Post PC Indeed: Gartner Says 2012 PC Shipments Will Only Grow 4.4% To 368M Units

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Mar 082012
 

old computer

At yesterday’s Apple event, CEO Tim Cook ran through some big numbers that underscored just how strongly the iPad is pacing against PCs when it comes to consumer interest. Today, Gartner released some forecasts that underscore how that story is not set to change any time soon.

The analysts say that PC shipments are on track to grow by just 4.4 percent in 2012 — to 368 million units, as consumers continue to prioritize purchases of new tablets, and smartphones, ahead of buying new laptop or desktop computers. But at least this is a slight improvement on 2011, when Gartner said that shipments were essentially flat on 2010. Continue reading »

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 10:25 am  Tagged with: , ,

US Poker Sites

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Mar 062012
 

At one point in time, the United States was the biggest market for online gambling. With the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, everything changed creating turmoil in the online poker scene as well. In April 2011, the major poker sites were shut down by the US government and it became almost impossible for US poker players to find a site that would accept them. However, despite the bans, few US poker sites still manage to operate and accept US players.

 

Legal Issues Surrounding US Poker Sites

 

Contrary to what people might believe, the UIGEA does not ban anyone from playing poker online in the United States. It only set it sights on banks and financial institutions by deeming it illegal for them to transfer funds to offshore gambling sites. The Act also prohibits the poker sites from receiving money from US based financial institutions.

 

Two things happened when the UIGEA was enforced – one, the law forced a number of major poker sites to pull out of the US markets and secondly, deposit options diminished for US players seeking toplay poker online for real money. Deposit options like credit cards and Neteller were no longer available for US poker players, making money transactions a major hassle. Due to the ambiguity of the law, some poker sites decided to play it safe while others still accepted US players. Continue reading »

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 12:19 pm  Tagged with: ,

The Future of Facebook [Infographic]

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Mar 032012
 

The future of Facebook could be a scary one… what would happen if an internet giant went as far as creating its own government?  Bought land in different countries?  If you think about it, the possibilities are endless.  Check out the infographic below: Continue reading »

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 1:02 pm  Tagged with: , ,

Google to Implement New Privacy Policy Today

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Mar 012012
 

The recent major changes in Google’s privacy policy go into effect today, March 1.

In January, Google announced a new master privacy policy that replaces more than 70 different documents and governs all of Google’s products.

Google promises the new document is easier to understand and follow, and that the essence of the company’s privacy controls isn’t changing.

“We aren’t collecting any new or additional information about users. We won’t be selling your personal data. And we will continue to employ industry-leading security to keep your information safe,” wrote Google’s Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering Alma Whitten in a blog post.

Some things are changing, however: Google has removed some “inconsistencies” in its privacy policies that now allow the company to combine more of your data across various Google products – namely, YouTube and Search.

“So in the future, if you do frequent searches for Jamie Oliver, we could recommend Jamie Oliver videos when you’re looking for recipes on YouTube—or we might suggest ads for his cookbooks when you’re on other Google properties,” notes Whitten.

Check out Google’s video introduction to its new privacy policy over at Mashable.

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 5:10 pm  Tagged with: ,

Code Talkers

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Feb 212012
 

Source: xkcd.com

On a side note: Happy Birthday to me!

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 11:53 am  Tagged with: ,

Microsoft to Unveil Windows 8 on February 29th

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Feb 182012
 

Microsoft announced today their plans to release a “consumer preview” of their new Windows 8 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 29th.  It sounds like in conjunction with the unveiling of the consumer preview, they will also be unveiling an “app store”, presumably copying the Mac App Store that comes with OSX 10.6.8 and greater.

Why are they calling it a “consumer preview”?  Why didn’t they just call it Windows 8 Beta, you ask?  Over at ZDNet, Ed Bott has a good theory that I agree with:

“Old-school Windows beta testers would be demanding to know where to file bug reports, while the real target market might be scared off by the ‘don’t get mad at us’ asterisk” Continue reading »

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 11:51 am  Tagged with: ,

How to Use HTML 5′s Video Tag

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Feb 162012
 

One of the most exciting new features in HTML5 is the <video> tag, because it addresses a very common use case that currently is a headache (and potentially expensive) to deal with unless you are willing to put your content up on a site like YouTube. In addition to being free to use, the video tag is increasingly supported in browsers. For better or for worse, no video codec is specified by the HTML5 specification, which is the major drawback to using it, but it looks as though MPEG will be fairly well supported.

The first question you may have is, “What do I do about browsers that do now support <video>?” That is easily answered: the <video> tag may contain additional content, but browsers supporting <video> should not display it. This means that you can use the contents of <video> to have a reasonable default (a “can’t display content” message, a Flash video player, an embedded YouTube object, etc.) that won’t be displayed if the browser supports it. Continue reading »

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 7:39 am  Tagged with: ,

Why Stuxnet-Like Attacks Aren’t Going Away – Interview with Ralph Langner

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Feb 142012
 

ThreatPost did an interview on Sunday with Ralph Langner (one of the first people with any say in anything to analyze parts of Stuxnet) that I found interesting.  I figured I would post it here:

Ralph Langner is the closest thing to a rock star that you get in the Dockers and pocket-protector world of industrial control systems. The German researcher made headlines in 2010 as among the first security experts to analyze parts of the Stuxnet worm’s code devoted to manipulating programmable logic controllers by Siemens, and the first to explicitly link the Stuxnet malware with an effort to disable Iran’s uranium enrichment operation.

Since then, Langner he has been quoted in countless articles and on TV. He was profiled (peevishly) in Vanity Fair (a piece that prompted a hillarious, written response from Langner) and spoken at the uber-hip TED Conference.

These days, Langner is keeping busy with Langner Communications, his consulting firm which works with ICS vendors and their customers on security issues. And he’s also keeping in the spotlight. Threatpost caught up with Langner at the recent S4 Conference, an annual gathering of the leading researchers in industrial control system security in Miami. Langner always looms large at the conference and others like it, including WeissCon, a Washington D.C. Conference where, in 2010, Langner unveiled some of the first details of his analysis of Stuxnet.  Continue reading »

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 8:49 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Five Android Tablet Apps I Can’t Live Without

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Feb 122012
 

I’ve been using my Motorola Xoom for about 5 months now, and have come to love it to death.  Not a night goes by that I’m not on it (which my fiancée hates), and I am currently looking for a portfolio case for it (that has all the features I want), that will allow me to bring it everywhere with me without worrying about scratching up my screen… but thats another post.

I’ve come to use five certain apps that make my life so much more simple, and I think if you try them, you will find they will simplify your life too!

ConnectBot

I have two different servers in two different data centers that I manage around the clock.  ConnectBot allows me to access both of them through SSH on the fly, which has saved my butt multiple times.  The interface is very simple to use, and it is extremely easy to set up.  Below is the description from the Android Market:

ConnectBot is a powerful open-source Secure Shell (SSH) client. It can manage simultaneous SSH sessions, create secure tunnels, and copy/paste between other applications.

This client allows you to connect to Secure Shell servers that typically run on UNIX-based servers. Continue reading »

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 8:43 am  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Upgrading your AT&T Phone is Going to Cost You Twice as Much – Starting Tomorrow

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Feb 112012
 

As you can see from the leaked memo above, AT&T is going to be charging you $36 rather than the original $18. It might seem a little high, but the old activation price was the same for 10 years, and I can see where AT&T is coming from with needing to up it.  They try to justify it in a statement they released Friday:

Wireless devices today are more sophisticated than ever before. And because of that, the costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased and is reflected in our new upgrade fee… This fee isn’t unique to AT&T and this is the first time we’re changing it in nearly 10 years.

 Posted by Alan Phillips at 12:26 pm  Tagged with: ,
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