Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

13 Oct 2010 10:54

tags

Biz, Tech: Don’t own any Apple stock? Start kicking yourself now, loser

  • $300.20 Apple’s opening stock price this morning, which is the first time it’s been above $300
  • 43% the stock’s increase this year alone; guess that iPad pushed it over the edge or something source
  • » And it gets better: In the time that Steve Jobs has been behind the wheel – since 1997 – the stock has increased immensely. It’s 30 times bigger than it was just seven years ago, when everyone was first going gaga over the third-generation iPod.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Oct 2010 10:47

tags

Tech: Graduate student redesigns U.K. three-prong plug impeccably

  • So, here’s something you may not know about electrical outlets in the United Kingdom. The three-prongers are really freaking big. And not in a way that can usually be avoided. They’re very cumbersome, and make U.S. power outlets look svelte in comparison. Fortunately for the Brits, Royal College of Art graduate student Min-Kyu Choi is on the case with this device, which folds out only when necessary, and (even better) is designed in such a way that multiple cords can fit into one plug. Expect Apple to have a job offer at this guy’s feet by tomorrow morning. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Oct 2010 10:21

tags

Tech: Hmm: Microsoft exec says Windows Phone 7 will support OSX

  • ANNOUNCEMENT: I’m glad to confirm that Mac users would be able to use Zune on their Macs to sync with #WP7
  • A (quickly-deleted) tweet from Microsoft’s UK head of Windows Phone maketing, Oded Ran • Suggesting that the company would actually release a version of the Zune’s software onto OSX so that they wouldn’t be cutting out their hotly-anticipated Windows Phone 7 from a quickly-growing part of the PC market. Perhaps that’s why the Zune hasn’t taken off. Despite being on the market for four whole years, they’ve only managed a paltry 2 percent of the market. Just for comparison’s sake, the iPod has 70 percent. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Oct 2010 10:44

tags

Tech: From self-driving cars to wind farms: Google’s latest project

  • $200
    million     the amount Google plans to initially invest in the $5 billion renewable energy project
  • 1.9
    million     the number of homes in the mid-Atlantic that will directly benefit from the massive project source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

12 Oct 2010 10:32

tags

Tech: Minecraft’s success, while pretty cool, utterly baffles us

  • Maybe we’re showing our age, but we don’t get why Minecraft has gotten a disproportionate level of hype. It’s made its developer lots of money, though it’s effectively a really next-level version of Lego with a multiplayer element. Oh, and those pseudo-8-bit graphics are a nice touch. These are elements of a good game, but a multi-level success like Minecraft? Color us impressed. In this clip over here, some guy built an 8-mile long train tunnel using the game. And last week we saw that someone made a to-scale version of the Star Trek Enterprise. Really? People have this much time to spend on this game?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 3 Comments • Permalink

12 Oct 2010 10:17

tags

Tech: So, mobile phones are a lot older than you might think

  • 1.5 million mobile phone users in the U.S. in … 1964 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Oct 2010 23:18

tags

Music, Tech: By catering to majors, eMusic loses a simple, effective model

  • simple eMusic starts out with a basic, credits-based model which allows you to download tons of indie music each month.
  • busy To win over Sony and Warner Bros., they slightly modify the model to make full albums worth a little more.
  • complex To win over Universal, eMusic will charge a variety of different prices for different songs. This is a bad idea. source
  • » And credits are going away, too: To win Universal over, they’re going to have to charge 89 cents per track for some of their songs. While this is cheaper than iTunes, it’s also nearly twice as much as many of their other tracks. We don’t know what eMusic’s profitability is like, but this, to us, feels like it’s going to backfire. The changes are a little too extreme, and it no longer feels like they’re the cheap alternative. Can we lament the loss of eMusic (circa 2007) yet?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

11 Oct 2010 19:25

tags

Tech: “Free Public Wi-Fi” isn’t free, public or wi-fi. It’s nothing.

  • Ever find yourself hanging around an airport with your laptop? Or maybe you’re in the middle of a coffee shop, looking to read your favorite blog (hi guys!). Maybe you’ve seen the “Free Public Wi-Fi” computer-to-computer network floating around, always tempting you to click on it in hopes that you get free public wi-fi. And it never, ever works. Here’s why: It’s a bug that older versions of Windows XP have had for approximately four years. It doesn’t connect you to anything. It’s an error. One that MS has already fixed, by the way, but still shows up on un-updated machines. And if you’re using one of those fairly-common computers, you too may find yourself bitten by that zombie if you join that network. Or “hpsetup.” Or “linksys.” Sorry to burst your bubble, moochers. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Oct 2010 10:41

tags

Tech: Here it is: Three really quick Windows Phone 7 facts

  • 30 number of countries getting Windows Phone 7 at the phone’s launch
  • nine number of Windows Phone 7 models coming out next month
  • 2011 when MS expects the phones to have copy and paste source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Oct 2010 23:18

tags

Tech: Sparrow = Dead simple e-mail, and surprisingly, a lot of hype

  • Here’s something that’s never been tried before: Minimalism. In an e-mail client. In an attempt to simplify what may perhaps be one of the most overly-cluttered parts of our daily life, new mail client Sparrow wants you to use e-mail the way that you use Twitter. Crazy idea, but the beta version of this app got 20,000 downloads in a day – really high for a new OSX program. Talk about attention. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>