delivery

Take control of your UPS deliveries with UPS My Choice

We just covered the service FedEx offers customers to track and manage incoming packages, but not all shipments are done solely through FedEx. UPS also offers a free service, similar to that of FedEx Delivery Manager, called UPS My Choice.

With UPS My Choice you'll receive alerts of incoming packages, hold for will call or authorize a shipment release for free. The paid services include requesting a hold at a UPS location, rescheduling a delivery, and delivering to another address. All of which will set you back $5 per use. Or if you receive a lot of packages, you … Read more

Receive alerts for incoming FedEx deliveries

One of the most nerve-wracking things about ordering a product from an online retailer is waiting for the tracking number to appear in your inbox. Sometimes the e-mail ends up in your spam folder or, even worse, it's never sent by the vendor.

Thanks to a free service from FedEx called FedEx Delivery Manager, you can keep track of incoming packages and get alerted the moment the shipping label is created. That's right, you no longer need to wait for a tracking number to be sent to you before you start monitoring it. Going even further, you can … Read more

Shape-shifting hydrogel takes cue from plants, moves to light

The emerging field of soft robotics, which involves mimicking the squishiness and stickiness of such creatures as octopuses, starfish, and squid, may be taking its next cue from a different source: plants.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley describe in the journal Nano Letters a new hydrogel that, inspired by phototropism (the phenomenon of plants moving toward light), can actually expand and shrink in a very controlled fashion via light.

"Shape-changing gels such as ours could have applications for drug delivery and tissue engineering," principal investigator Seung-Wuk Lee, associated professor of bioengineering, said in a school … Read more

A breath of salty air for patients with cystic fibrosis

In a seemingly random but nevertheless important discovery, scientists watching surfers with cystic fibrosis in Australia several years ago found that inhaling sea water mist reduced lung problems associated with the inherited disease.

So Cambridge Consultants in the U.K. paired with pharma firm Parion to develop and design a type of aerosol delivery systemt, called trans-nasal pulmonary aerosol delivery (tPAD), that brings the benefits of salt water treatment to the comfort of patients' homes, working overnight while they sleep.… Read more

Delivery Status for Mac 5.9.2 Review

Users who need to track multiple deliveries from several sources often need to check many Web sites for information. Delivery Status for Mac allows users to track many sources easily from one location, making it a useful app for those with many deliveries.

The program is available as a free widget for the Mac dashboard. Delivery Status for Mac installs quickly into the widget area, but the user does have to add it to the dashboard to operate. Once set up, the application's interface is easy to use, despite the lack of user instructions. Support for product updates is … Read more

The 404 1,239: Where we swear we're not cops (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- In Jeff's words, April Fool's is a day for unfunny people to tell jokes. With that, I'm pretty sure this prank was posted two weeks early.

- The OPMOD/ThinkGeek Battle Mug: an elegant drink receptacle for a more civilized age.

- Boston police go undercover online to stop DIY punk shows.

- Latest Japanese schoolgirl trend: Fake Dragon Ball attacks.

- Walmart may get customers to deliver packages to online buyers.

- Sales of twin-size beds drop as Tweens demand bigger beds...for their tablets.… Read more

Talk to the ad with mobile Voice Ads

CNET Update is no fool:

April Fools' Day prank announcements and fake gadgets consumed the tech world Monday. But once piece of real news could be mistaken as a joke: Nuance is designing mobile advertisments that can understand language and talk back to consumers.

The streaming TV service Aereo is making headlines. The Wall Street Journal reports Aereo is talking with AT&T and Dish about a partnership to expand offerings. Aereo also won a victory in its legal fight against TV networks, as a federal appeals court in New York upheld the ruling that Aereo does not violate … Read more

The strange resurrection of Net neutrality

WASHINGTON, D.C.--At this week's State of the Net conference, an annual event of the bipartisan Congressional Internet Caucus, members of Congress, staffers, and technology policy junkies gathered once again to explore the government's Internet-related priorities for the new year.

A few themes emerged, including possible legislation over cybersecurity, a rewrite of the 1996 Communications Act, reforming federal electronic-surveillance laws, and the continuing threat of both national governments and the United Nations trying to wrest control of Internet governance from engineering-driven groups.

The general consensus, however, was that for at least the next several months, the fiscal … Read more

eBay same-day delivery makes a stop in New York City

eBay's same-day delivery service is making a stop in New York, with the e-commerce giant expanding its new program to parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Richelle Parham, chief marketing officer of eBay Marketplaces, noted in a post that the eBay Now mobile app now allows shoppers to receive items from hundreds of retailers in New York, typically within an hour. The service will be available in Manhattan as far north as 125th Street and at the western edge of Brooklyn.

And to attract new users, the company plans to take $15 off shoppers' first order and make the first … Read more