Podcasts

He feels that voters would be better off if they knew where writers and editorial organizations are coming from, so he built a "bias engine" to calculate that so his new site, Allsides.com, can link to articles from the left, right, and center "and bring the best … Read more

App.net founder Dalton Caldwell was impressed by Twitter in its "early days" when third-party developers were using it as a platform to "build really strange and amazing software, which is not what the people at Twitter necessarily intended." At that point, said Caldwell, "they had an open platform and you could build any kind of business on it in."

But, he added, "there's been a number of business moves made by Twitter to restrict third-party access to the data and discourage third-party clients being built." He said Twitter's "… Read more

I was fascinated by Marguerite Reardon's recent Ask Maggie post about selling your old iPhone because -- like lots of people -- I bought an iPhone 4S last fall, which means that I'll still be under contract if and when the new iPhone comes out next month. I say "if," but Apple is widely expected to announce a new iPhone on Sept. 12, and if the past is any indication, I'm sure I'm going to want one. Maggie did a good job describing the issue in her post, but I had some more questions, … Read more

MetaCert has a different idea. It's now beta-testing a server-based porn filter parents can set up to automatically block access to pornographic sites across their entire home network. It does so by hosting the filter on a DNS, or domain-name system, server -- effectively pushing the filter from individual computers into the … Read more

Subscribe: RSS (SD) RSS (HD) iTunes (SD) iTunes (HD) The Nexus 7 is my favorite tablet right now. Google nailed the price, the interface, and the features, and avoided the mistake of selling it exclusively through a mobile carrier. It's enough to make the Motorola Xoom feel like a distant memory.

But no gadget is perfect, and the Nexus 7 is no exception. If you honestly think a $200 tablet can be made without cutting any corners, let me know. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Android fans, I recommend following this one up with … Read more

It has been a fantastic run, but it's time for me to try something new, so I'm leaving CNET. This is my last post for this great company, at least in my current role as Editor at Large.

Instead of boring everyone with the usual departure platitudes or a history of illustrious achievements, I thought I'd give out a few awards to companies, products, and ideas that I covered for CNET, ideas that have stayed with me long after I wrote about them. So here they are: The Rafe Needleman I'm Outta Here Awards. The Outies. … Read more

A little more than a year ago, we did a Roundtable episode on aerial drones and UAVs. The discussion mostly focused on how remote-controlled and robotic vehicles were getting bigger, more capable, and more scary. Since then, a funny thing happened. The drone revolution downsized. Today we're talking about cheap and small drones. Today, perhaps, a collection of a hundred $1,000 drones can be just as capable -- and just as scary -- as a $100,000 drone.

It's not that we're running out of mobile bandwidth. It's just that it's poorly distributed.

If you're in your home next to a Wi-Fi router, you might have a clean signal and access to a 12-megabit connection. Meanwhile, someone outside your door could have a smartphone that's struggling to hold onto a slow connection to a cellular tower a mile away. But mesh networking might make things better for everyone.

Mesh networks let devices share their connections with other users. If one user has a clean network connection and another nearby user does not, the second user can piggyback on the first's, automatically. If there's a collection of many people, their machines can all cooperate to make connections -- to each other and to the global Internet. In advanced mesh networks, connections and data can hop among devices, creating ad hoc bucket-brigade paths for communication.

The concept of mesh networking is not new. Many military systems rely on mesh networking, since forces in the field cannot rely on communications infrastructures. Utilities also use mesh networks for collecting data from equipment, like smart meters.

On this Reporters' Roundtable, I interview two innovators in mesh networking. They're both trying to bring this liberating (they say) and bandwidth-saving (ditto) technology to the masses.

I'm preparing for two very cool Reporters' Roundtable shows that I'll be recording this week. First up, we're doing a show on one of my favorite technology topics, mesh networks. Then, it's attack of the drones.

Mesh networking Mesh networking is when wireless devices pool together to share bandwidth and connections. Mesh networks can also be made more resistant to jamming and censorship than traditional point-to-point wireless. The tech is hard to implement, but the the military has been using mesh technologies to great effect for years, and commercial and consumer implementations of mesh networking pop … Read more