uber

Arriving on New York's streets with a backpack and a dream has long been a narrative emulated by the young, ambitious, and eager to "make it." But for one San Francisco company looking to bring its change-the-world voracity to Gotham, it may be even more of an uphill battle than the average striver's tale implies.

The central question: can a tiny start-up go up against New York's army of taxicabs?

Young and tech-savvy San Franciscans are likely familiar with Uber, a limousine-booking start-up that launched last year to rave reviews, interest from high-profile angel investors, … Read more

Uber (formerly UberCab), which received a cease and desist order from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority, is alive and kicking despite the SF taxi commission's best attempt to squelch the private car network. In fact, the company is looking to expand in 2011. This week, the company launched in Paris for a day to demonstrate just how easily and quickly it could expand to new cities, and CEO Ryan Graves tweeted that he's studying maps of Brooklyn.

Not bad for a company that started just a few months ago and faced some serious backlash from the local … Read more

After proving a hit on the BlackBerry, mobile Twitter app UberTwitter is now trying to make a name for itself on the iPhone.

Hitting iTunes on Monday, the free beta release of UberTwitter is designed to give iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users full access to their Twitter accounts from their mobile devices. You can see the tweets you follow, post your own tweets, search for tweets, and manage your Twitter account.

The app offers a couple of especially useful options. Tapping on a tweet opens it and any linked content in one single Live Preview window, sparing you from … Read more

In the last week or so, descriptions of a secretive group called Project Vigilant have ranged between dubbing it a hoax and proclaiming it to be the next big threat to Internet privacy.

Neither is quite accurate.

Highlighting Project Vigilant's role in outing an alleged Wikileaks source, a Salon.com column warned that the organization's members have "extensive, sophisticated expertise in compiling highly invasive data about individuals' Internet activities." It's been labeled a "shadowy spy group" that's "building dossiers" for the feds.

To security maven Richard Bejtlich, however, Project Vigilant … Read more

A former top U.S. Justice Department prosecutor helped to turn over an alleged Wikileaks source to the FBI and Army intelligence, CNET has learned.

Mark Rasch, previously the head of the Justice Department's computer crime unit who is now in private practice in the Washington, D.C. area, said during a telephone interview that he identified investigators who would want to know that an U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Kuwait may have handed over sensitive documents to the world's most famous document-leaking Web site.

Bradley Manning was charged last month with leaking sensitive information and illegally … Read more

I love it when automotive technology extends its reach to makes life easier even for non-drivers.

Take, for example, UberCab.

Anyone who lives in San Francisco knows it's impossible to find a cab. And many times, even after you battle for 20 minutes on a Friday might to secure the attention of a taxi driver, you can still be blown off by a cabbie who can't (or won't) break a $20. Or take a credit card.

That's when you start wishing you hadn't turned down that Town Car's offer to give you a ride. … Read more

Of the Twitter apps available for BlackBerry, ad-supported UberTwitter is a current favorite. Why? Not the ads, which thankfully aren't too obtrusive. UberTwitter enhances the basics of reading, tweeting, retweeting, and follower management with the ability to e-mail tweets, view trends, and easily see others' tweeted images without leaving the app. UberTwitter gets kudos for taking photos and videos from within the app. It also has the now-standard URL-shrinking option.

There's still plenty of space for growth. Having the app manage multiple Twitter accounts is on the top of our list, and support for Twitter lists, a way … Read more

UberSmart Math Basics allows users to practice their math skills using a flash-card-style activity and to test themselves on what they've learned. The program's options and layout make it a great choice for kids who are working on their math skills.

The program's interface is simple and attractive, with all of its features easily accessed. Users can view flashcards for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, all organized in number sets from 0 through 12. Users click through the flashcards at their own speed, coming up with the answer in their minds and then checking against the flashcard. … Read more

Another one bites the dust: Uber.com, a fledgling blog platform that was backed by Discovery Communications and Universal Music Group, shut its doors Friday. The reason? The investors pulled out.

"We have some bad news," a message on the Los Angeles-based company's home page read. "The crisis in the economy has claimed Uber as its latest victim. Our investors have decided to stop supporting Uber and we have closed the doors."

Uber had been co-founded by former Friendster CEO and NBC Entertainment president Scott Sassa, and had completed a $7.6 million series B venture round this spring … Read more