This is what you get when you use a slick tool like Wordle (try it!) to run all the words used to make up the Terms of Service agreements of seven notable internet companies: cool visualizations that somewhat capture the essence of their content.
Pointless? Very. Cool? Definitely. → Read More
At a time when many people are saying innovation is dead along with the economy as we knew it, I can’t help but feel the hot breath of a surge in the power of the network. As Marc Andreessen reminds in his fascinating conversation with Charlie Rose, the Internet didn’t take off until the browser. The infrastructure was in place for some time already, but when the browser appeared, the TV generation sat up and took notice. Now we’re at the threshold of the realtime moment, and history seems to be repeating itself. For some of us, the advent of a reasonably realtime message bus over public networks has changed something about the existing infrastructure in ways that are not yet important to a broad section of Internet dwellers. The numbers are adding up — 175 million Facebook users, tens of thousands of instant Twitter followers, constant texting and video chats among the teenage crowd — a semi-secret economy of interactive media that is sucking the chewy chocolate center out of the one-way broadcast sector. The standard attack on realtime is that it is the new crack. We’re all addicted to our devices, to the flow of alerts, messages, and bite-sized information chunks. We no longer have time for blog posts, refreshing our Twitter streams for pointers to what our friends think is important. It’s the revenge of the short attention span brought on by 30-second television ads — the myth of multi-tasking spread across a sea of factoids that Nick Carr fears will destroy scholarship and ultimately thinking. Of course this is true and also completely irrelevant. My daughter told her mother today that her boyfriend was spending too much time on IM and video-chat, and not enough on getting his homework done. She actually said these words: “I told him you have to get away from the computer sometimes, turn it off, give yourself time to think.” This is the same daughter who will give up anything – makeup, TV, food — just as long as I don’t take her computer or iPhone away. So realtime is the new crack, and even the naivest of our culture realizes it can eat our brains. But does that mean we will stop moving faster and faster? No. Does that mean we will give up our blackberries when we become president? No. Then what will happen to us? The browser brought → Read More
The first prototypes were showcased during CES 2008, but now Kenwood has presented an advanced piece of hardware that incorporates DTS Surround Sensation, meaning you will get surround sound over two-channel audio systems (headphones or stereo speakers). → Read More
Japan (and the US) are using biometric fingerprint readers to prevent terrorists and illegal immigrants from entering the country. Last month, it came to light that several South Koreans passed through the biometric immigration screening despite previous deportation records by using special tape on their fingers.
Video after the jump. → Read More
Apparently NASA needs help coming up with an appropriate moniker for an International Space Station module. No, they don’t want to name it after your dog. They want to follow the boring naming pattern already established by the two previous modules: Unity and Harmony. The unit will be an observation location and also the spot where the robotic arm will be controlled. Got any ideas? → Read More
Talk about adding insult to injury. Apparently Microsoft has inadvertently overpaid severance to some of its recently laid off employees, and is now asking for some of the money back. It’s unclear how many of the 1,400 employees laid off last month were affected, but we’ve confirmed that it wasn’t a single isolated incident (we’ve contacted Microsoft for a response). We’re also hearing that some employees may have been underpaid as well.
While the payroll error must be irritating in and of itself to these laid off workers (severance is a sensitive subject), it appears that Microsoft HR isn’t even bothering to explain how it happened (employees are instructed to call the office, which is closed for the weekend, if they want to know the details). Given that it was Microsoft HR that screwed this up in the first place, you’d think they’d at least include the calculations they made and point out where the error took place. → Read More
Well done, sir. Well done. Click here for a complete guiding to hacking your Dell Mini 9 to run OS X. → Read More
So you don’t like Twitter, huh? Lots of pablum, not much content? No real human-to-human connectedness? Well you’re wrong, Mr. Ludd, because Twitter helped two guys meet Shaq.
Jesse Bearden was following The Real Shaq on Twitter and saw that he was at a diner near his home. Instead of saying “Twitter is not a uniter, it is an egocasting system designed for infantile neophiliacs who have little to offer the world except search engine optimization snake oil and web marketing consulting,” Jesse and his buddy went down to the diner and saw Le Shaq sitting in a booth getting his feed on. → Read More
Hewlett Packard isn’t doing so well like ever other consumer electronic company. Profit and sales are down, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. Anyway, instead of laying off the 20,000 people like the financials indicate, the company is issuing company wide pay cuts starting at the top. → Read More
It’s getting close to the Kindle’s February 24th launch date and Amazon has made the official manual available a head of time. There isn’t anything special within that wasn’t previously announced, but don’t let that stop you from pulling up the PDF and pouring over the text anyway. Hopefully it will tide you over until your K2 arrives. → Read More
In case you didn’t read him quoted in some 1,700 newspapers last week, NBC’s Press:Here has an interview with Chris Kelly, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer this week. The show, which focuses on technology, airs in the Bay Area on Sunday mornings after Meet the Press, and the young show has already been beating Meet the Press in the ratings. You can also watch a clip on the jump or the entire episode online here right now. (I was one of the guest reporters on the show this week.)
Kelly said in no uncertain terms that Facebook does not own your data and content, never did and never will. What’s more: Any reproduction of your data has to be subject to the privacy settings you choose as a Facebook user. You can sense his frustration amid a scandal that was essentially cooked up by Consumerist on the Sunday night of a holiday weekend without even calling Facebook to check if their assumptions on the Terms of Use changes were right.
But this isn’t the first or last time users will be in an uproar over Facebook, despite all of Facebook’s best efforts. → Read More
This absurd little video is ostensibly to show off the sweet new AMOLED screens gracing the S8300, OmniaHD and others. But I’m thinking it was more of a way for their internal viral team to get to play with a whole bunch of baby animals. What if that was your job?
Anyway, click on through for the cuteness. → Read More
Those lucky (and sadistic) ducks over at iFixit have taken their brand new 17-inch MBP and torn it down with their usual gusto. As expected, the layout and parts are much like its 15-inch cousin but bigger, and of course the much-advertised battery is different. It was removed like any other… not sure why Apple made such a big deal about it. It’s 12820 mAh, which is a grip — for comparison, my G1 has a 1150 mAh battery. It’s pretty much as advertised, but if you’re planning on swapping out your hard drive or whatnot, this is the best guide you’re going to get. → Read More
Olympus will launch five new digital SLRs this year, the first of those being the new prosumer class 12.3 megapixel E-30. → Read More
The Mac Mini rumors are flying like toasters in System 7 these days, and this one is particularly robust. Although some image analysis on the original picture has shown it to be likely a fake, that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from churning out video of this crytogadget. → Read More
While we haven’t got any more major news about the Mini 10 (like when it’s shipping, officially), Dell has finally put some decent pictures up on their site. You’ve got to admit, they look pretty good. Better then most netbooks out there in fact. → Read More
That firecracker CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang, has revealed that Nvidia will be putting out an “Ion 2″ platform using VIA Nano processors instead of Intel’s Atoms. The pairing isn’t surprising, considering that the Nano processors are supposed to be quite as capable as Atoms, and Nvidia’s relationship with Intel right now isn’t exactly all fun and games. → Read More
LG announced today the LG-GD900 cell phone, which has a very distinguishing feature – a translucent sliding keypad. The phone was designed to make a new fashion statement, and is scheduled to release during the second quarter of 2009. No word on the features yet, but who cares about the features? It’s beautiful! → Read More
There are more pay apps that have appeared in the last few hours for G1 owners than I think anyone expected. From updated versions of free apps to $10 news readers, there’s enough to keep you occupied for quite a while, especially considering the extremely limited preview you get in the Market. I’m hoping they’ll roll out a screenshot feature or an easy way to link to a website, but until we get our review blitz up and running, we’re all going to be flying a bit blind. Fortunately some developers have realized this and are letting us know a little more about their apps the traditional way. One such is WhitePages, whose caller ID app looks great. → Read More
