After all the buzz about Facebook last year and it's trailblazing efforts to change the tone of the Social Networking industry, other Social Networks would be remiss to not follow suit. By releasing their API, Facebook literally changed what it means to be a Social Network, and in doing so garnered itself not only good press, but many new users and, perhaps most importantly, a better market value (which could help them allot considering Microsoft may be looking to buy them now that the Yahoo! deal has gone south). So it may not be too surprising that Social Network giant and market leader MySpace has been making efforts to match Facebook pound-for-pound, and even one-up them in some respects.
We've heard allot of really interesting things from MySpace lately. Within the past few months, the company has launched a Music Service, opened it's API to App developers, and even sprung a online Karoake service (don't tell anyone, but that's my new guilty pleasure). Now, we have word that MySpace is launching a new partnership with Yahoo!, Twitter, Photobucket and eBay to incorporate "data portability" into their services, and combined with their support of the Open Social Initiative, it seems that this company is really making a strong effort to open its doors when it's traditionally been a closed door environment. This data portability essentially means that you can link your accounts together to share information and not have to repost pictures on all your sites or update your status to MySpace and Twitter, etc.
This openness seems highly reminiscent of the more recent moves on Verizon's part to open it's network. Although two completely different industries, I think the concept is the same. In the past, most companies followed a standard secretive approach to the market: you never knew what was going on inside their doors and the best way to own a market was to trap consumers inside your walls. Openness is a new concept for highly competitive industries though. So what's driving this? Has the consumer base changed so much that we no longer accept closed-door approaches to business? In this age of blogs and wikis, are we demanding more accessibility now more than ever? I would tend to say yes, but then there are always the exceptions, companies like Apple that still have a stranglehold on their business model. But even when talking about Apple, they seem to be dipping their toes in the waters of openness with the upcoming launch of the consumer end of the SDK for their iPhone.
It looks to me that we are entering a new and exciting age in the world of consumerism, and I for one am very excited about it. I have always believed that I should be able to interact with a company on my terms, and have tried to support companies that support that kind of interaction. Until recently, that's been hard to do, but I suppose I'm not the only one that felt that way as more and more companies bend to that trend. I look forward to the day that all companies wise up to this new force in the market place, and gladly support the efforts of companies like Facebook, MySpace and Verizon. Obviously, my hope is that these companies live up to their own hype, and only time can truly judge their actions, but for now, I'm glad to see the effort.
The House overwhelmingly (410 to 10) approved the PRO-IP Act, or HR 4279, which enables law enforcement to seize property from digital thieves.
Added to the breakdown of TorrentSpy, it's high time illegal downloaders realized the consequences of their actions. I know; this isn't an ideal Friday morning activity, nor is it a reality any of our stuffed hard drives would like to consider, but the U.S. government is clearly sick of us sticking our hands in pockets we do not own and is dead-set on making an example of our purloining.
And by "we" I mean "you" because my conscience is clean. Yeah ... clean as a whistle....
While it'll soon be within law enforcement's rights to bust into houses and nab computers, hard drives, discs, etc., we should thank our lucky stars one provision didn't pass: the House wanted the content industry to be able to collect damages for each stolen track off a CD.
So even though our pickpocketing bodies are riddled with bullets and lying face-down in blood, at least we're not getting totally ass-screwed by Uncle Sam.
(I realize that adorable LOLcatz picture has very little to do with anything but c'mon, it's Friday; I'm sick of bad news all the time)
[via: Ars Technica]
Gay Republicans rejoice! Now you can stand in support of your Second Amendment rights to bear arms and Gay Amendment rights to be fabulous! Yeah, I know we don't have Gay Amendment rights yet, but with these bad ass weapons, we could hold the most fantastic revolution the world has seen! Watch out Stonewall, there's a new uprising on the Gay Horizon.
Gallery 1988 is hosting a show in their Los Angeles showroom called The Revolution Will Be Fabulous, which is showcasing "designer" weaponry. Everything from grenades to AK-47's are on display, sporting "designs" by everyone from Versace to Luis Vuitton. Personally, this is some of the coolest weaponry I've seen since the Hello Kitty Rifle.
The prices on the art pieces range from several hundreds to several thousands and come to you courtesy of artist Peter Gronquist. Personally, I think this is all brilliant work, and just a tad bit wonderful as well. If you're in L.A., definitely swing by and check out the exhibit. If you're not, check out the gallery. There are tons of cool weapons on display, I just chose the D&G gun because... well, I fancy me some D&G!
[via: Geekologie]
The now-defunct BitTorrent browser TorrentSpy was ordered to puke up $110 million to the MPAA for its involvement in copyright infringement. For each claim against the company, they were charged $30,000.
This bold move is meant to scare the bejesus out of all y'all illegal downloaders out there: No, the MPAA ain't gonna put up with your degenerate habit much longer.
Here's TorrentSpy's kinda lame, passive-aggressive posting on their one-page website:
Friends of TorrentSpy,
We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the Torrentspy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.
The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves.
Ultimately the Court demanded actions that in our view were inconsistent with our privacy policy, traditional court rules, and International law; therefore, we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users - permanent shutdown.
It was a wild ride,
The TorrentSpy Team
"Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order [...] and the like." - Justice William O. Douglas
The Big Brother comment at the end is straight-up overkill. C'mon. We've all read 1984. We know this is a Brave New World. No sense in beating it into our heads yet again.
The long and short of it is this: back in February 2006, TorrentSpy was sued. The judge in the case asked for the IP addresses of individual customers. TorrentSpy lied and said those IP addresses weren't available. Once busted in this lie, the judge got pissed and had some strong words:
"Plaintiffs have convinced the Court that their ability to prove their case has been inalterably prejudiced by Defendants' willful spoliation of evidence, making terminating sanctions the only effective recourse," wrote Judge Florence-Marie Cooper in her decision. "The Court has concluded that Defendants' conduct constitutes spoliation and second, that termination of the case in favor of Plaintiffs is the proper sanction."
Ouch.
So are you emptying out your hard drive right now?
[via: Ars Technica]
You know, it's really no secret that the 3G iPhone will be out this summer, but sometimes a little more tact in making it official would be nice. A memo was recently passed around to all AT&T store staff members informing them that if they had planned on asking for vacation time anywhere from June 15 to July 15, then that's just too bad, because they'll be needed in store to make sure a "new and exciting product launch" goes smoothly (as reported by our very own Den Den). Weird... I had no idea that the Pantech Duo 2 would be that popular...
I'm a bit lucky. I, through certain associations, would have been directly impacted by this decision, if a certain someone already made plans for that time period and requested off. I understand that they honestly feel like this is going to be a huge event, but an entire month? Maybe it's just me, but that seems like they are pushing the "no vacations" thing as just another piece of the marketing puzzle. "OMG!!11! Employees can't vay-k for a whole month in the dead of summer?!?! This is going to be the biggest thing EVAR! First it was the Jesus Phone, now it's the Second Coming!"
If that wasn't enough to make a loud statement that the 3G iPhone will be out in June, try going to an Apple store to get an iPhone right now. Most are out of stock and have been sending people to the AT&T stores who still have stock available. I don't think it's because there is a spiked demand for the current iPhone either, it just makes sense that they are depleting their current generation stock to make room for the new child that Apple built.
So, for those of you that have been saving your Stimulus Checks for something exciting (looking at you Den Den, look no further than mid-June. Now, if we could just get Apple or AT&T to release some definitive pricing or features, we'd all be grateful. I mean, it's not going to hurt your sales of the 3G iPhone at all by doing that. And I'm sure there will still be a market for the left-over Edge phones when you drop the price on the phone, so don't worry about that. Just tell us already!
AT&T: No vacation around the iPhone anniversary [CNet]
Thanks to Vega81 for the heads up on all the "insider" info
(I realize this isn't very tech-centric but I couldn't keep it to myself.)
Heralding a new era of Sick, Roadkilltoys.com unleashes ... roadkill toys. These adorable plushy animals have all the makings of a side-of-the-road disaster: spilling guts, tire marks, protruding popped eyeball.
As of now, the site only has Twitch the Raccoon and Grind the Rabbit (pictured). There are plans for Splodge the Hedgehog, Pop the Weasel and Fender the Fox. Available in the UK for twenty-five pounds. Worth the shipping cost? Only if you hate your little bitch of a niece.
[via: Boing Boing]
You know, you can't always get what you want - it's a natural fact. If nothing else proves that simple axiom, it's the less-than-lethal congealings of Take Down Pepper Gel.
I mean usually, when an officer or security guard is pumping his can and about to shoot goo on my eternally youthful face, it's a different story entirely. Which is why the painful glue-like sludge of Pepper Gel depresses me so - not to mention the fact that it looks like hot sauce, which upon second thought I suppose it is.
With up to 25 feet of spray power and quick decontamination times, Take Down Pepper Gel sounds like a great way to mace bad guys that don't wear glasses and are conscientious enough to face you.
Can you imagine the horror of having pain-glue sprayed in your face? No thank you, Officer - looks like I'm switching back to firemen!
[Product Page via Book Of Joe]
Chinese site CCID (seen here in a loose translation) has posted some leaked info on a new Xenium phone reportedly called the X800 - pictured, at least theoretically.
A touchscreen device with physical buttons for "essential commands," the X800 is more slender than the iPhone and should come, if she comes at all, with games, e-mail and camera all under touchscreen control, as well as being tiltable with landscape mode functionality. Price and release dates are unknown.
Philips joining race for touchscreen phones? [Electronista]
So you have a shiny new phone (let's say for the sake of argument, an iPhone) that's unfortunately locked to another carrier (AT&T) and you don't want to mess around with hacks that might turn that shiny piece of telecommunications technology into a paperweight - what do you do?
The Universal SIM Unlock Card from USBFever's your solution, which, through some weird technical voodoo, allows you to unlock your phone merely by placing it in between your phone and your GSM card.
There's a lengthy list of compatible phones on the product page that have been tested and work, including the iPhone itself. Even better, it claims to work for 3G SIM cards as well, so you're even covered when the new iPhone launches next month.
I haven't tested it myself, but word on the street is that it does function as advertised, and for $23, might just be worth the investment if you like to use your phone with any GSM carrier without having to mess with crazy hacks.
Universal SIM Unlock Card [USBFever]
I gotta give it to Viacom and their assortment of TV channels. However much I may not like MTV, I love Comedy Central and I love LOGO. Comedy Central has seen an explosion lately of show offerings on line, like the complete back catalogue of The Daily Show, Colbert Report and even flagship South Park. But LOGO, Viacom's channel dedicated to the LGBT community, has yet to offer any of its shows online. That is, until today.
LOGO announced they would be placing new video content on their website today. Everything from full episodes of Noah's Arc and Big Gay Sketch Show (both good shows, if you ask me) to clips and behind the scenes footage of their other shows, will be available online for you to view at your leisure.
I took a look at the selection, and while I have to admit that it's pretty limited, I'm also optimistic about what Viacom will do to expand the current offerings. Many places still aren't able to get LOGO, or even in places where you can get it *couch*Chicago*cough*, you have to pay extra to get it, so it would be nice to be able to access this content online. One down shot is that it does not appear that you can embed the videos as of yet. If you haven't experience LOGO yet, I would definitely encourage you to check out the shows they have up now. Like I said above, Noah's Arc is a great show (and currently has the most episodes available online) and the Rosie O'Donell produced Big Gay Sketch Show can be hilarious (most of the time).
[via: CNet]
While we've seem some pretty cool laptop art lately, I have to say that Dell's new Inspiron 1525 - Mike Ming Edition lappys are pretty sexy too! These hot machines come with some pretty standard laptop gear inside, so I wouldn't expect a gaming machine, but a solid windows rig. But the best part isn't the innards, it's most definitely the artsy outside designed by artist Mike Ming. You can choose from this design and one other, as well as your typical Dell customization options.
If you're a die hard Windows fan and a coffee shop-anista (yeah, i just made a word), then you've probably been shunned by all the "cool" and "artsy" kids sporting the same exact Mac Books, that ironically shows exactly how unique they are. Now you can show them all up those hipsters with your very own artistic laptop! That is, until someone busts out their custom designed MacBoook Air... but at least you'll have the sleekest Windows machine in the shop! And you'll have an extra $1000 in your pocket, as these fellas start at just $699.
[via: Gearlog]
No, I don't mean environmentally friendly or "green" (we all know global warming doesn't exist)—I mean that an entrepreneur from Alabama devised a way to shape corporate logos into clouds and send them drifting off into our perfectly safe and stable environment.
Former magician and supplier of snow for movies, Francisco Guerra, crafted this brilliant machine that functions a lot like one of those Play-Doh Fun Factories except aimed at our fatass appetite for corporate shilling.
According to a slew of environmentalists, Guerra's floating clouds are friendly to our soon-to-be-destroyed "regular" skies. A few people are concerned about distracting pilots, but I say if a pilot is dumb enough to get sidelined by McDonald's golden arches whilst trying to land at JFK, well ... that kind of writes itself.
Company floats ads in 'clouds' shaped like corporate logos [Wired]
Enjoy the latest headlines from our other sites!
Using 70% less power and taking up 81% less space than the average desktop makes this $500-$700 planet-friendly PC with recycled innards a good buy for your pocketbook and your planet.
