I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking that Netflix invented the rent-movies-by-mail business. But Hacking Netflix has unearthed a gem about a company called Video Mailbox that offered rent-by-mail — on VHS, no less — way back in 1987, long before little red envelopes clogged… Read More »
Archive for August 2009
Lately, Google Voice is perhaps one of the most widely discussed products in the Apple blogosphere besides Apple’s own native devices. With its rejection from the App Store and people pointing fingers at Apple, AT&T, Steve Jobs and just about everyone and everything else… Read More »
It seemed like it might never happen, but the Always Innovating TouchBook is finally getting into purchasers’ hands. The TouchBook is a hybrid tablet with a detachable keyboard that’s designed for slate operation. Reader Stephen Feger has received his TouchBook and is posting his
YouTube is taking a page from Netflix, looking to recommendations as a way to squeeze a few more video views (with ads) out of its massive audience. Only this time around, the recommendations YouTube wants to make are of a more unexpected variety. The… Read More »
A few years back, I wondered if broadband could predict economic shifts. As I noted back then, I believe that “what sea routes, air routes and highways were to the 20th century, broadband pipes are to the 21st century.” With the subsequent growth of… Read More »
Nokia seems to be a company suffering from multiple platform disorder. The phone maker has long produced phones based on the Symbian platform, with the exception of its Internet Tablets. Those tablets were graced with Maemo, a Linux optimized for the small screen. Nokia seemed… Read More »
Verizon and Qualcomm said today that their new joint venture, which will provide access to Verizon’s network for machines and other embedded wireless applications, will be called nPhase. The name comes from the original M2M company that Qualcomm acquired in 2006, and… Read More »
The open-source project team that released Sequel Pro 0.95 three months ago has just released 0.96. The update adds polish to the application, making working with it more pleasurable — if you can ever call working with databases pleasurable. They’ve also added some new core functionality… Read More »
As announced on the Gmail Blog, the folks at Google have added an important update to Gmail: mail and contact import features for everyone. Somewhat annoyingly, these features were previously available for newly created Gmail accounts, but were not available for the many of… Read More »
More than 100 companies have been jockeying in recent months for billions of dollars in federal grants and state incentive packages designed to help spur the growth of a U.S. battery manufacturing industry for plug-in vehicles. At this point, firms based in China, Japan,… Read More »
Online video distribution is exciting, but it wouldn’t be of much interest if the cameras weren’t also getting smaller, cheaper and more powerful all the time. The latest object of desire I’ve stumbled across is the recently released Phantom Miro eX from Vision Research.… Read More »
Despite all the hype and excitement around the real-time web, access to real-time information online is hardly a new phenomenon. That fact stuck with me after talking to Chris Cox, Facebook’s product director, last week at the social networking company’s headquarters. As he noted, “Real time has… Read More »
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