jeff

Episode 30: A Chromebook Pixel drinking game!

I feel like I might be the only person in the world who loves the poor Chromebook Pixel. It's just so misunderstood, with its ridiculously high price, its tiny 32GB hard drive, and its odd 3:2 screen resolution. But the design is just so gorgeous (drink), and the touch screen is so exciting, and the Chrome OS is so simple and Web-based! Perhaps you'll fall in love like I did ... or be wildly skeptical like Jeff Cannata. Check out this week's Unboxing, and find out.

On the other hand, Jeff is delighted by the idea of … Read more

The 404 1,221: Where it's the fungus that kills us (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- The Valve Steam Box is coming.

- How HBO will tackle "Game of Thrones" piracy.

- The Last of Us has a unique plotline with clicking mushroom people.… Read more

Episode 29: Hot phones in cold Barcelona

Barcelona is the place to be, and not just for the cafe con leche, the jamon iberico, or the incredible melted-stone facades of such Gaudi creations as the Sagrada Familia or the Casa Mila. Forget all that nonsense. It's all about the phones.

Mobile World Congress just wrapped in Barcelona, and with it came a bevy of new product announcements, ranging from Ubuntu and Firefox operating systems to new Samsung tablets, new phablets from LG and ZTE, a new Wi-Fi coffee-maker from Qualcomm, and...well, no, no Samsung Galaxy S4. That's next week. But this week's episode … Read more

Bill Gates still world's second richest person

Bill Gates is now worth $67 billion. But he's still only No. 2 among the world's wealthiest people.

Released today, Forbes' ranking of the richest people on the planet found Gates' fortune up $6 billion this year. The increase came not so much from Microsoft stock, which has shown little sign of life recently, but from other financial holdings and private investments.

More importantly, Forbes dubbed Gates the world's most generous person. Microsoft's chairman continues to devote a large amount of his fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the goal of wiping out … Read more

Calendar app Tempo introducing a reservations system

Back in the old days, before last month, releasing software was easy.

You wrote your code, uploaded it to an app store, and let people download it and start using your service. Many apps launched this way. Some were even successful!

Then came Mailbox. Mailbox is an e-mail app. It has a nice user interface and can remind you to respond to e-mails you've allowed to languish, but at the end of the day it's an app that lets you read and write e-mail.

Mailbox's biggest innovation wasn't its reminders, though. It was the virtual velvet … Read more

The 404 1,202: Where we get a shave and a price cut (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- An asteroid is coming, and scientists are excited. Fear not, Earth is safe.

- Search for near-Earth asteroids needs a speed boost.

- Take a peek at Domino's Pizza's Super Bowl "war room."

- Free food: Pizza Hut introduces "Sliders."… Read more

The 404 1,200: Where we play the crying game (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- "Bang With Friends" sex app claims to help you mix business with pleasure.

- Paying tribute to Holocaust victims...using Grindr?

- Google Street View catches couple doing it in a dressing room.

- Research finds people that fly in virtual reality are more eager to help in real life.

- Sony teases big NYC event for February 20; PS4 debut?… Read more

The 404 1,198: Where we captcha your mace face (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- This man will take your picture while macing you.

- Ticketmaster does one thing right, dumps captchas.

- PornHub's rejected SFW Super Bowl ad is brilliant marketing.

- Swedish police raid teenagers playing Call of Duty.… Read more

Amazon profit falls by almost half, but sales rise 22 percent

Amazon's golden touch continues.

Despite missing analysts' earnings estimates for the fourth quarter -- by a country mile, actually -- Amazon's stock traded up significantly in after-hours trading. Amazon's net income fell 45 percent to $97 million, or 21 cents per diluted share, compared with $177 million, or 38 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.

In the quarter, which ended December 31, Amazon continued its double-digit sales growth with sales up 22 percent to $21.27 billion.

That fell short of the average earnings estimate of 29 cents-per-share. How to explain the initial … Read more

The 404 1,197: Where we are who we said we were (podcast)

Jeff hasn't finished complaining about last year's Retina Display iPad yet and Apple went ahead and announced a new 128-gigabyte model for $799. But wait, haven't we been getting beaten in the head with Apple's cloudcentric messaging for the last two years? Why the push for local storage all of a sudden?

In pop culture news, we'll spend some of the first half talking about mistaken identities through the Internet and the "Catfish" show on MTV that just wrapped up its first season.

Some critics accused the episodes of being staged (like the film it was based on), but a casting application for Season 2 at least proves that the stories are staged at most, not entirely made up.… Read more