but after customers complained — including several male patrons who expressed concern that their girlfriends could check up on their activities via the video stream — the boardroom turned off the camera after only a few months of operation.

“we stopped it because it was creepy and people didn’t like it,” gray said. “there was push back from a lot of different people.”

in what must feel like a deja vu moment, gray is letting another startup put video cameras in another bar called tope, which he owns. only this time there won’t be any streaming video of embarrassing or relationship-destroying bar room shenanigans.

call it a sign of the times. tope is one of about 20 bars launching a service called scenetap in san francisco on friday. this may just be the start. scenetap could conceivably prove useful for a variety of retail companies, providing data on when customers shop in stores, what items they browse, and other in-store behaviors and patterns. but it also raises expected hackles of privacy watchdogs who worry the data could be combined with a person’s online footprint to do what even google can’t do right now — match your internet activities with your offline world. (oh wait, they could do that by using scenetap in google street view
cars!)

i left my personal data in san francisco
scenetap’s devices, located near the front entrance, keep track of the number of people who enter and exit a venue and use facial detection software on video feeds to figure out what gender and age customers appear to be. it provides that traffic and demographic information to bar owners who can design marketing and other promotions to target specific audiences, while users of the scenetap app can see which bars in their area are “hopping.”

that seems to be a far cry from sending live video to the internet like the barspace service did, yet scenetap has hit a a nerve in san francisco, touching off a frenzy of criticism on blogs and social media sites.

“the people here care about our bars and clubs, we care about each other, and we take our privacy seriously around here,” writes violet blue, a blogger at cnet sister site zdnet. “we also know a lot about tech, so a startup that rolls in to carpetbag an invasive app space into clubbing is — in most ways — doomed to fail. there isn’t much scenetap could have done to smooth over the idea of putting cameras into bars — in this city, anyway.”

managers of several bars in chicago and madison, wis., where scenetap has already launched, told cnet that they had not received any privacy complaints regarding the video cameras’ presence in the bars. the service is also operating in austin, athens, ga., bloomington, ind., and gainesville, fla., according to the company’s web site.

if scenetap is getting this much heat before its san francisco launch, how did barspace fare? its domain is up for sale and the app is nowhere to be found.

barspace co-founder michael deignan told cnet that he and the other founders moved on to other ventures and shut down the service earlier this year. it had launched in 2009. “up until we turned it off we had great traffic and a lot of customers,” he said. “it made more sense to go over to a new company while it is hot and get it started. it’s a resource issue.”

asked if there had been privacy complaints or lawsuits filed over the streaming video, deignan said: “there were no lawsuits and no complaints. if there were, it’s nothing i heard about.”

in fact, the startup got a spike in business following reports in the east bay express and the san francisco weekly last july that barspace was streaming from nearly 50 bars, he said. “it wasn’t anything like the shit storm scenetap is dealing with.”

even though live video is perceived as more invasive, barspace’s video was taken of the whole room and not close up, and it was grainy with faces were blurred out, according to deignan. whereas, scenetap appears to be doing data mining, he said, adding “have you seen ‘minority report?’”

it’s no secret that apple is not a fan of jailbreaking of its iphones, but that distaste appears to be extending to the itunes store as well.

a search for the term “jailbreak” in the store yields dozens of instances where the titles of songs, apps, tv shows, and even podcasts have been asterisked out. while apple believes the act of jailbreaking, or bypassing the restriction apple places on standard iphones that only allows the installation of applications only from approved sources, is a copyright violation. ibookstore is also affected.

a review of the app store guidelines does not turn up any indication that this word is forbidden in titles. the seven-page app store guidelines has a section regarding metadata (which apple specifies as app names and descriptions), however it only mentions that apps with descriptions that are “not relevant to the application content and functionality” getting rejected outright.

cnet has contacted apple for comment on the matter, and we will update this report when we learn more.

the situation was first pointed out on twitter by user “musclenerd,” a self-described
iphone hacker:

apple is said to be on the verge of rolling out new high-resolution displays for its computers that, up until now, have only been available on its iphones and ipads. and those panels are already in the supply chain, an analyst told cnet.

the feature, which could cost nearly $100 more than apple currently spends, would make photos, applications, and text look sharper and clearer on apple’s computers. the company pulled the same trick on its iphones and ipods, and more recently on the
ipad. computers have been the one holdout, but that’s changing.

npd displaysearch senior analyst richard shim says that super high-resolution 13.3-inch and 15.4-inch panels that apple would be a prime candidate to use are already available from suppliers.

“we’re seeing it at 15.4 (inches),” shim said in an interview yesterday. “you can get it.”

the change is the latest in a trend of increasing resolutions on portable gadgets. last month, for instance, 1,366 by 768 pixel screens became more popular than the long-dominant 1,024 by 768 pixel screens, according to web analytics company statcounter. the extra resolution lets users have more windows open on screen, but it can also be used to make things look clearer and sharper.

“on typical windows systems, there was a push for higher densities back when vista was first coming out, but nothing really came of it,” shim said. “on monitors, it’s been sort of an os limitation where if you don’t need it, there’s obviously no reason to support it, and it adds cost because the yields are harder to maintain.”

shim says the
iphone and recent third-generation ipad changed that.

“what’s clear is that apple’s pushing it. they’re pushing panel makers to come out with higher resolution panels because they’ve created a market demand for it, starting with their phones, now going to their
tablets,” shim said. “now what we’re seeing in the supply chain is that they’re going to move that to their notebooks, and it’s becoming a premium feature.”

that premium will cost apple, shim says. according to his estimates, adding a retina-quality panel in apple’s 15-inch macbook pro would cost apple about $160 versus the $68 the company spends on its current models. it’s $134 for such a panel on the 13.3-inch model, compared to the $69 apple pays right now.

those screens would have the following specifications, shim offered:

but the company was always careful to say that it could change this policy in the future. and now it looks like that day has finally come. the way it will likely work is that as 3g unlimited contracts expire, verizon will push subscribers to upgrade their devices to smartphones on company’s 4g lte network. these customers will then have to sign up for the data share plans.

“everyone will be on data share,” shammo said, according to fierce wireless. “when they migrate off 3g they will have to go to data share. that is beneficial to us.”

verizon hasn’t yet announced pricing details of the new share plans. shammo said that he believes this new plan will make it easier for families and small businesses to connect multiple devices, fierce reported. this new plan is meant to encourage people to buy multiple connected devices and to use them on the 4g lte network, without signing up for an additional data plan.

as this change happens and people connect additional devices to their accounts, shammo said that the industry will have to change how they account for the revenue. instead of looking at average revenue per user, he said that the industry should look at average revenue per account.

news of the end of the unlimited data plan is sure to upset some consumers who have held onto their existing accounts specifically for the unlimited benefit.

at&t also offers this benefit to longtime smartphone customers. but the company has struggled to keep up with the demands of some of these users. in an effort to ensure that “grandfathered” unlimited users don’t hog the network, the company began slowing down a proportion of these heavy users. the move outraged many customers. one man sued at&t in small-claims court and won. at&t has since changed its policy and now only slows down or throttles users if they exceed 3gb of data per month.

meanwhile, t-mobile usa and sprint nextel still offer unlimited data plans. t-mobile also slows down users if they consume too much data each month. but sprint claims that it is the only major wireless carrier in the u.s. to still offer unfettered unlimited data. some people question how long the carrier will be able to offer such a plan given the steep rise in data usage.

a verizon spokeswoman declined to comment on the news.

verizon hasn’t officially offered much explanation. i asked a spokeswoman why and she ignored the question and simply verified that the company is not yet offering 4g lte “world phones.”

my guess is that supporting the additional gsm radios increases the cost of the device. also fitting additional radio technology into these devices also might raise some design issues for smartphone manufacturers.

you have to remember that lte is still a relatively new technology. because verizon’s 4g lte network isn’t deployed everywhere, the new 4g lte phones must also support 3g ev-do technology as well as the basic 2g technology for when users roam to remote areas where 3g isn’t available. adding “world” support means that even more radios need to be installed in the device.

what’s more, consumers want thinner phones, and they want long-lasting batteries. outfitting devices with more radio technology affects the design of the devices. so it may be more difficult to deliver a thin device, or it could affect battery life. but as designs improve and costs come down, verizon will likely add 3g “world phone” support to its 4g lte devices.

that said, as i’ve explained, verizon is unlikely to offer world phones that support other 4g lte networks. this shouldn’t matter too much over the next couple of years anyway, since many wireless carriers overseas are still in the planning stages of their 4g lte networks. but it would be nice to get some 3g roaming on verizon’s latest cutting edge smartphones, especially since the carrier is really pushing subscribers to upgrade to 4g devices. for now, i’ll keep my fingers crossed.

3g for my kindle fire?

For computer game lovers, it is nothing worse than a broken game disc, for it costs a lot today to buy a new one. This is precisely why it is a good idea to invest in a good computer game backup software. If your game disc gets misplaced or damaged, you can always rely on the backup.

The processes are very easym especially for game lovers who are already good at computers. All you need is a computer game copying software that is able to copy an image of the disc you wish to backup.

Although you may hesitate at the beginning because reliable softwares come with certain fees, but in the long-run, it is a much worthwhile investment. It is much more economical to invest in a backup software rather than to pay for a new game disc.

However, some softwares may require you to have a disc burner while others do not. Therefore, before buying a game backup software, you should find out if it requires you to buy any additional hardware. You only need a CD-drive in your computer which every desktop and laptop should have. Of course, you will also require a writable disc on which you want to backup your computer game on.

Once you have the appropriate software, simply start it up and follow the onscreen instructions. The backup process should only take about 10-20 minutes to complete.

Now the digital camera is becoming cheaper and with more functions since the competition of digital camera manufacuters is getting more fierce. It seems that the digital camera market is a buyer market. Facing various excellent functions and brands, how to choose a suitable digital camera? Below are some factors you should take into consideration.

1. Resolution. Before you buy digital camera, check first its capacity to produce high quality photo images. The more number of pixels, the higher the resolution which can make photos to be enlarged without losing image quality.

2. Built-in memory. When you buy digital camera, make sure that the camera that you buy contains both a “built-in” memory and a card slot for external and additional memory. This allows you to change full memory cards conveniently while shooting your pictures.

3. Battery life. Digital cameras use up batteries fast and batteries are expensive. Take also into consideration an AC adapter when you buy digital camera. You can attach this to the camera when you are viewing your pictures or uploading them.

4. LCD. The LCD is a small screen located at the back of a digital camera that allows you to preview the pictures you took. This has to be considered when you buy digital camera because it uses up a lot of battery power.

5. DSLR or Point Shoot Cameras? If you are looking for easy to use cameras then Point Shoot type cameras will prove crucial. Whereas SLR cameras are bit complicated, bigger, and heavier and are not easy to manage, thus it need extra care to maintain such cameras.

6. Zooming. Focus on Zoom will facilitate to buy better cameras. You might find 2 types of Zooms in the market, one is Optical Zoom and the other is Digital Zoom. An optical zoom camera is capable to take sharp pictures and maintains the quality of the picture. You can find 3x optical zoom to 12x optical zoom in the market.

7. Look at the Review. It is recommendable to have bit research on product before you buy it. Most of the major brands do have positive and negative reviews about their products, so don’t get struck on your decision. These reviews could help you to analyze and make conclusion accordingly.

8. Look for full demonstration and Extras of Camera. Look for the extras that come along with the camera like camera case, spare batteries, memory cards etc. For some extra attachment you might need to pay for it.

LED step light can ensure your safety while you are outdoor or indoor at night the middle of the night. Also, they are able to creat a romantic sense, with different colors and brightness. Here we will introduce the reasons why you should choose LED step light and how to use it correctly.

Advantage of LED outdoor step lights?

1. Multiple colors: There are so many options from basic red, green, blue, and white LED lights, to even RGB LED step lights that change color.

2. Choice of brightness: The new technologies avail several brightness levels of LED lights that can be used depending on your lighting preferences. It is up to you to decide the brightness of lights and what atmosphere you want to creat.

3. Save money: You will save money and energy in two ways. The basic physics of how LED lights work offers simple explanation why, after hundred years of development of electric lighting, the LED lights will clearly come out as energy and money savings champion in most applications.

How to use outdoor LED step lights properly:

1. When installing: Often times, the outdoor step lights will be built in into the riser of the steps. To avoid mishaps, it is important to decide on the location of the holes, and, as they say “measure twice”, drill once.

2. Use stealth LCD lights: These are only sending direct light into the floor. That way you will reduce glare for the home guests or business visitors. Often, the LED light fixture used for steps will have an option to direct light up or down. Choose down for the “stealth” effect to reduce glare.

3. Complete the look of the stairs with fence post lights: If you are illuminating the outside deck or porch that has a fence, consider placing independent fence post lights on top of the fence posts. That way, you will complete the brighter look of the steps and the porch or deck.

4. Buying cheap: You will be surprised at how many people shop online instead of going to local hardware stores to shop. In fact, the savings on gasoline and car use, the savings of time, as well as the savings in the item price itself, will often put online shopping at an advantage.

In electronic industry, the term”electronic component” is frequently mentioned. However, the different classifications of such component can make the usage so different. To make your supplier or distributor understand, you’d better refer your requirement as “passive” or “active” electronic component.

An electronic component is a basic electronic element usually packaged in a discrete form with two or more connecting leads or metallic pads. Components are intended to be connected together, usually by soldering to a printed circuit board, to create an electronic circuit with a particular function (such as an amplifier, radio receiver, or oscillator). Components may be packaged singly (resistor, capacitor, transistor, diode etc.) or in more or less complex groups as integrated circuits (operational amplifier, resistor array, logic gate etc.) Very often electronic components are mechanically stabilized, improved in insulation properties and protected from environmental influence by being enclosed in synthetic resin. But Components may be passive or active:

Passive components are those that do not have gain or directionality.In network analysis they are called electrical elements.passive components are those that do not require electrical power to operate. This could include the chassis, capacitors, resistors or enclosures that do not require electrical power to operate but would exclude system components such as the power supply, fans, storage device, transistors, diodes and other controllers.

Active components are those that have gain or directionality, in contrast to passive components, which have neither. They include semiconductor devices and vacuum tubes. Active components are those that require electrical power to operate. This could include the power supply, fans, storage device, transistors, diodes and other integrated circuits but would exclude system components such as the chassis, capacitors or enclosures that do not require electrical power to operate.