I used to keep a diary until I realized that I was just copying down events and things I said about my day from my social media accounts. Not that I share personal details or too much information online. However, I have realized that it’s easier to sum up my day in 140 characters than spend about 30 minutes a day to write it all down.
Compiling everything and printing a modern diary sounds like hard work, though, which is why I find the concept of Loccit so appealing. It’s an online service that lets you print and bind your posts and updates from various social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Loccit ships to Europe and the US, although the prices aren’t going to be so friendly to your wallet: a hardback diary costs £14.99 (~$25 USD), and each page after the twentieth will cost 20 pence (about 32 cents.)
What do you think of the concept? Would you want all your online memories printed out, or are they best left “in the cloud?”
[via Red Ferret]
A survey measuring people's internet use used to be a fairly simple thing. If you dialed up and logged onto CompuServe or AOL, you were "online" until you disconnected. Even in more recent years, you were "online" for as long as you were looking at a web browser or a chat window. But things have gotten more complicated as we've grown more mobile and connected than ever, and that's now resulted in the first ever decline of people "using the internet" in Forrester's annual survey since it began asking the question in 1997. As AllThingsD reports, this year's survey found that people spent an average of 19.6 hours per week using the internet, compared to 21.9 hours in 2011. According to Forrester's Gina Sverdlov, however, that's not due to a shift back towards TV or other activities, but to a changing notion of what "being online" means to individuals. As she puts it, "given the various types of connected devices that US consumers own, many people are connected and logged on (automatically) at all times," and that "the internet has become such a normal part of their lives that consumers don't register that they are using the internet when they're on Facebook, for example." The full report isn't available to the public, but you can find a few more details from it at the links below.
Filed under: Internet
Forrester survey finds first ever decline in people 'using the internet,' but a changing notion of 'being online' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ready the spandex and decide on a name for your alter ego, because come October 16th, you'll have the chance to fight crime from the comfort of your computer. On that date, the "Connected To The Case" website goes live with the aim of crowd-sourcing tips from its users to help the cops solve active investigations. You'll use your Facebook login for access, as the service pulls data from your profile to prioritize cases with which you might have a connection. Morgan Wright, CEO and Chief Crime Fighter of Crowd Sourced Investigations, told us its system looks at five key areas when digging for pertinent triggers: "date, location, time, relation and demographics." It then uses that data to tailor notifications of unsolved crimes based on -- for example -- proximity to your school, or where you used to work. Rest assured that you control the privacy settings, and if you've got useful info to share, you can do so anonymously.
Law enforcement agencies can register to include their cases from today, with the initial roll-out targeting the
Continue reading Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving
Filed under: Internet
Connected To The Case to use Facebook for crowd-sourced crime solving originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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"I can't remember if I cried when I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside... the day the music died."
R.I.P. Ping (09.01.2010 - 09.30.2012)
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Apple
Apple's Ping no longer pinging back, leaves memories of white noise in its wake originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Earlier this year, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner, a body whose decisions impact Facebook's policies in Europe at large, made several recommendations to bring the website in line with regional privacy laws, calling for greater transparency on how users' data is handled and more user control over settings, among other things. The DPC just officially announced that Zuckerberg et al. have for the most part adjusted its policies accordingly. The biggest change involves the facial recognition feature, which attempts to identify Facebook friends in photos and suggest their names for tagging. The social network turned off this functionality for new users in the EU -- and it will be shutting it down entirely by October 15th. It's not like Ireland, home to Facebook's European HQ, is the first to give the site flack about such features: Germany was having none of it when the site introduced facial recognition last summer.
Filed under: Internet
Facebook shutting down facial recognition in the EU, gets stamp of approval from Ireland DPC originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Sep 2012 10:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ping, Apple's foray into music-centric social networking, hasn't seen much in the way of updates since it was announced two years ago, and now the folks in Cupertino are set to shut it down on September 30th. Struck with the sudden urge to sign-up for the service and take it for a spin before it goes offline? You're out of luck. Visiting the network's home in iTunes reveals that Cook and Co. are no longer accepting new members. From here on out, you'll just have to find other avenues to keep tabs on what tunes are playing within your social circles.
Filed under: Internet, Software
Ping going dark on September 30th, no longer accepting new members originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Emergency services are embracing technology as new ways to investigate, send alerts and receive reports of crises. And now, the Japanese are looking at social networks to support communication in disaster scenarios, especially when traditional services fail. The local Fire and Disaster Management Agency put together a panel discussion on just that topic, with representatives attending from the likes of Twitter, Yahoo, Mixi and NHN Japan, as well as various government and emergency bodies. The talk was motivated, in part, by the March tsunami, when the internet was the sole means of information for some, and with initiatives like Google's Person Finder playing a role in the aftermath. Any formal implementation of the ideas discussed is probably a long way off, and this is the first of three planned meets to hash it out. In the meantime, however, Twitter's Japanese blog posted some suggestions on how their network could be used in emergencies -- we just hope they won't be needed anytime soon.
Filed under: Internet
Japan considers using social networks in disaster situations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We've had Google's Chrome browser on iPad and iPhone since June and now it has received its first update. After a recent update for the Google+ iOS app added sharing of links to Chrome, the lead feature in the new version is the ability to share from Chrome to "your favorite social network" (Google+, Facebook or Twitter). There have been a few other tweaks that the team says are in response to user reports including better sync sign in error messages, language detection and a fix for blank pages in incognito mode. While a share function that's limited to just a few apps and not being able to use it as the default browser still doesn't quite match the Android edition, users who prefer it to Safari can snag Chrome 21.0.1180.77 free in the usual place.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Software
Google Chrome for iOS update brings sharing to G+, Facebook and Twitter originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 21:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Data backups come in all shapes and sizes. For some, they take the form of external hard drives or a slice of the amorphous cloud. As for Facebook, its upcoming solution is low-power deep-storage hardware contained within a 62,000 square-foot building in Prineville, Oregon near its existing Beaver State data center. Unofficially referred to as "Sub-Zero," the facility will store a copy of the social network's data in case its primary servers need to be restored in an emergency. Rather than continuously power HDDs that are only occasionally used, the new setup can conserve energy by lighting-up drives just when they're needed. One of the company's existing server racks eats up around 4.5 kilowatts, while those at Sub-Zero are each expected to consume approximately 1.5 kilowatts once they're up and running. Tom Furlong, Facebook's vice president of site operations, told Wired that there are hopes to create a similar structure alongside the firm's North Carolina data center. Since the Prineville project is still being planned, Zuckerberg & Co. have roughly six to nine months to suss out all the details before your photos are backed up at the new digs.
Filed under: Storage, Internet
Facebook to backup its servers with low-power storage devices at 'Sub-Zero' data center originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Aug 2012 20:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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