* LATEST COOL TOOLS COLUMN: Two services to light up your holidays The world's first "matchmaking service" between consumer and electronics, Retrevo lets users search for consumer electronics products based on people's individual needs or choices. The site uses artificial intelligence algorithms to determine the "value" of a product, based on product feature sets, prices and brand names, as well as the "community value" that is based on thousands of expert product reviews and individual user recommendations scattered across the Web. The site includes advice on more than 40 categories of consumer electronics items, including digital cameras, HDTVs, camcorders and GPS devices. * LATEST FROM NETWORK WORLD PANORAMA: Streaming content to a desktop near you Content delivery networks play an increasingly important role in delivering large files - software downloads, music and video - to users across the Internet. Network World's Jason Meserve talks with Mike Gordon, co-founder and chief strategy officer, and Dave Hatfield, senior vice president of worldwide sales, services and marketing, at Limelight Networks about the business of content delivery, particularly when it comes to high-definition video. (7:25) The skinny on GNU GPLv3 Doug Levin, CEO of Black Duck Software, talks with Network World's Jason Meserve about The Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License version 3 (GPLv3), what it means for software developers and clears up some of the confusion over licensing terms. (14:26) * LATEST COOL TOOLS BLOG: Harass me with your holiday gift questions On Wednesday, Nov. 28, Keith Shaw took part in a live online text chat session with readers, fielding questions about gadgets, personal technology, and holiday gift ideas. The transcript of the Q&A will be posted here - check back soon! Taking a long-deserved break After being buried in hundreds of boxes over the past few months by eager technology vendors wishing to be in the Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide, I've decided to take a quick break. Sure, you may think my job is really cool in that I get to open up boxes and play with tech toys, but consider that I also had to test a lot of systems with Windows Vista on it this year. Now tell me I don't deserve a quick vacation. Update: Robot company gets $5M order A few months ago I wrote an item about the Adept Quattro s650 robot, and how the look of it reminded me of the 1984 film 'Runaway', in which scary spider-like robots threaten society. Use your Bluetooth headset as a walkie-talkie The new Dragon Bluetooth headset ($119.99, available now) by Callpod not only provides noise-cancellation features and simultaneous pairing between a Bluetooth mobile phone and a PC using Skype, but the coolest feature may be that it can pair with a second Dragon headset for two-way radio communications over a 250,000 square-foot area. Let your cell phone call you fat This week Sensei launched a mobile phone application that allows users to have a "personal digital coach," which will give you motivational messages when you're at the store eyeing that box of Ring Dings. Elsewhere on NetworkWorld.com: When toys and collaboration merge Need an excuse to buy the Xbox game Rock Band for your – ehem -- kids? Collaboration expert Sue Hanely is giving you one. It is the perfect example of collaboration, where gamers work together (instead of try to kill one another). |
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