After the hacked accounts fiasco a few months ago, Google and China look to be locking horns again. Google is leaving China out of its new Nexus phone market. Now, considering the phone hasn’t been proven as a big seller yet means this could either be ok for China. It also could be real bad for China if the phone takes off. Read more details here.
Beware the sudden relationship status chages in Facebook.
This just in from MSNBC, it appears that digital dumping is on the rise. If you are dating someone and your sweetheart is a Facebook friend and their relationship status changes to single, chances are you have been dumped. Hopefully you get more of a warning, but there are some out there who are changing their realtionship status and that’s it. That’s cold. I don’t mean to go Dr. Phil on anyone here, but if you plan to end a relationship, respect the other person and do the honorable thing by doing it face to face or voice to voice.
Fox News has a story on the behind the scenes workings of Apple that helps explain how the company is able to keep tight wraps on details of their newest technology. Stop reading this and go read the story.
MSNBC has an interesting story concerning long-distance romances and relationships. Before the internet, long distance relationships lived and died by the phone and written letters. Now, there’s instant messaging services, Facebook, or Second Life among other methods for fanning the long distance flames. I have to wonder how this will affect the quality of relationships. Now, before you start calling me one of those “Back in my day” curmudgeons, think about this. When you have to guage your contact with the cost of a phone call or you wait in agony for the next letter from your sweetheart to arrive, when you finally connect, the feeling is much stronger. Flirting over the phone or in a risque love letter increases your desire to be with that person. And when you do arrange to see each other, each moment is special, whether you’re taking a walk or just sitting on a park bench. Carrying on a long-distance relationship via the internet removes some of that. You don’t get a chance to miss that person, or even learn whether that person is right for you. Maybe I am a “back in my day” curmudgeon, but I wouldn’t have lived my dating years any other way.
King Tut, arguably the most famous Egyptian pharoah, a subject of mystery dur to his young and very short reign of Egypt, under went DNA analysis and the findings are quite fascinating. It turns out Tut was the son of his mother and father, which is obvious, but that mother and father were really brother and sister. That’s right, Tut was inbred. It was this inbreeding that led to his medical problems and early death at age 19. If you want more details, go read the article here.
Adobe announced today that plans are still on track to release Flash 10.1 for smart phones later this year. Flash is used to play videos and games on Blackberries, Androids and other smart phones. Unfortunately, Apple’s iPad and iPhone will not be on the list of compatible gadgets. So if you’re looking to get spruced up videos or play the latest games on your mobile device, Flash 10.1 will be out later this year.
Microsoft is making another attempt to capture more of the smart phone market with a new software release. While they won’t be selling the actual hardware, they will be offering software for phones that resemble Windows 7. Read the whole article here.
Suzanne Choney at MSNBC is hypothesizing that we have reached a point of technological overload. With the release of the iPad, another portable computing device, Google Buzz, another social networking site, and 3-D TV starting to emerge, people seem to be getting tired of technology changing every other day. In the 1990s, it seemed that a piece of technology would come out and provide a unique service for a number of years before another piece of technology provided the same service with additional features or at a cheaper price or in some revolutionary new presentation. Now, it seems that new technology doesn’t even last a year before the supposed next big thing comes out. So what do you think? Have we finally reached the pinnacle of technological saturation or are people’s personal checkbooks making us more cautios buyers?
Well, I really shouldn’t be surprised, but in a way I am a little. Google is looking to get into the Social Networking niche with Google Buzz. This is incorporated to Google’s email service and will allow users to post status updates very similar to Facebook. As first glance, that appears to be all it can do, but knowing how popular Facebook is and all the bells and whistles that it has, don’t be surprised if you start to see social gaming apps. Facebook recently overhauled its layout to mixed results. Some people don’t mind it while others hate it. If enough people hate it, they may be tempted to go over to Google Buzz. This may be perfect timing for Google.
Randy Sarafan is releasing a book titled “62 Projects to Make With a Dead Computer (and Other Discarded Electronics).” In it, he details how to turn old technology into something completely different and useful. While my favorite is not the most practical use of old tech, I love the idea of the 8-bit Nintendo controller as a belt buckle. I grew up in the heyday of the original NES, so that’s why it’s my favorite, but some of the other ideas are more ingenious. Check some of them out at MSNBC.com.
