News on Taylor Jasko

HP Announces Next Low Energy Atom Server - Codenamed Gemini

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:30:20 +0000

HP has announced today that they are going towards a more energy efficient approach with their Project Moonshot, which is simply a program HP is running to develop better, low-energy technologies. Keep in mind, this is HP’s second time doing something like this. They released a low-energy ARM server a while back, and are now redoing it one more time, but this time, based on the Intel Atom.

Microsoft Surface Released - Running on Windows 8!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:53:53 +0000

Microsoft obviously loves the box-type UI for all of their devices. Windows 8 is getting it, Windows Phone 7 was the first device with it, and now, Microsoft is putting it on a tablet-like computer, the new Microsoft Surface.

As Microsoft started quite late during their press release, they were most likely rushed to speak about the device. Although ironically, Steve Ballmer was not jumping all up and down acting like his typical self this time… Microsoft must be very serious about this device.

Droplr Pro is only $30 a year with 100GB Storage - Go grab it!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:17:28 +0000

Don’t we all like awesome services for cheap? Droplr, the popular app that lets you store files on the cloud, just released their new pricing scheme with 100GB of storage for only $30 a year! This is amazing as services like CloudApp or Google Drive do not even come close to this offer!

This is an amazing deal and is only for a limited time! If you’re looking for a reliable service with tons of storage, Droplr may be it. I personally picked it up and I am now finally able to replace the un-updated TinyGrab.

Twitter to allow you to hide verified account replies

Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:20:19 +0000

According to reports, people will soon be able to choose whether they can see a person’s tweets or see all of their replies too on the social network, Twitter. Or at least they’ll be able to with verified accounts aka the ones owned by celebrities and companies.

Twitter has been making lots of changes in the last few months. Just last week the social network introduced expanded tweets, where they’ll allow articles, videos and photos to show up in the body of a tweet. So if a user was to talk about a picture on Pinterest or read an article about Partypoker or the weather, it will appear in the tweet, rather than you needing to click before you can see it.

Panic Announces Coda 2 - Releasing Tomorrow!

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:08:03 +0000

As much as me being a major Espresso fan, I purchased Coda a year ago as I needed a powerful web editor. However, after I discovered Espresso, I never opened Coda again as its features are extremely outdated compared to Espresso (although I will admit, Coda did have a built-in CSS editor way before Espresso ever did).

When I did purchase Coda back a year ago, Panic, the makers of Coda, were even speaking and teasing their upcoming release, Coda 2. And now, from what it seems to be an everlasting wait, Panic has announced Coda 2 to the public and is releasing May 24. Not only are they releasing shortly, they also will be giving a short $50 discount from the original $100 price tag for the first day.

GitHub Releases Metro-looking Git Client for Windows

Wed, 23 May 2012 13:00:25 +0000

All open source fanatics may know that GitHub houses some of the best projects out there, like jQuery or HTML5 Boilerplate, two projects I actively clone. A while back last year, they released their Mac application to make Git easier to use, even though Mac users do have applications like Tower already. And now, that Windows is still the most popular desktop operating system out there, GitHub wanted to support all Windows users who would like to use Git (even though Git by itself isn’t too perfect on Windows) with a fancy Metro-like UI.

Comcast Sides With Users - Finally Updates Datacaps

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:43:49 +0000

If you can remember back to 2008, Comcast started to enforce a bandwidth cap of 250GBs. At this time, many popular “tech stars” like Chris Pirillo even revolted against the cap. Due to all the video streaming we have done these past four years, a 250GB cap is ridiculous for all.

Comcast mentioned in their blog post a nice statement that they basically messed up:

So as the market and technology have evolved, we've decided to change our approach and replace our static 250 GB usage threshold with more flexible data usage management approaches that benefit consumers and support innovation and that will continue to ensure that all of our customers enjoy the best possible Internet experience over our high-speed data service.

However, like in any business, Comcast is out there to make money. And boy, does Comcast try to snag your money for any overages:

The first new approach will offer multi-tier usage allowances that incrementally increase usage allotments for each tier of high-speed data service from the current threshold. Thus, we'd start with a 300 GB usage allotment for our Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance Tiers, and then we would have increasing data allotments for each successive tier of high speed data service (e.g., Blast and Extreme). The very few customers who use more data at each tier can buy additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 for 50 GB).

But luckily, Comcast has some sense and has decided to bump all plans up to at least a 300GB cap:

The second new approach will increase our data usage thresholds for all tiers to 300 GB per month and also offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 per 50 GB).
In both approaches, we’ll be increasing the initial data usage threshold for our customers from today’s 250 GB per month to at least 300 GB per month.

Mozilla Redirecting Start Page for PIPA and SOPA

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:55:48 +0000

With all of the hype being generated about SOPA and PIPA, Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, there have been a ton of huge outbursts with many of the major companies (both positive and negative).

One of the world’s leading internet browsers, Firefox, are about to change the whole debate and flip it over once again, positively of course. According to their recent press release one of Mozilla’s press partners have sent us, they plan on redirecting their main Mozilla.com/org pages for twelve hours to protest SOPA and PIPA, but not only are they redirecting one of the most hit websites in the world, they are also changing the default look of the Firefox startup page for tens of millions to see that SOPA and PIPA are just outright wrong.

Moodle Month - Festive Fun from Packt Publishing!

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 04:36:05 +0000

If you have been in school in the last couple of years, there is most likely a huge chance you have used the popular e-learning CMS program called Moodle. With the help of Packt Publishing, who is notorious for writing about open source projects like Moodle, they have taken it to the next level.

With their brand new release of Moodle 2 Administration not too long ago, Packt has now decided to offer a series of discounts towards their Moodle book collection.

Facebook F8: New Timeline Feature and How to Activate it!

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:03:50 +0000

During Facebook's F8 speech on September 22 in San Francisco, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new Facebook feature, the Timeline. Mark stated that the timeline will basically be a part of all 800 million users' lives, scrapbooking their content between the day they were born and the current day.

Mark also stated what he thinks of the Timeline:

We wanted to make Timeline a place that you could feel proud to call your home. -Mark Zuckerberg

Not only did Mark address the new features, but F8 was also for the web developers out there. During the conference, Mark mentioned some of your favorite applications and services like Nike+ that will connect into the Timeline using their next version of Open Graph.

We're going to connect all of those different graphs together to form the Open Graph, and when we connect all of those graphs together, the Web is going to get a whole lot better. -Mark Zuckerberg

HTC Now Allowing Official Unlocks

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:12:55 +0000

Now that jailbreaking, or the unlocking of devices for custom software, is now one-hundred percent legal in the US, we haven’t seen too many phone manufacturers do anything about this change just yet… except until now.

HTC has been known for their customizable phones. You can run many operating systems on a good number of their phones (seriously, just check out XDA-Developers), and with all of these modifications, we haven’t seen HTC take any offense for any of this software modification, unlike other companies.

APNIC Hits the Last Stage of IPv4 Allocations

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:31:03 +0000

It's without a doubt that we have been using IPv4 (the 192.168.0.1 addresses for example) for quite a long time. Just today, APNIC, the guys who operate the main "internet registry" in most of Australia, Pacific, and Asia, allocated the final /8 block of IPv4 addresses in its stash. With the last block being activated, 16,777,216 (2^32-8-2) IPv4 addresses have been reserved.

The bad thing about this: APNIC plans on rationing addresses to network operators for the remaining space.

Samsung Confirms Galaxy Tab Release Date

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:23:04 +0000

With the Galaxy Tab popping up in some retail stores recently, the hype of this device is continuing to grow faster and faster. Samsung has now finally released the launch date of the Wi-Fi only model of the Galaxy Tab.

Samsung has stated that they will be releasing the Wi-Fi only model on April 10th:

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S.1, announced today that several retail stores and Web sites will carry the WiFi-only Samsung Galaxy Tab™ by April 10, offering customers the opportunity to buy this powerful and compact mobile tablet for $349.99. Consumers can visit http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-tab for a complete list of retail outlets selling the WiFi Galaxy Tab.

In terms of the specifications, it'll be the same as the 3G edition. The same whopping 32GB of onboard disk space, seven-inch display, and with Android 2.2.

Will you be rushing out to the stores to purchase this $350 tablet computer? Personally, I think the Galaxy Tab has a lot going for it, but I really want to see how HP’s TouchPad will do with the all so amazing webOS!

eBay Releases iPad 2 Sales

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:41:45 +0000

eBay has just released their numbers of how many iPad 2 units have been sold so far. As these are not official numbers coming from Apple, I wouldn't entirely look on these numbers to reflect how things are going in terms of iPad 2 sales. These numbers above explain the first two weeks of the iPad 2 being sold.

Anyways, this chart eBay provided us (above) is very interesting. Apparently 65% of the iPad 2's sold were domestically compared to the 35% we had from iPad 1 sales last year. As it seems to be, more and more people in other countries really want the iPad 2. Just like last year's release, so many countries did not have the iPad until months after. For many people in the Asian countries (and Indian countries too), I know quite a few people who ordered iPads from Great Britain. As it typically takes Apple a while to be shipping iPads to other countries than the US, many people decide to buy from eBay, even though the price is much above retail price.

Apple Drops iPod Prices in Australia

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:01:40 +0000

It’s no case that Apple usually charges more for their products outside the United States. It makes sense, but with currency being something changing all of the time, we sometimes find Apple products in other countries than the US being reduced. With the Australian dollar coming closer to our currency with only four cents off, Apple decided to lower prices quite a bit in their iPod line. I’m assuming Apple picked the iPod line because they sell quite a bit of devices; I’m quite sure an iPod is more common than a Mac.

Google is Locking Down Android Customization

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:46:11 +0000

When Android was released back in 2008, many mobile phone creators wanted to get their hands on this brand new open source software. With the upcoming increase of Android devices being sold, Android won’t be going away anytime soon.

The biggest thing that mobile phone creators loved is that Android is heavily customizable. With HTC Sense, HTC’s software that can customize Android, many users enjoy the software and say that it’s unique.

HP's webOS 3.0 SDK Now Available

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:06:52 +0000

Ever since the day webOS was introduced in 2009, many have fancied the webOS operating system because quite simply, it's revolutionary. People say webOS is better than iOS; I'm personally one who seconds that statement. With webOS's amazing multitasking features, I've heard of numerous cases of people switching to the webOS operating system and never going back to iOS or even Android. In any case, once you use a webOS device, you'll see why.

Sprint Complains With AT&T's Proposed T-Mobile Acquisition

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:19:31 +0000

Not too much to say here; we knew this was going to happen some way or another! With AT&T's recently proposed acquisition of T-Mobile, Sprint has already complained that this acquisition may be harmful in this economy.

Sprint is taking a really good move for themselves here. It's a rather heavy move because AT&T and Sprint being some of the major carriers in the US, but not only that, but it seems that Sprint cares.

Try Apps In Amazon's App Store - Virtualized Android

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:02:39 +0000

With the recent release of the Amazon App Store, Amazon has brought one new feature that no App Store has even tried to implement yet... a live preview of an app before you buy!

The thing with buying all of these apps is that most of the time, you really don’t know what you’re getting in the long run. You buy an app based upon the reviews, most of the time, and determine whether you like it yourself or not.

MacBook Pro Refresh leaks onto BestBuy.com

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:32:23 +0000

Personally, I am tired of hearing about Apple rumours lately, but they just keep on coming.

Best Buy listed new SKU numbers for Macbook Pros this past weekend. For those of you who have never come across the term SKU numbers before, they are unique numbers which are dedicated to certain products by companies, which limits confusion in the process of ordering. However, as with everything to do with Apple products, this does nothing but create more speculation and confusion.