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23 Jun 2009 22:21

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Biz, Tech: The kings of overpriced service, Boingo, own wi-fi hotspots now.

  • Back in 2001, Boingo applied for a patent on connecting computers to routers using this budding service called wi-fi. In the time since, it’s proliferated everywhere, becoming synonymous with laptops and iPhones. While hotspots are free many places, Boingo slowly became known for its overpriced wireless access points. source
  • Now it’s 2009. Boingo got approval for the patent in January, and now they’re telling the world all about it in a press release. “This patent represents a huge addition to Boingo’s intellectual property,” says CEO David Hagan, who will face the wrath of coffee-shop dwellers nationwide if he chooses to enforce it. Jerk. source

23 Jun 2009 10:58

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Tech, U.S.: Buzz Aldrin thinks we should go to Mars. Well, he did go to the moon.

  • By refocusing our space program on Mars for America’s future, we can restore the sense of wonder and adventure in space exploration that we knew in the summer of 1969. We won the moon race; now it’s time for us to live and work on Mars, first on its moons and then on its surface.
  • Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin (i.e. the second man to set foot on the moon) • On the possibility that the next step for the space program is heading to Mars. He thinks it would be a shot in the arm for NASA. Why the heck not? We’re sure Marvin would be a gracious host! • source

22 Jun 2009 23:14

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22 Jun 2009 22:39

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Tech: Eventually, Amazon’s Kindle runs into a hard, solid wall of DRM

  • A poor blogger found out the hard way. Dan Cohen of GearDiary found out the other day that some books he downloaded for his Kindle/iPhone had a limit to how many times they could be downloaded and on how many times they could be shared. Worse, it seemed this number was arbitrary and was, until now, not communicated to customers. After talking to a number of Amazon customer service reps, he confirmed it was set by publishers, though it was very confusing to get to that point. Granted, Cohen posts on a site that checks out tons of devices, so it’s possible that his case is extraordinary, but why is it even there in the first place? source

22 Jun 2009 15:02

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Biz, Tech: Why is Kodak getting rid of Kodachrome film? Progress.

  • 70% of the company’s profit comes from really good digital picture-taking technology source

22 Jun 2009 10:35

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Biz, Tech: Latest scourge of productive business meetings: BlackBerries

  • You’ll have half the participants BlackBerrying each other as a submeeting, with a running commentary on the primary meeting. BlackBerrys have become like cartoon thought bubbles.
  • Philippe Reines • Senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, on how BlackBerries have taken over meetings in his neck of the woods. Despite them being banned some places, in others, they’re used everywhere. And government isn’t alone. Business meetings have become textathons and potential clients have been caught playing games on iPhones. Personally, we haven’t heard a word you said because we’re busy playing Tetris. But just to spite you further, we’re playing it on a Game Boy, just so you know we’re ignoring you. • source

21 Jun 2009 22:13

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Politics, Tech: Dear Washington Post columnists: Give Twitter credit for Iran

  • What the heck, guys?

    John Palfrey, Bruce Etling and Robert Faris, you guys don’t get it. You just don’t. A lengthy response to the Twitter protest tool phenomenon is not the way to go.

    You tore it apart for the very reasons it’s useful, such as its brevity (the revolution will not be in speech form), the fact that lots of people use it and create a glut of information (much of which is retweets), and the fact that dissenters on both sides can use it.

    You have one moderately valid point: The government can block the access. Good thing they’re using proxy servers!

    source
  • What the heck, guys?

    John Palfrey, Bruce Etling and Robert Faris, you guys don’t get it. You just don’t. A lengthy response to the Twitter protest tool phenomenon is not the way to go.

    You tore it apart for the very reasons it’s useful, such as its brevity (the revolution will not be in speech form), the fact that lots of people use it and create a glut of information (much of which is retweets), and the fact that dissenters on both sides can use it.

    You have one moderately valid point: The government can block the access. Good thing they’re using proxy servers!

  • A bad example

    Here’s the real reason why you really don’t get it – you credited Andrew Sullivan for creating the hype around the protests, rather than the protesters themselves.

    We’d like to use the example of @iranriggedelect. We were an early follower of the great resource, and we recommended them when they had three followers. Now they have 10,000+.

    And of course, Twitter had to nudge CNN. Face it – Twitter isn’t people just talking. It’s media. And this media works differently.

    Please figure out why. source
 

21 Jun 2009 20:38

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Tech: Apple is really sorry that you can’t activate your iPhone. Here’s $30.

  • Since Friday’s launch of the iPhone 3GS, the activation process has been spotty at best and completely unusable at worst. It’s not as bad as last year, when the servers completely crashed on people wanting to activate an iPhone 3G. source
  • To make up for the torrent of new iPhone activations (500,000 by one analyst’s count), Apple is making it up to users by offering a $30 iTunes Store credit to those stuck without a working phone for the weekend. Aww, how nice. source

20 Jun 2009 13:53

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Tech, World: Unable to block porn from computers, China turns to Google

  • Google has been asked by China to block a feature that brings up related search terms when typing in a word, because apparently it was showing too much explicit related content. source
  • China has been ratcheting up its internet censorship lately, much to the chagrin of users. On top of Tiananmen Square blocking, they tried (and failed) to put censoring software on all PCs. source

20 Jun 2009 03:45

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Tech: OMG OMG OMG STEVE JOBS GOT A LIVER TRANSPLANT?!? WTF?!?

  • six months Amount of time Steve Jobs has been off the job due to health issues source