Facebook Celebrates 6th Anniversary

February 8th, 2010

Facebook turned six years old last week, and celebrated having grown from a dorm room experiment to reaching the 400 million user mark. They also added a few new twists to their service. 

For one, they have made some changes to their navigation design, so everyone’s home pages look a little different. Facebook engineer Jing Chen broke it down into three main points on Facebook’s blog:

• Stay Updated from the Top Menu
• Discover Content from the Left Menu
• Interact with Games and Applications

And they offer a site tour for those who want some hand-holding. 

Another update they mention on their blog is faster, simpler photo uploads. 

But the L.A. Times tech blog told us about a few more changes up their sleeves.  One is that they’re taking over their display advertising, which was previously run by Microsoft.  Facebook’s partnership with Microsoft dates back to 2007 when the software giant invested $240 million in the social network, giving it a small ownership percentage in Facebook, but now they’re re-working their partnership to focus more on the ways in which they incorporate Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. 

The other big thing in the works, as reported by L.A. Times tech blog, is that “Facebook is deep into a project long rumored to be in the works: creating its own Web-based e-mail.”  We’ll have to wait and see if they can offer something new and somehow more user-friendly and fun, because if not, people are unlikely to move away from Yahoo and Google.

Still, that’s a lot to celebrate. Congrats Facebook, on your great use of internet speed!

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YouTube Movie Rentals

February 5th, 2010

YouTube said last month that it would try out the digital movie rental business, and its test would be with five independent films tied to the Sundance Film Festival.

This is good news for the indie filmmakers, since some of the films at Sundance may have only been seen by a few hundred people. But the YouTube test may have allowed them to increase their audience with internet speed.

The New York Times BITS blog says, “To be sure, for the independent filmmakers, the YouTube rental model is just one of many avenues they are pursuing because traditional distribution models no longer work for them. Fewer than one in four films from last year’s Sundance festival received commercial distribution.”

The five films, which were available on YouTube for 10 days, received a combined 2,684 views.

The Cove was watched 1,103 times
One Too Many Mornings – 340 times
Homewrecker - 355 times
Children of Invention - 490 times
Bass Ackwards - 396 times

At $3.99 per rental, YouTube netted $10,709.16. While these aren’t numbers that should have executives at Netflix, Apple’s iTunes or Amazon’s video on demand worried, (Netflix said recently that about 6 millions of its customers stream movies online.), YouTube will invite new video partners to join in their rental offerings. They’ll start with video categories like education, health and anime — content areas that aren’t likely to produce blockbuster audiences… at least in the short term.

Of course, YouTube would like to add more popular fare to its rental service, but until their talks with major studios help them secure rights to that content, you’ll be seeing things that appeal to a much smaller audience.

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Being Without Your Information Super Highway Speedster

February 3rd, 2010

It’s fairly obvious that you can’t access the wonders of internet speed or even drive on the information super highway without a vehicle.  But what if while traveling the world in real-time, (like, physically) the device that helps you access the internet gets taken from you?  While there is always the danger of your high tech gadgets getting snatched by sneak-thieves while you’re traveling, there’s also another type of loss to consider—seizure by the U.S. government. 

Customs formalized their rules in September of 2009, but the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) demanded more information on how frequently electronic devices had been seized, and what was being done with the devices after they were taken. The Yahoo Tech Blog told us the latest:

- In nine months (October 2008 to June 2009), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) searched over 1,500 electronic devices without warrants or any required justification.

- Laptops are not the biggest gadget category that have been subjected to search. Rather, cell phones were more commonly seized than any other device.

- No device is safe: Digital cameras, external hard drives, and even DVD media have been seized under the program.

- In about 300 of the 1,500 cases, CBP copied material from the device(s) and sent it to another agency for further analysis. Who knows where it went from there.

So if you’re traveling, be sure to backup your important files to another location, or maybe more than one…just in case.  It’s always better to be backed up. That way, no matter who takes your toys from  you, whether they’re trying to protect us from terrorism or just plain stealing, you can carry on with the information you need.

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Apple iPad as Fancy Book Reader

February 1st, 2010

iPad may not be a laptop, but as an e-book reader that does a bunch of other things, it’s a pretty impressive use of internet speed.

Top 10 Reasons The Apple iPad Will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business (edited for brevity)  

1) The multi-functional capability–a reader that can do games, movies, browsing, documents, and more—all in one. And zillions of iPhone apps. 

2) The screen. Full color, multi-touch screen, gestures, and more.

3) The compatibility. iPad supports ePub, creating compatibility with books sold through a leading standard format through any channel. 

4) The iBooks store. Apple has captured the magic of shopping. Once again, whereas Amazon does great with the functional needs of buying a book, Apple goes beyond to create an experience.

5) The experience. You can swipe through pages on an iPad.  On the Kindle, you have to dutifully click a button.

6) The economics. Amazon requires publishers to cut prices and offer deep discounts.

7) The apps. In a digital age, a book is (finally!) becoming more than just words on a page. With the iPad, out of the gate publishers can create whole experiences. 

8) The marketplace. Apple’s iBook and App Store marketplaces will instantly be a must-attend venue for publishers.

9) The price. For $10 more than a Kindle DX, consumers get an incredible ebook reader, and so much more.

10) The Apple factor (a.k.a. “sexy”). Let’s face it, Apple is a brand people want to be affiliated with. It has a cool factor. As Jason Kottke says, “the iPad makes the Kindle look like it’s from the 1980’s”.

Ouch.

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The Apple iPad is FINALLY Unveiled

January 29th, 2010

Today, you probably can’t swing a dead gigapet in cyberspace without hitting a story about Apple’s new product. After months of rumors and speculation, Steve Jobs finally showed us his latest gadget, known until now as the “Apple Tablet”. 

Leaving aside the very entertaining comments from those who believe they could’ve come up with a better name, (for those read “The iPad’s Name Makes Some Women Cringe” and “Women mock the iPad, calling it iTampon”) let’s look at the basics: 

• The iPad is a 9.7-inch touch-screen computer
• The device is half an inch deep and 1.5 pounds
• The iPad has a 10-hour battery life, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth
• It comes in versions that hold 16 gigabytes, 32 gigabytes and 64 gigabytes.
• They cost $499, $599 and $699, respectively.
• Separate versions that support AT&T 3G wireless Internet cost $629, $729 and $829 for 16 gigabytes, 32 gigabytes and 64 gigabytes, respectively.

Steve Jobs says “It’s so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.” Here’s why, according to The L.A. Times Technology Blog:

• The iPad contains Apple’s App Store, so the 140,000 or so applications already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch will run on the tablet.
• Apple also showed off a version of its iWork software — a competitor to Microsoft Office — built for a touch screen. It includes the Apple equivalents of PowerPoint, Word and Excel, which can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99 each.
• Jobs says the iPad is better for consuming video, music, Web browsing and reading e-books (no e-paper, though, so it’s not as easy on the eyes as a Kindle).

The world is your oyster with the right access to internet speed!

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Google Xistence Doesn’t Exist

January 27th, 2010

If you’ve seen links to a site called Google Xistence, don’t be afraid to check it out. Who could resist this tagline? “Life is hard. Let Google live it for you.” But you should probably be forewarned—it’s intriguing, but it’s not real. 

The site resembles a Google product page, complete with logos, log-in box and a YouTube instructional video. The service supposedly lets Google live your social life for you on Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and the like – “because life is too short for social interaction.” But isn’t that precisely why we love to socialize with internet speed?

The L.A.Times Technology blog tells us that Google isn’t really affiliated with this site, and even the clever prankster behind Xistence, Philipp Drössler, didn’t keep up the ruse for very long. He immediately tweeted a link pointing to a blog post titled “Google Xistence: We wish it was real.”

But using a big-name company as part of even an innocent joke has its consequences. Especially when you use their logo. The site is now listed on Google’s phishing list, which is also used by the second- and third-most-popular browsers, Firefox and Chrome.

But Drössler assures us all he’s not after our info.  “Xistence is not a real product, and not related in any way to Google. Neither am I. Also, this was neither a scam nor a phishing attempt.”

The site contains what looks like a box for a Google user name and password, but it’s merely an illusion. Try it, you can’t input anything if you wanted to. Even if you try really hard.

L.A. Times Tech blogger Mark Milian says, “Google should hire this guy for its next April Fool’s gag.”

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The Internet in Space

January 25th, 2010

It’s true! There’s at least one internet connection in space, and it’s one that’s been created by us humans. The first tweet from space was sent from the International Space Station (or I.S.S.) on Friday, January 22nd, 2010-–a good, futuristic way to start off the new decade. Wouldn’t you agree?

Timothy Creamer, the Astronaut whose Twitter name is Astro_TJ, wrote:

“Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s.”

The New York Times Bits Blog spoke to CNET last year to find out how it was done:

The I.S.S.’s IT staff explained the logistics and hardware involved in connecting to the Internet 250 miles above the earth, while traveling at 17,300 mph. (Still not too fast for internet speed to catch!)

The space station is equipped with 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and 32 Lenovo ThinkPad T61p devices. The laptops are all connected via Wi-Fi access points, and there’s also a dedicated IP phone for phone calls and some limited video-conferencing abilities if astronauts need to see their families.

The Internet connection is also relatively speedy. The Astronauts have connections speeds as high as 3Mbps up and 10Mbps down, which is comparable to most home DSL connections.

But if you’re still thinking about the Twitter aspect of the tale, you can search check out the conversation on Twitter by typing  “@Astro_TJ” into the Twitter search box.

Now that we know there’s an internet connection out there, the rest of us may be a bit more willing to make our own forays into space!

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Be More Password Creative for Protection

January 22nd, 2010

Imperva, which makes software for blocking hackers, examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. According to The New York Times, the list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it. (RockYou, which had already been widely criticized for lax privacy practices, has advised its customers to change their passwords, as the hacker gained information about their e-mail accounts as well.)

The top 10 most common passwords were:

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

Others included words like:

Monkey
Babygirl
Lovely
Sunshine
Chocolate
Angel
FRIENDS

And number patterns such as 654321 and 111111, letter patterns like “Qwerty”, and popular first names like Jessica, Michael, Ashley, Anthony, Daniel, and Michelle were also popular.

About 20 percent of people on the RockYou list picked from the same, relatively small pool of 5,000 passwords, which means that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords, and do it with internet speed.

Experts say that ideally you would have different passwords for every web site you visit and store them in your head or, if absolutely necessary, on a piece of paper. But at least two different passwords — a complex one for Web sites were security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for places where the stakes are lower, such as social networking and entertainment sites—would likely be enough to keep you safe. You could try using longer passwords, beyond the minimum, as well. But to avoid being the easy victim of a hacker, be more creative!

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Watching What You Tweet

January 20th, 2010

You’ve heard that you shouldn’t yell “fire” in a crowded theater, right?  We’ve found what may be the Twitter equivalent—threatening to blow up an airport via Twitter in an age of internet speed and terrorist threats. 

The Internet Innovation Alliance pointed us to this story from the UK in which a frustrated traveler tweeted to his friends, “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he wrote. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”

A week after posting the message on the social networking site, he was arrested under the Terrorism Act and questioned for almost seven hours by detectives who interpreted his post as a security threat.

After he was released on bail, he was suspended from work pending an internal investigation, and has, he says, been banned from the Doncaster airport for life.

While it has happened in the United States, Mr Chambers is thought to be the first person in the United Kingdom to be arrested for comments posted on Twitter.

On 13 January, after apparently receiving a tip-off from a member of the public, police arrived at Mr Chambers’ office. “I had to explain Twitter to them in its entirety because they’d never heard of it,” he said. “Then they asked all about my home life, and how work was going, and other personal things. The lead investigator kept asking, ‘Do you understand why this is happening?’ and saying, ‘It is the world we live in’.”

He has been bailed until 11 February, when he will be told whether or not he will be charged with conspiring to create a bomb hoax. In the interim, detectives have confiscated his iPhone, laptop and home computer.

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Working out the Mobile Internet Bugs

January 18th, 2010

The Associated Press have alerted us that a “Network flaw causes scary Web error”.

• In Georgia, Candace Sawyer, 26, used her Nokia smart phone to access Facebook.com.  Without being asked for her user name or password, she was in…and in an account that wasn’t hers.

• She asked her sister and their mother, to see whether they had the same problem on their phones.

• They both ended up in other strangers’ accounts.

“I thought it was the phone — `Maybe this phone is just weird and does magical, horrible things and I have to get rid of it,’” said Candace Sawyer. The women had recently upgraded to the same model of phone and all used the same carrier, AT&T.

But it wasn’t just them. 

• In Washington State, Stephen Simburg logged onto Facebook from his cell phone and ended up in a young woman’s page.

• He got her e-mail address from the site, logged off and wrote the woman a message, asking whether he had met her at some point and she had borrowed his phone to check her Facebook account.

• They figured out they hadn’t met, but were both using AT&T to access Facebook on their phones.

The glitch — the result of a routing problem at the wireless carrier, AT&T — revealed a little known security flaw with far reaching implications for everyone on the Internet, not just Facebook users.
The problem adds a dimension to researchers’ warnings that there are many ways online information — from mundane data to dark secrets — can go awry.

It’s not clear whether such episodes are rare or simply not reported. But experts said such flaws could occur on e-mail services, for instance, and that something similar could happen on a PC, not just a phone, and with internet speed.

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