feeds

Syndication siphon

We have to preface this review by saying that RSS Content Generator Premier exists in what we consider to be an ethical gray area. We believe that if you want to improve your Web site's search engine ranking or increase its traffic, the way to do this is to provide high-quality, original content. But if you're too lazy and uncreative to do this, you can use a program like RSS Content Generator Premier to steal content from other Web sites instead.

OK, so maybe it's not technically stealing. RSS feeds exist, after all, for the purpose of … Read more

Buzz features compared: Just the important stuff

When Google unveiled Buzz earlier this week, one of the first things that jumped into many people's minds (including ours) was "haven't we seen this before?" The answer is yes.

Buzz is, in many ways, highly derivative of existing, and quite popular services. The three biggest ones that come to mind are Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed, with the latter two being the same company. Though to Google's credit, it has done something none of these companies has managed to do in integrating it deeply into a popular e-mail service.

While there are too many differences to make an apples to apples comparison here, there are a lot of key features the four services share. Read on to find out which of these features each service is the best at. … Read more

The 404 Podcast 506: Where the Apple tablet is the most important thing we will ever do

It smells like Apples in here. The day of reckoning is finally upon us and CNET has all your Apple coverage including a live blog to track the news as it comes through the pipe.

CNET's The 404 Podcast is also on the job, so check out today's episode for our predictions on what Steve Jobs has in store for the world. It better be good, especially if Jobs stayed awake all night inventing it. Jeff and I are able to approach it with a level head, but Wilson G. Tang is in full-blown Apple fanboy mode with the T-shirt and the Apple lip gloss all ready to go.

Before we get into our predictions, Jeff shows us a surprising study that demonstrates pirates are the music industry's most valuable customers. We're a little suspicious that the story comes from TorrentFreak.com, but they bring up a legitimate point that music "sharers" (aka pirates) are actually likely to buy more digital music as opposed to physical media in a store. In either case, the best way to support your favorite bands, signed or unsigned, is to buy a ticket to their live show and spend money on merchandise while you're there. That way, your cash support goes directly into the pockets of the band, instead of the digital music service taking a cut of the profit. Stick local!

Next up we've got a story about the worst Facebook revenge, like, ever. It happens like this: teenage girl finds six-pack of beer in younger brother's closet. Brother searches through sister's closet and finds disturbingly detailed "hookup list" and publishes image of said list on Facebook.

Wait, it gets way worse: the ultimate fatality is that he also tags every single guy on the list and starts an epic three-way flame war between brother, sister, and a group of guys that all have one thing in common.

We end today's show by going around the table and seriously (OK, not seriously at all) dishing out our Apple tablet predictions for the day.

Spoiler alert: Jeff is hopeful for a game-centric device, Justin hopes you can connect a printer to it, and Wilson can't even talk with all the saliva pouring out of his mouth.

EPISODE 506 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

FeedDemon update takes cues from Google

When FeedDemon updated to version 3, it stepped in a snarling nest of controversy because the popular RSS and Atom feed catcher was abandoning its online synchronization Web site in favor of Google Reader. The new FeedDemon 3.1 is a good effort to move beyond that, introducing new multiple new features that mostly bring it into parity with Google Reader.

The two biggest new features include on-the-fly item translation via a translate button on the individual item toolbar. If the item is in a feed that you synchronize with Google Reader, the translation will occur in-line. If the feed … Read more

Feed your news demon

Long thought of as one of the best RSS and Atom feed readers around, FeedDemon 3.1 is a good effort to move beyond some of the controversial changes that were implemented during the upgrade to version 3. This latest update includes multiple new features, although we found that performance hadn't changed much.

FeedDemon has dumped its proprietary online synchronization site, newsgator.com, in favor of syncing with Google Reader. New users won't notice, but older users are likely to lose many unread feeds since Google can't import feeds with more than 10 unread items. Once synced, … Read more

CNET podcast feeds fixed!

Last week, I blanketed a number of our podcast blogs with a post describing the issues we've been having with our audio podcast RSS feeds. The issue involved Feedburner not picking out the MP3 links in our blog posts and adding enclosure tags to them, an essential part to podcasting a feed.

After working with the folks at Google, we realized that the exact cause of the issue wasn't absolutely certain, but the hunches all revolved around the same key issue. This involved Feedburner's inability to detect the proper file type from our MP3 links in the … Read more

Problems with CNET podcast feeds

First of all, I want to confirm that there are serious issues with most of CNET's audio podcast feeds currently. My apologies to those experiencing complications. Read on for more, and for news of fixes.

Pioneer offers AVIC-U220 nav upgrade for DVD receivers

LAS VEGAS--The AVIC-U220 is an add-on module that features a built-in GPS receiver, allowing you to add turn-by-turn navigation to Pioneer's AVH line of AV receivers. The detachable U220 is also compatible with Pioneer's AVIC Feeds software (but not with the iPhone app) and can be removed from the vehicle and attached to a PC to download or upload POIs and custom routes using the application.

Using the AVIC Feeds software and an SD card, users can also download the Clock and Photo View applications. These applications give users access to five different clock views and a slideshow … Read more

Fish food

Every now and then we enjoy mindless computer games, the sort that allows us to focus on a particular task and kind of zone out at the same time. Feeding Frenzy is one such program, a basic game of eat-or-be-eaten. There's not much to it, but we found it to be surprisingly addictive. This underwater adventure should provide hours of entertainment to both kids and adults.

The game's premise is simple: the player is a little fish in a big pond, and can increase in size by eating other smaller fish. The player can also be eaten by … Read more

Apple announces iPhone developer news feed

In December, Apple announced via an e-mail sent to all iPhone developers that "iPhone Developer News and Announcements" are now available via RSS feed. The new feed will cover a wide range of topics for developers such as the availability of iTunes Connect, programming tips, documentation updates, developer program updates, app review tracking, etc.

If you want to add it to your favorite news reader, simply click the publicly available Web link.