I have wondered on more than one occasion how many people actually use Google’s DNS servers. Google has offered the answer to that question, and answer is a ton. Google reports that it serves an average of over 70 billion public DNS requests each day. Google says that its Public DNS is particularly popular with international users with about 70% of its traffic coming from outside the US.

Google also notes that it has added Google Public DNS servers in Australia, India, Japan, and Nigeria. It’s hard to imagine 70 million daily requests and the number of servers it would take to handle the workload. Google also notes it is taking steps to support IPv6 with new addresses of 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844 along with 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

Other than the questionable looks, the car sounds very good specification wise. Both vehicles use a 4.4 L bi-turbo V8 engine outputting 560 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque. The car does promise to have decent fuel economy considering the power averaging a bit less than 10 liter/100 km. The car can do 0 to 100 km an hour in 4.2 seconds for the coupe in 4.3 seconds for the convertible.

Both cars will come with a specially calibrated seven-speed DSG transmission. BMW also fits the car with its latest DSC system and an active M differential to help put the power to the road. Check out the official pictures in the gallery below.

[via Motoward]

The video was allegedly shot by some sort of government-employed engineer in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Siberia. The man who posted the video is Michael Cohen. The video is very brief and very blurry. I say that no further than where the person shooting video is standing from the creature crossing the river, the video shooter would’ve clearly been able to see what sort of an animal it was.

It looks to me like some sort of brown bear trotting across the water with a large fish flopping around, hanging from its mouth. It appears in the video the section that is supposed to be the “trunk” is actually a much lighter color than the rest of the animal. Watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.

[via MSNBC]

Presumably, that data can be used to tweak your insurance premiums if you drive at high speed, on a bumpy road, during a high-traffic time of the day. The data that is collected is then remotely transmitted to the insurance company, and the driver can access that data online. I can see parents going for this, so they can see how their kids are actually driving when they are alone.

AA spokesman Ian Crowder also notes that the data the box collects could be used to determine who is at fault in an accident, but that data would only be released by court order. The data sent to the insurance company could also result in “a stern e-mail” being sent to the driver if high-speed driving is recorded. I also suspect a premium increase notice would come along with the e-mail. What do you think about this sort of insurance? I think as long as the driver is willing, there’s nothing wrong with having a black box attached to your car.

[via BBC]

The personal version of The Pirate Bay is now ready for you to grab. It’s interesting to me that complete listing of torrents that the infamous website hosts is only 90MB. That means you can host your very own copy with just about any flash drive you may have laying around, even if that drive is years old. The 90MB download allows you to host your copy of The Pirate Bay as a proxy site.

The 90MB file size comes from a script created by a Pirate Bay user going by the name allisfine. The script creates a snapshot of all the torrents on the website. Using the script the title, ID, file size, seeds, features, and magnetic links 1,643,194 torrents were copied. The comments on all of those were not copied to make the file smallest possible. All of that data totaled 90MB when zipped and 164MB unzipped. The photo here is what a copy of the site looks like.

[via TorrentFreak]

WolframAlpha boasts the new Pro version brings users fundamentally new and remarkable capabilities. The biggest difference in the Pro version and the existing version, is that the Pro version requires a subscription with pricing at $4.99 a month for normal users or $2.99 a month for students. There is a free trial subscription to let you try out and see if you like the service before subscribing.

The Pro version offers the user access to their history once logged in and allows the defining of favorites for easy access. You can also now download raw data that is behind output from WolframAlpha to a spreadsheet in formats for raw data and formatted data. The Pro version also adds support for Computable Document Format, which is format that lets people create documents that have computations. The number of new features in the Pro version are too numerous to list, suffice to say if you enjoyed the free version and use it frequently you will want to check out the free trial account of the Pro version.

[via WolframAlpha]

NBC reports that 2.1 million people tuned into the live Internet stream of Super Bowl XLVI. The statistic for the number of users comes from two companies that measure traffic, including Omniture and mDialog. The number of online viewers is still the tiniest drop in the bucket of overall Super Bowl viewers with an average of 111.3 million watching the game on TV.

NBC notes that the viewership for the streaming game was up significantly from the normal streaming viewership of weekly games that NBC says are watched by an average of 300,000 unique users. NBC was also streaming clips from the game along with commercials and notes that 1.83 million clips and commercials were viewed. The 2.1 million unique users watch the total 4.59 million live video streams. That would seem to indicate that roughly every user that watched had to reload the stream at least once.

[via New York Times]

According to the company, the quartz crystal that the Raspberry Pi board was designed to use was readily available in UK, but over in China where the device is manufactured it was hard to find. The manufacturer is finally putting the boards together after getting a supply of the crystals. The first batch of boards is expected to be finished on February 20.

After the boards are complete, they will be shipped over to the UK where they will be available for purchase shortly thereafter. Another interesting piece of news has been offered up as well. Broadcom has published a datasheet on the BCM2835 SoC that is used inside the Raspberry Pi. Those of you out there dying to learn more details about the SoC can grab the datasheet, which describes the ARM peripherals inside the chip in PDF form here. We mentioned that the Raspberry Pi would be running a custom version of the XBMC software not long ago.

Were hoping that today will be the day we figure out all there is to know about Google X. We still don’t know if we will learn anymore today, but we do know for certain that Google owns the URL wesolveforX.com since it’s listed as the DNS admin in the registry database. Bhe domain was registered by TBA Global, LLC, apparently a marketing firm working with Google. A little teaser blurb has also surfaced along with domain registration that says little bit about what Solve For X will be about. The blurb reads:

WELCOME TO SOLVE FOR X
Solve for X is a place where the curious can go to hear and discuss radical technology ideas for solving global problems. Radical in the sense that the solutions could help billions of people. Radical in the sense that the audaciousness of the proposals makes them sound like science fiction. And radical in the sense that there is some real technology breakthrough on the horizon to give us all hope that these ideas could really be brought to life.

This combination of things – a huge problem to solve, a radical solution for solving it, and the breakthrough technology to make it happen – is the essence of a moonshot.

Solve for X is intended to be a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork.

We can’t wait to share what we discover.

You can check out the official YouTube channel for Solve for X and video below.

[via Android Police]

According to ArsTechnica, three years after photos were deleted from some Facebook accounts; the photos are still accessible via direct links it has access to. All a person needs to be an access the photos you deleted in most cases is the direct link to the photo, and you can still see it. ArsTechnica reports that it started following this back in 2009 and that some of the links to deleted photos they found still accessible back in 2009 are still accessible today despite being deleted from the user account.

The interesting part of this is that Facebook has in the past said it is working with its content delivery network to ensure the timely deletion of photographs. Facebook maintains that its goal is to see the photographs are deleted within 45 days of receiving a request to delete the photo. A Facebook spokesperson claims that the new system for deleting photos is close to being complete and only a small number of photos that were requested to be deleted are still available. If you have any direct links to photos you deleted on Facebook, check them out and see if they’re still available.

[via ArsTechnica]

The goggles use Bluetooth to pair to your smartphone. On the outside of the goggles are large buttons that appear to be usable while wearing gloves. Those controls are for answering phone calls and ending them along with controls for your music. A special microphone is integrated into the goggles that picks up vibrations when you speak through the facial bones and eliminates noise.

That is supposed to mean that you don’t have to shout to make a decent phone call while you’re skiing down slopes. The coolest part is that you don’t have to have smartphone to communicate with a group of skiers. The goggles can interface with six other pairs directly for group conferencing. Check out the video below to see the goggles in action.

[via Ubergizmo]

The first images that the crew captured using their sonar equipment showed a long cylinder shaped object spanning about 400m about 60m in diameter. A second sonar pass found a very large disk-like object about 200m away from the original object spied on sonar. The crew of the ship are veterans in finding shipwrecks and seeing things on the ocean floor, and they say that these formations are too big to be part of a shipwreck or to be things that could’ve fallen off of a ship passing by on the surface.

The crew says that this is something worth exploring, but at this point they can’t say what the nature of the objects are, they could well be natural formations on the ocean floor. As intriguing as the find is, there will be no official investigation until more details can be found. The cost of underwater exploration is very high indeed get to the bottom of the sea only to find the formations are mountains or other natural phenomenona is something the recovery team isn’t willing to risk. What do you think these might be? Perhaps, George Lucas is trying to plug the new 3-D Star Wars flicks.

[via JDJournal]

[Image credit: Trey Ratcliff]

Nowadays, there’s only one brick-and-mortar electronics store I visit on a regular basis: the Apple Store. As for Best Buy? Well, I see no reason to go there, and judging by the company’s recent disappointing quarters, it appears many folks agree.

But I’ll take it one step further. At some point in the next several years, Best Buy will fail just as the many companies that came before it have. And Apple Stores will be the only electronics store left standing.

Now, I’m sure there are some of you who will say that retailers like Best Buy need to exist. You might reason that many folks still need to head to retail stores to research products or get accessories when in a pinch. But with Amazon and others shipping products to homes in just a day and the ability to return those products without any financial recourse, I’m not so sure I agree with that logic.

Others might question why I believe Apple Stores will succeed where other companies are destined to fail. It’s simple: Apple’s retail stores offer a different, more-rewarding experience.

Whenever you go to an Apple Store, you’re immediately welcomed to a different environment. You have the ability to surf the Web, check your e-mail, or quickly charge your iPhone without worry of the salespeople stopping you. And if at that point you decide to walk out the door without even considering buying something, that’s just fine.

What’s more, the stores double as technical support locations, educational areas for those who are new to Apple products, and even fun places to bring the kids to try out the iPod Touch. Apple’s stores are about an experience — not just shopping.

Beyond that, I think Apple’s success will only further the company’s chances of succeeding in the brick-and-mortar. Consumers want to use the firm’s products, and they want to try them out as soon as they’re announced. There’s also a camaraderie that develops each year when consumers wait in line for hours just to be among the first people to have an iPhone or iPad.

Apple’s stores are, well, special.

So, as the chorus of critics who say that brick-and-mortar electronics stores will eventually die grows louder, it’s important to point out that Apple won’t be one of the victims.

You cay say what you want about Apple and what its current success represents to the industry, but if there’s one thing you can’t say about the iPhone maker, it’s that it doesn’t understand retail. As the last few years have shown, Apple understands it quite well. And the company will for the foreseeable future.

I don’t listen to music via Facebook or share links, but I do have a couple of friends who listen to a lot of tunes, and at times most of the news feed page is links to what they are listening to, which is rather irritating. The topic of “frictionless sharing” came up at the Midem conference and VP of Partnerships for Facebook, Dan Rose, took the opportunity to talk about frictionless sharing a bit. Facebook calls “frictionless sharing” the ability of apps to share things without you having to control what is. The goal is for Facebook to show only the right people, the right stories, at the right time.

I would hope that means trying to make things like all of these music links only show if they’re appropriate for you. I would assume that means since I don’t listen to music on Facebook, “frictionless sharing” should presumably make the system understand that I’m not in the music and stop showing me all these links. So far, that has not happened. I think if Facebook tweaked the system to eliminate that sort of sharing of material that friends may not want, it would limit the effectiveness of the sharing partnerships for Facebook. With that in mind I don’t particularly see Facebook working hard to stop sharing from friends of things we aren’t interested in, Games are a prime example . I’ve never once played a game on Facebook, yet I still get loads of game requests. I don’t see frictionless sharing changing things much for me.

[via Thenextweb]

Facebook says the new Timeline Movie Maker creates a movie highlighting special moments from your Timeline and the app is built in cooperation with Facebook and Definition 6. This is clearly designed to lure people to use the new Timeline, even though Timeline is going to be mandatory soon and users won’t have a choice. The app appears to be easy-to-use, you give it permission to access your basic information from your profile and the movie it constructs lasts a minute.

You don’t have to do anything, and apparently you don’t pick the photos the app does it for you. The app checks your content, identifies the most engaging and relevant life moments, then builds a chronological story for your movie, and renders it up in a few minutes. You get to pick background music from five tracks, and then the movie is posted to your site and can be shared with friends. Does the Timeline Movie Maker make you feel better about being forced to use Timeline, or is this just something else that you don’t care about?

[via ZDNet]

Apparently, Alonso is a geek artist, and he takes all these old computer parts and hardware that appear to have been chopped up and crafts them into stools that look cool, even if they don’t appear to be easy on the rear. Alonso takes all the parts, mixes them up with resin, and dumps it into a mold. Once that resin dries, out pops a stool, with handles and feet molded in, that is ready for you to park your rear on.

I really like the one in the picture here with Apple keyboard on the top. I also see a bunch of old mice, CDs, and cooling fans along with a bunch of other stuff thrown in for good looks. I can certainly see one of these decorating my office or computer gaming room. What do you think? I wonder how hard this would be to pull off on your own; I know you can buy this sort of clear resin in some home-improvement stores.

[via Inhabitat]

He must have a wife that likes Star Trek too since it is in the living room. When I wanted to put my Star Wars Wampa rug in the game room, the wife shot me down. I was able to return the favor when she wanted to decorate the closet with another Coach purse though. According to the wood artist maker, Barry Shields, the project took him a month to complete.

The wooden model is a replica of the NCC-1701-C. The glass on top is even cut in a shape that follows the lines of the ship and reminds me of the Star Trek badges. Me likey. You can buy one from the guy, if you have $3,100 lying around.

[via Technabob]

I would like to know how Google is able to render the images into the seamless shots we see now. I always understood that the reason the images were patchy was because the satellites flew over and snapped the shots at different times of day and in different weather conditions. Better image quality isn’t all the update brings.

The update also brings with it the ability to share screenshots on Google+ so you can show friends where you went or where you might be going on vacation. The search engine is better as well. The software now has autocomplete and the ability to get biking, public transport, and walking directions on the map. Older versions of the software will be using the new map images as well.

[via Siliconfilter]

Showrooming is where shoppers come into Target stores to see the products in person and then go online to purchase the product, typically for less money. Target is asking its vendors for several things. It wants discounts to be able to match those online prices for one. It also wants special products that can only be purchased in its stores. This is very common for Target to do in the toy market; there were a number of toys my kids wanted during Christmas that were Target exclusives.

Target is also saying that it might create a subscription service to discount the products that many people buy regularly. I think many people are like me; I will order something online, but prefer to buy locally because I hate to wait. If I come into your store, and you are $10 to $20 more for something that I want, I will gladly wait and order online. You could also keep me in your store as a buyer if you opened more than two of your 25 lanes, so I can get out faster. Waiting in line to pay for longer than it takes to shop will lose customers.

“What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices without making investments, as we do, to proudly display your brands,” according to the letter, which was signed by Target Chief Executive Gregg Steinhafel and Kathee Tesija, Target’s executive vice president of merchandising.

[via WSJ]

In an interview with the BBC, Gary Shapiro, the head of the CEA, which is the association that runs the Consumer Electronics Show, made some comments about the unfortunate necessity of booth babes. Surprisingly, Gizmodo published an editorial taking Shapiro to task. Let that sink in for a moment. Gizmodo. Arguing against booth babes. The same Gizmodo that published a story a week earlier in which one of their writers dances awkwardly with a couple of models who clearly would rather be elsewhere. Now, I’m not criticizing Gizmodo. I like that site and their coverage. I like that they have a variety of editorial voices, on both sides of an issue. I think that highlights the complicated nature of the problem.

Gary Shapiro tried to respond by apologizing. He did a fair job, but it’s hard to say the right thing on the Internet, and in the interest of brevity, I think some of his nuance was off. He’s taken to task in the comments forum on AutoStraddle, and I think it’s fair to say we’ve beaten up Gary enough for one day. There’s always tomorrow. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so let’s see if CEA adopts any formal policies toward booth babes before the next CES rolls around next year.

There’s really no civil way to argue in favor of booth babes, though I may try, if you’ll indulge. I’d like to offer a slightly different perspective on booth babes, one of power and weakness.

Is there something wrong with hiring an attractive person to lure people toward your products? Maybe, but not in this way. I have a much bigger problem with the retouching, airbrushing and special effects that go into television commercials and print magazine ads than I do with models in person. In person, the women who work as booth models are undeniably attractive, and perhaps dressed in ways that would be inappropriate for the average attendee. But they aren’t impossible. They aren’t a false version of what a woman or man can look like.

Okay, I threw that one in to be PC. I did not see any male booth models at CES, so I’m just going to drop that pretense.

In any case, saying that a company should not hire attractive models for their booth is also saying that an attractive person should not find gainful employment as a booth model. That seems wrong, too. I’m sure there are physiological studies that measure the response in humans when they see a person they deem attractive. The Consumer Electronics Show is a giant advertisement. The booths exist explicitly to attract your attention. I have no moral objection to a woman working as a model, so why would I have a problem with a company hiring a woman to help showcase a product line?

Well, I’ll tell you why I have a problem with it. Booth babes make me uncomfortable. I know there are guys at the show who enjoy the booth babes, perhaps too much. I’m not a sleazeball. I don’t pinch or squeeze strangers. I don’t hand out my room key to just anyone I meet. I don’t flirt at trade shows. When I’m at a trade show, I’m working. I’m focused on my topic. Booth babes have an inherent sexuality to them, and this isn’t the venue for it.

When I get home from CES, I inevitably have three groups of photos. I have my product shots from the show floor. I have my candid shots hanging out with friends and touring the Vegas strip. And I have the booth babe shots, which are something like the photographs in National Geographic. They serve to document, not titillate. I show them to friends as an illustration of what I did and what I saw. But of those three groups of photos, guess which pile is the largest?

The product shots. Remember, I’m working. Then, the scenery. I could snap the fountains at the Bellagio for hours on end. Finally, the smallest group is the booth babes. This year, I didn’t take a single booth babe shot.

As a man, I’m embarrassed to take photos of the booth babes, or with the booth babes. I’m embarrassed to stop and stare at them. When I do talk to them, I’m often annoyed because they don’t have the information I need. They aren’t paid very well, so they aren’t trained in the nuances of the products. They don’t know which processor is in that phone, or how large the battery is in mAh. This is in no way their fault, or a reflection on them as individuals. It’s not their job to know.

I want to talk to the other people. The people who do make it their job to know.

It’s time to give up on the booth babes. Make an attractive product and people will come to it. Make an interesting pitch and people will listen. If you have to rely on booth babes to sell, you might want to question what you’re selling, and to whom. And if you’re an attendee and you feel the booth babes are a necessity of the show, I might suggest another place where you can find all the pictures of attractive people you desire. It’s called the Internet. You’re looking at it right now.

The FBed is shaped like a lower case “f” and the side is plastered with Facebook. On the stick of the “f” you get what appears to be a short bed area for sleeping. The cross section of the letter is the headboard and doubles as a backrest for the status updating action that happens in the curl of the letter.

The concept has a little shelf that holds your keyboard and the flat part of the “f” curl is where you place a computer monitor. It looks like you would need to be really short to sleep on that bed. It also looks like if you lean too far forward in the sitting section you will lose your monitor when the bed tips. This is a very strange concept.

[via DailyPics]

“Soon, there will be apps for all types of interests, as more apps will launch over time” director of platform products Carl Sjogreen says of the launch. ”Whether you love snowboarding, gardening, hiking, or knitting, or something else, there will be an app for you.”

Timeline Apps obviously requires a Facebook user have the Timeline profile, which is believed to be rolling out as a mandatory upgrade from later this week. Meanwhile there’s information for developers on how to integrate their services with Open Graph and Timeline Apps here.

Full details on Facebook Open Graph and Timeline Apps here.

Full list of new Timeline Apps:

TRAVEL
* Gogobot
* Airbnb
* TripAdvisor​
* Wipolo
* Where I’ve Been

FOOD
* Foodspotting
* Cookpad
* Snooth (wine)
* Urbanspoon
* Yummly
* ​Foodily

SHOPPING / FASHION
* Pose
* Pinterest
* Polyvore
* Oodle
* Fab.com
* eBay
* Giftrocket
* Payvment
* Livingsocial

FITNESS
* MapMyRun
* Runkeeper

ENTERTAINMENT
* Rotten Tomatoes
* Dailymotion (French video site)
* Cinemur (French video site)
* Metacafe (videos)
* Ford (game)
* Wooga (Bubble Island, Diamond Dash)
* OMGPOP (Draw My Thing)
* Zynga (Words with Friends, Castleville

GIVING
* Causes
* Fundrazr
* Artez.com

MORE
* BranchOut (job search)
* Monster (job search)
* Color (photo and video sharing)
* Courserank (education)
* Grockit (education)
* Foursquare (location)
* Goodreads (books)
* Kobo (books)
* StubHub (ticketing)
* Ticketmaster (ticketing)
* Ticketfly (ticketing)
* ScoreBig (ticketing)
* Appsfire (app discovery)
* Artfinder (art)
* Autotrader (cars)

The app shows that as of now there are 465 million accounts, a 65% increase since May when the figure was 300 million. With the gain of accounts at 11 per second, it looks like the 500 millionth accounts may come online in February. That is a significant milestone. While twitter may be nearing the 500 million mark for accounts, most of those are not active users.

Twitter has said that it has about 100 active user accounts. The site is also racking up 400 million unique visitors each month. Some of that new use is attributed to the integration of twitter into iOS 5. I wonder how many of the 100 million active accounts are spammers.

[via TheNextWeb]

As it is now the service is fighting Netflix on the UK, and has priced itself at £1 under Netflix prices. The new streaming ABC content from the US will help to round out the catalog and make Lovefilm more appealing. Oddly, while PaidContent reports that lower price was announced last week, it’s still not available to purchase on the Lovefilm site.

The new ABC shows will include the entire series of Lost along with older episodes of Castle, Grey’s Anatomy, and Ghost Whisperer. The first run episodes of all these shows will still be offered on free or pay TV in the UK. Netflix is expected to grab its own rights to the shows for the UK since it’s not an exclusive deal to Lovefilm.

[via Paidcontent]

The developers are talking a bit about the game and what they are saying bodes well for the fans. They are treating the new game like a movie and will be delving deeper into the story and the character development in the next installment. The devs do note that people that haven’t played the first two games will be able to jump in with the third in the franchise and understand what is going on.

Particularly, Commander Shepard will get more emotion. That will be interesting considering he has been mostly of the no emotion type in the other games. I can’t wait for this new game to hit store shelves, so we can see what the developers have in store for us this time out. Check out the dev interview below.

[via Pikimal]

That is right around the corner and will be here before you know it. AllThingsD is citing multiple sources all pointing to the same IPO date range. If the IPO were planned for May, the documents would apparently need to be turned into the SEC this month for review. As AllThingsD points out the date could change on a whim.

If the IPO happens, this will be an interesting thing to watch with some thinking Facebook could raise as much as $10 billion. Facebook has a bunch of money already sitting around, and it is working all sorts of projects. Recently, it unveiled a new music service that allows listening with groups of people at once. A big IPO could certainly land a lot of content deals for music. Facebook is also being integrated more and more into other offerings, especially in car as we saw in the Mercedes demo at CES. Facebook’s IPO will do well by all accounts; the site was the most searched term and most visited site in 2011.

[via AllThingsD]

That is now changing with Pirate Bay eliminating the torrent file hosting directly and moving to what is called a magnetic link. The magnetic link is now the default method of download and according to an insider at Pirate Bay “in a month or so” there will be no more hosted torrent files on the site. TorrentFreak says that moving to magnetic links means that very little will change for the end user at Pirate Bay.

The crux of the change may be the fact that with some countries forcing ISPs to block access to Pirate Bay, the change to magnetic links means that copies of Pirate Bay can be hosted from a flash drive. That would mean that fans of the site could access it even if it’s not available directly online. It could take longer for the torrent downloads to start using magnetic links and apparently, most modern BitTorrent clients support magnetic links already.

[via TorrentFreak]

V3 reports that the Internet of Things would need a small chip to be placed on products. On that small chip would be details on the product that can be transmitted wirelessly to the person needing the details. I can imagine this being very helpful to shoppers and retailers since they could get details and perhaps track inventories easier.

The chips could be used on all sorts of products from mundane things like inventorying toothpaste or tracking tire pressures in a car. The uses are virtually unlimited for the tech. People involved with the project say that many businesses are unaware of what benefits the project could have for them. The tech could even be used to monitor environmental sensors and more. The ten firms in the UK to get funds from the TSB include AIMES Grid Services, BT, Cambridge Wireless, Focus Innovation, Globosense, Housing 21, In Touch, InteliTap, Swirrl IT and WattBox.

[via V3]

[Image credit: Lassi Kurkijärvi]

We were heading into Target the other day and he asked for a toy. I don’t oblige him every time, I like to keep it random and special. This time, I said yes. He wanted a dump truck. A big dump truck. A big pink dump truck.

That’s kind of awesome. I would have loved to buy him a big, pink dump truck, but guess what? Target doesn’t sell any. They have blue. They have green. They have a bunch of different colors and sizes. But no pink.

Let’s get the stereotypes out of the way now. It would be ignorant to say there is not a stigma associated with pink and masculinity, especially in our country, and even more down here in Texas, where we live. Pink is for girls. Boys don’t wear or own pink. There’s no question of what a boy with pink toys ‘means,’ because it just isn’t done. You can’t buy toys that interest my boy in the color pink.

It seems to me this is among the more stupid of all our gender-based stereotypes. Pink is a color. It’s an unsaturated shade of red. It’s pretty. It’s one of my favorite colors, too. Would you rather see the sky when it’s royal blue, or at sunrise, when it’s streaked with orange and luscious pink? Do you want your steak brown and grey, or moist and pink? When Apple released the iPod mini in a variety of hues, I went straight for the pink one. I still have it, even though it doesn’t work. For that device, it was an awesome color.

I don’t care how pink was saddled with this stigma. It’s stupid. It’s just a color. It would be equally ridiculous if we associated specific musical notes with gender. Sorry, your daughter can’t play an E above Middle C on the piano. That note is only for boys. Sorry, your son isn’t allowed to have hot fudge. Hot fudge is for girls. Boys eat caramel sauce. For my son, at least, that caramel sauce will have to be served on strawberry ice cream, because when we go to our favorite scoop shop, that’s the only flavor he’ll tolerate.

Gadget makers often release gadgets in lovely shades of pink, almost invariably targeted at women. I’ve long wrestled with how I feel about that. On the one hand, it is odd to market a device to one gender or the other based on color. On the other, if people want to buy a pink television, then somebody should make a pink television. If market research shows that women are not buying television sets, but women love buying things in the color pink, then it would be good strategy to make a pink television. I’m not sure if this is what the market research actually says, but based on the preponderance of pink aimed at female buyers, there must be some statistics to back up this idea.

Here’s where I disclose that in my day job I work for Samsung. But I also see phones from other companies. I remember one company released a phone in a gorgeous shade of purple. It wasn’t explicitly called a woman’s phone, but most of the marketing seemed headed in that direction. But I loved that color. I wanted a phone in that color. So why didn’t I buy that phone? Well, it’s not just because I work for a major competitor. It’s because the phone didn’t have all the features and specs I desire.

I think the answer to this problem is not to stop making and marketing pink devices aimed at women. The answer is to start making and marketing more pink devices aimed at men. Or, more generally, make pink devices that everyone will like. Treat pink like the appealing color that it is, and not some super-inflated symbol of gender and sexuality.

I know it won’t work. If all the laptops in the world were painted pink, there are too many people who simply would not own a laptop, no matter the inconvenience that causes them. The pink devices will not sell as well. Not for a while.

It is also difficult to make gadgets in a variety of colors. It causes problems at every step of the retail chain. The unpopular colors die out very quickly, or are left to rot on shelves. It would be hard to imagine a gadget maker, with profits and a board of directors at the top of its hive mind, investing in a style choice for the benefit of changing the perception of society. That’s not the job of the manufacturer. The manufacturer should provide what the customer wants in the best way possible. It is rare that a manufacturer can dictate taste in such an extreme way.

But if your goal is to change perceptions — and that is my goal here — the way to do that is not to stop selling pink gadgets to women. You need to remove the gender from the equation altogether and start selling pink gadgets to men. I would buy, and in 10 years when my son is ready for his first cell phone, I can make a guess as to which color he’d choose. I just hope that the masculine army of blues and reds and brown and drab does not pummel the beauty out of him before we get there.

Buy a new TV

Last year, I vowed to “Use my gadgets to do things more than I do things on my gadgets.” I don’t know what that means, but I think it was my way of telling myself not to buy a new TV. All year long, I held onto that mantra, and used my resolution as a way to keep myself from the purchase. It has been a very difficult year to avoid buying a TV.

First, I started working for Samsung in my day job. Now, TVs are cheaper and more readily available to me than ever before. Plus, we have a room dedicated to awesome TVs where I can test our convergence products. I get that room for short stints at a time, then I have to leave. I am not allowed to hook up my PlayStation 3. Man, I want one of those TVs.

Second, I got a divorce. That means I don’t have anyone around telling me I can’t go larger than 38-inches because of the size of the entertainment cabinet. In fact, I got rid of that cabinet, too. So, the wall’s the limit. We sold the house, so I had some cash money on hand. Also, I needed something huge to fill the void of endless loneliness created by the dissolution of my 15-year commitment. A TV would be perfect for that.

Third, all my favorite video games can now be played in 3D. There are movies in 3D worth buying. I never minded the 3D glasses, not much. TVs are cheaper than ever, thinner than ever, and they look great.

I give up. I’m buying a TV. I’ll wait until after CES, when the new models are introduced, and pick up last year’s model for a good price. I might even wait until the Super Bowl sales start. But I will have my TV. So the lesson here, I suppose, is to make resolutions that you were probably going to stick to anyway. That way, when I buy a new set, I’ll feel good knowing that I have stuck to my resolutions, as well.

Take more pictures

So, I’m not going to be an anti-consumerist this year, but I’m still not going to buy useless junk, unless you find a 51-inch 3D plasma TV useless, in which I don’t need to hear your stupid opinion. One way to make a commitment I’ll stick to is to resolve to use the things I already have in better ways.

For instance, my cameras. I have a ton of cameras. I’m not a professional-level photographer, but I can handle Manual mode on a DSLR with little trouble. I have a DSLR with a bunch of lenses, a point-and-shoot, an HD camcorder that I would never have bought if I knew how good video recording on DSLRs would become, and every phone I have uses a 5-12 megapixel camera, with HD video. I pre-ordered a Lytro camera, too.

Now it’s time to take more pictures. More pictures of my son and my family, of course. But maybe a photo safari is in order. Head down to the wild landscape of southwest Texas or Louisiana and fill up some memory cards.

Read more books

The first thing my mother asked when she picked me up at the airport was whether I was reading anything good. Actually, I don’t think I’m reading anything at all. I finished The Hunger Games, and I’m meandering through Game of Thrones and the subsequent books. But I’m not the avid reader I once was.

I blame television. Early in the TV season, I record a bunch of new shows, then eliminate some from my round-up as they get cancelled or I lose interest. This year, I’m going to subtract more shows than I add. Some shows with a good premise but very mediocre execution will have to go. Sorry “Terra Nova” and “Person of Interest.” You both had promise, but you’re dead to me now. I’m going to give the new Hurley show “Alcatraz” 2 episodes to win me over after the mid-season break, then I’m gone.

In my spare time, I’ll read. I used to read every single night. It’s time for that to start happening again. My problem is that I make a good resolution (Read more books) and implement a bad plan (Read the entire new translation of “À la recherche du temps perdu”).

Now that books are no longer printed on dead trees, I might be more cavalier about stopping a bad novel. I might be less interested in filling in the gaps of lost classics that I want to own and have around, but not necessarily read. Instead, I’m going to actually read more books.

Document the important stuff

Reading through my social networking history, I can tell you all sorts of interesting facts about my life. I can tell you what song was stuck in my head on a Monday in November of 2009. I can tell you which airports I’ve been to, and if there were any major, annoying flight delays. I can tell you how many times I remembered to check in at the movies, but not which films I saw. Yawn.

I’m going to make an effort this year to use my technology to keep track of the important stuff. Not my family, I don’t need a reminder to take pictures of my toddler. He’s the subject of all my pictures anyway. No, I mean the personal stuff I’m avoiding.

It’s time to track the vitals. I have at least 3 different types of devices with a pedometer built in. I have 2 devices that can track heart rate. I have a multitude of apps to track calories and diet. I have apps to track health progress, fitness goals, and one that takes a photo every day and makes a movie to show your progress.

In other words, it’s time to stop tracking nonsense and start tracking useful information. It’s time to stop sharing silly minutia, and start saving important personal information that I can use and keep to myself. Of course, all of this is in the service of my next resolution.

Lose some weight

I know this is probably the most popular New Year’s Resolution, but this is a meta-tech resolutions list, so here’s how my resolution is different. Weight problems run in my family. My cousin Rachel started a blog to help with her weight loss goals. She lost more than 120 pounds. She doesn’t just look better. She looks like a different person who then also lost a lot of weight and looks like an even more different person.

I think Rachel would agree she got a big boost from blogging her experience because of the accountability it created. When you make this sort of thing public, you create an audience, even if it’s only in your own head. Then, you feel obligated to deliver to that audience. The same thing happens with personal trainers. When you know you have scheduled appointments to see a personal trainer ever week, you feel more accountable for your actions. This should be an ingrained notion in our own heads, but I suspect my wiring is faulty.

Where I think most weight-loss resolutions go wrong is that they aren’t really new goals. We’re constantly trying to lose weight all the time, so setting this as a resolution is like saying you’ll drink coffee every morning or you’ll floss more. You’ve pretty much already decided what you’ll do, and a resolution won’t change anything. When you fail at the resolution, you’re simply failing at the new action, but there is little accountability. After all, who really cares about New Year’s Resolutions?

So, my resolution is accountability itself, not simply to lose weight. I’ll hold myself accountable, through recorded progress and other digital means and reminders. Maybe I’ll go public, maybe I’ll just keep a personal record. But it’s going to work, because If it doesn’t, I’ll know exactly when things went wrong.

I know more than anyone else you know

I know, I didn’t get a degree in Computer Science. You have no idea where I learned all of this stuff, and I could hardly explain it either. Mostly, it comes from making a lot of mistakes, and then begging smart, vicious people to help me. I know I can sound exasperated walking you through tech problems, but if I’ve never told you to RTFM and compared you to Hitler, trust me it could be much worse. That said, before you ask anyone else for advice about anything, ask me.

I know more about technology than any retail employee you will encounter anywhere. I know more than the folks at the Verizon store. I know more than the folks at Best Buy. I know more than half of the people at the cable company; anybody not issued a crimper is beneath my technical knowledge. Stop asking these people for help. They are only making it worse.

I know the guy at Verizon offered to help sync all your contacts from your old SIM card, but I might have a better way. And no more signing contract agreements without getting a nice phone subsidy coming your way. I know you bought your computer at Best Buy, but this isn’t a car dealership. Those folks probably know less about your gear than any other type of repair shop you’ll encounter.

When your cable company tells you there is no problem with your Internet service, then suggests you stop by to pick up a newer, more expensive router with wireless built in, call me first. I may know a trick or two.

Never delete anything

My father works in an office with a ton of files. Actual paper files with little color-coded letter stickers on them, all arranged neatly in a set of large filing cabinets. Every few years, they get to throw away the deactivated files, which is a huge process, but it reclaims space. Paper systems are more efficient with a good waste disposal system. But this doesn’t translate to computers.

At some point, early on, a computer geek told my father that his computer was running slowly because he was out of memory. I’m guessing his hard drive was 99% full at the time, which can actually cause problems. Today, he’s using a couple gigs of half-terabyte storage system. He also has a 500GB backup drive. He throws things away like his computer is Noah’s Ark and he’s got to save space or lose the dinosaurs forever.

I went looking for Skype on his machine this past week, and all I found was an alias, a shortcut. This shortcut opened a Skype installer. No app, just the installer. I asked about it. Turns out, at the end of every conversation, he deletes Skype. Tosses it in the trash. Then, when he wants to chat again, he goes to Skype.com and downloads the newest app. When he can remember his login information, he can then make calls.

The psychology behind all of this is fascinating. Is this a better practice, or worse? Is the waste of time balanced by having the latest version of the app? Why am I not getting through to him on how much storage he has?

I’ve told him he has enough storage to hold the entire works of Shakespeare, Encyclopedia Britannica, and every book he’s ever read, with room for a few hundred more copies of each. He has enough room to hold every DVD in his library, if he wanted to rip them all. His photo library is not taking up a tenth of his storage space, so there’s no need to delete any photo he might find in the least bit pleasing.

But he still deletes. He doesn’t just delete email, he deletes the email app. He doesn’t just clean up his bookmarks, he tosses the browser. Forget about throwing out the baby with the bathwater. He throws out the baby and the bathwater, then gets a vasectomy to make sure this sort of thing never happens again.

Never install anything

What really gets to me is that even though he deletes everything needlessly, he’s still chocked full of garbage. His Web browser, which is somehow completely up to date, miracle of miracles, is bogged down by multiple toolbars. He’s got weather apps and widgets clogging up his status bar. Every time I move a folder, Norton double checks to tell me everything’s copacetic.

Here’s how this happens: a pop-up appears asking my parents to install something, and they do. Pop-ups look a lot like system notifications to them. It’s all just messages from the computer, so they trust and click. That’s how the browser gets updated. That’s also how they are running on so much bloat. They try to open a file, but it uses a weird file extension, so the computer offers them new software to download. They do it. During the installation of one piece of software, they see confusing offers and end up saying yes to others.

Then the system slows down. Must be because the memory is full, my father thinks. And he starts deleting with relish.

It’s time to upgrade . . . everything

My parents bought my toddler a kids tablet toy. It comes with some software installed, but as soon as you turn on the toy, before it offers you any software, it asks if you want to download more from the download store. That requires a PC connection. No problem, except that my parents bought their PC in 2006. Their software is out of date, and it cannot be upgraded.

When I used to sell computers, I used to tell people “Be happy with what it does right now, and it will always do those things. It just might not be able to do the new stuff down the road.”

Well, we’ve gotten to the end of that road. The desktop had a good 5 year run, about what I expect from a desktop. It can’t run the newest systems. It can’t work properly with the newest mobile devices and peripherals. It can still work on the Web just fine, but it’s a bit underpowered for the high definition and fast streaming content my parents might enjoy watching.

While you’re at it, get a new cell phone. My father’s phone is a clamshell. It’s fairly new. Carriers still sell clamshells. But it’s time to upgrade. About once a month I get frantic messages from him. “Philip, we’ve been trying to reach you, but you haven’t been answering your phone. Please call us as soon as you get this message.”

I have 3 email accounts, including my corporate email. I have a Twitter account and a Facebook page, and I’m active on both. Even better, I am a huge Google Voice fan, and calling or texting that number makes at least 6 phones ring. So, why couldn’t he get a hold of me?

Old number. He was using a phone number I had back in 2004. I’m not sure how it ended up the only number he had for me in his phonebook. Neither is he. Nobody knows, but I blame the guy at the cell phone store who tried to “sync” his contacts through his SIM card.

My parents would not use any of the same features on a smartphone that I use. I use my phone for social networking and work tasks. They don’t use Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn (thank gawd). They probably don’t care about the star charts, the music stores, and the hundreds of games. But they would love some Fandango. And they would go crazy for the navigation and location-based features.

Dad: “Okay, I checked my tire pressure and it’s all good. So tonight you can take your mother’s car or you can take the Jag.”
PB: ” . . . ”
Dad: “Are you sure you want the Jag? It doesn’t have navigation. How will you know where you’re going?”
PB: “Shut up and give me the keys.”

Also, time to get a new digital camera. Nobody uses CF cards anymore, and a 2GB limit on storage is ridiculous. Plus, did you know even the cheapest cameras can now take video in high definition? And don’t get me started on geotagging. Heck, it might even be time to replace that old Kindle. E-ink screens have gotten even better since the first generation.

Don’t buy anything that requires my help

By now, it might be obvious that I’m a prissy, pretentious schmuck. I can live with that. I don’t mind if people don’t take my tech advice. In fact, sometimes I even prefer it. I’d rather not take your late night phone calls complaining about your phone’s address book, or commiserate the second time you dropped your precious glass phone and the screen shattered again. But I’m happy to give my advice, and I promise to always take tech advice giving seriously. I won’t steer you wrong.

But when you go out and buy something tech related without asking me first, you’re on your own. Having trouble setting up that router? Good luck with that. Can’t figure out that cheap tablet you bought? Should have asked me first. Surprised your new device didn’t come with memory cards and requires a boatload of AA batteries every week just to function properly? I could have warned you, but you didn’t ask.

I’m a know-it-all, and I’m obnoxious, but I also get offended easily when people don’t respect my expertise, as it were. When I show up at my parents’ home and see some new gadget or piece of tech lying around, I feel like a cat who’s come home to a new puppy. I sniff around it disdainfully. I turn away from it and aim my backside in its general direction. I give off a vibe that says “What is THIS doing here? And why was I not consulted?”

The WiFi signal is strong enough to reach people within 50M. The access is free too, there is no need to pay for the service or buy a drink to get online. The time limit on access is 30 minutes before the connection boots you. However, you can just log back on if you get booted.

Once the user logs in the homepage that opens tells you what stores are nearby for shopping and directs you to sightseeing locations as well. Starting in 2012, there will be 1,000 of these WiFi packing vending machines set up around Tokyo, Sendai, Chubu, Kinki, and Fukuoka. Over the next half decade, the company plans to roll out 10,000 of these machines.

[via TechCrunch]

X-rays and scans taken back in 1986 showed nothing pen like hiding in the body. The woman later left and then forgot about the pen for 25 years. Recently she was seen by a doctor for some severe stomach pain and on inspection to find the cause of the pain, the doctors found that felt tip pen neatly lodged inside the woman’s stomach after 25 years.

The docs performed a procedure with an endoscope that was sent down her gullet into the stomach and removed the pen. The most surprising part to the team of docs was that once removed the pen still worked and was in good order after all those years of being pelted with food and sitting in stomach acid. I wonder if they used the pen to write her prescriptions. I can only imagine the number of I told you so’s that she lashed her husband with after having that pen removed. The stomach pain had nothing to do with the pen; it was a common condition among the elderly called diverticulitis.

[via Telegraph]

Recently, Marley threatened to join Facebook. I owed him some money for concert tickets he bought over the summer. For no good reason, my own sheer laziness, I was very late paying him back. He threatened to join Facebook just to shame me into paying him back. I told him that for $150, it would be worth it to me to get him on board. But I paid him anyway, because I knew there was no enticement that would get him on the site.

I’m not sure I can make a judgment about why he is or is not a member. I think we’re past that point. I don’t just mean that I am past making assumptions about my friend. I’m saying that now that Facebook claims 200 million members in the U.S. alone, or just under 2/3 of the population, it is no longer interesting to judge people who haven’t gotten involved yet. The ship has sailed. They obviously know about Facebook, and they can probably imagine its benefits. They know what they are missing.

What are they missing? Really? I could list all the more tedious benefits of Facebook that they won’t experience. The games. Connecting with people you haven’t talked to since elementary school. Your mother stalking you online. But there are some significant benefits to Facebook.

Birthdays. Graduations. Weddings and babies. Deaths. These are important milestones in life, and many people are reporting them first, or only reporting them at all, on Facebook. I don’t just mean your peripheral friends. I mean some of your closest compatriots.

In the last email Marley sent, he told me that a guy we both know is expecting a new baby. Of course, I’ve already seen ultrasound pictures. I saw them more than a month ago. Don’t scoff. I know ultrasounds are a cliche. But these are people I like and care about. I was happy to see the blurry image of their seedling.

So, clearly my friend is missing out. But here’s the funny thing: in my closest circle of friends, he’s the one I see most often. I have a small group I try to see a few times a year. A couple still live near our hometown, where my parents live, and I see them when I visit my old home. Some are near Philly, some in New York City. Marley is in San Francisco, in the opposite direction. But in terms of the number of visits per year to each of my friends, Marley wins, hands-down.

Part of that is because my day job at a technology company sends me to San Francisco frequently. But I also go to New York, and I rarely see my friends there. I can’t say there is a conscious effort to see Marley because he is not on Facebook, but there is definitely a conscious effort to stay in touch, and perhaps that need, unfulfilled because he abstains from social networking, drives me to visit more often.

Also, Marley is a lot of fun. He’s my friend who makes me get up and do things. He goes camping and hiking, takes road trips, likes good food and drink, and generally has a good attitude about life. He goes to lots of concerts, probably a few dozen a year, or more. He’s not a luddite. He owns the nicest TV of anyone I know, and he programmed his own Crestron remotes to control his vast and expanding audio visual system. He’s got a smartphone, though admittedly it’s a hand-me-down I threw his way.

I wish I had a definitive conclusion here. Something like: fun people ignore Facebook. Or: not being on Facebook drives people to visit more often. But I don’t. I just have a portrait of a non-Facebook user. Facebook doesn’t make sense with his personality, even though I honestly believe Facebook will some day be as indispensable as the phone book used to be, or 411 after that. It is the way we will find each other, and a way to be found.

When someone I know is not on Facebook, it makes me wonder. They must not want to find people. Not as a passive action, a willful ignorance. But as an act of defiance. They refuse to connect with their past. They refuse to reach out for casual, nearly meaningless relationships with people who would have otherwise slipped away.

These are probably the same people who skip their high school reunions, but without malice. There are some people who skip their reunions because they still harbor old hatreds, ancient resentments that they cannot grow past. But then there are others who simply don’t see the point. There is no interest for them in marking time by gathering together and wondering who got fat. Who had children and got a divorce. Who died.

The high school reunion is certainly an anachronism of a time before Facebook. I doubt I would attend any official high school reunion in my future, unless the location and timing were unavoidably convenient. I keep in touch with almost everyone I enjoyed in high school. I no longer need a reunion.

Maybe Marley isn’t behind the times. Maybe he’s ahead. I’m trapped in a world of nostalgia, while he’s evolved beyond those connections. I have a Facebook friend who is steadily trying to hook up with every single woman remaining from our old high school class. He’s been entirely unsuccessful so far, but he has made a spectacular effort. Marley, on the other hand, is living very much in the present, without regret, and enjoying almost every minute of it.

He posted no marriage photos on Facebook. When his wife gets pregnant, I’m sure I won’t see ultrasound images. But I will visit as soon as I can after his baby is born. And I’ll make every effort to remain his friend, even after all the reunions have passed me by.

I didn’t know that Apple gave out limited-edition t-shirts to the folks that were first through the doors of the new Apple Stores when they open. The opening of the Grand Central Apple Store was a few days ago and many of the people there for the opening were adding to the Apple t-shirt collection with new black shirts that had “Apple Store, Grand Central” on the front with a font that looked like a train arrival board.

Apple handed the shirts out to the first 4,000 people through the doors of the store. The odd part is that according to the WSJ, many of the people that get the shirts don’t actually wear them. The shirts go into bins as part of their collection never to be worn. Would you wait in line for almost a full day to get a free t-shirt?

[via WSJ]

What they’ve made here is a little bullet (or several bullets, as it were – each size for a different caliber) that has holes in it, grooves along the sides, and another hole in the back, all of this scientifically calibrated to bring your projectile launching to the newest in best-in-class accuracy and ease in use. Where this gets all technological on you is in the hyper-precision in which the Comp Bullet can be made — tolerances to the tenth of one grain, for example. And not only that, you can get your bullets modified by Comp to be +/- 0,005 of an inch larger or smaller. That’s a magnificently small amount of change.

And what are these bullets made of, you might ask? Surely not gold, that’d be completely idiotic — no way, these are made of a much more solid copper alloy. The way they work is that as the vents (the holes) allow gas out of the sides of the bullet, lubrication of the bullet occurs – sliding through the barrel with the greatest of ease. Once the bullet exits the gun, instead of a kickback you’ve got these same holes creating a muzzle brake, reducing your kickback greatly. Oh they go quite a bit faster too – velocity increase due to the rocket effect as they, again, leave the barrel.

The FireArm Blog let us know that there’s a few videos too – joy! Check out this video of these miracle beasts in action and make sure your SPEAKERS ARE TURNED DOWN:

You can buy 9mm bullets, .40 SW, .45, .44, or .30, so sharp it’ll cut your face off! And I’m sure if you ask them nicely, you’ll be able to get your own custom bullets in the future. Sound like a lovely deal to you? Now get out there and start shooting things less valuable than the bullets themselves!

[via Comp Bullet]

There is no word on where the financing came from at this point. The tip that the money had been raised came from an SEC filing. We aren’t exactly sure that the new round of financing will be used for. At this point, there is no official word from Zinio.

Perhaps they have something up their sleeve to allow more competition with Apple and other firms that have digital publications. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the new round of financing. Do you use Zinio? Which is better Apple’s digital newsstand or Zinio?

[via TechCrunch]

I can see Clooney as an older Jobs, but I think Clooney would have a hard time pulling off a younger Jobs. Another actor that is said to be vying for the role is Noah Wyle. Wyle would seemingly be the better choice since he is still young enough to play a young Jobs and could pull off the older Jobs too. Wyle also has the feather in his cap of having played Jobs already.

Wyle was Jobs in the flick Pirates of Silicon Valley. Jobs even invited Wyle to Macworld in 1999 to play him in an opening keynote. Who do you think would be the best actor to play Jobs in this movie? That nerdy looking kid that played in The Social Network would be decent I think.

[via The Register]

The new WolframAlpha flight search service that has just launched. If you see a big jet shining in the air above you at 36,000 feet you can ask WolframAlpha what flights are overhead. The search engine will use your location and tell you literally what flight that plane you see overhead is. If there are multiple flights in your area, it will give details on all of them.

The cool part is that it can tell you what altitude the flight is at and at what angle the plane is from you so you can find it. It also has details on the flights that show the type of plane along with the airline and flight number. The new “flights overhead” search query works on the desktop version of the WolframAlpha search and on the desktop version. This is the perfect thing for those “daddy, where is that airplane going” questions my daughter asks me each time we see a jet in the air.

[via Searchengineland]

The cube has been getting the install for a while now and the 5th Ave Apple Store is set to open today at 10am. However, the crew that was working in the store has finished their work and the first pics of the cube in the flesh have now turned up thanks to a reader at MacRumors. The new cube looks really cool.

Other than the reduction in the number of panes of glass used, the new cube also has no seams and almost all the hardware holding the panes is gone. Along with the new glass cube, Apple made a few other improvements with new drains for the plaza and some new pavers around the cube. If you end up at the store today shoot some pics for us too, it looks really cool.