Mobile

GADGETS are the big gifts this year as usual, whether tablets, games consoles, TVs or cameras.
But there is one gizmo that can be all of these things at once – the new iPad Mini 2, which came out earlier this month.
Priced from $459 (£349 in the UK CDN$756 in Canada) for the 32GB wi-fi-only version or $619 with mobile connectivity, it is not cheap – but it does the job of so many gadgets it works out at unbeatable value.

Here, are just some of its many uses ……

Interesting discussion on the Solar investment chatroom about living on a 40 foot +/- yacht.

“I see them outside my office window all day and it seems like a relaxing life,” says Alloy Boy. “Are they really too small to live(single) comfortably and how fast do they depreciate? A quick seach revealed that a 40 footer cost more or less the same as a condo or small house, but what are the upsides of living on a boat(other than being mobile)?”…

Travel site TripAdvisor announced 10 quirky accommodations in the U.S., as chosen by its editors.

According to a release, travelers seeking a unique lodging experience can hunker down in one of these far-out accommodations, which include a larger-than-life beagle, a historic ferry and a subterranean B&B.

“For travelers who want a truly unique experience on vacation and stories to tell for a lifetime, these funky properties will surely fit the bill,” said TripAdvisor.

Locations include:

Ruffing it: Dog Bark Park Inn, Cottonwood, Idaho

Travelers visiting this bed and breakfast located 200 miles north of Boise will be glad to be in the doghouse. Guests are warmly welcomed as they enter the B&B built in the shape of a giant beagle, affectionately named “Sweet Willy,”…

Once you have seen them you might almost prefer to stay ON the digital map, but a Japanese tech group has invented the first pair of Facial DE-recognition glasses. They call them face-scrambling glasses.…

SYDNEY, June 20 (Xinhua) — As CIA whistle-blower Edward Snowden hides out in Hong Kong over his expose of U.S. government data mining, we must prepare for the fallout of our plugged-in, wired-up world.

Technology promises to make our lives easier, linking us together and putting vast amounts of information at our fingertips, but many of us are generating data without any real idea of where it’s going or how it may be used.

Speaking at the University of Sydney last week via videolink, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange commented on the pervasiveness of technology in our everyday lives, and how data is now collected on every single person plugged into the system — regardless of whether they’ve ever committed a crime, or been innocent or guilty.

“Edward Snowden revealed something that I have been speaking about for a long time… That as the Internet has penetrated every aspect of society, riding on with it is mass surveillance,” Assange said.…