Don’t worry though if you are a GoDaddy customer already we have a pile of GoDaddy Promo Codes that do not expire that can be used at anytime.

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The scientists have created an implant that is designed to enable people who are paralyzed to move a robotic arm and hand by using their mind. It is quite remarkable! The implant consists of a sensor chip that is about the size of a baby aspirin. It is implanted directly onto the motor cortex of a person’s brain. This is the part of the brain that controls movement.

The sensor picks up signals that are generated by a person’s brain cells while the person is thinking about moving his or her own arm and hand. Those signals are sent through a wire to a device that connects with a computer. The computer has been taught to read the signal it receives and to translate that signal in order to tell a robotic arm what to do. Together, this allows a paralyzed person to move a robotic arm and hand on their own, just by using their brainwaves.

Here is a video created by the BrainGate Corporation that shows a woman who is paralyzed using the BrainGate Neural Interface System to move a robotic arm and hand. The video also explains more of the science behind the system.

Image: Brain by BigStock

I am really not looking for a TV made by Apple. I have no doubt that Apple has the technical know how to make an awesome TV, including retina display and Siri integration. That is not where the problem lies, the problem lies as always with content. Apple somehow has to convince the various content providers to allow their content to be used. Something that Google has been unable to do with the Google TV. Let say they get the content providers to agree to an arrangement, that is just the first problem. Then they have to get the content to the consumer through cable companies like Comcast, which has already shown that they will favor those who have an agreement with them over independent content. Third, it will have to convince consumers that purchasing a new HD panel is worth it. A panel which will probably be over 1,000 dollars if Apple’s history is any indicator.

Instead of creating a whole new TV, I wish Apple would improve the Apple TV they already have. They need to open it up to more third-party video platforms like Plex or XMBC. That way I could watch content not only from providers such as PBS or Aljazerra or HBO Go, but also live streaming from Ustream, Justin TV or YouTube to name a few. Second open up the platform to games and allow third-party vendors to create wireless controllers. Yes, I know a lot of this can be accomplished by jail breaking the Apple TV, but I shouldn’t have to do that. Plus if you do jail break the Apple TV, than you are always in this constant game with Apple. They do an update and you have to wait for the new jailbreak to come out, they do another update and it’s another jailbreak and on and on.

I know I am probably wrong the current Apple TV will continue to remain what it has always been for Apple just a hobby and this fall just in time for the holiday season, there will be an Apple TV monitor for sale in the Apple Store. The Apple pundits will write about it like it is the next coming.  I and all the other Mac fans will be drooling over it, wishing we could afford it.  Meanwhile the hobby which could be so much more will continue to be ignored, I just wish it wasn’t so.

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The 200Mbps Powerline AV Wireless N Access Point, model TPL-310AP, allows users to create a wireless network from any outlet on their electrical system.
Connect one adapter to your network and plug in up to 15* other adapters for high speed network access. Connect adapters quickly using the convenient one-touch Sync button. Advanced AES encryption provides optimum Powerline security, LED displays convey device status for easy troubleshooting, and Quality of Service technology prioritizes video, audio, and online gaming.
The built in 300Mbps*** wireless n access point offers Access Point, Client, WDS, and Mesh mode functionality. One-touch Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) connects wireless clients quickly. Advanced features include 4 SSIDs, different encryption for each SSID, WMM Quality of Service data prioritization, WPA2-RADIUS encryption, MAC Access Control, and Spanning Tree support.
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Octa Vacuum dock with Whale Tail

If you are looking for a way to hold your iPad, maybe your hand hurts after a while, then this dock might be something you want to look at. Octa has an iPad Vaccum dock that puts your hand in the middle of the iPad. Best part – you can use this for your iPad, Macbook Air, Kindle, Nook, or any other device 3 1/2 inches in circumference.

The Octa is a half-ball with a suction cup affixed to the flat end. Affix the suction cup to the device, and press the button. The suction technology affixes the Octa to the iPad. You can even attach to an iPad case, if the surface is flat and non-porous.

Place the cup on the back side of the tablet, then push the button 5 times. That will create a suction to the device. To remove, you lift the rubber tabs to let air into the surface area (make sure you have a good hold on the tablet).

Octa Whale Tail

Affix the Octa on a non-porous wall to hang your iPad

The Octa Whale Tail is an adapter you can connect to the Vacuum Dock. It looks exactly like a Whale tail. This allows your iPad to sit upright. It also lets you set your iPad at a better angle when you are sitting in a reclined or feet up position. You can also reverse the Vacuum dock and use the tail as an iPad holder. Attach the dock to a non-porous wall (or the back side of an airplane tray in its upright position), then bend the tail so it holds the tablet.

I’ve been using the Octa Whale Tail for a couple days now, and I am really impressed. By putting my hand in the middle of the iPad, my hand doesn’t get tired. The tail can also mold around your hand for an ergonomic feel. This would be perfect for someone that has to hold a tablet all day – maybe a poll taker, a wait staff (if they have an iPad POS), a teacher, a speaker and more.

The Octa Vacuum with Whale Tail is $49.95, and available now.

*Customers of Comcast’s least-expensive Internet plans (Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance) would receive 300GB of data per month. Those who subscribe to faster plans would get “increasing data allotments for each successive tier of high-speed service.” Anyone who still exceeds the limit could purchase more data—$10 for 50GB.

*All Comcast customers would get 300GB data caps and could purchase extra data for $10 per 50GB

If you are a heavy user than of course you would want to for them to go with the first plan which would allow you to choose a plan for the amount of data that you use. Comcast will be testing these options in various locations this summer. Comcast says they’re doing this because of the increase use of devices such as the Roku, Apple TV, iPad and many other devices. Comcast said that the reason they had the usage threshold was they wanted to make sure that all users were treated fairly. Comcast also insists that it treats all video coming thru the public Internet equally no matter if it comes from Netflix, iTunes, YouTube or any other source. Critics of Comcast are quick to point out that Comcast videos that are streamed to the Xbox doesn’t count against the cap, although the same video from Netflix would, which means that they are still favoring themselves over third-party vendors.

This is a good first step and one that is necessary in today’s world where more and more people are cutting the cord and streaming their videos off the Internet.

We know that the moon circles the Earth. However, the moon doesn’t travel in an exact circular path. Instead, it is more like an elliptical orbit. This means that the moon will, at certain times, be a little bit closer or a little bit farther from the Earth than usual. The moon’s orbit can vary from 221,457 miles to 252,712 miles away from the Earth.

When an annular eclipse happens, it looks like the moon is passing in front of the Sun. The moon won’t appear to completely block out the sun, though. This is because on May 20, 2012, the moon will be closer to the Earth than usual, at around 225,000 miles from us. The result is that the moon will look as though it has a bright ring of fire surrounding it.

Not everyone is going to be able to view the upcoming annular eclipse. It will be visible to people who are in southern Oregon and northern California, and it will become visible to people who are in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.

Much of the rest of the United States will be able to see at least some of this special eclipse. Those of you who live on the east coast of the United States will not be able to see this eclipse because the Sun will already have set. The eclipse might be visible in parts of China and Japan as well, unless the weather causes too much cloud cover while the eclipse is happening.

Obviously, one should not stare into the Sun. You shouldn’t stare directly at an eclipse, either. I highly recommend that you do a little homework and learn about what you need to do in order to safely view an eclipse. It is a special eclipse, but, your eyesight is even more precious. Be smart, and be careful!

Image: Solar Eclipse by BigStock

Their current model, the Huawei E586, is shortly to be joined by a budget version, the Huawei E5331, according to today’s press release from Three. Like the original model, the E5331 offers HSPA+ with a theoretical download limit of 21 Mb/s and a battery life of 4.5 hours. There’s no word on what the budget price will actually be but you can buy the E586 for £50 upfront with a £15 / 5GB no commitment rolling contract.

The budget E5331 has a narrower longer screen showing signal strength, no of connected devices, battery strength and waiting text messages. The MiFi supports up to five devices at a time.

Mark Brewer, head of mobile broadband at Three said, “As the market leader in mobile broadband it’s great to be able to bolster our range with yet another high speed mobile Wi-Fi device. The Value MiFi offers fast browsing and a seamless streaming experience, all on Three’s award winning mobile broadband network.”

I will be reviewing the Huawei E586 for Geek News Central shortly, but these are very handy devices. It’s much more cost effective to have one of these serving multiple wifi-only tablets than it is to buy 3G devices and multiple data contracts.

To be honest the new Bing is a little disappointing, since it only connects to Facebook directly. If you do a search and your friends don’t use Facebook than none of their suggestions show up. There is a limited connection to Twitter, but not surprising there is no connection to Google Plus If you do a general search for movies, then you get two sections Friends who might Know and People who Know. Under People who Know you see tweets from people like Roger Ebert on the subject. So far the subject movies is the only search that has brought up People Who Know section. I hope that is just a temporary situation, because I am more interested in what Roger Ebert thinks about a specific movie rather than what he thinks of movies in general. This would be true of any subject and expert. Most other searches I tried have been fairly weak on the social connections. Part of the problem I will admit is I don’t have a lot of connections on Facebook, however based on my reading I am not the only one that ran into this problem.

The new Bing does have somethings going for it, first the social interaction is to the side and it doesn’t interfere with normal search. Second you can close or open the search column by hitting the arrow on the top right side. I suspect despite these good points, I will continue using Google as my main search engine.

Paul Thurrott, writing over at WinSupersite, said he had problems getting the service to work and had to try three different browsers before being successful.  Using Chrome I had no problems with the new Bing on the first try, but your results may vary.

By default, bing.com/new takes you to a search results page for the subject “movies” and you will find recommendation from your Facebook friends appearing to the right of the main search results.

On the whole I found the new interface to be a bit more appealing than the previous version, although if you use Google for the simple, clean look then this probably isn’t for you  So, have you tried out the new Bing?  What do you think?  Let us know in the comments below.

The virus is called M13 bacteriophage. As the name implies, it only “eats” or attacks, bacteria. It is not able to cause harm to humans. It is a genetically engineered virus that can manufacture more of itself when water is added to it. How many more? According to Professor Seung-Wuk, “trillions or jillions” more.

The M13 bacteriophage virus has piezoelectric properties. The viruses are long and thin and have a tendency to line up next to each other, (like pencils in a box). When pressure is applied to the virus, it produces a charge. Right now, the viruses are able to generate about 25% of what comes from a AAA battery.

The hope is that in the future, scientists will find a way to use the M13 bacteriophage virus to make small, personal, generators. The generators would collect the energy from movement, such as walking or typing on a keyboard. That energy can then be used to charge your cell phone. There is potential that the virus could be used to create a self-sustainable electric source that can be implanted in the body in place of a pacemaker. The possibilities are endless!

Google, while maintaining their strangle-hold, has not seen an increase since late 2011, but that changed between March and April when their market share increased from 65.5% to 65.9% according to Compete rankings.  Meanwhile, ComScore showed a slight Google decrease from 66.4% to 65.5%.

According to Compete Bing increased their share from 18.0% to 18.3% and Yahoo dropped from 15.7% to 15.0%.  ComScore listed the changes as Yahoo being down from 13.7% to 13.5% and Bing with a slight increase from 15.3% to 15.4%.

While the slight increases for Bing sound promising it seems that most of the gain come at the expense of Yahoo and not Google.  That isn’t so good since Bing now powers Yahoo search.  Bing has recently released a series of updates that add better search results, functionality, and interface which could lead to another increase when the May numbers are released.  You can check out both share rankings posted below.

In this show I have a great variety of tech news and information to share with your enjoy the show and be sure to listen to win.

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The popular rock band Counting Crows are going BitTorrent.  The band has made four songs off of their latest release available for free download in an effort to attract new fans.  The album, titled Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation), was released last month and features15 tracks.  In a departure from their past, the Crows have made this CD a collection of all cover songs.

The BitTorrent release features not only the audio files, but also liner notes, and artwork from the album.  Frontman Adam Duritz, during an interview with Mashable,  said “I don’t know how I didn’t think of this earlier — it’s the most obvious thing in the world since BitTorrent has such a huge global reach.  It’s not just about getting music to the people who would buy it anyway — even though that is, of course, very good — the hardest thing to do is make new fans.”

Kudos to the Counting Crows for taking this route and seeing the benefits that many, or most, artists and labels seem to be clueless about.  Getting their music out there for people to hear is the first step towards gaining new avenues of revenue.  Some fans may elect to buy the CD’s, but even those who don’t will perhaps spend money on a concert ticket or, at the least, promote the band to other listeners.

This approach may seem like a no-brainer for established stars who already have fans looking for their material, but it is a bit tougher for the unknown artists who want to get noticed.  However, this may generate the publicity to get more bands to take this approach, and there are some great success stories from those who have taken the free approach early – just ask Jonathan Coulton or the guys from OK Go.

If you aren’t familiar with Idapt, their system offers a wide selection of charging tips that are snapped into a charging station which has anything from one (i1 Eco) to three (i4) changeable charging points. The benefit is that the charging station can be uniquely customised to your mobile device usage. For example, your phone might have a micro-USB connector, your iPod has an Apple connector and your Nintendo DSi has its own connector. By using the relevant tips, all three devices can be charged at once. Geek News Central reviewed the Idapt i4 earlier in the year.

Within this context, let’s take a look at the i1 Eco. Out of the box, you get a the i1 unit itself, a mains power connector, a USB power connector, a car USB adaptor and three charging tips – mini-USB, micro-USB and Apple.

The main unit takes only one of these at a time, but there’s an additional full-size USB port on the side, so two devices can be charged simultaneously.

The i1 Eco can be powered either from the mains or from a USB power source: the cables interchange at the lime green coloured multi-connector. As you can see from the picture below, these are standard connector types, namely micro-USB and IEC “shotgun”.

The power transformer is incorporated into the body of the Eco 1 so there’s no “wall wart”, only an ordinary plug on the end of the cable. The advantage of this will become clear shortly and when buying the i1 Eco, UK, USA or Euro mains plugs can be specified.

At the other end of the Eco 1 is the socket for the charging tips. These pop in and out and are exactly the same as the ones used in the tabletop models, which is handy if you have invested in a range of tips.

The USB socket on the side is used to charge a second device via a cable, which is best used for tablets or other larger devices which can be unwieldy to connect on the end of the i1 Eco.

As might be guessed from the name, it’s intended to be a green charger. The packaging is all recycled cardboard and the body of the i1 Eco is made from recycled plastic. Even more unusual is the presence of a power button on the side of the i1 Eco, which is there to help save energy.

Most consumer electronics chargers don’t have an on-off switch and most gang extension sockets don’t have on-off switches either, which means that to fully turn off a charger, it has to be pulled out of the socket, which is pretty inconvenient and most of us don’t bother. The chargers continue to consume power even when there’s no device being charged and this power is completely wasted.

The i1 Eco eliminates this problem by having an on-off switch and by automatically powering off when the recharging gadgets are fully charged. This is a great feature and as a result, no power is wasted when gadgets are connected but fully charged and the Eco 1 can be safely plugged in all the time.

Overall, it’s all very clever, useful and green to boot!

Are there any downsides? There are a couple but nothing too serious. First of all, the USB car adaptor that goes in the cigarette lighter socket is a bit flimsy and lets the overall package down. For comparison, the Griffin PowerJolt is a far better adaptor.

Secondly, the auto-power off feature is sometimes a bit over-enthusiastic. On occasion I’d connect up my tablet (Motorola Xoom 2 ME) to charge and I’d come back later to find that the i1 Eco had switched off while the tablet was still only part charged. Other times it worked perfectly with the tablet and I had no problems with other devices (Bluetooth headset, mp3 player, ereader). To be fair, the included literature does mention that some smartphones can be incompatible with this feature so I guess this includes tablets too.

Update: Idapt contacted me to say that with troublesome devices, simply hold the on-off button down for about a second when turning the charger on and this reduces the auto-off sensitivity. I carried out some further testing of the i1 Eco with the tablet and can confirm that this solution works so problem solved. Thanks, Idapt.

The i1 Eco is a clever and flexible portable charging solution that will particularly appeal to those who have already bought into the Idapt way and have a full set of charging tips.

The i1 Eco is available from Idapt for £19.99 and extra tips are mostly £5.95.

Thanks to Idapt for providing the i1 Eco for review.

The purpose of this test is so that Facebook can discover if users are interested in spending money in order to have Facebook make their post more visible than usual to other Facebook users. Right now, an interested user who lives in New Zealand might be able to have Facebook highlight one of their posts through this feature for free, or, they might be charged as much as $2.00 for it.

It seems to me that Facebook is trying to see how much they can charge and still have the feature be attractive to their users. The featured posts will appear in yellow, a bright, eye-catching, color that will definitely stand out against the sea of other posts in your Facebook news feed.

Personally, I doubt I would be using this feature. I use my Facebook page to post links to my writing work that appears on various websites. The Facebook format makes it very easy for my friends and family to find it. I also post links to gaming related things that I find interesting because I have some Facebook friends who are also avid gamers. I see no good reason to pay to have these posts promoted for me.

I have concerns that many of the companies who currently have Facebook pages will jump on the chance to highlight their posts through the use of this proposed feature. For me, and I suspect for many other Facebook users, one of the most enjoyable things about Facebook is scrolling through the posts that my friends and family have made. If my Facebook news feed turns into little more than a series of yellow colored ads, I will stop reading it.

Of course, that is just my opinion. Perhaps people will see new feature as a good way to emphasize their fundraiser, show, or upcoming event. If the highlighted post that is asking you to spend money comes from your friend, or family, is it still an ad? I’m not entirely sure.

Image: Facebook Social Media by BigStock.

The Fitbit Ultra is 2 inch in length and 1/2 inch across. You can clip it directly on to your pants or shirt. It also comes with a belt clip in case you are wearing thick pants. There is also a wristband. The setup is fairly easy, the first step is to register at the Fitbit website. It will ask for your height, weight, age and goal. Then you have to place the Fitbit into its base and plug the base into your computer via USB. Once you’ve paired your device with your account the two are than linked. The Fitbit Ultra is built to be worn all the time. It keeps track of the number of steps you take throughout the day and the number of miles. It can also measure how many stairs you climb during the day. Although I haven’t quite figured out how many stairs you have to walk before it will register. You can log your food and water intake through the Website. It also allows you to record a specific event like a morning run or walk. The Fitbit will also work if you use a treadmill or a bicycle. Although according to the forums, it doesn’t measure the increase calorie outtake when you increase the incline. It is not waterproof, so you cannot wear it while swimming. You can also wear it at night using the wristband to keep track of your sleep patterns. To see how you are doing throughout the day you simply push the button on the Fitbit and the numbers will appear, as you push the button again it will cycle through the various options. The Fitbit Web site also has an active and helpful community which I appreciate.

If you are getting into an exercise program and want to keep track of your progress, Fitbit Ultra is a good way to do it. Do you use the Fitbit or a similar device, and do you like it.

How many times have you walked into a Starbucks, (or other cafe), only to find that the majority of the tables are occupied by people who are typing into their laptops while listening to their iPods? Personally, I have seen this a lot.

A survey found that there are four different types of “Wi-Fi Hogs”:

Type One: “FIRST!”
This group believes that by virtue of having found an open seat, or empty booth, that they are now entitled to sit there for as long as they want to. They got to it first. They will sprawl across the table or booth, scattering their stuff all over it, so no one else can sit next to them. They might have bought something when they first came to the cafe, but, this is not necessarily true all the time.

Type Two: “I’m renting this space – forever”.
This group feels that it is perfectly acceptable to occupy a table or booth for as long as they like – but only if they actually bought something. After all, if they made a purchase, then it means that they are, officially, a customer. They will proudly display their empty coffee cup on their table, signaling to the people who are looking for a place to sit that they do, in fact, have a right to stay put.

Type Three: “I’m not done yet.”
This group feels that it is perfectly okay to take up a table in a cafe if you are actually eating or drinking something that you purchased from the cafe. They will get refill after refill, until their bladders cannot take any more. They might eat or drink very slowly, so they can take up the table for a longer span of time, without feeling bad about doing so. Once they run out of product, they will get up, and let someone else take their seat.

Type Four: “I paid for an hour.”
This group believes that buying a drink or a pastry entitles them to take a seat, or a booth, for about an hour. When that hour is about to end, they feel that it is acceptable to stay, but only if they buy another drink, or another pastry. This gives them another hour that they take up space at that table and continue to use the Wi-Fi that the cafe offers for free.

Image: Office Coffee by BigStock

“I am proud of this release of PowerPress, in supporting the latest iTunes podcast specs, additionally this update introduces innovative features first to market for the 10’s of thousands of media creators that rely on PowerPress,” said Todd Cochrane, CEO of RawVoice.

iTunes upgrades include:

• An updated iTunes image requirement — RGB 1400×1400 — throughout the plugin for better cover image quality throughout.

• “Feature Episode” that allow podcasters to designate a primary episode, which can be used to introduce the podcast or lead in to a new series.

• An iTunes Order feature that allows a podcaster doing a series of episodes to have each listed in the desired order.

Other PowerPress 4.0 offerings include:

• A new video player option: VideoJS HTML5 JavaScript player — a player that has its own plugin. By adding this plugin, the new player will be available as an option in PowerPress video players list.

• A Feed Episode Maximizer “option” for shows with episodes in excess of what can currently be included in a feed. This feature allows the podcaster to maintain the latest 10 episodes in iTunes with all of the extensive episode data. The rest of the episodes are listed in a way that maximizes the number of episodes that can be listed on iTunes / Zune etc. Perfect for the serial podcaster with an extensive episode library.

Blubrry.com is a media community and directory that gives content creators the power to make money through advertising, get detailed audience measurements and host their audio and video. Blubrry PowerPress 4.0 brings the essential features for media creation to WordPress, offering full podcasting support, web audio/video media players and more.

Disclaimer: Todd Cochrane is the main geek here at Geek News Central, he is also the CEO of RawVoice.

“These new sensing technologies help extend the driver’s own senses, providing a level of assistance never before available to the family sedan buyer,” said Adrian Whittle, Ford Fusion chief engineer. “The new Fusion launches this year with these advanced technologies – making them more affordable and available than ever before.”

Lane Keeping System: This system uses a forward-facing camera that scans the road surface ahead looking at lane markings and can evaluate if the car is starting to drift out of the lane. It alerts the driver by vibrating the steering wheel. If the driver doesn’t react, the system will provide it’s own input to the steering nudging the car back into the lane.

Driver Alert System: This used the same front-facing camera that the lane keeping system uses to detect if the driver is getting sleepy. If it does think the driver is getting drowsy, it will give a series of alerts that suggest the driver stop and rest. The alerts include a coffee cup icon (no energy drink icon?) on the instrument cluster.

Pull-Drift Compensation: This system is built into the electric power steering. This will help the driver compensate for a road that leans one way or the other and for heavy crosswinds. This will keep your arms from getting tired if it’s really windy out.

Adaptive Cruise Control: For those who have never experienced adaptive cruise before, you are in for a treat. If you are on the highway and come into heaver traffic or just come up on that guy that seems to be going 3mph slower then you. Instead of kicking off the cruise until it’s safe to pass and then getting around him, with adaptive cruise all you do is stay behind the slower car until it’s safe to pass. Once you pull into the faster lane the adaptive cruise will accelerate back up to your set speed. Ford’s new system on the 2013 Fusion adds collision warning to this package which if your following distance is shrinking too quickly, it will warn you to take evasive action (such as braking hard or steering out of the way).

Active Park Assist: This is sort of the auto-park system. You still have to use the gas pedal and brake, but the car will (using sensors) determine if there is enough room to parallel park and if there is it will steer the car right into place. Just make sure you hit the brakes because you will hit the car behind or ahead of you if you don’t. (Just ask Leo Laporte about that one). I’ve used this system on a Ford before and it’s an excellant system. I can’t parallel park to save my life, but the car I was driving could.

Blind Spot Information with Cross-traffic alert: This system uses the sensors and cameras to warn you if there is another car in your blind spots on either side of the car. There are indicator lights in the side-view mirrors that light up if something is beside you when you go to change lanes. When backing out of a parking space or driveway, the same sensors can see vehicles coming down the aisle and the back-up-camera gives you a nice view directly behind the rear bumper.

For more information on the new 2013 Ford Fusion, check out FordFusionStory.com

Once in a while a show just hits on all cylinders and I think this one did tonight it was my pleasure to bring you lots of tech plus I get to rant on a Wall Street Fat Cat. I will be hosting a Google On Air with Saturday Morning Tech so I hope you will join us on air.

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Don Baine, The Gadget Professor is delighted to showcase a “Gadget Professor Exclusive.” For the first time ever, let me introduce you to the FIXMESTICK! Computer viruses are painfully difficult to detect and remove once your PC gets infected. The infection weaves itself into your system, making life miserable for you and your PC, while your files, photos, bank accounts, and identity are at stake.

This frustrating problem has become worse and worse as more personal and banking data is transmitted through your PC. Not only is your PC an attractive target for viruses, but computers keep getting more complex. This makes it easier for professional hackers to find holes to hide their viruses in, and harder for security software and technicians to weed them out.

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Audio version NOW AVAILABLE!!

Testing the P48

I still waiting for the mic stand I ordered and my mixer before my current setup is complete. If you listen to the audio above especially with headphones, you can clearly hear the difference. With the PG48 there is very little background noise and its much clearer. I have to admit I am not an audio snob, but even to my ears the PG48 sounds much better. At this point I am glad I purchased it.

The name may be a bit cryptic, but tilt-shift is essentially an effect that adds depth-of-field to your images.  In other words, it’s that cool effect you get in high-end DSLR cameras that causes the background to be blurred, bringing the subject into better focus.  With Instagram this isn’t done at the time the image is snapped, but in post-production with a filter.

In you are interested in more in-depth information about using this feature then you can head over to the Instagram blog to read their tips for using tilt-shift.  Instagram is available for free from the Google Play Store.

A chemistry teacher named Scott Byrum decided to put the entire Periodic Table of the Elements on the ceiling of his classroom. He did this as a way to get the attention of students, fearing that if he didn’t do something to make things more interesting that he would lose their attention to “Xboxes and Nintendos”.

Each element sits on its own acoustic ceiling tile. Each is color coded to represent the element’s state at standard temperature and pressure. He had a company that was local to him cut the vinyl letters for him. It is probably the largest Periodic Table of the Elements that his students have ever seen.

ThinkGeek has put the Periodic Table on everything from t-shirts, to beer glasses, and from shower curtains to refrigerator magnets. Personally, I think that the Periodic Table Building Blocks would be the most fun to play around with. The blocks are solid wood, and designed for use by geeks who are at least 2 years of age.

Have you heard Tom Leher’s song called “The Elements”? A YouTube user by the name of TimwiTerby made a video that animated the lyrics of this song in 2008. He used Visual C# Express, AviSynth, and Virtual Dub in order to make the video.

It is also fun to take the standard Periodic Table of the Elements and alter it to make new ones based on other geek related topics. Check out the Periodic Table of Rock Music, or the Periodic Table of Heavy Metals (that resembles the familiar hand sign so many Metal bands, and Metal fans, use). There is a Periodic Table of Anime Characters. Someone even created a Periodic Table of SEO Ranking!

Image: Periodic table by BigStock

Blackmagic Intensity Extreme with Thunderbolt Connection

Two weeks ago, I wanted to bump up my live camera action. Knowing that camera companies like Canon have decided to remove DV and component video connections on their newer lines of cameras, I had to find a solution to pull video from the HDMI output. Therefore, I bought the Intensity Extreme.

BlackMagic Intensity Extreme Advantages

The biggest feature on this device is that I can connect directly to the Thunderbolt™ port on my MacBook Pro. This is the machine I do the majority of my video, using Wirecast to record and broadcast.

The BlackMagic Intensity Extreme can also get video from a composite source, using the breakout cable (included). Therefore, it’s a perfect way to stream your gaming session to uStream or Justin.tv. If you have an SD camera, you can also connect to the Intensity Extreme to broadcast. Therefore, I could connect my Kodak Zi10, or a Flip camera using the composite cable.

Intensity Extreme is compatible with Avid, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier, DaVinci Resolve, Wirecast, and many other programs. You can even use it for a program like Screenflow, to enhance the video with your face in the corner.

No Windows Drivers – Yet

The Intensity extreme does not have Windows drivers just yet, so you Bootcamp users out there will want to use your Mac for recording. It doesn’t mean you cannot get it to work in Windows, but you will not have support just yet. You will have to purchase the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle to have Windows support.

BlackMagic Intensity Extreme – Overall

The device is simple to set up (camera to Intensity to computer). There is no external power, so you don’t need to worry about a battery or plug. The Thunderbolt cable does not come with the Intensity Extreme, so you will have to drop another $50 for that.

The BlackMagic Intensity Extreme is $284, and is a perfect way to add a 16:9 camera to your mix (like the Canon VIXIA R20 I used). This can give your recordings more depth because you will have focus, white balance, exposure, zoom, and other features a webcam cannot offer.

The Blackmagic Intensity Extreme is also part of Todd’s new High Definition Mobile Broadcast Studio.

Aimed squarely at smartphones users and designed for listening on the move, the outside of the cans is touch-sensitive and recognises gestures, so swipe forwards to skip a track, swipe up or down to adjust the volume and if you take the headphones off, the music will automatically be paused.

Smartphone owners with NFC-enabled smartphones can pair their Zik and phone together simply by touching the two devices together. Bluetooth A2DP is supported and there’s also a 3.5mm audio socket for audio purists. The active noise cancellation insulates the listener from the outside world while DSP enhances and enlarges the music.

Complementary smartphone (or tablet) apps for iOS and Android are available from the applicable app stores.

Price – to be announced.