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Latest Gear Live Videos
Yahoo Sued by Human Rights Organization
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet,
The World Organization for Human Rights USA is suing Yahoo on the grounds that the company assisted China’s government torturing dissidents by releasing information on them. Yahoo has admitted to turning over data at the request of the communist government, saying that employees there face civil and criminal charges if they ignore the local laws.
Part of the lawsuit, filed at a district court in San Francisco, is to determine just how much Yahoo assisted in the governments arrests. Martin Sklar, executive director of the organization said “They should not be participating actively in promoting and encouraging major human rights abuses,” and wants to “stop this practice of U.S. corporations being complicit.”
Read More 
| World Organization for Human Rights via Post Bulletin
Gallery: Yahoo Sued by Human Rights Organization
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So you procrastinated on your taxes and let the due date slip by. Don’t tell anyone we told you this, but TurboTax had such a last minute rush Tuesday that they notified their filers that they couldn’t access their returns. The IRS has decided that they will not punish those who ended up with delayed filings. So here’s what you do. Run, do not walk, to get your own copy of TurboTax, plaster that sucker online, and maybe they will just believe you are one of the lost crowd.
Read More | Consumerist
Gallery: IRS Forgives TurboTax Filers
Mobigater Allows Free Skype Transfer
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Internet, Misc. Tech,
Hip-IP’s Mobigater Plus can send Skype calls to your cell phone with no SkypeOut credits needed. When you place a SIM card inside, it connects to your phone with a USB cable to both your PC and Skype. If you have a family plan, the service is free. Get the Pro version and you can direct calls to multiple phones in an office setting, even if the parties are overseas. The Mobigater Plus is available for £119.99, (~$ 163.00,) while the deluxe model will set you back £185.99 (~$373.00.)
Read More | Hip-IP
Gallery: Mobigater Allows Free Skype Transfer
Students React To VA Tech Massacre via Technology
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Editorial, Internet,
While Gear Live’s condolences go out to the faculty, students, and staff at yesterday’s disaster at Virginia Tech, we cannot help but wonder how bizarre it was that many were not even aware of what was going on until they turned on their computers to check out online news after hearing gunshots from the second floor. Others became aware when they received an e-mail from the administration. The first sounds and sights of the incident were captured on a student’s cell phone.
Pupils at the University are currently posting details of the event and tributes to fallen friends on sites such as Friendster and MySpace. There is already a site erected which is dedicated to the incident. This surely shows just how quickly this generation can utilize technology and respond when a catastrophe occurs.
Gallery: Students React To VA Tech Massacre via Technology
Eleven female leatherback turtles yesterday began participating in what conservationists have called the “Great Turtle Race.” With satellite trackers strapped to their backs, the site hopes to draw attention to their becoming extinct.
Only 58 females arrived at Las Baulas Marine Park arrived this year to lay their eggs, whereas last year there were 124. Their 1,200 mile annual trek from Costa Rica’s Pacific coast to the Galapagos Islands is sponsored by U.S. and Costa Rican businesses and environmental groups. The trip will take about 2 weeks and you can track them online by names such as Windy, Freedom, and Stephanie Colburtle, named after the Comedy Central star.
Read More | AP
Gallery: Turtles Document Annual Migration
Bring Your Mii into the Real World with MiiSculptures
Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Internet, Toys, Video Games,
One of the many things we love about our Wii are the Miis, the imaginary characters you create yourself and use to play Wii games with. The Miis are even the focus of Nintendo’s current ad campaign for the Wii. It’s a fact that people get very attached to their Miis, and if you’re one of them, we have a website for you: MiiSculptures.com. That’s right, just provide a photo of your Mii, and the artists at MiiSculptures will create an actual sculpture (that’s Bill Gates above). Strangely, we can’t find pricing on their website, so we suggest you contact them before ordering. However, they do offer free international shipping. You’ll receive your new friend 3-4 weeks after your order is placed.
Read More | MiiSculptures via Geeksugar
Gallery: Bring Your Mii into the Real World with MiiSculptures
This is a sponsored post via ReviewMe, but all opinions are our own:
We know that the gadget habit can get expensive fairly quickly - trust us, we know. This is why we like sites like Dealighted. We just found out about this site, which is a tool that aggregates and arranges deals from all over the Internet in one place. They get about 650 or so new deals posted per day, and they actively monitor sites like Slickdeals, Fatwallet, and Anandtech, and identifies the most popular deals on those sites as well.
Click to continue reading Dealighted Finds Best Deals on the Web
Gallery: Dealighted Finds Best Deals on the Web
Webkinz Welcomes Toddlers to the Internet
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smart Home, Internet, Toys,
In a rather odd attempt to combine the real world with the Internet for younger children, Webkinz is hoping that their idea is the ideal prequel to MySpace. After purchasing one of their stuffed animals, your child registers it online with its secret code. As your kidlets play games, answer trivia, and care for their virtual pets, they earn KinzCash which can be traded for furniture, clothing, etc.
The company will also be setting up the KinzChat Plus for your toddlers that restricts messages so that they cannot post or receive proper names, mispelled words, or innappropriate language. We appreciate the efforts to teach newbies the Internet ropes, but can’t parents do that without the commercialism?
Read More | Webkinz
Gallery: Webkinz Welcomes Toddlers to the Internet
Google To Acquire DoubleClick
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Handhelds, Internet, Portable Audio / Video,
Google has announced that it will be paying $3.1 billion to purchase DoubleClick, giving them even more status as king of the Internet. The New York based company provides corporate banners in richer graphics, which is currently about half of all online marketing. At this point, Yahoo has been the forerunner in that field. This means that instead of seeing boring old Google text ads that want us to spend our money when searching around the Web, we will be able to view garish ones that will probably be twice as irritating. It also allows us to look forward to their future expansion into print, radio, video, mobile and television ad markets. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
Read More | Reuters
Gallery: Google To Acquire DoubleClick
Vonage Can’t Get Around Verizon Patent - What Now?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Corporate News, Internet,
So, it looks like things are going from bad to worse for VOIP phone company Vonage. Last week, a judge ruled in favor of Verizon citing that Vonage was infringing upon Verizon’s patented Internet phone technology, which lays out methods for getting calls to go between the Internet and conventional phone networks. The ruling was that Vonage was banned from signing up new customers, while existing customers were unaffected. Vonage asked for, and received, an emergency stay which allows them to conduct business as usual for the time being. They went so far as to tell investors not to worry, because a “workaround” was currently under development.
Unfortunately, today Vonage has changed their tune, and they are now saying that they have no workaround that would moot the need for a stay. Uh oh. We don’t know how much longer Vonage will be around in it’s current form, but for a company that loses 2.5% of it’s customers per month, if they can’t bring in new customers to replace lost ones, it’s fairly obvious what will happen.
Read More | USA Today
