The Bond Mixology

A new app comes stocked with recipes and serving instructions for all 28 different drinks featured in the 23 James Bond movies. 

Though the British spy is most famous for sucking down the classic shaken vodka martini, turns out the winsome wooer had a healthy appetite for all kinds of sauce.

The Bond Mixology app has seven recipes for mixed drinks, while the other 19 entries are really serving instructions for what temperature and how many ice cubes to add to the Bond-worthy glass of bourbon or sake.  

Spy-like, the app also prepares you for any cocktail eventuality. With the Cabinet tab, you can arm your minibar with every ingredient you'd ever need to serve a Bond drink.

The app also scrupulously lists scene details, timings and movie information from IMDB for each appearance of hooch in Bond's extensive repertoire.

The Bond Mixology

For example, you can search for a drink using the movie list (orderd by year), which will tell you that Sean Connery tossed back two vodka martinis, two Scotch whiskys, one red wine and a shot of vodka in the 1962 adaptation of "Dr. No," while Timothy Dalton lasted through "License to Kill" fortified almost solely by champagne. 

Or, you could search through the listing using the Recipes tab which lists the drinks in order of how frequently they appeared on screen. 

Bond fans may be shaken but not stirred to find that the champagne tops off this list with 31 appearances, with the vodka martini, which appeared 27 times, following a close second.   

The info in the app closely follows Bond’s actions in the films. But the makers of the app are deadly serious about their Bond beverages — when there is any ambiguity, the details are touched up with information from the Ian Fleming novels.

[via Gizmodo]

More awesome apps on msnbc.com: 

• New app is a dream for insomniacs
• App tracks your child's pooping habits
• Free iPhone app check's Playstation Network status

via Sophos

Just as any health care worker can tell you there's no such thing as 100 percent "safe" sex, every Facebook user should know there's no such thing as "safe" clicking. And if abstinence is not an option for you on either of these activities, the best you can do is educate yourself on possible risks. How appropriate then is the Facebook scam du jour, "The World Funniest Condom Commercial — LOL" currently infecting Facebook profiles all over the social network.

"The messages are spreading through a clickjacking scam (sometimes known as likejacking) which means that users do not realize that they are invisibly pressing that they 'Like' the video when they try to play it," Sophos reports. Appropriately enough, "the scam appears to be being perpetrated by the same gang who have been successfully spreading a "Baby born amazing effect" scam over the last several days."

Clickjacking is one of the ways spam is spread around Facebook. Clickjackers trick you into accessing links and/or "Like" buttons by hiding the code underneath content that piques your interest — such as "OMG! CNN CONFIRMS OSAMA BIN LADEN ALIVE" or that video of that thing Justin Bieber did to that girl that "YOU WON'T BELIEVE!"

As with most clickjacking spam, the "The World Funniest Condom Commercial — LOL" offers multiple tip-offs, such as the apostrophe "s" missing at the end of "World," the use of "LOL," and the use of sex as bait. Note: Most spam scams on Facebook cover three no-fail topics: Sex, death and Justin Bieber.

Fail to pick up on these clues and click to see "The World Funniest Condom Commercial — LOL" and you've also inadvertently "Liked" the link, spreading it to your now-annoyed Facebook friends and family. Unlike many spam scams on Facebook however, you are rewarded with an Argentinian condom commercial, though you can see on YouTube right now without getting unfriended. And SPOILER ALERT! It is not the funniest condom comercial in the world. That would be this one.

As Sophos points out, Facebook recently announced security updates  to help alert users to clickjacking scams via automatic prompts to confirm whether you actually want to "Like" what you're about to click, thus adding it to your Likes and Interests and spamming their friends. These updates haven't yet proved effective, and since scammers are always looking for away in, it's important to stay vigilant if you want to avoid annoying your friends.

In review, here are some things we can safely assume you won't see via Facebook: Osama bin Laden's corpse, that video of that thing Justin Bieber did to that girl or what happened when that girl's dad walked in on her, an app that reveals who has been looking at your profile or what you'll look like when you're old, and an authentic message from Facebook WRITTEN IN CAPS LOCK.

If you do fall victim to clickjacking — hey you're only human — here's what to do:

• Remove any content the rogue app may have posted on your Facebook wall.
• Go to the Account Settings drop-down menu in the upper right side of your screen.
• From the Account Settings drop-down menu, choose Privacy Settings.
• On the bottom right side of the Privacy Settings Page, click the Apps & websites link "Edit your settings."
• On the App page, next to "Apps you use," select edit settings.
• There you will see the third-party apps that have access to your Facebook profile. Delete any rogue applications. (It's a good idea to check this setting regularly, anyway.)
• Now, send an apology to all your Facebook friends who may have been tagged, and advise them to do the same.

More on the annoying way we live now:

• Fake 'Harry Potter' news causes Facebook freakout
• Fake 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' trailer is fake
• Mark Zuckerberg kills what he eats

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Apple

Apple is going to reveal an Internet-based media and storage — aka "cloud" — strategy next Monday, and it better be one mother of a program.  Not only does the company have the audacity to call their network "iCloud," but the competition is already hot and getting hotter. 

Google and Amazon are out in front with their streamed bring-your-own-music services. Apple not only must match their offerings, but one-up them with a bigger, better system, one that caters to both phones and tablets. The stakes may well be the future of its mobile platform.

Cloudy term
The term "cloud" is overused to the point of non-meaning. It's frustrating. I've heard nerds say "'Cloud' is what idiots refer to as the Internet." I wouldn't go that far: Cloud is best defined as "anywhere" access to users' own media, documents and apps, with increasing emphasis on mobile devices. That is, while we've long had services that streamed music and movies over the Internet, and even occasionally backed up files to drives out on the Internet, the idea that it can even happen when we're walking down the street is fairly new.

So while marketers can (and do) use the term "cloud" to refer to almost anything, from banking to Facebook, we're talking about media and file storage, and — at the moment — we're talking about three companies: Amazon, Google and Apple.

The combatants enter
There are two traits that make a company competitive in this corner of cloud computing: a strong mobile platform and a strong retail presence. Google has the No. 1 most widespread mobile OS in the world, but it's not much of a retailer. Nevertheless, in the development of YouTube and other media services, it has gained experience in media distribution and — more importantly — rights management.

Two weeks ago, it launched a beta of its cloud-based Music service, which allows participants to upload up to 20,000 songs to stream anywhere. That's more than my entire music collection; probably more than 99 percent of Americans' entire music collections. Best of all, in the grand tradition of Google, it's totally free.

Amazon is a retailer which has lately come to the mobile game, by way of its successful e-reader. It's not building its own mobile OS — in fact, it's all but confirmed to use Android for its coming wave of full-color readers — but it's threatening Google already with its ambitious Android app store.

On top of that, just a month or so ago, Amazon launched the Cloud Music Player, which lets people upload their own songs. Amazon handed out 5GB (room for up to 700 songs) free to everybody, but purchasing a single album, including something cheap from the bargain bin, granted the user 20GB for a year at no extra charge. 

Microsoft talks a big cloud game, but it's not yet set to compete in this particular arena, as its new mobile platform hasn't yet taken root, and its media distribution is inherently tied to the success of its mobile devices, unlike Amazon. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Bare knuckles vs. kid gloves
It's a fact that Google and Amazon play rougher than Apple when it comes to dealing with Hollywood. Google is notorious for shooting first, asking for forgiveness later, and Amazon tends to use its leverage as a major retailer of CDs and DVDs to do some surprising things with digital media pricing, including offering cheaper albums and TV episodes, and launching its cloud music service without the express written consent of the music industry's legal departments.

Apple, on the other hand, has been working on its iCloud service for years, at least as far back as late 2009, when it bought Lala, a business with strong technology and rights deals in the streaming music area. But it's apparently taken a long time because, unlike Google and Amazon, Apple wanted to have explicit deals with all of the major music labels before launch. This may ensure a smoother take-off, but it may also mean fees and restrictions on storing music you already "own."

If you have trouble understanding why Apple would play so nice with the old copyright holders, it's because it's in their DNA. Don't forget that Apple's CEO used to own Pixar, and sits on the board of Disney.

Moving beyond music
Speaking of Disney, the real tricky part of cloud evolution is what happens after music. Music files are fairly small and now sell without digital rights management, so they're very easy to move around and play on any device. If a cloud service allowed you to upload and stream home videos and other personal content, the door would be open, and soon ripped DVDs and pirated movies could make their way in.

For the movie industry, the good news is, the cost of movie storage alone is prohibitive, and not-so-private services like Google's YouTube serve personal video needs fairly well. Video is huge, and comes wrapped tightly in the latest content security. That's why the Netflix streamed model has been so popular: We don't want to carry video around, we just want to have access to it. On that token, Apple may very well offer a pay-per-use streamed video service to iPhones and iPads, but it might be limited to Wi-Fi, and likely won't involve personal videos.

So what does the cloud agenda contain, beyond music and video? Apps are easy — Google, Microsoft and others already have cloud apps, and Google's whole Chrome platform is built around the idea of Web-based software. Personal file storage and back-up is old hat — who doesn't offer some kind of "locker" for your stuff?

Sadly, the answer may not come from tech innovators but from the utilities that provide Internet access. The more that shifts to the cloud, the more reliance there must be on Internet connectivity — at home and out in the woods. That's where Verizon, Comcast and AT&T have more to say than Apple, Google and Amazon. But innovation has a way of sneaking past the old guard.

So on Monday, once Steve Jobs is done talking about streaming music from iCloud, pay attention to whatever else he says. It just might be the future. But if that's all he has to say — and if his version of streamed iTunes comes shackled with new fees and tight restrictions — Apple will stay in the middle of a fight that may well be won by one of its tough competitors.

More on Apple and the cloud from msnbc.com:

• Steve Jobs expected to unveil iCloud storage service
• Report: Apple may have purchased iCloud.com
• Secrets of Verizon iPhone tests revealed

On Thursday, join Wilson at gadgetbox.msnbc.com for a live chat about "the cloud," in all its nebulous glory. In the meantime, you can catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, or join our conversation on Facebook.

The newest entry into the smartphone/tablet arena isn't one or the other, but a combo of both: the Asus Padfone.

Unveiled at Taiwan's Computex tradeshow, which begins today, the hybrid operates much like the Motorola Atrix, except without a keyboard. In this device, the 4.3-inch smartphone docks into the back of the 10.1-inch tablet, although both can be used separately, as well.

Watch this video, which reminds me of one of the cheesier commercials that run rampant through Asia, and throughout most of it, the handsome Eurasian lead looks to his smartphone for guidance. But it doesn't look like anything out of the ordinary, until 1:32 minutes into the video, when he docks it into the tablet. Then the oohs and aahs by the girls he's picked up on the bus really go crazy.

Information is scarce on the device, but Asus does reveal that apps transfer between the devices; that users can enlarge screen sizes; shares one SIM card; and that the tab acts as an extended battery/phone charger.

Engadget explored a prototype of the second-gen Android tab. Looks like the release might come around Christmas, with the Ice Cream Sandwich Android update, but no official word on that or the price yet.

More stories:

• Motorola Atrix phone/laptop combo can't live up to hype
• 'PlayStation phone' reviewed: Future of mobile gaming?
• Report: Amazon to release two tablets this year
• iPad still rules tablet purchases

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who needs a smarter phone but wants a tablet, too.

If you're on LinkedIn, it's not to send someone a cutesy heart, or share news about your planted crops on FarmVille. And if you are sharing that kind of stuff, you need a lesson in "LinkedIn 101." Wait — maybe LinkedIn needs a lesson in LinkedIn 101, as in: Do not become too Facebook-like; it could ruin the good thing you got goin'.

The professional networking site is best known for its "connections" and recommendations that job hunters are urged to pile up like wood in the winter.

But it seems like LinkedIn is grabbin' some Facebook fluff, notes The Next Web:

If you are a regular LinkedIn user you will have noticed how the site has changed in recent months. It used to be very static and you would simply head over to LinkedIn to search for people, but the new layout features a "wall" at the front and center of the site encouraging you to share content. Having an activity stream just like Facebook keeps users more engaged and gives the site a more real time feel. It’s not quite on the Facebook level in terms of engagement but that is where they are hoping to head.

Also, LinkedIn has added "share" buttons, akin to Facebook's "like" button, which "have started to appear all over the Web," and Facebook's pages for companies has also been mimicked b y LinkedIn. "Brands and businesses can now allow people to 'follow' them as well as sharing information with their users. The pages don’t have as much flexibility as Facebook pages but it is early days and they will no doubt expand them further soon."

LinkedIn isn't for everyone — it's got about 100 million members worldwide, compared to Facebook's near-700 million. It's also in the midst of an initial public offering.

And while it's not unusual for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to take cues from one another, the danger is they could wind up losing what they were best known for to begin with, that special appeal that made them stand out from the crowd.

—Via The Next Web

Related stories:

• Facebook to hit 700 million users soon
• LinkedIn hits 100 million members
• MySpace takes on a Facebook-like look

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

What with recreational hacking all the rage these days, you'd be hard-pressed to find a movie more ripe for viral marketing than the Americanized version of "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." And so we find the Internet confounded by the alleged "bootleg" movie trailer that popped up online over the holiday weekend. It begins with a few shaky frames (as if filmed via camcorder) and rapid-cycles through edits set to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." Even the film quality is overexposed, as if it's a street-purchased duplicate. 

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," if you live under a rock, is the first in the Swedish crime trilogy by Stieg Larsson, which were also made into movies in Sweden. The title refers to the brilliant black-hat hacker of the series, Lisbeth Salander (or "Sanders" in this version), so the possibilities for imaginative viral marketing opportunities are infinite.

Remember the "Why So Serious" viral campaign for "The Dark Knight" — with its myriad websites such as The Gotham Times that were "hacked" by the Joker? "The Dark Knight Rises" is following a similar interactive campaign. Given the non-comic book, "Feel Bad Movie of Christmas" dark nature of "Dragon Tattoo," marketers have the opportunity to be even less obvious about hiding this movie's campaign.

So how can we be sure this fake bootleg is totally fake? As Salon's Drew Grant points out:

Sony has not taken down the ostensibly illegal video, which has garnered over 1,000,000 views since it was uploaded to YouTube by first-time user dobvlvstiuwir on Saturday. The only part of the game that doesn't fit is the website that the trailer directs you to: www.dragontattoo.com just relocates you back to the Sony page.

All the more meta given the ongoing hack attacks against Sony websites and its PlayStation Network. One wonders if this probable hacking spoof is an invitation for more mischief.

More on the annoying way we live now:

• PlayStation Network to return as more hacking threatened
• Hackers attack PBS, post fake 'Tupac still alive' story
• Fake 'Harry Potter' news causes Facebook freakout

 Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Join her on Twitter and Facebook, won't you?

There are plenty of third-party photo-sharing services available to Twitter users, but soon there may be a new one — made by the social media network itself.

Both All Things D and TechCrunch report that "sources familiar with the matter" shared details regarding Twitter's plans to announce a new photo-sharing service at the D9 conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

There is no information regarding when the service will actually go live, what it will be like, or how it will work. We simply know that it's going to be announced very, very soon.

Related stories:

• Twitter set to spam your inbox with added notifications
• Twitter accounts soon to outnumber U.S. population
• What would life be like without Twitter?

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.

Reuters file

Apple CEO Steve Jobs gives a wave at the conclusion of the launch of the iPad 2 on stage during an Apple event in San Francisco on March 2, 2011.

Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave since early this year, is expected to deliver the keynote address at next Monday's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and introduce the company's cloud-based service — called — yup, iCloud.

Apple made the announcement Tuesday, with the cloud-based storage service expected, but not necessarily Jobs' presence. The CEO did, however, break from his medical leave in March to unveil the iPad 2.

Related: Why Apple must go big with its iCloud service

"It's a good sign he's healthy enough to be there and participate," Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves told Reuters, adding that Jobs' appearance next week is "not a huge surprise" because he has made some other public appearances in recent months, including meeting with President Barack Obama in February, along with other tech industry leaders.

Jobs, 56, announced in January that he would take a third leave of absence from Apple to focus on his health. The Apple CEO has survived pancreatic cancer and had a liver transplant in 2009.

Also expected to be unveiled at the conference June 6-10 in San Francisco, is Lion, the next major release of Mac OS X and iOS 5, the next version of Apple's mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The addition of iCloud has been in the works for awhile; last year Apple bought cloud-based Lala, then promptly shut it down. Amazon.com this year started its own service, Amazon Cloud Player, which lets users store music that can be played on any computer or Android device.

While Apple outlined some spare details about iCloud, iOS5 and Lion in a press release, nothing was said about the fifth generation iPhone, known as the iPhone 4GS. It's traditionally been unveiled in June at the developers' conference — and still may be as Jobs is known to leave a surprise for the end of his presentations as "one last thing."

Related stories:

• Why Apple must go big with its iCloud service
• Report: Apple may have purchased iCloud.com
• Secrets of Verizon iPhone tests revealed
• Apple's Steve Jobs responds to iPhone tracking questions

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

via First News U.K.

Mark Zuckerberg may have killed all sorts of animals, but he's managing to nurture quite a beast when it comes to Facebook, which is on track to hit the 700 million user landmark soon.

Speaking of Facebook, when an Onion post about the "Final Minutes of Last Harry Potter Movie To Be Split Into Seven Separate Films" hit the social networking site, some took the joke to heart, protesting mightily on Facebook.

One of the landmark devices of the mobile revolution, the T-Mobile Sidekick, will reach a milestone this week with the shutdown of the online service that has powered the iconic gadget for much of the past decade.

Oh! And HDTVs are catching fire ... literally!

That jetpack you keep asking about? It's on its way — having passed a key test this month by soaring to a height of 5,000 feet, deploying an emergency parachute and drifting back down to New Zealand's Canterbury Plains.

Astronauts flying on board space shuttle Endeavour's final mission declared assembly of the International Space Station complete this past week, and are not starting work on 30 unassembled LEGO toy models — including a space shuttle and a custom-designed replica of the ISS. Lego!

Hackers protesting a Frontlines report on WikiLeaks infiltrated PBS.org, posting a fake story late Sunday that dead rapper Tupac Shakur was "alive and well."

Speaking of hacks, past patterns may point to China, but top investigators say they will never know for sure who mounted a "significant" cyberattack against Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No. 1 arms supplier.

Speaking of spys, now you can get drunk like one with The Bond Mixology app!

Speaking of fiction made reality, the luckiest 5-year-old Dr. Who fan in the world got a full-sized Tardis for his birthday! Jealous much?

Mark Zuckerberg may have killed all sorts of animals, but he's managing to nurture quite a beast when it comes to Facebook. 

According to Facebook statistics tracking site SocialBakers, Zuckerberg's brain child is on track to hit the 700 million user landmark soon. A portion of that insanely huge number can be attributed to fast-growing user bases in countries such as Brazil — which has added 1.9 million new users in the last month alone.

SocialBakers

There aren't specific details on just how long it will take Facebook to hit the 700 million user mark, but we'll keep frantically refreshing the social network's official statistics section in anticipation of an update. (Though if we're entirely honest, we're not too excited about this particular statistic — because 700 million users aren't that cool. A billion on the other hand ... )

Related stories:

• Pedophile arrested for using Facebook in Apple Store
• Mark Zuckerberg kills what he eats
• Fake 'Harry Potter' news causes Facebook freakout

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.

LiterallyUnbelievable

People put all kinds of news on Facebook — personal news, real news and then there's The Onion news (which is totally fake and fun). But not everyone gets that The Onion is a spoof, and with Facebook's water-cooler factor, "bad news" can spread fast and upset the masses, especially when it's about a well-known boy wizard by the name of "Harry Potter."

When an Onion posting about the "Final Minutes of Last Harry Potter Movie To Be Split Into Seven Separate Films" hit the social networking site, some took the joke to heart, protesting mightily on Facebook. That's where a new website, "Literally Unbelievable" stepped in to help sort the out the Wizards from the Muggles, so to speak, and bring the truth to the fore. 

Hudson Hongo, a 24-year-old writer, started the site May 20 specifically to showcase "stories from The Onion as interpreted by Facebook." The impetus was an Onion story about Planned Parenthood opening an "abortionplex," which engendered heated and unprintable responses on Facebook, as did the Potter send-up.

“I found the sheer number of people reading Onion articles sincerely (across the political spectrum) a surprise,” he told Mashable recently. “I wasn’t sure whether it was crueler to share these remarkable texts publicly or to keep them to myself. Then I got bored and just did it.”

Some Potter fans were certainly taken in by The Onion report shared on Facebook.

"In response to The Onion story about the Harry Potter movie, for instance, one woman posted, 'it sounds legit…it came straight from warner bros…click on the link and watch the video it tells you how they’ll do it.' " Mashable noted.

Being in the real news biz, we appreciate The Onion for what it does to provide some levity, if not truth. And we only wish this part of its Harry Potter report were true:

"Producers of the new Cameron Diaz film, 'Bad Teacher,' have decided to split that movie into zero parts and never release it."

Related stories:

• Unknown Facebook 'friend' may be hacker
• Kids on Deathly Hallows: 'I'm so sick of Harry Potter!'
• Online news readership overtakes newspapers

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Internet Archive

Sixteen shades of gray! 2001 brochure for the Hiptop, which became the T-Mobile Sidekick.

One of the landmark devices of the mobile revolution, the T-Mobile Sidekick, will reach a milestone this week with the shutdown of the online service that has powered the iconic gadget for much of the past decade.

Users of Sidekicks released before this year will still be able to make calls and send text messages after Tuesday, but they will be left without the online engine that serves up contacts, photos, calendar entries, and other data-driven features. Anyone still clinging to those relics will experience a dramatic reduction in functionality. Without access to the contacts, for example, users of old Sidekicks will need to dial manually. 

T-Mobile USA

The Sidekick LX

T-Mobile has already launched a new Sidekick using Google's Android mobile operating system, and the company has been prodding existing Sidekick users to upgrade to new devices and migrate their data. (Tip for existing Sidekick users who haven't yet done this: Log in at my.t-mobile.com to access the export tool. See this post on the unofficial TmoNews blog for more details.)

Why is this happening? Behind the scenes, T-Mobile is shifting away from servers operated by Danger Inc., the startup-turned-Microsoft-subsidiary that originally came up with the concept for the Sidekick a decade ago under the brand Hiptop. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft Corp. and NBC Universal.)

It's the end of an era for a product that opened many eyes to one of fundamental advances of our time — the concept that a phone, connected to the Internet, can be a lot more than a phone.

The Sidekick saga is worthy of a novel. Danger's platform was conceived by technology pioneers, embraced by celebrities, targeted by hackers and ultimately acquired by Microsoft before suffering a fall from grace in the form of a high-profile server meltdown. 

Its rebirth on Android brings the Sidekick home to Andy Rubin, the Danger co-founder who also co-founded Android and now oversees Android development at Google. But the proposed purchase of T-Mobile USA by AT&T for $39 billion leaves the Sidekick’s future as uncertain as ever.

It's an important story that sheds light on some of the most significant technology trends of the past decade — the rise of the smartphone and cloud computing, growing public awareness of privacy concerns, and the risks and rewards of our increasingly mobile lives.

See GeekWire for an extended look back at the Sidekick, starting with Rubin and his fellow Danger founders explaining how the idea was born.

Todd Bishop of GeekWire can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.

By Gary Merson
HD Guru

Spurred by a spate of reader emails about Vizio HDTVs catching fire, HD Guru was inspired to look into a story about flaming television sets. Sure some consumers consider Vizio HDTVs hot deals, but a handful were apparently more literal about that than others. Sure enough, a search of consumeraffairs.com and some other websites turned up reports of Vizio-related fires.

Kellie of Stockton, Utah, posted:

I have had my 42-in. Vizio LCD flat screen for about three years. Monday May 9, 2011 we were watching TV when all of a sudden there was a loud pop and the screen went black. We unplugged the TV and plugged it back in turned it on and it started shooting flames out the back.

We found another recent complaint on consumeraffairs.com, from Melinda, posted on May 14. Her less-than-two-year-old Vizio shut down after producing a “burning smell.”

A Google search revealed other incendiary Vizio HDTV complaints. Posts dated October 2010, regarding three smoking and flaming Vizios, appear on Sears' website. (The company recently dropped the Vizio TV line, though we are not claiming the decision is in any way related to the fire issue.)

Malfunctions were not limited to Vizios. Samsung and Polaroid TV owners complained about smoking TV sets too, and some, like this one, aired their grievances on ehow.com:

Samsung TV Model UN46B8000XF, bought it Friday, April 29, 2010 the warranty expire April 29, 2011. This TV model starting a week ago making popping and creaking noises, when I turn on the TV for the first few minutes and when I turn the TV off the popping and creaking goes on for about a hour, I reside in a studio so this sound before going to sleep is annoying.

Another commenter posted: 

Samsung LN32A450 TV turns off and on. Sometimes will not turn on at all. Come back to it at a later time and it works. Problem is intermittent, but with increasing frequency.

And a third:

The (Polaroid) TDA-03211C model has had numerous issues with overheating. Many such models manufactured between 2007 and 2009 sold by Wal-Mart actually have false safety standard logos and questionable parts and construction (Reference 2). There have been reports of smoke coming from these TVs, and at least one report of a TDA-03211C catching fire.

Keep in mind we have had no firsthand experience with this. These are Internet posts and should be considered in that light. Also consider that this represents but a tiny fraction of sets sold.

Also remember that this isn't a new problem. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has been keeping track of TV fires as far back as 1992. In that year, there were 1,400 television fires in the U.S., leading to the death of 20 people, with 120 injured. (For some reason, the CPSC no longer publishes TV-fire-specific data.)

Yet as rare as these problems may be, they are sometimes exacerbated by the owner. TVs are not computers. In the event of a malfunction, you do not simply turn one off, then turn it back on. If a TV shuts down or makes a popping sound, you need to consider the possibility of a severe malfunction, otherwise what happened to Kellie might happen to you.

How to avoid a fire and protect your warranty
Kellie’s initial problem — a loud pop followed by the set going black — is typical of a TV showing the first sign of component failure. If your TV shuts itself off (with or without a pop), the first thing to do is unplug the power cord. TVs should never shut off by themselves. There is an internal circuit breaker that’s activated as a safety precaution when a component is not functioning properly.

The next thing you should do is call the TV manufacturer’s customer service number and report that the TV shut itself off and needs to be repaired. Make sure you get a case number. This is extremely important if the set is within the warranty period as it establishes the problem's date of origin.

If you do what Kellie did, and plug the set back in, and it fails at later date, after the warranty expires, you will not be covered under the manufacturer’s warranty. Only repower the set if the customer service rep tells you it's okay to do so.

What to do if your TV catches on fire or smokes
After unplugging the TV and putting out the fire, contact the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. According to CPSC spokesperson Patty Davis, the agency launched a new product safety complaints website on March 11. Here you can report an unsafe product such as a smoking TV as well as check out other recalled products. Make sure you know the exact model number before filing the report as the agency will need specific information to commence an investigation.

Davis explained the CPSC procedures require a maximum of five business days to contact the manufacturer and 10 business days for a product supplier or importer (depending on the product) to respond. The agency determines when a safety recall is needed, based on a number of factors the agency does not disclose.

Davis added that in the last several years, all safety recalls have been done voluntarily with a legal agreement between the product supplier and the agency. The intention of the agency agreement is for the consumer to receive one of three solutions: repair, replacement or refund.

HD Guru reported a voluntary recall by Best Buy of over 13,000 Insignia TVs that could catch on fire caused by the set’s failure-prone power supply that has already injured one set owner which necessitated the recall.

We called Vizio’s spokesperson for additional information about the smoke/fire issue, and received a response of “no comment.” Regardless of brand, readers following our recommendations can reduce the chances of fire or injury due to defective HDTVs and increase the likelihood of receiving a free repair or replacement. 

To steal a phrase from old Smokey the Bear: Only you can prevent TV fires.

More on HDTVs, and their occasional ailments from HD Guru:

• Your new disposable TV
• Disposable TVs: Vizio responds
• Customers get a raw deal in Best Buy HDTV recall

Plus:

• Hot Memorial Day HDTV deals (no pun intended)

Photo courtesy Alaska Airlines

By John Cook, GeekWire

Alaska Airlines plans to outfit all of its pilots with iPads by mid-June, becoming the first major airline to replace paper manuals with Apple's devices in the cockpit. The rollout means pilots will be swapping 25-pound flight operation guides for a device that weighs a little more than a pound.

“We’ve been exploring the idea of an electronic flight bag for several years, but never found a device we really liked,” said Gary Beck, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of flight operations, in a news release announcing the plan. “When the iPad hit the market, we took one look at it and said this is the perfect fit.”

The iPads will come with an app called GoodReader, which contains PDF versions of 41 flight systems and performance manuals, reference cards and other materials. They also include links and color graphics. The airline says the electronic flight bag will save about 2.4 million pieces of paper.

Other advantages include reducing weight on the aircraft, leading to more fuel efficiency, according to the airline.

And with some flight bags weighing as much as 50 pounds, the airline also said the iPad could reduce muscle injuries that occur when pilots attempt to carry the bulky flight manuals through the airport.

As a Class 1 device, the iPad must be stowed during takeoff and landing — even by pilots — under FAA regulations. So don’t worry about your captain playing a game of "Angry Birds," at least not during the approach to the airport.

John Cook of GeekWire can be followed on Facebook and Twitter

Also on Geekwire:

• Now leaving: The guy who led Microsoft's iPad rival ... before the iPad existed
• Are iPads mobile devices? A few experts weigh in
• Video: Halo Spartan blows up mini-fridge to pitch Windows

via Buzzfeed

Click the picture!

As we recently learned from an email Mark Zuckerberg for some reason sent to Fortune, the Facebook CEO is expanding himself through an eatin' and ethics project in which he slits the throats of domesticated farm animals and outsources the carcases for the butcherin'. 

It's kind of like having a waiter bring a bunny to your table so you can snap its fuzzy widdle neck before sending it back to the kitchen, where it is skinned and cooked, then returned to your table as a steaming plate of hossenfeffer.

NOTE: Mark Zuckerberg has not yet taken out a bun-bun (that we know of), but if you're having trouble keeping track, Buzzfeed thoughtfully compiled a must-see visual hit list of Zuck's current kills: Animals That Mark Zuckerberg Has Slaughtered So Far.

Related:

• Mark Zuckerberg kills what he eats
• See 'Mark Zuckerberg' knife a pig
• Zuckerberg's stalker caught on video -- sort of

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and Facebook, won't you?

In what may be NMAWorldEdition's fastest news interpretation ever, the Taiwanese animation outfit delivered its latest masterpiece less than 24 hours after the world learned of Mark Zuckerberg's ethics n' eatin' project.

"The only meat I'm eating is from animals I've killed myself," the Facebook CEO for some reason wrote in an email to Fortune. As part of his personal challenge to be thankful for the food he eats, Zuckerberg says he's learning about sustainable living and animal farming.

He's also killed a lobster, chicken, goat and pig.

Want to see what that looks like? (Who doesn't?) Thanks to the computer-generating geniuses at NMA — who possibly pulled an all-nighter on this one — you (sort of) can!

SPOILER ALERT: Cartoon Zuck seems to get his swerve from "Carrie"-era John Travolta, but maybe that's just a conicidence. And nice "Psycho" quotes, NMA! You're really growing as artists.

Hat tip to Stephanie Snyder Freund for the heads up!

More awesome animation n' stuff:

• Mark Zuckerberg kills what he eats
• Guide to animals Mark Zuckerberg has (and hasn't yet) slaughtered
• Zuckerberg's stalker caught on video -- sort of
• The Facebook movie in one minute
• OK. But if Steve Jobs was a Ninja, it might look something like this ...
• WikiLeaks kerfuffle 'explained' in latest CGI video

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Join her self-righteous bloviating on Twitter and Facebook, won't you?

Our "deals of the day" roundup is a selection of some of the better gadgets, gaming and app deals on the Internet right now — with a few strange odds and ends thrown in for fun. Here's what's worth considering today: "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm" for $18, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" collector's edition DVD for $30, "Tower Madness" for free, and more.

Gadgets:

• 15.6" Lenovo ThinkPad T520i Core i3-2310M, 2GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM HDD for $701 (Normally $779)
• 14" Lenovo IdeaPad V470 439626U Core i5-2410M, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, 1GB GeForce GT 520M for $699 (Normally $849)
• 14" Lenovo ThinkPad T420i Core i3-2310M, 2GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM HDD for $674 (Normally $749)
• 14" HP dm4x Core i7-2620M 2nd Gen, 6GB RAM, 640GB HDD, 1GB Radeon HD 6470M for $825 (Normally $950)
• 14" HP dv4t Core i3-2310M, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD for $549 (Normally $600)
• 13.3" HP dm3t Pentium ULV, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD for $469.99 (Normally $599.99)
• HP Pavilion p7qe Quad Core i5-2400S Desktop, 6GB RAM, 1TB 7200RPM HDD for $550 (Normally $600)
• HP Pavilion p7z AMD Athlon II,  3GB RAM, 500GB 7200RPM HDD for $300 (Normally $350)
• OCZ Solid 3 SSD 2.5" 120GB SLD3-25SAT3-120G for $195 (Normally $223)
• 55" Samsung UN55D6300 1080p LED HDTV for $1,650 (Normally $1,788)
• Acer H7530D DLP Home Theater Projector for $800 (Normally $986)
• MartinLogan MLT-2 Home Theater System for $350 (Normally $600)
• V-Moda Crossfade LP XFLPR Over-Ear Headphones for $100 (Normally $146)
• TomTom XXL 540M 5-inch GPS for $100 (Normally $135)
• Kodak EasyShare M580 14MP Digital Camera for $80 (Normally $92)
• 15.6" Toshiba Satellite L650-ST3N02X Core i5-2410M 2.3GHz Dual-core Laptop w/4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Webcam & Bluetooth for $649 (Normally $799)
• 14" Dell Inspiron 14R Core i3 Laptop w/3GB RAM, WeBcam for $399 (Normally $450)
• 14" Vostro 3450 Core i5-2410M 2.3GHz "Sandy Bridge" Laptop w/4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Backlit Keyboard & Fingerprint Reader for $599 (Normally $879)
• Dell Vostro 230 3.2GHz Intel Dual-core Slim Tower w/4GB RAM, 250GB HDD & 23" Dell 1080p LED-backlit LCD Monitor for $418 (Normally $718)
• 27" HP 2711x 1080p LED-backlit LCD Monitor for $310 (Normally $400)
• 2TB Buffalo DriveStation Axis USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (HD-LB2.0TU2) for $85 (Normally $110)
• Logitech Z623 2.1 THX Speaker System for $108 (Normally $130)
• 42" Auria EQ4288 1080p LCD HDTV for $399 (normally $549)
• 32" Vizio M320VT 1080p LED-backlit LCD HDTV for $385 (Normally $580)
• Dell 1210S DLP Projector w/Dual VGA connector for $369 (Normally $449)
• Samsung Droid CHARGE 4G LTE (Verizon) Smartphone for $180 (Normally $300)

Gaming:

• Portal 2 (Xbox 360 or PS3) for $40 (Normally $60)
• Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 Top Shot Elite Bundle (Wii) for $40 (Normally $55)
• SOCOM 4 (PS3) for $44 (Normally $52)
• Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011 with Gun (Wii) for $40 (Normally $52)
• Metro 2033 (Xbox 360) for $27 (Normally $32)
• World of Warcraft: Cataclysm for $18 (Normally $29)

Apps:

• Sentinel 3: Homeworld (iOS) for $1 (Normally $3)
• Helicopter Pilot (iOS) for $0 (Normally $1)
• TowerMadness HD (iOS) for $0 (Normally $8)
• geoDefense (iOS) for $0 (Normally $2)
• Marine Sharpshooter by XMG (iOS) for $0 (Normally $2)
• NearBeer (iOS) for $0 (Normally $2)
• Abduction! 2 (Android) for $0 (Normally $2)

Miscellaneous odds and ends:

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition (DVD) for $30 (Normally $40)
• SPN Films 30 for 30 Gift Set Collection, Volume 2 (DVD) for $40 (Normally $54)
• Ancient Aliens: Season One (DVD) for $12 (Normally $16)
• True Grit (Blu-ray/DVD) for $19 (Normally $40)
• Ghosts of Mars (Blu-ray) for $7 (Normally $9)
• X-Men Animated Series Season (DVD) for $12 (Normally $24)

Note: Today's deals were discovered via:

Dealhack, AppBrain, LogicBUY, FatWallet, CheapCollegeGamers, 148Apps, SlickDeals, CheapStingyBargains, Dealzon, Brand Name Coupons and GamerHotline

Please read the detailed descriptions of each linked offer carefully before buying — msnbc.com is not responsible for the duration or integrity of individual deals.

Rosa Golijan writes about tech here and there. She's a bit obsessed with Twitter and loves to be liked on Facebook.

In an epic single-shot video lasting almost 10 minutes and featuring more than 3,000 people, "marching bands, parades, weddings, motorcades, bridges on fire," and a helicopter takeoff, a so-called "dying" America city spanked a statistically-dying magazine, and entertained the Internet, too. 

Grand Rapids shut down a good chunk of its downtown earlier this week to film its response to a Newsweek piece from January, which listed the Michigan city as No. 10 on a list of America's "dying" cities. Set to a live recording of Don McLean's "American Pie," the city's sassy citizens prove their town is very much alive via a massively multi-performer, lip-sync video done in a single, unedited take, what’s known on the InterWebs as a "lip dub."

As the Grand Rapids Press reports, the video, "featured familiar faces, including entertainers, political figures, media celebrities surrounded by hundreds of football players, musicians, cheerleaders, police and firefighters, swing dancers, kayakers and more." Of course, those faces probably aren't familiar to you, unless you're familiar with Grand Rapids ... except for maybe WOOD-TV (Channel 8) chief meteorologist Bill Steffen. (All great weathermen look familiar.)

"If you have lived in Grand Rapids your whole life, or even just arrived, it would be hard to not say that the tiny hairs on your arms don’t stand straight up when you see the shots of the city’s most well known landmarks and the people who make this city so wonderful," describes the Grand Rapids Press. Even if you’re not familiar with Grand Rapids, you’ll find this video thrilling. (It's got pyrotechnics! Impeccably-timed pyrotechnics!)

No wonder Newsweek wanted to distance itself from the insult, posting this message on its Facebook page:

To the Grand Rapids crowd:

 First off, we LOVE your YouTube LipDub. We're big fans, and are inspired by your love of the city you call home.

But so you know what was up with the list you're responding to, we want you to know it was done by a website called mainstreet.com--not by Newsweek (it was unfortunately picked up on the Newsweek web site as part of a content sharing deal)--and it uses a methodology that our current editorial team doesn't endorse and wouldn't have employed. It certainly doesn't reflect our view of Grand Rapids.

Lip dubs, when executed by the overprivledged 20-somethings who pounded the Internet meme into existence, are generally precocious and annoying. But when an entire community — be it amicable rival high schools or an entire city — gets together on a single joke, it shows a sense of kinship that is endearing to us because it gets at who we are, and gives us a sense of what we can do together. It's how communities survive.

Nice job, Grand Rapids! Well done.

More on how the Internet is often awesome:

• Real-life high school musical smackdown!
• Silly video infuriates Internet
• Nigerian hackers hit their own government 

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Out of 1,000 people polled, 60 percent of travelers with mobile devices have downloaded one or more travel apps, and 38 percent have used an app to plan a trip, according to results from a TripAdvisor survey.

Before leaving home, survey respondents said they used their smartphones mostly for researching restaurants (52 percent), reading about destinations (46 percent) and reading other travelers’ reviews (45 percent). Booking and researching accommodations and flights also scored high on the list. 

Once on the road, nearly half of the respondents said making phone calls is the main purpose of their mobile devices. However, 19 percent said being able to communicate via chat and e-mail was the most important reason for taking their mobile phone along for the ride.

What else do people use their smartphones for when traveling?

For directions, mostly.

While three out of four respondents said they use GPS devices when traveling, 59 percent said they use the GPS capabilities on their mobile phones.

And when they’re not using their phones for calling home or getting somewhere, most plugged-in travelers use their devices for taking and sharing photos (65 percent), browsing the Web (54 percent) and reading the news (48 percent).

TripAdvisor, which offers its own free app, offered no statistics on how many travelers just put their phones away and look around.

More stories you might like

• Depriving yourself of a summer vacation? Join the club
• Want a happy trip? Hope for happy help
• 5 ways to keep your cords tidy and organized

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckAtTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter.

msnbc.com

Airbnb is a service backed by Ashton Kutcher and that gives room-seeking travelers options other than a typical hotel.

The online booking service known as Airbnb, which specializes in matching travelers with unique accommodations around the world, now has a celebrity backer.

The new star of the TV show "Two and a Half Men" recently invested in the three-year-old company, according to the New York Times.

Since its founding, Airbnb has gained a loyal group of customers who want more adventure and immersion than a run-of-the-mill hotel room offers. Another draw is the price: depending on the type of accommodation, rates can be much cheaper than what hotels in the area offer. Listings include rooms, apartments, houses, boats and even a castle or two in 8,000 locations around the world. The quality of the inventory ranges from chic lofts with top amenities to quaintly decorated rooms in a larger house.

If Kutcher’s endorsement has you curious to try the service, here are five things to know when booking accommodations:

1. The service is a more sophisticated version of the couchsurfing-style networks that link travelers with locals willing to offer free accommodations and, often, a bit of camaraderie. That means you’ll likely be staying in someone's home and paying a nightly fee for the accommodations and a service fee to Airbnb.
2. You can see photos and reviews of the 60,000 active listings in Airbnb’s inventory, along with a list of amenities. You can also send questions to your potential host. If there’s something you know you’ll need, such as an ironing board and iron, be sure to ask.
3. Be sure to read the “house rules,” which list any deposits and cleaning fees that increase the nightly price of the accommodations. When these costs are included, some bookings are just as expensive as a regular hotel.  The house rules also address smoking, pets, extra guests and rules for using amenities and equipment. Some of the rules can be quirky. At the Mushroom Dome Cabin in Aptos, Calif., for example, the only pets allowed are those that won’t hassle the goats.
4. Listing a space is free. Airbnb collects the rent and pays your host 24 hours after you arrive, minus a 3 percent fee. If you run into problems, speak up right away.
5. You will be invited to post a review after your stay. Your host will also review you – so be neat, behave and follow the good guest rules as if you were staying at someone’s house. You are.

    

Other stories you might like:

• Want a happy trip? Hope for happy help
• Summer vacation homes of the rich and powerful
• 5 ways to keep your cords tidy, organized

Find more by Harriet Baskas on StuckatTheAirport.com and follow her on Twitter.