dan tynan on Mar 02 2013 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld
Sergey Brin said it, so it must be true. Smartphones are emasculating. Speaking at a TED conference earlier this week to show off the latest version of Google Glass, the Google cofounder opined thusly: "You’re actually socially isolating yourself with your phone," Brin told the audience. "I feel like it’s kind of emasculating…. You’re standing [...]
dan tynan on Oct 05 2012 | Filed under: Google, ITworld, Privacy
By now it’s kind of a truism that Big Data is going to be Big Business. Marketing companies want to comb big data sets to determine what you’re likely to buy, so they can show you the right offers at the right time. Health care providers want to analyze big data so they can determine [...]
dan tynan on May 22 2012 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Google
As a general rule, when it comes to doing things smarter or better than everyone else, Google kicks ass. Sure, there are some notable faceplants. Google Buzz? Google Wave? Even Google+ isn’t exactly a world beater. But in general, working at Google = genius, more often than not. With one enormous exception: transcription services for [...]
dan tynan on Feb 14 2011 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld
Over the weekend the New York Times published a long piece by David Segal describing in painful detail exactly how Google’s search results have been totally pwned by JC Penney. Over the holiday shopping season, the retailer where my mother used to drag me to buy my Easter suits received an extraordinary bounty of Google [...]
dan tynan on Jan 01 2011 | Filed under: Facebook, Google, ITworld, TY4NS, Web 2.0, yahoo
As I write this there are but a few hours left of 2010, which I believe will be remembered as the year Facebook became the dominant force on the InterWebs, supplanting even mighty Google in its reach and depth. What will happen in 2011? Beats me. But that won’t stop me from offering up some [...]
dan tynan on Dec 29 2010 | Filed under: Apple, Cringley, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, iPhone, Microsoft, Steve Jobs
As 2010 draws to a close, that can only mean one thing: Bloggers conjuring up predictions lists so they can take a few days off around the holidays. Here in Cringeville things are much the same, but with one key difference: unlike other prognosticators, I’m totally unencumbered by facts. That tends to make my accuracy [...]
dan tynan on Dec 26 2010 | Filed under: Facebook, Google, ITworld, Twit or Tweet, TY4NS
I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been suffering a failure to communicate — and it comes from having too many ways to do it. Tweets. Facebook updates. Emails to six different accounts. Skype chats. Google voice. Text messages. Sometimes I even manage to talk to people. But mostly the efforts of the world [...]
dan tynan on Dec 22 2010 | Filed under: Apple, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, iPhone, Microsoft, National insecurity, yahoo
It’s been quite a year. And in what has become a tradition here in Cringeville, it’s time to honor the most malicious, obnoxious, offensive, or nonsensical behavior in technology. This year’s winners include captains of industry, titans of technology, sultans of sweat, and a number of other people desperately in need of a clue. Among [...]
dan tynan on Dec 20 2010 | Filed under: Google, Infoworld
Remember when Google could do no wrong? Those days now feel like ancient history. I think 2010 will be remembered for a handful of really big stories, including the rise of tablets, the dominance of Facebook, and the emergence of a fifth column of Web troublemakers who can no longer be ignored, from Anonymous/4chan to [...]
dan tynan on Sep 20 2010 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, Infoworld, iPhone
God I love the InterWebs. Years from now, scholars dissecting the complete disintegration of journalism in the 21st centure will look back at us and say, what the frak? The example du jour: The Facebook Phone rumors, which were sparked this past weekend by TechCrunch and continue to burn. If you believe what you read [...]
dan tynan on Sep 03 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld, Privacy
Imagine wandering through Times Square and seeing a 60-foot-tall animation depicting you (yes, you) as a creepy child-baiting ice cream truck driver. How would you feel? That’s probably how Google’s Eric Schmidt feels today. A group calling itself Consumer Watchdog, which has decided that Google is Evil Incorporated, has taken the unusual step of buying [...]
dan tynan on Jun 03 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld, iPhone, Microsoft
I recently had an experience that epitomizes everything that’s wrong with Microsoft, and why it is rapidly being tossed into the Recycling Bin of history. I have a Vista laptop and, as I’ve recently learned, I am powerless over it. (Just saying that makes me feel like I should belong to a 12-step group. But [...]
dan tynan on Apr 02 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web, Faux News, Google, Infoworld
My head is throbbing, my skin feels like sandpaper, and my mouth tastes like the entire Russian army retreated through it on its way back to Moscow. No, it was not from those Jagermeister and NyQuil jello shots. That was last week. It’s a hangover from overindulging on April Fools’ Day pranks yesterday. It’s my [...]
dan tynan on Mar 31 2010 | Filed under: Apple, Cringley, Google, Infoworld
Two middle-aged guys sit down for a cup of coffee, and people start acting like they just saw Brad and Angelina at Starbucks. What’s the big deal? In this case, the two guys are Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt, sitting down for a morning confab over cafe lattes at a Palo Alto beanery last Friday. [...]
dan tynan on Mar 31 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
It’s been just two days since I last wrote about the Google China soap (not soup) opera, and yet it feels like weeks, so much has happened in the interim. To wit: Earlier this week, Google’s US executive bio page suddenly displayed in Chinese. (A "bug, Google called it. Yeah, right.) On Wednesday, YouTube, Twitter, [...]
dan tynan on Mar 19 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, Microsoft, National insecurity, politics, Privacy, Web 2.0
Privacy is all over the news these days, including social networks, where it seems the Feds like to play.
dan tynan on Mar 06 2010 | Filed under: Apple, Cringley, Google, Infoworld, iPhone
Apple has lawyered up and is out for blood — or at least, blood money. Its patent suit against Taiwanese handset maker HTC is further proof that the cold war between Cupertino and Mountain View is quickly escalating into a shooting match with live ammo. Apple could easily have chosen to sue Palm, whose WebOS [...]
dan tynan on Feb 19 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld
So far, 2010 is shaping up to be the year Google discovered it had feet of clay — and those feet have been spending a lot of time in Google’s mouth. (Also: This blog is shaping up to be all about Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Maybe we should rename it Notes from the GoogAppSoft. Or [...]
dan tynan on Feb 16 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Gadgets, Google, Infoworld, iPhone, Microsoft
They’re baaaack. Just when you thought the dragon had been mortally wounded and sloughed off to its cave to die, it comes back spitting fire and disturbing the neighbors. At this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft introduced a new mobile operating system that appears to be nothing like any OS it’s ever invented, [...]
dan tynan on Feb 12 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Google, Infoworld, Microsoft, Privacy, Twit or Tweet, Web 2.0
If you work at Google, your ears are surely burning right now. Google’s introduction of its Buzz social media tool this week was possibly the most disastrous product debut in the company’s 12-year history. Almost immediately Google Buzz got smacked around hard by the blogosphere and veteran journos for making it easy to access information [...]
