Technology

Since owning his cell phone, Piotr Staniaszek has never paid more than $147 a month for service. Last month, he was more than a little shocked to peek into his mailbox and find a phone bill totaling $59,000 in additional charges. When he called to ... complain about the perceived error, he discovered that his current phone bill was clocked at $83,000...and counting. The reason for such a drastic increase in cost? Staniaszek had recently begun using his cell phone to download music and videos onto his personal computer. Staniaszek has pleaded total ignorance for his actions, citing that he ... (view more)

These days, there's a lot of concern about the economy. Under these circumstances, people begin to worry about the security of their own jobs; the auto industry, for example, feels a bit shaky right now. This is also true of the real estate and ... mortgage industries. But, according to the latest Robert Half Technology survey, IT jobs are staying the secure course. According to the Robert Half Chief Information Officer (CIO) survey of 1,400 companies with more than 100 employees, 82% of CIO's expect to maintain the status quo for the next quarter. Another 13% of those CIO's expect to add IT ... (view more)

The technological upgrades made to several U.S. airlines will not end with cellular paperless boarding passes. For the small fee of 10 dollars, passengers can now purchase in-flight Internet connections. JetBlue Airways was the first carrier to jump ... on board with the project, already offering their customers free email and instant messaging services. Virgin America also has major plans to link wireless technology directly into their back-seat entertainment systems. This would allow passengers not traveling with laptops or smartphones to still be able to transmit messages from the plane. ... (view more)

Couch Potatoes are becoming YouTube "tubers". Males in the 18 to 24 year old age group are redirecting their time; a 2007 Harris survey discovered that 1 in 3 of the frequent visitors to YouTube claim to be watching less TV as a result of watching ... YouTube and 66% were sacrificing other activities to watch YouTube. Among their sacrifices: 20% were pre-empting their email and social network time, 19% were deferring their work or homework, 15% sacrificed playing video games, and 12% were substituting spending time with friends or family. (Source: lostremote.com ) And we're not just ... (view more)

Continental Airlines passengers flying out of Houston, Texas will soon be able to board their flights using their cell phone or personal-digital assistant in place of a standard boarding pass. The paperless boarding pass is part of a three-month ... test program that will gauge the responsiveness of passengers and overall efficiency of the service. Instead of fumbling through a myriad of papers, Continental Airlines will only require their passengers to show a bar code that the airline had previously sent to their cell phone or PDA. The two-dimensional bar code is nothing more than a jumble of ... (view more)

UK laptop buyers will now have greener purchasing options thanks to a recent Toshiba initiative. For an extra £1.18 (or $2.43) Toshiba will plant a tree in the consumer's name, which they claim will "offset the lifetime carbon footprint of your  ...computer." One of several companies to launch recent green initiatives, Toshiba's new program is certainly a step in the right direction. However, critics warn that these activities may give consumers a false sense of accomplishment. (Source: arstechnica.com ) Toshiba will plant native UK trees and smaller ground cover species for the next ...<a href="/news/2940/stop-global-warming-one-toshiba-laptop-time" class="more-link">view more

We all do dumb things. I once lost my house keys for days, only to find them placed neatly underneath a bowl of salad in the kitchen fridge. Now, there's a response to these "mental farts": fish. According to researchers at the University of Oxford ... in England, elderly men and women performed better when tested for memory, visual conception, motor skills, verbal fluency, general orientation, and even attention after they had consumed fish regularly over an extended period of time. According to Dr. A. David Smith, principal author of the Oxford study, "All six cognitive tests were performed ... (view more)

Google is introducing an innovative service to customers, this time targeting web mobile users. The 'My Location' feature in Google Maps Mobile 2.0 is currently undergoing beta testing and will attempt to provide mapping services via user cell ... phones. The concept of mapping technology in mobile devices is not particularly ground-breaking, as several smart-phones currently on the market have Global Positioning System (GPS) technology embedded into them. However, the advantage of this new service will be to provide access to mapping services to web mobile users whose devices do not have ... (view more)

In a move that has rocked the entire mobile phone industry, Verizon Wireless recently announced that consumers will soon be able to choose which phones they'd like to use with their Verizon network plan. Analysts are shocked that Verizon would be ... the first to initiate such a major shift in communications, as the company has traditionally followed far different business practice. The introduction of the Apple iPhone, one of the first mainstream multimedia devices of its kind, coupled with future plans from Google to develop software that basically controls cell phones, has pushed the industry ... (view more)

I bet Al Gore likes it when we have to shell out more dough to fill our gas tanks. Indeed, there's a good chance any environmentalist appreciates high fuel costs, especially now that a recent study is reporting that skyrocketing energy costs can ... limit greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study can't find a good side for everything. Sure, the environment is going to benefit if we all try to avoid paying high fuel prices by carpooling, taking public transit, or heck, a bicycle to work, but the general trend is not good. In fact, the MIT researchers ... (view more)