Software

Uber App Gets Thumbs Up to Hail Yellow Cabs

On Friday, New York City's Taxi and Limousine Commission approved the savvy, San Francisco-based Uber as the first app New Yorkers can use to hail yellow medallion taxi cabs. After nearly a year of delays, the announcement marks the start of a year-long pilot program, during which the TLC will be ab ... More >>

New Jersey Bans Smiling in License Photos; Only One Person Notices

Since January, smiling in your driver's license photo has been banned in New Jersey -- and nobody seemed to notice (or care) until now.In New Jersey, there's not a whole lot to smile about -- the brown water, the West Nile, Snooki. All of these things can lead to a perpetual frown. Regardless, a Sic ... More >>

Morton Subotnick

Steve Jobs's Death and the Legacy of the Foxconn Factory Suicides

It was a big day for American capitalism yesterday. Nothing captured the dichotomy of how citizens were thinking about it better than the above tweet on how a captain of industry was being eulogized (after the suicides of his de-facto factory workers have largely been ignored), on the same day Wall ... More >>

The Mekons

T-Pain Swears Off Auto-Tune, But Don't Think That Means He's Going Unplugged

He should really open a haberdashery next. ​Earlier this hour a tweet from Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff crossed the SOTC transom, and it contained important news for fans of music-production technology and pop-tinged R&B: "End of an era: @TPAIN says 'I vow right here, right now, to neve ... More >>

"Who's My Landlord?" App Loses, But Still Useful!

​Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced the winners of the second-annual NYC BigApps 2.0 Competition on Thursday night. This cool city-run competition gives out cash prizes to software developers who use city data sets to build apps that make it easier for people to navigate the city. Unfortunately, ... More >>

Download Meek Is Murder's Grindcore Opus "Hope Springs Eternal (Spaghetti Code)"

Pic by Ben Umanov​Schizophrenic Brooklyn grindcore troupe Meek Is Murder bounce riffs with the comic, stop-on-a-dime changes of a Carl Stalling cartoon score. Manic, unpredictable, and even a little bit jovial, they're a colorful headfuck, but they certainly don't sacrifice brutality in the na ... More >>

BBM Coming to iPhone: Are There Still Reasons To Buy a BlackBerry?

​Tech rumors are flying that BBM, the exclusive BlackBerry messaging service, will be headed to iPhone and Android phones within the next year. Engadget says that, "RIM intends to take its BlackBerry Messenger outside the cozy confines of the BB ecosystem and straight into its competitors' app ... More >>

New TSA Scans Not Sexy at All

via L.A. Times​TSA, the buzzkill of the century, has announced that those naked airport images that we were all getting so worked up about may not be around for long (you hear that? Get your nudey-scan fix while you still can!). Via the L.A. Times, instead the TSA is testing software that woul ... More >>

iPad Newspapers Will Never Be Free, Steve Jobs Commands; Plus, The Daily Release Delayed

​Steve Jobs has reportedly decreed that no paid newspaper subscribers overseas shall receive a free iPad edition through the App Store because that shorts Apple their 30% cut, according to the Dutch deVolkskrant, as relayed by AppleInsider. This comes on the same day MediaMemo announces that R ... More >>

Gawker Launching New Blog in Response to Massive Gnosis Hack

​Thomas Plunkett, Gawker Media's chief technology officer, announced yesterday in a staff memo that the company will be launching "a public Gawker Tech & Product blog," which he called "a long time coming." Slated for early next week, the new blog "will communicate product information as well ... More >>

Adios, Cash Registers. Square Allows Customers to Pay via iPad

squareup.comiPay?​Cup of pour-over drip coffee? There's an app for that. Small restaurants, cafés, and other vendors are using a new smartphone application called Square that allows them to charge customers directly from an iPhone or iPad. Are the days of cash registers numbered?

Gmail: Now Making Your Phone Calls, Too

​Today, Google took one more step toward world domination when they announced that people will now be able to make phone calls through Gmail. This feature means you can receive phone calls with your Google Voice number, place calls as you normally would but through Gmail (which you're probably ... More >>

Adventures in Sustainability at Whole Foods' Fish Counter

​Whole Foods cloaks itself in a veneer of eco-virtuousness, patting itself on the back for selling some local produce and certified humanely raised meat, giving customers the comfortable feeling that they are somehow doing the world a favor by shopping there. But when it comes to the fish co ... More >>

K-os

'Turbotax Presents Matt Shadetek'

Google Apologizes for Michelle Obama Image Bomb

​The latest Google Bomb is apparently this awful Photoshop of Michelle Obama, which comes up first when you look for her on Google Images. Google, being devoted to free exchange of ideas (void in China) has chosen not to game its system, but has placed an ad on the page to explain its policie ... More >>

'Playtime Presents Willie Graff & Chymera'

The Avenging Conscience

End of an Era: Planet Thailand Is Closed

Brownstoner​Brooklyn11211 reports that Planet Thailand, the cavernous pan-Asian restaurant that helped put Williamsburg on the restaurant map back in the '90s, has closed for good. The closure was confirmed by an employee at the restaurant's sister location in Chelsea, which will remain open. ... More >>

Junior Boys

Caroline Kennedy in the Senate? Gag me with a silver spoon.

Class Action Listings

The Final Status Ain't Hood

Government Bans the Word "Abortion"

My Life as a (Pretend) Russian Sexbot

Russian computer program cyber-flirts to steal personal info. At least the robot got something out of the deal.

The Starting Line

At Baruch, campus entrepreneurs scratch their itch to get businesses off the ground

Techno Henchwomen Try Out Their Own Version Of Star Time

Mediocre TV

It's the chronic—what?—woes of freeware Web television

Fire Bomb

The writing's on the Wall: Ford limps and wheezes through latest action thriller

School Dept. Food Fight Looms

We Are the Borg

Questing for mind domination and an answer to where the fuck your keys are, G----e maps the world

Labor's Beef with Bush

In the brave new world of outsourcing, you get to train your own replacement worker

Scan Artists

Peripherals: how to get your old-school scanner working with OS X

I Examination

Lucas Samaras's Whitney show is a portrait of the artist as an imp of the perverse

Fits to Print

How to Save on Printer Cartridges

Scan Artists

The FBI's Magic Lantern

Ashcroft Can Be in Your Computer

He Who Waits

Fate of Hackers’ Hero Now in Judge’s Hands

Left To My Own Devices

Memoirs of a wired student

Pure Play

At the re:play Conference, the Gaming World Longs for Legitimacy

Virtually Fearless

Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy the Therapy

headline

Electronic Yields

Charting the Race to Artificially Gauge Intelligence

Tell-Tale Hearts?

Signal & Noise

Recreating a Rialto

Can the global village be saved from monotony?

Stalk Options

If you get sued in Ruthless.Com, does it hurt in real life?

Designing the Future