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Want to keep track of your fave artists’ new releases? Blyper will do that for you. Sign up at the beta site, insert musicians’ names and they will e- you when each of them has a new single or CD. Decide how often you want to be notified, let your friends know who your picks are and find new artists from others with similar taste. The service is free with online registration.
Read More 
| Blyper
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Mapmotive is a handy mapping tool for Facebook that lets you know where your friends are located. Still being worked on by designer creator Jonathan Dunn from Montreal, QC, you can add and share locations of interest, special events and your favorite haunts. Of course it will not work for certain privacy levels, but it would be a fun way to find out where your buds in Oshkosh or Fargo hang out.
Read More | Mapmotive
Free PIGFLU Updates by Text
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Hot Deals, Internet, Science,
Is there no end of the ways to remind us that the Swine Flu (H1N1) exists? Apparently not, as this one will give you free updates with SMS messages on your cell phone. Text “PIGFLU” to 41411 and you will receive news that included CDC/WHO updates, new outbreak alerts, travel warnings and health authority information. Messages are sent one to 3 times daily and you may have to pay for text charges, depending on your phone plan.
Read More | Cellphones.org
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Exclusive: Twitter and Facebook widgets coming to FiOS TV
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet,
Earlier we posted a fairly in-depth piece looking at some of the upcoming FiOS TV features, but we figured some of you might just be interested in this juicy tidbit. We know a bunch of you are addicted to Twitter and/or Facebook, and if you are a Verizon FiOS TV subscriber, you’ll be interested to know that both are going to be integrated into your television viewing experience by way of widgets.
The Twitter integration is particularly cool, as the widget will give you a look at what people are saying about the show you are currently watching. Could be fun for sports, or reality shows. Not so much for Keeping Up with the Kardashians (hat tip to Jason on that one.)
We have no timeline for when the widgets will be pushed out, but we do know that they are currently in beta.
[Image credit: Zatz Not Funny]
Read More | Upcoming FiOS TV features
Exclusive: Upcoming Verizon FiOS TV features
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet,
As most of you know, we are big fans of Verizon FiOS here at Gear Live. The actual Internet and television services are stellar, and it’s pretty hard to find fault with things, especially since downtime is almost nonexistent. Sure, we’ve had our issues, but those are all fixed, and at this point it is pretty much smooth sailing.
Today we were inviting to a media briefing at the main hub in Everett, WA, to get a look at some of the current and upcoming features of the Verizon FiOS TV service. We were able to sit down with Eric Rabe, Senior VP of Media Relations for Verizon to get the full scoop. Of course, being who we are, we had to make sure we got questions answered about FiOS Internet and phone services as well, just to be thorough. We will just go through these in no particular order - some of this you already know, while other parts are definitely new:
HD Content: FiOS TV is completely uncompressed through Verizon. They get the signal, and pass it straight through to the subscribers box the way they received it from one of two providers (depending on where you are located.) Every market has a minimum of 100 dedicated HD channels. The caveat here (and it’s a small one) is that the cable box does not have a mode that simply passes through the content to your receiver or television the way it comes in. This means you have to set the FiOS TV cable box to display either 1080i or 720p, and it will either up-convert or down-convert depending on what you choose. I let them know it would be nice to have boxes that just passed through the resolution without any conversion taking place. Of course, if you have a TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD with a FiOS CableCARD, you don’t have this issue.
I also asked about 1080p content, since satellite is currently offering HD content in 1080p. Unfortunately, their answer is that they are a couple of software revisions away from being able to offer that, so no timeline there.
Click to continue reading Exclusive: Upcoming Verizon FiOS TV features
A man in Cornwall, UK, actually used YouTube to help him deliver the couple’s fourth baby. Marc Stephens, a 28 year-old engineer, went online at about 10:30 p.m. when his wife figured it was “time.” With a history of delivering quickly, Jo’s husband apparently figured going online would be faster than taking her to the hospital when a midwife couldn’t make it. He Googled “childbirth” and came up with a couple of clips on YouTube. Sometime later, a healthy Gabriel came forth. Fortunately, he did take her to the hospital after the event. Both are doing famously, thank you very much.
Read More | This is London
McAfee Study Shows Spam Wastes Energy
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet,
McAfee commissioned spam expert Richi Jennings to study its environmental impact. The results were that the energy used in transmitting and deleting is equal to the electricity used in 2.4 million homes. Furthermore, the GHG emissions were equivalent to 3.1 million automobiles. Last year, McColo was taken offline and the spam volume dropped 70%, with the energy savings equal to taking 2.2 million cars off the road that day. Sign up at McAfee if you would like to download the entire report, although we suggest you don’t print it to save a tree.
Read More | McAfee
The Obama administration has another technological first. All those photos you have been inundated from the “first 100 days” have been posted into the Official White House Photostream on Flickr. Pete Souza, the official White House photographer who shoots with a Canon 5D Mark II, has uploaded over 300 images on the site. We dig the fact that technology is so easily accepted by the utmost powers that be, but what we want to know is why are there only adults in this picture?
Read More | Wired
If your first site was on GeoCities, then let’s have a moment of silence as Yahoo has decided to retire the free service by the end of the year and is accepting no new accounts. Existing accounts still have access, but they would rather you upgrade to their paid Web Hosting service with a discount of 50%. GeoCities was bought in 1999 for $287 billion, but ComScore reports that traffic has fallen about 24% in the past year. Contact the help center if you want to close your account or have questions.
Read More | GeoCities
Not long after we told you 3 ways to help you track the N1H1, we came across SickCity, a disease tracker for hypochondriacs. Not only does it list the ten sickest cities, it covers most countries. A part of the DIY City program, it uses Twitter (and soon Facebook) to collect information and make graphs with the use of algorithms. They are still working on some historical data, but it is still worth a look. Add your city if it is not already listed.
Read More | SickCity
