Google Chromecast -- greatness in its infancy [Review]
Consuming digital media can be an overwhelming affair nowadays. There are too many devices on the market that do similar things but in different ways. There is the Apple TV, Roku, Blu-Ray Players, smart TVs and more. When Google announced the Chromecast, I was a bit skeptical -- surely I didn't need yet another device. However, the low price of the product ($35) and the fear of it selling out caused me to order it anyway.
When it arrived, I was shocked by just how small the packaging was. Upon opening the little box (OK, tearing into it) I was presented with the Chromecast. The device looks like a very fat flash-drive with an HDMI plug instead of USB. Also in the box was an HDMI extender cable, micro-USB cable and AC power adapter.
Google Chromecast -- Fabulous product or fabulous demo?
Yesterday Google announced a product called Chromecast -- a $35 HDMI dongle that’s essentially YouTube’s answer to Apple TV. While the event was more Googlish than Applesque (the venue was too small, the screens were too small, the presenters weren’t polished, and as a result the laughs and applause didn’t come) the product itself was astonishing -- or appeared to be.
The press picked-up on the most obvious headline item in the announcement -- the $35 selling price which drops to $11 if you factor in three months of free Netflix per dongle even for existing Netflix customers (now sadly dropped). That’s like Google attaching an $8 bill to every Chromecast -- something Apple would never do.
Twitter says sorry for faking tweets from real user accounts
Advertising rarely proves popular, but Twitter has made something of a boo-boo with its latest venture -- one that has led to the microblogging site having to apologise to three of its users.
The company mocked up a series of tweets from three genuine Twitter accounts, and used them in a promotional blog post. All without the account owners' knowledge or consent.
Ring around the nerdy -- NFC ring hits kickstarter
Nerds love rings; it's a fact. Don't believe me? How do you explain Green Lantern, the Wonder Twins and Lord of the Rings? Exactly. Unfortunately, we nerds can only dream of owning a magic ring -- we have to settle for cheap knock-offs for cosplay. However, things are about to change, well sort of, as an NFC enabled ring has been introduced on the crowd-funding site, Kickstarter.
NFC stands for Near Field Communication -- it enables communication between two touching NFC-enabled devices. Have you seen the commercials where people transfer pictures by touching their smartphones together? That is NFC. According to the ring's inventor, John McLear, the NFC technology in the device "can be used to unlock doors, mobile phones, transfer information and link people. Best of all the NFC Ring glides right onto your finger -- no updates, no charging, and no fuss". In other words, technology has enabled nerds to finally feel like they have a magic-powered ring.
Pornography to be 'opt in' in UK -- do you agree with the move?
Yesterday my colleague Mark Wilson wrote an excellent article discussing online pornography and the problems of policing it. This came in the wake of UK Prime Minister David Cameron calling for internet companies to do more to block porn on the web.
Today, Cameron announces that every British household will have pornography automatically blocked by their internet provider, although customers can choose to switch off the "family friendly" filters if they so choose.
7 big mistakes K-12 education needs to avoid in 1:1 computing plans
After spending a number of years working in the educational tech sector, I can safely pinpoint the two camps that make up the meandering discussion about 1:1 computing plans for K-12 education today. On the one side, we have eager innovators who are determined to place a device in each student's hand -- even if that device fulfills nothing more than a checkbox on an administrator's 'five year outlook' plan.
And in contrast, we have the technical neophytes who are well entrenched in their opposition to devices in the classroom. These folks are the ones most likely to be ingrained in the "industrial force-feeding" approach to education, which by most accounts, is falling flat on its face. As the US continues to slide in education, most recently ranked 17th globally, the debate is no longer whether or not we need a wholesale adjustment of how we teach our youngest minds. Much more importantly, the discussion should be laser focused on how we get US education out of its growing rut.
We want to wipe out child porn online, but can it actually be policed?
Filtering web content is always something of a sticky topic, and there are two very vocal sides to the argument. In the blue corner (red and blue are not being used in a political sense here -- if only because the blue represents right-wing parties in the UK and the more left-leaning in the US) we have those who advocate freedom of speech online, the right for anyone to say whatever he or she wants. In the red corner are those who feel that there is a need for policing, control and regulation.
It is certainly a difficult balance to strike. It would be all but impossible to draw a baseline level of sensibilities that should be catered to -- whatever form of control may be put in place will be seen as draconian in its severity by some, and pathetically lenient by others.
Ubuntu Forums falls victim to hack attack -- 1.8 million passwords stolen
Well, it's happened again. If it's not the NSA spying on internet users, then someone else is always ready to spoil the fun. Yet another website has fallen prey to hackers, putting the personal details of hundreds of thousands of users at risk.
This time around, it is Ubuntu Forums that has been affected -- visit the site and you're greeted by the announcement that the forums are down for maintenance before some details of the security breach are revealed.
Acer introduces the Aspire Z3-605 Series desktop, with Harman Kardon speakers
Listening to music or watching movies on your PC can be a slight disappointment if the audio equipment isn’t as good as it could be. So with that in mind, Acer has developed a new all-in-one desktop system with two 3W front-facing Harman Kardon speakers built-in.
According to Acer, the speakers "leverage thorough and precise scientific methods to accurately produce crystal-clear audio that’s as close to the original recording as possible". The sound quality is further improved with the addition of Dolby Home Theater v4 optimized digital output technologies.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a virus
As superhero fans prepare to gather in San Diego for this year's Comic-Con, McAfee has revealed its first ever Most Toxic Superheroes list. The company has compiled a list of superheroes whose search results are most likely to lead to malicious websites aiming to steal fans' personal details or infect their PCs with viruses.
The top 15 are as follows, the percentages indicating the chance of landing on a website that has rested positive for online threats:
PC World magazine ends print version -- will focus on digital
Print media is dying; some may argue it is already dead. With the launch of the iPad and the current industry trend of tablet media consumption, consumers don’t want to clutter their homes with stacks of paper magazines and newspapers. Not to mention, there is the trend of "going green" which is in conflict with the destruction of trees necessary to make print magazines.
Following these trends, PC World announces it is exiting the print magazine business to focus on digital editions. To be honest, it is surprising that a technology-focused publication even lasted this long in the print world.
Opera lets you create a Smart TV app from your web videos
Norwegian browser developer Opera has teamed up with video sharing site Dailymotion to create a new service that can transform any Dailymotion video channel into a Smart TV application in less than a minute.
Opera TV Snap lets you convert an existing online video channel into a ready-to-run HTML5 app for inclusion in the Opera TV Store, a Smart TV app storefront supported by major television and set-top-box manufacturers.
Nokia Lumia 928 -- photographing the rainforest with Windows Phone 8
This weekend, I returned from a nine day cruise of the Caribbean. On this particular cruise, I went to Bermuda, St. Martin, Puerto Rico and Haiti. What I love about cruises, other than the food (yes, I’m a fat guy), is visiting multiple locations in a short time rather than being in one place for the entire trip. This allows me to take very eclectic photos and have memories that will last a lifetime.
I own a fairly nice point-and-shoot camera with the Nikon Coolpix AW100. The Nikon is my go-to camera when I am visiting beaches since it is waterproof. However, while in Puerto Rico, I was to tour El Yunque Rainforest -- a beautiful place to take photos where I would not be going swimming. And so, I decided to use a different camera instead -- the Nokia Lumia 928 on Verizon. Yup, I was trusting my vacation memories with a camera-phone!
AltaVista goes to great server in the sky
Let us pause for a moment to remember AltaVista. Current owner Yahoo quietly announced in a blog post at the end of last week that the once popular search engine is to close on July 8. The news was tucked away in a raft of other closure announcements. Users will be redirected to Yahoo Search.
It's hard to appreciate now that in the days before Google's algorithm made the fast indexing of large numbers of sites possible, searching the web was something of a hit and miss affair. Search engines relied on fixed indexes that were slow to update and found it hard to cope with the rapidly increasing number of sites.
I cut cable's cord
The apartment was strangely silent last night and darker than usual. Gone was the flickering light filling the center room as one of us scanned the program guide. A year later than planned, we dismantled the TV shrine and took back the living room from the false idol. Henceforth, we will worship at a different altar. Finally, I cut cable's cord -- IPTV, really, but we all call it the other, eh?
I feel anxiety and elation at the dramatic change, which allowed us to rearrange the furniture such that the living room is more open, more inviting and more suited to entertaining real people. The television now resides in the bedroom, more for the benefit of my wife's sleepless nights (the thing is narcotic). We'll stream from Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix primarily -- haha, maybe even iTunes. I had planned Google Play by way of Nexus Q, but the search giant nixes that option.
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