Free Republic

Yesterday, some T-Mobile stores began selling its newest mobile device, the G2, an Android-based smart phone originally slated for an October 6 release while AT&T is slated to release it later in the year. This device truly is representative of the next generation of mobile devices. The hardware capabilities surpass the abilities of most available netbook computers, including the ability to play High Definition video seamlessly. Unfortunately, the G2 also comes with built-in hardware that restricts what software a device owner might wish to install.Specifically, one of the microchips embedded into the G2 prevents device owners from making permanent changes...

Economic progress manifests itself in a continuous stream of new goods and services generated by, to use Joseph Schumpeter’s term, creative destruction. We tend to focus on the new stuff we have — the microwave ovens, the cellphones, the flat screen televisions — as a sign of progress, barely noticing the things they have replaced. Auto repair shops have replaced blacksmiths; telephones have replaced the telegraph (itself a great innovation in its day); digitally-downloaded recorded music is displacing CDs, which themselves displaced vinyl records. I polled students in several of my classes, and every single one had a cell phone,...

I’m thinking as I peruse my electronic copy of a national photography magazine about some imaging software being advertised in the magazine, that while this software sure is technologically advanced, it is very dangerous in light of the kinds of messages that these photographs can send to our daughters. Take for instance the photo of the girl who’s probably 10-12 years old in this particular advertisement in the photography magazine. The photo shows two different images of her face: one with freckles on it and the other that looks like she’s been air brushed to appear in a top modeling...

It is about time man flew among the birds – alone. We may not have the homes on the moon, or the flying cars that our totally reasonable childhood imaginations ensured us would be waiting for us when we grew up, but with a little luck and a lot of money, we might soon be able to scratch “jetpack” off of our bucket lists. Imagine one day soon, you kiss the spouse good bye, walk the kids off to the school bus, then you prepare for the commute to work. But rather than sitting in traffic and squeezing your steering...

SNIPPET: "The probe plans to test technology in preparation for an unmanned moon landing in 2012, with a possible manned lunar mission to follow in 2017. China’s other space plans include the launch of the first module of a future space station next year followed by the dispatch of manned spacecraft to dock with it."

A story on the television news the other day couldn’t come up with enough positive adjectives to praise the latest electric cars to come on the market. Chevy’s $41,000 Volt was praised for being able to go 40 miles on a charge of electricity while some other car companies apparently have their own electric versions that will go between 30 and 100 miles on a charge, depending on how much you run things like the radio and air conditioning. That certainly won’t work for your average LA or Bay Area commuter who drives farther than that one way. And what...

Computerworld - A majority of mobile application developers see Google's Android as the smart bet over the long run even as they vote for Apple's iOS in the short term, according to a survey published Monday. The survey, conducted jointly by Appcelerator and IDC, polled more than 2,300 developers who use Appcelerator's Titanium cross-platform compiler to produce iOS and Android native applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Of those developers, 59% said that Android had the "best long-term outlook," compared to just 35% who pegged Apple's iOS with that label. ... To make things even tougher for Apple down the...

Technology is in a constant state of flux, and there are a number of cool concepts that haven't yet realized mainstream adoption, despite massive potential to change our lives. We take a look at 11 different ideas that you could see pick up steam.

Tech companies are profitable and flooded with cash. They are trying to figure out how to use their cash for growth, share appreciation, or both. Share appreciation Thanks to Ben Bernanke’s deflation fears, financing is so cheap that one of world’s richest companies, Microsoft, plans to issue up to $6 billion of debt to buy back some of its shares (as well as to pay dividends). Growth IBM just bought Netezza on the heels of Dell buying 3PAR. Earlier this year Intel bought McAfee. SAP bought Sybase. So far, the biggest acquisitions have been in the single-digit billions of dollars....

A Twenty-First-Century GOP Republicans need to win back tech-savvy, educated voters. Here’s how. With President Obama’s job-approval ratings in free fall, Republicans feel justifiably confident about the 2010 congressional elections. But even if the GOP has recovered some swagger, the party’s long-term political fortunes require it to recover something else: the votes of well-educated, well-compensated elites. Over the past decade and a half, Republicans have watched scientists, high-tech workers, doctors, financial leaders, and academics in engineering and business abandon the party in favor of the Democrats. This exodus has weakened the GOP politically and left it dependent on white evangelical...

I am posting this in general/chat. If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it. I am running Windows XP on my desktop, all service packs okay. My icons and taskbar will disappear/reappear...usually I can get them back by opening task manager and "bringing to front" a program. The thing is running notoriously slow. My McAfee is finding some viruses and quarantining them, but it is driving me CRAZY. Also, for no reason, my web browsers (explorer AND Firefox) will suddenly open these "web sites" for "work at home" opportunities...I've never asked for these sites to open, they just do it on...

Should the government or the free market set the price of getting on the Internet? If you haven't been following this issue, you need to start.

OXON HILL, Md. -- The U.S. Air Force’s former top intelligence officer warned a roomful of generals this week that the U.S. has lost its air power advantages and is dangerously ill-prepared to stop the gap-closing efforts of China and Russia. Lt. Gen. David Deptula, a former F-15 pilot, challenged Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ fundamental belief that U.S. air power vastly overmatches any foreign military. “For the first time, our claim to air supremacy is in jeopardy,” Deptula told the Air Force Association’s national convention on Monday. At the same forum last year, Gates defended ordering a halt to the...

Scientists have invented a tractor beam which is able to move large objects longer distances than ever before by using a laser light. A team of researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra have brought the art of molecular transportation, made famous by the catchphrase 'Beam me up, Scotty' from the TV series Star Trek, a fraction closer. Using what they call tractor beams - rays of energy that can move objects - they have managed to move tiny particles up to 59 inches from one place to another.

SAN FRANCISCO – A federal appeals court has sided with the computer software industry in its effort to squelch sales of second-hand programs covered by widely used licensing agreements. Friday's ruling by the 9th Circuit of Appeals raised worries that it will embolden music labels, movie studios and book publishers to circumvent the so-called "first-sale" doctrine in an attempt to boost their sagging sales. The doctrine refers to a 102-year-old decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that determined copyright holders can't prevent a buyer from reselling or renting a product after an initial sale, as long as additional copies aren't...

Over the past decade there has been an ongoing debate over the threat posed by electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to modern civilization. This debate has been the most heated perhaps in the United States, where the commission appointed by Congress to assess the threat to the United States warned of the dangers posed by EMP in reports released in 2004 and 2008. The commission also called for a national commitment to address the EMP threat by hardening the national infrastructure.

For years the technology sector has been considered the most dynamic, promising and globally envied industry in the United States. It escaped the recession relatively unscathed, and profits this year have been soaring. For years the technology sector has been considered the most dynamic, promising and globally envied industry in the United States. It escaped the recession relatively unscathed, and profits this year have been soaring. “I apply for everything I can find, but there are just not that many jobs,” said Rosamaria Carbonell Mann, a software engineer. But as the nation struggles to put people back to work, even...

Seaswarm, an autonomous, solar-powered skimmer, may be the answer to less expensive and more efficient methods for cleaning up future oil spills. The robot prototype promises to absorb 20 times its weight in oil. Created by researchers at MIT’s Senseable City Lab, Seaswarm employs a conveyor belt of absorbent, nanowire mesh. The specially deigned mesh can suck up oil on the water’s surface and then process and dispose of the oil it’s collected. The Seaswarm can continue to absorb more of the spill while the robot autonomously navigates and cleans the ocean for weeks on end. Researchers claim that 5,000...

New Technology Could Help Solve Texting While Driving Problem, Tennessee Attorney Says Morristown, Tennessee (PRWEB) August 4, 2010 – New software that blocks drivers from texting, e-mailing or Web surfing when behind the wheel could play a big role in reducing distracted driving accidents, says Tennessee personal injury attorney Brack Terry. The anti-texting applications, including CellSafety, iZup, tXtBlocker and ZoomSafer, generally use a phone’s GPS to determine when a car is moving and disable a cell phone or texting device when the car is going faster than 5 or 10 mph. The programs also have opt-out features. “These emerging technologies,...

The University of Colorado is considering shuttering its School of Journalism and replacing it with a program that is better suited for the digital age. From the Denver Post: “The University of Colorado is working toward replacing its School of Journalism with a program better prepared to shepherd students into a news industry trying to keep pace in a digital age. ... Colorado is a little late to the game but still far ahead of most schools in recognizing that thanks to technological advances journalism has changed and that the traditional J-schools are now hopelessly outdated. For many years J-schools...