Hmm, considering that this will be a Blackberry add-on device, allowing certain information to be streamed to you wrist might actually make this a winner. Before I read the full story I thought what a joke, way ahead of its time, people want to have their important looking handheld Blackberry’s. They are not going to trade those in for a smaller wristwatch version that would most certainly lose a lot of their functionality as well as ease of use I’m sure. Obviously this will not be the case, just the next almost practical Bluetooth add-on for a cell phone. I could see even myself (although I don’t wear watches) looking at my wrist to see my latest text or email coming in. I would say my buddy Bradley would be first in line, but I don’t think he’d be willing to trade in that Rolex for it, lol. – Greg

October 19th, 2009

Can a BlackBerry watch succeed where SPOT watches failed?

Posted by Matthew Miller @ 12:35 pm

I still have a few MSN Direct SPOT watches floating around at home, but find I rarely even wear a watch and just rely on my mobile phones for time and date information. Crackberry.com looks to have the first images and information on the upcoming BlackBerry Watch. This Bluetooth accessory will connect to your BlackBerry device and act as a viewable terminal for specific data. Much like the SPOT watches of old, it is designed to give you quick glanceable access to data without having to pull out your phone. Honestly though, does it really take that much effor to pull out your phone? If there is a piece of data you want to view more of or respond to then this watch actually introduces an unnecessary step in the process, right?

I suppose there could be a use case while driving where you could glance at your watch to see if any messages are urgent enough to warrant pulling over to stop and respond, but am still not sure that warrants an accessory like this. The SPOT watches required both the hardware and a monthly subscription and since this works via Bluetooth to your BlackBerry there will be no subscription service required. The price will have to be reasonable for people to pick this up, but I imagine there will be enough BlackBerry fans and tech geeks out there who will pick one up to justify the accessory.

 Knowing I’m a big Kenny Chesney fan I’ve had quite a few people ask me, “What’s the name of the Kenny Chesney song with Dave Matthews?” I didn’t realize I guess how popular Dave Matthews is and he’s actually pretty good too. “I’m Alive” is a very good song and I think the both compliment each other very well for that song. I’ll be joining the rest in looking forward to the performance at the CMA’s. Who am I kidding, I was already looking forward to it! – Greg

Dave Matthews will perform with Kenny Chesney on the 43rd annual CMA Awards, event organizers announced Monday (Oct. 19). It marks Matthews’ first appearance on the show that will include several previously-announced performers, including Jason Aldean, Brooks & Dunn, Billy Currington, Vince Gill and Daughtry, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, George Strait, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and the Zac Brown Band. Chesney co-wrote “I’m Alive” with Dean Dillon and Mark Tamburino. The song was first recorded by Willie Nelson, but Chesney and Matthews recorded their version for Chesney’s Lucky Old Sun album. It also appears on Chesney’s Greatest Hits II and has already climbed to No. 8 on the Billboard country songs chart.

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ October 19, 2009 @ 4:00 AM

Gangs know what encryption is. They are using it in force at the street level, let alone at the very top. Rim’s BlackBerries are the ultimate in security for them. Everything is secured and impossible to monitor by police.

The Vancouver Sun / Canada.com report interviewed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police:

It has become so popular among B.C. gang members that an internal RCMP) “threat assessment” on organized crime produced this year devotes an entire section to the device.

“It’s something we’ve seen increasing over the last three to four years,” Staff Sgt. Bruce Imrie, head of the RCMP’s Vancouver Integrated Technological Crime Unit, said in an interview. And that poses a big challenge for law enforcement, because encryption and security features make the devices much harder to wiretap than land lines or cellphones.

Rim’s Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) is one of the most sophisticated platforms for email and PIN messages. This system used to be the domain of big corporations. No longer. One of the reasons many financial brokerage institutions ban the use of PIN messages is because they can’t be tracked. In 2005 this was big news and was reported widely. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) banned its use. Organized crime picked up where the banks left off.

RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, head of biker gang investigations in B.C., said BlackBerries are “extremely common” among the criminals his unit investigates.“For a lot of groups, it’s standard practice,” he said.

The RCMP legendary motto maybe heading to the delete bin and may not be able to always get their man after all…

Posted on – Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:35AM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –

Tens of millions of U.S. computers are loaded with scam security software that their owners may have paid for but which only makes the machines more vulnerable, according to a new Symantec report on cybercrime.

Cyberthieves are increasingly planting fake security alerts that pop up when computer users access a legitimate website. The “alert” warns them of a virus and offers security software, sometimes for free and sometimes for a fee.

“Lots of times, in fact they’re a conduit for attackers to take over your machine,” said Vincent Weafer, Symantec’s vice president for security response.

“They’ll take your credit card information, any personal information you’ve entered there and they’ve got your machine,” he said, referring to some rogue software‘s ability to rope a users’ machine into a botnet, a network of machines taken over to send spam or worse.

Symantec found 250 varieties of scam security software with legitimate sounding names like Antivirus 2010 and SpywareGuard 2008, and about 43 million attempted downloads in one year but did not know how many of the attempted downloads succeeded, said Weafer.

“In terms of the number of people who potentially have this in their machines, it’s tens of millions,” Weafer said.

It was also impossible to tell how much cyberthieves made off with but “affiliates” acting as middlemen to convince people to download the software were believed to earn between 1 cent per download and 55 cents.

TrafficConverter.biz, which has been shut down, had boasted that its top affiliates earned as much as $332,000 a month for selling scam security software, according to Weafer.

“What surprised us was how much these guys had tied into the whole affiliated model,” Weafer said. “It was more refined than we anticipated.”

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Gunna Dickson)

I wonder when Google will become self aware? -Greg

Posted by Sam Diaz @ 3:15 am

There’s no question that there’s been some pretty astounding growth around Android, Google’s open-source mobile phone operating system. A year ago, there was only one Android device out there – the T-Mobile G-1. Today, Android is powering 12 devices in 26 countries with 32 carriers – and there’s more on the way.

During the company’s quarterly earnings call with analysts yesterday, CEO Eric Schmidt said it plain and clear: “Android adoption is literally about to explode.” And he may be right. Earlier this month, Gartner predicted that Android – which currently runs on less than 2 percent of all smartphones – will power 14 percent of the global smartphone market in 2012.

That would make Android second only to Symbian. Yes, that means it would surpass the iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and others.

The key, in part is the applications. Apple has already proven that the app experience is a winner in mobile devices. So far, there are about 10,000 applications for Android and its touch-screen interaction is probably the best I’ve experienced aside from the iPhone. (FTC disclosure: Google gave attendees at its last developer’s conference a free Android phone. I picked one up and activated my own pre-paid account to take it for a test drive.)

Also see: Android bolsters its app market as device lineup swells

Android has good engaged base for future app growth

For other consumers to experience Android, it’s important to get the devices into as many hands as possible. Unlike Apple, which has one device on one carrier in the U.S. (but other carriers worldwide), Google is offering multiple devices across multiple carriers, including a major launch with Verizon earlier this month.  Once the devices – which have deep ties to Google’s other services, such as Mail, Maps and Search – go mainstream. Google will be positioned to capture a lead in the mobile search advertising business.

Execs yesterday boasted that mobile searches grew 30 percent quarter over quarter. It was interesting to hear them acknowledge that it’s not always obvious how the company’s big investments tie together. But there are connections. On the call, CFO Patrick Pichette said:

The combination of the Android platform with all the smart phones and the momentum in there, as well as the iPhone and the rest of them, I mean, they’re just basically transforming how people live on a mobile basis… If we move forward the adoption of these smart phones by having a lower cost infrastructure because it’s open-source and you bring that, instead of taking seven years—I’m just kind of giving an illustration—all this happens in four years. Think of all the searches that will happen so much faster. So the ecosystem is incredibly vibrant right now and truly what’s interesting about these phones is there are a lot of new types of searches because you are location-specific, you are activity-specific, you are local-specific. Just a new set of areas that are to create a new set of monetization opportunities.

So, to be clear, we’ve got location-specific, activity-specific and local-specific searches being conducted on mobile devices. You also have the Internet’s No. 1 search engine integrating its own services – such as search – directly into the phone’s operating system. At the same time, the mapping application – where many of those location-based queries occur – is also deeply integrated.

And finally, don’t forget that Google is working hard on new advertising products that allow businesses to reach out to and find customers wherever they may be (even if it’s at a red-light down the street) and provide them with turn-by-turn directions on how to reach that business and a link to launch a Google Voice call to that business.

Put it all together – search, maps, voice and a mobile operating system that probably has the best chance of truly challenging the mighty iPhone – and I’d be bullish, too.

It’s no wonder that Schmidt thinks Android is about to explode.

Playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday Nights, His First Appearance Is Set for Dec. 11

October 15, 2009; Written by CMT.com Staff

 

Garth Brooks will come out of retirement with a solo acoustic show to begin Dec. 11 at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas. Brooks and Steve Wynn, chairman of the board and CEO of Wynn Resorts, revealed the series of special engagements during a Thursday afternoon (Oct. 15) press conference at the hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

Brooks will be performing one show on Fridays, two on Saturdays and one on Sunday. Wynn is providing a private jet for Brooks to commute from his Oklahoma home where he lives with his three daughters and his wife, singer Trisha Yearwood. The five-year deal calls for Brooks to perform only during specific weeks each year to be announced on a quarterly basis. Tickets are priced at $125 and will go on sale Oct. 24 for the first five weekends. The specific dates are Dec. 11-13, Jan. 1-3 and 22-24 and Feb. 12-14 and 26-28.

Brooks has only played a handful of concerts since retiring in 2001. His engagement at Wynn Las Vegas evolved from a series of conversations he had with Wynn. He eventually performed an informal concert in the theater for several of Wynn’s friends and special guests, including Bette Midler. Afterwards, Wynn broached the possibility of Brooks performing an extended engagement.

“He said it was something he thought people should hear,” Brooks said. “That was sweet. I told him he couldn’t afford me.” He then added, “I was wrong.”

Brooks reiterated his desire to spend as much time as possible with his daughters, who are now aged 13, 15 and 17.

“I am a fortunate guy that has got to live his life playing music for people, and the people have always taken care of me,” he said. “In 2001, I announced my retirement to go home and raise our kids in Oklahoma. When Steve Wynn approached me about playing, he did something different than anybody else had. He didn’t throw money at me.”

Instead, Brooks said, Wynn understood the desire to devote time to his family.

“Every argument you ever had of why you didn’t do this, he had an answer for,” he said.

Brooks concerts are expected to run 90 minutes and will occasionally include special guest performers.

“It’s a one-man show, so there’s going to be a lot of disappointment after that first weekend,” he joked. “Coming out and just playing — just me and a guitar — takes me back to the first days I got to play. I was lucky enough to do a place called Wild Willie’s Saloon in Stillwater, Okla, before I moved to Nashville and started touring. That’s what this is going to be for me. It’s a chance to slowly get back into it to see what people like, what they don’t like. It’s going to be very intimate.”

Brooks says he’s especially looking forward to performing regularly at the Encore Theater.

“I’m always in buildings that are built for sports,” he said. “I love sports, and I feel lucky to have arenas and stadiums. But I’ve never played in a place built for sound like this. When I hear myself, I go, ‘Who the hell is that?’ It’s a beautiful hall.”

Ran across this story on Tom’s Guide today.. thought it was kinda funny as it makes a couple very good points. Torrents may very well put a hurt on cinemas, but aren’t cinemas helping hurt themselves. They charge an arm and a leg for the ticket, popcorn, drinks, and candy. This really is fueling the need for people to find other ways to watch movies. Since downloading a torrent is easy and FREE, why wouldn’t you. Here’s an idea, cinemas should cut their prices by about half, and drop their snack prices. Then you will gain your customers back, I know I like the theater and would rather see a new movie in that atmosphere with the big movie feel than at home with my somewhat decent bootleg. I’m just saying… -Greg

By Jane McEntegart, published on October 13, 2009 at 7:40 PM

In a time when movies and TV shows are just one click away, big movie theatre chains worry about pirates downloading unreleased movies and watching them at home instead of forking over up to ten bucks to watch the same titles in the cinema. For smaller, independent movie theatres, piracy is just as big an issue.

The Prince Charles Cinema in London is the only independent cinema in London’s West End. While wandering around SoHo last night, I happened past PCC and caught a glimpse of the novel way this cinema is trying to prevent torrenting.