Jan 25

Emoticon Keypad Will Help You Share Your E-Feelings

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

emoticon_keypad.jpgFor anyone who likes to make sure the person on the other end of an instant message knows their true feelings by using emoticons, you’ll be happy to know that a prototype of a special emoticon keypad was shown at CES earlier this month. Displayed at the Lavatelli booth, the keypad has a 4×4 grid of bubble buttons that make it easy for you to hit the right emoticon. No more accidentally typing the wrong letters or symbols to create a nonsensical emoticon.

The keypad looks more like a Boggle game, and this device will surely end up on gadget gag Web sites, rather than serious retailers. You must know someone in your life that overuses emoticons. Send that person a hint by buying him or her the emoticon keypad when it’s eventually released. We’ll keep you posted on the date. 😀

[Via Geek.com]

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Jan 25

Foursquare Grew 3400% in 2010

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

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The occasional PleaseRobMe controversy aside, 2010 turned out to be a pretty solid year for Foursquare. The service reported today that it grew a rather impressive 3,400 percent in 2010 (and continues to grow, judging by the fact that, just last week, the service signed up its six millionth user).
Highlights for the 2010 calendar year include 381.5 million total check-ins including one check-in from space, via the International Space Station, back in October. That month’s Rally to Restore Sanity had the most check-ins for a single event, at 30,525.
New York led the way for most of the highly checked in venues, including Train Station (Penn Station), Hotel (Ace Hotel), Venue (Terminal 5), and Food and Drink (Union Square Green Market). California, meanwhile, led the way for Gym check-ins.
Oh, and we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that 224 Wendys checked-in to the Wendy’s in Madison, Wisconsin, which, for the record, has a Mayor named Wendy. Phew.

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Jan 25

Study: One Quarter of Downloaded Pirate Bay Files Are Fake

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

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According to a new study by European researchers, somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter of files downloaded from torrent sites like the Pirate Bay are not what the downloader is expecting. The study, performed primarily by academics based out of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid sought to find out the motives behind torrent seeders

In the process, the researchers discovered that 30 percent of 55,000 files (shared by 35 million IP addresses) were fakes. And, despited safeguards, a quarter of the files that were actually downloaded also ended up being fakes. According to the researchers, “major BitTorrent portals are suffering from a systematic poisoning index attack that affects 30 percent of the published content.”

As far as the intentions of seeders go, the researchers found that many are out to advertise faster tracking services and other paid site. Fake content, meanwhile, is generally seeded by anti-piracy groups and users with more malicious intent.


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Jan 24

JetBlue Rewards Facebook Check-ins with TrueBlue Points

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

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Who doesn’t love deals on flights or, better yet, free flights? And who doesn’t use Facebook? Well, with JetBlue’s new Go Places Facebook application, TrueBlue members can earn TrueBlue points and special discounts toward free flights.

Every time you check-in at an official JetBlue airport location via Facebook Places, you’ll receive 25 TrueBlue points. The first 100 customers to check in at Boston’s Logan International, Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International, Long Beach, New York’s John F. Kennedy International or Orlando International airport locations will receive 100 TrueBlue points.

Starting today, you can start earning points and deals with Go Places until March 1, 2011. JetBlue said in the press release, “This is the first of many customer-driven promotions that JetBlue has planned for 2011 on Facebook Places.” So, be one the look out for may ways to get cheap/ free flights through Facebook. You can get started on the JetBlue Facebook page.

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Jan 24

The Week Ahead in Tech

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

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We’re kicking off the week in tech by asking our analysts to offer up a sentence or two letting us know what they expect to go down in the coming week–top trends, predictions, upcoming gear, and gossip–in the world of technology.

Start your week off right after the jump. 

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Jan 24

Bed Intruder’s Antoine Dodson Is Coming to Television

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Television, Today's Chili, videos

Antoine Dodson

If you can’t get enough of Antoine Dodson – you know, the guy whose fame lies entirely with his enigmatic performance in the original “Bed Intruder” news report and subsequent hit viral song and video – then you may just get your wish. According to a post at The Wrap, production company Entertainment One is giving Dodson the opportunity to shoot a pilot reality television show which will follow Dodson and his family as he tries to use his fame to build a better life for all of them. 
Entertainment One also has a record label arm, so there may be more “Bed Intruder”-style songs on the way shortly as well. It’s also worth noting that the “Bed Intruder” song has been downloaded so many times on iTunes that the money Dodson received from it helped him move his family – including his sister whose bed was originally the one intruded upon – out of Alabama’s Lincoln Park housing projects. 
Sales of the song and views of the original and remixed versions of the YouTube video are still rising, so there just may be something to Dodson’s viral fame. Whether the show will take off is anyone’s guess, but there’s clearly an audience ready and waiting to see Dodson on a regular basis.
 
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Jan 24

Virtual World Rewards Kids for Physical Activity

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

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Here’s a novel concept–a virtual world that gives kids all manner of online rewards for actually going outside and being active. The site is called FunGoPlay. It’s a “Virtual Sports Theme Park.” Kids rack up points by playing with a series of real-world sports products.

The real-world gear tracks kids’ play periods and lots them points, medals, power-ups, and the like. The site will be launching in the coming year under a freemium subscription model. In the meantime, there’s a static place holder and a promise of future updates over at Fungoplay.com.

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Jan 23

This Week’s Best YouTube Videos: Cubicle Doorbells, Verizon iPhones, Wikipedia’s Birthday, and More

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, videos, YouTube

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Wikipedia celebrated its 10th birthday this week, and in case you don’t remember the service’s humble beginnings, one of the best videos at YouTube this week was a little retrospective of how the service has grown and where it started. Also, Verizon Wireless and Apple dropped their first ad for their upcoming iPhone launch on Verizon Wireless exclusively on the Web, and of course the video was an instant sensation. 
That wasn’t all though – ThinkGeek’s new Cubicle doorbell yielded some of the funniest bits of office humor I’ve ever seen, a remix of Dire Straits collides with Star Trek: The Next Generation, and we get a prime example of why you should watch where you’re walking instead of texting. Hit the jump to see the videos. 
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Jan 22

Twitter’s Top Trending Topics of the Week: Catwoman, RIP Bieber, and More

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

Anne Hathaway_Catwoman.jpgIf you feel like you’ve missed out on a lot of this week’s news. That’s what Twitter’s for! You’ve been checking Twitter, right? You haven’t? Well then you have no idea what’s going on in the world. Don’t worry, we’ve been keeping up with the top trends on Twitter this week, so we’ll fill you in, and your friends will be none the wiser.

Here are the top trending Twitter topics for the week ending on January 21:

1. Golden Globes
The 68th annual Golden Globe Awards were held on Sunday and were hosted by Ricky Gervais. Many viewers were upset by Gervais’ crude humor, and therefore, Twitter heard their complaints. #GoldenGlobes

2. Catwoman/ Anne Hathaway
The news hit that Anne Hathaway had been cast as Selina Kyle, AKA Catwoman, in the next Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Many people were shocked by the choice to pick Hathaway, who has never played a role like this. Here’s hoping she proves all the naysayers wrong. #Catwoman

3. RIP Justin Bieber
Everyone calm down. Justin Bieber is not dead. People on Twitter are just, as the English put it “taking the piss” out of the ol’ Biebs, or more, his cult fan following known as Beliebers. Other trending topics are #JBisJonasBrothers, #JustinaBieber, and #DamnBeliebers. #RIPJustinBieber

Check out the rest of the Top 10 list after the jump!

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Jan 21

The 10 Geekiest Animated Series of All-Time

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

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With news of an impending Angry Birds animated series, it seemed like an appropriate time to ask the PCMag staff what they considered the geekiest animated series of all time. We got plenty of answers–and even more nostalgia–but somehow managed to cut the list down to 10 shows (well, 10 shows and a lengthy honorable mention list).

Check out the winners after the jump–and let us know what we left off in the comments section.

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