theskinnynewsdaily Getting the skinny on today's tech and gadgets

LG Mobile Application Store To Open In 23 Markets

LG's mobile application store was launched a little while back, and now the Korean company has updated the store, expanding it to 23 countries which include Australia, India, South Africa, and 20 other countries. There are a good 3,000 applications in the store, and will be available for feature phones, Windows Mobile phones, with Android applications slated to expand the library along the way. From an initial look into the Australian store, it seems that all apps are free for download, though users are separated into Single, Double, or Triple membership levels, with each level offering users more access to additional applications. Activity points will be earned by rating apps, sharing it over email or other methods. Countries such as the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Iran are also slated to be getting the application store later this year, though there hasn't been any word of a US launch just yet.

Permalink: LG Mobile Application Store To Open In 23 Markets from Ubergizmo | Hot: iPhone 4 Review, iPad Review

ZTE Peel EV-DO Router For iPod Touch Visits The FCC

The ZTE Peel 3200 that seems destined for Sprint's network has paid the FCC a visit, and from the looks of it, it's a sleeve for Apple's iPod touch that has built-in Wi-Fi and GPS radios, enabling it to double up as an EV-DO mobile broadband router that will support up to five devices at one go. Details are still quite sketchy at the moment, as neither Sprint nor ZTE have officially announced the ZTE Peel just yet.

Permalink: ZTE Peel EV-DO Router For iPod Touch Visits The FCC from Ubergizmo | Hot: iPhone 4 Review, iPad Review

Facebook Losing 18-25 Audience?

According to InsideFacebook, Facebook has begun to have a negative growth in the key demographic of 18-35 year-olds. And though the site continues to have significant positive growth overall, should they be worried about losing this key demographic?

InsideFacebook

Has Facebook lost its appeal to you? Do you use it as much as before?

Leave your comments here and let us know.

Also, visit IndustryPace.com to find out more about the Facebook statistics and growth patterns.

Post from: EveryJoe

125-piece Metal Puzzle Holds a Dangerous Secret

This 125-piece puzzle has a secret. After unlocking it with a special key, the 125-pieces (made from six types of metal) can be disassembled. Once broken down, 20 of them can be put together to form a fully-functioning single-shot .45 caliber handgun.

[Maxton ">Maxton via We Interrupt]

At Last, The Princess Bride in a Board-game [Storming the Castle]

I am not sure how many times I watched the Princess Bride when I was growing up – my view count might have reached three figures, but I don’t know. What I do know is that I loved it – it had the right combination of characters, humor, light violence, and romance to pretty much appeal to everyone.

So I can definitely see myself buying this board-game version from Think Geek. At least I could if it weren’t for the monstrous amount of clutter that has accumulated in my tiny apartment, and which makes even a tiny board-game a space concern.

Price: $19.99

iPad Available in Nine More Countries This Friday

Book Review: Feed by Mira Grant

In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as “Marburg Amberlee”—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.

I’ve seen my fair share of zombie movies, but when it comes to books, I’ve never actually read any zombie-themed stories (although I’m not counting fantasy series with living dead type monsters, I mean proper zombies-in-our-universe). So I don’t have that much to compare this book to besides the movies. One thing though that almost always annoys me in zombie films is that most characters have no idea how to deal with zombies or have never even heard of them. It’s as if they’re in a world where zombie movies don’t exist. Or it’s set in a apocalyptic future where zombies are threatening to take over.

In Feed that’s quite different. It’s set 20 years after a “zombie” outbreak; this is a world where people grew up with zombie movies and have adapted to a different way of living to deal with the outbreak. The zombie virus is dormant in every living person and can get activated when it comes in contact with the live virus (aka the zombies). Besides that it also gets activated if you die. Now think about it: how would this change the world you live in?

Mira Grant takes that idea and fleshes it out. Buildings require blood tests before entering, being a doctor is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, and George, Georgina and Georgette are popular kids names (because of George Romero in case you didn’t get why). I loved discovering how this world works; Grant has created an interesting future and I wonder if there was a zombie outbreak how close to the truth this could be.

The story is about a blogger Georgia, who together with her brother Shaun and their friend Buffy, is invited to cover a senator’s presidential campaign. They slowly discover a conspiracy… Yeah, it sounds a bit cheesy, but before I knew it, I got so invested in Georgia’s story. First book in a long time that made me cry and that’s a tough thing to do.

What didn’t completely work for me was how the blogging and online world was explained. In the future every blogger fits a certain category; you have the Newsies, those who write up the news and are objective about it; the Stewarts, those who comment on the news; the Irwins, adventure/action/zombie-antagonizing bloggers; the Fictionals, those who write stories or poetry (including of course fan fiction); and finally the Aunties, recipe/mummy/lifestory bloggers. Then there was the way each blog had ratings and a spot in the uber list of rankings, as if it was more kindred to traditional broadcast media. Also: no mention of Twitter, but I’m guessing this book was written before that hit. It doesn’t diminish the reading experience, but I wished this was a little more similar to reality.

I really enjoyed Feed and I’m now really curious to what else Mira Grant has written (this is her first book as Grant, but she also writes as Seanan McGuire). Feed has a great story, which sucks you completely in. And it’s got a fascinating world to discover along the way.

Feed by Mira Grant – Available on Amazon.co.uk for £5.49 and on Amazon.com for $9.99.

Related posts:

1. Book Lust: Feed by Mira Grant
2. Book Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
3. Book Review: Kushiel’s Mercy by Jacqueline Carey

Link Love: July 15th through July 21st

Interesting links for July 15th through July 21st:

• Sebastian’s Trek – Aw, a Trekkie's quest for love!
• A Series of Collectable Star Wars Cereal Boxes – Cool post from Bleeding Cool who discovered some awesome Star Wars themed cereal boxes.
• "yeah thats not what I was looking for at all." – Girl looses cat, and asks designer to help make a "missing cat" poster…
• Good Night and Tough Luck – NYTimes.com – Getting a good night’s sleep is actually a lot more complicated than one would think.
• Guess-the-google – Try to guess what search term was used for the shown images! Trickier than you'd think.

Related posts:

1. Link Love: April 15th through April 24th
2. Link Love: July 8th through July 18th
3. Link Love: July 20th through July 27th

Me Wantz: Summer Swiss Army Knife Designs

For the past 8 years I’ve always had a swiss army knife on my keychain. It’s super handy to have with me! But I am the type of person who manages to forget to not have them in my hand luggage when traveling by plane… I had a A Life Less Ordinary pocketknife which I had found for only €1 at a sale and lost this at an airport. I still haven’t found an exact replacement (anyone got any tips?), but these summer designs look great:

They aren’t available anymore on the actual Swiss Army knife site, but there are quite a lot of online stores that still stock them. Just search for swiss army knife and the name of the design (Lobster, Summer Blue, Summer Green and Summer Lt Blue).

Related posts:

1. Me Wantz: Bookrest
2. Me Wantz: Notepod
3. Me Wantz: Piniwini Bookshelf