Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Online

36 Hours of Travelling Twitterers, Visualised

11:40PM May 12, 2009 | John Herrman

Artist Jer Thorp has harnessed the internet’s oversharing tendencies for good, compiling 36 hours worth of “just landed in…” tweets into one beautiful 3D visualization.

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Why TomTom Sucks

11:00PM May 12, 2009 | Wilson Rothman

TomTom’s latest Go 740 Live is piled with features, but I’ve tested TomToms for five years, and in that time, nobody has fixed the platform’s inherent problems. In fact they’re only getting worse.

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Software

Supposed Windows 7 Packaging Looks a Lot Like Vista’s

10:59PM May 12, 2009 | Matt Buchanan

These could be renders of Windows 7′s packaging when it ships later this year. They look a lot like the Vista boxes, which I thought were pretty nice, actually. [CentrumXP via SuperSite]

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Entertainment

Sanyo LP-WXU700 Projector Utilises Draft N Wi-Fi, FIRST!!

10:53PM May 12, 2009 | Mark Wilson

The Sanyo LP-WXU700 is the first projector on the market to integrate the no-longer-so-new 802.11 Wi-Fi. And it’s happy to work in offices and home theatres alike.

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Samsung ‘Popcorn’ U5 Wants to See You Sweaty and Hungry

10:18PM May 12, 2009 | Mark Wilson

Samsung’s Yepp flash MP3 players have been around, not really making any waves, for plenty of years now. But their latest model adds two universally handy functions: A pedometer and a really adorable name.

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Microsoft Raises Billions of Dollars in Cash, Could Be Gearing Up For Mystery Acquisition

10:11PM May 12, 2009 | John Herrman

Microsoft began selling bonds this week—something is has never done before—raising $US3.75-billion and sparking speculation that they might be looking to buy something huge. Some analysts claim they’re using the money to buy up stock, which is fairly cheap right now, but since today is a great day for wild speculation about Microsoft, have at it. [WSJ]

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Mobile

ViewSonic Fails to Come Up With Reason Not to Make Smartphones, Decides to Start Making Smartphones

9:12PM May 12, 2009 | John Herrman

ViewSonic, known for their LCD monitors and HDTVs, is trying something new again—this time, smartphones. All we know for now is that they’ll be 3G, “smart”, and available in North America. [Register]

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Despite a Horrible Quarter, AMD Gains on Intel

8:20PM May 12, 2009 | John Herrman

Exhibiting just about every symptom of a suffering company, AMD isn’t in great shape. But through a brutal, money-bleeding Q1, they actually caught up with their chief rival a little. Ha, what?

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Software

Google ‘Star Droid’ App Will Turn Your Phone Into an Interactive Star Map, You Into a Colossal Nerd

7:34PM May 12, 2009 | John Herrman

The London Times is reporting that Google plans to release a mobile app called “Star Droid”, which uses a combination of GPS and the phone’s camera to label the stars above your head.

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Mobile

Did Microsoft Just Announce a Zune Phone on Twitter?

6:35PM May 12, 2009 | John Herrman

The blogs are buzzing over some tweets from a Twitter account run by the Office 2010 team, noting what looks like the outright announcement of a Zune phone. Something doesn’t feel right.