I’ve made it a point never to grumble, grouse, or argue with certain people. Waiters. Cops. Plumbers. Mechanics. Postman. Among the 20 Secrets Your Waiter Will Never Tell You: #1 - We’re not allowed to tell our customers we don’t like a dish. So if you ask your server how something... Read More »

My iPhone has 180 applications, utilities, and games. The best light? Iconfactory’s Safety Light. It’s not just a light: A high-visibility flasher Lighting with designer colors Effects including a disco mode SOS signal for emergency rescue Single-tap to dim display Lockable screen Well... Read More »

Will Apple’s upcoming tablet, slate, pad device be a full-fledged computer? Or, just a handheld device like the iPod touch and iPhone? In other words, will it run Mac OS X (as in the Mac), or iPhone OS (as in the iPhone and iPod touch), or both (as is, ‘Wow! That’d be cool!’)?... Read More »

Here’s a good way to customize your Mac’s Dock from Beautiful Pixels. Commenting on the trend toward highly crafted customizations: At first it was abstract stupid stuff that made its way to ‘dock sites’ like dockulicious and leopard docks, but it’s only later that serious... Read More »

From The AWL on the growing changes in journalism brought about by successful bloggers. The set up: Joshua Micah Marshall is hiring a publisher for Talking Points Memo, the blog he started all on his own in 2000 The delivery: An editor, who built and owns his publication, who is now going to be... Read More »

American’s are addicted to fast food, specifically the iconic burger. While which hamburger is the best is open for debate, the 6 Worst Fast-Food Burgers is now official. From David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding in Men’s Health: A hamburger isn’t, by itself, a terrible nutritional choice.... Read More »

First, it was an Aston Martin, circa early 1960s. Then a BMW in the 21st century. What’s next? It could be the the Aston Martin Cygnet. Or not. Cygnet is expected to hit the European auto market in 2010 before making its way further west. Initially it will only be offered to current Aston Martin... Read More »

Research confirmed what we already know. Hawaii is the second happiest state in the union, topped only by the party loving folks in Louisiana. The Top 10: 1. Louisiana 2. Hawaii 3. Florida 4. Tennessee 5. Arizona 6. Mississippi 7. Montana 8. South Carolina 9. Alabama 10. Maine New York and Connecticut... Read More »

This one belongs in my Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics file. The U.S. Census Bureau says 270-million cell phone subscribers sent an average of 407 text messages back in 2008, double that of 2007. From CBS News: Americans punched out more than 110 billion text messages last year, double the number... Read More »

The latest exoplanet to be discovered is the M-dwarf GJ 1214b, a watery planet barely 40 light years from earth. John Trimmer in Ars: ...the latest discovery comes from some pretty mundane hardware—a collection of 40cm telescopes—and has some very compelling properties: a super earth that’s... Read More »

CNN has gone Twitter and blog crazy as the once vaunted news network falls behind Fox Faux News. Doonesbury’s Roland Hedley on social media as a journalistic tool: Twitter is the first rough draft of gossip. Priceless.... Read More »

Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner seats up to 300 passengers and can travel up to 15,000 kilometers. I cannot be the only one who thinks it looks like Shamu the Killer Whale with wings.... Read More »

For the Mac do-it-yourselfer, the web site iFixit is a great resource: We now have manuals for 91 Mac models, 34 iPods, and a couple of iPhones. Together, our media servers currently host 154,556 images (including revision history and thumbnails) and over 1,000 step-by-step guides. And now a bombshell... Read More »

Reebok’s new EasyTone walking shoe is a hit. Why? Reebok says leg and buttock muscles are better toned than regular walking shoes. Tara Parker-Pope in the NYT: While most athletic shoes offer support and cushioning, the new muscle-activating shoes are engineered to create a sense of instability.... Read More »

Voice dictation on an iPhone? Dragon Dictation, makes of Dragon Naturally Speaking for Windows PCs, and the speech recognition engine for the Mac’s MacSpeech Dictate, launched Dragon Dictation for the iPhone. Mel Martin in TUAW mirrors my experience: To dictate on the iPhone you just launch the... Read More »

Time magazine’s Top 10 Everything of 2009. At the top of the list is Motorola’s Droid: The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don’t miss it. The Droid’s touchscreen is phenomenally sharp and vivid, it has an actual physical... Read More »