Alan Buckingham

The FCC is currently taking public comments on it proposed changes to net neutrality. The law, if passed, would create a two-tier system where ISPs would be able to charge a premium to certain companies, such as Netflix or YouTube, in order to prioritize traffic. Those who do not pay, or startups that simply can not afford to, would face the possibility of being slowed down.

Many tech companies have, not surprisingly, spoken out against this possible change in legislation. The latest is video streaming service Vimeo -- a company that would likely be affected by the new law.

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Not many days pass without security being in the news in some form or another. Most of that news isn't good either. Services being attacked through vectors like DDoS, gaping holes in software that many people use everyday -- hello, Adobe and Java.

Now Google is taking its own steps to try and protect users. The company has already implemented SSL for many of its services, but the latest push is against zero-day vulnerabilities.

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There have been many rumors coming out of Asia with accusations of child labor violations. It's one of those things that pulls at western heart strings -- none of us wants to think that young children are being forced to work in factories, perhaps building the devices we buy.

Now Samsung has announced that it has taken the step of suspending its agreement with Dongguan Shinyang Electronics after conducting an investigation into the latest allegations. "Following the investigation, Samsung decided to temporarily suspend business with the factory in question as it found evidences of suspected child labor at the worksite. The decision was made in accordance with Samsung's zero tolerance policy on child labor", the companys says in an official statement.

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This past Wednesday CBS science fiction series Extant debuted, coming amid much hype from anxious viewers. The TV network has also reached an exclusive agreement with Amazon Prime, which already has a similar deal with shows such as Stephen King's Under the Dome.

Episode one will be debuting this weekend, becoming officially available to viewers on July 13th. For those who have not heard of the new show, Amazon describes "Extant is a thrilling sci-fi drama starring Oscar-winner Halle Berry as an astronaut, Molly Woods, who returns home from a year in space and tries to reconnect with her husband and son. The events following Woods’ return home will ultimately change the course of human history with dramatic consequences for the entire planet".

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Google has slowly brought YouTube around to being a fully legal service, and made agreements with music labels and TV networks. Granted, some content still gets taken down -- that can't be unexpected when the users are providing much of the content.

Now the video streaming service is bringing a weekly hour-long new music show to satellite music provider SiriusXM. The new show kicks off today at 6pm Eastern Time, and can be found on the Hits 1 station for those who subscribe to the radio service.

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It has been a year since Google released its Chromecast -- a "one last thing" sort of device that was hidden behind the new Nexus 7 announcement. The tiny HDMI dongle has been steadily gaining features, making it compatible with an ever-growing number of services.

But one thing it lacked seemed rather basic -- Android screen mirroring. While we don't know how this slipped through the Google cracks, it has finally made its debut.

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We're growing accustomed to companies releasing transparency reports -- all seem to want to get in on the action and make themselves look good for the public. The latest report rolls out of US mobile carrier Verizon, and reveals the usual amount of troubling data requests. The most prominent being for customer location data.

Unlike some reports, the carrier provides actual numbers, as opposed to estimates. We see that the company received 72,342 subpoenas in the first half of 2014 (a number that is actually down compared to the second half of 2013), and 14,977 warrants. As for other requests, we only get estimates there -- for instance between zero and 999 national security requests were received.

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Keeping tabs of things across multiple platforms generally falls into two camps -- you are either an Evernote fan, or a OneNote user. One thing the former has excelled at is clipping content from the web and allowing the user to easily save it to a notebook. Now OneNote takes a step forward in this arena, adding new features to keep up with its rival.

The feature works a bit differently than WebClipper, but that isn't a bad thing. Users can send an email to [email protected] and it will automatically clip the web content, as well as the contents of the email message.

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PopcornTime has been in and out of the news. The program uses BitTorrent to grab movies and TVs shows and allows you to stream them right away. The service was initially taken down, but has found a way to come back, and claims those problems are in the past, stating "This PopcornTime service will never be taken down".

Now, in an even bolder move, the service has announced support for Chromecast, Google's tiny TV dongle. "This is the alpha version, so handle with care and let us know what works, what doesn’t, and if you do find something that’s not working properly (hopefully not!!) let us know in our forum and be as specific as possible (also tell us which Windows version you’re running, etc.)", the service announces.

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With the recent Hurricane Arthur moving up the east coast of the US, power becomes something to worry about and a mobile connection can prove a lifeline for many people in the path of such storms. Keeping a tablet or cell phone alive during a disaster is paramount, but portable power is also handy for mundane times like travel and camping.

Backup batteries are not scarce on the market, you can find any number of them if you look. The real question is, what do you need? Ideally, you want the maximum mAh you can afford, as it will provide the most charges -- remember that battery in your phone is rated, and is usually somewhere in the 2,000 to 3,000 range. Use that number to compare to what you are buying to get a rough estimate of the amount of times you will be able to recharge. If you live in a household with multiple members then that should also be taken into account.

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Not to be overshadowed by the World Cup, this Saturday professional cycling's biggest event kicks off. The season may run February to October, but nothing compares to the month of July. That's when the world's best gather in France -- well England this time, at least for a couple of days -- to participate in the spectacle that is the Tour de France.

While almost 200 riders take to the starting line, very few have a real shot at winning the race -- it takes all-around skill, including climbing, time trialing, and staying out of trouble in general, as accidents have ruined the chances of favorites many times.

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The latest tablet from Samsung, the Galaxy Tab S, recently launched, and received considerable attention, as with many products the company does. Samsung also launched an advertising campaign to go along with its latest offering.

"The third installment in Samsung’s new tablet commercial series puts the Galaxy Tab S’s industry-leading display to the test, showing side-by-side comparisons of a wide range of images on the device’s Super AMOLED screen next to traditional LCD screens. These bring the extraordinary Super AMOLED technology to life, resulting in more immersive and breathtaking visual experience", the hardware maker claims.

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With the introduction of Office 2013, Microsoft brought software as a service to the table -- something some analysts had long expected would happen. Under the moniker of Office 365, the company introduced a subscription model that allows for a monthly or annual fee and grants five licences to each person or family.

Today the software and services company rolls out an improvement to this offering, adding what it calls better document collaboration. The feature was actually announced earlier this year at the Exchange Developer Conference, but only now do we see the final product. Microsoft hopes this will eliminate the need to share documents via emails in an effort to work with other people on the files.

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Is there room for one more music app in the market? Radical.FM is hoping so, and it has big plans to become your service of choice, competing with the big names like Spotify and Rdio. Today the company is planning an ambitious app launch for the Android platform.

"The app is free, commercial-free, and available for immediate download in the Google Play Store", the company states. This is the first foray into the Google mobile platform, but the service was already available for iOS.

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PlayOn is one of the best cord-cutter services that flies largely under the radar. The online TV and DVR service is completely legal, thanks to the way it operates and, in the past, has partnered with Roku to distribute devices. Now PlayOn and its PlayLater service are going to distribute even more devices to customers.

The company is announcing that new "lifetime subscription" customers will receive a free Chromecast with the purchase. "With Chromecast and PlayOn, smartphones and tablets become powerful remote controls for TV viewing. Users can browse through hundreds of channels and thousands of movies and shows in an easy-to-navigate interface on their mobile device. PlayOn's PlayLater software gives Chromecast users DVR capability to record almost any online video for casting later when they are no longer available online. The included PlayOn browser extension gives users the ability to cast almost any full screen video from any browser on their PC to their TV with ease and without any web browser frames", the company says.

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