night

Geode turns your photos into a night light

Instead of leaving your favorite snaps to languish virtually, the folks at Ghost Nest have created an interesting way to show off your prized images.

The Geode is basically an oddly shaped picture frame that illuminates specially printed versions of your chosen snapshots. Just send your images in and the company will print them for you. This unique picture frame comes with a rechargeable battery and will glow for up to 6 hours on a full charge. … Read more

Firefox makes a Metro move

With only a few weeks to go before Microsoft's big Windows overhaul, Mozilla puts forward its first version of Firefox preview optimized for Windows 8's touch interface.

How to install it Once you download and run the Firefox Metro Preview (download installer) in Windows 8, you must close Firefox in Metro and Desktop if you already have them installed, then open the Control Panel and set Internet Explorer as the default browser.

From there, run in Desktop mode the Firefox Nightly EXE that you just downloaded and set it as the Default when prompted. A Windows 8 prompt … Read more

Mozilla juices Firefox's JavaScript with IonMonkey

Mozilla has begun building a new technology called IonMonkey into Firefox to improve its JavaScript performance.

High JavaScript performance is essential in today's hotly competitive browser market, because JavaScript is the language behind complicated Web sites and Web apps such as Google Docs and Facebook. IonMonkey has now been packaged into the "nightly" version of Firefox 18 for hardcore developers; that version is scheduled to become the mainstream version of the browser early in 2013.

IonMonkey is what's called a just-in-time compiler, or JIT for short. In olden days, JavaScript would run line by line in … Read more

About Last Night: An evening hours app to go with your nightcap

If you're looking for a textbook case of the proverbial apple not falling far from that equally proverbial tree, it would be hard to do better than the experience of the Dodges.

In 2000, Don Dodge was the vice president of product development of Napster. For Dodge, who had left a safe post at AltaVista to join the digital music upstart, it was a roll of the dice. Napster was a renegade outfit that was under siege by the music industry, whose lawyers ultimately forced Napster to shut its doors. But Dodge was following through on a bet on … Read more

Go backstage on 'SNL' this week with Color for Facebook

Have you wondered what happens backstage during a "Saturday Night Live" broadcast? Well, this week iPhone users can catch a glimpse behind the scenes and set pieces. "Saturday Night Live" will be streaming live videos to the Color for Facebook app during rehearsals this week and from the season finale this Saturday, May 19.

In order to watch the videos, you need to do two things:

1. Install the free Color for Facebook app on your iPhone.

2. Like "Saturday Night Live" or Verizon Wireless on Facebook.

Once you have the Color app and … Read more

'SNL' laughs at Verizon confusing 'old people'

This might be news to some, but not everyone knows what 4G LTE means.

Not everyone thinks in terms of footprints or tethering either. Especially if they're over 16.

So "Saturday Night Live" decided to target Verizon's enthusiasm for terminology in ads offering 4G LTE. Whatever that is. (The video may not be visible should you live across oceans the other side of the U.S.)

I am grateful to the Verge for sitting up late to witness the joy of a poor customer who ends up being more confused than a raccoon in a Michelin-starred … Read more

SNL shows best sexual couplings of gadgets

It's Monday, all the more reason to offer you a little fantasy to help you through what might be a difficult week.

So please lean back a little and make sure there's no one close by whom you might accidentally nudge with a flinging arm or head. For I am going to show you gadgets having sex with each other.

You see, on Saturday, the kind and thoughtful folks at "Saturday Night Live" decided that given gadgets' new societal podium of sexual desirability, they should be shown having sex.

No, this is not pornography. There is foreplay. … Read more

SNL honors Jobs, snickers at Zuckerberg, Netflix

"Saturday Night Live" this weekend offered a very tearful eulogy to the late Steve Jobs, sung to the tune of "Candle in the Wind" and accompanied by traditional funeral dancers from Bulgaria.

Well, perhaps privately. Publicly, however, the show decided to offer an amusing contrast between Jobs and some other luminaries (or lunatics) of tech.

So it presented a spoof of a Charlie Rose tribute show, with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Netflix' Reed Hastings around a table, accompanied by Arianna Huffington of AOL.

Of course these weren't quite the real luminaries, but, especially in … Read more

The 404 899: Where we take you to school (podcast)

Wilson begins this episode of The 404 Podcast with a few words of encouragement to our young listeners starting their first day of school today.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Tang excelled in all his classes and never once printed a cheat sheet on a Coke-bottle wrapper--unfortunately Jeff and I can't say the same for our own salad days. Anyone know how to calculate the area of a triangle?

Aside from recalling our high-school days, today's show rundown kicks off with Nike's announcement of the long-awaited shoes from "Back To the Future II." Nike's head designer Tinker Hatfield invited members of the press to a big announcement that's likely to coincide with this preview trailer showing Marty McFly's closet full of Air Mag 2015s. Power laces and light-up soles!

We'll also break news about a partnership between Google and Zagat's (rhymes with "da cat") Restaurant Guide, shed some light on reports about Netflix capping multiple streams, and you'll also find out how you can rent the studio set from the Conan O'Brien late-night show!

The 404 Digest for Episode 899

It's about time: Nike goes "Back to the Future." Conan writers put studio up on AirBnB. Scan shows what the right 3DS thumb stick add-on might look like. Google buys Zagat, in original-content gambit. Video voice mail from David showing a retro pinball arcade.

Video voice mail from Tessa and Matt on a backpacking trip in the Sierras. Justin's Daily Bathroom Break Video: Going to the Store: Normal Guy, Normal Walk.

Episode 899 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more