Geekly Update - 7 December 2011

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

"Apparently, Grandma wants a boxed set of stupid cat videos." Walmart is going social with a service that suggests holiday gifts based on your friends' Facebook posts and "likes." Shopycat will even suggest other retailers.

Last week, Xbox Live was subjected to a phishing scam that was believed to have come out of Russia or China. Users were sent to a phony site and asked to give private address, credit card and email information. Affected users are advised to change account passwords.

"News from the DOD (Department of Duh)..." ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni says "The appeal of lower prices on the Internet is undoubtedly a driver of the shift from in-store buying to e-commerce." ComScore gathered holiday shopping data showing consumers spent almost $20 billion online from November 1st through December 4th -- a 15% increase from last year.

Another report, issued by IBM Coremetrics, shows the influence of mobile devices and socisl media on holiday shopping. Sales on mobile devices surged to from 3.2 percent last year, to 9.8 percent in 2011. But in what looks like a blow to Facebook, shoppers referred from social sites accounted for only one half of one percent of all online sales on Black Friday.

"No blanket, no pillow, no peanuts." But next time you go Down Under, Jetstar will rent you an iPad for the journey. About 3,000 were placed on the airline's Asia network this month and are offered for $10-15 per flight.

Columbia University's Prof. Salvatore Stolfo and student Ang Cui put out a study claiming HP printers can not only be hacked for information, they can be remotely set on fire. Because they use unsigned remote firmware updates that can come from any source, the researchers claim that printers and other home appliances are at risk. HP denies the risk of printers catching fire, but this could explain why my coffee has been tasting terrible lately.

"You never heard of Mikhail Lomonosov either?" If you want to see every Google Doodle ever created, go to Google, click "I'm Feeling Lucky" and there you go! The link also selectively shows them by year and teaches you about the history of the iconic logos.

"Justin Bieber and Casey Anthony, together at last!" On the odd chance that you actually care, Bing assessed the most searched topics and came up with people, places and times of 2011. Justin Bieber was the number one celeb on the search engine, while the most searched event was the Casey Anthony trial.

Spotify is now working with developers to create third party apps. Co-founder Daniel Ek announced this week that users will be able to see lyrics, buy concert tickets and read Rolling Stone reviews incorporated into the music service.

"Desktop PCs are sexier than ever..." Scientists from Argentina have discovered that WiFi can damage mens' ability to produce sperm and released details in a thorough study. Keep that laptop off your lap, or electromagnetic radiation may damage your DNA.