Conan O'Brien Debuts Twitter Tracker

You know how exciting twitter can be! No? Well thankfully Conan O'Brien debuted the Twitter Tracker to track Twitter for you:

Kevin Rose's Predictions for the New iPhone Before He Makes Them

First things first: I have nothing personal against Kevin Rose. He has made digg a wild success, and he's been able to take his geek cred from the TechTV days and turn Revision 3 into one of the most popular online networks out there.

Every time an iPhone launch approaches though, it seems Kevin's sources give him definitive information on the next version of the iPhone. (See his previous predictions here and here.) It's not so much that Kevin shares what his sources are telling him, but that websites like Fortune and BusinessWeek gobble it up as fact (Don't hate the player, hate the game, I suppose.)

Here are the steps to creating your own Rose-inspired list of sure-fire features of the next phone.

1. Name the obvious or near obvious. The next iPhone will have 32GB of memory, or the phone will be slightly re-designed with a thinner profile. AT&T will remain exclusive for awhile, but talks are underway with other carriers.

2. Name a few talked about features, but make sure you're not hated if wrong:  There's still debate at Apple, but it looks like video chat is a no-go. See, if you're wrong, no one gets mad because they're thrilled to have the added feature. And after all, you did say it was still being discussed.

3. Major publications/websites spread your proclamations. This is where Kevin shines, and  you can't really blame him. Still you'd think other sites, especially news sites might stop to look at his track record, and see that his sources haven't proven much better at predicting or outing unexpected features than anyone else.

So there you have it, Kevin Rose says (before he's even said it) that the new iPhone will be slimmer, have more storage, might cost less, and won't have videochat. Unless it does. 

If You Had To Choose: Microwave or iPod

There was an interesting infographic in the USA Today over the weekend. (Yes, the print edition... someone must have been at a hotel ...) As you can see, the chart asked Americans how much certain items are needed, or are considered necessities. Since 2006, the microwave has fallen 21 points, while the iPod has gained a point, along with high-speed internet and flat-screen TV as gainers. It's interesting to note that "home computer" dropped a point over the same time period, so good luck syncing those iPods.

Clothes dryers and home air conditioning were also big losers on the list, moving from necessity to discretionary according to the Pew research. While the gains for most electronics are well within the stated (and large) 3.6% margin of error, it looks like we're headed to a world in which we slave over the stove, or dine out, and hang our clothes up to dry. It's all good as long as we can listen to our iPods while we do it.

As much as I enjoy my iPod, I have to tell you if I was stranded, and had ample electricity, I would probably go with the microwave, or at least a computer before I would worry about my iPod.

What do you think? Bogus poll, or a real shift in our perceptions of necessity items in the 21st Century?

Woz Is An Even Better Sport Than We Knew

This clip doesn't really require any setup:

Help Your PC Friends Through The Conficker Virus/Worm Tomorrow

Millions of PCs the world over are infected with Conficker. Yes, your Mac is safe. No, that guy who continues give you such insights as "Macs suck" since 1994 is not safe. And no, not even Microsoft's Lauren is safe (she might be, but I don't think she's "cool" enough to run virus software on her new computer.)

So let's do our best not to snicker. After all, PCs run a lot of critical operations at airports, hospitals, and military installations. So we'll hope for the best, although a little bit of chaos could certainly help Apple's marketshare... Nonetheless, I hope you'll join us in taking an oath to try to bite your tongue, and not mention the fact that your Mac is just fine. Aw, forget it. You've told them for years. If they haven't gotten it by now, they're not going to get tomorrow either. And that's just the way the antivirus makers want it.