MANILA, Philippines -- Lately, the BlackBerry, Canada’s most famous export after the maple syrup, has been getting lots of mentions in both the IT-specific and general media outlets. Its latest fame, or notoriety, surprisingly has nothing to do with its being beaten black and blue by the iPhone and Android smartphones.

In a sad turn for technology, there are reports of London thugs using their BlackBerry handsets to organize riots and inspire other like-minded cretins to bring mayhem to other parts of the city and of England.

While activists, mostly young people, in the Arab world are using social networking sites and their mobile phones to organize themselves into overthrowing dictatorships, their UK counterparts are using the same technologies to wreak havoc, loot small businesses, and burn stores and homes.

Samsung’s New SSDs

Samsung Electronics has announced mass production of its PM830 solid state drives that support the Serial ATA Revision 3.0 standard. This means the SSDs are capable of transmitting data at up to 6Gbps.

The SATA standard also means the SSD comes with a boot-up time of 10 seconds, and that users can download up to five DVD video files in less than a minute. That must certainly sound like music to some torrent lovers’ ears.

Rioters’ Faces

UK law enforcement officials are considering the use of facial recognition technologies to identify and apprehend thugs and other cretins who took part in last week’s riots in London. In fact, a technology being evaluated for use in London’s 2012 Olympics may get a chance to prove its worth during the planned investigation of the recent social mayhem.

Police officers are said to be inputting photographs of rioters caught on camera to the Scotland Yard’s updated face-matching program.

Well, I believe the Metropolitan Police’s advanced software, combined with some of its officers’ past involvement in phone hacking, should do the trick. Soon, those foolish enough to take part in the rioting would be hauled in and tasked with explaining themselves and their recent actions.

Google Flush

I think Google+ is one cool social networking site. I just admire the way it allows users to manage their privacy (or make them think they can manage their online privacy, that is) and control who among their online “friends” get access to their online activities.

But are these features enough to entice me into letting go of my Facebook account? I don’t think so. And while most of the elite geeks and trendsetters I know have begun building their Google+ real estates, majority of my FB friends seem to be contented (or resigned to their fate?) and plan to remain chummy with Mark Zuckerberg’s networking site.

I also chose to stay even though I had received an invite and created an account by week 2 of Google+’s existence. It is just too tiring to move, and, who knows, Facebook might wise up someday and start treating user privacy with more respect.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.