Here comes number 2

With Research In Motion’s announcement of the Playbook one has to think Apple will be forced to respond sooner than later. Perhaps we will see the 2nd gen iPad in the works for the holiday season to stay ahead of the Playbook? The Playbook specs looks impressive on paper. Dual core processing power, dual cameras, true multitasking, flash support, bluetooth and HDMI connectivity. I think we will all have to reserve judgment until the device actually starts shipping next year.

Has the device given Apple any ideas? Perhaps they were already in the works from the get go. Rumor has it that the next gen iPad will have a mini USB port and at least 1 camera. However I can’t see the next iPad sporting only one camera. It has to support face time. So far nothing has been verified. Apple’s keeping a lid on their magical secret devices.

Seemingly good news, you would expect RIM stock to rise but you’d be wrong. Investors think otherwise and have led to the fall of the stock in today’s trading. Buy? Sell? I’d be more concerned about the Blackberry Torch delays, in addition to the UAE and India problems.

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Lawyers get hacked

Over in the UK data loss isn’t a new problem, actually quite a common occurrence. So let me recap the chain of events for this particular law firm. Collect personal data from ISP for lawsuit, then get hacked, have data distributed on said Internet available for all to see, prepare to get sued by angry porn addicts. Not quite the standard plan but let’s see how this works out. ACS: Law suffered a major data breach exposing the tawdry details of some 5,300 Sky broadband customers. Apparently the firm was targeted specifically and their database and contents pilfered from under their noses. Privacy proponents argued that the data was not secured, not even encrypted thus leaving the data exposed for cyber criminals. The Information Commissioner is investigating.

Sunlight readable displays

I’m sure you’ve seen the Kindle commercial taking a shot at the iPad and difficultly in reading the screen in direct sunlight. Yeah, yeah, the glossy screen makes reading difficult when you’re sitting on the patio reading or watching Star Trek. Well Pixel Qi is aiming to solve those problems altogether. On tap 10 inch sunlight readable displays for all. 1024 x 600 resolution using LED back-lighting and of course low energy consumption. Connect the screen to whatever device you like and read happily away out in the sun. Now if this doesn’t wipe that smarmy smile off that lady’s face then I don’t know what will.

Why do you shop online?

A news tidbit offered up some interesting numbers about Canadian shoppers.
Online shopping up to $15 billion (almost $13 billion in 2007)
The number of orders are up since 2007. (95 million from 70 million)
Men more likely to buy something online than women (42% compared to 37%).
Most common product being travel services.

So why do you shop online?
I do it mostly out of convenience. When I’m at work and I want to buy something I can do it by a click of a button. Biggest complaints about in store shopping: store stock, lineups, the people, and parking. Nothing is worse than driving to the mall to buy something on sale only to see that “out of stock” sign. Then I feel obligated to buy something to ensure that the whole trip was not a waste. Who likes coming home empty handed?

Lineups suck, plain and simple. Nobody likes to be stuck behind the chatty senior, or the lady shopping for a family of 12 and two shopping carts, or in the so called “express lane” where the cashier is waiting for a price check on an item. Lines suck.

People suck too. I’m talking about the rude, smelly, fat, talking loudly on your cell phone losers who you’re grouped together with all looking for that item on sale. Doesn’t it suck too when they get the last one just ahead of you? GGrrrrr.

OMG, over there, the holy grail of parking! Oh wait, that’s a handicapped zone. *sigh, keep circling. End up following someone to their car, only to have them take 10 minutes to buckle their seatbelt, and fix their hair, before even starting the car. Then you park, rush in to buy your item, find out it’s out of stock, get back to your car to see your car door dented because of the idiot who parked next to you. Who designs these parking spots to be so small in the first place?!

Free shipping almost always seals the deal for me. If you can offer me delivery to my door at no extra cost I am more likely to buy stuff from your website, even if it’s not on sale.

Porn coming together to bang out pirates

There’s no question sex sells. The porn industry make billions of dollars a year satisfying the needs of the many. Countless dvds, videos, and magazines are produced and pirated by the hour but porn is fighting back. Many of the large studios have come together to launch a new war against copyright and piracy. Porn producers have started filing lawsuits against peer to peer file share users who have been distributing their works illegally. The rate at which revenue has been lost is slowly forcing smaller studios to close.

Facebook news

Facebook Places launches in Canada. Now social networking savvy Canadians can share their location based details automatically with the application. However not all users have immediate access. Apple users can go right ahead and start sharing while Blackberry and Android users will have to wait for further development. If you phone does not have GPS capabilities you might as well skip it. The privacy commissioner is waiting to see how everything plays out before ruling on legality issues.

The Social Network movie is gaining buzz. Early reviews having this at the top of many people’s “must see” and will give viewers a look behind the scenes. I’m sure it’s going to involve Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake getting all sorts of tail in a seedy portrayal of what happens when you Internet startups suddenly get rich. Scandal, betrayal, good looking groupies, and geeks rolling in cash. Hmm, maybe I will have to see this movie.

Legal issues are still not over for Facebook. The twins who previously settled a lawsuit in 2004 are now returning to the courts to get more money. $65 million apparently isn’t enough when Facebook if valued in the billions of dollars. What? Jocks can’t come up with good ideas? Any guesses on how much Zuckerberg will settle out of court for?

So how’s your farm doing? Still rebuilding from the outage a few days ago? Databases can be pesky things when the code goes rogue. To be honest it was quite funny to see all the rage outpouring on Twitter. The withdrawal symptoms might be a thing of the future given the social networking site’s ever growing popularity. I wonder if there’s any money in starting up a rehab center?

Facebook wiki

Virus not so harmless

While most viruses and worms are disruptive and generally not malicious a recent discovery may change your opinion. A highly targeted worm dubbed “”Stuxnet” has been the subject of particular interest for many in the security industry. This specific virus was set to disrupt and damage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure potentially causing a world disaster. It was set to automatically launch its payload upon detecting Siemens hardware and overload the system. The unaware operator would not be any wiser that the system had become infected. Patches have already been developed and deployed by Microsoft engineers. It would seem this worm was a one shot deal, but who knows about the next one.

Stuxnet ravaging Iran computers