Tuesday Tech Talk #85

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. I am fresh back from Nashville where I attended PodCamp so I had to absurd a lot of tech news in a short period of time. Let’s see what is going on this week!

Firefox 4

Last week Mozilla released the official version of Firefox 4. It brings several new notable features, my personal favorite is Pin Apps which basically allows you to take your most frequently opened tabs and reduce them to favicons in the upper left hand corner of the browser for quick access.

In addition it also has a feature called Grouped Tabs which sets up multiple tabs of pages for quick access. To give you an idea of what is new, check out the video. I would post it here but Mozilla does not give me the option to embed their videos. I am a fan of Google Chrome but I decided to give Firefox 4 a week of exclusive use and I will let you know next week of what I think about it. MacWorld has chimed in with their initial review of it which you can read here.

Yahoo debuts “Future of Search”

Remember this company? We used to check them out for search results before Google came along. Well, anyhow, they are rolling out a new search technology. I have to say it is really impressive but is it enough to compete against Google at this point? Only time will tell.

Audible offers WiFi download to Kindle

Huge news for Kindle users, Audible now offers the ability to download their 50,000 titles via WiFi to your Kindle. I don’t have a Kindle myself...yet. But this is a lot more convenient than having to side-load via USB.

Warner Brothers adds more Films to Facebook

After offering the Dark Knight on Facebook for users to rent and watch, Warner Brothers is now offering 5 additional movies to the service. The new movies are Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Inception, Life as We Know It and Yogi Bear. I think the jury is still out on this one as no other studios have come on board to offer their content on Facebook. I still stand by the fact that people in general do not want to watch a movie on a computer screen which is why AppleTV and Roku boxes are doing so well right now.

Well, that is going to do it for this week’s Tuesday Tech Talk. If you want to know about my experience at PodCamp Nashville, you can read my post about it here. See you next week!

Tuesday Tech Talk #74

Hello all and welcome to the last Tuesday Tech Talk of 2010. I will be taking a Christmas and New Years vacation from blogging next week. So lets take a look at the news over the past week in technology.

Paul Allen’s Lawsuit Against Everyone Thrown Out

You may recall that Microsoft co-founder tried to sue Apple, Google, Facebook, Netflix, eBay, and AOL among others over 4 patents for e-commerce. Well, the judge in the case has thrown it out calling it too vague. Allen has until 12/28 to re-file the suit but he really shouldn’t. He looks small and pitiful by doing so and it’s not like he is hurting for money at this point. Besides if he wants to go down that road Apple can easily argue that Windows was based on the Mac OS in the first place which it is. But you don’t see Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak going around suing Microsoft and the different varieties of Linux.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Time Person of the Year

Time Magazine has named Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as its 2010 Person of the Year. He won after beating out Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga, the 33 Chilean Minors, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Facebook has certainly been busy this year with many features added and the movie The Social Network certainly helped out as well even if Zuckerberg himself hates the film.

More troubles for Yahoo

Yahoo fresh off announcing it will layoff 650 employees, is now looking at cutting unproductive services and selling off one of its popular ones. As you have read here before, I have my doubts about Yahoo’s longterm viability just based on their recent history of a lack of innovation. I am pretty much divesting myself of any Yahoo dependence. For example, I use Facebook and Picasa as an alternative to Flickr but still maintain my Flickr account. That being said, there is a great article on how to backup your Flickr albums.
My guess is if the worst case scenario did happen to Yahoo, they would certainly sell off Flickr to either Google or Facebook, maybe even Apple. I’m thinking about posting a separate blog post regarding a Post-Yahoo survival guide and what services to start using now just in case.

AT&T Acquires Qualcomm’s Flo-TV Wireless Spectrum

AT&T looking to bolster its next technology of wireless broadband, announced it has purchased Qualcomm’s soon to be defunct Flo-TV’s broadband for $2 Billion. The new broadband will really help AT&T in high urban areas like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco where it has struggled with network issues.

DirecTV Bringing Personalized Ads to Customers in Late Summer of 2011

DirecTV is partnering with Starcom MediaVest to bring a more personalized advertising model to consumers. I don’t know about you but this screams privacy issues. I have a DVR so I never see the ads anyway. They hope to have it up and going by August or September 2011.

FCC approves Apartheid Net Neutrality Plan

Yes, I know I am using a strong word there, but the new ruling by the FCC only protects wired services from ISP’s blocking legal internet traffic, for wireless mobile users it does not apply so it is separate and unequal in how it treats wireless users. Will be interesting if it is challenged in court how it would rule if filed under such a case. Think of Florida 2000 recount as the case for it.

Well, that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. See you all in the New Year and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Tuesday Tech Talk #57

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Triple T. Quite a few diverse things going on this week so lets dive right into things.

Star Wars goes Blu-ray in 2011

YES!! Last week George Lucas announced that all 6 Star Wars movies will be available next year in a single pack. Start saving your money now kids (young and old). Keep in mind it will only be the special edition of the movies not the original due to cost.

Booking flights through Facebook...on Delta

If you travel a lot on Delta and are a Facebook user then your in luck. You can now book your flight with them without even leaving Facebook. Now lets see how soon Southwest and AirTran jump on board.

What happened to Yahoo?

I read a great article on why Yahoo stalled while Google surpassed it as the lead search engine. It is a great read from a Yahoo insider on what went wrong. I personally don’t use many Yahoo features these days. The only one I do use from time to time is Yahoo Messenger and that is to chat with mom. With Facebook having chat most of my friends that were on Yahoo are now on Facebook chat.

New iPods in September?

More speculation pointing to an iPod refresh next month. One of the items mentioned is an iPod touch with 2 cameras similar to the iPhone 4 and would offer FaceTime. This makes perfect sense as FaceTime as of now is only available over WiFi and the touch is strictly a WiFi device. We shall see though.

Majority of Verizon customers would buy iPhone

According to a recent survey, 51% of Verizon customers said they would have an interest in buying an iPhone if it was available on the CDMA based carrier. Things may get interesting if per the rumors the iPhone becomes available on Verizon in January.

Certain Pink Floyd albums disappear from iTunes and Amazon

Per the terms of the contract between the band and EMI, certain albums by the British based rock band are no longer available. Most notably The Wall and Wish You Were Here.

Well that is going to do it for this edition of Tuesday Tech Talk, see you here next week.