Melinda Gates and Her iPhone Envy (Video)

One of the biggest pieces of news lately on Twitter and the Web in general is of course Bill Gates’s wife, Melinda, and her interview with Vogue, in which she stated that she has had at times what has become known as “iPhone Envy”. Like every other ironic and interesting piece of news, someone had to go out and create a video spoof making fun of the whole story.

 

Amazon Solves the Whole Kindle vs. iPhone Debate

When the Kindle was released last week, a lot of people, including Eli, our reviewer of the Kindle, made the inevitable comparison to the iPhone. I know it is not the same kind of product, but the question was asked by many; “Do I really need to spend all that money on a Kindle when I can just read on an iPhone”? Well, seems like Amazon was listening.

 

Intel Outdoes Modu with Its New Technology

OK, being the chemistry dummy that I am, I am not even going to attempt to explain this one to you. All I will say is that Intel is working on what’s called programmable matter, which basically means that in the future we will be able to take an object, decide what shape we want it to take, hit Enter (I am assuming if we are that far in the future, we will just need to think Enter), and walla, the object will reshape. In terms of what this means for the mobile industry, forget Modu or the LG Versa, this technology will enable you to really transform your mobile device based on your mood.

 

Motorola Following Palm and Coming Back to Life

One of the companies struggling most in this hard economy is Motorola. Now, I am sure the economy has some part in their hardships but I am pretty convinced Motorola itself is not exactly innocent. I cannot remember the last handset coming out of Motorola that even remotely excited me, since of course, the Razr (you know you loved it the first time you saw it too). So now the people over there at Motorola have to be thinking how to get back in the game. What does Motorola have to do to become relevant again?

 

Kindle 2 in-depth Review (Hands-on, Pics, and Video)

When Steve Jobs told John Markoff of the New York Times that it didn’t matter how good a device the Kindle was because Americans don’t read anymore, somewhere an angel lost its wings.It’s not that Jobs was wrong. The statistic he quoted, which states that forty percent of Americans read one book or less in 2007, actually sounds a bit generous to me, but what he really meant was that Apple would not be paying any attention to the fledgling eBook Reader market. And that’s sad, because having spent three days playing with my new Kindle 2, the dominant feelings that I’m coping with right now are disappointment and frustration.

 

How To Use Gas & Save the Planet

greenanysite_homepage

Well it’s true if you use this kind of Gas, you will help save the planet one click at at time. It’s called Green Any Site or GAS for short. This little bookmark “gives shoppers the ability to easily donate a portion of any online purchase they make, to the environmental charity of their choice. All it takes is clicking a special “green this!” bookmark whenever they shop online.”

It really is as simple as that. I had that chance to speak with the guy behind it, Tal Ater, who showed me how it works. He really didn’t need to show me much, because what I love about it, is how easy it is to use. The installation is just a drag and drop bookmark, and the process is really just a click and confirm action. how-to-gas

I am all for saving the planet and everything like that, a treehugger at heart, but when it comes to the web, ease of use needs to be the first priority, or else users like myself won’t use it. Not that I don’t want to help out, but if it is hard and annoying to use, then it is just not going to happen.

GAS has really incorporated both the environmental aspect and the user experience factor, into a really amazing and easy to use tool. Kudos to people like Tal who are using his talent as a programmer and web designer to save the planet.  The world needs more people like you.

Tal isn’t out there just to save the planet, and disregard his needs, he actually has a business plan. It’s rare to see such a venture with a business plan that makes sense and is attainable.

GAS’s business plan is focused around two areas:

  • Extremely targeted, ethical advertising at the time of purchase… Knowing what a user is about to buy and where he is about to buy it, is an amazing opportunity to advertise other products to him, and to help him make greener choices. This is one of our plans on how to not only raise money for the environment, but also help our users make smarter, greener buying decisions.
  • For example, when you’re about to buy a book online and click “green this”, you may see a small notice next to the GAS window suggesting you save an extra tree and buy the audio or e-book instead. This space may also be used for green tips such as suggesting places to recycle your old phone when you purchase a new one.
  • It should be noted, that GAS uses the data about a user’s purchase only for the duration of the transaction. No personally identifiable information is kept on a user’s shopping habits, in order not to intrude on his privacy.
  • Packaging and providing our technology for use by other non-profit and for-profit companies, so they can create their own version of GAS, completely branded to their charity, and benefiting different causes.

GAS is a really great way to make a change with a click, so check GAS out and start saving the plant one click at a time.

-Aryeh

 

Mobile World Congress 2009: Hands-On

With The Mobile World Congress going ahead in full steam, there is no way to cover all the new amazing mobile phones that are being announced. One thing I have noticed is that this year the MWC is characterized by a very unique trait compared to other years; much more video. There are videos available of every new handset that is announced. So I figured, why write about them when I can just show you them in action?