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Not too long ago, iPhone OS 4.0 beta 4 was released! I’m not sure if this is old news — I admit, I’m a bit out of the loop…

But tethering! That has to be somewhat fresh news… iPhone OS 4.0 beta has a tethering option! iPhone user? Not excited? Yeah, I wasn’t very excited either when I read about it on Engadget, Boy Genius Report and Gizmodo. Why? I had no idea what tethering was until just a few minutes ago. What was all this hype over tethering!

Contrary to what I initially thought (it’s nowhere near a virtual game of iPhone tetherball), “tethering” is the use of a mobile device as a makeshift modem to connect another device to the internet. The connection is usually made through Bluetooth or a (USB, perhaps) cable. About.com gave the best breakdown I came across in my ADD-limited timespan spent looking up the term. Tethering is particularly useful when you have no other means to connect to the internet. It also may save a bit of dough if you already have an unlimited data plan — no need for a broadband or wireless access card when you can tether off your unlimited data plan. And it may also be more secure than surfing from a public wi-fi hotspot. When I think of tethering, I think of a cell phone… and a wireless card… meshed together. If that confuses you more, I apologize… Anyway, apparently, tethering is highly anticipated.

Now, that I know what tethering is… I’d say I’m more excited… uh… well, for those iPhone users (which I am not — I oddly live in the stone age when it comes to upgrading my tech; I blame this on lack of funds).

To set up tethering — navigate over to your settings to see the new option. A pop-up will ask if you want to set up tethering on this account, just go to the website and follow the directions. There’s a quick video of someone doing this below, for those… more visual learners.

If you aren’t seeing the option to set up tethering, just reset your network settings. Once you’ve got it set up, feel free to share your experiences, frustrations, likes, dislikes, and all that jazz.

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Continue reading »]]> Last week or so, Financial Times declared Facebook a “bigger hit than Google.” Hitwise, an online intelligence research firm, found Facebook “surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website for the week” ending March 13, 2010.

In just one year, visits to Facebook increased 185% whereas, Google had only increased 9% in the same time period. Director of Media Relations at Hitwise, Matt Tatham, tells us “It shows content sharing has become a huge driving force online.” Unlike the uncertainty of searching blindly, “People want information from friends they trust, versus the anonymity of a search engine.”

The margin may be slight, but it’s a huge accomplishment in socializing the web. According to CNN Money, “Facebook had never before beaten Google over a full weeklong period.” Facebook claimed 7.07% of all US visits, Google held second at 7.03% and Yahoo Mail ranked in third with 3.8% of all US visits. Yahoo came in fourth with 3.67% — not really sure why they separated Yahoo and Yahoo Mail though…

Now, back to the present… Website Monitoring found a few more interesting statistics in regards to Facebook’s overwhelming popularity on the web.

• More than 400 million active users
• More than 60 million status updates posted each day
• More than 3 billion photos uploaded each month
• More than 3.5 million events created each month
• Average user spends more than 55 minutes on Facebook a day
• Average user has 130 friends
• Average user writes 25 comments a month

Facebook history, top 10 countries on Facebook, top 10 Facebook pages and more statistics at the Website Monitoring Blog. Yes, I’ll admit it — and also a bit ashamed to say — I am part of the 50 percent of active users logging on to Facebook in any given day. But, by being one of those users, I also feel a couple degrees closer to Kevin Bacon (is he even on Facebook?)…

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Continue reading »]]> Tried your hand at Chatroulette yet? Talk of Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old high school student, and his website has been circulating the world wide web waves for quite some time now. But if you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a chat site that randomly pairs two webcam-enabled users to have at it — a way to engage in random conversation. Similar to the ease of spinning a roulette wheel, users are free to leave the chat or begin another random connection at anytime. Wikipedia has a bit more information.

TechCrunch recently published a few interesting stats for users on Chatroulette. By using data from Chatroulette Map, “some scrappy programming, and a passionate tech community” from just under 3,000 sessions, TechCrunch found some (possibly not surprising) statistics. A few highlights below (or read the full analysis from TechCrunch).

• Half of the spins will connect you with someone in the US…
• They also found 89% of the spins came up male, and only 11% were female
• The chances of getting a webcam with no person at all are more likely than one with a single female
• 1 in 3 females appear as part of a group, whereas only 1 in 12 males appear as part of a group

Michael, one of our IT guys, praised to me how entertaining Chatroulette could be and suggested we have the staff try it out. He took the initiative, found us a webcam-loaded laptop and set it up. After witnessing a few sessions on Chatroulette with the brave souls at SoftwareMedia.com, I can’t say that Michael was wrong nor that TechCrunch’s Chatroulette stats were far off at all.

Brandon (Warehouse) — “It’s interesting. It’d be way funny with people dressed as super heroes.”
Brandon was up first and got passed off a lot after many weird looks. Oh, did I mention we dressed a mannequin to stand next to him? After a majority of male encounters, he noted “I’d do it again, if it wasn’t just people looking for chicks.”

Jeremy (Sales) and Ashley (Accounting) — “This is amazing!” “When it works!”
Our wi-fi connection on the laptop gave us a few connection problems. Michael fixed it by plugging in the Ethernet cable. Remember that TechCrunch finding? How girls are four times likely to appear in a group? Well, Ashley told us she’d only volunteer “if I have somebody with me,” most likely because she doesn’t “appreciate the half naked men” the two encountered — 1 in 8 spins bring up a R-rating or worse according to TechCrunch. But Jeremy loved it so much, he was going to start it again right when he got back to his desk.

Dustin (Development) — “Awkward.”
Dustin lucked out and got to chat up a gal from Denmark. He did tell me, “I prefer to talk to girls.” And I bet the 89% majority of male Chatroulette users prefer to talk to girls as well… He probably had the most pleasant experience, although it would be less “awkward with less people running around” — people as in co-workers looking for ways to harass him later. Ha.

Billy (Sales) — “Freaky people! It’s weird just seeing someone there.”
It was going well in the beginning… but as Billy chatted it up, he incidentally encountered a spin that was beyond a R-rating. Sorry Billy! That immediately ended his first session of Chatroulette but he hinted at the possibility of giving it another go, “cause I’m so intrigued.”

Casey (Development ) — “Way too much…”
Pressured by a couple of nameless co-workers, Casey gave it a go and enjoyed a very entertaining session. Would he do it again? “No, I want to keep my marriage.”

Curious for more stats? In addition to TechCrunch, Comscore also did an analysis.

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Microsoft gave a “platform preview” for Internet Explorer 9 this morning at the Mix10 conference in Vegas, a tech conference for web designers and developers. There are still many stages to go before IE9 hits beta — the address bar is missing, browsing buttons and security features are not there yet either. Since “this build is simply a first look at the work Microsoft has done so far and is ready to share with its developer community,” Microsoft announced, it still “loads and renders Web pages using the Internet Explorer 9 platform.”  Feel free to check it out for yourself at the test drive site or, to get you started, here are the highlights:

• Heavy focus on HTML5 support — IE general manager Dean Hachmovitch says, “Done right, HTML5 apps will feel more like real apps than Web pages.”
• New Javascript engine, “Chakra” — ZDNet tells us this new engine is “built to take advantage of two cores” due to the demands of heftier HTML5 apps
• Accelerated HTML and graphics rendering
• Support for Vista and higher — no Windows XP support…

IE9 appears to be promising. Molly Holzschlag, a web standards advocate, says it’s going to  “kick butt.” If you are interested in a play by play from this morning’s presentation, Ina Fried at CNET’s Beyond Binary has a live blog of the event.

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Continue reading »]]> Google Labs just released a snazzed up version of Google Reader, a web-based aggregator for reading Atom and RSS feeds. Appropriately named Google Reader Play, the web-app requires no initial set-up and still “adapts to your tastes.” Keep in mind, this new application does not replace Google Reader — it’s just a fun read.

Items are presented in a full-screen format, one at a time, with easy arrow buttons to move back and forth. There’s a “like” button and the option to choose categories to personalize your feed even more. Algorithms used in Google Reader for Recommended Items are also used in Reader Play to generate a custom feed. “It takes into account your past reading behavior and global signals,” according to the Reader Help section. Although Google Reader Play does not require a Google account for access, signing in will allow you to “star” items and provide better feed customization.

Only playing with Reader Play for a few minutes, it’s definitely more visually appealing than Reader, itself. The viewer presents items via slideshow (or not, you can turn this off) in “magic” mode or in their original layout. “Magic” mode gives the items more pop by filling the screen with the most eye-catching item (graphic or video — if it’s just text, it makes the text bigger, basically). Try it out for yourself and tell us what you think.

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Google announced a big addition to Google Maps today. “Today we’ve added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S.,” reports Shannon Guymon, Product Manager for the biking directions team. In cooperation with Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to building a nationwide network of trails for healthier living, Google has marked over 12,000 miles of trails for this maps venture.

The bicycling feature even goes above and beyond by taking in numerous factors to calculate the most efficient bike route possible. Google takes a look at roads with bike lanes, busy intersections and steep hills — then computes all that data to output the best route possible. Basically, Google is looking out for bicyclists… safest, quickest path possible while trying to avoid hill-peddling exhaustion. Similar to the road maps, bicyclists may also customize their trip by dragging their path to a desired route.

This feature is currently available for 150 cities across the United States. Since it’s in beta, it’s constantly being improved  upon and feedback is encouraged. Roll on over to Google Maps Biking to try it out. Hey, just in time for spring too!

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Continue reading »]]> It’s not uncommon that airports have free wi-fi. It’s also not that uncommon that your flight has (possibly not free) wi-fi now. I’ve even frequented a commuter van pool that had wi-fi for us to continue working while traveling up and down the canyon — a way of encouraging more time to work or a nice gesture allowing you to escape work sooner (hmm… you be the judge). What’s next?

Well, according to the China Post, 1,000 taxis in Taipei will soon be offering Internet services. By March 9th, VMAX Telecom Co., one of six WiMAX licensed operators in Taiwan, will launch the service through taxis installed with WiMAX technology. “For the first time ever, taxis will be equipped with WiMAX technology to offer passengers wireless access to the Internet,” said a VMAX spokesperson. The service will be free for the initial trial period to assess whether the service will make any money long-term. As passengers use the Internet services provided during their ride, they will also be polled.

VMAX Telecom predicts the 1,000 equipped taxis will poll a minimum of 15,000 people a day. The capital city of Taipei is home to over 2.5 million people — that’s more than 10x the population of Salt Lake metro. It’s also home to a widely used bus system, train system (including the fairly new MRT) and subway system. I think it’s fair to say that Taipei is a metropolitan city where taxis are utilized fairly often. Actually, I think there was a day when I was in town and commuted in four separate taxis, all during lunch time! But, I wonder just how much the Internet can be utilized during a short car ride though…

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Continue reading »]]> Beck & Lee (Miami) and the Weston Firm (San Diego) filed a class action lawsuit against Yelp yesterday. Why? Well, according to the Yelp Class Action Website, “the lawsuit alleges that Yelp runs an extortion scheme in which the company’s employees call businesses demanding monthly payments, in the guise of ‘advertising contracts,’ in exchange for removing or modifying negative reviews appearing on the website.”

Last year, Kathleen Richards at East Bay Express wrote an article about how several businesses in the Bay Area were contacted by Yelp. John, a restaurant owner in the Bay, was contacted about negative reviews that were featured prominently on his Yelp site. “We can move them,” said the Yelp sales rep. Then came, “Well, for $299 a month.” Ha! What?! Although the article mentions this issue is addressed in the Yelp FAQ, there are a number a local business owners that challenge the statement. Yelp denies the statements addressed in Richards’ article though. The Wall Street Journal did an article on these events.

These recent allegations stem from a veterinary hospital in Long Beach, California who asked that Yelp remove a false defamatory review from the website. In response, Yelp refused to take down the review. Instead, Yelp sales reps repeatedly contacted the hospital to demand roughly $300/month in exchange for hiding or removing the review. Yelp plans to “dispute it aggressively” according to their response to TechCrunch.

The case, styled Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital Inc. v. Yelp Inc. was filed yesterday and is pending in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

My friend Brian hits up Yelp like a junkie; he loves using the site. In fact, I’ve caught him (and poked fun at him for) reviewing a restaurant on Yelp immediately after he came home from dinner. He also refers to Yelp for practically any new dining and shopping option (I prefer the old fashioned method of phoning friends). And did you hear the one about the infuriated bookstore owner? For those reasons, I can see the power that Yelp has on local businesses. Whether or not I believe the stories, I guess we’ll have to see what unfolds in court… Comments? Thoughts? Please share them with us!

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Continue reading »]]> The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games start tonight. I’m completely psyched! Although I’ll be out at dinner during the opening ceremonies, I plan on recording the event on my good ol’ VCR. I know, I know… old school. But I don’t have a fancy phone that could stream live content…

For those of you on the go (with fancy phone in tow or laptop or what not), here’s a gather guide of how to enjoy your Olympics sans the television set.

NBCOlympics.com
The obvious choice for those of us in the United States. Although most of NBC’s coverage will only be aired on TV (advertising revenue), there’s a handful of video content on their just-the-Olympics website. Tonight, they are also blogging live throughout the opening ceremonies.

Mobile.NBCOlympics.com
NBCOlympics.com for your mobile! Everything is bigger (text, graphics, etc.) so that it’s easier to view on your phone.

YouTube.com/olympic
Highlights from the games from the International Olympic Committee. Unfortunately, they don’t go live until March 1st despite what’s said in the Wired wiki. I want to say NBC’s exclusive rights are behind this…

YouTube.com/CTVOlympics
Content from the Canadian CTV Channel. Note that these videos are blocked in the United States “on copyright grounds.”

audiski on Justin.tv
Follow U.S. Ski Team members TJ Lanning and Resi Stiegler in brief webcasts produced by Audi (the car guys). The two skiers, who are recovering from injury, will be in Whistler hosting 15-minute dailies called “Live at the Lodge with TJ and Resi.” The webisodes air starting tomorrow at 6:30pm PT/9.30pm ET and continue through February 27th (same time each day).

Justin.tv
Streaming coverage here… possibly?

Ustream.tv
Looks like there was a live broadcast of ski jumping earlier. This streaming video site looks promising for more streaming coverage…

AT&T Mobile TV
According to NewTeeVee.com, AT&T Mobile TV will be carrying the NBC Olympics 2Go Channel. Another outlet for live video coverage from your mobile.

Olympic-Games-2010.info
There are links that show the site is ready for live streaming of Curling, Bobsleigh (is it not Bobsled?) and Biathlon. Might be worth checking out…

Vancouver2010.com
Collection of video content from different sources. There doesn’t seem to be anything that’s live but it’s worth a shot for highlights and informational reels.

Not quite getting what you are looking for? There are a few international sites that may carry more streaming coverage, but you’ll have to find a way around the regional restrictions. Try TechCrunch, Business Insider or LifeHacker for more links and tips on staying in touch with the Games.

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Continue reading »]]> Spammed
Remember how the Australian Government green lighted an Internet filter not too long ago? In retaliation to the proposed filter, a group of hackers, who call themselves Anonymous, took down two government sites: the main website and the Parliament site. Ars Technica tells us “the plan was DDoS government servers first, and then followup with ‘a s***storm’ of porn-related emails, faxes, and prank cell phone calls to government officials.”

An email sent to the media before the attacks declared, “No government should have the right to refuse its citizens access to information solely because they perceive it to be ‘unwanted’.” The email also announced, “No one messes with our access to perfectly legal (or illegal) content for any reason.”

Publicized by flyers distributed to recruit participants as “Operation: Titstorm,” the attacks caused intermittent periods of downtime before lunch in addition to about an hour of inaccessibility in the morning. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy frowned upon the attacks, saying they were “totally irresponsible and potentially deny services to the Australian public.” The Sydney Morning Herald has more coverage on the events that occurred last night (well, Wednesday morning Australia time and Tuesday evening through the US).

Dumped
A man in Winnipeg is on a campaign for his innocence after being dumped by his girlfriend of 2.5 years. Apparently, his girlfriend found brow-raising text messages on his work phone — “Booty call” and “Be there soon” type texts. But Darren, the dumped, didn’t even know that he had text capabilities on his Samsung Virgin Mobile phone; they were preloaded messages! Mike Ford, a sales associate at Future Shop, a cell phone store, in Winnipeg tells the Huffington Post, “when we looked at a couple of the same phones he bought, and found they all had the same messages… We all felt horrible.” Well, Darren is on a quest, “I’d like to see the phones recalled and the messages taken off, so that others don’t have to go through the hell I’m going through.” Can he win his girl back?

Censored
YouTube now comes in “Safety Mode.” What is it you ask? Well, let’s go to the source. The YouTube Blog tells us, “Safety Mode is another step in our ongoing desire to give you greater control over the content you see on the site.” Maybe this video demo will help…

Since you must manually opt in to enable Safety Mode, it may not be the best way to keep tabs on your teenager. But it still creates a nice alternative to avoid unsightful, salacious or  embarrassing content while browsing YouTube… at work, let’s say… or at home with the kids… Aside from creating a more family-friendly browsing experience, Safety Mode also hides comments and allows you to filter out curse words. YouTube tells us, “while no filter is 100% accurate, we use community flagging, hide objectionable comments and porn image detection to identify and hide inappropriate content.”

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