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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Top ten tech toys you can afford, from the SciFi blog.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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 [...]
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 [...]
Digg now features videos on their new home page.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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?
PC Magazine has a list of the top 100 “new or under-the-radar sites of 2007″ that’s worth a look.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Boston Globe has an article on the Steampunk design movement. It’s interesting to see such a specialized geek subculture get mainstream coverage.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Apparently, it’s not safe to put your Xbox 360 into a bowl of water.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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, [...]
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.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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.
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 [...]
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 [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )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 [...]
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