Brandon Dimmel

As North America becomes increasingly dependent on the Internet, WiFi is becoming a household term across the continent. City planners are building WiFi into future plans, and in many U.S. cities wireless Internet can be reached from the average ... cafe. What is WiFi, exactly? The name WiFi was originally coined by the company WiFi Alliance as a descriptor of its Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). However, as wireless technology and the name itself have become so popular, WiFi is no longer a licensed term, and it even appears in recent versions of Webster's dictionary. By engaging anything ... (view more)

With the popularity of WiFi, cell phones, the Blackberry, and laptops booming, the tech industry is being forced to come to grips with a world constantly "on the go." Desktop PCs are increasingly becoming immense paper weights for many consumers, ... and second quarter market research shows that this is having a drastic impact on many traditionally powerful tech manufacturers. From the beginning of 2006 until the recent end of the second quarter, the average AMD Athlon 64 desktop PC price sunk from $608 USD to $526 USD. The result is great for the spread of budget-priced systems to homes and ... (view more)

It is a civil (and in some cases criminal) offense to file share over the Internet. And as of Tuesday, June 27th, this is reality for thousands of downloaders in Spain. Recently, the country's Congress passed legislation banning unauthorized ... peer-to-peer sharing of files. The difference between North American crackdowns and those in Spain lies in the aggressive nature of the Spanish legislation. It is a criminal offense for P2P (Peer to Peer) networks to allow downloading, and a civil offense for anyone to engage in this downloading, even for personal use. (Source: tmcnet.com ) Long History ... (view more)

Citing security threats to the consumer, eBay has banned its buyers and sellers from using the recently launched Google "Checkout". Largely considered to be a future threat to eBay's PayPal service, Google Checkout is considered by Paypal as an ... "official payment service not permitted." Like bounced checks bitterly taped to the counter in an old convenience store, this move my PayPal is seen by many as a cheap way for eBay to prevent the growth of a major competitor. (Source: zdnet.com ) Reminder: What is Google Checkout? Google Checkout was recently released as a rather simple " ... (view more)

After weeks of speculation, Google has finally introduced "Google Checkout", its first foray into the world of online payment systems. Although Google refused to confirm such rumors, it has today gone ahead with a program that is most comparable ... with Microsoft's "Passport" service. Both systems use a single login name to allow users a payment method with a host of participating online vendors. The greatest difference between Google's Checkout and Microsoft's Passport are the time and, obviously, the company. In recent months, Microsoft has scaled back its Passport service considerably. ... (view more)

Speculation over Microsoft's entry into the world of portable entertainment has been a rollercoaster for anyone interested in the prospect. Rumors earlier this year labeled the device as direct competition for the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) and ... Nintendo Dual-Screen (DS), but reports of a legitimate "Xboy" could never be confirmed. By the end of March, Microsoft had denied the rumors enough that tech writers simply gave up on the story completely. Theories are now again in the works, some including gossip that Microsoft's device may be more competition for Apple's iPod than its more ... (view more)

Calling some of the bugs affecting Windows and Office "critical", Microsoft today announced that it will be releasing a free update/download on Tuesday to correct such problems. Four updates will be issued for Windows, with three on the way for ... Office. At least one download for each application have been placed in Microsoft's "highest-risk" category, and the company encourages users to make the necessary changes as soon as the updates become available next week. (Source: news.com ) The download itself will be detectable through the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan ... (view more)

Amidst rumors that Microsoft may cut the price of its Xbox 360 in anticipation of the release of the Sony Playstation 3, similar tactics are being employed in the world of PC processing chips. As a tactic to distract consumers from the long-awaited ... release of Intel's Core 2 chip, AMD is drastically slashing prices of its own products, by as much as 46%. (Source: reghardware.co.uk ) Interest in Intel's next-gen chips has been growing in anticipation of the Core 2 release in the next few months, leading AMD to "pipe up" in order that PC users remember their immensely popular Athlon line of ... (view more)

With criticism of its recent security software (OneCare Live) and anti-piracy program (Windows Genuine Advantage) taking its toll, Microsoft is showing fatigue. Recently, industry insiders are reporting that the Redmond-based company will not only ... be laying off 214 employees from U.S. sales, but it may also miss shipping Office 2007 on time. Although this is hardly the first time Microsoft has cut staff, it is remarkable for a company that has routinely increased its manpower by thousands each year. Reports from inside the company suggest that of the 214 jobs cut, most are corporate account ... (view more)

As tension mounts over Microsoft's use of the anti-piracy install Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), headlines today are reporting that Spyware goons have caught on and are circulating a program that poses as WGA. The new malware imitates WGA in its ... file name, and is allegedly found most frequently on file transfer sites and through spam emails. The new Spyware, acting upon the segment of the tech population that isn't already avoiding WGA at all costs, can be found in at least two different ways. The first pops up in peer-to-peer file transfer programs, such as Kazaa, and prompts the user to ... (view more)