Technology News

With 3G, iPad Comes into Its Own - Network Permitting

Source: All About Jazz
May 6, 2010

Like the iPhone before it, the iPad has the potential to change your life.

No exaggeration: Once you live with one for a few weeks, you'll find it insinuating itself into your daily routine so much that you can't imagine living without it.

(If you're a man, get used to wearing a murse.)

With more than a million of the devices sold to date, clearly something is clicking, and not just with 99-year-olds. But the 3G iPad, which went on ...

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Skype to Make Group Video Chat the Next Killer Webcam Feature

Source: Michael Ricci
May 6, 2010

Starting next week, Skype will begin beta testing a new group video chat feature on Windows PCs.

The feature will let up to five people join in on a video chat simultaneously, which is a big leap from Skype's current video chat limitation of two users. Group video chat will initially be available for free, but Skype plans to start charging for it within three to four months, along with other new features. The company also plans to bring the ...

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Embedding Tweets in Blog Posts

Source: Michael Ricci
May 6, 2010

A new Twitter tool called Blackbird Pie will now allow website owners to embed a tweet into their blog posts or articles.

When viewed on the user's site, readers can view the tweeter's profile picture, click on links within the tweet, and even view hashtags. Blackbird Pie was developed by Twitter employee Robin Sloan and is available on the company's media site. In order to embed tweets into their sites, users need to input a tweet's link into Blackbird Pie. ...

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iPad Keyboard: Pricey and Awkward, Must-Have for Productivity

Source: All About Jazz
May 6, 2010

As beautiful as they may be, virtual keyboards cant replace the speed and precision of typing on physical keys. If you actually plan on doing work on an iPad, you should probably buy Apples integrated keyboard-and-dock. Once you attach your iPad to the dock, you can begin typing in basically any app that has a text field: e-mails, URL addresses, documents, etc. No setup is required. If you want, you can plug your iPad power cable into the back of ...

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Facebook Glitch Brings New Privacy Worries

Source: Michael Ricci
May 6, 2010

For many users of Facebook, the worlds largest social network, it was just the latest in a string of frustrations. Facebook asks users to link information in their profiles, which makes that information public. On Wednesday, users discovered a glitch that gave them access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations. Not long before, Facebook had introduced changes that essentially forced users to choose between making information about their interests available to anyone ...

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Who Needs Flash? The Tipping Point

Source: All About Jazz
May 5, 2010

In just months, from seemingly nowhere, Apples solo campaign to dethrone Flash as the de facto standard for web video has gathered enough momentum to get over the top. The question is no longer whether HTML5 will or should do the job, but when. Last week signaled the tipping point, when Microsoft confirmed HTML5 video support would be included in the next version of Internet Explorer, which is due later this year. That move will swing the percentage of browsers ...

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The Changing Typography of the Web

Source: Michael Ricci
May 4, 2010

Since the World Wide Webs earliest days, whether you were shopping on Amazon or researching on Google or catching up on news at latimes.com, chances are you were looking at just one of four typefaces -- Arial, Verdana, Georgia or Times -- each formulated for computer monitors and trusted by web designers to display properly on your screen. In other words, a seventh-grader writing a book report on Microsoft Word had more font choices than the person designing Esquire Magazine's ...

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Noise-Canceling Earbuds Have Got Your Concha Covered

Source: All About Jazz
May 4, 2010

Yamaha EPH-50 Headphones. For avid earbud users (and abusers) the entire concept of “noise-canceling" is a feature that just never seems to work correctly. No matter how snug the bud, there's just no way to eliminate the clamor of the outside world (especially for those of us who work in places as rowdy as Wired). Yamaha's EPH-50 headphones may not change any minds about this, but their slick albeit slightly goofy design offers hope. The EPH-50s are fairly standard in-ear ...

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