Hotspots: Greece (1/2)

Please watch and share.

Zeitgeist 2011: Year In Review (Video By Google)

A lot has happened in 2011. Good and bad things. Let's hope 2012 will be better.

Diablo 3 Official Trailer

Release Date: Q1 2012

High Speed Camera Captures Moving Photons

MIT Media Lab researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion frames per second. That's fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of light traveling through objects. 

Read more: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/trillion-fps-camera-1213.html

Project website: http://www.media.mit.edu/~raskar/trillionfps/

Video: Melanie Gonick

200!! Dividends, Dividends And More Dividends.

I have changed my strategy on Empire Avenue to "Dividends Collection". Currently I'm building a strong portfolio of 100 profiles and with my new limit of 250 I get lots of dividends in return. I really don't care about my profile shares right now, but I do try my best in creating dividends for those who chose to invest in me!

One week passed with my new "strategy" and I have 100k in investment earnings/week. Yesterdays investment earnings were close to 15.000Eaves. Furthermore, I have some really big names in my portfolio like Chris Pirillo, Chris Voss, Bob Warren from ResumeBear etc.

I suggest you check me out and look into my portfolio for some great investments.

My Top 10 Investments ordered by Dividends (descending):
http://www.empireavenue.com/PIRILLO
http://www.empireavenue.com/MYSODOTCOM
http://www.empireavenue.com/CHRISVOSS
http://www.empireavenue.com/LOUIEBAUR
http://www.empireavenue.com/BOBW
http://www.empireavenue.com/NICHEPROF
http://www.empireavenue.com/FIXEDOPS
http://www.empireavenue.com/LIZS
http://www.empireavenue.com/ZAIBATSU
http://www.empireavenue.com/OVERTHROW

Bonus:
http://www.empireavenue.com/CLAU

Become a YouTube DJ With TurnTubeList

Found this interesting website where you can cross-fade YouTube videos almost like a real DJ. The service offers also a feature to create playlist and auto-play. Check it out here

Must Watch Movies 2012

Almost a year ago I posted the "Must Watch Movies 2011". Some of them were a disappointment, like Transformers: Dark Of The Moon and Thor. I liked the movies Source Code, Unknown, and Battle LA somewhat. Ah, well. Hollywood tries it's best to meet the needs of movie goers.

Let's see what's in store for 2012, I few candidates for my taste always, if you're into Drama, Romance etc. you're out of luck. Sorry. Here you'll find action packed Adventures and Sci-Fi suggestions.

I will list them in an ascending order of Release Dates. So let's start.

The Evolution of Search | Video

Veedcast.com | Alternative Video Sharing

Veedcast.com is a new way of sharing videos from Youtube.

Imagine this:
You are at home and at your computer browsing the web, all of a sudden a skype call comes in. You accept the call and start chatting with your friend. Then your friend is starting to text message you on skype with links from Youtube. You now have to click on every link and open up a new tab on your browser wait for the page to load and then watch the video. And if you have friends that are quite active on Youtube you get a lot of links this way.

This is where Veedcast comes in. You simply take that Youtube link, post it on Veedcast, then Veedcast creates a "Channel" with a unique identifier and you simply share this link to your friends, and voila! Your friends can now watch your channel and see what you want to share with them. In an almost perfect sync. You take control of what video you want to show them, when to start it, seek to a particular position of time in the video and pause the video to comment on it.

Veedcast is now in Beta so go ahead and try it out with your friends.

The steps to follow are:

1. Find a Youtube video and copy the URL.
2. Open up the page www.veedcast.com :p
3. Paste the link on the input box below the Logo and click "Create a Veedcast Channel"
4. There you'll find a link below the video player with your unique identifier and social media buttons to share on Facebook and Twitter.
5. Share the link and start posting videos.

Have fun!

The World of Social Media 2011

Life On Mars? Curiosity Is Sent To Find Out

The rover named Curiosity is on it's way to Mars. It's mission, to find whether life could have ever arisen on Mars, prepare for human exploration of Mars and to study the geology and climate of Mars.

The nuclear powered rover was launched on Saturday the 26th of November at 10:02 EST (15:00 GMT for European readers) by an Atlas V rocket and is scheduled to arrive and land on Mars early August 2012, after covering a distance of 350 million miles (~560 million km). The total cost of the project a mere US$2.5 billion.

Continue on for some interesting videos.

11/11/2011 11:11am

Cool date: 11/11/2011 11:11a.m.

De-blur-er? on Photoshop Sneak Preview

I'm very busy these days and don't have much time to update this blog regularly, but after seeing this on YouTube I had to make a post. It's a new function scheduled for release in the near future (don't know when, don't ask me) that un-blurs your images with high-precision. Don't you hate it when you go home and connect your smart phone to download your daily pictures and then find out that the shot with that new Lamborghini Aventador is blurry because the car past by like 100mph? Yeah, I bet you do. This new filter will un-blur that sucker for you and will put your happy face back on your head. :D

Watch the video of the filter in action:

Free Calls on iPhone and Android via Viber

Everything that is free is always welcome. Same goes with phone calls.

I found this app recently for my Android phone. It's called Viber. With it you can call your friends and family for free. It will import all your contacts, sync personal details and accounts. And the most awesome feature is it's sound quality. Calls sound a lot better than my regular carrier. Of course to use it you'll need access to mobile data services or WiFi. I should also mention that it doesn't consume much bandwidth. I think it's in the range of 240KB per minute up and down. That's about 14MB an hour. Pretty neat.

Follow this link to the Android Market
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.viber.voip
or Scan this QR with your phone to get the App:

Windows 8 Running On Nvidia Kal-El Powered Tablet

New Windows Look: The Metro UI

Microsoft has done it again. Windows 8 is going to be another success like Windows 7. This time in my opinion, even greater success than Windows 7.

Just take a look at this beauty. The Metro UI is awesome and user freandly, I can't wait to test this out for my self. Of course you will also get the "classic" windows 7 desktop for the regular applications.

What do you think about the new Windows 8 look?

TED Talks | Misha Glenny: Hire the hackers!

Guinness World Record for AMD

AMD achieved the Guinness World Record for “Highest Frequency of a Computer Processor” by overclocking an 8-core AMD FX cpu. (To Be Released)

 “The record-breaking processor speed that resides in the AMD FX CPU clearly demonstrates performance gains for  the new AMD ‘Bulldozer’ multi-core architecture, which will provide x86 computing power for this CPU and future AMD Accelerated Processing Units,” said Chris Cloran, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Group at AMD. “Along with world-record frequencies, the AMD FX processor will enable an unrivaled enthusiast PC experience for the money – extreme multi-display gaming, mega-tasking and HD content creation.”

8.429 GHz was the magic number that scored the Guinness record, achieved by "Team AMD FX" on Aug. 31, 2011, in Austin, Texas.

Read the Press Release here.

Windows 8 Developer Download

If you want to try out the latest and greatest software of all time, Windows 8, follow this link to the developers download page.

DOWNLOAD WINDOWS 8 HERE - Official Microsoft Link

Build Windows Conference | Platform for Metro style apps

Build Windows Conference | 8 traits of great Metro style apps

9/11 Spam/Scam Preparations

Get ready for massive spam, scam, fake charities and scareware in general on the 10th Anniversary of the WTC attacks of 9/11. Most security blogs and AV companies are posting their concerns about that day and prepare their services for the onslaught of malicious content.

Post by ESET.

TED Talks - Lee Cronin: Making matter come alive

The Patent Troll Claims Another Victim

Samsung pulled from IFA trade show in Germany, their latest tablet. The Galaxy Tab 7.7. This ofcourse after the PatentTroll Inc. (AAPL) won a second injunction blocking the tablet from German markets. This comes after the ban in the EU of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Again, a legal victory of the PatentTroll Inc. (AAPL).

“Samsung respects the court’s decision,” Chung said, adding that the company believes it “severely limits consumer choice in Germany.” Samsung will pursue all available options, including legal action, to defend its intellectual property rights, he said.

Samsung and Apple, maker of the iPad, are involved in legal disputes across three continents, as Apple -- also one of the biggest customers for the South Korean manufacturer’s chips and displays -- claims the Galaxy devices copied its iPhone and iPad. Last month, the Dusseldorf Regional Court granted Apple a temporary sales ban on the earlier Galaxy Tab 10.1 model in 26 of the 27 European Union member countries.

Whom will Apple sue next? God?

Lately, Apple has become really good at Patent Trolling. In the smartphone industry, first was HTC, now it's Google's turn the get the "wrath" of the patent troll. Apple claims that the Android platform started with them.

"Apple to ITC: Andy Rubin got inspiration for Android framework while working at Apple, hence infringes an Apple API patent"

Former Apple employees that have their own businesses, beware! Apple will sue you if you develop something innovative, claiming that your idea was inspired while working at Apple, making all your thoughts theirs.

Read it in detail here.

Google Services CleanUp

Google announced "Fall spring-clean". Google will clean, over the next few months, services and products that didn't quite take-off. Google's reason for this is: "This will make things much simpler for our users, improving the overall Google experience. It will also mean we can devote more resources to high impact products—the ones that improve the lives of billions of people."

Some of the products will have a negative impact to some developers. For example, the discontinued development of the Google Maps API for Flash.

This is the list of doomed products and services:

• Aardvark 
• Google Desktop 
• Fast Flip 
• Google Maps API for Flash 
• Google Pack 
• Google Web Security 
• Image Labeler 
• Notebook 
• Sidewiki 
• Subscribed Links

Read More About it Here

EA Store Deal - Buy 2 Get 1 Free

Gaming enthusiast, break out your credit card and head over to EA Store for a sweet deal! If you 2 games you will get 1 for free. This offer will expire on Sep. 5 so hurry up!

Get The Deal (LogicBuy Deals)

* This offer applies to digital downloads only

Chatbot talking to Chatbot - Making Sense Out of Non-Sense?

Watch what happens when AI. talks to another AI. Hilarious.

Vacation Mode Engaged!

I'm on vacation! I'll be back soon!

New Logitech Android Tablet Goodies

Logitech released new accessories for the Android tablet devices running Honeycomb. The accessories are a wireless Bluetooth keyboard, a wireless Bluetooth mouse and wireless Bluetooth speakers.

Official Google Blog: When patents attack Android

Find out how patent trolling is hindering innovation by companies boasting that they are highly innovative. Official Google Blog: When patents attack Android

Could Our Online Selves Continue For Ever After We Die?

We'll all die eventually and that is a fact! But what if our digital selves continue online, tweeting and posting stuff on facebook and youtube? Technology could enable a service like that in the future to create a digital persona of ourselves, after analyzing all the content we have ever created online. People would be able to interact with your digital copy online as if it were you and find out about your history on this planet.

Sony Dream House - Geek Paradise

Microsoft is poking Google

Microsoft's latest Office 365 campaign is punching Gmail Man in the face, for peeking inside your emails to display relative ads. This is true, for the web client. If you access your email from a desktop client, you get rid of all the pesky ads. Google is claiming that algorithms do the dirty job and no human ever sees the contents of your email. Which of course would be ridiculous to think that humans can manage to scan billions of emails every day.

Robotic bird that can actually fly like a bird!

There are lots of robots that can fly, but all fly like a plane or a helicopter. A German industrial and automation company, Festo, deciphered the bird flight and then went and built a robotic bird that can fly like a real bird. They made a presentation at TEDGlobal2011.

Here is the video:

Winehouse Dies, Spammers Get To Work

It's tragic to see a 27year old woman die, and more tragic to see how inhumane people can be. Symantec posted on their blog that spammers got to work early on, when the news about the death of the singer was still being scares. Taking advantage of the human curiosity. The attack vector used by the spammers was an email containing an attachment, "loosely disguised" as an image, with the subject related to Winehouse's death.

Read the entire post here.

Facebook vs. Google Plus

Click Image to enlarge!

Twitter scam alert!

If you got a Direct Message in twitter saying: "Someone said this real bad thing about you in a blog" with a short URL following the message! DON'T CLICK! You'll only get infected/hacked/hijacked... etc ;)

Facebook Scam Alert!

If you see a Wall post about a video on the Oslo bombings, it's a scam and it will infect your computer. Avoid clicking!

Pedestrians will fear less oncoming Toyotas in the future.

Toyota is developing an advanced collision detection for their future cars, that can warn and stop the car on it's own if it detects an imminent collision with a pedestrian.

Android Phone Owners, beware of malware!

Symantec posted an article on their security blog about the ever increasing threat of malware on smartphones, particularly smartphones running the Android OS platform. So android smartphone owners, beware of malware!

Tips:
Even if a piece of software is coming from an official source, like the Android Market, it doesn't make it safe or secure. Even reputable developers might have a ticking time bomb waiting on their apps.

Make sure to always read the comments and see the ratings on any software you're about to install on your smartphone. Always search the web for even more info about that software. Read all the requested permissions before installing, be suspicious of software requiring an endless list of permissions.

Read more about it here.

Are we loosing the internet?

Found a good speech about internet security threats by Mikko Hypponen, an internet security researcher employed by F-Secure.

Jetman

Is it ok to be jealous?

A really cool infographic!

Created by: Online Schools

Google+ First Thoughts

Got an invite to GooglePlus yesterday and went immediately exploring all the features of the beta. So the current features are the following.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer - Hands On Review

I haven't posted for a while and decided to post my thoughts on my recent purchase of an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer (16GB Wifi only, 470€). I'll explore and extend on this post about the good things and the bad things I found using it for a couple of weeks now.

Arduino Microcontrollers

When I first saw these tiny electronics development platforms I was amazed. I've searched around on the net for more info and examples of people that made something with it. I found a lot of text, books, videos etc. explaining and showcasing the Arduino family of micro-controllers.

So what is an Arduino?

Duke Nukem Forever Demo

2K Games released the demo for the new and much anticipated (not by me) Duke Nukem Forever video game. You can find the demos on Xbox Live and Steam. It's the same demo that was released earlier this month for the First Access Club members.

Sony Upcoming Tablets?

Sony released a very interesting domino-like video for their upcoming tablets. The video doesn't offer much info on the actual products, but is very well done. Watch.

Hitman: Absolution Developer Interview

Hitman: Absolution was one of the most talked about games at E3 earlier this month after an impressive behind closed doors showing and the release of this atmospheric trailer. There is still plenty of mystery around Agent 47′s upcoming mission so I recently caught up with Tore Blystad, game director and Christian Eleverdam, gamplay director at IO Interactive to get some further intel.
Read the interview here

Tour of Intel's Data Center in Russia

High school student, builds his own computer! From Scratch!

Jack Eisenmann, a high school student, took some bread boards some electronic components and lots of wiring and made his own home build computer. He created a simple operating system comprised of 263 lines of code. He even wrote some games for his computer. A true computer building enthusiast!

Eclipsed Moon in the Milky Way

Just look at this amazing picture of our moon with our galaxy, the Milky Way, in the background!

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110617.html

1300+ FB Likes! Thank you!

Panasonic Toughbook: The Enterprise-Grade Android Tablet

Panasonic showcased at InfoComm a new android tablet for businesses. The new Toughbook tablet will appeal to a wide variety of users, including mission critical government personnel, highly mobile field forces, SMB’s looking for a competitive edge, security conscious IT managers and bottom-line focused CFOs.

Cyber Attack Victims Keep Pilling Up

Cyber attack victims keep pilling up, this time the target was CCP's MMO EVE-Online. At the time of this writing, the game's official site and the game network itself were offline. The group behind the attack was LulSec, and they posted a tweet on their Twitter profile about the successful DDoS attack on CCP's networks.

Update: CCP took down the entire network as a security precaution.

HD Webcam from Logitech

Logitech announced the release of a new gadget for your, to shoot your face at 8MP resolution for still images, and 1080p for video of your daily doodling on YouTube! You can also video chat with your friends on SkypeHD, but the software limits the resolution to 720p. You will also find a one-click HD video and photo sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. The web cam will work on Mac (FaceTime) and Windows.

“We know how important it is for today’s travelers to stay connected, whether they’re on the road for business or leisure, so we are pleased to offer an HD webcam that simplifies video calling and sharing videos on the go,” said Joerg Tewes, vice president and general manager of Logitech’s consumer video business unit. “The Logitech HD Webcam C615 is designed for maximum flexibility no matter what your needs may be, with the equipment necessary for HD recordings right in the box and easy-to-use editing features for both Mac and PC users.”

The new C615 Web cam is expected in the States in June with an MSRP of $79.99, and it's expected to show it's lens in Europe and Asia sometime in September.

Logitech PR

MSI GT780R & GX780

MSI announced today the shipment of GT780R & GX780 for North America. These laptops were designed by SteelSeries in a partnership with MSI. Both laptops feature nVidia GeFroce GPUs with 2nd gen. Intel Core i7 processors.

“Serious gamers understand that not all notebooks are created equally,” said Andy Tung, vice president of sales, MSI US. “The GT780R and GX780 are built specifically for gamers, with a professionally-designed keyboard, plus top-of-the-line graphics and processing power from NVIDIA and Intel.”

1,000,000 Members Join SkillPages in 150 Days

An incredible 1.000.000 subscription in under 150 Days for the social network, SkillPages. SkillPages is a social network for networking with other people that may need your skills, or with others that you might need them. An opportunity opens up for the users of SkillPages to be found by new employers, customers and business partners.

“We set out to enable a simple way for people to create a credible online presence for their skills.” commented CEO, Iain Mac Donald “Our user growth is a reflection of how people are reacting positively, creating a SkillPage and getting found by new customers and employers.”

The company celebrated the one millionth user by launching a new feature on the site called "Opportunities". SkillPages is free and anybody can join regardless of the skill they know.

UPDATE:
There have been a lot of complaints about some tactics utilized by Skillpages. There are a lot of reports of spamming and unauthorized access of email account contacts list. This is an old post so please don't take your rage out on me.

OmniVision and Sony to supply 5th gen iPhone cameras

According to Digitimes, OmniVision will supply about 90% of the upcoming 5th gen iPhone cameras, while Sony will supply the rest. The 5th gen iPhone will have an 8MP CMOS image sensors, improving image quality for photo and video capturing on the new smart phone.

HP shows off TouchPad slate

HP published videos on Youtube about the capabilities of their brand new WebOS based TouchPad. With the July 1st release coming up and pre-orders on 19th of this month, the eager consumers can get a glimpse of the new features offered by HP's TouchPad.

Yet another victim of Cyber attacks

Another big brand has come under attack by cyber criminals. This time it was Codemasters. Codemasters informed their customers via email to take action and change their passwords.

Ghost Recon Online - Trailer

{EAV_BLOG_VER:ef722a41977f6a14}

Ubisoft's response to the ever increasing online free-to-play games is, Ghost Recon Online. A sci-fi first person shooter based on the popular Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series of video games. The game will be totally free, but as all f2p games you will be able to buy/unlock rank accelerators and gear for extra n00b pwnage!

You get to choose from three classes, with each class having its pros and cons and unique abilities. The game will be released side by side with  Future Soldier this fall.

Here is the trailer:

30nm DDR3 DRAM from Samsung

Samsung introduced its new 30nm class DDR3 SDRAM today. These new chips will offer faster, more energy efficient DRAM modules that will be available this summer in the U.S.

New Sony Ericsson phones announced through Facebook

Sony Ericsson announced 2 new phones today through facebook. The Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman and the Sony Ericsson txt pro. Both incorporate full touch user interfaces similar to the Xperia mini smartphone. They both have features like cameras with video recording and WiFi for web browsing and chat.

The Sony Ericsson Mix Walkman is intended for those who want to hear music from their phones. It has a feature called Zappin™ that lets your browse through your songs, automatically playing the chorus of the song. It also has a karaoke mode that mutes vocals from your tracks. The external looks of the phone can be adjusted with a color band that runs around the outer edge of the phone, personalizing it for every occasion.

The Sony Ericsson txt pro is a phone targeted to heavy social network usage. With a 3" touch screen and a slide out qwerty keyboard for fast typing. It has build-in social applications for easy access to the popular networks Facebook and Twitter.

Both of them will be available in selected markets from Q3.

HP TouchPad available July 1 in the US

HP Touchpad will be available for purchase on July 1st in the United States, with UK, France, and Germany following a few days later. The much anticipated HP Touchpad will cost you $500 for the 16GB version, and $600 for the 32GB.

Pre-Orders will start in 10 days from now, on June 19th on all e-tailers.

Kaspersky AV & Internet Security 2012

Kaspersky Lab announced the availability of its new security products, Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus 2012 and Kaspersky Lab Internet Security 2012. The new products come with several improvements, but nothing revolutionary groundbreaking.

Both products will make it harder for rootkits to take over your computer and even harder to disable your security features.

A new graphical environment was created, for better access to monitoring tools and system status information. The new environment is also designed to support touch input devices.

According to Kaspersky Lab, the products will offer improved protection for the cloud, and new heuristic technologies will do a much better job identifying phishing sites.

The System Watcher can roll back to previous versions of your system files that were changed by malware, very useful for repairing the damage done by malicious applications.

Full details and pricing can be found at their official product pages, as well as 30 day trials for your to test the product before you purchase.
Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus 2012
Kaspersky Lab Internet Security 2012

Corsair recalls Force 3 series SSDs

After countless complaints of system instabilities from cairsair's customers, Corsair is now halting production and recalling all Force 3 series SSDs with part number CSSD-F120GB3-BK.


All users should immediately stop using those SSDs, even if their system reports no problems. Every Force 3 series SSD owner should return the drives to their place of purchase or return them to Corsair, at Corsair's expenses.


You will find more information on this LINK.

Playing Guitar with Google's Logo

Google created a clever doodle on their home page at google.com. It's a Guitar Logo written in HTML5 in celebration to Les Paul (real name Lester William Polsfus) 96th birthday.

Wiki: Les Paul

EDIT:
After the big success of this Google Doodle, it got it's permanent page. Here is the LINK

E3: Hitman Absolution Trailer

Hitman Absolution is coming back! A long time favorite game of mine...can't wait to get my hands on.

Oh watch the trailer...

HDD Teardown

Everything you ever wanted to know about Hard Drives!

Logitech Touch Lapdesk N600

 Logitech unveiled the Touch Lapdesk N600, a gadget to shield you from the heat of your laptop while having it on your lap. The Lapdesk brings the laptop back in your lap.

“We’ve seen people using everything from pillows to pets to shield their laps from the heat their laptops generate, ” said Denis Pavillard, vice president of product marketing for laptop accessories. “Our lapdesks are much more effective and, with the addition of a multi-touch touchpad, you’ll get the added capability to more easily move through your favorite content without attaching additional peripherals.”

The Logitech Touch Lapdesk N600 features a 5-inch, retractable touchpad with multi-touch navigation. You can move the pointer with one finger, scroll using two, and swipe through pages or pictures with three.

The multi-layer, heat-shielding design of the lapdesk protects you from laptop heat so you can browse in cool comfort, and the anti-slip surface helps keep your laptop in place. To get started, you just plug the tiny Logitech Unifying receiver into the USB port and start navigating. For your convenience, Logitech’s newest lapdesk offers up to six months of battery life.

The Logitech Touch Lapdesk N600 is expected to be available in the U.S. and Europe beginning in June, for a suggested retail price of $69.99.

E3: Game Demos

Follow the links for some game demos and trailers:

Battlefield 3
http://www.geforce.com/#/News/articles/E3-2011-Battlefield-3-Out-October-New-Trailers-Released-Beta-Confirmed

Mass Effect3
http://www.geforce.com/#/News/articles/E3-2011-Mass-Effect-3-In-Game-Trailer-And-Screenshots-Released

Far Cry 3
http://www.geforce.com/#/News/articles/E3-2011-Far-Cry-3-Announced-7-Minute-Gameplay-Movie-Released

Is your password secure?

Found this website that tells you if your password is secure enough. My password would take 6 trillion years to crack, so I think I'm using a fairly secure password.

Check yours here: LINK

SunBlast

Just look at this amazing video of the sun. It was filmed yesterday and shows a gigantic explosion on the surface of the sun.

E3: Wii U

Nintendo's new console, Wii U, comes equipped with a 6.2" touchpad controller. With it you can play on your TV like normal and when is needed, switch to the controller and continue your gaming with it. It features a motion sensor, front-facing camera for video calls, and many more gadgets. Watch the E3 2011 trailer:

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Coming Soon

I've ordered an ASUS Eee Pad Transformer! Once I'll get it I'll do an unboxing and hand-on review of my new gadget! :D

French Government bans mentioning of Facebook & Twitter on TV and Radio

The French government passed a law that bans the mentioning of the popular social network sites, facebook and twitter. What that means is, TV and Radio presenters can no longer mention either social network by the brand name. So phrases like "find us on facebook/twitter" are not allowed anymore. They can however mention the brand names if either of the companies are the focus of the news story. No more free advertising.

Christine Kelly, spokeswoman for the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), the government broadcasting authority, said: "Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are other social networks that are struggling for recognition. This would be a distortion of competition. If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it's opening a Pandora's box. Other social networks will complain to us, saying 'Why not us?'"

This doesn't mean that they are blocking the use of those social networks. It gives a chance to other social networks to gain more recognition.

Source: Guardian

Fox Engine at E3 2011

The "father" of Metal Gear revealed a new game engine called Fox Engine at E3 2011. A multi platform engine developed by Kojima Productions. Kojima is developing their new unannounced game on this new engine and developed new tools to help boost productivity to develop more titles faster. There are no official details about the capabilities of the new Fox Engine. We will have to wait a bit longer for that. If I'll find more info I'll post it.

I've also found this video from IGN:

Call of Duty: Black Ops Free Multiplayer Weekend

Steam and Activision are offering you a free crack at the multiplayer component of the Call of Duty: Black Ops game. This offer is just for this weekend, enabling you to play through the multiplayer content for free. So don't wait any longer, follow this link to get yours! LINK

W32.Qakbot

Symantec posted on their blog an info-graphic about the consistently troublesome W32.Qakbot malware. A malware that's been around for over 2 years now and has caused serious trouble to thousands of computer users.

Sony hacked again?

BBC Technology reports that SONY may have been hacked again. The hackers have claimed that they gained access to a million user accounts information.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Official US launch

Samsung announced the retail availability of the new Galaxy Tab 10.1. Starting June 8 you'll be able to buy it exclusively from Best Buy Union Square store in New York City. The 32GB version will be available for $599 and the 16GB for $499. On June 17th the product will be available Nationwide.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 10.1" HD touchscreen with 1280x800 resolution, and runs Android 3.1 Honeycomb.

Aaron O'Connell: Making sense of a visible quantum object

Web Developing

These few next days, maybe weeks I'll have to work on some projects and I won't be able to post on a daily basis.

See you all soon!

SanDisk's new embedded SSDs for high-end tablets

SanDisk introduced a new line of embedded flash drives, the iNand Extreme. These new drives are designed to be used with high-end tablets and other mobile devices that require high performance drive for data-intensive applications. The new drive features up 80MB/sec of sequential read and up to 50MB/sec of sequential write speeds.

With all the multimedia files that tablet devices use there is a significant need for speed and responsivnes of the drives. Some devices feature HD recording capabilities which is a data-intensive process and a fast drive reduces the risk of frame-drops. This can also signifactly increase the data-rate of the video and in turn quality.

“The embedded application market is experiencing significant growth through the increasing popularity and variety of mobile computing platforms,” said Jeff Janukowicz, research manager, solid state storage technology, IDC. “Companies with broad embedded product lineups and value-added services have an increasing capability to meet the diverse needs within the mobile market.”

Full PSN restoration

Sony announced today the full restoration of the PlayStation Network in the Americas, Europe and some parts of Asia. Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea will be online by the end of this week. Sony will also resume Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for the PS3, PSP, VAIO and other devices.

Source: Sony

NVIDIA showcases its new quad-core Kal-El cpu

Nvidia is showcasing in a video on Youtube their new CPU, code-named Kal-El, with Nvidia's new Glow Ball demo. The tech demo is running on a Honeycomb tablet with a resolution of 1280x800.

NVIDIA's new wired 3D Vision Glasses for only $99

Nvidia introduced a cheaper alternative to their wireless 3D Glasses for desktop and laptop users. This new product will go on sale in late june with a $99 MSRP compared to the $149 for the wireless version. The wired version features a 10-foot (or 3-meters) usb cable, making it a perfect gadget for users wanting to watch 3D content on their desktops computers or laptops without spending to much for the wireless version.

"3D Vision provides gamers and enthusiasts with the world's largest ecosystem of 3D products and features," said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at NVIDIA. "3D fans have been waiting for more affordable glasses, and we're expecting our new 3D Vision wired glasses to hit the sweet spot for them."

NVIDIA 3D Vision wired glasses are expected to be available beginning in late-June 2011 from the NVIDIA Store, as well as from leading retailers and e-tailers.

AMD Fusion APU "Sold Out"

AMD announced a few days ago, that they sold 5 million Fusion APUs. AMD's representatives state that the Fusion APUs are completly sold out and demand has overtaken supply.

The Fusion APUs are a combination of CPU and GPU and are getting implemented in low cost and low power Netbooks as alternatives to Intel's Atom processors. There is also interest in AMD's Llano series chips, which are also in the Fusion family of processors.

Google Chrome Extension For Artists

If you are an electronic music composer, you will probably know about software suites like Qbase, ProTools, Fruity Loops and Reason. What you might not know is a new application for creating music that runs on your browser. That's right, a high quality music production extension for your Google Chrome browser called: Audiotool.

Doodling with the layout

I've decided to play around a bit with my blog layout, since weekends are not very interesting in news. No official news, press releases, nothing. So, I've changed the heading with a very simple logo and changed the description. I've also added a facebook activity box on the right column and on the bottom of the page I've added a "Our Favorite Diggs" module and Most Popular module. (all-time/this week).

UPDATE: Changed the default commenting system with DISQUS commenting system. I've also added a new widget on the right column displaying the categories for this blog.

e-Paper From The Future

Check this new invention by Polymer Vision.

It's a rollable 6" display. Polymer Vision made Science Fiction into Science Fact!

Official PlayStation 3 Wireless Stereo Headset

Sony unveiled a new accessory for the PlayStation3 gaming console. It is a wireless stereo headset featuring 7.1 digital surround sound and a retractable microphone to use whenever you need it. Check it out here: LINK

Million Dollar Earth turns 24...days old! First copycat emerges

It took only 16 days for Jerry Li to create the first copycat of MillionDollarEarth.com, called FortuneEarth. A cheap ripoff of a clever and original idea by Ryan Hart and Scott Dahl. Visiting that site, you get introduced to ads and a not so elegant design.

 

Ryan Hart said in a blog post on MillionDollarEarth, "You may be thinking that my reactions was OH NO YOU DON’T! but rather it was THANK YOU. Copy-cats validate the feasibility of a venture. Imitators show you that you are on the right path. Everyone loves a good cover song."

The ripoff site appears to have sold 3 cities already for a total sum of $40.500 US. The original project (MDE) has sold 43 cities for $58.250 US, but you get to keep the city for yourself and can later resell for a better offer. Unlike FortuneEarth were you pay ridiculous amounts for exclusive ownership and without the ability of re-selling it for a better offer. Meanwhile MDE gives 10% of the proceeds to Charity:Water, a non-profit organization that brings clean water to millions in need.

There is also a contest to win a $1000 city on MillionDollarEarth. I've already signed my email and if I'm lucky to win, I'll resell and give the earnings to the same charity! Since I live near a spring of fresh water that is just a couple kilometers from my home, I'm in no need of fresh water unlike millions.

http://www.milliondollarearth.com/