The presidential election is just days away, which means those political rants on Facebook have never been more popular. It's easy to tell where some of your more outspoken friends may fall on the political spectrum, but what about those who have kept tight-lipped through this election season?

MicroStrategy has developed the Wisdom App that parses statuses and digs through Facebook Likes to find out how many of your friends are conservative and how many are liberal. The app spits out an infographic giving you a personal analysis of the politics within your social network.

And after November 6th, you can use the Wisdom app to generate infographi…
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More About: Facebook app, Mitt Romney, apps, election 2012, president obama, presidential election

There was a time when the only way to access emoji characters on an iOS device was to download a third-party app. These characters, however, are now supported natively in iOS 6. Because of this, Apple is notifying developers that their apps are no longer welcomed in the App Store, according to MacRumors.

This will help unsuspecting customers who may not know that emoji characters are available on iOS for free. As Apple pulls emoji apps, developers are receiving this message:

Hello XXXX,

We are writing to let you know your app, XXXX, has been removed from the App Store because it is no longer needed to unlock Emoji.

Since iOS 6 now provides Emoji support to all users, your a…
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More About: apple, apple app store, emoji, emoticons

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Hurricane Sandy may wreak havoc on Election Day in some of the hardest-hit states, including New Jersey and New York. Election officials in the northeast are scrambling to ensure that voters will have a place to cast their ballot on Tuesday -- New Jersey will use National Guard trucks as makeshift polling places, for instance.

The Sandy-sewed confusion only adds another layer to an already complicated Election Day: jurisdiction maps have been redrawn since the last major election, meaning many voters have new polling places and unfamiliar candidates. Add the complex voter identification laws recently passed in several in several states, and the headache intensifies.…
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Politics, US

Food Revolution founder Jamie Oliver is coming to a kitchen near you -- virtually, that is. The celebrity chef will appear in Zynga's Chefville for the next two weeks, helping gamers discover new quests while learning sustainable agriculture and healthy cooking.

More About: ChefVille, Jamie Oliver, Zynga

Those of you who felt Hurricane Sandy this week were reminded, yet again, of nature's ferocity. At our home, about 100 miles north of New York City, on the banks of the Hudson River, the tides and wind speeds were our biggest concern.

The Internet was our constant companion with a shout-out to WeatherUnderground for crowd-sourcing the weather to amateur weather stations and aficionados. We calculated and recalculated wind speeds, tides and barometer changes based on Internet data -- in addition to grabbing sleeping bags, water and flashlights and moving the car to the top of a hill. We stayed online searching for all the latest data.

SEE ALSO: 7 Ways to Help Victims of Superstorm…
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More About: Hurricane Sandy, contributors, features

This interesting infographic provides a snapshot of just how digitally immersed sports fans are today.

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Like a tourist who snaps a photo of himself in front of the Eiffel Tower, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has stretched out its arm and captured a high-resolution self-portrait in spectacular surroundings.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover took 55 hi-res pictures with its Mars Hand Lens Imager camera, or MAHLI, on Oct. 31. Mission scientists then stitched the images together to create a full-color mosaic of Curiosity and its Gale Crater landing site.

Curiosity touched down inside Gale on Aug. 5, kicking off a two-year mission to determine if Mars could ever have supported microbial life.

The new composite image shows the six-wheeled robot at a spot called "Rocknest," where Curiosity has bee…
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More About: Curiosity, Mars, Mars rover, NASA, space

This infographic explores our complicated relationship email -- that digital tool that can be of great utility but also prove too hard to ignore.

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Yoink, a virtual bulletin board launched two weeks ago, has been completely repurposed to provide aid to New Yorkers in Sandy's wake. It's now a peer-to-peer disaster relief site.

More About: Hurricane Sandy, Startups, yoink

REDMOND, Wash. -- Any mobile developer who wants to make money (read: every one of them) targets Apple's iOS platform first since the user base is massive, representing the greatest potential for profit. Windows Phone, by comparison, has feeble market share (just 2% of phones shipped, according to IDC), so benefits to succeed aren't as great.

However, a smaller platform means a shorter road to success. On iOS (and Android as well), marketing an app rapidly becomes a race to the list of Top 50 downloads. If it can't get there, it's very difficult to stand out from the 700,000+ other titles in the App Store. The Windows Phone Store, however, has just over 110,000 apps.

That's still a…
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More About: Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone Store, apps, microsoft, windows phone

There are close to 110 million smartphone users in the United States alone. And, according to a recent Price Grabber study, many of them plan to use their devices for holiday shopping.

The study polled 2,500 smarthphone users across the country. Of them, 32% said they planned to use shopping apps to use for the holidays; 42% said they planned to buy small- and big-ticket items through smartphones. 75% agreed they would do some form of shopping online.

SEE ALSO: Target Pledges to Match Amazon's Holiday Prices

This doesn't come as much of a surprise to retailers -- many have adjusted accordingly. Target, for example, will add QR codes to a se…
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More About: Mobile, Newsy, apps, study, videos

The days of techies hiding in their basements or thinking only about stock options and foosball tables are long gone in New York City. Instead, they are organizing en masse to help small businesses, schools and nonprofit organizations get up and running after the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. And they are spreading beyond the Big Apple to offer assistance in Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York and Connecticut.

The efforts could also be the beginning of a regular commitment of technology pros to serve the New York community, as well as a model for the whole country, say organizers.

Much of the effort is coming from the New York Tech Meetup (NYTM), which has more than 28,000…
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More About: Hurricane Sandy, new york city

It was shaping up to be a classic 'Revenge of the Nerds' scenario. In one corner, we had Nate Silver, the stats whiz whose algorithmic models have correctly called everything from baseball rankings to the 2008 and 2010 elections. In the other, a pundit class with little on their side other than gut feelings and loud voices.

Then tempers flared on Twitter -- and Silver suddenly found himself, rather than his numbers, at the center of the story.

Silver, whose poll-based analysis site FiveThirtyEight.com was bought by the New York Times two years ago, takes a nonpartisan, statistical approach to the election. His model doesn't cherry-pick polls, but weighs them based on how accura…
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More About: Mitt Romney, Twitter, barack obama, nate silver, new york times

NBA star Dwyane Wade says Friday's game in New York should be canceled and he'll donate his paycheck to charity. Is that just PR following a Twitter gaffe?

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Twitter, which once tried to buy Instagram, is set to launch a service that competes with it, according to one report.

The company is preparing a range of photo filters users can add to pictures uploaded to Twitter, several sources within the company told the New York Times. The update would be launched in the coming months, according to the sources. (There was no comment from Twitter's official channels.)

Whether such a move would succeed -- or blunt Instagram's phenomenal growth (100 million users and counting) -- is an open question. Instagram is a stream of photos and comments, with the emphasis placed on the pictures. Twitter is, in effect, the reverse: commentary with occasio…
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More About: Twitter, instagram

On October 31, 1962, President John F. Kennedy filmed a public service announcement urging citizens of a very different America to vote. He encouraged eligible voters to cast a ballot on election day for the midterm race.

Half a century later, the words of the late president still resonate and coincidentally, the date of this year's presidential election is the same as then -- Tuesday, Nov. 6.

"Show the world how strongly we believe in freedom, how strongly we believe in democracy," Kennedy says.

The video was filmed in the Roosevelt Room of the West Wing of the White House, only three days after the unofficial end of the Cuban Missile Cri…
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More About: election 2012, presidential election, viral videos, voting

The New York City Marathon has been canceled.

This about-face turn of events comes just hours after New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg defended his decision to keep the marathon going. Bloomberg and race officials have faced criticism -- online and off -- for the decision to keep the race running in spite of the devastation to many parts of the five boroughs.

Online backlash against the marathon started on Thursday. Facebook pages dedicated to canceling the marathon gained nearly 50,000 likes in just 24 hours. More than 27,000 individuals signed a Change.org petition to postpone the marathon until the Spring of 2013.

The Mayor's Office announced the cancellation of the marath…
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More About: Hurricane Sandy, Sandy, new york city marathon

Which U.S. presidential candidate's picture is showing up the most on Twitter? Here's a Twitter Photo counter that will show you in real time.

More About: 2012 Presidential Election, Romney, Skylines, Twitter, obama

1. Wind-Up Radio

Radios may seem like primitive technology in the digital age, but they're still very effective in relaying information during an emergency. The one pictured uses solar power, features a hand-crank for backup power and even includes a flashlight.

Click here to view this gallery.

Earlier this week, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the United States as well as Caribbean countries, leaving tremendous disaster in its wake. People have gone without power for days, and the elderly and disabled -- especially those in high-rise buildings -- are unable to get the food and water they need.

SEE ALSO: NYC Startups Offer Each Other Power, Internet After Sandy

Many of these people prepared for the storm, but due to Sandy's magnitude, weren't able to imagine its tragic aftermath.

We compiled a short list of tech essentials that could help you prepare for storms and natural disasters beyond Sandy, especially when a generator is either too expensive or isn't plausible…
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More About: Gadgets, Hurricane Sandy, Tech, emergency, natural disaster, solar power

Hurricane Sandy was nasty enough to watch from the ground, but a NASA satellite caught a different angle of the storm.

The satellite, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRIMM), was around 250 miles up in lower orbit during the hurricane and tracked the total rainfall dumped onto the Eastern Seaboard.

SEE ALSO: 15 Amazing Acts of Kindness During Sandy

Thankfully, the worst of the rain fell into the Atlantic Ocean. NASA reports that approximately 10.2 inches fell into open water while 7 inches hit various parts of the coast, from North Carolina up to New Jersey. The majority of the water damage, though, was caused by water being pushed inlan…
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More About: Hurricane Sandy, Newsy, videos

Need a dose of warmhearted feelings in the wake of Hurricane Sandy? We've got just the Tumblr for you.

NOLA to New York, a project from freelance journalist Andy Kopsa, has residents of New Orleans sending messages of goodwill to people in New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy.

The connection is clear: Hurricane Katrina forever changed New Orleans, and Sandy may do the same to New York.

"I am in NOLA now, waiting to get home in the wake of Sandy," wrote Kospa in a post explaining the project. "So while I am pacing, worried about my husband, friends and my city, I thought up this project. Who better than the people of New Orleans to talk to the people of NYC right now. T…
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More About: Hurricane Sandy, US, tumblr

Old shipping containers repurposed into solar-powered classrooms are giving students in the most remote parts of Africa access to education and innovation.

Samsung's Solar-Powered Internet Schools Initiative brings mobile classrooms filled with gadgets to rural towns like Phomolong, home to about 5,000 to 10,000 people. By outfitting a mobile shipping container with desks, a 50-inch electronic board, Internet-enabled solar-powered notebooks, Samsung Galaxy tablet computers and Wi-Fi cameras, children can receive a technology-rich education without traveling far.

"I have this motivation in me. It's this need to just grow up and become something be…
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More About: Children, South Africa, africa, education, internet, samsung, tablets

Lacking a "green thumb?" Click and Grow is for the beginner gardener. You water it once and forget about it.

The Click and Grow flower pot and plant cartridge work like a printer and toner. The pot contains electronics, sensors, batteries, a pump and a water reservoir; the cartridge contains seeds, nutrients and software (in a microchip) for growing the plant. There are currently 13 varieties of flowers and plants, and the selection is continuously growing. Right now the available selection includes painted nettle, lamb's ear, marigolds and more. You can also grow edible things such as basil, thyme, sage, tomatoes and chili peppers.

Founder Mattias Lepp tells Mashable all you hav…
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More About: click and grow, gardening, presents

Admit it: When you tried to sketch Kanye West in your last game of Draw Something, it wound up as a stick figure in shutter shades. Maybe art isn't for you. Or maybe Adonit's Jot Stylus is the very tool you need.

Adonit offers a number of sleek styluses in the Jot line, all of which aim to make drawing on the iPhone, iPad, and other touchscreen devices a simpler, more satisfying experience.

What's that weird plastic disc fastened to the tip of the stylus? Some sort of protective cover? No, it's a broadened sensor that mimics the human finger, making it perfect for modern touchscreens. Pivoting on the ballpoint tip of the Jot, the disc replicates the precision of a pen while ma…
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More About: Gadgets, Gift of the Day, features, holidays 2012, stylus

Are you one of the lucky employees whose job revolves around social media? Then stay logged in to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. If not, your social media recreation could be costing the U.S. economy $650 billion per year — or $4,452 per company.

SEE ALSO: 70% of Employees Regularly Work Out of the Office

You may think it's harmless to check a tweet or respond to a personal message on Facebook, but it will take you 23 minutes to get back on track. A social media interruption occurs every 10.5 minutes on average, and people waste 41% of that time on Facebook.

The infographic below, from Learn Stuff, contains more information about how social media destroys productivity.

Th…
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More About: Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, infographics, pinterest, productivity, work

In Hurricane Sandy's destructive wake, it's a Facebook page that is providing essential information to those affected in New Jersey.

Created by N.J. resident Justin Auciello, "Jersey Shore Hurricane News" is aggregating updates, providing shelter information, and organizing volunteer meetups for the page's 170,000 subscribers. Auciello created it last year during 2011's Hurricane Irene, but it's getting a second life because of Superstorm Sandy -- gaining more than 100,000 likes since last week.

JSHN is a constant feed of timely information that is proving to be indispensable as the state struggles to get back on its feet. Auciello told MuckRack that he is posting sev…
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More About: Facebook, Hurricane Sandy, jersey shore

You've heard him butcher "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds." Now, let him lay waste to your prose as well.

For $2.99 William Shatner's Shatoetry iPhone app will render an audible, Shatner-narrated version of your poems in his inimitable dramatic style. You are somewhat limited in your choices, however. The app uses a refrigerator magnet-like system where you can choose among some pre-selected words. However, each word has three variations.

This will certainly amuse the Shatnerphile in your life though it's fair to ask: "But. For. How. Long?"

More About: Shatoetry, Star Trek, William Shatner, apps

NBC News's digital team has been hard at work forging a fresh identity following the mid-summer dissolution of MSNBC.com. After months of experimentation with new social platforms, back-end technologies and homemade hacks, it's viewing election night as a marker in the road: look at how far we've come, and look at where else we can go.

"There's been no better story to tell across all these different platforms than politics," Ryan Osborn, vice president of digital innovation at NBC News, told Mashable. "Whether it's been the conventions, the debates or as we prepare for Election Day, we're really looking to innovate and take what's special about our storytelling and put it in new place…
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More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Media, nbc news, xbox

Ready to Roll

Photo Credit: NASA

Click here to view this gallery.

If I close my eyes, I can still almost feel the chest-rumbling launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis I witnessed in person two-and-a-half years ago. I stood just a few miles away as it rocketed off into space on its penultimate mission (STS-132). That was among the few awe-inspiring Shuttle moments left to us, because we knew the manned program's days were numbered. On Friday, I watched from a far greater distance (online) as Atlantis rolled quietly and slowly to its final destination as a show piece at the Kennedy Space Center.

Throughout the year, the rest of the shuttle fleet has been flown and rolled to various museums around the country. The Enterprise (a test unit that never made i…
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More About: NASA, atlantis space shuttle, space, space shuttle

Gamification is hot right now. More and more startups and established brands are building mobile apps and platforms that offer awards, badges and other fun ways to reward and recognize influencers. It's a great way to build a community organically around a product or service and impact customer retention.

But like any shiny new marketing strategy, gamification won't necessarily yield more sales -- or better engagement -- unless it's applied thoughtfully, in a way your users can relate to.

I asked a panel of successful entrepreneurs for their best tips for successfully "gamifying" a brand. Below are nine pieces of advice on implementing a game strategy that gets results.

1…
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More About: Business, Marketing, Startups, contributor, features, gamification