Tag: SANFRANCISCO

We wonder if Lady Gaga's got Internet domination in the pipeline. On Tuesday, the always-delightful singer dropped by Google HQ; yesterday, she paid her respects to Twitter. She charmed the engineers, was interviewed by Evan Williams, and by all accounts highly ingratiated herself. Just this morning, Gaga announced she'll be dropping a song tomorrow via Twitter. So maybe it wasn't all fun and ...

Some San Francisco residents are upset about a promotional stunt that, in support of a video game, sent thousands of red balloons drifting across the city on Wednesday, some landing in the nearby bay. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, game developer THQ released the balloons, which had promotional cards from Gamestop attached to them, to promote its new game 'Homefront' at the Game ...

President Obama is scheduled to meet with the titans of Silicon Valley today, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Eric Schmidt and, perhaps most surprisingly, Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Obama, who has been trying to build a healthier relationship with the business community, will reportedly meet with technological leaders at a private residence in San Francisco. "The president and ...

In the past couple years, the experience of waiting for public transportation has morphed into a daily opportunity to play around with the electronic device of your choice. And, for the next two months in San Francisco, Yahoo will be trying to take that experience one step further. As part of an ingenious marketing campaign called Bus Stop Derby, the search corporation has installed 20 ...

Last night, the San Francisco Giants defeated the Texas Rangers to win the World Series. Giants fans, naturally, did what sports fans do best after their team wins a championship: riot in the streets. Of course, Giants fans aren't just any sports fans; they're savvy social media users, too. Amid all of last night's revelry, Giants fans found the time to check in from the riots on Foursquare, and ...

Here at Switched, we try our best to refrain from taking pleasure in the misfortune of others. But, when said misfortune involves a game as odious as 'Mafia Wars,' we really can't help ourselves. This is Zynga, after all, the same game producer that unleashed the pestilence of 'FarmVille' upon the world -- and made untold millions in the process. Forgive us, then, if we couldn't hold back a smile ...

Drivers in the gloriously progressive city of San Francisco may soon have a lot less trouble finding curb-side real estate, thanks to a high-tech parking system that the city has just begun testing. The San Francisco Metro Transit Authority's SFpark project is a two-year, federally funded endeavor, aimed at making city parking less stressful, and more efficient. As part of the project, the SFMTA ...

A useful tip to all would-be iPhone thieves: when stealing said iPhone, it's a good idea to make sure it's not running a real-time GPS tracking program. Unfortunately for Horatio Toure, he had to learn this life lesson the hard way. As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the 31-year-old Toure recently stole an iPhone from a seemingly ordinary woman, Jordan Sturm, whom he stealthily targeted ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Extremity-bias typically materializes in the form of southpaw prejudice, as lefties frequently bemoan the frustrating faults of can-openers, scissors and subway turnstiles. Apple may actually employ a crew of vengeful left-handed developers, though, because the layout of its iPhone 4 apparently contributes to an inordinate amount ...

If you happen to be looking for a cheap flight on Virgin America this summer, you might want to spend a bit more time on Twitter. The airline, in collaboration with Twitter analytics service Klout, is now offering a free flight to anyone who has serious influence on the micro-blogging site. Klout determines a user's influence by analyzing several variables -- including an individual's followers, ...

San Francisco has just passed what is sure to be the first of many over-zealous laws in the U.S. related to cell phone radiation. The city's Twitter-addicted mayor signed into law a measure requiring that retailers post the the SAR (Specific Absorption Rate, or the rate at which the electromagnetic radiation is absorbed by the body) next to each handset in at least 11-point font. The law isn't ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Mozilla's Vladimir Vukicevic is providing an early "pre-alpha" glimpse into the company's browser platform for Android devices. Vukicevic assured Android owners that his group is making "great progress," but has so far only tested the tech on the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One. For access to the test software, check out his blog ...

In our humble opinion, the best possible task for a robot to perform would be serving drinks. Yeah, we said it. We don't care if they can help old people, or even if they can cook Ramen noodles. But we would love a robot that could whip up a good cocktail. Apparently, plenty of other folks would, too. Let us tell you about BarBot 2010. If you're fed up with human bartenders, with all their ...

Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines.... Google's holiday gift of free airport Wi-Fi may have expired, but the kind and giving gesture has definitely produced some impressive returns. The program, which covered 47 airports and all Virgin Atlantic flights, raised over $250,000 for various charities, a total that Google then matched. [From: Business Insider] San ...

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management wants to make earthquakes, or at least learning about earthquakes, fun. In order to accomplish this, they created a Quake Quiz Web site, which features tips on how to prepare and react when an quake occurs. The site features an interactive quiz that places the user in six different scenarios -- at home, on the beach, in the car, at work, and ...