Archive | May, 2010
Seagate’s FreeAgent GoFlex Drives: The News is in the Cable
(Full disclosure: As I blogged last week, Technologizer is throwing a party called SpringThing tonight in San Francisco. Our sponsor is Seagate, who will be demoing the products I discuss here.)
External hard disks are one of the most universally useful gadgets known to techkind. And they’re all pretty similar: For the most part, differences involve the quantity of gigabytes you get for your money, the industrial design of the case, and maybe the software the manufacturer bundles. But Seagate has come up with an interesting twist for FreeAgent GoFlex, a new update to all the products in its FreeAgent Go line of portable external drives–it’s making the interface part of the cable, rather than part of the drive.
Twitter Makes Republishing Tweets Easy (in Theory)
4. May 2010
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Twitter has launched Blackbird Pie, a neat tool for creating static versions of tweets you can paste into other sites. It solves a problem I’ve had for a long time (and which I’ve solved via various methods–this and this). I’d show it to you right here, except…I can’t get it to work. (It involves pasting HTML and CSS code into your site, and WordPress, which I use, is sometimes unhappy with raw code.) It’s still a great idea, and maybe I’ll figure out a workaround.
An Even Faster Chrome
4. May 2010
This just in from Google: It’s released new Chrome betas which it says are 35% faster on the SunSpider benchmark and 30% faster on the V8 benchmark than the ones they replace. (Google tends to be shy about explicit comparisons with rivals, so I’m not sure how the new versions compare to the other two fastest-browser-on-the-planet contenders, Opera and Safari.)
And here’s a photo showing Google having fun testing Chrome’s speed:
Ning Shares (Some) Details on Its Future
4. May 2010
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This morning, I received a cheery e-mail from Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal with more information on the build-your-own-social-network’ service’s decision to end free networks in favor of focusing on ones whose organizers pay a fee to Ning.
(Maybe a tad too cheery–he refers to “new and exciting changes.” The prices look reasonable if you were already paying Ning or were inclined to start doing so, and the company says it’s going to add a bunch of new features, such as HD support. But an acknowledgment that most of the people currently operating free networks won’t be instantly thrilled with the idea of losing them might have been in order.)
Real’s GameHouse Builds a Social-Gaming Platform
4. May 2010
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GameHouse–the casual gaming arm of RealNetworks that’s been around under one name or another for a decade–is trying to respond in a big way to the rise of social games, virtual gifts, the Facebook platform, and other trends reflected in wildly popular games such as FarmVille. At the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, it’s launching a platform of its own it calls GameHouse Fusion–a set of services designed to help game developers bake social features into their products. They include everything from simple social stuff like leaderboards to special trophies gamers can create themselves; virtual goods; hosting and ad-sales services; and more. And they’re designed for browser-based games (including ones built for both the Facebook and OpenSocial platforms), downloadable ones, and ones for the iPhone and other mobile phones.
Iomega Network Storage Goes Way High End
4. May 2010
Back in 2008, enterprise storage titan EMC bought Iomega, the venerable consumer/small-business storage provider best known for the once-ubiquitous Zip drive. Iomega still makes plenty of low-priced consumery products, but it’s been interesting to watch the EMC-owned Iomega emphasize more business-oriented network products. And never more than today: The company is announcing the StorCenter ix12-300r, a rack-mounted network storage unit with twelve bays, giving it the ability to hold up to 24TB of storage.
Black Wii With MotionPlus: Vital Steps for Nintendo
3. May 2010
Do not be fooled by the slick black veneer of Nintendo’s latest Wii model. The most important part of this game console facelift is that it includes Wii MotionPlus for not a penny more than the existing white Wii.
Nintendo announced that the black Wii will be sold for $200 starting May 9. It still includes one Wii remote, one Nunchuk attachment and a copy of the iconic Wii Sports, but Nintendo will also throw in the MotionPlus, which attaches to the remote and greatly improves the accuracy of motion controls in games that support it. A copy of Wii Sports Resort, another mini-game collection that showcases the MotionPlus, is included as well.
The extra hardware is necessary as Microsoft and Sony prepare to show off their own motion controllers to the world. E3, gaming’s biggest trade show, falls in mid-June, and it’ll probably be packed with waving arms, flailing legs and jiggling bodies trying out the new technology. The Playstation Move is like a more sophisticated Wii remote, able to sense not only motion, but positioning in the real world. The Xbox 360′s contraption, codenamed Project Natal, does away with controllers and tracks the entire body in three-dimensional space. Both motion controllers should be available by the holidays.
Even with MotionPlus, the Wii is technologically inferior, but Nintendo has a huge base of customers that it could wow with one really solid app. For instance, the next Legend of Zelda game is confirmed to support MotionPlus, and is tentatively scheduled for this year. Bundling MotionPlus means Nintendo can develop games like Zelda while building the number of people who can play them.
And for potential customers, you can’t beat a $200 console with two games included. To compete, Microsoft and Sony will need motion-controlled games that blow the mind, because Nintendo’s got the “good enough” market cornered.
Hands On With the Sony Dash (Widgety)
3. May 2010
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As I proclaimed (on camera) at CES earlier this year, 2010 ushers in a new category of media consumption devices. Something us geeks have dabbled with for ages, but the trend is finally making its way into the mainstream. And while I actually missed the Sony Dash at CES, it landed on my radar big time when Netflix streaming was announced in February.
Please, Google, No 3D Android Interface Just Yet
3. May 2010
If you love a company and Google buys it, worry. That’s been my conclusion lately. And the latest evidence is the company’s acquisition of BumpTop, the company behind a cool 3D desktop interface. So far, the news for BumpTop fans is bad: The product is being discontinued and even people who have paid for it have to deal with that nasty concept “end-of-life support.”
I’m curious about Google’s intentions for the technology. It hasn’t said anything so far, but the most logical assumption is that it intends to use what it’s bought in Android and/or Chrome OS.
Good News, Bad News for Apple
3. May 2010
The good news for Apple? It’s already sold a million iPads, more than twice as many as the original iPhone had sold at this point in its history. The bad news, at least according to the New York Post? The Department of Justice and the FTC are trying to figure out which of them should be investigating Apple over its decision to prevent iPhone developers from using cross-platform tools that would allow for easy creation of apps for both the iPhone and other handsets.
The iPad vs. Everything Else
2. May 2010
Photographs by Robert Cardin
(Note: This story is republished from PCWorld.com, with permission–and is also in the June PCWorld print issue.)
What, precisely, is the iPad? Compared with its iconic ancestors, the iPod and the iPhone, that’s a surprisingly tough question to answer. It runs the same operating system as the iPhone–but you can’t make phone calls on it. It has been hailed as the gadget that may save the publishing industry–though its e-reader software, which isn’t preinstalled, does not display magazines and newspapers. It features a bevy of games–but it’s neither an Xbox 360-killer nor a handheld device like a Nintendo DSi.
Most paradoxically of all, the iPad takes on the Windows world of netbooks and even more full-featured PCs, though it doesn’t run all Web apps. Or print. Or provide a file system that lets you get to all your documents in any app. Those shortcomings would make the very concept of competing with PCs laughable, if weren’t for the way its small size, touch interface, and impressive battery life add up to one of the best devices ever built for consuming content of all kinds, from Web pages to books to feature films. It’s both more fundamentally limited than a PC and an exciting sneak peek at where interfaces are likely to go–which is why it makes much more sense as a supplement to the other computers in your life than as a replacement for any of them.
In short, Apple’s tablet competes with an array of existing devices without mimicking any of them. And the best way to figure out whether it’s a plausible alternative to a PC, an e-reader, a game console, or any other better-established gizmo is to give it a whirl. So we did–read on to see what we found. (For more coverage, browse to go.pcworld.com/ipad.)
Seven Handy Firefox Add-Ins and Tweaks
2. May 2010
I know many of you still stubbornly use Internet Explorer (hello, Carl). I used to, as well. But Firefox, with all its lovely add-ons and tweaks, is just more fun to use.
Let’s start with a something you might not know about: Firefox’s hidden visual tab switching tweak. Right now, you can use Ctrl-Tab to cycle through Firefox’s tabs. But if you’re using Firefox 3.6, the current revision, this tweak will give you a visual look at the tabs, just like using Alt-Tab in Windows.
How to Take Control of Facebook Privacy
1. May 2010
(Here’s another story I wrote for FoxNews.com.)
If you think the whole Web is suddenly looking more like Facebook, you’re not imagining things. At its developer conference last week, the 800-pound gorilla of social networks made a bevy of announcements — and all the biggies involved intermingling your life as a Facebook user with other activities around the Internet.
For instance, a new Like button that’s already been rolled out on countless sites — including FoxNews.com — lets you “Like” items such as news articles, and see which your Facebook pals have liked. You can do so right at the site in question, but every time you click Like, your recommendation gets posted to your wall at Facebook, too.
Facebook is working with a handful of sites to implement even tighter integration. Listen to music at Pandora, for instance, and the online radio service may play music by artists that you’ve expressed a fondness for back on Facebook.
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