Technology

From business to fun: What generations do online

Teens and young adults seem to live online, but a new report by the Pew Research Center finds that other generations are catching up...

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The Psychology of Sharing

At some point the anonymity of the internet transformed into a social networking clearinghouse of daily minutiae and most of us willingly opted in, choosing the ease and comfort of virtual intimacy over a lonely existence of real world disconnectedness. And these communities blossomed, starting with close friends and family then expanding to include co-workers and long lost childhood chums, finally welcoming obscure acquaintances and total strangers with whom we’ve never had a face to face conversation. We decided that to know and be known was a good thing, but never really thought it through.

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Sending Emails Via Semantic Search

SEAmail stands for “semantic e-mail addressing” - and will give email senders the power to send mail to people “without necessarily knowing recipients’ e-mail addresses, or even their names.” In other words, email senders can provide contextual information about their intended receivers - like “all professors that graduated from the Stanford Economics department since 1960″ or a nickname - and the SEAmail system will find and enter in the appropriate email address results, much like a search query.

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Could Silicon Valley Become the Next Detroit?

Unless we spend more on technology and science, companies like Apple, HP and IBM could be eclipsed by foreign rivals.

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I Am Here: One Man's Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle

The location-aware future—good, bad, and sleazy—is here. Thanks to the iPhone 3G and, to a lesser extent, Google's Android phone, millions of people are now walking around with a gizmo in their pocket that not only knows where they are but also plugs into the Internet to share that info, merge it with online databases, and find out what—and who—is in the immediate vicinity. That old saw about how someday you'll walk past a Starbucks and your phone will receive a digital coupon for half off on a Frappuccino? Yeah, that can happen now.

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What Data Crunchers Did for Obama

23 JAN 2009 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

Sophisticated political microtargeting efforts are grouping us in surprising ways. For Obama, swing voters known as Barn Raisers proved pivotal.

Hat tip: Ben McConnell

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Photoshop on 358 Floppy Disks

3.5 inch floppy disks are just a nostalgic memory for some, and not even a blip on the radar for the kids out there. But back in the old days of computing, floppies were the primary way to transfer bits of data and programs between computers. We were intrigued by Antrepo Design Industry’s... humorous poster graphic that visualizes just how many floppy discs it would take to handle today’s computer programs. The image is a striking reminder of the rapid rate at which technology has advanced, and compressed physically.

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Better Than Owning

21 JAN 2009 from Kevin Kelly | Read the full story»

Very likely, in the near future, I won't "own" any music, or books, or movies. Instead I will have immediate access to all music, all books, all movies using an always-on service, via a subscription fee or tax. I won't buy – as in make a decision to own -- any individual music or books because I can simply request to see or hear them on demand from the stream of ALL. I may pay for them in bulk but I won't own them. The request to enjoy a work is thus separated from the more complicated choice of whether I want to "own" it. I can consume a movie, music or book without having to decide or follow up on ownership.

Hat tip: boingboing

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Web Grief: Funeral Webcasts Gain in Popularity

It's been a niche service for a few years, but better technology and cheaper equipment -- and the ubiquity of the internet in everyday life -- have prompted more funeral homes to offer webcasting and videotaping services. It's a way for mourners to take part in the experience without the time and expense of a long-distance trip, and is ideal for active military which can't just up and leave.

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danah boyd's PhD thesis: Teen sociality online

This dissertation documents my 2.5-year ethnographic study of American teens' engagement with social network sites and the ways in which their participation supported and complicated three practices - self-presentation, peer sociality, and negotiating adult society. My analysis centers on how social network sites can be understood as networked publics which are simultaneously (1) the space constructed through networked technologies and (2) the imagined community that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and practice. Networked publics support many of the same practices as unmediated publics, but their structural differences often inflect practices in unique ways. Four properties - persistence, searchability, replicability, and scalability - and three dynamics - invisible audiences, collapsed contexts, and the blurring of public and private - are examined and woven throughout the discussion.

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Inauguration Crowd Will Test Cellphone Networks

The cellphone industry has a plea for the throngs descending on the nation’s capital for the presidential inauguration: go easy on the mobile communications. (Subscription required)

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Polaroid Unveils Instant-Print Digital Camera

The Polaroid Corporation, best known for their instant film camera from the 1970s which they recently discontinued, has updated their product for the digital age. The new PoGo, unveiled at the recent CES conference, is a new digital camera that will print a full color 2 x 3 inch photograph in under 60 seconds directly from the camera body.

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Mattel Introduces Mind Controlled Game

Mattel have just introduced a new game requiring an unprecedented amount concentration. Recently unveiled at CES, Mind Flex requires players to wear a headset equipped with sensors that measure brainwave activity in order to levitate a ball and move it through hoops.

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Shirky: Problem is filter failure, not info overload

NYU new-media professor Clay Shirky accurately describes the problem of information overload in Internet economics by focusing on the real problem: filter failure.

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Prevent snoops from recovering your erased files

When you delete a file, you're not really removing the information. Two free programs--Eraser and SDelete--take very different approaches to secure file deletion.

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Wireless Power Energizes Many Devices

Powermat displays new wireless charging systems at CES 2009, a convenient wireless alternative to mobile phone, computer and appliance chargers. The system uses magnetic conduction to transfer energy to almost any device. (Video )

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A Software Populist Who Doesn’t Do Windows

10 JAN 2009 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

They're either hapless pests or the very people capable of overthrowing Windows. Take your pick. (Subscription required)

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The strip-mined net

11 JAN 2009 from Rough Type | Read the full story»

How many Twitterheads think about their electricity use before they tweet? Not many. How many bloggers think about it before they blog? Not this one.

Hat tip: influx insights

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Gaza War's New Front: Facebook

At first glance Israel seems to be dominating the information war over Gaza. The Israeli government has launched a campaign to dominate the blogosphere: Pro-Israel hackers are waging cyberwar against Hamas, and the Israeli military has kept the international press off the battlefield. But social networking site Facebook has become an important venue in the Arab world for protesting the Israeli campaign, as well as a potent fundraising tool for supporters of the Palestinian cause.

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the empowered network-a key theme of 2009

Clearly Twitter is a misunderstood tool, given the general slamming it's been given by certain individuals who fail to understand the real benefit, seeing it as yet another tool for ego driven tech nerds who tell each other what they are up to every second of the day. However, as Helen Walters points out in her piece in Business Week this morning [1.7.09], that the evidence over the last 24 hours proves this all wrong.

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Many Ways to Plug in to Tech Savings

When every $100 counts, here are a few suggestions for using high-tech gadgetry to save you money. (Subscription required)

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The shape of things to come

05 JAN 2009 from the Guardian | Read the full story»

A self-confessed 'pretty unlikely early adopter', the digital guru Clay Shirky still proved to be uncannily prescient about the impact of the web - which is why Tom Teodorczuk is getting his media forecast for 2009.

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Companies Seek PC Alternatives

To cut costs and go green, businesses are toying with PC substitutes such as small devices that tap virtual desktop software.

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What Carriers Aren't Eager to Tell You About Texting

26 DEC 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

TEXT messaging is a wonderful business to be in: about 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cellphones worldwide this year. The public assumes that the wireless carriers' costs are far higher than they actually are, and profit margins are concealed by a heavy curtain. (Subscription required)

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Gawker Media sells Consumerist blog

The blog, which is often an outlet for consumer complaints, will become a new division within the publisher of Consumer Reports.

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Is social networking making the recession more painful?

Do I really need to know that Metro France let 3 reporters go, or that PCM the owner of the Dutch newspaper Volkskrant is downsizing? No, I don’t. And neither do you. Ever since I subscribed to themediaisdying on Twitter I get dozens of updates a day reporting layoffs in print media, radio, television, advertising, you name it. Updates based on anonymous, unconfirmed tips ...

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Online spending doubles for weekend before Christmas

Web shoppers last weekend spent almost double what they spent on the corresponding weekend before Christmas last year, ComScore reports.

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Tina Brown and Four Others Changing the Web

Five who are changing the face of the Internet.

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U.S. agency criticizes Web domain name plan

A proposal to create hundreds of new Internet domain names as alternatives to ".com" has suffered a setback...

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Will 'Cloud Computing' Work In White House?

The heads of Microsoft and Google are big fans of something called "cloud computing" — but will it work in the White House? Security and technology experts talk to host Andrea Seabrook about one of the mundane but hugely important decisions that must be made by the Obama transition team — just how the White House computers should run. (Audio)

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Slipstream: A Software Secretary That Takes Charge

A new generation of Internet technologies is making meaningful progress in anticipating your needs without you pressing a key. (Subscription required)

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Australia Allows Facebook For Serving Legal Notices

A lawyer in Australia had been trying to serve a foreclosure notice to a couple who had defaulted on a home loan. Mark McCormack couldn't find the couple by e-mail, and he couldn't find them at their home. So he turned to Facebook, the popular social networking site. He wanted to serve legal documents to the couple's Facebook page. A court in Australia ruled last week that he may. But by the time the court approved McCormack's request, the couple had removed their Facebook profile from public view. (Audio)

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Money game

A chat with a Russian hacker

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Two-channel home theater vs. sound bar speakers

It's a dirty little secret: So-called sound bar speakers are merely glorified stereo speakers. Let's face it, setting up a home theater with five speakers and a subwoofer is a hassle. Home-theater-in-a-box systems ease the pain somewhat, but you still have to run wires to five speakers and a subwoofer. Single speaker sound bar systems? Sure, they eliminate the tangle of wires, but they're just glorified stereo bars and never really sound all that good. You can get much better sound from a decent set of stereo speakers.

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8 Experts Predict How Web 2.0 Will Evolve In 2009

2008 was the year that Web 2.0 became more mainstream. More ad agencies, businesses, and non-profits used Web 2.0 tools as a way to build community and relationships, cross promote products and issues, and integrate their online and offline ...

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FCC Head Pushes Free Web Plan

Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
FCC Head Pushes Free Web Plan  —  Outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing for action in December on a plan to offer free, pornography-free wireless Internet service to all Americans, despite objections from the wireless industry and some consumer groups.

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New domain to be web's phone book

The process of opening up the new .tel net domain - a repository for contact details - begins on 3 December.

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Ambient feedback for greener driving

After we featured Fiat’s ecoDrive, one of our spotters alerted us to Honda’s Ecological Drive Assist System. Called Eco Assist for short, the system gives feedback on driving techniques, aiming to help consumers save fuel. Eco Assist also helps improve fuel optimization and battery charging. Recognizing drivers’ love of a good challenge, Honda moves the goalposts by rating them on the eco-friendliness of their driving style. At the end of each journey, the instrument panel displays how well they did.

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Google’s Gatekeepers

Nicole Wong and her colleagues decide what the world can see on YouTube. Are they also determining the limits of free speech? (Subscription required)

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Britain begins national identity card plan

Britain has begun a national identity card plan for some foreign nationals in an attempt to combat terrorism and identity fraud....

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Idea Lab: Becoming Screen Literate

How the moving image is upending the printed word. (Subscription required)

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Virgin America's Gogo Wi-Fi Takes to the Skies

This is Virgin America's in-the-clouds blowout bash to kick off its Gogo inflight wi-fi service—if the term "blowout bash" can be applied to a venue featuring oxygen masks and three-across seats bolted to the floor. Various YouTube personalities and a gaggle of press are on hand, squeezing their way up and down the aisles.

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Cooliris adds YouTube search, image save to iPhone app

One of the most visually stunning search applications on the iPhone has just been updated to support YouTube videos. Go get it.

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Google Lets Users Edit Search

Google has begun allowing users to re-rank and edit their search results through a new set of personalization features. (Subscription required)

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People-Powered Internet Grows Up

On today's Internet, algorithms rule. But a handful of startups are using large-scale human participation to offer online services that computers alone can't deliver. Can human judgment scale with the Web?

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Tivo Will Get Couch Potatoes Pizza

Domino's Pizza is offering a new service thanks to Tivo. Now you can order a pizza with a click of the remote. If you're fast forwarding through a Domino's commercial, you'll get a prompt asking if you want to order a pizza. The technology is a boon for companies which worry people aren't watching their ads anymore. And for consumers, it could be a hair faster than text messaging for a pizza, which you can do with the Papa John's chain. Or ordering off Pizza Hut's Facebook page. (Audio)

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Net Gen Transforms Marketing

The author of Grown Up Digital explains how Web savvy among the Net Generation (the boomers' kids) will change how goods are bought and sold.

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Fighting Traffic Jams With Data

Researchers are working on ways for cars to better communicate and relay crucial driver information. (Subscription required)

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The End of Instant Messaging (As We Know It)

Those pop-up chat boxes are giving way to a new raft of tools that help Web surfers communicate in real time.

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Software Giants Could Get Nipped by the New Frugality

Google Apps, Linux, and other free or inexpensive systems are winning more fans in the corporate world.

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Google Uses Searches to Track Flu’s Spread

Google is tracking the ebb and flow of Web queries like "flu symptoms" or "muscle aches" in an effort to identify outbreaks. (Subscription required)

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IBM Hired to Develop Power-Line Broadband

IBM plans to work with rural electricity cooperatives to provide high-speed Internet service over power lines. (Subscription required)

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Snail mail application for Facebook users (and their offline grandmothers)

Facebook users can already send real flowers and candy to their virtual friends, and now Peggy Mail allows them to send real postcards through snail mail. The application was inspired by a real-life but offline grandmother who found it increasingly difficult to stay in the loop with the younger and wired members of her family, the site explains.

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Google Adds Voice And Video Chat to Gmail

Watch out Skype (and Meebo and TokBox), Google is adding voice and video chat to Gmail today, all in one fell swoop.

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The Most Influential Women in Web 2.0

Women have been heavily instrumental in redefining the way we interact online. Here's a look at the most influential of these.

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How Digital Technology Has Changed the Brain

By their 20s, young people will have spent more than 30,000 hours on the Internet and playing video games. That's not such a bad thing.

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Technology critical for younger workers

Managers who ban the use of personal mobiles, instant messaging and social networks in the office risk an exodus of younger staff for whom technology is now a way of life.

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Nepali net

How one man connected his village to the web.

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I.B.M. Has Tech Answer for Woes of Economy

The company’s chief executive is to propose a technology-fueled economic recovery plan that calls for investment in more efficient systems for various public services. (Subscription required)

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FCC OKs Use of White Spaces to Deliver Broadband

The Federal Communications Commission votes to open up unused, unlicensed portions of the television airwaves known as "white spaces" to deliver wireless broadband service. The vote is a big victory for public interest groups and technology companies such as Google and Microsoft that say white spaces could be used to bring broadband to rural America and other underserved parts of the country.

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Link To The Best Parts In Your Videos (YouTube Blog)

Here at YouTube, we still pride ourselves in listening closely to our community and building what you ask for. In this spirit, we are pleased to announce the ability to "deep link" to YouTube videos. This means you can now not only link to a YouTube video itself, but you can also link directly to a specific time within each video.

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FCC Will Vote On Wireless Internet Access

The Federal Communications Commission votes Tuesday on whether to open up broadcast airwaves to deliver high-speed wireless Internet access. Tech companies like the idea. But they're facing powerful opposition from broadcasters, religious leaders and entertainers. (Audio)

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Google to sell books to be read only online

Google's next frontier: selling books to read online.

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One to show your boss: Facebook at work is 'not a time-waster'

Companies should not dismiss social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo as merely time-wasting, says a study.

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An Internet That's Out Of This World

Vint Cerf, the man widely regarded as the father of the Internet, is working with NASA to create an Internet for the rest of the solar system. When the U.S. sends devices into outer space it uses point-to-point radio communication systems that are tailored to individual spacecraft. Cerf is trying to create a standard protocol that can be used by various spacecraft. It'll be tested aboard the International Space Station in 2009. (Audio)

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The possibilities of a 'portable eye'

26 OCT 2008 from the Boston Globe | Read the full story»

A flash goes off when he snaps a picture of the menu, and a few seconds later, his phone has translated the page of text into speech, and started reciting the options through his earpiece at a rapid clip.

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Multi-Touch Without a Touch Screen

Microsoft has stepped up with a challenge to the Apple iPhone’s lauded multi-touch interface. The PC maker released their innovative SideSight system last week at the User Interface in Software and Technology Symposium. The technology allows users to control actions on a cell phone screen by moving their fingers along side the device. Infrared sensors pick up motions up to 10 centimeters away and translate them into movement on the screen. (Video )

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Time to Leave the Laptop Behind

27 OCT 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

For more mobile workers, phones increasingly give them much of what they need -- with a lot less hassle. (Subscription required)

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Is the Smartphone the Next PC Device?

IBM study shows mobile Internet users would ditch desktops for handsets.

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Click to play

Films at your local cinema this Friday will be: your choice

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Microsoft Aims for the Clouds With 'Windows Azure'

Microsoft launched its answer to Google and Amazon cloud computing hosting with Windows Azure. The online tools give developers the ability to cheaply host web applications using Microsoft technology. Azure's ambitious plans also promise to be the underlying technology powering the mesh of Microsoft's own web applications.

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Instant-on Dell desktop to debut next week

Users will have instant access to computer data and major applications without booting up the computer, said Jeff Clarke, senior vice president and general manager of Dell Product Group, who did not name the system. By doing so, it allows users to work with e-mail and documents without engaging the CPU and therefore uses less energy.

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Technology found to strengthen U.S. families

21 OCT 2008 from the San Francisco Chronicle | Read the full story»

Parents and children might rush through their days in different directions, but the American family is as tight-knit as in the last generation - or more so - because of the widespread use of cell phones and the Internet, according to a new poll.

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FCC Moves to Open Up Idle Airwaves For Gadgets

16 OCT 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Regulators moved closer to clearing the way for next-generation wireless devices and Internet services, dismissing claims they would create signal interference with TV stations, and setting up a vote on their use as soon as next month.

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Inside the BlackBerry Bold

16 OCT 2008 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

The smartphone race between upstart Apple (AAPL) and incumbents like Research In Motion (RIMM) is well under way. Picking winners has as much to do with what's inside these advanced wireless devices as the fancy features evident on the outside.

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Joost Reboots, But Is It Too Late?

When Internet TV startup Joost was launched in 2007, the buzz was that it would redefine television. After all, the company was backed by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the legendary European entrepreneurs behind music download site Kazaa and Net telephony giant Skype (EBAY). But a year later, after a variety of missteps, it's Joost that is redefining itself.

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Carcade!: Augmented Reality Videogaming From the Backseat

Carcade! is an inventive in-car augmented reality videogame that incorporates real-world objects and scenery into the game's landscape. Three students at the Berlin University of the Arts came up with the system that captures the outside environment via webcam and translates it into the game scenario.

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Social networking sites help companies boost productivity

7 OCT 2008 from USA Today | Read the full story»

Social networking is going corporate. The popular technology used by millions of people to share ideas and photos on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and others is catching on at companies to improve productivity and communication among workers.

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Put on Google's 'Mail Goggles' before you send that late-night e-mail

If you're the kind of person who types tipsy and regrets it in the morning, Google's "Mail Goggles," a new test-phase feature in the free Gmail service, might save you some angst. The Goggles can kick in late at night on weekends. The feature requires you to solve a few easy math problems in short order before hitting "send." If your logical thinking skills are intact, Google is betting you're sober enough to work out the repercussions of sending that screed you just drafted.

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Visual Computing Will Change Your Life

New 3D technology enables scientists to test pharmaceuticals and convenience store chains to check Snickers' inventory, but not everyone is ready for the change—and expense.

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A Look at the ‘Clickjacking’ Web Attack and Why You Should Worry

1 OCT 2008 from Webmonkey | Read the full story»

There’s a nasty new security threat making waves on the web. Actually, clickjacking, as this attack is known, isn’t entirely new, but because no one has yet come up with an effective solution, it remains a serious threat. And clickjacking is the worst sort of security risk — it’s transparent to the unwitting user, simple to implement and difficult to stop.

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'Oops I'm Late' phones ahead for you

Running late for a meeting? You phone can tell your contacts you won't be there in time.

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Congress Passes Bill to Help Save Net Radio

1 OCT 2008 from USA Today | Read the full story»

Congress has cleared the way for a potential agreement intended to save the emerging Internet radio market from a crippling hike in copyright royalty rates. ... Unless something is done, copyright royalties could eventually eat up as much as 70% of Internet radio industry revenue, by some estimates.

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Hack Apple TV With a Thumb Drive, Set It Free

1 OCT 2008 from Wired Blog Network | Read the full story»

A developer on Tuesday released a patch enabling Apple TV to play practically any DRM-free multimedia file with the insertion of a thumb drive into the box.

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Americans text more than they talk

Cell phone users in the U.S. have caught on to the texting craze. On a monthly basis, they send more SMS messages than make phone calls, according to a new survey.

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Google Launches Audio Indexing

Google Launches Audio Indexing  —  As the Web becomes more sophisticated and audio and video becomes a more important part of our online lives, we need something that will help us sift through the junk and find what we're looking for in all that content.

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Twitter unveils interface redesign

The popular microblogging site launches an interface overhaul, including a new design customizer that allows you to change the colors on your Twitter profile.

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SynergyNet Multi-Touch Desktops for Students

Researchers at Durham University are giving classrooms a makeover, replacing students’ wooden desktops with interactive multi-touch ones. Along with a team of educators and manufacturers, the researchers have recently unveiled SynergyNet, a hardware-software system similar to Microsoft Surface that offers an immersive and potentially more engaging learning experience for youngsters. Pupils using the interactive tables can, for example, work out math problems visually and physically (using their fingertips to move around units) or see the teacher’s blackboard demonstrations right on their desks. The system has already been implemented in one unnamed UK school and is expected to appear in other primary and secondary schools over the next few years.

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The Google Android Phone's Big Premiere

T-Mobile is set to unveil its HTC-built G1, the first mobile phone based on software from the Google-led Open Handset Alliance.

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Business microblog tool Present.ly is smarter than Yammer

And the flood of corporate Twitter-alikes has not even begun.

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Backchannel Adds Competitive Chat to TV

MTV is launching a new social game called Backchannel. It’s a kind of competitive chat, meant to be played while watching episodes of The Hills. Players can type in short, witty comments about the drama unfolding on screen. If others like your blurbs, they can click on it, which will give you more points.

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Internet in the Sky: Surf but Don’t Call

New technology lets you get broadband Internet service while in flight, but airlines have erected technological barriers to block VoIP, as the debate over public cellphone use continues. (Subscription required)

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GoPlanit lets you shuffle travel plans like a music playlist

GoPlanit helps you plan trips by automatically engineering itineraries. If you're in a city you've never been to it will fill in things for you to do.

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IPhone Takes Screenshots of Everything You Do Says Hacker

In a webcast Thursday, iPhone hacker and data-forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski explained that the iPhone stores a screenshot of everything you do -- and that these screenshots are potentially accessible to hackers and law enforcement officials.

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Media Bias? Not if This Web Site Can Help It

08 SEP 2008 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

SpinSpotter, the product of a self-avowed conservative and a progressive, claims it can sniff out spin in news stories.

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Twittering From the Cradle

10 SEP 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Call it convenient. Call it baby overshare. But a host of new sites, including Totspot, Odadeo, Lil’Grams and Kidmondo, now offer parents a chance to forgo the e-mail blasts of, say, their newborn’s first trip home and instead invite friends and family to join and contribute to a network geared to connecting them to the baby in their lives. (Subscription required)

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NYC's 911 system upgraded to accept photos, video

Tipsters can now send images from computers and Web-enabled cell phones and PDAs to the city's 911 and non-emergency hot lines to report crimes and quality-of-life issues.

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Brave New World of Digital Intimacy

The effects of News Feed, Twitter and other forms of incessant online contact. (Subscription required)

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New laptops leap hurdles to booting up quickly

04 SEP 2008 from USA TODAY | Read the full story»

Laptops can take up to five or more minutes to be turned on and ready for use, depending on their age and the amount of software and junk files in the hard drive. The older the computer, the longer it takes to boot. An instant-on feature, such as Splashtop, gets around the problem by avoiding Microsoft Windows. Push the button, and in a few seconds, a Linux-based "mini-operating system" is activated. It lets you use some popular tools, such as an Internet browser, Web e-mail and instant messaging, as well as make Skype phone calls and open attachments.

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On Internet, You’ve Got (Paper) Mail

03 SEP 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Earth Class Mail [is] a service that scans your incoming United States Postal Service mail and displays it on a private Web page. (Subscription required)

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Report: Internet Capacity Keeps Pace With Demand

Do not worry about conserving bandwidth: The internet's tubes aren't close to full, a new report finds. Internet capacity grew more than 60 percent in the last year and is growing faster than demand, even in the age of online video.

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Lines and Bubbles and Bars, Oh My! New Ways to Sift Data

30 AUG 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

An experimental Web site allows users to upload the data they want to visualize, then try sophisticated tools to generate interactive displays. (Subscription required)

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Google: Cloud Computing's Chrome Lining

What Google's browser suggests about the way the search giant views the Web.

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Google to Release Web Browser

Should Microsoft worry, or Mozilla?

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MBA schools take new tack in studies

The Graduate Management Admission Council says MBA applicatons are up this year. Joel Podolny, dean of the Yale School of Management, discusses with Kai Ryssdal how students are now using the tools of the Internet to study business cases.

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Ex-Googlers Want to Change RSS for the Better

The founders of social networking service FriendFeed want to improve RSS, the current standard for publishing website content to subscribers. Their proposal, called the Simple Update Protocol (SUP), would provide more timely updates and allow readers to get the news they care about faster and more efficiently.

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The Death of Planned Obsolescence

11 AUG 2008 from Slate | Read the full story»

To appreciate how amazing this is, imagine if the same rules held sway in the car industry. Five years after you bought it, you could take your beater to the shop, and after a quick patch it'd be blessed with electronic stability control, a more fuel-efficient engine, and a radio that received satellite broadcasts.

Hat tip: PSFK

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Google may let users comment on, rearrange search results

[I]t's not known whether Google would factor the rearranging of results by users into the overall computation for ranking results for those specific queries. It's also not clear whether search result comments would be made available to anyone to read.

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Search Comments with Backtype

Backtype is a new tool that aggregates comments posted throughout the blogosphere and makes them searchable by keywords or commenters' names.

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IE8 Catches Up, Shows Improvements With Beta 2

Microsoft released the latest beta version of its next browser Wednesday. IE8 Beta 2 shows off some new features -- some of which feel oddly familiar -- as well as some innovations that make the browser easier to use for everyday surfers.

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VoIP Goes Mobile

Gorilla Mobile and other carriers are allowing cell-phone users to make calls for virtually free using Internet technology

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Obama's Text Message Experiment

The Obama camp promised to deliver news of the Democratic candidate's vice presidential choice by text message and e-mail. It didn't quite go according to plan. We examine what went wrong and right during this new media experiment. (Audio)

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Microsoft loosens code shackles

Microsoft is to make it easier for big customers to move its software onto different machines.

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Making Remote Check Deposit Real

The technology to deposit checks remotely is here. Small banks gain convenience—and a way to compete with their larger counterparts.

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37signals on Github

For the unenlightened, Git is a distributed version control system that's recently taken the software development world by storm. It's what we use to manage all of our source code at 37signals. GitHub is an online service providing Git repository hosting and collaboration tools ...

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7 Tips for New Twitter Users

20 AUG 2008 from Global Neighborhoods | Read the full story»

Unlike most social media tools, Twitter takes a while to understand. It took me about 30 days to figure out that it was among my most valuable tools and it was brought home by chance. I was in Boston and Twitter let me see that my friend Jeremiah Owyang was in a nearby hotel. We had dinner. Not a big deal, but this space of 140-character spoonfuls let me know that a realworld friend was nearby and available.

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Numbers game

Bill Thompson is not alarmed by net meltdown fears ...

"We journalists like nothing more than a forthcoming apocalypse, especially when it involves something that most people don't properly understand. ... It has got a lot harder to write this sort of story about the internet over the years as more and more of us are online from home, work or school and have some idea about how the network operates.

"You can still get a good 'internet meltdown' headline out of projections that show we're using up all the bandwidth and filling up our network with spam - I've done it myself."

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YippieMove Offers Email Portability

Here’s the scenario: you’ve got a college email account you’re about to lose, or a crufty old AOL or CompuServe address you want to ditch. You could forward all of your old mails to a new account - but do you have the time? YippieMove is betting that it’s worth $9.95 to you to have them do it instead. For that money, plus the credentials to log in to your old account, YippieMove will shuffle all (up to 10GB and 10,000 messages) of your mail via IMAP to a GMail mailbox, preserving the folder structure.

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Will "Social Storytelling" Hit The Mainstream?

06 AUG 2008 from Three Minds | Read the full story»

With the prevalence of user generated content, wikis and crowdsourcing, it feels like it is only a matter of time before the storytelling medium becomes more collaborative. But, sites have had mixed success in bringing this trend forward.

Hat tip: russell davies

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Japan to Aggressively Market Cell Phone Tech Abroad

Japan will begin to aggressively market its cutting-edge mobile technology abroad, especially the nation's popular "wallet phone." The Asian nation boasts some of the most sophisticated cell phones in the world -- delivering high-speed Internet connections, digital TV broadcasts and video downloads -- but has failed to make a mark overseas

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Are You Ready for Social Mapping?

Are you ready for social mapping?

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Wake Up, Neo

A lot of people constantly check their e-mail accounts. They also check if anybody has commented on their blogs and check for text messages. But messages are usually disappointing and mundane. (Audio)

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Intel Takes Next Step in Remote PC Access

Intel has developed technology to remotely power up personal computers, letting users retrieve files over an Internet connection. (Subscription required)

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Can Online Video Support Its Next Generation?

Video creators need to distribute, organize, and promote their content, and multiple startups are building on what YouTube already provides.

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Goodbye, Passwords. You Aren’t a Good Defense.

Tired of creating and changing Web site passwords? Many experts propose dropping passwords entirely for a security system based on cryptography.(Subscription required)

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Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise: McKinsey Global Survey Results

AUG 2008 from the McKinsey Quarterly | Read the full story»

Companies have adopted more Web 2.0 tools this year than in 2007 and are using them for higher-value purposes, according to McKinsey’s second annual survey on the business use of Web 2.0 technologies. (Subscription required)

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Old tech could deliver $12 computer

First, the $100 laptop. Now, computers as inexpensive as $12. An MIT team hopes to create the low-cost machines by looking to technology from the early days of computing.

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Giant online security hole getting fixed, slowly

A giant vulnerability in the Internet's design is allowing criminals to silently redirect traffic to Web sites under their control. The problem is being fixed, but its extent remains unknown and many people are still at risk....

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Cloud Computing: Small Companies Take Flight

Small businesses are flocking to the new services, which provide secure IT infrastructure with little up-front investment and no heavy lifting ...

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Microsoft sees end of Windows era

Details have emerged of the software that could take over after Windows has been retired.

Microsoft has kicked off a research project to create software that will take over when it retires Windows. Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft's older programs. It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC.

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37signals Live debuting [TODAY!] at 3pm CST

Over the years we've received hundreds (thousands?) of emails asking us our opinion on this, how we'd do that, what we think of this idea or that idea. People ask about Getting Real, entrepreneurship, business models, hiring, collaboration, design decisions, tech-related stuff.

We also really enjoy the Q&A sessions at the end of our talks whenever we present at a conference or workshop. We always try to leave ample time to answer as many questions as we can. We've always believed live Q&A is the best part of any talk (and unfortunately there never seems to be enough time left over at the end to get to everyone's questions).

So we've decided to take a page out of Gary Veynerchuck's book and do a 37signals Live Q&A session on the web. We don't know how well it's going to work, but we're going to give it a shot.

The first session will be tomorrow [today!--Ed. tpws] August 5th at 3pm CST (what’s that in my time zone?).

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Welcome to Web 3.0: Now Your Other Computer Is a Data Center

This guest post is written by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. He has been widely recognized for pioneering innovation with honors such as the 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, the SDForum Visionary Award, Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year by the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business, and being ranked No. 7 on the Top 100 Most Influential People in IT survey by eWEEK.

For almost ten years now, we have been witnessing a decisive shift from client-server software to software as a service. Google, eBay, and Amazon.com established the value of multi-tenant internet applications in the consumer market, and salesforce.com, Google, and others have been proving that this same multi-tenant model is winning in the enterprise as well.

This shift to Web-based applications has generated two powerful waves so far. Now, we are seeing a third wave—one that we are calling Web 3.0—and it may prove to be the most significant and disruptive yet to the traditional software industry.

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Signal converter boxes are pretty easy to set up

Most of the U.S. television audience won't have to do a thing to prepare for the coming demise of analog TV. With few exceptions, ...

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Face swapper software protects privacy

Kevin Kelly writes about software created by Dmitri Bitouk and Neeraj Kumar of Columbia University that "de-indentifies" people in photos to protect their privacy.

Face swapping software finds faces in a photograph and swaps the features in the target face from a library of faces. This can be used to "de-identify" faces that appear in public, such as the faces of people caught by the cameras of Google Street View. So instead of simply blurring the face, the software can substitute random features taken from say Flickr's pool of faces. A mouth here, an eye there.

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New YouTube Audio Compression Stymies Uploaders

Google's wildly popular YouTube recently changed something about its audio-compression algorithm, making some newly uploaded music sound truly awful

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Delicious 2.0 Launches. Really. It Totally Launched.

31 JUL 2008 from TechCrunch | Read the full story»

YAY! The long awaited, much promised, never delivered Delicious 2.0 will launch in the next few minutes, just like they promised again last week.

The new Delicious is just like the old Delicious, except for the way it looks. They’re also promising that it will be “faster, easier to learn,” and “hopefully more desirable.”

Users will [have] to log into their accounts and get a new browser cookie.

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Microsoft backs open source work

Software giant Microsoft has pledged to give both financial help and code to open source projects.

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10 Web 2.0 Ideas that Failed

The Web is an extremely fickle place. A Web service can be hot today, and dead in the water tomorrow. While there's no true science for determining exactly what makes one stick while another languishes, there's a lot to be learned after one fails. Considering a startup? Here are 10 recent failures to add to your case studies.

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How To Lose Your Cuil 20 Seconds After Launch

The hype cycle now lasts less than a day.  Take yesterday's over-hyped launch of stealth search startup Cuil, which was quickly followed by a backlash when everyone realized that it was selling a bill of goods.  This was entirely the company's own fault.

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Study: Internet attacks are coming faster

More and more of computer attacks via the Internet are coming within 24 hours after a vulnerability is disclosed.

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Google Beats the Bears

Despite analyst nay-saying and fewer paid ad clicks leading up to its first-quarter earnings announcement, the search giant reports solid growth.

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Recent customer wins for open source

Open source is winning, one customer at a time.

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Artificial tongue mimics human speech

An animatronic tongue designed to show how much energy people use to talk could improve speech-recognition software (subscription required)

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Robert Scoble on Twitter

JUL 2008 from Fast Company | Read the full story»

-I am using RSS less and less lately. Mostly due to FriendFeed, but also because of Twitter ...

-People worry about companies starting to use Twitter for marketing. If companies misuse Twitter, block or unfollow them. Problem solved. Remember, it's who you follow that defines you...

-Twitter is the public square. Lots of noise, little signal. Blogs are like a speech. Signal, but little noise ...

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GigaOM Interview: Michael Dell

28 JUL 2008 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

Last week, at the Fortune Brainstorm: Tech Conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif., I caught up with Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell (DELL), the Round Rock (Tex.) computer hardware maker. He's been trying to get Dell's mojo back for over a year now, and in the past three months, things have started to come together, with sales, profits, and stock price beginning to move in the right direction.

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Beware the Hype for Software as a Service

24 JUL 2008 from BusinessWeek | Read the full story»

What's called SaaS, or on-demand software, needs some debunking. For starters, it isn't cheap, and your data aren't secure

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Attacks begin on net address flaw

25 JUL 2008 from BBC News | Technology | Read the full story»

Attackers could use the loophole to redirect web users to fake sites
Attack code that exploits flaws in the net's addressing system are starting to circulate online, say security experts.

The code could be a boon to phishing gangs who redirect web users to fake bank sites and steal login details.

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Networking Together

22 JUL 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Firms Join Forces On Social Networks To Raise Profiles

Last year, Matt Milletto, director of training for the American Barista & Coffee School in Portland, Ore., had an idea for generating some buzz around the specialty coffee industry: Why not create an online social network where independent coffee-house owners, baristas, roasters and java lovers could swap tips and stories, pose questions or arrange to meet in person?

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Smaller PCs Cause Worry for Industry

In a tale of sales success breeding resentment, computer firms are worried the new breed of computers’ low price could threaten already thin profit margins. (Subscription required)

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Unlike John McCain, Many Seniors Rely on the Net

Blogs are buzzing over Sen. John McCain's recent admission that he's internet illiterate. According to data compiled by the Pew Internet Project, McCain is unusual for a college-educated white man over the age of 65.

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Advertisers Get More Social

Social networking tools open to marketers, who try to tread lightly.

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Curtains for desktops? If not now, when?

The statistics are starting to bear out the anecdotal evidence: Desktops are on their way out.

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Say goodbye to the computer mouse

Gestural interfaces could spell the end for the humble computer mouse says analyst company Gartner.

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For Half a Cent, a Call That Informs, and Annoys

The growing number of automated calls has alarmed privacy lovers and those who resist commercialism. (Subscription required)

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The Future of Retail: Instant Price Match

The obvious future of in-store experience: you find something you like, reach into your pocket for a small device, scan the barcode, and the device tells you whether and were the same product is available for a lower price. Brick-and-mortar stores become little more than showrooms for merchandise bought elsewhere... If you are a store, you might consider investing into a cell phone jammer...

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Why Some Hate Apple's 3G iPhone

Why Apple's latest isn't winning everyone over.

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Crowdsourced tagging tool makes photos searchable

It's not much good having a vast collection of photos if you can't organize and search through them in an intuitive way, but tagging capabilities have so far proven beyond the scope of most photo sharing websites. And while digital photography makes it very easy to shoot thousands of images, most digital photographers lack the time and patience to tag those individual photos. Tagcow aims to provide a convenient solution by automatically tagging users' photos with descriptive keywords that can later be used to find them.

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Nehru Place

09 JUL 2008 from Our Delhi Struggle | Read the full story»

Nehru Place is Delhi’s retail cluster for computers. Laptop repair specialists next to laptop repair specialists, hardware shops next to hardware shops, and printer cartridge vendors as far as the eye can see... You can’t imagine that this place once didn’t exist. The ancient old man screwdriving logic boards must have learned the trade from his father; the overstuffed cubicles must contain computers dating back to the Raj. Nehru Place is the new subsumed by the old: the greatest advances of humankind brought into a market that feels centuries unchanged.

Hat tip: BoingBoing

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How Mobile Boosts Productivity

Tech consultancy Ovum has produced a report that looks at the wireless industry's impact on American productivity. They say that by 2016 the value of the combined mobile wireless voice and broadband productivity gains to the US economy will equal $427 billion per year - a figure that would exceed productivity from today’s motor vehicle manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries combined. Big winners will be healthcare and small business.

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Microblogging: Twitter and Other Blogging Tools

Microblogging is huge, but should anyone care?

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Three Statistics That Lie

07 JUL 2008 from Silicon Alley Insider | Read the full story»

In the realm of web statistics, there are three numbers that are great to use if you want to tell lies. They are: RSS subscriber numbers, Facebook app install numbers, [and] follower numbers on Twitter, Friendfeed, Tumblr, or some other social media service.

Hat tip: PSFK

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As Web Traffic Grows, Crashes Take Bigger Toll

06 JUL 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Alex Payne, a 24-year-old Internet engineer here, has devised a way to answer a commonly asked question of the digital age: Is my favorite Web site working today? In March, Mr. Payne created downforeveryoneorjustme.com, as in, "Down for everyone, or just me?" It lets visitors type in a Web address and see whether a site is generally inaccessible or whether the problem is with their own connection. (Subscription required)

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Government starts data mash-up

The UK government launches a competition to find innovative ways of using the masses of data it collects.

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Google, Yahoo to Make Flash Searchable

Showing that they can agree on something, the two search engine giants develop a means to index Web pages loaded with Flash animations.

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The rising cost of texting

Text message prices have risen as quickly as gas prices at the pump over the past two years. What gives?

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Charging mobile phones by dancing

As users move their arms along with the music, a specially designed system of weights and magnets creates an electrical current that gets stored as charge in a reserve battery. That energy can then be used to recharge a mobile phone.

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Group Suggests an Exchange to Trade Internet Capacity

There are exchanges where you can buy and sell stocks, pork bellies, wine and even pollution allowances. Why not an exchange for the trading of digital bits and bytes?

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New Flavors for Addresses on the Web Are on the Way

Icann voted to permit the introduction of Web addresses ending in words like .paris and .sports, making the most sweeping changes to the network’s address system since its creation. (Subscription required)

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Privacy on the Web: Is It a Losing Battle?

What if you visited an investment site and found advertising messages suggesting therapies for your recently diagnosed heart condition? Chances are you would experience what Fran Maier, executive director of TrustE, a nonprofit advocate of online privacy, calls the "creepiness factor." Maier and several others discussed the challenges of maintaining online privacy -- amid rising Internet use and plummeting costs of data storage and tracking -- at the recent Supernova conference in San Francisco.

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All-Seeing Car Reads Road Signs For You

General Motors builds a car that reads signs and warns drivers when they're straying into another lane, giving people yet another reason not to focus on the task at hand.

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Chrysler Brings 'Infobahn' to Autobahn

Chrysler wants to turn your car into a rolling WiFi hotspot where you check your Facebook profile, upload pictures to Flickr, and eventually be part of a nationwide traffic-control network.

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Supercomputing Power Hits the Desktop, Minus the Software

[C]heap access to such formidable computing power could mean that, over the next few years, we will see an explosion of new independent research along with profound new discoveries, analysts say.

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The Web Time Forgot

17 JUN 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

As the Mundaneum museum prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Thursday, the curators are planning to release part of the original collection onto the present-day Web. That event will not only be a kind of posthumous vindication for Otlet, but it will also provide an opportunity to re-evaluate his place in Web history. Was the Mundaneum (mun-da-NAY-um) just a historical curiosity — a technological road not taken — or can his vision shed useful light on the Web as we know it? (Subscription required)

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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Internet-a-Gogo: Airlines to Offer In-Flight Access

19 JUN 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

For fliers who want to stay connected while in the air, in-flight Internet system Gogo does the job. (with video )
(Subscription required)

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Investigating Employees' E-Mail Use

Co-host Steve Inskeep talks to Elizabeth Charnock, CEO of Cataphora. The California-based firm helps companies in legal matters by investigating patterns of employee e-mail use. (Audio)

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At Social Site, Only the Businesslike Need Apply

In the midst of Silicon Valley’s recession-proof enthusiasm for community-oriented Web sites, LinkedIn, the most boring of the social networks, is grabbing the spotlight. (Subscription required)

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Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast

14 JUN 2008 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Some of the biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and I.B.M., are banding together to fight information overload. Last week they formed a nonprofit group to study the problem, publicize it and devise ways to help workers — theirs and others — cope with the digital deluge. (Subscription required)

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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Wikipedia Breaking News Faster Than NBC?

Someone mysteriously updated Tim Russert’s Wikipedia entry with news of his death a full 30 minutes before the story broke on NBC. IP address records indicate that the edits came from Internet Broadcasting, a company that runs websites for NBC’s Local Media Division. It’s also rumored that the news was hitting Twitter even before the Wikipedia edits. With our current capabilities of easily disseminating information, this kind of citizen journalism can come from anyone, and can easily outpace traditional media.

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Software Lets Senders Assign Value to E-Mails

Seriosity, a Silicon Valley startup, thinks economics will help people learn which of their e-mails have value. The company has created software that lets a sender attach value to an e-mail to denote how important it is. The idea is to get people to send messages that are truly important. (Audio)

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Verizon: Drop your landline, get a discount

Wireless operator says it will offer discounts to landline-free wireless customers who combine Internet or TV service from the company.

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Potential new weapon against TB: free cell minutes

Researchers at MIT believe they've discovered a new weapon in the battle against tuberculosis: Free cellphone minutes.

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WiFi in the Sky May Mean Big Bucks for Airlines

Airlines are rushing to adopt technology that would let you surf the web at 36,000 feet, and with good reason -- sales of in-flight broadband service could top $1 billion by 2012.

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Is Google Making Us Stupid?

JUL/AUG 2008 from the Atlantic | Read the full story»

What the Internet is doing to our brains...

For me, as for others, the Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and they’ve been widely described and duly applauded. “The perfect recall of silicon memory,” Wired’s Clive Thompson has written, “can be an enormous boon to thinking.” But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation.

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Understanding "Cloud Computing"

Is computer software becoming obsolete?

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Apple unveils iPhone 2, both the phone and the business

Everyone knew the iPhone 3G was coming, but Apple quietly changed the way the iPhone is sold Monday in addition to releasing a next-generation product.

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Geek Girls: Revenge of the Nerdettes

As geeks become chic in all levels of society, an unlikely subset is starting to roar. Meet the Nerd Girls: they're smart, they're techie and they're hot.

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FCC chief's free broadband plan delayed

A plan by the nation's top telecommunications regulator to provide free wireless high-speed Internet service hit a snag this week over concerns about possible interference and a proposed censoring feature that upset free speech advocates....

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Study secretly tracks foreign cellphone users: They don't roam

Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cellphone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

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How the Web Was Won

Vanity Fair:
How the Web Was Won — Fifty years ago, in response to the surprise Soviet launch of Sputnik, the U.S. military set up the Advanced Research Projects Agency. It would become the cradle of connectivity, spawning the era of Google and YouTube, of Amazon and Facebook, of the Drudge Report and the Obama campaign.

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Comcast to test new way to manage Internet jams

Comcast, under fire for the way it treats subscriber Internet traffic, will start tests this week to see if it can avoid traffic jams by targeting neighborhood bandwidth hogs rather than file-sharing programs.

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BoltBus fleet has free Wi-Fi, power in every seat

30 MAY 2008 from bb Gadgets | Read the full story»

A new bus service called "BoltBus" offers free Wi-Fi an power outlets in all its vehicles. I just looked up the rate from New York to Boston (my most typical bus trip) and it's twice as much as the Chinatown options...which leaves it at a very affordable $20. I'd gladly pay $10 extra for Wi-Fi through the whole trip, even if it is likely just a 3G or satellite connection split between everyone on the bus. BoltBus currently services New York, Boston, Philly, and D.C.

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The Dawn of Free Internet Access?

The FCC is considering auctioning off a slice of spectrum with a free provision -- meaning millions of Americans could eventually enjoy free, broadband web access.

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Tech Industry Fueling Palestinian Economic Hopes

The talent and desire are there, but the region's torment has retarded economic growth, especially in the tech sector. But the Palestinians are reaching out to foreign partners to jump-start things, and finding them -- even Israelis.

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Mefeedia introduces news video search

Video search site launches a news video search feature, which tracks the content of news sources ranging from The Wall Street Journal to TMZ.

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Next-gen Internet will create bigger digital divide

The lack of high-speed Internet access in some areas of the U.S. has been hotly debated, even as that digital divide has narrowed. But a new, wider gap is being created by technology that will make today's broadband feel as slow as a dial-up connection.

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Global Dreams for a Wireless Web

An entrepreneur is trying to cover the Earth with Web access, one hot spot at a time. But his big idea is encountering equally big obstacles.

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Why the "mobile Internet" is a poor investment

Joi Ito, a shrewd Japanese/American venture capitalist, has written a great little blog-post about why he's not so hot to invest in the "mobile Internet." Basically, when a heavily regulated, big stupid phone company controls your "internet," then your ability to innovate and do cool stuff and make money is entirely predicated on the regulator's or the stupid phone company's willingness to allow that to happen.

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Prototype: Cloud Computing: So You Don’t Have to Stand Still

The term "cloud computing" means outsourcing computing resources — processing, storage, messaging, databases and so on — and paying only for what you use. (Subscription required)

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The 10 most annoying habits of technology companies

We surveyed readers at PCWorld.com and found that you've had your fill of such annoying policies and practices as well... Hoping for a little retribution -- or at least some explanations -- we went knocking on the doors of Apple, Intuit, Sony, Symantec, and other perpetrators of bad behavior. We didn't always receive good answers (or sometimes any answer -- Apple didn't bother to return our calls), but we did put these companies on notice: Annoyed customers frequently turn into ex-customers.

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Life, Death and Twitter on the African Savannah

For veteran wildlife ranger Joseph Kimojino, the traditional tools of his trade -- binoculars, off-road jeep and a rifle -- have been supplemented by Twitter, Flickr and a blog.

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Explaining The Internet With Paper

Common Craft is a fun site that makes videos which explain web technologies in plain English. The videos use good old fashioned paper signs and diagrams to breakdown complex processes. A healthy dose of humor and simple animation gives it the feel of a tutorial for kids, but that’s why it’s so brilliant. For people who have no clue what RSS or wiki means, this basic approach could be a huge help.

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New $100 Laptop Unveiled

Yesterday, at OLPC’s Global Country Workshop in Cambridge, Mass., One Laptop per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte previewed the second generation of the much discussed $100 laptop. Dubbed the XO-2, the versatile new model will apparently be half the size of the original and feature two touch-sensitive, indoor-and-sunlight displays.

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Pay-By-Phone to Arrive in 2012

An article in Reuters claims that NFC (Near Field Communication) - the technology that enables people to make small payments by flashing their handsets over sensors, is likely to reach the American masses by 2012, when one phone out of every five sold will feature the wireless communication technology.

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All-you-can-read digital magazines

Through a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Relay's fixed-price program—Eco forfait—lets consumers receive unlimited magazines of their choice (not including adult ones) for a price of EUR 17.90 per month.

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New Sites Make It Easier To Spy on Your Friends

13 MAY 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

If you are still relying on Google to snoop on your friends, you are behind the curve. Armed with new and established Web sites, people are uncovering surprising details about colleagues, lovers and strangers that often don't turn up in a simple Internet search. Though none of these sites can reveal anything that isn't already available publicly, they can make it much easier to find. And most of them are free. (Subscription required)

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Consumers ditching land-line phones

Traditional land-line phones, once the bedrock of communications in the USA, are quickly going the way of eight-track tapes...

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Welcome to the social mess?

With new data portability projects from Facebook, MySpace, and Google, the social-networking experience is on the verge of getting either a lot smoother or a lot sloppier.

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Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits

Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites have been the rage of the tech industry for more than a year.

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Nationalize Twitter? Hmm, not so fast

A lot of chatter recently that Twitter has become vital to our daily lives--with some suggesting it to a question of national security.

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U.S. lawmakers introduce new net neutrality bill

Two Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would subject broadband providers to antitrust violations if they block or slow Internet traffic.

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How Little Do Users Read?

06 MAY 2008 from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox | Read the full story»

On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.

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Technology Group Plans Wireless Network

A who’s who of technology and telecommunications companies announced Wednesday that it intends to build the first of a new generation of nationwide wireless data networks. (Subscription required)

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U.S. airlines bump up digital fun

More airlines are rolling out high-end in-flight entertainment products in the economy cabin, ushering in an era in which passengers have greater control and selection of movies, songs and video games.

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Itineraries: Free Wi-Fi, but Not for All

As travelers demand free Internet access, and providers seek revenue, a compromise is emerging to offer both free and paid options. (Subscription required)

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If You Use Outlook E-Mail, Meet Xobni

The free downloadable software can index all of your Outlook e-mail and make messages quickly and easily searchable. (Subscription required)

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'Cloud Computing' Puts Computer Resources on Tap

A new technology aims to make computer power, like electricity, a pay-as-you-go enterprise, potentially bringing supercomputing to the masses. Craig Balding, an information technology security expert for a Fortune 500 company, talks about what is known as "cloud computing." (Audio)

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Home Tweet Home: Energy-Savvy House Broadcasts on Twitter

IT engineers with a bent for home improvement are taking their energy monitoring onto the Internet. One house Twitters about its energy usage while another broadcasts to its human overlords about what's in the fridge.

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Web in infancy, says Berners-Lee

The world wide web is "still in its infancy", the web's inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee tells BBC News.

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Medical Advances—Through Your iPhone?

Researchers are beginning to understand how mobile phones can cut costs, help solve rural health-care problems, and even reduce medical errors.

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Short-term mobile internet for travellers

Travellers who need internet access on the road typically have two choices: either limit their use to the confines of hotel or café wifi—which can be pricey—or subscribe to long-term and expensive broadband data card services. New York-based RovAir now offers a third option with its day-pass wireless mobile broadband service.

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How to Fix the Web

"Please say who you are, what you do, and how the Web is screwed up." How's that for an icebreaker? That was the way Kevin Lynch, Adobe's CTO, grabbed his audience at the company's annual developers event this year, throwing open a discussion about what we don't like about the Web and what we'd like to see fixed.

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Broadband 2.0 Poised to Reshape Web, TV

Experts say this increased bandwidth -- when it becomes widely available -- will have a profound effect on everything from our social interactions on the web to the way we consume media.

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Student 'Twitters' his way out of Egyptian jail

28 APR 2008 from CNN | Read the full story»

James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone.

Hat tip: Biz Stone

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Taipei Commuters Use Mobile Phones as Digital Wallets

Asia Scout Network point us to commuters in Taipei, Taiwan who are using their mobile phones to make traveling a bit more convenient. Mobile phone users attach a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip to their mobile SIM card and transportation fees can then be charged via the Easy card system, eliminating the need to buy and carry a ticket for each trip. The system can be used to pay for Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), buses and parking fees.

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Stark warning for internet's future

Is the future of the open and innovative internet at risk? With the second billion of the planet's citizens due to go online in the next 10 years and an avalanche of online-enabled devices hitting the market with each passing year it would be understandable to assume that the internet is in a healthy position.

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Microsoft not ruling out Windows XP extension

LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer offered a glimmer of hope on Thursday to fans of the company's Windows XP operating system, saying the company may reconsider its decision to stop selling it soon....

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Microsoft Reveals a Web-Based Software System

The new system, called Live Mesh, is Microsoft’s most ambitious step yet in tying its personal computer business more closely to software running in remote data centers. (Subscription required)

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Microsoft's Tellme launches BlackBerry voice search

Microsoft Corp.'s Tellme subsidiary launched an application for the BlackBerry on Tuesday that lets people speak commands into their smart phones to search for businesses, look up movie times, check traffic and make other queries....

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New Service Will Monitor Your Site For Typos

Automatic spell check has been built into many browsers for years, but typos continue to plague even the most reputable websites (and print media, for that matter). Recognizing this fact, a number of services have emerged that will continuously monitor your site for spelling errors. Spellr.us, currently in a registration-required beta, plans to offer hourly, daily, and weekly sweeps of your site, and will provide a visual snapshot of a page with errors clearly marked with strikethroughs.

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A Slice of German Wikipedia to Be Captured on Paper

In an odd experiment in reverse publishing, a collection of Wikipedia articles in Germany is being produced in book form by a major publisher. (Subscription required)

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Web Could Run Out of Gas by 2010

Growth in broadband traffic may mean we reach the limit of the Internet's physical capacity by 2010, according to AT&T. Investment in infrastructure is needed.

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Gadgets at Work: The Blurring Boundary between Consumer and Corporate Technologies

The boundaries between work and play are beginning to disappear as consumer technologies -- including social networking tools, user generated content and wikis -- are increasingly adopted by corporate America. For technology companies, this emerging "consumerization" trend represents an opportunity, but it also brings new management challenges as companies struggle to embrace these technologies in a way that doesn't limit their usefulness but also doesn't result in lost time or money. And while there may be productivity gains for corporations that experiment with integrating the latest consumer gadgets, security remains the deal breaker, say experts at Wharton.

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Lexicon: Meet Facebook's answer to Google Zeitgeist

Members will be able to search for phrases on the site to see just how often they were talked about in public "wall" posts, according to the company. Cool or voyeuristic? Could be both.

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what if products could twitter?

As chip technology gets ever smaller and cheaper, it's possible that most things will have the ability to share information with their owners. Even something as simple as deodorant bottle could send you a "money off next purchase" message when it's running low.

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Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?

Why a corporate "user anthropologist" is spending so much of his time in the shantytowns of the world. (Subscription required)

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More cities offer Wi-Fi on buses

More cities across the USA now offer wireless Internet connections on buses, according to the American Public Transportation ...

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When Tech Innovation Has a Social Mission

For decades, Silicon Valley has been defined by the tension between the technologist’s urge to share information and the industrialist’s incentive to profit. (Subscription required)

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Nationwide text message alert system approved

Federal regulators Wednesday approved a plan to create a nationwide emergency alert system using text messages delivered to cellphones.

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Yahoo's Flickr Expands Into Online Video

Yahoo Inc. will begin showing homemade videos on its online photo-sharing site, Flickr, in a long-anticipated move that may be too late to lure most people away from the Internet's dominant video channel, Google Inc.'s YouTube....

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Google Offers to Host Services on App Engine

Google is offering to host enterprise Web applications on its own infrastructure with a new tool for developers, App Engine. (Subscription required)

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EU Flights Just Got Irritating; In-Flight Cell Calls OKd

Air travelers will be able to talk, text and e-mail in European airspace after EU regulators approve the use of mobile phones during flights.

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Mobile Services Boom in India

Indians are using their cell phones—some 300 million have subscriptions, vs. only 30 million PCs—as a "one-stop shop" for everything from e-mailing to banking.

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Email Isn't a Natural Fit For Tech-Savvy Chinese

03 APR 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Many Chinese prefer traditional, face-to-face meetings, or at least one-to-one phone calls and text messages sent via cellphone. And in China's go-go climate, instant responses are greatly valued. For many people I know, email is an afterthought -- they'd rather chat via instant message. (Subscription required)

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In-Flight WiFi Coming Soon

American Airlines is one step closer to offering in-flight broadband access to it’s passengers. Aircell, the airline’s in-flight internet provider, just received approval from the FAA to begin producing and employing it’s broadband connectivity gear on any aircraft cleared to use it. The service will initially be limited to transcontinental US flights, but will eventually roll out to shorter flights. Both companies expect to debut the service by the end of 2008.

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Computers to merge with humans

People will become ever more reliant on machines says a report on the future of human-computer interaction.

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Amazon Launches Text-Message Shopping

Amazon.com Inc.'s brick-and-mortar competitors have yet another reason to fear the Web: a new service that lets shoppers compare prices and buy things with a few quick taps on their cell phones....

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Phones Will Soon Tell Where You Are

28 MAR 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Would you want other people to know, all day long, exactly where you are, right down to the street corner or restaurant? Unsettling as that may sound to some, wireless carriers are betting that many of their customers do, and they're rolling out services to make it possible. (Subscription required)

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We Want It, and Waiting Is No Option

The Web empowers both groups and individuals as a place where choice is not only an option, but an imperative. (Subscription required)

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Silicon Valley meetings go 'topless'

31 MAR 2008 from the Los Angeles Times | Read the full story»

As the capital of information technology, Silicon Valley may have more gadgets per capita than any other place on the planet. Yet, even here, "always on" can be a real turnoff. Frustrated by workers so plugged in that they tuned out in the middle of business meetings, a growing number of companies are going "topless," as in no laptops allowed. Also banned from some conference rooms: BlackBerrys, iPhones and other devices on which so many people have come to depend.

Hat tip: Stephen Garner

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IT's Not about the Technology

Gartner researcher Tom Austin on why your head of IT should be a cultural anthropologist and why you should think twice before you block YouTube.

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Online Chat, as Inspired by Real Chat

A new wave of Silicon Valley companies is bringing live socializing into online social networking Web sites. (Subscription required)

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Pay-Per-View Funerals bring Mourners Online

From tomorrow Southampton Crematorium will be offering a "pay-per-view funerals" service, allowing family members who are unable to make it in person the chance to watch the service online. The Guardian reports that for £75 a family will be able to purchase a password that will give them access to a live webcast of the ceremony.

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Interruptive media versus multitasking

The mature information worker is someone who can manage his queues effectively, prioritizing and re-prioritizing as new items crop up, doing the fast-context-switching necessary to respond to an email while waiting for a file to download or a backup to complete. It's a little like spinning plates, and when you get the rhythm of it, it can be glorious. There's a zone you slip into, a zone where everything gets done, one thing after another clicking into place. But once you add an interruptive medium like IM, unscheduled calls, or pop-up notifiers of mail, flow turns into chop.

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Joocing the Next Billion Internet Users

Paris startup Jooce has an idea: Instead of one laptop per child, why not many virtual desktops per public computer? It's catching on.

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After the Techno Lust, There's Always E-Cycling

Americans are using -- and getting rid of -- more electronic devices than ever. As technology improves and gets cheaper, old cell phones, computers, iPods and digital cameras end up in desk drawers, basements -- or on the curb.

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Hopes for Wireless Cities Fade as Internet Providers Pull Out

Plans for municipal Wi-Fi grids have been tripped up by unrealistic ambitions and technological glitches. (Subscription required)

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There's Gold in 'Reality Mining'

Data from the use of cell phones and other mobile devices yield patterns of movement that can help public agencies and businesses.

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Love It or Hate It, In-Flight Cellphone Use Has Arrived

As if flying weren't already hellish enough, the airlines make it worse by allowing passengers to gab on cellphones. Emirates Airlines outfits its planes with technology that will allow passengers to use their mobile phones in flight.

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A New Tool From Google Alarms Sites

Google’s new search-within-search feature has sparked fears from publishers and retailers that users will be siphoned away through ad sales to competitors. (Subscription required)

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Taiwan Wants to Focus on Building Its Own High-Tech Brands

Analysts say the greatest economic challenge for Taiwan is overcoming its reliance on manufacturing for other brands and focusing on innovation and building its own brands. (Subscription required)

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Itineraries: Paper Is Out, Cellphones Are In

The mobile check-in may well be the first step in direct communications between airlines and passengers as they travel. (Subscription required)

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A New Type of Game Turns Web Surfing Into All-Out Information Warfare

If playing World of Warcraft is too much for your schedule, try racking up experience points and slaying enemies during your daily browsing. PMOGs (passively multiplayer online games) are designed by blogfather Justin Hall for busy gamers. Wired asks Hall to describe a PMOG experience.

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What Does Silicon Valley Want from Washington?

Fast Interview: Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig talks about his aborted run for Congress, the threat of a catastrophic network event, and ...

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New features coming for Blu-ray DVD format

The high-definition-video war may be over now that Toshiba has conceded defeat for its ailing HD DVD format, but those interested ...

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IrfanView: Free Graphics Muscle, and Don’t Forget the Plug-Ins

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Dusting Off the Archive for the Web

For magazines and newspapers with long histories, old material can be reborn on the Web as an inexpensive way to attract readers, advertisers and money. (Subscription required)

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E-Commerce Report: Even if You’re Ill, You Can Still Stay Connected

Hospitals have begun installing Internet systems with dedicated shopping channels, to help patients pick up goods they will need for their recuperation. (Subscription required)

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Spamming by Text Message On the Rise

Text message spam is on the rise. What are the wireless carriers doing to block it, how much is getting through to cell phones, and why does text-message spam feel even more annoying than e-mail spam? (Audio)

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Public Wi-Fi: Be Very Paranoid

Wireless services in airports, cafés, and hotels are often not encrypted. So user beware.

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Employers must learn to love social media

Instead of trying to crack down on workers' use of new social media and Web 2.0 technology, employers should be embracing it as a way of creating better workplace communities, engagement and communication.

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Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam

User demand for the Internet could outpace network capacity by 2011, some analysts warn. (Subscription required)

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Tech’s Late Adopters Prefer the Tried and True

Millions of people are reluctant to change their technology habits just for the sake of progress. (Subscription required)

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The Curious Genius of Twitter

Is Twitter the next big thing or a twempest in a tweepot? Twitter is a free "micro-blogging" service that allows users to send updates, or "tweets" -- messages of up to 140 characters that answer the question "what are you doing now?" The updates are kept on the user's profile page and distributed to friends via text messages, instant messaging, RSS feeds, and other applications.

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Chemical brain controls nanobots

A tiny chemical brain which could one day act as a remote control for nano-machines is demonstrated.

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Meebo May Be This Year's Twitter

From SXSW, Catherine Holahan blogs about the Web-based instant-messaging software that's creating a lot of buzz at the Interactive Conference in Austin, Tex.

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'Sea slug' inspires brain implant

Sea cucumbers inspire a novel material that could be used in brain implants, US researchers say.

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Army $200 Billion Reboot Fizzles; Murtha Wants $20 Billion More

Future Combat Systems, or FCS, is the Army's effort to use software and computer networks to turn itself into a quicker, lighter, more-lethal force by 2017. The vision is for fleets of new armored vehicles, ground robots and flying drones to be linked together by a wireless internet for combat, and by a common operating system. But FCS has been in trouble, almost since the day it began, with slipped deadlines, bloated budgets, unproven technologies and unrealistic expectations.

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Iger: Disney will reap $1B online this year

The Walt Disney Co. expects to collect $1 billion in revenue from online content this fiscal year, a significant rise from estimates ...

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Testing Over, Hulu.com to Open Its TV and Film Offerings This Week

The streaming-video site displays free, ad-supported shows and feature films from NBC, Fox and more than 50 media companies.

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The Internet Is Changing the Scientific Method

A scientist is arguing that the time for Science 2.0, in which collaboration is as important as observation, has come.

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Office workers bypass the IT department

Savvy office workers are no longer relying on company technicians, or information technology administrators...

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Alternative reality

31 JAN 2008 from the Economist | Read the full story»

China will soon boast more internet users than any other country. But usage patterns inside China are different from those elsewhere.

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Social Networking Moves to the Cellphone

The advantage over computer-based social networks, companies believe, is the ability to know where a cellphone is, thanks to global positioning satellites and related technologies. (Subscription required)

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Question Box: the Internet for remote places, no literacy or keyboards required

The Question Box is a project from UC Berkeley's Rose Shuman to bring some of the benefits of the information on the Internet to places that are too remote or poor to sustain a live Internet link. It works by installing a single-button intercom in the village that is linked to a nearby town where there is a computer with a trained, live operator. Questioners press the intercom, describe their query to the operator, who runs it, reads the search results, and discusses them with the questioner (it's like those "executive assistant" telephone services, but for people who live in very rural places).

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Tech Trends to Ignore

Some are just not necessary, others aren't fully developed. From social networking sites to virtualization, take a pass for now.

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New Technologies Challenge FCC to Evolve

Chairman Kevin Martin's foiled attempt to regulate cable may signal an inability for the FCC to exert influence over new technologies that will eventually become more dominant than broadcast media. The FCC will have to change to remain relevant. (Audio)

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Giving the Inbox a Makeover

Tech firms are trying to combine e-mail with social-networking tools.

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CEO Guide to Widgets

The customizable bits of software on Facebook and other social networking sites are the latest trend in viral marketing. But are widgets here to stay?

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Wikileaks Ruling Nears, May Impact Net Free Speech

The stage is set for a decision that could have far-ranging implications on freedom of speech and the Internet.

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Consumers' touchy relationship with cell phones

Figuring out what people really want in a cell phone is like trying to hit a moving target. And the proliferation of available features and services isn't making it easier.

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The Wisdom of the Chaperones

22 FEB 2008 from Slate | Read the full story»

Digg, Wikipedia, and the myth of Web 2.0 democracy.

Hat tip: Freakonomics

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Now Google Wants to be Your (Website) Creator, Too

New tools designed to allow almost anyone to create a website will be made available for free by the company, which says "We are literally adding an edit button to the web."

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The Brash Boys at 37signals Will Tell You: Keep it Simple, Stupid

The developers at 37signals created the software tools that defined Web 2.0. But add features or horsepower? Not a chance, no matter how much you beg.

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Web tool targets 'cybernomads'

A system which offers 'personal desktop' to 500 million who access the web every day via cybercafes

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Net company sued for holding domain names

A company that sells Internet addresses is being sued for its controversial practice of holding a domain name in reserve if someone checks for its availability but does not buy it right away.

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Making games with Mr Spielberg

Steven Spielberg's first video game is out in May - but it may not be what people expect.

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Full text: Microsoft execs on Vista problems (Todd Bishop/Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog)

Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog: Full text: Microsoft execs on Vista problems  —  A federal judge today unsealed internal Microsoft e-mails that have been used to support the plaintiffs' case in the lawsuit over the “Windows Vista Capable” program.  Snippets were previously read aloud in court, but the full messages go further …

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Social Networking World Map

Greg Verdino points us to a map of infographic that shows the top social networks across the world, published by French paper Le Monde. It highlights the vast differences when it comes to popular social networks.

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Encyclopedia of Life struggles to handle rush

The concept of a comprehensive encyclopedia of life on the Internet proved too popular. Its computers were overwhelmed and couldn't keep it alive when it debuted Tuesday. The encyclopedia, which eventually will have more than 1 million pages devoted to different species of life on Earth, quickly crashed on its first day of a public unveiling, organizers said.

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This Is the Modding World

FEB 25 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

The ability to update software remotely has changed products and what we expect from them, turning ordinary consumers into modders. (Subscription required)

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A Method for Critical Data Theft

A computer security research group has developed a way to steal encrypted information from computer hard disks. (Subscription required)

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Adobe looks to erase Web, desktop division

AIR download for Windows and Mac looks to blur the line between the Web and desktop applications.

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Pew report on the demographics of the old net hands

The latest report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project is called "A Portrait of Early Adopters: Why People First Went Online --and Why They Stayed"...

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Fiber network to connect Indian Ocean countries

Aiming to cut telecommunication costs, Indian Ocean nations are moving ahead on a fiber-optic cable project to connect countries in the region to each other and to intercontinental networks.

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Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain

Research shows that the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls. (Subscription required)

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Mapping New Yorkers' global ties by phone, Web

MIT researchers devise a new kind of map for the city of New York to show how its residents are connected to the rest of the world.

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Smile, you're on a bar Webcam

Around the country, bars are tapping the Internet to let people know when they're hopping--or dreadfully quiet.

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It's a transparent society, so get naked

In a time when blogs and social networking sites make it easier than ever to disclose yourself on the Internet, many people worry about losing their privacy. But commentator Ben Casnocha says there are many benefits to a transparent society.

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HD DVD raising white flag

With Toshiba looking ready to abandon the HD DVD format, Blue Ray seems to have finally won the high-definition DVD wars. Bob Moon reports on what retail stores are doing with their HD DVD inventory.

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Of All the Hurdles to a Merger, View on Technology Is the Highest

A smooth integration will not be a matter of simply swapping one set of software or hardware for another. It may hinge on changing deep-seated mind-sets. (Subscription required)

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BAA Finally Trialling RFID Luggage Tracking

With even meat suppliers getting in on the RFID action, the BAA have finally decided to trial the same technology for tracking luggage coming in and out of London’s Heathrow Airport. A six month trial will see Emirates airline partnering to track all bags on their five daily flights between Heathrow and Dubai, which apparently equates to 50,000 bags per month. With tracking being enabled at every step of the journey, passengers can give their mobile number to be alerted by text of the location of their bag when they land.

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Technology Can Be a Blessing for Bored Workers

The white collar, office-bound workers aren’t the only ones turning to high-tech devices to escape from tedium at work. (Subscription required)

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Eons Ago

About three years ago, Jeff Taylor left Monster.com to start Eons.com and what a long, strange trip it’s been, as reported by Randall Stross in The New York Times (2/10/08). Jeff thought it would be a natural to start a website for baby boomers — given that there are some 78 million of them ...

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BitTorrent firms: Comcast throttling is anticompetitive

Companies relying on BitTorrent protocol charge that Comcast's slowing of peer-to-peer traffic blocks perfectly legal content that competes with cable TV.

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10 Gmail Search Tips, and Then Some

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Is the tug of war over high-def DVD format over?

Peace may be at hand in the nearly three-year battle to provide HDTV owners with an affordable DVD player that can handle any ...

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Photos: Cracking open the BlackBerry

TechRepublic has done it again, this time cracking open the BlackBerry just in time for the raging speculation about its maker's reliability.

Via CNET News.com

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If You Can’t Let Go, Twitter

The group-messaging application, Twitter, still hasn’t broken into the mainstream or become a to-die-for tool for the youngest early adopters.

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Google Loses Enthusiasm for Ad Tie-Up

13 FEB 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

Google Inc.'s enthusiasm has waned in recent days for a potential advertising tie-up that could help Yahoo Inc. try to thwart Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited takeover offer, people familiar with the matter say.

A prominent Yahoo shareholder also predicted that the company would have a tough time avoiding Microsoft's offer, echoing a view of other large investors that Yahoo's sale to Microsoft is likely, though at a higher price.

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Ask Yourself This Question

12 FEB 2008 from Steve Yastrow | Read the full story»

Consider your organization's technology initiatives over the last five years, and ask yourself: What portion of our technology initiatives make it easier for customers to get closer to us?

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Welcome to Cyberwar Country, USA

11 FEB 2008 from Wired News | Read the full story»

[General William] Lord, boyish and enthusiastic, is a new kind of Air Force warrior -- the provisional chief of the service's first new major command since the early 1990s, the Cyber Command. With thousands of posts and enough bandwidth to choke a horse, the Cyber Command is dedicated to the proposition that the next war will be fought in the electromagnetic spectrum, and that computers are military weapons. In a windowless building across the base, Lord's cyber warriors are already perched 24 hours a day before banks of monitors, scanning Air Force networks for signs of hostile incursion.

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Nvidia Unveils Mobile Graphics Powerhouse in Barcelona

11 FEB 2008 from Wired News | Read the full story»

Cell phone makers aren't the only ones hoping to one-up the iPhone these days. Increasingly, it's the silicon wizards themselves that are scrambling to conjure up powerful (yet low-powered) processors and diminutive architectures that will serve as brains for this future generation of iPhone killers/imitators.

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EU eyes safer cyberspace for young

11 FEB 2008 from BBC News | Read the full story»

Parents eager to control what their children see online, and who they meet during their excursions into cyberspace, are spoilt for choice.

Yet, although many are ready to pay the price if it makes their children safer, many are finding it hard to know who to trust.

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How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free

Some members discover it’s tough to erase all their information from the site. (Subscription required)

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Bluetooth to Piggyback on Wi-Fi

The popular wireless technology known as Bluetooth could get a lot faster next year by taking advantage of Wi-Fi technology already built into many gadgets....

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State Web Sites Offer Transparency

The government in Alaska launched a Web site this week listing every state expense of more than $1,000. It's the latest state to set up a Web site to let taxpayers see where their money is going. Ten other states have such sites. A spokesperson for the National Taxpayer's Union, which tracks the sites, says Missouri's is the most user-friendly. It's updated every 24 hours and lists every payment. (Audio)

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What ever happened to Netscape?

At one time Netscape, one of the first Web browsers, was unparalleled in its popularity. Now it's all but forgotten and AOL's going to pull the plug on it. Lisa Napoli reports on Netscape's noteworthy history.

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Ford truck with RFID tool tracker

Ford is announcing an RFID system for their big trucks to help track tools. Developed with DeWalt and ThingMagic, the Tool Link system comes with a bunch of wireless RFID tags that you attach to your gear. An in-dash display will then show what's in your truck so you can tell right away if someone snagged your hammer, or, hopefully, you just left it at the job site.

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Consumers Can Scan Bank Deposits at Home

Online banking service provider CheckFree Corp. is rolling out technology that could mean consumers will no longer have to go to a bank branch to deposit checks....

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Americans Overseas Head to Polls

Americans living overseas started lining up in hotels and coffee shops Tuesday to vote for Democratic candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, while others - for the first time ever - cast ballots online....

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Google Gathers Social Graph Information From The Web, Launches API

Today [2/1/08] they are launching the Social Graph API, which will allow third parties to grab social graph data that is produced by every day activities across the web - linking.

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Ad Revenue From Social Sites Disappoints

Social networking and video-sharing sites are yielding ad revenue slower than some Internet companies hoped. (Subscription required)

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Overhaul of net addresses begins

Upgrades to the net's core address books will start the move to a new way of finding websites.

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'Cyber Storm' Totes Up Myriad Ways Tech Can Cripple U.S.

Could a concerted cyber attack by hackers and bloggers bring the government to its knees? A mock array of cyber catastrophes suggests that it could. That's the official, if heavily censored, word.

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And the Interface Evolves

...toward conversational interfaces....news from Google acknowledging that ten blue links is getting old ...

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Thinking About Tomorrow

28 JAN 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

How will technology change the way we shop, learn and entertain ourselves? How will it change the way we get news, protect our privacy, connect with friends? We look ahead 10 years, and imagine a whole different world. (Subscription required)

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Copy, Paste, Share

ControlC is a brilliant new service. Every time you copy some text, link, etc to your local clipboard it gets saved on this site and you can share it with others.

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Call it the Great Fire Wall of China

China's government is promising, by the end of the month, to put in place tough new rules for companies wanting to do business online. The prospect has investors a bit leery. Our Shanghai correspondent Scott Tong talks with Kai Ryssdal about the plan.

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The Coming Wave of Gadgets That Listen and Obey

Devices that incorporate speech recognition are starting to hit the mass market, giving users the ability to let their mouths do the walking — and the searching. (Subscription required)

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Former secretary of state talks tech

Former secretary of state talks tech. From the role the Internet plays in presidential campaigning to American tech companies and their rights abroad, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright lays down her vision for the future of American politics. CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi talks with Albright about policy, her favorite gadget, and why she feels she has no e-mail etiquette. (Video )

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Travel Organizer Tripit Goes Social

"Who’s Close To Me?" automatically notifies users if their travel plans overlap with fellow travelers while on the road, and "Who’s Coming to my City?" automatically identifies colleagues who will be visiting the users hometown when they’re not traveling.

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Finding Unlimited Tech Support Fast

[T]he era of personal service outsourcing is here, and iYogi, a new service based in India, said it has already attracted 25,000 customers to its subscription technical support service — most of them American.

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Southwest and American Test In-Flight Wi-Fi

Southwest Airlines and American Airlines separately announced that their planes will be tested for in-flight passenger Wi-Fi data access using different access technologies. (Subscription required)

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IP Address Is Personal Info, Says European Data Chief

The EU's data protection commissioner says IP addresses should be regarded as personal information, a view, which, if adopted, would profoundly affect the privacy policies of companies like Google and Yahoo.

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Mapping your company's social networks and employee assets with eTelemetry

eTelemetry offers an exceptional tool for mapping the expertise within your company.

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How Email Brings You Closer to the Guy in the Next Cubicle

Increasing use of e-mail, web apps and online networking might minimize the need for living physically close to our workplaces and social circles. However, studies suggests that far from removing distance barriers, technology actually reinforces the value of proximity and face time.

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Yahoo Paves Way for Web-Wide Logins With OpenID Support

Search and services giant Yahoo will become an OpenID provider at the end of January, providing a huge boost to the nascent user identity management system. OpenID lets users maintain one login and password in one location, then use that universal ID to login to all of their favorite websites.

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The wireless world begins

The globe is not covered in a seamless wireless network just yet, but the building blocks are being put in place.

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Flickr to host Library of Congress photos

A pilot project aims to share Library of Congress photos on Flickr and enlist the collective wisdom of Web site visitors to endow them with descriptive tags.

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Time Warner Links Web Prices With Usage

Time Warner Cable will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download, a company spokesman said Wednesday....

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Enhancing Its Hits, Apple Adds Movie Rentals, Ultralight Laptop

Apple’s Steven P. Jobs introduced an elegant new MacBook, and is betting he can mimic his digital music success with movies. (Subscription required)

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FCC Asks Comcast About Internet Filter

Comcast Corp. Monday said it has received letters of inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission regarding complaints that the company actively interferes with its subscribers' Internet traffic....

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Race is on for Mobile Web's pot of gold

AT&T and Verizon Wireless lately have embraced the idea of giving consumers greater control over the wireless devices and applications ...

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A Goodbye to Gates

14 JAN 2008 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

After a lifetime of computing, it's odd to see Microsoft's icon exit the stage. (Subscription required)

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Web Movement Loosens Sicilian Mob's Stranglehold

Sicilian businesses joining forces on a website are refusing to submit to demands from the Mafia for protection money. Recent crackdowns by authorities and this rebellion by business owners are beginning to chip away at the Cosa Nostra's psychological hold on Sicilians.

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thinking about the electronics we consume

Governments aren't going to force the issue, pressure groups like Greenpeace have limited voice, change is going to need to come from the market. If companies want sustainability to be considered, they are going to need to do as good a job as Apple in making it sexy.

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Weather Channel Adds Forecasts To Google Map

New feature ties together leading online weather and mapping services.

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White House unveils 'E-Budget' initiative

The White House announced Wednesday that it's going paperless when it submits the fiscal 2009 budget Feb. 4.

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School reports going electronic

Parents in England are to be promised online "real-time reporting" on their children's progress at school.

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The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

After suffering bumps in the road to development, Apple's iPhone takes the wireless industry by storm, and turns a power structure between carriers and manufacturers on its head in the process.

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Sarkozy proposes new internet tax

France's President Nicolas Sarkozy suggests new taxes on internet and mobile phone use to fund advert-free TV.

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Girls Blog, Boys YouTube

According to a recent study by PEW, while overall online content creation has seen a surge since 2004, teen girls and boys in the U.S. are choosing different mediums to express themselves online. The report shows that teen girls choose to blog and post photos more than their male counterparts, while teen boys are more likely to post videos online...

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Intel predicts the personal net

Mobile devices will deliver a more personal net within five years, the head of Intel says.

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Digital Dining the Latest in Self Service

The latest in self-service technology is a touch screen at your restaurant table. It allows you to place orders directly with the kitchen. Why keep a waitress waiting while you agonize over fries or onion rings? The company behind the technology says it provides faster service, and fewer mistakes. (Audio)

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Google Enabled Televisions Coming Soon

Japanese manufacturer Matsushita (Panasonic) has signed a deal with Google that will see the company launch flat panel television sets that allow users to access YouTube and other Google services such as Picasa Web Albums.

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Ex-Harvard President Meets a Former Student, and Intellectual Sparks Fly

A Harvard graduate pitches a Web site, Big Think, as a "YouTube for ideas." (Subscription required)

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Comcast: Cable to Standardize Technology

Facing pressure from regulators, the cable TV industry plans to make good on a promise to standardize its technology and open the door to televisions and other gadgets that don't need cable boxes to receive video-on-demand programs and other interactive services....

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More takeout orderers are all thumbs

Big restaurant chains are rushing into what could be the future of takeout and delivery food: text ordering.

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Wikia Launches Open-Source Search Engine

The founder of online encyclopedia Wikipedia plans to launch a new search engine, Wikia Search, that will compete with Google and others. (Subscription required)

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Motorola device lets you bring DVR content anywhere you go

Motorola introduced a portable broadcast TV player that will also let users take recorded programs with them on the go.

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Ask.com lets you ask for directions on mobile

Ask.com launches free voice-activated directions service for mobile users.

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The Medium: An Interface of One’s Own

For truly creative writing, word "processing" is not enough.

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A New Twist on Mobile Search: Human Guides

ChaCha, a search engine powered by people, is hoping that it will be more popular on the mobile phone than it was on the Web. (Subscription required)

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Feds enter Second Life

According to the National Defense university, the Feds are entering SecondLife in force...

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Plaxo's New Address Book Importer Provokes Facebook's Wrath

When prominent blogger Robert Scoble tried to collect contact data about his friends stored in Facebook, the social networking site reprimanded him. But Plaxo, the creators of the new address book importer Scoble was beta testing, have no plans to discontinue development of the tool. Let the data portability standoff begin.

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TV boxes let Netflix users bypass mail delivery

DVD-by-mail service Netflix Inc. will begin delivering movies and other programming directly to televisions later this year through a set-top box that will pipe entertainment over a high-speed Internet connection....

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Microsoft Drops Support for Older Office File Formats

The latest update for Microsoft Office 2003 disables the application's ability to read files from older versions of Word and Excel. It's sure to cause headaches for corporations and institutions storing older files.

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Should Web Giants Let Startups Use the Information They Have About You?

They call it scraping -- when Web companies automatically harvest information from the likes of Yahoo, Google and craigslist. Now the Internet establishment is clamping down.

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Web Playgrounds of the Very Young

Forget Second Life. The real virtual world gold rush centers on the grammar-school set. (Subscription required)

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Wireless Gadgets for Business and Fun

The future of wireless extends to gadgets far beyond the cell phone, from toys to refrigerators with built-in Internet access. Some of the gadgets are for business applications. Nokia's new device combines e-mail, Internet, music, movies and GPS. Others, like the Chumby, are purely fun. (Audio)

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Facebook is so last year - welcome to the hit websites of 2008

Facebook is so last year - welcome to the hit websites of 2008 — Virtual pets, video diaries and travellers' logs could be the next stars of cyberspace — For many in the dotcom world, 2007 was dominated by one story: the rise of Facebook.

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The Ink Fades on a Profession as India Modernizes

Cellphones made the services of the professional letter writer obsolete, but G. P. Sawant isn’t complaining. (Subscription required)

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Technology in 2008 - Three fearless predictions

(Economist) Technology in 2008  —  Three fearless predictions  —  1. Surfing will slow  —  PEERING into Tech.view's crystal ball, the one thing we can predict with at least some certainty is that 2008 will be the year we stop taking access to the internet for granted.

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U.S. a Late Adopter on 'Smart Phones'

When it comes to cell phones that do more than just make calls, the United States is at a disadvantage. While consumers in many European and Asian countries routinely use their phones to dart around the Internet, Americans are still catching up. (Audio)

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Three Generations' View of Cell Phones

As part of our series this week on cell phones and how we use them, Chana Joffe-Walt visits with three generations of a Seattle family: a 14-year-old, a mom, and a grandmother. (Audio)

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British Queen Takes Christmas Chat to YouTube

It's been 50 years since Queen Elizabeth II of England made her first televised Christmas address. This Christmas, the Queen has joined the YouTube nation and posted her Christmas message on the popular website. The message has already prompted hundreds of thousands of hits and a few parodies. (Audio)

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Girl Power Is in Full Force Online

Teenage girls are more likely than boys to have engaged in creating most kinds of online content, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. (Subscription required)

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Mozilla introduces new Weave online service

Mozilla is trying to weave a new web. Not sure if it matters yet.

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Wi-Fi Mesh Lights Up Mecca for Hajj

The millions of pilgrims in Mecca this week for the Hajj, an annual gathering of Muslims, can stay connected thanks to a temporary Wi-Fi mesh network covering a large part of the city. (Subscription required)

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Web's Builders See Too Much Fuss Over Standards, Not Enough Innovation

The web's standards body makes recommendations for software developers so all of the pieces of the web can work together. But critics argue that strict adherence to these standards is stifling innovation now that new technology is reaching the web with greater speed.

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Gizmo Maestro

"Our frustrations with machines are not going to be solved with better machines," says Dr. Donald Norman, author of "The Design of Future Things," in The New York Times (12/18/07). Those frustrations, he says, will only be cured with "better dialog" between people and machines.

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Navigate with your own voice

While most personal navigation devices come with a variety of voices to select from, from soft-spoken to stern, they all get boring after a while and aren't, well, personal. To the rescue comes YourPND. For EUR 6.95, users can record instructions on www.yourpnd.com using their computer's microphone. Recording a full set of instructions takes 7 minutes. Once they're done, YourPND creates a file that the navigation device will be able to use, and gives full instructions on how to install. Instead of the basic "Turn right at the next junction," users are encouraged to get creative, adding their favourite catchphrases.

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Cell Phone Spending Surpasses Land Lines

With Americans cutting the cord to their land lines, 2007 is likely to be the first calendar year in which U.S. households spend more on cell phone services, industry and government officials say....

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Google Starts Rolling Out Centralized Profiles (Duncan Riley/TechCrunch)

Google Starts Rolling Out Centralized Profiles — Google is rolling out a centralized profile system that will provide personalized information to each Google product you use. The unimaginatively named Google Profile will share information across all Google products, unifying often disparate Google systems...

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Adults warn kids off social network sites, use them themselves -- Pew Internet report on search and identity

As danah boyd points out, one conclusion really stands out: grownups are much more likely to have a public social networking profile on sites like Facebook than kids are, and are incredibly sanguine about the possibility of having their identities breached through these services. As danah says, "In other words, adults (and presumably there are parents in this group) are telling teens to be careful online and restrict what information they put up there while they themselves are doing little to protect their own data."

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This revolution will be text messaged

Filipinos have been masters of using text messages to rally political protesters. So what happened during last month's failed coup d'etat?

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Photos: The Philippines as texting central

Filipinos send on average 12 to 15 text messages a day--making the Philippines the text-messaging capital of the world.

Via CNET News.com

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Freddie Mac offers advice via YouTube

A new web ad by Freddie Mac says 25% of homeowners facing foreclosure go to the Internet first when they look for help. Which is, of course, where they get into trouble. Check out the video here.

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Bits : What Google (and Others) Know About You

The real privacy issues are being raised by Google, Yahoo, AOL and others, which are tracking users in order to show them advertising targeted to their interests. (Subscription required)

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Older workers, don't despair

Social networking is coming to enterprises, but that doesn't mean the twentysomethings are taking over, Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers said Tuesday.

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How next billion will shape net

Internet law professor Michael Geist looks at how another billion users will change the net

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Cellphone could be boarding pass, too

Continental Airlines passengers in Houston will be able to board flights using just a cellphone or personal-digital assistant ...

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Future Neatly Arranged on Future Scanner

Future Scanner is a social search engine that scours the internet for date-stamped predictions and arranges them into a neat and a very exciting timeline.

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Start-Up Creates Flexible Sheets of Light

CeeLite, a Blue Bell, Pa.-based start-up has devised a thin, bendable light source that can be integrated into walls or wrapped around poles.

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Wired's How To Wiki: Spot a Fake iPhone and Other Knock-Off Electronics

The Wired How To Wiki gives a few tips on how to spot an iClone as well as presenting some examples of the ones that might be considered worthy alternatives. Everyone likes the underdog, so feel free to add a few iClones of your own.

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IBM researchers build supercomputer-on-a-chip

Supercomputers may soon be the same size as a laptop if IBM brings to market research detailed on Thursday, in which pulses of light replace electricity to make data transfer between processor cores on a chip up to one-hundred times faster.

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Going underground

How broadband can be delivered through the sewers. (Video )

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How George Lucas' sound design studio stays on the cutting edge

How George Lucas' sound design studio stays on the cutting edge. What makes a good movie? The story? The acting? What about the sound? It may be a cinematic element that goes in one ear and out the other, but when you really stop to listen, you may be surprised what an impact sound design has on a movie. CNET News.com reporter Kara Tsuboi spent a day at Skywalker Sound, putting her ear to the ground to learn some sound secrets. (Video )

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State of the Art: How Much Photo Quality for $300?

For the holidays, a summary of digital cameras, all priced below $300.

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Technology: No More Vista "Kill Switch"

Microsoft announced today that it will stop remotely disabling versions of Vista that its registration servers deem pirated. If you're not privy to this feature of Vista, here's the lowdown: when your register your shiny new copy of Vista, ...

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Adobe's new CEO zeroes in on Web

Adobe, which celebrates its 25th anniversary on Dec. 13, is a Web powerhouse with its Adobe Reader and Flash software. [New CEO Shantanu] Narayen spoke with USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham about Adobe's transition, and why he believes two new initiatives for 2008 — Adobe's Media Player and AIR, which connects desktop applications with the Web — have the potential to transform the $3 billion company.

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PDF approved as international standard

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Bits: A Year Later: Chat on AIM through GMail

Google’s $1 billion investment in AOL may not have been the most financially savvy investment. But now at least Gmail users can have instant-message conversations with users of AOL’s AIM system.

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Broadband divide

People living in rural parts of the country have much less choice of broadband providers, are likely to get slower speeds and pay a different price. And with super-fast broadband on the horizon, some commentators think things are set to get a lot worse.

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Firefox churns to version 2.0.0.11

A problem showing images on some Web sites triggered programmers to whip up a Firefox update in a handful of days.

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Photobucket, Picasa bring photo-sharing to TiVo

Digital video recorder maker's broadband-enabled boxes now come with access to the Google-owned Picasa and News Corp.-owned Photobucket image-sharing services.

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Knocka.tv Comes Out Swinging, Does it Pack a Punch?

Knocka.tv ends speculation today by alpha launching an Internet television network. As a TechCrunch exclusive, 1000 of our readers will be the first users to gain access—the sign-up form is at the bottom of this post.

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Bye bye World Wide Web, welcome Giant Global Graph

It's the graph, stupid! Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, has published a much discussed post about the future "Internet of things."

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Hi-tech helps world's 'invisible'

     Handheld computers could help give a voice to the huge numbers of people that do not officially exist. The gadgets are being used to gather data about the estimated one billion people who live in shanty towns. The Mobile Metrix project aims to determine how big these communities are and discover what their lives are like.

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LiveJournal sold to Russia's SUP

Six Apart sells the pioneering social networking and blogging site LiveJournal to Russia's SUP.

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Game giants' $18bn merger

Blizzard, maker of World of Warcraft, merges with games firm Activision, in an $18.8bn deal.

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Why You Can't Get Your Hands on a Wii

28 NOV 2007 from Wired.com | Read the full story»

Brace yourself for another cranky Christmas, when hopeful children get up early only to discover there's no Wii under the tree.

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Wave & Buy By Phone, London

Having written about the concept of swipe by phone before, we picked up on the news that the Transport For London, Nokia and mobile operator O2 were planning to launch a phone that lets people swipe it to enter and leave the London Underground system.

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How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq, the Critical Networks Are Social — Not Electronic

It was a geek vision to change the nature of how war is waged: Use information technologies to improve military strategy. Networked computers could take data from battlefield sensors, identify targets and cut down the number of troops in harm's way. But the shortcomings of wired combat are forcing troops to improvise a new, socially networked kind of war.

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Judge Fired After Jailing 46 for Cell Phone

Judge Robert Restaino did not adapt well to an intrusion of modern life. A cell phone went off in his courtroom. And the judge said he'd throw everybody in jail if the offender didn't step forward. Nobody did, and 46 people were thrown behind bars. The judge has now lost his job. (Audio)

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YouTube, MySpace and California’s D.M.V.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has forayed into video sharing in the hopes that the videos will make roads a better place to travel. (Subscription required)

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Is the social graph Web 3.0?

Is the social graph Web 3.0? — Well, it looks like there'll be no escaping the "social graph" term. World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, in a blog post last evening, not only bestowed his blessing on the social graph but elevated it to the capitalized Social Graph, a sign that we have a New Paradigm on our hands.

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Target tests electronics 'recycling' program

Retailer has been offering discounted pre-owned TVs, video players, game consoles, and iPods on its Web site since last month.

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Can It Kindle the Imagination?

We read the fine print on Amazon's new gadget.

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Personal Assistants on Call, Just Not in the Next Office

Entrepreneurs in India are trying to build a new market for the offshore services they offer: helping small businesses cope with even the most mundane day-to-day tasks. (Subscription required)

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Amazon to debut Kindle e-book reader Monday

After rumors and delays, the online retailer is set to break into the hardware business with a high-profile launch that its CEO wants to be just perfect.

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I.B.M. to Push "Cloud Computing," Using Data From Afar

It seems that I.B.M. is trying to position itself as a leader in the corporate market for cloud computing, which many regard as the next evolutionary step in information technology. (Subscription required)

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Social networkers reach out more with cellphones

The cellphone in your pocket or purse is becoming fertile territory for the hugely popular some say overhyped social-networking ...

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China Leads Race to Control Weather

When next summer's Olympics roll around, the Beijing Weather Modification Office will be poised to stop any rain clouds from disrupting the festivities. It's just one of many occasions when Chinese officials control the country's weather.

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The Freedom of Free

Bebo, the social network, introduced Tuesday a system that allows users to put video clips on their pages in a way that the video owner can embed advertising on the clips and keep all the money. (Subscription required)

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Web Surfers Can Take the Internet Along for the Ride

While the mobile route to the information superhighway has some detours, surfing the Web as a passenger in a car may someday become second nature. (Subscription required)

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New Technology Can Be Operated By Thought

09 NOV 2007 from Science Daily | Read the full story»

Neuroscientists have significantly advanced brain-machine interface (BMI) technology to the point where severely handicapped people who cannot contract even one leg or arm muscle now can independently compose and send e-mails and operate a TV in their homes. They are using only their thoughts to execute these actions.

Hat tip: Freakonomics

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Facebook search expands - will it take on Google?

Facebook search expands — will it take on Google? — Facebook has added a new option for its search bar, allowing users to search for advertising pages. — This continues a steady creep in search options, which already includes tabs to search for people, groups, events and applications.

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'Internet van' helped drive evolution of the Web

Few have probably ever heard of it, but a broken-down van in California was a stepping stone on the road to the Internet as we know it.

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I, Robot: The Man Behind the Google Phone

04 NOV 2007 from the New York Times | Read the full story»

Already this year, Apple has redefined what people expect from a cellphone by introducing the iPhone, just as it did previously with its Macintosh computer. Microsoft is making progress as well, projecting that 20 million phones will be sold with its Windows Mobile software next year. Nokia, Palm, Research in Motion and a number of other hand-set makers are fashioning ever more datacentric phones. With these battle lines drawn, Google is placing its mobile bets in the hands of Mr. Rubin, 44, an engineer who has proved adept at designing the highly integrated hardware and software ensembles that are the hallmarks of Silicon Valley companies. (Subscription required)

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Google to Offer Drivers Help at Gas Pump

Lost drivers soon will be able to Google for help at the pump. As part of a partnership to be announced Wednesday, the online search leader will dispense driving directions at thousands of gasoline pumps across the United States beginning early next month....

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Who's Calling?

Not gPhone. It's Android! How Google plans to remake the cell phone market.

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Shell Station Customers 'Pay by Touch'

Chicago drivers have a new way to pay for gasoline: with their fingertips. Ten Shell gas stations in the Windy City are testing biometric systems that let consumers walk up to the pump, scan their fingertips on a device and fill up their vehicles.

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The New Road Warrior

"It's now much more possible to live away from your computer and stay fully connected." Robert Scoble, VP, Podtech.net

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Property prices by text message

As the popularity of text messaging continues to grow, we’re seeing more ways that entrepreneurs are monetizing it. Take HouseFront, a US start-up that’s currently in beta, that greatly simplifies the process of shopping for a new home. Drive by a house and text in its address to 46873 (spells "house" on a phone’s keypad). A moment later, the complete scoop on the property is returned by SMS, from its estimated worth to the number of bedrooms and baths. Users can also post comments about the homes for others to see, as can a home’s owner.

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Publishers See a Way to Track Their Content Across the Net

A new company offers publishers a way to hunt down any place across the Web where a significant chunk of thier work has been copied, with or without permission. (Subscription required)

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Dinosaur Digerati

03 NOV 2007 from the Wall Street Journal | Read the full story»

From calculators to computers, the march of new technologies has always left prior generations feeling like cavemen. But today's constant turnover has even tech luminaries struggling to get it straight. (Subscription required)

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Facebook to Add Shopping Service to Its Menu

05 NOV 2007 from Advertising Age | Read the full story»

Lots of people find the next books they plan to read by browsing the New York Times or Amazon best-seller lists. Others count on referrals from friends and colleagues. But what if you could eye a hot title as it began to climb the best-seller list within your Facebook network? You'd be alerted: "Thirty-one people in your network have bought 'Microtrends.'" (Subscription required)

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Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally

A gadget that jams cellular signals has gained popularity as the use of cellphones has invaded more public places. (Subscription required)

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The numbers favor Google's OpenSocial over Facebook, but what good is it?

Do we get anything from OpenSocial other than a new monopoly?

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Wikipedia Tracks Changes to Encyclopedia

Wikipedia Vision is a new online map which spins across the globe, tracking the changes people make to the encyclopedia. You can see what was edited, when and where. So this morning we know that someone in Hong Kong changed the definition of a Rolls Royce Phantom. (Audio)

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MySpace to officially join Google's OpenSocial

The News Corp.-owned social network is formally part of the Google-created social networking developer platform.

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Can Google Kill PowerPoint?

30 OCT 2007 from Slate | Read the full story»

Conventional wisdom says Google Preso is a "PowerPoint killer." I decided to test that theory.

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Can a Google Phone Connect With Carriers?

Google plans to unveil within the next two weeks a proposal to bring Google-powered phones to market by the middle of 2008. (Subscription required)

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Facebook-ing Philanthropy

A viral application on the popular social networking site hints at the future of giving.

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Technology: FireBlogging

In the next few decades, it's likely that this technology for monitoring and prevention will become ubiquitous in fire-prone areas of the Golden State, as it has in Australia, where it was pioneered after a devastating blaze in 1994. It's great that citizens are finding so much aid and comfort in technologies like Twitter and Google Maps -- but here's to hoping that someday, they won't have to.

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