Building Houses and Cities Online, With a Social Twist

New Facebook-friendly SimCity makes city-building social; The Ville lets you design a virtual house.

Facebook Acquires Mobile Advertising Company Out of Stealth Mode

Facebook has acquired Rel8tion and the employees of the nine-month-old Seattle-based start-up, which has been working under the radar to develop a hyper-local mobile advertising service.

Verizon’s 4G Network Is Windows-Only, for Now

Those who want to be among the first to rule the air on Verizon Wireless’s new 4G network better have a Windows PC handy. Verizon had already made clear that, for the rest of this year at least, the company will have only laptop cards and that 4G smartphones wouldn’t come until next year. However, it looks like Mac users will also have to wait–at least a little while.

Streaming Video to a TV

Walt answers readers’ questions on streaming Netflix movies to a TV without a PC, buying a a PC good for word processing, and more.

Voices

Windows 7 Users "Very Satisfied," but Consumers Still Love XP

Early adopters of Windows 7 are “very satisfied” with the program, but nearly half of consumers surveyed said they saw no reason to upgrade from Windows XP, according to two reports released Monday by Forrester Research.

Parallels Zips Past Fusion in Running Windows on Macs

Walt reviews the latest software for running Windows on a Mac without rebooting.

ZumoDrive Service Is a Silver Lining In ‘Cloud’ Storage

ZumoDrive is a service that allows users to coordinate files over several devices using cloud computing.

Voices

Microsoft Probes "Black Screen Of Death"

Microsoft has confirmed that it is investigating a problem known as “the black screen of death” which seems to be affecting some Windows users, the BBC reports. The error results in a totally black screen after logging in.

Sirius Turns a Corner?

Well, What Did You Expect Him to Say? Windows 7 Is Selling Poorly?

Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system is selling quite well, according to CEO Steve Ballmer. In remarks at a press conference in Tokyo Thursday, Ballmer said that Windows 7’s first 10 days at market have been more successful than those of any of its predecessors.

Windows 7: Does the Wow Start Now?