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University-backed research inspires a game where users crush virtual cigarettes--and, in turn, their own bad habit.

Social learning platform Xplana has been analyzing the digital textbook market, and has concluded that in the U.S. the education publishing market has is reaching a tipping point: Within seven years, digital textbooks will dominate over print. Xplana's studies suggest that over the next five years, sales of textbooks to students in the U.S

New research is adding a Twittery flavor to the old adage "birds of a feather flock together," because it suggests happy twitterers tend to aggregate. Does this have implications for PR-related tweeters? In a paper titled "Happiness is assortative in online social networks," University of Indiana researcher Johan Bollen and other authors conclude that "Social networks tend to disproportionally favor connections between individuals with either similar or dissimilar characteristics.

In what would position Netflix as an even bigger threat to the major cable players, the company might soon offer original programming, according to Deadline Hollywood . The streaming TV and movie powerhouse has reportedly outbid networks from HBO to AMC for the rights to the David Fincher and Kevin Spacey series House of Cards. Nellie Andreeva calls it "probably the biggest gamble" in the company's history, and reports that while negotiations are still ongoing, Netflix has offered to commit to two seasons of the drama series in a deal that could be worth more than $100 million.

Minimalist is the answer for Bare Escentuals. Fans completely drive the conversation on wall updates, discussion boards and with pictures.Bare Escentuals adopts a "hands-off" Facebook strategy, letting unsolicited testimonials from its nearly 200,000 fans drive traffic to Bare Escentuals boutiques and resellers. Customer feedback on Facebook even led to a redesign of the firm's product packaging, says chief marketing officer Simon Cowell: "We sell loose minerals, so customers wanted something more portable

Humorist and TED speaker Ze Frank tells FastCompany how his new startup can help save us from living our entire online lives in blue and white. Ze Frank, the performer and humorist who once won a Webby for his personal website, is a guy who is plainly awed at the oddity of human beings on the Internet. He says the blue-and-white sterility of our popular social networks--Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare--is threatening to choke out the messy, weird home-made kitsch once typified by MySpace pages and message boards

It's a quandary that every successful restaurateur faces: Do you stay fiercely loyal to your original location, a la chef Gabrielle Hamilton and Prune, the much-loved NYC restaurant she's been running since 1999? Or do you go the way of the Flays and the Batalis of the restaurant world, expanding your empire to include Vegas outposts, cookware, and a line of designer Crocs?

The threat of cyber-war--and of a catastrophic hacker attack to Germany's industrial or military infrastructure--is spurring the creation of two new high-level government organizations. The Federal Republic of Germany has just released a comprehensive cyber-security strategy that will create two high-level government agencies devoted exclusively to cyber-war

An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 hit Japan today, resulting in tsunami warnings for 20 countries, as well as California and Hawaii.

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TED is one of the world's most important meeting of amazing minds and, consequently, tends to produce its fair share of insights. What makes the event unique is that it is completely polymath, bringing together people from every discipline under the sun

Google 's cloud-based music service may already be up and running--if you know where to look for it. A hacker from the XDA-Dev forum found something interesting when he forced the Motorola Xoom Android tablet's music app onto his Android smartphone: a "Sync Music" feature. So the hacker tested the out the feature

Web TV destination and production company Next New Networks has built its brand by scouting for talent on YouTube--but it looks like Google and YouTube may have been the one scouting NNN. Today YouTube, which Fast Company profiled in our February issue , announced that it had acquired NNN in a deal that could turn YouTube from content host to content creator. "Since launching in March 2007, the Next New Networks team has built a highly effective platform for developing, packaging and building audiences around original web video programming, attracting over 2 billion views and 6 million subscribers," wrote Tom Pickett, cirector of global content operations, in a blog post .

Depending on how you deploy it, live chat on a company website can be a boon for business or a terrible calamity. For some, it’s like adding a crack team of ace deal-closers who contribute directly to the bottom line. For others, it’s like hiring a surly, inattentive sales clerk who sends customers fleeing for the virtual door

Range anxiety, or the fear of running out of power while driving an electric car, is a common--if not overly hyped --source of stress for EV drivers. Xatori, a startup founded by Forrest North , the founder of Mission Motors and a former engineer at Tesla Motors, released an iPhone app today to change that. The PlugShare app serves two main functions: It allows users to browse a comprehensive list of nearby public charging stations, and it lets users share their own electric outlets and search for charge spots located inside or outside other people's garages.