Pebble smartwatch raises a record $3.6 million through Kickstarter [video]

. Kickstarter is filled with some brilliant, some not-so-brilliant and some very strange ideas, and if user interest is any indication, the Pebble ePaper smartwatch can likely be filed under brilliant. Allerta, the company behind the product, opened a Kickstarter page less than a week ago and has already become the most funded project of all time on the site, which allows users to make small and large donations toward projects they want to back. The company's initial goal was to raise $100,000, however in the past six days the project has accumulated a whopping $3.6 million in funding.

Boy Genius Report, Pebble smartwatch raises a record $3.6 million through Kickstarter [video]

Bob Lutz praises Leaf and Volt, says national security requires going electric

Bob Lutz is not going to take attacks on the electric car lying down – the closest he'll come to that is doing push-ups on The Colbert Report. After spending a few of his Forbes columns laying into right-wing pundits for their attacks on the Chevrolet Volt, he is switching to a positive message about how plug-in cars can help with American national security. It is not surprising that Lutz, a former Marine, co-authors the article with two former U.S. Marines commandants and the CEO of FedEx (the three are all members of Securing America's Future Energy's (SAFE) Energy Security Leadership Council).

Autoblog, Bob Lutz praises Leaf and Volt, says national security requires going electric

New material brings semiconducting to the graphene party

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have cooked up a new graphene-based material that could provide a speed boost for all electronics. We've seen the carbon allotrope turn up in circuitry and transistors before, but the new chemical modification - graphene monoxide - is said to be easier to scale up, and most importantly is semiconducting, unlike the insulating or conducting forms that have preceded it. This also means graphene can now provide the triad of electrical conductivity characteristics.

Engadget, New material brings semiconducting to the graphene party

Windows Phone OS mod speeds up app load times, knows you'll play Monopoly on your break (video)

Microsoft Research has revealed some of its latest work into mobile app optimization - and it's called the contextual solution, Falcon. Fast App Launching with Context aims to improve "key OS services" including memory management, scheduling and security. It does this by using location and sci-fi-sounding "temporal access patterns" - when you use the app - to pre-load programs before you've even decided to use them, which dramatically reduces perceived loading delay. A learning algorithm baked into the Windows Phone OS mod also improves its behavior and predictive powers as you use it.

Engadget, Windows Phone OS mod speeds up app load times, knows you'll play Monopoly on your break (video)

Upcoming Sprint 4G LTE markets revealed in leaked intel

While Sprint may have announced its first few LTE enabled markets a while back, it certainly does not have the reach compared to both AT&T and Verizon. Well according to Techno Buffalo, it seems that they have managed to get their hands on what appears to be a list of new markets that Sprint could be rolling out LTE coverage to in the near future. The data above has suggested that Sprint has had its Network Vision campaign underway in markets such as Akron, Chicago, Fort Worth, Nashville, New York, Rialto and Stockton since last last year, lending to the possibility that activation of the 4G LTE networks could be just around the corner.

Ubergizmo, Upcoming Sprint 4G LTE markets revealed in leaked intel

Verizon announces its 4G LTE network expansion plans

You didn't think Verizon is just going to just sit by watching AT&T grow its LTE network, did you. The Big Red carrier announced today its 4G LTE network will undergo expansions and enhancements in 10 cities and regions across the U.S. Here are the ares, which will get new or expanded Verizon LTE networks.
Furthermore, the city of Buffalo in New York will be undergoing enhancements, so residents should except the service to substantially improve.

GSM Arena, Verizon announces its 4G LTE network expansion plans

Guild Wars 2 custom PC looks good on the inside and the outside

Guild Wars 2 will be launching soon and what does this guy over at CodeOfficer do. Build a custom Guild Wars 2 gaming rig of course. Yup, pictured above is a painstakingly put together custom gaming rig by John Coppola that took about 200 over hours to put together. It features a square-ish design with a Guild Wars 2 logo engraved on the side, and as far as the rest of its specs are concerned, it will feature a discrete graphics card in the form of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680, a quad-core Intel i5 processor that has been overclocked to a whopping 4.5GHz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 128GB SSD.

Ubergizmo, Guild Wars 2 custom PC looks good on the inside and the outside