Dish Network has opened up it’s massive wallet today and announced that it will be acquiring Blockbuster for $228 million. The satellite provider participated in a bankruptcy court auction for Blockbuster, with a winning bid of $320 million. After some adjustments for cash and inventory, the companies both agreed on the final price.

So Blockbuster will continue in some form, we just aren’t sure what Dish’s plans are for it at this time. Who knows, maybe they will try to take on Netflix, though that might be futile.

What’s the world coming to when a prisoner can’t even call his drug dealer? What’s a prostitute to do when she can’t call her pimp for a little advise? Sometimes you just need to call a friend on the outside and ask about the best way to make a shiv. Oh well.

California’s Public Safety Committee has approved a new bill that aims to crack down on the smuggling of mobile phones into prisons. The new law would have tough penalties for both the smugglers and inmates. If this bill passes, anyone who possesses a cell phone with the intent to deliver, or delivers a cellphone to an inmate, would be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 per device.

The Xbox 360 is about six-years old. The PlayStation 3 and Wii almost the same age. Microsoft and Sony had said that their current consoles will have 10-year life cycle and it looks like they were pretty on target. A Wii 2 is even expected this year to compete with the 360 and PS3′s Kinect and PlayStation Move motion controllers.

Now we have word that Square Enix, makers of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to name a few, are already planning to open a 100 staff studio in Canada next year. This way they will be ready for the next generation consoles and get their games out accordingly.

AT&T has announced that it is acquiring T-Mobile USA for $39 Billion. I guess that’s the going rate for adding 33M customers all at once. Combined, the new entity will have about 129M subscribers. Both networks use GSM as the basic building block, so network consolidation should be pretty effortless.

AT&T has just become more powerful. Deutsche Telecom, the parent company will have an 8% stake in AT&T if the deal is approved by the government. T-Mobile users will gain access to the iPhone and eventually to AT&T’s 4G LTE network. What do you think? Is this ultimately good for consumers?

At rates like that, no wonder Bruce Wayne is rich. If you want to live the Batman lifestyle, you have to pay. The Eden Exoticism Planet Hotel in Taiwan has a one-of-a-kind Bat Cave designed for your Bat-inspired erotic fantasies.

It will cost you $50 for three hours. You and your Bat-girl will be treated to special touches like a yellow and black bat signal headboard and an actual batmobile seat. There are bats of course, movie posters and other bat-fixtures as well.

As promised, Jolicloud is now offering Joli OS 1.2 for download. Sounds jolly to us. The cloud-based operating system makes finding, making and sharing web apps easier than ever before. The app creation process is whats new, letting users quickly create simple apps.

The OS has a large social component, letting users follow other Joli OS users and see their apps. Aside from that, the interface has also been refreshed, and Dropbox is integrated to allow file sharing between Joli OS devices. There’s also an HTML 5-based Chrome web app that doesn’t require you to download any software, just log in.

Texting while driving is already a serious problem, but now there’s another danger to watch out for. Drivers who use the internet on the phone while driving. According to a survey by US insurance company, State Farm, one in five Americans that own a smartphone admits to using the internet while driving.

One of the biggest reasons they log on to the internet is to check their social networks. Other reasons cited were looking for directions, reading email or just searching for topics that interest them. Most of the time this occurs during red lights or when drivers are caught in traffic jams. I guess that at least is good news.

I see the future of the crystal ball…It is hazy…No wait. Here it is. This 3.9″ crystal ball displays a hologram type of image inside, so it would be perfect to display a company’s advertisement, but pricey.

We’re talking over the $4,000 mark. Just connect it to a DVD or video player to project footage into a new magical dimension. It can also be enjoyed at home if you are wealthy enough. Wow your friends with films, music videos and games in a whole new way. Or heck, just use it in your palm reading business.

The Coca-Cola Company has announced that its bottle technology will now also be used by Heinz for its ketchup packaging. The bottle technology was launched in 2009 and uses a plastic sourced from sugarcane waste to replace 30 per cent of the plastic in bottles.

Heinz will introduce PlantBottled ketchup this summer across the US. That means that 120 million of its 20-ounce retail and foodservice bottles will now get the partly renewable packaging. These PlantBottles will even have a special label with environmental messages. Coke wants to invest more than $150 million in the PlantBottle technology. Their goal is to reach 100 per cent renewable and recyclable packaging as soon as they can.

Girl scout cookies. Tasty and overpriced. So it’s understandable if you don’t have the cash that these girls want for their goods. If you’re in Northeast Ohio you won’t need cash anymore. The local Girl Scout group there has teamed up with Intuit to accept credit cards using the company’s GoPayment app for iOS and Android.

The Ohio group may have been the first to sign up, but Intuit is now also extending the same offer to Girl Scout organizations across the US. So you will likely see this in your area as well.

Listen up all you George Costanzas and Captain Picards. Laser-based hair rejuvenation is your answer. Specifically the iGrow, a stylish new bit of head-gear from Apira Science. It features 21 laser diodes and 30 LED lights.

The company says that this machine matches the output of most clinical hair lasers, and it should result in “thicker, fuller and healthier” hair in just a “few short months.” You buying this? The iGrow also includes a remote that has been programmed for both men and women, and it has a built-in set of headphones that you can use with your own iPod or MP3 player. Damn. This thing is packed with features. It will cost you $695.

It’s official, Borders, the second largest bookstore chain the U.S., has filed for bankruptcy. The company will continue to operate while it restructures, but it will be just a shadow of it’s former self. It has to close around 200 of its stores, about 30 percent. After that, it might need to close another 75.

Though the company hasn’t produced its own e-book reader, it has partnered with Kobo to sell its device, and it has established its own e-book store that is used by various e-reader apps for smartphones and tablets. We don’t know yet if the bankruptcy will affect those or not.

IBM’s Watson computer triumphed over its human competitors on Tuesday’s special episode of Jeopardy. The computerized trivia-playing machine finished out with a total of $35,734 in winnings with the next runner up at $10,400 and 3rd place at $5,000. One more day of competition will determine an overall winner to a $1 million prize.

The man vs machine competition has drawn quite a bit of attention with two Jeopardy! champions taking on the IBM supercomputer named ‘Watson’. The first special episode which aired Monday night turned out to be the highest rated episode since early 2007 and the second most program of the night.

Women who can’t afford nose jobs in Japan have at least one more option now, thanks to the Electric Beauty Lift High Nose. The idea is that it will straighten your nose. And if you believe that, I have some swampland to sell you.

The Electric Beauty Lift High Nose supposedly uses electric vibrations to straighten your nose, while making you look ridiculous at the same time. Anyway, if this worked, there would be no crooked noses in the world.

This seems more like something Batman’s Joker would use on unsuspecting Gotham residents, but it was actually created by a Japanese inventor. It’s called the Electro Smile. The device hooks onto your child’s face, then constantly sends electricity to your child’s cheeks, triggering the muscles to make them smile.

Creepy huh? It has an adjustable current, so even the most stubborn kid can be made to smile. This is definitely the work of a Batman villain. Why the long face son? Zap! he he he ha ha ha.