Internet

I could have been a better geek in 2012. When it comes down to it, there just aren't enough hours in a day to do all the gaming, social networking, rooting, modding, and general geekery we'd like to. When forced to make the choice between a family vacation or staying home to indulge in nerdy pleasures like crunching the data generated by the newly flashed firmware on my Wi-Fi router, that trusty old Linksys model and my other devices tend to be the ones that get scorned.

But I resolve that this New Year will be different. … Read more

Fleur Costello of Leatherhead, England, is the Facebook Queen. At least that's what her friends call her. The 40-year-old is always on the site.

She was online recently when she felt dizzy and was falling unconscious. Soon she was on the floor, partially paralyzed.

There was no phone within reach, so she grabbed at the sheets of her bed and clawed her laptop back toward her. Her Facebook page was still open.

Desperately, she wrote this message to her husband: "help faintef cannoi get up uhrlp gurt h4ead."

It so happens that her husband, Karl Equi, "can't stand" Facebook. But he'd been trying to call her. So, as he told the Sun, he decided to look at Facebook for once. His wife is the Facebook Queen after all.

He saw the message, which was supposed to read: "Help, fainted, cannot get up, help, hurt head."… Read more

Santa is on the way. As of this writing, according to Google's new Santa Tracker, Kris Kringle and his reindeer are in Canberra, Australia, dishing out gifts and toys to the girls and boys down under faster than you can say, "Paul Hogan's your uncle."

Those lucky Aussies always get everything before the rest of us, whether it's making it through the Mayan apocalypse unscathed or landing some sweet Christmas swag earlier.

But wait, the long-standing NORAD Santa tracker (now powered by Microsoft's Bing maps) is also monitoring the fat man and his flying venison, too. The official U.S. government-sanctioned Santa tracker currently has him over Japan as I write this.… Read more

Google cares.

Yes, it not like the cold hearts and ice veins of Apple, Microsoft, and the rest.

Google thinks about the little guy, like the robot who can't get drunk at the office party. And so now the company has released onto YouTube a video to thank Androiders for being just so deeply wholesome.

It's an uplifting Christmassy affair.

There are office revelers. There are illicit trysts about to occur (off camera, naturally). And there's one cute little robot who's been left out because, one supposes, he's not yet 21.… Read more

There's a bigger danger this holiday season than ending up on Santa's naughty list. A lump of coal in a Christmas stocking is one thing. What can happen to you if you hear "Little Drummer Boy" is something else altogether.

You know the tune: "Come they told me/Pa rum pum pum pum/A newborn King to see/Pa rum pum pum pum." It's a Christmas standard, and in cities and small towns everywhere, it emanates from department store sound systems, TV commercials, Web sites -- you name it. To the average modern-day sophisticate, "Little Drummer Boy (note: read the story before clicking the link)" is nothing more than a song to love or hate, to endure or enjoy. But to the many players of the LDB Game, the song's aesthetic merits are hardly the point. … Read more

Instagram and its owner Facebook really stepped into it this week. A new terms of service update set to go into effect on January 16 would have given Instagram the right to sell users' photos or use them in ads.

As you might expect, the prospect of Instagram running rampant with photos didn't sit well with its 100 million users. The interest in escaping Instagram grew, with nearly 6,000 readers sharing over Facebook CNET's instructions for backing up and deleting their Instagram accounts.

It took a little while, but Instagram finally coughed out an apology and backtracked … Read more

As a guy blogging for a site owned by a television network (CBS Interactive is the parent company of CNET), count me as both excited and worried about Amazon's lineup of pilots for original comedy series.

So far, the forays into original programming by the likes of Netflix and Hulu and Amazon have been a mixed bag -- Netflix's "Lillyhammer"? Blech. Hulu's "Battleground"? More please.

But the six comedy pilots that will be posted to Amazon Instant Video for free viewing look to be upping the game significantly. Some of the names behind … Read more

Cyrcle is a bit hard to define. It's a Kickstarter project. It's an augmented-reality device. It's a creature of social media. Its maker Symplio calls it an "intelligent decorative object."

We met Cyrcle's prototype predecessor Rymble last year. The new incarnation is pretty different, though they both share a circular shape and a similar desire to bring social-media notifications into the real world. … Read more

Alas for those excited by a video seemingly showing an eagle's unsuccessful attempt to carry off a child: it's not real.

"A shadow analysis revealed some pretty severe inconsistencies," said Kevin Connor, president of Fourandsix, an imaging forensics specialist. "It appears to be a fake."

Just as Fourandsix was digging into the matter, a Montreal school said animation students were behind the video. It "was made by Normand Archambault, Loic Mireault, and Felix Marquis-Poulin, students at Centre NAD, in the production simulation workshop class of the Bachelors degree in 3D Animation and Digital Design," a statement from the center said. "Hoaxes produced in this class have already garnered attention, amongst others a video of a penguin having escaped the Montreal Biodome." … Read more