Any university student who has ever purchased a used textbook knows that there are sometimes strange surprises hiding between those pages. Usually they come in the form of messy scribbles, but in one student's case the unexpected gift-with-a-textbook-purchase was a bag of cocaine.
Toss on your beer holder sweat shirt, mix up a drink in your football cocktail shaker to pass around, and chill a six-pack in your human organ transplant cooler: It's time for the Super Bowl!
As much as we like having access to our own music in the cloud, it's also nice to have it on our computers (especially for syncing with standalone MP3 players).
Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning.
With the big Super Bowl game just around the corner, here's a guide to help you pick the HDTV that is best for viewing the annual spectacle.
Twitter announced Thursday that it would begin restricting Tweets in certain countries, marking a policy shift for the social media platform that helped propel the popular uprisings recently sweeping across the Middle East.
Teens ages 13 and up in the U.S. can now join Google's social network, Google+, although the search giant said it is adding safety measures for younger users. While it didn't say so, it adds to Google's efforts to get more users on Google+.
The next time you make a particularly strange typo, don't throw your keyboard out the window — instead just smile. Smile, because it's possible for a simple typo to lead to a marriage.
Israel is often referred to as "Startup Nation," thanks to its long history of high-tech breakthroughs produced by scrappy little companies. But in one critical area, the speed of Internet connections, Israel has fallen behind other tech-savvy countries.
"Hang on! I need to let them know we're on our way," muttered a colleague as she stopped walking, pressed her back against a wall, and started tapping out a text message. I stared at her, confused. Why couldn't she keep walking while sending the text message?
Chad Ochocinco, meet the speaker of the U.S. House. On Twitter, of course.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has a problem, a $98 billion problem.
Aerosmith's Steven Tyler might've sung about a "dude [who] looks like a lady," but Google's convinced that a lady has the Internet browsing habits of a dude. Thankfully there's a decent explanation for this quirky inaccuracy.
Generate and customize your word cloud with dozens of settings and combinations.
Wordle is a simple Web app that's useful for creating eye-popping "word clouds" just by inputting text.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but with Wordle, a thousand words is worth a word cloud. (Try saying that out loud a thousand times.)
Wordle lets you create custom word clouds like the ones found on blogs and other Internet content sites. A word cloud is a popular visualization of words typically associated with Internet keywords and text data. They are most commonly used to highlight popular or trending terms based on frequency of use and prominence.
In order to create a word cloud on Wordle, simply go to the homepage and click on the Create tab. Wordle will directly guide you to the creation process, with no barriers to entry like sign-ups or Facebook log-ins. Simply provide the text by either typing in words or copying and pasting words from an outside source such as a news article, an essay, or even an RSS feed. Once you're finished, hit the Submit button and voila! You just got yourself a fancy word cloud! Wordle will automatically generate a text cloud and emphasize the most prominent words. However, you're free to customize your clouds: tweak the font, layouts, or choose from a... [Read more] View More...
Google Earth 6.2 smooths over visually distracting patchworks, left, for a more realistic view of the planet.
Google has released Google Earth 6.2 to smooth over earlier versions' unsightly patchwork caused by stitching together widely varying satellite photographs.
The result is a more realistic and less distracting (though still optimistically cloudless) view of the planet.
Google Earth offers a terrific interactive view of the planet, complete with 3D buildings in some parts of the world. But I have to say, though, that I was more excited this week by a different digital view of Earth: NASA's Blue Marble shot posted on Flickr. It's a very high-resolution shot taken by NASA's Suomi NPP satellite designed to gather data for short-term weather forecasts and long-term climage-change study.
Meanwhile, back on Google Earth, other changes include the inevitable Google+ integration, in this case so people can post snapshots of various places to their Google social-network accounts, according to a blog post about the software.
And Google Earth 6.2 search gets Google Maps' autocompletion and now shows mo... [Read more] View More...
SAN FRANCISCO--The Macworld expo isn't what it once was, but you wouldn't know it from the excitement of both vendors and Mac faithful attending this year's show.
The show started today at Moscone Center West here, and though Macworld no longer attracts the big crowds and big-name vendors it once did, I saw plenty of enthusiastic vendors and showgoers checking out the latest wares for Mac and other Apple products.
When Apple stopped presenting at Macworld in 2009, everyone wondered what would become of the show. As Apple's launching point for new products until 2009, Macworlds of the past often took up two giant rooms at Moscone Center and everyone involved with making Macs, iPhones, and the products that surround them would come for the event. Ever since Apple stopped showing at Macworld and making product announcements on its own, the show has lost some of its magic, but you wouldn't know that by talking to some of the vendors on the floor.
In this slideshow, I give you a taste of what it's like to walk around the floor from my perspective. I couldn't take pictures of everything, but hopefully it will give those who have never been an idea of what it's like to check out the yearly Macworld show in its current state.
When troubleshooting OS X it helps to be prepared with an arsenal of tools that can help narrow down what exactly is contributing to the problems at hand. Having tools that help you investigate files, monitor system events and input or output, and control aspects of the hardware is very useful to have when trying to perform troubleshooting tasks.
If you want--or need--to troubleshoot a problem with your Mac, here are some recommended tools. You don't need to keep these on your system at all times, but knowing they're available makes them easy to access in the event a problem arises.
Streaming radio site Slacker Radio has a brand-new station that might get its more softhearted listeners in the mood for some love-making.
The new DJ-curated "Old School R&B" station takes you back in time with some of the silkiest hits from artists like Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and Etta James. But '80s babies (like me), don't fret, because the station also extends into our golden era with more-contemporary, yet still decidedly old-school, crooners like Mint Condition, Boyz II Men, and Maxwell.
Curated and socially programmed stations are available free to all Slacker users, through both the Web and Slacker's mobile apps (iPhone | Android | BlackBerry). Slacker also offers a premium account tier for $9.99 per month, which adds on-demand listening options, similar to Spotify.
McAfee Mobile Security 2.0
The latest update to McAfee Mobile Security opens a window onto app permissions and gives you a filter to screen out annoying communiques.
McAfee Mobile Security 2.0 (download for Android) arrived in the Android Market three days ago, and brings two new features to its already-robust set of options for Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian users. The new App Protection interprets how apps handle your personal and private data, and tells you whether those app permissions are risky. What it doesn't do is advise you what to do about those risks, but to be fair, none of the other permissions scanners available do, either.
The BlackBerry and Symbian versions will be available soon, according to McAfee. The BlackBerry version is due next Wednesday, although the Symbian version remains unscheduled.
There's also a new call and text-messaging filter that blocks calls and texts, based on a basic blacklist. Input a number, and never hear from it again. Features that have carried over from the previous version include antivirus scanning; anti-spyware and anti-phishing guards; Potentially Unwanted Program protection for preventing comm... [Read more] View More...
Soften the blow of forgetting to turn off your ringtones and notifications on Android.
You may recall the violinist who played the Nokia ringtone after a member of the audience forgot to silence his phone. Luckily, this gentleman had a sense of humor and decided to make light of the situation. Unfortunately, not everyone is so forgiving of interruptions. If you don't want to be that person, your best course of action is to completely silence or turn off your phone. But what if you forget?
Most people don't turn off their phone notifications until they arrive at their destination. This is likely why many movie theaters show a cute animated feature about silencing electronic devices before the actual movie starts. Since there isn't going to be an animated film to remind you each time your phone needs to be silenced, you can grab an app to help you out. If everything around you is relatively quiet, the app will lower the volume levels of ringtones and alerts.This is useful if your ringtone is set very high because your usual surroundings are very noisy (like a busy office, or even outdoors).
(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)
Step 1: Download RingDimmer from the Android Market.
[Read more] View More...
Do you want to become a real-life guitar hero, instead of just a virtual one on your gaming console?
Gibson Guitar, the world-renowned guitar maker, has an Android app that will help you learn to play a real guitar. Available for free in the Android Market, the Gibson Learn & Master Guitar app has just about everything a beginner could ask for. It even has video lessons for intermediate and advanced guitarists.
Tuner The first tab of the Gibson Guitar app is a guitar tuner, which you can use in chromatic or simple mode. You can also set the tunings to all notes, standard EADGBE, or others.
Metronome The second tab is the metronome that can help you establish a rhythm while you play. The time signature can be set to none, 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4. The beats-per-minute (BPM) settings range from 1 to 225 and you can even set your own tempo just by tapping on the Tap Tempo button.
Chords The third tab of the app is a library of chord charts that show you where to place your fingers on the fretboard, so you can practice playing chords (open and barre).
Lessons The fourth tab contains video lessons that are linked to 21 high-quality YouTube videos.
Bring the functionality of reopening your last browser tab to windows on your computer.
When organizing a lot of files, you'll also probably have a lot of different windows open. Move the pictures to this directory, move these documents to that work folder...oops, closed that work folder. Now you need to dig back through the directory hierarchy to open it and make your drag-and-drop organization method fast again. This annoying occurrence can be prevented with a simple app for Windows that will let you reopen your last-closed window.
Step 1: Download and extract UndoClose.
Step 2: Run the program by double-clicking on the program icon in the directory you extracted it to.
Step 3: Right-click on the System Tray icon and click on Settings from the menu that appears.
Step 4: Adjust the hot keys by first clicking on the area where the current hot key is displayed, and then pressing your new desired key combination. Click on the Change button to save these hot keys.
Step... [Read more] View More...
Google hopes to cut down on Web browsers' autofill confusion.
I'll be honest here. I disabled Chrome's autofill ability. I hate it.
Maybe it's because I have too many e-mail addresses, or even regular addresses--I moved a lot in the last couple years. Maybe it's because my wife and I use the same computer. Maybe it's because my international life involves too many formats for phone numbers, postal codes, and codes guichet.
But filling out forms is certainly tedious, so I was delighted to hear that there's going to be a way for Web developers to straighten this out.
Specifically, Google and others are working on a technology that will label fields on Web pages so that browsers can know what data they're supposed to fill in--e-mail address, phone number, or first name, for example.
Support for the "experimental" technology is now built into Chrome, Google programmer Ilya Sherman said in a blog post yesterday. Sherman also encouraged Web programmers to try the autofill feature out.
Next up: standardization.
"We've been working on this design in collaboration with several ... [Read more] View More...
Page-load speeds for the top 2,000 retail sites in 2011 loaded on average in 10 seconds, a Strangeloop study found. The median speed was 8.4 seconds.
Many Web developers have gotten the message: a faster site means people buy more, read more, interact more, and return more.
But apparently the message hasn't sunk in far enough, because the top 2,000 retail Web sites still take 10 seconds to load on average, according to a study by Strangeloop Networks released yesterday. The list of the top retail sites comes from Amazon's Alexa list of top sites.
Strangeloop is in the business of helping customers speed up their Web sites, so it has an agenda to push, but that shouldn't deter developers from taking a look at the study's findings.
One big issue in particular jumped out at me after a chat with Strangeloop President Joshua Bixby: Web developers should test their pages the way their readers see it, not the way they see it on their own machines.
Strangeloop's study uses a speed-testing tool called WebPagetest developed by Patrick Meenan, who started it at AOL but who now works for Google. That test adds delays called latency to round-... [Read more] View More...
Hewlett-Packard kicked the first open source component to WebOS out the door today, along with a calendar for when its source code will be completely open.
The first part of WebOS to go open is Enyo, which also received a version bump to 2.0 today. Enyo is a developer's tool for writing a single app that will work across multiple mobile devices and PC browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, iOS, Android, and WebOS itself.
The company plans to release several components per month from now until September. February will get the intended project governance model, QT WebKit extensions, JavaScript core, and UI Enyo widgets. March will see the standard Linux kernel, graphics extensions EGL, LevelDB, and USB extensions. Node services, Ares 2.0, and an update to Enyo land in April, followed by a break until July, when the Luna system manager, core applications, and Enyo 2.2 will be opened. August gets a build release model and an Open WebOS beta, with version 1.0 of the source code landing in September.
HP added that all WebOS code will be released under the Apache license.
As my colleague Roger Cheng noted in December when the company announced its decision to open WebOS, with the exception of Linux, the most successful open-source projects receive great scads of cash. What HP didn't reveal was... [Read more] View More...
Touch and drag to make as many words as you can in the 2-minute time limit.
Scramble With Friends (99 cents), a new game from Zynga, has rocketed to the top of the iTunes App Store with classic Boggle-like gameplay so you can challenge your friends.
Gaming company Zynga has enjoyed huge success with hit iOS games including Words with Friends, Hanging with Friends, and Texas hold-'em game Zynga Poker. A new word game from the company took the tried and true classic board game, Boggle, and made it into an iPhone-friendly multiplayer game that's as addictive and fun as the original.
When you finish a game, the points for each round are added up. Rumor Has It co-host Karyne Levy put me to shame in this game.
Like Boggle, the object of the game is to find as many words as you can in a jumbled grid of letters by connecting adjacent letters to form words. You can form words vertically, horizontally, and diagonally by touching a letter and swiping across more letters until you complete a word. You have 2 minutes to find as many words as possible. There's nothing new here for anyone who has played classic Boggle, but Zynga's familiar interface and easy social n... [Read more] View More...
Apple has made a few EFI firmware updates available this week for Mac users who own a MacBook, 13-inch MacBook Pro, or Mac Mini system from mid 2010, which give these computers the capability to start up the Lion recovery routine via the Internet. In addition, the Mac Mini update fixes a problem with the setting for restarting after a power failure not being retained.
The updates are small downloads of about 3MB in size that should be available via Software Update for relevant systems, but can also be downloaded from the following Apple Support Web pages:
The updates require OS X 10.7.2 to install, and when downloaded and run will provide on-screen instructions for how to apply the updates. Be sure to follow the instructions exactly, and have your system plugged into a reliable power source when updating. It is not uncommon for computer systems to restart multiple times and show temporary black screens when firmware updates are being applied, so allow the system to go through its steps without interruption. An interrupted firmware update can render a system inoperable, requiring replacement of major system components.
Wh... [Read more] View More...
The Mac SuperBundle, Winter 2012 Edition.
Interested in buying Parallels Desktop 7, the impossibly cool tool that lets you run Windows right on your Mac? That'll be $79.99, please.
Or, if you spring for the Mac SuperBundle, you can get Parallels Desktop 7 for $49--along with nine other handy Mac apps. Combined, these 10 programs are worth $471. Not a bad return on your 50 bucks!
Indeed, this is arguably one of the best Mac software bundles I've seen. It's available starting today, and for the next two weeks.
Here's the complete list of what you get:
You can find full descriptions of each app on the bundle page. Interestingly, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so it's about as no-risk a purchase as they come.
When you buy the bundle, you'll be able to download the programs immediately. However, if you want everything delivered to you on CD, you can add that option for an e... [Read more] View More...
Symantec is urging customers to disable PCAnywhere until it issues a software update to protect them against attacks that could result from the theft of the product's source code.
Someone broke into Symantec's network in 2006 and stole source code for PCAnywhere, which allows customers to remotely connect to other computers, as well as Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security and Norton SystemWorks, the company said last week. Earlier this month, hackers in India affiliated with the Anonymous online activist group said they had gotten the code off servers run by Indian military intelligence.
Hackers have threatened to use the pilfered code to attack companies using it and then release the code publicly. The affected products have been updated since 2007 so there is no risk to customers, except for PCAnywhere, Symantec said.
"Malicious users with access to the source code have an increased ability to identify vulnerabilities and build new exploits," the company said in a white paper (... [Read more] View More...
Diane Gilbert, a South Carolina teacher, shows off a Chromebook and says students like to customize them with skins.
Google has won over three school districts with its Chromebook vision, bringing more than 27,000 of the browser-based laptops to Iowa, Illinois, and South Carolina.
Rajen Sheth, Google's leader of Chromebook work for business and education, announced the deals in a speech today to the Florida Educational Technology Conference.
Including those three districts, Sheth said in a Webcast speech, "we now have hundreds of schools across 41 states that have outfitted at least one classroom with Chromebooks."
The support is a nice feather in the Chromebook cap, especially since today's impressionable, fast-learning students are tomorrow's technology buyers. But Google should also be paying attention to what one of its new Chromebook advocates had to say about what the students often want.
"Students love the tablet. I am not going to hide that from you," said Diane Gilbert, an English teacher at Kelly Mill Middle School in Blythewood, S.C., who's taught with tablets in her classroom. She added, though, that Chromebooks have a place: "They will bow down and kiss your feet for a tablet or ... [Read more] View More...
A new version of Firefox for Android uses the operating system's own user interface technology.
Mozilla could soon release a beta version of its dramatically overhauled Android browser, a crucial step in the organization's attempt to stay relevant in the tech industry's mobile transformation.
Or it might have to wait six weeks. And, given Mozilla's continuing absence from the explosively growing mobile market, every moment counts.
After the first versions of Firefox for Android browser suffered from slow startup, Mozilla chose to create an Android-only version that employed the native user interface of Google's mobile operating system. That meant forsaking add-ons that historically have been built with Mozilla's own XUL interface, but fixing the slow app launch was critical.
"Native UI is closing in on beta quality," Mozilla said in meeting notes this week. Added developer Mark Finkle in a blog post, "Start-up time is many times faster than the XUL version. Launching via the icon is almost instantaneo... [Read more] View More...
Ubuntu has announced a change to its version of Linux that ought to get hot-key junkies and voice-control enthusiasts alike to raise their heads with glee.
Ubuntu 12.04 will introduce in April a new Heads-Up Display for interacting with the operating system, wrote Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth. The HUD will allow you to "express your intent" with the operating system and the programs running on it, wrote Shuttleworth.
Currently, it's activated by hitting the Alt key, which opens a translucent box into which you can speak or type your commands. As you start to type the word Firefox, for example, the predictive menu will pull up launching Firefox as an option.
More than a streamlining of how the menu looks, though, Ubuntu 12.04 also will have extensive voice-command support. This Vocabulary User Interface, or VUI, will let you control Ubuntu by speaking to it. Shuttleworth explained that some of the benefits include fuzzy matching, in which imprecise commands are matched to user intent, and "smart" learning so the operating system can prioritize habitual behavior. It will also work with the system itself as well as the focused app. This means that the VUI is designed to let you go offline in Skype, or change your instant-message status through the HUD because, "those apps all talk to the indicator system."
"When you've been using it for a little while, it seems like it's rea... [Read more] View More...
Is there anything more viscerally satisfying than a car chase? Especially a cops-and-robbers chase that ends with the bad guys getting rammed into a concrete median?
That's the premise of Smash Cops (iTunes link), a thoroughly engaging new iOS game. You drive the squad car, chase down criminals, then do your best to smash and crash their getaway vehicles.
At first blush, Smash Cops ($2.99) resembles other top-down racing games, including Reckless Racing and Reckless Getaway. (The latter is pretty much the polar opposite of this game.) But here the view comes from an overhead TV-news helicopter, ostensibly broadcasting the action as it transpires. It's a neat gimmick, particularly the "breaking news"-style status updates.
Another big difference: the controls. Instead of steering your car with an onscreen wheel or left/right arrows or the like, you use a "push" method: you hold your finger behind the squad car to make it go, sliding left or right to steer.