What do you do when you have to email a billion people something they’re not going to like, but you don’t really want to hear all the bellyaching that’s bound to come your way? If you’re Facebook, you bury the bad news in the middle of the longest paragraph on the page, directly under (not […]
It was the middle of my family’s big October cookout/pumpkin-carving extravaganza. Some time after dark, between half-burnt hot dogs and whole-burnt marshmallows, my seven-year-old nephew Owen lost something on the ground and shouted “DOES ANYBODY HAVE A FLASHLIGHT APP?” We laughed, and so did he after we explained it to him, but it got me […]
Time for Olde Tyme Techcitement, where we take a look back at technology relics. It’s basically your grampa talking about the good old days, but sooner and totally more reasonable than dumb boring stories about how all this used to be farmland. Everybody’s excited about the Microsoft Windows 8 launch, so I thought this would […]
Newsweek and Daily Beast Editor in Chief Tina Brown announced today that the venerable magazine will cease print publication at the end of 2012, moving to an all-digital, partially-subscription model. Brown made the official announcement (I’m not sure if this is ironic or just telling) on the Daily Beast blog. Newsweek Global, as the all-digital […]
Facebook users got a little treat (or terror, depending on their outlook) last week as the company’s engineers quietly introduced emoticons to Facebook comments. Smileys have been available in chat messages for some time now, so this is more of an extension of usability than an introduction. I have to admit, I’m not exactly happy […]
Roku users got a big surprise late last week when the company provided an unexpected update to its official iOS and Android applications. Previously, the free apps were mainly a secondary remote control for the streaming media player. With this update, announced on the official Roku blog, Roku has added the ability to stream music […]
We’ve all oohed and aahed over the new iPhone. All that’s left is making fun of Apple’s sales pitch. That means it’s time for another banned iPhone promo from the hilarious John Elrick and company, whose banned iProduct promos have been going strong for two and a half years now. I’m not about to be […]
On Sunday night, the prestigious Hugo Awards were held in Chicago, recognizing excellence in science fiction. Realizing that we live in the future, the powers that be decided to air the awards ceremony live on the internet through Ustream so anyone in the world with an internet connection could see the awards as they happen. […]
Late last week, Google announced an Easter Egg for its main search page (announcing it makes it less of an Easter Egg, but whatever) by adding a random search spinner when a user hovers over the search engine’s “I’m feeling lucky” button. “I’m Feeling Artistic” leads to the Google Art Project, “I’m Feeling Playful” leads […]
In an announcement on the official Google blog, the company announced Friday its plan to kill Google Listen and immediately removed the long-suffering podcast app from Google Play search results. We launched Google Listen through Google Labs in August 2009, to give people a way to discover and listen to podcasts. However, with Google Play, […]
