BlackBerry style keyboard for your iPhone

There was a time when BlackBerry dominated the smartphone market with an iron fist, physical keyboard, and promise of an exclusive, secure app that we still refer to as BBM. The BlackBerry days are well and truly over now, with the Canadian company’s well-documented fall from grace seeming only to speed up in the previous few months, but despite this, we all know those BB owners who remain defiant that they won’t cave in to the glamour of an iPhone or Android smartphone.

The main reason, I find, for people feeling this way is the famously responsive physical keyboard, but if there was a way for these users to enjoy the key-tapping benefits of owning a BlackBerry while taking advantage of the very much more advanced iOS ecosystem, surely every BB owner would wave the white flag? Enter: Typo Keyboard Case.

As a user of just about every major platform going, I have to say, typing on iOS, for lack of a more eloquent, explanatory word, simply sucks. On Android, you can install your own keyboard to suit the way you type, and almost every option available over at the Play Store is more dynamic, advanced and user-friendly than the stock iOS keyboard.

It’s grossly one-dimensional, and with the famously inappropriate (and sometimes censored) autocorrect still wreaking havoc even among seasoned typists, mistakes stemming from the difference between what you thought you typed and what you actually typed are aplenty.

The Typo Keyboard Case is by no means a prayer answerer, but it will provide some respite for those iPhone 5/5s users who sometimes long for their BlackBerry back when typing a particularly long and or tedious message. It’s comprised of a case that slides onto the back of your device, leaving a keyboard exposed at the front. It does elongate the already disproportionately long smartphone, but at the same time, brings the perks of a physical keyboard right to your iPhone.

Before you ask: yes, it is indeed backlit, and charging up time is an impressive one hour for a full battery. It connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth (of course), and for $99, looks a very good deal for those with less delicate fingertips.

It arrives in January, but you can preorder now by heading to: TypoKeyboards.com

Is your password as secure as you would like it to be?

The recent wave of data breaches on a number of popular sites and Web service providers should definitely be a cause for concern to most users. Malicious attacks on the likes of Yahoo!, Facebook and Adobe should act as a catalyst for us to review our current account setup and make changes accordingly to improve the strength of passwords, even if your data wasn’t amongst the batch that was compromised in any of the attacks. Microsoft Research is well aware that password strength is one of the most vital components in combating such breaches, and as such has created the Telephathwords tool to try and guess the next character of a password based on a large database and complex query patterns.

The Web-based tool is part of a program that involved Microsoft’s research team and was led by a PhD student from Carnegie Mellon University. The service is intended to bring the issue of password security and vulnerability to the forefront of people’s minds and has the mission of “preventing weak passwords by reading your mind”. If you take the service literally then it can all start to get a little creepy. As much as we love Microsoft, we certainly don’t want the Redmond based company reading our thoughts. The non-literal explanation is that Telepathwordsattempts to make predictions of the password being entered by using programmed knowledge.

The database behind the service contains a large list of passwords that have been shown to be commonly used by the public. Ironically, that list has actually been bolstered by including common passwords that have been found in the lists made public by security breaches. The underlying brain of the MSR tool also queries against common phrases that are regularly found on websites and search queries as well as looking for common password selection behavior such as using keys next to one another on the keyboard. When the user begins typing in a password, Telepathwords uses all of this power to predict the next character with alarming success.
The fun little tool is definitely worth checking out, even if just to see how easy your main password is to predict. All entries into the website are encrypted in the browser before they are logged and sent to the Microsoft Research team servers to be queried.
Head over to this website to get started: telepathwords.research.microsoft.com

Gaikai Game Streaming Service Coming To PS4 As Well As PS3 And PS Vita

Although the PlayStation 4‘s lack of backwards compatibility threatened to spill over into hysteria, Sony promised that Gaikai, a service recently acquired by the Japanese company, would allow gamers to enjoy PlayStation 3 titles via cloud streaming, and now, it has been revealed that the service will also be launched on the PS3 andPS Vita. Although the Vita had been looking like a bit of a dead horse – particularly given the popularity of mobile gaming via smartphones and tablets – its integration with the often record-breaking PS4 could bring a new lease of life to the handheld, and Gaikai support will certainly do its cause no harm.

In a statement released talking of worldwide PS4 sales, Sony confirmed that the Gaikai service would be a cross-platform affair. "Based on Gaikai Inc’s cloud-based technology, the [Gaikai] service will enable users to have access to a catalogue of critically acclaimed PS3 games on PlayStation 4 and PS3, followed by PlayStation Vita."

In a nutshell, it will probably become accessible to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PS Vita users – in that order – and although the PS4 integration is the most notable due to its lack of backwards-compatibility, it would seem that Sony is pulling out all of the stops to appease gamers. Having comprehensively lost the last-gen console war to Microsoft and the Xbox 360, Sony has responded in a defiant manner, and having outsold its close rival in just about every market hitherto with the fourth-gen console, the Gaikai news is surely going to further boost the PlayStation brand’s credentials.

Gaikai, for the uninitiated, operates in much the same manner as OnLive, and provided your Internet connection is up to scratch, you can readily stream games right to your console from the cloud. The price model definitely works in the favor of the heavy gamer, too, with gamers able to stream any game they like for a subscription fee.

Beaming games from remote servers also saves space on the console for other content, and with Sony boasting such a huge inventory of titles from the past few years, one suspects the Gaikai service could prove hugely popular.

It will be hitting the U.S. market in 2014, while British PS4 owners will unfortunately not be seeing any kind of support until 2015.

Sony Sells 2.1 million PS4 units in November

Sony was keen to let the world know that the North American debut of the PlayStation 4 ended with record breaking results. With just north of one million units sold in the North American region in the first 24-hours alone, it was evident that Sony’s next-gen console had captured the imagination of users. In the time that has followed, the PS4 has become available in a total of thirty-two different countries, with Sony officially announcing that more than 2.1 million consoles shipped during the month of November.

We already knew that the November 15th debut of the new console was the company’s most successful launch of a PlayStation product. More than one million units sold in 24-hours is a significant achievement, something which was topped off by Sony selling 250,000 PS4 units in just 48-hours in the UK. That achievement is made even more impressive when you consider that Microsoft achieved the same sales figures with the Xbox One across multiple territories, not just in North America. Sony’s expansion into countries like Europe, Asia and Latin America has seen consumers greet the console with the same excitement and enthusiasm that created such a buzz on the first day of availability.

It seems the future looks bright for Sony’s PlayStation division. The console may have only been available for a period of two weeks, but the consumer reviews of the hardware seem to be overwhelmingly positive. Sony is yet to launch the console into every corner of the market, with a number of locations around the world yet to benefit from the future of gaming. As game publishers start to realize the power of the hardware and produce games accordingly, it’ll be extremely interesting to keep an eye on adoption figures of the PlayStation 4.

Jailbreak for iOS 7?

Is the new iOS 7 Jailbreak out yet? Sources say that there is a tethered jailbreak for the idevice and it so far only works on the iPhone 4 both gsm and cdma (Verizon and Att). Now it is a tethered jailbreak meaning that if your phone shuts down for whatever reason you will not be able to turn it back on without plugging it into your computer and completing a series of specific steps. While for some people that is acceptable, I personally am waiting for the untethered jailbreak to come out so I do not have to worry about such things. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Xbox One can become a dev kit

Microsoft released that any Xbox One console can become a developer kit. This is great for people who want to develop indi games for xbox. Microsoft is working on making it even easier to upload user creations to the Xbox Live game store. Right now you can access the settings for the dev kit but however don't mess with any of the settings yet because you can unintentionally put your system in an infinite loop of rebooting. They (Microsoft) says the dev system will be released early 2014 so lets hope its as user friendly as they say it is. 

Is reinventing the wheel really a bad thing

As the old saying goes, "don't reinvent the wheel". We say this in reference to not work too hard to do something that has already been done. However one man decided to try to reinvent the wheel. and what he got was a new wheel that is very practical and completely innovative. Duncan Fitzsimmons created a new wheel called the Morph. The Morph is a detachable wheelchair wheel that can compress to around half of its original width. It is designed to provide greater flexibility and mobility to the estimated 65 million people around the world who need a wheelchair. Anyone who has ever tried to move a wheelchair knows that even when folded they take up a large amount of space. 

Xbox One, what are your thoughts?

Today marks the official release date of Microsoft's newest generation game console named Xbox One. This is the competition for Sony's PS4, or is it? I ask because there have been rumors that Xbox One is going to become a flop due to programmers not liking the hardware and the initial rules and processes that the new console was going to require such as the always on feature. I've seen the console, and personally it looks like a VCR on steroids. However, the UI of the system is smoother and more streamlined than the Xbox 360 has today. (I still miss the blades). What are your thoughts on the new system and are you planning on buying it yet? Leave your comments down below.

GTA Online What are your thoughts?

GTA V came out in September and is possibly one of the biggest grossing games in a long time. The game on launch sold over 1 billion dollars worth of games. Rockstar in October released GTA Online, a game in which you can create your own character and level them and have them get cars steal them rob stores etc. This was a great idea, the cost of things was more expensive (using game money), but that was understandable cause it was multiplayer vs story mode. However with the release of today's 6th patch and the beach bum expansion pack. I have almost no faith in rockstar anymore, and I have pretty much no desire to get on GTA Online and play anymore. The reason why is because they nerfed the mission payouts even more. (nerfed means weakened made it like a nerf gun vs a bb gun) They removed all my awesome cares i glitched into the game (personally i understand and respect them doing that), and it may sound like whining but why have they not implemented heists and the level creator? I just feel that this could have been a great game if Rockstar didn't try to make this a game it wasn't. As always please leave your thoughts and comments below. See you tomorrow.

Texas company makes a stainless steel gun from a 3d printer.

A Texas company says it has made the first metal gun using a 3-D printer, taking the debate over people's emerging ability to create their own firearms to a new level.

Solid Concepts, a specialty manufacturing company, said in a blog post it has fired more than 50 rounds from the handgun, even hitting a few bull's-eyes at more than 30 yards.

The pistol is a version of an M1911, a handgun designed by John Browning and first used widely in the latter stages of combat stemming from the Philippine-American War. It's built from 33 mostly stainless-steel parts and has a carbon-fiber handgrip carved with a laser.

"The 3-D-printed metal gun proves that 3-D printing isn't just making trinkets and Yoda heads," the company said in the blog post.

Solid Concepts went out of its way Friday to point out that producing the metal gun isn't meant to advance a trend that worries law enforcement and some politicians. As 3-D printers become more widespread and affordable, some envision a near future in which criminals can crank out untraceable weapons without having to leave their homes.

"Let me start out by saying one, very important thing: This is not about desktop 3-D printers," Alyssa Parkinson, a spokeswoman for the company, wrote in the blog post.

The metal gun wasn't a move toward making firearms with a 3-D printer cheaper or more accessible, she wrote.

Basic 3-D printers, such as the MakerBot Replicator 2, can be bought for around $2,000. But Solid Concepts used a specialized, high-end printer whose cost would be out of reach of most people.

"The industrial printer we used costs more than my college tuition (and I went to a private university)," Parkinson said. "And the engineers who run our machines are top of the line; they are experts who know what they're doing and understand 3-D printing better than anyone in this business."

Solid Concepts wanted to show that 3-D printing is more than just hobbyists churning out plastic doodads -- it's a viable option for serious commercial use.

"It's a common misconception that 3-D printing isn't accurate or strong enough, and we're working to change people's perspectives," Kent Firestone, a vice president at the company, said in a statement.

In May, a nonprofit group, also from Texas, stirred far more controversy when it posted a video of the live firing of a plastic handgun created with a 3-D printer.

Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old self-described anarchist, posted instructions on how to make the gun online through his nonprofit group, Defense Distributed.

Those instructions were taken down after the U.S. State Department sent the group a cease-and-desist letter. The group's website was shut down shortly afterward.

Solid Concepts is a licensed firearm manufacturer. It said one use for its new capabilities with 3-D printers may be selling replacement parts for handguns.

New Gen consoles

With Xbox One and PS4 coming out this month and all the stats coming in, what is your opinion on both consoles?

PS4 so far seems like it has the upper hand with their better usage of the PS Vita and the biggest talk when comparing both systems is the fact that the PS4 uses native 1080p video output for most of its games while Xbox One is only using 720p being upscaled to 1080p video. To a lot of people this is a serious issue and extremely disconcerting for people looking to buy the 8th gen consoles. So far it looks like Sony is going to be winning by a landslide learning from past mistakes with the PS3 and making what some people can call an almost legit "supercomputer". I personally don't care about either system right now because the only reason why i want xbox one is for Halo 5 and PS4 because of its free PSN access. So you tell me Xbox One or PS4?

Sony gearing up for New Gen system

Hi sorry I haven't been on lately I have been swamped with college work and you guys know how that is. However Sony, best known for their playstation devices released a new firmware update to their PS Vita systems. This update is titled 3.0 and has a number of features in it. These features include an app to prepare the Vita to have the well talked about second screen and PS4 connectivity. The update also has an updated friends applications, parental controls, and the ability to send voice and text messages to your friends on the PSN. Looks like Sony is trying to bring their flop out of the water. What do you think of what Sony is trying to do? Is it a good idea to try to save the Vita or is it better to scrap the idea and start over? Please mention your comments below and as always don't forget to be awesome.

Why is Facebook full of giraffes

As many users of facebook may have noticed there have been posts of a giraffe on facebook. No giraffes are not endangered. They are part of a meme that is floating around.

The meme invites users to share a riddle with their friends, who then are supposed to send a private message with the answer (don't post it in the comments, obviously). Any user who guesses wrong must agree to change his or her profile photo with one of a giraffe.
Why a giraffe? It's not clear.
The riddle goes like this:
3:00 am, the doorbell rings, and you wake up. Unexpected visitors. It's your parents and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?

(Spoiler alert: The answer is at the bottom of this story.)

Most users agree there are two acceptable answers, although given that Facebook is an unruly community of 1.2 billion people, there's some debate over that.

Judging by some comments on Facebook, some users are growing tired of the giraffe riddle. Others are making jokes."If anyone shows up at my house at 3 am they had better get a hotel because I'm not answering the door,"

The answer: The door and your eyes.

Trading in your iPad.. should you do it now?

With the new iPad coming up, and people wanting the latest and greatest, people are selling their iPad sooner than ever. However, the question becomes should you sell your old iPad? 

Companies like Gazelle and NextWorth, which buy used electronic devices, say they're experiencing a surge of customers trading in their old iPads. The spike began Tuesday, when Apple announced it has an upcoming event Oct. 22. Apple is widely expected to be giving its tablet its first big redesign in more than a year and a half.

At Gazelle, iPad trade-ins have soared to their highest level this year. IPads now make up 20% of items traded in on Gazelle's website, up from 11% a week ago.

"Previous generations all look the same," said Anthony Scarsella, Gazelle's chief gadget officer. The new iPad could have more processing power, a better camera and even use Apple's latest Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

But consumers looking for a good deal had better act fast, lest they be affected by the basic forces of economics. The surge in supply of trade-in iPads means trade-in prices are dropping.

Data provided by NextWorth show that iPad prices drop after Apple unveils a new tablet - and even more when a new iPad hits store shelves. Last year, trade-in values for the iPad dropped 4% when Apple unveiled its latest-generation iPad in October. The trade-in price fell by another 10% when the tablet hit store shelves in November.

Just remember that if you want the best and want to trade in do it while the price is up or you'll risk loosing more money than you want to.

Facebook Privacy changes

Facebook is relaxing its rules for teenagers. The 13- to 17-year-old set now has the option to share photos, updates and comments with the general public on Facebook. That means strangers, and companies collecting data for advertisers and marketing companies, will be able to see select posts. Teenagers will also be able to turn on the Follow feature for their profiles, which would allow anyone they're not friends with to see their public posts in the main news feed.

The changes will take effect immediately, the company announced in a blog post. The new setting might help Facebook compete against other social networks that skew younger, and having public data on teens will also help the company appeal to advertisers.

The social network is trying to balance the less strict settings with two other privacy protections. When new underage users sign up for a Facebook account, their posts will be shown to a more limited audience by default -- only to friends instead of friends of friends. If a teen decides to change the setting to Public, she or he will see a pair of pop-up warnings explaining what "public" means. One warns they could end up "getting friend requests and messages from people they don't know personally." Default settings for existing teens with profiles won't change or affect past posts.

Facebook has been around for more than nine years and stopped being a hip place for kids long ago when it was invaded by parents, grandparents and advertisers. It has 1.2 billion users. Even as it expands to all ages, the company has to work to hang on to the coveted teen demographic.

In a recent Pew study, teens reported "waning enthusiasm" for the social network, citing the presence of adults and drama. The site has become too important to typical teen life to abandon, so 94% of teens on social media have a Facebook account, and the average teen user has 300 friends.

Other social networks such as Twitter, Tumblr and Last.fm don't prevent teens from posting publicly. However, if someone under 18 wanted to bypass the setting on Facebook before today, they could easily lie about their age when signing up for an account. Children under 13 are not officially allowed to sign up for a Facebook account, though they can skirt the rules in the same way. When someone underage does sign up for an account, Facebook assumes they have the permission of at least one guardian but does not verify it in any way.

BlackBerry is it out of the game?

We all know Blackberrys as the first smartphone to hit the market for businesses. They pioneered the smartphone industry and led us on a journey of what a phone is capable of. With Apple, Google, and even Microsoft coming into the picture is the once dominant phone compony finally on their last legs? I think with lacking of catching up with the times and holding on to their main design for dear life they may have dug a ditch they can't get out of and their latest phone being an almost complete flop. its no wonder why the other compony are trying to recruit blackberry employees. Everyone knows the compony is about to go down. I just hope it doesn't take any companies with it.

Homebrew club reuniting for the first time in years.

Tech-savvy members of the Homebrew Computer Club are scheduled to present at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, the same city where tech giants Google and LinkedIn now have their headquarters. The Homebrew Computer Club was founded in 1975 and, in typical Silicon Valley fashion, hosted its inaugural meeting at computer engineer Gordon French's garage in Menlo Park, Calif. "If one had to pick the single most important moment in personal computing history, the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club in that dimly lit garage in Menlo Park might be at the top of the list," the campaign's organizers said on Kickstarter. So far, 25 members from the club's old guard, including Wozniak, have RSVPed for the reunion. Tickets for the public are being sold via the Kickstarter page; a single ticket costs $64, or $128 for a ticket and a limited-edition t-shirt. The campaign aimed to raise $16,000 to fund the event space, food, and travel for some of the club's original members. As of Saturday, more than 200 backers had pledged over $23,000 towards the event. If the campaign raises $30,000, professional photographs from the event will be shared online. If $40,000 is raised, a micro-documentary will be made about the reunion. What do you think was the Homebrew Computer Club's biggest contribution to technology?

Curved Smartphone Displays

In the coming days of the near future we come to an apex of what a smart phone is and can be. To most people a smart phone can be categorized as a device that is rectangular the front composing mostly of a screen on the front that is touch sensitive. There are slight variations of this design to prevent accidental patent infringement, but that's pretty much it. There are new smart phones coming to the market that are curved displays and apple even filed a patent for a screen that was flexible. Apple however is notorious for filing patents and never using the technology in their devices but the fact that it exists and can be used is good enough for me. I am excited to see what the future holds for the evolution of smart phones because we've seen the google glass (smart glasses), and samsungs new smart watch. Granted these devices are obviously in their infancy but the concept and the fact that they exist at all is a step in the right direction.

Welcome

Hey guys this is going to be a blog talking about the latest news at tips in electronics. Wether its designing a circuit board or it's the new smartphone that came out I'll be on the ball with all that and i'll let you know the net2kno.