Gearfuse

The social media war has finally come to an end. We all know that MySpace has been declining in popularity and use since 2006 and since then, has only been beating out Facebook in US-based traffic. Now, Facebook has overtaken MySpace, according to Comscore. The exact results? For May of 2009, Facebook actually passed MySpace with 70.278 million unique visitors compared to MySpace’s 70.255 million. So close, but I think we can officially declare the ‘Book the winner of the social networking wars.

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Remember a few years ago, when Microsoft and the EU got into a tussle over the bundling of Internet Explorer with the Windows OS? Microsoft lost, got hit with a billion dollars in fines and was forced to remove IE from Windows in future versions. Now, with the release of Windows 7 on the horizon, Microsoft isn’t taking any chances and has confirmed that IE will be missing from European versions of Windows 7.

While I understand this entirely, what I don’t get is how this benefits the consumer. With no web browser installed on the OS by default, how the hell is somebody supposed to download an alternative browser like Firefox or Safari? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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Last.fm, one of the bestest music services to ever grace the Internet, is losing its three co-founders. Felix Miller, Richard Jones and Martin Stiksel are bowing out of the company and “handing over the reigns” to parent company CBS. CBS purchased Last.fm for $280 million in 2007, enabling the company to grow itself even further. I hope that this won’t mean radical changes for the company, as the announcement is a bit random.

I’ve been using Last.fm for years and I love it. It truly helps me keep track of my music and I love finding out what trends in music I’ve been following. If you want to see my profile, it can be found here.

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Embargo? Ha! I laugh at the very notion of withholding back an opinion for a specified period of time!

Or at least PreThinking.com does. I have a feeling these guys are breaking a few NDAs here and there by posting a full review of the Pre, but hey, not our problem. While this particular review tends to kiss ass to both Sprint and Palm, we’ll it the benefit of the doubt that it wasn’t influenced by either company. The reviewer claims the phone is solid and has “no lag” when launching apps. Want to know more? Hit the link below for the full schebang.

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I was searching on Google Images today and noticed a new feature that must have been rolled out recently. Before, you could filter by image size and content. Now there’s an option to filter images by color. That’s right. Let’s say you’re searching for an image of some jewelry but you only want to display blue items. A few clicks and voila. It works really well, too. I’m assuming Google created a way to analyze images on the fly and determine the basic colors that comprise the picture.

Give it a try and see what you can come up with. I searched for “awesome”, clicked green and this is what I wound up with.

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Customers who are leaving Verizon Wireless are being asked to conduct an exit survey so VZW can find out why they left. The standard questions apply but one of the answers is raising some eyebrows. Can you guess? I’ll give you a hint: it rhymes with iClone.

Yes, Verizon Wireless is gauging how badly the iPhone is hurting its subscriber base. It’s simply dying to know if it could have kept you around if VZW offered the iPhone. Chances are, a lot of people with cellphones are catching on to how popular that silly iPhone 3G is and want one – badly. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Apple and VZW are going to play ball one day.

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I don’t know how I should feel about this. I’m very scared and feel very confused. In a move that is very unlike them, Best Buy decided to open up its entire product catalog to developers via an API. Dubbed “Remix,” the API will allow developers to earn affiliate cash by using Best Buy’s images, information and, of course, online store.

This is really neat to an extent. Best Buy could be huge dicks about what you do with the API but if they’re smart, they’ll let someone create an iPhone app and then buy it off them or cut them some revenue from it. Now that’s the beauty of sharing data.

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My goodness! Palm has made a triumphant return to the industry by announcing a phone that will compete with Apple’s iPhone. It’s called the Pre and it features a 3.1-inch touchscreen, 8GB of onboard storage, a 3MP camera, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and an operating system that relies on web apps. In fact, Palm claims that developers who know HTML, CSS and JavaScript will be able to easily build apps for the Pre. I wonder how Apple is feeling right now. A bit concerned, I’d imagine.

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If you’re a football fan with a broadband Internet connection, your weekend just got a whole lot better. The NFL has launched a service called “Game Rewind” that will retail for $19.99 for the season or $4.99 a week. The service lets you watch all the football games you can handle in HD quality with no commercials. Awesome, right? It doesn’t end there.

You’ll also get the ability to watch four games at once, chat with other fans and complete DVR functionality. Want to rewind to see that interception Drew Brees threw? You got it, champ. Keep in mind, this is a web-based service so you’ll need a way to bring out the picture if you plan on watching the games with your boys.

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Most people think the FCC is all bad and all that it wants to do is prevent us from enjoying quality television with harsh language and nudity. Well, they would be right except that once in a blue moon the FCC blows the lid on some covert hardware that will soon hit store shelves. This time the FCC has leaked word of Sony’s latest VAIO netbooks.

Yes, you read right. It turns out that Sony does not feel too high and mighty enough to not compete with the slew of netbooks its competitors have been selling like hot cakes. Not much but enough is known about the two new models known as the PCG-1P1L and PCG-1P2L. The PCG prefix is known to represent Sony’s VAIO portable line and the dimensions of these latest models match typical netbook sizes, approximately 9.5 inches long by 4.5 inches wide. We’re excited to see Sony showing interest in the netbook market and can’t wait to get our hands on it!

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