Super simple gift-giving for any occassion with Giftalogs [TNW Apps]

TNW Quick Hit

Giftalogs is a new service with the goal of helping one discover perfect gifts for anyone, on any occasion.

Hits: A super simple, collaborative, and organized way to make sure everyone receives the gifts they want for any special day.

Misses: Giftalogs could be made infinitely more useful with a calendar and/or notification feature to keep the Giftalogs manager and collaborators on task.

Overall: 4/5

The Details:

The holiday season is nigh upon us and for many it brings with it anxiety over what to get friends, family, spouses and others.  Unfortunately, holidays are not the only time such gift-giving concerns are raised.  Birthdays, weddings, and graduation celebrations, to name a few, also elicit similar feelings of gifting dread.

Giftalogs, a site still in beta, is the brainchild of Gift Notions LLC, founded by Caleb Ho, based in Seattle, WA.

How did Giftalogs come to pass?

?Caleb has always had a hard time coming up with good gifts ? he rarely have good gift ideas. Even when he does, he tends to forget them. Hence, giftalogs was born. Giftalogs is designed to help people (like or unlike Caleb) track gift ideas and save them for special occasions, and even get new ideas by inviting friends.?

?Giftalogs? goal is to help you find the perfect gift for every person and occasion in your life. Unlike generic ?gift-idea? sites, we don?t try to fit your loved ones into a bucket (?The techy dad?, ?The sporty girlfriend?). Instead, we make tools to help you figure out the ideal gifts for your unique recipients.?

Using Giftalogs is an easy as one can imagine.  Sign up, connect your Facebook and/or Twitter account and begin creating Giftalogs.

Being that it?s less than a month away from Christmas, I chose to create a Giftalog titled ?Christmas Ideas.?  Thereafter, one can add notes, I listed those I need to buy gifts for, and a deadline, before hitting ?Create? to generate a Giftalog.

After completing the initial steps, one can begin adding gift ideas for those on their list.  One can add gift ideas, a budget, a link to the gift itself, a description of the gift and an image of the gift.

If others have been invited to collaborate, they can offer their advice by voting the gift manager?s ideas up or down, and add comments.

Giftalogs is quite grand in its current version, but there is even more to come, including: providing one with organizational tools that ease gift-giving, help one get great gift ideas from others and make gift collaboration easier.

If you struggle with gift-giving, enjoy collaborating with siblings, other family members or friends on giving gifts, and need a tool to make the entire process fun and painless, Giftalogs just may be the answer for you.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/11/30/super-simple-gift-giving-for-any-occassion-with-giftalogs/

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House Censure: Humbling to Some, but Not All

In the genteel parliamentary history of the House of Representatives there lurk rowdy days of rough-and-tumble brawls, beatings, chokings, fistfights, upended hairpieces, stentorian demands for apologies unheeded and a lot of sneaky conduct and foul-mouth talk. Some did nothing bad, or almost nothing.

But they all wound up where Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem, is expected to find himself this week: in the well of the House, facing the shame of formal censure. The choreographed mortification ritual has played out more than a score of times since 1832. Convicted by peers, the transgressor ? all have been men ? stands before the assembled members and a packed gallery of spectators and reporters as the speaker reads the rebuke.

?What it?s saying is you?ve brought disgrace to the House of Representatives, you?ve discredited the institution that you serve in,? said Ilona Nickels, an author and expert on Congressional affairs. ?You have impugned the integrity of our proceedings. You?re a disgraceful person. And you?re going to stand there in the well of the House and we?re going to read these charges against you and we?re going to, in essence, say, ?Shame on you.? It doesn?t really help your résumé, or your obit for that matter.?

It is also a moment of truth, not for the fainthearted.

On Oct. 27, 1921, Representative Thomas L. Blanton, Democrat of Texas, faced it with deep anxiety. He had been convicted of entering in The Congressional Record a letter that was, in a colleague?s words, ?unspeakable, vile, foul, filthy, profane, blasphemous and obscene.? It involved a squabble between union and nonunion printers, and by today?s standards was relatively mild stuff.

As the speaker finished his condemnation, Mr. Blanton turned ashen and fled the chamber. ?In the corridor he fell exhausted, striking his head on the marble floor,? The New York Times reported. ?He rested a few minutes on a couch, refused medical aid and shuffled to his office, tears running down his face as he forced his way between spectators and members who were leaving the session.?

Not all of them cry and carry on. Depending on the offense, its probable fallout and the thickness of a politician?s skin, censured members have shown humility or defiance, perhaps relieved that the practical consequences are only dishonor and a need to face voters at the next election, well short of immediate expulsion, if slightly more humiliating than a slap-on-the-wrist reprimand. (Officially, there have been 22 acts of House censure, but some are debatable because the censures appear to have been politically motivated.)

As censurable violations go, the seriousness of Mr. Rangel?s fall somewhere in the middle. He was convicted by a subcommittee of the House ethics committee of 11 violations, including improper fund-raising, failing to pay taxes on rental income and failing to report income on Congressional financial-disclosure forms ? not of stealing fortunes, battering colleagues or cornering pages in the anterooms.

It was much worse in 1873, when Representatives Oakes Ames, Republican of Massachusetts, and James Brooks, Democrat of New York, were censured for bribery in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, in which millions were skimmed from stock sales during construction of the nation?s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific.

In 1870, three Republican congressmen ? Benjamin F. Whittemore of South Carolina, John T. Deweese of North Carolina and Roderick R. Butler of Tennessee ? were censured for selling appointments to Annapolis and West Point. And in 1979, Representative Charles C. Diggs Jr., Democrat of Michigan, was censured and resigned after being convicted of mail fraud and padding his staff payroll.

Many 19th-century censures were for ?unparliamentary language,? a grab-bag for name-calling, mud-slinging and insults, mostly in Civil War-era debates. But in 1864, Representatives Alexander Long of Ohio and Benjamin G. Harris of Maryland, both Democrats, were cited for ?treasonable utterances? ? backing the Confederacy.

?When you look at the list for all the various reasons people were disciplined, it really is a function of the times,? Ms. Nickels said. ?Every era has its own ethos ? what?s considered horrible and what?s not considered horrible.?

Kerri MacDonald contributed reporting.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7fc5f50d9be2268b50046a0f55cb74ee

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The Caucus: Second Hat in the Ring for Republican Leader

In a video announcement to members of the national committee, Ms. Wagner said the party needed new leadership to prepare for the 2012 presidential campaign, as well as a renewed focus on fund-raising, transparency and accountability.

?We must be efficient, relevant, professional and credible,? Ms. Wagner said. ?We must start immediately to erase past debt and to restore the confidence of our donor base. We must have these resources in order to take back the White House and complete the job that was started this year.?

Ms. Wagner, a former national co-chairwoman of the committee who also served as an ambassador to Luxembourg under President George W. Bush, is the second person to formally announce intentions to run for the post. This month, a former Republican chairman from Michigan, Saul Anuzis, declared his intention to run.

Several other top Republican officials are considering making a bid, including Maria Cino, a longtime Republican leader with close ties to the Bush administration, and Gentry Collins, who recently left his position as political director for the national committee.

The current chairman, Michael Steele, whose term expires in January, has not said whether he intends to seek re-election. His stewardship of the party has been sharply criticized by many Republicans, especially his handling of fund-raising, even though the party scored sweeping victories in the midterm election and captured control of the House.

The 168 members of the Republican National Committee are scheduled to meet in Washington in January to elect a leader.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=2f81e3c55eec4f631a94ea9db2df49b1

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T-Mobile UK hoping to get Froyo update out to Samsung Galaxy S today [TNW Mobile]

If you are a T-Mobile Galaxy S owner in the United Kingdom, well, today is certainly your lucky day because T-Mobile has just announced that it will be doing its best to roll that update out today. It gets better.

If for some reason they aren?t able to get it out OTA today, then it will be avaliable through KIES tomorrow for sure. Here?s what T-Mobile had to say via EuroDroid:

Thanks a lot for all your patience regarding the Galaxy S froyo update.

Our handset team have been working closely with Samsung regarding this update and future updates and would like to share their news with you.

Our goal is to make the update process smoother and we are working to become the only mobile operator offering FOTA (Firmware over the Air) updates for the Samsung product range. The aim was and still is to have the FOTA update available at some point today. If for reasons outwith our control we are unable to have a FOTA update process fully functioning by close of play today, then we will make the update available for download via Samsung KIES tomorrow (Dec 1st)

So, if own one and have been losing sleep over the lack of Froyo, rest easy.

You?ll have the update soon.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/11/30/t-mobile-uk-hoping-to-get-froyo-update-out-to-samsung-galaxy-s-today/

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T-Mobile G2 security walls come tumbling down, now completely hackable [TNW Mobile]

This news won?t be as historic as the Berlin Wall tumbling down but for T-Mobile G2 owners, it?s certainly historic. For those unaware, T-Mobile and HTC decided to make the G2?s hardware near impenetrable.

If one tried to customize the device, it would reboot itself and return to its stock settings. While T-Mobile claimed they did it to prevent devices from bricking, most people have seen it as a major headache.

It was only a matter of time before we started seeing progress though.

First it was a temporary root and then a couple of weeks ago, we finally got a permanent root, a sign that glorious things were on the horizon.  Today, all that work paid off because the folks over XDA have succeeded in getting the G2?s hardware completely unlocked. That?s right. The impenetrable security system has been brought down to its knees.

That means custom ROMs are now a go. The SIM slot is now unlocked for any carrier. And sooner or later, it means Android updates will hit the device with the quickness.

Word to the wise though, the hacks aren?t for novice users. They are also in the very early stages so there are probably some issues that will pop up but for all of you brave souls out there, head here to get started.

Very exciting stuff for device owners and probably a head scratching moment for both T-Mobile and HTC.

Didn?t they learn anything from the Droid X?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/11/30/t-mobile-g2-security-walls-come-tumbling-down-now-completely-hackable/

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Dell intros Vostro V130 with new Intel cooling technology

Dell has announced a new addition to its Vostro line of business laptops. The Vostro V130 keeps the same thin and light chassis of its V13 predecessor, adds a few ports, and is one of the first laptops to incorporate Intel's Hyperbaric cooling technology. This means than instead of using internal fans to push hot air out of the laptops chassis, air is drawn in through one side of the laptop and expelled out the other, allowing the fans to run at lower speeds and thus quieter.

In terms of specs, the Vostro V130 has a 13.3-inch High Definition WLED display, full-sized keyboard, and weighs 3.5 pounds (0.45 kilograms). Its powered by Intel Celeron or Core ULV processors and has a six-cell battery that offers around four hours of battery life. The system packs up to 4GB of RAM, up to a 640GB hard drive or 128GB SSD, and comes with plenty of connectivity options such as HDMI-out, 802.11n wireless, 5-in-1 media card reader, and a webcam. Theres no optical drive in order to maintain a slim profile but road warriors get WiMAX and a SIM card slot as options.


It also has a USB 2.0/eSATAcombo port but unfortunately the newer and faster USB 3.0 interface is still missing on the Vostro V130. Nevertheless, this small business machine starts a very competitive $429 and is available today.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41353-dell-intros-vostro-v130-with-new-intel-cooling-technology.html

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Typekit now lets you use your own fonts [TNW Apps]

For some time, Typekit has provided font fanatics with a way to use hundreds of unique non web-safe fonts on their site. Today marks a landmark in the development of the service with the announcement that sites can now use their own custom fonts in their designs.

If you?re not familiar with Typekit, it is a subscription-based service that handles all of the legal aspects of using non-web safe fonts on websites.

With the announcement today,  if you have your own font, you can now serve it through your Typekit account at no additional charge. Also (and this has been available for some time) if you purchase a license from either FontShop or ProcessType, you can also serve those fonts through Typekit as well at no addition cost. Typekit says that they are working on forming partnerships with other foundries as well ? fingers crossed Hoefler & Frere-Jones sign up soon.

For power/corporate users of Typekit, the Typekit blog says:

Moreover, our corporate partners get all the benefits of Typekit?s outstanding service ? fast and easy setup, optimized character sets, support across a wide range of platforms and devices, vertical metrics tools for ensuring your fonts are aligned properly, and a global server infrastructure.

Typekit lists The New Yorker, the New York Times and the Harvard Business Review as some of the publications already using this service. Here?s a shot of The New Yorker?s homepage using its NY Irvin and NY Vogue Goat fonts, served through Typekit (and the same fonts will be served over all web platforms, including on the iPad):

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/11/30/typekit-now-lets-you-use-your-own-fonts/

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Europe opens antitrust investigation on Google

The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into allegations that Google has abused its search-engine dominance by down ranking competitors in the results it delivers. The original complaint was brought against Google earlier this year by three companies -- British price comparison site Foundem, French legal search site eJustice, and a German price comparison site owned by Microsoft known as Ciao -- and has since expanded to look into other issues such as how the company deals with advertising partners and the way it tracks ad campaign data.

In its defense, Google says that there are good reasons why certain sites are ranked poorly in search results. For example, Foundem, one of the sites that filed the original complaint is badly ranked because it "duplicates 79% of its website content from other sites," and Google has openly warned webmasters that their algorithms penalize duplicate sites. With regards to its core online advertising business the company said that they already allow customers to take their data with them when switching to a rival advertising platform and that its contracts have never been exclusive.

Nevertheless, Google says it will cooperate with the investigation. For its part the Commission stressed that opening the investigation does not imply that it already has proof of any infringements, merely that it is looking for it.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41356-europe-opens-antitrust-investigation-on-google.html

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House Censure: Humbling to Some, but Not All

In the genteel parliamentary history of the House of Representatives there lurk rowdy days of rough-and-tumble brawls, beatings, chokings, fistfights, upended hairpieces, stentorian demands for apologies unheeded and a lot of sneaky conduct and foul-mouth talk. Some did nothing bad, or almost nothing.

But they all wound up where Representative Charles B. Rangel, a Democrat from Harlem, is expected to find himself this week: in the well of the House, facing the shame of formal censure. The choreographed mortification ritual has played out more than a score of times since 1832. Convicted by peers, the transgressor ? all have been men ? stands before the assembled members and a packed gallery of spectators and reporters as the speaker reads the rebuke.

?What it?s saying is you?ve brought disgrace to the House of Representatives, you?ve discredited the institution that you serve in,? said Ilona Nickels, an author and expert on Congressional affairs. ?You have impugned the integrity of our proceedings. You?re a disgraceful person. And you?re going to stand there in the well of the House and we?re going to read these charges against you and we?re going to, in essence, say, ?Shame on you.? It doesn?t really help your résumé, or your obit for that matter.?

It is also a moment of truth, not for the fainthearted.

On Oct. 27, 1921, Representative Thomas L. Blanton, Democrat of Texas, faced it with deep anxiety. He had been convicted of entering in The Congressional Record a letter that was, in a colleague?s words, ?unspeakable, vile, foul, filthy, profane, blasphemous and obscene.? It involved a squabble between union and nonunion printers, and by today?s standards was relatively mild stuff.

As the speaker finished his condemnation, Mr. Blanton turned ashen and fled the chamber. ?In the corridor he fell exhausted, striking his head on the marble floor,? The New York Times reported. ?He rested a few minutes on a couch, refused medical aid and shuffled to his office, tears running down his face as he forced his way between spectators and members who were leaving the session.?

Not all of them cry and carry on. Depending on the offense, its probable fallout and the thickness of a politician?s skin, censured members have shown humility or defiance, perhaps relieved that the practical consequences are only dishonor and a need to face voters at the next election, well short of immediate expulsion, if slightly more humiliating than a slap-on-the-wrist reprimand. (Officially, there have been 22 acts of House censure, but some are debatable because the censures appear to have been politically motivated.)

As censurable violations go, the seriousness of Mr. Rangel?s fall somewhere in the middle. He was convicted by a subcommittee of the House ethics committee of 11 violations, including improper fund-raising, failing to pay taxes on rental income and failing to report income on Congressional financial-disclosure forms ? not of stealing fortunes, battering colleagues or cornering pages in the anterooms.

It was much worse in 1873, when Representatives Oakes Ames, Republican of Massachusetts, and James Brooks, Democrat of New York, were censured for bribery in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, in which millions were skimmed from stock sales during construction of the nation?s first transcontinental railroad, the Union Pacific.

In 1870, three Republican congressmen ? Benjamin F. Whittemore of South Carolina, John T. Deweese of North Carolina and Roderick R. Butler of Tennessee ? were censured for selling appointments to Annapolis and West Point. And in 1979, Representative Charles C. Diggs Jr., Democrat of Michigan, was censured and resigned after being convicted of mail fraud and padding his staff payroll.

Many 19th-century censures were for ?unparliamentary language,? a grab-bag for name-calling, mud-slinging and insults, mostly in Civil War-era debates. But in 1864, Representatives Alexander Long of Ohio and Benjamin G. Harris of Maryland, both Democrats, were cited for ?treasonable utterances? ? backing the Confederacy.

?When you look at the list for all the various reasons people were disciplined, it really is a function of the times,? Ms. Nickels said. ?Every era has its own ethos ? what?s considered horrible and what?s not considered horrible.?

Kerri MacDonald contributed reporting.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7fc5f50d9be2268b50046a0f55cb74ee

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Dell intros Vostro V130 with new Intel cooling technology

Dell has announced a new addition to its Vostro line of business laptops. The Vostro V130 keeps the same thin and light chassis of its V13 predecessor, adds a few ports, and is one of the first laptops to incorporate Intel's Hyperbaric cooling technology. This means than instead of using internal fans to push hot air out of the laptops chassis, air is drawn in through one side of the laptop and expelled out the other, allowing the fans to run at lower speeds and thus quieter.

In terms of specs, the Vostro V130 has a 13.3-inch High Definition WLED display, full-sized keyboard, and weighs 3.5 pounds (0.45 kilograms). Its powered by Intel Celeron or Core ULV processors and has a six-cell battery that offers around four hours of battery life. The system packs up to 4GB of RAM, up to a 640GB hard drive or 128GB SSD, and comes with plenty of connectivity options such as HDMI-out, 802.11n wireless, 5-in-1 media card reader, and a webcam. Theres no optical drive in order to maintain a slim profile but road warriors get WiMAX and a SIM card slot as options.


It also has a USB 2.0/eSATAcombo port but unfortunately the newer and faster USB 3.0 interface is still missing on the Vostro V130. Nevertheless, this small business machine starts a very competitive $429 and is available today.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41353-dell-intros-vostro-v130-with-new-intel-cooling-technology.html

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