Look, IDK. (Photo: USAToday.com)

Netflix has just inked another high-profile content deal, this time with Time Warner. Via Deadline comes news that, as of March, the service will beef up its offerings for kids with a whole host of Cartoon Network shows including "Adventure Time" and "Johnny Bravo." 

Perhaps more exciting for the adults out there is the fact that several Adult Swim shows will be added to the service, including "Robot Chicken," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," "The Boondocks" and "Childrens Hospital." So just go ahead and put in a preorder with your weed dealer. Oh, and in January 2014 Netflix will also get TNT's Dallas, which means you can pretty much expect to lose at least one three-day weekend to the Southern soap.

In a devastating blow to displaced Georgians like this reporter, however, Squidbillies is not on the list. My dreams are all dead and buried, etc.

A pretty Mujjo case (Photo: Mujjo.com)

Checking In to the New Yelp Foursquare already set its sights on overtaking Yelp with the launch of its super useful local search engine. But its newest iOS update really goes for the jugular: Foursquare now gives locations a 1-10 rating to show you how much people actually like it, instead of the app’s old star rating system. Per the Foursquare blog, the rating is calculated by an amalgamation of “tips, likes, dislikes, popularity, loyalty, local expertise, and nearly 3 billion check-ins from over 25 million people worldwide.” Yelp is going to have to do better than Ernest Hemingway to keep up.

Do-Gooders Keep On Doing Good The New York tech community has banded together over the last week to help victims of Sandy. And now Rain NYC and TelAPI are co-sponsoring a hackathon in conjunction with the Node.js Knockout to build applications that will help future disaster relief efforts. It's a 12 hour competition and teams will be responsible for building telephony applications that hopefully will improve communication or information dissemination when there's limited electricity and power.

No App To Wash The Dishes Yet Though There's a ton of recipe based apps and magazines for the iPad, but Panna, released this week, stands out because they feature recipes that you haven't actually thought of before, plus their above average food porn really doesn't hurt either. The bi-monthly magazine features a slew of celebrity chefs like Jonathan Waxman and Rick Bayless. These chefs host video segments that are broken up step-by-step and downloadable for offline streaming, which is good if your wifi doesn't reach your kitchen. Individual issues will cost $5.99 each, and a full year’s subscription is $24.95. But there's a launch special right now and a year's subscription is only, $14.99.

More Brooklyn Please Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, are of course known as The Brooklyn Tech Triangle. They're already getting a bus line of their very own, but now WXY Architecture + Urban Design are planning to help grow tech infiltrate the three neighborhoods to a greater degree. Andrew Kimball, president & CEO of The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, says that he wants the Navy Yard to become a hub for "maker" companies like Makerbot. Brooklyn is the place to be right now and it's about to get even busier.

Love Thy Favors NeighborFavor, a free app that was launched in August, helps you find people that live near you willing to help out with tasks. Although the app wasn't designed for emergency purposes, the company says NeighborFavor can definitely be used for the Sandy relief efforts: like picking up emergency supplies for those in need, offering alternate transportation, and coordinating times to help with the cleanup.

Buy Pretty Things If you've ever flipped through a catalog and thought "I wish there was more things to buy for me," then be glad that Pickie now exists. They're a Techstars company and they raised one million dollars in their first seed round from DFJ Gotham, Betaworks, Liberty City Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, MESA+ and several angel investors including Jon Steinberg, David Tisch, and Lars Albright. The app shows you a catalog of products to buy based on what you like and what you've bought in the past. Sounds economically stimulating.

Buy More Pretty Things Mujjo, the tech accessories company that uses finest Dutch craftsmanship to make their products, just released a new line of sleeves for the new iPad Mini. They're mad out of Mujjo's signature wool and "vegetable tan leather." A Mujjo case (with a mini inside) just shot to the top of our Hannukah list.

People Use Phones When They Don't Have Computers Usablenet, the company that makes mobile sites for big businesses, experienced huge traffic jumps on their sites during Hurricane Sandy. They reported a 98 percent increase in mobile traffic to airline sites and an over 16,000 percent increase in traffic to utilities sites. Usablenet says that this suggests that while consumers may not visit utility websites from their mobile devices on a regular basis, they do so in great numbers during an emergency.

Villain No More Time Warner Cable, the scourge of New York cord-keepers, was surprisingly helpful during last week’s storm. Workers at Time Warner’s Red Hook store helped a woman restore power to her electric wheelchair in order to vote. Robert Levy, a Time Warner employee, took the store’s generator to Kacania Taylor’s apartment, which has been out since Hurricane Sandy. Levy and other employees ran an extension cord through the window, and charged her chair so that she could get to the polling place. Can we send our $150 cable bill to Mr. Levy instead of TWC?

Foursquare's temporary HQ. (Photo: Twitter)

Given recent events, Betabeat decided to forego our Rumor Roundup this week for a roundup of all the things startups are doing to help get New York back to normal following Hurricane Sandy.

It didn't take long for New York startups and techies to spring into action after Hurricane Sandy left parts of our fine city without power, water, shelter, or Wifi.

On Tuesday, we pointed you to New York Tech Meetup and New Work City's attempts to mobilize tech-savvy volunteers to help local businesses and organizations get networks and websites up and running. Today, NYTM put out an official call to its 28,000 members, asking for more volunteers and taking requests (online or by phone/text 646-392-7353) from government agencies, small businesses, non-profits, and schools that need help anything from data recovery to Internet connectivity to getting servers back online.

Noel Hidalgo, one of the lead volunteers of that effort, has been manning an uber-useful Sandy Coworking map of offices space for displaced techies. And New Work City founder Tony Bacigalupo, has pretty much morphed into Silicon Alley's Cory Booker. 

I was thinking it'd be bad ass to get teams of people in cars loaded with supplies just rolling around helping whoever was in need.

— Tony Bacigalupo (@tonybgoode) November 2, 2012

In fact, companies like Uber, which temporarily dropped surge pricing amid cries of price gouging but then quickly reinstated it--and Hotels.com have been the aberration. Most startups have lept at the chance to lend a hand and show off the tech scene's self-professed collaborative spirit.

Here's a roundup of yet more Sandy relief efforts spearheaded by the tech community:

No fee Airbnb From Oct. 31 to Nov. 7, Airbnb is waiving its fees for both renters and hosts on all properties located in areas hit by Hurricane Sandy, including NYC and Long Island. Travelers must stay for seven nights or fewer. We found a bunch of local hosts who dropped their rates to $10 a night, as a Sandy special.

Red Cross Tonight Hotel booking service Hotel Tonight is donating all money spent on hotels in NYC Thursday Nov. 1 and Friday Nov. 2 to the Red Cross.

Zaarly's pops up with a helping hand Peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly launched an online pop-up shop that allows users to purchase local services for NYC residents in need. Examples include homemade meals from a local chef, pet sitting and renovations. All of the proceeds from the pop up shop will be donated to the Red Cross in New York City. "Based in San Francisco, folks at Zaarly wanted to help their friends in New York, but felt powerless," a rep told Betabeat. "After batting ideas around late into Monday night, they realized they were no longer small and powerless. They could help their friends and enable others to do so too."

What a Mitzvah! Yenta, the "Grindr for Jews," has coordinated a bunch of relief efforts. The company has temporarily halted advertising and paid outreach in order to donate those proceeds to the Red Cross. Yenta is also inviting displaced New Yorkers to stop by their offices, where they're collecting food and clothing donations for Sandy victims.

Later, late fees AT&T, Verzion and T-Mobile are both waiving late fees for customers impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and will continue to provide service to prepaid and contract customers, even if they haven't been able to pay their bill. AT&T and T-Mobile have also been providing charging stations for New Yorkers affected by the blackout.

Tying the Knot Wedding startup The Knot created a Facebook page to help brides whose weddings were ruined or canceled by Hurricane Sandy. Affected couples are using the page to "share tips, find available venues and talk to local experts." The page is also collecting the information of wedding venues and vendors in the area who did not suffer damage and are still able to host November weddings.

Time Warner does something good Much-maligned New York cable provider TimeWarner, known for pissing off every actor from Star Trek, has temporarily shrugged off its evil image with a hefty $1 million donation to Sandy relief efforts. According to a press release, "The company will donate $500,000 to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City with another $500,000 to be dispersed to other organizations that are serving victims in the greater Tri-State area." They also deployed ten trucks downtown to act as charging stations with free Wifi.

Gilt City helps the city From Wednesday Oct. 31 to Sunday Nov. 4th, Gilt City NYC is donating 30 percent of all profits from sales on its NYC page to the Red Cross Hurricane Relief. The company has alerted all Gilt members of this opportunity in an email with the hopes of encouraging some philanthropic shopping.

Rubicon to the rescue Ecommerce platform AHAlife is also donating 15 percent of profits made from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4th to Team Rubicon, which links up military veterans with communities in need of rebuilding.

Squee! Stuffed animal startup Squishable released a limited edition Sandy Corgi, with $5 from every purchase from now until Sunday Nov. 4 going to the Red Cross. The corgi was so cute (see for yourself below) that it quickly sold out, so they extended the offer to the platypus squishable. So far, they've raised $1,460.

The adorable squishable corgi, which is sadly sold out. (Photo: Squishable)

Lucky us Community crowdfunding platform Lucky Ant is providing free crowdfunding for local businesses impacted by Sandy. The company has waived all fees for any local businesses wishing to use the platform to get themselves back up and running. Lucky Ant is also raising a fund with a goal of $50,000 or more that they will distribute to small businesses in need.

Buried bauble relief Online jewelry retailer Bauble Bar is hosting its weekly "Buried Bauble" special, where users use a clue to find a discounted piece of jewelry. This week, for every $10 buried bauble users purchase today, Bauble Bar will donate $10 to the Red Cross.

Fresh charity My Fresh Shirt, an online drycleaning service, has donated a year's worth of free drycleaning for auction at Charitybuzz, a platform that allows users to host auctions for charity. So far, the current bid is up to $600, and all proceeds will go to the Red Cross.

(Photo: Harvard.edu)

Zappos' Tony Hsieh is using his empire to help revitalize downtown Las Vegas. "I first thought I would buy a piece of land and build our own Disneyland." [New York Times]

Sources say the SEC's probe into Facebook's IPO has found no evidence that the company withheld information from investors. Good news for those seeking relief for the stock dive in civil court: Whether retail investors were led astray by misleading info from brokers still remains to be seen. [Bloomberg]

BuzzFeed is opening a Los Angeles bureau; prepare for a lot more celebrity photo lists. [BuzzFeed]

Internet service providers like Verizon and Time Warner have launched the Copyright Alert System, a new warning feature that will send notes to customers they've found are pirating content. Users who ignore these messages could even have their connections throttled, because ISPs will pretend to care about piracy if it gives them an excuse not to pay for bandwidth. [CNN]

Shopping for glitzy gowns just got a lot easier. On Friday, Rent the Runway introduced a new feature that replaces models with everyday women, "allowing visitors to search for women of a certain age, height, weight and even bust size, to see how that dress looks on someone similar."  [New York Times]

(Photo: Maximum PC)

When not pissing off the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Time Warner Cable execs apparently take to their evil lair to devise new schemes to wring every last penny out of their hapless customers. The latest pocket gouger? A monthly modem fee.

The New York Times reports that Time Warner is planning to charge a monthly fee of $3.95 to rent a modem from them. If you want to avoid paying the monthly fee, you can purchase a Time Warner-approved modem for $50-$137. Time Warner will then promise to set the modem up during the Harvest Moon but then not show up until the spring thaw.

The Times predicts that many users won't want to opt to change their plan and purchase their own modem, so the move could be a major cash cow for a company that has fewer Yelp stars than cannibal murderer Jeffrey Dahmer.

To be fair, many Internet companies (like Comcast) charge a modem rental fee, but other Internet companies did not have the gall to offend Sir Patrick Stewart. Might we suggest seeing if your building is eligible for Verizon Fios?

(Photo: Twitter)

Stars, they're just like us! When confronted with the monumental annoyance of having to install Time Warner cable in their apartment, they, too, resort to nihilistic thinking. Thus is the case with Sir Patrick Stewart, famed Shakespearean actor and Star Trek star, who recently moved to Park Slope.

We assume he doesn't live in a building equipped with Verizon Fios, because the actor has signed up for that dreaded, monstrous monopoly Time Warner Cable, notorious for having fewer stars on Yelp than cannibal murderer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Last night, Mr. Stewart tweeted the following lament, which demands to be read aloud in his deep British timber:

So far, over 600 people have retweeted it, so clearly Mr. Stewart's frustration with the cable service has struck a chord. The support arm of Time Warner reached out to Mr. Stewart, but by then it was simply too late:

We like to imagine Mr. Stewart shouting at his computer, "This installation ends here!"

Engaging in a public Twitter spat with one of the city's most hated companies? Congratulations, Mr. Stewart, you're officially a New Yorker.

Update: Apparently Mr. Stewart isn't the only Star Trek star to experience problems with Time Warner:

Update 2: Time Warner has provided Betabeat with the following (pretty amazing) statement:

“Our Care and Social Media teams are fully engaged to make sure he's well tended to. On behalf of the many Trekkers and Sir Patrick Stewart fans across our company, I can assure you, we will make it so.”

Oh, and thanks to the Redditor who made this:

(Photo: Quickmeme)

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Apple is known for its sleek, modern stores with glistening white walls and futuristic gadgets adorning smooth tables. There are Apple stores all over Manhattan that serve as gleaming advertisements for  a dreamy future. But what of Microsoft? With no gadget palaces in Manhattan to speak of, they're resorting to a more temporary approach: opening a pop up shop over the holidays at the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle.

According to Crain's:

The store will be one of 30 such holiday shops throughout North America....While such an opening might have elicited yawns in mot years, this year Microsoft should have an ace up its sleeve by the end of October. That's when the software company is expected to unveil its new Windows 8 operating system.

The pop up shop could also serve as a fertile testing ground for whether or not a dedicated Microsoft store would do well in Manhattan. The company already has a handful of year-round stores open in New Jersey, so feel free to insert a joke here about Microsoft and New Jersey both paling in comparison to their competitors, Apple and New York.

Lotsa ants. (Photo: flickr.com/pinkmoose)

The MPAA and the RIAA aren't raking in as much cash as they used to. [TechDirt]

This breed of ants works a little like the Internet. [PC World]

Time Warner is expanding its fiber network in New York City, hopefully preventing any more techies from tearing their hair out over problems getting high-speed Internet. [Wall Street Journal]

IAC has purchased About.com for $300 million, because of synergy. [The Hollywood Reporter]

America's V.P. gets no Facebook love. [Buzzfeed]

Getting your Gmail hacked is going to look like a walk in the park once hackers can rifle through your innermost thoughts. [ZDNet]

Aw Sookie Sookie now.

CEO Reed Hastings has long-tried to maintain that Netflix is not, in fact,  a nefarious plot to destroy the cable companies, but rather a "complementary" service that will leave cords to cable companies neatly intact. Whether or not Mr. Hastings is being sincere about Netflix's end goal, it looks like that's how it's playing out for now.  Using last night's True Blood premiere as bait, HBO saw its 3 millionth download of the HBO Go mobile app (for the iPad, iPhone, and Android) this weekend. The app, a direct competitor to Netflix, can be accessed for free by paying HBO cable customers.  Considering that there are 28 million HBO subscribers around the country, that means about 10 percent have tried out the app just since it premiered on May 2nd.

Time Warner and Cablevision customers in New York City still have to wait for the city's largest cable service providers to close the deal. (And deal with their Soviet-style customer service.) But the New York Post reports that talks are underway.

Unlike Netflix, which has had to decrease its offerings as studios and TV networks jack up the price and wait times, or Hulu Plus which "skimps on the number of back episodes" from popular shows, HBO's mobile app is going whole hog--screening next week's episode of True Blood directly after last night's premiere and offering more than 1,4000 episodes from shows like The Wire, Game of Thrones, and Sex and the City.  Three million is nowhere near Netflix's 23 million subscribers. But we have a feeling that HBO's decision not to let Netflix stream even one episode of those shows instantly could end up evening the odds.

Museum of American History

In the battle to build the universal screen, where anyone can watch anything from anywhere so long as they are a paying customer, Time Warner has gone into retreat. 

The cable company released a forward thinking app that let subscribers watching streaming shows right on their iPads. But after the networks got their lawyers busy with cease and desist orders, Time Warner removed a dozen channels and will probably end up dropping more.

Just to be clear, this wasn't some willy nilly piracy provoking platform. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The free app only worked within a cable customer's home when the iPad was connecting to the Internet through the company's broadband service."

Apps like Slingbox have allowed cable customers to do this for ages, even from outside their homes. It just goes to show how out of touch the networks are with what's happening.