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Technologies That Will Define 2008

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Feb 20th 2008 at 4:20PM

10 Emerging Technologies in 2008Technology Review has collected a list of the 10 emerging technologies to watch in 2008, all of which could potentially change how we interact with technology and how it serves us. The list covers everything from consumer-oriented technologies such as offline access to web apps, which made its debut last year with Google Gears and will be built into Firefox 3, to transistors made out of Graphene (found in pencil lead) for making CPUs up to 1,000 times faster than current Intel and AMD efforts.

Also on the short list is Cellulolytic Enzymes, which makes freeing sugars from cellulose easier (allowing cellulosic ethanol to become cost-competitive with gasoline). Cellulosic biofuels are made from agricultural waste such as wood chips and switch grass and release almost 90-percent less greenhouse gas than traditional gasoline and 20 - 30 percent less than the more popular corn-based ethanol.

Check out the rest of the list at Technology Review and let us know in the comments what you think we should be watching out for in the coming year.

From Technology Review

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Vista 'Most Disapointing Tech of 2007'

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Dec 17th 2007 at 1:47PM

Vista Tops List of Most Disapointing Tech of 2007
The boys in Redmond just can't catch a break. Every time Vista makes the press it's pretty much so the media can beat up on the Operating System that couldn't. And PC World has just put anoter nail in Vista's shrink-wrapped coffin.

We love December, it's the most wonderful time of the year: list time! PC World has released their 15 Most Disappointing Tech Products of 2007, and topping that list is Vista. Why? Five years in the making and the best Microsoft could come up with is a very shiny, slightly annoying, absurdly overpriced software package that is missing some of the most exciting features that were promised by Microsoft when the project was still called Longhorn.

To be fair, every semi-hyped gadget and technology trend made the list. Social Networks, the Zune, Leopard, the iPhone, and Office 2007 were all in there. But, we certainly agree that Vista deserves to be at the top of this heap 'o' crap.

From PC World

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"iPhone" at Top of 2007 Google Search List

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Dec 5th 2007 at 12:37PM

iPhone Google Top Result
Every year, Google gives us a peak at the most popular search terms used by people on its now ubiquitous search site. This year, the iPhone took the number one spot on Google's of the fastest rising search terms in 2007 -- no surprise considering the device didn't really exist in 2006.

The rest of the top 10 is dominated by social networks and entertainment. Webkinz, a social network and stuffed animal-line aimed at children, came in at No. 2, while the AOL (our parent company) property TMZ took the No. 3 spot, which begs the question "who can't remember 'TMZ.com?'"

Interestingly, over at Yahoo!, Britney Spears turned up as the No. 1 search term, which begs the question -- are the people who use Yahoo! Search a bunch of scandal-addicted dopes?

Also in the top 10 are MySpace and Facebook of course and the superhero television series 'Heroes.'

From AOL Money & Finance


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The 10 Most Annoying Things On the Internet

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Oct 31st 2007 at 4:37PM


There's plenty to love about the Internet. But there is also plenty to loathe. Ridiculous banner ads, the crappy quality of the vast majority of Web video, and complex Web 2.0 services without any support.

PC World surveyed its readers and found out what they think the Top 10 Web Annoyances are. From Ticket Master to trolls (those people who post annoying, nonstop comments on forums), there's plenty of annoying stuff you'll recognize in this piece.

Online forms -- a pet peeve of ours -- makes the list. These overly complex forms that ask for a head scratching amount of personal information just to read an article or post on a forum are, to put it lightly, a bit pain in the ___. We can't count the number of times we've spent five minutes filling out a form, only to have missed a "required field" that wasn't marked clearly. Or the instances where we've input an answer in an unsuitable format that had no instructions, only to have the form clear itself completely and tell us we messed something up (but not tell us what!).

For all the convenience it has brought us, the Internet sure is annoying.

How about you? What do you think is the most annoying stuff on the Internet?

From PC World


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Five Gadgets for Lefties

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 13th 2007 at 4:01PM

Top 5 Lefty GadgetsFor lefties, the tech world can be tough. Catholics, for example, think you've got the devil in you. Older folks might remember being forced to switch writing hands in school. The Inuits would have thought you were a sorcerer. Even the English word 'sinister' is Latin for left.

Meanwhile, gadgets -- mice, keyboards, phones, game controllers -- seem to have a thing against southpaws as well. Tech Digest has been kind enough to compile a list of five southpaw friendly gadgets like the Virgin Mobile-branded Sony Ericsson LH-Z200, a mobile phone with the key pad flipped around for left-handed convenience. There's even a left-handed Swiss Army Knife. Check out the link for the rest of the left-friendly items.

From Tech Digest

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The Ultimate Bike Gadgets

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 31st 2007 at 3:56PM

PC Mag's Ultimate Bike Gadgets
Everything gets gadget-ed up these days. Not even the low-tech past time of bike riding is safe. Now there are detachable GPS devices from Atech; a handlebar-mountable speaker system with remote for your iPod from iHome; an electric motor for the lazy; and a cell phone app for recording speed, acceleration and distance via an axle-mounted Bluetooth capable sensor.

That's a lot of gadgets. Sounds like a world of distractions to us, but serious bikers may enjoy a few of these things.

From PC Magazine

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Best BBQ Gadgets

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 2nd 2007 at 9:24AM

Best BBQ Gadgets

The Fourth of July is just days away, and as emergency rooms prep themselves to reattach blown off fingers, you should be preparing yourself to barbecue. To help you equip yourself for Wednesday's impending grill-a-thon, Gearlog has compiled a list of the top 10 BBQ gadgets.

The list includes plenty of truly useful gadgets to make your grilling experience a little more pleasant, including a motorized grill brush, a fork/grill thermometer combo (that happens to be weather resistant) and an LED grill light with a clamp, in case your guests get hungry again after the sun has gone down.

We do, however, take issue with one inclusion: the George Foreman iGrill, which is probably the worst use of an integrated iPod dock ever conceived

From Gearlog

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Top 25 Tech Inventions of the Last 25 Years

by Terrence O'Brien, posted May 21st 2007 at 4:12PM


USA Today is running a series of top 25 lists in honor of its 25th anniversary. Their list, "25 Years of 'Eureka' Moments", is a collection of the top 25 inventions of the last 25 years. All the usual suspects are there: Cell phones, laptops, DVD's, iPods, salad in a bag ...

Wait... salad in a bag? Anyway, other items include Karaoke, The StairMaster, and Purell hand sanitizer for the hypochondriacs and obsessive compulsives.

Of course, we can't leave this one alone, so here are some additional eureka moments from the editors of Switched:

  • The GameBoy: The original GameBoy sold over 70 million units and brought us solid portable gaming.
  • GPS for the masses: Sure, GPS has been around for a long time, but the death of the map on the back seat is upon us, and our safety/sanity/trees thank us.
  • Voice Mail: Remember tape-based answering machines? Yeah, we're trying to forget as well.
  • MP3s: Say what you want about the iPod, but if it wasn't for the tiny MP3 file, we'd never be able to carry 5,000 songs in our pocket.
  • eBay & PayPal: That junk in your garage? Someone's willing to pay for it on eBay. Trust us.
  • Wi-Fi: Wireless Internet was the final step toward making laptops truly portable.

From USA Today

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10 Worst Consoles Ever

by Terrence O'Brien, posted May 7th 2007 at 2:26PM



There are few things as satisfying as compiling other peoples failures into an easy to digest list. GameTrailers.com has collected and posted its own list of the video game industry's greatest mistakes. The list includes moves of desperation (Sega CD and 32X), poor design (Nokia N-Gage, pictured), mob ties (Gizmondo), and just plain bad ideas (Nintendo's Virtual Boy).

Of particular interest is the R-Zone.

In 1995 -- the same year the original PlayStation was released -- Tiger updated its formerly popular LCD Pocket Games line with the R-Zone. R-Zone was a cartridge based "virtual reality" system that projected its barely animated time wasters in red on tacky head gear. The R-Zone was about as exciting as watching a digital clock and was only slightly more comfortable than a ball gag.

From Joystiq

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