Given their plans, the crowd-based approach is very fitting.  Through an Indigogo campaign, the library is hoping to raise $30,000 to outfit the library with an iMac, a drawing tablet, a Wacom Cintiq display, a fancy lightbox, and a 3D printer.  They also want to erect a giant Incredible Hulk statue to make the kids happy.

The idea is a great one.  First, it takes the project idea and its funding directly to the community – no political middle-men, no reason for anyone to feel ripped off because they got taxed for something they don’t agree with, and it’s democracy really in action since if the idea is not good for the community, the community won’t support it.

The creation angle is also a good one, as it will help encourage youngsters to get involved in real engineering and design rather than just reading about it.  For many kids, something like this may be the reason they finally have a desire to go to the library without being coaxed.

Inspired by this success, Morin started her own do-it-yourself (DIY) firm known as Brit + Co, which blends homemaking, crafting and a touch of tech.

Since its launch, Brit + Co has uploaded many how-to videos and step-by-step posts. She has also initiated projects requested by other people and sold various items including books, crafting starter kits and subscription boxes known as “Brit Kits”.

For US$20 a month, her start-up will send you a Brit Kit box packed with instructions and crafting materials for special projects such as gloves that won’t damage the screen of your mobile device. Recently, Brit + Co unveiled Brit’s Picks, a content aggregation feature that grabs content from 25 style and crafting sites including Smitten Kitchen, Style Me Pretty and Oh Happy Day. It then chooses the top posts and shares them with users of Brit + Co.

Morin explained that Brit + Co combined her interest in crafting, Silicon Valley’s tech culture and her passion for the Maker movement.

“There was really no voice or teacher, specifically on the female side, who was really sharing all of these new innovations with those inspired to live creatively,” she said.

Although the DIY projects are simple and can be completed quickly, they integrate cool gizmos such as laser and 3D printers, or wired elements like Arduino kits, a DIY computing and circuitry kit.

Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins, who unveiled the handset at the company’s Live conference in Orlando, is optimistic that the new product will be a hit.

While Heins did not reveal much information about the smartphone’s hardware, he gave a preview of the handset’s 3.1-inch touchscreen and classic QWERTY keyboard. Its design is akin to the BlackBerry Curve as well as the newly launched Q10.

Beginning in July, the phone should be available in selected markets across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. It has been announced that the phone will come in red, pink, white, black and orange, but there has been no official word regarding prices.

Whilst BlackBerry has lost a lot of ground to Samsung and Apple in some Western markets, the Canadian firm is eyeing opportunities in markets where smartphone usage is not yet saturated.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry released more information regarding the US debut of the Q10, which was previewed last January. The handset will be offered this summer by Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile.

T-Mobile announced that the Q10 will be available starting in June, while Verizon stated that it will accept pre-orders in the next few weeks. The handset will be offered by Sprint by late summer.

The Unlocking Technology Act of 2013 is sponsored by Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Jared Polis (D-CO).  It explicitly legalizes the unlocking of cell phones, for starters, and then goes a step further to allow the unlocking of copy-protected content for legal use (i.e. to make a backup, move it from one platform to another, etc).  It reads that if a circumvention tech is “primarily designed or produced for the purpose of facilitating noninfringing uses,” then it is legal and not a violation of copyright.

One side effect, for example, is the creation of transcripts automatically to be read to the blind.  Currently, anyone using software to translate a Nook or Kindle book to audio is technically breaking the law, but under this new bill, using a reader to speak a book is not infringement.

A lot of other things are made possible by this bill.  DVD owners can now rip their own DVDs in order to have backups, car owners can now service vehicles (specifically the electronics) without infringement, etc.  In other words, a lot of electronics that were previously treated separately from regular consumer items would no longer be treated as such.

Now, we will see how well this bill does in Congress.  It will have opposition, you can bet on that.

The platform enables established style influencers, known as “Style Mavens”, to create their very own online shops. These elite influencers include famous home décor magazines, well-known lifestyle bloggers and top pinners on Pinterest.

By collaborating with Style Mavens, the firm is revolutionising how the social media elite can earn money from their influence.

Unlike other home décor sites that prioritise daily deals and discounts, Joy & Revelry focuses on diverse and unique styles. The platform has also forged ties with today’s top vendors and has entered into alliances with sellers who are new to e-commerce.

“Joy & Revelry is a platform that houses many different shops, each with its unique and individual point of view, style, and merchandise. Instead of focusing on discounts to drive consumer behaviour, our visitors come to Joy & Revelry for professional design perspectives, curated content and unique products,” noted co-founder Jennifer Wu.

To bring interesting and previously unseen items onto the market, the team behind the platform also banked on its deep connections in the industry.

Style Mavens can focus on making their own retail environments, as Joy & Revelry provides the necessary support such as shipping, centralised sourcing and inventory management. Users can also directly connect with the Style Mavens for bespoke e-room designs and personal consultations.

Now companies are looking to combine the two modern conveniences into one. Consumers can soon get the best of both worlds as three big networks from the UK plan to develop an opt-in service that will enable a phone’s SIM to store relevant data from a person’s bank, loyalty and credit cards.

Under the plans, Vodafone, EE and O2 will enable users to swipe the SIM on a card reader in participating shops to pay for their bills in an instant.

“You’ll be able to pick up your goods from the counter – your sandwich or whatever it might be, on a small transaction – and simply swipe your phone, rather than having to get your card out of your wallet,” said David Sear, Chief Executive of Weve, which manages the project.

The company will allow retailers to sign up later in 2013, and in return, they can take advantage of advertising opportunities such as sending special offer alerts to mobile phones. Similar virtual wallets have been started by Google, Mastercard, PayPal and Barclays, although they have not yet caught on in the UK.

Future users will likely be concerned about security, so the services will restrict the amount that can be spent using the phone without entering the PIN code. Nonetheless, cyber security expert Jason Hart urges users to protect their smartphones with a password.

Retwact is a new service that aims to make up for Twitter’s most glaring problem by giving users a way to re-tweet their own retractions or edits, alerting those who’ve retweeted their original statement to send the new information to keep the thread clean.  It can’t force anyone to do this, of course, but it at least keeps your name generally clear and shows that you cared enough about the mistake to try to amend it.

Retwact (Retweet Retract) is a side project of Stonly Baptiste at independenceIT.  The app tracks your five latest tweets that have been retweeted and lets you choose the offending tweet and edit it.  You can also add a Retwact-only apology attachment that other users of Retwact will also be able to read.  Once you’ve completed your edits, you can send it out and Retwact will publish it on your own timeline as a correction and then send the notice of retraction (via the Retwact account) to the @s of the first 100 people who retweeted your earlier (problem) post, alerting them to the change.

So far, the tool is a little limited because of its fast launch window (it was made as a sort of counter to the huge amounts of misinformation being sent out regarding the Boston Marathon bombings) and the fact that Baptiste is coding it solo.  It’s functional as-is, though, and he says he’s still working on improvements.  An addition he’s working on, for example, will give the option of deleting the original, offending tweet from your timeline entirely so that it is only kept as part of the corrected version, preventing it from being sourced by others or re-sent.

Currently (as of this writing), the Rewact account has been suspended on Twitter – flagged for spamming – and so the retweet to the 100 latest retweeters isn’t working.  This is being discussed with Twitter, say various blog sources.

A group of scientists have developed a smartphone that can bend itself or change shape to let users know that they have a call or an important message without the need for noise.

This clever idea was made possible thanks to the efforts of researchers from the Human Media Lab of Queen’s University in Canada. They have even filmed how the prototype works and posted it on YouTube.

Referred to as the MorePhone, this smartphone transforms its shape to alert users that there is a message or an incoming call. It also utilises an e-Ink display with special memory wires so that it can bend to a certain angle when electronically activated.

This means that even if you are in an important meeting, you can feel confident that your mobile phone will be able to alert you without embarrassing you. On top of that, the handset can also form other shapes.

When this technology is ready to launch, handsets such as the iconic iPhone will no longer be just a flat gadget that needs to be kept in a pouch or pocket. In the future, the phone could just jump out of your pocket when you receive an incoming call. Technology has made some things that once seemed impossible happen.

She earned US$1.1 million in cash bonuses and US$4.3 million in shares, in addition to her salary of nearly US$500,000, revealed recent filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Considering that Mayer was hired as Yahoo’s CEO last July, her pay package translates to around US$1 million per month.

If she hangs on to her role for the next four years, she will be able to earn even more. This is because Mayer’s pay package has a minimum value of US$71 million until 2017. It may even surpass US$120 million if she gets another batch of stock grants or if Yahoo’s stock maintains its climb, considering that most of her compensation package is paid in company shares.

Yahoo’s share prices climbed by over 50 per cent in the past nine months since Mayer took over.

Moreover, Yahoo generously forked out millions of US dollars to encourage Mayer to quit Google and go to Yahoo. The firm also rewarded its past Chief Executives generously as well. For example, Scott Thompson was given a first-year pay package of up to US$26 million before he resigned due to false information on his curriculum vitae.

Mayer’s compensation package compares favourably to other CEOs. For example, Google Chief Larry Page earned only one dollar in 2012, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer pocketed only $1.3 million, and Apple’s Tim Cook pocketed US$4.2 million.

This is a huge update that will put LinkedIn into a new category of social networking sites, allowing it to be both a collaborative tool and a personal assistant on smart phones and more.  The new iPhone app is a Contacts app only, meaning it integrates with the phone’s internal contacts list and adds in the user’s LinkedIn contacts (emails, phones, etc.) to make it a sort of professional personal assistant.

The new Contacts on the site will become available in stages, rolling out to limited numbers of users in the U.S., spreading through North America and then the globe over the coming weeks.  The iPhone app will be free to download sometime in that period.  The Contacts feature comes from LinkedIn’s acquisition of Connected in 2011.

Current reports are that Contacts will keep work (LinkedIn) and personal (phone) contacts separate from one another, but cross-referenced and capable of being used in tandem.  It’s all part of LinkedIn’s plan to continue being the professional network for users by helping manage and interact with people users know professionally.

Integration with apps for easier collaboration will include Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar; Google Apps Mail, Contacts, Calendar; Yahoo! Mail, Contacts, Calendar; Outlook Mail, Contacts, Calendar; iPhone Address Book (via the LinkedIn Contacts app); LinkedIn’s CardMunch service; Evernote and TripIt. Outlook Contacts CSV, Mac Address Book vCard and Yahoo! Contacts CSV.