Dell Debuts Design-Your-Own-Laptop Studio
Google Brings LIFE Magazine Photo Archives to the Web
by Thomas Houston, posted Nov 19th 2008 at 11:01AM
Google continues its march towards organizing all the world's information. Just what has it done this time? Google worked with LIFE magazine to digitize and distribute LIFE's enormous archive of photographs, which span over a century and countless cultural, political, scientific sporting, and other historical moments.
Since this was released, we've spent far too much time browsing the archives, and we've found everything from Hitchcock to Billie Holiday, from 'The Third Man' to '2001,' and the historic Lindbergh flight to the Apollo 11 launch. The majority of the photos have titles, descriptions, photographer information, and dates, which makes searching for photos from "World War 2" and "New York," for example, surprisingly easy. You can search by decade, by year, and by pretty much any other search term you can think of. Paul Newman? Check. Dresden, Germany? Got it. Picasso wearing a cow's head mask? Of course!
Gift Guide: Griffin Simplifi
Griffin Simplifi (Style Maven, Under $100)
We've seen an explosion of USB cables, hubs, iPod docks, card readers, and other clutter as more and more digital devices work their way into the workplace and home. Even if you buy an all-in-one computer system, your desk is sure to be consumed in no time by a mess of wires as you hook up your printer, external hard drive, camera card reader, and the all-important USB fan. Griffin addresses the problem with the new Simplifi device ($70): It elegantly combines an iPod/iPhone dock and charger with a card reader (SD, Memory Stick, CompactFlash, xD, and more) and two USB ports, which we're always running out of.
Gift Guide: Scandyna Dock Pack
Scandyna Dock Pack (Style Maven, Under $250)
Looking for an iPod dock with a little more design sense than offered by most of those clunky, boxy models lining the shelves at your local chain store? Scandyna's Dock Pack combines an orb-like iPod dock with two of Scandyna's compact ultramodern (or retro-modern?) Micropod SE speakers. Each has a tweeter and bass/midrange speaker, and the speaker pod can be mounted on three spiked feet to fully evoke 'The Jetsons' or 'War of the Worlds.' The set may not be the cheapest out there, but it's tough to deny the sleek styling and clean sound -- the Dock Pack is available in black, white, and pink.
Price: $300
Gift Guide: Apple LED Cinema Display
Apple LED Cinema Display (Creative, Under $1000)
The increases in productivity and relief on the ol' eyes offered by additional screen real estate have been touted for years, and we can hardly imagine ever going back to a one-monitor system. Designers, artists, photographers, and video pros have been using Apple's Cinema Displays for years and for good reason: The picture clarity, color reproduction, and monitor build quality (we're not big fans of rickety, unbalanced monitors) are excellent. Apple's brand-new 24-inch LED-backlit Cinema Display is the perfect gift for a creative: The display comes with a built-in iSight camera (a first for stand-alone Apple monitors), integrated stereo speakers, a 3-port USB hub, and a handy battery adapter for charging your MacBook or MacBook Pro, which will help keep your space clean and uncluttered.
Price: $899
Gift Guide: Freestyle Audio Soundwave
Freestyle Audio Soundwave (Jock, Under $100)
Oddly enough, we've got years of swimming experience here at Switched, and we've always thought runners and other dryland athletes lucked out -- they're able to use headphones while working out, and swimmers have been stuck swimming lap after lap without any musical beats. The Freestyle Audio Soundwave might offer a glimmer of hope for all those aquatic athletes out there. Although the Soundwave doesn't have the sleek lines of a Zune or the intuitive interface of the iPod, the 2-gigabyte MP3 player is water-safe down to 10 feet and it comes with a pair of waterproof earbuds. The Soundwave works with both Macs and PCs, and comes complete with an FM tuner.
Price: $63.80
Gift Guide: Sonos
Sonos with iPod/iPhone app (Domestic God/Goddess, Under $500)
Sonos, the multi-room wireless music system that lets you stream music from the Web and your PC, can now be controlled with that device we all know and love: the iPhone (and iPod Touch). The new iPhone app (free for any Sonos user) is big news for several reasons. First, the touch-based interface is a huge improvement over Sonos' old scroll-wheel controller -- managing music in multiple rooms and queueing up playlists culled from the Web and your home library is simply more enjoyable on the iPhone. Second, it's cheaper. Whereas getting started with Sonos in the past would run you close to $1000, the new app lets you get started with multi-room music for under $500. Feels great to remove one more unnecessary remote from our homes.
Facebook 101: 25 Tips and Tricks
Manage your online profile, because potential employers and college admissions may be checking
In the early days of the 'book, you didn't really have to worry about everyone having access to your friend lists, photos, profile, etc... Now, anybody can join the site, and we're not surprised to hear that college admissions departments and employers are using Facebook as research for applicants, thanks to its treasure trove of information on people. While you don't have to be incredibly uptight and formal about it, it's probably a good idea to fill out your education, work, and interests on your profile, because it just could snag you that job interview.
On the cautionary side, use a bit of common sense when posting images and messages to the site. It's probably best not to post those pictures from that crazy party last weekend -- you know, that one that you don't fully remember.
Facebook 101: 25 Tips and Tricks
Add your blog, Twitter account, and more to Facebook
Do you have a blog? Use Twitter? Many Facebook apps have been built to allow you to pull in content from all over the Web. Instead of manually posting your latest blog post into Facebook as a note to share with your friends, you can set up an app to automatically share your newest posts whenever they go live on your site. The more you update, the more your friends will keep coming back to your page, which is kind of the essence of social-networking.
Facebook 101: 25 Tips and Tricks
Edit your 'networks'
In your account settings, you can set up additional networks. Just what is a network and why should you care? It can be a group of folks from places as far flung as your school(s) or company to your region, city, or hobby, and adding networks lets you manage your privacy settings on the site. By selecting your networks (e.g. Stanford and San Francisco), you'll then be able to set your profile's visibility within different networks -- for example, you can let people in your city see partial contact information, while you can give full access to everyone from your college.
