Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s latest foray against Google’s search engine harnesses the power of trust and a little bit of love. Microsoft reportedly conducted a survey with Impulse and found out that 1 of out 10 couples ended their relationship on February 14th, all because of the lack of trust. The survey adds that 85 percent of people report that trustworthiness is the most important trait in a mate, beating out “good in bed,” sense of humor, and wealth. Microsoft pushes it even further by saying: “You wouldn’t keep dating someone who isn’t trustworthy, so why use a search engine known for serving their interests over your own?” (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Twitter Hacked! 250,000 Accounts At Risk, Facebook Re-Enables Photo Tag Suggestions Feature In U.S.,

While some may argue that internet access shouldn’t be a basic human right, a majority of people agree that internet access should be easily accessible by anyone for free, or at least at low costs. It looks like the FCC is finally recognizing that and is calling for nationwide WiFi to the public for free, and it seems they’re going to do it without the help of ISPs

According to the Washington Post, the FCC is thinking about buying back spectrum from TV stations that would allow for “super WiFi,” that would blanket the country with wide-ranging, highly-penetrative networks. While ISPs are furious about the proposition, the large tech companies like Google and Microsoft are all for the idea.

This free WiFi network would work similarly to how cellular networks work now. You would have constant connection to the internet no matter where you were, and while you can easily achieve this through LTE, that obviously costs quite a bit per month, while this new WiFi network would be absolutely free, and potentially faster than LTE.

Pretty much all wireless providers, including handset manufacturers, and those invested in the mobile phone industry are not liking the idea one bit, and they don’t want their lucrative business interrupted. However, Google and Microsoft both said that increased internet access means more potential users, and it would open up to a massive boom in innovation if more people could access the internet anywhere.

It’s not said exactly when the free nationwide WiFi could be set up. It would have to get approval first, and even after that’s done, it would take several years for the network to be completely built. So, while it may come in the future, don’t expect it anytime soon.

[via The Washington Post]

FCC calling for free nationwide WiFi for the public is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Twitter has confirmed that approximately 250,000 users are affected in the recent hack but denied that the hack is related to the outage yesterday. As security measure, Twitter did reset all affected passwords and revoked all session tokens from affected accounts. The affected users will receive email from Twitter to notify them to create new passwords, so check your email.

According to the official statement, Twitter observed “unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data”. Based on user reports, this recent hack seems to affect mainly users who signed up in 2007. Twitter also described the attack as being “sophisticated”. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook Re-Enables Photo Tag Suggestions Feature In U.S., Google Possibly Adding Notification Center, Google Now To Chrome,

A new version of Chromium for Windows was released recently, and which already should be cause for celebration, but it seems an eagle-eyed developer has spotted some code within the latest build in order to allow for a notification center to be enabled.

In order to see the notification center for yourself, you’ll need to toggle the “Enable Rich Notifications” flag in chrome://flags once you download the latest build of Chromium for Windows. The notification center pops up like you would expect towards the bottom right of the Chromium browser and can be dismissed by clicked on the cross in the upper-right corner of the notification. A “Clear All” function is also available, which could hint at the possibility of multiple notifications alerting the user.

The addition of a notification center to Chromium may hint at a future release to Google’s Chrome browser. Not only that, but the code may also hint at support for Google Now in Chrome somewhere down the line.

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Google has just mapped the spectacular Grand Canyon, the steep-sided canyon carved by the great Colorado River. Today, Google is releasing panoramic imagery of the national monument. Beautiful and interactive images, covering more than 75 miles of trails and surrounding roads, were captured by Google’s very own Trekker. Google’s mapping team strapped on the Android-operated 40-pound backpack carrying the 15-lens camera system. They walked the rocky terrain on foot, endured the temperature swings, and suffered a few muscle cramps, just to capture more than 9,500 panoramas of this masterpiece of nature. (more…)

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