history

'Steve Jobs': An apt portrait of a jerk and a genius

book review Amid the choking fumes from the Apple flame wars, Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs comes as a breath of fresh air.

Jobs, along with the bold company he built, gets people's blood boiling with loyalty and with loathing. Vitriol often is the chief characteristic of debates between fans of Macs and of Windows PCs, between fans of iOS and of Android.

Isaacson, though, has done an admirable job navigating the minefields with his biography, simply titled "Steve Jobs." The result is a book that, although not perfect, is a reliable and captivating guide … Read more

How to search for text in your browsing history

If you've been online for more than a few months (and if not, where have you been?), you've no doubt experienced the frustration of forgetting where you found some tiny but crucial bit of information. Typical browser history searching is limited at best, and if you're diligent about clearing your history, it can be useless. Recawl is a great search tool for those who don't mind keeping a private browsing record; it monitors your browsing in Chrome and lets you search every page of your history. Here's how to get started with it:

Install the Recawl plug-in for Chrome. … Read more

The 404 915: Where we're not as think as you drunk we are (podcast)

CNET's Bridget Carey is here to talk about the imminence of the next iPhone. Signs like cases arriving at AT&T stores and the new smartphone appearing in Apple's inventory system have Wilson almost giddy.

Jeff obviously doesn't really understand why anybody would be interested in the new iPhone. It's just a different shape with more storage, right? Well, the iPhone 4S/5 may include some new patented technology that stabilizes shaky smartphone video. It might be the end of an era of vomit-inducing iPhone videos.

We also chat a bit about the crazy idea that Amazon may want to buy the beleaguered remains of Palm from HP. It seems to be a strange purchase, given that this week, Amazon seems to have a buzz-inducing product with the Kindle Fire.

It's not as crazy as Microsoft wanting to start its own TV service on the Xbox 360. That doesn't seem like a terrible idea, given the number of boxes that we have to hook into our televisions these days just to watch cable TV. In our opinion, we think it would be a lot better of a TV tuner than those generic cable boxes that seem to crash every other day.

Rounding out today's craziness, we also talk about faking a girlfriend with a Web site called Fakegirlfriend.co. Don't think that it is going to get you much help with your social life if you ever use it. Finally, we talk about the anarchy that will ensue if Facebook ever gets hacked, and your poke history is revealed.

Let us know what you think of the show by calling and leaving a voice mail at 1-866-CNET (2638). If it's good, funny and short, we'll play it. Or if the phone is foreign to you, you can send us an e-mail at the404 [at] cnet [dot] com, follow us on Twitter @the404 and like our Facebook page. OK, we're going to stop with the plugs now.

The 404 Digest for Episode 915

New iPhone appears in Apple's inventory system iPhone 5 case arrives at a AT&T retail store New iPhone may use accelerometer and gyro to stabilize video Amazon may want to buy Palm Microsoft looking into a Xbox TV service Fakegirlfriend.co lets you pretend to have a girlfriend Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind Facebook keeps history of pokes Justin's Bathroom Break: Kid video bombs sister's YouTube video Justin's Bathroom Break: Dog only responds to terrible Beatle's impression

Episode 915 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

The 404 915: Where we're not as think as you drunk we are (podcast)

The 404 Digest for Episode 915

Episode 915 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

App turns your iPhone into a time machine

Walk down certain city streets and you can practically feel the ghosts around you. Who was walking here 100 years earlier? Which buildings survived from earlier centuries? Wasn't there a famous fire around here? An iPhone app aims to help you spot the ghosts, or at least inform your imagination. WhatWasThere lets anyone upload and view old photographs that are tied to a location via Google Maps.

The free app, and accompanying Web site for the deskbound, is a crowdsourcing platform for assembling a visual historic record of the world's streetscapes. People can upload photos and tag them with location and year.

Places with associated photos are marked on a Google Map. Click on a mark and a list of available photos pops up with thumbnail, label, year, and distance from your location. Click a list item and the photo comes up. Put the photo in full-screen mode, aim your phone's camera in the direction of the scene in the photo, and you can drag a slider bar between camera view and photo to get a now-and-then perspective.

WhatWasThere's developer, Enlighten Ventures, plans to release keyword-search capability based on title, description, and user tags, and the ability for users to make photo albums. Picture tags and so on like "Old Theaters of New York" or "Gettysburg Battlefields." Enlighten is also working on a way for users to tag any photo in the system, not just the ones they upload.… Read more

Seven useful Galaxy Tab 10.1 tips

Now that you've purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, you're probably exploring all the cool features this beautiful tablet has to offer. Here's a collection of tips to get you started:

How to switch keyboards on Galaxy Tab 10.1 Adjust your preferred keyboard for use on you Galaxy Tab. Also, check out Ed Rhee's guide to installing the Swype keyboard.

Clear the browser history on Galaxy Tab 10.1Prepare your Galaxy Tab to be viewed by and shared with your family and friends by erasing all traces of your personal browser usage.

Read Google Books offline on Galaxy Tab 10.1… Read more

Clearing the browser history on Galaxy Tab 10.1

Keeping your browsing history from prying eyes is difficult on a device that you may share with family or friends. Whether you're shopping for a surprise present or an engagement ring or surfing the Web for some other personal reason, you may want to keep your activities private. If you're looking to erase the sites you've visited from the memory of your Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, follow these quick steps:

Step 1: Open the Web browser on your Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Step 2: Click on the menu in the top right corner, and choose Settings.

Step … Read more

Viruses: Destroying your systems for 25 years

LAS VEGAS--The hacker conference DefCon kicked off this morning with the rare public sighting of a now-archaic piece of technology: the 5 1/4-inch floppy disk. Mikko Hypponen, the chief technical officer for the Finnish security company F-Secure, waved the disk above his head to start off his history of PC viruses, and said, "This is Brain."

Hypponen was talking about a guest of honor housed on the disk: the original computer virus. Hypponen found the disk last year in a lockbox in F-Secure's headquarters in Helsinki, and he dove in, cracked the virus code, and found … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1515: There's something Buzzing in the Digital City (Podcast)

The NYC takeover of BOL continues, as the hardware heads from the Digital City talk about Day One problems with Apple's new Lion OSX update, the death of Google Labs, and who's getting hacked next.

'Top Gear' set builds gearhead heaven in California

IRVINE, Calif.--Hidden away on an arid stretch of Orange Country land that once housed a Marine base, a wonderland for gearheads exists--complete with super cars, a test track, and custom automobiles lined side-by-side halfway to the mountains. It's the set where the History Channel produces the U.S. version of "Top Gear," the BBC's hit car show.

"Top Gear" returns on July 24, and BBC Worldwide Productions and History Channel invited CNET to visit the set earlier this week on the final day of shooting for the second season.

While show hosts Adam Ferrera, Rutledge Wood, and Tanner Foust shot segments and recorded voiceovers for upcoming episodes, I explored the set and wandered blissfully through the fleet of elite, custom, and wrecked vehicles sprinkled around the studio grounds. I even got to set foot on the esteemed track where The Stig (the show's anonymous racing driver) power-tests some of the world's elite cars. … Read more