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Great photos.

Fortune: Two years ago, Brown attempted to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary. The popular website contains definitions for terms ranging from Internet abbreviations like OMG, short for “Oh, my God,” to slang such as “hot mess.” But Watson couldn’t distinguish … Continued

Aaron Swartz, an influential computer programmer who worked on the RSS 1.0 spec and the site Reddit, committed suicide on Friday at age 26.

Many thanks to Bold Poker for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Bold Poker replaces your deck of cards with iPhones and has been praised by The Loop, Daring Fireball, and Mashable.

Try out Bold Poker at your next poker game. They’ll buy you a Heineken (i.e. give you a full refund) if the app doesn’t change your Texas hold’em home game for the better.

Apple’s design influence on the consumer electronics industry is obvious to attendees of CES.

Petitions.whitehouse.gov is an official way that anyone with a grievance can try to lobby public support for their cause directly with the White House, and if they garner enough signatures, the administration will find the right person to consider the … Continued

Om Malik talks about why he likes some products over others.

Mike Abary, the head of Samsung’s PC and tablet business in the U.S., tells CNET that the company will not be releasing its Windows RT device in the U.S. because retail partners don’t see strong demand and because the value proposition for Windows RT isn’t clear to consumers.

Ouch.

Ars takes a look at a $17,000 hunting rifle that uses a Linux-powered scope to help aim bullets.

Mikko Hypponen’s Windows phone error message makes us happy we’re using iPhones.

John Herman at Buzzfeed breaks down the recent CNET kerfuffle over a rescinded CES award.

Eight Wirecutter writers and I convened at the Consumer Electronics show this week. You know, CES–The big gadget trade thing that serves as a sneak peek into the future of hardware. Instead of soaking your news feed with hundreds of posts, we spent most of our time filtering 99.99% of the stuff out. This is what’s left.

Thanks Brian and crew for filtering it down for us.

The Dish Hopper with Sling was removed from consideration due to active litigation involving our parent company CBS Corp. We will no longer be reviewing products manufactured by companies with which we are in litigation with respect to such product.

CNET is supposed to be a news organization. News should be free from such bullshit.

Apple on Thursday will receive a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award during a special reception in Las Vegas. […]

Still, AutoRip is painfully close to something I’ve found myself pining for since starting to use a Kindle e-reader: free Kindle copies of purchased physical books.

A lot of people would love that.

The challenge for Qualcomm was to find a way to showcase their technology and keep the keynote about them and not the products of the companies that use their technology. Not only did they pull it off, they did it in style.

Everyone in the tech industry looked at the Qualcomm keynote and said WTF? Except the Ottawa Citizen. Now you know which Canadian site to never read.

Point counterpoint in the debate over gender diversity at tech conferences.

There you go.

Jim and Dan discuss people’s expectations of Apple now and in the future and the top stories coming from Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

Sponsored by Hover (use code DANSENTME for 10% off), Harvest (use code 5BY5 for 50% off), and Lynda.

I love this little guy. […]

A town outside of Birmingham, England is home to a pub that serves what may be the largest steak in the world: a 9-pound monstrosity.

I agree with Michael. If you do a review, don’t waste your readers time.

The company put together a little slideshow of the high points from last year. Some fascinating numbers.

And you think delays traveling today are bad.

You have to admit being a “Freelance sperm donor” is unique.

The matter came to light when one developer said he’d received a request for support from someone who’d purchased the BB version of his app, despite the fact that he’d created no such version.

Oh RIM.

Creative block, writers block or whatever you call it, is a terrible thing to overcome. It’s that point when your mind will just not think, not let any ideas or words through this giant wall it’s erected in your mind. Stacey Kole offers some ideas on how to get around it.

What a fascinating story.

Kind of the opposite of Steve Jobs’ reality distortion field.