Tech Biz

2402 articles on Tech Biz

• Tasty Minstrel Games Supports Toys for Tots
  Like board games? How about getting board games into the hands of needy kids? Tasty Minstrel Games, a board game publisher in Tucson, Arizona, is sponsoring a toy drive for Toys for Tots. While I haven't yet gotten to play any of TMG's games yet (I've just gotten a few recently for review), there's been some ...
  09.26.11

• Toronto Comic Book Shop Claims to Be World's First for Kids
  Like many GeekDads and our readers, I frequently take my kids to the local comic book shops. Despite the fact that digital media is increasingly invading our household (including a growing appreciation for the iPad as a comic book reading platform), there's something to be said for the ambiance of the physical store: the browsing, ...
  09.26.11

• In-Your-Facebook: A Look at the Latest Wave of Big Changes on the Social Network Everyone Loves to Hate
  As you've no doubt heard, Facebook rolled out some major changes this week¿and even bigger changes will be hitting your Wall in the weeks to come. (More on those in a minute.) Many Facebook users were caught off guard by the new "ticker" that now appears in the upper right corner of the News Feed ...
  09.26.11

• A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Monday, September 26th
  As we've reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day's puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. And much to our enjoyment, they've decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm... Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), ...
  09.26.11

• The Kid-Friendly Tablet -- LeapFrog's LeapPad
  One of those futuristic devices that I so wish existed today is A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer -- if you're not familiar with it, go grab a copy of Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age: A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, one of my favorites of his stories, and start reading.  Although it's mainly used as a ...
  09.24.11

• A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Saturday, September 24th
  As we've reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day's puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. And much to our enjoyment, they've decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm... Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), ...
  09.24.11

• Windows 8 Secure Boot Sparks Linux Furor, and a Microsoft Response
  A new security measure introduced with Windows 8 requiring so-called secure boot keys could make it more difficult for consumers to load other operating systems including Linux on OEM Microsoft-certified machines pre-loaded with the software. Depending on whom you talk to, this is a massive violation of consumer freedom that might (or should) draw anti-trust scrutiny from authorities such as the EU -- or it is a desirable defense against malware that just so happens to coincidentally inconvenience a small, if vocal, group of power users.
  09.23.11

• Microsoft Patent Details Module-Based Smartphone
  We know Microsoft for its software chops, but the company is tinkering with some innovative hardware design concepts on the side. A recent Microsoft patent describes a smartphone with a slide-out section that can house one of several modules, including a QWERTY keyboard, a gaming pad, a second display or a battery pack.
  09.23.11

• iOS Developers Reporting In-App Purchasing Outage
  A key security feature of Apple's in-app billing feature for iOS apps has been down since Thursday night, making it difficult for app developers to verify legitimate sales and leaving some of them worried they're losing money.
  09.23.11

• Facebook Wants Your Past, Present, and Future On Open Graphs and Timelines
  Facebook will soon allow its users to integrate all of their music, media, and lifestyle actions and interactions with their profiles, Mark Zuckerberg announced at Facebook's f8 conference yesterday. Connecting profiles to services like Spotify will allow users to fill out their own curated "Timeline," so friends can see each others' media activities both as ...
  09.23.11

• Horn Bike: iPhone Speaker and Bike Mount Combined
  This is the Horn Bike iPhone case from Bone, and you can probably guess from the name exactly what it does. Your iPhone 4 slides into the silicone sleeve and a Velcro strap secures it to the handlebars of your bike. So far, so ordinary. The neatness comes from the 'horn' part, which is in fact ...
  09.23.11

• Epson Megaplex Projector With Speakers and iPhone Dock
  When held at movie-watching distance from my face, my iPad's screen appears bigger than any of my friends' TVs, all of which are on the other side of the room. But with more than two people watching a film, things can get a little crowded. Enter Epson's Megaplex MG-850HD, an LCD projector with a pop-out ...
  09.23.11

• Doctor Who Recap: "The God Complex"
  Last Time: "The Girl Who Waited" SPOILER ALERT! In a cross between Agatha Christie's "And Then there Were None" and the Greek myth of Theseus, this weeks episode takes place almost entirely within a 1980's style british hotel with infinite corridors and rooms. Imagine Fawlty Towers, but with no Basil or Manuel and no way out. Trust ...
  09.23.11

• Levitatr: A Smooth Keyboard With Pop-Out Keys
  James Stumpf dreamed of an iPad with physical keys which would rise, magically, from the glass itself. Of course, this is a ridiculous dream, but that didn't stop James from striving to make it real. The result is the Levitatr, a sleek slab of aluminum and polycarbonate from which -- you guessed it -- the ...
  09.23.11

• Alt Text: Facebook, Google Battle for Hearts and Minds of Jerks
  Facebook has been revamping with the speed and intensity of a traditional revamping master, in its constant battle to beat out Google for "total number of users pissed off by free services." It's not hard to irritate people on a social media site, of course. The two easiest ways to do it are: 1. Change something. 2. Don't ...
  09.23.11

• A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Friday, September 23rd
  As we've reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day's puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. And much to our enjoyment, they've decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm... Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), ...
  09.23.11

• O Netflix! Social Movies Come to Facebook, But Not in U.S.
  Netflix has good ideas, mediocre PR, awful naming instincts, and terrible timing. Timing so unfortunate lately that one begins to fear CEO Reed Hastings was cursed by a powerful witch under a blood oath sworn to unmerciful gods. Hastings appeared on stage at Facebook's F8 developer conference to announce a new, intriguing, and potentially lucrative partnership ...
  09.22.11

• Exclusive: Inside Facebook's Bid to Reinvent Music, News and Everything
  SAN FRANCISCO -- Earlier this year, Daniel Ek, the CEO of the music service Spotify, was in a car with Mark Zuckerberg. Ek was visiting the Facebook founder in California while the two companies were working together on what eventually would be part of the massive announcement made by Zuckerberg today at his company¿s F8 ...
  09.22.11

• Facebook Makeover Reveals New Vision for Sharing
  Facebook announced a slew of new products at its f8 developer conference in San Francisco on Thursday. 'Millions and millions of people have spent years curating the stories of their lives, and there¿s no way to share them,' Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Until now.
  09.22.11

• DockBoss Lets You Plug Anything Into iPhone Docks
  Problem: You own an Android phone, but you live in an iPhone world. Every device, from cars through speakers to refrigerators comes with a 30-pin dock connector. Solution: The DockBoss. This adapter lets you take anything with a 3.5mm jack and hook it up to an iPhone dock, including your Android phone or even your Zune. Inside ...
  09.22.11

• A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Thursday, September 22nd
  As we've reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day's puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. And much to our enjoyment, they've decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm... Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), ...
  09.22.11

• Report: Apple Board Member Al Gore Says iPhones (Plural) Coming in October
  At the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit, taking place today, Al Gore is reported to have given an offhanded comment shedding light onto when we'll be seeing Apple's next major product(s) debut.
  09.21.11

• New Facebook Real-Time Feed: Is This Where the Music Will Go?
  We can¿t stop writing about Facebook today, because after months of anticipation, tomorrow is the day when it will announce new sharing features for music and other media that could form a ¿connective tissue¿ between the various services used by music fans. Today, Facebook remade itself (again), much to the consternation of users (again), who took to ...
  09.21.11

• Help NASA Build Smartphone Apps
  NASA wants you and your smartphone to help it address global problems. On Sept. 20, the agency announced the International Space Apps Competition asking scientists, engineers, and ordinary citizens to develop apps that use publicly released scientific data to study things like weather-related hazards and other pressing issues.
  09.21.11

• Tim Cook to Host iPhone 5 Event on October 4th
  Waiting for the iPhone 5? Then you might want to put Tuesday, October 4th in your diary. According to All Things D, this is the date Apple has scheduled for the new iPhone's launch. The event, revealed to All Things D by "sources close to the situation," will be presided over by Apple's new CEO ...
  09.21.11

• Book Creator for iPad Makes E-Book Publishing Easy
  The iPad is just for content consumption, right? It looks like somebody forgot to send that memo to the folks at Red Jumper. Their app -- Book Creator -- lets you quickly and easily make e-books on your iPad and export them ready to read in iBooks, or to submit for sale in the iBooks ...
  09.21.11

• A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Wednesday, September 21st
  As we've reported before, our good friends over at Google are starting up a daily puzzle challenge. Each day's puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. And much to our enjoyment, they've decided to share the puzzles with us at GeekDad (hmm... Google a Day? GD? GeekDad?), ...
  09.21.11