April, 2008 — Tech News and Analysis

Archive for April 2008

Though I am loathe to encourage any company to create yet another set-top box for my TV, Sezmi is hoping it has the right combination to replace at least a couple of devices connected to your TV. Sezmi (formerly Building B, and not to be … Read More »

Ruby Gets Some Enterprise-level Support

As Ruby on Rails rose to prominence in the last few years, the platform has faced derision from some programmers over its inability to scale for enterprise applications. Ruby on Rails might be good for making interactive web pages, but it was no C or Java. … Read More »

 
 

I was tied up all day today in a mandatory training class and it was one of those that allow no laptops to be used during the class.  This particular trainer was the first I’ve seen that extended that to Tablet PCs so I was … Read More »

Worried by iPhone, Mobile Cos Turn To Synaptics

The LG Secret launched today with a touch screen powered by Synaptics touch capacitors, a technology whose star has risen in the consumer devices universe in the wake of the iPhone. The iPhone uses a grid layout of capacitive sensors to enable multi-finger gestures, something … Read More »

The Daily Sprout

DIY Solar Electric Car: Between the financial strain of high gas prices and seven children it’s no wonder Brent Hatch decided to build a solar-pedal powered hybrid to schlep to and from the middle school – CBS News via Autoblog Green. LDK CEO Founds New … Read More »

Online video editing startup One True Media caters primarily to MySpace kids and home-video making moms. It has 3 million registered users, 70,000 new videos per week, and 4 million video views per week. But after noticing an increasing number of businesses using its service … Read More »

6 Free Apps and Utilities for Working with Video

Increasingly, from blogs to marketing materials to online video show production, web workers are working with video. The good things you can do with online video go far beyond YouTube, and there are a number of free applications and utilities–many of them open source–that you can … Read More »

Windows Mobile app controls home automation systems

There’s no doubt in my mind that our planned retirement home in the Poconos will be wired up the wahoo for home automation. Since it’s 100 miles away from our current … Read More »

In another bit of news from its earnings call today, Time Warner says it will release all of its DVD titles on VOD on a day-and-date basis this year. That means you’ll be able to order a movie like The Dark Knight via your cable … Read More »

HP's Circuit Innovation

Hewlett-Packard has come up with a new type of circuit called a memristor — a conflation of the words memory and resistance — in the form of a chip capable of storing data and processing it without being limited to the binary zeros and … Read More »

Structure 08 — Last Day for Ticket Discounts

Today is the last day to get a super-saver discount on tickets for Structure 08, our upcoming conference dedicated to web infrastructure. In addition to keynotes from speakers including Jim Crowe, chairman and CEO of Level 3 Communications, the event will feature … Read More »

More Must Reads

If you’re running a web site that includes small chunks of information – addresses, say, or reviews – a new service named BeamMe.Info wants to help you get those chunks over to your readers’ mobile phones. The idea is pretty … Read More »

Why do you subscribe to HBO or Showtime, is it for the movies or the original series? It’s a question that sprang to mind when Viacom, Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM announced they were creating a new pay TV network. There was a lot of … Read More »

Today’s data centers consume 0.5 percent of the world’s energy but are about as energy efficient as a poorly maintained Hummer is fuel efficient. But getting data centers to run more like a Prius is going to take a lot of work in areas that range … Read More »

Spell checking functions are built into many tools these days including Microsoft Word, blog editing programs, and even now into browsers such as Firefox and Opera.  However, this doesn’t stop web publishers or bloggers (including me!) from slipping and including an occasional spelling error into our … Read More »

Google isn’t evil and it isn’t being beaten down by the recession or fewer click-throughs on its ads. At least that’s the message CEO Eric Schmidt tried to convey during an interview with Maria Bartiromo that will air on CNBC after the close of markets … Read More »

I think I’ve had my new Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC for around six weeks now. In that time, I’ve run Windows XP Tablet Edition (which came pre-installed), Windows … Read More »

The U.S. economy may be sputtering, but there was some good news coming out of the cleantech world this morning. First Solar, the poster child of cleantech IPOs and the so-called “Google of solar,” reported a sharp rise in its profit and revenue … Read More »

We’ve covered picking the ideal office chair, fixing up your workstation with a treadmill, and choosing the right office desk. But there’s another alternative for the web worker that we haven’t touched on yet: standing while you work. While the idea of standing – … Read More »

Sonic Solutions Buys Simple Star; Sonic’s Roxio to incorporate platform that allows people to turn video clips into shows that are shareable to PCs, TVs and social networks. (VentureBeat) Comcast iGuide Time Shifts Itself; glitch made guide listings off by two and a half hours for … Read More »

I doubt I can turn my 120-pound frame into an Ultimate Fighting Championship contender with this tip, but with the power of the iPod, you never know. Men’s Health … Read More »

It’s all smoke and mirrors until the products launch, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt promised untold wonders of coming YouTube advertising innovations — “not just putting in-line ads in the things” — in an interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo that will air at 4 p.m. ET … Read More »

I’m here in Las Vegas for the annual Interop show for IT professionals, and I’m finding it to be far livelier — and better attended — than I had expected it would be. In fact, I may need to rethink my belief that Web 2.0 … Read More »

Can Twitter help you turn your lights off? IBM’s “Master Inventor” Andy Stanford-Clark has rigged up his home to twitter its energy use, and if you follow the tweets you can see in real time when Stanford-Clark has turned his lights and fountain off … Read More »

CLICK HERE to download the file and listen directly.MoTR 131 is 34:20 minutes long and is a 32.1 MB file in MP3 format. INTRO: Based on “Time v2.1″ by Meta Sektion, … Read More »

Just because web workers have done away with the traditional office, it doesn’t mean we’re also rid of the stress that comes with working. We encounter equipment failures, personal problems, and a scary client every now and then. Still, we need to keep our cool despite … Read More »

The big news coming out of Time Warner this morning was that the company is finally selling off its cable division, the second largest in the country (our pal Stacey at GigaOM says its the beginning of Time Warner’s death by 1,000 cuts). But … Read More »

The CEO of California utility PG&E, Peter Darbee, recently said that he’d like to use the company’s deep pockets to buy solar thermal plants. Turns out that’s just the beginning of the things he’d like to change about how utilities operate. Check out Earth2Tech’s … Read More »

Calgoo – whose products we have covered in the past – has just announced the addition of Apple iCal support across its product line: Calgoo Hub, which supports sharing calendars Calgoo Connect, which handles synchronization of online and desktop calendars Calgoo Calendar, … Read More »

What happens when you have so much free time on your hands that you actually look at every possible field in Outlook? You find a useful productivity … Read More »

The beta of Skype 3.8 for Windows lasted for about a month because the newest version dropped the beta tag yesterday. Most changes are under the … Read More »

The giant Time Warner implosion starts now with the move to split off its growing cable division and use the capital to buy back shares. While the cable business brought some stability to Time Warner’s bottom line, it’s an awkward asset for a … Read More »

BlackBerry is the smartphones du jour for web workers, and it’s not hard to see why. A straightforward interface, Fort Knox-like security and superb email handling make it the platform of choice for mobile email, but there’s a lot you can do to improve … Read More »

Yesterday the news rumors hit that AT&T might be subsidizing the next Apple iPhone. On our podcast, we discuss what it will take for us to upgrade or buy a … Read More »

Here at Web Worker Daily, we’re all about helping you find the applications that you need to be productive or run your business. But what if the existing solutions just don’t work for you, or don’t even exist? You … Read More »

The CEO of California utility PG&E, Peter Darbee, recently caught our attention in a big way when he said that he’d like to use PG&E’s deep pockets to buy and own solar thermal plants. Turns out that’s just the beginning of the things he’d … Read More »

Earlier this week we briefly mentioned that a new company called SaysMe had raised a first round of funding. The company helps regular people get their political ads on television, which sure sounds like an open can of worms to me! To … Read More »

Oil giants like BP and Shell often groom themselves through marketing campaigns as being very interested in alternative energies like biofuels, solar and wind power. And they are investing in these areas. But when earnings time comes around, it becomes clear just how puny these initiatives … Read More »

X Prize Foundation Puts $100M Up for Cleantech: In its largest prize to date, the X Prize Foundation will award $100 million for breakthroughs in biofuels, energy storage, power generation for developing nations, and other categories – Business Week. “Q&A: Wave Power”: With everyone from San … Read More »

Transferring wireless, high-definition content is a puzzle that hardware vendors have long been trying to solve. It’s hard to cram that much data into a fast wireless stream using unlicensed spectrum such as Wi-Fi or Ultra-wideband, but plenty of companies are trying. However, for … Read More »

U.S. demand for broadband has finally started to slow, but that means the carriers are looking for even more ways to squeeze money out of subscribers. One such way: speed boosts. Continue Reading Read More »

In a similar vein to a post I put up recently titled The Time is Now to Go to 802.11n, several 802.11n-related initiatives are taking shape this week that should be of interest to web workers. Whether your home Wi-Fi network is already 802.11n-based or … Read More »

Adam J. Robinson’s web series Father Wrote the Play by Leeland Greenmess consists, so far, of a single episode and two promos. Both the promos and the pilot episode mix found public domain footage with slideshow-style “animation” — the illusion of motion is created not … Read More »

Hot on the heels of Windows XP SP3, Microsoft released an additional treat today, for Mac owners only, as the latest release of Microsoft Messenger for Mac (version 7) escaped into the wild. Version 6 brought the Aqua look and feel to Microsoft’s … Read More »

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