tags

iPhone quick trick: Tag your group texts

If you are texting groups of people often and have a difficult time finding the conversations, use this trick to tag your texts, making them easy to access later.

If your texting habits are anything like those of some of the people I know (my own aren't too crazy), you undoubtedly find yourself needing to text specific groups of people quite a bit. It may be co-workers who meet up on Monday nights for Bingo, your brothers and sisters (but not your parents, because they just don't need to know), or your closest pals. In any case, it … Read more

Puma phone for posers

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Netflix announced a deal with Relativity Media to stream movies soon after they are released to DVDApple has agreed to waive the restocking fee on the iPhone 4 for up to 30 daysLG is claiming to be working on an Android tablet, set for launch at the end of the yearFacebook is slowly rolling out software to help you tag your friends in photosSony drops the price on the entire lineup of Sony ReadersPuma launches the Puma phone but not in the U.S. unfortunately

Batch renaming made easy

This excellent little utility (formerly known as File List) can help you rename multiple files at the same time, in just about any way that you can imagine--for example, if you want to name a bunch of photos in a sequence or change some PC files from ugly all caps over to lowercase.

Name Mangler gives you a clean, intuitive interface for numbering sequentially, finding and replacing, changing case, setting extensions, adding prefixes and suffixes, and removing and inserting characters. Name Mangler also offers an Advanced option that lets you define your own renaming rules, combining the standard options and … Read more

Police poised to expand iPhone prototype probe

The criminal probe into Apple's errant iPhone prototype is expected to broaden, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation told CNET.

San Mateo County's investigation may expand beyond Gawker Media's Gizmodo, which acknowledged buying the prototype for $5,000, and the unknown person who sold it to the gadget blog, the source said. Police obtained a warrant to search a Gizmodo editor's home on Friday evening. CNET was the first to report an investigation was under way earlier that day.

One reason for an expanded investigation is obvious: law enforcement wants to learn who … Read more

TuneUp's easy ID3 tag cleaning comes to WMP

A couple years back, iTunes faithful were rewarded with TuneUp Companion, a handy plug-in that makes filling in, cleaning up, and correcting ID3 tags for tracks in one's music library a cinch. Now, those who prefer Windows Media Player for their music management and playback have been invited to the party. As of today, users will be able to download a version of the software for WMP from the TuneUp Web site. Even better, the first 50 CNET readers to e-mail TuneUp will receive a code to activate a Gold account, which regularly costs $29.95.

Those who opt … Read more

Revised Facebook policy hints at location tagging

A year ago, Facebook experienced something of a privacy uprising from its users over a minor change to its privacy policy.

Never mind that the outcry grew out of a consumer blogger's mostly mistaken analysis: Online protests were staged, a Washington, D.C., activist group threatened to complain to federal regulators, and founder Mark Zuckerberg offered a public mea culpa.

This time around, by announcing proposed changes dealing with location tagging and third party Web sites before they take effect, Facebook is hoping to avoid repeating what happened last year.

In a post on Friday, Michael Richter, Facebook's … Read more

Help! Someone save TV from Twitter!

I know this isn't the most important issue affecting the world right now. But I can't take it anymore. It's a really good time for TV right now, and Twitter is totally ruining it. "Lost" is back on, "Survivor: Heroes and Villains" is one episode in, the Olympics are not even one night old as I write this. And Twitter, bless its little heart, has spoiled each and every one of them for me at some point this week.

The straw-breaker for me came from the CNN Breaking News Twitter feed, which delivered … Read more

Microsoft tries to reinvent the bar code

REDMOND, Wash.--Remember the CueCat--the quirky bar code reader that was going to connect magazine readers with digital material?

Well, apparently Microsoft does too. And while the CueCat meowed into obscurity, the software maker thinks that the idea made sense--that is, using a digital scanner to link printed materials with online content.

You can think of Microsoft Tag as CueCat 2.0, though this time, it doesn't require a special device. Instead, Microsoft tags use a cell phone camera for scanning the bar code, and the digital content can pop up right there on the phone.

Over the … Read more

Vimeo pushing out HTML5 video player

It's HTML5 week in video land, and the latest entrant is Vimeo. Less than a day after competitor YouTube announced that it would begin rolling out an HTML5 video player to videos on its site, Vimeo is doing the same.

Beginning Thursday, the site will be offering its users the option to play videos without the need for Adobe Flash--a plug-in that was previously required to watch videos on its online player. The new option to switch to the HTML5 player will appear as a link below each video. The site will then remember a user's preference from … Read more

Browse and download from Flickr quickly

Viewfinder is a desktop app that makes finding and downloading photos from Flickr much faster and easier. The app's well-designed, streamlined interface is centered, fittingly, around Flickr search results: you just type your terms into a search bar (specify text or tags in a drop-down menu), and the main window is quickly populated by results that you can preview, download, or open in Flickr using your browser. What makes this app so helpful is its ability to apply filters to your results; so, for example, you can look only at photos licensed under Creative Commons (more likely to be … Read more