Tech Thoughts Daily Net News – February 5, 2012

Free Software Data Cable (for Android) – Have you ever wanted to transfer files between your Android phone or other mobile device and your computer without the hassle of cables? Consider Software Data Cable (for Android)—a free app providing file transfers via Wi-Fi.

A nerd’s guide to your Facebook Timeline – Geeky events you might put in your Facebook Timeline include when you first played Legend of Zelda or when you went to your first Comic-Con.

Windows 8 Will Be a Winner: 10 Reasons Why – Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system is scheduled to launch later this year. And when it does, consumers and even enterprise users can expect to adopt it fairly quickly, without the significant holdouts such as Microsoft faced with Vista.

SocialShield Releases the Top Social Networking Terms Kids Don’t Want Their Parents To Know – Do you know what the acronyms “D46” or “182” mean? If your answer is no, you’re not alone. SocialShield, the leading social network monitoring service for parents, today released its list of the Top Terms Parents Need to Know. These little-known codes are part of a new lexicon being formed by children–and those who might prey on children–to communicate with each other in ways that most adults wouldn’t understand.

Build It: A Touch-Screen All-in-One Desktop – Think it’s impossible to build your own all-in-one touch-screen desktop? Think again. Using a bare-bones kit you can assemble an all-in-one desktop system–complete with a multitouch-enabled touch screen–to your own specifications and budget.

PC-BSD: a BSD for the workstation – If I were to pick any BSD for everyday desktop use at the moment, then PC-BSD would be my first port of call.

Apple Scraps Controversial Terms in iBook Author EULA Agreement – Some controversial provisions in the agreement governing the use of Apple’s iBook authoring software has been modified after coming under intense criticism from authors and publishers.

Company News:

Sony Posts $2.1 Billion Loss After Announcing New CEO – On the heels of Sony’s announcement that it will promote Kazuo Hirai to CEO and president, the company reported a quarterly loss of $2.1 billion and projected an even greater loss for the entire fiscal year, which ends in March.

Apple’s iPad 3 Will Feature Quad-Core A6 Processor: Rumor – Apple’s iPad 3 will feature a new A6 processor, according to a Feb. 1 posting on the Boy Genius Report blog. BGR’s information came from an unnamed source, who in turn provided screenshots of “output from an iPad 3 using a development and debug tool called iBoot.” Based on those screens, the iPad 3 will come in two versions: “one with WiFi only and one with WiFi and embedded GSM/CDMA/LTE for all carriers.”

Qualcomm posts record fiscal Q1 earnings, ups outlook – Qualcomm boosts its yearly outlook after a record first fiscal quarter that succeeded primarily thanks to integrated Snapdragon processors.

Off Topic (Sort of):

Encrypted? Check. Strong passphrase? Check. Mailing them together? Oops – Encryption only helps secure your data when the keys are a secret, a lesson learned the hard way by Ernst and Young and Regions Financial.

Top 10 Ways to Travel Smarter, Safer, and Cheaper – A vacation can range anywhere from a dream to a nightmare. While some of that depends on circumstance, there’s plenty you can do to make your travel easier, more efficient, and more fun. Here are our top 10 favorite tips, tricks, and hacks to help make your next trip really great.

DNS Changer infrastructure shutdown is a *good* thing – The FBI may shutdown the DNS servers victims of the DNS Changer malware have been using on March 8th. Is this a dangerous action, or is five months to clean up your PC enough?

Online Retailers Need Mobile Now – It’s time to stop thinking about optimizing your website for mobile customers and just get it done. And yes, even mom-and-pop online retailers need to get a move on.

Today’s Quote:

“There’s a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker.”

–     Charles M. Schulz

Today’s Free Downloads:

Synergy 1.4.6 Beta – Synergy is FOSS that lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, without special hardware. All you need is a LAN connection.

iSpy – iSpy uses your webcams and microphones to detect and record movement or sound and provides security, surveillance, monitoring and alerting services. Any media that is captured is compressed to flash video and made available, securely over the web. iSpy can be setup to run on multiple computers simultaneously. iSpy is free, open-source software, so if you want it to do anything else, please download the source code and customise it to your requirements.