by Amar Toor on October 15, 2010 at 01:00 PM

There are very few things this writer loves about France, but here are two: government-subsidized healthcare, and, now, government-subsidized music. That's right, the country of Debussy and Gainsbourg will now (partially) pay for its young citizens' digital music.
As the BBC reports, the new program is aimed at encouraging French youth to get in the habit of actually paying for music. From now ...
by Amar Toor on September 10, 2010 at 12:10 PM

According to a new comScore study, Web surfers spent about 41.1 million minutes on Facebook during the month of August, roughly equivalent to 9.9-percent of all time spent online. That total put the social network slightly ahead of Google, where, last month, users spent 39.8 million minutes (or 9.6-percent of their time). After being leapfrogged by Facebook during the month of July, Yahoo! ...
by Thomas Houston on September 9, 2010 at 07:20 PM

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.
The YouTube Time Machine blasts you through a century and a half of video history, randomly serving up everything from Jordan's '96 game against the Suns to footage of ...
by Amar Toor on September 6, 2010 at 12:00 PM

Practitioners and patrons of the world's oldest profession will no longer be able to conduct business on Craigslist, as the classifieds site has now censored all of the pages under its famed 'Adult Services' section in the U.S. On Friday, pages offering or seeking adult services were suddenly replaced by a giant 'CENSORED' bar. The site still has yet to comment on the decision.
A group of 17 ...
by Caleb Johnson on August 20, 2010 at 07:20 AM

In a radical new study, South Korean psychiatrists at Chung Ang University, College of Medicine, claim to have reduced participants' desire to spend hours online playing 'Starcraft' by dosing them with antidepressants. According to Wired UK, 11 participants in the study took doses of Bupropion, which also reduces the desire to smoke, over a six-week period. These participants were chosen because ...
by Amar Toor on July 28, 2010 at 10:00 AM

As print journalism continues to die a slow death, consumers are flocking to the Internet to get their news. According to a recent study, though, people are still having a hard time trusting what they read online. A report from the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California finds that more than 75-percent of users rank the Internet as the most important source of ...
by Caleb Johnson on July 21, 2010 at 03:36 PM

No matter their size, everybody has purchased clothing online, and then discovered, upon delivery, that it didn't fit right. But a European company has a solution to this problem -- shape-shifting robots. According to BBC News, an Estonian company has created moving mannequins that allow shoppers to view clothing items on more than 100,000 different bodies' shapes and sizes before they make a ...
by Matt Evans on July 20, 2010 at 04:30 PM

Those little vending machines-cum-movie dispensers seen at local grocery stores and corner shops have a virtual future. Redbox is developing an online platform, which aims to put one more nail in Blockbuster's coffin by following in Netflix's footsteps. When asked about the company's expansion to offer an online service, Redbox President Mitch Lowe said, "The way we look at it is, how can it help ...
by Amar Toor on July 19, 2010 at 04:08 PM

We bloggers may be nothing more than two-dimensional cynics to you, but behind the veil of snark, self-referentialism and make-believe words lurk very real, omnivorous human beings, just like yourself. "But who are these mythical bloggers?" you ask yourself. "Where do they come from? God, I hope they aren't all British." A new report from Sysomos has your answers.
Not surprisingly, the majority ...
by Amar Toor on July 19, 2010 at 11:10 AM

As you may be aware, U.K.-based paper The Times recently put up a paywall for some of its online content, much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone who isn't named Rupert Murdoch. It should come as no surprise, then, that the paper's online readership has fallen off steeply since the wall was implemented. Still, the drop hasn't been as bad as some had anticipated.
As Reuters reports, the ...
by Caleb Johnson on May 11, 2010 at 10:45 AM

Starting next month with the release of 'Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11,' gamers will be charged an extra fee to play used EA Sports video games online. According to Edge, EA Sports will package an "Online Pass," which is essentially a one-time registration code, with its new PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games. The pass lets you play online multiplayer games, join online leagues and access other bonus ...
by Caleb Johnson on April 27, 2010 at 06:30 AM

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Back in February, Microsoft announced that it planned to end Xbox LIVE support for its original console. Then, in March, the company offered some consolation prizes to loyal Xbox gamers. Now, the deadline has come and gone, but, naturally, a group of avid gamers has found a way to skirt the system.
According to Eurogamer, about 20 gamers who were playing 'Halo 2' simply refrained from ...
by Amar Toor on March 12, 2010 at 12:45 PM

At a recent online auction in New Zealand, two glass vials containing neon blue liquid sold for $1,983. Oh, and they also contained ghosts.
As we reported a few days ago, an anonymous person originally placed the two vials up for auction last week, claiming they contained the souls of an old man and a little girl, both of whom used to live in the sellers' current house. Now, after the winning ...
by Caleb Johnson on December 28, 2009 at 01:43 PM

It's a good thing we don't get tired of hearing about dumb criminals, because the stories keep on coming. In the latest, a 22-year-old Bronx man was completely owned by an Xbox 360 (with a little help from its former owner, too).
According to the New York Post, an unnamed kid whose console had been recently stolen noticed his Xbox Live ID become active while he was playing an online game on ...
by Caleb Johnson on October 7, 2009 at 08:22 AM

The Internet has made it much easier for intrepid young folks to make a ton of money. All you need is a good idea, which is exactly what Joe Chedburn had when he was just 16-years-old. Chedburn decided to build a text-based online crime game that a "self-confessed geek" like him would enjoy. Not only did he accomplish that goal, but Chedburn built quite a nice bank account, too.
According to ...