Geekly Update - 11 December 2015

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

Dave Barry's annual holiday gift guide is here. It features bizarre-but-real gifts, along with Barry's humorous commentary. Who wouldn't want a Wearable Hummingbird Feeder, or a Nicolas Cage Pillowcase?

AT&T's GigaPower service delivers ultra-fast Internet, but monitors everything you do online. The good news, for an extra $29/month, you can have your privacy back.

“Hello Barbie,” the Internet-connected Mattel doll, is raising concerns among privacy and child advocates. “When Barbie’s belt buckle is held down, everything your child says is transmitted to cloud servers, where it will be stored and analysed by ToyTalk, Mattel’s technology partner. Employees of ToyTalk and their partner corporations listen to recordings of children’s conversations — and ToyTalk won’t even say who their partners are.”

Thanks to the Internet, the average Australian child now learns the innocence-crushing truth about Santa Claus two years earlier than the previous generation did. But there’s a browser plug-in that will filter search results and other Web content that might reveal this aspect of the “adult conspiracy.”

Here's a clever way to save $800... For only $899 plus shipping, you can buy a USB Typewriter to replace your $30 keyboard; or, for just $99, you can buy the USB Keyboard DIY Kit and wire it together yourself.

Unintended consequences... An Arizona man used the Lifelock credit monitoring service to stalk his ex-wife, monitoring her movements, purchases, and other financial activities.

Amazon released video of its latest delivery drone prototype actually delivering a package in the middle of someone’s backyard, where it surely can’t be stolen or damaged by weather, pets, or wild animals.

It's a Tvablet! The 18.4-inch Samsung Galaxy View tablet is a cord-cutter’s dream. Actually, it’s an Android-powered portable flat-screen TV that sells for $499 in the WiFi-only version. The AT&T LTE version is $499.99 with a two-year contract or $30/month for 20 months on an installment plan.

According to a U.S. government data dump, Windows 10’s market share is at 12.4% as of the end of November, while Windows 7 fell 7% to 64.2% of the market. XP usage has dropped to under 4%. About 85% of Web surfers are using Windows.

Udemy, a platform that lets academics sell online courses they developed, has a piracy problem. Many authors are complaining that their courses are downloaded, identifying information is stripped out, and the pirated works are re-posted on Udemy, often at steep discounts or free of charge.

Japanese scientists have created holograms that a person can “touch” and manipulate as if they were solid objects. It will get really interesting when holograms can touch you back.

A smartphone app is aiding the hunt for the UK’s only native cicada. The app lets users record audio of suspected cicada sounds and send the file to researchers, who come running with nets if they believe the sound is genuine.