Tech n' Cars

Find and Call Is the First Malicious App in the App Store Ever

2012-07-07T17:40:00.001-04:00

When the App Store was launched five years ago, there were three main reasons for it; it made it easy for developers to get their apps noticed, it made it easy for consumers to an app to download, and it protected users from malicious apps.

Well, how did it do? A fluid interface and design made it fare very well for getting apps noticed and letting people notice them. And as for the third reason, the App Store has gone five years without a single malicious app being found. But now, for the first time ever, an app with malware made it into the App Store.

This app was called Find and Call. While it wasn't a top selling app, it had a lot of downloads, mainly from Russians, because the description text was in Russian. It served as a address book, where you would keep the information of your contacts so you could call them.

But that's not all it did. Apparently, the app stored information about the contact information of the user in the developers servers. The company then sent text messages to these users advertising the application. The developer had found a way to make it appear as if the text message was from the user of the app. In addition to this, the information of the users contacts was sent to companies that would spam them.

Luckily, however, less than a month after the release of the app, some users were able to contact the developer of the app, who claimed that the spamming was due to a bug. Knowing that this information was false, they contacted Apple, who promptly removed the app from the App Store.

“The Find & Call app has been removed from the App Store due to its unauthorized use of users’ Address Book data, a violation of App Store guidelines,” said Apple. They also noted that iOS 6 will include notifications when third-party apps access users' data.

This Prayer Mat Lights Up When Facing Mecca

2012-07-07T10:03:00.001-04:00

There are 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, each of whom pray 5 times a day. And in every one of these 8 billion prayers, they face towards Mecca when they pray. Traditionally, Muslims use compasses with a mark on them to show the direction of Mecca. But, as with almost any other thing in life, technology has been incorporated into this. Some people now use smartphone apps for Muslims, complete with praying directions, prayer reminders, and a compass to know where Mecca is. But now, British designer Soner Oznec wants to put even fancier technology into prayer. He's designing a prayer mat that lights up when facing Mecca.

This prayer mat is called EL Sajjada. Not only does it include symbolic patterns like most prayer mats do, it includes a digital compass that makes the mat light up when it faces Mecca. It remains lightweight and flexible.

Now, technology has been incorporated into many things in life, even things that are (or used to be) traditional, like sports. But this brings up an interesting topic for discussion. Can technology be incorporated this much into religion?

Oznec, the designer of EL Sajjada, says it can be. He claims that he's been working on this project for six years, and not once has he received negative feedback for mixing technology and religion.

But would a practicing Muslim be willing to actually use this in prayer? Islam is a very old religion, and I'm guessing that many Muslims would feel that making a prayer mat so special would dilute the true purpose of their prayers. Then again, others may feel that if it helps them point the right direction, then there's nothing wrong with it because it's only helping them pray correctly. These people may feel that if technology can be utilized to make prayer easier, more efficient, or more effective, it should be.

It's easy to argue for either side, but only time will be able to tell whether the mat is successful or not. On Kickstarter, the project has 38 backers and has raised $6,000 of its $100,000 goal (the project expires August 14). If you fund the project with $500 or more, you'll receive a free prayer mat when they are put on the market. But how many Muslims would put this to use?

iPad Mini to be Released in October with 3G at $299

2012-07-07T09:51:00.004-04:00

When the first reports of a "mini iPad" surfaced months ago, it seemed like an interesting idea, but someting that Apple wouldn't do. When they resurfaced a few weeks ago after the launch of the Nexus 7 and the Microsoft Surface, it seemed like a tablet that Apple needed to make to compete in the budget tablet market. Now, a new set of reports from Macotakara and Bloomberg have arrived, And they're showing why this iPad Mini could be a serious competitor in the market.

According to the reports, the iPad Mini will be produced in Brazil in September, and will be released before the holiday season (Bloomberg points to October). It will have a 7.85" screen, and will have the same screen resolution as the iPad 2, so developers won't have to remake their apps for the iPad Mini.

These reports have confirmed the fact that this tablet is aimed specifically at the budget tablet market; it will retail for just $299 ($100 more than the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire, but $200 less than the cheapest iPad). Apple is also trying to produce a very portable tablet; rumor has it it will be as thin as the latest iPod Touch (thinner than the Kindle Fire). The device will likely support 3G networking.

While many people on the web are saying that this tablet will not succeed and that Steve Jobs was right in saying that anything smaller than a 10" tablet is too small, I disagree. With the specs listed above, it seems as if this tablet will get you all the benefits of the iPad (beautiful design, many more apps, and iOS) without the huge price tag.

As it turns out, many people who buy budget tablets are people who would really like an iPad but can't afford it. So my theory is that if Apple made a cheaper iPad, these people would stop buying the closest thing to an iPad (a Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, or Microsoft Surface) and buy the real thing. Except mini.

Collection of 6,500 Video Games Auctioning on eBay for €999,999.99

2012-07-07T09:40:00.002-04:00

Over the years, we've seen a lot of impressive things being sold on eBay. From exotic food to a $1 million baseball card, it seems as if people are getting weirder and weirder things added to their inventory. We've also seen some pretty big collections. But now, the collection of them all has arrived.

eBay user collectors_king is selling a collection of every video game every released for 22 consoles. Every game is complete with its box and the instructions. As you can see from the picture above, it's quite a massive collection; in fact, it's over 6,500 games. How about the price? 1 million euros. That's about $1.2 million, which make each game cost $190, which seems a little bit overpriced. I'm really not sure if anyone would be willing to burn off a million bucks just to have this gigantic collection, but if someone is, that's what the "Buy It Now" button is for.

You can check out the auction page here.

Facebook Mobile Will Have Targeted Ads Based on the Apps You Use

2012-07-06T17:46:00.000-04:00

Have you ever noticed that ads on the web seem to know way too much about you? When you've been researching web hosts, as I was a few months ago for Tech n' Cars, suddenly almost every site I visited had ads saying "Cheap web hosting!" "Host with us!" or "WordPress Hosting just $4/mo.!" Even YouTube videos I played would have pop-up ads for Bluehost. The same thing happens on Facebook; if you "Like" Dell, HP, and Sony, suddenly you'll be mobbed with ads for PCs.

Well, this trend sure isn't stopping as most of us would like it to; in fact, it's spreading to mobile devices. Facebook recently announced that they would target your ads based on the apps you use.

How does this work? Well, many apps are integrated with Facebook, so if you've been using them, Facebook will know. And then, they'll show you ads with apps that they think you'll like based on the ones you already use. For example, if you download Words with Friends, Boggle, and Wordfeud, you'll notice that your Facebook app will be clogged with ads for word games.

Why is the company doing this? Well, they make much more money for ads for apps that you click on and install, rather than ads for a product that you click on and go to a web page. So they want to start advertising apps more; and this is how they're going to find the right ones.

While I assume there's nothing wrong with presenting us with what we're interested in, the fact that the app knows what you're interested in is a little bit scary. It makes you feel as if your every move on the internet is being recorded. But then again, that's completely true.

Soccer is Implementing Goal-Line Technology

2012-07-06T17:28:00.001-04:00

In the 1966 World Cup Finals, England's Geoff Hurst took a shot that hit the bottom of the crossbar, came down, and landed near the goal line. Though television cameras showed that this was in fact not a goal, it was ruled a goal by the officials. You could argue that it would be hard to tell what really happened, because technology wasn't advanced enough back then to make goal-line cameras.

In the 2010 World Cup Finals, England's John Terry cleared a ball from his own goal (above), and the officials ruled that there was no goal. Yet, television cameras showed that the ball had clearly crossed the goal line. But you can't argue with this one. By this time, the MLB, NBA, and NFL had all adopted technologies that allowed them to settle disputes over the ruling of the play. But soccer still adamantly refused to use technologies to settle their scoring disputes.

But finally, soccer has given in to the technology. On Thursday, the International Football Assosciation Board agreed to use goal-line technologies from the companies HawkEye and GoalRef. These technologies will start being used this December for the FIFA Club World Cup, and will be used for the 2014 World Cup.

How do these technologies work? HawkEye works by setting up 14 cameras around the stadium, while GoalRef uses a small chip inside the soccer ball and the natrual magnetic field of the goalposts. GoalRef is the cheaper of the two, though it still costs a whopping $175,000 per stadium to install. FIFA plans to use both of these technologies, which will alert the referee a second after the ball crosses the goal line.

20 Minutes Worth of Fireworks Launched in 15 Seconds in San Diego

2012-07-06T09:58:00.003-04:00

5 minutes before the fireworks were set to begin, a San Diego crowd of 500,000 saw the first firework launch. But not just the first. They saw all of them launch in 15 seconds, in what looked like a chaotic blob of red, yellow, orange, and white, with flares zipping all around it. The crowd cheered wildly, not knowing what to think, only to discover that those were all the fireworks. 20 minutes worth of fireworks had just been launched in 15 seconds.

According to San Diego officials, this was caused by a technical glitch in the program that set up the timing of the fireworks. This came as quite a surprise to them, because all preliminary testing of the system worked fine.

Reactions were very mixed on this issue. People used social media to express how mad they were about the bust of the fireworks, but others thought it was amazing to see this huge mess of fireworks. Some couldn't decide, and said it was the best and worst fireworks show ever.

Many people posted videos of this, which was dubbed the "Back Bay Boom" on YouTube. Check out one of the videos above.

Amazon Will Release Kindle Fire 2 in July with 10" Screen

2012-07-06T09:50:00.001-04:00

Until a few weeks ago, Amazon was sure it had the top spot in the budget tablet market. Anyone looking to find a decent tablet without the huge price tag of the iPad would almost always go for the Kindle Fire, a 7" dual-core tablet priced at just $200. But then things started to change.

First, Microsoft announced that it would be coming out with the Microsoft Surface, a 7" tablet that would have many exotic features such as a bigger Windows Phone 7 OS (the icons stay the same size, but you see more of them), a stylus, and a clip-on keyboard. These features made the tablet a boom-or-bust, and right now most people are predicting bust, so Amazon wasn't unsettled at all.

Then, Google announced their Nexus 7. This was trying to be the iPad killer, but one thing for sure is that it will kill the Kindle Fire. At the same $200 cost, it has twice the cores, is much faster, has a sharper display and a nicer OS, a front facing camera, GPS, Bluetooth, and a much nicer feel. Amazon realized that they had to do something, or the Kindle Fire would soon be extinct.

Now, a set of reports from China Times and BGR have told us exactly what they are doing. Amazon plans to release the Kindle Fire 2 in July.

According to these reports, the Kindle Fire 2 will stay at the same price as the current Kindle Fire, but will undergo many updates. First, its processor will be upgraded to a quad-core one. Second, its screen probably expand to 8.9" or 10" (probably the latter). Third, it will have a new metal casing on the exterior instead of the current plastic one.

The thing that I like to hear most on this list is the bigger screen size. On the current 7" Kindle Fire, reading magazines becomes tough, because you can't read the text, so you either have to zoom in on the page and pan around to follow the text (ugh...) or go on text mode where it displays the text in the format that books are in (Where did the pics go?). On a 10" Kindle Fire, I'm expecting that you wouldn't have to zoom in on the text, as it would already be readable.

When will this Kindle Fire be available? Well, shipping of the components for this device began in June, which means that it should be announced some time in late July. Stay tuned.

Apple to Launch iPad Mini in October

2012-07-05T13:24:00.002-04:00

It seems as if every year holds something different for tablets. According to Steve Jobs, 2010 was the year of the iPad. 2011, I'd say, was the year of the competitors. Samsung, Motorola, Sony, and many more companies tried to compete with the iPad. But what was 2012 the year of? Not the iPad 3; while its retina display was a significant change, it wasn't as much of a hit as the iPad 2. I'd say 2012 was the year of the budget tablets.

First, some iPad wannabes started surfacing. Though they costed as little as $99, they had awful specs and couldn't compete with Apple's offering at all. Then, Archos started making tablets for the price of just $250; half of the cheapest iPad. While this was quite amazing, the public didn't seem very interested, possibly because Archos isn't a very popular brand. Then, Xtex came out with the My Tablet, a $150 ICS tablet with a 7" screen. It fared slightly better, but the screen was extremely low resolution and the app offerings were few. After that, Amazon and Barnes & Noble upgraded their e-reader line with the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet. Both were $200 7" tablets running heavily overwritten versions of Android. The Nook Tablet fared fine, but the Kindle Fire became a serious iPad competitor and likely the first successful budget tablet. However, both were geared toward bookworms, not the general audience. A few months ago, Microsoft launched its Microsoft Surface, another budget tablet offering hoping to compete with the iPad. And last week, Google came out with the Nexus 7, a tablet that I'd say has true potential; it has specs comparable to a $400 tablet at $200.

Now, you'll notice something interesting here. In the tablet market, Apple was the first to come, and all the other companies followed up with competitors. But with budget tablets, the people who competed with the iPad are coming first. Apple has long said that it would never make a smaller iPad; Steve Jobs himself said that a smaller iPad screen would severely worsen the user experience.

But now, it's time for Apple to admit that they were wrong. Very many 7" tablets have came out by now, and they are all faring extremely well. I own the Kindle Fire myself, and I would strongly disagree with what Steve Jobs said. He's known for being extremely opinionated, and often right, but in this case, he's been proven wrong.

And, believe it or not, Apple is admitting that they made a misstep. They may be behind in the budget tablet market, but they want to catch up. In October 2012, Apple is most likely going to launch the iPad Mini.

Bloomberg and WSJ both reported that this October, Apple will release the "iPad Mini" alongside the iPhone 5. This iPad will have a 7.85" screen, slightly bigger than the 7" screen of the Kindle Fire, Microsoft Surface, and Nexus 7, but significantly smaller than the 9.7" screen of the current iPad.

To keep the cost of this iPad low, it will not include a retina display, and will have a screen resolution of 1024x768, which is about the same is that of other budget tablets. This means that current iPad apps will be able to be used on the iPad Mini without the developers modifying them. However, the report states that Apple plans to make everything on the screen smaller instead of keeping things the same size but not displaying as much information on one screen.

Thousands of Infected Computers Will Lose Internet Monday

2012-07-05T08:45:00.004-04:00

If your computer is infected, the DNS changer check-up site will look like this

280,000 computers are infected with malware that will cause their internet to shut down on Monday, July 9, 2012 if they don't remove the virus immediately. This is becoming a huge deal all over the internet, with sites like Facebook and Google posting warning messages to users who they detect have the virus. How did this all start?

Last year, international hackers set up an online advertising scam. When these ads were clicked on, the hackers would gain control of these computers by hooking them up wirelessly to malicious servers. The servers turned off anti-virus protection and other installed software on the infected computers, slowing down their internet and making them prone to even worse viruses. Luckily, the FBI found out about this, and set off to take down the hackers.

However, they realized that there was an important problem; if the FBI simply turned off the malicious servers, about 400,000 infected computers would lose internet connection. So, the FBI hired a private company to set up two clean temporary internet servers to replace these malicious servers.

But these servers will expire on July 9 at 12:01 a.m. So the 280,000 computers that were infected and are still connected to these servers will instantly lose internet connection. And this is a bigger deal than it may seem; it is estimated that 50 Fortune 500 computers are infected with this virus, and therefore will lose internet connection.

The FBI recommends that everybody check to see if their computer is infected with this virus by going on http://www.dns-ok.us/, which will detect if your computer is infected with this virus. If it is, DCWG (The FBI's site on this problem) has links to fix your computer so you won't lose connection.

Google's Nexus 7 Looks to Dominate the Budget Tablet Market

2012-07-03T19:38:00.000-04:00

For a very long time, tablets have been widely regarded as amazing pieces of technology too expensive for most of us to buy. When Apple released the first iPad in April 2010, most people were blown away by the beauty of the device and the possibilities of what you could use it for. But they were also blown away by the $500 price tag, more than double that of the iPhone's. Later, other companies such as Motorola, Samsung, Asus, Sony, Dell, and Microsoft came out with their own tablets, but it turned out that these were either even more expensive, or simply iPad wannabes with awful specs. It seemed as if tablets would remain a luxury reserved for the- well, luxurious.

But then, a market of budget tablets opened up. Xtex, a small tech company, was the first to really break into this category with their Xtex My Tablet, an Ice Cream Sandwich tablet for just $150. While it wasn't a complete wannabe, it still had the obvious feel of a cheaply made tablet. As one unsatisfied reviewer said, "Don't buy this tablet, it is made of cheap plastic and is not good. Sometimes the touch screen does not respond. Poor Wi-Fi connectivity. Low sound quality."

Then, Amazon and Barnes & Noble upgraded their respective Kindle and Nook lines to include budget tablets. Amazon made the Kindle Fire, and Barnes & Noble made the Nook Tablet. Both were 7" Android tablets with $200 price tags. However, the operating system on both had been heavily overwritten with the company's own operating system, which featured huge eBook stores and thousands of full color magazines available. While both were great tablets at a low price, they were geared towards bookworms rather than the average tablet user.

Now, it seems like Google has hit it big. They just introduced the Nexus 7, a beautiful 7" tablet running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean). It has a powerful quad-core processor, Bluetooth, a microphone, a front facing camera, GPS, a 1280x800 pixel display, an amazing feel, and a stunning 9 hour battery life. But the true killer thing about this tablet? Its $200 price tag.

Watch the video above, and you'll see what I mean. The most stunning thing about this tablet, despite its amazing features, is its price tag.

Another great thing about this tablet is that because Google also makes Android, the hardware and the software of this tablet are being made by the same company. Does that sound familiar? It's the very thing Steve Jobs said is what made Apple so successful. In a world where one company would write an operating system and another would make the computer, Jobs thought that computers could be much better if both tasks were done by the same company. And just as this philosophy was used by Apple to change the world of technology, Google is going to change the world of tablets with it.

How exactly did Google use this strategy? Well, take a look at the tablet and you'll see what I mean. First, Google Play, another Google service, is tightly integrated into the tablet. Music, books, magazines, videos, and apps can easily be bought from Google Play and, unlike the multi-step procedure used on other devices, downloaded directly to the tablet. Second, Google Chrome is the default browser on this tablet. Third, they upgraded their Google Maps app for the device. You can see inside locations you're going to, and you can even take virtual tours of the insides of some places. Fourth, it utilizes a lot of Google apps; you can access Gmail right from the homepage, you can use the front-facing camera for Google+ Hangouts, and all your usage syncs with your Google account.

The Nexus 7 will launch July 19, and is available for pre-order on Google's Nexus page. If you pre-order the device, it will arrive with $25 of free Google Play credit.

Update 1: Android 4.1 also has an amazing voice search feature that proves to be even better than Siri. It will likely be seen on this tablet. Check out a video of the feature in action here.

Update 2: Rumor has it that Apple will launch a "Mini iPad" (an iPad with a 7.85" screen) along with the iPhone 5 this October to compete with the Nexus 7.

3DX Word Game Adds a Third Dimension to Scrabble

2012-05-22T16:36:00.000-04:00

Ever since the hit word game Scrabble came out way back when, people have always been trying to make new variations on the game. Bananagrams added more entertainment to the game, Hexalex changed the shape of the tiles to hexagons, and Words with Friends, Wordfeud, Scrabble, and countless other games brought the game online. But now, 3DX is adding a whole new dimension to the traditional game. Literally.

As you can see in the images above, all of the 212 tiles in 3DX have grooves and inverse grooves so that you can connect them in any way; including vertically. That way, when you can't find any high-scoring horizontal words, you can just make one going vertically. And an element of physics is added to this game; you can't make the tiles topple.

Interestingly, the game doesn't include instructions (except for basic guidelines and scoring suggestions), which lets you decide what the rules will be. "Kids want to make up their own rules, to do things their way. They want to play the same game in as many different ways as they can invent and then come back the next day and find ten new ways to play," ThinkGeek says on the product description. It seems like the creators wanted to let people be creative in this version of Scrabble; not only can you build vertically, the rules and the scoring strategies are up to you.

Solidoodle 2 Becomes First Sub-$500 3D Printer

2012-05-16T17:04:00.001-04:00

3D printers could possibly be a revolutionary tool in the new era of technology. Many people are complaining that technology turns us from producers into consumers; we simply consume content instead of making it ourselves. But 3D printers are doing quite the opposite; start-ups or even ordinary people with good ideas can easily make their ideas real or make inexpensive prototypes without commissioning factories to do it for thousands of dollars. But there's been one reason why 3D printers haven't been making as much of a change in the world as they could be; they're too expensive.

The MakerBot replicator was considered unique and amazing when it hit the market, but its $1,999 price tag prevented it from reaching the mainstream audience. If you wanted, you could get MakerGear Mosaic 3D printer for $700, a kit that lets you assemble the printer yourself. But think of the time it takes to assemble the printer (at least a week), and the fact that you could ruin the printer if you assembled it incorrectly, and suddenly you're not headed right to their website to buy one.

But finally, a small startup in Brooklyn has achieved what most consumers would consider impossible knowing the price tags of similar items; breaking the $500 mark with a 3D printer. The printer is called the Solidoodle 2, and it could easily be a game changer for DIY people.

When I see something like this, my natural reaction is to look for the catch. So that's what I did. But amazingly, there's isn't one. As for size, it's 6"x6"x6" cube; while that's slightly smaller than the 8.9"x5.7"x5.9" MakerBot, but its size beats the 5.5"x5.5"x5.5" 3D Systems cube. Sure, printing is slightly harder (it can't print over Wi-Fi and doesn't have an SD card reader like the other two), but that isn't a big problem. And while it doesn't have a heated build platform (which helps keep the object in place during printing), the Pro model includes that for just $50 extra. The Expert model is $599, and it has the heated build platform and a metal and acrylic outer enclosure.

As for software, it uses Pronterface (above) and Skeinforge for controlling the printer and loading the prints. While it is relatively easy to make designs on these softwares, reorienting and rescaling prints isn't as easy. However, you can make designs on any software as long as you convert the file to STL format.

The Solidoodle 2 is currently on sale at Solidoodle's website. So now, finally, your ideas can be transformed into real, tangible objects. And you don't have to pay thousands of dollars for them.

iPhone 5 Could Have a Taller 4" Display

2012-05-14T17:35:00.001-04:00

Before the iPhone 4S came out, almost every rumor assured customers that it would see an increase to a 4" display. When it turned out that the screen of the 4S didn't change at all (in fact, the entire exterior didn't change at all), it was a big disappointment for many customers. Now, we hear rumors that the iPhone 5 will be the one to get the 4" display. But the thing that makes this report interesting is that the width of the screen won't change; Apple will just make the screen taller, changing the screen ratio from 4:3 to 16:9. Here's what that would look like:

But, Apple wouldn't simply stretch out the display. Instead, you'll just see more of the display. For example, on the home screen above, you'll see 5 rows of apps on every home screen; on the 4S you only see 4. And on the Twitter app below, you'll see more of the timeline, but proportions will stay the same.

One reason why some people are wary about this change is that it could change the snug feel that the iPhone 4S has in your hand. Because the height of the device will be increased by 0.4", your hand probably wouldn't touch the top of the device anymore, which might feel weird. Apple could counter this by making the bezel smaller, but iLounge reports that the bezel will only shrink by 0.04".

There are mixed reactions to the new design; while some are in favor of it (after all, if Apple's making the design, it has to be good...), others aren't so sure. First of all, it would be quite a hassle for app developers to make their apps compatible with the new screen size, and apps would look really weird before they made the switch. Second, this wouldn't quite solve the issue of the slightly cramped iPhone screen; many people are in favor of keeping the same aspect ratio in a new iPhone. Third, I find the back of the new iPhone a little bit ugly; the white-gray-white coloring looks too blocky and old.

You'll notice that this mockup shows the iPhone with a significantly smaller dock connector, which has also been rumored by several other sites. If this dock connector turns out to be micro-USB, that would make many of your other appliances compatible with the iPhone, but if it isn't, that will be a hassle, because your 30-pin chargers and other appliances won't work with the next iPhone.

Orangutans use iPads to Communicate

2012-05-12T15:12:00.002-04:00

"Orangutans are extremely intelligent but limited by their physical inability to talk," says Linda Jacobs, worker at a Miami zoo. And she's quite accurate. So, most animal experts have resorted to sign language to communicate with apes. And while it has worked rather well, most ordinary people don't know sign language, so apes still can't communicate with them. Now, finally, Linda Jacobs of Miami Zoo has found the 21st-century solution; using iPads.

Last summer, Jacobs heard of someone who had used an iPad to communicate with dolphins, and she got the idea to try a similar technique with apes. And so far, it's working very well. She uses a software originally designed for autistic humans. To practice communication skills, the trainer displays pictures of various objects on the screen. She names one of the objects, and the orangutan presses on the corresponding picture. The iPad helps keep them mentally stimulated, and helps them avoid boredom or depression.

The benefits of this program could be amazing one day. Right now, apes are able to tell trainers if they have pains in their body so that they can receive medical treatment. They can also talk with the trainer. Miami Zoo hopes that in the future, they'll have screens on the cage of the apes where you can ask them a question, and they'll respond. Better yet, the Apps for Apes program hopes to have video-conferencing systems where apes can reconnect with family members at other zoos through video chat. These programs are spreading quite rapidly. Similar programs are currently in zoos in Miami, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Toronto, and Houston.

Interestingly, the apes turn out to be a lot like us when it comes to technology. The 8-year old orangutan twins in the Miami Zoo love their iPad, and use it for drawing and playing games as well as learning communication skills. The teenagers are interested in the device as well, but the older orangutans show absolutely no interest in the device.

Jacobs's only problem is that the iPad is too breakable and expensive to actually hand over to the apes, so she has to hold the device while the orangutans enter their input. Additionally, the apes can't enter input to the iPad with their fingernails because it doesn't have a capacitive touchscreen. A company like Samsung or Sony might be able to modify one of their tablets to fit the needs of an orangutan as this new method of communication grows more popular. But maybe the orangutans prefer Apple.

iPhone 4S Review

2012-05-07T20:20:00.000-04:00

Unlike other iPhone upgrades, the upgrade to the iPhone 4S hasn't radically changed the world of smartphones. Neither did it look anything like the teardrop-shaped iPhone 5 rumors that we heard about. Yet, nevertheless, I'd still consider the iPhone 4S a substantial upgrade from the iPhone 4, with Siri, much better performance, longer battery life, and a much better camera.

Apple has succeeded in what their goal likely was with the 4S, bringing the specs of the iPhone up to that of many Android phones so that consumers have almost no reason to get an Android phone (unless they prefer the operating system or want more screen real estate), because the design of the iPhone is much nicer than what its competitors offer. Hit the read more button to see our full review of the 4S:

External

Many people are disappointed that the iPhone 4S looks exactly the same as its predecessor, the iPhone 4, but I'm glad that Apple didn't tinker with the case this time. Apple really hit the jackpot with the iPhone 4's case. It was a contrast to their previous products, which all had slight curves on the back. Instead, it was a curved block of aluminum that felt incredibly sturdy and solid in your hand. Its dense feel was much more satisfactory than the airy, plasticky complexion of most Android phones. So, they cleverly kept the same exterior that the iPhone 4S users loved, only moving a the controls by a few millimeters and adding 0.11 oz of weight.

Now, I know what you're probably all wondering by this point; did Apple fix the antenna problem? The answer, fortunately, is yes. While there are still two antennas, Apple added a nice feature to the 4S that lets it switch between the antennas in real-time; even if you're in the middle of a call. The difference is easy to see; you'll get more bars, and the iPhone 4's reputation of a call dropper hasn't been passed on to the 4S.

Internal

Siri

In 2010, Apple bought the company that made Siri, an app for the iPhone that was essentially a personal assistant. I had this app on my iPod Touch before it was available on the iPhone, so I'm able to compare the two versions, and I feel that it's much nicer having Siri baked into the operating system. It felt rather clumsy to have to open an app to talk to Siri, but now you can just hold the phone up to your ear and Siri starts listening.

Siri proves to be quite helpful, considering the range of things she can do. You can send text, email, or call someone, set reminders, get directions, play music, check the weather, call a taxi, and much more. But what really amazes me is her ability to understand speech that is usually used in conversation context. Unlike other similar programs, you don't have to use straightforward talk like "Directions to home". You can say "How do I get home?", "Give me directions to home", or "Where's home?"

What's even more impressive is her ability to remember things. You could say, "Tell my wife I'll be home at 6" and Siri will send the message. But how does Siri know your wife's number? Well, Siri doesn't at first, but as you start using Siri more, she starts remembering things like that. She even starts calling you by your name, though I find that feature slightly scary.

You'll notice that I've been using "she" to describe Siri, though the developers really made an effort to keep Siri gender-neutral; the name "Siri" doesn't imply a gender, and while her voice sounds more like that of a woman that it does of a man, it really could be either. I even tried asking Siri "Are you a man or a woman?", but she curtly responded "I'm not sure we have time for this". You could call Siri an "it," but it doesn't sound good calling something with a name an "it".

You might be wondering why Siri also responds to phrases that don't give instructions like the one asking her which gender she was. And if you test her out with more phrases, you'll be surprised at her performance. When asked if she knows any good jokes, she'll respond, "Two iPhones walk into a bar... I forget the rest." Yet the thing that makes her seem more human is that she doesn't only have one answer for these types of questions. She might also respond "no" or "unfortunately not" to this question. When asked the gender question, she sometimes responds "I wasn't assigned a gender" or "none".

More thrilling yet is her ability to use the context of a conversation to complete a task. Siri doesn't view each thing you say as an individual prompt. For example, if you ask Siri "Do I have any new emails?" and she shows you a new email that you have, you can say, "Reply, Ok, that's fine by me" and she'll reply for you.

As far as Siri goes, the only bad news is that she only works on the 4S. Apple claims that this is because a fast processor is needed for voice recognition, but because you need an active data connection for Siri (even for the commands that don't require the internet, like adding a reminder), that must mean that all of the processing is taking place in a cloud in Apple's headquarters, which would mean that other iDevices would be able to run her. But even if what they say is true, that doesn't explain why they didn't put Siri on the new iPad, which has the same specs as the 4S.

Performance

Apple basically reworked the internals of the iPhone 4S, most notably using an A5 processor. They tell you it's dual-core, but they don't tell you that it runs at 800 MHz, a step down from the 1 GHz it runs on on the new iPad. In addition, the memory options are doubled (iPhone 4 came in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB models, and the 4S comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB), though I would've liked to see an upgrade from the current 512MB of ram.

In addition, you'll almost always be connected to 3G with the 4S; it works on quad-band UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, GSM, and EDGE networks, as well as dual-band CDMA. Sadly, the phone doesn't support 4G networks, which many of us were hoping for. However, AT&T's HSPA+ network is supported.

On SunSpider 9.1 JavaScript benchmark, a web rendering test, the 4S really wowed us; it scored 2,200 ms, as compared to the 3,700 ms that the iPhone 4 clocked in at (lower is better). Amazingly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 also gets 2,200 on that test, though the iPad 2 blows away the competition with a remarkable 1,700.

While you'll notice that web pages and apps load faster, the graphics on the iPhone are amazing. Scrolling is extremely fluid, and games like Infinity Blade have absolutely mind-blowing graphics. However, if LTE were available on the 4S, that could significantly boost internet connection speeds (though they are quite fast already), which is why this was a disappointment for us. The iPhone 5, however, will almost certainly have LTE.

Battery Life

Apple claims that the iPhone 4S gets 8 hours of talk time on 3G, which is up from just 7 on the iPhone 4, a change resulting from a slightly bigger battery. Interestingly, standby time is just 200 hours on the 4S, down from 300 on the iPhone 4. The other numbers haven't changed; 14 hours of talk time on GSM, 10 hours of watching video, and 40 hours of music.

Camera

We learned a few months back that the iPhone 4 was the most used phone for uploading photos on Flickr, and apparently Apple decided to give their users yet another reason to use their iPhone; an 8 MP camera with full HD (1080p) video. The image sensor is backside-illuminated, and the aperture has improved to an f/2.4. HDR was introduced in iOS 4.1, and it remains available for the iPhone 4S.

The speed of the camera is simply amazing. With HDR off, I was able to shoot photos at a rate of 1.5 photos per second. With HDR on, however, that diminished to 0.4 photos per second. Focusing is very accurate and quick, even when macro shots.

Conclusion

Ever since the first iPhone came out back in January 2007, it has been the biggest competitor in the smartphone market. Even when Samsung, Motorola, Sony, and many other companies made their own faster, larger, and lighter phones running Android, the iPhone still held its place. And to this day, it's extremely hard to go out in public without spotting one.

Many people say the reason why Android phones aren't doing as well as the iPhone is that they aren't designed as well. But then again, the only reason why Android phones are competing is that they have better performance and larger screens than the iPhone. So while some people are disappointed that the visual design of the iPhone didn't change at all in this update (especially after all those teardrop-shaped iPhone 5 rumors), I don't see it that way. In my eyes, this update was just to have the iPhone's performance match that of the high-level Android phones. And with a new processor, a new camera, and Siri, this was a job well done.

Samsung Advertises the Galaxy Tab on the Streets

2012-05-06T08:45:00.000-04:00

Since the Samsung Galaxy Note was released, it's been an intriguing discussion topic for us techies. And while it hasn't been doing bad, it hasn't exactly created an entirely new product category of smartphone-tablet hybrids like Samsung hoped it would. So now, Samsung and AT&T are doing more than just web and TV advertising; they're trying out street advertising.

My guess is that Samsung realized something quite important; one can't appreciate the beauty and the extra screen real estate of their Galaxy Note until they hold it and use it in person. So, they decided to try out street advertising, a concept that may well be as unique and risky as the Galaxy Note itself.

As you can see from the pictures, Samsung representatives rode around Philadelphia in Chevy Tahoes covered with Galaxy Note ads. The cars weren't circulating; they were parked, and the representatives came out of the cars to show off the Galaxy Note to passer-bys, hoping that a few would be so amazed by the device that they would buy it themselves.

It's possible that street advertising will become popular, and that we'll soon bump into representatives selling smartphones, tablets, computers, cameras and TVs every time we walk outside. But for now, the representatives are selling an item that doesn't fit in any of the above categories; it has its own.

Ariel Atom Simulator Has 180° View

2012-05-06T08:37:00.000-04:00

When it comes to getting bang for your buck, the Ariel Atom probably ranks in the top spot among sports cars. But sometimes, a different type of bang occurs with sports cars; the type that sends you to the auto repair shop. Sometimes, you aren't talented enough to drive a sports car, or you aren't permitted to drive it faster than 65 mph. So, Ariel has teamed up with Motion Simulation to get you the best of both worlds; a racing simulator with a 180° view.

This new simulator uses 3 projector screens acting as one to offer you a 180° view, where you can't see the bezel. To make your ride even more realistic, the seat changes to resemble different types of cars or aircraft. And, if you really want to get immersed in your ride, you can choose to have the seat give you a jolt when you hit a bump in the road.

As far as compatibility goes, it's fine with your computer as long as it supports the extra-wide 5760x1200 resolution, and runs Windows XP, Vista, or 7. Unfortunately, it may not be compatible with your wallet right now, with a starting price of 11,500 Euros (that's $18,600). But nevertheless, I have a feeling that this is just the first step in a movement that will create more and more amazing simulators. And not just for racing.

AT&T CEO Regrets Offering Unlimited Data

2012-05-05T15:47:00.001-04:00

As most Apple followers know, AT&T offered unlimited data plans at $30/month when the iPhone first came out. However they quickly removed this option, making users either pay for a certain amount of data (200 MB, 2GB, or 4GB), or pay-per-use. So, until Sprint decided to offer unlimited data plans for the iPhone 4S, users had to settle with this option.

Now, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has expressed regrets about offering unlimited data. “My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat,” he said in the on-stage interview at the Milken Institute’s Global Conference on Wednesday. “And it’s a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital," he said at a recent conference. He also said he didn't like Skype and iMessage, because AT&T doesn't generate as much revenue from them. However, AT&T has remained the most prominent iPhone carrier, with 60% of current iPhone users using AT&T. They had $29 billion in sales last quarter.

Interestingly, Sprint has not expressed any concerns about their "everything" plan, which includes unlimited data. In fact, they recently stated that they would continue to offer this plan for the iPhone even when it got 4G abilities.

Kindle Fire Review

2012-04-17T20:19:00.003-04:00

There are many tablets out there on the market that are geared towards many types of people. You'll find tablets for movie-lovers, gamers, businessmen, travelers, budget-minded people, and many more. Yet, while you can easily download iBooks or a Kindle app on any of these tablets, there seems to be only one truly geared for readers. That tablet is the Kindle Fire.

The Kindle Fire was released last October in a New York City event. It generated great commotion, and is now the most bought product on Amazon. Unlike many other tablets, its design is more minimalistic, which Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said they did to let you "lose yourself in the content you love" as its border seems to disappear. What really caused commotion was its price tag: just $199. Usually, low price tags make us wonder if its performance will be good enough, as that's usually how companies cut down on price. Yet, somehow, the Kindle Fire has still been able to compete with other tablets despite this. Jump past the break to read the full review.

External

Amazon seemed to aim for a minimalistic design when the built the Kindle Fire, which certainly makes reading more enjoyable. The 7" screen is a nice improvement from the 6" screen on E-Ink Kindles, and the rubber backing makes holding the Fire in your hands much nicer.

Though it may be a subtle engraving, the "kindle" written on the back of the gadget seems to make you look more professional when you read. I'm pleased that they chose to put their logo on the back of the device, as I found the logo on the top of E-Ink Kindles rather distracting.

While the Kindle Fire is lighter than some of its competitors, such as the BlackBerry Playbook, its 14.6 oz weight is slightly heavier than the 9 oz E-Ink Kindles. By no means does the Fire weigh you down or become tough to hold when you read, but I would prefer a slightly lighter device. The compactness of the device proves to be very useful when reading, and it also makes it easier to carry around. The Fire measures 7.5" by 4.7", and its only 0.47" thick.

The Kindle Fire packs a lot of weight into a small space, and for some reason I've grown to like that dense feel. It makes the Kindle feel much more solid, and it doesn't feel like a cheap wannabe iPad like many other cheap tablets on the market.

The only button that can be found on the Kindle Fire is a small power button on the bottom used to sleep, wake, shut down, or turn on the device. As with previous Kindles, the button turns orange when the Kindle is charging, and green when the Kindle is plugged in but has finished charging. There aren't any volume or brightness buttons, but the interface on the Kindle makes those buttons very easy to access.

Unfortunately, Amazon didn't put in HDMI port in the Fire, but they do have a micro-USB port for charging and a headphone jack, the latter of which would be hard to live without, because the speakers are rather tinny and not too loud. You won't find a light sensor either, but I'd say Amazon was smart not to include some of these frills, as they would've bumped the cost up significantly.

Internal

Display

The Kindle's 1024 by 600 display (0.6 MP) isn't as sharp as some other tablets, and that's rather noticeable. Its pixel density is 169 ppi, meaning it won't wow you like a retina display does, but its not to chunky either. Books seem completely fine to me (I disagree with Apple's theory that text has to be crystal-clear when you read). Movies aren't bad either, though it would be nice to have a display sharp enough to see HD movies on.

The brightness of the Fire's IPS panel is rather impressive (I've never had to use full brightness, even when reading outside), and its viewing angle isn't bad considering that you won't really be looking at it from odd angles a lot.

The display makes the reading experience much different for users like me that are making the switch from an E-Ink Kindle. While an E-Ink Kindle is slightly easier on the eyes and easier to read outside, text on the Fire's screen is much clearer, has much more color depth, and allows me to read in bed without using a reading light, an experience I found thrilling.

Battery

This is the only place where E-Ink Kindles really dominate. E-Ink screens are by far more energy efficient than color screens, which is why the 4th gen E-Ink Kindle can undergo 15 hours of reading with wireless off (or 10 with wireless on) on a single charge; that's an entire month if you read for 30 minutes a day.

Not to say that the Kindle Fire has poor battery life. My testing showed that it can play a movie for 7 hours and 40 minutes on a single charge. Reading consumes less energy, so I'd estimate it could undergo about 10 hours of reading on a single charge, which certainly isn't a far cry from the E-Ink Kindle's 15 hours.

While this can't compete with the 9-10 hr battery life offered by larger tablets such as the iPad, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the TouchPad, only one 7" tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, managed a longer battery life than the Fire. Even then, the Fire only lost by 27 minutes. The Playbook only gets 7 hours, the Toshiba Thrive 6.5 hours, and the Galaxy Tab 7.0 a miserable 6 hours.

Performance

This is the spot where most budget tablets fail to impress. Surprisingly, the Kindle Fire fared quite well in my testing, clearly outperforming other competitors such as the BlackBerry Playbook and the Nook Tablet. Obviously, its performance can't match that of $500+ tablets like the iPad and the Galaxy Tab 2.

The Kindle Fire sports an impressive 1 GHz dual-core processor, though I'd like to see more RAM added to its current 512 MB. It also might be a good idea for Amazon to make their own operating system instead of modifying Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) a lot, because that likely takes up a lot of system memory.

Apps run very smoothly on the Kindle Fire. I had no problem with any of the apps I downloaded, which include Sketch n' Draw, Sudoku Free, Words With Friends, Pulse News, and Quick Office. 2D games like Angry Birds and Falldown Classic run quite seamlessly, as do 3D games like Fruit Ninja.

The only app the Fire seems to have trouble with is its web browser. It often shows a dark screen for 5-10 seconds before opening. It stopped responding twice out of about 25 uses, which isn't too good.

I only had one major performance problem with the Kindle Fire. I opened the web browser and performed a Google search, but the page wouldn't load. I restarted the browser, but it only showed a dark gray screen. After waiting a minute and seeing no response from my Kindle, I went back to my home screen and decided to restart the device. However, the Fire only showed an orange spinning wheel; it clearly couldn't stop the browser. Seeing nothing else to do after a minute (it usually takes 5 seconds max to shut down), I pushed the power button again.

Bad move. The screen went blank, and when I tried turning the device on, nothing happened. After calling Amazon customer support, I learned that holding down the power button for 20 seconds made the gadget reboot from stretch. After trying the trick, it finally turned on. The good news: I hadn't killed my Kindle Fire. The bad news: the browser almost made me.

In general, however, the graphics were slightly choppy; turning the page didn't flow as much as it does on the iPad, and scrolling down didn't feel as nice as it does on some other tablets. This must be a problem with the app, not the software, as the carousel on Amazon's home page was surprisingly smooth.

Interface

Technically, the Kindle Fire runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), but Amazon modified it so much that if I hadn't heard about the Kindle's OS previously, I would've thought Amazon made their own operating system. The only thing left from Gingerbread is its app store.

Pressing the power button on the Kindle Fire, you'll be greeted with a very simple lock screen; A black strip across the screen with the time and date, and an arrow on the right side of the screen that you can drag across to unlock. Password protection is optional, but I'd recommend it when using your Kindle in public. If you choose a letters as a password, a semi-transparent keyboard will appear when you slide the arrow, or a number pad will appear if you choose numbers only.

Upon unlocking your device, you'll find one of my favorite home screens I've seen on a device. At the top of the screen, you'll find a carousel. This allows you to flip through your most recently used items, whether they are books, movies, documents, apps, or any other form of content. Because the apps you use most frequently will usually show up in the first few titles of the carousel, it makes finding what you want very easy. Some people disagree with me, but I far prefer this to Apple's home screen, where my home screens get so cluttered up I end up using Spotlight Search, which is quite slow and clumsy.

For the people that prefer Apple's interface, you'll find icons below the carousel if you scroll down. However, these icons don't show all of your content; just the ones that you use frequently, hence the name "favorites." You can put anything on your favorites simply by holding your finger on it and selecting "Add to Favorites". You can easily rearrange your favorites icons by holding down on them and dragging them to another spot. Some people say that when trying to open applications from the carousel, the device instead flips to the next item. Maybe its that they have awful motor skills, but I don't see this problem at all. It hasn't happened to me once.

If you choose, you can navigate the interface by choosing Newsstand, Books, Music, Video, Docs, or Apps from the top of the screen. And instead of having an icon for the web on your favorites, Amazon puts it with those tabs at the top of the screen.

When you tap on one of the tabs, you'll view all of the content stored in your cloud. Everything you get is stored on your personal cloud space, which offers up to 5 GB of storage. You can also switch to the "Device" tab, which shows only the content stored on your device. To download an item from your cloud onto your fire, you just tap it and the download starts.

Amazon placed a simple, intuitive notification bar at the top of the screen. At the top left, it shows the name of your device, which can easily be changed on Amazon's "Manage Your Kindle" page. If you include the word "Kindle" in your device name, its color changes to orange on the notification bar, which adds a nice touch of style to your device. In the center is the current time, and on the left is a gear, a Wi-Fi strength symbol, and a battery life indicator. Touching the gear opens a drop down menu where you can quickly adjust your volume and brightness, lock or unlock your device orientation, connect to a Wi-Fi network, or sync your Kindle. You can also tap "More", which brings you to a list of more settings.

I find this feature to be quite useful for quickly adjusting my brightness when my surroundings change, or connecting to a nearby Wi-Fi network. Its much faster than Apple's "Settings" icon, because you can access the quick settings from any app, and they only show the settings you change frequently.

The fact that you have to tap at the bottom of the screen to bring up your notification bar and the dock at the bottom with home, menu, and back buttons is a little bit clumsy, but I find it worth it, because a home button might distract from your reading. I would've liked a multitasking tray, but going to the carousel isn't much slower, and besides, apps remember where you left off.

Browser

Amazon's Silk browser is unique in the sense that it doesn't use your Wi-Fi to actually load the page. Instead, it uses your Wi-Fi to send signals to the cloud saying what you want it to process, and to receive them back from the cloud when it has finished processing your page. This technology has proven to be much faster than almost any other browser on the market, and it doesn't hog your Wi-Fi as much.

Thanks to this cloud technology, web pages loaded much faster than they did on tablets with similar specs to the Kindle Fire. The Fire is great for people like me who chose not to have particularly fast Wi-Fi in order to save money, because it depends on the speed of your Wi-Fi network much less.

This explains why some technology blogs are reporting that the Playbook loads pages just as fast as the Fire; because if your Wi-Fi is almost as fast as Amazon's cloud (as the Wi-Fi networks of many techies are), than it doesn't really matter if you use Silk or not. So if you have a rather slow Wi-Fi network in your home, Silk should be a huge plus when you consider your tablet options, but if your Wi-Fi is already very fast, Silk shouldn't matter to you at all.

As far as the browser interface goes, I like it; the address bar disappears as you scroll down, but your list of tabs is always there. Just like the iPad, it has a reading feature, and it's easy to bookmark pages - or even add them to your home screen favorites - from the browser.

Keyboard

By no means is the Kindle Keyboard bad, but it certainly could see some improvements. It is one of the first keyboards to offer suggestions of the word you're trying to type above the keyboard, which makes typing much quicker. My only complaint is that while adding a period button to the bottom row of the keyboard is useful, it crams the spacebar into the left side of the screen, so you.might.hit.the.period.instead.of.the.spacebar.sometimes.

Naturally, the keyboard is slightly cramped in portrait mode (though you'll soon get used to it), while it's much nicer in landscape.

Reading Books

You can tell Amazon put a lot of effort into the interface of reading books; after all, it's called Kindle Fire for a reason. One of the nicest features is that if you do reading on other Kindles, smartphones, tablets, or computers, you'll be able to pick up right where you left off on your other device. And all the Kindle books you've ever downloaded come free on your cloud. If you're a member of Amazon Prime, you can even lend books to other Prime members, just like you can on Nooks.

When reading, tapping on the right side of the screen turns the page forward, tapping on the left side of the screen turns the page backwards, or you can swipe in either direction. Amazon doesn't give you the page-turning visual found on iBooks, which is nice because I find that feature distracting.

Tapping in the middle of the screen pulls up the menu, and tapping on the "Aa" icon from there brings up a beautiful list of options. You can choose black text on white background, which is my favorite color theme, or you can choose white text on black background, which is easier on your eyes. Finally, you can choose brown text on yellow background, which gives your book an old-fashioned look. You can also choose from 8 available fonts, though I prefer the default font, Georgia. If you don't know on a word, simply hold down on it, and a definition appears, as well as options to make a note, highlight, web search, or share.

Reading Magazines

One feature that has pulled many buyers, including me, to the Kindle Fire instead of an E-Ink Kindle is its ability to read full-color magazines. There are over 500 titles available on the newsstand store with a huge variety of topics, so there's sure to be a few that tickle your fancy. I subscribed to Wired, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Many of the magazines have "Page View" enabled, which means you can view the pages as they actually look on the magazine. However, the small screen becomes a problem here; not only is it rather small, it has different dimensions than paper, so there's some gray space above the magazine pages. You can toggle between page view and another mode named "Text View", which takes the articles of the magazine and puts them in exactly the same format used to read books. I typically use page view to flip through the pages of the magazine, and when I find a good-looking article, I read it on text view.

For some reason I can't understand, I find that when reading Kindle magazines, I read many more of the articles than I do when I read text magazines. Maybe its because I'm not intimidated by all of the remaining pages in the magazine because I can't see them, or maybe it's just because I enjoy the articles more when I read them in Kindle format. But as far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing.

Conclusion

Considering its $200 price tag, the Kindle Fire is quite a mind-blowing product. While power users may not be satisfied with its sub-par specs, Amazon isn't gearing the Fire toward power users. It's the first tablet truly geared towards readers.

Even if you aren't a reader, I'd still recommend getting the Kindle Fire. Its beautiful interface really encouraged me to read, and I found that that was quite a good thing. Most people don't realize that settling down with a good book is far more enjoyable than other things people do in their free time. They don't realize that you don't have to be a bookworm to have fun with a book.

See, in life, a lot of things that seem like they would be a lot of fun actually aren't very fun. Many people can't wait for vacations, only to realize that they're far more boring than they thought. Many people look forward to playing video games on the couch, only to realize that all it does is waste their time. And a lot of things that don't seem to fun turn out to be a lot of fun. Most of these things are different for everybody; for me, running Tech n' Cars is much more fun than I thought it would be. Yet only one thing in this category seems to hold true for everybody; reading.

Many things that aren't as fun as they seem appear fun because they involve technology. Good examples of this include video games, web surfing, and YouTube videos. So, reading a book on a Kindle Fire seems fun because the technology is amazing. And it actually is fun; but for a different reason. So ultimately, the Kindle Fire has finally made reading seem as fun as it really is. And as ridiculous as these last two paragraphs may sound, they're true. Before I got my Kindle Fire, I finished a book about every two months. Now, I'm finishing a book every week. And loving the technology.

The Kindle Fire can be bought at OfficeMax here: Kindle Fire B0061VVO5S

Twitter tried to buy Instagram before Facebook did

2012-04-15T09:45:00.001-04:00

Last week, Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion, neutralizing an incoming threat for Facebook and making nine Instagram employees instantly rich. Apparently, Facebook didn't have any competition for this acquisition. Or did they? Not if a New York Times report claiming that Twitter tried to acquire Instagram in the months before Facebook did is true.

According to the report, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tried to acquire Instagram in the months before Facebook tied up the deal, but they only managed to raise the price that Facebook paid to $1 billion. It's not hard to tell that Dorsey isn't happy about this; all his spokespeople declined to comment, and he no longer uses Instagram to upload photos to Twitter.

The report also includes information about how Instagram will change after its acquisition by Facebook. The app isn't going away, but it'll be working with Facebook to build the service. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, said that they'll try to "build on Instagram's strengths, not absorb its features." You'll still be able to post pictures onto other social networking sites, And yes, that list will include Twitter.

Next MacBook Pro could sport a retina display and an SSD

2012-04-15T09:41:00.001-04:00

With the launch of the next MacBook Pro about 3 months away, we're pretty sure to see Intel's latest Ivy Bridge chip inside. But this chip could really open the doors for Apple. And when the doors are opened for Apple, great things happen.

First off, this processor could power a retina display, presumably a 2560 by 1600 one, which is the resolution Kirk Skaugen of Intel mentioned at a Beijing conference. He specifically used the word retina. Currently, it would be hard for Apple to use a retina display on its MacBook Pro, because a Sandy Bridge processor doesn't have enough power to support a retina display without impacting speed and battery life. But just as a quad-core A5X processor allowed the new iPad to get a retina display, an Ivy Bridge processor could allow the next MacBook Pro to have a retina display. Besides some pages on Macs, like the system preferences window, have a resolution of a retina display (though this resolution can't be displayed through current Mac displays), which means Apple is already upgrading its OS to support retina.

Second, a USB 3.0 port could be paired with a Thunderbolt port on the next MacBook Pro, which could boost upload speeds significantly.

Finally, Apple would make the MacBook Pro thinner, as the price of SSDs is dropping rapidly. A 128 GB SSD now costs less than $100, which means Apple could allow battery life and thinness to improve despite the added burden of a retina display without increasing the cost of the MacBook Pro.

This new processor will allow Apple to do much more with their line of MacBooks. And when technology improves, Apple makes good use of it. Time and time again.

Why Facebook needs to make their own internet browser

2012-04-15T09:39:00.001-04:00

In 2008, before Google Chrome was released, 68.5% of people browsing the web were using Internet Explorer. Now, only 35% of internet users use Internet Explorer, while 31% use Google Chrome. This means that in less than 3 months, Google Chrome will become the world's most popular browser. Which is why Facebook desperately needs to make their own browser.

Now, I know you're thinking I'm crazy. After all, Facebook is a social networking company. Why on Earth would they need a web browser? See, Google isn't launching Search, Android, Chrome, Calendar, and its myriad of other products all as stand-alones that each generate a bit of revenue. Google is making these products to help one another. For example, Search is helping Google+ with "Search+ Your World", a new feature in Google Search that lets pictures and posts from your friends in Google+ appear on search results.

Now that Chrome is becoming so popular, they can easily use this to their advantage. Google could turn their browser into a Google+ version of Rockmelt (a social browser) that puts Google+ notifications, updates, hangouts, and friend requests right before your eyes faster than you can type "facebook.com" While Google+ has only 170 million users to Facebook's 1 billion, allowing Google to do this to the world's most popular browser could easily change that number.

So what can Facebook do about this? Since they don't have any control over what Microsoft, Mozilla, and most importantly, Google do with their browsers, they're left with one option; make their own browser. Now, tech companies are known to have very good foresight, so it's possible that a Facebook browser is already in the works. But it's also possible that Mark Zuckerberg is reading this post, saying to himself, "Shoot. This guy's right."

22% of Americans don't use the internet

2012-04-15T09:36:00.000-04:00

While almost everything changes a lot over time in the world of technology, it always amazes me to think of how much the internet has changed. In less than a decade, the internet went from a dream to a necessity. But it's been hard to tell how the internet has evolved after that. That's why Pew Research Center just made a study about internet usage evolving over time.

According to the study, 78% of Americans use the internet regularly. While many people may regard this number as shockingly low, it's actually quite impressive considering that only 12% of Americans used the internet regularly in 2000. Besides, this number includes people in very poor parts of America.

What's even more interesting is the patterns the researchers noticed. A similar study a decade ago identified gender and race as the biggest factors in internet usage. Now, however, gender and race no longer can predict how much people use the internet. Instead, age is the key factor. When asked if they use the internet regularly, 94% of Americans age 18-29 said yes, compared to only 74% of Americans 50-64 and 41% of Americans 65 or older.

What caused these huge changes? Apparently, social networking sites did the trick. Facebook has 1 billion users, which certainly ramped up internet usage. And Google+ is almost at 200 million users in only a few months. These sites made their biggest mark on internet usage of the elderly. In fact, four times as many Americans 74 or older are using Facebook or Twitter than in 2008.

Internet usage is clearly changing rapidly, which is why we can only guess what the Internet will be like in another decade. Sites could be more directed to the poor and the elderly, the two groups of people who used the internet the least. More users could also mean a greater variety of content. The only thing for sure is that it'll change a lot.

Thunderbolt for PCs is arriving soon

2012-04-15T09:29:00.001-04:00

Thunderbolt has the potential to be a revolutionary technology, with a lightning-quick (hence its name) 10 gb/s upload speed. At this rate, it can upload an entire HD movie in just 30 seconds. Yet, one thing is holding it back from becoming the most popular upload technology in the world; it's only compatible with Macs. Only 15% of computers in use are Macs, which limits possibilities for devices with Thunderbolt. However, a new report by CNet says that LaCie might make this technology available on PCs.

According to the report, LaCie will unveil PC compatibility for Thunderbolt, along with PC versions of both Little Big Disk SSD and 2big Thunderbolt. Bringing Thunderbolt technology to PCs would drastically improve upload times, and it would make the technology much more common. It could also make HD movies more common. The only thing for sure is that you won't have to spend seemingly endless times in front of your computer, waiting for that huge file to download.