campaign

The 404 1,106: Where the legend continues (podcast)

We've heard stories about 3D printers being used for both good and evil, but we're not sure how to categorize a company in Japan offering pregnant women a 3D-printed model of their unborn fetuses. Gross. Other stories on today's podcast include a crowdsourced funding site for porn, Amazon accidentally shipping assault rifles, and a sealed first-gen iPhone hitting eBay for $10,000.

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Japanese companies offer a 3D-printed model of your unborn child.

- Offbeatr is the Kickstarter for porn.

- DC resident orders TV on Amazon, gets assault rifle instead.

- Sealed first-gen iPhone hits eBay for $10,000.

Bathroom break video: Olympic nutcracking… Read more

'Dyle' in to watch live TV on your phone

You don't need any accessories to catch up on Friday's top tech stories:

A new service called Dyle picks up live, local TV signals to watch on your mobile device. The first with this service is the MetroPCS Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G. But if you rather not drop $460 right now for a phone, iOS users may have another option this fall when Dyle attachments are expected to go on sale.

No price has been set, but the attachments could cost, at most, $150. And the service from then on is free. Would you pay for an … Read more

Obama, Romney launch campaign-enhancing iOS apps

With the presidential elections fast approaching, both Mitt Romney and President Obama are taking their campaigns mobile. The Obama for America app concentrates primarily on distributing President Obama's policy stances, as well as news and events.

Users of the Obama for America app can also find useful information about voting rules and regulations on a state-by-state basis and information on volunteering to help the Obama campaign.

Romney's app takes a different approach, largely marketed as a way for users to keep up-to-date with the Romney campaign's decision on its vice president candidate, hence the app's moniker, … Read more

Chirpify: Tweet if you want to give money to Obama or Romney

Chirpify, the company that essentially turns tweets into money, is getting into politics.

The company launched its "Tweet a Presidential Candidate" Web site today. The site lets donors give and track donations to the Barack Obama and Mitt Romney presidential campaigns with a tweet.

Chris Teso, Chirpify's CEO, said the 4-month-old company sees Twitter as the perfect platform for fundraising. He said Chirpify recognized social media's influential role during the 2008 presidential election when the Obama's campaign took advantage of social media for a grassroots approach.

"Now it's exponentially magnified this year," … Read more

Facebook under fire (again) for all-male board

The campaign to get Facebook to appoint a female board member is ramping up. The FACE IT campaign launched earlier this week to draw attention to the fact that the social-networking site had no women on its board of directors and now other groups and individuals are signing on.

Joining the campaign today is the group Ultraviolet, which is a women's group co-founded by Nita Chaudhary who was most recently the outspoken campaign and organizing director for MoveOn.org Political Action. Although Ultraviolet is fairly new on the scene, it already boasts 300,000 members.

"The fact that … Read more

Spotify gets Obama's official 2012 campaign playlist

Spotify got a major endorsement from President Barack Obama today. Obama for America announced that the official 2012 campaign playlist is available on the popular music-streaming service.

The playlist has 28 tracks with an eclectic mix of artists, including Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, and, of course, Al Green. … Read more

The 404 983: Where we keep the change (podcast)

The saddest part of the rumor about celebrities getting paid thousands of dollars to send corporate-sponsored Tweets is that it's true.

It started with Internship.com paying Charlie Sheen $50,000 to solicit "Tiger Blood" interns, and today we're exploring the number of ways celebrities make money on the side.

We'll also talk about presidential campaigns embracing modern technology, starting with Romney's crew using Square hardware to grab donations and votes.

We'll also pick at the reasons why Obama and Google strategically ignored the most-voted question from yesterday's YouTube campaign q&a. Plenty of time to talk about late-night snacks, but what about the 4,500 users who have legitimate health concerns?… Read more

Google demotes Chrome in search results over pay-for-post promo

Google has demoted its Chrome home page in results for a search using the keyword "browser" following an effort to have bloggers promote the Google browser that backfired.

Now, there is no Chrome ad at the top of the results or link to the Chrome page anywhere on the first page of results on Google. It's ranked in position 50, according to Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand, which first reported this news.

Google's statement, according to SearchEngineLand, is:

"We've investigated and are taking manual action to demote www.google.com/chrome and lower the site'… Read more

Obama campaign turns to Tumblr for 2012 race

President Barack Obama's campaign yesterday opened up its first Tumblr account to help get the word out about their candidate.

"We'd like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort--a place for people across the country to share what's going on in our respective corners of it and how we're getting involved in this campaign to keep making it better," the campaign wrote its first post on the page.

Currently, the Tumblr page has three posts, including an image of the campaign's Ohio offices and an excerpt from the President's address … Read more