ThyNews

Google has added weather data to its Google Earth application. As of now, the new feature only supports locations in North America and parts of Europe. More »

In January, we broke the news that prolific Silicon Valley angel investor Dave McClure was to set up its own venture capital fund. Yesterday, the man filed for the fund with the SEC, providing us with more details (hat tip to FormDs.com). The name will be 500 Startups - McClure has long called himself the master of 500 hats - and the initial fund will amount to max. $30 million according to the filing. More »

Apple’s earnings and revenue growth in mobile have been awe-inspiring to witness. From zero presence three years ago, Apple is now the most profitable cell phone maker in the world. Apple’s success in this compressed period has helped it become an enormous buyer of components. In fact iSuppli projects that next year Apple will become the second-largest semiconductor buyer worldwide and may edge out HP in 2012 to become the world’s largest. Though this scale presents Apple with enormous bargaining power, it also begs the question: Should Apple own its own wireless chip development? More »

Focus Media, one of China's leading digital media groups, this morning announced that it is selling a 62% indirect equity ownership of its Internet division, Allyes, to US-based private investment firm Silver Lake. Under the terms of the agreement, Silver Lake will pay $124 million to Focus Media, in exchange for the equity ownership of Allyes. Focus Media had acquired the internet advertising service company, reportedly the largest in China, back in February 2007. More »

Despite earlier reports to the contrary, Android Market watcher AndroLib says there aren't 100,000 applications available in the store - yet. There have, however, 100,000 apps been submitted to Android Market since its public debut, the site wagered this morning, up from approximately 5,000 in June 2009. The Androlib directory covers multiple markets, including international ones, so not all apps and games are available in the United States, necessarily. Not all markets are counted, even, so AndroLib claims it may potentially undercount the number of apps, although it's safe to say there's somewhat of an error margin either way as… More »

Bloomberg reports that Facebook is to - probably - put off an eventual IPO until at least 2012, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Waiting at least another year (and a half, approximately, to be clear) would reportedly give CEO Mark Zuckerberg more time to follow through on his vision without too much public scrutiny and the implications thereof, attract more users and developers, book more sales and work out other issues, such as the user privacy kerfuffle and legal matters. More »

Ah, the good ol' patent minefield. According to Law360, a paywall-shielded newswire for lawyers, Apple yesterday settled a patent infringement lawsuit with patent troll Minerva Industries, whose website is apparently currently, ahem, 'temporarily closed under repair'. This morning, Apple was hit with another patent infringement suit, brought on by Israeli technology holding Emblaze, which alleges the Cupertino company has refused to license its media streaming technology at issue. More »

A few weeks ago, we were alerted to a new site currently in stealth mode called Voyurl. As the name implies, the idea behind it is to make it so you can see what other people are looking at on the web (and to make your clickstream seen). It sounds creepy as hell. It's like Blippy but with more potential porn. I love it. But when I tried to sign up for the service, they sent me a note back that it wasn't quite ready yet and that they were cranking on the beta. Fine, that happens from time to… More »

All this talk about the new Kindle reminded me that I still have some questions about Amazon's e-reader specifically, and ebooks generally. Why do people persist in comparing the Kindle to the iPad (something I first asked months ago); what is the relationship between hardback book sales and ebook sales (ditto); if e-readers keep getting more accessible, is the end of the paper book nigh? Questions like that. In the hope of finally getting some answers, I hopped on to Skype with CrunchGear's Devin Coldewey and interviewed him until he begged for mercy. Video below. More »

Even if not everyone will admit it, everyone likes taking pictures of themselves. I suspect it's the not-so-secret reason why users are addicted to DailyBooth -- the service which asks you to take pictures of yourself (or something you care about) to document your life. With that in mind, it's almost as if the iPhone 4, with its front-facing camera, was built for such a service. And now the two can consummate that match made in heaven. DailyBooth's first iPhone app has just been approved by Apple and is now in the App Store. It's pretty basic -- but that's… More »

The latest version of Google’s 3D map application, Google Earth, now has the ability to display real-time rain and snow in certain parts of the world.To see it, you must first enable the clouds layer, and… More »

For those of us living in the U.S., it was nearly impossible to avoid the hype surrounding last night’s season two premiere of MTV’s Jersey Shore. Lucky us, we were even gifted with Snook-ified iPhone and Facebook applications to… More »

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America's first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The "First to Know" series keeps you in the know on what's happening now in the world of social media and technology. More »

Facebook may postpone its initial public offering until 2012, Bloomberg has learned from three sources familiar with the matter.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has always been very careful on the subject. “At some point along the path,… More »

Apple has sold over 3.3 million iPads so far, but Microsoft is still waiting for those Windows-based tablets to start capturing the hearts and minds of users. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, however, is confident the company has a bright… More »

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by… More »

Have you ever searched for a way to make a WordPress.com blog more robust? How about a way to make a WordPress hosted blog or site more secure and simpler to set up and maintain?A few WordPress superstars have… More »

If you’ve ever been snickering over the latest YouTube viral video on your smartphone in the evening and ended up frustrated by slow load times and a congested network, you’re not alone — and that’s exactly the problem.New research… More »

We’ve been reading reports tonight that the popular European music service Spotify has hit yet another delay in making an entry in the U.S. market.According to Billboard, Spotify’s negotiations with U.S. record labels have broken down and… More »

Google has indicated it’s going to be working with developers on checkins for location-based applications through its Places API.This spring, Google announced Places as a revamping of its local and local-business listings. Originally, we saw Places as a… More »

Maybe Do Sit Ups While You Watch Dragonball Z?Nerds and sports. It’s as natural as peanut butter and chocolate.In the past few years, the words “militant subset” have been used again and again. A few crazy Christians, a few mad Muslims, heck, you could probably even find a few angry Anglicans if you looked around. But the truth of the matter is, it’s a few bad apples that spoil things for the average joe. So why, then, are we letting a little batch of comics fans make all nerds look bad? Sports have always been about obsession and number crunching,… More »

You can’t keep my deposit! That’s illegal!Fine, you win. I’ll vacuum the stupid place before I move out.Yeah yeah, “a lease is a lease,” I get it. Even though I haven’t had hot water for the 12 months I’ve been here. You know what a year of cold showers does to a man?! Oh, and thank you for educating me that “lessor-controlled heat” translates to “35 degrees in my apartment in winter.” I’ll just use this Dyson DC22 Turbinehead Canister Vacuum. I don’t care if the DC23 has a bigger bin; it’s cheaper too, but that’s because this one has… More »

Every week in this space, we’ll take a look at the news and offer our own incisive blend of commentary, analysis, and poop jokes. The news you need, from a voice you can trust, in the 90 seconds you have to spare: that’s Woot Weads the Wire. CHICAGO (UPI) -- A boy flying alone from San Francisco to Canada missed a connecting flight in Chicago because airline workers apparently forgot about him, his family said. As an apology, the airline allowed the boy to purchase his $4 bag of chips at a special one-time-only reduced price.BILOXI, Miss. (UPI) -- Jay… More »

Hit HappensProTools gear? Check. Surefire hit songs like “Love Infarction” and “Keyboard Shortcut To You, Girl”? Check. Now all I need to start my production career is a snappy nickname.Babyface, Timbaland, Glyn Johns: you can’t be a big-name producer without some wacky made-up studio handle. It can make the difference between Jimmy Jam and, uh, the other guy he made records with, whatever his name was. A good name is part of the producer mystique, like Martin Hannett’s drugs or Phil Spector’s famous “wall of hair”. I’m just glad I chose to buy all three components of Woot’s M-Audio sale,… More »

You guys like movies with mind-bending twists and somewhat confusing endings? Recent movie box office numbers certainly seem to say you do. With that in mind, we'd like to call your attention to a slightly underground gem that you can now watch for free through Google Video.   Primer was released with very little fanfare back in 2004, but it's gotten a fair amount of street cred among fans of time travel and sci-fi as the years have gone by. Made with only $7000, Shane Carruth's tale of young engineers and paradoxes is a film that almost demands repeated viewings… More »

Suck It UpGood for leaks of all types. Well, okay, maybe not ALL types.How ya doin’, Congress guys? The name’s Vince. You might’ve seen me on television with these Shamwows I’ve got here. I got it on good authority that you guys are havin’ a problem with leaks around here, so here I am to give you an opportunity to really do something about it. Now look, I’m not here to talk about the past, alright? I’ve got several thousand of these Shamwow Towels 16 Packs in the truck of my car thanks to my severance package with the company,… More »

Ah, New Jersey. Is there no end to the gifts the Garden State is capable of giving us? Your people, your places, your inventions, and your filmmakers have captivated our imaginations for years, it's true. But it is the music that has truly helped define the way we look at you, especially when it comes to the songs of the man known the world over as simply "The Boss". And now, thanks to artist Daniel Cassaro, we can all see Jersey the same way Springsteen does.   Containing over 200 visual references to many of Springsteen's greatest songs, Springstreets isn't… More »

It may be hard for the current generation to fully grasp, but when we were kids, something like this:     was considered to be cutting edge graphics and was why you chased down the very best computer. You'd spend the school day telling the other nerds about how your game had FOUR floppies and so was CLEARLY the best game on the market, and then race home to try and figure out why the raven needed toast before you could get a castle key. That's why today we were all so happy to find that the very latest thing… More »

He Was Internet Before Internet Was CoolToday, we salute a great man. A man who called himself “Black Bart The Po8” when 1337 was just a street address.That’s right, internet friends. July 26th, 1878, was the day that Charles Boles, a.k.a. “Black Bart the Po8”, stole a safe box from a stagecoach and left a poem in its place, the sort of taunting gesture that the Internet adores. So, in his memory, we offer the HP AMD Athlon II X4 Desktop Computer. It may not be top of the line, but like “Black Bart”, it’ll get the job done. Of… More »

Apparently it’s Picture Day at the local tavernAnd I neglected to wear a clean shirtWhen I found McCormick’s, I thought: This is it. Here’s a dank, dreary, horrible little pit of a pub where I can medicate myself with liquid depressants with no distractions. They don’t get the cheerful, after-work crowd in here. The sad, sallow faces in the mirror behind the bar all belong to dedicated, professional drinkers, winding down their careers. It’s grim. I like it like that. I guess what I’m saying is that sometimes you wanna go where no one gives a crap what your name… More »

Micropreneur Academy member Ruben Gamez launched Bidsketch five months after joining the Academy, and has experienced quite a bit of success with this niche application for designers. I’m subscribed to his mailing list, and recently received an email update about a new version of the app; the kind of email I would typically delete without [...] More »

While on paternity leave this week I read seven books. I haven’t had that much spare time, but I’ve been following my “if I’m not taking notes, toss it” methodology, and wound up skimming through the better part of five of them. Never Eat Alone was not one of the skimmers. The author has walked [...] More »

My wife had our new baby 7 days ago, and I am currently on leave from work. Except I work from home so I’m not sure I can really call it “leave.” But you get the idea. My time off consisted of 3 days completely disconnected, and then about 30 minutes each day of email [...] More »

The internet has created an unprecedented opportunity for solo technologists known as micropreneurs to conceptualize, create, and launch products that make a difference. It wasn’t until the past decade that a designer or developer could leave the safety of a salaried position in pursuit of a career as a solo entrepreneur. At this moment in [...] More »

Photo by mrphancy I recently started listening to the E-mything Your Business Podcast which is essentially a nine-episode commercial for a book called Built to Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell. But it’s not a bad commercial; it has interesting information about the factors that can substantially increase the value of a [...] More »

The early bird registration discount for this year’s Business of Software in Boston expires on Friday. If you are planning to go, sign up now to save $400 off the full price. In addition to speakers like Seth Godin, Joel Spolsky, Dharmesh Shah and Eric Sink, there are excellent networking opportunities with the other 300 [...] More »

I’ve embraced a concept that involves investing in websites like real estate. Not “website flipping” as the press seems to categorize anything to do with buying or selling websites, but taking a long-term approach to finding income-generating web properties and building a portfolio. Think Warren Buffett’s buy-and-hold approach vs. speculation (aka “flipping”). This is different [...] More »

I was a judge at last night’s 59 days of code startup competition here in Fresno. Teams had 59 days to create a killer app. One that solves a problem, is marketable, and demos well. Overall it was an impressive showing of local talent. You can view a list of contestants here. The Categories There [...] More »

After much toil, my book Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup is now available in paperback and PDF format at StartupBook.net. A few reviews so far: “Congrats @robwalling for “shipping” – I’ve started reading it, it’s GREAT stuff! ” - Peldi, twitter.com/balsamiq “[I] booked some time this afternoon and pretty [...] More »

I recently finished the book Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It). It’s a fascinating look at how we perceive pricing, mis-perceive pricing, and are easily fooled by small changes in packaging, presentation and marketing. Though the book starts slowly with more than hundred pages of background on the [...] More »

While we certainly don't expect you'll begin planning your days around the new feature, Google has added a new layer to Google Earth that makes it feel even more like you're taking a live, real-time look at the earth from a satellite above - real-time weather. Just added to the latest version of Google Earth, the feature offers a live view of the weather, from radar to raindrops. Sponsor Weather has been available in Google Earth since 2007, but now "the latest version projects images of rain and snow over the areas with those weather patterns as it's actually happening".… More »

There is this concept of virtual currency in the cloud that we explored back in May. It came from IBM and its use of tokens as a virtual currency for customers to use software in the cloud. The concept draws on the fundamental belief communities work in a social manner. Each member of the community participates through the exchange of currency that has a specific unit of value. Sponsor Now, according to IEEE Spectrum, a group of researchers is advancing the concept of a "social cloud" which would ease the sharing of information, hardware, and services by using the computing… More »

Content farms have been in the spotlight over the past year. They're companies that generate hundreds or thousands of new pieces of content on a daily basis. Much of their traffic comes from Google search, so the aim of content farms is to rake in the money with online advertising. Demand Media has been the most ambitious of these companies, but even the big portals are doing it nowadays. Yahoo! recently acquired Associated Content and AOL launched an initiative earlier this year disingeniously called Seed. In our content farms coverage so far, we've focused mostly on textual content farms. But… More »

As our professional lives increasingly happen in the cloud and on the go, one decidedly old school aspect of networking that remains prevalent is the paper-based business card. Dozens of Web and mobile apps have attempted to recreate the business card for a digital world, some more effectively than others. Here are three that look promising. Sponsor ScanBizCards Rather than try to replace paper business cards all together, ScanBizCards simply digitizes them and makes them a bit more useful. Using an iPhone 3GS or higher, simply take a picture of that business card your new contact just handed to you.… More »

A few months ago we wrote about how big-name companies are starting to talk about the Internet of Things - a term for the network formed by real-world objects connected to the Internet - indicating that the idea is picking up speed. Today Chief Futurist for Cisco Systems Dave Evans appeared on the company's netcast, Talk2Cisco, to answer questions about the next 50 years and beyond via email and Twitter. Turns out one of the world's biggest technology companies is betting the Internet of Things is going to be big. Sponsor There are already about 35 billion devices connected to… More »

Google has begun opening up access to a new Application Programming Interface (API) called the Places API. Developers building apps that include a "check in at this place" feature can use the Places API to search across all the places users might check in for basic information like business name, address, phone number and other descriptive information. That information will be editable by the businesses listed and no caching of data is allowed, so apps will have to ping Places regularly for real-time data. Making this data as free and easy to use as Google Maps is today could create… More »

Throughout the spring, we covered the financial reform legislation as it wound its way through committee and Congress. The final version - Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act - was signed into effect by President Obama on July 21. And while some of the provisions that were most troubling in earlier versions were axed before the final bill was passed, there is still a sense that the repercussions from the legislation might dampen investment, particularly at the early stage and particularly from angel investors. Sponsor Liz Fries, a partner at Goodwin Proctor explained to ReadWriteWeb today what some… More »

Death threats aimed at Iranian atheist blogger, Fariboz Shamshiri. "One electronic threat was that someone would 'cut his throat.' In another message they wrote 'the death is coming to you soon soon.' He says he still doesn't know who send these messages (they're all anonymous), but he suspects -- based on past experience -- range from Basij militia, Revolutionary Guards Corps Cyber Affairs Division and/or some mullahs or students of seminary schools." His main blog is Rotten Gods and he is the editor of Stop Torturing Us. Iran's lucky to have him. And seriously. Maybe he'll have to explain himself… More »

In a recent survey by Evans Data, Google gets accolades for its public cloud. IBM gets top marks from developers for its private cloud. But what do developers want the most? They want the cloud to be simple to use. They want it to be as as easy to get your data in as easy it is to get the data out. And they want it to be secure. Evans Data survey took a look at the whole gamut of issues related to cloud computing in an annual survey, and its conclusions focus on the dichotomies between private and public… More »

A Google Web site that monitors access in China is reporting that Google Web search, which was fully or mostly accessible yesterday in mainland China is being completely blocked. But the company is now saying that service is fine. The company's stock had slipped nearly 2% in after-hours trading as of 6 p.m. EST. Sponsor Google.cn has been blocked multiple times in China, most recently a month ago, before China chose to renew the company's Internet Content Provider license. Google had been automatically redirecting google.cn to google.hk, its uncensored site in Hong Kong, but stopped that practice earlier this month… More »

As SIGGRAPH 2010 winds down, one thing has been obvious: GPU rendering has matured quickly. GPU-based rendering initially got a bad name because public attention has been mostly on real-time ray-tracing implementations for games, where corners are cut to keep frame rates high. In real-time rendering schemes like those shown by Intel, light bounces were limited, they lacked color bleeding, and ambient occlusion (a key component of realistic rendering) was also AWOL. The end result looked like something from a raytracing white-paper from the early '80s: flat, lifeless images that couldn't compete even with games like Uncharted 2 that used straight-up… More »

For centuries, people have tried to pinpoint what makes humans unique. The most current scientific theory suggests that three main qualities separate Homo sapiens from other animals: the construction and use of complex tools, the use of symbolic behavior including language, art, and ritual, and the domestication of other plants and animals. However, in a new paper in Current Anthropology, Dr. Pat Shipman suggests a fourth trait unique to humans.Shipman cites humans' long history of learning about and understanding animals as a unique trait, calling this tendency "the animal connection." She claims that this relationship is the common unifying factor… More »

Recently released FCC documents reveal that Sprint is set to launch what appears to be a new case for the iPod touch that would enable 3G networking on the WiFi-only device. Manufactured by ZTE and called the "Peel," the case is essentially a MiFi-like mobile hotspot that snaps on to an iPod touch, giving it a network connection wherever you can get a Sprint 3G signal. The Peel has its own 3.4Whr lithium ion battery, which is good for about 40hrs of standby time—there's no mention of how long it would last in active use, but our guess is perhaps… More »

At a Congressional Internet privacy hearing on Tuesday, a group of middle-aged men had some questions about the 'Net. Why was it such a creepy place? How come replying to spammers doesn't get one immediately removed from their e-mail lists? And what is this talk we hear about websites gaining the rights to one's immortal soul? The creepiness was best summed up by the Senate Commerce Committee's Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who in his opening statement compared the Internet to a deeply disturbing shopping mall. In this mall, there's "a machine recording every store you enter and every product you look… More »

The latest hole in WiFi security is quite serious, but it's unlikely to cause widespread disruption in the corporate and government networks for which it would have the potential to cause the biggest headaches. In fact, the exploit continues to demonstrate a lack of any effective method of cracking the WiFi Alliance WPA/WPA2 certified versions of IEEE encryption standards found in WiFi gear of the past seven years. Brute force and dictionary attacks against short passphrases used typically on home and small-business networks are still the only means of key recovery. Read the comments on this post More »

Microsoft Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner revealed today at the company's annual financial analyst meeting that the first beta of the Internet Explorer 9 Web browser is planned for release in September. This is a little later than expected; leaked documents that emerged last month pointed at an August release date for the beta. Some apparently authentic screenshots of Internet Explorer 9 have leaked, though perhaps surprisingly, they show few changes from the current version. Microsoft has shipped three platform previews to show off the Internet Explorer 9 engine, but these previews used a simple, bare-bones interface; the company wanted… More »

When I was 12, using a Performa 600CD, my parents gave me an external trackpad accessory that connected via ADB (a moment of silence for Apple Desktop Bus, please... thank you) for my birthday. The useable surface area was tiny—maybe three-quarters the size of a 3.5" floppy—and clunky, but I thought it was the coolest thing ever... for about five minutes. I soon learned that tracking around your desktop computer to play Oregon Trail and put together school projects in Microsoft Word 6.0 was Serious Business, and the trackpad wasn't cutting it for me. The small surface was annoying, and… More »

This week's issue of Science takes a look at work that could help bridge the gap between biomass fuel production and traditional petrochemical engineering. Modern society relies on petrochemicals not only for our primary transportation needs, but also for most of the chemicals and polymers that we use. With the increased focus on using woody and agricultural stock to create biofuels, most notably bioethanol, it is worth asking if these feedstocks can support the rest of our petrochemical needs. The issue contains a letter that focuses on two papers published this year, one by Bond et al. in Science, and… More »

The Internet, taken as a sort of buzzing collective, can be hard on games. The Amazon ratings for StarCraft 2 have become a battlefield, with many rating the game based on features that gamers feel should have been included, or trashing the game because it's only one-third of the full release; the Zerg and Protoss sections of the campaign will be released at some point in the future. Looking at Blizzard's history with shipping games, we feel safe assuming that it won't be a matter of months. The question is a good one: is StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty a… More »

The Information Commissioner's Office has said that Google did not grab "significant" amounts of personal data when photographing the UK with its StreetView cars, and that the information captured is unlikely to include "meaningful personal details" or information that could be linked to an "identifiable person." In its statement, the ICO said that Google was "wrong" to collect the information, but that ultimately, there was no evidence that the data collected could cause any "individual detriment." The advertising and search company is being investigated around the world after it emerged that its StreetView cars were recording data from WiFi networks.… More »

If you’re building a CMS, you’ll probably need different user roles—superusers, admins, users—with different permission levels. Too complicated to code? Enter CakePHP’s ACL (Access Control Lists). With the right setup, you’ll be checking user permissions with just one line. Introduction: What Are Access Control Lists? The ACL lets you create a hierarchy of users with [...] More »

Okay, okay; this may be a thank you posting for the wonderful sponsors of our massive HTML5 competition, however, it’s important for me to note that I refused to accept sponsors of any product that I didn’t honestly feel was fantastic. What this means is that, as the editor of Nettuts+, I fully endorse each [...] More »

This exclusive premium video series will take you from a state of absolute CSS “noobness,” all the way up to ninja-status, capable of taking advantage of the latest CSS3 techniques. The series begins with the basics: the syntax, properties, etc. However, each new video expands upon the previous, as you work your way up and [...] More »

One of the cool new features of HTML5 is WebSockets, which let us talk to the server without using AJAX requests. In this tutorial, we’ll review the process of running a WebSocket server in PHP, and then building a client to send and receive messages to it over the WebSocket protocol. What are WebSockets? WebSockets [...] More »

Here at Envato we’re pretty famous for building a lot of successful blogs, like this one! We’ve done quite a few now, so last year I decided other people might find our techniques and systems useful. Today I’m really happy to announce my new book How to Build a Successful Blog Business which is a [...] More »

As HTML5′s popularity continues to increase, we at Tuts+ and CodeCanyon would like to do our part in promoting and rewarding those who are on the cutting edge of what’s possible with HTML5, local storage, geolocation, SVG, and CSS3. Not only that, but we’re also, at the conclusion of this competition, launching a brand new [...] More »

You know the drill: make some edits to your document, click save, switch over to your browser, refresh it, and then observe the changes. Wouldn’t it be convenient if there was to auto-refresh your browser at a provided interval? That way, for instance, every three seconds, the browser will automatically refresh. Granted, this isn’t too [...] More »

Magento is a stunningly powerful e-commerce platform. In this miniseries, we’ll learn how to get started with the platform, get to know the terminologies, set up a store and all related aspects of it and finally learn how to customize it to make it our very own. In this sixth part, we’ll be building one [...] More »

We all know we should do it, but how many of us do? I’m talking about minifying JavaScript, CSS, and optimizing images to reduce load times. Today, I’ll show you three quick and easy methods that all of us should implement to improve our site’s performance. Premium Members: Download this Video ( Must be logged [...] More »

A comprehensive WordPress installation, albeit simple to produce, often requires multiple steps — many of which can easily be omitted accidentally. How many times have you forgotten to customize your permalink structure? How about adding in a sitemap plugin? What about changing your timezone? If you’ve installed WordPress more than once, chances are you’ve missed [...] More »

Collaboration company 37Signals bought the popular Ember iPhone app, which uses the company's Campfire API (our Campfire API profile) to display and update chats. The app has been renamed 37Signals Campfire and is now available for free (previously $9.99). More »

Twitter has started early beta testing for a new User Streams API. Currently the service is just for desktop clients, but it could eventually fuel other types of applications that need access to data in realtime. Similarly, the stream concept may be one we see used by other services. More »

If you're developing mobile websites or native apps, you'd better take a closer look at the fine print. Some APIs, including one from Amazon, specifically exclude mobile applications. And there's not much explanation--or logic--behind the exclusions. More »

Late last month, IQ Engines raised $1 million in its first round of funding. The image recognition service is made up of its pay-per-use API and an iPhone app built on top of it. More »

Here's another hole for you to fill, Twitter. While users of the popular status message website can easily block spammy members, there's no way to find a list of accounts that you have blocked. No way, that is, except for through Twitter's own API. More »

Every single public message on Google Buzz, the content-sharing platform from the search giant, is now available to any developer. A similar, if much fatter, pipe is available from Twitter, but only for large partners paying big bucks. Accessing the "firehose" is about the same any other API, which makes it an easy way to get a lot of content quickly. More »

The web makes everything global and yet, everything is also local. APIs allow content and data to be filtered to just the stuff we need. The collection of great mashups below take advantage of those features to show local content to anyone, using location as a filter. More »

Developers using the Twitter API with basic authentication have three more weeks to switch to OAuth. The change has been the preferred method for some time, as users do not need to share their passwords with developer applications. More »

Short is the new long. Twitter keeps you to 140 characters, which means sometimes you have to cut things short. Help make sense of the acronyms with the Abbreviations API (our our Abbreviations API profile). Pass a term and receive its many meanings, along with the context where each meaning is used. More »

If you've ever dreamed of a government that's more connected to its citizens, there's a new fellowship that could use your technical smarts. Code for America is seeking applications for its program in Boston, Philadelphia, D.C., Seattle and Boulder to connect city governments with Web 2.0 talent. More »

On a recent airplane flight, I happened to catch the movie Groundhog Day. Again. If you aren't familiar with this classic film, the premise is simple: Bill Murray, somehow, gets stuck reliving the same day over and over. It's been at least 5 years since I've seen Groundhog Day. I don't know if it's my advanced age, or what, but it really struck me on this particular viewing: this is no comedy. There's a veneer of broad comedy, yes, but lurking just under that veneer is a deep, dark existential conundrum. It might be amusing to relive the same day… More »

Remember that Scene in Star Trek IV where Scotty tried to use a Mac Plus? Using a mouse or keyboard to control a computer? Don't be silly. In the future, clearly there's only one way computers will be controlled: by speaking to them. There's only one teeny-tiny problem with this magical future world of computers we control with our voices. It doesn't work. Despite ridiculous, order of magnitude increases in computing power over the last decade, we can't figure out how to get speech recognition accuracy above 80% -- when the baseline human voice transcription accuracy rate is anywhere from… More »

After we created Stack Overflow, some people were convinced we had built a marginally better mousetrap for asking and answering questions. The inevitable speculation began: can we use your engine to build a Q&A site about {topic}? Our answer was Stack Exchange. Pay us $129 a month (and up), and you too can create a hosted Q&A community on our engine -- for whatever topic you like! Well, I have a confession to make: my heart was never in Stack Exchange. It was a parallel effort in a parallel universe only tangentially related to my own. There's a whole host… More »

When I first chose my own adventure, I didn't know what working remotely from home was going to be like. I had never done it before. As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards. All the same, I was worried that I'd go stir-crazy with no division between my work life and my home life. Well, I haven't gone stir-crazy yet. I think. But in building Stack Overflow, I have learned a few things about what it means to work remotely -- at least when it comes to programming. Our current team… More »

We're currently in the midst of a CSS Zen Garden type excerise on our family of Q&A websites, which I affectionately refer to as "the Trilogy": Server Fault Super User Stack Overflow Meta Stack Overflow (In case you were wondering, yes, meta is the Star Wars Holiday Special.) These sites all run the same core engine, but the logo, domain, and CSS "skin" that lies over the HTML skeleton is different in each case: They are not terribly different looking, it's true, but we also want them to be recognizable as a family of sites. We're working with two amazing… More »

I have what I would charitably describe as a hate-hate relationship with email. I desperately try to avoid sending email, not just for myself, but also in the code I write. Despite my misgivings, email is the cockroach of communication mediums: you just can't kill it. Email is the one method of online contact that almost everyone -- at least for that subset of "everyone" which includes people who can bear to touch a computer at all -- is guaranteed to have, and use. Yes, you can make a fairly compelling case that email is for old stupid people, but… More »

As far as I'm concerned, you can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much screen space. By "screen", I mean not just large monitors, but multiple large monitors. I've been evangelizing multiple monitors since the dark days of Windows Millennium Edition: Multiple Monitors and Productivity Multiple LCDs Joining the Prestigious Three Monitor Club The Large Display Paradox LCD Monitor Arms If you're a long time reader you're probably sick of hearing about this stuff by now, but something rather wonderful has happened since I last wrote about it: If you're only using one monitor, you are cheating… More »

Writing code? That's the easy part. Getting your application in the hands of users, and creating applications that people actually want to use -- now that's the hard stuff. I've been a long time fan of Krug's book Don't Make Me Think. Not just because it's a quick, easy read (and it is!) -- but because it's the most concise and most approachable book I've ever found to teach the fundamental importance of usability. As far as I'm concerned, if you want to help us make the software industry a saner place, the first step is getting Don't Make Me… More »

If you've ever wrangled a user interface, you've probably heard of Fitts' Law. It's pretty simple -- the larger an item is, and the closer it is to your cursor, the easier it is to click on. Kevin Hale put together a great visual summary of Fitts' Law, so rather than over-explain it, I'll refer you there. The short version of Fitts' law, to save you all that tedious reading, is this: Put commonly accessed UI elements on the edges of the screen. Because the cursor automatically stops at the edges, they will be easier to click on. Make clickable… More »

While I may have mixed emotions toward LINQ to SQL, we've had great success with it on Stack Overflow. That's why I was surprised to read the following: If you are building an ASP.NET web application that's going to get thousands of hits per hour, the execution overhead of Linq queries is going to consume too much CPU and make your site slow. There’s a runtime cost associated with each and every Linq Query you write. The queries are parsed and converted to a nice SQL Statement on every hit. It’s not done at compile time because there’s no way… More »

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, Travis King and Thursday Bram look at the drain of working two jobs and how to grab the eye of a video agency. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you [...] More »

You’ve got a 5:00 deadline, 3 pages of copy to revise, 2 logos to vectorize  (or whatever magic you design folks use to make things pretty), and a status report to complete to wrap up another project.  It’s almost the perfect trifecta –your three current projects ending at the same time.  You’re smoking busy right [...] More »

Being a freelancer has its perks. You are your own boss, meaning you can work at home and set up your own hours. As great as that sounds, working at home also has its downsides. The main problem is that it’s hard to be productive when you keep getting distracted by the 7 billion wonders [...] More »

Imagine it: you’ve been given the chance to look into the future and bring back one tool that will help you be the Best. Freelancer. Ever. What is this tool?  Heck if I know. What is the one tool that will help you become the best?  Even if it hasn’t been invented yet, what is it that [...] More »

One of the benefits that many freelancers with families cite is the ability to stay home with the kids: you can save a fortune on daycare if you have kids just by working from home and not sending the kids elsewhere. But there are situations in which having the kids at home all day may [...] More »

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Trolling the archives of FreelanceSwitch is a great thing to do if you’re trying to avoid doing actual work.  So because you’re a super busy freelancer, I’ve taken the time – hours and hours, just for you –  to grab a few of the more, shall we say “interesting” posts and gems from the crypts. The [...] More »

Sometimes, you’ve gotta be that “in your face” type of freelancer. By that, I mean client follow-up. You may have to duck in and check up on clients to make sure you’re getting the work. Especially in business, the early bird gets the worm. A client may not always think of you for a project [...] More »

Have you ever had one of those days where everything was going wrong?  You missed a deadline, you lost a good client, an oft-promised cheque still hasn’t arrived, final notice on your cable bill came today, the client isn’t buying into the concept, your spouse is upset, your dog has fleas, and to top it [...] More »

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I just wanted to say, "congrats". To everyone involved at Xbox, everyone at the game studios. For a really great showing at E3 last week. For all the blood, sweat, and tears that got us to this point. And for helping to bring to market the most sophisticated consumer device ever created. "Congrats" More »

Some colleagues of mine at Intel Research/University of Washington recently got permission to post a video of thier research project from UIST 2009. It's a really nice idea that I wish I had done myself and, in my opinon, is one of the better applications of cheap pico projectors that I've seen.Using pico-projectors and cameras mounted on a laptop, you can take advantage of nearby table space around the laptop to effectively expand your workspace at will. The video is a little stiff but, like many good ideas, you get the jist of it pretty quick. More »

This year, I'm helping the User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) conference put their proceedings videos online so that more people can access them. So far, I've gotten most of the videos from this year uploaded to the conference YouTube account. If you've closely followed the tech media coverage, you might recognize projects like the pressure sensitive keyboard and Mouse 2.0.However, one of my favorite projects this year was a muscle sensing system that (among other things) allows you to play Guitar Hero without a guitar. It directly senses the electrical signals in your arms and maps those to the… More »

Some of my colleagues in the Applied Sciences group in Microsoft Hardware have recently gotten some media exposure for one of their recent projects: the pressure sensitive keyboardCongrats! It's a very nice prototype, and I look forward to seeing what the students at UIST cook up in the innovation contest.If you aren't familiar with UIST (User Interface Software and Technology), it is a conference dedicated to new interface research. It is one of my favorite conferences to attend. It's where I demonstrated my past work like Automatic Projector Calibration, Foldable Interactive Displays, where Chris Harrison (recently known for Physically Changing… More »

It's always good to give people reminders of what is possible when you don't stick with just a mouse and keyboard. This is a very nice piece of interface work for 3D drawing. The system is called Rhonda. The drawing is a bit on the abstract art side, but it's easy to see the level of control he has.The great thing about 3d drawing is that the current tools are awful, so new ways of doing it are always interesting. Unfortunately, the bad thing about 3d drawing is that there are a relatively small number of people on the planet… More »

If you've been wondering why my project blog has been pretty quiet, I can finally say it is because I have been helping Xbox with Project Natal. If you haven't seen the vision video, it is definitely worth checking out: Now, I should preface by saying I don't deserve credit for anything that you saw at E3. A large team of very smart, very hard working people were involved in building the demos you saw on stage. The part I am working on has much more to do with making sure this can transition from the E3 stage to your… More »

Since, I'm on a bit of a mini-robot kick at the moment. I thought I would share some of the videos I've seen lately that at least inspired it. The elegance of some of these movements and the music remind me of the child-like imagination that we perhaps once had before becoming more jaded with age. At least, the dreams of a little engineer.This last one is just fun. More »

A couple of weeks ago, I was participating in the Siggraph Jury review process looking at some of the projects submitted this year. There were a couple of submissions using humanoid servo motor robots. Since I have always had an itch to play with robots that I've never had a chance to scratch, I decided to look into buying one. One of the best selections of these robots I found online was at Trossen Robotics. After a lot of reading and video watching, the current highest rated robots appear to be the Robonova, Kondo KHR-2HV, Futaba RBT-1, and the edutainment… More »

In a bit of procrastineering research, I started looking into making my own ferrofluid. Apparently the best stuff to use these days is Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) Toner. But, it's a little hard to find in bulk. The most amazing work I've seen done with ferro-fluid is by Sachiko Kodama:It's difficult and messy stuff to work with. Not to mention you need to know how to generate custom magnetic fields to move it. So, it's always been a little low on my project list. Though, in my brief search for materials, I came across this wonderful artwork by flight404.… More »

This is absolutely astonishing! What are YOU doing with your sheep? eh? Whatever it is, it's probably not as good as this: More »

Business messaging service Date Updated: 2010-07-29 Tags: business, chat, messaging, social More »

Real-time collaboration platform Date Updated: 2010-07-29 Tags: collaboration, enterprise More »

Mobile apps search engine Date Updated: 2010-07-29 Tags: mobile, search More »

Image recognition service Date Updated: 2010-07-27 Tags: photo, recognition More »

Convert HTML into PDF Date Updated: 2010-07-19 Tags: pdf, utility More »

Location based search and messaging service Date Updated: 2010-07-19 Tags: mapping, messaging, mobile More »

RSS feed statistics Date Updated: 2010-07-19 Tags: rss, statistics More »

eZine article database Date Updated: 2010-07-19 Tags: magazines, other More »

Mapping layers data service Date Updated: 2010-07-19 Tags: mapping More »

Parcel boundary data for mapping apps Date Updated: 2010-07-19 Tags: mapping More »

In the ninth episode of TechStars, sponsored by Rackspace, the startups have to face reality. Eric Ries, creator of Lean Startup, scans the… More »

Travel is a huge space, and one of the companies that has been in it longest is WorldMate. Here founder Nadav Gur talks… More »

Just down the street from Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, is Engine Yard, a web hosting company that has morphed into a cloud… More »

The Gillmor Gang — Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, John Taschek, and Kevin Marks. Recorded live Friday, July 23, 2010. Audio Only (right click… More »

Guest post by Major Hayden. Major Hayden is a Linux Systems Engineer for Rackspace in San Antonio. He works with the Cloud Servers… More »

Guest post by Josh Levine, Founder and Chief Experience Officer, Alexander Interactive. Redesigning a website is a daunting task.  Budget, deadlines, resources, features,… More »

You’ve seen Twitter clients like TweetDeck or Seesmic, but you’ve never seen one like this. You’ve seen news readers like NewsGator, Google Reader,… More »

The Gillmor Gang — Brett Slatkin, Jyri Engestrom, Julien Genestoux, and Kevin Marks — on federating realtime with PubSubHubbub. Recorded live Friday, July… More »

In this eighth episode of The Founders video series, sponsored by Rackspace, the competitors have to think about teamwork and relationships. The startups… More »

If you are a professional publisher, you can probably study everything about your audience except when your audience copies text from your website… More »

For the past several years, much like many of you, the fastest Internet speeds I have enjoyed have been at home. Very often, corporate networks, be they those at headquarters or client sites or shared networks at events and public settings, lag well behind my own home experience. For me, considering my devotion to being always-on, fast Internet is practically as important, if not more so, than good food or other more traditional human comforts, and any interruption of said flow is personally trying. That would explain why when moving the family to our new house last Friday, getting access… More »

On Saturday, I highlighted the recent release of Friendly, an iPad-optimized application for Facebook that enhances the world's most popular social network to take advantage of the iPad's screen and touch interface. One of the co-founders on Friendly and Twazzup, its sister product, Cyril Moutran (@mocy), met with me for lunch today and discussed how developing for the iPad presents new opportunities to make a splash in a less-crowded field, and gain real revenue. He also said he believes the launch of more touch-centric interfaces could be as revolutionary as the mouse and hyperlink did with the first generation of… More »

Dear Foursquare,Whether it's a fad, or a trend, or the next generation of the world's currency, location based services are much-discussed these days, and there is no argument that you are in the driver's seat. Barring massive disaster resulting from failure to scale, or the introduction of much-hated new features, the current competitors are not going to shake you from your perch, and the big guys (you know who) don't look like they want to go "niche" but treat LBS as a feature. So you're in a good spot. But... hey. Let's talk.Here's the issue. I've been "playing" with your… More »

Some of the original feedback on Blippy, the purchase sharing service that tracks your linked spending, said the service was about as exciting as reading old receipts. But as the service matures and gains new features, we are seeing the content expand, making the network a potentially vast repository for first-person reviews of brands, products or customer service. Just as Foursquare has learned, the simple act of a status update displaying one's location or item purchase is not enough to build a community or a company. Instead, it takes personality and emotionally-tinged feedback around that experience. For Foursquare, this content… More »

Thanks to advances in the Web's real-time infrastructure over the last few years, our acceptance of latency or delay in discovery has practically been eliminated. We don't want to wait minutes or hours or days for news and information, and the freshness of content is essential. Often, when people want a near-instant reaction to world events, they're not looking to a filtered editorially driven source, such as CNN or Yahoo! News, but instead, they are looking to social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and often blogs, to get the very latest.This drive to be completely up to date has led… More »

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world. The iPad is probably the hottest gadget in the world. It makes sense that the two products are on a collision course, as an increasing number of mobile Web users experience Facebook through their tablets and touch screens. But so far, Facebook has not yet debuted an iPad-optimized experience, relying on its solid iPhone application and its mobile Web site to make do. In this vacuum comes Friendly, from the team that brought you Twazzup, the innovative Twitter Web client, and the results, as you should expect, are very… More »

textPlus, the popular application for iDevices and Android that lets you text or group text for free, launched version 2.5 of their app on Thursday with a major new enhancement that delivers a pinch of nostalgia, thanks to the debut of communities based on topics that are reminiscent of the Web gone by - harking back to early AOL and Compuserve forums when "A/S/L?" meant a lot more than DSL. The searchable communities database brings with it the potential to connect people of similar interests across the Web - to chat, via text, in real time.Just like the AOL chatrooms… More »

After last week's post showing how many people use LinkedIn as a stale resume repository and are not tapping into the business network's many benefits, a follow-up video has surfaced from YourBusinessChannel highlighting common myths about the network.Have you run into the issue where you think you have enough connections on LinkedIn and don't need any more? Ask yourself a follow-up question - does your business have so much revenue you could not possibly need another dollar?Mark Perl, a renowned LinkedIn expert, and I talk about the value of the network, contrasted with other sites, including Google and Facebook, and… More »

The iPad played a major role in today's record-setting earnings from Apple, and strong sales of the device are helping developers find new ways to leverage the product's screen and form factor, at the intersection of the portability of the mobile Web and the power of a desktop. Tonight, a new company called Flipboard debuts with an iPad app that brings your social streams into a completely new light - no longer the world of chronologically ordered status updates and one-liners, but instead, rich graphical pages, which can be flipped, like a magazine from one screen to the next as you go… More »

With sponsored trending topics and tweets becoming more accepted and mainstream within the popular microblogging service, it's no surprise Twitter is expanding its sales ranks to drive more business. After years of users and armchair quarterbacks questioning how the popular service could ever make money, the company certainly looks to be graduating from the realm of venture capital bringing in the dollars and more to one targeting true income. A few of this week's newest hires demonstrate growth in the sales department, with titles that point to structure similar to established firms - much like others that have hit the… More »

Stories: 1) Light, Fuel-Driven Car Goes For 100 Mpg X Prize 2) Your Olive Oil May Not Be The Virgin It Claims 3) The Tricky Ethics Of Video In A YouTube Era 4) What Digital Divide? 5) Listeners Sound Off On Immigration, Shirley Sherrod 6) Robots That Swim With The Fishes, Intentionally More »

Stories: 1) At Amazon, E-Book Sales Outpace Hardbacks 2) 'Hamlet's BlackBerry': To Surf Or Not To Surf? 3) For Kids Of Cartographers, Digital Mapping Class Is In More »

Story: The Mars rover Spirit has been in a deep sleep for the long, cold Martian winter, and scientists aren't sure what shape the seven-year-old mobile outpost will be in when it awakes. On the opposite side of the planet, Spirit's twin, Opportunity, continues trudging along its 12-mile trek. More »

Stories: 1) Stanford Ushers In The Age Of Bookless Libraries 2) Borders Group Enters E-Book Market 3) Listeners Deeply Affected By Eldercare, House Music 4) Weed-Whacking Goats Will Work For Food 5) Cuba's New Deepwater Oil Well Uncomfortably Close 6) What Physics Says About Smooth Balls More »

Stories: 1) Sharp Edge: One Man's Quest To Improve Saw Safety 2) Enforcement Issues Loom With Texting While Driving Bans 3) The Technology Behind Spying 4) Helping Those With Hearing Loss Get In The Loop 5) A High-Risk Egg Race To Save The Sea Turtles 6) Erased From The Declaration Of Independence More »

Stories: 1) Forget Hybrids; Make Your Own Electric Car 2) School Uses Video Games To Teach Thinking Skills 3) Before Liftoff, A Space Telescope Tours Earth 4) On The Gulf, Oily Ships Cleaned One At A Time 5) New iPhone Owners Complain About Dropped Calls 6) If Oil Were Like Salt, Could U.S. Kick The Habit? More »

Stories: 1) Where's The Cupcake Truck Today? Check Facebook 2) High Demand Backlogs iPhone 4 Orders 3) Can BP Tweet Its Way To A Better Image? 4) Father's Day Features Stir Online Buzz 5) Green Marines: Camp Lejeune Buys Into Solar Power 6) Lawmakers To Introduce New Internet Privacy Bill More »

Stories: 1) Author Explores The Evolution Of Facebook 2) Chinese Aim To Build The Next Silicon Valley 3) Apple's iPad Breach Raises Alarms 4) What Happens When People Migrate To The Internet? 5) 'Lost' Apple Founder Has No Regrets 6) Haiku Takes To Twitter, 140 Characters At A Time More »

Stories: 1) U.S. Drone Strategy In Pakistan Under Scrutiny 2) U.S. Seeks To Define Rules On Cyberwar 3) Revisiting The Gulf, Obama Not Yet Optimistic 4) AT&T Institutes Wireless Data Cap 5) Apple Unveils New iPhone Model 6) Apple Debuts Mobile Ad Network Next Month More »

Stories: 1) Website Editors Strive To Rein In Nasty Comments 2) Facebook's Latest Privacy Changes May Quiet Critics 3) Zuckerberg: Sharing Is What Facebook Is About 4) Apple: Products Vs. Stock 5) Listeners Identify With Host's Family Suicide Tragedy 6) The Struggles of 'Life' Unfold On Screen More »

API access to NYCs 5 million+ property records. Date Updated: 2010-07-30 Developer: blankslate Tags: government, mapping APIs: BlankSlate, Google Maps More »

Using Voicecal, you have immediate access to your Google calendar just by making a phone call. Date Updated: 2010-07-30 Tags: business, calendar, telephony APIs: Google App Engine, Google Calendar, Twilio More »

Implements a silent auction by phone. Bidders can bid on items over the phone and are notified via text message when they are outbid. Date Updated: 2010-07-30 Tags: auction, charity, sms, telephony, Voice APIs: Twilio, Twilio SMS More »

Yoga Accessories shopping using the Amazon.com catalog. Date Updated: 2010-07-29 Developer: qcompare Tags: shopping, sports, yoga APIs: Amazon eCommerce More »

With drop2phone, you can send SMS notes to a drop and also receive notifications when someone has added something to the drop - so everyone can know what's going on and immediately reply with their own comment via SMS. Date Updated: 2010-07-29 Tags: messaging, sms, telephony APIs: Drop.io, Twilio SMS More »

meetmeat helps you make and manage plans with your friends over SMS. Text meetmeat a time, location and group of friends and meetmeat sends out invitations and deals with RSVPs. Date Updated: 2010-07-29 Tags: sms, social, twilio APIs: Twilio SMS More »

A site monitoring service that will call you if your site goes down. Date Updated: 2010-07-29 Tags: internet, telephony APIs: Twilio More »

Shows flea prevalence across the U.S., based on Google Trends data. If you download the coupon, your location will be added to the map. Also includes a store locator for finding nearby Banfield locations. Date Updated: 2010-07-28 Developer: ddrace Tags: mapping APIs: Facebook, Google Analytics, Google Maps Flash, MaxMind GeoIP, ShareThis, Tweetmeme More »

Diffmon is an uptime and page content monitoring service. It can check both if a site is up and if it has been changed more than a certain threshold and notify if it has or if it is down. Date Updated: 2010-07-28 Tags: internet, sms, telephony APIs: Twilio, Twilio SMS More »

Find your secret crush by text message. Enter the phone number of your crush and see if you have a match. You can either respond by text or go to our site to add multiple crushes at once. Date Updated: 2010-07-28 Tags: fun, messaging, mobile, sms, telephony APIs: Twilio SMS More »

Jason’s guest this week was David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Railsand partner at 37signals.  This show will go down as one of the epic shows, two great entrepreneurs both with often what appeared to be differing opinions but similar in many way.  You’ll have to watch to understand that comment, not to mention 2 great insights [...] More »

Jason’s guest this week was Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos and author of the soon to be released book Deliverying Happiness (June 7, 2010).  Highlights of the show included 2 points of advice from Tony to entrepreneurs, a bunch of giveaways and multiple mini-guest segments. 00:03 Surprise guests include: Brian Alvey Don Dodge Matt Coffin Shel Israel 00:13 Tony Hsieh interview [...] More »

Jason’s guest this week was Howard Morgan, Co-Founder of First Round Capital and a  30 year veteran of the technology industry.  Highlights of the show this week include: biggest passes that did great, incubator programs and what they offer and who are the greatest tech. entrepreneurs of the 80s, 90s, 00s. Announcements: next week’s show will [...] More »

Jason’s guest this week was Andy Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of DailyBurn a social networking fitness site, that allows you to track what you eat, record your workout, join a challenge and find like minded people for support in your fitness goals.  Highlights this week include an in-depth discussion concerning TechStars and worst VC experiences [...] More »

Jason’s guest this week was Michael Robertson, CEO and Founder of MP3Tunes.  This was an incredible show, highlights include a guest that has an incredible amount of experience, battling big corporations, lawsuits and how to deal with them, interesting predictions for the music industry and how MP3.com got started. 00:07 During “Ask Jason” we get to [...] More »

Jason’s guest this week was James Segil of EdgeCast a content delivery network.  Highlights of the show include an interesting discussion of TED and why he is banned from attending, a celebrity Ask Jason call-in and how companies distribute their content. Things of note: Open Angel Forum announces two new cities: New York and San Fransisco, to [...] More »

Today Jason had the opportunity to speak to 55 seniors at Penn State who will all be working on the University’s “Idea Pitch” contest.  All the students are part of the Information Sciences and Technology school and will be pitching their ideas to the business school. I really liked this interview it was not your normal [...] More »

This week’s guest was Scott Morrow, CEO of ThisNext a social shopping search/discovery site that uses crowdsourcing to bring the best products to the top.  Highlights of the show are a live surprise call to a superfan and interesting discussion about arbitrage. The show starts off with a great behind the scenes video [...] More »

This week’s guest was Stefan Weitz, Director of Bing Search at Microsoft.  Not only was the show insightful as always but I think this was one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in awhile.  Not to mention Jason’s recent Twitter iPad joke, shame on the journalists who fell for that, Jason and Loren Feldman of [...] More »

- Show quoted text - This week’s guest was Phil Kaplan co-founder of Blippy.  Highlights of the show included a great discussion with Phil about what it’s like to work as Entrepreneur in Residence, another great Tyler quote and multiple giveaways (5 Jawbone ICONs, 1 Nexus One, $500 MicroSoft prize pack (congrats Erika)). Announcements: A new show This [...] More »

Windows 7 sales, RSS/scraping and the law, RFID in your pants, royal flickr, and more. Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/twit. For additional show notes, visit the wiki page for this episode. Links to stories we covered (and then some) are available from Delicious or in our Friendfeed Room. Transcript posted 24 hours after show release by PodsInPrint. Audio bandwidth is provided by Winamp, subscribe to TWiT and all your favorite podcasts with the ultimate media player, download it for free at Winamp.com. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Ray Maxwell, Shira Lazar, Cali Lewis, Peter Rojas and Denise Howell Running… More »

iPhone woes, Intel profits, AMD sales, Facebook 500 million, Old Spice, and more. Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/twit. For additional show notes, visit the wiki page for this episode. Links to stories we covered (and then some) are available from Delicious or in our Friendfeed Room. Transcript posted 24 hours after show release by PodsInPrint. Audio bandwidth is provided by Winamp, subscribe to TWiT and all your favorite podcasts with the ultimate media player, download it for free at Winamp.com. Hosts: Leo Laporte, John C Dvorak, Steve Gibson, Lisa Bettany and Anand Shimpi Video URL:  http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/twit/twit0257/twit0257_h264b_864x480_500.mp4 Video… More »

Innovation moving to smart phone space, Bing gaining traction, Google Games, increasing gadget costs, and more. Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/twit. For additional show notes, visit the wiki page for this episode. Links to stories we covered (and then some) are available from Delicious or in our Friendfeed Room. Transcript posted 24 hours after show release by PodsInPrint. Audio bandwidth is provided by Winamp, subscribe to TWiT and all your favorite podcasts with the ultimate media player, download it for free at Winamp.com. Hosts: Leo Laporte, Wil Harris, Joshua Top