singles

To help troubleshoot problems in OS X, Apple supports several alternative boot modes, the most common of which is safe mode. There's also a verbose mode that displays what background processes are being loaded, and a single-user mode to avoid user accounts and the OS X graphical interface. While these various modes can be useful, there are times that a system gets stuck loading them and won't boot normally.

These modes are triggered by a boot argument that is passed to the OS X kernel, which can be done in one of two ways. The first is to … Read more

A world without K-Cups? The horror! While a K-Cupless world may not befall the caffeine-addicted anytime soon, single-serve coffee giant Keurig recently debuted a next-gen successor called Vue that could warm the hearts and hands of geeky java lovers.

For those wondering what I'm talking about, these small plastic capsules sell in the billions annually. They contain coffee (or another beverage) and a filter; putting a K-Cup in its specific brewing device creates a single serving of that drink in less than a minute without a mess.

We checked out a Vue test unit at a Bed Bath & Beyond, the first retailer to carry the new V700 brewer (other big retailers will sell it soon). Keurig's pricey $249 Vue roaster looks similar to existing K-Cup machines, and bears many familiar components, but it doesn't take long to spot the differences. … Read more

Amazon's Kindle Singles have apparently caught on with customers.

According to PaidContent.org, 2 million Singles e-books, which are shorter than full-length novels but longer than magazine articles, have sold in the 14 months they've been available. PaidContent, a digital-media news site, analyzed pricing for each e-book and estimated that Amazon may have generated $1.12 million in revenue for itself on those sales.

Amazon launched its Kindle Singles category last January. The company said at the time that it would take 30 percent of the revenue generated from the Amazon-vetted titles, which range in price from 99 … Read more

Big thanks to everyone who came through last night's 404 Meet-up at the CNET Gotham holiday gift guide. Friendships were made, business ideas launched, and plenty of stickers were given; it was one of our most productive meet-ups to date!

We'll wrap up last night's event and show a quick interview segment on today's show, then launch into the headlining news of the day: Logitech has announced that it made a huge mistake with its Revue Google TV set-top box, and the company has no plans to upgrade or reinvent the existing hardware. Tune in to find out your other options for streaming Web content to your TV.

We'll also chat about near-field communication (NFC) chips making their way to luxury goods like Louis Vuitton wallets, Prada bags, and Nike sneakers to battle bootlegers, a six-year project to tweet the events of the second World War, and Jeff gives us his quick-take of "Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword."

We've been talking about games like Battlefield 3, Batman: Arkham City, and Uncharted 3 a lot on the show, and Blockbuster just gave us two copies of each game to give away in conjunction with Blockbuster's promo running through Nov. 22 where if you buy a copy of the game in-store you receive a free month of unlimited game and movie rentals!

We have PS3 and Xbox 360 copies for Battlefield 3 and Batman: Arkham City and two copies of Uncharted 3 for PS3 to give away. Here's how to enter:

And that's it! Just remember that you need to be a U.S. resident to be eligible and the contest ends November 22. We'll select the winners at random, so good luck!

Stream or download today's show after the break!… Read more

360 Panorama gives you a simple method for creating panoramic images, removing the need to take multiple shots. Instead of matching up shots, this app has you film a scene as you would shoot a movie and then stitches together your shots seamlessly in real time. Just hold up your iPhone and start from one side of the scene. Then, press the button in the bottom center of your screen and slowly pan to the right in one continuous motion. At the end, hit the button again and your panorama is finished. The resulting image lets you swipe to look … Read more

In June, Patco Construction Company of Sanford, Maine, lost its lawsuit against Ocean Bank to recover more than $300,000 the construction company had lost to online hackers, as reported by Kim Zetter on Wired.com's Threat Level blog.

The court found that while Ocean Bank's security procedures "were not optimal," in the words of Magistrate Judge John Rich of the U.S. District Court in Maine, Patco was ultimately responsible for securing the company's online bank accounts. Patco is not the only business to learn this lesson the hard way--far from it.

Greg Farrell … Read more

The HD Media Router 1000, model DIR-657, is the first in the Media router series that D-Link introduced at CES 2011, and it's a totally new router. At least on the outside.

Unlike previous routers, such as the DIR-655, DIR-825, and DIR-855, the DIR-657 doesn't have external antennas that stick up from its back anymore. Following the lead of Cisco and other vendors, D-Link now uses the internal antenna design, making the new router seem much more compact than previous models. The router's chassis is as sleek as many other new routers, and attracts fingerprints very easily. … Read more

Last month, an unknown San Francisco publishing start-up had just about the best debut imaginable. Byliner's first product became an instant best-seller and seriously called into question the reputation of an international sensation a decade in the making--all in less than 25,000 words that never touched a printing press.

The tiny operation released Jon Krakauer's "Three Cups of Deceit"--a scathing deconstruction of alleged fraud and mismanagement at the hands of world-famous do-gooder Greg Mortenson of "Three Cups of Tea" fame--as a free PDF in mid-April. The launch got a big boost from a story that aired last month on "60 Minutes" about Mortenson, based largely on Krakauer's research. (Disclosure: "60 Minutes" is broadcast by CBS, publisher of CNET.)

"Reaction has been extraordinary," Byliner.com founder John Tayman told CNET. "In the 72 hours it was available as (a) free download, more than 70,000 readers downloaded a copy. It then moved to the Amazon Kindle Singles store, and it went to No. 1 within six hours."

As of this writing, the 75-page narrative--a riveting account despite being based largely on a review of financial records and interviews with people with ties to Mortenson's nonprofit--remains in that top slot (even as Mortenson's supporters, including one of his former climbing partners quoted by Krakauer, have come to his defense).

Now, Byliner is looking for a repeat performance with its follow-up release in its "Byliner Originals" series--20,000 words from award-winning author William T. Vollmann titled "Into the Forbidden Zone: A Trip Through Hell and High Water in Post-Earthquake Japan." Byliner commissioned Vollmann, who has written about Japan in the past, and paid for his trip to the triple-disaster area to gather stories of survivors, the aftermath, and implications for the future.

"We want to take advantage of the swiftness that digital publishing allows to get these great reads in front of readers," said Tayman, himself a writer and editor who has worked at Business 2.0 and Outside magazine. "Our first two titles are excellent examples of that approach. These are stories that have complexity and currency, tackled by two of the most acclaimed writers in America."… Read more