Geekly Update - 11 January 2012

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

"Why don't they just use their shoe phones?" Computer hackers met at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin this week to plan putting communication satellites in orbit, in an attempt to avoid censorship.

"But wait... if you order now, you'll get a free toaster AND a set of titanium steak knives!" Sony reduced the price of its Tablet S by a hundred dollars. The 16GB device is now a mere $399.99 and has a 9.4" display, two cameras, 1GB memory and runs Android Honeycomb.

Verizon Wireless backed down and decided not to charge a $2 fee for online payments. While they promised that AutoPay or in house transactions would still be free, they were so overwhelmed with complaints that they withdrew the surcharge. Hey Verizon, how about a $2 *discount* to thank us for NOT sending you a check in the mail -- which requires you to pay people to schlep the mail, open the envelopes, process the checks, etc., etc.?

LG will be debuting the planet's first 55" OLED TV at the CES 2012 next week. They claim that the 4-Color Pixel and Color Refiner will result in better imaging. I'm glad they used *Organic* Light Emitting Diodes. They're so yummy with soy milk and agave syrup.

This just in from the Department of Meaningless Statistics: A whopping 1.2 billion apps were downloaded the final week of December. According to Flurry, the amount was up 60% from the previous week, 42.3% of them in the U.S. A lot of green pigs are gonna die...

Being able to physically interact with a virtual world is almost realized with Jayne Vidheecharoen's Portal. The Kickstarter project lets a user literally put their hand into a display and seemingly mingle with objects.

"Hello, tech support? My refrigerator won't stop downloading frozen pizzas." Google CEO Eric Schmidt laid out a vision at the CES 2012 show, which involves your Android smartphone getting cozy with the lights and appliances in your home.

Netflix's first original series, Lilyhammer, will debut February 6 and eight episodes will be available for streaming. The drama depicts a former gang member who opts for witness protection, and should be available for pirating by February 7th.

The Ramnit worm was first detected in 2010 and is now believed to be attacking Facebook. Although the victims are mostly in the UK and France, security site Seculert warns that it has already stolen more than 45,000 login credentials.

Skype and Tely labs have teamed to bring video chatting to your HDTV. After purchasing the $249 telyHD and signing up for Skype, anyone with WiFi can speak to anyone else with it, send video mail and send/receive photos free.