THANKS GIVING - why-deep+fried-frozen-turkeys-go-kablooie - by aby benedict

As William Shatner can attest, depositing a partially frozen turkey into a vat of hot oil is a very bad—very explosive—proposition. But why do they do that? Don't blame the bird, blame its water content

The technical term for what happens is a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE, pronounced "blevey"). This occurs when an sealed container surrounding pressurized liquid or gas is ruptured, causing an explosive decompression. This is what happens when gas tanks explode (the heat from the external fire causes the gas in the tank to combust and rupture) or when you shoot a fire extinguisher (puncturing the canister again results in decompression).

The problem arises in part because water and oil will not mix with oil being lighter. See, if water is added to the top of a pool of oil, it will immediately sink through to the bottom of the container. This normally isn't a problem unless the oil has been heated above 100 degrees C—beyond the vaporization point of water. As the water sinks—ensconced in its little oily prison—it will vaporize, exponentially expanding in volume and splattering oil all over the place. With the introduction of enough water, the oil can also boil over the fryer and onto the burner below.

Apple’s Black Friday Deals Revealed - by aby benedict

The folks over at 9to5mac could reveal Apple’s Black Friday deals. The Black Friday (November 25th) sales are similar to the ones Apple was providing in the past years. Apple is offering discounts on iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and some accessories.

The site shows the deals:

The Macs will be $101 less, the iPads will go from $41-$61 discounts depending on capacity (16GB, 32GB, 64GB), the iPod nano will shave off $11 for both 8GB and 16GB storage sizes, the iPod touch will follow the iPad’s lead of bigger discounts for bigger capacities, ranging from $21-$41 discounts.

Apple is also offering discounts on some accessories as iPad 2 Smart Cover, Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple Wireless Magic Trackpad, AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule, AirPort Express and iTunes gift card.

The best sites to track Black Friday deals - by aby benedict

Are you ready? Black Friday 2011, the day that U.S. retailers and thrifty consumers have been waiting for all year, is just around the corner.

Whether you're looking for a $2 toaster or a $200 laptop, you're going to need a plan of attack to help you succeed. Here are a few sites that will help you develop and carry out your strategy this year:

FatWallet
FatWallet has been around a long time and is a popular destination for deal hunters. It maintains a Black Friday section each year, to help you sort out all the deals. You can discuss deals in its forums, find deals by category or store, and even track deals with its Black Friday iPhone app. Also, if you want to take advantage of its cash-back program, be sure to sign up for an account. It has a large list of participating retailers with some retailers increasing their cash back percentages over the holidays.

Slickdeals
Most Slickdeals members are also FatWallet members and they often cross post deals on both sites. Slickdeals doesn't have a mobile app yet, but it does have a mobile version of its site. It also offers ad scans for those who like to view the actual ads, and Slickdeals editors write up a downloadable Black Friday buyer's guide. Its discussion forum is very active with members who are passionate about great deals.

BFAds.net
BFAds.net has a huge selection of Black Friday ads, scans, and online sales listings. If it's on sale during Black Friday, it's probably been posted on BFAds.net. They also have some usefulbuying guides for laptops, mobile phones, and TVs. If you have an iPhone, check out BFAds.net's own Black Friday iPhone app.

Dealtaker
Dealtaker's Black Friday section contains a list of Black Friday deals and scans of Black Friday ads. With two weeks to go, Dealtaker's already posted leaked ads from Toys R Us, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Target, and Sears. They have a free Black Friday iPhone app as well.

Amazon
While not a deal site, per se, Amazon's Black Friday deals last the entire week of Thanksgiving. During Amazon's Black Friday Deals Week, its lightning deals often sell out before they expire. If you're not up for the shopping frenzy at a physical store, take a seat, relax, and check out Amazon's deals. You might also want to check out Amazon's growing list of mobile shopping apps.

where every day, you can find some of the best deals on the Web.

That's it. Good luck to all the bargain hunters this holiday season!

Samsung takes shots at iPhone in latest Galaxy S II ad - by aby benedict

“I could never get a Samsung. I’m creative.” says a long-haired, plaid-shirt wearing hipster-esque dude, seated on the sidewalk in line for yet another Apple product launch. “Dude, you’re a barista,” says the equally hipster-esque man standing next to him in line. Thus completes the greatest jab against all things Apple in the latest Samsung advertisement featuring the Galaxy S II Android handset. Yes, the Samsung who’s currently at war with Apple in patent disputes all across the globe.

In the advertisement, there are people standing in line patiently in various urban cities around the nation, outside places that look remarkably like Apple stores. Which they probably are, in fact. And these people? They’re the Apple followers, amusingly portrayed by the Samsung as loyalist fanboys (and girls) who can’t stop talking about the iPhone. And they go on, and on, and on. Until they see the Galaxy S II in a passerby’s hand.

Samsung’s latest Galaxy S II commercial is filled to the brim with some smack talk about the iPhone, ranging from the mercurial nature of iPhone buyers. to gripes about shortcomings on the specs of their beloved phone. Needless to say, there doesn’t seem to be much love between these two companies. Well, this and the multitude of patent disputes they’re now clashing over all over the world. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out our reviews of the Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4S.

YouTube finally gets 1080p support for HTML5, testing Flash features - by aby benedict

Google is continuing its full-fledged push for native HTML5 by adding support today for 1080p full-HD video playback to its HTML5 player on YouTube’s website. And even further HTML5 features released include native fullscreen playback, provided closed captioning, annotations, and a new menu that makes it more easy to embed videos and share videos links. Note that the YouTube HTML5 player is still in trial mode; to try it out, opt in on Youtube’s HTML5 trial page right here.

With the current war on Flash being driven by another technology company, Google themselves hasn’t entirely killed off Flash on YouTube, however. Some significant changes introduced today for the YouTube flash player includes buffer-free playback and seamless transitions between different video-quality settings. These settings haven’t been pushed out to all videos yet, but expect them to be very soon in the coming time.

This is great news for companies who have embraced HTML5 rich content on the internet, and, well, not so good for Adobe, which recently just for their mobile flash player. And full-on 1080P support on the HTMl5 player is yet another thorn in the side of Flash development ans sustainment in general. SlashGear readers, have you transitioned from the Flash to the HTML player on YouTube already? Leave your answers and thoughts in the comment section below.

Install OS X Lion 10.7.2 On Samsung Series 7 Slate [How-To] - by aby benedict

Mac OS X has been run on non-Apple computers before, but today we’ll show you a pretty impressive new port a developer has reported on tonymacx86. He has been able run OS X Lion 10.7.2 on his Samsung Series 7 Slate, or as he calls it now: HacPro Touch. The catch is that an external monitor such as a TV is needed to run Lion successfully.

Before we begin we’d like to warn you that tinkering with the inner workings of any device is a complex process that requires at least a basic understanding of computer software and programming. The port is also a work in progress, currently only allowing Lion to be booted from a USB drive. Proceed at your own risk.
Now that we have that disclaimer out of the way and if you’d like to repeat the process with your own Samsung slate, read on!
To get started you’ll need an 8 GB (minimum size) USB Lion Key. This requires a purchased copy of the OS X Lion software and the UniBeast utility, which you can download here. The download page may require a sign up for an account at tonymacx86.com for the download link to work. Once downloaded, create the USB Key by following the instructions found here. Be sure to also create a second folder on your USB drive with the downloaded MultiBeast file as well. You’ll need it to configure audio options later.
You’ll also need:

• mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter and HDMI cable
• USB Keyboard
• USB Mouse

Step 1: Connect the Samsung Slate to a TV using the mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter and HDMI cable
Step 2: Hold down the windows home button and press the power button.
You’ll know see the BIOS options on your slate. You can toggle through each tab by holding the button below the power button and use the volume keys to move across.
Step 3: We’ll go through each of the four tabs and make sure the settings are as follows:

• Sys Info: No changes
• Advanced: Everything should be ‘Enabled’ except for AHCI Mode Control, which should be set to ‘Manual’
• Boot: Select ‘Option 1. USB Key’ on the Set Boot Priority
• Exit: Save and Restart

Step 4: Press ‘enter’ on your keyboard when you see iBoot load up and show USB
Step 5: Use the Disk Utility to partition the internal SSD to Mac OS Extended. Choose the following option: GUID Partition Table
Step 6: Install Lion, then restart
Step 7: iBoot will load up once again, but show Lion now. Press ‘enter’ on your keyboard
Step 8: Run MultiBeast to select Audio. Select the following option: Drivers & Bootloaders > Audio > Universal > VoodooHDA 0.2.7.3
Step 9: Shut down
Step 10: Power back on then select Lion. There are some glitches, so you may want to wait while they all get worked out. For one, a few restarts may be necessary for Lion to boot up normally. WiFi is also not worked out quite just yet.
You can see what the developer has accomplished so far in the video below!

Following these steps will allow you to use the Lion OS through your slate on your external monitor.

iPhone 4S Already 2nd Most Popular Camera On Flickr - by aby benedict

It may seem like a strange way to judge the success of a smartphone, but the charts Flickr releasesof the most popular devices used for taking photos for the social imaging site are interesting nevertheless.

Apple’s iPhones have always done well when it comes to this particular metric – the iPhone 4 is currently the camera people most use when taking photos for Flickr, not just the most popular smartphone. Think about that for a second and then get back to us when it has sunk in. Done? Right.
With that in mind it was possibly only a matter of time until the iPhone 4S found itself sitting in a spot high on such graphs from Flickr, and less than two months after its release to the public the smartphone has done just that.

According to the latest charts from Flickr’s camera finder web page, Apple’s iPhone 4S is now the second most used cameraphone out there when it comes to uploaded photographs. In fact, Apple’s last four generations of iPhone – iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3 – currently make up four of the top five handsets. Pretty impressive, really.
Google’s Android for its part has just the one handset in that top five, with HTC’s EVO 4G being the one and only representative of Google’s mobile operating system.
The quality of photographs kicked out by the iPhone 4 and 4S handsets is indeed extremely good, and not just for a smartphone. Images taken with the two, and particularly the latter of the models, have led many to suggest that the end of the point-and-shoot is near. While we think there will always be a market for such cameras, it is hard to deny that there is a shift taking place right now, and if we were the heads of the camera companies right now, we’d be taking notice.
While the iPhone 4S may be some way from knocking the iPhone 4 from the top spot, we’re not brave nor stupid enough to suggest that it won’t happen at some point. That said, with the iPhone 4 now available at a knockdown price, Apple will continue to sell them by the truckload moving forward.
It’s a license to print money, that iPhone!