Computing – Page 29

So you wanna buy a Netbook.

September 9, 2009 Danny X Acer, computers, Dell, Gateway, Hackintosh, HP, Mini 10v, MSI, netbook12 Comments

Recently I was in the market for a new laptop computer. I was going to be travelling in the near future and I needed something I could carry around with me. It didn’t need to be a workhorse or anything; just something with which I could stay connected for email, internet, write a few blog posts, and maybe watch some episodes of Burn Notice on in my down time. Having no desire to lug around my tank-like Macbook Pro for these meagre tasks, I made my way to Best Buy…

OnLive Goes Beta In US

September 3, 2009September 14, 2009 Doug Groves OnLive0 comment

The Onlive gaming system has gone into an open beta in the US. The service was announced back in March, and aims to remove the hardware requirements for gamers, by running and rendering games on centralized servers and streaming the resulting video to the player. To get a 720p gaming experience, the end user would need a 4mbit connection, and the games could be played either on the computer, or using their micro console hooked up to a TV or monitor. No word on when this will hit Canada, so…

RIM Acquires Iris Browser

August 31, 2009August 31, 2009 Doug Groves Blackberry, RIM, Webkit1 Comment

Windows Mobile and Qtopia users who were enjoying the Iris Browser might as well not bookmark the Torch Mobile site anymore. The Toronto-based makers of Iris have been bought up by Research In Motion. According to the Torch Mobile blog… Torch Mobile is excited to announce that our company has been acquired by Research In Motion (RIM), one of the most renowned mobile technology companies in the world. Our team of developers will join RIM’s global organization and will now be focused on utilizing our WebKit-based mobile browser expertise to…

Facebook Bows To Canadian Privacy Commish

August 27, 2009August 27, 2009 Doug Groves canada, facebook, privacy8 Comments

Just over a month ago, we talked about Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart’s ruling that the ubiquitous Facebook was indeed violating Canadian privacy laws, including making personal information available to 3rd party Facebook application developers. Well, during a press conference today, Ms. Stoddart has announced that Facebook has indeed agreed to all the changes… “This is an extremely important change,” said Ms. Stoddart. “I would like to thank Facebook for its co-operation throughout this investigation.” Facebook will provide new notifications for users, additions to its privacy policy, and technical changes…

The Copyright Consultation

August 21, 2009 Doug Groves copyright, Michael Geist9 Comments

Remember Bill C-61, and how that ultimately died on the vine of Parliament, in large part because of public outcry? Well, the Canadian government recently launched it’s first public consultation on copyright in almost a decade, and will be taking public input until September 13th. The above movie, produced by Michael Geist and Dan Albahary, focuses on copyright issues, and more specifically how they affect Canadians. It’s definitely well worth the watch, and after it’s done, you can go here for ways to have you say with the copyright consultation.

PS3 Slim is a perfect storm of give and take. Mostly take.

August 19, 2009August 29, 2009 Danny X PS3 Slim, Sony22 Comments

So the PS3 Slim was announced today, to mediocre fanfare. Is it everything you’ve been hoping for? In short, no. In long, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

ASRock ION 330 as Media Center

August 13, 2009July 8, 2010 Doug Groves ASRock, Atom, Boxee, Hauppauge, HTPC, ION, Media Center, Microsoft, Nvidia, Windows35 Comments

Intel’s low-powered & low cost Atom processor has been all the rage in the computer industry for quite some time now, and nobody has embraced it more than just about every Taiwanese hardware manufacturer whose name starts with an ‘A’. ASUS thrust the netbook form factor into the minds of the masses, but it was Acer who (so far) has won the small form factor war, as the number one netbook maker (the Aspire One grabbing 50% of the market). But it hasn’t stopped there. The Atom is appearing in…

Canadian Government Brings Hammer eBay Sellers

July 31, 2009 Doug Groves CRA, eBay, internet tax1 Comment

Sellers who make use of eBay and other online sales sites will come under the scrutiny of the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). The CRA will begin contacting eBay sellers at the end of summer to ensure compliance. In 2007, the federal court ruled that eBay must turn over information on its high volume Canadian sellers, and although eBay tried to appeal the ruling, it was rejected in April. Now the CRA is getting serious. In court filings, it appears that the CRA, for now, focusing on eBay Power Sellers from…

Will Zip.ca be Netflix For Canada?

July 17, 2009 Doug Groves digital download, Zip.ca2 Comments

When it comes to digital film and TV distribution, one of the most popular services out there is the US Netflix.com rental site. Netflix started as a DVD rental company, allowing monthly subscribers to rent as many via mail as they could handle. More recently, Netflix added digital ‘rentals’, so that current subscribers could instantly watch any movie available online using a variety of methods, from the desktop computer to embedded players found in a multitude of devices. In Canada, Zip.ca has been operating under the Netflix DVD model for…

Facebook Violates Canadian Privacy Law

July 16, 2009July 16, 2009 Doug Groves canada, facebook, privacy7 Comments

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has found that social web giant Facebook violates a number of Canadian privacy laws. Facebook has about 12 million Canadian users alone, so the privacy concerns affect a large swath of the population. One of the most egregious concerns is that when a user decides to delete their Facebook account, their personal data remains on the site, and is still accessible by 3rd party applications. An overarching concern was that, although Facebook provides information about its privacy practices, it is often confusing or incomplete. For…

Live Android for x86

July 15, 2009 Doug Groves Android, google2 Comments

Curious to give Android a whirl, but nobody’s ported it for your smart phone yet? That’s what Live Android is about… Want to give Google Android a try, but don’t feel like buying a T-Mobile G1? LiveAndroid lets you download a LiveCD disc image of the Google Android operating system. Just burn the image to a disc, stick it in a CD-ROM drive, and reboot your computer and you can check out Android without installing it or affecting any files on your PC. You can also use the disc image…

Net Neutrality In Canada: An Update

July 14, 2009July 14, 2009 Doug Groves CRTC, net neutrality, throttling0 comment

Last week, the CRTC began conducting its hearing into the status of a number of issues facing Canada’s digital future, not the least of which is throttling practices. Since it’s launch just about all the major players, from telecoms to creative associations and private individuals have all had their say. There’s still at least one more day to go as we all await to hear from Bell (who’s 3rd party throttling helped propel the issue to the forefront), but in the past week there’s been some interesting stances, as well…