TechLifeWeb

What I’m reading and finding for February 3rd 2012 through February 5th 2012:

• Apple’s iPhone Business Alone Is Now Bigger Than All Of Microsoft-
  businessinsider.com
  - Henry Blodget
  

  Tech writer MG Siegler just noted a remarkable fact:
  Apple’s iPhone business alone is now bigger than Microsoft.
  Not Windows. Not Office. Microsoft.
  Think about that.
  The iPhone did not exist five years ago. And now it’s bigger than a company that, 15 years ago, was dragged into court and threatened with forcible break-up because it had amassed an unassailable and unthinkably profitable monopoly.
  The iPhone also appears to be considerably more profitable than Microsoft.
  In the December quarter,…  show all text
• From Twitter – Font for people with dyslexia? I had no idea. http://t.co/N2lt42ev
• A Foot in the Door in Silicon Valley-
  nytimes.com
  - By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER and NICK BILTON
  

  In Silicon Valley, wearing flashy socks is more than an expression of your personality. It signals that you are part of the in crowd.
• Komen apologizes for ‘recent decisions,’ pledges to continue funding Planned Parenthood | The Scoop | dallasnews.com-
  thescoopblog.dallasnews.com
  - Tom Benning / Reporter
  UPDATE, 12:32 p.m.Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, said during a Friday conference call that her understanding of Komen’s announcement is that it’s a complete reversal of the decision to bar funding to her group.
  “It’s quite clear that Planned Parenthood and our health centers and our doctors are eligible now to work with Komen foundation again,” Richards said, before adding that she hasn’t actually talked to Komen leaders about the decision. “I certainly take them at their wor…  show all text
• From Twitter – CalCheck Calendar Checking Tool for Outlook http://t.co/1M1FE1Br
• From Twitter – ZipKord A Better Car Charger http://t.co/vfqAEfmr
• From Twitter – (Maximum PC | Motherboard Price Hikes Rumored to be Just Around the Corner) http://t.co/vCIZmK0z

What I’m reading and finding for September 2nd 2011 through September 3rd 2011:

• Enrique Gutierrez – Photographic Summary – YouTube – Dig the urban vibe in this.
• Keyboard shortcuts for Gmail -
• Full HD 3D glasses supported by Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and XPAND 3D – Standards? Yes, please!
• 15 tips to get the most out of Google Docs -
• Axis of Awesome – 4 Four Chord Song (with song titles) – YouTube -
• Amazon’s Kindle Tablet Is Very Real. I’ve Seen It, Played With It. | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  It’s called simply the “Amazon Kindle”. But it’s not like any Kindle you’ve seen before. It displays content in full color. It has a 7-inch capacitive touch screen. And it runs Android.
  Rumors of Amazon making a full-fledged tablet device have persisted for a while. I believe we were one of the first to report on the possibility from a credible source — the same person who accurately called Amazon’s Android Appstore. That source was dead-on again, it just took Amazon longer than anticipated to …  show all text
• Toshiba to Ship 8GB SDHC Card with Embedded Wi-Fi – FlashAir supports two way communication. It can deal with peer-to-peer transfers, and supports uploading to and downloading from servers, Toshiba says.

What I’m reading and finding for August 28th 2011 through August 31st 2011:

• “Respect Explorer’s Heritage” | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  When photos started circulating yesterday of the new interface for Windows Explorer in Windows 8, I was sure they were a joke. Surely, this was an Onion mock-up. Or maybe they were from some Apple fan making fun of Microsoft’s design aesthetic in which more is quite often… more. I mean, there’s no way that this is something Microsoft could actually release — let alone in 2012, right?
  Wrong.
  As Windows chief Steven Sinofsky and Windows management team member Alex Simons detail in length on the B…  show all text
• From Twitter – http://t.co/44nTwUd Streaming Services Compared Amazon, Hulu Plus, iTunes, Netflix and VUDU
• The Memory Buyer’s Guide: What’s the Best RAM for My System? – How much do you need? How fast should it be? Are latencies important? Today, we’ll be covering everything you need to know to get the right RAM for your system.
• Death Threats and Hate Crimes, Attacks On Women Bloggers Escalating | IttyBiz-
  ittybiz.com
  - Naomi Dunford
  I’m going to tell you a story and it’s very, very important. Please read it, all the way through. Women’s lives are at stake.
  Once upon a time, there was a website. We’ll call it Mean Website 1. The owner of this website didn’t seem to like me very much. As a successful woman on the internet, this is hardly surprising.
  The comments on Mean Website 1 got a little out of control, and people said some Not Very Nice Things. Because I am a woman, naturally these Not Very Nice Things quickly degenera…  show all text
• Seesmic Focuses On The Social Enterprise; Debuts Android, iPad Apps For Salesforce CRM | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - Leena Rao
  

  Social application developer Seesmic is making a big move into the social enterprise and is debuting a dedicated Android app and iPad app for Salesforce’s CRM product (Windows Phone 7 will also be added soon), called Seesmic CRM. The Android app will be launched tomorrow morning at Salesforce’s annual conference, Dreamforce, and Seesmic will launch the iPad app in a few weeks.
  For background, Seesmic, which was founded by French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, helps you monitor and track the social …  show all text
• H-P’s One-Year Plan – WSJ.com-
  online.wsj.com
  
• Hurricane Irene Hype: How the Media Went Overboard – The Daily Beast-
  thedailybeast.com
  

What I’m reading and finding for August 25th 2011 through August 28th 2011:

• When @IreneMet Hurricane Irene – Digits – WSJ-
  blogs.wsj.com
  - Pui-Wing Tam
  

  By Vauhini Vara
  When Hurricane Irene started moving up the eastern seaboard, Irene Tien, a 28-year-old New Yorker, provided a punch line for her coworkers.
  “I’m very, very calm and pretty relaxed and laid-back—pretty much the opposite of a hurricane,” says Ms. Tien. “I guess that’s funny.”
  It became less funny when people started mistaking Ms. Tien for the hurricane on Twitter. On the social-messaging service where people post 140-character messages that anyone can read, Ms. Tien has since 2006…  show all text
• 031 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!-
  flickr.com
  
• Twitter, faster than earthquakes-
  youtube.com
• City Orders Evacuation of Coastal Areas-
  nytimes.com
  - By JAMES BARRON
  With Hurricane Irene pushing toward the East Coast, officials made plans to shut down the city’s mass transit system on Saturday, and the mayor ordered a mandatory evacuation of certain coastal areas.
• Bloody Thursday: Google Deadpools All Slide Products Except One | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  Because we needed more big tech news this week. Yes, it’s true that Google has just brought the hammer down on Slide, as Liz Gannes of AllThingsD first reported earlier this evening. Yes, it’s also true that Max Levchin is leaving. Now we also know the fate of all of the Slide products. And it’s not pretty.
  All of them are being discontinued — except one, we’ve learned. This means both the Slide products before Google’s acquisition of the company a year ago, and the newer ones that the Slide te…  show all text
• New Apple CEO Tim Cook: ‘I’m Thinking Printers’ | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source-
  theonion.com
  

  SAN FRANCISCO—Following the resignation of Apple founder Steve Jobs, incoming CEO Tim Cook called a meeting of shareholders and members of the press Thursday morning to announce that he envisioned printers as the company’s future.
• Steve Jobs’s Best Quotes – Digits – WSJ-
  blogs.wsj.com
  - Jennifer Valentino-DeVries
  

  Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple, the company he founded and turned into the largest technology company in the world. Although his tenure as CEO will be remembered for ushering in fundamental changes in the way people interact with technology, he has also been known for his salesmanship, his ability to turn a phrase – and a knack for taking complicated ideas and making them easy to understand. Below, a compendium of some of the best Steve Jobs quotes.
  On Technology
  “It takes these ve…  show all text

What I’m reading and finding for August 22nd 2011 through August 24th 2011:

• Steve Jobs Resigns As CEO Of Apple | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  Title says it all. More to come. For now, the letter from Steve Jobs himself:
  To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
  I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
  I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
  As far as my successor goes, I strongly rec…  show all text
• Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America – Times Online-
  timesonline.co.uk
  Russia has unveiled an ambitious plan to build the world’s longest tunnel under the Bering Strait as part of a transport corridor linking Europe and America via Siberia and Alaska.
• One Year Later, Facebook Killing Off Places …To Put Location Everywhere | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  It was almost exactly one year ago that Facebook launched Places, their location-based offering. Reading the press at the time, you would have thought it was going to be the Foursquare-killer, the Gowalla-strangler, the Loopt-beheader, etc. Nevermind that Facebook partnered with all of them for the launch — those guys were done.
  Fast forward to today: Foursquare recently raised a large round of funding valuing them at $600 million. And Facebook is killing off Places.
  To be clear, Facebook is not  show all text
• Magnitude 5.8 – VIRGINIA-
  earthquake.usgs.gov
  USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, responsible for monitoring, reporting, and researching earthquakes and earthquake hazards
• Web Surfing Makes You Work Better, Study Says – WSJ.com-
  online.wsj.com
  

  Don’t feel guilty about browsing the Internet at work—turns out it may actually improve your performance, a new study says.
• SimpleGeo Cofounder Matt Galligan Steps Down; Will Focus On Helping TechStars And A Non-Profit | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  Last November, location startup SimpleGeo brought in former Digg CEO Jay Adelson to replace co-founder Matt Galligan as CEO. At the time, Galligan slid into the role of Chief Strategy Officer and became more of a public face for the company. Now he’s leaving the company entirely.
  You can read the news on SimpleGeo’s blog here, as well as Galligan’s own thoughts here. But essentially this is something that has been in the works ever since Adelson took over those many months ago, Galligan tells u…  show all text
• International Wireless Trip Planner – Figure out what you need for wireless communications while on your trip.

What I’m reading and finding for August 16th 2011 through August 18th 2011:

• From Twitter – HP to Buy Software Company, Spin Off PCs – Bloomberg http://t.co/sQNR2ee via @BloombergNews
• The Greatest Customer Service Story Ever Told, Starring Morton’s Steakhouse | Peter Shankman-
  shankman.com
  - Peter Shankman
  

  The following story is entirely true. More importantly, I swear on my entire professional reputation and all I hold dear to me that the story below was in no way staged, planned in advance, or in any way faked. This is real. And most importantly: This is AMAZING.
  When my alarm clock went off at 3:30 this morning, I knew I was in for a long day. I was catching a 7am flight out of Newark to Tampa, Florida, for a lunch meeting in Clearwater, then heading back to Newark on a 5pm flight, getting me …  show all text
• Microsoft keeps the pressure on VMware around its latest virtualization licensing changes – Microsoft has no plans to follow VMware’s lead with new pricing/licensing changes in the virtualization space that have led to VMware customer outcry. In fact, with Windows 8, Microsoft is taking the opposite tack, officials said.
• From Twitter – The Ultimate Guide To “LinkedIn Today” & How To Optimize Your Presence On It http://j.mp/q5a1L4 cc @Comprendia@StacyZapar
• Jeremy, Call Your Mother — She’s Worried Sick | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  When we switched to Facebook comments several months ago, we spun it as a way to combat the trolls. But you know, there was actually a secret agenda. We wanted to bring families closer together.
  And it’s with great pleasure that I can now announce that it’s working.
  Earlier today, we ran a post entitled, “German Court Suspends Galaxy Tab Injunction In The Apple-Samsung Case“. Apple, Android, courts, lawsuits, intrigue — fairly standard TechCrunch fare. But a comment on the story was easily bett…  show all text
• From Twitter – How to emerge victorious after the imminent Social Crash. http://t.co/WdlJhAJ via @spin
• Google’s Android Press Release Generator-
  android-press-release.com

What I’m reading and finding for August 11th 2011 through August 14th 2011:

• 2005 Zuckerberg Didn’t Want To Take Over The World | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - Alexia Tsotsis
  

  The Huffington Post has come across this fascinating five-minute interview of Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook’s Palo Alto office in June 2005. The clip is apparently part of a longer 40-minute-interview from a documentary about millennials shot by Ray Hafner and Derek Franzese.  That interview has never been shown in full, and if I were Hafner and Franzese I’d be figuring out a way to do that stat, especially post-The Social Network.
  Zuckerberg’s initial vision, “an online directory for colleges” s…  show all text
• Twocation-
  twocation.com
• http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/08/bart-cell-fcc.php-
  sfappeal.com
• S.F. subway muzzles cell service during protest | InSecurity Complex – CNET News-
  news.cnet.com
  

  Activists thwarted after BART system shuts down cell service in advance of planned protest. Read this blog post by Elinor Mills on InSecurity Complex.
• Google Unleashes Native Client Into Chrome, Next-Gen Web Apps To Follow? | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  For well over a year now, Google has been hyping up something called Native Client. It’s an open source technology that allows a web browser to run compiled native code. In other words, it’s a potential missing link between native apps and web apps. And now it’s finally getting baked into Chrome.
  As Google notes on their Chrome Blog blog today, the latest beta version of Chrome (version 14) has Native Client built-in. Their implementation allows for C and C++ code to be executed inside of the b…  show all text
• Official Google Blog: Games in Google+: fun that fits your schedule-
  googleblog.blogspot.com
  - A Googler
  

  My family has a games closet. Inside you’ll find a few decks of cards, two decades’ worth of board games and a Twister mat for those times when we’re feeling limber. Playing games is a great way for us to spend quality time with each other (and a little healthy competition never hurt anyone either). Today we’re adding games to Google+. With the Google+ project, we want to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web. But sharing is about more than just conversations. The exper…  show all text
• Add a Google+ share button to your WordPress blog with this plugin -

What I’m reading and finding for July 25th 2011 through July 26th 2011:

• This is the web right now – The Oatmeal-
  theoatmeal.com
  - Matthew Inman
  The State of the Web, Summer 2011
  View
• Girls Go Geek… Again! – Fog Creek Blog-
  blog.fogcreek.com
  - Anna Lewis
  

  Computer science has always been a male-dominated field, right?
  Wrong.
  In 1987, 42% of the software developers in America were women. And 34% of the systems analysts in America were women. Women had started to flock to computer science in the mid-1960s, during the early days of computing, when men were already dominating other technical professions but had yet to dominate the world of computing. For about two decades, the percentages of women who earned Computer Science degrees rose steadily, p…  show all text
• Obama’s and Bush’s effects on the deficit in one graph – Ezra Klein – The Washington Post-
  washingtonpost.com
  
• SEO Shop Puts 50 Google +1s on Sale for Just $9.99 – Alexis Madrigal – Technology – The Atlantic-
  theatlantic.com
  - Alexis Madrigal
  

  You knew it had to happen, right? As soon as Google opened up its search engine to “social signals,” the search engine optimization shops had to find ways to game the system. One, Plussem.com, an arm of SEOShop.com, is offering +1s at the rate of 50 for $10, 250 for $30, or 2,000 for $170. In a galling turn, the company says, “Buying Plus Ones can help your site out by showing Google that the content featured on it or the page being is of value to real people and not spammy.” That is to say, you  show all text
• Twitter Search-
  search.twitter.com
• Facebook’s Secret iPad App Exposed [Pictures] | TechCrunch-
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  So, we just exposed the awesome secret that Facebook’s iPad app is actually already out there, hidden inside of the iPhone app. Now it’s time to show it to you.
  I’ve been playing with the app for much of the night, and it seems solid. Of course, there’s no guarantee that this is what Facebook will launch when the iPad app does officially hit, but this looks and feels about right.
  After months of downplaying the importance of having an iPad app, and instead playing up HTML5, Facebook has clearly…  show all text
• Wolfram makes data interactive – Wolfram Research has created the Computational Document Format (CDF). The new format lets you embed charts, diagrams, and graphics into documents that can be manipulated by the “reader”.

What I’m reading and finding for July 5th 2011 through July 7th 2011:

• Apartments for Rent – PadMapper Apartment Search for Oodle, Apartments.com, Kijiji, and Craigslist Apartments – Making Apartment Hunting Suck Less
• Remember When Twitter Was A Joke? No One Is Laughing Anymore. -
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  I recall a time a few years ago when Twitter was scoffed at. It was the blogosphere’s punching-bag. It was the stupid little service that no one in their right mind would ever use. It was for people who wanted to share the mundane bits of their lives — that no one else wanted to read. It was for egomaniacs. Or losers. It would never catch on.
  And then it did.
  I was thinking about this today as I stood in the East Room of the White House (#humblebrag). Why was I there? To see Twitter co-founder …  show all text

   
• Townhall @ The White House -
  askobama.twitter.com
   
• STUDY SAYS TECHNOLOGY COULD TRANSFORM SOCIETY – NYTimes.com -
  nytimes.com
  A report commissioned by the National Science Foundation and made public today speculates that by the end of this century electronic information technology will have transformed American home, business, manufacturing, school, family and political life. The report suggests that one-way and two-way home information systems, called teletext and videotex, will penetrate deeply into daily life, with an effect on society as profound as those of the automobile and commercial television earlier in th…

   
• If Google Buzz Is A Black Hole For Sharing Traffic, Google+ Is The Big Bang -
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  Back in March of last year, we noted that Google Buzz, Google’s shiny new social network at the time, was getting smoked in terms of referral traffic sent our way, by a dead man, FriendFeed. It turns out, Google’s own Analytics service was undercounting Buzz because it resides in Gmail, which uses HTTPS and strips out referral information. In other words, most Buzz traffic could only be inferred, not seen. Still, after months of looking over the data, I’m not convinced that Buzz actually sends …  show all text

   
• From Twitter – http://tinyurl.com/3upvath TweakMC resurrected for Windows 7
• From Twitter – RT @HuffPostTech Netflix expands to more countries http://huff.to/joKU4l

What I’m reading and finding for June 16th 2011 through June 18th 2011:

• Clarence Clemons dies of complications from stroke | NJ.com -
  nj.com
  

  The 69-year-old saxophonist was the spirit of the E Street Band and the oaken staff that Bruce Springsteen leaned on

   
• Fake Identities Were Used on Twitter in Effort to Get Information on Weiner -
  nytimes.com
  - By JENNIFER PRESTON
  There is evidence that two false identities were created on Twitter — that of a 16-year-old girl and her classmate — to collect information to use against Anthony D. Weiner.

   
• From Twitter – RT @newsycombinator Chrome at 20% market share, IE9 less than IE7 http://j.mp/iMoHqp
• Just in time for the election, President Obama to begin Tweeting personally. – Facebook -
  thenextweb.com
  

  The Obama campaign is about to get a lot more aggressive in its use of Facebook and Twitter to help bolster the incumbent candidate’s efforts for reelection. One of the most interesting …

   
• Facebook PR: Tonight We Dine In Hell! -
  techcrunch.com
  - MG Siegler
  

  There’s currently something going on in the outskirts of the tech world that’s a bit sensitive, so no one really likes to talk about it: we (journalists, bloggers, etc) are at war with the PR industry.
  That sentence alone will throw the PR flacks into a tizzy. “Hyperbole!” “Sexy statement, no substance!” “Don’t believe everything you read!” And all the other bullshit they typically spew to blunt interesting concepts into dull, gray PR-friendly dribble. We are at war.
  And no, this isn’t about du…  show all text

   
• From Twitter – http://tinyurl.com/3m5kwby Piolo, the handy little stand for the iPhone 4 / Brilliant
• Facebook Readies an iPad App, Finally – NYTimes.com -
  bits.blogs.nytimes.com
  - By NICK BILTON
  More than a year after the iPad went on sale, there is still no official Facebook app for it. That is about to change.