chatroulette

Airtime curtails privacy for the sake of safety

Now that the oohs and ahhs of Airtime's launch this week have settled, it's time to look at the nitty gritty of this new browser-based video chat service. One of the company's policies involve user privacy.

The way Airtime works is by using Facebook as its log-in platform. At its basic level, Airtime allows simple video chat with users' Facebook friends, but take it up a notch and it lets people chat with strangers that have common interests.

So, as a way to keep its users safe, the service takes random secret photos of video conversations between … Read more

Sean Parker's Airtime not ready for prime time

NEW YORK--To launch his new start-up, Sean Parker should have spent less of his billions on celebrity guests and more of it on fixing his technology.

Parker and Shawn Fanning, his ol' partner from the Napster days, today unveiled Airtime, a Web video chat service designed to take up where Chatroulette left off. The launch event was a glitch-filled disaster -- or a marketing coup by Parker.

As he addressed a crowd of journalists and celebrities, Parker's attempt to demonstrate the service was foiled at every turn. Numerous attempts to connect with celebrities via the Web service failed. Not … Read more

This Day in Tech: Bin Laden's sneakernet

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET News for Friday, May 13.

RIP: Where our gadgets go when they die.

Bin Laden's sneakernet: How the al-Qaeda leader used e-mail off the grid.

We signed on to Tinychat: What happens when a group-oriented take on Chatroulette adds location sharing?

No surprise here: Angry Birds and Plants vs. Zombies receive Guinness World Records.

Freebie: Sure, it's Friday the 13th, but it could still be your lucky day to win 3D desktop speakers.

How expert uses Skype to help men attract women

It's almost a week since Valentine's Day and there will be many men who still haven't gotten over what happened on Monday.

Somehow, their date didn't go as planned. Somehow, their date went home, as wasn't planned. Somehow, they are beneath the dumps and desperate for help.

Perhaps, then, they should fire up Skype and talk to Marni Kinrys.

Kinrys is every man's wing girl. She's a wing girl with a method. She calls it the Wing Girl Method. And a highly technological method it is.

The Wing Girl's purpose in life … Read more

The 404 748: Where you don't know what you've been given (podcast)

There's plenty of serious tech news going on in the world today, like the Intel Sandy Bridge chipset recall and two Web giants helping Egyptians communicate without the Internet, so be sure to check out the CNET home page for the latest.

As usual, we're covering the cultural aspects of tech news that interest us today, stories like Facebook offering free access on flights in Feb-roo-air-ie, Chinese immigrants finding love on the Internet a la JDate, a Chatroulette model for medical diagnoses, and a Stanford psychology study that links Facebook "one-upsmanship" to the worldwide depression epidemic.

We finish with surprising news about your favorite adult Web sites and a plea for user-submitted voice mails! We're running low, so call 1-866-404-CNET and tell us what's on your mind! Don't worry about messing up, we'll make you articulate using the magic of editing, so pick up the phone or record a video voice mail and e-mail us the YouTube/Vimeo link at the404(at)cnet(dot)com.

Episode 748 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

15 minutes of fame

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

Google releases its 2010 Zeitgeist with the year's fastest growing and most popular search terms

YouTube will now allow a select group of users to upload video longer than 15 minutes, which used to be the maximum time limit allowed

Yahoo revamps Yahoo Local

A new Pew Research study shows that only 8 percent of online Americans are on Twitter

Howard Stern renews his contract with Sirius XM Satellite Radio and will now be available on Sirius mobile phone apps

Chatroulette returns--with more of the same

Version 2 of Chatroulette was expected to make the site more user-friendly--and less salacious. But a short while after it went live, little appears to have changed.

Chatroulette went offline just over a week ago for a revamp. When users load up Chatroulette now, they will find a very basic home page with no guide to help them maneuver around the revised site.

Beyond that, Chatroulette has several issues. For one, if someone doesn't have a Webcam, Chatroulette isn't working. In fact, the person won't be able to view anything. Even with a Webcam, connecting to the … Read more

Chatroulette offline for revamp; what will it reveal?

What does the next spin of the wheel hold for Chatroulette? The Webcam/chat site apparently went offline Sunday but is promising an update and relaunch sometime Monday.

The site now greets you with the following bare-bones message:

"The experiment #1 is over now. Thanks for participating. Renewed and updated version of the website will be launched today."

Unveiled late last year, Chatroulette lets you bounce from one anonymous video chat to another, with some people seeking a meaningful conversation and others seeking something more risque. If one person doesn't meet your chatting fancy, you simply click … Read more

When Chatroulette is a horror movie (in a good way)

I am not entirely sure why people who don't like to be afraid in real life go out of their way to enjoy the same feeling in the movie theater.

Perhaps it's because their inner cortex knows it's not real. Or perhaps this is some strange mating ritual in which boys take girls to horror movies in order to get them frightened, which results in the vastly clever male showing his protective side.

But people's motivations for watching horror films aside, I have my doubts that a new movie called "The Last Exorcism" will … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1277: You can hack DMCA. Legally. (podcast)

The U.S. copyright office now says that there are instances in which you may hack, fold, spindle, or mutilate copy protection, but just a few, and don't go breaking any other contracts while you're at it. Also, Microsoft wants its employees to build Windows 7 phone apps... for free!