Geekly Update - 26 September 2012

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

"Too bad they don't have swords..." Moviegoers who text or talk during a screening at the Prince Charles Cinema in London may be subjected to ninjas in black body suits reminding them to be courteous to their fellow patrons.

"But revenge wasn't even on the menu..." After an Ottawa woman posted a bad restaurant review, its female owner decided to besmirch the woman. She set up a fake sex site profile, and impersonated the reviewer in racy emails to her bosses. However, a Canadian court found the restaurateur guilty of libel.

Who would have guessed that Google glasses would show up at Fashion Week in New York? Not only did they make an appearance on the Diane Furstenberg runway, they were the stars of the short film "DVF Through Glass" that premiered online.

"This is American Five-One-Niner... we've got a herd of green pigs blocking our approach..." The FAA has approved the usage of iPad to replace American Airlines paper flight manuals. Removing the 35-pound bundle from each American Airlines flight will save the company $1.2 million annually in fuel costs. Let's hope they disable Angry Birds during takeoff and landing.

Nielsen has found that as of July 2012, 55.5% of mobile subscribers own a smartphone, as compared to only 41% last year. The report also shows that 74% of those owners are between the ages of 25 and 34 and that Android is the most popular choice at 52%.

"Sadly, there's still no poptart toaster slot..." November 18 will be the debut date of the Nintendo Wii U that includes 50 game titles and Tvii, a service for watching TV, movies and sports. With a starting price of $299.99, features include connection with social networks, program guide and access to services like Netflix and Hulu.

Samsung has reduced the price of their Galaxy S III to $119.99 on Amazon. It requires a 2-year contract with Sprint, Verizon or AT&T and a $35.00 activation fee. But you do get free two-day shipping.

Apple's iPhone 5 sold about 5 million units its first weekend. In other completely unrelated news, sales of Ramen Noodles and cheap canned dog food have reached record levels.

"Hackers rejoice!" Harris Interactive, working for the radio site Stitcher, has found that 60% of smartphone and tablet owners say they would vote for president via app or text message.

Google's latest acquisition is Nik Software's Snapseed app. The high quality photo editor is undoubtedly meant to show that Google can take photographers seriously as well taking a jab at Facebook's Instagram.

"Second-hand news?" The Internet Archive is a humongous effort by Brewster Kahle to collect, as he puts it, "every book, music and video ever produced by humans." In addition to digitizing millions of books and collecting 150 billion Web pages, it will now allow said humans access to TV News Search and Borrow, information produced in 350,000 broadcasts over the last three years by 20 different channels.