Daily Bits

noemi

Old Spice’s Isaiah Mustafa to Gizmodo & Kevin Rose

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You’ve probably seen the videos by now – they have become a viral hit in a matter of months. The hunky Isaiah Mustafa made his debut in this viral marketing campaign in February, and is now as recognizable as any other male model or actor out there – perhaps even more so for people who [do nothing but] watch videos on YouTube all the time.

Now, they are stepping things up a bit. Mr. Old Spice himself is taking on questions from his countless followers on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The idea is simple: you ask him a question and he just might reply to it via a special video dedicated to you. [Read more…] about Old Spice’s Isaiah Mustafa to Gizmodo & Kevin Rose

Pirates Under Attack

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The Pirate Bay is arguably the best known file sharing web site today. This group has risen to fame over the years due to their service of providing millions of users around the world with all sorts of files – many of them considered to be illegally shared. There was a time when The Pirate Bay was taken down and was temporarily “closed.”

Recently, it has been quite active again, with users continuing their file sharing activities. This time, though, The Pirate Bay came under attack – from a different source. A group of researchers from Argentina took it upon themselves to show the vulnerability of the site.

What they did was to hack into the system, compromising the data of more than 4 million registered users of The Pirate Bay. The group announced its “feat” in their blog, Insilence.biz, and went one step further by outlining the specific details of how they did it. This is what they have to say:

As any other website, as any other system or mechanism, www.thepiratebay.org has robust parts and soft spots. We [believe] that the people behind this [community] always acted with the local laws on their side, and so have we. The community caused problems to huge companies and corporations[,] which turned into threats between this companies and them. What we have done, we did not do it with anger, or for commercial value. As always, we saw the change, the moment and decided to take it. The protocol or procedure done to achieve this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary…

Just like many of the commenters in their blog, I do not totally understand why they hacked the site. Perhaps it was out of a twisted sense of justice? What do you think about this move? Is it justified or is it a mere publicity stunt?

Say Goodbye to Facebook Gifts

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The Facebook Gift Shop is closing its doors starting August 1, says Jared Morgenstern in the Facebook blog. In the announcement, he says:

The Facebook Gift Shop is closing on Aug. 1 as we focus instead on improving other products. As of that date, you will no longer be able to give new gifts from the Gift Shop.

The gifts you’ve already received on your Wall will remain visible, and you still will be able to view your sent and received gifts on your gifts page. People also can continue to use the many third-party applications on Facebook for giving and receiving gifts, such as Birthday Cards, Hallmark Social Calendar, Pieces of Flair and someecards.

If you are wondering what the “other products” are, he mentioned such things as Photos, News Feed, Inbox, games, comments, the “Like” button and the Wall. I suppose these areas could use some work. I would have liked to see “Chat” included in that list since we all know how buggy Facebook Chat can be.

In terms of purchasing currency on Facebook, it seems that we are going to be seeing more of Facebook credits now. These credits are going to be used to purchase everything that can be purchased on Facebook. This includes premium items in Facebook games. And, just so you know, Facebook is earning 30% of all sales made for Facebook Credits. Yup, there had to be some business ideas buried behind the decision somewhere.

How do you feel about the closing of the Gift Shop?

Be Your Own App Maker With Google’s App Inventor

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Don’t you sometimes find yourself wishing for an application that actually meets your needs? While there are countless apps – some free, some paid – out there, I am pretty sure that there is at least one app that you wish someone had thought about. The next step is wishing that you could actually make an app yourself.

While not everyone does not have the programming skills necessary to create an app, there are tools that can equip the average person to do just that. Enter Google’s App Inventor, which has been dubbed by The New York Times as the tool that will “bring Android software development to the masses.”

This software is free to general public, and it will allow practically anyone to come up with his own app for Android. Google is promoting the software as being as easy as pie to use:

To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a developer. App Inventor requires NO programming knowledge. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app’s behavior.

The interface and the whole concept are quite simple, but Google is quick to point out that simplicity does not mean less power. In fact, they are placing a lot of emphasis on the potential of this software. If anything, I think this might be one of the factors that can push Android phones to the public as a more viable alternative to the iPhone.

Stay Safe On XP SP 2 After July 13

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If you haven’t already heard, tomorrow is quite an important day for Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 users. After tomorrow, Microsoft will no longer be providing automatic security updates for this version of their operating system. More information about this in my post last month.

If you’re really concerned about this issue, the easiest fix is to ditch XP, right? But it is totally understandable if you do not want to do that just yet. More so, there are ways by which you can continue to enjoy a relative degree of security while continuing to use XP SP2. Here are some tips.

Stick to XP, but upgrade to XP SP3. This version will continue to receive automatic updates till August of 2014 – that’s a long way off. You can either download and install SP3 using Windows Update, download a disc image (for use in more than one machine), or buy the installation CD (only $3.99).

If you really want to continue using XP2, here’s a simple fix that can increase your security: stop using Internet Explorer, if you haven’t already. I know very few people who continue to use this Internet browser for so many practical reasons. If I were you, I’d go with Chrome of Firefox (which has a new beta, by the way).

Here’s a no brainer – make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date and reliable. This is assuming that you already have one installed. Even the free ones are pretty good, and they usually prompt you for updates anyway.

Bluetooth 4.0 Available This Year

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Good news for enthusiasts of mobile devices – Bluetooth technology is stepping up! Before the year is over, we will be able to use mobile devices with Bluetooth 4.0. Version 4.0 was just recently approved by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. This means that the manufacturers of mobile devices will now have access to the necessary tools to use the technology in their products.

What are the advantages of Bluetooth 4.0 over the current version? Perhaps the biggest attraction of this technology is the fact that it uses considerably less power than the previous versions. The implications of the low power consumption are immense. For one, concerns about using electronic devices in sensitive areas due to potential interference can be forgotten. With the amount of power being used by the technology, it will not really be a problem. Batteries are also going to be much smaller – just like coin-cell batteries for little devices such as wristwatches and the like.

More than that, in spite of the low power consumption, 1 megabyte of data can be transferred at a time using Bluetooth 4.0. Of course, it also comes with the same capabilities of Bluetooth 3.0, such as sending as much as 25 megabytes of data via Wi-Fi 802.11.

In spite of the very recent approval of the technology, it will soon be available. It may not mean much to the average consumer at this point, but once manufacturers incorporate Bluetooth 4.0 into more devices, it should catch on.