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When you want a new phone

2010-09-30T17:58:00.002-04:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Smartphones today are everywhere. If you don't have one yet, most likely it's because you feel that the payment plans are too expensive (and they really are, considering that those contracts hook you in). But to be honest, having a Blackberry can be truly convenient and the best of times. It's undeniable.

I tend to avoid paying on contract though, because 1) I'm stuck for 2-3 years with them, 2) Their contract options are always horrible and meant to scam my money away.

Which is why I liked the pay-as-you-go options.

And now, Boost Mobile is offering that kind of flexibility, with well-known smartphone brands like the BlackBerry and i1! What's more, they let you pay online, in-person, or via phone.

If you want, you could use automatic billing as well. But it's really flexible, and you don't have to be on contract.

The fact is, these days I find myself checking over my social networking sites all the time for updates, and not just for personal use. The phones that Re-Boost offers, are all social in nature, and can provide for my Facebook access needs.

With their options, you can even have unlimited access to Facebook for one price per month. You really have to commend the flexibility that Boost Mobile is offering. It's a simple activation process, you have many payment options, you get great phones to use, and you can also sign up for extras.

What's not to like?

The great HTML5 and Flash/Silverlight Misunderstanding

2010-09-24T20:20:00.000-04:00

When HTML 5's basic functions became widely known and started to be seriously developed to be the successor to HTML 4, Silverlight and Flash have become less and less relevant.

Or so many commentators on the blogosphere would have you believe.

This is simply untrue. When we get to the heart of the issue, we can see that the main arguments for the decreasing relevance of Flash/Silverlight err on the side of irrelevancy themselves.

The misunderstanding stems from a basic lack of knowledge in the industry. I've heard statements that go like this:

"HTML 5 will support video and various other media, so there will no longer be a need for extra plug-ins like Flash or Silverlight."

So let me ask you then, what kind of things have you seen Flash or Silverlight be used for on the web? Is it just for showing video? Of course not. Yes HTML 5 does support video, but Flash and Silverlight both offer so much more than that.

For the people that have believed in the FUD, I really don't think I need to get into the specifics of just how much more advanced Silverlight and Flash (more specifically, Flex) is. Do you seriously believe that 2 simple tags can negate all the uses for advanced coding on RIA platforms? That's completely ridiculous.

Even today, even if we're just talking about simple video streaming, HTML 5 is still not the best option. You hear it from the YouTube team, that it's simpler to do their stuff with Flash. You can think of the quality of streaming and the advanced streaming functionality that comes with Silverlight.

HTML 5 and Silverlight/Flash are not comparable. And don't even get me started on the business applications that cannot be created by HTML 5. That's a whole other playing field that HTML 5 can't even being to touch, and is always ignored by the FUD anyways.

Grilling the Perfect Steak

2010-08-26T18:50:00.002-04:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of henderson bas. All opinions are 100% mine.

When I think of experts on cooking, one of the names that pops out is Chef Michael. He often has some excellent tutorials available for you at the clubhouse website.

Have you ever wondered why your own cooking just couldn't measure up, even if you did exactly what the recipe said to do? Well the fact is, there are secrets to cooking exceptional food, just like there are secrets for a whole lot of things. These are the small tricks that true experts of the trade will understand and know.

If you want to learn them, Chef Michael has excellent videos describing how to make the best gourmet gravy, healthy seafood, homemade jam in under 30 minutes, and also things such as marinating BBQ and grilling the perfect steak.

On top of that, recently, La Serious Griller Contest, was running, and you had the chance to win (if you are a Canadian resident) $300 in gear from Canadian Tire, or a deluxe La Grille Barbecue Seasoning Pack.

If you entered, then you had an excellent opportunity to brush up your skills, learn some more, and win some cool prizes. So why wait any longer? Head over to the website I provided you with above, and check out those videos to learn some great tricks of the trade. Then, if the contest is still open, enter that too and have the chance to win that $300 Canadian Tire gift card, or the Barbecue Seasoning Pack. Don't miss your chance now before it's too late!

Can Buying Followers Really Work on Twitter?

2010-08-21T16:23:00.000-04:00

Lately, CNET News reported that people familiar with Twitter's future plans say that Twitter could be considering another way to make money, basically allowing the buying of followers.

The idea is supposed to be based on creating some sort of extra account designation that is meant to increase follower counts. The business model is currently unknown.

As I understand it, Twitter already has the ability to add specific accounts to suggested accounts for new Twitter accounts. In reality, this practice has yielded little value for the suggested accounts.

A business wants followers that are interested in their products, so that they can make more sales. Just having a plain old follower doesn't really do much, and often times buying followers amounts to this. Allowing the buying of Twitter followers at first glance would seem rather useless.

However, the way it is implemented could actually make it useful. If specific accounts are given yet another designation, it is possible that newer customers would trust certain business twitter accounts more. While I can see this as being helpful to smaller businesses that aren't as well known, it seems useless for large businesses that already have a strong brand presence. After all, active Twitter users tend to keep up with the world, and they probably would have a general idea of which names are big in a particular industry (and if they don't, it would be easy to search up).

It would be interesting to see how this one plays out, although I don't particularly see it as being a major revenue generator in the future.

Make Movies easily with Moviestorm

2009-12-27T22:03:00.002-05:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Moviestorm. All opinions are 100% mine.

Are you tired of using Windows Movie Maker? Or maybe you're on a Mac and are tired of iMovie. Either way, you can easily make cool movies for free using this new product at Moviestorm. This is a great new way to make movies easily.

If you head over to moviestorm.com, you'll see a random website. Now, I was asked to review that website, but I believe there was a mistake somewhere, because the actual website is moviestorm.co.uk. Thus, I will be reviewing moviestorm.co.uk because that's where the product is.
Anyways, at this website you can find several things. Clearly, you can see the Free Download section, which allows you to download the software and start making movies easily. You'll need to sign up first of course, but it's free. Their website says that it's free for the basic set up and basic stuff, but for certain features you'll have to pay (how could they survive otherwise?).

Also, you might also notice that the title is "Moviestorm.beta" so clearly, this product is still in the early stages, and their website probably so as well.

Now, if I were to create a movie, I'd make a movie about this website and how easy it is to make movies with this software. It'd be all about a person who finds that he needs to make a movie, but simply does not like Windows Movie Maker, and does not use a Mac. However, he can't pay for anything either as he is very poor. So we have a person desperate for making good movies, and voila: Moviestorm.co.uk saves the day.

In fact, I might also be inclined to make an instructions movie, but that's already been done for me. So check it out:

On second thought, there would appear to be some technical difficulties. I've embedded the video above, as you might be able to see in the source code of this page, but it doesn't seem to be showing up unfortunately. If you do see it, great! On the hand, if you cannot, that's too bad. Just head over to their website instead.

Now, one last thing: You don't need any moviemaking experience or animation experience to use this product. So anyone could use it, even you.

Google vs Microsoft Part 2: The Business Model Flaw

2009-12-27T21:57:00.004-05:00

In part 1, we discussed why Google stock was not a good bet in terms of only some basic financial calculations and ratios. Today, we will discuss a fundamental business model flaw in Google.

The only reason one might consider investing in Google at this point is if it can somehow offer incredible growth and earnings, but this is unlikely. Considering that their executives are not confident, that should be reason enough to believe that Google will not grow much more. However, there is also a flaw in their business model, which will lead to their eventual downfall.
The raging war between Google and Microsoft for domination of the world is hot as ever, but though for a while Microsoft appeared to be down, Google cannot win this war. Both companies boast an enormous product array, investing in many different areas in technology on both the consumer and enterprise end. Most of Google’s offerings are touted to the consumer, but Microsoft is generally more profitable on the enterprise end. However, that does not mean either of them want to lose any potential profits, and so they compete heavily on both sides. Then let us take a look at some of their core products and why Microsoft will ultimately be the victor.
Google predominantly is a search engine. They may have a lot of different products, but their revenue comes almost exclusively from the search ad business and Google Adsense/Adwords. In fact, most of their other products either make negligible amounts or plainly lose money: YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, Google Apps, and Google Earth, to list some of the widely known (they have many more unprofitable products). Google Apps is the only one that may have some potential for future earnings, but faces the formidable Microsoft Office monopoly. The only part of it that is appealing is the low-cost and some of the cloud features offered. Unfortunately for Google, Microsoft is soon to host Web versions of Office, and will soon offer cloud counterparts for Office as well. All of these products that Google has can only be sustained simply because the search engine ad business makes so much money; compared with Microsoft which makes money through a variety of products: Windows, Office, Server, and Xbox. There is also another crucial difference: Google makes money only from ads, while Microsoft makes money by selling products and services.

Such is the flaw in the business model of Google, and ultimately, it is not good if Microsoft begins to take ANY of Google's search engine share.

If you'd like to see the earlier post on the Google the tech company stock vs Microsoft in part 1, then just click the link.

Everything together: The LG Chocolate Touch

2009-12-21T17:42:00.002-05:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of LG Chocolate Touch. All opinions are 100% mine.

Today, there are many phones out there. But few of them can do everything for you.
Imagine a phone that could call, send text, go online, use social media, take pictures or video, a built-in mp3 player with 1 GB of dedicated storage and Dolby Mobile technology for crystal-clear sound quality, a microSD(HC) slot, and 3.2MP Camera/Recorder–quality pictures and videos, with image editor. It sounds like it can do anything. Then also add in some touch screen and a few other features:

-Rhythmical Beat that vibrates the handset to the beat of the music
-One-touch Social Network Message Key for easy use of Mobile Blogging
-Mobile Media – top-notch text, picture, video, and voice messaging, including Visual Voicemail

What more can you ask for?

A phone like this does everything you would need. If I had this phone, I would no longer need my mp3 player, or my camera (except for situations where extremely high quality is a necessity), and I could also get rid of my current phone which does not even have touch screen.

With all of those applications running on the same system, it becomes much easier to do things in life. I won't have to carry around a bunch of devices to do various things. It becomes easy to access whatever I need quickly and go to the same device every time.
Now there's a phone that can do just that.

The LG Chocolate Touch.

Google vs Microsoft Part 1: Stocks

2009-12-21T17:38:00.001-05:00

One of the hottest names in the tech industry, Google (GOOG) seems to be taking the world by storm, bringing all sorts of new products such as Google Wave, Chrome OS, and even their own phone. But is it really what it seems to be? Google’s strongest competitor is none other than the world’s 7th most profitable company: Microsoft (MSFT). 7th? That doesn’t seem TOO high does it? Well actually, it is, because the top 6 are all oil and gas companies and we all know how much of an energy demand we have right now. Microsoft is clearly a potent competitor to Google, and the reality is Microsoft is the future of the technology world.

Before we discuss the merits of Microsoft, let us simply tackle the fundamental problems with Google stock and their business.

Valued at $590 currently, this is far beyond their pre-recession values. That’s astounding, and the only reason it is like this is because of the perceived potential for growth. However, their percentage return on equity is only at 16%. Return on equity is simply the amount of earnings they have expressed as a percentage of total shareholder value in the company (which is assets minus liability). Compare that with Microsoft: an incredible 36%. In fact, Warren Buffet, the world’s most famous investor by far is known to only invest in companies with ROEs at least above 20%. That makes Google seem like a weak candidate. In addition, their operating and profit margins and return on assets are all lower than Microsoft’s. What’s more, it is clear that even insiders at Google have no confidence in their company. The amount of Google stock owned by insiders is less than 0.5%. The amount of MSFT stock owned by insiders is over 10%. Plus, Google Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who sit on the company’s board of directors do not hold any Google stock. That’s right, they hold 0 Google stock. They have no faith in their own company. Neither does the Google CEO Eric Schmidt. There is no real reason to invest in a stock that does not have the confidence of its executives. Google stock is simply not compelling.

Transfer photos wirelessly from your Camera with a simple chip

2009-12-16T16:59:00.003-05:00

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Eye-Fi. All opinions are 100% mine.

I tend to be one of those people that have lots of photos from all sorts of places, but they're mostly all stored on my computer. I occasionally upload some photos to my favourite photo sharing sites like Flickr or Facebook, but it's only occasionally because I'm just too lazy to get the loads of photos I take every time I go somewhere all uploaded. It takes too long, and it's a hassle to even transfer the photos from the camera to my computer, what with missing USB cables and the like.

But it seems there's a solution out there to all that. Enter the Eye-Fi, which is an SD memory card that has *get this*, built-in wifi capabilities!

Whenever I had to upload photos before, I've always had to dig around for the USB cable or card reader, and many times I simply left the photos on the camera because I was too lazy to get it uploaded. But then, my cousins keep asking me where the heck are some pictures of that wonderful vacation you talked about? And I have to upload it then. So now, with the Eye-Fi, I wouldn't have to deal with the hassle of the old way of uploading photos. I can just WIRELESSLY connect the camera with my computer, or even directly with Flickr/Facebook. That will save an incredible amount of time, and I can finally upload my pictures right away, so my cousins won't have to bug me all the time.

Now, if you want to know exactly how it works, I've embedded a video of just that right below here. So check it out:

Of course, maybe you don't have the time to see the video. In that case, allow me to summarize some of the features of the Eye-Fi.
Eye-Fi is a wireless SD memory card with up to 4GB of memory PLUS built-in Wi-Fi. To use it, just turn on your camera!

It can automatically backup your pictures and automatically organize (by date) them on your computer.

Not only that, it can send the photos directly to sites like Facebook/Flickr, as long as you have an SDHC capable camera and a wireless router.

Now doesn't that sound like a great way to save time and share your photos? Maybe you can even get one for your friends this holiday season!

Google stock shortcomings

2009-12-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

Currently, Google is heralded as a great tech company with the power to revolutionize many things. However, their stock is not necessarily a good option right now.

One of the important metrics in determining the strength of a business is the Return on Equity percentage. This is simply the amount of earnings per year as a percentage of the total amount of value in the company (anything of value minus all debts). Higher percentages equate to a more profitable business and capable management.

Google has an ROE of merely 16%, while Microsoft has an incredible 36%. This shows that MSFT’s management is far superior, and that they have a business that makes a lot more money for less . Generally, companies with low ROEs (less than 20%) are mediocre and many will phase out or lose money eventually.

Now, there’s a reason that management seems to perform badly at Google, and that’s because they have no confidence and no commitment to their company. Plus, Google Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who sit on the company’s board of directors do not hold any Google stock. Neither does the Google CEO Eric Schmidt. [Source: Yahoo! Finance]. When a management does not hold any stock in their company, they have no reason to make the company better because their money is not at stake. With Google, only 0.5% of their stock is held by insiders at the company, so no employees of Google really have a reason to make Google better.

Win a NESCAFE Dolce Gusto machine!

2009-11-16T21:10:00.002-05:00

Do you love coffee? Then I'm sure you've heard of Nescafe's great coffee products. Most recently, their Dolce Gusto machines are providing everyone with easy access to high quality coffee, and production right in the comfort of your own home. Why wouldn't any coffee lover love it?

Even better, they are running a great new online sweepstakes from November 2nd to December 20th. You could enter now online now to win a NESCAFE Dolce Gusto machine.
This machine can produce eight customized beverages (piping hot or perfectly iced) and comes in three cool colours.

It's perfect for just making coffee, entertaining friends and family, and a great gift for anyone for the holidays.

All you have to do is go to Sweetspot.ca, enter your information and enter the contest. It's that easy. You could have the chance to win 1 of 6 of these fantastic coffee brewing machines!

Here are some cool facts on this machine:
The only single serve coffee machine designed with a 15-bar pressure system – comparable to coffeehouse machines – to create the all-important crema layer and a frothy milk.
• Innovative, proprietary technology of NESCAFÉ Dolce Gusto’s capsule system ensures a perfect cup, made-to-order every time.
• Produces both hot and cold coffeehouse quality beverages. Perfect for entertaining all year round!
• All 7 coffee varieties are made with a premium blend of 100% roast and ground Arabica beans: Caffè Lungo, Espresso, Americano, Latte Macchiato, Cappuccino, Iced Cappucino, Café Mocha...even Chococino (hot chocolate) for the kids.
• The Custom Control Lever, which optimizes extraction pressure, allows for easy customization of froth, heat, and coffee strength.
• Sleek, funky, and easy to use, the NESCAFE Dolce Gusto coffee machine by KRUPS comes in three colours with chrome detailing: candy-apple red, creamy white and sophisticated black.
• Two models now available: Krups, $199 and T-Fal, $179.

Why wait any longer? Enter for free, and WIN NOW!

The Real Microsoft: Windows Azure

2009-11-16T20:50:00.002-05:00

Whenever Microsoft is criticized for being cumbersome and not innovative, it always seems to come out on top regardless. Some people think it's because Microsoft tends to have great vision, but never tell the world about it until they're already there. Others say Microsoft is just an evil company that uses its monopoly to do whatever it wants.

I think the reality is that Microsoft knows what it's doing, and they do it well, even if they need some serious competition to make them do something. When Microsoft gained dominance with Windows, and everybody started using Microsoft products on their new PCs, it seemed like there was nothing left for them to do. That's when they stopped really doing anything. Then came along Netscape, and things really changed, as they worked hard on IE and overtook Netscape shortly after.

Time and time again, Microsoft faces its challenges head on and is able to succeed even if they have what others seem to think is a bad start.

This time shouldn't be any different. People are saying that Microsoft failed to embrace the cloud, that they are too focused on their Windows and Office products. This is completely invalid, as Microsoft has expanded their product offerings to include most aspects of technology in people's life: Client operating systems, mobile, server, Xbox 360, ZuneHD, Office, Bing, Exchange, and very soon Windows Azure.

Azure is the first of its kind, a large scale product that truly provides developers with access to software development on the cloud, a product that allows a whole cloud computing experience, and more. This is Microsoft's answer to Google and other companies' cloud offerings, and there's no reason for it not to succeed.

Soon, we will witness the fruits of Microsoft's labour yet again.

You Gotta See This

2009-11-15T14:48:00.000-05:00

Everyday, millions of people walk around suffering from bad vision. It's very common nowadays to see people with glasses or contacts or other products that supposedly help their vision.
Why do these people have to continue suffering from bad vision, or using such products? They are clearly not conveniences.

Abbott Medical Optics Inc. who is a global leader in providing eye improvement solutions, is now hosting a new contest. They want to know how better vision has or could improve people's lives.

This is the "You Gotta See This" iLASIK Video Contest in which entrants must submit a VIDEO in one of the following categories:
1. "My contacts are getting in the way of my good time"
2. "My favorite sport or activity would be so much cooler with better vision"
3. "You should see life after the iLASIK Procedure"

If you participate, you could have the chance to WIN any of the following prizes:

One Grand Prize winner will win $5,000 — selected from all submitted videos
Three First Prize winners will be selected — one per video category
Three Second Prize winners will be selected — one per video category

Why don't you share your opinion now, make a video, and tell the world just how improved vision has helped your life, or could help your life? With the chance to these prizes, why wouldn't you?

Bing's relatively quiet improvements

2009-11-15T14:39:00.000-05:00

After the huge launch of Windows 7 that included "Windows 7 Parties", it was to be expected that everything else Microsoft releases would be drowned out. That may be why Microsoft has chosen to not have a big launch of some new products, initiatives or changes they made to existing products.
Here's just some what what they did:

- Xbox 360 got Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm integration
- Exchange 2010 was released
- Bing UK Goes live (the beta tag is gone)
- MSN Video is merged with Bing Video
- Bing gets Wolfram Alpha info, etc

What we're here to talk about today is Bing's improvements.
Bing Video is not another Youtube service to replace the SoapBox they took out. It's just a search service that should be matched up against Google Video. Obviously, it offers many advantages over Google Video or Yahoo video, and one of those is the preview feature. Some people also like the Bing layout better, and they provide a massive amount of search customization for Videos. They've added feeds from a variety of sources, and now has over 900 Television shows.

Also, Bing partnered up with Wolfram Alpha to provide information or data on certain searches using Wolfram's advanced algorithms. This isn't just some crappy new addition to play catchup, this is a serious addition to Bing. Wolfram Alpha has been praised to offer some very compelling features and search capability. They can't dominate traditional web search, but what they do have is some incredible access to data that nobody else can offer: nutritional information on foods for any query, definitive answers based on equations and computations, etc. This is a huge addition to Bing, and will certainly increase its appeal.
Furthermore, Bing added to its Local and weather searching capabilities and some tweaks to Bing Shopping.

There is serious evidence that Bing usage is picking up, and quite rapidly too. A recent study by Hitwise showed that Bing had over 9.6% of the search market in October. This is compared with 16.1% for Yahoo, and 70.6% for Google. While Google is still ahead by a huge margin, Bing has increased its share significantly since its release and especially since the old Live search. Google and Yahoo seem to have each lost 1% of share, and that is highly significant considering the timeline of Bing's release.

Once the Yahoo deal goes through, Bing will have a serious chance to challenge Google.

British Ariways: Huge November Sale!

2009-11-10T22:41:00.002-05:00

Feel the need to go on vacation or just travel somewhere?
If you're in Canada, you're in luck, because British Airways is offering a great deal this November, until the 19th.

Starting from just $386 for a round-trip, and $599 for package deals, you can book a trip to many different places all over the world!
British Airlines isn't just an airline to get to Europe, but you can also go to the Middle East, India and Africa.

This "world sale" that they're offering includes an Upgraded Experience including the following: 200+ On-Demand Entertainment Options, Complimentary food and cocktails on all flights, World Class service, Ergonomically designed seats with blankets, cushions, eyeshades and flight socks, convenient and relaxing lounges at Terminal 5, destination guides, MetroTwin (an online community that provides recommendations for New York and London).

Here are just some of the places you can go to on this deal:
Cairo, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Maldives, Mumbai, Paris, Rome, and MUCH MORE!
Book before November 19th to secure your spot on a British Airlines flight until March 28, 2010.

You can check out more at British Airways. There, you can find out more about the specific details.

Unfortunately, I can't take advantage of this offer, because I have other commitments during this time, but if I could go to any location they offer, I'd check out Paris. I've never been there before, and it's known as the most beautiful city on Earth, so I may as well go and see what makes Paris so beautiful. While I'm at it, I can eat some of their great gourmet foods (expensive!).

Don't miss out on this great offer if you're looking to go somewhere anytime soon! Check it out at British Airways now.

The old goes new: Charging for online content

2009-11-04T20:52:00.002-05:00

Rumors are a-swirling that Rupert Murdoch may discontinue the practice of allowing search engines such as Google to index his websites' content.

This is one of the most influential media moguls ever, so that's a pretty heavy stance, if it's true. This could change the online news industry big time, seeing as Murdoch owns all sorts of newspapers and websites all over the world, especially big names like the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, etc.

A long time ago, when the web was still new, businesses tended not to provide free content as well. That was because advertising wasn't readily available, and the only source of revenue for content had to be subscription payments, just like regular newspapers. Or at least, advertising wasn't as widespread, and news companies just didn't provide free information online.
As advertising is dropping off in profitability due to the vast amounts of "real estate" for advertising online, all thanks to a boom in the sheer number of websites that duplicate or take content away from news websites, news companies are increasingly wary of the lower profitability.

If we return to those days of subscription services, would you still pay for online content? It seems a lot of people still do pay, as the Wall Street Journal charges for their content, and yet remains profitable.

$20,000 Kitchen MakeOver, Make it Like Mama!

2009-10-13T18:22:00.002-04:00

One of the hottest foods around has been the Casa di Mama Pizza from Dr. Oetker. Are you a fan of this pizza? I can't blame you, it's delicious! But there's more to it than meets the eye, because specially marked packages of these pizzas come with a PIN. What are they for? For your chance to win a $20,000 Kitchen Makeover! Now you can make your own versions of the Casa di Mama Pizzas (if you win)!

"Think you could make it like Mama, if only you had the right tools? Just get a PIN from specially marked packages of Casa di Mama Pizza, and enter the Make It Like Mama Giveaway."

That's from Dr. Oetker's Savoury Moments new contest, Make It Like Mama. If you buy one of those pizzas, you could have the chance to win $20,000 worth of a Kitchen Makeover! All you have to do, is get the Pin, and enter it online at the Dr. Oetker Kitchen Makeover Contest.

It's really just buying the Casa di Mama Pizza, getting the PIN, and entering it! You could also win these prizes (if you don't win the grand prize): fridge/freezer, freestanding electric range, dishwasher or microwave, all courtesy of Whirlpool.

Plus, 2,000 people will receive a Casa di Mama Pizza, or a pizza cutter!
Don't forget, you can also become a Savoury Moments Member and get another chance to win! So why not join now, and get another chance to win in the Dr. Oetker Kitchen Makeover Contest?

If I were to win this contest, I'd start making some of these awesome pizzas right away! If you love the Casa di Mama Pizzas, then you NEED to enter this contest!

Note: This contest is only available to Canadians and ends January 4, 2010

Introducing Cygea Finance

2009-10-11T18:12:00.002-04:00

Hello there! You are probably wondering what we've been up to for these past months, and that's what I'm going to explain today.

It's been a long while since any posts here, but I just wanted to let you all know that we are still posting, but we've also started some new sites elsewhere, including a Cygea Finance.

Not sure if I told you guys yet, but during the summer, Cygea was set up and then Cygea Tech came along shortly afterwards. Cygea is a new site whose purpose is yet unknown at this point, but Cygea tech was relegated to be the main tech news site at Cygea.

Over the past months, we've been working on yet another site, called Cygea Finance, and only a week ago was this site finally gone live.

It probably seems like we've moving along fast, and BlitzTech Blog isn't posting much anymore, but don't worry. We are once again, shifting our focus, but we'll keep you in the loop for future updates. In the meantime, check out our new sites!

Get this Free Report on Sponsored Conversations and making money from it

2009-07-26T16:16:00.003-04:00

It seems there's always some hot trend coming up these days in the world of Internet Marketing and making money online but how do you know which one really works?

I think the best way to find out is by realizing that if a technique were truly effective, then corporations, companies, and research firms would come out with reports or start using it by hiring consultants, etc.

I recently came up on an excellent free report on what may be the next great trend to hit the world of online marketing.

Sure, you could come up with your own ideas, but when there's a working model, why not try it? There's usually lots of room for more people to get in on a trend, unless everybody already knows and uses it.

But I want to get something out right now before you read any further.
I don't want to sell you anything

That's why I'm going to come out and tell you right now that this report is on Sponsored Conversations, and that it will tell you why Sponsored Conversations should be used to help you to create your own brand, make money online, and how sponsored conversations have fundamentally changed online marketing, along with how you should be taking advantage of that.

There are many opportunities here for both the company/person who wishes to make their brand better, and for those marketers that want to profit off of this desire. In the end, both parties should benefit.

I found it to have excellent insight into this new world of marketing that's arising.
You ought to check this out and see if it applies to you or if you want to take maximum advantage of it.

Perhaps right now, you're reading this post, and you're wondering, what exactly is a sponsored conversation?

The answer is simple, yet includes a lot of things.
To put it simply, a sponsored conversation is exactly what the name describes, and conversation in any means that is sponsored, paid, or compensated in any way.

What could this include? Well, paid blogging is one thing, and as are conversations on Twitter, or a platform that allows sponsored comments, and other similar things. The idea is to get people to talk about something, and the sponsors will pay people for the discussion.

Sounds a bit like focus groups doesn't it? Well it is like that in a way, and yet also different.

Why not get the free report now and see how you can participate?

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Full Disclosure: The links above are sponsored.

Free professional Debt consulting service

2009-06-23T17:41:00.005-04:00

Update: Links have been removed due to the ending of the sponsorship.

Most people that are in debt don't realize that a few simple adjustments can stop your debt from increasing, and allow you to pay off your debt much faster.

The truth is, lenders don't care for you paying back your money unless you're likely to go bankrupt. Then, they won't be able to get any money from you. However, if the chance of a bankruptcy is low, they tend to want to keep you in their debt. How do they do this?
It's very simple really. It's not just overspending, it's about how you pay back your debts.

There are specific techniques that you can use to get out of debt quickly and efficiently. However, sometimes it takes some professional help to get to where you want to be.
The good news is, you can get this kind of consultation and help for free. All you have to do is click here and submit a form that will take you no longer than a minute to fill out. Then you can get information on the kinds of solutions available for you, and how you can use them to get out of debt.

It's an easy process that takes very little of your time, yet you can get out of debt just by following one of the solutions they give you. So go on, check it outand you'll look back some time down the road and see that you got out of debt just like *THAT*.

Do you think you have a few minutes to spare to get yourself out of debt? Maybe you think that it doesn't really matter, that even if you are in debt, it's not a big deal. Well it can be a big deal. once you're in debt and are not completely sure of all the techniques available for getting out of it, you can easily sink deeper in debt. That's not what we want. We want to be completely debt-free and we want to be free from lenders harassing us if we get in too deep.
It's time to get some free consulting, and get up to 60% of your debt cut off. With the free consulting that's being offered, you could easily get out of debt within a year. And if it's early, you could get out of debt within the next few months!

Why not start now and learn what you can about getting out of debt? It's never too early to start making sure that you're safe from bankruptcy and excessive debt loads.
Good luck on living a debt-free environment (or really, you won't need it if you get this free consulting).

______________________________________________________________________

Full Disclosure: The above post and links were sponsored by "TheDebtSavers".

Save yourself from debt overload - free consultation

2009-06-22T15:49:00.007-04:00

Update: All links have been removed due to the ending of sponsorship.

If you need help with your debt, then you've come to the right place. Getting into debt is easy, but getting out of it can be hard sometimes. However, you don't have to stay in debt, and with the program I'm introducing to you, you relieve your debt in 12 months and avoid bankruptcy. If you are one of the people that need some help with your debt load, then know this: THERE IS HELP!

You can get completely free debt consultation, and I'm going to show you how. It's as easy as submitting a form in 2 minutes, and getting free information on what debt settlement programs are available for you.

For some people, debt consolidation is a scary topic, but it shouldn't be. In fact, there is plenty of help for you. The banks and lenders want you to stay in debt to them, so that your debt just keeps piling. However, there are those out there that would gladly help you. Plus, thanks to competition between banks, there do exist many ways you can to push down your debt.
You don't want to file bankruptcy. What you want is to get debt free. And you can do that, in fact it'll just take you 2 minutes to make the decision that will enhance your life forever, by getting out of your debt.

One of them is the variety of programs for relieving debt and lowering interest rates.Lots of companies offer such programs,and many of them can reduce your debt level by up to 60%! In fact, what I'm showing you right now, can reduce your debt by 60%, and even get you completely debt-free within 12 months.

I want to introduce you to an excellent company called TheDebtSavers. This company will help you find the solution that you need to settle your debt. How can you do that?
It's very simple, and free too.

All you need to do is click here to submit a one-page form (but it's VERY short) and they'll process your situation and contact you with the best options. The best part is that this is free of charge to you. The form provided is highly secure, and takes no more than 2 minutes. Then all you need to do is compare the plans they offer, and see which one works for you.

Why not go ahead and try it now? There's no risk to you, but you stand to gain a life without debt in two short minutes just by submiting the form to relieve your debt now!

Go ahead. Try it out, and 2 years down the road, you won't have a penny of debt!

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Full Disclosure: The above post was sponsored by TheDebtSavers.

How to Retire Early and live happily

2009-06-15T18:38:00.005-04:00

Update: Links have been removed to due ending of sponsorship. Want to make some extra money online? You should check out this post on how to make easy money using a really great Get Paid To website, and get paid through paypal.

In a recession of this kind, it seems like everybody just wants to retire early and get it all over with. For most people, retiring early is like a dream that will never come true, and that's because they always seem to live paycheck to paycheck.
That's biggest problem with trying to gain financial independence in this world. To be financially secure, you obviously need to make good money so that you can support your self. However, you should also realize that you CAN RETIRE EARLY. What you need is to follow some easy tips on getting financial independence, and then you'll realize that you can also get to where you need in life.

The truth is, there are simple methods for achieving what you want. And it's not just about making more money, it's also about being happy with life. If you want to learn how, just head on over to these tips that could help achieve the kind of life that will make you happy, and still let you retire early.

What I want to introduce to you, is the advice you could get from professional finance planners, and also more advice on how to live life to the fullest. You don't have to be super rich, and you don't have to suddenly make a ton of money. This is definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme. Nor is this some scheme to make you suddenly much more successful in life. What you get from this, is secure, real financial independence you can rely on. One of the first things you should realize, is that financial independence is necessary before you can really become successful. You don't want to have to live life as if somehow, one day everything might just be over. If you can follow the phenomenal advice from here, then you will be able to pursue the rest of your dreams securely. So go on, and gain real financial independence, and achieve your life's dreams.

Full Disclosure: The above post and the links were sponsored by The Happy Minimalist.

EDIT: We've just found out that the link has expired. At any rate, you should check out this post on how to make easy money using a really great Get Paid To website, and get paid through paypal.

Get a top SERP with the latest events and make money

2009-06-09T15:29:00.000-04:00

Making money is not an impossible thing to do online. One of the most important factors involved is the ability to rank highly on a search Engine like Google. So then, how would you use that to make money online without overexerting yourself?

The key lies in being able to correctly target keywords with the latest events. Now I know some people will say that you will have to continuously post this way, and that's partially true. There are of course, other methods of making good money, such as by surveys or free offers and getting paid easily to your paypal account. However, the truth is, you will only be able to make small time money with those options. As always, any money is good money right? Well, if you are happy with just making a bit of money to do some small things online, then using those Get Paid To sites will work for you. You could also use the affiliate programs, and make much more money just by introducing others to take surveys, do free offers, and more.

The point of this post is to make you realize that to make real good money online, marketing skills are essential. I'm sure you've seen those ads where they say something like I MADE $5,000 in 5 hours, and those ads can only work for you if you've got the marketing skills.
Many of these programs are legitimate, and some are not. But most of the time, you need to be able to market well. Fortunately, such websites will usually also tell you how to market.

At any rate, you now know that marketing, and being able to keep up with recent events is important. But why? I'll explain that in more detail in another post. In the meantime, why not discover how you can make money easily by doing free offers and an easy daily survey, right to your paypal account?

A Revival?

2009-05-22T19:40:00.000-04:00

Many of you may have noticed that although we said BlitzTech Blog would really be gone, we've still posted some posts.
The truth is, BlitzTech Blog is not dead, nor will it be dead in the foreseeable future.
As of recently, we also removed some of the notices around the blog, because we've decided there is significant value in this blog, and so we're contemplating a revival of the blog in general. However, we will, unfortunately, not be as focused on technology in the same manner as we were a long time ago, when the blog first started.
Instead, we will retain our technology focus, but incorporate many more subjects into our posts, that may not have much to do with technology, or each other even.

This has come as a result of debating the direction of this blog upon revival, and we've seen it fit to allow this blog to focus less on technology. As you know, TopTechWire will be your technology source, and so it seems redundant to be posting about technology here as well.
However, this may change at any moment. For example, perhaps one of these will be more opinion based. We don't know that, but at the moment we'll just allow pretty much any topic to be posted about on BlitzTech Blog.

Get easy, free cash! Get paid now!

2009-04-13T20:41:00.004-04:00

Want to make easy money online using an effective, fast system that is proven to work? A while ago I made a post on this already. However, I feel that this system is just too big to pass up! You absolutely must check out this website. If you want to see my original post, then here's my post on Easy, fast cash to your paypal account the easy way! So then, let's get started and make some real fast cash online, with as little work as possible on your part!

There are tons of make money online websites out there, but this one is definitely one for keeps. This site offers tons of great free offers and several great features that make it different from the rest. This post will tell you exactly why this website is just so much better than all the others out there.

Oh by the way, it also offers the best referral system in the industry, if you're wondering about that. I'll explain below.

This website is not yet very widely known, but it offers excellent free offers that usually only require email sign ups and surveys. Many websites just spam their offers with mobile offers or offers that require credit cards, but this website offers both, and keeps them in separate sections so that one can easily find the ones that are free.

Most people after trying out some of these Get-Paid-To websites they feel as if they're scammed or whatnot. That's because most of them are actually just pyramid schemes where the top referrers make tons of money from their downlines, but the average user can't really make any money. I think that is precisely where this website differs from all the rest. Their free offers are truly free, effective, and you can get approved quickly. On top of that, for those people that want to use some money for trials and the like, they offer those in another section. It's easy to make good money from them. But perhaps the best part about them is what I'm about to talk about next.

One of the best things about this site is the daily survey. Everyday, you can take a $1 dollar survey, and it is fast to complete, while offering you basically unlimited attempts to qualify for different surveys. So, even if you don't want to do any of the free offers or paid offers, you can still make easy money with this site by treating it like other survey sites out there, except it offers a new survey EVERY DAY.

The one thing that sets this apart completely, albeit this one is for the people who can advertise, is the referral system. When you refer somebody you get a whopping 25% of everything they make. That is easily the best % commission out there, but there's a twist. You get 25% of EVERYTHING they make. That's right, everything includes their commissions. And since this system applies for ALL referrals and accounts, then that means EVERYBODY gets 25% of their referrals. That means that the referrals levels then go down unlimitedly. If your referrals referral makes $1, you get 25% of 25% of that dollar, and so forth for everybody that you directly or indirectly referred to the site. How amazing is that?

Why not take advantage of this opportunity now? Check out the website and start making money online the easy way.
There's no need to wait any longer, all you have to do is sign up, and start making money. It's an easy process, and takes very little time. In fact, if you don't want to do the offers, you can just do the survey for $1 a day.

Did I mention that you can get paid INSTANTLY? As soon as you reach the minimum payout, which is $10, you can request a payment, without any further ado! Then it'll usually be approved in less than a few hours, and you'll have the money in your Paypal account! It's that easy. So get started now, and make some serious fast cash just doing free stuff!

Easy money online to your paypal, get paid now and FAST!

2009-04-13T14:31:00.004-04:00

Want to make easy money online using an effective, fast system that is proven to work? You're probably tired of scams and pyramiding schemes, and maybe you've even seen other websites that promote them using the same question that I just use in the first sentence of this blog post. Well, if you really want a quick solution (albeit US only, unless you ARE looking for one of those referral schemes...). Here, I'm going to introduce you to a relatively new website that offers great potential in being one of the best legit and non pyramid scheme sites out there that pay you fast for doing free offers and surveys. Get ready to make money online.

Recently, people have been looking for ways to make money online quickly and get paid to their paypal accounts. Well, there are a lot of scams out there, but I've found one website that, when compared to the others, is highly competitive and effective.

This website is not yet very widely known, but it offers excellent free offers that usually only require email sign ups and surveys. Many websites just spam their offers with mobile offers or offers that require credit cards, but this website offers both, and keeps them in separate sections so that one can easily find the ones that are free.

What exactly are Get-Paid-To websites? These are websites that usually pay users a certain amount for completing various offers and surveys. The one I'm talking about today is one such example. In fact, it has become my favourite GPT website because of the potential it offers. Maybe you've heard of pyramiding schemes that make the top people money because of their huge downlines, but is actually impossible to make money with without referrals. Well, this is unlike those because, it does really provide an effective way to make some quick money.

One of the best things about this site is the daily survey. Everyday, you can take a $1 dollar survey, and it is fast to complete, while offering you basically unlimited attempts to qualify for different surveys. So, even if you don't want to do any of the free offers or paid offers, you can still make easy money with this site by treating it like other survey sites out there, except it offers a new survey EVERY DAY.

Why not take advantage of this opportunity now? Check out the website and start making money online the easy way.
There's no need to wait any longer, all you have to do is sign up, and start making money. It's an easy process, and takes very little time. In fact, if you don't want to do the offers, you can just do the survey for $1 a day.

Did I mention that you can get paid INSTANTLY? As soon as you reach the minimum payout, which is $10, you can request a payment, without any further ado! Then it'll usually be approved in less than a few hours, and you'll have the money in your Paypal account! It's that easy. So get started now, and make some serious fast cash just doing free stuff!

EU Wants to Cut IE from Windows

2009-01-16T16:35:00.004-05:00

The European Union is now complaining about Microsoft's bundling of IE with Windows, stemming from a complaint by Opera in 2007. They claim that Microsoft is unfairly using its market dominance to distribute Internet Explorer. This is the statement they issued:

The evidence gathered during the investigation leads the Commission to believe that the tying of Internet Explorer with Windows, which makes Internet Explorer available on 90 percent of the world's PCs, distorts competition on the merits between competing web browsers insofar as it provides Internet Explorer with an artificial distribution advantage which other web browsers are unable to match.
The Commission is concerned that through the tying, Microsoft shields Internet Explorer from head to head competition with other browsers which is detrimental to the pace of product innovation and to the quality of products which consumers ultimately obtain.
In addition, the Commission is concerned that the ubiquity of Internet Explorer creates artificial incentives for content providers and software developers to design websites or software primarily for Internet Explorer which ultimately risks undermining competition and innovation in the provision of services to consumers.

It seems similar to anti-trust lawsuits from long ago, that completely failed against Microsoft. Microsoft has yet to issue a public statement on this matter. However, the EU are saying that this case is completely unrelated to the 2002 Washinton D.C. antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft. Will the case go through and win? Unlikely. However, the EU is willing to take serious measures, and possibly measures similar to what they did with Windows Media Center.
But let's not forget that EU has some support from Opera. Opera's chief executive has long been a Microsoft Critic, and will undoubtedly find some excuses to take IE off of Windows, and maybe even other programs too. It's unlikely for Opera to really get any market share from this anyway, because firefox is the 2nd most popular browser in Europe with over 30% share. Perhaps the EU shouldn't really be chasing microsoft now, seeing as they've already decided to unbundle some good programs on Windows 7, whereas apple and linux are just stuffing as many apps as they can.

TopTechWire Takes over BlitzTech Blog

2009-01-10T20:26:00.002-05:00

It's been long since the last post here at Blitztech, but we're coming to the end of the BlitzTech Blog, because TopTechWire is taking over our postings and all of our work.
It's already been announced over at TopTechWire, and everything is set to go! So, if you want to read more from BlitzTech blog, then just head over to TopTechWire for their news, instead of us.

For those of you who might forget, or who haven't yet made the switch, we're going to keep BlitzTech up and occasionally have posts depending on what we feel like. However, we will no longer function as a technology news site, neither will we do what we usually do.
We didn't stop blitztech blog for no reason: We believe TopTechWire can better provide for our readers, and there was no need to duplicate their purpose, so we're going to let them take us over.

As far as what will happen with the blog under their control, well it's their control, and there's nothing we can do about it. At least BlitzTech Blog will stay up, instead of having a redirect or anything like that.
I should also mention that most of the valuable posts here have also been imported into their blog, so you can access it there. And for simplicity, all of BlitzTech's original posts are labeled as such, for easy access.

I hope you all enjoyed reading BlitzTech, and hope that TopTechWire will be able to continue our legacy!

BlitzTech Blog is back for December 2008

2008-12-03T21:20:00.004-05:00

Hello folks, it's been a while since the latest post here, and I do apologize for such, but we seem to be back on track, although perhaps with not as much vigor as previous. However, with this tidbit of information, I should tell everyone that we may be moving this blog to another location (I don't mean WordPress, just that a different URL on blogger with a new name).
Before that time comes, we may not update as much as previously when we first started. Don't worry about our feeds as we'll take full care of it, as I'll frequently post updates on our movement.

Thank you to all our loyal readers.

Reviews of Automotive Schools in the USA

2008-10-11T13:59:00.007-04:00

Automotive jobs involving autos in the USA are projected to grow faster than other occupations, and finding the right school can be a difficult and time-consuming task but you may never get the right school for you.
It's a large field that is continually expanding, and sometimes education will play an enormous role in helping you to get the job that you want, in the auto sector.

If you want high quality automotive technology schools, then just click the link I provided you, and request information after choosing a school near you! This is a website that provides information to you when looking for a good school. They review and recommend the best and most comprehensive programs in the best schools related to whatever you want to work on.
For the Auto sector, there are many great job opportunities, but many require training. Get the tools you need now!
Just go to the website now, and find a school near you with the right kind of program for you.

RealDVD pulled temporarily by fed judge in MPAA lawsuit

2008-10-07T17:48:00.004-04:00

Recently, RealNetwork's new RealDVD software was released, following an onslaught of legal problems about the software's ability to create a copy of DVDs for personal use. The Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) decided to sue them for allowing the burning of DVDs and circumventing the DVD protection, thus pirating the movie, and possibly allow further piracy by releasing it onto the web. They asked for a restraining order on the product to prevent RealNetworks from further selling it and stop the piracy that RealDVD could be causing.

In our coverage of the issue, we told you that RealDVD sued first, then MPAA sued back. MPAA had said

"RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD," Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the MPAA, said in a statement. "RealNetworks knows its product violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America's movie makers and the technology community."

While RealDVD had fought against them, claiming their product was not violating anything, and in fact added extra layers of Digital Rights Management to the copies made.

Now, a federal judge has asked RealNetworks to temporarily discontinue the distribution of their RealDVD product, at least until the next court session.

"We temporarily suspended distribution of the product until tomorrow," said Seattle-based RealNetworks' spokesman Ryan Luckin.

The MPAA said they were prohibited from commenting on the case.

Currently, the RealDVD product has been pulled from the website, and the link was removed, and it now says

"Rest assured, we will continue to work diligently to provide you with software that allows you to make a legal copy of your DVDs for your own use."

As I said earlier, piracy is a growing concern for the MPAA, because they fear that piracy will increase and becoming easier because customers will be able to illegally make copies of their content, and then keep a movie after they rent it by using a product such as RealDVD. Although this may or may not be the case, (RealNetworks says otherwise), piracy is definitely a major concern here. They are concerned that if RealDVD can win this case, and make it legal to make copies of DVDs on people's hard drives, then more products similar to RealDVD could be made, and causing a host of problems for the MPAA, and with piracy in general even in other industries.
RealDVD is saying that their case was preceeded by the case of DVD Copy Control Association v. Kaleidescape. The MPAA argues back that their software is merely getting around copyright protection.

It's still unclear who will win this case, but if RealNetworks can win it, then this could be an incredible step towards more free movie content and may affect other industries too. Undoubtedly, RealDVD could be exploited for purposes relating to piracy by experienced hackers.

Search ad revenues still climbs, no sign of slowing down

2008-10-07T17:28:00.003-04:00

With the latest financial problems at Wall Street and the credit crunch, one would really think the online advertising industry would start slowing down. However, this doesn't seem to be the case so far, but there is yet to come.
Here's a bit of what CNET said about it:

Despite an economic turndown, online advertising--and search in particular--is managing to keep its market intact, according to reports on Tuesday by an industry trade group and Wall Street analyst.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet advertising revenues rose 15.2 percent, to $11.5 billion during the first six months of the year, compared with the same period last year. And search advertising grabbed a larger piece of the share, accounting for 44 percent of the market--up 3 percentage points.
Search advertising generated nearly $5.1 billion during the first half of the year, up 24 percent from a year ago. Display advertising, meanwhile, also grew at a double-digit pace of 19 percent to $3.8 billion over the course of the first half of the year.

(Credit: Interactive Advertising Bureau)

But what about the third quarter and the market meltdown during the early days of the fourth quarter?
Two players in online advertising say conditions are remaining stable, according to a Tuesday report by JPMorgan analyst Imran Khan.
Search engine marketing (SEM) companies such as Didit and Reprise Media report that third-quarter search budgets were up, mainly due to a shift from more traditional marketing to search advertising.

Well, obviously the search advertising industry isn't going anywhere anytime soon. However, things could still change according to the way the economy is going right now. It's pretty foolish to think that the credit crunch will have no effect on the online advertising industry, because it will affect a lot of new companies, and even bigger companies, because they have to start going into the bunker mode, and one of the first places that they can start cutting is advertising.

True, there seems to be evidence that advertising is still yet climbing, but this could be due to the changes in search advertising itself, now including more industries, so as to gain revenue from a bigger source.

Obama makes 6 Times more Spam than McCain, Palin also leads Biden

2008-10-04T17:44:00.006-04:00

One must wonder during the elections, that who is really winning? Whether or not the spam levels of Seneator Barack Obama and Gov. Sarah Palin, is an indicator of that, it is definitely interesting.

A recent report at PC Magazine states that in a study by Secure Computing, Sen. Barack Obama (during september)"easily topped the use of his opponent, Sen. John McCain, by 6 to 1."
Gov. Sarah Palin on the other hand, won over her rival "Sen. Joe Biden, by a ratio of 5 to 4 during the month of September".
Obama and Palin then, obviously are winning the "spam debate", as they have much more spam than their rivals. This massive spam difference between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, may be telling us who the the online world is talking about. (and who the spammers like most)

Apparently, the spam levels massively increased at the time of the Republican National Convention on Sept. 3.
Still, the spam itself doesn't really mean anything, and if anything, still uses as many provocative words and phrases as possible to get readers to click and open the source email.
And in the case of Sen. Obama,

"Though the spam message content itself is nonsensical, the basic themes of the Obama email content does tend to revolve around the shallow factors that are espoused in the mainstream media as central campaign issues: race, disputes with Clinton, messianic oratory, and FOX news smears," Secure Computing wrote. "The McCain spam subjects are equally driven by shallow media propaganda, revolving around age and wealth."

And in the online news world, PC Magazine says,

"By comparison, news stories citing Obama or McCain favored McCain, 10 to 9. Web sites mentioning Obama outrank those that cite McCain, 3 to 2. But the spam associated with Sarah Palin is closer to the news stories or Web sites mentioning Palin, both of which outstrip Biden citations by 7 to 2."

With all this spam, one wonders what might be coming next? Secure Computing says that this next month of October, could see the uprising of spam relating to either the banks which were "either were taken over or went under, such as Wachovia and Washington Mutual."
Oddly enough, there seems to also been an increase in spam that has no real meaning to it, or "gibberish spam", which could mean problems relating to the spam software, or something else.

Malware has also been spread in the form of a certain video about Sen. Obama. Be careful when receiving such messages, and it's best to just ignore them.
Spam is always changing, and it's going to change along with current events. Perhaps the level of spam is indicating to us what are the hot topics online, and what isn't being talked about a lot. It may not show what the election results will be, but it's definitely something interesting to know.

New Investment Oppourtunities with Inner 8

2008-10-04T16:43:00.002-04:00

With the recent economic issues and such, like the Wall Street Collapse and the credit crunch, many people are finding it hard to sustain themselves well.
What they need is to look at new opportunities to create income, and also a secure way of doing it, especially in light of problems in the financial sector at Wall Street. With the recent bailout plan by the U.S. Government, there is definitely hope with the economy going back up and strong, but we can't rely on it.

That's why I think Inner 8 is such a great opportunity to be seized! With Inner8, it's real easy to start an investment, but you can also rest assured that you have full control of your investment.
With many traditional investment techniques, the gurus (experts) are hailed as having complete knowledge of the sector, and you have to trust them. It's with Inner8 that "makes it easy to build your own smart, private, inner-circle of trusted investors powered by our new proprietary analytics. You get profitable investment ideas, demonstrate your own expertise and save a bundle on investment suggestions."

By using their service, you can learn, but also keep control with a private community made up of you, and other selected investors. All you need to do is sign up and create a network, and start getting valuable advice from the experts, so you can create highly informed decisions with your investments, without being bossed around by the "gurus". True investors have a broad understanding of investing, and can act on their own. So stop letting your broker do EVERYTHING for you, and start getting good advice instead.

Incoming Updates Blog | BlitzTech Blog

2008-10-04T16:36:00.004-04:00

Recently, we implemented many changes, including a new site policies page, and I have reason to believe that we might be adding many more policies to what we have on there so far. That's why I'm taking this opportunity to let you all know that I will change the format of it, so I can list each individual policy with a link to it, instead of listing all of it on the same page. This makes it look cleaner and easy to go through.

We also have changed certain aspects of the blog that are less noticeable such as the ---END OF POST--- beneath every post. It seems weird, but it's there to let you know that anything below it, is actually a part of the webpage's html and not inside the content of the posts.
We've also changes the site title and description, but I suspect it might undergo even more changes. I've encountered a problem with the subscribe via email widget at the top of the page, and I'm unsure of how it can be fixed. I will get back to this, as it isn't very important how it looks, as long as it's available.
In the future, I may also post certain information that is only available to feed readers and email subscribers.

That pretty much sums up what we've done so far, and I'll continue to post updates on our blog here. Stay tuned for our monthly huge update later this month!

Top Rated Criminal Defense law firm

2008-10-04T14:15:00.007-04:00

The following post is Sponsored.

Have your loved ones been arrested or wanted the law? You may want to know the basics of Criminal Defense Law in California and you can use these services to help you. The Criminal Defense Attorneys at Kestenbaum Eisner & Gorin LLP provide answers to many common legal questions at their law firm, all the time.

They are experienced, and were previously Senior Los Angeles Prosecutors, which means they have a great understanding of the system. Click this link to go to here website and see their FAQ. Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney | California Criminal Lawyers
If you ever have trouble with the law, then you can contact them, and see what they can do for you.

Blog Journey - Increase Blog/Website Traffic with social Bookmarking websites Tip 1

2008-10-03T20:01:00.004-04:00

As you may have recalled, I mentioned in our monthly update that we would be posting tips on blogging and my own blogging journey. This will be the first of those tips today, though these tips aren't in any specific order.

This particular tip is about traffic, or rather, how to get more traffic without SEOing your blog/website. The problem with SEO is that, many times it can be difficult for you to optimize your website, because there already are many other websites out there, competing directly with you. So how can you directly get exposure for your blog?

The key is using social bookmarking websites such as Digg, when you are first starting out. This is one of the main focuses of my traffic gaining attempts when I first created this blog. If you're just starting out, chances are, search engines won't pay much attention to you, and result in lower ranking on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). As previously stated, this can be very helpful to gaining traffic when you first begin to blog, but as you advance, you will have to use other techniques, or simply let your readers take over the bookmarking process.
Why are social bookmarking websites effective at getting traffic when you first begin? It's because they provide immediate blog/website exposure to gain potential traffic for your blog. You probably won't make the top of the lists in terms of popularity, but you can certainly be sure that you will receive traffic, as long as you make attractive titles, and provide good content. That is one of the first advantages of using such websites to help you. There are others, but I will talk about those later, so be sure to subscribe to our feed if you don't want to miss any!

Find Illinois Mortgage Brokers

2008-10-01T21:38:00.002-04:00

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NDA dropped for iPhone developers

2008-10-01T17:24:00.009-04:00

Apple has finally dropped the Non-disclosure agreement for developing apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. However, it only applies to released software, so developers currently developing apps will still have to follow NDA.
This is Apple's explanation of why they are dropping NDA:

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don't steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.
However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone's success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released

So it seems many problems have now been finally resolved by this, however, there is still more to do for Apple, as many developers want clear guidelines for their apps so they don't waste their time, and then get rejected. I still think Apple should make their unreleased software unrestricted by NDA as well, because that is the only way developers will get any help from the outside. Then again, Apple is based on having lots of control, so what can you do?

Find great internet webhosting services

2008-09-30T17:20:00.000-04:00

Looking for great webhosting services? This is another website that will help you find great webhosting services online. In our world of technology, everyone needs or wants to make their own webpages online. The problem is, there aren't too many great web hosting servces out there, that will provide you with exactly what you need.
WebHostingRating will help you find great web hosting.
With lots of reviews, many ratings and more, it's easy to find the service that's just for you! Here at BlitzTech, we've stayed with Blogger.com, but if you blog like I do, then you're probably bound to find problems sooner or later! If you ever decide to switch to your own domain and your own server, then you need a good service to help you. The best technology, software, hardware and servers around, combined with the greatest customer support for that technology and software will make for little problems with your hosting service. For the best hardware, it can get expensive, but with this website, you can be sure to find the perfect combination for as low as possible, so you can spend your valuable money on other things!

Piracy becoming legal? MPAA vs. RealDVD, MPAA sues back!

2008-09-30T17:19:00.010-04:00

Hollywood has taken serious action on the part of movie makers against RealNetworks' RealDVD. The Motion Picture Association of America has decided to take RealNetworks' RealDVD software to the federal courts.

The MPAA wants a restraining order from the federal courts in order to stop the RealDVD softwware program from being sold. Why? It is because the RealDVD software from RealNetworks allows users to copy DVDs and store them on their computer hard drives.

When RealDVD was first released, the company claimed that it was completely legal and in no way violated Copyright laws, because of several things.
They were the first to start the fight, and decided to file a suit against all the major movie making studios and the DVD Copy Control Association. According to Real's press release, the lawsuit "asks the court to rule that RealNetworks Home Entertainment Inc.'s RealDVD software...fully complies with the DVD Copy Control Association's license agreement."

They are sitting on the fact that their software doesn't actually break any encrytion in the process of copying the DVD, and even adds an extra layer of digital rights management.

The MPAA filed a suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claiming that "RealNetworks' RealDVD violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because its software illegally bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs." They also ask for monetary damages and this is what they say about RealNetworks's RealDVD.

"RealNetworks' RealDVD should be called StealDVD," Greg Goeckner, executive vice president and general counsel for the MPAA, said in a statement. "RealNetworks knows its product violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing between America's movie makers and the technology community."

While RealNetworks says their case was preceded by Kaleidescape's 2007 courtroom victory over the DVD Copy Control Association, the MPAA claim the two cases have nothing to do with each other. They fear people will be able to rip/burn/copy DVDs and keep them after renting by means of RealDVD. Thus, piracy will become far widespread and helped greatly by RealDVD. However, RealDVD doesn't believe this is the case.

"We are disappointed that the movie industry is following in the footsteps of the music industry and trying to shut down advances in technology rather than embracing changes that provide consumers with more value and flexibility for their purchases," RealNetworks said in a statement.

Will RealDVD win over the MPAA? Obviously, this is going to bring up a lot of questions about these kinds of software and exactly how far you can take "backups" and such. The questions relating to piracy are popping up everywhere, and it's not going to go away anytime soon. If RealNetworks' security methods are effective in stopping pirates, then maybe it would be okay for their RealDVD software to continue selling. However, it doesn't sound very effective at protecting DVDs from being illegally copied at all. I mean, how can you protect the DVD properly without having a guideline for the proper use of the stored copy? What kind of DRM could possibly justify the copying of a DVD? The only thing I could think of, is if the DVD had to be put in everytime, but then that makes the act of putting it on your computer useless. However, RealDVD allows up to 5 PCs to be able to play DVDs without the disc when authorized. Is this really giving protection, or just making piracy easier? It sounds pretty easy for somebody to illegally copy a rented DVD to their computer.

Protect your data - Online backup service

2008-09-29T19:52:00.004-04:00

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3 reasons why Wall Street problems will affect all including tech

2008-09-29T18:31:00.012-04:00

Today: $700 billion bailout plan fails in the House of Representatives.
So many problems have come to attack the U.S. economy, and the government has failed to act to help Wall Street. However, Wall Street isn't the end of problems, because their problems and the credit crunch is going to seriously affect a lot of industries around.

It's something we really need to think about here, because much of the U.S. economy is based on credit, and with these massive problems plaguing Wall Street, obviously, that part of the economy will be affected.

Why and how will Wall Street problems affect other industries, and the technology sector?

1) The power of Wall street to drag everything else into their mess is enormous, because this is where much of the U.S. "credit" is. Banks are having a hard time getting money, and it's going to take down new companies, and companies that rely on loans for their business. They will be destroyed completely, and there's not much they can do about it either. Even large companies that rely on loans will suffer hugely.

2) Wall Street problems is causing a major shift in public perception of the markets everywhere. They are lowering investor confidence, and causing stocks to plummet. Not all companies have a massive amount of money just lying around to plow past this time of economic downturn. If investors lose their confidence, then many companies will see their chances of survival dwindle, or at least force them to stay dormant with little progress during this time.

3) Normal Americans will also suffer from this, if not remedied soon. We're talking major decreases in consumer confidence and consumer buying because of reason number 1. How much of American people use credit every single day to purchase items, or products or services? Almost all. How many rely on credit to help them with their everyday needs? You can probably answer that easily. The truth is, people need credit and they need to use it for spending! If people don't have the money to spend, we're just going to see a continued and drastic lowering of consumer buying trends. Think of what this does to companies! Companies need consumer business to survive. Regardless of what sector, they need consumers somewhere up or down the line.

How does Wall Street affect the tech sector? Just take a look at tech stocks and you'll see what's happening. Obviously tech isn't immune. It's just another sector where people are losing their confidence.
In the online advertising world, there may be serious problems with filling ad inventory, as less companies will be willing to spend a lot of money on advertising. It's not just the inventory either, as it is quite possible companies will be willing to pay less for displaying ads. They will all shift to the saving mode instead of expansion. Digg seems to have disregarded this altogether, but the fact remains, online advertising is far from immune.

The government really has to take action RIGHT NOW! It's really unfortunate that the bailout plan failed, and even Microsoft has asked Congress to re-vote on the matter. Something needs to be done if we want to avoid a cash freeze and other economic problems. This is just too important to be left alone.

Webhosting Review website - webhostingeeks

2008-09-29T17:43:00.003-04:00

Are you looking for a good webhosting service? Have you tried to find a service that is good, helpful, effective, little to no server problems, with high quality service? Well then, what you need is a list of the companies out there that will host your website for you.
But don't stop there, because why get a list, when you can also get high quality reviews that can tell you exactly how good a particular company is?

Web Hosting Geeks is one such service that will help you greatly when searching for good webhosting. If you own a blog like myself, and are tired of Blogger.com' issues and such, and want to move, then you definitely need to start hosting your own websites. Then, you need a website with a good background, and supporters. You can start with Web Hosting Geeks.
They provide quality reviews of many webhosting services out there, and even rank the top 10 hosters that don't cost outrageous prices.
On top of the great reviews by them, there are also user reviews so you can find out what people like you are saying about a particular hoster.

With all these reviews, and lists, you still need to find out more about web hosting if you're just beginning. And even if you're not, you can always find more information helpful. Web Hosting Geeks provides a lot of information about web hosting, so be sure to check out their service, if you are looking for a good web hoster!

Site Policies

2008-09-29T17:24:00.010-04:00

I've decided to implement a new site-wide policy list. This list is in no way complete, and so it will be added on to further. Each policy listed below will have information concerning specifically that policy.

**NEW**
Google Ad cookies
We use third-party advertising companies (such as Google) to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.

This website uses Google Adsense to serve ads.

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site.
Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet.
Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

1. Sponsored Posts
Yes, we do write sponsored posts on this blog, from various advertisers and with various 3rd party services such as PayPerPost. How can you tell if a post is sponsored? Well, usually it will have some sort of text written at the top of the post such as "The following post is sponsored". If not, you can also check the Labels. If it has NO label, then that means it is a sponsored post. Please check the labels if a post seems to conflict with other content on the blog or if a post seems suspiciously out of place and does not directly show in-post disclosure. NO LABELS = SPONSORED.
(Note: Certain posts without labels, I consider to be sponsored by myself, because it somehow advertises myself in a way that is not related directly to the blog.)

Now here is the actual Policy. It is important that you keep the above identification methods in mind when looking to see which posts are sponsored.

This blog is a personal blog maintained by myself only, and I accept compensated posts. This includes but is not limited to post advertising, reviews in posts, and other forms of posts that are sponsored by a 3rd party. This blog may contain overlapped or conflicting content, if advertised posts conflict in opinion with original posts.
This blog accepts many or all forms of compensation in return for advertising, reviews, posts, discussion, and any other form of advertising.
I will disclose any and all posts which are COMPLETELY Sponsored. If any post is only partially sponsored or if any single aspect of a post is sponsored, then it may not be disclosed. For example, If I write a blog post as usual, but include a sponsored mentioning, then that post will NOT be specifically disclosed as being sponsored.

Why NBC's formula to fight piracy will change the Internet

2008-09-23T16:26:00.008-04:00

In a world where almost all of us have heard of services like Youtube, Veoh, and such, there are many people trying to upload videos onto these online services illegally. For many years, companies have tried to combat the piracy problem, but it hasn't worked out well. However, NBC now has found a way to stop this, at least it's working for them.
Piracy was and still is a big problem. NBC is putting great efforts to discontinue piracy and their anti-piracy techniques seem to be working. How is it working? Take a look at when the olympics games were broadcast on MSNBC. At NBColympics.com and MSNBC, when the olympics were broadcast live, many people tried to upload videos to Youtube and other networks, but most people still went to NBColympics.com and MSNBC to watch the olympics online. This is because Youtube took off videos almost as soon as they went on.
NBC is clearly taking some big steps to team up with other organizations to stop piracy of videos. NBC partnered up with Youtube in order to get rid of copyrighted material as quickly as possible, and also worked with the Chinese during the olympics to stop the piracy of videos in Chinese video sharing sites. But it doens't stop there, because NBC is also promoting their own services as alternatives to piracy.

The heavily promoted their own site, as well as Hulu, so that these could be alternatives to watching videos on Youtube. Hulu became a place for viewers to find full length videos in higher quality than Youtube. By doing this with their own site and Hulu, they could make viewers stop going to Youtube for the video, and go redirect them to their own sites instead.

"Historically, there was a period where the conversation focused on the capability of technology to provide wondrous new access and wondrous new distribution," Cotton said Monday in an interview with CNET News. "In that old conversation technology's capability to define the rules of the road was dismissed, I would say by self-interested voices. But technology has an enormous amount to contribute in setting rules of the road."

It's obvious that things are now changing, and NBC has started to work with companies like Youtube, instead of against them. It's a much more effective approach.

"What people learned very quickly was what would stay up at YouTube were still photos of the (events at the Olympics)," Cotton added. "They could find photo galleries at YouTube and for video they went to NBCOlympics.com."

By this, we can see that viewers are finding good use for both services, and also in the right ways. Undoubtedly, as technology continues to advance, we will be seeing more of this in the future.
Why would these efforts be a big impact on the Internet and piracy? Because NBC is setting an example here, and it's a good one. The days of Youtube, Veoh, and other networks showing copyrighted material without authorization all the time are slowly disappearing. Many companies will likely to follow in NBC's lead, and battle piracy in this new way. There will always be people who will upload copyrighted video, but if enough copyright holders work together with services like Youtube, there will be significant change to us all.
Interestingly, Youtube is also going to make some Youtube only videos, but we'll see what comes of that. It's obvious that times are moving, and companies now see that an approach of suing Youtube like Viacom did may not be the best idea.

When you can't fight it, join it, and maybe it'll help you.

What do you think of this? Would you prefer to use services like NBC's own site and Hulu? Do you think video piracy will begin to stop? Give us your comments below.

BlitzTech Update September 2008

2008-09-20T14:02:00.004-04:00

Another month, another huge BlitzTech Update!
There's been an obviously massive update regarding the looks on our blog. We've implemented a new template that looks much more professional than the one we had before. The only thing though, is that some of you may have liked the previous template better. Although, I somewhat doubt that, as the previous template was not very good... Anyway, credit must be given where it is deserved: This new template was not created by myself, although I did edit it, and somebody before me edited it too. To find more info on this template, just go all the way to the bottom of the blog and you should see it.

What else has changed? Other than the overall layout of the blog, like positioning and such, there has been little else significant physical changes. You may notice we got rid of the pile of sharing links and replaced it with a nice simple sharing button from addthis. We also now have some google ads, which I am still experimenting with, thus it could move around a bit soon.

What other changes have occurred? Well, we are starting to do some sponsored blog posts here and there, but I will make sure those posts do not get labeled and all of them will say "The following post is sponsored" at the top of the post, or something similar.

As well, I am planning to use a new background with this template to increasing the "blitz" look of the blog.
That's it for now, and be sure to subscribe to our feed to get regularly updated. I apologize for not being very up to date with what's been going on in tech news lately, but that will be remedied shortly.

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2008-09-18T19:12:00.005-04:00

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Magnetic Therapy Products from MagnoPulse LTD

2008-09-17T18:29:00.006-04:00

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New Internet Explorer 8 Videos of features

2008-09-17T17:41:00.008-04:00

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 came with a lot of new features and functions that were new and unique to their browser. Microsoft said before that speed was not their highest priority, unlike Google Chrome, where speed means everything. For Internet Explorer, they wanted to make it much easier for the user to use, and with all these new features, you really can't expect to master them all easily. However, the IE8 team put together a bunch of videos which can help to explain these new features.

Here's the link to them: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=ie8videos.

Have you tried out Internet Explorer Beta 2? What did you think of it? There are lots of bugs in it, but their new features are definitely heating up the competition. Thanks you them, firefox had to add new privacy tools to match inPrivate browsing. Microsoft is taking a great step forward to making IE8 more user-friendly and keeping their customers happy. Although I don't see how their market share could possibly drop, it's obvious that this new browser will make web-browsing much easier for the ordinary folks who don't have the time or patience to install new browsers.

Why Zune is starting to gain traction

2008-09-17T16:52:00.007-04:00

Microsoft still has a long way to go, to catch up with Apple, or even SanDisk in the portable mp3 player market. Since their big update, there have been significant changes, but they still don't quite match up to the iPods. However, Microsoft's plan is a good one, and it can help them gain some significant market share over time.

There are 2 things that make Microsoft stand out, and is probably going to help them gain more market share.

1) Their new update was made available FREE to all existing Zune users. This means that they will build a lot of customer loyalty and expand their customer base. Unlike the way Apple does things, Microsoft has decided that they will approach this by not significantly upgrading the new Zunes, and instead adding new software features that will be fully compatible with the old Zunes. This was made possible because the original Zunes were made to be Wi-Fi capable, even though that wasn't very useful back then. Now that they have improved their Wi-Fi usage in their networking and new options for downloading/streaming music, all their Zunes can enjoy these features. It's always a hard decision when you are thinking of whether to leave behind the old users and bring new and better features to your device, or keep your existing customer happy by making the features available easily to them. Apple generally has left the customer int he dust by forcing them to get new devices for the new updates, or forcing them to pay extra for it. An example of this is with the release of the new iPod touches where you either have to get the devices, or pay $10 if you are currently using V 1.9. For Microsoft, they gain another advantage by making these new updates available to existing customers. Since many of their features involve using the network and sharing with other users, it makes sense that by expanding their customer base, they make these features better.

2) Subscription Music is something that Microsoft seems to stand alone with, although some might say that it is one that doesn't really help much. I find that with subscription music before, they were really limited in music options. However, this new update definitely improves that feature, by making it far easier for users to find music they like. There are now channels that users can use to find new music related to the genre, or that the Zune thinks they will like. These channels provide regular updates to keep up with the public tastes and new songs. It definitely can give users many more songs that they may never find otherwise. Along with the channels, there is also the Buy from FM feature that really adds to the potential of subsciptions. A study sponsored by Microsoft showed that radio stations still account for a large part of users finding new music. If Microsoft can expand their subscription music options further, or to make more music available through subscription music, then it can certainly attract many new customers and help to further improve their networks by bringing in more users and new music.

The Zune will not skyrocket in market share overnight, and even Microsoft said themselves that it would take years to seriously compete with the iPods. What Microsoft should be doing is use more of their resources to first overtake SanDisk and build up their customer base. If they can continue to make good decisions about whether to leave users behind or making updates available easily, then they will be well on the path to gaining more market share.

Hector Kabande

2008-09-16T21:33:00.002-04:00

The following post is sponsored.

Hector Kabande is a hotel executive with residences in both the US and Mexico. He is an expert in Mexican cooking and a specialist in the use of hot peppers. If you like Mexican foods, then can check out his website Hector Kabande. He is a distinguished cook that is famous for his spicy dishes. He currently serves on the board of directors for Grupo Lucerna.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed released, and George Lucas at the scene

2008-09-16T16:24:00.001-04:00

The new game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, went on sale today at 12:01 AM in San Francisco. George Lucas also showed up as the special surprise guest. The event was held on Monday night at Best Buy at the city's Misson District, where many fans flocked to, to witness the release of the latest and possibly greatest Star Wars game ever made. It's also thought by many to be one of the biggest hits of the year. It's unclear whether the game will become a best-seller but the store was packed yesterday at the launch.

George Lucas made his appearance when he gave a 2 minute speech, and for many fans, that was certainly a special treat. Especially because he doesn't make many appearances. For this game, he considers it to be the first Star Wars game an actual chapter of the overall storyline that begins with the prequels, Clone wars, and then the original films.

The game's main character,played by actor Sam Witwer, is an apprentice of Darth Vader, following his quest to seek redemption.
Plus, there's two new technologies being used in the game: A new Artificial Intelligence called Euphoria which makes sure things will occur differently each time even when everything began the same way. The second is digital moecular matter which is for making things more realistic by detailing closely something likean object smashing into something else.

During the event, people were allowed inside the store until it closed. Before it closed, everyone was be given a ticket that would guarantee them a spot in the line-up to buy the game. Not too many tickets were given out, only about a quarter of what was available (1000, so about 250 were given out). This statistic doesn't show anything about the hype for the game, as a LucasArts spokesperson wrote to CNET that pre-orders were high.
The only really interesting parts may have been when Witwer talked about his life as a fanboy and his auditioning for the role, and when George Lucas gave an interesting statement, "This is the first example of what we've been able to accomplish by putting (Industrial Light and Magic) and (Force Unleashed developer) LucasArts in the same building in (San Francisco's) Presidio," Lucas said. "So it was a great collaboration between the two of them."

EA drops hostile $2 billion takeover bid of Take-two

2008-09-14T18:13:00.004-04:00

After seven months of attempting to take over Take-Two, the publisher of super-popular franchise Grand Theft Auto, EA has finally dropped the bid.

It started out with friendly offers of $25 per share, which then became $26 per share, and went back down to $25.74 per share. The bid became hostile after several rejections by Take-Two as being too low, until last month when they went into private discussion.

"After careful consideration, including a management presentation and review of other due diligence materials provided by Take-Two Interactive Software, EA has decided not to make a proposal to acquire Take-Two and has terminated discussions with Take-Two," EA said in a statement Sunday.

This is quite a bit late, considering their original deadline was some time in February. After many extensions of the deadline, it seems they've finally given up. GTA 4 had $500 million in sales in its first week, which was a quarter of what EA was offering. Plus, Take-Two had also signed an agreement with Universal pictures to have Bio-Shock turned into a movie when EA was offering. I think Take-Two can survive easily without EA, and the fact that they're remained resilient even now, shows that they're not just some pushover.

It was in August that the two companies held private talks, which was also when the FFC decided to investigate into a possible merger. They then said no further action was necessary.

To EA, $2 billion just isn't enough, and right now, Take-Two is looking at a lot of growth without EA's money. There's no real reason to let EA buy take-Two.

Google new data anonymizing policy useless

2008-09-14T14:20:00.006-04:00

After much concern on the part of the public regarding privacy issues with Google recording User logs, they "appear" to be listening. However, Internet security expert Chris Soghoian, writing on CNET showed that the move was doing nothing to further anonymity.

Jacques Barrot, the EU's justice and home affairs commissioner thought the move was a good one, but Chris Soghoian asked for more information from google. Google said they would cut down the 18-month anonymity process down to 9 months by removing the last 9 bits of data in an ip address, then after 18 months, they would delete cookie data along with change the last 3 digits of the ip Address. This means that google will not be removing cookie data after the inital 9 months, and only hide your ip address among 1 hundred or so ip addresses.

Soghoian is correct on this matter, seeing as if only the ip adress is removed without deleting cookie data, it is extremely easy for google to identify you. Furthermore, the process will simply continue itself once more, every time you use google for searching. Unless you delete the cookie data manually. What this means is that google can identify you easily regardless of what you do, because you're only hidden among 100 or so addresses even after 9 months, even if you delete the cookie yourself.

On another note, google also claimed they would only store 2% of data they get from google suggest (which we talked about earlier after the Chrome release). They would also anonymize that 2% of data after 24 hours. Unfortunately for them, I think the public already knows enough of google's tricks to not believe google will be anonymizing anything. Saying something like we will not keylog you 98% of the time, isn't going to work. How can we possibly trust google that they will anonymize the data if they continue to disregard concerns, and use tricks like these? The answer, is that we can't. Google needs to stop this immediately, or they might just lose all customer faith.

3 Reasons why Spore (the game) + DRM = Recipe for disaster, and the truth behind the DRM

2008-09-13T14:19:00.013-04:00

A little late on the scene here we are, but there is a reason for that. So far, there's been a lot of mixed opinions regarding the new game that EA released called spore. Long before its release, many people were talking about it, and were thinking how great it was going to be. And now, it seems a lot of people are disappointed in it as well, for many reasons, like DRM, which we will discuss below.

First, before we start discussing the potential and problems of spore, let's just catch up with the basics (you could skip ahead if you want).
There are 5 stages in the game, each one being different from the others. You start off as an insignificant creature of mere cells, with a pac-man similar play style. Then you go on to become a creature on the land, being able to fight or to make friends and customize your "character".
After that, you get a tribe, and much of the play is still the same, except now you manage a tribe instead of an individual. Up to here, it's pretty simple, with a lot of themes that you may find in RPGs (except for the first stage).
Then we move on to a civilization. It becomes more of an RTS game but simplified by a lot.
The final stage is in space. This stage is extremely large, as you get to explore entire planets, create new civilizations everywhere, and a whole lot more.

What are problems here?

Problem 1. Everything except the space stage is way too simplified and boring. And then the space stage is a little too busy.

Stage 1 = Super boring stage with almost nothing to do except engage in pac-man like play, until you move on to stage 2
Stage 2 = Less boring stage with more activities, choices, but a lot of predictable behavior on the part of the AI creatures. There's nothing moving about randomly either, and the stronger creatures are all far away, very unrealistic.
Stage 3 = This is the same as stage 2, except now you have a tribe.
Stage 4 = The most boring RTS of all time. You barely have to do anything here. Just keep sending vehicles to the enemy cities and you win.
Stage 5 = Suddenly, you have so much to do, that you'll be overwhelmed. Actually, it's not really THAT much, but just think of random alerts every few moments, you'll have to tend to all your civilizations' every needs, hostile attacks, getting spice to sell, and it's really just too much. A lot of this stuff should be automated. You have way too much to do in this stage, and you have nothing to do in the other stages. What the game needs is more balance. Up to here, all the stages have been extremely boring. This stage changes all that, and I suppose some people would think this stage is worth playing the other stages to get to. Many people would enjoy this stage because of the busyness.

Problem 2. Customizations do nothing for your creature.

Ok seriously, this game was supposed to make every person have a unique experience, and make everything customizable with a lot of choices to be made, that would affect the outcome of your creature. Yes, there's a whole lot of parts/customizations, but do absolutely nothing for your creature. You can only choose a very limited amount of parts because the rest of the parts don't have the stats that you need to continue moving on in the game. No matter how good something it looks, if it doesn't have the stats, it's pretty much useless. The customizations have no effect on your creature, as everything is determined by stats, and certain evolutionary choices you make, which causes everything to be very limited. A unique play? I don't think so. Innovative? Sure, with the creature editor and all, but if they don't do anything, why bother?

Problem 3. The big bad monster known as DRM.

The biggest issue right now (and I mean big as in 2000+ 1-star reviews on Amazon.com, and counting) with Spore, is DRM. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. There's nothing wrong with DRM in general, it's just that most people find this particular method of DRM in Spore to be very annoying and makes things a lot harder than it should be, when you're looking for a good game to play. So how is DRM implemented?

First, you have to register the game upon your first installation and you have to verify your registration and installations. All this must be done ONLINE! Which means you cannot install it offline, unless you get the pirated version. After you register your product, you only have 3 installations for that particular product key, until you have to call EA to get another one, while they treat you like thieves. Yes, I realize they said it was supposed to be 3 machines, but it's not. Every time you change your OS, upgrade it, upgrade hardware, get new graphics cards, anything, it counts as an installation. If your initial installed computer cannot run the game, then you just lost an installation. If you get a boot sector virus, there goes another. This isn't right. People don't pay to be harrased like this.
That's not it either, SecuRom, which is the DRM method EA uses for Spore (like they did with Mass Effect), is basically a virus that auto-installs itself without telling you, or getting your confirmation/agreement. There is no way of completely getting rid of SecuRom without wiping out your hard drive and reinstalling the OS.

Is this really necessary? Does it prevent hackers from hacking the game? Not at all. In fact, this has made many people turn to pirating simply to avoid the hassle. The pirated version still came out before the official release and it's even easier to find it for this game than many games without copyright management. Nobody wants to pay $50 to rent a game 3 times.
What's more interesting is that the DRM was not meant to stop hackers. Nobody officially said it, but it's almost undoubtedly true, that the DRM is in place to stop second-hand users from buying second hand. I'm sure EA knows they can't stop hackers. that's why they're trying to stop another "leak" of money. Many second hand buyers buy for much cheaper than the original price, and none of that money goes to EA. You see, the second hand market is very large as well. It may be on par with the amount of piraters out there. Think about it, why is there only 3 uses? Obviously, this prevents people from selling their game, because the buyer would no longer be able to install the game if the seller installed the game 3 times. The buyer would also not be able to ask for more installs because they wouldn't have proof of purchase.

No wonder the public hates EA. I would say Spore is not that bad of a game, because of the space level, and inovation involved in the game. It has a lot of good concepts, but it's too simplied on the lower levels. And unfortunately, it's a little late to be a great hit. With the DRM in place as well, the game was completely ruined. Maybe EA will learn in the future. Maybe they should stop harassing magazines and other companies to block hateful reviews. I have new respect for Amazon, showing that they care about their customers by not deleting the 1-star reviews from people who didn't buy the game because of DRM. We can only hope that EA learns to do the same and fixes the issue.

Gates and Seinfeld 2nd ad out, but still no Microsoft

2008-09-11T21:51:00.004-04:00

Today, the 2nd ad of Microsoft's ad campaign to rebuild the Windows image still abuzz once more, but there's still not much Microsoft! It was a two-part commercial, where Seinfeld and Gates move in with a family to connect with them. They are getting closer and closer to actually promoting Microsoft, but not quite there yet.

I would've expected this commercial to include something related to promoting Microsoft, instead of another opening campaign commercial. This commercial is probably one to increase the alrready high level of notice that people have for Microsoft in general. Perhaps they want to make sure everyone is ready for when the real commercials kick in.

So what exactly IS in the commercial? Well, Seinfeld and Gates are moved in to a normal family, try to connect with "real people". Then they manage to annoy the teen girl, by forcing her out of her room, and then they get set up to look as if they stole a family heirloom. Finally, they decide to leave, with Gates saying, "You're not so real." Then they walk off, and Gates does the robot dance. Right afterwards, there's a little bit about the PC. It says Perpetually Connecting, then PC, followed by the Windows icon.

So it seems they're getting into the product promotion stage, and starting off the image building process. Their plan? Microsoft spokesman Eric Hollreiser says, "It allows you to have a different kind of conversation after you've disarmed (the audience) a bit."
On the next commercial, there's got to be some more product promotion. Afterall, these commercials do cost a lot, and they need to start getting somewhere. If you'd like to watch a video of both the 1st and 2nd commercial, just head to the windows homepage.

Apple brings back NBC Universal, at a price

2008-09-10T20:28:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, the Apple event took place, and a part of it included the announcement that NBC Universal would be coming back to iTunes. But it comes at a price, and one that has finally been decided on after a year of negotiations.

It was in August 2007, that NBC pulled its shows from iTunes. They had some conflicts with Apple concerning the product pricing. NBC wanted more freedom with their prices, while Apple accused NBC of wanting to raise the price of their shows to $4.99 each from $1.00. To many Apple lovers, Steve Jobs was protecting them from high prices.
Apple, however, has given in to NBC's terms. Now NBC will be charging $0.99 for older titles, $1.99 for regulars, and $2.99 for HD shows. They can also offer special packaging prices. Ever since the separation a year ago, Apple has been slowly losing their grip on the pricing of video content on iTunes. Earlier this year, they had allowed more freedom for other companies' pricing of their shows.

It's probably better for Apple to at least have the shows on iTunes, even if they aren't very happy about the pricing. Unless iTunes becomes a huge retailer of video content, it's unlikely that Apple can convince companies like NBC Universal to agree to their own terms. For now, the re-addition of NBC's shows will be happy news for many iTunes users.

Apple had also not much selection for movies and films because they had always asked companies to accept a price lower than the DVD price. Apple simply refused to price anything over $14, but has now settled for just having the content on iTunes at all.

"Frankly, ever since we dropped our relationship with Apple last fall, they have made a gradual progression culminating in (Tuesday's announcement that NBC was returning to iTunes)," Perrette told CNET News. "Originally, Apple had no film content (from the major motion picture studios) on the service because they were asking the film studios for years to accept a price that was below their DVD price. Apple realized it wasn't worth the fight anymore and they were better off to just have the content. So they agreed to the pricing that was at least equal to the DVD pricing."

As for the new HD options, the higher prices will be mostly better for the companies providing the shows. That's "because the delivery costs are Apple's issues. We get the benefit of most of the price increase between $1.99 and $2.99," as stated by Perrette.

As aforementioned, iTunes will not be able to hold an iron grip on the prices of video content because they don't have enough of an influence on the market as of yet. That's why iTunes, being the biggest retailer of music with nearly 20% of all music sales in the U.S., can easily control the prices of the music it sells.

New iPods attacking the Zunes

2008-09-09T19:52:00.005-04:00

It was only yesterday that Microsoft announced the release of their new Zunes. And now today, Apple announced the release of their new iPods.
Which is one is the better one? Well, there are upsides to both, and also downsides to both.

The pricing of the Zunes and the iPod nanos and classics are the same, so there will be no advantage there. Unfortunately for Microsoft, new features on the iPods such as the shake shuffling and voice recording are unique to the iPods. However, the Channels feature from Microsoft may be a bit better than the Genius feature.
With NBC coming back to Apple, and the addition of HD shows, the iPods leave the Zunes in the dust, as the zunes upgraded practically for video.

Microsoft still did not add the web browser features to the Zunes, so the iPod Touch is still in the lead here. But now that Zunes can download music with Wi-Fi connections, those looking for less expensive or less feature filled products can find a solid product in the Zune. But the iPod Touch is clearly the best option for a better and more feature filled experience. the iPod Touches also have much more and better games and apps, while the Zune only has 2 games.

But all is not lost here for Microsoft, as there still seem to be no subscription service to be offered by Apple. That means that the Zune subsciptions will be a big difference, allowing users to easily get whatever songs they want without having to keep buying every song, especially with the new Channels feature. Another thing is the Buy from FM feature that may be an easy way for music listeners to easily find and buy new music from using the 450+ radio stations.

I supposed the Zune is still probably better and rightly aimed at hard-core music listeners, but the iPod will appeal to a broader range of people, with more features that don't all have to do with music. If you're one of the people that'd like the cooler iPods and the better video service, then the iPod is probably your choice. But if you're some who loves to listen to music, and doesn't really care about other features, then maybe you'll like the Zunes better music focused features. There's no doubt that Zune could become bigger competition to the iPods in the future, but for now, iPod will probably win another battle.

Record of the Apple event 2008

2008-09-09T17:46:00.007-04:00

Today, September 9th, 2008, was the Apple music related Event, which was held at San Fransico at the Yerba Buena for the Performing Arts.
Now, here's is a FULL LIST of what happened during the event, in order.

Before the official start at 10:00 am (Pacific), there were performances by Rolling Stones, The Who, and Credence Clearwater Revival.
And then it starts, with Steve Jobs coming out, and says. "Before we do, I just wanted to mention this." He puts a line up on the presentation screen: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

He starts off with iTunes, "We're very pleased to announce that we have 65 million user accounts on iTunes." Then he tells of new HDTV shows that can be bought with iTunes, costing $2.99 each, and can be viewed on computer or apple TV. Next, NBC is also coming back to iTunes (more on that later).

The new iTunes 8 is the big news, which improves accesibility, which was a big demand by many customers. There's also new browsing options and a feature called Genius. He goes into a demo of Genius, and Genius works by assembling playlists for you based on patterns which are tracked annonymously by a central server after you click on the Genius button and the results will update per week.
He continues to Demo iTunes 8, with all its new features of sorting and viewing in tiles, etc. iTunes 8 is now available as a free download.

Next up is the iPods. The classic is first, and now there's a 120 GB model to cost $249. Then there's the new iPod nanos, which combine, just like rumored, the sleek design of the older nanos, and the same display as the wider nanos from last year.
It's got taper edges, curved glass over the screen, the accelerometer and a new user interface. It's also the thinnest nano they've made yet. The new UI has Cover Flow, and the track listings from the iPhones and Touchs. Plus, now you can also tilt the nano on its side and the picture will go with it. Genius playlists can also be created without being connected to iTunes. Steve then demos the new nano features, including the feature to shake the device and shuffle the songs.
He talks about the different models, colors and pricing, plus the new headphones.

A new iPod Touch is coming out, thinner, with integrated volume control, the built-in speaker. It's also got the Genius feature and the App store. Steve then announces that over 100 million Apps have been downloaded from the App store since its release. Now he goes to demo the new iPod Touch, which are mostly the same. Then Phil Schiller (Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing) comes up, while Steve Exits, to demo 3 new games to be released for the touch: "Spore:Origins", "Real Soocer 2009", and "Need for Speed:Undercover".

There will be an 8GB, 16Gb, and 32GB model, from $229, $299, to $399. OS X 2.1 will also be released with these models. Users who paid for the 2.0 release will be given a free update. But people who have not upgraded to 2.0 will have to pay the $9.99. The update will also apply to the iPhone, which will fix many of the issues that people are talking about such as the reception.

Finally, Steve invites the special guest to come up on stage, and he is Jack Johnson, the best selling male artist of all time on iTunes. He plays 2 songs, and the event is over.

We will shortly have updates on some of the important announcements made at the event.

Google Partners with NBC Universal to sell TV ads

2008-09-08T20:49:00.003-04:00

Google and NBC Universal will be partnering up to sell TV ad time, with Google acting as the broker for advertisers to reach NBC's cable networks.
The two companies said that the ads would focus on the channels Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller, with more that may be on the way. Google had already been in the TV ad business when it partnered with EchoStar communications.

They will continue to provide the service using adwords, and so the Ads will still be bought using a bid system. Google will also be providing up to second information on the Ads for advertisers.

"The Google TV Ads platform is making television advertising more accountable and measurable and we're pleased with our progress to date," Tim Armstrong, Google's president of Advertising and Commerce, said in a statement. "Our partnership with NBCU will help us bring the power of television to a broader set of advertisers as well as give our current advertisers increased reach through our system."

Google's partnership with Nielson will also allow advertisers to see how their ads are getting across to viewers. With the addition of NBCU, advertisers can now reach far more people and perhaps get better demographics information. It's possible that TV ads will become increasing dependent on the Internet, as it provides an excellent way of letting advertisers know how TV ads are reaching people, and who they are reaching, and what times/regions are the best.

New Zune update with lots more features

2008-09-08T19:47:00.001-04:00

Microsoft has released an announcement on the upcoming Zunes with a lot of new software features, and some hardware upgrades as well. They are still about the same shape and size, but now there's a 16GB flash model and a 120GB hard drive model.
What changes have taken place? Well, there's the two new games on it, but not much that's unrelated to music.
Now, there are a lot more new features that let users get more music and listen to music via channels. These new channels are regularly updated and could be provided by radio stations, microsoft, or even your Zune.
Along with the ability to buy songs using a Wi-fi connections, you can also subscribe to Microsoft's Zune pass which costs $15 a month to be able to stream music on the web. Unfortunately, there is still no browser in Zune, and the Wi-Fi features don't work with Wi-Fi connections that use a browser interrupter.

And then there's the new feature that lets users buy music from FM stations. Upon release, there will be over 450 stations available so that's a lot of choice. Big names like Clear Channel, Citadel and CBS will be providing their services and then you can mark down a song for later purchase with the Buy from FM feature.

It seems that Microsoft will have 1 day of being in the Spotlight before the Apple event starts, with the expected iPod updates and such. Some might say that the Zunes are more advanced in terms of music related features, but the Zunes simply don't have enough features for people who'd like to use it for some other things as well.

Launch Week '08

2008-09-08T19:29:00.003-04:00

This is Launch week '08 now and there's going to be over 100 new products/companies to be released. Unfortunately, that's WAY too much for us to cover here, and most of it isn't all that important anyway, but if you'd like, you can check out the Live Streaming of TechCrunch50 at TechCrunch, and you follow DemoFall + TechCrunch50 releases at Cnet, in the form of articles. As well, if some product that is very interesting gets released, we'll also post an update here.

Silverlight Vs. Javascript - Chrome Vs. IE - Who will prevail?

2008-09-07T10:22:00.011-04:00

The battle's on, the heat is burning up, and all eyes look to the onslaught before us. This could be one of the biggest browser battles of all time! Maybe bigger than the IE vs Netscape from years ago.
This time, it's also a battle between 2 different technologies: year-old Silverlight, and old Javascript.

With the coming of Google Chrome, Javascript has become a lot faster. Many people would say Javascript could become a serious competitor to Silverlight, and that's probably true. But in time, I'm sure Silverlight will win out. Although Javascript is becoming faster, that's because of browser speed. Silverlight isn't necessarily dependent on that. As Javascript and Silverlight are in two different languages, there may be a lot of compatibility issues with websites in the future. Most would think Javascript is more convenient as anyone can use it already. However, Silverlight already has a significant install base, as anyone who watched the oympics online using msnbc would have had to install Silverlight.
Javascript still lacks in many key aspects of the web world, and even though these aspects may soon emerge on Javascript, I think Silverlight will beat Javascript, simply because it's not restricted in the way that Javascript it.

As for the matter for Chrome vs IE, there's no doubt who will win. As I've already explained in previous posts, IE is just much better than Chrome, even if Chrome is much faster. Firefox is generally a much better browser than IE, and yet IE is still the clear victor. If you want to know why IE will probably win this browser battle too, then just check the earlier posts I made after Chrome was released, especially the one entitled "Why Google Chrome market share won't go up too high".

I would say more updates are coming, but I think there have been enough updates, and updates will only come if something very important comes up. As well, on Tuesday, we'll have coverage of the Apple event, so look forward to that.

Microsoft's hyped up ad is buzzing with nothing

2008-09-05T17:12:00.004-04:00

What's up with the new ad that depicts Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld? It's barely related to Microsoft! So what is up with all this talk about it? Everyone seems to think the ad is useless. Well, I don't think so.

Think about it like this: Microsoft wanted everyone to start talking about their ads, to give it lots of attention, and maybe strengthen the brand name. Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld are both iconic figures of our society. I'm sure most people have AT LEAST seen or heard their names somewhere. Now we've got this combination of the genius who became the "corporate villain" and then uses the money to give back to society, and then we've got the Jerry Seinfeld persona.
Most people are probably thinking the ad was a complete failure, but it's actually going according to plan. Microsoft wanted to start conversations and make everyone talk about them. It looks like it's going the right way. The ad was probably a way to kick off their campaign, although even to me, it seems a little TOO much about nothing related to Microsoft.

Soon, with the next few ads and commercials, they will start to introduce their products, and try to make everyone think that their products are the standard and that you can trust them. I suspect that this strategy will cause a lot more anticipation and talk about the next few ads than if they started with an ad that was promoting their products. It's obviously something that people may want to pay more attention to, now that they feel as if Microsoft did it wrong the first time. We'll just have to see how it plays out, and it'll likely continue to be an effective marketing plan.
We'll post updates as soon as I can get them. Be sure to subscribe to our feed if you don't want to miss anything!

Xbox 360 with a major price cut

2008-09-05T15:59:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday, Microsoft announced they would slash the prices of their Xbox 360s, with the Xbox 360 Arcade version going down to $199! Now I know Wednesday was 2 days ago, but we were busy checking out Chrome, and so we're gonna talk about something a little different now, even if it's a little late.

So, why are they cutting prices? Well, they want to be more of a competitor against the Wii. You may or may not know this, but since the Wii was released, it sold more units than the Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 combined. Plus, the Xbox 360 was at the low end of the triple competition. You can guess than Microsoft would want to sell some more units as the holiday season comes along.
As well, the Xbox 360 will be priced at $299, and Xbox 360 elite going for $399.
But it's really not all about the price, although I'm sure the Xbox will sell more units now. However, Microsoft's gotta take into consideration the profitability of such. Most people probably bought the Wii because of the new innovation, so they will probably continue to buy the Wii. However, with these price cuts, people who don't have the budget for a Wii, can now get an Xbox 360, which isn't all that bad except it doesn't have the motion controller.

Would you buy an Xbox now because of the price cuts? Tell me what you think with a comment.

Google Chrome getting your private information

2008-09-03T21:27:00.007-04:00

Google has always been somewhat ignorant on Privacy, and with their new browser, it won't be any different. With their search engine, all our searches are monitored and stored, but that really wasn't much of an invasion into your privacy. However, maybe this time, google's gone too far.

Sure, google said they would take back some of their terms, and they did, its just that, those that they took back weren't the real problems. According to Google, they will be storing 2% of the data that you enter into the browser address bar, and the search bars, also known as the Omnibox, which is used to returning relevant results before you search or type the whole address in, so that it makes it easier for you. However, google is going to track the terms and characters you type, even before you press enter or click the button. What does that mean? It means if you use the backspace key to erase what you wrote, or decide not to search after all, google will still know what you wanted to write, or at least what you already wrote. Along with the data that google plans to record, they will also be recording the Internet Protocol Address (IP address) of the individual computer that comes with it.
But this is only when you have the auto suggest feature turned on, but it's on by default. You can also avoid sending information by using the Incognito feature or changing the default search provider to other than google.

You've really got to think about what google is trying to do here. I supposed some people will just say that it's better to have this information with google than some other company, but I think it's wrong for any company to have such information. Maybe it would be less impacting if the IP address weren't also stored. Google needs to realize that some or most people want to be able to surf privately.

On a side note, it seems that google wants to compete against Microsoft's OS dominance by using a browser based system to replace the OS. However, this can't possibly happen for a long while. There are a lot of uses for a real OS, and there will be more to come. Just because most people seem to use the computer for the Internet, doesn't mean the OS is unimportant. Try to imagine doing everything you currently do on your computer, with a browser. Strange isn't it? Or maybe not so. After all, we have to use Windows Explorer to look for things. But the key thing here is that the OS does more than just that. A lot more. And if you pay attention to what you do with your computer on a regular basis, I'm sure you'll recognize that. So stop the talk about google being a huge threat to microsoft. Microsoft isn't idling either, you know. I agree that google is going to cause some changes, but it's not really going to cause a major shift in market share of browsers and the OS.

Why Google Chrome Market Share won't go up too high

2008-09-03T16:41:00.008-04:00

This is a follow up to our previous post from yesterday when Google Chrome launched. You've probably heard what the analysts have said, but I will say what I think is going to happen here. I'm sure you all know how slow Internet Explorer is compared to other browsers, and yet it still holds the dominant market share position. In the day that Google Chrome released, it has already gained 1% market share. But it probably isn't going to go up much higher than that and there are many reasons for that. I highly doubt it will ever overtake Internet Explorer, unless google starts making Operating systems as well...

Let's take a look at the three main groups of browser users.
1)Ordinary people who are too lazy to get a new browser. After all, it's just browsing, what do you need in a browser?

2)People who are volatile in terms of browser usage, the people that actually care about which browsers are better, and have the time to change.

3)Developers. Generally, developers would want to know exactly what each browser can see, and their compliance with their websites. Obviously, they would want to try out the browsers for themselves, and maybe do some testing here and there.

Out of those 3, which do you think is the biggest group? If you guessed 1, you are right. In fact, 1 is about 3 times larger than the rest combined. This is illustrated by the fact that there are 3/4 of people using the internet that uses (possibly) the slowest and most inefficient browser out there. If they're sticking to Internet Explorer like this, it's probably because it is preinstalled for them, and they don't want to bother doing anything. This category is unlikely to change because of this.

The second category may change to google Chrome, however, Google chrome is severly lacking in addons and cuztomizations or features that all the other competing browsers have. I think most people will just stay with what they have, unless chrome gets a significant update and gets a lot more features in the full release.

This last category is the smallest of the 3, and developers WILL have to try the google chrome. However, for the same reason as the one above, they will probably just be trying it out, and then going back to using their old browser.

Really, IF google chrome does gain significant market share, the biggest loser will be Firefox. Although it is unlikely that they will gain significant market share. Why would firefox be the biggest loser? Because Firefox users use Firefox for it's capabilities and customizations, unlike the IE users, who use it because they don't care about their browser. Don't expect Chrome to suddnely surge up in market share, because it's not going to happen. Of course, just like the IE8 Beta, Chrome is also still in beta, as such, more components may be added, which will have an impact on their success.

There will be updates as soon as they happen.
Be sure to subscribe to our feed to get more updates as quickly as possible.

Google's new Chrome Browser Comes out with a bang!

2008-09-02T20:20:00.008-04:00

Google's new Chrome browser beta came out today, and with a lot of buzz all over. The thing that everyone is talking about, is just how fast it seems to be, even being able to run Javascript many times faster than browsers like Firefox and Safari. If you want, you can download it here.
What's google saying about this? Well, they wanted to make this browser to increase the competition between browsers, and wanted to add speed to web browsing that had never been achieved before, thus allowing more code to be added to web pages, or allows developers to make bigger programs to run on websites. They seem to value Javascript as one of the key components of the web today, and no without good reason. As such, their Chrome is able to run Javascript at extremely high speeds.

Google's success in general has always been based on speed. This was the case with their search engine, where they found people searched more if the pages loaded faster. Now they're going to apply the same logic, and it's probably great that they did. When you think about it, Chrome probably won't be able to overtake Internet Explorer, simply because people won't go to the trouble of downloading a new browser, and that most people seem to think Internet Explorer is the standard (after all, it's named Internet Explorer...). But google is saying that they will consider a much improvement IE9 to also be a victory for them. It seems that google is almost guaranteed a success then, in their terms.

Why is google's browser this fast? It's because of 2 things, one of which is the Webkit project that Safari also uses, and the other is probably the more important one, a new V8 project to run Javascript faster. You can find more information about this project here. Javascript has been one of the fundamentals of the web pages, but it unfortunately runs too slowly conventionally. In our earlier blog post, I explained about Firefox 3.1's new TraceMonkey and the logic behind it. Well, google also believes in the importance of Javascript.

Exactly how fast is Chrome? Well, you can see a chart for the comparison of browser speeds at CNET news. Keep in mind that these tests are based on google's own, so they may not be exactly accurate, but the figures probably won't be too bad. It's really astonishing to see a comparison like this; you'll see what I mean after you click here. Now if only google will add extensions and customizations etc, then it will really make lots of people use it. If this doesn't significantly impact Microsoft on their current IE8, then I don't know what will. 3/4 of people currently use IE, and that's really unfortunate, seeing how slow IE is compared to other browsers. Microsoft better step it up before Google adds extensions and customizations, or they might just lose a lot of their customers.
More updates on google chrome will come later.
Tags: Google, Internet, Chrome, Browser, Speed, Javascript, Firefox, internet explorer 8, Safari, V8 Project, Microsoft, Google Chrome, BlitzTech Blog

Microsoft finally shows new interest with IE8 Beta 2

2008-08-31T19:59:00.005-04:00

A while ago, Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 was released to the general public which meant it was ready for some general testing. Most of the new features on IE8 were created to catch up with all the much better competing browsers. However, there were some good new features that make it unique. Of course, lots of criticism has also come up, saying how bad IE8 compared to other browsers like Firefox. But it's a Beta, so you shouldn't expect too much from it. I was pretty surprised to see how far IE8 had progressed from IE7, but it still has a ways to go.

Here's a brief review of the unique features of IE8 Beta 2:

The accelerators, which were called activities in Beta 1, are definitely a great improvement and very useful tool in general for most people. With plenty of different activities to choose from, and probably plenty more to come (it's open to developers so custom accelerators can be built), it'll provide convenience for the users. It's kind of like AnswerTips except with a lot more options.

Web Slices is also a new feature that is helpful to get you the information you want from your favorite websites without having to load them. I personally won't have much use for it because I don't check for updates to things much but they are useful and you can think of it as a mini feed reader that reads websites instead of feeds, which is quite interesting.

Their new tab system is also much improved and shows that they are starting to innovate on existing features. Now, tabs are color coded in groups, so that whenever you click on a link to go to a new tab, the new tab will be in the same color category for easy browsing. You can also close groups of tabs together.

They've also got the visual search which is in my opinion pretty useless. It really doesn't do anything to help you search for better results unless all the search results look the same except for the images.

By the way, if you haven't tried beta 2 yet, I suggest you don't. It's highly unstable and has many bugs which are bound to happen because it's still a beta. There are enormous amounts of errors that can occur, and it sometimes closes by itself randomly. Fortunately, their backup system is great! It actaully boasts the ability to back up your tabs properly and quickly. Also, it can just close one tab after it finds that only one tab is responsible for errors.

That pretty much sums up IE8 beta 2, except I should mention that with IE8, the IE line of uncompliant browsers will stop. Now, webmasters' two CSS sheets are no longer for IE and the other browsers, but instead for IE7+under, and IE8+firefox and all the other compliant browsers. I hope IE8 will prove to be a great browser. After all, IE still holds the dominant position in terms of market share, which means most people are still plagued by IE7's lack of features and performance and are putting up with it by being too lazy to switch, or just want to be loyal to Microsoft. IE8 still has a lot of catch up to do, but at least Microsoft seems to be finally showing some interest in this browser field.
Tags: Microsoft, Internet, Internet Explorer, Accelerators, Web slices, IE8B2, IE8, BlitzTech Blog

Competitors take aim at iPhone 3G holes

2008-08-31T12:32:00.009-04:00

The latest craze has been all about the iPhone 3G, getting over 1 million sales in its first weekend. It's the phone that everybody's just been waiting for, and you can bet there's lots of competitors that are jealous. With lots of iPhone hype all around us, it's become the the coolest gadget you can get. Unfortunately, nothing is ever perfect, and such is the same with the iPhone. Although, we're not exactly sure who to blame for the latest network problems that many American iPhone users have experienced in the San Francisco area.

Right now, most people are blaming AT&T for the network problems on their 3G high speed network. Apple's got a great track record of delivering well when it's called for, and there are millions of Apple fans out there that believe Apple can do no wrong.
I personally believe it's something to do with Apple. I don't think AT&T is really causing the problems here, seeing as 3G users in other countries are also experiencing reception issues. Whether or not it has to do with the chip from Infineon, is beyond me. From what I can gather from users themselves, it seems that it's not just certain cities that experience the problem. It seems that some people who live in the same area have conflicting experiences, which is strange. AT&T's network is generally reliable for almost all the other mobile phones they provide service for. I suspect that it's a communication problem between the iPhone, the new radio chip, and AT&T's network. Perhaps the dropped calls are because of Apple's software, and the network problems themselves (like low signal qualities) are caused by the new radio chip. Anyway, enough of an intro, let's get back to our main topic.

While the iPhone is suffering from plenty of complaints, Verizon is trying to take advantage and claiming that their 3G network is better than AT&T's. Verizon is doing its best to tell everyone how bad the iPhone is, and how they offer better services. Verizon's Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon corporate communications executive, has been sending tons of messages almost daily for the past two weeks, informing analysts of the various articles and blog posts concerning the issues with the iPhone 3G network. They seem to be bent on making everyone see it their way. Who wouldn't? With a massively popular device like the iPhone, competitors will no doubt love to cause an uproar and perhaps steal some of the iPhone's glory.
Are you going to switch to Verizon because of this? Probably not. I think even existing Verizon customers who have switched to the iPhone and experience these problems aren't likely to switch back. AT&T and Apple may not be giving any information on these 3G issues, but that may just be because they don't have much experience working together, when both of them like to have full control. Verizon, I've heard has incredibly bad customer service and hasn't changed at all. Sometimes I wonder why people are still using Verizon at all (although, their network and products are pretty good, it's only the customer service that needs some improvement).
Despite these recent problems, I think the iPhone is going to stay a long time. In the future, people will probably even forgot that this ever happened. I just hope Apple and AT&T can resolve this soon, so everyone will be happy. There is a lot at stake here for both these companies, and I think they will be able to meet the expectations of everyone. But for now, if you're unhappy with the status of the 3G network, just temporarily use Edge whenever your signal is bad. More updates later if anything happens.

Update: I almost forgot, but if you want to help fix this issue for everyone and are an iPhone user, you need to get the update that was released earlier. I think most people have probably already gotten the update, but it's important that everyone gets the update, because, if you don't get it, it doesn't just affect you, it's pretty much a network wide problem, so if you haven't gotten it, get it immediately.
Tags: iPhone, Apple, AT&T, Verizon, 3G, 3G network, Infineon, iPhone 3G, BlitzTech Blog

Audio ads for internet radio saving the industry?

2008-08-30T15:16:00.004-04:00

Web applications like Pandora, Imeem, Shoutcast, and a host of other related sites provide access to Internet Radio. Those sites are just some of the most popular ones out there. Unfortunately, Royalty fees have been going up and up, ever since the decision was made by the Copyright Royalty Board for the following per performance rate in creases:

2006 - $.0008 per performance
2007 - $.0011 per performance
2008 - $.0014 per performance
2009 - $.0018 per performance
2010 - $.0019 per performance

These rates are far too high, and it's been a long fight for lower rates. At the current rates, most of the revenue produced on even large webcasters are been eaten up. Since last year, many webcasters have even closed. However, there may be a solution, and that solution is to find new revenue sources, such as audio ads.
Most webcasters rely on ads on their websites, but it is possible to use ads directly on their services to gain more revenue. While this may be a great way to get more revenue to sustain themselves, it also might be annoying to a lot of listeners.

Just think, hearing an ad after every song? Well, it might be annoying, but just like the video ads on many video sharing services out there, we'll have to put up with it. Otherwise, those services may be just gone. It's a part of service evolution. I think it's a great idea to start using targeted audio ads. With the new iPhones and mobile technologies, a lot more people are also using free online internet radio services more. Pandora said their growth rate was up almost 40% thanks yo the iPhone. These services are becoming more popular, and there has to be a way to provide it for free. If the royalties are causing so much distress, then maybe audio ads and other new revenue sources will be a good sacrifice to keeps these sites going.
It's a large industry that's going to keep growing, and higher royalties aren't going to stop it.
Tags: Internet Radio, Royalties, Copyright Royalty Board, Pandora, audio ads, ads, revenue, news, mobile technology, BlitzTech

Dear Adobe Vents are getting to Adobe

2008-08-30T13:16:00.006-04:00

In our world, we have vents all over the place. But do they go where we want them? It seems that indeed they do, and are a backdoor to sneak in stuff, whether it's people like in those movies, or the air for a refreshing breeze. Dear Adobe, a site that lets people rant on about Adobe Systems Software is clearly getting to Adobe.
So what is Dear adobe exactly? It's a site that started when Erik Frick and Adam Meisel had a conversation "complaining about Photoshop. Both of us being Web design nerds, we figured, 'Why not create a forum for people to vent? Who knows, maybe Adobe will listen," as written in their Dear adobe blog post.
Well, Adobe certainly heard about it. Photoshop Principal Product Manager John Nack recently wrote on his blog about Dear Adobe, and saying

Just because it would be unprofessional of me or others to rant about this or that aspect of the company in public, don't for a second think it's not happening behind closed doors. As I remind my teammates, "I swear because I care"--and I care a lot, at high volume. It is, to borrow a phrase, "an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about."

I guess there will always be a way for complaints to get somewhere. Are you a regular user of Adobe products too? Then maybe you should go and rant about stuff as well. Maybe your own comments will get heard too, after all, even a a statement like "You f___ing f___ers should be in jail just for calling that software" was heard and given a reply from Caleb Belohlavek of Adobe.
Tags: Adobe, Dear Adobe, Rant, complaints, photoshop, BlitzTech

Better Satelite imaging resolution from google to come

2008-08-29T13:38:00.010-04:00

Soon, Google will be upgrading their satellite imaging by using a new higher resolution satellite for their services. Google maps and Google Earth are two such services that use Google's current satellite imaging technology which, at its worst, can only be used for large geographic objects at 15 square meters per pixel.

The new satellite will be provided by GeoEye, and in their deal, google will be the exclusive right holder for the use of GeoEye's satellite for an online mapping service. It also includes the placement of the google logo on the satellite itself. This new satellite will be able to provide resolutions of 41 cm but under the liscense with the U.S. government, google will only be allowed to provide 50 cm resolutions.

I think this will probably be a useful upgrade to google maps for people who like to pick out specific locations on their map. Although, I really don't think this higher resolution will actaully do anything to help the majority of people. Google's current technology can already see individual houses, and there's not much more beyond that, that people need. Perhaps it will have a better use in the future. Would you like this new resolution? Leave a comment and discuss it here.

Youtube isn't safe from the lawsuit yet

2008-08-28T16:08:00.000-04:00

As I post earlier about the Youtube case and how Youtube is probably going to be more confident but not exactly safe yet, this is pretty much a confirmation of that, with some more reasons, and details.
Like I said before, Veoh complies with the DMCA and removes videos upon request. This is probably the biggets distinction between Veoh and Youtube.
The copyright infringement lawsuit that was filed by Io Group against Veoh, was filed BEFORE Io Group asked Veoh to take down the video (I'm not sure if they did at all...). That's basically the biggest reason why the copyright lawsuit didn't go through. Veoh is clear about taking down videos that are infringing on copyright, and they do complies with their policies. All the companies have to do, is just ask them to take it down (basically alerting them about the problem). Now Io Group it seems decided to start filing their infringement lawsuit before telling Veoh anything. Obviously, Veoh's not in the wrong.

With Youtube's copyright case, Viacom had actually told Youtube about 100,000 times to take down the videos before suing them. The thing is, Youtube had been responding if only slightly. What we should note here is that the veoh victory was probably benefitial to youtube but they're not fully off the hook. If Viacom can prove that Youtube's business is based on piracy as was done in the Napster and Grokster cases. I think, really, the win in the copyright infringement case just puts in stone what online video sharing services should be doing and what they can't do. As long as Youtube continues to follow their current policies (or even adds better rules). Plus, Youtube is going to start using some more antipiracy technologies in September, which I can think will prove that youtube is taking measures to stop piracy and this will likely be a stump to Viacom's lawsuit.

PS: As I was writing this post, somebody told me youtube might close in september. Now that's just foolish (no offense). First, google buys it for $1.65 billion and now they wanna clsoe it down? I don't think so. Second, if thye were gonna close it, why plan to use new antipiracy technologies? If you have any information about this rumor, give a comment.

Veoh defeats copyright lawsuit

2008-08-28T13:16:00.001-04:00

I'm sure we all know what Veoh is. And if you don't, well Veoh is a video sharing website just like youtube, except it also has a bunch of features like Veoh TV, internet TV and lots more. Anyway, since Veoh is like youtube, and youtube has been complained against for copyright infringements, there's bound to be lawsuits and complaints against Veoh too, especially now that it's becoming much more popular than before.
Veoh has just recently won their copyright infringement lawsuit. The copyright lawsuit began in 2006 by Io Group and has dragged on for a while. Veoh managed to defend themselves by saying they complied with the DMCA laws and the court found that this was the case. What exactly did they do?
Well, Veoh said that their program was self controlled and thus they had no active role in it, which meant they couldn't control what went on their website. Plus, they also deleted videos that copyright owners asked them to delete. This is no doubt true and IMO it's quite fair.

With this new victory against the copyright infringement lawsuit, Youtube has more confidence that they too will win the battle against Viacom's $1 billion infringement lawsuit. This was the statement from Google that was on a Wall Street Journal post:

It is great to see the court confirm that the DMCA protects services like YouTube that follow the law and respect copyrights...YouTube has gone above and beyond the law to protect content owners while empowering people to communicate and share their experiences online.

Unfortunately for Youtube, simply because Veoh won their case doesn't mean Youtube will as well. There is a very important reason for this. And IMO, Veoh is a completely fair video sharing website while Youtube may have some problems in their case. (Not that I'm against Youtube, just that they need to brush up their system) You see, Veoh actually holds liscensing for many or some of its videos from copyright owners. Youtube, on the other hand does not. The court also issused a statement about other unscrupulous video sharng websites not being able to hide under this protection. It may have been referring to sites like Youtube. Though, I don't think youtube is likely to be defeated. In fact, I don't think any website that immediately removes video content upon request is going to be defeated.

Getting past spam filters with Art

2008-08-26T17:20:00.001-04:00

ASCII art has been around for a long while. But news is, it can be used for getting past spam filters.Recently, there have been much more of this kind of spam than ever before. You may soon see some of this spam as well in your inbox (Yeah, I said inbox not junk, not a typing error ).
Most spam filters detect spam by keywords or url links that filters detect as spam websites. However, with ASCII art, spam filters won't be able to detect the spam messages. This is because the art is basically a huge number of characters that together form a message while individually meaning nothing. Unfortunately for the spammers, we have no need to worry about this because of its current inefficiency.
By using this technique, spammers can't use clickable links and the messages can easily be unclear even to the reader. This makes the spam messages pretty useless. If you'd like to find out more about ASCII art, you can jsut search it up, and you'll probably find a lot of generators for ASCII as well.

Javascript Speed up on Firefox 3.1?

2008-08-24T21:43:00.001-04:00

Mozilla programmers are creating a new feature to come in Firefox 3.1 called TraceMonkey which they say will drastically improve the performance of Javascipt items running on Firefox.

Many of you probably noticed even if you're not very familiar with online applications, that most web based applications involving image editing or 3D graphics or other things that Javascript generally doesn't run fast with, are compiled with Adobe Flash or other such technologies. Apparently, this new feature of Firefox will allow Javascript to run twice as fast as it currently does on Firefox 3. For many tasks involving Javascript, their speed will be several times faster.
Tracemonkey is a just-in-time compiler. Javascript is usually interpreted by the browser line by line as the program runs, which is a much slower process than if the software was precompiled into a binary file (such is the case with normal software). It seems that TraceMonkey's name is made of two key aspects of this feature. the Monkey coming SpiderMonkey, firefox's current interpreter, and Trace for the tracing technology that TraceMonkey uses to find the most important parts of a javascript software and also find the loops of activity that occur. Tests have already shown TraceMonkey's effectiveness and it will probably be first implemented in 3.1 Beta.
I myself am a Firefox user, and in the time of this writing, I'm using Firefox 3. I will be glad to see this come through 3.1 as well as the other new features. If Javascript can load much faster this way, then perhaps we'll see a much more widespread use of Javascript and in new areas.

The Qwerty Keyboard

2008-08-24T14:54:00.001-04:00

This is our first Helpful answers post, and I hope you will like it.

For those of you who have always wondered about "Why do we use the Qwerty Keyboard?", you can now relax and see the answer here.
Some of you may think or just assumed that it is the best keyboard style perfected for speed. This is not the case. There are two important stories here that will make you understand the impact and history of the Qwerty Keyboard. We'll start with why we use it.

I don't really need to go into deep detail here, so I'll just give you the short story. Basically, in the 1870s, an inventor created the QWERTY keyboard because the alphabetical keyboard caused people to type too fast, when the technology was yet to catch up, causing lots of problems and "clashes" with the keys. Eventually, after a long time of trial and error, this keyboard was created with the brand name "TYPE WRITER" being able to be typed only using one row (first row). The Qwerty keyboard is far from being the perfect keyboard, when most people are left (edit, sry I meant Right) handed, and most keys that the English language use a lot of are on the left side.

Now, let's take a look at how people got the misconception of QWERTY being the fastest keyboard around. This is actaully quite ambiguous but it really boils down to a challenge that somebody had from somebody else. It goes like this, someone with the alphabetical keyboard challenged a QWERTY user in a typing contest of some sort. Most people used the 4 finger type and peck method of typing at the time, including the challenger. However, the QWERTY user hired a professional typer who memorized the whole QWERTY layout and who used the 8 finger typing method. I'm sure you can guess who won and how much faster...

And that's the end of this Helpful Answer post. Remember, you can always ask questions in the comments if you'd like to see your own question answered.

BlitzTech Update August 2008

2008-08-24T14:34:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, this is a notice of some recent changes and some upcoming changes to Blitztech Blog.

As some of you may have noticed already, the site look has changed sginificantly, including the background and colors. A number of minor changes have also been added to the blog or deleted. Here's a quick list of all or most of the changes that have taken place here at BlitzTech.

1. Background image
2. Header and sidebar colors
3. More sidebar gadgets like the latest software gadget on the left sidebar and the new Technorati favorite gadget on the right side bar.
4. There is now a PayPerPost button under every post, where you can click to review our posts and get paid for reviewing our posts.
5. The author link in the comments section have now been made DoFollow.

Now we can move on to the upcoming changes. Although none of these will be absolutely sure, I just want to give everyone an idea of what might be coming and possibly explain some things. Soon you will see some posts that are not Labeled. These are probably posts that have nothing to do with the topic, or just advertisement posts that I don't want to categorize. Any posts that tell you it is sponsored does not necessarily mean its my endorsement.
I'll also be introducing 2 new sections, the Off-Topic Section, and the Helpful Answers section that some of you may not understand their purpose. (I only explain sections that readers ask me to explain or that I deem to be confusing). First, the Off-Topic Section is really, just off-topic posts. It may have to do with recent events or my personal experiences with certain products. The Helpful Answers section is somewhat of a Q&A section where any readers can post comments on any post with a question, and you will likely find an answer in that section soon after the comment post. On top of that, I will also provide useful information about certain technological products or interesting information that I find.

This will be all for now. Stay tuned for next month's updates, as our blog is ever expanding and changing. Don't forget to leave your feedback in the comments. Remember, BlitzTech is now DoFollow for all author links, as updated this month! If you want to support our blog, there is currently no donation options and probably never will, but you can always use the buttons provided under every blog post to review our posts, or share the news!

Google Searches just keeps climbing

2008-08-20T09:14:00.000-04:00

As you can easily see from the chart on the left, Google's searches in July have grown 16% while Yahoo and Msn have both gone down around 10%. Google's growth rate has also exceeded the total growth rate of Searches by 13%.
In June, Google's searches rose by 19%, while total searches rose by 6.3%. Obviously, it seems that more and more people are searching, and picking google to do their searches.

Enterprises downgrading from Vista

2008-08-19T17:41:00.001-04:00

I've always suspected that the claimed higher sales of Vista from Microsoft's studies were simply because they wouldn't offer XP anymore. Maybe now we've got some confirmation. An article from TechNewsWorld (click here to view) is talking about how Devil Mountain Software conducted a study of over 3,000 machines and concluding that 1/3 of companies are getting the pre-installed Vista computers or just buying Vista and then downgrading to XP.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-Microsoft. Never was, and I'm actually in support of Microsoft. I just think that if Microsoft wants to claim higher sales for Vista, they should also tell us about how many people are exercising their downgrading option. I personally see no reason for such companies to downgrade. If you've already got Vista, why do anything about it? It's not like Vista really hampers your work. My personal experience with Vista is that it's a really good product with is better than XP was with just some problems that need to be fixed.

Although the study was probably inaccurate as well. There's been 180 Vista liscenses sold and only 3,000 machines were studied. There's really no way to prove any of these surveys seeing as they can just select a group of companies that hate Microsoft or something similar to that. And then Microsoft could select a bunch of pro-microsoft people for their studies. The only thing you can really rely on is probably experience and your friend's experiences with these things if you want to know if you should get Vista. If that question is bothering you, refer to my earlier post called Vista or No Vista.

U.S. mobile phones sales are going down

2008-08-19T17:15:00.000-04:00

With the economic slowdown and lots of competition in the mobile phone market, sales are going down.
Apparently, the sales volume is going down about 13% while the sales revenue went down 2% this 2nd quarter as compared to last year's. Contradicting this is the rapidly increasing sales overseas. Nokia, for example is selling more and more phones globally.
The drop in sales in the U.S. is not surprising, especailly when you consider that most people already have phones and are bound to contracts which make it difficult to upgrade. Obviously, the same factor is applying to other countries, except that it's the other way around because most people in other countries don't already have cell phones and are not bound to any contracts.

Despite all this, companies are now selling more expensive phones than ever. New popular phones with tons of features like the iPhone and the new Blackberries are being sold at a much higher rate than before. The only problem is, prices have been slashed since the first quarter, so the expensive phones aren't that expensive anymore.

All this probably had to come sooner or later. It's just a matter of time before companies currently producing phones and selling in the U.S. are going to have to make some serious changes to their marketing plans and possibly a major shift to global marketing.

New Search Innovation from Microsoft

2008-08-19T16:50:00.000-04:00

As Microsoft continues to trail search giants Google and Yahoo at 3rd place, they seek to attract more of the market with their new search innovation which could also raise certain questions.
This new idea is based on using previous search queries and search patterns of the user. They believe that by doing this, they can make searching easier for the user, seeing as "often users use search engines to explore subject areas broadly", as said by Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft's search, portal and advertising platform group.

The problem here is that by monitoring search patterns to produce results like this, the information can also be used to further target audiences with ads. This could also lead to higher priced ads. The main problem is with the intrusion of privacy. Basing ads on keywords is much less invading than if the ads were served to highly targetted audiences based on their searching pattern.

In my opinion, this is really nothing to worry about. It's a small price to pay for better searches, and I don't think it really affects anything. If you don't want to be bothered by the ads, then jsut don't look at them or consider them, seeing as they're probably not in your search results anyway. I generally have a policy of not clicking on the ads unless the companies' websites actaully appear in my search results as well. I also don't think that changing the search results by relevant patterns will help much. It's not like a search result is going to move 2 or 3 pages because of this. Though if it does, then maybe it will help.

iPhone vs. Blackberry Bold

2008-08-18T16:13:00.003-04:00

I've seen a lot of different articles in different places talking about how the iPhone will be competition to the smartphone lines from Blackberry. This is very inaccurate for the consumer. It should be that the Blackberry is competition to the iPhone, and even then, that still sounds bad, because it's an obvious choice of which one is better, unless we're talking about the older versions of the iPhones and Blackberries.

Here's why:
1) The new Blackberry bold is far too expensive even with a contract and will probably be outrageous without a contract, with Rogers listing the Blackberry bold for $399 on a three year contract with further expenses from the plan. That's even more than the 16 GB iPhone!
2) The New Blackberry also has only 1 GB of Storage which means that you can store far less on your Bold than your iPhone.
3) The overall hardware specs are no match for the iPhone, especially when you consider that it's more expensive than the iPhone. Plus, for the consumer market, the iPhone apps and capabilities are probably much more attractive than the Bold.

However, it's a different story for the corporate world, seeing as many of the Blackberry Bold's applications are very useful in the corporate world. Businesses will probably see the Bold as a viable competitor to the iPhone for now, unless the iPhone can seriously improvement on functions such as email, text messaging, and other functions required by businesses.

In my opinion, the iPhone certainly gets you more bang for the buck as the hardware is much better, and when you have the hardware, the software comes easily.

BlackBerry Bold to hit Canada

2008-08-18T13:43:00.001-04:00

This week, the New Blackberry Bold 9000 will be coming to Canada via Rogers Communications Inc. This new blackberry is a high end model that matches the screen resolution of the iPhone but not the screen size.
Rogers will be the sole carrier for the new Blackberry Bold in Canada and AT&T will be the sole carrier of the Bold in the US.
Rogers has not disclosed the price of the coming Blackberry but it may be extremely expensive.
The Bold was already released in Germany, and for comparison, here are their prices.It's about 459.95 euros ($680 US) without a plan. And with a plan, it is 129.95 euros ($190 US).
Apparently, according to a leaked image on CrackBerry, Rogers will be charging $399 with a 3 year contract. Although this image may be false, it seems to look pretty official. Generally, with a 3 year contract, it really shouldn't be that expensive, being even more expensive than the iPhone. But we'll have to wait for the price to be confirmed.

Although the iPhone is going to be a serious competitor in the smartphone business, most people think the Blackberries are better for emailing and messaging because of the keypad instead of being touchscreen. The Bold will only be the first of many models Research In Motion plans on releasing. They say they will release a touchscreen model called the Thunder.

Live Mesh Expands

2008-08-18T13:15:00.000-04:00

Microsoft announced the expansion of their Live Mesh in a blog post. If you didn't know yet, Live Mesh is a software to allow synchronization among many devices, which you can find more info on, if you search up Live Mesh.
Previously, this service was only available without a wait list to the USA, but was then expanded to include the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. It has now been expanded to also include Canada, India, and Ireland.
They still have a limit to the users they'll allow to their preview without a wait list so those who want to take advantage should do so quickly.

Microsoft creates a new blog for Windows 7

2008-08-16T15:19:00.002-04:00

Microsoft has recently created a brand new blog with the topic of Windows 7. their first post was on the 14th and we can anticipate more information about Windows 7. However, they have learned from Vista, and so they are being more cautious in releasing details of their new OS.
In their second post, they wrote,

"We, as a team, definitely learned some lessons about “disclosure” and how we can all too easily get ahead of ourselves in talking about features before our understanding of them is solid. Our intent with Windows 7 and the pre-release communication is to make sure that we have a reasonable degree of confidence in what we talk about when we do talk. Again, top of mind for us is the responsibility we feel to make sure we are not stressing priorities, churning resource allocations, or causing strategic confusion among the tens of thousands of partners and customers who care deeply and have much invested in the evolution of Windows.

As Vista required significant hardware investments to run it and also had many problems when first released, Windows 7 promises to deliver a much improved Vista. They will no doubt fix all or at least most of the problems that happened with Vista. By the time Windows 7 finally comes out, the hardware world will have greatly improved and will likely be able to meet with the demands of their Windows 7 Project. For everyone who held out on buying Vista, it's only a year and a half away from a (hopefully) much better OS.

Should Companies pursue legal action against Mygazines?

2008-08-16T14:54:00.000-04:00

    Mygazines.com is a site that allows users to share view magazines online. However, this is obviously going to cause copyright problems.
It first launched in late July, with no ads and being free to join. Digital copies of magazines could be easily read and commented/rated on. Time Warner's Time Division says that they want to try and shut down the site. But for Mygazines, it seems that they have escaped being prosecuted by law.
Their domain name is registered in the Caribbean and its servers hosted in Sweden. Thus, U.S. copyright law will be unable to prosecute them.

    I think the real question is whether or not the magazine producers should pursue legal action at all. When digital copies of magazines are uploaded and viewed, the original ads from the magazine are also exposed. Theoretically,the magazine companies could then charge more for space advertising because of the higher exposure of their magazine. It's common knowledge that many magazine companies deliberately take a loss in newsstand sales simply because they want more public exposure for their magazine, which allows them to charge more for advertising. Most magazines generally make their money off of advertising and not actually single copy sales, or even subscriptions. Plus, when people view the magazine online,the magazine companies can save on printing costs.
    However, the biggest disadvantage here, would probably be that many magazine companies would lose out on subscriptions and advertisers might refuse to view the online exposure as public interest in the magazine. Though I believe that to be unlikely. Obviously, if magazines could charge more for advertising then that would make up for lost sales and then some. As Mygazines is still very new, we'll just have to wait and see how it plays out. Post a comment and tell us what you think of this situation.

200,000 iPhone Order Possibility

2008-08-14T13:19:00.000-04:00

HSBC the global banking company is considering to possibly order 200,000 iPhones and adopt it as their official corporate mobile device. That would mean that they could leave behind the BlackBerry Smartphones.
This is a huge decision and could lead to a massive iPhone order. When the iPhone was first release,many companies were unsure of whether or not to standardize it due to lack of availability and little support for Microsoft's Exchange email platform.Both of these problems have been fixed and companies can now consider switching to the iPhone.
Although the iPhone has been very popular for the individual consumer, it may not be fully suited by corporate use. However, Apple has added new tools to the new iPhone 3G to support corporate use.

It seems to me that the iPhone has good points and is probably as capable as the BlackBerry in terms of corporate use. However, the BlackBerry's superior email capabilities may keep them alive for the moment. It really all depends on how much more popular the iPhone can become. If the iPhone continues to gain popularity, it's possible that more and more companies will start to consider using the iPhone as a standard.

D.C. Tech lobby group behind the scenes

2008-08-14T09:04:00.001-04:00

A Washington D.C. Tech lobby group may be the secret authors of an article which Mel King placed his name on,on the Harvard Crimson.I found this to be very interesting in many ways. You can see the original article that I saw here.

As the article points out,Mel King placed his name and an opinion piece that was completely contradictory to what his position was previously.This pro-Comcast article may have been written by LawMedia Group which Comcast hired.That would account for the article being so contradictory.
LawMedia Group is emerging as a highly secretive group that is lobbying for all kinds of companies including Microsoft, whom the represented to lobby against the Google-Yahoo advertising deal. That there are such lobby groups doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is how incredibly secretive they are.

Until just recently, it appears that their websites was mostly full of password-locked pages. No clients,no employee names,no founder names,and no principals are given either.
Unfortunately for LMG,they've been found out and are now in the spotlight. the media had discovered that they may have had to do which certian anti-walmart op-eds supposed to be authored by Charles Steele Jr. And they are once again in the spotlight now.

It seems that LMG was highly involved in King's op-ed.Perhaps an obvious fault by LMG was placing the exact same statement from a letter supposedly witten by Rev. Jesse Jackson in King's op-ed. "People of color make up 33 percent of our population but own just 3 percent of all broadcast TV stations--and research shows that the number of owners is plummeting at alarming levels." Obviously, either someone from LMG copied it, or happened to be the same author and just reused it to save time. Even stranger is that Jackson denied having made the statement even though it was in the letter to the Federal Communications Commission.

If LMG wrote such statements for all these people, then who else have they been writing for? What about other companies? And exactly how deeply involved has LMG been in these topics? It seems to me that as time goes by, the truth will slowly unravel itself, regardless of how much LMG tries to hide or deny it.

Olympic Digital Fireworks

2008-08-13T13:01:00.001-04:00

Ever since the the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics of '08'08'08 was broadcast everywhere, everyone's been talking about it. However, it seems that even the opening ceremony used some digital editing. Apparently, the Olympic footage of certain fireworks including the 29 footprints were edited into the video. Of course, the fireworks did happen, it just that they were prerecorded for safety reasons.
It was a very good simulation and I don't think it's really that big of a deal. I think it shows how much dedication the Chinese have to put on the best show they could safely. Even the helicopter shaking of the camera and the Beijing pollution was simulated.
I believe that such an act does not merit any concern and after all, it was a great show.

Unwrapping the 3D with Unwrap Mosaic

2008-08-12T16:21:00.002-04:00

This brand new technology demoed by Microsoft (Click for Video) is capable of allowing people to edit certain things onto video objects as easily as it can currently be done with digital photos.

"What we've done is built away of patterning the essence of a video in a single pattern," said Andrew Fitzgibbon, who presented the technology Tuesday at the SIGGRAPH trade show in Los Angeles. The key to that technique is that unwrapped or flattened image."

The research technology was dubbed Unwrap Mosaic. Like it name suggests, it works by unwrapping 3D objects into a sort of flat image.
Here's what I think of it. It's a great advancement, but it was to come sooner or later. Although the aspect that really differs from the editing in the movies I find quite interesting. If anybody wants to edit a face, then in the movies, it would be done by using a model of the face. But this brand new technology can edit moving video directly. Although it remains a research technology for now, we can hope that it will become widely available soon.

Vista Or No Vista?

2008-08-12T09:34:00.000-04:00

    Ever since Vista came out,everybody's been complaining about it. But the real question is, should you get vista? This question is asked a lot by businesses who are unsure of whether or not they should upgrade to vista. Less frequently is it asked by consumers.
    This questions really isn't all that hard to answer. Let's start with businesses.If you have yet to upgrade to vista now, then it's probably best never to upgrade to vista. After all, XP will receive critical support until 2014 and the new Windows 7 will be released in 2010. It seems obvious that, due to Vista's lack of positive feedback, if you don't already have it by now, just don't get it. Unfortunately, it may not be as simple as this. Microsoft said that it would easy to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, but they didn't say anything about upgrading from XP to Windows 7. Although this shouldn't be too much of a problem, it is something to think about. If you already have Vista, then there's really no need to downgrade to XP. XP is not significantly better than Vista, and Vista does boast considerable security benefits.
    Now we move on to the home use of Vista. Well, the best advice I can give you, is just stick whatever came with the computer, unless the operating system is below XP. All these operating systems don't really make that much of a difference in day-to-day use unless you're a hardcore gamer or something like that.Even then, Vista isn't a bad choice. If the computer came with an Apple operating system, then I'd still suggest that you stick with what it came with. Changing it is really just a waste of time for the average home-user.
    And that's the end of it. Let's hope that Windows 7 will be much better than Vista.

Blitz Tech Goes live!

2008-05-20T16:56:00.006-04:00

At long last BlitzTech is here! Welcome to BlitzTech, everyone! For everyone out there, who was waiting for us to finally go live, this is that day! BlitzTech is now ready to show its face to the world out there, and hopefully, you'll like what we have to say.

I'm sure now that BlitzTech is live, you're wondering what we're going to be talking about here. For one thing, you can check the description of the site! But seriously though, I can guarantee that there whenever there's really big news in the technology sector, you will see it here. Also, be sure to look out for the many product reviews that are coming. Unfortunately, these reviews will not be with us for a bit, but they will soon. We will soon implement a strategy for you to browse our soon-to-be vast database of information.

Don't forget, if you ever have any comments, feel free to give them whether its about the site, article, product, or anything related. You can do so by submitting a comment directly via the comments button or you can also submit feedback by emailing me at (don't email me lol, use the comments feature. But if you must, the email listed for my profile isn't going to work because I don't use it, so use this: billpwnsyou[at]hotmail[dot]com).