By Omar L. Gallaga

A screenshot from 'The Sims 3,' the latest in the popular computer game franchise. Courtesy: Electronic Arts Inc.

 

The second sequel to the best-selling PC games of all time is debuting several days before its Tuesday release. But only on Macs.

Apple retail stores are previewing "The Sims 3" on in-store Macs over the weekend. Unless you're got an in with Electronic Arts, it's the most likely place to get a glimpse of the much-anticipated new game before June 2 (assuming, of course, that you aren't a software pirate).

"Sims 3" adds more online social networking, improved graphics and, as usual, more ways to customize characters and their living spaces. It'll be available for Windows PCs and Macs in addition to an iPhone version.

By Todd Mundt

About a year ago, I wrote about our decision to end our subscription to cable after 20 years and rely on off-air DTV and online sources for our viewing. (It was the subject of a piece that ran on CNN Money in February, 2009.)

The Mac G5 (left) and Samsung HD set Mundt uses to connect to the world beyond cable television. Courtesy: Todd Mundt

This decision was driven by a couple factors. First, I got tired of paying around $70 a month for access to video content I never watched. I can afford it; I make a lot of money. But what's the "Pleasure Return On Investment" on about $850/year spent on cable? Well, it's unbelievably low, even when compared to something as fleeting as two $200 a plate meals. So, what's the point?

Second, our decision was driven by the vast amount of content now available online, legally: iTunes, Hulu, etc.

In May 2008, we ended our cable TV subscription.

Continue reading "Cutting The Coax: Living Without Cable TV" >

By Krishnadev Calamur

Internet giant Google has unveiled its plan for a new tool that is a hybrid of e-mail, IM and document sharing. Dubbed Google Wave, the tool takes another stab at real-time online communication.

In his blog, Lars Rasmussen, the man who developed Wave with his brother Jens, says Wave is "equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."

Google plans to make the code open source, giving developers the opportunity to help in its evolution.

The public can access the service later this year.

By Laura Sydell

The Palm Pre will sync with iTunes according to Roger McNamee, a major investor in Palm. McNamee, a co-founder of venture capital firm Elevation Partners, spoke about the device at The Wall Street Journal's "All Things Digital" conference.

The Pre will be the first major device outside of the iPhone to automatically sync with Apple's software. It will not download songs from iTunes that have Apple's copy protection on them. But Apple no longer puts protection on songs from iTunes.

McNamee was asked whether Apple might object. He was dismissive of concerns pointing out that the songs on iTunes belong to the people who purchase them.

But, I can't help but wonder what kind of war might break out here. Apple is notorious for keeping a great deal of control over its products. I've sent a query to Apple and I'm waiting to hear what they have to say.

McNamee alsoThis week, it was also announced that the Pre would be carried by Verizon, not just Sprint. Given that Apple's iPhone is only carried by AT&T this could make the Pre a really serious threat to Apple's dominance in the smart phone market.

Of course, there is a rumor that Verizon may eventually get rights to carry the iPhone. That would certainly be a coup for the nation's largest carrier.

By Wright Bryan

I haven't put my hands on a Kindle. But now I feel like I have a good sense of what it's like to use the device after reading Charles McGrath's piece today in The New York Times about taking it on a golf trip. A sample:

But if the Kindle isn't the future, exactly, it's a precursor. What it tells you, even if you are an unreconstructed book lover, is that the future will not be as hard to get used to as you imagined.

The article, titled "Inveterate Reader Meets Kindle," is worth a read if you have questions or doubts about the little reading machine.

By Wright Bryan

And now for a moment of entertainment. The combination of low-cost video production and access to free world-wide distribution has produced countless little gems like this reel of street riding that features Danny MacAskill in Edinburgh. Enjoy!

By Eyder Peralta

One thing the Web does better than anything else is bring people together. Whether it's to commiserate or celebrate, even the most obscure groups can find each other on the web.

One the coolest, timeliest sites I've seen is cardsofchange.com. It's a place where laid off employees can create art out of their old business cards.

cardsofchange.com

 

cardsofchange.com

 

By Laura Sydell

Look out Fifth graders, the copyright fight is coming to a classroom near you. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has created a curriculum for students of all grade levels to teach them about their digital rights. The EFF, a non-profit that leans libertarian when it comes to the Internet, designed the curriculum to counter lesson plans created by the Copyright Alliance.

The Alliance gets much of its support from the recording, broadcast and software industries. The cover of the Alliance lesson plan says, "Think First, Copy Later."

Continue reading "The Battle Over Copyright Reaches The Fifth Grade" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

Video games have been around long enough that people like me, who grew up on them, can get a little misty-eyed with nostalgia when a game like Nintendo's new "Punch-Out!!" comes along. While putting together a review of the game for the American-Statesman, I was struck by how much of the enjoyment of the game is tied to a knowledge of the original game series, which ended its run on Nintendo consoles 15 years ago.

The game features lots of inside jokes, many of the same fighting techniques and a roster of recycled boxers. But nowhere are the pitch-perfect nods to the original better done than in this commercial, which takes the goofy humor of the game with and elevates it to art with its absolute commitment to the game's minor details and mythology.

The new game is pretty good, but the ad, "Little Mac," is brilliant:

What games makes you nostalgic for the old arcade and Sega vs. Nintendo days?

By Krishnadev Calamur

An exercise in online voting, billed as the first of its kind in the country, has had less-than-desired results.

Only about 7,300 of the 115,000 registered voters took part in Honolulu's Neighborhood Board Elections. That, for the mathematically minded, is about 6.5 percent.

Voters could make their choices using the Internet or telephone.

The city's last Neighborhood Board Election drew a 28 percent turnout.

By Wright Bryan

Microsoft's next swing at Apple's iPod dynasty comes this fall in the shape of the Zune HD. It's targeted directly at the iPod touch, Apple's iPhone without the phone.

The company says that their latest portable media player sports a wide-format OLED touchscreen, Wi-Fi, a Web browser, HD radio reception (a format your local public radio station may broadcast in) and support for HD video.

The shape of things to come. Courtesy: Microsoft

 

Pricing and the exact release date have not been announced.

Continue reading "News For The Fall, Now: Zune HD Media Player Coming" >

By Krishnadev Calamur

Companies are increasingly turning to social media to try find out what customers want. But how successful are they? In the case of Del Monte Foods, the answer may be very.

The company engaged a community of about 300 dog owners and asked them what their dogs would like for breakfast. The overwhelming answer: sausage and eggs.

Continue reading "Social Media Goes To The Dogs" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

Hardcore users of Twitter are still taking in the news that the social networking site is devoting some of its energy to getting into the TV business (instead of, say, adding nested replies or making it easier to organize friends on the service).

The TV show is being created by Amy Ephron, sister of Nora and Delia Ephron. It will be, apparently, a competitive show involving celebrities on Twitter.

But what to call such a show? We've got some ideas and you should add your own suggestions in the comments. And, Amy Ephron? No need to thank us. We're here to help.

(more after the jump)

Continue reading "Twitter TV: What Should They Call It?" >

By Christopher Turpin

Another bastion of tradition has embraced the latest in consumer technology. This week's New Yorker cover is the first in the magazine's history painted using an iPhone application.

Artist Jorge Colombo apparently took only about an hour to produce a dreamy New York cityscape using a program called Brushes. See him in action:

If I hadn't read the press release, I'd never have guessed this was a digital creation. No straight lines. None of that hyper-realistic precision that makes so much digital art feel like an empty, technical exercise. Brushes looks like an application that Degas or Van Gogh would have enjoyed.

And on the subject of change at venerable institutions:

Our own venerable institution, Senior News Analyst Dan Schorr, is living proof that it's never too late to learn. Although Dan still uses a typewriter to script his commentaries for All Things Considered, he now has a side job as a Twitter coach. See for yourself:

Not bad for a newsman who had his first scoop during the Great Depression.

By Eyder Peralta

Nokia launched its own version of an app store globally, today. The Ovi Store, according to Nokia, is now available to 50 million device owners worldwide and works with more than 50 of their phones.

The first reviews, though, have been less than rousing.

Robin Wauters, over at TechCrunch, found that the store was down a lot and applications disappeared from the store without explanation. The search function was also not working.

"The launch," wrote Wauters, "is an utter disaster."

Nokia posted a quick note saying a spike in traffic caused the problems.

Nokia holds about 40 percent of world's mobile phone market share and 45 percent of the smartphone market share. So a Nokia app store is a major deal, even if only about 8 percent of Americans use Nokia phones.

Any Nokia users out there? What did you think of the app store?

By Laura Sydell

The best way to learn a language has always been to go there and talk. But in this era of social networking there might be a substitute that could be almost as good as going to France or Spain. This week I learned about a new Web site that gets us there, at least part of the way.

Babble.com sets up social networks of people who want to exchange language skills. So, if I want to learn Spanish someone in Spain might be able to help me with my grammar.

But, as I said, the site only gets you part of the way there. The help you get from around the globe is with the written word. The site does have recordings that enable you to learn the spoken word. But they don't yet have it set up so that you can actually communicate aurally with someone in Spain, or elsewhere, over Skype or some other online audio or video service.

Still, this might be the start of an interesting new way to study language. I'm just waiting for someone to take it all the way.

By Wright Bryan

While most people use the Internet Explorer browser for the Web (IE6, IE7 or IE8), and a growing number of people use the Mozilla Firefox browser, a smaller group is now relying on Google's Chrome browser for most of their work on the Web.

I'm one of those people and we got good news Thursday when Google announced an update to Chrome that reportedly improves its performance significantly.

Chrome is already known for its ability to render complex Web pages quickly. Google says the latest stable version processes JavaScript-laden pages about 30 percent faster than the last version.

Continue reading "Google Web Browser Chrome Gets Speedier" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

My Windows 7 desktop is spare, but just give me a few weeks. Microsoft

 

If you went to your favorite pizza place and tried to order mushrooms and pepperoni and the waiter told you, "I'm sorry but you can't order those two toppings together. You have to pick one or the other," you'd be pretty mad, right?

Forgive the analogy, I just ate pizza.

The Mac versus PC debate has gotten so ridiculous that even normal, sane people who wouldn't care one way or another are now hurling insults and tsk-tsking at family members and co-workers who have either fallen into the fruity Mac OS camp or the stodgy Windows world.

You know what? (Expletive) all that. I say, have the best of both worlds.

Over the weekend, I installed Windows 7 RC, a free, preview version of Microsoft's forthcoming operating system, the successor to Windows Vista. Best of all, it works perfectly well on newer Macs sporting Intel processors. My Macbook, which is two years old, runs it like a champ as a Boot Camp partition. I never thought I'd say this about a Windows operating system again after refusing to upgrade from Windows XP, but from what I've seen so far, Windows 7 is... really good. Fast, pretty and without a single crash so far (knock on wood).

A step-by-step guide to installing Windows 7, after the jump.

Continue reading "How To Install Windows 7 (For Free!) On Your Mac" >

By Eyder Peralta

It may be hard to get it to go away. The BBC reports that Cambridge University researchers found that even after they deleted pictures from social networking sites, they were still accessible using their original URLs.

The Hotel Monaco in New Orleans gives the guests bathrobes, leopard-print bathrobes. fensterbme via flickr

 

By Eyder Peralta

Spellchecker could have easily saved this person some embarrassment. The signs were posted all over Brighton, Mich. before a 2008 election. Sammy0716 via Flickr

 

Remember to join our All Tech Considered Flickr group. We'll use some of the pictures there on our blog.

By Eyder Peralta

If there's one constant complaint about social media sites is that they make it too easy to be self important.

Well, now there's a site that aims to knock us all down a notch. Tweeting too Hard is "where self-important tweets get the recognition they deserve."

These are a couple of examples of the tweets that make it on the site:

Tweeting too Hard

 

I do wonder though if this is too cruel? Or deserved? Any opinions?

By Andy Carvin

The American Civil Liberties Union sued two Tennessee school districts in federal court yesterday, claiming that the districts' Internet filters unconstitutionally block students from accessing Web sites focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues.

The suit alleges that the filtering software used by the districts blocks access to Web sites specializing in LGBT policy issues, including the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network and Human Rights Campaign. In contrast, the suit notes, students are able to access Web sites that condemn homosexuality or advocate "reparative therapy" programs that attempt to change a person's sexual orientation.

Continue reading "ACLU Sues Tenn. School Districts For Blocking LGBT Web Sites" >

By Eyder Peralta

This from a Foreign Policy piece we ran on our Web site:

"Slacktivism" is an apt term to describe feel-good online activism that has zero political or social impact. It gives those who participate in "slacktivist" campaigns an illusion of having a meaningful impact on the world without demanding anything more than joining a Facebook group. Remember that online petition that you signed and forwarded to your entire contacts list? That was probably an act of slacktivism...

By Omar L. Gallaga

It never hurts to put your ear to the ground and hear what geeks are rumbling about and is heading down the prairie toward the rest of us. This week, it's something called "Wolfram|Alpha," (in English: the alpha version of a new tool called "Wolfram") a just-launched sort-of search engine that is described on its site as:

...an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. You enter your question or calculation, and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer.

(For a further explanation, you can see a video from Stephen Wolfram here.)

Typing in your own name probably won't give you anything juicy back, but that's not what this search engine is for. It's more a computational analysis and data comparison tool.

Because it took me a little while to get my brain around it, I asked "What is a Wolfram|Alpha?" This was the answer I got back:

A new online computational tool, Wolfram|Alpha.

 

Well, that explains things.

By Wright Bryan

Get used to it, hype and rumors about the next generation Apple iPhone are only going to get thicker as the days go by. Then there will be the let down of learning what Apple has really been up to for the last year.

For now, though, we have the rumors and unnamed sources. The latest is from the Web site Apple iPhone Apps.

They claim the newest iPhone will launch on July 17.

They're also reporting better battery life, more memory, faster processor, a better camera, video capabilities, a compass and a slightly modified case, among other things.

The truth, however is anyone's guess. Most of the "leaked" specs are about what most observers are expecting, although the purported inclusion of an "FM transmitter" has some scratching their heads.

This latest iPhone rumor comes on the same day that Palm announced that the Pre, their challenger to Apple's device, will hit the public on June 6.

By Eyder Peralta

Salmon Stream in British Columbia, Canada. ru_24_real via flickr

 

I've been reading a whole lot about how the Web has finally evolved from a page-based medium, something modeled on old technology like printed books and newspapers, to this idea of a "stream."

Eric Schonfeld over at TechCrunch writes about the mechanics of it. He points to Twitter and Facebook's news feed as examples of how the Web is now a real-time, living creature as opposed to "periodic musings."

In his estimation, these feeds have become a sort of global consciousness.

But I was especially interested in Nova Spivack's quick assessment on how this new "era of the stream" can change our sense of time and probably already has.

Continue reading "On The Web: Living In The Now" >

By Bill Chappell

There's a great phone app out there called Sports Tracker that never fails to impress my friends.

It uses GPS to track your workouts -- running or cycling, for instance. Afterward, it lists your average and maximum speed over the distance. It also charts speed, time, distance, and altitude.

Some of my bike routes, from the Sports Tracker site.

 

If you pause along the way, the program can pause with you. And it can handle laps and favorite routes.

Continue reading "The Best Damn Workout App Money Can't Buy" >

By Sara Sarasohn

In the last several months I've sent out a lot of baby presents. In return, I got four different kinds of thank-yous.

1) Handwritten card in the mail
2) Spontaneous phone call
3) Email to my work account
4) Facebook message

My mother would only find one of these acceptable.

I accepted all of them, but I reacted to them very differently. The handwritten card was from a very close friend and I liked the intimacy of the familiar handwriting. The phone call was a lovely surprise. The new father was someone I don't know well and it made me feel good to hear in his voice that he was genuinely touched. The email was long and had detail you just could not work onto a small handwritten card.

When I told other people about the Facebook thank-you, some of them were taken aback. It just didn't seem polite to them. I'm not so sure. Facebook is overflowing with babies. Facebook is the number one way I see baby pictures right now. Babies aren't formal like a notecard, articulate like a phone call, detailed like an email. I love looking at my friends' babies on Facebook. And I'm just happy I got thanked at all.

By Omar L. Gallaga

The Logio Secure Password Organizer is one way to keep track of user names and passwords. Atek, Inc.

 

The sometimes confusing (and forgetful) way we deal with passwords is the subject of today's All Tech Considered segment. Most people have to keep track of five to seven sets of names and passwords for Web sites and other computer activity, but if you spend a lot of online time like we do, it's more like 20 or 30.

Experts say a good password is at least eight characters (14 or 15 is much better) and consists of a combination of letters (lower and upper-case), symbols and numbers.

Here are a few tools and tips for dealing with passwords:

• The Logio Secure Password Organizer (pictured above) is one relatively low-tech way to keep track of passwords. It stores up to 200 sets of logins and passwords and requires you to only remember one numeric master passcode. It requires no computer.
• Among the applications that can help you store and use passwords are (for Windows) Password Manager, eWallet, RoboForm, (for Mac) 1Password and the open-source KeePass. Some of these programs allow you to export your information to an iPhone, BlackBerry or PDA to use on the go. Some can also be configured to only work when a secure thumb drive is plugged or can export passwords to such a drive you can take with you to use on other computers.
• Speaking of iPhones VeriSign has an app called VIP Access that adds even more security to your passwords.
• I'm a Eugene Mirman fan and this comedy bit about a security question makes me laugh.
• Some basic tips on choosing/creating your passwords.
• The Wall Street Journal weighs in on passwords; they also started a very good forum discussion about the topic.
• If you use multiple computers, an online password storage service like Passpack might fit you better.
• Is your password among the 10 Most Common ones? That would be very bad. Please change it.

How do you remember your passwords? Got a mnemonic system? Share them with us in the comments.

By Joshua Brockman

A customer looks at an iPhone at an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif. Many people expect Apple to release a new version of the iPhone on June 8 at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Paul Sakuma/AP

Some people are asking whether Apple will unveil a more economical version of the wildly popular iPhone and whether AT&T, the sole wireless carrier for the iPhone in the U.S., will offer a reduced data plan.

Anticipation is growing leading up to June 8, when Apple is expected to unveil the next generation of the iPhone at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Apple has already said it will unveil a new mobile operating new system (3.0) for the iPhone. Kent German, senior editor for CNET says the software update will enable multimedia messaging and stereo Bluetooth, two features on his wish list.

But there are still a number of features that he and other iPhone power users hope Apple will add to any new incarnation of the device, including:

• Support for Flash video
• Improved battery life
• More memory, namely a 32-gigabyte version of the iPhone (It's now available only in 8GB or 16GB.)
• A faster processor
• Improved syncing, including the ability to sync outside of iTunes to accommodate the transfer of Microsoft Word documents and other files

For more from the wish list, go to our full story.

By Laura Sydell

Facebook users beware of a new scam that lures you to a fake Facebook site and prompts you to reenter your password.

The scammers lure you in by sending a link that looks like it comes from one of your friends. When you click on the link it takes you to the fake Facebook page and asks you reenter your password. Then they have you.

Continue reading "Facebook Scam Steals Passwords" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

I've said this elsewhere, but there is one technology-related word I would be thrilled to never, ever hear again.

That word is "Sexting."

I'm not sure if it's because I have a daughter (too young for the topic, but I am a paranoid dad and can imagine the future version of it will be even worse), or because of the icky, icky handling of the subject by the media. Maybe it's because I find "Sexting" itself so objectionable. I was never that comfortable with the concept of phone sex, either, especially seeing it played out in the movie "The Truth About Cats and Dogs."

Am I being prudish? I don't think so. It can't be normal that when I hear that word, my ears shrink a bit into themselves and I feel the need to take a scalding shower and then go lie down. Maybe it's because combining "Sex" and "texting" is both clever and lazy.

Maybe I'll get used to it. I used to have the same reaction when "Weblogs" became the word "Blog."

What tech-related words drive you batty?

By Eyder Peralta

According to Arbor Networks, Google is responsible for five percent of all internet traffic. This graph shows what happened to traffic when Google experienced an outage from 10:15 A.M. to 12:15 P.M. ET, this Thursday. Arbor Networks

 

By Laura Sydell

The new Palm Pre smartphone. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

I went for a visit to the Palm offices today in Sunnyvale and I got a preview of the new Palm Pre. The company's hot new smartphone.

Most of us remember Palm from the early days of the PDA when a digital assistant was separate from the phone. (I think I have an old Palm Pilot in the back of one of my drawers.)

Can the Palm Pre rescue Palm from the recycle bin of history?

Well, I have to say that I was impressed with the device. It is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand (pun intended). It has a touch screen and a keyboard. It has 8 GB of storage so it compares to the iPhone in terms of how much music and video you can keep on it.

But, the key to the success of this device will be in the software. What's especially nice about the operating system is that it allows you to keep open an email you are in the midst of writing, while you are also checking your calendar and searching your address book for an email address. Being able to keep three windows open simultaneously is a really nice feature.

Still, I have no idea if this device can rescue Palm, a company that hasn't been at the top in a long time. When they release this device it will only be available on Sprint and that isn't the most popular network. It's hard to imagine that anyone would actually switch over to Sprint just to get a Palm Pre. Palm isn't Apple and doesn't have its loyal following. And as pretty as the Pre happens to be it isn't likely to have the sex appeal of the iPhone.

By Sara Sarasohn

Olivia, as she appears on the cover of the first book. Simon and Schuster

 

The other day I needed to anesthetize my pre-schooler.

I mean, I didn't have childcare and I needed her to sit very quietly in the next room while I was in a community meeting. I figured I could download a couple of TV shows from iTunes for her to watch on my iPod.

I don't like to download TV shows from iTunes. I pay a lot of money for satellite TV and a DVR, so it hits me the wrong way that iTunes charges me $1.99 for shows I have already paid DirecTV for. However, this was a child care emergency.

Continue reading "Paying For It" >

By Eyder Peralta

There are times when an arbiter is in order. You know, in case of bar-side arguments or domestic disputes. Stuff like whether or not a boyfriend should co-sign a car note after living with their significant other for years.

The other day, I came upon sidetaker.com. It's a Web site that crowdsources arguments.

So, two people post their side of the story and the community has a chance to vote who's right and who's wrong.

There are some seemly serious disagreements here: A boyfriend who's giving his girlfriend grief over a cat; a wife who asks her husband clean the house instead of going to the gym; a wife who thinks a 120 buck cable bill is too much after just taking in a new car note.

I'm not sure how useful anonymous advice is. I'm not sure I'd want to air out my disagreements so publicly, but it does make for an entertaining, voyeuristic read. Thoughts? Is an online tool like this really helpful to a relationship?

by Andy Carvin (aka @acarvin on Twitter)

Until yesterday evening, one of the best ways of discovering new people on Twitter was to observe whom your friends talked to. For those of you who aren't familiar with Twitter, these messages typically look something like this:

acarvin: @eyderp that's an interesting point, thanks for suggesting it.

In this hypothetical example, I'm sending a tweet to my fellow All Tech blogger Eyder Peralta. Anyone who subscribed to my tweets would see this message, and some of them might click through to Eyder's tweets to see the rest of the conversation. It's your choice, of course, but when you see a reply that references someone else and it's an interesting discussion, you might end up making a new contact out of it. I'd guess I've discovered more than half the people I'm following on Twitter this way.

Unfortunately, that's no longer possible. With Twitter's update last night, you won't see any more tweets from your friends that are replies to people you don't know. So if you were following me on Twitter but not Eyder, to continue with the above example, that tweet would not even exist as far as you're concerned. You'd never see it, and you'd never get the opportunity to meet Eyder in the process.

Here's how Twitter's Biz Stone explained the change on their blog:

We've updated the Notices section of Settings to better reflect how folks are using Twitter regarding replies. Based on usage patterns and feedback, we've learned most people want to see when someone they follow replies to another person they follow--it's a good way to stay in the loop. However, receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don't follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today's update removes this undesirable and confusing option.

The problem is that large numbers of Twitter users consider this "undesirable and confusing option" as one of the most powerful aspects of Twitter. It's all about serendipity. No two people have an exact match of friends in their individual social circles, of course. But the fact that you and someone else have something in common make it likely that there are other people they might know that you might want to know as well. And in some cases, you might realize you have a friend in common that you didn't even know was on Twitter. It's all about discovery. Or at least it was until last night.

Continue reading "Twitter Feels the Fail for Changing Its Feed " >

Wade Davis gives a talk at the TED conference, captioned in Farsi using dotSUB technology. TED Media

 

By Andy Carvin

For the last 25 years, the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference - better known has TED - has served as an annual pilgrimage for some of the world's leading thinkers to present their best ideas. For those of us who weren't able to attend in person, TED's online videos have served as a gateway to these discussions. One problem that's cropped up with these videos, though, was that these "TEDTalks" were usually in English. Today's rollout of TED's Open Translation Project intends to change that.

Continue reading "TEDTalks Takes Video Translation To The Crowd" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

As I was reporting a recent story about how-to Web sites, some based in Austin, I was surprised by the explosive growth in that segment of Internet content. It's no surprise that online video is a growth area right now as set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and mobile phones are increasingly capable of pulling video from online services, but it's interesting what people are using it for.

Got a leaky faucet you need to fix? There's a video to show you how. Need to tie a tie? Press play. Want to know how to build an empire of how-to Web sites, one of which ranks among the top 50 sites in the U.S. in traffic? For that you'd want to ask Demand Media, which owns eHow and Expert Village, two of the more popular how-to Web sites. eHow alone was ranked higher than CNN.com, according to the most recent Comscore rankings.

By Wright Bryan

Apple has released an incremental update to its Mac OS X operating system for personal computers, bumping the software from 10.5.6 to 10.5.7. See, I wasn't kidding when I called it "incremental."

Macworld, however, takes this stuff more seriously and decided to dig a little deeper into the update.

Released at the same time were security updates for Mac OS X 10.4 and for Apple's Safari 3 Web browser.

Updates can be downloaded automatically through the "software update" feature in OS X, or manually from Apple.

A major update to OS X is expected this summer. It's called "Snow Leopard" and will move the system to version 10.6.

By Omar Gallaga

This week's All Tech Considered segment deals with what happens after we reach our final mortal destination. Where do all our e-mails, social media accounts and important files go when we die and who'll take of them for us in our absence?

Here are some of the Web sites we talked about in the segment as well as other research we found for this piece:

• At South by Southwest Interactive this year, there was a very good discussion of the legal and practical issues. The panel was called "Who Will Check My E-mail After I Die?" My colleague Lilly Rockwell blogged about the panel and wrote a follow-up column on the topic.
• Another write-up of that panel.
• Some sites mentioned that offer after-death e-mail or virtual locker services: Legacy Locker, Slightly Morbid, Great Goodbye, myLastEmail.com.
• A family successfully sued Yahoo! for access to the e-mail of a Marine who'd died in Iraq.
• Obituary/memorial sites include Legacy.com, Gates of Remembrance and Eobituary
• More stories about online memorial sites
• When online funerals go bad: a "World of Warcraft" funeral gets raided. The video gets posted online for laughs.
• How social networks deal with death.
• Even fictional characters get online eulogies.
• Check out the comments on this Slashdot post about "Post-suicide account cracking." Fascinating points of view.
• Short Oklahoma Gazette story on the topic.
• Tips from USA Today on how to plan ahead for your digital files should you pass away.

Got more ideas and Web sites or thoughts on the subject? Please post them in the comments.

By Eyder Peralta

In the world of search engines, Google is king. But Wolfram Alpha "computational research engine" is getting lots of buzz around the web and so are reports that the Justice Department is taking a careful look at Google's book search service.

Fortune Magazine reports:

It was bound to happen: Google couldn't get this dominant - with 76% of the search market - without attracting some attention in DC. The question is whether the company has played by the rules in gaining its status.

And it asks the big question. If google insists that competition is "a click away," then why hasn't someone stepped up? Thoughts, anyone?

Also, make sure to check out Maureen Clements' post on the Wolfram browser over at As A Matter of Fact. And Laura Sydell had a piece, recently, about how even in this economic downturn, Google is still raking in ad money.

By Omar L. Gallaga

A game called "Duke Nukem Forever" looks to be cancelled, at least for the time being, after being in gestation for more than a dozen years.

The developers of the game, Texas-based 3D Realms, have shut their doors and the publisher of the game, Take-Two, said it still retains the rights to the shooter, but confirmed that it's no longer funding development of the game.

"Duke Nukem Forever," which was to be the crowning achievement of a series of games featuring a hulking, humorous anti-hero, became an industry joke as year after year passed without the game's completion. Wired has named it tops in its Vaporware awards several times, but over the last two years it seemed like there might be some light at the end of the tunnel.

For now, at least, that light has dimmed. Below is a teaser trailer 3D Realms released last year.

A group of eight friends went on a cupcake run and ended up making tech art! Imelda Bettinger via flickr

 

Remember to join our Flickr group and send us your pics. We'll occasionally feature them here.

By Laura Sydell

I had dinner with Sean Gourley recently. He claims he's got a formula he can use to predict the likelihood of an attack in places with serious insurgencies. Gourley says he's mapped the distribution of attacks in wars in places like Afghanistan, Colombia, Iraq and Senegal. He claims that despite the chaos, the attacks actually have a mathematical distribution.

From that he's created a formula that he says can be used to predict the probable time and place of future attacks. Could be amazingly useful. But, the crucial question here is whether its really true. Here's a link to his a recent talk at TED.

By Laura Sydell

The guy who coined the phrase Web 2.0 can't stand it.

I met up with him on a local talk show.

On air, he explained he was just trying to come up with a way to describe the world after the dot com bust of 2001. It looked like the web was biting the dust, but he was sure it was going to happen all over again. So, it was Web 2.0. Web 2.0 has become the biggest marketing term in Silicon Valley. It's used on top of thousands of press releases. My eyes glaze over every time I see it. After the show Dale Dougherty admitted he can't stand the phrase either.

Can't it be Web 3.0 time now?

By Randy Lilleston

Ubuntu's back with a new edition. If you don't know what Ubuntu is, I'll get to that, but here's the bottom line:

If you need to perform the typical tasks of most computer users -- Web browsing, word processing, spreadsheet number-crunching, music-playing, video-watching -- Ubuntu will do that, for free. And it's (usually) easy to install. And anyone who has used a PC or a Mac will pick up Ubuntu's standard graphical interface in about five minutes.

But is it a replacement for Microsoft Windows? Well, that's a tougher question.

Continue reading "Ubuntu: Linux For Nearly Normal Users?" >

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos holds the new Kindle DX. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

 

By Eyder Peralta

Because of its amazing capabilities, some people have called the iPhone, "The Jesus Phone."

Now, Amazon's newly released, bigger Kindle reader is being heralded "the savior of newspapers", which if you haven't heard are going through some tough times.

So, in keeping with the religious metaphors, I say we call the Kindle the "St. Francis de Sales Reader". For the non-Catholics, St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of journalists.

Modern technology can be great but sometimes the cables that come with it are a bit of a pain! Stuart Anthony via Flickr

 

By Eyder Peralta

We use technology every day. So we've started a flickr group that will hopefully let us document, in a tangible, real-world way, how we use technology, how we love it or hate it. Join in and send us your photos. We'll feature them occasionally on the blog.

By Omar Gallaga

Any time there's a study released related to video games and violence or video games and addiction, news outlets generally are all over it, sometimes jumping to the conclusion that there's finally data to make definitive conclusions.

Such was the case late last month when an Iowa State University study that used data from Harris Interactive asserted that 8.5 percent of kids 8 to 18 could be "classified as pathological or clinically 'addicted' to playing video games" in the U.S.

Almost immediately, questions came up about the methodology used in the study and more recently the Entertainment Software Association has blasted the study with support from a blog post by ABC News's director of polling Gary Langer point out that an opt-in online survey is hardly representative.

Lest you think the study is the last word on kids and video game addiction, the debate is far from over. As the Iowa State study proves, plenty more research is needed, it seems, before conclusions are drawn.

By Wright Bryan

Once upon a time I didn't put too much thought in to what mobile phone I was using. I had a preference for Nokias. But I've happily used a variety of phones and providers over the years. They all did roughly the same thing. My current phone is something called the "Alias" from Samsung, though some know it by the charming moniker "SCH-u740." I picked it mainly because it's a flip phone with a two-way hinge that I thought would entertain my young son. Mission accomplished!

It opens one way, then it opens another way! Samsung

 

But now I want an iPhone. I feel like I need an iPhone. All of my friends have iPhones (almost). But I'm holding out because I also read tech-news rumor sites like AppleInsider. Here's what they're saying:

Continue reading "Can The iPhone Really Be My New Best Friend?" >

This table shows the number of banking institution credentials researchers gathered in a 10-day span. UC Santa Barbara

 

This table shows the top ten sites for which researchers obtained log-ins. UC Santa Barbara

By Eyder Peralta

Alright, we won't make talking about the underbelly of technology a habit, but I have to bring this up:

Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara were able to hack the Torpig botnet and analyze the kind of information this malware steals. A malware, just so we're clear, is software that wiggles into your computer without your knowledge or consent and usually sends back information through a botnet.

That's what the researchers were looking at. In 10 days, they found 70 gigs worth of information, encompassing 297,962 unique log-ins sent by 52,540 machines.

Most of them were passwords for seemingly innocuous social networking sites like myspace.com and facebook.com. But here's the important part: The researchers found that "28 percent of victims reused their credentials for accessing 368,501 sites."

So even if they didn't steal your bank info, it would likely take very little time for someone to figure it out.

That lead to the conclusion that:

"... The malware problem is fundamentally a cultural problem. Even though people are educated and understand well concepts such as the physical security and the necessary maintenance of a car, they do not understand the consequences of irresponsible behavior when using a computer. Therefore, in addition to novel tools and techniques to combat botnets and other forms of malware, it is necessary to better educate the Internet citizens so that the number of potential victims is reduced."

So, yes, I'm going to go change my bank account password, now. I'll add a few numbers I won't be able to remember later. Sigh.

Further Reading On Botnets:

BBC Buys A Botnet

Botnets Hit Mac Computers

By Omar Gallaga

All Tech Considered this week is about tools and technology you can use for travel. We found many more than we could cover in one audio segment, so here are some that were mentioned and a few others you might find useful. Feel free to share other apps, travel sites, tools or podcasts in the comments.

• Kayak.com is an excellent travel aggregator for flights, hotels, car rentals, packages and cruises.
• Info and link on the Lonely Planet Paris City Guide app, just released for $15.99. It's the first of their city apps to be released. They've also got podcasts.
• Interesting piece about Twitter as a discount travel tool. The best quick-hit deals seem to be popping up there first, according to Wendy Perrin's Conde Nast travel blog. Here's her Twitter page.
• More on discount family travel deals online.
• Very neat podcast by a couple in New Zealand, the Indie Travel Podcast.
• Apple's own travel apps page for iPhone/iPod Touch.
• More cell phone travel apps.
• AAA's discount app for triple-A members.
• Interesting idea: instead of getting a hotel, why not rent someone's house or apartment? Austin-based HomeAway helps facilitate it.
• GoToday -- good travel packages as suggested by my pal travel writer Sheila Scarborough.
• You don't have to like the name to appreciate "Sit Or Squat," an app that helps you find a bathroom nearby.
• Postcards made easy: sending them online via Hazel Mail.

By Sara Sarasohn

Eyder got phished on Facebook. Over the weekend I got five new followers on Twitter. Four of them were bots, social-networking spammers.

I could tell as soon as I went to check them out. Delia, Kris, Juliette and Fay had each tweeted exactly once, and the tweet was some ridiculous statement designed to get me to click on some link to who-knows-what.

Maybe this says something about me, that I am more interesting to automated purveyors of sketchy weblinks than I am to actual people. However, I'd like to think it says more about Twitter - and social networking - than it says about me.

Continue reading "Hacking The Innocence, Part 2" >

By Eyder Peralta

There's a great piece in the Guardian today about the internet's carbon footprint. It's something most of us simply don't think about and the impact of it is profound. Here are the highlight graphs:

With more than 1.5 billion people online around the world, scientists estimate that the energy footprint of the net is growing by more than 10% each year. ...

And while the demand for electricity is a primary concern, a secondary result of the explosion of internet use is that the computer industry's carbon debt is increasing drastically. From having a relatively small impact just a few years ago, it is now leapfrogging other sectors like the airline industry that are more widely known for their negative environmental impact.

By Eyder Peralta

Turns out, there's no need for a shutter.iStockphoto.com

 

Technology can be confounding. For the most part, we understand it only on the peripheries.

The rare exception seems to be photography. In high school, plenty of students learn the basics of a film camera. That's what I did, so as I shopped for a new digital camera, it suddenly dawned on me: I understand the relationship between film, exposure and a shutter but why does a digital camera need a shutter?

I took the question to David D. Busch, the author of a ton of books on photography, among them Digital SLR Cameras & Photography For Dummies. In essence, he said, digital cameras don't need a shutter. It's just easier and better if they have them.

"Many point-and-shoot cameras ... actually have no physical shutter, which is why they have a 'shutter click' noise you can turn on and off," he said via e-mail.

After The Jump: Busch Gives A More Detailed Explanation.

Continue reading "Do Digital Cameras Need Shutters?" >