Author: Navneet Alang

For all the chatter about the inanity of Twitter, ultimately it is a pretty amazing resource of what people are thinking and doing at any give time. And any time you hear ‘pretty amazing resource’, you can bet that people will try and monetize that somehow! Google was the first of the big search players to index Twitter results, and now they are introducing a timeline feature. While there are numerous ways to see what people are thinking right now, what the new timeline feature does is present users with a graphical chart representing how much people are talking about a subject over time. Clicking…

It’s no secret that we here at Techi love our bike concepts – and this one seems even cooler than most. Designed by Peter Hudas, the bike forgoes usual bike things like a chain and spokes in favor of a much more seamless design, and is aimed at urban commuters looking to trade their bus-pass in for two-wheeled style. The aim here is twofold: firstly, the design reduces the weight of the bike, making it easier to pedal to and from your destination; and secondly, by having an internal drivetrain, it makes the concept much more weather-resistant than a regular bike. Of course, most important is how cool,…

“Once upon a time, in a land that isn’t really that far away, there were a bunch of book publishers who lacked imagination and, when presented with new technologies like touchscreens, said ‘let’s make books exactly the same, only digital…’”. Well no more, kids! No more! See Here Studios have put together an interactive storybook for the iPhone and iPad called “The Wrong Side of the Bed” that has both 2D and 3D versions, the video of which is above. Young readers of the tale can pinch and zoom and have the app read the story to them. If you don’t have any old 3D glasses kicking around, you can also order…

When Apple announced their iAd advertising platform yesterday, it’s possible many excited iPhone users yawned a bit. What was this going to change? Well, the answer to that question is: a lot. Jobs himself explained why: right now, mobile advertising sucks. You either see a tiny text ad that gives very little information, or you see a large ad in an app that, once you click on it, takes you out of the application and into the browser, ruining the seamlessness of your experience. Worse, because ads are so terrible, the mobile market remains both massive and untapped; there are tens of millions of people…

You gotta’ love Creative . Despite the fact that they pioneered the MP3 player market – only to then be overtaken by the iPod and iTunes – they keep churning out decent, well-priced portable audio players that few people pay attention to. Announced today is the Creative Zen X-Fi Style and Zen Style, which according to Creative aim to both add a stylish touch to the basic MP3 player and focus on sound quality – an area that Apple has often been criticized for. The Creative ‘X-Fi’ technology purports to restore some of the sound information that gets lost when you take a music track and turn it into a compressed…

Lately, there have been rumblings that much-beloved Twitter might start to turn a little evil and begin to compete with the huge economy of third-party apps that has sprung up around the service. Well, it looks like those rumors are at least partly true, as today Twitter announced an official Blackberry client. Here’s a list of the app’s features: Real-time BlackBerry push of Twitter direct messages Camera and photo gallery integration Browser integration for Tweeting links Customizable interface for changing fonts, hiding tool bars, etc. Inbox integration so you can read your Twitter direct…

“RIM Acquires QNX… zzzz… what?” Whoa. Sorry. Almost nodded off there for a sec. But before you fall asleep, here’s why Blackberry-maker Reserach in Motion’s acquisition of QNX Software Systems is actually much more intriguing than a standard ‘M&A’ story. QNX were previously owned by Harman – you know, those people who make receivers and JBL speakers – in order to improve how their products integrated into cars. But rather than getting Blackberries to work better in automobiles, a much better explanation for the acquisition is that it’s all about battling Apple’s iPhone. Why? Well,…

From the “really cool but maybe pointless” file comes this Sony mobile speaker that is shaped like a travel coffee cup. The speaker aims to provide ’360 degree sound’ while sitting in your cupholder. Providing 16 watts of power with a 56-mm woofer and 20-mm tweeter, it also charges any Sony MP3 player attached to it by a cable. A remote control is included so that, while driving, you can avoid fiddling with the controls on top of the coffee-cup shaped device. Of course, sometimes we like things just because they seem like a cool idea, even when they aren’t very practical. For instance, why might you…

While most tests done comparing tap water and filtered water show that tap water is just as pure, people continue to buy bottled water. But not only does bottled water produce a lot of waste, it also take a lot of energy to package and ship all those bottles. Which is why the new 321 Water Bottle is great for those concerned with sustainability – or if you just like stuff that looks really slick. The bottle works in a manner similar to a coffee press. You fill it up with tap water and then simply push down on the plunger. But rather than getting rid of coffee grounds, the plunger contains a carbon filter, which…

When it comes to news pouring out of Cupertino today,  many are understandably focused on multitasking. It was the thing Steve announced first, and it’s been the thing the ‘sphere has been salivating over for weeks. But the biggest news from Apple today wasn’t multitasking – and it wasn’t even the iAd platform. It was Game Center. Why is gaming such a big deal? Well, first there’s the obvious. Apple themselves have claimed that gaming is the biggest draw on the App Store. While Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS have hundreds of available games, the App Store has 50,000+, and games regularly rank as the…