How would you change Motorola’s Droid X?

Last week we gave the Apple loyalists in attendance a chance to rip and rag the iPhone 4, and this time around we're doing the same for Motorola's best frienemies. The Droid X is without question the largest Droid in the family today, and calling it a...

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Fast Trains to Connect US Cities, Alleviate Highway Congestion

The Obama administration promised $8 billion in funding for cities and states to build high-speed, intercity rail projects back in January. This week, the Department of Transporation issued its specifications for the manufacture of new fast trains, namely double-decker coach, dining, baggage, and business class passenger rail cars that can travel between 79 MPH and up to 220 MPH. Bi-level rail cars not typical in the US today, would accommodate more passengers, and hopefully alleviate congested roads and some resulting air pollution...

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Why This New Apple TV Makes Sense — For Now

As a longtime Apple TV owner, I'll admit a dirty little secret: I really like the device. Sure, it has been one of the rare flops for Apple in recent years. And it could be so much more with say, a Blu-ray player or a web browser. But it is really good at its core functionality: bringing iTunes content into your living room. And that's why this new version of the Apple TV makes sense -- at least for now. When I first bought the Apple TV, there were two varieties: a 40 gigabyte version and a 160 gigabyte version. I was torn between which one to get, but I ultimately went with the 160 GB one thinking I could put most of my movies on it. Big mistake. I basically never use the hard drive on my Apple TV, so it's a 160 GB hard drive sitting there doing nothing. Instead, I stream everything to the Apple TV. In fact, the only time I do use the hard drive on my current Apple TV is when I rent a movie on it. Currently, even when renting, you download a movie to your hard drive where it sits for up to 30 days (or 24 hours after you start playing it). But with the new iTunes rentals (both TV and movies) everything is streamed -- no hard drive is required (besides a small one for buffering purposes). Thanks to that, and undoubtedly the knowledge that most owners were using it for streaming, Apple removed the hard drive from the device, and cut it down in size and price.

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Google Streamlines Its Privacy Policy. Should Facebook Be Next?

Location-based service Echo Echo recently posted the above image to their blog in a (successful) attempt to garner some media attention as the debate around online privacy continues to rage. As extreme as their "If Mark Zuckerburg Cared About Privacy" example is, it does call attention to the needless complexity of various web service privacy agreements, settings and policies. In the wake of an $8.5 million lawsuit settlement today, search giant Google made a gesture of good faith in the "caring about privacy" department, assuring users that they were taking steps in order to make the minutae of online privacy easier to understand.

"For example, we’re deleting a sentence that reads, 'The affiliated sites through which our services are offered may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies,' since it seems obvious that sites not owned by Google might have their own privacy policies."

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Vidyo Bets On The iPad And iPhone For The Future Of Video Conferencing

Vidyo, a company that specializes in high-quality video conferencing technology for the enterprise, is betting big on bringing video conferencing to mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones. Similar to Skype, Vidyo offers a technology that all...

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HP lists Photosmart eStation C510 printer with detachable e-reading touchscreen — is this the Zeus?

Now, we don't have any confirmation that the two are one and the same, but we just caught wind of a very intriguing printer on HP's website. The Photosmart eStation C510 is listed for $399.99 and, in addition to usual ink-plastering duties, has a deta...

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Fujitsu announces LifeBook T580 with four-finger multitouch

We haven't spotted this one at IFA yet, but Fujitsu has taken advantage of the show to announce its new LifeBook T580, which it's going so far as to call "slate-beating." That apparently comes from the fact that it's not only a convertible tablet PC, ...

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Want To Use Gmail Priority Inbox With IMAP? Tough Luck

Curious what Google's Gmail Priority Inbox means for those of us who use an IMAP or POP client like Mac Mail or the Mail function on an iPhone? Well as of yet the feature is not fully enabled on either IMAP or POP-compatible third party or mobile clients, leaving a large percentage of people who hate viewing email their email on a standard web browser out in the cold. If you try to use the service in Mac Mail right now the emails determined by the Priority Inbox algorithm to be "Important" are sent to an "Important" folder under Gmail. In order to reach them in Mail for the iPhone you have to search for the "Important" folder under your Gmail account.

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Is Ping the Future of Social Networks

Apple announced today that in less then 48 hours since its launch on Wednesday, more than one million consumers have joined Ping. It may have gotten lost with the LaLa acquisition’s focus on streaming music that at its core LaLa.com was a social ne...

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The Struggle To Find Where The Sticky Tape Begins Could Be Over [Concept]

Whenever I use sticky tape, I find myself struggling to figure where it begins—mostly because I don't use tape dispensers or fold back the end—but my struggle might be over thanks to this n...

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