Sunday 3 February 2013

Mashable: Latest 16 News Updates - including “Nokia Gets Grant to Develop Graphene, the ‘World’s Strongest Material’”

Mashable: Latest 16 News Updates - including “Nokia Gets Grant to Develop Graphene, the ‘World’s Strongest Material’”


Nokia Gets Grant to Develop Graphene, the ‘World’s Strongest Material’

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 03:25 PM PST


Finnish multinational communications giant Nokia is set to develop graphene, a "super-material" that will be the strongest in the world, thanks to a $1.35 billion grant from the European Union.

The grant comes from the EU's future and emerging technologies program (FET), whose mission is "to promote high risk research, offset by potential breakthrough with high technological or societal impact."

Nokia is part of the Graphene Flagship Consortium, a group of industry leaders "looking to improve the world using graphene," which is the name of the super-material being developed by the group.

SEE ALSO: Nokia Music+ Offers $3.99 Premium Streaming Service

Graphene is super-thin -- only…
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More About: European Union, Newsy, Nokia, telecommunications

Top 10 Tech This Week

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:43 PM PST


1. The Robot That Will Extract Water From the Moon




The Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot -- RASSOR, is an excavator robot designed to extract water, ice, and fuel from the soil of the moon, and from the soil of similarly dusty bodies (like, say, Mars). Learn more about this futuristic robot: http://on.mash.to/Xiaasv Image courtesy of NASA

Click here to view this gallery.


It was another exciting week in tech, with a major announcement -- the new BlackBerry 10, and a slew of other great stories.

The biggest story of the week was probably the launch of a new flagship phone, the touchscreen-only BlackBerry 10. The product that the company, now named simply BlackBerry, has bet its entire future on. The other two product announcements were not as earth-shattering perhaps, but still significant: Apple confirmed it's launching a 128GB iPad and Nokia launched a Spotify competitor.

SEE ALSO: Previous editions of Top 10 Tech This Week

It was a great week for science and robotics too. NASA unveiled a bot that will mine the moon, and we had the chance to see ho…
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More About: Top 10 Tech, Top 10 Tech This Week

5 Fascinating Facts We Learned From Reddit This Week

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:20 PM PST


1. The Beatles officially broke up in Disney World.




How could something so terrible happen at the happiest place on Earth? John Lennon was staying at the Polynesian Resort hotel on Dec. 29, 1974 when he received and signed the paperwork that legally dissolved the Fab Four. He was the last member to ink the documents, officially closing pop music's most important chapter in the shadow of Mickey Mouse. Image courtesy of Flickr, SarahElizabethC.

Click here to view this gallery.


If you've ever wanted to learn how to game the French lottery of 1728 (and who hasn't, amirite?), you've come to the right place. This week's edition of Reddit Facts has some delightful tidbits about the Fab Four, a famous photograph and a funky fruit.

Homepage image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

More About: features, reddit, reddit facts, Social Media

Not a Sports Fan? Here’s Your Guide to Super Bowl 2013 Betting

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:03 PM PST


With Sunday's Super Bowl XLVII, even the non-sports fans in the office have become interested in the financial aspects of American football's biggest game, which also happens to be the single biggest-gambling day of the year -- last year, more than $93 million was on the line in the United States, and some estimate that world-wide gambling on the game could be as much as $8 billion.

We're not football experts here, however, so if you really want to risk your hard-earned lucre on Super Bowl 2013 betting, listen to this guy. But we can compare the Las Vegas odds of various Super Bowl happenings with the InTrade odds of real world events to put everything in perspective.

Note that sports…
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More About: gambling, Super Bowl, Super Bowl 2013, Super Bowl XLVII

Astronaut Demonstrates the Bizarre Experience of Living in Space

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 01:32 PM PST


Let's get real: Deep down, we all really want to be astronauts when we grow up. Probably because we never really outgrow the awe we first felt for outer space; the vastness, the infinite possibilities for exploration, the unknown.

More importantly, we wonder, what would life in space be like for our gravity-normalized minds and bodies? On Wednesday, Jan. 30, some 200 Canadian elementary school children gathered in the country's Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa to find out.

Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station, was on hand, live from space, to answer any and all questions the kids could come up with about what it's like to inhabit th…
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More About: Chris Hadfield, International Space Station, space

8 Apps You Don’t Want To Miss

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:53 PM PST


THX tune-up




THX launched THX tune-up this week, an app designed to help you set up your home theater system. The interactive app offers detailed instructions and help to set up your television's aspect ratio, brightness, contrast, color, and tint appropriately. It also helps you test your speakers to ensure they're connected to the correct audio/video receiver (AVR) output, and checks to make sure all your speaker wires are connected correctly and in phase.

Click here to view this gallery.


It can be tough to keep up with all the new apps released every week. But you're in luck -- we take care of that for you, creating a roundup each weekend of our favorite new and updated apps.

This week we found an app that will help make sure your home theater is set up perfectly for the big game, and another that will help you find new friends to have dinner with if you'd rather go out.

A new app for businesses helps owners learn more about their recent and most faithful customers, and a new Star Trek app awards fans for their support with exclusive content.

Take a look at the gallery above for a look at this week's highlights.

Still looking for more? Check out last week's Apps
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More About: android, App, apps, iOS, weekly app roundup

Baltimore vs. San Francisco: ‘The Wire’ and ‘Full House’ Mashup

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:31 PM PST


The Baltimore Ravens square off with the San Francisco 49ers at Super Bowl XLVII on Sunday. Competitiveness between the opposite coast cities has already inspired plenty of trash talking between Baltimoreans and San Franciscans -- Charm City versus the City by the Bay.

Football is a great American pastime and all, but imagine if the Super Bowl took a pop culture twist. Instead of burly men in tight pants, each city was represented by a television show that took place in their respective cities.

Imagine no more because we've matched up the Baltimore and San Francisco's most representative TV shows -- The Wire and Full House, of course -- in a battle for Super Bowl rivalry bragging…
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More About: Super Bowl, The Wire, viral videos, Watercooler

10 Sassy Twitter Accounts to Follow on Super Bowl Sunday

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:17 PM PST


1. @sportspickle




SportsPickle has mastered the sarcastic sports axiom. Check 'em out on your second screen during the big game. Mashable composite, images courtesy of Flickr, frankenstoen and via Twitter

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Being a Twitter sports pundit is a game within the game. Fans of social media and sports know that chatter about the game on Twitter is often as entertaining as the game itself.

If the ref makes an awful call, a coach does something stupid (or really cool) or the commentators miss a beat, someone will immediately and succinctly let them hear about it on Twitter. Conversely, Twitter is also a place to praise an excellent performance -- though much less often.

SEE ALSO: 36% of Viewers Will Use Second Screen During Super Bowl

Scroll through the gallery above for 10 Twitter accounts to follow during the Super Bowl. Most were selected because they're funny -- some intentionally, some…
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More About: features, gallery, Social Media, Sports, Super Bowl, Twitter

49 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:01 PM PST


We're already a month into the new year, and the tech and social media worlds have seen some awesome developments. Before you settle down to watch the Super Bowl this weekend, we've rounded up Mashable's top picks of the week.

There are tons of digital media resources here -- we've got you covered on everything from Apple's new iOS 6.1 release to some apps to help you plan your Valentine's Day. Check them out below.

Editor's Picks

10 Under-the-Radar Tech Startups to Watch
The tech startups gearing up to make waves in 2013 are solving real problems and changing the way we interact with daily technology.

10 Valentine's Day Cards for Your Geeky Sweetheart
If your sweetie is…
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More About: Digital Media Resources, Features Week In Review

What to Know Before You Apply to a Startup

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 11:21 AM PST


Working for a startup has become the new hip thing to do; working a corporate job just doesn't have the same appeal these days. Fortunately, 65% of respondents in a recent HireArt survey of 147 startups agree that recruiting is one of their top three priorities right now. However, the survey also revealed that 50% of candidates don't know what it means to actually work for a startup.

Co-founder of HireArt Elli Sharef commented on the disparity between expectations and reality for candidates applying to startups: "People think these days they want to work at a startup. It's a new hot thing. There is an ethos, like 'Oh startups are so sexy,' but people don't really understand what it means…
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More About: Feature, job search series, Jobs, mashable, start up

The Marketing Super Bowl: From Playbook to Hall of Fame

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 10:31 AM PST


If you've been anywhere near the North American continent for the past month, you probably know that the clash of the brothers Harbaugh known as the Super Bowl is upon us.

With it has come the annual crush of slick, snappy advertisements as marketing departments everywhere bring out their best and brightest (and empty their bank accounts) to grab the attention of millions of eyeballs that will be glued to television screens Sunday. Yes, there's a marketing super bowl going on at the same time as the game.

We know it's a big day for you, marketing professionals, and in that spirit Insightera has put together a Super Bowl infographic, below, detailing not the impending showdown between R…
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More About: infographics, Marketing, Super Bowl

Alabama Teacher Caught Ranting About ‘Fat Butt Michelle Obama’ and ‘Queers’

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 09:51 AM PST


When Alabama high-school teacher and football coach Bob Grisham went on a rant against "fat butt Michelle Obama" and "queers" in a classroom, little did he know that an unidentified student was recording audio of his remarks.

Grisham is still teaching psychology at Lauderdale County High School in Rogersville, Alabama, but according to Times Daily, schools superintendent Jennifer Grey says the local school board has plans for a meeting within the next two weeks to figure out what to do about his politically incorrect diatribe.

Grisham, head football coach of the school's team that went to the state semifinals this year, has worked at that school since 1991. Apparently, that long ca…
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More About: education, Homophobia, obama, racism

High-Tech Paint Keeps Parking Lots 40 Degrees Cooler

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 09:03 AM PST


Anyone who's taken a midsummer stroll through Manhattan might appreciate this. Light-colored, heat-reflecting asphalt and paint makes a parking lot cooler by 40 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) on a hot day.

The idea of painting city sidewalks, walls and roofs white isn't new, but we happened to run into a nice demonstration of it recently. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Northern California has painted one of its parking lots with several commercially available heat-reflecting coatings, to show what a difference they can make and to test how they'll fare over time.

In general, heat-reflecting surfaces keep cities more comfortable, reduce residents' electricity…
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More About: energy, paint, parking lots, Science

President Obama Shoots Gun: Here’s Pictorial Proof

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 08:29 AM PST


Pics or it didn't happen. That's what some on the Internet called out after President Obama told the New Republic, in an interview released on January 27, that he had gone skeet shooting at Camp David.

Obama shoots skeet a lot. "Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time," the President told Franklin Foer and Chris Hughes. He went on to talk about his respect for hunting culture and traditions of the United States, and touched on gun control and the his attempts to bridge the ideology gaps between Republicans and Democrats during his second term.

SEE ALSO: Gun Control Petition is Most Popular Ever Posted to White House Site

In response to some commenters disbe…
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More About: barack obama, guns, Photos, president obama

10 Quirky Etsy Finds to Celebrate Groundhog Day

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 07:53 AM PST


1. Happy Groundhog Plush Critter




This groundhog hearts you. Cost: $47 Image courtesy of TheHappyGroundhog/Etsy

Click here to view this gallery.


If you can't make it all the way to Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. on Feb. 2, don't worry, you can still celebrate Groundhog Day this year.

We dug up 10 fun Etsy finds that celebrate both the traditional weather forecasting event, and the excellent Bill Murray film.

SEE ALSO: 9 Star Wars Tech Accessories From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

So, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties as you take a look through our gallery of groundhog-themed goodies. Please be sure as heckfire to let us know in the comments which items you like.

Homepage image courtesy of Ed Gaillard

More About: Etsy, features, Lifestyle

Meet the Man Who Designed BlackBerry’s New Phones

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 07:08 AM PST


When BlackBerry set out to design the phones that would take the company into the next decade, it faced a big challenge. The flagship device of the new BlackBerry 10 platform needed to simultaneously satisfy what today's customers want in a smartphone while at the same time stay true to the essence of BlackBerry -- which, if the company's market over the last few years is any indication, customers didn't want.

The man tasked with redesigning BlackBerry phones was Todd Wood, the company's senior vice president of design. Leading industrial design at BlackBerry since 2006, Wood is a veteran of industrial design, previously doing design work for Nokia and, before that, Nortel. Mashable sat d…
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More About: blackberry, BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry Q10, BlackBerry Z10, design, Industrial design

Lose Yourself in the Largest Star Wars Collection Ever

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 12:41 AM PST


An Expanded Universe




You start to get a sense of the sheer size of Sansweet's collection when you walk in.

Click here to view this gallery.


A short time ago, on a chicken ranch not so far away, Lucasfilm's biggest in-house Star Wars fan began to turn his private collection of Star Wars stuff into a nonprofit museum.

His name was Steve Sansweet, a former Wall Street Journal reporter whose life was changed forever when he saw a press preview of the original Star Wars -- now known as Episode IV -- in May 1977. An inveterate collector of robot toys, baseball cards and swizzle sticks, Sansweet soon channeled all of his passion into corralling as many Star Wars-related items as he could.

After writing the first edition of the Star Wars Encyclopedia, Sansweet was offered a job at Lucasfilm as Director of Content Management and H…
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More About: Star Wars


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