Category Archives: Tech

New Cybersecurity Bill Could Infringe on Your Privacy and Destroy Net Neutrality

cybersecurity-bannerAmerican citizens are not only having to fight a battle for the future of the internet with the commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission but they will also have to do battle with their elected officials.

A new bill that’s going through the Senate threatens to almost eliminate your data privacy and kill net neutrality at the same time.

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YouTube Adding Support for 48 and 60 FPS

youtube-bannerEven if it didn’t seem like a slow end of the news week, this would be a big headline. At VidCon last night, YouTube announced that the internet’s biggest video site will soon be adding support for videos that will play back at 48 and 60 frames per second.

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Amazon Goes Full Mobile with the Fire Phone

amazon-fire-phone-headerIt’s been rumoured to be coming for years but we’ve never actually seen the long discussed Facebook phone. However, the far less hyped Amazon phone is actually a reality. On Wednesday, Amazon through their hat into the increasingly crowded smartphone ring with the new Amazon Fire Phone.

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Democrats Working on Bill to Ban Internet Fast Lanes

net-neutrality-bannerIf the FCC won’t do anything to save Net Neutrality from the corporations, some lawmakers will. Democratic congressmen from both the House and Senate have unveiled a new piece of legislation that will ban the creation of the so-called internet fast lanes by prohibiting the prioritization and speed of certain content over others.

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New Facebook App Feature Activates Your Phone’s Mic When You Post

facebook-mobileJust when you thought that Facebook had reached the height of privacy invading evil, they find a new trick to make you think that they may be worse than the NSA. A recent Facebook mobile app update includes a hidden little feature that activates your phones microphone when you’re writing a post, listens to what’s going on the room and includes what you’re up to in your post.

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Apple Unveils iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite

ios-8-headerThere are some things that happen so regularly that it almost doesn’t deserve to be considered news. The sun rose this morning. Apple showed off a new iteration of both iOS and OS X at their Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Apple fans hailed it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Something expected to be great was compared to sliced bread. You know, the usual stuff that is somehow still news.

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John Oliver Calls Trolls to Arms to Save Net Neutrality

One of the important parts of my post Game of Thrones ritual is staying up to watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. (I don’t stick around between 10:00 PM and 11:00 PM because that’s when I watch Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network.)

This week, John covered the death of Net Neutrality at the hands of money-grubbing corporations. He also touched on the fallacy of competition in the regional monopoly system but that’s a different matter. In his look at cable and internet providers and what they’re doing to kill the internet, he had an epic call to arms for the denizens of the internet to save net neutrality from the abyss made dark by corporate interests.

iRacing Teaming with Users to Sponsor Josh Wise

dogecoin-nascar-headerIt looks like the good people of the Dogecoin community have started a trend and it looks like Phil Parsons Racing and the Doge Driver himself, Josh Wise, will be the beneficiaries. After /r/Dogecoin raised $60,000 to sponsor Wise’s car at Talladega and voted him into the NASCAR All-Star Race, now online racing sim iRacing is getting fans to help out Wise and Phil Parsons Racing.

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Amazon Patents “Photos Against a White Background”

amazon-dot-com-headerYou knew that the US copyright system was broke. You knew that the US trademark system was broken. Today, here’s proof that the US patent system is also broken.

Online retailer Amazon has been granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office for the company’s signature photos of products against a white background. Yes, you can patent that.

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Lawsuit Claims iPhones Don’t Deliver Texts to Android Phones

apple-iphone-5-headerHave you ever wondered why your friends with iPhones never seem to text back or take their sweet time answering? They aren’t ignoring you. Well, not all of the time, anyways. A new lawsuit alleges that iPhones don’t deliver text messages to users on Android and other mobile phones with the problems worst for users who switched from iPhones to other devices.

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