Archive for July, 2011

Meet the microbes living in our beds

Jul 31 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

In the 21st century, most people are aware that there are little creatures living in or on everything that we touch, eat, and breath. Microbes are a fact of life that many ignore simply because we can’t do a lot about it. We try to stay clean, use antibacterial soap, and wash things that come in contact more »

Google asks people to have an "email intervention" with their friends

Jul 31 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

In one of the most aggressive attempts Google has made to promote one of its products, the “Email Intervention” campaign has launched to get users to push their friends and family over to Gmail. Combining humor and mentions of features, Google has put out a video and an accompanying “toolkit” to help their more »

How things would change if every roof had solar panels

Jul 30 by Rocco Penn | 3 comments

Solar power has long been perceived as the answer to many of our energy woes. It is relatively efficient, extremely renewable, and as clean as it comes. It’s also extremely expensive when compared to the “dirty fuels” of coal, oil, and even natural gas. If it were possible to put solar panels on every more »

TED gives a first-hand glimpse of the Festo SmartBird in action

Jul 30 by Connor Livingston | add comment

Man has possessed the power of technology-assisted flight for over a century now, but the way that birds are able to fly is something that has eluded us until now. We first covered the Festo SmarBird earlier this year. Now, TED and Festo team leader Markus Fischer give us the flight of the bird once again, this time more »

Apple has more cash than Uncle Sam

Jul 29 by David Lux | 2 comments

As Congress squabbles over the debt crisis, it has been reported that Apple has more cash in reserve than the United States government. Based on Apple’s quarterly financial report, the tech giant that has spawned the iPad, iPod and the iPhone has $76.4 billion in reserve cash. The Treasury Department is clutching to just $73.7 more »

Microsoft goes after Google with humor (that actually worked)

Jul 29 by Rocco Penn | 16 comments

When it comes to funny competitive attack commercials, many have tried and failed to capture the magic of “I’m a Mac”. Microsoft was finally able to put out a cute (not hilarious, but point made) video taking a jab at Google services that will be competing against Microsoft Office 365. Introducing more »

Is the "daily deals" phenomenon just a fad?

Jul 29 by Connor Livingston | 2 comments

The easiest way to get people to use a service is to save them money. That fact has been the catalyst for the tremendous growth of Daily Deals group buying companies like Living Social and Groupon over the last couple of years. Will it continue to be hot the way that other aspects of social networking more »

One more feather in the Google+ cap: Themes

Jul 29 by JD Rucker | 1 comment

It’s not that big of a deal, really. It’s just a Chrome extension that someone made to add some spice and life to Google+. Many people will be doing their browsing from mobile devices and clients and may never actually go to plus.google.com very often. Still, it’s really nice to see how quickly and more »

If your web pages are slow, Google will rewrite them for you

Jul 28 by Rocco Penn | 2 comments

Google has been on a rampage over the last few years promoting the cause of increasing internet speed. They are pushing for faster connections and faster loading pages. Faster connections are something they can have a direct effect on by helping build a stronger infrastructure, but they can only more »

Knowledge management, the evolution

Jul 27 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

There is a well-known transition of thought that has been singularly clear since the beginning of human existence: Data becomes information Information becomes knowledge Knowledge becomes wisdom It’s that simple. Over the centuries, the way we store and manage data has evolved in ways that more »

YouSendIt launches new services to take on Dropbox

Jul 27 by David Lux | 2 comments

In the world of cloud storage and file sharing, few companies are growing faster than Dropbox. Since January 2010, the service has grown from 4 million users to more than 25 million users, and more than 200 million files are saved daily. However, YouSendIt wants to go toe-to-toe with Dropbox in a new arena: pricing. YouSendIt more »

If tech news is boring, blame the free market

Jul 27 by Navneet Alang | 1 comment

“Tech news is so phenomenally boring!” said Gawker‘s Adrian Chen, in the classically confrontational, controversial style of the site. And oh how it’s true. Tech news is boring. Every minute Apple rumor is reported in detail. In fact, each tiny little upgrade or tidbit of info about any hot company – Google, more »

Why Comic-Con is not the place to build buzz about movies

Jul 26 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

When Scott Pilgrim vs. The World hit Comic-Con last year, many declared it a hit before it made it to theaters. The excitement surrounding the geek crowd was electric and the reviews were, for the most part, stellar. It didn’t break $30 million in domestic ticket sales. This is not an isolated event. Comic-Con, the more »

The Apple Store allows nearly anything, even goats

Jul 26 by JD Rucker | 1 comment

It seems like there are two things without limits: Mark Malkoff‘s ability to pull of crazy stunts in New York and Apple’s willingness to accept their customers in any form and with any pets. Such was the case earlier this week when Malkoff added to his colorful resume of stunts with 4 impressive tests of New York more »