JibJab

Like most 3-year-olds, my son loves books and pictures of himself. So I knew that JibJab Jr. Books, an iPad app that lets me customize e-books with his name and face, had the potential be a huge hit.  

Of course custom books can get old quickly if the story line isn't good, and that where JibJab Jr. Books shines. Like JibJab's political satire videos (see This Land) and Sendables custom video cards (remember ElfYourself, or last year’s Elf Snowball Fight?), the company's first two children's e-books are well written and funny.

When you download the JibJab Jr. app (free on iTunes), you get "The Biggest Pizza Ever" for free.  Additional titles are $7.99 a piece or you can subscribe to the JibJab Jr.  Book of the Month Club for $3.99 per month. For now, the only other title available is "The Alphabet Wrangler."

To customize a JibJab Jr. book, you add your child's photo from your iPad's photo library and type in his or her name. Once you've added a photo and name, it's saved as a profile and you can reuse it in subsequent titles. You can also use multiple kid profiles with each book.

The books aren't narrated, and don't have touchable interactive elements, but they do have great animations on each page, which help bring the story to life. As my son watched an animated caricature of himself find and capture all of the letters in the alphabet, he was entranced.

More stories on Techlicious:

• Recordable Books for When You’re Away
• ThredUp: A Swap Site for Kids Clothes
• Save Your Kid’s Hearing with These Headphones

Chat with Suzanne on Facebook and get her free daily Techlicious Newsletter.

The Department of Justice is trying to put the kibosh on AT&T's proposed buy-out of T-Mobile, saying it would result in "higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services."

While this is true, it's just as likely that the damage is already done. Why would a phone shopper commit to a two-year contract with a troubled carrier, whose parent company shows little interest in improving? Either outcome seems equally dismal, at least in the near term, from the user perspective.

T-Mobile is a decent fourth-place carrier, with excellent pricing and a higher speed 4G network that has held its own against the larger carriers. Subscribers who live in big cities, where T-Mobile's coverage is concentrated, experience satisfactory performance and are fairly positive on customer service.

On the flipside, AT&T has well-known performance problems, from notoriously persistent iPhone call drops to a so-called "4G" network that in many markets shows no speed advantage over the 3G network, despite promotion suggesting the contrary.

The merger was supposed to layer T-Mobile's network on top of AT&T's compatible, larger, but not-quite-so-organized one. I'm no network engineer, but it seems like reasonable proposal to bring desperately needed improvements to AT&T's massive audience. Still ...

If AT&T gets permission to buy T-Mobile:

• There's a good chance we lose the great discount pricing that makes T-Mobile stand out.
• There's no guarantee of any kind of network performance boost in the immediate future.
• The merger could trigger a counter-merger, where Verizon Wireless tries to swallow Sprint whole, reducing the number of serious national carriers to just two.

The government's fears are reasonable, not only because of the immediate reduction of choices, but the potentially more hazardous long-term outlook. Still, the damage may already be done. Who wants to be a T-Mobile subscriber now?

If AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile gets blocked:

• Subscribers will continue to feel uncertainty about signing on with T-Mobile.
• T-Mobile's network upgrades may be less frequent, as its corporate parent, Deutsche Telekom, grows tired of pouring money into it.
• The discounted pricing that gives T-Mobile cachet may not sustain — fellow discount-friendly carrier Sprint was forced to raise its smartphone plan pricing to stay afloat.
• AT&T's network may continue to experience technical difficulties, and its 4G strategy may continue to stall.

Besides competitive pricing, T-Mobile's biggest boon is its huge selection of great Android phones. To top that, there's even a chance that the next iPhone will turn up in its stores. But even this wouldn't be a coup: The carrier would get it along with Sprint, Verizon and longtime iPhone seller AT&T.

There are murmurs that T-Mobile could merge with Sprint instead. Subscriber-wise, third and fourth place could combine to form a nice-sized third contender. However, the technologies of the two companies are wildly different, and Sprint still suffers for having acquired the incompatible Nextel. (There's also talk that Sprint might join with Metro PCS, which makes a tad more sense.)

Regardless of whether this deal goes through, the customer may have already lost.

More on AT&T and T-Mobile from msnbc.com:

• US seeks to block AT&T, T-Mobile deal
• Carriers' lofty claims of 4G speed put to the test
• AT&T texting plan: $20, not $10, for new customers
• AT&T to buy T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom

Catch up with Wilson on Twitter at @wjrothman, or on Google+. And join our conversation on Facebook.

Yipit

Drowning in daily deals that seem to multiply faster in your inbox than the typical zombie infestation? You're probably one of the reasons why Yelp has decided to cut back on its daily deals, following Facebook's decision to eliminate its four-month-old program altogether.

Bloomberg reportsthat Yelp, which focuses on member-based reviews of local businesses and entered the daily deals space only about a year ago, has now decided to cut its sales force dedicated to those deals in half. (Yelp Deals had expanded to 20 cities this year.) Facebook is also pulling back, phasing out its Deals on Facebook over the next few weeks. 

There's plenty of reasons why those companies are re-assigning resources and re-evaluating where they stand in daily deals, but near the top, from what industry watchers are saying: the saturation of competitors in the market and consumer fatigue.

As someone who has no less than 20 emails a day from such daily deals, I can tell you that it is overwhelming, and I have to check my accounts at least once a week to make sure I'm using what I bought before it expires. It's exhausting. I've thought about putting myself on a break from such sites, but I've failed, not being able to resist a good deal I know I'll use. But I have become more discriminating, deleting more frequently and refusing to sign up to new sites.

There may be more than 600 competitors pawing at the wallets of local consumers, but only two sites seem to have the recognition and loyalty of the masses.

Together, Groupon and LivingSocial own nearly 75 percent of the business from daily deals across the country and Canada. Groupon still has the power of 115.7 million subscribers worldwide in 45 countries (40 million in the U.S. and Canada) and with 175 cities, commands almost half the North American market when it comes to these direct email daily deals. LivingSocial has about another 25 percent. 

But neither have been immune from declines in the daily deal industry.

Yipit, which aggregates and recommends the best daily deals from 658 services, also does research on the daily deals market and found that revenue in that industry declined 7 percent in North America's largest markets. Groupon got hit with a 4 percent decline in revenue and LivingSocial, 18 percent. Yipit also noted that 38 daily deal sites called it quits in July.

One bright note: Travel daily deals now account for nearly 15 percent of industry revenue.

But, is it all too much?

A Groupon spokesman referred us to an internal memo from Groupon CEO and co-founder Andrew Mason to answer how the company has handled the massive influx of copycats:

"If there's a question I’ve received from Groupon skeptics more than any other, it’s, "How will you fend off the competition — especially massive companies like Google and Facebook?” I could give a dozen reasons to bet on Groupon, but it’s impossible to predict the future or the actions of others. Well, now the sleeping giants have woken up — and the numbers are showing that what was proven true with literally thousands of other competitors is just as true with the incumbents of the Internet: it’s kind of hard to build a Groupon. And since anyone with an Internet connection can track the performance of our competitors, I can be more specific:

• Google Offers is small and not growing. In the three markets where we compete, we are 450 percent of their size.
• Yelp is small and not growing. In the 15 markets where we compete, our daily deals are 500 percent of their size.
• Living Social’s U.S. local business is about one-third our size in revenue (and smaller in GP) and has shrunk relative to us in the last several months. This, in part, appears to be driving them toward short-sighted tactics to buy revenue, like buying gift certificates from national retailers at full price and then paying out of their own pocket to give the appearance of a 50 percent off deal. Our marketing team has tested this tactic enough to know that it’s generally a bad idea, and not a profitable form of customer acquisition.
• Facebook sales are harder to track, but are even less significant at present.

My point is not that our competitors will fail — some may actually develop sustainable businesses, or even grow — after all, local commerce is an enormous market. The real point is that our business is a lot harder to build than people realize and our scale creates competitive advantages that even the largest technology companies are having trouble penetrating. And with the launch of NOW, I suspect our competition will have an even harder time in light of the natural barriers to entry that are needed to build a real-time local deals marketplace."

"We've seen the flurry over the past year. It's easy for anyone to get into this game, but there's a lot of infrastructure on the back end to offer the quality deal: sales people to find good deals, infrastructure to support the vendors, such as our merchant services team," said LivingSocial spokesman Brendan P. Lewis. 

With 32 million members in the U.S. (more than 42 million worldwide in 25 countries), in 209 markets in the U.S. (including multiple hyperlocal locations housed within one city), LivingSocial is not nearly as ubiquitous as Groupon, but those in major urban areas are probably familiar with it.

But don't think this spells the end for daily deals. A July survey from PriceGrabber found that 59 percent of a little over 2,000 respondents planned to use Groupon, LivingSocial and others of that ilk "for holiday or special occasion gift purchases." PriceGrabber also points to the purchasing power of 23 million Americans who bought daily deals last year as an indication that people are still voracious when it comes to bargains.

How have you coped with all those offers? 

More stories:

• Next on Facebook chopping block: Deals
• How many Groupon rivals? Try 600
• Hotmail now more interactive thanks to Posterous and LivingSocial
• Now in 25 more cities: LivingSocial, trying to catch Groupon

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

How's this for a brave new world? Amazon.com has unveiled a new Kindle feature, dubbed @author, that will let readers ask questions of authors while reading their books — from inside those books.

Confused about the motivations of a particular character? Curious about the author’s literary influences? Need to clarify a particular step in that how-to book? Now you can find out, assuming the author decides to answer.

As the name implies, the @author feature leverages Twitter. (And yes, Amazon has secured the @author Twitter account.) Here’s how the process works, as explained by Amazon’s Kindle Daily Post:

To ask one of these authors a question from a Kindle book, just highlight a passage using the 5-way controller, type “@author” followed by your question, and Share. We’ll tweet the question to the author and post it on the Author Page; you’ll automatically receive an email if the author answers your question. You can also ask a question from the Author Page of a participating author; look for the “Ask a question” link beneath the author’s biography or next to one of the author’s books if you want to ask a question specifically about that book.

Not exactly real-time, but interesting nonetheless, and a good example of the future potential of an electronic reading platform. Amazon has lined up about 15 authors to participate initially.

If only Mark Twain were still around for this one.

Related posts on GeekWire 

• In world of e-readers, women dominate
• Amazon's tablet will disrupt the status quo
• AmazonLocal deals now in 30 locations, 10 states

Todd Bishop of GeekWire can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.

Microsoft

The restyled Start screen in Windows 8, designed for tablets but also destined for traditional PCs.

As Microsoft has been previewing new elements of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system over the past week — including smarter file copying and a Windows Explorer ribbon — one head-scratcher has been the departure from the look and feel of the new Windows 8 Start screen that Microsoft showed in June.

That new approach, inspired by the tile-based “Metro” design of Windows Phone, was designed to work not only on tablets but also on traditional computers. 

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

So what gives? Steven Sinofsky, the president of the Microsoft Windows division, addressed that question this morning — acknowledging in a blog post that some might want Microsoft to scrap the old Windows approach entirely, but saying that the company believes "there is room for a more elegant, perhaps a more nuanced, approach." He continued ... 

[I]f you want to stay permanently immersed in that Metro world, you will never see the desktop—we won’t even load it (literally the code will not be loaded) unless you explicitly choose to go there!  This is Windows reimagined.

But if you do see value in the desktop experience — in precise control, in powerful windowing and file management, in compatibility with hundreds of thousands of existing programs and devices, in support of your business software, those capabilities are right at your fingertips as well. You don’t need to change to a different device if you want to edit photos or movies professionally, create documents for your job or school, manage a large corpus of media or data, or get done the infinite number of things people do with a PC today. And if you don’t want to do any of those "PC" things, then you don’t have to and you’re not paying for them in memory, battery life, or hardware requirements.  If you do want or need this functionality, then you can switch to it with ease and fluidity because Windows is right there. Essentially, you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app.

That last sentence is pretty remarkable, considering the source, and the billions upon billions of dollars that this "app" has generated for the company over the years. It shows how much the PC world is changing. It's hard to imagine anyone from Microsoft saying that even last year.

Microsoft is due to give more details on Windows 8 at a conference in two weeks in California. No official release date has been given, but the new operating system is widely expected sometime next year.

Related posts on GeekWire:

• What Apple can learn from Microsoft in the post-Jobs era
• Microsoft loses ground in mobile as Google Android soars
• Conan O'Brien tests the limits of Bill Gates' charity

Todd Bishop of GeekWire can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook will likely launch a music service in concert (sorry! couldn't resist!) with Spotify in a matter of weeks. The social networking site is expected to announce the service at its f8 developer conference Sept. 22.

According to a report Wednesday by Forbes:

The integrated service is currently going through testing, but when launched, Facebook users will see a Spotify icon appear on the left side of their newsfeed, along with the usual icons for photos and events.

Clicking on the Spotify icon will install the service on their desktop in the background, and also allow users to play from Spotify’s library of millions of songs through Facebook. The service will include a function that lets Facebook users listen to music simultaneously with their friends over the social network, one of the sources said.

Streaming music service Spotify started being offered in the United States in July. You can already link Spotify to Facebook to see your friends' music in the People window — but that's info vs. real music.

One feature fluidly integrated into Spotify from the get-go is social sharing. If you'd like to get sonically social, look for a Facebook logo the right-hand side of the window. By linking Spotify to Facebook, you'll be able to see your friends' music in the People window, below your account name in the upper right corner. Love a song? Right click it and choose the "Share to..." link to pull up your social network options.

Facebook, noted The Next Web, has been "relatively late to the music service game, which now has representatives from most of the other major players including Google Music, iTunes Match and Amazon Cloud Player."

A hub-like service that gave people access to their favorite streaming service from right inside Facebook would be a departure from the strategy of its competitors, who are all aiming to allow people to store music in the cloud and play it back.

Does the idea of streaming music from within Facebook appeal to you? Or do you think the social networking site is getting too far afield from what it should be?

Related stories:

• What makes Spotify such a great music service?
• Mystery code may mean Facebook music service
• Facebook adding Skype video calling

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Yeah baby, you'll be seeing more of me.

So, Duke Nukem ... he's not the most popular gaming icon at the moment.

After all, the last game the alien-killin', cigar-chomping, uber-macho protagonist appeared in — "Duke Nukem Forever" — was released earlier this year only to be panned by critics and gamers alike.

But to be fair, the developer responsible for the game — Gearbox Software — only released "Duke Nukem Forever" after rescuing it from more than a decade spent in a complicated and unhealthy limbo.

Things might have turned out differently if, say, Gearbox had had its hands on the game from the get-go. These are, after all, the folks responsible for the excellent shooting franchises "Borderlands" and "Brothers In Arms."

In fact, it's looking like we'll get to see what a fully Gearbox-developed Duke game turns out like.

During a panel discussion at the Penny Arcade gaming expo this weekend, Randy Pitchford — Gearbox president and CEO — suggested that his company is not done with the Duke franchise and will soon be announcing a brand new Duke game.

"I know that you guys figured out that, when Gearbox acquired the franchise, we didn’t do it just to make sure we could all play Duke Forever, but because we wanted to make our own Duke game," Pitchford told a room of Gearbox fans. "Soon, we’ll talk about that, but not today.”

This seems to gel with rumors that started percolating earlier this month — rumors that Gearbox is working on "Duke Begins" – something of a franchise reboot. Though that reboot allegedly won't be the company's focus until after they finish the highly anticipated "Aliens: Colonial Marines." Gearbox, by the way, is also busy with "Borderlands 2."

It sounds like all will be revealed soon enough. While you're waiting for your next dose of Duke news, go ahead and watch/listen to the dulcet sounds of the Duke Nukem theme song played on two ukuleles ... I mean, Dukuleles.

(Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up)

For more gaming news, check out:

• Halo Reclaimer Trilogy will go deep with Master Chief, Cortana
• 'Duke Nukem's' PR agency threatens game reviewers
• Duke Nukem is down, but not out
• 'Aliens: Colonial Marines' will grab you by the chest

Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things here on Twitter or join her in the stream here on Google+. And be sure to check out the In-Game Facebook page here.

Know what'd make a better Twitter promotional ad?  A head or a dog or a rat or a cow or a clump of mud or a piece of string.

Hey, we’re all for the jocularity that follows a quick reminder that Nature can kick your insignificant butt anytime — you know, the kind that clogged up Twitter Aug. 23, right after a mild earthquake in Virginia moved through Washington D.C., New York City and as far south as Chapel Hill, N.C. But the tardiness of this topic seems counterproductive to the message of Twitter's immediacy it's attempting to send.

Twitter credits @JordnJnkieJuice with the first #earthquake tweet to hit the Big Apple just ahead of the tremors, using that fact in its first commercia after the jokes stopped being funny.

Our biggest beef isn’t the ho-hum tedium, and we appreciate its star, Twitter software engineer Danny Hertz, is reading an actual old-timey corporeal book. It's just not historically accurate. Based on this commercial, you'd think buildings were swaying in Manhattan. What really happened on Aug. 23? Here’s a transcript from the offices of 30 Rock revealing what actually went down in New York City:

Jane Weaver (Health Editor, msnbc.com): Did the lights just shake?

Helen A.S. Popkin (Tech & Science Editor, msnbc.com): Whut?

Two minutes later.

Jane: I told you the lights were shaking!

Helen: Whut?

But then, that’s not a very good promotional ad, either.

via Gawker

More on the annoying way we live now:

• Twitter's top lessons from NYC's Hurricane Irene
• For Hurricane Irene, Newark mayor Cory Booker has your back
• Twitter uses #earthquake to mock Nature's wrath, you

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

Sony

The Sony Tablet S, left, available in September, and the Sony Tablet P, which will be out later this year.

Sony Wednesday announced two tablets to take on Apple's iPad, including a foldable model with two 5.5-inch screens, and AT&T said it will carry HTC's Jetstream tablet dubbed by the carrier as "AT&T's first 4G LTE/HSPA+ tablet" that can run on the AT&T's fourth-generation network, still being built.

Sony's S tablet has been long expected; it announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that it would come out with one (not two), and said when it did, it aimed to come in behind Apple as the world's second largest maker of tablet devices by 2012.

HTC Jetstream

All three tablets use Google's Android operating system, and ratchet up the tablet competition. Amazon's Android-based tablet, too, will soon be a contender.

Both Sony tablets "come complete with access to a full suite of Sony’s network entertainment services," the company says, including being "the first PlayStation Certified tablets that provide out-of-the-box gaming with included favorites 'Crash Bandicoot' and 'Pinball Heroes.' "

Here's some of the basics of the three tablets:

Sony Tablet S

It has a 9.4-inch touchscreen display, NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor, weighs 1.33 pounds (the same weight as iPad 2). Has both a "Face focus VGA camera (front)" and 5-megapixel rear camera. Comes with microUSB interface, standard SD slot and 1 GB memory. It will ship with Android 3.1 ("Honeycomb," designed for tablets), but be upgradable to 3.2.

The sloped design is slightly different than that of the iPad's. "Unlike other tablet devices, Sony Tablet S device has an ergonomic, asymmetric design which allows it to be easily held or carried for long periods of time," the company says. "The unique form factor shifts the device’s weight closer to your palm, making it feel lighter and more comfortable while reading an e-book or watching a video."

Cost: Starts at $499 for 16 GB, WI-Fi only version; $599 for 32 GB, Wi-FI only model (the same prices as the iPad 2).

Availability: Mid to late September.

More info: http://www.sony.com/tablet.

Sony Tablet P

The "P," on first blush, almost resembles Nintendo's two-screen DS and 3DS. It has two 5.5-inch displays and can "easily fit into a pocket, purse or backpack," Sony says.

It weighs "about .83 pounds," Sony says, and uses the NVIDIA Tegra 2 mobile processor and in addition to Wi-Fi, will be 4G "capable exclusively on AT&T's mobile broandband network."

The P will have many of the same features as the S; rear- and front-facing cameras, microUSB interface, standard SD slot. It is expected to ship with Android 3.2.

Why the two screens? For you multitaskers who want to be "playing video on one screen while using the other as a controller or reading email on one screen while using the other as a virtual keyboard," Sony says. "The displays can also be combined to form a single large screen for Internet browsing and more. By holding the device vertically, you can also read eBooks much in the same manner you would a physical book."

Cost: No information on pricing yet.

Availability: Later this year.

More info: http://www.sony.com/tablet.

HTC Jetstream

The tablet has a 10.1-inch HD display and is described by AT&T as providing the "first iteration of the HTC Sense" phone user interface in a tablet. It will use Android 3.1, or Honeycomb, OS.

The Jetstream has a Snapdragon 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, rear-facing 8 MP camera and front-facing 1.3 MP camera, and there is a dual LED flash. 

AT&T says "for the first time, ATT customers can receive discounted tablet pricing after committing to a two-year agreement for a new $35, 3-GB monthly data plan."

Cost: $699.99 with a new two-year contract. 

AT&T's pricing plan requires some study. The carrier says:

Postpaid tablet customers now have a new $35, 3 GB monthly data plan option with a two-year contract. Customers who do not choose a long-term commitment may still select one of two existing monthly billing options:

• Postpaid:  $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2 GB. Customers on the 2 GB plan who exceed their monthly data allotment will be charged $10 per 1 GB of overage. Charges will appear on customers’ monthly wireless statements.
• Prepaid:  $14.99 for 250 MB or $25 for 2 GB. Customers on the 2 GB plan who exceed their monthly data allotment may choose to purchase an additional 2 GB for $25.  Charges will appear on customers’ credit card statements.

Availability:  Sept. 4.

More info:  AT&T.

Related stories:

• New iPad with retina display coming out early 2012?
• iPad will own 61 percent of market this year: report
• Why Amazon's tablet will threaten the iPad

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

This year there were a lot of ideas at the "Pitch Your Game Idea" panel at PAX 2011, but these were In-Game's favorites.

If you're one of the 82.2 million smartphone owners in the United States, there's a 70 percent chance you're carrying around either an iPhone or an Android-powered phone, according to the latest report from comScore.

Released yesterday, the second quarter results show that Google's Android platform was still the No.1 smartphone platform in the U.S. with nearly 42 percent of the market share, with Apple's iOS second at 27 percent. Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, came in third at nearly 22 percent. 

Despite the dominance of the operating systems, Apple's device was not the second most owned handset, coming behind three other Android manufacturers. The survey polled 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found that of those Android phone owners, Samsung proved to be the most popular brand for handsets: 25.5 percent had them. In second place: LG, with almost 21 percent. Apple comes in fourth, at 9.5 percent, behind Motorola (14.1 percent).

The comScore survey also looked at what people were doing with their phones.

comScore

By far, the most popular use was to send text messages, which 70 percent of subscribers said they did. Then came tapping into their browsers (41.1 percent) and then downloading applications (40.6 percent).

Worldwide, Android accounts for almost 50 percent of the smartphone market, with Apple's iOS coming in at 19 percent. But as the sole manufacturer of the sole device for the iOS, the iPhone, Apple is the world's largest individual smartphone vendor, having shipped 20.3 million iPhones versus Samsung's 17 million.

— via TechCrunch

More stories:

• Welcome to the United States of Android and iOS
• Android conquers almost 50 percent of smartphone market
• Apple top smartphone maker in U.S.: Nielsen

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

via Buzzfeed

Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning. Here's everything that you need to know before taking that first sip of coffee today: 

Apple's new CEO Tim Cook thanks you for your random email with this upbeat reply.

If you're thinking about buying an iPad, don't shop at a McDonald's parking lot -- a woman who thought she was getting a bargain bought instead a $180 piece of wood.

The Samsung Galaxy S II gets a bigger screen, 8-megapixel camera and more powerful processor while remaining surprisingly skinny. It launched overseas in April, and is finally making its way to America.

There are several new mobile apps to help discourage texting while driving, and AT&T has joined the effort with its own free app, released Tuesday, called DriveMode.

You may know of it among your college friends, or if you're a parent, among your kids' friends: plagiarism is becoming as common as Wi-Fi connections at coffee shops.

Seal Team Six needs a new doggy cam — the dogs have wireless cameras, with batteries and antennas, for recon and fighting.

Meanwhile, U.S. military personnel based abroad can make free phone calls home, starting immediately, using Google's calling program from Gmail.

Groupon? Living Social? Yawn. Nobody cares about daily deal sites anymore.

Zynga — you know, the FarmVille guys — has a new Facebook game with which to waste your time: Adventure World!

In closing, the unicorn apocalypse is adorably terrifying!

 Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy S family of phones have wowed Android phone shoppers with vibrant Super AMOLED screens, fast processors and impressive battery life. The second wave, not so cleverly called Galaxy S II, gets a bigger screen, 8-megapixel camera and more powerful processor while remaining surprisingly skinny. It launched overseas in April, and is finally making its way to America.

On Sept. 16, Sprint gets it, in the form of the $200 Samsung Epic 4G Touch. AT&T and T-Mobile will also be getting it, sometime later in the year. There is no mention of Verizon getting the Galaxy S II, though it does currently have several original Galaxy S phones in its lineup.

As its name suggests, the Sprint Epic 4G Touch will run on Sprint's 4G network. The phone will have a massive 4.52-inch screen, while maintaining a thickness of 0.38 inches, almost identical to Apple's iPhone 4 (which measures 0.37 inches).

T-Mobile's model, referred to as the Galaxy S II, has similar specs, and will run on the carrier's 4G network. (Sprint and T-Mobile 4G are different technologies, and which is faster actually depends, for the time being, on the market. Here's a 4G test to give you an idea of performance.)

AT&T, also sticking with the franchise name Galaxy S II, has a slightly smaller screen, at 4.3 inches, but that decrease corresponds with a benefit: At 0.35 inches in thickness, the AT&T phone will be skinnier than the iPhone 4. It will have HDMI output and run on AT&T's 4G network, which operates using technology similar to T-Mobile's.

Neither T-Mobile nor AT&T has yet announced pricing or ship date.

The Galaxy S II platform as a whole features not only the larger screen and skinny body, but a 1.2GHz dual-core processor (compared with the 1GHz single-core processor found on most but not all earlier Galaxy models). Its 8-megapixel camera is up from 5 megapixels, and shoots 1080p high-def video. It will ship, at this time, with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the newest Android operating system release for smartphones. (A newer version, called Ice Cream Sandwich, is set to debut this fall, but it is not clear at the moment how upgradeable the phones will be.)

Though there are many hot Android models to choose from, the obvious question is how this stacks up with the iPhone 4. As I mentioned, it's about the same thickness, but the screen is soooo much bigger. Rumor has it that Apple's next iPhone will have a 4-inch screen, but if you are really going for square inches, that 4.5-inch Galaxy S II screen still has it beat. That said, at 800x480, the Galaxy screen resolution still doesn't measure up to Apple's gorgeous 960x640 "Retina" display.

While Apple needs to catch up in the processor department and the camera department, a hot dual-core chip and an 8-megapixel camera are both also rumored. Some Galaxy S II models will have HDMI output, which is also among the wished-for features in the next iPhone. Given the iPad's support of iPad (by way of an adapter), it's a possibility.

Besides the 4G network capability, which odds are against Apple supporting this year, the Galaxy has an additional perk edge in the form of expandable internal memory — using MicroSD cards, you can add up to 32GB of storage.

Bonus: Gadgetbox Video includes our first look at the new Galaxy S II phone:

More on the smartphone battle — and Samsung's prominent place in it:

• Samsung to combat Apple with cheaper smartphones
• Apple now No. 1 smartphone vendor by volume (but Samsung close behind)
• Samsung launches Galaxy S sequel
• Carriers' lofty claims of 4G speed put to the test

Catch up with Wilson on Twitter at @wjrothman or on the shiny new Google+ network, and join our conversation on Facebook.

Google

U.S. military personnel based abroad can make free phone calls home, starting immediately, using Google's calling program from Gmail.

Google announced the program on its Gmail blog.

"We understand that it’s not always easy or affordable for our troops serving overseas to call friends and family at home, so starting today we’re making it completely free for all uniformed military personnel with valid United States Military (.mil) email addresses to call the United States, right from Gmail," wrote Ilya Frank, a senior software engineer for the company:

There are two easy steps to enable free calling from Gmail (detailed instructions):

1. Add your valid .mil email address to your Google Account
2. Click on the Call phone link at the top of the Gmail chat roster and install the voice and video Gmail plugin if you haven’t already.

For friends and family in the U.S. who want to reach their loved ones abroad who are in the military, the cost starts at 2 cents a minute, Frank said.

Also, "similar to free calling within the U.S., free calling to the U.S. for service members will be available for at least the rest of 2011."

You can learn more about Gmail calling here. The search giant launched its phone call service a year ago, although it has had video and voice chat since 2008).

Related stories:

• Call waiting comes to Gmail
• Gmail's getting a makeover that you can try now
• Gmail calling takes off, but not without bumps

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

HP TouchPad

HP says it will manufacture "one last run" of TouchPads, but it is not saying yet whether they will be sold at the deeply discounted price of $99 or closer to their original price of $499 for the 16 GB model.

"Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand," said Mark Budgell, HP's social media strategist, on a company blog Tuesday. "We don’t know exactly when these units will be available or how many we’ll get, and we can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone. We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase."

Just Monday, Budgell said that HP, after receiving "an overwhelming number of requests to be notified if the TouchPad is again available for sale," turned "off" customers' online ability to be notified.

In an updated Q-and-A on the HP blog, Budgell said HP will make "a limited quantity" of the tablets "during our fourth fiscal quarter 2011, which ends October 31."

As far as the tablet's pricing, the answer was the same Tuesday as it Monday, to this question: "What about retailers?  Some retailers won’t price match or drop their price to $99."

Each retailer will manage their own policy and process regarding pricing and price matching.  Please contact the local retailer of your choice to see what their current position is.

For those who are interested — despite not knowing what the price will be — Budgell suggests following his tweets on Twitter (@MarkatHP) or those of his colleague, Bryna Corcoran, HP's social media manager (@BrynaatHP) to keep up-to-date with TouchPad news.

The tablet, which only came on the market two months ago, retailed for $499 for the 16 GB version and $599 for the model with 32 GB. A little more than 10 days ago, HP said it was dropping the prices to $99 and $149, respectively, after announcing it was killing off the product. The tablets, which use the webOS, became harder to get than a mortgage, as customers snatched up the existing supply within a matter of a few days.

Related stories:

• HP TouchPad: Life everlasting through updates?
• HP on the $99 TouchPad: Don't call us, we'll call you
• HP TouchPads are going, going...gone?
• $99 HP TouchPad deal too good to last
• 10 things to do with a $100 TouchPad

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Ryan Hayslip / ATT

There are several new mobile apps to help discourage texting while driving, and AT&T has joined the effort with its own free app, released Tuesday, called DriveMode.

DriveMode helps "curb the urge to text and drive" AT&T says, by automatically sending a reply to incoming texts messages, letting the sender know that you are driving and can't respond. The customizable response is similar to an "out-of-office" email.

DriveMode also lets you set up auto-replies to emails and phone calls as well. You can also tweak the app to have some features running while the app is on: There's an “Allow List” that lets users choose up to five contact phone numbers to reach help or family members. And 911 itself is an "automatically approved number" and can be easily dialed from the home screen, AT&T says.

The app is first being made available to BlackBerry users at AT&T's AppCenter and BlackBerry App World. Versions of it for AT&T phones with other operating systems are coming soon, the carrier says.

It was AT&T employee Shavonne Jones who inspired DriveMode; she lost a good friend of 32 years who was killed by a driver who was texting at the time. You can hear her talk about it 3 minutes into this video by AT&T.

If you need any proof that driving and texting don't go together, watch AT&T's 10-minute documentary, "The Last Text."

And below is a recent report from NBC's Kerry Sanders about PhoneGuard, a similar app to DriveMode, also for free, and available for both Android and BlackBerrys.

The app is free because it is subsidized, in large part, by the Remember Alex Brown Foundation. The foundation, sadly, was created by parents whose daughter was killed when she was texting while driving.

Related stories:

• Apps that prevent your teen from texting while driving
• Reading Cop Accused Of Texting While Driving
• Red Tape: Half of cell users text and drive

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

HP

HP TouchPad

Talk about mixed messages: HP kills the TouchPad, but will still provide updates that "add functionality" to the webOS tablet.

So a Hewlett-Packard spokesperson told CNET yesterday, continuing to support the software behind a device it's discontinuing, even as the public rushes to snap up its $99 tablet (slashed after the company decided they would no longer be in the business of making webOS tablets and smartphones). 

HP told CNET the over-the-air update would also "enhance the platform." TouchPad owners can also look forward to "a growing applications catalog." Moreover, because of a big spike in activations and downloads since the fire sale put the TouchPad front and center in the national consciousness, HP will "continue to investigate the best ways to leverage WebOS software and grow the applications."

As we reported yesterday, Mark Budgell, HP's social media strategist, said the company is "surprised by the enthusiastic response to the TouchPad price drop, and we understand and that many customers were disappointed that HP and our retail partners ran out of supply so fast."

Why should they be so surprised? $99 for a tablet, even a second-tier one, is a steal! What surprises us, though, is their ambiguity in whether or not more are coming. It's all a big mystery. Their answer on the site's blog only says: "We will have more information available in the next few days about whether or not more will be available and if so, what the details will be about the situation."

But with updates and more apps coming, isn't that a sign that perhaps they're re-thinking exiting the tablet space? 

An HP spokesperson got back to us today and added:

It's consistent with what we have been saying. While we are discontinuing the development of webOS-based devices, we are continuing to enhance the software platform. This includes OTA updates and growing applications. We have seen record activations and downloads of apps recently.

More stories:

• HP on the $99 TouchPad: Don't call us, we'll call you
• HP TouchPads are going, going...gone?
• $99 HP TouchPad deal too good to last
• 10 things to do with a $100 TouchPad
• R.I.P. webOS, we hardly knew ye
• HP TouchPad review: Slick but sluggish

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

You may know of it among your college friends, or if you're a parent, among your kids' friends: plagiarism is becoming as common as Wi-Fi connections at coffee shops.

The Pew Research Center, in conjunction with the Chronicle of Higher Education, recently surveyed 1,055 college presidents from two- to four-year schools, private and public. More than half of those top officials said they've seen an increase in plagiarism in the past 10 years. Nearly all of them say computers and the Internet have played a major role in the rise in stealing others work and claiming it as their own

The yin and the yang of the Internet and education is profiled in the survey, "The Digital Revolution and Higher Education," which also includes asurvey of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. Among Pew's key findings:

The public looks down on the value of online courses; college presidents do not."Only 29 percent of the public says online courses offer an equal value compared with courses taken in a classroom. Half (51 percent) of the college presidents surveyed say online courses provide the same value.

And, they think online classes are the future, with half saying 10 years from now most of their students will be learning that way. Right now, 15 percent say "most of their current undergraduate student" have taken an online class.

Twenty-three percent of college grads say they have taken a class online;  the percent is twice that for those who graduated in the past 10 years.

Online courses are becoming more available: 77 percent of college presidents say their schools now offer online courses, with public universities leading the way, Pew says. "While 89 percent of four-year public colleges and universities offer online classes, just 60 percent of four-year private schools offer them."

Textbooks will go digital. Ten years from now, more than half the textbooks used by undergrads "will be entirely digital," say 62 percent of college presidents.

Computers and phones in the classroom.Among recent grads, 57 percent said when they were in college, they used a laptop, smartphone or tablet computer in class "at least sometime." Most colleges and universities "do not have institutional guidelines in place for the use of these devices in class," Pew found. "Some 41 percent of college presidents say students are allowed to use laptops or other portable devices during class; at 56 percent of colleges and universities it is up to the individual instructors. Only 2 percent of presidents say the use of these devices is prohibited."

College presidents are "with it" when it comes tech and social networking: 87 percent say they use a smartphone daily; 49 percent use a tablet such as the iPad "at least occasionally," and 42 percent say they use an e-reader such as the Kindle or Nook.

Facebook is also a resource for them; 32 percent say they're on the social networking site weekly or more often; 18 percent say they use Twitter "at least occasionally" — but presumably not when they're in a class or meeting.

Related stories:

• Facebook users big on trust, close relationships: study
• Internet not destroying society, Pew study shows
• Internet making our brains different, not dumb

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

As if you didn't already have enough reasons to distrust Google, along comes the comic geniuses of Comediva to poke some fun at it through Gmail. Or in this case, the perfect boyfriend personified as G-male.

He looks harmless at first, even familiar, with his boy-next-door looks and friendly demeanor. Sure, he's considerate and helpful, and even seems to be Johnny on the spot for remembering those little details that seem to mean so much. But soon enough, G-male shows us his stalker potential.

Amanda Troop nails her role as a Google spokesperson, delivering lines like, "We try to find solutions to problems you didn't even know you had," to emphasize Gmail's uncanny knack for knowing just what you need or want at any given time, with just a few keystrokes from you to help them along.

"Here at Google, we're very good listeners," she says.

But helpful soon turns to creepy eavesdropping as G-male seems to know every aspect of his partner's life. Location tracking, keywords and coupons make an appearance that start to wig out G-male's mate. Nice touches from writer America Young: Including Google+ cirlces, Google Street View and showing how the couple goes from spooning to sleeping apart by the end of the three-minute video.

And the video gives us the keywords that really matter: "I'm a really good listener."

Troop says with that Stepford Wives smile: "How can we give you everything you need if we don't listen to everything you say?" reminding us once again that what we write on Gmail is sifted through somewhere in Google's giant servers to spit out those ever so helpful personalized ads that come with your spam-free Gmail account. 

Kudos to Brendan Bradley for channeling that sympathetic stalker vibe into his role as G-Male (audition for "Criminal Minds" next?) and Nikki Muller as the girlfriend whose increasing discomfort with G-male's invasive presence probably sums up how a lot of people feel about Google.

More stories:

• Your Google+ posts will appear in Gmail soon
• Gmail will soon personalize ads based on your emails
• Gmail's getting a makeover that you can try now 

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

voa Buzzfeed

Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning. Here's everything that you need to know before taking that first sip of coffee today: 

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt kicked up more dust in the Google+ "Nym Wars," saying that the nascent social network is primarily an "identity service" to help build other Google products. But how is that different from Facebook?

Whatever. New numbers say Google+ members are losing interest.

At least Google Docs has a "pimp" new look.

WikiLeaks just published on the Web nearly 134,000 leaked diplomatic cables, and the State Department fears diplomatic sources, including activists, journalists and academics in authoritarian countries, could face reprisals, including dismissal from their jobs, prosecution or violence.

Asus is coming out with MacBook Air clones.

After months of listening to fan input, famed game developer BioWare announced that the official female version of Commander Shepard will be a fire-red ginger for its forthcoming "Mass Effect 3."

 A 22-year-old male juror pleaded guilty to trying to "friend" the female defendant in his case, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Instead of accepting his advances, the woman told her lawyer, who told the judge, who pounded the gavel.

 Beyonce's baby news, shared at the MTV Video Music Awards, not only eclipsed the evening's other winners, it also broke a record on Twitter: 8,868 tweets per second.

There are skeptics who aren't ready to label more hours spent online than sleeping or working as being as addictive or as detrimental as traditional vices, but there is treatment for Internet addiction.

And because we're gonna run this into the ground, please enjoy 10 stupid ways New Yorkers prepared for Hurricane Irene.

 Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.

A 22-year-old male juror pleaded guilty to trying to 'friend' the female defendant in his case, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Instead of accepting his advances, the woman told her lawyer, who told the judge, who pounded the gavel.

It sounds like a case of eyes locking across a crowded courtroom, at least from the point of view of the juror. After the trial — involving a Tarrant County, Texas car wreck — recessed one day, he tried to link up with the defendant on Facebook. When she rebuffed his request, he suggested it was a case of mistaken identity, but that didn't hold water.

According to the article, not only does Texas have jury instructions banning jurors from discussing trials on social media, this juror was given a copy of those instructions.

The juror was dismissed from the case, says the Star-Telegram, and his four counts of contempt of court landed him two days of community service in the bailiff's office.

This isn't the first case of would-be courtroom friendship turning to disaster on Facebook. Earlier this year, in the UK, a juror friended a defendant, who accepted. Both got slapped with contempt-of-court convictions — and up to two years in prison. By comparison, perhaps, the Texas juror got off easy.

More tales of social media trouble courtesy of Digital Life:

• Teen busted after posting about toilet crime on Facebook
• Police tweet from court
• Student: My principal made me delete Facebook posts