GeekSugar

Daily Tech: Steve Jobs Sighting at Apple HQ Yesterday

GeekSugar — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:10:30 -0700

A frail-looking Steve Jobs was spotted at Apple yesterday, wearing his usual attire - TMZ
Oh boy, stayed tuned for The Bachelor and The Bachelorette video games, coming to a console near you - Kotaku
Is it just me who finds it funny that Twitter tweets are taking over Facebook? - Mashable
Samsung unveils its first set of LED-backlit LCDs which start at $3,600 - Gizmodo
Google Reader gets some new fancy features like mobile-format links - Lifehacker
It's true! We're still giving away Amazon Kindles! Log in for a chance to win one - geeksugar

Ed From The Bachelorette Works at Which Tech Company?

GeekSugar — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:05:00 -0700

Now that The Bachelorette's Jillian Harris has picked her prince, we can't help but ask - who is Ed Swiderski?!

Aside from knowing he's from Chicago, we also know that he is seriously committed to his job. The guy walked away from the show halfway through after receiving pressure from his boss. Upon his return (and especially now since he'll be walking down the aisle with Jillian) I had to find out if he was: a. still employed and b. what this big important job was.

Well I've got the answers, and it turns out the cute Chicagoan works for a well known tech company. Can you guess which one it is?

Take the quiz

Do You Live Blog on Twitter?

GeekSugar — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:50:54 -0700

Monday night was the last episode of The Bachelorette and I was invited to a finale party. Not at someone's apartment, you see - it was a Twitter party! A few gals and I twittered our thoughts about the episode as it unfolded, and although some people were peeved at the amount of updates we posted in the two-hour window (I know, I know - two whole hours), I have to say it was pretty fun for us.

Twitter is a form of blogging ("micro-blogging" if you will), so you could technically say that we live blogged the event. This thought caused me to wonder: do you ever live blog on Twitter?

What Should You Do With a Couples Website If You Break Up?

GeekSugar — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:00:08 -0800

Another one bites the dust: Bachelorette Deanna Pappas and her fiancé Jesse Csincsak added to the long, long list of couples who broke up after The Bachelor and The Bachelorette (note to future contestants: It's not going to work out. I have a feeling.)

Here's the awkward tech part: They still have a website devoted to them as a couple, deannaandjesse.com. They're not the first couple to start a blog or website about their life together, and they're definitely not the first to break up.

So what do you do with the website? You can't divide it like a record collection, or burn it in a cathartic love token bonfire. It stays on the Internet, mocking you with past posts about how stoked you were to take a hike together last Spring.

I mean, you can take it down as an act of electronic breaking up (like changing your Facebook status back to single), or you could ignore it and not deal with it, letting it slip into Internet heaven, although it will still be there. Or you could take it, change the domain name to something clever like "myexsucks.com" and blog your breakup or recovery. Not highly recommended, but who's judging?

Has anyone gone through this? What would you do?

Geeky Bachelorette Parties - Ideas and Inspiration

GeekSugar — Tue, 15 May 2007 10:45:44 -0700

Yes, it's still Wedding Season, and if your mailbox full of invites is any indication, it's going to be a busy summer filled with fittings, dinners and my personal favorite, bachelorette parties. While we all know geeky bride and groom cakes are all the rage, word is geeky bachelorette parties are on the rise as well. No, you aren't required to wear your geekiest tee shirt, or bring your laptop, but many video-game-loving ladiez opt to plan video game tournaments, karaoke festivals and Dance Dance Revolution competitions - mixed with a few cocktails and yummy treats of course!

For my guide to making your bachelorette party (or your BFF's party) a little more geeky (and a lot more fun), read more

Video Game Competitions: Plan a night filled with girlie cocktails, food and a good old fashioned video game competition. If you are renting a hotel room or in a foreign space make sure you plan ahead and have enough room for Dance Dance Revolution (trust me it gets a little wild) and wii sports because both will help you burn off all those drinks.

Karaoke: If there's no fantastically cheesy karaoke bar in your city or town (you know the kind where you think "gosh, a bachelorette party would be perfect here!") and you don't own a karaoke machine, consider getting a nifty karaoke program like Singstar or Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol for your video game console. If neither of those work, your local video game store will have an option for your console, trust me, they're a hit.

Is the Internet Your Primary Entertainment Source?

GeekSugar — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:12:05 -0700

In days of yore my friends and I would gather to watch Friends live on TV, but my how our habits have changed! Earlier this week I found myself live blogging on Twitter through The Bachelorette finale. Halfway through the two hour extravaganza of cheese and romance I realized I was enjoying playing on Twitter and my friends' comebacks and witty comments far more than the actual program. I wasn't just watching guilty pleasure TV, I was being entertained by my gal pals online.

While I keep up with my favorite shows on my DVR, and sneak in paperbacks whenever I can, I live online - from YouTube, iTunes, Hulu, Facebook to random hilarious videos. It's my chief source of entertainment and giggles. Do you find yourself using your computer as your main distraction outlet, or do you use your TV or traditional media more?

Capture It! Photo and Media Guide For Prewedding Parties

GeekSugar — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:32:37 -0700

Bridal showers and bachelorette parties are low-stress trials for the big day. They help build anticipation for the main event and allow brides-to-be the opportunity to be showered (pun intended!) with love, laughter and encouragement from her closest friends. There are plenty of online services that will help the hostess prepare for the party - from invitation websites to games - but it's crucial to come up with a plan for capturing special moments on the day of mindless fun. If the lady of the night is planning on tricking out her wedding reception with cameras, video games, or photo booths, she's likely the type of gal who wants her shower or bachelorette party memories snapped as well. Follow these suggestions to ensure you get every sweet and silly moment on record.

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Must-Have Wedding Day Gadgets

GeekSugar — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:00:55 -0700

So you're goin' to the chapel and you're gonna get married. You've been counting down to this day for months (maybe even years!). You've lived through your bachelorette party with your dignity intact, and it's finally the big day. You may not be the type to geek out your wedding reception, but you should plan ahead and pack the essential wedding day gadgets. You want to remember this day forever - let technology and your friends help you.

Source

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Geeks We Love: Doug Aamoth of CrunchGear

GeekSugar — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:06:23 -0800

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we're kicking off our third annual Geeks We Love interview series to showcase some of the most talented and loved tech writers in the industry. And who better to get things under way, than the charming Doug Aamoth, who spends most of his days reviewing high-tech gadget goods for CrunchGear? I had the pleasure of meeting Doug at the HTC Touch Diamond Event in London last year, and found him to be very much the way he comes across in his work - passionate and knowledgeable about technology, and a really great guy with an addictive sense of humor. By the end of this interview, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about - enjoy!

GS: Considering you're the king of product reviews, what types of gadgets are you most excited to take for a test drive?

DA: I'll review just about anything, but I really like to take a look at stuff that has some sort of technological slant to it instead of being a full-fledged technology product. Basically, if I think it's something that would be interesting to other geeks, I'll review it. We get some pretty good response from stuff like the Penguin Home Soda Machine and a little four dollar keychain breathalyzer that also has a built-in stopwatch and flashlight. Of course, right? Every breathalyzer should have a stopwatch just in case you want to have an emergency footrace outside the bar before you figure out if you're okay to drive home.

As far as "real" technology products go, I'm really enjoying this netbook craze right now. I think it'll get much better, too, once Intel sees some more competition from AMD, NVIDIA, and VIA. Other than that, I also really like reviewing things that make people's lives easier. The simpler the better. Oh, and energy drinks. I love taste-testing energy drinks.

To learn more about Doug, including his "ah-ha" moment and his thoughts on technology and dating, read more

GS: What's the most outrageous and hilarious gadget that's arrived on your doorstep?

DA: I think that one of the best reviews I've done was for a product that never showed up. I spent a few days waiting for the new Flip Mino to arrive, at first thinking it would be here on a Tuesday morning, then being told Wednesday instead, then getting a press release envelope but no camera on Thursday, and finally having it show up Friday morning after all our competitors had gotten theirs on Wednesday. It wasn't really that big of a deal but I thought it'd be funny to chronicle the event as though it were an episode of The Office.

Aside from that, the most outrageous review would definitely be for a product called FyreTV, which is a set-top box that streams, um, "non-traditional" video. It's weird because it's basically a review just like any other. We rarely look at the media content for set-top boxes, but more at the actual hardware and how well it handles streaming. So for the FyreTV review it was like, "Here's the box, here are the connections, here's the remote, it streams stuff really quickly, and the video quality is pretty good. Oh, whoops, sorry I had to blur everything out and block the camera with my hand at certain points but you get the idea."

GS: Describe one of the most memorable moments of your career thus far. . .

DA: I had an "a-ha" moment about six months into my career when I was at this Acer conference in Spain. It was my first real work trip and I postponed my own bachelor party to go to it. I remember getting into this big conference hall with a bunch of other reporters, and sitting down at this long table with my laptop and my voice recorder waiting for the presentation to begin. I looked around and thought to myself, "This is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. I love this stuff." I've had over 30 jobs in my lifetime (I get kind of restless) but I finally felt pretty calm for the first time.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have moved my bachelor party for a work trip but at the time I didn't know how often an opportunity like that Acer conference would come around. Turns out, it was a lot. It was still a great experience, though. Singing White Wedding at CES this year was pretty cool, too.

Also, any time I meet someone that I used to read before I started blogging is always really cool. Every person I meet always looks at me weird when I tell them I'm a big fan of theirs or that they're like a hero to me. I used to read tech blogs and magazines and think "Man, that would be the best job." Now that I'm actually doing it, I still haven't forgotten that feeling. I consider myself to be really fortunate.

GS: How geeky is your significant other? Who makes the final decision when it comes to gadgets for the home?

DA: My wife is probably about a three out of ten on the geekiness scale. She's not into tech stuff whatsoever, but she'll think some of the things I tell her about and some of the products I show her are cool. So she's definitely not against technology and she's pretty savvy with the stuff she uses on a daily basis. She does NOT like all the boxes we have around the house, but I can't blame her for that. It gets pretty out of hand sometimes.

I handle all the IT administration and technical support in the Aamoth household. Interestingly enough, I've been terrible about picking a good cell phone for my wife. I got her the LG Chocolate a few years ago and she didn't like it. Then I recommended the Samsung Glyde and between the non-responsive touchscreen and the poor reception, it's really been a terrible device as far as our relationship goes. One of these days, though, I'm going to pick out a good phone for her. It's just tough being in the doghouse for two whole years while we wait for her contract to come up for renewal!

GS: In the new movie He's Just Not That Into You, Drew Barrymore's character has the following to say about technology and dating:

"I had this guy leave me a voice mail at work, and so I called him at home, and he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies. It's exhausting."

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think technology makes dating more complicated?

DA: Sure, I can see technology complicating things for people who don't embrace it. As someone who's into all this stuff, though, the thought of having seven different technologies that don't synchronize with one another is mortifying to me. I have a single Grand Central phone number that forwards to any other phones I might currently be using and my various e-mail addresses all funnel into a single Gmail account.

It's funny, though, because people will be like, "Give me your cell phone number, I can never get a hold of you at your work number," and I'll try to explain that my work, home, and cell phone numbers all forward to the same place. So they'll leave a voicemail on what they think is my home number saying that they'll try me on my cell, which leads to them leaving the same message in the same voicemail system two minutes later. Same thing with email: the same message three times to three different email accounts.

I think just starting to date someone would be really weird nowadays with Facebook and Twitter and everything. Do you friend this person right away or what? Is there a rule as to how many dates you go on before you can friend someone? And it'd be super weird if you were dating someone for a little bit and then they told you they were getting too busy with work or whatever, and then all of a sudden you see their status change on their profile and you see photos of them with someone else and all that. My buddy told me he watched his little brother's relationship with his girlfriend fall apart over Facebook, which seems totally surreal to me. That's what happens now, though, I guess. Everyone has access to everyone else's private lives with all the social networking stuff.

I'm really apprehensive to admit this but a former girlfriend and I actually broke up over AIM once. And we'd been seeing each other for a long time - like a couple years. We'd been living together in Seattle and I'd moved home to Minneapolis and I think we were both kind of ready to move on, so the mutuality of it made everything easier. I don't think most breakups would work that well over AIM but if you're both pretty much on the same page and it's going to be a relatively clean breakup because you both want the same thing, then it actually kinda works. Weird, huh?

GS: Now for the lightning round!
Mac or PC? DA: PC
iPhone or BlackBerry? DA: I love my T-Mobile G1 but I'd take a BlackBerry. I need a real, physical keyboard.
MySpace or Facebook? DA: Facebook (as the lesser of two evils).
iPod or Zune? DA: I really like my iPod Touch.
The Hills or Gossip Girl? DA: I've never seen Gossip Girl, but The Hills is absolutely, positively, 100 percent the bane of my existence. My wife has to watch it in our bedroom with the door closed or when I'm not around because the way the brats on that show talk is like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. So Gossip Girl.
Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? DA: Bill Gates. His acting in the Seinfeld Microsoft commercials was mesmerizing.
Picasa or Flickr? DA: Picasa. Great example of a desktop app working harmoniously "in the cloud."
Texting or Emailing? DA: Email. I like the cost better.
WiFi or Wired? DA: I'll borrow from a golf saying here and say WiFi for show, Wired for dough.
Pac Man or Space Invaders? DA: Pac Man, preferably Ms. Pac Man.
Star Wars or Star Trek? DA: Star Wars
Laptop or Desktop? DA: Ouch. That's like Sophie's Choice. I have both and could never part with either of them.
The Bachelor or the Bachelorette? DA: ABC should cut out the fluff and have them marry each other. I mean, they're both looking for the same thing, right? Set them up together and spare us all from having to sit through it.
Coffee or Tea? DA: Monster Low Carb energy drink. Coffee will do in a pinch, though.

Geek Tip: Download Free Fonts For Wedding Invites!

GeekSugar — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:01:02 -0700

Whether you go earth friendly and geeky and decide to send your wedding (and rehearsal, and bridal showers, and bachelor/bachelorette parties. . . ) invitations online, or send paper (recycled, perhaps?) invites, one thing you need is an original font! Don't be a bore with standard fonts given to you, like Times New Roman and Helvetica (albeit classic bores, ahem) - fonts set the tone for style as much as the color scheme and design.

I love Fonts 500 for this - they have over 500 free downloadable fonts and have got something for every wedding theme: classic (Jane Austen), edgy (Nauvoo), and your-name-in-lights (Marquee). There's also tons of commercially-used fonts, so if you've been dreaming of directing your family to the reception in Simpsons font, well, done and done. Other free font websites I like are 1,001 Free Fonts and dafont (both good for Mac and PC).

Be sure to check out more of our wedding coverage on I Do Sugar.