Feb 17, 2012 | News, Security
There are reports today from many technology news sources and others like the Wall Street Journal that Google has been getting through the privacy settings of people using Apple’s Safari web browser on their iPhones and computers. Apparently they used a specific code that would trick the web browser software into letting them be able to monitor the users. The most interesting part of all of this is that Safari is set by default to block the type of tracking Google was doing. The code was actually found by a researcher from Stanford, Jonathan Mayer. Although Google is not alone is this, there are other companies reported by the WSJ to have used techniques like this. Apple is currently working on these work around and will work vigorously to put a stop to this privacy workaround. Most think this work around is used for Google to get a leg up in the social media game or is Google trying to poke holes into Apple’s phone software to show that Droids are better choice. What do you think people?
Feb 16, 2012 | Computer technology, News, Software
It was in July of last year when Apple released its new OS X Lion to the world and tried to build on what they learned from the iOS to make a more complete OS. Today it seems they are doing it again with their newest OS X Mountain Lion. So might frown at the point that is OS is being announced just seven months after Lion and could be in your hands as soon as this coming summer which means that you are looking at a year in-between OS’s. It seems from what I have read with all of the work Apple has been putting into keeping up with the iOS, Apple doesn’t want to fall short on their computer line of OS’s. There is a version out for developers. From the looks of it this new OS might be what we saw back with OS X Leopard being upgraded to OS X Snow Leopard. Though it looks like this upgrade might be a bit stronger with better iCloud integration, a messaging app built right into the OS to replace iChat, an app for notes and reminders and even a notification center. There is plenty more of new features that will be included into the Mountain Lion but it will be interesting to see what they decide for a price point on this software since the Lion upgrade was so affordable and may have been a bigger leap then what we will see in Mountain Lion. Thoughts anyone?
Feb 15, 2012 | Wireless
As you have read in some of my past blogs, Apple is setting up an event in the first week of March to announce the next iPad. The date has been set for March 7th. The speculation is running wild on what will be included in the iPad 3 but the rumblings are a quad-core A6, a 2048×1536 Retina display and there is also speculation with 4G LTE networking. They are putting 4G LTE into the iPhone 5 which is set for October of this year. So the fact that the iPad 3 would get 4G LTE earlier would be nice since it is a tablet and not a phone and having those types of speeds on a tablet would be tremendous. The other speculation is going to be on the camera which is going to be a 5 or 8 megapixel camera for the rear and a FaceTime HD front camera. The starting price for the entry level model is being speculated at around $499. So far this is all just speculation and we will know what exactly the iPad 3 will have on March 7th but I must say if these rumors are true I might actually think about getting one finally.
Feb 14, 2012 | News
Geek Choice was very happy to donate to the Food n Friends Soup Kitchens. In early February in Southern Massachusetts Geek Choice was proud to donate money to the Food N Friends Benefit Dinner in Attleboro, Massachusetts. It is Geek Choices stance that no one should go hungry. We are very happy to have donated some time to the silent auction to help benefit those in need. We would like to make sure anyone reading this blog understands the importance that no one go hungry and urge you to donate to your local soup kitchens.
Feb 13, 2012 | Entertainment, News
It has been reported that 27 minutes before the news broke the death of Whitney Houston, it was on Twitter. There was a tweet sent out at 4:57PM PT that was reported by the Associated press that confirmed Whitney’s death by citing her very own publicist retweeting more than 10,000 times, which is according to data from Topsy Labs but the first tweet to actually reveal the news was put out around 4:30PM PT and that was only retweeted once. The police reports have her pronounced dead at 3:55PM PT so within 1 hour the news leaked through twitter before it hit the news. Though this wouldn’t be the first time news had leaked through twitter before major news outlets were able to report. In Pakistan a programmer live tweeted the military attack on Osama bin Landens camp inadvertently. So are we looking at Twitter becoming the next big news outlet?
Feb 12, 2012 | News
As I stated in an earlier blog post, Amazon has made deals to make their video streaming service better with way more shows from the Viacomm family. The Amazon Prime lineup has more than tripled during the amount of content available to subscribers since the launch of this service. Now with all of this growth one would think Amazon is prime and ready to make a run at just the video streaming service, but according to Brad Beale, Head of the Digital Video Content Acquisition at Amazon on interview that the video subscription service will not be offered separately. As they feel the Prime service gives many benefits to the client and is still very affordable as it today. I think the biggest thing would be the issue of paying for prime up front versus a monthly subscription fee. For a yearly price of $79, the person not only gets the streaming video but also has the ability to get free 2 day shipping on select Amazon products and also discounted overnight shipping. So as of right now there are no plans to make the video side separate.
Feb 11, 2012 | News, Wireless
So we have been awaiting the major release of Ice Cream Sandwich on more devices. Well it seems like it isn’t the software that is holding up this being on more phones but the hardware. The senior vice president and GM of Motorola’s Enterprise Unit, Christy Wyatt, stated that writing code to support hardware other than Google’s Nexus model has become a tall order for many smartphone makers. The problems with this is that upgrades to phones are more difficult and it takes forever for a person with an Android smartphone to enjoy an major upgrade. They do understand that people want upgrades sooner rather than later but the process is very complicated. Although they will be working hard to make sure that phones can upgraded as fast as possible, it’s just people with Androids will just have to be patient but most people’s patience is getting thinner.
Feb 10, 2012 | News, Wireless
So if you read my blog you know that Apple is planning an event in San Francisco to announce the iPad 3. Well apparently now the company is in crunch mode and is trying to line up all of the apps for both on stage demos and also show off some advertisements for the new iPad. Apple has been known to be very picky about what apps it will show off on its hardware, on the iPad 2 they showed iMovie and also Photo Booth. This time around my money is going to be on apps that show off the display. With everyone clamoring about the Retina display, you would think they will show off apps that are visually stunning. Now this is still not all confirmed but All Things D reported this and I must say they have been spot on with speculating Apple announcements and I am sure this one will be no different.
Feb 9, 2012 | News, Wireless
February is going to be a hush month for Apple as many believed they would be talking about the iPad 3 this month and when we might see it in all its glory. Well now it is being said that iPad 3 is going to be announced in March. This event is been speculated to be held in San Francisco and will be one of its trademark special events of the year. Not much is known on what will be included in the announcement especially since there are no street dates of it as of yet and we all hope that is announced in this event. Though from what I have read it is going to be very close to the iPad 2. It is going to be running much faster with better graphics and will have a 2048×1536 Retina Display and if that is not the exact numbers you will be looking at something very close to it. There is nothing we can really say on this event yet other speculating on it until the date is announced but from what I have read it will be sometime in the first week of March and we might be in for some surprises.
Feb 8, 2012 | News
Amazon is trying to ramp up their Prime service. They have just announced a deal with Viacom which will now bring them to over 15,000 titles in their library. This is a great move for Amazon in the streaming video business however there is still one problem with this issue. You have to buy a subscription to Amazon Prime. Which does give you free 2 day shipping. Although I have to say that isn’t too bad of a deal even if you don’t use it much however there is speculation that Amazon my part the two and have individual subscriptions just for the streaming. So with the new Viacom deal we are looking at TV shows from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, TV Land, and VH1. This will sure up the videos already on Amazon’s streaming line up. Looks like Netflix has some strong competition.
