{"id":4877,"date":"2012-04-20T15:33:49","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T19:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geekitdown.com\/blog\/?p=4877"},"modified":"2012-04-20T15:33:49","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T19:33:49","slug":"week-in-review-4202012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geekitdown.com\/?p=4877","title":{"rendered":"Week In Review [4\/20\/2012]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not every story makes headlines or to the front page. When those stories fall through the cracks, we grab them, throw them in a bowl and mix them together for a full serving of a week in review. Here are some stories you might have missed from this past week.<\/p>\n

\"GeekITDown<\/p>\n

Skyrim Gets Kinected<\/span><\/h5>\n

Skyrim is the latest game to jump on the Kinect bandwagon. Predicted to be next week sometime, Skyrim will get voice control powered by Kinect. Owners will be able to speak Dragon Shouts and manipulate inventory associated with their favorites menu. Favorite gear, shouts and magic can be swapped mid-game by simply speaking a command. While not overly impressive, it should make swapping gear a little less time consuming.<\/p>\n

Gmail Outage Is Overdone<\/span><\/h5>\n

This week Gmail experienced a very brief outage (roughly between 30 minutes and 1 hour). While it is news, it’s not epic or earth shattering news. The hashtag #gfail was trending on Twitter when it occurred, but the real issue here is why that kind of reaction to a minor outage. If Gmail is down for an hour, it’s not the end of the world. The service is free and by all rights, taking an unscheduled hour away from email would probably do much of us some good. Gmail serves roughly 350 million users and is up 99% of the time. That’s pretty darn good, let’s move on.<\/p>\n

CISPA Is The New SOPA<\/span><\/h5>\n

Last week we started banging the drum over on Chime.in<\/a> about CISPA. This week the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and others have started a campaign aimed to educate users about cybersecurity bills. This time around the focus is on social media outlets and spreading the word through those sources rather than web blackouts. So far, one part of the bill has been amended for clarity and precision, but the bill has a long way to go in terms of accuracy. Don’t expect this story to go away.<\/p>\n

Halo 4 Release Date Set For November 6th<\/sup><\/span><\/h5>\n

Perhaps the most storied franchise for Xbox is Halo and this November fans get another chapter to conquer. This time around 343 Industries is the developer, not Bungie which previously developed Halo. That’s not to say it won’t be outstanding, but there will surely be a fresh feel to it. Conan O’Brien<\/a> actually became part of the announcement with some video fun played out on the show.<\/p>\n

Facebook Instagram Deal Was A Solo One<\/span><\/h5>\n

Last week you undoubtedly heard of the $1 billion acquisition of Instagram by Facebook. The news this week was how Mark Zuckerberg unilaterally made the acquisition without input or consultation from the board. The shares are structured that way so it’s not as if anything was done improperly, but it is a rather large purchase to be made without keeping shareholders in the loop. We’ll see how this plays out over the coming months and years as to whether it was good money spent or a complete waste.<\/p>\n

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