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Many with Google accounts have noticed that their homepage no longer has the nice background they picked, why? Once again, Google is eliminating another one of its least used service: iGoogle. At first iGoogle was a service with many features that are similar to those of other services, but Google also included additional gadgets to make it more Google-like. However, as time goes on, iGoogle's purpose became obsolete since many other apps, whether it is from Google or other services, of the same purpose became more popular. Less people used iGoogle and this forced the company to consider shutting down the service. Those who are upset about the company's decision still have a little less than a year to use the service since the company announced that they will completely shut down the service on November first in 2013. Although Google+, UStart, and ProtoPage, are services that can also serve as replacements, this is a disadvantage to those who prefer iGoogle. The company cannot make decisions that pleases everyone, so they make choices that appeal to the majority instead. For those who do not support the decision, will eventually have to adjust to using other services besides iGoogle.   

Nintendo is shutting down servers that support online play for the Wii and DS on May 30th. No longer will you be able to enjoy popular titles on said systems like pokemon, or mariokart, to its fullest. Playing with others is a big part of the enjoyment of a game, and communities for these games will likely collapse when the wifi deteonation comes. So, with the apparent loss of a large gaming group, why IS nintendo shutting down their servers for these two systems? Nintendo is looking for people to upgrade to the superior counterparts: the 3DS and WiiU. Similar games that shaped the online Wii community are coming out later this year for the WiiU. Nintendo did not officially say that the reason for the server shutdown was just a marketing ploy. It is speculated however, running a server shouldn't be a big problem for a tech giant like Nintendo... IMO, even with titles successors, sometimes you just want to relax by playing an old game on a system you already own. Variety is key.

A recent survey has proven that the downloading of illegal music has decreased by 26 percent from 2011 to 2012. It seems that fewer people are illegally downloading music for three specific reasons. With the introduction of P2P music sites a few years ago, illegally downloaded music was becoming more and more common. Since, the music industry has responded very negatively trying to shut down these sites.A famous example was the shutting down of the huge P2P site and software, Limewire, after they were found guilty of copyright infringement. Limewire had millions of users that ripped off artists music millions of times and the record companies were not just going to stand there and watch. People are also not downloading illegal music as much because of the new music streaming services, such as Songza.  These sites stream music to many computers and devices free of charge for the listener to enjoy. The last reason that people are downloading illegal music less is because of the malware and spyware risks that downloading this music poses. You may think you are downloading your favourite techno song when really you are downloading a trojan virus that will steal all of your passwords and personal information. I think this is a sign that people are finally realizing that this is an immoral act and they are taking away money from the artists that make the songs. I personally have bought all of the songs I own and I rarely use the music streaming services. Hopefully by 2014, there will be no illegally downloaded music by anybody.

This is the article that I found the other day. I think this article is not true, but I would like to post it anyway and share it. The article is about Facebook will be shutting down very soon, because of how people hate facebook.

For two hours today, March 27th 2012, Google shut down their Gmail feature. This prevented anyone from accessing their emails when they signed in (the message: "Tremble before Google! With the mere flip of a switch, we can bring you to your knees." was what was shown if you tried to sign in). This affected many gmail users from accessing their emails into frustration because this was just an unnecessary way of google showing us how "powerful" they've become over the internet. 

When the iOS is jailbroken, there is an app, "iSleepWell", that will temporarily shut you phone down. It helps save battery life, block notifications, incoming messages, calls, etc. This app is very convenient to have if you are an especially busy person. It is a fair app to buy, at 99cent download. When in the middle of a good conversation, just starting a movie, or even going to sleep, all you have to do is flip the phone to face down and it will temporarily shut down the phone. 

This article is about how Google has a new web engine for Chromium and Chrome. What they basically did was they "forked" with WebKit and Blink. WebKit is described as the glue that binds the modern web: the rendering engine powers Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and many mobile browsers both past and present. Google believes that Chromium's multi-process approach has added too much complexity for both the browser and Webkit itself, so it's creating a separate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be very similar to WebKit at the start, it's expected to differ over time as Google strips out unnecessary code and tweaks the underlying platform. The company has also confirmed top us that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future.

Pedro Alejandro has created an alarm app that is called "Wake N Shake.' There is no snooze button. The only way to shut off the alarm is by shaking your iPhone. Check out the video above for a  quick demonstration. 

Many of us remember the PSN outage of April 2011. Sony blamed 'Anonymous,' a collective hacktivist group formed in 2003 on 4chan, after they found the Anonymous calling card 'We Are Legion' in their system. Anonymous is composed of individuals with the ideals of: 1. Freedom of Information 2. Freedom of Speech 3. Unregulated Internet Anonymous will only attack databases and websites only if provoked, and will not do so for monetary gain. The group has recently engaged in multiple attacks on international government databases. The article, by Casey Chan, is about the Anonymous digital attack on Israel, in retaliation after the Israeli government threatened to shut down Internet access and other telecommunications to the Palestinian people in the Gaza and "Occupied Territories. " The group attacked the Israel Foreign Affairs database and Bank of Jerusalem database, as well as DDos attacks on over 600 sites and theft of over 2000 email addresses and passwords. This attack has generated some controversy. Since the beginning of November, Israel has also received over 150 missile attacks from the Palestinians as well. Anonymous aids the Palestinians by sharing a 'Care Package,' instructions on what to do in the event Israel does sever the Internet connection. Anonymous has become quite influential on the Internet. This illustrates how important the Internet has become. The internet is not only a commodity, but a right to have. It has replaced forms of communication, entertainment, transactions, and more. A group of 'anonymous' users has been formed for the sole purpose of protecting it, with the will and capabilities to punish any party that wishes to disrupt it. As with every conflict, there are sides. Anonymous, in protection of Internet freedoms; and the Israeli government, that has been fighting a war for as long as anyone can remember. Who's side are you on?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDeOMq4RPxY&feature=relmfu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group) *More information on Anonymous

Scientists are researching new ways to grow food in space as farming on Earth becomes more advanced. Scientists have developed things like growing crops with LED light or heating greenhouses with waste nuclear power station heat. There are also farms that are automatic and self-sustaining. This gave scientists the idea of growing food in space since astronauts usually eat only pre-packaged food in space and a balanced diet is essential for extended trips. If all farms became fully automated, traditional farm technology companies will go out of business unless they could adapt because their products would no longer be needed. If companies started shutting down, it could cause some economic instability since many workers would be without work.Automated farming equipment will also raise questions if automated technology will spread to other industries. Since the Western world is a capitalist system, company owners really only care about their profit and will not mind investing in technology that can do what workers did for free as automated technology becomes more common. This advancement could also result in the collapse of the labour workforce since technology can take their place for less money. I hope that automated technology will not spread to other industries other than farming because the economy is already unstable as it is, deteriorating the labour workforce can put the world into economic turmoil. I can understand funding automated farming for sustaining long term space missions since astronauts could lack certain nutrients because of the absence of fresh food..

My article is on Google's recent announcement that they will discontinue Google Reader, among other services. There was a strong response to this because there are many people who use it on a daily basis.  Google Reader is a RSS feed, or Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. Basically it is a technology that tracks websites for updates. Imagine you love to get your news from the Internet, and you like to go on The Verge, Wired, Lifehacker and Gawker. You visit all of those sites daily to get the news. But when you frequent a lot of websites, going to them all separately may start to take a lot of time. So here comes Google Reader, where you subscribe to all the various sites and get direct updates sent to just this one place, making it easier to absorb information. There are several different RSS feeds, but Google Reader is one of the more popular ones, and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people use this service daily. Google stated that over the years Google Reader's usage has declined, but that still means there are many people who rely on it go get all their information.  When Google announced its plan to discontinue the service, many people were lost as to why they would stop such a seemingly successful service and this has now lost the trust of Google by many people.  Regardless, it is clear that many people will have to find a new RSS feed or go back to visiting every website manually.

Bitcoin, a wildly popular virtual currency has reached the status of a billion dollar market. For those unaware, Bitcoin in an online currency and market, somewhat like Paypal. What makes it different is that it strives under no rules or government regulations. It works on a peer to peer basis, where a database journals transactions and ensure security among it's users. Created in 2009, Bitcoin hasn't been able to hit the mainstream market, that is, until now. Up until this point, Bitcoin has been seen as a shady form of currency, used mainly to conceal illegal transactions over the internet. However, due to the support it has been given by large networks such as Reddit, Bitcoin has been able to access a mainstream market, where it continues to grow and prosper today. It is clear that virtual currency will have a chunk of market space in the future, but how long until the government tries to shut it down or bare down regulations? And if these regulations are in place, will online markets such as Bitcoin be able to remain popular? Only time will tell.

Many countries recently blocked access to The Pirate Bay, a torrenting website, in order to prevent the illegal downloading of films, music, programs, and more. However, these efforts were futile, as many users are simply turning to proxy servers to allow them to bypass their countries censorship. Torrenting sites have always been risky territory for users, and as of late, more and more sites have been taking down in order to prevent pirating. The Pirate Bay has an insanely high volume of traffic, and it hasn't slowed down in recent times. It is noted in this article that the only way to rid of TPB is to physically shut down the servers, but even if that were to happen, users are simply going to move to the next site. Whether or not piracy negatively affects the income of the producers of the material being distributed is debatable, however the fact remains true that this process is completely illegal.  As a frequent torrenter, I hope that TPB will continue to thrive at it's current level. My hope is that all these pushes against torrenting will make the industries behind said files realize that users refuse to pay the ridiculous prices and taxes on content. This realization will hopefully lead to cheaper costs on retail products in the media industry, thus removing the need for pirating and torrenting. It will take awhile, but as long as the high price industry standards are in place, torrenting will continue to occur, and no legal matter will be able to stop it. If the internet is to truly be 'free', than laws and limitations should not be placed on content provided. #BarbieJXoXo

This is the greatest article of all time.

I am not the same guy as this poster, but I think he is beautiful

This article is about the next generation of Macbook Pro's. Multiple Apple resellers are reporting  some of the current models as out of stock, including J&R and Best Buy. In fact, they are not accepting online orders at this point. Traditionally, the retail channel dries up as Apple shuts down production. This cleans the distribution channels out of units as they get ready to introduce fresh models into the market. There aren't many details on the incoming MacBook Pro 2012, but it's safe to expect that they will be much faster- using Core i7 Ivy Bridge processors.

This article represents a tool called the AutoHotkey. This is a downloadable program that will help you create shortcuts for system tasks in Windows. This tool can assign hotkeys such as shutting down or restarting your computer, adjusting volume, and opening/closing the CD drive, etc. I find this very convenient for people who use their computers everyday because it arranges a more faster and easier use for system task. It is also very useful for people who are lazy and don't want press buttons on certain areas of the computer or monitor.

apple adding a 64-bit chip in their new iphone 5s and 5c instead of a 32-bit chip that was added to the old iphones in my opinion is better and makes apps and the phone run faster. everything in the phone now runs smoother then ever, apps won't just shut off on you when it cant handle it and you can run 64-bit games now to like blade 3, which won't work on the old iphones or ipods that have 32-bit chips. This will also make the camera on the phone run faster and the new futures added to the camera app will run smoother now. My opinion on adding the 64-bit chip is that is a great improvement to the phone and the phone will work way more better.

This is an extremely important matter as it is the first large step within the american government to censor the internet. Mega upload is not just a website, it is a symbol of expression. The government censoring things such as large websites and social networks is a scaring thing as it marks the first step in global censorship. It causes people to fear the government.

Apple, with a potential injunction shutting down the company's iCloud service there over infringement of a Motorola Mobility patent being pegged as a $2.7 billion risk to Apple.

A bunch of hackers got close to busting down AT&T's virtual equivalent. The hackers were hard at work, trying to access account information. The carrier discovered the attack and shut it down before they could breach.