Archive for December, 2010

China's Latest Internet Outlaw: Skype

Dec 30 by David Lux | 1 comment

Skype has been outlawed in China. The popular Internet phone service is yet another Western web service that has been banned, leaving all other Internet phone calls to be made through the state-owned networks China Unicom and China Telecom. Already popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter more »

11 Bold Tech Predictions for 2011

Dec 30 by Navneet Alang | 6 comments

The past year in technology was among the more surprising ones we’ve had. Even the most astute, insightful tech observers would have had trouble predicting some of the things that happened this year. The iPad and Kinect have become the fastest selling electronic devices in history. Android exploded more »

Can Anyone Save Delicious? Only If Yahoo Lets Them.

Dec 29 by Rocco Penn | 15 comments

With Delicious in purgatory, can anything bring the trend-setting social bookmarking site back to (even half of) its former glory, pre-Yahoo? Some are showing interest in buying it. Sources say Yahoo is going to get around to considering how to unload it in January. In the meantime, it’s just sort of… there. News that more »

What Does USB Stand For?

Dec 29 by Connor Livingston | add comment

Just discovered an offbeat comic series that I’d never seen before. Extra Ordinary artist Li Chen has posted 160 comics thus far and many of them are, well, extraordinary. The comic below truly struck my funny bone because it actually applied to me very nicely. It appears that Chen and I think alike sometimes. more »

The Walls of Professor Ernest Albright: "Fiat Lux"

Dec 29 by JD Rucker | 1 comment

Every now and then you come across a piece of art (in this case, a very elaborate drawing) that makes you explore it, stare, and contemplate for several minutes (an eternity in Internet time). This is one of those pieces. It is apparently blown up from an old Canadian publication and is, as QuieroBits puts it more »

Will VCs Be Able To "Save" On GroupOn's Series G?

Dec 28 by Rocco Penn | add comment

Google couldn’t buy them and some believe this is a good thing. As more numbers start to get tossed out about valuation, profits, and potential, GroupOn‘s filing to authorize up to $950 million in Series G funding comes as music to the ears of many in the venture capital world. At $31.59 a share, is it a good deal? Good deals more »

1000 Core "Proof of Concept" By Intel Stirs The Imagination

Dec 28 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

It’s a thing that the imagination can hardly conceive and the most avid gamer could only wish for. Intel has brought us a step closer to having the unicorn-like 1,000-core processor with a “proof of concept” that can perform nearly 20X faster than “modern computers.” A team of scientists lead by more »

Android Surpasses 200k Total Apps, 100+ Downloads Per Second

Dec 28 by JD Rucker | add comment

The trends are pointing north. The developers are developing. The devices are flying off shelves. With over 200,000 Apps available in the Android Marketplace, the question that nobody who’s anybody is asking is, “Can they catch the iPhone?” They still have a ways to go, but according to unofficial more »

Why The Bad Guys Win In Social Media

Dec 28 by James Mowery | 1 comment

If you were to go by Hollywood’s logic, it is not uncommon to see the bad boy getting the girls, the notoriety, the fame, and everything else that comes with it. Transforming that from fantasy to reality, however, can be tricky, as there are plenty of good guys with great lives and have all of the aforementioned. more »

How Did Call of Duty Get So Huge?

Dec 27 by JD Rucker | 5 comments

Between “Call of Duty: Black Ops” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II”, sales totaled over $1.2 billion… in the first 5 days after release. Gamers around the world flocked to stores for midnight releases of the games. Some paid extra, up to $170, to get the special editions of each game, which more »

Grab Windows 7 Family Pack Now. They May Disappear in 2011

Dec 27 by JD Rucker | add comment

They never said it would last forever an if unless it’s just a last-second push to get tech blogs to warn people, Microsoft will stop selling the popular Windows 7 Family Pack at the end of this year. According to HotHardware, “12/31/2010 will be the final day Microsoft hosts this deal, and after that, it’s hard more »

Putin Loves Linux, Orders Government Transition to Open Source

Dec 27 by JD Rucker | 11 comments

Meanwhile, in Russia… If Google translate is to be trusted, a Russian publication has claimed that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has signed an order to transition the technological “power structures and the federal budget to free software” starting in the second quarter of 2012. The 17-page document, “Transition more »

Facebook iPhone App Exploded on Christmas

Dec 27 by JD Rucker | add comment

So, you open your Christmas present and there’s a new iPhone or iPod Touch. You want to do two things immediately – download some apps and tell your friends all about it. Why not do both at the same time? Apparently, that’s what around 1.6 million people did in the 3 days surrounding Christmas this year. Android also saw more »

ATT Pushes "Don't Text While Driving" Campaign To A New Level

Dec 27 by JD Rucker | 5 comments

“I sent one stupid, meaningless text – ‘LOL’ – and killed a man.” When AT&T launched their campaign against texting while driving in March, 2010, they decided that the most important demographic to focus upon were teens and college students. The mixture of inexperience and irresponsibility more »