Need some funding for a new project you're launching?

Available now for free, The Crowdfunding Bible is a comprehensive guide to raising money online through "crowdfunding" platforms, including the popular Kickstarter, as well as IndieGogo, RocketHub, PeerBackers, and others.

For the uninitiated, crowdfunding refers to platforms used to raise money among a large group of people, usually online, to support the launch of a new product or service.

For example, Waterloo, Ont.-based Allerta has raised more than $10 million dollars for its upcoming Pebble: E-Paper Watch — the largest amount ever raised via Kickstarter. (I discussed it on CNN last Saturday, but can be viewed again here for those interested).

In fact, the creator of the Pebble smart watch, Eric Migicovsky, has written the forward to this free digital book.

Penned by seasoned tech writer and consultant Scott Steinberg, along with Rusel DeMaria, this book could also be purchased in paper form for $13.99.

I caught up with

The first Facebook user to be exposed to the site's latest content sharing feature was so skeptical, he or she thought it was a con. In fact, it took a statement from a Facebook spokesperson to confirm the new "pay to promote post" feature is indeed genuine.

"We're constantly testing new features across the site," revealed the spokesperson on BBC.com. "This particular test is simply to gauge people's interest in this method of sharing with their friends."

Facebook has begun testing the "pay to promote" feature among users in New Zealand. For a small fee, users can ensure that the content they share will be more visible to friends, colleagues and family. The goal is to determine if users are interested in "paying to flag up their information."

"We're going to see a lot more ideas like this where they are testing out different ways to try to make money," shares internet analyst Ian Maude.

According to the spokesperson, Facebook is currently testing several different methods of

Hundreds of fans gathered Monday to celebrate the midnight release of Diablo III, the third chapter of the famed video game series that had been 12 years in the making.

Anxious gamers had begun sharing their excitement online since word of a third installment hit the web, but the anticipation became tangible when nearly 2,000 eager fans gathered at the Irvine Spectrum Center in Orange County, California.

"When we first started doing midnight launches, we didn't think anyone would come, but now we do them for all our games, and they get bigger and bigger," explains Rob Pardo, VP of game design at Blizzard Entertainment Inc. in The Washington Post. "It's great for not only the fans but also the development team. They get to be here when everyone is buying the game and see the excitement."

Fans huddled around the stage to watch the artists sketch Diablo characters live, view never-before-seen footage and indulge in a little trivia. "Loot storms" provided Diablo fans with an opportunity

While not as bustling as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the annual CTIA Wireless conference shines a light on the mobility space, in particular.

Whether it's consumer-based products -- like new smartphones, tablets, laptops or accessories -- or B2B technologies, the showroom floor usually has a number of impressive products from companies big and small -- and this year's event in New Orleans was no exception.

More than 1,100 exhibitors were spread out over 300,000-odd square feet of showroom floor space at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

I discuss a few highlights in the following video, including a laptop with no trade-offs, a smarter smartphone, a portable and wireless hard drive and a special coating that waterproofs your gadgets from the inside-out (take that, toilet).

The idea that Apple really does not need Google Maps is nothing new. The makers of the iPhone seemed to get that ball rolling when they departed from the competition's mapping service with the new version of iPhoto.

But up until now, Apple has continued to use Google Maps to power the iOS Maps app. Gizmodo is reporting that Apple is set to drop Google's mapping service with the release of iOS 6 in favour of a brand new in-house system.

"The move away from Google Maps would make sense from Apple's point of view, given Cupertino's holy war against Google," explains Kyle Wagner in the piece. "And it has been moving further away from the service, using OpenStreetMaps data in its latest update. Add that to the mapping companies that Apple's been stockpiling — C3, Poly9, Placebase — and Apple seems more than ready to shove off on its own."

We should see this transition at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company is expected to debut its new operating system.

(Photo

High Tech Plant Examining GlassesYou've done all the typical gifts: clothes, flowers, chocolates and days at the spa have all been bestowed upon your mom on Mother's Days past. And this isn't any mother you're talking about, this is your mom, who deserves only the latest and greatest in gadgets, right?

Everyone's mom might not be a techie, but there are plenty of gifts out there for moms who could still use a little technological help in their everyday lives and favourite hobbies. Here are a few choice ideas for high-tech gifts that you can spoil your mom with on May 13 (and no, there's no iPad or camera on this list — we thought you could figure that out on your own).

Belkin Chef Stand + Stylus

Many moms are moving away from the traditional recipe book and are taking tablets into the kitchen to help them prepare recipes available online. If your mom owns an iPad 2 but can't quite get it to work for her in the kitchen, the Belkin Chef Stand + Stylus takes care of the problem. Mom can prop her tablet up for easy

It's been a wild week packed with breaking tech news and industry rumours and speculation — particularly surrounding Apple and its products.

What's that? Missed the headlines? No worries, we break it down for you in bite-sized summaries so you can get your iFix.

Apple television a reality

The long-rumoured Apple iTV — a big-screen smart television loaded with Apple tech — looks to be the real deal.

Terry Gou, the head of Foxconn, slipped the news during a Shanghai press conference, reports the China Daily. Gou said its Taiwanese company was preparing its facilities to start producing Apple's television, though "development or manufacturing has yet to begin," says the China Daily article.

Foxconn is the world's largest maker of electronic components and manufacturer of the Apple iPhone and iPad, among other products like Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Amazon Kindle.

Said to be Steve Jobs' last breakthrough product, iTV is rumoured to have access to the App Store and iCloud,

Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues at Facebook are no strangers to the courts, including those north of the border.

The social titan recently vowed to fight back against a B.C. woman's lawsuit alleging a privacy breach. The suit seeks to end the company's practice of turning users into brand ambassadors when they  'like' a product or service.

But keeping Facebook topical in courtrooms across the country are two cases that indirectly involve the social site.

In the case known as A.B. vs. Bragg Communications, a teenaged victim of online bullying sought to bring defamation charges against her tormentors in Nova Scotia but under a pseudonym, in order to protect her privacy.

The Nova Scotia court of appeal ruled against the teen just last year, citing that an anonymous person "should not be allowed to bring a defamation action against another," reports the Vancouver Sun.

"To be able to proceed with a defamation claim under a cloak of secrecy is contrary to the quintessential features of