Back in February we learned that a Raspberry Pi camera module was coming to market that would be priced at about $25. If the idea of a small camera board for your projects is exciting, you’ll be thrilled to hear that the camera board is now shipping. The device can be purchased at multiple online retailers, including RS Components and others.

The camera module sells for $25 and has a five-megapixel CMOS image sensor by OmniVision. That CMOS sensor uses 1.4 micron backside illumination pixel architecture. The architecture allows the camera to deliver five-megapixel resolution still images and high rate HD resolution video capture capability.

When the camera module is used record to 720p resolution HD video, it can do so at 60p. The camera card add on connects to the Raspberry Pi via the existing camera connector and uses CSI for data and I2C for control. Users can record both 720p and 1080p at 30 frames per second in H264 format.

The small camera add-on board measures only 20 x 20 x 10 mm and has an integrated flat ribbon cable for connection. The camera will work with both the Raspberry Pi Model A or Model B boards. Depending on the version of the operating system you’re using on the board, you may have to upgrade to be able to use the camera add on.

SOURCE: RS Deliveries

According to the report, the average iTunes user spends about $40 per year on music, apps, and other content. The report also shows that during the last quarter iTunes revenues topped $4 billion. Apple also believes it can maintain its impressive growth rate stating it has a $16 billion annual run rate.

Asymco says that the content portion of iTunes revenue during the last quarter was $2.4 billion, which is a significant increase from the $2.1 billion in the previous quarter. The growth into Q1 was expected because many iTunes gift cards given during the holiday season are used during January. iTunes revenues have grown at an average of 29% per quarter for the last six years.

Apple is now offering iTunes music in 119 different countries. Apple also has 35 million songs in its music catalog. Music isn’t all iTunes offers, movies are also available in 109 different countries and 60,000 titles are available. Another big market for iTunes is books with iBookstore available in 155 different countries offering a total of 175 million different books.

The App Store is now available in 155 different countries covering 90% of the world’s population. The report also notes that developers have created over 850,000 apps for Apple devices including 350,000 made specifically for the iPad. So far more than 45 million downloads have been made from iTunes and 50 billion downloads are expected by the middle of May.

SOURCE: Asymco

Arrested Development aired on the Fox network from 2003 through 2006. The show was so popular that fans have been clamoring for a return of the series or a big-screen movie for years. Neither of those ever happened until Netflix stepped in and announced in 2011 that it would be bringing Arrested Development back to television.

Of course, the caveat was that the new episodes will be available only for Netflix subscribers. Netflix has now put the Arrested Development season four trailer online and it appears that the show picks up pretty much where it left off when it was canceled in 2006. New episodes of Arrested Development are returning with the complete original cast reprising their roles.

One of the best things about Netflix’s original programs is that the streaming company puts every episode online at the same time. That means you can watch the first episode and if you’re interested the entire remainder of the season is available for you to watch all in a row. Netflix says that all 15 episodes of the series that have been made will be available as of May 26.

Each of the episodes runs 30 minutes long and will presumably be commercial free like all of the other content on the streaming network. It’s interesting to see the show return after a seven-year hiatus. I had a few shows from the past that I really liked to watch that were canceled that I’ve wished would return. I know I’m not the only one who has long hoped that Firefly would return to the air. I don’t see that whenever happening with the success of Castle for Nathan Fillion.

SOURCE: Mashable

The Google SMS Search service allowed users to search Google’s vast database via text messaging. Users will send a text message to a specific Google number, and Google would respond with search results via SMS at no cost to the user. However, I’m sure there will be a cost associated with text messages with your wireless carrier.

The SMS Search service had a bunch of shortcuts for users looking for specific information such as sports scores, local businesses, stock quotes, and the weather among other things. If you happen to be one of the users around the world that has a feature phone that is unable to get online, the termination of Google’s SMS Search service may bring tears to your eyes.

Google has officially announced that SMS Search has been shut down. If you send a search query to the SMS Search number, the response will be a message that says, “SMS search has been shut down. You can continue to search the web at Google.com on any device.” The shut down reportedly came abruptly on Sunday evening.

Google made no official announcement about shutting it down and the first warning users had was the message I mentioned previously. Strangely, the Google Mobile website reportedly still lists SMS Search, but if you selected it goes to a webpage that no longer exists. Google does offer other SMS applications for calendar, Gmail, and Google voice, which are reportedly still working.

SOURCE: Ghacks

I have a couple gadgets inside of me. One was forced on me; the other I chose. I made the choice in much the same way you’d choose a computer. I tried to future-proof myself. I chose an option that I could upgrade later. In the end, I made a decision that was not entirely rational, but rather based on passion and branding and aesthetics over performance. Like I said, just like a computer.

I’ll start with my leg, because it’s easier for me to talk about. I broke my ankle a few years ago. I was walking the dog on a very, very cold night in Newton, Mass, and the sidewalk all around the block was a track of ice fit for a speed skater. I took a bad step and slipped off the curb, and my tibia rotated wrong and crashed into my fibula, snapping it in multiple spots. I fell to the ground immediately, and that’s when I learned a couple things about myself.

First, I learned that I do indeed have a high tolerance for pain, something I’d always suspected but never bothered to prove. When the paramedics arrived to put me on a stretcher, they asked me to rate my pain on a scale of one to ten. I gave it a six. The worst pain I’ve ever felt, by the way, is a cracked tooth, which is about an 8, and it’s a great story, but for another time.

The second thing I learned about myself is that my body is capable of destroying itself with hardly any intervention from my mind. When they lifted me into the ambulance, with my foot askance and twisted, I asked if there was any possibility I could have dislocated it, instead of a break.

The paramedic told me: “well, anything you can locate you can dislocate.” But it was obviously broken.

I had titanium installed. The x-ray is awesome. I have an erector set in my leg, with screws holding me together. There’s no chance it can break again, I’m part fighter jet down there. I couldn’t walk for four months, and I was in pain and using a cane for another 2 months. I had an awesome rolling aid instead of crutches called a Roll-A-Bout. I highly recommend it if you break your ankle. I was faster on that rollabout than I ever was on both feet. When I needed a cane, I bought a high-tech, carbon fiber walking stick with spring loaded shocks and other features only useful for orienteering and nature photography. It made the suffering more palatable.

Now my only limitation is that I can’t stand on my tiptoe on that leg. When I tell people this they look at me like I’m telling them the old joke about the guy who breaks his hands and says to the doctor: “Doc, will I be able to play the piano when I’m healed?” The doctor says “Sure,” to which the patient replies “That’s great, because I could never play before.”

See, I’m a big guy. When people are meeting me for the first time, I’ll sometimes tell them to look for the biggest guy in the room, and that’s probably me. For the six months I was recovering from my broken ankle, nobody explicitly said it, but I know that my size must have been the reason such a shallow fall caused such a horrible injury. I’m not a 6’2″ basketball player jumping eight feet in the air to block a shot. I’m a six foot schlub who slipped off a sidewalk walking a 40 pound dog.

This brings me to the other gadget inside me. I have a device implanted in me called a lap-band. It’s like an inflatable donut . . . mmm, donuts . . . wrapped around my stomach. It makes my stomach smaller, and divides it into a small portion up top and the rest down below. This is supposed to be a weight loss surgery. You fill the donut with saline and it expands, contracting your stomach. Then, you eat less.

If you don’t eat less, you throw up. That’s actually a feature of the lap-band. It’s supposed to make you throw up. Also, because of where it’s located, higher up than your normal stomach, a full stomach actually feels more like choking on something at the bottom of your throat.

Is it any wonder this device doesn’t work? It sounds like high-tech torture. In fact, the lap-band has a shockingly low success rate. 70% of people who get a lap-band fail to lose weight. Your body adjusts to it. Your body naturally learns how to make you more comfortable, and you resume your old, horrible habits again. When I got the band installed, I lost a bunch of weight, then it came back.

I had other options for surgery, but they all involved heavy cutting and removing massive parts of me that would never grow back. The lap-band is reversible. In fact, I’m having it removed soon. I’ve already had it replaced once with a newer, better model. Now I’m having it taken out altogether. Time to try something different.

When you make the decision to have this band removed, the doctors will exclaim that the lap-band has failed. The euphemism of this choice is not lost on me. Let’s be honest, the band didn’t fail. My body didn’t fail. They did exactly what they were supposed to. They succeeded. I failed the band. The psychology of my thinking and habits overcame my physiology. I am weak. I take the blame. I have failed myself.

Perhaps this is why I’m sensitive to the power that psychology has over our choices, especially when it comes to technology. Technology buying should be a completely rational decision. I need this, therefore I buy it. I do not need to do that, so I will not buy something that does that.

We look down on people who make decisions they cannot rationally explain. We justify our purchases after the fact with rational arguments. I bought this phone because I have large hands. I needed a 60-inch television because I could not read the text on screen. I bought this watch because it is high quality and it will last longer.

We look down on the passionate, the irrational. We look down on people like me whose psychology has failed them. You bought a device you cannot understand, and you are a failure for not learning how to use it. You bought something because your friends all had one, and it made you feel good when you bought it, but you are missing out on all the capabilities of this other thing, the thing I carry with me every day.

I failed my band. The problems I have, which I pretend to understand, and for which I am regularly judged by people who also believe they understand, defeated me. I let them win. I am weak. I am passionate and I give in to irrational urges and desire. I have failed.

One day we’re going to see the utter stupidity in this form of judgment. One day we will understand the true power our subconscious minds hold over us. We will stop blaming people, and hating people, for making decisions based on emotion and passion. We won’t blame them when they fail the gadget, when we realize they may never have had the power to succeed.

The five programs that are covered in the licensing agreement include Jake and the Never Land Pirates, Tron: Uprising, Handy Manny, Special Agent Oso, and JoJo’s Circus. All of those shows are very popular with kids, and even some adults. The programming is built around multiple areas of child development.

Disney says that the shows help multiple areas of child development including physical, emotional, social, and cognitive thinking and creative skills. The children’s programming is also intended to help the moral and ethical development of kids who watch.

The programming will be available on the kids section Netflix. Like all other Netflix content, all five of the new Disney programs will be commercial free and included in the Netflix monthly service charge. Netflix has been adding a lot of content over the last several months and more content will be added in the future.

[via Netflix]

The new crowd-sourced funding site will be called FundAnything. Trump has even gone so far as to promise to fully fund some of the projects himself. Trump also promises to tweet about new projects on a weekly basis.

If you think this is nothing more than a clone of Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you’re right. Zanker says, “What I’m trying to do is bring crowdfunding away from the Brooklyn hipsters and bring it to the masses.” The launch of Trump’s crowd sourced funding initiative was naturally made in New York at the Trump Tower.

One interesting twist for FundAnything is that it will guarantee any backers of a project a return of up to $100 on their investment if a project turns out to be fraudulent. Naturally, FundAnything will charge a 5% administration fee on successful campaigns and a 9% fee on unsuccessful campaigns. Kickstarter and indiegogo both charge similar fees.

[via AllThingsD]

The FCC is now reportedly looking at an alternative for providing Internet service on aircraft. What the FCC is considering is the repurposed of some satellite airwaves in a proposal that is expected to move forward today. QUALCOMM is trying to get the FCC to free up some the airwaves currently used by the satellite industry.

This plan is still in the very early stages and while the FCC is set to vote today, that vote will only be to open the possibility up to public comment. Any actual implementation would likely be years away. QUALCOMM has reportedly been trying to get the FCC to make this move since 2011.

Internet speeds provided by the satellite service is expected to rival that of the speed provided by current ground-based solutions. QUALCOMM has a vested interest in pushing the FCC to approve this plan because it is the main equipment maker for airborne Wi-Fi networks and other companies are expected to bid on the new satellite airwaves and purchase the required hardware from QUALCOMM. Pushback the satellite industry is expected to be strong as many companies in the satellite industry hope to provide hardware and services for airborne Internet themselves.

[via Wall Street Journal]

What the Sherpa 50 is a solar powered recharging kit is designed to allow you to take your notebook computer and other devices completely off the electric grid. This might be the perfect thing for people who like to spend time outdoors camping and doing other things, but don’t want to be without their technology. After a year delay, the Sherpa 50 is finally available to purchase.

The solar recharging kit isn’t cheap at $399.95 (including the inverter), but it offers an interesting mix of portability and power for people on the go. This device isn’t only for the outdoorsy type, it would also significantly benefit business travelers who are away from an outlet for a long time. The device uses an internal lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 50Wh.

The battery pack itself weighs 1.1 pounds and measures 4.5 x 1.5 x 5.3-inches. The device has numerous outputs including a USB port, 12 V output, and a laptop port. It also features something called the sidecar port and can be fitted with an optional AC inverter adding a standard outlet to the connectivity options. To completely charge the battery takes five hours using the included solar panel, depending on the weather. The manufacturer says that once the battery is completely charged, it will charge a laptop in two hours. Recharging the Sherpa 50 battery from the AC outlet in your home or office can be accomplished in three hours.

[via GoalZero]

In November of 2012, the entire country was off-line for three days. The cause for the November Internet outage was laid at the feet of “terrorists” by the Syrian government. However, some experts believe that the November outage was perpetrated by the Syrian government.

Some of these Internet experts believe that the Syrian government blocked access to the Internet in November as it fights a bloody internal conflict. There was some suggestion that the reason for the outage back in November could have been the Syrian government trying to disrupt communications of rebels in preparation for some sort of offensive. Jim Cowie, a spokesperson for a web company called Renesys says that there isn’t enough information available to determine the specific cause of the blackout that occurred last night.

However, he did note that the current Internet blackout seems to be very similar to the one that occurred November. The BBC reports that Syrian residents report that while the Internet is down, mobile phones and landline phones are functioning normally.

[via BBC]

When the company ditched DRM, it said that DRM was preventing its buyers from using their legitimate purchases in perfectly legal ways. One of those perfectly legal ways that Tor said its readers were unable to use their books was in switching between different digital readers. The publisher has now offered up an update a year after it ditched DRM.

According to a company spokesman named Julie Crisp the company has seen “no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles.” You read that right, after having no DRM for a year the company says piracy hasn’t increased. Tor’s customers were very happy at the announcement that the company would remove any anti-piracy protections from its books.

Tor says that it’s authors were also very happy to sign up to have their books published without DRM. However, a letter the turned up from Hachette UK, another book publisher, said that the DRM free books from Tor would make it difficult for it to protect its own rights. In other words, Hachette feared it would be forced to follow suit with no DRM.

[via Arstechnica]

A new report has surfaced that indicates Google is now getting close to unveiling a video subscription service for some of YouTube’s special video channels. The report indicates that the goal of the subscription channels is to help finance a new range of content and give YouTube a second revenue stream. The role out of this subscription service has reportedly been in the works for months.

Google could announced the new subscription plans as early as this week. Subscriptions may be rolled out to as many as 50 YouTube channels according to people claiming to be familiar with plans. Viewers will be allowed to subscribe to each individual channel they choose for as little as $1.99 per month.

YouTube has offered no official comment on its subscription service other than saying that it was looking to create a subscription platform. While it’s unclear at this point which of YouTube channel partners will be participating in the subscription service, some possible partners include WWE, Howcast, The Onion, and others. Another person claiming to be familiar with the project stated that traditional cable and satellite channels were considering YouTube’s subscription service is way to generate revenue from older shows and new programming.

[via CNN]

Forbes reports that the weapon survived its initial test, which was handled by a budget remote system consisting of a long piece of string. That initial test saw the weapon fire a standard.380 handgun cartridge with no visible damage. The weapon was fired by simply pulling a string from a distance of about 20 feet reports Forbes.

The odd weapon used a number of 3-D printed springs, a trigger mechanism made using the 3-D printer, and other components. The only parts of the weapon that weren’t made using a 3-D printer were the actual.380 round and a nail used as a firing pin. Forbes reports that a second test using a.380 round, prior to the rifle cartridge explosion, resulted in a misfire.

Another test firing was also conducted that day with the same weapon using a more powerful rifle cartridge. The particular cartridge in this case was a 5.7 x 28 rifle cartridge. The gun was again fired using the long string remote method. The weapon didn’t fare so well this time and reportedly exploded into a cloud of 3-D printed shards when the string was pulled.

[via Forbes]

It really wouldn’t have to be much. A programmable RFID-type key that I could then use for a variety of purposes. I could tap my finger on the electronic gates to get into work. I could get into my car and start the engine simply by touching the door handle, then the steering wheel. It could be fun to pay with a finger. Just magically tap upon the NFC reader at the register and I’m good to go. Wave my bare hand at the gas pump. The possibilities are endless.

Also, a little dull. I love NFC in my phones and I guarantee I use it more than almost anyone else you know (spoiler alert: my day job is with Samsung). I’m talking about implanting something in my finger. It needs to be a step beyond the latest and greatest.

An LED would be fun. Something multicolor that I could control. I wouldn’t need mind control to change the hue or brightness. Bluetooth would be fine. I program my finger on my phone and when I tap against something it lights up. The E.T. effect alone would be worth the price of admission. I wonder if my son would laugh when I touch his bumped head with my finger and as it glows softly I whisper “Oooooouuuuchhh.” Probably he’d run screaming from the room, because Daddy’s fingers aren’t supposed to light up, and he hasn’t seen E.T. yet. So, maybe light-up finger is not the way to go. I need something more personal, less showy.

Therefore, laser pointer finger is also out. This is unfortunate, because the minute I thought of it I knew it had vastly more potential than LED finger. If it’s going to be my finger, I’d spring for the 1W blue-laser type, the one that can pop a balloon from less than 1 foot. I’d need a way to dial it back on command. Bluetooth again, perhaps, or a touch sensitive control. After all, you don’t want to fire off an astonishingly potent laser from your fingertip at the wrong time. You could be wiping an eyelash out of somebody’s face, or picking your nose, or dancing in some sprinkler-like fashion and end up causing serious harm. Sorry, closest-I’ll-come-to-having-a-real-lightsaber finger, it just isn’t meant to be.

I need to think more creatively. How about a camera? There is great potential in a camera that is a continual part of my body. I’ve occasionally imagined replacing one of my eyes with a camera – haven’t we all? I’ve never considered replacing one of my fingers. It would be easier to control the shot with a finger cam. The eyes are somewhat involuntary. If something crazy catches your eye, it will rush to the scene immediately. A finger, on the other hand, can take some direction. There is control and flexibility. I could control the perspective, the angle, the aperture.

Unfortunately, there are also many places a finger goes that should not be filmed. I’m going to let that last statement float in the air until you get my meaning. Actually, I didn’t have any specific meaning in mind. There are a ton of disgusting places you would stick your finger that should not be filmed, but you just thought of the worst of them. You are a sick weirdo. I was thinking of when I’m cleaning out a whole raw chicken. You, on the other hand, are a disgusting person. That is exactly why fingertip cameras will never work.

If not a camera, a speaker, perhaps? A small wireless speaker? There’s a lot of useful potential in a speaker. I could play music, then stick my finger in my ear to hear it. I could make a phone call, then stick my finger in my ear. If I wanted to whisper something to you without being obvious, I could record a quiet message, then stick my finger in your ear. Basically, what I’m saying is that my finger is going in an ear, like it or not.

What you’d really want with a fingertip speaker, though, is volume. Like enough power to get your groove on. I would love to point my finger at a crowd of people standing around at a bus stop and have my tiny speaker blast the opening from C+C Music Factory’s song “Everybody Dance Now!” If you’re too young to remember that one, it was like the 80′s version of “Harlem Shake.”

I also thought it would be cool to use my finger as a megaphone. I could talk into my phone and my voice would come booming from my hand. Unfortunately, when I think of practical applications, I only imagine myself shouting “Muad’dib!” over and over again.

In the end, if I could implant something, I would implant a whistle. That’s it. Nothing electric, just a simple whistle. Perhaps a slide whistle. Because the best part of having something implanted in my fingertip would be showing it off to kids. It would be friendly and unintimidating. Fun at parties. Great for impromptu sound effects. I imagine my son telling his friends about the cool trick Daddy can do, and then I use my finger to make a brilliant whistle, and watch while a bunch of 4-year olds stick their fingers in their mouths and blow heartily, trying to make a sound.

Had the dock surfaced off the coast of Japan, I think we would be on the lookout for Godzilla. The massive 650-inch tall rubber duck was created by a Dutch artist named Florentijn Hofman. It’s unclear exactly why the artist created this gigantic duck.

What is clear is that it’s strange and incredibly popular with kids. Hong Kong is the latest destination for the gigantic duck, it had previously been displayed in Osaka, Sydney, São Paulo, Auckland, and Amsterdam. Rather than actually being made from rubber, as you would expect of a rubber duck, it’s actually a gigantic inflatable.

According to the artist the massive duck had to be deflated due to high winds and big waves in the bay. The massive duck will be anchored in Victoria Harbor for display through June. This is the perfect opportunity for some pranksters to fill the bay with bubble soap.

[via Mercury News]

As it is now, most pizza restaurants, such as Domino’s Pizza, hide much of the pizza making process in a part of the store where consumers can’t see. If you order your pie for delivery, it doesn’t matter where they make it you’ll never get to see what’s going on. It could be interesting if pizza restaurants had cameras so you can see your pizza being made from home.

Domino’s has announced something new, and more than a little strange, called Domino’s Live. You aren’t likely to see your own pizza being made the using this new live camera system because the cameras are only placed in a restaurant in Salt Lake City. However, if you’re hungry you can watch somebody else’s pizza being made.

The cameras will be showing live footage during the restaurants lunch or dinner rush. The footage will be live and uncut patched together from five cameras installed in the restaurant. The program is a pilot that will run throughout the month of May. I can see the service potentially being a problem if the people on camera aren’t the cleanest of pizza makers.

[via Domino's Live]

These white goods would be things such as freezers, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and electric ovens. What officials in the UK want to be able to do is remotely turn off these sensor equipped smart appliances during times of peak demand to reduce the load on the electrical grid. Shutting down the appliances equipped with smart sensors would not require the owner’s approval.

Rather than simply turning off and leaving off devices such as freezers and refrigerators, the sensors inside will reportedly be smart enough to balance the strain on the electric grid with the temperature inside the appliances to keep the contents of your refrigerator or freezer from being ruined. The appliances would be able to switch themselves on and off for short durations of time. Officials say that appliances like refrigerators and freezers would be switched off “for a few seconds and only occasionally.”

The National Grid is a private company in the UK that supplies power to British homes, provides that power at 240 V and a frequency of 50 Hz. The sensors would reportedly reduce the risk of frequency fluctuations and balance power by switching off appliances in homes when the frequency of electricity drops to 47 Hz or less. The smart sensor initiative has reportedly received the blessing of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, which is a European Union energy regulator. The cost of adding the smart sensor will increase the price of an appliance by £40.

[via Hotforsecurity]

Roddenberry Entertainment and Wikia have announced a partnership to launch an online community portal called the Trek Initiative. The Initiative plans to give the millions of Star Trek fans around the world the place to talk and learn more about everything having to do with the Star Trek series and universe. The platform will also give fans a place to share local community projects and view exclusive content.

When the new Track The portal launches, it will have lots of Roddenberry content including a recording of a commencement speech that Gene Roddenberry gave in 1976. That particular speech spans 55 min. and during the speech, Roddenberry discussed the future of the human species and more. The portal will also offer fans images that haven’t been seen before from Gene Roddenberry’s personal life and from the set of various Star Trek movies and television episodes.

Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod Roddenberry, also promises to offer blog content for the site giving insight into the motivations behind the Trek Initiative and to give fans perspective from inside the family. The Trek Initiative will also serve as a gateway for all sorts of Star Trek content on the web offering links to various Star Trek websites.

[via Trek Initiative]

Some lawmakers and automotive manufacturers believe this hands-free technology is safer. However, a new study published by the Texas Transportation Institute now claims that some hands-free technology is just as dangerous as manual options while driving. Specifically, the study claims that it’s just as unsafe to send text messages using a voice to text service as it is to type the text manually while driving.

The study looked at drivers aged 16 to 60 that were tested on a closed course. There were 43 licensed drivers and they all used the same vehicle, a 2009 Ford Explorer. During the test for the study, each of the drivers drove four times for about 10 minutes at 30mph with one session performed while not texting at all, one performed while texting manually, one while texting using voice to text app on the iPhone, and another while texting using an Android smartphone and a voice to text app.

The study found that driver response times were slower no matter what text method was used than when not texting at all. The study claims the drivers took approximately twice as long to react to a change in the situation ahead when they were texting using either method than when they were driving and not texting all. Researchers involved with study also found that while performance is roughly the same with both text methods, manual texting actually required less time than using voice to text.

“That is not surprising at all,” says John Ulczycki, vice president of the National Safety Council. “We have believed that for some time, that voice-activated texting is not any safer. There are two reasons for that. First, the technology is not yet perfected. Messages often come out garbled, which can take even more time. And second, it’s really the same kind of mental concentration that’s involved here. They’re still taking their mental concentration off the road.”

[via USA Today]

Along with racking up very impressive quarterly profits, Netflix also added a significant amount of new subscribers putting the company on target to reach 30 million subscribers in the United States this quarter. Netflix also announced a new option for users who have multiple people in the home who like to watch Netflix at the same time. Netflix announced that is also going to be instituting a new $12 per month family plan.

The new streaming family plan will allow users to stream Netflix to up to four devices at the same time within the same home. Currently the standard eight dollar per month plan for Netflix allows two simultaneous streams. However, in my own house of been able to stream to three devices at the same time on occasion without issues. Netflix doesn’t expect a lot of people to jump on the new family plan stating that it expects less than 1% of its members to opt for that plan.

Some analysts have been calling for Netflix to crack down on account sharing. Reports indicate that as many as 10 million people are watching Netflix without paying for it by getting the password from friends or family members. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings isn’t worried about password sharing, he says that Netflix doesn’t believe there is much of that going on. However, Hastings does say that sharing passwords with extended family “[is] not what we would consider appropriate.”

I think there will be a lot of families who will take advantage of the new family streaming plan, particularly since it’s said to use personalized profiles. My daughter loves to watch Netflix and when she watches it’s always movies about dogs or horses. That means when I log on to watch Netflix every single recommendation for me is a kid’s movie based on what she watches. I would pay a few extra dollars per month to be able to watch what I want and get recommendations that are actually geared towards my tastes.

[via Gigaom and PaidContent]

“The fact of the matter is that we’ll have to develop some new social etiquette” Schmidt suggested. “It’s obviously not appropriate to wear these glasses in situations where recording is not correct.”

However, while some commentary has suggested that the public should be wary of Google’s “wearable eye” recording them, as Glass becomes popular and more widespread, Schmidt refuses to take full responsibility for the potential privacy issues. “Companies like Google have a very important responsibility to keep your information safe” the executive chairman concedes, “but you have a responsibility as well which is to understand what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and behave appropriately and also keep everything up to date.”

Keeping Glass up to date won’t be an issue, assuming the production version – which Schmidt says will arrive in roughly a year’s time – follows the same terms of service as the Explorer Edition already shipping to developers. One of the conditions Glass users must agree to is to allow the wearable computer to automatically update itself whenever Google pushes out new firmware; in fact, there is apparently no way to manual control the update process.

Similarly, Google will be capable of remotely disabling functionality on Glass units that is deemed unsuitable, such as if an app or service is found to contain malware or be used inappropriately. The headset will periodically check in on a “blacklist” of banned apps, services, and features, and removing any that are mentioned.

Nonetheless Schmidt argues that the same issues as are around Glass and privacy have been encountered for some time; “you have this problem already with phones,” he pointed out. Whether people will treat Glass differently, however, because it’s body-worn rather than handheld – and, as some involved in the project have discovered, is quickly overlooked by those around them – remains to be seen.

[via Telegraph]

To earn the patch the scouts will use E-line’s game design software called Gamestar Mechanic. The program for earning the video game design patch is being designed to meet Girl Scout patch requirements and the focus on the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math academic initiative. The Girl Scouts isn’t the only scouting program that offers merit badges to help encourage children to design video games.

Earlier this year, the Boy Scouts of America announced a merit badge for game design. That particular merit badge was officially unveiled at the SXSW Gaming Expo in Austin, Texas. The Boy Scout badge allows kids to design not only video games, but board games, dice, and card games as well.

The Girl Scouts and Women in Games International believe that creating a patch in video game design will help get young girls excited about technology and science. There’s no indication at this time of exactly when scouts will be able to earn the video game design patch. However, it does appear that the Girl Scouts’patch will be specifically for video game design unlike the Boy Scout merit badge, which allows the design of board games and more.

[via Polygon]

There will be eight comedy shows and six children shows for viewers to vote on. Several of the comedy pilots have big-name actors involved. The pilots include Alpha House, which stars John Goodman, and follows four US Senators living in a rented house in Washington DC.

Another of the comedy series is called Betas following friends working in Silicon Valley startups. Browsers is a musical comedy set in Manhattan following young people in their first jobs at a news website. Dark Minions is a cartoon about two slackers trying to living while working on an intergalactic worship.

Rounding out the remainder of the pilots include Onion News Empire, Supanatural (animated), and Those Who Can’t. One of the most interesting comedy pilots is Zombieland, a series based on the film of the same name. The kid’s series include Annebots, Creative Galaxy, Positively Ozitively, Teeny Tiny Dogs, and Tumbleaf. The pilots for all of these shows are available to watch and vote on now.

[via LOVEFiLM]

Soon, things changed, and homes had more telephones, providing a bit more leeway in the way communication was handled. It wasn’t until the introduction of the mobile phone that dramatically changed how we would communicate with others, and it caused a radical change in our lives.

Now, though, everywhere I turn, I find people with smartphones. From elders who grew up in a time when phone lines were shared to priests, just about everyone around us has a smartphone on their hip, in their pocket, or hiding in their purse. A smartphone isn’t just an accessory to many people, it’s an extension of their lives. And without it, there would be no way to live.

For me, such a scenario would be impossible to even fathom. Each morning, the first thing I do after saying good morning to my wife is check my smartphone to see if I’ve missed any important e-mails. I might also check the news to see what’s happening around the world. During the day, my smartphone is with me wherever I go, so I can send off a quick text, check e-mail when away from a computer, and surf the Web when I need to. Oh, and I might also place a call from time to time.

So, earlier this week as I was on my smartphone, I questioned whether I could stay away from it for just one week. What would my week be like, I thought. How would my life be different? Would things be better or worse?

I decided after thinking that that it was time I explored the possibility of living without my smartphone for a week. So, for the rest of the day and a bit into the next day, I was smartphone-free. It wasn’t long, though, that I was desiring holding my smartphone in my hand and checking things. It also wasn’t long before I had what might only be called “technology withdrawals” — a seemingly chemical response in the brain to not having something I rely on to such a huge degree.

So, before long, I gave in and got my smartphone. I’m weak, perhaps, or just not very good at controlling myself. In either case, I realized that, for me, living without a smartphone isn’t even an option.

The next question, though, is, such an addiction good or bad? I can be more productive with my smartphone, but that I actually have it in-hand at all times and can’t let it go might liken it to something much worse.

So, I pose the question to you: can you (or, perhaps, would you) want to live without a smartphone for a week? Is it easier said than done? Don’t scoff so quickly and think it’ll be an easy task; it won’t. Be ready for a challenge. And be ready for the withdrawals.

You may remember these small wooden logs with little dents in them that allowed you to stack and build all sorts of structures. Over the weekend, a new Guinness World Record was set in Lincoln, Nebraska. The record is for the tallest Lincoln Log structure ever built was set at the Lincoln Children’s Museum.

The massive structure measured 12’4″ when complete. The structure also broke the record for the largest number of logs ever used in a construct requiring 10,036. The previous record was held by a structure built in March of 2010 measured 10’11″ and used 2995 logs. That structure was built in Ottawa, Illinois.

The group of people who built the record-setting Lincoln log structure included a group of architecture students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an architectural group called the DLR Group. The build was challenging and required precision because one piece slightly off could lead to a big problem further up the tower. The entire built took over six hours to complete.

[via Journal Star]

According to TechCrunch, the mining of Bitcoins is performed by unlocking blocks of data that “produce a particular pattern when the Bitcoin ‘hash’ algorithm is applied to the data.” Considering that a single Bitcoin can be worth hundreds of dollars depending on the exchange rate, there are number of people all around the world keen on mining the virtual currency. However, reports indicate that as more of the virtual currency is mined, it becomes more difficult to find the next block of coins.

With increasing difficulty as time goes by, TechCrunch reports that many digital prospectors will spend more to find bitcoins than they can ever hope to make back. Reports indicate that bitcoin miners are using 1005.59 megawatt hours of electricity each day in their mining efforts. That works out to about $150,000 in electricity costs per day.

However, despite the high cost of electricity associated with mining activities reports indicate that on average most miners make money overall. Miners are reportedly generating $470,000 in revenue each day. Odds are that a number of large miners are making the bulk of that money. Some users have reported that the cost of electricity to operate a computer that continuously runs a mining algorithm costs more than digitally unearthed bitcoins are worth.

[via TechCrunch]

Read Petite will specialize in short stories and serialized content. Serialized content was big in the 19th century with novelists like Charles Dickens and others publishing novels chapter by chapter in newspapers and magazines. The problem for authors today is that short stories are hard to sell in physical formats.

However, Waterstone believes that short stories and serialized content would be well-suited to people who commute or don’t have time for a full-size novel. Read Petite will only publish content from authors that were already publishing with traditional book publishers. However, the material offered via the Read Petite service might be previously unpublished.

The Read Petite service is expected to launch towards the end of 2013. The service will carry a monthly fee of somewhere in the area of £5 and £12 per month. Waterstone will act as chairman of Read Petite, which was cofounded with three other people including Peter Cox, Neill Denny, and Martyn Daniels. The venture is currently seeking additional investors.

[via Telegraph]

ThinkGeek has teamed up with Scottevest to create its very own geeky gadget hiding jacket called the Tropiformer Jacket. The jacket is available in four different colors including blue, red, gray, and cement. The jacket features 22 different pockets arranged all around the jacket that are designed specifically to distribute the weight of all your needed gadgets for comfortable wearing.

If you live in a warmer environment, the jacket also has magnetically attached sleeves that pull off easily and quickly to transform the jacket into a vest. The jacket even has a larger dedicated tablet pocket and a special Quick Draw pocket. The quick draw pocket has a clear material on the inside of the jacket allowing you to operate the touch screen of your smartphone without removing it from the pocket.

The jacket even has its own patented personal area network that allows you to route internal cables for headphones and chargers. One of the more interesting features of the jacket is that it can pack away into itself making it easy to store. The jackets also water resistant to keep all your electronics safe even if you get caught in the rain. The jacket is available now for $149.99.

[via ThinkGeek]

Since Russia is no longer a communist nation, it may come as a bit of surprise to some that the Russian government has been making use of the new law that gives it the power to block certain Internet content within the country. The new law allows the Russian government to block content that it deems in illegal or harmful to children. Reports indicate that communications regulators within Russia have asked Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to remove content deemed objectionable.

The only website of those three that reportedly resisted the Russian government efforts to forcibly remove content was YouTube. However, YouTube did remove a video that Russian officials objected to that the Russians felt promoted suicide. YouTube did file a lawsuit in a Russian court objecting to the forced blockage of the video.

The video in question is reportedly designed to show how to fake wounds using makeup materials and a razor blade. YouTube says that this particular video is intended for entertainment and should not be restricted. Supporters of the Russian law say that it allows Russian authorities to control child pornography and content promoting drug use are suicide. However, those who oppose the law say that it opens the door to increased Internet censorship.

[via New York Times]

The shopping services available to select users (meaning you have to apply and be accepted) in San Francisco and the peninsula area spanning San Mateo to San Jose. The service has several participating retailers including Target, Walgreens, Staples, American Eagle, Toys “R” Us, Office Depot, the Blue Bottle Coffee franchise, and more. The service will cost participants somewhere in the area of $64-$69 per year, but official pricing is unconfirmed.

Testers who get in during the testing period will get six months of the service for free and same-day delivery. The coolest part is that products ordered using Google Shopping Express cost the same price as they do in store. It’s unclear if the same pricing via Google’s service and in stores will only be during the test period are not.

I don’t see how any money to be made if there isn’t an additional shipping fee or convenience fee added. Google is still taking applications to test the Shopping Express service. Users of the service can choose different delivery time frames to have their items brought directly to their home.

[via TechCrunch]

While Walmart rules in the retail world, Amazon dominates online. Walmart is looking at all sorts of ways to help improve its online sales and take back some of the online market it has lost to Amazon and others. One of the ways Walmart is looking to do this is by figuring out how to be able to ship orders more quickly to online buyers.

Reuters reports that Walmart is considering crowd source shipping. Walmart is said to be considering allowing its customers to sign up to be able to deliver packages to online buyers on their way home from the store. In exchange for delivering packages, Walmart would offer some sort of discount the cover fuel and presumably the delivery person’s time.

If successful, this crowd sourced shipping push would likely save Walmart some money and get customers their online purchases more quickly. Walmart CEO Joel Anderson says that he sees the path to ground sourced shipping. However, senior VP of Walmart US innovations Jeff McAllister says that crowd sourced shipping is only at the brainstorming stage. However, he points out that it would be possible in a year or two.

[via Reuters]

A new project has turned up on Kickstarter called the Smart Herb Garden that aims to make it easy to grow fresh herbs in the kitchen using technology. The people behind the project say all you need to do is plug the Smart Herb Garden into the wall, add water, and the smart growing device will take care of everything else. The device comes with special cartridges for basil, thyme, and lemon balm.

The company offers refill cartridges that will be available offering other plants such as chili pepper, mini tomatoes, peppermint, spinach, salad rocket, and other kinds of lettuce. The company is also working on some cartridges for strawberries. It’s not cartridges of seeds that make this garden smart, it’s the technology in the pot itself.

The high tech nature of this product comes in a growth medium, which is a nanotech material engineered to supply plant roots with the right amount of oxygen, water, and nutrients at any time. The company says this is the easiest indoor garden solution on the market. The device even has its own growing lamp so you don’t have to place your garden near a window. The lighting solution uses LED bulbs that require only six watts of power making it cheap to operate as well. The project is seeking $75,000 with 33 days to go and has raised over $50,000 so far. A pledge of $39 will get you your own Smart Herb Garden and three plant cartridges.

[via Kickstarter]

A common practice for consumers today is to go into a retail location where they can pick up an item they’re interested in, play with it, and see what it’s like. These people that often leave and go online to places like Amazon.com and others where they can order an item at a lower price without having to pay sales tax. Many retail stores, such as Target, are working with their suppliers to match online prices in their stores.

However, a brick-and-mortar store in Brisbane, Australia is taking a different tack. The store is reportedly some sort of specialty food store and has posted a sign that it will be charging five dollars per person to come into the store and “just look.” The store does note that the five dollar fee will be deducted when goods are purchased.

This seems like an incredibly ridiculous way to combat showrooming. This will certainly limit the number of consumers who walk into this specialty food store to see what the store offers and if they have anything that may be interested in. Very few people will be willing to pay five dollars to step foot into a store. The image included above is of the actual sign in the store window as it was originally posted on Reddit.

[via Consumerist]

Walmart has announced today that it is now expanding the iPhone scan and check out feature to 12 additional markets. The program is called Scan & Go and Walmart is bringing stores participating in the program to more than 200 stores from the current approximately 70 locations. Walmart began the pilot program near its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas in late 2012.

The program was later expanded to Atlanta and the latest increase will see it go even more locations. The Scan & Go service only works on the Apple iPhone, but Walmart says an Android version of the service will be available soon. The idea for the program is that shoppers can scan the barcodes on the items they want to buy using the Walmart app on the iPhone, iPad touch, or iPad.

The app will keep a running total of the costs of items they have put in their carts. Shoppers using the service can then go to the self-checkouts to pay, bypassing normal registers. As part of the program expansion, Walmart is also adding additional self-checkout lanes to many of its stores. Walmart says that about 1500 store locations currently have self-checkout lanes and another 1000 to 1500 stores should get the this year.

Walmart locations that will be getting the Scan & Go will be in the following markets: Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; Omaha, Nebraska; Dallas and Austin, Texas; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma; Wyoming; Bozeman, Montana; Seattle, Washington; San Jose, California; and Portland, Oregon. It’s unclear if users of the Scan & Go service to check out at the register automatically using the app and a traditional payment method or if users must still scan every item in their cart at the self-checkout lane. If any of you have used the service in your local Walmart, be sure and let us know how it works.

[via Reuters]

The new scale promises to be a one-stop health tracking scale with the ability to measure heart rate and air quality along with traditional measurements of user weight and body composition. The scale supports up to eight different users. The device is able to provide information on the users weight, fat mass percentage, and heart rate.

Withings says that the resting heart rate is a good indicator of overall physical health of the user. The product is able to recognize each of the eight different users and uploads information directly to the users dashboard on their smartphone for tracking. Other features of the scale include an air quality monitor that can keep an eye on environmental statistics such as temperature and carbon dioxide monitoring.

Withings says that carbon dioxide monitoring is important because high levels can produce adverse health effects such as poor sleep quality, headaches, dizziness, difficulty breathing, and more. The scale interfaces with an app that is available for the Android and iOS platforms. The app will show the user their body mass index, fat mass, and heart rate and the data can be shared with health professionals or tracked by the user meet their goals. The Smart Body Analyzer scale will be available starting March 20 for $149.95.

[via Withings]

The no-cost upgrade is available for customers who have a Sky+HD set top box connected to broadband service. While the on demand service will allow users to catch up on episodes of current programs that they missed, it will also offer a wide variety of catalog programs. Older shows available to download from the library using the on demand service include The Inbetweeners, Shameless, Spaced, Father Ted, The IT Crowd, and This is England’88.

Sky says that Channel 4 is also the first terrestrial network to offer its programs on Sky Go. Sky Go is the Internet and mobile TV service offered from Sky. Starting on Monday Sky Go users are able to enjoy Channel 4 and More4 their laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Sky says content from E4 and Film4 will be available in the future.

Content from Channel 4 for Sky customers that subscribe to Sky Go Extra will also be available to download for watching off-line. The ability to download the shows means that users can watch them off-line when no Internet connection is available or on the go without being subject to data charges. Film4 HD will also be coming to the Skyline up in September.

[via Sky]

One of the conference exclusive items is a Portal 2 Starfield Deco Turret LED Flashlight with sound. You can’t purchase this little device online, you can only get it in person at the conference while supplies last. The device will be offered on March 22-24th for $9.99. The actual flashlight portion of the turret is a red LED light and it has real sound effects from the video games.

The little turret is packaged in a gift box that looks like the one in the Aperture Investment Opportunity #3 video. The toy is 3.5-inches tall. Along with a special edition turret, ThinkGeek is also offering a gold pickaxe and sword from Minecraft. The foam golden sword will be available at the conference for $19.99.

The golden pickax will be available at the conference as well for $24.99. Both have the pixelated look the game is famous for and are full-size licensed replicas from the Minecraft game. Both of these products will only be offered March 22 the 24th while supplies last at PAX East 2013.

[via ThinkGeek]

There have already been some game apps for cats released, one of them had virtual fish that swim around and change direction when the cat hits the virtual fish with a paw. Friskies has announced another game specifically aimed at cats called Happy Wings that is available for download. This game features a hummingbird, moth, and a life-size dragonfly that fly around the screen.

Each time the cat touches one of those flying creatures with a paw, a point is scored. After a certain amount of points, the creatures begin the move more quickly making it more challenging for the cat. For its Friskies Hackathon, Purina is offering up prizes for teams of developers to create applications and games for our feline friends.

The contest will take place March 23 and 24th in California. The competition will have up to 75 programmers working in teams of up to five during the event. The grand prize winner will earn $15,000, second place will win $3000, and third place gets $2000. The grand prizewinner may also see their feline focused app offered by Friskies as part of its cat gaming portfolio.

[via Gamesforcats]

The survey found that 24% of millennials have a college degree, 34% are married, and 60% own a home. The survey also found that they have an average discretionary spend of $11,317 per year. Interestingly, the survey also found that 52% of the specific age group rate far above or above average when it comes to being early adopters of technology.

The survey also says that this age group is more likely than the rest of the US population to visit social websites and search sites looking for product details before visiting a retail website. One interesting finding from the survey is that millennials spend 14% more time engaged with their mobile devices in an average week than other age groups. Early adopter millennials are also 20% more likely to use a tablet than other millennials.

Breaking down the early adopter segment of this group even further finds that early adopter millennials are 32% more likely to use IM and chat services than the average millennial. According to the survey, other top activities for the early adopter millennial segment include reading digital media, listening to music, and e-mail.

[via Experian]

Those extras include free two-day shipping and the ability to upgrade to even faster next day shipping for a very small fee on any Prime item. For instance, if you go to Amazon and you need something quickly that is covered by Prime, an extra four dollars will have your item showing up at your door the next day.

Amazon has been quiet about exactly how many people have signed up for Prime. However, analyst R.J. Hottovy from Morningstar recently published a report estimating that Amazon can have as many as 10 million customers for Prime. The analyst’s report estimates that Prime could contribute as much as one third of Amazon’s overall operating income.

The information used in the report was gleaned from a survey of Amazon shoppers conducted by a market research firm called Consumer Intelligence Research Partners during November of 2012. Prime reportedly received a huge boost in subscribers when Amazon kicked off a 30-day trial membership along with its Kindle Fire tablet in the fall of 2011.

Amazon reportedly had about 4% of its 182 million active users signed up for Prime in 2012. However, that 4% of Amazon’s users accounted for 10% of all of its purchases and they spend nearly twice as much is non-Prime customers according to the report. Hottovy figures that even after you strip out shipping costs and the cost of licensing videos and books, Amazon made about $78 per Prime member in 2012. The subscription fee users pay is pure profit for Amazon.

[via Business Insider]