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KitchIt brings Airbnb simplicity to hiring a party chef

Who needs to go to a restaurant to have a great meal when you could have one made for you at home?

That's the idea behind KitchIt, a Silicon Valley startup that is hoping to use technology, smart and easy design, and good culinary industry connections to offer everyday people custom restaurant-quality meals at home at affordable prices.

The concept is simple: To use KitchIt, you go to its Web site, enter your city, the date and type of the dinner you're planning, how many people are in your party, and the price range per diner.

Once you'… Read more

How to take time-lapse photos on Android

Time-lapse photos are a fun way to document a series of moments happening around you with a camera.

And now there's an awesome app available for Android that lets you bring this same method to your smartphone or tablet. All you need is a quick download and a bit of setup to get started.

Step 1: Download Lapse It from the Android Market. There is a free version that will only allow lower-resolution photos and a Pro version, which allows images up to 720p.

Step 2: Open the app and press the Start new capture button.… Read more

Noesis crowdsources building efficiency

The founders of Noesis Energy believe building managers will put a high value on peers' efficiency tips.

The company this week disclosed its open-source-style business plan and the acquisition of Managing Energy, an Ottawa, Ontario-based company that makes cloud-based software for measuring a commercial building's energy consumption.

Because commercial buildings use, and often waste, a lot of energy, there is a growing number of tools to assess and manage projects to improve efficiency. Large companies IBM and Cisco have software applications for managing multiple buildings while startups such as First Fuel have ways to suggest and prioritize energy efficiency tasks. … Read more

Windows 8 already eyed by many businesses, says survey

Windows 8 may not launch until later next year, but many businesses are already aiming to jump to the new OS.

A full 52 percent of the 973 IT professionals polled by InformationWeek last month said they plan to upgrade to Windows 8. Among those, 5 percent said they'll deploy Windows 8 to their users as soon as it's available, while 13 percent said they'll switch within the first year, and 19 percent within the first two years.

Only 10 percent of the likely upgraders said they'll switch on an as needed basis, 24 percent said … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1564: Molly's new iPhone 4 is no Halloween trick (Podcast)

In the tech news this week, Stephen and Brian bust me for buying an iPhone 4 on eBay to tide me over until there's a phone I really want--or until my Verizon contract is up. Nicole Lee joins us to talk about Nokia and Microsoft's new baby, the Lumia 800, and Sony's plans to get serious about making smart phones. Plus, stock advice from the gang, the coming nightmare that is the Stop Internet Piracy Act, and Computer Love.

Rumor Has It, Ep. 5: Google is a big, bad bully (podcast)

This week, we explain why Google is petty and doesn't want Yahoo to find true love; we learn what a G-Stream is; Sony may take its PS4 cues from game developers; and Apple might ruin Karyne's life by making her buy yet another power cord.

The show opens with no movement on the points board, and you know what that means: I'm going to win this month, and Karyne has to go on air next week dressed as Little Bo Peep. That is going to be my favorite day ever! If you guys have a better idea for something she should wear, leave ideas in the comments section. Anything that's better than Bo Peep shall be considered.… Read more

Rumor Has It, Ep. 4: Angry Birds 4 eva (podcast)

Emily is home from Chile, and is welcomed back with an Ice Cream Sandwich rumor, a couple iPad rumors, and the duck timer, which we ignore, as usual.

On last week's show, we bet that the Droid Razr would be announced today and alas, it was! The score is now 3 to 2, which means someone is going to have to do something totally embarrassing in the next couple weeks.

Also this week, we unravel some Ice Cream Sandwich details; Emily gets all riled up about Amazon buying poor Palm; we remind ourselves that Sony Ericsson isn't actually Sony; we discuss the likelihood of an iPad mini and an iPad 3 next year; and we wonder why Angry Birds-maker Rovio would want to go public. Does it have anything to do with the CEO's nickname being "Mighty Eagle"? We hope so. … Read more

Access iFixIt manuals on your iPhone and iPod Touch

When it comes to performing do-it-yourself fixes or upgrades on your Mac, one of the main resources to use is the online take-apart guides from iFixIt.

The company has detailed how to open and access internal components of many Mac models, and has gained a reputation for quickly tearing down newly released Apple hardware and outlining what's inside.

The manuals and high-quality detailed images offered by iFixIt can be invaluable, but if for some reason your Mac is not working and you need to use one of the manuals to replace a component, then you will need to access … Read more

Reporters' Roundtable: Bring your own computer to work

Today we're going to be talking about one of my favorite topics: how to sneak personal technology into your workplace. Or, put more respectably, the "Consumerization of Information Technology," or CoIT. Yes, there's an acronym for that.

For end users, CoIT is great. It means you can use your iPhone for company e-mail instead of the crappy 3-year-old BlackBerry the company wants to give you. But for IT managers? It can be a nightmare of security problems and support headaches. Or, if managed right, it can be a big cost saver and a giant morale booster.

Today we're talking about this topic with two experts. First, Fritz Nelson, editorial director of Information Week and editor at large at Byte on the Web. We also have an interview I did previously with Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager of Cisco's security technology group.

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Rumor Has It, Ep. 3: The real lame-os of Silicon Valley (podcast)

Sharon Vaknin fills in for Emily this week while Emily is on vacation, definitely not thinking about tech rumors. Or maybe she is? We'll have to ask her when she's back next week.

On last week's show, Karyne bet that the Galaxy Nexus (it used to be called the Galaxy Prime) would be unveiled today at CTIA, whereas Emily voted that it won't be released. Guess what? We both were right: Samsung was going to announce the phone at CTIA, but then decided to delay the announcement, citing Steve Jobs' death as the reason for the delay. We're not sure if we believe that's truly the reason.

Also this week, and speaking of Steve Jobs, there are rumors of a Steve Jobs biopic and we wonder who will play him in the movie; for some awful reason, Motorola thought using the Razr name was still a good idea 100 years later; Microsoft is planning on releasing a next-generation console someday; the Internet is abuzz with rumors of a 10-inch Kindle Fire before the holidays; and the dumbest TV show of all time has got to be "Real Housewives of Silicon Valley"...or whatever they end up calling it. … Read more