Status Update: Facebook Is Letting Users Drop the "Is"
Facebook has caved into popular demand and will make the "is" in status updates optional, effective tonight, according to allfacebook.com. — The much despised "is" has been a mandatory component of ...
Firefox 3 Beta 1 now available for download
Please note: We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 Beta 1 milestone release. It is intended for testing purposes only. — Firefox 3 Beta 1 is now a...
iPhone Doesn't Send IMEI Information to Apple [Rumor Smashed]
OK, you can take your tinfoil hats off now. German site Heise Online has tested Hackint0sh user XianLi's claims about the iPhone sending its IMEI to Apple while accessing the web. According to Heise...
MoveOn.org takes on Facebook's 'Beacon' ads
Online activist group MoveOn.org is poised to announce a campaign targeting Facebook's "Beacon" advertisements, which post information about users' activity on partner sites (movie rentals, purchases ...
Pay Me for My Content
INTERNET idealists like me have long had an easy answer for creative types — like the striking screenwriters in Hollywood — who feel threatened by the unremunerative nature of our new Eden: stop whini...
The 20 Worst Venture Capital Investments of All Time
Catastrophic collapses and classic crashes in the high-tech business world. — Some things were just never meant to be, but that doesn't mean that investors won't pile millions of dollars upon a bad ...
What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?
Today I want to ponder the question: what if Microsoft, not Google, had created Gmail? What would be the differences in that web mail client for users today? What if we apply some of the same design...
IT security failure causes UK Revenue & Customs (HMRC) chairman to resign
Two weeks ago, I raised serious questions about IT governance in the UK at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). At that time, the agency lost a CD containing private information belonging to 15,000 people in...
The Blogosphere Needs A Vacation
What's the top news story on TechMeme this fine Tuesday afternoon? — It's a story about the sudden disappearance of the word "is" from Facebook's status message yesterday. Then, today, it reappeare...
Best Buy Black Friday Bonus Doorbusters Announced [Black Friday]
Just as we suspected, Best Buy has been holding out on us with the Black Friday Dealios. Top of the list of these Bonus Doorbuster deals is a notebook, a Toshiba A135-7404 for $229 that will also inc...
Apple Mail in Leopard with the same old error
In March 2006 Apple defused a security problem in Apple Mail that made it possible to inject disguised malignant code. In Leopard, the patch was apparently forgotten. This means that you can inadver...
The Google Set-Top Box (Think Android For TV)
Deep in the Googleplex there is an engineering team thinking about how to extend Google's reach into your TV. Its work goes way beyond the Google TV ads currently being tested by EchoStar (and target...
Clickable Raises Another $3 Million, Officially Adds Jonathan Miller to Board
Advertising technology startup Clickable has raised another $3 million from its lead investors Union Square Ventures and Pequot Ventures, in a follow-on round to the $3 million it raised last July, co...
An Open Letter to Comcast and Every cable/Telco on P2P - updated
I'm not a Comcast customer. I happen to get service from Verizon, ATT and Time Warner at various locations where I pay for internet service. — If I was a Comcast customer, I would tell them, as I a...
Former AOL Chair Backs New Search Tech Startup 'Clickable'
NEW YORK-BASED CLICKABLE ANNOUNCED THAT former AOL Chairman and CEO Jonathan Miller has joined the company's Board of Directors. — The announcement comes on the heels of the search tech startup's na...
Sony expands PlayStation store to PCs, PSPs
Sony on Tuesday announced that it is opening up its PlayStation Store—an online source of downloadable games and other content—to PC users. No longer will the store be the exclusive province of owner...
HP's sales keep expanding
Profit tops expectations and the company sees continued strong revenue growth. — Demand for laptop computers spurred sales and elevated profit at Hewlett-Packard Co. during the latest quarter. — H...
Introducing the PLAYSTATION Store for PC
I'm excited to share some breaking news with you, our loyal PlayStation.Blog readers. In his last post, Peter Dille promised a major focus on the PLAYSTATION Network and exclusive gaming content avai...
With one update (or 'tweet'), Zude now cross posts to Facebook, Twitter, and Jaiku all at once
Going back to my post on the Twitterization of mainstream media whereby, instead of engaging in link-blogging, I'm using the short messaging service Twitter to post shorter news items to the right sid...
Mediadefender hack costs company 825,000 USD
Those 6000 Mediadefender emails that leaked onto the web in September cost the anti-piracy outlet dearly: A recent SEC filing of Mediadefender parent ArtistDirect reveals that the company lost at leas...
Google Transfers A LOT of Domains
All of these domains were transferred to Google name servers in the past week or so. They are also all registered to Google Inc. You'll see lots …
Webisodes of 'Lost': Model Deal for Writers?
On the picket lines, striking television and film writers adamantly claim that studios are refusing to pay for the use of writers' scripts on the Internet. — But ABC Studios is doing just that. Ove...
Open Letter To Senators Hatch & Kohl About Google-DoubleClick
Today, US senators Herb Kohl and Orrin Hatch published a letter (PDF) urging the US Federal Trade Commission to carefully consider the proposed Google-DoubleClick deal. Sure, who doesn't agree with a...
Bell to offer unlimited wireless data
With the iPhone expected to land in the lap of a key rival, Bell Canada Inc. is hoping to make its own splash by offering a competing touch-screen device with what appears to be the country's first un...
The Social Media Manual: Read Before You Play
I get so many questions from people about Digg, Propeller, Reddit, Stumbleupon and other social news sites every day, that I decided to write this little "manual" as something to read before you jump ...
Amazon Reading Device Doesn't Need Computer
Jeff Bezos knows that the world is not exactly clamoring for another way to read electronic books. — "If you go back in time, the landscape is littered with the bodies of dead e-book readers," Mr. B...
Meebo's Got Game
If you're looking for a killer app on the Internet and are unwilling to get into pornography, gaming is your best bet. So when Meebo opened their platform last month to third party developers, it was...
25m child benefit records lost
Alistair Darling has blamed mistakes by junior officials at HM Revenue and Customs after details of 25 million child benefit recipients were lost. — The Chancellor said information, including bank d...
Verizon Continues to Dramatically
NEW YORK - Millions of consumers now can take advantage of ultra-fast Verizon FiOS Internet upload speeds that blow cable away.
1GB write-once SanDisk memory cards to cost $5.99?
Remember how Sandisk was flirting with read-only, cheap-archival storage based on their new "3D memory' back in February? Well, it sounds like they're about to commit. We just received a tip from a ...
Hikari Rro920, the World's tiniest projector!
Looking for the pocket projector? When choosing a pocket projector, look out for the light-weight and color accuracy. — Oculon, maker of award-winning, high-quality presentation and display product...
Vodafone blocks iPhone in Germany
It's a 'pretty poor experience', so you can't have it — Vodafone has won an injunction preventing T-Mobile from selling the iPhone in Germany. T-Mobile is Apple's exclusive carrier partner in Europ...