Browsing Category: "SMASH Technology"
You Gotta Start Somewhere
If you’re anything like me, you like to start your browsing day with a start page or “portal” that caters to your daily dose of online interests.
Sure there are the more well-known, corporate portals that allow their own brand of personalization [iGoogle, myYahoo, Microsoft Live]. But quite often these mainstays include “value added” content or sponsored links that interfere with your personalized experience. So if you crave to have something a bit more streamlined (or you’d rather have quick access to the aforementioned 3), Fav4 is worth a serious look. Read the rest of this entry »
The Next P.G. & E.?
In a word, no.
But a multifaceted, octopus-like reach is a trait we’ve come to expect from the stalwart giant Google as of late. The company is moving so quickly and in so many directions & markets that anything it does would hardly seem surprising - with the exception of becoming a utility company, which is now another card Google has up its sleeve. Read the rest of this entry »
The Mixable Dancer
OK, this is actually a bit frightening. I must admit that the first thing that came to mind here was the disturbing bunny from Donnie Darko and all the nightmarish imagery he brings with him. But after getting past the initial fright, I found the concept rather interesting.
So you thought that the cuddly teddy bear holding the little red heart box of chocolates really nailed it today didn’t you? You thought you scored with your special Valentine, right? Well, talk about thinking totally outside the box: a company called DNA 11 offers you a gift that is so intensely personal, so unique and yet rather unusual that it will never be forgotten.
DNA 11 offers you a chance to provide your own DNA sample, which they will then process and place on an artistic screen, either in mini-portrait form or on a canvas that you could use as artwork. Now, we’re not talking that kind of DNA sample. Read the rest of this entry »
Isn’t it a coincidence that on the day that Yahoo! had a screaming news story declaring that Sandra Bullock’s enormous smash “The Blind Side” just passed the $200 million domestic gross mark –an impressive feat never before done by any other major actress—we have a magical piece of news from two corporations that don’t normally like each other: Warner Brothers and Netflix.
28 Days Later
In a press release today, both companies agreed to essentially force Netflix and its customers to wait out a 28-day period before Warner Bros. distributes its new releases to them. Read the rest of this entry »
The former Jordan Roseman, raised in rural Iowa and schooled on a diet of 70s disco and 80s Depeche Mode and OMD that he tried to crank out on his Apple II computer, probably should prepare himself for some much-deserved fame right about now. He might also think about leaving his job as DJ at many of the hot locations in the city. Read the rest of this entry »
The Plaid Mystery
I don’t think there’s a quick explanation for it, but what is up with so much red plaid everywhere? Honestly, it can’t just be about the holiday season and the obvious red color scheme because this has been around for much of the year. And while this is a completely unscientific observation, I think I have a few hunches as to why this bold print seems to linger, and probably will so, even after we all take down our Christmas trees and store our ornaments from this holiday season. Read the rest of this entry »
Funny, when I go to McDonald’s, it’s usually for fast (emphasis on “fast”) food—a quick burger, fries, drink. Nothing special, really. But did you know you could also linger around, open up your laptop and surf the web as you stuffed your mouth with Chicken McNuggets and Filet-o-Fish sandwiches?
Well, at approximately 11,000 (out of 14,000) Mickey D’s around the country, you can get this Wifi service, except that it will cost you a little less than the #1 (Big Mac) meal deal –a whopping $2.95 for two hours of access time. That’s just enough time to linger at a McDonald’s perhaps without people thinking you have no life. But why pay for this service? Why not go to a place like Starbucks, or even park outside and access what is essentially free Wifi access, as long as you have some kind AT&T phone service? Read the rest of this entry »
It’s been a long time coming. Finally, after 50 years of enduring nationwide noise pollution, the House passed a bill yesterday that would turn down the volume on loud television advertisements. There’s even a cutesy acronym slapped onto the act: Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation, or CALM. Read the rest of this entry »
Before the main US trade show for cars, held next month in Detroit at the North American Auto Show, Los Angeles holds an annual display, bringing together many new models and concept vehicles for the public to see.
Overall, the show at the LA Convention Center is important for the volume of cars held in three cavernous halls. And even if Detroit still rules supreme because it attracts the world media for the occasional “world” debuts and the annual announcements of the cars of the year, LA is still a pretty fine show.
Here are some of the more impressive new models that I saw last weekend: Read the rest of this entry »
Along with Entertainment Weekly I celebrate the weekly wonder that is Jane Lynch, who plays the balls-to-wall coach on one of this year’s most vibrant new TV shows, “Glee”. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week’s trifecta of tacky behavior –Joe Wilson, in a historic first, heckling the President before a formal address to Congress, Serena Williams screaming expletives and threats at a line-judge at match point at the US Open, and a drunk Kanye West grabbing the mike from winner Taylor Swift at the MTV VMAs—was a strangely aligned set of events that have underlined what many have suspected about social civility in the US: it is rapidly withering away. Read the rest of this entry »
(More) Cash For Clunkers
By all accounts, the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program, launched this week, has been a success. Many Americans have flocked to car dealerships across the country in hopes of turning in their heaps for a rebate of up to $4500 towards the purchase of more efficient car. That’s the hope of the new program. We’re being told that this spending incentive will not only spur the economy out of its miserable recession, but also help reduce the carbon footprint in our car-obsessed society. Read the rest of this entry »
Namechk is a useful site that allows its users to find out if their favorite username or vanity url has been taken on just about every social networking site known to man (80+).
How it works: Go to the site, type your standard Internet moniker, and Namechk will quickly search and find if your “johnnyfortran8″ is available to use on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Vox and many others.
On the flip side, if you’re in the final stages of erasing your name and presence from the Internet in an attempt to Become Web Dead, you can use the service as a means to verify that you’ve actually wiped clean all of your accounts — even the obligatory services you signed up for in an attempt to get that one piece of information you couldn’t live without. Give it a shot. Read the rest of this entry »
The Barrier is Broken: A Sub $100 Blu-ray Player
So now we finally have it. For all of you HD movie aficionados who’ve been holding out on buying a Blu-ray player in the hope that the psychological $100 price barrier would be broken: your day has come. Read the rest of this entry »
