If you’re experiencing the horrible Snowmageddon that is about to dump its freezing wrath on your city (or already has), I commiserate with you. Chances are you’re stuck inside an office building like me, constantly checking your dashboard widget, phone or tablet to see if the snow has taken over the world outside blocking you from …
App of the Week: Ancestry for iPad
Popular genealogy website Ancestry.com recently updated its iPhone app to version 2.0 and brought a new iPad-specific interface along for the ride.
The app provides direct access to your Ancestry.com family trees so you can view, add and edit information about your family members wherever you’ve got an internet connection.
The …
Two Minute Video: Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego Get Social on Facebook
Guess which two classic blasts from the past are about to get resurrected as Facebook games? Don’t look up there at the title! Okay, go ahead. Too late.
The Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? are set to make their return to the edutainment world as Facebook games. The Oregon Trail will be available tomorrow, …
World Web War I: Why Egypt’s Digital Uprising is Different
We’ve seen cyberwar declared before, but the one playing out in Egypt is my own candidate for World Web War I. Hosni Mubarak fired the first shot, switching off the internet and mobile phones after crude attempts to block Twitter and Facebook fell apart. The web fought back in ways we haven’t seen before, and it’s winning.
It no …
Post-Web 2.0 Internet Users Are More Passive, Study Claims
The dream of Web 2.0 may be over. If a new report on internet usage is to be believed, social media has turned the internet into more of a passive experience again. The report from GlobalWebIndex’s Tom Smith, called GlobalWebIndex Wave 1-3 2010, suggests that the rise of “packaged platform” entertainment – that is, platform-specific, …
“Google Art Project” Launches: Why It’s Amazing
One of the longstanding promises of the Internet–of the last century’s worth of technology, really–is that the cultural heritage of the world will be accessible to everyone in their homes. Today, the global museum has taken another step forward with Google Art Project. An ingenious application of Google’s Street View and Picasa tools, …
Competition for iTunes? Google Music, Spotify Making Launch Strides
Are iTunes’ days of digital music dominance finally about to come to an end? New reports are suggesting that Google is closing in on a launch date for its much-rumored music service at the same time as Spotify is said to be making progress with its potential second US signing.
Google Music has been the subject of much speculation …
Google Docs Gets an Organizational Reboot
The past month has brought a bunch of new features and improvements to Google Docs, and yesterday, the Internet giant rolled out yet another when it announced that it is giving a “refresh” to its documents list.
The “refresh” aims to make the Docs page easier to organize and navigate, and this is accomplished in a few different ways. …
Airlines To Keep Users Connected on Facebook In Flight
Now you’ll be able to update your status in flight for free. Starting today, GoGo Inflight Internet is offering free Facebook access on their Wi-Fi networks through the month of February, reports USA Today. In addition to your soft drink and peanuts, you can now make sure that you keep on top of your News Feed and that your crops don’t …
Egyptians Sidestep Internet Blackouts with Landline Phones
With Egypt’s last remaining internet service provider taken offline, the country’s citizens have resorted to old school telephone technology to establish limited connections to the outside world.
Several internet service providers outside of Egypt have established dial-up phone numbers that can be used for pokey-yet-usable connections …
Apple Tightens App Store Rules on In-App Purchases
Apple wants to have control over what content you are selling within your app. Among the recently declined was Sony’s iPhone application, which would have sold e-books and materials from the Sony Reader Store as an in-app purchase. Sony digital reading division president Steve Haber said that Apple told them that all in-app …
Bill Gates: ‘We’re Making Progress’ at Eradicating Polio
Microsoft founder and former CEO Bill Gates has been spending his retirement—and the billions of dollars he’s amassed over the years—to try to improve the education system here in the U.S. and wipe out polio worldwide.
During an appearance on The Daily Show last night, Gates talked about the challenges of administering polio …