Tag: INTERNET,@FEATURES

For our second annual spotlight on cyber-security, Switched turned to a renowned expert in the field: Eugene H. Spafford, Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. Among his many professional associations and corporate and governmental advisory roles, Spafford is the Executive Director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS), which supports ...

Part of being a smart consumer is understanding how technology works, why we use it the way we do, and what that barrage of acronyms and PR jargon means. We're here to help you make sense of it all, and to give you a better appreciation of how those transistors, pixels, and antennae come together to deliver the conveniences of the modern world to you. If you thought our guide to 3G tech was ...

As many of us have discovered the hard way, backing up your data is not only a smart practice, but a necessity. No matter how careful you are with them, hard drives will eventually fail -- and losing all your personal files is about as fun as getting punched in the ear. While an external drive is great, it doesn't account for all scenarios: What if your home is robbed and the thieves take both ...

Roku made a name for itself back in 2008, when it launched the world's first standalone box designed to stream movies from the then-new Netflix Instant Play library. At the time, the Roku was a compelling device, but was regarded by many as a novelty. It was, in fact, a one-trick pony. It couldn't pump out high definition images, and many Americans didn't have access to the speedy connections ...

Twitter initially evoked public scrutiny, and boisterous media inanity, as a supposedly trivial, narcissistic and whimsical Web oddity. Last spring, however, the site announced its membership had eclipsed 100 million users, with an astonishing 300,000 new arrivals every day. That success can largely be attributed to the creation of a variety of features -- particularly the monumental and overdue ...

@ Share We're sure that at least a few of you out there have a business, website or maybe a band that you want to promote on Facebook. Operating a standard Facebook profile for promotional purposes is hardly an ideal solution (and we're pretty sure, in the case of a business, a violation of the terms of service). So that's where pages come into play. Pages are distinct from profiles in several ...

In the vast sea of the Internet, there are myriad options for self-expression. The difficulty is picking a method that best suits one's needs and technical abilities. Do we want to express our truncated thoughts via Twitter, or perhaps wax loquacious on LiveJournal? Are Facebook updates enough, or do we want to share more than our relationship status and embarrassing party photos? In recent ...

During the iPhone's nascent stages, users had limited choices when it came to Twitter applications. But now, there are myriad services that allow you to blast 140-character tweets, and keep up with your buddies, too. So now, the problem is weeding out the pretenders from the contenders – not that we're complaining. So to help you decide which app is best for you, we're offering a brief ...

When Google launched the Nexus One way back in January, the smartphone was supposed to be a serious contender against the iPhone, and was expected to serve as exemplar of the Android handset. By circumventing the carriers' brick-and-mortar stores, Google also hoped to usher in a new era in cell phone sales; however, it appears to have doomed itself to obscurity, instead. With no presence in ...

Quite frequently we hit the streets of New York City to ask random passersby if they can identify the latest gadget, app or Web site, but we don't think we've ever seen our subjects as stymied as they were when trying to identify Foursquare. Most simply shrugged their shoulders, and one poor person even thought we were giving them a math quiz. In the end, we were only able to find one urbanite ...

What is it: Rapportive is a browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that adds information from social networks and other sources to your contacts in Gmail. Once installed, it looks up information from around the Web about people who send you e-mails, and displays it in a sidebar. What we like: The right-hand sidebar in Gmail is largely a waste of space. It's primarily empty, occasionally ...

Searching the iPhone app store for "Twitter" turns up plenty of apps, but not one named "Twitter." In fact there was no such thing as an official Twitter app for the iPhone, until today. For newcomers to the microblogging service, this caused a bit of confusion, so Twitter decided it was time to get some officially sanctioned apps out -- including one for the iPhone. Smartly, instead of starting ...

Share We understand that Apple's brand-name recognition stretches from one hemisphere to the next, and that competitors face a nigh-impossible task of out-marketing the Cupertino giant. But, still, we expected at least a few people to get this one. Considering all the fanfare with which Microsoft released the Zune HD late last year, we'd have wagered that at least someone in the New York area ...

Twitter's 140-character format -- and the tendency of users to follow hundreds, if not thousands, of incessant linkers and tweeters -- provides an almost perfect mobile means of instant communication and interaction. Together, the App World and the Web currently offer a variety of free apps allowing BlackBerry tweeps to keep a constant eye on their feeds and friends, with each selection offering ...

Share Back in February, CEO Mark Zuckerberg celebrated Facebook's 6th birthday and 400 millionth member by penning an open letter to his users to thank them for making both milestones possible. "Whether in times of tragedy or joy, people want to share and help one another," Zuckerberg wrote. "This human need is what inspires us to continue to innovate and build things that allow people to ...