blocks

App to start fresh on Valentines day

Face it dude, what's done is done. Get over your ex by purging your collections and recollections so that you can get back in the game with a fresh state of body, mind, and wallet.

Now for some precautionary measures. I'm not one to doubt you guys as those who lack self control and willpower, but hey, it's that time of year so why risk it? Use Stupid Phone Calls Blocker to stop yourself from 'accidentally' dialing that ex boyfriend/girlfriend of yours. You can also use this to stop incoming calls and texts from he/she-who-must-not-be-named. … Read more

LinkedIn eyes content as connection

Friday's CNET Update endorses your video-watching skills:

Stories from today's tech news roundup:

- LinkedIn eyes future as professional publishing hub

- NBC deems EveryBlock a dead end, turns off local news service

- Twitter enabling searches for tweets older than a week

- Guess what? Vine videos are longer than six seconds

- Zynga's FarmVille coming to a television near you

- Spotify releases a beta Windows Phone 8 app

- Get romantic with Spotify's Playlist Poetry

Watch CNET Update in the video above, and subscribe to the podcast via the links below.

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iTunes (HD) |&… Read more

NBC deems EveryBlock a dead end, turns off news service

NBC shut down its hyperlocal news site EveryBlock -- a data-driven platform that let users search for news based on where they live -- because the site wasn't doing well as a business.

EveryBlock, once heralded as an innovative approach to media, said its final good-bye to its users in a blog post on the now dark site:

It's no secret that the news industry is in the midst of a massive change. Within the world of neighborhood news there's an exciting pace of innovation yet increasing challenges to building a profitable business. Though EveryBlock has been … Read more

How to screen unwanted calls on iPhones and Android phones

Robocalling telemarketers ignored the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry in record numbers in fiscal year 2012. According to the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for FY 2012 (PDF), the agency received 3,840,502 consumer complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls in the period, up substantially from the 2,273,516 complaints it fielded in fiscal year 2011.

Telemarketing robocalls are reaching epidemic proportions: complaints to the FTC about robocalls increased from just under 150,000 in October 2011 to 216,338 in March 2012 and remain near that level: 201,699 robocall complaints … Read more

France orders Internet provider to stop blocking Google ads

France, unlike the U.S., has had relaxed rules on whether Internet service providers can block online content -- until today that is.

The French government has ruled that one of the country's biggest Web providers, Free, must halt all online ad blocking, according to the New York Times.

"An Internet service provider cannot unilaterally implement such blocking," the French minister for the digital economy Fleur Pellerin said at a news conference, according to the Times. "This kind of blocking is inconsistent with a free and open Internet, to which I am very attached."

The … Read more

Google disrupted in China, once again

Google has experienced a precipitous drop in traffic from China, which a Web-monitoring group attributed to the search engine being "blocked" by the government.

Data provided by Google's Transparency Report shows a sharp drop off in traffic -- to roughly half the normal amount -- to Google's Web sites as of early this morning California time.

GreatFire.org, which performs real-time monitoring, suggested that the drop meant the Chinese government is "one step closer to fully separating the Chinanet from the Internet."

It wasn't immediately clear whether the block was intended to be … Read more

Egypt works to pull the plug on online porn

Egypt is the latest country to attempt censorship of online pornography. According to Reuters, a public prosecutor pronounced yesterday that all porn Web sites must be blocked.

The government must "take the necessary measures to block any corrupt or corrupting pornographic pictures or scenes inconsistent with the values and traditions of the Egyptian people and the higher interests of the state," prosecutor Abdel Maguid Mahmoud said, according to Reuters.

Apparently, Mahmoud's order was following up on a 2009 court ruling that also deemed porn sites be banned. According to Reuters, Egypt's telecommunications minister, Hany Mahmoud, said … Read more

Disable alerts at a specific time on your Galaxy Note II

Author note: This feature is available on most of the stock Samsung Android devices running 4.1.1 and higher. Thanks to the those who helped clear this up and sorry for the confusion.

There are lots of apps in the Google Play Store that can help you schedule some quiet time from your phone. However, if you're an owner of a Samsung device that received a Jelly Bean update (or you recently bought a Galaxy Note II), you have this feature built in with Blocking mode.

The benefit of using a stock feature over an app is … Read more

AOL's twist on e-mail: You've got stacks

Thursday's CNET Update is checking your away message:

Just when you've given up all hope of having an organized inbox, along comes AOL with a new e-mail client called Alto. Today's tech news roundup looks at how Alto manages multiple accounts and sorts messages into stacks. The service is in beta test now (so you have to sign up for an invite to try it), but it could be open to everyone by February.

In other news, Yelp is cracking down on companies that pay for reviews. If Yelp sees that a business is trying to inflate … Read more