Google on Saturday said that it was taking extra action to patch up a large-scale Android malware infection that highlighted the risks of the platform. They have pulled the apps and are now pushing an automatic update to compromised phones that will remove the privacy hacks.

If you are affected, you will get an e-mail first to let you know of the problem and a second after it gets patched, according to security head Rich Cannings. The company is also adding a “number of measures” in the Market to prevent more hostile apps like those in question and is working with phone makers and other partners to cure the root causes.

Math geeks who are also game geeks will love this calculator. It won’t help you with your Killzone game, but maybe you can figure your kill/death ratio with it. It is called the Cool Gamer Calculator, and yes it is a calculator in a shell that’s shaped like a video game controller.

It gives you all of the basics like add, subtract, divide, multiply, memory, percentage and square root. The Cool Gamer Calculator is available for $13.99. It’s the best of both worlds in one cool gadget.

The Nook Color has apparently been pulled from store shelves, but only temporarily. The ereader is backordered at Best Buy, and the Barnes & Noble site says that the device is not shipping for two weeks. They gave no reason, but several outlets are reporting that Barnes & Noble wants to make the Nook Color hack proof.

You might remember that the Nook Color was rooted and new unofficial Android OS firmware was available to turn it into a full blown Android tablet. It’s possible that Barnes & Noble feels that custom firmware allows users to download competing e-reading apps like Kindle. But who is going to want it after they “fix” it?

Rooting a device will allow you to install any app you want on it. It’s a pretty useful trick if you have the know-how. And now the Barnes & Noble NOOKcolor has fallen victim to this. The result is a NOOKcolor that allows you to read Kindle books. How do you like that irony?

Obviously Barnes & Noble is not happy about this. It doesn’t just stop at Amazon’s Kindle app, though. The rooting process in this case also added Gmail, YouTube and some other Android tricks to the NOOKcolor.

The latest addition to the Dyson family is the Dyson DC23 Animal Canister Vacuum. This one features level 3 root technology. The DC23 Animal will suck up all of your pet hair and clean your couches and carpeting, while coming with a bunch of handy accessories.

You get a stair tool, a brush tool, a crevice tool, and a hard floor tool. And as a bonus, the DC23 can climb steps, making it easier to clean stairs compared to more traditional vacuums. It will cost you $399 for that privilege however.

The way we see it, humans have just two deeply rooted fears. Both are completely justified. Robots and snakes. Well,now Carnegie Mellon has combined both effectively and taught its robotic snake how to climb trees. “Uncle Sam” is a modular snake robot and the latest in a line of snakes from Carnegie Mellon’s Biorobotics Lab. Uncle Sam can roll, wiggle and side-wind with the best of them.

Now that it can wrap itself around a pole and climb vertically, it can therefore climb trees. Maybe even pluck an apple and offer it up to an Eve-bot. We were scared of robot snakes before, but now it might truly be time to whimper and hide somewhere and wait out the coming robotpocalypse.

Rooting your device to get full access can be quite a process, you have to break down those walls like breaking into a fortress, but it’s getting easier thanks to the folks who do such things. After the HTC Droid Incredible was rooted, the folks behind Unrevoked decided that it was time for a one-click root method to be available to the masses.

The process should be as easy as clicking once. If you weren’t planning to root your HTC Droid Incredible, maybe this method will make it more attractive to you.

ThinkGeek has all sorts of epic geeky clothing and gadgets. The company often combines the geeky clothing with some sort of useful feature like a shirt that has a guitar you can really play.

The latest shirt from ThinkGeek is the BeerBot Bottle Opening Shirt. The thing is offered for about $20 and is in small to XXL. The front of the shirt has a screen-printed robot that is in the shape of a beer bottle, but reminds me a lot of Bender.

Remember Microsoft Pink? It’s just been unveiled as a pair of handsets from Sharp called the Kin One and Kin Two. The devices are mostly based on Windows Phone 7, but they offer a totally different experience.

The entire user interface is custom to Kin and has a heavier social media slant, a custom browser and what’s this?, no support for third-party apps. The displays support multitouch with no support for in-browser Flash or Silverlight.

The Dell Froot concept while oddly named aims to be environmentally friendly and save the planet with two projectors. One for a virtual keyboard, and another for the monitor. Pretty great idea and a great space saver to boot.

It was designed by Pauline Carlos as part of a sustainability contest from Dell. The colorful case is constructed from biodegradable starch-based polymer and looks like fruit/froot. The technology is nearly there. Not quite, but nearly.

If you’re like us, you probably think that these constant ad battles between AT&T and Verizon are getting really old. Who can keep track anymore. Lawsuit is countered by lawsuit, then there’s a lull, then more ads slinging mud at each other.

Here’s AT&T’s latest. Another ad featuring Luke Wilson. The ad is all about the speed of AT&T’s network compared to Verizon. Why can’t they use this ad money and put it toward making their networks better? What’s next? The other half of the annoying Wilson brother duo rooting for the opposing team?

Panasonic’s cute battery-lovin’ mascot is at it again. Last time, he was showing off his abilities by scaling a Grand Canyon cliff. Now EVOLTA is back and he’s still all about breaking records and the hearts of fan-girls everywhere. This time he will be riding a mini tricycle in order to set a world record for distance traveled by a robot.

We’re rooting for the little guy, but we aren’t so sure he is gonna make it. I mean EVOLTA isn’t exactly fast is he? The bot does have some upgrades from his previous version however. He can ride a bike and follow an infrared path set up by his human handlers.

By now everyone knows that the Palm Pre has iTunes support. But Pre’s identity to its host system when connected via USB has confirmed what was already suspected. The method that it uses to hook into iTunes is…questionable.

The Pre identifies itself as an iPod in Media Sync mode, but only on the system’s mass storage interface. The root USB node still comes through as a Palm Pre. Apple could, if they wanted to, easily block it. Would Apple do that? It would certainly help grow their user base to let it be.

I really like the EA Need for Speed franchise and I have played most every title in the franchise going back to when it first launched when I was a kid. I liked Need for Speed Pro Street, but I missed the police chase action. I was glad when Need for Speed Undercover went back to the franchises roots.

EA has announced that new content packs are now available for Undercover. Two packs are available with the Challenge Series pack being offered for free and adding 60 new events along with new game modes Highway Wars and Highway Checkpoint races and three new cars.

What you are looking at is a Game Boy hooked up to a nitrous oxide machine, so that this child can be sedated. It’s called the PediSedate and it’s probably a really bad idea.

The PediSedate was designed for use by dentists. Apparently they got bored with putting people under the normal way. The idea is to distract kids with video games while they are drugged for root canal surgery and such. That doesn’t seem creepy at all.