Even though dating should be about having fun and meeting new people, it's also about finding out if this person is potential mate material. I mean you want to know if the person sitting across from you has had serious run-ins with the law or has picked their nose since age seven. Thanks to this new iPhone and Android app, you might not be able to check about the nose picking habit, but you can get the deets on just about everything else.

Created by information commerce company, Intelius, Date Check does what the company does best, dig up dirt.Date Check is an app that lets users pull up all those juicy secrets that you want to know, but might be too shy to ask on the first or second date. With a flick of the wrist you can find out if a person has a criminal history via the sleeze detector. You can also see if they own real estate, or if they're living with someone -- say a spouse they might have forgotten to mention.

The app is currently available for free on the Android Marketplace and the Apple App Store.

Via Gadgetwise

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Today was 2010's first iDay- the announcement of a new or updated Apple product, predictably following months, or in this case years of feverish speculation. Steve Jobs gave the gathered press the first glimpse of the super-tablet himself, proudly declaring the new iPad not just revolutionary, but magical. It is undeniably sleek, beautiful, and impressive to look at but is it necessary, especially for people already toting around iPhones or iPod Touches, along with a MacBook or a MacBook Air?

Here are the specs:

-9.7" LED backlit, fully multi-touch display, with IPS technology (IPS provides wide viewing angles and good color reproduction, important for a tablet that you may use both laptop-style, and as a media player). There's also a special fingerprint-resistant coating, obviously good for a screen with a touch interface.

-Up to 10 hour battery life for video, music, and wifi surfing.

-Half an inch thick, weighs 1.5 lbs, 9.5" high, 7.5" wide.

-Wifi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G through AT&T (yay, not). Assisted GPS on 3G models only.

-On-screen keyboard only- but wide enough, apparently for something approaching touch-typing. Jobs typed with all his fingers, not just thumbs during the demo. There's also an optional hardware keyboard which also charges the iPad.

-The iPad will run all current iPhone/iPod Touch applications, plus have its own iPad-only apps.

-The iPad is an advanced e-book reader, using the iBooks app for reading and the iBookstore app for browsing and buying books. iBookstore has licensing deals with some of the biggest publishers so book selection should quickly get competitive with the Amazon Kindle's, plus iBook supports the EPUB standard, which offers thousands of free books. The best part? The Amazon Kindle and BN Nook use low-powered e-ink displays which are easy on the eyes and give great battery life, but they are not backlit or in color. The iPad is both, and while battery life is sure to be less than the Kindle's, 10 hours is still really, really good.

-iWork, Apple's answer to MS Office will be available for the iPad. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote (Apple's versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) will be $9.99 each, a great price for a full featured app.

What are the advantages of the iPad over the iPhone or iPod Touch? The screen, obviously is almost three times the size, a huge improvement for web surfing, watching videos and viewing photos, email, and working on documents. The on-screen keyboard, which will surely elicit much discussion, won't please everybody, but will surely be more comfortable for typing longer docs and emails, and there is the optional hardware keyboard.

Why would you get the iPad instead of a MacBook Air? There are some great tablet PCs out there already (I have and love the Viliv, for example) and while they are less popular, thus far, than netbooks (low-priced, lightweight, and usually lower-powered small notebooks), I think they are a separate beast from the laptop altogether, one that makes a lot of sense to me. I'm currently 9 months pregnant, needing to keep on top of email and everything else work-related, but my hormonal brain mostly wants to be entertained. I use my MacBook Pro for work, but honestly these days I use it just as much to watch TV, listen to music, and shop for baby things. I don't really need the MacBook Pro to do those things. I also use my Kindle for hours since I can't spend as much time in bookstores. Wrap up the e-book reader, iPod, iPhone, and most of the features of the MacBook into one device and my electronic load lightens considerably. The iPad won't replace your MacBook or any other notebook computer; it's a media player that can do some work too.

Some questions remain:
-No word on if Safari on the iPad will support Flash. That's the thing that most drives me crazy about my iPhone- going to a site and seeing a big nothing because the site is entirely in Flash. All the streaming video sites like Hulu utilize Flash, so perhaps that's a marketing decision on Apple's part to make sure iTunes is media central, but it's a huge, huge, disappointment. Perhaps a deadly mistake, and a reason to look at other tablets.

-The flash-based storage on the iPad can't be supplemented with memory cards so the 16 GB-64 GB storage options seem excruciatingly paltry- especially since Apple is pushing their high-def movie content on iTunes. If you get the baseline 16 GB and you load up a few movies, you're going to run out of space very quickly.

-No built-in camera for Skype and other video conferencing. This too seems odd as Apple have long been including webcams in their notebook and desktop computers.

-There were rumors that AT&T was losing their iPhone exclusivity as of today. Nope, and in fact, if you want to have 3G service on your iPad, you'll need service through AT&T. There are two plans available, and both are, blessedly, without contract so you can cancel at any time. $14.99/month for 250 MB and $29.99 for unlimited use. You also get free AT&T wifi, which I personally only ever find in Barnes and Noble stores.

Will I buy it? Oh probably. I was an avowed PC user for years and years and the iPhone was my downfall into the Cult of Mac. I never thought I'd fall in love with the iPhone but now I literally don't go anywhere, even into another room of my house, without it.
Do I think everyone needs it? I acknowledge that there are some serious issues, especially if there's no Flash and the lame storage options, but this could be the computer that gets your tech-phobic dad able to use email for the very first time, and will be equally enthralling for a middle-schooler who wants to play games and do homework research.

When can you get it? The wifi only models will be available in about 60 days. The wifi+3G won't be available for another 90 days. The pricing? Well yes, it starts at just $499 but that's for 16 GB model which has wifi only. The highest end model will have 64 GB, with wifi and 3G, and cost $829. I'd highly recommend waiting for the $829 model. You'll need the storage and unless you live somewhere with widely available wifi, you'll be frustrated when you leave your home and lose access to most of the features of the iPad.

Get more details at Apple.

For the minute-by-minute account earlier today, I was following Ryan Block's excellent coverage on gdgt.

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LG and Sprint are continuing their partnership with the release of the successor to the stylish Lotus phone. The LG Lotus Elite has all the looks of the original Lotus, but has stepped it up a notch with a few exclusive features.

One of the new features on the Elite is the 2.4-inch external touchscreen that allows users to easily navigate all their pertinent information without having to open the phone. The screen has a 320x240 resolution which makes for a vibrant phone experience. Other features include the new three dedicated shortcut keys for social networking, email, and text. The social networking button, dubbed Social can be mapped to a person's favorite social network.

In addition, the fashion phone comes equipped with a 2.0 megapixel camera with autofocus that is located in the hinge of the phone. There's also a full QWERTY keyboard and microSD slot that expands the memory up to 32.GB.

The phone is currently available at Sprint for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two year agreement.

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Contrary to popular belief, there are more than a few girl gamers out there, serving up their own brand of pwnage with a smile. When it comes to game development, women continue to be an underrepresented segment of the industry. Sony Online Entertainment is doing their part to remedy the situation with the G.I.R.L. scholarship.

The G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) program was created to affect how women are portrayed in video games. And there's no better way to change the machine than to work from within. In conjunction with the program there is also a scholarship was created with the express purpose of recruiting into the fields of video game production and design.

One lucky gamer girl can be awarded the $10,000 prize provided they are eligible to apply. Eligibility is as follows:

* Currently enrolled in an undergraduate program related to video games, including programs related to video game art, design, animation, production, programming, or visual effects;
* Have a 3.00 or higher grade point average (GPA) on a 4.00 scale;
* Continue to be enrolled during the entire 2010-11 academic year, not graduating before the end of the 2011 spring term;
* Be a legal resident of the United States (including the District of Columbia) for the duration of the competition and
* Be eighteen (18) years or older at the time of application

Applications are currently available at https://www.scholarshipamerica.org/gamersinreallife/.

Via Gamertell

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Now that geeks are considered sexy, we techies are finally being appreciated for our sparkling intellect, and almost obsessional love of tech. In my mind, we were always sexy, but it just took mainstream society awhile to catch on. Now one of our most treasured mainstream childhood icons might be getting in on the geek sexy angle.

Mattel creator of the iconic Barbie doll is asking people to vote on the dolls next career. Since her debut in 1959, Barbie has had over 120 careers. She's been an astronaut, a rock star, and a veterinarian. Hey, she has to pay off the mortgage for that dream house and Ferrari somehow.

Listed among the possible careers is computer engineer. I can think of no better way to show the next generation the coolness of tech than presenting some lucky youngster with a shiny ne "Computer Engineer" Barbie. Please lend your vote and let's initiate Barbie into our ultra-cool society of tech.

The results on the voting will be available on February 12. So vote and keep your fingers crossed.

Via CrunchGear

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Any expectant mother can tell you, it's never to early to start communicating with your child. Besides having extended conversations while baby is in-utero, music has been proven to assist with positive fetal development including displaying "advanced intelligence, coordination, and learning abilities."

Nuvo Group's new device helps deliver soothing sound to your baby with the Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System. Kind of like a speaker system for your unborn bundle of joy, Ritmo is a lightweight belt that fits comfortably around mommy-to-be's tummy. The belt has four built-in speakers that utilized patented Safe&Sound Technology to make sure that the sound level is perfectly safe for baby's ears. The belt also comes with a controller used to plug in an mp3 player.

In addition to music, you can also record family members special messages or reading a bedtime story. The great thing about this gadget is that it has a shelf life beyond the pregnancy. Ritmo has applications that allow it to adapt to the stroller, crib, and baby's toys after birth.

The Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System is currently retailing for $129.

Via Coolest Gadgets

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Reebok recently started selling a walking shoe, called Easytone, that is supposed to tone your leg and butt muscles while you walk.

And the buzz machine swung into action. The Easytone shoe has made a huge splash--TV appearances, newspaper and magazine articles, buzz, buzz, buzz.

If the shoe fits, does it really firm up those muscles? Does the Easytone shoe work?

Dan Ariely is James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University is skeptical. He points out that the scientific evidence is thin. Reports of Easytone effectiveness may, he speculates, may be due to the placebo effect. (Placebos are inert pills or any item that can't possibly be of direct medical benefit, but still makes people get better.)

The placebo effect is enormously important in medicine. When a new drug is tested on people and turns out to be effective, a notable number of people in the control group, who received a sham pill rather than the real thing, always get better too.

As it turns out, the placebo effect contributes heavily to the positive effects of exercise too. When people are told (falsely) that a particular activity is good exercise, many of them believe it so strongly that they lose weight and body fat and their blood pressure even goes down. Which has me wondering how I can convince myself that reading in bed, sleeping late, and taking long hot showers will make me thinner.

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You've always loved your jeans, and now here's another reason: denim protects you from snakebite.

Of course, to be fully protected, you may need to give up those skinny jeans that show off your, um assets. Go shopping instead for something like the technology breakthrough fabric invented in the 18th century but still beloved in the 21st: Armor-like heavyweight denim fashioned into Mom jeans.

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So, it's officially winter and, therefore, as important as ever to keep a close eye on the forecast. Now you can do it with style!

Sparkling away with dozens of Swarovski Crystals™, the Diamond Weather Station from Oregon Scientific adds a bit of glamour to the world of otherwise… shall we say… 'conservative' electronic weather forecasters. The crystals light up brightly in one of three different patterns / colors – red sun, blue cloud, or green rain – to clue you in to what to expect from the sky in the coming hours.

This beautiful unit Features a remote sensor to transmit outdoor temperature to the display and a digital clock that auto-syncs with the Naval atomic clock for precision time. A quick wave of your hand over the top of the unit switches the display between time, indoor temperature, and outdoor temperature, or you can put it in an automatic mode.

But wait! We've saved the best feature for last… If you utter the enclosed incantation while waving your hand over the unit, you can change the weather to… well… okay… not really on this one. You can still be prepared and be stylish, though.

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The Windowfarms project turns your window into an urban farm, using inexpensive and recyclable parts. The results are a "curtain" for any window that is also a year-round, high-yield, vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, edible garden. The open designs are free to download and easy to implement. The project also encourages the community to innovate and share improvements.

Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray started this project in February, 2009 during their artist's residency in New York's Eyebeam Art and Technology Center. Their mission is to encourage sustainable solutions that can be implemented today by anyone. Recently, Riley presented developments of Windowfarms at the New York chapter of Dorkbot.

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Yet another year-end Top Ten list, this time a Top Ten list--Top Nine list, actually--of 2009 tech ideas that get a gold star from David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times.

I have experience with a couple of his choices and think they are indeed worth recommending.

One is the cute trick found only on WebOS phones, at the moment the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi. The phones can collect. consolidate, and color-code data from various calendars and Facebook events, all on a single calendar, plus also data from your contact and messaging lists. At last a way to bring together much of your data, online and off, into something like a genuine personal information manager for your phone. And you hardly have to exert yourself at all; the process is mostly automagic.

The other fine tool is Readability, a marvel of a bookmarklet for your browser toolbar that nearly always can figure out what text you want from any old Web page and make it simple, handsome, and free of surrounding clutter. You don't have to use the Select command, and the result is readable--and easy to copy, mail, and/or save to your hard drive. The Readability folks are calling it an experiment, so don't expect perfection. But they are attentive to your needs. I had a problem using Readability on particular pages, dropped them a note, and in their update they fixed the problem. The only response to that is: Wow.

The Times site is free, but requires registration. Happy New Year! We certainly need one.

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The AViiQ laptop stand is the most portable I've ever seen--and also the most gorgeous. At 12 3/4" long, unfolded and supporting your laptop, the AViiQ laptop stand is only a little bigger than a sheet of paper. Folded, it's not much bigger than a No.10 envelope and weighs just 5.5 oz, so it fits easily into your laptop bag or even just a laptop sleeve.

I'm a veteran laptop traveler and for years carried a (relatively) lightweight plastic laptop stand that kept the thing from sliding off my lap and folded to provide a decent typing angle. But the fold didn't change its outer dimensions--bigger than my laptop's footprint, which dictated which bags I could carry. The AViiQ laptop stand, said to fit laptops up to 17", is a dream by comparison.

The AViiQ folks, like other laptop stand makers, claim their laptop stand will dissipate heat and prolong battery life. I can't evaluate that claim, but I can tell you that the 12% slope the AViiQ laptop stand achieves is, as they claim, the perfect typing angle. I was actually kinda startled by how much it improved typing ease. All of a sudden I can race along almost as quickly on my less-than-optimum laptop keyboard as I can on the classic IBM keyboard I use with my desktop.

And did I mention gorgeous? The AViiQ laptop stand is a tech beauty worthy of Apple. The stand is four lightweight plates made of Hylite, a composite of aluminum sheets bonded to a polypropylene core. The material is milled to be both flexible and rigid. AViiQ says that in testing the stand was folded more than 5000 times and showed no wear.

With all that perfection, you knew there was some bad news coming, right? Here it is: the price. $80.

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Though netbooks couldn't get any smaller? Guess again. Sony just released the Sony Vaio P in Korea. The 1.3 lbs. netbook has an eight inch display and is small enough to fit in your pocket. There are currently two models, the VGN-P35LK and VGN-P33LK.

The VGN-P35LK is available in Gold, Green, Black, White, and Red. It features a 64GB SSD and an Intel Atom Processor. The VGN-P33LK has a 80GB HDD and 2GB of DDR2 memory and is available in black or white. Both models will have an integrated webcam, Windows 7, and Bluetooth capability.

No word on whether or not these minis will make it stateside.

Via AVING USA

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The Gravida Nurse Prenatal Education Device is a great gift for first time mothers. Instead of spending a small fortune on parenting books, expectant mothers can turn to this handy gadget. The device is a small handheld device that features helpful articles focused on providing good prenatal care for both baby and mom.

There are also voices recordings and pictures to help reinforce the information. Everything can be accessed via the large touchscreen. There's also a slot for a memory card and it can be hooked up to a computer via USB. No word on if additional information can be added to the Gravida using these means.

The Gravida Nurse is small, cute, helpful and going for $22.65

Via UberGizmo

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It's never easy caring for someone with Alzheimer's. It can be a devastating experiences watching a loved one slip in and out of lucidity. One can only imagine the confusion, anger, and fear a person affected by the disease experiences during these moments. A daughter of an Alzheimer's sufferer wanted to lend some comfort to her parent and created this ingenious device.

The Kind Reminder is a recorder that can be worn around the neck as a necklace or just kept close by. When the patient has a moment of disorientation, they can press the button on the recorder and the voice of their caretaker will play. The website says the product is designed for people with early to mid-stage Alzheimer's or memory loss related to age.

The device is powered by a single AAA battery and fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. The caretaker can record a message to anticipate the repetitive questions that are characteristic of Alzheimer's patients. A sample message on the Kind Reminder website is as follows:

Hi, Mom. Today is Tuesday, you have had a good breakfast and taken all of your medication. Mary is here with you, and I will be back this afternoon." A message like this, or a simple "I love you, Mom

The Kind Reminder can be purchased for $19.95 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. Five percent of all sales will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association.

Via Coolest Gadgets

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