Geekly Update - 06 June 2012

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

"Big Brother ain't got nothin' on this guy..." The owner of a stolen laptop used anti-theft software to identify the thief. The software snapped a photo of the laptop nabber, along with a screenshot of his Facebook page, which provided police with his name.

"Not admissible in court, but..." Fadi Saleh took clips of President Obama's speeches from Youtube, and cleverly dubbed them into the music from a popular song. The result is a funny montage of the commander in chief singing "Call Me Maybe".

"Preparing for download..." Toilets are going hi-tech, and the $4,000 Kohl Numi is flush with features. Amentities include a touchscreen remote with a magnetic recharging dock, integrated FM radio, a port for your MP3 player, motion activated seat, foot warmers, and air dryer.

"The iPhone Slayer?" Rumblings about a Facebook phone codenamed "Buffy" are flying around and is supposedly being designed by former Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone and iPad.

While seeking unknown malware that had attacked the Middle East, Kapersky Labs discovered malware dubbed "Flame" that can replicate itself, record audio conversations, take screen shots, capture keystrokes and report it all back to its unknown operators in a remote location. Flame is being called "one of the most complex threats ever discovered."

"Get Out of Jail Free." Last Friday, the Jailbreak Dream Team (Chronic-Dev and iPhone Dev Team) collaborated to release Absinthe 2.0 for iOS 5.1.1. It supports iPad, iPhone and iPods, and has already been downloaded over a million times.

"Hey, that tickles!" Just press Kyocera's new Urbano Progresso smartphone display to your ear and its vibrating technology provides the audio. Available only in Japan beginning this week, it features a dual-core 1.4GHz Snapdragon S2 processor, Android 4.0, a 4.1" screen, an 8.1mp cam, disaster warning and waterproof casing.

Sitomic is a new startup that lets you build a mobile business card with links to your social profiles like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Create and download QR codes to let your friends and business contacts know what you have been up to or what products you are marketing.

A team from the Missouri University of Science and Technology used Internet data and found that nine patterns of Net usage can indicate depression in students. In addition to viewing more videos and games, signs included random usage, and more emailing, chatting and usage of file-sharing services. "Hey, we can use this technology to send targetted ads for anti-depressant meds!"

As if it wasn't providing fast enough service, Verizon will double the speed of some of its FiOS tiers and add two faster ones. Their new portfolio includes downloads/uploads of 50/25 and 150/65 Mbps and adds 75/35 and 300/65 Mbps (that can download a 2 hour SD movie in 30 seconds!) in addition to its current ones.