Geek News Roundup for 08/15/2010 – Long Live Hyberbole

Last week Wired Magazine journalists Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff boldly proclaimed “the web is dead.” Anderson and Wolff quickly pointed out the internet is very much alive, but the web (i.e. traditional web browsers) are quickly falling out of use. The duo highlighted the rise of devices that utilize apps in order to access the internet such as smart phones, tablets, and current generation video game consoles. The pair also noted that internet access via apps means larger companies ultimately control more content and the internet is slowly becoming a closed platform. If you’re rolling your eyes at the notion of the web being dead Evan Hansen, another Wired Magazine journalist is inclined agree. In a “not so fast!” rebuttal Hansen argued how the web is very much alive.

If you own a smartphone bandwidth caps may or may not be a daily part of life depending on your provider. Thanks to the success of the iPhone and its various data-consuming apps AT&T has imposed bandwidth limits on its users. Recently the Android has become quite successful and is even outselling the iPhone. Android users also consume more data than iPhone users. With that said it should come as no surprise to learn that cellphone carriers (the ones selling the Android anyway) will soon impose bandwidth limits on their users.

With the rise of the internet and devices that allow people to do multiple things at once multi-tasking is all the rage. Many people consider themselves to be great multi-taskers as they juggle a variety of similar tasks at the same time. A recent UK study suggest what many people who don’t multi-task knew all along, it’s not really possible for most people to do two very similar things at once and to do them well. Changing gears, internet slang is nothing new. Yet many places like courtrooms are unfamiliar with popular internet slang, which makes for interesting witness questioning among older lawyers and judges.

While we’re on the subject of courts, if the group behind the PSJailbreak hack releases a USB dongle powered with software that allows gamers to hack their PS3s is successful they could face the legal wrath of Sony. Unlike other current gen consoles and handhelds the PS3 has not been hacked. If PSJailbreak has their way all of that could change, if the unreleased hack is indeed real– and it probably is. At a price of $150 dollars the hack maybe limited in popularity, or it may simply be pirated shortly after it hits the market. Now that would be ironic.

In other PlayStation news, if you ever wanted to know what happened to games downloaded for free through PlayStation Plus after a subscription expires the answer is pretty simple. Users are either offered the choice to renew their PS Plus subscription, buy the full version of the game, while some PS1 games simply continue to work despite being expired. In more interesting news Mass Effect 2 is arriving on the PS3 in January. The PS3 version promises to be loaded with hours of extra content, most likely in the form of included DLC. The only downside would be the inability for PS3 users to import their original Mass Effect save data into ME2, which effectively means a player has to start from scratch. The original game was published in part by Microsoft Game Studios (making it a 360 exclusive) while the sequel was published by EA. At least PS3 owners can probably look forward to Mass Effect 3 on the PS3 and the ability to import save files.

Switching back to the issue of piracy, a few manga creators expressed their opinions about those who illegally upload their work. Much of it may be a joke but the frustration is definitely there.