Hasta La Gadget!

Telefonica Digital has unveiled a new plastic brick device designed to connect just about anything you can think of to the Internet. These plastic bricks are called Thinking Things and are described as a simple solution for connecting almost anything wirelessly to the Internet. Thinking Things is under development right now.

Telefonica I+D invented the Thinking Things concept and believes that the product will significantly boost the development of M2M communications and help to establish an Internet of physical things. Thinking Things can connect all sorts of inanimate objects to the Internet, including thermostats and allows users to monitor various assets or tracking loads.

Thinking Things are comprised of three different elements. The first is a physical module that contains the core communications and logic hardware. The second element is energy to make electronics work via a battery or AC power. The third element is a variety of sensors and actuators to perform the tasks users want.

The Thinking Things device is modular, and the user can connect together multiple bricks to perform the task they need. This is an interesting project that can be used for anything from home automation offering simple control over a lamp to just about anything else you can think of. The item connected to the web using Thinking Things automatically gets its own webpage. That webpage provides online access allowing the user to control the function of the modules and devices attached to the modules. An API allows developers to access all functionality of the Thinking Things from within their software.

Telefonica Digital shows off Thinking Things for connecting stuff to the web is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You might remember Google’s unveiling this spring of the Street View Trekker, a seeming cross between a backpack and Van de Graaff generator that lets the mapping team produce 360-degree imagery where even trikes dare not tread. The portable camera ball is just going on its first trip, and Google has chosen the most natural destination for a novice tourist — the Grand Canyon, of course. Staffers with Trekkers are currently walking trails along the South Rim of the canyon to provide both eye-level points of reference for wayward hikers as well as some breathtaking, controllable panoramas for those who can’t (or won’t) make it to Arizona. Once the photos make it to Street View sometime in the undefined near future, it’ll be that much easier to turn down Aunt Matilda’s 3-hour vacation slideshow.

Filed under: GPS, Internet, Google

Google Trekker goes to the Grand Canyon, takes Street View souvenirs back home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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He may be considered a savior by many people around the world, but today SplashData is showing us that Jesus won’t do much when it comes to protecting you from having your online identities hijacked. The company has released its list of the 25 worst passwords for 2012, and aside from an appearance by one of the most important figures in the Christian religion, there are few new entries on the annual list. Of course, things like “password” and “123456″ rank at the top yet again, so if you’re still using those passwords to secure your online accounts, stop it already.

Every year, SplashData complies a ton of information on the most common passwords by picking through the millions of passwords hackers post to the Internet. In every list, we see the same culprits rank at the top, though 2012′s list has a number of newcomers. As we mentioned earlier, “jesus” is one of these new passwords on the list, as are “ninja,” “mustang,” and “welcome.”

Have a look at the full list of worst passwords below, including their rank for 2012 and any change from last year’s list. It kind of goes without saying, but if you use any of the passwords listed, it’s definitely a good idea to change them as soon as humanly possible.

1. password (Unchanged)
2. 123456 (Unchanged)
3. 12345678 (Unchanged)
4. abc123 (Up 1)
5. qwerty (Down 1)
6. monkey (Unchanged)
7. letmein (Up 1)
8. dragon (Up 2)
9. 111111 (Up 3)
10. baseball (Up 1)
11. iloveyou (Up 2)
12. trustno1 (Down 3)
13. 1234567 (Down 6)
14. sunshine (Up 1)
15. master (Down 1)
16. 123123 (Up 4)
17. welcome (New)
18. shadow (Up 1)
19. ashley (Down 3)
20. football (Up 5)
21. jesus (New)
22. michael (Up 2)
23. ninja (New)
24. mustang (New)
25. password1 (New)

The temptation to go with an easy-to-remember password is there for all of us, but unfortunately that leads to an increased risk of having your online accounts breached – not a good thing if you have a lot of important data (like banking information) you need to keep safe behind these passwords. Also, it’s never a good idea to use the same password across multiple accounts, so start thinking of unique passwords for all of your online identities if you haven’t already. Are you surprised by any of the changes or new additions to this list?

Jesus makes an appearance in SplashData’s 25 worst passwords list is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

European regulators have charged Microsoft for not giving Windows 7 users a choice of internet browsers when they install the OS. Although this is only an initial step towards a fine for the software maker, Microsoft agreed with the European Commission to offer browser choices to its Windows users over three years ago, avoiding a heavy antitrust penalty. Unfortunately, while Microsoft acknowledged the “technical error”, this wasn’t before the European Commission picked up the issue — the EU’s antitrust watchdog said in July that Microsoft had not complied with the order from February 2011. According to a Reuters report earlier this year, and echoed in the EU’s statement below, the fine could amount to as much as 10 percent of the Redmond company’s global turnover.

Update: Microsoft has issued a statement on the EU charge, received by The Verge.

“We take this matter very seriously and moved quickly to address this problem as soon as we became aware of it. Although this was the result of a technical error, we take responsibility for what happened, and we are strengthening our internal procedures to help ensure something like this cannot happen again. We sincerely apologize for this mistake and will continue to cooperate fully with the Commission.”

Continue reading EU antitrust commission charges Microsoft over browser selection ‘breach’

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Internet, Software, Microsoft

EU antitrust commission charges Microsoft over browser selection ‘breach’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After a debut this summer, YouTube’s visual refresh hasn’t rolled out to all of its users, but the folks at OMG! Chrome! have stumbled upon a way for you to get in on the action a little early. Simply point Chrome or Firefox to YouTube, open up the browser’s console, enter a line that’ll fiddle with a cookie and you’ll be able to cruise Google’s video service with its fresh coat of paint. To open up your console in Firefox, just punch Control+Shift+K on Windows or Command+Alt+K on a Mac. For Chrome, hit Control+Shift+J on a PC or Alt+Command+J on machines running OS X. Can’t wait to take the new look, which gives Google+ a nod, for a spin? Hit the source link below for the code snippet to get started.

Filed under: Internet, Google

Snag YouTube’s redesign early with a quick browser cookie change originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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