Get Your Gmail Contacts and Calendars in Sync on Your iPhone

Now I know you’re thinking, “Cody, I already have my Gmail setup on my iPhone,” and you’re probably right. But if you set it up as an actual Gmail account and not under the ‘Exchange’ account profile, you might be missing out on some cool features. Setup as an Exchange account, your Gmail can automatically sync your contacts, your calendars, and even push your email! The best part is, it’s so easy, let me show you how…

Will the real anti-Facebook please stand up? | ITworld

Remember Diaspora? No, not the forced movement of Jews out of ancient Judea. I’m talking about that geeky alternative to Facebook cooked up over the summer of 2010 by four NYU undergrads.

[Diaspora: An antidote for your Facebook privacy problems and Open-source social network Diaspora goes live]

These guys wanted to create a social network that let you share your thoughts, photos, yadda yadda without, ahem, constantly changing its rules to invade your privacy. (Paging Mark Zuckerberg to a White Discourtesy Telephone.) They chose the name “Diaspora” to represent the migration of unhappy Facebook users to their new site. (Or maybe just because they liked how it sounded after a couple of beers.)

How to stop Facebook and Google trampling on your privacy rights - Don't let the bastards get you down | TechEye

Companies like Facebook and Google keep infringing on our rights to privacy. Their secretive and menacing privacy policies are ever reaching into our data, handing over the details of your life to third parties when our contacts agree, giving us little choice over who has our information.

We also have the government in the UK talking about shutting down social media in times of unrest and increasing monitoring of social networks, while the US has recently been trying to push through HR 1981, a far reaching data retention bill. Many other countries in Europe already do this, Denmark and Norway to name two, having adopted the EU data retention directive. Denmark goes further, imposing more monitoring than the directive requires.

REVIEW: Office 365 – Is it the Answer? | Geek Beat Technology News

Microsoft has needed to compete in the cloud productivity scene since Google Docs launched in 2007. Just a few years later, Google now dominates this space due to their solution’s high portability between devices, the power of its suite of tools, and its tight integration with other established Google services.

But while Google may own the cloud productivity space, in the wilds of the corporate world Microsoft Office is king. Their desktop suite is known for stability, power and ease of use. It only stands to reason that, with so many applications making the jump to the cloud and taking advantage of the benefits that it lends, Microsoft would follow suit.

The social media police: Facebook has potential as a law enforcement tool : The Kentucky Kernel

Facebook — it’s a great tool to keep in touch with friends and family. It’s useful for employers to profile prospective employees.

And now, it’s become a great tool for police departments and prosecuting attorneys.

“It’s the 21st-century version of a private investigator following you,” said Trevor Wells, an attorney with Lexington’s Miller Wells.

Wells explained that while conducting research about the use of social networking sites in court cases for a continuing legal education seminar for the bar, he found that “every couple of months the number doubled with the cases involving Facebook.”

While larger police departments and law firms use Facebook and other social networking sites to find evidence for domestic relations, gang-related, and personal injury cases, smaller PDs use the networks less aggressively.

Looks like HTML5 is gaining momentum — Tech News and Analysis

Sometimes I can’t help myself. After spending years in the trenches as a reporter, anytime I see three or more information blurbs about a technology or a company, I immediately think of it as a trend. And this time, I’m making a somewhat obvious observation — well obvious for most of our readers, at the very least — that a set of technologies collectively known as HTML5 is finally starting to gain a lot momentum, and to me, that’s a good thing.

How companies can prepare for cloud outages | TechRepublic

When Amazon Web Services suffered its high-profile cloud outage in April, the company was not prepared. Other big-name properties like Reddit and Foursquare were caught off guard as well.

While the cloud is being touted as this magical commodity that lets you store your data where you want without all the hassle, the fact is you lose a lot in control and security. You learn this lesson pretty quickly when your cloud service goes down. Smart IT managers are prepared for possible outages.

Stan Klimoff, Director of Cloud Services for Grid Dynamics, talks about how companies should prepare for cloud outages.

A Guide to Google+ Privacy and Information Control

Google+ is the new social networking kid on the block, and one of the main reasons so many people are interested in the service over Facebook is Google+'s proclaimed focus on protecting users' privacy. Whether you're a new Google+ user or you're already a pro, understanding how to control your information on the site can make you feel much more at ease on the social network. Here's the lowdown on Google+'s privacy controls, including a few of the more buried settings you'll want to know about.

Cyber defence industry enjoying boom | Crikey

Despite concerns about the impact of debt ceiling spending cuts, 2011 is shaping up as a break-out year for the cyber defence industry. Amid tightening defence budgets  and the wind-down of major operations in Afghanistan, cyber defence is a growth area, because policy makers are becoming more and more worried about the vulnerability of their governments and largest corporations to commercial and national security espionage, online activism and organised crime.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has sought to distance the National Broadband Network from an incident that had the potential to be Australia's biggest hacking attack.

David Cecil, 25, was arrested by Australian Federal Police on Tuesday night after allegedly gaining control of an internet service provider linked to the NBN.