Written by: Shauna Bannan

Protesters fled to the streets of Manhattan to show their support against the SOPA and PIPA bills.

Proposed anti-piracy laws SOPA and PIPA have yielded protests and debate among Internet activists and the media industry as the House and Senate move closer to a decision.

Thousands of Internet sites and activists have recently come together to oppose two anti-piracy bills. The two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), would strengthen protection against copyright infringement by restricting access to foreign sites that enable the trading of pirated content.

There has been quite a fuss over the bills from content groups, media companies and business representatives, who argue that growing Internet piracy is threatening content-creating industries, and Internet advocates who contend that the bills would stifle innovation and censor free information.

Tech companies, like Wikipedia and Reddit, launched a “blackout” on their sites to protest against the bills.

Wikipedia’s English-language site displayed a message to viewers that read: “Imagine a world without free knowledge…The US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.”

Viewers were redirected to the protest page just moments after their intended searches were displayed. The page also provided  links to SOPA and PIPA, specifying additional information on the proposed bills, and a link that would help visitors reach their member of Congress to oppose the bills.

BoingBoing, Mozilla and TwitPic also participated in the protest, while Facebook and Twitter opposed the legislation but did not participate in the blackout.

Google’s logo remained hidden behind a black rectangle, linking to a petition that drew more than seven million signatures opposing the bills.

“It’s still something we’re trying to comprehend,” Google spokeswoman Samantha Smith said. “We had such an overwhelming response to our petition that it honestly far exceeded our expectations.”

Congress has halted the debate on the two bills, postponing the vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA) that was originally scheduled for Jan. 24. Much of the decision was based on the recent events that were by Internet activists.

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” said Lamar Smith, House Judiciary Committee Chairman. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Technorati Tags: anti-piracy bills, anti-piracy laws, blackout, copyright infringement, internet activists, internet blackout, pipa, sopa

Fruitz is a collection of fun and colorful watches that is appealing to people for more than just fun and color.  The new collection of fruits watches, seen on celebrities such as Dakota Fanning and Selena Gomez and identified as a “practical accessory staple” by Parade Magazine, has Natural Frequencies inside. .

Every Fruitz watch contains a Natural Frequency Technology disk, created by Philip Stein. According to a clinical study, people wearing devices with natural frequency technology experienced better sleep than those not wearing devices with the technology.

Natural frequencies exist everywhere. The earth’s natural frequency is 7.83 hz, the key frequency in the natural frequency technology. Frequencies are captured and infused, and embedded into the watch. The idea behind the natural frequency technology disk in each watch is that it provides the wearer with natural frequencies and information.

So, it would appear, that beyond making a fashion statement, a Fruitz watch has immense technological powers.

Technorati Tags: fruits, Technology, watches

Computers are penetrating more and more in our everyday lives and becoming a necessity. Tablet Pc’s are bridging the gap between smart phone devices and heavier bulkier laptops. Operating system is coming to the web with Google Chrome on Cloud, changing the desktop dynamics with a cost effective and portable solution.

Touching the Human Emotions !

The most intriguing question amidst all this is knowing what lies ahead of us. Not a year or two years from now, but 40 years ahead? As difficult as it may be to predict, when Americans were asked this question in a telephonic survey by The Pew Research Center, it showed, “81 percent think that computer science will have progressed to the point where a computer will probably or definitely be able to carry on a conversation indistinguishable from that of a human being”

A pretty believable idea considering the technology around us is evolving at the speed of light. Intel at its Annual Research Day at the end of this month will also be indicating the progress in the same direction. Its spotlighting technology that reads readers gesture and responds to the thoughts. The event is to be held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

When computers start reading our minds and talking back to us, that popular saying on books will be modified to ‘computers are our best friends’.

Technorati Tags: future technology, human emotions known to computers, next generation computers

Bing's music to the ears !

Microsoft’s aggressive attempts to revive their search engine by changing its name from MSN search to Live and then finally to Bing and positioning it as a decision engine has taken a new entertaining step.

This Tuesday, the company announced a new way to search the entertainment stuff where you can play games, watch your favorite soap operas and other TV content, stream music and shows, all without a second click, right on the Bing domain itself. This will perhaps make Bing look more like a web portal than a search engine page, while making the navigation much smoother for the average user who gets lost in the information explosion that comes with every search query that is made.

This new feature includes services from Zune catalog too, where each of several million songs on Zune can be played once for free and 30-second previews available thereafter.

It is noteworthy that presently 7% of all Bing searches (which accounts to 1.5 billion queries per month) are entertainment-related queries. This percentage is more likely to go up now with the introduction of this feature. Though Bing is still far from capturing Google’s number one position as far as search goes, this is surely a step in the right direction.

Technorati Tags: Bing, entertainment search, Google, music search

The New iPhone 4

Analysts are predicting serious supply shortages for the new iPhone 4.  These predictions are a result of production issues with the new display technology provided to Apple by LG Electronics.  One of the key new features of the iPhone 4 is its new Retina Display which utilizes in-plane switching (IPS) technology.  This technology will provide an exceptional visual display and allow movies and photos to be viewed from nearly any angle.  This is possible because of the extremely high pixel density available with IPS technology. 

Low production yields of the IPS LCD panel produced by LG have reduced production volumes for the new iPhone.  Apple is hopeful that the transition by LG to Gen 5 LCD capacity late this summer will help bring the production of the new phone back on track.

In addition to the improved visual display made available by IPS, other differences between the new iPhone 4G and its predecessor include a 5 megapixel camera with HD video capability, LED flash, gyroscope, duel microphones, better speakers, an improved antenna, and front facing camera for video calling.  The basic model of the new iPhone will range in price from $199-$299 with new AT&T rate plans and will be available for purchase in the coming weeks.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Electronics, iPhone, LG, new iPhone, Retina Display, Shortages

Recycling Electronics

The state of New York has become the most recent of over 20 states to pass its own electronics recycling law.  New York Governor, David Patterson, signed legislation late last month to enforce the recycling of electronics throughout New York.  The legislation requires all manufacturers in the state that sell electronic devices to provide free collection services for obsolete electronics by April 2011. 

The New York legislation requires each of these electronics manufacturers to reuse or recycle their market share by weight of electronic scrap based on a three year sales average.  The waste collected by these organizations is to be reported by the individual collection facilities separately as waste generated by consumers within the state of New York and waste received from other locations.  While housed at the collection facilities, the electronic waste must be fully enclosed in secure containers or buildings that are constructed to minimize and prevent the release of hazardous materials.  The electronic waste must also be removed from the collection site within one year.

Several electronics manufacturers have expressed concern due to the varying laws affecting the disposal of their products from state to state.  Other states that have passed electronics recycling laws in the past decade include California, Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Minnesota, among others.

Technorati Tags: Electronic Waste, Electronic Waste Legislation, Electronics Manufacturers, Electronics Recycling, New York

DTS, Inc. is providing new sound for the 2010 FIFA World Cup

DTS, Inc. announced that they will be providing DTS surround sound technology for FIFA’s 2010 World Cup. If you can’t make your way to way to the game, you will definitely be hearing it as though you were. ESPN and other broadcasters will be providing soccer fans in the U.S. and Brazil with DTS Neutral Surround™. That allows the excitement of the game to reach fans in high quality 5.1 surround sound.

DTS, Inc. is a digital technology company dedicated to delivering the ultimate entertainment experience and a pioneer in multi-channel audio. You can find DTS technology in home theatre, car audio, PC/gaming console products, DVD players, TV’s, digital media players, set-top boxes and surround music software. You most likely have heard of DTS technology recently, seeing as it is a mandatory audio format in the Blu-ray Disc standard there as in every device capable of playing Blu-ray discs.

“DTS surround sound technology will be an integral part of the broadcast productions at the 2010 World Cup,” says Geir Skaaden, VP, North American Licensing Operations, DTS, Inc. The FIFA 2010 World Cup will be broadcasted with this technology from beginning to end, June 11^th to July 11^th to be exact. DTS also plans to grow with the demand for high quality entertainment. As consumers continue to strive for the latest in audio and visual technology, they will continue to develop it. 

Technorati Tags: 2010 FIFA World Cup, DTS, Surround Sound System, Technology

The multitasking guru pays the price in the end!

Less than twenty four hours to the announcement of the fourth version of iPhone, with a highlight on its most sought after ‘multitasking’ feature, a New York Times story shockingly reveals how multitasking is affecting our everyday lives. Not in a good way that is.

In a series of articles by the New York Times, called ‘Your Brain on Computers’, the very first story is covered on a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Kord Campbell who is breathing eating living computers and gadgets 24 hours of his life. And when the most important deal of his career comes knocking at his inbox, offering over a million dollars to buy his Internet start up, he misses this email to multitasking. Not so surprising, when you are surrounded by information flood and juggling between one screen to another all the time.

So what’s really wrong with multitasking? Don’t we all listen to the radio while driving our car, check the pending voice messages, and take a sip of mocha every now and then.

Though our brains are well conditioned to doing multiple things at one time and it’s rather difficult to do just one thing and only one thing at a time, truth is that we really can’t process more than two or three things at a given time. More things on our to-do list and we have to switch between tasks, to keep our concentration levels in check and take regular breaks in between.

Or we might end up missing our one time million dollar chance of  life. The choice is ours.

Technorati Tags: computer hazards, iPhone multitasking, multitasking

Newspaper

In response to the dwindling revenues and subscriptions to print and paper-based news media over the past decade, the Federal Trade Commission has suggested placing a 5% tax on consumer electronics in order to provide support to these organizations.  This suggestion is part of a larger push by the FTC to provide support for the “reinvention of journalism”.  If it is ever passed, the suggested 5% tax would apply to electronics such as PCs, laptops, game systems and iPads, among other devices. 

Although many newspapers have recouped some of their lost revenue through online advertising, the FTC suggests that this income is not sufficient to take the place of the print advertising proceeds newspapers became accustomed to in the 20^th century.  The proposed solution to save print media – government funding in the form of up to $35 billion in annual subsidies.  This funding, of course, would ultimately come from US citizens, thus the suggestion for a 5% consumer electronics tax.  The FTC argues that the $35 billion annual allocation to news media is comparable to the commitment the government made in the early 1800’s to subsidize journalism.  The general consensus is that assisting the newspapers and other forms of journalism is for the greater good. 

Technorati Tags: 5% tax, consumer electronics, electronics tax, federal trade commission, FTC, tax