by Terrence O'Brien on April 1, 2011 at 11:50 AM

Sadly, April Fools' Day has arrived. Every year on this day, tech companies across the country and the globe spend countless man hours and millions of dollars playing pranks on hapless consumers and frustrated tech journalists. In the past, we've been treated to such delightful jokes as Gmail Paper and every link on YouTube leading to a rickroll. Even NASA got in on the action by announcing it ...
by Terrence O'Brien on March 8, 2011 at 02:50 PM

InPrivate, Incognito, Private Browsing -- whatever they want to brand it -- all modern browsers offer a special mode designed to keep what you do online a secret from prying eyes. Despite different names and origins at different companies, they all work in basically similar ways: A new browser session is created that operates separately from your existing one, with its own history and cookies ...
by Matthew Zuras on December 30, 2010 at 09:30 AM

December is the month that marks Christmas, Boxing Day and Emily Dickinson's birthday. It's also the time of year that we face endless Year In Review lists, posted across every form of media. Most of these lists focus on The Best, The Greatest, The Most Memorable. Well, isn't that cheery?
But, you see, 2010 was a horrible year, and it doesn't deserve self-congratulatory pats on the back. Sure, ...
by Terrence O'Brien on December 6, 2010 at 05:15 PM

While we've been waiting for the iPad and iPhone versions of Google eBooks to land in the App Store, we put the Android version through the paces. While it's not the most feature-filled e-reading app available on Android, it is slick, polished and easily the best non-NOOK and non-Kindle e-reading app for the platform. There are some limitations, like the lack of simple bookmarking and the absence ...
by Leila Brillson on November 17, 2010 at 02:30 PM

Gosh, fashion quizzes are incredibly awkward. Those endlessly clickable little surveys of your likes and dislikes are often so broadly wrong in their attempts to translate something so nuanced, particular and personalized into a "type." We had trouble with this when we sampled Like.com, because the fashion world -- suddenly rocked by DIY bloggers' and street style fans' indie "curation" -- is ...
by Terrence O'Brien on November 16, 2010 at 03:09 PM

Google isn't satisfied to dominate Web searches and virtually all online advertising. It's not content being the gold standard for productivity-based Web apps, a serious player in the browser field, or being the only smartphone OS maker capable of challenging Apple. No, Google's apparently been thinking too small -- or at least too small screen. But now, the Mountain View mammoth is eying our ...
by Terrence O'Brien on November 2, 2010 at 05:45 AM

If you ask us, one of the greatest gifts the Web has given us is the ability to be absolutely neurotic and obsessive spectators of the sport we call politics. Every fumble, dirty play and minuscule statistical update is ours to voraciously devour. With the 2010 midterm elections today, some of you may be wondering how to keep tabs on the flood of electoral news. Thankfully, we're here to help. ...
by Thomas Houston on October 20, 2010 at 12:35 PM

(function() { var s = document.createElement('SCRIPT'), s1 = document.getElementsByTagName('SCRIPT')[0]; s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.async = true; s.src = 'http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js'; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); digg
Everyone has their own coping methods and inbox philosophies for e-mail management. Whether you're subscribing to a super-involved "Getting Things Done" ...
by Terrence O'Brien on August 24, 2010 at 01:25 PM

Bookmarklets are an interesting and lightweight alternative to full-fledged browser extensions. Unlike regular bookmarks, bookmarklets don't take you to a website, but perform an action on the page you're currently viewing. They use bits of code, usually Javascript, to do things like send links, translate a page or mark a site for future reference. While they can't offer the deep functionality ...
by Terrence O'Brien on July 26, 2010 at 01:46 PM

With the release of Froyo and the barrage of high-end handsets, Android has gone from an interesting but decidedly geeky smartphone experiment to a serious contender for your cellular buck. Whether you're upgrading from an older device, fleeing the cult of Apple, or converting from another platform like BlackBerry, there are a few things you'll need to know as you embark on your sugar-injected ...
by Switched Staff on July 19, 2010 at 02:28 PM

The browser add-on debate has been raging for years. Do those helpful little plug-ins help productivity or just grind your browser to a halt? Frankly, we can't live without them, and we think you might enjoy some of our favorite helpful additions, as well. With Chrome finally having a solid community of developers pumping out extensions, we thought it a perfect time to pick 13 essential plug-ins ...
by Terrence O'Brien on July 7, 2010 at 02:00 PM

When Google launched the Nexus One way back in January, the smartphone was supposed to be a serious contender against the iPhone, and was expected to serve as exemplar of the Android handset. By circumventing the carriers' brick-and-mortar stores, Google also hoped to usher in a new era in cell phone sales; however, it appears to have doomed itself to obscurity, instead. With no presence in ...
by Terrence O'Brien on June 14, 2010 at 12:40 PM

What is it: Rapportive is a browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that adds information from social networks and other sources to your contacts in Gmail. Once installed, it looks up information from around the Web about people who send you e-mails, and displays it in a sidebar.
What we like: The right-hand sidebar in Gmail is largely a waste of space. It's primarily empty, occasionally ...
by Terrence O'Brien on May 11, 2010 at 02:55 PM

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Part of being a good user and consumer is understanding how technology works, why we use it the way we do, and what that barrage of acronyms and PR jargon means. We're here to help you make sense of it all, and to give you a better appreciation of how those transistors, pixels, and antennas work together to deliver the conveniences of the modern world to your living room or office.
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by Terrence O'Brien on February 10, 2010 at 12:50 PM

Part of being a good user and consumer is understanding how technology works, why we use it the way we do, and what the barrage of acronyms and PR jargon means. We're here to help you make sense of it all and give you a better appreciation for how that pile of transistors, pixels, and antennas works together to deliver the conveniences of the modern world to your living room or office.
What ...