August, 2009 — Tech News and Analysis

Archive for August 2009

Productivity Tip: Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

I’m on a keyboard productivity kick at the moment. Having been through the time-saving keyboard shortcuts in Google Tasks yesterday, I thought I’d take a look at the ones that I use in Gmail. I’m only going to cover the shortcuts that I use every … Read More »

Friday the 21st was the day Apple, Google, and AT&T had to hand in their long form essay responses to a series of questions from the FCC. Surprisingly, Apple published its entire response here, and Engadget has both AT&T’s and Google’s. I found the … Read More »

 
 

Channels.com 2.0 Launches; revamped site aiming to become a “web video DVR” lets users subscribe to video via RSS feeds. (VideoNuze) Guiding Light Actress Taking Her Lesbian Character to the Web; Since the soap is going off the air, Crystal Chappell taking the “Otalia” duo to … Read More »

Mobile Ad Spend to Rise, But Still Leave Room to Grow

Mobile Internet ad spending is expected to increase fourfold over the next five years, according to new projections from Juniper Research, with emerging markets fueling much of the growth. Despite all the hype, though, mobile ads will remain a small sliver of overall advertising … Read More »

We won’t know the whole story surrounding Nokia’s Booklet 3G netbook until September 2nd, but apparently, there’s a speculated price out there. $799 says Sascha over at Netbook News (translated). Sascha has fairly solid sources, so I’m inclined to believe the price, … Read More »

UK Minister Wants to Personally Zap File-Sharers

It seems the British government is going loony for anti-piracy rhetoric from the likes of U2 and David Geffen. Legislation proposed in the UK today would allow government ministers to cut off Internet access to persistent file-sharers. The bill comes out of … Read More »

Want Fast Internet? Don't Live In the Sticks

Delaware, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts have some of the fastest Internet access speeds in the country, according to a new survey by the Communications Workers of America, while Hawaii, Alaska, Montana and Wyoming have the slowest. In other words, there appears to be a direct … Read More »

UK Wants to Zap File-Sharers

It seems the British government is going loony for anti-piracy rhetoric from the likes of U2 and David Geffen. Legislation proposed in the UK today would allow government ministers to cut off Internet access to persistent file-sharers. Earlier this summer the “Digital Britain” … Read More »

Last week my cable went out. Most of my channels simply had the on-screen message “One Moment Please.” I called Comcast, navigated menus of phone tree options, and waited for a service rep. And waited. And waited. When the rep finally came on, they remotely reset … Read More »

The Social Web Isn't Just for the Young Anymore

While social web content has been stereotyped as a teen fad, it looks like adults are crashing the young folks’ party. More than four out of five U.S. adults (ages 18 and up) use social media at least once a month, according to  … Read More »

Hope you’re not tired of waiting for an Android netbook or smartbook from ASUS just yet, because you’ll be waiting longer. PC World listened in on a recent ASUS investor call, and the Taiwanese company just doesn’t currently see a market for such a … Read More »

More Must Reads

Nissan’s assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn., has yet to start churning out electric vehicles, but the facility is already putting alternative fuel technology to work. After an 18-month trial period, the automaker and Fremont, Calif.-based startup Oorja Protonics (one of Sequoia Capital’s first cleantech … Read More »

It doesn’t matter how brilliant your mouse trap is if it doesn’t catch any mice. Same goes for technologies. Witness femtocells, those small, in-premise devices that help with spotty cell phone coverage by piggybacking on wired broadband connections. According to The Wall Street Journal, femtocells aren’t … Read More »

For any web worker with a blog, web site or online portfolio, knowing how to optimize it for search engines is a must. After all, what’s the point of having an online presence if no one can find it? By using some simple Search Engine Optimizations … Read More »

Over on Apple’s web site are the latest ads in its “Get a Mac” campaign. The new commercials, titled “Top of the Line” and “Surprise,” continue the tried and trusted “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” theme featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long. “Surprise” sees … Read More »

Google Wave is an incredible technology that is hard to fully understand. It is messaging, email and real-time web collaboration all rolled into one, and the implications are far-reaching. I have been trying to imagine the full ramifications of using Google Wave on a team basis, … Read More »

The tennis flavor of the U.S. Open kicks off on Monday, Aug. 31, but if you can’t make it to New York or are stuck at work, just turn on your PC. The U.S. Open announced yesterday that USOpen.org will be live streaming more than … Read More »

Data storage can account for up to 40 percent of the energy consumed by a data center. Yikes — but at the same time, it’s not hard to see why storage vendors are busy building technologies that can help data center operators trim energy costs … Read More »

The line has blurred that separates the smartphone from the feature phone. Feature phones are those cheap carrier phones that don’t have the capability to download and run sophisticated apps. Microsoft has blurred the line even further, and announced a new cloud service, dubbed OneApp, … Read More »

Sprint’s $483 million purchase of prepaid phone services giant, Virgin USA, has been approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The deal still needs some minor clearances from the Federal Communications Commission. The megamillion-dollar purchase highlights the importance of the prepaid and budget … Read More »

PC Mag’s Sascha Segan posed an intriguing question the other day: “If you put a smartphone in a dock, it could replace a netbook. So why hasn’t anyone succeeded at doing that?” Good question. Now that I’ve been thinking about it, the idea of a dock into … Read More »

Some of the biggest hardware efficiency boosts we can get are either completely free, or nearly so. Sure, a maxed-out new laptop would be great to have, but these are tough times. If you spend a little time with the hardware you have or pick up … Read More »

As platforms pop up everywhere, the API, or application programming interface, is the bridge linking data on Salesforce.com to an app built in Google’s AppEngine — or it’s the link between Twitter and your ability to tweet using TweetDeck. No matter what type of … Read More »

Smith & Tinker, a Bellevue, Wash.-based game company, today announced it’s raised $29 million from Alsop Louie Partners, DCM, Foundry Group, Leo Capital Holdings, and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital. The money will primarily fund Nanovor, an ambitious kids’ game that will extend across … Read More »

As the whirlwind of Cash for Clunkers draws to a close, it’s coming full circle: The federal program that until 8 p.m. Monday night provided rebates of up to $4,500 for old gas-guzzlers when they were traded in for more fuel efficient new vehicles kicked … Read More »

WiMAX, the wireless broadband technology that is vying with Long Term Evolution to become the standard for the next generation of higher-speed wireless networks, draws either delight or derision, depending on whom you ask — its champions or detractors. When some analyst firm reports that WiMAX … Read More »

Update: The launch was postponed due to stormy weather. Update 2: After postponements, the launch finally took place late Friday night. Looking for something to watch on this summer evening? Tune into NASA TV, where you can watch a live video feed of astronauts prepping for … Read More »

You don’t need to be a boss to own the Executive I pen, you just need to have $17 in your pocket. If you do, you can buy this classy looking pen complete with a carbon fiber barrel. That keeps it light and strong, but the … Read More »

Venrock, the venture capital firm that was originally established as the venture arm of the Rockefeller family, is bulking up its cleantech team. On Monday, it announced that Matthew Nordan, co-founder and former president of Lux Research, will join as vice president with a focus … Read More »

Canadian company Research In Motion, maker of the ubiquitous BlackBerry, has bought software developers (and webkit aficionados) Torch Mobile, according to a report today over on Engadget. No, I’ve never heard of Torch Mobile, either. But according to the company’s web site, it is “excited … Read More »

There are a lot of brave souls out there making mobile browsers, hoping to gain traction with the phone makers. But most of them are fighting a losing battle, for the mobile browser war is increasingly being fought between two camps — … Read More »

After I pointed out the Palm Pre Homebrew software catalog, James has been downloading apps left and right. I’ll admit that I have too — some of my current faves include the recently updated PrePod for podcatching, PreJeweled, XBox Live Friends and FriendsFlow, which … Read More »

Single sign-on adoption continues to spread, as increasing numbers of web sites embrace technologies such as OpenID, Facebook Connect and OAuth, which let you log into web sites using an existing account from another service, such as Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, and … Read More »

We love e-books, and the whole space is heating up quite nicely. Amazon has everyone’s attention with the success of the Kindle, and Barnes & Noble is entering into competition with both feet. Our exclusive conversation with B&N a while back centered around the company’s … Read More »

Amazon.com is pushing small, inexpensive digital camcorders like the Flip and Kodak’s new Zi8, naming them “shoot-and-share” and introducing a whole category focused on the devices. Earlier today, Amazon sent me an email touting the cams because I had “shopped for camcorders” on the site … Read More »

There’s a temptation to title this piece “Local Boy Makes Good!” or something similar, for it’s extremely exciting to see that Dan Harmon (Heat Vision and Jack) has got himself a bona fide TV show. As the co-creator of Channel 101, Harmon is indirectly responsible … Read More »

OK, last one my friends. Here’s the final of our set of three users surveys, that are enabling Earth2Tech to know a little bit more about your habits at work. The results of these surveys will be used to craft our 2010 Media Kit for potential … Read More »

Hands up — who wants a music subscription service on their Apple iPhone? OK, I just put both hands up and everyone in the Starbucks is wondering where the invisible mugger is behind me. ;) The industry has long pondered Apple jumping into the music … Read More »

I took to the soapbox recently about the lack of flexibility in iPhoto for incremental backups. I still don’t have a great solution that suits my particular needs and desires, though some useful suggestions can be found in the comments of that post. But … Read More »

It looks like Amazon is discontinuing the “Your Video Widget” option from its Associates program. As we wrote last year, Amazon’s Video Widget allowed users to upload video to Amazon and place product ads of their choosing overlaid on top of the video. Think of … Read More »

Updated with additional details throughout: Yahoo is releasing a series of updates today for its Mail and Messenger consumer web products, and it plans to test features in search that will be launched later this year. This follows the company’s debut of its new, Read More »

Hacker Dojo, a new coworking venture located in Mountain View, Calif., opened for business yesterday. Its location is good news for web workers from the Bay Area looking for a co-working space who aren’t based in San Francisco. Inspired by the monthly Read More »

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