Everyone loves the way their phones can navigate places for them, tell you what items are, give you times for events, etc. Now Google is working to bring that technology to your eyewear. Much like the futuristic scenes in many movies where the character looks around and a computer is analyzing everything they look at; Google’s new glasses are aiming to do the very same thing.

Google’s glasses will be able to set appointments for you and remind you about them, give you directions to somewhere you would like to go whether while walking or driving, or even help you meet up with friends using intergraded features of Google’s social media tool Google+.

While this futuristic technology seems far-fetched it was only a matter of time before Google, or another company invented a better, more hands free method of interacting with everyday life. This new design is meant to easily integrate into someone’s life and give them more readily available access to the Internet’s resource’s than ever before.

If you wwant to see a short clip of this cool new technology click here.

 

Ever since technology has been becoming more entwined with our society people have wondered just who is watching. As a matter of fact this idea of “Big Brother” has been around for years. Anyone remember “1984” by George Orwell. Seems the government and other organizations are stepping closer and closer to the ideas portrayed in this book in many different ways every day.

Over the past year there have been numerous occasions with various forms of technology that have been caught tracking its users without explicit permission to do so. Apple, Android (Google), and many others have all done this and now you can add one more to the guilty list. That’s right; everyone’s beloved Facebook has been caught using tracking cookies after its users logged out of their website which the company claims it was only using to improve their users experience on their webpages.

So are you being tracked right now? In my opinion, since it seems like everyday people discover other ways that companies can track users of their items, possibly. Due to the fact that our country uses so much technology and companies try to find out how the technology is being used to “improve customer experience” then I think it’s probably a pretty good chance that something you are using now, or at least later, will track your behaviors in some manner.

If you're interested in reading more click here.

Took them a few months, but Google+ is now available to the public.  No longer will you have to be invited to join.  Simply visit http://google.com/+ to sign up.  If you don’t remember, Google+ is the new Social Networking platform that allows users of their Gmail service to connect with their friends similar to the way Facebook, or Twitter does.  Users can post pictures, share videos, update their status, video chat, and more.  Previously Google+ was still in its field trial, but has now reached beta status.  Google notes that since Google+ is still in beta, you may still encounter technical issues, and other problems, but be assured, developers are working hard to fix any issues that may occur.

Also with the release of Google+’s new beta status, comes the release of new Hangout Application Programming Interface (API).  Basically this means that third-party developers can now create new web-apps to work with the new Hangout features of Google+.  For more information regarding Google+’s new Hangout feature, visit http://developers.google.com/+/hangouts/running.

One of the best new ways to share YouTube videos with friends is with Google+ Hangout feature.  Hangout’s let you do video and voice chatting with your friends and now you are able to embed a YouTube video in your conversations.

How to watch YouTube Videos on Google Plus hangout with friends?

1. Start a Hangout session and invite friends.
2. Visit YouTube’s live stream page and select a feed.
3. Copy the YouTube video I.D. of the stream.
4. Search for the I.D. in the Hangouts video tab.
5. Once the stream is found, click play.

This is cumbersome, and is not how Google intends for the feature to be used in the future. Instead, live streams will be added to Hangout’s existing YouTube tab.  This feature is planned to be updated in the future.

If your already a member of Google+ why not give it a try? 

Spotify will change the way people will listen and share music.  Currently you must be invited to join but you can sign up here if you are interested.

This past week you may have seen or heard talk of a mysterious black bar appearing on top of Google.com.  Well it wasn’t by accident.  In fact it was a sign of something new to come from Google.  What is it you ask?  “Google+”.  What is Google+?  Google+ is a top-secret social project that Google has been working on for the past year.  The reason for this new project is to create a new way we interact with our friends and family in an all-in-one online experience.   Some key features of Google+ include Circles, Sparks, and Huddle.  With Circles, you are able to organize your contacts into categories or ‘Groups’ and share and interact with people in those categories the way you do in the ‘real world’.  Sparks is another main feature with Google+.  Sparks is more than just a “search engine”.  With Sparks, you enter an interest you have and Google goes out and finds elements on the web that they think you’ll care about. These can be links to blog posts, videos, books — anything that Google searches for.  Finally the last feature I will talk about is called “Huddle”.  Huddle is essentially a group messaging app that works across Android, iPhone, and SMS to allow you to communicate with the people in certain Circles.
 

There are many more great features to come with Google+ and I’ve only mentioned a few.  The project is still in beta but they are expecting to release it to the public soon.  Right now is only phase one.  You can sign up to beta test here.

 

This really isn’t technology related specifically but does have to do with a very popular form of communication in today’s day and age.

Twitter, one of the social networking world’s big players, has been becoming more and more profitable over a fairly short period of time.  Twitter, like many other website have ads on it that allows companies to invest money into advertising their products. Google another company with similar advertising options also offers AdWords which allows users to post ads on a pay per click advertising model. Twitter in that past has also offered this option but was generally used by large corporations due to the cost. Advertising on Twitter has grown from an average cost of roughly $25,000 -$35,000 to upwards of $120,000 per day!  

It just goes to show what direction advertising is going and how big of business this really is. It also shows how technology and the way companies are presenting the products to consumers are changing drastically.

 

 

The Playstation Network (or PSN for short) was hacked and possibly 77million of Sony’s Playstation, and Qriocirty customers’ data have been obtained by the hackers.  Included in the list of data that may have been obtained includes the username, password, email address, house addresses, and any other data you may have linked with your account.  That being said, there is a chance your credit card information has been stolen as well.  There are no reports of fraudulent charges (yet) but that doesn’t mean the hackers could be holding the information to be used in the future.   It is best to keep an eye out for any unknown charges on your credit card statements and if you see something strange, report it right away.

               

What seems to be the single most popular and widely used social networking website on vast Internet today has done it again and set another huge milestone.  Facebook now possess more users than the number of Windows 7 licenses out, people in the United States, and the number of Twitter posts on a daily basis all combined!  They are now over 500 million users, and yes they are still climbing.  The company plans to make an official press release this week in regards to reaching the milestone, and will be kicking off a new project called "Facebook Stories."  Users here will talk about how Facebook has made a positive impact on their lives', from connecting with long lost family and friends, creating new relationships, and even finding that special person. 

A new malware attack has been roaming around Facebook lately which puts a link on the users newsfeed which claims to be the “Sexiest Video Ever” which indeed is not. Once you click on the program it will ask you for permission to access your wall and profiles, then it will tell you that you need to download an updated version of FLV Player which is actually a .exe file which contains Hotbar Adware. Hotbar Adware puts a toolbar in your internet browser which will drive you nuts by displaying ads that are determined by your browsing habits. If you do not allow the program to access your profile or wall then you will be safe.

 

Most of us have experienced grazing the touchpad on our laptop as we are typing up a long story, then looking up at your screen and realize that the cursor has jumped around several times. Yes it is very frustrating and there is a easy fix for it. Touchfreeze is a free open-source utility that disables your touchpad as soon as you start typing, and then it will re-enable it as soon as you stop typing. Yes you can go into your Control Panel and disable your touchpad, but when you want to use it next time you have to go back in there and re-enable it. This tool saves you alot of time and no longer will you have to worry about that cursor moving around on you when you are typing.

 Touchfreeze sits in the system tray and you can have it auto start when your system boots up. Touchfreeze works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003/2008, and Windows 7.

An extremely popular web messaging program has now released a great Beta. I am talking about Trillian 4.2. This application has now moved in to tweeting and emailing. The application has the ability to tweet and even go back and review old tweets and emails. This application actually is the All in One for a web messaging program and just keeps adding on. The 4.2 is still in beta and offers live support for anyone that is trying it out.

Microsoft's super popular mail client Outlook will now have some new integration with social networking sites.  For all you Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and LinkedIn junkies, you can now read those precious updates right from Outlook.  "The Outlook Connector brings together communications, history, contact information, and professional and social networking information into the Outlook experience," Microsoft spokesperson Dev Balasubramanian stated.  Some of the sites will even provide the ability to transfer contact data right into an Outlook contact card.  For a little taste of what's to come, you can download the LinkedIn Outlook connecter at http://blog.linkedin.com/2010/02/17/linkedin-microsoft-outlook/ for Outlook 2007. 

So as I was doing my normal online browsing this past weekend, I noticed something new, and after some investigation, discovered that Google is now indexing public tweets from the super popular micro blogging site Twitter (www.twitter.com) There have been some rises in user concerns that they're private information was being indexed, but after a little further investigation I found that Google is only indexing public tweets.  You can actually modify if you want your information and blogs to be public, typically located in privacy or account settings.

  

Windows operating system has a utility called system restore that allows you to restore your computer to a previous day and time.

The only thing most users do not know, in the event that your system becomes infected, chances are the system restore files are infected as well. The latest malware infections that claim that your system is vunerable, and you must protect it, can be hidden on your system for an extended period of time. To just restore the system to an earlier day and time will not remove the infection. It will more times then not be restored along with all the other files. Your best bet is to have a Tech Expert remove the infection.

Want to save your favorite YouTube videos? Just by changing the URL of the posted video to 3outube.com instead of YouTube.com will give you the chance to save the YouTube video as a mp4 or a flv file type. That is all there is to it, you can do this to any YouTube video you want to download, just click on the YouTube logo in the lower-right corner of the clip to get to the main page, then change the Y in YouTube.com to 3 .

 

When will it stop.

It seems that the rouge antivirus programs have been finding their way everywhere. I have seen infections before, but this one keeps on making itself known, over and over again. I can not stress the importance of watching every window that pops up and be careful. The malware that can infect you happens so quick, you have to pay attention, and realize what they are trying to do. They are trying to infect your system. It is like a bad practical joke. I just wonder... when will it stop. 

 With over 350 million users' worldwise, Facebook is becoming, if not already, the most popular social networking site on the web. From sharing comments, photos, videos, links to your favorite sites, and even creating invitations for events your going to or even hosting, there no wonder why it has become so widely used and popular. Well with all that traffic, comes a few concerns with security. Facebook users' have experienced their fair share of hackers, scammers, and even in some cases catching some malware, spyware, and virus infections. Well Facebook has now parterned up with software giant McAfee and is providing Facebook account holders with a free 6 month subscription to the McAfee Internet Security Suite. 

Well this is getting out of hand.

You think the box that just popped up is asking you to protect your computer. It says you could be at risk. You will be if you click.

The box that just opened may look legit, but it is not. The fake antivirus programs change so fast it is hard to keep up with them.

I just had one try to infect my system during a download of a driver I needed. We all have to watch and be carefuel not to click to fast. Because the program you think may be trying to keep you safe, is in fact the virus itself.

Grisoft, the manufacturer of the anti virus software known as AVG has upgraded once again.  As of October 17th, 2009, version 9.0 is released.  AVG being widely known for their network security for enterprise and personal protection, but probably best known as a great FREE antivirus program.  Yes that's right, they have a free edition for home users, which I would highly recommend if you're not wanting to pay for the usuals. 

Symantec (Norton), McAfee, Panda, as well as many others that you pay a fee for, and really tend to slow the systems down, this is a great alternative to those high prices, memory sucking programs.  With the new release of AVG, they have claimed 50% increase in scan times, as well as a 10-15% increase in boot up times.  So if you're a home user, looking to try out something new, visit http://www.avg.com.  They recommend you removing all of your previous anti virus/security related softwares before installing.  Installation is a jiff, and takes only a couple minutes, requiring one system restart.  The interface is very user friendly, and easy to navigate through, and the best part is that is is FREE.

 

I was watching the 6 o'clock local news, and they had a warning for all computer users to watch for a new virus.

They went on to describe a type of virus that has been out there for sometime now.

These viruses parade themselves as legit programs that are trying to protect you from infections. But please be aware, these programs that claim they can help, are in the business of trying to get you to send them money. Antivirus 2009 is just one of many fake programs out there that claim they can help you get rid of a virus you never had... until you download them. So pay attention, and as always, if you did not ask for it....

 

Tuesday, October 13th, Adobe rolled out an astounding 29 patches to security vulnerabilities which apply to their Reader and other Adobe applications.  These apply to all platforms, including Windows, Unix, and yes even Mac.  Adobe released a security advisory last week warning of attacks exploiting critical flaws that could cause the apps to crash and enable remote attackers to take control of machines and install malware, change files, or even crash the entire operating system.

If you're like me, and you use Adobe products to open PDF's and other documents, then you need to be sure to download and install these released patches.   A great thing about having Adobe products on your systems is that if you do, Adobe can identify any available updates, and will continue to prompt the end user to install the updates until they have been completed, or you can visit www.adobe.com/downloads to get the latest and greatest from Adobe.

Ok , I do not want to pick on Facebook. I know that Twitter also has its issues, as John Dvorak points out .

Here are the top seven:

Elephant syndrome: News reports from casual observers roaming around a newsworthy situation can only result in the "elephant syndrome." This refers to the three blind men who each are told to describe an elephant. Each describes the lone aspect they're touching. The snakelike trunk, the treelike legs, etc. Nobody comes close to describing an elephant. A big breaking-news story, I can assure you, is an elephant.

Unvested reporters: The general public and most bloggers have no idea how to pursue a story and get the facts. They witness a few things, generalize with commentary, such as, "It's really bad. The police are beating people." And that's the end of it. The silly notion of citizen journalism propagated by J-school professors seeking some excuse for their continued existence is part of the problem.

Vulnerability to manipulation: Twitter, above all other systems, is ripe for this. I can foresee the day when some sharp operator, like the World Workers Party (remember A.N.S.W.E.R.?), sets up shop with 50 fake accounts and a few followers. It would be so easy to observe an incident and blow it out of proportion for some political reason. This could be going on now, for all we know.

Hoaxes and goofballs: Users of the Internet can never forget the fact that the system is filled with kids who love hoaxes. And, from everything I've seen over the years, the public falls for these elaborate gags over and over.

Lack of access: Generally speaking, a casual user of Twitter has zero access to spokespeople and officials. It's just a person with a phone taking a picture. While this may be useful in exposing an abusive cop beating up an old lady, it's not good for much else.

Lack of analysis: Twitter in particular, with its 140-character limit, does not lend itself to analysis. And while a tweet can link to analysis, we do not get analysis from Twitter users themselves.

Skewed priorities: A must-read this week is MarketWatch Editor-in-Chief David Callaway's flippant take on Twitter's latest round of notoriety -- that it's jumped the shark a second time. He accurately points out that Twitter is mostly about the user himself or herself. "Can anyone find me a good restaurant?" ... " I'm cold." ... " I just ate a cheese sandwich." ... " I almost got killed in Tehran." And while the last example is a kind of reporting, these idiots with their cell-phone cameras should probably get out of harm's way.