Fellow GEEK - web & business...

Comparing online gaming between tablets and mobile phones

2013-02-27T08:44:18-07:00

If there is one thing that never stops moving it is technology with innovations happening every day that make our lives easier and more enjoyable. For the casino industry this is a great thing as it gives them more ways in which they can create and distribute fun casino games to more people than ever before. One of the main additions that online casino games companies have jumped on is the mobile phone and tablet markets this allows people to play casino games at http www.luckynuggetcasino.com au online blackjack no matter where they are. But are there any differences in the experience for the user between these two pieces of technology. The smartphone has been around for many years now however they didn’t really get started until Apple took the...

Privacy Concerns Peak as Facebook Introduces Graph Search

2013-02-17T14:56:59-07:00

The popular social networking site Facebook has once again come under fire. As little as a month ago the company released its new search software called Graph Search. This new form of searching via the site allows users to type in phrases like friends in New York who like jazz music and the results displayed are actually relevant. While this new method of searching for people with similar tastes as you is a great advancement it has others concerned about privacy. Facebook itself prepared for these concerns before releasing the application. As it stands Graph Search has access only to information that individuals have made public. So for example if you have your interests displayed to your friends on the site but no one else only these...

Facebook Being Sued Yet Again

2013-02-11T13:05:26-07:00

For anyone up to date on the current trends of the Internet it may be hard to believe that the social networking website Facebook is being challenged. In fact the site has recently been sued over the use of its like button along with other features that have made it the most popular place on the web for social media. The company has no comments to share in regard to the lawsuit. Rembrandt Social Media a company whose sole purpose is to hold patents is responsible for taking up this case. The company is acting on behalf of a now deceased Dutch programmer. The programmer named Joannes Jozef Everardus van Der Meer filed two patents that Rembrandt claims Facebook has used without any of his permission. Since...

Egypt Bans YouTube Services for a Month

2013-02-10T14:41:28-07:00

The film Innocence of Muslims a video mocking Islamic beliefs continues to bring upset to the Islamic community. An Egyptian court recently decided to ban use of YouTube in the country. This rule was based on the fact that the video was uploaded and distributed through the popular video sharing website. For those of you who aren t familiar with the video it runs for a total of 13 minutes. In it the prophet Mohammed is shown as being a sexual deviant who is neither enlightened nor respectable. This is particularly a problem because Islamic peoples believe any depiction of Mohammed to be blasphemous in the first place. When you take into consideration that not only was the prophet depicted in the video but he was also mocked it...

Text Messaging Company Offers to Pay Customers

2013-02-06T13:50:57-07:00

A new mobile phone service for texting has become popular in Spain. This service called Chad2Win is free for its customers and actually pays them. The only condition is that the users will have to deal with ads regularly. They can earn up to 34 a month by viewing these ads or clicking on them. The company pays a cent for every advertisement the person views and three cents for every advertisement that they click on. The company operates out of Barcelona currently and has gotten quite a few people interested. Free messaging services have become all the rage with one service called WhatsApp in particular handling 10 billion messages a day across the world. SMS messages that cost money only handle 21 billion so as you can see the free...

The Quality of Netflix and LoveFilm

2013-01-31T19:23:48-07:00

Many television shows and movies can be accessed online today using streaming services like Netflix and LoveFilm. By taking advantage of internet connectivity these forms of entertainment can easily be brought into one’s home. This makes it more convenient to watch movies and TV shows at home or on the go. Both of these popular services offer 1080p full HD streaming. However the ability to actually obtain 1080p depends on three different variables. For one the type of content selected to be watched is a factor. Secondly the devices on which the content will be watched plays a role in determine picture quality. Lastly the speed of one’s internet connection is also key. When using the LOVEFiLM service 1080p can be obtained on both PCs and Macs. However...

Google Urges Users to Protect Themselves

2013-01-29T17:09:04-07:00

According to Google it has become increasingly easier for others especially the U.S. government to access its users information. In the past three years the company has received 70% more requests for this personal information than in previous years and they claim that the majority of these requests come from the United States government. Google has been forced to comply with two thirds of these requests for personal data. The company itself is trying to inform users of this for their own protection. A privacy advocate at the Electronic Frontier Foundation Trevor Timm hopes to remind people that the Electronics Communication Privacy Act ECPA is still active and that electronic communication is not protected by the Fourth Amendment. He states that many people believe that police have...

Watch Out, Internet: Here Comes the Cyber Command

2013-01-28T14:37:17-07:00

The Pentagon has decided enough is enough and that they are going to take things a step further when dealing with cyber terrorism. Three years ago they established the U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade in order to protect their computers against all sorts of attacks. The U.S. government has approved an expansion for the agency. According to what Defense officials told the Washington Post within the next few years the Pentagon expects to go from 900 to 4900 staff members. The reason for this projected expansion is that lately computers all across the world have been vulnerable to attacks. One example is the virus used to wipe data from over 30 000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company. Realizing any number of computers in the U.S. could face this...

Ray Kurzweil, Technologist, Pioneer, Joins Google

2012-12-14T18:35:39-07:00

This is quite a big win for Google. The company has managed to snag futurist Ray Kurzweil a big proponent of accelerated change and a pioneer in both machine learning and text to speech. Google will be making him the Director of Engineering where he will be responsible for overseeing Google s machine learning programs and speech related initiatives. Likely his job will be to make Google s speech recognition as incredible as its voice synth. Kurzweil is the man responsible for the popularization of accelerated change the idea that world changing inventions happen faster and faster as time goes on with the rate of change taking the shape of an exponential function. Following that logic through he predicts what he...

After Murdering TechTV, G4 Becomes Victim of Network Rebranding

2012-12-12T23:54:46-07:00

Soon the G4 channel will be no more. The gaming channel is losing its last gaming content with the cancellation of Attack of the Show and XPlay. With their departure a new channel will be ushered in the Esquire Channel. Designed for the modern male the Esquire Channel will feature cooking shows travel shows and other things that appeal to the modern metrosexual. Quite a big departure for a channel that once strived to be the ultimate source for video game news. But those of us with longer memories will see this as a bit of justice. G4 was once a small local channel until its parent company decided to devour TechTV. With it a bevy of extremely talented people...

Google, Apple Join Together to Buy Patent Protection

2012-12-08T17:24:25-07:00

Well this is a little surprising. Google and Apple two superpowers of the tech world who are locked in a not so cold patent war have decided to get together and jointly buy a patent portfolio from Kodak. Its no secret that Kodak is in trouble. The once great film company failed to capitalize on the move to digital cameras before it was too late and we ve seen them desperately dilute their brand in a vain attempt to hold off inevitable bankruptcy. One of their most valuable assets however and one that the company had been holding back on for quite a while are the patents accrued over a century of active development. Kodak s skunkworks were once second to none. That...

Staples Expands from Printing on Paper to Printing 3d Models

2012-11-29T19:09:57-07:00

In what might just prove to be the most prescient move ever Staples has decided that printing documents isn t enough. The office supply chain will installing a trial run of 3D printers to test the waters for the market. Initially the printers will only be available in Belgium and the Netherlands. Basically this service will be a competitor to Shapeways the longstanding 3D printing company of choice when you want to make or sell your 3D printed widget. But unlike Shapeways you will be able to pick up your widget at your local Staples effectively placing a print shop on many people s blocks. I ve always felt that 3D printers will always remain a niche thing to have in the home. The material...

Netflix Losing $1 Billion a year on Instant Streaming

2012-11-17T13:03:38-07:00

You might have thought that Netflix was destroying it what with the service being everywhere and accounting for a sizable portion of evening internet traffic but it turns out the the company is actually having some trouble. In fact they are apparently losing 1 billion a year on Instant Streaming the crown jewel in the Netflix hat. Of course Reed Hastings the CEO of Netflix doesn t think that Amazon is doing much better. He estimates based on the content deals that Netflix was able to eke out that the company s less complete offerings are costing them 500 million 1 billion each year. That difference is made all the more recognizable when you look at the latest usage numbers....

Google and Dish Network in Spectrum Talks. Google 3G Coming Soon?

2012-11-16T13:58:11-07:00

A while ago Dish network managed to win a pretty fierce round of bidding for a newly opened block of spectrum. AT&T T Mobile Sprint and Google were all interested in winning it with most of them planning on using it to expand their cellular networks. But Dish the satellite based broadcaster was the one that won. Despite not really needing it. Now we re getting reports that Google is sitting down with Dish to discuss possible licensing of the spectrum. For Google that could only be for one thing internet. It s no secret that Google has not been fond of how carriers have treated its phones. The Verizon Nexus devices for example have been sorely...

Google has a Monopoly in China

2012-11-15T18:10:12-07:00

If you question the success of Android now s the time to give up the goat. In China Google s little green machine has managed to gain over a 90% marketshare. That means that 9 out of every 10 phones run Android. 9 out of 10 A year ago the number was a much more palatable 58.6% marketshare. Now I love Google and I love Android. But monopolies even ones caused by better products breed slow progress. Come on Microsoft. Make some inroads already Even more interesting the actual statistic is likely higher. That number counts only brand phones not knock offs. China is famous for its knock off phones and they are reasonably popular...

Google Fined in Australia for Automated Search Result Suggestions

2012-11-12T17:29:53-07:00

What do you do when Google suggests you are associated with criminals Sue them of course. A man in Australia has sued Google and won for defamation after having his name linked to mobsters and career criminals. In 2004 Milorad Trkulja was shot in a restaurant. Much of the press assumed that it was a professional hit and that Trkulja was a criminal too. Five years later Trkulja confronted Google about the fact that a search for his name still linked him to criminals which he claimed was defamation. Google of course pointed out that the content was written by others and that they merely linked to it. And that the linking process was automatic. But...

New Battlestar Galactica Series Streaming Online, for Free, Legally

2012-11-09T14:13:57-07:00

Good news for those waiting for the next installment of the Battlestar Galactica universe the show is finally here. Battlestar Galactica Blood and Chrome focuses on the exploits of a young Admiral Adama back in the first Cylon war. At that time he was little more than a hotshot Viper pilot but we know what s in store for him. The series promises to bring the space fights and action if it gets picked up for a full season. As it is now the show is getting the same treatment Sanctuary did several short episodes streamed online that if the show is successful would be edited down into a regular episode. There are going to be 10 of these short episodes and each...

Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson Leaves for Drone & Robot Startup

2012-11-03T17:47:41-06:00

Wired has been a staple of the tech scene for decades. Thanks to the efforts of Chris Anderson who has been controlling the content for the last 11 years the magazine has managed to remain relevant in a world extremely toxic to the magazine. And now he s leaving off to do something else amazing. That next amazing step happens to be 3D Robotics a new startup company that sells drones and drone parts to amateurs at home. As the airways are opened up and restrictions relaxed we re likely to see far more drones take to the sky. Within a decade I expect drones to be ferrying packages and delivering parcels and with any degree of luck many of those drones will come from...

Disney Buys Lucasfilm, New Star Wars Coming 2015

2012-10-30T16:54:56-06:00

Are you a Star Wars fan If so you might want to brace yourself. Disney the company that brought you Pirates of the Caribbean Tron and other live action films has decided to purchase Lucasfilm. Not only that they have decided that Lucasfilm is going to go ahead and make a Star Wars 7 regardless of whether George Lucas ever intended to or not. So how do you fall on this So far reaction to the news seems split. Half the people are excited that we ll be seeing a new Star Wars movie one that has been talked about for literally decades. The others though see this as a really really bad thing. The taking of...

Self-Published Ebooks Triple over course of 5 Years

2012-10-24T16:35:23-06:00

Need more proof that ebooks are changing the way that business is done Take a look at this stat self published ebooks have tripled over the last 5 years. Yes that s right books published digitally often without a traditional publisher have grown 287% since 2007. That s a tremendous statistic. Lest you think that this number is meaningless because ebooks accounted for very little of the market in 2007 well ebooks now account for 43% of all published books in 2011. And that ebooks grew by only 129% between 2006 and 2011 so most of that growth has been in the last year or so. Also important these statistics don t include titles without an ISBN like...

Foxconn Admits to using Child Labor

2012-10-17T15:05:11-06:00

We ve suspected that Foxconn isn t the fine upstanding company they purport themselves to be. After all the company came to the public s attention after a slew of suicides and riots. But now we have confirmation that the company has been using underaged laborers. China prevents children under the age of 16 from working at places like Foxconn. And yet when the company did an internal investigation trainees were found as young as 14 two full years younger than labor laws permit. Foxconn for their part did report this situation to the press as soon as it came to light. They told CNet that this is not only a violation of China s labor law it is also a...

Antivirus Industry Preps for Supervirus Attacks

2012-10-16T16:49:51-06:00

It s no secret that there s a cyberwar going on. First the US hit Iran with Stuxnet a virus that caused extensive damage to the country s nuclear program. Then another party released Flame a virus that while technically simpler than Stuxnet brought in one critical innovation a built in language interpreter. Now we ve seen variations on both viruses making rounds wreaking damage and attacking financial institutions. People are understandably nervous. Which is why Kaspersky has decided to make their own operating system just for utilities. With a complete focus on security over features it will be limited but secure. The focus of the operating system will be running only code that is guaranteed to be secure....

Buy Kindle Ebooks? You're probably getting a refund!

2012-10-13T17:30:17-06:00

Remember that price fixing case that Apple and a bunch of major publishers faced Well it looks like things are coming to a close. Amazon shot out an email letting us know that we should be getting a refund on some of our book purchases as a result of legal settlements between several major e book publishers and the Attorneys General of most U.S. states and territories. The publishers have apparently agreed to refund a small amount on each purchase made at the artificially inflated book price which means you can expect between 0.30 and 1.32 back on your purchases. Not a lot but hey you might get enough to buy a couple more ebooks Hachette Harper Collins...

Sprint to be Bought by Japan's Softbank

2012-10-11T17:09:48-06:00

Sprint is a massive player in the global telecom game but it might not be for much longer. The telecom giant is confirmed to be in talks with Softbank telecom from Japan. The estimated price 12 billion. The rumors first started flying this morning when the Wall Street Journal Reuters and several other smaller news sites all got a hold of confidential information about the talks. Then just a little bit ago the two companies confirmed it with a press release. Not much information was given but the press release did confirm that the two companies are in talks. This would be a major win for Softbank. The telecom is in desperate need of more bandwidth and several...

Consumer Groups worry about Crowdfunding Companies

2012-10-10T18:12:50-06:00

Kickstarter and its ilk have revolutionized financing small projects. But until next year it is illegal to finance a company through similar methods. It is a leftover from the Great Depression when fraudsters spun up phoney businesses and solicited cash from thousands of people. Congress has passed a law rolling back the restrictions finally opening up crowdfunding to greater enterprises. But not everyone is happy about that. Several consumer advocate groups have come out against the change claiming that the new rules will lead to chaos. Now to be fair their complaints aren t strictly about crowdfunding but about what is known as general solicitation. General solicitation is when a company metaphorically goes door to door advertising a new...