Geekly Update - 05 December 2012

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

A long-held maxim in the computing world is that heat is the enemy of electronics. But researchers in Taiwan have discovered that the opposite can also be true. Exposing damaged flash memory to 1400 degrees F can actually "heal" damage and increase the life of the device by a factor of 1000.

"Just in time for Greek Orthodox Christmas..." A Google-branded Chromebook will ship by year’s end, according to Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times, based in Taiwan. Reportedly, the initial manufacturing run of this 12.85-inch Chrome OS touch-based notebook with electronic stylus will be 20 million. (If you want one now, see The $199 Acer C7 Chromebook.)

Helicopter parenting was taken to its limit by Paul Wallich. He bought a remote-controlled quadrocopter kit, added a smartphone for video and data transmission, and planted a GPS guidance system for the drone in his elementary-school son’s backpack just to track the kid on his 400-meter walk to the school bus stop.

"The answer to life, the universe and everything? 42 Billion." At least in Cupertino, California, where Apple Corp is headquartered. That's the amount of Apple’s profits in fiscal 2012 (on $156.5 billion in revenue). Apple earned more profit than Microsoft, eBay, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Amazon combined. Dell, Intel, Acer, ASUS, IBM, HP, and Lenovo combined had profits of only $19.4 billion.

Amazon shipped over 200 items per second on Cyber Monday. How does the company do it? By hiring 50,000 temp workers and telling them, “You’re gonna be crying for your Mommy when today’s over.”

To get the most out of your Amazon Prime membership (and make warehouse workers cry for Daddy too), buy the Winchester Big Daddy 7-M Gun Safe (shipping weight 925 pounds) and get free delivery.

Just 0.34% of all online sales on Black Friday came from referrals from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, according to a report published by IBM. That was down 35% vs. 2011, despite overall online sales climbing by 21% on Black Friday and 17% on Thanksgiving Day.

“Google Shopping is nothing more than a list of targeted ads that unsuspecting customers assume are search results,” Microsoft warns on its new site, Scroogled. I don’t know why Microsoft thinks customers are “unsuspecting.”

ZOMM is a half-dollar sized Bluetooth device that sounds an alarm if your smartphone gets too far from it; auto-dials 911 at the touch of a button; and enables one-touch answering of incoming calls. ZOMM is priced at $64.48, down from $119.98.

Consumer Reports’ annual survey of customers of wireless communication carriers rates Verizon #1 for voice and data service quality, and also for support. AT&T’s 4G LTE network had the fewest problems reported by customers, but overall was rated worst carrier for the third year in a row. Prepaid services saved no-frills customers an average of $20 per month.

$1000 for a tablet PC with four-hour battery life is what Microsoft is promising with its upcoming Surface Pro. That might be just long enough to learn how to navigate Windows 8.

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