Steve Job’s first posthumous release — the iPhone 4S — is getting a lot of buzz for its new “personal assistant”, Siri, who’s supposed to be really good at setting up meetings and booking hotel rooms for high-powered types. Or finding the nearest hookers for alt-weekly staffers, apparently. Yesterday, we…
A Dutch airline had already booked up an entire flight to Miami using Twitter, so it was only a matter of time until a cruise ship company tries the same. This November, Norwegian Cruise Lines will set sail with what its claiming is the world’s first Twitter-themed cruise. Personally, a…
A modern-day nightmare swept greater Miami-Dade yesterday afternoon. AT&T’s 3G cell service completely ceased to work, leaving thousands of iPhone and other smartphone addicts without on-the-go access to their precious, precious Twitters, Foursquare and Words With Friends. The unimaginable horror was almost too much to bear. We’re frankly just relieved…
A Miami Internet entrepreneur is looking to bank on the demise of MySpace. Tedd Bernard is chief executive of Almostfamous.com, a small company developing a social media platform for musicians to interact with fans and talent agents.”Now that MySpace is dying, Almost Famous can step in to create an environment…
The number of deal-of-the-day websites continues to expand in South Florida at an annoying rate, and it was only a matter of time until someone tried to tailor the deal-site trend to the nightclub world. Recently, Venugo — more akin to hotel sites such as Expedia than Groupon — launched…
We know some people whose entire linen closets look like they’ve been stocked from “accidentally packed” towels and robes from hotels. Well, Linen Technology Tracking, a Miami-based company, wants to put an end to the surprisingly common crime of snatching a hotel’s good linen. They’ve invented small waterproof chips that…
You wouldn’t know it from polling that indicates Floridians increasingly think the state is heading in the wrong direction, or our emotional health rankings from the Gallup Well-Being Survey, but apparently Florida is one of the happiest states in the nation. At least on Twitter…
More than two decades of Miami’s best is available today on our new Best Of… app for iPhone. That’s right. You can check out categories like Best Dance Club, Best New Restaurant, Best Bar, Best Hotel, and many others.The app lets you check out not only current winners — this…
Deal of the Day websites seems to be out of control in South Florida. Today, Miamians can log into Groupon for a deal on a sailboat ride. They can head over to Gilt City for discounts on three-course meals, keratin treatments, and custom shirts. Poll Dancing lesson fees are slashed…
Miami has no use for your antiquated wires. According to a survey of small-business owners and employees conducted by AT&T, Miami is the wireless-savviest business market in America. It shouldn’t really come as a surprise that Miamians are addicted to their cell phones and other Wi-Fi devices, though…
Justin Bieber, Chatroulette, and the iPad were the three fastest-rising search terms in 2010, according to Google’s recently released annual zeitgeist report. Every year, Google analyzes billions of searches to reveal emerging trends in web surfing. The search giant breaks down the results by region and worldwide. We are sad…
Art Basel Miami Beach is a confusing carnival of art. Sure there’s gallery assistants there to help you, but let’s be honest, they’re probably busy talking to someone who’s looking to buy something. There’s the multi-pound mega catalog, but that’s impractical to tote around and browse through. So unless you’re…
Black Friday is a vicious “holiday.” It’s a wretched display of hyper-consumerism, and anyone–who isn’t homeless–that spends the night outside of a big-box retailer deserves to choke on a wishbone. Saving a few bucks on a 42-inch LCD television is rad, but not if you risk giving passers a migraine…
Admittedly, the Miami New Times tech department isn’t all that comfortable text messaging, let alone reporting scientific breakthroughs. We’re as impressed by $15 laptop cooling accessories, as we are by 3-D holograms of Will.i.am. But that’s the beauty of our blog; we learn about technology together…
A typical week at Miami New Times involves long hours of intense typing and photo cropping, web browsing, and transcribing. Needless to say, our three-year-old MacBook Pro undergoes a series of vigorous tests each week, and is often on the verge of internally combusting.As reported on Monday, we bought a…
Imagine Celia Cruz or Bob Marley’s ghost appearing on stage, right in front of you, and performing in all their holographic glory, real as if they were still alive.Sound far-fetched? Media Stage, a South Florida audio, visual, and lighting production service, teamed up with UK-based Musion to bring the first…
It’s our first day at the Miami New Times new offices, and to celebrate, we treated ourselves to a fancy, ergonomic laptop cooling dock from diamond-in-the-rough retailer, Kohl’s, in Hialeah.First, a brief explanation as to why we need said fancy, ergonomic laptop machine.Last week, we noticed that the bottom of…
Engadget leaked pictures of an alleged PlayStation phone late last evening that has generated more buzz than a PS3 controller vibrates.According to their website, the Sony Ericsson phone will likely run on the Android 3.0 operating system, features a screen anywhere between 3.7 and 4.1 inches, and support microSD cards…
The Sony Walkman’s tape deck once reigned supreme in the consumer electronics market as the quintessential music gadget for people on the move. Its affordability and compact size appealed to a diverse cross-section of consumers, and since its inception in 1979, Sony has sold more than 200 million units around…
A recent “breakthrough” in modern technology and contemporary medicine may be a sign that machines will eventually overtake humans and control the world.A robot at Canada’s McGill University Health Centre recently performed the world’s first all-robotic surgical procedure, a prostatectomy. Real-life doctors controlled the Da Vinci Si robodoc from a…
We recently teamed up with Cleveland Scene for an unconventional clothing drive. Rather than burning beautiful, barely-worn LeBron Cavs jerseys in front of Quicken Loans Arena, we encouraged former LBJ fans to help clothes Miami’s homeless by donating their unwanted NBA gear.As a result, about a hundred down-on-their-luck guys and…
MySpace has always been a safe haven for artists, weirdos, and perverts to promote their personal brands. It was the go-to site for horny teens hoping to find pictures of semi-nude, barely legal co-eds in thongs. But now the site that made self-shot, flip phone profile pictures popular is living…
