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Speed up Adobe Reader

It's the most popular PDF software on the planet, but sometimes Adobe Reader can be slower than molasses to start up. Tom Merritt shows you how to use Adobe Reader SpeedUp to disable unnecessary plug-ins and help Adobe Reader open documents much more quickly.

How to stay awake and not look like a borg

There are many technologies either on the market or being developed that are meant to keep us from falling asleep at the desk or behind the wheel (or even more embarrassing circumstances that we dare not speculate). But this one, unlike some of the others, doesn't look like a Groucho disguise or a steel plate sticking out of your head. The "Wake-Up Angel" appears to be going for the hearing-aide look with an over-the-ear design.

As with other products, it can be set to vibrate your awake depending on the angle you choose, according to GeekAlerts. Personally, … Read more

Crank your music, literally

For bored campers accustomed to whiling away those tedious nature-filled hours downing cheap beer or playing Scrabble, we've found the perfect reason to never leave the tent.

Trevor Baylis, creator of the first wind-up radio, and the amazing electric shoe, has introduced the first wind-up MP3 player. Available at the end of August with a price tag of $350, the Eco Media Player seems like an attention-deficit camper's dream come true. The wind-up media player has a 1.8-inch color screen and a lean 2GB of memory that can be expanded using an SD memory card. Like a … Read more

Pitch overload at AlwaysOn

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Another line of start-ups made their case at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit here on Thursday. A mix of more established and fairly new companies with services that are in beta--some that have already had one or two rounds of funding but are now seeking investors' attention again.

Here is a chunk of the start-ups: Technology enablers • Flock is a Web browser that lets you add tools and applications to share media and interact online. We have mentioned it before and the last version of the social browser is now up for beta before its official launch … Read more

Google's Earth from above: A 3D look

"Google Maps is changing the way we see the world," journalist Evan Ratliff declares in a June article for Wired magazine. I couldn't agree more. Google's universal mapping project isn't just changing the portals for viewing the world online, it's also changing offline understandings of how the world is best viewed--from Google's services, of course. Google has gained influence fast, by ambitiously developing innovative, interactive mapping software; integrating multiple online services into the majority of desktop and online apps; and familiarizing users with a particular Google-branded aesthetic.

In creating a suite of map apps to encourage users to contribute to Google's greater project and personalize locally-stored versions of a map, Google is not just bringing cartography to the masses, Ratliff points out, but is getting users to help build out its universe. This, of course, makes complete sense. With Google Earth, Google SketchUp, and MyMaps (watch the CNET News.com "how-to" video,) Google's mapping software has surpassed competitors like NASA in digitizing the world. In so doing, Google has captivated the imagination of loyal users who will return to the company's Earth and maps programs to find business listings, explore culturally significant architecture, and plant personal photos and videos.… Read more

News Roundup: AOL, CircleUp, MediaMaster

AOL relaunches its news service. AOL relaunched its news service with an all-new design earlier this morning. In addition to adding an extra column, it now features some Web 2.0 goodies such as a tag cloud of popular story headlines, and the most-read stories and comment threads. The service will also aggregate news from other sites. Read more about it here.

CircleUp launches embeddable widget. CircleUp [ review], the social-planning service has a new widget called MyQuestions that lets people add their questions and subsequent list or responses to blogs, Web sites, or social-networking profiles. Users can interact with these … Read more

Virgin Mobile flubs up ads in NYC

Advertisements are part of the landscape here in New York City (hello, Times Square) and us locals generally like to ignore them. Which is why plenty of companies are willing to bend over backwards to get New Yorkers to stop walking really fast while blasting music into their iPod headphones and, well, notice some advertisements. Virgin Mobile's one of the recent ones, having introduced a "You Rule" campaign that addresses specific groups of New Yorkers. It's been placing them in specific neighborhoods, too, in an attempt to gain buzz by delivering personalized shout-outs.

Kind of a … Read more

Barbie plays a new tune

The only thing surprising about this product is that it didn't come out sooner. After all, even though Barbie is well into middle age (she turned 48 in March), she remains one of the most popular toys in the world.

So it's fitting that Mattel bring this enduring icon into the digital age the "Barbie Girl MP3" player for another generation of tween consumers that marketers covet so much. Not only will the $60 doll-slash-player hold at least 512MB worth of Hilary Duff's greatest hits, but Techie Diva says it also continues to the Barbie … Read more

A field guide for identifying bad CEOs

Time and time again you hear the same maxim: it's the people, not the technology or the products, that determine whether a company sinks or swims.

Intel's growth over the last four decades, or Oracle's relentless expansion in software, are pretty good examples of how leadership and management decisions can greatly impact a company's history.

But how do you identify the buffoons and poseurs? The guys who are lucky to be there and probably destined to slip?

One clue is if the company displays its current stock price on a screen in the lobby or on … Read more