Author: Navneet Alang

With its most recent changes, Facebook is aiming for a more social and accessible web. But at what cost to privacy? As Facebook closes in on half a billion users, it’s clear that it is a behemoth in the web world, arguably on par with Google, Microsoft and Apple in terms of sheer reach. And the changes announced at Facebook’s f8 developer conference seems to suggest Zuckerberg & Co. are intent on integrating themselves more and more tightly into the internet at large. Now that we’ve had a couple of days to digest the news, it seems it’s time to reflect on what these changes mean. Some of them will make…

Have you ever looked at a scene of a family on vacation in 1950s and thought “you know what would go really well here? Star Wars!”. Yeah, me neither. But now that I’ve seen it, it’s all sorts of great. Flickr user Franco Bambilla took a series of vintage postcards and added in either Star Wars or aliens and called in “Invading the Vintage”. For what reason he did so, no-one knows. But let’s be glad he did. You can check out the rest either on his Flickr page or his personal site. [Source: Buzzfeed]…

A couple of years ago, after much delay, I finally got my own HDTV. Even got a PS3 to go with it too. It was glorious. Stupendous, even. Blu-Rays and HD channels practically jumped off the screen and smacked me in the face. Games looked lifelike. I, like, was Nathan Drake, man. So, with the arrival of 3D-TV, we can expect similarly superlative results, right? A mind-blowing difference in the quality of our home-theatre experience? Nope. 3D-TV is a half-baked technology yet to reach maturity and it is now being foisted on unsuspecting consumers. They will be sold the line that 3D is the next must-have…

Four or five years ago, a single mentality dominated the world of web startups: build a service, amass as many users as you could and then – and only then – either figure out a way to make money, or simply get acquired. Then 2009 happened: the economy tanked, the advertising biz took a nosedive and nobody was quite sure what to do. Venture capital funds dried up, and startups that had coasted on business plans that amounted to “eventually,we’ll work something out” suddenly ran out of money. Part of the reason for this was a desire on the part of many Web 2.0 services to remain ad-free. It’s not that they…

That headline up there may sound like Monty Python-esque absurdity, but it’s quite real. Or at least half of it is. At a farm in Northern Ireland, farmer William Taylor is putting his cows on treadmills – not to lose weight, but to generate electricity. Yes, really. The treadmills are placed at a slight incline, and to prevent themselves slowly sliding backwards, the cows have to walk, while a feed container gives them something to stay occupied. As they trudge along, the treadmill turns a crank which in turn spins a generator, and apparently, one cow walking produces enough power to run four milking…

Whenever you think of ‘wrist communicator’, it’s hard not to conjure up images of clean Star Trek vessels and their neat, pressed uniforms. The 24th century is slick, man! But while this new concept Samsung smartphone/wristwatch is certainly futuristic, you gotta’ admit – the design seems a lot like the wristbands favored by the kind of people you find constantly playing hacky sack (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Designed by Erik Campbell, the concept is based on a combination of a flexible, OLED touchscreen, a physical keypad and shock-resistant electronics. Obviously, the…

You know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had one of those slightly ridiculous Web 2.0 names that drops a vowel somewhere to be hip and cool. But Songr are bringing that trend back, baby! Fortunately for the music-discovery service, they actually seem pretty promising. Perhaps the best way to describe Songr is as a mix of Digg and Twitter for what you’re listening to. Rather than simply sharing which exact one is on your playlist right now, Songr lets people share what they’re listening to and then allows others to vote those songs up or down. So instead of rummaging around your music collection or…

At any point over the last year, you could be forgiven for momentarily thinking the sheen had come off Apple. A slew of criticisms arose, of the kind that would have severely damaged most companies. Among them: the App Store has been widely critiqued for its closed nature and arbitrary approval process. Apple has been slammed by Adobe and others for refusing to incorporate Flash, and instead trying to kill it in the process. To make matters worse, many have spoken out against Apple’s obsession with secrecy, blase approach to workers’ rights in China or their notoriously uncommunicative nature….

So, remember those iPhone 4G pics that we thought were real and then turned out to be false? Yeah well, those are now pretty much confirmed as real. How do we know? Gizmodo have managed to acquire a prototype iPhone 4G that was lost in a bar in Redwood City in California. After playing with phone, the folks at Giz feel pretty confident claiming it’s actually the next iPhone. Not only does it display the kind of fit and finish you’d expect from an Apple product, a breakdown of the device also shows that it uses Apple components, which is pretty conclusive evidence. On top of this, certain rumors we’ve already…

In light of the tablet buzz of the past few weeks, we’ve been lucky enough to see some amazing magazine concepts meant for the future. The newspaper, however, has sorta’ gotten the shaft – maybe because not everyone believes the newspaper has a future. But if newspapers look anything like this ‘The Page’ concept, it seems like they’ll be sticking around for a while. Although you won’t see this in production for years, the idea is basically this: using a flexible screen about the size of your average daily, users log in using their fingerprint and get personalized news stories on an adaptable screen….