Mar 04

Want to Buy 10 Mil Facebook Shares?

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili
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Looking for the perfect belated Valentine’s Day gift? How about one-half of one percent of the most popular social network in the world? Word is that one of Facebook’s co-founders is looking to sell off a piece of their holdings–10 million shares, which, at $30 a pop, comes out to around 300 million.

So, who is this mystery founder? The NY Post, which first reported the rumor, has narrowed it down to four possibilities: Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz or Eduardo Saverin–you know, the four people who co-founded Facebook. 
No word on why any of the four might be selling a stake in the site, but investors are apparently already lining up to buy their small piece of the Internet juggernaut. 
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Mar 03

iWalletT: The $300 Wallet of the Future

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili
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The thing about really expensive wallets: the people who can buy them tend not to have any trouble filling them. Wallets don’t get much more expensive than this $299 fancy pants model from iWallet. Why so pricey? Well, the thing is designed to do everything imaginable to keep people from stealing your money.

The iWalletT has built-in biometric fingerprint technology, to make sure that no one but you opens it. The wallet itself is built out of Carbon Fiber (fiberglass and polycarbonate models are also available)–which is decidedly more difficult to break into than that leather one you’re currently carrying around.
The wallet also has BlueTooth connectivity (compatible with BlackBerrys and the iPhone)–if your wallet and cell phone separate by more than 15 feet, an alarm will go off. Hopefully it won’t take too many accidental activations before you learn to turn it off before getting home.
Looking at the thing, I’m guessing you probably don’t want to keep it in your back pocket, but that’s the price you pay for security. Well, that and $300.
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Mar 03

Ashton Kutcher Twitter Hack’d

Posted in: hacking, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, twitter
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Actor Ashton Kutcher, probably best know for Dude Where’s My Car and being married to Demi Moore, had his Twitter account hacked while attending the TED 2011 conference in Southern California this week. A hacker channeling the spirit of Gene Shalit logged on to Kutcher’s accounting, tweeting, “Ashton, you’ve been Punk’d. This account is not secure. Dude, where’s my SSL?” to the actor’s 6.3 million followers.

Shortly after, Kutcher’s unprotected read, “P.S. This is for those young protesters around the world who deserve not to have their Facebook & Twitter accounts hacked like this. #SSL” SSL is Secure Sockets Layer–a reference to the lack of security protecting Kutcher’s account.
According to The Daily Mail, the hacker is believed to have used Firesheep to take over Kutcher’s account while the actor was logged into public Wi-Fi. Shortly after the attack, Twitter responded on its official @twitterglobalpr account, writing, “Users can use Twitter via HTTPS: http://t.co/q84H6K3. We’ve long been working on offering HTTPS as a user setting & will share more soon.”

The messages are still present on Kutcher’s account, 13 hours after the attack. 
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Mar 02

The Solowheel: A Segway for People with Great Balance

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Transportation

SoloWheel

If you’ve always wanted a Segway but know you could only afford one wheel, the Solowheel may be the personal transportation device for you. Alternatively, if you’re tired of being seen on your unicycle, pedaling down the street, this gadget has more of a modern twist. Teasing aside, the Solowheel is essentially a single wheel with a gyroscope on-board and two foot pedals on either side of the wheel. Step on, lean forward, and away you go. 
The Solowheel weighs about 20 pounds, and can run for about 2 hours on its 1000-watt rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery. It even incorporates regenerative braking, so when you coast or go downhill, the battery recharges itself to give you a little more distance. Once you get to your destination, just step off of the Solowheel, pick it up, and plug it in to any standard outlet to recharge. After about 45 minutes, you’ll be ready to go again. 
Clearly the Solowheel is aimed at city-dwellers and people who have short, walkable or bike-able commutes to work but who also don’t actually want to walk or ride a bike Pricing and availability haven’t been announced, but you can be sure it won’t be cheap. You can check out a video of the Solowheel in action behind the jump.
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Mar 02

Intel Update Atom Processor

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, netbooks, Today's Chili

 

Intel_AtomProcessorsCarStory.jpgIntel has had a busy 2011, from dealing with a faulty chipset to releasing new products. Now the company is releasing an updated edition of the Atom line chipset used in netbooks. The dual-core chip will still work best for light use, according to Intel.

The new Atom N570 features a single-channel DDR3 controller, 1MB cache, and an integrated graphics controller. Intel upgraded the speed from the last Atom chipset, but you can still expect the system to run slower that most full sized laptops.

ASUS, Samsung, and Lenovo will start shipping out systems based upon this chip in the middle of this month. Intel did not reveal how much the chipset will cost. It appears to be out now for those who wish to upgrade.

Via X Bit Labs

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Mar 02

How Dr. Seuss Invented Nerds

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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Dr. Seuss is the original nerd. Okay, so maybe the guy wasn’t a real doctor (he studied for, but didn’t complete, his doctorate), but he did wear glasses, the occasional bowtie, and graduated from Dartmouth, for what it’s worth. Also, the good quasi-doctor is also credited with actually having invented the term “nerd.”
The term dates back to the 1950 publication of Seuss’s If I Ran the Zoo, which features the typically Seussian “a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too,” all part of Gerald McGrew’s laundry list of species for an imaginary zoo.
A year later, Newsweek offered up its more current slang definition–an apparently popular term in Detroit at the time, used to describe those of the “square” persuasion. 
With this in mind, we at Gearlog would like to wish a happy 107th birthday to one of our most beloved nerds, on a boat, with a goat–wherever he deems appropriate, really. 

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Mar 02

Charlie Sheen: Now Self-Destructing on Twitter

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, twitter, Weird News

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Maybe you haven’t gotten enough Charlie Sheen. Perhaps you were trapped under a rock and had to cut off your own arm, James Franco-style (see also: anyone who watched the Oscars on Sunday). Well, by the time the media is done with you, you’ll probably want to pluck out your eyes, Sophocles-style. In the meantime, the Sheen finally has his own Twitter account, where he’s currently doing his hardest to out-Kanye Mr. West. Best of luck, Chuck.
Sheen’s (the account is verified, after all) carries the bio, “Born Small… Now Huge… Winning… Bring it..! (unemployed winner…).” it continues such pithy witticisms as,

“Just got invited to do the Nancy Grace show… I’d rather go on a long road trip with Chuck Lorre in a ’75 Pacer….”
“My sons’ are fine… My path is now clear… Defeat is not an option..!”
Mostly it’s just him responding to an intimate audience of 716,000 Twitter followers.
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Mar 01

Motorola Sues TiVo

Posted in: dvr, Miscellaneous Tech, motorola, Today's Chili, TV

 

convert-tivo-files2.jpgTiVo has revolutionized TV watching in much the same way that cable did, back in the 70s/80s. But contrary to popular belief, the company didn’t pioneer the DVR. Motorola is claiming that title, and now the company is suing TiVO to prove it.

The company claims that TiVo violated the patents on the Motorola DVR that came out in 94. There’s some speculation that the move is payback to TiVo lawsuit against Verizon. You see, TiVo sued Verizon over similar claims, leading Motorola filing a suite to protect the assets under Motorola. However, it gets sticky here for both parties. Verizon uses Motorola DVR technology, which TiVo sued Verizon for. Now with Motorola suing back, all cases could be thrown out of court if the connection proven.

Motorola issued a statement saying that TiVo is making false claims against Verizon, which uses Motorola DVR technology under the patent that was filed under Motorola. No word on how either of the lawsuits are doing, nor how much they are asking for in return.

Via Hot Hardware

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Mar 01

Bing Beating Yahoo Internationally for First Time

Posted in: Google, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Yahoo
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I’m sure whether this qualifies as a good sign for Microsoft or a bad sign for Yahoo–the truth likely lies somewhere between the two. According to new numbers from StatCounter, Bing has managed to overtake Yahoo in global traffic numbers, for the first time, ever. Microsoft hit 4.37 of global search engine traffic in February. Yahoo was at 3.93.

Yahoo still maintains a slim lead in the U.S., beating out Bing 9.74 to 9.03 percent. Of course, it’s not as though there’s a huge difference between the two, these days. Yahoo’s search is powered by Bing in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Australia.
Google, meanwhile, is still dominating the field in its native country at 79.63 percent of traffic. The number’s even largely globally, with the site pulling in 89.94 percent. That number is actually down slightly from 90.11 percent in January, marking the first time since August 2009 that the search giant has dipped below 90 percent. 
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Feb 28

The Honeycomb Statue Lands on Google’s Lawn

Posted in: Google, honeycomb, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

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Today, Google rolled its latest statue, Honeycomb, out onto its lawn, joining Google’s growing number of dessert statues. Justin Mattson, a developer advocate at Google, tweeted the above picture with the message, “Honeycomb arrives. I think we’re getting more fanciful with these things.” They even incorporated the little Android robot in this statue, but I seriously fear for his safety up against that giant bee.

Google’s lawn is starting to look like a little dessert party! I have one thing to say: Nom nom nom.

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