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 My photographer, Steve, squints through a computerized scope squatting atop a big hunting rifle. We're outdoors at a range just north of Austin, Texas, and the wind is blowing like crazy—enough so that we're having to dial in more and more wind adjustment on the rifle's computer. The spotter and I monitor Steve's sight through an iPad linked to the rifle via Wi-Fi, and we can see exactly what he's seeing through the scope. Steve lines up on his target downrange—a gently swinging metal plate with a fluorescent orange circle painted at its center—and depresses a button to illuminate it with the rifle's laser.

JOYSTICK for iPad :Give your stubby digits a bionic upgrade  Bring your tablet-based gaming to the next level with the JOYSTICK-IT Tablet Arcade Stick. The JOYSTICK-IT gives you a real physical joystick for increased precision with touchscreen based games. Simply press down to attach the JOYSTICK-IT to your tablet based computer's screen for improved gaming. No wires or batteries needed. The JOYSTICK-IT works with thousands of different game apps. Any game that has an on-screen control pad of some kind is perfect for the JOYSTICK-IT. Simply run your game of choice, place the

Tech Essentials for Any Kind of Travel  People walk a lot during the course of the day, and we carry plenty of gear. We depend on our laptops and cellphones to communicate with the rest of the people. Wi-Fi and cellular signals are also essential, but don’t always work the way they’re supposed to when there’s a lot of network traffic, so bringing backup is key. Here are the essentials I take with me when packing for any kind of travel:

This Camera Is the World's Tiniest Digital Fisheye Canon claimed the smallest and lightest DSLR in March, but one photo enthusiast is going a step further with a key chain-sized digital lo-fi point-and-shoot. After shooting with toy cameras, researcher Greg Dash became hooked on the random results and reveal that came with developing film. However, he couldn't share all his film photos digitally and on top of that, was unable to find a decent-priced fisheye lens for his SLR. He decided to make his own. Dash's camera body is about as thick as an iPhone 5, takes HD video and has a 170 degree fisheye

Airline Passengers May Soon Be Able to Use Electronics During Takeoff and Landing For any airline passenger who has been annoyed during takeoff and landing when told to power down electronics, here's some great news: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may only require you to put some gadgets such as e-readers and laptops in "airplane mode" during takeoffs and landings — maybe as soon as next year. According to The New York Times , the FAA has been looking into the use of electronics on planes, and might ease up on the strict rules to shut them down during certain times. However,

Activision Reveals Animated Human That Looks So Real, It's Uncanny Activision showed off the state of the art of real-time graphics on Wednesday, releasing this mind-boggling character demo. The character's skin, facial expressions and eyes look so real, it's uncanny. When you watch this video, see if you think this character has reached the other side of what's commonly called the "uncanny valley," a term first uttered by early robotics guru Masahiro Mori in 1970. It describes the range of sophistication of

How 3D Printing Actually Works?  The concept of 3D printing is by no means new, however. Chuck Hull invented and patented stereolithography (also known as solid imaging) in the mid-1980s, when he founded 3D Systems, Inc . Since then, advances in the technology have been (and continue to be) made, including the size of the printers themselves, the materials they can use and more. But how do 3D printers actually work? How can something that looks like our household printer or office photocopier create complex, solid objects in a matter of hours?

Facebook Home and HTC First Hands-on It’s the Facebook phone… but it’s every phone. Facebook Home is here, and it wants to take control of your Android experience, a new software suite rather than a specific handset. Unveiled at Facebook HQ this morning, Home arrives on Android via the Play store from April 12 and splashes your photos and friends across the lockscreen and the homescreen. We’ve been playing with Facebook Home today on the HTC First, the first device to fit into Facebook’s Home Program; read on for our first-impressions. Facebook describes it as designing a phone around people, not apps, and the focus is the very first

Chrome 27 Beta now available, promises faster speeds  Chrome 27 Beta browser has been released by Google, bringing with it some goodies for developers, as well as faster page loading to the tune of about 5-percent. Users who don’t mind dippingo into beta territory can grab the latest download now from the Chrome beta page. We’ve got a run down of the new features and improvements after the jump. The obvious feature most users will notice is the speed improvements, which are said to increase the rate of content loading by 5-percent. This is due to

Harvard lets human minds control rats, private rodent armies remain distant Sure, we've seen rats control other rats, but that won't give us a legion of mind-controlled creatures to unleash upon an innocent public, will it? Harvard Medical School may unwittingly assist with solving our (rather misguided) plight, as it just experimented with a system that lets a human mind trigger actions in a rat's motor cortex. The test had

Soon You'll Be Chatting With Your Car, TV, and Home As impressive as Apple's Siri can be, we've seen plenty of examples of what the voice-activated personal assistant can't do. However, it and other voice recognition systems are getting smarter, understanding a new range of natural-language spoken commands. You'll be conversing with your car before you know it    Siri, Apple's personal assistant , already understands complex voice commands. You can ask her to find nearby pizza places, and then see a list of options. Say "Tell my wife I'm running late," and Siri will prompt you to send a text. You can ask about the weather and she'll know you are in Chicago, not Miami.  Yet Siri is far from perfect. You

BlackBerry shutting down BBM Music on June 2nd  BBM Music may only be roughly a year and a half old, but BlackBerry announced in an email to subscribers that it'll be put out to pasture on June 2nd, and April is the last month they'll be charged for it. For those who aren't familiar with BBM Music, it lets users keep up to 50 songs hand-picked from a larger selection in a playlist, and listen to tunes that friends keep in their own

ASUS unveils GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini graphics card It's easy to chop and change components in spacious towers, but small PCs need upgrading, too. If your stunted desktop has fallen into the "minimum system requirements" category for the latest games, then maybe the newly announced ASUS GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU Mini graphics card will interest you. Quite the mouthful, we know, but its long name contrasts with its small size -- the dual-slot, 2GB card measures 6.7 inches on its longest edge, shaving almost 3 inches off the reference design. There's no reason you can't put the card in a

Softball-sized hail smashes homes, cars in Texas Residents in Hitchcock and Santa Fe woke up to broken roofs, shattered windows and dented cars after softball-sized hail battered the communities late Tuesday night. Powerful thunderstorms raked the area about 11 p.m., sparking hail and downpours, said Patrick Blood, meteorologist with the National Weather Service . The storms downed power lines and tree limbs. No injuries were reported. Hitchcock City Secretary Rose Marie Theiler , said she was asleep when she heard pounding on the

Amazing Video inpainting software deletes people from HD video footage   In a development sure to send conspiracy theorists into a tizzy, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (MPII) have developed video inpainting software that can effectively delete people or objects from high-definition footage. The software analyzes each video frame and calculates what pixels should replace a moving area that has been marked for removal. In a world first, the software can compensate for multiple people overlapped by the unwanted element, even if they are walking towards (or away from) the

Replacement "bioteeth" from stem cells a step closer  New research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre and King's College London, UK, may result in bio-engineered replacement teeth which are generated from a person’s own gum cells. Though artificial whole-tooth implants are currently available to people who are missing a tooth, such implants are unable to fully reproduce the natural root structure of a tooth. This means that in time, friction caused by eating and other movement of the jaw can result in a loss of jaw bone.

Graphene aerogel takes world’s lightest material crown   Not even a year after it claimed the title of the world’s lightest material, aerographite has been knocked off its crown by a new aerogel made from graphene. Created by a research team from China’s Zhejiang University in the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering lab headed by Professor Gao Chao, the ultra-light aerogel has a

Hyundai’s “E4U” puts a new spin on the personal mobility vehicle   Despite the Segway becoming a household name, personal mobility vehicles have so far failed to make it to the world’s sidewalks in any great numbers. Still, some intriguing concepts over the years from the likes of Toyota, Honda and GM suggest that the wheels of the personal mobility revolution are still turning – if slowly. Hyundai is now getting into the act with its “E4U” personal mobility vehicle concept that was spied at the Seoul Motor Show last week by Nikkei Tech-On.

OLS house provides views from the gaping jaws of a dinosaur At Gizmag, we're suckers for interesting looking houses. We've covered the world's narrowest house , houses made from a shipping containers, and so many other interesting abodes. One thing we've not seen before is a house with a profile that mimics the shape of a dinosaur's head, that is until we encountered the OLS House.

Detroit Electric unveils all-electric SP:01 luxury sports car Last month, we reported that Detroit Electric planned to unveil an electric sports car, of which only a single teaser image was supplied with no information about its name, price, or other details. In Detroit earlier today, the car – called the SP:01 – was unveiled, along with its specs and an image of the mean-looking electric beast.

Microsoft updates SkyDrive for iOS app to version 3.0 Back in December 2012, there was a bit of a butting-of-heads situation betwixt Apple and Microsoft over the iOS SkyDrive app, which concerned the amount of moolah Apple kept from SkyDrive subscriptions upgraded via the iOS app. Such upgrades were considered in-app purchases, and as such were subject to Apple’s 30-percent cut. It would seem the issue has been resolved, with Microsoft rolling out its SkyDrive for iOS update today. Word about the issue between Microsoft and Apple had come from multiple sources who were said to be familiar with the situation. According to the rumors, Microsoft claimed that it shouldn’t be hit with the 30-percent fee because the subscriptions were not exclusive to iOS, and in the end the company sought a deal with Apple. Potentially, the dispute could have lead to the SkyDrive app being removed from the App Store. Whether a deal was struck, the fee was removed, or Microsoft gave in

Google Now gets new features in latest Search update Google has been rolling out new functionality to quite a few of its services lately, including full-size photo support for Google+, improved auto-complete predictions in Gmail, and data autosync for Chrome for Android, to name a few. Now we’re seeing another update, this time for Google Now. With this update, Android users will find additional Google Now settings in Google Search, including real-time package tracking. Google Now is the handy service from Google that offers you everything you need right before you need it automatically, available to those running Android Jelly Bean handsets and the Google Search app. It does this via cards, which provide things such as airport and gate information as your flight nears, for example. If you’re not familiar with the service.With today’s Google Search for Android update, which is available from the Play Store now, a couple new features have been added to Now, with perh

Angelfire site may be Mark Zuckerberg’s first website A link to a very 90s-looking Angelfire website surfaced over at Hacker News, with the poster claiming that it belongs to Mark Zuckerberg, who would have created it when he was just 15-years-old. The website is full of all sorts of interesting things, ranging from a GPA calculator for “all you psychos, myself included, who obsess over grades,” to a blinking yellow eyeball welcoming visitors to “the only site where a yellow eye blinks at you.” The webpage is both comical and a very interesting look into the mind of a teenage Mark Zuckerberg, who was at the time promoting his Vader Fader tool and introduced himself as Slim Shady: “Hi,

LG's 5-inch Optimus G Pro launches in Japan    South Korea gave the Optimus G Pro a reasonably warm reception after debuting, and now LG's hoping to pull off a similar victory in Japan. Those in the Land of the Rising Sun can now pick up the smartphone from NTT DoCoMo. Though the handset bears the same name as its Korean counterpart, it forgoes a 5.5-inch 1080p display for a smaller 5-inch screen with the same resolution. In case you're in need of a refresher, the hardware runs Jelly Bean 4.1.2 on a 1.7GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 Processor and 2GB of RAM flanked by a 3,000mAh battery,

Samsung partners with Best Buy to bring Experience Shops to 1,400 stores Not content with a gazillion Galaxy phone sales, Samsung is hoping to continue winning the smartphone war in one of the biggest battlegrounds any manufacturer can face: retail. The Korean OEM has partnered with Best Buy to bring its Experience Shops to the big box retailer nationwide -- 1,400 of them by early summer (with 900 launching this month), to be precise. So what does Sammy hope to achieve? In addition to the standard shopping setup, the company wants to give customers the ability to actually use its products and get a first-hand feel of what they have to offer: phones, accessories, Smart TVs and tablets will be on display. Each shop will be

Elipson Planet LW review  There's docks, there's high-end docks and then there's the Elipson Planet LW wireless amplified speakers, and it's probably important from the start to define exactly what these things are. All the audio played through these weighty creations is done so without any physical connection. Like the B&W A5 or Philips AW9000, your music is locally streamed; the difference, much like Sonos, however, is that this is done neither using AirPlay nor your home network. So, just how does Elipson

UK cop shops his own son over Apple bill F ather forced to report his own son for fraud after racking up £3,700 from in-app purchases A police officer has reported his own son for fraud after Apple refused to refund a bill for £3,700 racked up through in app purchases. The father, Doug Crossan took the extreme measure to recover the money after his son made more than 300 in app purchases, according to the Daily Mail . Among the games played were Plants vs Zombies, Nova 3 and others. According to Crossan, his son and he though the purchases were free and we're being made with real money. Apple refused to refund the money, saying that it is the parents'

Gadget of the day:NearFA Touch Speaker Your bluetooth device has not been recognised! Unable to connect! Aaaarrghhh! If only there was a simpler way. With the Touch Speaker now there is. No need for syncing, waiting to connect, loss of connection, entering passcodes, or even wires! So how does it work? Well, this compact speaker utilises the latest wireless technology called Near Field Audio or NearFA for short (why they didn’t just shorten it even more to NFA will remain a mystery!). It works by simply picking up the vibrations  and amplifying the sound. All you do is pop your device onto the top and hey presto! It really is like magic. Boasting a powerful 2.5W x 2 RMS output the Touch Speaker will work with just about any device with an inbuilt speaker, plus it has the option for a 3.5mm jack if your mp3 player doesn't have a speaker.

Why Don't We Have Personal Jetpacks?   Where's my jetpack? It's a question so synonymous with pop futurism that it's inspired a TV Trope , a book , and numerous annoyed letters to Popular Mechanics (sorry). The fact is there are working jetpacks. But one isn't coming to the mass market to handle your daily commute anytime soon. The idea has actually existed since the 1920s, when science-fiction pulp magazines imagined jetpack-wearing heroes . (James Bond would don his famous jetpack in 1965's Thunderball. ) Since the 1950s, government agencies and DIY nerds alike have been researching jetpacks in earnest, but the technology just hasn't made it off the ground, so to speak. Generally, what we call jetpacks are technically rocket packs , because they work the way rocket engines do : by combing fuel, usually hydrogen, with an oxidizing agent . The chemical reaction produced by the fuel and oxidizer is highly exothermic, meaning it releases

Budget Cuts Are Set to Hit U.S. Military’s Drone Fleet For all the ongoing hype about the U.S. military’s arsenal of flying robots, they’re anything but safe from budget cuts. Pentagon officials anticipate spending significantly less on their surveillance and attack drones over the next several years, effectively ending the drone boom of the previous decade. The impending budget cuts are expected to affect each major funding source for the drones: the research and development accounts that keep new models coming online; the operations and maintenance accounts that keep current ones in the air; and the procurement accounts that keep the military purchasing them. Already, the Pentagon is signaling that the boom times for drones are coming to an end, even as the robots

Mobile app turns iPhone into a biologically-inspired hearing aid Researchers at the University of Essex have developed a free mobile app that turns an iPhone or iPod into a hearing aid that could revolutionise the future for people with hearing loss. Unlike standard hearing aids that simply amplify all sounds, the BioAid app is inspired by biology and replicates the complexities of the human ear. It puts the user in control, is available to anyone, anywhere without the need for a hearing test, and potentially holds the key to a future where tiny, phone-based hearing aids can be dispensed and adjusted remotely. BioAid, which is available on iTunes has been developed by Professor Ray Meddis of Essex’s Department of Psychology with Nick Clark, formerly a Research Officer in the Department and Dr Wendy Lecluyse of University Campus Suffolk. Unlike standard aids that have a single setting, BioAid has six fixed settings each of which has four fine-tuning settings allowing

Twitter Introducing New Card Types, Mobile App Installs And Deep Linking Well, it looks like the developer meetup over at Twitter is underway, and information is making its way out over Twitter about it. It sounds like the company is unveiling some new Twitter Card types, which are its way of displaying embedded content within tweets, and it’s all about mobile apps. Tomorrow, the Cards will be released, and the hope is to get deeper linking and engagement into other apps you may have on your phone. This could be for shopping, taking a poll or just about any other interaction you can think of. Other Card types include things like embedded photo galleries, as these tweets show:

Google Will Refresh Nexus 7 Tablet This Summer, May Drop Price To $149  Google will refresh its Nexus 7 tablet this summer, launching a new version powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor around July, according to Reuters  – which is about a year after it launched the original Nexus 7. The news agency said two unnamed sources also told it Google is aiming to ship between six and eight million of the tablets in the second half of the year. Google has not released official sales figures for its $199 to $249 slate, which is made by Asus, but an analyst estimate pegged sales for 2012 at between 4.5 million and 4.8 million, suggesting Mountain View is hoping to grow Nexus 7 sales significantly this year – even by as much as almost double.

Pentax unveils 15 new color options for K-30 DSLR There’s a common element most DSLRs share, aside from the obvious: their no-nonsense professional black coloring, which is appealing to some users, but lackluster to those who enjoy a little more visual variety amongst their photography equipment. That’s where the new K-30 DSLRs Pentax is rolling out comes in. Starting today, consumers can get this durable shooter in a variety of shiny and matte color options. The Pentax K-30 is now available in nine new colors for a total of 15 color options overall, with both “silky finish” matte and “shiny crystal” options comprised of: Crystal Black, Crystal Bordeaux, Crystal Green, Crystal Red, Crystal

Obama to Unveil Initiative to Map the Human Brain  A senior administration scientist compared the new initiative to the Human Genome Project, in that it is directed at a problem that has seemed insoluble up to now: the recording and mapping of brain circuits in action in an effort to “show how millions of brain cells interact.” It is different, however, in that it has, as yet, no clearly defined goals or endpoint. Coming up with those goals will be up to the scientists involved and may take more than year. The effort will require the development of new tools not yet available to neuroscientists and, eventually, perhaps lead to progress in treating diseases like Alzheimer’s and epilepsy and traumatic brain injury . It will involve both government agencies and private institutions.

Nebula One turns servers into simple, private clouds with OpenStack Trying to create a large-scale, private cloud array can be a headache, since it often involves bringing disparate networking, server and storage systems together in one not-so-happy union. Wouldn't it be nice to have a box that could do most of the hard work? Nebula thinks its newly launched Nebula One controller will do the trick. The rackmount device's Cosmos OS quickly turns ordinary servers from the likes of Dell or HP into a unified cloud computer that centers on the more universal OpenStack

Sony Xperia ZL reaches Canada through Bell   While we're still waiting on an American carrier to officially release Sony's Xperia ZL , it turns out that Canadians don't have to be quite so patient. That promised April launch in the northern country has come right at the start of the month, and locals can order the compact 5-inch flagship from Bell, Rogers or Videotron as of today. Pricing varies sharply between networks, however. Bell is offering the most aggressive discount, at $100 on a lengthy three-year contract, while Rogers and Videotron raise the prices to a respective $125 and $200 on similar terms. You can also buy the smartphone off-contract from the

Hybrid Memory Cube receives its finished spec, now up to 320GB PS  The Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium has been almost too patient in developing a standard for for its eponymous technology -- efforts began 17 months ago -- but it at last has more than good intentions to show for its work. Its just-published HMC Specification 1.0 lets companies build platforms and RAM with 2GB, 4GB and 8GB chips incorporating the stacked, power-efficient technology, all without compatibility jitters from other supporters. The completed spec is a scorcher when living up to its full potential, too. With eight links, a memory cube can reach a peak 320GB/s (yes, that's

Now that Outlook.com seems to have its email product sorted, the folks up in Redmond have turned their attention to that other popular cloud service: the online calendar. Indeed, Outlook.com has completely revamped its digital planner, resulting in a clean and fresh redesign that is reminiscent of the company's other web products. Overall navigation is said to be more intuitive; for example, adding and editing events takes just one click, and a day view is presented just by selecting the date. Features include Exchange ActiveSync

These 3-D Printed Speakers Put On a Dazzling Light Show The speakers are one-of-a-kind, 3-D printed on an Objet Connex 550 at Autodesk and endowed with an audioreactive LED system by  LumiGeek , a new company that makes Arduino-compatible microcontrollers for an LED development kit. Built by LumiGeek founder John “Parts” Taylor and Autodesk applied innovation engineer Evan Atherton, the speakers are both a drool-worthy experiment and an example of what 3-D printing can do now.With about $2,200 worth of 3-D printed

A fresh release of  Pandora's  Android app hit  Google Play , and it carries a light, but welcome change log  New lock screen controls for hardware packing Ice Cream Sandwich or later flavors of Google's confection-themed OS headline the update. In addition, the revamp brings shortened start up times for the application and a track progress indicator that sports elapsed and remaining time stamps  Naturally, assorted bug fixes and enhancements round out the tweaks. Click the bordering source link to snag the download.

Wacom wants to make sure there's no buyer's remorse for those who didn't pop for a pen-equipped device, so it added the Bamboo Stylus mini to its portable touch-pen lineup. It joins the Stylus Feel, Solo, Pocket and Duo, but brings a stubbier 4.7 centimeter (1.85 inch) form factor and strap with a dummy mini-jack plug for terminal pen mis-placers. Despite the whimsical look, Wacom says the body is brass plated, has six colors of soft-touch rubber and nibs that are replaceable with firm or soft touch options. You can color in your order now for $19 at the source

Apple Releases New Device That Will Turn Any Car into a Driverless Vehicle Many of us thought Google had the market cornered when it came to driverless cars , but Apple made a shocking announcement today with news that they would be releasing a new device and app that can transform ANY vehicle into a driverless one! Dubbed the iDrive, the system can be installed without the help of a professional and simply needs an iPhone or iPad to operate. “People have been saying that Apple has been losing its edge when it comes to innovation,” said Tim Cook at a press conference in Cupertino, California, this morning. “But if the iDrive proves anything, it’s that we’re innovating. Google better watch their back.”

Festo has created a fascinating robotic BionicOpter dragonfly that has a semi-opaque blue body and four clear wings, which beat as it flies around the room, pausing as it glides and shifts direction, only to resume beating as the robot dives and rises. We have a video of the robotic dragonfly in action after the break, where you can see it demo’d in a large room. As described, the flight of a dragonfly is unique over, for example, birds, making it an appealing – and relatively difficult – subject for robotics. A dragonfly can move its two pairs of wings independent of each other, can

China Announces Plans to Export Greenhouse Gases to Terraform Mars As an extension of China’s $16 billion plan to combat air pollution in its cities, today the  China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced an ambitious plan to export the nation’s emissions to Mars. China is currently the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases – its annual emissions total Billion Tones 8.9. The unprecedented plan would greatly reduce emissions on Earth while warming the climate on Mars, causing the planet’s polar ice caps to melt and eventually creating an atmosphere capable of sustaining  life. Throughout the 20th century, companies around the world outsourced their manufacturing operations to China in search of cheaper labor – and

Plastic Logic shows off color e-paper smartwatch concept Plastic Logic showed off its ZED (zero-energy display) earlier this year, a flexible display that requires almost no energy and can be powered entirely from solar panels, making it ideal for many situations. Now the flexible display company is back, this time showing off a concept color e-paper smartwatch that could one day be part of our wearable-gadgets future. This prototype smartwatch utilizes a flexible e-paper color display that wraps around the wrist and uses e-ink in combination with a color filter to produce the colors. The concept watch is incredibly

As part of its encouraging Imagine Cup, Microsoft is giving young ones that are aged between 9 and 18 the chance to enter a game design challenge dubbed Kodu. With a renowned Xbox controller being used as the main interface, Kodu will allow kids and teens to create games on a PC or Xbox "via a simple visual programming language" -- which allows them to virtually layout anything from sculpted landscapes and decorated trees, to creating their own scoring system, gameplay and, of course, characters. The Imagine Cup Kodu Challenge, as it's more formally known, is now open and will remain this way until May 17th, with the eventual finalists set to be awarded a trip to the event in St. Petersburg, Russia. The winners, meanwhile, could end up taking home a range of prizes, including grants, cash and other goodies -- but, perhaps most importantly, also the utmost respect of all other challengers present.

LG celebrates 500k Optimus G Pro sales @Home We haven't even had the chance to see the 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro available outside Korea, but LG is already claiming a sales record. The latest supersized phone notched 10,000 orders at launch, leading to half a million sold just 40 days after its launch and ahead of its coming April update. We found plenty to like about the Optimus G Pro when we reviewed it -- that it closely follows the Galaxy Note II's succesful formula while packing the brand-new Qualcomm 600 quad-core CPU doesn't hurt. LG's pushed the phone with several

Facebook testing Twitter-like 'Post from any page' button Facebook has some more design tweaks up its sleeve. Although minor in comparison to the new Timeline and News Feed, Facebook seems to be on its way to introduce a universal Status Update button to the top bar  a la  Twitter.   The new “Post on Your Timeline” button is a tiny pencil shaped one situated next to the user’s name on the upper right of Facebook’s top bar. This test was first spotted by  Mashable . It is interesting to note that the post button was found on a profile that had not been granted access to Graph Search yet. 

Half of the U.S. population already has smartphone    In the United States, almost half the population has a smartphone. It is expected that smartphones represent 54% of handset sales in 2013, versus 46% in 2012 and 35% in 2011. Until now expected that the barrier of 50% was exceeded in 2015. Many are connected to the time they wake up until the time they go to sleep. About 79% of them give their messages on the handset within 15 minutes and 62% neither agree expect this quarter of an hour to pick up the phone. The information is from a study