Verizon CEO Says They Can Drop Contracts Too, If Customers Demanded It
Where do I demand this?
At a press event today, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said his company would be willing to drop contracts if customers demanded it. This, of course, is a response to T-Mobile becoming the “Uncarrier” by not requiring a contract for people that pay full price for phones up front. Read the rest of this article…
Facebook Home Seems Really Great If You’re Not A Power User
It’s a very clever way to get rid of all that Google crap on your phone.
Look, a phone! It’s a new phone! It’s a forked OS! No, it’s just a new Facebook-designed launcher for Android! As I watched Facebook’s presentation for their new Home modification for phones being powered by Google’s OS, which is quite a few, I kept wondering who this would be totally cool for? Despite the fact that I’ll throw it on my Galaxy Nexus – which isn’t one of the first five phones supported when it launches on April 12 – just to give it a whirl, I already know that keeping it on mid- to long-term is going to be a very difficult proposition.
Why Are People Reviewing The Ouya, Much Less Giving It Poor Scores?
That controller looks plush, definitely isn’t.
I was blown away this morning at the notion that The Verge went through all the hassle of creating a video review for the Ouya, that Android-powered console we’ve been talking about, then gave it a mind-blowingly low 3.5, perhaps the lowest score I’ve ever seen them give a product. So why are tech sites like The Verge treating this obviously pre-release hardware and software as final product and rating it for potential customers?
Facebook Wants To Know What You’re Doing Right Now To Help Its Poor Graph Search
Sadly lacking a ‘pooping’ option.
If you’re using Facebook at this point, this augmented interrogation is par for the course, but what can I say? It’s new! Inserting “Hey, <insert name here>, what are you up to?” flavor text was just the hook, Facebook wants you to tell its massive server farm your friends exactly what activity you’re up to. Why? Because their Graph Search still sucks.
Apple’s New Campus Should Be Over-Budget And Lovin’ It
The spaceship is still out there…
Regardless to where you fall on the fanboy spectrum, Apple’s planned toroidal silver campus, set to rest on a massive lot of trees, is going to be an amazing piece of architecture. Details are still scarce as to what’s really going inside the behemoth, conceived when stockholders weren’t frowning on the company’s product saturation levels and lack of groundbreaking iThings announced since Jobs’ death, but when the design calls for four stories of curved glass (and rooms to fit!), you know it was born with controversy as a middle name. Speaking of which, it’s $2 billion over budget.
Rdio Introduces Vdio, A New Video Service Like iTunes, Amazon or Vudu
Free credit, OMG!
Let me start by saying that I’m a subscriber to Rdio. I love it. That it has one of the best UIs around coupled with the fact that it was the first web app of its kind on the block, besting Spotify, MOG, Pandora, etc., allowed me to really take a liking to it. But it gets even better: today Rdio introduced their sister site, Vdio, which is also like iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Xbox Video, etc. Since I’m a subscriber, I have access to the service now. Read the rest of this article…
How Far Is It To Mars? New Site Shows Us It’s Still Really Far
Oh, reality, why must you get in the way so often?
You know what happens when you spend billions of dollars to send stuff to Mars? People pay attention, if only for a little bit. While Curiosity is off roving the surface of the red planet and lasering things (we mean no harm!), enthusiasm has sprung up in the American household to set foot on that distant world. Sometimes, though, we forget how far away that big ball of rock is.
Hold Off On That Nexus 7 Purchase, A New Tablet’s Right Around The Corner
Great tablet getting an update soon.
The coolest part about Google’s Nexus 7, aside from the fact that it came with a stock Android 4.1, and is a decent piece of hardware, and much more, was the fact that it was a $199.99 tablet running against the industry standard iPad, which started at hundreds more for the latest model. The base model of their latest model, at that. It might be super tempting to pick up a Nexus 7 these days, but you should really hold off as the next iteration is due out this summer, as Reuters reports.
“Gmail Blue” April Fools’ Joke Made Real With Chrome Extension
I called it!
Out of all of Google’s April Fools jokes, I thought that Gmail Blue was the funniest because it was so simple, it could be totally believable. I even joked to N that someone will create a Gmail Blue theme, but little did I realize that the public wasn’t able to create custom themes. My dreams weren’t lost though: someone has come to the rescue with a Google Chrome extension that gives you the Gmail Blue theme! Read the rest of this article…
Facebook’s New Phone/Home Screen Announcement Is Already Killing Me
Everyone’s getting super high on the Facebook supply, courtesy @evleaks
Facebook. HTC First. A new home on Android. A home screen app or launcher. That is collectively what the tech media industry knows, or believes, about Facebook’s announcement on Thursday gathered from leaks and whispers. Of course, as all those tech sites tell it, it sounds like Zuckerberg is about to unveil the most uninteresting and half-assed hardware/software ever imagined.
