Big news, Target shoppers.

The Minneapolis-based retailer announced this week that it has teamed up with shopkick to offer customers rewards using their smartphones.

Target is the largest retailer to join forces with the smartphone rewards program, which already has affiliations with Best Buy and Old Navy, among others.

Shoppers can participate in the shopkick rewards program by downloading the app to their smartphones. Versions are available free for the iPhone and Android.

Customers earn "kicks" or points, which can be redeemed for gift cards, movie tickets, Facebook credits, iTunes downloads, donations to charity and other prizes.

I've found Siri mostly helpful when it works, but immensely frustrating especially as the iPhone transitions from Wi-Fi and to 3G.

I think Apple strays too far from Siri's utility in this latest spot featuring John Malkovich. I get Malkovich. I like Malkovich. But this wouldn't make me want it.

Available for iOS and Android, OnLive Desktop, puts a Windows environment on your tablet or smartphone. Users can view, edit and create documents with Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Files can be transferred between OnLive Desktop and other devices. Two gigabytes of storage is also included with the free version.

The optional $4.99 monthly service adds some features including being able to play Flash video and access to more services.

You can read a review of OnLive Desktop for the iPad here.
 

Forbes has released its picks for America's Top 20 geekiest cities, and the Triangle cracked the top five.

Durham gets the headline, but Forbes cites the Triangle workforce, "15.5% of workforce 41,560 workers employed The Raleigh-Durham-Cary area, otherwise known as the Research Triangle, hosts Duke University and the third-highest percentage of adults with at least a bachelor’s degree."

No mention of the other influential universities?

San Jose topped the list. Check out the top 20 here.

Android malware can wreak havoc on a user. The quick growing threat can exploit data and even take control of a device incurring hidden charges. There is a new effort to battle the menace on mobile security.

To help combat malware attacks on the platform, N.C. State researcher Xuxian Jiang announced The Android Malware Genome Project at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in San Francisco. The goal of the project is to facilitate mobile security research by sharing malware-related code.

Jiang and his team are known for being the first to identify dozens of malware threats against Android.

There are some amazing images from Asian and the western U.S. of the solar eclipse. Check out the gallery.

Here is a gallery that has images of the launch and a few from the build up during the past couple of years.

Meet James Mangini. While fit he shares humbly that he is not an experienced runner. Yet he is about a quarter of the way through a 1,000 mile run to raise awareness and money for Parkinson's disease which his great-grandfather and a distant cousin died from. Now his father is battling the disabling illness, and James. a former Army sergeant is at risk.

Luckily I've never sustained an injury, but I've experienced batteries in my pocket shorting with coins and keys get alarmingly hot. This leans more toward science and than tech, but it was too weird not to share.

It sounds unbelievable I know, but according to the report a California woman suffered third-degree burns supposedly from rocks she pocketed from a beach in Southern California.

After returning form the beach, the rocks caught fire as she stood in the kitchen. Her effort to stop, drop and roll could not extinguish the flames. Her husband also sustained burns trying to put out the fire.

Authorities are testing the rocks which are small, smooth, and orange and green in color.
 

Verizon wireless customers on the carrier's $30 per month unlimited data plan will eventually have to leave the grandfathered plan behind.

Fierce Wireless reports Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said users on the 3G unlimited data plan will have to purchase the company's data-share plan as they migrate to 4G LTE devices. "Everyone will be on data-share," Shammo said.

No pricing details for the data sharing plan have been released, but it is expected to launch this summer.

Most carriers have had to backpedal on unlimited data plans amid the mobile device boom that brought a surge of wireless data subscribers, and fast-paced mobile technology with an increasing appetite for bandwidth.