The Voodoo is Weak for Vudu Movie Box

High-tech is the way to make dad feel like a million on his special day

(NEWSER) - Lose the power tools and the landscaping implements this Father's Day, ABC News suggests. The kind of cutting edge Dad really wants can't be found at the hardware store. Among them:

• For dads who want media at their fingertips, the enV2 by LG hosts music and video via V CAST and sports a QWERTY keyboard for only $129, with a phone contract.

But will it be any good, if it ever arrives?

(NEWSER) - Facebook is once again gearing up to build its own smartphone, and it could be here by next year. The company has hired several engineers from the iPhone and iPad teams for its third foray into the project, insiders tell the New York Times . Facebook's first attempt to build a phone fell through, but a partnership formed last year with HTC to build a phone is ongoing; it's one of several avenues the social network is pursuing. More»

Yale professor warns against becoming a 'click-vegetable'

(NEWSER) - The Internet and iPads and smartphones are great for adults—but we need to take a hard look at what they're doing to our kids, warns a computer science professor at Yale. It may be tempting to let them sit down with an iPad come June, but such technology is preventing their minds from doing what they need to do: "rest and work," writes David Gelernter in the Wall Street Journal . Rest means "wandering freely," while work requires a climb up a "mental rope." More»

Digiboo kiosks offer films for your USB stick

(NEWSER) - Tired of bad airline movies? Now you can pick your own before you get on the flight. A new service called Digiboo provides airport kiosks where you can download movies onto your USB 3.0 stick in a matter of seconds, the Los Angeles Times reports. Thanks to licensing deals with Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros., and Lionsgate, Digiboo can offer 600 films at a kiosk, among them hits like Hugo and Captain America. Users can buy films for $14.99 or rent them for $3.99. More»

Mark W. Smith: 'Cumbersome' smartphones can't beat old-fashioned writing

(NEWSER) - Smartphones and tablets have left everything from alarm clocks to GPS systems pretty much "obsolete"—but iPhones and BlackBerrys still haven't topped writing by hand, writes Mark Smith in the Detroit Free Press . He's no technophobe—in fact, he's a tech columnist. But when he sat down to make a "list of the best apps to help you stay on task," one simple truth kept staring him in the face: "There's still nothing better than paper." More»