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Survey shows that strike has cut TV viewership, turning people to other forms of entertainment. Even reading has gotten a boost. The Hollywood writers strike looks like a boon for the DVD and video game industries. According to a survey released Thursday from new-media consultancy company Interpret,…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

So I’ve been meaning to do some write-ups on some browser toolbars and plug-ins that may be useful for SEO purposes…and leave it to Rand at SEOmoz.org to remind me of this with his review of 12 popular browser toolbars.
Link Counter (download) is one that I absolutely love both for what it does and its […]

A small Chinese high-tech firm is suing the software giant, alleging it filched technology that lets Net users type Chinese characters. A small Chinese high-tech firm is suing Microsoft because it says the software giant has stolen its creation that allows Internet users to type Chinese characters,…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

About half of those who receive TV over the air will continue to do so; only 12 percent will shell out for pay service, study says. Half of the 21 million Americans who do not have cable or satellite TV will probably continue to use rabbit ears after…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Consolidation in security keeps on coming, with Arbor Networks stepping up to the plate with plans to acquire Ellacoya Networks.

Arbor, which announced a definitive agreement to acquire Ellacoya on Thursday, is looking to boost its network security and service offerings to Internet service providers.

While the combined company will maintain separate products lines, Arbor is aiming […]

Growth among Indian companies, contracts for financial and other business services helped sector bounce back, report says. The global outsourcing market bounced back after a shaky start last year thanks to a spate of megadeals and continued double-digit growth among Indian companies, according to a recent report. …
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Last year’s string of A-list titles will be a hard act to follow, but several games set for release soon will give it their best shot. Video gamers, finally emerging from the pixilated haze brought on by last year’s bumper crop of best-selling titles, are now turning their…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Aiming to trim labor costs, Sprint also will close 8 percent of its company-owned stores, reduce outsourced services. Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, said on Friday it will cut about 4,000 jobs and close about 8 percent of its stores, predicting further pressure on…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

National Basketball Association’s 24-hour TV network and its Web sites now included in long-term partnership with Turner. Cable network Turner Broadcasting System and the National Basketball Association said on Thursday they have expanded their long-term partnership to include digital assets such as the league’s 24-hour TV network and…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Searching for new sources of revenue, music industry watches with interest as players of the video game download lots of music. It looks like MTV’s Rock Band video game is the new jukebox hero. Players of the rock music simulator have downloaded more than 2.5 million songs…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Musicians aren’t merchants.

We certainly learned that through Radiohead and Trent Reznor’s separate experiments with choose-your-price album promotions.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails
(Credit: Rob Sheridan)

In October, Reznor, the leader of the band Nine Inch Nails, and Radiohead attempted to promote and distribute albums online without the help of a major record label. Both offered fans the […]

Outside of the protagonists and their immediate families, does anyone really give a darn who comes out on top? CNET News.com’s Charles Cooper sure doesn’t. The folks behind the HD DVD standard repeat to anyone within earshot that it ain’t over ’til it’s over. They still hope to…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

The well-heeled company touts its plans to bestow money on worthy causes. But how does that compare with other tech sector do-good efforts? Even in philanthropy, Google follows its own rules. With its funding of renewable energy and early warning systems for drought and infectious diseases,…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Young people will have a longer period of radio frequency exposure since they’ll likely start using wireless devices earlier in life. Researchers should study more children and pregnant women in trying to figure out if cell phones or other wireless devices could damage health, the U.S. National Research…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Report says state should supplement private investment in better, faster, more accessible high-speed services. California should consider issuing debt to augment private investment in enhancing and expanding high-speed communications services, a state task force said on Thursday. It said that better, faster and more available broadband capabilities would…
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and […]

Flock’s set to release its first big update since going 1.0 back in November (note: you can download that version here). The new version (1.1) will feature a handful of useful updates to some of the built-in services, along with integration for Web mail and Google’s Picasa.
Between the two, I’m most interested in Web […]

I wrote about the benefits of using multiple monitors in 2004 (see Secrets to My Excess), and I haven’t wavered from my position: If you use a single monitor–unless it’s a giant 30-inch model–you are missing out on one of the easiest ways to increase your productivity. Yes, I know this isn’t really a Webware […]

Russia successfully launched a rocket on Tuesday carrying the last three satellites to complete a navigation system to rival America’s GPS.
The military-run Glonass mapping system works over most of Russia and is expected to cover the globe by the end of 2009, once all its 24 navigational satellites are operating.
A space rocket blasted off Tuesday […]

Russia may soon prosecute the authors of the “Pinch” Trojan, an easy-to-use malicious software program available on the Internet that steals a variety of data.
Nikolay Patrushev, who heads Russia’s Federal Security Services, said earlier this week that Pinch’s authors had been identified and would be taken to court, according to a blog posting by Russian […]

What do you get when you cross an iPod with a Mac?
A super-slim laptop that uses chip-based flash memory in place of a spinning hard drive, of course. If the rumors are right, Apple (AAPL) will unveil one at the annual Macworld confab next month.
Before you begin salivating from gadget lust however, be forewarned. The […]

There’s little doubt that Google Inc. is indeed king of online media. In August 2007 alone, Google captured 57% of worldwide market share among search engines, with more than 37 billion search inquiries, according to analyst firm comScore Inc. in Reston, Va. Add to that a mind-boggling stock price of $711 per share on Nov. […]

The Federal Trade Commission cleared Google’s purchase of DoubleClick Thursday morning, bringing the search giant one step closer to closing the $3.1 billion deal.
After reviewing complaints from Microsoft (MSFT) and AT&T (T) that Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, which serves graphical ads, would create a monopolistic ad company, commissioners voted 4-1 in favor of Google. […]

Nine-year-old Shea O’Gorman sends a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs suggesting ideas for improving her beloved iPod Nano, including adding onscreen lyrics so people can sing along. She gets back a letter from Apple’s legal counsel stating that the company doesn’t accept unsolicited ideas and telling her not to send in any more suggestions.

 
To test Google’s ability to block harmful advertising, Belgian IT security consultant Didier Stevens posts an ad that reads “Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!” It is accepted by Google and displayed 259,723 times; 409 web surfers actually click on the ad.

In the consumer-technology blogosphere, the rivalry between Engadget.com and Gizmodo.com is as lively as a big-city tabloid war. Instead of a headless body in a topless bar, a scoop for these two sites would be running a photograph of a never-seen-before iPod.
To understand how far each will go to break a story, consider that at […]

You’ve decided on a domain name for your new business, and the domain is already registered and for sale. How much should you be willing to pay? This is becoming a common question, as so many quality domain names have already been taken. While there is no scientific method to determine a precise value for […]

What does Apple (AAPL) have in store for Macworld? Four weeks before Steve Jobs’ Jan. 15 keynote, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has offered his best guess. The report to clients he issued today hews pretty closely to conventional wisdom, but provides a handful of new details.

Silicon Valley loves its buzzwords, and there’s none more popular today than Web 2.0. Unless you’re a diehard techie, though, good luck figuring out what it means. Web 2.0 technologies bear strange names like wikis, blogs, RSS, AJAX, and mashups. And the startups hawking them — Renkoo, Gahbunga, Ning, Squidoo — sound like Star Wars […]

For Apple, the transition from the 2G (or 2.5G) iPhone to the 3G iPhone is a tricky one.
We know the new model is coming sometime in 2008. Steve Jobs hinted as much in September, and AT&T’s (T) Randall Stephenson confirmed it last month.
The problem for Apple is that it must get formal FCC approval before […]

Many companies are thinking about how they can take advantage of social-networking technology, but analysts at Gartner are warning against getting caught up in the hype.
Businesses are advised to consider certain issues before investing in or developing internal social-networking tools. These include protecting personal intellectual property, as well as people’s preference for using existing nonprofessional, […]

If you’d like to beat up on Advanced Micro Devices CEO Hector Ruiz, now would appear to be a good time. Ruiz has won praise for helping the chipmaker mature into a worthy challenger to industry heavyweight Intel, but as he prepares for a Thursday meeting with Wall Street analysts, AMD has the look of […]

Wondering why your corporate Information Technology department won’t buy you an Apple (AAPL) iPhone or support the one you bought yourself? Here’s your answer.
Or, rather, 10 answers. Channeling the thought processes of IT managers who don’t need many excuses not to support yet another platform, Forrester Research(FORR) has put together the definitive top 10 reasons […]

While there are many excellent e-commerce sites around, many online retailers are still making some schoolboy errors on their websites which can have a negative effect on sales and customer satisfaction levels.
Customers want a smooth experience when visiting a website, and if they encounter errors, or are frustrated by usability problems, then many will abandon […]

1. Lemonade.com
Making extra cash through lemonade-stand sales isn’t just for kids anymore. You, too, can now get in the game at Lemonade.com by setting up a virtual “stand” filled with products you’d recommend to friends. Add the widget to your Facebook, MySpace or blog pages and when purchases are made through your site, you receive […]

While the influx of free and low-cost video has hurt the sale of pornographic videos, the chief executive of the Penthouse Media Group remains so bullish on the sex-related entertainment industry that he is investing $500 million in a group of social networking sites.
Marc H. Bell, chief executive of Penthouse Media, said the company had […]

There was a time–2004 to be precise–when spam “only” consumed 70 percent of all e-mail. Those were the good old days. Today, as Barracuda Networks’ annual spam report shows, upwards of 95 percent of all e-mail is spam. In 2001, the number was 5 percent.
We’ve come a long way, baby.
Ironically (or not), the United States’ […]

A few years ago, I spent three months in-between jobs. It wasn’t by choice; I ran a company that filed for bankruptcy along with hundreds of others when the tech bubble burst. It took a while to find a new job. I made the best of it and built a greenhouse.
I never had so much […]

American Airlines employees sporting iPhones may be disappointed when they bring the slick new gadgets to work. The airline recently updated its list of mobile devices allowed to synch with the company’s IT systems, and the Apple device didn’t make the cut. “We’ll only let certain things connect to our network,” says American Airlines Chief […]

Having worked with web sites for the past eleven years, I’ve seen a LOT of errors, poor judgment and embarrassing gaffs on the web. Sometimes they are the fault of the client, the web designer, the IT Manager, or the SEO, but human error is always to blame. The saddest thing is that the problems […]

Stores are filled with affordable mobile phones with access to a growing library of digital music. Here are three of the best.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

As the peripatetic CEO of Enspire Learning, a business training company, I depend on my laptop to stay productive and connected during business trips. So I was excited to test Toshiba’s new Portégé R400 tablet PC, one of the first Vista-powered tablets to hit the market.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com […]

Forget CDs, forget iTunes: A Sonos-Rhapsody unit is as close to heaven as music gets, and now it’s a little better, argues the Tech Daily blog.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

Forget checking email on your cell phone - that’s soo 2004. Today’s teens are doing much more with their mobile devices. Speed texting with their eyes closed is only the beginning, and the technology can barely keep up with their rising demand for new features.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and […]

A new kind of earphone allows you to enjoy music in loud places without blowing your eardrums out. Money Magazine field tested a few. Here are our top picks.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

The Apple iPhone, the most-anticipated gadget debut in years, went on sale Friday in the United States, ending months of waiting for diehard Apple fans and signaling the start of what could be the company’s biggest test yet.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

Big retailers are working hard to cater to tech-hungry students. Here’s how to put together a perfect package on a budget for your back-to-school student.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

Kick yourself - hard - if you didn’t buy that $990 Westinghouse 37-inch, 1080p LCD TV back in December. Unfortunately, industry watchers say this year’s Super Bowl TV deals probably won’t be as juicy as those holiday blowout bargains.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

There are a billion Bluetooth-enabled devices in the world — cell phones, headsets, cameras, keyboards, printers. Another 13 million of them are being sold every week.
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games - CNNMoney.com and software by Elliott Back

It arrived on a Tuesday morning. I flipped open my buzzing Motorola cell phone and found a text message from someone called Casey@fullrate.dk. “Hush hush wink wink,” it began, “Castleguard Energy (OTC: MOAT) strikes BLACK GOLD in Wyoming. Watch the share price double, triple, more? Exxon, watch out!”
Original post by Gadgets, gizmos, and video games […]