Editorial: Can RIM Save This Ship

Dear Reader:

Let me first introduce myself by a name that most of you haven’t heard in a long time. I’m Nic Ball the “Berry Guru”. Before there was a Gadget Gurus, before there ever was an Angry Guru and much before I secured my doctorate, I was simply a blackberry junkie. I walked around with my head held down and my thumbs busy typing away on a keyboard as I weaved through pedestrian traffic. It was the best of times. The smartphone market was on in it’s early childhood. We’d finally crossed over the threshold of Windows Mobile and the world was ours to take. Then the iPhone came along and started the downward slide. Android came on the scene and it was as if all the air in the room had been let out. Now here we are only a few years later but it seems like forever ago. Now here we are, RIM, the former king of the market is now the ugly red-headed step child of smart phones. What, if anything, can RIM do to save this ship?

The most obvious problem with RIM has been the total consumerization of IT. No longer are system admins able to keep everyone on an easy to manage and easy to control system without justification for that granular control. Now days CEO’s are demanding the use of an iPhone or iPad and the notion of using a BlackBerry is quickly fading away. RIM has missed out on consumer market in belief that there would always be a rock solid business market. As this layer starts to fade away we have to look at other solutions at RIM.

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SOPA Bill Killed! Chalk One Up for the Good Guys

Earlier today Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will kill the Stop Online Piracy Act going forward. With pressure coming from users, Reddit, and many other anti SOPA businesses, it looks like they are calling it quits. With Godaddy losing over 100,000 domains in the span of just over a week for supporting the bill, users spoke with their dollar. When a company starts losing money, people tend to pay attention. Reddit along with many other internet companies and communities had a planned blackout on the 18th where they would shutdown their sites and internet usage in order to “speak” out against SOPA. Even President Obama’s camp had negative feelings toward SOPA. Glad to finally see moves in the right direction, but this isn’t nearly over yet. There are other bills similar to SOPA out there like PIPA, and the media industry will always throw their weight around under the guise of piracy prevention.

via [Examiner]

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The Gadget Gurus Podcast Ep 145 – Gurus, Plus Your World

CES 2012 is over, Twitter is fignting with Google, and Android get some style. Join The Gurus as we talk about some of our favorite highlights of this year’s show, Google’s new search plus your world, and much more. Enjoy!

Make sure you download The Gadget Gurus App available on Android and iOS!!!

Help Support or Sponsor The Gurus

Hit the details for show notes and to subscribe/download.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic – Sith Marauder Walkthrough Episode 5 Commentary

The Sith Marauder – Episode Five:

Seishin continues his trials to prove his worth to the Revanites and meet the leader; however, he’ll learn that the leader isn’t exactly what he thought, ultimately throwing our hero an ultimatum. Afterward, Seishin continues his main quest to the Dark Temple and finds out some interesting facts about the ancient temple.

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Hello all! Vic here, bringing you a walkthrough of the my adventures through Star Wars: The Old Republic. In the first season, we’re going to follow Seishin, a Sith Warrior, as he fights his way to become the top Marauder in the Sith Empire.

This walkthrough is designed to help you learn and understand what Star Wars: The Old Republic offers in terms of a cinematic adventure and gameplay, to help you decide if it’s worth your investment (which for many of you, I’m sure the answer is “Heck yea!”). This will also provide a guide to complete missions and flashpoints that can otherwise be tough and confusing, along with helping decide on builds for your characters throughout the seasons.

Also, make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest adventures of Seishin!

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Top Extension Picks for Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer (IE).

Hey all! I thought it would be a good idea to share with you my favorite extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and even Internet Explorer! There primarily security based, but there are few non-security ones I thought you would enjoy as well.

Chrome:

1. Web of Trust - Web of Trust shows you which sites are safe to visit based off the ratings given by fellow WOT users. It’s a great site and helped me come avoid some suspicious sights while searching.
2. AdBlock Plus - Just like the Firefox version (though not as powerful yet), it’s design to block all those pesky ads. It does a very solid job of blocking most ads; however, due to the nature of Chrome, it’s not nearly as powerful as the Firefox version. With Chrome 17, there are APIs that will allow it to achieve Firefox perfection and start blocking ads within videos and embedded files.
3. Google Mail Checker - If you use Gmail, this app displays the unread count for your email and gives you quick access to your Gmail inbox at any time.
4. LastPass – This is a free password manager for your web browser. Allows for easy password management for nearly all your websites.
5. ScriptNo - If you used “NoScript” on Firefox, this will be familiar to you. This extension blocks scripts/pop-ups from running in website that takes up valuable resources and is just a major annoyance. This extension is still in the “experimental” stage, but does a great job. I recommend that if you download it, change the Default mode from “Blocked” to “Allow” and just block what you don’t want.

• Here are some additional security extensions for those who want a high level of protection:
  • SaferChrome - This is a great security extension that makes your web browsing safer by identifying and preventing security and privacy breaches.
  • Dr.Web Anti-Virus Link Checker – This extension allows you to scan web pages and files.
  • Secbrowsing – This extension checks to see if Chrome is running any out-of-date plugins that have security vulnerabilities.
  • KBB SLL Enforcer – This extension enforces encryption on the websites you visit, greatly improving your browsing security and privacy (especially when browsing over Public Wi-Fi networks). There is also a dedicated button available for those who want easy access to customization.
  • Click&Clean – This is a free tool that’ll scan for malware, delete your history, cookies, cache, temporary files, clean up your hard drive, securely delete files, and allows you to access to the Chrome’s task manager, hidden, advanced settings and monitoring tools. There are also a ton of other tools available in this extension!
  • PasswordFail Extension – This extension is pretty simple in what it does. It warns you of websites that store your password in plain text, which is a very insecure way of storing one’s password.
  • View Thru – This app is nice since it displays the full URL when you’re presented with a shortened URL, so you know where you’re being directed to.
• Some additional ones I recommend for Chrome that you might enjoy outside of my Top Picks and Security are:
  • Google +1 Button - Allows for quick +1′ing and sharing of a webpage.
  • Google+ Notifications - If you use Google+, this extension allows quick access to your Google+ notifications.
  • TooManyTabs for Chrome – If you’re one who has a ton of tabs open at once, this is a great tool for managing. Quickly view your tabs, suspend them to reduce the amount of tabs open while being able to bring the back at any time.
  • MuteTab - Allows you to find tabs that are making noise and quickly mute them.

• Rapportive – This app is a great tool for getting information about the people who you send and receive email with every day. It integrates with Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more and grabs that person’s information from those sources.
• BugMeNot Lite - This extension allows you to bypass registration for sites you really just don’t care about. When sites (especially forums) require registration to view or download the content, use this extension to generate a username and password and get what you need.

Firefox:

1. Web of Trust - Web of Trust shows you which sites are safe to visit based off the ratings given by fellow WOT users. It’s a great site and helped me come avoid some suspicious sights while searching.
2. AdBlock Plus – The original Adblock Plus, allowing for the most powerful ad blocking on Firefox. Also allows for customization of filters and a context option for blocking/unblocking images, Flash, Java, etc.
3. InstantFox – Jealous of your friends with Chrome or IE and their ability to do a search right from their address bar? Well, this extension will combine your search and address bar to duplicate that exact feature!
4. NoScript – This extension is great for blocking unwanted scripts and popups, along with blocking known exploits and security vulnerabilities to provide a much safer browsing experience.
5. LastPass – This is a free password manager for your web browser. Allows for easy password management for nearly all your websites.

Internet Explorer:

1. Web of Trust - Web of Trust shows you which sites are safe to visit based off the ratings given by fellow WOT users. It’s a great site and helped me come avoid some suspicious sights while searching.
2. Adblock for Internet Explorer – This is an Adblock program that is pretty solid for IE. It has a limit of 200 blocks per day for the free version, but still a decent option for those who refuse to leave IE.
3. LastPass – This is a free password manager for your web browser. Allows for easy password management for nearly all your websites.
4. KeyScrambler Personal – This is a free add-on that encrypts your keystrokes for added security, especially on public networks.
5. Dr.Web LinkChecker for IE – This extension allows you to scan web pages and files.

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