If the college football season ended today — and if Facebook buzz, not wins and losses, was the measure of a team’s worth — Florida and Georgia would meet in the BCS National Championship Game. Alabama and Oregon, the nation’s top two teams according to voters, wouldn’t even crack the top 10.

Not surprisingly, however, these rankings don’t have a ton to do with how good a team actually is. Each week, Facebook counts and weights total mentions and percentage increase for key terms associated with college football teams to produce its power rankings.

So, while Georgia lost its first game on Saturday, it did so in thrilling fashion on a last-second play — hence the high buzz ranking.…
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More About: Sports, college sports

Source: Mashable!

Apple did something Wednesday night that it hadn’t done in a while: It dropped a new iPod ad.

The spot above, called “Bounce” features the track “Yeah Yeah” by Willie Moon, a singer from New Zealand. Though Apple just broke the ad on TV Wednesday night and loaded the video to its official YouTube Channel, versions of the ad had leaked last month.

The ad from TBWAMedia Arts Lab, coincides with the release of the seventh-generation iPod Nano and the fifth-generation iPod Touch on Wednesday. Overshadowed in recent years by the iPhone and the iPad, Apple still gives ad support to the iPod from time to time. Though Apple ran an iTunes-focused campaign when it got rights to the Beatles…
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More About: Advertising, apple, ipod, trending

Source: Mashable!

This is a first, at least from Apple. A portion of the new Fifth-Generation iPod Touch and Seventh Generation iPod Nano‘s packaging is biodegradable. Just add water and the EarPod holder dissolves.

Apple’s long been a leader in product package design and has often touted how eco-friendly its products are (though not all always agree). However this is the first time, in our memory, we’ve ever seen a portion of Apple’s packaging that could all but disappear in warm water.

SEE ALSO: Unboxing Apple’s New iPods

The EarPod case doesn’t completely disappear, but when placed in warm water, it pretty soon becomes pliable, and soon falls apart. Afte…
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More About: apple, iPod Touch, ipod nano, trending

Source: Mashable!

Groupon is taking on Square with the launch of a new iPad-based mobile payment service called Breadcrumb.

The result of the Groupon’s acquisition of a company by the same name, Breadcrumb is a point-of-sale system for local restaurants, bars, and small businesses to use in place of a cash register.

The service handles everything from taking orders to table management, processes payments, and analyzes overall sales to help merchants learn more about their business and make improvements for the future.

After a successful pilot run in New York City, Groupon is now offering the service as an option to business owners nationwide.

SEE ALSO: Squar…
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More About: Square, groupon, mobile payments

Source: Mashable!

Mitt Romney may have labled electric carmaker Tesla Motors a “loser” during the first U.S. presidential debate, but it certainly is a winner in this instance.

Automobile Magazine put the speed of the Tesla Model S to the test, pitting it against the BMW M5 in a drag race.

SEE MORE: Tesla Says It Will Be Profitable by December

While it may appear that the Tesla’s driver put his pedal to the metal a moment earlier than his competitor did, the BMW quickly fell behind and was unable to catch up.

So much for the old belief that electric cars are not very fast.

More About: Tesla Motors, Watercooler, cars, viral videos

Source: Mashable!

Sling Media announced a long-needed refresh to its Slingbox line of devices Wednesday with the Slingbox 350 and the Slingbox 500.

If you need a refresher, a Slingbox is a device that that connects to your cable or satellite box. Once connected, you can access the signal from that device on a computer, iPad, iPhone or Android tablet — anywhere you are.

Sling was the first company to really introduce the idea of place-shifting — that is, watching content at home in a different location — but it’s faced strong competition over the years from over-the-top streaming services, TV Everywhere and a growing list of competitors.

With the Slingbox 350 and 500, the company wants to remin…
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More About: connected devices, features, reviews, slingbox, slingbox 350, slingbox 500

Source: Mashable!

Voice commands can activate many features on our smartphones with the press of a button. They can launch apps, dial contacts or event send tweets. But what if we could do that without having to touch our devices?

Digits, a wrist-worn sensor built by Microsoft, allows the control of electronic devices with simple hand gestures. The sensor creates a 3D-model of your hand in real-time and could one day be used to control TVs, dial phone numbers, or play video games.

SEE ALSO: Watch the Human Mind Explode a Watermelon [VIDEO]

The sensor uses infrared LEDs to detect the movements of fingers and translates them into 3D space. The device still has a…
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More About: 3D, hand gestures, microsoft

Source: Mashable!

Gangnam Style is a worldwide sensation at this point, with more than 300 million views and a world record-breaking number of likes on YouTube .

The song by South Korean rapper Psy has reached all corners of the globe, so it’s not too surprising to see that it has taken over Italy as well. Now, what we didn’t expect a 9,000 person strong flashmob.

SEE ALSO: Giddy up! How to Win $5,000 Dancing ‘Gangnam Style’

But that’s exactly what happened in Palermo, Sicily last month when approximately 9,000 people gathered at Piazza Verdi in front of the Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele, and danced to the infectious tune.

Gangnam Style Video Roundup

More About: Watercooler, flash mobs, gangnam style, youtube videos

Source: Mashable!

Sling Media announced a long-needed refresh to its Slingbox line of devices Wednesday with the Slingbox 350 and the Slingbox 500.

If you need a refresher, a Slingbox is a device that that connects to your cable or satellite box. Once connected, you can access the signal from that device on a computer, iPad, iPhone or Android tablet — anywhere you are.

Sling was the first company to really introduce the idea of place-shifting — that is, watching content at home in a different location — but it’s faced strong competition over the years from over-the-top streaming services, TV Everywhere and a growing list of competitors.

With the Slingbox 350 and 500, the company wants to remin…
Continue reading…

More About: connected devices, features, reviews, slingbox, slingbox 350, slingbox 500

Source: Mashable!

As iPhone 5 users wonder if they should be concerned about that “purple haze” in their photos, Fotodiox jumps in with a solution, the camHoodie Lens Hood case.

More About: Purple Haze, apple, canHoodie, iPhone 5, iphone 5 cases, lens flare

Source: Mashable!