If you’re listening to Deemable Tech on the website, make sure to subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher. And, while you’re there, leave a review. The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

If you have a response or comment for the show, give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

The Deemable Tech Podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at asmallorange.com.

Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

THE RUN DOWN

A is for Alphabet, G is for Google

In our top story this week, tech giant Google announced a major corporate restructuring which included, to everyone’s surprise, a name change. A new holding company has been created called Alphabet. Alphabet is made up of a collection of companies including Google. Google itself is being slimmed down so that just the products and services traditionally associated with it, such as Google Search, Gmail, and Chrome, are part of it. Unrelated projects such as Google’s famous “moonshot” projects, Google Fiber, and its research into self-driving cars will be spun off into their own companies, all under the Alphabet umbrella.

As part of the restructuring, Google’s Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai has been made CEO of the new, slimmer Google, while Larry Page and Sergei Brin are taking control of Alphabet.

For the moment, no branding is changing, so if you want to search something you don’t suddenly have to “Alphabet” it and you won’t be checking “Alphabet Mail” anytime soon on your “Alphabet Phone.” At least, we sure hope not.

You can check out the new company’s website and a letter from its founders at abc.xyz.

Why not Alphabet.com?

You might be asking yourself, why didn’t Google just go with Alphabet.com? Well, it turns out, even the mighty Google can’t just have any domain name they want. The New York Times is reporting that car manufacturer BMW already owns Alphabet.com and they are not interested in selling it.

Alphabet is a subsidiary of BMW that provides vehicle fleet services. Micaela Sandstede, a BMW spokeswoman in Munich. She described the website as a “very active” part of Alphabet?s business. Which is ironic, because the website has been inaccessible ever since the Google Alphabet (or is it Alphabet Google?) announcement, presumably because of the increase in traffic. It makes us feel better knowing that even mega-companies like BMW have issues keeping their website running when they get hit with a ton of traffic.

The article points out that it would only be trademark infringement if it creates confusion with customers… which wouldn’t be an issue if Google and BMW were in entirely different industries, which they were, right up until Google entered the automobile industry with self-driving cars and Android for automobiles.

Android flaw that got patched actually not patched

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago we talked about a major security flaw in Android that allowed a remote attacker to execute code using a vulnerability in Hangouts. Google rushed out a patch for the vulnerability, which has now been codenamed “Stagefright,” and it was just a matter of getting it out to the phones for all the different carriers. Except, according to the BBC, it turns out that the patch doesn’t work – or at least, that it is easy to bypass. Better keep Hangouts disabled for the time being.

How to lose an internship at Facebook

If you figure out a huge flaw in the company you are going to start an internship at, perhaps it’s a good idea to keep it to yourself. According to Boston.com, Aran Khanna created a web-app demonstrating a huge privacy flaw in Facebook Messenger shortly before he was to begin his highly coveted internship at Facebook. Facebook Messenger stored your location automatically and shared it with anyone you chatted with on the app. Khanna’s web-app took that information and placed it onto a map showing where everyone you had chatted with was when they sent the message.

He tweeted about his app and posted it on Reddit and Medium, and a few days later, Facebook asked him to disable it, and then let him know that his internship was also disabled.

According to Khanna, he wasn’t fired from his internship because of the app, but because of the way he described Facebook?s user data collection. Khanna says the Medium post wasn’t in line with the high ethical standards expected of interns.

Drones make bears nervous

Drones seem like an ideal method for wildlife biologists to study the habits of wild animals such as bears, but it appears that there is a catch. NPR reports that a new study shows that the presence of drones make bears nervous, elevating their heart rates by as much as 400%. Mark Ditmer, a biologist at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, flew a drone near bears that had been previously implanted with heart rate monitors to study their hibernation states. Although the bears appeared outwardly unphased, all of them showed elevated heart rates when buzzed by the drone.

Meet the world?s biggest hard drive

Samsung has unveiled a new device with the catchy name of PM1633a. According to The Verge, it’s a 2.5 inch solid state drive, and it packs a whopping 16 terabytes of storage space, making it essentially the biggest hard drive ever. Samsung has not announced a price tag, but they plan to sell servers with up to 48 of these drives installed, which they are calling JBOF. One JBOF should hold about 768 TB. JBOF stands for Just a Bunch Of Flash. Before you ask, the next step up after terabyte is petabyte.

Still No Apple TV

Apple TV, the long delayed, rumored, mystical device and service is further delayed. Bloomberg is reporting that negotiations between Apple and the big TV networks are holding up the works. According to Bloomberg, Apple was to announce a new live  streaming TV service at its Sept. 9 press event, but instead Buzzfeed News says Apple is only announcing a beefed up Apple TV set-top box.

eSports Drug Testing

Top-ranked Counter Strike: Global Offensive player Cory “Semphis” Friesen admitted in an interview last month that he and his competitive eSports team “were all on Adderall” during a recent tournament. According to NPR news, at least one eSports league has decided that it is not okay with that. The Electronic Sports League, which sponsored the $250,000 tournament Friesen and his team took part in, has announced a ban on drugs and alcohol during its tournaments and will be instituting random drug testing during its tournaments going forward. The League says the substances banned include those prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The first random drug testing at a League event will occur at ESL One in Cologne later this month.

LOL is OOS (Out of Style)

You may have seen an article from the New Yorker back in April about how we express laughter online – appropriately known as e-laughter – and the increase in the use of “hehe.”

This piqued the interest of the he research team at Facebook, who decided to look into how users showed amusement. They did so by analyzing posts and comments from last week of May. Don’t worry – they only looked at ones that had “at least one string of characters that matched laughter” and they left out private messages.

So what did their study find? Well, among other things, the form of e-laughter that is used more than any other is “haha” – which they found is used over 50% of the time. In second place are emoji, followed by “hehe” in third. And it last place… our dear friend “LOL.”

The first text speak that many of us learned is now used only about 2 percent of the time.

Mic.com has a great breakdown of all of Facebook’s findings, including which phrases are most popular among different age groups and states.

If you have a suggestion, or just have a comment for the show. Give us a call and leave us a voicemail, 1-888-972-9868 or you can send us an email to feedback at deemable dot com.

And, don’t forget to help us to decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

This week Ray warns us about storing our SSDs in hot places, unless you want to wipe your drives clean. Tom explores the dangers of asking questions on Quora. And Sean finds out why one company is trying to make the food replicators from Star Trek a reality. Plus the guys look at Facebook’s new “instant articles,” learn why Microsoft is saying Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows they’ll release, and delve into Verizon’s purchase of AOL. Then later, Sean acts like Steve Harvey as Tom and Ray play a few rounds of the online game Google Feud.

But first, could we ask a favor of you? If you’re listening to Deemable Tech on our website, would you subscribe to the show on iTunes or on Stitcher? And, while you’re there, would you leave a review and say a few nice things about us? The more subscribers we have and reviews we get, the more people will find our show.

The Deemable Tech Podcast is brought to you by A Small Orange, Homegrown Hosting. A refreshingly different approach to web hosting. On the web at asmallorange.com.

Make sure to share Deemable Tech on the forums, Facebook, Twitter and all over the interwebs.

Thank you to our Redditors who have been helping us decide what stories we talk about on the show. Go to our subreddit page and submit a story, and vote other stories up or down. Deemable.com/reddit will take you there.

THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

SSDs can lose data really fast

You know those amazingly fast SSDs that are replacing hard drives in high end laptops like practically every Mac on the market? Well, there is a trade off. You definitely don’t want to store your wedding pictures on them. Or your tax records. Or your receipts from Best Buy. Because, some SSDs can lose their data in only a few days.

According to Gizmodo, heat is the enemy. The length of data retention is cut in half for every nine degrees of temperature increase. So, if you do like a lot of people Ray has talked to have done, and stick your old computer in a hot storage unit, expect to reinstall Windows on it when you get it out, because the SSD might be blank.

Just another reminder to back up your data!

Man weighing two job offers finds one of them retracted after asking Quora which of them he should take

In the news this week, yet another cautionary tale about being very careful with what you post online.

Last week a San Francisco engineer who was weighing competing job offers from Uber and Zenefits posted on Quora, asking the advice of its users on which to take. The engineer said that he liked what Zenefits was offering but that it didn’t seem as compelling a ?buzzword? to have on his resume as Uber.

The dilemma was presumably cleared up for the engineer when Zenefits’ CEO responded, saying “Definitely not Zenefits,” and retracting the job offer.

While the post was later changed to remove the public job retraction, presumably the damage was done. It was not clear if the candidate, who remains anonymous, had accepted Uber’s offer.

Microsoft representative claims that Windows 10 is the “last” version of Windows

This week at Microsoft’s Ignite conference, tech evangelist Jerry Nixon was quoted as saying, “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.” Microsoft confirmed this statement to The Verge, saying that it would be focusing on “Windows as a service,” delivering continuous updates to the system rather than rolling out new versions of Windows.

That is of course until the next time Marketing gets a bright idea in its head and they announce Windows 20.

Facebook rolls out “instant articles” from major news publishers

Starting this week on the iOS Facebook app, some news articles will load much, much faster when you click on them. Facebook is calling these ?instant articles?, and they will be available from a handful of publishers that have partnered with Facebook, including the New York Times, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, BBC News and National Geographic, among others. Instant articles won?t look much different to users, at least at first – they will just load instantly when clicked. In the future, however, Facebook may add auto-playing “video covers” as well.

Facebook will allow new, special interactions with Instant Articles, including audio captions, geotagged photos, and interactive maps. And of course, there will be no ads.

No word yet on when Android users will see this feature.

Israeli company creates Genie, a futuristic appliance that can create instant meals on demand

A new Israeli device called the Genie, which claims its inspiration from Star Trek’s fictional replicators, can turn pods of dehydrated powders into meals on demand. While details are light, supposedly the meals can be customized to personal preference, including specifying whether they should be gluten-, dairy-, or egg-free. The Genie will also work with smartphones and mobile devices.

No word if it responds to voice commands like, “Tea, earl gray, hot.”

Verizon announces plan to buy AOL for 4.4 billion dollars

In a surprise announcement this week, Verizon and AOL announced that Verizon will buy AOL for $4.4 billion dollars. People with knowledge of the matter say that Verizon is looking to acquire AOL’s mobile, video and advertising technology. Verizon may be looking to offer its own streaming video platform which it can sell ads against. It will also acquire popular news site The Huffington Post, not to mention the legacy dial-up service which once made AOL a powerhouse.

Verizon is currently valued at $200 billion dollars, making the four and a half billion in cash they plan to spend on AOL little more than a rounding error.

It’s time to play the feud!

Credit: Google Feud

You may have seen the site Google Feud making the rounds on social media recently. This online game combines weird Google autocomplete search suggestions with Family Feud style game play, in which you have to guess the top 10 ways Google autocompletes a specific sentence or question (for example, “Is it weird to _____”). Sean plays the role of Steve Harvey – or John O’Hurley, Louie Anderson, Richard Dawson, or whoever you favorite Family Feud host was – while Ray and Tom guess their way through a few rounds.

If you missed last week’s episode, we have rebooted the Deemable Tech podcast. From now on, we are not answering tech questions on this show. But, we are answering them on our spin-off show, Ask Deemable Tech. So, if that’s what you love, go subscribe to that podcast. It’s called Ask Deemable Tech – search for it on iTunes.

Help us decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story. Or vote other stories up or down. reddit.com/r/Deemable

This Week’s Run Down

Season 3 of House of Cards leaks out early

Season 3 of the critically acclaimed Netflix original show House of Cards is scheduled to come out on Feb. 27th, but fans got an accidental sneak peek on Tuesday when the first ten episodes appeared on the streaming TV service early. Netflix quickly pulled it, but those who were already streaming an episode were able to continue to do so as long as they did not stop until the episode ended. Netflix kept a good sense of humor about it, tweeting ?This is Washington. There is always a leak.? Fans can binge on the twisted schemes of the conniving Frank Underwood starting February 27th.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/11/8021935/house-of-cards-season-three-is-on-netflix-right-now

Jeb Bush accidentally doxes thousands of Floridians

In his words, “In the spirit of transparency,” presidential candidate Jeb Bush released emails from when he was governor of Florida. Unfortunately, the sensitive information like Social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and Credit Card numbers were not redacted from the emails. So, his team basically just accidentally doxed thousands of Floridians.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/10/8013531/jeb-bush-florida-email-dump-privacy

Jeb Bush’s CTO resigns over controversial tweets

Chief Technical Officer for Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign resigned Tuesday after it came out in the media that Ethan Czahor posted several sexist and racist jokes on Twitter several years ago. He did delete them before starting to work for Bush, but the backlash was apparently too intense.

Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for Bush says, “While Ethan has apologized for regrettable and insensitive comments, they do not reflect the views of Gov. Bush or his organization and it is appropriate for him to step aside. We wish him the best.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-tech-adviser-jeb-bush-potential-campaign-resignsm-article-1.2110482

Will.i.am Puls ?Smart watch? Beta Reviews

http://gizmodo.com/will-i-ams-puls-smartwatch-so-bad-im-actually-kind-of-1685130042

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/15/will-i-ams-plan-to-bring-fashion-and-technology-together-with-the-creation-of-i-am/

Snapchat selfie leads to first degree murder charge

A Pennsylvania 16-year-old has been charged with first degree murder after posting a selfie on Snapchat with the dead victim.

Snapchat messages delete themselves after a short period of time, but the person who received the picture saved it before it deleted itself.

http://triblive.com/news/westmoreland/7729452-74/police-morton-photo#axzz3Qh0xyVti

Facebook makes plans for the afterlife

Facebook has announced new features that allow users to designate a very special Facebook Friend to administer their profile after they die. Before when a Facebook user died there were only two options for their account: permanent deletion or ?memorialization?. Memorialized accounts were frozen in time and could not be accessed, even by immediate family members.

Facebook?s new features will let the ?legacy contact? have SOME control over the memorialized profile. Among other things they will be able to post at the top of the deceased timeline, according to Facebook, ?to announce a memorial service or share a special message.? They can also approve or deny friend requests and update profile pictures.

What they cannot do is access the deceased? private messages. Some secrets, it seems, you take to the grave.

http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/02/adding-a-legacy-contact/

 http://news.wjct.org/post/facebook-virtual-you-planning-your-digital-afterlife

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes or whatever you use to subscribe to podcasts.

If you have a comment, contact us at feedback at deemable.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-888-972-9868.

Help us decide what stories we talk about on the show, go to our subreddit page and submit a story. Or vote other stories up or down. reddit.com/r/Deemable

Spring semester is in full swing for college students around the world and the Class of 2014 will be entering the job market in mere months. Unemployment rates are still scary at 6.7% but there are ways to improve the likelihood of landing an interview. If you are planning to enter the job market in the coming months, here’s how to position yourself on LinkedIn:

Create a profile.

Use a permanent personal email account. You can add your work or school email after you’ve set up your profile. LinkedIn will suggest you import your email contacts each time you add an email address. Be aware if you do import your contacts, LinkedIn may send them a connection request. This can be a problem if you do not update your contact list. It’s better to connect with people on an individual basis rather than en masse.

Upload a headshot.

A picture is worth a thousand words and yours should express your personality while appealing to employers in your industry. You can improve your personal brand by using the same picture across your social media accounts. Your Twitter account with thoughtful posts about industry trends can confirm to potential employers that they’ve found the right person.

Craft an SEO-approved headline. 

LinkedIn gives you 120 characters to sell yourself. Use that space to squeeze in some industry keywords. Are you actively seeking employment? Consider starting your headline with “Seeking Employment As [Insert Job Title].”Now that you have started setting up your LinkedIn profile, adjust your privacy settings. Turn off broadcast of your activity while making frequent changes to your profile. You can turn this feature on again when you are ready to announce new positions or skills.

Explain your personal brand in the Summary.

Use this space to introduce yourself to future employers or clients. You have 2,000 characters to present your story. Keep it professional and remember to use keywords common to your desired profession.

Add current and previous positions.

LinkedIn allows you to add as much of your work history as you desire. Focus on the jobs you enjoyed most and the ones that showcase skills you want to utilize in the future.

Now you’re ready to start adding connections. Not sure how to build a strong network? Check back for Part 2: Building a Solid LinkedIn Network.

What do you think? I think the artist did a great job. Sean wanted his on the right because he’s left-handed.

The Internet loves April Fools’ Day. We didn’t pull any pranks this year; we’re too mature for all of those shenanigans. Also, we were too busy getting our new Deemable Tech tattoos. However, if you enjoy all that tom-foolery, here’s a break down of the best April Fools’ Day pranks for 2013. We’ll keep it updated throughout the day.

Google has built a reputation for almost every product at Google putting out several April Fools’ pranks each year. Starting with the one that made the front page, here are Google’s pranks for the year.

• New! What’s that smell? Find out with Google Nose 
  • Smells like a winner.
• YouTube’s ready to select a winner.
  • And they’re closing, YouTube?! God, Please No!! What am I supposed to do when I am supposed to be working? They have Facebook blocked at work!
• Gmail Blue
  • For those days you miss WordPerfect 5.1 on DOS. (Wait, does anyone have days like that?)
• Google Maps finds pirate, William ?Captain? Kidd’s treasure map and adds Treasure Mode
  • It looks like he didn’t bury any treasure in Jacksonville.
• Google+ adds emoticons to your pictures.
  • Because apparently seeing your face isn’t enough to know how you feel, because “when it comes to expressing yourself, nothing beats the richness and elegance of a few properly placed colons, parentheses, letters and hyphens.”

Another site that has become famous for their hilarious April Fools’ hijinks is the specialty online retailer ThinkGeek. Many of their past April Fools’ jokes have been so genius that they have gone on to become real products. Here’s a selection of this year’s pranks.

• The Eye of Sauron Desk Lamp
  • Don’t take off your wedding ring and leave it on the night stand next to this lamp.
• Play-Doh 3D Printer
  • Why do only thermoplastics and metals get to have all the 3D printing fun?
• Bane Mask Walkie Talkies
  • You will buy these, then when it is done and Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die.
• Death Star Trench Toss
  • Practice taking advantage of the universe’s worst design flaw ever made.
• Batman Family Car Decal Set
  • I hate those stupid family car decals.
• Creeper Body Pillow
  • Ah, Creepers, what would Minecraft be without them? More fun. that’s what it would be. More. Fun. Kill them with a Minecraft Foam Sword, also from ThinkGeek.

Other sites:

Ready to learn how to fly in a wingsuit? Why not learn from an expert that was made that way? For $50 you can take wingsuit lessons from a flying squirrel!

For $4 dollars a month, you can use Twitter premium. – Tme 2 drp d vwls. Twttr s nw chrgng 4 vwls.

Sprint launches Sprint Specs.  – Never look rude again when you’re completely ignoring someone.

 Update 1:03:45 PM EDT

The White House has gotten into the act. – You might not agree with his policies, but Kid President sure can get the world to dance.

Pokester – It’s time for a social network that only lets you do one thing, poke someone. (Thanks, reader Joey for the heads up.)

Search for “Google” on Bing. Try not to get confused.

Upload images to Imgur by mail!

Update 1:37:32 PM EDT

Virgin launces glass-bottomed plane. – As if air travel isn’t scary enough.

Hand written search results from Wolfram Alpha. – Basically, it’s a bunch of nerds being forced to do your homework.

Scope Bacon – We’re actually still not sure if this is a hoax or not. We are hoping that it is. We are really hoping that it is.

Kayak adds Dates. – Compare hundreds of dating sites at once!

Toshiba launches the Toshiba TubeTop, the world’s first inflatable laptop. – How many times have I wanted to surf the web while I was swimming in the pool? (That’s not a joke. I can think of at least 5 times off the top of my head!)

Digg + Konami code + Rick Astley = hilarious. – Just go try it.

Update 2:54:11 PM EDT

iFixit finds the least repairable tech product on the market: the Orange. After a complete teardown, they find it cannot be put back together at all. Orange mobile has not responded.

Nokia changes how you do TV dinners with a smart microwave.

HEX announces new cases for the Apple Newton.

Funny Or Die announces the Darkwing Duck, Wings, Sliders, Family Matters and Baby Sinclair from Dinosaurs Kickstarter movie projects.

Two of our favorite news sources, NPR and WJCT, pulled off their own April Fools Pranks. NPR’s Morning Edition aired this story, Hootie And The Time Traveler Love The 90s, and WJCT 89.9 FM aired Amusement Park Proposed For Shipyards Property.

 Have you found some that we haven’t seen yet? Let us know in the comments down below.

This week, Ray, Tom and Sean did things a little different. They packed up all the equipment they could find, and took the show on the road to Bold Bean Coffee Roasters! Apparently, Ray was so nervous, he changed the Deemable Tech tagline to “Tech help worth talking to!” But, it wasn’t long and they had the crowd warmed up, and everybody had a great time. If you weren’t able to make it, take a listen to the podcast.

Links mentioned in this episode

• Snopes.com
• UrbanLegends.About.com
• National Center for Missing & Exploited Children – Active Amber Alerts
• Nokia PC Suite
• Watchdog Task Manager Lite
• MotionX Sleep
• Alarm Clock Plus
• FxGuru: Movie FX Director
• Apps Gone Free
• AppGratis

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Download Episode 31 – Deemable Tech Live at Bold Bean Coffee Roasters

Bonnie Kilgore-Conde is a grandmother of 8 with the energy of a 20-something. She’s going to need that energy to launch Seven Wonders Bakery in Jacksonville, Florida. Bonnie is using Kickstarter to raise money for cleaning, remodeling and opening costs. Seven Wonders Bakery has been dormant since 2008 and Bonnie contacted the original owners through access to public records.

Bonnie is using Kickstarter to raise money for cleaning, remodeling and opening costs.

Bonnie envisions the bakery as a place where college students will come from nearby Jacksonville University and University of Florida and enjoy the cafe and free access to Wifi. Community members will come for birthday cakes, graduation cakes, and pastries for parties. She values the diversity of Jacksonville and the bakery will highlight desserts from around the globe.

A north Georgia native, Bonnie grew up in Lookout Mountain with limited access to the latest technology. “It’s two mountains and a valley; you’ll pass it in 30 minutes. In high school we had two computers each the size of a coffee table and seniors were the only ones who could sign up to use them.”

Now, Bonnie uses her smart phone, laptop, desktop and a digital camera almost daily. Bonnie created the Kickstarter video advertising her campaign by using her digital camera and adding a voiceover using the built-in microphone on her laptop. She’s planning to use a ipad with a Square attachment to accept credit cards when she opens the bakery sometime in late March or early April.

Bonnie’s been around the world since growing up in Georgia. A few years ago, she relocated from Los Angeles to Jacksonville. Kickstarter caught her attention when a friend’s son explained that many of the movies featured in Sundance receive their funding through the website.

Since launching her Kickstarter campaign on January 15, Bonnie has received attention from online backers and offline donations. She’s also gained Basha Staub as a business partner.

“Basha and I come from medical administration backgrounds and we have both been baking for decades. She saw my Kickstarter page and contacted me. We hit it off right away and were bouncing ideas off of each other as quick as anything,” gushes Bonnie.

There’s a lot to be done before the bakery can open for business. These instant collaborators are using their resources to update the inside of the bakery and market their wares. They have access to two contractors (Basha’a husband and Bonnie’s father) and a wealth of family members vowing to help them launch on time.

The original bakery website will keep its URL but is scheduled for a facelift before the grand opening. For now, you can visit them on Facebook.

You can donate to Bonnie’s campaign by visiting her Kickstarter page here. Contributions will be accepted through Valentine’s Day.

Bonnie’s Buttery Citrus Cake recipe is below.

Buttery Citrus Cake

Photo provided by Bonnie Kilgore-Conde

Ingredients

¾ cup of butter

6 egg yolks or 3 whole eggs

2 2/3 Cups of all purpose flour (I find you make a lighter cake if the flour is sifted

2 teaspoons of baking powder

½ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of baking soda

1 2/3 cups of sugar

1 cup of milk

2 teaspoons of finely shredded lemon or lime peel

1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel

2 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice

2 tablespoons of orange juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. (If possible use a whisk to really combine these dry ingredients together)

In another bowl beat the butter until fluffy, then beat in the sugar, then add the yolks in one at a time and beat.

Add the flour mixture and milk alternately and beat into the butter, sugar, and egg mixture. Begin and end with flour mixture. (This may seem silly to start and end with the flour mixture, but if you don’t you will notice that your cake will not bake at the consistency that you desire)

Last stir in the peels and juices. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.

Lemon, Lime, or Orange Whipped Cream Frosting

In a chilled bowl (glass or metal in the freezer for a few minutes will work great) beat 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, and 1 tablespoon of instant vanilla pudding. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in 1 tablespoon on shredded lemon, lime, or orange peelings.

I find if I double the frosting recipe I have a prettier and more well covered layer cake.

This cake makes 12 servings.

Thin slices of Meyers lemons, limes, or oranges make a very nice garnish.

“Fish and visitors smell after three days.” – Benjamin Franklin

You’ve survived and (dare I say, enjoyed) the 2012 Holidays with your distant relatives. It’s nice getting the family together for a few days. The hustle and bustle of the holidays can be overwhelming and the sudden silence after guests leave can be gloomy.  Technology can make the transition back to everyday life a lot easier.

If your brother and his family live in Seattle, Washington and you live in Jacksonville, Florida, chances are you won’t be able to afford to see him or your cute nieces and nephews more than a few times a year. You don’t have to rack up thousands of frequent flier miles to be a good aunt or uncle; use these five ways to keep in touch:

1. Skype
   If everyone has a webcam and fast enough wifi, Skype provides an inexpensive way to sing “Happy Birthday” to any friend or family member anywhere on the globe. It works on Android and iOS, allowing it to work on most smartphones and computers. The video quality isn’t always the best but the price is free if both people have Skype. If you want to do a group video call, there is a premium option explained here.
2. FaceTime
   iMac, iPhone, iPod, iPad. These will all come pre-installed with FaceTime. This application uses the built-in webcam  to connect people across the city and around the world. The video quality tends to be a little better than Skype but it only works if everyone owns an Apple product.
3. Google Chat
   With a free Google or Gmail account, you can instant message or video chat with friends around the globe. The account is free and with Google+ you can create a Hangout that allows group video chat.
4. Facebook
   Privacy concerns may be an issue for some people but if enough of your friends and family are on Facebook, it can be worthwhile for you to be as well. Facebook events and private group messages can make Grandma’s Surprise Birthday Party the event of the year. Remember to make the event Private and Invite Only otherwise it won’t be a surprise from Grandma.
5. Cellphone or Landline
   If you can’t touch or see someone, sometime’s voice is the next best thing. Check your cellphone plan to see when it’s the cheapest to call. Free nights and weekends, mobile-to-mobile, and unlimited texting are possible perks of a contract cellphone.

Did I miss your favorite way to contact your family long distance? Tell me in the comments!

Today, Tom and Ray were supposed to do another short mini episode, but they got way off the rails, and ended up recording a 49 minute episode!  They had tons of fun, and answered four of your tech help questions.

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 904-372-DEEM (3336), or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll take the best questions and answer them on the show.

Episode 24: Holiday Minisode 2: The not so “mini” episode

Today’s Questions:

• Can I manage multiple email accounts from one web app like I can do on my iPhone?
• What are the differences between Windows and Android tablets, and which would be best for me as a writer?
• Why does Flash keep crashing on Chrome?
• How can I search my clouds?

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• Top 10 Handy iOS Tweaks That Don’t Require Jailbreaking
• See the Actual Signal Strength on Your iPhone or Android
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-ways-simultaneously-manage-multiple-gmail-accounts/
• Searching the cloud with Cloudmagic

Deemable Tech – Episode 22 – Turkey and Pie Hangover

On today’s episode Ray, Tom and Sean (for the first time on the microphone) talk about their Thanksgiving festivities and Black Friday/Black Thursday experiences. We also tell you how to transfer business cards wirelessly with the phone you already have, how to upload an audio file to YouTube, how to transfer a big file to someone else, and whether you should be keeping track of your business’ widgets in Excel or Access.

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 904-372-DEEM (3336), or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll take the best questions and answer them on the show.

Today’s Questions:

• How do you transfer a contact from your phone to someone else’s phone by SMS?
• How can you send a file to someone if it’s too big to email it?
• Why does YouTube say the video I uploaded is too big?
• Do I need to close my iPad apps or can I leave them all running?
• How do I transfer all of my files from my old computer to my new computer?
• Should I use Excel or Access to keep track of data?
• Is it cheaper to buy a modem, or is it cheaper to rent a modem from my internet provider?
• Can I block someone on Gmail like I can on Facebook?

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• Share Contacts for Android phones.
• Abbyy’s Business Card Reader available for Android (9.99) and iPhone (4.99).
• Yolu Card on Android, iPhone and Windows Phone 7 (Free)
• Dropbox
• Google Drive
• Outlook.com
• How to upload audio to YouTube using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie
• YouTube.com/my_videos_upload
• Windows Easy Transfer software
• How to migrate your data from an old computer to a new one
• Gmail
• Viber
• OnDemand.WJCT.org/DT

Deemable Tech – Episode 20 – What’s Black and White and Read All Over?

On today’s episode Tom got all the laughs, and Ray got all the crickets. There’s bad jokes, good apps, bad smart phones, and an eagle going through a midlife crisis.

Make sure to subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here, or subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here. Also, make sure to leave us a review in iTunes. The more reviews we have the higher we’ll be listed in iTunes and the more listeners will see our show!

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 904-372-DEEM (3336), or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll take the best questions and answer them on the show.

Today’s Questions:

• Which is better? eReaders or tablets?
• How do I setup an external hard drive as a network drive?
• I want a small smartphone. What do you recommend?
• Why do I have to keep resetting my wireless router?

Debunkable

• Do eagles go through a midlife crisis, too?

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• 10 of the best feature phones
• Gizmodo – After iPhone 5 the Only Small Phones Left Are All Horrible
• iPhone 4S
• Galaxy S III Mini
• Droid Razr M
• Glympse
• Medhelper
• TextGrabber
• Google Search App on iPhone
• Lifehacker – Why do I have to keep resetting my Wi-Fi router, and how can I fix it?
• DD-WRT – Linux based alternative OpenSource firmware suitable for a great variety of WLAN routers
• Snopes – Eagle Rebirth
• Truth or Fiction? Eagle
• Hoax Slayer – Rebirth of the Eagle Hoax

Both the Republican and the Democratic candidates for President have said that they want to grow the U.S. economy, and they have been doing that throughout this campaign. If it seems like the airwaves and the Internet have been filled with nothing but policital ads for the past few months, it’s because that’s mostly true. Both campaigns, and the super PACS that support them, have purchased a combined $900 million worth of ads! That’s $300 million more than at the same time in 2008. If the current rate of spending remains the same, they will likely surpass $1 billion in ad spending for the first time in history. For the states that are getting the majority of the ads, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, and North Carolina, this is a much needed infusion of cash into their state’s economy.

But, with the final days of the campaigns winding down, folks on both side of the aisle are getting tired of the mixed messages from both campaigns of hope, prosperity, fear and worry. So, regardless of who you want to be president, let’s have a laugh. Below are a collection of the funniest videos we could find about the 2012 presidential campaign. If you found any funny ones we missed, feel free to put a link to them in the comments below.

Patriot Game – OBAMA VS ROMNEY VIDEO GAME!

Debate Highlights Songified!

VP Debate Highlights Songified

Town Hall Debate Songified

FINAL DEBATE SONGIFIED! The Requiem Politicus Disputationem

“Eye Of The Sparrow” ? A Bad Lip Reading of the First 2012 Presidential Debate

Whedon On Romney

Epic Rap Battles Barack Obama vs Mitt Romney.

You Didn’t Build That – Barack Obama raps about “You Didn’t Build That” to the tune of MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This”.

Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up – Mitt Romney raps to the tune of Eminem’s The Real Slim Shady.

By now you’ve surely heard the news that Disney just forked over $4.05 billion dollars to buy LucasFilm LTD, lock stock and barrel, with the explicit intent of making more Star Wars films. If you want actual facts about the deal, try this. But we’re not here to annoy you with facts. We’re here to bring you wacky image mash-ups of Disney and Star Wars!

Obviously, Disney will be making more room for Star Wars in its theme parks:

But The Mouse will be calling all the shots now.

Speaking of shots…

Will Disney be able to resist the urge to do a little George Lucas-style digital tinkering of their own with the original films?

Predictably, George himself seems pretty happy about selling out.

You don’t need to see any more pictures. These aren’t the pictures you’re looking for. Move along.

The Blue Screen of DEATH. Truly the most frightening monster to nerds.

You probably shouldn’t even listen to this week’s episode; it’s too much for you to handle. This week’s very special Halloween episode is the creepiest, grossest and scariest episode of Deemable Tech ever! If you dare, you’ll hear all about zombie computers, how to send tweets and Facebook posts from beyond the grave, what to do with your digital estate, how to recover passwords from our departed relatives, how your cell phone is probably going to kill you, or at least make you really sick, new high-tech grave markers, and folks who chose to commit virtual (social media) suicide and others who plan on living forever and are using the Internet to try to make it happen. All that, and Ray tries his best Bela Lugosi impression, on this episode of Deemable Tech!

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 904-372-DEEM (3336), or send us an email and questions@deemable.com. We’ll take the best questions and answer them on the show.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here.

Subscribe to the show in another podcast reader or RSS feed reader by clicking here.

Deemable Tech – Episode 19 – Death and the Digital Afterlife

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• My Father Sent Me a Facebook Message From Beyond the Grave | The Stir
• Deleting & Memorializing Deceased Facebook Accounts
• Deleting Deceased LinkedIn Accounts
• Deleting Deceased Twitter Accounts
• Accessing Deceased Gmail Accounts
• https://www.securesafe.com/
• http://legacylocker.com/
• http://www.assetlock.net/
• KeePass – http://keepass.info/
• LastPass – http://lastpass.com/
• RoboForm – http://www.roboform.com/
• EmergencyLink – www.emergencylink.com
• Mobile phones have more germs than a toilet seat | Mail Online
• Mobile phones can cause flu, pinkeye and diarrhoea
• Why Your Cellphone Has More Bacteria Than a Toilet Seat
• Ebola Phone Theft: Man Steals From Quarantined Uganda Hospital Patient, Contracts Virus
• Bacteria-Eating Viruses May Power Cell Phones – Scientific American
• #BaldForBieber Hoax Teaches Kids to Fact Check Before Shaving Their Heads
• Digital Legacys
• Quiring Monuments Living Headstones
• All Things Considered – QR Codes For Headstones Keep Dearly Departed Close : NPR
• Web 2.0 Suicide Machine – Meet Your Real Neighbours again!
• LifeNaut
• iTunes Store: About authorization and deauthoriation
• Call waiting not working properly : Apple Support Communities
• While on a call on iPhone 4 the call waiting : Apple Support Communities

This week, we had a special guest in the studio, Elizabeth Pampalone, a small business computer consultant and repair technician and continuing education instructor at UNF.

Since WJCT had its pledge drive last week, and we had to cut last week’s episode short, we had tons of questions this week. So, all we did is answer a bunch of your great questions.  If you have a tech question for Deemable Tech call us, leave us a voice-mail at 904-372-3336.

Subscribe to the show in iTunes by clicking here.

Subscribe to the show in another podcast reader by clicking here.

Deemable Tech – Episode 18

Today’s Questions:

Need tech help? Got a problem or tech question about your computer, phone or tablet? Give us a call and leave us a voice mail at 904-372-DEEM (3336), or send us an email to questions at deemable dot com. We’ll take the best questions and answer them on the show.

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• ElizabethPampalone.com
• iMore.com
• Apple Podcasts
• Google Chrome
• Google Drive
• Vtok – Google Chat
• Talkatone
• Sparrow
• Pages, Numbers and Keynote
• Netflix, Hulu, HBO GO, PBS, PBS Kids, and Disney Channel
• Gmail and Outlook.com
• SteamPowered.com
• Deemable Tech ? Episode 10 ? The Two Step Verification, Baby
• ShareMouse
• Synergy
• Lifehacker – Synergy
• Mobile Mouse Pro

This one will definitely crack you up. Sometimes when you have a stupid idea, you don’t realize how stupid the idea truly is until you implement it. At least he didn’t have to go far to find ice to apply to the injury to help reduce the swelling!

WARNING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE: Even though the video is in German, there is some very strong, explicit language in English. Turn the volume off if explicit language offends you. It’s still hilarious on mute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7c5tQCs1I

Deemable Tech – Episode 13 – Online dating makes me paranoid

Debunkable:

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• Carbonite vs Mozy
• Setup a bulletproof automated backup system with CrashPlan.
• 5 best offline backup tools
• Java.com
• Should you disable Java on your computer? MSNBC
• Slate – Why you should disable java on your browser right now
• Mashable – Why ?Slacktivists’ Are More Active Than You Think
• http://blog.okcupid.com/

Bumper Music

• 8 Bit Remix: Mission Impossible Theme

• 8 bit James Bond

Deemable Tech – Episode 12 – Fly Me 2 d Moon

The News Feed:

1. The world lost a reluctant hero, Neil Armstrong.
2. Samsung’s worst scenario happened; Apple won. Samsung was found guilty of wilful infringement of Apple’s patents.

Debunkable:

• Neil Armstrong was misquoted, or was he?
• Good luck Mr. Gorsky!

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• http://www.markpilarski.com/deal-me-in/getting-ignored-by-a-touch-screen.html
• The official NASA transcripts from the Apollo 11 mission.
• lingo2word.com/translatetxt.php
• transl8it.com/
• Text Talk: the Top Text Message Abbreviations, 2012

Bumper Music

• Frank Sinatra – Fly Me To The Moon (8-bit) by Bryan Lopez
• The Clash – I Fought The Law (8-bit NES Version)

Deemable Tech – Episode 11 – Call Me (Internationally), Maybe

The Deemable Dozen:

1. Apple’s attorney’s are on crack? 
   As the legal smack-down in California heads into its final stretch, District Court Judge Lucy Koh’s patience appears to be wearing thin. With Samsung having rested their case and Apple left with only a few hours to wind up theirs, they submitted a massive 75-page document detailing 22 separate witnesses that they supposedly intended to call. Judge Koh reportedly told Apple’s attorney, ?Unless you’re smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren’t going to be called when you have less than four hours.? Apple’s lawyer protested that he was not smoking crack, but agreed to pare down the list. The trial is expected to wind up this week, which will give everyone a brief reprieve before the inevitable appeal process begins.
2. Motorola-Google fires first shot at Apple, seeks ban of all major devices in US.
   In other tech lawsuit news, Google’s Motorola Mobility division, which Google purchased for its extensive patent portfolio, is seeking an injunction from the US International Trade Commission against just about everything Apple makes. Motorola claims that Apple has violated patents it owns regarding email notifications, location reminders, and phones that can also play video. Siri, Apple’s popular voice-recognition software, is also implicated in the lawsuit.
3. Apple rumored to be in talks with cable companies.
   The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is apparently in talks with cable companies to add cable service to their set-top box. Although AppleTV has been something of a hobbiest’s toy up until now, being able to get cable through it would definitely be a game-changer. On the other hand, after seeing what Apple did to the music and publishing industries, the cable companies probably aren’t going to roll over easily on this one.
4. HP turns Palm into Gram.
   Fans of the old Palm WebOS rejoiced last week with word that HP was forming a subsidiary called Gram to manage the now fully open-source mobile platform, which they own. But don’t get too excited guys, because HP has also created another mobility unit which will apparently work on Windows tablets. At this point HP’s strategy appears to be: ?Yes, let’s do something with mobile… stuff.? They are also rumored to have ?the cloud…”
5. Square’s flat rate.
   In a bid to court small businesses, mobile payment provider Square has announced that it will begin offering flat rates for companies that are processing less than $250k in transactions through the service. Square normally takes a 2.75% cut of each transaction, but are now offering smaller users the option to pay $275 a month. That sounds like a lot to me, but people don’t offer me their credit card numbers a lot, so what do I know?
6. Facebook’s stock fall.
   Facebook’s stock took a huge hit Friday, tumbling to $19/share, half of what it was at the company’s Initial Public Offering in May. The plunge comes a day after the expiration of a lock-down period where early investors and insiders were required to hold onto their shares. Apparently once they were free to dump them, they did. Since Facebook went public it has taken a real beating in the stock market. I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg has updated his Linked In profile recently?
7. Washington state to enable Facebook voter registration.
   Washington state is poised to allow citizens to register to vote through Facebook. Washington was the second state in the US to allow online voter registration. I suppose this is the next logical step. At least half my Facebook friends already seem to think that ?Liking? Obama or Romney is equivalent to voting for them.
8. iPhone SMS spoofing.
   ?White hat hackers? (those are the good kind) have discovered an iPhone bug that allows someone to send text messages masquerading as any phone number. ?Black hat hackers? (those are the bad kind) might be able to use this technique to impersonate friends and extract personal information from iPhone users. So play it safe: when your friend starts texting you and asking for your credit card number and SSN, don’t give it to him.
9. Adobe announces Flash for Android is dead!
   Flash is dead. Long live Flash. Adobe pulled the Flash Player from the Google Play store this week, meaning it is no longer available for download for Android devices. For nearly a decade Flash was the technology of choice for doing things like animation or streaming video on the web. Things took a turn for the worse for Adobe’s platform after Apple spurned it by refusing to allow it on iOS. Last Christmas Adobe apparently saw the writing on the wall and announced that it would begin focusing on other technologies. If you already have Flash on your Android phone or tablet, it’s not going away, but many websites and apps are already steering away from using Flash towards sleeker, more reliable mobile-friendly technologies such as HTML5.
10. eBay to officially ban ?intangible? items, such as including ?spells, curses, hexes, conjuring, magic, prayers, blessing services, magic potions, healing sessions?.
    Bad news for enterprising Hogwarts students: Ebay has updated its selling policies to ban sales of “advice, spells, curses, hexing, conjuring, magic, prayers, blessing services, magic potions, [and] healing sessions,” beginning in September. In related news, Magical Ebay has reportedly banned sales of ?useless muggle items such as cars, power-tools and digital wristwatches.? This just in: this may be the nerdiest news item we have ever reported.
11. Publishers fight over whether or not to sell DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) eBooks.
    E-books outsold traditional hard-cover books for the first time in the first quarter of this year. They are now officially Big Business. Tor, the world’s largest science fiction publishing imprint announced in April that it would release all of it’s books without any Digital Rights Management. That announcement didn’t sit well with British publisher Hatchette UK, who this week sent out a letter to its authors gently suggesting that they are not okay with having books they sell with DRM sold DRM-free in another territory. Science fiction author, Boing-Boing editor and opponent of all things DRM Cory Doctorow lashed out at Hatchette, saying ?Hachette has balls the size of Mars if it thinks it can dictate what other publishers do with titles in territories where it has no rights.?
12. Cloud gaming service ?OnLive? has been sold.
    Cloud-based gaming service ?OnLive? announced Friday morning that it had laid off all 200 or so of its employees and sold all of its assets to a new owner. OnLive later issued a press release claiming that it would continue to offer all its services, that nearly half of its employees would be hired back, and that everything was ?business as usual’. Dissolving your entire company only to re-form it hours later doesn’t sound like ?business as usual’ to us.

Links we mentioned on today’s show:

• http://speedtest.net/

Bumper Music

• Violin Super Mario!!!!!
• Skrillex – Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites – Ferro Version (piano tutorial with sheet music)

This week Ray Hollister, Tom Braun and Aaron Edelson tackle the tough questions, like “What is the cloud?,” “How do I cancel an AOL account?,” “I’ve lost my copy of 50 Shades of Grey! What do I do?,” “How do I get my money back from a crappy app?,” and “Is breaking out of jail bad?” (Seriously, someone still has an AOL account??)

All that and more on this episode of Deemable Tech.

Deemable Tech – Episode 5

Links we mentioned in this episode:

• http://myaccount.aol.com/
• How do I cancel my paid AOL account?
• How do I cancel my free AOL account?
• http://amazon.com/kindlesupport
• iClickr PowerPoint Remote for Android
• StageFlow Keynote Remote
• Presenter

This week Ray Hollister, Kevin Clark, and Aaron Edelson get giddy over Google’s gorgeous new gadgets, the Nexus 7 and Nexus Q, and they get a sugar rush from Google’s new sweet Android version 4.1, Jelly Bean. Then, they pondered all the possible ways to keep your passwords practically perfect.

All that and more on this episode of Deemable Tech.

Deemable Tech – Episode 4

Apple Attempts To Revolutionize Yet Another Industry: Education

TRANSCRIPT:

RAY HOLLISTER: This changes everything, again, or does it?

On Thursday, January 19th, Apple held a special press conference at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City where  Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, laid out Apple’s two-part vision for revolutionizing education. For the first part, Schiller explained the problems with textbooks.

PHIL SCHILLER: If you’re a child who has to move from class to class with 3 or 4 or 5 of these, it’s a bit cumbersome. They’re not interactive. They’re not searchable. An author can’t update the content once they’ve been handed out to the students. They’re just not the ideal, modern teaching tool.

RAY HOLLISTER: So, Schiller announced that to solve these problems Apple was…

PHIL SCHILLER: reinventing the textbook.

RAY HOLLISTER: Apple is reinventing the textbook with the introduction of two new apps: iBooks 2 and iBooks Author.

iBooks 2 brings a slew of new features to Apple’s iBooks app, including the ability to embed audio, video, and 3D models right into the book, making their otherwise fairly static electronic books highly interactive. These new textbooks are searchable, and they can have embedded glossaries that students can access just by tapping on a word. Also, Apple has added the ability to make highlights in the textbooks with just a swipe of the finger and the ability to add notes in the book just by tapping the screen. Additionally, one of the most impressive features is that using those highlights and notes, iBooks automatically creates study cards that the student can use to prepare for quizzes and tests.

iBooks Author is a new application that publishers, professors, teachers, and writers can use to create iBooks that can be submitted for free or for sale in Apple’s iBookstore. With iBooks Author anyone can create their own textbooks, cookbooks, history books, novels, non fiction,  or picture books. The software allows the user to drag and drop from Microsoft Word or Apple Pages documents, and it automatically formats the content into chapters and sections. Also, the author can easily add interactive photo galleries, videos, Keynote presentations and 3D objects using the “Multi-Touch widgets” that the software provides. Surprisingly, Apple has made this software available to everyone for free, however, it only works on Mac laptop and desktop computers.

For the second part of Apple’s vision for revolutionizing education Schiller passed the torch to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services.

EDDY CUE: So, I want to tell you about the second thing we’re doing for education today, and that is we’re gonna help teachers reinvent the curriculum, and to do that I’d like to talk about iTunes U.

RAY HOLLISTER: iTunes U used to just be a section of the iTunes store where video and audio podcasts of college lectures could be downloaded. Now, Apple has turned iTunes U into a stand alone own app where students can get everything they need for a class all in one place. When student “enroll” in a class on the iTunes U app on their iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch they will find the syllabus and all the lectures, presentations, assignments, books and quizzes at their fingertips. Professors and teachers can make changes to the class as needed, and push notifications will go out to all the students on their iOS devices.

The elephant in the room that critics say Schiller did not realistically address in his presentation was the issue of cost. Printed high school textbooks currently tend to cost between $50 – $100, and to save money, most schools only replace them every 3 to 5 years. The high school textbooks that Apple introduced at the event were priced at $14.99. However, in order to use these textbooks effectively each student would have to have their own iPad. Starting at almost $500 a piece, issuing an iPad to each student would add a significant cost to public school district budgets that are already stretched thin from limited tax revenues.

However, at least one school here in Jacksonville is making the switch. University Christian, a private school, is going to require students to own an iPad 2 starting next school year. Students already spend about $700 a year for textbooks. So, now they’ll have a $500 iPad, plus iBooks at about $15 a piece, and the student’s overall cost ends up being about the same as before or less.

And, there’s hope on the horizon for cash strapped public school districts to join this education revolution as well. Each year, when Apple announces the latest version of devices, it almost always reduces the price of the prior year’s model at the same time. Based on Apple’s previous track record, the iPad 3 is expected to be announced in February, and at that time, it may also reduce the price of the iPad 2 to $399. This will put the “iCurriculum” at a price point that is closer to what many school districts are currently paying for textbooks which just might let Apple change everything, again.

 I’m Ray Hollister

This Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of the attack against America by al-Qaeda that forever changed our world. This Sunday we could talk about how our lives have changed since the attacks happened. We could debate the motivation behind the attacks. We could discuss how al-Qaeda has adapted since the U.S. military killed their leader, Osama bin Laden earlier this year. We could even discuss the recent rumors about an al-Qaeda plot to commit another attack today. Instead, let’s push the more cerebral issues aside, and let’s do what we would do if we were sitting together today in a comfortable place, perhaps your mom’s living room, or your grandmother’s front porch. Share your story with us. Where were you September 11, 2011? What were you doing when you found out about the attacks? Did you see the events unfold on television, or were you there in New York, Shanksville, or Washington DC? Did you see it happen live, or did you find out about it later? Please tell us your stories in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

With over 750 million users worldwide, online companies are taking aim at Facebook to fight for consumers’ time and advertising dollars, but Facebook doesn’t plan on backing down anytime soon. Amidst the notable launch of Google+, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that Facebook would be launching “something awesome” this week during a press conference for media members. The news event will take place tomorrow at Facebook’s headquarters located in Palo Alto, California.

While touring the company’s 40-person engineering campus in Seattle, Zuckerberg said that the announcement would be about something that was developed there at the site – which plays a major role in the mobile arena for Facebook. Although there are numerous rumors regarding the announcement, it is speculated that the company will either be launching the long-anticipated Apple iPad app or new features such as a photo-sharing app and video-chat powered by Skype. The two well-known brands, Facebook and Skype, have already entered into a partnership that integrates the social media outlet with clients for Skype. When Skype was purchased by Microsoft in May, the connection between Facebook and Skype became even more entrenched, as Microsoft bought a $240 million piece of the Facebook pie in 2007.

Facebook has taken its own steps in trying to make any transition to Google+ more difficult by blocking Facebook Friend Exporter, a Google Chrome extension that let’s users extract contact information their friends have shared with them via Facebook and import them elsewhere. After Google+ was announced last week, one of the first to create an account was Mark Zuckerberg – who ironically has the most followers… even more than Google CEO Larry Page.

Photo by Doug Gross via CNN

Facebook has caused a worldwide revolution in social media, and Google may have finally developed a similar product that can rival their nemesis. Google’s response to Facebook, Google+, was launched on Tuesday to a select number of people as a “social field test” – meaning Google+ is not in the public beta release stage yet. Plus is the first major launch by Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and new Chief Executive Officer since April.

Google has had prior hiccups entering the social media game with failed products like Google Buzz, Google Orkut, and Google Wave, so it’s no surprise that the search giant’s latest attempt at a social media avenue has generated mixed feelings from its users. Some are receptive of the features offered in the Facebook alternative, most notably the ability to create “Circles” – an easier way to maintain and group contacts. Other features are described by Reuters below:

Google+ will have some obviously-essential features for a social network ? a news component called the Stream, a search/alert component called Sparks which will serve up different results on your interests than a plain vanilla Google search. There is also the ability to share with people who aren’t signed up for the service ? which addresses the problem of opt-in-itis.

But at first blush the most intriguing aspect of Google+ seems to be the granularity with which you can pigeonhole your friends, acquaintances, family, contacts and whomever into the exact right slot in your social web. It’s a seemingly obvious problem to solve and one which Facebook hasn’t, perhaps, because it hasn’t seen the need to ? ?groups? notwithstanding.

Critics, however, are saying that Plus is not differentiated enough from its competition and is basically a replica of Facebook, and not many people are interested in maintaining multiple social media outlets.

One thing is clear though, Google+ is generating a lot of buzz. The VP of Social at Google, Vic Gundotra,  posted on Plus, “We’ve shut down invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!” While the platform has a loooooooong way to go before it can compete with Facebook, the company claims that Plus is not a Facebook Killer but an overall improvement of the Google experience. Fast Company writes, “Google+ is one element in a much larger strategy the company launched last year to gradually shift all of Google–Search, YouTube, Places, etc—from standalone tools to a set of services that operate much more socially.”

So for now, users who weren’t granted an invite (like myself) can browse Business Insider’s top-to-bottom tour of Google+ and can play around on the Google+ demo site to take a look at the social media site while its still in its infancy.

Photo by Google