A skateboard trick gone wrong. Credit: Break.com. Americans need a laugh right now. Humor sites on the Web scored the biggest gains of all categories of subject matter tracked by comScore Media Metrix in August. The category was up 21% in visitors compared to the same time period last year, according to the ratings group. Overall, the laughter sites attracted nearly 33.7 million ... MORE

Facebook is closing the book on Beacon, an early advertising experiment that got the upstart social network in big trouble with users in 2007. Back then, Facebook quietly launched the service, which recorded user activities on non-Facebook sites and then report them to users' friends.... MORE

Older people aren't the fastest adopters of new technology. Cell phone providers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, hold special programs for the elderly.... MORE

It took 3 years and 40,000 teams from 186 countries, but the $1 million Netflix prize has finally been awarded. The competition, first launched in October of 2006, asked engineers and scientists around the world to solve what seems like a simple problem: improve Netflix's ability to algorithmically predict users' movie tastes by a modest 10%.... MORE

The tech industry is gradually persuading Americans to set up home networks, but it's had a tougher time selling consumers on the idea of storing all their data onto a single device within their homes. The appeal of "network attached storage" boxes and "home media servers" has largely been confined to the earliest of early adopters, even as the software to centralize and back up ... MORE

Google's logo at its headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.Google Inc. and Apple Inc. can’t seem to agree on why the new Google Voice application for the iPhone doesn’t appear in Apple's App Store. The Federal Communications Commission posted a previously confidential letter today by Google that said the Google Voice app was rejected. ... MORE

Today's lawsuit is the just the latest in an ongoing dispute between Skype founders and EBay.... MORE

Sharp LCD TVs could get an image-boosting improvement in contrast. Photo: Bloomberg. Ever since LCD flat-panel televisions became popular, videophiles have complained they lack one major thing -- true black. The technology can't, like old-fashioned tube TVs, display an absence of illumination that can be part of a night scene or other apt situation. Plasma TVs come much closer to ... MORE

It looks like the public will have to wait a bit longer for ZillionTV, but when it does arrive, it will be available in more places. CEO Mitchell Berman announced this morning that Zillion, a TV-on-the-Internet service from the privately held start-up Vaenco, had added a new element to its distribution strategy: in addition to offering its on-demand programming through Internet ... MORE

It looks like the public will have to wait a bit longer for ZillionTV, but when it does arrive, it will be available in more places. CEO Mitchell Berman announced this morning that Zillion, a TV-on-the-Internet service from the privately held start-up Vaenco, had added a new element to its distribution strategy: in addition to offering its on-demand programming through Internet ... MORE

Is the album dead (for more than just Radiohead, that is)? Today, eMusic -- a subscription service that offers bulk discounts on MP3s -- announced that full-album downloads made up 72% of its sales over the past year. That's up from 69% since 2006.... MORE

Tech start-up SeatGeek launches at the TechCrunch50 in San Francisco to help sports fans buy tickets at the right times to the games and events they want to attend, thanks to a sophisticated forecasting algorithm.... MORE

At the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco, the focus is clearly on start-ups with solid business plans. Some are even making money already. But others like iMo and Redbeacon resorted to age-old gimmickry to get attention.... MORE

Facebook has doubled its user base since January, 2009, to 300 million active users. The company also said it's now cash flow positive.... MORE

Xpenser launches at TechCrunch50 with an easy way to track business expenses.... MORE

Women get short shrift at the TechCrunch50 TC50 tech conference for startups in San Francisco.... MORE

Google unveils Fast Flip, a quick magazine-like reader featuring articles from more than three dozen newspaper and magazine publishers. Google said it would share "the bulk" of the advertising revenue it will receive from the product.... MORE

MySpace is at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco, trying to take on Facebook and attract developers to its platform with OpenSocial.... MORE

Intuit acquires Mint.com for $170 million, paying off venture capital investors. The deal is announced at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco.... MORE

Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller shows off his new iPhone app to venture capitalists at TechCrunch50 (TC50) conference in San Francisco.... MORE

Twitter Inc. changed its terms of service today to clarify that advertising on your Twitter page is OK and that users, not the company, own their tweets. For months, ad services have flourished in certain circles of the social network. Twitter's legal provisions reinforce those companies' legitimacy. Twitter also inserted sections to the user agreement addressing standards for ... MORE

With the iPod getting to be old hat, Apple has frantically piled on extras in an attempt to make the player seem fresh again. The new version of the iPod Nano, unveiled earlier this week at a company event, crams into the little player a video camera, FM radio, microphone, speaker and even a pedometer. Is this a sign of desperation? Well, if it is, bring it on. The new Nano is an ... MORE

I've heard plenty of excited talk about 3D from networks, consumer-electronics manufacturers and tech companies, but thus far it's largely been confined to animated movies and concert films. So I asked two close observers of the 3D market -- David Wertheimer, CEO of the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, and Vince Pace, CEO of PACE, the company providing much of the 3D ... MORE

NBC Universal announced the second show today in its lineup of original online productions, "In Gayle We Trust." The protagonist is "the centerpiece of the town, serving as the sounding board, guru and trusted adviser among the town's idiosyncratic clientele," the network says in its press release. OK, no ground broken so far. She's also an insurance agent. That's what piques my ... MORE

There's a review coming later today of the new iPod Nano from Apple that shoots video and has a built-in FM radio tuner. But here's a quick taste of the video function, right out of the box. It's my personal, morning wake-up call. -- David Colker Photo: The new iPod Nano from Apple. Credit: Monica M. Davey / EPA... MORE

Video game sales slipped for the sixth month in a row, according to NPD.... MORE

Now that many Mac users have had a couple of weeks to install the new Apple Inc. operating system, Snow Leopard, and explore its new features, some aren't so enthused with the update. There just aren't that many new features. The additions are a far cry from the usual operating system updates that add new toys, like Spaces and Dashboards and new designs. The running joke is to ... MORE

So much for the Apple-as-monopolist meme: Rhapsody, the music-subscription service co-owned by RealNetworks and Viacom, is now available on the iPhone, where it can compete with the iTunes store for a share of music fans' wallets.... MORE

Updated at 11:15: It's over. The updated iPod Nano will be $149 for the 8GB model, and $179 for the 16GB. Not the big hardware announcement folks were hoping for. And no sign of the Beatles, whose songs are still not in the iTunes catalog. Updated at 11:12: More on the new Nano: It will also have an FM radio, microphone and speaker, and a pedometer. Looks like that's it. No hint ... MORE

The Apple product announcement is about to begin, and some news has slipped out already. Bloomberg News says that Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief guru, showed up in advance of the event in San Francisco, slipping through the back door. He has not made a public appearance in many months because of illness. Also, iPod Touch and iPod prices have already been reduced (see ... MORE

The long-awaited Apple product announcements are still a couple hours away, but the company has let slip out a change in its portable player lineup -- lower prices. In one case, dramatically lower. As reported on the Macworld site and in other spots, Apple quietly this morning cut the price of its iPod Touch with 32 GB of storage space from $399 to $279. This puts the price of the ... MORE

Riot Games snags $8 million in funding, bringing the total investment in the Culver City startup to nearly $20 million. Among the investors: Tencent, one of China's largest online game publishers. Riot's game, League of Legends, will launch in October.... MORE

Viewership of TV shows, such as "Glee," online has quadrupled, a new survey shows. Credit: Hulu If you're watching more TV on your computer these days -- and less on an actual TV -- you're not alone. A survey by the nonprofit Conference Board released today shows that nearly a quarter of households in the U.S. now watch television programs online. *That's up from 20% who watched ... MORE

"It's only rock and roll, but we like it," Apple says in its invitation to the media for its announcement tomorrow of something new and unspecified. So we probably shouldn’t expect something other than rock and roll, like the tablet computer Apple is said to be working on. And considering that “It’s Only Rock 'n' Roll (But I Like It)” is a Rolling Stones hit, we probably ... MORE

Monday night AOL announced it had hired former Yahoo executive Brad Garlinghouse as president of Internet and Mobile communications -- a position that will oversee of some of AOL's best known properties, including its instant messaging software and its e-mail system ("You've Got Mail"), as the company tries to set a course towards prosperity in an overcrowded digital cosmos.... MORE

Late last week, Konami released an iPhone app of its Krazy Racers game in the App Store for $7.99. This version of the game lets users take on other racers as one of 10 classic Konami characters in more than a dozen themed racing circuits. The steering employs the internal accelerometer and includes a number of tools and tactics such as Nitro boost and extras you pick up along the ... MORE

The iPhone has been having some trouble hanging onto that top spot on Flickr's list of most popular cameras. But iPhone users now have a much-overdue tool to add to their photography arsenal -- a Flickr iPhone application. The phone-based app pretties up the already snappy mobile Web interface and adds a few features for what has long been the most-used camera phone on the ... MORE

As the Jewish High Holidays approach (Rosh Hashana begins the evening of Sept. 18), here's a short YouTube clip of Rabbi Benny Zippel of Salt Lake City. He's demonstrating the shofar, a ram's horn used during services to sound a call to worship. All goes well with the demonstration for about 25 seconds. Then the rabbi gets some unexpected accompaniment. -- David Colker... MORE

Design Your Dorm aims to alleviate those "fresh out of Mom-and-Dad's house" woes with software that helps first time interior decorators figure out a good look for their first interiors.... MORE

Hear that? It's the sound of iPhones ringing around the country to the tone of "Hallelujah!" AT&T announced today that the iPhone 3G and 3GS will finally be able to send multimedia messages (MMS) starting Sept. 25. The original, metal-back iPhone will not be supported, an Apple representative said in an e-mail. Like text messaging, MMS allows users to send media-rich messages, ... MORE