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New York-based Adafruit is working to help reverse that trend, and to make it so that people aren't afraid of what's inside their devices, and instead become more comfortable with electronics components and the concepts behind how gadgets actually work. Adafruit founder and CEO Limor Fried was on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt NY today, and talked about how her company is going about achieving that goal. The mission helps the company generate revenue, by priming an audience early on to become buyers of the components, DIY kits and open-source devices Adafruit sells through its online store. The key is to start young, Fried says, and to take advantage of urges that children already have around exploring their environment and the things around them.

The big takeaway here is pretty clear, in terms of the top two players: Android is on fire because of choice, availability and price point in emerging markets focused on shifting to smartphones from feature phones on limited budgets. That means it's even more crucial to watch what Apple debuts this fall in terms of a low-cost iPhone device, which is rumored to be based around the iPhone 5 and sport a plastic back that's cheaper to produce.

"Digg today announced that the first public beta of its Google Reader replacement Digg Reader will launch next week. Digg Reader will roll out in phases to allow the team to scale but the team promises that it will be available to everybody by June 26th."

More than simply a management guide, it's a window into a philosophy that thrives on uncertainty, creativity, and trust - a blinding contrast to the hierarchical culture that dominated much of the 20th century workplace. To the extent that innovation and the Internet play a role in the modern workplace, it is a crystal ball into the future of daily life.

A new video showcasing the future of weapons was released on YouTube today: a enterprising 24-year-old gun enthusiast manufactured his own high-capacity 30-round gun magazine using a 3D printer. Hoping to spread the amateur design of more "Wiki Weapons", the rebellious 24-year-old designer nicknamed the blueprints of the weapon, the "Cuomo," named after New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, who signed a recent ban on all gun magazines in excess of 7 rounds. "He [Cuomo] wants to be associated with these magazines," designer Cody Wilson told Talking Points Memo. "Lets make that association permanent."

And the meek (or blackmailers) will inherit the earth. What's next? Electronic voting...electronic hanging chads...

Unfortunately now, there are likely dozens of bald tweenage girls crying in their bathrooms. And it's perhaps even more insane that most members of the Bieber nation still believe that Justin has cancer, and are pouring sympathy, condolences, and heartfelt love into the #baldforbeiber hashtag, despite the fact that the other half of that Twitter conversation is lawling over the hoax.

"Two apps were demo'ed at this tech mega-conference, one to help users share photos of themselves sneaking peeks at women's breasts, and the other giving users points for mimicking male masturbation. Both "Titstare" and "Circle Shake" were displayed in front of a mixed crowd that included teens from BlackGirlsCode and even a nine-year-old hacker, there to present her own site. Yesterday morning, I awoke to find a tweet from Pax in my stream, claiming that TechCrunch should apologize to the TitStare founders for calling them misogynists."

Google today announced the launch of Web Designer, a new tool for building interactive HTML5 sites and ads. The company first hinted at this launch in June, but had been quiet about it ever since. Web Designer, which Google calls a "professional-quality design tool," is now officially in public beta and available for download for Mac and Windows.

"For Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, his original vision for the location-based service is finally becoming a reality. Speaking with TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York City, Crowley mentioned that one of the original goals of Foursquare was for the service to teach users about things and places they didn't know about as they walked around the world."

"This means anyone can create and organize a class on the platform, which allows educators to set up and manage course, including both in person and online remote education courses. Classroom is available across platforms, since it's web-based, and it's pretty easy to get set up and started with, so this should be a big boon for private educational organizations, independent skills coaches, hobby instructors and many more."

"I'm not exactly sure who made being a "personal brand" a thing on the Internet, but I'd really like to sit down with them and ask them why they thought that it was a good idea. You see, an entire ecosystem of people looking to make money have cropped up around this notion of helping people become a "brand." Honestly, it's bull, and I'd like to see it stop. Why is it bull? Because unless you're Kim Kardashian and have a line of clothes or stinky fragrances, you are not a brand. You are a person."

"It's honestly the people who figured out one day that being them was fun who are successful in life. They're weird, odd, loud, quiet, sexy, ugly, bald, rude, or funny and they don't care what other people think. I don't think that Box's CEO Aaron Levie took a class in "personal branding," I just think he's cool with being himself."

YouTube videos may soon be getting a little more interactive. There's now a page on the YouTube website describing a feature called "Video Questions Editor Beta," which was spotted by the Dutch tech site WebSonic.nl. The page itself is pretty bare-bones, but it describes the feature as a way for "multiple questions to be displayed on top of your video during playback that a viewer can answer." So video producers can add an interactive element to their content - imagine adding little quizzes to an educational video or introducing product questions to a video ad.

"In the case of Ryan Lessard, he really wants to work for social reward company Kiip. He's gone all out by posting a link to this site on AdWords that display for a Google search of "Kiip." Genius. But what's more genius is the site he created (WhyIWouldKickAssAtKiip.com), check it out:"

"Today, computer science is absent in 95 percent of high schools in the U.S. Yep. Why? Because developing curriculum for these subjects requires time and expertise, and finding the qualified candidates to teach these subjects demands significant capital to lure talented programmers away from high-paying jobs in the private sector.  That's where CodeHS comes in. Founded by Stanford students Zach Galant and Jeremy Keeshin and incubated at StartX and Imagine K12, CodeHS is an online program built for high school students (and teachers) with no previous coding experience that intends to provide an easy and fun way to learn computer science."

Dev Bootcamp, a nine-week intensive program that takes students with no programming background and turns them into world class beginner, job-ready software engineers. More than 90 percent of all Dev Bootcamp graduates, who are called "Boots," have found jobs in the tech community within three months after graduation.

Facebook Subscribe lets you get feed updates from people who don't have to Subscribe back. It's essentially Twitter within Facebook. So to reduce confusion and hopefully boost traction, it's adopting Twitter's terminology and renaming Subscribe as "Follow".

"CourseTalk is what you might expect - an early stage Yelp for MOOCs - a place for students to share their experiences with these courses and a way to discover new courses they'd enjoy. Given that it's still nascent, the platform's design is simple and its user experience is straightforward: Visitors can use the general search bar which is front and center, or peruse through "Top Rated," "Popular" and "Upcoming" verticals, or search by category, like Business, Computer Science, etc."

Tables, counters and whiteboards will eventually become displays. Meeting rooms will have touch panels, and chalk boards will be replaced by large systems that have digital images and documents on a display that teachers can mark up with a stylus.