Author: Connor Livingston

Facebook has been doing everything it can to keep people from exporting their contacts to bring them into Google+ ever since the search giant’s new social network launched this month. Household Hacker has come up with a relatively quick and very easy way to make it happen using Facebook’s relationship with Yahoo. …

There has been a recent uproar about Facebook’s “Tag Suggestions” feature that takes people’s faces, attempts to recognize them, and suggests tags for them that their friends can add to any image. It’s been called creepy at best and an attack on privacy at worst. A successful Google+ launch could be a major challenge for Facebook already, so the timing of the latest controversy is bad for the social network. This breakdown by ZoneAlarm shows us how the technology works and gives us interesting information surrounding the controversy. It then dives into ways that privacy-conscious users can…

There are dozens of reasons why upgrading the current systems used by banking institutions is a great idea. With many systems having been built in the last century, the technology exists today to make things cleaner, more streamlined, and better overall. The one aspect of 2011 technology that does not belong in banking is real-time processing. The reason – security. Word is spreading about plans by 5 of the top 20 major banking institutions to move to more advanced real-time systems that will allow them to generate more revenue. On the surface, it seems like a win-win situation. People want their…

Technology has been integrated into paying tribute to lost loved ones for some time now at funerals and on memorial websites, but Israeli medical technology executive Yoav Medan has brought technology to the final place of rest for his mother by adding a QR Code to her gravestone. “I was most concerned about 20 or 40 years from now, how will she be remembered … [I wanted to put] what’s in our memory into a place that doesn’t forget,” he said. Scanning the QR Code with a mobile device takes visitors to a website where he plans to grow with stories and images of his mother’s life. It was engraved…

The battle lines have been drawn between the 2 major FPS titles to be released before Christmas this year with both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 getting tremendous amounts of attention since E3. One unknown fan of Battlefield 3 took the war to the next level by redirecting modernwarfare3.com to the Battlefield 3 official website. The domain had been privately registered in 2009, catching Activision asleep at the domain-buying wheel. Before the redirect, the site featured the video below and said that COD was “the most over-hyped first-person action series of all time” while…

In many ways, social buying was inevitable. Once eCommerce started really taking off last decade followed by the growth of social media, the two seemed destined to come together like chocolate and peanut butter. We trust each other more than we trust companies and the concept of using power of groups to buy in bulk while still being an individual has always been appealing. Thus, social buying was born, and it’s expanded tremendously over the years. This breakdown by our friends at Flowtown takes a look at the short but loaded history of social buying. Click to enlarge. …

The demand to make viral videos is skyrocketing. Animals, babies, and special effects flood YouTube daily in videos made by companies and marketing firms in an effort to get views and exposure for a brand. One tried and true method of getting views is through skin. Sex sells. We just didn’t know it sold video game accessories. The clever folks over at  xtendplay is trying to do just that with the satirical report of a recent “Nude Gaming Party” in New York City. The video, somewhat NSFW, has over a million views on YouTube and highlights the fictional subculture of XBuffing – playing games “in the…

Our mobile devices have many uses to us, well beyond the talk and text functionality of the past. Millions of mobile apps are downloaded to smartphones and tablets every day. The types of apps we download are an indication of what uses we see for mobile devices. According to a recent study by Nielson, we want to have fun, know when it’s going to rain, monitor Facebook, and get directions. Over half of mobile device users have used apps for gaming, weather, social networking, and/or navigation in the last 30 days. Music, news, and entertainment follow. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that 93%…

There’s nothing wrong with reusing old material on new projects. It’s done all the time in Hollywood. Heck, the Wilhelm Scream has been used over and over again for 60 years. However, if you do recycle material, it’s important to be sure that it was either content that was found on the cutting room floor (and not in the movie itself) or something so small that nobody will notice. When Michael Bay made his current blockbuster, he did not heed either rule of recycling. Not only is the scene in question part of one of the most exciting sequences in both The Island and Transformers 3, it was so easily distinguishable…

It was once hard to imagine a world like either of the ones described in 1984 or Brave New World. There were logistical and technological challenges that made the censorship and control of information pretty much impossible. Today, it’s more than possible. It would be easy. It also may be happening, if you were to believe the assertions by the makers of #killswitch, the documentary. Even here, we’ve discussed why the Internet kill switch is a bad idea. The infographic and video below make the claim that we’re potentially seeing A Brave New 1984 unfolding before our eyes. Do you think we’re really…