Monday, December 17, 2012

Mashable: Latest 25 News Updates - including “Windows Phone 7.8 Starts Rolling Out to Nokia 800”

Mashable: Latest 25 News Updates - including “Windows Phone 7.8 Starts Rolling Out to Nokia 800”


Windows Phone 7.8 Starts Rolling Out to Nokia 800

Posted: 17 Dec 2012 02:43 AM PST


Nokia has started rolling out its Windows Phone 7.8 software to some Nokia 800s, WP7.nl reports.

Microsoft's not-quite-WP8 update for devices which launched with Windows Phone 7 will also be coming to Nokia Lumia 510 and 900, but Lumia 800 seems to be first to take the plunge.

After the update, Lumia 800 owners can expect a number of upgrades, including resizable Live Tiles, more theme and accent colors, and a Bing-adorned lock screen.

As far as other WP7 handsets go, Microsoft said those will be getting the WP7.8 update in early 2013.

Image credit: Nokia

More About: Nokia, Nokia 800, Windows Phone 7.8, microsoft, windows phone

‘Quartz’ Grows Roots in Social, Mobile as Traffic Nears 1 Million

Posted: 17 Dec 2012 12:37 AM PST


It's been nearly two months since The Atlantic Media Company launched Quartz, a digital-only news publication for business readers, and traffic is growing at a steady clip. The news site pulled in 840,000 unique visitors in October and 860,000 visitors in November, per numbers provided by a Quartz spokesperson via Omniture.

Quartz, like The Economist and the Financial Times, covers global economic news through a macro lens. Its tone, however, is less formal and more conversational than your average business publication -- it's more "webby," you might say. With an editorial staff of 25, its coverage abilities are somewhat limited in scope, and so Quartz opts to go deep on a few key topics,…
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More About: kevin delaney, quartz, the atlantic

iPhone 5 Sales Top 2 Million on First Weekend in China

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 11:13 PM PST


Apple has sold more than 2 million units of the iPhone 5 in China, setting a new record for best first-weekend sales in the country.

The Cupertino, Calif. company made the announcement Monday, just three days after the iPhone's Chinese launch on Dec. 14.

"Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. "China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products."

The news is a turnaround for Apple, which saw its stock drop 4% in early trading on Friday, falling to as low as $509 a share over concerns about low demand for the iPhone 5 in China. Locals responded to the smartphone wi…
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More About: china, iPhone 5

8 Family-Friendly Holiday Craft Tutorials on YouTube

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 10:21 PM PST


1. Christmas Crafts for Kids


This video is great for young children. Former elementary school teacher Cherie Donohue gives a quick lesson on making handprint reindeer Christmas cards and tissue paper wreaths.

Click here to view this gallery.


It's December, which means colder weather. Plus, the holidays are just around the bend. If the kids are getting restless, cooped up inside all day, or if you're just looking for a fun family activity, a holiday-themed arts and crafts project is a great way to spend an afternoon or evening.

SEE ALSO: 14 Holiday Movies You Can Watch Online

If crafting sounds up your alley, but you're lacking inspiration, you might find that these eight YouTube videos will spur your creativity.

Scroll through gallery above for fun lessons explaining how to create various crafts. The projects range in difficulty from cute handprint reindeer cards to beautiful luminaries for your front yard; there's so…
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More About: Lifestyle, Video, YouTube, diy, features, holidays 2012

Offensive Tweets Demand Sunday Night Football Over Obama’s Newtown Speech

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 09:35 PM PST


While many Americans gathered around their televisions to watch U.S. President Barack Obama pay tribute to the victims of the Newtown shooting, others complained on Twitter about missing Sunday Night Football.

Several users of the microblogging service published offensive tweets that condemned Obama's speech for interrupting a game between the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patriots Sunday night. The president made remarks at a vigil for the victims of the Friday shooting at a Newtown, Conn. school.

The profanity-laced tweets included racial epithets directed against Obama, as well as demands for the return of the football game, which aired on NBC.

Obama you stupid sand ni…
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More About: Sunday Night Football, Twitter, barack obama, newtown, president obama

IBM: Computers Will See, Hear, Taste, Smell and Touch in 5 Years

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 09:00 PM PST


Today's PCs and smartphones can do a lot -- from telling you the weather in Zimbabwe in milliseconds, to buying your morning coffee. But ask them to show you what a piece of fabric feels like, or to detect the odor of a great-smelling soup, and they're lost.

That will change in the next five years, says IBM. Computers at that time will be much more aware of the world around them, and be able to understand it. The company's annual "5 in 5" list, in which IBM predicts the five trends in computing that will arrive in five years' time, reads exactly like a list of the five human senses -- predicting computers with sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.

The five senses are really all part…
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More About: IBM, cognitive computing, moore's law

5 Fascinating Facts We Learned From Reddit This Week

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 08:28 PM PST


1. There's poop on the moon.




Apollo 11 left a lot of crap at Tranquility Base, both figurative and literal. Among the things untouched since 1969: a U.S. flag, a pair of tongs, two empty food bags, a gold olive branch, two defecation collectors and four urine collectors. In fact, there's concern among World Heritage advocates that these droppings may be disturbed when space is commercialized. So if you take a moon tour in 2050, try not to step in anything, mmk? Image via NASA.

Click here to view this gallery.


One day, your children will fly to the moon to get a look at Neil Armstrong's poop. Don't believe me?

Check out this week's batch of Reddit Facts above.

Thumbnail photo via Flickr, NASA

More About: Science, features, history, reddit, reddit facts

Watch President Obama’s Speech at Vigil for Newtown Victims

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 07:52 PM PST


U.S. President Barack Obama expressed his sadness in a speech at Sunday night's vigil for the victims of the tragic school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

During the nearly 20-minute long address, Obama commended the six adults who died in Friday's shooting for their heroism.

"Dawn Hochsprung, Mary Sherlach, Vicki Soto, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel Davino and Anne Marie Murphy. They responded as we all hope we might respond in such terrifying circumstances: with courage and with love, giving their lives to protect the children in their care."

The president also stated the names of the 20 young victims, aged 6 and 7.

"Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Ana, Dylan, Madeleine, Catheri…
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More About: barack obama, newtown, president obama

10 Naughty Cats Versus Christmas Trees

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 07:00 PM PST


1. Jazzy Knocks Over Christmas Tree


Cat 1, Tree 0.

Click here to view this gallery.


Christmas trees are a huge temptation for cats. All those lights, twinkly decorations and dangly baubles can be too tantalizing for even the best behaved pusses.

We scoured YouTube for video footage of cats versus trees, and found 10 funny clips for your festive amusement.

SEE ALSO: 10 Adorable Animals Feeding Other Animals [VIDEOS]

Take a look through our cute collection of contrary kitties and Christmas trees in the video gallery, above. Let us know in the comments below if your cat has attacked your holiday decor.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Susan Adams

More About: Christmas, Entertainment, Video, Watercooler, animals, features, holidays 2012

Samuel L. Jackson Might Have Dropped the F-Bomb on SNL

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 06:30 PM PST


There's some brouhaha brewing over whether or not actor Samuel L. Jackson said "Fuuuuuh" or actually uttered the f-bomb on Saturday Night Live's most recent episode.

SNL cast member Kenan Thompson looked shocked after Jackson said his line and joked on camera, "That costs money," referring to Federal Communications Commission fines for profanity. Some say they also heard Jackson say "bullshit" during that same sketch.

SEE ALSO: Watch Tom Hanks' F-Bomb Slip on Live TV

Since Jackson allegedly said the word at around 12:35 a.m. ET, it's possible the FCC fines won't be as high. The commission's website notes that profane speech is banned between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

T…
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More About: fcc, saturday night live, snl, television

22 Best Mac Apps of 2012

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 05:32 PM PST


Adobe Photoshop Lightroom




$149.99

Click here to view this gallery.


Apple has announced its list of the best Mac apps of 2012.

Taking top honors is Day One, a $9.99 journaling app for iPad and iPhone that lets users write about their daily thoughts and memories. Entries into the journal are saved to iCloud or Dropbox, so they are synced across all devices.

CameraBag 2 was this year's runner up in the Mac App Store. The $14.99 photo editing app has 100 built-in styles and filters that can be used to edit photos, as well as more than 25 manual photographic tools to make any picture look its best.

Check out the gallery, above, for a look at the full list of Apple's favorite Mac apps this year.

Did your favorite app make the list? Tell us in the…
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More About: App, apple, mac

Amazon’s Monthly Visitors Could Fill 60 Disneylands

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 04:27 PM PST


Imagine Amazon is a brick and mortar store, with a sprawling parking lot and front doors that slide open as you approach. As you step inside, what do you see?

The number of products available on Amazon could fill 1,290 Wal-Mart Supercenters. If you've ever gotten lost in one of those shopping megaplexes, then this kind of scale should make your brain hurt.

SEE ALSO: Amazon Launches Kindle Apps in China and Two Other Stories You Need to Know

Luckily, this infographic, courtesy of 500friends, can help put it all in perspective. Check it out and thank the Internet gods that you will never get lost in an Amazon Supercenter.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, außerirdische sind
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More About: Business, amazon, infographics

Viral Video Recap Features Google’s Year In Review

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 03:31 PM PST


Cats, Felix Baumgartner, Psy and more cats -- this week's most popular and iconic videos feature everything from the inspiring to the adorable to the hilarious.

Google compiled a Year In Review video posted on December 12. The nearly three-minute clip starts with Baumgartner's jump from 24 miles above the earth and progresses into clips of other history-making moments this year: Oscar Pistorius' competing in the Olympics as the first athlete to have carbon-fiber artificial legs; clips from this year's presidential debates; images from the Arab Spring and the protests in Greece, plus some adorable animal videos that kept us entertained.

SEE ALSO: 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of
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More About: Santa, cats, snoop dogg, viral videos

Anonymous Publishes Personal Information of Westboro Church Group

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 02:41 PM PST


UPDATE: This article has been updated to reflect the different petitions that aim to classify the Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group.

Hacktivist group Anonymous published the personal information of members of the Westboro Baptist Church after the group announced on Saturday it would picket Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut where 26 children and adults were killed.

Anonymous published private email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses of various members, and teased the group about the hack on Twitter. Anonymous also posted a video condemning the group for "breeding hatred" and adding, "We will destroy you. We are coming."

The Westboro group holds p
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More About: Hate Group, hate speech, petition, westboro baptist church

PicsArt Transforms Your Smartphone Pictures Into Works of Art

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 02:23 PM PST


PicsArt offers more editing options than most photo apps to transform your pictures into detailed, professional-looking works of art.

More About: The Launchpad, apps, startup

9 Apps You Don’t Want To Miss

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 01:49 PM PST


Strum




Strum instantly turns your 15-second video clips into rock-and-roll masterpieces. The new video app comes with built-in filters, and when you add them to your video, they'll transform it into anything from a rap song to a love ballad.

Soundtracks are customized for your particular video, so even if you use the same filter on two different videos the results will likely be much different. The app has more than 20 different filters, including several themed filters for the holidays.

Click here to view this gallery.


It can be tough to keep up with all the new apps released every week. But you're in luck -- we take care of that for you, creating a roundup each weekend of our favorite new and updated apps.

This week we found an app that lets you create a movie video on your phone or tablet in just a few seconds, and a popular service for watching videos made its way to even more devices.

An app that lets you hail a cab directly from your smartphone rebranded itself this week, adding some new features in the process; and a popular mapping app finally made its way back to the iPhone.

Check out the gallery above for a look at this week's app highlights.

If you're still looking for more, check out…
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More About: App, android, iOS, iphone, weekly app roundup

Gun Control Petition is Most Popular Ever Posted to White House Site

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 01:26 PM PST


A petition asking the White House to immediately press Congress for tighter restrictions on gun ownership became the most popular ever posted to the White House "We the People" website after less than 48 hours online Sunday.

The petition was filed in the hours following an elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Friday that left 27 people dead, including 20 children. More than 120,000 people had signed the petition as of 1 p.m. Sunday.

Petitions posted to We the People that receive more than 25,000 signatures are guaranteed a response from the Obama administration. President Obama has pledged to take some action to respond to the shooting but has not yet offered specifics.…
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More About: White House, gun control, petitions, we the people

Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 12:50 PM PST


1. Selfie




"Cuz I'm Right Here, ain't nobody gotta hold ya." - Justin Bieber Photo stats: 55,400 retweets

Click here to view this gallery.


Cats, pop stars and camels. Check out this week's most retweeted Twitter pics.

More About: One Direction, Twitter, entertainment industry, galleries, justin bieber

How to Crowdsource Your Job Hunt

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 12:14 PM PST


With social media tools and the interconnected web, much of this research can now be crowdsourced through social channels.

More About: features, job search series, mashable

Top 5 Apps for Kids This Week

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 11:43 AM PST


1. PHLIP




Ages 4-up Overall rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars Why we like it: PHLIP is a spatial relations puzzle where you "flip" or turn your screen left or right, like a steering wheel, to change the orientation of the set of tiles, in order to reassemble the picture. You can use photos you take, or choose one from your photo library. Need to know: The more tiles, the harder the puzzle. You can lock any tile by tapping on it. The physical rotation of the device develops motor and cognitive skills and hand-eye coordination. It can also cause your heavy iPad to slip out of your hands. This is a game that works much better on an iPad Mini. Ease of use: 8/10 Educational: 9/10 Entertaining: 7/10 $0.99

Click here to view this gallery.


Chris Crowell is a veteran kindergarten teacher and contributing editor to Children's Technology Review, a web-based archive of articles and reviews on apps, technology toys and video games. Download a free issue of CTR here.

In this week's Top 5 Kids Apps, your kids can play with a spatial puzzle that lets them reassemble photographs they upload themselves. There's also a chance to learn and have fun with geography trivia and explore Australia with an illustrated story.

SEE ALSO: Raising Young Critical Thinkers in the Digital Age

Our friends at Children's Technology Review shared with us these 5 top apps from their comprehensive monthly database of kid-tested reviews. The site cove…
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More About: Top Kids Apps, contributors, features, mobile apps

‘I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother’ Post Sparks Intense Online Discussion

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 10:20 AM PST


Liza Long has a profound situation on her hands. Her 13-year-old son scares her. She says he has serious mental health problems, and she writes about her struggle and its larger implications in an essay that has gripped the Internet with its frank discussion of coping with mental health issues in children.

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, on blogs and social media, we're debating violence, gun control and mental health issues. We're searching for reasons why something like this could possibly happen. In her post, Liza writes that it's easy to talk about guns. But she thinks it's time to talk about mental illness.

In her moving essay, she writes in detail about her own son's illn…
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More About: mental health, newtown

Top 10 Tech This Week

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 09:48 AM PST


1. Barnes and Noble Nook HD+ Review




Barnes and Noble's large-format (9-inch) HD-screen entry, the HD+, is a quite similar to the 7-inch Nook HD, and is a tablet with a great screen and very good value. Read our full review. Photo by Mashable

Click here to view this gallery.


This week in tech was as interesting and diverse as it gets. There were gadgets, scientific developments, and of course, the much-anticipated and ultimately triumphant release of Google Maps for iOS.

Google finally rolled out its Maps app for iOS on Wednesday, ending one of the biggest controversies of the year, and giving iPhone users a good app to find their way home, at last. As expected, Google Maps puts Apple's counterpart to shame, and iPhone users rejoice.

In the futuristic developments department, scientists in Belgium are working on contact lenses with a tiny LCD display on board. Lenses like these could allow us to read texts or emails hands-free, with information displayed…
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More About: Top 10 Tech, Top 10 Tech This Week, trending

Twitter Rolls Out Downloadable Tweets to Select Users

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 08:58 AM PST


You'll soon be able to download all of your tweets since you opened your account, and some lucky users have already started doing so. Twitter has begun a gradual rollout of the ability to download every tweet you've ever created into an archive that resembles a calendar.

Everyone has access to a few thousand tweets they've posted to the site, but the ability to download all of your tweets is only available to a select few users so far. The first appearance of this capability confirms the multiple promises of Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to make downloadable tweets a reality by the end of 2012. In a statement last month, Costolo said:

"By the end of the year I've already promised this,…
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More About: Twitter, downloadable tweets

Huge Asteroid’s Earth Flyby Caught on Video

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 08:05 AM PST


A new video captures the giant asteroid 4179 Toutatis tumbling through space on its flyby of Earth.

The asteroid Toutatis video, which is about 40 seconds long, combines 64 radar images taken Wednesday and Thursday (Dec. 12 and 13) by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif. On those days, Toutatis was about 4.3 million miles (7 million kilometers) from Earth, or about 18 times farther away than the moon is.

The new radar images — which have a resolution of 12 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel — show the 3-mile-wide (5 kilometers) asteroid in striking detail. Toutatis is revealed to be an elongated, irregularly shaped object with multiple ridges, researchers sa…
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More About: Asteroid, Video, space

Silent Night: ‘SNL’ Presents a Moving Commemoration of Newtown Tragedy

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 07:22 AM PST


Saturday Night Live presented the New York City Children's Chorus at the beginning of its live broadcast, singing a simple a cappella version of "Silent Night" in commemoration of the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy.

What an appropriate and touching tribute to the victims.

Video and photo courtesy NBC, SNL

More About: newtown, saturday night live, snl

Google Analytics Shows You What Bad Web Practices Look Like in Real Life

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 09:17 PM PST


Using a series of cautionary (and hilarious) YouTube videos, Google Analytics shows examples of poor web design and digital marketing -- but in real life.

Specifically, the service counsels companies on landing-page optimization, site search (see video above) and online checkout, by re-imagining these tools as situations in a grocery-store setting. Poor search, for example, is illustrated by customer Oli's difficulty in finding semi-skimmed milk due to inaccurate and restrictive search definitions.

In a blog post, Google Analytics makes recommendations on how to improve companies' online customer experience.

Check out the remaining videos, below; then, tell us what you think in…
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More About: google analytics, web design

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