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#Hashtags: Facebook's missing link to pop culture

For sale on Etsy: A custom-made sign that encourages wedding guests to hashtag their Instagram shots.

Scan Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr. Watch your favorite television show, or even listen to the radio, and you might notice that the biggest social network of them all is disconnected from pop culture -- at least when it comes to hashtags.

Hashtags are a form of expression that Facebook, like your grandparents, just can't understand. The social network appears motivated to change that, although a spokesperson wouldn't share details on when and how it will roll out hashtags.

However it shakes out, hashtags on Facebook are long overdue. Their presence could help Facebook lure young users -- something it struggles with -- and provide the missing link to so much that goes on across social media, from celeb gossip and breaking news to advertising offers and goofy memes.

On Facebook, hashtags in status updates are dead text. People still use them, particularly those who cross-post updates from Twitter or Instagram, but the tags are disconnected from the topics, news, or memes they reference.

... [Read more]

Buzz Aldrin has a plan to get us to Mars by 2035

What a moon shot actually looks like.

(Credit: NASA)

Buzz Aldrin is one of just a handful of people on earth with good reason to be unimpressed with the idea of a "moon shot." After all, he's among the privileged few who can say "Meh. Been there, done that."

Aldrin is far more interested in a Mars shot these days.

The second man to step on the moon in 1969 -- right behind the late Neil Armstrong -- is now 83 years old and out with a new book "Mission to Mars," in which he outlines his vision for taking humans to Mars by 2035.

I've heard most of the world's best headphones, but somehow missed the Sony MDR-R10. Only 2,000 were made. Production started in 1989, and at $2,500 a pair, it was the most expensive headphone in the world. The headphone cognoscenti scooped them all up years ago, and right now MDR-R10s rarely come up for sale. When they do, they usually go for more than $6,000!

The MDR-R10's 50mm "Bio-Cellulose Dome Diaphragms" are credited with producing the headphones' superclear treble and oh-so supple bass. The headphone also sported real lambskin-covered ear pads, and the large sculpted ear cups are made from aged wood from Zelkova trees. Sony did make a few other headphones with Bio Cellulose drivers -- the MDR-CD3000, 1991, MDR-E888 in 1995, MDR-CD1700 in 1996, and the MDR-CD2000 in 2000 -- but those headphones never attained the stature of the MDR-R10. No, it's never just one thing that makes the great ones great, it's the whole design.

That's all well and good, but I had yet to hear a MDR-R10 for myself to see if it's really all that special. I finally got a chance when Red Wine Audio's Vinnie Rossi borrowed a set to show at a recent NY Head-Fi meet. The headphones were plugged into a ... [Read more]

Electric car startup Better Place liquidating after $850 million investment

Better Place hoped to transform the energy industry with electric cars and battery switching stations.

(Credit: Better Place)

Better Place wanted to make the world a better place by replacing gas stations with battery switching stations that would remove the driving mileage limitations from electric cars and eventually rid the world of fossil-fuel burning vehicles. But after six years and burning through $850 million, the company is filing for liquidation in an Israeli court.

As reported by the Associated Press, Better Place's Board of Directors issued a written statement Sunday announcing that the company was winding down.

"This is a very sad day for all of us. We stand by the original vision as formulated by Shai Agassi of creating a green alternative that would lessen our dependence on highly polluting transportation technologies. Unfortunately, the path to realizing that vision was difficult, complex and littered with obstacles, not all of which we were able to overcome."

In 2008, Better Place partnered with Renault to build an electric car and create a system of battery swapping stations along highways, similar to gas ... [Read more]

Aston Martin reveals Batmobile-like anniversary speedster

It looks strangely like something Adam West's Batman might drive in 2013, but Aston Martin's 100th anniversary CC100 speedster wasn't designed with superheroes in mind, camp or otherwise. Instead, the yellow-and-blue-gray speedster is an homage to the company's heritage as a manufacturer of luxury sports cars.

Aston Martin's crazy concept speedster (pictures)

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The design is based on the 1959 Le Mans and Nurburgring-winning DBR1, with materials and design elements that look to the future, according to the company. "CC100 is the epitome of everything that is great about Aston Martin. Fantastic heritage, exceptional design, superb engineering and an adventurous spirit," Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez said.

With no cover, it certainly wouldn't be of any use as a day-to-day car, but as it was designed as a concept and remains one, we don't think Batman would have to worry a... [Read more]

Aston Martin's crazy concept speedster (pictures)

To celebrate 100 years of Aston Martin, the car company has unveiled the CC100 concept, which can hit 62 miles per hour in just 4 seconds. Hop in -- if you dare.

Two weeks after our introduction to the Lamborghini Egoista, Aston Martin is celebrating 100 years by unveiling the CC100 concept car. With Aston Martin's naturally aspirated V12 engine purring inside, the CC100 can accelerate from stationary to 62 miles per hour in just 4 seconds. The car has a top speed of 180 miles per hour.

The design is based on the 1959 Le Mans and Nurburgring-winning DBR1, with materials and design elements that look to the future, according to the company.

This gallery originally appeared on CNET Australia.

[Read more]

Grant Morrison: Google Glass is 'half-fish, half-man' (Q&A)

Author Grant Morrison was surprised to meet the actress Lee Merriweather, who played the role of Catwoman in the 1966 Batman movie based on the TV show, and had stopped by the DC Entertainment offices unexpectedly.

Behind him is a blow-up of the cover to Batman, Incorporated #8, in which Morrison wrote the death of Robin.

(Credit: Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Superman has been able to leap a tall building in a single bound since he was created in 1938, but author Grant Morrison's ideas seem to know no limits.

DC Entertainment held a press event recently to celebrate the conclusion of Morrison's seven-year run writing Batman, in which he posited that all of Batman's adventures, from his dark crime-busting origins, to the crazy science-fiction romps of the 1950s, to what he calls the "hairy chested love-god" tales from the 1970s, to today's Dark Knight, have all happened to the character.

Morrison's authorial interests stretch like spandex beyond superheroes, and a conversation you think you're having about how Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster created Superman suddenly turns to the 1960s and 1970s working-class Glaswegian world Morrison grew up in, scared of The Bomb and anxious about the military-industrial complex.

If you're not familiar with his work, Morrison cut his comics teeth by writing new takes on obscure superheroes such as Animal Man and The Doom Patrol. He's... [Read more]

The ugly truth: Apple vs. PC design

The PC world doesn't have anything like the iPad Mini. That's a problem. Just ask Intel.

(Credit: Apple)

Walk into any Best Buy and you're hit with an ugly truth: PCs aren't pretty.

A 15-inch HP Windows 8 laptop that sells for $270 (Best Buy's "Deal of the Day" on Saturday) isn't meant to be pretty. It's meant to be practical.

But a $330 iPad Mini is also very practical for a lot of people. And pretty too (consumers and reviewers seem to think so). Pretty and practical are two reasons Apple can sell tens of millions of Minis.

Now, thanks to Karen Nelson, a tidy archivist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, about 20 forgotten vials of moon dust collected by Armstrong and Aldrin have been rescued from a grave of their own: a warehouse at the Berkeley lab, where they'd sat quietly gathering, um, Earth dust for the last 40 years or so.

(Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/Roy Kaltschmidt)

As Julie Chao explained in ... [Read more]

Why DOJ didn't need a 'super search warrant' to snoop on Fox News' e-mail

Attorney General Eric Holder, shown testifying before Congress last week, personally approved the controversial search warrant for the contents of a Fox News correspondent's e-mail account.

(Credit: Getty Images)

If attorney general Eric Holder wanted to perform even a momentary Internet wiretap on Fox News' e-mail accounts, he would have had to persuade a judge to approve what lawyers call a "super search warrant."

A super search warrant's requirements are exacting: Intercepted communications must be secured and placed under seal. Real-time interception must be done only as a last resort. Only certain crimes qualify for this technique, the target must be notified, and additional restrictions apply to state and local police conducting real-time intercepts.

But because of the way federal law was written nearly half a century ago, Holder was able to obtain a normal search warrant -- lacking those extensive privacy protections -- that allowed federal agents to secretly ... [Read more]

Google's Schmidt: Teens' mistakes will never go away

When you search "teens do stupid things" on YouTube, you get a treasure trove.

(Credit: BFvsGF/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

It must be peculiar for children of the Internet age.

They are the first to have a complete record of their whole lives. They are the first who'll be able to offer concrete proof of every one of their days, friends, and actions.

Eric Schmidt worries, however, that they'll be the first who'll never be allowed to forget their mistakes.

As the Telegraph reports, Schmidt spoke Saturday at the Hay Festival in the U.K. and offered some sobering thoughts for those addled by online life.

He said: "There are situations in life that it's better that they don't exist. Especially if there is stuff you did when you were a teenager. Teenagers are now in an adult world online."

Some days, you could hardly describe most of what happens online as "adult." Still, Schmidt says he believes the online world has gone too far in forcing teens to never forget.

In bygone times, he said, they were punished, but allowed to grow beyond youthful indiscretions.

Some might wonder that teenagers aren't punished enough these days, so the online world acts as a peculiar correcti... [Read more]

Does Bible Belt love porn as much as the godless do?

This church offers hope to all. Even porn stars.

(Credit: ABC News/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

That which people project is not necessarily an expression of that which remains inside.

This simple truth is one that has saved me even more often than relative sobriety in the early hours of many mornings.

It's a truth that's apparently confirmed by figures emerging from a famous hub of pornography. For they suggest that even in the most outwardly saintly parts of America, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

I am grateful to PandoDaily for turning me (on) to an analysis by PornHub, which -- so several priest friends tell me -- is an extremely popular haven for the naked and the nubile.

PornHub took it upon itself as a civil and moral duty to discover whether cities that officially revere religion are more prone to pornographic abstinence than places where mammon, mammaries, and man-love hold sway.

To judge the religiousness of cities, the site used Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index.

It might be hard for some to swallow, but PornHub found that centers of rectitude such as Montgomery, Huntsville, and Birmingham, Ala., are watching mor... [Read more]

Apple 1 breaks auction record, goes for $671,400

(Credit: Breker)

One of what's believed to be only six still-working Apple 1 computers set a record at auction Saturday, selling for $671,400 in Germany.

The machine, built by Steve "The Woz" Wozniak in Steve Jobs' parents garage back in 1976, was sold along with the original owner's manual and a signed letter from Jobs to original owner Fred Hatfield.

Breker, the German auction house that handled the sale, sold another Apple 1 in December for $640,000, a substantial jump in price from the Apple 1 sold by Sotheby's in New York last June for $374,500.

(Credit: Breker)

Auctioner Uwe Breker said the appeal of the machine went far beyond the realm of geekery.

"It is a superb symbol of the American dream," he told The New York Times' Bits blog. "You have two college dropouts from California who pursued an idea and a dream, and that dream becomes one of the most admired, successful, and valuable companies in the world."

That can-do spirit is reflected in this brief description of the Apple 1's genesis, given in the Sotheb... [Read more]

Meet the new champ of desktop speakers: Adam Audio F5

Adam Audio F5

(Credit: Adam Audio)

My first encounter with one of Adam Audio's smallest speakers, the ARTist 3, took me by surprise last year. That little speaker is still in the line, but when I learned Adam just introduced a less expensive, but slightly larger desktop speaker, the F5, I was eager to get it in for review. The ARTist 3 has a better tweeter, bigger amps, a more robustly designed cabinet, and it's a lot nicer looking. The F5's black vinyl-covered cabinet is strictly business, and at $499 a pair it lists for $300 less than the ARTist 3.

Adam's rather unusual tweeter, the X-ART air motion transformer, is made in the company's factory in Berlin, Germany. The tweeter's "pleated" diaphragm compresses and expands with the audio signal. Air is drawn in and squeezed out, "like the bellows of an accordion," and the tweeter's high-frequency response extends beyond the range of most dome tweeters. The X-ART has a much larger radiating surface area than a dome tweeter, which is one of the reasons why it produces less distortion than dome tweeters. If you've only heard domes, the F5's treble will be a revelation.

The F5 uses a 5-inch fiberglass-p... [Read more]

'Star Trek II' producer talks Ceti Eel, J.J. Abrams, and more (Q&A)

Robert Sallin poses with the Genesis device prop.

(Credit: Courtesy of Robert Sallin)

The release of "Star Trek Into Darkness" has not only spurred interest in the "Trek" world in general, but especially in its film daddy, the original Khan-as-villain movie "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." While the new film takes quite a few detours, it is full of homages to the earlier work.

Let's look back to 1982. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" had been released in 1979 and faced a poor critical reception. Paramount, the film's studio, was gun-shy after the movie nearly doubled its original budget, ending up with a $46 million price tag. Nonetheless, plans for a second movie plodded along.

It's 30, 40 years later and we have new audiences. You can't keep dwelling on the old guys and the old things. It has to move ahead. --Robert Sallin, producer of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"

Into this mix of wariness and hope stepped Robert Sallin. With 2,000 commercials to his name, he was primarily a director, but he signed a deal with Paramount to take on producer duties for "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." With no script ready, no director on-board, and Paramount keeping a tight clamp on the budget, Sallin had his hands full with steering the film into and through production.

All those trials somehow came out OK in the end. "Star Trek II: The Wrath... [Read more]

'Star Trek II' behind the scenes (pictures)

"Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" producer Robert Sallin shares some photos and images from his personal archives, including some of the concept drawings for the ear creature.Robert Sallin had a successful career as a director of television commercials under his belt when he signed on with Paramount to produce "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." His experience in commercials helped him immensely when it came to keeping the production on a tight budget and steering the direction for the film's special effects. While the new film "Star Trek Into Darkness" takes quite a few detours, it is full of homages to the earlier work. [Read more]

Beware the coming of the Google Glass photographer

Somehow, this advanced technology seems like a step backward at times...

(Credit: Video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)

As you head off to your Memorial Day weekend getaway with smartphone or digital camera in hand, keep in mind that by this time next year, there could be a whole new breed of technophile attending the holiday festivities: the dreaded Google Glass photographer.