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Saturday, September 13, 2008

G4's Tech News Countdown

Allison Haislip brings us the top 5 tech news stories of the week in Tech News Countdown. It's brief but covers the big stories in true G4 style. I prefer a little more commentary but this is a decent wrap up. Check it out.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Sticky Note Performance Art

More fun from the folks at Eepybird.com! Check it out...


EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Program TiVo From Your Blackberry

In one of several press releases from Research In Motion yesterday, the Blackberry manufacturer announced a new partnership with TiVo! "TiVo subscribers will soon be able to wirelessly control their TiVo DVRs using a BlackBerry smartphone - anytime, anywhere - and that is a powerful example of how our respective technologies can complement each other to serve our mutual customers," said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion. The initial offering allows subscribers to both services to discover what's on television and schedule recordings "while away from the living room and on the go." Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo Inc said "RIM and TiVo share a commitment to great user experiences, which cause our products to become seamlessly integrated into the consumer's lifestyle. We also share a vision for the future of mobile entertainment services and we look forward to a variety of future innovations as a result of this relationship." Now if only the Blackberry could control the popcorn maker...

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Canadian Politicians Turn To Twitter During Election

As Canadians prepare to go to the polls on October 14th, Canadian politicians are using every means at their disposal to get their message out. These days that means they are turning more and more to the Internet in an attempt to be heard and appear relevant. Most recently, with the call of the election, I've discovered a number of Canadian politicians who have chosen to follow the likes of Barak Obama and try their hands at Twitter, or so it would seem. As of this morning @PMHarper has made 10 tweets and has attracted 454 followers, NDP leader @jacklayton has made 16 tweets and attracted 467 followers, while Liberal leader @stephanedion posted a single tweet a year ago and has racked up 53 followers. It doesn't appear as though many Canadian voters have migrated to twitter or perhaps they just don't want their social networks infiltrated by election talk? In any event it will be interesting to see who uses the medium effectively and whether or not the numbers reflect the popularity of the parties or their leaders. If this is the case we may be in for some interesting results!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Slim Is In At Apple

Preparing for the holiday season, Apple has introduced new thin iPods including a new Nano that features a "shake to shuffle" mode allowing you to give the device a shake in order to shuffle the play list. According to the BBC "...Mr Jobs unveiled Apple's new Genius function which allows users to create automatic playlists from the iPod's library with the click of a button." the genius function is available on both the Nano and on a new improved iPod Touch that also includes volume buttons on the outside of the case and an external speaker for casual listening. "These are evolutionary products with some revolutionary new features," Michael Gartenburg, vice president of Jupiter Media told the BBC. "Apple has done it again. They have reinvented the line in a way to capture mainstream consumers' hearts and minds and doing at a price point that is extremely affordable."

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Google To Scan Newspapers And Make Archive Available

Google has launched a new initiative that sees them working with newspaper publishers to to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online. According to the official Google blog "You’ll be able to explore this historical treasure trove by searching the Google News Archive or by using the timeline feature after searching Google News. Not every search will trigger this new content, but you can start by trying queries like [Nixon space shuttle] or [Titanic located]." Currently the project has the support of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph the oldest newspaper in North America having been publishing continuously for more than 244 years. It's a blast looking back into the past to see what was making news, and the old Blondie cartoons are a hoot!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Podcast Consumption Up

The PEW Internet & American Life Project has conducted surveys over the past couple of years regarding America's downloading habits as they pertain to Podcasts. In a report published in August of this year the group has found that Internet users who have ever downloaded a podcast went from 7% in February of '06 to 19% in May of this year. Users who download podcasts on a daily basis went from 1% to 3% over the same time period. Check out the pdf version of the report here.

Panel Says Particle Collision Experiment No Threat To Earth / Humans

This week CERN will fire up it's particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland. The Large Hadron Collider lies in a 27-kilometre-long underground circuit and is set to begin low-energy operations on September 10th. Despite fears among the general populace, the group in charge of safety at the facility says in a report that the experiment poses no threat to mankind. "Nature has already conducted the equivalent of about a hundred thousand LHC experimental programs on Earth – and the planet still exists," they wrote. Physicists from around the globe will be involved in the experiment that aims to answer "the secrets behind the laws of the universe, both on the tiny scale of quantum mechanics and the huge domain of galaxies and black holes." CBC Story here.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Seinfeld - Gates Ad - Huh?

Microsoft's new ad campaign said to cost $300 million was kicked off on Thursday night with a 90 second spot during NBC's National Football League season opener. The first ad features Jerry Seinfeld spotting Bill Gates trying on shoes in a discount shoe store and the usual Seinfeld zaniness ensues. I can only assume that the follow up ads will shed some light on the message that the company is trying to get out there... the ads had been touted as showing Microsoft as being more hip, and were meant to combat the extremely successful Apple - John Hodgman I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC ads. You be the judge...


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