Sprint -- the third largest carrier in the U.S. mobile phone market -- is in talks to sell a majority of the company to Japanese telecom giant Softbank, it was reported Thursday.

Japan's TV network NHK says Softbank, a $43 billion company, is eyeing a two-thirds stake in Sprint Nextel -- a deal that would be worth about $13 billion.

Sprint has 55 million customers, and made $33 billion in revenue last year.

Softbank has a long history of buying stakes in (and making partnerships with) U.S. companies. It bought a 14% chunk of UStream in 2010, and was the first Japanese mobile provider to sell the iPhone back in 2007.

There were rumors in 2011 that Softbank (along with Alibaba…
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Mozilla has temporarily stopped delivering the latest version of Firefox 16.0, due to a security vulnerability.

Version 15.0.1 is considered "up to date" while Mozilla resolves the problem.

The vulnerability, which potentially allows an attacker to view a user's browsing history, only affects version 16; Firefox 15 is unaffected.

"The vulnerability could allow a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited and have access to the URL or URL parameters. At this time we have no indication that this vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild," writes Mozilla's Director of Security Assurance Michael Coates.

Mozilla will automatically upgrad…
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A visualization of Nike+ running data confirms runners are some of the most hardcore metropolitan residents. For example, in New York, some athletes run from borough to borough, several circles around Central Park or the entire span of the West Side Highway.

Nike+ City Runs is a software system that plops Nike+ running data onto a screen. Thick white lines bring thousands of runs to life. In the animations, viewers can follow moving dots, representing runners, along a map of each city.

YesYesNo artists Zachary Lieberman, Theo Watson and Emily Gobeille used app data including runners' start and end points throughout New York, London and Tokyo to…
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More About: Mobile, Nike, apps, fitness

Sean Penn and Kid Rock team up to break down political stereotypes in an epic 11-minute-long public service announcement.

Called Americans, the mini, NSFW film was written, directed and edited by Jameson Stafford, a newbie filmmaker. Penn and Rock (who also gets an executive-producer title) are credited with creating the story.

The video opens with actor Penn -- a noted Democrat -- at a bar. He looks on with disgust at the television, which shows Rock singing at a rally for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. As it turns out, Rock is at the same bar, and the two exchange words -- or more accurately, a string of political-stereotype-laden epithets.

At the film's midway…
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Google has rolled out its biggest Street View update so far, updating over 250,000 miles of roads around the world and doubling the number of its special collections.

The update increases Street View coverage in the following countries: U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Macau.

Furthermore, new special collections were launched in several new countries, including South Africa, Japan, Spain, France, Brazil and Mexico.

The new sights to see in Google Maps Street View include the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taiwan, Fort Canning Park in Singapore, Elsinore Castle in Denmark, Catherine Palace and Ferapontov monaster…
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Charging your phone is not an exciting task. A new device, however, makes it a little more interesting -- breaking the basic laws of gravity while charging your device in midair.

The Bobine is a flexible, 24-inch cable that works both as a charger and a stand. The material holds its shape however you bend it, so you can arrange it to charge in an upward position while you cook, clean or drive.

The device works with iOS and Android devices, but doesn't yet have the strength to hold tablets.

SEE ALSO: Charging Your Phone Becomes a Game With This Toyota App [VIDEO]

The Bobine began as a Kickstarter project in June, where it raised more t…
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More About: Newsy, android, iphone, trending, videos

Google has rolled out a new version of its Google+ app for both Android and iOS, bringing the current version number to 3.2.

The new version brings support for Google+ pages, enabling page owners to post, comment and interact with their followers, using their smartphone.

Other improvements include an updated widget and a new design of the "Find People" feature for the Android version, while the iOS version gets iPhone 5 and iOS6 support, as well as the ability to edit posts.

The app is available in Apple's App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android).

More About: Google, android, iOS

Google debuted a new look for its mobile homepage Wednesday, unveiling a hidden sidebar.

Now, when users tap the three-line menu button in the upper-left corner, a sidebar with popular Google products emerges. In order of appearance, there's Images, Maps, YouTube, News, Gmail, Documents, Calendar, Translate, Books, Blogger, Reader, Finance, Photos and Video. At the very bottom, a button for "all products" lists a larger range of Google products.

SEE ALSO: How Important Is a Mobile-Optimized Site for Your Business?

Those who have Google+ will also see notifications from the social network, as well as the share button.

The new homepage helps users "get other Google products fas…
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More About: Google, Mobile, homepage, mobile phones

1. Hitcase Pro

Coming in mid-December, the Hitcase can withstand everything other than a .50 cal. With a wide-angle attachment lens, you can film the end of the world while being sure that even if you don't, your iPhone will remain intact. Coming soon for the iPhone 5

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Let's face it, if Mayan predictions are true we better start thinking about the end of the world. Which is to say we need to start thinking about protecting our tech and adapting it to the post-apocalyptic world we'll be living in.

Sure, you could spend $24,000 on an apocalypse kit, but the most vital connection to survivors will be your smartphone.

SEE ALSO: 7 iPhone Cases That Charge On-The-Go

Apple sold 5 million iPhone 5s in its first opening weekend, so it wouldn't surprise us to see many floating around after the lights go out on Earth. Take a look at the gallery above to find five iPhone 5 cases that'll help you make the transition to dystopia smoother.

More About: Apocalypse, Apple iPhone 5, apple, iphone cases

eBay is re-inventing itself, borrowing elements of Pinterest to emulate a store-window experience for its users. At the same time, it still has to deal with the same old buyer and seller disagreements.

How does eBay deal with unhappy users, especially buyers who are wary of fraudulent deals, and sellers who experience deadbeat buyers? Devin Wenig, president of eBay Marketplaces, explains what the site does about its bad apples in the video.

SEE ALSO: eBay President Reveals How the Site Will Get Social [VIDEO]

What else could eBay do to improve its experience? Share your ideas in the comments.

More About: ebay, mashable video, online auctions

Some 70% of the BET Hip Hop Awards viewers, who used Twitter during the broadcast, preferred to tweet from their mobile devices rather than web browsers (30%). TV audiences' Twitter use on mobile for other 2012 awards shows pales in comparison, with the MTV Movie Awards at 51%, Emmys at 48% and Oscars at 44%, social media tracker Trendrr tells Mashable.

BET's mobile efforts -- releasing apps for specific televised events and shows -- appear to be making strides. The app for Tuesday's Hip Hop Awards had more than 300,000 downloads. A revamped version of the BET Awards app, it featured gaming elements tied to voting for nominees and predicting the order of performers.

Mobile and web act…
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More About: Entertainment, Gaming, Trendrr, Twitter, celebrities, mobile apps, social tv, tweets

RockMelt, the social web browser, released its first app for the iPad on Thursday, which blends web search functions into a news reader application.

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Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and other politicians across the country are constantly asking followers to pitch in money to their campaign -- but do those pitches actually work?

According to Twitter, absolutely.

The company commissioned a study from data research firm Compete and found the average Twitter user is 68% more likely than the average Internet user to visit a campaign donation page. Meanwhile, 97% of Twitter users exposed to political tweets are more likely than other users to visit a campaign donation page.

That increase in likelihood to donate may be because Twitter users inclined to follow politicians and political news are also already inclined to contribute fina…
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Geometric Windows

Albert called this shot "Looking out through the geometric windows."

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What makes patterns so captivating? Maybe because it is stunning to see the fundamental organization that underlies our chaotic lives. What we look like, where we live, what we eat and how many hours we sleep: all of these are predetermined by patterns. Much of our lives are composed of invisible patterns that we can't see with the naked eye -- or that we could see, if we ever took the time to look for them.

This week for the Mashable Photo Challenge we asked our readers to stop, examine and photograph the patterns that make up the world around us. We received a stunning collection of submissions that ranged from the patterns of the natural world to the patterns that have emerged from hum…
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The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader is a great deal at $119, but take a look at the Txtr Beagle Read|Only, undercutting it by more than a C-note.

More About: Txtr Beagle, e-ink, e-readers

Apple did something Wednesday night that it hadn't done in a while: It dropped a new iPod ad.

The spot above, called "Bounce" features the track "Yeah Yeah" by Willie Moon, a singer from New Zealand. Though Apple just broke the ad on TV Wednesday night and loaded the video to its official YouTube Channel, versions of the ad had leaked last month.

The ad from TBWA\Media Arts Lab, coincides with the release of the seventh-generation iPod Nano and the fifth-generation iPod Touch on Wednesday. Overshadowed in recent years by the iPhone and the iPad, Apple still gives ad support to the iPod from time to time. The last time the company ran an iPod ad was in November 2011, a rep from the…
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A new mobile app helps the visually impaired count dollar bills with the help of a smartphone camera.

IDEAL Currency Identifier can ID three generations of U.S. bills starting in 1993. Just hold the camera in front of the dollar bill and the camera captures it in a frame -- without even pressing a button. The denomination is read aloud by a Siri-like voice within the app. At first glance, you might wonder how a visually impaired person could use this, but the frame is pretty large, so it's easy to capture the dollar bill in the frame if you just wave your phone over it.

SEE ALSO: Android App Makes Smartphones Accessible for the Blind

The app is available for Android devices and…
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If the college football season ended today -- and if Facebook buzz, not wins and losses, was the measure of a team's worth -- Florida and Georgia would meet in the BCS National Championship Game. Alabama and Oregon, the nation's top two teams according to voters, wouldn't even crack the top 10.

Not surprisingly, however, these rankings don't have a ton to do with how good a team actually is. Each week, Facebook counts and weights total mentions and percentage increase for key terms associated with college football teams to produce its power rankings.

Alabama and Oregon are undefeated, while they're both popular teams that by default gain plenty of buzz, most of their games have been…
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Election Day is less than four weeks away, and with the debate season in full-swing, voters' minds are focused on Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and the most important issues facing the nation.

Google Politics & Elections decided to take a look at what's on Americans minds, across all states. To do so, they mapped search trends of seven usual suspect hot-button political issues -- national debt, social security, tax cuts etc. -- across the country.

Some of the findings are unsurprising. Florida, home of many retirees, is worried about social security, for example. But how about New York being one of the five states with the most searches for "abortion?"

Other findings are almost shockin…
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Google, US, US politics

1. Lady Gaga

You can't read my Zombie Face. Image used with permission, Rob Sacchetto

Click here to view this gallery.

Celebrity-packed eateries like Nobu, The Ivy and wherever else famous folks stuff their bellies might want to add brain to the menu because a zombie invasion lurks in the shadows of the Hollywood sign. Brain kabobs, Lo Brain, brain on a stick -- the menu items really make themselves. But, we digress -- or is it digest?

SEE ALSO: Zombie Disney Princesses Seek Prince Charming — and Brains

Artist Rob Sacchetto gets a head start on the zombie-fication with a series of gory undead portraits featuring Lady Gaga, Clint Eastwood and other brrrraaaiiin-hungry celebs. Grab a pitchfork and your running shoes and take a look through the gallery above for our favorite notable cranium nibblers.…
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More About: Lady Gaga, Watercooler, art, celebrities, clint eastwood, trending, zombies

Groupon is taking on Square with the launch of a new iPad-based mobile payment service called Breadcrumb.

The result of the Groupon's acquisition of a company by the same name, Breadcrumb is a point-of-sale system for local restaurants, bars, and small businesses to use in place of a cash register.

The service handles everything from taking orders to table management, processes payments, and analyzes overall sales to help merchants learn more about their business and make improvements for the future.

After a successful pilot run in New York City, Groupon is now offering the service as an option to business owners nationwide.

SEE ALSO: Squar…
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This is a first, at least from Apple. A portion of the new Fifth-Generation iPod Touch and Seventh Generation iPod Nano's packaging is biodegradable. Just add water and the EarPod holder dissolves.

Apple's long been a leader in product package design and has often touted how eco-friendly its products are (though not all always agree). However this is the first time, in our memory, we've ever seen a portion of Apple's packaging that could all but disappear in warm water.

SEE ALSO: Unboxing Apple's New iPods

The EarPod case doesn't completely disappear, but when placed in warm water, it pretty soon becomes pliable, and soon falls apart. Afte…
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Mitt Romney may have labled electric carmaker Tesla Motors a "loser" during the first U.S. presidential debate, but it certainly is a winner in this instance.

Automobile Magazine put the speed of the Tesla Model S to the test, pitting it against the BMW M5 in a drag race.

SEE MORE: Tesla Says It Will Be Profitable by December

While it may appear that the Tesla's driver put his pedal to the metal a moment earlier than his competitor did, the BMW quickly fell behind and was unable to catch up.

So much for the old belief that electric cars are not very fast.

More About: Tesla Motors, Watercooler, cars, viral videos

Have you ever heard a politician make a claim you just couldn't believe, so you turned to Google or Wikipedia for the truth? You're far from alone -- 64% of "persuadable voters" use the Internet to fact-check political candidates, according to a recent study.

The study also found that a majority of persuadable voters in several battleground states -- 58% -- are using the Internet to look up candidates' voting records or stances on the important issues of the day. 49% are getting their regular fill of election news online, and 53% said the Internet provides them "with the information they need."

"The Internet is an increasingly important resource when it comes to getting information…
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As iPhone 5 users wonder if they should be concerned about that "purple haze" in their photos, Fotodiox jumps in with a solution, the camHoodie Lens Hood case.

More About: Purple Haze, apple, canHoodie, iPhone 5, iphone 5 cases, lens flare

Voice commands can activate many features on our smartphones with the press of a button. They can launch apps, dial contacts or event send tweets. But what if we could do that without having to touch our devices?

Digits, a wrist-worn sensor built by Microsoft, allows the control of electronic devices with simple hand gestures. The sensor creates a 3D-model of your hand in real-time and could one day be used to control TVs, dial phone numbers, or play video games.

SEE ALSO: Watch the Human Mind Explode a Watermelon [VIDEO]

The sensor uses infrared LEDs to detect the movements of fingers and translates them into 3D space. The device still has a…
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More About: 3D, hand gestures, microsoft

Sling Media announced a long-needed refresh to its Slingbox line of devices Wednesday with the Slingbox 350 and the Slingbox 500.

If you need a refresher, a Slingbox is a device that that connects to your cable or satellite box. Once connected, you can access the signal from that device on a computer, iPad, iPhone or Android tablet -- anywhere you are.

Sling was the first company to really introduce the idea of place-shifting -- that is, watching content at home in a different location -- but it's faced strong competition over the years from over-the-top streaming services, TV Everywhere and a growing list of competitors.

With the Slingbox 350 and 500, the company wants to remin…
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More About: connected devices, features, reviews, slingbox, slingbox 350, slingbox 500

Gangnam Style is a worldwide sensation at this point, with more than 300 million views and a world record-breaking number of likes on YouTube .

The song by South Korean rapper Psy has reached all corners of the globe, so it's not too surprising to see that it has taken over Italy as well. Now, what we didn't expect a 9,000 person strong flashmob.

SEE ALSO: Giddy up! How to Win $5,000 Dancing 'Gangnam Style'

But that's exactly what happened in Palermo, Sicily last month when approximately 9,000 people gathered at Piazza Verdi in front of the Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele, and danced to the infectious tune.

Gangnam Style Video Roundup

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A new skateboarding video puts the power in your hands, letting you decide which tricks popular boarders Ryan Sheckler, Paul Rodriguez and Torey Pudwill should perform next.

So will it be the noseblunt nollie heel or the front feeble varial heel? The video has 800 possible outcomes.

More About: Entertainment, Skateboarding, Sports, videos

While Mitt Romney's Twitter following is growing daily and recently crossed the one million mark, Barack Obama has a more influential following, according to a new report.

Obama -- who has 20.3 million Twitter followers, has a social pull of more than 8,000 times that of the average Twitter user, per a study conducted by social media analytics firm PeekYou. On the other hand, Romney, with 1.2 million followers, has a pull of about 800 times the average user.

PeekYou defines "social pull" as a measure of influence -- a higher social pull suggests a user has more influences in their following, aiding the first users' ability to broadcast a message far and wide.

SEE ALSO: Twitter D…
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney, Politics, Twitter, US, barack obama, trending