Gift ideas for the techie on your list

The holidays are coming fast, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten very little of your gift shopping done.

Here are suggestions for a variety of gifts for the techie and the not-so-techie people on your list.

Some of these items can be found in stores and some are only available online, but you should be able to order them in time for Christmas or Hanukkah.

IOMEGA EZ MEDIA & BACKUP CENTER

What is it? A hard drive that lives on your home network so you can share files, store all your photos and music and back up your home computers. Works on Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.

The EZ Media & Backup Center is available in 1-, 2- and 3-terabyte capacities. It is simple to set up. It lives next to your home router and plugs into the network via Ethernet.

Major features include a built-in iTunes server so your music is available to all connected computers, Time Machine support for easy Macintosh backups and Iomega’s Personal Cloud to access your data from any Internet connection.

It can also stream your video files to your TV if you’ve got a compatible streaming box or an Internet-connected TV.

Software for backing up Windows PCs is also included.

Who’s it for? Any family that wants central storage for their digital lives. This is a great home for your digital photo, music or video library.

What does it cost? One terabyte for $169.99, two terabytes for $209.99, three terabytes for $279.99.

Where can you get it? Online at www.iomega.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple store, Fry’s.

NETATMO URBAN WEATHER STATION

What is it? A wireless indoor/outdoor weather station that displays through an application on your Apple or Android mobile device.

There are two parts, one that lives in your house and one you place outside.

The indoor component plugs into the wall and monitors the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, carbon dioxide level and even the sound level in decibels.

The outdoor module is battery-powered and measures temperature and humidity.

Once you connect the Netatmo to your home Wi-Fi network, you can download the free app and see your weather stats from anywhere.

Setup was easy enough, and you can set the app to notify you when carbon dioxide rises to levels that you should be warned about — which is great.

Who’s it for? Weather geeks and people who like to know what the temperature is without having to fire up a browser.

What does it cost? $179

Where can you get it? www.netatmo.com

3M LED ADVANCED LIGHT

What is it? 3M’s first foray into the home light bulb market is with the LED Advanced Light, which uses light-emitting diodes (LED) to produce 800 lumens (the light of a 60-watt bulb).

The Advanced Light has a life span of 25 years and costs just $1.63 per year if it’s turned on for three hours per day.

The bulb lights instantly and is dimmable.

It’s a little intimidating to start buying light bulbs that might outlive me, but my wallet approves.

Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to save money or wants a bulb that might not have to be changed until 2035.

What does it cost? $25

Where can you get it? Select Wal-Mart stores. For more information, go to www.3mlighting.com/LED.

STEM IZON 2.0 WI-FI VIDEO MONITOR

What is it? A small, wireless video camera that you can monitor remotely with an iOS device.

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Defense in Rilya Wilson trial asks for mistrial based on prosecutor’s standing with Florida Bar

The defense for Geralyn Graham, the foster mother accused of murdering 4-year-old Rilya Wilson a decade ago, asked for a mistrial Tuesday morning after a Miami Herald reader found that one of the prosecutors was not technically a member of the Florida Bar.

The trial is proceeding as usual, and Judge Marisa Tinkler-Mendez will rule on the mistrial by the end of the day.

Assistant state attorney Joshua Weintraub completed more than the required 30 hours of continuing education in August but failed to enter the correct course number, and the credits were not recognized by the Florida bar. A reader identified as “Bambie” commented on The Miami Herald article about the opening day of the trial, saying that according to the Florida Bar registry, Weintraub was not eligible to practice law. The reader’s concern was that “it would be a travesty for this case to proceed to verdict only to learn that the Assistant State Attorney had no authority to prosecute the case.”

Defense attorney Michael Matters asked for a mistrial based on Weintraub’s “individual participation in depositions of critical witnesses” and his presentation of himself as an assistant to state attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle.

“Whether he’s suspended for small or humongous violation, it’s still a suspension,” Matters said. “It’s absolutely inappropriate, unethical and wrong. There is no justification for someone practicing law without a license.”

Neither Weintraub nor the other two prosecutors on the case — one of whom is his mother — addressed the continuing education oversight. Don Horn, one of the chief assistants to the state attorney, said Weintraub was pulled from the trial Monday afternoon and temporarily suspended until his continuing education course credits could be straightened out. As of Tuesday morning, on the second day of the trial, Weintraub was reinstated and resumed his seat at the prosecutor’s table.

The trial resumed with Willie Harris, supervisor for the Department of Children and Families taking the stand. He was questioned on his decision to remove then 3-year-old Rilya Wilson from the home of her first foster mom, Pamela Kendrick, and place her in the care of Geralyn Graham, who is now standing trial for her murder.

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Off-duty NYPD cop busted in alleged LES assault

An off-duty NYPD sergeant was arrested for attacking someone this morning in the Lower East Side, authorities said.

Besemah Rogers, 42, allegedly punched the victim in the face, it is not clear what sparked the fight, police sources said.

The 77th Precinct sergeant was busted on assault charges, police said.

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Shoppers welcome holiday sales by buying early, often — and online

Shoppers swooped into stores in droves on Thanksgiving weekend, topping last year’s sales, as more retailers opened their doors earlier than ever on Thursday, luring bargain hunters away from eating another plate of turkey.

And now Cyber Monday is expected to set a record for online shopping this year, for those who prefer the Internet to the mall.

Spending per shopper nationwide averaged $423 — $25 more than last year — from Thursday to Sunday, while total spending increased nearly 13 percent, to an estimated $59.1 billion, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation.

“I think the only way to describe the Thanksgiving openings is to call it a huge win,” said Matthew Shay, the trade group’s president and chief executive. Shopping, he said, “has really become an extension of the day’s festivities.”

South Florida was no exception, as a flurry of stores, as well as several malls, opened on Thanksgiving. Thursday has seemingly become the new Black Thursday, taking a bite out of the old-fashioned kickoff day of the holiday, Black Friday.

“We had an excellent weekend,” said Humberto Maldonado, director of marketing for Dadeland Mall, which opened at midnight on Thursday. Sales figures are not yet in, but the overall trend was up from last year, he said Monday.

“It was really busy from midnight to 5 a.m., then it slowed, and picked up again at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m., and stayed busy all day on Friday,” Maldonado said.

Nationwide, about 35 million people visited stores and shopping websites Thursday, up from 29 million last year. More than double that number — 89 million, up from 86 million — shopped on Black Friday.

“There were more people shopping every single day of the weekend,” Shay said.

Topping off the weekend, Cyber Monday’s early results, tabulated at 3 p.m. Monday, showed that online shopping was up a whopping 25.6 percent compared with the same time period a year ago, according to figures by IBM Benchmark.

Nationwide, most of the weekend’s shoppers — roughly 58 percent — bought clothing and accessories. Another 38 percent bought electronics and 35 percent shelled out for toys, National Retail Federation figures show.

Retailers made an effort to lure people in, with updated mobile shopping applications for smartphones and tablets, and expanded shipping and layaway options.

Still, it remains to be seen whether increased sales over the Thanksgiving weekend will translate to higher sales throughout the holiday shopping season. Analysts have been predicting mediocre sales this year, nationwide, as shoppers remain uncertain about the broader economy. Overall holiday sales are expected to increase 4.1 percent from 2011, compared with sales growth of 5.6 percent last year, the National Retail Federation said.

However, Florida is expected to beat those figures. Buoyed in large part by tourists and snowbirds, the Florida Retail Federation is forecasting a 5.3 percent gain this year over last, to $58 billion, marking the highest percentage growth predicted since the recession. Pre-recession, retail sales peaked at $54.3 billion in 2006.

Christian Cutillo, 26, of Weston, hit Walmart, then Sears, Target and Old Navy after eating Thanksgiving dinner.

She began at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and by 3 a.m. Friday she had finished shopping for all 15 people on her list, mostly buying clothing and toys.

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Police seize haul of bogus lobster tags

An ongoing investigation into an elaborate scheme to counterfeit state-issued tags for spiny lobster traps has pulled in a second suspect.

Jesus Alonso Perez, 51, of Miami was charged with possession of phony trap tags after his arrest last week by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers in Miami-Dade County.

Perez is the first person arrested in the case since Ramon Rojas, 44, of Hialeah was arrested on Monroe County and Miami-Dade warrants earlier this month.

Rojas has been charged with dozens of conservation counts for possessing and using fake trap tags, and fishing traps without required state certificates. A handful of Rojas' personal traps bearing counterfeit trap tags were hauled from water off Big Pine Key before his arrest.

"During the investigation, we were able to determine [Rojas] actually was in the midst of selling some of these counterfeit tags and ended up selling 100 at $50 a pop," said FWC Officer Jorge Pino, an agency spokesman. "We knew some of these tags were being used already."

The case could lead to additional state and federal counts.

Investigation started June 29 when U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents intercepted a suspicious package shipped to Florida from Colombia.

Inside the package were 1,512 yellow plastic tags bearing serial numbers and state identification. The package was passed along to federal wildlife officers, who forwarded it to the FWC.

"To an untrained eye, they might have looked like real tags but our inspector immediately identified the tags as counterfeit," Pino said. "Not to mention, they were coming into Florida from Colombia."

The package was re-sealed for delivery, with FWC officers keeping watch. Other details on the investigation are still considered confidential.

"We've seen counterfeit trap tags before so that wasn't a surprise," Pino said. "We were a little surprised at the lengths he went to, going to another country to get this many."

"This goes contrary to everything the FWC is trying to achieve as a conservation agency in terms of protecting the resource," Pino said. "Putting what could have been a large number of illegal traps in the water has the potential to do a lot of damage."

Trap tags have been required by the state since 1992 as part of an effort to control and reduce the number of traps used by Florida commercial fishermen. Currently about 490,000 tags are issued annually, down from a peak of 750,000. Lobstermen receive an allocation of tags based on their history of commercial trap harvests.

People who want to enter the fishery or increase their trap numbers must buy trap certificates, which include the right to buy trap tags, from other fishermen. A tag itself costs only $1 each from the state but certificates can sell for more than $100 each.

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Yes, the Government Can Still Spy on Your Digital Life (for Now)

Ahead of a controversial Senate debate on digital privacy this week, the battle over warrantless cell-phone and Internet searches is beginning to take shape — even as law-enforcement agencies continue to carry out the searches anyway. Judges across the country have thrown out cases that used tracked digital American lives without warrants, but others haven’t, reports The New York Times‘s Somini Sengupta. A DC court, for example, compared text messages to voicemail messages, which because they can be overheard are not protected by state privacy laws, argued one judge. A Louisiana court is deciding if cell-phone records are like business records. Another court ruled that GPS cell phone tracking without a warrant was fine, too. Others, however, argue that cell phones are more than just a paper trail. One judge called cell phones “raw, unvarnished and immediate, revealing the most intimate of thoughts and emotions,” as in something that is subject to higher privacy standards. Meanwhile, we see the same inconsistencies with Internet protections, reports The Wall Street Journal‘s Joe Pallazolo. A federal court recently ruled that people who use their neighbors’ WiFi without permission forfeit privacy, opening up government officials to warrantless searches. The same ruling other courts have made for IP addresses. However, the law isn’t that clear-cut, either, argues George Washington University professor Oren Kerr. 

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Without clear rules, government agencies have continued investigations with warrantless searches. As people have started using cell phones more often and for more than just calling, law enforcement agency requests for cell-phone information have increased, reported The New York Times‘s Eric Lichtblau earlier this year. AT&T gets more than 700 requests a day from various agencies, triple what it got in 2007, he notes. Last year, the total number of requests came in at at least 1.3 million. At the same time, the application for wiretapping warrants declined 14 percent last year to 2,732, according to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. A curious pattern considering the requests for information have gone up. Though these wireless carriers say they require a search warrant, a court order or a formal subpoena to release information, “in cases that law enforcement officials deem an emergency, a less formal request is often enough,” writes Lichtblau. Or, it’s possible that law enforcement has opted for other forms of tracking that don’t require warrants, at least not according to some judges. 

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A Senate debate beginning Thursday to make changes on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act might bring some clarity to these issues. However, it’s unclear if the revised bill will give the government more or less power, and it doesn’t sound like the vote will apply to all cell phone or Internet data. An early draft of the bill reportedly allowed warrantless e-mail searches, reported CNET’s Declan McCullagh. Since, Senator Patrick Leahy, who is spearheading the bill, has denied that the updates to the regulation will do that, however. Instead, the revised bill will require search warrants to get into email no matter how old, says Sengupta. That should presumably apply to some of our smartphone and Internet data, too. But it doesn’t address text messages or location information, other concerns of consumers.

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Joe Manganiello on 'How I Met Your Mother'

Now enjoying the skyrocketing success of True Blood and his recent film Magic Mike, Joe Manganiello now revisits the recurring role on How I Met Your Mother that enabled him to achieve that success.

"It's awesome," Manganiello told ET's special correspondent Melissa Peterman of returning to the show. "I missed everybody. You see everybody out and about over the years...but it was just really fun to get back in. It really feels like--other than the beard and long hair--like I never left."

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Manganiello ("Brad") originally appeared on the show as a fellow lawyer friend to Jason Segel's character, "Marshall," in Season 2. The now blooming star's character is now at odds with his former best friend over a court case in Season 8, and he attempts to use his good looks to sway the female jury.

"[Marshall's] got to dig deep...He's got to fight hard," he said of Marshall's response to Brad's tactics. "He uses some really unorthodox tactics to battle Brad as well and it just escalates."

Manganiello's character not only gives his old buddy Marshall a hard time in the upcoming episode but also inadvertently riles Neil Patrick Harris' character, "Barney," by challenging his dominance in attracting women.

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"It's competitive," Harris said of the altered dynamic on set with Manganiello present. "I'll tell you what, [there's] a lot of swooning [in] his direction....Everyone [gasps] every time he walks by."

Barney isn't the only one who is affected by Brad's swooning ways, as Alyson Hannigan's character, "Lilly," Marshall's wife, is also persuaded by his good looks and seductive tactics, to the extent that she turns against her husband.

"I was rooting for my husband until the pen incident," Hannigan said of her character's courtroom experience with Brad, "and he drops his pen and bends over, and now I'm easily swayed."

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Check out Manganiello on How I Met Your Mother tonight (Nov. 26) at 8 p.m. on CBS.

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Lauer target of 'misplaced' blame for 'Today' show nosedive: NBC exec

The top dog at NBC News came to Matt Lauer’s defense, saying the big-money host doesn’t deserve blame for “Today’s” ratings collapse.

Lauer has become a prime fan target in light of “Good Morning America’s” resurgence to No. 1 and the wildly unpopular dumping of short-lived “Today” host Ann Curry this past summer.

NBC News President Steve Capus blamed Twitter for the sudden unpopularity of his $25-million-a-year talking head.

“Sadly,” Capus told The Daily Beast, “this is the era in which we live: Venomous tweets somehow threaten to drown out all of those who praised Matt for his coverage."

Rob Kim/FilmMagic

"Today" show host Matt Lauer.

“The Twitter snarkiness is an unfortunate result of misdirected anger that’s been unfairly placed on Matt,” Capus added. “There has also been a lot of mean-spirited piling-on, which has been manufactured by many anonymous sources.”

The Peacock took a PR beating when it suddenly dumped the well-liked Curry in June after just one year in the coveted morning chair.

Lauer has been the focal point of post-Curry backlash, which Capus said he doesn’t deserve.

“Matt had nothing to do with Ann’s reassignment,” Capus said. “He does not make those types of decisions. There has been an incredible amount of misplaced blame on Matt.”

While Capus insisted his embattled host had no role in Curry’s ouster, another 30 Rock suit conceded that Lauer apparently lobbied for Currey’s more-gradual removal.

“The whole Ann transition really hurt us,” the unnamed NBC suit said.

“[Lauer] was one of the few people who fought to do the transition in a different way—to take our time with it and not do it so rushed right before the Olympics. He wanted to do right by her, and we really didn’t.”

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Shifting tides of Panama real estate echo Miami trends

PANAMA CITY, Panama — As a real estate agent shows off a model apartment — white leather sectional, stainless steel appliances, open concept, ocean views — in the 59-story Yacht Club Tower, and touts its fitness center and pool deck designed to mimic a ship floating on the sea, he makes a telling statement:

“We tried to emulate the Miami style in this building.”

Approaching this Central American capital from the air, the first thing a traveler notices is a skyline on steroids — gleaming towers jutting skyward like so many pickets on a fence. There’s even a Trump high-rise here — the sail-shaped 72-story Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower. And it’s not uncommon for those active in Miami real estate and development circles to try their luck in Panama or move back and forth between the markets.

Although Miami is nearly 1,200 miles from Panama City, the real estate markets of the two cities share certain similarities. Both went through booms and overbuilding and then had way too many empty condominiums. Wealthy Latin American buyers were a salvation in both cities when traditional segments of the market fell off.

“Now that things are starting to pick up in the States, they are picking up here too. Now that there’s not as much economic uncertainty in the United States, people feel more confident about Panama too,’’ said Morris Hafeitz, general manger of Emporium Developers. He used to work in Miami as a project manager for Odebrecht, the Brazilian conglomerate.

Now Hafeitz is trying to sell Allure at the Park, a 50-story building Emporium developed in Panama City’s Bella Vista neighborhood. The building is chock full of amenities — gym, teenage game room, adult lounge, toddler playroom, pool, squash court and even miniature golf on the roof — but one of its main selling points is that it overlooks a park and two low-rise historic buildings. “In the heart of the city without the hassles of the city,’’ said Hafeitz.

During the boom, many buildings in central Panama City went up practically on top of each other. “In the beginning of the boom there were no regulations on density,’’ said Mauricio Saba, a project manager at Zoom Development in Panama City and another Miami real estate alum. “I have a friend who said he could watch his neighbor’s TV from his balcony.’’

Margarita Sanclemente, a Miami real estate broker with offices in Panama City and New York, has seen it all — the boom, the irrational building and the slowdown — and has stuck with the Panamanian market.

She first ventured into Panama in 2005. The Panamanian real estate market, which had been sluggish for more than a decade, was undergoing a rebirth and Americans, lured by low prices and the low cost of living, were snapping up properties.

The sweet spot was the 1,000 to 1,500-square-foot apartment, sans maid’s quarters, which appealed to retirees from Canada and the United States, she said.

That was back when Americans still believed you couldn’t go wrong with real estate. “Some of the buyers didn’t even see the units. We sold them by phone,’’ Sanclemente said. Condo prices at new buildings such as Destiny averaged $98 to $120 per square foot. She herself bought a 1,000 square foot, one bedroom condo for $123,000 back in 2005.

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Cooper City townhouse fire sends boy to hospital, causes evacuation

A Sunday morning townhouse fire in Cooper sent and 8-year-old boy to the hospital and forced the evacuation of several homes, Broward Sheriff’s Fire Rescue said.

The fire broke out at around a 8:14 a.m. at 12230 SW 50th Pl. The fire spread and arriving rescue units observed flames showing on three sides of the townhouse.

Two adults and four children escaped the blaze; a boy was taken to Memorial Wets and is in good condition. A pet dog died in the fire.

An adjoining townhouse suffered smoke damage and a total of six others were evacuated.

Traffic around the area has also been rerouted.

By late morning, the Red Cross had responded to help the family, whose home has been declared uninhabitable. Smoke reached two other townhouses, which are being vented.

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