One phone number for home, two more for work, another for your mobile—Google Voice aims to change that. The new free service, which gives you one internet-based number that dials all your phones, “will take years to reach its full potential,” but it looks promising.
The service allows users to block certain devices at certain times, or make sure a certain caller always reaches a certain phone. It asks unknown callers who they are, tells you before you answer, and lets you send them straight to voicemail—at which point “you can use the slick ‘listen in’’ feature to eavesdrop as the message is being left.” So far the service is in limited trials, “but that was also true of a little Google service called Gmail when it launched five years ago.”
A 2-year-old Florida girl was strangled to death yesterday by a pet python owned by her mother’s boyfriend, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Charles Darnell noticed that his 8-foot-long albino Burmese python had escaped from its aquarium when he awoke yesterday morning. He found it on top of the girl in her bedroom and immediately began stabbing it.
The girl, who had a bite mark on her head, was dead when emergency crews arrived. Police are questioning Darnell, who could face child endangerment charges, in addition to a misdemeanor for owning a python without a permit. Darnell also has a 6-foot boa constrictor, but its container was secure. Two other young children also live in the house.
Don’t count out Vibe, Quincy Jones tells Ebony. Despite this week’s announced end to its print edition, Jones says the hip-hop publication he founded 16 years ago will continue online. “I’m trying to buy my magazine back now,” Jones said. “They just messed my magazine all up, but I’m gonna get it back. You better believe it, I’ma take it online because print and all that stuff is over.”
“We gotta get into the 21st century,” the legendary producer continued. “They’re over the same way as the record business. We have got to get into this century.” Vibe will also apparently print its forthcoming—and final—issue, contrary to previous reports.
The concert promoter AEG Live released approximately one minute of video from Michael Jackson’s final performance, a June 23rd rehearsal for his planned “This Is It” tour.
In the video released Thursday, the 50-year-old singer appears a step slower than he was in his twenties and thirties, but he is in good voice as he works through the song “They Don’t Really Care About Us.”
Jackson interacts with a female lead guitarist and several backup dancers, before breaking into a “Thriller”-type choreographed march with them at the song’s end.
At the end of the short clip, a director offstage says “Hold for applause, hold for applause… fade out.” Read the rest of this entry »
MICHAEL JACKSON planned to hit the stage with his 12-year-old son for a special duet at his London comeback concerts, according to reports.
The Thriller superstar was due to perform a 50-date residency in the U.K., beginning later this month (Jul09), and he was rehearsing vigorously for the spectacular in the days leading up to his death last week (25Jun09). Read the rest of this entry »
Firefox, once lauded for “speed, stability, and customizability,” seemed lately to have fallen behind the competition—but with version 3.5, out today, it’s back and better than ever, writes Farhad Manjoo for Slate. The new version “adds a much-needed speed boost” alongside bug fixes. And best of all, its use of updated HTML code could “prompt a re-engineering of the Web itself.”
Firefox’s popularity may push Web designers to do more with HTML 5, which boasts, for example, better video capabilities than the current version of the code. Meanwhile, the new Firefox “launches quickly, fires up complex sites like Gmail and Google Maps without any hiccups, and runs tons of open tabs without crashing,” Manjoo writes. “Firefox, finally, is back.”
Photos from Michael Jackson’s last performance, taken just two days before his death, have surfaced and show the King of Pop rehearsing for his upcoming London tour.
Jackson, dressed in several stage outfits and showing off his dance moves with backup dancers, was photographed at a rehearsal inside L.A.’s Staples Center on June 23 where “he had great energy,” according to producer Ken Ehrlich, an executive at AEG, the company that was promoting the singer’s tour.
Ehrlich, who watched the performance and met with Jackson, tells PEOPLE, “He was definitely in rehearsal mode [and] wasn’t giving it full out. But vocally, he had started to really project. I thought he was in great form. He just seemed really healthy. He really looked good and he was very upbeat.”
During their brief 20-minute conversation, Jackson was “cracking jokes,” adds Ehrlich. “He was having a good time. During rehearsal, I could tell that he was feeling it. He was feeling good. He was on his way to giving a great performance.”
