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"Well, yes, maybe we do lack a little taste. Maybe. OK, if you really insist. But doesn't everyone like jokes about drunken women? Doesn't everyone like a booth babe or two, swimsuit or no swimsuit? No? Oh. Really?"

This might have been the inner monologue in certain areas of Samsung's vast collective cranium, after again falling foul of accusations of, well, giving a bad show.

You might not yet have forgotten (and my colleague Molly Wood certainly hasn't) Samsung's touchingly misguided attempt to launch the very fine Galaxy S4 on a New York … Read more

Gadgets sometimes have alternative uses.

You can hold up a phone at a U2 concert and show that you, too, can create a religious light source.

You can use a hair dryer to bring your iPhone back to life after you've dropped it in the toilet.

However, I have never heard of someone attempting to pass off a golf-ball finder as a bomb detector. There again, I never thought Harvard could beat anyone at basketball.

Excitingly, there is a trial currently in progress in which a British businessman is accused of fooling the military, the police, nay, even governments themselves into buying bomb detectors that were golf-ball finders.

I cannot imagine how the two might have been confused. But the prosecution alleges that 56-year-old Jim McCormick persuaded many important people around the world that these things could spot bombs, ivory, drugs, and even bits of human bodies.

He allegedly claimed they even worked through walls, under water, and even from planes. … Read more

Dabbling in politics can bring troubling consequences.

So here at Technically Incorrect, we prefer to keep our distance, because, from a distance, our laughter can still be heard quite well.

However, I received a curious message last night from Gary G. Howell, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature.

It read: "Your article on Google Glass prompted this bill."

The only bills I'd ever previously inspired were $20 ones accompanied by the words: "Here's money for a taxi. Get out of here."

So I wondered what sort of bill this could be. It transpires that West Virginia has decided to think proactively about Google Glass.

This bill seeks to make it illegal to drive while "using a wearable computer with head mounted display." … Read more

Education becomes more difficult by the day.

Kids have their heads buried in gadgets and bongs. For them, virtual communication is the only real communication there is.

So how can you get them to think about the wider world? One game developer, Littleloud, thought it would be stimulating to create an iPad game called Sweatshop HD.

This tasked the young players to maintain, yes, a sweatshop. It was, indeed, helpful during the game to ignore human rights and hire frightfully young employees. Just as in real life.

Apple, though, felt it was too much like real life. According to Pocket Gamer, … Read more

Sadly, we never got to see the headline: "Steve Jobs: Why I love my Nexus 7."

Nor are we likely to be soon struck by the words: "Steve Ballmer: Why I use my iPhone in the bath."

Yet in a candid and refreshing interview, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt cheerily admitted that his own company had yet to drag his dextrous fingers away from his precious BlackBerry.

Speaking with the Guardian's editor in chief, Alan Rusbridger, at the Activate conference in India, Schmidt explained: "Look, I've tried to go cold turkey. I've tried … Read more

One shouldn't rely on the same sources of inspiration every day.

Sometimes, even the finest of one's muses just doesn't amuse. Sometimes, even the greatest of one's heroes gets drunk and bangs his head on the pedestal as he falls.

However, one brave enterprise wished to measure the brands that inspire real human beings the most.

It is called Added Value. It has just released its list of the most inspiring. Perhaps the information that might cause the most perspiring in certain parts of the West Coast is that apparently Apple's brand has become less … Read more

We tend to react with feelings first and thoughts a little later.

Many in the last 24 hours have reacted with feeling (and the occasional thoughtfulness) to the visit paid by police to the New Jersey home of Shawn Moore.

Should you have been hospitalized after accidentally impaling yourself on a deer antler at your local gun club recently, here's the back story: Moore posted a picture to Facebook of his 11-year-old son, Josh, clutching (very properly) a .22-caliber rifle that looked like a little more than a .22-caliber rifle.

It was his birthday present.

As is ever more … Read more

I have just returned from dinner with my engineer friend George.

He was frustrated. He was diluting his viognier with tears.

No, it isn't his personal life. Well, not only. Among the weird yogini, the peculiar myopic (emotionally) UX designer, and the large-boned, wayward-intentioned social worker, he's doing alright. Just.

But his phone isn't.

He decided to buy a Nokia Lumia 920. He had good reasons for this. It's a very good phone. Its additional weight gives it a touch of gravitas. The camera is very nice, especially in the dark (which the yogini especially appreciates). … Read more

Ever since a New Jersey psychiatrist wrote to tell me he was a fan of my work, I've been feeling rather disturbed.

Usually there's only one thing that can lift my spirits from such a malaise: data.

It's always such an uplift when one can find numbers that make one question the validity of humanity. As well as, of course, the validity of numbers.

Thankfully, Business Insider galloped to my rescue with some data it had gleaned about those who claim to be fans of Apple and Samsung.

It seems that there may be psychological differences between … Read more