Tech Blog

The soundtrack for today's column is provided by the Dex Romweber Duo and their new CD, "Ruins of Berlin." It's a choice slice of rockabilly heaven with several tunes that would fit right in streaming from a jukebox in some blood-soaked Quentin Tarantino epic. Yet for all the retro goodness in the s...

Last week, Microsoft stole E3 with what may be the closest thing to a "Star Trek" holodeck yet: Project Natal, which turns a gamer's whole body into a controller. The only negative is that there is no announced release date for the product. Computex was all about battles between smartbooks and netbo...

OPINION

Microsoft Goes Bing, Palm's Pwned

Last week, Microsoft announced its new search push at Google -- and unlike Live Search, which was a joke, Bing looks to have the right stuff. The question is, can Microsoft get people to move? Palm initially looked as though it was going to get iPhone users to move, but that hope started to sputter ...

It's a love-hate relationship right up there with dysfunctional parents du jour Jon and Kate; the media has a middle-school crush on Twitter, and the media is the first to say nasty things about Twitter while Twitter is in study hall. Some of its members are using a helluva lot more than 140 charact...

America's winemakers have won a victory for online wine sales in Kansas, but the legislative battle demonstrates the challenges that e-commerce, a key force for economic recovery, still faces from outdated thinking and entrenched political institutions. Signed into law in April, 2009, Kansas Senate ...

We all remember Sarah Palin. Like many, I too got excited about the difference she would bring to the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. She showed well at events, and she looked good on paper. Then came her interviews, and suddenly she was the new Dan Quayle -- or, basically, another person who trade...

For the last decade, the PC market has kind of sucked. Against the massive growth of the '90s, and with the exception of Apple, which didn't do well in that decade, the PC market has been a poor reflection of the excitement that once surrounded it. Part of the problem was the focus on computation an...

OPINION

How Apple Made Windows 7 Better

Last week, a number of Apple supporters took me to task for my comment that Apple made the technology equivalent of sugar water and that Steve Jobs gave up on his goal of changing the world. I'm hardly original in thinking this way. It does amaze me that not a single Apple fan cared about global war...

Someone has made a tragic mistake and handed me the keys to a major TV station group. I've been told I can take it for a spin, provided my buddies and I don't trash the leather seats. I have to make sure it's got plenty of gas when I bring it back -- dent-free, or it's my ass. This scenario is playi...

As I write this, Google is being investigated by the DoJ for antitrust violations that make Microsoft's actions look trivial by comparison. It took Microsoft over a decade to exhibit the type of behavior that Google is now engaged in, which increasingly seems to favor cash over conscience. In terms...

By now, you know the best ways to protect yourself: Wash your hands, manage your stress, avoid contamination. Wearing a mask is optional, but it couldn't hurt. However, if by chance you are exposed to an infectious swine-flu-related headline or story on cable news or the Internet, stay in your home ...

Voters are still reeling from tax day in a tough recession, and taking to the streets in protest, but state governments and their allies aren't listening. In fact, they are gearing up to squeeze more money out of the nation's workers. Their target is online shopping, and if the pro-tax coalition g...

TECH BLOG

The Small Wonders of a Smaller CES

As the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas continued on Friday and through the weekend, it became clear that the official attendance count at this year's gadget fest will likely reflect significant shrinkage. In addition, runaway hits -- things that really managed to shake the ground everyone was...

The doors to the Las Vegas convention center opened Thursday, and the Consumer Electronics Show is now officially in full swing. I'm in no position to do an official head count, of course, but the crowd seems just a little thinner than it did last time I was here. Certain parts of certain halls just...

Samsung, like a whole lot of other TV makers displaying their wares in Las Vegas this week, is emphasizing the Web capabilities of its new TVs. Among those features is what Yahoo calls the "cinematic Internet," which allows television viewers to use the remote control, rather than something like a w...

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