party

Hit all the right notes with Virtual DJ

Gone are the days when you had to haul expensive, large equipment to a wedding or party to crank out the tunes. Now that music has gone digital, you just need your computer and an expansive MP3 playlist. And with Virtual DJ, you can mix and scratch your tunes like a professional to be the life of the party.

Now, we don't have a lot of experience with DJ software, but we think it speaks to Virtual DJ's smart design that we were able to immediately drag and drop a track to play. The program immediately pulled our … Read more

EU telcos defend UN Internet takeover plans

A trade association of 41 European telephone companies responded last week to mounting concerns over its controversial proposal to turn Internet traffic management over to the International Telecommunications Union, a regulatory body of the United Nations.

The European Telecommunications Network Operators Association, or ETNO, made its proposal in June, part of a year-long process to revise an ITU treaty known as the International Telecommunications Regulations. Changes to the treaty, which has not been revised since 1998, will be finalized later this year in Dubai at the World Conference on International Telecommunications.

Only national governments can vote on the new treaty. … Read more

Girl makes Facebook party invite public, riot police called

Some parties are a riot.

No really, they are. Riot police are called, because there's simply too much fun going on.

Indeed, my heart rocks to an exalted beat at hearing that such a party broke out in the small Dutch town of Haren.

As the BBC reports it, the 16-year-old girl posted an invitation to her birthday party on Facebook and wasn't quite au fait with the privacy controls.

Her little hometown became somewhat tense at the idea of thousands descending upon its leafy parts to party, for 30,000 people ended up receiving the invitation.

The … Read more

The 404 1,115: Where the streets have no name (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Pitchfork's People's List polls readers for the best albums of the last 15 years.

- The new rise of a summer hit: Tweet It Maybe.

- How Murder by Death became the No. 3 most successful Kickstarter music campaign ever.

- The Internet has finally met its match: Avril Lavigne engaged to Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger.

- Lights turning off at Nintendo Power?

- Custom BioShock pinball machine is Rapturous.… Read more

Apple gives Flattr micro-payment the thumbs down

After a wishy-washy last couple of weeks, Apple has finally told the micro-payment donation app Flattr that there's no deal. The iPhone maker said that the service violates the App Store's terms and conditions with third-party payments.

"Apple is notoriously secretive about its motives or what would be the compliant and best way of doing things that are sort of new," Flattr's community manager Siim Teller wrote in a blog post. "What does this mean for the future of Flattr inside applications for iPhone and iPad?"

With the motto, "Support Great Web … Read more

Is Google lining up Republicans against antipiracy bill?

Few companies are as closely aligned with the Obama administration or the Democratic Party as Google.

Google managers and employees gave generously to President Barack Obama's candidacy. Chairman Eric Schmidt stumped for the president and is a member of the White House council for science and technology. Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, hosted an Obama fundraiser. Former Google employees now hold high-ranking positions with the administration.

Despite those close ties, Google is now taking a much more bipartisan approach than before. Word coming out of Washington last week was that leading up to a September 21 appearance by … Read more

In online game, Tea Partiers make 'zombie' targets

A new online video game company has come up with a controversial new twist on the traditional zombie-killing gaming concept: the zombies targeted for kill are prominent figures in the Tea Party movement.

The game, Tea Party Zombies Must Die, features a handful of Tea Party members--including Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and a blood-spattered, bra-clad Michele Bachmann--who the gamer is instructed to kill with either a "melee weapon" (in the first level, at least, it's a crowbar) or a gun.

Other featured Tea Party targets include: "Generic pissed off old white guy zombie," "Pissed off stupid white trash redneck birther zombie," "Factory-made blonde Fox News Barbie who has never had a problem in her life zombie," and "Glenn Beck Zombie (Back from the dead!)."

Upon the player's death, one is told, "You got Teabagged! P.S. You didn't have health insurance, so you died. P.P.S. There's no such thing as God, so you died for eternity."… Read more

The 404 892: Where estamos agradecidos de haber sobrevivido el huracan Eirene (podcast)

Hurricane Irene is over, but all we have to show for it is the five extra pounds we each gained from eating non-perishable foods (read: Dominos) all weekend.

The storm left tons of buildings, roads, and trees damaged, but the award for "Worst Irrevocable Damage" goes to Mayor Bloomberg for "trying" to address the Spanish-speaking population in their native language--and the subsequent Twitter parody @ElBloombito: "Go to worko. No excuso!"

CNET's own Sharon Vaknin makes her debut on The 404 Podcast today to replace our co-host Jeff Bakalar, who's currently re-evaluating his decision to live in Hoboken, N.J.

Joseph Kaminski from CNET Labs also joins us to discuss the stories of the day, including an app that lets New York drivers sell public parking spots to the highest bidder, a history lesson on the classic Windows XP default wallpaper, a big corporation making money off the hacker group Anonymous, and a secret list of celebrity XXX domain names removed from the adult market.

The 404 Digest for Episode 892

App lets NY drivers sell public parking spots to highest bidder. Ever wonder where the Windows XP default wallpaper came from? "@ElBloombito Twitter page bites back at Bloomberg's Spanglish. Secret list of celebrity .xxx domains removed from market. Time Warner gets royalties on every Anonymous mask worn on TV.

Episode 892 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Kia hamsters roll into a new ad campaign

Those hip hamsters of soul are back in a new ad campaign featuring "Party Rock Anthem," by the electro-pop group LMFAO.

The Kia hamsters have rolled through suburban neighborhoods and urban streets and are now in a dark, video game-inspired world to "Share Some Soul," in a new ad campaign.

The new campaign will feature 30- and 60-second TV spots as well as in-cinema, digital, and social media elements, Kia said in a statement.

The 60-second spot, available now on YouTube (check it out after the jump), will make its television debut on August 28 during … Read more

iCloud gets tested and priced

Skype releases and then pulls its iPad app, Microsoft stops publishing the locations of millions of mobile and Wi-Fi devices, and Apple opens up iCloud.com for testing and reveals pricing for extra storage.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded: