Daily Marauder

TECHNOLOGY

Internet giant Google plans to launch its Google Drive service, which could make PCs obsolete. The GDrive would allow users to access their personal computers from any Internet connection, eliminating the need for a hard drive. But some privacy experts are concerned about users storing personal files on Google’s servers. The Observer (London) (1/25)

My only question is…when can I have one?

iLife ‘09 is finally available on store shelves, and while most of the attention will probably go to iPhoto’s spiffy new face-recognition, there’s a feature tucked into GarageBand that might be making headlines very soon: premium lessons for piano and guitar, presented by the artists themselves. Dubbed ‘Lesson Store’, Apple’s online marketplace for music lessons has all the makings of a revolution in music learning that could prove to be incredibly popular and lucrative. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/27/the-garageband-lesson-store-could-be-apples-next-revolution-in-music 1/27)

(Below) Watch out Palm.  Apple will undoubtedly now be gunnin’ for your Palm Pre.

Apple has won potential protection against its iPhone and iPod Touch rivals in the form of a patent that covers technology for “detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch-screen display” to enter commands. The patent covers such methods as finger or thumb swiping, twisting or spreading to flip pages, rotate views or enlarge images, according to an online filing on the U.S. Patent and Trade Office’s site. Google/Agence France-Presse (1/27)

A new report from In-Stat says that about 39 million U.S. households contain a high-definition TV, but only 22 million of those hi-tech homes have signed up for HD programming. On a more positive note, the report said the number of high-definition households with both an HDTV and HD programming was up 40% last year. TWICE (1/26) , Cartt News Service