center of the screen. Video and games played well, colors were nicely saturated and pleasing, and text was easy to read, even at small point sizes.

The 29EA93P provides multiple connection options, including full-size DisplayPort, dual-link DVI, two HDMI ports (one of which supports MHL mirroring of an Android device), and VGA. The company provides dual-link DVI, MHL, and USB 3.0 cables in the box. Unlike AOC and Dell, LG doesn’t support DisplayPort 1.2 multistreaming on this model.

The speakers integrated beneath the front edge of the screen sound considerably better than the AOC’s built-in speakers. But you’ll be even happier with a modest set of desktop speakers.

All four of these displays performed well overall. For folks who want to use an extrawide screen to handle multimedia, the LG 29EA93P, with its decent built-in speakers, would be the best choice. The NEC EA294WMi delivers the most accurate colors and neutral grays, and can pivot into portrait mode—a potentially handy feature for work with signage. The Dell UltraSharp U2913WM is good for users who want to adjust the height and position without using risers. The AOC Q2963PM is a fine monitor, but its colors are a bit lackluster in comparison to those on the other displays, and its speakers are very poor.