Cheap Tech

Facebook can see your face

Facebook's newest feature involves facial recognition software that scans photos and offers users suggestions for tagging photos.

So, when you upload photos to a Facebook album, the software will ask if this face is Aunt Alice? Is this face Uncle Fred? And so on.

While some view this as another of Facebook's invasions of privacy, the same feature has been standard in photo software for about a year or so. Google's Picasa has been giving user the option to tag faces in its web albums for a couple of years.

Still, it can be a bit freaky. I remember first using the software with Picasa and it identified one of my firends -- and his mother -- as the same person!

And, at least for now, Facebook gives users the option of turning facial recognition off -- kind of like putting a hood over your head!

Catch CNN Money's article about the Facebook change here.

MSNBC's story is here.

Another argument for the iPod Touch

Lifehacker has yet another take on how people can use an iPod Touch as a replacement for the iPhone.

Their post goes even farther, by adding a Mi-F hotspot to give your Touch complete mobility.

I can't imagine that the battery for the Mi-Fi or the Touch would last a full day. However, my neighbor did just pick up a new 64GB Touch and says the battery life is much improved in the newer model.

 

You mean you TALK on your phone?

While cell phones have become nearly ubiquitous in American society, fewer and fewer people, especially young people, are actually using them to talk.

Most adults still use their phones for calls, averaging five voice calls a day, according to a recent report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

But texting is gaining ground. Some 72 percent of adults send and receive text messages, but 87 percent of teenage users text. Teens average 50 text messages a day, according to the Pew report.

My youngest son is NOT an average user.

Our Verizon bill includes phones for my wife, a college student and a high-schooler.

My wife has her phone off as much as she has it on. She spent 256 minutes talking on her cell last month. She also sent a measly 28 texts.

But the two boys treat their cell phones like a lifeline. Their phones are almost always on. The college student logged 651 voice minutes last month (out-of-state girlfriend) and sent 361 texts 

The high-schooler spent 158 minutes talking and sent -- brace yourself -- 10,907 texts!

I can't imagine sending that many texts, and I type for a living.

The other day I saw a woman waiting for her food at a local restaurant. She held one phone to her ear with her shoulder and was texting with a second phone at the same time.

My life should be so interesting!

Verizon iPhone is simply not worth the wait

Rumors of a deal that would allow Verizon to sell Apple's iPhone are swirling once again.

And, on Thursday, Verizon announced it would begin selling the iPad by the end of the month.

Which leaves the cheap tech shopper wondering ... is it worth the wait for an iPhone on Verizon's network?

Nah.

Truth is, data plans (from all the carriers) are ridiculously expensive. Added fees for tethering make the most useful smartphone an even pricier option.

Nearly all of my gadget-freak friends own iPod Touches and rely on the nearest free Wi-Fi to connect. While all of them lust for an iPhone, they love the Touch — and the extra $20 to $30 a month in their pockets -- enough to resist.

Have you sprung for a smartphone? Is it worth the money?

 

Do you trust Google to drive your car?

Google announced on Sunday that they have been testing a car that drives itself.

They sent out the automated cars (after mapping the route ahead of time and talking to the police) manned with a trained operator (who was charged with grabbing the wheel in case things went awry) and a software engineer who monitored how things were working.

Google claims it has logged 140,000 miles in its automated cars.

Which begs the question: If Google were to license the product and automated cars were available at your nearest auto dealer, would you buy one?

Google says the initiative was borne out of a desire to make roads safer. They say that automated vehicles could cut the number of U.S. accidents in half.

And if you had an automated car, what would you do during your commute? U.S. drivers spend an average of 52 minutes on the road to work and home.

Would you nap? Fire up the netbook and work? Surf the Web on your smartphone?

How will Facebook remember you when you're dead?

How much of what you are can be found on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc? What about your e-mail?

How much of that dreck do you want to live on after you die?

Website makuseof.com offers a rundown of what happens to your Gmail, Hotmail, MySpace, Facebook and Yahoo accounts in the event of your demise.

For example, Gmail allows your next of kin to access your e-mail and, if they wish, to delete your account. Facebook, on the other hand, does not allow next of kin to delete your account. Instead, Facebook turns your page into a frozen memorial.

Creepy.

This all goes to show that you should keep a list of all your accounts, passwords, etc. in a place where your loved ones can find it. Logging in as you -- I know, it's ghoulish -- they could then systematically erase your online presence.

But the bigger question for me is not whether the account survives after I die. The question is, do I want what I post on Facebook to be my legacy?

Makes you wonder if you should think a bit more before posting about a Saturday morning hangover or sharing an embarrassing photo of a loved one. After all, that person in the Speedo might be deciding what stays and what goes in your online afterlife.

Ebooks are enticing, but I'm not sold

I borrowed a friend's Nook for a few days last week to give the much-talked about ebook reader a try.

Nook, is Barnes & Noble's entry into the ebook hardware market that started with Amazon's Kindle and has now expanded to include the Sony Reader, the Borders Kobo and others. ZD Net does a good job of rounding them up.

All use E Ink technology displays, which read just like a paperback and are easy on the eyes.

The Nook has an E Ink display on top and a rectangular touch screen below. You use the touch screen for managing your library and ordering material and for navigation on the page.

The Nook I borrowed was the full fledged $199 model that included both WiFi and 3G connectivity. The 3G options allows you to purchase and download material from anywhere you have cell phone coverage. For my purposes, the 3G option is overkill. Since I have a WiFi network at home and free hotspots are fairly pervasive, you can save $60 by purchasing a WiFi-only version.

The book experience with the Nook was impressive. Ordering and purchasing was a breeze, and the download was fast, even over the 3G network. The device was relatively light (about the weight of a Robert Jordan paperback), but narrower than an open a book. I read for about an hour before I felt the need to set it down for a rest.

Turning the E Ink page is slow if you compare it to the response of today's computer screens or mobile phones, but it really takes no longer than physically turning the page of a book.

I was interested in how the Nook would work with a newspaper or magazine, so I downloaded single editions of the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the Star Tribune. Each cost 50-75 cents. While the text display was fine, moving from article to article and from section to section was painfully slow.

Halfway through a lengthy NYT piece, I lost interest. But to get back to the article directory, I had to page through the entire article, one pokey page at a time.

Navigating the article directory is also a bit perplexing at first. Once you get to the directory, each page displays one or two article headlines and summaries. You select your desired article by using the touchpad, then use the navigation buttons on the Nook's bezel to turn pages. But if you spend some time on the article, the touchscreen goes to sleep (likely to save battery life) and you have to tap a button to bring it back to life. It's not bad once you get used to it, but it's painfully slow when compared to leafing through a print edition.

One bonus: None of the periodicals I downloaded included any advertising.

Bottom line: If you travel a lot, an ebook is a no-brainer. If you're a stay-at-home reader, you can buy a lot of Stephen King paperbacks for $150!

No one caught Google's Wave

Google has announced it will cease development of Google Wave as a standalone app.

Much ballyhooed when it was first released last year, Wave featured unprecedented collaborative tools such as live typing (you could watch as the person on the other end of your conversation misspelled words and then hit the back key to fix them), drag and drop file exchange and conversation playback.

The consensus among early adopters was, "Cool! But what do I do with it?"

Apparently, nothing.

Google will maintain the Wave site through the end of the year and promises the technology will still live. But the Wave never caught on.

Turn an old iPhone into a pre-paid phone

If you yen for an iPhone but are put off by the cost of AT&T's data plans, the AppleBlog tells how you can turn a old iPhone into a pay-as-you-go wonder.

Of course, you need an old iPhone. You can buy one on eBay for less than $200 or you can con one of those new-adopter friends of yours into selling you their old phone for a song.

Then, you go to your friendly AT&T retailer and buy a GoPhone, which works like a calling card. Take the SIM card out of the the GoPhone and put it into the iPhone.

But you're not done yet. You'll need to change the over-the-air provisioning on the phone. Check the AppleBlog how-to for details.

Don't expect to wander the countryside and browse the Web, though, GoPhone data is pretty pricey. But if you stick to WiFi for most activity and only use the network when necessary, a pay-as-you-go iPhone might be for you. 

Let me know if you give it a try.

Botnet steals more than 60GB of data

PC security company AVG reports that the "Mumba botnet" has infected about 55,000 computers around the world and stolen more than 60 GB of data, including bank account numbers, credit card details and social networking logins.

A cyber-gang known as the Avalanche Group created the botnet, which uses a fast-flux infrastructure to evade authorities.

ZDNet has the details.