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Sprint, American Express partner on mobile wallet

Sprint Nextel said today it will support American Express' mobile-wallet application as the carrier continues to put its stamp on the mobile-payments world.

Sprint said today that its Android phones would be the first to use American Express' Serve mobile-payment application, unveiled in March. People can use the app to transfer funds between Serve accounts, make purchases at participating merchants, and pay their Sprint bill. In the future, the app will allow consumers to redeem offers on goods and services.

It marks the second major mobile-payment deal for the carrier, which also played a role in the debut of Google … Read more

Luxury aboard the Orient Express' British Pullman

LONDON--It's not often you take a train, look out the window all during the journey, and see people standing alongside the tracks with cameras at the ready so they can take pictures of the carriages going by.

Not often, that is, unless you're prone to taking Venice-Simplon Orient Express trains. If you are, be prepared for an almost uncountable number of train spotters looking for a rare glimpse of one of the most luxurious and storied conveyances in modern history.

I got a chance to take one of the Venice-Simplon Orient Express journeys recently as part of Road Trip 2011, … Read more

Back to basics

Microsoft Word is arguably the most popular word processing program around, but it's also full of features that a lot of people have no use for. SSuite Office - QT Writer Express takes a different approach, providing a word processor that packs basic features and not much else. It might be a little too bare-bones for many users, but for others, especially kids or adults who aren't very computer literate, it could be the perfect choice.

The program's interface is plain and uncluttered, with icons across the top and a large toolbar down the left side. The … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1496: Goodbye to the Winklevii (Podcast)

On today's show, why horny Amish guys shouldn't sext while driving their horse and buggies and why somewhere in the world, Martin Short is currently clenching his butt cheeks. Yep, it's a Donald Bell show. Also, ISPs are adopting graduated responses to piracy and Apple gets a patent that may or may not be broad depending on how you define "N."

Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (640x360) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS (640x360)… Read more

Foursquare, AmEx team up for deals

Foursquare users with American Express accounts can now receive discounts due to a partnership between the two companies.

Following a small test conducted in March, Foursquare is unveiling a program across the country that lets people get money back on their AmEx cards when checking in at stores and paying for promoted deals with their cards.

To tap into the deals, people must first sync up their AmEx cards with their Foursquare accounts at a designated Web page. They can then check in at participating merchants to unlock deals and load them directly to their credit cards. After paying for … Read more

Apple software update hints at new wireless gear

Code from a software update for Apple's AirPort Utility software that went out last night has been found to contain references to unreleased Apple wireless networking hardware.

9to5Mac and MacRumors both independently dug up mentions of a fourth-generation Time Capsule as well as a fifth-generation AirPort Extreme base station in the code that went out as part of the update. Those product iterations have not yet been announced by Apple.

Ahead of last week's Worldwide Developers Conference, rumor had it that Apple was planning to update both these products alongside AirPort Express, Apple's entry-level wireless networking product. … Read more

Diskeeper ExpressCache halves Windows boot time

If you hate waiting for what seems like an eternity for your PC to boot Windows, Diskeeper's ExpressCache might get it going a little faster than molasses.

Recently shown off at Computex Taipei, ExpressCache has been demoed with an 8GB SanDisk SSD to cut program launch times as well.

In the demo below, the Windows desktop appears 15.5 seconds after the OS starts, compared with 33.4 seconds on an identical machine that isn't souped up (BIOS time isn't included). The times it takes for the toolbar to appear are 1.9 and 23.8 seconds, respectively.

In simultaneous launches of Adobe Photoshop, the times are 5.9 and 11.8 seconds.

The SSD acts as a cache for the HDD, and either component can be of any capacity and still work with ExpressCache. … Read more

Report: Apple's Time Capsule to work as iCloud drive

A new report this morning suggests that Apple's iCloud plans may not be tied to its massive 500,000-square-foot North Carolina data center as much as a piece of hardware you plug in at home.

Cult of Mac reports that Apple is planning to unveil an update to its Time Capsule hardware and software at tomorrow's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote that will act as a home base not just for file backups but also as an Internet-enabled storage folder for Macs and iOS devices.

"If you make any changes on any computer, those changes are updated through … Read more

Logic Pro and Logic Express updates address Hyper-Threading issues

Apple has released updates for its Logic professional audio applications. The updates mainly address problems with how the programs are handled by certain CPUs, including the use of Hyper-Threading technologies in some Macs, compatibility with systems containing more than four cores, and some 64-bit compatibility issues.

The main updates are the following, though the full set of changes can be found in the release notes for Logic Pro and Logic Express:

Support for opening projects imported from GarageBand for iPad Resolves problems related to the support of Hyper-Threading Improved compatibility with 6- and 12-core Mac Pro systems Support for iOS … Read more