So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name ... Read more »

Third-party Twitter apps have access to nearly all of Twitter's functions. Even the new lists feature and the new retweet format can be supported by any ambitious developer. It's sort of strange then, that Twitter's people search is just now getting an API. Now that this missing API is finally here, the ability to search for users should be popping up in your favorite Twitter program very ... Read more »

In rather shocking news this morning, The Pirate Bay (TPB) has shut down its torrent tracker. The search engine remains, but instead of dishing up torrents it will instead serve as a magnet-link repository. TPB cites that the concept of the BitTorrent tracker is dead. "There is no need to run a tracker any more" says their blog. Long-live DHT and PEX -- dynamic, decentralized torrenting ... Read more »

We've all been there; we've got a problem with our server, laptop, PC, website, or blog, and have tried to solve it for hours with no success. At some point, we reach that point where we're absolutely certain that it's just some dumb thing that we're overlooking or forgetting to check. If you've ever found yourself in that situation, you'll probably want to bookmark a list of dumb things to ... Read more »

One program people I know miss when they've tried to switch to Linux is iTunes. Like it or not, Apple's desktop app has gained the reputation of being the place to buy music and video downloads. But iTunes on Linux? Fuhgettaboutit. That leaves an opportunity for someone in the Linux community to step up and deliver an alternative. Enter Canonical, who may be preparing to do just that in time ... Read more »

This morning Adobe is launching a beta version of Flash Player 10.1 with support for hardware decoding of H.264 Flash video. In other words, if you have a supported graphics card (PDF link), you should be able to watch high definition and high quality Flash video without killing your CPU. This comes as particularly good news for people who have picked up small laptops and nettops based on the ... Read more »

We've had a love-hate relationship with Adobe Air since it arrived on our desktops. Ram-hungry apps had us seeing red. Still, a few killer apps helped drive adoption - apps like TweetDeck, Times Reader 2.0, and DeskTube. As Air continued to develop, it got leaner and meaner and now version 2 has arrived in beta. Adobe Air 2 is now here, and it's ready to get down to business. Air 2 features a ... Read more »

Google Translate just got a lot better, with a nice, clean new look and several new features. The first thing you'll notice is that you no longer have to click to translate. Translate now works instantly, as you type. If you're trying to translate something into a language with a non-Roman alphabet (like Chinese, for example) Google will also show the phonetic pronunciation underneath the ... Read more »

It feels like it's been years since Microsoft released SyncToy 2.0. That's probably because it has been. But when you have a utility that's dead simple to use that lets you synchronize files between two folders, hard drives, or other storage media, why bother updating it? But SyncToy 2.0 wasn't exactly perfect, so Microsoft recently pushed out version 2.1 which features a handful of bug fixes and ... Read more »

TinyChat has evolved from an ultra-light chatroom service (no sign-up required) into a quick way of setting up video chats. Now it's going one step further, launching a stream video service similar to UStream. This new project is called Tinychat.tv, and anyone can use it to start their own web-based broadcast. Tinychat.tv pages are customizable, and bandwidth is free and unlimited, making ... Read more »

Have you been itching to download applications from the Windows Marketplace on your Windows Mobile smartphone, but been thwarted by the fact that your device runs Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1 instead of the shiny new WinMo 6.5? Well, fret no more. Microsoft is making its answer to the iPhone app store available for all phones running Windows Mobile 6.0 and up. Sure, anyone stuck with an aging ... Read more »

. There's been plenty of buzz today about the Office 2010 public beta. Download links have gone live for Technet and MSDN subscribers, but as for the general public - they're left browsing yet another Microsoft tease. Head over to the Office beta download page, and you'll see three links to chose from. Pick any one you like. The result's the same, a redirect to a page that says "Hey, Office 2010 ... Read more »

I've been using Mozilla Weave to keep my Firefox profiles synched across different machines and platforms for quite some time. Today, Mozilla Labs has announced that the add-on is finally ready for official beta testing. Version 1.0b1 is out now and available for installation. Version 0.8 is still listed in the Firefox add-ons directory, but it should install the newest release. If you're ... Read more »

If you're one of the folks sporting a Palm Pre, it's time to check for updates as you'll want to grab the WebOS 1.3.1 update that dropped over the weekend (at least for Sprint customers in the US). Whilst there's no new applications, the update (which weighs in at 126MB) packs a tonne of features and improvements that you'll probably want add, including support for Yahoo! as a synchronization ... Read more »

[Update] The folks from A Story Before Bed contacted us and have offered a coupon code that allows users to try the site including sharing a story for free. The code is good until the end of November. Just enter MT9C-WN6Y-TF6J at the point of checkout, when you're asked to pay for the story you recorded. Having to be away from your young children at bedtime is probably the absolute worst part ... Read more »