Friday, April 01, 2011

It’s April Fools Day, But No Pranks Here

Oh yes, its April 1, the day when the tech industry and those who write about it play pranks on unsuspecting readers like you and me. In fact, one got me earlier today, but only for a couple of minutes.  I was just up, barely having attacked my first cup of coffee, but awake enough to browse the latest stories. Lo and behold, I find a story that says Microsoft is leaving the home computer market after the release of Windows 8.

With my brain a little foggy, I bought it for a few minutes, until a glance at my calendar told me it was April 1st. Then it hit. Duh! they got me, but only briefly.  Just in case, I checked the other major news outlets and discovered no one else was carrying the story. Then I knew. What got me is that there was some credence to this being a real story.

For a look at some of the great April Fools jokes running around the Internet today, check out story #1. But, rest assured, all the stories here have been vetted for any possible pranks. Enjoy your weekend. - JRC

April Fools' Day 2011--who's gonna get you, sucka?

For years now, the tech industry has been a sucker for the "gotcha" moment every April 1. Teams at companies large and small cook up clever gadgets and widgets and such that sound ever so almost plausible. Or not. In case you hadn't already noticed, April Fools' Day is here again. A flurry of pranks has descended upon us via the Web. Some of them are quite smart and might just elicit a few chuckles from even the most cynical of us. Others are just plain goofy.

How Amazon has outsmarted the music industry (and Apple)

What Apple took away, Amazon has restored.  I’m talking, of course, about Lala, the pioneering digital music service that Apple purchased in December 2009 and shut down more than a year ago. The first thing Apple did, almost immediately after purchasing the company, was to disable its Music Mover feature, which allowed Lala members to upload their personal music collections to a cloud-based locker where they could play it from any web browser.

Browser Wars

When it comes to choosing a Web browser today, you're spoiled for choice. Major new releases Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 have brought these two big name browsers to near parity with upstart Google Chrome and longtime innovator Opera. The current crop of surfing software all include plenty of speed, minimized interfaces for a better look at that site you're browsing, and support for the emerging HTML5 standard markup language.

How to Buy the Best Tablet

Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom and upcoming second-generation Samsung Galaxy Tabs taking aim at the iPad. Upon first glance, the upcoming RIM BlackBerry PlayBook also looks to be quite the competitor, with its own operating system and the ability to run some Android apps. So which of the plethora of deceivingly similar-looking tablets is worth your sizable investment? Let's look at the key factors you need to consider:

Best Free BitTorrent Client

Since its inauspicious public appearance 8 years ago Bittorrent has become one of the major download formats. With good reason too: it's fast, equitable and efficient. If you haven't yet installed a Bittorrent client on your PC, you should as there are some great freeware clients available.   In Bittorrent the best clients are free.  (In fact, if a client costs money, it is most likely a scam).

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