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Beta version of iCloud.com hints at Notes, Reminders Web apps

Apple's already outed its plans to bring iOS apps like Notes and Reminders to OS X later this year, and it looks like those apps are now headed to iCloud.com as well.

As spotted by 9to5mac this morning, Apple's testing two alternate versions of its iCloud Web site for developers -- one called "beta" and one called "dev" -- that adds those two iOS apps in Web app form.

In order to use the beta version of that site, Apple notes that users must have a developer account, though developers have noticed that … Read more

Meet the guy who supposedly lost 4G iPhone

General public, meet Gray Powell. Gray Powell, meet the world. See, according to Gizmodo, Gray is the unfortunate Apple employee who lost a prototype next-gen iPhone in a San Francisco Bay Area bar. The supposed carelessness has sparked a flurry of cloak- and dagger-style discussion in the blogosphere, among tech pundits, and, of course, on Twitter.

Gizmodo says Powell left his phone on a stool at German bar Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City, Calif. The oft-tweeted story goes that a drunk person handed it to the Mysterious Man, the person who got the prototype phone to Gizmodo after allegedly … Read more

Missing Sidekick data may be gone for good

It looks as though the current Sidekick outage is turning into a bigger mess for T-Mobile. The company has just published an apology to Sidekick users who've been without many important services for a few days--and says that because of a server error at Danger (a Microsoft subsidiary), affected users might not get their data back at all.

This is terrible news for some Sidekick users out there and is also one of the largest fails in cloud computing in recent memory. T-Mobile has already offered affected users a free month of service, but that was a few days … Read more

When is a gun not a gun? On TV and twittered

Spoiler alert: If you really hate reading anything about episodes of Lost that you haven't seen yet--and you haven't seen the episode that first aired Wednesday--you might not want to read ahead.

I know we have more pressing things to talk about these days--the economy, climate change, the new president--but I'm going to barge in this morning with a warning about something a bit more niche.

When you're posting to Twitter about something you're watching on TV, make sure nobody thinks it's really happening!

Background: I've been watching this season of Lost at … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 823: Sad trombone

Whence comes the sad trombone, and other questions of great worldly importance dominate today's discussions, but there is, in fact, other technology news today. For example, Steve Jobs is OK, but citizen journalism may not be; iTunes isn't going to have to shut down after all (but copyright pricing remains outrageously stupid); and Microsoft extends the life of the Windows XP loophole...presumably all the way to Windows 7's doorstep. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 823

Steve Jobs heart attack… not http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10057521-37.html

Music publishers keep same download rate, Apple keeping … Read more

'Oops I'm Late' phones ahead for you

If you're driving to a meeting and realize you're going to be late, what do you do? Pick up the phone and call ahead, right? But this means, possibly, trying to find the number for the person you're meeting with, which can be dangerous if you're in motion. And possibly illegal.

Mobile app Oops I'm Late does the calling for you. It runs on GPS-equipped Windows smartphones. If you start the app and give it access to your calendar so it knows where and when your next appointment is, it will automatically fire off text … Read more

10 Worst Web glitches of 2008 (so far)

We have been reminded several times lately that Web 2.0 is in no way a synonym for "reliable." Major services have crashed. Big product launches have fizzled. Users have raised their collective fists in the air. What's going on? Is the Web crumbling? Well, no, it's not. But users' expectations are rising, and Web companies often get themselves into trouble by promising far more than they can deliver.

Here's the timeline of offline:

Amazon S3 (Also: Google App Engine) When: February 15 (Amazon); June 17 (Google)

What happened: These massive infrastructure services, Amazon's S3 especially, underpin many Web 2.0 companies. When these services fail, big sites go down. When the sites go down, they lose money.

Corporate coping behavior: Amazon CTO Werner Vogels banished to the lecture circuit to explain why S3 is still more reliable than any servers you could run yourself.

The damage: Companies forced to re-consider their reliance on "cloud computing."

Twitter When: April, May, June. July too? Who cares?

What happened: Twitter began to get unreliable. It's up, then it's down. Repeat.

Corporate coping behavior: During the bad spells, Twitter turns off key features of the service -- like access from Twitter helper apps, or the "replies" tab on the site -- to decrease the load. Twitter also buys the search engine Summize, which adds a new level of utility to the service.

The damage: Twitter was becoming part of the social fabric of the technology community. When it began to get flakey, marquee users abandoned the service and fled to rivals like Friendfeed. The problems appear to have been resolved, but the damage may never be repaired.

Firefox When: June 17

What happened: Mozilla announced the release data of the Firefox 3.0 and its goal to get a million downloads on that day. When the day comes, the download doesn't work. The downloads start up later, and Mozilla goes on not just to meet its download goal but utterly crush it.

Corporate coping behavior: Mozilla changes "Download Day" to "The 24-hour Period that Starts When We Say it Does."

The damage: Temporary embarrassment, which is overshadowed by insane success.

… Read more

Correction: Etsy artists will not go into space, but their artwork will

OK, this makes more sense.

CNET News.com reported earlier on a collaboration between crafts site Etsy and the NASA Ames Research Center on a new contest that encourages members of the Etsy community to design NASA-inspired handmade goods. The announcement was made at the PSFK Conference in New York during a panel discussion featuring NASA's Andrew Hoppin and Etsy founder Robert Kalin.

In an unintended verbal gaffe, Kalin said, "We'll send the two winners into space." The audience, along with this reporter, assumed he meant that the Etsy crafters who won the contest would get … Read more

Google Sites: Not so pretty in the morning

My first review of Google Sites was positive. I even chose to overlook some weird display issues as early beta bugs (every 1.0 product I review has them) that other reviewers, such as ZDNet's Dennis Howlett, were not so kind about. I thought that, overall, it was a strong and useful collaboration product.

My second review--this one--is not positive. There's only one thing about this product that really bugs me, but it's annoying enough that I would throw the thing out the window if only it came in a box I could pick up. It's … Read more