“When you drown people in an ocean of information, you’ve got to give them navigation tools,” Gabriel said. “I know that there is better stuff out there than what I generally am exposed to…So if I have a sort of intelligent ally working with me 24 hours a day, I think I have a much [...]

Google believes in automatic updates of software so security vulnerabilities can be patched quickly, and Google Update is the tool that permits automatic downloading and installation of a new version in the background so it’s ready to run the next time the program is launched.

In an attempt to better show what its software is up [...]

Sony's new full-frame sensor
(Credit:
Phil Ryan)
Sony also said it will address “the full spectrum” of Alpha products this year, which to me foreshadows a few more product announcements. That’s all Sony shared today, but we can expect more details around Photokina this fall.
As expected, Sony quickly followed its 24-megapixel full-frame sensor announcement by revealing [...]

Microsoft said in a statement that it although it is not interested in renewing its bid for Yahoo, “our alternative transaction remains available for discussion.”

Just ahead of Yahoo’s formal announcement, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site that talks had broken down Microsoft’s public position for some time has been that it [...]

The system doesn’t identify the site that kicked off the authentication request, which is also a bit of an oversight.
The addition of the phone as a new security factor means that even if someone steals your password, they won’t be able to get into your OpenID-protected accounts unless they also have access [...]

You can register your stuff for recovery with SendMeHome, although the crucial part is printing little sticky tags that tell people you want it back.
SendMeHome is a new and free lost and found database. It works by having users register their personal effects with little stickers that have special “phone home” codes on them. If [...]

No vendor shall, in the course of its relationship with any customer, claim ownership of any data uploaded, created, generated, modified, hosted or in any other way associated with the customer’s intellectual property, engineering effort or media creativity. This also includes account configuration data, customer generated tags and categories, usage and traffic metrics, and any [...]

Yahoo announced today that it’s letting Zimbra run amok, improving its Yahoo Mail with offline access. CNET’s Stephen Shankland has a good review of how this impacts Yahoo Mail users, as well as some warts that remain.
commentary
So, thank you, Zimbra, for providing offline access to my corporate e-mail (We use Zimbra here at Alfresco), and [...]

It’s not unlike other competing services that do the same thing (ShareThis and Add This), although it’s the only one of the three giving people targeted sharing options based on what they’re probably using. In case you’re wondering what happens if you’ve got your browser history turned off or are working off a public computer, [...]

Once you’re lucky, twice you’re good? So went the title of a recent book about Web 2.0 entrepreneurs. Pretty soon, we may have an idea whether it applies to Caterina Fake.
Hunch is a decision-making site, customized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 questions about a topic (usually fewer!), [...]