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The next Internet landgrab: dot-orgs

The domain extension long associated with non-profits -- .org -- is about to ring up some big bucks.

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the not-for-profit operator of the .org domain extension, has teamed up with registrars Go Daddy and eNom to auction off 94 perviously unregistered one- and two-character .org addresses. PIR CEO Brian Cute says that the proceeds from the initiative -- called Project94 -- will go "to enhance the open development and security of the Internet, particularly in technologically underserved regions of the world."

Where exactly the money will go, he said, will be determined by how … Read more

Helmet-mounted crash sensor automatically calls for help

You're biking along, minding your own business. You reach an amazing downhill stretch. You pick up speed. You're really cranking along. Oh no! A hippopotamus wanders onto the trail! You swerve and end up faceplanting in the bushes.

Don't fear, your helmet will dial your emergency contacts and give your location. The ICEdot Crash Sensor is a stick-on sensor that mounts onto your helmet. It connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth. When it senses an impact, it sounds an alarm and starts a countdown clock on the crash sensor app. You have a set amount of time to turn it off.… Read more

Caught on video: Seagull sneakily steals GoPro

When Nathalie Rollandin visited the San Francisco Bay Area in late August, she got quite the tourist's welcome when her GoPro camera ended up being stolen -- by a devious avian thief -- with the heist recorded on video.

In the short clip below, a seagull clearly snatches the camera, then takes flight over the sunset-kissed blue waters near the Golden Gate Bridge. The bird emits a brief noise during the crime, indicating a successful capture or perhaps simply a "see ya sucker." After a short flight, the bird drops the camera dozens of feet away, perhaps realizing the prey wasn't that tasty after all. … Read more

Apple harvests new iPhone, iPods

An object of much anticipation and speculation over the last several months, the iPhone 5 was finally announced this week.

According to Apple, the device is 18 percent thinner than the iPhone 4S, measuring just 7.6mm. It's also 20 percent lighter than its predecessor at 112 grams. The company is calling the aluminum backplate -- which has been shown in several leaked images over the last several weeks -- the "slate."

One of the biggest additions is the new 4-inch Retina Display, with the same 326 pixels per inch found in the iPhone 4S. The phone … Read more

GoDaddy offers users one month credit following service outage

GoDaddy customers are being given an apology and one month of free service after grappling with Monday's service snafu.

In an e-mail sent to GoDaddy users, the company's CEO Scott Wagner apologized for the outage that affected Web sites, e-mail availability, and other services.

"We let you down and we know it," the e-mail read. "We take our responsibilities -- and the trust you place in us -- very seriously. I cannot express how sorry I am to those of you who were inconvenienced."

To appease its customers, GoDaddy is kicking in a credit … Read more

Go Daddy: Sorry about the outage. And no, it wasn't a hack

Domain registrar and Web hosting company Go Daddy said that yesterday's outage, which brought down an untold number of Web sites, was not the result of a hacker attack.

"The service outage was not caused by external influences," the company's interim CEO, Scott Wagner, said in a statement. "It was not a 'hack' and it was not a denial of service attack (DDoS)."

After the outage, which affected many Go Daddy customers starting at around 10 a.m PT, someone using the Twitter handle @AnonymousOwn2r claimed to have caused the outage with a distributed … Read more

Go Daddy says client Web sites back up

Web sites serviced by Web hosting and domain registrar Go Daddy were back online early this evening after being down for much of the work day, a company spokeswoman told CNET.

"All services are restored and at no time was sensitive customer information, such as credit card data, passwords, names, addresses, ever compromised," Go Daddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll said in a phone interview just before 5 p.m. PT. She said the company does not know at this time exactly what caused the outage and she couldn't say exactly how many sites were affected.

"It did … Read more

Go Daddy-serviced Web sites go down; hacker takes credit

Web sites serviced by DNS and hosting provider Go Daddy were down for most of today, but were back up later this afternoon. A hacker using the "Anonymous Own3r" Twitter account claimed credit for the outage.

"Things are restored," Go Daddy spokeswoman Elizabeth Driscoll told CNET just before 5 p.m. PT today. She said she did not have many details and was hoping to be able to give an update with more information in the next 24 hours.

In an interview this afternoon, Driscoll reiterated that she could not say what the cause of the … Read more

Mars panoramic skirt: Wrap a rover around your waist

I have a space dream. I've been invited to the NASA prom by Mohawk Guy. He's going to pick me up in the Mars Curiosity rover. What on earth am I going to wear? I'd better head over to Etsy and order a Mars panoramic skirt.

Etsy seller Go Chase Rabbits has a huge line of geek chic skirts, but the Mars rover panoramic is especially impressive. … Read more

Video download options

The GetGo YouTube Downloader is a software application for downloading your favorite videos and/or audio. You can view them offline on your computer or on other supported devices in a number of formats.

Overall, this video downloader isn't the best out there. It managed to download a 3-minute video in a little over 2 minutes -- the output was an MP4 (iPod Touch) -- and the video quality was clean, but the audio wasn't. It sounded a little like it was underwater. Other similar download software has had better sound but not as high quality video. One … Read more