Tech Week in Review 9-11-09

Call 911 in An Emergency? Nah, Just Update Your Facebook Status

Two young girls, lost in a drain, chose to update their Facebook status rather than call for help.

The 10- and 12-year-old girls updated a Facebook status to say they were lost in a drain on Honeypot Road at Hackham in Adelaide’s southern suburbs on Sunday night.

Has social media become so pervasive that our youth has forgotten how to handle simple situations? Obviously, the girls could have called for help if they had a connection available to update their Facebook. Luckily, they had friends online who had enough sense to actually make the call so the girls could be located.

Automattic Aquires Awesome Spell Check Engine

We should see a lot less spelling and grammar errors on many Wordpress blogs as Automattic has acquired After the Deadline. This plugin makes sure your spelling and grammar are on point and is free for non-commercial use.

Users can also choose how the program examines their content, such as turning off grammar checking and even setting up their own rules.  The program then offers possible word fixes and grammar changes just like other popular word processors. Users must then choose whether to accept or ignore certain “mistakes” as they check their posts. (via Inquisitr)

New TweetDeck Adds MySpace

Every time someone mentions MySpace, someone else has a smart comment about it. Seems the developers of TweetDeck could care less, allowing you to revive your MySpace interaction without actually visiting the site. Facebook integration has also been tweaked to make it more useful and links are automatically shortened. Seems like TweetDeck wants to break out of just being your average Twitter client and become a broader solution for you social media activity. If you’re a TweetDeck fan, this is great. If you’ve tried TweetDeck and didn’t like it, I’m not sure these changes will make a difference to you. (via RWW)

Allen Iverson Bypasses the Media

Social media has made it possible for more and more breaking news to leak out to the public before the standard media outlets even catch wind of it. Paula Abdul announced she was leaving American Idol via Twitter. Now, Allen Iverson uses Twitter to explain why he’s chosen to go to the Memphis Grizzlies. Stuff like this makes me rethink my position on following celebs. I might actually find out something interesting.

Avoid SMS Charges with Google Voice

Google Voice now allows you to send and respond to SMS messages via email. Currently, SMS messages to your Google Voice number are forwarded to an alternate number of your choice. You can also access the messages via the Google Voice Inbox. Now, this new feature will forward the messages to your email account and allow to reply via email, completely cutting out your cellular carrier. This could be extremely useful if you’re looking to save money, don’t have signal or your phone is out of commission, or if you just find texting annoying. (via RWW)

OneRiot Hosts the First Realtime Search Data Visualization Challenge

OneRiot is offering $1,500 to the individual or company that produces the most compelling data visualization, leveraging the OneRiot Realtime Search API.

The realtime web is rich with signals, and alive with the seeking, sharing and viral spreading of information. OneRiot API partners use these signals to deliver realtime content to the people looking for it – but what does it look like before it reaches them?

Would be nice to see some of those intelligent African American developers participate in this challenge. At worst, we find out that some of those actually exist.