The United States of America has been pumping out badass technology since the 18th century. In honor of Independence Day and the land of opportunity's 237th birthday, we've gathered a small sampling of some of the most important, iconic and overall awesome American inventions throughout history.

From rockets to Roombas, swivel chairs to Macintosh computers, these inventions are not only inspiring, but also show how far we've come since 1776.

What other important American tech inventions can you name? Share your favorites in the comments. Read more...

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On this day 239 years ago, America's founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, giving you the freedom to upload, tweet and Instagram photos and videos of all the fireworks, parades and barbecue meat your heart desires.

You probably want to resist the urge to watch the fireworks show through your smartphone screen, but snapping a quick pic of those delicious cupcakes and sizzling burgers won't hurt. (Just be careful not to drop your phone in the grill.) While the day might be all red, white and blue everything, what many people love most about this patriotic holiday is spending time with friends and family. Read more...

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As a kid, the Fourth of July could seem like the celebration that officially kickstarted summer. Sure, your parents mentioned something about a celebration of independence, but school was finally out and adults were going to let you watch an hour of explosions

Without barbecue plans, Independence Day might be just another day off from work for you now. But it can't hurt to remember it was once a magical day of red, white and blue Jell-O molds and patriotic body art.

1. Flag T-Shirts

Image courtesy of Flickr, anjanettew

For the height of patriotic style, you'd wear one from Old Navy with the year printed on it, because you were that current. Read more...

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Social news site Reddit has come a long way since the days it played second fiddle to (now mostly abandoned) Digg. According to a new report by Pew Internet, 6% of online adults in the U.S. are Reddit users

The report is based on a telephone survey conducted in April and May 2013 among a sample of 2,252 adults, age 18 and over

According to the report, 15% of male internet users ages 18-29 use Reddit. With men aged 30-49, this percentage drops to 8%, and 5% of women aged 18-29 say they use the site

Reddit, which allows users to vote and thus choose which stories will appear on its front page, has grown tremendously in 2010, partly as a result of the exodus of users from Digg. The Condé Nast-owned site never looked back, reaching 2 billion pageviews in December 2011 and 3.4 billion pageviews as well as 43 million monthly active users in August 2012 Read more...

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Smartphones may comprise a majority of mobile-phone shipments worldwide, but a sizeable number of handset users still prefer basic feature phones

Nokia catered to the latter market on Wednesday by debuting two 3G-capable feature phones — the 207 and 208 — that are specifically designed to provide users with quick Internet access.

Available in red, cyan, yellow, white and black, the handsets have Nokia's traditional "candybar" design. They offer Internet-connection sharing, and come pre-installed with Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. Read more...

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Remember Limbo, Playdead's black-and-white, 2D-scroller that scared and thrilled us on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC? The game is now available for iOS, and it's every bit as scary as its big-screen counterparts

In the game, you play a little boy searching for his lost sister. To find her, you must enter Limbo, a weird, monochromatic world that's a child's worst nightmare. Don't believe us? Well, the first time you step on a spring trap, you'll see what we mean

The gameplay mostly consists of the usual brain teasers and obstacles, and the controls are simple, but effective — tap and swipe right on the screen to move forward, and swipe up to jump Read more...

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An Italian surgeon is reportedly convinced that the technology now exists to carry out a full-on human head transplant.

The science — according to Dr. Sergio Canavero, a member of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group — is based on the successful head transplants of animals. In 1970, Dr. Robert White, a neurosurgeon, successfully completed the procedure between two rhesus monkeys.

Canavero notes White's efforts in a paper on the topic, and adds that "the greatest technical hurdle to such endeavor is of course the reconnection of the donor (D)'s and recipient (R)'s spinal cords." (His report goes on to sketch out a possible human scenario and additionally outlines the technology needed to reconnect a severed cord.) Read more...

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Doctors can now reduce process of testing for dementia from three years to 10 minutes

Cantab, a new iPad app from Cambridge Cognition, is designed to help early diagnoses of dementia. The technology, based on testing developed at the University of Cambridge, is designed to be easy for patients to use

Cantab is available in 20 language, with options to encrypt test results for printing or including in a patient’s file

The company warns that Cantab is only meant to aid preliminary diagnosis and is not a comprehensive recommendation. The test tracks scores for both mood and functional impairment, which give doctors a better idea of how to proceed with screening and treatment. Read more...

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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.

[IMAGE]Name: TikTakTo

One-Liner Pitch: TikTakTo is trying to fix some of the biggest complaints users have about daily deals.

Why It's Taking Off: The startup organizes promotions from well-known sources across the web, lets users view deals without signing up and offers the option to bookmark deals for later.

There's no shortage of daily deal websites out there, but one recently launched startup hopes to fix some of the biggest pet peeves about the daily deal market. Read more...

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The 2020 Olympics don't begin for another seven years, but who says you can't get pumped a little early?

Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid — the three finalists bidding for the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games — have released a brief promotional video, depicting how the games would look in their respective cities

In the video, each finalist takes turns explaining why their city is the ideal location for the Olympics. The brief clip includes everything from Rihanna's "Diamonds" to overhead views of the cities' signature buildings and attractions. Read more...

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An Iowa businessman says 3D-printed human organs can help doctors practice surgeries before actually opening up a real body.

Mark Ginsberg — an Iowa City jewelry store owner, who also has a manufacturing facility with a couple of 3D-printers — has partnered with physicians to help 3D print organ models or whatever they might need, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported.

A surgeon can provide a CT scan of a patient's organ and that can be translated into information for 3D printing. Recently, Ginsberg 3D-printed a photopolymer heart model for a University of Iowa surgeon, who had a young patient with a hole in the heart, the Press-Citizen reported. Read more...

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Hear that? Sounds like justice, freedom and hot dogs crackling on the grill.

But nope, it's not the sound of a star-spangled banner billowing in the wind. It's a list of patriotic movie quotes that will make you proud to be an American.

Wave that flag, Gretchen Wieners

1.

Mashable composite. Images courtesy of Flickr, goaliej54 and Bmermaid

2.

Mashable composite. Images courtesy of Flickr, neighborhoods.org

3.

Mashable composite. Images by Mashable, Gabe Bergado and courtesy of Flickr, Mark Heard

4.

Mashable composite. Images courtesy of Flickr, magrolino Read more...

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Is Justin Timberlake's not-safe-for-work music video for "Tunnel Vision" trying to dethrone Robin Thicke's NSFW video for "Blurred Lines?"

Both prominently feature topless women but, for now, Thicke's jam featuring T.I. and Pharrell sits atop Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. "Tunnel Vision" is from Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, which came out in March after a strategic digital marketing blitz.

Timberlake used social sites to tease or release items related to his music career. It all began in January, when Timberlake posted a cryptic tweet on Twitter. The message teased his musical comeback. He also unleashed interactive art for The 20/20 Experience album on image-tagging startup Stipple's site. He used Myspace to promote the album's lead single, "Suit & Tie." (Note: Timberlake is an investor in Stipple and has an ownership stake in Myspace.) Read more...

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The words "stealth wear" have us thinking of James Bond, undercover spies and other people who don't want to be found. But it could become a fashion trend for the masses

One designer, Adam Harvey from the School of Visual Arts, has started designing products that make you invisible to technology. He has created, with the designer Johanna Bloomfield, a collection of counter-surveillance garments that includes a shirt to protect the heart from X-rays, clothing that blocks thermal imaging and pockets that cut out phone signals.

Harvey's interest in the clandestine began years ago when he was a party photographer. In an interview with Tank Magazine, he said, "I spent a lot of time photographing people who didn't always want to be photographed." Once Harvey realized the pictures he took could be used as a source of incriminating evidence, he turned to creating products that prevented that Read more...

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The Fourth of July weekend wouldn't be the same without a dose of red, so a day before America's Independence Day, Taylor Swift fittingly unleashed a video for her song "Red." The clip splices together footage from her concerts and several awards-show performances

I’m so excited that the new video for ‘Red’ comes out this evening! Also very excited about all the red, white, & blue happening tomorrow.

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 3, 2013

"Red" is from Swift's album Red, which came out last OctoberRed's lead single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" set a U.S. digital sales record with 623,000 downloads — the most ever in one week for a female artist. Read more...

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Stanford University students are capturing incredible images of birds in mid-flight in order to study their movements, behavior, and ultimately create the ideal drone. The ultra-high-speed Phantom camera they use can shoot upwards of 3,300 frames per second at full resolution, and an amazing 650,000 at a tiny resolution, which enables the students to capture the incredibly intricate movements of a bird in flight.

Professor David Lentink, who oversees the project, says: “Our camera shoots 100 times faster than humans' vision refresh rate. We can spread a single wing beat across 40 frames, and see incredible things." Read more...

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In an effort to transform teaching and learning, educational technology entrepreneurs showcased their innovative ideas at the LAUNCH Education and Kids Conference in Mountain View, Calif., on June 26 and 27.

Conference host and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis moderated the discussions and demonstrations that featured twenty edutech startups on stage at Microsoft's Silicon Valley Campus. Some are using tablet and smartphone technology to help children learn with more interactive techniques, while others are creating fun toys that can help teach important concepts. A few companies are even trying to improve the tedious grading process for teachers. Read more...

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If you subscribe to Time Warner Cable, soon you might be able to access all that programming on an Apple TV box. That is, if a deal between Apple and Time Warner Cable, Inc., goes through, which Bloomberg reported could happen "within months."

Over the past year, Apple has been acting on what Apple CEO Tim Cook said was "intense interest" in TV, looking to add additional content to the movies and TV shows it sells on its iTunes store. If this Time Warner Cable deal is successful, users will be able to access their cable TV service through the Apple TV device.

Read more...

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How will the rising seas caused by climate change swallow up your city?

Nickolay Lamm, a 24-year-old researcher and artist has worked on answering this question for months now. In April, he created illustrations of how the increased sea level will impact cities in the U.S. like Miami, New York and Washington, D.CMashable turned them into GIFs that showed how much our world could potentially change if the earth's ice caps melt.

Now, Lamm has created eight new sets of illustrations, depicting how San Diego, San Francisco, and Charleston will look under five, 12, and 25 feet of seawater Read more...

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Free airport Wi-Fi sounds too good to be true, but a select group of 20 U.S. airports will soon be offering the service as part of a partnership with the digital advertising company MediaShift.

It's called the Premier Airport Network and the deal will place ads throughout a user's surfing session.

MediaShift, which has more than 23 million users, is known for monetizing private Wi-Fi networks for travel companies and hotels, and providing detailed info on information that could help boost vendors' bottom lines, such as click-through rates, conversions and behavioral data. It has not yet revealed which airports are participating in the network. Read more...

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Mashable community members gathered on June 30 to celebrate the fourth annual Social Media Day. Participants recognized the digital revolution in a variety of ways, from all-day panel discussions to nighttime networking parties.

Thousands participated in the hundreds of Social Media Day events that took place around the world. Some of the most-attended events were hosted in Australia, Costa Rica and Sri Lanka. In the United States, Detroit, Mich., San Diego, Calif., and Miami, Fla., brought out the largest crowds.

Although it is the fourth year celebrating this day, some places are just starting their traditions, such as Ahmedabad, India, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras — both of which hosted Social Media Day events for the first time this year. Read more...

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In the new Facebook game The Smurfs and Co: Spellbound from Ubisoft, players can join the Smurf Village as one of the iconic blue characters.

Players must help the Smurfs reconstruct their toadstool-filled village after evil sorcerer Gargamel — the Smurfs' old enemy — casts a spell turning them all to stone. The player is the only Smurf to escape the curse unharmed.

Players can build homes, plant crops and add farmlands while also freeing each Smurf from the statue curse. The social features allow players to team up with friends. Read more...

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Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown Wednesday by the Egyptian military following three days of occasionally violent street protests across the country. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) suspended the constitution and said the Chief Justice would assume presidential powers until a new election could be held.

Social media has for years been a source of news and information during political upheaval. It's also been a place for opposition groups to organize. Both of those phenomena have happened plenty in Egypt this week

Read more...

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Another day, another Yahoo acquisition

On Wednesday, Yahoo announced its second purchase in a week with the reported acquisition of email productivity provider Xobni for a price of $30 million to $40 million.

"Did you ever meet someone who truly 'gets' you? That’s how we feel about Yahoo," Xobni wrote in a company blog post announcing the acquisition. Xobni also promised, "Of course, soon you’ll be able to use Yahoo! products with Xobni goodness baked right in."

Xobni ("Inbox" spelled backwards) provides software that aims to improve the functionality of your email by "making it easy to search and discover all your contacts — even those who aren't in your address book," according to the company. Xobni products like Smartr Inbox and Smartr Contacts let you search for everyone with whom you have exchanged emails, texts or calls Read more...

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Sameer Doshi has always been up for a challenge

The legally blind 32-year-old engineer was unable to continue playing video games like The Legend of Zelda during his free time. Instead, he listened to novels on MP3 — but he craved competition.

SEE ALSO: 13 Fantastic Subreddits You Should Subscribe To

So Doshi created a modified Rubik’s cube using textured stickers, plastic gems and velcro fabric to guide his fingers over the 3D puzzle.

It took him approximately four months to solve the Rubik’s cube, but he finally did — and posted his results on Reddit.

"I chose to post on Reddit because it's a community I've known for a very long time. It's a place where I've gotten a lot of help,” Doshi says. “It's the best place to share something like this." He hoped that posting his pictures on the website would also have a positive impact on others. Read more...

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Vine released its biggest update to date for iOS Wednesday, bringing a number of new features to the video service.

Included in the update are 15 new channels ranging from comedy to cats where you can submit your videos, a new “On the Rise” section that highlights Vine videos going viral on the service, and new capture tools — such as grid and ghost tools — to add flavor to your videos.

In addition to the app enhancements, Vine’s update also adds the ability to “revine” Vine posts to your followers, much like you might retweet a tweet on Twitter, as well as the ability to create a protected account on Vine that can be seen only by specified users. Read more...

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Singer Steve Grand released a brave music video that tells "the universal story of longing to be loved" from the perspective of of a gay male

The "All-American Boy" video is making early waves online. 'N Sync's Lance Bass commended the artistry and boldness on Twitter.

"I fought with who I was for most of my life," Grand told his hundreds of Facebook fans. "In every way a young person can fight with himself. But starting today, I'm laying it out there. I'm done playing it safe."

His video explores his unrequited love for a friend of the same sex. An independent newcomer to the music scene, Grand earns money by playing piano at a jazz lounge and churches in Chicago. He explained the song's origins upon debuting the song this week: Read more...

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The U.S. government rested its case in the Bradley Manning court martial on Tuesday, after five weeks of trial. This marks the end of the prosecution phase, and next week it will be Manning's lawyers turn to present their case in defense of the WikiLeaks source.

Since June 3, when Manning's trial finally started, the prosecution led by Major Ashden Fein has brought evidence and nearly 80 witnesses in its attempt to convict the source of the biggest WikiLeaks revelations on 22 charges, including espionage and "aiding the enemy."

Read more...

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Disney's Lone Ranger isn’t just headed to theaters Wednesday. In conjunction with the film's release, Disney is also bringing the Wild West to your iOS device in the form of a mobile game.

In the role-playing game— aptly called The Lone Ranger — the player becomes a Texas Ranger and fights alongside Tonto and the Lone Ranger to help defeat Butch Cavendish and his gang.

Following a similar plot line as the film, the game leads players on a number of different quests to protect the town of Colby, dueling outlaws along the way

Players are given a number of different weapons to start the battle, with the option to upgrade and unlock new weapons along the way. During different quests, you also have the opportunity to find additional tools and horses to make the battle easier. Read more...

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Douglas Engelbart, the man who invented the computer mouse and helped develop many of the basic computing technologies we now take for granted, has died. He was 88.

The news appears to have first been announced via a tweet from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. SRI International, where Engelbart did much of his work and which represents the Douglas Engelbart Institute, confirmed Engelbart's death to Mashable.

It was just announced that Computer History Museum 2005 Fellow, Doug Engelbart passed away early this morning...http://t.co/OqRWSXUuOR

— Computer History (@ComputerHistory) July 3, 2013 Read more...

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