Faster Forward Archive by Date

Search-Engine Privacy Scorecard

Just in time for yesterday's column on search engines, the Center for Democracy and Technology--a D.C.-based think tank--released a report (pdf) on the privacy policies of major search engines. Unlike a lot of the paper that streams out of K Street offices, this document is concise and readable, a mere...

By Rob Pegoraro | August 10, 2007; 1:37 PM ET | Comments (7)

Looking For What's Missing In Web Search

I've been a satisfied Google user for years--starting not too long after I became the second writer at the Post to write about the site in January of 1999. (Pretend I just said that in a Grandpa Simpson voice.) But for today's column, I thought I'd make the site earn...

By Rob Pegoraro | August 9, 2007; 9:33 AM ET | Comments (23)

A Bushel of New Apple Products

Yesterday, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled new versions of three of Apple's major products: the iMac all-in-one desktop, the iLife multimedia suite and the iWork productivity bundle. All three products had gone a long time without any real update--almost a year for the iMac, over a year and a...

By Rob Pegoraro | August 8, 2007; 4:01 PM ET | Comments (17)

Tech Support Soundtracks

I had to call a tech-support line yesterday--for The Washington Post's IT department, if you must know--and was briefly put on hold. That meant I'd get to listen to some music, whether I liked it or not. In this case, the soundtrack consisted of a Muzaked version of the R&B...

By Rob Pegoraro | August 8, 2007; 9:52 AM ET | Comments (13)

"Immediately"? Not So Fast...

Back in May, I wrote a post here about the annoyance of updating Sun Microsystems's Java software. It's smart enough to download and install new versions automatically, but it's too dense to remove old releases afterwards. At the time, a company spokeswoman assured me that this glitch would be fixed,...

By Rob Pegoraro | August 7, 2007; 11:01 AM ET | Comments (13)

Evite's Inertia

While I was trying out the iPhone, I made a pleasant discovery: I could finally use Evite outside my home and office. The popular event-planning site does not come in a mobile version readable on cell phones, but the iPhone's Safari browser could display the full-sized version. Then, though, I...