Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

27 Apr 2011 09:31

tags

Tech: Apple responds: We’re not tracking your location, just your cell tower

  • The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.
  • A statement from Apple • Revealing exactly what we pointed out last week — that Apple isn’t tracking where you are, but trying to locate your cell tower quickly. The big thing, though, is that Apple will release a software update that addresses the part of this problem — which is the crux of what the whole issue was. The next major update will encrypt it. Non-story becomes non-story again. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Apr 2011 22:00

tags

Tech: Sony’s bad news: The data breach that killed PlayStation’s cred

  • 75M number of users Sony’s PlayStation Network has; until now, they were just upset they couldn’t play
  • six number of days it took Sony to reveal that users’ data was likely ganked by a hacker
  • one number of weeks Sony expects the network to partially get back up to speed source
  • » Sen. Richard Blumenthal has your back, gamers: The Connecticut senator and former state attorney general wants Sony to eat the cost of protecting users’ identities. “PlayStation Network users should be provided with financial data security services,” he wrote in a letter, “including free access to credit reporting services, for two years, the costs of which should be borne by Sony.” Bro also wants Sony to get insurance to protect users from identity theft. To put it simply — Sony’s kind of screwed, guys.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Apr 2011 21:43

tags

Tech: Friendster throws its old, forgotten friends out on the curb

  • Your emotions get wrapped up in it. It reflected a particular moment in time in our lives.
  • Former Friendster user Jim Leija • Reflecting with sorry about the site’s decision to delete information stored on the site by its early users since the heady days of 2003. The current site, which allows people to store photos, blog posts and comments, will become an entertainment-focused site along the lines of MySpace, but with a focus on their current Asian stronghold. For folks like Leija, who met his partner Aric Knuth on the site, the death of the current Friendster is bittersweet. “All of our early exchanges were with each other through their messaging systems. We were writing early love notes back in the winter of 2003.” Fortunately, if Leija wants to keep his old data, Friendster created an app to do just that. (BTW, the NYT quoted Jason Scott — who’s kind of the internet archivist du jour and doesn’t like the cloud for this very reason.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2011 20:28

tags

Tech: Note to aliens: We’re out of money, not really looking anymore

  • SETI’s broke, guys: The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence will take a breather for a little while. The SETI Institute, which owns these sweet-looking satellites, ran out of money for its Allen Telescope Array, and the program will take a breather. Paul Allen (who recently became a patent troll) provided a big chunk of the original funding, and the State of California and the National Science Foundation provided the rest. The government sources, however, had to cut their funding recently. There is good news, however: Apparently the Air Force may want to use the technology to study space debris. So they could be functioning again soon. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Apr 2011 10:41

tags

Tech: Nintendo’s big announcement: A Wii successor in 2012

  • And so the next generation of video games begins. With the Nintendo Wii starting to show its age, the company has announced that they’ll be bringing out a new home game console in 2012. Rumors suggest that the device will finally help the company catch up to Sony and Microsoft technology-wise, and that the device will be bigger than a breadbo… er, Xbox. The controller will also sport a built-in touchscreen, according to the rumor-mongers. We’ll probably know more when Nintendo demos the console at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June. If they release it, will you guys buy it? Or will you stay with that one console whose network has been down for almost a week and goes after hackers in court? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Apr 2011 18:12

tags

Tech: Twitter’s new building almost too big to describe in 140 characters

  • Twitter’s new home: Today, Twitter crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s on the lease for this, the San Francisco Mart building in the city’s Central Market district. The deal came after Twitter made a deal with the city to avoid a 1.5 percent city payroll tax for the next six years. Which means Twitter can bulk up without having to pay any extra taxes. Sweet — for them. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

21 Apr 2011 10:01

tags

Tech: Apple’s iPhone location-tracking fiasco: Not as bad as it looks

  • [Apple may] collect and transmit cell tower and Wi-Fi Access point information automatically [from your device]. This information is batched and then encrypted and transmitted to Apple over a secure Wi-Fi Internet connection every twelve hours.
  • A 2010 letter from Apple • Explaining why the whole “Apple spying on users” thing is a non-issue. Simply put: It’s not about you. It’s about cell towers. Want to read an explanation about what they’re doing? Read this letter they sent to Congressmen Ed Markey and Joe Barton way back in June of last year. PC World makes a good point about all this, though: “But the database on your computer is sitting there unencrypted in an easily discoverable location. This means the database is a potential target for malware or even law enforcement if the authorities should decide to seize and search your PC.” Even if Apple continues to do this (which you can turn off by snapping off “Location Services” on your phone’s settings), they should fix that part of the problem. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

20 Apr 2011 23:48

tags

Tech: Soon, your Kindle will replace your library card

Amazon is rolling out some great new features to Kindle users, including book lending and access to 11,000 public libraries. No word on when they’ll be out, though. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2011 22:20

tags

Tech: Apple’s amazing quarter: That Verizon iPhone really did the trick

  • 83% increase in Apple’s revenue for the quarter (showoffs)
  • 18.65
    million     number of iPhones the company sold in the quarter (credit the move to  Verizon, obviously)
  • 4.69
    million     number of iPads the company sold in  the quarter (credit the release of the iPad 2, obviously) source
  • » Supply and demand: That iPad number likely would’ve been even higher had Apple figured out a away to make even more of them available. The company’s COO and temporary replacement for Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, blames “the mother of all backlogs.” The iPad currently has a one-to-two-week delay on the Apple Web site. This company may print its own money, but they haven’t figured out how to print an iPad yet.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Apr 2011 10:41

tags

Tech: Hilarious/sad: AT&T blocks the BlackBerry Playbook’s tethering

  • Hey RIM, didya forget about how stupid AT&T is? The BlackBerry Playbook’s utterly bizarre requirement that forces you to tether your phone to your tablet to check your e-mail is bad enough, but there’s an even worse problem for the company, and it’s one that most iPhone customers know all too well about. See, AT&T isn’t all that hot about the concept of tethering devices unless they can make money off of it. So … guess what AT&T isn’t allowing on the BlackBerry Playbook right now? That’s right. Tethering. So, if you’re an AT&T customer, you can’t check your e-mail on your shiny new tablet. And they may charge $45 a month for the privilege. In other news, launch day sales for the Playbook were a relatively robust 45,000. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>