CEO Steve Ballmer Goes Out With A Song

Steve Ballmer was always a very passionate CEO and therefore his last meeting had to be one that everyone remembered. He has mentioned that he would leave Microsoft, and he is making this last meeting something that we are all going to remember.






Steve Ballmer has been at Microsoft for 33 years, and all that love for the company was let out at this meeting.

Steve let out a very emotional saying right before he let out tears while on the stage.

"Soak it in, you work for the greatest company in the world," Ballmer screamed on stage as his eyes welled up with tears.

Ballmer has always loved the company, and the people in it. Even after all these years that love for the company is still strong even after he leaves the company. His speech was very emotional, and The Verge has the exclusive video which you can see right below.

As you can see the speech was very heart felled, and it leaves us with questions like. Who will take his place, what will be the future of Microsoft.

The company has made questionable moves, and Steve Ballmer was a CEO that you either loved, or you hated him.

People loved what he did with getting Microsoft, into the mobile market, but they also hate him for Windows 8 and questionable business moves like making an RT and a PRO version of their Surface. This was arguably the worst decision he made since it made no sense to anyone.

Microsoft will have a bright future after his leave, but for now lets all bid farewell to Steve Ballmer and his work at Microsoft.

Read More

Youtube Comments Block List

Youtube has rolled out their new comment system for larger publishers, and we have constructed a very large block list that should be added to your blacklist as well as blocked channels. These people and or sites have been known to spam Youtube channels, and are therefore going to be blocked. No self promotional spammers are added to the list, we are just adding website spammers such as those who promote phishing scams.

We are the first group to officially throw together a black list, and we have added several hundred items in the form of words, websites, and channels. This is the first iteration of the list, and it is available to download in the form of a .txt file. We are going to update the list with new words, websites, and channels in due time. However,this is the first update of this list. All of the items that can be copied have commas, don't remove these or they will not work in the blacklist.

Download The List Here

Read More

Why Are Apple fans So Devoted?

When it comes to fan base in the technology field, Apple has the most devote fans of any company and no one seem to know why.


Samsung recently sent some disguised employees to report on the seen to try and understand what makes the fans so devoted. The fact of the matter is that Apple has the most devoted and loving fan base and no one can figure out why.


Their is a meme that says it all that basically broke down all of the features that IOS 7 gave iPhone users, and said “Android had all these features for years and no one bats an eye.” “Apple adds them to IOS 7 and everyone loses their mind”. The fact of the matter is that Apple is adding features that Android has had for years and their fans have gone crazy over it.


Now what is the exact reason for this, are Apple fans seem to think that Apple is naturally superior to Android in every aspect. Speed, Design, Apps, these are just some of the common arguments that people try to justify to me.


This is not true Android phones have better hardware, and are therefore superior in speed. The design is all personal preference, and the apps are all dependent on the developer and not the operating system. If you want to test the strength of the operating system then Android has the potential for more powerful apps, and we can see this through more memory intensive apps such as Avabel, and Order And Chaos.


However the real key to Apple’s success at controlling their fan base is that they release a phone timely every year that is an upgrade to the previous. So why should someone go and buy the new Android phone and re learn something when their new I device will be released, the same year and they are already accustomed to it.


While this only works for the true hardcore fans it still does not make sense for someone to wait 14+ hours to get a phone that is slightly better then the last generation, and is running the same operating system.

Read More

Should Blackberry Sell?

Blackberry has been doing poorly for the past three years with no quarters of gains and last quarter of a loss of 1 billion dollars the company is doing very poorly. The market share is about 1.5% and they are going to lay off over 40% of their current staff.

The company has been doing so poorly that it will be the smartest move for Blackberry to sell. The reason I say that, is that they do have some interesting patents that might be wanted by other technology companies who are not in the mobile phone market.

Dell for instance would be a perfect buyer for this and here is the reason why. Dell has been doing quite poorly when it comes to their computers, and that is because they just don’t stack up with the competition anymore, and therefore they need an alternative market where they have a chance to succeed.

If Dell were to buy Blackberry, then they would be able to establish their place in the mobile market, but they will have to do something that many might or might not like. They will need to drop the current devices, and build and Android based device.

Why Android? Android is the most widely used mobile operating system on the planet, and for good reason. It is the most powerful, and it has the largest room for personalization by the company. So Dell could take the patents from Blackberry and put them into use for an Android device. This would be the chance for Dell to establish its place in the mobile market, and thus increasing their revenue, as well as recovering the company as a whole. 

Will Blackberry ever sell? Will Dell be a potential buyer? It will all depend but if RIM does not do something, they might as well file for bankruptcy. 

SH2VWG72GYR9

Read More

Microsoft Joins Other Tech Companies With Buybacks

Microsoft is starting to have buybacks a buyback program that has a value of roughly 40 billion dollars.

A buyback is essentially where the company buys back their stock, in large amounts and the reason that they are doing it, is because it is more profitable for them rather then investing in another company. Microsoft is following what other tech companies, such as Apple are doing, and that is that they have so much money that they don't need to invest in other companies, and they are doing it to increase the value of the stock.

When an investor looks at a stock we need to look at the value of the stock, and look at what are the chances of this stick increasing. Microsoft's stock barely moves so as an investor why do I want to invest into a company where I am making pennies? So by buying back these stocks there are less around, and then the value of it goes up. When you analyze we mentioned we don't like making pennies, so Microsoft realizes "why would someone invest in our stock over Google's?" The fact is investing and making pennies is not good enough so by buying back those stocks it takes less shares to be sold for that value to increase.

Tech companies are the most inclined companies to buy back stock, and that is generally because there was too much stock in the market, so Microsoft might be doing something really smart. If Microsoft had a stock value of Google then the common man will be more inclined to invest in them.

Now wall street looked at this and the stock rose about $0.13 which is very little, and that is because wall street wants more stock and a larger program. More stock means that there are more potential sales however we have two types of investors.

Those who want to see large numbers and want to make a large amount of money. These people are more inclined to buy from Google.

Then we have those who are safer investors and they are looking for small but consistent change. They would go after Microsoft, because the stock does not really decline that much.

We will have to wait and see what this does to their value, but Microsoft does not really mess up on their buyback deals.

Read More

Can Creating Your Own Encryption Keys Prevent NSA Spying?

Could we prevent NSA spying if every user was able to create their own encryption key? The NSA has been retrieving data from some of the largest companies for years, and that is because they were able to gain access to their servers (with or without permission details are still not known), and that means that they could in theory bypass encrypted information. What If we allowed every user to create their own encryption key.

When you encrypt something on lets say Google they have a set algorithm that will scramble those letters into nonsense data. Except to a programmer, who could in theory reverse engineer the algorithm. While this is very unlikely it is technically possible which would mean that if they did not know about the snooping a programmer managed to reverse engineer the algorithm and therefore know every encrypted piece of data. Now this is common with poorly built algorithms which are open to many flaws, but is it possible that every tech company made the same mistake or that there was some sort of work around.

Therefore if anyone had the ability to create their own encryption key would it be possible to block all of that snooping? For instance if everyone could write and disguise their own password could they get past it? The answer to this is yes and no, and it can be both. The reason is they cant discover every ones password UNLESS they all started to use the same formula. For instance a password of 123 is encrypted as abc, and this other guy is 456 with a password of def, then it would be possible. The best way for this to work is if everyone had their own unique system or tied it to something random. Famous equations can be reversed engineered easily.

For us to do this, we would literally have to rewrite most of our current security solutions, because the idea would take so much time, and resources but would it pay off.

The idea sounds amazing on pen and paper, however most users are lazy. Most people refuse to use 2-step verification why would they write their own encryption key? Security? Privacy? The fact is both of these would improve, but how do you convince the consumer to do something like this, and that is why the idea has not been explored. The average users do not care enough to actually work on something like this.

Comodo an internet security firm has started to use this in their cloud back-up service. They give 5 gigabytes free, so this might be something to look into if you wish to secure your documents under your own lock and key.

Visit Their Site: Here!

Read More

Google To Ditch Cookies For Advertising

Google is said to be expermenting with a replacement with the common tracking cookie that we see today. This cookie is meant to track browsing history, and it will display advertisements based on your history. You have hundreds of these cookies, because there are hundreds of different ad networks out there. This solution might actually be able to rid those cookies, if it is adopted.


The proposed idea is an anonymous identifier for advertising. The name that it has been given is an AdID, and this would no longer track your browsing history, via the use of cookie, so in theory we wont have to worry about dumb tracking cookies anymore.

The idea sounds a little skeptical, and far fetched but think about it. Google owns about 33% of the world wide share for the Advertising market. This industry is about 120 billion dollars, so having a company like Google trying to revolutionize it would be interesting. The AdID would work something like this, instead of tracking VIA a cookie, Google could track it back to an anonymous source. Basicaly instead of monitoring it VIA a cookie they could either track it by your Google Account, OR they could track it by general search. Essentialy they would analyze the trends in site visits so if you visit this site, you are looking for technology based news, so Google will say 99% of people reach this page VIA technology related terms, and therfore serve and ad on the page based off of statistics, and not off of your own information.

If they track it back to your Google account, then Google would simply collect the data, by your search volume. Incase you did not know you can delete your Google search history, so if you do you will lose all that targeted advertising.

"Technological enhancements can improve users' security while ensuring the Web remains economically viable. We and others have a number of concepts in this area, but they're all at very early stages," Google spokesman Rob Shilkin"

While the above ideas are how I see it playing out, Google might do something more complicated but the idea of no more advertising cookies is amazing.

How would this work for other adnetworks? The adnetworks would have to follow some simple guidelines that Google says what you can do, and then they would send you the data. They will not get any sort of extremley targeted advertising. Such as an ad that mentions anything personal about you.

This data will be limited, and the data that advertisers get will even be limited even more. The point of this new system is to increase revenue and to get rid of advertising cookies, while giving the privacy back to the people.

Read More

Microsoft To Buy Nokia's Phone Division

Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Nokia's phone division. The company is spending 7 billion dollars, and it will own all of the Phone Division of Nokia, as well as all its patents. This deal is an attempt for Microsoft to bolster its ownership of the mobile phone market. However was this truly a smart move for Microsoft? The company has failed with its latest Windows RT tablet, and they are barely beating BlackBerry when it comes to their market share.


Microsoft is paying seven billion dollars for the mobile phone division of this company. This deal was predicted earlier this deal and was surfacing around the internet. However will Microsoft buy the entire company at a later time? Nokia holds many high level patents that Microsoft could use to help dominate the market. So we might be expecting a larger deal in the long run.

Was this a smart move, Microsoft never took the mobile phone market by surprise, and they never did anything revolutionary. However at the same time this is their chance to manufacture their own phones, and to own the patents from Nokia which was at one point a powerful contender in the mobile phone market.

Microsoft was going to make this deal sooner or later, skeptics were calling it ever since Nokia agreed to sell windows phone devices, and now they made a partial ownership. Before they buy the entire company, they would have to look at the benefits. What does Nokia make? Most people know them for their phones. What does Microsoft use Nokia for? They made their phones other then that, there was nothing else in it for Microsoft.

Nokia is one of those companies, that had a lot of potential, and then it went down hill extremely quickly. It went bad for them when they agreed to use Windows Phone, that was when their market share went down to less then 3%.

Microsoft mostly did this to bring down costs, because Nokia was another party and the more parties that you have the more expensive it is for the product to be made. Microsoft cut out the middleman which in this case was Nokia. Now they can have a larger profit margin.

Nokia is the only reason that Microsoft made it to where it is in today's market, and now that they are gone we are relying on the full creativity of Microsoft.

Here is the logic of Microsoft.

Read More

Google Street View Car In Three Seperate Accidents

A Google Street view car has crashed three separate times in Bogor. The driver was doing a visit to update the Google Street view, and during which he crashed into another driver. He was very polite, and took the other driver to the nearest garage to get the vehicles repaired. However during this time he thought to himself how much is this going to cost, after fearing extreme cost, the driver fled the area with his damaged vehicle.




The driver, then drove into another vehicle, and after which crashed into a parked truck. When police arrived they detained the driver, and took him in for questioning.

The police questioned the driver, and he was asked why did you flee the original accident, and he said I feared that the cots would be to high. The police, will release the driver, but he will need to repair the vehicle or get another one.

We are still unaware if the driver will be responsible for the repair costs, or if the company (Google) will pay the fines and the repair costs.

After all of this stress, the actual cost for repairing the damage to his windshield was roughly $17.60.

Let's go over what was wrong with this entire event.

1. You feared the cost of the repairs, and so you drove off in a broken car.
2. You drove off in a broken car with a cracked windshield.
3. You felt that the costs would be to great and that no one would assist you.
4. You hit a parked car?

It is one thing to fear the expense and drive off, but to do so when you can barely see out of your window you are just asking for trouble.

Read More

Advanced Systemcare 7 Beta

Iobit has officially started their advanced Systemcare 7 beta. The product has quite a few changes that we are looking forward to. Not to mention that the UI has quite a few changes and in my opinion this is far better.

 This new update also has a great newly updated database, and it is configured for windows 8 and 8.1. They have added the ability to delete the cache of the windows apps. 

They are also having a vote on whether to delete the classic faces on the app for the newly configured letter grades.

 The community is quite pleased with the new locking however this program has a long way  before it is released to the public. However while it is in public testing we are unaware of its release date.  

The program that is currently releases are advanced SystemCare version  6.4 which was just recently updated with a number of database improvement.

Read More

Nokia Android Phone Was Real

We now know that Nokia was experimenting with an Android device, before Microsoft bought out their mobile phone division. This shows that Nokia had a plan B in case of the failure of the Windows 8 devices.

This team was very small, and did not have a huge impact on the company, but it shows that they feared possible failure from the Windows Phone, or that they were interested in growing their company.

Now according to their acquisition deal with Microsoft, the Android division was not even brought up, Microsoft did not want anything to do with those prototype devices, so this shows that Microsoft is more concerned with dominating with their own phone, rather then getting the hardware, and then selling it with the Android Operating System.

Back in 2011 Nokia agreed to sell Windows Phone devices, and that contract would have been over during 2014 which would mean that Nokia would have probably dropped the Windows Phone, and instead would have used the more popular Android operating system.

Nokia will forever be haunted by the mistake of choosing Windows Phone over Android. The company has 3% of the smart phone market, but back in 2010 it had about 32% and people always look back and wondered what would have happened if they chose Android. As we know Android is the most common mobile operating system on the planet, while Microsoft and Blackberry have very little of the market and are both doing very poorly.

Since Nokia has sold their mobile phone division, this project will be gone, and then Nokia and us will be left with the question. What If?

Read More

Google Passwords Are Dead

Google security executive has said that the security password is dead.  She states that the new start ups that rely only on passwords for their security, are putting their users at risk. Now she is technically right ever since 2-step verification became "main stream" companies have been adopting it to increase the security of their users. Companies who think that a simple password will protect their users are wrong, and it has been seen time and time again.

Heather Adkins, the manager of information security at Google has said that "our relationship with passwords are done," and that "passwords are done at Google." Ever since Google evolved to include their 2 step verification system many companies have decided to follow, and that is because it is far more secure then having a simple crackable password.

Google has issues every day, where they have to deal with someones account being hacked, and that is because they refuse to use the 2 step verification for their account. This is a major issue,and Google is slowly becoming sick of the constant intrusion of hackers because users wont use a more secure account, the issue is that Google cant force them to use 2 step verification either. The best thing that they could do is either offer an incentive, or give them a pop-up with some sort of video that explains how to set it up.

Google is also trying to innovate more ways to keep your account secure, unfortunately Adkins did not give any specific details as to how they plan to do this, but she did assure us that Google is trying to find a secure way for you to login and make it hacker proof.

Innovation with security is something that we have to really try and work on, and the issue is that their are not enough people who can innovate on this issue, and that this is not the main concern facing companies. Companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo who are the ones who we would expect to innovate on this issue don't really do so. Microsoft is working on their acquiring of Nokia's mobile division, and they are focusing a lot on their scroogled campaign.

How far can these companies innovate until they reach this same stand still, that they are at right now. Companies mostly play off of eachother, and one company will innovate then the other will use the exact same technology, and then they wait for another company to innovate then they copy it. The whole security industry is full of ideas being taken from a company to company and being used to innovate even further. The issue is they don't want to send their engineers to work on this idea when they guys down the street could be doing the exact same thing.

Read More

Google To Be Sued Over Privacy Issues

The lawsuit against Google and illegal internet tapping is allowed to continue. The Federal Appeals court said on Tuesday that the case would proceed.


Google is being accused of stealing Email Passwords, images from homes, and or bi standards, by tapping into un encrypted network. This is a prime example why you should always have a password on your home wifi router to prevent people from accessing your wifi, and even though it is illegal to access someones wifi even if it has no password. The obvious exception would be public wifi that can be found at stores and restaurants.


The collection of this information was first brought to attention by a court in Germany three years ago. During this time, Google was also being sued by 12 other European nations for privacy issues with their Google Street View.


Google's argument for the case to be thrown out was that since the Wifi was accessible to the general public meaning that there were no passwords for router. The court however disagrees with this ruling, and Google is now being investigated for violating the wire tap law.


The counter argument was that since it was in someone else home, they have a right to privacy, and therefore Google violated their privacy.


Google will probably by their way out of this problem, and that is because they have the tendency to bribe the plaintiffs. They are currently suing the company for $10,000 which is mere pocket change to Google. Not to mention that the company does not need to be in another court hiring more lawyers so bribing their way out of it would be the best bet.


Google is also working with Microsoft to sue the NSA over the amount of information that they are allowed to disclose when the NSA asks for information. They want to be able to give more information such as how many people were asked, and what type of information that they asked for.


The court has said that the wire tap laws, and the privacy laws apply to private homes as well which means that Google has broken the law and their defense will be next to pointless.


Question?

Why doesn't Google learn to control their privacy issues?

Read More

Microsoft And Google To Sue The NSA

Google and Microsoft are going through with their lawsuit against the NSA. They are suing for the request that it makes to be made public. After they tried to reach an agreement with the NSA they ended up failing in the end, and now they are going to continue the lawsuit. This is the first time that we have seen these tech giants work together to try and solve a problem


Microsoft's Vice President Stated
"For example, we believe it is vital to publish information that clearly shows the number of national security demands for user content, such as the text of an email. These figures should be published in a form that is distinct from the number of demands that capture only metadata such as the subscriber information associated with a particular email address. We believe it's possible to publish these figures in a manner that avoids putting security at risk. And unless this type of information is made public, any discussion of government practices and service provider obligations will remain incomplete."

They are taking a very strong stand against the government because they want all of their requests to be known by the general republic. While both of the companies comply with the requests on occasion they have the power to say no, and they have the ability to release some of the requests.

From The LA Times

"James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, said the government would begin releasing its own reports on NSA surveillance activity.

"But the Center for Democracy & Technology said the reports would fall short of the level of detail needed to provide 'meaningful transparency.'

'The new data that the government plans to publish is not nearly enough to justify the government's continued attempts to gag companies like Google and Microsoft and prevent them from engaging in meaningful transparency reporting of their own,' said Kevin Bankston, the CDT's director of free expression. 'This level of transparency is too little, too late, and is no replacement for hearing directly from Internet companies about how they and their users have been impacted by the NSA's programs.'"

Are Microsoft and Google right to confront the government? Do You want them to?

Read More

Google Watches Employee Snack Habit

Google being one of the largest companies in the world, and being one of the greatest companies to work at, is starting a study on its employees snack habits. The reason for this, is it wants to make sure that its employees are healthy and are more productive at work. This study is being conducted to adjust the position of their snack containers to see if they affect their employees consumption rates.




Google has had an issue with their employees snacking to frequently, and they think that this is leading to a slowdown in the productivity, and a stake at their employees health.

Google has hired a group of psychologists to study the behaviour of their employees to see when and were they go for their snacks. They have launched this little experiment to and it will be continuing for quiet some time.

If the company kept their current snacks but moved them away from their employees and kept them in a lunch room then the employees would be less likely to go for those snacks.

What if Google adds more snacks? For instance the company could add some healthier foods whether it is fruits to trail mix. The employees would be more productive and healthier at the same time.

The other option is to try and disguise the unhealthy snacks by blending them in with their healthier alternatives. They could place it in the center away from plain site, they could change the container, they could move them further away from the healthier snacks which means employees would be more likely to grab the healthier alternatives.

Google as also tried to analyze the unhealthy snacks with the amount of employees that leave the company each year. While we don't have any exact numbers we do know that the company wants to minimize their numbers and if it is being analyzed then the numbers might be concerning.

There are some who are questioning the lengths that the company is going to analyzing the snack behaviours of their employees, however the employees don't seem to mind the idea, and they might be welcoming to a change in the scenery. This will reduce the amount of calories that their employees will consume.

What are your thoughts on this experiment? Is it to far? Or is Google doing the right thing?

Read More

5 Tips To Secure Your Android Device

When it comes to securing your android device it takes more than just placing that lock on your home screen. You need to be able to protect your device even in the event of them guessing your password. These five tips are essential when it comes to protecting your android device. These apps can all be used together, and they all have their own unique ways of protecting your android device.

1. 360 Mobile Security

 This is a free antivirus app that is meant to block malicious apps from getting onto your device. It has a very clean interface and also has some tools for speeding up your Android Device. This app is great at keeping out malware, but there are some things to note. This app is very new to the market place, but the developers are working to add new features some that we are familiar with, and some that might be unique. However we can be sure that this app has a long way to go, and it is heading there at a faster pace then most of the other android antivirus apps that are on the market. The one issue with this app is the enhanced graphics which use a slightly higher battery amount then other android antivirus apps. But since it can protect you from various vulnerabilities it makes this app worth it.
Download The App Here

2. App Lock

This app lock app comes with various protection features such as anti uninstall and administrator rights. This makes the app much more difficult to remove, and it can prevent anyone from accessing your apps or system settings. Essentially removing this app is very difficult, and you will be protected from most people. However a more advanced user might be able to bypass it or essentially hacks into the device and remove the app forcefully. 

Download The App Here

3. Encrypt External SD Card.

This feature is built into newer Android devices, and it allows your to encrypt your SD card so that it can protect the information that you might be storing in it. This is almost necessary because your SD card is so easy to remove and transfer into other devices that you want that important information to be secured from any hackers or those looking to use the information for nefarious reasons. If your device is not able to have a SD card 

4. Encrypt Your Device

This is probably the most important of the above features, and that is because your physical device or internal storage will hold the most vital information. Such as your files, or your Apps. This is the one thing that you don't want to be vulnerable so the first thing that you must do is have your device encrypted this will prevent anyone from accessing your device, however if they know your password for your home screen then they will be able to get past the encryption password. Make sure that your password includes the following. Letters, numbers, special characters, and Capital letters.

5. Request To Write To SD Card

This is another important feature for your android device and while it offers little protection, it is still a great thing to have. It will basically say you want to write to the SD card? If the app says yes then you will be warned.

Read More

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Is To Retire Within 12 Months

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer is set to leave the company within the next 12 months. He is doing so so he can go into an early retirement, and this has caused the Microsoft stock to surge. Why is this happening, this is because Steve always had a different way of looking at things and now that he is on the way out we can expect Microsoft to evolve and move on past the decisions that many investors hated. However, how will this turn out for Microsoft?


Why Is he Leaving?
At this point it is unknown for the exact reason why he wants to retire, but he might just want to relax and enjoy the rest of his life.  He has been CEO ever since Bill Gates left. He has held this position for nearly 13 years, and he has had one of the longest lasting relationships with Bill Gates. Ever since he became the CEO back in January of 2000. This is a very long lasting position that he has held, and despite all of the criticism he still managed to revolutionize the way software is built.

Was Windows 8 A Mistake?
Some would say that this was Steve's biggest mistake, but was it. From the number sold and the poor sales of tablet sales some would argue yes. But when you look at the Surface Pro, and look at how software is adapting to Windows 8, you can clearly see that Windows 8 had its place in the market, but it was done very poorly.

Read More

Google Palestine Hacked

Google Palestine was hacked Monday by an unknown group of hackers in another political stunt by a hacking group. The names of these hackers are unknown but their given screen names are Cold z3ro, Haml3t, Sas and Dr@g. These hackers even threatened Google in the form of a strange question that was translated through Google Translate. The question remains, do these hackers have the guts to hack into Google Maps, and why did they do it in the first place.


This was the message that the hackers sent to Google

This message was very clear to Google however this political stunt has not stopped Google who is investigating this hack, and plans to protect it's self from the potential of a future attack. Now why was this stunt even done? The political issues between Palestine and Israel have existed ever since the United States and other countries gave the land which is known as Israel to the Jewish faith as an apology for the massacre from the Holocaust. Well the Palestinians feel that they deserve the land and the entire fight has been based around religion. No one wants to share, and they can't really win a war with Israel so it is mostly a constant political debate.

The hack that was launched did not get into Google's servers but was rather in the form of a redirect. This means that no personal information was extracted but also shows that these hackers were not after anything other than to make a statement. However,blackhat hackers are a big issue for Google, since the tech giant is constantly in threat of being attacked by some political move.

The issue with this attack was that they attacked the Palestinian page. Why would a hacker send a message against Israel on the Palestinian home page. This is puzzling quiet a bit of people, and it was probably something simple such as. "It sounded like a good idea at the time" or  "That didn't come up". The fact is that Google needs to up its security from attacks like this to prevent protests like this, because the fact is that they broke the law, and they need to handle the situation in a diplomatic way, and their threat to remove Israel from Google Maps does not scare Google. Now we need to wait and see if the hackers make the move, or will Google make the move and prevent the hack or track it back to them?

Read More

Playstation 4 Launch Titles

There has been word of 15 launch titles for the PlayStation 4. We are currently unaware of any DLC that will go along with these titles, but this is a little unimpressive compared to the 23 that are being released on the XBOX One. These titles as you can see are mostly tied to sports such as the madden series and the Fifa series which are published by EA. We can see little "action games" however the long awaited Watch Dogs is going to be released as well as the critically acclaimed Call Of Duty Ghosts.

Titles Being Released

1. NBA 2K14 (Visual Concepts, 2K Sports)
2. Call of Duty: Ghosts (Infinity Ward, Activision)
3. Skylanders Swap Force (Vicarious Visions, Activision)
4. Need for Speed: Rivals (Ghost Games/Criterion Games, EA)
5. Battlefield 4 (EA DICE, EA)
6. Madden 25 (EA Tiburon, EA)
7. FIFA 14 (EA Canada, EA)
8. NBA Live 14 (EA Tiburon, EA)
9. Killzone: Shadown Fall (Guerilla Games, Sony)
10. Driveclub (Evolution Studios, Sony)
11. Knack (SCE Japan, Sony)
12. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
13. Watch Dogs (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
14. Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft, Ubisoft)
15. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (TT Games, Warner Bros. Interactive)

Why Are There Less Titles Than The Xbox One?

This question is quite difficult to answer but to do so we have to look at it from the view of a developer. Which platform are people most likely going to move to, and do we have the resources to do both. Most game developers worked on the Xbox 360 before the PS4, and that is how the industry was setup the Xbox community was larger and therefore developers targeted if for more sales. Now if the tables are flipped these publishers will have to higher more developers to make their games available on the other console as well as the other. So the main reason that the Xbox One has more games is because of the Xbox 360. 

F & Q

Are They Going To Be More Expensive Then The Xbox One Games?

No they should be the same price as the Xbox One game prices if they want to stand a chance in this market.

What are the items in parenthesis?

These show the developer, then the publisher for each of the games.

Which Console Should I Buy?

It is not my place to judge, but the software capabilities of the Xbox One entice me more than the PlayStation 4. Not only that but the Xbox One is more secure then Sony which seems to be hacked quite commonly. 

Which Console Has Better Graphics?

The graphics should be very similar so that should not be a deciding factor for your choice of game or console. 

Read More

Microsoft Announces 23 Launch Titles

Microsoft has announced that there will be 23 games on launch day. The games come from a variety of publishers, and some of them already have DLC. These games come from a variety of publishers including Microsoft Studios, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft. The highly anticipated Call Of Duty Ghosts is set to be released the same day, and Battlefield 4 already has DLC under the hood, but what more could we expect from EA.


These are the 23 Titles To Be Launched Same Day

1. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft)
2. Battlefield 4 (Electronic Arts)
3. Call of Duty: Ghosts (Activision)
4. Crimson Dragon (Microsoft Studios)
5. Dead Rising 3 (Capcom)
6. FIFA 14 (Electronic Arts)
7. Fighter Within (Ubisoft)
8. Forza Motorsport 5 (Microsoft Studios)
9. Just Dance 2014 (Ubisoft)
10. Killer Instinct (Microsoft Studios)
11. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes (Warner Bros. Interactive)
12. Lococycle (Microsoft Studios)
13. Madden NFL 25 (Electronic Arts)
14. NBA 2K14 (2K Sports)
15. NBA LIVE 14 (Electronic Arts)
16. Need for Speed: Rivals (Electronic Arts)
17. Peggle 2 (Electronic Arts)
18. Powerstar Golf (Microsoft Studios)
19. Ryse: Son of Rome (Microsoft Studios)
20. Skylanders: Swap Force (Activision)
21. Watch Dogs (Ubisoft)
22. Zoo Tycoon (Microsoft Studios)
23. Zumba Fitness: World Party (Majesco)

As you can see a majority of these games come from Microsoft Studios, and Electronic Arts. A lot of these titles are familiar, and some of them we have word on.

Read More

Yahoo beats Google in Traffic

According to Comscore Yahoo has surpassed Google in search traffic by about 4 million views. The amount of times Yahoo services was viewed was 196.6 million while Google only had 192.3 million. How is this possible is Yahoo truly becoming more popular than Google? Was it rigged? Or is there something else at work here. These have been the many questions that people have been asking because the numbers don't seem to add up.

Was Tumblr Counted?
Tumblr is the 28th largest website according to Alexa and according to Comscore the views from Tumblr were not factored into this count. I found this to be strange because Yahoo did purchase them a while back which would make sense for them to count it. However,since they are picking and choosing services what did they choose from Google or Yahoo.

How Were The Numbers Counted?
We don't know where these numbers are coming from, is Comscore monitoring all of this, or are the numbers being sent from Yahoo? If the numbers were being sent from Yahoo then they would want to place themselves higher than Google. What services did they count we only know of 2 services counted for Google and Yahoo, and that is their search engines. The question remains, "Is This Real" we don't really know. If you were to go onto the Alexa ranking you can clearly see a mile of Google.

Google vs Yahoo Alexa Rankings

Search Engines (English Only)
Google: 1 Google is the most used website according to Alexa.
Yahoo: 4 Yahoo.com is gaining popularity according to the statistics.
Google wins in this category.

Blogging Service
Blogger: 12
Tumblr: 23
Google wins in this category by a large margin.

Video Service
Youtube: 3
Yahoo: 4
Yahoo does not have a direct youtube like service instead their videos are offered under a subdomain from Yahoo.com this site is http://screen.yahoo.com/.

What Does This Tell Us?
This quick comparison shows us that these results are not fair. Even if it was just between Google.com and Yahoo.com Google has the higher rank and therefore it should have won. But if they factored in subdomains then they would need to factor in the services that Google offers under a different url. Yahoo screen would need to be replaced by Youtube. Essentially the testing was unfair because it only factored in one domain and it's subdomains and since Yahoo has more it was going to win.

Was It Rigged?
That is hard to say what needs to happen is clarification on how these numbers were released because this does not sound right. Everyone is trying to pick sides on this debate because it does not make sense Marissa Mayer has turned Yahoo around, but these numbers sound a little ludicrous.

Read More

Google Now To Be Integrated Into Google Search

Google has finally announced that they will be integrated into Google search. This means that Google Now can do everything that it can on your phone, but from your favorite internet browser. This has taken Google about a year to work on its speech recognition software, but now they claim that it is ready to be released to public. You will be able to expect all of your favorite features from the Google Now on your Android device as you would on the desktop, but lets take an in depth look.


Google has been working on this project for over a year now, and they have wanted to integrate it with their search engine ever since it was launched. Now they are ready to launch the project to the public so we can get our hands on it and test it out.

"What can we do this new search technology?"
You will be able to do the same tasks as you would on your Android device, but now they will work together. You will be able to ask Google questions directly, and if it can it will try to answer the question. For instance if you ask "How Far Is The Earth From The Sun?" then Google will be able to respond with the answer given. Now Google has said that this search will be linked to other Google services. It can get queries from Google+, Gmail, or your Google Calender. It will vary depending on how you phrase the question, but certain phrases are the same. For instance if you say "How old is the Earth?" or "What is the approximate age of the Earth?" then you should expect a similar answer.

The technology is also smart enough to remember past questions and give answers for the follow up questions. This will allow you to ask questions in a far more comfortable manner, and to get your answers in a timely fashion. For instance if you ask "When is my five o'clock appointment?" then Google will give you that information from your calendar. If it has enough information, then you should be able to ask it a follow up questions such as "Where is it?" then if it can it will tell you the location of that same appointment.

It is important to remember that there are still some features in testing that wont be available to the public such as the Google Drive integration,and the only way for you to gain access to it is to be part of their testing group. We will expect such features as those to be integrated at a later time, and for more features and integration to be added.

"What about Bing or Yahoo?"
As of now there is no word if they are developing technology on this scale, but I am willing to bet that within the next few weeks we will see a new "Scroogled" campaign about this to point out whats wrong with the system and then have them promote their own product.

Are you pleased with the direction that Google is headed with search? If so then what do you want to see them add or integrate.

Read More

Desk And Archive 2.0 Review

Desk and archive is a program that is meant to give those writers and heavy office users a break by organising their documents nad to make it easier for them to create more. This is one handy program especially if you like to keep tons of copies of your files on your computer, as well as to organize your articles. So if you are a blog writer, then you will want a program like this, and the best thing is that it takes little to no skill to learn, and if you can't do something, then they have instructional videos that you can follow, and they will teach you all of the tricks to the software.

Features

Create A New Document From Within The Program: You are able to create a new document from within in the program by clicking on the new tab which is located at the top left of your program. You can use this to save time and to keep your work more organized.

Template: You are able to turn everyone of your documents into it's own unique template. For instance lets say that you create a resume for your job interview, well you will never need to do it from scratch, because you saved that last one, and now the program knows to use that document as a template.

Edit As A New File: You can edit a file in a new document, this will copy that file, and all you to edit it without harming the original file. This is a very useful feature especially when working on an important document.

Tag Reminder: You can create a tag and then attach it to a document. This is used as a reminder system hence the name Tag Reminder. you will be able to set a time for this timer to go off, and it will remind you to do what you labeled it, and it will display the corresponding document in a pop-up window.

Exclusion Tags: These tags are meant to prevent certain documents from following your other tags.

Track Unfinished Projects: You can have this program monitor documents that you have not classified as finished and will warn you to continue to work on them. This is great to use especially if you have forgotten to set a tag reminder.

Filter: You are able to filter your documents to have certain ones placed on certain sections. This is great for keeping your work documents separate from your website documents or you book pages.

My Experience
I found the program to be amazing especially for someone like me who constantly tries to organize his documents into folders and then sub folders. This was a faster way, but with the growth of the cloud and Microsoft new Office 365 how long until a program like this is throw away and marked as useless. If you are not a fan of the cloud then this is a must have program, but if you tend to write your documents in the cloud then you might want to pass on this program.

Why Only 4.5 Out Of  5?
While the program installs well is loaded with features it is missing some key elements. The one thing that struck me as annoying was the interface. The interface felt very clunky, and very Windows XP like. The interface needs to be more fluid and then it will earn a five out of five, but as it stands right now it deserves a 4.5 out of 5.

Description From The Company

Manage office documents efficiently
Are you a business person that constantly works with office applications? This is the only file manager built with office productivity in mind. our job is to provide you with proper tools to follow your work easier, spot the documents quicker and improve your productivity.

Desk And Archive 2.0
Reviewed by Scott Hartley on Aug 12 2013 
Rating: 4.5

Read More

360 Mobile Security iPhone App Review

When it comes to protecting your iPhone there are very few apps to choose from and there are even less that are legitimate apps from trusted publishers. Well Qihoo has made their mark with their own iPhone antivirus app. While some people are skeptical I can say that this app is completely safe and if you don't have an antivirus app this might be the one that you want to download. The app comes with all the basic protection that you will need, and it can even make the phone run better, to improve that lag you may be receiving while playing your favorite game.

Features

System Scanning: This feature will scan your phone for security issues such as malicious apps and can help you with the removal process of them. This can also scan for insecure settings that may leave your phone vulnerable.

Location Services: This will let you know what services you have that are tracking your location, and it can warn you that certain apps can track your location thus causing a privacy issue.

Process Scan: This feature will scan for all of the running processes on the device and can end them. This is very similar to a task manager.

Memory Optimizer: This feature will monitor the memory usage of your device and can kill apps that are not currently being used. This is great to do before launching a larger game, or to close useless apps in the background.

Private Vault: This is an interesting service that basically takes the files that you give it and it will encrypt them. This is great to do with your pictures and videos to prevent people from gaining access to your photos and other private information.

My Thoughts

The app is still very new and offers some very important features, and they are all aimed at protecting your device and the files that it has. You can give your phone the protection that it needs for free with no ads,and it is very light on the system. What more could you ask from an antivirus app, the app is also 100% safe according to virus total which shows that it is a trustworthy app. The company is working on giving new features to the app, but they tend to focus on the Android version of the app, but they are trying to keep the updates released at a similar fashion. The Android version is at 1.2 and the IOS version is 1.1 so they are trying to keep both of them updated.

Do I Need Antivirus?

Yes every mobile device should have some sort of antivirus app on it,and that is for good reason. Granted that IOS malware is only 8% of the total malware, that is 8% of 276,000 malware samples that were discovered by Juniper. That is still 22,080 samples of malware that are on the market. This is a great threat, and since it is increasing every day you might as well have an app that can protect you against those threats. The threat of malware is something that you need to watch out for, and you have to look at it what do you really lose from having this app installed. This app will take up little of your RAM, and it will protect you from threats that can take private information on your device. So the threat is what you have to avoid so you have to give a little of your phones power to give you that protection.

Download The App Here
https://itunes.apple.com/app/360-mobile-security/id653387969&mt=8

Read More

Apple To Announce The Iphone 5s On Sept. 10th

The new rumor is that Apple will be announcing the Iphone 5s which is the rumored name for the next Iphone, will be announced on September 10th. As far as details go we have very little information about this new device. But we do know some specifics and the rumors would make the phone sound amazing. However as we know these rumors are almost always false and only set the phone up to be a disappointment much like the Iphone 5. So what can we expect and what will they announce.

What Is Going To be Announced?

There are no specifics about what they will tell us about this phone, but we are expecting quiet a bit of information about the hardware and IOS7. They will also go over the price of the phone as well as the carriers like they do everytime. We might expect other devices to be announced or even software updates to their OSX operating system. But as of this time we can only confirm the Iphone 5s to be announced. That does not meant they will not announce anything else, but we have very limited information at this time.

IOS 7: The new operating system for Iphones, and Ipads has been turned into a joke and lets go over why. Below you will see the new icons for IOS 7, and they have been laughed out and stamped "Made By Fisher-Price" there is a lot of hate because they look like they are designed for children. As you can see these apps are slight larger have rounded corners and are more colorful. These are all the things that children like, and this is why a lot of people are laughing at the new design. Maybe it will do better then their other iterations but we cant say for now. Now IOS 7 has also taken a lot of features from Android, read the full list here. So IOS 7 is far greater than the older iterations software wise because it shows that Apple is starting to try and catch up with Android. 

What We Know

We know that IOS 7 is going to be the operating system of choice, which is going to a very interesting spin for people that are familiar with the old IOS because the new direction is very Android based. As far as other specifications such as the hardware or price we are not 100% certain on anything, but you can surf around and you will find some very funny rumors. Such as the phone having a fingerprint scanner, or being able to project holograms. It is only a matter of time until we know for sure what Apple has been working on, and lets hope that it can live up to the expectations that people have set for them. 

Read More

Hotspot Shield Android App Review

What Does It Do?

When it comes to proxy and VPN services hotspot shield is one of the largest and most well knowns services. They have established a large trust with their user's because of their great service and the amount of people using it. The main thing is that they have such a large amount of users that they are almost the go to place for VPN services because of their amount of users. The idea is that the more users they have the more they will get because more people will recommend it. So when it came to popularity they get an extra edge because of their popular mobile VPN service.

Why Do I Need This App?
This app is very useful because it allows you to get pat WiFi blocks and to protect your information on public WiFi. This will make your information safe and harder for a hacker to access. This is key for using public WiFi they need to protect their information from potential hackers especially since they don't have access to the control settings of their WiFi which means a skilled hacker can gain access this is quite common on public WiFi.  I use the app to protect my resume information, and I have had issues yet. The best part is that the service is free with ads of course, but they are non intrusive and show up rarely. It is also upgradeable yo the pro version which comes with no ads and added protection from malicious sites.

Features
The app might seem to be low on features however the ones that you get are almost necessary especially in a world where our data is constantly trying to be taken by others. So yes it is light on features but the protection that the app provides is exactly why you need it. What do you have to lose from using this app. Not much and then potential gain meaning the protection that you gain is almost invaluable to a person who is in a connected world like ours. If you do decide to go pro you will get the following features

Privacy Protection: View the web anonymously. 

Malware Protection: The app will block known malicious sites so that your device will be safe.

Data Savings: This app can reduce the amount of bandwith and reduce unnecessary data charges.

Download it here

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hotspotshield.android.vpn

Read More