Buying a set of earbuds is a hit-and-miss experience. It is a rarity that a group of people can agree that a single set of earbuds has the best fit or is the most comfortable. Personally, I find myself buying a new pair of earbuds every couple of weeks. Some hurt my ears after a [...]
If you were to listen to leaders of the copyright-focused industries, you’d think that they were on the verge of collapse. The rationale for the (temporarily-shelved) SOPA and PIPA was that Hollywood and the recording industry are being financially steamrolled by piracy. They routinely make claims of billions of dollars in losses, and they’re rarely [...]
When the Raspberry Pi ships later this year, it will be delivered to your door as a finished unit. The more adventurous tinkerers among you, as well as adept system builders, have asked the Raspberry Pi Foundation why they can’t get them in kit form instead. The reason why that wasn’t considered is demonstrated by [...]
Just days ago, Symantec revealed that the code stolen from its servers in an embarrassing breach included the source for pcAnywhere. They took to Twitter and the web to tell users that they should disable the software immediately. Now, however, Symantec is issuing the all-clear. Sort of. Symantec now says that you’re totally safe. That [...]
When NASA announced its plans to retire the aging fleet of space shuttles that were responsible for all American space travel, private companies scrambled to create an inexpensive vehicle that would fill the void and be able to make supply runs to the International Space Station. Of all the bids received, NASA chose the Dragon [...]
Canada. America’s neighbor to the North where men are men, women are women, and Lego minifigs are astronauts. In case you missed it last week, a pair of Canadian highschool students had a bit of fun with a few pounds of electronics and a handful of Lego bricks. With a total spend of around $600, [...]
Our online identities are becoming ever more important as more real-world services are managed on the web, as well as the growing list of virtual services we all enjoy. That’s why services such as LastPass and KeePass are becoming increasingly popular. They take the hassle our of choosing and remembering all those logins, while keep [...]
Half way through 2010 EA decided to take action against the sale of its games used. The publisher saw no revenue from the re-sale of its games, and wanted in on the action. So Project Ten Dollar was started, that ended up with the official name of Online Pass. The system is pretty simple: if [...]
Nintendo‘s main focus has moved from its very popular DS portable gaming unit to the 3DS. However, in its home territory work is still being carried out to extend the usefulness of the last generation device. The latest innovation is aimed at bringing the DS into the classroom. Not for gaming, but to aid with [...]
In a scene that could be from a 2012 sequel to Airplane, overzealous Homeland Security agents recently flexed their muscles on a UK couple who were heading to Los Angeles for a little good-natured fun and partying. It all began when @LeighBryan tweeted that he was about to “go and destroy America.” Agents then began [...]
The next version of Microsoft Office – dubbed Office 15 – has begun the Technical Preview stage of its development. This means a select number of users under non-disclosure agreements will be sending feedback on some of its new features and changes.
For those of you who are fans of the long-running hit television program The Simpsons and own a TomTom GPS device, there is a treat that has been made available to you today. In addition to being able to purchase and download the voice of Homer Simpson to guide you to your destination, you can [...]
Kickstarter has produced some interesting and unique projects since its inception. These have ranged from portal boxes and iPhone smart covers, to MacBook Air docks and entire civilizations. This latest Kickstarter project, though it may not be the most tech-oriented, is sure to grab many a partying geek’s attention. PoitÃn, one of the most powerful [...]
Tweets by Scott Browning, marketing director for JB Hi Fi, has noted that the company has plans to release the app for its JB Hi Fi NOW streaming service “by the end of March” and has confirmed that it will allow users to download songs on their mobile devices for offline use.
If you’ve been following Microsoft’s Kinect, then you know that all sorts of development has taken place around it. The motion sensor has had a significant impact on the Xbox 360, but the development that is taking place on the computer side is much more clever. Of course, independent developers aren’t bound by commercial viability, [...]
Get ready for the shock of your lives, Geek.com readers: the FBI is looking for developers who can deliver a powerful social media monitoring application so they can keep tabs on what’s happening on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. That the FBI wants to monitor publicly available information isn’t a surprise, of course. What’s [...]
It’s a pretty safe bet that the iPhone will be getting an NFC chip sometime soon. Though Near Field Communications haven’t found a lot of customer adoption yet, merchants are getting prepared for it. Perhaps the biggest piece of the puzzle that’s missing is Apple. If Tim Cook takes the stage and tells the world [...]
Blue Waters will be one of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet when it finally gets built. Its sustained performance is expected to exceed 1 petaflop, which will be put to good use tackling real-world problems in the fields of science and engineering. However, the machine was approved for funding back in 2007 and [...]
Back in October, Motorola announced to their hacker customers that the Droid Razr would be the company’s first device with an unlockable bootloader. Well, both the Droid Razr and its better-balanced sequel, the Droid Razr Maxx are here, and they both have locked bootloaders. Today, however, Motorola made good on its promise and announced that [...]
The New York Public Library has a new project page up that’s definitely worth a few minutes of your time. Its Stereogranimator page has collected over 40,000 stereographs — faux 3D images made of two 2D ones — from the NYPL’s archives and made them available to visitors, as well as giving people access to [...]
Resident Evil fans no doubt own every version of the game Capcom has officially released, but there’s one game in the series that made it to 90% complete before being canceled. That game is Resident Evil for the Game Boy Color. The game is a conversion of the PlayStation original, which Capcom decided to port [...]
Those who are skeptical that iOS could ever go buttonless may want to take a look at the latest version of Zephyr. The jailbreak tweak, which enables multitasking gestures on the iPhone, now makes the home button completely obsolete. In the new update to Zephyr, version 1.1, you can now exit an app with a [...]
If you’re doing any activity that requires focus, chances are a hit of caffeine is going to help. The stimulant drug helps to focus the mind and enhance activity, be that physical or mental. However, even though it’s cheap to get a hit, the benefits are short-lived and can be followed by a downturn in [...]
Ever since the smartphone became popular, the mobile networks have been complaining about how much extra data users pull down and the stress that puts on their infrastructure. Such data use has seen most networks introduce caps on contracts and significant fees per gigabyte if those caps are exceeded. In Japan, network operator NTT DoCoMo [...]
One of the biggest new additions to Windows 8 that we knew about early on is that it was moving beyond the x86 processors from Intel and AMD. Joining the party is ARM, whose chip architecture powers a staggering number of mobile phones, tablets, media players, plug computers, energy-efficient servers, and set top boxes. Microsoft [...]
For the more eco-friendly among us Logitech brought out the perfect keyboard in late 2010 and then launched a Mac version last year. It was called the K750 and offered up a wireless keyboard powered by solar cells. Unfortunately, they didn’t pair it with a solar-powered wireless mouse, but that’s because you really don’t have [...]
Regardless of what you think about Megaupload, its users do have a legitimate claim to access the data stored on their accounts. While the service may have been mostly illegal content, paying users also stored personal documents, which are not in any way illegal. When Megaupload was seized by the feds, the service was effectively [...]
The Nokia Lumia 800 - its first new smartphone running WP7
Despite reporting an operating loss of over 1 billion dollars, Nokia managed to pull off a feat to mollify the investors – 1 million Lumia Windows Phone device sales. That’s actually quite a respectable result considering the device has yet to make a showing in markets such as North America and Australia.
You’ve got a ton of choices right now if you’ve started shopping for the perfect tablet to meet your needs. But which one do you pick? Should you stick with a big brand name? What if you’re a staunch supporter of free, open source software? Is there a tablet out there that’s right for you? [...]
We promise that the hilarious video posted above isn’t a spoof. We called and verified that the LikeBelt is an actual working device. Created by Pittsburgh based Deeplocal, the LikeBelt is an NFC enabled belt buckle linked to an Android device allowing you to check in via Facebook in a rather unique way. It’s probably [...]
In the recent past, Android hardware manufacturers have been belching out new phones and tablets faster than Apple (who offers up one new phone a year with great success) pushes patches for iOS to end users. HTC is certainly guilty of this particular infraction. With almost 20 phones currently on the market (as well as [...]
Backblaze is an online backup service that has been keeping our data safe in case of disaster since 2008. Last year, the company also showed us how to build a 135 terabyte storage pod for $7,384. After 3 years of backing up files, the company knows a thing or two about how data restores are [...]
We’ve known for a while that George Lucas doesn’t discriminate much when it comes to licensing Star Wars products. Through the years, we’ve seen C3PO cereal, Jar Jar Binks candy, and the iconic Star Wars disco ballet. But this may be one of the most — ahem — unique bits of Star Wars licensing that [...]
Going where very few Canadians have gone before, pictured above is possibly the first Lego-Man in space. Launched from Canada by two clever young gentlemen, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, the popular toy reached an altitude of almost 80,000 feet. That’s about twice the normal cruising height of commercial airplanes. The two friends, both 17 [...]
Okay, it’s now our turn to review HTC’s 3D phone. It records, takes pictures and plays 3D content without the need of those awkward and annoying glasses; and it also touts some top-of-the-range hardware specs. However, does it stand out from the crowd with its 3D, or is it just a gimmick? Terence Huynh reviews.
When LTE was introduced to the US last March (with Verizon’s launch of the HTC Thunderbolt), geeks everywhere salivated at the prospect of wireless data that was (in many cases) faster than their home internet connection. Then they actually used the Thunderbolt… then they used the Droid Bionic… and then they used the Droid Razr. [...]
The Pirate Party in Catalonia and MegaUpload have announced that it will file a joint complaint against the FBI over their decision to seize the company’s assets, which meant users’ files were lost – some of which were copyright infringing, but many others were note.
Remember the Simpson’s episode with the monkey’s paw? Every time the wizened old shopkeeper tells Homer something good that it does, he immediately counters with something bad. Meet the BlackBerry PlayBook 3G+, which was recently leaked: it’s the tablet equivalent of that paw. Let’s start with the good. The PlayBook 3G+ has a dual-core TI [...]
We all know the wonderful thing that can be done — and will be able to be done — with 3D printers. You can make yourself a great coat hanger, a killer companion cube, or even the parts for another 3D printer. That said, today there are still limitations on what one can do with [...]
A newspaper article has stated that Nokia Australia could be releasing the Lumia 800 – the first (and currently, flagship) Windows Phone 7 phone by the company – in March this year. Also coming in March is the Lumia 710, a lower-end version of the phone.
Though Siri is more advanced than voice control services on other platforms, the assistant’s capabilities are still somewhat primitive. Sure, using your voice to check the weather, text your sweetheart, or get metric conversions is pretty cool. But when will the real expanded functionality arrive? Apple will do that, but the company typically takes its [...]
Facebook will reportedly be part of one of the biggest Wall Street IPOs in history, as the company is reportedly filing paperwork as early as next Wednesday to go public. Facebook will reportedly be valued somewhere between $75 billion to $100 billion. The IPO is expected to raise $10 billion. The company is reportedly close [...]
You’d be right in assuming that downloading all your songs from a cloud locker service is a simple, standard feature. They’re your songs, after all. But with Google Music, you could only use its desktop app to download songs purchased through Google — not, for example, tracks you ripped from your own audio CDs and [...]
Jim Henson (whose 75th birthday Google celebrated with a Doodle last year) is most well known for creating The Muppets and advanced puppets for TV shows Fraggle Rock and Dinosaurs, as well as movies The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. But in 1963 he made a very different short film involving a robot for The Bell [...]
If you’ve been locked out of Google+, like me, because of age then today is your lucky day! Bradley Horowitz, Google+ VP, has announced, via Google+, that the new age restriction is 13+.
It may not count as a near miss, but there’s an asteroid passing very close to Earth today. How close? 66,000km close. That may sound like a long way away, but to give you some idea of where that distance falls in line with other close proximity objects we know about, our satellites orbit at [...]
Nobody who hasn’t made a blood oath of secrecy really knows what the next iPhone will be. Heck, Apple may not even know exactly what features it will have yet. Barring any drunken mishaps, we won’t know about it until Tim Cook takes the stage sometime this summer or (more likely) fall. Considering that we’re [...]
While looking at the planet using Google Earth was already a stunning experience, Mountain View has released an update to the application that improves upon the visual performance. With version 6.2, the planet no longer looks like a patchwork quilt that some celestial being has sewn together but rather appears as a smooth, seamless image. [...]
HTC Sense 4.0 isn’t ready for public consumption yet (that’s v3 above), but there’s a good chance the company will show it off in its full glory at MWC2012 in the coming weeks. It looks like some select individuals have already had the chance to play with the new mobile UX, however, and there seems [...]
If your friend is going through a rough spell after getting stood up on his wedding day, you wouldn’t expect him to offer a cheery assessment of his life. He hasn’t had time to let it go, and he’s going to be full of sour grapes. AT&T is now that jilted friend. The company isn’t [...]
Is jailbreaking your iPhone a crime? Right now it isn’t, but that could soon change. In yet another example of legislators not quite knowing how to adapt law to the digital realm, jailbreaking has gained only a temporary legal status. Its fate will once again be determined in 2012. Some manufacturers (including Apple) have claimed [...]
When the Theatrhythm Final Fantasy 3DS game box art got revealed a few days ago, it included an intriguing new logo with the words “Nintendo Network” written underneath it. At the time it was speculated this is Nintendo‘s attempt to bring a PSN/Xbox Live experience to its platforms, and that’s now turned out to be [...]
When your average US citizen has a falling out, they’re left to sort it out for themselves. It can frequently be ugly, and it doesn’t always end well, but it isn’t likely to affect anyone other than the conflict’s principal parties. Apparently when you’re a politician, though, you can solve your personal disagreements by passing [...]
HD collections are becoming a popular way for game publishers to re-release older titles with a fresh coat of paint. Gamers get a shiny new HD version of the games they like, while publishers and developers get more revenue from existing titles. Konami has jumped on board and is releasing Metal Gear Solid, Zone of [...]
Anonymous retaliates over the MegaUpload shutdown, RIM ditches their co-CEOs and Twitter starts censoring the tweets? And Stewart responds to Chris’ piece on Windows Phone 7 – all that and more on TECHGEEK Weekly.
Nobody who hasn’t made a blood oath of secrecy really knows what the next iPhone will be. Heck, Apple may not even know exactly what features it will have yet. Barring any drunken mishaps, we won’t know about it until Tim Cook takes the stage sometime this summer or (more likely) fall. Considering that we’re [...]
It may not count as a near miss, but there’s an asteroid passing very close to Earth today. How close? 66,000km close. That may sound like a long way away, but to give you some idea of where that distance falls in line with other close proximity objects we know about, our satellites orbit at [...]
If your friend is going through a rough spell after getting stood up on his wedding day, you wouldn’t expect him to offer a cheery assessment of his life. He hasn’t had time to let it go, and he’s going to be full of sour grapes. AT&T is now that jilted friend. The company isn’t [...]
Backblaze is an online backup service that has been keeping our data safe in case of disaster since 2008. Last year, the company also showed us how to build a 135 terabyte storage pod for $7,384. After 3 years of backing up files, the company knows a thing or two about how data restores are [...]
A newspaper article has stated that Nokia Australia could be releasing the Lumia 800 – the first (and currently, flagship) Windows Phone 7 phone by the company – in March this year. Also coming in March is the Lumia 710, a lower-end version of the phone.
While looking at the planet using Google Earth was already a stunning experience, Mountain View has released an update to the application that improves upon the visual performance. With version 6.2, the planet no longer looks like a patchwork quilt that some celestial being has sewn together but rather appears as a smooth, seamless image. [...]
Facebook will reportedly be part of one of the biggest Wall Street IPOs in history, as the company is reportedly filing paperwork as early as next Wednesday to go public. Facebook will reportedly be valued somewhere between $75 billion to $100 billion. The IPO is expected to raise $10 billion. The company is reportedly close [...]
Blizzard Entertainment has found a sure fire way to raise a lot of money for charity. The developer has decided to sell off around 350 retired HP p-Class server blades on eBay to the highest bidder. Each one has spent time helping to keep World of Warcraft online, and there’s a good chance if you’re [...]
The last week has given us a variety of tech news, including the SOPA/PIPA aftermath, the Feds’ Megaupload takedown, Skyrim updates, and Apple’s record-breaking quarterly earnings call. However, we don’t get anything and everything here at Geek. Here are some posts from around the web that you may have missed: 4 George Lucas Revelations on [...]
Apple has just posted record growth and earnings, making it the most valuable company in the world. It also means Apple made a profit of around $400,000 per employee during 2011. Tim Cook has therefore decided to reward all of Apple’s staff with a huge increase in the discounts they can claim on Apple products. [...]
There’s already a mind-blowing amount of malware floating around the Internet, and the individual worms, viruses, and Trojans are bad enough on their own. When they learn to work in tandem with each other, however, they take the infection game to a whole new level. BitDefender recently noted that in a sample of 10 million [...]
pcAnywhere? More like pcNowhere, with fewer than 50,000 computers still running the one-time industry leading remote control software. And if you’re still using it, Symantec has an important plea for you: please, uninstall that garbage immediately. You’re putting your machine at risk by continuing to have it installed. Running outdated software that’s infrequently patched and [...]
One of the cornerstones of the Windows Phone experience is the integration of Xbox Live, Microsoft’s uber-popular online gaming service that made its debut way back in 2002 on the original Xbox console. While there’s still plenty of work to do on their own platform, one Microsoft spokesperson has made it clear that they have [...]
Put a high-profile hacker and millionaire (on paper at least) in jail and the stories soon start appearing about his personality and his past. And that seems to be the case for the recently arrested MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom. The latest nuggets of information about him come from his neighbors in New Zealand, one of [...]
How many portable gadgets do you own that need charging on a regular basis? A typical user may have a smartphone, a tablet, an e-reader, and a digital media player. Most will have fewer than those four core types of device. I doubt anyone has 16 devices to charge, but if you do, there’s now [...]
Celebrating the Chinese New Year is a major event for citizens of the People’s Republic. It’s a day of feasting with family, and wishing neighbors happiness and well-being. Along with the traditional aspects of the holiday, media play a major part in the festivities. Millions of Chinese citizens tune-in to watch the “Big-Show’ to see [...]
It’s no secret that Facebook is a haven for unscrupulous opportunists. Every week, a handful of new hyper-sensational wall posts manage to trick the unknowing masses into sharing and re-sharing links that push everything from survey scams to crapware. Most are easy enough to turn a blind eye toward — the Justin Bieber and Lady [...]
Do you remember all of those complaints we heard a couple of months ago about iOS 5 battery life? Things have been (mostly) quiet on that front for a while. Apple’s iOS 5.0.1 update helped some users’ handsets to last longer, but not everyone was satisfied. Fast forward to last weekend, when the iPhone 4S [...]
Now that Apple’s A5-powered devices, the iPhone 4S and iPad 2, finally have an untethered jailbreak, there are hoards of iOS users jumping headfirst into the world of jailbreaking. When you’re used to being limited to the App Store, Cydia can present so many new possibilities that you may not know where to begin. We [...]
The last time we heard about webOS, HP had opted to open-source the mobile platform, letting developers take a stab at breathing some life into it. It was an unconventional move, but not necessarily a bad one: it puts the platform largely in the hands of the development community, and it doesn’t require a large [...]
BlizzCon has been a highlight on the shows calendar for the past few years if you’re a fan of Blizzard games, but this year it isn’t going ahead. Blizzard have taken the decision to replace it in 2012 with an altogether different kind of gamer gathering. 2012 will see the introduction of the Battle.net World [...]
We know that Microsoft and Nokia have a steep hill to climb with their smartphone collaboration. The Lumia 900 looks like a great handset, but that’s no guarantee that it will gain traction with customers (remember that the Nexus One, an iconic Android masterpiece, was labelled as a dud in terms of sales). The MicroNokia [...]
After the iPhone 4S provided an incremental update over the iPhone 4, we know that the next iPhone will be a major redesign. Details beyond that aren’t known, but we may have just gotten a peek. A report has the iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple calls it) being nearly ready for production in Foxconn’s Chinese [...]
In December 2011 HP announced that webOS, the OS featured on their failed HP TouchPad and HP Veer and Pre3, would be open sourced. Well today HP has revealed a timeline of when developers and people who want the OS will be able to get their hands on it.
File upload sites might be slinking into the shadows in the wake of the Megaupload takedown, but more mainstream cloud sync services aren’t batting an eye. In fact, a new one just launched called Mozy Stash. Once an all-you-can-push online backup service, Mozy eventually backpedalled on its unlimited plan and instituted tiers of 50 and [...]
At the beginning of December last year hopes were high that Minecraft would be getting its own line of official Lego products. If there was ever a better match in the history of Lego collaborations I can’t think of it, and it seems Lego think so to as it is going to happen. Last year [...]
When Windows 8 finally launches it will be arriving very late to the tablet party. But it looks as though Microsoft is treating the situation as an advantage rather than trying to play catch up. Evidence of this can be seen in its plans for how to offer up sensor functionality at a level beyond [...]
There are a handful of things history has shown about DRM technologies: they’re a hassle for consumers and generally not very effective at preventing misuse, but they’re also beloved by Hollywood and not going away any time soon. In fact, it’s time for the studio’s latest protection scheme to go live. Paramount announced yesterday that [...]
Anticipation for the launch of the Raspberry Pi $25 PC continues to grow as its launch window gets ever closer. Over the past few months it has been surprising to see what the tiny machine is capable of. Videos of it running Quake III, playing back 1080p video, and handling graphics-intensive particle and sprite demos [...]
Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons)
The European Commission has announced sweeping reforms in privacy and data protection laws within the union – including a single legal framework, and stronger penalties to make sure companies abide by these new rules.
The majority of us treat our mobile phone number like a closely guarded secret. We only give it out to a trusted few, and hope we never get added to any lists that lead to unwanted marketing/sales calls. But if you’re phone is on O2‘s network in the UK, your number is being sent to [...]
With smartphones becoming a serious competitor in the portable games market, no one really expects a new handheld gaming device to be released unless it comes from a Nintendo or Sony. But it looks as though SNK Playmore has decided there’s room for another system, and it carries the Neo-Geo name. This is in no [...]
Vimeo is today launching “Project Aurelia,” also known as a redesign, which gives the website a clean new look.
The new design brings a much bigger focus on the video, with less distractions on video pages, with a much larger player taking up a big portion of the screen. Not only does it look beautiful, but it’s also continuing the current trend of simplified designs instead of visually-noisy designs, such as the recent YouTube redesign which made the website more busy than simple.
We know that an Apple TV set is coming at some point. When Steve Jobs is quoted in his official biography as saying that he finally “cracked the case” of an integrated TV, then it’s all but confirmed. Though Apple isn’t going to let the cat out of the bag in an investor call, Tim [...]
Our Solar System is, essentially, unfathomably large. We can do visualizations, charts, and all sorts of other things to try to better understand just how large it is, but at the end of the day there really isn’t a great way to comprehend that sort of distance (or numbers that large for that matter). One [...]
Last week’s Federal takedown of Megaupload leads to a lot of unanswered questions. How did the US government get those internal emails that supposedly make Megaupload exempt from using the DMCA safe harbor? What about the suspicious timing of the raid, coming just one day after worldwide internet protests of SOPA and PIPA? Will the [...]
Last weekend, RIM finally threw down the gauntlet and replaced its co-CEOs. Though this could be a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” it does at least mark an acknowledgement by the board that the RIM ship was rapidly sinking under Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. It will take time [...]
Before Microsoft and its collaborators took it down last year, the Waledac botnet was one of the most prolific spam machines on the internet. Although fewer than 100,000 computers had been infected (some estimates have the figure as low as 41,000), the network was pumping out 1.5 billion spam messages per day. Waledac was also [...]
One thing that I’m getting a little sick of is people who stick up for Windows Phone, but haven’t actually used it full-time.
I remember first seeing when Windows Phone Series 7 was announced. I also remember eventually using it in store. It was smooth, fast and I really liked the look of metro. I was excited. Finally, an alternative to iOS and Android which….looks good!
When Canonical released Ubuntu 10.10 it brought with it the Unity interface, which seems to have a love or hate relationship with users. You can’t fault Canonical for trying to change the established norm for user interfaces, and in so doing hoping to improve upon them. Now it seems, Unity was just the first step. [...]
Google Wallet might grab most of the headlines when it comes to mobile payment news, but there are other major players looking to get in on the action. Isis has amassed quite a bit of support from big corporate names — cellular carriers in particular — and there’s talk that Amazon wants a piece of [...]
For those of you who share my dislike for long drives and have wished someone would invent the self-driving cars we saw in the movie Minority Report, luxury auto-maker BMW has announced a prototype vehicle that brings our dreams one step closer to reality. Pictured above is a BMW 5-series vehicle that is being driven [...]
Amidst Apple’s earnings call for the December quarter (which saw record growth and revenue), some of the most interesting talk came from Tim Cook when he was asked about the iPad. Though it’s along the same lines as what we’ve heard in the past, Cook dropped some hints about Apple’s future and dismissed concerns about [...]
Chances are good that you’ve seen a malicious link posted on Twitter before. As the social site’s popularity skyrocketed, so did the number of unscrupulous opportunists who tried to leverage Twitter streams for their own nefarious purposes. Twitter has been called out before for not doing enough to protect its users: poisoned URLs have repeatedly [...]
Skyrim had its fair share of teething problems when it got released last year, but PS3 gamers probably had the worst time of it. However, Bethesda has been hard at work on bug fixing and updates, and the 1.4 update is hotly anticipated. Not only will 1.4 bring bug fixes and optimizations, it also sees [...]
Look at any tutorial for rooting an Android device, and one set of initials is sure to come up: ADB. Veterans to Google’s mobile platform will let it roll off their tongues as if it’s everyday language, but those new to Android hacking can get a little tripped up. What the $%#@ is ADB? Let’s [...]
Most of the smartphones you read about on gadget sites are armed to the teeth with screaming fast processors (like the 2.5GHz one in the HTC Zeta), loads of internal storage, and massive high-resolution displays that stretch your pockets to their limits. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there’s a whole other market out there [...]
Siri has some impressive technology behind it, but the voice assistant’s scope is, at launch, relatively limited. Sure, it lets you ask about the weather, set reminders, and message your friends — all in casual language. But many other tasks are off limits. It’s only been a few days since the iPhone 4S jailbreak was [...]
Kim Dotcom, the founder of file-sharing site MegaUpload is currently in a jail cell somewhere in New Zealand after pleading not guilty on charges of piracy. He is most likely sitting there concerned about his future, but he also has another thing to worry about today: his Modern Warfare 3 rank. As well as making [...]
Most people who own an Xbox 360 have connected it to the Internet and loaded up Xbox Live to find some things are bought using Microsoft Points. The next inevitable question is “How much is a point worth?” in your given currency. Do points simplify things or just hide the real-world amount you are spending [...]
With all the majors browsers shifting their HTML rendering and JavaScript processing engines into high gear in recent versions, the battle for supremacy (and mindshare) has moved to security and privacy. Mozilla’s take, the Do Not Track header, has yet to catch on — in part because it relies on folks who build and maintain [...]
Can search be social? That is what Microsoft is trying to look at with its new experiment from in-house FUSE Labs. Dubbed So.cl, the new site tries to combine social mechanics with a Bing Search so people can find and share web pages.
At launch, Google+ had a weird policy of not allowing users sign up who had a very unconventional name or had an alias to protect themselves or because they were simply known by that name publicly. Well, Google is about to change that, announcing a brand new, “more inclusive naming policy” for the social network.
Image: Apple
Last week, Apple pulled the wraps off its latest offerings, iBooks 2 and iBooks author in a publicised event in New York City. Whilst the announcement has proved exciting and potentially world changing, digging a little deeper, there’s probably just as much to be concerned about as there is to be contented about.
The details of Blizzard‘s next MMO, codenamed Titan, won’t be known until Blizzard decides to reveal what it is, such is the nature of how tight control is around everything the developer works on. But it can’t hide everything from view, especially when the company is posting job listings. One of the most recent positions [...]
For those of you who have been trying to justify all those hours gaming, there is a new piece of evidence you can use to make your case. The US military has directed DARPA to put out a call for proposals from contractors to develop a series of games available to the public that would [...]
If there’s one thing the Android ecosystem is used to by now, it’s third party markets. These have existed for a variety of reasons — both good and bad — with the same basic intention: there are users who don’t like how Google does things on the Android Market, so they want do things their [...]
As technology advances, we’re often left with gray areas where the law has yet to figure out what to make of a particular set of circumstances. Do old laws hold true for new technology? Or are new rules and regulations necessary now that times have changed? We can cross one of those cases off of [...]
The next time you go to an upscale restaurant, find the sommelier and see if you can stump them by asking for a bottle of 2010 Meteorito Cabernet Sauvignon. Be sure to include the phrase “I hear it’s out of this world!” The best part is you wouldn’t be lying, since Meteorite’s wine is actually [...]
A couple of weeks ago, who would have dreamed that Megaupload would be headlining newspapers and websites all over the world? Yet that’s just what is happening, as the fall-out from the Feds’ takedown of the file sharing site continues. Today the site’s founder, Kim Dotcom, denied charges that he reproduced or copied copyrighted content. [...]
SOPA and PIPA are temporarily shelved, but internet freedom is far from secure. Though most people prefer to protest draconian legislation by signing petitions, writing congressmen, and voting for SOPA opponents, Anonymous does things a little bit differently. A video claiming to be from the “hacktivists” calls on followers to participate in an attack on [...]
The first metrics for Apple’s new textbook sales initiative are beginning to roll in, and it already looks like Apple has a success on its hands. According to independent third party Global Equities Research (GER), users have downloaded over 350,000 textbooks in just three days, making the launch of iBooks 2 a signal flare to [...]
Digital piracy is coming under increasing pressure from organizations that represent the music and movie industries. Acts like SOPA and PIPA are just the latest in measures to try and curb piracy, as is the takedown of MegaUpload. Just as technology changes over time, there is an evolution of what can be pirated, and it’s [...]
Rare earth minerals/metals are poorly named simply for the fact most of them are not actually rare. They are instead difficult to mine and therefore expensive. It also doesn’t help matters that China currently supplies 95% of the market. However, that should slowly change now that new, large deposits have been found in a tiny [...]
Last year, Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chip was one of the most widely-used in high-end Android smartphones and tablets. This year it looks like the company’s quad-core successor will be the go-to chip. The Tegra 3 has been tipped to be powering another monster Android phone. This time it’s the previously unseen LG X3. LG made [...]
RIM was surely one of the most heavily criticized companies of 2011. If they weren’t being slammed for the underwhelming launch of the BlackBerry PlayBook, they were taking heat for the delay of their next-gen QNX phones, the lack of support for six-month-old phones by BlackBerry OS 7, and a slipping market share in the [...]
Every Kickstarter project needs a good hook to catch potential funders’ attentions. There are, after all, so many to choose from. The MezzoMill is no exception, and its hook will appeal to anyone who owns a NES console or is into retro gaming. The MezzoMill is a milling machine specifically designed for creating circuit boards [...]
Google is unquestionably one of the leading tech companies when it comes to keeping its service online under increasingly heavy traffic. There is no greater example of this than YouTube, which is constantly being used to upload and playback video around the world. The extent to which Google’s content and traffic is growing has reached [...]
Console owners have been paying for downloadable content (DLC) that enhances or extends a game for years, but that’s not the case when it comes to portable gaming. Nintendo is finally embracing paid DLC though, and the first game to get it will be the rhythm-action title Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (TFF) for the 3DS. Late [...]
When the federal authorities took MegaUpload offline, it achieved two things. The first was millions of files and links no longer being accessible online. The second has only just started to rear its head: fear. MegaUpload isn’t the only service offering the ability to upload and share files, there are alternatives. One of the more [...]
A shocking development in Research in Motion as co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have step down. They have been replaced by Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins, and he promises to silence those who predicted the end of RIM.
Quickflix – the Australian equivalent of Netflix – is said to announce a new distribution deal, and plans to increase its own content available for online streaming as it sees this year to be the year where streaming will kick off.
Opposition politicians in New Zealand are calling for an inquiry on how MegaUpload’s founder Kim Dotcom managed to acquire residency status, despite having a fraud conviction for insider trading in Germany.
UPDATED: The MegaUpload extradition trial has begun in New Zealand, with the founder of the file-sharing site Kim Dotcom seeking bail to be with his pregnant wife. However, Dotcom will now wait until Wednesday to hear if his application is approved.
Watch a movie, TV series, or documentary that’s been produced in the last couple of years, and chances are it contains some form of visual effects. The bigger the budget for each production, the more visual effects will be used to make it look better as well as clean up any issues experienced during filming. [...]
Star Wars fans, consider this to be a love letter to you from your peers. Some of the most passionate, creative, and unapologetically goofy Star Wars aficionados have recreated the entirety of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. This is a frame-by-frame, crowd sourced fan tribute of the original. Some of it is animated, [...]
The internet goes through a blackout, MegaVideo’s CEO arrested in New Zealand, and Apple becomes greedy again with your words. Yes, TECHGEEK Weekly is back and in full swing.
This week Terence Huynh, Tom Solari and Chris Southcott talk about the day’s news. And sadly, no Stewart today, meaning that you have the magical free MP3 Skype Recorder.
While Brookstone is a usual stop during a mall run to see what kind of new, unique items it has in stock, the retailer isn’t a place I normally spend money. For many of us it just isn’t a store that contains the must-haves that we spend our hard-earned cash on. However, with the release [...]
MegaUpload’s short-lived takedown has been shortlived with the site reportedly back up online – just not in a typical way. In addition, employees of the company – including the CEO Kim Dotcom – were denied bail by a New Zealand court.
Megaupload is supposedly back, albeit without any functionality. An IP address which is dressed to look like Megaupload is being promoted, but evidence points to this as being 100% bogus. If this is legitimate, then Megaupload is one resilient company. The only problem is that this is almost certainly a phishing scam, which you’ll want [...]
When it comes to earphones (or in-ear headphones, call them whatever you’d like) the single most important factor is fit. No matter how many drivers they have, how much they cost, or what brand name they carry, if they don’t fit well you won’t have a good listening experience. And, as it turns out, fit [...]
The wait is finally over. Three months after the iPhone 4S released, Apple’s A5-powered handset finally has an untethered jailbreak. In this guide we’ll walk through the entire procedure so you can free your iPhone 4S. The tool for this jailbreak is called absinthe (apparently iOS hackers like to party). It’s an untethered jailbreak, meaning [...]
iPad 2 owners have been left out of the jailbreaking party for quite some time now. It only had one jailbreak, which was during a brief window last summer (before Apple patched comex’s jailbreakme) but that didn’t last long. That dry spell, however, is finally over. Owners of the iPad 2 can now get a [...]
Google has already accrued 90 million users on Google+, but it’s about to get a lot more regardless of the desires of new users. That’s because Google has redesigned its Google Account creation page, and made Google+ a default part of the sign-up process. In fact, the change is bigger than that. As well as [...]
Anyone that has used Lego bricks to build anything past the most simple of creations knows that sorting bricks is half the battle. You can’t work from a big bucket of spare parts — you need a system where that 2×2 blue brick will be available at a moment’s notice, without having to hunt all [...]
You probably heard about yesterday’s federal government takedown of popular file sharing site Megaupload. You may have even heard about the luxury items that were impounded by the Feds. What you may not be familiar with, however, is the face of Megupload. 37-year-old Kim Dotcom (formerly Kim Schmitz) is the German founder of Megaupload. Dotcom’s [...]
iPad 2 owners have been left out of all jailbreaking fun for quite some time now. It only had one jailbreak, which was during a brief window last summer (before Apple patched comex’s jailbreakme) but that didn’t last long. That dry spell, however, is finally over. Owners of the iPad 2 can now get a [...]
What do a $150,000 488HP V8 Maserati GranCabrio and a statue of a Predator alien have in common? They were both impounded by police during the raid on Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom’s compound. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Amidst a flurry of earnings reports from tech giants like Google and Microsoft late [...]
Apple’s Education event yesterday set out the company’s plan to really shake up the textbook industry. Not only does iBooks 2 promise cheaper textbooks for everyone, it adds interactivity, search capabilities, and always up-to-date content. Then came news of iBooks Author, which allows anyone to use a well thought out set of tools to create [...]
The wait is finally over. Three months after the iPhone 4S released, Apple’s A5-powered handset finally has an untethered jailbreak. In this guide we’ll walk through the entire procedure so you can free your iPhone 4S. The tool for this jailbreak is called absinthe (apparently iOS hackers like to party). We have the instructions and [...]
If you own one of the growing range of large-screen smartphones, you’ll know that regular visits to a power out for a recharge comes with the territory. While that may be acceptable if you travel between locations that have readily available power points, a feature-rich smartphone isn’t the best solution in an emergency situation or [...]
Yesterday news broke that the Feds had taken down popular file sharing site Megaupload. One of the biggest file sharing sites on the internet getting taken down would have been big news on any day, but that it came hours after an organized internet protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act is curious, to say [...]
The wireless transfer of data is becoming ever more important and widespread, especially in the home. We now all typically connect to the Internet through a router capable of wireless transmission. Our phones use 3G and 4G connections, and our tablets rely on a wireless connection for accessing the Internet. No one is going to [...]
Skyrim has found great success on a variety of platforms. It was a top seller on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC (where it can be purchased in box or downloaded from Steam). The latest installment of the Elder Scrolls franchise isn’t, however, stopping there. The game is now available on a mobile device — [...]
It looks like owning a McDonald’s franchise in Australia is a bit of a dangerous proposition. Reacting to a string of hold-ups at various locations, the fast-food corporation has contracted with security agency SelectaDNA to install anti-theft systems that use a DNA spray to mark criminals as they leave a store. Both invisible and odorless, [...]
Nike has announced the Nike+ FuelBand, a smart wristband that counts your physical activity in a proprietary form of points called Nike Fuel. The band, similar to a previous generation sold as the Nike+ SportBand, is a device that measures activity in steps or calories. The updated device adds the Fuel counter as well as [...]
The notorious hacking group going by the moniker Anonymous has fired back at the US Department of Justice as well as Universal Records for the indictment and subsequent takedown of MegaUpload.com and its founder Kim Dotcom. Anonymous took down both entities websites as a direct retaliation for the events that took place earlier today. Barret [...]
Legendary Sony product designer Tokashi Sogabe admits that comfortable gameplay won out over a beautiful design in placing the dual analog sticks on the PlayStation Vita handheld. Sogabe, whose credits include the original Walkman, some Vaio laptops, the PS3 Slim, spoke of an eternal debate between designers and engineers in creating a product. Sogabe’s original [...]
Will.I.Am in a recent MegaUpload YouTube video.
If you’ve been trying to get onto MegaUpload or any of their subsidiaries, you might want to look elsewhere. Kim Dotcom (yes, that’s his real name) has been arrested in Auckland, New Zealand after the United States Justice Department filed charges against the company, calling it an “international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy.” Along with Dotcom, three other MegaUpload executives have been arrested at the request of the US Government. DOJ also described the other three executives as “at large.”
Popular file sharing site MegaUpload has been shut down by federal authorities today who executed an indictment against the company and its founder. The indictment claims that the site was responsible for $500 million in losses to copyright holders due to music and movie piracy. Kim Dotcom, founder of MegaUpload maintains that his company has [...]
Based on hardware alone, the Kindle Fire isn’t particularly profitable. Amazon may not sell it at a loss, but it’s estimated that it only brings in a few dollars for each unit sold. When marketing is taken into account, you could say that the company (roughly) breaks even on hardware. However, it doesn’t take a [...]
Image: Skye Suicide/Flickr (Creative Commons)
While the Stop Online Piracy Act is in the backburner (for now), its Senate cousin – the PROTECT IP Act – is still going ahead despite growing opposition. The vote is still going ahead on January 24 (or January 25 our time), all thanks to Harry Reid (D-NV).
When Kid Icarus: Uprising launches in March it will already have a freebie included with the game, but we’re a bit worried as to why Nintendo feels it necessary to ship a 3DS stand with it. Apparently the stand makes the game easier to play due to the control mapping, but surely fixing the mapping [...]
For all that it has changed over the years, overclocking still has its risks. You are, by definition, pushing processors past their intended operating point and while that generally won’t do any harm there is always the chance something could go wrong. Some individual chips can go further than other ones that are the same [...]
Chances are, if you play games on PC then you have Half-Life in your collection. And if you love it as much as I do you’ve played it through multiple times enjoying it just as much each time. What would be great is if Valve decided to return to the game and give us some [...]
Breaking: Popular file sharing site MegaUpload has been shut down by federal authorities in Virginia today that executed an indictment against the company and its founder. Said indictment claims that the site was responsible for $500 million in losses to copyright holders due to music and movie piracy. Kim Dotcom, founder of MegaUpload maintains that [...]
Android is free. Apple and RIM don’t allow their mobile OSes on anyone’s devices but their own — at least for now, but that may soon change depending on how RIM makes out with Goldman Sachs. That pretty much leaves Microsoft on its own in the pay-to-play mobile OS game, and now we’ve been given [...]
When the original iPhone 4 was unveiled, one of its must-have new features was the video calling service FaceTime. It was a feature used heavily in advertising the phone, and has gone down well with iPhone owners. The one drawback of FaceTime is the fact you can only use it over Wi-Fi. While that may [...]
Apple’s Education event is kicking off in a few minutes and Geek.com will be tracking it minute-by-minute. We’ve heard that Apple plans to majorly disrupt the textbook market, though various leaks and commentary over the past few days have questioned just how major of an announcement this will be. Even so, Apple rarely does things [...]
In its initial beta state, Siri has limited functionality. Sure, it’s nice to ask it if you need an umbrella, get a list of driving directions, or to send a text message with your voice. But, five years from now, the voice assistant’s abilities will make its current feature set look primitive. One of the [...]
2012 is an important year for Microsoft. Some would even call it a do-or-die year. Though the company is in no danger of turning into RIM anytime soon, it hasn’t been dominating like it did for the two previous decades. It fell way behind Apple and Google in the mobile operating system space. Though Windows [...]
In the past couple of decades Microsoft has had a very strong hold over the computer market. The Windows operating system was, and still is installed on the majority of PCs. That also means the majority of us have paid for and activated copies of Windows both at home and at work. However, one developer [...]
It’s been almost two years since Google acquired Global IP Solutions, a company that developed audio and video software with a focus on VoIP. The acquisition gave Google access to some top talent in the VoIP business that they could use to improve existing products — like Google Voice and Google Talk — and also [...]
AT&T has decided to respond to the fact subscribers are using more data every month on contract, and have increased their data allowances accordingly along with the cost of a data subscription. Until now you had the following three options for data on AT&T: 200MB for $15 per month 2GB for $25 per month 4GB [...]
EA announced in a press release yesterday that the demo for Bioware’s Mass Effect 3 will drop on February 14. That’s right, you can either spend Valentine’s Day with a loved one, or you can get back into virtual alien husbandry. The demo packs two modes, single- and multi-player. The single-player demo previews the beginning [...]
Google’s project to install a fiber network capable of delivering 1Gbps data rates to homes and business in Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) has been stalled due to bureaucratic red-tape issues that should have been discussed up front. Unlike the neighboring Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO), KCK at first opened the door wide to Mountain View, saying [...]
Ever since Apple announced that Siri would be exclusive to the iPhone 4S, hackers have been chomping at the bit to port the AI voice assistant to older devices. The jailbreak community has released several hacks, including one, Spire, that is the product of some of the most notable developers on the scene. If a [...]
Red 5, the PC game developer behind the upcoming free-to-play shooter/MMO mashup FireFall, has dropped out of E3 2012 in protest of SOPA. CEO Mark Kern, also a Boston University Law School graduate, is redirecting the company’s E3 funds to launch The League For Gamers, an advocacy group representing end users, gamers and First Amendment [...]
