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Archive for July, 2011

My Initial Review of Lion

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 11:36 AM on July 20, 2011

LionThis is not full review of Lion, but just my initial look. I downloaded Lion as soon as it became available in the Mac App Store. I know that some of you are saying you should have waited, but when it comes to OS I like to live dangerously and try the newest thing when it becomes available. It took about 55 minutes to download, there was one glitch when it stopped downloading and said please try again, I hit resume and both the download and my heart restarted. Once it finishes downloading it then starts the install process. At this point you have to agree to the EULA and fill in your user id and password. The installation itself takes about 35 minutes, once it is done the computer restarts. Clearly this not something you want to do if you are in a hurry.

At this point click on the Assistant Icon in the Dock, you can read about gestures, at the bottom of the text it will say continue to Lion, click on that. At that point the OS will tell you if you have any applications that are not Lion compatible and move them to a special folder. I had one, TotalFinder which fortunately I don’t use. At this point Lion starts up. The first thing I did was go into Magic Trackpad in System Preferences and check what gestures were available, you can uncheck the ones you don’t want. If you use a mouse, then go to the mouse icon under system preferences. While doing this I determined that Lion makes the MagicPref app I had installed to use with [Snow Leopard](http://www.apple.com/macosx/snow leopard) unnecessary. Opening up. Apple Mail also lead to another discovery, many third-party add ons may not be ready for Lion. I have both Mailtags and Mail Act-On installed, neither of them show up in Apple Mail under Lion. Mail Act-on does have a prerelease version you can download. If you have a favorite add-on you may want to check to see if it is ready for Lion, before installing Lion. Another thing I noticed right away was in the upper right hand corner in the menu, was my user name. Now you can easily switch users, this is great if you have multiple users using the same computer. The finder window also allows you to view your files, folder and application how you want including by category. This can be quite helpful if you have a lot of applications or files and folders.

Do you need to download Lion right away, no there is no reason to be in a hurry. Is there any major reason to wait (other than application and add-on incompatibility) I say no. The final decision is up to you, do the research and make the best decision based on your circumstances. As for me I am happy I installed Lion. How about you have you installed it, what do you think. If you haven’t installed it and you are on a Mac why not?

GNC #688 Borders Dead Pool

Posted by geeknews at 1:12 AM on July 19, 2011

You win some you loose some. But I will be honest an extra set of hands would be great. First five minutes of the show are comical as you will see. An absolute metric ton of tech tonight. Be advised the primary Video feed is going HD and the Mobile Video feed will much more manageable.

Note to Subscribers: Rough show tonight dealing with family issues in Japan that are not good, Shoko is fine but they are having a rough go of it! Thanks for being part of the family. My head was not a 100% engaged tonight as will be evident.

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Show Links:
Visualize the Debt.
Tools to Survive Financial Meltdown ;)
John Glenn at 90.
Last Group Picture at ISS.
Tips on Int Mobile Bill.
Borders Deadpool.
Newspapers want Cake to.
G.Co
My Data Usage Pro.
Paint your roof White?
Verizon LTE Roll-Out Thursday.
Twitter Boring!
P2P Censor.
ISP Refuse Blocking of PB.
Judge Threatened.
ZIP/RAR Support in Google Docs.
Are you a Thief.
Google+ Malware.
Slack versus Spot.
Feds take your Drivers License.
Sprint 3 Million Ad Campaign Giveaway with NASCAR.
ChromeBook for 7 Days.
Password Trends you don’t want to set.
Atlas 5 Human Lift.
20 Million Pound Tool.
IPV6 Update.
Wanna make a quick 250k?
Anonymous kicked out of Google+
Lion on Wednesday?
CNN Live on iPad.
The Verge?
Car Apps Coming.

PlayPlay

Infographic: iPhone vs Android

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 2:57 PM on July 18, 2011

While Android started off very slowly from it’s debut, it has become the leading smartphone OS.  Google recently claimed 500,000 activations per day.  Of course, their biggest rival in the market is Apple’s iPhone.  So, how do they stack up in a head-to-head comparison?

Tech Heavy recently published an infographic illustrating what a comparison of the two market giants looks like.  They hit the highlights, such as carriers, price, keyboard, screen size, battery, and durability.  Apple fans won’t be particularly happy by the findings, but most of the information in not really open to debate.  Keyboards, of course, are a personal choice, and durability is subjective, but thing like price and screen size don’t leave any room for argument.

You can view the infographic below and draw your own conclusions.  Put in the comments, because we would love to know what you think.

Slacker Radio vs Spotify

Posted by geeknews at 1:10 PM on July 18, 2011

Slacker RadioSpotify

I’ve been trying out Spotify Premium the last couple of days since it came out in the U.S. I have to decide between it and Slacker Radio which I’ve been having a lot of fun with lately. First Spotify appears to have more tracks in it’s collection 15 million compared to 8 million for Slacker. They both appear to have licenses with most major record companies, Sony BMG, EMI, Warner Music Group, plus numerous independents. There are clear differences between th two services outside of numbers, which one you choose will depend on what you are looking for.

Playlist

The first difference I noticed was how you set up playlist. With Slacker Radio, you pick an artist you like and it will give you a list of similar artist, you can then uncheck the ones you don’t want to hear. However you don’t get to choose specific songs. Slacker radio also has genre specific stations, top stations and highlighted stations. The genre specific station are somewhat limited though. With Spotify you have to create the playlist yourself by picking and choosing the artist and songs you want to have in the playlist. When you pick an artist there is a tab where you can see and browse similar artist and then add their songs to the playlist. Spotify doesn’t create any stations for you. I have to admit that the lazy part of me likes Slacker Radio, but the controlling part of me prefers Spotify in this area.

Exploration and Sharing

Slacker Radio also has a leg up when it comes to exploration. Slacker Radio automatically creates a playlist of similar artist from you what you start with. This is a great way to find new artist that you might like. With Spotify you have to choose each artist individually, it is easy to get stuck in the rut of choosing the artist you already know, instead of ones you don’t. The one area that Spotify does help with exploration is if you connect it to Facebook. When you connect it with Facebook you then see the playlist of your friends on Facebook that are also using Spotify. You can only play those songs that are available through Spotify. The more friends you have that are on Facebook and Spotify the better this is for exploration. Both services allow you to share easily with the popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Cost

As far cost is concern both Spotify and Slacker Radio have a free version that includes ads. Spotify’s free version limits you to 20 hours of streaming per month as far as I can tell there is no such limitation on Slacker radio. Both have two paying subscriptions. On Slacker Radio you can pay $3.99 a month and get no more ads and unlimited song skips. You can also cache songs to play when you are offline. You can also view full lyrics instead just partial. Spotify’s first paying tier is called Unlimited and is $4.99. With this tier you get unlimited streaming and no ads. The top-tier on Slacker Radio is called Premium and it is $9.99 a month. It includes everything available under Radio Plus in addition you get the ability to play songs and artist on demand and create custom playlist. I am currently paying for Plus Radio on Slacker so I am not sure how well the premium version works. Spotify Premium is also $9.99 a month this adds offline mode for playlist. You can also play Spotify on your mobile device if you paying for the Premium version. You can take advantage of Slacker Radio on your portable device even if you are using the free version.

Additional Differences

One of the biggest advantages Spotify has over Slacker Radio is it let’s you include your personal music library, so you can create playlist from both your own library and what is available through the Spotify catalog. You can not add your own library to Slacker Radio. Also Spotify does have a desktop application, Slacker Radio is web base and is available in the US only. Spotify is available in mutiple countries. I like the way Slacker Radio looks and is set up better then Spotify. It is just easier to see where things are with Slacker Radio. For example on Slacker radio if I want to buy a song or album the button is right there and easy to see, on Spotify it is hard to see.

Final Word

The bottom line is if you have lots of friends who use Spotify along with Facebook and like to share music with them. Plus you want to have access to your personal library then Spotify is for you. However if you are more into exploration I would go with Slacker Radio. Right now I am leaning toward Slacker Radio. How about you, what music service do you prefer and why?

Facebook Malware Application Posing at Google+ Invite

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 10:48 AM on July 18, 2011
Google Plus

Google Plus

Facebook’s problems are slowly becomming Google+’s problems.

A link showed up a few days ago on Facebook for a Google+ application invite. Little did people know it wasn’t a Google+ invite, yet a malware site that tried to get your personal information. Sophos reported the scam on their blog on the 13th.

When you select the link, you will be told you have to go to a third party site to complete the invitation. That is where they phish you.

Facebook has since pulled the malware site. But this is another reason why we should use caution in whatever social network we use. Just because you are implementing familiar screens doesn’t always mean someone cannot find a new way to get the information they desire.

If you want a Google+ invite, just ask me or anyone else that is on Google+. Invites have been open for over a week now.

More important – If you are not 100% sure about something, then don’t go forward. If you do put in password information, then it’s time to change up your passwords.

Robot Underpants #10 07.18.11

Posted by Langley at 12:01 AM on July 18, 2011

Langley’s talk about his lost iPhone, Spotify, Zombies, and Nazi sex dolls.
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* Spotify, Coke invite

* Flying Car

* Lab grown trachea

* Homeless man has a lot of money

* Evil Dead remake / Bruce Campbell on Twitter.

* Nazis were working on sex dolls

 

PlayPlay

The Chrome Show #3 Great Apps

Posted by geeknews at 8:01 PM on July 17, 2011

I feel much better about the sustainability of this show after todays, research and coverage. What is interesting is that in pre-show research I thought I had a app that we would demo that would act funny. Well during the show it worked fine.. Just goes to show you that if the cloud has an issue apps will break.

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Apps Covered:
LucidChart
SmartSheet
Creately
MathBoard

Are We All Thieves?

Posted by tomwiles at 5:06 PM on July 17, 2011

The history of advancing technology is long littered with accusations of copyright infringement along with charges of outright thievery.

The problem seems to stem from ever-changing definitions of what comprises a song, a performance, or a book. Back in the days when the player piano was invented, musicians themselves seemed to define a song as a live performance. Hence, the spreading invention of mechanical player pianos and reproduced sheet music would somehow destroy music itself.

Of course, what actually happened was that rather than being destroyed, music was promoted and ultimately became more popular.

Music is not the piano rolls, nor is it vinyl records, audiocassettes, or CD’s. These are simply physical transmission mediums. It could also be equally argued that MP3 or other digital file formats are not the actual music either, though they are heavily intertwined.

Can’t we as consumers be honest? How is it that so many of us can think nothing of illegally downloading media, yet wouldn’t think of stealing a physical object without paying for it?

Those who continue to rationalize that it’s “okay” to illegally download copyrighted music, movies and other copyrighted materials are thieves. Would you enjoy having your stuff stolen? Are excuses popping up in your mind why wrong is right and right is wrong? If so, you failed the test. If you have to make an excuse to yourself or anyone else to justify your behavior, you are wrong. If you find yourself the victim of a thief, how can you then turn around and complain? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?

The solution to the problem is easy. Get what you want by legitimately paying for it. If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t be a thief by stealing it.

On the other hand, if you don’t like the less-than-stellar behavior of certain media-production organizations, the solution is equally easy. Don’t consume their products. Turn them off. Pull the plug. The world won’t come to an end. You will survive. The age we live in is filled to the brim with alternative entertainment and information sources that make it possible to reduce or completely eliminate the need to consume copyrighted material, if that is your wish.

TMS #27 Little of This and That

Posted by geeknews at 1:30 PM on July 17, 2011

The Morning Tech Show Video Rob Greenlee from Zune & Andy McCaskey from Rvnn.tv joins me this morning for the Saturday Morning Tech Show and we cover a wide variety of topics.

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Some of the Show Topics:
Microsoft Single Ecosystem.
Google Lawyers Up!
Android in Patent Trouble?
Flexing Muscles!
Spotify.
Netflix Breakdown.
Work around the Google Block.
Tablet Alternative.
User Value.
Citrix Cloud.

PlayPlay

Mid-Month GoDaddy Special!

Posted by geeknews at 12:38 PM on July 17, 2011

I have a .co domain special that runs through the end of the month for $13.99, use Promo code: geek1399. This code is only good through the end of the month. We still have our July Godaddy special available as well. Sign up for a GoDaddy Web Hosting account and get web hosting at $1.99 “per month” for the first 3 months. This is simply a crazy offer and you can only find it here at Geek News Central.

To get the special $1.99 hosting per month for 3 months special offer use Code “Geek77” Offer Valid July 6-August 5 Only! Conditions: Offer is for economy hosting plans!

Two great specials from GoDaddy and if you are not interested in the two specials you will want to make sure to check out all my other GoDaddy Promo Codes for your shopping needs!

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