Dick Move One: Amazon gave away a self-published author’s e-book for free by accident. They accidentally gave it away 6,116 times. Are they going to compensate the author for accidentally giving his book away for free? Probably not: …Amazon refused to pay royalties on any of the copies it gave away for free. Crawford started […]
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Today in Technology: Apple TVs and Cheap, Cheap Tablets
High End: Now that everyone seems pretty certain that Apple is going to make a TV, commentators are beginning to wonder what that TV will look like, and how Apple will try to change the television industry the way they changed the music industry. Nick Bilton of the New York Times says that Siri will […]
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Fictional Troll Trap Becomes Real Troll Trap
Last week, The Onion came up with a great idea for a website: A “decoy website” that “lure[s] moronic Internet commenters away from all other websites.” Here’s a taste: According to sources, Outkube boasts thousands of articles and forums carefully crafted to draw in dim-witted web users and effectively quarantine obtuse, uninformed comments on topics […]
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I WANT
You can call me an Apple-wanker all you want, (although I use Android, Chrome, and Google Plus, too, which I guess means I’m wank-cheating on Apple on a regular basis) but if Microsoft follows through with this interactive hologram desktop idea, I will be one of the first people lining up to buy it: Of […]
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MC Hammer’s New Search Engine; And Yes, You Can Touch This
This gives me hope for my future retirement: 80s rap superstar (who later went famously bankrupt) MC Hammer is developing his own… wait for it… SEARCH ENGINE. Called “WireDoo,” the search engine is designed to out-perform Google and Bing by offering a new “deeper level” of searching. Here’s the description he gave to O’Reilly Media […]
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DeLorean Goes Electric
So we’ve got the Back to the Future lace-up sneakers on the market. What’s next, an all-electric DeLorean? YES. DeLorean Motor Company “The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?” The DeLorean Motor Company plans to release the current model of […]
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Facebook, Greenwashed?
facebook.com My, what a sustainable logo! Soon, Facebookers will find their Farmville or Words With Friends relays up against a new competitor: Energy Consumption App! Okay, so it doesn’t have a name yet, but I’m sure it’ll be catchier. Facebook, in collaboration with energy resources Opower and NRDC, will launch a new application allowing friends […]
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Arrested (App) Development
I’m Getting Arrested is an app that was created after its developer was arrested for civil disobedience. Here’s the description from CNET: It lets you quickly notify your family, friends, and crack legal team (if you have one) of your situation with a single tap of your finger. Just initially enter a custom message and […]
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#OccupyApple
Elsewhere in Manhattan, the faithful lined up for hours in the rain outside Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store, in order to be among the first to purchase the new iPhone 4S. Long lines outside Apple stores have been reported worldwide as the 4S went on sale this morning, prompting analysts to predict that Apple could […]
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Mike Daisey on the Death of Steve Jobs
Like a lot of people, I was unexpectedly moved by the news of Steve Jobs’ death. In talking to a friend about it on Wednesday evening, I realized that much of my reaction was less about Jobs himself than about my own nostalgia: Apple computers were the frontier of technology when I was younger. I […]
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iPhone 4S: It’s the Software, Stupid
Anthony’s not alone in finding Apple’s long anticipated release of the iPhone 4S a bit of a snoozer. Gizmodo’s Mat Honan is disappointed, as are a number of other underwhelmed tech writers. Even Wall Street was unimpressed, pushing Apple’s stock down as much as 5 percent yesterday, before it recovered with the rest of the […]