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Photos: Popcorn Hour does streaming right

We've long moaned that there's no such thing as the perfect media streamer. We've tested Apple TV, which is hopeless unless you exist totally in the Apple universe, and even then only if you're a U.S. resident. We enjoyed the DivX Connected system but noted it's far from perfect and, like Apple TV, won't play many formats out of the box. Now we've found another system, called the Popcorn Hour A-100, which promises to do everything we want--and we're properly excited.

For a start, it will play everything. Yes, that's … Read more

RSS, Fire Eagle join LightPole's lookup posse

If I had to describe LightPole in 10 words or fewer, I'd call it an interface for accessing location-aware services from mobile phones. More than anything else, LightPole's downloadable application offers a listings and mapping format that many location-based services, such as Yelp and Yahoo Local, can squeeze into to gain more visibility or avoid creating their own rich cell phone applications.

It works like this. Users looking for stuff--a good restaurant, happy hour specials, or Internet cafe--can click open LightPole, select a service (MappyHour and Hotspotr are two more,) and can read about the establishment, call the … Read more

Where we can't wait till the year 20X6

EPISODE 83

On today's show we easily solve the Earth's environmental problems. Then we'll talk about what it must be like to get trapped in an elevator for 41 hours and figure out the proper way to say "Mario." It's a Jersey thing. Plus we'll tell you our idea for the ultimate action movie, all on today's 404.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Google goes dark for Earth Hour

Google made an environmental gesture today by turning the lights out on the U.S. version of its search page. The black background doesn't save energy, but it's Google's way of observing Earth Hour. The global event, created by the World Wildlife Fund, encourages people around the world to turn off their lights at 8:00 PM today, March 29, for an hour.

LightPole turns on local services aggregator

LightPole doesn't think of itself as a search hub, an RSS reader, a mobile apps platform, or a maps source, even though the mobile app, publicly released on Tuesday, is all these things rolled into one.

LightPole's interface is a bit like Viigo's, but instead of hosting various news channels, LightPole (mostly) hosts channels for interactive services, targeting people on the move who are looking for activities around them.

People seeking a nearby hot spot, for example, would open the channel for Hotspotr, which sniffs out W-iFi cafes and other Internet gateways. MappyHour acts similarly for happy … Read more

Happy hour with the iPhone

The American public will get its first chance to buy the iPhone at 6 p.m. in each local time zone, Apple confirmed Wednesday.

Somehow, I don't think Apple and AT&T will have two-for-one specials on the iPhone, but my New York-based colleagues will be the first to see how crowds react to the release of the iPhone at 6 p.m. ET. Those of us out here in California will have to wait until 6 p.m. our time for the official release of the phone, in yet another blatant example of East Coast bias.

And … Read more

Tomorrow: Use Flickr, be in a book

Many Yahoo photos users will soon be making the exodus to Flickr, so we thought we'd give everyone the heads up on a fairly cool "event" going on tomorrow. It's called 24 Hours of Flickr, and it's challenging people to go take pictures all day Saturday and then upload their favorite shots to a Flickr group specifically created for the day.

Flickr editors will go through the photos, pick some of the best, and add them to a coffee-table book (designed using Blurb) that will be made available for purchase this summer.

Anyone who gets … Read more

'Aquascooter'--the manly way to dive

Some people apparently think the "Scuba-Doo" is for sissies. So for these macho readers, we point to the "Aquascooter" selling for $900 on ExtremeToysForBoys.com. (Our masculinity isn't threatened. Really.)

It's touted as the "world's only totally portable, submersible, gasoline-powered personal water craft." We don't suspect there was a whole lot of competition for the title, but that's beside the point. The Aquascooter can travel 5 mph for more than 10 miles without refueling, according to Red Ferret, "which kind of blows away all the electric alternatives"… Read more