Earlier this week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft took the stage and finally announced a product that people in the mobile space have been waiting for for a long time: Windows Mobile 7, or more appropriately (since…
Spinning Gears :: Why Are Rented Movies Okay but Rented Music Not?
VIdeo game console manufacturers, set-top box makers, and even television manufacturers are all clawing to get their hands on a partnership with Netflix or Blockbuster Online so buyers can do what they obviously want to do; stream audio and video…
Spinning Gears :: Facebook Privacy Changes May Actually Make It Useful
So Facebook has announced a number of changes to its privacy policy – turns out the whole “networks” thing, which most people used as their high school, middle school, city or town, or workplace, were ambiguous ways that people were…
Spinning Gears: The Linux “Problem,” and How Apple and Google Are Solving It
I’ve been mulling over this column for a long long time, and it’s pretty difficult to write, but some recent developments have really thrust the topic forward. Let me give you the breakdown first: there’s a problem with Linux: it’s…
Spinning Gears: What Would Steampunk Look Like Outside of Europe?
I’ve often wondered what steampunk would look like if it (and we, as I’m more than a fan of steampunk, I wholeheartedly embrace it as a subculture) had more opporutnities for perspective outside of victorian-era Europe. Of course the euro-centricity…
Spinning Gears :: What’s Wrong with Good Reviews? (or, Why Snark is the Mind-Killer)
David Pogue took some heat on last week’s This Week in Tech (TWiT) with Leo Laporte and John C. Dvorak (the generally out-of-touch-but-entertaining-anyway crankmaster himself) over being actually bubbly and happy about some of the good products he’s reviewed. When…
Spinning Gears: Social Networking: Reconnecting, Preening, or Just Depressing?
I make no qualms about how much I love Twitter (you can follow me at @halophoenix), even love Plurk (I’m halophoenix there also), but hate Facebook with a passion. Why? It’s all about the way you use your social networks…
Spinning Gears :: DDoS Attacks Hit US Government Web Sites
Government officials reported earlier today that a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack was directed at the Web sites of several US government agencies, and that the attacks likely started after July 4th. Officials have also been able to determine that the…
Spinning Gears :: The iPhone, G1, and Palm Pre Prove It: The US Needs Better Smartphones
There’s been a whole world of commotion in the smartphone market these days. Even teen-aimed mobile devices like LG’s enV3 (which the commercial claims is “app friendly,” somehow) are looking more and more like smartphones – you can download applications…
Spinning Gears :: Is Blogging Dead in the Age of Twitter?
A good friend noted how quiet her friends list at Livejournal had been recently, and remarked that they had all headed to sites like Facebook and Twitter, where they can post quick updates on their activities more recently and with…