Joe Tech » Communication

Dark For A Day – A SOPA And PIPA Protest Infographic

Joe Tech — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:27:10 +0000

This month, we protested SOPA and PIPA proposed Internet legislation by blacking out web pages, making calls, tweeting, and sending emails. All of this resulted in a huge success for those of us who value a free and open Internet. The news media even embraced our concerns, with Arizona’s Channel 3 TV reporter Jared Dillingham stopping by my office to interview me about it.

It goes without saying that the Internet has become a communication tool that far outweighs lobbying by large organizations. That’s an awesome thing and it’s one of the reasons we need to fight for our online freedoms.

Today, Frugal Dad released an infographic showing just how much happened on January 18, 2012, the day the internet stood still.

Source: frugaldad.com

Did you protest? If so, how did you make your voice heard?

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Video Conference In HD With Warpia ConnectHD

Joe Tech — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:50:07 +0000

With the ability to watch movies and TV series on Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, those of us without an Internet-ready TV have been settling for watching at a computer desk or on a smaller laptop screen. One way around this is to get the video from your computer to the TV as seamlessly as possible. Last year, I reviewed Warpia’s USB PC to TV video adapter, which provided decent wireless video up to 720p. After that review, many people asked about 1080p video and other features. Today, I reviewed Warpia’s latest product in this line, the ConnectHD.

1080p HD USB PC to TV Video Streaming

Like other streaming products, the ConnectHD includes a USB adapter for sending video and a receiving unit on the television end to convert the signal and display it on your TV. This is accomplished by Windows treating the Warpia adapter as a duplicated monitor and feeding it all the video you see on your screen. That video image is then streamed wirelessly to the receiver and shows up on your TV. I tested this with video in 1080p and it streamed very well. At the request of my wife, several additional tests were conducted with full episodes of Sons of Anarchy from Amazon.com. The 1080p video testing from YouTube looked great and the additional tests passed Michelle’s scrutiny.

HD Video Conferencing

The premier feature of ConnectHD is the ability to, well, connect in HD to others. The TV adapter includes a 720p HD video camera and the ability to stream video both ways. On your computer, the camera shows up as any other camera you might connect directly. This makes the ConnectHD uniquely suited to act as video conferencing hardware for applications like Skype and MSN Messenger. I tried it with Skype today and was pleased with the results. The video quality showed some signs of compression, but that may have been more Skype than the camera as the image was crystal clear in Skype’s video settings panel.

Warpia ConnectHD Video Demonstration

During my testing, I created video of some of the process, showing how well the ConnectHD works and demonstrating the features as seen below:

Conclusions

Listed on the Warpia site with a sales price of $199.99, ConnectHD is a good bundle considering the $100+ prices of most HD PC to TV video solutions and the cost of a good HD camera. ConnectHD bundles both to ensure they will work well together. If video conferencing is something you won’t likely do from the couch, $199 can seem steep, so Warpia and other companies offer cameraless solutions for a lot less cost. This solution performed very well in all of my testing and works great for the task at hand.

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STOP SOPA! Keep Uncle Sam’s Hands Off Our Internet

Joe Tech — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:52:48 +0000

If you haven’t heard about S.O.P.A. yet and why it needs to be stopped, spend five minutes and read on.

What Is S.O.P.A.?

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the less known PROTECTIP (PIPA) are proposed legislation that aim to give more control to the U.S. government and copyright holders to thwart piracy online. Sadly, the legislation will instead give our government the power to blacklist sites that allegedly contain any small amount of infringing content, thereby blocking the whole site from users. As an example, if I post a video on YouTube of my cat being funny and it happens to have a pop song playing in the background, YouTube has to remove it quickly or face harsh consequences. And if they’re not fast enough? That’s when Uncle Sam gets to start messing with DNS (the naming system of the Internet), making the site unreachable by normal means to most people in the U.S. If that doesn’t work, private companies (RIAA and MPAA, for example), can get advertising and payment companies like Google and PayPal to shut down the accounts of the allegedly offending site.

In this case, YouTube could vanish to anyone in the U.S. and lose all advertising revenue if I don’t edit some music out of my kitty cat video. Sounds reasonable, right?

And if you want to read the full text, here’s H.R. 3261
Pay attention to 102(c)(2)(A)(i) regarding DNS re-routing and 102(c)(2)(B) regarding search engines.

If all that’s too much to read, check out the SOPA infographic from Mashable or watch a video about the legislation below:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Wikipedia And JoeTech.com Are Going Dark In Protest

At 12:00 AM on January 18th, 2012, the English version of Wikipedia will go dark for 24 hours, and so will JoeTech.com and we’re certainly not alone. Reddit got the SOPA Strike rolling, and Mozilla has been vocal about this for a while. My dedicated server provider, Codero, voiced their own opinion about SOPA/PIPA, urging customers to get educated.

During that 24 hour period I’ll have a blackout page up, but as of 12:00 AM on January 19th, 2012, JoeTech.com will be back to normal.

How You Can Protest

If you have a web site, go on strike with me.

Even if you don’t have a site, you can make your voice heard. That link will do the work for you to connect you to your senators to voice your opinion about SOPA/PIPA. Politely urge them to consider the freedoms we fight so hard to protect before voting on this horrible legislation.

Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +. Better yet, share any of the helpful links above.

Stop waiting for bad ideas to become laws.

Update: It looks like our politicians are listening, promising to make changes to the bill to help with our concerns, but we’ll have to wait and see what comes out of it. At this point, the bill may be vastly changed for the better or may just die completely.

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2011 Social Year In Review

Joe Tech — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:08:35 +0000

As we come to the end of another year, many of us will reflect back on things we’ve experienced, lessons learned, and just everything the last 12 months brought us. 2011 has been an incredible year filled with tons of important world events as well as a lot of interesting celebrity events and gossip. Sadly, but not surprisingly, “interesting” squashes “important” online, putting celebrity news and gossip far ahead of important world events when we measure our digital voice online. Frugal Dad put together the following infographic, showing what the world found compelling enough to search for, share and talk about on Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Source: http://frugaldad.com

What was the single most important piece of news you shared this year (online or off)?

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iPhone And iPod Touch IOS 5.0.1 Untethered Jailbreak With Siri

Joe Tech — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:30:07 +0000

A while back, I ditched Cydia and my jailbreak on my iPhone 4 (Verizon) for the bells and whistles promised by IOS 5. At the time, I thought about all the advantages of my jailbroken IOS and decided that the new features of IOS 5 outweighed the features I was actively using from being jailbroken. Then came Siri and this month, I learned that Siri was soon to be ported to jailbroken iPhones running IOS 5.0.1 and couldn’t wait to jailbreak again. This morning, the untethered IOS 5.0.1 jailbreak AND the Siri port (named Spire) are both available.

How To Jailbreak IOS 5.0.1 Untethered

First, make sure you have one of these supported devices:
- iPhone 4 (GSM – CDMA)
- iPhone 3GS
- iPod touch 4G
- iPod touch 3G
- iPad 1

You’ll also need to make sure you’re on IOS 5.0.1 If not, update your device now, because Apple is sure to release a new version soon to close up some open doors.

Got everything you need? Good, you’re ready to begin. Just follow these steps:
1. BACK UP – You don’t know how many times this has saved me. Do It!
2. Download Redsn0w 0.9.10b1 (Windows – Mac OS X).
3. Unzip the Redsn0w archive you downloaded and run Redsn0w 0.9.10.b1.
4. Click the button to Jailbreak and follow the on-screen instructions.

After a couple minutes and a reboot, you should be jailbroken. Props go out to pod2g for making it possible.

How To Install Siri On iPhone 4

Ryan Petrich and chpwn have released a port of Siri, called Spire, to Cydia. This is about 100MB, so you really should install via Wifi. To find it, just search for Spire in the BigBoss repository.

This is the best port of Siri to date, but it still requires authorization from Apple to run. This means that you have to find and use a proxy in order to use Siri (for now). For more information on how to get a proxy, see this post from cydiahelp.com.

Unbrick Your iPhone

Just like anyone, I can make mistakes. Sure enough, while trying to re-jailbreak my iPhone, I wound up turning it into a paper weight when I did something wrong and it wouldn’t boot up. If this happened to you, don’t worry because there’s hope. Sadly, it will take some time to restore and you may lose some settings, though. If your phone is stuck with error messages or won’t boot, you can start by doing a factory restore. This will reset the phone to the stock or latest IOS install. After this, you need to restore from your latest backup. You did make a backup, right? Once the backup is in place, you’re ready to jailbreak again. Good luck!

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Santa Was Dancing In My House

Joe Tech — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:33:18 +0000

It’s almost Christmas, but I didn’t have to wait to see Santa. In fact, he brought his elves to my house to dance. Well, at least that’s what I was able to make a video of thanks to today’s review of ReelDoozy, a pretty unique iPhone app.

What’s All This About?

ReelDoozy is an iPhone app that uses green screen technology to let you super-impose fun video they provide on top of your own video. The result is a video of, say, your own house with Santa dancing around in your living room. This green screen technology has been used for years in the television and film industry but lately, it’s turning up in all sorts of fun apps like this, thanks to the processing power and video capabilities of today’s smart phone line-up.

ReelDoozy Features And Improvement

When the app is fired up, the first thing to do in order to make a video is select a foreground video. This is the video of Santa, or whatever else you choose, that will be super-imposed atop your own video. There are four short clips starring Santa and his elves that are free to use. For most, these will be fine to play with, but the app offers six additional foreground video collections that can be unlocked for an in-app purchase of 99 cents per collection. While playing, I decided to buy the Dancing Pack to aid in the making of my review video below.

After selecting a foreground video, you select a background video or create one on the fly. So far, it’s been pretty basic stuff I had expected from the app, but the next step was a nice touch. With both the foreground and background videos selected, you can choose where to position the foreground subject and even pinch-zoom to re-size him. Better still, you’re given slider controls to adjust the brightness and contrast of the foreground video and can choose to use the foreground audio, the background, or a mix of both. Of course, this stuff is almost necessary if you want the final video to look good at all. I would have really enjoyed some kind of path selection to allow me to move Santa with the floor if my background video moves too much, but it might be a bit much to ask of a free app.

While I’m being greedy, I’d love some more selection in video packs. The dancing and humor scenes are fun, but I’d love the option for a couple scenes in which Santa is placing presents under the tree or filling a stocking. I’ll gladly throw down another buck for that.

Video of Santa Dancing

Sometimes the best part of a review is playing with fun stuff, so I tried to be a little creative and come up with my own videos with Santa and the elves and here’s the result.

Conclusions

When I first saw the press release for this, I thought it looked like a neat way to show the kids that Santa had actually been there. After installing and playing around, I realized it was pretty fun for those of us without kids, too. The price is always right when it’s free, and even the in-app purchase options were well within reason. The one stand-out problem with this app is that is freezes on me when finalizing a video. The video does save, though, so this is a minor inconvenience. In the end, ReelDoozy is a lot of free holiday fun, leaving you little reason to not check it out. If you try it out, I really want to see what videos you come up with, so share the links in the comment section below.

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The Top 5 Mobile Phones Of 2011

Joe Tech — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:23:02 +0000

2011 has been a year filled with some incredible phone launches paired with lots of new software features. In a year where 4G became the catch-phrase and high definition video became a must-have, the number of impressive mobile phones to choose from was promising, but also a bit daunting for someone looking to buy. We’ve compared the top phones on the market and narrowed it down to our top five for 2011.

1. iPhone 4S

Why we liked it:
- Siri
- 3.5 inch IPS display
- 8 megapixel camera
- 1080p video recording

There’s no question that Apple has a firm grip on the cell phone market with the their iPhone, the most popular line of phones ever. Even though the screen size is pretty small compared to everything else on our list, it boasts a beautiful display that other manufacturers are still trying to keep up with. The iPhone 4S is finally up to 8 megapixels, which is just par, but also shoots video at 1080p, a big selling point these days. Of course, the feature of the iPhone 4S that no other phone can compete with is Siri, the personal assistant that listens to your voice and responds (usually) intelligently. Although Siri is reportedly not perfect, Apple’s track record of pushing out updates to bring it up to speed will surely make up for any shortcomings.

2. Motorola Droid Razr

Why we liked it:
- Thin and durable
- Verizon LTE speed
- 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display
- 8 megapixel camera
- 1080p video capture
- 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor

Motorola has often hit the market with innovative designs as we saw with the original Razr, and eventually the first Droid. Both were remarkable devices, the Razr for its tiny package that maintained decent features and the Droid for its power and sophistication. The merging of a slim design with a beautiful and fast device is what puts the Droid Razr near the top of our list.

3. Samsung Galaxy S2

Why we liked it:
- 4.52 inch Super AMOLED display
- 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor

The Samsung Galaxy S2 offers most of the great features that drove people to buy the Samsung Epic Tough 4G (below), but offers a faster processor and a few other features.

4. Samsung Epic Touch 4G

Why we liked it:
- Super thin
- 4.52 inch Super AMOLED display
- 1.20GHz dual-core Samsung Exynos processor
- 8 megapixel camera
- 4G speed

With 4G speed and a 4.52 inch screen, this phone is great for media on the go. The fact that it’s so thin sets it apart from many other handsets in its class with similar features.

5. HTC Evo 3D

Why we liked it:
- 4.3 inch qHD 3D display
- 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
- 3D camera and video capture
- 4G speed

Honestly, the 3D is the prominent feature that helped the HTC Evo 3D make the cut, and I know many will argue that 3D is just a fad. Regardless, 3D is hot and who wouldn’t want to record and play 3D videos on their cell phone? It’s a pretty cool feature that other phones don’t have… yet.

Coming In 2012

After all the innovation brought by 2011, it’s easy to imagine more of the same in 2012. We should expect more phones that will work on 4G and LTE networks, larger displays like the Samsung Galaxy Note, Quad-Core processors, and likely some real Android competition to Siri. 2012 should be an incredible year for mobile phones. What features do you want to see available?

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Can Your Smartphone Really Help Keep You Safe?

Joe Tech — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:31:47 +0000

Bipper AS, a Norwegian tech company best known for Bipper, a parental control smartphone program, have come out with a new application that has already seen considerable European success: bSafe. The application allows you to immediately send out an S.O.S. if you find yourself in trouble while out walking at night. It does this by sending text messages and phone calls to a predetermined list of “Guardians” who function as your emergency contact and who are given a map of your exact location. This information can then, presumably, be passed on to the police.

The bSafe application, which available globally this week for both Android and iPhone users, has already hit select European markets. It has seen impressive success there, garnering media publicity and surpassing two of the most popular apps in the world – Angry Birds and Facebook – in recent downloads.

bSafe has proven that it can be successful, then. But can it actually keep you safe while walking at night? Can it give your phone a security feature besides a basic reverse phone lookup? Is it worth having as a last-ditch, security precaution?

The short answer, it would seem, is no. If you’re truly in a dangerous situation, calling 9-1-1 is probably easier and it is certainly more effective. Most cell phones allow you to program 9-1-1 into one of the speed dial options (usually “9″) and a police dispatcher can figure out your location even if you don’t provide one. Having a text sent to your best friend saying that you’re in trouble is simply not going to give you the same rapidity of response. Think about it; in this hypothetical situation, your friend will likely try calling you back first, just to make sure that you truly need their help. It is probably only if they don’t get an answer that they’ll call 9-1-1. Getting the bSafe app, then, can take away valuable time if you do find yourself in an emergency.

But the application does have some intriguing uses and possibilities, albeit not those that it originally intended. For example, it allows you to go into “Risk Mode”, which tracks your exact location by GPS and can then send that route to a designated computer. For people who want to go for a run and then see their route sitting on the screen when they get back, bSafe is an appealing application. Furthermore, the app’s general mapping and navigation software is accurate, fast, and easy to use.

So I might find myself downloading bSafe in the near future. But I certainly don’t plan to send out any S.O.S.’s – whether or not I find myself in a dangerous situation.

This guest post is by Nancy Evans. She is a freelance writer that specializes in tech and business.

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Ford Drives Social Media With Badges

Joe Tech — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:48:49 +0000

From their participation with bloggers to their Fiesta YouTube promotions, Ford has long been social media savvy, so it’s not surprising to see the auto giant trying something new on Facebook.

OK, badges aren’t new. Foursquare lead the charge with them long ago. But this is the first major implementation I’ve seen on Facebook. For days, I’ve been seeing ads on the right hand side of Facebook pages, each with a different badge, prompting me to go get my own. I don’t own a Ford, but I decided to see what all the fuss was about anyway.

Why Badges

The image above, found on the Ford Facebook Page gives us a hint about what Ford is up to here. Ford is trying to promote their new Ford Social site in a pretty creative way. One way that things online often become viral is that they speak to your passion. Many Ford owners are passionate about their cars, so why not create a way for them to express it socially, right? A Facebook user sees the ad (or a badge on a friend’s update), creates their own badge, and shares it on their own stream or elsewhere. In the end, Ford directs you to check out their Ford Social site, where you can share stories or ideas and really just interact more with the company on a friendlier level.

When I reviewed the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid Ford gave me a couple years back, I didn’t buy one because of the cost at that time, but I really loved a lot of the tech in that car. If I had a Ford Badge, it would have to be the Tech Geek one. Do you have a Ford? What badge would you pick?

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The Nokia Lumia 800 Attracts Gamers

Joe Tech — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:31:20 +0000

The Nokia Lumia is designed to attract new fans to the Windows Phone ecosystem, and one of its key targets is gamers.

2011 has been the year when smartphone gamers have been able to pick from a wide selection of large-screened devices to make it easier to play games in greater detail in sharp focus. As a Windows Phone, the Nokia Lumia also has greater integration with Microsoft products; Xbox Live support makes it easier for gamers to pick up a game on their console and then their phone, or to check their status remotely when away from their Xbox.

Two of the most popular games so far for the device are Jet Car Stunts and Burn the Rope.

Jet car Stunts comes with 3D graphics, perfectly utilizing the AMOLED screen with 800 x 480 pixels and the ClearBlack technology reducing reflection glare. With a fast 1.4 GHz processor and 512 MB of memory, the device is more than capable of keeping gameplay speedy.

The 3D graphic accelerator is put to good use as well in Jet Car Stunts. With colourful tracks, which increase in difficulty the more your progress riders jump through hoops, leap over divides and ramps using 3D graphics to enhance gameplay and the experience. The handset is held like a steering wheel so users tips and turn to navigate the tracks. To speed up or slow down there are large buttons on the screen that only needs users to move their thumbs while playing. The game is available at the Windows Phone Marketplace for $2.99

Burn The Rope again utilizes the Lumia’s fast processor to incorporate movement of the device into gameplay. The aim of the game is to set fire to a rope and then twist and turn the phone to guide the flame until the rope has burnt away. The flame has to be directed upwards so while it may sound simple the phone needs to be tilted to make sure the flame is heading the right way, or it will burn out. The path of the flame gets faster and more intricate as users pass through the different levels. The game is available from the Marketplace for $2.99.

The speedy processor and screen resolution, along with the 3D capability means the Lumia 800 has a real potential for the gaming market. The new device marks the first delivered in the new partnership between Nokia and Microsoft, suggesting a desire to make a greater splash in the smartphone market. Whereas the App Store and the Android marketplace have made a big splash in encouraging gamers to turn off their console and instead play on their smartphone, Windows Phone has not had a similar appeal. Some critics blame this on a limited number of apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace but it could be more to do with a focus on the Xbox as one of the main Microsoft gadgets on the market. The interactivity and integration between the Nokia and the Xbox suggests this is definitely a target market for the Windows Phone. Their existing dominance in the gaming market, and the appeal they already garner amongst gaming fans, suggests Apple and Android may well be looking over their shoulder.

Simon writes on behalf of Best Mobile Contracts, the UK’s leading mobile phone comparison website, where you can find the cheapest mobile phone contracts for the new Nokia Lumia.

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