Archive for August, 2011

Could you survive a weekend at the gadget-free hotel?

Aug 31 by Scarlett Madison | 2 comments

For many in western society, being connected has become a constant state of being. We carry our smartphones everywhere. We have our tablets or laptops available at all times. We spend much of our free time connected to the internet in one way or another. Gadgets have become an integral part of our more »

Google Chrome extension lets you +1 anything on the internet

Aug 31 by Connor Livingston | 3 comments

When the Google +1 button first rolled out earlier this year, it made a little bit of a splash from speculation that it may have an effect on general search rankings some time in the future. It was designed to help logged-in friends help each other with suggested web pages. Not a big deal. When Google more »

Twitterpalooza

Aug 31 by Connor Livingston | add comment

With much of the social media focus lately being on Facebook and Google+, Twitter has not received as much buzz as normal. The site continues to grow and influence, particularly in aggregation and breaking news. This infographic breaks down what they’re calling “Twitterpalooza” and offers more »

Cleverbot, squared

Aug 31 by Rocco Penn | add comment

Cleverbot is a novelty AI program designed to mimic human interaction and allow people to “talk” to it conversationally. It is often clever, sometimes funny, but mostly random. Here, Igor Labutov, Jason Yosinski, and Hod Lipson of the Cornell Creative Machines Lab put two cleverbots head-to-head more »

Inkling sends freehand sketches to your computer

Aug 31 by David Lux | add comment

Wacom is the undisputed leader in making tools that allow freehand art to become digital graphics. However, Wacom tablets don’t replicate the same feel as sketching on a pad of paper. After all, pen (or pencil) and paper is more for fluid and portable than a bulky Wacom tablet. However, with Wacom’s more »

TMI: Why sharing too much on social media is worse than we even thought

Aug 31 by JD Rucker | add comment

It’s a trap. Yes, here comes a conspiracy theory. Get your tinfoil hats on, quickly. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are designed to encourage us to share information. They want us to share our lives through their networks. They want us to share what we find to be interesting more »

Thanks to science, boarding a plane may get faster soon

Aug 30 by Connor Livingston | 2 comments

It wasn’t the airlines or the government that come up with a scientific, algorithmically-based method for speeding up the boarding of a plane. It was an astrophysicist named Jason Steffen who came up with the “Steffen Method” with uses the Monte Carlo optimization method  of calculating to more »

And just like that, the daily deals era may be over

Aug 30 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

There is much truth in Ben Parr’s Mashable story about the end of the “Daily Deals Era”. The end of Facebook Deals last week was viewed as a benefit for sites that specialize in the arena such as Groupon and Living Social, but now it might have sparked another question: what did Facebook learn that made them pull out so quickly? The concept more »

Android, iOS approach 70% combined smartphone market share

Aug 30 by Rocco Penn | 1 comment

The drive towards domination of the smartphone market continues for Apple and Google as they approach a combined 70% choke hold. Symbian is all but non-existent, holding on to just under 2%. Microsoft has been unable to break the 6% barrier but hopes that they will be able to do so with the release more »

The social media litmus test for hiring

Aug 29 by Connor Livingston | 1 comment

Social media is often a paradox. For many, it’s the convergence of our private lives with public access and scrutiny. As a result, many companies are starting to use social media as a litmus test when hiring the same way they use criminal background checks or credit checks. Companies can now legally more »

Microsoft gets aggressive in cloud CRM market against Oracle, Salesforce

Aug 29 by Connor Livingston | add comment

Microsoft really wants more cloud Customer Relationship Management (CRM) clients and now they’re willing to pay for them. Medium-sized companies with between 50-500 users can receive $150 cash per user if they switch to their Dynamics CRM Online service and sign a 2-year licensing subscription. The offer is open more »

Walmart creates its own social media startup

Aug 29 by David Lux | add comment

Evernote, LinkedIn, Mint….Walmart? The retail giant is now among Mountain View’s leading startup companies following its purchase of Kosmix, the company behind real-time Twitter filter site TweetBeat, medical search engine RightHealth, and topic-specific engine Kosmix. The company has now more »

Counter Strike: Global Offensive to offer cross-platform multiplayer matches

Aug 29 by Rocco Penn | add comment

With all of the hype building up around first-person shooters COD: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3, it’s easy to forget that Valve will be releasing CS:GO early in 2012. Just to remind us, they released an official trailer to whet our appetite. From the Valve camp, we’ve learned that they have more »

Google vs Apple: Who's winning the tech industry land grab?

Aug 28 by JD Rucker | 4 comments

In the news, people are well aware of the iOS vs Android war. Both operating systems and the companies behind them wage open battle in their quests for mobile domination. Otherwise, there are no arenas where the two tech giants go head to head… at least openly. Behind the scenes, a more heated battle more »