Archive for September, 2007
Adobe Buys Online Word Processor
Posted by Joe on September 30, 2007 · Comments Off
Adobe enters the online office app business:
The company on Monday is expected to announce that it has acquired an 11-person start-up, called Virtual Ubiquity, that has built a free Web word processor called Buzzword.
BuzzWord is a nice looking application, based on these screen shots. And since the interface is Flash based, it’s already using Adobe technology.
Net access isn’t ubiquitous enough for online document storage and editing to make sense to me, but the movers and shakers sure seem interested.
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Centro Looks Promising
Posted by Joe on September 29, 2007 · Comments Off
Palm’s web site is featuring details on the newly announced Centro. It looks like a sweet little bargain-priced smart phone. Given that it will cost $99 (the same as Palm’s basic Palm Z22 organizer, which offers far less in the way of features) this phone should do pretty well. Palm could certainly use a hit right now, but hopefully they’ll continue to work hard on a much-needed OS refresh and hardware redesign for users who want a higher-end phone.
Update: CrunchGear reports that the Centro is powered by a 312MHz Intel XScale processor and features Palm OS 5.4.9 — info [...]
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NetBank Shut Down Amid Mortgage Default Crisis
NetBank was shut down by federal regulators yesterday, with the following notice appearing on the bank’s web site:
On September 28, 2007, NetBank, Alpharetta, GA was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver. All insured depositors are now customers of ING Direct Bank, member FDIC. No advance notice is given to the public when a financial institution is closed.
The FDIC has assembled useful information regarding your relationship with this institution. Besides a checking account, you may have Certificates of Deposit, [...]
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Knight Rider Reboot Coming From NBC Later This Season
A new Knight Rider tv movie / series pilot is in the works at NBC:
NBC is bringing back the action show about a man and his motor, testing the waters on a full-fledged series revival with a two-hour TV movie/pilot, which the network will air later this season.
According to Variety, if the telepic is a success—or at the very least, not a complete ratings bomb—the Doug Liman-produced series will go into production for a 2008-09 debut.
NBC Entertainment chief Ben Silverman’s idea to revisit the indestructible supercar series was, per the trade, inspired in part by the recent success [...]
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Windows XP Granted An Extension
Posted by Joe on September 28, 2007 · Comments Off
Windows XP has gotten a reprieve from Microsoft:
Large PC manufacturers were slated to have to stop selling XP after January 31. However, they have successfully lobbied Microsoft to allow them to continue selling PCs with all flavors of Windows XP preloaded until June 30, a further five months. Microsoft also plans to keep XP on retail shelves longer and will allow computer makers in emerging markets to build machines with Windows XP Starter Edition until June 2010.
My new-ish Compaq laptop qualified for a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium, but given what I’ve heard, I decided not to bother. [...]
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The Municipal Wi-Fi Flop
Posted by Joe on September 28, 2007 · Comments Off
Slate asks, “Where’s My Free Wi-Fi?” The answer boils down to a simple reality: nothing’s truly free. Cities are realizing that building a public Wi-Fi infrastructure costs money, and if taxpayer’s want it they’ll need to pony up.
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Crunchy Confusion Over Pink “Breast Cancer” Shuffle
Posted by Joe on September 26, 2007 · 4 Comments
CrunchGear has picked up the story about the pink iPod Shuffles Target is carrying. The “special edition” comes with a $15 iTunes card, and retails for just $79 — a pretty good deal — with a portion of the proceeds supporting Breast Cancer Research Foundation. However, CrunchGear — and a lot of other blogs — seems confused. This isn’t something Apple is doing at all. Some company is repackaging new pink Shuffles (2nd generation) with the iTunes cards. iLounge gets it right:
Found in Target’s retail stores, this oversized clear plastic package [...]
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Desktop Showoff
Posted by Joe on September 26, 2007 · Comments Off
Lifehacker asked readers to send in shots of their desktops. There are some very cool desktops out there. Personally, I like a clean look, and rely on my Quick Launch bar for my most used applications. It’s a little crowded right now. Click the image below for a better look at my desktop:
The widgets are from Yahoo! Widgets.
I’m running XP Media Center Edition, but the look and feel of Vista is provided by a Brico Pack.
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eBay Accounts Hacked, Details Posted In eBay Forums
Posted by Joe on September 26, 2007 · Comments Off
An Ars Technica poster is reporting on a very scary eBay hacking incident:
eBay is one of the most successful Internet-only ventures of all time, so it’s not surprising that it has come under near-constant attack by fraudsters and hackers. In the latest attempt, a hacker logged on to the eBay Trust and Security forums and pretended to post as 1,200 separate users, making it appear as if he had actually logged in with each user’s account. The posts contained the users’ names, contact information, and credit card numbers.
The credit card numbers appear to be bogus, but the other [...]
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Amazon MP3 Takes On iTunes
TUAW has a review of Amazon’s new MP3 download store. Read the whole thing, but it sounds like a great alternative to iTunes:
I would liken buying tracks at Amazon MP3 to buying something at WalMart. The decor isn’t great, but the prices make up for it (no matter what you think of WalMart, you can’t beat their prices). The iTunes experience is much nicer, but I am willing to deal with a slightly less polished store to save a few bucks on some downloads. I’ll be checking both iTunes and Amazon when I have the urge to buy some music, and I imagine I won’t be alone on [...]
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Another Asus Eee update
Posted by Joe on September 23, 2007 · Comments Off
Ars Technica has an update on the Asus Eee ultra-portable, which should be available very soon:
There will be three different versions of the Eee PC, two versions of the 700 and a 701 version. The entry-level system is priced at one site for $259 with 2GB of SSD storage and available in black only, without a webcam. The next version is a $299 Eee PC, which is available in white or black, includes a webcam, and offers 2GB of SSD storage. The top-of-the-line Eee PC is priced at $399, is available in black or white, has a webcam, and offers 4GB of SSD storage.
With just 2GB of storage, the cheapest [...]
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OLPC Give 1 Get 1
Posted by Joe on September 23, 2007 · Comments Off
Starting November 12, the OLPC initiative will allow U.S. buyers to purchase two XO laptops—one that will be sent to a child in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to the buyer. The price will be $399.
Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home. If you’re interested in Give 1 Get 1, we’ll be happy to send you a reminder email. [...]
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Dawnkey Does Dissing
Posted by Joe on September 23, 2007 · Comments Off
Dawn Douglass of the Dawnkey Notes blog has posted a stinging criticism of Michael Arrington and TechCrunch:
Michael Arrington is excellent at writing startup tech news and getting scoops. He wields great power in Silicon Valley. But I think TechCrunch is vulnerable as a company. Why? Because Arrington is abusing that power.
Read the whole thing.
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Mozy Bought By EMC
Posted by Joe on September 23, 2007 · Comments Off
Mozy, my favorite online backup solution, has been acquired by EMC Corporation.
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What Is A Hoax Device?
Mike Masnick on Techdirt is hung up on the fact that police are saying Star Simpson was wearing a “hoax device”. Actually, they aren’t just saying it, they are apparently charging her with it. You see, in Massachusetts the term “hoax device” has a legal definition:
(b) For the purposes of this section, the term “hoax device†shall mean any device that would cause a person reasonably to believe that such device is an infernal machine. For the purposes of this section, the term “infernal machine†shall mean any device for endangering life or [...]
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FOX Offers Free Downloads Of Season Premiers
Posted by Joe on September 21, 2007 · Comments Off
FOX is offering seven of their premiers for free on iTunes next week:
Starting this week, the premiere episodes of shows like “American Dad,†“K-Ville†and more will be available for free through the iTunes store. Fox is hoping the move will draw in viewers who will then watch later installments on TV or pay to download them from the iTunes store.
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NBC To Offer Free Series Downloads
Posted by Joe on September 21, 2007 · Comments Off
NBC’s decision to allow free ad-supported downloads of TV shows up to a week after airing is a step in the right direction. Critics are complaining about ads that can’t be skipped, and about the shows self-destructing a week after original airing, but those people won’t be happy with anything short of networks giving away content for free with no DRM and no commercials. A scheme that lets me watch my favorite shows on demand up to a week after the scheduled air date, and also lets the networks get paid, is a good solution.
Meanwhile, ABC is also making shows available for download [...]
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Half a Terabyte In Your Lap
Posted by Joe on September 21, 2007 · Comments Off
Alienware is offering laptops with 640 GB of storage, consisting of two 2.5-inch 320GB drives.
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Worry Free Downloads With FlashGet
Posted by Joe on September 18, 2007 · Comments Off
After several hours and several failed attempts to download the Lotus Symphony beta I wrote about earlier, I finally took another approach. I downloaded and installed FlashGet, a free download manager. Less than 30 minutes later, the 133 meg file was downloaded and installed.
I haven’t used a download manager since shortly after going broadband, but FlashGet saved the day. It works by opening up multiple download streams and keeping track of what portions of the file have been downloaded. It can resume an interrupted download and use multiple mirrors. Recommended for big files — [...]
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Google Reader Splits With Google Labs
Posted by Joe on September 18, 2007 · Comments Off
Google Reader has officially graduated from Google Labs. There’s even a dear John Labs letter on the Google Reader blog:
Dear “Labs”,
We don’t know how to tell you this, but it’s time that we break up. It’s just that we’re different now. People can search. They can share what they read. They can even see trends about what they read, and how often they do it. There are all sorts of things we could do in the future to make feed reading awesome. And that means you just can’t be around anymore.
But don’t be sad. We’ll always remember the [...]
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IBM To Offer Free Office Suite
Posted by Joe on September 18, 2007 · Comments Off
There’s nothing revolutionary about the free office suite IBM is now offering on its website. It’s based on the open source suite OpenOffice.org, although the user interface is much more modern looking — think Office 2003 meets Offices 2007 (click the thumbnail for a better look). The real significance here is that it’s IBM distributing it, under the Lotus Symphony brand. The old saying that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM may not be as true as it once was, but a free office suite from Big Blue should win over more than a few corporate customers.
I’m downloading [...]
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Chasing Television’s Long Tail
Here’s a list of prime time Emmies:
* Supporting actor in a comedy series: Jeremy Piven, Entourage
* Supporting actor in a drama series: Terry O’Quinn, Lost
* Supporting actress in a comedy series: Jaime Pressly, My Name Is Earl
* Supporting actress in a drama series: Katherine Heigl, Grey’s Anatomy
* Lead actor in a miniseries or movie: Robert Duvall, Broken Trail
* Miniseries: Broken Trail
* Variety, music, or comedy series: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
* Variety, music, or comedy special: Tony Bennett: An American Classic
* Made for TV [...]
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Tear Down This Wall
Posted by Joe on September 17, 2007 · Comments Off
New York Times will tear down it’s pay wall, known as TimesSelect, effective at midnight Tuesday night. Good move. There’s too much quality free content out there, and the Times’ columnists weren’t ever happy about being walled off. Even better, now the Times can leverage the millions of visitors search engines send them every week.
Even the Wall Street Journal, seen by some as a poster child for a pay-for-access news site, is rumored to be reevaluating its pay-wall.
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Big Networks Video Streaming Compared
Posted by Joe on September 16, 2007 · Comments Off
Last 100 takes a look at the streaming video offered by 5 U.S. brodacast networks:
The good news: Major U.S. television networks continue to embrace Internet technology and are putting their shows on the Web for online viewing, just like they did last year.
The bad news: Their online offerings remain sporadic; their Internet strategies feel like “we have to†rather than “we want toâ€; and — worst of all — they still haven’t embraced the idea that we are living in a new digital world, with different rules, participants, and expectations all around.
Let’s [...]
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Download OpenOffice 2.3
Posted by Joe on September 16, 2007 · Comments Off
OpenOffice.org 2.3, the latest release of the popular cross-platform office suite, is available for download now. CybernetNews has a comprehensive list of changes and features.
Filed in: SL
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