Gadgets Blog » Internet

Facebook stalking, the recreational pastime of bored 20-somethings the world over, has just received its greatest overhaul in the Web site’s history. While your personal information has already been exposed in one manner or another — thanks to Facebook’s questionable privacy settings — the networking site rolled out a new feature over the weekend: the “friendship” page. In addition to individual user profiles and pages for groups, events and other items, the friendship page provides a detailed look at your interactions with another person.

The feature is a bit troubling, primarily due to the amount of information it puts out in the open. In the past, users have been able to view “Wall-to-Wall” posts between two others, getting a look at their relationship as posted in the most public spot on Facebook. The friendship page, however, pulls its information from all corners of the social networking site, bringing pictures, events held in common, shared interests and even comments made on everything from status updates to changes in relationships. It’s a cumulative look at the online relationship between two people.

The latest chapter in the long-building rivalry between Google and Apple is coming not to you mobile device, your computer, or even your office at all. In the last few months, both companies have set their sights squarely on a new battleground: the living room. Apple has made the foray into television before, with the modest failure of Apple TV. However, with a redesign and deals with major television and movie studios, Apple is back in action with a new device. Not to be outdone, Sony unveiled Google’s retaliation with a host of devices powered by Google TV.

The televisions themselves are what has become standard in our 21st century TV market. High-definition models supporting up to 1080p boast bright screens, between 24 and 46 inches. There are inputs for everything from an XBox 360 to a Blu-Ray player. HDMI support enables the user to easily plug their computer in for additional workspace. Each of these models, which go on sale this Saturday at BestBuy and online from Sony, support WiFi and have 4 USB ports, which are beginning to live up to their “universal” billing.

The real draw here, of course, is the Google TV option. Google’s approach to online television differs drastically from Apple’s. Steve Jobs and company built a media empire by providing products from Apple directly, as seen by their App store and iTunes. Google, instead, works with existing media providers to provide a more open alternative. Netflix and Hulu come built into Google TV, along with other free programs such as YouTube and Pandora. Web surfing comes courtesy of Google Chrome, turning these televisions into more than just a means for watching movies.

Oh Google, is there anything you can’t do?

Over the last few months we’ve been taken for quite the ride in terms of their accomplishments. After expanding into Apple’s turf with announced plans for Android tablets, Google decided to bring us a new way of obtaining music off the internet, improvements to their incredibly successful Chrome operating system, and expansions for both Google Maps and Google Books. Today’s featured story proves, once again, that the company born out of an internet search engine aims to change the digital landscape once again.

The idea behind WebP, Google’s own image format debuted earlier this week, is simple. Through the WebP format, the efficiency of websites displaying images and the processing power required to display them online could be drastically improved. The goal of WebP is to replace JPEG, one of the most common image formats with digital cameras and image-editing software. While JPEG has certainly had a successful run, the new WebP format requries 30-40% less connection speed while downloading, something that could optimize Google’s operation as a whole.

This Friday, The Social Network, a film detailing the rise of Facebook and its online empire, hits theaters everywhere. While some of the early reviews have been touting it as an excellent film, with Rolling Stone even granting the flick four out of four stars, the quality of the acting and directing are secondary to the remarkable nature of the story. Facebook has become a defining part of the 21st century, with millions of users utilizing the service to stay in touch with friends and family. But what if, in addition to your pictures and status updates, your network was also capable of knowing where you were at any given moment? This question, it seems, is no longer hypothetical. Facebook Places provides information to your friend list on your location, something that has some users excited and others understandably nervous.

Facebook isn’t the first company to jump on board this type of social networking. Google Latitude has been on the market for the last year for free. A Latitude-enabled smartphone kept track of your location using a GPS, broadcasting it at any given point to others in your friend group also using Latitude. While the idea had potential, the small number of users turned it into another obscure Google service offered up by the company. Additional ventures into the area have been made by startups such as FourSquare. The service, which currently has about 3,000,000 users, incorporates elements of location-based social networking as well as reviews of local businesses and hot spots. Thus far, however, only 4% of Americans have even tried such a service, according to an article at Safe and Savvy.

Although it’s a regulatory agency and therefore not responsible for innovation in the field of electronics, few organizations of any sort carry the same amount of influence over technology than the FCC, or Federal Communications Commission. The government agency has overseen the development and implementation of a variety of technological advancements since its creation in 1934, as radio, television, and then the Internet became widespread means of communication. Last week, however, the FCC made an announcement that’s extraordinarily forward-thinking, and could be an indicator of what’s to come in the world of gadgets.

The FCC has opened up the broadcasting spectrum between 50 mhz and 700 mhz, setting aside this range for “super WiFi,” what will likely be the next major development in the world of computing. Initially, this range was used to broadcast television channels to receivers all across the country, but the advent of digital television has made this obsolete. Now, it’s possible that WiFi signals will use this range instead. Super WiFi routers would be able to reach for miles. This signal range is capable of going through walls and other obstacles with ease, greatly expanding the capabilities of WiFi reception.

While the technology hasn’t made its way onto shelves yet, the announcement was met with positive reception from several major computing companies such as Google and Microsoft. According to one Google spokesman, the exciting part of the announcement was how forward-thinking the FCC showed themselves to be. By implementing a regulation such as this now, long before the technology is actually in place, companies will be able to freely develop “white space networks,” which are broadcast channels operating where they do not overlap with preexisting channels.

In Google’s wide array of free products, none is more impressive to me than Google Maps. With countless businesses and locations trackable both on a traditional map as well as with satellite imagery, it’s a navigational tool, a phonebook, and a time-sink all in one. The size and scope of Google’s project makes it impressive that everything works with such regularity, and that fewer instances like today’s story occur. In spite of their best efforts, a recent CNN article took a look at how Google “lost” a major United States city, thanks largely in part to a minor computer error.

The city in question is Sunrise, Florida, a city of about 90,000 located on the east side of the panhandle in roughly the same area as Miami. Searches for the city, up until yesterday, brought up results in Sarosta, FL, 200 miles away on the western side of the state. The algorithms powering Google’s search tool simply didn’t function correctly, with all businesses and addresses in Sunrise not appearing if searched for. In the past, Google has lost several other cities, including two in the greater Los Angeles area, thanks again to issues with the algorithm. These disappearances aren’t anything serious, at least to the casual observer, but other people closer to the incident don’t feel so neutral.

It’s hard to believe the 1990s were a staggering 10 years ago, and it must be even harder if you’re a fan of old-school computing giant Microsoft. The big-bad wolf of the 1990s tech boom, Microsoft has found itself in a bizarre place in the 21st century. Apple’s business model of providing both hardware and software for their electronics has earned them a new devout following, while Internet-based search giant Google has essentially given so many products out for free they’ve established themselves as huge player in the gadget world. What’s a multi-billion dollar company to do?

One glaring weakness in Microsoft’s armor has been Internet Explorer 6. The Internet browser, still the most common one in use, comes standard on Windows-running personal computers, but its prevalence has also opened it up to a number of weaknesses. Users craving security have turned to Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Google’s Chrome. That could be changing, however. With Internet Explorer 9, which was released in beta earlier this week, Microsoft aim to fix a number of these security concerns, once again providing a quality product for the millions who still use IE.

Amongst the most noticeable changes is the joining of navigation and search into a single bar. Much like Google Chrome, IE9 ties its navigation bar into the Microsoft Bing search engine, providing instantaneous searching and browsing of the web. Its an interesting step for Microsoft, who once scoffed at the idea and stated it compromised privacy too much. IE9 places its tabs next to the search bar, instead of above it a la Chrome or below it a la Firefox. This limits the amount of space each tab gets, which could be annoying for users (such as myself) who jump back and forth between a huge number of tabs at any given time.

Few things on earth possess the same near-infinite depth as the Internet, that curious creature beamed into our living rooms and offices. With billions of users around the world tapping into the net for information, socializing, and virtually anything that can cross the imagination, navigating the sprawl can be a near impossible endeavor. That’s where content-streaming websites come in. These services rely on a user community to bring exciting and interesting pages to the attention of others, creating a social dynamic and enabling up-and-coming websites to see the light of day.

Few sites did this as well as Digg, a place that fostered a user community and housed many interesting links. With a front page filled with news stories, funny pictures, and videos, the site attracted millions of hits per day. However, a recent update to the system did something peculiar. While the technical elements of the update were in place, the folks at Digg implemented a new weighting system, enabling some users to push their content to the front of the website more than others. The result upset many in the community. Companies and corporate websites were suddenly able to promote their links more easily, removing the user-oriented community the website had worked so hard to build.

While Mark Zuckerburg’s social networking masterpiece certainly increases the ease with which we can interact with our friends, the drawbacks of such continuous contact could be emerging. A recent study, performed by Professor Paul Kirschner of the Open University in the Netherlands found that students who use Facebook while studying for an exam, even if its only intermittent use, score nearly a full letter grade below students who abstain while cramming for the big tests. The results might not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the social networking site, a prime way to procrastinate amongst college students.

The numbers certainly don’t lie though. Researchers in the United States looked at 219 students, spanning ages 19 to 54. Facebook users scored a grade point average of 3.06, a solid B average. On the other hand, those who didn’t use the site come test time scored an average 3.82, approaching A territory. Additionally, members of the study who don’t use the site at all recorded a staggering 88% more time spent studying outside of the classroom. Clearly the relationship between the two is documented, although one should certainly keep in mind that correlation doesn’t equal causation.

Professor Kirschner’s findings are going to be published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior later this fall. He was quoted in The Telegraph UK explaining his take on the results. “While people may think constant task-switching allows them to get more done in less time, the reality is it extends the amount of time needed to carry out tasks and leads to more mistakes.”

The ability to multi-task while studying is certainly tempting to any student, and the availability of the Internet anywhere on most college campuses can make Facebook an always-present distraction, much moreso than other aspects of student life.

The rivalry between Google and Apple has taken the two companies to all corners of the computing world. Everything from smartphones to the acquisition of technology startups have pushed the pair into a deadlocked bout time and time again. The latest development, one which has been rumored for quite some time, has Google challenging Steve Jobs and company in one of their most prized footholds: music distribution.

In talks with record companies for some time now, Google looks to unveil their alternative to the Apple juggernaut iTunes by the end of the year.

No deals have as yet been signed, but Google is leading with their best foot, putting Andy Rubin at the forefront of the negotiations. Rubin is responsible for the take-off in Google’s Android operating system over the last year, bringing the platform to a wide array of devices and smartphones.

Sales of Android-enabled devices have gone upwards to 200,000 per day, numbers that should be alarming for Apple’s products. From the sounds of things, Google’s strategy will be less oriented around the computer, instead opting to focus on mobile gadgets.

Google’s options in this regard are certainly exciting. In Apple’s framework for music relies heavily on users transporting their music from device to device, a synchronization-heavy option that can become cumbersome at times. Earlier this year, Apple acquired online music streaming site Lala, a move that excited many about the prospects of Apple backing the service. For only ten cents a song, users could stream music from Lala from any computer simply by logging in. It was a great way to take your music library with you wherever you might be, but Apple disappointed many users by shutting Lala down following the acquisition.