Job opportunities like this didn’t just come about thanks to the Internet’s rise in popularity, but rather because the Internet is open and free. In a world where television news sources are owned by conglomerates that have their own political agendas and newspapers throw journalistic integrity out the window in favor of partisan articles meant to divide the world, the Internet is really the only place you can go to find speech that is truly free. That’s the wonderful thing about the Internet – anyone can set up a website and instantly have a platform to speak their mind, regardless of whether that opinion is popular or not.

All of that, however, is currently under attack. If you’ve read this blog any time in past month or so, you know that I’m talking about SOPA and PIPA. SOPA and PIPA are two bills that have been introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively, that aim to bring online piracy to an end. It’s a noble cause considering that online piracy is real problem that has far reaching ramifications you probably didn’t even know were possible when you downloaded the latest Justin Bieber album, but both bills have major problems.

First and foremost, SOPA and PIPA would aim to stop piracy by censoring the Internet. In recent days, both bills have suffered major setbacks, with the Senate and the House both opting to shelve PIPA and SOPA. That may seem like a victory, but don’t become complacent. SOPA and PIPA are merely waiting in the wings, with Senators and Representatives alike waiting until the controversy dies down before reintroducing these bills under different names with less offensive language. This is going to happen, because major organizations like the MPAA and the RIAA will continue to try and convince congressmen and women that they only way they can effectively fight piracy is by being given the right to wipe out any site that even hint at copyright infringement. They will do the convincing with money, and they won’t stop until they get what they want or they Senators and Representatives they’ve bought are removed from office.

The notion that the only way to fight piracy is through censorship is a direct threat to free speech, and I can’t believe that my government, which was founded on the value that an American should be allowed to speak his or her mind, is even considering a bill that could result in voices being stifled. Even more bizarre is the fact that the US government has openly chastised China and Iran for censoring the Internet, yet looks to grant itself the same power. You’ll hear supporters of SOPA say things like “Well, things will probably be okay even if SOPA passes.” They might be right, but do you really want to give the government that kind of power just to see what it does? I certainly don’t.

This issue has quickly evolved into something more than online piracy, most likely because SOPA and PIPA won’t do anything to stop piracy. Our Senators and Representatives clearly have no idea that simply blocking websites or having them removed entirely won’t do a damn thing to stop piracy. Hackers and pirates are smarter than those who run our country and the massive media organizations that support these bills, and SOPA and PIPA will be an annoyance for them at best. They will still find a way to get the stuff they want illegally, all the while laughing, tickled that our government thought that something as stupid as SOPA or PIPA would do anything to stop them.

The only thing that a bill like SOPA will do is put our jobs at risk, along with the millions of other people who rely on a free and open Internet to make a living. For that reason, TFTS cannot support anything resembling SOPA and PIPA, and we urge you to contact your elected officials (even if you don’t live in the US, since this will affect the entire world) and tell them that a vote for bills like SOPA and PIPA is akin to a vote against free speech.

Since this is a matter that will affect TFTS as a whole, our editors all have something specific they’d like to say, and we invite you to carefully consider what each thinks about these bills:

Steve Andersen – TFTS Assistant Editor:

SOPA in its current form is a disaster waiting to happen. SOPA is likely to kill jobs–and this during the worst economy since the Great Depression–as well as do horrible things to innovation all across the
internet. Why? Simple–it’s so spectacularly vague that just about anything could apply under its terms. In an environment where just about any picture or any video or any clip could result in a horde of overpowered lawyers landing on your throat feet-first, who in their right mind would start anything? Worse yet, even if it’s not your post, but rather a post from a user, you’re automatically assumed at fault because you didn’t do enough to stop it. And we’re not even talking about software pirates for large parts of this discussion, but rather blog owners, web site owners, and the like. There’s too much presumption of guilt here and not near enough common sense applied.

Chris Smith – TFTS Executive Editor:

My name is Chris and I have a problem, I am an Internet addict – which is not necessarily a problem. I love the current kind of Internet flavor, uncensored, with everything it has to offer, good or bad. And it’s mostly good stuff! Because the Internet drives innovation and helps online and offline businesses flourish, something certain lawmakers are clearly unaware of. The good thing about SOPA and PIPA is that it made me realize how many Internet services I use every day, whether work-related or not, to make my life easier. And I take them all for granted, they’re there to be taken advantage of and I can’t imagine waking up one day and finding out they had to be shut down without due process, for alleged copyright infringement. Should these bills pass, then we’ll have all kinds of big corporations anonymously bully various smaller sites out of business, without suffering any consequences. Various services and websites will disappear thanks to a law that gives certain powers and a waiver-to-censor to certain corporations overnight. Innovation will be stifled and soon everyone using the Internet will lose money. Everyone. As a tech writer but also as a simple Internet user, I can easily see how these two bills would affect my whole online experience in a heartbeat. I’m not an American, but once the U.S. green-lights such laws, I bet that other less democratic governments will have their own SOPAs and PIPAs out there in a minute to locally censor the Internet. And we’ll all have to suffer. The best thing of all is that piracy, which we don’t condone over here at TFTS, will not disappear, it will just adapt to the new environment. The bottom line is that I don’t want to tell my kids one day how I witnessed the Internet being pilled up in a yard in a cold winter day and being set on fire.

Andrew Tingle – TFTS Editor-In-Chief, Publisher, and Owner:

We live in a world that’s increasingly disinvesting us of ourselves, where those that are supposed to be serving us utilise the power and trust invested in them to bear down with invisible shackles upon a Joe Public who seemingly needs said individuals to reign in on our own personal responsibilities and freedoms. Many of us already live in a bubble that sees our every move tracked and filmed as we as carefully steered along the ever more restrictive tramlines defined not by a genuine cause based on what’s right and wrong but by lobby groups with cash in hand.

In all this, as we try to live our lives in a world ever more zoned and mapped out for us lest we actually need to fall back on our own sense of right and wrong or tax our brains with any sense of personal responsibility, the internet has been and remains, to a large degree, one of our last freedoms – but should the likes of SOPA and PIPA (in whatever iteration they may now take) come to fruition then, as in politics, Joe Public’s voice can and undoubtedly will be sidelined, pushed to the fringes by teams of lawyers whose mission is to see that whom they represent get to steer public opinion.

It is well documented, both on this site and across the net, how SOPA/PIPA and any of their mutations moving forward can and undoubtedly will play out – all of which leads to opinion being stifled, slowly muted and lost.

Of course, copyright infringement is not something we condone, but SOPA/PIPA have clear wider connotations that could, and thus will, lead to the gagging of free speech as those with power – by power, I mean those that already dilute laws with their lobby groups – cast their shadow across the net.

Now that SOPA/PIPA have been sidelined (or, rather, as they slip into the backroom to avail themselves of a new mask ready to face us again) it is clear that the people have spoken and, without wanting to state the bleeding obvious, isn’t it these very same people whom the politicians are supposed to be serving?

Enough already. Some of us were lucky enough to have been born in “the free world” – let’s try to keep at least some semblance of it at least someplace. Or, perhaps, we could just hand over the net to those that would like to shape it for their own ends, have them filter our content whilst we, in democracies, slam other counties who have looked to shape personal opinion by the very some (ultimate) means – that of censorship.

You, we, still have a voice and a platform to be heard. Use it or loose it. It really is as simple as that.

So there you have it folks. If you’re a citizen of the United States of America, the stakes can’t be much higher. Now is the time to remind your Senators and Representatives that they were elected to serve the people; they work for us, not special interests. If nothing else, remember that bureaucracies and corporations will jump at the chance to take away liberties like free speech and the open exchange of information, and once they’re taken away, they’re nearly impossible to get back.

Yahoo!’s board of directors has been thrust into the limelight, with the very public firing of its chief executive in September, as well as what seemed to be indecision and infighting with regard to how the company will be moving forward. Talks of acquisition have been going around, with several companies expressing interest. But while Yahoo! is still considered a good brand, there are complications. A big part of Yahoo!’s assets and capitalization are entrenched in Asian companies, such as China’s Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan.

In the interest of attracting potential buyers and investors, Yahoo! is reportedly looking to sell its stake in Yahoo! Japan — which was  started as a partnership with telco Softbank in 1996 — to make things easier for potential buyers. Letting go of assets in the East will help make it simpler to determine Yahoo!’s market valuation.

But will it be easy to let go of such an asset? Yahoo! Japan is reported to be the country’s most visited site, and the portal particularly performs well in the mobile market. Furthermore, Yahoo! is a leader elsewhere in Asia, being the #1 search engine and news site in Taiwan.

For Yahoo! it might be a tough decision to make if they really want to be attractive to potential buyers. However, in the face of tough competition in its various businesses — search, advertising and portal, among others — they will have to act fast. It’s not every day that a company gets serious multi-billion dollar offers from big companies. Yahoo! turned down such an offer once, and they have probably regretted that decision ever since.

Microsoft’s legal dispute is with i4i, a small Canadian technology holdings firm that claims Microsoft infringed on its patents when it included certain XML-editing features in Microsoft Word 2007. i4i actually won its court case in Texas in August 2009, in which Microsoft was ordered to pay $290 million for patent infringement and to stop shipping the software containing the technology in question. Microsoft has appealed, though, challenging the basis of proof that the courts used when deciding on the patent’s validity.

Microsoft says i4i’s patent is not valid because Word has had the XML editing technology more than a year before the patent was applied for. Microsoft wanted the courts to use the “preponderance of evidence” argument rather than “clear and convincing evidence,” in proving that the patent does not hold validity.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, it lost its Court of Appeals appeal in December of 2009, and again its appeal with the Supreme Court just recently. The Supreme Court says it was not up to Microsoft to change the basis of proving the validity of patents, and that the company was trying to undermine the value of technology patents.

In any event, Microsoft’s latest versions of Word no longer contain the technology covered by i4i’s patent, but still the company alleges that the damage has been done and wants their $290 million share of MS Office revenues.

What’s interesting is how polarizing the lawsuit had been among technology companies, to the extent that some groups traditionally antagonistic to Microsoft — such as the EFF — have sided with them on the issue, citing that patent issues like this are more stifling — rather than conducive — to innovation. Furthermore, the ruling is thought to encourage abuse by patent owners who might not necessarily be after the interests of technology and innovation.

Do you agree with Microsoft, or with the patent holder? To what extent can a patent holder enforce its ownership of technologies? Is Microsoft correct in claiming they have the right to the XML editing technology in question being first-to-market? Are patents achieving their aim of helping innovate, or are they restricting innovation instead?

Homeland Security has also stepped up to the plate to help Sony better deal with the PSN outage. The fact that personal data has been stolen following that external intrusion(s) is certainly of great interest to an organization like Homeland Security. The stuff that hackers got away with can easily be used to create false identities that would help individuals take advantage of certain situations, and, more importantly, get away with lots of money. Of course, we’re yet to see how many users the whole PSN thing has actually affected, and we’re certainly interested in hearing your story in case you already found evidence of strange activity when it comes to your credit cards.

But besides Homeland Security, the U.S. Congress is also very interested in this whole PSN predicament. Chances are they’re not hardcore PlayStation gamers, but this kind of security breach is certainly enough to convince politicians to intervene. A U.S. Congress committee is going to investigate Sony Computer Entertainment regarding the PlayStation Network breach and the kind of answers Sony provided in its two FAQ lists won’t be enough to satisfy the Congress.

In fact the U.S. Congress, and, specifically, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, whose chairman is Mary Bono Mack, has asked Sony 13 questions (found below), and scheduled a hearing for May 4, so Kazuo Hirai will hopefully enlighten the world when it comes to the whole PSN security breach. Here are the thirteen questions (as taken from the two page letter sent by the subcommittee to Sony) Hirai and his helpers will have to answer, although more should follow during the actual hearing:

1. When did you become aware of the illegal and unauthorized intrusion?
2. How did you become aware of the breach?
3. When did you notify the appropriate authorities of the breach?
4. Why did you wait to notify your customers of the breach?
5. Was the information obtained applicable to all accounts or a portion of the accounts? How many consumers or accounts were impacted by this breach and how did you ascertain the number?
6. Have you identified how the breach occurred?
7. Have you identified the individual(s) responsible for the breach?
8. What information was obtained by the unauthorized individual(s) as a result of this breach and how did you ascertain this information?
9. How many PlayStation Network account holders provided credit card information to Sony Computer Entertainment?
10. Your statement indicated you have no evidence at this time that credit card information was obtained; yet you cannot rule out this possibility. Please explain why you do not believe credit card information was obtained and why you cannot determine if the data was in fact taken?
11. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to prevent future such breaches?
12. Do you currently have a policy that addresses data security and retention practices? If not, why not? If so, what are those practices and do you plan any changes in your policies as a result of this breach?
13. What steps have you taken or do you plan to take to mitigate the effects of this breach? Do you plan to offer any credit monitoring or other services to consumers who suffer actual harm as a result of this breach?

All valid questions in my book, and I can’t wait to see what Kazuo Hirai will have to answer now that he’s been summoned to the principal’s office. So, stick around, folks, keep following us on Twitter and via our feed for more PSN and Qriocity updates!

They might have not been able to steal 77 million accounts right away, but it would seem that smaller databases are already on sale in the wild, and by small we mean they contain full details for about 2.2 million customers. These details include first name, last name, address, postal code, country, telephone number, email address, email password, date of birth, credit card number, credit card security code and credit card expiration date, for each of those customers.

Or, in other words, those people that will purchase such databases will be able to do pretty much whatever they want with their new identities. The annoying part is that Sony is yet to come out with an official statement on how deep the breach is. How many accounts have been compromised and which are they? After all these people deserve to know what’s what in order to start taking preemptive measures.

What’s strange though about this whole thing is that the hackers are also selling the credit card security codes, and we know, from Sony, that said details haven’t been breached. Now, who’s lying? What about those email passwords mentioned above? I will go ahead and assume that these hackers in turn assume that most of the people whose identities were basically stolen use the same password on their PSN/Qriocity account and on their email account. Needless to say that if you are one of them you should change your email password immediately. Better yet, make sure you change all your passwords and check your credit cards.

The MSN report goes on to say that Sony was offered a chance to purchase the database, but they didn’t go through with it, although this is just speculation at this point and we don’t expect Sony to actually confirm any of this right now.

We’ll be back with more PlayStation Network reports in the following days, so make sure you stay tuned for more information on the matter by subscribing to our feed or following us on Twitter. In the mean time do let us know whether your credit card was charged by any third party, will you?

I’ve always been a fan of Digg. Even when I had written much in the past about how easy it was to game Digg, and how Digg editors sometimes arbitrarily shot down popular items because of subject matter, I still had a fondness for the technology and for the concept. Digg proved that control over information could be ceded to the public, thus keeping the gateways of information out of the hands of an elite few.

And it succeeded–at least for a time. But then one way or another, the value of a “digg” declined. It used to be that when you get the “Digg effect,” your traffic spiked to the point that servers choked. Now, perhaps, people have moved on to other things, like Twitter, Facebook and other sources, aggregators, and generators of interesting content. Digg is on the decline, and with Kevin Rose finally announcing he was leaving his executive role for other ventures (although he remains an advisor), it’s a signal that the ship is sinking. In truth, it seems that the ship has been sinking for a long time now.

I guess this is the way the story goes with a lot of tech startups. There’s a certain magic to reaching the tipping point, when the wisdom of the crowds is considered the authoritative voice, as is the case with Digg. But once you reach the top, it’s often difficult to stay at the top, and you have to learn to quit while you’re ahead.

Goodbye, Digg. It’s been a great six years. Now what I’m excited about is what Kevin Rose is up to next. Serial entrepreneurs and visionaries often have a knack for starting (or discovering) great things.

The magnitude 9 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Japan caused more than just the big tsunami that claimed the lives of thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more. It also resulted in a nuclear incident in Fukujima’s Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, in which four reactors have shut down, and is currently venting off a controlled radiation leak, but is in danger a meltdown.

The risks are not even just confined to Japan. If a meltdown happens and big amounts of radioactive particles escape into the air, the wind will bring these particles off towards the ocean, and possibly to other lands and countries, like Hawaii and the west coast USA.

This brings up the question of safety. Even with the supposedly advanced technology and safeguards that the Japanese have put into their nuclear power plants, a single natural disaster of such a magnitude will be enough to produce catastrophic results.

How green is nuclear energy, anyway?

Nuclear-friendly nations often use the argument of a reduction in their dependence on fossil fuels, which is often a politically-motivated decision. Oil-rich middle eastern countries are, after all, sometimes hostile to the western world. However, consider that some nations, like Germany and Portugal are going green without necessarily resorting to nuclear.

Given developments in Japan, some countries are rethinking their stand on nuclear power. Germany will no longer extend its nuclear program, as originally planned. Still, some countries, like Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are adamant at going nuclear, citing that the newer technologies they will be using will result in lower risk levels.

Going green is actually an exercise in risk management. A big carbon footprint and depleting fossil fuels are not a sustainable combination. Nuclear may be sustainable, but the risks might just be too big. The world may just be learning about this now, even amid prior experience of nuclear catastrophes like those in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

Suddenly, nuclear doesn’t seem to be such a green idea.

Verizon Wireless has announced a new mobile program that lets its subscribers contribute to various relief funds. All you have to do is type the word of the organization that should get your $10 donation, so go ahead, select the program you want to support from the list below:

• ADRA Relief: text SUPPORT to 85944
• American Red Cross Relief: text REDCROSS to 90999
• Convoy of Hope: text TSUNAMI or SUNAMI to 50555
• GlobalGiving: text JAPAN to 50555
• International Medical Corps: text MED to 80888
• Mercy Corps: text MERCY to 25383
• Salvation Army: text JAPAN to 80888
• Save the Children Federation, Inc.: text JAPAN or TSUNAMI to 20222
• World Relief Corp. of National Association of Evangelicals: text WAVE to 50555
• World Vision, Inc.: text 4JAPAN or 4TSUNAMI to 20222

Verizon will donate 100% of the money you’ll pay for that SMS as there are no text-messaging fees for any of those numbers.

Apple will let you donate money via its iTunes stores and depending on your budget limitations you’ll be able to donate anywhere from $5 to $200 to help Japan. Just like Verizon, Apple is going to send 100% of the money to an organization, in this case the Red Cross, so if you have an iTunes account and would like to donate more for Japan, you can certainly go this way.

In the process of contributing to the Japan relief fund, make sure you don’t fall for any online scams that could try to take advantage of this significant disaster and donate through a company that you actually trust with your money.

Now ZTE is announcing that they have struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and other United States contractors to purchase several different semiconductor components. The senior vice president for ZTE announced that the company will payout $3 billion over the next three years in an effort to broaden their reach in American markets.

The Chinese mobile carrier has spent much of the last year expanding their markets around the globe and now gets around 18 percent of their revenue from markets in Europe and North America. In the past, ZTE says it has spent around $4 billion in hardware and software from US vendors.

LabPixies is just one of the small startups the popular search engine giant has recently purchased adding to Google’s growing list of newly acquired companies, including Agnilux, Plink, Picnik and Aardvark.

It is reported that Google hopes to vamp up its mobile and web applications in the upcoming months. LabPixies already makes widgets for Google’s Android and were one of the first companies to create gadgets for iGoogle.

Widgets and apps created by LabPixies already include games, calendars, news feeds and utilities for platforms like the iPhone and Android. It’s believed that iGoogle’s gadget games may be generating as many as one billion impressions a month.

Don Loeb, a member of the iGoogle team said that the group is “thrilled to announce the acquisition of Labpixies” and adds that, “We are looking forward to working with Labpixies to develop great Web apps and leverage their knowledge and expertise to help developers and improve the ecosystem overall.”

This positive buzz is also reflected in LabPixies’ blog post today:

We started LabPixies to create a truly personalized online experience and develop fun widgets that people find useful every day. Working at Google will help us scale to more users as well as giving our team greater opportunities. Google and LabPixies teams have worked on many projects together including the launch of global OpenSocial based gadgets. The acquisition is an opportunity to learn from each other to bring more apps to users, help developers and improve the overall developer ecosystem.

LabPixies will be based in Google’s Tel Aviv office and will assist iGoogle’s operations across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

There are several different popular browsers available today for Windows, OS X and Linux. Internet Explorer is the most popular on the Windows platform but Firefox comes in second and now has nearly 20% of the browser market share. One of the great things about Firefox is that you can extend it by installing add-ons. These add-ons add features and fun to to the browser. Here is an overview of some essential add-ons for Firefox.

Google Toolbar

The first add-on for any serious surfer is the Google Toolbar. Provided by the search engine people it adds lots of features to your web browser including a SpellCheck button that hunts out any spelling mistakes whenever you type in a web form, including web-based email and forums. It also makes it easier to use Google’s search engine and has some integration with Gmail. Other features include automatic form filling, a PageRank display (which tells you how Google assesses the importance of the page you’re viewing) and Google Notebook integration.

DownThemAll

If you find yourself downloading lots of MP3, AVI, PDF or image files from the web then DownThemAll is a must add-on. The DownThemAll (or dTa) extension is a download manager that adds simple to use but powerful download capabilities to your browser. DownThemAll lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage while allowing you to refine what is actually downloaded.

Fast Dial

Fast Dial is a simple but yet effective Firefox add-on. When you open a new tab on Firefox (and I do hope you are using tabs), Fast Dial replaces blank tabs with a panel of thumbnails of your favorite sites. You just click the thumbnail of the site you want to visit and you are taken straight there. No more routing around in your bookmarks!

Cooliris

The add-on with the biggest “wow” factor is definitely Cooliris. Cooliris adds a “3D Wall” to your browser that lets you move quickly through images and videos. With an integrated search for Google Image, YouTube, Flickr and Hulu it lets you see, search and browse Internet images in a way I didn’t think would possible on a browser.

Music

If you listen to music from your iTunes collection while surfing the web then FoxyTunes lets you control (pause, play, skip etc) your music and find lyrics, covers and videos from within the browser. Just click on the orange note icon that appears in the status bar and you are good to go. If you don’t use iTunes then FoxyTunes also supports WinAmp, Windows Media Player, Real Player and many other players.

Shopping

If you like shopping on-line for your gadgets then two great Firefox add-ons are the eBay Companion and the Amazon Shopper.

With the eBay Companion shopping is safer with built-in warnings for spoof or lookalike sites. Being an auction site it is important to keep up to date with your activities. The eBay companion provides an at-a-glance update on all your eBay activities including your what you are watching, buying or selling.

The Amazon Shopper gives you an integrated international Amazon Product Search (including Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.jp), an Instant Price Check feature to price check any selected text or link and an Amazon Price Watcher. It is a valuable tools for those who shop at Amazon regularly.

Others add-ons worth mentioning

There are literally thousands of Firefox add-ons here is a list of a few more which are worth investigating:

• Video DownloadHelper – The easy way to download and convert Web videos from hundreds of YouTube-like sites.
• Forecastfox – Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar.
• Read It Later – Read It Later allows you to save pages of interest to read later. It eliminates cluttering of bookmarks with sites that are merely of a one-time interest.
• meebo – Instant messaging across all major IM networks built right into Firefox.
• AutoPager – Automatically loads the next page of a site inline when you reach the end of the current page for infinite scrolling of content.

Getting an actual iPod is only the beginning of your music experience. Hand in hand with the iPod is of course iTunes and a whole world of music, videos, audio books and educational material. After the initial thrill of using your iPod you might find that you need a few extra things to make your iPod experience perfect.

Power and cables

When you are at home you can charge your iPod via the USB cable provided, but when you are away from home how do you charge it? One of the most useful things for your iPod is an additional charging option. If you use your car a lot you might want to consider getting an car charger. This is a cable that plugs into your cigarette lighter or 12V accessory socket and charge your iPod’s battery during use. This is great when you go an long journeys and you want to use your iPod during the journey and you need it fully charged when you get to your destination.

There are also a range of mains power adapters which allow you to plug you iPod into the mains electricity. You also might want to consider getting a spare USB/Dock cable as this can be useful for connecting your iPod to your computer at work (if you are allowed) or when you are away visiting friends.

Sound

The iPod comes with some good in-ear headphones but there are a whole range of other ways to hear the music in your iPod. A top seller on Apple’s iPod accessory store are the in-ear headphones with remote. These headphones include a control capsule (located on the cable of the right earpiece) that lets you adjust the volume and control music and video playback (including play/pause and next/previous).

There are also a variety of external speaker which you can buy for your iPod. Generally the iPod slips into a combined speaker/dock system which allows you (and others) to enjoy your iPod music with a sharper sound and greater bass.

If want to wake up to the tunes on your iPod you can even get an alarm clock with an iPod dock which also charges you iPod for you.

Scratches

If you carry your iPod around in your pocket you might want to invest a protective case or cover. There are a whole range of these available in everything from leather to silicon and in every color imaginable! They also have they benefit that they are cheap!

Sport

If you want use your iPod while running or working out then a getting an armband is essential. These armbands allow you to insert your iPod into the pocket provided and you can then wrap the band around your arm or wrist, and secure it with the adjustable strap. These armbands are designed for the iPods which use flash memory (and specifically due to its size, the iPod Nano) so don’t try and use these with your iPod Classic!!!

It is of course worth mentioning the Nike+ Sport Kit which turns your iPod into your personal coach. By using a wireless sensor, which goes into a special built-in pocket beneath the insole of a Nike+ shoe, information is sent to your iPod (nano or 2nd generation touch), tracking your time, distance, pace and calories burned.

Finally

There are also different iTunes plugins, applications and utilities which you can install on your computer to enhance your music experience while at your computer. Look out for a post on those soon on TFTS.

If you want to see the latest iPod accessories look in the TFTS MP3 player category.

With the holiday season only a few weeks away you may be considering buying your Christmas presents online. Shopping online is easy and you can often find good bargains especially for hi-tech gadgets. But you need to be aware of a few things before your buy to ensure your online safety. Before you start your online shopping spree, make sure you are using the latest version of your browser and if possible use Firefox 3 or IE 7 as they contain anti-phishing technologies.

Check the Seller.

The first and most important thing to know is who are you buying from. If you are using a big well known online retailer then your don’t have much to worry about. But if you are using a smaller shop who also has an e-commerce solution you need to be sure they are reputable. A couple of ways to verify the seller’s reputation is to Google their name and see if you find any horror stories about them. Also you can try calling them and ask some pertinent questions about their returns policy and and delivery. If you are using eBay then make sure you check the seller’s feedback.

Web Site Security.

At some point in the transaction you will need to enter some personal information and pay for the items you have purchased. This information will be sent over the Internet and you need to be sure that the seller’s web site is secure and that the information is sent over an encrypted connection.

When the time comes to enter your personal information or payment details,  make sure that the Web address begins with https and check to see if a tiny locked padlock appears at the bottom right of the web browser window. Also if you are using Firefox 3 then you can click on the web site’s icon at the left side of the address bar and you will get a small report about the site’s security.

Some websites offer to store much of your personal information for you to make it easier to buy from them the next time you use their site. Therefore make sure you use a strong password (preferably mixed case and with some numbers or symbols) and don’t reveal your password to anyone, including their customer support people.

Payment

The safest way to pay for your gifts is by credit card. Most companies offer insurance and indemnities against Internet fraud. But you need to check with your credit card company first.

Never use cash or a money-transfer service because you’ll have no way to get your money back if something goes wrong.

Only ever enter the details that can be found on your credit card. Don’t enter any PIN numbers or bank account numbers. Don’t give extra details like your mother’s maiden name.

Keep a Record

Once you have purchased your gifts make sure you keep a record of what you have bought and where. Most online stores will email you a receipt of your purchase. Don’t delete it. Check your monthly statements to make sure that the right amount was charged to your account.

If the item doesn’t arrive, is damaged or isn’t as specified call the seller immediately. You don’t need to go straight to your credit card company and lodge a complaint, most problems can be solved with the seller simply enough.

Log off!

Once you have finished buying make sure you log off from the site and don’t make purchases from Internet cafes or from public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Conclusion

If you follow these tips online shopping can be a rewarding and money saving experience.