Practical Technology

With Google+ Hangouts, you’ve long been able to do free videoconferencing for up to ten people. Now, with Google+ Hangouts on Air, anyone can also broadcast to a world-wide audience. According to Chee Chew, a Google Engineering Director, “If you have something to say-as an aspiring artist, a global celebrity, or a concerned citizen-you can [...]

[Read more →]

Carrier IQ, the mobile phone network analysis company at the heart of the smartphone spyware scandal, isn’t talking to me, but it is talking to AllThingsD. To them, Andrew Coward, Carrier IQ’s VP of marketing, explained that “The software receives a huge amount of information from the operating system. But just because it receives it [...]

[Read more →]

Isn’t it wonderful? It turns out that a spyware rootkit from a company called Carrier IQ is on hundreds of millions of Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Only Windows Phone-powered smartphones seems to have avoiding this program that reports on almost everything you do with your phone. In the case of iPhones, it appears [...]

[Read more →]

Besides search and social networking, Google keeps getting deeper and deeper into the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market. While Google hasn’t opened the doors for anyone in the world to use Google Voice yet, Google has just made it possible for Google Talk users to call land-line and mobile phones around the world. In [...]

[Read more →]

f you really know how Skype works, you know it’s about as safe as juggling firecrackers. Skype, the popular VoIP program, relies on every PC running Skype between you and who you’re calling to serve as stepping stones for your conversation. That’s bad. What’s worse is when Skype doesn’t check to see if Skype calls [...]

[Read more →]