[WEB2] UC Berkeley creates radio out of a nanotube
[WEB2] Acer sues HP again over patents
Two of the world's largest PC makers still can't seem to get along. Acer is suing Hewlett-Packard again for patent violations. It's an escalation of the battle over the two companies' intellectual property that began earlier this year. Filed in a U.S. District Court in Wisconsin and with the U.S. Internaional Trade Commission Tuesday, Acer said it is countersuing HP for infringing on its patents related to servers, PCs, and peripheral devices. HP declined to comment on Acer's suit. H...
[WEB2] CNET News.com feature: OpenSocial opens new can of worms
When Google announced that its new social-networking initiative would extend to any site that wanted to participate, the land grab for the social Web's attention just got a whole lot more intense. In a move that was anticipated for weeks, Google has unveiled a set of application program interfaces (APIs) that allow third-party programmers to build widgets that take advantage of personal data and profile connections on a social-networking site. But instead of limiting the project to its own so...
[WEB2] More than 100,000 iPhone owners break out of jail
The release of an easy-to-download method of opening up the iPhone to third-party applications prompted almost 150,000 downloads of the software in three days. The iPhone of an anonymous CNET employee now has a few third-party applications, thanks for the AppSnapp installer.(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks) Our friends over at iPhone Atlas spoke with Nicholas "Drudge" Penree, one of the programmers of the AppSnapp "jailbreak" application, who provided the number. AppSnapp was released ...
[WEB2] Zuda launches with comics contest, strong reactions
(Credit: DC Comics/Zuda Comics) Despite a few hiccups on the big launch day, DC Comics' webcomics initiative Zuda Comics went live before the end of business Tuesday on the Left Coast. The first webcomics push by a corporate comic book publisher, Zuda is attracting a lot of attention as the webcomic-o-sphere tries to figure out what it all means. The Zuda Comics Web site has a clean layout, even though it's quite busy. At the top you can navigate to the main Competition page, where you...
[WEB2] Higher emissions standards to benefit U.S. automakers, says report
Although Detroit's big automakers have been whining about the potential negative impact of higher fuel efficiency standards might have on their business, a report issued this week says they could actually profit from stiffer regulations. The study, conducted by Citi and Investor Network on Climate Risk studied a proposal in the U.S. senate to raise the CAFé standards. Most car makers would be unaffected in any changes through 2012. General Motors, however, could see an increase of 25 cents a ...
[WEB2] Holes in Leopard's firewall
Although Apple is selling its new Mac OS X Leopard operating system on its improved security, researchers at Heise Security have already found fault with its firewall. Unlike with Windows Vista, the Apple firewall is not enabled by default and must be enabled by the end user. Even if you had the firewall enabled in a previous version of the Mac OS X, after an upgrade to Leopard the firewall will again be set to "Allow all incoming connections." It will be disabled. According to Jürgen ...
[WEB2] Will the next U.S. president lead on cybersecurity?
WASHINGTON--The presidential elections may be more than a year off, but a newly unveiled group is already plotting how to ensure No. 44 has a fresh "blueprint" for managing cybercrises. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said on Tuesday that it's forming an independent, nonpartisan Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency, composed of more than 30 people who are considered experts in the field. Its goal by the end of...
[WEB2] Let's drag office phones into the 21st century
Why is it that your typical office phone stinks compared with the one you have at home? Here are a few of the ways they are harder to use, do less, and look uglier. Office phones are ugly: They are typically anonymous black blobs with boring key shapes and colors and utilitarian speaker grills. Stylistically they are circa 1985 and made with shiny black textured plastics that would embarass a home phone or cell phone. Office phones are hard to use (part one): They typically come in two typ...
[WEB2] Survey: Mobile developers prefer Google
Google is the top choice among developers creating location-enhanced applications for wireless devices. Second choice is Microsoft and then Nokia, according to a new survey from Evans Data Corporation released Tuesday. The findings come at an opportune time for the search giant. Not a week goes by without some new rumors of a Google phone. The company has declined to comment on the buzz, but word is that it may have something to say next week. "Google, the premier online Internet ...
[WEB2] Hot deal: 1TB External USB 2.0 hard drive for $280
Tons of storage on sale(Credit: CNET Networks) We all need a little backup sometimes. Fortunately, Circuit City's running a discount on Western Digital's 1TB My Book Essential edition external hard drive. Currently listed elsewhere at $350 or more, its easy install and flexible USB/Firewire interface make it a good choice for all your backup needs. Check out the CNET.com product overview for details on compatibility, speed, and performance. What: Western Digital 1TB My Book Essential edi...
[WEB2] Imeem music service doesn't quite rock
Yesterday, the New York Times ran an article about Imeem, pegged to the news that this fledgling site has signed a third major label, EMI, leaving only Universal in the "not yet" column. The service is getting credit for trying to pioneer a new business model for digital music distribution: users can select songs and stream them for free, as long as they're willing to sit through the occasional advertisement. I registered and fired the service up, and while I'm not ready to call ad-supported ...
[WEB2] NASA institute to study moon science
NASA said Tuesday that it plans to establish a new lunar science institute, in the hopes of laying the groundwork for future missions to the moon. Called the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), the institute will open March 1, 2008, at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, but it will draw on work from teams across the country. (Ames similarly runs the distributed Astrobiology Institute.) The goal is to build an interdisciplinary study of the moon, building on other scientific researc...
[WEB2] iRobot winner offers simple home help
(Credit: Danh Trinh/iRobot/Instructables) The winner of iRobot's amateur robot-building contest is a multi-functional home robot designed by Danh Trinh of Towson, Md., the company announced Tuesday. Trinh's winning robot, called simply "Personal Home Robot," is a teleoperational robot controlled from a laptop using Microsoft NetMeeting. It's capable of doing things like watering plants, controlling appliances, giving out reminders, dancing, and acting as a media center. Trinh won $5,000...
[WEB2] Mother protects YouTube clip by suing Prince
Prince can't push this mother around. The pop star wanted YouTube to remove a clip of an infant boy dancing to his 1984 hit song "Let's Go Crazy." When the clip got scrubbed, the baby's mother cried foul and filed suit asking for damages. The woman's lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) say the dancing-baby clip is the poster child for fair use. Corynne McSherry, the EFF attorney representing the baby's mother, Stephanie Lenz, said the music on the clip is barely audible ...
[WEB2] Canon U.K. retailers to send back EOS-1D Mark III cameras
Canon U.K. has asked its retailers to return any unsold EOS 1-D Mark III cameras for a fix, according to reports Tuesday. Canon U.S.A. says that it has no plans to issue a formal recall, but will address the autofocus issue soon. Canon's EOS-1D Mark III(Credit: Canon) "We can confirm that Canon U.S.A., Inc. has not suspended shipments of the EOS-1D Mark III camera, and we can also confirm that we have no plans to do so. We will announce the EOS-1D Mark III AF issue on the Canon U.S.A. I...
[WEB2] Inside the world's largest corn maze
The world's largest corn maze is open to the public in Dixon, Calif., through at least November 5. It is estimated to take an hour to work your way though it. If you don't get lost, that is.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com) DIXON, Calif.--I'm sitting on a stairway in the middle of the world's-largest corn maze and blogging the experience. Literally. I like to say I'm the first to do things, and of course, you never really know if it's true. But I have to say I think the odds that som...
[WEB2] Early adopters boost Leopard sales for Apple
About 9 percent of the Mac OS X installed base upgraded to Mac OS X Leopard over the weekend, according to figures released by Apple and estimates supplied by financial analysts. Apple sold 2 million copies of Leopard between Friday and Sunday night, which includes sales of boxed copies, online sales, and new Macs with Leopard preinstalled. When Apple launched Tiger, it took the company 39 days to hit the 2 million mark on a much smaller installed base. Apple sold two million copies of Leopard...
[WEB2] Google gives social networking another go
Though almost everything Google touches seems to turn to gold, there is one project that never quite became ubiquitous (at least here in the U.S.). Orkut may have found a following in Brazil and Asia, but I don't know anyone who uses the service. As Erick Schonfeld reports in TechCrunch, that may be about to change. Known internally as Maka-Maka, the project will provide a means for all of Google's existing applications to work together within a social-networking landscape. Google is also bui...
[WEB2] U.S.-Microsoft antitrust deal to get temporary extension
Microsoft, state prosecutors, and the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday said a federal judge needs more time to weigh whether Redmond should be subjected to a lengthier period of antitrust policing. In a joint filing with U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who has been overseeing Microsoft's antitrust compliance, they asked for a soon-to-expire oversight period to be temporarily extended until at latest January 31, 2008. That way, the judge will have more ti...