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Hoping to persuade more Americans to drop their land lines, T-Mobile is offering customers a new service that uses Wi-Fi networks to carry voice calls. T-Mobile says the service will improve indoor coverage by automatically switching from the cellular network to a home Wi-Fi setup. The service would work wherever an open wi-fi network is running.
Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg says Hotspot @ Home makes sense for consumers who want only one phone.
Guest: Julio Ojeda-Zapata, St. Paul Pioneer Press
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A new study finds nearly a third of online teens say they have been harassed on the Internet, with girls and participants of social-networking sites more likely to be targets. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the most common forms of cyberbullying are publicly disclosing someone else's private e-mail or messages, sending threatening or aggressive messages and spreading rumors online.
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The iPhone, which doesn't even go on sale until Friday at 6:00 pm, is perhaps the most talked about gadget ever. News of the iPhone fills blogs, podcasts, message boards and chatrooms, not to mention the mainstream media.
How did it get so crazy?
Guest: Pete Blackshaw with Nielsen BuzzMetrics
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They're sometimes referred to as "gagwrap" clauses -- language in software licenses that forbids other parties from disparaging the products. Gagwraps typically forbid the use of graphics, logos, and trademarks to criticize the product, service or company.
A recent article in the Law and Communication Policy journal, by Brian N. Larson and Genelle Belmas, argues that gagwrap clauses have a chilling effect on speech and are not enforceable.
Guest: Attorney Brian N. Larson
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Internet users recently cast nearly 500,00 votes in a competition to find the best Web applications. Among the top vote-getters in the CNET Webware 100 are well-known sites like Wikipedia, YouTube and GMail.
But the list contains many sites you've probably never tried.
They include UStream, Geni, Zooomr, Blinksale, and StumbleUpon.
Guest: Webware's Rafe Needleman
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Yahoo is hoping to get back on the right track now that co-founder Jerry Yang has replaced Terry Semel as chief executive, with Susan Decker ascending to the number two position.
Guests: Charlene Li with Forrester Research & Greg Sterling with Sterling Market Intelligence
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The universe amateur of bloggers, podcasters, photographers and videographers is growing at the same time the professional news industry seems to be contracting. Scott Gant says the laws which protect journalists and afford them special access are not keeping up with the times.
Gant, who practices constitutional and media law, is author of the new book "We're All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age."
A fan of citizen media, Gant argues that journalism should be treated as an activity rather than a profession - so that the rights and privileges of professional journalists would apply to anyone engaged in journalistic practices.
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Google's Internet video property, YouTube, will stage two presidential debates with CNN this year. To be televised on CNN, the debates will feature videotaped questions from citizens submitted through YouTube. The debates are another sign that Google is exerting more influence over presidential politics.
Guest: Andrew Resiej, TechPresident.com
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The NCAA recently ejected a reporter from a baseball tournament for live blogging during a game. A writer for The Louisville Courier-Journal, was approached last Sunday by an NCAA representative in the bottom of the fifth inning and told that blogging from an NCAA championship event is against NCAA policies. The NCAA official revoked
the writers press credentials and asked him to leave.
The newspaper says its reporter has a First Amendment right to blog during games, saying live Internet updates are part of the evolving nature of journalism.
In an age of laptop wi-fi, camera phones an Internet video, the tension between sports leagues and bloggers will grow, said Rich Gordon, associate professor of journalism at Northwestern University.
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The new Street View feature of Google Maps provides 360 degree panoramic street-level views of New York City, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, and Las Vegas. Camera-equipped vehicles gathered the images while driving public streets. This feature - which will be expanded to include more cities - has raised some privacy concerns. Critics point to images of men leaving strip clubs, abortion clinic protesters, bikini-clad sunbathers, and one guy apparently picking his nose.
Before launching the service, Google removed photos of domestic violence shelters, and allows users to request the removal of inappropriate or sensitive images.
Kevin Bankston, staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has emerged as a top critic of Street View. It turns out that Street View captured Bankston walking to work while smoking a cigarette. What's more, this isn't the first time the privacy crusader has been captured by street-mapping cameras.
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In a new report, research firm Forrester says one billion personal computers will be in use by the end of next year - but it will take only until 2015 to reach two billion.
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In his new book Devices of the Soul, Steve Talbott argues that as digital technology becomes more entrenched in our lives, we're losing touch with the human spirit from which technology flows.
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Computer information site PC Pitstop recently purchased eight laptop computers to test them for bloatware (trial programs that come pre-loaded on new computers).
Bloatware takes up space on your hard drive, annoys you with come-ons to buy the full programs, and can slow down your machine.
Sony, HP and Dell and Gateway were the worst offenders. The computer maker with the least bloatware: Apple. On the software side, the worst offender is Wild Tangent.
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Lala started as a place where members could trade music CDs through the mail. The company then started selling new CDs, and added Interne radio stations. Now, Lala customers can upload the contents of their digital music collections, then listen to their music on any computer from anywhere using a small browser plug-in program. And, Lala users can share their music with others. Finally, Lala has struck up a deal with major label Warner Brothers so folks can listen to any album from that label. And it's all FREE to consumers.
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For almost 20 years, the Iowa Electronic Market, a futures market in which traders buy and sell shares of presidential candidates, has proven more accurate than traditional polls most of the time in predicting election outcomes.
The Hollywood Stock Exchange has been effective at picking Oscar nominees and winners.
Now a new company is betting its users can predict whether a book will succeed.
Media Predict and publishing house Simon & Shuster will select a book proposal based on how well it does in the market. On Media Predict, traders are alloted five thousand dollars in play money to bet on books, movies, music and other media.
Other markets are based around questions like "How much will Ocean's 13 gross in its opening weekend?" and "Will ABC's Geico Cavemen Sitcom get on the air?"
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