Geek News

Microsoft Unleashes New Xbox One

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:56:00 +0000

Microsoft looks to add to their presence in consumer electronics and the gaming console arena with the announcement of the new Xbox One. The new all-in-one gaming and entertainment system brings together games, TV, movies, music, sports and Skype and features many improvements over Microsoft's current market leading Xbox 360 console.

Xbox One

“Xbox One is designed to deliver a whole new generation of blockbuster games, television and entertainment in a powerful, all-in-one device,” said Xbox exec Don Mattrick. “Our unique, modern architecture brings simplicity to the living room and, for the first time ever, the ability to instantly switch across your games and entertainment.”

The console features a new processor, 8GB of memory, a Blu-ray Disc drive and 500GB hard-disk drive both HDMI in and out and a USB 3.0 ports and Wi-Fi Direct. It's based on a new architecture that combines a dedicated Xbox architecture with the Windows kernel, on which web apps are run.

Xbox Kinect also receives and update with a new 1080p camera and USB 3.0 for better data streaming to the console faster. Its overhauled system has a wider field of view, and can track more of your body's joints for better motion capture.Adding to the list of improvements is a new upgraded controller that Microsoft says has 40 new design innovations, including impulse triggers, Wi-Fi direct radio stack, integrated battery compartment and a precision directional pad.

Xbox Live is getting an upgrade, as well. To support the new cloud-based features, Xbox Live will run on 300,000 servers for the Xbox One -- up from 3,000 servers for Xbox 360.

Four blockbuster sports games from Electronic Arts will come to the Xbox One: "FIFA 14," "Madden 25," "UFC," and "NBA Live 14." "Forza Motorsports 5" is also coming exclusively to the new console and will be available at launch.

Some other highlights from today’s announcement:

Use Snap to switch between live TV, a movie, talking with your friends on Skype, or playing a game.
OneGuide will help you find your favorite entertainment with ease. You can search by network, name or time – all with the sound of your voice.
An all-new world, an all-new cast of character and an all-new story for “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” which has next-gen technical innovations built to support incredible gameplay advancements, and features all-new downloadable content debuting first and exclusively on the Xbox platform.
Blur the line between gaming and TV with “Quantum Break,” from Remedy Entertainment, which integrates drama and gameplay into a seamless, immersive experience.
Steven Spielberg is executive producing a live-action “Halo” television series, in partnership with 343 Industries and Xbox Entertainment Studios
A multiyear, landmark partnership with the NFL, which will leverage Microsoft devices and services both in-game and on the sideline.

Pricing and availability details are still unknown, with Microsoft simply stating the console with be available "later this year." Visit the Xbox Wire blog and read the press release for more in-depth features on the new system, including photos and video.

Sony Shows Off PlayStation 4 In Teaser Video

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:08:00 +0000

Details about the new Sony PlayStation 4 are still fairly sparse, however thanks to today's PSN blog post gamers get a sneak peek at the new gaming console and some of its accessories.

The short,39 second video, shows the camera slowly honing in on a blurry image of a black box amidst flashes to close-ups of the console and related hardware such as the new DualShock 4 controller and the PlayStation Eye camera. Gamers wanting to see more of the new device are asked to RSVP via an event page on Facebook. The event will be a live viewing of PlayStation’s E3 2013 Press Conference on 6/10 starting at 6:00pm Pacific Time.

To see more on the new PS4 checkout the official PlayStation page: http://us.playstation.com/ps4/

Samsung Announces $800,000 Smart App Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:52:00 +0000

Samsung Electronics has announced the second annual Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, a global app competition aimed at finding new applications and fostering innovation in the smartphone application arena. A total of 10 entries will be selected as winners, receiving a record total of $800,000 in prize money along with a variety of promotional benefits.

The challenge is open to all mobile application developers across the globe. Developers who wish to participate should sign up directly on the App Challenge website (http://www.smartappchallenge.com) and register their apps on Samsung Apps from 20^th June to 31^st August.

Contest entrants will be one category. “Smart Chord Apps,” which can be used for development of ‘Group Play’ service on GALAXY S4, a panel of judges will decide the winning entries, which will consist of 10 innovative applications which use group management functionality in interesting and experiential ways. The applicants have to use “Samsung Chord SDK” which helps developers create a group with multi-devices in real-time, automatically, requiring no manual processing of devices which join or leave the group.

Winning entrants will be rewarded with high prize money and a variety of promotional benefits through Samsung’s global channels. They will be given a chance also to be pitched their app to Samsung Venture Investment just after the ceremony for the winners.

Entry Requirements:

Apps must have English language support and may offer multilingual support that includes English.
You must submit an introduction of your app. (Click here to download the template)
All entries should be sold on Samsung Apps after May 1, 2013.
You cannot enter paid promotion apps or apps that are subject to a contract with Samsung.
If you have incorporated IAP(In-App Purchase) function, you must use Samsung IAP.
If you insert advertisements into the app, you must use Samsung AdHub.

Judging criteria will be based on the apps uniqueness, commercial potential, functionality, usability and overall design. Winning entries will be considered for investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and offered promotional benefits through Samsung Apps and Samsung Developer site channels as well as promotion through a Samsung Electronics press release. With additional promotion through Samsung Mobile, Samsung Apps and Samsung developers’ social media channels.

For more information on Samsung Smart App Challenge 2013, please visit the challenge website (http://www.smartappchallenge.com).

NVIDIA Shield Gaming Console Gets Official At $349

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:41:00 +0000

NVIDIA has finally taken the wraps off their new Android gaming console know as Project SHIELD. The gaming device was revealed at CES and took many by surprise, but today NVIDIA’s released all the details you've been waiting for.

Before today all we knew about Project SHIELD was that it was coming soon, and it would rock a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor. But the full array of details weren’t yet know until earlier today.

For $349 here’s what you’ll get:

Tegra 4 – The world’s fastest mobile processor delivers rich graphics and unbeatable performance thanks to 72 GPU cores, four CPU cores and 2GB of RAM
Console-grade controller – Precise control thanks to dual analog joysticks, a full-sized D-Pad, left and right analog triggers, full-sized bumpers and A/B/X/Y buttons
Multi-touch display – 5-inch, 720p retinal multi-touch display for high-fidelity visuals
Integrated speakers – Custom, bass reflex, tuned port audio system – we think this is SHIELD’s sleeper feature
Wi-Fi – 802.11n 2X2 MIMO game-speed Wi-Fi for game streaming
Pure Android – Latest Android Jelly Bean operating system from Google, for access to Android games and apps
There’s more – We put into SHIELD everything we would want in a premium mobile gaming device: 16 GB memory, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, a mini-HDMI output, micro-USB 2.0, a microSD storage slot, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack. See the full spec sheet, here.

SHIELD runs on a completely stock from Google, version of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and will come out of the box pre-loaded with NVIDIA’s TegraZone for a suite of Tegra-optimized games that will make the experience top notch. As well as two free games for those who pre-order. You’ll get Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode II, and Expendable: Rearmed absolutely free. This means you can connect to your Google Play account to enjoy your favorite games as well as movies, music and apps. NVIDIA plans to add NVIDIA GRID and Geforce streaming support, which will give SHIELD the power to access your NVIDIA GeForce GTX GPU-powered computer and boost the consoles gaming power through the use of grid computing. There are also plans to add streaming of your favorite PC games to SHIELD, including great titles from Steam.

NVIDIA also has a few accessories they’ll also be offering. A dedicated hard carrying case will be available for $39.99 that will offer charging while in the case via micro-USB, then they’ll have some lid covers. The aluminum silver trim when the device is closed (as pictured below) will be customizable with a gloss black, and carbon fiber lid options starting at $19.99. We can expect some custom engraved gaming versions and more coming soon too.

Project SHIELD will begin shipping in June for $349 and will be available at NVIDIA’s online store, Newegg, Gamestop and Microcenter. Pre-orders will go live on May 20^th from the partners listed above, and on shield.nvidia.com.

Source: NVIDIA

YouTube Launches Paid Channels With More Than 50 Pilot Partners

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:30:00 +0000

YouTube on Thursday announced plans to let content creators earn revenue for their offerings buy selling paid subscriptions to their videos, creating a prominent new marketplace for programming on the Internet. The new pilot program is launching with a small group of partners that will offer paid channels on YouTube with subscription fees starting at $0.99 per month. Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates.

For now the program only features about 50 of partners, with other video makers reportedly coming on board soon. Some of the current partners include UFC Select, SmartTV.com, PGA Golf Academy and PhotoGuide+. Missing from the list however, were the biggest names in media, like the Walt Disney Company and Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal. Instead there were a lot of start-ups and indie style channels.

There has been no official word from YouTube as to whether or not we can expect big media channels to climb aboard or any further details about the revenue process and what the split with content creators might be. Currently YouTube keeps 45 percent of the revenue from the ads it sells and gives producers the rest.

If you’re a YouTube creator and are interested in more details on building your own paid channel, let YouTube know here.

Adobe's New Subscription Only Service Explained

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:22:00 +0000

Today, Adobe kicked off their MAX conference with a big keynote address, at which the company announced the newest version of what will be a re-branding of their popular Creative Suite software. The new versions will be branded as Creative Cloud and will only be available on a subscription basis. That means, if you want the newest versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver or InDesign you're going to need to subscribe.

What exactly is Adobe Creative Cloud?

Creative Cloud is the new mash-up of all the Adobe professional creative desktop applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and more — plus new features and upgrades. Instead of a one time installation from your typical install media Creative Cloud offer users a subscription service that is renewed monthly. Your basic software files will be installed locally however the software will work with Adobe's online services to act as a storage and file repository giving you syncing capabilities to have access to your files wherever you are, even on your mobile device. Cloud-based services let you build and publish websites, mobile apps, iPad publications, and content for any medium or device.

Your Creative Cloud desktop applications (such as Photoshop and Illustrator) are installed directly on your computer, so you won't need an ongoing Internet connection to use them on a daily basis. You will however, need to be online when you install and license your software. If you have an annual membership, you'll be asked to connect to the web to validate your software licenses every 30 days. However, you'll be able to use products for 180 days even if you're offline.

What are the Adobe Creative Cloud pricing plans?

Right now Adobe offers two different levels one being a full suite and the other being an app by app plan. For new Creative Cloud members it will be $49.99 and $19.99 per month.

The single app full version of one desktop application $19.99/mo will offer 20GBs of cloud storage for file sharing and collaboration and limited access to services
The full suite version will the entire application catalog is $49.99/mo and offers full versions of all of Adobe's most popular desktop applications — Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and more plus full access to services to help create mobile-ready content and apps. You also get 20GB of cloud storage for file sharing and collaboration

There are also plans for teams and businesses which will offer more applications and storage or for students and teachers discounted pricing. Click here for more details on pricing.

What's New in the Adobe Creative Cloud Applications?
Photoshop. Like other members of the suite, have been updated to take advantage of the syncing mentioned above, with the ability to migrate presets and settings. It also lets users share to Behance, a creative pro social network, and save to the Adobe Creative Cloud. The CC version also adds a smart sharpen tool, the ability to use Camera Raw settings as filters, intelligent upsampling, multiple shape and path selection, and more 3D features formerly only included in the Extended edition. There is also a new feature called Camera Shake Reduction, the tool analyzes your photograph for camera motion, comes up with a path representing the shake motion, and aligns the photo pixels to remove the blur.

Illustrator, InDesign and Muse ad new fonts and new Kuler iPhone app that lets you snap a photo and tap at objects' colors to create a color swatch that can be synced to Illustrator for use as a color theme in your design project. Also in Illustrator is the new Touch Type tool, which lets you customize individual font characters by scaling and rotating them. To continue the syncing theme, Adobe Typekit fonts can now be synced.

Dreamweaver gets a new CSS visual editing tool, a new redesigned interface, JQuery UI widget support, and build support for PhoneGap, which lets you create iOS and Android apps. Edge Animate now includes motion paths, custom templates, support for an Akamai CDN, and support for swipe interfaces. Edge Reflow, which lets your site respond to different screen sizes, now has an Assets panel and Adobe Typekit integration for a huge font choice. Flash Professional CC has been rebuilt in 64-bit architecture, a new code editor, and enhanced HTML5 support.

For video geeks both Premiere Pro and After Effects feature updates. Premiere Pro updates include a simplified, redesigned timeline, a clip locator, the Adobe Anywhere collaboration server, integration of the Lumetri Deep Color engine, better closed captioning support, and precise audio control.

After Effects now benefits from the Live 3D Pipeline between After Effects CC and CINEMA 4D, an enhanced 3D Camera Tracker, and layer and mask snapping. The very cool Refine Edge tool takes a huge amount of tedium out of rotoscoping. For more detail on new stuff in the other video-related apps, including SpeedGrade, Audition, Encore, Media Encoder, Story Plus, and Prelude, read Adobe Reveals New Features in CS6 Video Apps.

For more information be sure to checkout the Creative Cloud FAQs.

Solar Plane Takes 18 Hrs To Complete First Leg Of "Across America" Mission

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Mon, 06 May 2013 02:46:00 +0000

Adventurer Bertrand Piccard piloted his solar-powered airplane called Solar Impulse from San Francisco to Phoenix on Saturday, marking the first leg of his "Across America" fuel-free flight. The flight, which would have taken less than 2/3 the time in a car, started out from Moffett Field in the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday and ended when a landing at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport at 12:30 a.m. MST.

Solar Impulse is being piloted by Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse's co-founder and CEO, and Swiss psychiatrist and adventure balloonist Bertrand Piccard who is mote noted for his record-setting, round-the-world balloon trips.

The solar only plane draw its power from its 12,000 photovoltaic cells, which soak up sunlight and store the electrical energy in batteries for use when the sun isn't shining. The plane generates as much power as a motor scooter for its four 10-horsepower motors.

Over the next couple of months, Solar Impulse is due to fly from Phoenix to Dallas-Fort Worth, then to St. Louis, then Washington, then New York. As ambitious as this odyssey is, it's just a warm-up for the venture's ultimate goal: circumnavigating the world with solar power in 2015.

Skype Shows Off Browser Plug-In For Outlook.com Calling

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:01:00 +0000

Microsoft is showing off a preview version of a new browser based Skype plugin for Outlook.com which allows users to make calls and send instant messages directly from the Outlook.com webmail. The Skype for Outlook.com preview will initially roll out in the United Kingdom and will be made available in the United States and Germany in the coming weeks. In the coming months, audio and video calling powered by Skype will be available in every Outlook.com inbox.

Skype for Outlook.com requires a one-time download of a plugin for your browser (available for the most recent versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox). After you download the plugin, simply connect Skype to Outlook.com using your Microsoft account.

Customers with an existing Skype account will be asked to link Skype and Outlook.com in a few simple steps. Just merge your Microsoft and Skype accounts and you’re off and running. This will also allow you to add all of your Skype contacts to Outlook.com contacts.

For more details on the new service checkout the Skype Blog.

Google Street View Adds Hungary and Lesotho Marking Its 50th Countries

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:55:00 +0000

Google Street View is celebrating a milestone of sorts, reaching the 50 country mark with the launch of Street View in Hungary and Lesotho. The company says this most recent update is also the largest single update of Street View imagery ever pushed, including new and updated imagery for nearly 350,000 miles of roads across 14 countries.

Google originally launched Street View in 2007 in five U.S. cities as a new Google Maps feature that showed users a 360-degree view from the streets of select cities. Today the service features thousands of cities and villages worldwide, from Antarctica to Australia, from South Korea to South Africa, from the snow-capped peaks of Everest to the Great Barrier Reef. Street View has even been updated to allow users to view things like their favorite ski slopes as well as outdoor attractions like theme parkshttp://www.geek-news.net/2012/05/using-street-view-to-preview-your.html. You can even navigate indoors with businesses sharing photos of certain locations.

In all more than 5 million miles of the world can be previewed with the newest update to Street View.

Adobe Lightroom 5 Public Beta Now Available

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:23:00 +0000

For the serious camera buffs out there Adobe's Lightroom is likely one of the many must have tools in your toolkit. However for the average geek or the beginning photographer you may not yet be familiar with the software. Today that can all change, and even better, for free!

Adobe has announced that it will be making the Lightroom 5 Beta now available as a free download at labs.adobe.com. All you need to do is have or create a free Adobe account. Simply supply a bit of personal information and a valid email, and you are in! The new release doesn't add a ton of head-turning changes like its predecessor, but it does offer a would be users some serious tools that are definitely worthy of the download time. Users will find useful tools like a more capable healing brush, new perspective corrections, Smart Previews for more efficient editing, and video slideshow creation.

You can install it on a PC running Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8, or on a Mac with OS X 10.7 Lion and later. The company is encouraging beta testers to leave comments at http://feedback.photoshop.com after downloading the free Lightroom 5 Beta from labs.adobe.com. The beta expires on June 30, 2013, which makes me suspect that we'll see the full released version around that time, if not before. Adobe has yet to release any pricing details on the new release, for now that doesn't really matter though since the beta is free.

Microsoft Teams With Lionsgate For The Hunger Games Explorer Web Experience, Internet Explorer Not Needed

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 21:57:00 +0000

The much anticipated second film in the blockbuster The Hunger Games franchise, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, is set for release November 22, Microsoft and the Internet Explorer team has teamed up with Lionsgate to bring fans a new highly interactive web experience dubbed The Hunger Games Explorer.

The first trailer for “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” has been added to YouTube after premiering during last night’s telecast of the MTV Movie Awards. Following that launch Lionsgate debuted the new new site which features a customizable fan experience allowing visitors to tailor and filter content which includes fan blogs and tweets along side official content straight from Lionsgate, including trailers, exclusive videos, photos of the cast and more.

“We have the best fans in the world, and starting tonight they have a home on the web where they can be a part of The Hunger Games experience and contribute to the excitement for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” said Danielle De Palma, senior vice president digital marketing, Lionsgate. “The Hunger Games Explorer is not only a place for fans to spark the conversation around Catching Fire, it is also a destination for us to continue to provide fans with new content, experiences and unprecedented behind the scenes access.”

The Hunger Games Explorer site showcases a responsive web design, multi-touch and HTML5, meant to promote Windows 8 with IE10, as well as other modern platforms across the web. However Internet Explorer is not needed to explore the site. It runs perfectly flawlessly with both Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers.

Facebook Home Now Available, Looks Like A Security And Privacy Nightmare

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 23:07:00 +0000

Facebook's newly introduced Facebook Home UI for Android is now available for those owners of the HTC First, HTC One X, HTC One X+, the Samsung Galaxy S III and the Samsung Galaxy Note II. The new Android launcher aims to bring a more "people-centric" view to your device and offers several changes and a more Facebook centric experience to Android.

For those that haven't had a chance to review the feature of the new app here is a quick rundown of what to expect. When you turn on a phone running Facebook Home, the lock screen and the home screen default to something called Cover feed. Cover feed is a running steeam from your News Feed, complete with post and images showing what your friends are currently sharing on their Facebook profiles. You will also see push notifications. These include updates from Facebook and other apps on your home screen. You can choose to move notifications away until you want to access them later or you can flick them away from view.

In addition to the Facebook centric side of the launcher you'll see a new app launcher that overwrites your standard view. From your profile bubble you'll be able to launch your phones apps, Facebook apps or even the messenger app.

Facebook Home Security and Privacy

When it was initially announced Facebook home faced sever scrutiny over privacy concerns, prompting Facebook to issue a response. This response however is very short sided and doesn't address any on device concerns. It more or less only address your concerns about how and what Facebook shares. The major concern should be with how the app handles security on the device, which is very poorly.

I download the app today and ran it on my Galaxy S III. Immediately I noticed you don't need to unlock the screen to see any of my friends or their posts. I re-adjusted my setting only to see that even with the highest level of protection my GS III offers (password), anyone with access to my phone did so in a totally unlocked state. This means not only can they see and comment on my Facebook (or my friends) they had total access to my personal info on my phone. COMPLETE CONTROL!

Needs to say I un-installed it as soon as I could! If you want to try to give it a go and see what I'm talking about for yourself visit the Google Play store.

Samsung Experience Shops Coming To Best Buy

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:51:00 +0000

Best Buy brick and mortar shoppers will soon see something new, a Samsung branded "Experience Shop" in the aisles at select Best Buy locations.

Samsung and Best Buy have announced the opening of Samsung Experience Shops in 1,400 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile specialty stores across the U.S. These shops within a shop will allow customers to explore, purchase, activate, and receive service on a wide range of Samsung devices including mobile products, laptops, cameras TV and accessories.

The SES stores are going to feature Samsung Employees, specifically trained and equipped to handle Samsung specific questions. The stores will stock and support a full range of mobile products, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, connected cameras, and accessories, all available in a single location within Best Buy.

"Samsung has been delivering the latest innovation across the consumer electronics category for some time," said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Telecommunications America. "With the Samsung Experience Shops, we are ensuring consumers get the most of that innovation by learning how to leverage their mobile devices across our ecosystem of consumer electronics. Consumers will have one place to not only explore and learn about our full portfolio of mobile products, but also the support of a Samsung expert to help with selecting and servicing them. This will truly be a unique mobile shopping experience."

These specialized shops will vary in size, the largest being around 460 square feet. Larger shops will showcase a "Samsung Connected Solutions" area to demonstrate Samsung devices being connected to and sharing content with each other.

You can find more details, as well as location information on the Samsung Experience BestBuy.com landing page.

European Regulators Investigating Google Over Privacy Concerns

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:31:00 +0000

Google may soon be facing a new legal threat from across the pond as regulators from six European countries launch investigations over online data protection and privacy concerns.

Authorities in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.K. have voiced concerns over privacy policy changes Google enacted back in 2012. So far the search giant has refusing to reverse changes to its privacy policies leading regulators to take potential action which resulted int he regulators resolving to conduct investigations or inspections of Google's privacy policy. The precise nature of the actions will depend on how the European Data Protection Directive has been transposed in their respective national laws, however it could result in stiff penalties and fines. There is even the potential for regulators to sue to block Google from operating in Europe.

After the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL) investigation concluded in October, CNIL said in a statement on Tuesday that "the EU Data protection authorities asked Google to comply with their recommendations within four months," . "After this period has expired, Google has not implemented any significant compliance measures."

The agencies complained that Google was not doing enough to comply with EU regulations and have stonewalled the agencies requests for over a year about their concerns that its unification of more than 60 separate privacy policies last year could confuse users and leave them unsure how their data was being used.

"We put our concerns to Google [in October] and gave them a date to respond," said a spokesperson for the ICO. "They failed to respond. We had a meeting in March and Google was present, and gave them a deadline to respond. They failed to respond. Google has failed to address the concerns or take on board the recommendations from the meeting held last month."

The UK's information commissioner's office (ICO) can levy fines of up to £500,000 ($756,400) for breaches of the Data Protection Act. A decision is expected by summer 2013.

April Fools Day Around The Web

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:09:00 +0000

April Fools day always marks a great day for tech geeks. Most of our favorite sites come up with some often unique, often surprising, and occasionally scary ideas. Aprils Fools 2013 has been no different.

Here are a few of our favorites:

Google: The search engine giant always comes up with some unique pranks. This year they told us YouTube was an eight year long contest and would be shutting down. Sunday morning, the day before April Fool's, YouTube posted a post titled, "YouTube's ready to select a winner." In it, employees from YouTube explain that, starting at midnight tonight, the site will go offline. They'll then begin narrowing down the best video, with a winner announced when YouTube goes back online in -- wait for it -- 2023.

"We're so close to the end," explains YouTube's "Competition Director," Tim Liston, in the video's opening scene. "Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries. After eight amazing years, it is finally time to review everything that has been uploaded to our site and begin the process of selecting a winner."

They followed that up with Google Nose a new service in beta that “leverages new and existing technologies to offer the sharpest olfactory experience available”.

SwiftKey: The popular smartphone add-on introduced SwiftKey Tilt, described as a “whole-body typing experience” by the company. SwiftKey Tilt works by using a pinball that moves across the keyboard, using the smartphone’s accelerometer. The accelerometer is targeted by the user’s moves, and when the pinball hits a prediction, you get a word.

Twitter: The popular social media site has has announced it will no longer allow the use of vowels in tweets. The service says that by eliminating vowels, they are helping users to a "more efficient, and 'dense' form of communication."

Mozilla Offering Free Firefox OS Phone Workshops To Developers

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:50:00 +0000

App developers looking to expand their reach to the newly announced Firefox OS have a have chance to attend a recently announced workshop series designed to help spark interest in app development for the forthcoming Firefox OS. As part of the program Mozilla is offering a chance to get hands-on access to Firefox OS devs, as well as Firefox OS Developer Preview hardware.

Workshops will be taking place in Madrid, Spain on April 20th, Bogota, Columbia on May 18th and Warsaw, Poland on June 1st. All applicants must go through an application process, in which interested developers must demo their skills to gain access to Firefox OS Developer Preview hardware.

Mozilla states that space is limited to these workshops, although an official number of how many developers will be let in has been provided. This move could bode well for Firefox, and possibly give the Firefox OS a chance against Android and iOS when it hits the U.S. in 2014.

What The Workshops Will Offer

A great place to hack.
Hands-on help from Firefox OS developers.
Food, drink and demos. And t-shirts, of course.
More code, less talk.
Firefox OS Developer Preview phones, really!

How to Prepare

There’s more than one way to start building Firefox apps. Here are a few resources to get you started:

Firefox OS Quick Start
Getting started with Open Web Apps – why and how
Using WebAPIs to make the web layer more capable
Introducing Web Activities
What is a FirefoxOS App anyways? (video introduction)
Learn about the latest Firefox OS Simulator
Read the docs: Creating Apps for Firefox OS

For those interested fill out the Firefox OS Workshop application form.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Is More About The Software Than The Hardware

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:50:00 +0000

During tonight's hour long "Un-Packed" Galaxy S4 announcement event one trend was quite clear, Samsung's goal was to highlight the software much more than the hardware. In fact most of the show was wrapped around the many new software features while largely ignoring the hardware side of things.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is now official, and it certainly looks quite impressive. The new smartphone features a full HD 5-inch AMOLED display with 441ppi, a 1.9GHz Quad core Qualcomm S4 Pro or 1.6GHz Octo-core Exynos 5 processor, 2GB of RAM, either 16, 32 or 64GB of storage and a 13MP rear and 2MP front cam. Topping things off are Wi-Fi in the forms of a/b/g/n and yes the new ac standard, 3 and 4g with LTE, NFC, microSD, a removable 2600 mAh battery and possibly one of the coolest features and IR blaster for use as a remote controle. On the software side you'll see Andriod 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box – obviously it will still be rocking the TouchWiz UI on-top, but that looks slightly updated. (full specs here)

Impressive features to say the least, yet hardly noticeable amongst Samsung announcement. The details of the hardware improvements could easily have been overlooked and were, at least in my eyes, largely overshadowed by Samsung's array of software features that will be found on the new S4.

Features such as a new S-Translator, which provides instant translation, using text or voice translation on applications including email, text message and ChatON. This instant translation is possible both from speech to text and text to speech. Two new features that grabbed attention were the Samsung Smart Pause and Samsung Smart Scroll. Smart Pause enables you to control the screen by where you look. When you are watching a video, the video pauses when you look away then it starts right up again when you are back. Smart Scroll allows you to scroll the browser or emails up and down without touching the screen. It recognizes your face looking at the screen and movement of your wrist and then scroll the pages up or down accordingly.

One of the highly speculated features that made its debut was ‘Air View’, which much the the S-Pen on the Note II allows users to hover with their fingers to preview the content of an email, S Planner, image gallery or video without having to open it. You can even see a magnified view on the internet browser, or a phone number saved in the speed dial on the keypad. With the new ‘Air Gesture’, you can use the wave of a hand change the music track, scroll up and down a web page, or accept a call.

Some of the more impressive features will make use of the phones new larger cameras. A new ‘Dual Camera’ function will allow simultaneous use of both front and rear cameras. When capturing pictures or videos, users can choose from a variety of frame effects which blend the two pictures. Users can select 8 different ways to combine the two photos taken by the front camera and the rear camera. At the same time, the ‘Dual Video Call’ function enables you to make and receive a video call with friends and family while using the rear camera to show what you are looking at during the call.

Is there more? Of course there is! We can't pack all the hour long announcement into one post, if you want to watch that you can do so one SamsungMobile's YouTube page or you can read about the rest of the new features as well as Samsung's new service it will be offering with the Galaxy S4 here:

Say Good-Bye To Google Reader With These Alternatives

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:16:00 +0000

Earlier this week Google confirmed they'd be shutting down Google Reader as of July 1st, stating the once popular RSS feed reader is no longer as popular as it use to be and therefore no longer a high priority for the company to maintain. The search giant is giving Google Readers three months to find an alternative RSS reader. Current Reader data, including subscriptions, can be preserved via Google Takeout.

"There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we're pouring all of our energy into fewer products," Alan Green, a Google software engineer, wrote in a blog post. "We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience."

Saying So Long To Google Reader Step One: Find a New RSS Reader

First things first, you need to narrow down your choices and find the options that best suite your needs. If you are like me and read your RSS feeds across several devices then you'll want to look at online web or cloud based services similar to what Google Reader is now. These will allow you to sync pull in your feeds from any device anywhere. For those of you that only have a single device or only want to read your feeds from your desktop then you can go with desktop readers or widgets (depending on your device).

Here are a few options to get you started:

Feedly: This is by far one of the most popular and widely suggested options for those who need one reader on all their devices. Desktop-wise it runs in Chrome and Firefox via extensions and in addition to standard Android and iOS apps, you can also find it on Kindle. Feedly has also said that they'll have a "seamless" transition method in place when Reader goes down.

NewsBlur: This is another solid alternative that many of you will find a bit more familiar than Feedly. The interface is more Google-Reader-esque and you can try it out on the spot. There are two options, a free account which maxes out at 64 feeds, or an unlimited subscription for only $1 a month.

Netvibes: Their service has been around for about as long as Google Reader and offers another great choice. Its basic service is free, and users can pay more for features like analytics, alerts and sentiment. Netvibes even has directions on how to import Reader information using Google Takeout.

For those looking for desktop solutions:

Most Operating systems and browsers offer an RSS reading widget or in browser options. However, I like to add a few more features they don't have. For Firefox I use Feed Sidebar. This great little extension gives you the option to view and feeds saved in your Live Bookmarks in the sidebar and with Firefox Sync you can use it with several computers. For Chrome users I use and suggest Slick RSS. This extensions displays your feeds in a single pane and all of the articles in the many body of a tab. It makes reading a breeze!

For those looking for a standalone application FeedDemon would generally by my suggestion since it was largely the most popular RSS reader for Windows for years. However sadly with Google Reader being shuttered, so to is FeedDemon. So for now I can't make a strong suggestion

Step Two: Import Your Google Reader Feeds

Once you've decide which RSS reader is right for you, you should import your Google Reader feeds so you don't have to re-subscribe to everything. Luckily, migrating your feeds from Google Reader is very simple. Here's what you need to do:

Head to Google Takeout's Reader page and click the Create Archive button. It'll start building a file with all your feeds, the people you follow, starred items, and more (though most of these won't be importable to other sites).
Once it's finished building, click the Download button that appears to get your subscriptions.
Open up the ZIP file you just downloaded and go through the folders inside. Inside the Reader folder, you should see a file called subscriptions.xml. Extract that to your desktop.
Open up your new feed reader of choice, head into its settings, and find the Import option. Select it, and choose the subscriptions.xml file you just extracted. All of your feeds should appear in your new reader.

This won't import your starred items or know which articles you've already read on Google Reader, but at least you'll still have all your subscriptions.

Forget the RSS

Honestly with all that social media has to offer who really needs RSS these days. Sure I hate to have to wade through the tide of Tweets or posts but you can find all the latest news with Twitter or Facebook. For news junkies, Twitter is definitely the fastest way to get news--but that doesn't always mean it is the best, most reliable, or even the most relevant.

Either way you go I have to say I think its a sad day for us news junkies. I liked seeing my feeds cleanly sorted and ready for me to read on a daily basis.

Samsung Building More Hype As The "Next Galaxy Unpacking" Event Nears

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

The unveiling of Samsung's newest Galaxy Android handset is almost upon us and the company is doing plenty to build on the anticipation they started things off with an invitation to the unpacking event in NYC, followed up by two videos featuring "Jeremy", the secret messenger of Samsung UNPACKED 2013. Then earlier this week they gave Galaxy fans a bit of a teaser when they Tweeted the picture below.

Today they took the show to the streets of New York with a flash mob. The mob featured dancers outfitted with bowler hats and black suits with the number 4 on the back. The dancers emerged from a paneled box entitled "Be Ready 4 The Next GALAXY." The troupe performed the old soft-shoe routine before dancing back into the box.

Samsung describes the video as a "a cool flash mob for the 'Be Ready 4 The Next GALAXY' in New York." I'm not sure I'd really describe it as a flash mob, but you certainly get the idea. Samsung is going above and beyond to build some hype around their newest phone.

While we'll have to wait until tomorrow for anything official some of the rumored features for the new Galaxy phone include an eight-core Exynos processor, a separate eight-core graphics processing unit, a 4.99-inch SuperAmoled display, and 2GB of memory. The S4 will also reportedly sport a 13-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video capability and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The latest flavor of Android 4.2.2, aka Jelly Bean, should be part of the package as well.

From a recent Bloomberg article it looks like some of these details might well be confirmed. Citing “two people familiar with the product” they have said the Galaxy S4 will have a 5-inch screen and that the US model will have a quad-core Qualcomm chip. This same report also mentions the rear-facing camera as being a 13 megapixel.<

Pwn2Own Comes To A Close With Record Payouts

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 18:39:00 +0000

The annual Pwn2Own hacking competition ended last week with security teams taking home a record total award payout for the two day event amounting to $480,000 overall. Hackers at the event, which runs along side the CanSecWest event in Vancouver, successfully exploited all but two of the potential victims, leaving Apple's Safari browser running on OS X Mountain Lion untested and failing to take down Google's Chrome OS.

Several security teams tried but couldn't break Google's latest version of Chrome OS in the company's Pwnium 3 contest, leaving the record $3.14159 million (yes, that's Pi, for those keeping track at home) in prize money untouched. "Pwnium 3 has completed and we did not receive any winning entries," a Google spokeswoman said in an email late Thursday. "We are evaluating some work that may qualify as partial credit."

Security teams were able to exploit all of the browsers tested, which included Google's Chrome browser IE10 and Firefox, along with the browser based plugins Flash and Java, a new addition to the contest this year.

Pwn2Own organizer HP TippingPoint and its Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) bug bounty program had been offering $65k for the exploit of Safari while Google had been offering up to $150,000 per exploit, depending on specifics -- top prizes were earmarked for those who found device-persistent hacks (i.e., those that would remain in place even after a reboot), while $110,000 was offered for less thorough attacks.

Big Changes Coming To Your Facebook News Feed

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 00:24:00 +0000

These days it seems as though everyone is tinkering with their sites trying to gain more exposure, or perhaps place more ads in the eyes of users. Facebook has been on a roll, rolling out several changes over the past year or so. Despite the fact that many haven't set well with users they are at it again, this time promising "bigger" things for your news feed.

Earlier today Facebook unveiled a new look for the social site's news feed, showing larger images and offering different feeds based on users' interests. The social media giant says the plan is to make News Feed more customized for each user, offering different feeds that focus on friends, music and photos, for instance. Users can choose to view their News Feed chronologically, or they can opt for an All Friends feed, for instance, which shows users what their friends are sharing, or they could choose a Following feed that will show the latest news from the pages, businesses, bands and organizations a user follows.

"The stories around you are intricate and detailed and should be displayed with more than just text," Zuckerberg said. "We believe that the best personalized newspaper should have a broad quality of content... socially and locally updated from people around you. A front page or top news or most important news going on across all topics. And the ability to drill down into any topic you want."

We've completely rebuilt each story to be much more vibrant and colorful and highlight the content that your friends are sharing, Facebook said in its blog . Photos, news articles, maps and events all look brighter and more beautiful.

The company is rolling out the redesigned feature for the Web today. Mobile and tablet platforms will roll out in the next few weeks.

My thoughts and opinions!

Just looking at the images Facebook shared in its blog posting I can tell you right now this is not going to go well. Sure advertisers want really rich things like big pictures or videos but historically speaking users, especially those on Facebook, haven't. The big draw to the site has generally been the lack of intrusive ads and overbearing images. Now they are adding in more of both and think telling users its something "they" wanted is going to keep them appeased?

Hate to say it but if they keep pushing out these major changes users are going to start looking for the next big thing and jumping ship!

Nevada Legalizes Online Gambling

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 23:10:00 +0000

The fight to legalize online gambling has scored a major victory when earlier this month Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed landmark legislation into law authorizing his office to enter into agreements with other states that will in effect allow Nevada-based companies to host interactive online gambling for residents of other states. The bill paves the way for national Internet wagering even though efforts at federal regulation have stalled.

Sandoval and Nevada legislative leaders said it was important for Nevada to remain at the forefront of gambling regulation.

"This is an historic day for the great state of Nevada," Sandoval said, flanked by dozens of state lawmakers. "Today I sign into law the framework that will usher in the next frontier of gaming in Nevada."

Several states have taken up the fight to legalize online gaming since a 2011 declaration by the U.S. Justice Department ruled that only online betting on sporting contests broke federal law. That ruling opened the door for states to legalize some forms of online gambling, even though many have yet to follow through.

Nevada's legislation comes as New Jersey - considers a similar move to legalize online gambling. Republican Governor Chris Christie rejected a measure earlier this month that would have allowed Internet gambling, further opening the door for Nevada to become the first state to enact interstate legislation.

Exactly how the federal government will react to the legislation following its major crackdowns on online gambling sites in the past is yet to be seen. The federal government has actively pursued owners of gaming sites in the past. In April 2011, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office shut down three of the biggest internet poker sites and charged the owners with fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. The poker companies - including big sites such as PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker - were all based overseas and argued they operate outside the reach of U.S. law, but 11 defendants were accused of the charges.

On July 31, 2012, the US government dismissed "with prejudice" all civil complaints against all PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker companies after coming to a settlement with PokerStars which includes PokerStars purchasing Full Tilt. PokerStars and Full Tilt admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which ends all litigation between the government and the poker companies. The criminal indictments remain in place for the named individuals and they have faced on-going lawsuits from former players looking to collect on winnings and deposits.

Global online gambling consists of approximately 17 percent Americans and the total revenue generated from online gambling by residents of the United States equates to $6 billion per year including, online casinos, online sports betting and online poker rooms.

Internet Explorer 10 Now Available On Windows 7

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:02:00 +0000

Microsoft has officially released Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7. The browser which offers a few new features over the current latest release, IE9, has been available since late October for users of Windows 8, but now becomes available for the 700 million or so users of Windows 7.

Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 packs some new usability features, including integrated spell checking and auto-correct features. There is also better support for the latest Web standards such as HTML 5, and "Do Not Track" which asks websites not to track the users’ browsing history in order to serve targeted ads—is enabled by default. For those looking for more speed and better efficiency Microsoft claims that IE 10 offers improved JavaScript performance that helps IE 10 run at up to 20 percent faster speeds than IE 9.

Microsoft said they will begin auto updating Windows 7 customers to IE10 in the weeks ahead, starting today with customers running the IE10 Release Preview. For those of you that don't want to wait for the update to hit Windows Update you can download the new browser directly from Microsoft and for more details on the changes and improvements Internet Explore 10 offers check out Microsoft's official blog posting of the release.

Samsung Confirms March 14th Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:48:00 +0000

Rumors and speculation over a possible Samsung release coming in the few weeks have finally been laid to rest with the company confirming details of an event slated for March 14th in New York City.

Samsung has officially invited you to "Meet The Next Galaxy" at a press event to be held at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. The teaser for the event was posted on the Samsung Twitter page with a tagline that reads, "Ready 4 the show?" along with a URL for a livestream (www.youtube.com/SamsungMobile). The same poster, pictured below, was later posted on the Samsung Mobile Press Page with a simple title "Unpacked 2013, Ready 4 the Show."

Samsung's chief of mobile operations, J,K. Shin, confirmed at Mobile World Conference that Samsung is indeed gearing up to announce the Galaxy S IV next month, according to Edaily, a South Korean news site. That's as much as Samsung was willing to confirm at this time.

ZenDesk Hacked, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter Users Warned Of Possible Phishing Attempts

noreply@blogger.com (Richard M.) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:37:00 +0000

Zendesk, the email and contact support client that Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter and a handful of other social applications use, has confirmed a security breach which resulted in the theft of contact information including email addresses of an unknown number of customers.

Tumblr has already sent out emails to its users notifying them of a security breach, no word on whether Twitter and Pinterest will follow suite. However users off all three sites should be on the look out for potential phishing scams. Spearheaded email attacks that look like legit emails from any of the sites.

Tumblr has been using Zendesk for several years to provide support for its users. Tumblr says that there’s a good chance that if you have emailed them for support in the past 2.5 years that you’ve been affected by this breah. These are the warning words Tumblr had for users.

“This (security breach) has potentially exposed records of subject lines and, in some cases, email addresses of messages sent to Tumblr Support. While much of this information is innocuous, please take some time today to consider the following:

The subject lines of your emails to Tumblr Support may have included the address of your blog which could potentially allow your blog to be unwillingly associated with your email address.

Any other information included in the subject lines of emails you’ve sent to Tumblr Support may be exposed. We recommend you review any correspondence you’ve addressed to support@tumblr.com, abuse@tumblr.com, dmca@tumblr.com, legal@tumblr.com, enquiries@tumblr.com, or lawenforcement@tumblr.com.

Tumblr will never ask you for your password by email. Emails are easy to fake, and you should be suspicious of unexpected emails you receive.”

No passwords or other information has been stolen at this time. However since Tumblr also warned users that the contents of some emails may be a part of the breach users might still want to double check any correspondences and act accordingly.