GeekSugar

Meet Hot Potato, Another Way to Keep in Touch

GeekSugar — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:30:28 -0700

Built around helping "friends and fans socialize and share experiences around live events," Hot Potato is a social networking site based on events added to a calendar. Then, add friends and invite others to join you. Use Hot Potato to discuss the event and ask questions before it happens, and share thoughts and photos afterward. At first look I wondered if we really needed another social networking site, but it's a great service for events from professional conferences to the next episode of your favorite TV show. You can tweak the settings on the site to view comments from everyone or just from friends - a great way to tap into new thoughts and ideas.

Its just-released iPhone app makes it easier to use Hot Potato to find and participate in events near you while on the move. And the service is integrated with all of your other networking sites (including location-based sites like Foursquare), making it easy to find and keep up with friends.

Share Contact Information Instantly With the Poken Spark

GeekSugar — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:47:17 -0800

Connecting with new friends and co-workers just got a lot easier thanks to Poken, a line of new gadgets that just made their US debut at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. The devices work by storing your social media data - think Facebook, LinkedIn - and sharing it with another device when held palm-to-palm.

I'm a fan of their Spark line, featuring Poken devices in over 20 cute and colorful designs - a Geisha, a rapper, a panda, even an alien. When you hold two side by side, the green light illuminates, signaling a connection -literally and digitally! The gadget attaches to your computer via USB, and downloads any received contact information directly to the pokenHUB dashboard - software included on the device.

The Poken Spark is $20 and available in the Poken online store.

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Guess the Tech Talker

GeekSugar — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 10:00:41 -0800

Guess which superstar recently said this:

"What really disturbs me is the danger that lies in the fact that people want to communicate information quicker and quicker. I am not a big fan of social networks in electronic form. If the electricity dies, we would have to go home right now."

Take the quiz

Geek Tip: Kill Your Online Identity With the Suicide Machine

GeekSugar — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:47:25 -0800

If you've had it up to here with your social networks taking up all of your precious time, then kill them off with the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. Like an online Dr. Kevorkian, the Suicide Machine will delete and scrub all of your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections, and deactivate all your profiles so you can live in peace without worrying about if you have any new friend requests or @replies.

Just load up your profile names and passwords, and Web 2.0 Suicide Machine will do the rest. They guarantee satisfaction, so only click "Commit" if you're ready to revert to the dark ages.

Is Too Much Technology Actually Making Us Disconnected?

GeekSugar — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:30:19 -0800

This topic has been on the radar a lot lately, but an article recently published by The Wall Street Journal got me thinking. It asserts that gadgets and new technology have become a narcissist's best friends. The writer explains her frustrations with people who ferociously multitask by emailing or answering their phone during meetings, or those who define themselves by their contacts list.

"To many people, it doesn't matter much who calls or what they want. What matters is that the call reflects our existence back upon us. They wanted us, and that is an emergency. Because we won't feel truly wanted again until the next email, text or call."

While her article is mainly about using technology to feed one's ego, her points are interesting. Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, Loopt . . . all provide a medium for potential oversharing. Does having a mile-long contact list make us any more connected than we already are? Or does it actually isolate us from person-to-person interactions that seem to be sadly fewer and farther between?

Dowload of the Day: A Newly-Updated Loopt App

GeekSugar — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:00:52 -0800

Loopt allows you to see where your friends are at any given moment. On one hand, it could encourage a little bit of stalking, but on the other, as a Loopt user you can control how much information your friends see - and if you don't want them to know where you are, don't post an update.

That said, I'm into Loopt's latest update to its iPhone application. It allows you to enter a tip for any place, whether you're checked in to the location or not. Have a favorite dish at a restaurant? Is there a secret menu item everyone should know about? Is your hairdresser the best at her salon? Just use the "Leave a Public Tip" option on the location's page to tell your friends (and everyone else) exactly what you think.

Have you found a cool download-worthy treasure you'd like to share with the rest of us? Create a PopSugar Account or log in to your account. Then join the Download of the Day group where you can submit your favorite downloads and widgets. And you never know, it could be featured on GeekSugar! Here's a detailed guide to posting questions or posts to groups if you are new to the PopSugar Community.

Best of 2009 Winner: Most Shocking Tech News Story

GeekSugar — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:30:32 -0800

This year's most shocking tech news story is also one of Pop's biggest headlines of 2009 - and arguably one of the most shocking news events of the decade: Michael Jackson's death. The biggest point of interest to me (and you!) was that his death crashed social networking sites like Twitter, and even other larger Internet sites. Google News was inaccessible at times as people flocked to online news sources to confirm reports of the King of Pop's death.

As a geek girl, it's interesting to me that so many people went straight to these social networks to find the news. It just means that there's going to be even more ways to get the news in 2010.

It's almost a new year - be sure to check out more of our 2009 award winners!

Did You Have a Friendster Account?

GeekSugar — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:47:37 -0800

Fresh off of a new redesign, Friendster is on the market and will reportedly be sold for $100 million before the end of the year. The site, which had lost popularity in the US to newcomers MySpace and Facebook, is increasingly popular in Asian countries and is reported to have found a buyer in Asia.

In 2003, I was all about Friendster and may still have an old profile lurking around the site. After a year or so, though, my loyalty was shifted to Facebook, and I haven't thought much about Friendster in years. Did you have an account with Friendster? Do you still? And if so, do you use it?

And the Most Popular Word of 2009 Is...

GeekSugar — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:50:59 -0800

Twitter! At least, according to The Global Language Monitor, it is. The GLM "documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language the world over, with a particular emphasis upon Global English," and this year proclaimed "Twitter" the Top Word of 2009 after a worldwide survey of the English language. Other popular words: "Obama," "H1N1," and "Vampires." (Hmm, I wonder where that one came from?)

I'm not surprised that Twitter took the top spot, given how much news the small company has made. It seems like everyone's using the site, even people in jail! For the rest of that story, read more.

Screenwriter Roger Avary, most known for co-writing Pulp Fiction with Quentin Tarantino, is serving a yearlong sentence in a California jail for vehicular manslaughter, but was released during working hours five days a week on a work release program. Allegedly, he was using the popular social networking site to post details about life in prison. However, in California prisoners are forbidden to access the Internet during the period of incarceration, and Avary was caught a few months after he started tweeting. Since then, he's back in regular confinement, and the account has been changed to private.

Twitter is clearly hot right now, as more celebrities and companies jump on the social networking bandwagon.

Should There Be an Age Minimum For Social Networks?

GeekSugar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:44:06 -0800

Social networking sites have long been popular with teens, and now researchers are saying they're becoming increasingly popular with younger kids, too. I don't think anyone's surprised by the findings; though both Facebook and MySpace require users to be at least 13 years old when signing up for accounts.

A researcher quoted in the CNN article says:

"Of course they are [using social networking sites]. They're using them because that's where their social world is. Because there's no effective way to age-verify . . . children very quickly realize, 'I just say I'm 14 years old, and they'll let me use this.' "

Researchers are split on the long-term effects of allowing younger children onto the sites. Some say that early exposure to the sites can lead to Internet addiction in adults; others say that most younger children use the sites in moderation, and in positive ways. The article also quotes parents who have allowed their kids to lie about their age to create profiles, though they also require their kids to surrender their passwords, and monitor the kids' activities and friends. What do you think about age restrictions on these sites?