Archive for the 'Da Web' Category

Will Apple’s iPad save magazines?

It seems Conde Nast is embracing the Apple iPad as its one and true savior. Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, and Wired are all getting gussied up for Apple’s WonderPad, according to the New York Times. Hey if you’re gonna do it, might as well start with the best.
I say, more [...]

Memo to Google: Buzz Off

I wake up each morning with the same mix of hope and dread. I hope Google will buy me for a princely sum and allow me to retire to some sandy beach where they serve mojitos 24/7. And I fear Google will simply invent a better version of me, forcing me to get a [...]

Google’s Super Bowl ad: Knocked up in Paris

The big event has passed, now it’s time for Monday morning quarterbacking and second guessing key decisions. I’m not talking about last night’s Super Bowl; I’m talking about the advertisements.
It’s an enduring testament to the cunning of Madison Avenue that the commercials interrupting the event are a much bigger story than the event itself. For [...]

Wikileaks: Going down for the last time?

We have interrupted our nonstop coverage of Apple iPad mania to bring you this important word about the freedom of information. And, more specifically, Wikileaks.org.
I’ve written about Wikileaks several times over the last few years, in part because it’s a classic example of why the Internet is such an extraordinary telecommunications tool.
Wikileaks is usually [...]

Information Imperialists unite! You have nothing to lose but your gmail.

Yes, "information imperialists." That’s what the People’s Republic of China is calling us now, thanks to Google and the US State Department. Hey, it’s as good a description as any.
The blowback against Google’s announcement that it was hacked by Chinese cyber agents– and in response would be lifting the restrictions that keep users of [...]

Facebook, Google, and China

So far, 2010 has started off with a bang. Google decides to take on Apple in the ultra-smart phone market, while Apple appears on the verge of creating yet another new market for touchscreen tablet PCs. Google says "bite me" to China, after Chinese cyber-attackers target it and three dozen other tech firms. Yahoo [...]

10 years later: What will the tech world look like in 2020?

It’s kind of hard to believe the first decade of the third millennium is almost over. Seems like only yesterday we were pulling out our hair worrying about Y2K; now we worry about whether enough total strangers are following the minutiae of our lives on Twitter and Facebook.
The last ten years have been dominated [...]

The 10 Dumbest Tech Moves of 2009

What do Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and AT&T all have in common? They’re all winners of Cringely’s awards for bringing low comedy to high tech.

Accidental downloads can land you in the slammer

Child porn is the third rail of the Internet: Come anywhere near that topic and you’re very likely to get jolted. As with terrorism, many otherwise rational people lose all reason when it comes to this topic. Question the tactics of those who oppose it, and you may be misconstrued as supporting it.
So, [...]

Axis of Evil: Microsoft Meets Murdoch

Is Microsoft planning a secret news cartel that will ace out Google? Are Steve Ballmer and Rupert Murdoch in cahoots? That’s the butt that’s been scuttling across the blogosphere this morning, as reports leak that Bing has offered to pay News Corp. actual cash dollars for exclusive rights to index its various properties (Wall [...]

Vaporware R Us: gPhones, Apple Tablets, & the CrunchPad

Apple Tablets? Google Phones? CrunchPads? Don’t expect to find any of those under the tree come Christmas. But that won’t stop people from writing about them.

Hey Facebook users, scammers have a crush on you

I’ve written a bit lately about how cyber thieves using social media to scam people. It turns out the most egregious scammers are many so-called “legitimate” companies that run deceptive ads on these networks.
TechCrunch has a fascinating series on how advertisers are using social games to trick Facebook and MySpace users into forking [...]

The robots are taking over the blogosphere

Online content factory Demand Media has a new way to generate blogs and videos, using software and a network of human drones. Welcome to your Web nightmare.

Amazon makes amends for Kindle blunder… to a point

Amazon says it will restore deleted eBooks to Kindles or give owners $30 for their pain. But that’s only part of what it needs to do to regain customers’ trust.

School for slander: Why anonymity is important

Google is at the heart of yet another Internet anonymity battle, this one between muckraking journalists and a Caribbean land developer. Will the search giant roll over and crush the little guys?

Careful what you read, Big Bezos is watching

In a creepy demonstration of digital rights management, Amazon deleted two books from its customers’ Kindles. Cringely asks, what happened to our digital rights?

Twitter TV: A sign of the coming apocalypse?

Yes, you heard right: Somebody in Hollywood is cooking up a TV show based on Twitter. The Apocalypse is indeed upon us.

I got yer privacy right here, pal

Is data privacy silly? Certain Supreme Court justices seem to think so — until it comes to their own data, at least.

The wrong arm of the law

Want to know the biggest problem with the RIAA’s relentless pursuit of file swappers? In the age of the Internet, the courts are decades behind the times.

Your own private Google

Will Google Profiles rescue your reputation, or just make you yet another unwitting pawn in its quest for world data domination?