'We're all mad here' at Byte-Sized this week! As you know, today is the last day of our 'Alice in Wonderland' Cap Contest, sponsored by New Era Cap, which we all know makes really high quality baseball-style hats.

'No wonder you're late. Why, this watch is exactly two days slow.' -- Excuses like this won't work with me, kiddos! This contest ends at midnight tonight!

'Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!' -- Enter *right now* by emailing me at ByteSized@Captivate.com with your name, address and phone number. I've got a limited number of the $35.99 hats to give out to to some lucky readers, so make sure to get your name in the, er ... hat ... to win.

'It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.' -- In this case, check the official rules here for all your ponderings.

'Now, I give you fair warning, either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time! Take your choice!' -- Dayum, Queenie, calm down! Before you go, take a gander at these headlines sparking the news today!

--Apparently Steve Jobs made a low-key appearance at the Oscars last night. He is the single largest shareholder in Disney right now after he bought and sold Pixar to the Mouse House, so I guess it makes sense.

--Did you watch the Academy Awards last night? Don't even get me started on the madness that must have infused the voters not to give the big prizes to 'Avatar' -- talk about a rabbit hole. Anyway, you probably saw Apple's iPad commercial. Thoughts?

--Here's a story on OLED TVs. Yeah, I didn't know what they were either, but apparently there is a debate over whether they are a success or failure.

--YouTube has opened up the option of captions on all its videos. They say it's for the deaf, but I think it's so people can watch the videos at work without being blaringly obvious.

--Are you clinging onto your original XBox games for dear life? Time to cut that cord. Starting April 15, Microsoft will no longer support the gen-1 games on XBox Live. Sorry, dudes.

'Curioser and curioser!' -- See you all back here Wednesday, when I announce the winners and celebrate by watching 'Alice in Wonderland' for myself in IMAX! I mean, you can't come with me, but we could synchronize our watches or something, right?

Labels: alice in wonderland, new era cap contest, oscars, quotes, Steve Jobs

It's been confirmed that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant while out on sabbatical from Apple. I am all for keeping personal business personal, but he is the CEO of a major corporation. I'm not sure that qualifies at personal information when million (billions?) of stockholders are waiting on bated breath for news that Jobs is back on the job.

Do you all have any thoughts on this? Should Steve Jobs have disclosed he was in liver failure to his stockholders? How do you think that would have effected the market and launch of the new iPhone? Send me your e-mail and I'll post up responses on Friday -- or vote now in the Captivate.com viewer poll!

In other news ...

So, a friend of mine wrote a comic. And it got HUGE. Check out the story here.

The weirdest invention of the day goes to HP: Engineers have built a printer that doesn't need to hook up to a computer. Yeah. It's meant for printing movie tickets and directions and stuff directly off the internet using a touchscreen. Thoughts?

OK, so I have an idea: Let's drill a big hole into a volatile volcano and use the geothermal energy to heat our country for years! Oh, darn. Iceland already came up with that.

Labels: Andrew, Iceland power, Steve Jobs

It's been along week of great news from E3 -- look back at some old posts for a recap -- here are today's headlines:

Steve Jobs is heading back to the office soon. Feel better, big guy!

Holy. Crap. This is SO the monitor you should get if you won $1M and wanted to totally pimp your home office. Whoa. No more dual-monitor/control-room/evil-lair set-up for you ...

Want to waste a few minutes at work but are tired of the super-happy, best-of-the-best travel sites? Try TitanicAwards.com -- the site's people gather up some of the biggest names in travel writing and ask them not to name the best but to name the worst: Worst Airline, Worst Street Food, Worst Travel Host, etc. I read the whole front page top to bottom -- some of those entries make your own travel awfulness sound totally tame! Also, do you get the site's name? Titanic? ...

More praise for BING -- I'm telling you guys: Make the home-page switch, if only for the daily photos alone!!

I've got you covered with the Wall-E-related stories: Scientists are saying that prolonged space trips can make astronauts shorter, fatter and balder. Oh gee, really? Something tells me this knowledge wasn't made up by the folks at Pixar -- why are scientists confirming what the animators already knew? I hate 'Duh' studies.

How about just a story on laughs? Evolutionists are tracking the origins of laughter back to pre-humans. And, it's got a cute pic to go with it!

Plus -- I've got some treats lined up for you guys in the coming weeks: We've got some cool new products in the office to test out, so stay tuned!

Labels: astronauts, Microsoft Bing, Steve Jobs, TitanicAwards.com

Morning everyone! Thanks for tuning in to your tri-weekly dose of Byte-Sized!

(After a discussion between editors, we have determined that tri-weekly denotes 3 times a week, not once every three weeks -- just wanted you all to know that there was rhetoric.)

Before we get to it -- let me make a bold preface: I've been awake since 3:45 a.m. scraping 2+ feet of snow off my hybrid after waking up to a 2.5-year-old who walked up 2 flights of stairs at 2 a.m. to stand right next to my sleeping face and announce to the room that he pooped, which, upon inspection, he did not.

Thus, I'm a bit tired and in a mood not even hot coffee can fix. Please take this into consideration when reading more...

Are they ever going to let this go? Gah... Microsoft has been brought up on anti-trust charges by the EU for bundling its IE browser with its operating system. Could someone please call the EU and explain to them what year it is and what the current state of technology is? With companies giving away browsers for free online, like Firefox and Chrome, people certainly have a choice whether to adopt IE. Give it an effing rest and let the top be the top. Seriously.

A couple months back, we talked here about invisibility cloaks getting closer to reality -- well, they're even closer. No wait, don't whip our your HP spellbooks looking for a deathly hallow -- 'Researchers at Duke University, who developed a material that can "cloak" an item from detection by microwaves, report that they have expanded the number of wavelengths they can block.' See? pretty cool technology from some incredibly brilliant minds. Seriously.

Trouble on the fruity front: Reports are suggesting that Apple shareholders may bring up lawsuits over loss money in the wake of CEO Steve Jobs announcing his leave of absence. Apparently, people are kinda pissed that he went public a week before assuring them that he was fine, nary a problem save for a hormone imbalance, just to u-turn. Why can't people just tell the truth anymore? Seriously.

And, now there are reports that Jobs is considering a liver transplant as part of his treatment for pancreatic cancer, which the CEO suffered in 2004. Says Jobs to reporters questioning him on the rumor: "Why don't you guys leave me alone -- why is this important?"

Hey Steve, when your high-profile company is on the tongues of every world citizen ages 5 through 100, plus you've been lying to your shareholders (see above) about an illness that will affect their stock prices and nest eggs, it's important. Welcome to celebrity -- or do you not want your big paycheck or sucessful business anymore? I am pulling for you, bud, but please -- don't be dumb.

I humbly apologize for my ranting today. But, apparently Congress has proposed giving *more* money to the digital TV crossover fund! Excuse me? This has to be the biggest... I mean, what a waste... Such a debacle... I have not other words for this.

OK, more coffe. And maybe some chocolate. yeah, that'll help make this snowy holiday that I'm working on a bit more comfortable. See you all on Wednesday!

Labels: Digital TV conversion, EU, invisibility, liver transplant, Microsoft, Steve Jobs

Brrrr ... spend your spare time with me and a big glass of hot coffee on this freezing day. If it's not freezing for you, I suppose you can read along anyways...

Facebook has officially killed that really funny Whopper story I told you about Monday. The site cites privacy issues over how the application informed your friends that you dumped them because they weren't worth their weight in beef, or something similarly clever. This story links the decision to pressure by Microsoft -- will the anger over them never cease?

In what I think is the biggest non-news story of the week -- and by that, I mean that it didn't take much observation and deduction skills to cut through the PR bull$%&# when it was announced he was skipping Macworld in Jan. -- Steve Jobs has announced he is taking a leave of absence from Apple until June. Steve, I know we don't get along as far as Microsoft vs. Apple, but I wish you the very best and a most speedy recovery. But, you're not coming back, are you?

Want to watch the inauguration? Worried you'll get bored and turn it off before Obama gets to the good stuff? Well, have no fear, Forbes has created 'Obama Bingo' -- complete with four printable cards -- to play at the office while every gathers around the flatscreen. The game is based on what the new president will say during his inaugural address, and you mark off the phrases as they are spoken.

It's been said before -- but you know times are bad when Google axes some jobs. It's not company-wide and is only affecting recruiters and certain engineering offices, but jobs are jobs. In addition to axing workers, Google is also dropping some apps. Click here to read more.

OK, all, have a safe and warm weekend, and I'll catch you on the flip side, where we'll have some cool inauguration coverage and more!

Labels: barack obama, Bingo, facebook, Macworld, Steve Jobs, Whopper

Good morning, everyone! Today is a double tall mocha day in New England, so wrap your hands around your beverage of choice and let's get to the headlines...

Obviously, the biggest news of the day is out of Apple -- Steve Jobs will not be giving his annual keynote address at the Macword Conference this year. No word on whether this has to do with his illness, but Apple also took the time to announce that this will be the last year the company will even attend Macworld. Something is brewing over at Apple and I don't like the looks of it.

File this one under "Bad idea from the start." Dell has decided, after being the butt of too many India-based customer service jokes and complaints to enumerate, that it will offer customers the 'option' of dealing only with U.S.-based reps. The kicker? It is charging customers $13 a month or $99 a year. Seriously. WTF, Dell -- understandable customer service (no offense) should be free, not a premium. Ridiculous.

A new survey finds that Americans place Internet access above TV and having sex. That's seems like skewed data -- numbers that I don't necessarily agree with. I can understand the pleasure of a nice night at home clicking through the channels in jammies so fluffy and baggy that even thinking the word 'sex' around them seems wrong, but foregoing sex to sit in front of a blinky computer screen? Nope, I'm all set with that. Thoughts? Which would you prefer?

A new device is available that disconnects cell phone service in cars when the engine in running. This is a hot issue, but I can't say that I'm for or against either side. (How's that for a double negative tandem positive?) See, on the one hand, I love chatting in the car. I can hold all my tedious but still important phone conversations, like making appointments and catching up with friends, during my commutes, leaving me able to play with my kids while I'm at home. On the other, my husband can't talk on the phone and drive without missing an exit or driving in the wrong direction for 20 miles. So... a device to stop cell phone service in a car? Eek.


Have a great day, and don't forget to enter the Byte-Sized Holiday Giveaway for a MIMOBOT USB Flash Drive! The response has been great so far, so make sure to get your ballot in! You won't win anything if you don't enter!

Labels: Apple, Byte-Sized Holiday Giveaway, cell phones, customer service, Dell laptop security, Internet and sex, Macworld keynote address, MIMOBOT USB Flash Drive, Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is full of surprises these days. At Apple's much-hyped press conference yesterday, the Apple chief zigged where analysts thought he would zag and introduced a revamped, rethought version of the MacBook instead of a stripped-down cheaper model.

The biggest move is thought to be the dissing of Intel chips for the graphics brains of chip maker Nvidia -- a telling move in that it shows Apple wants to raise the bar on performance and, possibly, manage capabilities beyond the scope of simply better graphics (which are what Macs are known for and, in my opinion, only marginally good for).

In line with analyst guesses before the event was the introduction of an aluminum 'unibody' for the notebooks, which means a sleeker casing and guts to the machines carved using water jets directly from a solid block of aluminum metal.

In what I think is a stunning omission, Apple has also decided to forego support for Blu-ray discs, presumably because the price of the players is still sky-high. But this lack of support takes out another pillar holding up the infant technology, so keep your eyes on that for further developments.

For complete coverage of the Apple event, visit our friends at CNet -- they've got your back on the whole deal, from the gaming implications of the metal notebooks to side-by-side comparisons with older Mac.

Labels: Apple, Intel, Macbook, Nvidia, Steve Jobs