A Tool that Everyone Can Use in the New Year!
Happy New Year everyone! I’ve found a late Christmas present for you! I know some of you vow to do better with your finances this year and for that I bring to you CreditKarma.com . This site gives you FREE daily credit monitoring. CreditKarma was founded in 2008 and is now growing at a high rate of subscribers per day since they’ve added their free daily credit score monitoring. The “pro” is that it’s free and the “con” is that it uses one credit bureau. I’ve only seen scores from TransUnion. The site can offer your information to you free because it advertises on your page. For example they would show/offer you lower interest rate credit cards and auto insurance. I know something that may scare some of you is that they need the last 4 digits of your social security number when you sign up. They say they don’t sell any of your information. Check it out! I have and it gets a thumbs up from me. 😉
Share this info with anyone you think may want it, don’t be stingy….share the knowledge
Stanford University to Offer Free Online Courses!
For anyone interested in a few technology and techpreneur (my word) classes, Stanford is offering a few of them for free. I don’t know for how long but they will be great to take. The classes aren’t for any credit but they are instructed by Stanford professors. Everyone interested in them should check them out. I’ve signed up for a few already. Classes start in February, don’t forget your apple! 🙂
Courses Offered:
Entrepreneurship: Lean Launchpad, Technology Entrepreneurship
Computer Science: Computer Science 101, Machine Learning, Software as a Service, Human-Computer Interaction, Natural Language Processing, Game Theory, Probabilistic Graphical Models, Design and Analysis of Algorithms I
Get the HP TouchPad here! ($149/32GB) (sold out)
Hello, HP started a fire sale a few days ago because they are discontinuing the WebOS operating system. I’ve looked everywhere but you can get it at this link on HP’s website. They are selling the tablets for $99/16GB and $149/32GB. The secret is that it’s in the business section and they only have the 32gb option available. Get it while you can! Keep trying if you see an error page or runs really slow.
The War That’s Fought At Their Finger Tips (Updated)
Some of you may know them as the group who brought down the PlayStation Network, others may know them as the people who broke into the Senate.gov site and also took down the CIA site. Or maybe for another demographic, you may know then as the people who defaced the PBS.org site with the fake Tupac is alive in New Zealand article. They call themselves Hackivists. They are Lulz Security or LulzSec for short. It’s said they hack to expose the vulnerabilities in order for the violated to strengthen their security, for the public to be made aware of things that shouldn’t be or be private, and of course amusement. Hacking for vulnerabilities sake is effective but at a cost. We really aren’t as secure online as we think. Some might say a false sense of security is better then none at all. 
What’s your take?
LulzSec launched an anti-government crusade on 6/19. Another known hacking group known as Anonymous has joined them. We shall see what to make of this.
Operation Anti-Security (Check it out)
A few of their tweets:
LulzSec The Lulz Boat
Your tax money is being used to pay for things to not be secured so that people like us can take what you expect to be kept inaccessible.
LulzSec The Lulz Boat
@FBIPressOffice Also, we pissed in your cheerios.
LulzSec The Lulz Boat
Operation Anti-Security is in effect. Join the fleet and tear the government and whitehat peons limb from limb – #antisec winds are strong.
Now you know, but be vigilant and keep your information as “guarded” as you can.
Apple iPhone 4S for Sprint & T-Mobile? Have you heard about it?
If you haven’t heard, it is rumored that there will be an iPhone coming before the iPhone 5. They say it will be named the iPhone 4S and will be Sprint and T-Mobile compatible BGR.com reports. 
It’s said the phone will have an improved camera with a separate flash; probably 8MP. It is already known that Apple has been testing an iPhone compatible with T-Mobile’s network for some time. This claim supports previous speculation that the next iPhone won’t have 4G capabilities such as LTE. Would you get a Sprint or T-Mobile iPhone?
1900’s Music the 21st Century Way: The National Jukebox
Thanks to The Library of Congress and Sony we now have the oldies to enjoy. When I say oldies I mean OLDIES! Scores of original recordings have been digitized and readied for your listening pleasure and made available free of charge to the public on the Library of Congress Jukebox site. The library recordings currently stretch from the year 1901 to 1925 and is expanding; from around the world. There are recordings ranging from ethnic characterizations, monologues, classical music, popular music, religious (including negro spirituals), and spoken word. There are all sorts of interesting things to listen to and could be used as an educational tool. They do disclaim that “these historical recordings may contain offensive or inappropriate language”….I Bet. A few interesting ones I’ve found: (click to listen, will take you to the Library of Congress page)
Swing low, sweet chariot (1909) 
Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen (1924)
Little David, play on yo’ harp (1909)
If you talk in your sleep, don’t mention my name (interesting…. o_O)
AT&T+(T-Mobile)= -No Good^2 (I Hear Ma Bell Calling)
So I’m sure by now you all have heard about the acquisition of T-Mobile by AT&T for $39 Billion of which $25 Billion is cash and the rest is in stock. This acquisition is bad news. 
This could only mean less innovation in technology, higher prices and pushes towards a monopoly. There are currently 4 major wireless carriers. AT&T with around 90 million subscribers, Verizon with around 80 million subscribers, Sprint with around 50 million subscribers, then T-Mobile with about 35 million customers with Sprint and T-Mobile being the “low cost” players. If you all remember in history class Ma Bell; what American Bell Telephone Company (1877-1984 long time right…) was known as after it was disbanded because of its practices. Once during its near monopolistic reign there was a government sanctioned monopoly but it was “regulated”. Regulated being the government had a consent decree with them in which Bell couldn’t have no more than 85% of the market.. This almost sounds like one of AT&T’s explanations to our current government to allow such a thing.
They say they will have about 95% of the country covered (over some years) with a high speed data connection (LTE) because of the extra spectrum they will be gaining from the T-Mobile take-over. The Obama administration is pushing for more connectivity in our country all around and in rural areas so this seems like something the government would possibly be interested in. This still needs to be approved by the FCC. Now does this sound like a repeat of the past or what!? American Bell was disbanded in 1984.
We know there are other options our there but AT&T is attempting to cover 95% of the US with their service. We should have most the country covered by many carriers.It’s also interesting to know that from American Bell Telephone came Southwesten Bell, BellSouth, Northwestern Bell, US West (Quest), Verizon (yes o_O), and AT&T; to name a few. There are benefits that would arrive (supposedly) sooner for AT&T subscribers with this deal but as a whole it’s not good. As Americans we are pretty greedy but my goodness..(Don’t get me started on Google~a love/hate)… In the end the customers lose. What’s your take on it?
Apple CEO: 2011 is the year of the iPad 2, not copycats
So the iPad 2 was introduced today and will arrive online and in stores March 11th. It is 33% thinner than the original. I hear it’s beautiful, well as beautiful as technology can be. Apple is the king of innovations and they want you to accept the iPad as a replacement for the PC. The specs in layman’s terms
- Has a better processor (Dual-core 1GHz A5 processor, which is “up to two times faster” than the previous version, Steve says.)
- Improved graphics (The GPU goes at nine times the speed as before. says Jobs)
- Same low power consumption-battery still lasts 10 hours and a month on standby
- Front facing and rear facing cameras for FaceTime & Photobooth (or any other app, camera on back has 720p HD video capability)
- Built in gyroscope-just like the iPhone 4
- HDMI out to TV/Monitor that mirrors what’s on your iPad screen ($39 Apple Digital AV Adapter cable)
- You can download iMove & Garageband to it-video editing and music software
- New cover that “attaches magnetically to the iPad 2 and it covers only the screen, adding minimal weight and bulk. Inside, it has a microfiber lining to clean the glass every time to move it. You can fold it to hold the iPad 2 in any position you want.” Apple says.
- Comes in WHITE as well as the usual Black
- Available on Verizon and AT&T for the 3G models
Prices: We know how Apples does with new products. Prices will be the same.
Wi-Fi models: $499/16GB, $599/32GB, and $699/64GB.
3G models :$629/16GB, $729/32GB, and $829/64GB.
So what does that mean?!?! YOU CAN GET A 1st Generation iPad for cheaper! 🙂 (around $300 or $400 for base models) Merry Christmas! lol
(FWD this post to your unaware friends)
What in the world is NFC? It’s coming to a future near you!
NFC is coming to a device near you. It might even become a big part of your life in the coming years. You ask what is it, it’s near field communication. Near field communication is short-range wireless technology. It’s just like bluetooth but the distance at which the two devices communicate are shorter, (basically contact on contact) and the connection automatically establishes quickly. It can be used to transfer data. The wide-spread usage of this technology will more than likely be with payment systems. That’s where it comes into your future. Many countries other than America have been testing payment systems using NFC for sometime. This technology will be coming to the forefront of our view with Apple and the Android OS. It is fact that Apple has applied for patents with a few of their devices that included this technology with rumors being that the iPad 2 will have this technology built-in. Apple could use this technology for living room use such as tapping it on a TV or a remote control with this technology to pull up info for programming for example but for sure some kind of payment method. 
As far as Android is concerned, the new mobile operating system Gingerbread (Android 2.3) has NFC built-in so that hardware makers can utilize this technology with their devices including Google’s new phone, Nexus S. This technology can be used in a wide range of real world applications such as the healthcare arena for scanning drugs for example or the maintenance field, with inspectors, and on site management to name a few.
(The N-Mark, (interesting..hmmm)..Lets you know which devices has NFC built-in)
Verizon’s iPhone 4! Blast it in the media, it will come true (sometimes)
So it’s official! The iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon Feb. 10th with pre-orders on or around Feb. 3rd. Prices are $299/16GB and $399/32GB both with 2 year contracts and $649.99/16GB and $749.99/32GB without. It has a few new inner workings that make it compatible to the Verizon network which is CDMA compared to AT&T’s GSM technology. They say the death grip is gone. Great. But remember, it’s the same model so nothing crazy new and spectacular as far as features go. You won’t be able to talk and surf the net on the Verizon version of the phone like you can with the AT&T version because CDMA technology just doesn’t do it. It is said they are working on a fix that will allow it by the end of the year. The coming phone won’t work on Verizon’s new super fast LTE 4G data network. Apple says the iPhone 4 is not LTE because that would have meant a lot less battery life, something they didn’t want to compromise. We don’t know the strain that the new iPhones will put on Verizon’s data network as yet but we do know they are data hogs but won’t wreak havoc like they did during the initial days of the phone being on AT&T’s data network. A cool thing about Verizon compared to AT&T is that they offer unlimited data with the phone and you will be able to use this phone as a wifi hotspot that supports up to 5 devices. I’m sure I’ll have a hack for that for you all. (stay tuned) ALSO!!! The fact that Verizon and Sprint use the same CDMA technology means it can be flashed onto the Sprint network. (stay tuned for that also) and just a tidbit…the AT&T bumper/case won’t fit on the Verizon phones because of new button placement.
Should you wait? YES! For the last couple of years Apple has annouced a new iPhone in June/July. I couldn’t imagine them not doing so this year. If you buy the iPhone 4 you will be locked into a 2 year agreement so that means no new one for you when the new one came out unless you pay full price. Since Verizon is gallivanting their new LTE 4G data network, I could see the new iPhone with this technology since the phone is all about data.
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