Hasta La Gadget!

Emojis look cute in your inbox and chat windows, but they reveal nothing about the true nature of the person on the other end. Of course, you can probably vouch for people you actually know.

But what about strangers who chat you up because they find your avatar pretty or because they find your username clever? You might know better than to fall for such lines and assume that you’re chatting with a nice person because of the plethora of smiling and winking emojis he’s sending your way – but kids don’t. That can easily make them susceptible to online predators who prey on the young and innocent.

With this in mind, international non-profit Innocence en Danger commissioned ad agency Rosapark to create a series of images using creepy, real-life emoticons to raise awareness on these dangers kid can encounter online.

The posters and gargantuan emoji-fied faces are beyond creepy. Hopefully, the campaign will encourage more parents to pay attention to what their kids are doing online.

[via Laughing Squid]

We have yet to arrive in the age of SkyNet, which is a good thing when you think about it, but chances are we might very well be on the way there already. We have seen how the military, whether in the sky, on the ground or under the water have begun to make use of robots for their operations in the battle to overcome the enemy. Jody Williams, from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, has mentioned to the BBC that such weapons of mass destruction (meaning, killer robots) that while do not exist at the moment, can be regarded as “repulsive” when the day eventually arrives.

Hence, in the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, they are currently pushing for a pre-emptive ban so that it will be able to halt the production of weapons that are capable of attacking targets without the need for any human intervention. Of course, there will be some scientists who are on the side that current laws will be able to do enough to regulate their use assuming near-autonomous killer robots one day end up as a reality. The UK government has reassured folks that they do not have any plans to develop such technology. Do you think an international ban as a pre-emptive strike might be the solution to this potentially explosive situation?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Cyro Jellyfish Robot, CHIMP Robot: Move Like A Tank, Act Like A Primate,

Remember when the German government was thinking about making search engines either remove news excerpts from results, or pay royalties for including them? Well, these changes could soon be enforced, and Google has launched the “Defend Your Net” initiative to urge the German people to stop that happening. On the campaign’s pages, the search giant voices its opinions on what such a decision would do: harm the German media and, by extension, the country’s economy. It also points out that its news service is ad-free, publishers can opt out of listings, and that some German outlets receive roughly half their traffic from Google searches. Anyone who wants to receive information on the bill’s progress can register for email updates, and a tool is available to find the contact details of your local official if you’re feeling proactive. Need firing up? Then check out Google’s motivational video below.

Continue reading Google’s ‘Defend your Net’ campaign asks Germans to resist copyright changes

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Google Defend Your Net campaign (German)

When you head to the polls this November you’re supposed to vote for who you think will best lead the country for the next four years. But that’s not really what happens. Deep down everyone who steps into that voting booth knows that they could do a far better job as President of the United States of America. More »

Sony isn’t known for rolling out the red carpet when one of its phones arrives Stateside, although that’s partly because US carrier-endorsed versions are few and far between. It clearly sees the Xperia Ion as worth the five-star treatment it’s giving the rest of the 2012 Xperia line: the company is starting a rare TV ad campaign to pitch its 720p wunderkind to an American audience that might not have noticed the Ericsson badge going away. As you’d expect, the pseudo single-take spot ends up being as much a vehicle for pushing other Sony projects as it does for the Android phone in question; we hope you don’t mind getting a brand overdose. With that in mind, there’s more action and explosions per square capita than in any other smartphone ad in recent memory, so if you’re upset that other smartphone ads are just too… peaceful, click Play and get your fill of danger.

Sony kicks off an Xperia Ion TV ad campaign for the US, meets your daily explosion quota (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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