Jul 23, 2014 | Law Blog
One Tuesday there was canceled hearing between the New England Patriots and Aaron Hernandez for the demanding of his team records which also would include psychological and medical tests and even his scouting report.
There have been reports that the defense for Hernandez rejected offers from to Patriots to release most of his records but not all. They had refused to release the scouting report citing trade secrets and that they only had a summary of psych evaluation report that was done at the 2010 NFL Combine. The Patriots did tell the defense that they should speak to the company who administered the tests for the full report stated a report on CNN.
Hernandez was arrested on June 26, 2013 for the murder of Odin Lloyd and later please not guilty to in another case for the deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado in 2012.
Jul 22, 2014 | General, Wireless
In business, sometimes you have to gamble. They’re banking their next batch of iPhones will be the best sale ever. It better be.
Apple iPhone ?is calling on suppliers to produce 70 to 80 million units of future iPhones with either 4.7 inch or 5.5 inch screens. All these units are to be made by December 30, 2014. This is the 20 million more than what was called for with the iPhone 5S and 5C. It’s rumored Apple is working feverishly to launch iPhone 6. Usually they launch either a new phone or device in September, at the beginning of an academic/work year, and not far from the holiday shopping season.
I must say, calling for this many units seems like a huge gamble for Apple to make. During the first quarter of 2014, Apple shared 18% of the smartphone share, compared to 29% of Samsung. I’m sure this factor was in their mind. But what if the sales are disappointing. But then I remember Apple has a partnership with China Mobile, which started selling the iPhone in early 2014. So to have one of the most powerful technical companies in one of the fastest rising economical companies in the world as an ally is a good move. To sale these between the two biggest times of the year is another good move. So is making up to 80 million iPhone devices a gamble or great business sense?
Jul 21, 2014 | Computer technology, Wireless
If I told you a city in one of the Koreas banned Uber, the taxi hailing app, you would probably guess Pyongyang, right? Guess again.
It’s Seoul, the capital, largest city and business/social hub of South Korea, that is seeking a ban on Uber. Government leaders in Seoul are calling Uber illegal. South Korean law forbids for profit?transportation or go-betweens for that transport that isn’t government registered. ?This app is by no means government?registered. Back in April 2013, one driver was fined nearly $1,000 for using Uber.?Seoul plans to?launch it’s?own?app, very similar to Uber,?by December 2014. But Uber spokespeople in Seoul are fighting back. ?One said outlawing this app puts the city in danger of moving backwards globally and economically.
Seoul, South Korea isn’t the only city?not in?love with the Uber app. Cities throughout Europe are raising chaos over this app. Brussels, Belgium and Berlin, Germany banned the app. Hamberg, Germany wants too. London cabbies have protested Uber in droves. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an app (that wasn’t violently or sexually or language explicit) cause such international controversy. I did a blog about the London protest. I said it then and I say it now, people don’t like change and cab companies are scared to death this is going to cut into their profits. And since taxis are higher taxed in these nations, governments are fearful Uber’s going to cut into their bottom line. Plus Uber can tell people how much a trip is going to cost. This makes cabbies more accountable as consumers become more street wise to meter milking. What are your feeling on Uber?
Jul 20, 2014 | Backup, Computer technology
My Amazon, you’ve been busy as of late. You’ve released an astonishing Kindle book deal. Whether that succeeds or backfires, we’ll soon find out. If it backfires, you’ve got something to fall back on.
According to Pacific Crest Securities, Amazon Cloud’s revenue will increase 58% this year. But that’s just the beginning. Their cloud is already worth 3.1 billion dollars. If their luck continues, it will be worth 6.7 billion dollars by this time next year. This puts Amazon Cloud on par as one of the fastest growing software businesses of all time. Their cloud growth is now up there with traditional servers, like Dell and Hewlett Packard. Last time checked, Amazon Cloud made 1.25 billion dollars?per quarter. These numbers come form Pacific Crest Securities because Amazon won’t dare release it’s own numbers, no matter how successful.
It’s great they can grow a business to this unprecedented success. It definitely puts more traditional servers on notice, which is good for consumer as well as corporation. But a business can grow too fast. I hope Amazon Cloud is careful to keep up with the growing demand for this product and has enough resources and manpower to do just that. I’ve seen major businesses go belly up when growing at this rampant speed. Will Amazon Cloud be able to keep pace?
Jul 19, 2014 | Entertainment
What will you watch on Netflix today? Will it be Leprechaun 3? Or maybe Silent Night Deadly Night 2? Or how about Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman? The next day, you’re too embarrassed to let anyone known you’ve indulged in this guilty pleasure. Netflix may be able to help your dilemma.
Netflix is now testing a private viewing mode. Any bad movie or TV show you choose won’t appear in your activity log. It won’t even give you recommendations to watch in the future. The feature is being tested in markets everywhere, and tests are expected to continue through several months. But don’t binge on bad movies and terrible TV just yet: these are just tests and by the end of it all, the feature may not even be offered at all.
Personally, I hope this is. Picture this scenario: I invite friends over for movie night, or to watch a major TV show premier or finale. As I’m uploading on Netflix, the movie Showgirls shows up on my big screen, or episodes of The Jerry Springer Show come on the screen. Whoops! I guess I better not binge on Dolomite and Blackula yet. I’m telling on myself way too much, aren’t I?
Jul 18, 2014 | General, Wireless
I did a few blogs about not so good news about Amazon. But Amazon is offering a deal that few people can refuse.
Amazon’s Kindle has announced an all you can read deal. That’s right: over 600,000?books will be available to all Kindle owners on their Kindle devices for the insanely low price of $9.99 a month. This includes audiobooks. That’s not all: You can try one month of this absolutely free and they’re throwing in their Whispersync service, which allows the Kindle reader to switch between manual and audio reading, even in the middle of a book. Amazon doesn’t have the backing or blessing of all publishing companies, but you can read some big name books in this deal, including series like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. I apologize in advanced for our international fans because this deal available in the US only. Don’t kill the messenger.
Thinking about checking out this deal on your new Kindle and need it set up? Give us a call at Geek Choice, and we can do the entire set up for you!
I find it coincidental they launch this when Amazon is in a publishing war with Hachette and others. Even celebrities have publically talked down about Amazon, even calling them names and comparing Amazon to organized crime. So this $9.99 a month deal comes in. And these publishers don’t like it. So what’s the motive of this borderline too good to be true deal? Are they trying be in good graces with their customers? Or are they using this deal to get at their enemies even more?
Jul 17, 2014 | News
In February 2014, Microsoft chose Satya Nadella to be their new CEO. Many felt that changes were going to be made, whether they were pleasant or not. But did anybody see this?
Microsoft is expected to cut over 18,000 jobs over the next year. Keep in mind? Microsoft only has 125,000 employees. The majority of these cuts will come from Nokia, the phone manufacturer purchased by Microsoft. But the job shaving doesn’t stop with Nokia. Over 5,000 jobs will be cut in other areas of Microsoft. Don’t think Microsoft management is safe: In fact, that’s where many of the jobs will be cut. Mr. Nadella is looking for kind of ‘cultural change’, where future layers of oversight will be cut down to allow for greater accountability and better decision making. The crazy thing is this morning, July 17, 2014, Microsoft’s stock jumped three percent.
This is several times more than the previous record Microsoft let go. That was 5,000 employees in 2009 due to the Great Recession. But I’m weary of this job loss. I will give them credit, at least they’re giving people time to make some decisions and save some money before the ax comes down. I read somewhere where Mr. Nadella wants to do away with tradition and push for innovation. I’m all for innovation, believe me. We live in a changing world, and we need innovation to thrive and survive. But at the risk of this many people? And couldn’t some of these managers he’s letting go actually help the Nokia/Microsoft transition? And I know there has to be casualties in mergers, but this many? What good is this massive layoff going to do, except put more people in the unemployment line?
Jul 17, 2014 | Law Blog
A marijuana decriminalization law was passed by the D.C. Council in the spring started Thursday at 12:01 a.m. after a Congressional review process passed.
This new law will ease the punishments for minor marijuana offenses.
If anyone is found carrying over an ounce of marijuana, officers can only confiscate the drug and write a ticket of $25.
Another big change is that Police will not be able to take action by just a simple smell of marijuana, in fact that can’t even demand that any person carrying under an ounce of marijuana produce identification which is according to the Washington Post.
However civil penalties will still be in place for individuals using marijuana on federal government property and in public.
With such a major change to the law the police have to review and 8 page special order and even have to take an online tutorials states the Washington Times.
This law offers a huge change from the drug laws of the past but it looks like the lawyers in D.C. will have to be reading up on the this law just in case any officers do arrest someone that maybe following that law, however may be arrested under further suspicions.
Jul 16, 2014 | networking, Wireless
Do you know the age old saying, “A closed mouth is never fed”? You don’t need to tell that to the technology world; they know the importance of advertising and promotion. Well, most of them do anyway.
Google dominates the race in net digital ad revenue and net mobile ad revenue race. In digital ads, they own 31% of the spoils, while in mobile ads, they took home a whopping half of all revenue. Facebook places a distant second, raking in eight percent of digital ad revenue and nearly a fourth of mobile ad sales. Microsoft and Yahoo are fighting it out for third on the digital ad list, while Twitter is making quite the rising scene in the mobile ad market shares.
But what struck me was the number of companies that didn’t even make one percent of one or both charts. And I’m talking big name tech based companies. Companies like? AOL, Twitter, Amazon and Linkedin didn’t even one percent of digital ad revenue, but Google got nearly a third. Companies like Millennial Media, Yelp and Amazon don’t make one percent of the mobile ad market. Meanwhile, Google and Facebook has nearly three-fourth of that market under their control. So what’s going on here? I doubt Twitter and Amazon just don’t care about these ads, but these numbers are really disproportionate. I get that not all these companies have the same amount of revenue, or even will, for global ads, but for the numbers to be like this? What advantages do Google and Facebook have over the others in digital and mobile advertising?
Jul 15, 2014 | Computer Repair, Security, Software
Geek Choice is a computer repair company headquartered in Boston, MA.? We enable our customers with free programs that can help them keep their computers clean. Geek Choice has found that Avast 2014 is one of the better free antivirus choices on the market.
Now it is true that there are paid versions of Avast that give extra protection, but for the majority of our customers the free antivirus version is sufficient. Please note that just because you have antivirus protection that you are still vulnerable to possible infections. Geek Choice would like to remind everyone that it’s important that you be diligent in what you click and what sites you visit. New viruses are created every day and unfortunately many times your antivirus definitions may not be up to date to fight them. So please be aware of some of the following suspicious items: emails from friends or people in your address book stating something has happened to them sounding unrealistic or strange, unfamiliar links sent to you via email, Facebook, Twitter and alike may also have viruses accompanying them.
As stated above, it is a team effort to keep viruses out of your computer. However it is possible that even with protection you can be infected. If infected with a virus of any kind, please note that Geek Choice does computer repair in Boston and across the United States. The Avast solution is not only for consumers, but for standard computers in a business it can also be a great help. Geek Choice also offers small business computer help if any businesses are in need.
If you already have antivirus but are not happy with it, once your subscription is finished with your former antivirus program, we would recommend uninstalling your antivirus and installing Avast and try it out for the free year they give you. You may download the free version here at Avast’s website.
p.s. There has been some known issues with the newest version of Avast conflicting with some programs. There is a deep screen feature in Avast 2014 that has been causing these issues. There have been reports that the newer downloads have this feature automatically shut off but please verify after your install and if you have Avast 2014 already please check to see if Deep Screen is on. Below is a step by step process on shutting off this feature to protect you against conflicts between Avast and other programs you may use.
Step 1:
First click the bottom right hand corner and select the Avast symbol and right click it. Once you do that click on open avast! user interface:
Step 2:
Now that the interface is opened you will want to go to the Settings section the left side at the bottom:
Step 3:
Finally you will want to click on Antivirus and go to the Deep Screen area and uncheck the box. Once done click OK at the bottom and you have successfully turned off the Deep Screen feature:
