The ol' 9-5 office gig: great for financial security, ideal for cornflower blue tie fanatics, and kickass for anyone looking to score sweet gym membership benefits. It can get a little dull sometimes, though — especially when you're entrapped by the same beige walls for eight hours each day

Mashable's got your back. We scrounged the web for some of the coolest DIY office contraptions to help distract you from the monotony of cubicle-dwelling. They're easy, simple and only require the most basic of office supplies — so even when you're building them, it still looks like you're working

GIF courtesy of Tumblr Read more...

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Shazam on the iPad just got a whole lot better.

The company launched a completely updated version of its tablet app Thursday, with a new discovery home screen, and an auto-tagging feature that can determine what music, television shows, and even ads are playing around you, identifying them automatically.

“We have seen amazing growth and expansion in both the number of people who use Shazam on iPad as well as their level of engagement,” says Shazam Rich Riley

He says that Shazam currently has more than 300 million global users accessing the app, equating to an astounding ten million queries a day. Growth over the past year has been particularly prevalent in the iPad app, which has seen triple-digit growth in the number of downloads. Read more...

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HTC has launched the Desire 600, a dual-sim Android smartphone and the company's first mid-range device that offers HTC's Sense 5 UI

The HTC Desire 600 sports a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera coupled with a 1.6MP front-facing one and a 4.5-inch display.

The device also features dual front-facing speakers (just like its high-end cousin, the HTC One) and Beats Audio integration, making it a nice choice for music lovers

Another feature that made its way from more powerful handsets to the Desire range is BlinkFeed, which transforms the device's home screen into a customizable stream of info from more than 1,400 media sources Read more...

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Facebook is a lot like crystal meth — it's highly addictive and will probably cause your teeth to fall out.* Android users are always one tap away from a snarky status update or a friend's vacation pics.

SEE ALSO: 20 Things Your Most Annoying Friends Do on Facebook

Facebook's Android app has come a long way from its humble beginnings. The most recent iterations are packed with features, from personal settings to page management to power sharing.

Here are a few tricks we use to keep up with Facebook pals on the go.

*Not clinically proven.

1. Sort your News Feed by "Most Recent"

If you don't trust an algorithm to sort your updates for you, use this feature to arrange things chronologically. The setting is not apparent — likely by design. Find it by tapping the three bars on the top-left to bring up the menu. Then tap the gear to the right of "News Feed." This will let you toggle between "Top Stories" and "Most Recent." Read more...

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Amazon has made its Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9'' tablets available for pre-order in more than 170 countries

So far, these devices were only available in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Japan. Now, they're available (almost) everywhere, with the shipping date being June 13

As for the pricing, the Kindle Fire HD costs $214, while the 8.9-inch version of the Fire HD will set you back $284. Both devices can be ordered here. Customers in Ireland and Gibraltar will be able to order a Kindle Fire HD from Amazon's UK store, while those in Austria and Luxembourg will be able to get it from Amazon Germany Read more...

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Galaxy S4 sales have topped 10 million in "record" time, Samsung announced Thursday.

Less than a month after its global release on April 27, Samsung's flagship smartphone surpassed 10 million units, according to a release.

"The Galaxy S4 sets a new record for Samsung, generating sales quicker than any of its predecessors," the Korean electronics giant said, adding that it estimates the phone is selling at a rate of four units per second

In comparison, it took 50 days for the Galaxy S3 to reach 10 million. The S2 and S waited five months and seven months, respectively, to achieve the same number. Read more...

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Foursquare has refined its search capabilities to make it easier for users to look for particular venues.

The location-based social network unveiled what it's calling "super-specific searches" for iOS and Android on Wednesday

"With today's update ... Foursquare helps you find exactly what you want, whatever that may be," it announced in a blog post

Users can filter their searches based on the following criteria: "I've checked in before," "I haven't checked in," "my friends have checked in," "offering specials," "open now" and "I've saved." Users also have the option to choose the amount of money they want to spend, with dollar signs reflecting certain price ranges Read more...

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Another full-length trailer for The Wolverine has debuted online, and it shows our surly superhero facing his mortality.

Posted to YouTube on Tuesday, the two-and-a-half-minute video features Hugh Jackman playing the title role, Wolverine's love interest Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), as well as villains Silver Samurai (Will Yun Lee) and Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova).

The sixth installment in the X-Men film series previously released its first full-length trailer in March. It shows Wolverine, who is distressed by his immortality, seeking death in Japan Read more...

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Ready to start marketing your new company, product or brand? Before you create a blog, draft content for your brand-spanking-new website or start tweeting, first define your “brand voice.”

In a nutshell, this is the heart and soul of your communications. More than specific words and phrases, your brand voice is the tone in which you speak to and connect with your audience.

Your voice can be authoritative, informative, fun or just plain witty, but regardless, it must be authentic. As one blogger wrote, “trying to fake your voice is like putting lipstick on a pig.” In other words, your audience will be able to tell if it’s not genuine. And, as studies have shown throughout the years, consumers buy products from brands that they connect to on an emotional level — and stay away from brands that they don’t. Read more...

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Windows 8 has officially created a new category: the monster tablet. Last fall's Sony Tap 20 could have been dismissed as a one-off aberration, but others have since launched giant screens equipped with batteries, including HP, who just unveiled the Rove 20.

Why Rove? Because it can do exactly that — the 20-inch display is fully portable with almost 4 hours of battery life. Although its mobility, along with the 10-finger multi-touch display, technically makes it a tablet, it's really better thought of as an all-in-one PC that you can move from room to room when you need to.

Much like the Tap 20 and Lenovo's IdeaCenter Horizon, the Rove has a special hinge that lets you use it in many different ways. Stood up at a high angle, it's great as a normal all-in-one or even an "easel" for a painting app. At a low angle, it's more suited for drafting. The hinge is made so you can easily adjust the angle with one hand. Read more...

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Tech manufacturers that boast how fast their devices can juice up might want to listen up: A California teen has developed a super-capacitor that could lead to a 20- to 30-second phone charge.

Super-capacitors are energy-storage devices that have a long cycle life, and have the potential to store a lot of energy per unit volume. Sounds dandy, right? Not quite. The devices have limited use because they store less energy than batteries. But Eesha Khare, 18, of Saratoga, Calif. has made quite an advancement with this technology.

"The super-capacitor I have developed uses a special nanostructure, which allows for a lot greater energy per unit volume," Khare said in a video interview at last week's 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix. The world's largest science fair brought together 1,600 high-school finalists from all over the world, who competed for more than $4 million in awards. Read more...

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Android, the world's most popular smartphone operating system, has malware issuesWe knew that already. But a new report suggests these issues are only destined to worsen

In fact, 99.9% of new mobile malware detected in the first quarter of 2013 is designed to hit Android phones, according to a new report released by online security firm Kaspersky Lab

The vast majority of those are trojan viruses, a type of virus that, as Mashable reported, is used in many instances (to target Tibetan activists, for example.) SMS trojans, which steal money by sending unauthorized texts to premium rate numbers, are the most common, with 63% of total infections. Read more...

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Syncing audio to a Bluetooth speaker is a common practice these days, but sending it wirelessly to two old-school speakers at the same time is a thing of the future.

A new Kickstarter project for the Vertus, which has already reached its $40,000 funding goal on the site, allows you to share music via Bluetooth to more than just one speaker.

Here's how it works: If a friend comes over with, say, a Jawbone Jambox and starts playing music, you will be able to connect an older speaker so both devices play the same song. The speakers can be in the same room, right next to each other or other parts of the house. Read more...

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In January, Eran Melnik wrote NFL superstar J.J. Watt a public message on Facebook

Melnik explained that he's a nurse for a young man named Itzy Cagen. Cagen has been a quadriplegic since being struck by a hit-and-run driver as a toddler, but for the past couple years also been one of Watt's biggest fans

"During the season, every morning I would wake him up and he would announce 'J. J. SWATT!!!' Just thought you would like to know that he is out there and would love to meet you if at all possible," Melnik wrote. "We understand that you are busy, but who knows?"

Here's a screenshot of Melnik's full post, along with his accompanying photo of Cagen: Read more...

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It's official: Microsoft has unveiled the Xbox One, its newest gaming console and entertainment system. While many of the features were met with positive reviews on social media, those loyal to other video game consoles also took the liberty of sounding off with their own opinions.

With the PlayStation 4 expected to to hit stores this holiday season, Xbox One expected later this year and other consoles such as Wii U and OUYA on the market, we want to know: Where will you put your money?

For more information about which video game console is right for you, we've compared the Xbox One, the PS4 and the Wii U in the table below: Read more...

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Just when you thought display technology could hardly get any better, along come quantum dots, making screens more colorful while consuming less power

This is not just some pie-in-the-sky dream of scientists and geeks. Nanosys and 3M have put this Star Trek-like tech to work, and it's gone way beyond the experimental stage, to where it's now almost ready to be built into smartphones, tablets and TVs.

The two companies said in a press release they'll have samples available to manufacturers by the "late second quarter of this year," which means companies interested in using this technology in their screens might be getting their hands on it within five weeks or so. Read more...

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Trunk is a charging cable equipped with a USB connector on one side and a Lightning connector on the other, and it's rigid enough to hold your iPhone 5 or iPod in whatever position you desire.

Made by a company called ILoveHandles, this $19.95 charging cable/holder can prove itself useful in a variety of circumstances

Sometimes you need your iPhone placed in a certain position — a task that can usually be accommodated with your hands. But not while you're driving, for example. Check out this picture that shows how your iPhone can be positioned right where you need it in the car, crucial when using your iPhone for GPS. Read more...

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François Gissy is a French bicyclist, but he's about the furthest thing from your typical fixie-riding hipster. No, this is how Gissy rolls: attaching a rocket to his bike to reach a reported speed of 163 miles per hour

That's a world record, according to French news site DNA. (Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg has actually reached a few miles-per-hour faster, but did so while drafting behind a car.)

Technicalities aside, 163 mph on a bicycle is completely ridiculous, and the YouTube videos at the top and bottom of this post are downright jaw-dropping. The top clip shows Gissy briefly whizzing by the camera, while the bottom one shows him strapping in. Check them out for yourself then let us know what you think in the comments Read more...

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Call of Duty: Ghosts represents a significant graphical upgrade from the previous titles in the series, according to publisher Activision.

To prove this, it showed a video during Tuesday's Xbox One unveiling that shows footage from the upcoming Ghosts compared to footage from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

The video's narration, said developer Infinity Ward, is able to do in-depth scans of subjects, including a Navy Seal-trained dog, and then translate them into the game world. You can see fine details on the models, like the scars on the dog's nose or bruising on a human hand. The advancements are all thanks to Infinity Ward's new engine, built with next-generation consoles in mind. Read more...

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A bipartisan and independent commission studying corporate espionage's impact on the American economy recommended passing the controversial Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) in its report released Wednesday.

". . .Corporations need better information, and thus an open, two-way communications flow between companies and U.S. government agencies is more necessary than ever before," says The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property's report.

"Companies cannot be asked to share more information unless they have a reasonable expectation that they will receive useful information in return, and they need protections from lawsuits if they do provide information. The Cyber Information Security Protection Act is an example of a statutory effort to address this problem, and the Commission recommends its passage." Read more...

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Though Facebook is still the most popular social network among teens, their enthusiasm for Mark Zuckerberg's network is decreasing, according to new findings from the Pew Research Center.

Pew reports that 77% of online teens (ages 12-17) surveyed use Facebook. But while Pew's findings show that teens view Facebook participation as important for socializing, they have "waning enthusiasm for Facebook," as explained in the video above. The report cites teens' dislike for over-sharing and stressful "drama" on the social network. Teens also don't like the fact that more and more adults are joining Facebook, although Pew found that 7 in 10 teens are Facebook friends with their parents. Read more...

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Hewlett-Packard posted mixed results in its second quarter, but beat analysts' profit estimates, helping to send the stock up more than 13% in after-hours trading

HP reported earnings per share of $0.87 on revenue of $27.6 billion, beating Wall Street's consensus estimate for earnings per share of $0.81, but coming in below the revenue estimate of $28.1 billion. The company's second-quarter revenue was down 10% year-over-year.

In a statement, HP's CEO Meg Whitman praised the results as showing signs of progress in the company's long-term comeback. "I am encouraged by our performance in the second quarter, and I feel good about the rest of the year," she said. "As I have said many times before, this is a multi-year journey. We have a long way to go, but we are on track to deliver on our fiscal 2013 non-GAAP diluted earnings per share outlook." Read more...

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Engineering students at Oklahoma State University (OSU) have designed three concept drones that could one day help storm trackers and researchers better understand tornadoes.

Led by professor Jamey Jacob, three teams of students outlined plans for Storm Penetrating Air Vehicles (SPAVs) that would penetrate thunderstorms, including the supercells that generate tornadoes, to collect vital meteorological data for better storm forecasting. The teams hope their SPAVs will collaborate with or ultimately replace storm chasers, who risk their lives driving after tornadoes in attempt to track down data. Read more...

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ZZ Ward, who Fuse TV recently proclaimed as one of 30 must-see artists at South by Southwest, just launched a web app that plots when fans first discovered her. How?

The "365 Days of ZZ Ward" app uses Facebook's Open Graph to browse users' Facebook activity and plot their ZZ Ward-tagged status updates, photos and videos.

The moments will be displayed on an interactive timeline, and fans' social participation with the experience will unlock exclusive music content. At launch, people will be able to earn access to four videos and a free MP3 download of an unreleased song

"The app will actually get better over time as more fans connect to it and new ZZ content is added," Brian Ressler, director of digital marketing at Disney Music Group, told Mashable. The app will add new unlockable content every three weeks or so Read more...

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It was only a matter of time.

Jif, the popular peanut butter company, has finally weighed in on the debate about how to pronounce GIF:

It's pronounced Jif® #Jif #GIF bit.ly/10QjQim

— Jif® Peanut Butter (@Jif) May 22, 2013

The tweet links to, what else, a GIF:

Jif's tweet came less than a day after the creator of the Graphics Interchange Format (ie GIF) revealed that GIF is actually pronounced "Jif." This simple declaration set off countless tweets and much self-doubt among the GIF-faithful.

Whose side are you on? Share in the comments below.

Image courtesy of Flickr, brianc Read more...

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Here's a video of Tina, 14, covering Eddie Van Halen‘s “Eruption” guitar solo and absolutely shredding it

If the words “Eddie Van Halen’s ‘Eruption’ guitar solo” have no meaning to you, we'll get to the meat of the story: This girl is some sort of guitar wizard.

Image courtesy of YouTube, Tina S Read more...

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Vancouver, Wash.-based company Investist has a new idea for rolling in style. It's called Hovertrax, and it's an auto-balancing, electronic transporter with two-wheeled gyro technology — or, more simply, a wiggle board with power.

The group is collecting funds for the gadget through Kickstarter, and, as of Wednesday afternoon, has already raised more than $50,000 — exceeding its original goal of $40,000, with 39 days remaining to donate

The concept behind Hovertrax is simple: Its two motors, one in each wheel, correspond with your movements. To move forward, lean in to your toes; to move backward, tilt your heels behind you. Spin the board in circles by placing one foot behind the other. The company assures there's no learning curve — just hop on and hit the road Read more...

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Two years and millions of units later, Microsoft Kinect motion and voice capture and control system for the Xbox 360 is an unparalleled success. So it came as little surprise that the powerful controller is now an essential part of the Xbox One console that Microsoft will ship sometime later this year.

The new, somewhat larger — dare I say boxy -– Kinect is vastly more powerful than the one Microsoft had been selling for $99. During a post-Xbox One unveiling panel with Xbox’s Major Nelson (A.K.A. Larry Hryb), Todd Holmdahl, the corporate vice president of Xbox Hardware, outlined the sensor’s new capabilities: Read more...

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Twitter has finally introduced two-factor authentication to more securely protect accounts, the company announced Wednesday.

The move comes after a number of hacks of high-profile Twitter accounts, including The Onion, the Associated Press and E! Online

Jim O'Leary from Twitter's product security team announced the new feature via a blog post, saying it is in response to accounts "occasionally" being compromised by phishing schemes or password breaches on other sites

The move will likely be of most interest to major brands with a presence on the site as a part of an effort to ward of hackers. By implementing the feature, it will make it more difficult to gain control of an account. Read more...

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LAS VEGAS — Jennifer Lopez unexpectedly took the stage at a Verizon Wireless press conference Wednesday to talk about Latinos and wireless service.

“As modern Latinos we do things differently, including how we shop for mobile devices,” said Lopez.

With that in mind, she's launching Viva Movil, a new wireless store and online presence designed specifically for the Latino community. Lopez will serve as the Chief Creative Officer for the company and is also the majority shareholder

Verizon will be the exclusive wireless provider for Viva Movil, but it does not own a portion of the company.

Read more...

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