Media

It's easy to have sympathy for those who have been misled by Facebook's ever-morphing privacy controls. One should therefore have additional sympathy when the person led astray is a former director of Facebook and enjoys the name Zuckerberg.

Randi Zuckerberg thought she had posted a picture to be only seen by her friends. Suddenly, it was there for all to see. Yes, all. The world. The whole misanthropic, green-eyed human race.

As ReadWriteWeb's Dan Lyons icily fulminates, it seems that one of her sister's friends saw the picture, assumed it was for public viewing and -- … Read more

People's expectations tend to stretch far beyond anything that resembles reality. And the people whose expectations tend to stretch furthest beyond reality -- especially at Christmas -- are known by the colloquial term "the young."

We should, therefore, bow in solemn gratitude to writer Jon Hendren, who tears himself away from his own personal Xmas in order to retweet the messages of those who aren't happy with their gifts.

Yes, the young, the feckless, the occasionally heartless.

Here's a tweet -- retweeted by Hendren -- offered in advance of Santa wafting down a sooted chimney.… Read more

It's possible you might put on a few pounds during this holiday season.

Might I suggest you perform additional exercises with your fingers? You know, so that they don't get too large.

This would seem to be extremely sane advice if you want to buy an iPhone from Sprint.

At least that's what one Sprint customer would have you believe. This customer says he billowed his way into his local Sprint store in order to get a replacement for his damaged phone.

As told to Tom's Hardware, when he discovered he could get a free replacement … Read more

All joking aside.

It isn't easy, but I'll try.

Technology doesn't always represent progress. It just thinks it does.

Gadgets inspire an astounding degree of self-indulgence.

They make you believe you have 5,000 friends, when you're lucky to have 5. They let you swear at the president and the pope, without them knowing who you are. They let you taunt, abuse, flatter, worship, preen, boast, and whine. … Read more

Google cares.

Yes, it not like the cold hearts and ice veins of Apple, Microsoft, and the rest.

Google thinks about the little guy, like the robot who can't get drunk at the office party. And so now the company has released onto YouTube a video to thank Androiders for being just so deeply wholesome.

It's an uplifting Christmassy affair.

There are office revelers. There are illicit trysts about to occur (off camera, naturally). And there's one cute little robot who's been left out because, one supposes, he's not yet 21.… Read more

Might this have been a case of twisted competitive urges?

Or might the temptation of a box left on a doorstep -- a box containing an iPad Mini -- simply have been too much?

These are the questions rolling through the minds of Al and Sandra Alverson and, surely, 10,000 psychologists in their home town of Houston, Tx.

The Alversons, you see, were told in an e-mail by FedEx that their brand new iPad Mini had been delivered.

But, as KHOU 11 News reports, when they got home the doorstep was bare. Well, bare of the iPad Mini box.… Read more

It's a curious business when Best Buy employees ask you for your receipt as you leave the store.

But never so curious that you want to physically assault them.

However, as CBS St. Louis reports, at the Fairview Heights Best Buy in St. Louis, an altercation allegedly occurred when a 61-year-old employee asked a couple if he could inspect their receipt.

Latoya Thompson, 38, allegedly found the request somewhat offensive. The result was that she has been charged with disorderly conduct and her 39-year-old husband Hickey with felony aggravated battery, after the employee was allegedly beaten to the ground.… Read more

Filckr is offering three months of its Pro service for free as a "holiday gift" to new and existing members.

It's not a hugely expensive gift on an individual basis: the Pro service costs just about $25 per year, or a bit less than $2.10 a month (or about $45/year and about $1.88/month). But it gives users a nothing-to-lose chance to try Pro, which offers among other things unlimited uploads (of up to 50MB per photo), unlimited viewing of one's entire uploaded library, the ability to download one's original high-rez photos, and ad-free viewing of Flickr.… Read more

Xmas is a time for families to be together and share all the tensions they have harbored for the whole year.

So to celebrate family closeness, Apple has just released an ad -- bless you, MacStories -- for the iPad Mini. It features a grandfather and granddaughter.

She is singing to him over FaceTime.

We see her face on a regular iPad and his on an iPad Mini.

Naturally, the viewing public, tired from shopping and eating, are supposed to look at this sweet opus and offer an "aahh" and a "so sweet."

Here at Technically … Read more