Twitter is trending with the promoted hashtag #AmexSync. Do you get annoyed with the "deals" that your Facebook friends "like" showing up in your newsfeed? Well prepare for it to get even worse on Twitter, as American Express and Twitter introduce Amex Sync, the service that connects your American Express credit card directly to your Twitter account. And rest assured, as Twitter has proven time and time again, your private information is secure behind their hack-proof system. (Not!)
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Twitter is trending with the promoted hashtag #AmexSync. Do you get annoyed with the "deals" that your Facebook friends "like" showing up in your newsfeed? Well prepare for it to get even worse on Twitter, as American Express and Twitter introduce Amex Sync, the service that connects your American Express credit card directly to your Twitter account. And rest assured, as Twitter has proven time and time again, your private information is secure behind their hack-proof system. (Not!) Big name designers such as Michael Kors, Nanette Lepore, Badgley Mischka and Carolina Herrera have taken advantage of digital media by showing their fashion shows online during Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Major designers are realizing that online fashion shows are a great way to bring their collection to wider audience, and new designers can produce online fashion show for a fraction of the pricetag of an in-person show, which can cost upwards of $100k. The hashtag #SuziParkerScoops is swirling around Twitter in response to Washington Post columnist Suzi Parker reporting that Sarah Palin will be the new host for the Al Jazeera America channel. To be clear, Sarah Palin is not the new host. It was just last month that a satirical article from the Onion named North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un the Sexiest Man Alive for 2012, causing Asian media to report the story as if it were real. Proposed California law AB 242, introduced by Assemblyman Ed Chau, is creating quite a buzz due to its wording, or rather, proposed lack of wording. AB 242 would require that all commercial websites and services offered through the Internet which collect personal information about California consumers make its privacy policy be written at a level of 8th grade reading, and be no longer 100 words. A hacker, who goes by the name "Guccifer", has hacked the email accounts of former president George W. Bush, as well as the accounts of his family and friends, and has taken to posting his findings online, including private photos, emails and private home addresses. Guccifer told The Smoking Gun, who broke the story, that he isn't worried about the feds coming after him because they have actually been investigating him for awhile and this latest stunt is "just another chapter in the game.” Tired of having to resort to eBay or Craigslist to sell the stuff you no longer want? Or trying to give it away on FreeCycle only to have some overzealous moderator reject it? So was the creator of GTSList.com, the online garage sale where you can sell your stuff to friends and family, for free, and while keeping it private so you are not opening your home to random strangers. GTS List takes the idea of the online yard sale that often takes place on sites such as Craigslist, and combines it with the experience of having an old-fashioned yard sale, by making it a virtual yard sale. While a virtual garage sale is nothing new, we think they're on to something by giving sellers the ability to keep their sale as private as they'd like. While this year's Superbowl ads did not disappoint, one of the clear winners was the Dodge Ram truck commercial which pays homage to farmers. Perhaps the most poignant part of the ad was the recording of Paul Harvey's 1978 speech called, "So God Made a Farmer." It got some wondering as to where to listen to all of Paul Harvey's Rest of the Story shows online? Well the good news is that, even though Paul Harvey died in 2009, his voice and stories do indeed live on. The people have spoken and the iron token from the Hasbro board game Monopoly will be retired for good, being replaced by a cat. In a vote on the Monopoly Facebook page, people from 120 countries voiced their opinion, voting to keep the Scottie dog, shoe, wheelbarrow, race car, thimble, top hat and battle ship, and to get rid of the iron. The tokens proposed to replace the ousted token included a guitar, a helicopter, a diamond ring and a toy robot, but the cat was the clear winner, garnering 31% of the votes. The United States Postal Service (USPS) announced that it is ending Saturday delivery in August of this year. While your local post office will still deliver packages, letters will only be delivered Monday through Friday, leaving many to turn to alternatives such as email and Internet faxing services. Email is already the alternative that has led to a huge decline in traditional snail mail, crippling USPS with a loss of tens of billions of dollars in most recent years. USPS estimates that it will save approximately $2 billion annually with this plan. If you are a Windows XP user running Kaspersky anti-virus and you can't connect to the internet from your computer, you are not alone. The latest update to the AV software is preventing many users from being able to connect to the internet, causing users to swarm to the Kaspersky forum to grumble. If you are an Android user and have either of the apps called Superclean or DroidCleaner (AKA DroidClean), you are advised to remove them immediately to avoid malware jumping to your PC. The app, which has been removed from the app store, infects the computer with a virus that will open files, gather photos and obtain contact information. Facebook has proven to be a time again, but this time Facebook has risen to the occasion. Well, its users have. Facebook users banded together and have saved a gay dog from certain death, at least, a dog that was surrendered to animal control by his owners, on the basis that he is gay. If you're tired of the privacy concerns of Facebook, the anonymous social network called Social Number may be right up your alley. Giving the question, "what's your number" a whole new meaning, Social Number lets users pick a user number, which is their only identifier on the social network. That means users will not have user names or identifying photos, just assigned numbers. YouTube (or "Utube" for those who are too lazy to type "Yo") is preparing to launch channels with paid subscriptions to its video lineup. Channel owners can apply to have a premium channel, and YouTube is hoping that channels with specially designed content will draw more users. It looks as though premium channel subscriptions will cost somewhere between $1 and $5, with the first channels launching as early as the second quarter of this year. There's no denying that Internet cat videos are here to stay, and when the now famous "Grumpy Cat" appeared on the scene, it seemed that the world of Internet cats would never be the same. But now it looks that Grumpy Cat has a new contender: Sam the Worried Cat. Or, as he is better known on Instagram, Sam Has Eyebrows. Sam quickly rose to #catsofinstagram fame and could be added to the arsenal of Internet cats with serious attitudes. We don't know what his return policy is, but French citizen Philippe Dubost's resume, which looks like a fake Amazon page, complete with fake Amazon reviews, has quickly become an Internet sensation. Residing in Paris, the web product manager designed PhilDub.com to look for a job abroad, as he is ready to travel. Google is making clear how they will be handling warrants and subpoenas for users' personal information. With January 28th being Data Privacy Day, Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, shared three initiatives on the Google blog, which detail how Google plans to protect user privacy when faced with a warrant or subpena to hand over private user information. Well, we all saw it coming and it certainly did not take long - Twitter Vine is the newest hub for porn videos. And unfortunately it got worse when one six-second NSFW clip made it to the top as an Editor's Pick, appearing at the top of the Vine screen when users first opened their apps. Even though it was quickly taken down as Editor's Pick, fast-spreading word of the clip caused it to make the "Popular Now" ranking. Hacktivist collective Anonymous, citing Operation Last Resort (#OpLastResort and #WarHead1) took control of the website belonging to the United States Sentencing Commission Saturday with a clear message: the government must agree to reforming the legal process and allowing for freedom of information, or else the collective will begin releasing internal documents that they claim they collected from the systems of the Department of Justice (DOJ). They cited the recent suicide death of Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz as motivation for this latest mission. An Android app that helps you catch your smartphone or tablet thief is an idea whose time has come! If you are the owner of one of these phones, a stolen phone is one of the worst fates that can fall upon your phone, behind being left behind or falling in a toilet. Well now Android users can rest assured that they now have a way to increase the chances of recovering their phones; with the Lock Cam app, by Lookout Mobile Security service. Twitter released their new video sharing service, Twitter Vine, Thursday, which allows Twitter users to film and share small, six-second-long looping video clips. Twitter says that these small little snippets are in line with its model of Tweets being limited to 140-character-or-less model for Tweets. Michael Sippey, Twitter’s vice president for product, wrote about Twitter Vine on Twitter's blog on Thursday, “Like Tweets, the brevity of videos on Vine (6 seconds or less) inspires creativity. Now that you can easily capture motion and sound, we look forward to seeing what you create.” The French-language version of Twitter has been an ugly and contentious place lately, and the French government is taking action. With recent hashtags of #SiMonFilsEstGay (if my son is gay), #UnBonJuif (a good Jew), and #SiMaFilleRamèneUnNoir (if my daughter brings home a black guy), the Grand Instance Court in Paris has ordered Twitter to create a way to alert French authorities of illegal content when an offending tweet is sent out. Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o, during an interview with ABC News' Katie Couric, has confessed to at least having some knowledge of the fact that his girlfriend Lennay Kekua was fake. At least in the end. And in an even more bizarre turn of events, one of the hoax perpetrators, Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, has admitted through his attorney that he was the voice of Lennay in phone calls to Manti. There may be extra money in your closet, and not just the kind you find hidden in your pockets from the last time you wore or used the item! If you are like many and have clothing, handbags and accessories in your closet that you have not worn in a some time, or you are simply tired of wearing, you can easily sell clothing, jewelry and purses through your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch (not yet for Android users), using the app Poshmark. Today Google posted some news on their blog, along with the release of their Transparency Report, which shows increasing requests from the government for private user data. In fact, the report shows that, of all the governments in the world, the U.S. leads the pack in personal information requests. If you have cats, you may not realize that you are living with cold-blooded killers, at least you are according to New Zealand man Gareth Morgan. According to him, the country of New Zealand must eradicate cats, and then ban cats, in order to save the birds. Garrett Morgan has launched an online petition to completely get rid of cats in New Zealand, and even suggests euthanasia as an option for current cat owners. The scene was a pudgy man being chased around by scantily clad girls, but it wasn't an homage to Benny Hill, it was Kim Dotcom's launch party for his re-emergence back into the .com world - his new site, Mega (not to be confused with his now defunct file sharing website, Megaupload). Mega outdoes Dropbox by offering 50GBs of free file storage, unlike the 2GBs offered by Dropbox. If you cannot access Twitter, you are not alone, Twitter is down. In a short status update, Twitter announced, "Some users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue." A story by the popular food section of Houston food blog 29-25, Whine + Dine, is sweeping the Internet and quickly earning Houston food server Michael Garcia, of Laurenzo's Prime Rib, the title of "Hero," after refusing to serve a group of Lorenzo's regulars who heckled a special needs child with Down's syndrome. Facebook's new graph search feature is proving that it is good for so much more than just finding which of your friends watches The Walking Dead. You can also find out who on Facebook likes sexism, or young women with large breasts. We all know that half the battle of getting a job interview is a killer cover letter. One student majoring in finance who is looking for an internship on Wall Street in New York has written a cover letter that has become a viral Internet sensation because of how blunt and honest it is. It has come to the surface that Facebook took away the ability to hide profiles from search results this past December, which is awfully suspicious timing with the subsequent announcement of their new "graph search" feature. With graph search relying on Facebook user profile content for its search results, Facebook needed the extra information from previously private profiles. Notre Dame athletic director, Jack Swarbrick has confirmed that the school's star football player, Manti Te'o, is a victim of an Internet hoax. Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, was a complete fabrication and reports that she died from leukemia during the 2012 football season are a lie. Initial reports had Te'o as part of the hoax, but Te'o and his family are flatly denying this, saying that Te'o is profoundly hurt and embarrassed by the entire situation. Yesterday we mentioned that Facebook announced their new Graph Search, which is essentially a way to stalk your Facebook friends and family. In a fiery blog post, engineer and contributing Tech Crunch writer Steve Cheney went on to call it a con, saying that it is the equivalent of him yelling across an auditorium for a recommendation for a doctor to see for his cough. We've all had days where we didn't want to work, but according to Andrew Valentine, a principal for Verizon Enterprise Solutions, a man he calls "Bob" took it to a new level by by outsourcing his own six-figure-salaried job to China for $50,000/year, while he surfed Reddit and looked at cat videos. Wondering where you can get tickets to President Obama's inauguration? Well you can't get tickets to the president's inauguration on eBay or Craigslist, at least if eBay and Craigslist follow through on their promise to not allow anyone to sell or scalp tickets to Pres. Obama's inauguration on either site. Like many high school students, Ryan Orbuch and Michael Hansen had a problem, managing everything from mid-terms, to a simple homework deadline. But unlike your average high school student, these two did something about it, they created task management app "Finish," (available for the iPhone, but not yet Android). The government's sponsored online petition site "We the People" promises a White House response for all petitions with more than 25,000 signatures, and sticking to that promise, they issued an official response to the online petition entitled “Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.” The petition received over 34,000 signatures. SOPA Activist and RSS author Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit, has been found dead in his Brooklyn, NY apartment, from a hanging suicide. The 26 year-old was facing Federal prosecution for allegedly stealing 4.8 million documents from MIT's computer networks, as well as from JSTOR, or Journal Storage, a nonprofit organization that offers journals and scholarly books to subsidized institutions. The death came as a shock to Swartz's parents and girlfriend, who never expected him to hang himself, and they contend that the suicide was as a result of a "criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach." The U.S. Department of Homeland Security alerted users of Java to a serious and urgent security risk, recommending that users disable Java until a suitable fix has been released. In the statement, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), the branch of the federal government that manages computer security risks, warned that any system using Oracle Java 7 (1.7, 1.7.0) including Java Platform Standard Edition 7 (Java SE 7), Java SE Development Kit (JDK 7) and Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE 7) are at risk. We first reported that Google was aiming to provide free public wifi Internet access to the world over seven years ago, and they kicked off that goal by offering free wi-fi to Mountain View, and now they've announced that the area of Chelsea in New York City is the latest recipient of free Google wifi as they do their part to grow Manhattan's Silicon Alley. "Slut shaming" is what many are calling the new scarlet letter. The game is the same as it has been for years, it just has a new face with the popularity of social media. Young girls and teens being bullied, or slutshamed, by their peers, namely other girls, for provocative behavior, be it sexual in nature or manner of dress, in which they may or may not be engaging. This time, unfortunately the bullying, has a far wider and quicker reach with the slut-shaming being done online. And the consequences have become much more dire. Two sides of the coin have recently come to light: with high school student Temitayo Fagbenle speaking out against the trend, and college student Michael Nodianos being one of the worst examples of it. We've all done the in-store/Amazon price matching game: perusing the aisles of a nearby retailer and then whipping out our smartphones to see if we can find better online prices at Amazon. Well Target wants everyone to know how to get Amazon prices at Target: just ask. They have announced that they will match prices of Amazon, all year round. And Target is not stopping with Amazon, they will also price match qualifying merchandise to the prices advertised on the websites of Best Buy, Toys R Us, and Walmart! How has the world lived without a waterproof cell phone for this long? Water is the kryptonite of cell phones and for all of the money we pay for them, it seems that they should be a bit more resilient. Well, we can all rejoice and start using our phones around toilets, showers and pools with reckless abandon because technology company HzO has developed a new nanofilm waterproof coating, WaterBlock, that will protect your phone should it come into contact with water. And the first water proof cellphone is due out shortly - with Sony, Samsung and, reportedly, Apple, all planning to bring out a waterproof phone this year. It won't be long before we see flexible smartphones and flexible tablets on the market! The likes of Sony, Nokia, LG, Philips and Sharp are all fervently working on technology to bring foldable phones to consumers in the very near future. Prototypes of the flexible phones are already creating a buzz at trade and gadget shows, with news that the foldable phone can be bent, folded and rolled. The excitement of the flexible smartphone and flexible tablet is growing as the possibilities of rolling it up to stick it in a pocket or handbag are wildly appealing to users on the go. Not to mention that a flexible phone is quite the conversation starter. PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd. has introduced the table PC, a 27-inch table computer that allows users to play boardgames, with the screen responding to up to ten fingers at the same time. Users can stick the 27-inch screen device on top of any table, or create a touch screen table with the optional coffee table that fits the device, and features sliding glass panels to cover the device when you are through playing board games. The social media world is buzzing with opinions about the new Myspace now that they have released the new version. Ever since it was announced that Justin Timberlake was one of the new partners involved in reviving the dead social media site, the Internet has been flooded with speculations as to how the newly revamped site will compare with Facebook, Pinterest, Pandora, Songza and, of course, how it compares with the old Myspace. Like any kid or teen, thirteen-year-old Greg Hoffman begged his parents for a new smart phone, specifically, an iPhone. On Christmas day, he got that coveted iPhone, but not without an 18 point contract from his mom, outlining the rules for having a phone. Not quite what a child or teenager with a new iPhone expects, but Mom made it clear, with a great phone, comes great responsibility. Yesterday we reported a few fixes for the bug affecting the “Do Not Disturb” feature on iOS 6, which resulted in the feature to not turn off once it was set, causing the users of iOS6 devices to miss appointments, phone calls, and alerts. But it appears that Apple is promising an automatic fix by January 8th. If you're an Apple iPhone 5 or any other type of iOS6 user who missed a few appointments or an important notice today, you're not alone. It seems that with the roll over of the new year, those who used the "Do Not Disturb" feature on iOS 6 found that it won't turn off, causing their phone to be stuck on "Do Not Disturb" mode through New Years Day, and so not sending them notifications as usual. Hailed as a rapist and stalker's haven, "Girls Around Me" is not only a creepy app in its concept, it enables iPhone and android users to track nearby women based on their geographic location. The information is aggregated from check-ins through Facebook and Four Square, and perhaps what makes it the creepiest app, and why it is being called the "stalking app," is because if a user of the app likes what he initially sees about the girl, he can see more information about her as pulled from her Four Square account and Facebook link, including more photos of her. Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz took to the Internet to announce an online grassroots campaign by having his DC Starbucks employees write "Come Together" on the cups of all of their customers to send a message to lawmakers about the fiscal cliff. While Internet grassroots efforts are not typically led by wealthy corporate CEOs, Schultz has instructed the baristas to write the message on the cup of each customer all this week, through December 28th. Facebook proves once again that they can make the most underhanded actions seem like they are doing a favor for their users by testing a new feature: pay $1 to send a message to users with whom you're not connected on the socia media site, in the name of reducing spam. Twitter users will soon start seeing #TwitterArchive trending. Twitter has announced that they are now allowing users to download their entire archive history to store for their own personal files. The archiving feature will allow users to download past tweets and retweets, and users can look at their archives by month and search keywords, hashtags, usernames and phrases. #Boycottinstagram is trending on Twitter and with good reason. Now that Facebook officially owns Instagram, they can use your pictures to sell and use however they want, royalty-free, and short of deleting your Instagram account, you have waived your rights and can’t opt out. Facebook has proven time and time again that they care little about user privacy, but now they are blatantly stating that they can use your own content for revenue, and they don’t care a lick about paying royalties. If you, like many, have been using Amazon.com for some of your Christmas shopping, then your account may be vulnerable to a scam using your order number that is genius in its execution, and uncovers some of Amazon's failings in inventory control. It all comes down to the individual order numbers assigned to your orders. Those order numbers are for sale, along with the corresponding email address (as in your email address), and scam artists are using that information to get duplicates of your orders sent to them. 15-year-old Texas teen Andrea Hernandez has launched a fight against the Northside Independent School District to avoid wearing the electronic tracking RFID chips embedded in her high school ID. Hernandez, from a deeply evangelical religion, believes that the ID is "the mark of the beast," as talked about in the Book of Revelation. But even without the religious aspect, this is an important issue, and the religious nature of her objection helps to provide a more solid basis over which to object to the microchipped school I.D. We brought you some of our favorite apps for 2012, and here is our list of top must-have for 2013! These apps are designed to make your life better, faster, more efficient and happier. Ok, we cannot promise that they will make you happier, but they certainly are handy little helpers. The year is quickly coming to an end and we have written about several apps over the past year. While some weren't the best, like the false sense of security provided by the Wickr app (link), there were several we loved. Here is a list of some of our favorite apps of 2012. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is gearing up to launch a children's mobile game privacy investigation that is so massive, kids' game makers, such as Mobbles, are hastily yanking titles before the FTC investigation becomes official. Mobbles was unofficially informed that their software is part of the some 200 titles being investigated in connection with accusations that they are storing the private information of its young users, including their locations. American Association of Retired People (AARP) has partnered with HowAboutWe.com to offer online dating, for older, senior singles. While Internet dating may seem to undermine the old fashioned (i.e. face-to-face) way of dating that single folks of the retired generation may appreciate, HowAboutWe.com has created a way to mix old fashioned dating with online dating, in a way that users from any generation can appreciate. We all quickly figured out that Apple Maps is a debacle of epic proportions (link), but deadly? Australian authorities are warning motorists to use another mapping option, calling Apple Maps a "potentially life-threatening issue." If you cannot access Gmail, or Chrome continues to crash for you, you are not alone. Their status page is confirming that there is a service disruption. Many have taken to Twitter to confirm that they are also experiencing Gmail being down and their ... New Years Eve is fast approaching, which means that it won't be long before remorseful holiday indulgers make their New Years resolutions to get in shape. The Fitness Buddy app is an excellent way to help you achieve your goals of getting fit and is designed to be your own virtual personal trainer. If you've ever dreamed of walking on the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars, the Full Scale Millennium Falcon Project could make that dream a reality. A group of Star Wars fans, led by project founder Chris Lee, are calling 88 acres in Tennessee the new home to the 1:1 scale version of the ship that they are slowly building. The only difference between this model and the 'real' one is that this one won't have an engine. Hunter Moore, the guy who invented revenge porn, is at it again and this time Internet hacktivist group Anonymous, specifically Kentucky Anonymous (@kyanonymous), has vowed to not let him get away with it in a campaign they've dubbed "Operation Hunt Hunter," or, #OpHuntHunter. Despite the fact that he sold his original revenge porn website IsAnyoneUp.com, where users could submit naked pictures of others without consent, to an anti-bullying organization, and wrote what appeared to be a heartfelt letter apologizing for the mayhem his site caused, he told BetaBeat.com, "I literally had a half pound of cocaine on a fucking table with like 16 of my friends and we were busting up laughing taking turns writing this stupid letter." The Wickr self-destructing message app (pronounced "Wicker") gives you complete messaging security. This is because you can set your messages to self-destruct after a certain time, assuring that your privacy is protected. Wickr works with both email and text messages, and the intention is that the self-destructing Wickr message app will also be able to be used with services like Twitter and Facebook, one day. Got a question for the Pope? Well it's not quite carrier pigeon, but you can now tweet your question to the Pope, @pontifex, with #askpontifex. Pope Benedict has officially joined Twitter and, despite not having sent out any tweets yet, he already has over 400,000 followers. Bill Prady, executive producer of the hit show The Big Bang Theory, took to Twitter to air his grievances with United Airline's customer service department. We've all been there, stuck in a never-ending customer service nightmare, being passed around from department to department, trying to reach an actual person, and then being disconnected and having to call back and start all over again. In an unprecedented presidential move, President Obama has called upon people to start using a Twitter hashtag: MY2K, in regards to the fiscal cliff. The MY2K (as in "my 2k" - the extra $2,000 that would come from the current tax cut extension being proposed) campaign calls upon Twitter users (and has crossed over to Facebook) to tweet what they would do with an extra $2,000 and use the hashtag MY2K. Most Facebook users have said something on their Facebook pages that they regret, but probably not many like Indian citizen Shaheen Dhada, who was arrested and faced angry mob riots in India over comments she made on her Facebook timeline. Comments that many charger were aimed to malign Muslims with the Shiv Sena party. A Facebook hoax has, yet again, monopolized Facebook status updates, as panicked users have been advised, by the hoax, to declare copyright in response to Facebook privacy changes. Of course, if simply declaring something on your Facebook status made it so, then the color of your bra strap would have cured breast cancer, Casey Anthony would have been found guilty, and a simple relationship status change from "married" to "divorced" would save thousands in lawyer fees. Good looking genius nerds are not only fictional characters on The Big Bang Theory, as proven by NASA flight director, Bobak Ferdowsi. Known as the "NASA Mohawk Guy," Ferdowsi shot to fame for not only helping to successfully land the Curiosity rover on Mars, but for sporting a much-televised mohawk while doing so, spawning an Internet meme. Thanks to Henry Timms, deputy executive director of the Jewish community center 92nd Street Y, Giving Tuesday and its upcoming Twitter party is the answer for those who have looked on in disdain at Black Friday and Cyber Monday. While some are stampeding (literally) to get those Black Friday deals, and servers are crashing while consumers are virtually stampeding to Cyber Monday, there has been an air of disgust by many on social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, at the blatant, frenzied consumerism that seems to make those rabid shoppers a parody of the typical American. Google had made shopping, sight-seeing and travel even easier, by making the indoor floor plans of malls, museums, libraries, transit stations and airports, worldwide, available through Google Maps. The feature, previously exclusively available through Google Maps for Android, is now available on your desktop so that it can be used by all. Update: We have just learned that Senator Leahy has withdrawn his support for the amendments to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). He received resounding criticism from many groups and private citizens who felt that the revisions are unconstitutional and a gross invasion of privacy. In a series of tweets, below, Senator Leahy said that he did not support the bill amendments, and seems to deny that he ever did. The Internet is buzzing with Oprah Winfrey's latest snafu - tweeting how much she loves the Microsoft Surface - from her iPad. Some iPhone 4, 4s, and 5 users who are running iOS6 are finding that they have a rather annoying issue - iTunes music or podcasts automatically starting to play after they receive a phone call. If your Android is operating on the 4.2 operating system, AKA Jelly Bean, you may notice something in your calendar is missing - the entire month of December. Those running the 4.2 operating system on the Nexus 4 device, Nexus 10 device, Nexus 7 tablet and Galaxy Nexus smartphones have reported the issue. Do you know the name John McAfee? Well, if you have a PC with McAfee virus protection, then you just might. John McAfee is a computer programmer and the founder of the McAfee security software that just about anyone with a PC has already installed on their computers. McAfee is one of the first people ever to develop both an anti-virus software, and a virus scanner. Three-month-old baby Joey Powling has captured the collective heart of the Internet, and has been dubbed 'Ridiculously Good-looking Surgery Baby'. A few days after undergoing major heart surgery due to being diagnosed with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, the family snapped a picture of the little guy, all smiles, and then uploaded it to Reddit. From there, an Internet star was born. "I'm moving to Australia, because their president is Christian and actually supports what he says" Tweeted Kristen Neel, in her now famous tweet. And the backlash that the anti-Obama teen faced because of that comment has finally caused her to disable her Twitter account. It was not because the comments she received were threatening, it was because they were merely pointing out what a twit she is. The new Facebook "Profiles for Couples" movement is quietly growing on Facebook. If you feel that your shared Snuggie or email address does not make you and your significant other enough of an amorphous couple blob, never fear, there is a group of co-dependant couples aiming to create shared Facebook pages. Because nothing says "healthy relationship" quite as much as a lack of personal identity. We've heard of crowdsourcing medical diagnostics before, and it seems that the users of Reddit may be the new collective Web MD of the Internet. The friend of a Reddit user was surprised to see the pregnancy test he jokingly took come back positive. After finding an old pregnancy test in his medicine cabinet, left behind by an ex-girlfriend, he decided to pee on it. If you received an email from Twitter prompting you to change your password due to a possible hack, you're not alone. It was a mistake from Twitter, who has issued a statement explaining what happened. William Shatner lovers rejoice: you can now carry the Shat in your pocket at all times, via the new iPhone app Shatoetry. If you want to hear the sultry velvet vocal stylings of Captain Kirk himself, you can now whip out your phone and make him say whatever you want, however you want. Did you know that you can change the name that Siri calls you? The name Siri uses for you can be anything you want, whether your nickname, or "Overlord of this Phone," Siri will use it when she addresses you. News broke that Google's Help section had a new, discreet addition: the announcement of the Google Wallet Card. The site slyly kept the announcement subtle, but it certainly did not take long to be noticed. Google says that devices that are running Android 2.3.3 will soon be able to use an actual payment card with the Google Wallet app. Ann Coulter is drawing ire after publicly tweeting the word "retard," in reference to Barack Obama. When Coulter not only used the word publicly, but then staunchly refused to apologize for it, the community fired back in outrage, calling her remarks careless and offensive. There is no doubt that Staten Island is one of the areas that Superstorm Sandy hit the hardest. Stories of heartbreak and heroism are trickling out, leaving those who fared better in the super storm coming up with ways to help. Donald Trump has yet again managed to create controversy just by opening his mouth, or rather, updating his Twitter account. This time he got his behind handed to him by Chrysler Veep Ralph Gilles for perpetuating false claims stated by Romney, when Giles told Trum - very publicly - that he was, and we qoute, "full of shit." Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called off the New York City Marathon after a growing backlash mounted on the marathon's Facebook page. Now he is getting new backlash from the marathon runners who either think it could have at least been called off sooner, or should just go ahead regardless. For the latter, it is only causing more growing tension from those who think the out-of-towners are being insensitive. For those of you who are fed up with Siri's lack of understanding you when ask to do a search, then the Google Voice Search app may be just what you need. When you ask Google Voice Search where the nearest taco shops around you are, unlike Siri, which will likely come back with a list of the nearest tackle shops, the Google Voice Search app will deliver your request with consistent precision. Apple has reportedly ousted iOS chief Scott Forstall for refusing to sign the apology letter released after the iOS Maps mess. The announcement of his departure came as a shock to not only the public, but even to several Apple insiders, who were informed of Forstall's departure mere minutes prior to the official press release. If you walk into a Target store and see someone from the Geek Squad hanging out, don't worry, you didn't inadvertently walk into Best Buy. Chances are you've walked into one of the Target locations that has their very own Geek Squad. A joint venture between Best Buy and Target, the new program will put Geek Squad agents in 29 Target stores, to start, with the first one wave concentrating heavily in the Denver, Colorado area. It is no secret that Facebook harvests the personal information of its users in order to sell it to advertisers. From allowing advertisers, to allowing marketers to match your phone number and email address to your Facebook profile and allowing Facebook to follow you around from site to site, Facebook has happily turned a profit to the detriment of their users' privacy. Nissen tech lead Shinichi Yokote outlined how they use a tool called "True Teller," which takes all of the data mined from Facebook to turn it into the data that would be useful for Nissen's personalized targeting. With Hurricane Sandy having battered the East Coast and Eastern Seaboard, and she has left several websites, such as gawker, gizmodo, jezebel, jalopnik and kotaku, offline as servers are flooded with sea water, and other related problems combine to knock Internet service and sites offline. If you ever wanted to match the face to a name you just learned, or if you find yourself kicking yourself over missing a fabulous photo opportunity, then the tiny little Memoto clip-on camera may be just the device for you. Still in its concept phase, the device is promising to hold pubic interest, having already raised $245,000 on Kickstarter, far surpassing their goal of $50,000. Google is going beyond Google Street View and rolling out the backpack cam operated Google Street View Trekker, a wilderness cam that offers a wilderness view of all the corners of the world that Google Street View has previously left untouched, namely woods views and forest views. The backpack cams can be carried by hikers and campers who are on foot and already headed to spots where cars and planes cannot easily go and Google is starting with the Grand Canyon. Yesterday we featured an article on the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) contest challenging anyone from the public to come up with a way to beat spam phone calls. The reason for expanding their efforts, says the FTC, is because complaints about spam phone calls, or, "robocalls," more than doubled in April of 2012, from their last high in October 2010 . So what should we do to avoid these nuisance calls until our unknown hero steps forward with the answer? If you've ever felt that your iPhone experience would be enhanced if you could only smell scents that go along with your browsing experience, then the Chef Perf iPhone app may be right up your alley. The app, developed by Japanese company Chaku Perfume, smells via an attached scent delivery device that contains an atomizer, also being referred to as a "smell tank." The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responding to what they say is a huge surge in automated phone calls, or, "robocalls," by offering a cash reward and prizes to the person, or group of people, who can thwart these calls in the "FTC Robocall Challenge." According to the FTC, complaints about robocalls skyrocketed to a high of 212,000 this past April, compared to the last high of 65,000 complaints in October of 2010. Mitt Romney's "Binders full of women" comment is continuing to make waves as the Avery Durable View Binder on Amazon.com is gaining reviews, not so much for their organizing ability, but for their ability to keep women. Many are not aware that smoothie experts Jamba Juice have a secret underground menu, in addition to their regular Jamba Juice menu in stores. The secret menu contains flavors like Fruity Pebbles, White Gummi Bear, Butterfinger, Blue Gummy Bear and even a Screaming Orgasm. Uber, the popular iPhone app that allows you to schedule a private car or taxi through your mobile device, is closing the doors on its Uber NYC taxi service, just a month after opening it to beta. Citing too much ride demand for not enough taxi supply, the app makers said that they are hoping they will have better luck in the Big Apple in the coming year. Google is yet again finding themselves in hot water as the Federal Trade Commission is poised to slap them with an antitrust lawsuit. The FTC staff recommendation for the antitrust lawsuit is not unexpected given the swift investigations of Google by California, New York, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. On top of the U.S. investigation, there is also an antitrust investigation of Google taking place in Europe. This weekend Amazon sent an alert to all of their Kindle customers, informing them of a recent antitrust lawsuit settlement over ebook pricing (some people are calling this a 'class action' lawsuit, but it was actually an antitrust suit filed by the government). The settlement is expected to be approved sometime in February 2013, at which time those who have purchased Kindle books can expect to see an estimated credit of $0.30 to $1.32 per each eligible Kindle book that they purchased. Perhaps iOS 6's Mapplegate was simply meant to be a great distraction from the fact that Apple is now covertly tracking users through IFA (or IDFA) tracking technology with the iOS 6 update. While Apple had disabled the tracking of iPhone users by advertisers by disallowing app developers from using the data from Apple devices through the unique serial number permanently assigned to each device, it seems that iOS 6 has brought tracking back. Google is again blaming technical glitches for violating privacy policies and collecting personal data, this time from those using Apple's Safari web browser. Google has agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $22.5 million - the largest amount that the FTC has ever fined - because they sneakily undermined the privacy settings of millions of Safari users by using computer code to trick Safari into granting Google access to user activity through cookies. The new iPhone and Android app, "Treater" makes it easier than ever to send a little gift of love or appreciation to a friend or coworker. With Treater, you can send various treats to friends, loved ones and co-workers with a few taps on the screen of your mobile device. Today Apple announced their new iPod lineup full of upgrades and the usual array of bright bubblegum colors. The iPod Touch is revised with the same anodized aluminum that is used in the MacBook. The colors come in black, silver, turquoise, neon green and pink. This is the lightest iPod Touch to date, and comes with a detachable wrist loop as an easy way to keep your iPod Touch close, without having to actually carry it. Australian resident Kathy Divine has taken to social media network Facebook for a rather unique purpose: to find a diagnosis for a medical condition that has eluded a diagnosis from doctors. Divine is offering a bounty on her illness: $500AU to anyone who can successfully diagnose her condition. Undergraduate students of California's public college and university system will now be able to access many of their textbooks for free, online. Governor Jerry Brown signed senate bills 1052 and 1053 into law, which will establish online libraries that contain digital textbooks for the 50 most commonly taken lower-division courses. An app as an essay, that is what is behind Robin Sloane's, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hours Bookstore, app, Fish: a Tap Essay. It doesn't do anything like allow you to play games or find friends. It is simply an essay with some thoughts on the Internet, and the way that we treat and view online content. Facebook has found yet another way to monetize their product users. Their Promoted Posts feature, coming to the U.S. allows users to butt their way to the front of the line, gaining posts that they feel are important more visibility in their friends' news feeds, for a $7 per post fee. The Obama administration is proposing to strengthen child privacy laws, and Internet giants Facebook, Twitter and Google are not happy. According to the three websites, the proposed law changes will interfere with their user's ability to tweet, share information on the Web, and to "like" Facebook posts. They also say that these changes hamper free speech. Google Street View is back for iOS 6 users. It seems that Google is the knight in shining armor to the whole Mapplegate fiasco that has left scores of iOS 6 users frustrated with the quality of Apple maps. The victory is small, but at this point, iOS 6 users will take any scrap thrown their way. College professor Timothy Messer-Kruse didn't think that something as small as making a tiny edit a Wikipedia page would spark national headlines, but it has. After finding proof that a historical event, the Haymarket Square riot, did not quite happen the way historians have long believed, Messer-Kruse decided to update the Wikipedia page of the event to reflect his findings. What he found was that it was going to be an uphill battle to make that change. Want to watch the Colorado presidential debate online? We have you covered! Fans of the performance of Michael Jacksons's Thriller by the inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Phillipines will be delighted to hear that their favorite dancers are back. Dancing to the song "Gangnam Style," by Internet sensation and Korean rapper, Psy, 1,000 inmates performed for a wildly cheering audience. California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill on Sunday that would have required a search warrant in order to obtain location-based personal information obtained through cell towers from mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets, and also GPS systems. The veto came with the message that Brown felt that information based on a user's location is important to the processes needed by law enforcement. The tech world has been abuzz over rumors that Apple is gearing up to release the tiny mini iPad, so far having been dubbed the "iPad Mini." Speculations based on various "unnamed insiders" and forecasts from technology experts have offered some insight into what we can expect. It appears that Justin Bieber does not have much of a sense of humor, or at least his lawyers don't. A popular app, Joustin Beaver, has prompted Bieber's camp to send a cease-and-desist letter to app maker RC3, also requesting financial records pertaining to any revenue collected from the 99 cent app. Bots generate at least 10% of all online traffic, according to data released today by Solve Media, a company that provides security authentication solutions through CAPTCHA-based advertising technology. Solve Media indicates that they have seen a 400% increase in what they term 'aberrant' traffic across web-based services such as commenting, voting, registration, contact and commenting. If only the real presidential election came with a free cup of 7-Eleven coffee, but the 7-Election coffee cup election campaign promises to be just as accurate as it has been for the last three presidential elections. And if you hit up your local 7-Eleven between 6-10 a.m. today, National Coffee Day, 7-Eleven you can cast your vote for free with large coffees, cappuccinos, lattes, or tea, in one of their two new custom coffee cups, and then check how your candidate is doing over at the 7-Election website. Facebook unveiled their new online commerce plan, Facebook Gifts, and many hope that this will help the company's slumping advertising revenue. Facebook introduced the new feature today, and it gives users the option to send gifts from 100 different merchants with which Facebook has partnered, including Starbucks, 1-800-Flowers, and Magnolia Bakery. To iPhone 5, or not to iPhone 5? That is the question. User complaints and problems with the iPhone 5 seem to be growing daily. While no phone release comes without grumblings, Apple's latest phone release seems to be rife with problems that has users less than pleased. Especially those who had to pay full price. With the news that California has become the second state, after Nevada, to permit self-driven cars (also known as 'self-driving cars', 'robotic cars' or 'robot cars'), many are waiting in anticipation for other states to follow suit. With Google co-founder Sergey Brin estimating that driverless cars are going to be a reality for the public within five years, many car and tech enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the day that they can get their hands on one and start driving it, or rather, being driven by it. On Tuesday California Governor Jerry Brown passed Senate Bill 1298, legalizing robot-controlled cars, or self-driving cars (also known as 'self-driven cars', 'robotic cars' or 'robot cars'), with high praise from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who says that driverless cars will be a reality within 5 years. The Iranian government has blocked Gmail and Google until further notice. In an announcement, that included sending a notice to citizens via text message, government officials stated that the services would be filtered, and indeed it appears that, while Google is accessible, it doesn't actually work for searching purposes. Justin Timberlake is again bringing sexy back, this time to Myspace. Unveiling the new Myspace on Monday, Justin Timberlake and his two fellow investors, Chris and Tim Vanderhook, premiered a video presentation to company employees. The new design is sleek, graphically pleasing, is easy to use, imports Facebook contacts, and brings together users and their favorite artists. As Tim Vanderhook put it, “In a single sentence, it’s a social network for the creative community to connect to their fans." It appears that rumors saying that Facebook has made private messages of millions of users' public is just that - a rumor. The alleged privacy issue began with reports from the French newspaper Metro, and it spread like wildfire from there, and it wasn't long before Facebook and the Twitter-sphere were abuzz with the rumor. Mapplegate is taking over the Internet world. Apple released their iOS 6 two days ago with one change in particular that has people buzzing - their new Maps app. Many are comparing this to Apple's infamous 2010 "Antennagate," when Apple released an iPhone with shoddy antennas, prompting a hasty PR cleanup job by then-CEO Steve Jobs. From the BlackBerry outage, to Yahoo giving it the boot, BlackBerry makers Research in Motion (RIM) have not been having the best week, and many are concluding that it is the beginning of the end for the beleaguered company. Whether it is the end, or just a series of unfortunate events, there is no doubt that they're are struggling fiercely to stay afloat amidst market-dominating Apple, and their runner-up, the Android market. Apple's iPhone 5 has been released with mixed reviews. Many people are outraged at the fact that Apple has released a new cord, which will force most to buy adapters at around $30 a pop, just to make their new phone compatible with their accessories. And according to senior analysts from ABI research, Apple stands to make roughly $40 million in revenue from the adapters alone in the next fiscal quarter. Over the next year, the adapters will make Apple a minimum of $100 million in revenue. And despite consumers largely being outraged at this switch, and underwhelmed with the latest iPhone, many will still devotedly follow Apple because they are devout fans. First it was Go Daddy going down for the count due to a hacker, now it seems that the granddaddy registrar of them all - Network Solutions (NetSol) - has just 'lost' countless customer domains, when they accidentally somehow deactivated those domains in the wee hours of the morning. As of this writing, nearly 12 hours later, these lost domains are still down. Mother Jones has released the entire full recording of Mitt Romney speaking at a May 17th fundraiser in Boca Raton, Florida. Since the initial snippets were released Romney has remarked that he wanted the full video to be released so that the quotes from the initial clips could be heard in full context. Mother Jones was apparently happy to oblige, and NBC news released the full transcript of the full video. Here it is. Mother Jones has released Internet video that some are saying are pretty damning for the Romney campaign. Between insulting 47% of Americans as being lazy, entitled victims living off the government, and saying that he thinks that Palestinians aren't interested in peace and so Romney himself is not that concerned about a middle east peace process, all in his own voice, on video, it's hard to see how he can recover from this. Is this the sign of a new era of Internet video having the power to change entire presidential campaigns? (See the full video below!) Twitter has been ordered to turn over the deleted tweets of Occupy Wall Street protestor, Malcolm Harris, after he was charged with disorderly conduct during an Occupy protest. In a controversial move, presiding Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. demanded that Twitter turn over Harris' records for the period of time during the incident because, Sciarrino believes, there are tweets that could be relevant to the case. Many consumers rely heavily on the reviews of others before making purchase decisions. Whether Amazon, Yelp, Trip Advisor or Expedia, consumer reviews tend to heavily influence all types of purchase decisions, from toasters to vacations. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was one of several Americans killed during attacks on the US embassy in Libya, after protesters and armed men stormed the embassy. It appears that the Internet, namely Twitter and online statements, may have been a large factor in all of this. A string of Internet events appear to have led up to the disruption, which killed a total of four Americans, including the Ambassador. Apple unveiled the new iPhone 5 and their new connector cable, Lightening. What Apple today called “the biggest things to happen for iPhone since iCloud,” eager Apple fans are calling, “meh.” Apple unveiled the official iPhone 5, which does not appear to be much different from the iPhone 4S. The phone was introduced as being, “designed and built to an exacting level of standard unlike anything we, or anyone in our industry, have made before." Except the last iPhone, apparently. Toys R Us is throwing their hat, or rather tablet, into the ring by introducing the Tabeo. The Tabeo is a tablet made just for children, and is proving that it might be a worthy adversary for the new kid-friendly Kindle Fire HD. Streaming radio service, Pandora, may soon be regretting opening its music box. Apple is apparently sticking with what should be their official mantra, "anything you can do, I can do better," after reports began to leak that they are working on a streaming radio option of their own. With this one announcement, Pandora shares went into a tailspin, plunging 19%. With one simple tweet, "#tangodown godaddy.com…Hello everyone who wanna me to put 99% of the global Internet in #tangodown?" one lone hacker, with the Twitter handle, "AnonymousOwn3r," took down internet giant GoDaddy.com, causing an outage to the GoDaddy site, 1000s, if not millions, of sites that have GoDaddy-hosted sites, and their DNS, GoDaddy hosted e-mail accounts, and GoDaddy phone service. #tangodown is taken from a military term, meaning a target was successfully attacked. Hackers also use it when it means that a website has been taken offline. The new Kindle Fire HD has broken the mold by being the only tablet to finally offer parental controls over what their kids access. While parents go to great lengths to control their child's TV and PC usage, the tablets have managed to slip by the radar, allowing children unhindered access to the very same things that parents have kept them from on other devices. And at only $199, this kid-friendly tablet has quite an attractive pricetag. Google has made every geek heart sing with the unveiling of today's Google Doodle: an homage to the 46th anniversary of the original Star Trek series. Google has outdone themselves by taking users through a little vignette, quickly re-enacting the well known scene from the "Arena" episode. We can all probably agree that one of the most frustrating things about belonging to so many social networks is managing all of them. Different passwords, profile pictures, and account and privacy settings can be a lot to keep up with in your regular day. Enter BlissControl.com, the website that now allows you to manage the settings on all of your social media accounts with the click of a button. Well, Facebook has finally done it, they've found a way to allow unscrupulous marketers to spam your Facebook account. Facebook will allow advertisers to target users based on personal information such as phone numbers, user IDs, and email addresses. In a confirmation to PCMag.com, Facebook relayed their new marketing program which will begin next week, targeting ads to their "existing customers." Be prepared for a series of virtual hand slaps if your ISP is saying that you downloaded copyrighted or infringing material or files. A "graduated response" program, aimed at cutting down on illegally downloaded files, was rolled out at the beginning of July and has drawn widespread criticism for both its intent, and execution. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) CEO, Cary Sherman, is at the helm of a new initiative that aims to punish those accused of illegal downloading. A Chinese American Sun Kaisens employee, an ex employee of Motorola, has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for stealing trade secrets from Motorola, including their IDEN technology, and attempting to smuggle them to a Chinese technology company in China. Hanjuan Jin, a 41 year old female employee, was a software engineer with Motorola for nine years. During sentencing, U.S. District Judge, Ruben Castillo, found that Jin made a "purposeful raid to steal technology." In addition to being charged with three counts of stealing trade secrets, Jin was also charged with three counts of economic espionage. Death by CAPTCHA is a company that has figured out a way to bypass security CAPTCHAs by offering their technology to solve CAPTCHA phrases. While this may sound like celebratory news for those who are tired of face-palming every time they try to read the twisted words provided by websites looking to make things secure for their users, in reality, it is a gateway to spam. If you liked Old Spice guy Isaiah Mustafa and his "I'm on a horse" commercial (and hey, who didn't?), you may like the new interactive video from Old Spice in which you get to make music with new Old Spice guy Terry Crews. A pen for women must mean that it has lipstick on one end, right? BIC pens is the latest group to find themselves in hot water with women. Did they make politically incorrect commentary on the anatomy and physiology of women? No. Did they donate $100 million to the "I hate women for life" campaign? No. What they did make, though, is a pen. A lady pen, to be specific, and it has the women of Amazon.com fuming. The Ad Hawk App has made a timely and welcome appearance. After all, it's that time of year when political ads are on just about every TV and radio in America and Adhawk (there is both Ad Hawk for iPhone and Ad Hawk for Android) has answered our political prayers. Ok, ok, probably not the exact political prayers you had, but the app, a sort of Shazam for political ads, certainly helps decipher these ads that are playing everywhere. And not just your cheerful, "Vote for me, I'm great" ads, but those nasty, mud-slinging political attack ads. Are smart meters (or as some call them "smartmeters") the next great energy saver, or are they a privacy risk for someone hacking your wifi, Internet, or electricity usage data? Maybe both. Some are calling them a great way to save energy and money on our monthly energy bills, some are saying they are a sign that big brother is tightening his grasp, but either way, smart meters are stirring up some serious controversy. From public meetings in Vermont, to gun-toting homeowners chasing utility company workers who are aiming to install smart meters off their property, these tiny little devices have not arrived quietly. If you have been Facebooking on behalf of your pampered pooch via his own Facebook profile, or have been playing it safe with a separate Facebook profile for coworkers only, then you may want to get as much use out of it as possible before it is deleted. It appears that Facebook is going to disable the over 83 million fake Facebook profiles that are currently inflating their numbers. If Microsoft wanted to play it safe when designing their new logo, they pulled it off flawlessly. While a few are calling the new logo "great," and a few are calling it "awful," it seems the overwhelming response is "meh." The verdict is in: Samsung must pay Apple $1.5 billion for smartphone patent infringement. The lawsuit, filed by Apple Inc. last year, accused Samsung of copying the design of iPhones and iPads. Jurors on Friday produced a 20-page verdict, agreeing with Apple's assertion that Samsung's smartphones copied the design of the Apple iPhone, in both design and features. Apple lawyers produced pictures of the Samsung smartphones both before and after the introduction of the iPhone. T-Mobile USA is bending over backwards to keep their dwindling customer-base by offering a new unlimited data plan. The new plan will roll out in September and is hoped to rival their competitors, who have started putting a cap on data use. T-Mobile's new plan will run users between $70-90 per month, depending on which smart phone you choose, and will allow unlimited voice, text and Internet usage. Nothing in life is free, and with Walmart's latest iTunes gift card deal - $100 of iTunes credit for $80 - that is especially true. Sure you receive $20 of "free" turns through this deal, but it's going to cost you - your personal information. Investors are quickly bailing as Groupon experienced a new closing low on Friday, with shares down 5% at $4.75. Their stock-price declined even more last week after their second-quarter results reflected a decline in customer growth and revenue. With the announcement that they are introducing, "expecting a baby," as a life event option for parents-to-be, Facebook is once again proving that they have mastered the art of capitalizing on their users' lives. And in true Facebook fashion, they claim that, no, this is just another thoughtful tool for excited expectant parents to share their overwhelming joy with their loved ones...but that perhaps they will consider using it for advertising at a later date. Popular social media website, Pinterest, has announced that they have launched an app for both Android and iPad. If the scores of Pinterest users who liken it to "online crack" didn't have enough access to it, they do now. Additionally, version 2.0 of the iPhone app is available for download in iTunes, offering a new format and some bug fixes. Paying for your morning latte just got easier with the new Pay with Square app, which allows users to pay for purchases without swiping their credit card. Instead, users can pay for their purchases directly with their Android or iPhone. The app can be downloaded directly from the Apple App Store or Google Play. Users must be running at least iOS 4.1 or Android 2.2 in order to use the app. Music app Songza is quickly proving itself to be a worthy opponent of Pandora. This free music app is available on Android, iPhone, and Kindle Fire, and plays music based on what seems an endless bank of playlists. Would you pay to belong to an ad-free social network? Dalton Caldwell, mastermind behind App.net, akin to an ad-free Facebook or ad-free Twitter, thinks you just might. While he doesn't presume that App.net will score the huge user-base of Twitter or Facebook, he does think that he will amass enough of a following that the $50 per person annual fee, coupled with the an ad-free and developer-friendly platform, will build a sustainable network that instills trust among both users and developers. DC resident, Seth Horvitz, had quite a surprise when he got the Amazon.com package for which he had been waiting. It's not every day that you open your door to find a military-grade semiautomatic rifle sitting there, but that is exactly what happened when musician Horvitz retrieved the package that UPS left for him. Gone are the days when paying through the nose is the only option for students who need textbooks, now students can rent textbooks from Amazon.com. While renting textbooks is not a new idea, the ability to do so through Amazon offers an attractive, easy, and simple textbook rental option, especially since so many students already have Amazon accounts. If you want insanely cheap flights while still being able to book flights online, you can now get cheap flight deals, and compare flights, through Google flights. And these are not cheapo flights from some sort of questionable airline that you have never heard of, these are discounted flights from well known airlines such as US Airways, United, JetBlue and Delta. While Dropbox file-sharing service is intended to be a mostly consumer-based product, many companies use it as a means to share files between employees. The problem with using cloud-based services, such as Dropbox, for business purposes is that businesses don't have proper controls over the data stored in the cloud. This was driven home this week when Dropbox announced that an employee's password was stolen and the hackers made off with some sensitive information, including user email addresses which led to the spamming of Dropbox's European user-base. It is being hailed the "Instagram of Video" and, much like Instagram, has taken off like wildfire in the mobile and social media communities. Socialcam, a free video-sharing app, is quickly becoming a worthy adversary for YouTube on account of the fact that it is strictly a mobile app, and is tailored to be such. Many complain that uploading videos to YouTube from their phones is kind of a pain and being able to do so is a mere side product of YouTube's focus on a computer-based user experience. Amazon made an exciting announcement today that users can now watch Amazon Prime Instant Video on the iPad. It appears that Amazon is slowly acknowledging that a large portion of its Prime member base has, and is loyal to, an iPad. With many Prime members frustrated that the free book lending benefit of a Prime membership only works on an actual Kindle device, Amazon seems to finally have learned to play nice with their Kindle's adversary with today's announcement that Amazon Instant Video is now able to be used on the iPad. Skype has found themselves in a privacy PR nightmare as reports are slowly coming out that the online voice and video chat company may be cooperating with governing authorities to make private conversations more accessible. As those with privacy concerns fear that yet another communications company is selling out user privacy, Skype is quick to deny that anything is changing. They do acknowledge that they have made technical upgrades to the Skype systems, but are quick to assert that these upgrades have nothing to do with helping police spy on those who are possibly using Skype to discuss illegal activity. A Craigslist job posting experiment by recent grad, Eric Auld, highlighted just how dire the job market is for many. For those who are freshly out of school, such as Master's graduate Auld, finding a job should be a fun prospect, full of possibilities of the dream career after the fruits of one's academic labors. The higher one's education, the better it would seem their chances of getting their foot in the door with the desired employer and climbing that corporate ladder. The massive NBCFail heard around the world has now turned into the massive #NBCFail on Twitter. If we were to be keeping track of NBC's colossal Olympic coverage failures, it would look like this: 1) NBC assumed that Americans don't relate to mourning London's 7/7 terrorist attack victims and chose to not air the victim tribute section of the opening ceremonies, 2) NBC is airing Olympic games results before they actually air the games, 3) NBC has ensured that anyone with a US-based IP address cannot access live Olympic event coverage through other online venues, such as the BBC. While we love Apple and Apple products, they surprised many iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users by pulling popular app, Clueful, from the app store. In a move that seems suspiciously shrouded in mystery, Apple pulled the app under the same set of rules that the app was approved, prompting Clueful development company, Bitfender, to immediately begin working on redeveloping the app so that it could be re-approved. YouTube now strongly encourages real names before leaving a comment. As the subject of cyber-bullying continues to be at the forefront of everyone's mind, theories have been swirling that people are more emboldened to make inflammatory comments online because they can hide behind anonymity. Now YouTube is proposing to counteract that by encouraging users to use their real names when leaving comments on YouTube videos. Yes, Twitter is down again for some users. Twitter has acknowledged this and are looking into the problem to fix the issue as soon as possible. A posting on a Twitter website said: "Users may be experiencing issues accessing Twitter. Our engineers are currently working to resolve the issue." There are few things as comforting to hear as, "Our nuclear program has been compromised again" from an Iranian nuclear facility, but it appears that someone behind a cyber attack, or possibly some snickering 12 year old boys in their parent's basement, have unleashed a cyberattack on Iran's Atomic Energy Organization; hard rock-style. That's right, the latest Iranian nuclear cyberattack has the nuclear physicists shaking all night long to AC/DC rock music; "Thunderstruck" to be exact. Facebook is certainly no stranger to defending its practices, especially when those practices threaten the privacy of their users. Now they are finding themselves, yet again, in a position to have to do so. Facebook employees had to defend the social media giant's facial recognition technology, which is used to help users tag people in their online Facebook photos. While Facebook maintains that its purpose is to provide a better consumer experience, some feel that it raises privacy issues. The latest survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that Facebook is at an all-time low in customer satisfaction, and that Google+ rated higher in customer satisfaction. In fact, Facebook’s rating was so low that it was it was among the five lowest-scoring companies in the entire social media category. And that is out of over 230 companies surveyed. It’s one of those things that you never think will happen to you. You’re going along in life, hunky-dory, then boom! There are fraudulent charges on your credit card, or an unknown credit card shows up on your credit report, or you get a call from a collection agency demanding payment on an account that you never even knew existed. Unfortunately, credit fraud and identity theft protection are not one of those things that you think about until it is too late. And if the person who stole your identity is a family member, such as your mother, father, sibling or even your own child, you also have an additional set of special circumstances to deal with. Yahoo surprised the world by announcing that they have hired Google executive - and Google CEO Larry Page's ex - Marissa Mayer, making her Yahoo’s 5th CEO in as many years. This move puts Mayer, 37, among the tech business female elite, with the likes of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this move is Mayer's young age and lack of experience for such a big undertaking. Next time you use that iPad or iPhone, give a silent thanks to In-Q-Tel (pronounced "in q tel" or "incutel"), the CIA-run venture capital fund that has been integral in many technologies commonly used today, such as the touch screen. In q tel, also responsible for investing in what was the beginnings of the technology that became Google Earth, began in the late 90s and was born out of the CIA’s need to manage their huge mountain of data. Google has found themselves in hot water over privacy issues yet again. As we previously reported, it was discovered that the Google Street View vehicles were collecting data illegally, while taking street pictures in the US, Australia and Europe. In fact, they were doing it for three years, between 2007 and 2010, by harvesting personal data through open wifi routers as the Street View car drove by. This data included entire emails, site visit history, passwords, and other private information that the average citizen probably does not want floating around. Isn't it frustrating when you receive an SMS text message and it turns out to be SMS spam? Don't you wish that you could report those spammers to your wireless carrier? Well, you can! Whether you want to report text spam to ATT, T-Mobile, Verizon, or Sprint - or any other North American carrier, it's as simple as forwarding it right from your phone. Here's how to do it. Have you checked your Facebook email lately? Us neither, since we never started using it. Well it appears that Facebook is determined to thrust Facebook email into the spotlight, as today they replaced your public primary email address with your new Facebook email address. Ever leave a comment on Facebook, only to realize that you embarrassingly misspelled a word, or perhaps the comment sounded a bit more harsh in written form than was intended? Sure, you could delete it and write it again, but how much easier would it be to just edit that comment? Well, Facebook has a fix for that: all you have to do is click an icon and the comment will be opened for you (and just you as the commenter) to edit. In a move that is not unheard of, but completely reprehensible, defeated Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is selling off his campaign’s donor and activist email list as the campaign attempts to crawl out of their $4 million hole of debt. And perhaps "slithering" is a better word as Newt is slapping his donors right in the face by not just selling their email addresses to other political campaigns, but to any unscrupulous company with equally slippery ethics. Gmail appears to be down, world-wide, for many users. We are not clear as to what the specific issues are at this point in time, but it does appear that this outage is affecting thousands, if not millions, of Gmail users. Users who are affected are receiving the same error, “Temporary Error (500) We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes.” First reports of outages began appearing at approximately 11:30EST. Much of the technology world was stunned to learn that an antitrust lawsuit against technology giant, Apple Inc, and several book publishers, was filed by the US. Government Wednesday morning. The lawsuit charges that Apple and the named publishers conspired to raise the retail prices of electronic-books in order to shun the competition, namely Amazon.com, who many say has monopolized the e-book industry. If you are a part of virtually any social network: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and even Pinterest, you have likely seen either, “Joseph Kony 2012” or, “Let’s Make Joseph Kony Famous” meme’s cropping up everywhere. Who is Joseph Kony and why is everyone trying to make him so relevant? With Facebook’s upcoming $5 billion dollar IPO, they must figure that they can do anything they want (like they didn't before?). Of course, now that they will have stockholders they are going to have to focus even more on earning money, more than anything else, and of course they do that on the backs of their users. Reports are coming out that there is a new trend amongst Saudi women looking to rebel, where they post pictures of various parts of their bodies to Facebook. While Americans may be used to the "Girls Gone Wild" brazenness of young women in in the US, the pictures posted by Saudi women are much more tame by American standards, but some Saudi people are extremely unhappy with what is displayed in the pictures. Twitter made a surprising announcement that has the social media world buzzing. They announced that they would be censoring Tweets in certain countries, when requested to do so by officials in the specific country. With the launch of textbooks for the iPad, Apple Inc. has set in motion the potential for students to say “so long” to the days of lugging around heavy book bags. The textbook initiative was announced last Thursday, January 19th, and begins with a small selection of standard high school books.
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A Division of ISIPP Publishing Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - Editor
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