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Geek out over Legend of Zelda playing cards

Forget about those tired playing cards with spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. When you play with Cards of Legend, you deal out suits such as sword, heartpiece, rupee, and of course, the legendary Triforce. I can just imagine the jealousy-filled eyes the next time these come out at a geeky gathering.

Created by Swiss designer Nelde, this special set of 56 playing cards features the good, the bad, and the ugly characters of Hyrule in a retro card design similar to a standard deck. The Playing Card Company manufactures the Zelda cards -- available with red or blue backs -- and prints them on the same paper stock as Bicycle playing cards. … Read more

LinkedIn CEO: Site will become 'economic graph' over next decade

NEW YORK -- LinkedIn will evolve quite a bit over the next five to 10 years and become even more of an "economic graphic" for professionals, according to the social networking company's CEO, Jeff Weiner.

Weiner, speaking here in a conversation with Business Insider's CEO and editor in chief, Henry Blodget, said LinkedIn will continue to focus on its current strategy over the next three years, transforming the way companies hire, market, and sell.

"As we move out five to 10 years, the vision begins to expand quite a bit," he said.

Weiner said … Read more

Sunrise will e-mail your daily agenda to you each morning

Technology was supposed to make managing a hectic schedule easy. Setting up a Google Calendar was supposed to streamline your calendar, telling you where you needed to be and when you needed to be there. The same can be said about Facebook Events, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, and on and on. The point is, in some regards, technology has gotten in the way of making our lives easier and keeping a calendar is one of those areas.

Depending on your friends and family members, you may receive event invites on Facebook, Google Calendar, and iCloud. All of which have unique methods … Read more

Take control of your car's tech with these six apps

OK, so you you can't remotely drive a BMW with a phone like James Bond does in "Tomorrow Never Dies," but there are plenty of real apps that will let you take control of your car and its tech with little more than your smartphone and a data connection. From beaming destinations to your Toyota's navigation system with Entune to remotely unlocking your doors with GM's OnStar RemoteLink, we've rounded up a few of the best car-controlling apps. … Read more

LinkedIn smashes Q3 earnings estimates

LinkedIn, the professional networking site that now has 187 million members, today posted third-quarter earnings that easily beat Wall Street estimates and raised its revenue guidance for the full year.

The company, which had strong growth across the board, saw revenue rise 81 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $252 million. Analysts had expected revenue of $244 million. Net income also was up, with LinkedIn posting earnings per share of 22 cents, twice what Wall Street had predicted.

Membership rose 6.9 percent to 187 million from 175 million at the end of the second quarter.

Shares of LinkedIn, which … Read more

LinkedIn expanding on 'followers' feature

Letting users tap industry leaders for original content must be working out for LinkedIn. The professional network is getting more social today, adding a leaderboard for its subscription service and recommendations on who to follow based on member interests.

The company launched the ability for its 175 million members to subscribe to industry leaders, dubbed "influencers" by LinkedIn, and their industry-focused posts last month. The model is similar to Twitter's, in which a person can follow someone without needing them to follow back.

Since LinkedIn's launch of the subscriptions, the elite industry leaders, hand-picked by LinkedIn, … Read more

LinkedIn rolls out video ads for brand promotion

Looking to amp up its ad revenue, LinkedIn rolls out global video advertising.

The professional networking site announced today that its self-serve platform, LinkedIn Ads, now lets advertisers use their YouTube or other videos to promote brands.

"Video ads are currently available through the LinkedIn Ads self-serve interface, our targeted advertising platform that lets large and small advertisers place text and image ads across the LinkedIn site," LinkedIn's online marketing manager, Will Hambly, wrote in a blog post today. "With LinkedIn Ads you can control your costs, pay per view or click, and stop your campaign … Read more

Amazon pushes Kindles for classrooms

Wednesday's CNET Update is syncing your reading assignment:

Amazon has launched a way for teachers to easily push out reading assignments through a Kindle. Today's tech news roundup looks at Whispercast, which allows organizations to manage books and documents synced to a group of Kindle accounts. Everyone the group doesn't need to own a Kindle, but they do need a device with a Kindle app. Classrooms can also order Kindles with custom profiles that block Web browsing or disable purchasing.

In other news, Best Buy is joining retailers like Barnes & Noble and Toys "R" … Read more

Google delivers 'disavow links' tool to help combat link spam

Google launched a new tool today that allows Webmasters to eliminate links to their site that they believe might be hurting its search rankings.

Announced at the Pubcon conference in Las Vegas today, the "disavow links" tool is designed to help sites that have already been warned by Google of manual spam actions based on "unnatural links." The tool is recommended as a last-resort solution to link spam -- disreputable or irrelevant links that may hurt a site's search engine results ranking.

"By removing the bad links directly, you're helping to prevent Google (… Read more

LinkedIn unveils new profile design, simplified editing tools

LinkedIn promises simplified profile-editing tools and easier ways to connect to other users with its new profile page redesign.

The new, more visual profile layout is meant to simplify the user experience and make it more useful daily, said Deep Nishar, senior vice president of products and user experience at LinkedIn. "We want to ensure that LinkedIn is working for our members -- even when they're not online," he said.

"We want to put the right business intelligence in front of the right member at the right time," LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner added.

The company … Read more