A random sampling of 500 words used to summarize 2009, as submitted to us by Twitter and Facebook users.(Wordle.net)

By Andy Carvin

On this last day of 2009, I asked people on Facebook and Twitter to summarize 2009 in a single word. I received around 5,000 replies in just a few hours. Not surprisingly, the words used were generally more negative than positive, but we did receive quite a range of them nonetheless.

As I often like to do when getting a random sampling of words, I ran them through the tag cloud generator Wordle. You can see the results in the above picture. If you'd like to get a closer look at all the words, check out the full-size image on the Wordle Web site.

Sometimes talking on a cellphone can sound like you're talking into a tin can. (iStockphoto.com)

By Julia Buckley

In its January 2010 issue, Consumer Reports takes a solid look at cell phones and cell phone service. Technicians tested dozens of phones and found something rather surprising: not one of the phones received an excellent or very good rating for voice quality.

"That's right. One area that has not improved one bit is voice quality," senior Electronics Editor Michael Gikas tells NPR's Robert Siegel.

"Apparently it's not high on the priority list of the carriers or phone makers," said Gikas. "Voice quality for them is if you can hear the other person at the other [end] that's a success. So they end up with adequate service."

No matter the phone or the service, voice quality seems to be not all that important these days. According to Consumer Reports, voice quality was not even a huge concern for thousands of readers surveyed by the magazine. Instead, it's all about apps and streaming and surfing the web. It's about checking mail and texting and using GPS. It's about ease of use and battery life and the camera.

In short, it's about revenue streams for the companies.

"If you want anything to do with the web, that's another $30 a month guaranteed. Another $20 a month for unlimited messaging," says Gikas. "They don't get anything for voice quality."

Gikas adds that phones that use the Verizon network sound a little better than the AT&T and T-Mobile network.

I just wish that somewhere in there was a concern for how we sound, since we are talking about phones after all. Sometimes, I just wish we could back to the landline days of the Sprint slogan, "you can hear a pin drop."

By Sam Sanders

Over the weekend, if you lived in New York and wanted to buy an iPhone, you might have needed to head to New Jersey.

Through Monday morning, AT&T had suspended online and over-the-phone sales of the Apple's iPhone in parts of the New York City metro area.

Since the dustup, which resulted in lots of not-so-good press coverage for AT&T, the telcom giant reinstated online and phone sales of the iPhone sometime mid-afternoon Monday.

The Consumerist broke the story yesterday.

During the outage, my personal attempts to purchase an iPhone Monday morning from the 10001 Manhattan zip code were unsuccessful. At AT&T's website, I got this message: "Sorry this Package is not available in your area."

Over the phone, customer service reps gave me different reasons for ATT's New York block on iPhone sales.

One said it was due to cell phone "fraud," another that it was due to overuse of bandwidth and another because there was a shortage of iPhone shipments to the New York area.

The Consumerist's Laura Northrup confirmed others were being told the same things.

Steven Schwadron, an AT&T spokesman, wouldn't elaborate on the outage.

"We periodically modify our promotions and distribution channels. The iPhone is available in our New York retail stores and those of our partners," he wrote in an e-mail.

Continue reading "Mysteriously, AT&T Stops, Then Restarts iPhone Sales In New York" >

By Shereen Meraji

Gil Weinberg, the director of the music technology program at Georgia Tech, spends much of his life researching ways technology can expand musical expression. Weinberg created a robot, Shimon, that plays the marimba and can improvise like Thelonious Monk.

"The whole idea is to use computer algorithms to create music in a way that humans would never create," says Weinberg to All Things Considered's Robert Siegel. "Our motto is: listen like a human, but improvise like a machine."

Siegel spoke with Weinberg about a recent event billed as the first intercontinental musical interaction between humans and a robot. The people were in Japan and Shimon (the robot) was at home in Atlanta, Georgia with its marimba. (Interesting... usually the robots are in Japan.)

Shimon is pretty extraordinary, it does this funky head bob when it registers a musical beat. It's that head bob you're familiar with if you've ever watched a jazz drummer or a DJ spinning a good hip-hop record.

Anyone with access to an iPhone can jam with Shimon, that's all the musicians in Japan were using. And you don't even have to be a musician. Basically, you create a track using the iPhone app, ZOOZbeat, play it for Shimon, Shimon repeats it and then starts gettin' super funky with the marimba.

Watch Shimon get down and let us know if he can jam like a jazz great, or if he has the musical ability of a soulless machine. NPR Music's jazz expert, Patrick Jarenwattananon says, "the answer, of course, is both."

By Eyder Peralta

What happens when a black man sits in front of HP's newest face tracking web cam? It apparently can't "see" him. The camera is supposed to pan and tilt in response to his movement. Yet it remains focused on a single point.

It doesn't seem to have a problem tracking a white face:

HP told Gizmodo this was indeed a problem and they are working on a solution. But meanwhile, it's great to see some people, like the man in the video, are taking the cultural malfunction in stride.

UPDATE: Our friends over at the Two-Way report that under the right conditions, the HP cam works just fine.

By Jessica Alpert

The topic of religion and technology is a big one. In my three-minute piece on All Things Considered, I wasn't really able to give listeners the whole picture but I hope I at least whet your appetite. I thought it might interest listeners to check out some of the websites and apps I mentioned on-air.

A few Sundays ago, I attended Church from my living room couch, coffee in hand. I listened to a worship service that reminded me more of a Dave Matthews concert. At one point, we were asked to raise our hands if this was our first time at Lifechurch. I clicked on the button and saw that fifteen other people had done the same thing. The whole service was infused with these interactive elements.

Then I found Koogle, a "kosher," Hebrew search engine for Orthodox Jews that omits websites Rabbis deem inappropriate. Speaking of search engines, Zabihah helps Muslims locate halal meat around the world and Shamash does the same for Jews trying to keep kosher.

Prayer beads go high tech with the iRosary App for the iPhone.

As I mentioned in the piece, Dave and Jackie Brown were motivated to make the iRosary when their daughter Isabella (who was six at the time) was diagnosed with a vicious form of cancer. They took turns taking care of her; Jackie would stay at the hospital Mondays through Fridays and Dave would take over on the weekends. They prayed a lot.

Continue reading "High-Speed Connection With God" >

By Bill Chappell

Hey, are you tired of the hype around Avatar yet? Me too!

Still, because I wrote about the movie earlier -- or more exactly, about the impact of 3D technology -- I braved a late starting time and a foot of snow to go see the movie at an IMAX 3D theater this weekend.

And how did it go? Well, first of all, my pals and I somehow wound up wearing our 3D glasses in the men's room; hilarity ensued. Oh, and another thing about those glasses -- for a movie that glances toward the 3-hour mark, those things get uncomfortable. And they're kind of heavy. I was left with a red stripe across the bridge of my nose.

Boldly going where no man has gone before: A patron wears his 3D glasses in the hallway of an IMAX theater before viewing Avatar. (Bill Chappell/NPR)

As for the movie, it's beautiful. My reaction, and one I heard over and over, was, "Yep -- that looks like it would cost about a quarter of a billion dollars."

That sort of sums it up: It's an expensive, impressive spectacle. The 3D vantage was crazy-good so often that it really did feel like The Future you're seeing up there on the screen. And that made something else jump out at me: how the music and score failed to be similarly modern and forward-thinking.

The score was full of stock action/adventure dreck, with soaring strings and questing horns that could have been lifted from any movie of the past 10 years. Throw in a village-festival scene, whose thumping drums and Irish flutes evoked an Ewok throwdown, and you have a recipe for aural unease.

So, those are the aesthetics: freakish visuals, weakish audio. Now for the more tech-y aspects of the plot itself.

Continue reading "Tripping Toward The Future: 'Avatar' Amazes, Confounds" >

Amazon mistakenly leaks Lil Wayne's new album. (Ben Rose/PictureGroup via AP IMAGES)

By Sam Sanders

Remember waiting for your favorite album to come out? You know, patiently anticipating the release as the first single played over and over on your favorite radio station. Or going to Sam Goody on a Tuesday morning for that new CD, or cassette, (or eight-track)?

Well, it seems those days are over. And the recent woes of America's biggest rapper, Lil Wayne, are proof.

Wayne's last album, Tha Carter III, was the biggest selling album of 2008.

So, clearly, anticipation for his next disc, a rock-infused romp entitled Rebirth, has been high.

But, early singles, like "Prom Queen", never really caught on, and in my opinion, they sucked...

In spite of this, scores of fans still pre-ordered Rebirth ahead of the January 2010 release date.

But this past Monday, about 500 Wayne fans who pre-ordered the disc on Amazon.com got an early Christmahanakwanzika present -- a copy of Rebirth, in their mailboxes.

This was NOT supposed to happen.

And as you can already guess, as soon as the album hit mailboxes, it hit the Net. Within hours, the entire album was leaked online. So much for that whole 'album release day' idea.

As a result, Wayne's headed back to the studio to entirely reconfigure the new disc. Some tracks are being cut, some are being added -- he's doing any and everything to make sure people actually have a reason to legally buy Rebirth when it hits shelves.

Besides making us all wonder just how much Amazon should be forced to pay Lil Wayne and his crew for perhaps the biggest musical screw-up since Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers at last year's Grammys -- the Rebirth saga should make us all question the actual point of album release dates.

The last big rap album event, Jay-Z's Blueprint III, actually hit online streaming sites like Rhapsody an entire week before the CDs hit shelves -- and that was on purpose.

And if you dug hard enough, you could find all of Rihanna's Rated R online before its official release date last month. Leaking is NOT just a rap problem...

We've all been hearing about the death of the CD, but the foolishness of this past week really puts it in perspective. The relationship between record companies and distributors like Amazon, iTunes, and traditional record stores is dysfunctional, if not entirely acrimonious.

And the future of the entire industry seems in flux. But if anyone can make it, I suppose Weezy can. On the uber-smash "A Milli," from Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne said of himself,

"My name ain't BIC, but I keep that flame..."

Well, we're trusting you Lil' Wayne. Don't let Amazon hold you down. Keep the fire burning.

It's easier than you think to tap into the video feeds of military drones.(AP Photo/Lt. Col.. Leslie Pratt, US Air Force)

By Randy Lilleston

'INSURGENTS HACK U.S. DRONES,' is the holy-cow headline over the Wall Street Journal's online story of earlier this week. By now, you probably know the tale behind that headline: Senior officials told the Journal that Iranian-backed insurgents were using off-the-shelf software to pull down live video feeds from Predator drone aircraft. Those feeds, in turn, could be used to help hide the very people and/or equipment the drones were designed to find.

"Hack" is a really strong word to use in this scenario. How do you "hack" a signal that's floating out in the atmosphere, unencrypted? Also, the word "hack" indicates you may have gained a level of control, and there's no reported evidence that insurgents have found a way to take over a Predator (a really scary concept, considering that many of these drones are armed). Second, and incredibly, this video was not encrypted -- meaning the U.S. military had a lower level of security for this valuable video than you probably have for your wireless home network.

Finally, if you're using over-the-counter software to pull down unencrypted satellite video that's floating out there in the atmosphere, are you hacking something? Is listening to a police scanner "hacking?" Is shortwave radio listening (a Back In The Day sort of hobby) "hacking?"

The technology behind all of this is simple, really. You, too, can grab a piece of cheap software, a PC and the right satellite antenna and you're ready to start scanning the horizon. The software just pulls in and records the data that it finds via the satellite antenna, and then you can go through that data at your leisure -- be it a television program, an audio stream or something a bit more nefarious.

Encryption is one solution to that problem, of course -- a lesson that cable TV providers learned a long time ago when they tired of having their signals lifted by non-subscribers. Yes, any encryption conceivably can be hacked -- but that's hacking in the truest sense of the word, and there's not a lot of doubt about what's going on at that point.

The Journal article specifically mentions SkyGrabber, a cheap piece of shareware that purports to intercept satellite data (not just video -- all data that moves by satellite) and save it to your hard drive. "So, you'll get new movie, best music and funny pictures for free," the English page (SkyGrabber appears to be of Russian origin) tells the world.

The same site also sells LanGrabber, one of many network sniffers that anyone can buy. Again, it patiently grabs and records data -- this time, from a local area network that a computer finds. Again, unencrypted data is vulnerable to such efforts, and encrypted data is essentially useless gibberish. And again, it's easy and cheap.

In the end, the lesson from the drone story probably isn't that insurgents are highly skilled computer hackers. It's that, in an era when these tools are cheaply available and easy to use, the military shouldn't have been so careless.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, an action/adventure game from Sony, was among the best video games of the year. (Image courtesy Sony Computer Entertainment of America Inc.)

By Omar L. Gallaga

It would be impossible to play every great new video game that hit stores in 2009, but of the games I had a chance to play, Sony's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for the PlayStation 3 was easily my video game of the year. Maybe it was the globe-trotting hero or the lush locales or simply the scale of the game, which blended Hollywood-style cinematics with solid gameplay, but it won me over on every level. It was the only game this year that made my jaw drop within the first few minutes of play and kept surprising me throughout. Maybe it could have been a few hours shorter, but it showed what a huge game budget can deliver. You can read my full review here.

My number two game of the year was The Beatles: Rock Band, which revitalized what looked to be a guitar-game genre winding down. It reminded many of us why The Beatles' music was so relevant and did so with its own sense of style, creating a new kind of mass-market art. It will likely prove to be the pinnacle of plastic-instrument gaming.

Next to "Uncharted 2," one of the only other games I took the time to play all the way to the end this year was the delightful Plants vs. Zombies," which is as adorable as it is addictive. It's cartoony and cute, but beneath that there's a solid and fun defense game. It's my number three game of the year.

Honorable mentions? "Modern Warfare 2," for me, didn't live up to the hype, but then there's no way it could have. Nevertheless, it's big and audacious and contains stunning level design in its single-player campaign. Batman: Arkham Asylum was a great surprise: it told a great story with fantastic voice acting and a good combination of gameplay elements that made it extremely satisfying. And Nintendo's Wii Sports Resort was a great summer diversion. It wasn't perfect, but its better mini-games were pure fun, the likes of which you don't get from a lot of the mega-budget video games on shelves.

What were your favorite video games this year? Post your top three (or more) in the comments.

According to Facebook, Latino members have jumped from 3 to 9% in the last five years.(iStockphoto.com)

By Shereen Marisol Meraji

Facebook took a look at its demographics and, well, surprise, suprise -- it's not as White and Asian as it once was.

FB researchers checked surnames of 150,000 facebook users against US Census data and found that 11% of their members are African American and 9%, Latino. Interesting way to do it, considering they have access to our photos!

Latino membership has to grow in order to match their -- well, let me be transparent here -- OUR share of the overall U.S. population -- 15%. I'm one of facebooks brown users.

Facebook says they didn't conduct the study for business purposes. But, you can't deny the power in targeting ads based on race and ethnicity.

If I log on to FB and see an ad for Concha Nacar -- we're in scary territory.

By Bill Chappell

Hollywood is impatiently waiting for 3D technology to change the way we see entertainment -- everything from feature films to concert movies to television. Many people think that when James Cameron's Avatar hits theaters, the watershed moment will have arrived.

Fans watch an Avatar presentation at Comic-Con 2009. No word yet on whether a pizza is included with every pair of glasses. (John Shearer/Getty Images)

And 20th Century Fox, which is releasing the film, is doing everything it can to make it a huge success. Word just came out that Avatar is opening in a record 178 IMAX theaters in America on Dec. 18.

Still, Cameron has to be hoping his movie does better than the 3D experiment conducted Sunday night by another American icon: Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys. The mammoth HD monitor at Texas Stadium was devoted to 3D visuals, and fans were given special HDlogix glasses to enjoy the spectacle.

I know what you're thinking, and you're right -- it is indeed silly to make people who are at a live event view that live event on a Jumbotron. Especially if they have to take the 3D glasses off to clearly see the game.

The crowd booed, and stadium officials called the whole thing off after just seven minutes -- but not before CBS, which was broadcasting the game, gave its announcers a chance to tout the effect -- something that was hard to do when the TV images just looked like the lame red-blue-and-blurry 3D junk you might've seen in the previous century.

As for Cameron's Avatar, we shall see -- literally. Personally, I find it hard to believe the colors will be as vivid -- and images as sharp -- if I'm viewing them through a polarized screen instead of seeing them on a (newly affordable) HD TV set at home.

Throw in all the difficulties of distance and perspective within the theaters themselves, and I'd bet only a select portion of any audience -- those in the middle of the theater, and from the middle to the rear -- will find the experience worth the extra cost. Especially, to indulge a cliche, "in these economic times."

[Side note: for anyone who wants to know how the new 3D tech works, there's a pretty nice Science Channel recap of it on YouTube.]

I'm aware that this could just be a reflexive, closed-minded belief that Hollywood is as lame as it is money-laden, but I will be truly surprised if this kind of 3D experience is a game-changer. If your path to success is paved with uncomfortable glasses that always seem to spark claims that they induce headaches or nausea, forgive me for staying off your bandwagon.

But, on the other hand, if you intend to consult visionary smarty-pants like Johnny Chung Lee -- who hacked a Wii to turn any HD set into a freakily awesome 3D system -- then you might just be onto something.

Lee's targets-floating-in-space demo was a sensation on YouTube, and blew away a TED audience. So, there's promise in 3D. But the problem lies in translating that cool, single-perspective stereo vision to a horde of people in a megaplex theater.

And that's exactly what the folks who make flat-screen TVs are betting on. 3D televisions from Samsung, LG, Sony and others are on the way. A Sony exec even thinks that 3D sets might account for half of all HDTV sales within 4 years.

But that's a long way off -- for now, will I go see Avatar in a theater? Probably. But I don't expect Americans' taste in entertainment -- or the allure of leg-room, free popcorn and a Pause button -- to change because of it.

While total retail sales may still be down, online shopping is expected to rebound for 2009. (Clipart.com)

By Omar L. Gallaga

On this week's All Tech Considered, we talk tips for holiday online shopping, what's high on people's consumer electronics wish lists and touch on safe Web transactions. Hot this year? E-book readers, HDTVs and devices to connect to them and smart phones. Cooling off from last year? Digital picture frames and GPS units, which have an uncertain future in the age of built-in GPS features on smartphones.

Here's more info related to the segment:

• I wrote three (three!) holiday tech gift guides this year, one for the Austin American-Statesman, one featuring pop culture-related gifts for Television Without Pity and a third, published Saturday in the Statesman, on video games. I also spoke on the subject on At Issue With Ben Merens and on Age of Lasers: Episode 005 with David T. Cole (warning: contains NSFW language) if you want to hear a few longer conversations on the topic.
• Scott Steinberg, a video blog host and writer, offered up some advice to me for this segment. You can check out another gift guide on his site, Digital Trends.
• We talked briefly about the Google phone, called the Nexus One. You can hear more about all the rumors and news on The Two-Way.
• Holiday online sales have already hit $19.9 billion and today could be the most profitable online shopping day of the year, according to ComScore.
• Some online shopping tips from the Better Business Bureau.
• Two hot shopping trends this year, according to Google? Marshmallow Shooter, Ultimate Ears and Snuggie.

2009's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was the world's largest technology-themed trade show. (Image courtesy CEA)

By Omar L. Gallaga

A few nights ago, I had a chance to catch up with some of the organizers of the Consumer Electronics Show, the gargantuan trade expo held January in Las Vegas where many of the world's largest tech companies unveil their latest gadgets. It's expected to attract about 110,000 attendees this year and to represent about 2,500 tech exhibitors.

I won't be able to attend the event, which runs Jan. 7-10, due to an impending birth in the family, so I wanted to get a sneak peek at what will be hot at the expo. Last year, some of the hottest products included the Palm Pre smartphone (which debuted in the summer and hasn't quite set the world ablaze since) and connected HDTVs that can stream video from the Internet without a set-top box. (They exist in the marketplace, but are expensive and haven't hit the mainstream yet.)

For 2010's show, reps from the Consumer Electronics Association told me a great deal of floor space will be devoted to 3-D TVs, with the holy grail being TVs that can display in 3-D without clunky glasses. This will be a closely watched category at CES, especially if James Cameron's Avatar, the most expensive film ever made, becomes a big box office hit over the holidays. Nobody expects the 3-D experience to his consumer TV sets anytime soon, but analysts predicts it will become common in homes eventually, replacing regular HDTVs.

Based on floor space reserved at CES, e-books will have a major presence at the show as products like the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook continue to attract new buyers. And of course, companies like Palm will be back to try to capture lightning in a bottle again after last year's big show.

Other trends? Apps on smartphones will continue to be huge, but we'll also see app stores open up for other platforms. Green electronics will have a big presence at the show. Two big spaces, the iLounge Pavilion and the Living in Digital Times area, will focus on all things iPod/iPhone/Mac-related and on tech for specific lifestyles.

More predictions for CES 2010? Here's a few from CEA's Research Director and Economist Shawn DuBravac.

By Laura Sydell

A couple of months ago, NPR handed out iPhone 3G S's to a few of us for a test spin. I was really excited. I have tried various tester versions of the iPhone at Apple press events and I do own an iPod touch. But, I didn't have an iPhone of my very own. I was relegated to the much less sexy standard NPR Blackberry Curve.

I had iPhone envy. Whenever I looked around me and saw fingers quietly tapping the clear glass touch screen and opening apps that did everything from stream music to check heart rates while listening to punk rock, I felt like a poor kid looking through a toy store window. And iPhone users are never lost because their phone has a great GPS system! The iPhone is so sleek, shiny, and cool. Without one, I was so not cool.

But, after two months of using the iPhone, I have to confess that I was somewhat relieved to go back to my Blackberry Curve. The AT&T service is terrible. I had to make phone calls from a chair near my window instead of comfortably lying in bed because the reception kept cutting out. Even when the reception was fine the voice quality in the ear piece was mediocre. "What?" became a much more common word during telephone calls.

Then, there's the battery. If you are lucky you'll get eight hours out of it. I'd have to delay phone calls if I didn't go home after work and recharge because by the middle of the evening my iPhone was dead.

The virtual keyboard is a real pain in the neck. I started to get used to it. It certainly got easier to use over time. But, I still can't type as quickly or accurately on the iPhone as I can on my Blackberry. And you can't type at all while wearing winter gloves!

I can't deny that the iPhone is revolutionizing mobile devices. For entertainment on the go there is nothing better. It is the big kid on the mobile tech block that everyone aspires to be like. I know that when the AT&T contract is over, Apple is likely to hook up with a better service like Verizon. But, I hope that Apple can learn a few things from the much less groovy Blackberry.

By Chris Benderev

X and Y no longer appear to be the only factors that determine gender. In fact, according to a study released Thursday in the journal Cell, it looks like your sex isn't even something set at birth.

"It was thought that you were born either female or male and then your body forgot about it," Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge told The Telegraph. Lovell-Badge was a co-author of the study and is a researcher at Britain's Medical Research Council's National Institute of Medical Research.

The scientists involved in the study had noticed a gene not found on either the X or Y chromosomes, known as FoxL2, kept showing up in findings related to gender. In this experiment they decided to shut it down.

When FoxL2 was out of the picture, cells in the ovaries in female mice began to change into testicular cells. Further research showed FoxL2 suppresses the expression of another gene, Sox9, which promotes the production of testes. The researchers say although the experiment worked with mice, the findings could be applicable to humans.

So it seems for females, a functional FoxL2 is needed to tamp down Sox9, to keep from becoming male. This contradicts the long-held biological belief that female is the default setting and males emerge by suppressing this tendency.

The findings of this study could have implications for reproductive medicine, including sexual differentiation disorders, where people develop as a sex contrary to their sex chromosomes. It could also help scientists understand post-menopausal changes in women.

Visual Information: Goggles at work, in a screenshot from Google's mobile Web site. (Google)

By Bill Chappell

If you're out walking around and see something new and interesting -- but kind of hard to figure out -- do you take a moment to phrase a Boolean-friendly query to unleash on passersby?

Of course you don't. You just point and say, "What's that?"

The trouble is, sometimes nobody knows. Well, now you can ask Google.

The company's new Google Goggles service lets you send it a pic from your cameraphone. The photo is then analyzed and turned into a search query, and you're given links that might explain that new/weird thing you're staring at. Since this is Google we're talking about, all that probably takes about a half-second to happen.

Here's the freaky part: Goggles was designed to be so smart, and so sensitive, that it could work on people -- like, a photo of you might bring back a link to your blog, or your Wikipedia entry, if you should be so fortunate.

If that sounds like a great tool for stalkers and privacy invaders in general, Google agrees -- or at least it does now. At the Le Web conference, company reps said this week that they need to get a better handle on "the implications of the facial recognition tool."

But even if Google won't provide those results to the public, there are likely to be some doubts about whether it compiles them for its own (need I say mysterious?) purposes. The other thing conspiracists should look out for: The service will remember your image searches for the past 6 months.

My main problem with it -- other than my total failure to come up with a funny riff on Google Goggles vs. Beer Goggles -- is that right now, the service is only available for Android phones.

The company says more versions are on the way. And oh boy, you can just imagine all the fun all those iPhoners are going to have when they can satisfy their curiosity... which, as you may know, is insatiable.

Goggles also has a photo-sharing component, letting you send images to Facebook and Picasa. It'll be interesting to see if they let you send stuff to Flickr -- I won't hold my breath on that one.

For some, the internet is the worst place for parenting advice. (minxlj / via flickr)

Dear Eyder,

I think that your baby girl is so cute! Five months old is such a perfect age. Here is the only parenting advice you need: stay off the Internet. The message boards are chock full of crazy people who will give you nutball competing advice, especially about sleep training, dangerous toys, and nursing.

Yours in sleep deprivation,

Sara

Dear Sara,

OK, OK. But isn't modern parenting all about knowing way more than you must? The Internet, for one, told me there is nothing to worry about if my dear child's poop is green. White means hospital, but green means perfectly happy stomach.

The pediatrician always seems dismissive and at least on the net, I can find other crazies that make my worries seem valid.

Plus, if there is one thing I've learned as a new parent is that everyone in the world (real or virtual) seems to give you advice about raising your monkey. An example: Cynthia, my wife, and I went to the supermarket to get Kalila some formula. As soon as the cashier scanned the first can, she looked at Cynthia and said, "20 dollars! Aren't you breastfeeding your kid?"

Feeling your over-advised pain,

Eyder

Continue reading "The Only Parenting Advice You Need: Stay Off The Internet" >

By Meg Biallas

Facebook has again broadened the reach of its community, this time by making some user content freely available to "everyone" on the Internet. The social network announced the changes December 1 in an open letter.

Users have control over what data is publicly searchable, though Facebook provides them with recommended "public" settings. Reactions to the changes have not been all sunshine and light.

Here's Facebook's definition of what "everyone" means:

Information set to 'everyone' is publicly available information, may be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), is subject to indexing by third party search engines, may be associated with you outside of Facebook (such as when you visit other sites on the internet), and may be imported and exported by us and others without privacy limitations. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to "everyone." You can review and change the default settings in your privacy settings. If you delete "everyone" content that you posted on Facebook, we will remove it from your Facebook profile, but have no control over its use outside of Facebook.

Essentially, Facebook has simplified privacy settings that allow users to customize who sees personal content. This is broken down by each category of the profile (About Me, Photo Albums, etc.) To update privacy settings, users first visit the new Privacy Center, which gives in-depth explanations of how to manage the settings. The next section allows users to customize who can view your account and what part they can see. The customization is so specific that, for example, I could customize my political settings to be private to most, but reveal my affiliation to appropriate people who might hire me in a politically-slanted job. The final step includes a confirmation, with a link to learn more about privacy settings. An explanation from The Facebook Blog even includes a how-to video.

But with a social network that started out as a "walled garden," will the Facebook community revolt?

Continue reading "Facebook Opens Up With New User-Privacy Settings" >

By Andy Carvin

Ever since the iPhone 3GS rolled out this summer with video recording capability, I've wondered how long it would take for a video streaming app to hit the App Store. Video streaming isn't completely alien to the iPhone -- Qik has had an app for jailbroken iPhones for some time now -- but no one had successfully gotten a full-blown streaming app past Apple's App Store gatekeepers. All of that changed yesterday with Ustream's rollout of their Live Broadcaster app for the iPhone. With this free app, any iPhone 3GS can record and stream live video to the Web.

As far as apps go, it's fairly straightforward. You give it your login info for an existing Ustream account, or create a new one. It then activates the iPhone's camera, with a big green "Go Live" button on the bottom right of the screen. Click the button, and whammo -- you're streaming video directly to your Ustream account. You can also set it up to send a tweet that you're broadcasting live. When you're done streaming, you can upload a copy of the video to Youtube or Facebook.

Yesterday, Eyder Peralta and I both downloaded the app and spent some time playing with it before deciding to stream a video showing how it works. Here's a copy of that video.

Some observations about the experience:

Continue reading "Ustream Launches Video Streaming iPhone App" >

Wasteland: Consumer advocates say appliances break down more frequently than cameras and camcorders. (iStockphoto.com)

By Julia Buckley

Why is it that when we shell out big bucks for state-of-the art products we get lured into agreeing to a multi-hundred-dollar service agreements? Buy an Apple product online and a suggested $300 protection plan also appears in your basket.

It's a point of contention for me right now, because I have to shell out loads of cash to replace a broken computer. So on the new one, do I buy the plan or not? My appliances go on the fritz often and they are a mere four years old. I have shelled out more than I wanted for product insurance, but what gives?

Is the extra 300 bucks -- in product insurance -- worth the peace of mind?

In a recent New York Times article the pros and cons of "Warranty Psychology" are debated.

Turns out washers, dryers and refrigerators break down more frequently than cameras, camcorders and laptops. The article says most consumer advocates advise passing up on all the warranties.

Just before Thanksgiving, Consumer Reports warned consumers against purchasing extended service plans.

CNET has posted its warning too. In fact, CNET states a warranty is rarely a good idea:

Laptops need service about 43 percent of the time after 3 or 4 years, desktops 31 percent, while camcorders and digital cameras very rarely, about 13 percent and 10 percent of the time, respectively. Three to four years is also a really long time when it comes to technology now. And as the cost of laptops and desktops, for example, continue to decline, sometimes the cost of replacing the device isn't that much more than getting it repaired.

N.E.W. Customer Service Companies is a leading provider of these service agreements -- claiming to provide coverage to some 150 million consumers. N.E.W. wants to set the record straight. In their Savvy Shopper blog Jamie Breneman, N.E.W.'s marketing director, writes:

There are many benefits of protection that often go untold and even more myths that continue to be repeated throughout the media that are simply untrue. ...

In today's portable environment, consumers who own products such as MP3 players, laptop computers, cell phones and digital cameras really benefit from this type of coverage. Additionally, service plans give the consumer an added level of protection through a 'no lemon' clause, which replaces products that require multiple repairs for the same failure.

I decided to pass on the extended warranty for my new laptop. But whether "for" or "against," there's a question that still nags me: Doesn't it really come down to the fact that our purchases just don't seem to last as long? What ever happened to the idea that a company stands behind its product?

By Sara Sarasohn

Here's yet another example of the tradeoffs of the "cloud." I use Gmail and Google Docs and other kinds of Web applications. My data is stored on their servers and I have no guaranteed access to it. It's convenient - but I know it's also dangerous.

For instance, I saw on Slashdot just the other day a post about MySpace buying imeem, a social networking site very focused on music. If you go to imeem now, you are sent to a MySpace redirect page. It says:

Where's my imeem profile/playlist? MySpace is working to migrate your imeem playlist to MySpace Music. We'll email you about that once we have more details.

... because if you really loved and used your imeem playlist it's gone for now - and there is no guarantee that you will ever get it back. If imeem was the way you kept track of music you felt strongly about, it might be lost to you forever. There's no obvious way of breaching the mile-high wall of MySpace to demand your imeem information back. You just have to wait patiently for Rupert Murdoch's underlings to open a door for you, or not.

Periodically I do copy all my stuff on Google Docs onto my own computer because I am paranoid about relying on Google to be nice about allowing me to use its server space. I see on monkey_bites that Google Docs is adding a feature that will allow you to export all your documents as a .zip file.

I don't download as often as I should, and maybe this will help. Still, I can feel, deep down in my inner procrastinator, that the day is going to come when I stop bothering. Heaven help me if I type docs.google.com into a browser one day and get a redirect page like that one the imeem people are seeing right now.

By Avie Schneider

Announcements of new Google products and initiatives pop out about as often as word of layoffs in the newspaper industry -- that is, just about every day.

The search giant has been in a battle with some in that dying industry, including media titan Rupert Murdoch (whose print holdings include The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and the New York Post), about paying for content that is linked from Google News.

Earlier this month, in an effort to address some of those concerns, Google said it would make it easier for publishers to limit the number of free clicks to stories linked from Google News, or to block their content from the news aggregator altogether.

Google insists it's on the news industry's side.

On that front, Google's latest gee-whiz announcement could represent the shape of things to come (but then, don't they all...). Google has collaborated with The Washington Post and The New York Times on a "living stories" project. The idea is to present ongoing stories in layers of depth while moving away from the traditional inverted pyramid, with the latest news first, followed by information of lesser importance. The new approach allows readers to dive quickly and directly into an aspect of the story that may either be new (or at least new to them).

Continue reading "Reinventing The Printing Press? Not Quite" >

By Omar L. Gallaga

Developed by Heatwave Interactive, the "iSamJackson" iPhone/iPod Touch app is due out in a few months. (Courtesy of Heatwave Interactive)

With more than 100,000 applications in Apple's App Store alone, you couldn't be blamed if you had a little bit of app fatigue. Isn't it enough already?

I was thinking the same thing, until this morning I found out that a new app due out in a few months allows you to hold the awesome vocal power of actor Samuel L. Jackson in your hand.

The "iSamJackson" app, developed by Austin's Heatwave Interactive, promises to give you a portable version of the Pulp Fiction star to carry around on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The app will include original recordings, "Humorous adages and sage advice," as well as a personality scanner and a soundboard, presumably for the prank-call inclined. No word yet on what it will cost.

If you've ever been cut off in line at the post office, or had to deal with a clueless customer support rep, you can probably imagine instances where an app that allows you to confront people with a virtual Samuel L. Jackson by your side might be extremely useful.

The only thing I could think of that might be more disarming is busting out the "I Am T-Pain" Auto-Tune app.

While it will be available to anyone who wants to buy it, some of us might wonder whether we're responsible enough to be trusted with the potentially dangerous weapon that is Samuel L. Jackson's set of vocal cords.

I'll let the man answer that himself: "YES, YOU DESERVE THIS APP AND I HOPE YOU USE IT WELL!"

By Eyder Peralta

Over the past year, a few countries, including the United States and the members of the European Union, have met and discussed the issues and laws that surround intellectual property on the Internet.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks have sparked concern among some observers because of their secrecy. Advocacy organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, say that an agreement like the ACTA draft could unleash new, scary regulations on Internet use.

Dr. Michael Geist is a law professor at the University of Ottawa where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law. (Courtesy of Michael Geist)

One proposed policy, known as the three-strikes rule asks internet service providers to cut service to users alleged to have violated copyright laws.

Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, specializes in Internet and e-commerce law. He's kept up with the ACTA talks.

It's a huge topic, one we hope to get into more deeply in the coming weeks. To start, we've thrown some big-picture questions at Geist.

I've read a bit about the ACTA and it seems convoluted. Can you give us a quick digest of what is going on?

In October 2007, several countries, including the U.S., European Union, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, and New Zealand, announced plans to negotiate [the] ACTA. Talks began in June 2008 in Geneva. There were four meetings in 2008 and two in 2009.

While the treaty has been subject to a remarkable amount of secrecy, details have regularly leaked out. Earlier leaks focused on border measures as well as criminal and civil enforcement issues. These raised legal issues such as statutory damages, anti-camcording legislation, and new customs powers. Most recently, the Internet provisions discussed at the Korea round of talks earlier this month leaked out. That leak has sparked a global outcry as they raise serious concerns about the direction of ACTA.

You reference the secrecy of the meetings, what's the deal with that?

It is difficult to explain the level of secrecy associated with [the] ACTA. In Freedom of Information Act requests, the U.S. government has literally denied access to some documents on national security grounds. While ACTA supporters argue that this is not unusual for a trade negotiation, the reality is that it is highly unusual for what ACTA really is - a global intellectual property agreement.

In the leaked documents, there's a reference to a three-srikes rule. What is it?

The three-strikes rule - which goes by different names in different places (notice-and-termination, graduated response, HADOPI, three-strikes) - refers to a system that could result in users being disconnected from the Internet for one year based solely on three allegations of infringement. The system envisions sending notices to ISPs alleging infringing activity by a subscriber. Should an ISP receive three notices about a single subscriber, they would be required to cut-off access for the subscriber for a year.

Do we know what is considered an infraction? Trading MP3s? Movies?

Any copyright infringement -- downloading music and movies would qualify.

Continue reading "ACTA: Government Talks Contemplate Internet-User Sanctions" >

By Laura Sydell

I had it confirmed through my sources last night and now The New York Times is reporting that Apple is buying Lala.com. This could be great news for music lovers.

Lala is a four-year-old company based in Palo Alto that lets users upload their music collections into the cloud and access them from anywhere on any Internet connected device. The first time I tried it, I loved it. Lala was able to connect with my iTunes library and upload my entire collection to the cloud. That meant I could hear it from any Internet-connected device that had access to Lala. For 10 cents Lala also lets users acquire a song that they can stream from any device with Lala and for between 79 and 89 cents a piece fans can download a song and own it on their hard drives.

Lala has been popular but not profitable. One of the investors in the company is Warner Music, which has lost about $9 million on its $20-million investment. However, many analysts believe the problem is that consumers were afraid of entrusting their music to a service that might go out of business. This won't be a problem if Apple owns it.

But, what will Apple do with Lala? Apple is purchasing some great software for streaming music from the web. This might mean a future where you could stream music on your iPhone or any other connected device and not actually have to download it onto a hard drive with limited space.

The Apple acquisition could also change Lala and from the perspective of music fans it might not be for the better. Apple could try and limit the service in some way so that you can't just upload all your CD's to the cloud and access them from anywhere.

I spoke with someone yesterday at Apple who implied that the company didn't actually think that owning music was that important to consumers. It made me worry that Apple will transform Lala into a streaming service with a monthly fee like Rhapsody or Napster. But, I'm hopeful that Apple will see that a lot of consumers want to have their music on their own hard drives and own it themselves, not rent it.

The art of saying what you mean: logo for the fansub site Dattebayo.

By Bill Chappell

If the Internet is one huge village, then I feel compelled to find the neighborhood that speaks to me -- even if some people there say things like, "What the hell are you looking at? Mind your own damn business!"

Need an example? Try this on for size:

Greeting, loyal minions.
Anyone inquiring about the movies via our contact form will, of course, be banned, usually by our automated idiot-removal system.

That's from one of the Web's best places to go to be put in your place: Dattebayo. It's a "fansub" site -- that is, they translate a handful of Japanese anime shows into English, and post torrent links. They also brook no BS.

Here, for instance, is their response to anyone wondering if the popular show Narutois licensed:

Yes, it is. As of February 19, 2005. Now you heard it. If you ask this question in the channel, the contact page, or anywhere else we can track you down, you will be BANNED immediately.

As I said, powerful stuff. But I'm mainly interested in Bleach, the show about an orange-haired student who travels between the real world and the spirit world to vanquish violent murderers and nasty monsters. (What can I say? It was a long winter.)

Looking at different streaming sites, I noticed that the Dattebayo versions were better.

For starters, their subtitling style is the best I've found -- it's a lively mix of street slang and made-up words that feel true to the show's vibe. Dattebayo's subtitled episodes go up within 20 hours of airing on Japanese TV and their HD movies are absolutely beautiful.

Like a bike shop run by mechanics, Dattebayo doesn't give a tinker's damn about being everything to everybody. Instead, these guys try extremely hard to please a very small group and to please the living heck out of them.

Just don't write in to ask them when something will be going up. That's enough to get you either: a) warned; b) banned; or c) your IP address printed on a wall of shame.

Here's an excerpt of their so-ornery-it's-comical FAQ page:

Where can I donate? I don't see a donation button.

You can't. DB doesn't accept donations.

How do I register/become a member?

You can't do that either. The downloads are available for free and no registration is required.

Can I help serve/seed/provide a bot?

Do whatever you want, as long as it doesn't involve spam in the channel or bother operators. Also, asking the ops if "you can seed" will likely get you banned. You don't need our permission to seed. Download the torrent and have at it. If it takes you more than few hours to download our releases, your "seeding" ability is probably not worth wasting our valuable time on.

In any service industry, your freedom to cop an attitude is directly related to your ability to deliver great product. I'd say the Dattebayo team is doing both.

Now I'm wondering: Does anybody else know a site or two that can hang with these guys in terms of sheer non-suffering of fools?

Since the dawn of time, it seems, mankind has been tempted by upgrades. Especially ones involving Apple. (clipart.com)

By Omar L. Gallaga

We tried to do our part for the retail industrial complex on Black Friday, really we did. But, in the end, practicality won out.

Stupid practicality!

For several months, my wife and I have been keeping an eye on prices of 13" MacBook Pros. I use a white MacBook that's several years old and my wife has a hand-me-down iBook G4 that has a dead battery and feels heavier, clunkier and slower as the months pass. To use it, she has to keep it plugged in constantly, as if it were a misbehaving Rottweiler on a short leash.

On Friday, it seemed the deals on the model we were looking at were as good as they're going to get. Apple discounted its entire product Mac line of products for the day and other Mac dealers had even deeper discounts (after mail-in rebates, which are not ideal, but do reward the extremely patient. We're pretty patient). A chart from Apple Insider that contained all the pricing information was temptation itself. We looked at the chart. We thought about it.

And we didn't buy.

My wife is due with our second child later this month. I find myself using my own laptop less and less as I use my smart phone around the house more and more. And, while an aluminum-bodied MacBook Pro would be a nice step up for me, I couldn't justify spending more than $1,500 (I always add on the 3-year Apple Care warranty) right now on a computer that we really don't need.

We decided instead to wait it out a while longer, perhaps until next summer. My wife will use my MacBook more often instead of relying on the older, slower iBook.

As an early adopter and someone who covers tech, I'm used to getting my hands on the latest devices. The Black Friday Mac deals were a gut check, but I'm glad we didn't pull the trigger.

It's not always easy to separate want from need when it comes to the powerful, supernatural pull of Apple's marketing machine. But for us, right now, I think we made the right non-upgrade.

By Omar L. Gallaga

Addendum to our recent segment about the damage staying glued to your smart phone can do to your relationships: how does Tweeting from a wedding altar strike you?

Now, I annoy my wife regularly with my iPhone use, but even I wasn't crazy enough to pull that off when I got married.

I'll be even more impressed when we see the inevitable video of a couple updating their Facebook status while dancing to Chris Brown's Forever.

(Hat tip to the Sling Blog, where I first saw this.)

By Andy Carvin

Yesterday afternoon I got a tweet from someone named @AlyssaCappen that I found rather puzzling:

AlyssaCappen: @acarvin here's a 'schmap' for the party: http://schmap.it/knYS73?a (made at www.schmap.it = share places and events on Twitter)

For those of you not familiar with Schmap, it's a tool that tries to make it easier to share a customized map with friends over Twitter. But I was absolutely confused about the purpose of this particular tweet. What party was she talking about? Was there a party associated with this week's FTC event on the future of journalism? Was it for some NPR staff holiday party that I wasn't aware of - or not invited to? Then I clicked the link and saw what she was talking about: it was a party invite at Chuck E. Cheese for White House party crasher Michaele Salahi.

Okay, let me parse that out a bit further.

Continue reading "Schmap Helps Michaele Salahi Go To Chuck E. Cheese - Sort Of" >