For most of 2011, Upstream has touted the value of gamifying consumers' mobile marketing experiences to make them more rewarding and to drive better response rates. In the vein of 'practicing what you preach,' the company has now turned the expertise it normally deploys for some of the world's largest carriers and brands to design an online challenge to help recruit candidates for its open Marketing Campaign Manager positions.

"The Upstream Challenge is a great tool to attract and really engage the right kind of candidates for this role," said Guy Krief, Senior Vice-President, Innovation, Upstream. "We're trying an innovative approach to recruitment - not just looking at hiring the most impressive resume, but people who are up for a challenge and demonstrate an ease with languages, can creatively think and innovate and who understand basic statistics, because that's what they'll face every day in this position."

The challenge is designed to take a maximum of 60 minutes and leads candidates through a series of seven timed missions that relate to specific aspects of the Marketing Campaign Manager positions. After providing personal contact details, candidates begin with exercises such as 'decrypting' anagrams, word usage questions, elementary mathematic questions, matching an emotion to a hypothetical scenario, and more.

According to Krief, these missions test fundamental marketing knowledge and analytical skills, and may uncover candidates who would never have otherwise applied for the position but actually demonstrate that they have the skills to do the job successfully. "Our hope is that this type of engagement will attract a wide range of talent, and will prove more fun and compelling than the typical recruitment process," said Krief. "It's been said that you can learn more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation, so it's going to be fascinating to see the results."

The Marketing Campaign Manager will work on Upstream's global, multi-channel client campaigns to extend the award-winning work of this fast-growing company. Upstream has added more than 45 full-time employees and opened new offices in Silicon Valley, Rio de Janeiro and Dubai in the past year alone. There are five open Marketing Campaign Manager positions, which will be located in the UK, U.S., Greece and Brazil.

With gamification, Upstream dramatically increases levels of responsiveness, engagement and enjoyment of marketing campaigns, transforming the experience to benefit both the consumer and marketer. The gamification engine that forms an integral part of Upstream's Marketing Communications Suite (MCS) technology platform delivers key insights into interactions as they happen, enabling the platform to tailor campaigns so that their frequency, progress and content are informed by the behavior of highly targeted consumer segments, making it ultimately more rewarding and enjoyable for individuals.

Bookish types everywhere rejoiced in March when the popular Goodreads social network, which allows users to rate and review their favorite reads, acquired the Discovereads book recommendation engine. Users of Goodreads and similar services like Shelfari and LibraryThing have been clamoring for the roll-out of an integrated rating and recommendation service, almost since the services’ inception. Despite Goodreads acquisition of Discovereads having taken place in March, it’s taken the company six full months to rollout its recommendation engine. While the turn-around time has surely been agonizing for die-hard users, the roll-out is actually quite timely considering Goodreads has actually beaten both Shelfari and LibraryThing to the punch with its engine.

Backstory aside, the real question is: Are the recommendations any good? Goodreads’ CEO Otis Chandler sure thinks so. In a review of the service by ReadWriteWeb blogger John Titlow, Chandler is quoted saying:

With Goodreads, it's as if you combine your favorite librarian, your best friend, and a database of two million book titles into one person and ask 'what should I read next? We're the Netflix of book recommendations

Calling your service the “Netflix of book recommendations” is a big statement considering Goodreads user base is only one fifth the size of Netflix and is still a free service. That said, Goodreads appears to have the infrastructure in place to back it up, boasting a set of propriety algorithms which look at over 20 billion different data points, most notably the stated preferences of their 5.2 million users. And the users of their service are extremely active, apparently infinitely more so than users of the juggernaut online bookseller Amazon. Chandler notes that the Goodreads’ database has more than 174,000 ratings of the best-selling title The Help while Amazon only has about 4,400. He also mentions that while Amazon has purchase history, browsing history, and ratings to base its recommendations on, Goodreads has more data about what people actually like and dislike in what they read and he feels it’s that distinction that will truly sets the Goodreads service apart.

As an active reader, when I heard about this service I was more than excited. In the past, I’ve depended almost entirely on friends and acquaintances for book recommendations, some good, others not so much, so for me having a source of recommendations based on my own preferences in some way is pretty intriguing. I’ve had a chance to browse and use the service a bit since learning about it. I have to hand it to Chandler in that the platform itself is both visually and functionally quite similar to Netflix. The rating system is a classic 5-star rating system and the recommendations are broken down by genre. While I haven’t had a chance to fully test the recommendations, I must say that the books that were recommended to me given the 30 or so ratings I made of previous reads were quite interesting and I do plan on picking them up the next time I swing by a book store. Given my experience I would definitely say that anyone with a keen interest in literature or even surface reading should give the service a try, if nothing else it could open you to some books you might not otherwise hear about.

Barnes & Noble recently released a new version of their popular Nook reader. And it's nice, ladies and gentlemen. It's nice. If you're new to the reader market, of if you're thinking about upgrading from an older Amazon Kindle or what have you, read on for some choice tidbits and specs.

With Apple's iPad and iPad 2—along with a slew of new tablet computers—being so multifunctional, Barnes & Noble was smart in getting back to the basics and creating a relatively inexpensive device ($139 versus $499 for the cheapest iPad 2) that focuses on just reading books. No games, no web browsing, just black and white text courtesy of an E-ink Pearl touchscreen. So, this is NOT the reader you want for the children reading colorful (or multimedia) kids books, or books filled with art or images.

However, the Simple Touch Reader allows you to read the grown-up text exceedingly well. It suffers from none of the glare issues of a full multicolor LCD screen (like the iPad or the more expensive Nook Color); you can read it easily in direct sunlight. The Simple Touch screen is also less likely to cause eye fatigue than its fancier cousins. Additionally, the screen won't smudge nearly as easily as an LCD screen, so that's a bonus. This, along with the reader's feather-light weight (7.5 ounces), makes it more portable than even the iPad 2 (1.33 pounds). The Simple Touch is nearly three times lighter than our favorite tablet computer, and a couple inches smaller both length- and width-wise, making it ultra-portable.

Another huge selling point is battery life. In comparison to the iPad 2's 10 hours of battery life, the Simple Touch can last a jaw-dropping two months (!) without needing a recharge, if Wi-Fi is turned off. For frequent travelers or just the absent-minded professor in all of us who forgets to charge, this is really useful.

Sticking to these 6 strategies will allow you to make the most of your 401(k) and to max out your retirement income regardless of when you started saving.

Okay, so the reader looks good and lasts forever: how easily can it navigate a book? Here the Simple Touch shines as well. A “Reading Now” section will take you with one tap to your current book (and place in the book). Similarly, you can access the Barnes & Noble library of over 2 million books just as easily. And page turning is intuitive. You can hit the page turn button, physically swipe the screen, or touch the screen margin to proceed. To “flip” through the book, you just need to hold the button.

The larger lesson here is that it doesn't make sense to kill flies (read books) with a sledge hammer (a full tablet PC). Use a fly swatter (the Nook Simple Touch). It'll cost you a lot less, and it's designed to do one thing, and do it very well.

Have you had a chance to try out the new Simple Touch? Please share your impressions in the comments!

From the first time a caveman swapped his goat for another caveman's spiked club, swapping has been a great way to unload your unwanted items and get free stuff back in return. Craigslist was “the” swapping site for a while, but it's often hit-or-miss (at best). In this entry, we take a look at two dedicated swapping sites—each with something unique to offer—that represent the “next generation” of getting free stuff online.

First up is FreeCycle.org. Probably the only thing better than getting free stuff is knowing you're helping out the environment while doing it, and that's the idea behind FreeCycle, a non-profit organization which has really blown up in recent months. For eco-conscious communities as well as corporations practicing eco-responsibility, FreeCycle makes a lot of sense.

FreeCycle was set up with the goal of reducing landfill waste by setting up a swapping program. The site organizes member groups according to geographical region, and members can either post unwanted items to donate to the membership, or ask for items they need. Members can then swap items for free, all in the spirit of the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” slogan, giving hand-me-down items a new home and saving some trash from going into the landfill in the process.

FreeCycle is especially useful for unloading your unwanted bulky items—table and chairs, computer monitors, unused lumber... the list is endless. Bulky items are a pain in the neck (and the back) to dispose of anyway, so why not find them a new home, brightening someone's day and de-cluttering your own life?

The second swapping site is called TitleTrader.com. TitleTrader goes by a points system, which seems like a very clean and efficient way to swap. As a member, you offer your unwanted items—they feature a lot of categories, but their most popular categories are stuff like DVDs, paperback books, and video games. These items are assigned points, and when another member wants your stuff, they pay only for shipping, and you get credit for your points. You can then use those points to pick out your own stuff.

It's an innovative system, and it seems to be working—over 180,000 items have been swapped thus far. TitleTrader is also offering 3 FREE items (points) for your first successful swap (with a positive feedback rating), so now is a great time to join. What are you waiting for? Get swapping!

You've waited. You've wondered. And now it's finally here: the list of the hands-down, no-doubt, slam-dunk top 10 Sega Genesis games of all time (and all parallel universes). This list will either be a quaint history lesson or a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

10. Evander Holyfield Boxing – Why the pinnacle of video game boxing occurred in 1992, I have no idea. But literally anybody can pick up this game and have a good time, whether or not you're into boxing. It transcends its apparently limited appeal.
9. General Chaos – Before Valve's Team Fortress there was EA's General Chaos, featuring some fun and breezy class-based warfare across a variety of well-designed mini-maps. The only flaw was the dynamite-throwing guy. He just... was not useful.
8. Earthworm Jim – Yes, our favorite worm superhero got a mite overexposed with multiple games and a cartoon show and what not. But before all that, he blasted onto the scene with an amazingly inventive, sometimes hilarious, and never uninteresting piece of gaming heaven.
7. Sonic the Hedgehog – You have to give it up to the iconic hedgehog. His debut was jaw-dropping at the time, especially the sheer speed of it all as Sonic raced through loops in his weird wilderness-meets-techno world and nabbed gold ring after gold ring.
6. Beyond Oasis – This action RPG felt like an event when it came out. It had all the trappings of a big-budget blockbuster movie: great score, epic story, clean-as-a-whistle graphics. Definitely spent a lot of hours on this one.
5. Ecco the Dolphin – Another Sega icon, Ecco brought us to a unique undersea world we had never seen before. It had this kind of casual, “this is beautiful” vibe, but it was hard, man!
4. Landstalker – Everybody who has played this isometric action RPG has fond memories of it. Long, expansive, full of platforming and puzzle goodness. Plus, you have a smart-mouthed fairy sidekick. I liked her.
3. Aladdin – A game based on Disney's Aladdin movie? That can't be decent, right? In fact, it was more than decent: it was one of the Genesis' all-time greats. Seriously. Disney made some very solid titles for the Genesis, including the inimitable Quack Shot.
2. Gunstar Heroes – A really, really good side-scrolling shooter, Gunstar Heroes was kind of like Contra with twelve shots of Red Bull. Huge amount of weapons, crazy activity on screen, fun and funky bosses. What more could you ask for?
1. Shining Force I and II – Yes, the very best games for the Genesis were a pair of extremely addictive strategy RPGs. You lead a motley crew of warriors against the forces of evil in turn-based and grid-based combat. Don't we wish our own lives were that ordered and purposeful?

What did I miss? What's on your own list? Drop us a comment.

Cloud computing is about OS nimbleness and cross-platform versatility, and in that spirit several next-gen storage solutions have emerged, promising to store your stuff, make it accessible across all your devices, and sync it up in real-time. In this entry, we take a look at three of the most popular cloud computing storage sites – ZumoDrive, Dropbox, and SugarSync – to see which one might be best for your storage needs.

Let's start with what these services have in common. All are freemium services. Dropbox features 2GB of storage free, ZumoDrive only 1GB, and SugarSync a generous 5GB. From there, you can step up to paid monthly subscriptions. ZumoDrive's 10GB service is only $2.99/mo, but its 500GB service is a pricey $79.99/mo (SugarSync's is only $39.99/mo). So, you have to choose pricing that fits your needs and that you're comfortable with.

Dropbox is perhaps the patriarch of the cloud storage sites. It's the most popular, and that leads to one of its key features: a vibrant community that frequently cranks out useful add-ons. For example, a user created “Send to Dropbox,” which allows you to email files to your dropbox rather than dragging-and-dropping like usual. Useful!

Another thing to really like about Dropbox is its rich history and version rollbacks, which is pretty much the best in the biz. A detailed and easily-accessed history will show you timestamped notes for all files changed and uploaded on Dropbox, which is valuable in collaborative environments. And for 30 days, all the versions of any files can be rolled back and retrieved. And a premium upgrade is “Pack-rat,” which allows for version rollbacks for the life of the file. In comparison, a drawback to SugarSync is that only the last 5 versions of any file are saved.

ZumoDrive can boast of a unique integration with a computer's file system. ZumoDrive is cloud storage that appears local to an OS, and this makes it perfect for integration with iTunes. You can import a playlist and play songs without saving to the local hard drive, for one example, so ZumoDrive is the absolute best for music swapping. And it ain't too shabby in terms of photo storage, either, as it integrates with iPhoto and Picasa as well.

SugarSync has positioned itself as cloud storage with the broadest platform compatibility. All three work with Mac, PC, and iPhone, but for example, SugarSync features support for Windows Mobile and Symbian whereas Dropbox does not. And ZumoDrive is the least platform-friendly, as it does not yet feature support for android or iPad.

SugarSync also has some key features for business and collaborative applications. This includes admin-style access controls with passwords and storage limits per user.

Personally, we like ZumoDrive for individuals with a moderate amount of data, Dropbox for people in need of a heftier storage solution, and SugarSync for larger corporate use, but check out each site and see what works for you.

It's been fun to see Apple's iPad (and now the iPad 2) morph from a techno-curiosity to a truly useful, and even indispensable, everyday device. And in the field of education, the iPad has made tremendous strides. The iPad's price tag still makes the device somewhat of a luxury, particularly in public school environments, but there are many reasons to get excited about the possibilities of our favorite tablet computer in educational contexts.

This entry focuses on our earliest learners, anywhere from ages 3 to 7. As any parent can tell you, grabbing and sustaining attention at this age is often a herculean task. And that's why iPad learning makes sense—not only do you have the “cool” factor of the technology and vibrant images, you have a truly multimedia and interactive learning tool, the type that can engage even the very young in ways conventional teaching can't.

If you're interested in iPad education for your preschooler, start with these popular and award-winning apps:

Math Bingo – this hugely popular app combines the simple game of bingo with some basic math concepts, like addition and subtraction. Fun cartoon avatars keep the game interesting, while three different difficulty levels mean this app can grow with your child.

Stack the States – if your child is learning about the states and state capitals, this is the app for you. Cartoony state shapes playfully bounce around in a wide variety of interesting and challenging games, like matching up capitals with states or learning about bordering states.

Wheels on the Bus – here's a special app that definitely presents a bonding opportunity with your little one. Children can interactively explore the bus of the title, but the real fun comes with singing along to the nursery rhyme. Different instruments can be used during the song, and there are five languages to listen to—not exactly a way to learn another language, but the exposure is in itself valuable. This app is made by Duck Duck Moose. Check them out for more great apps.

Shape-O ABC's – Learning your ABC's is a gimme for our earliest learners, but Shape-O ABC's puts a new twist on things by combining ABC's with a large amount of shape puzzles kids can put together on the screen. So along with ABC's, toddlers will learn motor coordination and shapes.

Abby Monkey – Like Duck Duck Moose, 22Learn.com is another leading educational app maker. Their Abby Monkey series of apps features fun ways for kids to learn first words, like animals, colors, and fruits. And the animations for this series are really top-notch; they're so precious, you want to eat them up!

A lot of games nowadays allow you to be good or evil. Champion or conqueror. Valorous or villainous. Savior... or sinner! All those great alliterative phrases. Only I can't really bring myself to be bad. Am I taking some sort of principled stand? Am I traveling the moral high ground? Or am I missing out on a good chunk of gaming goodness by being the party pooper? Is it good to be bad?

Back in the day, gamers didn't have such weighty questions to grapple with. There was Pong in the early 1970s. Two identical paddles. No good or evil going on there, just some sweet tennis sports. A little further on, you have something like Asteroids. Ship destroys a bunch of asteroids. Self-preservation versus inanimate flying rocks. Again, no real moral quagmire.

Then games added a little personality in the 1980s. Pac-Man chomping ghosts. No moral hazards there: ghosts are strange and evil! In Donkey Kong, you rescue a princess from a giant monkey. That's a good deed. I'll sleep just fine at night, thank you.

But Donkey Kong Jr. came out in 1982 as a sequel to Donkey Kong. The roles reversed. Now Mario was the villain, and Donkey Kong the poor and imprisoned victim! A real muddying of the moral waters, playing on the sympathies we established in the first game and causing us to doubt ourselves and our very place in the universe. It was awful, reader.

Despite the role reversal of Donkey Kong Jr., the goody-goody hero continued mostly unchallenged for a good decade. Then, the “evil” anti-hero came along in the mid 1990s. In Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, you play a vampire jonesing for blood. In Loaded, you play—and I have to quote the Wikipedia page, it's pretty classic—“villains, anti-heroes, psychopaths, perverts, mutants, and flamboyant murderers.” Despite the evilness, even in these games you eventually become redeemed (Kain) or you're fighting a greater evil (Loaded), so we're not into true evil yet.

A series of RPGs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, mostly from Bioware, really started the trend toward giving you the freedom to choose good or evil. In Baldur's Gate, you could assemble a squad of evil-aligned people, giving you evil street cred. In Planescape: Torment, you could do some low-down dirty things, and you could choose alternate endings based on how bad you wanted to be. Knights of the Old Republic (2003) took it to the next level, taking a nod from the classic “Jedi versus Sith” dynamic set up in the Star Wars universe, and throughout you could choose good or evil actions to influence many factors of gameplay, including the ending.

Us “good gamers” are now in an era—with Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout 3, Fable, and many more—where we are being discriminated against because of our innate goodness. I am deprived of the full game experience because of my inability to partake in society-defying mayhem and the murder of dough-faced innocents. Oh, for the days of slaying evil dragons and bopping Bowser on the head. Things were so much simpler then.

Preface:

We have a couple members on staff at FFR that are native Japanese from northern Japan. The last couple months have been really hard for them being away from their families in the wake of the disaster. For that reason I've been almost hyper focused on any news I read or hear about the current situation in Japan. I was recently corresponding via email with Mandy Chatsworth, a contributor from our sister blog Finally Fast Blog, about the situation over there and the ramifications it might have on the future of nuclear energy. Oddly enough these are the kind of emails that we exchange..we’re an intellectual bunch!

My take was somewhat pessimistic. Personally I am a huge proponent of research into nuclear energy and in my eyes Fukushima’s effect on nuclear research seems all but lethal to that realm of nuclear research for the foreseeable future. To my surprise Mandy’s reply was refreshingly optimistic and even convinced me that the Fukushima event, while bad for nuclear energy specifically, may be good for research into and proliferation of forms of renewable energy, like wind power.

I was so blown away by her response that asked if she wouldn’t mind writing a guest post for FFR based on her reply to my email. If you are at all interested in renewable energy I think you’ll interested to read read what effect Fukushima looks to be having on investments in renewable energy.

-Bryan

Here's Mandy:

The recent tsunami disaster in Japan has had many consequences, but beyond the immediate and crucial disaster relief efforts, a longer-term consequence might just involve altering the course of nuclear energy proliferation around the world.

As we have all heard on the news, the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were damaged by the March 11 earthquake that rocked northern Japan. Officials have just increased the alert level from 5 to 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, bringing the disaster to the same threat level as the 1986 Chernobyl explosion.

The dangerous fallout from radiation in the area—prompting massive evacuations—will be paired with a different kind of fallout: public perception about the relative safety of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy has always had uneasy associations in the public imagination, and particularly in the United States. In the popular mind, nuclear power seems to involve a bomb ready to go off (the nuclear reactor) and an all-too-dangerous, never-disposed -of byproduct (toxic waste). Strange creatures or superheroes of fiction often have origin stories involving exposure to radiation or toxic sludge. Of course, nuclear energy technology—at least energy involving uranium as opposed to “safer” designs using thorium—also has the “dark side” of being potentially used for nuclear weapons.

While American president Barack Obama swiftly defended the use of nuclear energy shortly after the disaster—his own energy platform features increased nuclear energy as one component—the breathless media coverage surrounding the damaged reactors and leaked radiation has already had significant political ramifications. Switzerland has suspended plans to build additional nuclear plants, while Germany has imposed a three-month moratorium on funding or construction of new nuclear facilities.

Regardless of whether or not the knee-jerk reaction against nuclear power is justified, the ultimate winner may be renewable energy. In Germany's case, two ministers (Environment and Economy) have introduced a “six point plan” for a change in focus away from nuclear and toward renewable sources, including a 5 billion euro plan for wind power, the funding of a clean climate/clean air initiative at 1 billion euro, and a further 2 billion euro dedicated to energy efficiency in new and existing buildings.

Japan's disaster presents a crossroads, a challenge to the international community in regards to energy. If atomic power, based upon public backlash, is diminished, leaders are confronted with a choice between more reliance on traditional fossil fuels, or progress toward green, renewable energy. The pressure to weigh cost versus cleanliness is not insignificant—in one sign of the times, Europe's carbon-dioxide allowances have risen 18 percent in 2011 alone. But let's hope long-term wisdom trumps short-term triage, and that renewable energy technology is vigorously pursued in the post-tsunami energy environment.

Ever since Congress added subsection k to section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code in 1980, the 401(k) retirement account has become the primary savings source for many Americans. And the baby boomer generation—all 77 million of them, who are just now beginning to enter retirement age—is the first generation for which the 401(k) forms a crucial piece of the retirement puzzle.

Unfortunately, the 401(k) came late for baby boomers—loosely defined as those born after the close of World War II and into the early 1960s. Even if a person born in 1946 started putting money into their new 401(k) plan when the plan first appeared in 1980, they would have begun at age 34, which is a little late to enjoy full compounding of the money by age 65.

Add to that the fact that most people simply don't stow away quite enough cash on a consistent basis to maintain their standard of living in retirement from a 401(k) alone, and you have a potential crisis. But if you're a baby boomer nearing retirement, and you haven't quite saved enough, there are still some things you can do.

• Delay getting Social Security. It's awfully tempting if you're 62 to begin taking benefits—it's money you worked all your life for and you deserve it, right? But if you take benefits early, you'll be hit with a penalty, and you'll only earn about 75% of what you would if you waited until age 65.
• Consider part-time employment even past 65. The baby boomer generation is changing all the rules about what it means to grow old. And with increasing life expectancy and better health care, more seniors can remain active and employed longer than ever before.
• If you switch employers, roll your 401(k) over. Don't let a new job be an excuse to stop saving. Besides, keeping your 401(k) makes it easier to keep track of your retirement savings.
• Always pay the minimum amount necessary for the maximum match of money by your employer. Company-matched funds is bonus money that would be foolish to pass up.
• Develop a strategy to pay off credit card debt, medical bills, your children's education loans, predatory “payday”-style loans, and any other similar debt prior to retirement. Debt with high rates of interest is obviously the worst kind of debt—it digs a hole that's often very difficult to escape from—and this debt should be your priority.
• Also, don't withdraw from your 401(k) early. Just like with Social Security benefits, withdrawing early simply means less money over the long-term, as the money will now not be accumulating interest. You might even be paying more by way of penalties or more taxes to Uncle Sam.

Sticking to these 6 strategies will allow you to make the most of your 401(k) and to max out your retirement income regardless of when you started saving.

The Kindle and other popular e-book readers are great for grown-ups, but what about the kids? You remember being a kid: a wall of text isn't that interesting, whether it's in a book or on an LCD screen. A great e-reading option for kids has to have a sense of fun, and it definitely has to have some multimedia dazzle to spice up the text—but not too much, of course, as you want your kids learning, not just looking at pretty pictures. We think the V.Reader by VTech does the job admirably.

Designed for children three to seven, the V.Reader is more “interactive learning tablet” than a straight-up e-book reader. Nonetheless, the device puts the focus where it needs to be: the text. Kids can read the story line by line and page by page, and can choose to have the text read aloud (via built-in speaker). They can also use the included stylus to tap words on the screen and have only those words read aloud. A dictionary comes along with the story, ready to help your child out with any tough words.

All along, the text is accompanied by fun music, sound effects, and animation, just to make things interesting. And VTech has an A-list cast of characters along for the ride, including Dora the Explorer, Elmo, the Disney princesses, Spongebob Squarepants, and Shrek, virtually eliminating any “this isn't cool” naysaying. And along with storybook tales, readers will be treated to related games that put their reading comprehension skills to the test.

The V.Reader features a colorful, kidproof design, with friendly curves and rounded edges. It's also more durable than your Kindle, perfect for the... enthusiastic... handling it will endure. The device retails for $59.99, though it can be had for around $49.99 on Amazon and elsewhere. Stories come on cartridges that sell for $19.99—a little pricier than a normal new e-book, but considering the interactive games and multimedia presentation, not terrible. You can also download books online—even free ones—via the V.Reader's USB connectivity.

Note that VTech's answer to an “ipad for kids,” the InnoPad, is announced and slated for a Fall 2011 release. Also an interactive learning tablet and e-reader, it's skewed for slightly older kids—four to nine—and it has more robust touchscreen features so the young'uns can feel like a real iPadder. Do you wait for the InnoPad, or go with the V.Reader? It depends on the age of your child or children—older kids might think the V.Reader is “for babies,” while the InnoPad looks a little more grown-up—but honestly the two tablets look to offer very similar e-reading experiences.

With devices like the Amazon Kindle and Apple's iPad selling like the proverbial hotcakes, it's clear the world at large is embracing the advantages of e-book technology. But what about public education? Budgets are tighter than ever, and education (particularly public education at the elementary, middle, and high school levels) simply tends to lag behind the times a bit. But there are a plethora of reasons why e-books make sense for educators all across the spectrum.

Innovation – Gorgeous pictures, crisp audio, and full-motion video give e-books a multimedia power physical books can't match. Students learn in different ways, and e-books give them more options for absorbing and retaining material. Plus, the massive information repository that is the Internet gives students more diverse and up-to-date sources from which to pull.

Text-to-Speech – Students might find text-to-speech options useful in a variety of contexts, and this feature is particularly useful for those just learning to read, those struggling with reading, or those with learning disabilities. In any case, text-to-speech is simply one more way for students to learn material, and that can never hurt.

Customization – E-books individualize the experience of learning, and not just because of the great amount of stuff available on the Internet. Most e-books can be customized in a variety of ways—color, font size, orientation, etc. Once again (see a trend?), e-books are helping to facilitate the “transmission” of content.

Cost – The cost of printing documents and purchasing those ever-outdated textbooks will be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, when a school/organization fully embraces the e-book evolution. And savings are not just for the teachers – creating, researching, and sending documents in an e-book environment will save students some coin as well.

Size – We all remember lugging around heavy books in our backpacks. Now that entire boulder-like backpack is condensed into a slim e-book reader. Very smart, and a heck of a lot better on the back!

Just-in-Time Education – the instant access of the Internet and a digital library of books mean less wasted time. Teachers/professors can send documents instantly to their students. Distance learning becomes a lot easier. Teachers can also mark up documents before they send them out, and include directions/annotations along with them. And hyperlinks will have everyone zipping around doc to doc. All told, e-book education is simply faster and more efficient if done right.

Supplementary Tools – Think of all the educational tools available alongside the text itself. Students can use online dictionaries to easily look up information. They can take notes directly into their device. They can highlight passages (a big “no-no” with a hand-me-down textbook owned by the school). They can search for phrases and keywords to speed up searches. There are a lot of things you can do in the e-book environment you just can't do with a conventional book.

Apple's iPad has been a “game changer” in a lot of ways, and music production has not been immune to the effects, especially with the recent introduction of GarageBand for iPad and iPad 2. The little tablet computer won't exactly replace a room full of high-end studio gear, but it gets close enough to make you say “Wow.” In any case, it's definitely an intriguing time to be a musician or audio engineer.

From stompbox effects to nine virtual amps, and from eight-track mixing to drum kits and an impressive array of multitouch instruments, GarageBand has a lot to salivate over. But sometimes—and particularly for professional musicians—you need to rock out with an actual instrument in a studio-quality way. Well, you're in luck. Apogee Electronics has released JAM for the GarageBand 2011. Deceptively simple, JAM lets you plug your electric guitar or bass directly into the iPad or iPhone via the dock connector. There's also an adapter for Mac.

Courtesy of Apogee's PureDIGITAL technology, this guitar sound ain't for just messing around or keeping the kids busy. JAM will deliver a kind of tone and richness you have to hear to believe. For those of you who've tried using apps like AmpKit or iRig, JAM delivers way less line noise. And in addition to a clean sound, the digital conversion is 44.1 kHz and 24-bit—better than CD quality. Record your guitar via GarageBand, and then you can slide it into a track and alter/mix it as you would any other track.

JAM is plug-and-play, so with GarageBand you can be up and recording in literally minutes. Plus, JAM uses an impressively low amount of juice, giving you longer sessions than you'd expect on a single iPad charge. The device features a studio-quality preamp with 40db of gain, which is a nice feature, and the LED indicator turns red if, to quote Apogee's product description, “you're rocking too hard.” If your rock is indeed too hard, there's a simple thumb control to alter gain on the fly.

Apogee also has a device coming out, appropriately called MIC, that will do the same for voice that JAM does for electric guitars and bass. In short, it's great to see that the deep functionality of GarageBand '11 is being complemented by studio-quality devices that give you the option to play real instruments.

The companies will deliver the new generation of faster broadband speed to the new cities this summer. These cities include Jacksonville, Daytona, Orlando and Tampa in Florida; Kansas City, Kansas; Nashville, Tennessee; Syracuse and Rochester, New York; St. Louis, Missouri; Salt Lake City, Utah; Merced, Modesto, Stockton and Visalia, California; Wilmington, Delaware, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Eugene, Oregon; and Yakima and TriCities, Washington. These areas can expect increases in their everyday mobility as well as in downloading, streaming and web browsing.

CNET shows curiosity at the fact New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington D.C., Denver, San Francisco and other major cities have currently been left off this list.

Clearwire has stated that the 4G network is significantly faster than its last 3G offering. Its 4G WiMax service is currently the only 4G wireless service on the market and offers speeds between three and six megabits per second. The company's new 4G network expects to reach close to 120 million people in the U.S, CNET reports.

To compare, Comcast reports on its website that its current 3G wireless service offers download speeds of up to 1.4 mbps.

The Register reported on Tuesday that two of the three suspects responsible for running the Mariposa botnet in February had applied for security jobs with Panda Security in Spain. Ironically, Panda was the firm that originally worked with Defence Intelligence, the FBI and Spain's Guardia Civil to bring the zombie botnet down in February.

Police suspected five people for running the malicious software program, though only three were arrested. A month later, two of those taken away, known by their nicknames Netkairo and Ostiator, appeared at the security firm with resumes in hand.

They met with Panda Labs technical director Luis Corrons, who initially thought the meeting was a joke, and informed him that they needed jobs, but had no programming skills.

“They didn't admit to any wrongdoing during this meeting but said they had some knowledge and experience that might be helpful and asked to come to an agreement,” Corrons told the Register. Panda did not hire either person.

Spanish police reportedly recovered confidential information for more than 800,000 people after confiscating systems from the responsible suspects.

The Guardian reported in March that the Mariposa botnet controlled computers in more than 500 of the U.S. Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 40 major banks.

Global communications provider AT&T recently announced that it had developed and activated two new 3G cellular service sites in Kerhonkson, New York and Accord, New York. The plans are part of the company's initiative to improve broadband speed and reliability throughout New York's Hudson Valley. The sites will improve mobile broadband service throughout the area just outside of Albany. The effort is also part of the company's goal to extend its reach while providing the services necessary to improve opportunities for economic growth through broadband development. "Delivering dependable wireless coverage for consumers and business customers who need to stay connected to work, family and friends is our ultimate objective," Hal Lenox, president of AT&T New York, said. "Our ongoing investments in the state will help us ensure that our customers have access to the wireless services that help drive economic growth." AT&T plans to begin offering the high broadband speed later in 2010 throughout the Hudson Valley and continue the expansion in upstate New York. In the first quarter of 2010, AT&T experienced limited financial growth, while spending heavily to expand the reach of its broadband network. Its $30.6 billion revenue represented a 0.3 percent increase from the first quarter of 2009.

Texas agriculture commissioner Todd Staples announced Sunday that $7.2 billion has been given to the state by the federal stimulus funding in order to further broadband access in rural areas, the Standard-Times reported.

With broadband expansion, as many as 173,000 jobs could be created within the state. The funding is intended to help rural schools, libraries and hospitals expand their service. High-speed expansion could also help residents save more than $52 million on healthcare costs with access to more information and better technology.

“We have been working very hard to draw as many federal dollars to Texas as we can to help agriculture and rural folks," Staples told the news provider. "We know having technology will enable rural communities to attract jobs. Local schools are some of the biggest employers in rural Texas, and having the tools that they need to educate our kids will make a tremendous difference.”

While the funds received for this expansion are a result of last year's stimulus plan, the FCC has also recently proposed a national broadband plan that intends to have 100 million homes in the U.S. equipped with high-speed internet.

In January, ArsTechnica.com revealed that the U.S. ranked fifth in internet connectivity worldwide, but 35th in broadband speed.