Fire-Wired Blog

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Privacy is officially dead. Never mind domestic spying by the National Security Agency or social network over-sharing; those threats can only stalk you online. The real-world, real-time menace is facial-recognition software that can connect strangers to your online social presence without your knowledge. To this point, facial-recognition software has primarily been used in the consumer venue by online photo services to help users automatically identify people in pictures, which is a fairly innocent tool, but it was only a matter of time before a company connected the super-computers in our pockets to the boundless dossier of personal information volunteered online, and that company is Nametag. As if pulled straight out a scene from “The Terminator” movies, Nametag software allows smartphone and Google Glass users to snap a picture of any face they see, and, within seconds, match it to online profile images such as Twitter, ...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com For tech geeks everywhere, doomsday came last week. On Jan.14, a federal appeals court struck down government regulations commonly referred to as “net neutrality,” the laws that forced Internet service providers (ISPs) to treat all Web traffic the same. Whether you were reading a blog post, sending an email or streaming a movie, net neutrality meant ISPs had to load all sites at the same rate and not some content over others. Confused? Net neutrality is like that, but at the heart of the discussion know that this means money. Think of it in terms of tiered TV subscriptions. Cable providers such as Mediacom or DIRECTV can host certain channels and not others based on the fee to carry them, beyond that, they can charge customers more for premium channels such as HBO or Showtime. With net neutrality potentially dead, ISPs can tier Internet sites and content in much the same way. Imagine Internet service where email and news sit...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com For gamers everywhere, Christmas has come early — the long-awaited next generation of gaming units has finally hit store shelves. Within 10 days of each other, both Sony’s Playstation 4 and Microsoft’s XBox One hit the market this past month and together opened up the console gaming world to a new echelon of button-mashing entertainment. While Playstation and XBox loyalists spend the coming weeks embroiled in heated arguments over whose platform is superior, let me save you from becoming collateral damage. Neither the Playstation 4 nor the XBox One is worthy of your time or money. There’s no denying the unbelievable player experience, realistic graphics, processing power, back catalogue of games or gamer mindshare that Sony and Microsoft have to work with. The trouble lies in the world these two platforms find themselves in — the mobile gaming and wireless world. The rising tide of mobile gaming is undeniable. More than on...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com Christmas may be three weeks in our rearview mirror, but for tech nerds the world over, January’s Consumer Electronics Show is the real reason for celebrating. For years this annual mega-conference has been the venue for companies to release the latest and greatest tech innovations. In recent years, CES saw the unveiling of 3D TVs, eye-controlled computers, futuristic concept cars and much more. This year, it seems, curved flexible glass smartphones are the most buzzed about gadget. As powerful as smartphones are, few treat these miniature computers with the respect they deserve. They’re tossed in purses, sat on while in back pockets, their screens are mashed up against keys and loose change, and most likely one in three of you reading this have suffered the arrhythmia-inducing cracked screen. Until now the only defense against our reckless behavior was hard plastic cases and thin screen covers. Flexible phones are the answer ...

This article was first published by  dmcityview.com One constant with every holiday season is the TV “Christmas special,” and this year NBC’s “Sound of Music Live” was easily the biggest. While most viewers enjoyed the broadcast with simply a cup of eggnog and a roaring fire, a good deal of the audience “hate watched” it. These nefarious TV viewers shared the experience with millions of others by partaking in the social virus known as live-tweeting. Twitter is hands-down my favorite social network. The ability to immediately exchange information with others outside your social network is extremely powerful. One byproduct of this immediacy is live-tweeting, where one or several Twitter users post a series of tweets detailing a live event. In its short history, live-tweeting has been used for a handful of truly historic and informative events (i.e. the 2012 election, the death of Osama Bin Laden, etc.), but more recently, many have hijacked it for what could be considered evil. ...