Technology

Whether you like them or not, gift cards remain an incredibly popular gift idea, which is why the new Target Mobile Gift Card program is incredibly cool. The new feature allows you to convert any Target gift card into a digital barcode that can be used from any Internet connected cell phone -- no extra fees involved.

Turning your plastic gift card into a digital barcode is a snap, just visit Target.com from a mobile browser, register for an account with your phone number and a PIN, then key in the information from your plastic gift card and you're done.

Now, instead of adding yet another gift card to your wallet, you'll have those cards in your cell phone. (just don't forget your phone.)

Having your gift cards in your phone is cool for more than one reason. For example, when you add a gift card, you can label it so that you know who you received it from. You can also pull up multiple gift cards at the store with no fumbling. But, perhaps the best part about the way Target chose to use mobile gift cards is that there's no app to download, no iPhone required, all you need is an Internet connection.

Given the estimated $30 billion "unredeemed gift card economy" having your gift card with you instead of taking up space in your sock drawer is a huge convenience.

Perhaps it's time to tell your employees to stay off Facebook while at work. And maybe it's time to tell your kids to also stop spending so much time posting status updates or clicking video links.

It's official, Facebook is the most popular social media network and because of that, it also causes businesses with Facebooking employees to be vulnerable to its viruses, or at least that's what 60% of companies believe. Perhaps that's because more than a third of the businesses were infected with malware, or software that installs malicious programs on computers. For those of you keeping count, that's approximately a 70% rise in 2009, according to Internet security company Sophos.

In a word -- Yes. Thanks to a combination of factors, Scitable, both the science website and the platform itself, has the potential to change the way students learn and, more importantly to students; how much they have to pay for access to up-to-date, credible, high-quality information.

Adventurer and airplane magnate Sir Richard Branson wants to take you on a pioneering underwater airplane ride. All you need is a swimsuit, an airplane ticket to his private island in the Caribbean, and $138,000.

For the price of a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Omaha, Neb., couples can take Branson's new Necker Nymph aero submarine for a test dive during a seven-day stay at his swanky getaway on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands. The price includes an $88,000 weekly charter fee for Necker Belle, a 105-foot catamaran which will act as the winged sub's launchpad.

Developed by Point Richmond, Calif.-based Hawkes Ocean Technologies, the three-passenger sub glides on the water's surface "like an aeroplane on a runway," according to a statement from Virgin Limited Edition, the luxury arm of Virgin hotels.

The Super Bowl is the only football game many people watch, and they don't gather to watch sweaty bodies collide; they are there to watch the commercials. And while the merchants pay millions of dollars for a minute of your time, it's not coming out of your pocket, right? Wrong.

If you bought one of every item advertised during this year's game that we could ascribe a dollar value to, you'd pay $163,827.25, which is $6,329.65 more than if you bought similar items from companies that don't advertise during the Super Bowl. Face it, dude; the money for the obscenely high salaries earned by the players comes right out of your pocket.

Granted, some of the difference in price between goods advertised during the Super Bowl and those that aren't could represent a difference in quality. However, I'm convinced that much of what we perceive as better quality is due to the brainwashing effect of incessant advertising.

Given that, here's how the frugal shopper can save some bucks when tempted by the Super Bowl ads to buy, buy, buy.

The products being advertised during the big game can be sorted into a few neat categories:

Just over a week ago, Apple wowed the world with its "magical and revolutionary" iPad tablet, which aims to change the way you interact with media. Well, two days before the iPad was revealed, Google posted some very interesting images and video of what a Google Chrome Tablet, which could compete with the iPad, might look like. It's still early in the game -- this isn't a real product -- but the initial mockups look like a Google Tablet could give Apple and other large companies a run for their money.

Music industry glitterati took home free the Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound Systems by Nuvo along with the rest of the enviable graft in their gratis Grammy Awards MusiCares goody bags this year. Designed to support a pregnant belly, aid in fetal development, and provide, "unparalleled quality and safe sound to prenatal listeners," the system aspires to be a multi-tasking baby Bose for the in-utero crowd.

I saw August Rush, I get the idea. Nuvo, however, cites scientific studies to prove its case.

Dr. Alexandra Lamont from Leicester University's Music Research Group at the School of Psychology (UK) reported that babies can remember sounds they heard in the womb more than a year after birth,

"This provides new evidence about the influence of nurture in early child development.," he said. "Babies can remember and prefer music that they heard before they were born."

In addition, Nuvo notes information from authors Sloboda and Deliege, who wrote Musical Beginnings:Origins and Development of Musical Competence (1996) and stated, "musical interactions from the earliest moments are directly related to brain development and may be the building blocks for future musical ability, intellectual development, and ultimately functioning in the culture in which the child lives".

Amazon.com's surrender to Macmillan to raise prices on some of the publisher's e-books by as much as $5 should help authors out in the long run, but it isn't welcome news for readers.

Amazon's $9.99 price for new releases and best sellers is already too high for many of its users, who say that such non-physical books that they can't loan to friends or sell at a used-book store are overpriced.

Only days after Macmillan and four other large publishers agreed to provide content for Apple's iPad at prices tied to the same price as the print edition -- $12.99 to $14.99 for most general fiction and nonfiction titles in e-book form -- Amazon caved in to Macmillan's demands to allow it to sell its books on Amazon for the same prices as Apple's digital bookstore.

Just like that, Amazon lost an edge, although not much of one, that it had to the iPad -- cheaper books.

Amazon plans on keeping its new releases and best sellers at $9.99, but any Macmillan books it sells will be more expensive. Amazon briefly stopped selling Macmillan titles on Friday in response to the request, but gave in on Sunday and has started selling Macmillan books again.

It's the hottest new theme park opening in a decade: Universal Orlando Resort's Islands of Adventure park is putting the finishing touches on its feverishly anticipated The Wizarding World of Harry Potter section. This Sunday, Feb. 7, the world gets a sneak peek at the new 20-acre attraction when a top secret commercial airs during the Saints-Colts Super Bowl battle. Among the surprises: Daniel Radcliffe himself appears as Harry Potter to promote the opening, which was designed with the full cooperation and approval of series author J.K. Rowling. Guess what, Potterheads? WalletPop.com has an exclusive first online look at the entire spot.

Be careful with your passwords and your information, because cyber-criminals are selling hacked Twitter accounts and passwords online for up to $1,000. The accounts and passwords are traded on hacker forums, with prices ranging anywhere from $82 for a Gmail account to $1,000 for Twitter accounts. The cybercriminals then use those accounts as stepping stones to infect others' computers with data-stealing malware.

The new malware, or malicious programs, are placed on Internet sites and in e-mails and when accessed take over a computer searching for banking passwords or financial information. The new malware seems to be generic spying programs that steal as much information as possible from victims, including passwords to Web-based e-mail and Twitter accounts.

If nothing unexpected ever happened life would be a bit boring, but there are some unexpected things we can all do without.

For example: being in the middle of a natural disaster, having a child wander off, losing our identity or losing our cell phones and laptops. Life360 can't put a protective bubble around your family but it can make it easier to get through these unexpected events without losing your sanity, and best off all that's just with the free version.

The free version of Life 360 offers access to an Emergency Messenger, Life360ID and Lost and Found services. The paid programs start at $7.95 a month include access to Identity Protector which helps you protect your identity and credit.

Right now you probably use your GPS to get to the mall, rather than find your way around the mall, but Kevin Foreman, CEO of Point Inside,envisions that will change in the near future. The team at Point Inside, which makes a mall navigation app for the iPhone and Android devices, is made up of self-admitted location-based services (LBS) geeks who hold a combined 22 patents in telecommunications and related fields.

I've written about Swagbucks before but now is a good time to revisit because the site's rewards are spiking today.

First, I know Swagbucks seems like a total scam. I resisted joining the site for months for that exact reason. Then I gave it a chance and I have earned more than $200 worth of gift cards in the past few months.

This is how it works. You register at Swagbucks.com and the the site installs a small toolbar at the top of your Internet browser (such as Internet Explorer or FireFox). When you search using the Swagbucks toolbar, you can win swagbucks, which you can redeem for prizes and gift certificates.

Some searches will earn you one, two or five swagbucks. For others, you'll get nada. Today is mega swag bucks day, when the site awards 10, 20, 50 and 100 swagbucks for searches. If you're going to try Swagbucks out, today is a good day to join.

Once you accumulate some swagbucks, you can turn them in for prizes. I always go for the gift cards. For example, 45 swagbucks will get you a $5 Amazon gift card. 130 swagbucks will get you a $10 Starbucks card, and so on. You can trade in your swagbucks for clothes, MP3s, movies, and more.

One of the first things I did when I was laid off as a newspaper editor a year or so ago was get some business cards printed. Nothing fancy, just my name, e-mail address, Web site and cellphone number so potential employers could find me.

Now, as I continue trying to become New Media savvy, I learn about Poken, a social business card that bills itself as a "bridge between your life online and offline."

It's a small gadget to hang around your neck or keep on a keychain. It holds a USB port and keeps a digital file of whatever information you want to share: e-mail, Web site address, Facebook page, Twitter name, LinkedIn name and info from other social networks.

When it comes to hosting a Super Bowl party on the cheap, WalletPop embraces the K-I-S-S approach: Keep It Simple, Super.

Austere times call for a lean but loving bash, letting the game and conversation carry the day, supported by traditional sports-watching grub. The warmth of your home filled with friends will be your most valuable player.

Our winning strategy focuses on not overdoing it. Prepare one abundant main dish and play off that. How about a mild vat of chili that can be spiced by each guest? Just remember to match a pound of tomatoes or tomato sauce for every pound of meat or beans, then add garlic, cumin, chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Twenty bucks can feed a dozen. One WalletPop colleague suggested a chili cook-off as a turbocharged potluck if you're in super-economizing mode.