Planet Gadgets Gadget Blog

Facebook Draws Ire Over Privacy Changes

Facebook has managed to irk many users due to new changes to the social networking website’s privacy policy.

Privacy advocates think the changes go to far and don’t do enough to protect user’s privacy rights.

“These new ‘privacy’ changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement. “Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.”

Other critics of the changes said it was designed primarily to make more information available to search engines like Google.

Facebook has received intense criticism in the past over privacy issues.

Posted in Facebook | 1 Comment »

AT&T Wants iPhone Users To Use Less Data

Some iPhone users may be asked to cut back on their usage, if AT&T has their way.

Now the main question is whether they’ll use the carrot or their stick to get their way.

The company says they’re considering using incentives to get heavy users to cut back on their data hogging.

“We’re going to try to focus on making sure we give incentives to those small percentages to either reduce or modify their usage so they don’t crowd out the other customers in those same cell sites,” said Ralph de la Vega who heads the wireless division. “And you’ll see us address that more in detail.”

Posted in Technology | No Comments »

Premium HDMI Cable

If you’re in need of an HDMI cable that’s greater than 10 feet in length, you need to pay close attention to the specs. Under 10 feet, almost all HDMI cables work the same. But when you go above 10 feet, the quality of the cabling matter.

The key is, not spending a ton of cash on a cable. This 30′ Premium HDMI Cable offers a lot of ‘bang for the buck.’ It comes with a lifetime warranty and is made of 22AWG cables, so your signal won’t get lost despite the greater length.

With a CL2 rating, this premium HDMI cable is suitable for in-wall installations.

Now, if you don’t need something that long, you might want to check out this 6′ HDMI Cable, which is compatible with HDMI V1.3b specifications and also comes with a lifetime warranty. For $8.99, it compares very well with much more expensive cables sold in retail stores.

Keep in mind, since HDMI is a digital signal, it pretty much works or it doesn’t. That’s why there’s no real reason to overpay for performance claims. If you need 1080p resolution, either of these two premium HDMI cables will perform just as well as cables that cost much, much more.

Posted in Sweepstakes/Giveaways | Comments Off

Microsoft And Yahoo Close To Search Deal

Microsoft and Yahoo are close to completing a deal which would set Yahoo’s default search engine to Bing.com.

In a move aimed at increasing competition against dominant search engine Google, Microsoft would pay Yahoo millions in order to serve search queries on the number two web portal.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, is seeking more users for its Bing Internet search engine, which has about an eighth of Google Inc.’s market share in the U.S., according to research firm ComScore Inc. Yahoo, which has posted three straight quarters of sales declines, may be able to save at least $500 million by working with Microsoft, Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz said in June.

Google had about 65 percent of the U.S. Web-search market in June, according to Reston, Virginia-based ComScore. Yahoo and Microsoft had 28 percent combined.

Online ad revenue has been declining at Yahoo for months.

Posted in Google | 1 Comment »

Hacker Attacks Twitter

A hacker has broken into an email box of a Twitter employee and has made off with valuable confidential documents.

The incident happened about two days ago and could be a sign of things to come for the micro-blogging leader.

The breach occurred about a month ago, said Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, when a hacker calling himself Hacker Croll broke into an administrative assistant’s e-mail account, then used that to collect information that let him access the employee’s Google Apps account. Twitter workers use the corporate version of Google Apps to share documents and other information within the company.

The hacker sent the confidential documents to many websites, who then reported on their contents. One of the details offered in an internal Twitter document says the company projects net earnings of $1.1 billion by 2013.

Posted in Twitter | No Comments »

Repair Hard Drive Software

Repair hard drive software – Does it work?

Hard drives fail almost every day and it is one of the most common behaviors of hard drives besides storage. Thus, the hard drive repair softwares are an essential need in today’s computer savvy world. Hard drive recovery software is essential because many computers face data loss at home or in business. The loss of this data could lead to very severe consequences for some. Hence to get back on track and retrieve your lost data, hard drive repairing software is a boon.

There are a variety of hard drive repair solutions available across the globe. These are specially maintained for the victims of data loss. This software is actually capable of retrieving back the lost data at any given time. Surprisingly, many of these softwares can even repair a physical hard drive failure.

These tools and software surely do work wonders for people. Many users have had good reviews for such software. They were able to retrieve their important data sets after they had lost them, seemingly forever.

How does this software recall back the lost data once it’s all gone?

What you actually need for this is a sensible amount of knowledge and the right tools at the right place for the retrieval. For this there are a plenty of organizations offering you tools to recover back your data.

Normally, this procedure begins with the entire assessment of the failed hard drive. Inside this procedure the main cause of the failure is determined. Once this has been done the best method for the retrieval is searched for and chosen.

A bunch of software is available in the market which guide you throughout this recovery procedure. These are even available on the Internet either for free or at some minimal costs. You could even go to a local computer shop and get your hard drive repaired, if you yourself are having some trouble with it.

Usually, if a good solution is chosen for the reclamation of the hard drive, then recovery is not that big a problem. In fact many of the hard drive crashes are not that severe and can be handled rather easily. But for this, you need the best solution available in the market. And most importantly, you should be able to diagnose the root cause of the failure.

There could be a whole set of problems with the hard drive. Some of them are like an electric board problem. Under this failure, a higher ampere current than required has passed into the circuit which leads to a failure. There might also be a problem where the head that reads the data has been damaged severely and fails to work.

In the end we would just like to conclude that hard drive repair software is a boon for the technical world as it provides you with a chance to recover your lost data.

Posted in Hard Drives | 1 Comment »

Google Chrome O/S Coming Soon

Google is expected to announce the release of their Google Chrome operating system in the next few days. The company will ready a list which will contain the names of several PC makers who have signed on in order to distribute Chrome-based PCs.

Google Chrome OS will come in several different flavors.

The Chrome OS and Android are distinctly different operating systems, she added. Android was designed for small mobile devices as well as TV set-top boxes and netbooks, while the Chrome OS will work in larger devices, from netbooks to desktops.

Google is going after Microsoft right where that company has the most strength. Chrome is said to represent a distinct challenge for MS dominance which has remained virtually unchallenged for decades.

Posted in Google | 1 Comment »

Netbooks Gain In Popularity

With technology rapidly improving, it comes as no surprise that there’s a new player in town for internet access.

Netbooks are the latest craze for people that want to do basic tasks such as surf the internet and send Emails to friends, family and co-workers. Netbooks are smaller and have less processing power than their relative, the laptop computer. Despite their smaller screens and keyboards, they still pack enough power to conduct basic internet functions and offer modest memory, RAM and even an installed webcam.

Due to their size (most netbooks weigh 5 pounds or less) features like a DVD/CD player aren’t “on board,” but an external player can be attached via USB.

Most netbooks are loaded with Micrsoft Windows, so users won’t have to adjust to a new operating system or learn new tricks to operate the machine. Another Netbook perk is the price – some models are available for as little as $299.00, depending on the manufacturer. Netbooks have also became a new product for wireless carriers like AT&T and they are promoting the product by offering them for as low as $50.00 with a new 2 year customer contract.

If you’re looking for a smart way to surf the internet without having to rob your piggybank, be sure to check out a netbook.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

YouTube Losing Money

Recently a lot of talk surface about whether Google should buy Twitter, the fast growing social website. But now some are questioning the wisdom of such a move because the acquisition of YouTube still hasn’t proven profitable for Google.

In fact, the losses are enormous.

But here’s the thing: the site by Wang’s estimates continues to lose an enormous amoung of money. He calculates that YouTube in 2009 can generate $240.9 million in revenue, through a combination of home page ads, in-video overlay ads, banner ads, sponsored videos and sponsored links. That would about a 20% increase from the $200 million in revenues he estimates YouTube generated in 2008. But he also estimates that the costs of running the site – bandwidth, content acquisition and licensing and other costs – this year will be about $711.3 million. Ergo, he estimates the site this year will lose a whopping $470.6 million.

Considering the current business climate, it’s questionable whether Google would be willing to lay out a significant amount of money for Twitter, despite the potential for the service.

Posted in Google | 3 Comments »

Gmail “Undo Send”

Google has added a new feature to GMail that should be well liked by users. If you’ve ever sent an email, you’ve probably experience an “Oh shit” moment where you wish you would have reviewed it prior to mailing. Now GMail will give you five seconds to think about whether you need to stop the mail or not. If you do, simply press “Undo Send.”

“This feature can’t pull back an email that’s already gone; it just holds your message for five seconds so you have the chance to hit the panic button,” wrote Michael Leggett in the Gmail blog.

“And don’t worry: if you close Gmail or your browser crashes in those few seconds, we’ll still send your message.”

You’ll need to activate the feature first. Under your settings click on the “Undo Send” feature and you’ll see a new button the next time you wish to send email.

Posted in Google | 1 Comment »