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Samsung buys mSpot

Posted by admin on May 11th, 2012

Launched back in 2005, mSpot was an early player in the cloud media game. mSpot music works just like Google Music and the Amazon Cloud Drive by allowing you to upload your collection to the cloud and stream it wherever you go. The company offers 5GB of storage to all users.

In addition to mSpot’s music service, the company also has mSpot Movies, a service for viewing movie trailers, renting films and even buying them.

The app is already available for iPhone, Android and Google TV alongside all of the most popular web browsers, and it will now be installed on all future Samsung Mobile and Smart TV products.

Today the electronics giant Samsung and the streaming media startup announced it had been purchased. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal is rumored to be worth an estimated $8.8 million.

Google+ iOS app

Posted by admin on May 10th, 2012

The latest update to the previously buggy app from Google is more than a simple update. Everything has been overhauled including fonts, photos, the homescreen and visual elements.

Vic Gundotra made the announcement via the Google Blog and the Android update is expected to be coming in a few weeks.

Google+: a mobile app with sense and soul

Today’s new iPhone app is an important step in this direction—toward a simpler, more beautiful Google.

Google Play

Posted by admin on April 27th, 2012

Today Google has launched its movie-rental service in Australia giving users access to thousands of films through Google Play and Y outube.

The service is already active in a number of markets worldwide. Movies are available at competitive pricing, with new releases available at $5.99 for standard definition and $6.99 for high definition and library titles at $3.99 for standard definition and $4.99 for high definition. For most movies, viewers will have 30 days to begin watching their rental, and, once started, 48 hours to finish.

The official Google blog says:

We will be adding many more recent and classic films over the course of the year so keep checking back to Google Play and YouTube to see what’s new.

Google Drive

Posted by admin on April 26th, 2012

Rumors about Google Drive have been around for awhile now and it turns out it does exist.

Google said on its official blog:

Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond.

To start with you’re given 5GB of space to play with for free, with options to pay $2.49 / month for 25GB, $5 / month for 100GB and $50 / month for a full terabyte. Upgraded accounts will have 25GB of Gmail storage and offer DropBox-style features that replace Google Documents. Storage is still cheaper than rival syncing services offered by DropBox and SugarSync.

To get started you install software on a device running Windows, Mac OS X, Android, and “in coming weeks,” iOS. That device gets a special Google Drive folder that synchronizes its files with a mirror stored online. If you copy or save a new file to the folder, or if you upload one to the Google Drive site online, the technology automatically replicates it at all other Google Drive locations.

Google will email you when your Google drive is ready and users can check the status of their transfer to the new Drive system at drive.google.com

Facebook buys Instagram

Posted by admin on April 10th, 2012

Facebook is spending $US1 billion to buy the photo sharing company Instagram in the social network’s largest acquisition ever.
It plans to keep Instagram running independently.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users,”

“We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.”

Instagrams CEO wrote this Blog post

When Mike and I started Instagram nearly two years ago, we set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares. We’ve had an amazing time watching Instagram grow into a vibrant community of people from all around the globe. Today, we couldn’t be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.

Every day that passes, we see more experiences being shared through Instagram in ways that we never thought possible. It’s because of our dedicated and talented team that we’ve gotten this far, and with the support and cross-pollination of ideas and talent at a place like Facebook, we hope to create an even more exciting future for Instagram and Facebook alike.

It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.

The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You’ll still be able to share to other social networks. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.

We’re psyched to be joining Facebook and are excited to build a better Instagram for everyone.

Best,

Kevin

Instagram was only available on Apple devices until recently. An app for Android devices was released last week.

Mac Flashback malware

Posted by admin on April 6th, 2012

On April 4th drweb.com exposed a 550 000 strong Mac botnet later upgrading the figure to 600,000 Mac computers that have actually been infected and about 274 are actually based in the same city as Apple’s headquarters.

Flashback was originally discovered in September 2011 and was designed to disguise itself as an Adobe Flash Player installer, using Flash player logos. After installing Flashback, the malware seeks out user names and passwords that are stored on your Mac.

Flashback is a form of malware designed to grab passwords and other information from users through their Web browser and other applications such as Skype. A user typically mistakes it for a legitimate browser plug-in while visiting a malicious Web site. At that point, the software installs code designed to gather personal information and send it back to remote servers. In its most recent incarnations, the software can install itself without user interaction.

If you think one of your machines may be infected, F-Secure has instructions on how to use the Terminal to find out. If your not familiar with Terminal there is a Fast and Easy Way to Find Out if Your Mac Has the Flashback Trojan at Mashable.

In response to the problem, Apple released an update on April 3 to patch up the security holes that exist in Java.

ACCC taking Apple to court over misleading ’4G’ iPad claims

Posted by admin on March 28th, 2012

The Apple iPad’s third version went on sale earlier this month, with Australia the first country where it was available and now Apple has offered to refund Australian customers who felt misled about the 4G capabilities of the new iPad.

Although Apple does not accept that it misled customers. On its website, Apple does state that 4G LTE is only supported on selected networks in the US and Canada.

Today the Australian consumer watchdog has taken Apple to court for false advertising because the tablet computer does not work on Australia’s 4G network.

The ACCC made the application to the Federal Court in Melbourne on the 28 March for orders against Apple Pty Limited and Apple Inc for alleged contraventions of the Australian Consumer Law. The ACCC alleged that Apple’s recent promotion of the new “iPad with WiFi + 4G” was misleading “because it represents to Australian consumers that the product ‘iPad with WiFi + 4G’ can, with a SIM card, connect to a 4G mobile data network in Australia, when this is not the case.”

The only Australian telco running a limited 4G LTE network is Telstra, although this operates on the 1800MHz band and the new Ipad for AT&T’s 4G LTE network uses the 700MHz and 2100MHz frequencies

The matter will go to a full trial on 2 May.

Apple Motion

Posted by admin on March 13th, 2012

A Stop Motion Animation about Apple that has been made by a fan.

iPad, TV and iOS 5.1

Posted by admin on March 8th, 2012

Apple has just announced the “new iPad”
A Retina Display, LTE, and a A5X processor with quad-core graphics are the main features.
The device maintains the current 10 hour battery life with 9 hours on 4G. It’s 9.4mm thick and weighs 652 grams.

Also announced today was the new apple TV with a revamped user interface and 1080p output.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also said at today’s event that iOS 5.1 would be available to download from today.

Some figures were the first announcements along with new iOS features, apps and plenty more.

Last year Apple sold 172 million “post-PC devices,” which make up 76% of revenues.
There have been 25 billion downloads from Apple’s App Store.
There are now 100 million customers on iCloud.
The App Store has 585,000 apps.
There are 200,000-plus iPad apps.
15.4 million iPads were sold in Q4 2011.

Google Maps usage limits

Posted by admin on March 4th, 2012

One of the most recent companies to move from Google Maps is Foursquare.

As announced in the blog post on the 29th of Feb.

Starting today, we’re embracing the OpenStreetMap movement, so all the maps you see when you go to foursquare.com will look a tiny bit different (we think the new ones are really pretty). Other than slightly different colors and buttons, though, foursquare is still the same site you know and love.

Limits that were announced in Google’s developer Blog and took effect on October 1st 2011 are now forcing a few companies that have been using the Google Maps API since the beginning to look for alternatives.

This isn’t the first platform to leave Google Maps, and it won’t be the last. Luckily there are some very good alternatives out there. With data from OpenStreetMap in some places being updated more frequently than Google Maps due to the open community, they may also be better alternatives.

The downside is as users, Google Maps has become comfortingly familiar as it was the widely used standard for some time.

Google+ iOS app

Google Play

Facebook buys Instagram

Mac Flashback malware

ACCC taking Apple to court over misleading ’4G’ iPad claims

Apple Motion

iPad, TV and iOS 5.1

Google Maps usage limits

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