Site Toolkit

SAN FRANCISCO–MySpace said it’s using Google’s Gears, software for augmenting Web browser abilities, to make the social-networking site easier to use.

When MySpace users go to their mailbox, they’ll be invited to install Google Gears, said Allen Hurff, MySpace’s senior vice president of engineering, in an …
Original post by Stephen Shankland and software by Elliott Back

The Panasonic DMR-EH75V still costs $1,000 on Amazon.com.

Last fall, we noticed that old DVD recorders with hard drives were selling for $1,900 on the Internet, because manufacturers basically stopped making them (with some exceptions) and people still want them. The continued demand for DVD recorders with hard drives isn’t surprising–many people want a simple DVR […]

Package tracking is really one of the better inventions of the 20th century. One of my favorite tools for said activitiy is TrackThePack, a delightfully simple tool that lets you track packages from a multitude of services, and keep them together in one simple list. It also throws each shipping location the package visits onto […]

AOL will officially support OpenSocial, the developer standard created by Google for social-networking applications. The announcement was hinted at by Google Director of Engineering David Glazer in a speech at the Google I/O conference Wednesday.
The online service-turned-media brand will join pretty much every big player in online media that isn’t Facebook: MySpace and Yahoo, for […]

Live coverage from D6: Jerry Yang and Susan Decker of Yahoo being interviewed by Walt Mossberg.

Click here for full coverage of the D: All Things Digital conference.
Original post by Rafe Needleman and software by Elliott Back

SAN FRANCISCO–Google demonstrated some new tricks of its Android mobile phone software, including an elaborate use of Google Maps Street View and a touch-screen interface with abilities known for their presence on Apple’s iPhone.

Google Street View panned left and right as the Android phone user turned around. Click on the image above for an Android […]

Microsoft is clearly worried about Google as a competitive threat. But the bigger worry continues to be open source, according to Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie.

Ozzie, speaking at Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference in New York on Wednesday, said that while Google is a “tremendously strong competitor…open …
Original post by Mike Ricciuti and software […]

SAN FRANCISCO–Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, founders of Ajaxian.com, took the stage at the Google IO conference here Wednesday morning to talk about one of the technologies that has helped define Web 2.0, and of course their area of expertise: Ajax.

The technology is one of the things that made Gmail stand out among its other […]

If you have doubts about the cost and reliability of VoIP phone systems read on says Tristan Degenhardt of Digium Switchvox. Commentary–If you are like most small businesses, you are considering investing in a VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol phone system for your business,…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

SMS messaging is approaching antiquity, but Brenda Suarez of Airline Solutions says it’s so entrenched that it won’t be replaced with a newer service that costs less and allows even faster and more on-demand contact. Commentary–In a world where technology is obsolete almost the moment…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

If the industry press is to be believed, Tuesday’s announcement that Sony would be producing TVs with Tru2way compatibility was a watershed event–the electronics world equivalent of the Magna Carta or the Treaty of Versailles. But let’s step back a bit and examine what this really means.

Tru2way …
Original post by John P. Falcone and software […]

First came mobile social networks, then came geotagging. Since location-based features take advantage of your ever-portable mobile phone to pin your activities to a place, we weren’t surprised to learn that on Wednesday JuiceCaster (reviewed) added automatic geo-anchors to its multimedia sharing service.
Now JuiceCaster photos and videos that …
Original post by Jessica Dolcourt and software […]

Billionaire investor and shareholder activist Carl Icahn has been relatively quiet since unveiling his slate of dissident directors to run against Yahoo’s current board, nearly two weeks ago.

Should investors be concerned that the agitator of corporate America and merger matchmaker is beginning to believe Microsoft won’t come …
Original post by Dawn Kawamoto and software by […]

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has been relatively quiet since unveiling his slate of dissident directors to run against Yahoo’s current board nearly two weeks ago.

Is the agitator of corporate America and merger matchmaker beginning to believe Microsoft won’t come back to the table with another bid for …
Original post by Dawn Kawamoto and software by […]

CARLSBAD, Calif.–Sony CEO Howard Stringer says the culture of profitability has returned to his company.
In an interview with Stringer at the D6 technology and media conference, the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg started by pointing out the failures of Sony’s digital music player and interactive TV …
Original post by Rafe Needleman and software by Elliott […]

Adobe Systems is offering two-day trials of three beta applications from its next Creative Suite package.

The previews of Dreamweaver for Web design,
Fireworks for image editing, and Soundbooth for audio editing became available Monday.
Trials expire after 48 hours for most people, but registered CS3 users get to keep …
Original post by Elsa Wenzel and software […]

Microsoft has announced that it’s hiring an open-source community manager, declaring that “Microsoft is committed to the long-term growth of open source.” Microsoft seems to be more committed to a certain type of open-source growth than general open-source growth, but let’s not quibble.
I like it. It’s …
Original post by Matt Asay and software […]

This morning at the Google IO conference, the company announced a new browser plug-in that enables users to get the same high-flying experience they’ve been getting in the standalone geography software application Google Earth.
The diminutive plug-in, which weighs in at just 300k turns Firefox 2 (3 RC1 is not currently supported) or IE6 and 7 […]

SAN FRANCISCO–Netflix is banking on the belief that streaming movies to people’s living rooms is the future.

CEO Reed Hastings said during Netflix’s investor day here that he expects the business of renting physical DVDs to peak within the next five years. However, Netflix representatives later said they
…
Original post by Greg Sandoval and software by […]

SAN FRANCISCO–Netflix is banking on the belief that streaming movies to people’s living rooms is the future.

CEO Reed Hastings said during Netflix’s investor day that he expects that the business of renting physical DVDs will peak within the next five years. However, Netflix representatives later said they
…
Original post by Greg Sandoval and software by […]

It’s a simple fact that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “USPTO”) is inundated with patent applications. Given the sheer volume of applications, patent examiners can only spend a limited amount of time examining those applications. Further, given the fact that an applicant for a patent does …
Original post by Matt […]

The Bush administration on Wednesday hit out at the European Union for imposing taxes on imports of certain electronics in alleged violation of an existing trade agreement.

U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the United States has filed a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization, which means that …
Original post by Anne Broache and software […]

Distributed commenter reputation service SezWho is growing a little bigger Wednesday morning with the acquisition of Tejit, an engine that tracks content around the Web to see how it links up with people, events, places, and more. The tool began as a pet project for creator Indus Khaitan, who wanted to sort through blog content […]

In an interview with Walt Mossberg at D6, Amaozn CEO Jeff Bezos said, “We are working on a new version of video on demand, a for pay streaming service we will release in the next couple of weeks. The streaming service will start instantly and its a la carte, for …
Original post by Rafe Needleman […]

We’ll be covering the highlights of the D6 conference today and tomorrow, but we’re devoting special liveblog coverage to two key interviews:

At 1:45 P.M. Pacific Time, Jerry Yang and Susan Decker of Yahoo
At 5:00 P.M., Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook.

…
Original post by Rafe Needleman and software by Elliott Back

It’s still not up to 1.0, but Google on Wednesday announced completion of version 0.8 of OpenSocial, a standard for building social applications on the Web.

One notable difference with OpenSocial 0.8 is the addition of the RESTful API. This addition lets a wider variety of …
Original post by Stephen Shankland and software by Elliott Back

VMware said on Wednesday that it plans to acquire B-hive, a small company specializing in performance management tools for applications running on virtual machine-based systems.

B-hive, based in San Mateo, Calif. with a research and development center in Israel, was founded in 2005. VMware said that it will use B-hive’…
Original post by Mike Ricciuti and software […]

Evri has a new twist on content navigation and discovery. Debuting Wednesday at D6, Evri is not a search engine, according to CEO Neil Roseman, but a “data graph of the Web” that leads to “incremental content engagement.”

“What doesn’t work well is when you get to other places on the Web,” Roseman told me. “We […]

Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry smart phones, will meet with Indian officials again Thursday to hash out an agreement over security concerns, Reuters reported Wednesday.
India’s security agencies have been pushing RIM to allow it to intercept e-mail that travels across its secure network. Under Indian law, …
Original post by Marguerite Reardon and software […]

Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry phones and email devices, will meet with Indian officials again Thursday to hash out an agreement over security concerns, Reuters reported Wednesday.
India’s security agencies have been pushing RIM to allow it to intercept emails that travel across its secure network. Under …
Original post by Marguerite Reardon and software […]

TiVo is gearing up to dish out Disney movie rentals, as the digital video recorder company expands its line up of movie offerings from major studios.

Under an agreement with Disney-ABC and CinemaNow, the companies will offer TiVo subscribers movies for a 24-hour rental. TiVo expects to offer Disney movie …
Original post by Dawn Kawamoto and […]

During the joint Gates/Ballmer opening interview at the D6 conference on Tuesday (all stories), the audience was treated to an early look at Windows 7, which, according to Ballmer, will ship to customers in late 2009. The demo showed a full-screen multitouch interface embedded in the operating system. We …
Original post by Rafe Needleman […]

Windows XP’s Documents list (a.k.a. “My Recent Documents”) and Vista’s Recent Items are useful Start menu shortcuts that I’m always forgetting about.
Yesterday I described how to change the number of recently opened files that appear in Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007. But it’s …
Original post by Dennis O’Reilly and software by Elliott Back

Finally! After attending dozens of tech conferences in the past few months where the best giveaways were mints and baseball hats, I land at the D6 conference (all stories), where the goodie bag has, historically, fulfilled the potential of being, you know, good. This year at D6: Some nice toys. See the video for the […]

Intel will delay the introduction of its highly anticipated “Montevina” Centrino 2 mobile chips due to technical and certification problems, the chipmaker said Tuesday.

Intel had recently been saying that the Centrino 2 mobile platform would launch after Computex, toward the end of June. Centrino 2 features upgraded (GMA X4500) …
Original post by […]

In December of 2002, I started a page on my Computer Gripes site devoted to Dell.

Accumulating gripes about Dell was like taking candy from a baby; there was no sport in it. Eventually, I gave up maintaining the page, but despite a total lack of advertising or promotion, people …
Original post by Michael Horowitz and […]

In December of 2002, I started a page on my computergripes.com website devoted to Dell. Accumulating gripes about Dell was like taking candy from a baby, there was no sport in it. Eventually I gave up maintaining the page, but despite a total lack of advertising or promotion, people …
Original post by Michael Horowitz […]

Over the long weekend, some of us were slouching down in plush movie theater seats (flanked by a 24-ounce Icee and a tub o’ popcorn ) and enjoying the latest adventures of Indiana Jones. Others, however, were setting off on an actual adventure.

Roz Savage, shown here in 2007, aims to …

Original post […]

If you use a Motorola Razr cell phone, don’t accept JPEGs from strangers.

A vulnerability has been discovered in the phones that could allow a hacker to send a corrupt JPEG image via Multimedia Messaging Service that could be leveraged to run malicious code on the phone. However, you …
Original post by Elinor Mills and software […]

We’ve looked at quite a few mind mapping tools here on Webware. Most recently, Webware’s Rafe Needleman checked out a half dozen services that do the job one way or another. Nearly all of them require you to build and develop maps in a giant 2D space, something I think most people will […]

(Credit: Erik Nordenankar )

A Swedish art student who claimed to have created the “biggest drawing in the world ” using a GPS device and an international package delivery service has admitted that the drawing is a hoax.

Erik Nordenankar had claimed that he had placed a GPS device in a briefcase
…
Original post by Steven Musil […]

Google plans to release later this week a near-final version of the Google Web Toolkit 1.5, software designed to ease the onerous parts of writing sophisticated Web-based software.

GWT 1.5 includes support for Java 5, a version of the Sun Microsystems programming language released in 2006, and produces …
Original post by Stephen Shankland and software by […]

A group representing Belgian newspaper publishers is demanding that Google pay it up to $49 million euros–some $77 million–in damages related to a lawsuit alleging the search giant linked to and cached their news stories in violation of copyright law.

According to an Associated Press report Tuesday, the group, called …
Original post by Anne Broache and […]

Sony signed an agreement with the country’s six largest cable companies Tuesday to develop a TV that will receive cable services without the need for a set-top box.

The Japanese electronics giant will make an LCD set based on the Tru2way cable platform introduced in January at CES by Comcast. …
Original post by Erica Ogg and […]

Tonight at the D6 conference in Carlsbad, Calif., Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates will take the stage together. The dual interview, to be presided over by The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, will be, in part, an exit interview. Gates is stepping down from his role …
Original post by Rafe Needleman and […]

A New York State Supreme Court said Tuesday that Dell and its financial services arm misled customers.

Judge Joseph Teresi ruled that the world’s second-largest PC maker engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business, and abusive debt collection practices. The company was accused by the state of New York …
Original post by Erica Ogg and software […]

A New York State Supreme Court said Tuesday that Dell and its financial services arm misled customers.

Judge Joseph Teresi ruled that the world’s second-largest PC maker engaged in fraud, false advertising, deceptive business and abusive debt collection practices. The company was accused by the state of New York …
Original post by Erica Ogg and software […]

A Los Angeles-based law firm with a history of targeting online media companies for click fraud filed suit Tuesday against Citysearch, the directory site owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, as well as Ticketmaster, the ticketing site that IAC is attempting to spin out into a separate publicly traded company.

“Citysearch.com is defrauding its advertising customers of millions of […]

Web TV network Revision3 had a temporary outage on Tuesday, the company said.
The news was originally reported on Twitter by none other than Gen X Web 2.0 personality and former CNET producer Veronica Belmont, who was recently hired to work on Revision3’s Tekzill program.
All I could …
Original post by Elinor Mills and software by […]

Someone hacked into a California library’s dial-a-story phone service and replaced a fairy tale with a pornographic, profanity-laced message, according to The Associated Press.
The director of the public library in Benicia, which is about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, says a four-digit passcode is required to change …
Original post by Elinor Mills and software […]