Now you can use a fake name on Google +

Google+ may attract some new—and mysterious—users after Google announced Tuesday it was abolishing its real-names policy for the profiles in the service.

Since its inception, Google’s social network has required that people use their real names in Google+ profiles, as part of an effort to help other people find them through the service.

“You need to provide both your first and last name for your Google+ profile,” the guidelines said. One could be an initial, but not both.

While that may have been a good idea for some, Google conceded Tuesday that it has also excluded people who don’t want to use their real name.

Google’s policy of trying to tie YouTube users’ accounts to their Google+ accounts has also sparked criticism among people who want to leave YouTube comments, or otherwise use the service, more anonymously.

For those reasons and others, Google said Tuesday that on Google+ there were no longer restrictions on the names people could use.

“We know you’ve been calling for this change for a while,” the company said in a blog post. The names policy has led to “unnecessarily difficult experiences” for some users, Google said, adding, “for this we apologize.”

In online comments on the Google+ page, people applauded the change. Others said it was too little, too late, or questioned whether it would lead to more spamming or cyberbullying behind the cloak of a fake name.

“Translation: It’s safe to come out and play again comment trolls,” one person wrote.

To clean up YouTube comments, Google overhauled the commenting system last year, to push “better quality” comments higher up. But shortly after making the changes, Google reported an increase in spam.

One of the many reasons why I do not have Comcast service

This recorded conversation has gone viral and speaks for itself as to why so many, this writer included, does not use Comcast. 

(Warning: This conversation may cause anger, teeth grinding and an all-consuming sense of frustration.)

SMH

One of my favorite sites has a new name and purpose!

Rap Genius is ditching the "rap" part of its name. The company that started as a website where users could annotate and explain hip-hop lyrics is about much more than music these days. It's now a platform (or "knowledge project" in the words of its bumptious co-founders) that lets visitors share their interpretations of poetry, current news headlines, and a growing list of "everything else." So its creators have decided that it's time for a name that mirrors their ambitious focus.

"Genius does for everything what Rap Genius did for rap," Ben Horowitz, an early Rap Genius investor, said in a statement today. Describing the internet as "the greatest store of knowledge in human history," co-founders Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory claim that people often gloss over the web's content "without ever diving in." Thats where Genius and its annotations come in, apparently. "We believe that an internet that is Genius-powered will help us all realize the richness and depth in every line of text." The company wants to see "Genius" morph into a verb used between friends in the same way "Google" did.

Embeddable annotations are coming

As part of that push to create a full-on platform, Genius will soon allow other websites to embed its technology and build annotatable pages of their own. A good demonstration of how those tools work can be seen at Business Insider, which just published an inside look at Genius and its rocky road getting to this point. The company has endured a brush with Google over questionable SEO practices, and in late May Lehman and Zechory fired fellow co-founder Mahbod Moghadam after he published tone-deaf annotations regarding the manifesto of mass killer Eliot Rodger. But now the company says it's ready to push forward. True to their signature style, Lehman and Zechory were a bit more emphatic about it.

Rap Genius, founded by lovers, began as but a woeful ballad to Cam’ron’s eyebrow. But the intervening years have morphed us into soldiers, full of strange oaths, and that is how we stand before you today, ready to pursue our mission of global annotation with renewed vigor.

Patch alert: Update browsers' Flash ASAP to block log-on theft

Users of Google's Chrome and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) and IE11 can rest easy today knowing that their browsers will automatically update to the latest version of Adobe Flash, which will block a credential-stealing attack disclosed earlier in the day.

Those who rely on Apple's Safari, pre-IE10 editions of IE, Mozilla's Firefox and Opera Software's Opera, however, should hustle to the Adobe website to download and install the latest version of Flash, security experts advised.

"Unless you are running IE10, IE11 or Google Chrome you should look [at] this month's Adobe Flash fix as your second-highest priority," said Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, in an email. "Google Chrome, IE10 and IE11 embed Adobe Flash and update it automatically, so in that case you and your users do not have to do that. Everybody else, Internet Explorer 9 and lower, Firefox and [Safari] users should update their Flash installation manually." His top priority for the day was a massive 24-patch Microsoft update for IE.

As Kandek noted, Microsoft and Google bake Flash into their browsers and so take on the responsibility of updating their software whenever Adobe issues security patches, as it did today. IE10 on Windows 8 and IE11 on Windows 8.1 -- the versions for the "Metro" mode -- include Flash; Windows 7 users must update Flash Player separately, however, as must those running Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 on the classic Windows desktop

Time for the Apple Back to School Promo!

Apple today began its annual back-to-school promotion in the U.S., reprising a gift card deal for customers who buy eligible hardware.

Customers who buy a Mac between now and Sept. 9 receive a $100 App Store gift card, while those who purchase an iPad, iPad Mini or iPhone receive a $50 card.

This was the fourth year running that Apple has handed out gift cards and maxed the amount of the offer at $100. But the monetary value of Apple's back-to-school offers was once higher: For several years ending in 2010, Apple had given rebates of two or three times as much toward the purchase of an iPod Touch.

Apple reprised its gift card-based back-to-school promotion, but this year switched from cards for redeeming apps to ones for use in the company's retail and online stores. (Image: Apple.)

Unlike last year, however, when the gift cards were good only for purchases at Apple's various app stores, this year the cards can be redeemed for items bought at the company's online and retail stores.

The promotion gives parents of current college students and incoming freshmen, and teachers and staff members of all grade levels -- including K-12 -- the $100 gift card when they buy a new iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

The following iPads and iPhones are eligible for the $50 gift card: iPad Air, iPad with Retina, iPad Mini with Retina, iPad Mini, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S. While this was the third year that iPads qualified, it was the first for the iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina, two models that debuted last fall.

Educational discounts for eligible buyers apply, Apple said. Those discounts range from $30 for all iPads to $300 for a top-end Mac. There are no educational discounts for iPhones, even ones purchased at full price without a carrier contract.

MacBook Airs are discounted by $50 for parents of students and for faculty and staff. The discounts on other products are $100 to $200 on MacBook Pros, $50 to $100 on iMacs and $200 to $300 on Mac Pros.

Apple is running similar deals in other markets, including Canada, where the gift card values run from $55 to $110; the U.K., where the cards come in £30 and £60 denominations; and Germany, where the promotion awards €35 to €70 for app purchases.

Details of the U.S. promotion can be found on Apple's website (download PDF).

The burning rivalry between Mac and PC is one of the most storied rivalries in the history of technology – ruining friendships, bringing down corporations and inspiring some very creative commercials — but do we truly understand the fundamental difference between a Windows PC and a Macintosh? I’m sure many of you do, but for those who don’t have a grasp of the finer details, Computerphile has put together a short video primer explaining how Macs and PCs differ.

Professor Tom Rodden begins by discussing computer systems in their most basic form. You start with the physical hardware, then an operating system, then the applications on that operating system and finally the windowing system which the user directly interacts with. Of course, the way we interact with our computers has changed drastically over the years, but the basic interactions remains the same.

Moving on to the advent of the Macintosh computer, Rodden explains that historically, Microsoft has been a software company. The Surface tablets are the first hardware built by Microsoft in quite some time. Apple, on the other hand, controls both the hardware and the software in its computer business. This means that Apple can “optimize and protect” its computers in ways that Microsoft can’t.

Apple’s operating system can therefore make presumptions about the hardware it will be functioning on because Apple can extensively test its operating system with every piece of hardware it releases. Microsoft doesn’t have this luxury, as dozens of manufacturers create hardware for Windows. This is where device drivers come into play, and why certain accessories or programs might be incompatible from one Windows computer to another.

The obvious downside to siding with Apple is that you’ll only ever have one machine to choose from. This leads to inflated prices, which is why an $1,099 iMac is seen as a bargain. OS X and iOS are both regularly lambasted for bring closed off in comparison to other mobile and desktop operating systems as well. You have more freedom on Windows to customize both hardware and software than you ever will on a Mac.

All of this may sound redundant to those of you who understand the technical distinctions between Macs and PCs, but everyone else should take a few minutes to watch the video above.