Five Most Embarrassing Gadgets
We saw this video on CNET, and can agree with most of it.
They say the fifth most embarrassing gadget is the third generation iPod. Why? Because it doesn't have the classic charm of the original iPod, but doesn't have as much space and awesome feature as the nano or video iPod.
Next was a PDA. The ones without a phone. Why? Because, how embarrassing would it be if someone tried to call someone on it? Hmm. Imagine that.
At number three, was the SPOT watch. I think you can figure that one out for yourself.
The second most embarrassing was the Nokia N-Gage. Now, I've never used one of these before, but the video says you have to take the batteries out to play games? Yeah. That would be a problem.
Finally, they claim the most embarrassing gadget is the oversized cell phone head set. This is better than looking like you're talking to yourself, but still. They are a bit out of style, yeah?
"Photobucket recently began running an ad-sponsored slide show and encouraged users to post these ads in bulletins and profiles throughout the community. We spoke to the company about their actions, but they refused to respect our community's terms, and we had no choice but to disable their service. MySpace does not block third-party embeds or services that abide by our terms of use. We support the freedom of expression and creativity of our community and must continue to protect the experience expected by our users." (From here)
MySpace is the fifth most popular website out on the web. Photobucket, with over 36 million registered users, is the biggest photo uploading website.
This came as a shock to us, because we had just read, (about Photobucket) "Why is the company doing so well? Well a lot of MySpace users seem to love the company and host a lot of photos on that site" (Quote from here)
Fortunately, it seems that this decision only affects videos and remixes, so pictures are safe. This is good, because Sarah has an account on Photobucket. They host over 250 of her (our, for that matter) pictures, and she has posted those photos on websites throughout the web. She has also uploaded a few videos. Although she does not post them on MySpace, we know tons of people who do.
If we wanted to upload a video, we would want to upload it to a host site first. Then we would want to put it on the website that we would be sharing it on. That way, it is securely on a safe site, rather than on a site who routinely deletes profiles and pictures with no warning. It just makes sense.
Will this effect Myspace traffic? Personally, we doubt it. Although some people may stop using Myspace over this issue, the vast majority of users will continue using Myspace to chat with friends and other such things. However, our guess is that this will take a toll on Photobucket, but who knows? I guess we will just have to wait and see.
Personally, we have not logged in to our profile for a few days, and this Photobucket news has not motivated us to visit MySpace.
“At this historic milestone, we want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be a part of that.”
Five years after the iPod first came out, 100,000,000 iPods have been sold, along with 2.5 billion songs, 50 million
television episodes and over 1.3 million feature-length films. iTunes, being the biggest music download site, is also nearly 14 percent of the Internet.
This makes complete sense though. In class, a ton of kids pull out their iPods if there isn't anything else going on. Kids on the bus listen to their iPods. People walking home listen. Several people have their iPods on their ears when they are doing homework!
Read more on Playfuls.com.
Creating a popular software application can sent you into space? Well, at that's what happened to Simonyin the creator of Microsoft Word. He shelled out 25 million dollar to become the fifth person in space who isn't a trained astronaut. Simonyin blasted off two days ago on April 7th, and will be spending 13 days in space.
Today, he is supposed to be docking at the International Space Station. Since he is supposed to be periodically blogging about his experiences, we may see a new blog post from him today on his site, Charles In Space.
His site, Charles In Space includes videos, blogs and tons of other information about the trip. it's actually quite cool. There is even a kids section on the site which states that Simonyin is planning on bringing 2 books with him into space to start a library in space. Pretty cool, huh? I want to go to space!
It seems that YouTube was banned in Thailand after some videos against the king were posted on the site. According to Patrick Frater, "Files included a slide show with graffiti across the king's face and a pair of feet above his head. Feet are considered dirty in Thailand and such depiction is highly offensive." This one slideshow caused YouTube to be banned completely in Thailand.
Although YouTube declined the Thai government's request to remove the video, YouTube employees are working with the government to educate them on how YouTube works, and how they can block specific videos instead of the entire site.
However, Thailand is not the only country to ban YouTube. Back in March, YouTube was banned in Turkey after a video insulting the founder of modern Turkey was posted. Also, last year YouTube was banned in the public schools of Australia by the state government in their attempt to fight online bullying.
Google has recently added a new section to their Google Maps, called MyMap. MyMap allows you to create your own maps! Using MyMap, you can mark places you visit often, add your own text and photos, publish your very own map to the web, and draw shapes to highlight different streets and roads. MyMap is a way to make Google Maps more user friendly.
The one downside I have found is that you have to log in to create your own map. Although this may not bug people who frequently use the web, it is a hassle for me to create an account on Google Maps when I rarely use Google Maps.
Also, as Pete Cashmore pointed out, this new portion of Google Maps "has instantly killed off at least a few hundred of those mashed-up tools" which people have created to work along side Google Maps.
"It's experimenting with ways to incorporate popular features, like social networking applications, into the Firefox browser"
On all my computers, I make sure Firefox is installed. It has been the browser of my choice, and am very satisfied with Firefox in general. Despite that, Internet Explorer has come out with version 7, and it is also very impressive. Tabs were added, which was a very good decision. (A little thing I noticed was that they moved the refresh and the stop button next to the address bar. Even though I should be used to this by now, I still occasionally click in the old spot.)
Business Week has written about Firefox's experimentation with social networking, "monetizing" social networks, and how, in the end, the users should decide what goes in the next Firefox.
iTWire discusses the idea of an FM radio tuner along with an MP3 player.
The Zune comes with an FM radio tuner, but Apple only offers one as an accessory - you have to pay! With this said, over 43% of iPod users said they would like an FM tuner.
Now, I really enjoy listening to the radio. Even though I have a great selection of songs on my MP3 player, sometimes I want to listen to something I haven't bought yet. But would I pay extra for an FM tuner when I have one in the car, on my alarm clock, and they are even offered online? No, I wouldn't pay extra. With this said, I would use it if my MP3 player came with one.
Read more here.
My dad downloads from iTunes. We have every episode of Monk, and several movie. He downloads the videos onto his Tablet PC, so it's great to watch the shows during long car trips, or if I'm by myself. Things get a bit tricky, though, when we want to watch a movie together, and all we have is a Tablet PC to watch them from. One solution was to hook the Tablet PC to another monitor. This worked well, but Apple has finally made it easy to watch your videos from iTunes on your television.
(We didn't take this picture. We got it from Macworld)
Apple has come out with a 2.4 lb Apple TV. It syncs wirelessly with your computer, and then it takes a few wires to hook it up to your television screen. For $299, the Apple TV holds 40 GB of movies, TV shows, and music. It comes with a very small remote, and a power cord.
The Apple TV requires that you are using a Mac or a PC, and iTunes 7.1. For those of you using Vista, read this before downloading the new iTunes version 7.1.1. It may save you from a bit of trouble later on.
Read more here and here.