Thanks to Chad for working on this!

Technology Round-Up

Discussion topic

Emoticons--love 'em or hate 'em? Are emoticons a viable and integral part of online communication to convey tone? Or are they an unnecessary abomination of language and a lazy excuse to avoid writing more clearly?

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Mobile-related

One man's perversion came in handy as he was able to use a sex tape he recorded to clear himself of rape charges.

A 16-year-old accidentally called 9-1-1 while bragging about robbing a car.

An Australian mother was fined for calling her son too much. While his may sound unfair, she did call him up to 49 times a day.

One father found out that his daughter used around 20,000 text messages when they didn't have a text message plan. Oh, and she's failing her classes too. Maybe taking a hammer to his daughter's phone when he saw the $4,756.25 bill was appropriate.


T-mobile has some new phones on the way. Check out tentative release dates. Also, Huawei has announced some information about the upcoming T-mobile G3. (Perhaps Gatorade reminded them that G2 was taken?)

New details about the Blackberry OS 5.0 are out. Expect evolutionary, not revolutionary. Though the Storm 2 may have a "new approach to text entry."

Sony shows pictures and a video of their Idou, a phone with a 12.1 megapixel camera and xenon flash. Fury15 isn't impressed by lots of megapixels.

LG'sViewty II will apparently drop in June.

Check out an interesting comparison of the mobile application stores.

Gmail has a new mobile application for iPhone and Android users. Check out a comparison between the application and the mobile version of the website.

A Dictionary.com iPhone app helps prevent people from being left out of conversations of mispronouncing words.

Ever in a public place and wonder if that person you're staring at finds you equally attractive? Hitomebo may help set you up. Of course, there's always the old fashioned way...

Rumors are heating up about the next gen iPhone. It may feature 802.11n, have video recording, and have 32GB of storage.


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Internet-related

For once, some good news regarding Facebook: a user in the United States helped prevent the suicide of a Facebook friend in England.

The FCC is working on a National Broadband Plan.

A Philadelphia Eagles worker was fired for complaining on his Facebook status about the decision to trade Brian Dawkins. Dawkins heard the story and gave him a consolation prize. No, the guy didn't get his job back.

The writer of the most famous song on YouTube, "Never Gonna Give You Up," was a little surprised when he saw his compensation check for $16.

A Florida woman was able to catch thieves in the act using a live video feed over the internet.

The good news about popular tracks at online music stores is that once the price is raised to $1.29, their popularity falls.

Teachers in the UK would like to ban Wi-Fi in schools because they fear students will get cancer or become sterile.

Circuit City may not be completely dead after all.

A really fun site called Stimulator calculates the monetary value of websites. Go ahead and plug in your favorite punk site. I won't ruin the surprise.

Now people can make a virtual will that bequeaths all their online identities upon their demise.

FoxNews.com fired a columnist for reviewing the leaked footage of X-men Origins: Wolverine.

It's official: there is no need to waste time with classified sites other than Craigslist since 97% of other classified sites are simply localized versions of Craigslist.

Mark Cuban and Shaq had a very interesting discourse over Twitter recently.

Questions about Twitter's commitment to privacy have risen as a result of the site giving away personal information of one registrant who claimed @Skype.

Details about Time Warner's bandwidth caps are out. Interestingly, none of the caps take place where Verizon FiOS is available.

The Pirate Bay's $6/mo. anonymity service has already had 113,000 sign-ups. As a follow-up to last week's news about TPB being on Facebook, it seems Facebook is now blocking links to their torrents.

Gmail has finally gotten a much-needed feature: inline image support.

.Mac users should have received an e-mail telling them that their websites are going to be frozen forever on July 7. However, they will remain online.

YouTube and Universal look like they will partner to host a music videos site. Sadly, gamers who like to post Rock Band/Guitar Hero videos appear to still be out of luck.

Sony may start hosting posting full-length movies on YouTube.

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Computer-related

Best Buy sold one poor sap a 9-year-old 30GB hard drive instead of the new Western Digital VeliciRaptor drive that the box advertised. And of course, they refused to claim responsibility and refund his money.

Conficker's evil plot to take over the world has finally been revealed: they want $50 from infected users!

$298 to fix two laptop keyboard keys?!

Apple has admitted that some MacBook computers are cracking for no reason and will fix the problem if it appears the user did nothing to cause the cracks.

Microsoft is so confident about Windows 7 that it will allow users to downgrade to Vista (feel free to laugh) or XP. Also, Microsoft would really appreciate it if Windows 7 beta testers would revert back to Vista prior to updating to Windows 7 RC1 so they can get feedback on the process from both ends.

Official mainstream support for Windows XP ends April 14 other than security fixes.

Linux fans will be disappointed to see that even in netbook computers where price is key, 96% of netbooks sold in the U.S. during February had Windows on them. Globally the picture is not as bleak.

Maximum PC built a multitouch Surface-like computer for $350 and two weeks worth of elbow grease.

Acer has built the ideal computer for anyone looking for a 1080p TV, computer, and Blu-Ray/DVD player all in one.

Ever wished your keyboard had an integrated LCD screen? Apparently Logitech thinks people will pay $200 for one.


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Electronics-related

A man killed his 5 children after he and his daughter used GPS feature to locate his wife at a convenience store with another man.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Steve Jobs is still very active at Apple despite officially being on temporary leave.

AT&T is offering $250,000 for anyone who can find the people responsible for cutting their fiber optic cable.

If you see this guy looking at you intently, beware--that red glowing eye is a camera recording your every move. But John Connor need not be overly concerned.

Airport security personnel may soon see people naked as they walk through security.

Imagine a motor-powered board that can travel across dirt, grass, and snow. Now see it in action.

I can totally understand setting up a kitty door to open when a cat's RFID-equipped collar is detected. But why would you then want a camera to take a picture and upload the picture to Twitter every time this unexciting event occurs?

Blockbuster is on life support.

Circuit City isn't the only once-dead retailer that may be attempting a comeback. CompUSA is opening 30 new stores with a new philosophy, retail 2.0.

Save the environment and look cool doing it. The Zero S motorbike will travel 60 miles on a single charge and do 0-60 in a respectable 5 seconds. The price is under $10,000, it is eligible for a 10% federal tax credit, and it should be available by the end of the month.

BMW has devised a car door that when opened will stop you from hitting objects with it.

The most surprising feature about the RENNtech tricked out Mercedes C63 SPEC.R isn't the 580hp under the hood but the radar detector, radar jammer, and laser jammer that is hidden in the rearview mirror.

One man has set up his Wiimote to control his lawnmower.

Look carefully before inserting that debit card into the ATM. Someone may be stealing your card information.

The Zune may not be dead in the water after all as rumors of the Zune HD pop up. However, according to one survey, 100% of teens want an iPod instead.

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Miscellaneous

Apparently Saddam Hussein was forced to watch South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut repeatedly while in captivity. The show's creators were given an autographed picture of Hussein as a sign of appreciation.

Research shows that male chimps exchange meat with female chimps in return for sex. Who says chimps aren't like people?

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Game-related

GameStop may be in hot water for repackaging used games and selling them as new.

Is it ironic or fitting that a man discovered ecstasy in a used copy of Grand Theft Auto?

EA promoted the upcoming Godfather II game by sending out packs containing illegal brass knuckles.


Nintendo is making a killing on the Wii. Recent estimates show the system costs $88 to manufacture and Nintendo has announced that no price cuts are on the way.

Will Wright, the brain behind SimCity, The Sims, and Spore is leaving EA.

PETA is not happy about gamers clubbing seals in World of Warcraft.

Despite all the bad press games get, research shows they can teach positive behavior as well.

Driving games apparently cause a greater increase in aggression than violent ones.

A game about the Iraq War titled Six Days in Fallujah is sure to stir up some controversy. Real soldiers' reactions are surprisingly positive.

Eidos is getting everyone's hopes up by claiming that Batman: Arkham Asylum is "as close to perfect as we've ever come."

Capcom insists that even though the multiplayer patch they sell for $5 is under 2mb for both Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game, it is not simply unlocking code already on the game disk.

X-men Origins: Wolverine is previewed and called a "God of War clone."

Rock Band has Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy as DLC this week (not including "Shackler's Revenge" since it is included with Rock Band 2). Guitar Hero: World Tour has three tracks from Steely Dan.

Rock Band Unplugged will be out in June and will include a full DLC store.

An NES emulator turns NES games into Rock Band tracks (playable on the computer).

EA is hyping Madden 2010 by featuring 10 players but only picking one to make the cover.

Wii Sports Resort ("sequel" to Wii Sports) and Wii Motionplus are due in July.

Dan Akroyd prefers the cartoony graphics of the Wii version of Ghostbusters over the more realistic representations on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Crytek Wars will be playable free of charge until April 17. Visit MyCrisis.com to register and download.

If you own an iPhone and use the App Store, there is a 32% chance you have Tap Tap Revenge on there. Check out the chart of the top iPhone games.

Mafia Wars is now available for the iPhone.

Myst, the classic computer game, will be ported to the iPhone. My prediction: either the game will be dumbed down some or less than 5% of purchasers will ever finish it.

Screenshots: Fable II's morphing characters | Mini Ninjas (a pretty adorable looking game from the studio that created Hitman) | The Godfather II | MySims Racing | Star Wars: The Old Republic |Tekken 6 | X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Video: The Bigs 2 trailer | Bioshock 2 gameplay trailer | The Conduit's All Seeing Eye | Fight Night Round 4 physics demo (pretty impressive) | Grand Slam Tennis gameplay | Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (will hopefully be better than the first game) | Rock Band Unplugged trailer | Rygar: The Battle of Argus trailer | Virtua Tennis 2009 (interesting video showing off game modes and phenomenal graphics) | Wolfenstein's Heavy Trooper

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Tips/Tricks

If there is one thing to check out in this roundup, it is Bumptop, a 3D desktop replacement with a physics engine that is compatible with multitouch screens. Watch the video to see some of its features. Really cool software and surprisingly not too heavy on the resource usage.

Get rid of the new Diggbar with this Greasemonkey script.

Here is a guide on how to install iTunes without all the extra crap. The downside is that it takes a lot longer and requires more effort.

Trillian Astra integrates AIM, ICQ, Facebook, IRC, E-mail, MySpaceIM, Skype, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, Jabber (including Google Talk), and Yahoo! IM. Grab a beta key while the company is handing them out like candy or just check out screenshots. It is a very nice program.

Sweet Dreams allows users to set their computers to gradually lower music volume as they go to sleep.

Make good use out of that Gmail favicon by tweaking it to display unread messages.

Symbian phone users who are feeling unloved, Gizmodo still cares about you.

Brush your teeth with the other hand to boost your willpower.

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Contributed by: CyberInferno

Articles found via Digg, Engadget, hackinthebox, The Inquirer, Lifehacker, HardOCP, Gizmodo, or Slashdot if not directly linked.

Thanks for checking out the technology roundup!

Please direct any comments or suggestions to cyberinferno@gmail.com (or post them in the replies).

I am taking my case to the mac store and getting it replaced. I knew something was up when all these fractures appeared.

the thread i look forward to the most every week. nice. thanks!

Entertaining, as ever.

entertaining it is ..

I don't know how I feel about the whole airport thing.

This is the first time I've read one of your tech round-ups, and I just wanted to say that it is excellent! Very thorough and well-organized.

Keep up the great work!

TMI...at once...

What a great comprehensive round-up. Great work on this!

Excellent round up.

Bioshock 2!

Quote:

A man killed his 5 children after he and his daughter used GPS feature to locate his wife at a convenience store with another man.

what a douche he killed his daughter who HELPED him find his wife cheating

Very, very nice roundup.

Love love love this roundup