Considering that your Skype messages are being sent through a server before reaching the person on the other end, would you be utterly surprised if you found that your Skype messages are actually being read by the company that owns the software? While we guess it’s nice to think that the folks at Skype/Microsoft aren’t reading our messages, it turns out that maybe they are. This is according to a report by the folks at Ars Technica who teamed up with security researcher, Ashkan Soltani who discovered that links being sent across Skype were access by a machine whose IP address belonged to Microsoft.
Read full post →Skype Messages Found To Be Not As Private As You Might Think

The folks in Japan sometimes come up with some pretty creative gadgets, usually novel, but creative nonetheless. If you’re in the market for such a novel gadget, Thanko has a miniature camera that you might want to take a look at. This is not the first miniature camera we’ve seen, and by miniature we don’t mean that it is compact, but as you can see in the image above, is definitely more than compact in the sense that it is about the size of a coin! In fact it can even be worn around your neck or attached to your bag like a keychain of sorts.

The device measures 38x33x28mm and weighs a barely noticeable 17g. It is capable of capturing both video and photos in AVI and JPEG format respectively, both of which will be saved to a microSD card. It even features a strobe flash which when darkness is detected, can be fired to help illuminate the subject, although don’t expect too much from such a tiny device. It even comes with a motion sensor that can start recording videos about 2 minutes long by detecting body movement. Not too shabby for such a small device, right? It can be ordered via Thanko’s website (although you might need to brush up on your Japanese) for 5,980 yen.

Online games can be found, especially if you have a good group of friends to play it with, but at the same time we’ve all heard the horror stories of parents neglecting their children, and how some gamers have died just because they’ve been playing online games for excessive periods of time. The South Korean government seems to feel strongly about online gaming as well and they are looking to pass a bill in which online gaming could be viewed in the same light as drugs and alcohol, which is as a addictive substance.

This bill was announced by South Korean politician, Shin Eui-jin, who stated that the bill will allow the government to place some strict restrictions on online gaming since it can now be viewed as an addictive substance. This bill is backed up by fourteen other political representatives, and naturally some developers aren’t too pleased about it. One developer who spoke to Inews24 stated how “It is regretful that the government views games in the same category as drugs and gambling,” and basically how such a bill would hinder one of the country’s leading areas of economic growth. What do you guys think? Do you think online gaming should be viewed in the same light as drugs and alcohol?

Android users, if you’re not a fan of the default browser of Google Chrome, you’re in luck because an alternative has just been made available for you. Just after 3 months of launching in beta form, Opera for Android is now available for the public and can be download for free via the Google Play store. Opera for Android won’t differ too greatly from other browser apps for Android, but if you’re a fan or regular user of the desktop version of Opera, it seems that there are a couple of features which have been carried over from the desktop version onto the mobile version, which we guess you will have to be the judge of whether it was a good idea or not. Other features include a Speed Dial menu, an Off-Road mode that will connect to the internet via Opera’s proxy which not only will compress data, but will also help speed up the loading of webpages while keeping data consumption down to a minimum, so for those on tight data allowances, this might be worth taking a look at. So, who’s excited at the prospect of taking Opera for Android for a spin?

The other day Sony Japan revealed the trailer for a game called Panopticon. The trailer did not really tell us much about the game, and if you’re wondering just what the heck it is, well as it turns out, the game’s official title is Freedom Wars and it will be a game exclusive to Sony’s handheld console, the PS Vita. Sony has also released a new trailer video which is basically the original trailer you saw last time, except that this time round, there are subtitles and offers a little insight as to what is going on. As you might have saw in the previous trailer, there were numbers floating above the heads of some of the characters. It turns out that these numbers are actually a counter for how long a person has left on their prison sentences, and considering that all the characters have it on them, it is possible that the entire game could be based on some kind of virtual prison of sorts. Sony has also listed the game’s genre as being “Recovery” Multiplayer Action, whatever that means, but perhaps there will be some kind of co-op mode. In any case you can check out the “new” trailer in the video above.

One of the ways Nokia has managed to convince customers to come aboard their ship instead of the competition is by offering Lumia exclusives which aren’t available on other Windows Phone devices, and this is made possible thanks to the close relationship Nokia and Microsoft have. Well if you’re a Lumia owner and you love checking into places, you might want to check out the new official Foursquare app for Windows Phone which will come with an exclusive Augmented Reality feature that is only available on Lumia handsets.

Basically what this augmented reality feature does is that it allows users to search for potential venues simply by switching to the augmented reality mode and from there, the camera viewfinder will be able to show users the various locations that they can visit by overlaying Foursquare venues on top of the camera viewfinder. We guess it does sound like a pretty novel feature, but we guess for those who love technology and trying new things, this app might just do the trick. In any case the official Foursquare app can be downloaded via the Windows Phone Store, so head on over if you’d like to check it out.

When it comes to professional cameras, one of the few interchangeable things about it would be the lens, the optional battery grip, and the detachable flash unit, but what if our cameras could be more modular than that? What if we were able to actually rotate the sensor itself so that we can switch from landscape to portrait without having to get into weird, uncomfortable and sometimes awkward positions? Enter the Aspeckt, a concept modular SLR system which was cooked up by a team from the University of Applied Science in Germany.

As you can see in the exploded view above, the entire camera is modular, ranging from the lens, the battery grip, the LCD display, and even the dial. It has been suggested that because of this modular system, the image sensor can even be rotated to switch between landscape and portrait. The computing processor of the camera is modular as well, along with the battery with ergonomic grip, and the viewfinder. The Aspekt camera has also been designed to support older lenses which might not always be supported by today’s SLR cameras. It’s an interesting idea, albeit somewhat bulky, but what do you guys think? Any photographers out there can see the potential in a modular camera design?

We’re sure that for the most part, you guys are well aware that Tumblr contains some NSFW material. Some of it is just good old fashion porn, while some of it we guess could be thought of as artistic nudes. Either way it’s out there and you guys probably know it. With Yahoo announcing their plans to acquire Tumblr, we’re sure many are wondering if Tumblr’s new owner might take offense to the NSFW content found on their website, and for those who frequent Tumblr for “artistic nudes”, you’re in luck because Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, has stated that Yahoo has no plans to cull any of the restricted content on Tumblr. This was in response to a question posed to Mayer regarding some of the questionable content found on Tumblr’s website. Mayer went on to promote Tumblr’s NSFW tool which helps identify restricted content as a means to warn users about said content. This is also in line with Yahoo’s promise yesterday that they will not “screw it up” in their acquisition.

How much will the Sony PlayStation 4 cost when it is released? We’re sure many gamers are wondering about that, and with consoles like Nintendo’s Wii U being priced somewhat affordably, will Sony be looking to do the same with their next-gen console? While we have to wait for an official announcement of sorts, Sony India might have accidentally let the cat out of the bag. The website for Sony India seems to have prematurely put up the pricing on their website for the PS4 and set it at 399 EUR for the 250GB model.

The page has since been pulled, but there is a good chance that this is the price we can expect. First of all this isn’t some random retailer who might be speculating on the price, but rather an official Sony website, meaning that they probably do know what the PS4 would cost. Secondly 399 EUR is somewhat believable as it is cheaper than the PS3, which is part of Sony’s plan to price the console cheaper than its predecessor. We’re not sure how much it could cost in the US, but other parts of the world, 399 EUR could be a price to take note of. However since it has yet to be made official, take it with a grain of salt for now as it could very well be subject to change, but what do you guys think? Is 399 EUR a fair price to ask?

Android tablets are a dime a dozen, but that’s not a bad thing since it means that users have more than one option to choose from, not to mention that for the most part, most Android tablets are priced cheaper than its iOS competitors. In any case Romanian company Evolio has announced the company’s first quad-core tablet offering, the Quadra, which we guess we have pretty much given away, will be powered by a quad-core tablet clocked at 1.2GHz. The tablet will also feature a Vivante GC1000 GPU, a 10.1” 1280×800 IPS LCD display with 1GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and a 5,000mAh battery. It will only connect to WiFi, but for those looking to hook onto a 3G network, you will require an external 3G adapter. It is priced at 999 Romanian leu which is about $296 when converted and for the time being, it is currently being offered in Romania although no word if and when Evolio plans to start offering it stateside. More details about the Quadra tablet can be found on Evolio’s website.