By Wright Bryan

It seems that we've entered a golden age for the world of Web browsers. The latest evidence for this new era is the renewal of Firefox with the release of version 3.5. Mozilla has increased the browser's speed, added new features and included support for HTML 5 video. Early reviews suggest that it's a fitting riposte to the recent advances made by Google's Chrome browser, Apple's Safari, Opera 10 beta and, yes, even Internet Explorer 8.

Harry McCracken's review on Technologizer declares that, overall, FF 3.5 is the best of the bunch for most users:

In other words, the browser sports no knockout new features. But the moves Mozilla has made are smart, and they're more than enough for Firefox to keep pace with its fast-evolving rivals.

Ars Technica offers its own detailed take on the latest evolution of Firefox, concluding that it's further proof of an increasingly sophisticated and open movement toward the Web as a platform:

In general, this is a great time for the Web. The browser market is becoming increasingly vibrant and enjoying real competition and progress as the growing demand for more powerful Web applications drives the adoption of emerging standards.

By Omar L. Gallaga

The Austin, Tex.-based Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit association of hundreds of companies that deal in Wi-Fi technology, has released a list of tips to help keep your data secure as you brave Wi-Fi hotspots or set up your own wireless network.

The advice comes from Kelly Davis-Felner, director of the Wi-Fi Alliance:

Protect yourself when using a public hotspot: Free public hotspots are by nature "open" and unencrypted. To reduce your exposure to unwanted risks:

• Make sure that you are connecting to a legitimate hotspot -- those that require a password have more protection than those that do not.
• Use a virtual private network or VPN, which establishes a private connection across the public network. This may be supplied by your employer, or you can purchase one.
• Surfing the web and sending e-mail is fine, but doing your banking for example in a public hotspot is not advised.

(More advice after the jump)

Continue reading "Protecting Yourself In The Wi-Fi Wilderness" >

By Wright Bryan

Google, the Grameen Foundation and MTN Uganda have launched a new range of services for mobile phones in the East African nation of Uganda. Google SMS and Google Trader look to put the power of the Internet in the hands of people who have access to mobile phones with the ability to send and receive text messages.

Users are able to look up tips on farming, get weather forecasts, read up on health issues and, of course, get sports scores. But the most interesting development is the creation of an online marketplace with Google Trader. They hope to connect buyers and sellers electronically to create a more efficient marketplace for Ugandans.

The Grameen Foundation's AppLab produced a promotional video on how the services work:

Continue reading "Google Chases African Mobile Information Market" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

As promised, here's the video from this week's San Antonio Society for Information Display conference, where a gander at the future of what our screens will look like could be had.

Included in the video above: transparent displays, one-pixel cell phone skins, a wearable curved wrist display, energy-efficient TVs of the future and more. It was really a blast getting to look a few years ahead at the technology that'll soon be attracting our eyeballs.

Note: This post was originally published June 5th.

Edited to add, June 29: A few more things based on today's All Tech Considered conversation:

• We noted a few weeks ago that some of these technologies, especially flexible displays, are coming much sooner than you might expect. They're going into mass production now and we will probably see products roll out with flexible displays by January's Consumer Electronics Show, if not sooner.
• The Society for Information Display's official site. They organize the San Antonio conference I attended this month.
• TV screens go greener.
• More on the future of e-ink.
• 3-D TV in your living room. How soon?

By Omar L. Gallaga

E Ink Corp. showed off a flexible e-book display a few weeks ago at the Society for Information Display conference in San Antonio. Omar L. Gallaga

 

A few weeks ago, I raved about some of the cool display technology I got to see at a conference in San Antonio. When people asked me when we'd start seeing some of these technologies, like flexible e-ink displays, roll out to products we could buy, I was thinking two to five years in the future.

Turns out we might see them much sooner. According to a report from Displaybank, an industry research firm, LG Display is already mass-manufacturing such displays and others are ramping up production later this year or the first half of next year.

Encouraging! What does it mean for us consumers (and those of us biting off our fingernails in the newspaper industry)?

The flexible display market expects applications in concepts of e-newspaper, e-magazine, and e-book to replace newspapers, magazines, and books, focus firstly in the e-paper display. In addition, the market expects various applications not only as bulletin board-use displays such as interior/exterior-use advertisement boards, but also as a mobile communication device.

So start practicing bending screens! (Warning: do not attempt on current, non-flexible screens.)

NOTE: This post was originally published June 19th.

TMZ.com was the first major news source to report (accurately) that Michael Jackson died on Thursday. TMZ.com

 

By Omar L. Gallaga

Michael Jackson died yesterday.

You might have heard about.

Today, I've been thinking hard about how the news unfolded yesterday points to new directions in news coverage of major events (at least in the realm of entertainment news). Hard-charging gossipy sites like TMZ, plus the speed of social media spreading that information, minus the context that more mainstream media might provide (though much later). My thoughts are enumerated in a blog post over on Digital Savant called, "The day online news took over." I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Friday marks the 35th anniversary of the first bar code ever scanned. Motorola, Inc.

 

By Omar L. Gallaga

The illustration above was sent to me as the front of a card from Motorola, Inc. about the 35th anniversary of the first bar-code scanning ever done. It was on a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

It's the kind of press release I'd typically ignore, but I have something of a fondness for bar codes. The first time I ever saw a real bar code scanner in a supermarket, I remember thinking it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen (I don't think I'd seen E.T. yet). The beeps, the rotating cans of chicken noodle soup, my God, the red lasers!

Certainly a game-changing technology. Remember when we had to draw our own bar codes by hand and scan them in ourselves with our eyes until they were bleary and tired? Look how far we've come.

You can read a lot more about the anniversary on Motorola's bar code celebration page or in a New York Times story that ran today. Maybe they got the same card from Motorola.

by Sara Sarasohn

People die in threes. At least, that's the legend and that's the way it played out this week. I've worked on obits for Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson this week and I feel like I've hit my limit. I suspect Aaron Barnhart, tv critic for the Kansas City paper, is feeling something similar.

He posted about a tweet he got that seemed to encapsulate the week:

... On 09/18/1979, Farrah Fawcett & Michael Jackson were both guests on the Tonight Show w/Johnny Carson, co-hosted by Ed McMahon.

Barnhart thought this was so great he immediately retweeted it. Then he checked the facts ... which were not true. Barnhart knows better than to spread rumors under his professional imprimatur - he says as much in his blog post about the whole thing - but he whipped out the "RT @" immediately to repeat the rumor.

I am right there with Aaron Barnhart in wishing there was some truth to that tweet. I feel like it would make my whole week make sense. However, I'm really glad he fact-checked it. Even more, I'm impressed that he posted about being wrong instead of just letting it slide. It's hard to look dumb, and even harder to tell other people that you were wrong.

By Sondra Russell

This this is just another embarrassing photo left on my missing iPhone. Sondra Russell/NPR

A couple days ago, I was enjoying a stolen hour, sharing a beer with a dear friend on the patio of a local restaurant. I set my iPhone on the table -- as I usually do -- to monitor the time, see incoming calls and be ready to show off photos of my daughter whenever (not) asked. It was hot out and my phone's black case was attracting more sun than was healthy, so I tucked it under a napkin to shield it from the damaging rays. As we got up to leave, I scanned the table, saw only a pile of white napkins, so without thinking I walked away without my iPhone.

I realized my mistake a few minutes later and rushed back to the restaurant. The manager was friendly but jaded. I got the feeling they get this all the time.

"I left my $400 phone on the table for just a minute! Has some kindly patron turned it in?" He gave me his card and little encouragement that I would ever see my phone again.

I was devastated.

In the few days since I lost my phone, a political career has ended, a revolution has raged, and people in my own city have died in a horrible metro accident, so, why can't I get over the loss of one little iPhone? It's just a pile of plastic and silicon! After a couple sleepless nights, it dawned on me. Apple wanted me to develop a personal relationship with my iPhone. They just didn't recognize the long term emotional consequences of their marketing plan.

Continue reading "Yes, It's Only A Phone, But It's Also Very Personal" >

The National Zoo encourages visitors to call-in with their cell phone to hear more information on an animal exhibits like this one on the giant elephant shrew. /Ryan Kellett

 

by Ryan Kellett

When I was little, I went to the San Francisco Zoo and proudly waved around my animal Zoo Key, which "unlocked" audio stories at locations around the Zoo. You insert the plastic key into the box and an audio story about the animal exhibit plays on nearby speakers. The key was a low-tech yet fun solution for kids in comparison to the awkwardly-sized, telephone-esque handsets commonly seen at museums.

This weekend, I visited the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington D.C. to find neither old-school animal keys nor museum handsets. Instead, I found a cell phone tour.

Cell phone tours require you to dial-in to a local telephone number and then navigate a self-guided tour as you would navigate voicemail. You punch in the exhibit number and a recording about the animal plays for you. Need the recording in Spanish? Just enter the alternate exhibit code. One recording even prompted me to press star for a text-messaged photo of the animal. Another prompt asked me to press "17#" to learn more about the Zoo's "enrichment program," code for a call to donate money.

Continue reading "Cell Phone Tours: The Elephant Shrew's Voicemail" >

Just send an e-mail. It's easier than voice mail. istockphoto.com

 

by Sara Sarasohn

I am totally over voice mail.

In the last six months I've left fewer and fewer voice mails. It just seems to take too long to listen to the outgoing message, wait for the tone, recite my phone number twice. If I call and the person doesn't answer I just hang up. Then I write them an e-mail or IM.

People have been leaving fewer voice mails for me as well. When they do, I procrastinate about picking them up. It seems like too much trouble to call in, wind my way through the prompts, put in my passcode. I'd rather get an e-mail or an IM. It's so much faster to skim a few lines of text.

I have gone so far as to change the outgoing message on my voice mail. It no longer asks the caller to leave a message at the tone. It just says that I'm not there. I don't want the voice mail, so I'm not going to invite it.

This change in the last few months has nothing to do with a technological innovation. When I first came to work at NPR in 1991 we had email and IM. They have been available to me as tools for 17 years. It's only recently that I have decided that they should replace voice mail.

This is particularly striking to me because I work in radio. I love voices. Beyond that, it is professionally important to me to be able to judge how expressive someone is with their voice. I want reporters to pitch stories to me over the phone, not in email. I just don't want the bother of listening to it on my voice mail.

Magazine editor Arjun Basu writes short stories on Twitter. Courtesy Arjun Basu

 

By Krishnadev Calamur

Arjun Basu writes short stories --- extremely short stories; short stories that are exactly 140 characters.

Here's a typical post from his Twitter feed:

The talk had been open, with hurt feelings. Shouting. They knew the relationship was done. She would never put ketchup on her hot dogs again.

I found the magazine editor from Montreal on, where else, Twitter (@arjunbasu), and in an e-mail asked him how he got the idea for writing short fiction on the popular site.

Continue reading "Short Stories One Tweet At A Time" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

Twin robots Skids and Mudflap (pictured here in robot form) are raising issues of race in the new movie 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.' Photo by Robert Zuckerman. DW Studios L.L.C. and Paramount Pictures Corporation.

 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has hit theaters and, based on the savage reviews so far, I'll probably wait to see it until it comes out on... nothing.

One of the more fascinating discussions on the film (besides the varied and creative ways film critics are finding new ways to insult director Michael Bay) is whether the personalities assigned to some of the titular robot stars could be considered racist. (Or at least grossly stereotypical.)

The robots in the film could be considered an extension of our fascination with high-tech gadgetry (only in this case, bigger is better). When we're at the point where we can assign a Homer Simpson voice to our GPS devices, do we owe it to give them a little bit of dignity. Does it matter that they're fictional?

Would love to get your thoughts on this. I'd go do some field research, but they don't give me hazard pay to go see movies like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

By Cory Turner

No tech blog is complete without an occasional homage to the greatest of tech icons -- and no, I don't mean Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. I mean our astronauts. And not just any astronaut but Buzz Aldrin, space pioneer. Well, it turns out the moon just wasn't hard enough; he's decided to tackle a whole other world: Hip Hop.

Believe it or not, Buzz Aldrin has put together a song, available on iTunes, to mark the 40th anniversary of his lunar landing. A part of the proceeds will benefit Aldrin's non-profit ShareSpace foundation.

Best of all, Aldrin got a little help in-studio from Hip Hop heavyweights Talib Kweli and Snoop Dogg. Seriously. Here's a making-of, courtesy of Funny or Die.

By Wright Bryan

One of the things we're most interested in here on the All Tech Considered blog is how technology is used in everyday life, especially how it is used in unexpected ways.

We started a Flickr group so that you could share your pictures of technology with us, and the rest of the All Tech community. Show us what you're doing with technology, or interesting ways that other people are using it and we'll feature some of them in the main blog.

Alex Ragone setting up a Twitter project for first graders. He asked his followers where they live and what they treasure. alex.ragone via Flickr

 

Curtis Soldano checks his Facebook page from his cubicle at work.Jeff Chiu/AP

 

By Joshua Brockman

It's not a comfortable feeling when you have to look over your shoulder at work, but recent surveys reveal that many Gen Y, or 20-something employees, simply don't care if others are watching when it comes to their use of social networking.

Two surveys point to the continued blurring of the boundary between work and leisure and to rising tensions in the workplace between Gen Y, Gen X and baby boomers.

Here are some highlights from the LexisNexis Technology Gap Survey:

• Two-thirds of boomers say that use of devices including PDAs, mobile phones and other gadgets contribute to a decline in workplace etiquette.
• Gen Y workers say they spend almost 11 hours a day accessing social networking sites and assorted Web sites, nearly double the level of baby boomers.
• Gen Y workers multitask at higher levels than Gen X or Baby Boomer workers. But more than half of Gen Y'ers say that BlackBerries and mobile phones encourage "too much" multitasking.

Some findings from Deloitte's social networking and reputation risk survey include:

• More than half of employees, 53 percent, say that their social networking is none of their employer's business.
• A majority of executives, 60 percent, say they have a right to know how employees are portraying themselves and their organizations in online social networks.
• Nearly three-quarters of employees say it's easy to damage a company's reputation using social media.

If you're a boss, what do you do about employees who love to tweet, text and social network throughout the day? It's a question companies are grappling with as the generation gap threatens to create a communications divide. Read our full story here and let us know what you think.

By Omar L. Gallaga

Verizon's MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot allows you to take your Wi-Fi wherever you go as long as you're in range of the company's wireless network. Verizon Wireless

 

Mentioned in this week's All Tech Considered segment is a product I tried out for several weeks and reviewed over on Digital Savant recently, Verizon's MiFi 2200. It's a very slick little device that allows you to set up a wireless network that up to five devices (mobile phones, laptops, etc.) can access.

It's comparable to other mobile broadband devices you'd normally plug into your laptop via USB or ExpressCard slot, but is a stand-alone device and runs very well on Verizon's wireless network.

Seems we really need our high-speed Internet wherever we go. One hot topic that keeps coming up with Apple's recent iPhone 3G S launch is the issue of "tethering" and how much AT&T will charge when that feature is rolled out in late summer.

Thoughts on tethering and mobile broadband? Please share them in the comments.

By Laura Sydell

In a posting on Twitter the Chinese artist and architect Ai Wei Wei called for a national boycott of the Web on July 1. In a tweet he asked all Chinese to stop "working, reading, blogging, gaming, and mailing," online.

Ai, an artist and architect, is best known around the world for creating the bird's nest design for the Olympic stadium in Bejing. He is calling for a one-day Web boycott to protest the communist government's requirement that all new computers have a censorship software called "Green Dam" installed by July 1.

The Chinese government says the software will block pornographic sites and protect children. But critics like Ai Wei Wei also see it's potential to open up computers to direct government meddling. American manufacturers will have to put the software on all of the computers they sell in China.

A study done at the University of Michigan found that having Green Dam on your computer can open it up to viruses and malware. According to the study it will "allow malicious sites to steal private data, send spam, or enlist the computer in a botnet." To add to the mess, a California software maker is suing the Chinese company that makes Green Dam over alleged copyright violations.

But, so far the Chinese government is showing no signs of backing down on its requirement that Green Dam be installed on all new computers sold in China. It seems possible that they are also worried by recent events in Iran where people were able to get around the censors to get first hand accounts, photos and videos to the outside world documenting the protests and clashes in Iran. Given the communist government's fear of protests, the authorities may see Green Dam's flaws as a great opportunity to reach right into private computers without even entering someone's house.

Ai Wei Wei has also been harassed recently by the Chinese authorities for blogging the names of children who were killed when badly constructed schools collapsed in last year's earth quake. The government shut down his blog and Ai has been visited at his home by the authorities.

By Wright Bryan

The Guardian has an interview with Ralf Hutter of the pioneering electronic group Kraftwerk that's worth a read. The band started in the early 1970s and was ahead of its time in both its use of technology to make music and its commentary on technology through music. What does Hutter think of today's electronic world?

Has he been liberated by the advent of caller ID, or email, or SMS? Do those things make him more communicative?

"Yes, but it hasn't changed my general attitude. You know these situations: you're talking to somebody, and everybody's on different platforms all the time, so nobody's really concentrating."

What he says next is probably not intended as his verdict on Twitter - a Kraftwerkian development, if ever there was one - but it may as well be. "Everybody is becoming like ... " - he pauses - "a Stasi agent, constantly observing himself or his friends."

For more pearls of Hutter wisdom, check out the full interview, and the accompanying multimedia feature about Kraftwerk's influence on other musicians.

By Laura Sydell

The classical music world is slowly working its way into the era of modern mobile technology. The New York Philharmonic just became the first orchestra with its own iPhone App.

The app lets you listen to podcasts and performances and find out about up coming events. For classical music fans this could be a nice way to hear recordings of the Philharmonic that aren't available on CD's. If the app is a success other classical music orchestras will follow and that would create a lovely range of arrangements for iPhone users. Tickets to the orchestra aren't cheap so getting some live recorded music on the iPhone would be nice. Hopefully, they will use this as more than a promotion for selling tickets.

By Daniel Jacobson

The iPhone 3G S is obviously getting tons of press, as it should. The new operating system, version 3.0, is also getting a lot of discussion. The majority of the talk, however, has been focused on the really sexy stuff, like MMS, voice memos, cut/copy/paste, search, tethering, etc.

One thing that has been overlooked is speed-control on podcasts.

There are three settings with this new feature: regular speed, half-time and double-time. Why is this important? The half-time control is interesting because it can now help with jumping to a very specific point in the episode. The iPhone calls it "Scrubbing" and allows you to adjust the rate at which you scrub. There are four rates for this, including hi-speed, half-speed, quarter-speed and fine. Gone are the days of guessing where you are in the podcast when looking for the end of an interview or story. This is very cool!

And, please indulge us as we shamelessly self-promote, equally great is the addition of double-time. Clearly, this is not helpful for music podcasts. But for talk podcasts, this is tremendous. Imagine, you can now listen to twice as many NPR podcasts as you used to! Great for you, great for us.

By Avie Schneider

Verizon, we hear you now. But what are you saying? Verizon Wireless

The e-mail was like dozens of weekly spam messages in my inbox, but something about this one seemed different. The subject line shouts: "Start Saving Today - Make All Your Calls Using Verizon Wireless." The message, from one of America's leading phone companies, is unambiguous: "Why pay for home phone service?"

It should come as no surprise. After all, Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. But its parent, Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic, one of the Baby Bells that emerged from the breakup of the original AT&T), would seem to have a vested interest in the old copper line phone service to your home.

So what gives?

Well, the e-mail ad goes on to urge upgrading to a plan with more wireless minutes. (Can you really talk for 1,400 minutes a month? That's upwards of 23 hours if you're counting ... )

But maybe the phone giant finally stuck its dialing finger in the air and saw that the wind is blowing away from traditional home phone service. See Tovia Smith's report on the fading use of residential land lines.

What's your theory?

By Daniel Jacobson

With the conversion to digital TV one week old, so far I have mixed reviews.

Granted, I am probably not the typical case. I have an HD-ready TV, so I am able to receive the higher quality picture. My signal, however, is getting to the TV through rabbit ears. My guess is that the majority of people who are able to view the high quality HD signal without conversion are receiving the signal through cable or satellite.

And that difference is the exact reason why my review is mixed. You see, with the antenna, the signal is truly great ... when it works.

Ahhhhhh, the good old daze, when if you didn't have an outdoor TV antenna, you stuck wire hangers and tinfoil on the old rabbit ears trying to get a decent picture! anomalous4 via Flickr

 

It does work often for me, but when weather is bad, so is the signal. And by bad weather, I mean cloudy or windy. So, you can only imagine how bad the signal has been during the plethora of storms we have had in D.C. over the last few weeks. The HD signals were literally unwatchable. Through most of these storms, I did have the option of watching the analog signal. Since last Friday, however, the first week after the conversion, that obviously has not been the case.

So, I do look forward to many nights of beautiful programming. I'm just hoping for better weather ...

By Bill Chappell

OS 3.0-equipped iPhones and other devices will be able to show their users candid photos of nearby scenes. Flickr

When you're planning a trip, the Web is a great way to get a feel for your destination -- whether it's a foreign country or the DMV across town

Google Maps can help you do that; so can Microsoft's Bing.

But many people want to know what a specific place looks like to a regular Joe -- not to a sophisticated car-mounted camera array. Google and Bing are working on that.

In the meantime, you can use a site like Flickr, searching around on its map for photos that the site's users have tagged to a specific location -- whether it's a park, a shoe store, or a coffee shop.

And as of Thursday, Flickr is making it easier for people to see those images while they're on the move -- provided they have an iPhone (with OS 3.0) or Android device. Flickr just released its "Nearby" feature, which splits a phone's screen to show a map in one half -- and photos in the other.

I haven't tried it yet, but the idea is a good one. And if you're reading this on an iPhone or Android phone, you can just go to the Flickr Mobile site and click the link titled "Photos taken nearby."

Nike+. Mary Altaffer/AP

By Krishnadev Calamur

Even a seemingly low-tech activity like running (put on shoes, go running) has been transformed by technology.

An increasing number of runners are signing up with Web sites such as Nike+, which not only allows you to set goals and track runs, but hooks you up with an online community with which to compare notes. It's pretty similar to this one we wrote about not too long ago.

The Nike sensor costs less than $20, but you can wear them only with certain Nike shoes (definitely not less than $20; some creative runners, however, tape their sensors to their regular running shoes). You also have the option of running with your iPod, a marketing match made in heaven.

The Web site is quite impressive and the graphs with which you can track your performance over time certainly provide certainty to your training goals.

The big question: Does it work?

Continue reading "Running With A Little Help From Technology" >

By Laura Sydell

One thing all these new mobile technologies are helping along is cheating on tests. Common Sense Media, an organization that works on making media more kid friendly, released a poll that showed an awful large number of teens are using their cell phones to cheat.

How do they do it? Well, no more worrying about the teacher overhearing your whisper, kids just set their phone on vibrate and get an answer from a friend. They are also visiting the Internet in the middle of a test and using notes stored on their cell phones. I have to wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to require teens to turn off the cell phone while they take tests. Or maybe they should leave them in a basket at the door. What do you think?

By Cory Turner

First came the cheerleader. We were never friends, simply acquaintances -- in so far as sitting in the same classroom, often an elbow's length apart, for roughly fifteen years can make two kids acquaintances in adulthood. Then came a face I knew I knew... but couldn't place. Probably middle school, though I don't have the courage to ask.

Both wanted to be my Facebook friends.

There have been pleasant surprises, too. Faces I'd forgotten that belong to people I'm glad to be reminded of. Everyone loses touch with someone they'd rather keep closer.

But all of this got me thinking about the potential for an All Tech segment on friendship -- modern, American friendship -- and what the likes of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are doing not only to our friendships but to the way we conceive of friendship. Are we sacrificing quality for quantity? Or are we getting something from social media that we can't get anywhere else, something healthy?

There's a lovely post from Kate Dailey at Newsweek that comes close to the kernel here, but I want to hear from our NPR crowd. What do you think? Stories to share? Please post them. Or, if you don't want to post, just shoot me an e-mail at tech@npr.org.

by Ryan Kellett

Opera, best known for its browser, made the claim that, "On June 16th at 9:00AM, we will reinvent the web." You could almost hear the collective yawn of tech enthusiasts everywhere. But something strange happened Tuesday morning, the release of Opera Unite actually made an impression.

Opera Unite is, at its simplest, a way of sharing the usual suspects of videos, music, photos, etc. on the web. But Opera calls it "reinventing the web" because it requires a fundamental shift in philosophy for the average user from thinking about the web as uploading and downloading content from big servers, to sharing content in a peer-to-peer way.

Lawrence Eng, a product analyst for Opera, uses the example of uploading a photo to the popular photo-sharing site Flickr. You upload the photo to the Flickr servers and rely on the company to manage it for you so that friends can view the photo. Opera Unite's answer would be for you to leave that photo on your computer, open your browser, and direct friends to a unique URL to find your photo. In that way, your browser becomes a Web server, a place to host any kind of digital content.

Continue reading "Opera Unites and Divides With Peer-to-Peer Web Service" >

By Eyder Peralta

TED has a great Q&A with New York University professor Clay Shirky. He drops this insightful snippet about Twitter and its role in Iran, right now.

I've been saying this for a while -- as a medium gets faster, it gets more emotional. We feel faster than we think. But Twitter is also just a much more personal medium. Reading personal messages from individuals on the ground prompts a whole other sense of involvement. We're seeing everyone desperate to do something to show solidarity like wear green -- and suddenly the community figures out that it can actually offer secure web proxies, or persuade Twitter to delay an engineering upgrade -- we can help keep the medium open.

When I see John Perry Barlow setting himself up as a router, he's not performing these services as a journalist. He's engaged. Traditional media operates as source of inofrmation not as a means of coordination. It can't do more than make us sympathize. Twitter makes us empathize. It makes us part of it. Even if it's just retweeting, you're aiding the goal that dissidents have always sought: the awareness that the ouside [sic] world is paying attention is really valuable.

In search of a password?. At least one reader thinks the adorable Pikachu can help with a good one. Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

 

By Eyder Peralta

Stephen Johnson, a reader, suggests:

It suddenly occurred to me when I was thinking about a password that ALL of the Pokemon could be passwords! Think about it... non-dictionary word + add upper/lower case + they all have numbers + add a symbol. Last time I looked there were 300+ of them!!!! Find one and have fun :)

I looked. The Pokemon site currently lists 491 creatures.

By Wright Bryan

Turn left at the next intersection. No, right. No, U-turn. D'oh! Wait, that's not the way to Moe's. Turn back around.

Could those be the directions you'll hear when the voice of Homer Simpson tries to guide you to your next destination? Probably not, but he might ask for a donut!

TomTom has just released a download that makes their GPS devices sound like the ever-popular patriarch of The Simpsons TV show. The company is charging $12.95 in the United States for the opportunity to hear Homer say "woo-hoo!" from inside its little black boxes.

You can sample some of Homer's directions on the TomTom Web site.

By Omar L. Gallaga

"Ghostbusters: The Video Game" hits stores today for all the major game consoles (and PC), reuniting much of the original cast of the "Ghostbusters" movies (minus Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver) in a new adventure.

With contributions to the script from Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, it's a bit like what a third movie might have been like; it's set two years after "Ghostbusters II."

I've been playing a review copy for about a week and though it's too early for me to do a review (I'm barely past the first few hours of gameplay), I can say that I find the game hugely entertaining, but also very frustrating when it comes to the controls. That's my excuse for not getting further along in the game. Maybe versions other than the Xbox 360 one are more forgiving, but I'm finding myself knocked down and slimed more often than I'd like (maybe I should have played it on the "Easy" setting).

The entertaining part is hearing Bill Murray's deliver some genuinely funny dialogue and the high production values of the game's nice visuals. (Not so much the repetitive music, which begins to wear out its welcome after an hour or two.)

The trailer above gives you an idea of the visual style (markedly different in the Wii version) and voice acting in the game.

What do the game critics think? You can find a round-up of reviews here.

The very real face of "click fraud" iStockphoto.com

 

By Cory Turner

What is click fraud, you ask? Until today I didn't have the foggiest idea. Who are these clicks, and who do they think they are... perpetrating fraud... on all those unsuspecting mice? Then I see this in the Times (as well as the WSJ, the WaPost, and just about everywhere else).

The story reads like a good noir. Microsoft notices a spike in the number of people who are clicking on two very different kinds of ad links: auto insurance and World of Warcraft. Seems random, right? Surely no connection.

Well, the auto insurance folks raise a red flag. To them, the click uptick is actually a bad thing. That's right, a bad thing. Because they pay Microsoft based on the number of clicks they're getting. Suddenly they're getting so many clicks, they figure these clickers can't all be potential customers, and it's exhausting their ad budgets.

So Microsoft looks into it, and they think they've found the one thing that auto insurance and World of Warcraft appear to have in common: a man. Oh, and his mother. And his brother. From there the story gets even more complicated.

This story's like Burt Lancaster in one of the best of the 1950s noirs, "The Sweet Smell of Success." It's "got more twists than a barrel of pretzels!"

Sometimes, it makes sense to interact on different social networks. iStockPhoto.com

 

By Eyder Peralta and Sara Sarasohn

It's almost become one word: facebookandtwitter. Those two services are dominating social networking now. MySpace is waning, LinkedIn is just for business, and Friendster has literally fallen off the map (of the U.S., it's now owned by an Australian company and functions largely in Asia). We both use Facebook and Twitter, but both of us also have social networking lives beyond the sites that are dominating our peer groups.

Eyder: I got an invite to hi5 from my uncle, who lived in Nicaragua. When I accepted his invitation to join the social networking site, it was like walking into my grandma's house in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

It was a world apart from Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. I found a circle of relatives and old friends I hadn't seen in years. In some ways, it was my parents' world, all the people they talked about being "back home," all the kids I was friends with before we moved States-side.

Hi5 is, with few exceptions, a lot like MySpace. Each user has a profile and a wall and you connect with people by friending them. But my Facebook and Twitter worlds rarely collide with my hi5 world. In fact, in hi5 I speak Spanish, everywhere else, it's English.

Sara: LiveJournal is my social-networking home. It's sort of a hybrid blogging and social networking site. Users write personal journal entries and read feeds of their friends' journals. Since 2004 I've written almost every day, sometimes a couple of paragraphs and sometimes thousand-word personal essays. Reading the entries of my LJ friends - all of whom I first met by reading their journals - is very intimate. I've consequently met several of them in person. I can't imagine getting to know someone on Facebook or Twitter and then wanting to meet them IRL. After the intensity of reading journal entries on LJ, quick status updates and photos feel fun but shallow to me.

Continue reading "Finding Your Own Social Networking Stream" >

By Eyder Peralta

How Iranians took to the street is on full display on Twitter. The narrative is raw and emotional but perhaps the most interesting thing I've seen is the exchange of functioning proxies. In some ways, it's the most vivid example I've seen in my lifetime of the struggle for free expression.

At its technical core, it's people pointing to online servers that government censors haven't yet blocked and that can relay news, information and social networking sites like Twitter.

This morning, The New York Times has an interview with Austin Heap, a 25-year-old from San Francisco who is setting up private proxies for Iranians. The paper reports:

He said on Monday that his servers were providing the Internet connections for about 750 Iranians at any one moment.

"I think that cyber activism can be a way to empower people living under less than democratic governments around the world," he said.

On Twitter, read through the search results of Functioning Iran and you'll see a real-time arch. You'll see new proxy addresses appearing every few minutes and instructions on how to post them and more importantly where not to post them.

One popular retweet reads, "Send Functioning Iran proxies to @StopAhmadi, do not post them on #iranelection! They [the Iranian government] are screening."

What's amazing is that this is nothing like turning one's avatar green in a show of support. Something like that feels trite in a moment when the streets are ablaze and humans have died. But the sharing of proxies, on the other hand, that exchange of useful information becomes an important narrative of a dramatic, real-life conflict between a government and the world.

The Time-Scout Monitor is one way to limit and keep track of the amount of time kids spend on the computer. Card Access, Inc.

 

By Omar L. Gallaga

This week's All Tech Considered is about some of the ways you can protect your kids when they spend time online. It's a broad topic and there are lots of different options, but here are some of the things we found:

• The McGruff SafeGuard software monitors Web activity and filters content and there's a free version available. Unfortunately, it only works with newer Windows PCs.
• Some of the kid-friendly Web browsers available include Buddy Browser and KidRocket.
• A guide to setting up parental controls and passwords in Internet Explorer.
• Two Web filters for the popular Firefox browser: ProCon Latte and FoxFilter.
• An excellent resource that tells parents exactly what to expect in video game content, What They Play.
• PowerCop and Time-Scout Monitor (pictured above) are two devices that allow you to control how much time your kids spend on the computer at the source: the power source. Maybe not such a hot idea for laptops, though.
• Chicago Tribune has tips for protecting your kids when they're using a cell phone.
• McAfee's Family Protection software and security software from Trend Micro.
• SpectorSoft has several versions of surveillance software that can record keystrokes and give you reports on your child's Web activity.
• Lori Getz has done a good series of articles for momlogic.com on these kinds of topics.
• Good recent article from Canada.com.
• Nine ways to keep tabs of your kids online this summer, from ABC News.

Got more to share or thoughts on the piece? Post them in the comments.

By Daniel Jacobson

I told myself that I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to stay up past midnight to try to grab a vanity URL on Facebook. After all, I have a 2-year-old who would certainly be waking me up bright and early, without remorse.

Then life happened... By the time people left my house after a very interesting game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals , it was 11:40 P.M., a mere 20 minutes away from the start of the land grab.

I actually fought the urge, got in bed and tried to fade away. But sleep was not meant to be. So I sat and waited, watching the countdown timer on Facebook, the one that suggested to the world that vanity URLs are more important than they actually are, tick down to the remaining seconds. All the while, I couldn't help but think, "Is this worth the 20 minutes?"

Continue reading "Vanity URLs: 20 Minutes On Facebook I'll Never Get Back" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

Are stand-alone GPS devices going to become an endangered (yet easy-to-locate) species? A report from Forrester Research suggests that phone-based navigation will overtake GPS devices by 2013, becoming the primary way we keep from getting lost on the way to the Waffle House.

According to the report:

PNDs (Portable Navigation Devices) are the dominant solution today, but Forrester believes that within five years, phone-based navigation will supplant PNDs as the preferred navigation option. Despite the phenomenal growth of PNDs as a category in the past year, Forrester believes that navigation as a service on mobile phones will outpace built-in navigation systems by the end of 2010 and will eclipse the penetration of PNDs by 2013

That would seem to be lent some credence by Tom Tom's presentation at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference this week, where they showed off turn-by-turn navigation via an iPhone. If the navigation companies are already moving in this direction, it must be true, right?

By Eyder Peralta

YouTube apparently suffered some outages Friday afternoon. And, though we have no empirical data to back this up, we bet the American workforce has suddenly become more productive.

A graph showing the relationship between YouTube availability and worker productivity. Eyder Peralta/NPR

 

That's not the Elizabeth I remember from high school! iStockPhoto.com

 

By Andy Carvin

Earlier this week, I was logged into Facebook and received a chat message from Elizabeth Collins, an attorney in Gainesville, Florida, who attended high school with my brother. Though we're friends on Facebook, we hadn't really interacted much since graduation. So I was somewhat surprised that she was now asking me for emergency financial assistance.

Screenshot: Andy Carvin/NPR

"i am really freaked out right now and i need your urgent help," she wrote. "i was mugged at a gun point in london last night cash,credit cards and cell phone was stolen. it was a brutal experience but i am ok and i still have my passport."

But it didn't really add up. Of all the people she could contact on Facebook, why me? And it certainly seemed a little strange that her Facebook status updates said nothing about a trip to London.

It was at this point, though, I remembered a blog post from TechCrunch earlier this year about people gaining access to Facebook users' accounts and then hitting them up for emergency cash via wire transfer. Of course, it was entirely possible that Elizabeth was really in trouble, so I was placed in the awkward position of probing her for more information.

"I hate to do this, but there have been people hacking FB accounts and asking for financial assistance," I wrote. "Can you tell me how we know each other?"

Continue reading "Facebook Scam Exploits Friendship For Money" >

Screenshot: Ryan Kellett/NPR

by Ryan Kellett

Way back in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook at Harvard University. At that time, Facebook had a simple decision to make: should users use their real names or usernames? Facebook chose to former and used a string of associated numbers for your visible URL, instead of a user-generated pseudonym.

Facebook announced earlier this week that they would start offering usernames tomorrow starting 12:01am.

At first blush, it feels like an upheaval of the system.

Continue reading "Countdown To The Vanity Insanity" >

By Ryan Kellett

The cup reads, "Text CUP to 30241 to share your revelation and it could be seen here!"
Katie Hayes/NPR

Coffee cups used to just say, "Contents may be hot." Now, our cups ask us to: "Text CUP to 30241 to share your revelation and it could be seen here!" That's a big step when all you want to do in the morning is shake off yesterday's late night.

Advertising companies are clearly looking to latch on to the participatory wave of advertising:

"Tweet your customer service complaints!"
"Take this online poll!"
"Visit our blog!"

But if you're unwilling to accept text messages from friends, what would compel you to send a text into the abyss?

Continue reading "Advertising: Coffee Cups That Talk" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

We mentioned briefly on All Tech Considered this week that the digital TV cut-off date is Friday. Here's a shout-out to the story we did back in February and a blog entry with links to resources and information on the topic.

The best thing I've seen lately related to the transition is the video below, which shows you how to make a digital-TV-ready antenna out of household items including a shoebox. Total cost is about $1; you'll need to buy a plastic part that's available at your local Radio Shack. (You'll also still need the converter box.)

Nevertheless, let's hear it for DIY'ing yourself into the digital TV future.

Liz and Tim Young with turkeys on their farm. Courtesy Tim Young

 

By Krishnadev Calamur

In my moments of grandeur, I wish I had my own farm where I could connect with Mother Nature. I suspect many people feel the same way, but few have the courage to do it.

Two people who did are Tim and Liz Young, who run Nature's Harmony , a pasture-based, local-market sustainable farm, in Georgia.

After reading about them in The New York Times, I wondered how a farm in rural Georgia connects with a customer base. Sure, Michael Pollan has made farmers markets and community-supported agriculture popular, but what does a business -- and a farm is a business, after all -- do to keep it customers coming back.

So I e-mailed (old-fashioned, I know) Tim Young and asked him.

"While farm life is thought of as rural, remote and antiquated, technology makes it easy to reach out and connect with like-minded people," Young replied.

He says social media makes it easy for people to find their "tribes."

Continue reading "A Farmer, His 'Tribe' And The Web That Brings Them Together" >

By Joshua Brockman

AT&T's plans for the iPhone start at $70 per month for voice and unlimited data, including e-mail and Web access. But there's some talk of AT&T possibly lowering its prices.

"I think they might offer a light version of the unlimited data plan," says Roger Entner, a telecom analyst for the Nielsen Company. That may mean the overall cost for consumers on AT&T's base plan may be closer to $60 per month, he says.

Read our full story about how the iPhone cost and service fees are stiring an upgrade debate.

It's also possible that AT&T may start to charge some new fees for services like tethering -- the ability to have the phone function as a modem for a computer.

Kent German, senior editor for CNET, says he and other iPhone users were disappointed to learn that tethering is still not yet available for the iPhone through AT&T.

A spokesman for AT&T says it plans to offer the service for a fee, but has yet to announce a start date.

Screenshot: Ryan Kellett/NPR

By Ryan Kellett

With all of our coverage of yesterday's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, we wanted to point readers to the full video of the opening keynote online.

The nearly two-hour address may not have had the Steve Jobs-type wow-power of previous keynotes, but it certainly had its moments. Apple has built a reputation for its showmanship at conferences, this time unveiling the iPhone 3GS and a few new MacBook Pros to add to the lineup. Instead of relying heavily on tech reviews published in articles, Apple leans on the conference buzz to get the initial word out about its new products.

People are probably not crying because they bought an iPhone 3G less than a year ago, but they are probably a wee bit remorseful. iStockPhoto.com

 

By Eyder Peralta

We've all been there: You bought a first generation flat-screen TV, only to see it replaced in stores by a higher quality, cheaper version a few months later. You sulk and admonish your impulses.

But it's a way of life with technology: you're only current for the first five minutes.

Around the web, lots of people have been griping about how AT&T isn't giving customers who bought an iPhone 3G just a year ago a way to buy the iPhone 3GS at the subsidized price of $199 for the 16 GB version or $299 for the 32 GB version. Instead, each will cost a hundred dollars more and that's if you sign up for an additional two-year contract extension.

It's a bummer. You have my condolences, but Harry McCracken at Technologizer has no pity. He writes:

I'm not that sympathetic towards iPhone 3G owners who want AT&T to sell them the iPhone 3G S at the same sweetheart price as someone who didn't buy an iPhone 3G last year. You agreed to fulfill a two-year contract with AT&T in return for the discount you got last year. AT&T is willing to renegotiate it and give you a proportionate discount on a 3G in return for another year of commitment. Explain to me again what's offensive about that?

Any early adopters out there? Any weeping tales of regret?

By Eyder Peralta

Gizmodo has one of the first hands-on review of the new iPhone. Brian Lam writes that the changes are incremental, but the compass and the video recording capabilities are impressive.

In a test, the 3GS' web browser easily outperformed the iPhone 3G and the Palm Pre. Lam wrote:

Loading Gizmodo, which has tons of images and a good deal of Javascript, the 3GS came in at 38 seconds, followed by the Pre at 57 seconds and the 3G at 59 seconds. This is all running off their respective 3G connections.

By Franklyn Cater

In our All Tech Considered conversation today, Omar Gallaga told All Things Considered Co-Host Michele Norris about some of the potential joys and pitfalls of letting your toddler play with your smartphone. But if you have older kids you might relate better to the question - "Should I get my teen or tween a PDA of their own? Maybe it would keep them better organized?"

The San Diego Library has a website that's supposed to help parents make informed decisions about how to let their children interact with technology. In a section on PDAs that the library says is a few years old but still applicable, the site offers a somewhat skeptical view of handhelds for kids.

It allows that PDAs offer students "a fun way to keep track of (and work on) his or her school obligations."

But - "Plenty of avenues for distraction," it says. "One of the goals of the electronics industry is to make the PDA an integrated work and entertainment device."

And, the SD Library points out: "PDAs are also quite fragile--a PDA that is regularly taken into a schoolyard is almost certain to become an expensive paperweight."

Next week, Michele and Omar tackle questions about keeping tabs on your kids' interactions with tech - especially online. Post your questions for them here.

Apple's Phil Schiller talks about the video features on the new iPhone 3GS at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday, June 8, 2009. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu

 

By Laura Sydell

3:02 PM: And...of course, what is the price? $199 for 16GB and $299 for the 32 GB version of the iPhone 3GS available June 19th.

But there is a regular 3G iPhone for $99 dollars available today.

The iPhone will now be available in 80 countries.

2:56 PM: Apple is really bringing the computer and the phone together.

They have announced the new iPhone (3GS) that is supposed to be faster than the previous model. Loading games 2X faster. Loading the New York Times nearly 3X faster. It has a new built-in 3 megapixel camera. It can take close ups now with a tap to focus feature. The new iPhone also has a video camera with a mic and audio feature. It's possible to edit the video by tapping on the screen.

It has voice control. It will let you make a phone call with your voice. It will also let you tell it to play a song for you. You can ask it what song it is playing and the phone will talk back and tell you what song it is. Using the Genius program it will let you say, "play a song like that last one." And the phone will find a song that is like the one you just heard.

2:44 PM: iPhone OS 3.0 will be available on June 17th. So iPhone users will be able to use all these apps with the new operating system.

2:43 PM: How about this? An app that will let you automatically tune your electric guitar. So, you show up for your gig and you don't have to spend time tuning the guitar. The app does it for you.

2:41 PM: For those who use Zip Car, a leading car sharing service, there is a new app that will allow customers to locate and reserve the nearest car. Using the new iPhone OS 3.0 Mapkit, the app embeds a user friendly Google map. When you get to the car, you can tap a horn icon and the car horn will honk so you can find it. The car can even be unlocked using the app.

2:25 PM: I should clarify that they are bringing up application developers to show off new apps and that the previous update was about an app from a company called Airstrip.

2:21 PM: The iPhone can now accept medical applications that will allow a doctor to monitor a patient in the hospital from long distance. It can monitor heat beats, temperature and blood pressure. It also keeps a record of what's been monitored so it will allow the doctor to search through a record of what has been monitored over the last few hours. I have to say this is a rather incredible feature.

2:09 PM: The iPhone now has a very cool feature for MobileMe users. Have you ever lost your phone? Well, if you can't find it, you can log onto a Google Maps and it will tell you exactly where your phone is located it. If you have left your phone at home it has a feature that will let it send out a sound until you discover that your two year old left it under the couch.

If it has been stolen you can send it a message to delete all of your data. So, those very personal pictures you don't want leaking out to the media can be deleted before they end up with the Paparazzi.

2:02 PM: Apple just announced the new version of the iPhone will have streaming technology that will let you watch a ballgame live, as it happens. They also announced the new iPhone OS 3.0. Among its updates are a copy and paste feature. The instant messaging system will now let people send multi-media in real time. So it is now possible to send photos and videos in real time. They announced Spotlight, a new search feature that lets you search your entire phone.

The phone will now let you download movies and television wirelessly.

The new iPhones will have tethering. It will let you share your iPhone Internet connection with your computer and it works with both Mac and PC.

Update: Apple has introduced a new line of Macbook Pro notebooks. They have made them cheaper than before. The 13 inch MacBook is now called a MacBook Pro. It starts at $1,199.00, which is cheaper than the MacBook it replaces. That version comes with a 2.53 GH microprocessor, 2 gigabytes of main memory.

Perhaps of most interest is the increase in battery life for all the MacBook Pros. Batteries now last 7 hours, which is 2 hours longer than in the past. It can recharge 1,000 times compared with 300 times for a regular battery.

By Omar L. Gallaga

The blog writer's child expresses delight over some of the first-generation iPhone's tastier features. Omar L. Gallaga

 

Today's All Tech Considered segment is about what happens when the youngest kids get a hold of your cell phone. If you're not careful, it's certainly a recipe for disaster (or at least a lot of sound-muffling slobber).

We included some of the stories from readers we received on Sara Sarasohn's original blog post and a follow-up post here.

Some other tidbits: the Leapfrog toy phone/toddler-safe PDA we mention in the piece is called the Text & Learn.

Here's a video of the Toddler Lock app for Android phones.

This toy laptop from Vtech is the one we got our daughter to keep her off my Macbook. We've had mixed results with that strategy.

Lastly, please make sure to protect your phone from crawfish fryers like these.

By Daniel Jacobson

This sign was seen at the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. mastermaq via Flickr

 

I can't tell you how many times I have been asked, "Did you get my text message?" My answer is always "No, I don't get text messages," which invariably produces an expression of confusion. It is as if I've answered them in Bengali.

You see, I have a strict policy against text messaging. Not because I am against the technology. Rather, I am completely appalled by the money-grabbing techniques of wireless carriers.

There are two underlying assumptions behind a question like "Did you get my text message?" First, it assumes that a phone number is for calling and texting. This assumption also presumes that I am even able to receive text messages (which is not the case). The other is that texting is an intregal method of communication.

Those assumptions are exactly what phone companies depend on.

Continue reading "Please Don't Text Me!" >

By Eyder Peralta

The Mac logo outside San Francisco's Moscone Center. adamjackson1984 via Flickr

 

UPDATE 1:38 PM: So far Apple has announced a 15'' MacBook Pro, a new 13'' one and Snow Leopard, a "refined" operating system with Microsoft Exchange support. ($29 for Leopard users.)

NPR's Joshua Brockman points out that "iPhone purchases are not possible as Apple is 'busy updating the store.' The message says they will be back shortly."

Original Entry:

All eyes are on San Francisco this morning, where Apple is hosting their annual Worldwide Developers Conference. New product announcements are expected and NPR's Laura Sydell will be on hand for the key note speech, which starts at 1 P.M. ET.

We'll keep you up-to-date on the big announcements, but plenty of other places are live-blogging the event: Endgadget, Macworld, AppleInsider and Gizmodo to name a few.

By Wright Bryan

Another step forward in the world of Web browsers took place just the other day. Opera released version 10 (beta) of their eponymous browser. What, you thought all you needed was Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3, Chrome 2 and Safari 4 beta?

No, you need Opera 10b if, for no other reason, only to reassure yourself that you made the right choice when you chose to make one of the above your tool of choice for slogging through the jungle that is the WWW.

I've just given Opera 10b a quick spin and I can say that I am impressed. It looks better than Chrome, my current warhorse, and feels snappy enough to make me think that it could be a contender, if only the field weren't already so crowded.

The obvious innovations are minimal. Opera's strength is its clean presentation and speed. The browser sports "visual tabs" for keeping track of all those sites you're switching between. And the "speed dial" feature offers up a visual list of your favorite sites, just like Safari 4b's "top sites" feature. You can go over to CNET's Download Blog for a more complete look at the release.

The browser's "visual tabs" can be seen across the top of the screen. Screenshot: Wright Bryan/NPR

 

It being beta software, I did run into a couple of rendering problems during casual use. Opera had an intermittent problem handling the revolving Flash billboard on NPR.org's home page. And it totally botched the AJC's home page by repeating a visual element across the board.

Regardless, my first-look verdict is that Opera 10b is worth the download. It's slick software that looks good and seemed to work well in typical use. It's available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems. Give it a try and tell us about your experience with it!

By Eyder Peralta

After a week of game time, Masaki watched a gay couple tie the knot. afterelton.com

 

The release of the role playing game Sims 3 brought a change to interpersonal relationships: Gay couples can now officially marry.

Lyle Masaki at After Elton writes that when the game debuted in 2000, opposite sex couples could marry, while "gay couples could only move in together." The Sims 2 allowed gay couples to be "joined." But now, like in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and Iowa, Sims avatars are allowed to say, "I do."

Masaki sums it up thus:

It may seem like a small step for a game series that has always been LGB-inclusive, but games that treat gay people equally are still pretty rare. Homophobia is still sadly common among video game communities and, worse, some companies' attempts to deal with anti-gay harassment have ended up being even more repressive to queer players.

By Wright Bryan

With the much-rumored iPhone update just around the corner, let's pause for a moment to reconsider the current iPhone 3G. Gus Sentementes over at the new Baltimore Sun's new BaltTech blog has a nice appraisal of the device based on living with it for the last six months. He has lots of interesting observations about the iPhone and its software. But the key verdict comes from someone close to him:

Perhaps the biggest sign of the iPhone's likability: my wife digs it. My wife, who for years has insisted on only wanting a barebones cellphone without a camera, is hooked on my iPhone.

Read his whole post here.

By Eyder Peralta

Most of the Web has been talking about a Harvard study that stated only 10 percent of Twitter users actually Tweet. But, I found the gender findings much more interesting.

The study sampled 300,542 Twitter accounts and found that:

A man follows a lot more men than women (65 percent to 35 percent.)

A woman is more likely to follow a man (56 percent) and is more likely to be followed by a woman (52 percent).

Maybe I'm naïve, but I always thought of the Internet as the great equalizer, a place where the constraints of race and gender in the real world eased a little.

Shireen Mitchell, an active woman in social media and executive director of Digital Sistas, didn't laugh at me when I told her that. But she very pointedly said that yes, the hierarchy, or patriarchy, of the real world transfers to Twitter.

Continue reading "Women Are From Venus, Men Are From The Twitterverse" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

E Ink Corp. showed off a flexible e-book display, just one of the innovations at the Society for Information Display conference in San Antonio this week. Omar L. Gallaga

 

Many companies who'll be involved in the future of the screens you'll be spending time staring at gathered this week in San Antonio for Display Week 2009, a conference put on by the Society for Information Display.

Giants like Samsung, LG Electonics and 3M were among the companies showing about 6,000 attendees their wares. Not surprisingly, millimeters-thin flat screens in large sizes were hot, whether they were LCDs, sets that use LED technology or the nascent OLED format, which offers incredibly rich colors, but so far has only been available in smaller sizes with a very high pricetag.

What else was hot? Sets that use much less power than traditional flat screens. Flexible displays that may end up being part of foldable cell phone screens, e-book "Paper" or even screens so thin they flutter in the wind (as one mind-blowing small screen in the Samsung booth showed). 3-D screens, some without the need for glasses, continue to creep toward our living rooms. I was also impressed by the PicoP projector, a cell-phone sized accessory that uses lasers to project an image that requires no focusing. It should be out this summer.

You can read my full wrap-up over on Digital Savant where I also have posted quite a few photos. I have a video on the way that I plan to edit soon and I'll share that here later this week.

By Andy Carvin

I CAN HAZ NUKULAR PROLIFURASHUN: Now stay in that bag and don't come out! GrooverFW, Flickr

 

On days like this, I bet the Government Printing Office (GPO) wishes it had a giant undo button for the entire Internet - that, or Superman-like abilities to zoom around the earth and turn back time.

A couple of days ago, a blogger at the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News blog noticed that the GPO had posted a document on its Web site called "The List of Sites, Locations, Facilities And Activities Declared To The International Atomic Energy Agency."

Publishing government documents is the GPO's bread and butter, of course. But in this case, there was a problem - the document contained sensitive, not-intended-for-the-public information on literally every nuclear facility in the United States.

Apart from the potential economic benefit the release could have for the makers of Pepto Bismol and Xanax, the error has become a major embarrassment for the feds. While security experts debate the potential impact of the publishing mistake, it serves as yet another opportunity to break out the cliches: The genie is out of the bottle. The cat's out of the bag. You can't stop the signal. Pandora's box and all that. Because when it comes to the Internet, there's no such thing as a retraction. Once it's out there, it's out there, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

Continue reading "Internet To The Government: No, You Can't Have It Back" >

By Laura Sydell

Microsoft has been nervous about Google's growing power for a long time. The software giant hasn't really been able to make a dent in Google's colossal share of the search market. Now, Google is taking on Microsoft where it lives -- in the operating system business. Acer, Elitegroup Computer (ECS), and Asutek plan to introduce new low-cost netbooks that run on Google's operating system Android. The Acer netbooks with Android will be cheaper than the ones that run on Windows, presumably because Acer won't have to lease the operating system from Microsoft.

Google has also been challenging Microsoft with its cloud applications that provide online based document, spreadsheet, and other office applications.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer can't be feeling very happy about all of this. A few years ago he told me that "Google was a nice little company." Balmer explained that he meant that Microsoft had once been a nice little company and then they became the subject of anti-trust law suits. It was shortly after that comment that Microsoft began raising red flags about Google's growing power and pushing for anti-trust suits against the search engine giant.

Microsoft had its own announcement today. It's going to release its new operating system Windows 7 on October 22nd. Hopefully, consumers will be happier with it than they were with Vista, which had many computer users staring cross eyed at their computer screens.

By Krishnadev Calamur

Update: Apparently, reaction the idea of the game, Rendition: Guantanamo, was so severe, that its maker, T-Enterprise, has decided to pull out of the project. The trailer for the project, which was available Tuesday, has been taken offline. Our original posting follows.

The market for the macabre grows even more bizarre. T-Enterprise, a British video game company, is developing a game set in a nice, coastal location. Yes, folks, you guessed it: It's Guantanamo Bay.

Moazzam Begg, a Brit who spent three years at the U.S. detention center after being arrested in Pakistan in 2002, is a consultant on the project. Begg says he was tortured at the facility.

Continue reading "Coming Soon (Not): A Guantanamo Video Game" >

By Ryan Kellett

Wow, when we asked for submissions telling us what your kids do with (or to) technology, you responded in force! Many of you responded via Twitter and many left stories right here on our blog.

We saw a bit of trend in your stories: cell phones + water = gadget death. A surprising number of variations on that theme involved toilets, pet water bowls and kid drool. Still a whole other category involved stories of repeated 911 dialing, hiding tech toys from stressed parents and inserting all sorts of food into drives and slots of all kinds. But not all stories involved destruction or police knocking at the door. Below are some of the standouts:

From The Comments Section:

teacher9000: Media is so very portable for our kids... My four year old daughter often refuses to do her business in the bathroom unless she has the "player" with her. The "player" being my Zen Vision:M that I have loaded with a number of episodes of "Bindi the Jungle Girl". So she sits perched on the toilet watching the exploits of Steve Irwin's daughter. And to think as kids we just had comic books...

badgie: I was watching my 10 month-old nephew one day, and gave him my cellphone to play with. I tried to play "ring, ring" with him, but got no response. When I walked away he "sang" a line from a popular singer, and picked up the phone and said "hewo." The song was his mother's cell phone ringtone!

More From Twitter After The Jump

Continue reading "Kids vs. Tech: Stories Of Adorable Children And Gadgets" >

By Eyder Peralta

Microsoft launched a new hands-free control called Project Natal. The system recognizes a player's face and body, so they can use them to control elements in a game. So it's like Minority Report without the glove or exactly like the investigators control computers on CSI Miami.

But check out the BBC's interview with Steven Spielberg, who was present at the launch. The Minority Report director alludes to the much bigger cultural shift this could mark.

With a system that recognizes your "being," he said, "there's a kind of satisfaction that technology knows who you are. That instantly personalizes the gaming experience. It's no longer us versus them. It's almost like we're working together to give tremendous entertainment value."

Here's Microsoft's video demonstration:

By Sara Sarasohn

See, babies were attracted to technology even back then. But what does your kid do with or to your technology? George Marks/Getty Images

 

The other day my friend Andy told me a story that encapsulates how much little kids love their parents' electronics. When he wants to encourage his 11-month-old baby to crawl, he waves his BlackBerry and his baby will crawl to grab the smart phone.

For children, there's something totally entrancing about little gadgets with little buttons. My preschooler made phone calls to random work contacts on my BlackBerry (which isn't embarrassing at all).

I've heard other stories about kids and cell phones that involve peanut butter, sofa cushions, and large bodies of water.

We want to hear your stories. What do your kids -- or nieces or little neighbors -- do with your BlackBerry or to your iPhone? What's your favorite app you have on your phone for your children?

We will feature some of your stories on the All Tech blog later this week, so subscribe to the RSS feed now so you don't miss anything.

Listen to the All Tech Considered segment on the radio Monday, June 8th, too, for more of your stories when we talk about kids and tech on the show.

By Omar L. Gallaga

Movies for rent on Vudu, a service that uses a $150 set-top box and a high-speed Internet connection to bring you its library of films. Courtesy: Vudu, Inc.