Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

arstechnica posts

Filed under: Business, Internet, Blogging

Cond Nast scoops up Ars Technica for Wired

Conde Nast aquires Ars Technica to add to WiredCondé Nast Publications (which owns Wired, Wired.com, and a whole bunch of major magazines) has agreed to purchase Ars Technica for an undisclosed sum.

According to TechCrunch, Ars will be placed under the Wired Digital umbrella under CondéNet, which was made whole with the 2006 acquisition of Wired.com, and may be combined with Wired and Wired.com. The sale will be announced some time in the next week, Mashable has confirmed.

Ars looks to be a good fit for Wired and Wired.com, especially given the similar styles of tech reporting available on on both networks. Both include traditional professional feature style reporting on technology and trends. Wired will benefit from the addition of the new writing staff and Ars will gain a new outlet from its reporting. We wouldn't be surprised to see their work appearing in other publications across the Condé Nast house. The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and even GQ (all Condé Nast publications) could stand to benefit from Gear and Gadgets and some of the other ongoing reporting from Ars Technica.

Read more →

Filed under: Fun, Video, News, Windows, Web services, Microsoft

Microsoft patents watching TV while chatting

microsoft patents chatting while watching tvThe scoop is on ArsTechnica. The patent is for a "multimode interactive television chat." Like Jeremy, I also worked for a company during the dotcom boom time that had the brilliant idea of embedding clickable links in QuickTime video content. Anyone seeing this today? I didn't think so. The holy grail of TV and interactivity may come to pass, however, if MS can figure out how to make it useful or at least fun. Personally I think it's boring enough to see "live" comments during a broadcast. Kinda like listening to the callers on QVC. I can't imagine it gets better interacting with the inane comments you're likely to see in the middle of a Cribs marathon. But I'm sure MS has plans to make TV chat a lot less annoying... right?

Filed under: Audio, OS Updates, Windows, Apple, Microsoft

Monaco - Microsoft's version of GarageBand?

monaco music microsoftYou mean Microsoft isn't going to quit making iLife-style apps just because Macs can boot into Windows? Well, I doubt Windows Movie Maker is going anywhere. And Max, Vista's photo application, is set to be a major selling point to the consumers out there. So I can only think Monaco, or Vista's answer to GarageBand, will also be at least a bullet point on the back of the box (which box remains a question). There's a heated discussion on this topic over at ArsTecnica's M-Dollar. One comment to note: Microsoft set out to dominate the office, which they did. Apple set out to dominate the creative studio, which they did. Now we see each traveling to the other corner of the ring (Apple's got rack-mountable servers, a true server OS, and iWork for what its worth), what will be the result? I can't wait to see the Monaco interface. I have been intrigued with Max, and it'll be interesting to see what Vista technologies are leveraged by Monaco in a similar fashion. So far not enough details have emerged about Monaco to make a call... Let the Studio battle begin!

Filed under: Google

Google to introduce paid TV downloads

GoogleArs Technica is reporting that tomorrow Google will be announcing a new video service that will "allow users to buy video content for pre-determined prices," and they're also planning to announce partnerships with CBS and the NBA. Ars has lots of juicy speculation, including whether they'll be offering downloads or only streaming video, if they'll use Flash video as Google Video currently does, and if this means we'll finally see the long-rumored Google Wallet. Google also plans to announce Google Pack, a software bundle which, says Ars, will include the obvious Google software like Desktop Search, Picasa, Google Earth, Google Talk, and more, but also some third party tools including "Google-tweaked" versions of Firefox, Acrobat Reader, Symantec anti-virus software, the malware remover Ad-Aware, multi-network IM client Trillian, and RealPlayer. I agree with Ars: Those last two choices are very curious indeed.

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

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 in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio