Tag: HGG

2010 has been a pretty packed year for tech. Streaming video came into its own with radically improved content choices and affordable living room hardware devices, Android and Apple's iOS dominated the cell phone market, the mobile app markets show no sign of slowing down and the iPad revealed a huge demand for tablets. We here at Switched have taken a look back over the past 12 months and each ...

2010 introduced us to countless new memes. But only a few were clever and culturally pervasive enough for consideration for this list. For every 'Double Rainbow' there were a dozen 'Standing Cats' and 'Salsa Dogs' that may have proved good for a quick chuckle but lacked staying power, depth and versatility. [Ed. Note: Disagree. 'Salsa Dog' is tops.] As viral videos and other Web phenomena ...

Is it just us, or did 2010 seem like an abnormally long year? Of course, it was no longer than any other year in history. But, from a tech perspective, at least, this year saw more seismic changes and game-altering developments than any other in recent memory. From Android to Zuckerberg, 'FarmVille' to Foursquare, iPad to iPhone 4, 2010 certainly wasn't short on memorable moments. Here are 15 ...

As we're sure you know, tomorrow is New Year's Eve: a night when people from all over gather together to celebrate the completion of one revolution of the Earth around the Sun starting at an arbitrary point in space as determined by the Gregorian calendar. People celebrate in various ways, but here in the U.S. we do it by dropping a crystal "ball" (it's really a geodesic sphere made up of ...

Photographer Andrew Scrivani recently offered up some helpful tips for shooting the holiday table, although some of the technical tips (e.g., using a light meter) aren't the easiest to pull off when you've got over-caffeinated kids running around. Food photography is easy to botch, and nobody wants to see overexposed shots of your deep fried turkey in your Picasa gallery or Facebook feed. For ...

Google's just unveiled its holiday gift to the world: a brand new homepage doodle. The latest design features interactive, postcard-like images of 17 holiday scenes from around the world. All of the images are arranged across the top of the homepage, and each can be enlarged with a hover of the cursor. It took five artists a total of 250 hours to put together, working under the direction of ...

Conan may have lost 'The Tonight Show,' but that's fine with us. His NBC superiors probably wouldn't have green-lit the host's new Christmas set, which features Godzilla holding a candy cane, a robo-rabbi and Mr. and Mrs. SanMagnatron Claus, all of which come courtesy of microwave artist Kenny Irwin. (Yes, that's a thing.) Check out the set in action and Conan's interview with the creator after ...

You may be on the road less traveled, but, if you are part of the Android movement, you are ahead of the smartphone curve. The platform's many benefits are offset, though, by real setbacks -- like the fact that Android owners aren't shepherded by the Draconian App Store monitored by the Big Brothers at Apple. We are freer, but we are also subjected to a load of crap, like cross-platform ...

Ah, Christmas. A time of year to come together, rejoice, and slink away from the family to drown yourself in gaming mania. Why should the holidays put a damper on our playing? If anything, this is the perfect time of year to hunker down with a mug of cocoa, a festive sweater, and our picks of great yuletide-themed games. The 'Mountain Maniac' is at it again, and this time he has Santa in his ...

Share Once upon a time, long before the age of e-mail, text messaging and fire, early man used to send these things called "Christmas cards." Every winter, just after the last woolly mammoth had been slain and right before the annual yuletide feast, many humans would pull out their "address books," and begin writing a series of seasonal missives to friends and cave people with whom they hadn't ...

We're willing to bet that you have at least one special electrical outlet that plays host to an overtaxed and exhausted power strip -- you know, the one swarmed by chargers for your cell phone, iPod, PSP or Nintendo DS, and perhaps an iPad or e-reader for good measure. (That's not even counting your roommate or significant other's contributions.) For overwhelmed sockets, we'd recommend the ...

The economy may still be in a funk, but there is some bright news. This holiday season, online spending is up 12-percent from last year. Since November 1st, there have been four days that have surpassed $900 million in single-day sales, with Cyber Monday leading the way. The holiday spending spree was capped this Friday by Free Shipping Day, an event that saw some 1,300 retailers offering free ...

If you weren't able to divine what exactly this product is from its ridiculously wonky title, we totally understand. But the awkwardly named Creative Live! Cam Socialize HD 1080 (CLCSHD1080, for short) is a webcam that captures high-definition 1080p video at 30fps, and can stream video chats at 720p (as long as your upstream Internet service provides 1 mbps or higher). Within the webcam world -- ...

This year's Free Shipping Day was so successful, Amazon has decided to do it all over again. From now until Wednesday, last-minute holiday shoppers can purchase thousands of products from the online retailer, and receive free, one-day shipping. To take advantage of the offer, you'll have to ship all your items to a single address, and make sure that every product you purchase qualifies for the ...

The holidays are expensive enough. Why spend extra cash on tricking out your iPhone with sweet new apps? Besides, there are zillions of selections on the market; how can you even figure out which ones you really need -- or better yet, which ones won't chew through your battery and destroy your phone? Wouldn't it be great if there were a list of iPhone apps that were not only cheap, but essential, ...