Terrence O'Brien
Staten Island - http://www.terrence-obrien.com
Motorola Reports 100K DROIDs Sold in Opening Weekend
In the DROID's first weekend of availability, Motorola says it sold 100,000 units. Sure, that's no iPhone (An estimated 1 million units were sold the weekend following the 3GS's launch.), but it is double of what the Palm Pre sold in its first weekend. In fact, Motorola expects to sell over 1 million Android-powered handsets (Cliq and DROID being the only models currently available) in the fourth quarter. In addition, the company's stock rose slightly due to news of the DROID's successful opening weekend. Market analyst Mark McKechnie, of Broadpoint AmTech, Inc., called the first few days "encouraging" when speaking to Bloomberg.
So, are we seeing the renaissance of this once-great handset maker? Possibly. Having gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews of the device, and boasting the power of "the network" and Google, Motorola certainly has a real contender in its corner. [From: Bloomberg, via Engadget]
Kick Your Friends in the Face With 'FaceFighter' iPhone App
Get started by choosing images from your camera roll or taking a new snapshot, then line up your eyes and mouth with the game's guidelines. Zoom in and out to fit the image into a cutout, and you're ready to go. The game is pretty simple -- basically a button masher that lets you kick, block, and throw a right or left punch, leaving your custom opponent bruised, bandaged, and missing teeth. It doesn't actually offer much in the way of strategy or depth, so we're thankful you can try the game for free with 'FaceFighter Lite.' If the Lite version isn't enough for you, the full game is available for only $0.99 (for a limited time), and lets you battle friends head-to-head, so you can beat on each other's virtual mugs.
Viruses Secretly Downloading Child Pornography
Malware and viruses have a lot of tricks up their sleeves -- from stealing passwords and harvesting credit card information, to simply destroying data and crashing PCs. But of all those nasty abilities, the worst and most confounding is the ability to secretly load a PC with child pornography. It's difficult to understand the motives for dumping boatloads of child pornography on the hard drives of unsuspecting Web users. It is possible, though, for pedophiles to secretly store their highly illegal collections on other people's PCs, view them remotely, and thus avoid incriminating themselves. Another possibility is that the programs are designed simply to wreak havoc on the reputations of others, framing them as collectors of underage filth. The first publicly recognized case of such an infection, in 2003, involved a British man who was arrested on child pornography charges, only to be cleared later when it was determined that a virus loaded the illegal content on his PC.
Army and EnerDel Working on Hybrid Humvee
Back in August, Raser Technologies showed off a Hummer powered by a hybrid engine that, thanks to dubious methods of measuring mileage, was able to lay claim to getting 100 miles per gallon. But that Hummer was the smaller H3 consumer model. For those with real inadequacies, though, that need real overcompensation, the H3 just won't do. They need the proper Humvee. You know, the one that takes up four parking spots and blocks three lanes of interstate traffic.
How to Truly Browse in Private
All the modern browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc...) come with what has affectionately been dubbed "porn mode." Though it goes by different names in different browsers (InPrivate, Private Browsing, Incognito), the idea is the same; they keep your online journeys hidden by deleting or rejecting cookies, not tracking history, and emptying the cache when you quit. Unfortunately, these tricks only solve part of the privacy equation, and dedicated snoops could still see what sites you're visiting. Geeky productivity blog Lifehacker has put together a great guide that exposes how these private browsing modes fail to truly cover your tracks, and how to better hide your browsing habits (for whatever reasons you might have).
The big problems are the DNS cache and Flash cookies, neither of which are covered by browsers' privacy controls. DNS, which is often described as the Internet equivalent of a phone book, translates Web site names (such as Switched.com) into IP addresses (e.g., 127.0.0.1). These IP addresses are saved locally to speed up access to those pages in the future. Private browsing modes don't clear this cache, which means that somebody could tell what sites you'd been visiting just by looking at locally stored IP addresses, even if you'd cleared your browser history.
The big problems are the DNS cache and Flash cookies, neither of which are covered by browsers' privacy controls. DNS, which is often described as the Internet equivalent of a phone book, translates Web site names (such as Switched.com) into IP addresses (e.g., 127.0.0.1). These IP addresses are saved locally to speed up access to those pages in the future. Private browsing modes don't clear this cache, which means that somebody could tell what sites you'd been visiting just by looking at locally stored IP addresses, even if you'd cleared your browser history.
App Developer Sued for Stealing Customers' iPhone Numbers
Storm8, the developer of popular (but terrible) iPhone games like 'Vampires Live' and 'iMobsters,' has found itself on the wrong end of a potential class-action lawsuit.
A lawsuit has been filed, on behalf of Washington resident Michael Turner, that alleges Storm8 built its games with a "feature" that automatically sends the phone number of each host iPhone to the developer. Turner is suing on ...Are Mobile Devices Getting Too Complex?
Last year, Martin Cooper, the man credited with inventing the cell phone at Motorola in 1973, made headlines when he complained at a Boston conference that the iPhone was too complex. Further cementing his reputation as a curmudgeon, Cooper told a gathering in Madrid this week pretty much the same thing -- that modern cell phones are too feature-packed to be useful. "Whenever you create a ...9 Banned Apps You'll Never See on the iPhone
digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/11/06/9-banned-apps-youll-never-see-on-the-iphone/';
There's no denying the runaway success of Apple's App Store: to date, iPhone and iPod touch users have downloaded some 2 billion applications from its ever-expanding library of 100,000. But there's also no escaping the rumblings of discontent from many consumers and developers who feel that Apple is ...Maryland Computer Crash Causes Gridlock and Mayhem
O, mighty gods of technology! How beholden to you we are! You hold every facet of our lives in your cold, digital paws. And to remind us of just how much control you wield over our fragile lives, you decided to bring all of Montgomery County, Maryland to a standstill this week.
County technicians are still trying to figure out why a computer that controls all 750 traffic lights in the area ...Google Dashboard Reveals Your Digital Dossier
We've before pondered the question: How much does Google know about you? Now, Google wants to give you the answer. In excruciating detail.
The big 'G' just launched Google Dashboard, a service that summarizes the data stored by the various Google services you use, and then provides quick links to the privacy and personal settings of each. According to Google, the aim is to provide a ...
