April 2011 - Posts

How to use YouTube Search Commands
Friday, April 29, 2011 1:29 PM

YouTube is a great resource not only for fun and entertaining videos, but also for informational videos that can help you accomplish all sorts of tasks. Depending on the topic it's actually more beneficial to do a YouTube search than it is to search Google. As more and more people realize this searching YouTube becomes more important.

In fact it's consider to be the second most popular search engine on the internet when comparing it's numbers to conventional search engines.  This is why learning how to use a couple simple search commands can help you find what you want a lot more efficiently.

YouTube Syntax
If you want to use these simple search commands all you have to do type out your search followed by a comma and the command.
Example:
South Park, this week

Commands
channel - Searches only YouTube channels
this week, today, this month - Search for videos uploaded in the given time frame.
partner - Searches for video uploaded by YouTube partners only.
movie - Searches for full length movies available on YouTube.
hd - returns only HD quality videos.
3d - returns only 3D videos.
playlist - returns only videos in playlists.
long - Returns videos that are 20 minutes or longer

You can also mix and match commands like this "South Park, this week, hd" which will return video uploaded this week that are in HD. You can also perform an exact match by typing: allintitle:"South Park HUMANCENTiPAD".

Well there you have it, an easy way to better search YouTube and find videos the matter to you. Enjoy!

by willburns1 | with no comments

Conan releases F-Cards to tell your Facebook friends how you really feel!
Friday, April 29, 2011 12:31 PM

Facebook is a great place to connect with friends new and old while also staying in touch with family that could be spread out all over the world. Facebook has kept us in touch with one another and for that we are grateful.

However, Facebook has also given us unwanted internet stalkers, parents trying to pry into their children's lives, annoying Mafia Wars and Farmville updates, and other annoying informational tidbits we don't care about. So how do you go about letting your Facebook friends know they are annoying you? Let Conan tell them with one of 25 F-cards.

F-cards are pre-recorded video messages from Canon O'Brian that tell your Facebook friends just how you feel about them. You have 25 to choose from like "Dear Creepy Stalker" and "Re: Your Farmville Updates" all of which are pretty funny.

You have to go to the Team CoCo Facebook page and like it. You can then view the F-Cards. Select one that applies to a friend or friends and click send. You have to accept an application request before you can send the video.

Like most things on Facebook Conan's F-Cards are mostly pointless and not really that useful. This is what we have come to expect from things on Facebook, but at least Conan is pretty funny and for that we thank you. Check it out.

Conan F-Cards

by willburns1 | with no comments

Knockoff Super Mario Bros. Game finds it's way into the App Store
Thursday, April 28, 2011 3:23 PM

Apple has a pretty tight grip on applications that it allows in the app store. They have so many submissions from day to day that some slip through the cracks like this one that's an obvious knockoff of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. game. Just read the description of the game.

"The protagonist of this game named Monino, in the story of this game, Monino’s brother was captured by a monster named Bowler, he is on the road to Bowler’s castle to rescue his brother, a lot of monsters in different levels are waiting for him, would you like to join Monino’s rescue action? Go!"  

As the Cult of Mac said a "shameless Super Mario Bros. Rip-off…" The game wasn't even that much fun to play, the controls were very slow to respond and hard to use. The buttons were in the way of the scene which made it hard not to run into enemies.

The game has sense been removed from iTunes, but it's a shock it made it to the App Store in the first place. The game was $.99 but like I said it's been removed now.

 

by willburns1 | with no comments

AirLocation - Sends GPS Data from your iPhone to your Wi-Fi Only iPad - For real this time!
Thursday, April 28, 2011 1:33 PM

Back in March when the Hotspot feature came out for the AT&T iPhones there was a video that went around that showed a hotspot tethered iPhone sharing it's locations to a Wi-Fi only iPad. Well this turned out to be fake and not true. This does not work, the hotspot tethering setup does nothing of the sort, more about that here.

There is hope, however, for your Wi-Fi only iPad. AirLocation is basically a map application, but when run on both devices at the same time, with the hotspot tethering connection active, the iPhone shares its GPS data with the iPad. Now you have to be using the AirLocation app, so other apps map or navigation apps out not going to work, but at least once the iPad knows where you are you can do something like checkin to Foursquare. You can pick this app up for just $.99 on the app store.

AirLocation - Kai Aras

by willburns1 | with no comments

StolenCameraFinder - May just find your stolen camera
Thursday, April 28, 2011 12:15 PM

With all the cool and advanced technologies finding their way into our world these days it's no wonder people want to steal them, computers, cell phones, cameras, GPS, tablets, and more. If it's a hot piece of technology don't leave it in the car or sitting on the table at your local coffee shop because it will be gone.

Some technologies have built in security like the iPhone with its 'find my iPhone' feature and software for laptops like Prey and Lojack. These help you recover your lost or stolen devices, but digital cameras don't have the ability to be tracked in such a way. So what is a person to do if one looses a digital camera?  

A new website called StolenCameraFinder, created by Matt Burns, has set out to do just that by using the EXIF information embedded into every photo to track the serial number of your camera. You drag and drop a photo from your lost or stolen camera onto the website. The site reads the embedded information and searches its database for any matches. If it finds a match it can tell you where it found images from your camera which may give you an idea of where it is and lead you to recovering it.

The website has a growing database of over a million different camera serial numbers collected from website like Flickr and from all over the web. This is a relatively small number, but as more people use the service the more helpful it will become. Matt Burns has also developed a Chrome plugin that records the camera serial number of photos on every page you load in your chrome browser. This helps increase the database size and usefulness. Who knows you might just help someone recover a lost or stolen camera after you viewed an image taken by it!

Stolen Camera Finder

by willburns1 | with no comments

How to Change Your Password and Network Name on a Verizon FiOS Wireless Router
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 1:29 PM

Verizon FiOS is a great ISP and is by far the best internet service I have ever had. I'm not really a big fan of their router/model combo box they provide you with but I can deal with it for their awesome service. Verizon's wireless routers come with a default router name and password which is just a random set of number and letters. This is fine but it doesn't seem very personal and giving out a password that's a list of letters and numbers is annoying.  

To customize the router name, aka SSID, and change the wireless password to something more friendly follow the steps below or watch the video. Notice I decide to change the password from WEP to WPA. WPA is a lot more secure and compatible with most devices so this is a good idea in my opinion.     

- Open your Web Browser type 192.168.1.1 into the address bar.

- Enter default username and password
    Username: admin
    Password: password

- Click Wireless Settings
- Basic Tab
    - Rename Network in Box 2.
    - turn off WEP
    - hit Apply
- Reconnect to the newly named wireless network.
- Page should reload after you reconnect.

- advanced security tab    
    - WPA or WPA2
    - enter password

by willburns1 | with no comments

Apple Responds to iPhone Tracking Fiasco - All a big misunderstanding says Apple.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 10:40 AM

 After about a week of people freaking out about the little file in your iPhone that tracks your every move Apple has finally responded to the concern. Apple started off by saying that they are partially to blame for the confusion due to the fact they didn't educate people on the ins and outs of providing fast and accurate location information.

Apple went on to say that it has identified several 'bugs' that include the file storing too much data and it's ability to store data even after the location service has been turned off. Apple said that the file was there to crowd-source a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current position. So what people thought was a list of the iPhone's location was really the locations of Wi-Fi and cell tower locations that could be 100 miles from the user.

Apple has admitted that the file was not intended to store as much data as it was, and that will be fixed. Apple plans on releasing an update that will reduce the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone, ceases backing up this cache file, and will delete the cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

See I told you there was nothing to worry about. The file wasn't tracking you just Wi-Fi and cell towers around you. Arguably this would give people a pretty good idea of where you were, but at least from a legal perspective it's not inexplicable proof of someone's location. Anyway I think Apple's solution is pretty satisfactory. What do you think?

Read the Entire Apple Q&A on Location Data VIA BusinessWire

by willburns1 | with no comments

YouTube to Unveil New Movie Streaming Service
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 3:16 PM

YouTube for a while now has offered movies that you could stream for free as well as some for a small fee. The movie offerings were limited to unpopular and older titles. YouTube has apparently made deals with Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal, as well as independent studios like Lionsgate and the library-rich Kino Lorber to stream their movies as part of a YouTube video on demand service. This means new release movies from these studios are going to be available for online streaming the day they are released on DVD!

The YouTube's service is positioned to compete with iTunes, the biggest player in on demand movie streaming market. iTunes has the advantage of more studio partners booking Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Sony, MGM, Lionsgate and New Line from the start. YouTube was unable to get Paramount, Fox and Disney who are huge studios with some great titles in their libraries which are sure to be missed in YouTubes streaming service.

It will be interesting to see how YouTube positions itself with it's price point. iTunes allows you to rent movies for as low as $2.99. It will be interesting to see if YouTube will seek to copy their price point or uncut them by offering streaming for cheaper. YouTube has made no official announcement yet and has made no comment on the news leaking. According to the "The Wrap" the service is expect to release imminently, however long that is.

The Wrap Story 
 

by willburns1 | with no comments

Apple Being Sued Over iPhone Tracking File - My Thoughts
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 1:34 PM

Well it was bound to happen. Apple is being sued over the consolidated.db file that stores everywhere you've been since June of last year when iOS 4 was released. A iPhone owner from Florida and a iPad user from New York filed a lawsuit on April 22nd in Florida, that's just two days after researchers discovered the file storing the data. I guess they wanted to be the first ones in line for an Apple settlement.

Aaron Mayer, the mens lawyer, made the good point that "if you are a federal marshal, you have to have a warrant to do this kind of thing, and Apple is doing it without one." The two men suing are currently only asking for refunds and damages, we shall see how this changes as the lawsuit has the potential to become a class action lawsuit.

As it turns out Apple filed a patent about a month ago detailing something they called "Location histories for location aware devices." Sounds pretty familiar doesn't it. It seems Apple had envisioned the data being useful in apps created by Apple as well as other companies. The patent gives example of some kind of searchable map which is tied to financial transactions, as well as other uses.

Apple has been very silent on the issue with only a report that Steve Jobs responded to a concerned customer saying "We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false." Other than Steve Jobs thoughts there is a theory floating around that says that the file storing all the information is a bug and was not intended to store the information it was. Apple has said nothing to confirm or deny this possibility. It seems unlikely to think the locations history tracking was a bug considering Apple has shown interest in implementing something similar in their patents.

All in all I'm really not that worried about it. I don't think it's that big of a deal really. Yes it's a bit creepy, but the file isn't being shared with anyone. In order for someone to get a hold of it they need your phone or your computer something that often times hold things more secure then a map of approximate locations since June of last year.

Your thoughts? What do you think about this whole situation? Is Apple trying to pull a fast one? What do you think they are going to say when they finally make a statement concerning the matter?

by willburns1 | with no comments

How to Share Your Mac's Internet Connection with your Xbox?
Monday, April 25, 2011 3:31 PM

The original Xbox 360 did not come with Wi-Fi built in. If you wanted to use your Xbox wirelessly you had to buy a $99 dollar wireless adapter that could make the connection happen. This was 33% of the cost of the entire machine just to make it wireless. Even now with the new Slim Xboxs the adapter for the originals still cost $60 or more. So if you have an original Xbox that you want to connect wirelessly to a network, without the adapter, consider using your Mac to bridge the connection.

To accomplish this follow these instructions or watch the video above and follow along.
 


Step #1 Connect your Xbox
- Make sure your Mac has a wireless internet connection
- Connect your Xbox to your computer via ethernet    
- Enable Internet sharing in Preferences >> Sharing. Check the Share Internet Box and make sure the

Step #2 Obtain Ethernet IP Address
- Open Terminal >> Type - ifconfig en0  
- "0" is a Zero
- look for something that looks like inet: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx - Mine was 192.168.2.1
- Leave the window open of save it to a open text file.

Step #3 Setting Up the Xbox
- Power on and go to System Setting >> Network Settings
- Manually configure Network Settings
    - IP Address = 1 Larger than the ifconfig en0 number. Mine was 192.168.2.1 so I would enter 192.168.2.2.  
    - Subnet Mask =  255.255.255.0 (Which is default usually)
    - Gateway = The number you got from the ifconfig en0 from earlier.
    - DNS = IP Address of your router
    - Leave PPPoE and Advanced settings blank or delete anything that's there. (Blank by default)

by willburns1 | with no comments

Are DVRs Helping or Hurting the TV Industry?
Monday, April 25, 2011 12:55 PM

I was reading an interesting article at the NYT on DVRs and how they may be helping shows, on the edge of cancelation, make the cut. DVRs, digital video recorders, were supposed to ruin network television at least that is what people thought. Now that people don't have to choose one show over another due to time constraints show's viewership numbers are not so cut and dry anymore.

Networks get payed by advertisers for how many viewers watch their commercials in a 3 day period after the show is broadcasted. Shows get a C3 rating showing the number of viewers watching their show live and on playback over a three day period. Even though the C3 rating only includes 3 days after broadcast the networks track shows for a whole week to get a better idea of the viewers interest and loyalty concerning any particular show. Shows like "Fringe" show a weak 1.7 rating which would look bad to advertisers, but after a week of playback the numbers jumps to a much stronger 2.5 rating. That's a 47% increase in viewership which is significant.

Thanks to the DVR people can watch shows much later from the original air date, giving shows with poor live viewership a much larger audience over all. Without data from DVRs shows would seem to be doing poorly when actuality they are doing quite well.

The big question is, does it make any difference, from a monetary perspective, whether or not a show has a large playback audience or not? Sure, adding a full week of playback numbers to a show's over all rating can display a shows true potential, but people don't watch commercials on DVR. People watching commercials is what makes the network money and pays for the show. So if show's live viewership isn't high enough the network doesn't make enough money.

On the other hand if a full week of playback and Live viewership was considered in the rating shows my stick around long enough to become the show people want to watch live, instead of recorded it and watching it later, making them a bigger money maker for the network.

It's all very interesting, and according to David F. Poltrack, the chief research officer for CBS, the DVR saturation is about 40% up from 38% of last year. So it's no wonder some shows are seeing 30% - 40% of their viewers watch on payback. The chart below shows numbers from September 2010. The C3 + 3 include playback numbers for each of the top 10 shows.

  

by willburns1 | 1 comment(s)

Palua - Switches Function Buttons to Apple Specific and Back Again
Friday, April 22, 2011 3:05 PM

Notice the top row of keys on your keyboard, they are both function keys F1, F2, and so on, and they are also Apple specific keys like the media keys, brightness keys, and volume. If you want to use the buttons as function keys you have to first it the "fn" button which is fine but can get annoying if you use function keys a lot. You can turn the keys into functions in the preferences, but every time you want to switch back have to go into the preferences.

Palua solves this problem by allowing you to change the these keys from Apple Specific buttons to function buttons and back again. You can accomplish this by using the menubar drop down or by using a keyboard shortcut.

Palua comes in handy for example If you use Expose and Spaces a lot. Both these service offer function key shortcuts that can be very useful in moving windows around in Expose and accessing your different spaces. These function key shortcuts are of course under the Apple Specific keys so you will either have to hit the fn button each time or turn them off completely. For the best of both worlds just use Palua.

Palua $.99 Mac App Store 

by willburns1 | with no comments

EA Starts Easter $.99 App Sales - Get them while they're hot!
Friday, April 22, 2011 1:59 PM

EA has some pretty awesome titles in the iOS App Store, such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12, NBA JAM, Dead Space, Battlefield Bad Company 2, The Sims 3, and More. EA from time to time likes to run sales on their apps for different reasons and I guess Easter is one of them. Below is the list of apps that you can get for just $.99.

iPhone/iPod touch

    Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
    Dead Space
    Max & the Magic Marker
    NBA Jam
    Fight Night Champion
    Battlefield Bad Company 2
    Tetris
    Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
    The Sims 3
    The Sims 3 Ambition
    Scrabble
    Fifa 2011
    Madden NFL 11
    Monopoly
    Risk
    NCAA Football
    Need for Speed Shift
    The Game of Life

iPad

    Scrabble
    Dead Space
    Max & the Magic Marker
    Reckless Racing
    Risk
    Madden NFL 11

by willburns1 | with no comments

iPhone Tracks and Stores Your Location Constantly - How to View and Delete the File
Friday, April 22, 2011 12:51 PM

First of all let me just say that this whole iPhone tracking/big brother thing has been blown way out or proportion. Yes the iPhone has a file called consolidated.db that is stored on the iPhone and computer that is easily accessible that would allow people to see everywhere you have been since the files creation. According to what I have read this is sometime after the iOS 4 came out, which was a while ago.

First of all cell phone companies have been tracking you for years, you just didn't know about it. If the government wants to track you down a court order will force the cell carrier to hand over the information so no surprise there. Second the information never leaves your computer or phone unless someone steals it from you which would take you loosing your phone or your computer being hacked. Both of which are bad, but a simple remote phone wipe will take care of your phone and if your computer is hacked your location file from your phone would be the least of your worries.

Having said that I'm sure Apple, after all this bad publicity, will turn it off or at least give you an option of turning it off. Apparently they started doing this with the release of iOS 4.0 so it's not like it's an essential part of the iPhone's function. It's most likely designed to help with diagnostic reporting, helping Apple track dropped calls and the like.  

How to View the consolidated.db File

Mac
Well if you are on the Mac that you sync your iPhone to you can go here and download iPhone Tracker a little app that access the consolidated.db file backed up on your computer when you sync your iPhone. You simply launch the app it finds the file and boom instant map of everywhere you've been. Pretty cool and creepy.

PC
Well PC is a little bit more difficult since iPhone Tracker does all the work for you. If you want to do it on a PC I would say go get a Mac, haha, but really you should. Make use of has an article similar to this one and they explain it, I don't have the strength.

Deleting the File

Jailbroken Phones
Well the bad news is there is really only one way to preeminently disable and delete the file, and that's with a Jailbroken iPhone. So first you have to Jailbrake your phone and then install an app called untrackerd. It's in the Cydia Store and it run a process in the background that deletes the file constantly preventing it from storing any data.
 
Non-Jailbroken Phone
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but couldn't you simply sync and backup your phone and then reset your phone from the device which erases all data and returns it to defaults. You then could delete the consolidated.db file from the backup on your computer, and then re-sync your phone. A new clean consolidated.db will be created when you do this, but all the old data will be gone. It's not a permanent solution, but it would get all the old data out and you could do this from time to time to clear out the file.

by willburns1 | with no comments

RockMelt Social Browser Now on iPhone
Thursday, April 21, 2011 2:36 PM

RockMelt is a web browser that puts social networks like Facebook and Twitter front in center, giving you a truly social browsing experience. The desktop version of this app has been out since November of last year, but now there is a free iPhone app that you can give a spin.

If you watched the video above you will notice the iPhone and desktop versions of the application are very different, but I feel the transition was done pretty well. What makes RockMelt special is it's basically a Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed reader, and web browser in one. You can view what's going on Facebook as well as like and comment on items that interest you. Links open below the post in which they appear for Facebook as well as Twitter allowing you to view the page without leaving the app. That is a pretty cool feature at least I thought so.

I think the best part about the browser for the iPhone is the ability to share links to your social networks without leaving the browser. If you us the browser for your everyday surfing websites that you want to share become very easy to post up to Facebook and Twitter. If I want to share a url in Safari I have to copy the URL and paste it into the Facebook app. This is not difficult but it is a little annoying and RockMelt has the right idea and I prefer to do it their way.  

I actually like the iPhone app better than the desktop version. I need my desktop web browser to have specific things, things I can't get RockMelt to do. That and if I want to share links and comment on things on social networks doing it on their site is preferable to me. On my phone however I just need the browser to show me websites and if RockMelt can do that and make it easy to share pages while on the go then more power to me.

The app is free so go and give it a look see.

RockMelt

by willburns1 | with no comments

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