Tag: BESTOFTHEWEEK

Tech is the great equalizer. Crashes and memory dumps, Internet creeps and forgotten passwords don't care what sort of celebrity or genius they infect -- technology has equal opportunity bias. Poor Michael Ian Black talks to Switched about resisting new gadgetry and how sad he is that he hasn't an online celebrity death rumor. We feel for Bill Gates, who just shut down his Facebook after too ...

Really, with all the talk about technology become sentient or gaining awareness, today's automated systems actually still have a long way to go. Even when gadgets seem to take on a life of their own, hilarity (not violence or horrific cloning) ensues. When a traffic light gets stuck on green for 29 years, we tend to chuckle (mostly because nobody got hurt). Or the Wienermobile truck 'violating' ...

Some might argue that gadgets and technology are humanity's crowning achievements, keeping the world savvy and in-tune. Calvin Klein, for instance, has figured out a way to give consumers technology and style in a James Bond-like manner, showing how truly evolved people have become. On the other, gizmos sometimes highlight the slowest and most oblivious of the pack, like those who refuse to pull ...

Our familiar cell phones, boring billboards, even the predictably uncomfortable airline seats in coach -- it appears that this week, normal, everyday things we've taken for granted are changing, or disguising something sinister. Especially in New York, where cell phones are being used to hide razor blades or shanks. Over in New Zealand, morning commuters are getting a shock when their way to ...

Ah, the rallying forces of the Internet. How we love to Tweet, status update, and virally inspire people to rush to our aid. Like 'Mythbusters' host Adam Savage using Twitter followers to protest $11K in excessive phone charges, or author Alice Hoffman baiting, er...asking, her fans to protest a negative review. Though, Internet rallies can turn into unconfirmed rumors, like when the ...

Amidst the ongoing post-election chaos in Iran and the sudden death of Michael Jackson, it's been another strange week in technology news. Author Ray Bradbury and White Stripes frontman Jack White hated on the Web and 'Guitar Hero,' respectively, while a new claim by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) wants you to pay up when your artist-licensed ringtone goes off ...

After the smart phone frenzy of last week, we were prepared to relax during a supposedly quiet week in tech news. Then Iranians took to Twitter, raising international awareness of an alleged election fraud, hitting headlines everywhere, and sending us into a spin. Then super-musician Amanda Palmer gave us a ring and we tried to dodge the madness inflected by the new Wii bowling ball. If that ...

Is it too much to say that last week was the week of the smartphone? The Palm Pre finally hit stores late last week, and just days later, Apple announced the new iPhone 3G S (and laptop upgrades) at WWDC. Is Apple's latest phone worth the upgrade? In other news, a new element (still unnamed) was added to the periodic table, "Web 2.0" became (arguably) the millionth word in the English language, ...

With another week coming to a close, we've managed to find ways that the being tech-savvy can harm us -- texting away our physical well-being, losing our property and peace of mind by Twittering and, of course, making us emotionally dead inside. Fortunately, there is good news for those of us attached to our laptops and mobile gadgets: nerds can be tough. Just ask Joe, who takes his physics ...

Even in our ever-accelerating, technologically turbulent world, we can count on some things to remain the same. Baby boomers, the generation that virtually invented short-lived trends, experienced another one with Facebook. After joining in droves last year, they started dropping from it like flies this spring. At the other end of the generational spectrum, teenagers continue to do really dumb ...

Mobile devices are infiltrating every aspect of our lives, and this past week illustrated it particularly well. Notoriously behind-the-curve doctors and med students are embracing smart phones, and parents are even giving them to their children, making them something like modern-day rattles. A girl was almost killed when she dove into traffic trying to save her dropped iPod, and an EMT in New ...

With swine flu taking a backseat and the winter chill finally subsiding, summer relaxation can finally shift into first gear. On that note, camps are telling kids to leave their laptops and cell phones at home, and we've got our own thoughts on a cool gadget to bring with you on vacation. That doesn't mean there haven't been hurdles -- a Google outage made for a hectic Thursday. So sit back, ...

We've been glued to our RSS readers all week here at the Switched office searching for the latest and greatest. We probably won't be switching over to a Kindle DX anytime soon for our daily news fix, seeing as Amazon's newest e-reader is priced at $489; expensive even in good times. Also appearing on the Switched radar this week: The world's smallest light bulb, a Sacramento teen sent out ...

When we finally close up our laptops and leave the Switched offices at the end of the day, we go back out into the world and come in contact with people who aren't obsessed with all things technology. Hard to believe, right? Needless to say, not everyone out there knows how to speed up their computer's startup, use the Web to cut cell phone bills, or how to use Google like a pro. Fortunately, ...

Sniff, sniff... can you smell that? It smells like new Web site! As you can see, we're sporting a fresh new design and boy does it feel good. We're stretching out our legs and kicking back to bring you the best of the Web for this week. Speaking of smells, we learned that dogs have 44 times as many olfactory nerves than humans, which can be useful for sniffing out cell phones smuggled into ...