Rumors have been circulating the Web for weeks now that the company will release a new series of cameras that records images only in black and white.

A post from rangefindforum.com shows that this isn’t just a rumor but appears to be true to form.

This latest line from Leica features a new monochrome CCD sensor with a resolution of 18 million pixels. It is said that the images being produced are ‘100% sharper’ due to the direct processing of raw data with no interpolation or color filter array. Noise produced by the camera is said to be ‘extremely fine-grained’ up to ISO 10,000.

The post from the rangefindforum.com said that a Leica APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH will be joining the new M-system. This cam will most likely hit the shelves this August.

The new Leica line is called the Leica M Monochrom.

Image Source: blogspot.com

Individuals who have Smartphones or even ordinary cell phones usually turn their devices off when travelling abroad for fear of a skyrocketing bill due to high charges of international calls or messaging.

The EU union placed a cap in roaming charges that will take effect on the 1^st of July. This will cut your bill for roaming to about two-thirds.

About 578 members of the European parliament voted in favor of the cap.

By July 2014, subscribers of Telecom companies will be able to choose a separate mobile roaming provider when abroad.

Analysts from Informa Telecoms and Media states that this move will increase the use of email and internet on smartphones.

Mobistar said that the caps combines with reduced termination rates would hit the company and will take 58 million off their revenue for this year. Mobile termination rates is a fee Telecom companies charge each other for use of their networks.

Stephane Beyazian said that the benefits of increased mobile data usage will not take effect immediately. She said, “That traffic is unlikely to triple by 2014 to make up for the loss.”

Image Source: telecoms.com

According to EVP for Smartphone Business at RIM Carlo Chiarello, “The new BlackBerry 9320is designed to make it incredibly easy for users to stay socially-connected. The new BlackBerry Curve 9320 will be especially popular with customers upgrading to a smartphone for the first time and existing Curve customers looking for a step up in speed and functionality.”

The company says that this device has everything an individual needs to keep in touch with other individuals. It has a dedicated BBM key and the usual QWERTY keyboard.

RIM says that the long battery life of the 9320 can give the users about 7 hours of talk time.

Users can interact with their social network in real time, using pre-loaded applications for Facebook and Twitter. The 9320 also features a camera and a flash and photos can be tagged with their location due to the built-in GPS in the device.

The package comes with the new BlackBerry 7.1 OS. Unfortunately for some, it doesn’t come with the new BlackBerry 10.

Image Source: gogi.in

So how can the average Joe find a quality app in the sea of apps?

Well AppMyWorld thinks that they could do the job for your iPhone, iPad and iPod.

This app makes it easier for us to choose an app that is specific to our needs. AppMyWorld scours the Web for reviews of apps then aggregates their review scores into an AppScore.

The AppScore is a measure of quality that enables users to see how professional reviewers rate their experience with an app.

 AppMyWorld founder Will von Bernuth says, “At AppMyWorld, we believe aggregating professional reviews results in an objective measure of an app or game’s quality and helps users determine the top apps and games. It’s a model that has worked well in other industries such as movies and console games.”

There are about 30,000 reviews and 5,000 apps and games with an AppScore with numerous numbers being added daily.

Image Source: twimg.com

The new version also includes Malware Freezer, a module that ‘freezes’ detected malware for seven days by placing it in quarantine. This tool ensures system stability, restoring false positive files.

Panda Cloud Office Protection 6.0 is a cloud-based security service for PCs, servers and corporate laptops managed remotely from anywhere through its Web-based console.

Panda Cloud Office Protection’s infrastructure is fully hosted in the cloud, eliminating the difficulties managing remote users and hardware costs associated with a client-server security model. As always, Panda’s endpoint security service can be installed remotely, either through a distribution tool or email, without requiring the installation of a remote access add-on. The solution also offers group policies for advanced configuration of protection levels; concise and informative malware and threat reports; and a unified, centralized quarantine.
The new version is hosted in Windows Azure, a cloud platform hosted in Microsoft data centers and designed to support highly available, scalable and reliable applications. Windows Azure uses a set of privacy and security controls that ensure maximum protection of its hosted data and applications.

For more information, please visit http://www.pandasecurity.com/uk/enterprise/solutions/cloud-office-protection/

You can view the first review of Panda Cloud Office Protection 6.0 from http://www.itproportal.com/2012/05/02/panda-cloud-office-protection-review/

About Panda Security
Founded in 1990, Panda Security is the world’s leading provider of cloud-based security solutions, with products available in more than 23 languages and millions of users located in 195 countries around the World. Panda Security was the first IT security company to harness the power of cloud computing with its Collective Intelligence technology. This innovative security model can automatically analyze and classify thousands of new malware samples every day, guaranteeing corporate customers and home users the most effective protection against Internet threats with minimum impact on system performance. Panda Security has 61 offices throughout the globe with US headquarters in Florida and European headquarters in Spain.
Panda Security collaborates with Special Olympics, WWF and Invest for Children as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility policy.
For more information, visit http://www.pandasecurity.com/ or our press site http://press.pandasecurity.com/.

At this day and age of mini thumb drives, nothing compares to the Kingston’s Wi-Drive. They have unveiled this technology a few years ago, and now they are upping the ante with the release of their new 64GB Wi-Drive.

The Wi-Drive is compatible with pretty much any wireless-capable devices out there in the market.

This enables you to store any content, may it be music files, video files or any files for that matter, from your wi-fi enabled device to this Wi-Drive. The speed of the transfer rate is fast and can even stream content to an iPad and iPhone simultaneously.

The company says that you can use the Wi-Drive up to three devices all together. You can access the Wi-Drive from any number of devices. The catch is that, the more devices that are trying to access the device, the slower the speed.

It charges via USB and can last up to 8 hours with a single charge.

Unfortunately, the company has yet to release the price of the 64GB Wi-Drive. The 32GB version is pegged at $89.95. So just do the math.

Image Source: legitreviews.com

Well, Nevadans need not look that far to see a driverless car plying their highways and streets.

The State Department of Motor Vehicles gave Google a license to test their autonomous vehicle. The company’s autonomous Toyota Prius will be tested in the desert city.

Though state regulations require a person sitting behind the wheel and one in the passenger’s seat during the tests, make no mistake about it. It is not being driven by a human.

According to DMV spokesperson Tom Jacobs, “It’s still a work in progress. The system regulates the brakes, accelerator and steering.”

Google is actually not testing only one vehicle. In fact they have a fleet of eight vehicles to test. They have Six Toyota Priuses, a Lexus RX 450h and an Audi TT.

The license plates of these vehicles will have a red background and an infinity symbol on the left side.

DMV director Bruce Breslow said, “I feel using the infinity symbol was the best way to represent the ‘car of the future’”.

Image Source: cnet.com

Just a few weeks after Facebook acquired Instagram, the company has again went to shop and shop they did. They acquired the smartphone application for finding like-minded individuals nearby.

Analysts say that this move by the social networking giant is a talent grab rather than an app grab.

Glancee said in their Website, “We started Glancee in 2010 with the goal of bringing together the best of your physical and digital worlds. We wanted to make it easy to discover the hidden connections around you, and to meet interesting people.”

“We are therefore excited to announce that Facebook has acquired Glancee and that we have joined the team in Melo Park to build great products for over 900 million Facebook users,” they added.

Glancee’s application was removed from Apple’s online App Store last weekend.

The terms of the purchase was not disclosed but it is believed that it would be far less than what Facebook paid for Instagram.

Facebook executives are currently scouring the United States this week in an intense marketing drive ahead of the company’s trading launch.

Image Source: ubergizmo.com

But some of these trial apps are great and can do wonders for your BlackBerry device.

• Viber: Of course, the free app the lets you send text and photo messages to any of your friends, only those who have Viber accounts of course, for free. Although this app for BlackBerry doesn’t let you call your Viber friends (Android and iPhone users can enjoy this feature), Viber says that they will soon upgrade this and will allow BB users to call Viber friends soon.
• BlackBerry Protect: This free app enables you to secure all the information if your BB smartphone gets stolen or you accidentally misplaced it. You can lock, locate or wipe out your BB’s data remotely.
• BeBuzz Free – LED Light Colors: See that red light blinking on top of your BB everytime you get a message, an email, a call or a BBM message? You can actually change that color to what you think would be best for a person. For your boss, a blue on perhaps. For your wife, a pink one may do.

These are some of the free apps that are at the BlackBerry App World. Will be posting another batch of great free apps in the next few days.

Image Source: technobuffalo.com

Well, comScore’s new report released last Monday says that Facebook users spend more time accessing their accounts through their smartphones rather than desktop computers.

The report entitled Mobile Metrix 2.0 cites that the social networking sites members spend an average of 441 minutes or 7 hours and 21 minutes, accessing their Facebook accounts via their smartphones. In contrast, users spend about 391 minutes or 6 hours and 31 minutes, checking their FB accounts on PCs.

The report also showed that amongst all social networking accounts, individuals spend more time in their Facebook accounts the most. This includes Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Foursquare. The social networking mogul has about 78 million unique monthly visitors who visit the site through their smartphones.

With this development, it is good to bring up the topic of a Facebook Smartphone. If we base it on the multiple studies being done by a number of agencies then this strategy of the company could only lead them to more success.

Image Source: radiosocialmedia.wordpress.com

They have been reporting that their virtual items have been stolen and have not been returned while some player’s properties were completely stolen.

According to VentureBeat, the game has been hacked. Hackers have been disrupting YoVille’s gameplay for some 1,000 players during a certain span in April.

According to chief security officer of Zynga Nils Puhlmann, “We detected unusual activity in YoVille, and it coincided with reports from a small number of users. We analyzed the reports. We found that a small number of vulnerabilities that contributed to the unusual activity. The game team patched these vulnerabilities immediately.”

According to the report, the hackers only hacked games and did not breach the private and sensitive information of the players.

Puhlmann added, “Credit card numbers are not an issue here. It is more a case of YoVille players disrupting other YoVille players.”

YoVille was launched back in 2008 and is played through Myspace or Facebook. Players can create a character, design a house, host a party, earn virtual cash and chat with other players. It has a throng of about 1.5 million monthly users.

Image Source:teepeegmaes.com

On Monday, the company announced that they were able to amass $106.3 million in sales based on their success of their Angry Birds game and merchandising from the latter. This figure doesn’t include sales from all their other games.

According to Rovio CEO Mikael Hed, “The strong growth in revenue clearly demonstrates the popularity of the Angry Birds brand. The heavy investments made in 2011 to all business areas will be seen in future products. To ensure continuous success we need to be creative and stay focused on entertaining our millions of fans by continuously developing new and innovative products and services.”

The company has released three Angry Birds games last year namely, Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio. These games were downloaded about 648 million times and have roughly 200 million active monthly users.

They are expecting to continue to grow their business this year.

Hed added, “We are very optimistic about 2012 due to significant investments in product development, cutting-edge branding, brand protection and corporate infrastructure.”

Image Source: techshouters.com

The company is trying to gain market share of the vast potential of the Internet TV market.

This signifies a tough stance by the company as they try to battle it off against Apple Inc. who is also rumored to launch their own Internet capable television.

According to Ro Seogho, executive vp of LG’s TV business unit, “Production of Google TVs will start from May 17 from our factory in Mexico and US consumers will be able to but the product from the week of May 21.”

The Google TV gives its users access to Google services such as their search engine and YouTube videos on their TV sets.

Ro said that the company will decide if they would launch the television set to other continents after they review the sales performance in the US.

Companies of big TV makers have their own versions of the Internet TV and are trying to push their technologies in the market.

LG is planning to enable about 60% of their TVs with their own NetCast platform installed. This will give the users the chance to access the Net, social networking and online games.

Image Source: futurenet.com

Hangout On Air was unveiled by the company about a year ago in their social networking site, Google+, via selected members to test the service that gives you the ability to video chat with about ten different individuals.

Google+ Engineering Director Chee Chew said, “This small community ahs grown the feature in lots of creative ways, and they’ve made on thing crystal slear: when groups of passionate individuals can broadcast live, together, the results are truly remarkable.”

Popular individuals from all over the world have taken part in “On Air” hangouts. The likes of President Barrack Obama, Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moo are few of those who have used this service.

Chew added, “Today we’re excited to launch Hangouts On Air to Google+ users worldwide. So if you have something to say-as an aspiring artist, a global celebrity, or a concerned citizen-you can now go live in front of a global audience.”

The “On Air” button is being rolled out by Google gradually because according to the company, rolling it out simultaneously could result in longer a longer roll out period.

Image Source: thenewstribe.com

Though a photographers life may be full of glitz and glamour, we also have to put in mind that when travelling, these photographers carry their gear. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of great bags or cases out there that can get the job done.

In comes this new travelling backpack that is perfect for your sensitive lenses and other equipment. Not only does this protect your tools, but it also makes it easier for you and the security officer checking your bags in the airport.

Think Tank Photo has a new Airport series of travel designed, high capacity backpacks that were developed to let your maneuver easily through airports. There are three models to choose from – the Airport Accelerator, Airport Commuter and Airport Essentials.

Those three bags or luggages have easy to access pockets for laptops and your iPad, a pocket that holds your boarding pass and three handles that are strategically placed on the bags for easier retrieval from overhead bins.

These bags can certainly help you travel with ease and protect your much beloved camera.

Image Source:photorumors.com

According to Symantec in its Internet Security Threat Report’s 2011 trends that was published last month, “Religious and ideological sites were found to have triple the average number of threats per infected site than adult/pornographic sites.”

They add that, “We hypothesize that this is because pornographic website owners already make money from the Internet and, as a result, have vested interest in keeping their sites malware-free – it’s not good for repeat business.”

The Security firm also noted that majority of malicious sites are regular sites that you think pose no threat to your computers.

Unbeknownst to the user, what seems to be a legitimate Website may itself be infected by these malwares.

Symantec adds, “Attackers keep changing their technique and they have become very sophisticated. Badly-spelled, implausible email has been replaced by techniques such as ‘clickjacking’ or ‘likejacking where a user visits a website to watch a tempting video and the attackers use that click to post a comment to all the user’s friends on Facebook, thereby enticing them to click on the same malicious link.”

Image Source: sparkyhub.com

The company calls this new business Digital Life. According to them, this will monitor homes from physical damages to burglaries. This technology can also adjust temperature of their homes and unlock the doors with the use of an Internet connection.

According to AT&T executive Glenn Lurie, tests will starts this year and involves sensors and cameras that are connected to a central home system that is also connected wirelessly to AT&T monitoring centers.

Lurie was very positive that this will increase the revenue of the company significantly.

He added, “When you’re a company like AT&T …you look at opportunities that are billion-dollar opportunities. Obviously to grow our business at any level, when you’re a $130 billion plus company, you have to look for significant opportunities. We view this as a significant opportunity.”

Analyst from Recon Analytics Roger Etner sees this move by AT&T as a good step for the company.

He said, “I don’t think they have a choice but to look for other revenue streams. If you want to change that, you have to add to it through additional services.”

Image Source: zdnet.com

About 52% of Americans say that they would buy an iPad mini that is pegged at about $249 and $300.

A poll done by PriceGrabber surveyed 2,603 individuals online found out that they want to have the rumored device. About 22% of those polled already have tablets. Among them, 68% already have an iPad while the others have a tablet made by other manufacturers.

The late Steve Jobs dubbed the 7-inch tablet computers as tweeners. The latter’s size is between the iPad and smartphones.

One of the main reasons that people love to own the iPad mini is the pricing of this device. 64% of those who answered the survey said that they would buy the iPad mini because of its affordability. While 54% of them said its size was the primary factor why they want to own one. 24% says that this new device would be a great gift to a special someone while 20% said they would love to own one to use for work. Another 20% said they would buy the rumored tablet because of their loyal to the brand.

Image Source: ipadincanada.com

A mobile security firm has discovered that a malicious software that was specifically created to download to Android phones from infected sites.

Named the NotCompatible, this hides from an updated file that automatically downloads itself. Though it does this, it still needs permission from the user before it starts installation.

Once installed in the device, the malware acts as a TCP relay that can use its host as a mask to send traffic like a proxy.

Infected sites URL’s have not been made public as of the moment as is the real number of those infected by the malware.

Symantec says that this number could easily reach thousands of sites.

Security firm lookout is suggesting that these attacks may be targeted to enable anonymous hosting for criminal activity. They say that it’s a “well-written and stable” code.

According to co-founder and CTO of Lookout Security Kevin Mahaffrey, “There are a couple of ways [the hackers] can profit from this. One is general online fraud. The other is targeted attacks against enterprises.”

He added, “This is the first time that [hackers] have used legitimate websites to serve Android malware. We see Android malware all the time, but it’s usually served using social engineering.”

Image Source: googleplay.cc

One of the most recent incidents of this happening was when an iPhone suddenly emitted smoke in an Australian flight last year. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau did the best thing when they sent the phone back to the US for further examination on what happened.

American investigators discovered that a stray screw in the battery cavity was the cause of the smoke. It came from the 30-pin connector.

This mistake came to light after the ATSB issued a report that revealed that the iPhone’s owner had it repaired. The key factor in this is that he went to an unauthorized Apple service center and the technician who fixed the phone was not trained professionally by Apple to handle their devices.

In the report, the ATSB said, “The technical examinations found that a small metal screw had been misplaced in the battery bay of the mobile telephone; the screw puncturing the battery casing and causing an internal short circuit leading to heating and thermal runaway.”

So there you have it. One cause of a smoking iPhone is a mistake, one mistake that nearly led to a disastrous ending.

Image Source: appadvice.com

Twitter executives have had meetings with “Tap Tap Tap”, developers of Camera+ photo app. Unfortunately for the two sides, no agreement has been reached.

According to Bloomberg, talks were unsuccessful because the two sides couldn’t agree on relocating Tap Tap Tap’s employees to San Francisco. Twitter wasn’t able to make an offer because of their reluctance to allow Tap Tap Tap’s employees to be based off-site.

The latter’s employees are situated all over the world. They have employees based in Australia, New Zealand and Spain among others.

Twitter expressed their desire to purchase Instagram. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has invested in Instagram and is an avid user of the photo sharing app.

Dorsey has since stopped using Instagram since it was bought by Facebook and has added his first photo on his Camera+ profile.

Dorsey’s last Instagram post was uploaded two hours prior to Facebook announcing the deal between Instagram.

The report added that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo was not directly involved in the talks between the two companies. It noted that Dorsey helped lead the negotiations with Tap Tap Tap.

Image Source: http://appstorehq-production.s3.amazonaws.com

In our efforts to help RIM reincarnate their lost bravado, we have collected a few apps that we consider the best free apps in the BlackBerry App World.

1)      BlackBerry Messenger: Who would not love this app? This is where RIM made its fortune (and their push email of course). Once registered to the service, you are able to send messages, photos, videos, voice notes and files to your friends BlackBerry device anywhere in the world. What’s not to love about that?

2)      Facebook: Of course, who doesn’t have a Facebook account nowadays? Once registered to a BlackBerry plan, you can post unlimited status updates right from where you are. No need for WiFi connection or to log in to your laptop.

3)      PicMix: This app lets you edit pictures on the go. You can add frames, adjust width and height of a photo and add filters to your image. No need for your to use Photoshop.

These are only 3 apps. More to come the in the next few days.

Image Source: pcworld.com

Now, teens are more comfortable staying in their rooms all day in front of the computer. Parents used to have this problem on how they could control their teens from going outside. Now, it seems, parents are having difficulty letting sun shine on their kid’s skin.

 The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project which was released last week’ noted that about a third, or 37% of the 799 teenagers who were surveyed for the study, used video chat applications like Skype or iChat. Those who were surveyed belonged to the 12-17 age bracket.

The study also found out that girls are more prone to video chatting than boys who have a 42% to 33% share respectively.

The correlation between mobile phone use and video chatting: 77% of teens have mobile phones and 75% of them are subscribed to texting. About 40% of them with texting plans said that they have used video chatting softwares before while non texters had a 27% share.

One out of four teens or 77% of those surveyed have social networking accounts. 16% of them use Twitter. For those who have Facebook accounts, 41% said they have used video chat.

Image Source: videowhisper.com

Well, about 13 million individuals still ask this question without any answer being provided to them either by the site or friends. This data is according to the June issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

The report also indicated that about 28% of individuals who were polled by the magazine shared almost all of their wall posts beyond their immediate friends.

The magazine was able to uncover this information by Facebook users. And mind you, the survey was only done in US and not the whole world. This means that number will only rise if you include global figures.

About 4.8 million Facebook users have posted details about their plans for the day. This information can alert criminals and could deal significant damage to the user’s home or to him or her. There have been incidents that criminals use this certain information to rob homes.

The study also included in the survey that would point out to insurance companies using that information against them. They found out that about 4.7 million individuals Liked a certain Facebook page that deals about health conditions or treatments for a certain condition.

This survey highlights the problem Facebook users have when they neglect their privacy on social networking sites.

Image Source: cnet.com

Yet, according to data coming from market research firm International Data Corporation, overall tablet sales went down by 1.2 million units during the first quarter of this year. Although sales of tablets went down, the good news is that Apple’s market share grew to 68 percent leading the way for tablets revival the rest of the year.

The research firm estimated that during the first quarter of this year, about 18.6 million units of tablets would be sold. But actual sales was only pegged at 17.4 million, 1.2 million units lower than that was predicted.

The surprise here is the Android sales drop. Apple remained strong after selling about 12 million iPads. But Android based tablets market share dropped to 32 percent.

Amazon, on one hand, also saw a fall in their first quarter sales. After selling almost five million units of the kindle Fire, the company only sold about 1 million units this quarter.

Though the numbers aren’t great during the first quarter, IDC still sees a growth in the tablet market this year and the following years to come.

Image Source: softpedia.com

This latest device boasts of a high-definition screen that is twice the size of the iPhone and is thinner and lighter than the latter.

Samsung’s Galaxy line is the iPhone’s biggest competitor. The company said that the Galaxy S III is going to be on sale in Europe starting May 29 and this summer in the US.

The S III will run on Google Inc. Android OS. It is also said that the Galaxy S III runs on a quad core processor. Its competitors run only run dual core processors though there are a handful that run on quad core.

This is the company’s biggest launch as the device will be on sale in 145 countries worldwide and 296 telecommunication companies distributing the phone.

In 4G capable countries, like US, Japan and Korea, the phone will use 4G networks for better download speeds.

Samsung’s Galaxy line was first released in 2010.

The company will also release a pad that lets you charge your S III when you place it on top of it. No need to connect a cable for you to be able to charge your phone.

Image Source: bgr.com

In comes Bang & Olufsen. The company unveiled its latest speaker dock for the iPad that will generate sound in a very good quality. Just right what the DJ ordered.

The BeoPlay A3 is one phenomenal gadget. It’s designed to sit upright or on its side and was built to shape a wedge to let you view content easily even if it lays flat on the floor.

This dock turns your iPad into a boom box or a mini TV if you prefer to use your device to watch movies. Your iPad slides perfectly into the middle of the BeoPlay A3 for maximum viewing pleasure.

The dock has a two-inch omnidirectional woofer, three-inch tweeters but the most impressive of it all, it just weighs 1.3 KG.

It comes with its own battery that can let you dance and jiggle with it for about 5 hours and can also charge your iPad when connected to a power source.

Unfortunately for new iPad owners out there, the BeoPlay A3 is designed for the iPad first gen and the iPad 2. The company is currently trying to create a system that can let you use it with your new iPad.

Image Source: apartmenttherapy.com

The once popular app was released last February of this year and within a couple of weeks, about 10 million individuals downloaded the said game. The free and paid versions of the app quickly rose to the top of iTunes download charts.

By the end of April about 50 million individuals were able to download the game and about 14 million people play the game each day. Unfortunately for the developers, Draw Something has lost about 4 million daily users according to market analyst AppData.

AppData collects information directly from Facebook’s active user formula. They added that the game has lost close to 900,000 users during the past week.

The company who developed the game, Zynga, recently bought OMGPOP for $180 million. The latter developed Draw Something and a few more online games that includes Checkers, Pool and others.

Due to the decline of the popularity of Draw Something, the company’s stock price fell. Since the acquisition of OMGPOP, Zynga’s stock has dropped to more than 38%.

Image Source: TGdaily.com

ZDnet is reporting that a new Facebook scam is once again terrorizing its members. The said scam promises to give those individuals who click on a certain page with a pair of brand new Oakley sunglasses.

It’s a very lucrative offer since these shades do come with a high price tag. But come on, do you think someone out there would really give you a free pair of shades just by clicking on links?

This scam says “Get a Free Pair of Oakleys! (limited time only)” followed by a link that would send you to a phony website.

If you click on the link, it redirects you to a Facebook Page that will try to trick you by saying that there are only limited sunglasses up for grabs. In order for you to win this, you’d have to share the Page with your friends then Like the Page and complete six “reward offers” that would likely cause money. They would then ask you about some of your personal information that will likely be shared with other scammers, marketers and sponsors.

Image Source: .wholesalecheapsunglasses.org

The company said that they are trying to avoid litigation but had no choice when the two companies haven’t stopped using their technologies. The case also includes Viewsonic, a visual technology company.

This doesn’t come as a surprise since tech companies have been battling it out in courts to protect what they deem is their technology.

Nokia said that it lodged a complaint in the US International Trade Commission against HTC, and filed suits against HTC and Viewsonic in the Federal District Court in Delaware. The company also filed suits against HTC and Research in Motion in a regional court in Germany and against the three companies in courts in Mannheim and Munich.

The cases include about 45 Nokia patents. This include innovations like power management for mobile devices, dual function antennas, software features like multi-tasking, navigation and mobile email.

Nokia legal spokesperson Mark Durrant said, “These features are not essential to any standards, and therefore these companies are perfectly capable of making devices using their own technologies rather than using Nokia proprietary features covered by the patents in this suit. We are not seeking to exclude them completely from the market. We just want to stop illegal use of Nokia proprietary technologies without authorization.”

Image Source: intomobile.com

This latest app from Spotify is available for free to premium subscribers. Those who pay a monthly fee of $9.99 will be able to listen to the app. Though the company is offering a free 48 hour trial, this can be extended to 30 days if you wish to give them a little information about yourself.

The company has about 3 million paying subscribers, but majority of them have no iPads so those who can enjoy this app are relatively small. This still is good news considering that the number of individuals owning iPads out there are growing by leaps and bounds.

There is a search function that enables users to access the catalogue of the site. You can create, adjust and share playlists with your friends and followers. You can plug your iPad into your stereo system and you can have a party with your friends the whole night.

The main page of the app, called “What’s New”, gives you a little hint on how to navigate through the entire app or site. It gives you a glimpse of a few new releases.

Hopefully, Spotify can improve on the app in the future weeks to come.

Image Source: Neowin.net

According to Target spokesperson Molly Snyder in an email to Reuters, “Target is phasing out Amazon – and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012. We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of e-readers and supporting accessories.”

The sales ban not only includes the Kindle device but also its accessories like covers and chargers. Target will still be selling e-readers like the Nook from Barnes & Noble.

Wells Fargo analyst Matt Nemer said, “This is evidence that Target is getting more serious about Amazon as an enemy rather than a partner.”

Target’s competitor Wal-Mart will still be selling Kindles.

The Kindle ban from Target resulted from increasing competition from small retailers that distribute and sell the Kindle.

Caris & Co. analyst Scott Tilghman said, “Target is trying to distance themselves from Amazon as much as possible because they recognize they are losing sales to them.”

He added that the, “Nook is much less cannibalistic and Barnes & Noble is not going after Target’s business.”

This move from Target wouldn’t really worry Amazon that much because their Kindles are being sold by retailers all over the country.

Image Source: http://ecreditdaily.com

An individual uploaded a script at Github that enables you to do so. According to the uploader, the script will enable you to lookup IP addresses of those who are currently online and it shall also provide you with their remote and local IP of that account on a website.

It starts with an add request from a Skype contact but it does not complete it. The file will display the remote and local IP of the user even if he/she hasn’t added you to his or her list of contacts.

What you only need to do is key in the username of the Skype member, type in the captcha, and click the search button to have this information available to you.

This only works if the user is online during the lookup time. The IP address will reveal the users country of origin, and could possibly give you the town or district that he/she is from.

Some individuals may not see any problem with this because IP addresses doesn’t really reveal your complete whereabouts. But IP addresses can lead you to that information.

There is no way of protecting yourself from being looked upon. Though you can use a proxy network or don’t use Skype unless you really have to.

Image Source: ubergizmo.com

But Microsoft is trying to give a little hint to these developers on how to place their apps in the Windows Marketplace. This is due to the fact that adult themed apps have a big market out there and they are trying to cash in to the sales of these apps.

But Microsoft is warning developers to have a mature approach to this type of content.

Todd Brix said on the Windows Team blog, “Recently we decided that we could improve the shopping experience for all our customers by a more stringent interpretation and enforcement of our existing content policy. Specifically, we will be paying more attention to the icons, titles and content of these apps and expect them to be more subtle and modest in the imagery and terms used.”

He added, “This is about presenting the right content to the right customer and ensuring that apps meet our standards.”

He hinted that for images of these apps models, may it be male or female, should be a silhouette and not a real individual whose nude or scantily clad.

Image Source: esarcasm.com

The firm’s researchers found out that a huge sum of money was stolen from the sites Google ad clicks to sites that were determined by the hackers.

The attackers were able to make 0.8 cents per click. The security firm said that the hackers could have gotten about $10,000 per day during its heyday.

While Russian based company Dr. Web was able to catch much of the traffic from infected machines that they were trying to send to their servers.

They were able to discover that about 60% of the Macs that were infected by the Flashback were Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, while 25% of those infected were running on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Those that were running on Apple’s latest OS, the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion only had a share of 11%.

Microsoft recently released a blog posting that details on how big the danger is on those Mac users who run Office for Mac that was patched way back June 2009.

Lion users are safe from this flaw since its non-executable memory feature prevents Office software to be changed while still running.

Image Source: connectedsocialmedia.com

According to the video, the data on your smartphone quickly transfers to your iTunes account so as for it to be protected and you can still access it even if you’ve lost your iPhone. The phone then wipes out all the data in your stolen device.

Valuewalk.com says that you will be notified on iTunes and that the data recovered on your stolen phone is now available on your account. Siri then bids you farewell before it bricks the phone.

The video entitled “Siri Hidden Feature on iPhone 5” was made by those were responsible for the iPad 3 concept videos. The company released a video that had a 3D multiplayer hologram for gaming enthusiasts. This will enable viewers to view a movie in two different iPads thus allowing you to view the film on a bigger screen.

The video was uploaded to Youtube last month and has about 120,000 views as of April 30.

Image Source: smartphoneenvy.com

The company announced yesterday that they are going to release their automatic message translation option to all Gmail users these upcoming days. This will translate foreign languages that are included in your email to a language you can understand with just a simple click. You can also reply to the sender in his native language by using this new feature.

According to Jeff Chin, product manager for Google Translate, he said that this is one of the most popular features in Gmail Labs. The company has been using this feature since 2009 but just released this to the public yesterday.

Chin wrote in a blog post, “We heard immediately from Google Apps for Business users that this was a killer feature for working with local teams across the world. Some people just wanted to easily read newsletters from abroad. Another person wrote in telling us how he set up his mom’s Gmail to translate everything into her native language, thus saving countless explanatory phone calls.”

You can simply turn the option off if you don’t want to use the feature.

Image Source:PCmag.com

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins revealed the features of the new OS running on a prototype device at their annual BlackBerry World Conference in Orlando, Florida. Unfortunately for BlackBerry fans out there, the launch date of the new BlackBerry device was not released.

RIM used to be a company of choice for businessmen and entrepreneurs and their handset of choice was the BlackBerry for its push email and BBM service. Now, the company is trying to figure out what went wrong and how they could salvage what is left with the company and rally to reclaim lost fortune.

Analyst’s says that RIM’s future is heavily dependent on their new software platform which is the BlackBerry 10.

Heins said, “I’m very, very confident we will be there later this year with an exciting product. Make no mistake, this is not the final device, this is not the final hardware. But it’s a very, very important milestone for us.”

The prototype device had a touchscreen with no physical keyboard present. It features a modified touchscreen keypad that enables users to select full words with a single stroke.

Image Source: crackberry.com

According to Google, the number of individuals who visit the site are staggering. They said that about 200 million individuals use the free online translation service per month.

Google Translate engineer Franz Och said, “In a given day we translate roughly as much text as you’d find in one million books. We imagine a future where anyone in the world can consume and share any information, no matter what language it’s in, and no matter where it pops up.”

Och used to work for US military research arm DARPA before he jumped ship to the California based company last 2003.

This service allows people to past or key in an on screen box a word to translate into a language of their choice.

Och added, “We can now translate among any of 64 different languages, including many with a small Web presence, such as Bengali, Basque, Swahili, Yiddish… and even Esperanto.”

Even its smartphone app has seen a growth in its users and about 92% of them are residing outside of the US.

“What all the professional human translators in the world produce in a year, our system translates in roughly a single day,” he added.

Image Source: inquisitr.com

Being launched about two years ago, this photo sharing site has seen a rise in its members as they have recorded a double in number of daily unique visitors to 4 million since last January.

The data comes from social media marketer Tamba. They added that most of the users are women aged 25 to 54. Men on the other hand, have slowly embraced the website and now interest coming to that gender is high. 28% of new members are men compared to 20% during the same period.

Tamba also said that social media driven revenue from Pinterest has grown 1% during the second quarter of 2011. It has now grown to 17% this year. Facebook saw a slight dip from 89% last year to 82% and Twitter has sky dived to 1% from 10% same time last year.

According to Rafe Needleman, “There’s really only one startup that emerges as most Instagram like: Pinterest. All the other are battling for position as distant followers.”

Pinterest was launched in March 2010.

Are you in Pinterest or have started Pinning?

Image Source: blurgroup.com

Well, there is this new iPhone carrying bra that could set the trend for device carrying cases.

Called the JoeyBra, it was developed by two individuals from the University of Washington. They saw potential in this part of the market.

The two students created a means for ladies to carry their iPhones in their brassieres.

Here’s what their website said about this invention:

“Inspired by UW’s vibrant Greek system, JoeyBra was created for women who are constantly on the go and struggle to find a place to put their ID, keys or phones. From our own personal experience, we know that women hate taking purses to dances, bars or dance clubs. Leaving these items at home can pose a safety risk, but with JoeyBra women will never have to worry losing or damaging their valuables again.”

They JoeyBra, according to its inventors, can hold an iPhone along with ID, credit cards and keys.

Image Source: http://nibletz.com

Reports have been circulating that Microsoft has been earning more from licensing its products to Android makers compared to sales from their Windows Phone 7, Finnish company Nokia, according to reports, has been earning more from licensing its patents to Apple than sales of their own Lumia Windows Phone 7 devices.

The company has been reported to have lost money by selling their Lumia smartphones during the first quarter of this year. It has resulted in $1.7 billion total losses despite having released their new Lumia line.

The future looks bleak for Nokia. During the first quarter 2011, the company has sold about 108.5 million units as compared to this year’s 82.7 million.

But the company was able to earn about $600 million from Apple. The latter paid Nokia the amount due to a settlement in a patent licensing dispute that involves essential patents.

If the trend continues, the company would be better off selling its patents rather than banking on the sales of their handsets.

A year ago, Google paid $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility. The latter has been continually losing money developing its smartphone business.

Image Source: ubergizmo.com

According to CNET, prepare to be disappointed as a representative of the company said that they are not going to release any BlackBerry 10 hardware.

The yearly convention is one that is being looked up to as BlackBerry developers, enthusiasts and business partners take in RIM’s latest and future wares. This year, the company will be trying to convince its slowly shrinking followers and prevent any more decline as they would try to lift up their hopes.

One of the most sought after releases for the company is its BlackBerry 10 platform. The said platform is the best hope that the company has in-order to make a huge splash in the smartphone business.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins believes that the BlackBerry 10 will open new doors as this platform can start a revolution of new devices.

The company plans to release a Beta version of the BlackBerry 10 next week. Developers who will join in the fray will get a Dev Alpha device. This said device though isn’t a BlackBerry 10 phone nor will it be based on the latest software.

Image Source: pocketberry.com

The WB150F brings with it an 18X optical zoom lens that has a 24mm wide angle and 432mm telephoto capability. Not only does it feature a great lens, but it is also capable of connecting you to the Internet using its WiFi capability.

This device has in-camera emailing and uploading features using the WiFi and the company has teamed up with two free mobile apps for iOS and Android that allows you to share content from camera to your smartphone.

The MobileLink app is a peer-to-peer interface to connect your camera to a phone via WiFi connection and vice versa.

The WiFi menu of this device also gives you access to Facebook, Photobucket, Picasa and YouTube. Video uploads are limited only to 324 by 240 resolution clips with a maximum duration of 30 seconds.

This point and shoot camera is a great camera for starters and for those who love to share photos in their social networking accounts. If we compare it to other WiFi enabled cameras, the WB150F is impressive. It has an uncluttered button layout and it is user friendly.

Though the image quality of the camera is only good, the video quality it produces is far behind its competitors.

Try it for yourself.

Image Source: priceninfo.com

Since the iPad is basically a scratch magnet, entrepreneurs have blossomed from different sides. These guys have found a way to earn money through cashing in to your iPad obsession by developing protective casing to shield your gadget from the harsh realities of the environment.

A US based company named MapiCases has emerged as one of the top companies in this industry. They make cases out of authentic cowhide leather. They manufacture their products in Turkey.

One product stands out the most is the MapiCases Orion. You can definitely tell that it’s a quality product just by glancing at it. The leather design looks great and with 5 colors to choose from, you’d certainly have no problems picking one for your iPad.

The Orion iPad’s creen flap opening is at the short side of the tablet. It has four parts as the flap can be folded so as to make your device stand. It can stand in both portrait and landscape positions.

Your iPad slides into the compartment at the side and is secured with a press down button.

The MapiCases Orion is a great buy and investment for your most valued iPad.

Image Source: pvboundleather.com

Today, Facebook is venturing into something new. The company is trying to provide you with security to protect yourself from hackers and scammers.

Facebook has setup a market that gives you free anti-virus solutions for you to be safeguarded from the threats of cyberspace.

They offer five anti-virus softwares from different security firms. They are Sophos, Microsoft Security Essentials, Norton AntiVirus, Trend Micro internet security both for PCs and Macs and McAfee Internet security. The versions that Facebook users can download offers up to six months of free security coverage.

The company announced that they are doing this so as to avoid or reduce malware attacks on Facebook users by implementing defense mechanisms and shutting down pages, apps and accounts that can be deemed as harmful to your PC or Mac.

The teaming up of Facebook and these different security vendors enables the social networking site to build a database of malicious webpages so that their members will be protected against them.

So you can download these security applications to protect yourself from lurking individuals.

Take note that you can only download one security application for a single account.

Image Source: trbimg.com

Ultrabooks are great gadgets to carry around. Unfortunately for the average Joe, the prices of these said devices start from $1000. It is a bit heavy on the pocket.

But according to Digitimes, laptop makers have finally decided to recreate them in a much smaller model. The good news is that it would retail at a low cost as compared to these pricey Ultrabooks.

Developers will try to recreate the latter by making adjustments like using cheaper parts and updated designs. An example of which is using AMD processors as opposed to using Intel Ivy Bridge processors.

Manufacturers look at the Ultrabook market as an appealing way to generate sales as the masses want to purchase one.

This looks like bad news for Intel since these new models would certainly not carry their processors and the loss that it will incur to the company will accumulate for years to come. Unless they do something with the price of their processors, laptop makers would surely shy away from Intel since they want to save money for profit.

Bad news for them, good news for us.

Image Source: service-1.org

The data came for England based research firm Strategy Analysis.

The South Korean company ended the first three months of the year with 36% more handsets shipped the previous year even outselling Apple, Inc. in the smartphone business. The company’s smartphone shipments tripled on high demand of their handsets namely the Galaxy line handsets. They have a share of 30.6% in the smartphone market. Apple only has about 24.1% share.

During the first quarter of this year, Samsung had a share of 25.4% of the global mobile handset market. They were able to ship about 93.5 million devices around the world. During the same time last year, they only shipped around 68.9 million. Of those that were shipped, 44.5 million units were smartphones up from 12.6 million from last year.

Nokia had a 22.5% share of the total market dropping from 24% from the previous year. They were able to ship 82.7 million units during the first quarter.

Image Source: zupdates.com

Well, if you’re an individual who values your figure so much and a techie as well, FitBit has a gadget for you to enjoy. The company announced last January that they are going to release their combo device. And now, it looks like the release date is only a few sleeps ahead.

The FitBit Aria if connected to your home’s WiFi network can upload your weight, BMI and body fat percentage to the company’s site, be sure to have an account created at www.FitBit.com, to keep track on your progress. You can also share these results to your friends and family using your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

There is also a free iPhone app that enables you to track your progress.

The company says that up to eight individuals can sync their weigh-ins to their FitBit accounts. The scale has the ability to determine who is using the device by using previous weight recordings.

This would surely be a great boost to health fanatics out there and those who would want to lose unnecessary body mass as this could motivate you to reach your desired weight.

Image Source: Medgadget.com

Here are a few tidbits on this new app.

If you haven’t taken the time to fill out the necessary information to your Linkedln account in your desktop or laptop, chances are you wouldn’t be able to edit or add information using this new app. So you better fill out those information in your desktop or laptop first before using the app.

The home screen gives users 3 options: You, All Updates and Inbox. The You portion is where you can view your profile, post status updates as well as see those who viewed your profile recently.

The Inbox is where you’ll find messages sent by your connections as well as connection requests. It has a two pane design, with invitations and messages in different portions on the left side.

The All Updates section is where the magic happens. This portion lets you create a magazine styled pastiche from the content you’ve subscribed. If you’ve added Twitter to your Linkedln account, your Twitter connection updates will be shown on this page.

Though it sounds good, the app needs a little bit of tweaking.

Image Source: entrepreneur.com