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Current news items regarding technology, tech companies, the Internet, the government, etc.

Apple Readying To Announce New iPhone?

News, Phones, Portable / By /

iPhone 3GS, 4S, and 5

On the back of the recent announcement, from Apple, regarding the flatter but more “depthy” version of iOS, Internet rumors abound that the company may be preparing to announce one or more new iPhone product(s).

This kind of speculation does the rounds on an almost annual basis but this time the rumors are supported by the likes of Reuters and Stuff. Whether there will be an iPhone 5S before a full-blown 6 is not yet known but it does sound as if another new physical display size is likely to appear – with a possible 5.7” display reportedly in the works. Whatever the speculation we can be pretty sure a new iPhone will be announced at some point and our best guess (wish list!) of features is likely to include: a 12 megapixel camera, an A7 processor, NFC, and longer battery life.

Apple iPhone sales “remain resilient” against other brands, according to a Tech Trader Daily report, including Windows Phone 8 which IB Times are reporting has seen sales growth, in British smartphone sales from February to April 2013, of “up 4.4% on the same period last year”.

What features would you like to see in a new iPhone from Apple?

Password Breaches Require New Thinking

2 Comments / Networking & Internet, News / By /

Password breaches are becoming more and more common on web sites as hacker groups seemingly obtain hashed (and sometimes clear) passwords almost on a weekly basis from various web providers. This past week alone had three high profile password leaks with LinkedIn, eHarmony and Last.FM.

LinkedIn, a professional networking site, may have leaked as many as 6.4 million passwords. The password hashes are one-way encrypted versions of passwords meaning the password cannot be derived from the password hash. Hackers use pre-computed tables called Rainbow Tables to run through a dictionary of hashes comparing against the password hashes to arrive at the cleartext password. By the time the passwords were leaked on the Internet, several password hashes had been altered as the hackers that originally obtained the password dump had compromised those passwords already.

eHarmony was the next victim with as many as 1.5 million passwords stolen. The signs lead to the leak being performed by the same hackers as LinkedIn.
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Best Buy Closing 50 Stores

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Best Buy Store Closure Best Buy announced in March it would close 50 stores across the country and has already closed stores in Kansas City, Mo., and Scottsdale, Ariz., according to a statement released by the company. Prior to this weekend, Best Buy had already notified five stores in Minnesota and a San Antonio store they would be closing.

The statement released Saturday said, “This was not an easy decision to make. We chose these stores carefully, and are working to ensure the impact to our employees will be as minimal as possible, while serving all customers in a convenient and satisfying way. But we also recognize the impact this news has on the people who deserve respect for the contributions they have made to our business.
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Crowd-sourced blog PhutureNews imagines the future’s news stories

2 Comments / Gizmo of the Day, Miscellaneous, News / By /

Sci-Fi meets extrapolation meets imagination meets entertainment meets crowd-sourced blog is how I like to view PhutureNews. This site/blog is all about predicting the future but not in the boring “in the future, we think…” style, but rather as headlines and stories with future date stamps. Although they just launched, they have some rather interesting ‘stories’ like “Steve Jobs rising out of the iCryo”, “China wins the 2046 World Cup”, and or the more realistic “Self driving cars mandatory in California”.

Two suggestions for PhutureNews: first, please go buy the FutureNews.com (or dot whatever domain) and rename the site! The “ph” doesn’t quite work. And second, you absolutely need RSS feeds. Other than that, keep writing cool and interesting stories.

Cool New Jobs at Smarthome and LEGOLAND Discovery Center

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Geek 4 Sale Are you the type of person that looks forward to plane trips so you can get your hands on Skymall Magazine? Do you get excited when gadget blog newsletters hit your email box? Did you make a cylon pumpkin with working eyes you soldered together using Larson Scanner plans for Halloween?

If so, you might want to check out Smarthome’s open position for New Product Category Specialist. The Geeks have toured Smarthome’s HQ and it looks like a cool place to work.

Smarthome is also looking to fill an iOS Developer position so brush up on your Cocoa and XCode and and head over to Smarthome’s Career site.

While we’re talking about cool jobs, LEGOLAND Discovery Center Atlanta recently began searching for its Master Model Builder. The attraction will host several rounds of auditions to select the most qualified builder to become a full-time employee.

This unconventional job provides an opportunity to turn a beloved childhood pastime into a dream career, and LEGOLAND Discovery Center Atlanta looks forward to incorporating such talent and enthusiasm into its family-focused and interactive experience. If this sounds like the gig for you, head over to LEGOLAND Discovery Center Atlanta on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ldcatlanta and filling out the online application.

Tablet Battle: Amazon’s Kindle Fire vs Barnes & Noble’s Nook

8 Comments / Books, Music and Movies, Gizmo of the Day, News, Portable / By /

During the holiday season, many tech-oriented shoppers will be scrutinizing the market for the best valued tablet. While most analysts point to the iPad as the pinnacle of current tablet design and functionality, consumers have one big beef with the product: its price. The iPad 2 starts at a whopping $499, a price that most consumers simply can’t afford in this economy. So let’s set aside the iPad 2 and consider some of the more economical tablet options for the holiday shopping season. Of course there are the other most talked about tablets to consider, Barnes and Noble’s Nook Tablet and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Now that both tablets have been released, analysts expect the competition between the two to be fierce since they come in at similar price points and offer comparable features. But which of these tablets would work best for you, dear consumer?
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Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

2 Comments / Books, Music and Movies, News / By /

Kindle Owner's Lending Library Amazon announced a new benefit for Kindle owners that have an Amazon Prime membership called the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.

Those eligible can choose from thousands of books to borrow up to a book a month with no due dates and no additional cost as a value-add to the Amazon Prime membership.

The Amazon Prime membership remains $79 a year, which gives you free two-day shipping on millions of products, plus unlimited instant streaming of almost 13,000 movies and TV shows.

Google Sidewiki Shutting Down

2 Comments / Networking & Internet, News / By /

Google sidewiki The latest Google project to be discontinuing and shutting down is the Google Sidewiki. Google Sidewiki was a browser sidebar that enabled people to contribute and read helpful information alongside any web page available as a feature in Google Toolbar.

According to the announcement, Google Sidewiki will be shut down and all content deleted on December 5, 2011 and included a link so contributors can export their Sidewiki entries.

iPhone Dropped to Third

4 Comments / News, Phones / By /

Blackberry Broken According to Wireless Week, HTC shipped the most smartphones in the US in Q3 2011 with 5.7 million smartphones shipped. Samsung shipped 4.9 million and Apple shipped 4.6 million providing Android a number one and two spot in US shipments. RIM continues the free slide dropping to under 10% share of shipments.

With the Apple 4S release at the beginning of this quarter, Apple should reach the #1 spot again for new shipments during Q4 2011. With that said, the aggregated mobile OS view will remain in the favor of Android supported by multiple manufacturers.

Additionally, according to Information Week, Android has surpassed the iPhone in App downloads holding 44% of App downloads while Apple clings to a 31% download share.

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