Facebook and AOL have linked their instant messaging platforms. After downloading the beta software, AIM users can click a ” Facebook Connect ” button to set up Facebook chat. They’ll then have access to their Facebook friends on their buddy list. It’s a quick right jab back at Google, whose announcement of Buzz yesterday heralded a clear intent to encroach on Facebook’s social networking playground. Adding AIM users gives Facebook instant traction in the instant messaging space that they haven’t been able to find yet on their own. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the long term, but clearly Facebook wants to get a jump start on nipping Buzz in the bud.

As our hearing impaired readers are no doubt aware, AT&T has been offering its Instant Messaging Relay service since early this year, allowing folks to use AIM to communicate through an operator over the telephone in a manner similar to TDD devices. Now the company has announced an upgrade to the service that will allow real-time communication between callers. Instead of waiting for the relay operator to input long strings of text, users receive the messages word by word as they’re typed. “To hearing users, this may sound like a trivial enhancement,” said Claude Stout, Executive Director of TDI. “But for many callers with hearing or speech disabilities, this creates a wireless and online communications experience that is much closer to what hearing people encounter when talking with others on the phone.” Except, you know, with more emoticons and LOLs.

According to developer Till Schadde, random people may be receiving your AIM messages if you have a jailbroken or unlocked iPhone. In fact, anyone with a jailbroken iPhone may be getting them, according to his testing: Just found a HUGE #security #hole w/ push & AIM. Someone got my sent messages and wrote back. DO NOT send confidential AIM msg to #iPhone #iPhone #push #security #hole:my msg was received by an hacked iPhone w/ push service hack; msg seems to be broadcasted to all hacked phones Take extreme caution when sending AIM msg to people w/ hacked iPhones. Push service broadcasts your msg to strangers.

Step up your messaging, have fun with physics, watch some weird TV, find your car, call your friends, later incriminate said friends—it’s all in a day’s month’s work for Windows Mobile . Searchme: Searchme apps have been available for other mobile platforms—iPhone, Symbian and Android—for quite a while now, only now coming to Windows Mobile in free beta form. Searchme, for the vast majority of you who never stray from the comforting, safe embrace of Google, answers queries in screenshots of websites and various media, some of which can be played back in the results. Though the panel-based interface works best on the iPhone, the Windows Mobile version is far from ugly, and you may find it quicker for certain types of searches. Free. TheChanner : A moderately useful mobile TV app saved by its price, TheChanner doesn’t have a particularly compelling selection of channels—they’re pipe through to your phone from a variety of preexisting free sources, though there aren’t many names that you’ll recognize

There are two versions of the AIM app in the App Store right now. The free one, with ads, and the $2.99 one, with no ads. They both have push notifications . The app does what was touted this year at the iPhone 3.0 event : display notifications when the app is closed, show you how many outstanding messages you have and basically keep you “connected” to the AIM service even when you’re not actively using the app. The free version is here and the pay version is here

The Mythbusters’ passion for explosions got a little out of hand earlier this week when they detonated 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate a mile outside of Esparto, California. Perhaps two miles would have been better. The segment was intended to discover whether it was possible, as the saying goes, to knock someone’s socks off. I don’t know about the socks, but the resulting explosion did manage to break windows throughout Esparto and toss one very suprised woman off her couch. Afterward, she claimed that the experience was “fun, really fun.” What a trooper. At any rate, the Mythbusters crew replaced all the windows that same day and the sentiment around town about the incident seems to be generally positive (despite the fact that no one in the town was informed of the taping beforehand).

While videophiles might shudder to think it, Pure Digital’s crappy Flip, the little YouTubecam that could, has changed a lot about how a lot of folks approach video capture — $590 million worth of change, according to Cisco . Kodak jumped into the market last year with one of the earliest HD models, the $179 Zi6 . Now they’ve followed up with the Zx1 , a $149 “rugged” camera for, um, ruggedness. They’re aiming the camera at outdoor types, but with a smaller form factor, better build, lower price, HDMI output, and 60fps 720p recording (the original maxes out at 30fps 720p), about the only thing you’ll be missing from the Zi6 is a macro mode. So, specs aside, how does the Zx1 perform? Find out after the break.

Apple’s been saying all along that Snow Leopard would be more about under-the-hood performance and stability enhancements than huge feature changes, so take this with a grain of salt, but AppleInsider claims that a forthcoming 10.6 developer beta could potentially feature a new UI codnamed “marble.” The new appearance is said to be darker and sleeker than the current Unified / Aqua look, and speculation is rampant that the new scrollbars in the current versions of iTunes and iPhoto offer a peek into the future, along with the well-circulated mockup of the new QuickTime X player seen above. We’ll see if Apple breaks with its plan to focus solely on the internals soon enough — but for right now, we’re wondering what your biggest gripes with the current OS X interface are, because we certainly know ours. What do you want fixed? Sound off! Filed under: Desktops , Laptops Snow Leopard soon to sport new a “marble” look? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

This crow vending machine was created by Joshua Klein with the aim of training crows to gather loose coins in exchange for food. The idea is that they’ll start teaching each other the behavior. The goal of this project is to create a device that will autonomously train crows. So far we’ve trained captive crows to deposit dropped coins they find on the ground in exchange for peanuts. The next step is to see how quickly we can get wild crows to learn the system, and then how quickly they can learn it from each other

Blockbuster said today that getting the company’s OnDemand content to TiVos wasn’t the last step—they’re aiming for Apple devices as well. The Senior VP didn’t clarify or expand on this statement. [ Reuters via Apple Insider ]