Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve talked over the past couple months about the impending anti-piracy system that was slated to go into effect across the US. The system is implemented by major Internet service providers, each of which will warn subscribers who engage in copyright infringing activities, ultimately punishing those who continue to do so after being warned. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy and some other unspecified factors, however, the Center for Copyright Information has been forced to extend the launch date to early 2013.

The Center for Copyright Information is a collective of five major Internet service providers, including Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast. Alongside the MPAA and RIAA, the service providers formed an agreement wherein copyright-infringing subscribers will receive some sort of alert, depending on which provider they use. Upon receiving a certain number of alerts, the subscriber will then receive a punishment, which also varies based on which provider the individual uses.

Each service provider has its own system. We first got a peek into what Internet users have in store thanks to a leaked AT&T memo, which detailed a large portion of the anti-piracy system the company will use, which includes several warnings when infringement is detected, followed by an “online education tutorial on copyright.” Verizon users will be given two warnings before being forced to sign an acknowledgement of infringement, followed by severely throttled Internet speeds for a couple of days. Time Warner subscribers will be directed to a landing page rather than having their speeds reduced.

The system was slated for launch today, November 28. However, the Center for Copyright Information has announced that the launch date has been bumped due to Hurricane Sandy, and won’t be implemented until early next year. “Due to unexpected factors largely stemming from Hurricane Sandy which have seriously affected our final testing schedules, CCI anticipates that the participating ISPs will begin sending alerts under the Copyright Alert System in the early part of 2013, rather than by the end of the year.”

[via CCI]

Anti-piracy system launch date bumped to early 2013 is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google’s unleashed new versions of Chrome for iOS and Android (both x86 and ARM-specific flavors) that each pack miscellaneous stability updates, but the iDevice-bound release has been graced with a few new features. With the newly-minted build, users will be able to save boarding passes and tickets with Passbook, open PDFs in other apps and have the option to automatically detect text encoding. To get your mitts on the fresh downloads, hit the neighboring source links.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Google

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Via: Google Chrome Releases (1), (2)

Source: iTunes, Google Play

Google Drive is a pretty convenient service for those who like to keep their documents online and easily accessible amongst multiple devices. It does have some limitations, however, that reduce its usefulness for some users, one of which was the limited ability to edit spreadsheets via a mobile device. That has changed, however with the folks at Google announcing full spreadsheet editing for Google Drive on mobile devices.

Whether you have an iPhone, iPad, Android tablet, or other similar mobile device, with the Google Drive app, you can perform a variety of spreadsheet activities that desktop users have enjoyed for quite a while. Mobile users can create and edit spreadsheets, which includes resizing layouts, changing fonts and colors, and utilizing data filters. This is performed in the new native editor.

In addition, edits and changes can be viewed live as they’re implemented, something highly useful for collaboration purposes. Pasting into Google Docs retains the original formatting, and entering “edit mode” in the Docs editor is as simple as a single tap. For those who use the service regularly, shortcuts to Google Drive folders and individual files can be added to your device’s homescreen if you’re running Android.

In addition to the new spreadsheets functionality, the Google Drive app includes a few other improvements, as well. Users will find text formatting to be improved when copying and pasting into a Google document. Those running Android can also now edit the text within a table in a document. You can pick up the app over at the Google Play Store.

[via Android Community]

Google Drive spreadsheet editing arrives for mobile users is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s no secret that Windows Phone sales have been in the doldrums for much of the platform’s existence. If we believe Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer’s talk at the annual company shareholder meeting, however, the mobile OS has turned a corner. He tells investors that Windows Phone sales are about four times what they were at the same point last year, and that demand has been strong enough for initial sellouts in “many countries;” that may be an allusion to reported Lumia 920 shortages in Germany and Nokia’s native Finland, among other regions. Ballmer is quick to point to more competitive hardware as triggering the sales spike. The news is certainly positive on the whole, although we’d warn that Microsoft is pulling an Amazon — that is, declining to offer the shipment numbers that would give its grandiose claims some context. It’s easy to tout record growth when you’re starting from a small point, so we’ll refrain from calling Windows Phone the Comeback Kid until market share estimates show otherwise.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft, Nokia

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Source: Bloomberg

A new Full HD monitor ‘H236HLbmid’ from Acer has just entered the market. Adopting an IPS panel, this new 23-inch LED-backlight monitor provides 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 250 cd/m2 brightness, 5ms response time and 178/178 degree viewing angles. Not only that, it also comes with two built-in 1.5W stereo speakers and has 1x DVI-D, 1x mini D-Sub and 1x HDMI connectors. The H236HLbmid retails for 19,000 Yen (about $232). [Acer]