When The New York Times and other news outlets reported being the victims of a massive, years-long cyberattack, it set off a rash of concerns about online security and personal Internet hygiene, reinforcing plenty of old, enduring lessons: Choose strong passwords; don't click on links from strangers (or strange links from people you know); consider using different usernames for different online services.

Many Americans still don't follow these security suggestions that can help protect them from online snooping and identity theft. But, evidently, neither do some Chinese hackers. In a bit of poetic justice, the identities of two of The Times' hackers have become public, all because t…
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More About: china, Chinese hackers, hackers, the new york times

Traveling can be stressful. If you're anything like me, you often find yourself dashing through the airport, frantically trying to get through security and to the gate with enough time to hunt down an open outlet for one last bit of charge for your laptop.

Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to worry about your gadgets running out of battery, or how many bins you need to take all those devices out of your carry-on in order to get through security? Bag and case company ECBC is trying to solve that problem with a line of rolling carry-on luggage that's not only TSA-compliant, it also includes a portable recharging unit.

The bags are designed to speed you through security with a f…
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More About: Airport Security, Airports, mobile chargers

When diagnosing neuromuscular problems in patients -- when they age or get a concussion, for example -- doctors typically make conclusions based on information that is qualitative, or subjective.

But a tablet app developed by researchers at Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering may be able to quantitatively measure neuromuscular performance for the first time.

In a clinical study of the technology, called "NeuroAssess," 150 people used a stylus to trace a moving target around a circle on a tablet. Their performance -- that is, how often they deviated from the path -- was measured, and then analyzed based on age, sex and handedness. From this, a numb…
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More About: apps, Harvard, Tablet

After launching Music+, its premium music streaming service, in the UK in January, Nokia has now decided to bring the service to the U.S. as well.

For $3.99 a month, Nokia Music+ offers unlimited music streaming and an unlimited number of offline one-hour music mixes.

Other features include improved stream quality (compared to the regular Nokia Music), lyrics and the ability to access the service through a web app.

For comparison, Spotify's subscriptions range from $4.99 to $9.99.

Nokia Music + now available in the US. Go to Nokia Music > Settings > Upgrade to get started.— Nokia Care US (@NokiaCareUS) February 19, 2013

Image courtesy of Nokia

More About: Nokia, Nokia Music

For four months after its launch, iPad mini fans have been dealing with days-long delays for orders of their beloved tablets. But Apple has finally caught up to demand.

The Cupertino, Calif. company's online stores for the U.S., U.K., Canada and other countries indicate that all models -- including both black and white colors, as well as the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi plus cellular options -- are "in stock" and ready for shipment.

European customers, however, still must wait one to three business days for new orders, according to MacRumors.

Apple first saw delays after selling out all of its inventory just three days after the iPad mini became available for pre-order online. At the time,…
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If you're tweeting out a URL, your tweets just got a bit shorter.

Starting Wednesday, any tweet sent with a URL will be reduced to 118 characters, or 117 for https links.

First announced in December, the reduction is due to a change in Twitter's t.co link wrapper. It extends the maximum length of t.co wrapped links from 20 to 22 characters for non-https URLs and from 21 to 23 characters for https URLs.

In short, the condensed links now take up a bit more space, leaving you with a little less space to add commentary with them. In total, the update represents a two-character drop per tweet.

Applications that use t.co wrapped lengths are required to accommodate the new lengths s…
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Patients at the Royal London Children's Hospital now have a playground, the centerpiece of which is a giant television with which the children can interact. The lively playground has a Pixar-meets-Alice and Wonderland look, equipped with over-sized chairs and chandeliers and bright, colorful toys.

The plush toys are integrated into a television game, so the kids can play with both the physical and digital versions. The television game, Woodland Wiggle, allows kids to paint pictures and play music with their movements in a children's book-style game. The game creators considered the movements that would be the most therapeutic for the patients when designing the game. Artist and c…
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More About: games, hospital, illness, interactive, Kids

The days of major record companies smothering Internet pirates with ridiculously high lawsuits are over. At least, that's the new policy at the Center for Copyright Infringement.

Under the new policy, you'll be treated to a series of warnings for illegally downloading content like music and movies, and may have your Internet speed cut as a form of censure. Major ISPs like AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner have signed on. And while you might not have an impossibly high fine dropped on your head, litigation from the RIAA could still eat away at your savings.

Check out this infographic, courtesy of Total Bankruptcy Attorneys, to keep yourself informed on the potential risks you still face.…
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More About: copyright infringement, features, infographics, Music, piracy, Tech

YouTube footage of this precocious, pint-sized point guard's astounding basketball skills helped land him in the Sunday New York Times.

More About: Sports, Watercooler

At GuysAmericanKitchenandBar.com, they're serving up "two jumbo Big Gulp Slurpee cups filled with nacho cheese and tied to each other with 25 bacon strips fashioned into a giant bow." If you're among the fans of this and other generously portioned culinary delights, tough luck -- the website is a parody.

Guy Fieri, the famed Food Network personality best known for bringing down-home American food to the television masses with his show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, owns a restaurant called Guy's American Kitchen and Bar in New York City. Unfortunately for him, however, he doesn't own the domain name.

Instead, GuysAmericanKitchenAndBar.com was snapped up by Bryan Mytko, an NYC-based progr…
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More About: guy fieri, parody, url, website

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve, as proposed, a series of changes that would pave the way for so-called "Gigabit Wi-Fi" in a Wednesday vote, according to FCC officials. If the vote succeeds, as expected, the FCC's five commissioners will later have to approve the proposed rules in a final vote.

Under the proposed changes, the FCC would increase the amount of unlicensed spectrum in the 5GHz band by 195MHz, or 35%, for high-speed, high-capacity "Gigabit Wi-Fi."

What would that mean for you?

First, the FCC argues you'll see less Wi-Fi congestion on heavily used networks at places such as sporting events or airports thanks to the additional spectrum. Second,…
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More About: fcc, gigabit wifi, spectrum, US, wifi, Wireless

The Launchpad is a series that introduces Mashable readers to compelling startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

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Name: Virool

One-Liner Pitch: Virool is like Google Ad Words for promoting your videos online.

Why It's Taking Off: Unlike other video advertising companies, Virool caters to both big brands and independent users with an affordable self-serve ad platform.

Some brands pay tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote their videos online, but Virool wants to help smaller companies and independent users do the same for a fraction of the cost.

Virool, which launched publicly last March, provides users with a self-service advertising platform to promote videos that are 30 seconds or longer in Facebook games, mobile apps and various websites to get m…
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More About: Marketing, Startups, The Launchpad

Jay Z, LeBron and ... Dick Costolo. #Winning.

More About: NBA, Sports, Twitter

Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, for one, seems to have embraced the perks of working from home.

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With tech's growing presence in our daily lives, it's becoming more and more difficult to "get away from it all."

SEE ALSO: More Comics on Mashable

In this comic, Grant Snider of Incidental Comics illustrates how a member of the connected generation might "experience" nature's wonders. Know anyone similar?

Snider's comics are available as prints through his poster shop.

Comic illustration by Grant Snider, Incidental Comics. Published with permission; all rights reserved.

More About: comic, comics, humor, Incidental Comics, Watercooler

Google earned its reputation by providing the best possible answers to consumers' questions. So it's somewhat ironic that the company is under fire in Europe for some rather halfhearted answers to European Union officials' queries over its privacy policy.

The EU has been challenging Google on the issue since last year, but the latest twist came Tuesday as CNIL, a French watchdog group, issued a statement saying Google "did not give a precise answer" to questions from European data protection. As a result, the CNIL is leading a "working group" to provide recommendations for enforcement. Those recommendations should come by this summer.

Below we explore what this means for Google.

H…
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More About: eu, FTC, Google, privacy

Now that Pope Benedict XVI has resigned from his position, he's left a wide open hole at the top of the Catholic Church ladder. Time for you to make your move and rule the world -- or at least Vatican City.

But the path to Pope-dom is riddled with tradition and legacy and how will you ever decode the rules you need to consider?

SEE ALSO: Craigslist Now Accepting Applications for the Next Pope

No worries, spend five minutes learning the secrets of the Catholicism hierarchy with this animated video that explains the difference between cardinals and bishops, why some of the coolest priests end up in red robes and what's with the whole white smoke voting thing.

Before you star…
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More About: pope, pope benedict, viral videos, Watercooler

A Houston hospital will use Twitter and a GoPro camera to live-broadcast a C-section delivery Wednesday morning. Here's how -- and why.

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Tax season is upon us. And you know what that means: filling endless paperwork and hopefully getting some refunds. But what most people don't think about is how to stay safe during this time of the year.

Identity theft is a concern. According to the IRS, identity theft cases involving tax fraud have increased 62% from last year. And with more and more people filing their returns online (last year 80% of Americans did so) this could be a growing issue.

SEE ALSO: Apple Paid $6 Billion in U.S. Corporate Income Taxes in 2012

So how can you stay safe during this tax season?

Internet security firm Kaspersky Labs has some advice to avoid getting in trouble and being hacked -- which co…
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More About: IRS, Kaspersky lab, tax, tax return, taxes

In the short time since its release, Vine has already spurred a craze in six-second videos. But the creative folks at the Manchester, England, digital agency CodeComputerLove decided to take the Twitter tool to the next level by redefining comics.

Instead of using standard photo panels to tell the story, the designers used eight Vines to create the tale, titled "The Last Drop."

It details the story of a brave man who defends his right to a glass of milk. And in true comic form, the Vines use quirky speech bubbles and over-the-top captions to narrate the tale (along with some fine Samurai acting, might we add).

SEE ALSO: Pro Tips for Making Your Own Stunning Vine

The Vines…
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1. Firebug Lite

A must-have extension for many web developers, and for good reason, Firebug allows you to analyze network performance and activity, and edit, debug and monitor HTML, CSS and JavaScript live on any web page. It's not a substitute for Chrome Developer Tools, but works alongside it to allow you to debug with ease. Written in JavaScript, it is integrated into the toolbar and can be activated on a particular domain. It loads before all other scripts and is quick to load itself, as all code and images are stored in the extensions directory on your machine.

Click here to view this gallery.

Working on the web means spending huge chunks of your time within the browser. If Google Chrome is your workhorse of choice, it pays to explore what extensions are available to make your daily tasks less of a chore.

While Chrome has a set of developer tools built in, you can access a wealth of extra extensions that add valuable functionality.

SEE ALSO: 10 Essential Tools for the Lean Web Developer

This post covers 10 of the best Google Chrome extensions for web developers to utilize in their everyday tasks, with an upcoming post on Chrome extensions for designers.

Are there any great extensions that we missed? If so, please leave a comment and share them with other readers.…
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More About: chrome, contributor, dev and design, features, web

Who needs a runway when you've got the highway?

This Russian baller has proved that it doesn't take much to fly amongst the birds -- just some innovation, motivation, a set of homemade wings and some gas from your local station.

Then just hit the road and off you go. What's the protocol on signaling before merging into the sky?

H/T ViralViralVideos. Video courtesy of YouTube, BLOKNOTROSTOV. Image courtesy of Flickr, Capt' Gorgeous.

BONUS: Action! 15 Jaw-Dropping Videos Shot on a GoPro

Bald Uakari

Image courtesy of wikipedia

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Just ... wait, what? No, that can't be a real anim -- really? C'mon! A new Tumblr page, called 'WTF, Evolution?,' highlights nature's most confusing animals.

More About: animals, galleries, pictures, tumblr, videos, Watercooler

It's been more than 30 months since New York City micro-engineer Fred Benenson put the last smiley face on his epic new media novel Emoji Dick. But the hits keep coming for his Kickstarter-funded remake of Moby-Dick, which refashions Herman Melville's 212,000-plus words into emojis, those Japanese picture characters that kids send through text.

Tuesday morning, Benenson took to his Kickstarter page to announce that he'd recently received a call from the Library of Congress, and they're interested in doing business.

"They wanted to acquire Emoji Dick as the first emoji book in their collection," Benenson wrote to his 83 backers. "So as of very recently, Emoji Dick is now officially…
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A cameraman goes uptown to see what actual Harlemites think of the "Harlem Shake" meme and comes back with video gold.

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Disney released a teaser photo Tuesday for a new Toy Story-themed mobile game coming soon. Posted to Disney Interactive's Tumblr, the image shows Buzz Lightyear throwing a ball into a stack of blocks, presumably knocking them down in order to score points.

The tease for the mobile game comes the same day that rumors surfaced regarding a new Toy Story movie. According to several Colombian news sites, Disney and Pixar will be releasing Toy Story 4 in 2015. Neither Disney or Pixar have confirmed that news.

SEE ALSO: Creative Genius Makes Full-Length Live-Action 'Toy Story'

Toy Story 3 was released in 2010. The 3D movie broke box office records, earning more than $110 million open…
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A Quick Recap of Oscar History

Want to impress your friends on Oscar Sunday? Absorb the fun facts revealed in this gallery and unleash the tidbits at your Academy Awards' viewing party on Feb. 24.

Click here to view this gallery.

Here's everything you need to know about the Oscar statuettes, just in time for your Academy Awards' viewing party on Feb. 24. Impress your friends with these 10 fun tidbits.

More About: 85th Academy Awards, academy awards, oscar, Oscars

Oscilloscope Labs' newest film, It's a Disaster, made its web debut Tuesday on Vine.

"From the moment it launched just three short weeks ago, it was so clear to us that six-second loops of video, edited in-phone, and posted in real time was and will be the future of film distribution," Oscilloscope's Bruce Farnsworth said in a press release announcing the move.

The film is expected to be available March 5 online and April 12 in select theaters. Starring Arrested Development's David Cross and Julia Stiles, the movie follows the story of a "couples brunch" that takes a turn when "dirty bombs" are set off in their city's downtown.

Trapped in the house, the film shows…
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More About: Oscilloscope Labs, Twitter, Vine

Justin Kan talks about his startup Exec, a dispatch platform for short part-time work, where you can find an on-demand personal assistant.

More About: Errands, exec, Jobs, justin-tv, startup, valleygirltv

The meteor that struck Russia on Friday wasn't just the largest space rock to penetrate Earth's atmosphere in a century. By one measure, it was also the biggest thing to hit online video since -- well, ever.

Collectively, all eyewitness meteor videos uploaded to YouTube and DailyMotion (the two largest online video services) garnered more than 130 million views over the weekend, according to a blog post from social analysis service Visible Measures. That's the vastest rate of viral growth ever seen for an online video event.

Visible Measures identified more than 400 videos uploaded since Friday. Some 160 of those clips have surpassed 100,000 views.

Not all videos were viewed equall…
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More About: dailymotion, meteor, YouTube