Join Dr. Bill as he examines the wild and wacky world of the web, computers, and all things geeky! Hot Tech Tips, Tech News, and Geek Culture are examined… with plenty of good humor as well!
ComputerWorld – By: Grant Gross – “A U.S. Senate committee has voted to approve a bill aimed at curbing abusive lawsuits by so-called patent trolls.
The bipartisan Protecting American Talent and Entrepreneurship (PATENT) Act, introduced in late April, now heads to the full Senate for consideration after the Senate Judiciary Committee vote Thursday.
The bill targets patent-holding companies that use infringement lawsuits as a primary business model. It would require judges to award attorney fees to defendants or plaintiffs in patent infringement lawsuits when the court finds the other side acted unreasonably.
It also requires that companies sending patent licensing demand letters provide details of the alleged infringement, not ‘vague’ demands. The bill would also delay expensive discovery procedures in some patent infringement lawsuits, and it would shield customers using allegedly infringing products from lawsuits.
Several technology groups have praised legislation targeting patent trolls, but others have suggested the bills would hurt the ability of small patent holders to file lawsuits against infringers.
The bill still needs ‘significant work,’ said Brian Pomper, executive director of the Innovation Alliance, representing tech and manufacturing companies. The bill leaves open the potential for abuse of the customer lawsuit provision, and it includes overly broad discovery provisions, he said in a statement.
‘We can strengthen our patent laws without undermining intellectual property rights and crippling a system that is so important to incentivizing innovation and job creation in our country,’ Pomper added.
Sponsors are open to changing the bill as it moves to the full Senate, said Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and main sponsor of the PATENT Act. The committee tried to ‘strike the right balance’ between ongoing patent reforms at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and concerns about abusive patent lawsuits, he said during Thursday’s hearing.
Some ‘good-faith negotiations’ on the bill continue, Grassley added.
The Consumer Electronics Association praised the bill, saying in a statement that it ‘closes the legal loopholes used by patent trolls — the individuals and companies that don’t invent or manufacture anything useful, but rather abuse our patent system and extort American innovators.’
A similar bill was introduced in February in the House of Representatives.”
Softpedia – “On June 18, Collabora announced that they added two versions of the popular LibreOffice open-source office suite software for Apple’s Mac OS X operating systems on the Mac App Store.
While one of the versions, called LibreOffice Vanilla, is available for download for free, the other one is entitled LibreOffice-from-Collabora and is available for purchase for the sum of $9.99 or €9.99, depending on your geographical location, and comes with a 3-year maintenance, optional professional support, and automatic updates.
It would appear that Collabora, an open-source software consultancy company based in UK, has spent the last few months making all the necessary preparations and tweaking the LibreOffice office suite to meet the requirements implied by Apple when submitting apps to the Mac App Store.
‘Collabora continues its march into new markets bringing the power and flexibility of Open Source to professional users’ said Michael Meeks, Collabora Productivity General Manager. ‘Simultaneously we’re introducing an easy new way to get LibreOffice Fresh from the Document Foundation, while providing in-app donation links to support their work’.
LibreOffice Vanilla vs. LibreOffice-from-Collabora
Both LibreOffice versions from Collabora are available for download starting June 18, 2015 on the Mac App Store, but it is very important to note here that the popular open-source office suite software was already available for Mac OS X operating system as a standalone installer from the LibreOffice website.
When searching the Mac App Store for LibreOffice, users will be presented with two entries, LibreOffice Vanilla and LibreOffice-from-Collabora. As mentioned, the latter costs money and is a customized version of LibreOffice-from-Collabora, based on the upstream LibreOffice 4.3 and designed for business customers who want to get long-term maintenance updates and optional professional support.
On the other hand, LibreOffice Vanilla is an almost identical build of the latest upstream LibreOffice office suite (version 4.4.4.2 at the moment of writing this article), with the exception of a new welcome screen where you’ll find all the necessary information to donate money to the open-source project.”
We wanted to alert you that, recently, our team discovered and immediately blocked suspicious activity on our network. No encrypted user vault data was taken, however other data, including email addresses and password reminders, was compromised.
We are confident that the encryption algorithms we use will sufficiently protect our users. To further ensure your security, we are requiring verification by email when logging in from a new device or IP address, and will be prompting users to update their master passwords.
We apologize for the inconvenience, but ultimately we believe this will better protect LastPass users. Thank you for your understanding, and for using LastPass.
Chrome Blog – By: Tommy Li – “Adobe Flash allows web pages to display rich content—but sometimes that can put a squeeze on your laptop’s battery. So we’ve been working with Adobe to ensure that your experience on the web can be power-efficient as well as rich and interactive—and today, we’re introducing an update to Chrome that does just that.
When you’re on a webpage that runs Flash, we’ll intelligently pause content (like Flash animations) that aren’t central to the webpage, while keeping central content (like a video) playing without interruption. If we accidentally pause something you were interested in, you can just click it to resume playback. This update significantly reduces power consumption, allowing you to surf the web longer before having to hunt for a power outlet.
This feature will be enabled by default on Chrome’s latest desktop Beta channel release starting today, and will be rolling out soon to everyone else on Chrome desktop. If you need to manually enable it, just head to Chrome’s content settings and select ‘Detect and run important plugin content.'”
Skype Blog – By: Jonathan Watson – “Hot on the heels of our recent post announcing improvements to Skype for Outlook , today we’re pleased to share more good news for people that use Skype on their browser – Skype for Web (Beta) is now available for all new and existing users in the US and UK.
Now, anyone going to Skype.com (or web.skype.com) in the US and UK can sign in and connect to Skype for Web to get to their conversations in an instant without downloading the Skype app.
Skype for Web is perfect if you normally use Skype on your mobile, but want to quickly get to your calls and IMs on a bigger screen. Or perhaps you’re sitting at a Windows or Mac computer in an internet café or hotel that doesn’t already have Skype downloaded. If you’re in the US or UK and are using a computer, take a moment to give Skype for Web a try. Just go to Skype.com and join or sign in with your Skype ID and password.
As we explained at the end of last year, Skype for Web is an important step for Skype as we move towards implementing the technology to make Real-Time Communications (RTC) on the web a reality. But just as importantly, we’re doing it because the hundreds of millions of people that visit Skype.com every month told us they want to call and IM when they visit our website. We know how critical it is for you to get to your conversations – and Skype for Web helps you get connected anytime.
Conversations sync seamlessly
If you already use Skype, sign into Skype for web and you’ll notice your contacts and conversations load in just a few seconds, so whether you usually use Skype on a mobile, tablet, native desktop app or a TV, you’ll see your latest chats are ready to respond to in your browser.
Easy searching
We’ve improved the way you search for people and groups on Skype. Instead of two separate lists for contacts and recent conversations, Skype for Web introduces a timeline view – a single, searchable list that makes it easier to start new conversations and find existing ones.
Great for all your conversation types
Video calls, instant messaging and audio calling with a friend or group of friends – however you want to keep in touch, Skype for Web gets you to the conversation quickly from your desktop browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari and Firefox). Don’t forget to install the plug-in before you make or receive your first call.
Never miss a moment
We’ve added notifications on Skype for Web (you’ll need to enable them when you sign-in), so you don’t miss incoming instant messages, audio or video calls, even if you’re using another app or viewing a different website in another browser window.
We’ll be continuing to roll-out Skype for Web worldwide in the next few weeks, so please share your thoughts in the Skype Community. We are constantly improving Skype for Web and would love to hear your feedback.”
The Daily Dot – By: Ben Branstetter – When a new gadget is first unveiled to the public, it has to answer one seemingly simple but actually rather complicated question: How will anyone use it?
Many devices can get by on simply being cool or trendy, but eventually they all have to prove their worth to the average consumer. If the device is a relatively simple, single function tool—like a calculator or an e-reader—its intended use is pretty easy to understand. But since the rise of the smartphone and its almost infinite utility, very few gadgets are attempting to do just one thing. This complicates what a company must do to justify the existence of any new products.
This was the trap Google found itself in after its muddled release of Google Glass, the smart eyewear that became the preeminent symbol of tech bubble douchebaggery. Before the device’s release, Google worked extensively to explain to America why customers should shell out up to $1,500 for what basically amounts to a voice-activated camera strapped to their face.
Google’s famous video showing off how people might use Glass mostly relied on very specific circumstances in which the device might or could be practical—on a trapeze! Or a rollercoaster!
Combine that with its possible use among criminals, creeps, and identity thieves—not to mention its extravagant $1,500 price tag—and it is no wonder Glass was a rare failure for Google.
As I’ve written before, Google needs to adjust its widespread ambitions to the pace of the consumer market itself. It can’t drag out the next Jetsons-level invention and expect Americans to get on board immediately. It’s with this lesson in mind that, at its massive I/O developers conference, Google announced a major expansion of its astonishingly simple virtual reality headset, Google Cardboard.
With this very simple idea, Google hopes to introduce easy-to-use, headache-free virtual reality to educators and consumers at a low cost.
If you’ve never heard of Google Cardboard, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Instead of the bulky, futuristic headsets that have come to dominate the VR market, Cardboard is quite literally made out of a few scraps of the titular material. You drop your smartphone into the front of the setup, play a compatible video (like this one), and hold Cardboard up to your face like a hi-tech viewmaster.
While you do lose some of the immersive effect of headsets like the Oculus Rift, Cardboard serves as a perfect introduction, or ‘gateway drug,’ to what virtual reality should feel like. Best of all, you can buy it for just $15 or, heck, make one yourself.
Like Glass, Cardboard is an early public test drive for a technology most consumers aren’t fully aware of—and even less would think to buy. Virtual reality to most consumers is likely still stuck in its Michael-Douglas-in-Disclosure heyday.
Unlike Glass, however, Cardboard is not an expensive, heavy commitment toward a technology with a still-questionable application. It’s something to try, not to own. This is emphasized by its lack of a head strap or even an earpiece to hold Cardboard in place. Cardboard merely provides a dark, portable theater to watch 360° video with a semblance of atmosphere.
To call Cardboard a ‘gadget’ stretches the meaning of the term, as the technology the system operates on is all in the smartphone. Earlier this year, Google announced that YouTube would be compatible with videos recorded for VR experiences; alongside Cardboard, Google unveiled Jump, its own camera rig for recording 360° video.
By utilizing its own infrastructure, Google is working around the technological leaps companies like Oculus and Samsung have had to surpass to make their visions of a virtual future a reality. The technology that makes VR so intriguing—position tracking, high-quality video, and sound—can already be achieved on most Android devices. With Cardboard, Google seems to be almost laughing at the idea that VR is really all that innovative.
This is exactly what Google knows it needs to explain to consumers: Cardboard isn’t really that big a deal. Unlike Glass, it doesn’t involve a major financial commitment and is desperately easy to use. If you own a smartphone, which most of you do, you can use Cardboard. No voice activation commands to memorize, no extra touch screens to feel around for, and no reason to ask why you couldn’t just do this with your smartphone.
Even if you might only use Cardboard for watching a music video or playing a simple game from time to time, that’s perfectly fine. You can always just take your smartphone out and your life goes on like normal.
This factor of commitment—not just how much a consumer spends on a device but how much it forces them to adjust their behavior—is perhaps the most overlooked factor when we talk about ‘the next big thing.” For what seems like no other reason than tech journalism’s fear of being proven wrong by the waves of fashion and time, smartwatches are a thing. They look nice, they might keep us healthier, and you can go buy $17,000 gold-plated one.
But all smartwatch manufacturers have completely failed to justify the existence of their products. As Mat Honan postulated after the Apple Watch’s release, everyone is afraid to call out the uselessness of smartwatches, for fear they could be found in a listicle of wrongheaded predictions five years from now. After all, who could’ve predicted the rise of the iPhone?
Cardboard circumvents this entire cycle by being one thing smartphones, smartwatches, and smart eyeglasses can never be: change-in-the-sofa-cushions cheap. It’s an ingenious opportunity for consumers to merely greet a technology that, like smartwatches and Glass, is being announced with awe but could be met with exhaustion. Virtual reality headsets are likely to be awesome, immersive displays of nerdiness for only the richest of dweebs, but its biggest fans imagine they could change cinema, travel, sports, and most other things that might actually force us to leave our house.
While I’m not brave enough to publicly doubt that possibility, Cardboard allows us to dip our toes into the pool without debating how far down it is to the bottom.”
Have you noticed a little Windows 10 icon showing up in your PC’s tray at the right hand bottom of your screen? You can click it, and reserve your upgrade to Windows 10 starting TODAY! The official update day is now July 29th. It will be here before you know it!
Newegg leaked this info: Windows 10 will be available for purchase on August 31, according to a page on the Newegg’s web site. An OEM copy of Windows 10 Home will cost $109; an OEM copy of Windows 10 Professional will cost $149. Neither page lists any substantive differences between the Home and Professional editions of Windows 10, the two versions of Windows 10 designed for home PCs.
Greenbot – By: Derek Walter – “Roboto, the signature font for Android and Chrome, is Google’s latest free gift to the world.
Google announced that the Roboto font family is now open source, and has posted the entire code on Github. This means that not only are you allowed to use Roboto without running into any copyright issues, but you can tweak and modify it for your own purposes.
The story behind the story: Google first introduced Roboto with Android Jelly Bean 4.0. Since then it’s become the default font for both Android and Chrome, and has become a major stylistic component of Google’s identity with its Material Design aesthetic. The open source move aligns with Google’s approach to most of its products: making them free and customizable, while hopefully garnering goodwill and community feedback.”
Now that Skype for Web (Beta) is available in Chrome, that means I can Skype on my Chromebook! (Well, some features, not all yet.)
Have you noticed a little Windows 10 icon showing up in your PC’s tray at the right hand bottom of your screen? You can click it, and reserve your upgrade to Windows 10 starting TODAY! The official update day is now July 29th. It will be here before you know it!