Sigh. Here we thought Facebook, Twitter and all those silly little websites were making our lives easier. Not so!
British insurance company Legal & General recently published a scary-sounding report called ‘The Digital Criminal’ which asserts users of Facebook et al. are opening themselves up to disaster, like burglars.
You know, because burglars can see when and where you’re on vacation, then find your home, break in, steal your stuff, pee on your toilet seat and overfeed your fish. Then you come back and you’re shit’s gone, your toilet’s sticky, your fish is dead and you kick yourself, ‘Why did I tweet myself in the foot?’
Considering all the dangers lurking in — and, apparently, out — of the internet, Legal & General and other insurance companies are talking about raising rates for those who indulge in virtual networking. Still, they admit its not so black and white:
Malcolm Cooper, director of pricing and underwriting at Legal & General, said: ‘Its a challenging one for the insurance industry. Just because someone is burgled, you cant prove that its down to details posted on Facebook.
‘It could be that we start asking how many youngsters are in the home for example.’
Cooper obviously hasn’t heard that it’s not the young one who are responsible for the silly Twitter boom. It’s The Olds! Although, we admit, his rationale does make a good argument for selling one’s ingrate children.
(Via Gawker.)
Android users, iPhone users (anyone using Google Sync, in fact), and Google Contacts users in general with Facebook friends who list their phone number in their profiles will love this:
Brad Fitzpatrick offers a Greasemonkey script that exports those phone numbers to AddressBookr and offers to add/merge them into your Google Contacts. Even though this was posted last November, I just gave it a test run and it worked like a charm. Thanks, Nick!
AddressBookr [via Smarterware]
(Via Lifehacker.)
Looks like that final version of Snow Leopard may be starting to hit shelves as early as next Friday, August 28. Macenstein, has gotten word that support training has begun for the new Mac OS X.
Their source says that next Friday is ‘extremely likely’ and seemed to have some pages from the training manual to back up the claim. Maybe it will snow in August? [Macenstein]
(Via Gizmodo.)
Google Voice is one of those great services none of us knew we needed until it came along. Now that it’s here, we’d like to suggest a few changes that could shape it into an even better productivity tool.
Why offer up our unsolicited advice on where Google should next look to improve its phone-controlling service? Because we, and many of our readers, spend a good chunk of time thinking up dream uses for our computers and gadgets, and we want to see those dreams come true. To firm them up, and make a geeky, early-adopter service something everyone can benefit from, we offer up these five features and fixes we’d like to see Google Voice take on.
Not quite sure what Google Voice can do already? Take a tour around our screenshot-filled first look, and read our take on who does and doesn’t need Google Voice.
I don’t want to bore you guys or suck up to him, but I am amazed that no one points this out.
1. He invented RSS.
2. He, along with Adam Curry, pioneered podcasting.
3. He knew people would love Twitter in 2001.
4. He was one of the first bloggers around.
5. He is a visionary in journalism.
6. He pioneered the concept of editing pages without messing up with the code.
Yet, he sucks at webdesign. Don’t have to link to anything here, just look at the websites above. I think he does this on purpose to emphasize the technology behind his sites.
I also laugh at the people who criticize him and say that RSS is dead. If it is dead, stop using it! It is the backend of thousands of web applications and it enables cool new innovative products. Twitter is cool and all of that, but it is completely limited and controlled by a single company. Plus, RSSCloud and PubSubHubBub is coming.
Anyway, what do you guys think about him?
(Via Dvorak Uncensored.)
If you’ve got a WordPress.com blog, you’ll be pleased to know you can now share an itsy-bitsy-Wordpress-linky to each of your posts.
That’s right: WordPress has launched the WP.me short URL, designed for linking to your blog posts from space-limited sites like Twitter. It isn’t a general purpose URL shortener or rival to Bit.ly: it’s just for those on WordPress.com.
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg writes of the launch:
-WP.me is the only two-letter .me domain in the world.
-Every blog and post on WordPress.com has a WP.me URL now.
-These are all exposed in the
-It doesn’t work for any URL in the world, just WP.com-hosted ones.
-The links are permanent, they will work as long as WordPress.com is around.
-WP.me is spam-free, because we are constantly monitoring and removing spam from WP.com.
(Via Mashable!.)
Nuclear O’ Reilly produces the world’s first album done entirely on the Apple iPhone.
The album, entitled Phoning It In, was created from start to finish on the iPhone app Beatmaker by Intua Software.
We utilized the Beatmaker app by Intua Software to create this electronic music project. From writing to delivery, the only hardware used was the Apple iPhone. The freedom of this mobile studio app allowed us to create our newest music on the go: at friends’ houses, parties, on the crosstown bus, and on the world famous A train, to name a few spots.
The album is available as a free download (.zip file).
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