parties

How new Congress will tackle privacy, Net neutrality

Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said yesterday that this week's elections will provide "an opportunity for our Republican principles to shine through our policies."

But what that means for privacy, Net neutrality, and other regulatory areas that affect Internet companies isn't entirely clear.

The Contract from America, a set of grassroots-derived governing principles signed by some incoming Republicans and backed by dozens of Tea Party groups, stresses evaluating the constitutionality of government programs but doesn't specifically address technology. Neither does the Republican Party's 2010 Pledge to America.

This should … Read more

Google Docs may soon offer cloud printing, device syncing

A peek at the source code behind Google Docs by a third-party blog site offers a tantalizing hint of some features that may be around the corner.

The Web site Google Operating System (no relation to Google itself) revealed yesterday that it dug into the source code of Google Docs to find a message that said simply: "Coming soon: Third party applications, cloud printers, and sync devices."

Cloud printing, which lets you print to any local or shared printer without the need for a print driver, is a feature that Google has teased for awhile. The company has … Read more

The Silly Putty age of social media

For something that seems very rudimentary in a world of iPhone apps and fancy smartphone operating systems, text-messaging services were getting a whole lot of love at October's edition of the monthly New York Tech Meetup.

Along with about a dozen other start-ups eager to pitch the audience of potential partners, investors, and advisers, two back-to-back presentations from new companies called GroupMe and Fast Society showed off different takes on the same basic concept of group text messaging.

They have extremely similar premises. Both GroupMe and Fast Society require a single user with an iPhone (or also, in GroupMe'… Read more

Fun for you and Miis: Hands on with Wii Party

Nintendo's been battling for control of casual gamers, especially when it comes to family-friendly entertainment. At the top of the heap are the "Wii" games, aka Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit, and the latest, Wii Party. Featuring the sometimes-overlooked Miis, Wii Party avoids any sort of physical fitness agenda in favor of casual group fun. We played Nintendo's latest in the comfort of our own homes, and have come back to tell the tale.

Scott: Virtual board games and endless minigame compilations have been inundating the Wii's software library, but Wii Party's formula is a little different. It's a series of game shows and virtual board games, at heart a sequel to the long-lived Mario Party games. Up to four players roll dice, jump around spaces on various boards, and compete in minigames to advance. My wife happens to love the Mario Party series. Every time I ask her to join me in some game-playing, she requests Mario Party 8, which I dutifully drag out of its dusty box. Mario Party 8 on the Wii happens to be some fun--but it's slow, and has letterboxed graphics. Wii Party freshens up the look and has a collection of 80 minigames that feel more streamlined and simplified, but very much in the vein of Mario Parties past.

There are also a number of game modes in Wii Party, tailored for play length (5 minutes to over an hour), number of players, and play style. A new two-player 5-minute game that feels like a condensed version of The Dating Game is a great and somewhat romantic little time-waster, but it's too short. The board-game-style experiences are more elaborate, but aren't quite as complex or as competitive as in Mario Party. All the Miis on your console--plus some added extras--gets shuffled in across the entire Wii Party experience, just like they do in Wii Sports and Wii Fit. It's fun, but it's not something we haven't seen before.

One of the most innovative new wrinkles in Wii Party comes from a series of room-immersive games that use the Wii remote's built-in speaker.… Read more

Digital City 99: Social Networks, laptop tans, and dreams of PS3/360 friendships

Can you believe we're only one episode away from No. 100? We can't either, and we discuss our various plans for next week's very special podcast. But, while Dan is away in Texas, it leaves Joey, Scott, and Julie feeling restless in the rainy city.

Scott's finally seen "The Social Network," and he finds it oddly self-contained but very well-made. But, as Julie points out, where are the other movies based on computer pioneers? Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were relegated to a 1999 made-for-TV movie. We wonder what other tech endeavors deserve feature treatment...the Palm Pre story?

Also, we discuss "Toasted Skin Syndrome" and whether we fear hot laptops on our skin; Andy Rooney's latest rant goes off on car gadgets, but we find them useful; Joey wonders why PS3/360 multiplatform games can't play with each other (can't a person dream?); and Scott talks about some recently-released games he's played, including the potential sleeper Enslaved and Nintendo's latest Mii-fest, Wii Party.

See you next week on Episode 100!

… Read more

How honest are you?

Lie Detector Pro is a fun app that allegedly can detect whether you are generally a liar or generally truthful, but mostly it's just fun to play with. To start the test, place the iPhone in your hand, read the instructions, and hit Next. From there you will be asked a series of questions onscreen, and you will need to speak your answers out loud.

The app supposedly measures your stress level, the tonality of your voice, and whether your hands are shaking to detect if you are dishonest in your replies. The questions are mostly simple ("What … Read more

Nintendo finally gets its Game Boy virtual console, and other 3DS surprises

It seemed obvious when the Nintendo DSi first debuted: offering classic Game Boy titles from Nintendo's decades-long back library would be a perfect fit and a no-brainer parallel to the Virtual Console on the Wii.

But it never happened. Now the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, which won't be released in the U.S. until 2011, will rectify this with a Virtual Console of its own, according to a Nintendo announcement released early this morning. That's great news, but there are a few more surprises that the 3DS unveiled--some of which we had been expecting in the Nintendo DSi, … Read more

How to keep drivers up to date

Many times in running their Macs people will install various drivers and system enhancements to customize their Mac experience. These can be anything from a device driver to a haxie for enabling hidden OS X features. While these may work when running your system, there are times when updates to system software can break their function or cause other unexpected behavior. Usually these issues are not bad, but periodically people may update and wonder why they are suddenly getting errors or hangs.

One possibility for this is if your third-party drivers are not being properly updated along with OS updates. … Read more

Teen sends Facebook invite to 15; 21,000 reply

So great is the excitement about a Facebook-branded phone that any privacy issues such a phone might inspire seem to have blown away in the wind.

Let me, therefore, offer a sweet and cautionary tale about a 14-year-old girl in the U.K., who thought she'd throw a little party and now seems to be about to throw a very big one.

The Telegraph has been friendly enough to reveal the Facebook faux-pas performed by the teen. She decided to hold a birthday party at her mom's house and mom kindly said she could invite 15 of her … Read more