Carlo Orlando

One of the most sought-after downloads on the Internet is Google+, the new social network designed to rival Facebook. Now, online scammers are targeting the curious, sending out spam messages under the guise of fictitious Google+ invitations. ... "Insane Demand" for Google+ Service Google launched their social network just over a week ago in an invite-only testing phase (early members were encouraged to invite their friends to join), but new member additions were stopped the very next day due to an "insane demand" for the service. (Source: cio.com ) This obviously raised a few red flags for a ... (view more)

Mozilla last week launched the new Firefox version 5 web browser, but with it comes the news that Firefox 4 will be retired. The move to release Firefox 5 only a few months after version 4 (released in March this year) is a surprise to many users. ... The plan is to keep the open-source web browser current with new technologies; this follows with the 'rapid-release' business model, similarly used by Google Chrome and Apple. (Source: pcworld.com ) Firefox 5 is the first release as part of Mozilla's new rapid release plan. (Source: wikipedia.org ) Slow And Steady Versus Rapid Release While rapid ... (view more)

The idea of an "interactive advertisement" has long been associated with those online sidebars that ask users to answer an obvious trivia question or "shoot" a moving target. But Microsoft is now investing in an advertising protocol that would allow ... consumers to use voice and motion controls to make investigating advertisements pitched at them a truly interactive experience. NUAds Allow Users to Interact with TV Advertisements The new medium (called NUads) allows people to interact with their televisions and activate all of the virtual components an advertiser has to offer. NUads was ... (view more)

A Silicon Valley start-up company has released a new camera model that allows a user to snap first and focus later. Dubbed 'Lytro', the camera is able to capture light data from many different angles using a specialized sensor. The sensor uses what ... is called a "microlens array", which packs the equivalent of many camera lenses into a very small space. Images Become Living, Interactive Pictures The light information captured by the Lytro is significantly more than a conventional camera and is later focused and refined using a computer. Focal points of the image are navigated using a ... (view more)

Apple has once again lashed out against Amazon in the midst of their ongoing litigation battle, this time calling Amazon's idea for an appstore "inferior" by comparison to the established Apple offering. Issues arose back in mid-March when Apple ... filed for a lawsuit against Amazon over trademark infringement concerning the term "appstore". Amazon says the label was generic and that Apple had only sought litigation to hurt their competition. In January of this year, Microsoft filed a petition for similar reasons. Apple Looks to Monopolize "App Store" Label Apple has since countered these claims ... (view more)

A coalition of Canadian singers and songwriters have demanded that the Copyright Board of Canada immediately start awarding royalties at the expense of popular online media destinations that continue to host content. The Society of Composers, ... Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) filed an interim tariff application after royalties were given to Access Copyright, an organization founded in 1988 by a group of authors and publishers for the purpose of "protecting the value of their intellectual property and ensuring fair compensation when their works are copied." SOCAN now ... (view more)

Mike Delman, Microsoft VP of Global Marketing for Interactive Entertainment Business, recently revealed to the Seattle Times that Xbox Live will soon be integrated with Windows 8, making it available to users via PC for the first time. The Xbox Live ... offering for PCs falls in line with Microsoft's new plan to begin live television , expected to make its way to Xbox 360 consoles this fall. "Live has been successful on the Windows Phone and Live will be built into the PC. It will be the service where you get your entertainment," said Delman. (Source: latimes.com ) Billions of Entertainment Hours ... (view more)

A Fullerton, California computer repair technician is in hot water after allegedly using spyware to peep on college dorm women using their web cameras. Police arrested 20-year-old Trevor Harwell after launching a 9 month investigation that started ... back in September of 2010. Harwell, who also attended the same college as the victims has posted a $50,000 bond and denies the claims. (Source: go.com ) Computer Message Instructs User to 'Fix Internal Sensor' Using Steam Dorm residents noticed messages appearing on their laptop computers, telling them to "fix their internal sensor soon" or risk ... (view more)

The Pentagon has announced plans to issue a new strategy that would correlate computer attacks from a foreign nation to that of an act of war. In the event that a critical American computer system was ever compromised, the US President would reserve ... the right to consider a variety of responses, including retaliatory cyber-attacks, economic sanctions, and even a military strike. Defining a Major Computer Attack Naturally, a simple remote attack orchestrated by a single, independent hacker would not constitute a military response. However, a computer attack that could potentially result in ... (view more)

Apple has filed for a patent that would enable it to stop people from illegally recording a live concert or a movie playing in a theater. The patent was filed in late 2009 by Apple inventors Victor Tiscareno, Kevin Johnson and Cindy Lawrence. In the ... document, the three outline plans for an invisible infrared sensor that would be integrated into mobile iOS devices that house a built-in camera (including popular iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch models). The infrared sensor would work in conjunction with the signals emitted from these real-time venues, telling the camera-laden device that it is not O ... (view more)