advisor

Help wanted: $183K plus. Tool gives lowdown on tech salaries

Anyone who works in tech is going to like this. Wealthfront, an online financial adviser based in Palo Alto, Calif., today rolled out an interactive tool (see below) that let's you see what tech jobs pay among private firms across the country.

You'll learn, for instance, that software architects make more than managers -- a mean of $183,000 a year plus equity compared with $163,000 plus stock -- and that cash compensation across all tech companies is $112,000. Another curious finding: Despite the huge demand for engineers in Silicon Valley, jobs in the northeast pay … Read more

How attacks on social networks work

SAN FRANCISCO--Symantec detailed some of the dirty secrets of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ threats at its annual reviewers' workshop here today, and revealed a planned project to protect you from social networking manipulators.

The project from Norton Labs, currently called Norton App Advisor, combines Norton's Safe Web data with social network open API data to provide a safety rating for apps. It aims to prevent malicious apps that prey on your social network activity from collecting data on you and your friends, which Symantec representatives said was a major security concern.

"Social networks have a trust model built … Read more

TripAdvisor latest to file antitrust complaint against Google

Online travel site TripAdvisor has become the latest company to take aim at Google.

The company today filed an antitrust complaint against Google in the European Union, charging the search company with "anti-competitive and unfair practices...that harm the marketplace and consumer welfare." Bloomberg was first to report on the story.

TripAdvisor's move follows a similar one by online travel site Expedia, which filed a complaint against Google last week. Both companies argue that Google is using its dominant position in search to harm competition in the marketplace. They've joined a slew of companies across other … Read more

SeatGuru mobile app barely gets off the ground

I can think of few Web sites that would benefit more from a good mobile app than SeatGuru, a much-loved service that tells you which seats on airplanes are good, and which are not. I never book a flight without checking it out.

The service finally has a mobile site. It's a useful app to have, but it's not a good app. It could have been so much more.

The best bit is that you can just put your airline and flight number into the app to see a map of the seats on the plane. That gives … Read more

Mozilla contemplates nuking McAfee

The SiteAdvisor add-on for Firefox evaluates search results to let you know how safe a site is to visit before you go there, but one Mozilla engineer says that it drags down Firefox and causes huge memory leaks.

(Update: McAfee announced a fix for later next week, and Mozilla acknowledged it. See below.)

It's just the kind of problem that Mozilla doesn't want to be dealing with as it finds itself knee-deep in an ambitious development plan and surrounded by ever-tougher competition.

Mozilla engineer Nicholas Nethercote wrote a blog post early today in which he recommended that Firefox … Read more

Windows 8 setup: Now with fewer clicks!

People frustrated by the upgrade and setup process in prior versions of Windows may find a more user-friendly experience in Windows 8.

Ensuring that Windows installs properly across a variety of hardware and software configurations has always been a major challenge, and one that Microsoft has never solved to the satisfaction of all users.

Microsoft has already taken some big steps forward in this respect with Windows 7. Its next version of Windows promises further improvements, as described in the latest edition of the Building Windows 8 blog by Christa St. Pierre from Microsoft's setup and deployment team:

For … Read more

TomTom Go Live 1535 M searches the Web, tweets your trip (review)

Testing GPS devices can be a grind--a dull, boring grind. So when a device comes along promising to revolutionize portable navigation devices, I tend to perk up and take notice. The TomTom Go Live 1535M is one of those attention-getters.

When this portable navigation device (PND) was announced a few weeks ago, I was intrigued by its integration of travel apps that enable the user to tap into Yelp, Trip Advisor, Expedia, and Google Local Search services for up-to-date point-of-interest data and reviews via the same Live data service that beams in its HD Traffic data. I was even more … Read more

TomTom Go Live 1535M: Has apps, will travel

TomTom's Live connected navigation service gets more useful with the addition of travel-specific apps by Yelp, TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Twitter. The TomTom Go Live 1535M will be the first device to take advantage of the new functionality, with owners of the Go Live 2353M gaining parity through a software update this fall.

The new apps will live in the Services menu and, to be fair, "Services" is a more apt description of the new functions than "Applications," but we shan't split hairs. What most of the apps do is provide access to a wider selection of points of interest (POIs) than could be preinstalled on the unit, along with secondary information about those POIs.… Read more

TripAdvisor app gets trippy with AR feature

The TripAdvisor app for the iPad 2, iPhone, and iPod Touch added a new feature this week, introducing a touch of "augmented reality" via the devices' cameras.

Live View lets travelers explore the travel site's more than 45 million user reviews of restaurants, attractions, hotels, and such superimposed over what app users see through the mobile device's camera.

As its designers describe "...if a traveler is standing outside a restaurant, they can simply point their mobile device's camera at it and TripAdvisor ratings and reviews of that establishment will automatically be displayed on the screen."

I tried it out after downloading the update from the App Store and discovered a poorly reviewed nail salon and Thai massage joint near me here in Los Angeles that might be a seedy brothel. I doubt that's what the app designers had in mind for most travelers to discover, but all the bangs and whistles work. … Read more