salon

Are viciously negative Yelp reviews putting an unfair stigma on small businesses? Today's two-part episode of The 404 Podcast weighs the effect of crowd-sourced review sites like Yelp and Zagat on independently owned establishments, and asks the question: will future generations understand topical shows like "The Simpsons" and "30 Rock?"

Part one: this insightful article in The Atlantic magazine questions the legitimacy of online reviews and the misplaced responsibility that Yelp bestows on citizen journalists with little or no training in voicing their opinions.

The piece calls out six distinct types of crowd-sourced reviewers who make us all look bad. Our least favorite is the "Hater's Ball," but we prefer to call them trolls--people who make scathing, borderline vindictive criticisms online about the most minor offenses at restaurants that they would never voice in person.

How many negative Yelpers do you think actually call the manager over after a meal to politely voice concerns? Most of the time, Yelpers don't think about how a single bad review can springboard a series of negative press that could potentially shut down an independent business, so make sure your complaints are legit before you post!

Don't forget that there are always real people behind the keyboard...and sometimes they have access to weapons.

Part two: This Salon.com article raises an interesting question about future generations understanding the pop culture references in topical television shows like "The Simpsons" and "Glee."… Read more

We figured that Toyota would be trotting out its FT-86 concept at the Tokyo Auto Salon--after all, it is its home turf. However, the FT-86 G Sport concept that was also displayed features a very cool tech twist, and we're not talking about the wild body work.

The FT-86 G Sport concept is equipped with a feature called "GPS-track day" that is designed to interface with the upcoming PlayStation 3 game Gran Turismo 5. Here's how it works: You take your FT-86 to a track--say the Nurburgring or Mazda Laguna Seca--and have a good time running … Read more

We spend most of today's show covering holiday gifts you won't want to stuff in the stocking of someone you care about... and a few that you might.

ThinkGeek 8-bit tie

Necktie for music-loving commuters

Blacksocks — the Sockscription ™

The Cushy Tushy

Passive aggressive gifts for tardy geeks

The H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

My DNA Fragrance lets you smell like a celebrity… Read more

Sally's Spa is a time- and resource-management arcade game that builds on the success (and similar gameplay) of Sally's Salon. In this follow-up, you once again play as Sally, this time around managing a spa--complete with stations for saunas, manicures, massages, and more--as you try to please a steady stream of customers with quick service and a soothing environment. The interface gives you a top-down view of the spa (as you progress through 10 different spas around the world, with five levels each), and you touch and drag to direct Sally and interact with customers, moving them from … Read more

So you liked that blog post you just read--why don't you toss the writer a buck or two?

That's the rationale behind new-media outlet Salon's latest initiative. Members of its "Open Salon" user-generated content community can now "tip" one another with real-world money if they like what they see. You know, like street musicians. Popular content will also appear on the main Salon.com homepage.

Plenty of sites have instituted virtual reputation gauges (i.e. Yelp's "compliments") and a handful of amateur-content-driven media sites like GroundReport give their contributors a … Read more

We at Crave love our jobs (sometimes), but we're also driven by the entrepreneurial spirit that is the soul of consumer technology. So we may have to give up our day job to pursue this brilliant business concept: the computer spa.

Not just a manicure salon with a few PCs scattered around, mind you; we're talking about a computer system that actually provides the services itself. We already have a mouse that massages, after all, and now there's an MP3 player on the Japanese market that gives facials. The latter, called the "MPION," claims to … Read more