iPods are nifty. But you are immune to their charms if you don't want to stick in earbuds and listen to music. They don't do anything that isn't fun. The Wizpy does what the i-Pod does, and a whole lot more. Sporting a...Read more...
Dell's discovered that prospective customers are doing a kind of discounting of their own: They're discounting the likelihood of ever seeing their mail in rebates, due to the complexity and hassle of applying for them. So Dell is simplifying pricing of their Dimension Desktops and...Read more...
The reason spammers send out all those e-mails that no one in their right mind will respond to is that it's essentially free to do so. If one person in a billion sends them dough, they're golden. But e-mail advertisers would tailor their messages more closely to their prospective...Read more...
Hey look, just in time to get Thanksgiving recipes from faraway mom: Berggi announces e-mail service for your cheap, dumb cellphones. Babur Ozden, the head of Berggi Inc., said his company plans to offer a simplified alternative...Read more...
I don't expect the X-Box/Playstation 3 argument to go away anytime soon. It's almost as bad a Brady/ Manning arguments. (Brady's much better, by the way) Chris Suellentrop over at Slate took a look at the new consoles, and decided the big, expensive ones have lost sight of the potential of plain old virtual reality in a game. But...Read more...
Well, no one's shot one another over a Wii yet, but it's still early. The media might run out of Playstation 3 horror stories, so you never know. Nintendo's new Wii gaming platform launch is kind of flying under the radar. But it's cheap, and new, and innovative. And you...Read more...
Intel was wandering around the world with a billion dollars burning a hole in their pocket, looking for a place to build a semiconductor factory. My, how times have changed. Intel could...Read more...
It's easy to load your music onto an iPod. It's that ease of use that made the little player the industry standard. But you're locked out if you want to transfer your music off your iPod. Wired News examines a half dozen software solutions that allow you to retrieve your goodies...Read more...
Variety has a mildly amusing obituary for the Vertical Helical Scan format. After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old. No services are planned. The format had been expected to survive...Read more...
According to Sean Cooper over at Slate, the current footrace to see what format will become the industry standard for next generation Hi Definition entertainment is a moot point, before it really even begins. Hmm... I hope he realizes you can only watch Hudson Hawk on Betamax for so long before you get the urge to upgrade your hardware....Read more...
Well, as is often the case, the criminals aren't all that smart, but they sure are clever. These fellows in Manchester, England, grabbed transaction information right off the telephone line that connects cash machines to the telephone system: Parsons or other gang members would use MP3...Read more...
Sony just started selling an 18X DVD Burner. But when you've got your ripper software workin', you don't have time to waste. Lite-On ups the ante with 20X Lite-On launched two 20x internal models: the LH-20A1P and the LH-20A1H, the latter equipped with LightScribe to burn...Read more...
Well, this kind of make it official. Here's a review of Microsoft's Zune player, and it's featured on a news outlet with Microsoft in its name: msnbc, and they no likey much. Lately I've been playing with the fruits of that...Read more...
More and more people are picking up on the opportunity to get their education without sitting in a classroom. 3.2 million people, according to ars technica: According to a new report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education, more students than ever before have been taking...Read more...
Nintendo and Sony will have their hardware on shelves in a week or so. X-Box has had a year's running start. The safe bet is nearly no one is going to purchase all three of the major gaming consoles. Too much dough. So which box is your box? Microsoft's Xbox 360 has enjoyed an entire...Read more...
Why would you want the telephone company to replace your copper wires with fiber-optic service? Duh. "It's insanely better," he said. "I downloaded Microsoft SQL Server Service Pack 1, a...Read more...
Not really. But Google has pioneered the business model of giving away a service for the privilege of showing you a small advertisement. They think the time is about right for cell phones to do the same. Web search leader Google Inc.'s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, sees a future where mobile...Read more...
Excellent video report from CNET's Rich DeMuro on the PS3. Great piece of theater as he whips out a screwdriver and takes the console out of the glass box Sony was displaying it in. And finally, someone remembers to point a camera...Read more...
Finally someone asks the correct question about Microsoft's new Vista OS. It's not "How well does it work?" It should be: "How well will it work on the musty old rig I'm going to try to run it on?"...Read more...
Sony Computer Entertainment wanted to make sure you could play your PS2 games on a PS3. So they put PS2 hardware right in it. That won't last, and an emulator will eventually replace it. So will all your PS2 games work on the PS3...Read more...
If all you needed was a spreadsheet and Word, all computers would have an inch of dust on them and would have yellowed to the color of smoker's teeth. But computer gamers were never satisfied. They demanded ever more powerful GPUs...Read more...
Disney has announced that it's going to develop its own games for the Nintendo's Wii console gaming platform. Why not just license their characters to other developers? There's money in them there pixels, and Disney wants to...Read more...