Consumer Products

Streaming Video? Forget Myka or Roku and Get Windows 7

Chris Dannen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:28:10 -0500

We already know Netflix users are begging for easier ways to get streaming video to their TVs--Xbox, PS3, Roku, and Blu-ray players apparently aren't simple enough solutions.

Undead Tech: Apple's TV Macintosh

Chris Dannen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:46:01 -0400

This week we've seen the new 27-inch iMac compared to a television, and we've watched Windows 7 get all TV-happy with in-home streaming. But it was in over a decade ago that Apple ventured to show us how TVs and PCs would eventually conflate, and in true Apple fashion, they did it way too early with a commercial flop.

Booksellers Say Wal-Mart/Amazon Price War Is Anticompetitive

Chris Dannen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:54:31 -0400

Earlier this week I reported that Sears seemed to have won the book price wars started by Wal-Mart by giving away books essentially for free. At the time, I speculated that the move might actually have positive ramifications for smaller booksellers and for publishing companies. But if that's the case, the American Booksellers Association (ABA) isn't waiting around to find out.

Bing Adds Real-Time Twitter and Facebook Updates. When Will Google Step Up? [Update: Google Stepped Up!]

Chris Dannen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:55:35 -0400

Update: Marissa Mayer, Google's Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, has just announced that the search giant has "reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results."

Does the Kindle Make Good Brain-Food?

Chris Dannen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:00:46 -0400

Do we learn differently from electronic paper than real books? The New York Times set out to understand the question by polling a group of experts. Does e-paper make it harder to focus? Harder to think and learn?

"Initially, any new information medium seems to degrade reading because it disturbs the balance between focal and peripheral attention," said Alan Liu, chairman of the English department at UC Santa Barbara. "This was true as early as the invention of writing, which Plato complained hollowed out focal memory."

Where's My iPod Made? SourceMap Has the Answer

Kit Eaton — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:58:26 -0400

MIT's Media Lab has designed a way to help you understand the economic and ecological implications behind different products you buy--it's an interactive map that displays where each component came from.

Comcast Denies Reports It's Buying NBC-Universal

Chris Dannen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:51:20 -0400

Will the cast of 30 Rock soon be making fun of a new corporate overlord? M&A bankers for General Electric may have reached a deal Tuesday to sell NBC-Universal to Comcast, reports TheWrap. Both companies have denied any deal.

How to Make the Best Damn Facebook Notifier for Mac

Chris Dannen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:46:45 -0400

Facebook just released their first experimental desktop app. It's a menu-bar add on for Mac OS X called "desktop notifications," but once it's installed, it does more than notify--but not much more. You can update your status, as well as see the arrival of new status updates and messages for your friends.

Is Motorola's Android Phone for Kids?

Chris Dannen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:32:52 -0400

Today Motorola released its first Android device: the Cliq for T-Mobile. And while most Android comparisons run right to the iPhone, this thing looks more poised to steal teen approval from the Sidekick.

What's So Hard About Augmented Reality, Anyway?

Chris Dannen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:43:16 -0400

Yesterday I posted about Nokia's anemic vision of augmented reality. And while we should all hold the world's largest phone-maker to a high standard when it comes to technology like AR, it's worth discussing why the future of these apps is so difficult to solidify.

Sure, our smartphones have GPS, and cameras, and Internet access. And it sounds like the iPhone will expand its dev-friendly API to include AR framework in version 3.1. But useful AR is much more than all that.

Apple Fast Becoming iPod, Inc.

Chris Dannen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:32:06 -0400

In 2007, Apple decided it would drop the "Computer" from its corporate title and become simply Apple, Inc. At the time the change seemed semantic or aesthetic, depending on your outlook. But the move proved more prescient this morning as Apple officially brought the number of mobile devices it makes to a grand total of eight. That's one more iPod than Macintosh that exists in their lineup. Apple, it seems, has become a mobile device maker.

Nine Killer Features in iTunes 9

Chris Dannen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:31:06 -0400

Today Steve Jobs made a grand reappearance on the Apple stage to introduce iTunes 9 at Apple's Rock 'n Roll event in San Francisco. So what's new?

1) iTunes LP is a new incentive for full-album purchases: you get images, interviews, liner notes and all the original album material that don't usually come with digital downloads.

Philips Takes on Sex Toy Design

Cliff Kuang — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:31:01 -0400

Philips designs all sorts of wild things, from food concepts for 2030 to stoves for the poor to read more

Get the Speed of Apple "Snow Leopard" Without Buying a New Mac

Chris Dannen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:25:49 -0400

Apple just announced that it's next update to OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard, will ship on Friday. That's great news if you own an Intel Mac, but if you own an older machine, you're out of luck--version 10.6 won't support PPC Macs. But that doesn't mean you can't have all the refinements packed into Snow Leopard. Here are six workarounds that will keep your old warhorse running with the best of them.

Optimize & Clean

Apple Snow Leopard To Ship August 28

Chris Dannen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:01:48 -0400

After a period of downtime early Monday morning, Apple has reinstated their online store with one seminal addition: the ability to preorder Mac OS X, dubbed Snow Leopard, for shipping on August 28.

Facebook Plans 50% Expansion

Chris Dannen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:40:21 -0400

Facebook is planning to expand its 1,000-person ranks by 50%, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an interview with Bloomberg . The company is using the dismal economic times as a bartering chip, picking up engineers and executives on the cheap. Since they're one of the only companies in town with an active agenda for expansion, Facebook's brass will have their run of the resume pool.

Seven Signs of Our Times Online

Chris Dannen — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:20:56 -0400

This isn't your usual August. With enough political issues smoldering to fill a decade of American history, the vacation month has turned into a morass of issues that boggles the mind. Here are seven articles that went viral this week, attempting to answer one simple question: What the hell is going on in America?

No Good Options

Posterous Makes iPhone Photoblogging Ingenious

Chris Dannen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:13:31 -0400

There are plenty of ways to blog a cat, and nearly all the tools out there work fine. But make no mistake: there's a blogging arms race going on.

The Solution to Your Resumé Nightmare

Chris Dannen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:26:12 -0400

Every idea has its time, and with the unemployment rate rising, JobSpice is right on schedule. Think of it as Google Docs for your resumé: it's an online service that makes creating and distributing resumes easy, without the hassle of cutting, pasting and tabbing yourself to death in Microsoft Word. Simply plug in your work and education info, and it will let you choose from a litany of pre-made templates; better yet, it won't lose your formatting if you submit the document online, and it makes tracking different versions of your resumé easy.

Google Scripts Help Automate Apps, Premier Edition Only

Chris Dannen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:34:12 -0400

Automation is the dream of every work-laden computer user, and scripting languages can make those dreams come true. Now Google is releasing its own scripting language for its online apps called Google Apps Script. It seems mostly aimed at users of Google Spreadsheets, who can burn a lot of time doing currency or metric conversions.

To Combat iPhone, Microsoft Unleashes Slowness, Confusion

Chris Dannen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:14:19 -0400

Microsoft will use one version of its Windows Mobile operating system to combat Android sales, and another version against the iPhone, According to Digitimes.

The hare-brained two-tier strategy won't roll out until October, when Microsoft unleashes WinMo 6.5 upon the uninterested public. If you're waiting for touchscreen functionality, Microsoft will be there for you--in February of 2010, when a touch update will be available as an upgrade. Yes, 2010.

Flickr Removes Obama-as-Joker Photo

Chris Dannen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:31:16 -0400

It's rarely a good PR move when a social Web site decides to remove a politically-charged image--the InterWebs get angry. One such case came to light today: A Photoshop mockup of President Obama as the Joker from The Dark Knight, superimposed on the cover of Time magazine, has been removed from Flickr.

OMG! New Mouse Can Track on Anything Using "Darkfield" Tech

Chris Dannen — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:06:03 -0400

It's not every day that technology advances the human condition, but today, dear computer users, is one such day. If you have a mouse made in the last 10 years, chances are it's one of those red laser mouses with a menacing glow. Badass, yes, but these optical mice utterly fail us when placed on a desk made of glass, or laminated wood, or highly-lacquered material. Plus I'm pretty sure they can blind your children when upside-down.

Turnkey iPhone Apps Are Neat, Waste of Money

Chris Dannen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:50:56 -0400

Everyone needs an iPhone app. Or so you'd think, give the launch of a new Web service called SWebapps. The site, which launched officially today, allows you to quickly and easily roll your own iPhone app and get it into the App Store for somewhere between $200 and $400, plus some monthly fees for hosting and optional analytics. Doesn't sound like much money for an iPhone app, right? But for most businesses, it seems more like an utter waste.

RIM Is World's Fastest-Growing Company

Chris Dannen — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:48:00 -0400

While most cubicles are buzzing with fawning talk of iPhones and Pres, the phones that sit idly listening to all that talk are probably BlackBerry Curves. If unexciting, the Curve is the top selling smartphone in the U.S., and part of the reason that RIM has been able to sustain remarkable growth over the last few years: an average of 77% increase in revenue in the last three years. Big numbers like that have vaulted the Canadian company to the top of Fortune's list of fastest-growing companies list, making it number one this year.