The Buzz

I’ve been following the saga of the movie rental firms pretty closely over the past year, and we’ve seen Redbox and Netflix agree to all sorts of arrangements, including a 28-day delay, while in-bankruptcy-protection Blockbuster has reaped what benefits can be had from that arrangement.

Well, now it’s Blockbuster Express’s turn. Blockbuster Express is a kiosk firm similar to Redbox owned by NCR, and only connected to the beleaguered movie rental chain in name only. They agreed to delay making movies available by 28 days with some companies, like Warner Brothers, putting them at parallel with their kiosk competitors. Meanwhile, the original Blockbuster still has their advantage, although having those marketing things saying “Blockbuster has it first!” just got a whole lot more confusing.

SOURCE: Fox Business via Consumerist

While it’s not new news by now, a couple of days ago it was publicly announced that 1.3 million Gawker accounts had been compromised by a group of hackers tired of the company’s bravado about security and other organizations. While announced over the weekend, initial signs of the hack were noted by Gawker’s team a month before, although they didn’t piece it together at the time. While Gawker had encrypted password, those who weren’t that secure were decrypted by the hacker group, just to prove how easy it was to reveal password (and in the process noting that 2000 Gawker users used the word password).

I was on the list, with my E-mail address and password revealed for all to see. That doesn’t scare me, as I have long had various passwords for certain sites. Unlike Nick Denton and others, I don’t use the same password for my “low security” sites, places where I do thinks like leave comments or use it sparingly, vs. “high security” sites, such as banks and social networks.

It did, however, make me think, as the “low security” password is one I did use for awhile, when I was more naive, on a wider variety of sites. I spent time last night painstakingly resetting passwords to services I use often, like last.fm, down to ones I’ve used maybe twice in my life. Google played a role in helping me seek sites where I used a specific username, and I’m sure I’ve missed others.

It’s a good security lesson, even if it’s a hassle: don’t use the same password for everything. Otherwise, you’ll find someone spamming your Twitter friends about acai berries.

If you want to know if your password has been compromised, There are tools out there that can tell you.

SOURCES: The Next Web, Lifehacker, Forbes

Many people take advantage of cash back rewards cards to be able to get a little something extra when they make a purchase. But what if you could spend your rewards directly at the register, instead of charging it and waiting for a credit or check?

That’s the idea behind a new credit card coming for certain Citibank cardholders participating in a special credit card test. The idea is that the card can switch between two sets of data on its magnetic stripe, just by selecting a button. A light shows up telling you whether you’re in “charge it” mode or “use rewards” mode.

The card was developed to allow people to have two cards (say, a credit and debit card) on the same piece of plastic, so this is just a first step, but this is an interesting development, given many countries are moving away from swiping in favor of PIN and chip systems.

SOURCE: New York Times via Consumerist

Not content to just take Blockbuster down, Redbox is now more directly pushing towards competition against Netflix with its announcement of a streaming service. Pricing and other details have not been announced yet, nor has a partner, but Yahoo! said in their story that earlier this year Redbox was running surveys asking people about pricing options and what they would pay for a streaming service.

Redbox and Netflix have been the rental darlings of late, and Netflix has been receiving increasing praise for their streaming service. Meanwhile, Blockbuster is working its way through a bankruptcy reorganization.

SOURCE: Yahoo! via Engadget

Monday marked the official debut of WiMAX service in Connecticut. Clear has officially begun making available 4G services in the Hartford and New Haven markets, a rep for the company has told The Buzz. She also noted that Bridgeport is “launching soon.”

I recently purchased an EVO, Sprint’s flagship 4G device, and have been trying out the 4G service around Connecticut. In speed tests conducted in New York City, New Haven, Hamden and Bridgeport, I’ve generally seen speeds of between 2.5 and 3mb a second, when using the Speed Test for Android application. That’s roughly 3-5 times the speeds I saw with 3G in those areas, so it’s a serious step up. I peaked at 4 mb in one of the tests. I am currently getting speeds of more than 2.5mb a second here in the Connecticut Post newsroom, although the service is not officially available in Bridgeport yet.

Other carriers plan on getting their 4G services up and running very soon, so it will be interesting to see what ultimately is available when the dust settles.

To see where Clear service (which also powers Sprint’s offerings) is available in Connecticut, see their coverage map here.

Earlier I discussed hints of Clear’s eventual Connecticut plans, which included at the time their locator map stating two Connecticut metro areas were coming soon. They took those dots off their map after I reported this, but signs of Clear’s arrival are growing.

Walking by a recently shuttered Pocket store in downtown New Haven yesterday, I saw a large green banner announcing the impending arrival of Clear to the store’s location. I sadly didn’t have a camera with me; I’ll aim to take a picture when I pass it next.

Clear is the WiMax 4G provider with majority ownership by Sprint; Sprint uses the network to power devices like the HTC Evo and Samsung Epic.

As with previous disputes, with Scripps and ABC, when the networks were yanked from Cablevision’s viewers, they replaced a black screen with a loop explaining their side. The video is below.

Negotiations continued Sunday to try to bring the channels back on the air, but meanwhile National League Championship Series games, which are being aired on Fox, are unavailable to Cablevision customers.

More surprising, however, is that Fox is using the Internet as a bargaining chip, blocking Cablevision Internet customers from watching programming on the Fox and Hulu sites. This will likely raise the ire of Net Neutrality proponents. Assumedly, those with mobile devices that can access Hulu content, like the iPad, would be unaffected if they’re using AT&T’s internet connection, for instance.

Update: It appears that block didn’t last very long, as today Cablevision customers were reporting success in accessing Fox content.

You can get Cablevision’s side here, and Fox’s side here.

SOURCES: YouTube, Yahoo! News/AP

Parents anxious to keep their kids and teenagers from “sexting,” a fun made-up word that basically means sending naughty text messages and pictures to someone, will give Apple a thumbs-up for their latest patent, which is designed to offer a way to block such a thing, at least when it comes to text.

The patent would allow a filter to flag messages as inappropriate by looking for certain words, not unlike all the garbage that gunks up this very blog’s spam folder. (Those are as fun to read as sext messages.)

Of course, a filter can only do so much. After all, a short-hand has developed for text messaging, and slang words develop and evolve all the time for sexual practices.

Meanwhile, the patent also notes the technology can be used for educational uses, using filters for other purposes, like not allowing a text to be sent without proper grammar.  So soon an iPhone could block a teen from sending the message “U R 2 cute!”

CNN reports the patent doesn’t cover images. Image recognition technology is still coming along, with services like Google Goggles the farthest along. Google in their image recognition technology has intentionally left off faces; it’s unknown if they’ve left off some of the more unmentionable body parts as well. At some point, it may be able to say “that’s a nipple; that’s not allowed.” Only time, and the evolution of technology, will tell.

SOURCE: CNN