Facebook Goes Live with OpenID

Facebook on Monday finally went live with OpenID, the open user-authentication system also used by MySpace, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, and IBM.

To start, new users will be able to register for Facebook with their Gmail accounts or link their Facebook accounts with any OpenID provider.

Facebook joined the board of OpenID in February, even though it has its own Facebook Connect cross-platform program.

"We believe openness and open standards foster a strong developer community with shared goals and interests," Facebook wrote in a blog post. "We've always believed that making the user experience as secure, lightweight, and intuitive as possible ... is one of our top priorities."

"In tests we've run, we've noticed that first-time users who register on the site with OpenID are more likely to become active Facebook users," the blog said. "They get up and running after registering even faster than before, find their friends easily, and quickly engage on the site."

Facebook promised more integration in the future.

Yahoo joined OpenID in January 2008, and Microsoft, IBM, Google, and VeriSign followed suit a month later. MySpace issued its support in July 2008.

Hey, Mom, Can I Buy This at BillMyParents.com? Pleeeeze?

See that banner above? If you're a teenager, your eyes probably widened. If you're a security expert, your eyes probably narrowed. And if you're a parent, you probably need to brace for a deluge of email requests.Meet BillMyParents.com's Amazon Web site, where the entirety of Amazon.com's Web site is available in a one-click format. The kicker? A child doesn't need a credit card, just a parent's willingness to buy little John or Sally whatever his or her heart desires. There's even a charming little image of a teen holding out her palm for her mother's plastic.At the BMPshopping.com site above, each item has a "BillMyParents" button, which sends a request, either by text or email, to the parent to buy the item by entering credit-card information as they normally would. Fortunately, parents need to sign up for the service before the emails start rolling in.

Voyij Offers Last Minute Travel Bargains

If you're looking for a bargain on a last minute trip, or even if you're feeling up for a spur of the moment vacation, Voyij can help you book travel arrangements at an excellent price. Most of the bookings available at Voyij are last-minute under-booked flights and open hotel rooms, so expect to find the best deals if you're looking to get out of town today or take a sudden trip this weekend. The service has pricing for flights, hotels, and entire vacation packages, so Voyij has you covered.

Pandora Head: We'll Be Profitable Next Year

Thanks to solid apps for the BlackBerry and iPhone, Pandora has seen a bump in users of late. The Internet radio service has about 27 million registered users and is adding new ones at a rate of 50,000 to 60,000 a day. Things are going so well for Pandora in fact, that the company may actually, you know, make some money soon.

Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said that the company's revenue from ad sales may double to $40 million this year. According to Westgren, the cash flow may be enough to turn a profit for the first time since the service was launched back in 2000.

"It's a whole new world for us," Westergren described the company's move toward mobile in a recent interview. "It's changed the perception people have of what Internet radio is, from computer-radio to radio, because you can take the iPhone and just plug it into your car, or take it to the gym."

Flock Adds Twitter, Facebook Chat Support

The latest version of the social media browser Flock launched today, adding some new features to its ever-growing integration of Web 2.0 sites. Among other new features, Flock 2.5 adds support for Twitter and Facebook Chat.

The app's new Twitter integration incorporates Twitter search and lets users tweet directly in the browser's sidebar. The app also separates @replies and direct messages into separate fields. Facebook Chat is also now cooked directly into the browser, making it possible to instant message friends and drag multimedia directly into the chat.

Users can download the latest version of the app for free from Flock's site.

Report: Facebook Declines $8 Billion Valuation

No one seems to have any idea what Facebook is worth these days, least of all the social network itself. A couple of years ago, Microsoft invested in the site, setting its value at a mind-boggling $15 billion. But the popular social network is assumed to be worth far less than that, these days. More recent estimates have put its value closer to $2 billion.

According to Techcrunch, a recent valuation from perspective investors split the difference between the two, suggesting the company is worth a still-impressive $8 billion. Facebook reportedly rejected the term seat due to a demand for a seat on the site's board of directors, rather than the halved valuation of the company.

Apparently everyone is looking to get in on the theoretically devalued Facebook these days. Google has also reportedly shown interest in picking up the site again.

Google Street View UK Moves to Footpaths

Sorry privacy-minded UK citizens, Google Street View is expanding even further into your backyard. The company's photography-based map imaging service has defeated several lawsuits in England and is now looking to expand its coverage--to footpaths.

Google is getting ready to dispatch an army of camera-armed bicycles--or Google Trikes--this summer to help map the country's footpaths. And they're not exactly being secretive about it. Google describes their Trikes as, "a mechanical masterpiece comprising 3 bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a very athletic cyclist in customised Google apparel."

Google is also asking UK residents to vote on which locations should be photographed.

Revert to Internet Explorer 7

Q: I'm new to Vista and recently downloaded the beta version of Internet Explorer 8. Clearly IE8 is far from production, because I have had problem with its stability since then. I've gone onto the Microsoft Web site in the hope that I can download a copy of IE7 to revert back, but I can't find it--at least not in the free downloads section.
You may be thinking that I'm a sucker for pain, still trying to get IE7 when I can get that gem Firefox. The problem is that this IE8 that I'm stuck with is so unstable I can't even download Firefox! Please advise me as to what I can do to revert back to IE7. - Londa Mavundla.






A: Internet Explorer 8 was actually released not long after I received this query, so you probably downloaded the release candidate, not a beta. And at this point Microsoft is pushing out IE8 with Automatic Updates. It's working fine for most people, but clearly there are exceptions.
Fortunately, you don't have to download anything to revert to IE7: Just uninstall IE8. The catch is, IE7 doesn't show up in the list of programs. You have to click the "View installed updates" list to make it appear (XP users must check the "Show updates" box). Find "Windows Internet Explorer 8" in the list, uninstall it, and it will restore Internet Explorer 7. - Neil J. Rubenking.

Google Employing Algorithm to Hold On to Employees

A free cafeteria, cereal bars, scooters--once Google snags you as an employee, it's intent on keeping you. Still, even with all the perks it employs, the search giant still has a tough time holding onto some of its more talented staff. Google is looking to manage the issue with an algorithm aimed at identifying which employees are likely to leave the company.

Google won't reveal the details, but information for the formula is used by peer reviews and surveys from across the company, according to The Wall Street Journal. Google's HR head Laszlo Block adds that the algorithm is aimed at "get[ting] inside people's heads even before they know they might leave."

Like Google isn't in enough places already.

Android 1.5 Coming to T-Mobile G1 Next Week

Good news for T-Mobile G1 users: the long-awaited Android 1.5 update is coming to your phones starting at the end of next week. The update will roll out free and over the air, so you don't need to do anything to get it. It'll arrive in stages, though, so while some lucky folks will get the new software next week, others will have to wait as long as the end of May.

T-Mobile Delays Android 1.5 Update Until June

The T-Mobile G1 may havepassed the one-million markin sales recently, but owners will have to wait a bit longer for a major OS update.T-Mobile USA announced that it has delayed the release of itsAndroid 1.5mobile OS until early next month, according to FierceMobileContent."We are working diligently to get Android 1.5 out as soon as possible, while aiming to ensure a consistent, positive experience for our customers," wrote T-Mobile Forum moderator Dominic in a post today. "We're finalizing the build this week to ensure optimal functionality and smooth delivery. Therefore, the rollout schedule has been reset by approximately a week, and we expect all G1 customers will have the update by early June. Your device will notify you when the update is available."

Study: More Than Half of Cell Phone Users Get Content

Microsoft Shifts My Phone to Open Beta

Microsoft on Tuesday moved its My Phone service to open beta.

My Phone is a free service that syncs Windows Mobile 6 smartphones with a password-protected Web site that can be accessed from any PC. It made its formal debut at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Anyone with a Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 phone can download My Phone now at myphone.microsoft.com. The service will let you update contacts, manage your calendar and photos, add new tasks, search through text messages, download and edit documents, and upload music and videos - all from the PC.

Any changes made to your account from the PC will be automatically updated overnight, or you can click "sync" at any time for automatic updates.

Microsoft touted the product as a means to protect your information in case of loss or theft, as well as a convenient way to transfer information to a new phone.

If you lose your phone or buy a new handset, download the My Phone app to the new device, sign in, click "sync" and your data will be transferred to the new phone.

Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com
.

Twitter on Your Nintendo DS

Don't be too shocked when your Twitter feed devolves entirely into a collection of Tetris high scores. Thanks to a new home-brewed app called DSTwitter, owners of the popular Wi-Fi-enabled Nintendo handheld can now tweet directly from their DSes. The app is currently available as a free download from NDS SceneBeta. It requires a DS card adapter like the R4DS for use.The biggest issue with the app stateside is the fact that it's available only in Spanish, at least for now. So heck, maybe you can learn a new language too.

Google Intros Voice Search for iPhone

Don't let it be said that Google has given up on the iPhone. They may be plugging away at their own mobile OS, Android, but the company has just bestowed Apple's popular smartphone with the gift of hearing. A free app, developed by the search giant is available for free through the iTunes app store. It converts spoken questions into Google searches.

The most practical application for the service--at least at the moment--is local search. Questions spoken into the phone will bring up local results in moments, as the phone determines its location.

As The New York Times points out, Google's chief competitors Yahoo! and Microsoft already offer similar voices services, but Yahoo's, for one, seems not be as accurate as Google's new app.

And, of course, local search, as ever, offers a unique targeted opportunity for advertisers.

How Big Is My Outlook Express Mailbox?

Q: I read the recent article by Michael Muchmore in Today's Tip newsletter: How Big Is My Outlook Mailbox?. Regarding the article, I could find no Mailbox Cleanup button when I click on Tools in Outlook Express. Can someone provide further directions? - Mike Spears.





A: Outlook is not Outlook Express. Most of the time tips about one don't apply to the other--and this is no exception.
Your Outlook Express messages are all stored in files with the extension .DBX, each file representing a message folder. Here's how you can see how much space they take. Select Tools | Options from the menu, click the Maintenance tab, and click the Store Folder button to see where those are stored. Copy the full pathname to the clipboard and close those Outlook Express dialogs. Click Start, click Run, and paste in the folder name. The size of the contents of this folder is the size of your "inbox". This works for Windows Mail too, though it doesn't use .DBX files.
Chances are good that your OE inbox is anywhere from big to ginormous. Why? OE does not actually delete any message that you send to the Deleted Items folder. Rather, it marks the space in the corresponding .DBX file as "deleted". To regain the space previously occupied by those messages, select File | Folder | Compact All Folders from the menu. Now check the size again; it's probably quite a bit smaller. You can't directly call on Windows Mail to compact all folders, but this tip explains how you can make it happen the next time Windows Mail shuts down. - Neil J. Rubenking.

NBC Mobile Delivers 2.4 Streams in Q1 2009

NBC was one of the earlier players on mobile, with video functionality and comprehensive coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics last year. (In fact, they're already gearing up on mobile for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver).Now the network has announced that NBC.com's mobile website served 2.4 million video streams in Q1 2009. That number exceeds the total number of streams the network delivered in all of 2008.In addition, NBC said that Q1 2009 was the mobile site's highest quarter yet with 24 million page views, a 64 per cent increase over Q4 2008. The network has too many mobile efforts--including text, video, schedules, and more--to list in one post, so check out the company site's mobile section for more information. (release)

Mobile TV Viewing Skyrockets (Finally): Report

It will never be a replacement for full-size television, but mobile TV may finally be seeing some positive results. According to new data from Nielsen's "Three Screen" report, online video viewing in the U.S. increased 13% year-over-year, while mobile jumped more than 50%, MediaPost reports.

Study: Nearly 60 Percent of U.S. Cell Phone Users Text

Almost 60 percent of all cell phone subscribers in the U.S. now text from their handsets, compared with 54 percent in 2008, according to a new study on mobile messaging. In addition, 30 percent of subscribers browse the Web, and 27 percent check e-mail from their cell phones. That's according to thesecond annual Vlingo Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report, which surveyed 4,816 U.S. consumers.More ominously--and more in tune with the main focus of the study--despite Driving While Texting (DWT) bans in seven states and the District of Columbia, as well as reports of accidents caused by DWT, 26 percent of cell phone subscribers continue to text behind the wheel.Interestingly, Arizona had the least ratio of offenders at 18 percent, while 42 percent of Tennessee drivers did the same thing.

Microsoft Fined Ordered to Pay $200 Mil in Office Patent Case

Microsoft yesterday was ordered to pay $200 million to i4i. The Toronto-based company sued the software giant over infringement issues involving custom XML tagging in Word 2003 and 2007.

Microsoft, naturally, was unhappy with the verdict handed down by the federal jury in Tyler Texas, stating, "We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid. We believe this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict."

Eric Schmidt: Google Is Not Buying a Newspaper

Google as of late has been positioning itself as a friend of the newspaper industry, a stance seemingly taken largely in response to dying media industry's mountain pressures against the company's information aggregator, Google News. The company even went so far as considering the purchase of a newspaper company.

According to a recent interview with Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, however, that idea is officially dead in the water. Schmidt told the Financial Times that Google was "trying to avoid crossing the line" when it came to editor content. Rather the company was focused on helping newspapers to improve their approach to online advertising.

Schmidt also took the opportunity to assure everyone that, although he had been involved in the election of Barack Obama, he had no interest in running for office himself, "I can assure you I'm not going to run for politics. There is no second life after Google."

How Did You Celebrate Porn Day?

Did you know that yesterday was "porn day?" If you frequent site like 4chan and eBaum's World, you probably did. You might also know if you accidentally clicked on a YouTube link yesterday posted by readers of those sites, who uploaded adult videos en masse in an attempt to overwhelm search results.

YouTube did its part to remove the questionable content, assuring users that it should all be gone by now. Scott Rubin, a spokesperson for the company told Ars Technica:

It may take some time for video search results and thumbnail images to disappear from the site. Typically, this should not take more than a couple of days, but the videos themselves are no longer viewable.

YouTube was helped in its effort by the fact that many of the early posted used similar tags, such as that old 4chan favorite, "marblecake."

Yahoo Brings Buzz to India

Yahoo today announced that it has brought Buzz--its popular Digg clone--to India. As the company did with its American counterpart, Yahoo is rolling out India's Buzz slowly--first to two dozen publishers, with more to follow in the coming weeks.

Like Digg, the site lets users vote stories up or down, based on their interest. The most Buzzed-up stories will be chosen for placement atop the Yahoo homepage, one of the most popular destinations on the Web. Users outside of India can also check out and vote on stories by visiting the Buzz in India page.

Ads on Twitter? Not Just Yet, Says Co-Founder

Twitter doesn't hate advertising, but don't expect to see banner ads for mortgage companies and Caribbean vacations alongside your feed anytime soon, co-founder Biz Stone wrote in a Wednesday blog post.

"The idea of taking money to run traditional banner ads on Twitter.com has always been low on our list of interesting ways to generate revenue," Stone wrote. "However, facilitating connections between businesses and individuals in meaningful and relevant ways is compelling. We're going to leave the door open for exploration in this area."

Speculation about ads on Twitter started in March when the micro-blogging site put a small box on the right-hand bar that some suggested might be a place holder for paid content.

At the Reuters Technology Summit this week, Stone said Twitter's focus would be on tools, not ads, a theme he reiterated in his blog post.

"To say we are philosophically opposed to any and all advertising is incorrect," he wrote. "We've just begun exploring in this area--early ideas include account authentication, management tools, and discovery mechanisms."

Stone suggested that there was room for innovation in advertisement, a theme he expects to address as a speaker at next month's 56th annual international advertising festival, Cannes Lions 2009.

Google Adds Predictive Search Results to Google.com

Not quite sure what you need to search for on Google? Maybe you can't remember how to spell it. The online search giant has added a predictive search function to its main page that will provide suggestions as you type in a search query.

"We find that by providing suggestions upfront, we can help people search more efficiently and conveniently," Jennifer Liu, Google product manager, wrote in a blog post.

Google first started experimenting with predictive search in 2004 with Google Suggest. It has since expanded to Google Labs, Toolbar, Firefox search box, Maps and Web Search for select countries, the iPhone and BlackBerry, YouTube, and now Google.com, Liu wrote.

Typing in "pc mag" into Google, for example, will produce a drop-down menu featuring results for PC Magazine, the magazine's Editor's Choice, subscription options, and top 100 Web sites, as well as an estimate as to how many search returns each query will return.

PC Magazine? 35.5 million. My name? 17,900. I have some catching up to do.

Google Revamps 'Suggest' Predictive Search Results Feature

Google has revamped its Suggest feature to provide more personalized results and easier access to desired Web sites.

The search engine giant has added about a half dozen updates to its predictive search results--suggestions that appear in a drop-down menu as you type in a search query.

First up is suggestions on the search page. Let's say you search for "roller coasters" but want to drill down a bit more after you see the results. If you enter a search on the results page, the first few suggestions will still relate to roller coasters.

If you want to get back to a Web site you've already visited, meanwhile, Google.com will now provide personalized suggestions based on your Web history. If you are signed in to Google and have Web history enabled, the first few suggestions will be based on past searches. What if those searches are a bit personal or embarrassing, though? Google has provided the option to click "remove" on the right so they do not show up in future searches.

What else is new?





Google will also provide links directly in the drop-down menu. Type in "PC Magazine" and the first suggestion will be a link to direct link to PCMag.com.

This is Google, though, so the company is also incorporating ads into search results. Type in a query for a specific product or company that also happens to be a Google advertiser; the menu will provide its usual suggestions, but the final link will also direct you to the product's official site

Google is also dumping the result counts that were previously displayed because the company got feedback that they were not useful. They will also bold the text of suggestions to help you scan the list more quickly.

The updates will be rolling out starting today.

VIdeo Preview: Spore Galactic Adventures

Yesterday, Electronic Art's Spore representatives came to the PCMag offices to give us a preview of an up-and-coming expansion pack for the game, Spore: Galactic Adventures. This new

Google Intros New Version of Chrome

Google today announced the release of the latest version of Chrome. The company upped the speed for this new iteration, which Google claims can load JavaScript pages 30 percent faster than the previous version, introduced back in September. The new Chrome also offers a few new features, including form autofill, full-screen mode, and removable thumbnails on the New Tab page.

For more information, check out the Official Google Blog.

Portwiture Puts Your Tweets into Pictures

Every day another application or Web app pops up adding features to Twitter or improving the way Twitter does things. At the same time just as many apps and services appear that don't necessarily enhance any of Twitter's basic features, but are fun to use regardless. Portwiture is an interesting Twitter and Flickr mash-up that takes the words you most commonly post to Twitter and uses those words in a Flickr image search. Ultimately combining the Flickr results into a mosaic of images that reflect your tweets.

Toki Tori: Going from WiiWare to iDevices

Two Tribes will soon be releasing Toki Tori, originally a WiiWare game, for the iPhone tomorrow. The game is a puzzle/platform that follows a yellow bird trying to rescue his unhatched friends. To succeed in his mission, he must find his way through 80 puzzling levels.

The developers say they're taken time with this port to make sure to take advantage of the iPod Touch and iPhone's touch and tilt functions. The game will be available for download from the iTunes store May 22nd. The price has yet to be confirmed.

Juice: Discover New Content by Highlighting Text

If you're reading about a court case that references a previous ruling by another court, or perhaps a news article that references another topic you're not familiar with, you're familiar with the old technique of highlighting the text and right-clicking to search for that term. Juice, a free Firefox extension, takes that to the next level and gives you a custom sidebar where you can drag and drop that highlighted text to learn more about it. Instead of highlighting a word or phrase you're interested in and simply searching the Web for it, Juice will take the text and help you discover new content relevant to your search. For example, if you highlight and drag a book title, Juice will show you the book listing at Amazon. If you highlight and drag a court case, the extension will bring it up at Wikipedia so you can read about it.

Sore Winners: MPAA Appeals Pirate Bay Verdict

Despite a big win over BitTorrent searching site The Pirate Bay, which led to $4 million in fines and a year of prison for the four Swedish defendants, the Motion Picture Association of America is going back to the litigious well. The organization is appealing the recent verdict, claiming that the damages in the case were too small.

The Pirate Bay has already appealed the verdict from their end, claiming that Tomas Norstrom, the judge who presided over the case, has a conflict of interest as he's a board member of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property

Bango Launches Mobile Credit Payment System

Bango has launched a new service called Bango Credit Card Payment that lets small businesses and other content providers bill customers directly from the mobile Web. Normally that's not earth-shattering, but in this case it's quite cheap at $10 per month. That puts it within the reach of individuals already selling stuff over eBay or Amazon on the desktop.

Intuit Launches Mobile Credit Card Processing App

Not to be outdone by the smaller Bango, which released a similar system three days ago, 800-pound-gorilla Intuit has launched GoPayment, a mobile app that lets businesses process credit cards from cell phones and is tied to a GoPayment merchant account.In addition, GoPayment supports 128-bit SSL encryption, along with an optional Bluetooth enabled card swiper and printer to expedite processing. Essentially, contractors, computer consultants, and anyone who goes out and meets customers on jobs can process credit cards with this system, without having to carry a wireless terminal or some other mobile POS (Point Of Sale) setup.Intuit has already teamed up with Sprint to help distribute the system. For more information, check out Intuit's dedicated GoPayment Web site.

Alcatel Jumps Into Mobile Ad Fray

It's always good to watch out for what you click on, but now that's true for mobile devices as well. Alcatel-Lucent is jumping into the mobile advertising well with a service that will let wireless carriers offer custom text alerts about nearby bank ATMs or ongoing store sales, according to the Wall Street Journal.1020 Placecast, a San Francisco-based developer of cellphone and online ads tied to a user's location, is managing the program for Alcatel, according to the report, and already works with Hyatt, FedEx and Avis Rent A Car System as clients.The idea is that a user opts in, and then whenever they're in close proximity to a store or other relevant outlet, the person's GPS-enabled cell phone will light up with an alert having something to do with that store--offering another sales opportunity that goes hand in hand with mobile coupons (such as those from Cellfire, pictured) and general text-based mailing lists.





As is true with many location-aware services, the technology is cool,
but exactly how much advertising do you want pushed to you at all
times? As the report said, it's possible that this market is running
well ahead of consumer demand. (Then again, I'm addicted to coffee; it
would be helpful to know where there is some nearby, particularly for
those sleepy "emergencies.")

Google Rolls Out Slightly Redesigned Logos

Oh, Google, don't you ever rest? The search giant today revealed a new cross-property logo redesign (one I, for one, would likely not have noticed were it not for the complimentary blog post on the subject). The colorful Google logo itself remains the same, but the product names now appear in a lowercase blue font.The new logos have already appeared for Google Labs, Google Moderator, and Google Code. More will be rolling out for Google Maps, Google News, Google Docs, and other products in the near future. They'll also be appearing in other languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Gmail Gets Inbox Preview

Google today launched a new addition to Gmail Labs--Inbox Preview. Targeted to users with slow connections, the feature displays the ten most recent messages in your Gmail account while the rest of the account loads. You can enable the feature in the Labs tab under Settings in your Gmail account.

For more information on the feature--and a sad little story from a Google engineer about how he never gets any mail--check out the Official Gmail Blog. And why not send poor Mr. Balsiger a letter while you're at it?

Muslim Clerics Want Increased Facebook Rules in Indonesia

A group of 700 Muslim clerics in Indonesia gathered together yesterday to ponder the possibility of forbidding followers from engaging in illicit activities--such as flirting on Facebook, the most visited site in that country.

Indonesia, which boasts the world's largest Muslim population, claims about 831,000 Facebook users, which is a 645 percent increase over last year. That number will likely continue to increase exponentially, given that only 0.5 percent of the country's population is currently connected to the Internet thus far.

"People using Facebook can be driven to engage in distasteful, pornographic chatting," Amidan, an attendee of the conference told The Associated Press.

While the decisions of the conference wouldn't have any legal weight, Facebook still spoke out against the negative connotations. Said Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost:

People are typically using Facebook to connect with their friends, family or learn about local and world issues and events. We have seen many people and organizations use Facebook to advance a positive agenda.

Overtype Problem in Word 2003

Q: I'm using Word 2003. How can I stop letters disappearing after I make corrections? When this happens, text just keeps disappearing as I type, meaning that I have to redo whole paragraphs. Is there a setting that needs changing? Any help with this problem would be appreciated. - Barbara Meltsner.





A: It sounds like you're accidentally putting Word in overtype mode. In Word 2003 you can see this in the status bar. There are four usually-grey mini-panes labeled REC, TRC, EXT and OVR. If OVR is black rather than grey you're in overtype mode. Tap the Insert key a few times and watch it change.
You're not the only one who's had this problem. It was enough of a big deal that Microsoft disabled Overtype mode by default in Word 2007. Those who actually want to use Overtype mode need to change a setting to make it available.
Maybe it's enough to know that you should watch for that OVR marker to appear. But if you want, you can take it a step further and disconnect the Insert key from that command:
Select Tools | Customize from the menu.Click the Keyboard button on the Options tabIn the Categories list select All commandsIn the Commands list select OvertypeIn the Current keys list click InsertClick the Remove buttonClose the Customize Keyboard dialogClose the Customize dialog







If the problem was due to accidentally hitting the Insert key, thereby toggling Overtype mode, this will solve it. You can still toggle that mode by double-clicking the OVR marker. - Neil J. Rubenking.

More Help Finding Command Prompt Help

Q: I tried to use the tip Help for Command Prompt Commands. I typed "HELP

Maxto Makes Two Monitors More Manageable

When my dad bought a 22" monitor (he is 83 years old and runs it at 1024x768) he graciously gave me his old 19" screen. My video card was already good-to-go for dual monitors so I took the plunge. OK--I know I'm late to this party but 2560x1024 is a lot nicer than 1280x1024!

Being a full fledged geek the shortcoming of dual-ing monitors quickly became obvious. Maximize a window (common noun) and Windows (proper noun) spreads it across all 2,621,440 pixels. Resizing by hand didn't seem the way to go either. You never get it quite right.

Surely I wasn't the first to have this epiphany. I keyed in Google to 'knowledge up.' That's where I found Maxto.

MaxTo is a small Windows program that divides your monitors into regions. When you maximize a window, it will no longer fit the entire screen, but only the region it was maximized into. Your windows are neatly organized into the grid you have defined when they are maximized. MaxTo has been described as a tiling window manager.

Format a USB Drive with FAT16

Q: How can I format a USB drive with FAT16 using Command Prompt? - Samrat Patil. A: In XP or Vista you can specify the file system with no trouble. Just follow the FORMAT command with the switch /FS:FAT (FS for File System). You can also specify NTFS or FAT32. I usually put /V: and the volume label on the command line too - otherwise the FORMAT command asks you for it later. So the command FORMAT G: /FS:FAT /V:OLD_DRIVE
would format the removable drive G: using the FAT16 file system and
give it the volume label OLD_DRIVE all at once. - Neil J. Rubenking.

SuperCook Helps You Make Dinner Without Going to the Store

Many services can help you find recipes to make based on the items you already have in your kitchen--but some of them have gone away over the years, and others don't have a broad depth of recipes. SuperCook is different. It has hundreds of recipes and allows you to build a virtual pantry of items and see in real time how the recipes you can make change based on what you have available. The recipes look delicious, and the service can even recommend a few things to pick up if you have most of the ingredients but still want to make a quick trip to the grocery store.





To use SuperCook, you begin by typing ingredients you want to cook with into the search box at the upper-left side of the page. As you enter ingredients, they'll be automatically added to Your Kitchen, a virtual pantry that's displayed right under the search box. As you type, SuperCook makes suggestions on what ingredient you may be trying to type. You can get started either by typing in some of the ingredients that you'd like to use, or you can rummage through your fridge or pantry to come up with a master list and see what SuperCook can do for you.As you build your list, search results appear on the right side of the page that make use of those ingredients. If you have ingredients in your list that you don't want to use or ingredients that you'll never cook with because of allergies, illness, or other dietary needs, you can add them to your Exclude list, and SuperCook will never show you recipes that use those ingredients. For example, if you're lactose intolerant, you can add milk, cheese, and butter to the exclude list and see only recipes that either don't use those ingredients or offer suitable substitutes. By default, all search results are displayed when you start entering ingredients. If you're looking specifically for an appetizer, dessert, or a main dish, you can click the tabs at the top of that page to see only those types of recipes.You don't have to sign up for an account to use SuperCook, but if you do you can create a persistent Your Kitchen pantry list that doesn't go away when you leave the site. That way, you can return to SuperCook and reuse the ingredients you still have, remove ingredients that you've eaten, and add items you've purchased fresh after a trip to the grocery store. You don't have to re-enter your pantry items each time you want to use the service, and the site will automatically find new recipes that match what you have available. SuperCook would already be just as good or better than a number of other "enter what you have and we'll tell you what to make" services like the now-defunct Snacksby, but the fact that you can create a persistent pantry and get updated recipes as you add and remove items over time puts the service over the top. If you use it regularly, finding out what's for dinner could be as easy as logging in to SuperCook to see what they suggest.

New Yorker Cover Art Drawn Entirely on iPhone

The New Yorker has a long history of support for arts. The cover of the magazine serves as a showcase for a diverse array of different artists, young and old. The latest issue, of course, is no different. Drawn by New York-based illustrator Jorge Columbo, the art--like many other New Yorker covers before it--is an homage to the city that never sleeps.

Where Columbo's work differs from its predecessors, however, is the medium in which he choose to paint the piece. The work, entitled "Finger Painting," was executed on the artist's iPhone using the handset's Brushes app. Given the number of iPhones one sees on the subway every morning, one couldn't ask for a more appropriate tool for painting the Big Apple.

Nokia Launches Ovi App Store Internationally

Nokia today launched its Ovi mobile app store. Following in the footsteps of Web stores from Apple, Google, and BlackBerry, the Finnish phone company is offering a diverse number of downloadable apps, including games, maps, news, and utilities. At launch, the store is compatible with more than 50 different handsets.

At present, international users--including places like Australia, Spain, Russia, Singapore, Italy, and the U.K.--are reporting a general sluggishness and lack of available apps in the store. Users in the U.S., on the other hand, aren't reporting anything at all. We likely won't be getting a piece of Ovi until later in the year.

Cartier Sues Apple Over iPhone Apps, Withdraws Suit

Apple spent its Memorial Day weekend fending off a lawsuit from Cartier. The jewelry maker sued Apple on Friday over two iPhone apps it claimed infringed on the company's trademark for its luxury Tank watches, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Apple, however, immediately removed the apps, prompting Cartier to drop its suit the same day.

"Our concerns have been addressed," a Cartier lawyer told the Journal.

Biz Stone: There's No Official Twitter TV Show

Everyone from Wolf Blitzer to Oprah has fallen in love with Twitter over the past year, so perhaps those rumors of a TV show based on the micro-blogging service do make a little sense. After all, it's probably in the site's best interest to strike while the iron is hot--the media's love affair with Web sites is fleeting, more often then not.

The site's co-founder Biz Stone today went on the record to state that no single "official" show exists.

There is no official Twitter TV show--although if there were it would be fun to cast! In dealing with networks and production companies we sometimes have simple agreements. Regarding the Reveille and Brillstein project reported today, we have a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely.

The service does, however, have working deals with a number of networks, including MTV, G4, CNN, and E!.

Facebook Access Restored in Iran After Government Block

Facebook access has reportedly been restored in Iran; it had been blocked by government officials who did not want the opposition party using it for campaign purposes.

The site was blocked on May 23, because supporters of moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi was using Facebook to "better disseminate the candidate's positions," according to Agence France-Presse.

Mousavi is running against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in office in next month's election. When asked about the block, Ahmadinejad said Monday that he was "unaware and would investigate."

E.U. Goes After Music Labels

Those wacky European Union antitrust regulators are at it again. This time, however, much to the relief of Redmond, they've gone after someone besides Microsoft. The Commission is targeting the music industry this time, asking labels to open up licensing for the entire continent, rather than the separate country approach that's currently in place.

"There is a clear willingness expressed by major players in the online distribution of music in Europe to tackle the many barriers which prevent consumers from fully benefiting from the opportunities that the Internet provides," EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes told The Associated Press.

The lack of a cohesive strategy across Europe has caused online music sales to lag behind those in the U.S., argues the E.U.

Bookswim.com: Book-Renting Service that Won't Break the Bank

Do you go through 2, 3, or more books on a monthly basis? A heavy reading habit can add up, but now there's BookSwim.
This site is similar to Netflix's monthly renting plan, where
subscribers can take out a certain number of books and return them whenever,
with no late fees.

"Light reader" customers can receive 3 books a month for
$19.98 per month. The "casual reader" can receive up to 5 books a month
for $24.97 (that's the price of 1 hardcover). The "avid reader" can
receive 7 books each month for $29.96. Finally, the "devout reader"
can receive 11 books a month for $39.94.

BookSwim also offers deals on textbooks and summer reading material for students.

Microsoft: Windows 7 Beta Shutdown Starting July 1, not June 1

A weekend e-mail from Microsoft incorrectly stated the start date for bi-hourly Windows 7 beta shutdowns, the company said in a Tuesday blog post.

The e-mail warned users that the beta version of Windows 7 would expire on August 1 and suggested that users upgrade to "non-expired" copies, like Windows 7 RC or Windows Vista. Bi-hourly shutdowns of the beta version, however, will begin on July 1, not June 1.

"The Windows 7 Beta does expire on August 1, 2009; unfortunately the date for when bi-hourly shutdowns will begin for the Windows 7 Beta was incorrect," wrote Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc. "Bi-hourly shutdowns for the Windows 7 Beta will begin July 1, 2009."

"We apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this may have caused," he said.

CircuitCity.com: Where You Can Check Out, But Never Return

On March 8, Circuit City went out of business. In April, systems builder Systemax purchased the company's e-commerce business, CircuitCity.com, which relaunched over the weekend.There's one problem, however: if you buy anything from the site, don't expect to easily return it, according to some rather draconian return policies unearthed by The Consumerist.The real issue, it appears, is that CircuitCity.com has posted a rather innocuous return policy on one page of its site, and the much more restrictive one excerpted to the top left.The company's legal page reads, in part:

Judge OKs Craigslist Restraining Order Against SC AG

Craigslist on Friday secured a restraining order against South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster.

"Until the court rules on the merits of Craigslist's claims, defendants and their attorneys and staffs shall refrain from initiating or pursuing any prosecution against Craigslist or its officers and employees in relation to content posted by third parties on Craigslist's Web site," according to the ruling.

Craigslist requested the restraining order in South Carolina District Court after McMaster threatened to sue the online classifieds site over its "erotic services" section.

"Mr. McMaster's repeated threats of criminal prosecution should we refuse to shut down Craigslist for South Carolina have left us little choice but to seek declaratory relief before the court," Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said at the time.

Craigslist announced on May 13 that it would ditch "erotic services" and replace it with a monitored "adult services" section - a week after McMaster threatened to sue Craigslist within 10 days if the South Carolina portion of "erotic services" was not removed.






Despite the fact that all "erotic services" ads were scheduled to expire on May 20 - 7 days after they were posted - McMaster stuck by his pledge to sue within 10 days of May 6 and again threatened prosecution. At that point, Craigslist demanded an apology for what they considered to be McMaster's "unreasonable" demands, and filed for the restraining order.

McMaster's office has seemingly abandoned any plans to sue Craigslist. After the site filed for the restraining order, McMaster released a statement in which he suggested that Craigslist had removed the South Carolina "erotic services" section at his request. That statement was a bit misleading, however, since Craigslist had planned all along to remove the section throughout its site after 7 days

TuneUp Cleans your Music Collection

Over years of ripping CDs, finding free tracks on the Internet, downloading music from multiple music services, and finding random MP3s on your computer, admit it: your music collection is a mess. The only way you can think of to straighten it out is to go through by hand and tag and rename every single song. There are apps that can help speed the process, but in the end you'll have to monitor their progress and fill in the gaps manually, right? Not so, thanks to TuneUp, an iTunes plug-in that can help you get your collection in order, download your missing album art, and tag your tunes so you can sort them easily.

Russian Firm Invests $200M in Facebook, Values Site at $10B

Facebook has secured a $200 million investment from Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the social networking site announced Tuesday.

The deal puts Facebook's value at $10 billion - slightly less than the $15 billion valuation thrown around in October 2007 when Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook.

London- and Moscow-based DST's $200 million investment will be in exchange for preferred stock, and represents a 1.96 percent stake in Facebook. In addition, Facebook will offer to purchase at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing common stockholders. Facebook will notify eligible participants this summer.

DST will not get a seat on the Facebook board.

"A number of firms approached us, but DST stood out because of the global perspective they bring - backed up by the impressive growth and financial achievements of their internet investments," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement.

"Our investment experience in other regions reveals the tremendous value social networking companies create as they redefine how people communicate and interact," said Yuri Milner, chief executive of DST. "By every important metric - user growth and engagement, technological innovation and financial performance - Facebook is on a similar trajectory, though on a much more global scale."

Are Small Publishers Doomed in the iPhone App Store?

Plenty of larger companies have launched successful programs for the iTunes App Store, but the real success stories have been apps from smaller, previously unknown developers--often the work of one or two individuals. With one billion apps downloaded and counting, however, everyone's looking to get into what is potentially a huge money-making opportunity.

Take Warner Brothers Digital Entertainment. The company has announced plans to release 25 new iPhone apps by year's end, including apps for the new Terminator, Harry Potter, and Sherlock Holmes films. That's a staggering number, to be sure, and one that may signal a flooding of the iPhone market by larger companies looking to grab a piece of the pie.

There's little chance, after all, that a giant like Warner Brothers will be subjected to the same manner of vetting that has blocked apps from smaller companies. A big business also has the resources to promote a new app that can easily send it straight to the top of the downloads chart.

MocoNews posits that the entry of companies like Warner may signal the end of the first era of entrepreneurial-driven App Store content. The shift may not be quite so concrete as that, but short of some small-business support on the part of Apple, it seems likely that the App Store may become a microcosm of the corporatized Web. And if that should happen, homogeneity will no doubt follow closely behind, signaling an end to the creative drive that has pushed the early app boom.

In which case the developers who made names for themselves early on with innovative new products will likely be snapped up by corporations looking for controlled quirkiness in their releases--Burger King, anyone? Others may seek refuge in the still-wild territory of the Android Market.

In any case, it would be a bummer to watch innovation roll over for brand recognition. But if history is any indication, such a shift seems inevitable.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Is Ready, Microsoft Says

Microsoft spokesman Josh Rhodes confirmed today that Windows Mobile 6.5 has been "RTMed," or released to manufacturers. This puts the latest version of Microsoft's mobile OS on track for a third-quarter release on new devices, as planned.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile to Allow App Sharing

The world of mobile app stores is getting crowded, what with Apple, Blackberry, Google, and Windows (among others) vying for the attention of mobile users. Microsoft stepped things up today, however, with the introduction of app sharing for Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

With the new feature, users will be able to use purchased apps on up to five Windows Mobile handsets--all at the same time. The company's senior product planner Daniel Bouie announced the intriguing new feature last week during the Tech Ed conference. The company, he added, will also give customers the ability to get refunded for unwanted apps within a 24-hour timeframe.

The Marketplace is expected to make its debut next fall--around the same time as Windows Mobile 6.5.

Microsoft: Sorry, Just Kidding About App Sharing

Despite an earlier report alluding to the contrary, Microsoft announced that anyone who buys mobile apps from the upcoming Windows Marketplace online mobile app store will not be allowed to share them with friends and family, according to Computerworld.

Will Microsoft's Kumo Be Renamed Bing?

Microsoft is set to unveil its Kumo Internet search engine at the "D: All Things Digital" conference this week. But a Monday Ad Age article suggests that Kumo will actually be dubbed "Bing" at its debut.

The publication also reported that Microsoft is set to spend $80 million to $100 million on advertising for Kumo--or Bing--in an effort to grab a slice of the online advertising market. Reportedly, the ads will not attack search rivals Google or Yahoo by name, but will instead suggest that current search engines are not adequate.

Ads will run via the Web, on TV, in print, and on the radio.

Microsoft's Bing Icon?

Assuming that Microsoft names its new search engine "Bing" -- and a lot of the speculation has been fueled by this AdAge article -- the icon may well look like this one, to the left.That's because, if you visit bing.com, you'll see a blank page, but with this icon appearing in your browser's address bar. It's a tiny little detail, and probably irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Still, it's another indication that AdAge was on the right track. Credit MG Siegler at TechCrunch for this one.

StrikeStar Brings Nationwide Realtime Lightning Detection Home

I'm posting this entry pretty late at night. If you're in Texas, Oklahoma or Arkansas you might be seeing it sooner rather than later because you're being kept awake by some moderately persistent thunder and lightning. I can tell you where lightning is striking in reasonably real time and without paying for the data because of one of the web's many affinity communities. In this case it's folks with home mounted lighting detectors, an always on connection and a little software magic.

The website is StikeStar and its map displays North America's lightning strikes over the last 60 minutes. It's here I saw those southern storms. Each individual strike is color coded so you know if they're cloud-to-ground or cloud-to-cloud and whether they were positively or negatively charged. Graphs alongside the map show whether the frequency of strikes is rising or falling. Tonight the storms seem to be subsiding.





On a busy day a full North American map get pretty cluttered so the site is further divided into six geographic sectors each featuring three maps to further drill down into the data. I'm a numbers geek. This is my porn!

The national map and all the sectors contain the combined strikes from dozens of individual lightning detectors. Of course these are clickable too! That's how I know I'd rather not be in Corsicana, TX right now.

The hardware behind the data starts with Boltek's StormTracker. It's a little black box that can be mounted nearly anywhere.

StormTracker works by detecting the radio signals produced by lightning. These are the same signals you can hear on an AM radio during a thunderstorm. StormTracker's direction-finding antenna provides direction information while storm distance is calculated from received signal strength. Special processing in software reduces the effects of strike-to-strike energy variations providing more accurate distance information.

The lightning data is then analyzed by NexStorm software.

[W]ith the capability to display animated lightning data loops on the Internet! Static screenshots are not particularly useful for determining where storms are headed. The StormVue Java companion applet, which can be easily embedded in your web page, not only provides for an one-hour animation loop but is also interactive, allowing your web site visitors to stop and restart the animation loop as well as zoom in on the map.

Finally it's all ingested into the StrikeStar system.

StrikeStar is client/server system, exclusively designed for the NexStorm software and Boltek hardware. StrikeStar allows multiple, standalone lightning detectors to form a real-time lightning locator network with much better positional accuracy.

StrikeStarUS is a public, large scale and community based lightning detection network that we have made available as a unique added-value program for users of our NexStorm software.

I will admit getting involved on the detection end sounds a little complex. On the other hand the data is freely available on line and about as pretty as data on the Internet gets.

Was The American Idol Vote Gamed?

By now you know the guy with eyeliner lost American idol. Interestingly like the Miss USA contest Idol's runner-up is getting a lot more press than the winner! On the show no small deal was made of the official tabulation and how many votes had been cast. Still, there are questions.

The New York Times is reporting AT

Ashton Kutcher: I May Stop Twittering

After becoming the first Twitter user to amass one million followers, there's really nowhere to go, right? Well, there's always the race to two million. Ashton Kutcher threatened to pull the plug on his Twitter account if the service becomes a reality show.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, for his part, denied rumors yesterday that the microblogging service was, in fact, developing an official TV show.

"Wow I hope this isn't true," wrote Kutcher in response to the rumors. "I really don't like being sold out. May have to take a twitter hiatus"

"I hope this isn't true," added his wife, Demi Moore, on her account. "if it is, our Twitter time may come to a quick and sad end."

No one ever said that they were just doing this for the attention, right? Right?

Rumor: Microsoft Sets Windows 7 Netbook Guidelines

As of late, PC manufacturers have been sort of fudging the line between netbooks and notebooks. Microsoft for its part, is putting its foot down. The company has reportedly decided that anything with a screen larger than 10.2-inches isn't, in fact, a netbook, and should have to pay for a full copy of Windows 7.

The "maximum specification" guidelines came out through a site called TechArp, but for the moment, Microsoft is neither confirming nor denying them. The drop the screen size down from XP and Vista's maximum 12.1-inch screen.

Symantec: More Than Ninety Percent of E-mail is Spam

If Symantec's new report surprises you, you probably haven't checked your inbox recently. The company announced findings this week that 90.4 percent of all e-mail is spam, an increase of five percent over last month. That number translates to spam messages in every one out of 1.1 e-mails.

"Spammers using better-known and thus more widely trusted Web sites to host malware is reminiscent of the spammers who rely on well-known Web mail and social networking environments to host spam content," Symantec analyst Paul Wood told News.com. "The trustworthy older domains can be compromised through SQL injection attacks while newer sites are more likely to be flagged as suspicious--a temporary site set up with the sole purpose of distributing spam and malware--and thus faster to get shut down."

Spam numbers dipped a bit last year, but have since come back in full force.

Mobile Music Industry Doing Well Amid Overall Gloom

Now that mobile music has matured a bit, and no longer means "heavily DRM'ed audio tracks for an exorbitant $2.49 each," the market for it is beginning to pick up. In fact, anew Juniper Research study is projecting modest growth worldwide in mobile music over a five-year period, even as the larger music industry continues to founder, according toGigaOM.

Google Adds Desktop Reader Gadget

Google on Wednesday added its RSS feed reader to Google Desktop.

"With the new Google Reader gadget, you can now track your feeds and Google Reader subscriptions directly from your desktop," Google's Brian Shih wrote in a blog post. "The Google Reader gadget is designed to be familiar for existing Reader users, yet compact like our other Desktop gadgets."

Clicking on an item inside the gadget will pop out a larger view to see a preview and star, share, or e-mail the selections. However, due to a "technical limitation" of Google Desktop gadgets, entire HTML feeds won't render fully, but clicking on an item will open it up in your browser.

The gadget is available for Linux- and Windows-based systems. Download it on the Google Desktop page.

Digg Silences Shout

Social new site Digg today followed up last week's announcement by removing its link sharing Shout feature. The feature, which many users complained favored top posters, has been phased out in favor of external sharing methods such as Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail.

Digg hopes the move will help raise the site's profile on those external sources. According to The Los Angeles Times, Digg users have begun working on Twitter-based Shout replacement using a #digguser hashtag, thereby creating a Shout-like stream on the microblogging service.

PCMag at All Things D

PCMag's former editor-in-chief and current blogger Michael Miller is at the seventh All Things Digital conference (D7) this week at the Four Seasons Resort Aviara, just outside of San Diego. Michael's covering the show in depth over at his blog, Forward Thing.

He kicked things off yesterday with a post about Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher's "Web 3.0" presentation, which attempted to map out the future of cloud computing. News Corp. head honcho Rupert Murdoch was also present to talk about "a major turning point for media," we're sure with a fairly ominous inflection.

Of course it wouldn't be a proper technology conference without some words about Twitter. All Things D went straight to the source, inviting the company's co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, who told the audience, among other things, that they had no plans on selling their site.

AT

Moore's Law, Meet (Larry) Page's Law

Chip geeks are intimately familiar with Moore's Law, the axiom that says that, every eighteen months (or so), the number of transistors that can fit within a given area on a chip doubles. Put really simply, what this means in the real world is that the performance of a PC and other devices constantly increases. So why do PCs never really seem to get faster?Well, call it Page's Law. Page's Law was actually coined by Sergey Brin, who dropped in at the tail end of a Google press conference, and was asked about the pace of software and Web development."Page's Law is sort of the opposite of Moore's Law," Brin said. "Page's Law says that every 18 months software becomes twice as slow."Hardware makers have managed to offset that with incredible advances in compute power, he said, and Google is attempting to leverage that through improvements in software coding. The ability to process JavaScript has improved by 100 times in less than two years, executives said during Wednesday's keynote."We would like to break Page's Law and we would like our software to be increasingly fast over time," Brin said. Some of the methods include the company's Chrome browser as well as the company's Native Client initiative, he said.Source: Flickr/rafael_mizrahi

Facebook Tweaks Gift Credits, Doesn't Slash Prices

Facebook made a slight tweak to its "credit" system Wednesday. Before today, most digital gifts on the social networking site went for 100 credits, or one dollar, but they will now cost 10 credits.

Unfortunately, Facebook is not reacting to the recession and slashing its gift prices as well. Buying 10 credits will still cost you one dollar. Facebook apparently felt the need to drop a zero, just for kicks.

"You can continue to purchase credits, now priced at 10 credits for $1. We expect to offer more ways to use credits and gifts in the future, and already we have run tests where users can share credits between friends," Facebook wrote in a blog post.

Facebook will automatically convert current credit balances to the new system.

More Apps, Local Content on Revamped Yahoo.com

Yahoo is currently testing a revamped homepage that will include easier customization, as well as more apps and local content, the Internet company announced Tuesday.

"We recently started testing some new designs based on your feedback," Yahoo's Tapan Bhat wrote in a blog post. "We recognize that many of you like your homepage just the way it is, thank-you-very-much, so the overall look and feel of the page will be familiar."

Bhat promised some "fundamental improvements" and features that are easy to use and customize.

For example, the "My Favorites" section on the left side of the page will include an applications dashboard allowing you to preview, interact with, or navigate to preferred sties, whether they're on the Yahoo network or elsewhere on the Internet.

Yahoo plans to add many more apps, Bhat said.

"We're testing a growing library of apps that let you get more done without leaving the page," he wrote. "Some of these apps include eBay and MySpace, and content sites like USA Today and NPR."

He also pointed to newly developed apps for Yahoo services like Messenger, Movies, and Flickr.

Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.

Business Info Added to Google Earth for iPhone, Desktop

Looking at satellite imagery on Google Earth can be fun time waster, but figuring out which restaurant or store you're actually looking at can be a bit tricky.

With this in mind, Google announced on Wednesday that it has added a "business layer" to Google Earth for the iPhone as well as the desktop version. Touch (or click) on a particular building and the information will pop up.

"You'll find businesses like restaurants, bars, banks, gas stations, and grocery stores all just a touch away," Google's Carmen Erni wrote in a blog post. "By clicking on the icons, you'll get additional information like the telephone number, reviews, hours, and much more."

The business layer will be automatically added to Google Earth the next time it is launched. Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod Touch debuted in October 2008.

GigaOm Introduces Paid Content

GigaOm today went all Wall Street Journal on us, with the addition of paid premium content to its network of blogs. The new service, GigaOm Pro, offers exclusive content and analysis for a $79 yearly subscription fee.

Among the features available on the premium side are briefings, analyst notes, editorial market long views, quarterly wrap-ups, weekly news updates, and "curated" links. Topics covered include green IT, infrastructure, and mobile. The analysis will be written by GigaOm contributors Michael Wolf, Rachel Happe, Steve Hawley, Clint Wheelock, Juergen Urbanski, George Gilbert, and Chetan Sharma.

GigaOm is positioning the content not as a paid version of the site but as a far cheaper version of the tech analyst information that's currently out there.

Time Warner May Dump AOL This Thursday

Time Warner is reportedly set to finalize its decision to dump the ailing AOL during a board meeting tomorrow. According to sources close to the board, the decision to completely undo the $147 billion 2001 merger is all but a done deal at this point.

In 2008, AOL experienced a staggering 20-percent $4.2 billion drop in revenue over the year before. In the first quarter of this year, the company's revenue hit $867 million. As part of the move, Google's five-percent stake in the company is reportedly set to be repurchased.

Time Warner Officially Spins off AOL

Time Warner got a jump on everyone by making official its decision to spin off the ailing AOL last night. The company was originally expected to vote on the move in a meeting today, but instead issued a statement early this morning.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes had this to say about the company's decision:

We believe that a separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL. The separation will be another critical step in the reshaping of Time Warner that we started at the beginning of last year, enabling us to focus to an even greater degree on our core content businesses. The separation will also provide both companies with greater operational and strategic flexibility. We believe AOL will then have a better opportunity to achieve its full potential as a leading independent Internet company.

Once spun off, AOL will become a standalone company. As part of the agreement, Time Warner plans to buy back Google's 5 percent stake in AOL.

Time Warner merged with AOL in 2001. in 2008 alone, AOL experienced a staggering $4.2 billion revenue drop from the year prior.

Sirius XM Shows Off iPhone App

During it shareholder conference earlier this week, satellite radio mega-company Sirius XM showed off some shots from a forthcoming iPhone app that the company hopes will help jump-start its ailing revenue stream. The program will likely be available as a free download, but be subject to streaming fees, such as a $13 a month subscription.

The company's CEO, Mel Karmazin, didn't give out a lot of information about the app, though he did touch on a shopping feature which may be tied to iTunes downloads (if Apple has anything to say about it--which it almost certainly does). The company released this information during a recent earnings call,

The Sirius XM app will deliver an expanded programming lineup that includes the company's sports talk, news, comedy, and commercial-free music channel, as well as music showcase channels.

Hands On with Seesmic Desktop: A Flexible, Customizable Twitter Client

The sheer number of desktop Twitter clients available is staggering, and each of them offer different sets of features. But if you're looking for a Twitter client that hits the sweet spot between features and flexibility, sign up for the beta of Seesmic Desktop. Built by the makers of Twhirl, Seesmic Desktop has been making waves on the Web with people who have tried it, and I'm no exception. The app is free, runs in Adobe AIR, and manages to retain its simplicity and ease-of-use while simultaneously being customizable.Seesmic Desktop isn't as streamlined and simple as its little brother Twhirl, but also isn't as difficult to use and customize as TweetDeck. The app allows you to create multiple columns for all of your incoming tweets, your replies, your direct messages, and any user groups you create. Seesmic Desktop can also easily manage multiple Twitter accounts.

DestroyTwitter: A Lightweight Feature-Rich Twitter Client

Most popular Twitter apps blame the fact that they use an external framework, like Adobe AIR and Microsoft's .NET, on their resource usage. Additionally, if you're looking for the perfect Twitter client to use, you're often forced to choose between a compact app that feels more like an IM client and a robust app that takes up your whole screen. DestroyTwitter is different; it gives you control over the size and layout of your Twitter feed, is extremely light on system resources, and is completely customizable.

Hands On with Twhirl: A Twitter Client for the Rest of Us

If you're still using the Twitter Web client to read your friends' posts and communicate with your followers, you're missing out on a world of convenience that only comes with a desktop Twitter client. There are dozens to choose from and each offer different sets of features and tools, but the one of the most popular is Twhirl, an attractive client that packs a ton of features into a slim and customizable package. Twhirl runs using Adobe AIR, which means it's supported on any platform where AIR runs. It's skinnable, has different views for all of your tweets, replies, and direct messages. The app also has built-in search, image sharing, URL shortening, and much more.





When I joined Twitter, I used the Web interface exclusively; it was the easiest way to get into Twitter and immediately start communicating with friends and followers. Eventually, though, the sheer number of tweets coming in got a little overwhelming, and I wanted a way to keep up with my friends without having to keep a browser window open to the Twitter home page.

TwitHive: A Heavyweight Web-Based Twitter Client

Twitterers: If you're looking for the power of an app such as TweetDeck, but you can't or don't want to download anything, TwitHive may be able to help. It's a Web-based Twitter service that allows you to manage your followers, view profiles, add groups, and scroll through columns of tweets, all inside your preferred Web browser, without the need to download or install anything. You may be surprised how many people still use the Twitter Web page to
update their stream or read what their friends have to say. Even though
there are a number of great Twitter desktop clients, including TweetDeck, Twhirl, DestroyTwitter, and Seesmic Desktop,
for some the Web interface is perfect. If you're looking to use the Web
to stay on top of Twitter but need a little more power than the Twitter
site can offer, TwitHive gives you some of the power
and flexibility of TweetDeck and Seesmic Desktop without the need to
download anything.

Google Reinvents Email, Documents with "Google Wave"

What would email look like if it were invented today, rather than several years ago? Meet Google Wave, a preview application shown off Thursday at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco.The Google Wave site is now up and running, although access to the application will be restricted. Google Wave was developed by the Google Maps team, led by Lars Rasmussen, and assisted by his brother Jens. "One of the best times of my life was in 2005, just after the launch of Google Maps, when developers started doing crazy things with the APIs," Rasmussen said, who added that he hopes developers will do the same with Wave.What is Google Wave? Think of an open-source version of Gmail constructed via instant messaging. To start a wave, two users start what is essentially an instant-message session, which can be archived as a conversation. Other users can then be invited to join each wave or conversation, and there's even a "playback" feature to track the process of the conversation. Google also said it intends Wave to also be a platform as well as a protocol, with the appropriate tools and extensions for each.In fact, it might not even be accurate to call it a reinvention of email. Google executives tied the instant-message/email model to real-time document collaboration, even search, and extended it to the Web and to blogs.

PCMag Hands On: Microsoft's Bing Search

PCMag's software analyst, Michael Muchmore, got to take an early look at Microsoft's Bing. He looks at how this "decision engine" functions
and asks the question everyone's thinking: Is it better than Google?

Muchmore notes the differences in the look and feel of the interface and searches being more to the point of things. In one instance he searched "traffic," and Bing gave him a map of the local traffic report. Microsoft said Bing (www.bing.com) will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide on Wednesday, June 3.

Find out all his conclusions and get lots more details at PCMag.com. And for Michael J. Miller's take on Bing check out his blog, Forward Thinking.

DealWaiter Finds Bargains and Sends Them to You

You're looking for a deal on that camcorder you were thinking about buying, or even some new speakers, or an external hard drive, but you haven't seen the item you're searching for on any of your favorite deal sites. Instead of just waiting for it to appear, why not let DealWaiter do the searching for you? Simply provide the name of the item you're looking to buy and how long you want DealWaiter to look for it, and the service will scrub various deal sites for a good price. When it finds one, DealWaiter will notify you so you can make your purchase.More after the jump.





DealWaiter is simple to use. Just type in the item you're searching for, give the service your e-mail address or Twitter username, and the length of time that the service should search for deals. DealWaiter will check a few popular deal sites every 15 minutes to see if what you're looking for goes on sale. If it does, the service will e-mail or send you a tweet that the item you want is available at a discount, and you can decide whether it's time to pull the trigger on it. The beauty of DealWaiter is that it gives you a way to search for deals without really spending time browsing various sites and searching them individually. DealWaiter does all of the heavy lifting for you. The default search time is six months, but you can extend it to a full year or decrease it to a month. The service currently searches Amazon, ZeroDayDeals, SlickDeals, and FatWallet. I'd love to see the developers incorporate some other popular deal sites like DealNews, but DealWaiter is new and additional sites are likely in the works. If you'd rather do a live search and see the results immediately, just leave the e-mail or Twitter username field blank and the site will show you if the item you're looking for is on sale right now at the supported sites. Even though SlickDeals and FatWallet are some of the most popular deal sites on the Web, DealWaiter is more useful as an additional site to search for bargains than as a replacement for all of your favorites, at least until it searches more sites.[via Lifehacker]

ZOS Unveils Zhiing GPS-Based Messaging App

ZOS Communications has launched Zhiing, its location aware, GPS-based messaging app for the iPhone, BlackBerry OS, Android, Symbian, and Windows Mobile smartphone platforms.The idea behind the app is to let people send their current location to friends, co-workers, and family members, the same way someone would send a text message. The company said that the app works indoors and gathers data from both GPS and cell tower IDs, and also hooks in data from Skyhook, AGPS, and Google Maps for Mobile.

Track Eight Social Networks On Your iPhone

Are you sick of checking one social networking site at a time? Zensify, a new social networking aggregator for the iPhone and iPod touch, may be able to help.The app lets you read and post updates from eight different social networks through a single news feed: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Photobucket, Del.icio.us, and 12seconds (but not MySpace, apparently).

PhatWare Launches WritePad Line for iPhone

Could we be seeing competition already for Quickoffice Mobile Office Suite on the iPhone? PhatWare, an independent software developer, has released three Outlook-compatible apps for the iPhone and iPod touch: WritePad Affairs, WritePad Events, and WritePad notes. All three apps use the same WritePad text editor, which contains built-in handwriting recognition and text editing features.

Hulu Releases Desktop Version of Video Site

Web browser TV watching not doing it for you? Hulu on Thursday introduced a downloadable desktop version of the popular video Web site.

Hulu Desktop provides access to Hulu content for a "rich, full-screen" video watching experience, Hulu said in a blog post. The offering is available on Windows and Mac - but not on Linux - and can be conntrolled via mouse, keyboard, or any six-button PC or Mac remote control.

"Hulu Desktop was built by a small group on our engineering team who asked themselves one day: how can we make it easier for users to immerse themselves in the great shows and movies Hulu is fortunate to have access to?" Hulu wrote. "Our answer was to build a new PC and Mac application that gives users the option to step outside of their browser, keyboard and mouse and into something different."

Desktop is part of Hulu Labs, a new beta section on the site that will provide sneak peaks at upcoming material.

"From new recommendation algorithms to tools for building custom widgets to a time-based view for browsing your favorite shows, we'll be sharing a variety of these new creations with you at Hulu Labs and looking forward to your thoughts on how to make these products better," Hulu said.

Can you get everything on Hulu Desktop that you find on Hulu.com?





"Generally speaking the Hulu library on Hulu.com will be available through Hulu Desktop," Hulu said on its site. "While our goal is to have the same content library available on through all of our distribution channels, we work together with our partners to determine availability of their content on these various channels."

You don't need to set up an account to download and watch Hulu content, but you will need to sign in to access your queue, history, subscriptions, playback quality and closed captioning preferences. Profile details, privacy settings and friends are not accessible from Hulu Desktop.

The download will require at least 2GB of RAM, a Flash installation, and Windows XP or Mac OS v10.4 or later.

In April, Hulu announced that it will soon add content from ABC, making CBS that only major network that does not contribute to Hulu.com.

Google Wave: Five Points You Need to Know

We're still waiting on what is expected to be an opportunity to play with Google Wave, the company's ambitious project to rework email, instant messaging, document sharing, and blogging. After doing some thinking, however, I wanted to highlight some of the points that intrigued me personally.1.)

Safeway Chains to Offer Mobile Coupons

Two of Safeway's grocery store chains--Tom Thumb and Randall's--are currently working with General Mills, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark to offer shoppers 21 cell phone coupons for children's cereal, packaged tossed salad, and other goods, according to MediaPost.

Sprint Unveils Now Network Widgets and Screen Savers

If you fondly miss the days when screen savers provided useful information as well as kept you entertained while you were across the room from your computer, or if you're just a fan of widgets in general, Sprint has you covered with their new Now Network Screen Saver and customizable widgets, available on their Now Network page. Sprint is ramping up marketing in advance of the launch of the Palm Pre, and to draw more attention to the wealth of information that Sprint can help you connect with, the Now Network page has been plastered with widgets that display a number of interesting facts, such as the number of messages being posted to Twitter right now and CNN''s recent headlines. If you dig the widgets, you can download a screen saver with similar widgets you can customize with your own music, feeds, and social networks.

Callpod Keeper Now Available for the Desktop

You know that it's not safe to reuse one or two passwords, right? But it's impossible to remember more than that. Jotting them down on a notepad by your computer isn't exactly safe. What you need is Callpod Keeper, which was just released for Windows and Macintosh computers.Keeper was already available for free for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but now it's come to the desktop. It protects your passwords and other data with military-grade AES encryption. The program costs $14.95, but you can try the free 15-day trial to see if you like it.I like the program's interface, which makes it easy to find a record, and lets you add notes to any entry. Best of all, the desktop client wirelessly syncs with the mobile version over your WiFi network, so your password data is always up-to-date. Give it a try and start creating unique passwords for every site.

Verizon BlackBerry Storm Finally Gets Updated

Finally, it's coming! Verizon Wireless e-mailed us today to say that on Sunday, May 31, they'll start rolling out OS version 4.7.0.148 for their BlackBerry Storm phones. In this week's biggest understatement, they say the major bug-fixing and feature-enhancing update "improves the overall user experience."You've got two ways to get 148. Starting at 3 PM ET, Storm users can download it from www.blackberry.com/update or they can wait until 10 PM and go to Options / Advanced Options / Wireless Updates on their devices.The notoriously buggy Storm has been waiting for an official Verizon update for months, as several new versions of the system software have been rejected by Verizon's labs. The new version 148 was leaked two weeks ago, and a changelog posted to an Internet forum lists dozens of major fixes. This should really improve the BlackBerry Storm experience.

Palm, MotionApps Announce Palm OS Emulator for Pre

At the Web 2.0 conference today, Palm said that third-party developer MotionApps would be releasing a Palm OS emulator for the upcoming Palm Pre smart phone.According to MotionApps' site, the "Classic" emulator makes a Palm OS environment appear either as a 'card' on your Pre, or taking up the while screen. Classic also emulates the standard hard buttons on a Treo 700p. Apps will run about twice as fast on a Pre as on a Treo 700p, the company said.Engadget reports that Classic will use the Pre's mass storage mode to allow users to drag-and-drop PRC application files into the Pre, though the emulator "won't be able to leverage core webOS functionality." Palm told Engadget that Classic wasn't written using the standard WebOS SDK. (Read the full story at Engadget.)Also at the Web 2.0 show, Palm said they were opening up their Mojo SDK to potential developers; anyone who wants to take a look should sign up at their site. Palm is also creating a "cloud service" called "the Mojo messaging service" that lets developers interact with users of their programs.

Palm OS Emulator Gets New Version (Not for Pre)

Possibly attempting to jump on board all the Palm Pre hype, ACCESS today announced a new version of their Garnet VM Palm OS emulator for Nokia's relatively little used, but much loved Linux handheld tablets. ACCESS are the folks who ended up with ownership of the Palm OS, the ten-year-old OS that Palm is finally leaving behind with the Pre. The Palm OS still has millions of users, though, and over 30,000 third-party applications according to ACCESS, so Garnet VM helps make the Nokia N810 and its brethren more useful.Palm Pre owners will get a Palm OS emulator as well, but not from ACCESS. The "Classic" emulator, from MotionApps, is anticipated to launch with the Palm Pre on June 6th.

Church of Scientology Banned From Wikipedia

Wikipedia's arbitration council voted yesterday to block all IP addresses operated or owned by the Church of Scientology. The 10-to-0 vote (one member abstained) comes in response to self-serving edits on the part of the controversial church.

The case involves some 400 articles that were the subject of heated editing fights between the church and the public. According to Wired, this case marks the fourth against the church to come up in front of the arbitration council in that many years.

Become a Twitter Killer with Spymaster

The one thing Twitter really needed was a more social way to waste time(!)--luckily, the folks from classified-ads site iList launched that very thing earlier this week. It's an online game called Spymaster that integrates with Twitter in clever ways.

The game involves making money, buying guns, "assassinating" other players, and collecting safe houses, but the driving force behind the game is getting your Twitter friends to sign up. Your Twitter followers are dubbed "spies," while those followers who play the game are dubbed "spymasters." While both contribute to your overall strength in the game, spymasters contribute much more. When you go up against another player in an assassination attempt, your success or failure will largely come down to the spymasters in your network.

Because of this, the game is aggressive about convincing you to direct-message Spymaster invitations to your Twitter friends. There's also a built-in Twitter-notification system that tweets your achievements from your account (this can be disabled, though there are in-game incentives for leaving the notifications on).





Obviously, my life isn't as interesting as that of an international man of mystery, so my Twitter feed quickly filled up with tweets about who I'd attempted to assassinate and what level I'd achieved. Which is great marketing, I'm sure, but it made for some boring reading for all but the 20 followers who were also playing.

As such, if you've been on Twitter today, you probably noticed "spymaster" working its way up the Trending Topics list. Again, great marketing, but it's also pretty much a spam link.

It's an interesting game, though I'd call it more addictive than actually fun. Much of my time playing the game is spent waiting for my energy level to replenish so I can get back to the espionage and intrigue. Another good chunk of time is spent IMing with friends I'm trying to kill, or answering their questions about how to play.

As I recruited officemates and friends to the game, a common response was that it felt like a Facebook game. There's a reason for that. Eston Bond, one of the game's creators, wrote in a TechCrunch comment: "I used to work as a Product Designer at Facebook, so I've seen a lot of social game successes (and failures) before."

I have to admit, he learned his lessons well. It's a clever game that took up much of my afternoon, anda handful of my Twitter followers are now signed up and spreading the word to their own followers. I have a feeling many more Twitter users will get sucked in before we collectively decide that the fun of playing isn't worth the spam and lost time.

BTW, I turned off my Spymaster notifications, so you can start following me again (@kmonson).

Microsoft Bing Uses Adobe Flash for Video

Though Microsoft would have the world switch to its Silverlight competitor to Adobe's Flash technology for playing video on web pages, the OS giant's own new search competitor to Google sticks with Adobe technology for one of its coolest features. Bing can play a video preview from right within the thumbnails on video search result pages, but to implement this, Microsoft has chosen to use Flash.






When I right-click on a video thumbnail in Bing results, the Adobe Flash context menu appears and quickly disappears an instant later. Apparently Bing's designers didn't want the menu to be readable, but I managed to snap a screenshot.
And even though I was on a machine that has Silverlight installed, Flash was still chosen over that home-grown technology. And even the larger video display pages

Microsoft Eliminates Three-App Limit from Win7 Starter

Microsoft will eliminate an artificial limitation that prevents three concurrent applications from running under Windows 7 Starter Edition for netbooks, the company said late Friday.The operating system will also be permitted on small notebooks, the company said, although it wasn't exactly clear how Microsoft plans to differentiate between the two."For the first time, we will be making Windows 7 Starter available
worldwide on small notebook PCs," Brandon LeBlanc wrote in a blog post. "We are also going to enable Windows 7
Starter customers the ability to run as many applications
simultaneously as they would like, instead of being constricted to the
3 application limit that the previous Starter editions included."Windows 7 Starter Edition has long been associated with netbooks, although LeBlanc, like other Microsoft executives, have tried to emphasize that other versions of Windows 7 can also be shoehorned into the devices.Microsoft has left several other restrictions associated with Starter unchanged, however, and these features will not be included in Windows 7 Starter, according to Microsoft:





the Aero Glass interface, meaning you can only use the "Windows Basic" or
other opaque themes. It also means you do not get Taskbar Previews or
Aero Peek. Personalization features for changing desktop backgrounds, window colors, or sound schemes. The ability to switch between users without having to log off. Multi-monitor support. DVD playback. Windows Media Center for watching recorded TV or other media. Remote Media Streaming for streaming your music, videos, and recorded TV from your home computer. Domain support for business customers. XP Mode for those that want the ability to run older Windows XP programs on Windows 7.