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Linda Ferreira 09/26/11 07:40 AM
Technology Round-Up (09/26/11)
 
Head to the replies to read this week's Technology Round-Up.

Linda Ferreira 09/26/11 07:41 AM
Thanks to Chad for putting this together:

Technology Round-UpPoll
Missouri has repealed a controversial law that prevented teachers from being Facebook friends with their students.

What are your thoughts about the issue? Should students and teachers be friends on Facebook? [Poll]

 Apple
Apple is denying employees vacation days for the second week of October. Something big is coming!

Third-party vendors appear to be calling the iPhone 5 will by the name "iPhone 4S."

The latest survey of iPhone users indicate that an astounding 89% of them plan to purchase an iPhone the next time they need a phone.

Sprint claims that lack of the iPhone is the top reason that its customers cite leaving.

A white iPod Touch will be released later this year--expect minimal changes other than the color.

Apple has donated thousands of iPad 2s to lower-income students.

A Wisconsin library loans iPads for home reading. Your round-up author's nearest library doesn't even have WiFi.

Samsung is attempting to ban the sale of all iPhones and 3G iPads in the Netherlands.

Mac users will be getting more quality games thanks to the Unreal Engine 3 being fully ported to OS X.

A new OS X trojan embeds itself in PDF files.

Internet
Facebook has announced major changes including the ability to stream movies and music through Open Graph. All profiles are also going to be shifted to a new Timeline view. The timeline initially revealed who had unfriended you, but Facebook has since changed the service to remove this capability (no link but your round-up author tested it by defriending someone). Some users are upset enough to completely ditch Facebook.

A man was fired from Starbucks after musically ranting about the company on YouTube.

Some people consider the internet to be as important as food, water, air, and shelter. Do you agree?

Though the rumors have been denied, leaked documents suggest that Yahoo could be for sale.

Since 35% of Netflix subscribers are expected to leave the service after the pricing changes, Blockbuster is trying to snatch up those customers with its Movie Pass subscription.

Spotify is officially out of beta in the U.S. and it's celebrating by giving accounts six months of unlimited streaming instead of the 10-hour limited free streaming. Still no mobile streaming for free users though.

The SEC's account revisions forced upon Groupon lead to the company cutting its revenue in half.

Californians will have to pay tax on all Amazon.com purchases thanks to a new bill that has been signed into law.

VPN proxies aren't as secure as they might appear. HideMyAss.com is based in the UK, but they still give their logs to the U.S. FBI.

Google

Google's Wallet service is rolling out a little slower than the company had hoped.

Google TV apps for TNT and TBS briefly leaked out.

 Electronics
TSA's controversial body scanners are foiled by shiny suits (no pun intended).

A daycare in Sweden ensures that no kids are taken by putting GPS trackers on the kids that they wear outside the facilities.

Anyone who has ever wanted to simulate a pregnancy should look at the Mommy Simulator 8.0. Yes, this is a real work-in-progress product from Japan.

A company called 350Green will install 400 electric vehicle charging stations throughout the U.S.

The UK now has its first hydrogen refueling station.

Toyota has shown off a proximity notification system to alert pedestrians/bicyclists when the silent vehicle is about to hit them.

BMW has created an Active Sound Design system that will make their electric vehicles sound like a twin-turbo V8 inside the car.

Apparently, the old adage "You get what you pay for," stands true with Vizio. The company is telling people that their TVs are unrepairable.

Texas instruments has completed its $6.5 billion purchase of National Semiconductor.

The Sony Reader WiFi will be available for $149 on October 16.

Mobile

Cellular South has rebranded itself C Spire Wireless.

Check out the 4.7-inch HTC Runnymede which features Beats audio.

Also, check out the HTC Vigor which features a 4.3-inch HD screen, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and Beats audio.

Have a look at the Motorola Atrix 4G 2.

Samsung has sold 10 million Galaxy S IIs. Speaking of the Galaxy S II, an Android 2.3.5 build has leaked for the phone.

The RAZR is back! This time it's the Droid RAZR and it features a qHD AMOLED screen.

The Pantech Breakout for Verizon brings LTE to the less-affluent.

Android 2.3.6 is now available on the Google Nexus One.

Developers have managed to install Windows 8 (the real one albeit in alpha form) on the HTC Shift.

Windows Phone 7 devices will get the Mango update starting September 27.

Reports are in that Windows Phone 7 is tracking users' locations without consent. Microsoft is investigating the issue.

The Samsung Omnia W is a 3.7-inch Windows Phone 7 device with a 1.4GHz processor.

Check out a review of the Palm, er, HP Pre 3...a device which will never see the light of day.

T-Mobile will be eliminating its FlexPay plan.

Apps
Parents who fear their boys might be a little more queer eye than straight guy can check out the Is My Son Gay app.

iOS users can now video chat with their Google+ friends with the latest Google+ update.

A pre-alpha build of VLC Media Player is now available for Android.

Windows Phone 7 users can now message Android and iOS users through the WhatsApp app.

Make drinks with whatever mixers and liquors you have lying around thanks to Top Shelf Drinks.

Track your fast food calories with Check'n Burn.

Computer/Tablet

Windows 8 will feature the ability for applications to share data among each other.

Amazon may launch a Kindle Tablet on September 28.

The Motorola Xoom 2 might feature two variations.

The latest uTorrent 3.1 build lets user easily drag and drop files from computer to Android, iOS, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Tips/Tricks
Enable Facebook's timeline feature now (rather than waiting until October 2 when it will be forced on you). Also, see how you could have used Facebook's timeline feature to see who had defriended you (until Facebook changed the feature). Also, check out the best five Facebook customization tools.

Get a new Android phone without losing your old Android data.

Mac users can keep Pandora running in the background with PandaBar.

Control your computer remotely and in high-definition with Splashtop.

Turn your computer into a software router with Maryfi.

 Learn how to customize Chrome 15 beta's new tab page.

Manage over-crowded Google+ circles with the Uncircle+ extension for Chrome.

Miscellaneous

Scientists have had a breakthrough toward an AIDS vaccine.

Debris from a falling US satellite landed in Canada.

Zynga, the creator of many popular games, have seen their profits drop 90%.

HP has hired Meg Whitman, a former CEO of eBay, as their new President and CEO.

A new wired networking standard called G.hn will travel over power lines, coaxial cable, or telephone lines at speeds up to 1 gbps.

--
Contributor: CyberInferno (Chad)

sevinw0rds 09/26/11 09:51 AM
I'm lovng Spotify (although it's leaving me broke) but how does the ten-hour limit for free accounts work? Is that per month or per sign-on? I know it won't be an issue during the unlimited trial but I'm just curious.

TheRealJohnOC 09/26/11 10:31 AM
Quote:
Toyota has shown off a proximity notification system to alert pedestrians/bicyclists when the silent vehicle is about to hit them.

Hasn't the horn been invented already?

Evilcow8675309 09/26/11 11:13 AM
Quote:
Mac users will be getting more quality games thanks to the Unreal Engine 3 being fully ported to OS X.

Mac? Games, don't be silly! anyone who is serious about playing PC games would play them on... well a PC. I mean seriously there's a reason people use Direct X instead of Open GL.

CyberInferno 09/26/11 11:17 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by sevinw0rds (Post 95477092)
I'm lovng Spotify (although it's leaving me broke) but how does the ten-hour limit for free accounts work? Is that per month or per sign-on? I know it won't be an issue during the unlimited trial but I'm just curious.
It's like Pandora's 40-hour limit per month. Spotify keeps track of how long you're streaming music while signed in, and it stops letting you stream if you have listened for 10 hours in a single month.

As an aside, I would recommend that you check out Rdio. They offer a 7-day free fully-featured trial. I tried both services and found that Rdio's selection of music is better. For instance, when the blink-182 single Up All Night was released, Rdio had it right away whereas Spotify took weeks to get it. I've also noticed that Rdio has better licenses than Spotify--for instance, Adele's latest album (which isn't new by any means) still isn't available on Spotify, but it is on Rdio.

Oh, and you can play Rdio from the website without needing to install anything. In fact, there is no standalone client. The two services are the same price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheRealJohnOC (Post 95478612)
Hasn't the horn been invented already?
I laughed pretty hard at that line.

CyberInferno 09/26/11 11:20 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evilcow8675309 (Post 95480852)
Mac? Games, don't be silly! anyone who is serious about playing PC games would play them on... well a PC. I mean seriously there's a reason people use Direct X instead of Open GL.
Agreed, but considering the fairly desolate state that computer gaming is in currently (aside from MMOs), I don't mind making it easier for developers to make cross-platform games.

I'm so sick of shitty console ports with watered down graphics and textures where they don't even bother changing instructions from "Press the x button to crouch."

Evilcow8675309 09/26/11 10:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CyberInferno (Post 95481312)
Agreed, but considering the fairly desolate state that computer gaming is in currently (aside from MMOs), I don't mind making it easier for developers to make cross-platform games.

Never really understood the whole deal about (modern) MMO's. I had a blast on Everquest back in '99 - '01 but new MMO's just don't do it for me.

If you haven't played them already two PC exclusives that I really enjoy are Amnesia: the Dark Descent, and Red Orchestra 2. Red Orchestra 2 needs quite a bit of bug fixing as of now, but Tripwire is usually pretty good about that. And as for Amnesia, you will wet your pants playing it. No really I mean it the game is absolutely beautifully horrifying!

CyberInferno 09/28/11 01:36 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evilcow8675309 (Post 95520802)
Never really understood the whole deal about (modern) MMO's. I had a blast on Everquest back in '99 - '01 but new MMO's just don't do it for me.

If you haven't played them already two PC exclusives that I really enjoy are Amnesia: the Dark Descent, and Red Orchestra 2. Red Orchestra 2 needs quite a bit of bug fixing as of now, but Tripwire is usually pretty good about that. And as for Amnesia, you will wet your pants playing it. No really I mean it the game is absolutely beautifully horrifying!
Amnesia sounds pretty awesome. Definitely going to have to check that out. Thanks for the recommendation.

Sadly, I spend far more time playing Yahoo Pool than any other game. It's sad not only because it's lame, but because it's a pretty terrible pool game too.