Here’s an alert for you: Caveat Facebooker! The latest scam app on Facebook promises to let you trace who’s been checking your profile page out. Your narcissistic urge gives requires allowing the app access to your user data–look out for messages that start with “OMG OMG OMG.” On with the news:
1. Wikileaks has done it again: A quarter of a million leaked U.S. diplomatic cables hit the Internets this weekend, creating a news and political brouhaha, and resulting in the site suffering a denial of service attack (from who, we wonder?). Among the secret gems: Proof that China was behind the big Google hack of 2009, direct from a Chinese diplomat. The motive? Apparently a politburo member who Googled himself didn’t like what he saw and ordered up some cyberwar. Expect more secrets to be unearthed as people trawl the Cablegate archive.
2. The Black Friday post-Thanksgiving shopping spree appears to have been bountiful. Comscore says that U.S. consumers spent 9% more than they did a year ago–online at least. Some $648 million went to online store coffers, which is a good sign for the holiday season ahead. And before you start complaining about our rampant consumerism, consider this analysis of China which posits that the only way for that country to become an innovation economy is for its people to start buying more stuff.
3. Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, the $65 million Broadway musical, was performed in front of an audience for the first time yesterday–bringing a mix of “unprecedented” special effects, comic book heroes, and big-name rock artists together. The preview show stuttered however, suffering from the extreme technical difficulties of the show design. Will director Julie Taymor manage to string it all together into a coherent, flawless web of intrigue and spectacle?
4. You may not believe it, but cell phone networks are locked in a battle to serve their clients better. Sprint’s just announced its 4G service has hit six new cities: L.A., Miami, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. In their race to one-up each other, Sprint and Verizon are also improving the mobile Internet for millions of U.S. gadget fans with 4G… hello? Did we get cut off?
5. Here’s something odd, that may set a tech precedent. Toshiba’s latest 32-inch HDTV can run for two hours on its internal battery. Perfect for watching TV when the power goes out in your neighborhood…assuming your cable box is also on a UPS. Or is Tosh hoping you’ll lug the set around as a giant portable?
To read more news on this, and similar stuff, keep up with my updates by following me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter.
