If sprint was crazy before, they are definitely KRZY now!

The Motorola Krzr K1m. This Razr variant phone will now be available from Sprint with full access to sprints video and music services including Sprint TV, Sprint Power View, Sprint Movies, and the Sprint Music store. Spirnt was so crazy about the Krzr they have announced it before fixing a price point. That is one carrier that obviously could'nt wait to announce a Razr variant, then again, knowing cellphone carriers, the news would probably have leaked out anway, considering that on the CNET Buzz Out Loud podcast motorala announced they would have "planned leaks". Not even Microsoft would announce a leak!

Patches for Patches

Today Microsoft has released an Internet Explorer patch for a previous patch! The previous patch crashed Internet Explorer. You know, i heard of another patch for Internet Explorer, Its Open Source, you can customise without installing hard to remove toolbars, what was it called again..........oh yeah: FIREFOX!

Leo Laporte Found On Cnet Download.com!?!

I often use download.com as a place for "safe" downloads of free, or "free to try" software, but when i loaded download.com up this morning i did not expect Leo Laportes "Cartoon face" (of the acclaimed podcast Twit.tv) to be half looking back at me! Incase this strange and inexplicable web bug has dissappeared by the time you see this post (which it probably will have) i took a screen grab and cropped it down to the relevant part. A truly strange and rather baffling thing has happened to download.com, was it a CNET employee who is a TWiT fan or has Download.com been Hacked?!

Disclaimer: Download.com, Cnet and their affiliates, subsidarys and business partners are copyrighted and trademarks of their respective owners.

The Meaning of Web 2.0 (In one word!)

After some deliberation between the time i started this blog and my previous post, i think the meaning, or at least one word to sum it all up, of web 2.0 has been found. The word is (drum roll please)....Social! Think about it, when you tag a photo on Flickr, you make a social gesture by being kind enough to tag it, making it easy for the community to find. Most websites involved with the web 2.0 boom have incorporated social networking features. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site. Blogging, podcasting, and other forms of new media are social activities. Placing cool animations and logos on your site make it pleasing to the eye, better for the community to see, and there is no denying that the community is a social entity. Making software Open Source (which has been around before web 2.0 but has grown during web 2.0 significantly) and making API's public to allow mashups is a social activity as the community embraces these two things. Digg.com has been described by Kevin Rose, its creator, as a social news site. There you have it, the meaning, or at least one word to sum it up, of web 2.0 is social.

Please comment on this post, comments only make the blog a better website. Also, nobody is using our social mail address. The address is betaisthenewblackideas@biggu.com. Email to it for YOUR ideas to appear in those feed: http://social-mail.com/feed/betaisthenewblackideas/. Its there for you, the community, go grab it!

FREW WIFI! (if youre house happens to be conveniently placed in Mountain view, California)

Google has rolled outs its free wifi service in Mountain view, California. The system is secure (very cool) because you have to download a google client (not so cool) to connect to the network. Google's service offers 300kb/s (nice) but is ad subsidised (there's no such thing as a free lunch). The service is to be rolled out over the whole of San Francisco, as well as a pay to use Earthlink service. But do you want Google to know what you surf for, download, upload etc. At least for me: No thanks! Also, where are the comments! Please comment on the articles! Feedback will only make the blog better. Please also use the "Social Mail" address for ideas! This blog is powered by the wisdom of the crowd but if there isn't any wisdom coming from the crowd then what am i to do for good posts. Mosts of the posts you see here are posts written after stories have been recommended to me by the Interweb community

Social mail is here!

On my last post I promised that those of you kind enough to take the time to read this blog would soon be able to email ideas to beta is the new black to an RSS feed. I also told you that it was called Social mail Today that feature Launches! Send your ideas for new posts on beta is the new black to betaisthenewblackideas@biggu.com and they will appear in an rss feed! The feed is: http://social-mail.com/feed/betaisthenewblackideas/

Think of it as the "Beta is the new black think tank" but its powered by the wisdom of the crowd. Also, for those of you who comment on the comments section and post ideas to the feed, you may be given access to the new beta is the new black vip social mail lounge. So participate, comment, post ideas and most of all enjoy it!

Yahoo takes a mighty slurp at the web!

Yahoo's search bot "Yahoo Slurp" is apparently going on a web rampage. The Yahoo Bot functions as a "crawler" (but by the looks of it they should change that to "web Stomper") as its activity on indexing web pages dramatically picks up. Leo Laporte of TWiT.tv has said on the Latest Edition of TWiT (TWiT 66: A little dab'll do ya) that Yahoo Slurp pounded over 100 megs out of TWit.tv! Is Yahoo preparing to release a "google killer". Did buying bandwith junkie Flickr teach the company a lesson, or maybe it was just angry shareholders (you would be surprised how many descisions are made in the Tech Industry due to angry share holders "The Growth is not sufficient!"). Hmmm... Yahoo takes on Google, Yahoo defeats Google, Google fades into pitiful existence? NEVER! The probability that Yahoo defeats Google is probably less than the probability that 42 is the meaning of Life The Universe and everything! (see "the hitchikers guide to the galaxy")

Coming soon on Beta is the New Black: A new email address that when you email to it, your email will appear on an RSS feed. It's called "Social Mail" and its provided by the folks at "Big in Japan". They made "the web 2.0 toolkit". Go check it out!

South Kore builds the new myspace?

A new social networking site (originating from South Korea) has launched its Beta in the US. Cyworld will tour the US this month to show how Cyworld appeals to the demographic of people age 18 to 29 to create "min-homes" on the web. More than 90% of this demographic in South Korea have a page on Cyworld. The site has 2 million users in China. Perhaps one of the most clever things about Cyworld is that the site does not try to detract users use from using their "helper" services, Cyworld encourages you to use this service and bring them together on your Cyworld page. This not only brands Cyworld as "friendly" but puts Cyworld in a good light with "helper" web services. Does this mean that social netorking giant myspace will no longer be "myspace" and "yourspace" but will become "nobody'sspace". As always you decide! Choose the service you want.

Open Source Victory in VOIP

A company called Digium (such an original name, its not like it was just a tweak to the word Digital!) which is a specialist in Open Source VOIP applications has won $13.2 million Venture Capitalist funding from "Matrix Partners" (Can NO ONE think of an original name, first they tweak the word digital, then they use the name of a film about a virtual world created by robots to fool humans). Digium is now to develop "Asterix", an open source VOIP app, the inherent design of Asterix allows it to be very flexible, meaning the software can use a variety of protocols. The Open Source Penguins march forth! Join them or be crushed under the weight of the mass Penguin waddling!

Blue Pill works on Vista

A demonstration at the Black hat conference has proven that the "blue pill" computer pathogen works on Windows Vista. The Hacker session was called "Subverting Vista Kernel For Fun And Profit". The Hack works by injecting the malware's code into the kernel or by using a flaw in AMD chips. The "Super Malware" was injected using a "Kernelstrike". Tin foil hatting "Dive! Dive! Dive! Turn off wifi! Shutdown all network connection! Alert: Super malware in the wild. There is only one sensible thing to do, smash every pc into the ground and use new Unix based operating systems by using the command line until we can find a fix!". I mean even the dog can use the command line, can't it! Its only the matter of learning decades of computing experience to avoid commands which could obliterate your system! A more advanced look at the blue pill is available here.

Engadget posts by the minute

As the Steve Jobs WWDC keynote continues engadget has minute by minute break downs of each section. go check it out here.

Apple announces the "time machine"

At WWDC in Sanfrancisco as part of the new Apple OS, Mac OS X Leopard, a new piece of software for backing up files has been made. It's called "Time Machine".

The cat is out of the bag

At WWDC in Sanfrancisco, Steve Jobs is about to let loose the secrets of the new Apple OS, Mac OS X Leopard! Prepare for a wave fo cool features!

The "Mac Pro" is here!

The Steve Jobs Keynote has begun at Apples WWDC in San Francisco and around 15 minutes in Steve has announced the replacement to the Powermac: The Mac Pro! The Intel Transition is over for Apple! The Apple Store is down at the moment, i think we know why!

OS slinging match: Mac OS X Leopard 1: Vista 0!

WWDC is almost here! Some flickr users have spotted (and taken photos of) Apple WWDC banners such as "Mac OS X Leopard, Introducing Vista 2.0" (ouch! Microsoft takes a hit) and other rumored banners are "Mac OS X leopard, Hasta la Vista, Vista " (STIIIIIIRRRRRRIKE! A pun and some serious vista put down from Apple take Mac OS X into the lead of the slinging match!). Go check out the picture here.

Welcome

Welcome to "beta is the new black" the blog that keep you up to date with tech with a humorous twist. Enjoy this blog!