Gmail Adds Group Chat and Emoticons

Group chat has finally found its way to gmail’s instant messaging system. So right there while you have your email inbox open, you can chat with multiple people at one time. Start a group chat by clicking on the Options link at the bottom of a conversation window. You’ll now see “Group Chat” as a new option. Once that’s selected, just type in the name of the person you’d like to add to your current conversation.

Vista SP1 public beta to hit in December?

Speed boost or no, all of you clamoring for some hot Vista SP1 action will be able to get a beta-style fix in December, according to ZDNet. Apparently "selected testers" will get a release candidate in the first week of the month, with general availability to come the week after. ZDNet says the current SP1 build being tested is 17051, but it's not clear whether that's the version to be released or not. Like all things SP1, looks like we'll just have to wait and see.

Google Reader Adds Recommendations & Drag-and-Drop Folders

Google Reader has made two improvements to its interface, one Web 2.0-ish and the other pretty darn useful. The change Reader users will really appreciate is the ability to simply grab newly-added feeds and place them in their folders—no more clicking through menu bars, which really helps when doing multi-feed updates. The other new addition is recommendations, which can be found in the "Discover" link and points you to feeds based on your current list, your search history and your location. As you can see, Reader probably knows you better than you'd think.

Tekzilla Episode 10 - Drobo vs. RAID, Next Gen DVD, Macbook Pro Fix

Drobo vs. Terastation. How much will Blu-ray and HD DVD cost this year? Rock Band! Shelfari. Miro instead of iTunes. Fast Macbook Pro Fix. Should I buy Turbo Memory?

The Totally Rad Show Episode 36 - Radish

A very important warning about Southland Tales! The guys man up and form a Rock Band. Does the Wii Zapper hit the mark with Link's Crossbow Training? Plus, indie comics, Black Hole and Street Angel.

The Pirate Bay Goes Web 2.0

The Pirate Bay has a new feature: click on an audio torrent and (in some cases) you’ll get an option to view “detailed artist info”, which brings a neat list of albums and songs by that artist, a tag cloud of related artists, and an embedded Last.FM radio widget which lets you listen to the artist right on the spot.

Google Experimenting With Digg Style Voting On Search Results

This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you’ll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you’ve made. At the moment the results of the program will only be stored per user and not applied to the general search index, so that sites buried (”I don’t like”) will not appear in future results for the user, where as sites voted up will stay up. Google Labs notes that “this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks.”

Diggnation Episode 125 - Goth Kids and the Olive Garden

Busted on Facebook, Real Life Akira Motorcycle, Lose a Race, Dude - you're getting a Dell kid FOUND, Squirrel Playing Dead, Creative Beggar, Zombie Attack in Ancient Egypt

Tekzilla Episode 9 - Black Friday Shopping, $500 PC, Cheap GPS

$500 PC: Parts. Black Friday Shopping Tips. Cheap GPS. Sidewalk Astronomy. HTPC Hardware for Blu-ray and HD DVD Movies, Your Fave $20 Headphones!

The Totally Rad Show Episode 35 - Yip Yip

It's Thanksgiving, and we're thankful for Avatar: The Last Airbender! Does Beowulf out-epic 300? Is Assassin's Creed worth crusading? Why did it take us so long to find Grath Marenghi's Dark Place? Plus, the guys cook a turkey!

Tekzilla Episode 8 - DIY Media Server, Cheap Notebooks, Songza and Songbird

The simplest DIY media server. Ex Machina. Using the Xbox 360 HD DVD with your PC. Find Music: Songza and Songbird. Cheap Notebooks, Buying Online, is WiFi 802.11n done yet?

Diggnation Episode 124 - Beware of Herpes

Xbox 360 in Japan, Rabbit avoids death, Star Wars in one pic, Downloadable Xbox games, Circuit City scandal, Peter Griffin lives!, Blu-Ray DRM cracked

Google Mobile Maps Updates

Google Maps has added some new ways for you to find your way using your mobile device. You’ve now got contacts integration and GPS functionality on Windows Mobile, for version 2003 or higher. There’s also GPS-Enabled Google Maps for the rest of us to use, as well as an optimized version for your Treo and your Blackberry. And some stuff that’s been rolled out on the web version of Google Maps and Earth that’s now available on its mobile implementation: real-time traffic conditions, favorite places and routes, and additional details for businesses marked on your maps.

iFlix iPhone Netflix Queue App

I got five words for you: Drag and Drop Netflix Queue. This app by Brent Jensen that supports multiple accounts, downloads thumbnails of movies, lists new and top 100 movies, also has a search function.

New Phone Features NES Emulator with Controller

This is the new Lenovo i909 cellphone, which has standard-issue features like a 2.4-inch TFT display, 2-megapixel camera, microSD memory card slot, mp3 and video player. But it also has an NES emulator on board, and it comes with a controller that snaps on to the phone to make it a little Game-Boy-like device. It is, in a word, badass. The bad news? It's headed to China and only to China.

iPhone Users Can Now Drop Data Plan

For those of you who keep your iPhone connected via WiFi entirely more often than through EDGE, listen up. As of now, it appears that iPhone users can login to their AT&T myAccount page, surf on over to the "Add / Manage Features" section and opt out of the (previously required) monthly data plan. Making the change will save you a whole $20 per month -- or $240 per year, if you prefer that perspective. Granted, you'll also lose visual voicemail in the process, but at least you're now being presented the option, right?

YouTube HD Coming Soon

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen confirmed that YouTube was testing HD video but qualified the statement by stating that YouTube is primarily focused on providing content to everyone, which doesn’t necessarily facilitate a HD product. Chen spoke on the difficulties on providing a watchable HD product to many, including buffering times that don’t drive viewers away. Chen told CNet that the first High Quality content on YouTube should be available within 3 months.

Two Sneak Peeks Into Harry Potter 6

We've reached into our unofficial Harry Potter lexicon of spells and such to bring you two sneak peeks at the upcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, being released next November. For now, satisfy yourself with these. Oh, and quidditch is back!

The Totally Rad Show Episode 34 - Sess

It's Super Mario's Galaxy and we're just living in it: the Wii's new Mario reviewed! No Country for Old Men: The Coens' best film? Call of Duty 4: Game, or bad-ass simulator? Plus, more questions from the forum!

Top Ten Hottest Girl Gamers of 2007

She's only #7. Enjoy.

Demonoid Down: Hosts Threatened by CRIA

The Canadian Record Industry Association threatened the company renting to them, so they're down again.

Catch Up on your TV Addictions with Sidereel

Explore the legitimate and more *ahem* fan-driven ways to watch, read about, and discuss your favorite television addictions at Sidereel, a wiki-driven site that also aggregates links and clips for music and movies. The site offers RSS feeds for each show's content, but its best value may be its archive of links to episodes from previous seasons, both on the network sites and elsewhere. It's free to browse and click through Sidereel, but contributing to the wiki pages requires a free sign-up. For more ways to keep current on your TV fixes, check out Adam's Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows.

Better Gmail 2 Firefox Extensio for New Gmail

If all of your Greasemonkey scripts have stopped working like mine did since the new Gmail arrived, then this might be the solution for you.

The Voice Behind GOOG-411's Fetch Audio

One of the things that makes the GOOG-411 directory service awesome — besides the fact that it’s free — is that cool “bippedy-bippedy-bippedy” sound it makes while searching. And now, for the first time ever, the man behind the “bips” (and the voice of 1-800-GOOG-411) breaks his silence to talk about that famous sound.

Tekzilla Episode 7 - Tartan Racing, Eee PC, IMAP for Gmail, Tumblr, and Guitar Hero 3

Robots Drive: DARPA Urban Challenge. Asus Eee PC = tiny, not powerful, fun. IMAP support for Gmail. Tumblr 3.0. MozBackup. Veronica Belmont plays Guitar Hero 3

Diggnation Episode 123 - Ruining Kevin's Couch

Get laid in 1977, 160 billion dollar typo, woman gets stabbed by hitchhiker, geeky weddings, Radiohead sells 1.2 million, Human race to split into 2 species, wi-fi for digital cameras

Opera Mini 4 Released

Opera Mini 4 delivers several new features for quicker scrolling, navigation and page rendering. This newest release also includes optimized features for BlackBerry devices, Landscape Mode (so — if you prefer to — you can now view your content sideways) and the ability to sync your Bookmarks and Speed Dial with those on your Computer. Opera Mini 4 now enables you to take your full Web experience and digital lifestyle with you — everywhere you go. Opera Mini 4 is free, so download it now!

Video: Mario Party DS Trailer and Screens

Screenshots

Helio Refreshed Devices

Helio is now offering referbished Oceans at a rediculously awesome price of $99.

First Look at Firefox 3.0

The Totally Rad Show Episode 33 - Vomitsation

Is American Gangster the next great American gangster film? Guitar Hero 3: Does it rock on? Crysis: Is it worth upgrading your PC? Eye of Judgment: Have trading card games just evolved? Plus, the new Wanted trailer!

(Updated 10/14) Systm Episode 24 & 25 - The Month of MAME: The Cabinet

A month of MAME? Absolutley. David has a dream of building a superior classic arcade game emulator, so we're building a full size cabinet from the ground up. Get your quarters!

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Our arcade sized MAME case is taking a bit longer to build than we expected. So we’re spending a second episode building our classic arcade emulator. In part II: plastic wood, cutting vent holes, and lots of sanding!

Diggnation Episode 122 - Trent Reznor's Halloween Spectacular

Skull cake, Trent Reznor, Halloween costumes to piss people off, Google Phone, Nintendo Friend Codes, HD Military Simulator, Zombie Apocalypse

Tekzilla Episode 6 - $20 Headphones, TED, Mobo Battery

$20 Headphones, Body Worlds 2, Jessica Loves TED, Replace your Motherboard Battery, New Cell Phones, Firefox Goes Guerrilla