Google Street View is great — but do you ever feel like it just moves. Too. Slow?

If so, you're sure to enjoy a new tool that creates warp-speed Street View hyperlapse trips back and forth between pairs of points on a map

Created by Teehan+Lax Labs, the page features a number of pre-programmed trips that are really cool. There's the Golden Gate Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Yosemite and other locations in places including South Africa, Norway and Australia. You can also create your own trips, although we found the actual usability of that part a bit tough to navigate. But hey — this thing is free and awesome and a sweet new time suck, so who are we to complain? Read more...

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Just like Twitter, it was only a matter of time before Vine became a political platform. On Friday, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) released what might be the very first political ad to be published on Vine.

In the six-second ad, the NRCC attacks Elizabeth Colbert Busch, democratic candidate for congress in South Carolina, and sister of comedian Stephen Colbert. The ad shows a series of gloomy people in black-and-white, with the words "Colbert Busch and the labor unions mean fewer jobs for South Carolina," with a voice over that reads the same message

Read more...

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The Samsung Galaxy S 4 will launch globally this month, but someone has gotten their hands on one of the phones early... and has already taken it completely apart.

TechnoBuffalo posted a teardown video, revealing that the Galaxy S 4 is actually fairly easy to disassemble should owners ever need to repair it. Although if the phone's Gorilla Glass screen might cost quite a bit to replace, the S 4 is "almost infinitely" easier to repair than the "other" flagship Android phone of the moment, the HTC One.

Check out the video to get a good look at the insides of Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, and tell is if you're thinking about getting one — and why — in the comments. Read more...

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Sending or receiving a text while driving distracts a person from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, which at 55 mph is the equivalent of driving the length of an entire football field, blind. Distracted driving is an epidemic with increasing fatalities each year, with a growing number of teens texting behind the wheel

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is encouraging motorists to put down their devices in recognition of the cause

Teens aren't the only culprit. Adults are texting even more than younger drivers according to a study conducted by AT&T. While most people understand the dangers associated with using electronics on the road, one survey finds 660,000 U.S. drivers use cellphones or other devices while driving during the day.

Technology is at the root of the problem, but it can also be the solution. From apps that block mobile phone calls, texts and emails to those that notify you when your loved one is texting and driving, we've rounded up a gallery of tech to help you keep focused on the road Read more...

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An Estonian software team has invented a program that will allow countries (or private space companies) to keep their satellites from bumping into each other without revealing the location of their own eyes in the sky. Known as Sharemind, the program recently completed a prototype demonstration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is funding the project with $700,000.

Sharemind uses a concept called “shared multi-party computation” that allows several users to combine and analyze secret data while keeping it that way.

“Sharemind is like a computer that does not see or understand the data,” said Dan Bogdanov, a researcher at the Tallinn-based software and IT firm Cybernetica. Read more...

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You think you know social? How about who uses it? Well, you might not know it as well as you would have guessed.

A new study from the Pew Research Center and Docstoc shed some light on just who uses social and on what platforms. Some of the findings seem in line with what you would probably guess, but others were surprising.

If you think the smarter, more attractive sex is more socially prolific than us men, well ... you're right. Women use social media 9% more than men do. Despite having more distractions, people living in cities have the most social media activity, at 70% of the population. Perhaps it's the connectivity of large-city life. Read more...

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Have you been itching to give Facebook Home a try? Now you can, as long as you currently have one of the supported HTC or Samsung handsets, or are willing to shell out $99 for the HTC First, which you can buy from AT&T as of Friday.

For HTC first buyers, Facebook Home is going to come pre-installed, so to get started you only need to sign into your Facebook account. For everyone else, you’ll have a few hoops to jump through before you’ll be able to surf through your friend’s photos using Facebook’s Cover Feed, or move chat heads around.

I just installed Facebook Home on the HTC One X+ to see how the experience works. Read more...

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Dogs can perform all sorts of tricks, but sometimes Sparky can't quite master his own coordination.

The excitement of playing fetch, chasing squirrels and sniffing butts can prove overwhelming to the klutzy pooch. And while your dog would probably just like to forget his awkward mishaps, humans have delighted in capturing every fall, tumble and splat on video

Send your best furry friend out of the room and flip through the gallery above for 10 clumsy dogs in their most embarrassing moments.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Messy Cupcakes Read more...

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Some of the same social media analyses that have helped Google and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spot warning signs of a flu outbreak could be used to detect the rumblings of violent conflict before it begins, scholars said in a paper released this week.

Kenyan officials used essentially this system to track hate speech on Facebook, blogs and Twitter in advance of that nation’s 2013 presidential election, which brought Uhuru Kenyatta to power.

Similar efforts to track Syrian social media have been able to identify ceasefire violations within 15 minutes of when they occur, according to the paper on New Technology and the Prevention of Violence and Conflict prepared by the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations Development Programme and the International Peace Institute and presented at the United States Institute of Peace Friday. Read more...

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If you're interested in getting into CrossFit — but you don't have the resources to access a proper "box" — CrossFit Unboxed is a new iPhone app that may be just the ticket to help you get in shape.

CrossFit Unboxed, the latest app from Gain Fitness, lets users go through a customized guided CrossFit exercise program, without having to lay out the cash for a special CrossFit program or gym.

The idea behind Gain Fitness is to gamify exercise. The app acts as a personal trainer, and it includes instructional videos for how to perform certain exercise and provides users with a workout schedule that is designed in such a way as to not be too repetitive or boring. Read more...

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Cat GIFs clog the Internet with their cuteness. Let's add to that tube-blocking hairball with a collection of loop-animated felines that are more weird than adorable (though still quite adorable).

Hummercatz, a video series and website, tells the story of four rebel felines that escaped the pound and stole a Hummer. The quartet of kitties open a can of tuna-flavored whoop-ass on anyone that gets in their way.

Yes, it sounds bizarre, but that's what makes these cats the perfect GIF subjects.

Homepage image: Mashable composite. Images courtesy of Flickr, Chris Erwin and callme_crochet Read more...

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Fans of Grand Theft Auto games know that while carjacking, cop evasion and general mayhem are all important elements of each game, the franchise is nothing without its awesome soundtracks.

Every time you hop in any car, you switch between the radio stations in each world, from the '80s-laden sounds of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City to the iconic West Coast hip hop inescapable in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, each game world has its own unmistakable sound.

Now you can listen to all of those songs via Spotify and iTunes. Rockstar Games has posted each radio station as its own separate playlist on both of those services Read more...

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Do you like Twitter? More importantly, are you a "power user" skilled in the Twitter arts?

Twitter just might hire you to run its Twitter

An online job posting for a social media manager position at the microblogging giant began making the rounds among Internet types on Friday afternoon. Its megadose of meta had Twitter, well, atwitter.

It's hard to tell with these things, but New York Magazine's Stefan Becket seemed to kick off the fun, and others doubled and tripled down on the Twitter tweeting:

Twitter hiring Twitter person to manage their Twitter twitter.com/jobs/positions…

— Stefan Becket (@stefanjbecket) April 12, 2013 Read more...

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If you've ever tried to organize a video game night for kids or adults, you know finding enough controls and couch space, along with games that everyone can agree on, is a bit of a challenge.

Thankfully, GameTruck offers a solution for those who want the whole experience to arrive at the front door. Gametruck provides a trailer full of modern games, televisions and enough couch space to accommodate everyone.

GameTruck was started in 2005 as a children's birthday party solution. Since then, it's expanded to more than 80 franchises around the country that provide services for kids' and adults' parties, as well office retreats. Read more...

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Do you prefer listening to live music instead of prerecorded music? Well, instead of waiting in line for concerts, the Concert Vault app is bringing the shows to you.

The recently released iPad app gives you access to the entire catalog of Concert Vault, which is the largest and most exclusive collection of live concert audio and video recordings from the 1950s till today. The recordings cover a wide array of genres –- for example, you can find concerts from Pink Floyd at Oakland Coliseum Arena in 1977 and the Grateful Dead at Fillmore East in 1970 to The Lumineers at South by Southwest in 2012. Read more...

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Been to the movies lately and feel a sudden bout of deja vu? You know you've never seen this movie before, but somehow you know, instinctively, what is about to happen

Why does this keep happening, you ask? Are you some savant of film? No, sorry to disappoint, you aren't psychic. You are just a sucker for romantic comedies

You know the ones. She's still an uptight, working gal who can't seem to snag her cocky love interest, who then suddenly falls for her male best friend, after a life epiphany set to a Norah Jones tune

Sound familiar? Well Pleated Jeans makes it even more explicit, laying out this ever-trusty formula Hollywood has developed for rom-coms that never seem to fail, but almost always disappoint. Read more...

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LONDON — At a theatre here, the characters and elements of a serendipitous meeting came together: A play about a dissident Chinese artist starring a British-born Chinese man and reviewed by an American whose father defected from a repressive communist nation. Could there be a more fortuitous night? Oh, yes, I got lost on the way to the show.

Howard Brenton's #aiww: The Arrest of Ai Weiwei debuted here Thursday, with the hashtag title an homage to Twitter's significance for the Chinese artist who uses the platform and his 200,000 followers to promote digital rights and avoid censorship from the Great Wall of communism. Mr. Ai uses social media as a tool for political dissent, challenging the state's control with acts like publishing the names of 5,335 student victims who died in the magnitude 7.9 Sichuan earthquake in 2008 (which he attributes to the collapse of poorly built government housing). Read more...

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It's a universal question; "What should I make for dinner?" Apps and websites are already helping to make that a little easier — people are turning to technology to search for recipes and inspiration

According to Allrecipes.com's 2013 Global Food Trends Survey of over 7,000 cooks, it looks like more people are searching for those items using a mobile device.

Colby Grab of Allrecipes tells Mashable family-focused cooks are increasingly adopting mobile technologies to help "discover, create, and share everyday recipes and meal planning." Here are the five trends they found in their survey of over 7,000 cooks worldwide. Read more...

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You've probably never heard of Havard Rugland. But "Kickalicious?" Maybe that rings a bell

It's the title of Rugland's astounding trick-kick YouTube video, which went viral shortly after hitting the web in September. The compilation, embedded above, has since been viewed more than 3 million times. It features Rugland kicking footballs with jaw-dropping levels of power and accuracy

He kicks the ball backward over his head into a bin several yards away. He boots it 50 yards through a pair of goalposts. He kicks it into a moving car, into a gliding canoe and to rolling skateboarder

Read more...

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Want to install Facebook Home on a device that isn't an HTC One X, One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III or Galaxy Note II? Well, unfortunately, Facebook has gone out of its way to make that difficult.

Not only has Facebook prevented the app from installing via Google Play on unsupported phones, users that manage to find an APK (the Android app file format) for the Facebook Home launcher are unable to install the app using the common sideload method.

Here's the message we get when we try to launch Facebook Home, after sideloading it onto our Nexus 4:

Yup. Facebook has locked Home down to just four devices (five if you include the HTC First which comes with Facebook Home pre-installed, and seven if you include the coming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S 4). Read more...

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In a job listing that appeared and then disappeared, Apple seemed to hint that it really is working on bendable or flexible screens.

The job listing, which was first reported by 9to5mac.com, seemed to confirm recent rumors about the Cupertino company working on this kind of technology, perhaps for the much-rumored iWatch.

"Apple Inc. is looking for a Display Specialist to lead the investigation on emerging display technologies such as high optical efficiency LCD, AMOLED and flexible display to improve overall display optical performance," the listing read

Read more...

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There's not much to this Kmart ad except for 11 instances in which the word "ship" sounds like another word. Yet Kmart and ad agency DraftFCB Chicago get maximum mileage out of the scenario, adding instances in which customers "ship" their drawers, their nighties and, of course, their beds

Best of all, you get the pitch: Kmart lets you ship stuff right from its store. Bravo! This ad is the, uh, ship

Image courtesy of YouTube, Kmart Read more...

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It all just started because Dom Deltorto thought this was an amusing story. Deltorto, a london-based animator, had his Macbook Pro stolen from his apartment on Feb. 4. The laptop had a tracking software installed, and on Thursday, after almost two months, it somehow showed up in Iran

Deltorto couldn't believe it

"It seemed to me that a laptop that went missing from London and turned up in Iran was like a space probe landing on a distant planet and beaming back proof of intelligent life," he writes on a Tumblr post

So Deltorto started a Tumblr blog called "Dom's laptop is in Iran" to share this story with his friends and share pictures of the laptop's alleged thieves online. In fact, the same app that allowed him to track his computer 3,000 miles away also allowed him to surreptitiously watch them from afar, sending back pictures of them. As Deltorto puts it, he started the Tumblr blog "as an amusing story for my friends to enjoy." Read more...

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Comedic genius Jonathan Winters died of natural causes Friday at age 87 in his California home with family and friends by his side. News of his death sparked a worldwide topic on Twitter as fans and comedians posted their condolences and remembered Winters' career.

Winters, who entered the entertainment industry in the 1950s after winning a local talent show, had inspired a flock of comedians such as close friend Robin Williams (pictured) and Jim Carrey. He was known for his memorable improvs, voice-overs and character roles (i.eMaude Frickert) on TV series, movies and commercials

Among the colleagues tweeting about Winters were Steve Martin, Pee-wee Herman, Steve Carell, Joe Rogan, Patton Oswalt, Carl Reiner, Sarah Thyre and Albert Brooks. Read more...

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Apple sold millions of iPhone 3GS units, only stopping production of the handset late last year. This means even as we're looking ahead to the potential iPhone 6 launch, there are still plenty of 3GS phones out there.

If you're still rocking a 3GS, give your Apple mobile an instant makeover — we have found 10 cool cases still available from some savvy retailers

Take a look through our selection of covers for your fave smartphone in the gallery above. Let us know in the comments below which ones you like

Homepage image courtesy of Apple Read more...

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Dr. Seuss' acclaimed book "Oh, The Places You'll Go" is an inspiration, encouraging us all to chase our dreams, pursue our goals and never be afraid to fall.

But is the story just as inspirational all over the world as it is to children and adults in the U.S.? YouTuber brizzyvoices finds out, reading the entire book using an impressive 68 accents from across the globe. She even delves into some more obscure voices like "newscaster USA."

While it's a little jarring to realize how different English can sound all over the world, it does go to prove that Dr. Seuss is just as awesome (and relatable) no matter where you are Read more...

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In a mix of old-school design and new technology, you can relive your childhood days of do-it-yourself block-building while controlling creations with your iPhone

iHelicopters.net offers a selection of mini-brick cars to construct and control on any iOS device. Test out your creativity to build your tiny dream car and charge it up via USB. Check out the video, above, for more

With a free app called UTICO and a transmitter connected to the audio jack of your iPhone, you can drive your toy vehicle of choice at full speed

The site also boasts a variety of helicopters, spy tanks, wall climbers, remote controlled insects and UFOs to maneuver the same way. If you want to get a ground-level view, the spy tanks also feature a real-time video feed on your screen Read more...

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This policeman's helmet camera filmed a high-speed chase so heart-pumping that you may just feel like you were there for the ride.

Homepage image courtesy of NowThisNews

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A 41-year-old actress who claimed the Internet Movie Database unfairly disclosed her real age lost a case against the site this week after a federal jury in Seattle rejected her lawsuit.

Huang "Junie" Hoang believed IMDb breached its legal contract when the site listed her birthdate after she had strategically removed a false birthdate she had previously posted on her IMDbPro account, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Hoang said she often plays younger acting roles and IMDb's move hurt her chances of obtaining gigs.

Fellow actors and the Screen Actors Guild had supported Hoang's argument in a statement issued in early 2012 (Hoang filed her lawsuit in 2011) Read more...

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The knights of Westeros are depended on to keep their Lords and Ladies safe, but no one told them just how they needed to defend their Houses

While swords are fine for the common knights, only the best will do for Brienne of Tarth and Jamie Lannister. So YouTuber YuesWoman imagined a world where these two Game of Thrones characters get their hands on lightsabers, elevating their battle scenes to a galatic level

And even though Star Wars is a little too modern for George R. Martin's mystical world, we're sure Brienne and Jamie wouldn't mind the power boost that a little Jedi weaponry would deliver. Is there a rule that whoever has the lightsaber gets dibs on the Iron Throne? Read more...

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