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Best Ultra-Portable Music Players

by Evan Shamoon, posted Jan 3rd 2009 at 12:15PMFeatured Story



Thinking about picking up a new pocketable media device? These days, it can be like choosing a new kind of deodorant: mildly overwhelming. We here at Switched are dedicated to minimizing your boredom, and this roundup of flash-based media players should help you decide on the most efficient way to achieve the ever-elusive Constant State of Media Entertainment zen. Flash-based media players are more pocketable than your standard-size iPod, and more durable as well: they don't have hard drives inside them, which means no delicate moving parts, which means they can be by your side at all times (the tradeoff, of course, is storage space and screen size). Here are seven compact media players worth your free time and money.

Top Tech Flops of 2008

by Evan Shamoon, posted Dec 31st 2008 at 6:55PMFeatured Story


Technology is by nature overhyped, so it follows that quite often some of that new technology -- be it a service, a gadget, or a site -- fails to live up to the promise. Every year brings some tech hits and some tech misses, and 2008 was no exception. We've compiled a list of the top 12 flops in the tech world. Some are old favorites that somehow fell from previous heights, while others burned bright for, like, a second, before crashing and burning in user disappointment and lackluster sales. Take a look.

12 Innovations Porn Has Brought to Technology

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Dec 24th 2008 at 10:18AM

Thank You Porn, for Giving us the Internet

Like it or not, but every major media format in the world has only been successful because of the embrace of the pornography industry. VHS over Betamax, Blu-ray over HD DVD, and, of course, the explosion of the Internet.

Seriously, you can thank porn for not only for the ubiquity of the 'Net, but also for many of the technologies that you've come to take for granted (though not all of them nice). PC World has collected a list of 12 things that you can thank porn for. Everything from online payment systems and live video chat to spyware and spam is credited as being popularized by pornography companies.

The speed of broadband adoption and the future of 3G service is also laid at the feed of the virtual sex trade. Check out the read link for the complete list of 12 things, both naughty and nice that porn brought us. From: PC World]

'Grey's Anatomy' Is the Top DVRd Show of 2008

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Dec 18th 2008 at 7:18AM

The great thing about the Internet is you can track absolutely everything. Stats about everything people do in their online lives can be compiled into handy lists. NewTeeVee, has compiled some of these lists of stats into a year end round up of the most DVRd shows, most Twittered shows, and most pirated movies.

According to numbers from Nielsen 'Grey's Anatomy' was the most recorded show of the year, though 'The Office' had the highest percentage of its viewers after it aired. TV themed Tweets were dominated by 'Heroes,' which crushed the second place 'CSI' with more than twice as many mentions, proving that Twitter is inhabited primarily by huge dorks. TorrentFreak's list of the most pirated films of the year is actually quite a head scratcher. The top five is dominated by films that were either critical failures, box office bombs, or both. 'Eagle Eye' tops the list, with 'Death Race,' 'Ghost Town,' Transporter 3,' and 'Babylon A.D.' rounding out the top 5. Apparently being tech savvy doesn't mean your taste in films is particularly sophisticated.

Check out the read link for the the post for the rest of the year end stats. [From: NewTeeVee]

Best HDTVs Under $1000

by Switched Staff, posted Dec 17th 2008 at 6:49PMFeatured Story



We hate to say it, particularly since you're probably trying to save money, but now is a pretty good time to buy an HDTV. Prices have never been lower for televisions of every shape, size, and technology. In fact, you can get an HDTV for less than $300, which is finally getting close to what a TV should cost. That said, if you're a movie watcher and have a big enough room, then we'd recommend spending a bit more for something in the 42-to-50-inch range. Guess what? You can still find some great TVs in that size for less than $1,000. So, in order of ascending price, take a look at our picks for best TVs under $1,000. [If you're looking for an explanation of all those TV and tech terms, make sure to take a look at 5 Things to Consider Before Buying an HDTV]. Don't forget to check out our slideshow of additional runner-up HDTV's under $1,000 at the end.

Best Viral Videos of 2008, Montage

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Dec 14th 2008 at 12:03PM



One of the best/worst things to come from YouTube and the Web 2.0 revolution has been the advent of the viral video. And despite their cult-ish nature, they've reached a point of popularity where they're getting their own year end list.

Videogum has put together a montage (check it out after the break) of what it thinks are the best viral videos of 2008, and all the biggies are there. Bill O'Reilly shouting about his teleprompter, Christian the Lion, and a group of animatronic bears performing an Usher track.

Check out the montage below to whet your appetite for more. And of course stay tuned for most year end coverage, 'tis the season... for list making. [From: Videogum, Via: BoingBoing]

Continue reading Best Viral Videos of 2008, Montage

The 20 Most Expensive Web Addresses

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 9th 2008 at 4:18PM



It used to be that you could pretty much get any address on the Web for free (or a small administration fee), but those days are long over. Now, if a company wants the perfect Web address for a new site, they may well have to shell out quite a bit of money. While most domain names (aka Web addresses) are still relatively inexpensive, there are a few that are well out of the average surfer's reach, says Dr. Mark J. Perry, professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan - Flint.

On his blog, Dr. Perry -- going off a report by Patent Kinetics -- lists the 20 most costly domain name purchases of the past decade, all of them going for well over a million dollars. Topping the list, Sex.com went for $14 million in 2006, beating out the second costliest (and the most expensive of this year) Fund.com by nearly $4 million.

After that latter Web site, 2008's priciest purchases were Pizza.com ($2,605,000), DataRecovery.com ($1,659,000) and Invest.com ($1,015,000). In light of the recession, it is telling that the latter two sites did not make the all-time top twenty list, while the former crept in at number 20. [From: Patent Kinetics via MJPerry.Blogspot.com]

The Top Computing Disasters of 2008

by Evan Shamoon, posted Dec 9th 2008 at 2:14PM



Since there's nothing to ring in holiday cheer like a computer-related disaster, the festive folks at ZDNet have compiled a list of the year's best.

Included are such gems as a man putting his laptop into the kitchen oven before going on vacation -- Why? To protect it from burglars -- only to have his wife come home and used the oven to cook a roast chicken (and a roast laptop).

Slightly more epic was an around-the-world sailing trip that nearly ended in computer tragedy, when the boat capsized on the last day of the trip, leaving the sailor fearing she'd lost the record of her trip (she eventually recovered it).

The lesson to be taken from such events? Communicate better with your wife, and backup your data (respectively), and everything will be okay. [From: ZDNet]

12 Classic Gadgets You Can Still Buy

by Jon Chase, posted Nov 11th 2008 at 7:18PMFeatured Story



In an era when fanboys start throwing tantrums if the iPod hasn't been updated in a couple months, and new cellphone models hit the store every week, we find comfort in tech that is made to last long enough to get a little dusty. Granted, that's increasingly harder to do, what with the explosion of new digital technologies in the past few decades and that pesky Moore's Law breathing down engineers' collective necks. But it's still possible. We've collected the dozen greatest gadgets of the ages that were built right the first time and therefore continue to stand the test of time. All of them are still available for purchase as new products today, most completely unchanged or only minimally so since when they were first introduced -- and the oldest one is over 100 years old. Hit the comments section up with any others you think we missed!

15 Scariest Ghost Videos on the Web

by Lee Bains, posted Oct 31st 2008 at 10:02PMFeatured Story



With Halloween finally here, folks are in a scary kind of mood. And since the economy is so scary itself right now, we decided to save you the bones you'd spend on renting 'Child's Play' 1 through 7, and instead give you links to 12 especially freaky (and free) ghost videos. Just don't blame us for the nightmares.

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