amber

AUSTIN, Texas--These days, smartphones seem like they're everywhere. And with their wide array of built-in sensors, those devices--iPhone, Androids, Windows Phones, and others--can provide us with more and more data about where we are and what's around us than ever before.

And yet, the devices sometimes still seem like they're caught in a very 1.0 era--they can tell us where we are, but that information may not be useful in any way beyond helping us get to where we're going.

But what if your iPhone could automatically give you your shopping list when you arrive … Read more

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Spotify and Shazam team up to help you find and purchase music

Sony may be announcing a new PSP soon

Facebook teams up with the Amber Alert system

Google will start selling ads on music videos in mobile YouTube

Google launches Google Places for iPhone

Microsoft launches a Web and app building site called WebMatrix

A new report in the Journal of Cosmology discusses the specifics of mating in space

In many communities throughout the country, when a child goes missing you may hear about it on the radio or see a notice on an illuminated highway sign. You might also get a text message if you're signed up to receive one. AOL, Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft also disseminate Amber alerts. Now you can receive them on Facebook.

The Amber alert program, which was established 15 years ago after the abduction and murder of its namesake, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, has so far resulted in the recovery of 525 kids according to Ernie Allen, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (… Read more

Today's guest on The 404 Podcast is The Paper Raincoat, a local band of the "experimental rock ambition" genre, as Jeff calls it. Amber Rubarth and Alex Wong have both garnered musical recognition for their individual acts, but only recently came together to form The Paper Raincoat. The release of their first EP, Safe in the Sound, ushered in an international fan following and an impressive list of accomplishments, including the iTunes Indie Artist Spotlight. We're very excited to have them in the studio with us today, and they come bearing instruments for a live acoustic show!

As we talk to more bands, we're starting to understand the long process of dreaming, writing, playing, and touring with your music in the current music business scene. With outlets like Facebook, Myspace, Last.FM, and many more, artists can easily cast a wide net over an audience that would normally require a major label contract to reach. We talk with The Paper Raincoat about the naming of the band, their recording process, their fantastic DIY album art, and their upcoming tour.

In case you haven't figured it out by now, there are a million places to stream their music live, but the best thing you can do to show your support is to preorder a CD. One-hundred percent of the preorder money will go to printing the record, and you can pick between three packages, the highest of which lands you a limited edition CD, two signed posters, a T-shirt, and a custom USB wristband drive with a personalized video "thank you" and exclusive video content from the band. In the meantime, you can also follow the band on Twitter, attend their CD release party at Joe's Pub in NYC, and download their brand new song, "Right Angles."

Jonathan Zdziarski has announced the pending release iPhone app that will tie into the AMBER alert system. According to his Web site post:

The AMBER Alert folks and I have been chatting lately about building a revolutionary new tool, which is now complete after a weekend of hacking. The iPhone AMBER Alert System is now pending approval and not only provides up-to-the-minute detailed information on on all AMBER Alerts, but revolutionizes the way that sightings are processed. By using the iPhone's GPS, we're able to create a geo-analytical model to identify multiple credible sightings within a given radius. … Read more

At first glance this might look like some kind of LED earbud, but it's actually not even close: Try an "electronic elixir" instead.

It's tough enough for us to have faith in such "anti-aging products," especially when one has a name like the "Baby Quasar." It sounds more like an astrological term or a crib toy than a wrinkle-zapping device.

That, however, is exactly what it's purported to be, exploiting the anti-inflammatory effects of red and amber light to "promote fibroblasts to increase the body's production of collagen," … Read more

The AMBER Alert program has come a long way since its freeway-sign origins, making particularly good use of online and other technologies to raise awareness about the perils of child abduction. Its latest brainchild involves one of the most accessible devices in the digital world, the USB drive.

The "AMBER Alart Child ID Kit" is designed to store as much personal data on a child as possible in one place that can be immediately turned over to law enforcement officers in an emergency. Gadgets Weblog says there's no limit to the type of information that can be … Read more