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Items by Stan Schroeder

Mashable!

• 22 EU Countries Ratify ACTA, Key Parliament Member Calls it a ‘Charade’

  Posted: January 27th, 2012, 3:11am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Most member states of the European Union have signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) at a ceremony in Tokyo, Japan on Thursday, Jan. 26.

  ACTA is a global treaty that tries to normalize copyright protection and IP standards. It’s similar to SOPA and PIPA, proposed U.S. laws which have recently been dropped after massive internet protests, but in many ways even more dangerous.

  Unfortunately (and unlike SOPA and PIPA), ACTA has been signed by many states without a wide, open public discussion. Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States signed the ACTA on 1 Oct 2011.

  As of yesterday, they are joined by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

  Finally, according to a statement by Japan’s foreign affairs Ministry, the EU states which did not sign ACTA yet are “expected to do so on the completion of respective domestic procedures.”

  “ACTA (…) aims to improve enforcement mechanisms to help its members combat IPR infringement more effectively,” said Mr. Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Japan.

  Many, however, think that it does so at the expense of internet users’ privacy and freedom. In Poland, thousands of people have taken to the streets, protesting the signing of ACTA. And now, French socialist and member of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade Kader Arif has resigned from his position of European rapporteur for ACTA and posted a stern note about the lack of transparency surrounding the signing of ACTA.

  “This agreement may have major consequences on the lives of our citizens, and yet everything is done in such a way that the European Parliament has no say on the matter. So today, in submitting this report in my charge, I want to send a strong signal and alert the public about this unacceptable situation. I will not participate in this charade,” he wrote.

  The ACTA is not yet in effect. It has to be ratified by the European Parliament this summer. Let’s hope for a healthy, open discussion in the Parliament that will clear air of secrecy surrounding ACTA and result in a decision that’s best for the citizens and internet users all over the world.

  More About: ACTA, copyright, eu, PIPA, privacy, SOPA, trending

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• NASA’s New Satellite Captures Amazing Hi-Res Image of Earth

  Posted: January 26th, 2012, 2:16am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  You’ve seen Earth, but you’ve never seen it like this.

  Suomi NPP, NASA’s newest Earth-watching satellite, has taken a high resolution image of Earth, one of the most beautiful such images ever created. It’s available in 8000×8000 pixel resolution, and it takes a while to download it, but it’s definitely worth it.

  The satellite, named after the “father of satellite meteorology,” Verner E. Suomi, is designed to create fabulous images of Earth, monitor for natural disasters and improve weather forecasts as well as our understanding of long-term climate changes.

  The image is a composite, using a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on Jan. 4, 2012. It echoes the legendary “Blue Marble” photograph, taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on Dec, 7, 1972,

  The Blue Marble 2012, as NASA named the new photo, is available in high resolution here.

  Now, where do we sign up for a 8000×8000 pixel screen so we can use this baby as desktop background?

  Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

  [via Our Amazing Planet]

  More About: blue marble, blue marble 2012, Earth, image, NASA, satellite, trending

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• Solar Storm Puts Beautiful Northern Lights on Display [VIDEO]

  Posted: January 25th, 2012, 4:18am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The solar storm that showered the Earth on Tuesday, Jan. 24, was one of the strongest such occurrences in recent years.

  It was only a minor nuisance for people on Earth, but for some, it was a great chance to catch northern lights or aurora borealis, a natural light effect caused by the collision of solar particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.

  One of the most beautiful such videos comes from Helge Mortensen who captured the nature’s light show in Norway.

  The solar radiation storm was classified by NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center as “strong” or S3, and is now considered the largest since October 2003.

  As a bonus, check out this stunning NASA video showing a closeup of the M8.7 class solar flare which occurred on Jan. 22 and caused the solar storm two days later.

  [via Space.com]

  More About: northern lights, solar storm

  
  

  

• Google Offers Expands to Five New Cities

  Posted: January 25th, 2012, 2:31am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Google’s daily deals service, Google Offers, is coming to five new locales: Charlotte, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Antonio and Tampa.

  These five cities bring the total number of locales where Google Offers is available to 38.

  Furthermore, this number will soon be 40, as two more cities – Oklahoma City and Omaha – are on the “coming soon” list.

  For starters, Google is offering a beer tasting deal in Charlotte, cheap burgers in Milwaukee and a deal on Greek cuisine in Tampa.

  You can check all the debut deals for the new cities here and sign for the service over at www.google.com/offers.

  Image courtesy of Flickr, joi

  More About: daily deals, Google, Google Offers, groupon

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• Solar Eruption Triggers Strongest Radiation Storm in 7 Years

  Posted: January 24th, 2012, 2:45am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  A huge eruption on the Sun has caused the strongest radiation storm since 2005, which is due to hit Earth on Tuesday, Jan 24, possibly causing widespread communications interference.

  The eruption occurred late on January 22, 2012 sending a burst of energized solar particles towards Earth at about 5 million miles an hour (2,000 km per second).

  SpaceWeather.com ranks this geomagnetic storm “strong” or S3, meaning it may expose passengers in high-flying aircraft to radiation risk, disrupt satellite operations and degrade HF radio communications.

  There is no risk to people on Earth, but polar flights are expected to be re-routed as a precaution measure. Furthermore, NASA expects “no adverse effects” for the six astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

  The radiation storm has one other interesting side effect – stronger than normal displays of Earth’s auroras. Expect some beautiful aurora pics to pop up on the Internet in the days to come.

  Image credit: NASA

  More About: eruption, radiation storm, trending

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• 29 Percent of U.S. Adults Own a Tablet or Ereader [STUDY]

  Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 2:11am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  19 percent of adults in the United States own a tablet, and 29 percent own either a tablet or an ereader, according to the latest study from Pew Internet.

  What’s amazing about these findings is that the share of U.S. adults who own tablets nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December 2011 and early January 2012, and almost the exact same thing happened to ereaders, which grew from 10% to 19% over that same time period.

  Pew’s numbers suggest that most users own either a tablet or an e-reader. It took only one holiday shopping spree for the number of U.S. adults who own either a tablet or an ereader to jump to almost one third of the adult population – from 18 to 29 percent.

  Since there was no new iPad in that period, it’s safe to assume that a big chunk of this growth can be attributed to Amazon’s Kindle devices and Barnes & Noble’s Nook line.

  Both companies reported exceptionally good holiday sales: Amazon said last Black Friday was the best day ever for Kindle, and Barnes & Noble reported record Nook sales during the nine-week holiday period at the end of 2011.

  [via Pew Internet]

  More About: americans, ereader, Tablet, U.S.

  
  

  

• Can Screens With Solar Cells Solve the Smartphone Battery Problem?

  Posted: January 20th, 2012, 3:30am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Most modern smartphones have a problem – their battery simply doesn’t last long enough, especially with heavy usage. As the smartphone screens get bigger and bigger, the battery drain increases, but now Arman Ahnood, a researcher at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, has an elegant solution: smartphone screens with built-in solar cells.

  According to Ahnood, only 36% of the light produced by an OLED display is projected out and the rest is wasted. This wasted light, which is scattered or “bleeding” from the edge of the display, can be harnessed with photovoltaic cells, built into the screen itself.

  Ahnood’s system currently has an efficiency of 11%, producing a total output of five miliwatts on a typical 3.7-inch device, which is far from what a smartphone needs. According to this research (PDF link), a typical smartphone uses up to several hundred miliwatts, and as much as 68.6 miliwatts in a suspended state.

  However, Ahnood believes the efficiency can be increased significantly, to the point where this system could extend battery life by a few hours.

  To smartphone owners, which often call their devices “6 o’clock phones,” since their battery only lasts until late afternoon with normal usage, these couple of hours could make a big difference.

  [via ExtremeTech]

  More About: battery, photovoltaic cells, smartphone, solar cells

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• Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi Gets Ice Cream Sandwich

  Posted: January 19th, 2012, 12:58am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Motorola has started rolling out Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich to Motorola Xoom owners in the U.S., but only those who have the Wi-Fi version of the device.

  This will bring a redesigned app launcher, a better web browser, resizable widgets and many other goodies to the tablet.

  As for the 3G version of the tablet, Motorola said it will get the update as well, but did not give an exact date.

  The update will be rolling out in “phases over the course of a few weeks,” so don’t be perturbed if your Xoom still hasn’t been updated.

  Motorola is also slated to update its Droid Razr with Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012.

  More About: android, Android 4.0, ice cream sandwich, Motorola, motorola xoom, wi-fi

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• This Is the Internet After SOPA [PICS]

  Posted: January 18th, 2012, 3:18am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Nedroid
  
  
  
  

  These sites have "blacked out" today in protest of Stop online privacy act (SOPA). It makes it just a little bit easier to imagine what the web could look like if some of the measures from the proposed SOPA bill were to become law.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  Today, many popular websites are going “dark” in protest of Stop online piracy act (SOPA).

  The consensus among many experts, internet users, web companies and even the White House, is that SOPA is too restrictive, too dangerous, too complicated and too big a threat to our privacy. Simply put, it must be stopped before it’s too late.

  In a way, today’s blackout shows what the internet might look if some of the principles in SOPA start being enforced as law. Do you like seeing big “CLOSED” signs on your favorite websites? Neither do we.

  We’ve gathered the screenshots of sites which are protesting SOPA with a blackout in the gallery above, and will be adding additional pics as more sites join in. Feel free to add your favorite SOPA-protesting site in the comments below!

  More About: SOPA, Stop Online Privacy Act

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• Wikipedia Goes Black in Protest of SOPA

  Posted: January 18th, 2012, 1:50am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  As announced, Wikipedia’s main page is “blackened” today in protest of the controversial Stop online privacy act (SOPA).

  “For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia,” says the message on the page.

  The actual articles on Wikipedia are actually accessible for a short period of time, after which they redirect the visitor to the blackened main page.

  For millions of Wikipedia visitors today, the message will be clear: one of the most influential sites and communities on the internet is clearly against SOPA. Many other sites, including Reddit, will join the protest by shutting down or “blacking out” their homepages today.

  More About: SOPA, trending, wikipedia

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• Apple to Introduce “GarageBand for E-Books” [RUMOR]

  Posted: January 17th, 2012, 2:48am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple is scheduled to host an education-related event on January 19 – shrouded with a veil of mystery, as always. A new report from Ars Technica says the company is about to unveil a set of tools to create interactive e-books.

  Previous rumors said that Apple will show no new devices, and that the event will center around Apple’s new partnerships with textbook publishers.

  If this new report is true, the event might turn out to be much more significant. Ars Technica’s sources say Apple’s about to present new authoring tools described as “GarageBand for e-books,” making it easy for everyone to create interactive digital books. The company also plans to expand its platform to distribute these e-books to iPhone and iPad users.

  Apple, who currently supports the ePub 2 e-book standard (with some additions) is also expected to announce support for the ePub 3 standard for iBooks.

  This venture is described as the pet project of Steve Jobs, who – according to Walter Isaacson‘s biography – believed the textbook industry is ripe for “digital destruction.” According to Ars Technica’s sources, Jobs was very closely involved on the project and has worked on it for several years.

  Mashable will be reporting from the event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Jan. 19.

  [via Ars Technica]

  More About: apple, e-books, GarageBand, textbooks

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• Russian Space Probe Crashes Into Pacific Ocean

  Posted: January 16th, 2012, 2:18am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Phobos-Grunt, the failed Russian space probe that was slated to visit the Martian moon Phobos, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, Russian news agencies report.

  The probe hit Earth at around 12:45 p.m. EST Sunday, some 775 miles west of the coastal island of Wellington.

  “Phobos-Grunt fragments have crashed down in the Pacific Ocean,” Alexei Zolotukhin, an official with Russia’s Defense Ministry, said to Ria Novosti.

  The probe, described by one expert as the “most toxic falling satellite ever,” was launched on Nov. 9, 2011 with a mission to take soil samples from Phobos and fly them back to Earth. However, shortly after launch it stopped responding to commands, and in December the European Space Agency said it will stop attempts to save it.

  If it were successful, the $165-million probe would be Russia’s first successful interplanetary mission in over 20 years.

  [via Reuters]

  More About: fobos-grunt, Phobos-Grunt, russia, space probe, trending

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• Words With Friends Helps Save Man’s Life

  Posted: January 13th, 2012, 2:54am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Addictive scrabble game Words With Friends helped save the life of an Australian man with heart problems, reports Ozarks First.

  Australian resident Georgie Fletcher met Beth Legler from Blue Springs, Missouri through a random Words With Friends game. Georgie’s husband Simon was experiencing some health problems, which Beth described to her husband Larry, who is a doctor.

  Larry recognized the symptoms and urged Simon to go to a hospital, which turned out to be a last minute call, since Simon had a 99% blockage near his heart – an extremely serious condition.

  “Had Larry not sent that message I don’t think Simon would have gone to the doctor that day,” Beth said.

  Three months later, Simon is alive and well and very thankful for that Words With Friends game. “I owe Larry everything…I’m really lucky to be here,” admits Simon.

  While playing Words With Friends can have its benefits, one should take care not to overdo it. The popular game recently hit the news when Alec Baldwin got booted off a plane for refusing to stop playing.

  [via Ozarks First]

  More About: game, scrabble, trending, words with friends

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• Google Goes Underground for Nicolas Steno’s Birthday

  Posted: January 11th, 2012, 4:01am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 374th birthday of Nicolas Steno, often called the “father of geology.”

  Born on January 11, 1638, Steno was a Danish bishop and scientist best known for his “principle of original horizontality,” stating that layers of sediment are originally deposited horizontally due to gravity, as well as “law of superposition,” which states that layers of sediment are deposited in such a way that the oldest reside on the bottom and the youngest on top.

  With his research, Steno laid down the foundations of stratigraphy, a branch of geology that studies rock layers. He also had notable contributions to paleontology, as he was one of the first to suggest that fossils were remains of once-living organisms.

  Steno died in 1686. He converted to Catholicism from Lutheranism, and Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1988.

  Bonus: Here are the best Google Doodles of 2011:
  

  
  1. Martin Luther King Jr.
  
  
  

  This Google Doodle, displayed Jan. 17, features a group of children playing hopscotch — an homage to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: Google, google doodle, Nicolas Steno

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• This Swiss Army Knife Comes With a 1 TB USB Flash Drive

  Posted: January 11th, 2012, 2:45am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Victorinox has unveiled a Swiss Army knife with a USB flash drive that holds 1 terabyte of data.

  The company has had a USB knife in its line of products for a while, but the Victorinox SSD comes with several new features: it connects to eSATA II/III as well as USB 2.0/3.0 with a single connector, it has a monochrome graphic display showing what’s on the drive and it supports 256 AES encryption.

  Data transfer speeds are 220 MB/s for reading and 150 MB/s for writing data, and the availabile capacities range from 64 GB to a whopping 1 TB.

  Of course, the knife also has a blade, scissors, nail file with a screwdriver tip and a LED/laser pointer. All you frequent travelers needn’t worry – the drive can be interchanged between the fully-equipped body and the flight-friendly body, which comes without the pointy stuff.

  The company has also launched the Slim 3.0 USB drive, which goes up to 128 GB on the storage side and offers 10 times faster data transfer than the previous version.

  Both devices will be available in April 2012 at a yet unannounced price.

  CES 2012: Mashable’s Photo Coverage From the Ground

  Check out more gadgets, booths and appearances from our team on the ground at CES 2012.

  
  Thermador Cooktop
  
  
  

  The Freedom Induction Cooktop by Thermador allows the user to place pots anywhere on it's surface for cooking.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: CES, CES 2012, Swiss army knife, Swiss knife, Victorinox

  
  

  

• Titan II is HTC’s First LTE Windows Phone

  Posted: January 10th, 2012, 2:58am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  HTC has announced HTC Titan II, the company’s first LTE Windows Phone.

  Like its predecessor, the Titan II is huge, with a 4.7-inch super LCD screen. The rest of the specifications are quite impressive, too: a 16-megapixel back camera (and a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front for video calls) and a 1.5 GHz Snapdragon CPU.

  Interestingly enough, while the back camera comes with a huge range of goodies, such as a wide-angle lens, autofocus, image stabilization and dual LED flash, it only takes 720p – not 1080p – video.

  Of course, LTE support, which will enable super fast data transfer on AT&T’s network, makes the Titan II a good choice for heavy multimedia and internet users.

  The device will be available “in the coming months” to AT&T customers. The price hasn’t yet been announced.

  More About: htc, HTC Titan II, LTE, Titan II, windows phone

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• Netflix Launches Video Streaming Service in the UK and Ireland

  Posted: January 9th, 2012, 2:08am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  After months of preparation, Netflix has launched its online video streaming service in the UK and Ireland.

  Netflix is available right now for customers in these two countries, who can get a free one-month trial. After the trial, the service costs £5.99 or €6.99 ($8.87).

  Users will be able to watch TV shows such as Prison Break and Damages, as well as movies such as 3:10 to Yuma, Blitz and The English Patient. Netflix offers a wide range of programmes for kids, and promises to continuously keep adding new content.

  Users will also be able to stream the content to a PC, smart TV, tablet, smartphone or Blu-ray player, and get personalized recommendations as well as Facebook-based viewing suggestions.

  Leading up to the UK launch, Netflix has signed content deals with several major broadcasting houses, including the BBC, Miramax and Lionsgate. Its biggest competitor in the UK, Amazon’s LoveFilm, has also started beefing up the content side, most recently signing deals with ITV and the BBC.

  More About: Film, ireland, netflix, streaming, TV, uk, Video

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• Google Translate for iOS Gets iPad Support

  Posted: January 6th, 2012, 3:59am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Google Translate app for the iPhone has hit version 1.3.0, bringing important news for iPad owners: the app is now universal for iOS devices, which includes iPad support.

  The iPad app is essentially a scaled version of the iPhone app, so don’t expect anything groundbreaking.

  As before, the app lets you translate written text between 63 languages. It also lets you translate by speaking text instead of typing it, but this option works only for 17 languages. For 24 languages you can hear the translation spoken aloud.

  You can also access your translation history even when offline, star your favorite translations and spell out the translation of non-Latin script languages in Latin characters to read it phonetically.

  The new version of the app is available for free in Apple’s App Store.

  More About: google translate, iOS, ipad

  
  

  

• Ford to Open Research Lab in Silicon Valley in 2012

  Posted: January 6th, 2012, 1:31am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Ford has announced plans to open a Research and Development lab in Silicon Valley in early 2012, the first such facility the company has ever opened on the west coast.

  It’s hardly a surprising move, though, since car tech increasingly merges with information and communication technologies.

  In recent years, Ford has been investing in technologies such as SYNC, which offers in-car connectivity with smartphones and music players, and MyFord Mobile, a smartphone app which displays battery info for electric vehicles such as Ford Focus Electric.

  With the new lab Ford plans to “prepare for the next 100 years” and develop partnerships with tech firms, startups and universities in the area.

  The new Ford lab will be located in the San Francisco Bay area, but the exact location hasn’t been revealed yet.

  We’ll find out more about Ford’s future plans at this year’s CES, including the first live demo of the MyFord Mobile app.

  More About: ford, ford focus, MyFord Mobile, r&d, Silicon Valley, sync

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• Gingerbread and Froyo Installed on 85% of Android Devices

  Posted: January 5th, 2012, 3:35am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Android 2.3 or Gingerbread is installed on 54.9% of all Android devices, while Android 2.2 or Froyo is installed on another 30.4% of all Android devices, which makes Android perhaps the least fragmented it’s ever been.

  According to the latest data from Android Developers, out of all the older and now obsolete Android versions only Android 2.1 or Eclair has a significant market share – 8.5%, while earlier versions have less than 2% put together.

  Of course, this almost ideal situation – given how badly the Android platform has been fragmented at certain points in the past – won’t last long. The newer versions – Android 3.0, 3.1, 3.2 and 4.0 are looming behind the corner, and most upcoming Android devices run or at least support one of these.

  

  Curently, neither Android 3.x nor Android 4.0 has a significant market share, but this will change drastically in 2012, and the cycle will begin anew, for better or for worse.

  More About: android, Froyo, gingerbread

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• Today’s Top Stories: Verizon CEO Bails from CES, Google Buys IBM Patents, Yahoo to Name New CEO

  Posted: January 4th, 2012, 4:55am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.

  Verizon CEO Cancels Appearance at CES

  Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam won’t be giving a keynote speech at this year’s CEO due to “scheduling conflicts,” the company has announced.

  Verizon declined to give any further details on what, exactly, its chief executive discovered in his schedule only days ahead of CES. A Verizon spokesman said the company will probably send another executive to replace McAdam at the event.

  Google Buys 200+ IBM Patents

  Google has acquired 217 patents from IBM, including one particularly interesting patent that might help the search giant leverage its social network, Google+, to create a network of experts on specific topics. The rest of the patents cover many different technologies, including data services such as online calendars and email management.

  Yahoo to Name New CEO

  Yahoo will name a new CEO as early as Wednesday, All Things Digital reports citing sources familiar with the matter.

  Yahoo has fired its CEO Carol Bartz back in September 2011, and the company has since been run by interim CEO (and previous CFO of Yahoo) Tim Morse. ATD’s sources claim the leading candidate for the spot is current PayPal President Scott Thompson.

  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

  More About: first to know, first to know series, Google, IBM, morning brief, Today's top stories, verizon

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• Mimbo the iPhone Robot Mimics Your Emotions

  Posted: January 4th, 2012, 3:19am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Interested in robotics, but building a robot seems too complex and you can’t afford an Asimo? The folks at Instructables have a solution: Mimbo, a simple, iPhone-based robot in a cardboard body that mimics your facial expressions.

  At first glance, Mimbo isn’t really all that interesting: it consists of two eyes and a mouth on an iPhone screen, with the rest being concealed by a simple cardboard body.

  However, with the help of TouchOSC Interface and some facial recognition tracking, it becomes a very cool little thing, mimicking the movements of your eyes, eyebrows and mouth, as you can see in the video below.

  While the process of creating Mimbo isn’t just a matter of slapping a new app on an iPhone – it requires the understanding of some basic programming concepts and learning the basics of the TouchOSC Interface as well as face recognition app called FaceOSC – those of you who like tinkering should be able to create your own Mimbo relatively easily. Don’t call us when it becomes self-aware and turns against you, though.

  [via Engadget]

  More About: iphone, Mimbo, Robot

  
  

  

• Internet Explorer Still on Top, But Chrome Is Winning the Browser War

  Posted: January 3rd, 2012, 3:45am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still the world’s most popular browser, but it and Mozilla’s Firefox lost a lot of market share to Google’s Chrome in 2011, which is now firmly in second place.

  According to StatCounter’s 2011 data, Internet Explorer currently has a 39% market share, Chrome is at 27%, while Firefox holds 25% of the market.

  Safari and Opera follow with 6% and 2% market share, respectively.

  These numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, however. Internet Explorer started 2011 with a 46% share of the market, and Firefox was over 30%. Both browsers steadily lost their share throughout the year, and almost all of it went to Chrome, which is clearly the year’s biggest gainer.

  

  Net Applications’ numbers for 2011 are very different, with Internet Explorer having a much bigger lead (52%), but the trends are similar: Chrome was the only clear winner in 2011, having jumped from 10% to 19% market share.

  Interestingly, Net Applications sees Firefox’ current market share almost exactly where it started 2011: at 22%.

  Regardless of whose number you believe, it seems that Chrome is on a roll, and its steep upward trajectory shows that other browser makers should take notice. Otherwise, we may have a new king of the browser market in a year or two.

  [via The Verge]

  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, alexsl

  More About: browser, Browsers, chrome, Firefox, Google, internet explorer, microsoft, mozilla, web browser

  
  

  

• Samsung Galaxy Note Coming to AT&T [RUMOR]

  Posted: January 2nd, 2012, 7:29am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Samsung Galaxy Note might be arriving to U.S. under AT&T’s wing, according to a photo unearthed by SamMobile.

  In the photo, Samsung’s tablet/smartphone hybrid is sporting the AT&T’s logo instead of the regular Samsung sign.

  The device should hit the U.S. market in the first half of this year, and the American version is rumored to come with an NFC chip — something its European counterpart doesn’t have.

  Although the Samsung Note has an uncommon screen size — 5.3 inches — Samsung has already declared it a success, reporting more than one million units shipped worldwide.

  Other specifications of the device include Android Gingerbread 2.3 (with an upgrade to Android 4 coming sometime in early 2012) and an 8-megapixel/2-megapixel camera combo.

  

  More About: Galaxy Note, samsung, Samsung Galaxy Note

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• Facebook Timeline Doesn’t Show in Internet Explorer 7

  Posted: January 2nd, 2012, 4:49am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  If you don’t like Facebook Timeline, all you have to do to get rid of it is use Internet Explorer 7 — but be prepared for a buggy experience. Facebook’s latest profile redesign is not visible in IE7, and the company might soon completely phase out support for the aging browser, ZDNet suspects.

  It took Facebook quite awhile to cut support for IE7′s ancient predecessor, Internet Explorer 6. In August 2010, Facebook had announced that its chat feature will no longer support IE6, joining many other web services that gave up on the bug-ridden browser.

  It seems that the same fate now awaits IE7, which currently has a market share of about 4%, according to StatCounter. When you open a Facebook profile with the new Timeline feature enabled, IE7 will simply show a buggy, old version of the profile.

  Officially, Facebook says it recommends using the “most up to date” version of Firefox, IE, Safari or Chrome; it doesn’t, however, mention support for older versions of these browsers.

  If the move is intentional, it’s hardly a surprising one. Once, support for older versions of browsers was an important feat for web services, especially popular ones. Now with many browsers, including IE, being automatically updated for users, there’s little reason to keep using a browser that’s more than 5 years old.

  [Sociable via ZDNet]

  More About: facebook timeline, IE6, IE7, trending

  
  

  

• Today’s Top Stories: GoDaddy Woes, Twitter Lawsuit, No-Glasses 3D

  Posted: December 27th, 2011, 6:31am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.

  Company Sues Former Employee for Value of Lost Followers

  Noah Kravitz left his former employer PhoneDog in October 2010 on good terms, but his Twitter account – more precisely, his Twitter followers – have come back to haunt him. The company is suing him for $340,000 for the 17,000 followers he kept after he left the the position, and it’ll be very interesting to see how the judge decides in this one.

  Reddit Community Launches Another Anti-Go Daddy Campaign

  The community on social networking site Reddit has started a campaign to dump GoDaddy on December 29 due to the company’s support for the highly controversial SOPA act.

  After the first wave of backlash, GoDaddy publicly announced that it no longer supports SOPA, but many doubt the company’s apology was genuine. The domain registrar reportedly lost 20,000 accounts in a single day following the SOPA outcry.

  Stream TV Networks Plans to Show Off No-Glasses 3D With Real-Time Conversion from 2D

  3D video content which doesn’t require glasses is not a new thing, but Stream TV Networks has developed a technology called Ultra-D, which enables real-time conversion of 2D video material to no-glasses 3D.

  The company thinks its technology might create “a significant shift in the way people view media, comparable to the transition from black and white to color TV.” We’ll be watching it closely at this year’s CES.

  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

  More About: 3D, first to know, first to know series, GoDarry, Today's top stories, Twitter

  
  

  

• ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’ Is Off to a Very Good Start

  Posted: December 27th, 2011, 3:04am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Star Wars: The Old Republic, the latest MMORPG from BioWare and Electronic Arts, already has a million registered users, and momentum seems to be picking up a week after the game’s launch.

  The “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game” reached 1 million users Dec. 23, just three days after launch, and it includes users who have pre-ordered the game. Now, however, Electronic Arts has published a new set of milestones, which tell us more about how users are actually interacting with the game.

  According to EA, the gamers have spent more than 60 million hours playing the game, completed 260 million quests and killed more than 3 billion non-player characters.

  While EA’s announcement refers to the SWTOR community as “rabid,” we’d wait a little longer before declaring the game a success. We’ve seen similar early success from MMO titles such as Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, only to see interest wane after a couple of months.

  Still, if these early numbers are any indication, the ubiquitous World of Warcraft MMORPG might have some decent competition next year.

  More About: mmorpg, Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, trending

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• Startup Lets You Sell Stuff Left Over From Your Break Up

  Posted: December 26th, 2011, 8:32pm MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

  Name: Never Liked it Anyway

  Quick Pitch: A marketplace for unwanted items left over after a relationship break up.

  Genius Idea: Connecting the sentimental with the practical

  We’ve all experienced it – a romantic break up usually leaves you with a bunch of stuff that first makes you cry, then makes you angry, and after a while you just want to get rid of it all.

  Enter Never Liked it Anyway, a simple marketplace that gives users a way to get rid of the stuff they no longer need, usually at a discounted “break up” price.

  It could be a good bargain for someone hunting for good deals, too; one item, for example, is a $70 leather jacket, now sold for mere $15.

  Bella, the website’s owner, claims she did not receive any funding, and doesn’t come from a coding background. Instead, she chose a premium WordPress theme for the site, hoping that the story behind the items will intrigue users more than fancy technicalities.

  

  Indeed, the service is very simple, but what makes it interesting are the stories behind the items, which usually describe some details about the romantic relationship which yielded the item in question. The service also enables sellers to choose a “break up phase” related to the items they sell.

  If users start flocking to the service (at the moment, there’s only a couple items for sale in stock) and keep writing sassy descriptions for the items they sell, the site might turn into an interesting little community.

  Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

  

  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

  More About: bizspark, online dating, relationship, Startups

  
  

  

• iPhone of the Future May Be Powered by Hydrogen Fuel Cells

  Posted: December 26th, 2011, 6:32am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Sometime in the future, Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPad and MacBook might work longer than ever on a smaller and lighter battery pack. How is this possible? By using hydrogen fuel cells, which convert oxygen and hydrogen into water, heat and electricity.

  The US Patent & Trademark Office has recently published two Apple patent applications, detailing how fuel cells might power smartphones, laptops and tablets of the future.

  Hydrogen fuel cells aren’t exactly a new technology; they’ve been used to power Honda cars, for example, and they bring their own set of problems, especially in the context of smartphones or laptops. “It is extremely challenging to design hydrogen fuel cell systems which are sufficiently portable and cost-effective to be used with portable electronic devices,” admits Apple.

  But Apple might have a solution. One of the patent applications describes a “fuel cell system which is capable of both providing power to and receiving power from a rechargeable battery in a portable computing device. This eliminates the need for a bulky and heavy battery within the fuel cell system, which can significantly reduce the size, weight and cost of the fuel cell system.”

  And for how long these fuel cells (in its patent application, Apple explores other fuel possibilities besides hydrogen) could power a smartphone or a laptop? The answer is “days or even weeks without refueling,” according to Apple. This sounds like a dream to owners of most modern smartphones, which barely last a day of heavy use.

  We’ll probably have to wait a while until fuel cell-powered iPhones and MacBooks hit the market, but a big breakthrough in battery technology is something we’ve been waiting for a long time, and it might change the face of the market forever.

  

  More About: apple, Batteries, battery, hydrogen, hydrogen cells, iphone, trending

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• LG Announces World’s Largest OLED TV Panel

  Posted: December 26th, 2011, 3:11am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  LG‘s upcoming OLED TV panel measures 55 inches and comes with a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1, the company has announced.

  The panel is also just 5 mm thin and has a color gamut that is “wider” than that produced by LCD panels. All of these characteristics make it a candidate for bringing OLED TV technology to the masses in a market that’s still dominated by LCDs.

  “Although OLED technology is seen as the future of TV display, the technology has been limited to smaller display sizes and by high costs, until now. LG Display’s 55-inch OLED TV panel has overcome these barriers,” said Sang Beom Han, CEO and Executive Vice President of LG Display.

  Of course, we’ll hear more of this panel at the next CES, along with those WiDi-supporting CINEMA 3D Smart TVs LG has announced earlier this month.

  [via Engadget]

  More About: LG, OLED, OLED TV, panel, screen, TV

  
  

  

• Best Buy Runs Out of Goods, Cancels Some Online Orders [VIDEO]

  Posted: December 23rd, 2011, 9:56am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  Best Buy will not be able to fill all of its customers’ online orders before the holidays, the company has announced.

  “Due to overwhelming demand of hot product offerings on BestBuy.com during the November and December time period, we have encountered a situation that has affected redemption of some of our customers’ online orders. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, and we have notified the affected customers,” said Best Buy in a statement.

  Best Buy didn’t specify exactly how many orders are affected, but the incident is bound to end up in some bad publicity. Best Buy forums are already swarmed with complaints from affected customers.

  “A similar thing happened to me (…) the payment was complete and everything and three days later we received an e-mail from Best Buy that the item is not available. What kind of business are you running?”, asked one customer.

  While the company issued a public apology, it will hardly satisfy disgruntled customers. Not getting that Christmas present you’ve ordered isn’t exactly the nicest ways to start the holidays.

  [via AP]

  Bonus: Last Minute Gift Ideas You Can Send via E-mail

  Best Buy left you high and dry? You can order any one of these gifts right now and they can arrive in any recipient’s inbox almost instantly.

  
  1. iTunes gift card
  
  
  
  

  A good ol' standby, an iTunes gift card is always appreciated. Your recipient can download any music — from Justin Bieber to Michael Bublé — to her iTunes and subsequent mobile devices.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: best buy, Christmas, mashable video, orders, shopping, trending

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• Today’s Top Stories: Best Buy’s Christmas Woes, Louis CK’s $1 Million

  Posted: December 23rd, 2011, 7:47am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.

  Best Buy Can’t Send All Online Orders Before Christmas

  Best Buy said it won’t be able to fill all of its customers’ online orders before the holidays. Although Best Buy didn’t specify exactly how many and which orders are affected, the news has angered customers who are voicing their concern on various online forums and Twitter.

  Louis CK Earns $1 Million in 12 Days With $5 Video

  Comedian Louis CK has managed to earn $1 million in just 12 days, selling the video of his standup performance for $5 directly through his website. Louis, who has put various social media channels to use when promoting the video, will give some of the money to various charities, and keep only a smaller part for himself.

  PlayStation Vita to Launch With Biggest Software Lineup in Sony History

  PlayStation Vita, Sony’s hand-held gaming console which launches in the United States and Canada on Feb. 22, will come with what Sony calls the “biggest and best launch lineup across the history of PlayStation platforms.”

  Titles available at launch will include Escape Plan, Hot Shots Golf, UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss, wipEout 2048, EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer and Touch My Katamari.

  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

  More About: best buy, first to know, first to know series, louis ck, morning brief, PlayStation Vita, sony

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• Words With Friends Arrives to Nook Tablets, Twitter Coming Soon

  Posted: December 23rd, 2011, 2:31am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Popular scrabble game Words With Friends is now available for Nook Tablet and Nook Color, with Barnes & Noble promising several more high-profile apps in the near future.

  Owners of Nook Tablet have had quite a slim choice of apps so far, with even obvious favorites such as Twitter missing from the picture.

  This is about to change, as B&N promises Twitter “soon” as well as Plants vs. Zombies and “many more” apps early next year.

  As for Words With Friends, we advise Nook Tablet owners to be careful when airborne. Alec Baldwin recently got booted off a plane for refusing to stop playing the game.

  More About: nook, Nook Tablet, Tablet, Twitter, words with friends, Zynga

  
  

  

• Researchers Create ‘Sun-Believable’ Solar Cell Paint

  Posted: December 22nd, 2011, 8:58am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Notre Dame researchers have created a semiconductive paste, which can turn surfaces its applied to into solar cells.

  A team of researchers, lead by Professor Prashant Kamat, created the new material by coating nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide, and then suspending them in a water-alcohol mixture to create a paste.

  The paste can then be applied to a transparent conducting material, which creates electricity when exposed to light.

  The solar cell paint is cheap to produce, but it currently has a serious drawback: low efficiency. Silicon solar cells typically have 10-15% efficiency, while the material created by Kamat and his team has a 1% efficiency at best.

  “This paint can be made cheaply and in large quantities. If we can improve the efficiency somewhat, we may be able to make a real difference in meeting energy needs in the future,” says Kamat.

  Due to its amazing properties, Kamat and his team dubbed the new material “Sun-Believable.” The researcher believes that, if perfected, the new material could be a start of a new era in solar power.

  More About: green energy, solar cells, solar energy, solar power

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• Sony Ericsson ‘Super Phone’ Has a 13-Megapixel Camera and LTE

  Posted: December 22nd, 2011, 3:02am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  According to a new entry on the official Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) site, Sony Ericsson is getting ready to release the LT28at, a high-end smartphone which the company refers to as “super phone.”

  The details on the Bluetooth SIG site are scarce, but LT28at will come with a 13-megapixel camera, LTE support and a 4.55-inch 720p “Reality Display,” all of which puts it somewhere at the top of the company’s current smartphone lineup.

  Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LED Flash and front-facing camera are also on board, of course, but the release date is missing. It’s not too far-fetched to assume we might see SE’s definition of “super phone” in January, at next year’s CES.

  [via XperiaBlog]

  More About: LT28at, smartphone, Sony Ericsson, super phone

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• Mozilla Extends Search Partnership With Google

  Posted: December 21st, 2011, 2:49am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Mozilla has extended its search partnership with Google for at least three additional years, the company has announced.

  Under the terms of the agreement, Google will continue to be the default search provider for Mozilla’s web browser, Firefox.

  The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

  The Google Search deal has been a key source of income for Mozilla, generating 84% of Mozilla’s $121.1 million revenue in 2010.

  The original deal between Mozilla and Google expired in November 2011, and in October Mozilla launched Firefox with Bing, sparking speculation that it might switch to Bing as its search provider.

  The new multi-year arrangement with Google squashes such rumors and shows that the rivalry between Firefox and Google’s web browser Chrome wasn’t enough of a hurdle for the two companies to strike a deal again.

  More About: Firefox, Google, mozilla, partnership, Search

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• Samsung Galaxy S II and Galaxy Note to Receive Android 4 in Q1 2012

  Posted: December 20th, 2011, 2:29am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets will receive an upgrade to Android 4 or Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012, the company has announced.

  The first two devices (as previously announced) to receive the upgrade will be Samsung Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy Note, and this should occur sometime in the first quarter of 2012.

  Other devices will “soon follow,” says Samsung. The full lineup of ICS-upgradeable devices at this point includes the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II LTE, Galaxy Note, Galaxy R, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 8.9, Galaxy Tab 7.7, and Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

  Samsung will give out separate announcements for each device, detailing OS update schedule for individual markets.

  Other manufacturers have announced ICS upgrades for their flagship smartphones as well. HTC recently announced that Ice Cream Sandwich is coming to several of its smartphones in early 2012. Motorola’s Droid Razr will get to the latest version of Android in early 2012.

  
  Android Ice Cream Sandwich
  
  
  

  Click here to view this gallery.

  [via Samsung Tomorrow]

  More About: android, Android 4, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S 2, Galaxy S II, ice cream sandwich, samsung, Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy S II

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• Twitter Reacts to Kim Jong-il’s Death

  Posted: December 19th, 2011, 2:23am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died last Saturday while on a train trip, with his youngest son Kim Jong-un being named the new country leader, Reuters reports.

  Kim Jong-il was known by the west as a dictator who helped turn North Korea into an extremely repressive, poor and reclusive state, and the reactions to his death on Twitter don’t show him much kindness.

  Soon after the news of his death broke out, the term “Team America” started trending on Twitter. It’s a reference to “Team America: World Police,” a movie by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, in which Kim Jong-Il is featured as an evil dictator trying to conquer the world.

  

  Other reactions are mostly puns on Kim Jong-il’s name and jokes about his extremely self-serving personality.

  Although the social media reaction to the Jong-il’s passing is lighthearted, the situation is North Korea is uneasy at the very least. Kim Jong-il’s son and heir, Kim Jong-un, is a mystery – even his exact age is unknown (he’s believed to be in his twenties).

  

  Some experts even believe that Jong-il’s death might shake up North Korean’s regime.

  “Up until tonight, if anybody had asked you what would be the most likely scenario under which the North Korean regime could collapse, the answer would be the sudden death of Kim Jong-il. And so I think right now we’re in that scenario and we don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” said Victor Cha, a Korea expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

  Image credit: www.kremlin.ru

  More About: Kim Jong-Il, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, Social Media, social media smackdown, Twitter

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• iTunes Match Goes Live Internationally

  Posted: December 16th, 2011, 2:01am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  iTunes Match, Apple’s service which allows users to access their music library – including non-iTunes songs – from Apple’s cloud, has started rolling out internationally, TUAW reports.

  Users are reporting the service going live in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and other countries, even though Apple hasn’t officially announced it yet.

  iTunes Match, which went live in the US in November 2011, appears as an option in iTunes, allowing users to access their entire music collection from up to 10 PCs and iOS devices for $24.99 a year.

  The service matches users’ music with the 20 million+ songs in iTunes Store, and the users only need to upload the songs which aren’t available there, which is usually a smaller part of their music collection.

  All iTunes matches can be played back from Apple’s iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC quality, DRM-free, even if the original copy was of lower quality.

  [via TUAW]

  More About: apple, itunes, itunes-match, Music

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• Grand Theft Auto 3 Now Available for iPhone and Android

  Posted: December 15th, 2011, 2:22am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  As announced, a special Anniversary Edition of the massively popular Grand Theft Auto III game is now available on iOS and Android devices.

  The anniversary edition is nearly identical to the 10-year-old original game, which is widely considered to be one of the most influential games of all time. The gameplay is optimized for touch-screen devices, with resizable custom controls.

  There are two major improvements from the original, too: mission retry and autosave mode, which should greatly lessen the chances of players smashing their mobile devices in frustration.

  As far as compatibility goes, the game works on the iPhone 4 and 4S, 4th generation iPod touch as well as iPad 1 and 2.

  The list of supported Android devices includes HTC Rezound, LG Optimus 2x, Motorola Atrix 4G, Motorola Droid X2, Motorola Photon 4G, Samsung Galaxy R, T-Mobile G2x.

  On the Android tablet front, Acer Iconia, Asus Eee Pad Transformer, Dell Streak 7, LG Optimus Pad, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1, Sony Tablet S and Toshiba Thrive are supported.

  The game is available for $4.99 in the iTunes App Store and Android Market.

  
  Grand Theft Auto III: 10th Anniversary Edition Collage
  
  
  

  This title shot and collage combines some of the best moments from the game.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: android, game, Grand Theft Auto 3, iphone, smartphone, Tablet

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• Google Extends Free Gmail Calls in the US and Canada to 2012

  Posted: December 14th, 2011, 3:47am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Google has extended free voice calls in Gmail in the US and Canada to one more year, the company has announced.

  Voice calls were originally added to Gmail in August 2010, with Google promising they will be free in the US and Canada “for the rest of the year.”

  However, at the end of 2010 Google has extended free calling in these two countries to 2011, and now it has done so again, promising free calls in the US and Canada throughout 2012.

  Originally announced with much fanfare, the popularity of voice calling in Gmail obviously still hasn’t reached the point where Google could start charging for the service, at least domestically.

  Internationally, voice calling in Gmail is still available at what Google calls “insanely low rates.”

  More About: Canada, gmail, Google, US, voice calls

  
  

  

• Apple Founding Documents Sold for $1.6 Million at Auction

  Posted: December 14th, 2011, 2:09am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple‘s original founding documents from 1976 have been sold for $1.59 million at an auction on Tuesday.

  Originally estimated at $100,000 to $150,000, the papers were bought by Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive officer of Cisneros Corporation, for ten times as much – $1,594,500.

  “Very happy to own a piece of American ( World) history,” tweeted Cisneros after the purchase.

  The papers include the founding documents for Apple Computer Company signed by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, as well as a statement of withdrawal by Ronald Wayne, with which he relinquished his 10% stake in the company for a mere $800.

  
  1. Apple Founding Documents
  
  
  

  A piece of American corporate history, these documents made headlines when it was announced they were to be auctioned at Sotheby's New York.

  Boasting the signatures of "Stephen G. Wozniak", "Steven P. Jobs", "Ronald G. Wayne," the collection consists of the Apple Computer Company Partnership Agreement from 1976, an amendment document and Wayne's official "Statement of Withdrawal."

  With an estimated high of $150,000, they actually sold for an astonishing $1,350,000 (nearly $1.6 million with taxes) -- showing just how much people are prepared to pay to own some of Apple's heritage.

  Click here to view this gallery.

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• Sharing Blogger Posts on Google+ Has Never Been Easier

  Posted: December 13th, 2011, 2:43am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Google has added a new feature for Blogger users who have connected their blog with their Google+ account, making it easier to share a post with their Google+ friends, too.

  After you publish a post on Blogger, you’ll see a box containing a snippet from your post. Before sharing the post, you can choose which Google+ Circles you’d like to share the post with, add an additional comment if you like.

  If you’d like to go back and share another post on your blog, you’ll be able to do so by clicking on “share” below the entry in your post list.

  Of course, if you don’t like the feature, you can disable it on the “Settings – Posts and Comments” page.

  More About: blog, blogger, Google, sharing, Social Media, social networking

  
  

  

• User Reviews on Android Market Get Advanced Filters

  Posted: December 12th, 2011, 1:50am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The web version of Google’s Android Market now has a couple of very useful new filtering options, including the ability to filter the reviews by device model or app version.

  After you click on “User Reviews” for any app, you will now have the choice to see reviews only for a certain version of the app.

  Furthermore, if you’re signed in, you’ll be able to filter the reviews by all devices connected to your account – incredibly useful when you want to know how an app behaves on a particular device.

  Finally, you can filter the reviews based on individual ratings by clicking on them. All of the above give you quite advanced filtering possibilities; for example, you can display only very poor reviews (1 star) for the official Facebook app on a Samsung Galaxy S.

  The Android Market was quite limited in its options at its inception, but lately Google has been listening to users and adding features that make it easier to find the apps you need. These new options, however, are currently only available in the web version of the Android Market – you cannot access them from your smartphone.

  

  [via Android Police]

  More About: android, Android Market, Google, Mobile, smartphone

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• Google+ Gets Face Recognition, Deeper Gmail Integration

  Posted: December 9th, 2011, 2:11am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Google is on fire today: besides introducing the new activities recommendation engine Schemer, and the news aggregator Currents, the company also improved Google+ with several nifty features, including face detection.

  The new feature is called Find my Face, and it helps tag photos of people in pictures, provided they’ve activated the feature.

  Google has obviously learned a lesson from Facebook, which suffered some backlash – even an EU probe – over turning its face recognition feature on by default. In Google+, you can accept or reject someone tagging you or turn the feature on and off and, most importantly, the feature is opt-in.

  Find my Face will be rolling out to users over the next couple of days.

  Gmail has also been upgraded with a couple of social networking features, making it easier to add people to your Google+ Circles from Gmail and share stuff on Google+ without leaving your inbox.

  

  Furthermore, you can now also filter messages in Gmail according to your Circles; for example, you can see only the messages from your family, work colleagues or any other group of people you’ve defined as a Circle.

  Google will be rolling out these new features to users’ Gmail and Gmail Contacts over the next couple of days.

  [via Matt Steiner, Gmail Blog]

  More About: face detection, gmail, Google

  
  

  

• Apple TV Brings TV Show Purchases to Canada, Australia and UK

  Posted: December 8th, 2011, 4:49am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple TV users in Australia, Canada and the UK now have the ability to watch full TV shows, streaming to their boxes directly from iCloud.

  Individual episodes cost between free and $2.49 ($3.49 for shows in HD), and come as full downloads instead of rentals.

  The new option became available through an over-the-air update to users’ Apple TV boxes. Previously, users were only able to download the shows via iTunes on a PC.

  The update came unannounced, and we’ve seen reports that actual purchases aren’t working yet, so stay tuned for official news from Apple.

  [via Engadget]

  More About: Apple TV, australia, Canada, streaming, television, TV, tv shows, uk

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• SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life

  Posted: December 8th, 2011, 2:02am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  After hibernating its Allen Telescope Array back in April 2011 due to lack of funding, the SETI institute has announced it has now secured the funding to restart the ATA and resume search for extraterrestrial life.

  The telescope array consists of 42 20-feet-wide telescopes located some 300 miles north of San Francisco. Originally funded largely by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who donated $25 million to the project, the ATA had to go into hibernation after state budget cuts affected the project’s funding.

  The new funding has been obtained partly by donations from the public, and partly by the United States Air Force as part of a formal assessment of the instrument’s utility for Space Situational Awareness.

  The news is especially exciting in the light of recent discovery of many new exoplanet candidates by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.

  “For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems – including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analog in the habitable zone around its host star. That’s the type of world that might be home to a civilization capable of building radio transmitters,” said Jill Tarter, the Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute.

  [via SETI]

  More About: alien life, Alien Telescope Array, ATA, SETi

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• Alec Baldwin’s Words With Friends Addiction Gets Him Booted Off Plane

  Posted: December 7th, 2011, 1:49am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  Alec Baldwin likes Words With Friends, the scrabble game available on multiple platforms including the iPhone, so much that he missed a flight because of it.

  On Tuesday, Baldwin was kicked off an American Airlines plane at the Los Angeles International Airport and had to switch to a different flight.

  It’s unclear if Baldwin was actually booted off the plane because he had refused to turn off his phone, but according to his tweets, it definitely had to do something with the popular game.

  “Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving. #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt,” tweeted Baldwin on Tuesday.

  He continued to lash out at American Airlines after the incident with a barrage of scrabble-related jokes. “Now, as I was kicked off this flight, the word I was playing was UNITED,” tweeted Baldwin, alluding to another airline company.

  American Airlines tried to reach Baldwin via Twitter and said in a statement the company would not “comment on something that might or might not have happened.”

  Zynga’s Words With Friends is a scrabble game that lets you take turns against your opponents at your own pace. The game is known to be highly addictive, and for Baldwin, it seems, waiting a couple of hours was not an option.

  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, EdStock

  More About: alec baldwin, Social Media, Twitter, words with friends

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• Apple iTV to Come in Three Sizes [RUMOR]

  Posted: December 6th, 2011, 2:39am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple’s upcoming TV product might come in three sizes, including a 32” and a 55” screen size, Smarthouse reports citing sources from a major Japanese company involved in the manufacturing of the product.

  iTV will sport a new processor – one that will also appear in the upcoming iPad 3, and a new software interface which will include support for Siri, the charming voice-based personal assistant that came with the iPhone 4S.

  The largest, 55” version is set to compete with the new generation of Smart TVs from companies such as Samsung and LG.

  Nothing has been officially confirmed at this point, and the entire hoopla surrounding iTV – if that’s the product’s name – might turn out to be fake. Still, rumors around Apple TV are heating up, with some sources claiming Apple is working with Japanese-based Sharp on iTV, which might be ready for commercial production by February 2012. Other reports say the device might be introduced by the end of next year or in 2013.

  [via Smarthouse]

  More About: apple, Apple TV, TV

  
  

  

• No Hope For the Russian Space Probe

  Posted: December 5th, 2011, 2:46am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The European Space Agency has given up on efforts to revive Fobos-Grunt, the Russian space probe which was slated to visit the Martian moon Phobos, but got stuck in Earth’s orbit shortly after launch.

  The unmanned probe was launched on Nov 9, 2011, with a mission to take soil samples from the Martian moon and fly them to Earth. All efforts from the ESA to send the probe commands which could send it to the next stage of its mission have been unsuccessful, however, and now the ESA has announced it will not be making further attempts to contact the probe.

  “In consultation and agreement with Phobos-Grunt mission managers, ESA engineers will end tracking support. Efforts to send commands to and receive data from the Russian Mars mission via ESA ground stations have not succeeded; no response has been seen from the satellite. ESA teams remain available to assist the Phobos-Grunt mission if indicated by any change in the situation,” said ESA in an official statement.

  This likely won’t be the last we hear of the 13.2-ton spacecraft, as scientists expect it to fall back to Earth sometime in January. Most of its weight consists of highly toxic hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide fuel which, according to NASA veteran James Oberg, makes the probe the “most toxic falling satellite ever.”

  If the fuel has frozen in space, some of it could survive the fall to Earth, but if it’s liquid, it will probably burn away – along with the rest of the probe – when re-entering the atmosphere, experts say.

  More About: fobos-grunt, Mars, Phobos, Russian space probe, space, space probe

  
  

  

• Zynga Looks to Raise $1 Billion From IPO

  Posted: December 2nd, 2011, 8:02am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Online gaming company Zynga filed IPO documents with the Securities & Exchange Commission Friday, pricing its shares between $8.50 and $10.

  If successful, the IPO will bring Zynga between $850 million and $1.15 billion at a maximum $7 billion valuation.

  For comparison, the market cap of one of the largest gaming companies in the world, Activision Blizzard, is $14.2 billion.

  Famous for its popular social games such as FarmVille and CityVille, Zynga originally prepared to file for an IPO several months earlier, but the IPO got delayed due to volatility on the stock market.

  The $7 billion valuation is significantly lower than predicted; in May, Zynga was trading in the private markets at a valuation of around $10 billion.

  Considering the mixed feelings about Internet company IPOs in the investment community, the recalibration may not be all that surprising. On one hand, Facebook’s initial public offering, which might happen in 2012, could end up as one of the largest IPOs in history, bringing back nice memories of Google’s $23 billion IPO in 2004. On the other, Groupon’s shares sunk after the company’s IPO in November, though Groupon shares did bounce back a bit after the end of its quiet period.

  Zynga does have a few things going for it. It plans to sell quite a large stake of the company: 100 million shares (14.3% of its total), which might help reduce volatility. Its valuation is lower than expected, and the company is profitable, with earnings of $30.7 million for the first three quarters of 2011.

  If all goes as planned, Zynga will hit Nasdaq under the ticker name ZNGA in mid-December.

  What do you think? Will Zynga’s IPO be a success or a bust? Would you buy Zynga’s shares?

  [via New York Times]

  
  Zynga's New Headquarters
  
  
  

  There is a Zynga RV at the entrance.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: games, initial public offering, ipo, social gaming, trending, Zynga

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• Want to Find If Your Phone Has Carrier IQ? There’s an App for That

  Posted: December 2nd, 2011, 2:13am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The Carrier IQ controversy is raging on, with many users flabbergasted by the fact that an app they cannot control or uninstall may be recording their keystrokes and accessing their messages and other data.

  It’s hard to even find out if your phone has Carrier IQ installed, but now an Android developer created an app that does exactly that.

  Voodoo Carrier IQ detector is an Android app, and it’s currently available for free on the Android Market.

  The app’s goal is to make Carrier IQ detection “as easy as possible,” but it is at this time unfinished. The author, supercurio, claims the results are “not reliable yet,” but promises updates in the very near future, so stay tuned.

  Furthermore, the app is open source, which means other developers might be looking at the code and creating their versions of the app soon.

  More About: android, Carrier IQ

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• Carrier IQ Tracking Scandal Spirals Out of Control

  Posted: December 1st, 2011, 3:07am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Carrier IQ, a diagnostic tool installed in millions of smartphones all over the world, is gathering a lot of info about your activity – possibly even recording keystrokes, content of SMS messages and more – and sending it to a third party.

  It’s present on nearly all Android devices, but not Galaxy Nexus, Google Nexus One, Nexus S, or the Motorola Xoom. It’s also present on iOS devices, but it seems to be active only when the device is in diagnostic mode.

  This is the short version of what is quickly becoming a very complicated story with huge implications for user privacy.

  Carrier IQ is a tool whose primary purpose is recording various info which helps carriers improve the quality of service for their customers.

  In October, researcher Trevor Eckhart discovered that Carrier IQ is recording, among other things, your every keystroke and possibly sending it back to Carrier IQ’s servers. Carrier IQ responded by sending Ekchart a cease & desist letter and publishing a media alert, in which it claims the company is “not recording keystrokes or providing tracking tools.”

  Fast forward to this week, when Eckhart posted video evidence (below) suggesting that Carrier IQ is recording keystrokes and reading incoming SMS messages on Android, more precisely on an HTC EVO 3D. Worse, the app cannot be stopped or removed by the user.

  While this doesn’t prove that Carrier IQ is actually sending the data back to Carrier IQ’s servers, it’s definitely disconcerting to see all this done by an app which is completely out of users’ control.

  From currently available info, Carrier IQ is present on most Android, BlackBerry and Symbian devices, but not on Google Nexus devices mentioned above, which is logical since it’s a tool meant to be used by carriers. References of Carrier IQ have also been found in iOS devices, but according to security researcher chpwn, it is disabled by default, and only works when the phone is in diagnostic mode.

  All of this is reminiscent to the iPhone tracking scandal from April 2011, when it was discovered that Apple’s iPhone tracks your location history. Steve Jobs then famously said – in an e-mail reply to a question from a customer – that Apple is not tracking its users’ location, but Android is tracking everyone. The authenticity of such e-mails has often been disputed, but whoever sent that message might have been right.

  Many questions are still left unanswered. We don’t know what Carrier IQ does with the data it collects, or whether it sends keystrokes, SMS messages or other info back to Carrier IQ’s servers. We don’t know the nature of the deal between Carrier IQ and – seemingly – most of the world’s carriers, since almost every device which is sold together with a carrier contract has the app installed. We’ll keep you updated as the story unfolds.

  More About: android, Carrier IQ, Google, Google Nexus, iphone, tracking

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• Legendary Dystopian Novel ‘Fahrenheit 451′ Finally Released in Ebook Format

  Posted: November 30th, 2011, 8:47am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 has been released by Simon & Schuster in ebook format for the first time for $9.99.

  In the famous novel, originally published in paperback in 1953, reading is outlawed and books are burned (Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper starts burning). Somewhat unusually for a sci-fi author, 91-year old Bradbury prevented the publishing of the legendary novel in ebook format – until now.

  Bradbury never hid his dislike for the Internet – which he considered a “big distraction” – and his disdain for ebooks. Although Fahrenheit 451 was often seen as a warning about the dangers of censorship, Bradbury saw it as a critique of new media, such as television, which destroys people’s interest in reading.

  Times change, however, and even Bradbury wasn’t able to resist the overpowering popularity of the ebook format. “We explained the situation to him (Bradbury) that a new contract wouldn’t be possible without ebook rights. He understood and gave us the right to go ahead,” said Bradbury’s agent, Michael Congdon.

  Simon & Schuster also announced a new paperback edition of Fahrenheit 451, which is slated to hit the stores in January 2012, as well as new paperback editions of two other Bradbury novels The Martian Chronicles and Illustrated Man, which should be available next March.

  [via Physorg]

  More About: ebooks, Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

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• YouTube Analytics Tells You the Tale of Your Videos

  Posted: November 30th, 2011, 7:47am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  YouTube has replaced Insight, a tool that let users see detailed stats about their videos, with Analytics, which offers even more in-depth reports and stats.

  Located at youtube.com/analytics, Analytics gives registered YouTube users all the data from Insight in a simpler design, with several nifty new options.

  Users familiar with Google Analytics will quickly realize why the name change: YouTube Analytics is visually very similar to that tool.

  It offers a summary report for your content on YouTube, a data filter that allows you to filter reports by content, geography and date, and an interactive map that accompanies most reports, showing you the geographic distribution of the metric you’re interested in.

  

  You can now also easily see which videos are driving the most views and subscriptions for you, as well as how long viewers watched your videos. Finally, you can now download the currently displayed report (rather than all data).

  If you cannot access Analytics, don’t worry: Google says it will be rolling it out to “everyone on a modern browser over the course of the day.” A detailed FAQ covering all the features of Analytics is available here.

  

  More About: analytics, stats, trending, videos, YouTube

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• Tom Sawyer Gets Google to Paint the Fence for Mark Twain’s Birthday

  Posted: November 30th, 2011, 5:47am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Google is celebrating Mark Twain’s 176th birthday with one of the largest Google Doodles we’ve seen so far, referencing a famous incident from Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” where Tom cleverly gets other boys to paint a fence instead of him.

  Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He is best known for the first Tom Sawyer book and its sequel, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”

  He was also a successful journalist, a witty humorist, and quite an unsuccessful entrepreneur, having failed at various business ventures, at one time even forced to declare bankruptcy. Twain was very interested in inventions and modern technology. A venture capitalist of sorts, he invested a great deal of money in the Paige typesetting machine, which was made obsolete by the Linotype, causing Twain to lose most of his investment.

  Besides his literary and other achievements, Mark Twain is also known for the fact that he was born during a visit by Halley’s Comet. He predicted that he would die when the comet returns, and he indeed died one day after the comet’s closest approach to Earth in 1910.

  
  The Christmas Google Doodle
  

  Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: Google, google doodle, Mark Twain, trending

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• Squishy Robot Can Move Under Obstacles

  Posted: November 30th, 2011, 2:26am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  A team of Harvard scientists designed a “soft” robot which can move under difficult obstacles by mimicking the movements of certain animals, such as squid and worms.

  The robot doesn’t have a hard internal skeleton; it is composed solely of elastomeric polymers and a series of chambers. Using a pneumatic valving system, the chambers can be inflated to create movement, which boils down to a combination of crawling and undulation.

  All of this enables the 5-inch robot to crawl, for example, under a glass plate elevated 2 cm from the ground. In a series of tests, scientists were able to navigate the robot through that gap in under a minute.

  This type of design makes the robot less susceptible to damage from falls and colliding with hard objects. It does, however, makes it more susceptible to damage from punctures.

  Another drawback is the problem of power: the robot is connected to an external power source, which won’t do in real world situations. “There are many challenges to actively moving soft robots and no easy solutions,” neurobiologist Barry Trimmer, one of the designers of the robot, said in an email to Washington Post.

  Check out a series of videos and a PDF detailing the design of the robot here.

  [via Pnas, BBC]

  More About: Harvard, Robot, Science, trending

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• Apple Founding Documents Up for Auction

  Posted: November 29th, 2011, 3:23am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The original founding documents of Apple Computer Company from 1976 are up for auction at Sotheby’s, for an estimated $100,000 – $150,000.

  The papers include two typed documents signed by “Stephen G. Wozniak”, “steven p. jobs”, together with amendments.

  The buyer will also receive a Statement of Withdrawal signed by “Ronald G. Wayne,” a paper which documents Wayne relinquishing his 10 percent stake in the company for $800. Wayne later received an additional $1,500, but it’s still quite a bad deal, given that Apple is today worth some $350 billion.

  [via 9to5 Mac]

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• Apple Records Best-Ever Sales on Black Friday [REPORT]

  Posted: November 28th, 2011, 4:08am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple sales broke all records this Black Friday, 9to5Mac reports citing inside sources.

  Apple’s forecast for Black Friday sales is four times more than normal; according to 9to5Mac’s source, Apple broke that forecast by 7pm this year.

  While we don’t have the exact numbers for individual categories, MacBook Air sales were reportedly particularly good. Apple had offered a $101 discount for MacBook Pro, iMac and MacBook Air this year.

  One reason why Apple did so well this year, in spite of somewhat lackluster discounts, was probably the fact that this Black Friday was particularly hot when it comes to online shopping. According to a report from comScore, Black Friday saw $816 million in online sales, a 26-percent increase over last year. IBM’s data suggests a similar surge, with Black Friday online sales rising 24.3% compared to last year.

  According to comScore, Apple was the 5th most-visited online retail store on Black Friday, behind Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Target.

  More About: apple, black friday, sale

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• Motorola Droid 4 Specifications Leak Out

  Posted: November 28th, 2011, 2:24am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  The official specifications and pictures of the upcoming Motorola Droid 4 have been unearthed by Droid Life, revealing a device very similar to the Droid Razr, with the addition of a physical QWERTY keyboard.

  The device sports a 4-inch qHD screen – slightly smaller than RAZR’s 4.3-inch screen – and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM.

  It has an 8-megapixel camera on the back as well as a HD-capable one on the front for video chats, and it supports fast data transfer via LTE. As for the keyboard, it’s a 5-row, edge-lit, PC-like variety.

  The Droid 4 is slated to hit Verizon’s stores on December 8.

  Head on over to Droid Life for a neat comparison of the evolution from the original Droid to the Droid 4.

  

  More About: android, Droid 4, Motorola, on-demand, smartphone

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• Watch the Mars Rover Launch Live [VIDEO]

  Posted: November 26th, 2011, 6:01am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  On Saturday, Nov 26 at 10:02 a.m. EST, NASA will send the biggest rover it has ever built, Curiosity, to Mars.

  The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, carrying NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory – the official name for the new rover – is ready for liftoff from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

  Currently, there’s a 70 percent chance of weather conditions being favorable for launch.

  The one-ton rover carries 10 scientific instruments which will be used to closely examine the Gale Crater after it lands on Mars in August 2012. Curiosity’s findings will lay down the foundation for a possible future manned mission to Mars, and answer important questions about the Red Planet’s habitability.

  You can watch the live video stream of the launch in HD resolution below.

  More About: Curiosity, launch, Mars, Mars rover, NASA, rover, Video

  
  

  

• Google+ Gets Its Own TV Commercial

  Posted: November 25th, 2011, 8:45am MST by Stan Schroeder

  Sharing, but like real life. This is the message Google is sending with the first video TV commercial for its social network, Google+, which aired during a Lions vs. Packers football game in the U.S. Thursday.

  The ad focuses on all the ways in which Google+ is different from Facebook: organizing your friends, family, acquaintances and colleagues into different Circles, and meeting them in Hangouts.

  Video spots demonstrating Google’s products aren’t new, and we’re seeing more and more of them as the Mountain View giant grows. A Google Chrome TV commercial launched this summer featured pop megastar Justin Bieber, and a recent ad for Samsung Google Nexus showcased the features in the new version of Google’s mobile OS, Android 4.0.

  Google also recently posted a shorter, music-accompanied video clip dubbed “Google+: Circles Love Story,” which tells a short story through a quick demonstration of Circles. Check it out below.

  More About: ad, Google, social network, trending, Video

  
  

  

• Apple Black Friday Sale Now Live

  Posted: November 25th, 2011, 6:13am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple’s Black Friday sale is less surprising than ever this year, since a leaked brochure informed us on all the discounts two days in advance. As usual, the discounts are nice, but far from amazing, with most price cuts being in the 10-15% range.

  Now, Apple Black Friday is officially live and kicking, so if you want to save $41 on an iPad, $21 on an iPod touch, $11 on an iPod nano or $101 on a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or an iMac, this is your chance.

  Apple also offers discounts on a number of accessories this year, with savings being considerably bigger for third party accessories such as bags, speakers and headphones.

  

  More About: apple, black friday, sale

  
  

  

• Microsoft Cuts Prices of Kinect, Xbox and More for Black Friday

  Posted: November 25th, 2011, 2:33am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Microsoft has announced its Black Friday sale over at Microsoft Store, offering decent discounts on the Kinect, Xbox, select PCs, software and games.

  The Kinect sensor is available as a part of the Kinect Sensor Holiday Bundle, which comes with Fruit Ninja, Gunstringer and Kinect Adventures, for $99. The Xbox Ultimate Gaming Bundle, which includes an Xbox, Kinect sensor, an 8 GB USB flash drive, a game of your choice and more, will set you back $394, a $200 saving on the normal price.

  Microsoft also offers several big discounts on select laptops. For example, a Samsung RC512 laptop with Windows 7 costs $499, down from its standard price of $799.

  You can also get a free Windows Phone of unknown origin provided you sign a 2-year contract with an unspecified carrier.

  Office Home, Student and Office for Mac also come at a discount, together with several games, such as Halo Anniversary and Madden 2012.

  Offers are valid while supplies last, or from 12:00 AM PST on Friday, 11/25/11 through 11:59 PM PST on Monday, 11/28/11. Check out Microsoft’s Facebook page for a full list of discounted games as well as Microsoft’s retail stores.

  [via Microsoft Store]

  More About: black friday, kinect, microsoft, xbox

  
  

  

• AT&T Acquisition of T-Mobile Looks Less Likely Than Ever

  Posted: November 24th, 2011, 6:25am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  AT&T and T-Mobile have withdrawn an application from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission seeking approval for a merger. It doesn’t mean they are giving up on the deal, but it does suggest it’s unlikely to go through.

  The two companies are fighting for approval on two fronts. The FCC as well as the U.S. Department of Justice are opposing the deal, and this latest development means they’ll be fighting for the DOJ’s approval first, without which the approval from the FCC would be meaningless.

  AT&T said it would record one-time costs of $4 billion this quarter in case the deal falls through.

  Although a joint statement from the two companies say they are “continuing to pursue the sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T,” some analysts see this latest development as a clear sign the deal is not to be.

  “AT&T’s auditors have now concluded that the deal is likely to fail and have forced the company to take that charge,” Espirito Santo analysts wrote in a note to clients.

  AT&T’s intention to purchase T-Mobile has received blows from all sides since its announcement in March 2011, including opposition from the DOJ, the FCC and a lawsuit from Sprint. It hasn’t fallen through completely just yet, but we wouldn’t be too surprised if AT&T gives up on it even before the final Sep. 20 2012 deadline.

  [via Reuters]

  More About: acquisition, att, merger, T-Mobile

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• Galaxy Nexus Now Available for Pre-Order Through Expansys

  Posted: November 24th, 2011, 2:44am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone to feature the new version of Android, 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich, can now be pre-ordered in the U.S. from Expansys.

  The price is steep: $749, contract-free, for the 16 GB variant. It will, however, get you the device in four working days, so if you really want the latest and greatest smartphone from Google and Samsung, this is your chance. This particular variant of the Nexus moves data with HSPA+, and it will work on AT&T and T-Mobile’s network.

  If you’re more inclined to wait a while and purchase the device at a cheaper price with a 2-year contract, you’ll be happy to know that Verizon will be having the Nexus “later this year.”

  And if you wonder what all the fuss is about, check our detailed review here. We’ll just remind you that the device sports a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.65-inch super AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel, 1080p capable rear-facing camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

  [via Expansys, Engadget, Cnet]

  
  Check out those clean lines
  
  
  

  I like its minimalist design.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: android, galaxy nexus, Google, ice cream sandwich, samsung, samsung galaxy nexus, smartphone

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• Apple Working With Sharp on iTV [REPORT]

  Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 8:33am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple’s relationship with Samsung has deteriorated, and the Cupertino giant may be working with Sharp on the next generation displays for upcoming devices such as the iPad 3, iPhone 5 and a little something called iTV, claims Jefferies analyst Peter Misek.

  Since all of these products are unofficial and unannounced, such predictions fall into the realm of speculation. However, Misek claims that the mythical iTV – a future “smart TV” product from Apple that has been the subject of many recent rumors – is a real thing, and Sharp is working on modified amorphous TFT LCD panels for the device.

  Furthermore, he suggests that iTV might be ready for commercial production by February 2012, which could mean a possible release date in mid-2012. Earlier rumors suggested a late 2012-2013 release date.

  We’ve looked closely at the possible iTV scenarios, and we aren’t sure that such a device will see the light of day next year – or even that it should see the light of day in the near future. To give its customers a full TV experience, Apple would have to come up with a remote that supports its other consumer electronics devices, and give up a part of the interface control to other parties, such as cable companies.

  There’s always the possibility that Apple is working on something revolutionary – as revolutionary as the iPhone, perhaps – which would likely make other TV manufacturers cringe in pain. “Other TV manufacturers have begun a scrambling search to identify what iTV will be and do (…) Mainstream TV manufacturers are likely to be at least 6 to 12 months behind in a best-case scenario,” says Misek.

  It’s possible, but it will likely take a lot more than a LCD panel from Sharp, however advanced and beautiful it may be, to make it happen.

  
  Apple iTV Concept Design 1
  
  
  

  All rights reserved by Guilherme Schasiepen

  Click here to view this gallery.

  [via GigaOm, All Things Digital]

  More About: apple, Apple iTV, Apple TV, itv, Sharp, trending

  
  

  

• Leaked Apple Brochure Reveals Black Friday Deals

  Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 7:17am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  Every year on Black Friday, Apple offers many of its products at cheaper prices, with discounts usually ranging from 10% to 15%. This year will be no different, based on a leaked sales brochure unearthed by 9to5Mac.

  According to the brochure, on Nov. 25 customers will be able to buy Macs for $101 less, iPads for $41 to $61 less (depending on the capacity), iPod touch for $21 to $41 less (again, depending on the capacity), and the iPod nano for $11 less, both the 8 GB and the 16 GB variant.

  SEE ALSO: 11 Craziest Black Friday Deals at Best Buy

  Apple will also offer discounts on a wide range of accessories. Some of the savings are decent: for example, you’ll be able to buy a Smart Cover for $11 less (listed prices are $39 for the polyurethane, and $69 for the leather variant), and a mophie Juice Pack Air at a $21.95 discount.

  Apple is expected to officially announce the Black Friday sale soon; if the prices differ from the ones listed here, we will let you know.

  Check out the rest of the brochure over at 9to5Mac.

  
   

  More About: apple, black friday, Holidays 2011, sale, trending

  
  

  

• Large Groupon Discount Leads to Excessive Cupcake Baking

  Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 3:57am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Group discounts can be a nice thing for both the seller and the customers, but one has to know his limits. A London baker learned that the hard way, when she was forced to bake 102,000 cupcakes, after offering a 75-percent cupcake discount on Groupon.

  The discount obviously sounded too good to Grouponers, 8,500 of which signed up to buy 12 cupcakes for £6.50 ($10), down from the standard £26 ($40) price. Rachel Brown, which operates the Need a Cake bakery in London, had no choice but to hire extra workers and try to bake the cupcakes to satisfy the swarming customers.

  “Without doubt, it was my worst ever business decision. We had thousands of orders pouring in that really we hadn’t expected to have. A much larger company would have difficulty coping,” said Brown, who lost up to £12,500 ($20,000) on the deal.

  “We approach each business with a tailored, individual approach based on the prior history of similar deals,” Groupon’s international communications director Heather Dickinson told the BBC, adding that there was no limit to the number of vouchers that could be sold.

  We’ve heard of small businesses having similar experiences before, and many of them aren’t too happy with Groupon. The lesson is clear: Groupon is a business tool like any other. It’s not for everyone, and its use requires careful planning – too large a discount, for example, can have unwanted consequences.

  Image credit: Flickr, kristinausk

  [via BBC]

  More About: baker, cupcake, discount, groupon

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• BlackBerry PlayBook’s Native Email Client Makes an Appearance

  Posted: November 23rd, 2011, 2:34am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Six months after launch, RIM’s tablet – the BlackBerry PlayBook – still lacks a native email, calendar and contacts application. This is about to change soon, though, judging from a video presentation shown at the BlackBerry Innovation Forum on Wednesday.

  The email app has a standard appearance, with a list of messages on the left, a preview pane on the right, and an additional toolbar on the far right.

  The calendar also doesn’t stray too far from the norm, but has some nifty features under the hood; for example, on a busy day the calendar date gets bigger, offering a quick overview of your schedule.

  Finally, the contacts app is powered by Gist, an app known to many BlackBerry users. It offers a ton of additional info for your contacts, including related news, tweets and blog posts.

  Unfortunately, the release date is not exactly around the corner; rumor has it that all of this will launch at February 17.

  [via BlackBerry Cool]

  More About: blackberry, blackberry playbook, email, playbook, RIM

  
  

  

• A Friendly Reminder From Google: 2-Step Verification Protects You From Hackers

  Posted: November 22nd, 2011, 2:49am MST by Stan Schroeder

  Did you know that Google offers 2-step login verification for Gmail accounts? The feature has been around a while, and now Google has written a reminder for all users who need an extra layer of security for their Gmail account and other services connected to it.

  In addition to logging into Gmail with your email and password, with 2-step verification you’ll have to go through the added trouble of entering a code Google will send to your phone. This will “approve” the computer you’re currently logging in from for 30 days, so you don’t have to do this every time you log in.

  If you have a smartphone, you can also generate the code on your phone using the Google Authenticator app.

  Yes, entering an additional code is somewhat of a nuisance, but it would also greatly complicate matters for anyone who has gotten a hold of your password. To successfully log into your Gmail account, that person would also need to obtain your phone.

  In its blog post, Google emphasizes that this reminder is just “general security advice, not an indication of an attack or compromise,” but one has to wonder if the Redmond giant is seeing an increased number of complaints from users whose Gmail accounts have been compromised.

  To enable 2-step verification for Gmail, go here.

  More About: 2-step verification, e-mail, gmail, Google, hackers

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• Ice Cream Sandwich Doesn’t Have Flash Support (For Now)

  Posted: November 21st, 2011, 2:27am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The latest version of Google’s mobile platform, Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich, lacks a Flash player, and there’s currently no option to download it from the Android Market.

  Since Adobe recently said it has stopped the development of Flash Mobile Player, this could mean that Ice Cream Sandwich is never getting its Flash player, but according to Google, this is just a short-term delay.

  “Flash hasn’t been released for ICS yet so as far as we know, Adobe will support Flash for ICS,” said Google in a statement.

  There’s currently no info on when, exactly, Flash is coming to Ice Cream Sandwich devices. It is likely, however, that Android 4.0 will be the last version of that operating system to feature the Flash Mobile Player.

  [via SlashGear]

  
  Check out those clean lines
  
  
  

  I like its minimalist design.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: adobe, android, Google, ice cream sandwich

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• Google Doodle Celebrates French Physicist Louis Daguerre

  Posted: November 18th, 2011, 4:18am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Today’s Doodle on Google’s homepage is a tribute to Louis Daguerre, French physicist who invented daguerreotype, the first commercially successful form of photography.

  Louis Daguerre was born on Nov. 18, 1787 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France, and today’s Doodle marks his 224th birthday.

  He began his career as a designer and painter, but his breakthrough came in 1839, when he announced his invention of the daguerreotype, a photographic process which produced a single positive image, which could not easily be replicated. It experienced a few decades of commercial success and influenced later photographic processes.

  Daguerreotypes were usually portraits, and Google’s Doodle reminisces a classic family portrait from the era.

  Check out some of the other Google Doodles in the gallery below.

  
  The Christmas Google Doodle
  

  Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: Doodle, Google, google doodle, Louis Daguerre, photography

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• Galaxy Nexus and Android 4.0 Strut Their Stuff in New Ad [VIDEO]

  Posted: November 18th, 2011, 2:25am MST by Stan Schroeder

  Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone with the latest Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, will be reaching the hands of customers today, and Samsung has marked the occasion with a video ad for the device.

  In our review, we’ve found the Galaxy Nexus to be the best Android device yet – speedy, feature-packed, powerful and well-designed.

  It features a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM, a 4.65-inch super AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera capable of shooting 1080p video as well as a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera.

  The ad for the device is a simple but impressive showcase of all of the new features in Android 4.0, including NFC, panorama photos and face recognition. Let us know how you like it in the comments!

  
  Check out those clean lines
  
  
  
  

  I like its minimalist design.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: ad, android, galaxy nexus, Google, samsung, Video

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• Porn Studio Vivid Wants HTC to Change the Name of Its Smartphone

  Posted: November 17th, 2011, 2:55am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Adult movie studio Vivid Entertainment wants HTC to change the name of one of its smartphones, HTC Vivid, as it fears users might think the two are somehow connected.

  Vivid Entertainment has sent HTC a cease & desist letter, threatening legal action if HTC doesn’t change the name of the smartphone by next Monday, Nov 21.

  HTC Vivid “creates the false impression that your company and your company’s products are affiliated, connected, or associated with and or sanctioned by Vivid Entertainment,” said Vivid’s attorney Mark Hoffman in a statement.

  While it’s a bit far fetched to believe consumers would confuse a smartphone with a porn studio, it is true that Vivid offers content through a variety of digital channels, including smartphones.

  HTC did not comment on the matter.

  Vivid Entertainment has been around since 1984 and is considered to be one of the biggest adult movie studios. It produced thousands of adult movies, including the infamous Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian sex tapes.

  [via TMZ]

  More About: cease & desist, htc, HTC Vivid, lawsuit, Vivid Entertainment

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• Nokia Planning a Windows 8 Tablet and a High-End Lumia

  Posted: November 16th, 2011, 2:24am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Nokia might be releasing a Windows 8-based tablet by June 2012, as well as follow up the recently released Windows Phone 7 devices – Nokia Lumia 800 and 710 – with an even better Lumia, according to head of Nokia France Paul Amsellem.

  “(Lumia 800) is just the equivalent of the BMW 5 Series. We will soon have a full range with a Series 7 and Series 3,” said Amsellem in an interview with French newspaper LesEchos.

  If the analogy holds true, this would make Lumia 710, Nokia’s mid-range device, the equivalent of BMW’s Series 3, while the high-end slot in Nokia’s Windows Phone portfolio yet needs to be filled by an upcoming phone.

  On the tablet front, Amsellem said Nokia plans to have a tablet running Windows 8 by June 2012. This is interesting since Windows 8 itself doesn’t have a fixed release date yet – all we know is that it’s due to be released sometime in 2012.

  Amsellem wouldn’t provide any additional details about the tablet, but it’s nice to know that whenever Microsoft comes up with a new version of its mobile or desktop OS, Nokia plans to be right there to back it up with a piece of hardware.

  More About: Nokia, Tablet, Windows 8

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• RIM Announces BlackBerry Bold 9790 and Curve 9380

  Posted: November 15th, 2011, 4:25am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  RIM has announced two new BlackBerry smartphones, both sporting BlackBerry OS 7 – the Bold 9790 and Curve 9380.

  BlackBerry Bold 9790 offers a standard BlackBerry form factor, with a physical QWERTY keyboard and a 2.44-inch screen with a 360 x 480 pixel resolution. It also sports a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a 1 GHz CPU and 8 GB of storage memory, further expandable via microSD cards.

  BlackBerry Curve 9380 replaces the physical keyboard with a larger, 3.2-inch screen with a 480 x 360 pixel resolution. Its specifications aren’t officially out yet, but rumors say it will have a 5-megapixel camera, 1 GB of storage and an 800 MHz CPU.

  The prices for both devices are still unknown, but they’ll be hitting the market over the “coming weeks.”

  In other BlackBerry news, the Verge obtained an image of a device possibly called BlackBerry London, which is rumored to have a dual-core, 1.5 GHz CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage memory and an 8-megapixel rear camera, as well as a 2-megapixel one on the front.

  If real – and it’s still very much in rumor territory – BlackBerry London should be the first device from RIM to sport the upcoming BBX operating system.

  More About: blackberry, BlackBerry Bold 9790, BlackBerry Curve 9380, BlackBerry London, RIM

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• Malicious Hackers Target Twilight Fans

  Posted: November 15th, 2011, 2:48am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  As the next movie in the Twilight Saga film series nears its premiere, malicious hackers are taking advantage of Twilight fans by poisoning links in Twilight-related searches with malware, Norton’s experts warn.

  Some of the search terms which will return results infected with malware are “Nude pictures of Taylor Lautner,” “Robert and Kristin kissing” and “Twilight true love.”

  Clicking on some of the links resulting from these searches might get your PC, tablet or smartphone infected with viruses or keyloggers, so be extra careful when searching for Twilight-related material.

  Twilight Saga fans are a common target for malicious hackers. In April 2011, we’ve seen a Twilight game scam spread virally on Facebook, and similar scams have accompanied every movie in the series.

  The next movie in the series, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn (Part 1) should hit cinemas on November 18, 2011. Norton‘s experts expect to see even more Twilight-related malware, scams and spam as the excitement around the movie grows.

  More About: hackers, malware, twilight, twilight saga, virus

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• Netflix Signs Deal With Lionsgate UK

  Posted: November 14th, 2011, 2:22am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Ahead of its launch in the UK and Ireland Netflix has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Lionsgate UK, the company has announced.

  Netflix users in the UK and Ireland, where the streaming movie service will launch in “early 2012,” will be able to watch Lionsgate UK titles instantly on their TV sets, tablets, game consoles and smartphones, for a “low” monthly fee.

  Available titles will include older movies such as Reservoir Dogs, Good Night and Good Luck and Blair Witch Project, as well as new hits such as the Expendables 2 and The Hunger Games.

  Netflix’s European expansion has been rumored for many months, and the company finally officially announced it will first be coming to UK and Ireland back in October. There, it will compete with movie rental service Lovefilm, acquired by Amazon in January 2011.

  With the move to UK and Ireland, Netflix hopes to look past its recent problems. After it separated its DVD service in the U.S. under the name Qwikster, Netflix experienced a huge backlash from users, which forced it to abandon the plan entirely and apologize to users. Its financial report for Q3 2011 was bleak: a loss of 805,000 subscribers resulted in a sharp stock price drop.

  More About: ireland, Lionsgate UK, movie streaming, Movies, netflix, uk

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• Adobe Updates Flash Player for Android, Promises Future Security Updates

  Posted: November 11th, 2011, 8:10am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The Flash Player for mobile devices may be dead, but it’s not going to disappear just yet. Adobe has released Flash Player 11.1 for Android, bringing several security updates and fixes.

  The new version fixes many critical memory corruption, stack overflow and buffer overflow vulnerabilities, and is recommended for all users.

  Although Flash Player 11 is the last major version, this latest update will not be the last security update for mobile Flash.

  “Adobe will continue to ship security updates for Flash Player mobile after the final feature release,” Adobe’s senior director of product security and privacy Brad Arkin said on Twitter.

  This might be comforting for some users and developers, but we don’t know for how long Adobe plans to release security updates for Flash Player mobile. We’ve asked Adobe for comment on the matter.

  Android users can download the latest Flash Player from the Android Market. The desktop version of Flash has also been updated to 11.1; users can download and install it from Adobe’s website.

  More About: adobe, android, flash player

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• Zynga CEO to Employees: We’re a Meritocracy

  Posted: November 11th, 2011, 3:59am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  After an article in the Wall Street Journal suggested Zynga has been demanding that some employees surrendered stock options they were previously granted, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus sent a memo to employees, claiming the article paints the company in a “false and skewed light”.

  In the note, obtained by Fortune, Pincus says dismisses WSJ’s claims, calling Zynga a “meritocracy” which has been built in an “ethical and fair way”.

  “The wall street journal posted a story last night (copied below) which paints our meritocracy in a false and skewed light. The story is based on hearsay and innuendo which is disappointing but is to be expected as we move towards becoming a public company,” says Pincus in the note.

  WSJ’s story claims that Zynga has decided that some employees have too many unvested shares, asking them to return a portion of them back or be fired. Fortune has another take on the story, claiming that Zynga’s management is well within its rights to “punish” employees who haven’t been performing up to the company’s standards by asking them to surrender unvested shares, basically describing the practice as cutting the employee’s pay.

  It’s definitely an unusual practice, and one likely to raise controversy, especially before the company’s IPO. After it goes public, Zynga will likely have to implement clear and transparent rules and regulations on how it rewards – and punishes – the “citizens” of its meritocracy.

  Zynga’s long-awaited initial public offering is due mid-November, with the company hoping to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, at a valuation close to $20 billion.

  
  Zynga's New Headquarters
  
  
  

  There is a Zynga RV at the entrance.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: Mark Pincus, meritocracy, Zynga

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• NASA to Send a Car-Sized Rover to Mars This November

  Posted: November 11th, 2011, 2:08am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  NASA is undergoing final preparations to launch its most advanced rover to Mars on November 25.

  The rover named Curiosity will be carried to Mars by an Atlas V rocket, which is already awaiting liftoff at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

  Curiosity weighs one ton, and it’s twice as long as earlier Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. It has a 7-feet mast which will carry cameras and a laser-firing instrument which will enable it to study targets from a distance, as well as a 7-foot-long arm for studying targets up close.

  All in all, the rover carries 10 scientific instruments; among other things, the rover will be capable of determine the composition of rock and soil samples, gather weather information and measure radiation levels.

  If everything goes according to plan, Curiosity will land on the Mars in August 2012, where it will examine the Gale Crater which NASA calls “potentially habitable.”

  Besides laying down the foundation for a possible manned mission to Mars in the future, Curiosity should also bring important pointers for answering the question of whether life has existed on Mars.

  
  NASA Mars Rover Curiosity at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  
  
  

  Click here to view this gallery.

  [via NASA]

  Image courtesy of NASA

  More About: Curiosity, Mars, Mars rover, NASA, rover, space, space exploration

  
  

  

• HTC Titan Coming to AT&T on November 20

  Posted: November 10th, 2011, 3:12am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  HTC’s enormous Windows Phone smartphone, the 4.7-inch Titan, will be joining AT&T’s smartphone roster on November 20, the company has announced.

  The Titan’s 4.7-inch, 800 x 480 pixel screen might be too big for some, but it’s great for multimedia which makes it a selling point for AT&T. The company jokingly says that the Titan’s large screen is “probably bigger than the TV you have at home.”

  The rest of the specifications is solid although not groundbreaking: a 1.5 GHz single-core Snapdragon CPU, 512 MB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera and HSPA+ connectivity. All of that is packed into a case that measures 130.6 x 70.6 x 9.9 mm, which is bearable given the screen size.

  The HTC Titan will be available in AT&T’s stores and online on November 20 for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

  More About: att, htc, HTC Titan, smartphone, Titan, windows phone

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• Oink Takes Recommendations a Step Further

  Posted: November 9th, 2011, 8:58pm MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

  Name: Oink

  Quick Pitch: Oink is a recommendation service which lets you recommend precise objects within physical places.

  Genius Idea: Pushing the recommendations a step further than the norm, Oink hopes to make recommending stuff more fun and more social.

  If you like a certain place (like a restaurant), you probably like some particular objects within it (like specific dishes). That seems to be the basic idea behind Oink, a new project from Kevin Rose’s mobile app company Milk.

  The app – currently available for iOS devices – lets users rate objects within a place; objects such as pepperoni pizza, a mochachino or a ham sandwich. While this is not that different from standard recommendation apps such as Tripadvisor, Oink makes the entire experience more social by adding the concept of “cred”.

  As you use the app to recommend stuff to others, you build cred and rise on Oink’s social ladder – similar to the way you earn badges in Foursquare. As you level up, you unlock more functionality, which makes the entire experience similar to a game.

  The “Builder” part of the app, which lets you recommend things, is currently in beta, meaning you need to request an invite before you can get in. But anyone can freely download the app from Apple’s App Store and check it out from a regular user’s perspective.

  Let’s say I’m really interested in Mexican food. I can choose it from a list of categories and check out what’s one, five, 25 or 100 miles around me, or I can simply go global and check out all the Mexican restaurants covered by Oink users (this is the only option that makes sense in most cases, as the app is still really new and there hasn’t been that many recommendations yet).

  If you’re actually sitting in a restaurant, Oink becomes super useful as it acts like an interactive, super-charged version of the restaurant’s menu, showing you which items on the menu are liked or disliked by other users. If you’re walking down the street, then the app becomes similar to Yelp, with a map that displays nearby restaurants and other points of interest, accompanied by ratings.

  

  Finally, you can use the app similar to the way you would use Twitter – by checking out a global feed of all the recent recommendations from all the Oink users.

  The multitude of options is one of Oink’s strengths – it’s like Twitter, Foursquare and Yelp put together in a single, fun, beautifully designed app. However, it might also be the app’s weakness, as many users will probably give up on wading through the forest of features, especially in a crowded restaurant or walking through a strange city.

  Right now, we see it as an app for geeks, tinkerers and (possibly) gamers, who are completely immersed in technology and don’t mind spending 10 minutes with Oink before ordering a dish at a restaurant. We’ll see if it catches on amongst a wider audience.

  Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

  

  The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

  More About: iOS, Mobile, oink

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• Apple: Siri Is Not Coming to Older iPhone Versions

  Posted: November 9th, 2011, 3:25am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Apple’s voice assistant Siri will remain exclusive to the iPhone 4S, Apple has confirmed.

  In an answer to an inquiry from the developer Michael Steeber, asking about a possible special Siri-enabled iOS build for iPod touch and iPhone 4 owners, Apple responded with a resounding “no”.

  “Siri only works on iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices,” wrote Apple’s representative in the answer.

  It’s hardly a surprise: Siri is one of the most recognizable features of the iPhone 4S, and although it could work on the iPhone 4, too, Apple probably wants to give iPhone 4S buyers a little extra something for their money.

  Of course, Apple can change its mind in the future, but for now it seems that only iPhone 4S owners will enjoy the benefits of chatting with their phone.

  BONUS: 10 Absurd Questions for Siri
  The classic question
  
  
  

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: apple, iOS, iphone, Mobile, siri, smartphone

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• Adobe Stops Development of Mobile Browser Flash [REPORT]

  Posted: November 9th, 2011, 1:28am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Adobe has ceased the development of Flash Player for browsers on mobile devices, ZDNet reports citing an upcoming announcement from Adobe.

  “Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations,” says Adobe’s announcement which is reportedly due to be released today.

  Instead, Adobe will focus its development efforts on mobile apps and HTML5.

  This is quite a hit for Android and its developers, since Flash support on Android devices was often highlighted as one of the advantages of that platform over Apple’s iOS.

  It’s also a big victory for Apple, a company that claimed – most famously in Steve Jobs’s open letter on Flash – that Flash simply isn’t reliable, secure or fast enough to be used on mobile devices.

  We’re awaiting the official announcement from Adobe and will update this article if necessary.

  [via ZDNet]

  More About: adobe, browser, Flash, Mobile, smartphones

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• Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0 Coming to T-Mobile on November 16

  Posted: November 8th, 2011, 2:29am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  The 4G variant of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0 tablet will become available under T-Mobile’s wing on November 16, the company has announced.

  The 9.96 mm thin device has a 7-inch, 1024×600 pixel screen, a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 16 or 32 GB of storage space and a 3-megapixel rear-facing as well as a 2-megapixel front-facing camera (for video chats).

  It also supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0 as well as HSPA+, which is the standard T-Mobile uses for fast data transfer – or 4G, as they call it.

  The price is $250 after a $50 mail-in rebate, with a two-year contract, and twenty additional interest free monthly $10 payments on top of your data plan. You could say that it’s just another way to make it look cheap without actually making it so, but then again, if you’re strapped for cash, $250 sounds pretty good compared to the regular $399 price tag on Amazon.

  More About: galaxy tab, Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0, samsung, Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0

  
  

  

• Google Doodle Pays Homage to Marie Curie

  Posted: November 7th, 2011, 7:44am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  

  Today’s Doodle on Google‘s homepage pays tribute to Marie Curie, the famous Polish-French physicist and chemist born Nov. 7, 1867.

  Marie Curie was born Maria Salomea Skłodowska in Warsaw. She studied at the Sorbonne Institute in Paris, earning a degree in mathematics in 1894. There, she also met her future husband, scientist Pierre Curie, whom she married a year later in July 1895.

  Among her many contributions to science, Curie coined the term “radioactivity,” discovered two elements — polonium and radium — and founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw.

  She was also the first woman to receive a Nobel prize and the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes, for physics and chemistry.

  SEE ALSO: Top 10 Animated Google Doodles [VIDEOS] | Where Do Google Doodles Come From?

  Curie spent the majority of her lifetime working with radioactive substances, unaware of their harmful effects on human health. She died in 1934 of aplastic anaemia, a condition that was a result of her long-term exposure to radiation.

  BONUS: More Google Doodles
  The Christmas Google Doodle
  

  Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: Doodle, Google, google doodle, Marie Curie, trending

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• Disney and YouTube Sign Video Partnership

  Posted: November 7th, 2011, 7:27am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  Disney and YouTube are set to announce a content partnership worth $10 million to $15 million, The New York Times reports.

  Under the terms of the agreement, YouTube will invest millions of dollars on an original video series produced by Disney and distributed exclusively through a new co-branded channel on both YouTube and Disney.com, according to the Times.

  Disney has had a couple of bad quarters, and it’s hoping to re-capture its audience through new distribution channels. It wants, as co-president of Disney Interactive James Pitaro told the Times, to “go where (its) audience is.”

  The deal also makes sense for YouTube, which is always on the lookout for more original, quality content and strong brand partners. However, Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s global head for content partnerships, emphasized that YouTube will be a neutral distributor and is not planning to go into the production business.

  YouTube recently announced a big push to bring more premium content to the site, with a slew of new video channels. Google has reportedly spent $100 million on the deals for the new channels, and its partners include celebrities such as Madonna and Ashton Kutcher, as well as media companies like The Wall Street Journal, The Onion, SB Nation and Demand Media.

  More About: disney, Video, YouTube

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• Ice Cream Sandwich Coming to a Host of HTC Smartphones in Early 2012

  Posted: November 7th, 2011, 2:37am MST by Stan Schroeder

  
  HTC has published an update on its Facebook page, detailing the company’s plans for upgrading its smartphone portfolio to the latest version of Android, 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich.

  We don’t have an exact date just yet, but according to HTC, Ice Cream Sandwich is coming in “early 2012″ to the following devices: HTC Sensation, HTC Sensation XL, HTC Sensation XE and HTC Rezound.

  HTC Vivid is already upgradeable to Ice Cream Sandwich, says HTC.

  Furthermore, the HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Amaze 4G will be upgraded through “close integration” with HTC’s carrier partners.

  
  HTC Rezound is slightly over a half-inch thick
  
  
  

  Click here to view this gallery.

  More About: android, htc, ice cream sandwich

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• Simulated Mars Mission “Returns” to Earth After 520 Days

  Posted: November 4th, 2011, 8:25am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  Oh, Mars. As the possible next step in human space exploration, the Red Planet is bound to be visited by us bipeds someday. So what’s the best way to make sure something doesn’t go wrong? Make a simulated, 520 day-long mission with real astronauts and see how things turn out.

  Mars500, the European Space Agency’s mission held in a Moscow institute, started 520 days ago on June 3, 2010, with six astronauts enduring the hardships they would probably encounter on a real flight to Mars: The flight there, insertion into orbit, landing, exploration of the planet, and finally the long flight back and landing on Earth.

  The mission cost $15 million and, although it could not replicate every aspect of a real flight to Mars (such as constant low gravity conditions), it had the crew perform more than 100 experiments with limited consumables and communications with Earth being artificially delayed and, at times, disrupted.

  According to ESA, the team of six international male astronauts has performed “exceptionally well” during the simulated flight. They will go through a series of tests, debriefings and evaluations until early December, when the mission officially ends.

  The video (above) shows the 520 days of the astronauts’ life during the mission compressed into 15 minutes.

  More About: Mars, NASA, space, trending

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• Nook Tablet Is Coming November 16 for $249 [REPORT]

  Posted: November 4th, 2011, 4:11am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  Barnes & Noble will launch a new member of the Nook family of tablets and e-readers, the Nook Tablet, on November 16 for $249, according to leaked presentation slides published by Engadget.

  Furthermore, the company plans to reduce the price of Nook Color from $249 to $199, while the Nook Simple Touch’s price will drop from $139 to $99.

  The announcement will likely come November 7, when Barnes & Noble will hold a press conference in New York City, and we’ll be there live to cover the event.

  However, if the leaked presentation slides are legit, we already know a whole lot about the upcoming Nook Tablet. It will sport a 7-inch IPS color touch screen with a 1024×600 pixel resolution, a 1.2 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage and a microSD expansion slot.

  Visually, it will be very similar to the Nook Color which, besides the price cut, will also get a software update with some nice additions, such as Hulu Plus, more magazines and comics as well as access to music via services like Rhapsody, Grooveshark, Pandora and MOG.

  Finally, the Nook Simple Touch will reach version 1.1. The details about the update are sketchy, but Barnes & Noble claims the device has 25% faster page turns than any other e-reader and the longest battery life providing 2 months of reading.

  The stir-up in Barnes & Noble’s tablet lineup is a logical answer to Amazon’s recent price cuts and launch of Kindle Fire.

  Check out Amazon’s Kindle line of products, which B&N’s Nook devices will directly compete with, in the gallery below.

  
  
  
  
  

  The $79 Kindle.

  Click here to view this gallery.

  Image source: Engadget

  [via Engadget]

  More About: e-reader, nook, nook color, Nook Tablet, Nook Touch, Tablet

  
  

  

• Opera Mini 6.5 Now Available for iOS and BlackBerry

  Posted: November 3rd, 2011, 3:42am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  The latest version of Opera‘s mobile browser, Opera Mini 6.5, is now available for iOS, S60, J2ME and BlackBerry platforms.

  The new mobile version of Opera is now also available for Symbian, MeeGo and Maemo, in the form of Opera Mobile 11.5.

  The updates come three weeks after Opera released Opera Mini 6.5 for Android, and the changes are pretty much the same, the most important being a counter which shows you exactly how much data you have spent and saved (via Opera’s website compression technology) using Opera Mini.

  Opera has also put a global counter on its homepage, showing how much data all its users have saved since November 2, 2011. The counter currently stands at over 230 terabytes.

  Also, besides the inevitable performance and stability fixes, the new version brings support for auto-correct and spell-check, searching directly from the address bar and support for Google AutoComplete.

  [Opera Mini 6.5, Opera Mobile 11.5]

  More About: mobile browser, opera, opera mini, Opera Mini 6.5

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• Duqu Virus Tied to Microsoft Windows Bug

  Posted: November 2nd, 2011, 2:31am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  Hackers have used a security flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system to infect computers with the the Duqu virus, Microsoft has admitted.

  “We are working diligently to address this issue and will release a security update for customers,” Microsoft said in a statement.

  The Duqu virus, which was discovered in October by Symantec, is thought by some experts to be the next big cyber security threat. It shares some of the code with Stuxnet, a malicious worm which targeted Iran’s nuclear program, but Duqu is specifically created for gathering intelligence data from agencies and corporations.

  Microsoft’s statement did not include any additional details, but Symantec discovered that Duqu was initially infecting systems through a compromised Microsoft Word document which installs the malicious software after it’s opened.

  Duqu infections have currently been confirmed in several countries, including France, Netherlands, Switzerland, India, Iran, Ukraine, Sudan and Vietnam.

  [via Reuters, Symantec]

  Image courtesy of iStockphoto, goldmund

  More About: Duqu, microsoft, virus

  
  

  

• Former Engadget Editor Launches New Tech Site

  Posted: November 1st, 2011, 9:54am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  The Verge, a new technology site with former Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky at its helm, has officially launched.

  Topolsky left AOL-owned Engadget early this year, around the same time AOL announced 900 layoffs in restructuring related to its acquisition of the Huffington Post. At the time, Topolsky said he wouldn’t be “leaving the industry or the news game.” Now his latest project is off the ground.

  In an introductory blog post Tuesday, Topolsky puts a lot of emphasis on the technical background of the beautifully designed Verge site.

  The Verge comes with several distinctive features, such as StoryStreams, a technology that stitches together “disparate parts of a story in a logical timeline.” The site also has a product database, product comparison tools, a forum and hub pages, which allow users to build a community around the topics they like.

  The site is “something akin to an app,” writes Topolsky, promising a constant stream of updates. “Today we’re launching with The Verge 1.0, but 1.1 and 1.2 are just around the corner,” he says.

  For the past couple of months Topolsky and his team have been active on another project, This Is My Next, which was a in-the-meantime tech blog until the SB Nation-backed Verge was ready for the launch. Even though it was a side project, This Is My Next was a valuable source of tech news and a nice glimpse of what’s to come.

  More About: engadget, Gadgets, joshua topolsky, Tech, technology, The Verge

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• Native Gmail iPhone App Is Coming Soon [RUMOR]

  Posted: November 1st, 2011, 7:31am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  Google is working on a native Gmail application for the iPhone and may even have already submitted the app to Apple for approval, according to one report.

  Currently, Gmail is supported on the iPhone as a web app. It does its job fairly well, but a native app would probably be faster and could include some extra features such as advanced search and push notifications.

  However, there’s a question of whether Apple would allow a native email app on iOS, given that it would be a direct competitor to its own Mail app, which is an integral part of the platform.

  MG Siegler, citing several sources familiar with the matter, doesn’t have a lot of info about the upcoming app, but he claims push notifications are sure to be a part of it. And, he says, Priority Inbox and one-click starring of messages will likely to be included.

  As for when can we expect this shiny new app to reach our iPhones and iPads, “soon” is all we have.

  Google declined to comment on the possibility of a native Gmail iPhone app.

  More About: App, apple, gmail, Google, iphone

  
  

  

• Dress Your iPad 2 in Dinosaur Bones and Diamonds for $8 Million

  Posted: November 1st, 2011, 3:25am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  We’ve seen many expensive gadget makeovers, but this one probably takes the cake for being over the top: An iPad 2 dressed in gold, diamonds and bones of a 65-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex.

  Stuart Hughes’s iPad 2 Gold History Edition, as this ultra-high-end gadget is called, is a regular iPad 2 on the inside.

  On the outside, however, it’s encrusted with 53 flawless diamonds, 24-carat gold, and the thigh bone of the aforementioned predator, splintered and shaved into an ammolite rock that covers the front frame of the device.

  Only two units will be made, so if you’ve got £5 million ($8 million) to spend, hurry up. Just remember you can buy 16,000 regular iPad 2s for the price.

  More About: apple, diamonds, Gold, iPad 2, luxury, Stuart Hughes, trending

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• Angry Birds and iPads to Fly into Space

  Posted: October 27th, 2011, 3:24am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  After taking over the world – in the form of an extremely popular multi-platform game, followed by toys and accessories, even baby clothes – Angry Birds will venture where no dissatisfied feathered creature has gone before: into space.

  An Angry Birds plush toy, as well as two Apple iPads, will be sent to the International Space Station with two upcoming Russian space launches.

  The iPads will be sent with the next unmanned resupply flight later this month. The toy doll of the red bird from the popular game will be sent with three crew members, which are due to fly to the ISS next month.

  The cosmonauts will use the iPads for entertainment purposes, but the plush toy will actually have a mission – it will signal the escape from the clutches of Earth’s gravity field when it starts to float.

  [via collectSPACE]

  More About: angry birds, International Space Station, ipad

  
  

  

• So This Is How Nokia N9 Is Made [VIDEO]

  Posted: October 25th, 2011, 2:41am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  Nokia N9 probably won’t be a best-seller amongst smartphones. It’s the first and only smartphone based on the MeeGo platform, and Nokia has no plans for ever making it available in the U.S.

  It’s a device that, unfortunately, serves mostly as a reminder of Nokia’s misguided smartphone strategy, which the company had to completely abandon and team up with Microsoft to create a completely new range of Windows Phone-based smartphones.

  That doesn’t mean it’s not a well-crafted smartphone, though. Nokia is known for its manufacturing precision and quality devices, and the N9, with its polycarbonate shell and beautiful 3.9-inch curved glass screen doesn’t seem to be an exception to that rule.

  And now, you can see exactly the entire manufacturing process of the N9 – from the first holes being drilled into the case all the way to the packaging. Check out the video above and tell us how you like it in the comments.

  More About: Nokia, Nokia N9, smartphone

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• Netflix Coming to UK and Ireland in 2012

  Posted: October 24th, 2011, 2:11am MDT by Stan Schroeder

  
  The rumors which have been circulating since early 2010 have turned out to be true: Netflix has officially announced its expansion to the UK and Ireland in early 2012.

  The company announced it will offer unlimited TV shows and movie streaming for a “low” monthly subscription price.

  We’ll have to wait a while to find out what “low” means, however, as details about the pricing, content and supported devices will be announced “closer to launch”.

  Users in the UK and Ireland who are anxious to find out more as soon as possible can do head on over to www.netflix.com and sign up to receive an email alert about the launch.

  Netflix’s biggest competitor in the UK will be Lovefilm, a movie rental service acquired by Amazon in January 2011.

  Recently, Netflix has increased its prices and announced a separate service for DVD’s in the U.S. under the name Qwikster, but after a huge backlash from users, it decided to give up on the plan altogether and continue offering streaming and DVD rentals as one service.

  More About: europe, ireland, movie rentals, netflix, streaming, TV, uk

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