Imagine watching a Ravens game in 3D… pretty cool, huh?  How much fun would it be to see Tom Brady get sacked and feel like you are right there…well, 3D TV is right around the corner.

In case you missed it, last week was the CES or Consumer Electronics Show…this is the show where really cool stuff usually shows up before hitting the mass markets.

3D Television was one of the hot technologies on display this year.  While 3D television has been discussed by many folks over the years, the big news is that manufacturers are signing up to start delivering 3D sets this year for about the price of an HD set.   Manufacturers like Sony, Samsung, LG and Panasonic have either rolled out 3-D products or are expected to in the near future.

To make the picture complete (sorry for the pun, but couldn’t resist), several studios are also on board to provide content…which is nice, because we will actually have something to watch if we were to buy a 3D set.  Content providers like ESPN, DreamWorks, Direct TV and Discovery have said they are planning to produce 3D shows in 2010.  ESPN is clearly out in front, because…well, who buys a lot of TVs…um, men.  And who watches a lot of sports…um, that would be men too!

My research shows that some TVs currently available are 3D ready and/or can be upgraded when the 3D content is broadcast.  So, if you are in the market for a TV, be sure to check on whether or not your TV is 3D ready.   Also be sure to check on how 3D will be provided as some TVs will require glasses and some will not.

I checked with some folks in the “biz” and they tell me that this technology is likely to go through a number of early stage changes and enhancements, so if you buy early, you may be left with some obsolete technology pretty quickly.  They recommend waiting for the first few generations to come out before jumping in and slapping down your $8,000 to $10,000.

Personally, I can’t wait.  Anybody seen Avatar in 3D or Up?  3D technology has come a long way in the last couple of years and I believe will become the standard for viewing pretty quickly.

Baltimore, MD, January 4, 2010 – G.1440 today announced the completion of an agreement to be acquired by Constellation Software, Inc., through its wholly owned subsidiary Constellation HomeBuilder Systems. The talent and technology of G.1440 will remain in Baltimore, where the company will continue to operate under the same name and management team. With a portfolio of over 20,000 customers in over 30 countries, Constellation will help solidify G.1440’s position in the market and help it grow as Baltimore’s technology leader.

Founded in 1998, G.1440 provides a range of technology services, including web design, online marketing, custom application development, and IT staffing. The Baltimore company’s depth and range of services made it attractive to CSI.

“By bringing expert teams in web design, marketing, development, and tech staffing together, G.1440 offers a hybrid solution unlike any we’ve seen,” says Dexter Salna, President of Constellation HomeBuilder Systems. “With a 12 year history of growth fueled by repeat business from an impressive client list that includes many of Maryland’s premier companies, G.1440 was a natural fit for the Constellation family.”

“With Constellation we’re in an even better position to empower our clients through technology,” said Larry Fiorino, G.1440’s President and Founder. “We’re excited that CSI has recognized what our clients have experienced – the immense value that our design, development, marketing, and staffing teams bring when they work together. This acquisition is great news for Baltimore!”

Financial details of the acquisition are not being made public.

About Constellation Software, Inc.

Constellation Software Inc. is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “CSU”. Constellation is an international provider of market leading software and services to a number of industries across both the public and private sectors. The Company acquires, manages and builds vertical market software businesses that provide mission-critical software solutions to address the specific needs of its customers in those industries. Constellation Software, Inc. is in no way affiliated with Constellation Energy – a Baltimore based energy company.

About G.1440, LLC.

G.1440 is a 12 year old Baltimore based technology firm that provides End-to-End IT solutions that Get IT to Work for leading companies nationwide. With services including custom web application development, web design, online marketing and tech staffing, G.1440 stands out by offering hybrid IT solutions – the right mix of technology, the people, and price – working with clients however clients need us to. G.1440 was founded by Larry Fiorino in 1998 and was previously a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Media Inquiries
Tim Kassouf
marketing@g1440.com
(410) 843-3823

G.1440 is a company built on solutions, and this holiday season we’re chasing down a solution to an eternal dilemma… What should you get the boss for the holidays?

I hope you enjoy the video below, and on behalf of our entire team, happy holidays!

Thank you so much for helping to make G.1440 special!

Do you want an easier way to tweet everything you purchase, how much it cost and where you bought it? Enter Blippy, a new social media site that micro-blogs your finances. Blippy allows you to hook your credit and debit cards into the service, then track and share spending on sites like Amazon.

If you setup your Visa card with Blippy and then purchase some books on Amazon, your Blippy page (think Twitter) would show “Tim spent $25.93 at Amazon” and the name of what you bought. Your friends can then comment on the purchase telling you what a great book you bought or how you need to cut back on the self help books. You can also see what your friends are buying which could lead to some interesting conversation starters.

Blippy might sound ridiculous at first, but after thinking about it I began to see the merit in the idea. Blippy could simplify collecting information from friends on what they are buying. If I was in the market for a new camera, I could just pull up my photographer friend’s Blippy pages to see what they are buying. I can also see Black Friday being awesome with Blippy, allowing consumers to discover the best deals around them.

As an Information Security professional, I cringe when I hear about services like this. Take a moment and think about what information you can collect from people using a service like this. You can discover what day is grocery day, socio-economic class, and a ton of other info. I guess this is a service for the Facebook generation that frequently over shares and not paranoid people like me. I know this information is available elsewhere, but putting it all in one place and hooking it to other Social Networking applications is a little frightening. On the plus side, Blippy does have privacy controls similar to Twitter so you can block out the world from seeing what you are doing and allow only friends.

Right now the service is only available in private beta, so the public can’t post their finances yet. If you are interested in signing up for a Beta Tester slot, head over to http://blippy.com/beta and leave your email address. If you are a Blippy tester, leave a comment and let us know your thoughts on the service.

For some more information checkout the Cnet.com posting where I learned about Blippy!

Is your date a stud or a dud? You can find out while you’re on the date and all with the help of a new cell phone app or the website by the same name… www.studordud.com. It lets you do a quick background check to find out in real time if you should stick around or maybe, just maybe sneak out the bathroom window.

Unfortunately, this type of research is becoming more and more necessary as people are connecting online prior to meeting in person. Social media is great, but as we have seen, can have a darker side, so you need to be able to do your homework before getting too involved.

So, what exactly can you find out? You would be surprised how much data is out there…bankruptcies, sex offender databases, criminal records, property ownership, evictions, address history, possible relationships, professional licenses and business licenses.  There are actually several smart phone apps and/or sites out there that do this type of checking…some even check birth date and will cross reference to horoscope, check social media and educational background data.

How well does it work? Well, I did some testing and found that most searches could find my wife, her age and even her maiden name. It could not find me, but did find people with the same name living in other parts of the USA – even though I told it to look in Baltimore. I found this interesting since I appear weekly on Fox News, in addition to writing every week for The Daily Record. The site did get my home phone right with 2 of 4 hits, but returned someone in Atlanta when I searched on my cell phone number. So overall….I would say 50/50 on accuracy.

People have been using Google for these types of searches for years now…however using Google to search for information on a prospective romantic partner can require quite a bit of scrolling when using a Smartphone. The new Smartphone specific apps, combined with the growth wireless networks, now allow for quick background checks on the go, potentially before a date is even over.

Tis’ the season of giving and you can do it in a double dose over the holidays. Everyone knows that the economy is bad and donations to non-profits/charities are way down.  The good news is, the next time you’re shopping online for that special someone, you can get a great deal for you, a great gift for them and simultaneously have a percentage of your purchase donated to your favorite charity. Sound like a lot of work…well, www.goodshop.com makes it very easy.

There is a growing and innovative trend where online shoppers are receiving discounts at their favorite stores and simultaneously helping their favorite charities…and what makes this concept so compelling is that it doesn’t cost you anything. It’s a form of philanthropy that works for everyone during difficult times where giving is harder than it was before.

GoodShop.com is an online shopping mall that donates a percentage of each purchase from more than 1,400 stores (such as Target, Apple, Best Buy, Macy’s, Gap, Petco and Amazon) to the charity of your choice. It also provides hundreds of coupons and deals so you can even save money!

Gee Larry…is it hard to use? Heck no!  Just go to www.goodshop.com and start searching and buying. Multiple search strategies are available. You can search by store (e.g., just type in Nordstrom or Target or your favorite store name)…once you type in your search criteria, you will see the store name and the amount they will contribute from the purchase…you can even search by nonprofit to make sure that you can designate them on your favorite store or favorite charity.

In addition, the site provides categories of merchandise (e.g., shoes, clothing, cars) and listings of the most popular stores and the amount they will contribute.

The best part of the site may be the list of coupons that are being offered by the store you are searching…so if Target is your favorite store, you will be presented with a list of Target coupons/deals…so you get everything in one place…a good deal…online…with a contribution to your favorite charity…very cool!

How many nonprofits have benefited? More than 85,000 nonprofits have partnered with www.goodshop.com to enable their supporters to generate funds simply by shopping online and searching the Internet.

I love this idea/concept. Try it out and you will too. Happy holidays and happy shopping!

Just when you were learning how to send Tweets on Twitter…there’s a new social media network that wants to link you to your friends. It is called FourSquare and is part connection tool and part game…depending on just how social you are, you could end up being named the Mayor of your favorite social gathering spot!

So, what is the deal?  Well, more and more technology is dedicated to connecting people. Just look at the way that Social Media is taking the world by storm…Twitter and Facebook ask users to answer one simple question…what is on your mind?  Foursquare answers the question where are you and what are you doing?

Now Foursquare notifies your friends of your location every time you “check in”.  You can use your cell phone to check in from almost anywhere…at a coffee shop, bar, restaurant, art gallery or even The Daily Records offices, and when you check in, Foursquare alerts your friends to your current location so they can drop by and say hello.

What is so special about Foursquare? Foursquare has several competitors, but has attracted more attention because it incorporates elements of gaming and social competition. Most people are very competitive (whether they know it or not) and Foursquare awards points and virtual badges to players depending on how often they go out and which places they visit. The top designation is when you become the Mayor of your favorite location. How can you become the Mayor? Simple…just check in from your fav hangout more than anyone else.

Anyone can join Foursquare, all you need is a phone with text capability or preferably access to the web so that you can check in and also receive updates of where your friends are. You can even check in from your PC if need be. For the best experience, you will need to load an app on your phone. The Foursquare iPhone or Android apps use the phone’s GPS to determine your location and suggest nearby establishments to check in from.  An app for Blackberry is on its way.

What about privacy concerns?  Of course there are some privacy concerns with Foursquare, as you may not want everyone knowing exactly where you are. But, like other social networking sites, you can tweak the settings so only certain people know of your whereabouts.

Have a great time and I’ll see you around Baltimore!

Yanni & I, the Marketing Interns, have posted our second episode of Intern1440, our behind-the-scenes video series.

Check it out below or on the G.1440 Facebook page, leave some comments, and let us know if there’s something or someone you’d like us to dig into here at G.1440!

Check out this MSNBC Article about consumer data breaches.

This article provides some disturbing facts about consumer inaction when notified of a data breach. Most interesting to the average consumer is the matrix towards the bottom of the article. It shows what type of data can be stolen, the types of fraud that can be perpetrated with each type of data & the steps that consumers can take to help themselves.

We all know what a pain it can be if your computer gets a virus…systems could break down or important documents and information could get wiped out. As bad as that seems, there is something much, much worse — a virus that puts child porn on your computer and could leave you facing criminal charges.

Of all the things that a virus could do, this just might be the worst…framing you for child porn. Multiple cases have been reported recently where unsuspecting people have had their lives turned upside down through this unfortunate happenstance. In one case, an infected e-mail or pop-up ad poisoned a defense contractor’s PC and downloaded the offensive pictures.  In another, a virus changed the home page on a man’s Web browser to display child porn, a discovery made by his 7-year-old daughter. The man spent more than a week in jail and three months in a halfway house, and lost custody of his daughter. And still another case of a man who is serving six years for child porn found in a folder used by a file-sharing program on his computer.  He was knowingly using the file sharing program, but did not know of the other activities that his computer was being programmed to do.

How big of a problem are viruses? It is widely estimated that at any given time, about 20 million of the estimated 1 billion Internet-connected PCs worldwide are infected with viruses that could give hackers full control, according to security software maker F-Secure Corp.

The bottom line?…Pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses without your knowledge, and then you get caught.

Why would someone do this? To avoid getting caught themselves. Pedophiles can exploit an infected PC to remotely store their pics on your computer. When the police show up, then you are left holding the bag and have to prove you didn’t do it.

What should I do to prevent this? The best protection against this type of attack is to take the typical precautions against computer viruses…namely, use and regularly update virus protection software. Be sure to have Windows Auto Update turned on. Never click on a link in an email…visit the website directly. Don’t open attachments from unknown senders. Be very, very careful regarding what websites you visit and what you download/view on those websites. Last but not least…if you think you may have been infected, then search your computer for any/all images and see what is being stored that you may not know about.

Businesses also need to be vigilant and must go the extra step of scanning their websites. I have seen .com sites being infected and being used by hackers to sell illegal data/images without the company every knowing.

I guess the good news is that good virus protection and scanning software is out there and can be used to irradicate the issue, however we must all remain dedicated to keeping the bad guys out of our computers and websites.