California Cities Fastest Internet

The state of California has the most cities in the top 10 for cities with the fastest internet access in the United States.  Berkley, California took the number spot with an average speed of 18.7Mbps.  The second city in California was Stanford with an average speed of 17.0 Mb).  Stanford also came in third overall.  That is quit impressive considering.

The top then cities are as follows:

Berkeley (average speed: 18.7Mbps), Chapel Hill, North Carolina (average speed: 17.5Mbps), and Stanford, California (average speed: 17.0Mbps).  Durham, North Carolina (average speed: 13.6Mbps); Ithaca, New York; Ann Arbor, Michigan; College Station, Texas; Urbana, Illinois; Cambridge, Massachusetts; University Park, Pennsylvania; and East Lansing, Michigan.

Keep Your Car Keys

When it comes time to buy a car, keep your car keys in your pocket.  Never hand them over to the dealership.  Even if they ask for it so that you can test drive their car.  If they ask for your keys, simply go somewhere else.

Asking for your car key is an attempt by the dealership to prevent you from walking away during negotiation.  Don’t hang over your must valuable bargaining tool – the power to get up and walk away if you don’t get the deal that you are looking for.  If they pressure you or do anything that you don’t like just get up and leave.

You can’t do that if they have your keys.

Ipad Revival

Sony is soon to announce that it will be challenging Apple’s new IPad.  The revival product will have all the  capabilities of a netbook, a Sony Reader and a PSP, the company’s handheld gaming device.

Sony will also be making a new smartphone.  The phone will contain Sony Ericsson mobile technology and capable of playing PSP games – to compete against the iPhone. Both devices are expected to work with Sony Online Services, an online store due to launch in March and sell music, movies, books, and other downloadable applications for mobile products.

Both these products will be launch sometime in 2010.

Video TV Phone

By combining three basic technologies, you can now make video phone calls off your television set.  What are these three technologies you ask?  The Internet, Television, and Skype.

Samsung just announced that they will be adding VoIP calling services Skype as an application in their television, allowing phone calls to be made on camera right above the television.  Samsung is not the only company that will be providing this possibility.  Panasonic and LG have already made similar announcemnts.

These new television sets will go for about $1,200 to $2,000.00.

Verizon Added Skype

In a huge move, Verizon announced that it was adding Skype available to its 90 million wireless user.  Those with smartphones and the right data plan can now make unlimited calls to hundreds of millions of Skype user worldwide, beginning next month (March).

These calls will go over Verizon’s network, not using cellphone plan minutes.  Minutes would be deducted to use Skype to call regular phone numbers in the US.

Super Bowl Ratings

Super Bowl game featuring the New Orleans Saints versus the Indianapolis Colts on February 7, 2010 was watched by more than 106 million people.  That means it was the largest watched television event on television surpassing the 1983 finale of MASH television show.

The previous Super Bowl featuring Arizona and Pittsburgh was seen by only 98.7 million people compared to the 105.97 million last night.

iPhone growing or no?

It was reported that iphone now has a market share of about 16.4% of the market.  Depending on who you list to that is either a good thing or a bad thing.  Some argue that Iphone is continuing to grab more market share.  Other believe that their growth is decreasing and slowing down.

In the next few months we will have a better idea where Apple’s Iphone is headed.

Most Popular Passwords

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users use a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

After examining a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole some interesting information was revealed.  About 20% of the people use the same passwords.  That suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords.

Some Web sites try to thwart the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

To improve security, some Web sites are forcing users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are reluctant to put too many controls in place.

Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction by freezing the accounts of other bidders.

Overusing simple passwords is not a new phenomenon. A similar survey examined computer passwords used in the mid-1990s and found that the most popular ones at that time were “12345,” “abc123″ and “password.”

Why do so many people continue to choose easy-to-guess passwords, despite so many warnings about the risks?

Security experts suggest that we are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of things we have to remember in this digital age.

Here is a list of the top 32 passwords:

1.  123456

2. 12345

3. 123456789

4. password

5. iloveyou

6. princess

7. rockyou

8. 1234567

9. 12345678

10. abc123

11. nicole

12. daniel

13. babygirl

14. monkey

15. jessica

16. lovely

17. michael

18. ashley

19. 654321

20. qwerty

21. iloveu

22. michelle

23. 111111

24. 0

25. tigger

26. password1

27. sunshine

28. chocolate

29. anthony

30. angel

31. FRIENDS

32. soccer

Verizon Lower Prices

The cell phone wars are heating up.  This time for the good of the consumer.  Verizon is lowering its unlimited wireless individual plan from $99 a month to $69.  AT&T is going to follow suit and lower its prices as well.

What remains to be seen is if Sprint will join in.  I care since I have a sprint phone and would love to see their prices reduce for a family plan or individual plan.

The word is that none of the companies plan to lower this family plan rates.  Let see what shakes up in the next few weeks.

What is a tablet?

What exactly a tablet?

Some say a computer just needs a touch-sensitive screen to be a tablet. Others say a person should be able to write on it with a pen. Still others say it’s screen size that’s important — tablets must fit somewhere between phones and laptops. For some, it’s partly the keyboard — a tablet should have one of those.

Break off the keyboard, leaving only a touch-screen device, he said, and the gadget falls into another buzz-worthy category: the slate.