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An absurd iPhone application I like

When my colleague Josh Lowensohn wrote his original and well-received 10 Absurd iPhone Apps blog, I agreed with most of his picks. Yet there was one application with which I rather sheepishly had to take issue. I love maps of all kinds so I was dismayed when I found "public transit maps" in the No. 8 slot. Yes, Josh makes good arguments that transit maps are free online, and that you can plan your route before you leave the house, but I thought it sounded like a cool idea. So, during a trip to New York City last week, I packed CNET's iPhone armed with the CityTransit NYC Subway Guide by Magnetism Studios. I put it to heavy use during my stay and definitely thought it was worth the $2.99 price. Here's why.

Don't look like a tourist I know New York somewhat well, but if I need to get from 39th Avenue in Long Island City to 14th Street in Manhattan, I'll need to look at a subway map to do so. While I can plan out the route before hand, my short-term memory seems to vanish while on vacation. With the complete subway maps on my iPhone, however, I can check my route while on the train (remember that you can't get the Internet while underground), but I can do so on the sly. I can avoid being the gawking tourist, craning my neck around seated riders to read the map on the side of the car. For all they know, I'm just reading my e-mail.

You also can look at a list of all stops on each line--very useful if you get on an express train accidentally. My only suggestion is that you can't zoom in on the maps very far. And even when you can zoom in, the maps can be blurry. … Read more

$10 million for mobile media company BuzzCity

BuzzCity, a mobile networking and advertising start-up based in Singapore, on Thursday announced a $10 million investment by South African media company Naspers.

BuzzCity has developed a mobile social-networking product called MyGamma, but it's not hoping to take on Facebook. MyGamma is geared toward "unwired" customers--those who have a mobile device but lack access to either a PC or a reliable broadband connection. That's probably why it attracted the attention of Naspers--market research firm Point Topic estimated late in 2007 that there were fewer than 300,000 broadband Internet subscriptions in South Africa out of a … Read more

Comex: Where geeks get to bargain like fishwives

There's a certain pain to covering the massive Comex IT bazaar that takes place every August in Singapore. However, getting one's toes stubbed by some clod in the packed halls of Suntec City is a small price to pay when coming across bizarre offerings like an updated version of the Muse2 MP5 player.

Why MP5? Literally, it's an MP3/4 multimedia player that offers 5-in-1, according to the very helpful sales assistant (who probably should learn to count, since the brochure listed 8): a 3-megapixel digital camera, video camera, FM radio, video player, music player, voice recording, … Read more

Bad economy kills this year's DigitalLife Expo

Citing economic troubles, Ziff Davis Media has canceled this year's DigitalLife Expo, a trade show held each fall at New York's Jacob Javits Convention Center.

"The poor economic conditions have created a very different and difficult dynamic for us this year, and we weren't confident that we could present a show experience that was consistent with the successes of prior years," DigitalLife Vice President Paul O'Reilly said in an e-mailed statement. "Hopefully, a bigger and stronger DigitalLife will return in 2009. We will make additional announcements about the future of the show when … Read more

Mayor Bloomberg floats New York City wind plan

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has staked out a claim for making New York City a clean-energy powerhouse through off-shore and on-building wind farms.

Bloomberg spoke at the National Clean Energy Summit at the University of Nevada Las Vegas on Tuesday where he outlined his proposal for more renewable energy in New York City and demanded a more serious discussion about national energy policy.

To encourage local clean-power generation, he issued a request for expressions of interest for an off-shore wind farm, small-scale wind installations, and tidal power systems. Some estimates show that wind energy can supply 10 percent of the city'… Read more

The 404 166: Where we're invaded by the NewYork.com girls

On today's show, we're joined by two of the girls from NewYork.com! Wilson's sick, but he misses out on an insane show filled with the girls drooling over Michael Phelps, even more slanted eye pictures, Nintendo bikinis, Apple store nightmares, and a possible NewYork.com/404 meetup!? Listen for more details!

Wilson can't make it to the show today so we replace him with two of the fantastic ladies from NewYork.com! "Broadway Baby" Hillary and "Soho Hot" Amanda are a real treat to have in the studio, especially for the … Read more

Capitol Hill eclipse for solar power?

Frustrated with political deadlock, solar energy companies fear a big setback if Congress fails to renew a key federal tax credit set to expire at the end of the year.

The provision would extend a 30 percent break of up to $2,000 to homeowners. Businesses would qualify for the same percentage, without a cap.

While the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to extend the tax credit, the effort so far has failed eight times in the Senate--the latest defeat occurring on July 30.

"The delay in the ITC (investment tax credit) renewal has meant … Read more

Cities to count emissions with Carbon Disclosure Project

How can cities reduce the role they may play in global warming? Could fire departments, garbage collection services, residential building codes, and industrial regulations be greener?

Attempting to help address those questions, 21 U.S. cities, including New York, Las Vegas, and New Orleans will describe their major sources of greenhouse gas emissions to the Carbon Disclosure Project, one of the world's largest repositories linking such data to climate change.

The nonprofit Carbon Disclosure Project comprises 385 institutional investors with assets of $57 trillion, from ABN Amro to the RBS Group. It has been collecting data on corporate greenhouse … Read more

Kindle sales pegged at $1 billion by 2010

Sales of the Amazon Kindle may be higher than expected, according to CitiGroup analyst Mark Mahaney, who inferred once again that the e-reader is the Apple iPod of the book world.

The analyst said Monday that he expects the Kindle to sell about 380,000 units in 2008. The figure is double that of his original sales estimate for the e-reader, and equal to the amount of iPods sold during the first year of release.

Mahaney wrote in a client note that the Kindle may become one of the hottest gifts of holiday season, citing the fact that Kindle is … Read more

Circuit City: What, me no laugh at parody?

MAD Magazine is getting the last laugh now that Circuit City has issued a mea culpa for telling employees to destroy issues of MAD that contain a parody of the retailer's advertising.

The Consumerist pointed us to a copy of a letter of it received from a Circuit City corporate communicator after the site wrote about the alleged search-and-destroy mission. In the letter, Circuit City apologizes for its "knee-jerk reaction," and says its has issued a retraction order and directed affected stores to put the magazines back on sale.

The magazine's August issue contains a (pretty darn amusing) four-page "Sucker City" circular with announcements like: "Believe it or not, $3,599.99 is the sale price," and "Wii Gaming System Guaranteed In Stock...if you're friends with an employee who hid it in the back for you. Otherwise, oh, sorry, all sold out." Sucker City also sells products including a self-editing Web cam that "stops embarrassing YouTube videos before they're made."

The good news is that at least one member of Circuit City's PR team appears to appreciate the value of a good ribbing--or at least appreciate the value of pretending to have a sense of humor. This is the letter: … Read more