Internet

Google generates Festivus pole search results for the rest of us

There's a certain beauty to the Festivus pole. It's tall. It's undecorated. It's made from aluminum, a material with a high strength-to-weight ratio. It doesn't have the maintenance needs of a Christmas tree and its plain, unfussy look thoroughly captures the spirit of Festivus. Though Festivus isn't celebrated until December 23, Google is already getting in on the holiday action.

When you google the word "Festivus," you get all the expected search results. There's a link to Wikipedia. There's a link to a place to buy Festivus poles. And, hello... what's this, Google? There's a virtual Festivus pole over on the left side of the screen. Scroll down and you reach the base.… Read more

Blessed are they who follow as the pope starts tweeting

Offering a blessing to his many followers, the pope's first tweet quickly traveled far and wide through the Twittersphere.

In the first few hours, the tweet picked up more than 38,000 retweets and was tagged as a favorite by nearly 13,000 people.

The first tweet from the head of the Roman Catholic church:

Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart.

Where to watch the huge Toutatis asteroid cruise by

We're coming close to the doomsday of Mayan calendar/Nibiru lore and there's a huge, mountain-size asteroid in the neighborhood of Earth this week. Coincidence?

Of course it is. Sorry, apocalypse fans. The 3.4-mile-long asteroid known as 4179 Toutatis will pass within 18 lunar distances of Earth on Wednesday, December 12, but won't require sending Steve Buscemi, Ben Affleck and friends to take it out. … Read more

Trade ads for free Internet in your London taxi

A new initiative in London will give passengers free Internet minutes in exchange for watching adverts en route to their destination.

Startup Eyetease has gotten approval from the Transport for London to roll out a new scheme for the city's iconic black cabs that will allow drivers and passengers to connect to the Internet for free in exchange for viewing ads.

Dubbed CabWiFi, the "ads for access" model makes passengers watch a 15-second advert in exchange for 15 minutes of Wi-Fi time. Drivers are given a separate login for the service, which the company touts as a way for cabbies to offset some of the roaming charges that are inflating drivers' monthly phone bills. … Read more

Rumor Has It: 'iRadio' could be music to Apple's ears

It seems that every couple months, rumors heat up about Apple releasing a Pandora rival. But this time, analysts give a rough time frame of 2013 for "iRadio," which they say will be "vastly superior" to Pandora.

What could Apple's streaming-music service offer that would make it superior to any of the other services that are out there right now? Let us know in the comments!

Also this week, a Facebook rumor gets debunked in around 48 hours, and Asus might be cooking up another low-cost tablet, but we're too into watching TV to … Read more

Ex-Senator Simpson fights the debt, 'Gangnam Style'

As the election campaign ground along with the relentlessness of Ann Coulter drinking 18 cups of coca tea a day, you might have heard the phrase "Simpson-Bowles" once or twice.

This is not to be confused with Ashford Simpson, Jessica Simpson, or the BCS Bowles Series.

It was a plan to save money, so that young people can have more cash for bong-fillers and bubble gum.

Now former Sen. Alan Simpson (R.-Wyo.), the first part of Simpson-Bowles, has decided that the young haven't listened to him enough. … Read more

#askpontifex meme takes off before pope's first tweet

Pope Benedict XVI has signed up for Twitter, and though the pontiff has yet to bestow his first tweet upon us, he's racked up nearly half a million followers.

He is also already facing a backlog of questions -- ranging from sincere to raunchy -- from the faithful and the not-so-faithful alike.

Twitter made the announcement Monday that the pope's personal Twitter handle was live and that Vatican City's most famous resident would be taking questions via the #askpontifex hashtag, some of which will be answered by the pontiff himself during a live tweeting session on December 12.… Read more

Watch as birds tweet on Twitter

We've seen a variety of creatures use Twitter, including flies and politicians, but check out this footage of real birds tweeting.

Lativan artist Voldemars Dudums created a viral marketing campaign for IR magazine based around the concept phrase "Everyone has a right to be heard."

With that philosophy in mind, Dudums decided to give birds a voice -- on the Internet. The artist took a keyboard and replaced the keys with pieces of unsalted fat, then connected the calorie-filled input device to a computer set up on an outdoor post in Sarnate, Lativa. … Read more

Pope on Twitter: 187,000 followers (so far), not one tweet

When the pope speaks in public, it's a major event. That's why tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people are sure to gather in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican in the hours before the pontiff appears there.

So it should come as no surprise that with the announcement today that Pope Benedict XVI has officially joined Twitter -- and will be live-tweeting responses to questions during an event on December 12 -- more than 187,000 people have already followed his account (@pontifex).

Consider it the digital version of massive crowds waiting patiently for His … Read more

My Best Tech Gift Ever: Prodigy

Editor's note: Today we kick off a weeklong series called "My Best Tech Gift Ever." Every day this week, a different CNET writer or editor will recall a memorable tech or geek-centric present that left a mark. We start the fun with Crave contributor Eric Mack. Look for another installment tomorrow at 8 a.m. PT.

Today I help my mother find her way around Skype and Facebook, so it is to her enormous credit that she was able to see the potential all the way back in the late '80s in something called Prodigy.

If you're under 30, you almost certainly have no idea what this product was, and I don't think my mother did either at the time. Yet it showed up in a box one Christmas in suburban Denver and changed my life.

Prodigy was a pioneering online service that came after CompuServe but before America Online. At the time it offered a new, more graphical user interface with more mainstream content from partners like Zagat and CBS that made the tiny bulletin board systems I'd been dialing into seem bush league. (Disclosure: CBS is the parent company of CNET.) … Read more