Daily Tech and Gadget

Who are your kids friending on Facebook ? What are they really texting to their classmates? How much online time is too much?

When consumer electronics shopping site Retrevo prepared for Mother’s Day by conducting a survey of parents’ social media practices, it found that nearly half (48%) of parents add their children as friends on Facebook . Parents admitted that “it can be awkward at times” when they follow their kids’ Facebook updates , but think that it’s probably worth it to keep tabs on them. Of course, savvy teens could easily exclude their parents from seeing potentially incriminating updates using Facebook’s advanced privacy features . Retrevo also asked parents at what age they believe it’s appropriate for kids to sign up for Facebook or MySpace .

iPad I’m sure many of you find yourselves in the sometimes-uncomfortable position of alpha geek in your households. It’s a lonely perch, with responsibility for every gadget and gizmo under the familial roof; more frustrating, your spouse and children don’t share your perfectly rational enthusiasm for all things iGlorious, and can’t understand your willingness to spend a Saturday morning on line with strangers at the mall. You might even be faced with some completely unfair public criticisms of your parenting skills or attention span. It’s a tough spot.

You’re looking at a woman who resembles your mother. She moves and talks like your mother, and she’s even dressed the same as your mother. In fact, she is your mother. But you’re absolutely certain that she’s an imposter.

The following is part of our “Your Stories” series on different ways Facebook is used across the world. If you have a story you’d like to share with us, please submit it here . David Slade’s fiancée Kelly was the first to find the lost little dog. Standing in the driveway on her way to shop for wedding dresses in January, Kelly was surprised when the disoriented animal cheerfully ran up to her.

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — My Ripple(www.myripple.co.kr) announced the launch of its new premium mini PC lineup ‘Ripple Look Family 45FC’ in Korea market, which comes with red wine-colored crystal concept of design. Dedicated to enjoy multimedia contents such as high-resolution videos and 3D games, the Family 45FC is equipped with Intel’s latest Dual Core processor, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 2.5-inch 320GB HDD and Intel GMA X4500 graphic chipset. It also supports Direct-X 50 API, DVI/HDMI port and HD video codec including MPEG2/4/VC-5/H.264.

Filed under: Government/Legal , GM , Saab , Spyker , Russia Vladimir Antonov will soon give up the position of chairman at Spyker because he stood between the Dutch company and its successful acquisition of Saab . Recent reports indicate that a Swedish government investigation tied Antonov and his family to the Russian mafia and money laundering. Those findings helped kill the initial deal between Spyker and General Motors and led to Antonov’s subsequent departure. Antonov has a different take on the story. In a New York Times op-ed called ” A Misplaced Fear of Russian Money ,” he writes that the results of the Swedish investigation were “surreal allegations,” and that he’ll prove them untrue.

Filed under: Accessories , iPod Family , iPhone Although you still can’t get your Beatles fix through the iTunes Store , Apple Corps has made a license agreement with MusicSkins , the maker of music-related vinyl skin products for electronic devices. As a result, you can now purchase Beatles personal device skins featuring the Beatles logo and cover art from “Abbey Road,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Rubber Soul,” “Let It Be,” “With the Beatles,” and “Hard Day’s Night.” We have something completely different we’d like to give away to one lucky TUAW reader — a limited edition (one of only 250) Beatles Album Jacket set with MusicSkins for the iPhone (2G, 3G, 3GS), iPod touch (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation), iPod nano (5th Generation), and iPod Classic (80GB, 160GB). This features the full set of album cover art from the Beatles, and there are two MusicSkins for each of the iPod / iPhone types noted. If you don’t have all of the devices, you can give some away to your friends as gifts! To enter this special giveaway, just leave a comment below with the name of your favorite Beatle (and no, Pete Best , Stu Sutcliffe , and Brian Epstein don’t count).

Turns out that Percy Jackson isn’t a trouble maker with dyslexia and ADHD, he’s just the son of Poseidon, and you know how those demigods are. Movie Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lighting Thief shows what happened when a 12-year-old is thrust into a training camp for the children of gods and soon after runs off on his first epic adventure. Jackson has to come to terms with his mythological father, discover his own powers and prove he hasn’t swiped Zeus’ lightning bolt in a two hour movie that seeks to tap into the growing popularity of mythology and Harry Potter. Loved Classic Tale: Mythology seems to be all of the rage these days, at least in video games. This movie lands neatly between the release of Dante’s Inferno and God of War III, both of which deliver classic stories in mythological settings.

Filed under: Gaming , iPod Family , iPhone Last week we noted the impending arrival PopCap’s ridiculously addictive Plants vs. Zombies onto the iPhone / iPod touch , and now this marvelous time-waster has landed. A variant of the the tower defense genre, Plants vs. Zombies requires you to defend your house from mobs of raging zombies by placing various sorts of projectile-emitting, exploding, and zombie-eating plants between them and your front door. Much like previous hits Peggle and Bejeweled , the PopCap team has produced a first-class iPhone port.

Filed under: Macworld , Peripherals , App Store One of the highlights of TUAW’s visit to Macworld Expo 2010 was a pre-show tour of the HP booth on Wednesday, February 10. HP has a long and storied history with Apple, with both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak working for the company at one time before founding Apple. The company has created many Mac-compatible printers over the years, and has worked quite closely with Apple in recent years to insure that drivers for current and past printers are included in Mac OS X. HP’s team welcomed us to their booth as the show was still being set up. Eric Killian, Worldwide Training Manager for SMB Inkjet Printing Systems, showed off two brand-new printers for the Mac; the OfficeJet 4500 All-in-one and the OfficeJet Pro 8500 Premier .

As more and more of our friends and favorite organizations start publishing updates online, being able to organize them well is becoming even more important. Niche-popular desktop social media stream-reader Tweetdeck issued a software update this morning and the most striking change is in its handling of user groups. It’s beautiful. The new Tweetdeck is faster, more flexible and easier to navigate. Groups, we have argued, are the secret weapon of the social web .

Filed under: Hardware , iPhone Hutchison Austria is following in the wake of the iPhone and is offering a subsidized iPad to users willing to commit to a 2-year data contract, Engadget reports. When you sign up for a €29.90, 5GB monthly contract, you’ll get a €333 markdown on the iPad — which may or may not be all that much since we still don’t know how much an iPad is going to cost overseas. Instead of built-in 3G service, a Huawei i-Mo 3G modem will be provided. It’s not a bad idea, and we’re likely to see more carriers jump on this particular bandwagon as the iPad gets closer to release. What I would love to see from carriers is a way to extend existing service for iPhone customers to those who want an iPad plus iPhone.

Market research firm FADE says Microsoft’s online platform sales grew 34 percent last year, thanks to rising average sales prices, top-performing games. As part of its most recent financial report , Microsoft said that Xbox Live surged in popularity by 35 percent in 2009, with 23 million gamers having now signed up for the service. And according to a new independent study by Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment , those gamers spent an estimated $103.4 million on the service’s wares during the year, up 34 percent from 2008. Battlefield 1943 made off with the most XBLA loot last year. FADE attributes the dramatic rise in its revenue estimates to an increase in average selling prices for Xbox Live Arcade titles as well as “incredible sales” for a number of downloadable games.

AT&T just launched FamilyMap , the company’s newest iPhone app, which allows you to track the location of your family members directly on your iPhone. The app ( iTunes link ) allows you to see the exact location of your cellphone toting family members. You can also set up recurring alerts, which allows you to check if your child arrived at school in the morning, for example. Given that this is an AT&T app, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the service is only available if you pay a monthly subscription fee. Tracking the location of two phones costs $9.99 per month.