Latest Posts from Switched

While the original Apple TV had a few admirers among die-hard Apple fanatics and tinkerers, the company always considered the device to be a "hobby," and it never found mainstream success. The newest iteration, however, reflects Apple's first serious attempt to nail the living room media experience, and it's making a serious attempt at becoming a must-have accessory, thanks primarily to its support for Netflix Instant Streaming. This comes at a time when streaming video devices are starting to crowd the living room; with the user-friendly Roku, the much-hyped Boxee Box and several Google TV devices launching this fall, Apple has some heavy competition. Let's see if the Apple TV is up to the task.

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Law enforcement agencies periodically dismantle spam organizations, and successful campaigns inevitably lead to fleeting, yet wondrous, periods of diminished e-mail junk. Well, we've apparently entered one of those temporary stays from trash, so enjoy those Viagra-free inboxes while you can.

According to the New York Times, Russian authorities believe the disappearance of spam mastermind Igor Gusev has directly precipitated a marked decrease in spam frequency. Gusev allegedly evaded police because of an impending criminal investigation, but his hasty retreat also left the SpamIt organization without a key player. SpamIt orchestrates pharmaceutical spam blasts, but the organization ceased its bankrolling ventures after Gusev vanished. Spammers subsequently "curtailed their activity by an estimated 50 billion messages a day," a total which represents approximately 20-percent of the world's spam.

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Cash-strapped record labels are undoubtedly rejoicing today, now that LimeWire has officially shut down its peer-to-peer filesharing client. As All Things Digital explains, the move comes in response to a federal court injunction that requires the company to shut down "the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality" of its core software. Essentially, this means that LimeWire will no longer offer downloads of its software, and will disable all software that's already been distributed.

LimeWire CEO George Searle is understandably crestfallen about the decision, but assures LimeWire's customers that the company is currently working on a new (and totally legal) music service, due out later this month. "We remain deeply committed to working with the music industry, and making the act of loving music more fulfilling for everyone – including artists, songwriters, publishers, labels, and of course music fans," reads Searle's blog post on Lime Company's website. "Our team of technologists and music enthusiasts are creating a completely new music service that puts you back at the center of your digital music experience."

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Yesterday, Facebook unveiled a spate of new tools to help brands, companies, and public figures to manage their Facebook Pages with greater ease.

Administrators will now find a more navigable, streamlined Page Manager interface, with a left-hand navigation bar that allows users to quickly access and adjust every corner of their Pages. The system also sports a new 'Condensed View' feature, which enables administrators to view all aspects of their personalized Pages, without having to manually scan their entire length. Users looking to change their profile pictures, meanwhile, will now be able to do so directly within the Page Manager, instead of opening a separate interface. And, in the event that you incorrectly titled your Page, the revamped Page Manager will allow you to instantly edit the title -- although this option is only available to Pages with less than 100 members.

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The drastic overhaul to Yahoo's e-mail service is one step closer to completion. The company announced in late September that Yahoo Mail would get a fresh look, integration with Facebook and Twitter, improved search capabilities and greatly improved speed. Now, the beta version of the new mail interface is finally available to all Yahoo! users. The updates aren't limited to the Web-based desktop site, either -- iPhone, iPad or Android devices will all support the beta. Yahoo will continue to tweak the product during the public testing period, but don't expect any major changes between now and the time it officially replaces the current version of the Yahoo Mail. You can turn on the beta by going visiting the Yahoo Mail page and check out the demo video after the break.

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Remember that MySpace makeover that was in the works over the summer? Well, it's finally arrived, and, as expected, the new MySpace focuses more heavily on music and entertainment -- the bread and butter, apparently, of the once-mighty social network.

Taking its cue from Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, MySpace's home page will now feature a steady stream of tidbits about musicians, movies or TV shows that the community is discussing at any given moment. Members will also be able to subscribe to news feeds about their favorite bands and celebrities, and follow other MySpace members with similar tastes (based on the site's recommendations). Of course, members will still be able to customize their profiles with migraine-inducing graphics, but every profile will now have consistently placed navigation buttons, making it easier to jump from one user page to another. Users who spend a lot of time putting together playlists or commenting on TV shows will soon be rewarded for their hard work with these new things called badges. We're told they're irresistible.

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Florida's tight gubernatorial race between Democrat Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott turned controversial Monday night, thanks to one foolhardy aide and a Droid smartphone.

Prior to Monday's CNN-sponsored debate, both candidates had agreed not to use notes in their volleys back and forth. During a commercial break from the action, however, Sink's makeup artist showed her a brief message that a campaign adviser had sent to her Droid phone. "The attorney who [w]on the Sykes suit said alex sink did nothing wrong," the message read. "Tell not to let him keep talking about her." When Scott spotted the exchange between the makeup artist and his opponent, he immediately notified a CNN official, who confiscated the phone.

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Scratch and Sniff stickers exploded in popularity during the glorious early '80s, but the trendy olfactory simulators rapidly faded into obscurity. For some reason, Japanese scientists apparently hope to revolutionize the forgotten, fragrant industry by incorporating scent production with modern technology. Keio University researchers reportedly worked in conjunction with Canon to hack -- and stink up -- an ink-jet printer (because, you know, office printers aren't adequately infuriating already).

The group installed four aroma vials in place of the printer's ink cartridges, so that a fleeting aroma emerges when the machine is triggered. The scientists hope to eventually combine a standard ink-jet printer with image-recognition software and more vials, so that the printer can automatically match scents with pictures. The working prototype -- which can produce a variety of scents, including lemon, lavender, grapefruit and apple -- is ready to debut at the upcoming Association for Computing Machinery's Multimedia event. So, if you happen to work in close proximity to a printer and don't like the aforementioned smells, you may want to investigate some other forms of aroma tech (even if they too were ridiculed at one point).

It may not receive as much attention as Repetitive Stress Injury or other tech-related modern maladies, but Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS) can be a painful, debilitating affliction. The symptoms -- which result from continuously staring at a monitor -- include blurred vision, light sensitivity, headaches and fatigue. While CVS is easily preventable, taking a screen-break while absorbed with work sometimes proves impossible.

Blaze Europe believes its Blink Now product provides a solution to that predicament, though, by reminding a computer user to sit back, relax and enjoy the soothing benefits of a nice, moisturizing blink. The Blink Now peripheral's small "visual display apparatus" supposedly accomplishes that task through the unceasing presence of a disembodied, blinking eye. Blaze claims the product "is easy to use, effective and will stimulate you passively without distracting you from the task on the computer." Yeah, because being constantly monitored by Sauron, Big Brother or the incredibly creepy eye from 'Blade Runner' wouldn't be distracting at all.