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.

Name: SpotOn.it

One-Liner Pitch: SpotOn analyzes your Google Calendar and asks about your interests in order to recommend events and activities that may change up your daily routine.

Why It's Taking Off: The web app makes targeted event recommendations based on your interests and schedule.

There's no shortage of calendar apps to help you manage your schedule, but a new online service is taking a slightly different approach. Read more...

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Word's been out on the Internet since at least January about an official Lord of the Rings Tower of Orthanc LEGO set, thanks to a few images making the rounds, but now it's officially official: LEGO's announced their two-foot-tall Tower of Orthanc set. They take a few liberties, so be prepared for a few very upset Tolkien scholars.

Well, assuming any of them actually care about LEGO sets. Given the response to some of the minor details in Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online, however, we're willing to bet there are at least one or two. Either way, we're all getting an incredibly spiffy Tower of Orthanc. Read more...

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A Utah-based company says it wants to change how the world stores data — and the Kickstarter community is taking notice.

Co-founders Alen Peacock and Clint Gordon-Carroll led the creation of Space Monkey, an encrypted peer-to-peer cloud storage network. Space Monkey is cloud storage on your desktop, but it works differently than services we've become accustomed to, like Dropbox or Google Drive.

For a $10 per month subscription, you get 1TB of storage and an included Space Monkey unit. When you you upload a file, the system dices that data up into tiny encrypted pieces and stores that across various Space Monkey units on the Internet (hence, the peer-to-peer factor), as explained in the video above. Read more...

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NBA fans know Metta World Peace is, shall we say, "out there." He changed his name from Ron Artest. He famously brawled with fans during a game in Indianapolis. He recorded the immortal Michael Jackson tribute song "Michael Michael."

So it stands to reason that if any NBA player were to do something like this, it'd be Artest ... er, World Peace. He posted the photo below to Twitter on Friday morning after having some fluid drained from his bothersome left knee. The deranged facial expression. The SYRINGE FULL OF KNEE FLUID. The fact that he did this at all. Anyway, here you go:

My knee is in really good shape . The last two games this Bakers Cyst was tough to play with. Just drained it. Whoa! twitter.com/MettaWorldPeac…

— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) April 26, 2013 Read more...

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If you're disposing of old documents such as bank statements and tax forms, security experts recommend shredding the paperwork so it can't be used by identity thieves.

It's a practice everyone should be familiar with, since it may be the top recommendation for preventing identity theft.

However, many consumers and organizations are turning to a paperless world, and records once held in filing cabinets are now stored on computer hard drives.

But computers eventually get replaced, and old computers are donated, recycled, handed down or refurbished — often with personally identifiable information (PII) still on the machine. Read more...

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As Kevin Ware's amazing saga unfolded during the University of Louisville's March Madness championship run recently, another story got overshadowed: the fact that Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino had promised his team earlier in the year that he would get a tattoo if they ended up winning the title

Lo and behold, we learned on Friday that the 60-year-old Pitino was true to his word, getting a big ol' commemorative "L" tatted to his left shoulder blade. And as you can see in the photo above, tweeted out by Louisville media relations director Kenny Klein, that's no cop-out; it's some bonafide ink. Here's a closer look, also via Klein: Read more...

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We all want more time. Time to finish our work, handle tedious errands and check off items from our ever expanding to-do lists. The problem is, the day's not getting any longer and our responsibilities seem to never stop growing.

The only thing we can do to work more efficiently is to know some very helpful shortcuts and pro tips. And whether you're working form home or remotely, there's a cheat sheet — so to speak — for any setting.

When it comes to apps to help along the way, take a peek at these tools to assist you in everything from remembering important data, scheduling meetings, handling payroll and even virtual assisting: Read more...

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Press photographers need not enter. That's basically the message organizers of megastar Beyonce Knowles' ongoing "Mrs. Carter Show World Tour" have reportedly told the media.

According to photography blog Fstoppers, Beyonce's tour guidelines for photographers stated: "There are no photo credentials for this show." Instead, media was directed to use pre-approved images for their editorial coverage.

This closed access is likely the result of the "Unflattering Beyonce" memes that spread earlier this year, as explained in the video above.

Following the singer's highly-acclaimed performance at this year's Super Bowl, BuzzFeed published images of the "33 fiercest moments" from the halftime show—some of which were certainly awkward moments. Beyonce's publicist was reportedly not happy with some of those awkward photos and asked BuzzFeed to take them down. Read more...

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Battle Worlds: Kronos has been a labor of love for developer KING Art Games. Originally created more than six years ago, the project has taken Kickstarter by storm and has more than doubled its original goal with just three days to go.

Designed for Mac, PC, Linux, and Web browsers, only $12,000 more in pledges will bring an iPad version of the game to fruition.

The game has a singular focus: to bring the turn-based strategy game into the modern age for experienced players. Taking a dose of inspiration from classics like Battle Isle and Advanced Wars, the title stays true to the genre as players must use their available resources to the best effect possible in the battle for Kronos. Read more...

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A Dutchman on Thursday was arrested and charged with being behind one of the biggest cyber attacks ever, according to reports. The man has only been identified by his initials "SK," his age (35-years-old), and his nationality

According to a press release (Google Translation) by the Dutch Public Prosecutor Service on Friday, SK was arrested in Barcelona by Spanish authorities the day before

The unnamed man "is suspected of unprecedented heavy attacks on the non-profit organization Spamhaus," according to the press release.

SK's arrest was made following a European warrant issued after a series of massive Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS) on Spamhaus, an anti-spam organization. The authorities seized the man's computers and mobile phones as well. Read more...

More about World, Ddos, Cybersecurity, Us World, and Spamhaus

Comedian Marc Maron has no problem expressing himself. "Can you hold on a second," he asks me during our phone call. "I have to deal with some bullshit." The "bullshit" Maron is talking about relates to some drama surrounding the promotion of his new show, Maron, which premieres on IFC on May 3, 2013.

As with most things in his life, the situation indirectly ties into his social media personality. Maron has more than 200,000 followers on Twitter and a big following with his podcast, "WTF with Marc Maron." Part of his appeal as a personality is his willingness to put it all out there on the Internet. Read more...

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The Samsung Galaxy S4 isn't even for sale yet, but various people have already completely disassembled the smartphone, and the consensus is clear: It's relatively easy for owners to take apart and fix, if they're so inclined.

Teardown site iFixit gave the Galaxy S4 a repairability score of 8, with 10 being the easiest to repair. The entire phone is held together by 11 screws, all a standard Philips component.

However, it wasn't perfect. Many smaller components, despite being modular, are stuck in place with adhesive. Also, the glass is fused to the display and the display frame. Therefore, if your screen's glass ever shatters — one of the most common pieces of damage from a fall — it will be more expensive to replace. Read more...

More about Android, Samsung, Teardown, Tech, and Mobile

It may be hard to believe, but the popular online retailer Amazon isn't the only entity out there with that name

While the e-commerce giant has its sights sets on snagging various top-level domains — from .book and .kindle to, of course, .amazon — to help grow the empire, its web address vision doesn't necessarily sit well with everyone.

According to a report from The Guardian, South American governments — specifically Brazil and Peru — are upset about the merchant's request to own the domain name .amazon and want it saved for the massive river and rain forest that runs throughout its countries. Read more...

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David LaFerriere has illustrated his kids' lunch bags with a Sharpie marker since 2008. And during those five years, none of his drawings have been the same

"I used to work nights at a newspaper, and I'd be up early in the morning making my kids sandwiches," LaFerriere, a graphic designer at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, told Mashable. "I started drawing on the baggies, sort of as a way to channel my creative juices in the morning, and it just ended up sticking."

His kids, Evan, 16, and Kenny, 14, were both in elementary school when it started. Now that they're older, LaFerriere said, they and their friends still look forward to the drawings every day Read more...

More about Pictures, Watercooler, Pics, Family Parenting, and Picture Galleries

The 2014 Corvette Stingray debuted in January, but among all the impressive stats and glossy pictures was one crucial missing piece of information: its price. On Friday, Chevrolet solved that riddle, saying that the revamped sports coupe will sell for a base price of $51,995 when it's available this fall.

Until now, Chevrolet would only say the price of the 2014 Corvette would be affordable for anyone who's able to buy the current model.

Until now, Chevrolet would only say the price of the 2014 Corvette would be affordable for anyone who's able to buy the current model. But given the impressive upgrades for the upcoming 2014 Corvette Stingray, few aficionados believed that its higher-quality interior, aluminum structure, extra 20 horsepower (comparing 430 hp of the base 2013 Corvette vs. 450 hp for the 2014 model), and other upgrades would result in a vehicle for the same price as its predecessor. Read more...

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Add this to LivingSocial's growing list of woes: The money-losing daily deals site admitted Friday that it has been the victim of a cyber attack.

A LivingSocial spokesperson said the company has begun reaching out to the more than 50 million customers whose data may have been compromised. Leaked data includes names, e-mail addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords. Customers' credit card information and merchants' financial and banking information were not affected by the hack, LivingSocial said.

Here's the internal memo LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy sent to employees:

And here's the e-mail on its way to customers: Read more...

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Until this year, the Oakland, Calif.-based Golden State Warriors last made the NBA playoffs in 2007. Twitter was barely a year old, Facebook was still years away from world domination and YouTube had been acquired by Google just several months before

So for the franchise's digital team, in charge of rallying Golden State fans near and far, what's different between the 2007 playoff run and this year's? In a word, everything

"It's our first time in playoffs in the modern social media era. We've been waiting for that for a while," says Kevin Cote, the team's director of digital marketing, who's been with the Warriors since 2004. "One of the biggest differences between then and now and is that, before, we were creating content then putting it online and hoping people saw it — as opposed to now actively pushing it out." Read more...

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AOL employees revealed Friday on Twitter that news website AOL Music and properties associated with it will close and employees in the division will be immediately laid off

Spinner, a rock news website under the AOL Music umbrella, tweeted (and then deleted) this message to its 48,000 followers: "Hey guys. Just found out from AOL that we're shutting down. Today is our last day. Seriously."

AOL has yet to issue a statement on the events, but Spinner's editor Dan Reilly, however, continues to keep readers updated on the eventsAOL Music's other genre-themed news sites include The BoomBox, The Boot and Noisecreep. Read more...

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Thieves are now using an app, in conjunction with near field communication (NFC), to swipe credit card information by waving their phones at close proximity to a victim's wallet or jacket, according to a recent CBC News report. The process takes only a second, and because of its swipe-and-grab nature, it doesn't leave any evidence.

The report didn't specify exactly which app was being used, but it did mention the phone in the study was a Samsung Galaxy S III

What's important to note is that the credit cards in danger here are only those that use NFC for payment, like MasterCard PayPass or Visa payWave, which allow customers to tap their card to make quick purchases. You can contact your credit card company to see if your card is NFC-capable. Read more...

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It's the battle to end all battles. The question to end all questions. The one thing generations have always wondered: Which is more painful, delivering a baby or getting a swift kick to the family jewels?

Unfortunately, it's a question no one person can answer, because, well, chromosomes and gender get in the way. But ASAP Science has tackled this mammoth of a question as best as they can in their latest fast-talking video

By explaining what pain really is and why we each experience pain differently, they can somewhat deduce the answer.

Read more...

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If you fancy yourself as a right-brained creative type, there's a new mobile puzzle game that will tickle your artistic side and even teach you something.

Blendoku is a free game for iOS and Android that is a hybrid of puzzles like Sudoku and crosswords. Instead of filling your grid with numbers or letters, in Blendoku you organize colors in a gradient by shade, hue and saturation. If that is hard to entirely grasp, check out the trailer:

The levels start simple like those above, but soon your rows and columns will be intersecting in multiple places, and you'll have to find the meeting place of all the color swatches given to you on each level. When the puzzles get too tough, you can get a free hint, but using more than one per day requires an in-app purchase. Read more...

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Considering how much typing on a glass touchscreen blows in comparison to using hard keys, it's easy to imagine how Blackberry saw the first iPhone back in 2007 and thought, "Bah, this isn't a threat." We all know how that turned out. But typing on glass still blows, and voice dictation on mobile devices (while pretty awesome) isn't a good fit for every situation. So how can we un-blowify touchscreen typing? Two interesting software-design approaches have recently emerged: one rethinks how the keyboard looks, while the other rethinks how the keyboard acts. (Spoiler alert: I think the latter has more potential.) Read more...

More about Touchscreens, Qwerty, Touch Typing, Tech, and Dev Design

There are two smartphones that are bringing a lot of excitement to the Android community: the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. Each phone brings its own distinctive features that makes it a standout in the market, and these devices have also sparked debate about which is the better phone.

Mashable's Senior Tech Analyst Christina Warren called the Galaxy S4 the best Android phone ever in her recent review of the deviceMashable's Tech Editor Pete Pachal reviewed the HTC One, calling it a "refreshing change" from most Android phones and a winner in the market.

Today, Warren and Pachal will discuss the two smartphones during a Google+ Hangout at 3 p.m. EDT on Mashable's Google+ page. Do you have questions or comments about the Galaxy S4 or the HTC One? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and we'll try to address them during the Hangout. Read more...

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As prospect draftees arrived at the 2013 NFL Draft on Thursday night, they were ushered to an iPad station set up to look like a goal post. Players smiled into the tablet's front-facing camera and posed for pictures which were almost simultaneously tweeted out to its Twitter followers.

This, along with a series of other digital initiatives surrounding the NFL Draft (including a live Twitter chat surrounding what the prospects were wearing), is a part of the football organization's greater vision to connect fans at home to what's happening behind the scenes and in real-time at the league. (Note: Although the Hollywood-like fashion component of the red carpet was met with mixed reviews, it still got fans talking on Twitter.) Read more...

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The spare-time online activities between a son, a father, and his friend resulted in a $1 million prize from the Pentagon's mad scientists from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

The winners, Eric Nees, his father James Nees and his friend Brian Eckerly, worked together designing an amphibious tank for a DARPA challenge launched in January.

DARPA asked the public to design its next-generation amphibious armored vehicle for its FANG (Fast, Adaptable, Next-Generation Ground Vehicle) challenge, giving contestants the open-source software necessary to collaborate and design it. The Neeses and Eckerly, who nicknamed themselves "Team Ground Systems," beat more than 200 teams, composed by a total of 1,000 contestants, DARPA announced this week. Read more...

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Smartskin Condoms for Smartphones are sheaths made from soft and stretchy thermoplastic that cover your device to protect it. The skins slip on and stretch to fit, and sealing tabs are provided to stick over the remaining area.

The water-resistant plastic wraps are useful if you need to use your phone out in the rain or want to use it at the beach, without worrying about water or sand damaging it.

You never know when you’ll get lucky ... enough to take your phone to the beach, or on a boat, or cycling in the rain, or driving a rally car, or riding a camel in the desert. But thanks to the sleek and stretchy Condoms for Smartphone, you'll never have to say no to an unexpected bit of excitement again. Keep them in your wallet for that special situation or emergency occasion, and know that your smartphone has protection at a moment's notice Read more...

More about Smartphones, Iphone Cases, Samsung Galaxy S Iii, Tech, and Gadgets

As recently as several months, Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o was considered a surefire first round NFL Draft pick who could even land in the top 10. Yesterday, 32 NFL teams had a chance to select him, but passed

What happened in the interim? Te'o had a subpar outing in the national championship game, didn't blow scouts away in pre-draft athletic tests — and, oh yeah, was also the centerpiece of one of the most shocking, bizarre and just downright weird sports scandals of all time

You probably remember it well, but here are the broad details:

While Te'o starred for Notre Dame this past season, it was reported that he was playing with a heavy heart while mourning Lennay Kekua, a beautiful woman he'd met through a friend and then began long-distance dating until she contracted leukemia then died in a car crash. Te'o gave emotional interviews about Kekua. The story spread far and wide, becoming the stuff of college sports legend Read more...

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The White House has joined Tumblr, and oh yes, there will be GIFs.

"We see some great things here at the White House every day, and sharing that stuff with you is one of the best parts of our jobs," reads the White House's first post on Tumblr

"That’s why we’re launching a Tumblr," it continues. "We’ll post things like the best quotes from President Obama, or video of young scientists visiting the White House for the science fair, or photos of adorable moments with Bo. We’ve got some wonky charts, too. Because to us, those are actually kind of exciting."

"And yes, of course there will be GIFs," the White House promises. Us? We're hoping for lots of Bo, the first dog: Read more...

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Love the Galaxy S4, but wish it were built a little tougher? Samsung may soon have just the smartphone for you.

The company is reportedly working on a rugged version of the Galaxy S4. According to the Wall Street Journal, the phone will be both waterproof and dustproof. Tentatively being called the Galaxy S4 Active, the handset is expected to be released in July.

SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy S4: Best Android Phone Ever

The highly-anticipated Galaxy S4 is expected to go on sale later this month. The phone is currently available for pre-order at AT&T, with a ship date of April 30th. The handset will also be available on T-Mobile and Sprint, however, both companies have announced they will be delaying orders due to supply issues. Read more...

More about Android, Samsung, Tech, Mobile, and Galaxy S 4

Reddit user Unidan rapidly rose to celebrity status on the network, after charming dozens of science lovers in a thread about unbelievable facts Wednesday.

"Biologist here!" is how he starts most of his comments, and then proceeds to share some amazing tidbits about the Amazon rain forests, ornithology and other ecological topics. Redditors on the thread were fairly unanimous in their praise.

"I love this guy. Almost all of your comments are about ecology and you're so darn psyched about it. You're awesome." - u/Lonely_Toast

"I like this biologist fellow." - u/stoppingtomorrow

"I've had you tagged as Excited Biologist for a long time. I enjoy your posts." - u/Gorignak Read more...

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