Reviews

In the desolate wastelands of geekdom there are a few brave souls that have the fortitude to strap their gear close to their bodies in durable, pocket-laden holsters.  Are you one of these gunslingers of geekdom?  I soon will be...

Eating the right meal on New Year's Eve or Day could lead to good fortune. For centuries, people all over the world have noshed on certain foods that are thought to bring them luck on New Year's. Traditions vary per country, but it appears that if one follows the folklore, you can become what you eat on New Year's.

Google and other search engines have been caught in the cross-hairs of Rupert Murdoch's vitriolic attacks regarding content control. In the age of citizen journalism that is slowly melding into semantic technology before our very eyes, Murdoch's posturing is pure theatrics and his business model is outdated. The era of legacy of newspapers is waning and the titan of the tabloids needs to take heed.

Just as soon as secret rumors caught fire that Apple's soon-to-be released "tablet," will now be released under the new name, "iSlate," a fresh wave of rumors have hit the digital airwaves. Apparently,  Google has released RFPs (Request For Proposal) to several hardware companies including two prominent computer manufacturers in Asia to launch their new netbook. While these two titans battle it out for marketshare, will Kindle and other PDA (personal digital assistant) devices just sit on sidelines?

If there is one coffee maker that has kept up with the times, it's Eight O'Clock Coffee. I guess like their slogan, "it's always 8 o'clock somewhere!" this coffee company feels that social media is as ubiquitous as a cup of Joe.

With the recent release of "Avatar," the world of 3-D viewing has once again become part of our zeitgeist. Unknown to many, 3-D films have had a long history dating as far back as the 1890s. However due to costly hardware, the technical processes and a lack of standardized formatting, the popularity of 3-D films that emerged in the 1950s waned over the years. That is... until today.

The latest generation of Kindle was released in October. In November, Amazon’s Kindle broke sales records as the hottest item on holiday gift lists. My holiday blog titled "Kindle vs Nook & Sony e-Reader For The Holidays!" exceeded over 70,000 page-views. On Christmas day,  Amazon's Kindle hit an unprecedented milestone in the publishing history - it sold more Kindle books than physical books.

The acronym FML became a pervasive meme to mark the year 2009. Some of us might have escaped its grasp, but apparently a good number of folks used it as a crutch to describe their overt preoccupation with how much life sucks!

2010 is going to be the year of the location-based services. While Location-based social networks made inroads in 2009, nothing will compare to the anticipated growth this coming year. In the last twelve months, we have seen the rise of  several location based start-ups, Foursquare, Gowalla and Brightkite are a just a few of the exciting apps out there. Yet, until now, the bigger players have held back.

In addition to Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, there are other celebrations that are honored during the holiday season.The Winter Solstice occurs on December 21 each year in the Northern Hemisphere. But what about that other holiday gaining in popularity called "Festivus."

Soon kids ages 6-12 will have their own social network according to Smart Kids Group Inc., a global provider of children's digital education and entertainment. A site called, "Live At The Hive" will launch with specialized content within a safe community that can be supervised by parents.

There is so much buzz about Apple's new "tablet" launch in the Spring that you have to wonder what it will look like. True to Steve Jobs' 'trademark" of keeping his products a mystery until they officially launch, only a select group of designers and executives at Apple know exactly what design was selected for the device.

A new wrinkle in Holiday Shopping. One the hottest location-based social networks on the market today just added Augmented Reality to one's holiday shopping experience. Just point your smartphone's camera toward any shopping area and view more than you bargained for.

Rumors are running rampant that Google is closing in on a potential acquisition of Yelp. Why would the Search Engine Giant consider such a move? Might a small savvy start-up like Foursquare be in its cross-hairs?

There is so much activity in the location-based social network space with even Facebook and Twitter jumping into the fray. Companies like Foursquare, Gowalla and Brightkite are getting a lot of attention with successful rounds of funding added to their coffers.

Companies and research firms may eventually transition most of their high-level computing tasks to a global network of servers known as "clouds." This top ten list notes the pioneers who are positioned to dominate that field.

In a very humorous rapid-fire delivery on YouTube, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of the popular social voting news Web site Reddit tells a story how one humpback whale became Internet famous. See how "Greenpeace," became the Captain Ahab in pursuit of a new name for Moby Dick on the Social Media High Seas!

With the accessibility of Kindle and eBook reading devices, our readership habits have changed measurably over the last few years. Many of us are returning to the types of fiction we read as kids. Comic books are becoming popular again. And for those that like extended version of comics, the graphic novel may be more to your liking. If so, you're in luck as that genre has found a new home on Kindle, just in time for the holiday season.

There are two sides of the aisle when it comes to pet products; those who think they're all dumb and those who go in for everything that comes along.... But these 10 weird, wacky, and really dumb pet products should bring both sides together in unanimous NAYs... or BOOs!

'To Google' has become the universal generic term, meaning "to search." In the last 70 days there has been 38 new products added to the Search King's arsenal of tools. Even with Bing's 100 million advertising campaign, nothing seems to be able to impede the Google machine or crack a chink in its fortified armor. Today, with approximately 70 percent domination of the global search market, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnivorous and ubiquitous Google keeps upping the ante to stay on top of the search engine game. And here is why...