Thanks to Chad for putting this together:

Technology Round-Up

Poll

iPads made up of 88% of Black Friday tablet sales.

Did you purchase any fun electronics on Black Friday? [Discuss in comments]

Apple

The next iPad and iPhone may be released in mid-2013.

For $50, you can make your iPad double as a bullet-proof vest (assuming you carry it in your jacket).

Check out Apple's campus of the future.

Rumor has it that Apple may release an off-contract iPhone that only costs $200.

Apple's cloud services are a bit unstable.

Apple might not be out of hot water with regards to violating Samsung's patents.

OS X 10.9 ("Lynx" may be the next large cat this one will be named after) will feature Siri and Apple Maps.

Apple is switching battery providers for the iPad and Macbook Air. Given the patent quarrels between Apple and Samsung, it's almost more surprising that this didn't occur earlier.

Check out the 12-year history of iTunes.

Internet

MySpace will lose about $25 million in revenue this year.

Facebook denies claims that it is teaming up with Yahoo! Then again, Yahoo! likely isn't proud of teaming up with Yahoo! either.

Facebook's offices have posters that are not-so-subtly promoting Android phones.

MSN/Windows Live Messenger is being discontinued, MSN accounts can now be merged into Skype (article only mentions Windows 8, but compatibility extends to Windows XP).

Instagram set a new record with 10 million photos being shared this Thanksgiving. How many of those would you wager are worth looking at?

Mozilla has dropped support for 64-bit Firefox versions for the time being. Your round-up author highly recommends Waterfox (64-bit custom Firefox build) anyway.

Firefox 17.0 has graduated from beta status.

Google

Get your picture featured in Times Square thanks to Google.

Google Now has been awarded Popular Science's Innovation of the Year award.

Google may be working on a wireless audio streaming (like Apple Airplay) protocol.

The Australian Government claims that Google has been dodging its taxes.

Google Project Glass. Google's augmented reality project, has plans to launch in 2014.

Indoor maps are now available on Google Maps.

Check out benchmarks of the latest $249 Chromebooks.

If Cherokee is your native tongue or you lack access to a physical keyboard, the latest Gmail update will appeal to you.

Electronics

Saudi Arabia has implemented an electronic tracking system to track female citizens. This is too ridiculous to even joke about.

Rumor has it that the next Xbox will feature a quad-core processor, 8 GB of RAM, a Blu-Ray Drive, etc.

Want an 84-inch television with a resolution four times the standard 1080p? It's all yours for a mere $25,000.

Microsoft has been granted the patent for augmented reality glasses.

Microsoft may launch an Apple-TV-like version of the next Xbox.

A wearable device that could counteract jet lag is in development.

Volvo has started producing a diesel plug-in hybrid.

The 2013 Nissan Leaf will cost less and have better range.

The price of the Tesla Model S has gone up.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera features Android 4.1 and arrives December 7 (at least in Canada).

YouTube and Hulu Plus are now available on the Wii U.

Xbox Live now features Watch ESPN.

Mobile

U.S. Cellular will start offering unlimited 4G LTE for only $40/mo.

The $19/mo. WiFi-based cell phone carrier, Republic Wireless, has opened its doors to everyone.

Despite positive reviews of the camera on the Nokia Lumia 920, the head of Nokia's imaging department has stepped down.

Windows Phone 7.8 may be released within weeks.

Will.i.am plans to bring a 14-megapixel camera to all smart phones to make them "genius phones." Let us hope that this is the first and last time that Will.i.am is mentioned in this round-up.

Flight attendants on Emirates Airlines are receiving Windows 8 tablets.

The Samsung Galaxy Tax 10.1 is getting an update to Android 4.1 that includes a special premium suite.

The Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II, which features a physical querty keyboard, is now available at Verizon.

Samsung is trying to bring back the flip phone with the dual-screen, quad-core SCH-W2013.

Check out a full review of the 4G LTE Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

While Windows Phone 7 and 8 have been well-reviewed, this video feature on the Microsoft Kin reminds us that things haven't always been peachy for Microsoft on the phone front.

Apps

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hits your pocket on December 6. [iOS, Android]

Put a Windows 8-like UI on Android with The Android 8 Home Screen. [Android]

Nokia's "Here" app brings offline voice navigation to iOS. [iOS] Nokia has also released an improved "Transit" app. [Windows Phone, Symbian]

The Verizon FiOS App now supports streaming 75 channels. [iOS]

The Facebook app on iOS has started trialing photo sync. [iOS]

Determine which apps are draining you battery with Battery Stats Plus. [Android]

jLauncher allows jailbroken iOS devices to quickly access apps and control media from a single screen. [iOS]

Computer/Tablet

A 9-year-old girl's Winnie The Pooh laptop was seized in an anti-piracy raid.

Check out a review of the convertible tablet Lenovo Thinkpad Twist featuring Windows 8.

Analysts are none too fond of Windows 8. Your round-up author personally became a fan after using it for a month during its beta phase. Meanwhile, there is some debate on how well Microsoft's new OS is selling.

Razer has a new mouse that's ambidextrous and features 11 programmable buttons.

Western Digital has launched a 4 TB hard drive.

Gizmodo has released a 2012 holiday guide to smart phones.

Tips/Tricks

Adjust your privacy settings across multiple services from one place with AdjustYourPrivacy.

4G LTE can be unofficially enabled on the Nexus 4 for certain carriers.

Replace your doorbell with a custom ringtone for $12.

RetroUI offers a more traditional interface for Windows 8.

Check out Engadget's guide to gaming gifts.

Learn how to buy a cell phone as a gift (without giving it away in advance).

Check out a holiday guide to accessories.

In light of Hostess's imminent demise, learn how to make your own twinkies.

Check out the best five deal sites.

Miscellaneous

John McAfee is offering a $25,000 reward for anyone who can find the real killers so that people will stop hunting him down.

The U.S. Government will start cracking down on people who sit on patents hoping to cash in later.

Best Buy posted a $13 million loss in revenue this past quarter.

I found this really interesting. But damn Best Buy is going downhill. Even my local one didn't seem TOO packed for Black Friday. Don't get me wrong it was still busy but not as much as I anticipated.

The "guide to gaming gifts" link is broken.

I am super excited about this new xbox. It seems awesome and would especially be great since my 360 is currently red ringed and Microsoft won't fix it for free.

Anyone have that verizon fios app? How's it work?

Originally Posted by Spencer Control

The "guide to gaming gifts" link is broken.

Thanks. It is fixed now.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/19/h...-guide-gaming/

stoked for Vice City!

That anti-piracy raid seems surreal. they are not going to solve nothing doing that. Scary.