Geekly Update - 01 November 2011

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

GooHoo? The Wall St. Journal has reported that Google wants to buy Yahoo but that is so far only an interesting rumor.

In compliance with the FCC, mobile carriers have agreed to give cellphone users a warning when they are close to exceeding monthly limits on texting, talking or data usage.

Do you prefer mashed or fried? In a report made by the Environmental Health Trust, researchers say that the FCC's test for determining radiation in cell phone usage is unsound. They say that their method is outdated and that the model used represents only 3% of the population.

Windows users who do not have an Android device can now waste just as much time as those who do. The BlueStacks App Player allows you to run Android apps on your Windows desktop.

Bzzzzzzt... thanks for playing! Google will be ending a number of sub-properties that are no longer useful to the company. Included is Buzz, Code search and Jaiku, while Boutiques.com and Like.com will be replaced by Product Search.

Let's play Double Jeopardy. MacRumors member Thomas Metz loaded up his wife's new iPhone 4S with the Find My Friends app, after suspecting that she was having an affair. Sure enough, it placed her at a suspected boyfriend's house, and now he's hoping to use it as evidence when he divorces her. And then HE can go to jail for illegally spying on her.

Motorola will help to get you in shape starting next month while keeping you amused with its MOTOACTV. The wearable music player with touchscreen tracks running and health statistics, has GPS, can be synced to an Android phone and, lest we forget, plays your tunes or FM radio while you exercise, at a price starting at $249.00.

Dessert of the month club? It's finally arrived and has its own website to boot. The Samsung Nexus Prime launched this week with Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" and has face unlock, touch sharing of apps, Google+ integration and voice to text capability, all at 4G speeds.

Beware of smishing (SMS phishing) that will claim that your bank is down, via a text message on your cell phone. Call the Internet Crime Complaint Center if anyone texts you, asking for your account information, SSN or other personal info.

Those who cannot travel to NYC can now see through a torchcam that was installed in the Statue of Liberty in honor of her 125th birthday Oct. 28. Five EarthCams view the harbor and Ellis Island, read the tablet, capture the World Trade Center site and get a glimpse of visitors on the ground.

Lytro's new Light Field Camera has finally arrived at prices of $399.00 and $499.00. The wonder of it is that it captures the entire light field without shutter delay then uses algorithms to determine the proper focus.

According to the company research2guidance, the amount of apps on the Android Market went over 500,000 in September as compared to 600,00 at the Apple App Store.

Nextdoor is a simple concept to help neighbors interact, keep in touch with local events and updates on illegal/suspicious activity. Each social networking site is owned by locals and after a year in beta, is touted by users as a necessary source of communication.