Posted 10/30/09 at 12:30:31 PM by Paul Lilly

Ever imagined a world where 6-foot Care Bears roam the streets going door-to-door begging for sweet treats while you're trying to watch the Phillies take a 2-to-1 lead over the Yankees in the World Series? That may be the scene tomorrow, based on the most popular online Halloween costume searches, according to frightening data put together by Hitwise.

You're also likely to see Michael Jackson and Balloon Boy getups, which held the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. But of the searches beginning with the word 'adult, 'adult Care Bear costume' came in third, right behind 'adult cat costume' (No. 1) and 'adult Snow White costume' (No. 2).

You're also likely to run into more themed pets than ever before. Compared to 2008, Hitwise noted a 97 percent increase in searches for "pet costumes." Better toss some Milk Bones in with those fun-sized Snicker bars.

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Posted 10/23/09 at 09:02:59 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Google announced today that they were making the first major changes to their maps interface since the initial launch. The changes are mostly based around making it easier to pick out details at all zoom levels. The changes affect the regular ‘maps’ view, as well as ‘hybrid’ view.

Many of the changes are subtle at first glance. For instance, in the maps view, the width of roads has been reduced allowing for better legibility. Arterial roads have, in the past, looked inflated to the point that they covered map details. The crisper lines are certainly a welcome change. The color scheme has also been toned down a bit.

In hybrid mode, the roads have a new outline to make them easier to follow against the background. These changes have allowed more information to be displayed at various zoom levels. While zooming from a national view, to a local one, you’ll see smaller roads become visible sooner. Fonts have also been changed to increase contrast. Hit the read link to see all the samples. How do you like the changes? Do you think you would have noticed?

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Posted 10/19/09 at 11:15:55 AM by Paul Lilly

Here's some potentially bad news for Xbox 360 console gamers - according to market analyst Michael Pachter, the price of an Xbox Live Gold subscription will shoot up to $100 per year, perhaps as early as 2011. What the hell?

"You can't hook into Xbox LIve Gold if he's playing on a PC," Pachter said on how Microsoft seemingly abandoned the PC as a gaming platform. "That's the other problem - you really want to hook every gamer who has a 360, you want them to buy all their games on 360, play everything multiplayer, pay you 50 bucks a year so that, in a couple of years, it's a 100 bucks a year."

While the numbers might be up for debate, Pachter seems convinced that Gold subscription prices are definitely on the rise. But is he off his rocker?

Current Gold level subs run $50 per year, or half of where Pacther predicts pricing is headed towards. In return, gamers get access to online multiplayer gaming, the ability to stream Netflix movies to your console (provided you're also a Netflix subscriber), and a few other odds and ends. Minus a few proprietary features, it's all stuff you can do on the PC for free, so it would be a tough sell to up and double the price of a sub in a 24-month time span.

Would you pay $100 for an Xbox Live Gold subscription? Hit the jump and sound off!

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Posted 08/20/09 at 11:36:48 AM by Paul Lilly

Got a beef with a 17-year-old girl? If so, one way not to settle it is to post a fake "Casual Encounters" Craigslist ad posing as the person you're peeved with. That's the lesson a Missouri woman is learning the hard way, who now faces felony cyber bullying charges for said ad.

A little history is in order here. After MySpace harassment led to a 13-year-old to commit suicide in the "MySpace Mom" case, Missouri changed its anti-harassment law to include cyber bullying, becoming the first state to enact such legislation. Violations are normally a misdemeanor, but Missouri's legislation allows for charges to be upgraded to a felony if the victim is under 18 and the suspect is over 20, a move intended to prevent adults from bullying minors.

In this case, 40-year-old Elizabeth Thrasher got into an argument with her ex-husband's current girlfriend on MySpace. The girlfriend's 17-year-old daughter got involved in the spat, and Thrasher ultimately ended up creating a fake personal ad on Craigslist and included the girl's photo, email address, and cell phone number.

If convicted, Thrasher could face up to four years in state prison and a $5,000 fine.

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Posted 08/11/09 at 02:25:47 PM by Paul Lilly

As if Paypal critics needed any more ammunition, the online payment service has been assessing new fees to personal accounts since June, and you probably didn't even know about it. That's because the fees -- 2.9 percent on purchases marked "goods" or "services" -- were only announced in an email that said they had changed their Terms of Service (ToS), but you had to actually go read re-read the ToS page to be made aware of the fee change.

Sounds rather sneaky, doesn't it? But according to Paypal, there was nothing underhanded going on.

"We didn't want to make a huge formal communication out of this pricing change, because we weren't really adding any fees, and we were hoping it would be a more useful experience for people,"  said Charlotte Hill, Paypal's PR manager.

Take from that what you will, but we've heard slicker sales pitches on used car lots, and you probably have too.

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Posted 07/27/09 at 12:00:30 PM by Paul Lilly

Yahoo is expected to announce a deal this week that would make Microsoft's Bing its search provider, says Advertising Age (AdAge.com). If true, the deal would put Bing on more solid footing to compete with Google and rake in some additional ad revenue.

Earlier reports suggested that talks between Yahoo and Microsoft broke down after Yahoo asked for upwards of several hundred million dollars to make Bing its search provider, along with revenue guarantees that would have guaranteed billions over the course of the deal. But according to AdAge.com, talks resumed last Thursday and the two continue to hash out a deal that will be based on a revenue share rather than a lump sum payment. 

Both sides stand to benefit from the potential agreement. While the upside for Microsoft is obvious, Tim Cadogan, CEO of ad-serving firm OpenX and former senior-VP of global advertising for Yahoo pointed out, "As Bing grows, the first place Bing takes share from is not Google but the other guys. So Yahoo is going to lose share unless they have something radical planned."

It appears they do.

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Posted 07/21/09 at 02:15:50 PM by Paul Lilly

YouTube doesn't boast a cast consisting of Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage, Tory Belleci, Grand Imahara, and Kari Byron, but that didn't stop the streaming video service from doing a MythBusters piece of its own, but in blog form. The blog post, which was posted this week, addresses several issues about YouTube products that the company says are all bunk.

The number one myth in YouTube's list is that the video service is limited to short-form user-generated content. YouTube responds by pointing out it has thousands of premium content partners, from Sony to Disney to Universal Music, and hundreds of full-length feature films and thousands of full-length TV episodes.

Other concerns YouTube addresses include the popular perception that YouTube videos are grainy and poor quality, traffic and growth are bad for the service's bottom line, advertiser's won't touch YouTube, and that the Google-owned video service is only monetizing 3 to 5 percent of the site. There are all false, or 'busted,'  the site says, and you can read the reasoning here.

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Posted 07/13/09 at 06:45:05 PM by Paul Lilly

You probably pay your cell phone, cable TV, Internet, and several other bills online, and even so, you probably also receive a stack of mail in your mailbox every day. Enter the Swiss postal service which, starting in June, will offer subscribers a digital delivery option.

The service, called Swiss Post Box, will send subscribers scanned images of their unopened envelopes to their email address. Subscribers can then decide which ones they want opened and have the contents scanned so that it can be read online. In addition, the Swiss Post Box will offer to archive contents, send unopened letters to another address, or shred and recycle unwanted mail, The New York Times reports.

"There are very few things you get that you actually have to have in your hand," said Michael Laprade, a two year subscriber to Earth Class Mail, a Seattle-based company licensing its technology to the Swiss postal service.

The new service will start at about $18.35 per month. In the U.S., Earth Class Mail subscribers pay anywhere from $10 to $60 per month depending on how much mail is scanned.

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