"Let’s get this straight up front: I am now writing a blog post, not blogging a blog," writes Forrest Wickman at Slate, the good people who brought you the great two-spaces-after-a-period debate. Oh yes. Oh yes. They are at it again, this time with a post in which he takes on the matter of what to call this thing we do.
Aaron Swartz was one of the earliest members of the Reddit team, helped build the first RSS program, and was by all accounts a genius at a very young age. Swartz committed suicide on January 11. He was 26 years old.
Discovered: Scientists dig up Frodo fossils; autistic people hear music better; babies' brains foretell adult diseases; Deepwater Horizon cleanup could hurt coral all over again.
We have reached Peak "Phablet": This week the term for the popular (and quite awkward) devices was called "horrible," "stupid," and "worst word of the year" (to which we're about two weeks in). Even linguists agree.
For cord-cutters, the television makers at the Consumer Electronics Show gave us a lot of complex sorta-solutions to what is (on paper) and easy-to-solve problem.
At CES there's a fantasy that the makers of the 4K TVs, waterproof camcorders, or even just phone cases glittering on display are going to give it away for free. You can see it in the eyes of the conference-goers as they linger in front of displays, wait to touch something wonderful and new.
We all got to witness the freak occurrence of an actual snake on an actual freakin' plane this week. And while news of the scrub python quickly spread from the side of a Qantas flight to YouTube, actual scientists are pretty used to this sort of thing. Seriously. We asked a real-life snake detective.
Amtrak has announced plans to test an upgrade of its notoriously inconsistent onboard Wi-Fi to faster 4G networks, but because the fix still uses Wi-Fi from a wireless company on a moving train, the best commuters can hope for is very fast Internet... very occasionally.
Facebook is testing some "extreme" prices for a new feature that puts users' Messages inbox up for sale, beginning with that of its CEO, whose attention can be yours for, well, a hundred bucks.
Reuters has withdrawn a report, which quoted an interview with an Apple executive a Chinese paper that seemed to debunk multiple reports this week that the company was developing a phone that could be available for as little as $99 by the end of 2013.
Talk about mixed signals. On the very morning The New York Times signaled its plans to reassign its nine environment desk journalists to other sections, the paper ran a chilling photo of "extreme weather" above the fold on A1.
CNET was put in an awkward situation Thursday when their parent company CBS forced them to pull one of their nominated "Best of CES" products because of an impending lawsuit.
Discovered: "Whole grain" labeling doesn't mean much; brown-eyed girls (and boys) deemed more trustworthy; birds are smart enough to hide their food; heel-to-toe barefoot runners gain ground.
But from a slightly less dorky version of the Segway to an electronic fireplace, a few new products have been out of the ordinary enough to catch our eye on the floor in Las Vegas.
Google and its very expensive lobbying efforts may have wiggled away from the Federal Trade Commission's anti-trust investigation without major penalties a week ago, but that doesn't mean the Europeans are going to take it easy on the search giant.
Apple almost never addresses rumors about its products, so now that Phil Schiller has flatly denied the company's alleged plans to develop a potentially sub-$100 iPhone, the rumormongers must have gotten this one very wrong.
Women who take sleeping pills have been inadvertently double-dosing, according to a new announcement from the Federal Drug Administration.
When Hewlett Packard ousted CEO Mark Hurd in 2010, another once-ousted CEO named Steve Jobs tried to help him get his job back, new interviews reveal.
Apple's CEO sat down with the chairman of China Mobile to discuss "matters of cooperation," a phrase that generated immediate excitement — and marks a shift in strategy between Steve Jobs and Cook, who might be seeking a big Chinese contract.
After a relatively fruitless trip to North Korea, Google chief Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson sent what they consider a strong message ... by stating the obvious — and, in Schmidt's case, in the form of an empty threat.
Just over a week after astronomers boldly announced that they would discover an Earth twin elsewhere in the universe within the year, NASA's Kepler telescope spotted a pretty good candidate.
Discovered: The NIH connects artificial sweeteners with depression; why fingers get all pruney underwater; insulin findings could lead to needle-free diabetes medication; deaf mice made to hear again.
After six months on the job, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer hasn't made Yahoo any more popular, according to private ComScore data obtained by Kara Swisher at AllThingsD. And that's not the only problem facing the ailing company.
Despite the ongoing controversy from last year's Consumer Electronic's Show, the spokesmodels are back on the floor in Las Vegas this week, many of them wearing little more than a sports bra, and some wearing nothing other than paint.
Everyone and their pockets hates the size. Everyone including the American Dialect Society hates the name. But so-called "phablets" are on the rise, because, well, everyone still wants a big-screen cellphone.
That resuscitated rumor about an affordable Apple iPhone now has a price attached to it: $99 to $149. Here's why it might have to be that affordable.
The Google chief and former Governor Bill Richardson have one day left on their visit, and while their rescue mission appears unsuccessful, their goals for technological outreach have becoming increasingly clear — if equally fruitless.
Discovered: Canadian tar sands impact regional water supplies; therapy doesn't necessarily stop teens from becoming suicidal; first images of the high-energy cosmos; city birds grow up fast.
Apple is working on a lower-end iPhone that will cost less and arrive by the end of this year, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. Should we believe them this time?
The final tweets of Freddy E., a Seattle rapper who posted chilling updates before committing suicide on Saturday, are still can still be seen by family, friends, and digital voyeurs. It is sadly not the first time that Twitter has served as a platform for a suicide note.
What's the difference between a robotic car made by Google, and the ones made by actual carmakers? The future, as always, was on display at the Consumer Electronics Show today.
For the second time in a year Apple CEO Tim Cook has travelled to China, and for the second time the purposes of his visit are shrouded in mystery, speculation, and, of course, tech-world chatter about world domination.
This week in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics Show will be the birthplace of all kinds of television-related innovation — massive, expensive living-room upgrades that the tech industry claims people desire, even if actual consumer research says otherwise.
Discovered: Global warming could cause more lava flow; humans started popping pills ages ago; babies begin acquiring language in womb; Mars astronauts would be very sleepy.
Do you tweet? Do you post things on Facebook? Do you #hashtag #complete #sentences #like #this? Well: you've got company!
The chip maker's much rumored CES announcement — the set-top box that was supposed to revolutionize the cable industry via subscribe-by-channel deals — is not a box at all, and it will not, in fact, change the way you pay for television.
The iTunes Store and the revolution that came with it has now officially given way to the app era in sales, and it's not for nothing: Apple is poised to make a lot more money on you paying for apps than it ever did changing the way you listen to music.
After a few years of the tech press letting us know how meaningless the Consumer Electronics Show has become, this year we sense of change of tune—maybe because the big gadget trade show has some things to offer?
"Booth babes": They date back to the beginning of the Consumer Electronics Show, they've been the subject of controversy and nerd fantasy alike, and — who knows? — this week in Las Vegas might just be the last of them.
The first introductory events of this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicked off quietly this weekend, giving the world a glimpse at the coolest, shiniest new gadgets out there.
There's something intriguing about how William Hilton Paul spent his Sunday morning: drunk on a 10:49 a.m. flight to Charlotte and then whisked into custody for being "disorderly" at the airport.
Discovered: Scary numbers about sleeping while driving; our moon might get its own moon; decoding the malware genome; fighting HIV with HIV.
After much delay, and much not-so-secret disgust, the Food and Drug Administration came out with rules aimed at curbing food-borne illness Friday. Here's how the proposed new rules will affect what you eat... finally.
As Amazon and Barnes & Noble are quickly discovering this year, the highbrow ideal all too often gives way to the mass-market realities. From tablets to TV shows and everything in between, the most high-minded of ideas for cultural consumption always seem to devolve toward mindless entertainment.
After flirting with Marissa Mayer's Yahoo job, the Silicon Valley star, who fought bitterly with the media conglomerates he helped make relevant online, has announced his departure.
While residents worry about what the Street View photos will do to property values, if Google's Staten Island project looks anything like what it did for New Orleans following Katrina, it will raise the kind of awareness the "forgotten borough" will need as it continues to rebuild.
Google snuck its way out of a two-year Federal Trade Commission antitrust probe without any major scratches this week in large part because it spent $25 million on lobbying Washington to believe it wasn't, in fact, being evil.
Discovered: What a never-before-seen type of rock tells us about water on Mars; forecasting the flu based on weather; atoms get colder than absolute zero; you'll change more than you think.
A new study published is giving astrophysicists a case of existential anxiety.
A new feature for Facebook's Messenger app lets you add audio to your text-based conversations — but if an additional testing phase of the app goes worldwide, it could let everyone replace their phone bills with Facebook calls over the Internet, for free.
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