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Apple's Jobs has hormone imbalance, will stay CEO (AP)

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:50:41 +0000

The news sent Apple stock up more than 4 percent on a down day for much of the market. But Jobs did not say whether the problem was related to the cancer, and some analysts said the health watch may not be over.

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Steve Wozniak in 1976 at the dawn of the personal computer revolution, left in 1985 and returned as CEO in 1997, slashing unprofitable product lines and helping rescue the company from financial ruin. Jobs announced in 2004 that he had undergone successful surgery to treat a very rare form of pancreatic cancer — an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. The cancer is easily cured if diagnosed early. Jobs did not have a deadlier and more common form of pancreatic cancer called adenocarcinoma.

Full Story: Apple's Jobs has hormone imbalance, will stay CEO (AP)

Recession to steal some glitz from gadget show (AP)

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:17:01 +0000

- The International Consumer Electronics Show , the largest trade show in the U.S., opens this week in Las Vegas with a full slate of giant TVs and inventive gadgets, despite the pall of a recession hanging over the industry.

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The economic downturn will temper the normally dizzying extravaganza, and some attendees are wondering if the whole technology trade show business is past its peak. Consumer Electronics Association , which is hosting, expects the same number of exhibitors this year for the 42nd annual show, but on a slightly smaller floor space: 1.7 million square feet, or about 29 football fields. That's down three football fields from last year.

Full Story: Recession to steal some glitz from gadget show (AP)

Wikipedia meets $6 million fundraising goal (AP)

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:23:20 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - The nonprofit foundation that runs Wikipedia , the popular online encyclopedia of user-contributed articles, said Friday it has met its $6 million fundraising goal for fiscal 2008.

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With about six months left in this year's campaign, the Wikimedia Foundation said it has raised $6.2 million. A flood of donations came in after the site's founder, Jimmy Wales , posted an appeal for support in late December. The foundation said about 50,000 contributors chipped in a total of $2 million in the space of eight days, bringing the total number of donors to more than 125,000.

Full Story: Wikipedia meets $6 million fundraising goal (AP)

Digital TV subsidy program running out of money (AP)

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 03:16:42 +0000

analog to digital television broadcasts looms and as many as 8 million households are still unprepared, but the government program that subsidizes crucial TV converter boxes is about to run out of money.

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To subsidize the converter boxes , most of which cost between $40 and $80, the government has been letting consumers request up to two $40 coupons per home. But any day now, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the arm of the Commerce Department in charge of administering the coupon program, expects to hit a $1.34 billion funding ceiling set by Congress. Now the NTIA is warning that unless lawmakers step in quickly with more funding or new accounting rules, it will have to create a waiting list for coupon requests. That would mean it could send out additional coupons only as unredeemed ones expire, freeing up more money for the program.

Full Story: Digital TV subsidy program running out of money (AP)

Unlocking the iPhone 3G - or maybe not (CNET)

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:45:44 +0000

- Gadget blogs on New Year's Day were aflutter with word that an application called Yellowsn0w was available for those who want to unlock the iPhone 3G .

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. Way at the bottom, though, it points out that "this is all in beta and there is no guarantee of success." It follows with this note: UPDATE - I haven't been able to get it to work on two iPhone 3Gs, both with fresh 2.2 firmware and baseband. I've heard plenty of people HAVE had luck, however, so it seems to be an either/or thing. I suspect some cells aren't accepting the iPhones as valid equipment. has embraced the damn beta culture just to make the release on a cute date. It looks like the old days of solid versions are long gone by.

Full Story: Unlocking the iPhone 3G - or maybe not (CNET)

Facebook nudity policy draws nursing moms' ire (AP)

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:33:35 +0000

MySpace restrict photos of nursing babies. The disputes reveal how the sites' community policing techniques sometimes struggle to keep up with the booming number and diversity of their members.

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Facebook began as a site just for college kids , but now it is an online home for 140 million people from all over the world. Among the new faces of Facebook are women like Kelli Roman, 23, who last year posted a photo of herself nursing one of her two children. One day, she logged on to find the photo missing. When she pressed Facebook for an explanation, she got form e-mails in return.

Full Story: Facebook nudity policy draws nursing moms' ire (AP)

Chinese software pirates get prison sentences (AP)

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:02:04 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - The alleged ringleaders of a Chinese counterfeiting gang that sold at least $2 billion worth of bogus Microsoft Corp . software were sentenced Wednesday to prison terms of up to 6 1/2 years, in what is believed to be the harshest penalties yet under China 's tightened piracy laws.

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The punishments meted out against the 11 defendants, and announced by Microsoft Corp., could help China improve its image as a country that doesn't crack down hard enough on copyright violators, though the technology and entertainment industries still say China has a long way to go. The sentences ranged from 1 1/2 to 6 1/2 years, according to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft . The fact that Microsoft, and not the Chinese courts, disclosed the sentences is not unusual. Lawyers are the only source of information in many cases in China because rulings often are not publicly announced. Court officials usually refuse to disclose details to reporters.

Full Story: Chinese software pirates get prison sentences (AP)

Microsoft's Zune players freeze on New Year's Eve (AP)

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:11:34 +0000

Thousands of Microsoft's Zune media players — the software company's answer to Apple Inc.'s iPod — unexpectedly conked out Wednesday and showed users an error message, prompting references to "Y2K for Zunes." The problems appeared when people tried to start up their devices.

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Frustrated users lit up Microsoft's online support forum for Zunes with more than 2,500 messages by Wednesday afternoon. Late Wednesday, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said the outage affected only the 30-gigabyte Zune models and was caused by a problem with their internal clock.

Full Story: Microsoft's Zune players freeze on New Year's Eve (AP)

Shhh! Gadget racket threatens pulsar research (AP)

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:01:57 +0000

GREEN BANK, W.Va. - Of all the threats to scientific research Wesley Sizemore has stymied over the years, satellites and cell phone towers don't stick in his memory quite like the possessive old hound and its treasured heating pad .

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Sizemore is an interference hunter, vigilantly pursuing stray electromagnetic signals that bedevil researchers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory , which sits on 13,000 square miles tucked away in the nation's only radio-free quiet zone. Though buffered by ridgetops in a West Virginia mountain valley, 50 miles from the nearest town of any size, the Green Bank observatory is under an audio assault unlike any it's faced in the 50 years since Congress created the quiet zone. Wireless computers and other gadgets are cluttering the same frequencies occupied by signals from neutron stars .

Full Story: Shhh! Gadget racket threatens pulsar research (AP)

Obama online supporters key to pushing his agenda (AP)

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:19:55 +0000

HONOLULU - President-elect Barack Obama 's top asset in pushing his agenda will not be his Cabinet secretaries or aides, but rather his online network.

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Obama's political e-mail list tops 13 million names, a digital force that the incoming White House can tap to push for his legislation, tamp down critics or bolster popular support. It's also a way for Obama to reach into every state, every city, and every neighborhood. A study released Tuesday found that a quarter of Obama voters said they would continue to work online to support the new administration. The nonpartisan Pew Internet and American Life Project also found 62 percent of Obama's voters say they would ask others to support Obama's policies.

Full Story: Obama online supporters key to pushing his agenda (AP)

Review: Ditching car OK with Net transit planners (AP)

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:05:08 +0000

So I challenged myself to avoid the driver's seat as much as possible during a recent West Coast trip , something made practical with all the online transit planners that have cropped up in recent years.

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In the old days, I'd have to track down bus schedules and maps on paper to figure out where to go. I'd have to manually determine which transfers to take and where. Even if I did, I'd worry about catching a bus in the wrong direction. The car usually won out, as my hatred of driving was far less severe than my intolerance for ending up stranded in an unfamiliar city.

Full Story: Review: Ditching car OK with Net transit planners (AP)

The holiday e-retail satisfaction rankings are in (CNET)

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:09:55 +0000

- With the nation on edge, you might assume that every Internet retailer worth their salt would have extended red carpet treatment to shoppers during the traditional end-of-year shopping rush.

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Wrong assumption. In fact, more than one-third of the 40 online merchants surveyed in a report on retail satisfaction finished with lower scores than they did during the same period a year ago. Still, the annual report from Foresee Results found that scores for most of the 40 online retailers it tracks remained the same while one-fourth registered improvements from 2007.

Full Story: The holiday e-retail satisfaction rankings are in (CNET)

Report: HP sells printers in Iran with third party (AP)

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 05:32:25 +0000

According to the newspaper, HP signed a distribution deal with a Dubai-based company called Redington Gulf in 1997, two years after the Clinton administration put sanctions on Iran.

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And while Redington , as a foreign company, falls outside U.S. regulations, the Globe reported that there is evidence HP knew its equipment would end up circumventing U.S. law. For example, in 1999, HP's Middle East manager at the time, Albrecht Ferling, was quoted as estimating that sales in Iran would grow 50 percent a year, the Globe reported. David Shane, a spokesman for the company, would not say whether HP plans to stop sales of its printers in Iran. He said Monday that "HP has a policy of complete compliance with all U.S. export laws." Sales of printers and ink are critical for HP, contributing about half of the Palo Alto-based company's operating profit .

Full Story: Report: HP sells printers in Iran with third party (AP)

Windows 7 beta 1 makes early debut (CNET)

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:12:59 +0000

- The first beta of Microsoft 's next operating system has apparently been spotted in the wild.

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The first beta of Windows 7, which is expected to hit retailer shelves in time for the 2009 holiday shopping season, has reportedly popped up on torrent trackers as an ISO file . ZDNet 's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes also reports having a copy and has posted his first impressions of the beta.

Full Story: Windows 7 beta 1 makes early debut (CNET)

Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home (AP)

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:04:26 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.

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Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering — a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories. In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.

Full Story: Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home (AP)