LogMeIn discontinues free service

Press release from LogMeIn-

After ten years, LogMeIn’s free remote access product, LogMeIn Free, is going away.  We will be unifying our portfolio of free and premium remote access products into a single offering.  This product will be a paid-only offering, and it will offer what we believe to be the best premium desktop, cloud and mobile access experience available on the market today. We will be notifying those impacted by the change in the coming days and weeks.  In the meantime, we wanted to take a minute to explain the change and help users of LogMeIn’s access products better understand what this means for them.

Notification period

Impacted users will be notified via email and in-product messages.  While messaging started today, users will be given 7 days to make a purchase decision about LogMeIn Pro.  To be clear, the 7-day grace period starts when you next login to the LogMeIn service.

Such a shame as this is such a good product.

Hackers attack from within at LinkedIn

LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD ▼-4.61% 219.93), operator of the biggest professional networking site, said hackers using automated software created thousands of fake member accounts and copied data from actual member profile pages.
The practice, known as data “scraping,” violates LinkedIn’s user agreements and federal and state computer fraud laws, the company said in a complaint filed yesterday against the unknown hackers in federal court in San Francisco. It has also strained and disrupted the company’s network computers and threatens to degrade the value of LinkedIn Recruiter, a fee-based service used by Fortune 100 companies that’s one of the company’s fastest-growing offerings, according to the complaint.

Source – Bloomberg

Brando Shopping – Simplism Aluminism Bumper Style for iPhone 5s – review

When I ordered these accessories my iPhone 5S was the best thing since sliced bread, but now I have the Samsung Note 3 and some fantastic iPhone accessories. Oh the irony.

Anyway, I ordered this bumper case from Brando Shopping and as cases go I really like this one. It’s a aluminium bumper with a difference as it offers a 20% stand viewing angle. And all without removing the case from the iPhone. You have to be careful when sliding the iPhone into position but it didn’t harm my phone at all. However, I would not want to be constantly moving the iPhone in and out. But it sure does look lovely.

Key Features
Aluminum bumper offers protection and solid grip
High precision machined aluminum construction
No screws or tools needed
Access all functions without removing bumper
iPhone slides in for easy installation
20 degree angle, self-standing feature
Can connect lightning connector with stand deployed
Quality anodized aluminum in 5 different colors
Eco-friendly Cable Manager
5 Colours Available

Available Colours
Silver
Black
Green
Red
Blue

Compatibility
iPhone 5s
iPhone 5

Available from Brando Shopping

20140119-090625.jpg

20140119-090630.jpg

20140119-090635.jpg

20140119-091351.jpg

Sony Xperia Z2 specs

image

It’s that time of year when all the next round of handsets are due to be announced so rumours are flying.

It’s the turn of the Sony Xperia Z2, the replacement for the Z1. The Z2 will come with a 5.3-inch display and a 23MP rear camera and a 2560 x 1440 display, 3GB of RAM, and a 3,700 mAh battery.

All I would like Sony to do is fix the Z1 camera by adding optical image stabilisation and make it take in auto mode the best photos on the planet. That’s all it really needs. But sometimes specs are bumped for the sake of it.

The replacement for the HTC One – Bloomberg adds to specs

Bloomberg confirmed there will be a new version of the HTC One released at the end of March. The phone will retain the first One’s well-received design, a source said, but offer some changes both inside and out.

The screen will be five inches, powered by a more recent flavor of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, but what is more interesting is the aspect that the phone will use 2 sensors to cope better with enhanced focus, depth of field and image quality.

Whatever the final hardware and software of the new HTC One is released, it really needs to win the mindset of consumers over Samsung’s Galaxy S5.

It’s going to be a touch call.

Nokia’s Normandy android phone – seriously

The internet has been awash of the Android Nokia phone codenamed Normandy.  Rumours keep saying this might get released by Nokia.

Considering Microsoft bought Nokia there is no way this will ever see light of day.

But what it is doing is giving Nokia free advertising across the Internet.  Maybe, Nokia designed this deliberately to get Microsoft to commit to buying their ailing company and then thought, hey let’s leave a few photos lying around and get some free publicity. Sure is working.

Brando Shopping – Momax Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Smart Coat Replacement Back Case – review

Brando Shopping are selling the Momax Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Smart Coat Replacement Back Case for the Samsung Note 3.

This case doesn’t have the smart view window setup of the official Samsung case but it does display enough info to be useful. It is also a much nicer design and finish. It also acts as a stand for watching films or just for sitting on your desk at a viewable angle. It also feels lighter. This is my favourite case for my Note 3 out of the official S View Premium, cheap silicone and Spigen SGP Armour.

At $23 it is a lot cheaper than the official Samsung case.

Available from Brando Shopping

20140119-085027.jpg

20140119-085038.jpg

20140119-085045.jpg

20140119-085051.jpg

Wall Street is unfollowing Twitter

Wall Street is unfollowing Twitter (TWTR). With the stock up 124 percent since a Nov. 7 initial public offering, only one in five analysts now rate it a buy.

It’s expensive, says Cantor Fitzgerald’s Youssef Squali, “even compared to other highflying Internet IPOs.”

Twitter needs to monetize itself fast it seems and that can only mean more advertising and selling of data.

Naughty – Google Chrome on android is adding adverts

Google Chrome on android got updated recently with a bandwidth management option that saves up to 50% data usage.

Just one catch.  This function adds adverts even on non commercial websites like the BBC.

Screen shot below.

image

It has an advert for the Nokia Lumia 1020 at the top.

Not sure I’m over happy about this but how do you feel?