Verizon throws a freebie to customers affected by Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy struck the Eastern US coastline and affected millions of people. Japan's third largest carrier, Softbank, contributed half a million dollars to aid in the relief efforts, and recently Verizon Wireless announced that it will support affected customers.
The big red implemented the "Hurricane Sandy -- Voice & Text Program" to show its support towards affected customers from parts of New Jersey and New York. As a result they will not be billed for domestic voice and text usage charges incurred between October 29 and November 16. The nation's largest carrier states that it will act proactively and swallow the cost of the bill without any action required by affected customers.
Play live music with friends online in Chrome
The only thing that ever stood in the way of my becoming a major international singer/songwriter was my inability to sing. Or write songs. I took guitar and piano lessons as a kid, and am pretty handy at Rock Band, but I’m not a great musician, so I never really get invited to jam with more musically-minded friends.
However, that might change, if I can persuade some of them to give Google’s latest interactive Chrome experiment a try.
TweetDeck 2.1 brings new features to Windows and Chrome, Mac has to wait
Twitter has updated its desktop and web app, TweetDeck 2.1.0. The multi-columned Twitter client gains four notable improvements with this new release, including search, lists, expanded Tweets and keyboard shortcuts.
At the present time, the updates apply only to the Windows version of the desktop client -- the Mac build remains at version 2.0.3. However, these changes have also been implemented in its Google Chrome web app as well as the Tweetdeck.com website itself.
Galaxy S III surged past iPhone 4S in third quarter
Strategy Analytics reports that during third quarter, and for the first time this year, Samsung Galaxy S III shipments surged ahead of iPhone 4S.
The South Korean manufacturer shipped 18 million S3s, for 10.7 percent share in global smartphone share. Strategy Analytics states that Samsung's success can be attributed to a number of factors, such as extensive market availability, important operator subsidies and large touchscreen design. On the other hand, Apple only managed to ship an estimated 16.2 million iPhone 4S units globally, reaching 9.7 percent share, enough to lose the crown as the world's most popular smartphone.
Use FSS Google Books to download titles for offline reading
Google Books is great at helping you find interesting reads, and makes it easy to view them online from just about any device. The service isn’t quite as versatile when it comes to letting you download local copies in a format of your choice, unfortunately, but that’s where FSS Google Books Downloader comes in.
The idea is that you start on the Google Books site, as normal, browsing and using the search tool until you find something you like. When you reach a Preview button, click it, wait for the first page to appear, and copy that URL to your clipboard.
Toolbar Cleaner reclaims your browser from unwanted add-ons
From full commercial applications to simple freeware tools, it’s surprising just how many setup programs will now try to install unwanted browser addons on your PC. And too many of these can slow your system down, make it less stable, maybe even compromise your privacy.
The deceptive techniques used by some software means these “extras” can be difficult to avoid, too. But fortunately help is at hand in the shape of the free Toolbar Cleaner, which can assist you in reviewing and taking control of your IE, Firefox and Chrome addons.
Tumblr goes native iOS
Going native on iOS has its perks as Facebook recently demonstrated with a faster app for iOS devices. Popular social networking and blogging platform Tumblr released an updated app today for iPhone and iPad that sports native code.
Available for iOS 5 and above, Tumblr 3.2 touts major improvements under the hood that are attributed to going "completely native." The latest version delivers an overhauled Dashboard that now comes with a more responsive interface, bigger photos and speed improvements when loading posts. There are also new notification previews that sport a different look and allow users to see liked, reblogged and replied posts. The revised blog screens deliver descriptions and blog portraits, and the app now makes better use of gestures.
Star Trek replicator is closer to reality than you think
In video "Can Nanotechnology Create Utopia?" physicist Michio Kaku talks about the upsides, downsides, insides and outsides of having a replicator like on Star Trek to make anything we’d ever need or want. It’s a compelling vision and he’s right that its implications go far beyond the economic to include cultural, social, even psychological. Kaku says it’s possible to make such a device and suggests we’ll have it in 100 years.
I say we’ll have it in 20.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Amazon Santa app checks your digital wishlist
Thanksgiving may still be a couple of weeks away, but web retailing giant Amazon is already in the holiday spirit. Last week the retailer introduced its Black Friday store and now trots out the Amazon Santa app. Yes, Kris Kringel has finally moved into the digital age with his very own app. Now you don't have to worry if that old fashioned hand-written letter will arrive at the North Pole in time, just send the old man a digital wishlist.
These days our kids are very tech-savvy and snail mail is becoming somewhat of a memory. So why not set little Johnny or Jane up with a way to convey gift wishes in a manner that is understood by their generation? That's where Amazon steps in to fill the void. Amazon Santa will let you sign into your account, then you can allow your children to start browsing the store and creating their wish lists. While they think their lists will be forwarded safely into Santa's hands, you can browse for gift ideas and even share with family members who are wondering what to purchase.
Religion plus IT equals big money and parishioners will foot the bill
You may not think of your local church as an IT hub or even a small business, but guess again! It turns out that these humble houses of the holy are expected to become a global IT spending machine over the next few years. In fact, according to a recent report, this branch of the tech economy could generate as much as 40 billion dollars by the year 2017. And, this isn't just a United States phenomenon, but a global one.
According to Asheesh Raina, principal research analyst at Gartner, "Religion has a great influence on high-growth regions such as Latin America, Africa, the Arab world and South Asia, thus compelling new entrants and incumbent IT providers to seek new opportunities with religious entities".
Microsoft Office for Android and iOS is a Trojan Horse
I simply can't stop laughing about the newest mobile Office rumors. This is better than stand-up comedy because the punchline is just so unbelievable there are seconds of silence before the bellowing roar. Microsoft's idea of a -- imagine my forefingers raised to make mock quotation marks -- mobile Office app is essentially a document viewer. Oh yeah, like I really need one of those, or you.
Yet the rumors make sense, because the approach is oh-so-predictable Microsoft and absolutely what executives should plan. Real Office on either platform is a bad idea. Yeah, just go ahead, make full-blown Office for Android and iOS and feed yourself to the post-PC dogs, leaving behind some mindless, decaying creature from The Walking Dead or your favorite Resident Evil game (or movie). The company's objective is bigger, and actually quite believable: Establish a beachhead for Microsoft account-linked cloud services on competing platforms.
Samsung Galaxy Note gets Android 4.1 Jelly Bean via leaked ROM
A little more than a month ago, Samsung announced the Galaxy Note Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update for the South Korean market, but didn't give any dates for an international release. So if you are not the type that likes to wait for silly things like official releases, there is now a leaked ROM available for the popular smartphone.
The leaked Android 4.1 Jelly Bean ROM for the Galaxy Note is designed for the international model (codename N7000) and will not work on carrier-specific versions. The build is dated October 9 and delivers Android 4.1.1, build number JRO03C. Users can expect a number of new features under the hood such as Google Now, but based upon some early tests, it's not going to break any speed records. The leaked ROM also comes with S Pen air-view, which displays a cursor under the stylus, and the same lockscreen featured in the newest iterations of TouchWiz.
RISC OS comes to Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is, in many ways, a throwback to the past and not just in terms of performance. The uncased single-board ARM GNU/Linux computer was originally conceived as a way to get students programming again, like they did back in the 1980s and 90s, and now there’s even a 25 year-old OS available for it.
RISC OS is an operating system you’ll possibly be familiar with if you’re of a certain age, and come from the United Kingdom (like me). A descendant of the OS used in the BBC Micro, it was created by Acorn Computers for the First Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) ARM chips, and made its debut in Acorn's 1987 Archimedes microcomputer.
AT&T prices Windows Phone 8 to sell
The Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 are available for pre-order at AT&T starting today with sales to begin on November 9. On a two-year contract the Lumia 920 costs $99.99, while its smaller brother goes for less at $49.99. Off-contract, the Lumia 920 costs $449.99, while the Lumia 820 goes for $399.99. The HTC Windows Phone 8x will also be available before Thanksgiving. The 8GB model in Limelight costs $99.99, while the 16GB California Blue model runs $199.99.
On price, the Lumia 920 squares off with the HTC One X, Motorola Atrix HD, Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket or Sony Xperia TL. Competing flagship smartphones such as the Apple iPhone 5, LG Optimus G and Samsung Galaxy SIII are available for $199.99, but come with half the storage and obviously double the price.
Miro Video Converter 3.0 formats content for Android and iOS devices
There are numerous video formats to choose from and you will at some point encounter a file that is not in the format you need to play back on a particular device. If you own an Android or iOS device, Miro Video Converter is on hand to help you to convert almost any video file into a format that can be played back on your mobile device -- most importantly, using the settings and resolution you feel most appropriate. Miro Video Converter 3.0 adds a number of important new options, including batch processing for the quick conversion of multiple files.
Batch conversion is the killer feature of the updated app, but it is far from being the end of the story. There is also a redesigned UI to work with, and you may be pleased to hear that it appears to be in no way inspired by the look of Windows 8. While the program can be used to convert video ready for all sorts of different purposes, it is particularly well suited for converting footage ready for viewing on mobile devices. The plethora of different screen sizes and aspect ratios is reflected in the range of formatting options that are available in the latest version of the program.
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