Apple’s iTunes may have ushered in a digital revolution to the music industry, making music more affordable and—in tandem with the iPod and other MP3 players—more of a feature in people’s day-to-day lives, but according to Pete Townshend, iTunes is a “digital vampire” that’s bleeding musicians by taking a commission for each download …
Apps & Web
Top Five Tuesday Tech Deals
It’s Tuesday! Time for some handpicked gadget deals.
HP TouchPad for $150 with HP PC purchase: Prices vary at Best Buy
If you’ve been waiting for what seems like eternity for another crack at a deeply-discounted HP TouchPad tablet, your wait is over. Sort of.
You can get your hands on a 32-gigabyte model for just $150, with a …
On Boggle App, ‘Queer’ Is a Bad Word
When I first downloaded the Boggle app, I was agog over all the unfamiliar words — AAL, AIS, ANE, etc. — the game showed me I could have found in the 16-letter jumbles. But a few hundred rounds later (yes, I’m obsessed), I’m more interested in the words the good people at Hasbro won’t let me play.
FART and CRAP are off …
If Zuck Had a Time Machine, Facebook May Have Stayed in Boston
In an interview with Startup School’s Jessica Livingston this weekend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg mentioned that had he known what he knows now, he may have kept Facebook in Boston instead of moving out to Silicon Valley. The entire interview can be found here—the part with Zuckerberg starts near the 43-minute mark, and the …
Boo! Google Doodle Celebrates Halloween with Zany Video
What’s big and scary and orange and glows in the dark? If you said a jack-o-lantern, close, but not quite: Try Google’s latest, greatest doodle, a time-lapse video of a quirky pumpkin-carving jamboree.
And action: Six mammoth pumpkins—we’re talking the size of boulders here—rest on bales of hay in the middle of a grassy field, …
Facebook Announces New ‘Trusted Friends’ Security Feature
Now you can get back into your Facebook account with a little help from your friends: Facebook just announced a new feature called Trusted Friends, which uses—surprise, surprise—your social network to log you back in if you forget your password.
This is how it works: First, you pick five Facebook friends you trust. If you get …
Google TV May Soon Be Able to Sidestep Blocked Content
Google has finally brought apps to Google TV, along with a revamped interface that makes it easier to search for shows and movies. YouTube playback has been updated as well, with HD videos being played by default and automatic playlist creation based on the types of videos you’re watching.
Perhaps the biggest news here is the …
WATCH: Human Genome Fits on Three Floppy Disks
We’re the species that visited the Moon, created countless beautiful works of art and poetry, and built skyscrapers that reached thousands of feet into the air—and everything that makes us unique can fit on three floppy disks. That’s the gist of a cool new video by Evan Anthony.
Yesterday, Anthony talked to The Atlantic about the …
Netflix Was Right, and We’re Being Fickle
No doubt many see this Netflix debacle, in which the company admits it just lost 800,000 subscribers in its fiscal third quarter, as vindication. They balked when the company hiked its price a few bucks a month, and they absolutely howled when Netflix tried to separate DVD rentals and online streaming into two discrete services. The …
Top Five Tuesday Tech Deals
It’s Tuesday! Time for some handpicked gadget deals.
Apple MacBook Air: Starting at $835 at MacMall
The cheapest MacBook Air model generally starts at $999 but MacMall has discounted several closeout models, with prices starting at $835 for the 11.6-inch version. These models come preloaded with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, but …
Researchers Fine-Tune Android to Lock Apps Based on Location
Admit it: Sometimes you like to pretend that you’re a spy who has some sensitive material on your cellphone that just can’t fall into the wrong hands. Well, if you have an Android phone, some Virginia Tech researchers can help you out with that.
According to Jules White, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and …
Chinese Microblogging Site Bans ‘Occupy’ Search Terms
Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo—said to resemble the lovechild of Facebook and Twitter—is reportedly filtering out search results containing the word “occupy” when paired with the names of various places.
China Digital Times (CDT) reports:
“As the Occupy Wall Street movement goes global, China’s call for calm observation
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