InsideTech

SEATTLE - Apple Inc. updated its iMac desktop computer line Tuesday and introduced a mouse that responds to the touch of fingers instead of using buttons or scroll wheels. Those were among the finishing touches on a holiday lineup Apple hopes will help maintain the momentum of the past several quarters, in which the company has grown stronger despite the economic ...

WASHINGTON - The federal government this week is stepping squarely into a high-stakes technology battle with this seemingly straightforward question at its core: Should Internet providers such as Comcast and AT&T be allowed to control what you do online once you buy access to their networks? If the answer seems obvious - of course they shouldn't - the debate hardly ends ...

Jack Thompson, the disbarred crusader against violent video games, has sued Facebook, alleging site users posted violent threats against him. In a Facebook group called "I Hate Jack Thompson", one post in particular was singled out and mentioned in the lawsuit. The posting stated, “Jack Thompson should be smacked across the face with an Atari 2600.” According to the lawsuit, Thompson ...

One of the biggest challenges in moving tiny objects like single cells is moving them accurately without damaging the living cell. Techniques that work for moving tiny beads or other objects involve optical tweezers, but this method could kill live cells. Optical tweezers on the other hand are large and expensive devices. Researchers at Penn State, however, have developed acoustic tweezers ...

President Obama is making good on several of his promises from his campaign and one of the big pushes is for cleaner power. Obama isn’t simply stopping at trying to get electric companies to find new sources of power including wind and solar power, the President is looking to help Americans monitor their energy consumption and reduce the amount of electricity ...

School time is here and still there are some students that needs to apply for college. There are a lot of colleges and universities that they can choose from but for those who aren't that well-off, they can acquire scholarship exams offered by various schools and organizations. The dilemma is how will they get admitted in their chosen college and university? Writing ...

BRUSSELS - European Union regulators said Wednesday they were preparing to settle a long and costly antitrust battle with Microsoft Corp. with a deal to give Windows users a choice of web browsers. Microsoft promised the changes after the EU charged it with monopoly abuse for tying the Internet Explorer browser to the Windows operating system installed on most of the ...

Hulu's days as a free Web site appear to be numbered. The online video site that offers full-length versions of current TV shows - one of the fastest growing sites on the Web - could start charging users as soon as next year, according to reports. "It's time to start getting paid for broadcast content online," said Chase Carey, deputy chairman ...

PITTSBURGH - Police ordered protesters to disperse at the Group of 20 summit last week with a device that can beam earsplitting alarm tones and verbal instructions that the manufacturer likens to a "spotlight of sound," but that legal groups called potentially dangerous. The device, called a Long Range Acoustic Device, concentrates voice commands and a car alarm-like sound in a ...

Nov. 4 - There are many reasons to marvel at the rise of blogging. In just a few years, millions of people have taken to blogs to express themselves, while tens if not hundreds of millions of Internet users have turned to them as a way to get news, information and conversation. Here's what really astounds me: No one invented ...

Nov. 3 - That's why I think the sweet spot for notebooks is in the 13-14-inch range. If you're traveling, these systems offer lots of power, adequate screen real estate and - in many cases - a good price. - Satellite T135 _ $600, Toshiba. In the not-too-distant past, you could count on very thin notebooks to have very high ...

To gather more information about space radiation, NASA plans to increase its testing of monkeys, according to a report published by Discovery News. The U.S. space agency previously used lab mice and rats to test radiation, but testing must be carried out on animals more similar to humans. “We realized there was a need for this kind of work,” Harvard Medical ...

WASHINGTON - Businesses are finally willing to spend more money on equipment, a healthy sign for the economic recovery. For the first time in nearly two years, companies ponied up more money for a category called "equipment and software" in the third quarter of the year. It isn't a huge growth rate - just 1.1 percent, according to the government's ...

News of Microsoft's experimental Courier tablet broke last week and turned a number of heads.  With Apple reportedly racing to release a similar tablet, Microsoft has stolen the thunder of its competitor. Speaking of which, it now appears the tablet's interface is running on top of a modified version of Windows 7.  And it's reportedly a "incubation project" not a "Microsoft ...

SEATTLE - Personal computers are changing - and not just because of the recent launch of Windows 7. Visit an electronics store and you might also find laptops are missing a familiar component. You could experiment with new ways of controlling some computers. And you'll see portable PCs slimming down. Even with all the attention lavished on Apple's iPhone and ...

Nov. 2--While most people were turning their clocks backward over the weekend, Microsoft research chief Craig Mundie was moving his forward, five to 10 years into the future. Mundie last year took over Bill Gates' job guiding long-term strategy at the world's biggest software company. He's an erudite evangelist who travels the globe, talking up the big computing concepts Microsoft ...

STOCKHOLM - Three scientists who created the technology behind digital photography and helped link the world through fiber-optic networks shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday. Charles K. Kao was cited for his breakthrough involving the transmission of light in fiber optics while Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were honored for inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit known as ...

Holly Kopczynski always prided herself on raising her kids the right way, teaching them etiquette basics like saying "please" and "thank you." Then it happened. "We were at a restaurant for my mom's birthday. I looked over and there are my daughter and my oldest son texting, holding their phones under the table," said the mom of four in Lewiston, Idaho. ...

WASHINGTON - There is no kill switch for the Internet, no secret on-off button in an Oval Office drawer. Yet when a Senate committee was exploring ways to secure computer networks, a provision to give the president the power to shut down Internet traffic to compromised Web sites in an emergency set off alarms. Corporate leaders and privacy advocates quickly ...

WASHINGTON - Safety investigators told federal regulators three years ago that it was dangerous for bus drivers to talk on cell phones while driving and recommended a ban. The National Transportation Safety Board put that recommendation on its list of most important safety measures. Industry and safety groups had no objections. Yet the regulatory agency that would write new rules ...