Archive for December 2008
Wishing you all a very happy new year! May 2009 be a safe and happy year for everyone! We thank you for your continued support, you make what we do special. Best of times are yet to come!
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As 2008 takes its final breaths, I am sitting in my apartment, which is enveloped in a thick fog that’s hiding both the ugly high-rises and the beauty that is the San Francisco Bay. The fog is also muting the sounds of the city — … Read More »
As 2008 comes to a close, Liz Shannon Miller and Jill Weinberger look forward to improving themselves and the Internet in the New Year. Find out their New Year’s resolutions and their recommendations for others in online video in today’s Station Conversation!
Liz: Happy … Read More »
Oh boy, it’s that time of year when we put ourselves out on the front line and boldly make our predictions for what we’ll see in the world of mobile tech in 2009. I say “we” but that’s only to put Kevin’s butt on the line … Read More »
When French student Axel Peju wanted to use his Mac to track his finances and manage a budget, he couldn’t find an application to meet his needs, so he created his own. He developed Squirrel, a personal finance program for the Mac (and soon, … Read More »
In addition to the production version of its plug-in hybrid sedan, the Fisker Karma, Fisker Automotive plans to show a concept car called the Fisker Karma S (for “Sunset”) at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next month. What’s unusual about the Sunset … Read More »
Quite the conundrum over possible restrictions using Intel’s Atom CPU if Digitimes has the facts straight. Today they’re reporting that HP is negotiating with Intel so that they can use the Atom chipset in notebooks with display sizes larger than 10.2-inches. Allegedly, HP wants … Read More »
Today, IDG World Expo (the folks behind Macworld), announced that they will be holding a Town Hall Meeting at next week’s show. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 7 at 5PM PST in Moscone’s Gateway Ballroom, room 102.
All Macworld attendees are free to and encouraged … Read More »
Year-end prognosticators have their work cut out for them. Most predictions made a year ago were undone by events few actually foresaw. Now things are as uncertain as ever. 2009 could bring a healthy recovery, or another financial crisis could set us back even further.
So … Read More »
More Must Reads
By Josie Garthwaite
Dec. 31, 2008, 12:00pm PT
Brits Develop Carbon-Eating Cement: A new kind of cement based on magnesium silicates requires much less heating than the conventional stuff (which accounts for 5 percent of global carbon emissions) and absorbs large amounts of CO2 as it hardens. — The Guardian
Gimme a $2-a-Gallon Gas … Read More »
By Pamela Poole
Dec. 31, 2008, 12:00pm PT
Producteev is the new kid on the block in the collaborative task management arena, but this app puts the emphasis on the social and makes multi-tasking, our 21st-century way of life, a lot easier.
Just to be clear, this is not another Basecamp-type application. It is … Read More »
By Mike Gunderloy
Dec. 31, 2008, 11:00am PT
I’m planning to have a good 2009 – and this is going to be the year that I actually plan that. I’ve managed to muddle through the past couple of years of web working without any major plans, but like many of you, the economy has … Read More »
Over the past few years, the amount of time I’ve had to plop in front of the TV and channel-surf has decreased (there is a LOT of online video to watch, y’all). Even with my TiVo at the ready, I still only watch about two or … Read More »
The screams of anguish you might have heard today are the natural reaction of owners of 30 GB Zunes. They started bricking world-wide last night at midnight and nothing can bring them back. No word from Microsoft or anyone else what caused the 30 GB Zunes … Read More »
By Edit Staff
Dec. 31, 2008, 10:19am PT
With Time Warner Cable poised to take Viacom channels off the air in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other cities Jan. 1 due to a dispute over raising fees, that’s an awful lot of people who will be missing ”The Daily Show,” ”Best Week … Read More »
With Time Warner Cable poised to take Viacom channels off the air in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and several other cities Jan. 1 due to a dispute over raising fees, that’s an awful lot of people who will be missing The Daily Show, Best … Read More »
By Celine Roque
Dec. 31, 2008, 9:00am PT
Can the internet public know more about you than you would like? According to an article at New Scientist, there’s a company that uses software to analyze blogs and forum posts to find out a blogger’s age, gender, and … Read More »
By David Ehrlich
Dec. 31, 2008, 8:33am PT
Car buyers in California could be getting a different kind of sticker shock in the new year. Starting Jan. 1, every 2009 model year and newer car sold in California will be required to carry a label that ranks, in addition … Read More »
By Darrell Etherington
Dec. 31, 2008, 8:00am PT
Last week I wrote an article about Liferay, an open source portal app. Today, I’ll be looking at another option, Cyn.in, from Cynapse, an enterprise software solution provider.
Cyn.in is an open source collaboration app, and as such only offers a portion of … Read More »
The race to produce the favorite dedicated eBook reader is going strong with word of the release of the BeBook Reader. This reader has the standard fare with some corner cutting to keep the price down. It is going up against a gaggle of readers, … Read More »
By Wagner James Au
Dec. 31, 2008, 7:49am PT
By Om Malik
Dec. 31, 2008, 6:32am PT
What would happen to New York if The Daily Show went off the air? Where would hipsters get their daily Moment of Zen? No Spongebob Squarepants either – which means the Upper East side mommies would actually have to talk to their kids. A dispute between … Read More »
By Josie Garthwaite
Dec. 31, 2008, 12:00am PT
China’s Qaidam Basin could become the equivalent of the Mojave Desert in terms of solar power projects, if new plans to build a 1-gigawatt solar power photovoltaic farm in China come to fruition. While utilities and startups have sited the Southern California desert for some of … Read More »
By Om Malik
Dec. 30, 2008, 9:00pm PT
With every tick of the clock, 2008 is taking its final steps toward 2009, when the year starts afresh. From a broadband perspective it has been an eventful year –- one that was good, bad and ugly. Here is a rundown of 10 stories that defined … Read More »
Think of 2008 as Act I when it comes to set-top boxes, the prelude of what’s to come. Next year will bring the conflict in Act II, and 2010? Hopefully Act III and a resolution.
In 2008, all manner of brand-name and upstart players began vying to … Read More »
By David Ehrlich
Dec. 30, 2008, 5:00pm PT
Spain’s Acciona has plugged its Portugal solar project into the grid, announcing this week that the new 46-megawatt plant can produce enough electricity to power over 30 million Portuguese homes.
One of Spain’s largest construction contractors, Acciona invested €261 … Read More »
By Om Malik
Dec. 30, 2008, 5:00pm PT
Updated: Back in October, when I broke the news that uber venture fund Sequoia Capital had organized a secret meeting in which it warned its portfolio companies to prepare for the pending financial apocalypse, the revelation was met with some skepticism.
Some thought Sequoia was using … Read More »
As seems to be the trend with Smule’s iPhone applications, their point may not be immediately clear. With many App Store offerings, “enjoyable time waster” could be the point, but that’s not always enough for some people. There were those who didn’t see the point … Read More »
By Samuel Dean
Dec. 30, 2008, 4:00pm PT
A while back, a friend of mine and I had an idea for a new e-commerce web site we were thinking of launching. We eventually shelved the idea after digging up a couple of sites that were too close in spirit to the same idea, but … Read More »
By Imran Ali
Dec. 30, 2008, 3:00pm PT
We last briefly looked at Invotrak in the Summer of 2007. The service is similar to Freshbooks, in that users can create and track invoices and timesheets for client projects and employees as well as some funky analysis of payment history.
Feature-for-feature, Invotrak and … Read More »
By Josie Garthwaite
Dec. 30, 2008, 3:00pm PT
By Om Malik
Dec. 30, 2008, 2:57pm PT
As 2008 comes to a close, my dream of building a quality blog network that was more than just GigaOM has become a reality. While I have always believed in the quality of our editorial product, today we got a third-party affirmation of our efforts. PC … Read More »
After a dip in October, the number of overall unique online video viewers rose again in November, according to Nielsen’s VideoCensus. The number of unique viewers during the month grew to 124 million from 120 million in October, putting November back on par with September. … Read More »
By Darrell Etherington
Dec. 30, 2008, 2:00pm PT
You may be interested and motivated to become a freelance writer, but it’s hard to know where to start. First, you should write, but that goes without saying. How do you turn your passion into paid work? It’s not a simple process, and it involves a … Read More »
By Josie Garthwaite
Dec. 30, 2008, 1:00pm PT
With a new $6 billion bailout from the Treasury approved late yesterday, General Motors has lowered its requirements for auto loans. The bailout includes a $5 billion stake in the company’s financing arm, GMAC, plus a $1 billion loan that GM can use to reorganize … Read More »
