There’s a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can’t cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

• YouTube’s automatic closed captioning, like most automated systems, is serving up hilarious misinterpretations to the collective joy of Web users. Exhibit number one: Apple’s iPad introduction video. [From: DVICE and Engadget]
• Eye-tracking studies reveal most users ignore the real-time Tweets popping up in Google’s search results. [From: Guardian]
• The Awl looks at (with screencaps, of course) the most “remarkable Apple product placements” of all time, ranging from Rush Limbaugh’s personalized iPods to the “classic” ‘Zoolander’ orange iMac scene. [From: The Awl]
• YouTube user katamaran78 recut ‘Battlestar Galactica’ in a scene-by-scene remake of Spike Jonze’s Beastie Boy’s ‘Sabotage’ video. Impressive on its own, it’s even more mind-boggling watching both videos playing side-by-side. [From: BuzzFeed]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

YouTube Auto-Caption Fails, Most Blatant Apple Product Placement originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As far back as 2008, retailers were flirting with the idea of offering customers coupons via cell phones. It never really caught on, but, now, Target hopes to change that. According to a press release, the retailer began a program today that allows customers to receive digital coupons on their cell phones. Using a barcode on the screen, customers can scan and save money at any Target store in the U.S. The coupons will have an expiration date and can only be used once. To take part in the program, customers can visit a Web site to register, or download a free iPhone app.

While Target claims it’s the first to offer this service at every store, other retailers have experimented with the concept. According to USA Today, J.C. Penney is testing a similar scanning technology at 16 locations across Houston, Texas, while grocery stores like Kroger and Safeway have implemented similar projects, although on a smaller scale.

Continue reading Target Fights Papercuts With Cell Phone Coupons

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Target Fights Papercuts With Cell Phone Coupons originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday, we spotted a strange tweet from the Google Reader team that simply read, “Getting ready to play…” Well, after about 24 hours of mystery, all has been revealed. (We could only hope that iamamiwhoami would be so prompt.)

Google Reader Play is a new slideshow-esque tool that focuses on short-and-sweet posts that works with your Google Reader account. By default, it pulls from a selection of popular posts (e.g., we’re seeing pictures of otters, Yahoo! Answers disasters, and other funny and sensational stories). Play provides simple controls for moving between news items and lets you star, share, and like posts, without having to deal with the complex folder structure of Google Reader’s usual view. Images and videos are automatically blown up to fill the screen. You can view content straight from your Google Reader folders (e.g. your folder of finely curated YouTube accounts showing pet videos), but it’s a bit of a backwards process. Go to your regular Reader view, select feed options (the triangle next to the folder/feed), and click “View in Reader Play.”

Continue reading Google Launches Reader Play, a Fullscreen News Browser

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Google Launches Reader Play, a Fullscreen News Browser originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Barack Obama speaks, he gets the attention of every media outlet known to man. When Joe Biden speaks, he gets Justin.tv.

Biden, who’s currently touring the Middle East, is scheduled to give a speech later in the week at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Because he’s not with Obama, though, the official White House camera crew didn’t make the trip with him. Without the crew, live-streaming Biden’s speech on the White House Web site initially seemed impossible, since, according to The Hill, such a feat is difficult to pull off with a non-White House camera feed. Luckily for Biden and his fans, though, Justin.tv will be picking up the slack, and will stream the video live on its site. That’s right: the same Justin.tv that, back in 2007, gave everyone the chance to watch Justin Kan’s every waking moment, and the same Justin.tv that controversially broadcast the overdose suicide of a 19-year-old.

Continue reading Joe Biden to Use Justin.tv to Stream to the White House From Abroad

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Joe Biden to Use Justin.tv to Stream to the White House From Abroad originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the few communities in which cloud-based services have been slow to take root is that of business. Sure, the average Joe is fine trusting his e-mail and scheduling to Google or Yahoo!, but enterprises still rely heavily on expensive desktop and server-based programs that cooperate with products like Microsoft’s Exchange. Last night, though, Google fired yet another shot in the battle for the hearts and minds of business users when it launched the Google Apps Marketplace.

The premise is simple enough. Google Apps users with their own domains can search the marketplace for cloud-based applications that will integrate directly with their Google services. For example, domain managers could add the Aviary design suite or Inuit’s Online Payroll app to their Google apps dashboard. These apps can also directly communicate with apps like Google Calendar or Talk to pull in schedules or to allow in-app instant messaging.

Continue reading Google Apps Marketplace Launches for Business Users

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Google Apps Marketplace Launches for Business Users originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook is taking a break from the constant, user-infuriating redesigns to add an honest-to-goodness new feature — location updates (which will probably be user-infuriating, anyway). Location awareness is all the rage for social networks as GPS has become a standard feature on most smartphones. Twitter, Google Buzz, Google Latitude, and Foursquare have all tightly interwoven these features into their respective services, and Facebook doesn’t want to get left in the dust.

According to the New York Times, Facebook is set to unveil location-based updates at next month’s F8, the Facebook developer conference. Those with keen eyes have known this was coming for quite some time. In November, Facebook updated its privacy policy to include the following statement: “When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post.”

Continue reading Facebook Ups the Stalker Quotient, Adding Location-Based Updates

Filed under: Web, Social Networking

Facebook Ups the Stalker Quotient, Adding Location-Based Updates originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For over two months, music bloggers and journalists have been plagued by an intricate, creepy and riveting mystery: the identity of the mysterious and macabre iamamiwhoami. In December, a 55-second clip of a hyper-saturated, eerie (Scandinavian?) forest appeared on YouTube, making its way through critics’ circles because of its catchy, pretty sounding music. No information was given, just the title “Prelude 699130082.451322-5.4.21.3.1.20.9.15.14.1.12.” The set of numbers following the dash, when matched to their alphabetical correspondents, spell “Educational.” A few weeks later, a second video emerged, with a dirt-covered blonde girl seductively licking trees to a slow, driving electronic beat — the message this time, “Its Me.” Each video ended with the outline of an animal: a goat and an owl, respectively.

James Montgomery, a rock editor at MTV News who discovered the videos while scanning blogs, covered the story after a third video emerged. He rounded up the list of suspects, which included the band MGMT, Lady Gaga and Bjork, as well as more obvious picks like Trent Reznor (who has done this before) and Christina Aguilera (who seems to be the favorite). “I contacted her people and they told me it wasn’t her,” says Montgomery. “So I wrote my piece about how it ‘wasn’t Xina,’ and then, all of a sudden, he/she/it started emailing me.” The next video, accompanied by a funkier and more cheerful song, featured the painted girl again, up-close, with freakishly large eyes — and was sent directly to Montgomery’s e-mail. This time, it spelled “Mandragora.”

Continue reading Christina Aguilera? Reznor? ‘iamamiwhoami’ Baffles the Blogosphere

Filed under: Celebrities, Web

Christina Aguilera? Reznor? ‘iamamiwhoami’ Baffles the Blogosphere originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They might not have as high a profile as the Oscars, but Britain’s first annual Google Street View Awards ceremony was held Monday. The Telegraph reports a panel of U.K. experts, selected by Google, and about 11,000 online participants voted a cobblestone road in York, called The Shambles, “Britain’s Most Picturesque Street.” “It has been the backdrop for many a jigsaw, chocolate box and railway poster and once you visit you will see why,” shop owner Ian Addyman told the Telegraph.

The competition, intended to hype the many new locations added to the U.K. Street View, also included other award categories. Bath’s Milsom Street won for “Best Fashion” and Hampshire’s Stockbridge High Street came away with “Best Foodie Street.” In return, these winning walks get a ton of free publicity (which business owners must love), and will be highlighted on Street View with special guides and point-of-interest markers. Google hasn’t provided Street View links on the Awards announcement, but you can still browse the best of the digitized U.K. via the voting page. [From: Telegraph and Google]

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Filed under: Google, Web

Street View Awards Show Best of U.K. Without the Black Pudding originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can’t cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.

• 8-bit NYC reimagines New York as an ’80s videogame, capturing the Big Apple in pixelated squares straight out of the original ‘Legend of Zelda’ or ‘Dragon Warrior.’ Get support for an 8-bit treatment of your own city or town at Kickstarter. [From: 8-bit NYC via kottke]
• NPR looks at the jobs of yesteryear made obsolete by technology, including pinsetter, lamplighter and elevator operator. [From: NPR]
• Spiegel Online interviewed Chatroulette creator Andrey Ternovisky about his site’s phoenix-like rise to fame. [From: Spiegel via Geekosystem]
• Designer Craig Mod (known for the excellent TPUTH geek news site) steps back from the iPad hype and takes a refreshing look at the device as a potential new canvas. He argues that the essence of much of the printed word is retained in digital form (i.e. reading ‘Jurassic Park’ in print, on a Kindle, or on a tablet is largely the same), and that print and new forms like the iPad are most exciting when considering interactivity and layouts that truly take advantage of the form. [From: craigmod, via: Bits Blog]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Drop us a line on Twitter and check out our Tumblr blog.

8-bit Cities Makes Maps Retro, Interviewing the Chatroulette Mastermind originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Armory Show consists of over 300 galleries and thousands of artists, parading new talent out alongside pieces by Kandinksy and Warhol, Damien Hirst and Murakami. Though the majority of works appear in traditional mediums, interactive, video-based work always draws a crowd weary from looking at booths and booths of acrylics, apoxy, krylon and more.

Canadian-Mexican Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is having a solid 2010. Already internationally known for his crowdsourcing Olympic light show, a show at the Guggenheim and residencies all over the US, it was only appropriate that the famous new media artist appear at New York’s Armory Show, featured at the Swiss-based Galerie Guy Bärtschi (who also had works by Marina Abramovic and metal-worker Wim Delvoye).

Continue reading At the Armory: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Creates in Paint Swatches and Video Games

Filed under: Audio/Video

At the Armory: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Creates in Paint Swatches and Video Games originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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