post

Google+ now makes it easier to lock your posts

Google+ users can now lock their posts or disable comments before they share them, courtesy of the latest update to the social network.

Both options have been available for awhile. Disabling comments ensures that no one can respond to a post, while locking your post completely prevents someone from sharing it as well. But until this week, you could turn on these features only after you had already shared your post with your circles, a rather backwards approach.

Google+ for Android

Google+ for Android is a clean and intuitive mobile app that has all of the powers of its desktop counterpart save for the games and a few other minor features.

The Google+ app opens up to a dashboard of icons leading to the different sections of the service: Stream, Messenger, Photos, Profile, and Circles. As a whole, the interface looks and feels very much like the full desktop version of Google+, and navigating the app is incredibly intuitive.

Stream Stream is really the lifeblood of Google+. By default, this section of the app displays feeds for All Circles, Nearby Google+ … Read more

How Microsoft sped up the Windows 8 boot process

We all complain that booting up our PCs takes much longer than it should. With Windows 8 on the horizon, Microsoft is trying to streamline and speed up the whole boot process.

In the latest edition of the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft program manager Billie Sue Chafins explained yesterday how the company strove to make some long overdue improvements to the much-maligned boot experience and bring it "into the 21st century."

As described in a previous blog, Microsoft is promising a faster boot in Windows 8 courtesy of a new hybrid technology that keeps the PC in … Read more

The 404 897: Where you both owe me 14 bucks (podcast)

Remember the story we told you last week about the woman who spent $180 on what turned out to be a wooden Apple iPad? It happened again! In the same city! There's a lesson to be learned in all of this, and that lesson is to never trust anyone with more than four gold teeth.

Same rule goes for mustaches, and Google's celebrating Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday with a Web app that lets you add a mustache to every face on the Internet! We'll demo it today using someone else's face, however, since none of us are creepy enough to grow our own mustache.

We'll also talk about Amazon.com-branded delivery lockers popping up in select 7-Eleven stores, adding fuel to the fires already burning through the United States Postal Service, and introduce a new photo caption segment that Wilson cooked up over the weekend.

The 404 Digest for Episode 897

This is why Jeff and Wilson owe me 14 bones. After the $180 wooden iPad comes the $250 paper laptop (same city). Google honors Freddie Mercury with Mustachify.me. Google doodles a complex piece for Freddie Mercury. Amazon starts putting the USPS out of work, one 7-Eleven at a time. The U.S. Post Office says a winter shutdown is possible. Did somebody ask for pizza on a bullet-capsule to the moon? Check out this 404 photoshop, courtesy of Captain Carlos! Join The 404 Facebook Group! Add The 404 on Twitter, and while you're logged in, follow Jeff, Wilson, and Justin too!

Episode 897 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

VMware boss focuses on post-PC era at VMworld

LAS VEGAS--VMware Chief Executive Paul Maritz, who once ran Microsoft's Windows empire, told the 19,000 attendees at the VMworld conference here this afternoon that the computing industry is entering the post-PC era.

Maritz, who in the late 1990s was Microsoft's third most power executive behind Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer and oversaw the company's rise to PC operating system hegemony, embraced the vision of a longtime nemesis of the software giant.

"Steve Jobs likes to say we're entering the post-PC era," Maritz said during his keynote address. "We agree with that."… Read more

The 404 891: Where we are total losers (podcast)

Writer Caprice Crane joins us in the studio today to tell us what it's like writing for shows like "90210" (2.0) and "Melrose Place." She also gets life-changing news halfway into today's preshow, so tune into Monday's show to find out how to win a copy of her book, "Little Luck."

Caprice also has a new Web site for self-deprecating stories called I'm A Total Loser, and she sticks around in the second half to give us her take on stories about social networking leading to drug abuse, a peer-to-peer alarm clock that smells like Chatroulette, and how social networking is blowing the cover of covert police officers.

The 404 Digest for Episode 891

Huffington Post named Caprice Crane the top 50 funniest on Twitter. I'm a Total Loser Newsflash: Social networking leads to drug abuse. Social media could render covert policing "impossible." National Lampoon names Caprice Crane " Twitter Queen." Follow Caprice Crane on Twitter.

Episode 891 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Fabulous fonts

While most people are content to use the fonts that come with their operating system, graphic designers and other creative types often like to have a little more font-related freedom. Type Light is an easy-to-use program with which you can edit existing fonts and even create new ones from scratch. The program requires either knowledge about how to work with fonts or the patience to acquire it, but it has plenty of features for those who are willing to explore its capabilities.

In Type Light, you can start with existing fonts in the TTF or OTF format. An inset panel … Read more

Moving beyond the PC, iPad in hand

In the wake of comments from an IBM executive who said that his "primary computer now is a tablet," I wondered how closely my own experience mirrored that statement.

Mark Dean,who was chief engineer for the development of the IBM PC/AT, prefaced the above remark by saying he has "moved beyond the PC.."

That second statement is probably the most significant, as it implies that, for him, the traditional PC paradigm is dead.

Indeed, I've witnessed this change in friends and family. People who already spend a disproportionate amount of screen time on … Read more

AOL ad revenue up, but losses continue

AOL once again posted a difficult quarter as the company's revenue couldn't keep pace with last year's figures.

The online media company said today that it took in $542.2 million during the second quarter, down 8 percent compared to the $592.2 million it posted during the same period last year. That revenue decline held AOL in the red, with an $11.8 million loss for the quarter.

AOL's revenue declines during the quarter stemmed mainly from subscriptions to its Internet service. The company generated $201.3 million in subscription revenues during the period, down … Read more

Study: Facebook at bottom on customer satisfaction

Facebook may be one of the most popular Web sites around, but it doesn't seem to be one of the most loved.

The social network scored dead last in a new study out today that tracked customer satisfaction among a variety of Web sites and companies. Produced in partnership with analytics firm ForeSee Results, the 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index E-Business Report analyzed how users feel about news sites, search engines, and social networks.

Although Facebook's reputation actually grew 3 percent from last year to reach 66 out of 100, the site was at the bottom of the … Read more