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LuxuryLaneSoap.com of @KyleeLane fame

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Deals of the Week / New Releases

• Half-Life 2 Hits MAC today!!! Thanks Valve (JP)
  • It’s on sale for 30% off… that means you can get it for only $6.99 and then play it on PC or MAC or both
  • Episode 1 and 2 are also both available for only $5.59 each and you can play them on both Mac and PC as well

• In honor of Geek Day and Towel Day (to honor the late Douglas Adams) Think geek has a great Hitchhikers guide shirt for sale
  • Don’t panic and carry a towel
  • 42 ringer T as seen on the IT Crowd, Transformers: The Movie and on JP from Time to time
• …and Entertainment Earth has some great  geek tess this week (iKDR)
  • The Big Bang Theory Friendship Algorithm T-Shirt
  • Star Trek Vulcan Nerve Pinch T-Shirt
  • Ghostbusters Peter Venkman Uniform T-Shirt

• Geek Dad: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share (or for Geeky Moms)
  • buy through Amazon for around $9
  • Build a working lamp with LEGO bricks and CDs
  • Create a customized comic strip or your own board game
  • Transform any room into a spaceship

  • Make geeky crafts like cyborg jack-o’-lanterns or Ethernet cuff links

Geek Speak

• Will use current Pay TV to enable a better interface and searching
• Dish, Intel, Best Buy, and adobe all stepping forward as partners
• Android based w/ an intel multimedia chip as its heart (CE4100 CPU)
• Sony and Logitech plan set-top boxes
• Won’t just be TV but will bring in the Internet also… (Microsoft Web TV anyone / Apple TV same dif)
• Will google be enough to change the apathy of ppl wanting computer-like functionality on the TV??
• (iKDR) Google stated today that too many people are having trouble deciding what to watch, when to watch and where to watch content. Google TV aims to clean that mess up, by combining the best of the Web with the best of TV. <-um, i seem to have no problem filling up my DVR, External, Netflix & Hulu full of shows that I never have time for)

• For the eighth time this year, a worker has apparently committed suicide at a factory in China operated by Foxconn Technology, the world’s biggest contract electronics maker and a major supplier to Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard and other companies.

• The worker, a 21-year-old man named Nan Gang, jumped from a four-story factory after leaving work at 4 a.m. Friday

• No one has been able to explain what is happening at Foxconn. But the events are again raising questions about the harsh regimens used by Chinese factories to produce a growing share of the world’s goods.

• “We are extremely tired, with tremendous pressure,” the group quoted one worker as saying. “We finish one step in every seven seconds, which requires us to concentrate and keep working and working. We work faster even than the machines.”

• Known most for manufacturing the iPhone and other Apple products the company also makes goodies for HP and Dell and other high tech companies
• Lately they have had a slew of suicides… so bad that they hired an exorcist to come in and get rid of the bad spirits… (evidently this didn’t work since more people have commited suicide)
• Apple, Dell and HP have launched investigations into the conditions that are driving the employees to this extreme measure..
• Where do you think the responsibility lies… how involved should Apple, Dell, HP and the other companies get? Where is the line… What’s right?

Tech,Gaming, and Geek News

• Steering Wheel IPad holder = Hoax (SM)

• • We reported on this awhile back in our Intarweb
  • It even came w/ its own video where the profile changes happened when you steered
  • USAToday bought into it and reported on it…
  • Well, the attachment is a hoax so the jokes on all of us
  • At least we’ll feel safer on the roads now w/ our pads in our laps
  • aww, i was kinda hoping to be able to text and tweet with better accuracy while driving..iKDR

• Parrot AR drone gets price and release date at E3 (JP)
  • this is a kinda cool device controlled by your iPhone or iPad we discussed after CES
  • Rumor is price will be 500 bucks and it’ll hit towards the end of the year… just in time for Christmas
  • I was hoping for a much lower price… it’s a cool device… but for me 500 is really high

• Science Proves it: Men Lie More Than Women (iKDR)
  • At least that’s according to a survey commissioned by the Science Museum of London which quizzed three thousand people about their truthfulness
  • I don’t believe you (JP – I really do, but something made me lie to you and say I don’t… hmmmmm)

  • Men:

    I didn’t have that much to drink

    It wasn’t that expensive

    I’m stuck in traffic

    You’ve lost weight

    It’s just what I’ve always wanted

  • Women:

    Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine

    I’ve got a headache

    It was in the sale

    No, I didn’t throw it away
  • So who gets lied to the most? Moms, of course.

• Lobbyists winning in congress, Net Neutrality on the ropes (SM)
  • Congress has thrown down the gauntlet on the FCC
  • A bipartisan group of politicians (74 of them) have told FCC Chair, Julius Genachowski, to abandon his plans to impose new rules on broadband providers
  • 34 Republicans have outright said that Genachowski is using “heavy-handed 19th century regulations” that are “inconceivable” as well as illegal.
  • From the mouth of a lobbyist: “Questions about the FCC’s legal authority should be decided by the Congress itself, and not by applying to the Internet a set of onerous rules designed for a different technology, a different situation, and a different era,” AT&T’s senior vice president for legislative affairs, Jim Cicconi, said Monday.
  • All the hubbub stemmed from FCC coming down on Comcast for slowing down bit torrents
  • FCC then subsequently lost a court case saying they don’t have the rights to oversee or enforce net neutrality
  • They aren’t totally going in like a bull in the china shop, they do have a minimalist plan to try and keep net neutrality alive
  • Congress wants its piece of the pie, problem is, it took them 5 yrs to spit out the last telecommunications act in 1996

• AT&T Upping Early Termination Fees (JP)
  • New customers will now see $325 termination fee instead of $175
  • AT&T not the only carrier to do this, verizon recently upped theirs
  • Smartphones are costly but, carriers love them for the higher prices they can charge for service ($95 / month x 12?)
  • Hrmm, Cnet speculates on phone exclusivity expiring w/ AT&T… but other indicators out there that its rock solid (think the low bw fees for the IPad)

• iPhone 4.0 Beta Hints At AT&T Tethering, Finally (iKDR)
  • Internet tethering capabilities let you share your phone’s Internet connection with your laptop via Bluetooth or USB.
  • The iPhone received this feature last summer, with the iPhone OS 3.0. But AT&T has not enabled the feature for its U.S. users, as this is believed to over-tax the carrier’s network.
  • A developer spotted a new configuration page for Internet tethering in the latest iPhone 4.0 beta.
  • This page tells AT&T customers that they need to contact the carrier or go on its Web site to activate the feature.

• Apple facing new Justice Dept. inquiry over music (SM)
  • JD is doing some preliminary investigation into some recent allegations of anti-trust when it comes to music
  • The accusations are that when amazon music did some early offers on MP3′s Apple asked the labels to not participate
  • Apple is the biggest seller of online music at 69%, 26.7% of music overall
  • JD just did some prelims for an IPhone investigation
  • What does this all this mean for Apple?

• U socket realease delayed… but added goodies (JP)
  • • we covered this device after CES as well, and you could pre order it, but the delivery has been delayed while they got approval
    • these wall outlets with built in USB charger sockets will be very useful.. pre orders get a nice discount, but looks like they won’t ship now until some time in October

• Rock Band 3 featuring Keytar, Pro Mode? (SM)
  • IT’S THE 80′s and Harmonix is bringing it back.
  • Their mole claims that the game will support the new peripheral but won’t be made in-house, but by Mad Catz
  • Also a “Pro Mode” w/e that means. Maybe playing live instruments with the game???? or playing plastic instruments “live-like”
  • (SM) I just wanted to say “Keytar”….

• Create a Rock Band band and win $10 Grand, Seriously! (iKDR)
  • The 2^nd Annual Total Rock, Total Rewards Rock Band Competition kicked off May 1st
  • at 5 Total Rewards casinos and 15 bars across the United States and Canada with more music and more rock than ever.
  • Get your BAND together for a chance to win $10,000!

• Facebook Finally Getting Privacy Concerns (SM)
  • The interface does look easier to navigate
  • Easier to opt-out of 3rd party services (apps)
  • Zuckerberg, ceo of facebook, even almost almost apologized (admitting his company “made a bunch of mistakes” and just “missed the mark” on privacy control)
  • Well, he said that there were some mis-steps with their privacy policy.
  • w/ 400 million users and still growing, is being easier to “opt-out” enough?

• EA & Insomniac partner up for new Mystery Game (iKDR)
  • Electronic Arts announced a partnership with Insomniac Games, which will bring a brand new title from the studio to the Xbox 360 and PS3.
  • The mystery game that EA will be distributing for Insomniac will be the first title in the studio’s history to be a multi-platform release.
  • “We are excited and eager to introduce Insomniac to a new group of gamers while reinforcing to our loyal fans what makes our games special.”
  • if it’s anything like the Ratchet & Clank series, I am already dying!

• 21 year old admits to vomit assault (jp)
  • 21 year old from NJ admits to vomiting on a man and his 11 yr old daughter after argument in the stands during a Phillies game
  • Oh yeah… did I mention the guy he stuck his finger down his throat to vomit on… was an off duty police captain… OOOOPS
  • i wonder if the same outcome would have occured if the assailant had just decided to fart on his victim instead (iKDR)

• Great Moments In Stupid Inventions (iKDR)
  • Fails like the Rice Growing Bra and White Castle Scented Candle is what makes this country so…unique

• 2 Cleveland cops suspended 6 months with out pay (JP)
  • After they drove past a corpse on the side of the road… mistaking it for a deer…
  • I guess we should be glad they weren’t hunting when they made this mistake….

• This Week in ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME? (iKDR)
  • Solid Gold Diamond-Encrusted iPad Sells For $190,000
  • The company in charge of this, Stuart Hughes, is not new to the “bedazzling” of technology products… “letting the technology embrace luxury”

• Disney Star Wars Week Merch
• What is Steampunk
• http://www.weirdworm.com/6-real-life-attractions-for-the-video-game-enthusiast/
• HOW TO: Download Google Pac-Man Game for Free

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