Clipmarks | David M Ewalt's clips

Facebook users get worse grades

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:52:47 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: Pay heed to the author of the survey -- this is not actually proof of a correlation between Facebooking and poor academic performance. But it raises interesting questions -- and if my own experiences procrastinating on facebook are any measure, there may be something to it.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Facebook users have lower overall grades than non-users, according to a survey of college students who also ironically said the social networking site does not interfere with studying.

That disconnect between perception and reality does not necessarily mean that Facebook leads to less studying and worse grades -- the grades association could be caused by something else. However, it does raise more questions about how students spend their time outside class on activities such as Facebook, part-time jobs and extracurricular activities.

"I'm just saying that there's some kind of relationship there, and there's many third variables that need to be studied," said Aryn Karpinski, an education researcher at Ohio State University.

Her study found that Facebook user GPAs were in the 3.0 to 3.5 range on average, compared to 3.5 to 4.0 for non-users. Facebook users also studied anywhere from one to five hours per week, compared to non-users who studied 11 to 15 or more hours per week.

Tags: facebook, education

The Return of Zombie Circuit City?

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:24:22 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: Despite its high-profile collapse and liquidation, Circuit City still has a very well known and valuable brand name -- some smart retailer could revive it online.

Clip Source: consumerist.com

A mysterious message can be found at the website of recently-defunct retailer Circuit City.

CircuitCity.com is also temporarily closed, although we anticipate the website will reopen in the coming weeks. Please check back for updates.

What's this? Circuit City may rise again? Well, probably not, but perhaps some poor fool has plans to buy the brand and open a web-only store— similar to what happened with CompUSA.

Tags: circuit city, retail, zombies

US Senate tackles mobile spam

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:53:01 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: Mobile text spam is particularly insidious, since many consumers pay for every text message.

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

Two Senators are attempting to curb unsolicited text messages with a bill to strengthen government oversight of commercial texts.

Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) on Thursday introduced the m-SPAM Act, which would strictly prohibit commercial text messages to wireless numbers listed on the Do Not Call registry. The bill would also give the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission more authority to regulate unwanted text messages.

In 2007, U.S. consumers received approximately 1.1 billion text messages that they identified as "spam," according to Ferris Research. That number increased from previous years, but still represents a small portion of the text messages consumers receive. In the month of June 2007 alone, 28.8 billion text messages were reported, according to the CTIA.

Tags: sms, mobile, spam, senate, legislation

Sony drops price of PS2

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:40:56 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: This 9-year-old console is still one of the major focuses of Sony's game business --both a testament to the console's power and the inaccessibility of the PS3.

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

No April Foolery here: Sony has announced that it's dropping the price of the PlayStation 2 from $129 to $100 as of April 1. The move confirms rumors that had surfaced in recent days.

Originally introduced in 2000, the current iteration of the PS2 is a superslim console that also doubles as a CD and DVD player. It has a library of around 1,900 games, including many classics that can be found in bargain bins at local stores and online. And unlike the PS3, the older model actually has an infrared port, so you can use a standard universal remote to control movie playback.

Tags: ps2, sony

Sony Announcement Imminent

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:36:37 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: My money's on a PS3 price cut; Sony's got to take the hit now if they want to increase adoption of the system.

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

The rumors are flying about a possible big Sony PlayStation announcement for Tuesday. The only problem is no one is sure what the announcement involves, with speculation running from a PS3 price drop to a PS2 price drop to something about God of War 3.

Anyway, the original rumor came from an Australian publication, Smarthouse, but Kotaku says it's gotten word directly from Sony that an announcement is "imminent."

Furthermore, Kotaku thinks that we're looking at a PS2 price drop to $99.99, not the much-hoped-for PS3 price drop to $299.99. Joystiq concurs with a source at K-Mart saying the cut is coming April 5. How anticlimactic would that be?

Tags: sony, playstation 3

Conficker worm activates on Apr. 1

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:19:53 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: The scariest thing about the Conficker worm is that we don't know what it's supposed to do; the infected computers will form what may be the most powerful parallel computer, but to what end? Is it a prank? A giant spam engine? Something more nefarious?

Clip Source: bits.blogs.nytimes.com

The Conficker worm is scheduled to activate on April 1, and the unanswered question is: Will it prove to be the world’s biggest April Fool’s joke or is it the information age equivalent of Herman Kahn’s legendary 1962 treatise about nuclear war, “Thinking About the Unthinkable”?

Conficker is a program that is spread by exploiting several weaknesses in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Various versions of the software have spread widely around the globe since October, mostly outside the United States because there are more computers overseas running unpatched, pirated Windows. (The program does not infect Macintosh or Linux-based computers.)

An estimated 12 million or more machines have been infected. However, many have also been disinfected, so a precise census is difficult to obtain.

Tags: conficker, worms, virus, security

Salesforce.com launches twitter-smart CRM plugin

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:28:17 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: A smart idea -- a lot of people use Twitter to complain about or praise different companies and products. Best to keep an eye on what people are saying about you, and respond to it quickly before a small complaint becomes a big issue.

Clip Source: www.businessinsider.com

Enter Salesforce.com (CRM). At a Salesforce meetup in New York this morning, CEO Marc Benioff introduced "Salesforce for Twitter," marrying Salesforce's customer care software with the 140 character tweet.

Here's how is works: Salesforce plugs in to the Twitter API, and customer care reps can start Twitter searches from within Salesforce's service, bypassing search.twitter.com. If a company discovers someone tweeting about them (good or bad), a button click can import the entire Twitter thread into Salesforce's software.

From there, it's almost the same as if the Twitter user called in on a 1-800 number. A PC user complaining about a faulty graphics card on Twitter can be cross-referenced against similar reports that originate from traditional customer care lines, and if a workaround exists a company can tweet back with a tinyurl (or whatever) link to the solution.

Tags: salesforce.com, crm, customer service, twitter

Warcraft-themed Mountain Dew out this summer

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:54:58 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: Does the blue flavor replenish your mana, and the orange one your health?

Clip Source: www.businessinsider.com

Sugary, caffeine-rich Mountain Dew Mtn Dew and World of Warcraft seem to go well together. So this makes sense to us: A new deal between PepsiCo (PEP) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) will bring World of Warcraft-themed Mtn Dew drinks to thirsty gamers this summer.

Tags: warcraft, video games, soda

Google Chrome getting even faster?

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 19:15:22 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: Chrome is not my default browser, since I can't surf without my many Firefox plugins. But I do use it quite a bit because it is blazingly fast -- much more than Firefox or IE.

Clip Source: mashable.com

One of the few GoogleGoogle reviews products that isn’t a perpetual beta, Google Chrome, has just gotten a beta branch, which lets users get a taste of things to come.

So, what does a Google Chrome beta bring? Speed, and lots of it. According to Google, it’s 25 percent faster than the stable build of ChromeChrome reviews, which is nothing short of amazing given that Chrome is already blazing fast.

Other new features are form autofill, full page zooming and autoscroll, as well as a way to get a side-by-side view by dragging out tabs to the side of the browser window, which you can see in the amazingly short video below.

Tags: google, chrome, browsers, firefox, ie

Apple ready to debut new iPhone software

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:55:56 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: But will it copy and paste?

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

The company plans to hold one of its trademark special events Tuesday at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., to show off "an advance preview of what we're building" for the iPhone 3.0 software release, according to an invitation distributed Thursday. The event will come just a little more than a year after the iPhone 2.0 software event laid out Apple's policies for getting third-party applications onto the iPhone, as well as business-friendly features.

Here's what we know: Apple plans to discuss a new software development kit at the event in addition to demonstrating the new software.

This could explain why the company has been slow to offer renewals for current SDK licenses, as it might be requiring developers to sign a whole new agreement. While the software will be the main attraction, developers will be closely watching for details about how the new SDK will affect their businesses.

Tags: apple, iphone

Apple building a Kindle clone?

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:53:56 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: I hope if this is true Amazon and Apple find some way to co-exist -- it would be terrible to have some publishers work with Apple and some with Amazon. Both stores should have the same books, in the same format -- let the companies compete on the hardware front.

Clip Source: news.cnet.com

More Apple tablet/Netbook rumors surfaced Wednesday as one Apple watcher wonders what the company is doing with all those books.

Reuters is reporting that Apple has ordered 10-inch touch screens from Wintek, a contract manufacturer in Taiwan that makes the touch screens used in the iPhone and iPod Touch. The screens are expected to be ready by the third quarter of this year, setting the stage for a possible late 2009 introduction of the long-rumored Apple tablet and/or Netbook.

But one interesting possibility for that rumored device comes from longtime Apple writer Andy Ihnatko, who is wondering if Apple has some sort of Kindle clone in mind. Ihnatko told Newsarama that he has heard several times that Apple has been receiving truckloads of books--actual real paper-bound books--at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif

The thinking is that Apple is scanning the books as to have a library of electronic titles available when it decides to launch an e-book section on the iTunes Store

Tags: apple, amazon, ipod, kindle

Apple, Google, Cisco may enter the Dow Jones industrial average

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:20:30 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: It's telling to see how many of the contenders are technology companies -- bits are the new steel.

Clip Source: dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com

Google and Cisco are viewed as top contenders to enter the Dow Jones industrial average now that two constituents are trading below $2, making their status as blue chips tenuous, Reuters said.

The Internet companies are among a variety of companies eyed as potential Dow replacements, a diverse list that also includes former investment bank Goldman Sachs and former Dow star U.S. Steel.

Analysts say Citigroup and automaker General Motors are most likely to be replaced. Despite billions in government aid, both trade below $2 and serve as symbols of Wall Street’s corporate excess.

Other candidates include high-profile household names such as the world’s largest credit card network, Visa, or the maker of the iPod, Apple.

Tags: technology, apple, djia, google, cisco

Cisco may be buying Flip maker

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:34:52 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: The Flip video cameras are amazing gadgets -- dead simple, cheap, and effective. It'd be a smart buy for Cisco or any other big tech company.

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

San Francisco based Pure Digital Technologies, the seven year old company behind the Flip Video line of video cameras, is considering a sale of the company, multiple sources have confirmed. One interested buyer is rumored to be Cisco.

Flip cameras - dead simple and small video devices that are tailored towards users who want to upload video to the Internet - have become massively popular. One source says the company has sold more than $200 million worth of the tiny cameras in the last couple of years. Based on reviews of the recently released Flip Mino HD, we’re not surprised. The devices cost between $130 and $230 and have spawned a large group of copy cat competitors.

One potential buyer, says a source, is Cisco, which has been more active recently in acquisitions. Ned Hooper, Cisco’s chief M&A guy, is said to be actively looking to buy or invest in consumer startups that offer high-bandwith-using services.

Tags: cisco, pure digital, video, flip

GameFly launches video game rental kiosks

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:46:45 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: Similar machines which rent out DVDs have proved hugely popular -- anything which allows gamers near-instant access to new titles is likely to succeed as well

Clip Source: kotaku.com

Students at Texas Tech University have an all-new way to get a quick video game fix, as GameFly installs their first G-Box video game rental kiosk.

Online video game rental leader GameFly takes a small step offline with the introduction of their G-Box rental kiosk, which allows gamers to swipe their credit cards for instant gaming gratification, much like the DVD rental kiosks that have been popping up all over the country lately. The G-Box will stock the latest games for the Wii, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, allowing players to rent as long as they want for $2.49 a day ($1.99 for Wii titles), with an option to rent-to-own.

The kiosk, located in the on-campus Barnes & Noble bookstore, is only the first step in building up GameFly's physical presence, with the company planning to roll units out around the country.

Tags: video games, gamefly

Google planning to let its cash "pile up"

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:53:47 GMT

clipped by: David M Ewalt
clipper's remarks: Perhaps this news will help quiet the constant rumors that Google is planning big acquisitions -- like Twitter, which seems to be the target of the moment.

Clip Source: www.eweek.com

SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) - Google plans to let its cash "pile up" as it weathers an economic recession but doesn't expect to see a fall in revenue, the Web search leader's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.

Google will only use its $8.6 billion cash cushion for "very, very conservative investments," Schmidt said, and is unlikely to start a dividend in the current environment.

"We've not really discussed a dividend payment," he said in an interview on the sidelines of the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara, California. "At the moment our view is to let the cash pile up."

Earlier on Wednesday, Schmidt said the economic storm will affect all forms of advertising, including the online ads that Google depends on, but that Google was unlikely to see a drop in revenue.

Tags: google, twitter, economy, m&a