I always find it highly amusing that some people take their social network relationships and connections too seriously – so what if someone takes you off as their friend on Facebook? Is it a good enough reason for something as serious as murder? Apparently so, as a Tennessee couple who “defriended” a woman on Facebook were later murdered right in their abode, no thanks to the jilted woman’s father and another male suspect. Johnson County Sheriff Mike Reece said, “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen. We’ve had murders, but nothing like this. This is just senseless.” (more…)

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Apple’s stock price jumped up quite a bit in the last few days (up to $493), which now makes it worth $456 billion, which is worth more than the two other computer superpowers, Microsoft and Google, combined.

Google’s shareprice is currently trading at 189.9 billion, after it took a 9 percent knock on recent missed expectations for earnings and revenue. Microsoft’s Windows division took a 6 percent revenue drop to $4.7 billion, but the rest of the company did very well. This is also thanks to the Xbox division which has finally turned profitable for Microsoft.

Now Apple’s market cap has grown tremendously, part in thanks to the iPhone business, which is alone worth $222 billion. Think about that for a second – the iPhone business revenue is now worth more than Microsoft. And this from a product that did not exist 5 years ago. This makes this interview with Steve Ballmer even funnier – watch his reaction after he gets asked what he thinks of the iPhone:

Famous last words.

Source: BusinessInsider

Electric car maker, Tesla, recently pulled the wraps off its latest creation – an all-electric SUV, minivan hybrid called the Model X. First thing you’ll notice about the car (if its doors are open) will be its “falcon wing” rear doors. Instead of opening to the side like regular doors in the front, these “falcon wing” doors open upwards instead, resembling the wings of a bird when open. The doors even feature a double hinge so that they take up less horizontal space when opening, which makes it more practical especially in tight places.
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When Siri was launched for the iPhone 4S a lot of people were disappointed that their older iPhones weren’t able to run the app despite them being capable hardware wise. Since then, a lot of similar apps started popping up on the App Store claiming to be capable of doing what Siri does – even on the Android Marketplace. Today, one of the most popular voice assistant apps for Android, speaktoit, is now available for iOS devices as well.

Besides being able to have a voice assistant on your iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, other benefits of speaktoit include: customizable avatars so you’re not talking to a faceless circle, map search outside of the US, the ability to update Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, frequent updates that add new features, and a more conversational experience.

However, unlike the Android version, speaktoit will cost you $1.99, though on Valentine’s Day next week, it will be free for the first 100,000 downloads. If you’re interested in checking it out, try it for free with your Android device or purchase it from the Apple App Store today.

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If you’re looking for a pair of speakers for your tablet, you might want to check out the Zooka from a design studio called NEW. The Zooka is a durable, portable wireless speaker for your tablet, smartphone, music player or any Bluetooth enabled device. It features a simple design that lets it clip on to the bezel of the iPad or any other tablet, and uses Bluetooth connectivity to receive audio for wireless playback through its stereo speakers. For non-Bluetooth enabled devices, it features a 3.5mm jack for old fashioned connectivity.

The Zooka is touted to have a battery life of at least 8 hours on a full charge, and its lightweight and durability makes it ideal for bringing out on trips. Unfortunately, the speaker is still in its fund crowdsourcing stage on Kickstarter so if you’re keen on picking up one make sure you pre-order it or it may never go into production. Find out more on the Zooka Kickstarter page.

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Remember the black Google bar introduced a few months ago? The one that appears on top of all Google websites? Google has announced that it will be making some minor changes to it. To switch between different Google services, you now click on the “more” link at the end of the black bar as opposed to clicking on the Google logo previously. The Google logo that appears on every page has also been reduced in size (since you don’t click it anymore) which gives us more screen real estate. Other than that it looks like there isn’t anything else that’s been changed. However, it looks like some users (me included) will have to get used to not clicking the Google logo anymore. The new bar has started rolling out today, and will reach everybody over the next few weeks.

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The Xbox 360 has been the best selling console in the US for the past year, and it looks like it’s going to maintain its popularity. Despite being a few years old; it looks like the console isn’t going to disappear anytime soon, especially since there won’t be an Xbox 720 this year. The NPD recently reported that for the month of January 2012, the Xbox 360 sold over 270,000 units, which puts it as the best selling console of that month, and on track to dominate 2012 as well – assuming January’s performance is any indication for the rest of the year.

And if you wanted to know the games that helped pushed sales of the Xbox 360 last year? The best selling games for the Xbox 360 in the US were: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, NBA 2K12 and Just Dance 3. With new Halo and Fable games arriving this year, the Xbox 360 still has plenty of life left.

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With each software update (regardless of whether it is on a piece of hardware or a software), you as the user can expect more or less additional improvements – and the same goes to Netflix for Android. While Verizon and Coinstar has teamed up to give Netflix a run for its money, that does not mean Netflix is just going to sit back and see others gnaw away at their market share in entertainment rentals. With Netflix for Android, they are moving into the mobile arena, offering more support for additional phones while improving performance with software updates after that. (more…)

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Verizon Wireless has already introduced the latest software updates for both the Motorola Droid XYBOARD 8.2 and XYBOARD 10.1 tablets (we have reviewed the two of them already, where you can read it here and here). As with any other update, you can expect a bunch of improvements, and this time around, global roaming is supported. Basically, this translates to the ability to connect to the Internet regardless of where your XYBOARD travels with you over a 4G network – as long as it is supported in that part of the world, that is, and also be prepared to be slapped with a rather shocking roaming fee at the end of the month. Something tells me that this is going to be a service used only in extreme emergencies, where you have exhausted all other avenues of getting online. On the other hand, when you are overseas, chances are you will fall back on Wi-Fi connectivity most of the time.

Apart from that, this update will also deliver improved scrolling in the web browser, a superior touch response, wireless improvements, as well as the ability to use the keyboard whenever the tablet is placed within a docking station. You can read about the XYBOARD 8.2 update here and the XYBOARD 10.1 update here.

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There is right now the moral question of whether Apple should be doing more in their capacity to help raise the working conditions of those at Foxconn, one of Apple’s major manufacturing partners, but this rather sensitive ground is not what we are going to talk about today. Instead, we will look at Foxconn experiencing a security breach after hackers mounted protests over iPhone factory conditions, and this happened after login details of its roster of staff were revealed. Swagg Security, the hacker group behind this security breach, taunted Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn’s parent company Hon Hai Industries, after putting up his username and password alongside a slew of sensitive information on the PirateBay and Pastebin websites. (more…)

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