While Internet slang and abbreviations have become second nature for some technophiles, many of us have trouble converting our words into the pseudo-gibberish sometimes required to make long messages fit into the 140 character limit set by Twitter. 140it, a new service put together over the weekend by the guys behind Yipit, is looking to help. The site will instantly convert whole sentences into condensed text, making common substitutions (like ‘r’ instead of ‘are’), using bit.ly to shorten links, and swapping company names for their StockTwits symbol. → Read More
<img src="http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/whitezombie2.jpg"?Everyone knows that the Tesla Roadster is a quick car and can beat most Porsche’s down the quarter mile. That $100k+ ride doesn’t have anything on this Datsun powered by lightweight lithium ion batteries dubbed White Zombie. This little guy can scoot down the strip in under 11.5 seconds at a speed of 114mph sounding beating the Tesla’s advertised quarter mile time of 12.75 @ 104.74. According to peeps in the know, that makes this electric car the 2nd quickest electric street legal car. Bets on this car vs the recently announced Shelby Ultimate Aero EV electric supercar? My money is on the Nissan. → Read More
Any frequent user of public transportation has probably seen it: Cute girl gets on the train/subway in a skirt that’s just a little bit too short. Within minutes, some creepy guy starts pretending to “play a game” on his cell phone, oblivious to the fact that his narrow squint and carefully positioned arms flag his voyeuristic image snapping intentions immediately. A new bill has just been introduced to Congress, purposed with combating these on-the-go invasions of privacy. Called the “Camera Phone Predator Alert Act“, it would require all camera phones to make an audible and unsilenceable shutter noise. Similar laws are already in place in South Korea and Japan, so many manufacturers are already accustomed to such regulations. [Via Phonescoop] → Read More
The Mozilla Foundation is putting its weight behind an effort to create an open video format on the Web. It is doing this by giving $100,000 in grant money, to be administered by the Wikimedia Foundation, towards the development and support of Theora, an open-source video codec. More importantly, it is also building support into the Firefox Web browser for both Theora and Vorbis, an open source audio codec.
Many other video codecs and encoders require licensing fees or come with restrictions. Mozilla hopes to chang ethis over time. Although I suspect the Theora video codec is inferior to other technologies, as long as it can improve over time, it could eventually become a serious contender to MPEG-4 or Windows Media Video (WMV).
Evangelist Christopher Blizzard explains why Mozilla is backing open video in a long and windy post: → Read More
We all know the benefits of OLED and seen the figures on how much energy it saves and all that jazz, but do you know how it actually works? Well, you’re in for a treat, friend. Sit back, relax and enjoy this 4.5 minute video. The next time anyone asks what OLED is just direct them to this video. It breaks it down pretty well. It’s a shame they aren’t ready for the masses, though. → Read More
I’m not going to lie to you. I raised an eyebrow at this when I heard about it, but now I see that a headphone rack on your case would actually be quite handy. The only impractical thing about this particular one is that it only fits on HP’s Blackbird. That’s one way to limit your market; the Blackbird doesn’t appear to be on sale any more, and HP invites you to call a phone number to “learn more.” → Read More
Though you may not have noticed, we’ve been trying to avoid writing about pink phones around here. Not because we have anything against them (and we know you love them, ladies), but there are just so damn many of them as of late. “X company is releasing Y phone again.. but in pink!” Now, figure out how to make that into 2 paragraphs – then do it 10 more times in a month. But when someone pushes a pink device with hopes of fighting cancer, we’ll break our unspoken moratorium because, well, cancer sucks. → Read More
German mind mapping application builder MeisterLabs, the startup behind brainstorm & planning tool MindMeister, has acquired MindMaker, to our knowledge the third iPhone application to get sold after the sale of Where To and Tapulous buying Tweetsville.
MindMaker, on sale for €3.99 (or $4.99), allows you to structure your ideas and concepts visually using a fairly intuitive program even when you’re on the go. The app is relatively limited in functionality but offers an experience that suits Apple’s mobile phone perfectly. You can find a good review of the app over here. → Read More
In yet another move to further blur the line between netbooks and notebooks, Japan’s Mouse Computer will be shipping the LB-F1500W netbook at the end of January, complete with a built-in DVD burner. → Read More
I recently did a horrible thing. Hoping to offer my son a little music to enjoy I downloaded 100 kid’s songs from iTunes for something like $7.99. I figured “Hey, kids like songs. 100 songs is a lot of songs. It’s a good deal.” I was wrong. I entered, for about two months, a circle of hell of which even Dante did not write: The Circle Dedicated to Listeners of Toddler Music.
So why am I doubling my pain with NameYourTune.com, a service that creates a CD with your kid’s name right in the song lyrics? Because this disk and service holds a special place in my heart and I suspect it’s somewhere in your heart as well, next to the Snoopy Sno-Kone Maker and Garbage Pail Kids. This is a blast straight out of my childhood and I’m happy to share it with parents out there even if it means I’m going to hear something like this: → Read More
During this year’s Super Bowl, there are going to be some 3D commercials. Both Dreamworks and SoBe are going to air their ridiculously expensive ad spots right before the half-time extravaganza. But us fat, lazy Americans need special 3D glasses to view said commercials which makes ‘em lame in my book. → Read More
The gang from Monty Python boldly address the world: “For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It’s time for us to take matters into our own hands.” → Read More
BODIES AS SHIELDS!!! Oh wait, wrong game. Tehehe. → Read More
Hey guys! Guess what! It’s another post about how Windows is kicking the crap out of Linux! Robin Harris over at ZDNet asserts that “Microsoft has kicked Linux to the curb, claiming an 80% attach rate for netbooks.” Wow! → Read More
After watching your share of this year’s Oscar nominees, you might find yourself following the time-honored tradition of renting every tangentially related film in the hopes of finding something else just as good. Type in Slumdog Millionaire or The Wrestler, and Netflix will offer up recommendations that are “more like this.” But if you are looking for quirkier recommendations, the kind that you’d find at your local independent video store, then head on over to Clerkdogs. The human-curated movie recommendation site has an OscarMatch feature that suggests 400 films similar to this year’s crop of Oscar nominees.
On Netflix, if you are looking for movies that are like The Wrestler, for instance, it comes up with Requiem For a Dream (same director), Slums of Beverly Hills, Sideways, and Sin City (also starred Mickey Rourke). On Clerkdogs, it comes up with a bunch of down-on-their-luck fighter films: → Read More
Certain things make me uncomfortable. Other people’s laundry, for one — even if it’s clean. Don’t ask me why, it’s just unnerving. Video conferencing is less creepy than laundry, but the fact that the person on the other end always seems to be staring off into the distance and/or down at the ground gets a little awkward after a while. → Read More
Not too long ago it looked like British music pirates—a fine name for a band—were facing expulsion from the Internet. Not anymore. Despite “serious legislative intent,” the British Government will not pursue the plan. Hooray, I guess. → Read More
Microsoft has just pushed live its Release Candidate for Internet Explorer 8, the latest update to the world’s most widely used web browser. You can download it here. Unfortunately the release is only for Windows Vista, XP, and Server – if you’re trying out Windows 7 you’ll have to wait for the next OS update to try out the RC.
The new version, which comes after two public beta releases, is now considered “platform complete” – the product is “effectively complete and done” writes IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch. Unless there are major critical issues that arise, the final version of the browser should be identical. Other changes between Beta 2 and the Release Candidate include improved reliability, performance, and compatibility, as well as ‘clickjacking‘ protection. → Read More
Oh boy! I can’t believe the day has come! iLife ’09 just got a ship date and it’s coming your way tomorrow. But wait, didn’t you already snag it off the Pirate Bay or something? Anyway, iLife ’09 ships with all new Macs and those of you who purchased a Mac on or after January 6th ’09 will have to shell out $10 to get the iLife Up-To-Date upgrade package. Talk about nickel and diming. The family pack goes for $99 and the Mac Box Set goes for $169. Hit the jump to see if you’re Mac can handle the awesomeness that is iLife ’09. → Read More
