Intel is now selling its new “ultra-slim computer” which is only slightly larger than a USB thumb drive, aptly named the “Intel Compute Stick”.
The Intel Compute Stick ushers in new and cheap ultra portable computing that will make your dumb high definition television super smart by plugging directly into the HDMI port powered by USB.
The Intel Compute Stick comes with Microsoft Windows 8.1 with Bing and, unlike some competitors, Windows is activated and fully licensed for you to use. The processor is a quad core Intel Atom Z3735F with 2Mb cache, up to 1.83GHz and using the 22nm process.
The stick comes with 2Gb of RAM, 32Gb of embedded storage, integrated WiFI 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, Intel HD Audio and HDMI integrated graphics. Great news is Intel has also chosen not to install any bloatware whatsoever including only an optional, not already installed, 12 month subscription to McAfee antivirus.
Below is my unboxing video for the Intel Compute Stick.
Unboxing the Intel Compute Stick with Bing STCK1A32WFC
Once you have it up and running it is a great:
turning your ordinary television (TV) into a Smart TV
Check out my other blog focussed on how to protect your privacy and metadata by using an anonymous virtual private network (VPN) and other secure internet and mobile services at metadataprivacy.com.
If you think these laws won’t adversely affect you then you are mistaken. Terrorists and paedophiles already know how to avoid the government tracking their metadata so the data retention laws will have no effect on their criminal activities. The government knows this. So, if the criminals can already avoid the data retention laws and the government knows this, then who are the laws really targeting? The answer is the laws target ordinary Australians like you.
The law will work by requiring your internet service provider (e.g. Telstra, Optus, iiNET, TPG and others) to retain a record of all of the sites you have visited for at least two years. Your ISP will be forced to hand over your data to a multitude of law enforcement agencies for all sorts of reasons. Whilst the government is selling this law as the fight against terrorism, it applies to everyone and not just suspected terrorists.
But I’m not a terrorist so I am safe, right?
If you think these laws won’t adversely affect you then you are mistaken. Terrorists and paedophiles already know how to avoid the government tracking their metadata so the data retention laws will have no effect on their criminal activities. The government knows this. So, if the criminals can already avoid the data retention laws and the government knows this, then who are the laws really targeting? The answer is the laws target ordinary Australians like you.
If your ex-spouse or partner makes a malicious complaint about you to the police then they will be able to access two years worth of your metadata. If a disgruntled business partner makes a malicious police complaint against you then two years worth of your metadata will become available to the police. If a foreign movie studio or music industry association accuses you of illegally downloading a video or song, then two years of your metadata might be disclosed.
Where have you visited on the internet over the last two years?
Just think about every site you might visit in a two year period, intentionally or not. The government will know every financial institution you use. The government will know every anti-government website you have visited. What about that movie and song you downloaded from a torrent site? The government will have a record of every not-safe-for-work site you may have visited; even those awful sites you may have visited accidentally, all from up to two years ago. Everything you do on-line will be monitored, recorded and disclosed to the police, other law enforcement agencies and government.
Your metadata will be a honey pot target for criminal hackers
There is also a high risk that your metadata will fall into the hands of criminals. The law requires your ISP to store the metadata for when the government wants to access it. ISPs have already warned that the stored metadata of over 20 million Australians will be a honey pot of data that will attract the most sophisticated hackers. It is inevitable that one day a hacker will succeed and your data will be released to the seedy on-line underworld of criminal hackers and criminal enterprises to be traded and sold for malicious purposes.
Fortunately, you can protect yourself. Yes it does costs money (remember that next time you vote at the federal election).
You can protect yourself by using a Virtual Private Network (or VPN). Using a VPN is perfectly legitimate. VPNs work by encrypting your internet data and tunnelling it through a secure server (you can select servers based all around the world) and that secure server then connects you to the site you want to visit or downloads the file you want.
When you use a VPN, your ISP will retain data that you visited a VPN server. The data sent to the server will be encrypted (i.e. it will be kept secret from the ISP and government) and also the ISP and government will have no idea which sites you visited, or what file your downloaded, because the VPN server is the computer that actually connects you to those sites (not your ISP). Your identify will also be hidden from movie studios and music industry investigators.
How do I choose and get a VPN?
You should choose a VPN that:
does not keep logs of your internet activity (that way, if they receive court orders or warrants to hand over your data they have nothing stored to give away)
has fast servers (given all your internet traffic will be tunnelled through this server, you need it to be fast so as to not slow down your internet, this rules out free VPNs)
has servers located in lots of countries (that way you can unlock lots of sites, including Netflix and overseas shopping sites, by tricking them that you are overseas when you are really in Australia)
has apps for all your devices (PC, Mac, Android and iOS for iPad and iPhone).
Below are four affordable and recommended VPN service providers that give you all of the above.
Protect yourself from your spying government and hackers and also unlock overseas streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer and more by getting a VPN.
Yes, there are a couple of options to get Netflix on your ordinary television if you don’t have a Smart TV.
Option 1 – Smart Streaming HDMI stick
The best (but more complicated option) is to get a smart streaming stick that connects directly to your HDMI input of your television (yes you must have a HDMI input on your TV and also Wi-Fi access to the internet). Just follow my step by step guide by clicking here. This guide will also help you unblock the US version of Netflix if you are located outside of the United States.
Option 2 – Buy a smart Blu-ray player instead
The easiest way to turn your ordinary television into a smart television is to buy a cheap smart blu-ray player. Most new blu-ray players are smart internet connected devices with apps. It’s much cheaper to buy a new blu-ray player than it is to buy a new Smart TV. It’s also cheaper to replace the blu-ray player with newer technology in the future compared to replacing your whole television.
For example, Sony’s entry level BDP-S1200 blu-ray player has a heap of apps and, if it is set to United States settings, has a Netflix app (amongst others). The Sony BDP-S1200 sells for less than £60, US$80 or AU$110. You will however need HDMI input on your TV.
Obviously you will need internet access to get Netflix. Entry level blu-ray players require a wired network cable to your internet router. If you don’t want a cable the next model upwards usually have built-in wi-fi.
But what if I live outside of the United States?
If you live outside of the United States, then you will need to trick the Sony blu-ray player and then the Netflix app into thinking your player is located in the United States (otherwise Netflix USA is blocked).
Fortunately, it is quite simple to protect your privacy from your ISP and therefore from the Australian Government. You will also protect yourself from foreign government who have more malevolent intentions in tracking your internet habits. Don’t forget if you use Facebook, it tracks and stores your visits to any webpage that has a Facebook “like” button which may then be accessed by the United States intelligence agencies.
The Australian Government is committed to providing law enforcement and security agencies with the tools they need by requiring the telecommunications industry to retain a limited set of your personal metadata for two years.
What does this mean for Australian internet users?
This means multiple Australian Government security agencies can and will track your internet usage for no less than two years. They do this by requiring your internet service provider (ISP) to store the internet sites you visit for a two year period.
This means your ISP (i.e. Telstra, Optus, TPG, iiNet, iPrimus etc) are obligated by law to track and hand over your internet usage to secretive government agencies.
This means everything you do online is being tracked.
This means everywhere you go with your internet enabled mobile phone is also being tracked.
How can I protect my privacy from the government and the abuse of my metadata?
Fortunately, it is quite simple to protect your privacy from your ISP and therefore from the Australian Government. You will also protect yourself from foreign governments who have more malevolent intentions in tracking your internet habits.
Don’t forget if you use Facebook, it tracks and stores with your profile visits to any webpage that has a Facebook “like” button using cookies (whether or not you actually press like) which may then be accessed by United States government intelligence agencies and contractors.
This isn’t a far fetch conspiracy theory; it is now accepted fact where governments have now shifted from denying the allegations to defending their spying activities as necessary.
The simplest way to protect yourself is to always use a virtual private network (VPN). You should at least use a VPN when undertaking any activities that your government (or an unfriendly foreign government) may consider questionable or against its sponsor’s interests.
A VPN works by encrypting your internet data and tunnelling it through a special server. This way your ISP can only track that all your data goes to this server but cannot see what that data is or where you might visit at the other end. VPN service providers that value your privacy do not keep any logs so have nothing to hand over to government spy agencies should they come knocking.
Where can I get a VPN?
You can easily sign up for a VPN service online. They do cost money but only a few dollars a month. There are some free VPNs available but they will slow down your broadband internet which is just not worth it (i.e. why pay for fast broadband by slowing it down through a free VPN server). Paid VPN services have high speed servers.
UPDATE: check my other post on choosing a VPN provider by clicking here.
If you want to try a different VPN provider then check out IPvanish or overplay.net. Overplay also has a package deal that includes both a smart DNS (for unblocking Netflix and other streaming video services) and VPN (protecting your privacy and downloads). Just click here to check out overplay.net.
Don’t take your privacy for granted; your government doesn’t!
Got unlimited internet data and want some ideas on what to do with it?
Or are you considering upgrading to unlimited internet data but not sure what you will do with it?
Here are 10 (ten) ideas to take advantage of a fast unlimited internet data plan. Some ideas are simple and free whilst some take some work and money.
Idea 1. Turn your big screen television into a huge aquarium
With unlimited data, you can stream high definition YouTube videos all day and all night without worrying about your data limit. One idea is to turn your big screen TV into an aquarium but you can stream all sorts of very long videos to make your television a window into tropical rainforests, waterfalls and mountains.
Here’s some ideas below. Just dream where you want to be and then search for it on YouTube.
Turn your big screen television into an aquarium
or a rainforest stream
Idea 2: Stream your movie collection to your mobile devices and friends with Plex (free)
Do you have an extensive movie and television collection? Have you converted all your DVDs and Blurays into video files? Perhaps you already use torrents on your unlimited internet (if you do use torrents, make sure you use a VPN to protect yourself; click here to see how).
Set up your computer (Windows, Mac or Linux PCs) as a Plex movie streaming server? Once you have set up a Plex server, you can stream your movies and television shows throughout your house to other televisions, your Xbox or Playstation, Android phone/tablet or Apple iPhone or iPad. You can also share with your family and friends over the internet (i.e. you can share your videos with them and they can share their videos with you).
Plex will automatically sort all of your movies and television, download cover art and descriptions to make using your video library like a professional studio! Plex will also stream your videos to other devices like phones, laptops, tablets and gaming systems.
Take a look at this beautiful screenshot of Plex.
The first thing you need to do is download and install the Plex Media Server on your main PC (Windows, Mac or Linux) that has all of your movies and television video files. Once you have downloaded, installed and got the Plex Media Server up and running, you need to download Plex clients for all of your connected devices to watch your indexed Plex videos.
For PCs and laptops (Windows, Mac and Linux) download and install the Plex Home Theatre program from the Plex downloads page (use this even on the PC you have already installed the Plex Media Server). The Plex Home Theatre client is the easiest way to watch Plex. Note it doesn’t use mouse controls but only keyboard short-cuts like arrows and escape.
Plex also has apps for Android, iOS, Playstation, Xbox, Roku, Google Chromecast and more.
Go ahead, free your video collection with free Plex!
Idea 3: Endlessly watch incredible live streaming videos on YouTube
YouTube now has live streams so you don’t have to search widely anymore to find interesting webcams.
(1) Just go to youtube.com, (2) search for your topic of interest, (3) select”filter” for your search results and select “live” under the “Features” heading.
Do you live outside the United States and can’t watch Netflix on your Apple TV device because it is blocked? Read on for this step by step guide to unblocking Netflix on your Apple TV.
Hello viewer from
and welcome to my website.
Do you live outside the United States and can’t watch U.S. version of Netflix on your Apple TV device because it is blocked?
Read on for this step by step guide to unblocking the vast U.S. video library for Netflix on your Apple TV.
1. Unblock geoblocking with a free trial service
First, you will need to sign up to a DNS unblocking service to trick your Apple TV and Netflix that you are located in the United States when you are actually located in another country, like Australia or almost anywhere else. These DNS unblocking services get around the geoblocks used by Apple and Netflix.
Don’t worry, you can use a 7 day free trial (without any sign-up and no credit card) to check first that you can get it working before you hand over any payment details.
2. Start up the Apple TV menu and go to the Settings > General > Network
3. Select Wi-Fi for wireless network or Ethernet if you are using a wired connection (if you have not previously setup a Wi-Fi connection you will have to choose your network and enter your password for the Wi-Fi again if needed).
4. Select Configure DNS and select Manual
5. Enter following number and click Done: 185.037.037.037
6. On the Networkscreen, check that that the DNS numbers you have just entered are visible and correct.
(Steps 7 to 10 below are unnessary if a local version of the Netflix app is available in the iTunes store, such as in Australia or the U.K.).
7. You now need to make sure the USA edition of apps are present on your Apple TV. Please go to the Settings > General > iTunes Store > Location and select United States
8. Go to settings and select Sleep now
8. Go ahead and Unplug the Apple TV power cord and wait ten seconds (yes the full ten seconds, not just two seconds)
10.Plug the cable back in on your Apple TV.
Your done! Sign up for a Netflix free trial and start watching Netflix!
The Unlocator service also unblocks over 175 other geoblocked services from around the world, including video streaming and music services. Now that you have Unlocator, check out the many free and subscription based streaming services now available to you by clicking here. Happy streaming.
You can also search Unlocator for step-by-step unblocking guides for many other devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows PC and modem router to unblock a whole world of streaming services.
Do you live outside the United States and can’t watch Netflix on your iPhone because it is blocked? Read on for this step by step guide to unblocking Netflix on your Apple iPhone.
Hello viewer from
and welcome to my website.
Do you live outside the United States and can’t watch the better U.S. version of Netflix on your iPhone or iPad because it is blocked? Read on for this step by step guide to unblocking the larger U.S. Netflix library for your Apple iPhone or iPad.
1. Unblock geoblocking with a free trial service
First, you will need to sign up to a DNS unblocking service to trick your iPhone/iPad and Netflix that you are located in the United States when you are actually located in another country. These DNS unblocking services get around the geoblocks used by Netflix.
Don’t worry, you can use a 7 day free trial (without any sign-up and no credit card) to check first that you can get it working before you hand over any payment details.
2. Once you have enabled the Unlocator service, then open “Settings” on your iPhone/iPad.
3. Select Wi-Fi
4. Press the blue arrow located on the right of the router you are connected to (i.e. your home’s internet wi-fi service).
5. Under “DNS” input these numbers: 185.37.37.37, 185.37.37.185
6. Press Wi-Fi to go back
7.Restart your iPhone by pressing and holding home key and then power button, holding both until iPhone shuts down and restarts
8. Go to Apple app store and find and install the Netflix app
If the Netflix app you need is not available in your local iPhone app store you need to change to the US app store in order to install it. Please follow the following steps to get the US app store on your iPhone.
9. How to Get the US edition of the Apple App Store on Your iOS (iPhone or iPad) Device
Your done! Sign up for a Netflix free trial and start watching Netflix! The Unlocator service unblocks over 175 other geoblocked services from around the world, including video streaming and music services. Now you have Unlocator, check out the many free and subscription based streaming services now available to you by clicking here. Happy streaming.
Canadian television has a great range of online streaming services, including CBC, City TV, CTV, Global TV (Canada), HGTV Canada, TOU.tv, TSN and Ztele. However, if you access the internet from outside of Canada then your access to these great Canadian video libraries is restricted or blocked completely by geoblocking.
Canadian flag
If you are a Canadian ex-pat living overseas, or just someone outside of Canada who wants to watch Canadian television, then there is a simple service available to unblock these Canadian streaming video services.
The simplest services is a third-party DNS that tricks overseas streaming websites that you are located in their country when you are actually overseas. These tricks are available for only a few dollars a month (i.e. usually less than US$5). If you want to access afree trial including instructions on how to enable your device (PC, laptop, iPhone, Android phone, Smart TV, Bluray player and more) than just click here to get started for free.
