Internet's Best Secrets

Jolla Readies First Smartphone for Year's End

2013-05-20T13:35:00.000+01:00

Is there enough room for yet another mobile platform? The people that were working on Nokia's MeeGo think so, and they joined up to form a new company - Jolla - and kept working on their new Sailfish OS, that is now making its first public appearance. The first Jolla phone with Saiflish OS can now be pre-ordered, and is promised to be delivered before year ends.

The Jolla smartphone has a 4.5" HD screem, dual-core CPU, 16GB + microSD, 4G/LTE, replaceable battery, 8MP camera, and a mysterious "The Other Half" attachment that will allow you to add/change features by snapping some kind of special case/cover. More importantly though, is that the Sailfish OS will be able to run Android apps - which will certainly make it a lot less frightening than jumping on board a new platform that will surely struggle to find developers willing to make native apps for it - especially in the initial phase.

Jolla will cost 399€ (about $513 USD) and can be pre-ordered right now for 100€ (that will be redeemable when you buy the actual smartphone later on). But for now that offer is available only in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy.

Do you think Sailfish and Jolla will have any chance against Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry? Is there really enough room for all?

How to use a Dynamic DNS Service

2013-05-19T13:52:00.000+01:00

The internet is a huge place, and just like in the real world, the computers connected to it need an address in order to find one another - just like we have our home address in order to receive mail. That is called the IP address, and is usually represented by a 32 bit number, displayed and a four number sequence separated by dots:

(This is for IPv4 address, which has now "run out" of address even though it allows for 4 billion addresss - for IPv6 things get trickier, as it upgrades the system to 128bit addresses, allowing for truly astronomical number of individually addressable devices.) But we're not talking about IP addresses today, so... let's move on.

So, your home computer has an IP address (you can easily find out which by visiting a site like What Is My IP), which you could use to connect to it remotely using something like Remote Desktop, or VNC, or for whatever other service you might want (including a web server to host your own personal website), or maybe you just want to check out our things are going by watching your home IP cameras. But the problem is that most home internet connections won't give you a fixed IP address. Meaning, today you have this IP address... tomorrow you might have a different one.

That's where dynamic DNS servers come in. As you've probably have noticed, when you want to visit a site on the internet, you won't type it's IP address on your browser address bad (though you can!) - no, we use more easily rememberable names, like google.com or ebay.com. Those names serve as aliases to the IP address, making it easier for us humans to navigate the web, and leaving the "translation work" to the machines, that have to look up to what IP address each of these names connects to using a service called DNS (Domain Name System) .

To solve our problem, there are dynamic DNS services that allow us to create a more easily rememberable name, that our computer can update whenever its IP address changes. So, you might create something like "myhome.dyndns.org" and have it point to you current IP address... and tomorrow, if the IP changes, you can have a small program running on your computer that will update it accordingly.

Most modern routers can even do that for you, requiring you only to set it up with the service you use and your account data.

Now... why did I bring this up now?

I've been using Dyn (ex-DynDNS) for years, and I've been quite happy with it. It began as a free service, but has since gone "paid only" (there are still other popular services that offer free accounts like No-IP and freedns.afraid.org), and although free accounts have been left alone... they've now changed the rules.

From now on, free Dyn account users will be required to manually login monthly in order to keep their account active. Don't get me wrong... although I think it's a bad decision, I'm not "annoyed" by their decision. In fact, it was just the "nudge" I needed in order to become a paying customer: I use their services daily (accessing my home computers remotely, my IP cameras, etc.) and don't mind paying for it at all!

I only think it's a bad decision because there are certainly many thousands of users that have had their computers/routers/etc. setup by friends using the dyndns services and left "untouched" over the years... and that will now stop working without any "notice", and the resulting frustration might prompt them to switch to another dynamic DNS provider.

If you rely on DynDNS and what to keep using it; for existing Dyn free users, you can upgrade to a VIP account for only $10 in the first year (use the VIPUPGRADE discount code). If you're a new user, you can get a 15% discount using the RFE3B91BJP code.

Hangouts Easter Eggs

2013-05-18T13:14:00.000+01:00

So, you're trying out the new Google Hangouts (which you can already enable in Gmail by the way) and you want something "cool" to show your friends... Google has you covered, as they didn't forget to include some curious hidden easter eggs in the new Hangouts.

For now, these only work on Google+ and the Hangouts Chrome Extension, which means we can't use them in the mobile version neither during video calls, but... do try them out. You just need to type:

/ponies - a pony running across the chat
/pitchforks - angry mob
/ponystream - several ponies (but showing up only in your own window)
/bikeshed - changes the background color for everyone
/shydino - shows up a little shy dinossaur
konami code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, enter) - changes the local background (and if you have a chromebook pixel, it will also make the multicolored LED bar go into party mode for a while! ;)

The New Google Maps

2013-05-17T14:26:00.001+01:00

Google's I/O opening keynote was filled with announcements (it took over 3h!) and there's lots of new stuff to go around, some of them available right now, as the new and improved Google+ and Hangouts messaging system (with a some drawbacks that we hope to see fixed soon). But today, I'll be focusing on the new Google Maps (which should only be deployed a few months from now, but you can request an invite to try it out sooner).

Google maps were/are incredibly useful, but they sure were becoming a bit old-looking. Google has now fixed that. The new maps are now given the scale they deserve, filling up the entire screen, and the results are show on hovering panes and in the map itself. As you select each result, the map changes accordingly, highlighting related information, while fading out less relevant info/roads/etc. One other thing that is sure to make lots of fans: you can now easily compare different transportation methods, so you can see how much faster/slower you'll be should you choose to take the bus/train/etc. The new maps also have integrated street view and google earth imagery - so you can see "everything" without ever having to leave your browser window. It's also more intelligent, dynamically rerouting you during your navigation should a traffic jam popup on your preselected route.

The new maps will be available on the web, Android and iOS... and I can't wait to get it. (Some friends have already received the invitation for the new maps, but I'm still waiting for mine - I guess Google might be giving priority for intensive Google+ users... which... I'm not. But using blogger daily for several years should also count for something, right?)

Researchers Hijack Plant Photosynthesis to Generate Electricity

2013-05-16T13:04:00.000+01:00

We're still waiting for a revolutionary way to generate clean and endless energy in order to let go of fossil, nuclear, and other "dirty" ways we currently use. And when it comes to solar power, why not look to the examples we have in our own backyards, that are the culmination of millions and millions of years of evolution: plants!

Plants may not look like much, but when it comes to solar efficiency, there's nothing close. A plant can achieve nearly 100% quantum efficiency, converting each incoming photon to an energy carrying electron - compare that to most common manufactured solar panels, that are just 12-17% efficient. So, researchers at Georgia University have decided to hijack the photosynthesis process and let the plant to most of the work, while they reap the benefits. By modifying some proteins, they've redirected the converted energy to the outside before the plant uses it to create glucose for itself.

This means that in the future, solar maintenance and green initiatives might end up requiring more gardening skills than the "technical" ones we currently used to. But as long as it gives us green, clean, and sustainable power... what's there not to like about it? Can you imagine using a solar power simulator where you input your power requirements and in return you get what kind of plants are most suitable for your location and how many you'll need to generate the required energy? It sure would give a much more literal meaning when it comes to "green energy", and it may happen sooner than we think.

For what is worth, I can't wait for solar power (and other "green" energies) to become the norm rather than the exception. In Spain, for the past few months, renewable energy generation has accounted for more than half of the total power generation - though most of it comes from hydroelectric plants, and just a few percent comes from solar power - but as technology evolves... Maybe in a few decades, we'll see solar power reaching the top spot when it comes to power generation.

Apple sued for Defective iPhone Power Button

2013-05-15T13:46:00.000+01:00

We might be on the verge of a new "antennagate" incident for Apple, this time related to the iPhone 4 power button. Apple is being sued over faulty power buttons on the iPhone 4, which make it stop working roughly about a year of normal use - leaving it just out of the one year warranty period in several countries.

Apple is accused of knowing that there is a real problem with the power button mechanism, but that it kept quiet and did nothing while people bought it with 2 year contracts on operators like AT&T. Making its customers pay upwards of $99 to get it fixed, or resort to "assistive touch" features to use a virtual lock button and learn to live without a physical power button.

If the following YouTube video might serve as an indication, there are over 800,000 people that saw "how to fix the iPhone 4 power button". And I suspect that the same thing might happen even in newer iPhones (a friend of mine has alreade faced identical problems in both his iPhone 4S and iPhone 5!)

Is Apple about to face a new "power-button-gate" incident? Or... how do you feel about a $500-600 device failing due to poor engineering of the tiny mechanism responsible for the power button?

Google Unifies Cloud Storage and Gives you 15GB of Free Space

2013-05-14T13:46:00.000+01:00

How would you feel if you paid for 100GB of cloud space on Google, but found your Gmail account was unable to receive any more data once it reached 25GB? You could have 100GB for Google Drive and Google+ Photos, but your Gmail account would be stuck on 25GB. Now, Google is finally cleaning up this fragmented storage system and will unify storage space among all services, giving you 15GB of total storage for free that you can use any way you like - whether you'll use it all on Gmail, or all for G+ Photos, or anything in between.

You can manage it all in the new storage management page, where you can see how you're using up your space, and you'll notice that the old 25GB option is now gone. Now you can either keep the free 15GB account... or will have to go to the 100GB option at $4.99/month. You'll also notice that while this option previously offered 100GB + 25GB for Gmail, you now get "only" 100GB... meaning you'll lose 25% of space for the same amount of money (though I do prefer that these 100GB can be used freely).

If you're a Google Apps user, you get 30GB of free space.

This change is being deployed right now, and might take a few weeks to reach you - but sooner or later you'll see your Gmail account stating you have 15GB of space to use. (And I imagine that this also marks the end of the ever growing space limit we had on Gmail).

Samsung to Deliver 1 Gbps "5G" by 2020

2013-05-13T13:54:00.001+01:00

If you though 4G/LTE networks were fast and were quickly catching up cable and fiber networks - there's even cases when you can use a 4G connection as your main internet connection, with speeds up to 150Mbps, faster than most cable connections (and let's not even talk about DSL) - you'd certainly also now that FTTH (fiber to the home) operators are also ramping up their speeds. If you're willing to pay for it, you can get 1Gbps of internet access... provided you live in a "fiber area".

Wireless networks can more easily reach areas where cabled connections aren't available... and it may soon go head to head with even the fast 1Gbps fiber networks. According to Samsung they've already achieved 1Gbps mobile download speeds with 5G technology, a technology they say to be ready for commercial operation by 2020.

Even considering real-world speeds will be a lot less - even if you consider half of it it's still a respectable 500Mbps - it seems we'll soon be reaching a milestone that, just like modern CPUs provide "more than enough" power for most common use scenarios, connection speeds will soon achieve the same.

With a 1Gbps connections, streaming or downloading a 100GB "Ultra-HD" movie could be done in less than 15 minutes... even if you are away from home. Will 5G mark the end of the cabled internet access? We'll still have a little over half a decade to find out.

Among the Sleep [Game]

2013-05-11T13:30:00.000+01:00

If you're tired of playing first-person-perspective games where you're put in the shoes of a ultra powerful mean killing machine, what would you think of a change of scenery - a much scarier one, I might add - that puts you in the body of a two year old child? That's what this Among the Sleep is trying to accomplish, and from what we can see already... it deserves to be fully backed on Kickstater.

There's less than a week remaining and they're still a few thousand dollars. If you like games and fell in love with the visuals (like most people I've shown it to), do consider helping it come to fruition. With as little as $20 you'll get a digital copy of the game - and I've already done my part, "buying" one for me and another to offer as a gift.

We need more people developing games they love, instead of (more of the same) games that come out every year and simply change the number in front of the title hoping to cash in on gamers. If all it takes to make this team's dream become a reality are $20 - and we get a nice game in the process - is there any thing else to think about?

To make it even better, the game will have Oculus Rift support, for a truly immersive experience:

ISS Moves from Windows to Linux

2013-05-10T13:40:00.000+01:00

In space there's no room for errors, and although the laptops aboard the International Space Station are not mission critical, they'll now say goodbye to their trusted Windows XP and say hello to a more reliable and secure Linux OS (Debian 6). The switch from Windows XP to Linux will enhance the security and reliability of onboard laptops.

If you think being in space would mean these Window computers would be safe from earthly worms... you'd be wrong. There's at least one confirmed incident when these computers were infected by a "digital worm", when a russian cosmonaut brought his infected laptop (in 2008) and it quickly spread to the other PCs. With Debian, it's far less likely a rootkit/virus will somehow get into their machines - as well as it gives them full control to patch the operating system as they see fit in the upcoming years.

Hopefully, no one will be doing a "rm -rf" onboard... :)

(rm -rf is "delete everything" command... and is considered one of the "no-no" commands for Linux newbies)

Usable Ubuntu Phone is Imminent

2013-05-09T13:40:00.001+01:00

When we first saw Ubuntu Phone, the concept looked nice but one couldn't help but wonder if it would have any real chance on the market should it take another year or so to become available to the general public (and each passing day making it harder anda harder to compete with iOS and Android). Now, Canonical shows us it's really pressing the fast forward button on the Ubuntu Phone, and it hopes to have it in a fully workable state by month's end - where "workable" means, it will be enough to be usable as a daily device.

This means:

You can make and receive phone calls
You can make and receive sms messages
You can browse the web on 3g data
You can browse the web on wifi
You can switch between wifi and 3g data
The proximity sensore dims the screen when you lift the phone to talk on it
You can import contacts from somewhere, and you can add and edit contacts
When you update your phone your user data is retained, even if updating with phablet-flash

Looks like Ubuntu Phone might be joining the mobile party sooner than expected... and as long as its webapps work alongisde Firefox OS web apps (we don't need any more fragmentation heading to the "web devices" do we?)... I think it may really have a fighting chance, at least for all those not currently satisfied with the existing platforms.

Google Glass on a Field Trip to CERN

2013-05-07T13:27:00.000+01:00

Google's Glass may suffer from many limitation inherent to a first generation device that is still being "explored" to see how it can best fit our needs and our world (a basic interface, lousey battery life, etc.) But even so, it doesn't stop us from imagining the kind of things that it makes possible, as perfectly illustrated by Andrew Vanden Heuvel, a physics teacher that uses the internet to reach schools and students that otherwise wouldn't have access to these classes.

Andrew uses his Google Glass to take us on a real trip around the LHC on CERN, and although his passion for physicis and teaching making him a great teacher whether he was using Glass or not - one can't stop but wonder just how much of our society it might end up changing.

With everyone connected, wouldn't it make total sense for students and teachers to be able to connect whether they're on the same room or continents apart? How about seeing just how "one day in the life" of a people in another country is? Glass may be looked upon as placing your digital world in front of your eyes... but in the process it may very well shows us there is a vast new world out there, worth exploring.

Add Events to Google Calendar from Gmail

2013-05-06T13:12:00.000+01:00

Scheduling events in Google Calendar will now be easier than ever if you happen to spend most of your time on Gmail. When you receive an email with a date/time reference, Gmail will now detect it's a date (underlining it with a light color) and allow you to quickly add it to your scheduled events.

To ensure you won't be overbooked, it will even show you a preview your schedule for the day, so you can see if there's something already scheduled for that same day/time - and allow you to quickly tweak the time so you can fit it in your schedule.

As a last "nice touch", the newly created event will include a link to the originating email, so you can easily keep track of things and quickly find out relevant information. It's a nice improvement to the "create event" option we already had on Gmail, but that forced us to blindly input the date and time manually. For now this new feature is only available for US english users.

Movies vs Real Life

2013-05-04T13:16:00.000+01:00

We all know most movies take certain "creative liberties" when it comes to portraying what life is on film. Some of them have now become so common that we don't even dare question it's feasability in the real world. But that's exactly what you'll see in the following (funny) video, where several common movie sequences are show as they are on film... and as they would most probably be in real life.

Having seen this... I do wish every movie would have a "realistic version" of it in the extras section of the DVD/Bluray! :)

Epic Citadel Running on Javascript now Available

2013-05-03T13:20:00.000+01:00

A while back we saw Unreal Engine 3 ported to Javascript and running inside a browser. In case you didn't believe in it, you can now see it with your own eyes, as the Epic Citadel demo is now available for everyone to try - although it's highly recommended you use the latest Firefox (development version) to ensure the best performance (and keep in mind most other browser aren't supported, or... crash - as it's the case with Chrome; though they're trying to fix it).

It's still the first steps, but one can already imagine every game to be platforma agnostic and running inside your browser. No more worrying about buying game for Xbox, or PlayStation, or Windows, or Mac. You'll just fire up your browser and play.

Hopefully, that will also ease developer's lives, as they'll no longer have to worry about cross-platform ports and development. Meaning games will also be able to be cheaper, and thus less prone to pirating.

... It still may take a decade (or more)... but I think it's pretty clear we're heading that way - and I'm glad for it.

[via Mozilla]

IBM Makes Atom-Sized Short Animation

2013-05-02T13:14:00.000+01:00

It may look like a child's first attempt at stop-motion animation, but once we realize we're looking at individual atoms dancing on a copper plate, things suddenly take a whole new dimension. This short animation movie (actually, the "smallest" in the world as confirmed by the Guinness World Records) was made by IBM - which have been playing around with atoms for quite a while now - by moving around carbon monoxide molecules (1 carbon atom + 1 oxygen atom) on a copper plate.

One can't stop but wonder this kind of technology will allow, once it advances to the point of getting out of the lab and into marketable products (for reference, most chips today are made using 20-45nm, or greater, resolutions - with Intel promising 14nm chips for 2014; a helium atom has a diameter of just 0.1nm). Can you imagine the tiny electronics we have today being minimized hundreds of times further?

... Just don't expect it to arrive soon. As you'll be able to see in the "making of" video... the equipment required to make all this possible is still at a stage similar to the first computers (that used to take up entire room). But... you can bet a few decades from now... you might have atom sized storage and atom sized processors in nearly invisible devices spread all around us (maybe even inside us?)

How did they make this? Check the "making-of" video next:

Microsoft IllumiRoom will Blow your Mind (and Room)

2013-04-30T13:12:00.000+01:00

I was hoping for Microsoft to support virtual reality goggles (like the Oculus Rift) on the next Xbox, but it seems they have another thing in mind - and that, truth be told, should be less "nauseating" to those prone to motion sickness; as well as providing a more social experience, as everyone will be able to enjoy the effect and not only the one wearing the VR set.

Microsoft's IllumiRoom can almost be compared to a "Holodeck", as it transforms your room into a virtual landscape in sync with your Xbox games (and movies). No, it's not the same as simply projecting a large image over your furniture. The system is capable of detecting and recognizing the objects in there, and calibrate itself accordingly. It even allows you to change your furniture color, or make it "invisible", or even make it "wobble" when an explosion occurs in a game.

It is truly game changing... and it opens up the possibilities for lots more. For instance, when you're watching a movie, a video of someone ringing your doorbell might popup out of the screen, over the wall, without interrupting your movie. Or how about notifications of friends getting online slowly creeping up from the floor up to the screen, and then fading away somewhere out of sight?

Let's hope this thing is ready in time for the Xbox 720 launch when it reaches the stores later this year.

[via the verge]

Self-Destructing Tweets with Efemr

2013-04-29T13:04:00.000+01:00

Tired of sharing time limited promotions on Twitter, and having your followers "complaining" hours (or even days) later because they can no longer find what you referred to? Well... there's a solution for that, and it's called efemr.

Using this service, you can specify a time limit for your tweets via hashtag. #5m means your tweet will only last for 5 minutes; #1h for one hour; ... you get the idea. Keep in mind this service doesn't mean you can say anything you wish, hoping it will be erased and stay forgotten. Anyone can simply retweet it via "RT" style and make it last forever... So, you'll still have to deal with that.

In any case, I think it's still quite useful just to get rid of promotional tweets you want to share with your friends, but you don't really want to keep around in your timeline after it expires. Now, if only they could add a scheduled tweets feature, we'd have both scenarios covered: tweeting in preset future events, and also have self-destroying tweets after the ellapsed period of time.

Google Shuts Down "Out of Play" Updates

2013-04-27T13:44:00.000+01:00

Android and its Google Play Store might be "open" and welcoming, but there are times when one must remind guests enough is enough, and that there are things one would expect to be common sense and/or decent behavior that should go without notice. It seems that precisely what is now happening with Google explicitly forbidding Apps in Google Play to bypass it for updates... like Facebook has done with its own app.

I did find it very odd for Facebook to go that route, considering Google Play updates work perfectly fine, and you can even allow for automatic updates should you so desire (making Facebooks excuse of "better enforcing up-to-date updates meaningless). And, one can also imagine if every other app decided to do the same, transforming our Androids in a random mess of Apps doing their own updates as they wished, forcing us to handle one by one with its specific settings and whatever...

Google Play Store updates work fine... It's only natural for Google to remind everyone that they should play according to its rules. If not, that can do whatever they want... just don't expect those apps to be available via Google Play.

Galaxy S4 Screen vs HTC One

2013-04-25T13:13:00.000+01:00

First of all, keep in mind that any of the most recent series of high-end smartphones with FullHD screens is... absolutely amazing and mesmerizing. But even so, someone had to go and put the pentile SuperAMOLED screen of the Galaxy S4 next to a FullHD screen like the one found on the new HTC One.

The key is that Samsung didn't (couldn't?) use the SuperAMOLED Plus technology with RGB subpixels, and instead shaved off a few of them using a pentile pattern instead. Sure, at these high PPI (pixels per inch) you won't really notice it... unless you really "picky" about it. And you can't forget to consider that AMOLED screens do hold some advantages in power efficiency (in black background images), contrast, and color.

But even so, let's hope Samsung figures out a way to make FullHD superAMOLED "Plus" screens for smartphones and tablets, with all the subpixels, and make these discussions go away.

Swype for Android on Google Play Store

2013-04-24T13:46:00.000+01:00

It took them long enough, but finally Swype - one of the most amazing soft keyboards in existence today - has taken the last step and gone from beta version to an official, paid app available in Google's Play Store.

Yes, you can now get Swype for just $0.99, and enjoy the art of typing as you glide your finger over the keyboard. Yes, Google's latest Android keyboard also has a swype mode, and SwiftKey - regarded as the best soft keyboard ever by many - also joined the swype technique a while back. But, Swype is the one that invented the concept, and in the hands of Nuance... we can expect it to still hold its ground.

Even if you're not fond of swiping to write it also easily catters for regular typing modes, as well as integration Dragon Dictation - probably the best voice recognition engine on the market today.

Swype supports dozens of local dialects, adjusts to the typing of each user, does word prediction, has word selection gestures for quick and easy editing, and also integrates with Dragon Mobile Assistant.

For a limited time, Swype is available in the Google Play store for just $0.99. Get it while it lasts.

Put Your Raspberry Pi on a Datacenter for Free

2013-04-22T13:11:00.000+01:00

If you're already a fan of the small, inexpensive, but quite capable Raspberry Pi, you'll certainly like to know you can now have your tiny computer placed on a datacenter... for free! You can thank PCextreme for it, as the Dutch company has decided to host them in their Amsterdam data center via their Raspeberry Colocation program.

You can send you ready to work Raspberry Pis to then - or, you can also buy one from them (in which case you'll save the shipping costs, don't forget to factor that in as well). It's the perfect opportunity for every project that can benefit from a high speed internet access (you get up to 500GB bandwidth per month) without depending on your home connection. They even suggest some possible uses: like email and chat server, web server, VPN tunneling, etc.

The Raspberry Pi colocation product will exist for an indefinite period of time, but they guarantee at least 12 months of "active time" to reassure all those interested in this.

Should this end - or you decide you've had enough fun - you can get your Raspberry Pi back supporting the shipping cost back home.

Osito is a Google Now for iPhone

2013-04-19T13:01:00.000+01:00

It's hard not to be amazed by Google Now. Without any intervention Google Now keeps you up to date on the latest news, weather conditions, your friends birthdays, alerts you to traffic conditions on your daily commute, and even reminds you when it's time to leave so you get to your appointments on time - all this only when you need it. But... if that's the case for Android users, iPhone user have been left out in the cold until now. Google may not yet have launched a Google Now for iOS, but you get most of it by using this Osito.

This free App does most of what Google Now does, and... well... it's free - so give it a try. It has very clean-looking info panels, and its developers aim to go even further, opening up an API so it can interact with other services. For instance, in the future you might be able to to what its creators already did: turning up the lights whenever they get to the office.

Beat that Google Now...

[via Verge]

Hangouts get Auto-Mute to Silence Noisy Keyboards

2013-04-18T13:20:00.000+01:00

If you're an avid Hangout user on Google+, you'll certainly know just how loud some keyboards (and typists) are. While you're happily chatting away with your friends, inevitably, someone (or yourself) will start typing and "spam" the conversation with the clickety-clack of their keyboard. Sometimes you won't mind it all, other times it really becomes a nuisance, or at the very least, a distraction.

Things are about to get quieter though, as hangouts will now have an auto-mute feature to silence noisy typing. This will happen only on larger hangouts, of 4 people and more, and when it does kick into action you'll see a message on your screen stating you've been auto-muted due to typing.

I think it's a nice addition, although we'll have to see how heavy multitaskers, used to typing while hanging out, will react.

On the other hand, you can always get a Chromebook Pixel, which has an extra noise canceling microphone just to muffle the keyboard sound while videochating. :)

Gmail, Gdocs and Gdrive are Down

2013-04-17T13:24:00.000+01:00

Proving that even the mightiest clouds around can leave you "hanging", don't panic when you find you are unable to check your email on Gmail, or access your files and documents on Google Drive and Google Docs.

The only thing you can do is to take a deep breath, do something else (hopefully something productive) and check Google's stauts page to see when things get back to working order. Try to face this as being yet another drill that will prepare us for the inevitable "collapse" that will surely happen someday, when someone finds out a major vulnerability that might compromise and entire system like Google, Faceboor, or others of its kind.

Truth be told, I do depend on Google's service to "work" online (Gmail, Google Docs, Blogger, and so on)... But the prospect of all those coming tumbling down is just so horrific that I don't even want to consider what I should should that day happen anytime soon. As they say: we should hope for the best but prepare for the worst. But in such a scenario... I don't think there are really ways to prepare for such eventuality.

... Maybe... turning off all electronic devices and read a good (paper) book?