Latest Posts from Switched

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.

• This Google Maps hack takes out everything but the location markers and names. Somehow, it's still navigable. [From: xn-slarsteinn-gbb.com, via: Kottke]
• Mary Roach weighs in on the best and worst of space food. Turns out that "astronaut ice cream" was never a hit -- only three astronauts ever ate the dehydrated stuff. Oddly, the NASA Shrimp Cocktail topped the list as the all-time favorite. [From: BoingBoing]
• Twitter's new bookmarklet makes it even easier to Tweet without needing to leave your browser or use your mouse. Throw the bookmarklet in your bookmarks bar, and you'll be able to shave milliseconds off the time between reading and tweeting. [From: Twitter]
• The UPenn team trained its PR2 robot, which doubles up on drum and keyboard duty, to play U2 and Beatles cover songs. [From: YouTube]

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

Like something out of a futuristic Roberto Bolaño novel, city officials in Leon, Mexico are currently putting together a citywide database of its citizens' irises. They plan on using the system to keep track of known criminal offenders -- and, presumably, every other person in the city. Biometrics R&D firm Global Rainmakers has already begun shipping iris scanners to the city of more than one million, where they'll first be placed at security check-points, police stations and detention areas. Over the course of the next three years, the scanners will begin appearing in more frequented public or private areas of the city, including mass transit stations, medical centers and banks. In theory, then, citizens will eventually be able to identify themselves at liquor stores or shopping malls with only their eyeballs.

The only slightly non-horrific aspect of this program, however, is that law-abiding citizens aren't actually required to enter their irises into the database. At this point, only proven criminals are mandated to submit their biometric information, although city officials are optimistic that everyone else will eventually choose to "opt in" to the program. "There's a lot of convenience to this -- you'll have nothing to carry except your eyes," Global Rainmakers CEO Carter exclaimed to Fast Company. "When you get masses of people opting-in, opting out does not help. Opting out actually puts more of a flag on you than just being part of the system. We believe everyone will opt-in." Translation: everyone will opt in because this Big Brother will scare them into opting in.

Not to be outdone by Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founders of Google are reportedly getting the Hollywood treatment as well, thanks to a freshly inked movie deal.

According to Deadline, Groundswell Productions and producer John Morris have just acquired the movie rights to Ken Auletta's book, 'Googled: The End of the World As We Know it.' In the book, Auletta traces the rise of the Google brand, from an idealistic concept first dreamt up by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, to the digital cash cow that it is today. When Brin and Page began laying the Google groundwork as PhD students at Stanford, they held a pretty lofty code of ethics, and adhered to principles like, "You can make money without doing evil," and "You can be serious without a suit." The challenge for Morris and Groundswell CEO Michael London, however, will be to convert a comparatively feel-good story into compelling cinema.

Read more »

BlackBerry's App World is finally leaving beta status. Now live and available for everyone, the App World 2.0 shift features a variety of beneficial (and overdue) upgrades and services for app shoppers. The alterations include the institution of a more flexible pricing scheme, the welcome arrival of wireless and credit card billing options, and the introduction of 'Top 25' app lists, which users can arrange by theme, release date or update status.

The overhaul also includes two new policies, both of which are already inherent in Android and iPhone devices, and one of which is unlikely to be celebrated. On the positive side, the App World enables QR capabilities with version 2.0, so that BlackBerry owners can now "discover new apps by scanning barcodes at events, online, in print or even on your friend's BlackBerry smartphone." The other, unwelcome for some, iPhone-Android equalizer concerns RIM's revenue-sharing percentages. BlackBerry app developers once enjoyed an unrivaled 80/20 percentage split, but RIM is selling out following the lead of its smartphone competitors by implementing a 70/30 plan. Hey, someone has to pay for all those renovations.

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless.

This week saw the rethinking of classic staples, and the clutch of new design concepts were hard to rank, as they were all much better than what we've seen in the past few weeks. Kia discovers the future with an ultra-compact electric car, while the spokeless bike gets yet another fanboy. We were less impressed by an iron designed with safety in mind, or the photo cube that pulls down random snaps from Flickr's tag cloud. But, for all our bellyaching, we think that even the worst gadget concepts this week had a leg up over our past picks. Good work, designers!

Read more »

When it comes to managing your e-book collection, there aren't a whole lot of options out there. And, truth be told, most of those options fall desperately short of what . If you want to organize a large library of e-books, especially ones that you're not buying or downloading directly from your e-reader's manufacturer, then there's really only one viable choice: Calibre. Not only does it organize your collection and load it onto your e-reader, but it will do so regardless of whether you run Windows, OS X or Linux. And the list of compatible readers is truly impressive, covering all the major models and quite a few you've probably never heard of.

Before we go any further, let's get this out of the way: if you own a Kindle and have no intentions of ever purchasing anything from anywhere other than the Kindle store, then you have no need for the Calibre app. (Though, you can use both concurrently.) As for the rest of you, stick around to find out how to get the most out of your e-book collection and e-reader.

Read more »

A Hawaiian man wants NCsoft, a South Korean video game developer, to pay up for neglecting to warn against the addictive nature of its popular MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game), 'Lineage II.' According to Wired, Craig Smallwood claims he is "unable to function independently in usual daily activities" because of his addiction to the online role-playing game. Smallwood claims to have spent 20,000 hours playing 'Lineage II' between 2004 and 2009, which would break down to about 4,000 hours a year, or 333 hours each month. Because of all the time he's spent casting spells and battling monsters, Smallwood has had trouble "getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends." In early August, U.S. District Judge Alan Kay refused to dismiss Smallwood's claims, which could pave the way for a trial and possibly a big-time payday. Smallwood alleges that he would have never played 'Lineage II' had he known how addicted he would become.

Rather than settling this with money, maybe NCsoft could put Smallwood on medication -- like a group of South Korean psychiatrists did with 'StarCraft' addicts. That way, he can continue playing 'Lineage II' in a healthier manner (since he'd probably just blow all that settlement money on upgrades for his avatar anyway).

As SFWeekly reports, the San Francisco City Attorney's office is targeting Zynga as part of an investigation into what officials call an "illegal marketing" campaign. According to the city, the company is directly responsible for gluing fake $25,000 bills all over San Francisco's pristine sidewalks -- bills that directed pedestrians to a site promoting Zynga's latest so-called game, 'Mafia Wars: Las Vegas.'

Read more »