Computing – Page 18

A New Twist In The Rogers “Cheaters” Lawsuit… Others Claim To have The Same Issue With Rogers

June 18, 2010 Doug Groves billing, cheater, IT Nerd, Nagy, Rogers11 Comments

[The following is an IT Nerd commentary…] You’ll recall that a woman is suing Rogers for $600,000 claiming that Rogers exposed her affair by consolidating her Rogers cell phone bill with her now ex-husband’s and that I didn’t think her chances of winning were all that high. The plaintiff held a news conference yesterday and claims that others have had the same issue that she has had with Rogers:

Crowd sourced funding and distribution brings Pioneer One TV series to life

June 17, 2010June 17, 2010 Doug Groves bit torrent, crowd sourcing, Kickstarter, P2P, Pioneer One, torrent, VODO, vodo.net4 Comments

It was just yesterday at NXNEi that we were talking with Perry Chen, one of the founders of Kickstarter about how the site has really helped facilitate crowd sourcing funding for creative projects, and how it can really help independent creators off the ground. Even as we were talking to him, a Kickstarter funded TV project called Pioneer One saw the premiere of it’s pilot episode (includes .torrent link), via crowd sourced distribution network VODO.net. Pioneer One, which is political thriller with a science fiction element as it’s jumping off…

Sony Ericsson announces Xperia X8, pushes up X10 2.1 update, and win an X10 from Rogers for Father’s Day

June 17, 2010June 17, 2010 drsquid 2.1, Android, Android 2.1, contest, Rogers, Sony Ericsson, X10 Mini, Xperia, Xperia X10, Xperia X810 Comments

Today Sony Ericsson confirmed the existence of the recently leaked ‘Shakira’ mid-sized Android smartphone, when they officially introduced the Xperia X8. While Rogers has not confirmed, or even hinted, that they will carry this phone, it makes sense that they will, since they currently carry the Xperia X10, and will soon have the X10 Mini. The X8 fits in-between these two phones, in both price and size, and sports a 3 inch screen, 600 MHz CPU, 3.2 MP camera, and runs Sony Ericsson’s Timescape UI. This phone takes the best…

NXNE – fairly interactive

June 16, 2010June 16, 2010 Doug Groves Evan Ratliff, Interaxon, Kickstarter, NXNE, NXNE 2010, NXNEi, Perry Chen, Vanished, Ze Frank, zefrank5 Comments

As the inaugural year for NXNE interactive (NXNEi), the annual festival played it fairly small, with the focus being on a number of panels and conferences leading into the much larger music and film component. With a number of fascinating panels, from brain-computer-interfaces by Interaxon to established internet artists such as zefrank and a presentation from Kickstarter, which crowd sources funding for art projects across many disciplines, NXNEi was definitely about establishing online connections, not just in the business sense, but on a more personal and human level. Sometimes it…

Astroturf Bill C-32 groups started by CRIA

June 16, 2010 Doug Groves astroturf, Balanced Copyright For Canada, bill C-32, copyright, CRIA, DMCA, Michael Geist, RIAA1 Comment

There are a number of citizen’s groups that have formed around the new Canadian copyright bill C-32, nicknamed the DMCA for Canada. Most of these groups are real people concerned about changes to Canadian copyright policies in the digital age. Now, via Michael Geist, comes the story of Balanced Copyright for Canada, a group preteneding to be ordinary citizens, but apparently created by the CRIA (Canadian Record Industry Association don’t you know). They’re making use of the same social media tools that grassroots organizations on either side of the argument…

NXNE 2010 kicks into gear

June 15, 2010 Doug Groves Film, Iggy And The Stooges, interactive, Music, North By Northwest, NXNE, NXNE 2010, NXNEi, Toronto2 Comments

It was a different world when Toronto’s NXNE (North By Northwest don’t you know) started out in 1994 as a music festival, based on the model by sister event SXSW (South By Southwest, natch). Even in the early days, NXNE was an ambitious affair with dozens of venues and enough bands, and music lovers, to fill them up. Since then the festival has grown and evolved, adding the film component in 2001, and most recently introducing NXNE interactive. Although nothing so big is expected here, it was at SXSW interactive…

Boxee Box delayed until November

June 15, 2010 Doug Groves Avner Ronen, Boxee, Boxee Box, D-Link7 Comments

When the Boxee Box (hardware by D-Link), was announced late last year, they originally planned a launch by Q2 of this year. Although rumours of a delay have been swirling around for a month or more, it wasn’t until this past Friday that it became official. The Boxee Box will be launching in November, in both the US and Canada. It’s not surprising, as there have been a number of advances in the past few months in capable hardware and it would make sense for Boxee and D-Link to take…

Team Fortress 2 now on OS X, FREE this weekend

June 12, 2010June 13, 2010 drsquid cross-platform, Gaming, Mac, Online, OS X, PC, Steam, Steam For Mac, Steam Play, Team Fortress 2, TF2, Valve3 Comments

After Valve’s successful launch of Steam for Mac, this weekend sees the release one of the most anticipated Valve Mac games, Team Fortress 2, where the eternal debate of Mac vs. PC can finally be settled on the digital battlefield (Steam Play supports cross-platform play). The day Ian Fleming invented penicillin. The day scientists invented the moon landing. The day Sir Isaac Newton distracted the policemen investigating his wife’s murder by discovering gravity. All of these historic moments have two things in common. They helped steer the course of human…

PS3 3D gaming experience

June 10, 2010September 17, 2010 Doug Groves Bravia, Bravia 3D, Futureshop, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, PAIN, PS3, Sony, Super Stardust HD, WipEout HD2 Comments

Sony has officially launched it’s new line of Bravia HDTVs with 3D, either built in, or 3D ready by adding a transmitter. To go along with the TVs, they’re also leveraging 3D games for the PS3. Here in Canada the TVs will come with PSN codes to download MotorStorm Pacific Rift and PAIN, both of which are demos, or partial games, and WipEout HD and Super Stardust HD, both full games. Yesterday at a launch event, we had a chance to go hands on with both MotorStorm Pacific Rift and…

Google gets Bingified

June 10, 2010 Doug Groves bing, Bing hotspot, Google background image, search1 Comment

Although Microsoft’s Bing has only made a minor, though respectable dent in the search market, it’s certainly been more effective than Redmond’s past efforts, holding 2nd place, what with it providing backend support for Yahoo search, and making deals to get on the iPhone. Last month, Google‘s search results got a makeover, which gave them a much more ‘bing-like’ look, and now Google’s gone one step further. The Google home page now has an image background, just like Bing. Although it doesn’t feature the ‘hotspots’ of Bing where you can…

iPhone 4 Retina Display – pixel density does matter

June 9, 2010June 9, 2010 drsquid Android, Apple, density, display technology, iPhone, iPhone 4, Pixel, resolution, Retina, screen2 Comments

At the WWDC keynote on Monday one of new iPhone 4 features that Apple focused on was the 960×640 Retina display, claimed to be the “highest-resolution phone screen ever”. While I initially dismissed its worth as typical Apple hyperbole, an interesting article on tested.com has made me think otherwise Computer screens aren’t getting any bigger — in fact, they’ve only continued to shrink. While larger displays continue to dominate the upper end of the spectrum, an increasing number of manufacturers are producing netbooks and tablets more suitable for Middle Earth…

Bill C-32 and digital locks

June 8, 2010 Doug Groves bill C-32, copyright, digital locks, DMCA, DRM, Michael Geist, privacy1 Comment

When the Canadian government put forth it’s new copyright bill last week there were few surprises. The new bill still supports making circumvention of digital locks illegal, thereby negating many of the fair dealing provisions allowed for in the Conservative’s ‘new and improved’ version of bill C-61. Support for freeing up the DRM section of bill C-32 has been growing since it’s announcement. Besides the large swath of consumers opposed to DRM’ed content, groups such as The Canadian Booksellers Association and the Retail Council of Canada are saying “some parts…