Internet & Websites News - Page 70

Teenage boys across the world have just let out a collective sigh after Mountain View-based search giant Google updated their image search algorithm which now makes it much harder to find pornographic images through Google.

Even with SafeSearch disabled, the new algorithm puts up a brick wall, and Google have said that they are not censoring any adult content, but there should be some people that would disagree with that right now.

A Google spokesperson has said that they are just trying to show the explicit images to those who are intentionally searching for them instead of a minor stumbling across something they shouldn't. The algorithms Google are using try to work out which images are best to display for the search query a user enters, so that if someone is on the hunt for adult images, they might have to be more specific with their search.

Most Arrested Development fans know that Netflix has commissioned two more seasons of the hit TV show to be produced before they make a movie. The production has been put on pause and is set to resume in late January. But, the good news is that Mitch Hurwitz has reportedly shot more material than originally planned.

Netflix originally ordered 10 new episodes, but Hurwitz and the producing studios have reportedly approached Netflix and gotten them to increase the order to 12 to 15 episodes. Filming was originally scheduled to end before Thanksgiving, but with the increased order, they have filmed for an extra few weeks.

Hurwitz has taken the existing footage and is reviewing it to figure out just who he will need to film in January and how to incorporate the extra ideas. Netflix is planning to release all of the episodes at one time in spring, so they still have time to finish up production without delaying the planned release.

FreedomPop made waves by producing a case that provided an allotment of free 4G data to iPhone and iPod Touch users, with the option to purchase greater amounts of data. The case, a rather cheap device, used the Clearwire 4G network to provide the internet. Now, FreedomPop is doing it again, this time with home internet.

The company has just announced pre-orders for its new device called the FreedomPop Hub Burst, a modem that uses the same 4G network to provide internet for your home. The modem could ship as early as next month and will come with 1GB of free 4G data per month, again utilizing the Clearwire WiMax 4G network.

For $10 a month, users can get 10GB of data, or a pay-as-you-go option that works out ot be $5 per GB. Here, the choice is clear that anyone using more than 3GB of data should opt for the $10 plan. Since it relies on a wireless connection, the ping may not be as great as your DSL or cable connection, but it sure is a heck of a lot cheaper.

Google experienced a bit of downtime across a few of its services today, a rare occurrence for the web giant. From about 9:30a.m. to 11:30a.m., Google's Mail service experienced a "Service disruption" meaning that some were able to access the service and some couldn't. I happened to be in the group that didn't experience any issues.

Alongside the Gmail outage, Google Drive experienced a very brief piece of downtime from 9:42 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. About an hour after Gmail was fixed up, Google's Admin control panel / API experienced an outage from 12:50 p.m. to 2:34 p.m. The control panel is that of the Google Apps and is mostly used by businesses.

Some reported that Google Chrome crashed while this outage was affecting Google's services. People who experienced the crash said that they were signed into Google Chrome. It's not clear how the two are related, but usually programs are designed to not fail if another component does. Clearly, this isn't the case with Chrome.

Thanks to a bit of collaboration between Google, NASA, and NOAA, everyone can now browse around the Earth at night using Google Maps. All of the typical controls work just like they do in Google Maps and the image is built on top of Google Maps. If you zoom in too far, you'll see the normal Google Maps.

The image is from the same angle as NASA's Blue Marble photo and is composed of imagery taken over nine days in April 2012 and 13 additional days in October 2012. According to NASA, "It took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth's land surface and islands."

It doesn't look like an official Maps feature, and Google hasn't indicated any plans to make it such. If you want to check out the awesome map, or maybe what your city looks like at night from above, you can head over to Google's website and scroll around.

For those who would be interested in this news, or know about NZBMatrix itself, I'm sure you've already found out - but for those who don't know, NZBMatrix has been shut down.

The site were slapped with a "very large takedown request" from a company called Wiggin LLC who represent some of the industries biggest companies: Federation Against Copyright Theft Limited ("FACT"), Paramount Home Entertainment International Limited; Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Limited; The Walt Disney Company Limited; Twentieth Century Fox Film Company Limited; Universal Pictures (UK) Limited; Warner Bros. Entertainment UK Limited.

This will pain hundreds of thousands if not more all around the world, Sickbeard users, SABnzbd users, NAS users and oh-so-many more. With Newbin being taken down recently, reappearing and disappearing again, it's not good for Usenet users.

Everyone's getting excited about the upcoming cloud storage locker known as Mega. The new service by Kim Dotcom, formerly the owner of MegaUpload, will be launched on January 19, which will mark the one year anniversary of the police raid upon his New Zealand mansion.

The first screen shot, seen above, shows that the new cloud locker will use 2048-bit RSA encryption for files uploaded to the service. Mega will be encrypting every uploaded file so as to make sure that the site is squarely within the DMCA Safe Harbor provisions.

The file manager, seen above, features everything you would expect, with folders being supported. It shows modification date and time, file/folder name, size, and file type. The bottom of the file manager features the upload portion, which contains information on upload speed and other details.

Oh how I'd love to go back in time and have Google and Wikipedia available when I was in school - when I reached high school we were only just receiving proper PCs and basic access to the Internet through dual ISDN connections - kids of today are so spoilt.

Well, American kids use modern tools to help write assignments and papers, with the Pew Internet and American Life Project conducing a survey of over 2400 middle school and high school teachers that shows 94% of teachers saying their students were "very likely" to use Google for research.

Wikipedia comes in with 75% of students using the great research tool. Just 18% of teachers said their students were to use textbooks, and just 12% said their students were very likely to use other kinds of printed books.

YouTube have decided to put their best dress on going into the holidays, offering up new features that are designed to make it easier for users to subscribe and watch channels through the site. YouTube have pushed out a new Guide feature, which reaches out to multiple devies. The site have also unveiled a new look for the site, which I'm personally not fond of.

The video sharing site have also made it easier for people to subscribe and use channel subscriptions by adding the Guide to the homepage, something that was rolled out five years ago now - but now in a better position to users. When adding subscriptions to your Guide, it will display videos related to things you've seen before. The Guide will pass through all of your YouTube-enabled devices, be it the iPhone, iPad, PlayStation 3, Google TV and Android-based devices.

Each month YouTube offer up 4 billion hours of videos - an astounding number. Within the last twelve months, the number of users subscribing to channels has doubled, with the company estimating that an additional 30% rise is to be expected. This is why YouTube are concentrating more on subscribers, as the expansion has been huge.

Sony is pretty happy with some recent findings by Netflix that place the PlayStation 3 as the number one TV-connected device used for streaming the online video provider's content. Netflix even said that, on occasion, the PlayStation 3 actually surpassed the PC in hours of Netflix enjoyment and made it to number one overall.

Impressive. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, had the following to say:

PS3 is our largest TV-connected platform in terms of Netflix viewing, and this year, at times, even surpassed the PC in hours of Netflix enjoyment to become our number one platform overall. PS3 is a natural fit for Netflix in terms of developing and first deploying our most advanced features. We can transparently update our application with new features on a daily basis, and through the free PlayStation Network, people around the world can sign up for Netflix directly from their PS3.