We take a look at five really rich people in the tech business and the ways in which they give back—or, in some cases, don’t.
Apps & Web
Hacker Builds Working Hand-Held Laser Gun
George Lucas, if you’re reading, there’s a good reason why Han would have shot first: because he, like German laser hacker AnselmoFanZero, knew that lasers are very dangerous things capable of zapping holes through metal, plastic, and green dudes called Greedo.
What you see above is the result of 70 hours work. Its maker told Hacked …
Every PC from HP Will Run WebOS, but Why Stop There?
During HP’s recent announcement of its TouchPad tablet, it was revealed that the WebOS software running on the company’s line of tablets and smartphones would also find its way into other HP products—most notably, computers and printers.
There was some initial scuttle about what WebOS laptops and desktops might look like and how …
Man Arrested Over ‘Inciting’ Facebook Comment
Be careful what you post: A man from Zimbabwe was arrested for a comment he posted on Facebook. The offending remark?
I am overwhelmed, I don’t want to say Mr. or PM what happened in Egypt is sending shockwaves to dictators around the world. No weapon but unity of purpose worth emulating, hey.
Unfortunately Vikas Mavhudzi posted it on …
Introducing Fandor: Netflix-Meets-Sundance Online
Despite being told by critics and audiences you made a great film, it can be hard for independent filmmakers to sell their movie to a distributor. Film festivals only produces so many big deals, and a lot of movies are never to be heard from again.
That’s where Fandor is hoping to step in. Marketing themselves as …
Al Jazeera Launches Twitter Dashboard to Track Middle East Politics
Social media may have been credited with driving a lot of the uprisings and revolutions in the Middle East recently, and now it may be the best way to keep track of what’s happening in each of them. Al Jazeera has launched a Twitter dashboard that tallies daily the number of tweets about political developments in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and …
Advertisers Watch You Watch TV to Better Sell You Products
Apparently, it’s no longer in stereotype Russia that television watches you. Ever searching for new and better ways to target commercials at the right audiences, television companies and advertisers have managed to create a new way of making sure that you see – or fast-forward through – exactly the kinds of commercials that appeal to you …
Creepy, Brilliant Short Story Remix Is a Video of Tattoos
The original incarnation of Shelley Jackson’s short story “Skin” was written in 2003 to be published on the bodies of 2095 volunteers–in the form of tattoos, one word per person, in black ink. (“As words die the story will change; when the last word dies the story will have died,” Jackson writes. “The author will make every effort to …
Free Indie MP3 Site ‘Epitonic’ Relaunches
Back in 1999, Epitonic was one of the first major sites to offer free MP3s as a way to sample up-and-coming artists’ work. It went into mothballs in the mid-2000s, but more recently co-founder (and Atombombpocketknife singer/guitarist) Justin Sinkovich has been working on reactivating the site, with the help of a Kickstarter campaign. …
Android’s Hidden Music Backup Feature Harmonizes with Google
Well, well, well. Looks like we have some more fuel for the ages-old Google Music rumors. An enterprising developer shoehorned the new Motorola Xoom Android tablet’s music application onto his plain old Android smartphone and went he went into the phone’s settings menu, he was surprised to find a feature labeled “Sync Music” sandwiched …
Facebook Teams Up with Samaritans to Prevent Suicide
Facebook is stepping in to help users who post messages suggesting they want to hurt themselves. The social network has partnered up with with U.K.-based Samaritans, a group focused on suicide prevention, in order to make it easer to notify professionals if someone is showing worrisome behavior.
“Through the popularity of Facebook, we …
Warner Bros Releases Streaming Movie Rentals Through Facebook
What’s that? You haven’t seen that movie that all of your Facebook friends have “liked”? Well, Warner Bros. has become the first movie studio to offer an immediate fix for such social network faux pas, by launching a test program allowing users to rent and watch movies on Facebook itself.
Facebook users in the US will be able to rent …