Social networks are designed to be all about friends, right? Yet when it comes to the competition behind the scenes at social networks, that '70s song by War, "Why can't we be friends?" comes to mind.

Sports fans had a long menu of choices when it came to keeping up with the Olympics online, including using their mobile phones.

New service lets users watch movies and TV shows on Macs or PCs.

The judge presiding over the patent case between TiVo and EchoStar has delayed any ruling until possibly November, buying EchoStar some time and causing TiVo some short term duress.

Since Google Analytics started tracking Chrome on Thursday, the new browser is showing a browser share of 6% or higher on some Web sites -- including BetaNews. But that's much higher than the under 2% share reported by Net Applications.

Got a broadband connection and a networked Xbox 360 or PS3? You can watch Web-based video on your living room television set without an HTPC.

The new Joost is no longer a piece of software, but you'll still need a special site-specific plug-in to run it.

Wired magazine went around to interview the founders of Wired. Here's Kevin Kelly talking about Wired and HotWired. (In this video, you can see the back of my head at 1:32. Boing Boing manager John Battelle is in the blue t-shirt across from me.) To celebrate its 15th a...

Users running Firefox along with popular Norton security programs have reported problems after updating the browser.

Startup Labs will be an effort under Ray Ozzie, joining others including Live Labs, adCenter Labs, and Office Labs.

Paul Boutin writes "A reliable source tells Valleywag that MySQL inventor Michael Widenius, better known as Monty, has resigned from Sun. Sun bought Monty's MySQL company in a billion-dollar deal last January. Brian Aker, who forked the Web 2.0-friendly Drizzle SQL data...

MySQL's cofounder Michael "Monty" Widenius is considering resigning, according to an official blog post.

Following a certain lag in government sales, the OLPC foundation has decided to revive its Give One, Get One (aka G1G1 program) in cooperation with Amazon.

(Click image for full size) The preview images for the new Blab! show at Copro-Nason in Los Angeles are up. I'm fascinated by Ryan Heshka's work (he has 19 pieces in the show, including the one shown here), which borrows themes from old science fiction pulps and takes t...

Small companies in competitive fields need exceptionally secure and durable laptops that pack top-notch wireless connectivity and productivity tools. The Toshiba Tecra A9, with its built-in EasyGuard® security features, delivers these critical elements and lets companie...

Billy Hoffman of HP Web Security talks about Google's new browser, how it handles Javascript and what it means for Web 2.0 security.

Small-business workers need computing solutions that boost productivity and support their multiple tasks seamlessly. To find out exactly what theyre looking for, we surveyed 172 professionals in companies with 10-99 employees. The results reveal a growing demand for bus...

In the prior installment of the Macworld Video, Chris Breen offered up a number of suggestions on how to share your movies and...

Unofficial roadmaps are always fun, especially when the company is Intel, and the roadmaps in question cover quite a bit of ground. Educated guesses inside, for your Friday reading pleasure.Read More...

With both events scheduled to start Monday, many press, as well as venture capitalists and others are having to choose which one to attend.

According to researchers on the RSA FraudAction team, the Rock Phish gang has moved its infrastructure to the notorious Asprox botnet. Security researchers believe the move may precede an increase in phishing activity using the Asprox botnet. - Researchers at RSA, EM...

Google garnered headlines all week with its new Chrome browser. Rival Microsoft announced it will release just four patches next Tuesday, but that may not be cause to think the day will be an easy one for those responsible for keeping systems patched. On the virtualizat...

More than 100 products are going to be introduced during the week of September 8. Will they be any good?

(click image for full size) The publisher of Baby Tattoo art books is holding its second weekend retreat in Southern California with many of our favorite artists. I heard that the first one was tremendously fun. The 2nd annual Baby Tattooville provides a unique opportun...

Software in standalone boxes, passwords and a belt full of personal devices will disappear over the next five years. In this episode of Three Things, Eric Lundquist explains why you will no longer buy standalone software from retail stores, why passwords are a poor subs...

My friend Joe Hutsko contacted with the intriguing offer to serialize his novel, The Deal, on Boing Boing. I jumped at the chance. I read The Deal when it first came out in 1999 and loved the thrilling story about a Apple-like company's undertaking to create an iPhone-l...

Here's the latest episode of the funny (and educational!) You Suck at Photoshop. You Suck At Photoshop #16: Define Brush Preset...

Speculation has it that it was a goof-up that had the Republican nominee standing in front of Walter Reed Middle School during his acceptance speech. In any case, the image brings back memories for CNET News' Ina Fried.

Sometimes, a situation is so fouled up that there is no polite way to describe it. Such is the situation with the tracking of...

Fully integrated ERP, CRM, and accounting for small to midsized businesses. Graphical client runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows (built with open source Qt framework). Business logic resides in PostgreSQL database server. Fully international-ready.

net-snmp provides tools and libraries relating to the Simple Network Management Protocol including: An extensible agent, An SNMP library, tools to request or set information from SNMP agents, tools to generate and handle SNMP traps, etc.

Fast 2d tank arcade game with multiplayer and split-screen modes.

DrJava is a lightweight programming environment for Java designed to foster test-driven software development. It includes an intelligent program editor, an interactions pane for evaluating program text, a source level debugger, and a unit testing tool.

aria2 is a utility for downloading files. The supported protocols are HTTP(S),FTP,BitTorrent,Metalink. It can download a file from multiple sources/protocols and tries to utilize your maximum download bandwidth.

After years of letting Apple's attack ads go unanswered, software maker sets out on difficult, costly journey of trying to take back control of what Windows stands for.

In a filing Thursday with the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, the broadband service provider argued that the agency did not have the authority to impose sanctions in the first place.

Pragmatic Studio has announced plans to hold a Cocoa Studio training course in Denver, Colo. on October 28 - 30, 2008...

Nik Software has announced the release of Sharpener Pro 3,0, a new version of their photographic plug-in software designed to...

Savant Systems on Friday announced a downloadable application for the iPhone and iPod touch that will enable users to control...

Chronic Logic's Gish is one of the weirder games we've played; it's a side-scrolling action game with attention paid to...

Maverick Software has announced the release of Jiggy for the iPhone and iPod touch. It costs US$3.99.

As you may (or may not) be aware, Apple often includes command line versions of its applications--so for many things you can...

Back in June 2007, I covered Brenthaven's US$20 MacBook Sleeve, an impressively protective case at an impressively low price...

I'm working on a series of short fiction stories/vignettes that explore real human issues through my dog Ruby, which I'm hoping will be fodder for my next book. I thought I'd share one with you guys before my two weeks as a Boinger are over. I actually wrote this one at...

Just minutes after viewing the first installment of Microsoft's new $300 million TV ad campaign featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Chairman Bill Gates, BetaNews' Tim Conneally filed this video to record his first thoughts.

Login problems at launch ?

1Password for the iPhone is a tool that lets you record user names and passwords for Web sites, along with free-form notes...

TweakerSoft has introduced AroundMe, a new application for the iPhone. It costs US$1.99 and is available for purchase and...

Apple's iCal lets you make a calendar available to others by "publishing" it, but subscribers can't edit your published...

Back in October of 2005, I enthusiastically reviewed PCalc 3, which has since been my favorite calculator for the Mac. The...