Literally laughed out loud. We’ve all seen our share of amusing CAPTCHA’s – if you haven’t, you simply haven’t seen enough of them in your life – but this one takes the cake. Way to depress people, Facebook.

Unless you can point us to funnier ones?

(Via @codepo8 and traced back to – of course – Reddit)

No, we’re not becoming a celebrity blog (yet) but the noteworthy thing is that it’s incredibly hard for technology companies to even buy this kind of publicity: Ancestry.com researchers have found that actress Ellen DeGeneres is apparently related to pop star Madonna.

Genealogists employed by the company, which offers a subscription-based Web service that allows people to study families and the tracing of their lineages and history, have discovered that the women are 11th cousins.

The family history experts uncovered that the pair is related through a common 10th great-grandfather – a Frenchman named Martin Aucoin, whose daughters Jeanne and Michele left their native country of France to settle in Nova Scotia in the early 1600s. DeGeneres’s family supposedly left Canada in the late 1700s when her 5th great-grandfather Joseph Martin relocated to Louisiana. It wasn’t until the late 1870s that Madonna’s 2nd great-grandmother Emilie Daniel left Quebec and moved to Michigan, where the singer herself calls home.

If true (or maybe regardless thereof), this is a publicity boon for Ancestry.com, which went public in November and currently boasts a $721 million market cap. No doubt, it will make a lot of people who pick up on the claimed family ties between the two entertainment giants wonder what the site is all about and give it a try themselves.

Sadly, the company is pushing it a bit too far by quoting genealogist Anastasia Tyler as follows:

“It’s not every day you discover two celebrity icons are related, but it’s their similarities that make the connection so extraordinary. They were born the same year, have both written books and been on tour, are known for their impressive dance moves – and with Ellen’s latest gig on American Idol – are both legendary figures on the music scene.”

Meh. Would have been better to simply stick to the facts, people.

This isn’t exactly the first time Ancestry.com have uncovered family connections between celebrities: in 2009, they connected financier Warren Buffett to President Barack Obama.

Are you related to anyone famous? Please don’t let us know in comments.

Android Market is finally getting a robust desktop presence. But we don’t have to Google to thank for it — it’s coming from doubleTwist, the syncing software that allows you to sync your media with Android phones (it also supports myriad other devices). The new feature is launching today with the latest update of doubleTwist for Mac, and will be included with the Windows version soon. doubleTwist is also offering a web version of its Android Market directory, which you can access at http://apps.doubletwist.com.

I’ve made no secret of my dislike for the current version of Google’s official web presence for Android Market — it offers a sampling of Android’s top apps, but it’s ugly and doesn’t offer a full listing of what’s available (it doesn’t even offer a search function). There are some third-party web directories, like AndroidLib, but these don’t offer the slick feel you get from a desktop application. doubleTwist comes closer than either of these options to matching the iTunes browsing experience, but it still isn’t perfect.

The Android Market integration looks quite nice. Clicking the menu item in the left sidebar brings up a list of the top featured, paid, and free applications on Android Market. And, unlike Google’s official Market site, you can actually search using doubleTwist’s version. Clicking on an app will bring up its description, screen shots, and reviews — it looks a lot like the iTunes App Store interface, which isn’t a bad thing.

However, doubleTwist’s Market integration comes with a couple of issues. First, it doesn’t include any application categories, like ‘Games’ or ‘Communication’ (though this seems like it would be a fairly minor addition). The other issue is more problematic: you can’t actually use doubleTwist to download and sync applications to your Android device. Instead, each entry on the Market features a QR code that you have to scan from your phone to bring up the appropriate item in Android Market.

doubleTwist co-founder Monique Farantzos says that the company plans to offer Over The Air downloads this summer (which would let you send apps to your device without having to bother with this QR code nonsense), and that the company has also approached Google about a way to make the experience more integrated and seamless. Still, even without OTA downloads, the Market integration looks slick.

Alongside today’s update, doubleTwist is also releasing a web version of its podcast directory, which launched earlier this month (you can see a screenshot of the search directory below).

The rumors keep circulating. The latest came yesterday when the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was working on a CDMA version of the iPhone. To most people, that means one thing. No, not a Sprint version of the iPhone (though I suppose that’s possible too), a Verizon version of the iPhone.

The problem is that these rumors have been circulating almost as long as the actual iPhone itself. And the WSJ report isn’t exactly a slam dunk by only citing the ever-anonymous “people briefed by the company.” But, more so than ever, the timing does appear to be right for Apple to break its AT&T exclusivity.

First of all, this Verizon iPhone would not launch alongside the other new iPhone hardware due this Summer. The WSJ report has manufacturing on the CDMA iPhone ramping up in September, but also notes that the phones may not be available to consumers immediately. This means at the earliest, we’re looking at a Fall release, or possibly even a holiday release for the device (if not later depending on several factors). That means that AT&T would still get the supposed “iPhone HD” all to itself for several months at least.

Then you’d have to wonder if Apple would dare announce that it would be bringing the iPhone to other carriers “later this year” at its WWDC event (where it traditionally launches the new iPhone hardware)? If they did that, they risk people sitting out for several months, waiting for the Verizon version to hit before buying an iPhone. They’d be putting customers in a tight spot: do you upgrade to the sleek new hardware now, locking yourself into a new 2-year contract with AT&T? Or do you wait? If Apple in in fact planning a CDMA version of the iPhone, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t say anything about it at WWDC.

Apple is also giving AT&T a nice little present in the form of the iPad. While the version hitting stores this Saturday will not have 3G connectivity, the one coming at the end of April will. And yes, it will be exclusively provided by AT&T. There was some speculation leading up to the iPad launch that it may launch with Verizon connectivity, but the chances of Apple building a second CDMA version of the iPad anytime soon seem pretty slim at this point. Especially with AT&T giving them an unheard deal for customers: $15 for 250MB-a-month of data usage and $30 for unlimited data. As anyone with a 3G card will tell you, this is basically half-off of the normal data rates the carriers charge.

Apple is not stupid. They hear all of us bitching about AT&T’s sub-par service, and word is that they’re not too happy about it either. But the fact of the matter is that because of the exclusive agreement, AT&T is paying them a ridiculous fee for each iPhone solid — something to the tune of $600 a phone. At the end of the day, that equals billions of dollars in revenues for Apple. If Apple were to branch out to other carriers, this deal would likely have to be renegotiated because Verizon has some leverage as the nation’s largest carrier and probably won’t give Apple the same kind of deal.

So despite all of our bitching, Apple is only likely to move beyond exclusivity if it makes sense for the bottom line. That is, if Apple feels like the iPhone can’t grow any further in the U.S. under one carrier, they will extend it to others. Or, if Apple feels that Android is gaining too much momentum because it’s on several carriers, they will extend it to others. The latter appears to be starting to happen, while the former is still unclear. At one point, it was believed that Apple would wait out going to multiple carriers in the U.S. until the 4G networks (which will be a much more unified technology) were ready. But as the WSJ article states, delays in that process may have forced them to change their minds.

So perhaps Apple is dangling the iPad and early access to the iPhone HD as signs of good faith towards AT&T. Maybe they want the carrier to know that even though the time of exclusivity is coming to an end, they intend to give them certain perks in exchange for keeping the same terms of their current deal.

Imagine for a second that the iPhone is available on AT&T and Verizon — but AT&T gets access to the new hardware several months before Verizon. You might think most people would wait to buy the new iPhone, believing Verizon is the better network. But going forward, once Apple initially offloads a few million customers over to Verizon (which I don’t think is an unreasonable number for how many current iPhone owners would switch if given the option), some of AT&T’s horrific networks problems (which are related the the network being under too much strain) may be miraculously solved.

It seems like a win-win for everybody. Or at least Apple will paint it that way. And, as usual, they will be the real winner in the end.

Over the last few months we’ve seen quite a few international startups that are looking to capitalize on the success of Groupon, the deal-a-day startup that has been getting quite a bit of buzz lately. Europe has already seen many similar sites, and tonight, Brazil is getting its due: Peixe Urbano (which means “Urban Fish” in Portuguese) has just launched to the public, offering daily deals to Brazil’s nearly 70 million Internet users.

Founder Julio Vasconcellos concedes that Peixe Urbano has many similarities to Groupon — it sends users one great deal per day (generally offering 50-90% off) via Email, Twitter, or Facebook. And, like Groupon, a certain number of people have to sign up for the deal before it “activates”, which gives users an incentive to tell their friends. But Vasconcellos says that he and co-founder Alex Tabor have made some key changes to better adapt the new site to Brazilian culture.

While both founders are from Brazil, they decided to do some market research to get a more accurate measure of how they should diverge from Groupon’s model. Their conclusions: first, Vasconcellos says that Brazilians tend to favor spontaneous activities as opposed to discounts or gift cards with a six month expiration, so Peixe Urbano will include more time-sensitive deals, like cheap tickets for next-day shows or happy hour at the local restaurant. Second, Vasconcellos says that Brazilians tend to be less excited about sharing coupons and sales with their friends (they may be frowned upon socially), so Peixe Urbano is positioning itself as a site to discover cool hidden gems in your city, with the added bonus of saving some money in the process.

Other international Groupon-like we’ve covered include Snippa(UK), Daily Deal(Germany), and CityDeal(Germany). And there are plenty more — the UK alone has at least a half dozen Groupon clones.

The pending $30 billion merger of Comcast and NBC-Universal is going to complicate things for Hulu, the second most popular online video site after YouTube. Hulu is a joint venture between NBC, News Corp/Fox, and (since last year) Disney/ABC. It was created by the TV networks as a counterweight to YouTube, a safe place where they could run their full-length TV shows online with their own ads.

Comcast, however, is championing TV Everywhere, which is an entirely different model for professionally-produced Web video. TV Everywhere is going to put TV channels online behind a paywall where only existing cable subscribers can watch them. Once Comcast owns a part of Hulu, there will be more pressure to put parts of Hulu behind a paywall as well.

One knowledgeable industry source speculates that “Comcast will push Hulu very hard to become an authenticated destination for TV Everywhere.” If that happens, Hulu could end up offering less free content and more premium shows. In this scenario, there will be a two-tiered system. Some shows will be available for free, but a larger selection will be available only to paying cable subscribers.

TV Everywhere will work on a federated model. Comcast might have its own TV Everywhere portal, giving its subscribers access to many of the channels they get on their TVs. But individual networks can also set up their own online video sites available only to “authenticated” subscribers. HBO Go is an example of one such federated site. Hulu could set up become another authenticated site, offering the TV Everywhere fare only behind the paywall.

Ever since the Comcast-NBC merger was announced, questions have swirled about what will happen to Hulu and free TV on the Web. While NBC says it “has no plans to remove the kind of shows currently offered over the Internet on an ad-supported basis,” both NBC and Comcast refuse to guarantee that current or future TV shows will be available for free online.

Media companies in general seem to be backing away from Hulu. For instance, Viacom recently pulled two of the most popular shows from Hulu, The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. Now the prospect of a two-tiered Hulu may confuse things even more for consumers.

Photo credit: Flickr/Richard Durdl

Browser maker Opera Software has released its latest ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report this morning, which is based on the usage of its Opera Mini browser for mobile phones. Each month, the conclusion is always the same: mobile web usage around the world keeps on growing and growing. In February, Opera Mini had over 50.5 million users, a 1.7% increase from January 2010 and more than 145% increase compared to February 2009.

Opera says that the 50 million plus users viewed more than 22 billion pages in February, which actually represents a 6% decrease from January (Opera claims this is because February only has 28 days compared to January’s 31.) Since February 2009, page views have increased by 200%. In February, Opera Mini users generated over 330 million MB of data, with consumption down by 1.9%. Since February 2009, data traffic is up over 164%. The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage in February remained the same with users mainly centralized in Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, Nigeria, the United States, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.

Opera claims that people browsing with Opera Mini (in the top 10 countries according to unique users) spent approximately $103.8 million in data costs, which if tallied for 12 months, represents a potential of $1.25 billion per year. Opera calculates this based on usage and the average cost of browsing in each country. Opera calculates this number based upon using $1 per megabyte as a global average. While $1.25 billion seems like a big reach for Opera, you can imagine what the users of more popular browsers like mobile Safari or Android are spending.

Per users, Opera Mini users spent approximately $4 on average in the month of February, which comes out to $48 per year. The heaviest spending occurs in the United States ($146.40 user/year) and the United Kingdom ($102/user/year), whereas the least spending occurs in India ($8.76/user/year) and South Africa ($11.52/user/year), which is mostly due to data costs in these countries, as opposed to the amount of data transferred.

Specifically in North America, February 2009 to February 2010, page views in the top 11 countries of North America and the Caribbean increased by 153%, unique users increased by 109% and data transferred increased by 84%. In terms of specific sites used in the U.S. among mobile Web users, Google is at the top of the rankings, with Facebook coming in second and Yahoo in third. In the United States and Canada, BlackBerry handsets occupy the number 1 spot. Of course, BlackBerry takes the top spot because iPhone and Android users both have powerful browsers, nullifying the need to use Opera Mini.

However, Opera just submitted an application for an Opera Mini app for the iPhone, which it claims is up to 6 times faster than the native browser thanks to its compression and server-side rendering technology. We’ll see if the app is approved.

So we know that Apple’s iPad has started shipping, and this morning the company also confirmed that the device will be on sale in all 221 of its retail stores across the United States as well as “most Best Buy stores” this Saturday, beginning at 9 AM.

Apple also said its retail stores will offer a free Personal Setup service to every customer, helping them customize their new iPad by setting up their email, loading their favorite apps from the App Store, and more. Furthermore, all US Apple retail stores will host special iPad workshops to help customers learn more about the product.

iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the States for a retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April at $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.

Engadget over the weekend obtained and published pictures of an internal memo from Best Buy which essentially confirmed that the iPad would be available at selected stores at launch day. According to later reports by TUAW, each store will be limited to 15 iPads in stock, and WiFi-only iPads will be evenly distributed among the three price points.

Also according to TUAW and other reports, only Best Buy stores with badged Apple Solutions Consultants (ASC) and “Apple Shops” will be carrying the iPad devices, which equates to roughly 675 stores total.

Have you pre-ordered yours? Where do you plan to wait in line, if at all?

Avnet, a publicly listed global distributor of electronic parts, enterprise computing, storage and others products, has agreed to acquire Bell Microproducts in an all-cash merger for $7 per share.

That’s roughly a 30% premium based on Bell’s share price at Friday’s market close.

This equates to an equity value of about $252 million and a transaction value of approximately $594 million, assuming net debt for Bell of $342 million at face value as of December 31, 2009.

The acquisition has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is subject to the approval of Bell’s shareholders as well as customary regulatory approvals. The transaction is expected to close in 60 to 120 days.

Bell Microproducts distributes storage and computing technology products. The company was founded in 1988 and employs over 1,900 employees in 55 offices around the world. In calendar year 2009, Bell registered sales of approximately $3 billion – it currently expects to generate first quarter 2010 sales of $795 million to $815 million.

Avnet has been around for way longer: originally founded by Charles Avnet in 1921, it was incorporated in 1955 and went public 4 years later. The company boasts offices in over 300 locations across the globe, and employs roughly 12,000 people.

Avnet’s share price ticked off at 28.37 in recent trading and boasts a $4.3 billion market cap – Bell shares are up 28% in pre-market trading.

Scripped.com, a San Francisco-based developer of online screenwriting software, has merged with competitor Zhura. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed, although Scripped said the deal size is in the “seven-figure range”.

In addition to merging with Zhura, Scripped also announced that it has raised $250,000 in new funding from private angel investors. Co-founder Sunil Rajaraman remains CEO of the merged company, while Break Media CEO Keith Richman and co-founder and former President of BitTorrent Ashwin Navin have been added to its Board of Advisors.

Zhura.com was founded in 2007 and is based in Boston. Like Scripped, the company provides screenwriters with tools that enable them to work on their writings online, whether individually or in collaboration with other writers, friends or even the Web community as a whole. Amusingly, the Zhura website still boasts a list of application features in comparison with other players in this space … including Scripped.

Scripped, founded in 2008, used to be based in Los Angeles, but has recently moved to San Francisco to become part of technology incubator i/o ventures (more about them here). The company says that its community of registered screenwriters is now 60,000 strong, effectively doubling its user base thanks to the merger with Zhura, with a new one signing up every 20 minutes.

How long until one of them gets his or her work published and widely distributed? That would really put Scripped on the map.