Sean Kalinich
The Google Glass project has caused some concern in Washington. They seem to feel that a device that can capture still images and movies which you wear around all the time could be a problem. Already we have seen casinos ban them, which is not surprising as they could be used to cheat the house. Next to ban Google Glass were the strip clubs, again not a big surprise and you can imagine why. Google Glass could be a problem and we can see businesses, schools and other place banning their use in the very near future. Still we wonder about Congress getting involved. Is their concern really about privacy?
NETGEAR 802.11ac A6200 USB WiFi Adapter Runs Through The Lab
- Category: Enthusiast Storage and Networking
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- Created: 18 May 2013
802.11ac wireless was introduced at CES 2012. Unfortunately when the devices were launched there were no adapters to support it. This meant that people were buying expensive wireless products without having any way to support the speeds they were capable of. Fortunately at CES 2013 a couple of manufacturers started releasing 802.11ac adapters. However, there are two schools of thought about how to implement these adapters. We will be taking a look at both in the next couple of weeks, but we will kick things off with a look at the USB 2.0 NETGEAR A6200 Dual Band 802.11ac WiFi Adapter. Let’s dive in and take a look.
Google is not happy with Microsoft at the moment. It seems that Microsoft has done something rather foolish to the YouTube app for Windows Phone. Instead of following the normal restrictions that most other mobile players follow, they (Microsoft) have decided to let their users download videos from YouTube and to block ads completely during video playback.
Human Security, Relearning How to Act on the Internet
- Category: Editorials
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- Created: 17 May 2013
Security is a huge issue and has always been one ever since the first person decided they wanted to protect what they owned. Through the centuries the art of security has evolved and a multitude of inventions have blossomed on the scene to help us keep our property safe and secure. Once the data age started we had new concerns and our fertile minds came up with new and more creative ways to protect our new digital property. These two separate (yet dependent) fields are broken down into physical and digital security. The problem is that neither of these are effective unless we apply human security. This is the practice of securing people (humans) against being the largest security hole in any network or location.
We have been covering the emerging technology behind wearable computing and in particular smart watches to get a better grasp on this technology. In our articles we have listed companies like I’m Spa and their I’m Watch, Samsung, Apple and ConnecteDevice Cookoo Watch. We were quickly reminded by our readers that there are others out there and one in particular was mentioned (repeatedly). This is the Pebble Smartwatch.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership Is Still a Threat to Basic Internet Rights
- Category: Editorials
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- Created: 16 May 2013
It looks like the US wants to export something new to the world, now we are not talking about a technology. We are talking about our draconian copyright laws. You remember those nasty laws that the entertainment industry and software companies keep extending and expanding. For years our government has tried to be the police for these groups with laws like SOPA, PIPA Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection act and more. Well they are trying to force other countries to adopt these same rules and using trade agreements to do it. They have already been stopped once with ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) when they tried to remove the rights of individual countries to establish their own laws and are at it again with the Trans Pacific Partnership.
Publishers in Apple Price Fixing Case to Testify Against Apple as the Senate is Asking Questions About Offshore Money
- Category: News
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- Created: 15 May 2013
Earlier today we published an article showing how Apple is trying to get out of the price-fixing jam they are in with the US DoJ. Their new tactic is to try and show that they did nothing wrong or that the publishers that they dealt with had not already intended to do. Looking over the evidence and Apple’s pattern in dealing with partners actually looks more like Apple was behind things and used their knowledge of the situation to bring the others onboard. Now we are finding out that the DoI feels this way too and that they also have some evidence to back it up in the form of testimony from the 5 publishers in the original suit.
Is touch really the future of the PC?
- Category: Editorials
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- Created: 15 May 2013
Touch as a form of input for a computer system is rather old although most people regard it as a new technology. It was even around long before the move to flat display panels happened. These touch input methods were often very rudimentary, but they got the job done. If all you needed was to hit a button on a screen for a point of sale system then making a matrix that could detect this was not that complicated. As the technology developed it split into different facets. One of them, the touch screen, is what you most often hear about when someone talks about touch. It is this that Microsoft and others are talking about when they say touch is the future. I say they are wrong.
Apple's New Evidence In Price Fixing Suit Shows They Knew What They Were Doing
- Category: Editorials
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- Created: 15 May 2013
Apple just will not give up in trying to get out of the pickle they are in over price fixing eBooks. Despite some pretty convincing evidence that Steve Jobs put together a new agency model with Apple at the head they are still claiming that Apple did nothing wrong. They are now trying to claim that the price of eBooks went down after their agreements with five publishers. They are also trying to throw the original publishers under the bus claiming they were already trying to hurt eBook sales long before Apple got involved.
nVidia Taking Limited Pre-Orders for Shield, But Is It Too Late?
- Category: News
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- Created: 14 May 2013
Back at CES 2013 we had the chance to stop by the nVidia booth in the LVCC to take a look at nVidia’s Shield mobile gaming system. It was an interesting demo and the concept was… shall we say interesting. What we saw was a small devices that looked like an Xbox controller on steroids with a flip up screen. Inside was a new generation of nVidia’s Tegra running an optimized version of Android. The idea is that with this one product you can access gaming content from three sources; Google Play, Tegra Zone and even Steam in the future.
