Cody Taylor

reifman links to his thorough and thoughtful review of the experience of reading a newspaper on the Kindle 2. “I’ve been eager to try The New York Times on the Kindle 2; here’s my review with a basic video walk-through and screenshots. I give the Kindle 2 version of The Times a B. Software updates could bring it up to an A-. Kindle designers should have learned more from the iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, my Kindle display scratched less than 24 hours after it arrived. As I detail in the review, Amazon customer service was not very accommodating. Is it my fault — or will Kindle 2 evolve into an Apple 1G Nano-like .5M settlement? You can read about Hearst’s e-reader for newspapers from earlier today on Slashdot.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The stains left behind by spilled coffee have inspired a new way to make ultrathin, transparent conductive coatings for LCD and plasma flat-screens.

Twitter’s web interface is simple and intuitive but lacks a few features that can make it much better. In this article, you’ll read about 10 excellent user interface features that can enhance the Twitter web experience.

Wow! Apple has now almost 11% of the browser market, well at least on one day. But it appears that Safari 4 had a great start.

Cops, jails, hospitals, and even theaters argue they have legitimate reasons to block cell phone communications.

Among the crowded field of cloud sharing and file synchronization services, there are plenty of interesting options (we’ve been partial to Dropbox around here, but check around for more), but when you add ‘must work well with iPhone’ to the requirements list, the choices narrow a bit.

With the complete amateur in mind who has no technical knowledge whatsoever, we are going to show you how to build your own PC! This is a guide where we literally ‘hold your hand’ every step of the way.

theodp writes “A 2004 study found some 10 million women lacking a cervix were still getting Pap tests. Only problem is, a Pap test screens for cervical cancer — no cervix, no cancer. With this tale, Newsweek’s Sharon Begley makes her case for comparative-effectiveness research (CER), which is receiving billion under the stimulus bill for studies to determine which treatments, including drugs, are more medically sound and cost-effective than others for a given ailment. Physicians, Begley says, must stop treatments that are rooted more in local medical culture than in medical science, embrace practices that have been shown scientifically to be superior to others, and ignore critics who paint CER as government control of doctors’ decision-making.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

almechist writes “Many Netflix customers are up in arms over the new instant-watch player powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight. The official Netflix blog is full of complaints from users who decry not only the new player’s quality but also the way it’s being distributed, with many claiming they were deceived into downloading it. Once you opt for the new player, the old Windows Media based player won’t function, not on any computer associated with the account. The new player is supposedly still beta, but NF members are strongly encouraged (some say tricked) by NF into the so-called ‘upgrade,’ which is permanent — there is no way to opt out. The marked decrease in video quality seen by those who have switched is perhaps not surprising, since the old player could utilize bit streams up to twice as fast as the new one, but this information is nowhere given out by NF. So far NF has been answering all complaints with variations on ‘tough luck pal, you’re stuck with it,’ but many customers are so disgusted they’re ready to cancel their NF membership. This could be a public relations disaster in the making for Netflix.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Matthew Dent’s new coinage for the UK was pretty great, but this Dutch commemorative coin is a fully contemporary chunk of wow.