The Marvinator has moved!

Check out more of his techcentric antiques over on marvinvista.tumblr.com and now on marvinvista.blogspot.com. (A full-fledged domain coming up...hopefully.)

Movie takeout: M:i:4: Ghost Protocol

Just found the time (and the theater) to watch M:i:4: Ghost Protocol (man, that's a lot of colons). Here's my takeout:

- Tom Cruise is one of the best, no stuntman actors yet.
- The car is awesome, as expected.
- The girl on the team is not that good, still hot though.
- You can never go wrong with the action scenes, the one in the Burj is one of the sickest.
- More screen time for Renner. FYI, he'll be Hawkeye in the upcoming Avengers movie and the protagonist in the latest Bourne film.

Good movie all in all, though the best film in the series award still goes to M:i:2.

Photo: http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Mission_Impossible-Ghost-Protocol.jpg

Google gets more personal with Search plus Your World

Say whatever you like to say about Goolge but they always do search right. With Search plus Your World, It's like each of us has their own Google search engine. That level of intimacy combined with a sense of ownership is amazing. I think this is one of the best things that happened to Google search since its inception.

Official Google Blog: Search, plus Your World http://bit.ly/z6uXU2

Apple fanboy: Please don’t hate Android

Full disclosure: I’m an Android geek turned iOS fanatic from the moment I got my hands on an iDevice.

This is the best parislemon piece I've read so far. But for what it's worth please don't hate Android. Blame the execs and their dirty schemes who play behind the scenes instead. As bad as it seems they're here to stay and there's nothing we can do with that, unless everyone universally agrees to occupy Android and stop buying Android smartphones which, I think, is not gonna happen. Ever. Maybe in another life but not on this one.

At least there’s one thing that Android is good with, extreme competition. This pushes other handset manufacturers to push on with features that will make their users happy. Bottom line? We, the customers are still the big winner here.

parislemon • Why I Hate Android http://bit.ly/xJk7jY

Photo: resources1.news.com

An open letter from an ex-Apple “Genius”

We all love a fair share of tech scandal and one is in the works early in the year and its from Apple nonetheless, the world’s most beloved device maker.

Apparently, a former “Genius” (those people in the blue shirts when you visit an Apple store), Chad Ramey had some problems with the company when it comes to the handling of both employees and customers alike. Full details below on Chad’s “open letter” to CEO Tim Cook.

Siri port update: i4Siri working on iPod Touch 4G

Looks like the guys @i4Siri found a way to port Siri to iPod Touch 4G devices that processes queries through their own server with a little help from the Google API. And unlike other Siri port servers out there, this one is going to be free but a little donation will definitely not hurt, plus donors will get first dibs on the server once it goes into beta testing.

You can check out this twitter list for updates on their progress.

2012: Let’s not f*ck it up

 

Here’s my simple mantra for the new year. Don’t f*ck it up. Make it yours too. Life is short as it is so let’s make the most of it by not f*cking up as much as possible. It’s liberating in a weird, unexplainable kind of way. Happy new year everyone! Enter the dragon.

Bilton’s Electronic Flight Crusade

It looks like Nick Bilton is on a divine crusade of some sort. A crusade that may rid us of the baseless protocols of air travel.

First this:

Fliers Still Must Turn Off Devices, but It's Not Clear Why - NYTimes.com http://nyti.ms/voyFu3

And now this:

Tests Cast Doubt on F.A.A. Restrictions on Kindle and iPad - NYTimes.com http://nyti.ms/sOKQFT

Regardless, he's definitely on to something here. I still remember posting something about a snobby flight attendant who nagged me to turn off my device despite it being in "flight mode" (https://plus.google.com/u/0/106526452034734966566/posts/YfQeEfJ5CVF).

Keep it coming and we’ll see some change soon enough.

Dropbox for Android gets the ICS treatment

Getting my cloud on with the new Dropbox App for Android.
New features:

• Favorites: quick offline access to files

• Bulk upload photos and videos

• Rename files and folders

• Single-tap access to all file and folder actions

• Improved gallery view

• Upload from and export to local storage

• Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements

You can download the apk here (http://db.tt/ZAfACYmq).

Movies to watch this 2012

This post is pretty much out of place here but I just went through a bunch of new trailers for some of the upcoming 2012 movies and they’re actually pretty good. I’ll embed each of them and give a little discussion as to what happened prior to what is shown on each trailer.

The Dark Knight Rises - Official Teaser Trailer #2

Pretty much one of the most anticipated movies of 2012, The Dark Knight Rises is the 3rd (and final?) installment of Nolan’s Batman franchise. The series is know for its astounding characters (Joker anyone?) and here’s to hoping that Selina Kyle’s (Catwoman) and Bane’s characters will not disappoint. I wonder if Gordon-Levitt is Robin in this film?

Beautiful iOS

Perhaps the 'pay this, pay that' scheme of Apple before allowing developers to create apps for iDevices is the reason why iOS apps are significantly better than Android's.

When people dish out huge sums of money, they tend to make the most out of it. And that's maybe what leads to beautiful, polished iOS applications.

Photo: Geek.com

Sizing Up the Zeitgeist

Google’s annual Zeitgeist aims to show the stuff that mattered throughout the year by analyzing queries from their Search product. As 2011 comes to a close it was only a matter of time before Google released this year’s edition.

Here are my thoughts on some of the finalist:

Rebecca Black

Black was more popular than Lady Gaga, for 2 weeks anyway.

Google+

The queries for Google+ are pretty dumb e.g. ‘google earth plus’, ‘google chrome plus’, ‘chrome plus’ and ‘msn plus’(really?)

Ryan Dunn

I never knew that the man was dead until I saw this year’s Zeitgeist. My bad, Rest in peace Ryan.

Casey Anthony

This didn’t come as shocking to me or anyone really if you consider the media attention and sensationalism surrounding the trial.

iPhone 5

There’s a little irony here since queries for the nonexistent phone greatly outnumbered those for the iPhone 4S. :)

Adele

This young lady is perhaps one of the most talented musicians of our generation. Not surprised that she’s on the top 10.

東京 電力(TEPCO)

Comparing 'TEPCO' to 'Pizza' searches? C'mon Google, you can do better than that.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was more popular than Barack Obama this year.

iPad 2

Steve and his babies (one still in conception) are all in the top 10, what more can I say? Long live Steve.

The Lowdown on Carrier IQ

Nothing stirs the public attention more than a good old privacy intrusion (and chock full of media coverage). The Carrier IQ debacle went full swing yesterday and the bigwigs are doing their best to distance themselves from this looming privacy disaster though complete denials and somewhat soft confirmations.

And if you'll check http://www.carrieriq.com/ the company claims that it has installed the program on more than 141 million devices (and still counting).

What exactly is CarrierIQ? http://bit.ly/vBEdLm

AT&T, Sprint confirm use of Carrier IQ software on handsets, but not for the things most people are afraid of http://bit.ly/scTsGF

Apple denies Carrier IQ gate. Won't believe it unless someone gets a peek inside. http://dthin.gs/sRREZH

The Xoom and the Nexus line are devoid of CarrierIQ software. http://bit.ly/shyGw6

CarrierIQ finally attracts government scrutiny http://1.usa.gov/uQb5l2

Phone 'Rootkit' Maker Carrier IQ May Have Violated Wiretap Law In Millions Of Cases - Forbes http://onforb.es/rZxmgv

AT&T and Sprint admitted that they're using Carrier IQ but not for the purposes that everyone (starting with Eckhart) assumes. While Verizon, Nokia and Research in Motion are quick to deny that they're using Carrier IQ software on their handsets.

It's important to note that manufacturers are not the primary groups to blame though because carriers are the ones deciding to put CarrierIQ software in the handset offerings. Though they're necessarily not blameless 'cause still at fault for not disclosing the fact that there's a big brother software on their handsets. This is bad, really bad.

Will update this post as this story develop throughout the day.

And here’s the video that started it all:

Facebook–FTC Perspectives

Since Zuck and the gang hasn’t been totally honest with us in terms of privacy for the past few years, the recent FTC intervention seems like a long time coming.

Just a day after the seemingly confirmed rumor of an early 2012 IPO with a hundred billion dollar valuation, Facebook and FTC dropped the privacy settlement bomb. The settlement will push facebook to consider their user-privacy obligations and accept FTC scrutiny once in a while seems like an obvious move for facebook if they are really pushing for an IPO early next year. But if this will calm or ick investors, we do not know.

But what about the long term? Facebook is known for their implement first iterate later strategy but with this development, that may actually change. Will this hinder innovation at the company? I certainly hope not. For better or for worse, I still like facebook for their us against the world culture and pushing updates that users hate for a while, love for the rest.

Start hustling

I just realized that I was being really unproductive this past couple of months and after reading several blog posts from programmers and entrepreneurs, I’m off to do some serious work.

I still have an app to finish before the year ends, several pre-graduation projects and house responsibilities and I think I'm on a make or break scenario now. Oh how did it ever come to this. I’ll update my blog and social network profiles on my progress. Wish me luck.

Key Van McCoy classic.

facebook eureka

I attended my mom’s high school reunion last night and what I thought to be a really boring gathering (for a 19 year old) turned pretty interesting as I noticed that they’re talking about facebook and how it connected a bunch of 40 to 50 year olds.

And that’s when a the light bulb kicked it as to why no one (for me anyway) can replace facebook. Other social networks may come and go (except Google+ (I spend a lot of my time here), twitter and maybe linkedin) but social media is more than just putting an input box and a share button. There’s always a benefit to getting that niche first and Facebook has that advantage. It doesn’t need to one-up every new update of a competitor (the Hangout – Video chat anyone?) because there’s a chance that the public may actually hate it (which will lead to user jump-ship), for a few days, weeks or months anyway but it will pass.

A call to arms against SOPA

As the fight against SOPA continues, here's a lowdown of a few weeks worth of progress.

This bill is so ugly even business software alliance made up their mind and are now backing down its support.

And whether you like it or not, SOPA will affect you.

So do your part and as an added bonus, Senator Wyden may just mention your name during his filibuster of this noxious legislation.

Good? Bad? Whatever.

These social reader apps and other apps powered by Facebook’s new Open Graph Protocol are good ‘til its actually bad.

Pros: Hassle free, automatic, seamless, passive sharing.

Cons: Hassle free, automatic, seamless passive sharing.

A love story

This was a screen grab of an error when I fired up m old laptop. Funny huh? Back then that was quite normal, no love was lost because of that. But now, I feel like being on Windows is a necessity, the love that I once felt for the OS was lost, maybe because of the lack in innovation, corporate schemes and a lousy CEO.

I’m compelled to use the operating system because of its still dominant share of the market, courtesy of Gates’ brilliance which irked the late Steve Jobs. But there’s a glimmering hope on the horizon, Windows 8, the latest iteration of the Windows line is promising a quasi-major overhaul of the looks as well as the inner workings of the system.  Here’s hoping that Windows will make me fall again, maybe love really is sweeter, the second time around.

The Future According to Microsoft

A look at the future of intelligent systems and technology at large courtesy of Microsoft.