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Internet service provider EarthLink has successfully cut its way to profitability.

The Atlanta-based company on Thursday announced it posted a yearly profit of $189.6 million in 2008 compared to a net loss of $135.1 million in 2007.

Despite the profit, the company's annual revenue fell 21 percent to $955.6 million. The company said it had expected the dip in sales as it anticipated the continued loss of dial-up and broadband subscribers. EarthLink ended 2008 with 2.8 million subscribers compared to 3 million in 2007.

EarthLink CEO Rolla Huff started making major cuts to the company'… Read more

Here's something we haven't seen before: a headset designed to lessen the damaging effect loud music and gaming can potentially have on the ears. Able Planet introduced the PS500MM gaming headset back in December of 2008, claiming that the device's onboard "Link Audio" technology will soften the blow to your eardrums.

Basically the technology is supposed to prevent the user from having to raise the volume in order to drown out background noise. Interestingly enough, it was first developed for those with mild to severe hearing loss. AblePlanet claims it's patented Link Audio technology … Read more

Over the past few days, I've been using an upcoming e-mail helper called Gist.

Similar to Xobni (coverage) Gist is all about piggybacking on the e-mail systems you're already using to unearth information that's often tucked away. This includes the relationships you have with people you're e-mailing--both professionally and in your personal life.

The big difference is that Gist makes URLs, attachments, and conversation threads easier to get at. And instead of being relegated to Microsoft Outlook, like Xobni is, Gist works with Web mail too.

The service can tap into both Gmail and Outlook, as … Read more

Amber Ettinger, better known as "Obama Girl," has teamed up with Stickam for coverage of the presidential inauguration. Live coverage will be streamed live Monday at 8 p.m. EST from InauguralFest, and viewers will be able to see what she is doing all day at the inauguration starting at 10 a.m. EST Tuesday.

Integrated Media Measurement, an online research firm, found (PDF) that women between the ages of 15 and 48 tend to watch a television show and surf the Web an average of 17.5 minutes per day, while men do the same for just … Read more

Correction, 12:10 p.m. PST: This story misspelled the name of one of the private investors in Snooth. His name is Kevin Fortuna.

Apple announced Friday that over 500 million apps have been downloaded from its App Store. Amazingly, the company only reached 300 million downloads on December 5, meaning its App Store has enjoyed accelerating growth since the holiday season. The announcement, which was made in the form of an advertisement on Apple's home page, also claims that the App Store now features more than 15,000 apps.

A new report from the Pew Internet and American … Read more

I guess I can thank Viewsonic for ensuring that I'm not writing about monitors and monitors only for CES 2009. The company has made a few attempts to diversify its product line, and I for one appreciate it, if for no other reason than you can say only so much about HDMI connections and screen sizes before you're driven batty. Take it from one whose been there (and maybe is still there).

The LinkPC or ViePC (Viewsonic's press material claims two different names) is Viewsonic's most unique offering at CES. The LinkPC is a small, square-shaped … Read more

Before I begin, let me say this one more time: The 802.11n wireless specification (or Wireless-N, which is currently still in draft state and therefore is also known as Draft N) is a wireless networking standard that offers speeds up to 300Mbps. That is a lot faster than the previous and popular specification 802.11g (or Wireless-G) that caps out at 54Mbps. Wireless-N is backward compatible with Wireless-G devices, meaning they can be connected to Wireless-N networks at 802.11g speed.

Now that, though confusing, is all common knowledge. What's not commonly known is that wireless vendors are … Read more

During 2008, I complained about all of D-Link's wireless routers, such as the DIR-825 or the DIR-855 because of their common, old-school, bulky designs. Thursday, however, I was more than impressed by the all-new Xtreme N Storage DIR-685 wireless router.

It's possibly the first router that really offers a lot more than just routing.

First off, the DIR-685 is the first router from D-Link I know of that features the internal antenna design, which is not new, as Linksys and Netgear have done this for a long time. Nevertheless, the DIR-685 is now much more compact and eye-catching … Read more

The first NAS server I've run into that features a surveillance system is the Synology DS107+, and I was very impressed. Thursday, D-Link announced two NAS servers that work more like Internet-based surveillance products--or network video recorders (NVRs)--than storage devices. They are the DNS-722-4 and the DNS-726-4.

Both products are based on D-Link's two-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device technology, such as that used in the DNS-323. The DNS-726-4 NVR Pro version works with D-Link, as well as Axis, Sony, and Panasonic network cameras, while the DNS-722-4 NVR works only with D-Link network cameras.

There's one more … Read more