The Internet Weighs About as Much as a Strawberry

Last week, the world was shocked—shocked!—to discover that downloading an electronic book to a device such as a Kindle actually increases the weight of the Kindle. Not by any truly measurable amount, said the New York Times, but still: adding data to a device apparently results in trapped electrons which "have a higher energy than the untrapped ones." And though the amount of data contained in a tiny e-book file is so miniscule as to render it...

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'Anonymous' Abandons Attack Against Mexican Drug Cartel?

Just days after announcing its intent to reveal information about civilians who have assisted the Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, the group has seemingly backed down for fear of possible violent reprisals. REUTERS Two apparently self-identified Anonymous members, Skill3r and Glynnis Paroubek, were quoted in Mexican newspaper Milenio as saying, "We didn't want irresponsible administrators to condemn participants [in the operation] to death. We've discussed it extensively and we all decided to remove it." This statement follows a post on the Anonymous Mexico Facebook page that reads in part: "Our fight is not of this kind and our ideals are not in tune with that operation. The note [announcing Operation Cartel] published in many electronic...

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Our Friends Electric: Facebook Info Open to 'Socialbot' Snooping

Perhaps it's time to start paying more attention to whom you're friending on Facebook. A recent study designed to evaluate how safe social networks are from being invaded by programs pretending to be real people resulted in more than 250GB of personal information being collected from thousands of Facebook users by the researchers' "socialbots." NORBERT VON DER GROEBEN / REUTERS Researchers from the University of British Columbia's Vancouver campus released 102 socialbots onto Facebook as part of the eight week study, each one given a name and a profile picture so as to better convince real users that they were, in fact, entirely genuine. Each bot then proceeded to send 25 friend requests per day—limited to prevent setting off spam alerts—and...

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Samsung Bests Apple In Smartphone Sales

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co overtook Apple Inc as the world's top smartphone maker in the July-September period with a 44 percent jump in shipments, and forecast strong sales in the current quarter in a clear warning to its rivals. Samsung only entered the smartphone market in earnest last year, but its sales have skyrocketed thanks to a sleek production system that rapidly brings new products to market. Apple introduced its first iPhone in 2007. "In the handset division, Samsung has no real rival models to challenge its products except for the iPhone 4S. Apple and Samsung will continue to dominate the market in the fourth quarter," said Kim Hyun-joong, a fund manager at Midas Asset Management, which owns Samsung shares. Profits...

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Google Can Now Index Your Comments Made Through Facebook

I know that you, fair Techland readers, are always civil in the comments section. Those who aren't might want to think twice about saying something nasty, as Googlebots (a.k.a. Google's infamous web spiders) can now index website comments from engines like Facebook, Livefyre and Disqus. Before, the fact that those commenting engines used JavaScript meant that Google couldn't read or index them. Now, however, Google SEO guru Matt Cutts confirms via Twitter that "Googlebot keeps getting smarter. Now has the ability to execute AJAX/JS to index some dynamic comments." Digital Inspiration points out that you can now search for all the comments someone has made via Facebook's commenting system by searching for something like "commenter name...

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Pluto — No Longer a Planet — Has a Twin Sister

If Pluto's looking for someone — or something — to blame for being drummed out of the planetary corps back in 2006, it need look no further than Eris. The solar system's ninth planet had long had its detractors — purists who sniffed at its tiny size and irregular orbit — but it was in 2005 things came to a head. An artist's rendering of the dwarf planet ErisNASA That was when Caltech astronomer Mike Brown found a tiny, frigid world orbiting some three times further out than Pluto. Brown had been finding similar objects in the Kuiper Belt — the massive band of comet-like bodies that circles the solar system — for years. But all of them were smaller than 2,320 km (1,440 miles) across, the modest dimensions of Pluto. Eris (which Brown...

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Why We Can’t Buy Happiness, But Try to Anyway

In 1972, the percentage of Americans who said they were “pretty happy” was about 50%. In the years since, the U.S.’s standard of living has risen dramatically, and our gross domestic product per capita has increased by 96%. That means we have more, we consume more and we can afford more. But today, what percentage of Americans say they’re “pretty happy?” Fifty percent. In a new book out Nov. 8, Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy, Marketing Professor Dr. James Roberts analyzes why we buy more, more, more but just don’t think we’re any better off. In fact, we seem to think things are even worse. In your book, you write that over the last several decades, we’ve consumed more and more products,...

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7 Healthy Foods as Sweet as Candy

Don’t be haunted by your sweet tooth; simulate a sugar rush with these tasty and healthier treats This time of year, the ubiquity of candy summons a monsterlike sugar craving in all of us—which can be more terrifying than the latest slasher flick when it comes to sticking to aweight loss plan. With its often-astronomical sugar content, candy’s clearly not the best choice for your diet. So instead of looting the nearest kid’s Halloween spoils the next time a sweet tooth haunts you, reach for these healthier, but just as sweet, suggestions from Marisa Moore, RD, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Dried Fruit Are you gaga for gummy snacks? Opt for dried fruit, which contains far fewer calories and grams of...

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The Coolest Cameras in The World

8 Coolest Cameras in The World Panoramas like never before Digital cameras are constantly evolving. The sensors get bigger, the mega-pixel count higher, and thus the images produced improve. But innovation and evolution can also throw up some interesting anomalies, as these amazing cameras show. For example, if you want to create a digital panorama you usually have to stitch together the pictures using an app or PhotoShop. The Seitz 16 x 7, however, has been designed to capture perfect panoramas in seconds. Up to 160 million pixels are packed into each shot, so every photo looks vibrant and sharp enough to step inside. For creating incredible epic landscapes, capturing architectural wonders or vibrant city scenes, the Seitz 16 x 7...

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5 unique auto insurance policies

New products introduced this year are offering unconventional coverage, from pet injury insurance to a vanishing deductible. Insurance with a difference Let's face it, car insurance policies are about as exciting as Hello Kitty Snuggies. Chances are, you haven't even read your auto policy cover to cover, unless you did so in a desperate move to lullaby a colicky child to sleep. But this year, five new car insurance offerings hit the streets with enough thunder to wake the masses. Two of these hot new products kicked off with equally funky national TV campaigns -- the commercials are for Vanishing Deductible from Nationwide Insurance, in which an insurance spokesman vanishes, and Better Car Replacement from Liberty Mutual,...

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6 sites transforming how you shop

It's not always about brand extension. These 6 small websites are pointing consumers to new strategies for buying, selling and trading merchandise. Over the past 15 years, the Internet has transformed society. It has generated an entire industry, revolutionized commerce and altered the ways people communicate, connect and build relationships. From a commercial perspective, online shopping has generated a shift in consumer behavior. According to two studies by the Pew Research Center, this shift is far from over. In September 2010, 58% of Americans went online for information about products to buy, up from 49% six years earlier. The six companies profiled here are building strong momentum in the realm of online shopping. Their...

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Snow smacks Northeast; power could be out for days

Lights out for 3 million; travel snarled; 2 feet of snow in areas; 3 deaths blamed on storm SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. — Millions of people from Maine to Maryland were without power as an unseasonably early storm dumped heavy, wet snow over the weekend on a region more used to gaping at leaves in October than shoveling snow. The snow was due to stop falling in New England late Sunday, but it could be days before many of the 3 million without electricity see it restored, officials warned. At least three deaths were blamed on the weather, and states of emergency were declared in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York. The storm worsened as it moved north, and communities in western Massachusetts were among the...

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