pop

Now that Daylight Savings Time has ended, it's that odd time of the year when it gets dark while we're still at work (at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere with day jobs). Sun worshippers may be bummed, but night owls should be psyched about the extra hours of darkness. Either way, it's a good time for everyone to get out and embrace the nightlife!

Listen to our free playlist "Night Moves" featuring Bloc Party, New Order, Black Sheep, Metallica, Kid Cudi, Juliana Hatfield and more. To launch, click the green button … Read more

Despite my fondness for customizable start pages (Netvibes, iGoogle, My Yahoo, etc.), I have found myself continuing to use PopUrls, a pre-built aggregation page that's almost as useful as a customizable page.

Unlike other start pages, PopUrls is not general-purpose like iGoogle or My Yahoo. It is an aggregation site for dweebs, with a focus, by default, on tech-friendly user aggregation sites Digg, Delicious, and Reddit. It does, to be fair, grab headlines from The New York Times and Google News, but also does so from Slashdot and Wired. A top content section aggregates the popularity of PopUrls items … Read more

(Credit: Plan Spark)

Now that the exhaustively inspirational Pop!Tech 2008  is over, it’s worthwhile taking a look at what’s next, in other words, at the conference's theme for 2009. The organizers’ choice is pretty telling and may be indicative of a larger shift among not only the elite thinkers gathering at Pop!Tech, but also broader public opinion. Succeeding this year’s theme “Scarcity and Abundance” will be “America Reimagined,” a “top-to-bottom look at America’s opportunities, its challenges, and its future” that promises to explore what it means to be a “superpower in the … Read more

Former CNET Photo expert and current PopPhoto.com editor Phil Ryan sneaks by security to join the show. We talk cameras, the rules for conjugal visits, iPhone apps that make prank calling easier, and, of course, plenty of poo-poo jokes.

Dan the Mantern here. My favorite story of the day has to do with Chinese food, a staple cuisine enjoyed by everyone but especially by Jews on Christmas everywhere. Excerpted from a book entitled: Chinese Restaurant Food: Wok Carefully, a title which surprisingly offended Justin, this article lists the seven most unhealthy choices on a typical takeout menu. The experts decry the old standbys: General Tso's chicken, BBQ spare ribs, fried rice, and lo mein. Is anyone really surprised that the $4.95 lunch combination special does not consist of quality food? Even after finding out that a plate of General Tso's contains 1,300 calories, that concoction of oil, tiny baby corn on the cob, bok choy and pork can still make my mouth water. Sure, I might regret it later, but for now, pass the Umami.

After letting them gestate in beta for a while, AOL has formally launched two new "lifestyle" sites: entertainment blog PopEater and quirky women's lifestyle title Lemondrop. They're the latest in a series of original blogs that AOL has rolled out, from men's site Asylum to Web meme blog Urlesque, adding to the titles it absorbed when it acquired the Weblogs Inc. network.

Lemondrop is cute, fluffier than Jezebel but a little bit edgier than anything you'd see in the squeaky-clean Sugar Inc. blog network. When I loaded it up, the top story was a … Read more

NEW YORK--Spotted, Gossip Girl-style: Teen pop sensations the Jonas Brothers, heralding the launch of MySpace Music atop a billboard in Times Square. The launch of the News Corp.-owned social network's music service is coming any day now.

The Jonas Brothers display can be seen on the billboard on the corner of West 43rd Street, with the slogan "Songs We Can Agree On" and a short list of songs in the manner of a mixtape (which include selections from Elvis Costello, Prince, and Albert Hammond Jr.) That's a hint at the playlist-creation focus of the new … Read more

I bet you think this podcast is about you. Don't you? Don't you!? On today's show, we learn how easy it is to spot a narcissist on Facebook (stay away!), terrible ideas that will criminalize professional eBay sellers and kill eBay even faster than it's killing itself, and how video games might be the only thing that can survive a recession.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Bill would give retailers power to halt online auctions http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080924-bill-would-give-retailers-power-to-halt-online-auctions.html

Users fail to spot fake pop-ups http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7633402.stm … Read more

There may be a chill in the air, but summer's not over yet! Two big music festivals remain this year: San Francisco's Treasure Island Music Festival (this weekend) and Austin City Limits (next weekend). There's an overlap of indie rockers at both events, such as The Raconteurs, CSS, and Jenny Lewis. But with an extra day and more stages to work with, ACL offers a wider array of acts such as Foo Fighters, Beck, Iron and Wine, and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

If you can't make the shows--or just want to get pumped for them--cue … Read more

The oil crisis has been an easy target for the media, so now it's our turn to get in on the hype. No matter what your political views are (left, right, or center), the rising price of oil is a concern for everyone. Even the most patriotic gas-guzzlers out there are beginning to question their driving habits. Now, if you ask the R&B star Rihanna, she'll tell you to "shut up and drive," but we think (and hope) that she's making a sexual reference.

While we wait for gas prices to drop, let'… Read more