Our "deals of the day" roundup is a selection of some of the better gadgets, gaming and app deals on the Internet right now — with a few strange odds and ends thrown in for fun. Here's what's worth considering today:

Gadgets:

Gaming:

Apps:

Miscellaneous odds and ends:

Today's deals were discovered via:

Dealhack, AppBrain, LogicBUY, FatWallet, Laptopaholic, 148Apps, SlickDeals, CheapStingyBargains, Dealzon, Brand Name Coupons, GamerHotline, HDTVaholic and Tabletaholic.

Please read the detailed descriptions of each linked offer carefully before buying — msnbc.com is not responsible for the duration or integrity of individual deals.

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Although it has been 16 years since "Calvin and Hobbes" disappeared from newspaper comics pages, memories live on, especially when it comes to the holidays and snowmen. Not just any standard snowmen, mind you.

A Chicago man, Jim Frommeyer, and his pal, Teague Chrystie, did a video "recreation of the classic snowman torment scenarios you know and love," from "Calvin and Hobbes." (Bill Watterson's strip is still greatly missed.)

"This video Christmas card plays homage to each of Calvin's snowpocalypses," writes Frommeyer on YouTube.

And, if you're wondering how the two did it, you can learn more here. Frommeyer says, in part:

Every snowman was built from scratch.  And it was all filmed on my dining table. 

There was no single method used for anything.  Some snowmen were playdough (out of focus snowmen), some were wire frame sculpty models (hero snowmen), paper mache (larger models).  We did try to keep clay with clay and mache with mache within shots. 

Depending on the size of the shot and model, either sugar, flour, or a 1:4 mix of both was used.  The smaller stuff used flour.  Paint the model white and roll it in sugar. Boom. Snowman.

The sweetest part of the video? Its ending: "We miss you, Bill."

— Via Gizmodo

Related stories:

• Google 'Let it snow' Easter egg brings on winter
• Holiday calendar: Glow over Miami
• Do it! Make Google 'do a barrel roll'

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Cloth

The irony of writing a post about a fashion app while dressed in gray kitty-cat pajamas, an oversized shirt of questionable origin, and fuzzy red socks is not lost on me. Fortunately Cloth — the app I'm intending to introduce to you — can help those who seriously struggle when it comes to selecting outfits.

Cloth costs two bucks and can be downloaded through the Apple App Store. (The app is currently on sale for just a buck as part of a limited time promotional offer.) It is the brainchild of Maxim senior editor Seth Porges and fashion designer Wray Serna — and it will help you dress better.

You see, Cloth is designed to track outfits. Which means that anytime you put together a snazzy ensemble — whether thanks to pure skill or sheer dumb luck — you'll be able to enter it into Cloth for future reference.

Cloth

All you have to do is snap a photo of the outfit, add some notes or tags, and you're done. (If you want, you can also push the photo out via your preferred social networks or even submit it to the Cloth website.)

When it's time to get dressed again, you can look up the fantastic outfits of fashionable days past by scrolling through the Feed tab or by selecting a category in the Wardrobe section.

Here's how that looks in action:

Now before you start yelling at me, please understand that I'm aware that an app like Cloth won't exactly instantly turn walking fashion disasters into great dressers. (Believe me, I'm all too aware of that fact!) But the reality is that keeping track of what you do — or in this case, wear — and studying what works and what doesn't will gradually help you improve.

Related stories:

• IceBreak is like couples therapy in an app
• Roomba game encourages you to attack dust bunnies
• How to secure your iPhone's Internet connection

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Blue Star Families

Facebook is a lifeline for military families in touch with loved ones stationed away from home, but it also can be precarious if the "wrong" things appear. A new "social media guide" by Facebook and Blue Star Families provides counsel on what to say, and what not to say, on the social networking site.

Blue Star Families was formed three years ago by military spouses "to raise the awareness of the challenges of military family life with our civilian communities and leaders." As social networking has grown — and Internet controversies have arisen such as the pending case of Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst charged with leaking secret U.S. data to WikiLeaks — Blue Star Families has become a key resource.

The group worked with Facebook to develop the guide, which is quite extensive, and can be viewed online, as well as downloaded. There's information about privacy settings and security.

Under "Maintain operational security (OpSec)," service members and families are reminded to stay silent, as most have been, when sharing certain information on Facebook:

Today's military families and spouses are kept far more informed about troop movements, unit locations, unit activities and more than in years past but have less training on how to maintain OpSec. Before posting information on Facebook, it's crucial for your safety as well as the safety of your service member and his or her unit that you remember OpSec....

Be mindful of the following:

• Unit activities, while deployed or at home, are fluid and change rapidly. The information you have might be incorrect or outdated.
• Facebook posts about a service member's activities (troop movements, homecomings, deployment dates) violate OpSec ... but they may additionally put you in a vulnerable position since they signal to others that you are home alone.

In addition to the new guide, there's a Facebook blog post that's got some very touching stories shared by fans of the Facebook U.S. Military page.

Related stories:

• In Manning case, sparring over digital evidence
• Facebook iPhone app updated with Timeline support
• Perfect your Facebook Timeline 'cover shot' with some help
• Toddler watching military dad on video pulls heartstrings

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Google

fPrivacy Chrome extension adds a bar to the top of a Facebook app permission screen, so you can fine tune access

Facebook apps often ask for a lot more access to you and your information than they need, such as posting stuff in your name, or accessing information when you're not online. Now there's a free Chrome extension, fPrivacy, that's supposed to keep them from running wild.

Add this extension from Chrome's Web store and up pops a bar above the authorization dialog box when you're adding a new Facebook app. It lets you uncheck the boxes of the permissions you're not comfortable with and wipe them out before you even agree to including the app in your Facebook family.

Of course, the creator, Chad Selph, says this may break some apps that might not function well without all those permissions. At that point, you can re-add those permissions (they're sure to pop up, anyway) or remove the app entirely if it gets too annoying.

Google

fPrivacy result page

For all the apps you've already installed, ones that you might have given permissions to already, there is a way to undo the carte blanche to your data. Best of all, you can do it without using the Chrome extension.

Hit the drop-down menu next to the Home tab on the upper right corner of any Facebook page you're logged into, choose Privacy Settings and then, under Apps and Websites, hit Edit Settings. Go into each one to remove whatever isn't required. 

Facebook

Removing permissions after installation on Facebook

Facebook's own process is cumbersome, but if you value this sort of thing, it's worth it. Here's hoping that with this Chrome extension on board, future additions should be easier to control.

As Selph writes on his website, "Phew! I feel much safer now."

More stories:

• FTC settlement aside, Facebook still owns your privacy
• Q-and-A about Facebook and privacy
• Facebook glitch reveals private photos — including Zuckerberg’s

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

Facebook

Facebook recently made Timeline available to everyone. And now the social network's official iPhone app is being updated to offer support for this shiny and new feature.

You can download the latest Facebook for iPhone app — version 4.1, in case you're wondering — through the Apple App Store as soon as you're done reading this blog post. Once you do that, you'll face a small pile of rather significant changes.

Timelines, Subscribers, and Subscriptions can now be viewed using the iPhone app, Lists can be managed from your device, photo uploads are quicker, and notifications look just a little bit neater.

Oh, and the whole app seems to run more smoothly — which is a pretty big deal considering how quirky and temperamental prior versions could be at times.

Related stories:

• Facebook glitch reveals private photos — including Zuckerberg's
• Facebook: 6 degrees of separation? More like 4
• Facebook for Android app gets a makeover

Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Nvidia

During the holiday marketing push, we're inundated with ads and gift guides that celebrate the flashiest stuff, but it turns out, the nerds among us are looking for more nuanced additions to their technological lineup. So we asked tech editors and writers from around the Internet to share what it is that they really want, computer-wise, this year. Here's what they said:

Netgear

Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo
I use my desktop PC exclusively for gaming. I need fast lag-free Internet, but router is on a different floor in my house so the wireless is kinda weak. I want Netgear's Powerline AV500 networking kit, which I believe is the fastest one on the market. Powerline networking doesn't reach advertised speeds but if it is more steady than my wireless, it'll be worth it. And I'd rather do that than drill holes or wire the apartment I don't own for Ethernet.

Evoluent

John Herrman, Popular Mechanics
I'd like the gift of a few more years without irreversible repetitive stress injuries: An Evoluent Vertical Mouse, to put into rotation with my Magic Trackpad and Logitech mouse. 

I'd also love a Lian Li Pc-b10b PC case. After a five year break from PC building, I built a top-line gaming rig. My only regret is going with a cheap plastic case; this ultra-minimalist, dead-silent aluminum tower would have put a smile on 17-year-old-me's pale weird face.

Nvidia

Todd Kenreck, msnbc.com's In-Game
I'd like to upgrade my gaming PC with a top-of-the-line graphics card like the Nvidia EVGA GeForce GTX 580 with 512 CUDA Core and 1536MB GDDR5 at 4GHz, so that when I pwn people on "Battlefield 3," I can see the whites of their eyes.

Apple

Will Smith, Tested
I really want a 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of storage and all the trimmings. I'm a well-equipped nerd, but my two-year old, 13-inch MacBook Pro is heavy, clunky and slow. Upgrading to a 13-inch MacBook Air would simultaneously give me a big performance boost and a higher resolution display, all while shaving 4.5 pounds from my daily carry. That's technological progress I can get behind.

Samsung

Avram Piltch, Laptop
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many pixels and, with its 1920x1200 resolution screen, the Dell Ultrasharp U2412M monitor has more desktop real estate than any other LED-backlit monitor its size.

And when it comes to computer storage, every millisecond you wait for an app to load or your PC to boot is another millisecond you won't have to do the important things in life, like playing "Skyrim." The fastest mainstream solid-state drive on the market, Samsung's 830 Series SSD, allows you to launch everything from your browser to Photoshop CS 5 at least 300 percent faster than a typical hard drive. That's like buying time.

Verizon Wireless

Suzanne Choney, msnbc.com
I've long considered a mobile hotspot as a luxury item. Yet I've continued to wind up in places where Wi-Fi isn't a certainty; or is costly when it is available (hotels and some coffee shops); or is jammed up by others using it (airports and some coffee shops). For the holidays, I'm giving myself the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot MiFi 4510L.

I paid about $50 (after a $50 rebate). The monthly data plan on a two-year contract is $50 (although, with Verizon, you can go cheaper and use your own cellphone as a mobile hotspot for $30 a month. I chose not to do that because of phone battery drain issues).  So far so good. But: I won't hesitate to cancel the contract if it turns into more of a pain than a plus in terms of its usefulness.

Iomega

Wilson Rothman, msnbc.com
And then there's me. Besides wanting all the children of the world to join hands and sing about peace and harmony (plus 30 million dollars in a Swiss bank account), this holiday season I'd really like the 3GB Iomega Mac Companion drive. Not only does it have FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, and enough room for me to do local Time Machine backups plus store a bunch of movies and music, it has a side USB port with enough juice to charge my iPad, without taxing my laptop. Yay.

Oh and speaking of hard drives, I recently put a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive in my laptop (a MacBook Pro). In case you hadn't heard about hybrid drives, they take a small amount of the expensive solid-state technology that Avram was talking about on that Samsung 830, and merge it with a cheaper magnetic hard drive, to give you most of the performance benefits without the high cost. My hybrid may have arrived before Santa did, but it still fills my heart with glee this holiday season.

What about you? Nerd or not, perhaps you've got some great suggestions for off-the-radar tech gifts. If so, put 'em in the comments below. And here's wishing you a happy holiday, whichever one(s) you celebrate!

More on computer tech from msnbc.com:

• Kinect gets a makeover for PCs
• Seagate drive puts 4 TB on one disk for $250
• Wacom Inkling review: A high-tech pen you'll use
• Seagate's new hybrid drive: New life to old laptops

Catch up with Wilson on Twitter at @wjrothman, or on Google+. And join our conversation on Facebook.

20th Century Fox

If you still can't get enough of "Avatar," you may like what's coming to iTunes on Tuesday: An iTunes "Extras Special Edition" of the movie that includes scene deconstruction, so you can see how the movie went from performance capture to the final scenes.

"Fans can experience the global box office sensation like never before as they control scene deconstructions in simultaneous views," said Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lightstorm Entertainment, in a press release.

"This new feature will also enable consumers to interact with the performance capture and visual effects levels in 17 of the film’s scenes. For the first time ever, Green Screen X-ray gives users an interactive look through the visual effects levels to see the original green screen footage behind a pivotal scene."

The iTunes Extras Special Edition also includes an original screenplay by James Cameron, "Cameron’s scriptment (a novella with some scenes broken out into dialogue), a gallery of 1,700 images and more."

Pre-orders are being taken starting Friday; with the special edition costing $14.99 for standard definition; and $19.99 for high-def.

If you've been waiting for the "Avatar" sequel, this one might hold you over, giving you another fix of Pandora — at least for awhile.

Related stories:

• In-Game: 'Avatar' record beaten by 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3'
• 'Avatar' theme park coming to Disney World
• Cosmic Log: 'Avatar' director targets spaceflight

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

This story was updated at 11:25 am PT Dec. 17

Sprint, under fire along with AT&T and T-Mobile for using Carrier IQ's controversial key-logging software, says it is "disabling the use" of software from customers' phones. 

"We have weighed customer concerns and we have disabled use of the tool so that diagnostic information and data is no longer being collected," said Sprint spokeswoman Stephanie Vinge in a statement. "We are further evaluating options regarding this diagnostic software as well as Sprint’s diagnostic needs."

Carrier IQ

Carrier IQ, which says its software is used only to help with network diagnostics, has been under fire for several weeks after an independent researcher discovered the software can track the activities of phone users, including text messages.

The company, whose software is on 141 million cellphones around the country, has said that is not the case, that its software "does not record, store or transmit the contents of SMS (text) messages, email, photographs, audio or video. For example, we understand whether an SMS was sent accurately, but do not record or transmit the content of the SMS. We know which applications are draining your battery, but do not capture the screen."

The use of the software has already resulted in some lawsuits over alleged violation of federal wiretap laws and government attention on privacy violations. On Dec. 2, Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Carrier IQ for violating the privacy rights of millions of mobile phone users. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, also has similar concerns. He has asked for more detailed information about Carrier IQ's software from the company, as well as from Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. Verizon Wireless says it does not use Carrier IQ software.

In response to Franken's request for information, Sprint said in a Dec. 14 letter that it has used Carrier IQ's software since 2006, and that it was on 26 million Sprint devices.

"However, the Carrier IQ software tool does not collect any information unless it is 'tasked' to do so by Sprint," the company said in the letter." At any one time, only 1.3 million devices may be tasked to collect and report data. In fact, for any particular research request, a subset of a much smaller number of devices, approximately 30,000, are queried to respond to a research request from Sprint personnel."

Earlier this week, a Carrier IQ executive told the Associated Press that the FBI previously approached the company about using its technology, but was turned away. The disclosure came a day after FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress that agents "neither sought nor obtained any information" from Carrier IQ.

Related stories:

• FBI contacted phone monitoring firm about software
• Is the FBI Using Carrier IQ to Track You?
• FBI using Carrier IQ?
• Lawmaker calls for FTC probe into Carrier IQ
• AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile use Carrier IQ, but don't collect personal info
• Researcher: Secret software tracks phone users

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Steve Jobs had a lot of secrets in his personal life, but among his "Secrets of Life" for success were some inspiring words, shared in a video by that name, now available on a pay-per-view basis by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association.

The non-profit group, whose mission is to "research and record the Silicon Valley phenomenon," interviewed Jobs in 1995 when the Apple co-founder was at NeXT Computer, another company the young entrepreneur started after being ousted from Apple (of course, he later returned).

The 29-minute film costs $9.99 to watch, with proceeds benefiting the association, which has established the Steve Jobs: Secret of Life website for the video.

In this snippet shared above, Jobs is passionate (what else?) about life and how one should live it, saying the average guidance most of us get is to "live your life inside the world ... try not to bash into the walls too much."

Not so, he says:

Life can be much broader ... once you discover one simple fact, and that is everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

And the minute that you understand that you can poke life ... and actually ... if you push in, something will pop out the other side ... you can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing, is to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just going to live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. I think that's very important.

And however you learn that, once you learn it ... you'll want to change life and make it better, cuz it's kind of messed up in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again.

Inspirational words, to be sure; and words Jobs did live by until his death in October.

Related stories:

• Watch Steve Jobs 30 years ago
• Steve Jobs biography is Amazon's best-selling book of 2011
• Exhibit honors Steve Jobs patents, trademarks
• The Jobs legacy: Ease, elegance in technology

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Dell

Dell Inspiron Mini 9

In what could signal the beginning of the end for netbooks, it looks like Dell is pulling away from them and shifting focus to a thinner, more powerful line of laptops, according to a statement from the manufacturer.

Matthew Hutchison, director of Dell Global Consumer PR, told CNET that the company is moving in the direction of "highly portable space" and focusing on "delivering thin + powerful solutions" like the XPS 14Z and XPS 15Z. 

Checking out Dell's site for the Inspiron Mini line, none of the models come up after clicking "Check Price." All that appears are messages about it not being in the inventory:

Dell

That goes for all three Inspiron Mini models: 1012, 1018 and 9. 

Acer looks like it's still going strong with its line of netbooks, though having had one that went kaput after about a year, I can see why others might want to jump ship. Will Dell's move be the beginning of the end of the netbook?

It's not like we haven't seen this coming. In October, more tablets than netbooks shipped to consumers, signaling a tipping point to industry watchers that the end was nigh for the mini laptops. Once the hot must-have for business travelers and coffee shop surfers alike, the netbooks started to fade into the background once super thin laptops like the MacBook Air (and now, the Ultrabooks) and then tablets stormed onto the market, and right into the hands of eager users.

We've reached out to Dell and we'll let you know what they say if and when they get back to us. 

More stories:

• Tablets pass netbooks in shipments for first time
• Q&A: Netbooks vs. Chromebooks vs. tablets
• The best new netbooks

Check out Technolog on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the Google+ stream.

via BuzzFeed

Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning. Here's everything that you need to know before taking that first sip of coffee today: 

Who could ever get tired of ancient mysteries when there are so many dinosaur fossils, hominid skeletons and mysterious markings to decipher? Check out the top ancient mysteries of 2011.

One of the most desolate spots on Earth recently got a visit from one of the most elusive characters on Earth — the cable guy. Four very high-tech and capable cable guys, to be specific! (Meanwhile, you took the day off work and you're still waiting!)

So. you can either wait for the Facebook Timeline announcement to appear at the top of your Facebook profile, or you can roll out your own timeline no. Either way, you've got 7 days to approve it before it automatically goes live.

Two years ago, only 18 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers owned a smartphone; now 44 percent do.

Meanwhile, the average teenage girl in the U.S. sends nearly 4,000 texts a month!

Oh, and is Apple working on a tinier iPad for 2012? Could be!

That said, Dell is ditching netbooks. Forever.

And Chrome just knocked Explorer out of the No. 1 browser spot for the first time since practically forever! (I exaggerate.)

Speaking of the Internet, Vinton Cerf, one of its pioneers, and 82 other Internet inventors and engineers signed a letter to Congress protesting SOPA and related Internet legislation that they say would "create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure." And they're right.

Meanwhile,  a senior executive at a tech company that makes monitoring software secretly installed on 141 million cellphones says the FBI approached the company about using its technology but was rebuffed. The FBI denys it. Gee, who's telling the truth?

In closing, the 30 Most Important Cats of 2011.

— compiled by Helen A.S. Popkin, who invites you to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.