September 2011
82 posts
5 tags
Apple TV is filled with educational content
One benefit of the technology wave is that classrooms are more interactive and “wired.” Back in the day, if you were to sit in on a lecture you would witness a professor standing in front of a room full of students speaking for hours. If students were lucky the professor might provide a handout as a visual for the discussion. Other times a large projector was wheeled in for professors...
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Google Plus hidden features: Google Experts, Voice...
Google Plus is well on it’s way now to being a full fledged social networking platform and has already racked up over 43 million users and then some (since the last update). New features are popping up often, if you want to keep track of them you can check here. Google Plus is still a newborn sort of speak, so lots of changes should be expected as things are rolled out and tested as the...
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Is digitization creating a generation of cheaters?
Wow, Schools.com just ripped into students about cheating saying “kids just don’t care about academic honesty anymore.” They also said that “Many students can’t even distinguish between what constitutes plagiarism and what doesn’t.” Do they have a point or are they being too hard on students? According to the stats they are citing, which come from a study of 43,000 High...
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New Disney Android mobile phones launch in Japan
Is Disney trying to get into the mobile game? Looks to be the case as they are launching their own line of mobile devices in Japan using Android as it’s mobile platform.
The Disney Mobile phones are clearly appealing to a niche market of Disney fans, which is huge so it’s a strategic move for Japan and it’s mobile users. It’s even stated on the site that the phones are...
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How to share Google RSS Reader articles into...
If you read a lot of articles from Google RSS Reader and ever want to share the articles directly into Google Plus easily, then you’re in luck. I read a lot of RSS articles in Google Reader everyday. Since Google Plus opened, I haven’t really seen any good ways of passing over RSS articles into Google Plus.
I think currently the only way (unless I missed something) is to actually...
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In case you missed it, Google Plus now let's you...
Yesterday Google made a relatively significant change to Google Plus that appears to be a big hit among Plussers. You can now share your friend Circles with other friend Circles or publicly if you wish. Although you can share the Circle, the name of your Circle will still remain private, so don’t worry about anyone finding out about your Circle names. The sharing of Circles is also...
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Apple is having an event on Oct 4th to announce...
Great news for Apple fans. Apple is holding a press event next Tuesday October 4th to announce the iPhone 5, which as you know rumors have been going around now for a bit about it. In the announcement Apple said it will be an “executive presentation” which undoubtedly will come from Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook. It would be nice to see Steve Jobs there though; in support of...
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Angry Birds for Google Chrome is changing the game
The Google Chrome Team made a funny video for Angry Birds which is voiced over by Rovio developers Peter Vesterbacka, Jaakko Lisalo and Serdar Soganci. The video highlights some of the great things about the Google Chrome browser which makes gaming so much better on Chrome than on other browsers. For example Chrome supports WebGL which utilizes HTML5 canvas element and allows users to perform...
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George Takei to Facebook Users: You have nothing...
Almost one out of every seven people on this planet uses Facebook. So unless you’re not from planet Earth, chances are that you have a Facebook account and are freaking out about the new Facebook Timeline profile. Don’t worry though, Star Trek’s George Takei made a very special message for us earthlings that should make everyone feel better, especially these people.
via,...
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Happy 13th Birthday, Google
Today is Google’s birthday as it turns 13 yrs old. In other words, Google was founded 13 yrs ago by Larry Page and Sergey Brin with the core business model of being a search engine. In the past 13 yrs, Google has exploded into a monstrosity of a company and is synonymous with search and innovation in the technology corridor ranking up there in the presence of Apple, Microsoft and most...
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New concept printer may change how we print...
Printing is slowly heading into the realm of deprecated technology, close to being forgotten as we digitize our lives and photos. However, one thing has stayed static over the years which is that people like to look at and print out photos - for albums, frames, wallets, friends, family, you name it, there is a reason to print a photo.
Printing technology has become “stagnated in terms of...
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Zynga's CityVille comes to Google Plus Games
Today Zynga announced that they are bringing their largest and most popular game on Facebook to Google Plus. CityVille, which was added to Google Plus Games today has about 72 million monthly active users on Facebook. In comparison, Farmville which is another very popular app on Facebook has about 37 million monthly active users. So this is a big move by Zynga to extend their online reach to...
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Facebook is the largest photo site on the Internet
Facebook is the largest social networking site around. But did you know they are also the largest photo site on the Internet? Which by the way, the Internet consists of 55 billion different webpages! Facebook is king all around and it doesn’t look like anyone can stop them.
An engineer on the Facebook Photos team said that Facebook currently has over 200 million photos uploaded per day,...
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Wahoo! Tumblr raises $85m, total valuation close...
Great news for the Tumblr community as today it was announced by David Karp, founder of Tumblr that they succeeded in getting a new round of funding of $85 million. Part of the funding is coming from a well known name you might have heard before - billionaire Richard Branson who owns Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Records music label.
The latest funding brings the total amount of VC backed...
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Google Plus is already up to 43 million users
Google Plus went live to the world last week, opening the flood gates to anyone over the age of 18. Before last week, it was estimated that Google Plus was just over 25 million users in beta field testing. Since last week, Google Plus is now estimated to be over 43 million users, close to doubling it’s user base in one week.
Will the volume continue to skyrocket or will it plateau,...
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Welcome to Zuckerberg's Law
One might think with all the changes Facebook made this past week that we are and will be over-sharing to the point of ad nauseam. With the new Facebook Timeline profile, literally your life is out there for the world to see. If you don’t have the new Timeline profile yet, you can get it here. My philosophy is though, you can only see what I let you see; meaning if you don’t want...
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Just how big is the Internet?
Some might think of the Internet as an endless galaxy of stars and planets. It never seems to end as you can jump from webpage to webpage all over the world. Every day the Internet gets bigger. How many pages are there though on the Internet?
It seems impossible to garner an answer but surprisingly it is being tracked. Using the web index of Google, Bing and Yahoo! we are able to provide a...
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64% of smartphones are used for gaming
Smartphones can be used for a variety of things, mostly utilitarian as mobile devices let us do things on the go when in the past we were forced to be at home or work if you wanted to use your computer or get on the web. Conversely, things that were typically used only on the computer can now be on mobile devices.
Surprisingly, or maybe it’s not so surprising anymore, is that more than...
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Several ways that Google is able to be green
To say that Google is huge is an understatement. Google as an enterprise generates massive amounts of carbon waste and consumes tons of energy. We all do, but Google does a whole lot. To be exact, Google generated a total of 1.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2010 and 2,259,998 MWh of electricity was consumed.
Between the Google data centers, company cars (including street view...
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Let the social reading Facebook apps flow with...
With all the changes this week coming out of Facebook it’s hard to keep up. Facebook is completely revamping our social lives, how we interact online and more. Digital strategist Alana Joy posted an interesting quote yesterday on Twitter saying “Politics, religion… and Facebook: man made constructs that dictate how society should behave.” It’s true that Facebook...
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A first look at the new Facebook Timeline profile
I just took the new Facebook Timeline profile for a spin and it’s not half bad. It’s a clean new look. The top cover banner helps set the profile. There is a lot to the new profile that you can drill into now so there’s more to learn. In time everyone will get used to it and more fun will come after others begin to use it where we can go to their profiles and view their...
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Facebook is turning your profile into a timeline
Facebook’s f8 Developer Conference just wrapped up and the changes coming to the social platform are huge as previously suggested. There is a lot to it but I wanted to first share what major change Facebook plans on doing which is totally revamping the current profile display.
The current profile is going to turn into a Timeline, displaying your life’s actions on your profile in a...
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Get ready, more changes are coming to Facebook
Today is the Facebook f8 Developer Conference where the rumor mill is running rampant right now as we lead up to the live conference which should be happening in a few hours. There were a few changes Facebook already made this week to help open everyone’s eyes of what lies ahead.
Some of the reactions to the changes are quite funny. Ben Parr over at Mashable is saying that the additional...
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10 awesome reactions to the Facebook site changes
The reactions to the changes on Facebook are EPIC. Myspace must have gotten it’s first boost in traffic since Justin Timberlake said he’s bringing sexy back to Myspace! There are even more reactions over at Buzzfeed, check ‘em out!
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Foursquare reaches a monumental one billion...
A million check-ins isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion. That is what Foursquare is saying as they just reached over a billion check-ins with their location based service. That is one heck of a lot of people checking in.
Apparently check-in services aren’t going away any time soon. I don’t hear much from Gowalla these days as Foursquare is the Facebook of location based...
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Slide to Unlock your desktop
I have to admit, I am a PC guy. I have never owned a Mac myself. My Dad however had one of the first versions of the Apple Macintosh with the small black and white screen when I was little. I used to remember playing solitaire and minesweeper on it. I wouldn’t mind having a Mac now and still plan on getting one in the future so I can really try it out and get the full experience. For...
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Wall Street Journal launches WSJ Social Facebook...
The Wall Street Journal aims to please and has started the new WSJ Social app on Facebook (in beta). The Journal says they are trying to go where readers spend the most time and are bringing their content to Facebook in app form. After giving permission to the app you can read, like and comment on WSJ articles all while staying on Facebook. It appears also that you can read articles that are not...
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Don't worry about syncing Foursquare and Tumblr on...
Poor Google Plus. They got absolutely no love from College Humor in their new video. It is kind of funny and I totally get that the number of social networks is getting out of control. One thing about Google Plus is that they don’t allow syncing (not yet at least), so you don’t have to worry about syncing your Foursquare or Tumblr on the real Google Plus. source
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Almost half of teenagers think email is not dead
You might have heard recently that “email is dead.” To me I think it’s an absurd statement. Email is a critical and private form of communication. Some think that sites like Facebook or Twitter will replace email communication.
I beg to differ, in particular with Twitter simply due to their character limits (even on direct private messages). For Facebook, I partly...
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Instagram launches v2.0 with live photo filters
Instagram, my favorite photo sharing app just got waaay better. Today Instagram released a major overhaul to their platform that brings even more features to the app in the new version 2.0. Now you can use live filters on your photos. So literally as your going to take a picture, you can swipe from filter to filter before you even snap the shot.
Additionally you can remove borders (also...
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Myspace to make announcement at Advertising Week...
Shortly after Myspace was sold in June for close to $35 million to Specific Media two things were said: First was that Justin Timberlake would pretty much be the new outward facing public figure for Myspace and would help lead Myspace in a new direction with the spin off of Myspace Music and second was that the new owners would make an official statement of what they plan on doing with Myspace...
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New wind lens turbine design will replace nuclear...
In light of the tragedies in Japan back in March of this year, Japan has been researching new ways to produce energy instead of using nuclear generated energy because of all the issues with the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
One new innovation are wind turbines with a new design called a Wind Lens which can double or even triple current wind turbine power production. To implement the new...
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The war rages on: Facebook adds News Feed and...
Today is a big day for Google Plus as they released a whole lot of new features including opening up Google Plus to the world. It may be a coincidence that Google made these changes on the cusp of the Facebook f8 Developer Conference later this week. It could also be a calculated move to help lessen the impact of the changes Facebook was going to announce at f8.
So what does Facebook do? They...
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Time Lapse: Flying over planet Earth
Here is yet another fascinating time lapse video, this time of the International Space Station as it orbits planet Earth at night. The video begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.
source
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Google Plus opens up to everyone globally and adds...
Google Plus just announced that they are opening up the Google Plus social networking service to everyone! It’s been 90 days since the beta launch. Although it felt like a long time, 90 days isn’t that bad and just long enough where Google is making the right choice to make it available to everyone now. Especially since on Thursday the Facebook f8 Developer Conference is being held...
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Reading Rainbow is making a come back on the iPad
Anyone that is old enough to remember Reading Rainbow should appreciate this post. Back in 1980’s (and 90’s) Reading Rainbow aired on the PBS channel. Which back then there wasn’t cable or in reality my family couldn’t afford cable as it was relatively new and expensive. So PBS it was! PBS also had Sesame Street and other classic children shows.
One my favorites though...
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Why Netflix is splitting itself into two
Well, this illustration from The Oatmeal on the Netflix change and spinoff called Qwikster sums everything up quite nicely. via The Oatmeal
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To those that say the iPhone isn't cool anymore
Last week the president of HTC Martin Fichter said that iPhones are not “cool anymore.” He said that HTC mobile phones [natch] and Samsung’s are the hip devices that young people care about these days. HTC of course has the popular Wildfire smartphone that runs Google’s Android OS on it. I agree, HTC is cool, but to say Apple’s iPhone is not cool is just, not cool!...
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Creating the perfect replica of the Daft Punk...
I love Daft Punk, so getting to see how a helmet that seems to be the perfect replica of the one Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk wears is made is simply awesome. The finished result is breathtaking. Yeah, it’s that rad. It took the creator Harrison Krix of Volpin Props four months to complete it, with a little help from his friends.
Images Volpin Props flickr stream. (via, source)
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Find all your news on Tumblr with the help of News...
Twitter is fantastic for news. I am constantly getting most of my updates from Twitter first. As I said in a previous post, Twitter has turned into a content aggregator instead of a social network. Tumblr on the other hand is a blogging tool with a sprinkle of social with the ability to follow blogs as well as interact with others on the platform.
If you follow the right people you can have a...
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Angry Birds is bigger than you might imagine...
Angry Birds is one of the hottest apps to hit the mobile market since well, mobile and apps have been around. You will always find Angry Birds in the Top Paid apps in the App Store and has already reached 300 million downloads. With merchandise, seasonal apps and even a movie, Angry Birds has become a bit of an obsession for many.
People play Angry Birds 200 million minutes per day. That’s...
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Trade-in your iPhones, iPods and iPads at GameStop
Stop. Don’t throw away your old iPhone or iPad when you decide to upgrade. No more do you have to clutter up your drawers with old iOS devices that you will never use again and will just take up space. GameStop, famous for being able to trade-in old games, consoles and accessories is now accepting iOS trade-in’s. GameStop will then give you cash or store credit for your old devices....
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Facebook now lets you subscribe to users who are...
Facebook just launched their latest and newest feature, the Subscribe Button. The new function allows users to set a preference so that posts can be publicly subscribed to by non-friend users. This is pretty much a breakthrough feature that Facebook has added in a clear stance to stay competitive with Twitter and now Google Plus.
Both of those social networks allow you to subscribe (follow or...
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Watch a funny elderly couple test out their new...
This is too cute not to share. Watch an elderly couple set up what seems to be a new webcam and end up recording themselves and not knowing it. The guy is clearly a jokester and a natural entertainer. The video has gone viral and after watching, you will see why.
source
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Social networks you may have never heard of before
Social networks are common place on the web now. There is a divider though from the rich and the poor, naturally of course. Facebook and Twitter; don’t make elite social users laugh. They are too main stream and congested by the ‘poor’. Instead, elitists have their own social networks, places that we may never dream of seeing the insides of or talking to active members.
...
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If only your favorites games were this easy
Remember playing all your favorite games growing up and getting stuck and wondering if there was just an easier way to beat the level? Well, be thankful that game makers actually challenged you and didn’t make it easy as this video from College Humor shows, as it wouldn’t be all that fun if games had a super-easy mode, but it would be funny.
source
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iPhone 5 coming in October with new design and on...
There will be lots of big changes coming to the iPhone world in just a matter of weeks. It’s been confirmed that a new version of the iPhone will be coming out in October. Some argue it will be the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S or maybe two new iPhones, just in time for the holidays of course.
The iPhone will be coming to the Sprint Network in addition to being currently on Verizon and AT&T. ...
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Empire Avenue appears to be the first to use the...
Google just released their first iteration of their public API yesterday and Empire Avenue appears to be the first to take full advantage of the API. Empire Avenue is the Social Stock Market website that you can buy/invest in your social networks. In a blog post today, Empire Avenue said they were up all night hacking away to use the new read-only Google Plus API. It’s clearly in a beta...
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A quick glimpse at what Twitter looked like when...
Twitter launched back in 2006, but wasn’t always known as Twitter. It actually started out as “Twttr” which was a shortened way for Twitter to be used for SMS text messaging. Twitter.com didn’t always look the way it does either. There is now “old” Twitter which is the version before the one as it appears now, but before the “old” Twitter existed...
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Google Plus finally publishes their API
In what seemed like an eternity, Google finally published their API for Google Plus. After I just finished bitching the other day that Google Plus has been open for over two months and they are moving at a snails pace in getting out of beta and publishing their API. Low and behold they surprise me and get it done today.
The API is now available for developers to build on to bring even more...
