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Creepy alert: Stalk friends in real-time with WeFi's Facebook app

Privacy--who needs it? The creators of WeFi don't seem to think much of it, although that might not be a bad thing

Today the company, which offers up a pretty svelte little replacement for Windows' clunky Wi-Fi manager, is launching two new items: a mobile application for Windows Mobile users (which could soon be SideKick users too), along with a Facebook application to help users track people using the service. Oddly enough, in all its news release bravado the company failed to offer up a link to said Facebook application, and it's not in the directory--so I can'… Read more

Nintendo adds gift giving with this week's Virtual Console update

A new feature of the Wii Shop channel beginning this week is the ability to send a friend a Virtual Console title as a gift--just in time for the holidays. There is a catch, though; gift giving will require you to start learning and trading those 16-digit friend codes.

Pok?mon Snap (1999, Nintendo 64, 1000 Wii points)--A game that helped launch Pok?mon into mainstream American culture, Pok?mon Snap had gamers capturing Pok?mon "virtually" on film. New to the Virtual Console version of the game, players will now have the option of sharing their … Read more

Stocking stuffers for the 21+ crowd: Booze gift cards

This post was updated at 1:04 PM PT to clarify the launch date of the Drink Card program.

Forget your run-of-the-mill Best Buy and Barnes & Noble gift cards. I know more than a few people who think a gift card that you could redeem for whiskey sours or Stella Artois would make a way better stocking stuffer.

Meet the "Drink Card" from BuyYourFriendADrink.com (BYFAD). The ambitious little start-up allows you to pay a dollar amount by credit card that a friend can then redeem for a drink at a participating bar by showing a text … Read more

Gadgettes 69: The Weird Holiday Stuff Episode

Maingear goes mainstream with the Dash

New Jersey-based boutique PC manufacturer Maingear today announced its first mainstream system. In an odd bit of marketing, it claims to be selling the Dash Friends and Family PC so its existing customers have an affordable nongaming PC to recommend to their friends and, yes, family. While the baseline $799.99 is cheap compared with Maingear's high-end systems that it builds for gamers and home theater geeks, I did a quick price comparison to similar models from Dell and HP and found that Maingear's customers' friends and family members will be paying a bit of a premium for … Read more

FriendVox does unofficial IM for Facebook

FriendVox has been on my radar for a few weeks now, and I finally gave it a go this morning. Its purpose is to link up to your list of Facebook friends and act as a go-between for on-the-spot instant messaging. The entire app runs in a set of small pop-up windows, and once you've given it the good graces of accessing your Facebook data, that's all it takes to get started. Considering Facebook doesn't yet have its own official IM solution, third-party developers are trying their best to come up with their own using the tools … Read more

Kaltura's new Facebook app sends friends video e-cards

Birthday alarms and reminders have been taken a step further with Kaltura's new Facebook app, the clunky-sounding Friends' Video Cards. It's a cool, fun way to fill an e-card with video and photo content and get mutual friends in on the deal.

I test drove Friends' Video Cards with a greeting for my friend Erin, whose birthday it just happens to be today. Creating the card is cake--the Friends' Video Cards app conveniently pulls your friends' upcoming events or lets you name your own occasion. You just add a title and invite mutual friends, if you want, to … Read more

FriendFeed does the Facebook feed minus Facebook

Facebook has several layers of functionality that make it worth using, but my favorite is the once-controversial news feed. Why? I simply don't have time to check each of my friend's profiles for what's new, and the feed does a pretty great job at that without all the legwork or annoying e-mail notifications. FriendFeed is a new service that takes the idea of a news feed and extends it beyond the social network into other social services you're a part of. There are more than 20 to pick and choose from, including social news services like … Read more

Don't 'Print This'

Printing Web pages can often be an exercise in frustration. It's amazing how the most important information often gets cut off along the right side of the page.

Web designers and makers of content management systems (CMS) have tried to ease that pain by creating printer-friendly versions of pages to make sure that site visitors get the goods.

Unfortunately, printer-friendly doesn't always equate to search engine-friendly. These printer-friendly pages often result in creating duplicate content, possibly even a complete duplication of the entire Web site. Web site owners have been relieved to learn that duplicate content isn't seen as a penalty by search engines; … Read more

Sidesplitting tech comics

Whoever said geeks have no sense of humor was wrong--laughably so. Some of the funniest comics out there are Web comics (or those rendered for the Web,) written by techies, for the techies who love them. Here's a bushel of geeky favorites, in no particular order.

1. xkcd Randall Monroe, physicist, cartoonist, and at-heart romantic, is behind xkcd, a Web comic whose name curiously holds no mathematically obscure meaning. In his own words, Monroe's stick-figure style "occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)." See? Funny.… Read more