Archive for: November 14, 2009

There's been a bit of a fuss raised today about the Windows Theme Experience and the Windows Personalization Gallery. In a nutshell, both allow advertisers to create themes (icons, wallpapers, widgets and the like) for users to embed on their desktops.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I can hear you say. "Ads on my desktop? No thanks!" Well, no, that's the point: these aren't ads, not in the sense that a "Just Do It" poster was an ad for Nike. Well, it was, but... you get the idea.

Ducati, Infiniti, Porsche and Twentieth Century Fox are apparently testing the themes, and indeed there's a page on the Microsoft Web site where users can download them; some examples have been highlighted above. (And, I should note that these are themes, not ads: if there's a dancing monkey asking you to download an antivirus application, you've been hit by spyware.)

As much as I hate advertising, this doesn't look like any sort of trojan-horse exercise to inject onto your desktop. Instead, this appears to be the sort of personalized-theme pack that has, um, graced Windows since Microsoft developed the Windows GUI. After all, Acer shipped its Ferrari notebook in fire-engine red, with the prancing pony front and center. And no one really cared.

TechCrunch has filed a pair of stories regarding Google, the first of which claims that Google's browser-based operating system will be released to the public "within a week". Google's MG Siegler was also referred to a Reuters article that claims that a Mac version of the Chrome browser (not the operating system!) will be due before year's end.

Naturally, the most interesting story is the report that the Chrome browser might be released next week. According to our own Brian Heater, TechCrunch has already been snowed once on the subject, metaphysical questions of "what is a browser and what is an OS?" aside.

TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington says he has one reliable source, however, and he's been right on some recent stories, so I'd assign him a bit of additional credibility for that.

If it's true that the Chrome OS does get released, we'll at least have some separation between what the Android OS is, and how it will differ from the Chrome OS. Unfortunately, that means wading through the CNET conversation of the conversation with Eric Schmidt, which will apparently eventually be transcribed.

Many businesses and retailers offer discounts if you're buying in bulk or buying for a large number of people. The trouble is: how do you get those discounts when you're just shopping for yourself or maybe a couple of other people? Groupon can help; it's a new Web service that provides you and your community collective buying power with participating businesses offering group discounts in your area.

Each day, the service posts a number of discounts and coupons for goods and services from retailers and stores in your area that you can sign up to take advantage of. The catch is that the bargain is only good if the required number of people to activate the deal also sign up. You only get the bargain price if enough people sign up for it as well, so the service depends on members to spread the word. 
Regional or national chains that don't set their own pricing or schedule their own sales are a bit less likely to participate in a service like Groupon, but your local winery or brew pub may have a special deal on the site that's only available if 20 people sign up for it, and you may find a local spa or gym that's offering a discount off of a membership if they can get enough people to sign up to become members at the same time.

That's the beauty of a service like Groupon: It has the ability to connect local businesses with communities and people who live near the ...

[Above: This is why you don't play pirated games.]

Let me introduce to you, the act you've known for all these years. Yep, that's right, it's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band, and it's coming to a Rock Band music store near you next week.

MTV games and Harmonix announced today that 1967's groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonley Hearts Club Band is set to become the second full LP t become playable and downloadable via Beatles Rock Band, following on the heels of last month's release of Abbey Road.

A number of tracks, including "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "With A Little Help From My Friends," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," "Getting Better," and "Good Morning Good Morning" are already playable through the game.

The full record will be available for download on the Xbox 360 on November 17th and two days later for the PS3.

Twitter's an unstoppable Internet juggernaut poised on world domination, right? Maybe not. You see, in spite of the continued media lovefest (if I hear Wolf Blitzer talk about his account one more time...), the micro-blogging service's growth has actually been plateauing, as of late.

Last month, the site even saw an eight percent decrease in US traffic from the month before. Of course, the site's 1,271 percent growth from the previous October is nothing to sneeze at.

Twitter, for its part, is attempt to curb the slowdown with the introduction of new features like Lists and the recently introduced Retweet button.

Google yesterday announced officially that it has acquired Internet calling company, Gizmo5. The company didn't disclose anyone information about plans to incorporate the calling technology, but did state that "Gizmo5's engineers will be joining the Google Voice team to continue improving the Google Voice and Gizmo5 experience."

Existing Gizmo5 customers will still be able to utilize the service, but Google has suspended new signups. Google cited the acquisition of Grand Central (which later morphed into Google Voice) as a successful template for today's news.

A Danbury, CT-based startup by the name of Pointy Heads Software has unveiled Knocking Live Pic, MediaPost reports. It's an iPhone app that lets users share photos with other iPhone owners without having to upload or download them via the Web.

To accomplish this, the app uses a mobile-to-mobile file-sharing the company developed called "knocking." Knocking still requires an online account, but the data transfer amounts are much lower.

Here's how it works: a user sends an alert through Apple's push notification service. That results in a message and a knocking sound on another user's iPhone (which also requires the app on that end), the report said. Once the other person responds, a photo sharing session begins.

Right now, the app is free and available for download in Apple's App Store. The company is planning to charge $1.99 for the app once 50,000 users download it.

As long as people find their own cell phone footage compelling up to share with the world, low-quality video will continue to be an integral part of the YouTube experience. The Google-owned video site already attempted to buck that trend once, with the addition of HD video, and now it's taking things a step further, introducing 1080p footage.

"As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content," the company wrote in a blog post. "For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience."

The addition will roll out next week, bumping the site's maximum resolution up from 720p. 1080p videos already posted to the site will be re-encoded by YouTube.

Car and Driver has unveiled a free Buyer's Guide app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app includes the magazine's full 2010 Buyer's Guide, which features overviews, pricing, specs, photos, and a list of competitors for each make and model of car.

It also offers access to reviews of every car the magazine has driven--which is quite a lot, as I can attest, since I read it all the time. In addition, the app contains an advice section on buying a car, along with a way to browse by price range, Editors' Choice, or "fuel misers."

Car and Driver boasts a circulation of 1.31 million. It's owned by Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, which also publishes Elle, Metropolitan Home, Premiere, Woman's Day, Road & Track, and Cycle World.

The free app is available now in Apple's App Store.

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