Technology

Credit card numbers. Bank passwords. Business secrets. Proof of adultery. If you give away your cell phone, you may be giving away all of those things -- and more. In the case of a married man who was cheating around, deleting the information on his ... cell wasn't enough to completely eliminate the sordid secrets he had stored there -- even though he did exactly as the manual instructed. Despite that, the guy he sold his phone to on Ebay was quickly able to scoop out the hanky panky. This reads like a bad, cheesy soap opera -- but it's real. And it could happen to you. Even if you aren't ... (view more)

Imagine this scenario: You're the boss, and the people that work for you are required to use technology -- computers, cell phones, basically anything that keeps them "connected." Sounds normal enough, doesn't it? After all, that could describe any ... number of jobs. Now picture this: over time, one of your employees eventually becomes a little too dependent on the tools of the trade you've deemed necessary. A good work ethic turns into a dangerous addiction. Believe it or not, it happens. ;-) You're not responsible, right? Well, if a recent study by Rutgers University gains any traction, you ... (view more)

Evidently, crime doesn't pay, even in the tech world. Although it seems that in the land of Microsoft, PDAs, and Google criminals routinely get away with their crimes (even as corporate entities in various industries, like music, begin to get ... tough), there is evidence that the courts are fighting back. In the last week two major sentences have been handed down, including a three year jail term for a botnet attacker and a six year lockup for a software pirate. Christopher Maxwell, 21, pleaded guilty in May of launching a computer attack that affected tens of thousands of systems. Last Friday, ... (view more)

According to Police Chief Benson Page of Caro, Michigan, cell phones can be used as detonators. Who would've thought? So, naturally, when three men were found with almost a thousand cell phones on hand, they became instant terror suspects. 80 of ... those phones were pre-paid TracFone models from Wal-Mart. That amount constitutes a violation of the store's policy because customers are limited to only three cell phones per purchase. A Wal-Mart clerk sold them the phones -- despite the policy -- but became suspicious and called the police. Apparently, it's common knowledge that cell phones make for ... (view more)

Own an Xbox or a Playstation 2? According to one research firm, your answer to that question could reveal a number of things about your personality, including gullibility, confidence, and distrust. It's a pretty remarkable study of the things we've ... ALL used at one time or another -- toys. By combining radically new text mining software with the work of personality psychologists, research consultants Anderson Analytics believe they have found a legitimate way to interpret the subconscious thoughts of children (and in the case of many video game players like myself: immature young men). As you ... (view more)

Stepping outside the bounds of its usual focus on security and operating systems, Microsoft has recently licensed touch-screen technology. Dubbed "Touchlight", the technology is one of twenty projects being offered to venture capitalists for ... development in cooperation with Microsoft. Signing on for Touchlight is EON Reality, who will use the technology for exhibitions, technical demonstrations, and training exercises. EON hopes to begin commercialization of the Touchlight and other similar projects before the year ends. (Source: microsoft-watch.com ) Touchlight: How It Works Microsoft's ... (view more)

Matt Nagle is 25 years old. His recent activities include playing video games, checking e-mail, and using a TV remote. Being able to successfully complete of those tasks might've seemed like an impossible dream for the young man just a few years ... ago. But that's because he's paralyzed. The injury that changed Matt's life forever happened in 2001. A knife wound severed his spinal cord, leaving him unable to move any of his limbs and most of his torso. Luckily, he managed to retain a bit of control over his head, neck, and shoulders. Matt's life may soon change forever once again -- this time by ... (view more)

Only days after the announcement that Ricoh Technologies has developed a device able to play both HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs, rumors quickly surfaced that an Israeli firm (Matteris Limited) is working on a disc that will use holographic technologies ... to hold a whopping 1 TB (or 1000 Gigabytes) of data. (Source: teamxbox.com ) By using the nano-technology at its disposal, Matteris hopes to fit literally millions of bits -- grouped into holograms -- into the volume (instead of the surface) of the medium at hand. Every individual hologram is formed into 1000 x 1000 bits, a process that is allowing ... (view more)

As North America becomes increasingly dependent on the Internet, WiFi is becoming a household term across the continent. City planners are building WiFi into future plans, and in many U.S. cities wireless Internet can be reached from the average ... cafe. What is WiFi, exactly? The name WiFi was originally coined by the company WiFi Alliance as a descriptor of its Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN). However, as wireless technology and the name itself have become so popular, WiFi is no longer a licensed term, and it even appears in recent versions of Webster's dictionary. By engaging anything ... (view more)

With the popularity of WiFi, cell phones, the Blackberry, and laptops booming, the tech industry is being forced to come to grips with a world constantly "on the go." Desktop PCs are increasingly becoming immense paper weights for many consumers, ... and second quarter market research shows that this is having a drastic impact on many traditionally powerful tech manufacturers. From the beginning of 2006 until the recent end of the second quarter, the average AMD Athlon 64 desktop PC price sunk from $608 USD to $526 USD. The result is great for the spread of budget-priced systems to homes and ... (view more)