Archive for August, 2007
Who Would Win In A Fight?
Posted by Joe on August 31, 2007 · Comments Off
Shaolin Monks vs. Japanese Ninjas:
China’s Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Chinese kung fu, is demanding an apology from an Internet user who said its monks had once been beaten in unarmed combat by a Japanese ninja, Chinese media reported on Friday.
The Monks’ over the top reaction to an off-the-cuff remark on an Internet forum is hilarious. Of course, the real question is “Ninjas or Pirates?”
UPDATE: Then there’s Chuck Norris, who could kill them all without working up a sweat.
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NBC Drops iTunes
Posted by Joe on August 31, 2007 · Comments Off
The most popular source for digital video on iTunes is not renewing their contract. The current NBC/iTunes agreement lasts through December, but after that popular television shows like “Battlestar Galactica,” “The Office” and “Heroes,” may disappear from the iTunes catalog.
As much as I enjoy seeing Apple get the occasional smackdown, I think it’s NBC that’s being unreasonable here. They apparently want more money and more onerous copy protection. Many people like Apple’s flat pricing model, and they’ve come to accept the company’s [...]
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Yahoo Tries To KickStart Social Networking
Posted by Joe on August 31, 2007 · Comments Off
Yahoo! KickStart — social networking meets job search:
Yahoo is reported to be working on a new social networking service that matches college students to employers.
Yahoo Kickstart give users profile pages which are focused on the user’s resume, LinkedIn style, as opposed to a Facebook or MySpace profile. Corporations and wannabe employers are then provided with groups that users can join, but with a catch: to join a group you need an invite via a former student who works at that company. For those users who would prefer something a little more social, University pages are open to [...]
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Sony Finally Drops ATRAC
Posted by Joe on August 30, 2007 · Comments Off
Sony’s proprietary ATRAC format is finally going the way of Sony’s proprietary Betamax format:
With these new Walkman players, Sony has widened its digital music environment to support Windows Media technology. This gives customers greater flexibility in their music software approach. As a result, Sony will be phasing out the CONNECT Music Services based on Sony’s ATRAC audio format in North America and Europe.
Sony announced they were doing this some time ago, but it looks like they finally got around to pulling the plug. If you’re stuck with a library of DRM’d ATRAC, [...]
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Tasty Gadgets, Priced To Move
Posted by Joe on August 30, 2007 · Comments Off
Top ten tech toys you can afford, from the SciFi blog.
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Return Of The Sony Rootkit
Posted by Joe on August 29, 2007 · Comments Off
Two years after the CD rootkit debacle, Sony finds itself in a similar controversy:
Security firm F-secure have discovered a flaw in software packaged with memory sticks made by the Japanese firm.
The vulnerability is similar to one found on CDs sold by Sony BMG in 2005 that led to the discs being recalled and lawsuits against the company.
The software uses virus-like techniques to hide itself on PCs which could leave it open to infection, researchers say.
Why is it so hard to understand that we don’t want companies doing sneaky stuff to our computers?
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Patent Absurdity
Posted by Joe on August 29, 2007 · Comments Off
Polaris IP, a firm which seems to exist solely to sue other companies for violating extremely broad and vague patents it has purchased, is now suing Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Borders, AOL and IAC for using a rules-based system to automatically process and respond to emails:
Polaris IP, Crouch observed, “appears to be part of a web of IP-related companies associated with attorney David Pridham.” These companies include Orion IP, Constellation IP, IP Navigation Group, Cushion Technologies, CT IP Holdings, Triton, Circinus IP, and Firepond.
Pridham did not respond to a request for comment.
The [...]
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Digg Adds Video
Posted by Joe on August 28, 2007 · Comments Off
Digg now features videos on their new home page.
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New Power Source — Body Heat
Posted by Joe on August 28, 2007 · Comments Off
Body heat may soon power gadgets:
You may soon be able to power your cell phone, PCs, and other electronics by tapping into your own body heat, and you don’t need to be pedaling a stationary bike, walking the treadmill, or otherwise working up a sweat to do it. You can just sit there, couch potato style, and generate enough body heat to keep your gear going.
This is all good and well — until the robot overlords lock us all up in pods so they can harvest our heat to power themselves.
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gPhone Rumor Mill
Posted by Joe on August 27, 2007 · Comments Off
gPhone confirmed? Sounds like it:
I talked to one of my inside sources at Google today. He spoke on conditions of anonymity, but the guy is someone I trust implicitly. He said that he was baffled at Google’s apparent internal confusion on the GPhone issue – that they’ve actually demo’ed the thing in public before.
He said that the Google (applications) Suite is going to play a huge role in the usability of the GPhone, and the thought process behind it’s functionality is less about beating the iPhone and more about beating the $100 Laptop, which provides a huge clue [...]
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OMG — New Yahoo! Mail Offers Free Text Messaging
Posted by Joe on August 27, 2007 · Comments Off
You’ve probably heard that the Yahoo! Mail refresh (with heavy use of Ajax) is moving out of beta, but the real news is that there’s now free text messaging to mobile phone numbers.
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AllOfMP3 May Not Be Dead After All
Posted by Joe on August 27, 2007 · Comments Off
The shuttered music download site AllOfMP3 may be planning a comeback:
The service will be resumed in the foreseeable future. We are doing our best at the moment to ensure that all our users can use their accounts, top up balance and order music.
Can they pull it off?
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Top 100 Under-The-Radar Sites
Posted by Joe on August 27, 2007 · Comments Off
PC Magazine has a list of the top 100 “new or under-the-radar sites of 2007″ that’s worth a look.
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Steampunk Covered In Boston Globe
Posted by Joe on August 26, 2007 · Comments Off
The Boston Globe has an article on the Steampunk design movement. It’s interesting to see such a specialized geek subculture get mainstream coverage.
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What The Mac
Posted by Joe on August 26, 2007 · Comments Off
Using WTF as an abbreviation stopped being funny some time ago, and just seems lame now (if you have a blog, hopefully you got the memo), which makes this Mac Store sign even funnier.
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Urgent Product Warning
Posted by Joe on August 26, 2007 · Comments Off
Apparently, it’s not safe to put your Xbox 360 into a bowl of water.
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Windows Calls Legit Users Pirates — Widespread
Why ongoing software validation like Microsoft uses will always suck:
An unknown problem in a controversial Microsoft Corp. anti-counterfeit process has been fingering genuine versions of Windows Vista and Windows XP as fakes since Friday night, disabling features on potentially millions of machines.
Beginning Friday around 8 p.m. Eastern, users started posting messages on Microsoft’s support forums, including Vista Validation Issues, saying that their PCs had been tagged as running non-genuine Windows. Overnight, the number of users adding their accounts to the tale spiked significantly, [...]
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iPhone Unleashed
Posted by Joe on August 24, 2007 · Comments Off
In case your the one person who hasn’t seen this already, Engadget has confirmed a new software-only iPhone carrier unlock. The fix isn’t available to the public just yet.
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NY Times Gets With The Times — Offers Ajax Start Page
Posted by Joe on August 23, 2007 · Comments Off
The New York Times has opened up it’s customizable start page, called “My Times”, to public beta users. It looks pretty standard, in the vein of My Yahoo and iGoogle. However, I don’t see any killer features that sets it apart in a pretty crowded space.
Visit My Times.
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Sun Changes Ticker Symbol To JAVA
Posted by Joe on August 23, 2007 · Comments Off
Sun Microsystems is changing its stock symbol from ‘SUNW’ to ‘JAVA’. Here’s the long-winded explanation. Excerpt:
But SUNW represents the past, and its not without a nostalgic nod that we’ve decided to look ahead.
JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet, and a brand that’s inseparably a part of Sun (and our profitability). And so next week, we’re going to embrace that reality by changing our trading symbol, from SUNW to JAVA. This is a big change for us, capitalizing on the extraordinary affinity our teams have invested [...]
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State Of Wireless Phone Service In US — Not Good
Posted by Joe on August 23, 2007 · Comments Off
USA Today has an article about US cell phone companies and some of their less-popular policies. Despite the article’s focus on the iPhone, it’s all old news. But the piece provides a good overview of the dismal situation here in the states: locked down phones, crippled features, poor service, long contracts, and so on:
To many, the Apple (AAPL) iPhone is the ultimate wireless device — a seductive blend of technology, function and dead-on cool, all wrapped into a sleek package.
To others, it’s a glaring example of what’s wrong with the U.S. wireless industry in [...]
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PS3 PlayTV Turns Console Into DVR
Posted by Joe on August 23, 2007 · Comments Off
Sony PS3 will be able to do double duty as a Tivo-like DVR — someday:
At Games Convention today, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) announced the introduction of PlayTV, a combined TV tuner and Personal Video Recorder (PVR) for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™). PlayTV will be available in UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain early in 2008, with other PAL territories to follow in due course.
Designed to reinforce PS3’s rightful place in the Living Room at the heart of the home entertainment needs, the twin channel TV tuner peripheral and PVR software turns PS3 into a state of the [...]
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Innovative OLPC UI Shown Off
Ars Technica has an article with more details on the One Laptop Per Child software interface:
At the keynote for the recent UX Week conference in Washington, DC, designers from the OLPC project and Pentagram Design gave a live demonstration of the laptop’s Sugar user interface, including a “zoom” spatial navigation system and its extensive collaboration tools. Using a handheld video camera to relay the screens of four on-stage laptops to the audience, presenters showed Sugar running smoothly on actual XO hardware.
There’s much more.
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San Dimas Brings Ebay To Desktop
Posted by Joe on August 23, 2007 · Comments Off
Project “San Dimas” promises to bring eBay to the desktop. It’s a new desktop application under development by eBay that combines core auction functionality (search, browse, watch list, and bidding/buy it now) with innovative new desktop-only features. San Dimas is built on the Adobe Apollo platform, and will run on Windows and Mac OS. The project is currently accepting signups for the beta.
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Palm Linux Phone In October — Rumor
Posted by Joe on August 23, 2007 · Comments Off
The Palm OS is dated and anachronistic, and current Treo form factors are just clunky in comparison to other devices. Many analysts think Palm is circling the drain, and news that their much-derided uber-gadget — the ultra-portable smartphone companion/don’t call it a laptop known as Foleo — has been delayed over software quality issue doesn’t help. But hopefully, Palm can get it’s act together. Engadget posted an encouraging rumor that Palm may introduce a Linux-based smartphone in October of this year.
The Palm rumor du jour calls for Palm to deliver its first, [...]
Filed in: SL
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