Sony revealed the Playstation 4 at their event last week with cell phones and games as the centerpiece. Microsoft and Nintendo have been pushing the mobile aspect of gaming lately, Microsoft more than Nintendo. With Nintendo’s WiiU using their tablet controller to play your full games anywhere in the house, and the Xbox’s Microsoft Smartglass enabling you to control the system on your cell phone, the key word here is integration. Sony, of course, didn’t ignore this ongoing trend and are pushing their own version of integration, but does it go far enough and what does it really mean for a consumer?
Feb 18
Did you ever sit in a traffic jam and think “I bet just one idiot on his cell phone up ahead caused this… jerk…”. We all know it’s probably unrealistic, but it’s much easier to blame one person than it is to blame the whole crowd around you. Well… Your inner thoughts may actually be correct. Using cell phone tracking data, thanks to a traffic study by MIT, we have learned a few things about when, why and where traffic jams start, and how they spread out from other areas. It’s not just one singular person, but the data does show that it only takes a select few to send those paved roads into utter chaos.
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Feb 13
We’ve seen this all before, a new fad (if it is just a fad) comes along and gets super popular. Suddenly dozens of companies come out with their own version of that new exciting thing and sometimes it leads to a few very good devices changing the way we live… Or it over saturates the market and kills it, I’m looking at you Guitar Hero. It seems health is on everyone’s mind the past few years. With Wii Fit bringing a virtual trainer into your room, we have seen an explosion of new and innovative athletic devices geared toward helping you live better and healthier. From Kinect, to wrist bands to chest straps, lets go over what was, is, and will be around soon!
Feb 05
One of the best Android phones out there, Samsung Galaxy S III and Blackberry’s new Z10 square off this Superbowl I’m not a big football fan, I find it fun to watch, but I don’t go out of my way to watch it until the Superbowl. Why? With the added excitement of the game I have the added excitement of commercials pushing the envelope. I still have fond memories of the Budweiser frogs! Anyway, this years lineup of commercials was… sad. Nothing really stood out or made me laugh out loud. Two commercials in particular were ones I was looking forward to seeing. Blackberry and Samsung’s spots. How did they play out and did they do the job of grasping their audience.
Jan 30
After the dust has settled from the new development involved with a decade old DMCA law, we can take a closer look at what the ending of the unlock exemption means for everyone with a new or used cell phone. Upon it’s announcement people cried foul of the DMCA’s over broad definition of what is protected under copyright law. That any circumventing of factory installed software to get media is considered a breach of copyright. This is overly broad because you may just jailbreak a device to test your own programs, or unlock because you travel abroad often. But because you COULD use these processes to get to media that you typically wouldn’t, it is illegal under the DMCA. So why did this happen and how?
Jan 28
Unlocking your used cell phone may be illegal thanks to a strict anti-hacking law called DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) passed last year, with folks online pretty upset with it’s broad stroke of power. This didn’t really hit the public’s eye until recently though, with the closing of a short window of legality allowed by the librarian of Congress. Back in October it was decided that, under the DMCA, unlocking your phone was illegal. The Librarian of Congress allowed a three month window for people to unlock as many phones as they wanted… that window closed this past Saturday.
