coding

Hidden 'radio' buttons discovered in Apple's iOS 6.1

There's a hint that Apple has something new in the pipeline, and the company appears to have tucked it away inside the latest version of its iOS software.

Discovered last night within a freshly jailbroken iPad: a set of buttons and code references for "radio," a feature found in iTunes on Macs and PCs, but not on the iPad or iPhone. Making things more interesting is another button suggesting you can make purchases via the radio feature, presumably from iTunes.

The buttons, which were spotted by 9to5Mac, hint at Apple's much-rumored radio service, a product that … Read more

CNET on Cars: The Cadillac ATS shines

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So glad Cadillac got the ATS to market largely as expected. This company has been trying to do a small car that doesn't strike a false note for decades. The ATS may be my favorite Cadillac because, thanks to its market segment, it has the least amount of all that Caddy gilding that has always spelled Tommy Bahama to me -- which is not a compliment.

We've been getting some great ideas from you for Car Tech 101 segments, … Read more

Chinese golf resort tees off with world's largest human QR code

A gigantic QR code took form in China a couple of days ago. Mission Hills China trumpets the accomplishment with the headline, "World's Largest Golf Club & Spa Resort Creates the World's Biggest QR Code." Sounds like someone is obsessed with being the world's largest.

That headline is a little misleading, though. A Canadian corn maze turned out a 309,570-square-foot QR code last year. What Mission Hills China created is most likely the world's biggest human QR code. It certainly beat out the 1,300 people Taiwan drafted for a promotion event.

The club rounded up 2,000 employees for the massive publicity stunt. They stood in designated spots and opened red and white umbrellas above their heads. Seen from 270 feet above the ground, the formation created a scannable QR code. The code links back to an eco-tourism campaign that lets entrants sign up for a chance to win a holiday at the resort.… Read more

U.S. government invites hackers to work on 'Civic Hacking Day'

The U.S. government is hoping that hackers can help make the nation a better place.

The White House announced today that it will kick off a "National Day of Civic Hacking" on June 1 and 2 and is inviting those with tech know-how to use their coding skills to improve communities across the country.

"Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to unleash their can-do American spirit by collaboratively harnessing publicly-released data and code to create innovative solutions for problems that affect Americans," the White House wrote in a statement.… Read more

Scan a T-shirt like a QR code

LAS VEGAS--Nivpat (which stands for noninvasive pattern) is an app that interacts with T-shirts you can buy from the Nivpat Web site that let you scan a shirt with your phone to learn more about the wearer via popular social networks. At the time of this writing, this app is one of the finalists for the Mobile App Showdown at CES 2013.

The way it works is the shirt comes in six basic designs, but each shirt has one design element (like an extra line) that makes each shirt unique. When you see someone wearing one of the colorful … Read more

Coupons at Checkout finds coupon codes so you don't have to

For years I've been advising readers to search the Web for coupon codes before you complete your online purchase. It's one of my all-time favorite money-saving tips, as it's an easy way to score extra discounts.

Well, not always easy. You have to do some googling, peruse the various sites that aggregate coupon codes, sift through the listings to see if there's one that applies, copy and paste the code, and so on.

Browser plug-in Coupons at Checkout eliminates nearly all this hassle. Once you get to a store's checkout page, it automatically lists any … Read more

Microsoft's SkyDrive accidently freezes out Opera users

After a SkyDrive debacle over the weekend, which caused Opera users to be blocked from the cloud storage service, Microsoft has said it's working quickly to fix the problem.

The problem began when Opera, which is a Web browser, received a bug report showing that Microsoft's cloud storage service froze out all users when it was being loaded. Instead of being able to see their saved files and photos, users could only see millions of characters of code.

After some poking around, Opera's Hallvord Steen realized that the problem was "some strange bug in the Microsoft … Read more

Illegal file-sharer gets slapped with $1.5 million in damages

The damages award against illegal file-sharer Kywan Fisher will most likely send him to the poor house. Illinois federal court Judge John Lee ordered Fisher to fork out $1.5 million to adult entertainment company Flava Works this week, according to TorrentFreak.

Flava Works sued Fisher for sharing 10 movies he'd previously paid for via BitTorrent. The damages award amount was reached by fining Fisher $150,000 per movie. This is the largest damages award ever ordered in a BitTorrent case.

Flava Works caught Fisher sharing its movies by tracing the illegal copies he was accused of sharing back … Read more

Watch: Jonathan Coulton, nerd-folk rock star

Valve Software's 2007 video game Portal was an instant classic that immediately won fans over with its unique, physics-based challenges, innovative portal gun, and sharp comedy. But beyond the dark humor and diabolical puzzles was a hidden gem for players able to make it to the end: a witty and humorous song called "Still Alive."

Singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton was the man behind the infectiously catchy Easter egg song. But in an interview with CBS News, JoCo -- as he's known to fans -- showed why he's more than a one-hit wonder. … Read more