Archive for June, 2009
Pedestrians and cars turned into pollution sensors
Pedestrians, cyclists, buses and cars were turned into mobile, wireless sensors today in a bid to measure London’s air quality.
Researchers from Imperial College London trialled a new way of measuring air quality in the capital using both static and moving sensors to map levels of pollution and to see how it moves.
Twitter reworks following lists, adds functionality
Twitter is rolling out a user interface update to their following lists and adding functionality for social actions.
RIAA triumphs in Usenet copyright case
In a note posted on its site, music trade group for top music labels says court ruled in its favor.
Firefox 3.5 in pictures
Firefox 3.5 forges ahead with strong developer support, but most improvements for casual users will probably strike them as minor. See what’s new for the second-most popular browser in this slideshow.
Judging a horror film by its title
“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a cliché you’ve heard so many times that you almost don’t even need to think about it any more. And yet we still do judge all sorts of things by their covers – we’re so media-saturated that if we didn’t have the ability to make some sort of snap judgment about whether or not we’d like a certain book/film/band/etc, we’d never get anything done, but so often those judgments turn out to be wrong.
I’m a horror movie fan, and am always fascinated by how they’re marketed. I spotted a DVD in my local supermarket the other day called Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street, which seemed like a descriptive if rather ungainly title. It was enough to make me pick it up to read the back cover, anyway, at which point it became clear that it wasn’t a zombie film at all – it’s about rat mutants. It was originally titled Mulberry Street, until someone somewhere along the line figured out that zombies are quite trendy at the moment and renamed it. Is it a better title? Not really, but it’s more attention-grabbing, which might be all that matters; Snakes on a Plane is a much more entertaining title than Pacific Air Flight 121.
Skype updates for Windows and iPhone
A day after converting the latest beta of its Windows Mobile phone software into a full-fledged release, Skype pushes out updates to its Windows software and its iPhone app.
Cisco guns for Microsoft in collaboration market
Cisco is adding new functions in its WebEx service that could threaten Microsoft’s own business collaboration efforts.
Can Rupert Murdoch save online news?
He thinks he can – by charging. Once a strong believer in free online content, Rupert Murdoch is designing ways to make us pay, and taking on the internet’s cult of free.
MSI X340: a cut-price MacBook Air
Let’s cut to the chase and hit you with the sell: the MSI X340 is a MacBook Air at half the price. Interested? Read on…
Netbook shop MSI has deconstructed Apple’s pioneering three-pound wedge and built what is, put simply, an amazingly credible knockoff. Like the Air, the X340 transcends many of the limitations of the netbook world, though it still has a few of its own flaws to contend with.