Google eying Hulu

Hulu's apparently accepting initial acquisition bids starting Wednesday, and wouldn't you know it, Google's sniffing all around it. To be fair, Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon (amongst a few others) are also interested, but it's always more fun to lead with Google since they seem to be getting their rather big hands into everything these days. According to the WSJ, bids could range from $500 million to $2 billion....but what do they know, right? They obviously haven't heard about this looming double dip recession thing.

So, someone wants to buy Hulu. But why? The owners of Hulu (Fox, NBC, ABC etc.) are busily trying to restrict their content as much as possible in order to make money off subscriptions, instead of charging more for advertising. Honestly, I can't see many people deciding to pay for Hulu, since we all got used to watching it for free.Then there's the issue of Netflix as a competitor. IF Hulu were free, it would be easier to undermine Netflix, but I'm really not sure how any potential buyer of Hulu hopes to handle Netflix. Yes, anyone reading this might have a different opinion, so please share your point of view in the comments section below.

Now, IF Google ends up scoring Hulu, it's my hope that they get rid of Hulu Plus, and increase whatever they charge for advertising. Maybe they can also come up with some kind of advertising profit sharing deal with the networks too, thus allowing them to release their programing for viewing on Hulu sooner than the current 8-10 day period. OR maybe they could just replace their current content providers; I wouldn't mind watching some HBO and Showtime on Hulu :).

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Stargate Baby!

Who brought you the internets? DARPA! Who brought you GPS? DARPA! Who brought you chicken and waffles?... Um, I'm not sure; but who now wants to bring you Prometheus? DARPA! Well, not really Prometheus, but that's where it's headed.

DARPA, the agency that develops ground breaking technology for use by the US military is looking to award a $500,000 grant to some lucky organization this November. Their charge? Take the lead in research into interstellar travel.

Honestly, I think they're already way ahead into this "Starship" program than they're letting on; the government is pretty good at keeping awesome secrets. But we'll see. Read more on this DARPA initiative here ... .

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Gamescom game trailers (as seen on IGN)

Here are a couple of game trailers featured at Gamescom; found them on the IGN website. Enjoy!

More Mass Effect 3 Videos

More Assassins Creed Revelations Videos

More DmC Videos

More Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor Videos

More Borderlands 2 Videos

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Photovine, by Google

Photovine is Google's latest foray into the social media world. It is a social photo sharing application, that lets people snap and share photos instantly, and group them thematically in "vines"; I would equate "vines" to twitter's hashtags. Anyway,the service which apparently was invitiation only just last month is now available for download. HALT! Before you all go running off to download it, you should know that this app is ONLY for the iphone.

Why would Google go and do something as crazy as that? Well, I read somewhere that this app may have been developed by a social media acqusition of google's, Slide. They probably started developing this thing before Google bought them last year. SO there you have it folks, yet another something to mold our ever looming hive society!

Check out the video below for a nice little demo on how this Photovine works:

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GoldenEye 007: Reloaded; PS3 & Xbox 360 release

Ooooooh look out fans! Activision and Eurocom are coming out with a version of the former Wii exclusive GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, for the PS3 and Xbox360 platforms. What does that mean for you? Well..., nothing yet, as there is no official or unofficial release date that I know off. HOWEVER, if Mommy's purse is your bank account, I'd start treating Mommy nice if I were you! Below is a still image of the game from the IGN web site; click on it to see more images:

GolderEye 007: Reloaded screen shot

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Hidden: theft tracking software for your Mac

Hidden is a "tracking app" exclusively for Apple computers. It basically activates the Lappy's camera when it's stolen, and takes photos of the would be thief, their surroundings, and their activities on your computer, which can be viewed in real time, I believe. And best of all, this app is only $15 a year!

Check out the video below (may take a second to show) to see the app in action.... and the dumbest amateur rapper alive. I wonder what his jail buddies are going to say about his method of building street cred.

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Mass Effect 3: It's coming...

Are you a fan of the Mass Effect games? Yeah me too. I didn't get much play time of the sequel... I was still enjoying MW2 and by the time I was ready to try Mass Effect 2, Black Ops was here.

Anyway, since you're a fan of Mass Effect, I think you're going to enjoy this:

Read more here.

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Been thinking about scoring a PS3?

Like me, you've probably been thinking about getting a PS3 too, because an Xbox 360 and and Wii just don't waste enough of your time. Great news then! Our pal Jack Tretton just announced (at the Gamescom video game conference) a price cut in both the 160GB and 320GB consoles of the PS3; they're now $249 and $299 respectively. You can read more about it here on the officicial PS blog

So what are you waiting for?! GO GET ONE!

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Next: Google Plane--- Coming in 2016

For most people, Google has been synonymous with search, search engines, and the internet for as long as it's been around; ask any "hip" 50-something using the yahoo! search engine what they're doing, and even they'll likely tell you they're "Googling".

Over the last few years however, Google has looked more and more like it's nickname: "The Search Engine that Does Everything". Products like Google Maps, Gmail, and Docs, and acquisitions like Picasa, Blogger, and youtube, have made Google into some kind of internet hybrid creature, built up like Voltron!

And now they went and bought Motorola :). Next they'll be buying planes, and Google Airlines will be flying out of LAX and JFK!

This is now the Google Xoom :)

Not that there's anything wrong with Google growing in all directions at once (i.e. Social networking, Phone hardware, routers and modems, television etc.), as long as they can handle it... but what does this mean for us, the little consumers? Probably we'll get more quality products that connect us better... but we'll also have so much of our information tied into Google that Facebook will look like child's play.

Update:


I found this great video featuring Darth Stever Jobs, talking about the Google Motorola merger. Enjoy!

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Fixing the Samsung Impression Touch Screen/ Digitizer Issue

Disclaimer: You attempt the following at your own risk. I am not a licensed technician of any sort, just an individual who researched and fixed his own phone. The instructions below are the ones that worked for me, and there's no guarantee that they'll work for you. Thank you.

The most common reason why the Impression's touch screen stops working is that the the digitizer is screwed up. The way to fix this is to switch it out for a new one. A new digitizer costs no more than $10.
See here for other samsung impression parts



Tools and equipment you'll need:

• Small Jewelers Phillips screw driver 
• Small flat screw driver or box cutters (use as a "prying tool")
• Small needle nose pliers (I only needed it once. You could do without it)
• A new digitizer to replace the old one
• See here for other samsung impression parts

Optional Prep:

• Have a pen and note pad handy to write down anything you do in your own words so you don't forget/ get confused
• Have a way to organize your screws because some of them are different sizes
• You may want to work on a white surface as all the screws are black

Note:

The orientation of the phone is ear-speaker = up.

Search Amazon.com for samsung impression digitizer

Steps (photos to follow soon):

1. Turn off your phone and remove the back cover. Remove the battery, SIM card, and memory card (if you have one).
2. Remove the 6 screws along the edges of the back of the phone, then carefully pry off the back cover. It's on pretty tight, so don't be afraid to wiggle your "prying tool" around a little.
3. Gently unclip the the antenna wire from the bottom right of circuit board.
4. Carefully pry, or gently lift (using the needle nose pliers) the round, silver looking thing (speaker?). Be careful not to tear the wire.
5. Unclip the flex ribbon from the bottom left of the circuit board. You can use your prying tool.
6. Slowly wiggle the black speaker on the top left free. Be careful not to rip or detach the wires.
7. Now, carefully and slowly wiggle the board, and "fold" it to the right.
8. Underneath the board, you'll find another flex ribbobn clipped to it. Unclip it, and the board will be free.
9. Remove the 6 screws from the silver part (metal) of the phone, and one from the antenna on the bottom right (black plastic part). REMEMBER TO KEEP TRACK OF WHICH SCREW IS FOR THE ANTENNA.
10. Pry the antenna up, and remove the two screws underneath it.
11. Remove the the silver frame, being very careful not to damage the flex cable in the middle right of the phone.
12. Remove the key pad.
13. Remove the 1 screw holding the flex cable down, and the 2 screws holding the key pad frame to the phone sliding mechanism.
14. Remove the keypad frame from the sliding mechanism, and again, be careful with the flex cable.
15. Remove 5 screws from the slide mechanism (If one of the screws is obscured underneath the meal chassis of the mechanism, just slide it away.)
16. Remove the front housing of the phone by prying gently around the edges. Be careful not to insert your prying tool too deep.
17. If you're having trouble separating the front housing from the sliding section, check to see if you can slide the metal chassis to the other side, thus creating an opening you can feed the flex cable through.
18. Unclasp the small flex ribbon on the right hand side behind the LCD screen-- that's the digitizer flex ribbon-- and slide it out.
19. Remove the screw at the top left of the speaker and unclasp and slide out the flex ribbon on the left behind the LCD screen.
20. Remove the speaker and ribbon carefully.
21. Unclasp the buttons' flex wire on the bottom right, and remove the buttons and LCD screen.
22. Heat the front of the phone slightly (hair drier, steam...) to loosen adhesive, and carefully remove digitizer.
23. Feed the new digitizer flex ribbon through the access hole, and carefully secure the digitizer to adhesive.
24. Clean inside of digitizer to remove any fingerprints, dust, grease etc.
25. Assemble in reverse order.

Search Amazon.com for samsung impression digitizer

Resources/ References:

Thanks to the following references, without which I'd have spent another $200 getting a new phone:

• Get a digitizer here!
• bkroo45 - Amazing video on the process
• julieannjohn - Another amazing video of the process
• See here for samsung impression parts

UPDATE

I took over 30 photos to illustrate the disassembly of the phone. Click here to see them.

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Samsung Impression ( Phone Model SGH-A877)

See here for samsung impression parts


I've had a Samsung Impression phone for about a year-- I bought it refurbished. It's worked fine until now, when the touch screen or digitizer suddenly stopped working (I guess you get what you pay for) which led me to do a lot of research on how to fix it. I hope to save you the trouble of doing the same, by posting as much as I can on how to go about fixing this problem in my next two blog posts. Before we get into the touch screen fix however, let me pitch the Impression to those looking to get one :).

Search Amazon.com for samsung impression digitizer

The Samsung Impression is a pretty nice phone to have. Yes, it's a little dated (2009, I think), but if you're like me and don't particularly care about the current trend (iphone-mania) as long as you have a nice looking phone that works well, then consider this phone.


Pros

• It has a great touch screen (when the touch screen isn't broken)
• Semi-easy and VERY inexpensive to replace the touch screen/ digitizer yourself
• It has a very roomy keyboard
• Awesome call quality, and has never dropped a call (had it for a year)
• Great for multi-media purposes
• Smaller than an iphone

and Cons:

• IF the touch screen "dies", your phone becomes virtually useless, unless you know people's number off hand
• Proprietary headset/ charger jack
• Camera doesn't have a flash

Touch Screen/ Digitizer FAIL

See here for samsung impression parts

So, back to the original reason I decided to write this-- my Samsung Impression touch screen stopped working. Let me offer two pieces of advice to anyone who is having this problem:

1. DO NOT press on, bend, or flex the screen to try to get it to work, unless of course you plan on buying a new phone. Doing any of the above could damage much more than just the touch screen and make it more expensive OR impossible to fix.
2. IF you're not afraid to take electronics apart (and/or if your warranty period is over), try fixing this phone yourself rather than sending it off to some repairman. They'll probably charge you over a $100 when the digitizer only costs less than $10.

Search Amazon.com for samsung impression digitizer

Check out my next blog post for instructions on how to take apart the Impression, how to change the digitizer, and some photos and links to Youtube resources that can help too!

UPDATE


I took over 30 photos to illustrate the disassembly of the phone. Click here to see them.

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How to make your blogger links open in a new window

I recently experimented with the Blogger "Link List" widget and realized that, it creates links that open in the same window as your blog (i.e. your blog is closed and the link page opens in it's place), unlike the "Blog List" widget.

I found a great blog (which I've linked to below) that gives you all the info on changing your Link List and Label List widgets so they can open in new windows. Below is a snippet of the info you'll find there to change your template HTML to allow links in your Link list to open in a new window:

Tips for new bloggers

 If you're new to blogging and messing with HTML, this might seem a little intimidating; it's not. Just follow these instructions on how to make your Links List open in a new window and you'll do just fine. Also, ALWAYS REMEMBER TO BACK UP YOUR TEMPLATE CODE BEFORE YOU EDIT IT! Good Luck.

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Facebook to be destroyed Nov. 5?

Ha!
Just in case you haven't heard, the hacktivist group Anonymous has declared war on facebook. The statement they released looks, feels, and reads like something out of a movie I can't wait to watch :).

Not that I condone intentional destruction of property or anything like that, but I don't think it would hurt the world (doped up to our eyeballs on facebook!) to be unplugged... even if it's for a few weeks while Facebook and Anonymous battle it out 21st century style. And I really wonder what the withdrawal symptoms of facebook look like.

This should cause some people several weeks of sleepless nights.

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Maybe this does make a difference after all

Up until this morning, I had decided to abandon this blog because I wasn't sure anyone was reading it, and honestly, I didn't have a particular direction I was taking it in... think "summer teeth" (What? You don't get it? Sucks to be you!). Well, I was all over the place with this darn blog! Then someone left me a comment thanking me for posting about the Bedford Report, Bedford Financial = pump and dump schemers! and it suddenly all made sense to me: I had to keep posting on all the huge FAILS (and not NOT-SO-FAILS) I encountered in my life, be it in stock trading, buying electronics, deciding between utility providers (PSE&G, your days are numbered!) etc. SO, I'm back, and I'll be posting some more stuff soon.

Thanks for reading, and please feel at ease to make any suggestions about what you want me to blog about.

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