fail

Dell's Della site for gals causes facepalmage

Oh, Dell, did you start up a firestorm. Sure, your idea was great: create a site marketing your Netbooks to women. But instead of telling non-tech-savvy women what they can do with their laptops--download recipes!--you ended up offending the tech-savvy ladies, who, you know, are the ones who have actually bought your computers.

I have several friends who are women (no, really!). I showed the site to several of them and the feedback was completely negative. One of my friends actually said she now feels bad about the Dell Netbook she bought just two months ago. Awesome.

You see, … Read more

The 404 338: Where we boldly go to see 'Star Trek'

The 404 crew goes to see the new "Star Trek" film by director J.J. Abrams. It's a reboot of the venerable Star Trek television series that most geeks grew up watching. Our good buddy and Photoshop contest winner Jacky W. Chen came with us, along with Edouard, our new bouncer.

We try to keep the show spoiler-free today, but in case you didn't know from the movie poster, Tyler Perry is in the movie. Overall, we think it's a great, fun film, but there are some deep plot holes you could fly the Enterprise through. Check out our video wrap-up from the opening here in New York on CNET TV.

On today's show, we find out the origins of the name Twitter. Apparently, its etymology is whale-based. The Natural History Museum Whale also follows us today. In more crazy news from the Web, "DJ Hero" comes out soon to ensure that the next generation of children will not know how to play a single real musical instrument.

In more video game news, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier is rated T for teen, but on the box, it contains "alcohol references, fantasy violence, mild language, partial nudity, and suggestive themes." We wonder what you have to do to get a M-rating now. Finally, if you're still living your mother's basement and playing World of Warcraft, we've got a gadget for you that will ensure that you will never get a girlfriend. It is a hut that will let players isolate themselves from the outside world, feed them, and possibly even wipe their butts. We're not sure if the last one is really a feature, but it's definitely in the same vein.

Keep calling into the show at 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We love your voice mails. Next week, we've got Molly Wood joining us on the show along with the equally lovely @LizMoney from the Gadget411 and Anna David!

Episode 338 Download today's podcast | Subscribe in iTunes audio Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Twitter fail-whale snacks on user avatars

Twitter has been hiccuping all day, it seems. Earlier, some users (myself included) noticed occurrences of the service's notorious "fail whale"--the cartoon that pops up when Twitter's servers are overloaded--and later, some members began to report that their profile pictures had disappeared and were replaced by Twitter's default icon.

As they say at Fark, everybody panic!

Well, not really. Twitter CEO Evan Williams acknowledged the issue, saying "if you're missing your icon/avatar, please excuse -- will be back shortly!" in a Twitter post. As of Monday afternoon, some of them … Read more

Major, Minor Problems After iPhone 2.2.1 Update

Dozens for iPhone Atlas readers, and dozens more on Apple's Discussion boards, are reporting a bevy of issues after applying the iPhone OS 2.2.1 update. As usual, the following two procedures will work to solve a number of problems:

Reset your iPhone by holding down the sleep and home buttons until the Apple logo appears; Restore your iPhone: Click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget … Read more

iPhone OS 2.2.1: Problems and Fixes

Users are experiencing a series of issues--some minor, some significant--after the iPhone OS 2.2.1 update.

Installation fails, cannot restore Several users have reported an issue in which the installation of iPhone OS 2.2.1 fails partway through and subsequent restore attempts fail, yielding, in essence, an unusable iPhone.

If you experienced a similar issue, try the suggestions listed in this article.

Airplane mode problems Make sure that your iPhone is not in airplane mode. If the iPhone is in airplane mode when it is updated, it will not be able to properly activate after the software installation … Read more

iPhone Does Not Ring, Calls Go Straight to Voicemail

Several users have experienced an issue in which the iPhone 3G does not ring and calls are, instead, routed straight to voicemail. Of course, this can occur if the iPhone is off or the signal is weak or non-existent. However, several users have reported this behavior even with a full available signal.

Among the user reports from this Apple Discussions thread:

"Around November 15th, I started seeing some of the same problems on my iPhone 3G (calls not coming through, voicemails & texts getting delayed, unable to make calls / send texts)." "It seems totally random when it … Read more

LOL! You now can has cheezburger on the iPhone

If you are a fan of the Fail Blog (and I think you should be), be in the know that you now can view the site conveniently with an iPhone app.

The app, developed by MC Development, is called "I Can Has Cheezburger?", which is also the name of the Web site that gathers, organizes, tags, and captions funny, cute, and entertaining pictures submitted by people around the world. These pictures cover topics ranging from animals and random daily life to bad English, celebrities, and politicians.

The app lets you pick and view any of ICHC's eight … Read more

Will 2.1 be what 2.0 was supposed to be?

As per usual, at the most inopportune time when I was already running late, I decided to sync my iPhone as I was getting ready to leave home today. Like clockwork, iTunes asks me if I'd like to update to Firmware 2.1. Would I? Unlike last time, I actually downloaded the update and took off to make my a Saturday class.

During a break, my fellow iPhone-laden class attendees got out their iPhones to check email, text messages and voicemail and the discussion turned to Firmware 2.1.

"Did you get it?" one fellow classmate asked … Read more

What will Apple announce today? Something with the iPhone 3G battery? We can hope.

In a crazy world, Apple would announce a "we-are-so-sorry" iPhone swap today: All first generation iPhone owners and all new iPhone 3G owners would be given a new free iPhone Plutonium, which, of course, has endless battery life. Perhaps this massive reset could be founded by the liquidation of Halliburton or perhaps as part of a massive government effort to promote consumer-spending, oh wait, that was Fannie May and Freddie Mac....

Stranger things have happened. What's the line? We can only hope for change?

But seriously folks, the biggest complaint I've seen (and experienced) is dismal … Read more

Sony DSC-T20 cameras: sometimes they don't take pictures

Although it only applies to a small percentage of units on our shores, today Sony announced that "A certain number of DSC-T20 cameras (in pink and silver only) will vibrate when the power is switched on and will not be able to shoot pictures" due to a "mechanical failure that affected the lenses." Ouch. Since there haven't been that many incidents thus far in the U.S., this isn't a recall; Sony will simply repair any faulty units for free, from July 10, 2008 to July 9, 2011. It seems that overseas there's … Read more