July 2011
50 posts
4 tags
Facebook launches Bug Bounty rewards program
Hackers, developers or anyone else who may be a security researcher should know that Facebook just opened up a new Bug Bounty program that pays $500 (or more) to anyone that successfully finds a security bug in Facebook.
Since Facebook has become so huge and will be reaching 1 billion users later this year, they need to scale their work. It’s much cheaper to farm this work out to anyone...
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How I save things for later
I do a lot of reading on the Internet. Every day I am reading through articles, blogs, tweets, posts, you name it. It’s just part of my daily routine. I check social media, I check news sites, RSS feeds, particular websites, blogs, etc. For some reason, all these years I never really had a good method of saving interesting content for later.
Some of the things I used to do would be if...
6 tags
Microsoft parodies Gmail in leaked video
As it’s well known, Microsoft and Google are competitors and have openly been at war with each other. Last week there was a big Microsoft conference and ZDNet got a hold of a “legit” video from the conference where Microsoft paints Gmail in a very bad light with a parody video of Gmail and the “Gmail Man.”
It’s quite a funny video and exposes something that...
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I bet you have never seen fog like this before
Fog can be a mysterious thing. Fog is basically a cloud with moisture to it which is low to the ground. Typically when I think of fog or see it for myself, it’s kind of spread out all over and not super “thick”, more misty than anything. However, after watching this video by William Couch where he captures some very thick rolling fog in San Francisco, it gives a new outlook...
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Govt passes bill requiring your ISP to track all...
The House of Representatives yesterday passed an extremely disturbing bill that you need to know about. The bill, H.R. 1981 requires your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to track and record for 12 months all your online activities such as what web sites you visit and what content you post online.
Additionally, the information would then be available to the government, in secret and without any...
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Stage your very own email intervention
With the help of Google, you can stage your own email intervention. If you still have friends with email addresses like: @aol.com, or @hotmail.com or worse, @netzero.com or @juno.com it’s time to help them get into a better emailing system and not be embarrassed by their email address any longer. I would say anyone with @yahoo.com is safe for now, but their time is running out as well.
We...
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A reverse map of the world
What if all the water in the world was land and all the land in the world was water. What would the world look like? A pretty silly thing to think about, but interesting enough to ponder and see a map of, don’t you say? via, source
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Record and stream video right from your glasses
Video recording and sharing has become ever so important especially with social media and the fast world we live in. Imagine being able to tap a button on the side of your eyeglasses and record what you see? Better yet, record what you see and stream it live? Perfect for real world situations like news, journalism, live events, you name it there is probably a demand for it.
Most people can...
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Touchscreen keyboard will morph to your typing...
I love iPads and touchscreen technology as much as the next person. So one probably should be excited that there is a new patent from IBM that will subtly morph touchscreen keyboards to your typing style to make it easier to type on them.
The way it works is that you will need to calibrate the keyboard by doing a series of exercises to set response time and typing style which will sense through...
8 tags
Joseph Tame's 13 mile run in the shape of the G+...
According to Tokyo resident Joseph Tame the popularity of Google Plus is picking up in Japan. So how did Joseph celebrate this popularity? Well for starters, he is an avid runner and has his own Tech Runner website dedicated to running and of course technology. Combining the two he came up with an ingenious idea.
Run and track the course using Runkeeper which allowed him to map where he ran. ...
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Google Plus is.....
So far I am really enjoying the Google Plus service. I know many still are not on it yet but that gives me time to learn new things and view different perspectives from others on the network that I may not have communicated with in the past. I am meeting new people and making new connections which is what it’s all about.
The launch of the site has been pretty smooth and for all intents...
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Apple Store coming to Grand Central Station
Two icons are about to become one major unit tomorrow when the Board of Directors gives the go-ahead for Apple to build a store right in Grand Central Station in New York.
Apple is paying a hefty price though to be in Grand Central, to the tune of $1.1 million per year. That’s just over $91,000 per month to lease the space. Not to mention, Apple is buying out the current inhabitants, ...
4 tags
Saving Myspace - A parody video by Myspace...
If you think you had all the best ideas on saving Myspace, wait till you see this video. Who else could come up with the best ideas to save Myspace other than Myspace staff? They know Myspace the best, right? This video was made by Myspacer’s in the last weeks of Myspace before the sale to Specific Media.
Sean Percival, former VP of Myspace whom I worked directly with on the Myspace...
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Smartphone clip-on scans and diagnoses cataracts
This is amazing. Researchers at MIT have created a clip-on to smartphones that can scan and diagnose cataracts. The clip-on called Catra is small and is non-invasive. It simply scans the lens of your eye, then shows images that if you see start to fade you press a button and based on your response it will know how much cloudiness there is and if you are developing cataracts.
It’s also...
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Mapping Twitter and Flickr locations
Photographer Eric Fischer who calls himself the “Geek of Maps” has posted up some very interesting of Twitter and Flickr user locations across the globe. His stunning images show clearly where people are using Twitter more, Flickr or both. If you look at the maps, there are red/orange dots that represent people using Flickr. The blue dots indicate Twitter users and the white dots...
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Incubus fights music pirates with new flash game
If you are a fan of Incubus’ music or you like to play old school 8-bit games akin to the Double Dragon era, you will like the new flash game that they have going. The game is dubbed Incubattle and it let’s you choose one of the Incubus band members and then you get to take on music pirates who have stolen tracks from the new Incubus album If Not Now, When?. There is 1-player and...
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Why use Google+ when you have Facebook?
Many are asking this very question recently. Why should I use Google+ when I have Facebook, or even Twitter? Well, watch this video. It does a good job of telling you. The question is not why should you use it, but *when* will you end up using it? Might as well start now!
source
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Ferrari world design contest winners and photos
Ferrari just wrapped up their 2011 World Design Contest where they announced the winners and runners up for best design concepts. The designs are purely incredible.
The winners are students from Seoul’s Hongik University where their design named Eternità achieved the best design, look and goal of the contest which was to create a concept car design that can reduce fuel consumption and the...
6 tags
Control a BlueDrone R/C car with your Android
There is an interesting kickstarter project for an R/C car that can be controlled using Bluetooth technology that will allow you to drive the car with your Android device. The car is called BlueDrone and all you will have to do is download a free app from the Android Market and sync it to the car to use it.
Then you will be ready to drive it for up to three hours of battery life (3x AA...
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A visualization of migration flows across the...
Check out this impressive interactive website called Peoplemovin. It was published last month and is an experimental project that visualizes migration across the world.
Out of almost 7 billion people in the world 216 million of them are migrants. Peoplemovin is a website built using HTML5 technology and demonstrates the power of it by creating an interactive flowchart by simply using public...
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8 simple illustrations of the perfect tech world
Designer Catrina Dulay came up with some simple illustrations that point out what a perfect world would be like without certain everyday disruptions. Oh how I agree with these! Here are just a few of them. via, source
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Google's brand new virtual library (Photo)
Founder & executive director of Social Media Week Toby Daniels snapped a pretty cool picture of the brand new just made public virtual library at Google in New York today. He describes it as being an interactive wall, which allows you to search for books, scan them with your phone and then download them. The picture speaks for itself. I would love to see this in person. If you are ever at...
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Criminals: Stand at least 5 feet away from cops...
Police have a new tool to add to their criminal detection arsenal. According to Reuters, dozens of police departments nationwide are about to start using a controversial iris and facial scanning device called Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System (MORIS) which slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person.
The scan uses biometric technology which will tap into the U.S. criminal...
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Google experimenting with new malware protection...
Last night Matt Cutts, who is the head of the webspam team at Google sent a message around on Google+ sharing a post by Google of a new experiment they are trying on the Google search results page.
Google identified specific malware in use while performing routine maintenance on one of their data centers. Since they were able to identify this specifically, they could post an alert to affected...
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SketchBook Pro is now available on Android...
Autodesk, the maker of SketchBook Pro for the iPad just announced that the widely popular professional-grade paint and drawing app is now available for Android Honeycomb tablets in the Android Market. The app is a powerful tool for artists to sketch, draw and illustrate right on your tablet with the ability to export files to Photoshop. via, source
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Google+ iPhone app gets approved and added to the...
After what feels like a very long wait, the Google+ iPhone app has finally been approved and is available in the Apple App Store. It was literally just approved a couple of hours ago. Check it out and let me know what you think. There are a few known issues already that Google’s Punit Soni has addressed, such as IOS5 is unsupported at this point, iPad/iPhone device support is coming soon and...
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I have been spotlighted in the Tumblr technology...
Yesterday I received an email from Tumblr that they really enjoy my blog and wanted to feature it in the Technology Spotlight category of Tumblr. Of course I replied saying I would love to be featured. Sure enough I just checked and I am being spotlighted. It’s really great to know that Tumblr itself finds my blog interesting enough to be featured along with some other great Technology blogs...
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Uploading photos to Google+ using your iPhone is...
If you are still waiting on the Apple iOS app for Google+ to do things on a native mobile app, such as uploading photos to Google+, you may end up waiting a while.
Google+ launched in beta testing approximately three weeks ago. A few days later Google employee Erica Joy said “For my iPhone using friends: the Google+ iPhone app has been submitted to the App store (no not today, sometime...
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Google launches badges for news
Google just launched another way to share with Google News Badges. The badges are earned by reading articles on Google News. After a certain number of articles are read, you earn badges and can continue to level up from Bronze badges to Silver, Gold, Platinum and Ultimate.
Since this just launched the thresholds haven’t been determined yet, but it’s only a matter of time before...
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Keep mosquitoes at bay using your smart phone
Summertime is my favorite time of the year. But if there is one thing I dislike about it, it’s the mosquitoes. Suntan lotion and bug repellent can be your best friends during summer. But according to a new mobile app by Sea Garden, you are able to set the app to generate a high frequency sound which will keep mosquitoes away. Currently the app is available in the Android Market and is...
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What would you like your computer to do that it...
Over the course of 2010 year, Latitudeº asked 201 children around the world, ages 12 and under “What would you like your computer or the Internet to do that it can’t do right now?” They were told to draw a picture of something they’d like their computers or the Internet to do differently.
The drawings that the children did and the ideas they have show how far technology has taken...
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All the commotion about Google Plus
Over the past couple of weeks it seems the media has gone on Google+ over load. Everyone is talking about it, so it seems. I am even talking about it a lot. Who can blame us though? There hasn’t been something this exciting to social networking probably since Twitter started to see marginal traction back in 2007.
That same year Tumblr was born. However Tumblr is still gaining...
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Zim and Zou's colored paper art gives electronics...
Zim & Zou is a french graphic design studio based in Nancy, France. The studio proposes a contemporary approach of design thanks to a mix of different fields such as paper sculpture, installation, graphic design, illustration and webdesign. Their latest project is taking colored paper and turning electronics into retro looking art. It’s really amazing the time that was put into this...
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Is that a tablet in your pocket or are you just...
Tablets are supposed to be small and portable, without being too small like a smart phone. Take the iPad for example, the second generation is smaller and thinner. What if you had a tablet that was bigger, much bigger. How about 46” wide, the size of a television? SKR Technology is doing just that. They have developed a large screen that has touch screen functionality and runs on...
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I don't wear watches, but I might start after...
Previously I already established that the wrist watch has pivoted and is no longer used to tell time only. It has and will continue to take new form, new functions and applications. But maybe, just maybe, after seeing this one of a kind Space Invaders watch, I will go back to telling time the old fashioned way! via, source
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The hi-tech iPad table brings touch to the...
Most meetings in conference rooms can be a bit boring. But imagine being able to use your iPad docked right to the table to view a presentation while being able to stay up to speed on your email? This new iPad table design is a bit far fetched for today’s office standards, but maybe in the next few years it won’t be such a uncommon reality. via, source
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Google Plus blocks IE7 users while China blocks...
I am still going through all the in’s and out’s of Google+ since it launched, learning everything, experimenting, etc. One thing I just learned as I was testing some code across browsers was that G+ is not supporting Internet Explorer 7.
I kind of figured they would not support Internet Explorer 6, which even Microsoft is counting down the time until the entire world has stopped...
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Google+ already has over 5 million users
Doing a simple search for “a” in the Google+ directory returns about 5,310,000 results (with profiles). Is this the most accurate source to know how many total users are on Google+ already, probably not. But this should give a better idea of just how many people have already starting using the social network since it launched a couple of weeks ago.
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YouTube tests out new Cosmic Panda interface
YouTube is testing out a new look with their latest project called Cosmic Panda. The new “experience” as YouTube describes it will improve the way you view videos and playlists. Right off the bat when you try it the entire website is vastly improved in the look and feel. It’s way more pleasing to the eyes than the standard and maybe now and a bit dated current version.
I...
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Facebook buttons top social web integration,...
It’s not a big surprise to know that Facebook Like buttons dominate the social website integration world. Majority of websites now have the option to ‘like’ a webpage with the Facebook like button. If you look below every one of our posts, you will see that we integrated AddThis scripting which actually allows you to like, tweet and share our posts on the web. We also recently...
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A crowdsourced guide to using Google+
If you are just getting access to Google+, have been using it for a few days or waiting to get in, there is a new help guide being crowdsourced and written by Google+ users utilizing non-other than Google Docs.
The guide is called A Collaborative Document: (or how 120+ people wrote a book at the same time). It’s a very imaginative and creative way to document and create helpful...
3 tags
A mint collection of every PlayStation 2 game ever...
If you think you are the biggest PlayStation 2 game collector out there, think again. A community member of PlayStation Collecting, namely Ahans76 is the “King of Collectors.” He has every single PS2 game ever made, sealed and in mint condition. And you call yourself a gamer! In total, there is around 1,850 games collected. Quite the accomplishment I must say and has probably put...
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Google is changing the way we socialize with our,...
Google+ Circles is a new way of sharing with friends. It’s not quite like Facebook and not quite like Twitter. Tons of similarities, good or bad, Google is changing the way we socialize. Help this go viral on Buzzfeed and Google+.
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Who won today: Twitter, Facebook or Google?
Today was a big day for social media. Both Twitter and Facebook held big press events on the same day around the exact same time. I actually ended up watching the Facebook press event which they announced the new Video Calling one-to-one chat option instead of the Twitter Townhall with President Obama. I kind of regret that now in hindsight. So I am left wondering — did many people like...
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Facebook partners with Skype to launch video chat
Facebook just unveiled their latest addition to their social network - Video Calling. This new feature will allow users to call one another for video chat via the Facebook platform. The service is for friends only so you can’t just begin a video chat with just anyone, which is a good security feature.
Both friends should have a web cam and both do have to do a one time installation set up...
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Bing makes iPad search simple with the magic lasso
I am not a huge fan of Bing, no particular reason other than maybe being a bit of a Google fanboy. However, while Google has been busy deploying Google+, Bing on the other hand just made tablet search extremely easy. On Bing’s latest iPad update, they added the magic lasso tool where you just simply circle the area you want to search and Bing will do the rest. Very simple and effective...
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Who to follow on Google+
If you are using Google+ you might not have many friends on it since it’s in closed beta testing. Without user interaction, it makes for a boring experience (as it would be with any social site). So The Next Web came up with a snazzy tool called Social Statistics that shows the Top 100 most popular Google+ users.
Not only can you get some interesting people to follow that post good...
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Google+ custom theme
I am totally loving the new Google+ interface. Google made the right choice by having Andy Hertzfeld as the lead on the design. The color scheme for the most part is minimal, which is one of the appealing things about it. I love minimalism, but I do enjoy some color too. So being the person I am, I tinkered around with the Google+ CSS and added in a dab of color and moved some things around,...
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Co-founder of Myspace, Tom Anderson speaks out
Anyone who ever had a Myspace account knows who Tom is. Tom was everyone’s default friend on Myspace when you had an account, giving a face to Myspace and someone in your network connecting you to others. Since Tom sold Myspace to News Corp and eventually leaving the network he helped build, he never really spoke out publicly about it and it’s failures in the past few years as the...
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Google+ invites and initial thoughts
I finally was able to get in and view Google+ yesterday as part of the closed beta testing. Getting “in” has been hard since it’s closed beta and invites are hard to come by. I saw a post from TNW that explained a ‘trick’ to get invites. Let me tell you, it works!
Thanks to my friend Ben (Aquizero) who already had beta access, he was able to invite me and get me...
