Computer first person shooter games have been very popular and pretty much repetitive since ever, but this new upcoming game from the house of Electronic Arts is a whole different story. The new Medal of Honor lets gamers play as allied or oppositional forces in a contemporary war theater. The allies in this case are U.S. Army Rangers, the theater is Afghanistan and so the opposition, is not surprisingly, the Taliban.

Medal Of Honor

The game angered many parents and families, who lost their loved ones in the raging war in Afghanistan. They feel the “game takes their suffering and turns it into someone else’s entertainment”. “Medal of Honor is set in today’s war putting players in the boots of today’s soldiers… we give gamers the opportunity to play both sides”, said Electronic Arts senior public relations manager Amanda Taggart in an official response.

Moreover, EA has added: “most of us have been doing this since we were seven… if someone’s the cop, someone’s got to be the robber, someone’s got to be the pirate and someone’s got to be the alien. In Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone’s gotta be the Taliban”. However many Americans believe, it is just unrealistic to compare cops and robbers to the Taliban and US soldiers.

However, some say, the entire controversy around this issue is actually hypocrisy, since America believes that it is okay to shot, stab, kill and blow up everyone in PC games as long as they are the “bad guys”, without taking into consideration people’s feelings at all. But playing as the Taliban fighting against the American army, that is way too much. Anyways, looks like the entire media fiasco around this game, will make it one of this summer’s best sellers.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

As aforementioned, the social network already offers a “like” button that allowspeople to rate and respond to other people’s comments and posts. Online securityfirm Sophos said it was the latest in a series of “survey scams” that included linksto a video purporting to show an anaconda snake vomiting up a hippo. “One thingwe commonly see is that the message starts with ‘OMG, shocking video’”, Sophosspokesman said. Basically the problem is that the viral links “appear to come fromyour Facebook friend, giving it a ringing endorsement.”
The dislike button scam prompts people to download an application with thefollowing message: “Download the official DISLIKE button now”. When usersclick on the link, it prompts them to install a rogue application, which does notfunction as a dislike button nor any other button. Instead, once a user has giventhe application permission to access their profile, it updates the user’s page with alink and a message: “I just got the dislike button, so now I can dislike all of yourdumb posts lol!!!”. According to Facebook usage polls, turns out many people aregiving permission for completely unknown apps, thinking they are totally unharmful.
As for the surveys (linked from the spam messages), they appear to be from genuinecompanies. As far as most users can tell, they appear to be legitimate. “It couldbe that the firms are not policing their affiliates properly”, Sophos suggested. Thescam finally points users towards a Firefox add-on that installs a “dislike” button.The add-on also appears to be legitimate. By the way, according to many antiphishing sites, the scam makers did not respond to any request for comment.
A spokesperson for Facebook said that the site had a “very quick process in place”to make sure that links and rogue applications were taken down quickly. “We alwaysencourage people to not click on links that appear suspicious – even if posted froma friend”, a spokesperson said. “They can report any posts to us. We can make surethat we take down any application or all of the links across Facebook.” But manyweb security specialists suggest that although Facebook could respond quickly, itshould police the development of rogue applications more closely. They claim thatanyone can write a Facebook app, thus these scams are constantly springing up.
Finally, while the advantages of using Facebook are obvious, it comes with its veryown share of problems, so always remember to protect your personal data andbeware of useless innocent looking requests.
Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Just a few weeks ago, Apple’s released its brand new anticipated smartphone the iPhone 4. Since then, the iPhone 4 grew up to be the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with over 1.7 million units sold within just a few days. With these numbers, you would expect the guys at Cuppertino (Apple’s HQ) to be celebrating, but in fact they aren’t, as a major design error overclouds the phone’s success.

Following the gadgets launch off, many new iPhone owners reported that the signal strength and reception dropped significantly when the phone was held in a specific way- on the lower left side. Not long after that, videos showing the weird bug started popping all over the web as well as talkbacks who mocked Apple. The growing pressure finally got to Apple, who decided now to seriously address the issue.

In a statement released to the press, Apple says a fault on its new iPhone 4 is causing it to incorrectly display the phone’s signal. According to them, the problem is related to an error on how the signal bars themselves are displayed, rather than a reception issue. On the contrary, many tech experts claim the problem is deeper than a “cosmetic design flaw”.

Moreover, Apple had said that generally all phones gripped in “certain ways will reduce its reception by one or more bars”. “We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising”, the statement read. “Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong”.

“Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays two more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display four bars when we should be displaying as few as two bars”, Apple explained. The company also added that the problem existed in the original iPhone as well.

Apple promises to fix the bug with a patch “within a few weeks”. In theory, once the patch has been applied, iPhone’s bars will report signal strength “far more accurately”. However, many industry experts are sceptical as the iPhone 4 integrates the antenna into the case, claiming that “changing the display may make some people feel better, but it doesn’t really fix the problem”.

The People who purchased the new iPhone may also choose to get a full refund within 30 days of purchase, the firm announced. In case you were wondering, one solution is already available: Apple sells a rubber shield that protects the sensitive area. In the meantime Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs summarized one of the more embarrassing foul-ups from a major tech company in a simple manner: “just avoid holding it in that way”.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

As if we haven’t been hearing the buzzing- whining – beehive like sound of the Vuvuzelas enough these last couple of weeks, YouTube has “generously” decided to indulge us with a special Vuvuzela button. Sometime last Wednesday, the world’s largest video portal activated a new button on some videos, that looks like a tiny soccer ball. The football shaped button resides in the lower right corner and does precisely what we all fear: clicking it will activate an endless, incredibly annoying sound that sounds vaguely like a swarm of insects- also known as the sound of the dreadful Vuvuzela.

If you haven’t been following the World Cup (seriously?) and you are not familiar with the Vuvuzela, it’s a plastic horn that is commonly played at football games in South Africa. There, they apparently love it and being the host county for this World Cup, fans following the games have been subjected to the Vuvuzela’s loud monotone for hours on end. The noise is so annoying that some television networks have taken measure to get rid of it by filter it out and guides have been popping out all over the web, showing how to block the Vuvuzelas from their TV sets and computers.

Special Vuvuzela Button

Be that as it may, the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) has decided not to ban the Vuvuzelas, due to its traditional significance. Well, guess you can’t argue with that. It seems the button doesn’t show up on all videos, but it is definitely appearing on some clips that are not exactly soccer or World Cup related. Here is one video of our very own CEO Game teaser who had the misfortune. Being the prankster that YouTube like to be, this isn’t surprising at all, yet we wish this little prank would be short lived… Finally, maybe next time when FIFA picks a location for the games, they will do some actual background research.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez must believe it’s about time he spreaded his influence over the web. Otherwise he would not have hired 200 people to manage his Twitter account. That’s right, two hundred. The man who only several months ago claimed that Twitter users are terrorists, is now one himself and by the looks of it he is taking the social network by a storm.

Now On Twitter

According to the BBC and additional sources, Chavez whose popularity is rising fast, has over a quarter of a million followers already, just could not handle the constant stream of messages, or tweets if you prefer, he was receiving and had to turn to help from the “pros”- a team of professional correspondants who specialize in public relations.

However, while many celebrities, politicians and other public personas on Twitter have a bunch of people tweeting and posting stuff on their behalf as well as basically managing their accounts, 200 people doing these actions has to be one of the largest and most impressive dedicated teams (recorded that is). Perhaps even bigger than Barack Obama’s team or the Dalai Lama’s.

So why the need for such an immerse team? Well, Presidente’ says that he has received over 50,000 messages since he’s created his account two weeks ago. At this rate, it is clear he can’t answer all of them alone and still have the time to be president. But setting up a Twitter account in order to spread his message doesn’t come as a surprise- Chavez has already daily speeches broadcast on all stations in Bolivia, but guess that was not enough.

While It’s not hard to criticize Chavez who is basing his dictatorship slowly but surely, it took him only a short while to realize the power of Twitter and now he using it in full throttle- connecting with the people and spreading his influence. In spite of the fact that only 30 percent of Bolivians have an access to the web, it looks like many of them enjoy the opportunity to have the leader within reach (even if it isn’t him after all). Chavez claims only a low percent of the messages so far were critical, but he handled them swiftly. Guess that is just one more Twitter account Obama is going to stay clear of.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Google

It’s no surprise that Google, like other technology and telecommunications companies, regularly receives demands from government agencies from around the world to remove content from their services. However, data about these activities has never been broadly available and now it is out there for everyone to see. The figures which are currently shown, are based on information gathered during the second half of 2009. Google promises they will be updated every six months.

Brazil is currently leading the board with almost 4000 requests, in both date and removal requests. However, experts suggest Brazil’s stats probably rank so high because of Orkut’s extraordinary dominance over there. Falling behind Brazil, you can find the US in the second place with over than 3500 data requests and 291 removal requests between July and December of last year, some 80% of which Google complied with. Germany, India and South Korea also rank high in removal requests with 188, 142, 64 accordingly. Amongst the top five in data requests you can find UK with 1100, India with 1050 and France with 850 requests.

On the contrary, Canada made ‘only’ 41 requests for data and only 16 removals: 43.8% of removal requests fully or partially complied with (1 Blogger, 2 Groups by court order, 1 Web search, 12 YouTube). Israel had even less: 30 data requests, under 10 removal requests (20% of these complied with). China is also protruding country, in the sense that its details are the only ones not shown. Google said “Chinese officials consider censorship demands as state secrets, so we cannot disclose that information at this time”. Many countries were left out since they had too little requests to begin with.

Google points out, the “vast majority” of these requests are for legitimate legal purposes, one obvious example is tracking child pornographers and additional online crooks such as con-artists, spammers and more. Despite of this, as more and more information “goes online”, the line between what is a legitimate request and what’s practically invasion of privacy, becomes more and more blurry. The Google tool doesn’t drill down any further (behind jurisdiction sums) into the numbers (some requests revolve several sites and there are some repeating requests) and in removal cases how often they were complied with, buy hey, it is a start. Many human rights activists hope this move, will lead governments to think before digging for people’s personal data or attempting to censor their opinions.

To sum it up, Google said it best on their blog “we hope that this is just the first step toward increased transparency about these actions across the technology and communications industries”.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Facebook wants it all: the popular social network is expanding and seeks to take over the Web. As the first day of Facebook’s annual “f8″ developers conference got underway this Wednesday in San Francisco, Facebook revealed its plans to take over the entire Internet. The means: integrating its social networking service into all websites and deepening the connection between the Web itself to its users. In short: Facebook will be wherever you look, whenever you look. A revolution?

Puts people at the center

After making an entrance which is reserved only for rock stars, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg got down to the business of explaining what their plans are all about. He then rolled out a bunch of changes that are all apart of an “unavoidable evolution” in people’s interactions, activities, events and interests all folded into their online identities who follow them all across the Web.

The crown jewel of the new Facebook platform is what Zuckerberg likes to call the “Open Graph”, “the most transformative thing we’ve ever done for the Web”, according to him. “Today, the Web exists as a series of unstructured links between pages,” said Zuckerberg, whose social network boasts more than 400 million users around the world. “The open graph puts people at the center of the Web”.

The concept, is basically to map out user behavior across various corners of the Internet. He explained that this can be achieved by using information gathered from a user’s general online behavior. Thus creating “a smarter, personalized Web that gets better with every action taken”.

He then gave the example of a Facebook user who clicks on a news story in CNN and then automatically sees which of their friends liked that piece. In addition, a Facebook member could visit Pandora (an online radio station) or ESPN online and instantly share “likes” or “dislikes” about the song being played or game news with their friends in Facebook. “Pandora will start playing music from bands you have liked all across the Web,” Zuckerberg said. It’s a revolution in the way we experience the Web, everything is interlinked and any page can become a de facto Facebook page.

Moreover, Facebook vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer believes the move could turn websites into digital age versions of “Cheers”, the old TV comedy show set in a bar where everyone knows each other. “It’s like Cheers, the bar where everyone knows your name,” Schroepfer announced.”People can have instantly social and personalized experiences everywhere they go”, Zuckerberg added.

Facebook’s move is a strike at their competitors (like Web searching giant Google) who constantly fight for people’s attention and advertising bucks. Zuckerberg said that Facebook seeks to benefit by strengthening bonds people have to the social networking service. “The more people use Facebook the stronger the bond”, he added.

Finally, the new tools have one downside- they could mean less and less people will visit the Facebook site itself. “How do we create a world where when we show up anywhere our friends are there?” Facebook vice president Chris Cox asked rhetorically. “Our answer is an open platform and to give these tools to developers”. A one which just might change the Web as we know it.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game

iPhone 4G

The first analysis shows that the device contains new components. These new parts found, may suggest that the new IPhone is not just like the previous 3GS, only suited up with a new case, but more. So, without further ado, here are the big additions: A new front-facing camera (will probably enable video chat), an improved regular back-camera (they claim the lens is noticeably larger than the old one), camera flash- a feature many Apple groupies yearn for quite some time now.

Moreover, the device has a slot for a Micro-SIM instead of a standard SIM (just like the one the new iPad uses), the guys at Gizmodo also claim the forgotten device has improve display (it’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before). In addition, there seems to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, on top of it, next to the headphones jack. The volume button has been splitted into two different buttons. The volume button as well as the mute and power buttons got a new metallic look.

What’s changed? Well for starters, the back of the phone is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. An aluminum border going completely around the outside. Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution). The phone has a new drastically different exterior- a more “squared off” look. Now you have a thinner body, with no wasted space and lots of hard lines. The phone is 3 grams heavier too. The phone’s batter is 16% Larger, while other internal components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for it.

Unfortunately, they claim the phone had been remotely disabled by Apple, so no one was able to test out the new features on it. Whether it is true or not, the entire story seems too good to be true anyways, and it would come as no surprise if it was just another one of those publicity stunts, Apple is so famous for. When connecting the phone to a computer it behaves exactly like an iPhone does when it is plugged, with the proper boot sequence and “connect to iTunes” restore functionality. Maybe a sign of its authenticity. However, the Firmware cannot be loaded, since it is tied to the device model, and in this case there is no firmware yet for the 4G.

Why do they think it’s real? The people at Gizmodo said that after playing around with the phone for a week “the overall quality feels exactly like a finished final Apple phone—and after disassembling this unit, there is so much evidence stacked in its favor, that there’s very little possibility that it’s a fake. In fact, the possibility is almost none”. What the feeling like? “Freaking amazing. As a person who never really liked the round mound of a back in the 3GS, the sleeker, flatter, squarer design is super welcome. It feels sturdier than the 3GS, and much less plastic. The metal buttons give it a heftier feel—less of a toy—than all previous generations”.

Currently, It is rumored Apple will officially announce on the IPhone 4G in June, so this “gag” could be getting close to a final retail model. Up until then it is all speculation on if this is real or not. If it is real, either Apple did it intentionally, or perhaps one of Apple’s employees could be looking for a new job. And what do we say? Out with the old and in with the new.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game

Microsoft's Kins

The announcement itself comes as no surprise, just a short time after launching the Windows Phone 7 operating system which is intended for Premium mobile devices. Lately Microsoft realized that the cellular market is a cash cow. So now, they seek to grab a bigger bite of this market, by creating quality phones that come along with low prices, designed especially for teenagers who make use of many social networks and texting services. They want to create a device where the users’ entire “digital life” and content comes together into a single a platform, which is exactly what the users want, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft launched two models: Kin1 and Kin2 (how original). Both of these devices look very impressive. In one button click, users can update from the Kin their status on all social networks they are members of. By moving their finger across the screen, users can decide on files that will be shared with their friends as well as decide with which friends exactly, all this- with no clicks. The device knows who are our closest friends, with whom we talk the most and respond to their social networks’ statuses. It also ranks the contacts by the frequency we make conversations with that.

Moreover, they are Microsoft’s first mobile devices which support Zune, including an option of song recommendations and requests by other users and remotely streaming songs. The Kin1 (previously known as the Turtle) is equipped with 5 MP “shooter” with flash, mono speakers, 4 GB of on-board storage, Zune media player, and a small touch screen. On the contrary, the Kin2 is a bit better and packs a 8 MP camera and ability to shoot HD video in a resolution of 720p, 8 GB of storage ,stereo speakers, a tuner, larger sliding keyboard and a larger touch screen. Some of these are quite important when texting all of the time. Because the storage is limited, Microsoft allows backing up all the content into cloud computing- which is a new concept, especially in the cellular world.

The supported social networks include Windows live, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter and using the “Loop” interface (for uploading content) users will be able to upload pictures and videos with no need to use additional software. In addition, Microsoft has just launched www.kin.com, the Internet hub for their new line of phones. The site itself is composed of a time-line with pictures which are attached along it, just like the “story of our life”.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.

Internet searching giants, Google have made another big acquisition and this time it is in the video arena. Episodic, a start up web video company based in San Francisco, will become a part of Google. Thus, Episodic surpassed its key competitor Brightcove, also an American company which offers services for adding video to your website. The deal was announced on last Friday (2nd April) on the Episodic blog. Although the financial terms are undisclosed and haven’t been revealed yet, both companies are said to be very pleased and satisfied with the results.

Episodic. The Newest Addition.

Episodic offers a platform for live and on demand web videos. Content sites, advertisers and practically any enterprise use the platform in order to broadcast streaming video, analyze it and offer video content to their audience via different platforms: computers, laptops as well as mobile phones and IPTV gadgets (televisions who are connected to the Internet). Basically, the platforms allows every type of enterprise to deliver innovative technology and also to make money from it through advertising and online sales. Many experts claim that Episodic resembles YouTube and since Episodic’s technology and team are being folded into YouTube, it’s possible that we could see new ways for video creators to profit from their YouTube videos. This looks like good news for mid-level YouTube dwellers who did not have the leverage to work out money-making on their own.

Episodic also provides a content management system and offers an advertisement server, which allow clients to place adds in the videos and pay for it in credit card. Currently, Episodic supports Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Blackberry and intends to support Symbian devices as well in the future. On their blog, Episodic explain how they and Google also share the same ideas and goals for the future: “Episodic and Google share a common vision for video on the Web. Online video will be ubiquitous, engaging, entertaining, informative and effective. Both teams place value on creating a great experience for viewers and on delivering a powerful and flexible platform for publishers, marketers and advertisers of all kinds.”

Google’s shopping spree, or blitzkrieg if you wish, comes as no surprise. Last year Google completed purchasing the online advertising company AdMob for 750$ million in shares and Teracent for targeted display ad technology. This year, Google already bought On2 for 106.5$ million and many other companies, amongst them you can find: Docverse (a file sharing site), Appjet (a collaborative real time editor), Aardvak (social search), Picnic (photo editing). Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt claimed on September 2009 that Google plans to return to making purchases, after a minor pause, or setback if you wish, due to the global financial crisis. At the time, he also said that Google wishes to “buy a company a month” (on average). It seems that Google is definitely keen on fulfilling its chairman’s announcement.

Omer Shachnai

The CEO Game.