Des Moines Internet Examiner

T-Mobile Sidekick meltdown now resolved

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:35:43 -0700

It was the most dramatic controversy to affected ratio event of the year, but thankfully it's now over. The T-Mobile Sidekick feature phone, made by Danger (which is owned by Microsoft now), experienced a huge data loss when the Danger servers crashe...

Cash4Books lives up to its name

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:58:03 -0700

Every college student knows the pains of buying up textbooks and not being able to sell them back, or at the very least enough money to be worth it. Kindle and other e-book owners are also ditching their novels for the cost-effective space savers. Fa...

Yes, GMail is down

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:22:26 -0700

You can't complain. You should have known the risk of putting so much trust into Google. You forward all your e-mail addresses into GMail so you can manage it via the web and mobile devices. Now it's down and you can't access it. At least from the we...

Film Fresh sells DivX movies

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:48:02 -0700

Buying digital-format movies online is nothing new, but the MPAA let the RIAA learn the hard way how to keep non-authorized content distribution under control, which has kept it from being widely adopted by the general public. Finally, the pool of di...

Mac OS Snow Leopard's dirty secrets

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:54:52 -0700

Today is the day that Apple's newest desktop operating system, Mac OS 10.6 (known as Snow Leopard), is released on the world. Well, only the Mac part of the world. Well, only certain parts of the Mac world. Well... let's figure out what Snow Leopard ...

Polish Microsoft shops out ethnic diversity

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:36:10 -0700

Microsoft just shot itself in the foot when its Polish division released their version of a new ad for Business Productivity Infrastructure (not an actual product, just a product theme), with a slight variation: it had shopped out a black man and rep...

Wolfenstein developer makes bet to pay for your game

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:16:25 -0700

The video game series Castle Wolfenstein is as old as Doom and Quake and is making its Seventh Generation debut in a self-titled sequel to last generation's Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Wolfenstein is powered by the id Tech 4 engine, which powered D...

MySpace disables music auto-play, not because it's annoying

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 10:36:40 -0700

Social network and overall Internet ghetto MySpace is known for its ability to choose music to play in a native plug-in for visitors to hear. It was a great idea five years ago when MySpace's level of personalization/customization was impre...

Google Voice iPhone app fiasco answered, ALL Apple's fault

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:44:50 -0700

Users of the Apple iPhone and Google Voice service are no doubt aware of a certain fiasco regarding the Google Voice app for iPhone. The app was submitted by Google and rejected by Apple, followed by similar apps being pulled from the App Store ex po...

Old video games? Amazon might give you big money for them

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:27:41 -0700

Gamers know better than anyone the value of products after they're no longer current. Video game console generations come and go and those old cartridges depreciate quickly when their level of sophistication is considered antiquated and the succeedin...

Hacker's phone gets hacked, AT&T drops him as customer

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:56:42 -0700

The general public doesn't know him, but every nerd knows Kevin Mitnick, the most infamous hacker ever. His hacking sprees date back to when he was a teenager and in 1995, he was arrested for numerous computer crimes and spent the next five years in ...

Last chance to download Windows 7 for FREE

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:36:02 -0700

Microsoft is getting ready to launch its new series of Windows, Windows 7. No, it's not version 7.0, just a branding they chose. As in, "lucky number 7". Will it be lucky? Things are looking pretty good so far.Windows 7 test releases have b...

Meet up with your tweeps at tweetups

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:59:52 -0700

Twitter is great in that you can quickly network with people in your area or share your interests. While Facebook is known for letting you connect with people you already know, Twitter connects you with people you want to know. Of course, you do that...

Facebook acquires FriendFeed

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:53:59 -0700

Everyone's favorite social networking site, Facebook, which now boasts over 250 million active users, has some big news today: It has agreed to acquire social network aggregator FriendFeed.FriendFeed is useful for people who use multiple social netwo...

Local news site reflects how audience feels about stories

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:45:29 -0700

I came across an interesting local news site while reading articles. The local NBC affiliate for Dallas Fort Worth utilizes a unique voting system that shows how the general audience feels about the content. Viewers can vote between Thrilled, Furious...

DSM restaurant website report card

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:47:06 -0700

Time to finally take a look at specific examples of Internet use in Des Moines, notably our restaurants. Restaurants have underdeveloped websites because no one goes to them. No one goes to them because they're poor on content. It's an endless cycle ...

This week in trailers

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:36:23 -0700

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Where the Wild Things Are

Ponyo

District 9

Tron Legacy

Iowans first to SMS SOS to 911

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:49:44 -0700

Residents of Black Hawk County should be relieved that should they ever be unable to call for help via 911 (ie, the emergency disables them from talking or they are deaf/mute) can now send text messages from their cell phones. This makes a first in t...

Twitter goes down, the world with it

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:21:07 -0700

Early this morning, ubiquitous social network site Twitter became unresponsive. After the President, Pope and Her Majesty were notified, the world became atwitter... without any way of twittering with each other.When the site went down, many checked ...

Is public Wi-Fi even worth it?

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:05:14 -0700

There's no denying that almost everyone in the modern world has a mobile device. Whether it be a laptop or a smartphone, these devices have given us the Internet on the go. The problem is, between home and work, there is rarely a place to get wireles...