ups

I've had a lot of great adventures producing Always On, but I've had a lifelong dream to see a space shuttle launch, and with this show, I got to get pretty close: I flew down to Cape Canaveral to watch the Falcon 9 rocket blast off with the Dragon cargo capsule on board. It was, as you might imagine, a pretty spectacular sight: and a pretty exciting start to the future of privatized space flight.

This episode also features another pretty awesome day for me: a spin around Ford's test track in the 2013 Shelby GT500 Mustang. … Read more

In addition to being tucked into a very user-friendly package, this full software suite comes without a price tag. Though many of Ashampoo Burning Studio's features are related, it's still absurd to think about doing this much in one program. Just about anything you could want to do with or to a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray is possible.

Ashampoo Burning Studio welcomed us with a nice interface. Burning, ripping and every other feature this program has to offer are well organized in a helpful menu. Simply choose the feature you want and Ashampoo Burning Studio walks you right … Read more

The other night I met someone who is utterly riveted by "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley."

It was Windsor, the stellar barperson at my local restaurant, Sushi Ran.

"Why do you like it?" I asked.

"Because it's great," was her excited reply. I probed. She insisted it was great "because it is."

I wonder how great she would have found last night's episode 5. It began with Hermione (British, blonde) embarrassed at her drunken psychotic behavior last week.

It's just the stress of getting funding, explains her brother Ben (short, pretty, … Read more

Last week Apple released the much anticipated, and delayed, update to iTunes. iTunes 11 has a new look and feel, as well as some new features such as "Up Next." Along with the new look and feel comes new methods of interacting and accomplishing once familiar tasks in iTunes. One of those tasks, managing downloads, isn't as obvious as it used to be.

When iTunes 11 was first released I had a few apps with updates available, so I started the downloads. In the previous version(s) of iTunes you could manage active downloads in the sidebar, … Read more

After delaying the release of iTunes 11 by a month, Apple has released the much-anticipated update for both Windows and Mac users. The new iTunes is redesigned from the ground up, with a completely new look and feel. Along with the new look comes some new features: deeper iCloud integration, a new MiniPlayer, and a feature called "Up Next."

Up Next is more or less a living playlist within iTunes. You're able to add, rearrange, edit, and delete songs from the Up Next queue at any time.

To get started with Up Next, update to iTunes 11 … Read more

Early this morning, Syria went offline.

Some more scary news is coming out of Syria early this morning. Apparently the entire country has gone dark, completely vanishing from the Internet over the course of just a few minutes. According to Renesys, a company that operates a real-time Internet-monitoring grid, all of Syria's IP connectivity has become unreachable.

Today Google has announced the acquisition of Incentive Targeting, a maker of coupon programs that tailor to users' behaviors and likes. The company has worked with retailers to design trackable coupons that help gauge their performance and usefulness.

CNET has a review of the Jawbone Up … Read more

Those watching "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" will have learned many things over its first three weeks.

They'll have learned that you can't get money from VCs just by knowing their phone numbers and fluttering your acronyms. They'll have learned that doing a start-up is so hard that you need to party a lot. And they'll have learned that date-cheating just isn't on if you're a lifecaster.

Last night's Episode 4 began with Sarah (fake blonde lifecaster) kissing her dog. This was presumably to make up for the fact that last week she didn't get to kiss Jay, … Read more

Released yesterday, Adblock Plus for Android offers a no-nonsense way to completely remove ads from your mobile computing experience. Simply download and install the app, and let it run behind the scenes. From there, you should notice that display ads, video ads, push notifications, and even many in-app ads are no more.

So far, I've seen AdBlock Plus kill ads on several Web sites, including Google, and within the ad-supported Pandora app. According to its developers, though, AdBlock Plus does not work when browsing with Firefox for Android, since Firefox does not support Android's system proxy settings.

Adblock … Read more

I spent a little time last week trying to persuade my colleague Shara Tibken to audition for the second, New York series of "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley."

She seemed reluctant. I'm not sure whether it was the compulsory bikini shots or having to access a vast egotistical madness within that seemed to put her off.

Worryingly, viewers seem to be increasingly put off too. The Bravo Ratings site, which monitors performance, suggested that a fulsome 50,000 fewer bright young things cared to watch last week's second episode.

This led to Randi Zuckerberg, the show's executive … Read more