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Google Chrome No Longer Warns You to Beware of Secret Agents

Posted: 28 Feb 2014 06:30 AM PST

Google Chrome Secret Agents Warning

In the past, opening an Incognito Window in the search giant’s browser triggered a series of warnings, including one about secret agents that could be spying on you, either by standing right behind you or by intercepting your data.

The months that followed Edward Snowden’s revelations were full of conspiracy theorists claiming that this is only the beginning. In retrospective, it looks like not only Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick were able to predict the future, but also George Orwell, whose 1984 seems to be followed by today’s governments like an instruction manual. Google thought that an innocent joke about secret agents spying on you while you’re secretly browsing the Web wouldn’t hurt anyone, so they inserted it among the warnings that show up when opening an Incognito Window in Chrome. However, the joke has now disappeared, as reflected in the changelog of the most recent version.

The old warning included the following text”Pages you view in this tab won’t appear in your browser history or search history, and they won’t leave other traces, like cookies, on your device after you close all incognito tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be preserved, however. Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people, servers, or software. Be wary of surveillance by secret agents or people standing behind you.”

On the other hand, the removal of the secret agent warning is explained like this: “Pages you view in incognito tabs won’t stick around in your browser’s history, cookie store, or search history after you’ve closed all of your incognito tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be kept. Going incognito doesn’t affect the behavior of other people, servers, software, or people standing behind you.”

Mind you, the fact that Google removed that warning doesn’t mean that the threat is gone. On the contrary, the removal of that warning has only two possible explanations: either Google bothered someone with it, or the joke got old. In the first scenario, secret agents will continue spying on you, but you’ll quickly forget about that and continue browsing whatever it was that it would incriminate you if it weren’t in an Incognito Window. This type of browsing is indeed useful if you use a public computer, but it still doesn’t make you immune to keyloggers and other such things.

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Facebook Messenger For Windows To Shut Down

Posted: 28 Feb 2014 06:00 AM PST

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Facebook goes on with their constant doing and undoing of projects, and now it seems that the Messenger for Windows is getting the axe.

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Following the announcement of the shutdown for every @facebook.com email, Zukerberg’s company seems they have a new victim for their development process: this time around it’s the Facebook Messenger for Windows, which will stop being available on March 3rd.

Current users are already getting notified via the app itself, where it reads "We're sorry, but we can no longer support Facebook Messenger for Windows, and it will stop working on March 3, 2014. We really appreciate you using Messenger to reach your friends, and we want to make sure you know that you can keep chatting and view all your messages on Facebook.com"

While we haven’t been able to find any specific reason for this shutdown, we’re going to assume it has to do with lack of use, and eventual reliance on whatever they can get from their recent acquisition, the Whatsapp team.

Source: Geeky Gadgets

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Real Game-Changing Technology

Posted: 28 Feb 2014 05:00 AM PST

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For many years, turning on the television for March Madness could incite another type of madness as frustrated viewers found that their favorite matchups were not being televised.

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For years the network had to deal with opening rounds that featured 16 games a day and attempt to decide which one was most worthy of their air time. Fortunately, some innovative broadcast arrangements have remedied that situation. The 2014 edition of the NCAA tournament once again finds CBS Sports utilizing a number of basic-cable outlets to provide additional options for viewers. Fans can navigate their way to preferred games via on-screen scoring updates, which, in addition to the score, also keep the viewer informed as to where the game is airing.

WiFi

It’s a far cry from tourneys of the ’80s and ’90s, but even with their current arrangement, complexities like the staggering of start times, unexpected late-game developments, and the simple preferences of viewers make it impossible to provide everybody with the game they want to see–or wish they had seen. There just aren’t enough networks to go around.
And as everyone slides, spins, and jumps there way around Sochi at the Winter Olympics, we are reminded again of what the limitations of TV are. Because Sochi is several hours ahead of the continental U.S., a prime time event there is during working hours for most American viewers. And just as with the NCAA tournament, there are multiple events in different locations that appeal to completely different groups. There’s no way a single network can overcome the complexities involved and get everyone the programming they want to see, and it’s always been that way.

That was until streaming online video reached a high level of performance.

For years, much of the infrastructure of the internet was too slow to keep up with real-time video. It jumped, it froze, it shut down. It just couldn’t move the data fast enough to keep a quality picture and clean sound. Without a sharp picture and clean sound, networks wisely stayed out of online broadcasts, preferring to wait until they could field a product on par with their actual TV offerings, and their advertisers agreed that the delay was best.

But in time, systems have been updated and the information flows much faster these days. Broadcast networks were able to conquer the poor quality that had prevented prior online ventures; their desire to send out images and sounds that met their high standards can finally be fulfilled.

More devices are using the content as well. Super-fast mobile networks even permit live television on your smartphone, and any laptop or tablet can provide a great sports experience from anywhere that wi-fi lurks.

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The main limitation at this point was size. It’s tough to have friends over to watch a game that’s available only online; even a big laptop lacks a screen sufficient for ten or twelve people. And there was bound to be a lot of ear strain as viewers attempted to catch the play-by-play.

That hurdle is now behind us as well. Many new television sets are compatible with devices and can wirelessly receive the video, and you can capture the audio through your stereo to get that applause-in-the-ears feeling you always had with TV-only broadcasts.

The impact for the viewer is that there’s no longer a need to miss a game, watch it on a delay, or view it on a tiny screen with scratchy sound. The same flexibility goes with movies, news, and regular episodes of popular series. The only limitation is the viewer’s available time for watching.

Google Will Give Developers a Lesson in Modular Smartphones in April

Posted: 28 Feb 2014 04:30 AM PST

Google Modular Smartphone, Project Ara

The alpha version of the Project Ara MDK (module developers’ kit) will be unveiled by Google on April 15-16, at the first Ara Developers’ Conference.

Motorola ATAP (Advanced Technology and Projects), the home of Projects Ara and Tango, is one of the things Google kept after selling Motorola Mobility to Lenovo, the others being about 17,000 patents. The concept behind Ara was first presented by Motorola last year in October, and the project is said to also be based on several patents that Google bought from Modu prior to acquiring Motorola Mobility.

What seems to be the ultimate modular smartphone could turn into a nightmare for other smartphone manufacturers. Google wants to enable people to change the underperforming modules when new ones hit the market, rather than changing the entire smartphone, something that doesn’t seem to bother iPhone users, despite the exorbitant prices practiced by Apple.

Google plans to organize a series of three Ara Developers’ Conferences this year, the first one being scheduled for April 15-16. This is a sign that the search giant might not launch the modular smartphone before 2015, but even if it is so, the wait will be worth it. Let’s face it, Motorola under Google ownership did not really launch anything otherworldly, but Ara has great chances of being something revolutionary. It might be for the best that Google wants to launch smartphones under its own name, considering the weight of this brand.

One other thing that will set Ara apart from all the other smartphones, be them modular or not, is the price. According to the latest reports, the barebone smartphone will cost $50, while the price of the modules will depend on the capabilities of each one of them. Do you want a great camera, but don’t care that much about gaming and the smartphone’s GPU? Do you need a lot of RAM because you run a lot of apps at the same time? There are plenty of other scenarios in which Project Ara looks like the perfect solution.

Rest assured, Google’s Project Ara is not the only modular smartphone out there. Competition includes Boeing Black, Phonebloks and ZTE Eco-Mobius. I’m glad that this is becoming a trend, as it’s much better to replace a single module than the entire smartphone when new features appear.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Google’s Project Tango, a 3D mapping smartphone, and Boeing Black, another modular smartphone.

Markus Persson Confirms Minecraft Movie

Posted: 28 Feb 2014 04:00 AM PST

Minecraft Movie

Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft, has tweeted about an upcoming project with Warner Bros, in which they’ll turn Minecraft into a movie. Yeah, although unexpected, we can’t say it’s surprising!

Minecraft Movie

After the success of the LEGO movie, a Minecraft movie was just begging to be made, and lo and behold, here is the confirmation we needed! It’s happening!

While no details on the plot, style or pretty much anything is known by this point, you can be sure we’ll keep hearing about this in the next few days.

Source: Geekosystem

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