• The Conficker Worm

• Removal Tool
• New Twitter Client for the Mac Desktop: Nambu

• 1 for full featured but unresponsive
• Time Warner set to introduce tiered pricing for bandwidth

• 5GB: $29.99/month
• 10GB: $39.99/month
• 20GB: $49.99/month
• 40GB: $54.90/month
• 100GB: No information yet
• Biggest argument by Cable companies: small percentage of users forcing caps
• (my argument: If such a small percentage, target those users because the 98% doesn’t need a cap)
• Test-beds for this cap structure going into markets where no competition is available
• Homework assignment for users: Find out how much you use per month and then compare it to the pricing structures
• T-Mobile / HP to use Android OS for netbooks

• Microsoft claims they have 98% of netbook market despite no rise in sales
• Netbooks are about cost saving, why pay premium for a low feature item
• Microsoft should be giving this OS away (like they did with Win95) in order to corner market
• .69 songs a missing commodity on ITunes now that new Price Structure implemented

• Promoters decide pricing structure, which give no incentive to lower prices
• most older songs stayed put at .99 with some raising price to $1.29
• (derek open up itunes and get me some supporting numbers)
• MLB dumps Silverlight

• War inside browser being waged, who controls the media delivery mechanism
• Microsoft = Silverlight, Adobe = Flash, RealMedia = dead
• Olympics dumped Silverlight, now the MLB?
• last year plagued by glitches, admin needed to install, etc.
• Big hit because MLBAM also streams NCAA tourney and 2009 Masters

• Wii Dumbells

• Google April Fools
• GMail This Day in Tech History
• Windows 7 RC Available in May 2009

• Steady iterations of Beta. Now at 7068
• Will Windows 7 help re-establish stranglehold on consumer market and buzz gallery?

• 50% of Mobile phone internet usage happens from IPhones
• Touchscreens: The top handset on each carrier is a touchscreen. T-Mobile has the Android device, the T-Mobile G1, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) has the BlackBerry Storm; AT&T (NYSE: T) has the iPhone and Sprint (NYSE: S) has the Samsung Instinct.
• Top five smartphones: Globally they are: iPhone (above, top), Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N70 (above, left), BlackBerry 8300 (above, right), Nokia N80, and Nokia N73. In the U.S.: iPhone, BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Centro, and HTC Dream (G1).
• OS Breakdown: Symbian lost market share in February, but is still number one worldwide with 43 percent of requests; the top Windows Mobile device is the Samsung BlackJack II, but six of the top 10 Windows Mobile devices are from HTC; Android accounts for 5 percent of the US smartphone market; iPhone generated 33 percent of worldwide traffic and 50 percent of US traffic.

• Scientists working on nanogenerator
• Uses tiny nano wires that react to vibrations to generate electricity
• Electricity can then be used to fuel electronics
• Being studied and prepared for military applications but personal devices also targeted

• At about $600 to $800, kitchen PCs could be to desktops what netbooks have become to notebooks today: cheap, cheerful alternatives to overpriced, overpowered machines.
• Kitchen PCs offer a stylish form factor, a touchscreen interface to get to e-mail, weather forecasts, calendars, news or recipes — all wrapped up with an attractive price tag.

• Like Y2K the Conficker virus was set to “wake up” this past Wednesday on April fools
• And it did, but no commands came down — it was a dud.

• Google ammasses a $100MM venture fund (news story)

• First Bluray and HD DVD was a free add-on to your existing Netflix service, I was in love with Netflix and was enjoying the spoils of Hi-Def — but I knew it couldn’t last forever.
• Then Netflix moved with the industry and removed HD DVD and stuck only with Bluray, they even vowed to get all of the latest releases, and that they have. As far as customer service I have no complaint!
• Then the first e-mail came, they were adding $1 to my subscription, a sigh of relif, no biggie, that made sense, the discs were a little more expensive than DVDs, the demand was not super high at the time, but as demand increased the $1 would make a big difference for Netflix, or at least I thought
• This past week I received the e-mail that made me change my mind, Netflix (NFLX) decided to raise the Bluray cost from $1 to $5 for me added on to my already $20ish/month subscription, that’s 5X the previous cost!
• Now I can say that on more than one occasion my wife and I have experienced a Bluray come in with a crack in the actual disc, Netflix I assume pays to replace these — one would assume not at full cost, but still if this occurs a lot (and I have to assume it does, because as I said, its been more than a few times) this could be part of the price increase, or it could just be inflation.
• The price increase is also not the same across the board, the more expensive (or more discs you have out at a time) the higher the increase. It’s $1 more than the number of DVDs out at a time, so if you have a 4-DVD plan like me, its $5 extra dollars ($28.99 instead of $23.99), if you have a 8-DVD out plan, it’s $9 extra dollars ($56.99 instead of $47.99)
• If you have Netflix and you have Bluray enabled and this sounds too pricey for you all you have to do is click ‘Your Account’ at the top right, and click ‘Change Bluray Access’
• About 10% of Netflix’s subscriber base has Blu-ray enabled, and on average Blu-ray costs as much as 30% more in stores, but this demand for Blu-ray is new on Netflix and has risen to this level through a 60% increase over the last six months, I am curious how many people are going to jump ship.

• Sound quality reportedly pretty good
• News of this going Live hit Twitter first
• Will this change the face of cell phone usage? (probly not since your paying premium price for at&t service)

• NASA contemplating naming toilet on Space Station after Stephen Colbert.

• Stephen Colbert won Internet Voting for Rights to name latest module of space station
• NASA threatens to name toilet after him, Colbert threatens succession if the whole module doesn’t carry his name
• Funniness abounds

The Ultimate Button Masher

• OnLive Cloud Gaming Console

• Video Demo from GDC
• 1 milisecond lag
• VOD for gaming
• Future gaming

• Crysis Wars
• GRID
• Mirror’s Edge
• Burnout Paradise

• Lackluster PC sales eating into its profit
• Phone OS really is the next-gen profit cow (see IPhone)

• It’s more likely the hardware that is the profit cow
• Even Apple gives away the latest version of their OS to their users
• Right now it is because it lacks features other phones take for granted
• But they are setting the precident, and Android has promised even before iPhone to be the OS that is upgradable for free
• So getting the hardware that works, and maintains the functions and battery life you want will be the future of phones.

• Facebook was one of the first there
• Yahoo Updates is coming soon and will likely be integrated into Y!’s very popular e-mail service
• AOL Site Social

• International calls via Skype grew 41% in 2008
• That made Skype 8% of all of the International traffic combined last year

• Sucker born each day
• Great device but it feeds the monopoly

• The devices do come locked to specific networks
• That is the work of the networks, not of Apple
• And lots of people have successfully unlocked their phones to use with other providers

• Alternatives to the Universal Remote
• The New Canon Digital Rebel 500D T1i

• 15.1MP up from 12 in XSi
• HD Video (no autofocus)

• 1080p @ 20fps (unusable)
• 720p @ 30fps

• Slideout Qwerty keyboard
• Non-locked device
• No Data plan option

• Apple Catches up to Industry with IPhone 3.0

• Cut and Paste
• Spotlight (Search)
• Support for MMS
• A2DP Stereo Bluetooth
• 1000+ new APIs (Turn-by-turn directions… etc)
• iPod Touch = $9.95 upgrade fee (bluetooth now available on the touch)

• SMS Forwarding
• Google Contact Integration
• Unlimited Groups
• Still Free
• Integrated Calling Out

• MacBook Air Equiv

• WebKit instead?
• What is WebKit?

• threatened the smackdown on a site offering instructions on how to trick the Kindle into reading other types of files.
• Russian guy figured it out, Amazon threatened DMCA, said he was circumventing processes
• kindlepid.py, allows e-books purchased legally from other stores to play nice with the Kindle

• casting is already in motion
• Set between Revenge of the Sigh and A new Hope
• Focus on minor characters and help fill in the storyline
• Hopefully this is better than the cartoon movie that was released

• Tech Boom in Afghanistan
• Windows 7 IE Kill Switch
• MacBook Air Hinge Defect Not Covered By Warranty
• Control your IPod with Facial Expressions
• Twitter IPhone app Rejected because Twitter might have Naughty Words
• 10 Inch Touchscreens Order by Apple
• MetroPCS is offering $50 unlimited Blackberry plans

• Similar to services like

Steven’s Twitter Feed

• The tiny new iPod Shuffle: It Now Talks
• Cool Things People Have Made with Twitter

• Using the cool Kill-A-Watt (of which we have one in the studio) Tweet-A-Watt
• Botanicalls $99 has a device that tells you when your plants need water
• Pay Washing Machines that Tell You Which Are Free
• Popcorn Robot That Takes Orders Via Twitter

• 20 Unforgettable Case Mods
  
• Is Twitter a “Poor Man’s Email”

• Thought Identification Through Technology (FMRI’s) – User Submitted

• Not Mind Reading but “Thought Identification”
• FMRI’s show where the activity is in the brain at a given time (think heat-map)
• Computers identify these heat maps with objects, hammer, nail, boat,house
• Shown to have very high accuracy when using simple objects
• Already research is brisk when it comes to complex thought structure
• Are your brain patterns like DNA or should they be treated more like your thoughts?

• Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech with Kindle 2

• Oops, our bad. We know it’s legal but we don’t want any headaches
• Authors and Publisher’s can now “opt-out” of the robotic service
• Should Accessibility experts now be up in arms because the new device is now less accessible?

• On-Demand Online (Cable companies wanting their pound of flesh online)

• Comcast is coming up with a service, similar to Hulu, that will deliver streaming content from their network to your computer
• Will be restricted to Comcast subscribers
• Trying to protect their business model where they are the content providers over the Internet and can still charge you requisite money, because they are still paying a “per-user” fee to the networks they host
• 34% adults watch at least 1 video a week on the Internet, up from 20%
• At least they are coming along and trying to adapt (not anti-agile like RIAA)

• Showtime and CBS shows will be on the Iphone
• Works best in Wi-Fi mode but still serviceable in cell mode
• Spotty coverage currently (no CSI, etc)
• Direct Response to Hulu and also a shot across the Apple IStore’s bow
• Can create favorites and subscriptions

• Is the Kindle 2 worth Buying?

• Not yet IMHO (Steven) $359, not open-source, controlled only by amazon, no color still a little slow with the page refresh

• Seesmic, Friendster and Laconi.ca!
• Friend Status
• Facebook Application
• Email Gateway
• TwitterFeed Application

• Facebook Reverts back to old TOS
• The future of Netflix is Streaming
• Paper-thin flexible displays gain Touch-Screen Capability
• Google Mail Unreachable, The Internet is Falling

• 2 1/2 hours downtime
• 2nd global outtage this month
• Still unknown the root cause
• Single most twittered subject during outtage

• RIAA Against Harvard Law

• Defense of Joel Tenenbaum: 7 songs at issue
• Multiple tries to settle with no help: last offer $10,500 from RIAA
  
• Law states up to $150,000 per infringement
• Harvard Professor outraged (Charles Nesson) and decided to take the case Pro Bono
• Students using a real court case as their Thesis through Prof. Charles Nesson
• Obscure rule that student lawyers could be at trial in Massachusetts under a real lawyer
• Judge Gertner who is digital savvy: “basically bankrupting people, and it’s terribly critical that you stop it.”
• Now the case will be tried live and on the Internet
• Not recompensed but gaining invaluable experience

• Get 1080p Movies working on the PS3
• Tools That are Killing Satellite Radio

• Pandora
• IHeartRadio.com
• Public Radio Tuner

• Assume that your social account is hacked
• May not be as fun, but don’t put your personal information on your site
• Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, are all vulnerable