High Technologies News

Google dips its toe into TV programming searches, netbooks' market share is growing, Twitter and Facebook gear up for geolocation, and researchers make the case for fat as a sixth taste sense.

• The Rise of Netbooks
  Think netbooks are a dwindling fad? GigaOM's infographic designers look at the last three years and disagree. [GigaOM]
• Readability
  The very handy, text-focused reformatter we all know as a bookmarklet has arrived as a Firefox add-on, with a few unique features like auto-scrolling. [Firefox Add-Ons via gHacks]
• Google Testing TV Search Service On Android-Enhanced Set-Top Boxes
  Google employees with DirecTV are trying out a search app that scans TV programming and web video. It's powered in part by Android, and we're kind of hoping makes it to a wider market. [Business Insider]
• Just In Time For The Location Wars, Twitter Turns On Geolocation On Its Website
  Just in time for SXSW, Twitter opens up geolocation embedding from its main site. It had previously been available through its API. [TechCrunch]
• Facebook Will Allow Users to Share Location
  Upping the arms race, Facebook might launch its own geo-smart status updates at its f8 conference next month. [Bits Blog]
• Parallels Desktop update adds support for Chrome OS
  It's not clear whether the $80 Mac virtualization suite means Google's unreleased, official Chrome OS or the open-source Chromium OS builds floating around, but either way, Parallels is on it. [Yahoo! News]
• So Fat, You Can Taste It
  The presence of fat in food may be a kind of sense, or at least a distinct taste, and researchers suggest those with less fat on their bodies can taste more fat in foods. [Slashfood]

Business cards have long been the networking tool that kept your business-contact list growing, but in a digital age, they seem a little outdated. Weblog WebWorkerDaily argues that we still need them; we're not so sure. What do you think?

WebWorkerDaily's take:

There are times when even the most web-oriented among us have to meet with people face-to-face. Being able to hand out a business card does more than guarantee that they have your contact information and even goes beyond making it easy to pass it along. It can help establish your professionalism. Depending on the type of work you do, there can be some difficulty in reminding your contacts that you're a professional — after all, you spend most of your day at home or the coffee shop. But little touches like a professional business card can really help remind clients and colleagues that you are a professional, no matter where you're working at.

This editor just begrudgingly re-ordered a fresh batch of dead-tree business cards in preparation for a trip to SXSW, which, frankly, is the only place I ever hand them out. So I'm curious:

Obviously it depends a lot on what kind of work you do and the culture of that work, but let's hear specifics for why you do or don't keep business cards on hand in the comments.

While we love a tech-filled geek cave, an elegant workspace with a great view makes working a pleasure. Today's featured workspace has a beautiful desk, a pleasing environment, and a view of Boston.

Not everyone needs triple monitors or an army of peripherals and being able to work productively with just a laptop goes a long way towards having a clear and airy workspace—cable management is, at it's best after all, camouflaging something that's there to appear as if it isn't.

Lifehacker reader CosmoComet, when he's commuting and working from Boston proper several day a week, finds himself working at this nearly invisible glass and acrylic workspace—he can look right through his desk to see Beacon Street below. Check out a wider view of the workspace in the photos below.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

• Top 10 Android Apps (Android)
  Android's been around for more than a year, and in that time developers have whipped up some great apps. Whether you're a new Android owner or a pro looking for new tools, these 10 great and free apps belong in your arsenal.
• Disk Space Fan Analyzes Hard Drive Space with a Dash of Eye Candy (Windows)
  Free utility Disk Space Fan analyzes your hard drive usage to help you determine what's taking up space on your hard drive, representing it all with fancy visualization eye candy.
• Opera 10.5 Final for Windows Brings the Speed (Windows)
  As expected, Opera made version 10.5 of its browser official this morning, calling it "the fastest browser on Earth" and also touting its Windows 7 integration, HTML5 video support, better private browsing, and more.
• Free Alternatives to the MacHeist nanoBundle 2 (Mac)
  Popular shareware software bundler and discounter MacHeist has released a new bundle, offering up 7 premium apps for $20. If you don't feel like shelling out the dough despite the hefty discount, let's take a look at free alternatives.
• Sonar Power Manager Controls Your Computer with Actual Sonar (Windows)
  Sleeping your computer is a useful way to save energy, but free utility SonarPM takes power management an awesome step further: It puts your computer to sleep automatically when you walk away from your desk—using sonar.
• Rapportive Replaces Gmail Ads with Contact Info, Is Very Cool (Firefox/Chrome)
  Sure it's nice and all that we get Gmail for free, but those ads to the right of open messages aren't really all that helpful. Free browser add-on Rapportive replaces Gmail ads with contact info about the sender.
• Squeeze Saves Hard Drive Space on Your Mac, Is Free Today, Seems Almost Magical (Mac)
  If you're quickly running out of space on your hard drive (or backup drive), free-for-today preference pane Squeeze lowers the footprint of large files by compressing any folder—without requiring anything fancy to read it again.
• How to Add Location Awareness to Your Windows 7 PC (Windows)
  GPS-enabled smartphones make it easy to get directions, weather, and many more location based services since they automatically know where you are. With Geosense, you can bring this functionality to any Windows 7 computer even if it doesn't have a GPS chip.
• Firefox 4.0 Alpha 2 + Chrome-Like Plug-In Isolation = Fewer Browser Crashes (Windows/Mac/Linux)
  Mozilla's second Developer Preview of Firefox 4.0's framework and back-end highlights a feature we'd heard was coming: separate processes for plug-ins. That means if (when) Flash or another plug-in crashes, there's a good chance your browser won't go with it.
• KeeFox Integrates KeePass and Firefox (At Long Last) (Firefox)
  KeeFox brings tight integration between the cross-platform, open-source password manager KeePass and Firefox, providing automatic logins, form filling, and more.

This week we showed you where you can listen to great music online, demystified the Windows Registry, helped you see what Big Brother knows about you, and more.

• Five Best Music Streaming Services
  The internet has revolutionized nearly every form of media, and music is no exception. This week we look at the five most popular music streaming services to see how people are getting their music fix.
• What's the Registry, Should I Clean It, and What's the Point?
  There's nothing more mysterious on a Windows PC than the Registry, and today we'll explain exactly what it is, how it works, and whether you should bother cleaning it.
• The Day Trader's Paradise
  What do you get when you have space for a custom office setup, a good amount of cash, and the vision to make it all happen? Dozens of monitors and the need for your own personal power plant.
• Run a Total Background Check on Yourself with Free Online Tools
  Consumer-advocate blog Consumerist is always looking to help you keep tabs on Big Brother and any of your personal information He's tracking. Toward that end, their comprehensive list of online background-checking tools is worth a look.
• Top 10 Android Apps
  Android's been around for more than a year, and in that time developers have whipped up some great apps. Whether you're a new Android owner or a pro looking for new tools, these 10 great and free apps belong in your arsenal.
• The Easy, Any-Browser, Any-OS Password Solution
  Whenever we talk passwords, we always preach the same thing: Use strong, difficult-to-remember passwords, and different passwords for every site. Easy to say, extremely difficult to do through sheer willpower.
• The Best Things to Buy in March
  You've been diligently checking back on our guide to the best times to buy anything, all year round at the start of every month, right? No? Well, let's go ahead and refresh your memory on what's discounted and off-season in March.
• Exercise or Not, Sitting at a Desk All Day Is Bad for You
  We've been proponents of standing desks and treadputers for some time, but we've also met with plenty of reader skepticism on the subject. The New York Times examines why sitting all day is so bad for you, whether or not you exercise.
• Speed Up Your Shirt-Hanging Routine with a Simple Trick
  We love the two-second t-shirt folding technique we featured a few years back, but if you're more of a hanger than a folder, home blog Apartment Therapy's got a few pointers to help you speed up getting your shirts on hangers.
• 750 Words Clears Your Mind, Gets Ideas Flowing
  In his web-site-turned-book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far, Stefan Sagmeister says keeping a diary supports personal development. I couldn't agree more.

MetaFilter founder and blogger Matt Haughey spent some time recently watching Pawn Stars (the History channel's "blue collar version of Antiques Roadshow"), and after a few episodes learned some solid negotiation lessons from the folks at the pawn shop.

The video above offers a few pointers for how to approach a pawn shop when you're looking to sell things, but Haughey also extracts a pattern for the negotiations that take place in Pawn Stars that seem applicable to nearly any negotiation.

The best part is the negotiation stage. I'm a terrible negotiator and in the past I've only done bargaining for new cars over email, since I completely fail trying to persuade lower prices from someone standing in front of me. I'm fascinated at how consistently Rick pulls a fairly low price for items and there is a general pattern to the procedure worth knowing.

Hit up his post for the breakdown, especially if you, like Haughey (and this editor), aren't generally skilled at negotiation. While you're getting your haggle on, don't forget the golden rule of negotiation.