Latest Posts from Switched

RIM kicked off its BlackBerry World event in Orlando, Florida by launching the not-so-secret BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 models, also dubbed "Bold Touch."

While the devices don't noticeably stray from RIM's design choices from the past decade -- they're instantly recognizable as QWERTY keyboard BlackBerrys -- the 9900 and 9300 pack some impressive guts. While the 2.8-inch VGA touchscreens won't impress many in today's world of 4-inch screens, but the devices are RIM's thinnest yet at 10.5mm.

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This morning, RIM finally unveiled its next generation mobile operating system, BlackBerry OS 7. It's not a giant leap forward, but RIM is detailing a faster and easier-to-use OS that comes with an integrated, voice-enabled Universal Search system.

BlackBerry fans that have been frustrated by the operating system's chronically sluggish Web experience will be pleased to know that OS 7 offers a "significantly enhanced" browser with HTML5 video support and speed updates.

Interestingly, OS 7 won't have any legacy support, meaning that even the current generation Bold or Touch that you bought last year will be left behind -- you'll need to have one of RIM's brand new 9900 or 9930 devices to run it. SlashGear writes that according to RIM, "the reasoning behind the absent upgrades is that the new OS is so dependent on the hardware graphics capabilities of its new handsets."

RIM's new BlackBerry Balance application, though, will work on any device running OS 6.0 or later. First detailed in January, Balance is RIM's solution for combining both your personal and corporate accounts -- and all the security requirements that those require -- on a single device. For example, you can wipe all of the enterprise data from your phone, while still leaving the personal accounts intact. Or, social networking apps like Facebook and Twitter can be given limited access to anything from your corporate accounts.

Well, here we are. More than four years after launching, Switched and DownloadSquad are unfortunately being closed. I've been thrilled to work at these two sites that have expanded tech coverage beyond the usual gadgets and social networks to cooking, culture, design, art and more. It's been humbling to work with these incredibly dedicated and talented teams of writers, and it would have been impossible to do it without them.

Going forward, you'll still be able to get the best tech news coverage from Engadget, HuffingtonPost Tech, Joystiq and TUAW. While we're still working out some of the details, Switched and DownloadSquad will continue to live on the Web and be fully accessible via search. Understandably, our Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr presences will quiet down, but you can still follow the Switched and DownloadSquad writers on their personal accounts. Thanks for reading.

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

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Research In Motion Eyes a Rebound

"They've been caught flat-footed," said Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple executive, the former chairman of Palm's software spinoff and a partner at Allegis Capital in Palo Alto, Calif. "They've built a tremendous company; they are people with distinguished backgrounds. They are not idiots, but they've behaved like idiots."

What We Talk About When We Talk About the Internet

Of course, most everyone, when challenged at a conscious level, will correct this mistake, and agree that no, Google only aggregates, it doesn't think, that the Internet is just a compilation of human endeavors. But how often do you hear someone say something like "ask Google", "Wikipedia says", "Facebook told me..."? Before the Internet, there was no tool with which people interacted linguistically.

Watch:

• unicode
• Inventor Portrait: Steven Sasson
• Showtime: Forrest Oliphant, 'Slithering'
• GAME BOY MUSIC

Know:

• The latest scam sweeping Facebook pretends to tag you in photos from the Olive Garden restaurant. [From: Sophos nakedsecurity]
• Lifehacker counts down the 10 best micro-apps (often uni-tasking tools for controlling image uploads, desktop settings or clipboard history) for Mac and Windows. [From: Lifehacker]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

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Fake Salem Song Teaches Internet A Lesson It'll Probably Forget Pretty Soon

Yesterday the Internet lit up for a bit with news of a new track from the draggy, divisive outfit Salem. "Nite Daze," according to the email blasting it around the Internet, was "all about the drag environment of being incredibly tired, in a dream-state, wasted or on something, and forcing something creative from the mutual confused experience," and it sure sounded like at least one of those words.

On 'Radiolab,' the Sound of Science

A relevant question to ask at this moment is: Why would anyone bother to invent a new aesthetic for such a retrograde form? This is an exciting time for innovation in new media: interactive forms for active consumers. Radio, in contrast, just washes over you or drifts by in the background.

Watch:

• The AWESOME button
• F35 Ejector Seat Trials
• The Social Web of Things

Know:

• The torrenting turtle knows what's up about downloading full albums to preview just one song. [From: Geekosystem]
• The new 3Frames app lets you make simple animated GIFs with your iPhone. For more detailed animations, check out our guide. [From: Gizmodo]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

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Voicemail, an Obituary

Do not leave me a voicemail. I will not listen to it. I'm going to press the corresponding number to delete your message as soon as the automated voice recording concludes. I'm going to press it with conviction, like a little boy who just won a raffle to implode an old baseball stadium.

Eve Online: Audience With The King Of Space

The best analogy for Eve is this: 1% of the time, when you take part in a massive fleet fight, or take part in some epic espionage caper or something, it is the most fun game you will ever encounter. 99% of the time you're just waiting for something to happen. But it's that 1% that hooks people like crack cocaine. I mean, you don't get interviewed by the BBC when you win a WoW raid.

Watch:

• The Evolution of Mobile
• Blit Terminal (circa 1982)

Know:

Escape your own extinction in 'Dino Run,' playable online or via the Mac App Store. [From: Dino Run]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

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Tumblr's Mark Coatney Tired of Sites that Disrespect Commenters

If you look at most websites the commenting page is down way at the bottom after all the links to other stories and the ads and other stuff. Down way at the bottom is this little tiny box with a tiny font with no extra tools that says leave your comment here. That already sends the message that the publication doesn't value commenters as much as they value their own stuff.

Can Rob Kalin Scale Etsy?

Etsy itself grew out of a freelance design project that Kalin and two friends, Haim Schoppik and Chris Maguire, undertook for GetCrafty.com, an online bulletin board for crafters run by the wife of an NYU professor. While working on GetCrafty, Kalin noticed two things: first, that there were a lot of crafters on the Internet, and, second, that many of them hated eBay.

Watch:

Girl Rides a Roomba

Know:

• Easter egg of the day: Open Mobile Safari on your iPhone, search for 'tilt' in the Google search bar and watch what happens. [From: @conorfromorange]
• Power up your Mac's maximize button with the Moom utility, which lets you quickly rearrange and move windows without the need to click and drag. [From: Moom via: DownloadSquad]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

Read:

Photojournalism in the Age of New Media

While verification can be a minor obstacle for photojournalists using social media as a resource, it lies at the heart of the ethical and aesthetic issues of crisis reporting

The Asymmetrical Online War

Life invariably seems to find a way to imitate art, but as the world's computer systems and networks continue to fall prey to hackers, the resemblance has become eerie. The Internet has transformed many things in the world, but one of its most remarkable effects has been to change the balance of power, not between states, but between entire nations and their citizens.

Watch:

• Internet Outage Forces Public Into Street to Voice Their Inane Opinions
• Introducing: Suwappu
• Skataz electric skates

Know:

• Is your Firefox crawling? Mozilla suggests you trash some of your add-ons. [From: webmonkey]
• Kotaku's got an early look at the real-time beard and lighting effects made possible in the new Unreal Engine. [From: Kotaku]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

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In Praise of Distraction

The catch is that plenty of new research suggests that forcing Internet-addicted employees to go cold turkey may make them less productive, not more.

Tron Legacy

I take representing digital culture in film very seriously in lieu of having grown up in a world of very badly researched user interface greeble. I cringed during the part in Hackers (1995) when a screen saver with extruded "equations" is used to signify that the hacker has reached some sort of neural flow or ambiguous destination. I cringed for Swordfish and Jurassic Park as well.

Watch:

• holocene
• augmented reality orange carton
• Purdue team submits world record claim for Rube Goldberg Machine

Know:

• The ARPANET Dialogues archive captures a series of late '70s Internet chats between Edward Said, Jane Fonda, Francis Fukuyama and other notable political and cultural figures. [From: The ARPANET Dialogues]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

Read:

Roger Ebert: 'Source Code' Review

What we have here, setting aside the fancy editing involving the time travel, is something that looks like hard science fiction. That's a threatened genre. Movies with plots are threatened in general; much modern "science fiction" involves blowing stuff up. The good classic sci-fi involved starting with an idea and exploring its implications.

The Secret History of Super Mario Bros. 2

"The idea was that you would have people vertically ascending, and you would have items and blocks that you could pile up to go higher, or you could grab your friend that you were playing with and throw them to try and continue to ascend," Tanabe said. Unfortunately, "the vertical-scrolling gimmick wasn't enough to get us interesting gameplay."

New Book on Google Shows Gaffes in China

Though Google prides itself on giving engineers access to its code base to invent new products, it blocked the engineers in China because it said government officials might force them to reveal private information. Experienced engineers, who felt distrusted, could not work on new products and had to spend time on tasks like testing Google searches, something that less-qualified people do at other Google offices.

Watch:

• Seattle Doctor Folds and Throws Paper Airplane Using da Vinci Robot
• Kinectified 'Ghost in the Shell'

Know:

This essential airport reading was spotted at JFK's Terminal 5. [From: Instagram]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.