Touchscreen Netbook For Web Browsing Coming Soon

Category: Internet
Posted: July 5, 2009 06:52AM
Author: Nick Harezga

Micheal Arrington, an editor at TechCrunch, has launched Crunchpad Inc. This startup company will be manufacturing a device of the same name, that will allow users to browse the web using a touchscreen. The device appears to be very similar to the iPhone, but will serve different functions. The device itself will be very small and lightweight, and will run on low end hardware. It will feature a Linux based operating system, and will likely only run Firefox and perhaps Skype. The lack of power hungry applications will allow the price of the Crunchpad to remain low. Arrington is currently looking for investors to finance the project, but with such an interesting concept that shouldn't be too difficult.

United States Government Readies Broadband Grants

Category: Internet
Posted: July 1, 2009 09:05PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Throughout the United States, many rural areas can be found that have no broadband connections available to them, other than sometimes the option for satellite internet. While this option is usually viable, it is rather expensive, and speeds do not stay consistent for the most part. Therefore, because of this, those rural areas tend to connect the Internet using a dialup connection. The government is now looking to change that though, and will be giving out loans and grants for applicants that require funding. The total amount of loans available for the project is roughly $4 billion, which is part of a $7.2 billion program pushed by President Barack Obama to build affordable broadband Internet structures in various rural areas. Money provided by the United States government should remedy most dialup problems that face certain rural areas, especially with the total amount of money allotted by the President. Joe Biden, the Vice President, has stated as well that the funding is part of the President’s commitment to both economical and educational purposes that the Internet gives to all communities. Barrack Obama also hopes to open up some jobs in the telecommunications sector of the country with the planned broadband expansion.

China To Hold Off On Green Dam Filtering Software

Category: Internet
Posted: June 30, 2009 02:15PM
Author: Nick Harezga

In a surprising move, the Chinese government has listened to the outcries of Chinese citizens, world governments, and various technology groups around the globe. The government has stated it will delay the plans to implement the internet filtering software that was to go into action on July 1. The government has stated all along that it is meant to prevent children from seeing violent and obscene material on the internet, but many claim it will also filter anti-government news and blogs. Chinese bloggers and industry groups are calling it a victory, but are cautious because the government only said it would delay the actions instead of scrapping them altogether. Several manufacturers were ready for the change, while others such as Dell were waiting to see the outcome before taking any action.

Firefox 3.5 released

Category: Internet, Software
Posted: June 30, 2009 10:35AM
Author: d3bruts1d

As expected, Firefox 3.5 has been released. Mozilla claims that Firefox 3.5 is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2. Aside from the speed improvements Firefox 3.5 brings enhanced privacy and security options, and support for the next generation of web features. You can download Firefox 3.5 (Mac, Linux, and Windows) here. More information (including download options) can be found at Mozilla.

Global Gaming Factory X Acquires The Pirate Bay

Category: Internet
Posted: June 30, 2009 03:55AM
Author: Daryn Govender

Swedish based Internet cafe operator Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) has purchased thepiratebay.org for 60 million Swedish kronor (approximately US$7.8 million) consisting of 30 million kronor in cash and 30 million in shares. GGF says it intends to use new business models on the site which allow compensation for the content providers and copyright owners, therefore allowing legal downloads. The closing of the deal is scheduled for August this year after which GGF will be responsible for the maintenance and operation of the site. GGF has also undertook an agreement to acquire shares in Peerialism, a software technology firm specialising in data distribution and distributed storage using new peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies which will be implemented into The Pirate Bay in the future. The acquisition of Peerialism will be worth 100 million kronor (approximately $US13 million) with half in shares and the rest in cash. The Pirate Bay has said on it's blog that the profits from the sale of the site will go into a foundation to support projects related to 'freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets'.

Yowza brings coupons to the iPhone

Category: Internet, Mobile, General News
Posted: June 29, 2009 06:39PM
Author: d3bruts1d

Making its way to the Apple App Store is Yowza!! [iTunes link], a free app designed to help consumers save money while stimulating the retail sector. An added plus is the green factor as it eliminates the need to clip coupons and print off codes from the internet or email. Simply show the coupon (and bar code for some) on your iPhone or iPod Touch to the cashier at checkout. The app holds other advantages over traditional coupons as it can be updated instantly and targeted at a specific region or store. A representative from Sears gave an example of how this can benefit the company and consumers, "if the Midwest is under a heat wave, we now have the capability to provide savings on air conditioners in their area, in real-time".

In addition to Sears, a number of retails have already signed with Yowza, including: McDonald's, Finish Line, ESPN Zone, The Container Store, Islands Restaurant, Sports Authority, Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill, Pier 1 Imports, REI, Saks Fifth Avenue, Regency Shopping Centers, California Pizza Kitchen, American Golf Corporation, Cavallo Point Lodge, Marmalade Café, Traditional Jewelers, American Car Movers, Aveda Salon/Spa, Inner You Pilates, JRK Hotel Group, Cheeseburger Restaurants, Kiehl's, Midway Car Rental, Santana Row Shopping Center, Seaton, Jill Roberts, and Paige Premium Denim. More merchants and additional features will be added in the near future.

The app was co-created by Greg Grunberg (Heroes, Alais) who said "I created the app to share my passion for saving money and time so you could consider this my contribution to the stimulus package! I play a hero on television and now, hopefully, I can be one in real life by helping people during these tough economic times."

Right now the app is only available on the iPhone and iPod Touch inside the US, but the company is looking into expanding to other platforms and countries as soon as possible.

Comcast Teaming Up With Clearwire to Bring 4G to Subscribers

Category: Internet
Posted: June 29, 2009 03:56PM
Author: Nick Harezga

Comcast plans to bundle the WiMax service offered by Clearwire with its existing cable broadband package. The service will first be available in Portland, Oregon with other cities that have WiMax and Comcast to follow. The package will cost $50 per month for 12Mbps cable internet and the 4G wireless service, offering up to 4Mbps download speeds. The package deal will be for the first 12 months, and will increase to $73 per month thereafter. Users of the Triple Play bundle will be able to add the 4G wireless for $30 per month as well. Comcast hopes that this will be just the first foray into high speed wireless internet, and the company even purchased some of the wireless spectrum in the federal government auction.

NYTimes and Wikipedia help save reporter's life

Category: Internet, General News
Posted: June 29, 2009 11:11AM
Author: d3bruts1d

On June 19, David Rohde an investigative journalist for the New York Times escaped from a Taliban prison in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan where had had been held hostage for the last seven months. Until the escape, most people were unaware of the ordeal, thanks to a joint effort by the New York Times and Wikipedia. The New York Times kept more than 35 news organizations from reporting on the story fearing that publicity would inflate the value of Rohde's life, and increase the difficulty in getting him released. According to Techcrunch, the hard part wasn't keeping the big media quiet, but rather keeping Wikipedia users from publishing the info.

For seven months, New York Times and Wikipedia fought a back-and-forth battle with an anonymous contributor from Florida. Because of the user anonymity, Wikipedia editors were unable to contact the user directly to explain the situation. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said in a tweet that he feels preventing the news from breaking may have saved David's life.

Firefox 3.5 scheduled for Tuesday release

Category: Internet, Software
Posted: June 29, 2009 09:49AM
Author: d3bruts1d

PC Magazine has confirmed that Firefox 3.5, the next major update to Mozilla's popular web browser, is scheduled for release Tuesday morning. Originally planned as Firefox 3.1, Mozilla decided around the time of the third beta that a more significant version number was needed to emphasize the "sheer volume of work" that made this release feel like more than just an incremental improvement over Firefox 3.0.x. Some of the enhancements you can expect to see in Firefox 3.5 are:

• Private browsing and enhancements to data privacy,
• "TraceMonkey" JavaScript engine,
• Improvements to the Gecko layout and rendering engine,
• Support for location aware services,
• HTML 5 support (support for embedded Ogg files, and offline resources).

There have been three release candidates leading up to tomorrow's scheduled release of Firefox 3.5, all of which came in the month of June. Prior to the June 19 availability of 3.5RC1 there were four beta versions stretching all the way back into October when Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 was made available.

China Isn't The Only Country With an Internet Filter

Category: Internet
Posted: June 25, 2009 02:27PM
Author: Nick Harezga

With all of the attention being directed at China these days, it is easy to forget that Australia is also planning to put an internet filter into place. The latest news to come of this is that many popular video games will be on the blocked list. The highest rating that video games can receive is the MA 15+ rating, which means that all video games intended for people above the age of 15 will be blocked. After the filter is fully put into place, citizens won't have access to downloadable games or flash games. In what seems to be the most extreme instance of the filter, sites that sell games that don't meet this criteria will also be blocked. Recently, Fallout 3 had to change the content found in the game in order to be sold in the country.

Town in Montana Wants to Violate Your Privacy

Category: Internet
Posted: June 19, 2009 03:42PM
Author: Nick Harezga

The town of Bozeman, Montana will now require all applicants for city jobs to provide login credentials to any social networking sites they belong to. The city doesn't just want the usernames, it wants the passwords too. Asking for just the links to the page would be reasonable, but gaining password access to the accounts would allow the city to see a host of private information. Not only would the applicants' information be exposed, but that of their friends could be as well. The city says the information would only be used to evaluate the integrity of the applicants, but one disgruntled employee or one hacker could expose all of the information. The city held a meeting earlier today, likely to discuss the controversy over this policy.

Representative From Rochester Proposes Bill Giving FTC Power Over ISP Usage Caps

Category: Internet
Posted: June 18, 2009 02:31PM
Author: Nick Harezga

Eric Massa of my own city of Rochester, where Time Warner intended to experiment with bandwidth caps, has drafted legislation that could prevent such actions from ever being taken. The bill would treat ISPs as utilities and would give the Federal Trade Commission regulatory power over them. Massa was contacted by many of his constituents who complained about the bill, including many business owners who said the increase in costs would drastically decrease their profits. In order to implement usage caps, ISPs will need to justify the cost based on equipment and operational costs. However, with many high speed internet companies offering cable television as well, Massa fears that they will use the caps to drive people to purchase the cable offerings in addition to the internet. This would make it all to possible for monopolies to develop in areas where only one ISP is present, which is exactly what Massa wishes to prevent.

China Blames Google For Bringing Porn Into the Country

Category: Internet
Posted: June 18, 2009 02:28PM
Author: Nick Harezga

The Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center, a regulatory agency in China, feels that Google is responsible for the pornography found on the internet. The agency has made several requests that Google block all of the pornography on the internet to comply with Chinese laws which forbid the offensive material. It is unclear what the country intends to do in regards to punishing Google for this, but the government is very serious about the matter. Government agents have shut down nearly 2,000 websites that provide adult content, and groups of people who distribute pornographic DVDs in the country.

Google Possibly Expanding Search Empire to Include Twitter

Category: Internet
Posted: June 15, 2009 04:54PM
Author: Nick Harezga

It is rumored that Google will soon be launching a tool allowing users to search Twitter, and possibly other microblogs in the future. Despite the fact that Twitter has its own search engine, Google feels it can gather important data regarding popular trends, and perhaps other valuable information as well. The Twitter search engine isn't as robust as an offering from Google will likely be, as it only contains recent tweets with the relevant terms. Google will likely use various algorithms to keep track of the trends and search data based on such things as number of followers. I'm not entirely sure what can be gathered from such short messages, but then again I'm not the biggest search engine in the world.

New Chinese Internet Filter May Have Been Stolen

Category: Internet
Posted: June 13, 2009 08:02AM
Author: Nick Harezga

Solid Oak Software Inc. is accusing the Chinese company Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co. of stealing some if not all of the code for CyberSitter for use in the new filter. The Chinese government will begin requiring all PC manufacturers to install this filter on computers sold in China starting in July. Solid Oak received an anonymous tip that the software had been stolen and compared the code from the two programs and found many similarities. These include a list of CyberSitter serial numbers and an update to an older version of CyberSitter. The major problem they face here is that it isn't a violation of US copyright law, and they would need to fight this under Chinese law in a Chinese court. Something tells me the Chinese government wouldn't be too inclined to fight this.

Dell and Microsoft Offer Direct Downloads

Category: Internet, Software
Posted: June 11, 2009 11:57AM
Author: Brentt Moore

Redmond has had its Internet store online since last year, which sells its own operating systems, Microsoft Office products, as well as a variety of Xbox products and other software. Now, Dell is receiving some of the same software that is sold on the Microsoft Store for its own online shopping area. The computer manufacturer is currently in an agreement with Microsoft to sell various office software packages, as well as other items that Dell customers will be interested in while visiting the somewhat newly created software shop. The advantage over purchasing from the Dell store, over conventional retail locations, is that products tend to cost less, and the license code is saved with the user’s ID, so purchased software can be downloaded at any time without any extra charges.

Are You Plagued By 'Internet Fatigue'?

Category: Internet
Posted: June 10, 2009 12:59PM
Author: Ben Grantham

Are you the type of person who has their cell phone constantly within arms reach and that conducts a majority of their work and social communication through the use of technology or the internet? If you are, then you are probably less likely to feel harassed by phone calls or constant messages on services such as Twitter. However, if you feel that sometimes it all gets a bit too much, then you wouldn't be alone, as is suggested by recent research conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The report, titled "The Mobile Difference" puts people into 10 groups depending on how they feel about technology, as well as how much of a role it plays in their day to day lives. CNN talked to the report's author, John Horrigan about the findings of the research, drawing particular attention to those people who make wide use of mobile devices and social networks but that also feel concerned about being constantly available to others, or rather that they need to be. Horrigan says that the challenge is for people to see services such as Facebook or Twitter as tools, rather than as obligations.

If you want to find out for yourself which of the 10 groups you fit into, you can still take the online survey. The groups have playful titles such as "Roving Nodes" and "Mobile Newbies", though it is the "Digital Collaborators" (8% of those surveyed) that are most involved with technology and happy to be so (and being an news editor on an enthusiast website, the group that I happen to fit in to). Interestingly, the number of people 'off-network' (14%) was roughly the same in 2008 as it was in 2006, though Horrigan believes that will shrink as more people become dependent on cell phones. You can read the full report here.

Comcast Will Lower Price of Fastest Internet Service on June 15

Category: Internet
Posted: June 9, 2009 03:23PM
Author: Nick Harezga

The cable company that everyone loves to hate, Comcast, is doing something that should make plenty of people happy. Comcast will be lowering the price of its 50 Mb/s internet from $139.95 to $116.95 per month. In addition, since Comcast has started to bundle the internet plan with phone and video service, consumers can get it for as low as $99.95 per month. The 50 Mb/s service is available due to new wideband technology which allows cable providers to offer faster speeds. Comcast says that one third of its users have access to this new technology, and hopes that the lightning fast speeds will allow them to thrive even as more television becomes available online.

Facebook Usernames to Come

Category: Internet
Posted: June 9, 2009 03:14PM
Author: David Solymosi

Has it ever bothered you that the Facebook link to your profile looks so messy? Well the folks behind the scenes think so, as they're unrolling Facebook usernames at midnight (EDT) Saturday. What does this mean for you other then a very laggy networking site until the username race calms down? That, if you're lucky, you can have a URL such as facebook.com/imsocool/ point to your profile page. I say lucky, because the signup for the usernames is on a first come first served basis.

Want in on the action? This is the website to be watching near the signup time.

Court of Appeals Says Judge Wasn't Biased in Pirate Bay Trial

Category: Internet
Posted: June 8, 2009 03:59PM
Author: Nick Harezga

A court of appeals has ruled that the judge in the Pirate Bay trial was not biased. Judge Tomas Norstrom was a member of two copyright organizations, organizations that the prosecuting attorneys were also members of. The court ruled that the organizations were just a way for the judge to keep up to date on copyright law and don't indicate any form of bias. Regardless of this decision, the case will likely drag on for many more months and perhaps even years in appeals courts as both sides have indicated the desire to do so. When all is said and done this has the potential to be a landmark decision in the ongoing file sharing saga.

Twitter Will Test Verified Accounts Feature This Summer

Category: Internet
Posted: June 7, 2009 07:21AM
Author: Nick Harezga

The popular blogging site Twitter will be releasing a new feature this summer. The “Verified Accounts” feature will be used to indicate that the person is actually who they say they are. This comes on the heels of a recent lawsuit by Tony LaRussa, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, that stems from comments posted about players who died on his team made by an impostor. Twitter currently deletes or transfers accounts that are found to be fake accounts, and believes that its Terms of Service will allow it to win the lawsuit. I don't use Twitter myself, but I see how it could be an issue if you were following someone posing as your favorite celebrity.

Yahoo Updates Its Mail Service with Widgets

Category: Internet
Posted: June 5, 2009 08:41PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Recently, Yahoo went ahead and updated it's email service with integrated widgets, allowing users to get more done without switching in between websites. Some of the widgets that have been added include PayPal, eBay, YouTube, and Mint.com. Other features that have been added for users is Zumo Drive, which allows people to send attachments as large as 100MB in their emails, as well as Picnik that allows users to crop, resize, retouch their photos, and share collages with others. WordPress is another widget added, so blogs can be updated and comments can be moderated from within the Yahoo Mail website. All of these widgets combined in the recent update should provide those who use the Yahoo service to  have a more comfortable and welcoming experience while accessing their email accounts.

Citizens of Louisiana May Soon Find an Internet Tax on the Bill

Category: Internet
Posted: June 5, 2009 04:34PM
Author: Nick Harezga

If you live in Louisiana, you may find yourself paying an additional 15 cents every month for internet access. The state's House of Representatives voted in a landslide to implement the tax, and the vote now moves to the Senate. The charge will go toward fighting cybercrime and to train law enforcement in dealing with the cases. However, if this is considered to be a tax instead of a fee, it would violate the Tax Freedom Act that is valid until 2014. The new fee would raise a little over $2 million to “save the children,” but could lead to more fees in the future on similar services.

Hulu May Not Remain Free Forever

Category: Internet
Posted: June 4, 2009 03:31PM
Author: Nick Harezga

Hulu, the popular online destination offering users full episodes of popular television shows with only one advertisement per commercial break, may not stay free for much longer. An announcement from Jon Miller of News Corp. hints that Hulu may move to a subscription model of an undetermined format. Hulu is having trouble selling all of its ad spots, and may be looking for a way to increase revenue. Some fear that making users pay for access to Hulu may drive them to find other avenues of obtaining television for free, including the use of Bittorrent trackers.

Town Wins Court Case Allowing it to Build Fiber Network

Category: Internet
Posted: June 3, 2009 04:20PM
Author: Nick Harezga

A small town in Minnesota has won what could be an important court case against the local telephone provider, Bridgewater. The city of Monticello decided to sell bonds in order to build an advanced fiber internet network that would benefit all citizens with access to high speed internet. The main complaint from Bridgewater was that the use of bonds was illegal as they can only be used for a variety of reasons, including building of utilities. The ruling handed down by an appeals court was that internet is indeed a utility, and the project will be able to continue. However, while the case was tied up in court, Bridgewater built its own fiber network to provide fast internet speeds to the residents, making the town wonder if finishing the fiber network makes sense financially.

Bing Introduced by Microsoft

Category: Internet
Posted: June 1, 2009 07:38PM
Author: Brentt Moore

In terms of the search engine market, it is obvious that Google leads it by a great margin, with others like Yahoo! falling behind it. Microsoft has rolled out a new service, called Bing, that is also a search engine, but helps people with their searches in a different and somewhat special way. When looking up a medical term for example, Bing will show various results for the search, as well as give users more information about what they are looking for. While it surely will not take over the Google giant anytime soon, or ever at all, it's nice to see some different type of Internet searching capability being brought about by a different company. Though Microsoft already has their Live service search in place right now.

Church of Scientology Banned From Wikipedia

Category: Internet
Posted: May 29, 2009 04:34PM
Author: Nick Harezga

The Church of Scientology has been banned from editing Wikipedia articles relating to its religion. The Church has been editing the articles at a mass rate, removing negative references and replacing them with positive ones. Scientology has been criticized by many groups in recent years for this practice, and protests have been staged worldwide against them for this. The administrators of Wikipedia came to this decision after four months of debate, and have blocked all IP addresses associated with Scientology computers. Individuals on the block list may request an exemption to edit the pages once again.

Adobe Attempts Presentations

Category: Internet
Posted: May 27, 2009 07:35PM
Author: Brentt Moore

Developer of many popular design software programs, Adobe is now trying its hand at presentation software. While this online-based application is not meant to directly compete with Microsoft PowerPoint, it does offer another medium in slideshow presentations. The web-based service is called Acrobat.com Presentations, and is made on Flash, so users should feel comfortable working with it if having used Photoshop Express before. For exporting options, the Adobe service feels a bit limited, as it can be presented from an online location, or exported as a.PDF file for use when the Internet is not avaliable. There is still a long while before the company finalizes the service, so many new features are expected to be added over time, including simple functions such as the ability to embed audio into a slideshow, along with other minor options that other presentation software programs are able to perform.

Facebook Sells Off 1.96% Stake For $200m

Category: Internet
Posted: May 27, 2009 07:53AM
Author: Ben Grantham

Facebook notably sold a 1.6% share to Microsoft a couple of years ago for $240m and has now sold a 1.96% share to a Russian internet firm, Digital Sky Technology for $200m. DST is a major player considering that you likely won't have heard of it before, with its various internet businesses accounting for over 70% of page views on Russian language websites. It was apparently among a number of companies that approached Facebook with intentions to invest in the site but stood out "because of the global perspective they bring" according to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. DST will not gain any representation on the Facebook board, nor be given special observer rights from the deal.

Some quick calculations suggest that Facebook, with its 200m+ global member base is currently worth somewhere in the region of $10bn. That figure is less than the $15bn total at the time of Microsoft's purchase, with the New York Post also reporting in April that Facebook's private equity investors had informally valued the company at around $3bn. Would it be outrageous to suggest that even that figure may be a little high for a company that has yet to seriously capitalise on its large membership numbers? Mark Zuckerberg has said that he expects the site to be cash flow positive in 2010.

Circuit City Again

Category: Internet
Posted: May 24, 2009 08:33AM
Author: David Solymosi

Most of you followed Circuit City's demise, and many of you probably heard that Systemax bought the Circuit City trademark for $6.5 million. Well they've finally put it to use, reopening the website for online shopping. Of course this doesn't mean that ground stores are re-opening, but the new (old) site is worth checking out!