It is conclusive proof of the existence of Santa Claus too, after all why wouldn’t we believe the government of a country that told us there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq!?  Don’t believe anyone who tells you that he’s not real as it’s all a smokescreen invented by parents to get their children to go to sleep on Christmas eve.  In the morning you can be certain the glass of milk will have been drunk by Prancer or Blitzen, and Santa himself would have eaten the mince pie you’ve left out for him.

But in a way to prove to boys and girls everywhere how real Santa is they make the live tracking information available each year on the NORAD website, so that you can see for yourself how fast he is at delivering presents around the globe.

In a statement on their website the US State Department detail the complicated technology used to track Santa Claus…

NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa – radar, satellites, Santa cams and fighter jets.  Tracking Santa starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system consists of 47 installations strung across the northern border of North America. On December 24th, NORAD monitors the radar systems continuously for indications that Santa Claus has left the North Pole.

The moment that radar indicates Santa has lifted off, we use our second detection system. Satellites positioned in geo-synchronous orbit at 22,300 miles from the Earth’s surface are equipped with infrared sensors, which enable them to detect heat. Amazingly, Rudolph’s bright red nose gives off an infrared signature, which allows our satellites to detect Rudolph and Santa.

The third tracking system is the Santa cam network. We began using it in 1998, which is the year we put our Santa Tracking program on the Internet. Santa cams are ultra-cool, high-tech, high-speed digital cameras that are pre-positioned at many locations around the world. NORAD only uses these cameras once a year. The cameras capture images and videos of Santa and his reindeer as they make their journey around the world.

The fourth system is made up of fighter jets. Canadian NORAD fighter pilots flying the CF-18 intercept and welcome Santa to North America. In the United States, American NORAD fighter pilots in either the F-15, F-16 or the F-22 get the thrill of flying alongside Santa and his famous reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and, of course, Rudolph.

With the Santa Tracker running live in your home you’ll be able to see when he’s getting close so that you’ll know you need to tucked up safely in bed, all asleep because he won’t visit if you’re wide awake and waiting because like all midnight visitors to your home that doesn’t have a legitimate key to the front door, he doesn’t want to be seen or caught.

So try the Santa Tracker for yourself and you’ll believe in the magic of Christmas  :)  Have a very happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year from everyone here at gHacks.

The site is http://wall.alphacoders.com/. It is free to create an account and all you have to do is select your screen resolution to get a perfect image fit.

Simply select from the list to find a collection. For example, this is one of the Abstract selections:

You then set the resolution size for your monitor(s). This is important because the image will not fit your screen correctly otherwise. If you do not know what your screen resolution is, open the Control Panel and in the Hardware and Sound category select Devices and Printers. Find your monitor and right-click then choose Properties. This should indicate the resolution. Sometimes the resolution of a monitor is not displayed in Properties. If you do not have the user manual for the monitor or you just can’t find it, Google the monitor type (like Acer B223W) and you will find the resolution on one of the top listings. Actually, there are several different ways to find the resolution. There is no need to go into all of that here, as it is not the subject matter for this article.

Once you have determined the monitor resolution (unless you already know), click on the appropriate resolution options offered by Wallpaper Abyss. You may also enter a specific resolution not featured on the list of available options.

The monitor used in this demonstration is 1680 x 1050, so that would be the selection on the list. Click the desired resolution on the list and the image will upload. Right-click the image and choose “Save as”. Name the PNG file and save it in a folder in your Pictures library. Have some fun perusing the multitude of different images and create a collection as large as you desire.

This is pure and simple desktop fun. We all need to take a break from the technical and give ourselves a bit of leisure. There are different images on this site than there are on Desktop Nexus, which is another site worth checking out. Not only are abstract, anime and comic book images, there are more conservative images for the less geeky users.

You will find this process engrossing and fun. Blow you co-workers and friends away with a personalized background assortment that displays your character and artistic savvy.

The face-off took place on live TV over the last couple of night and the good news for IBM is that Watson won against its two Human competitors winning $77,147 against the lowly $24,000 and $21,600 from the competition.  Watson said that it would be giving its $1,000,000 winnings to charity.

This doesn’t mean that we’ll be having conversations with our computers any time soon or that they’ll be taking over the world and destroying all Humans, this was a test of a system that’s taken IBM’s researchers years to develop.  Those same researchers will now be taking the data from Watson’s first public outing and pouring over it to find ways to fine tune the heuristics and locate flaws in the system.

We can now probably expect Watson to be taking on more challenges in the coming years so it will inevitably be popping up elsewhere.  Technology like this in the future could bring a whole new horrible dimension to talking to a computer system on the telephone and it will be truly fascinating to see how this technology evolves and is used.  I can imagine there would be excellent opportunities for the technology to help the disabled and infirm.

The basic service displays the search and video on the same page. Videos begin to play immediately after the first is typed into the search form.

This works better than though, with nearly no lag while switching between videos. A fast Internet connection is however recommended for the “instant” feeling.

Youtube Instant displays its suggestion on the right side of the search form, and the video, which is always the first hit in the video box.

youtube instant

One major problem that users may encounter is that video controls are missing. It is not possible to pause or stop the video.

That’s a big problem and limits the usability of the video service. The creation of Youtube Instant could turn out to be very lucrative for Feross, who apparently received a job offer by Google shortly after the service went viral.

Want to test Youtube Instant? Check out the page here.

The games are still that popular that fans have created remakes of the games with better graphics and sounds.

But Sarien Studios went a different way. They decided to retain the charm of the classic games by making the original game versions playable in a web browser. On top of that they added multiplayer support which sounds crazy at first. Ever imagined yourself playing Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards with ten other Larrys? No? Me neither.

sierra games online

Sarien Studios have added nine Sierra On-line games so far, including memorable games such as Gold Rush, King’s Quest I to III, Police Quest or Space Quest I and II.

All games are hosted on the site and playable in most modern web browsers including Firefox 2 and up, Internet Explorer 6 and up, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.

Playing the games alone would have been enough fun for some users but the multiplayer addition kicks it up a notch.

You see other players wandering around in the adventure, their input commands displayed as speech bubbles. It is even possible to chat with other players which might be helpful in situations where you are stuck, and those will come, believe me.

Veterans might need a moment to get used to the idea of seeing a dozen clones of their character wandering around in the game shouting commands left and right. Multiplayer can be disabled, helpful if some players do not know their boundaries.

The developers have already announced plans to add new games and features to their adventure gaming project. Next up looks to be King’s Quest IV.

If you have some time at hand check it out, it is well worth it.

First iPhone Worm Rickrolls Jailbroken iPhones

This has been the main worry about everything Mac, They do not have viruses now, true but as they start to get more popular they will attract the attention of malware creators. So in that vein of paranoia, we have news of the first ever worm for the iPhone.

You can cut out the screaming and the deep breathing exercises because it is a) completely harmless and b) only effective on jailbroken iPhones. It does things like change the wallpaper and rickrolling users, so it is not exactly destroying your iPhone yet. A worm on a jailbroken phone is a worm on a device that has already been tampered with. So you can wait for the first ever worm on legit iPhones before you hit the panic button. [read]

Complete Car Control Via iPhone

Okay, this is certifiably crazy. In fact, we should probably start a ‘gHacks Certifiably Nuts’ award just for these fellas. But I must admit that what they are is doing is pretty cool. We know that the iPhone can already be used to start your car remotely but fully driving with the iPhone kinda takes the cake.

So what you do is you take some electronic control circuits, hook them up to control your steering, acceleration and brakes and then control them wirelessly. If you want a less vague and more accurate description, check out the videos. It is quite nicely done and I especially love the fact that they are using the accelerometer to control the steering.

The result is pretty 007-ish — that you can drive your car through your iPhone. Look M(a), no hands! [read]

HD Radio Comes To The iPhone Via Gigaware

Now that the Zune HD is out, your least favorite co-worker who loves to make fun of your liking for Apple has probably been going on and on about how his Zune HD does HD radio and your iPod Touch does not. Setting aside the all important the question of how many good HD radio stations are there near you, you can now get back at him saying “there’s an app for that!”

But that would be kinda half true because even though iBiquity has made an app that plays HD radio on your iPhone, you still have to get an additional hardware for accomplishing the feat. The device is called Gigaware Navigation Controller and is essentially an HD tuner with iPhone integration. It allows you to seek and auto tune as well. Plus there is Facebook tagging and iTunes tagging.

Works with the latest iPhone and the iPod Touch. Available on RadioShack. [read]

Sparkz Projector For Your iPhone

Do you want to spend a lot of money on a pico projector that will work with your iPhone/ iPod Touch/iPod Video? If you do, you can now have the Sparkz dock that lets you connect any of those devices and more to it so that you can project your favorites onto a nearby screen. It will support a/v and VGA inputs too.

Other than this extended support for inputs, it has a resolution of 640×480, stereo speakers and a 60-inch viewing area. It charges your docked device while it is projecting and it comes with its own tripod. The price so much goodness? A mere $495. Hey, I did say a lot of money. [read]

In other news, did you know that the iPhone is closing in on Blackberry’s market share? Read all about it and more (Droid, HTC, Google) in Otaku Gadget’s phone news round-up for this week.

Comixology are the people who made the brilliant free comic reader on the iPhone. Now they have gone ahead and added 71 Marvel Comics titles to the in-app purchase catalogue. The titles include names such as The Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, X-Men Age Of Apocalypse and X-23. The comics are priced at $2 each. One bad news – it is US only.

The title are also available on iVerse and Panelfly. iVerse users get the same deal and Panelfly users actually get them for $0.99 each [read]

Do you like time-lapse videos? You know, the ones where a very long event is shot in video and then compressed into a short footage? Like the growing of a sapling or the setting up of a stage? (that rhymes!) Now you can easily make videos like that with your iPhone, thanks to an app called the Timelapser. Clearly, the developers have spent all their efforts on making the app, not naming it (or making an good UI for it). And for one buck, you have no excuse for trying it out. [read]

Do you meet Spanish-speaking people frequently but can’t speak the language to save your life? Worry not, the Jibbigo iPhone app has you covered. It is a nifty little app that converts your speech (English) to Spanish right as you speak. The converted text is then turned to speech and played over the microphone. It also works in reverse, saving you from uni-directional conversation. And the best part is that the entire thing is done offline, so you don’t have to worry about it not working in places where you can’t get a signal to go online. At $25, it is much cheaper than hiring your own translator to roam around with you wherever you go. Besides, some conversations should always stay private ;) . [read]

Sometimes, we all feel like blowing off a bit of steam, using heavy artillery and generally blowing things up with a heavy machine gun. Of course, we can’t always do what we want. So what do we do when we feel like a tightly packed box of gun powder just waiting for a spark? We get a new iPhone App called Firepower and blow the head off the annoying co-worker end every other annoying thing. I mean virtually of course. You can’t expect to get the real thing for $1, that too on your iPhone. You can also point it at you PC when the thing goes BSoD on you! [read]

This is about Settlers of Catan. Do I see you jumping up and down going yes yes  yes yes yes? Well then, you would be happy to know that this popular board game is now available as an iPhone app. The the premise of the game is that you and (up to) three other players are on a tropical island and you have to beat the others by gathering 10 victory points. You get points for capturing settlements, building roads, etc.

You can play against other humans or against the AI. There is no multiplayer mode on this and so you have to physically pass the phone around in order to play the game with your friends. For $5, this is a nice game to help you spend those snowed-in days with your friends and family. [read]

Want to watch live NBA games on the go? Now you can do that for $40/year on your iPhone and other mobile devices. The NBA is offering full live games on mobile devices, up from only the highlights that it used to do. For the fee, you get to watch up to 40 live games per week (wow) and also access to up to two days of archived game. You can even pause and rewind up to 30 seconds during a live feed. Currently available on AT&T and T-mobile USA. Way to get more dedicated viewers NBA! [read]

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Before I sign off, I have to show you people this. It is the next big update on the iPhone. It is so good, it is actually delicious. In fact, I am wishing I could get one custom-made for myself right now!

Also, how could I not post this video in this iPhone post! It pokes fun at the iDon’t Verizon Motorola Droid ad campaign.

If you want to know what Apple’s been up to last week, you can read my weekly Apple round up and the Monday news round up at Otaku Gadgets.

Verizon Said To Be Testing iPhone 4G

A relatively unknown source has been spotted saying something quite intriguing. Verizon has apparently been testing out a new CDMA version of the iPhone on its 4G LTE network.

Other than the part about an iPhone that will have data speeds that are about ten times that of current ones available to it, the Verizon part makes it even more interesting. That is because Verizon has kicked off a campaign today that basically mocks the iPhone and tries to push the new Motorola Droid as the phone that does what iPhone Doesn’t. So far, it is one of the silliest ad campaigns I have ever seen. Being an Apple user, I can only manage to laugh at it. I don’t know much about the Droid personally, so I will refrain from commenting on that. [read]

Rock Band Arrives For iPhone

What else do you want to know? Just grab the app and start tapping like crazy on your iPhone 3GS while rocking out to favorite classic rock numbers. The 20 songs that come with the game include the likes of Blink-182, Jethro Tull, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Smashing Pumpkins, Steve Millers band, Beastie Boys and more. You can download more from the in-game store.

As you see from the bands named above, all sorts of the rock sound have been included in the game. From contemporary punk to classic glam, it is all there for you to enjoy. The strategy is of course to draw out all the rock fans out there, no matter what their age or preference. If any of you are already tapping, I mean rocking out with this, drop us a comment and let us know how you like it. [read]

Layar 2.0 Now Available On iPhone 3GS

The hot and much loved augmented reality app, Layar [2.0], has finally been ported to the iPhone 3GS from Android. Layar is a brilliant augmented reality app that adds an extra layer of information on what you are looking at.

For example, if you are standing facing the Eiffel Tower, on screen you will see the Eiffel Tower with a short description of the structure and links to more data on it. It uses the built in GPS and magnetometer to determine your location and direction.

It is even more useful when you are in an unknown location and want to get information on local resources like restaurant reviews, maps and directions. Actually, paraphrasing Morpheus, you have to see for yourself what the Layar augmented reality browser is all about. [read]

Apple Finally Allows In-App Purchases For Free iPhone Apps

In a very intelligent move, Apple has finally allowed free apps to have in-app purchases within them. This means quite a few good things for both app developers and Apple.

For app developers, this is a much-needed and asked for way to monetize their apps. This also means that excellent free apps with paid content inside will be further developed and won’t be abandoned due to lack of revenue. For Apple, this is yet another way to generate more revenues from mammoth collection of Apps for the iPhone. I love it when things change for the better for everybody, don’t you? :)

Scorsese original documentary was shot more than thirty years ago and influenced many film makers including Quentin Tarantino who used one of the stories of the documentary in his Pulp Fiction movie (the one with the adrenalin shot to the heart). Since the movie was never officially released Pallotta had to collect materials from other sources like Bittorrent or Youtube to get the film done. While he did get a master copy of the film from Steven Prince himself he discovered an even better copy on the Bittorrent network.

The movie can be directly downloaded from Bittorrent. The torrent is linked at Mininova. The movie has a size of about 420 Megabytes. It is already listed on IMDB with a 9.1 rating although it probably will go down when more users start voting.

Think this is weird? Well, these, and other ideas like them are what you can find at greenUPGRADER, a site dedicated to being green. The site focuses on reusing everyday items to cut down on consumption and reduce wastage of natural resources.

greenUPGRADER has a multitude of do-it-yourself projects for visitors, ranging from simple solutions like the examples mentioned above to big things like turning old gutters into a garden. The site also keeps you updated about the latest products made from recycled materials, a must-have resource for those truly into green living. Some of these products are definitely worth a look, like the notebook made from used bike tires.

If you’re into recycling and reusing products, then go ahead and bookmark the site. Even if you’re not really thinking of green living, some of the DIY projects on greenUPGRADER are worth a try on a lazy afternoon when you have nothing better to do.

Do you recycle or reuse things? Is it worth it? What do you think of greenUPGRADER? Let me know in the comments.

The result is pretty amazing. The complete discography of many artists are shown on the results page. All albums and songs can be played right on the website without additional plugins or registration hassles.

Users who want to listen to music online can enter a band or artist name in the search form or pick one of the suggestions in the tag cloud below. It takes only a few seconds before the next page is loaded containing information about the discography of the selected band or artist. The first song of one of the music albums will play automatically.

The results are spot on. Even the tested live albums did return the live songs (most of the times) and not other studio versions of the songs. All songs were playing fine during tests, there was no delay or any other sort of disturbance. The page with the music player uses several ads which might be distracting to some users. It provides the means to purchase songs at Amazon. There are also some concert information listed on some pages.

Vastfm is a unique interesting website that provides access to virtually any band and song that can be found on Youtube.

24 drives equals a total storage of 6 Terabytes. The other system specs are as impressive. They added a combination of two Intel 3.2GHz QX9775 Quad-Core cpus, two ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards, 4GB of 800MHz FB-DIMM DDR2 SDRAM, two Corsair HX1000W power supply units, an Adaptec 5 Series RAID card, an Areca 1680ix-24 RAID card and of course the 24 256GB MLC Solid State Drives.

How fast was the system after all? They managed to top 2 Gigabytes of sequential write and reading speed. They performed some tests like loading all Microsoft Office applications (in 0.5 seconds), all 53 apps of the Windows start menu (in 18.09 seconds), copying a 700 Megabyte DVD rip (0.8 seconds) or recycling 700 files with a total size of 5.6 Gigabytes (instantly).

The viral marketing campaign is highly successful with more than 250K views on Youtube already. Can you imaging running a system like this? What are your thoughts, let us know!

If you’re looking for Photoshop tutorials, Vunky Search is the place to go to. This site labels itself as the ‘Fast and Furious Photoshop Tutorial Browser’ or in other words, a Photoshop search engine. Both in looks and function, Vunky Search resembles one of the many multi-torrent search engines out there.

When you look at the homepage, you notice the links to popular searches. Below that are some of the featured tutorials for the day. If you’re searching for something specific, type in a search term. If you’re browsing around, just ‘randomize’ or click on a link that interests you. The selected tutorial opens in its original site with no hassles.

Vunky Search currently indexes 88 tutorials but I expect this number to increase over time. Some of the tutorials are simply superb. One more thing I’d like to see is tutorials for more software like Paint and the GIMP. After all, not everyone uses Photoshop.

What do you think of Vunky Search? How do you think the site can be improved? What’s your favorite image tutorials site? Let me know in the comments.

The wallpapers have to be unpacked and transferred to the Windows Mobile device after downloading them from the website. Each package will unpack into two directories that refer to the sizes of the wallpapers contained within. While the wallpaper packs have been specifically designed for Windows Mobile devices they can basically be used on any device with a screen resolution of either 480×640 or 240×320.

Wallpapers are divided into several categories like nature, abstract or people. This means that the packs do contain enough variety to please most users. Well worth a download if you use a mobile device with a supported screen resolution.

With ImageLoop, creating a slideshow is very easy. You can either upload a bunch of photos from your hard drive or import them from an online service that stores photos. The only requirement is that all photos must be in JPG format. Fancy a Flickr photo that isn’t yours? No problem, ImageLoop lets users import photos from Myspace and Flickr just by typing in the username, not just their own.

Once the photos are uploaded, you can customize the look and feel of your slideshow, and add descriptions to your photos as well. Once the slideshow is ready, you can email it to your family and friends or use one of the available embed codes to publish it on the internet. ImageLoop also allows you to decide just who can view your slideshow by changing the access levels. If you want to go back and change the accessibility, you can do that too.

ImageLoop is free to use but it does require registration. This is obvious otherwise users would not be able to edit their slideshows. Once registered, there are no limits on the number of slideshows a user can create.

As far as ease of use is concerned, the service ranks highly. The compatibility with social networks also scores well. Another bonus is the ability to use photos that do not belong to the user. However, this is a double-edged sword because if a user posts a slideshow with copyrighted pictures, he or she could get into trouble.

Overall, I think ImageLoop is a good service, especially for people always sharing pictures with their friends over social networks. What are your thoughts on ImageLoop and photo sharing? Let me know in the comments.

To solve this problem, I usually standardize the volume of all my audio files. To do this, I use a little program called MP3Gain. But if you do not want to add to the endless list of software installed on your computer, you can opt for getting the job done with a browser-based application. One such tool is Vloud.

Vloud allows you to upload any mp3 or wav file to the site and change its volume according to your preferences. Using the site is easy. Select the desired volume you want your file to have from the options light, loud, louder, and loudest. Then, upload the original file and wait for the changes to take place. Once the file is ready, you can listen to it online or download it to your hard drive.

The site is not without its limitations. One of them is that the uploaded file can be a maximum of 10MB. This is not a problem if you’re uploading individual songs but won’t work if you want to use a concert recording for example. Another thing I didn’t like was that the volume settings were too vague. A ‘loud’ setting does not really tell me how my file is going to sound after conversion. So I’d have to keep trying different settings till I found one I liked.

Overall though, Vloud is quite useful especially for people who do not want to be burdened with things like bitrates, decibels, and frequencies. Plus, for those who only require to change file volume once in a while, using an application like Vloud makes more sense.

What do you think of Vloud? Is it worthwhile using a web app on your audio files? What other similar tools do you know of? Let me know in the comments.

The site offers those stories free of charge, anyone can watch them online without having to register first. Each story makes use of subtitles to make it easier for anyone to follow.

You find several popular stories on the website such as The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen or Cinderella. This website can keep English speaking kids (and parents) busy for many hours which might just be the thing needed during Christmas to keep the little brats quiet for some time. And it is something different than those degenerated Simpsons, Family Guy or Spongebob cartoons that parents let them usually watch.

The best case would be of course if someone at home would narrate or read the story to the children but as this is not always possible this could be an alternative for busy parents.

Since this is Ghacks, there’s a pretty good chance that your ‘must-have’ is tech-related. If it is, why not share your wish with the rest of us? Maybe you want a new souped-up computer for your gaming needs, or that fancy new mobile phone. How about the latest portable media player?

Another point of interest is whether you envision yourself owning the desired gadget soon. If not, what’s stopping you? Is it the lack of finance, logistical difficulties (like the product not being available where you live) etc. Or is it that you simply can’t justify buying the gadget because you already have a similar one in perfectly good condition.

I’ll start the ball rolling on this one. One thing I really want to have is a good portable media player. I was supposed to get one this Christmas but things haven’t worked out as planned since the person who was bringing it has been unable to do so. Now, I’m starting to have second thoughts.

What about you? What’s on your wishlist for the holidays? Let me know.

The basic steps are similar to Elf Yourself. You start by picking the number of characters that should appear on the eCard. You can pick between one to five. Dragging and dropping the three available character models is the next step. Available are one female and two male models.

The real customization begins in step three. You need to upload pictures of faces that are placed on the characters heads. The software makes it really easy to adjust the face so that it fits nicely on the models.

When all photos have been uploaded and adjusted it is time to set a background and pick a music for the eCard. The last step allows to add a personal short message to the eCard.

You do not have to enter your real credentials if you do not want. The name however is shown beneath the message when viewing the eCard. Options are to embed the card on a website, to send it to someone per email or to send the link directly.