Regulators bound to stack up over Google-ITA

When will the U.S. government eventually decide to confront Google?That's really the only question that needs to be debated in the wake of Google's announcement that it plans to acquire ITA Software, the leading provider of flight information from airlines to travel Web sites, for $700 million in cash. As it stands, the deal would marry the world's leading Internet search company with a crucial link in the online flight reservation process, making life for executives at online travel sites such as Orbitz, Kayak, and Expedia a whole lot more complicated.

ITA Software's products power the reservations systems at travel sites and airlines such as Alaska Airlines. (Click for larger image.)(Credit: ITA Software)

Hands-on: SlingPlayer Mobile for Android

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Owners of Android-based smartphones have been clamoring for a version of SlingPlayer for some time now, and last week the streaming software finally made its way to the platform.

'Spider-Boy' spins his own wall-climbing device

Hibiki Kono scales a wall at his school, King's College School in Cambridge, England. Not to worry; there's a nice thick mat below in case the gadget comes unplugged or otherwise fails him.(Credit: Geoff Robinson Photography)

Sex.com seeking a new hookup

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Microsoft tech lets batteries load in either direction

Microsoft has started licensing a technology that could come in handy for anyone who as ever tried to put new batteries in a flashlight in the middle of the night.

The company said Thursday it has a patent for designing devices so that batteries can be inserted either way, regardless of polarity. Dubbed InstaLoad, Microsoft said, the technology is now available for license to other companies. Further, the company said it will offer the license royalty-free to companies making products for people with hearing, vision, or learning disabilities.

Immigration and tech: The White House speaks out

WASHINGTON--In his first major speech on the issue, President Barack Obama on Thursday said the current immigration system in the U.S. needs to be changed, and he called on Republicans to join Democrats in supporting immigration reform legislation. "The system is broken," he said in a speech given at American University in Washington, D.C. "And everybody knows it. Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing and special-interest wrangling...But the fact is, without bipartisan support, as we had just a few years ago, we cannot solve this problem. Reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass without Republican votes. That is the political and mathematical reality."President Obama did not unveil any new comprehensive reform bill in his speech. But he talked about the need to fix a system that is clearly not getting the job done. A major piece of his talk focused on helping an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants gain citizenship. But the president also talked about reforming the current legal system of immigration to make the process of getting work visas and green cards easier to obtain, while also making sure that families stay together."Indeed, after years of patchwork fixes and ill-conceived revisions, the legal immigration system is as broken as the borders," he said. "Backlogs and bureaucracy mean the process can take years. While an applicant waits for approval, he or she is often forbidden from visiting the United States--which means even husbands and wives may be forced to spend many years apart."

HP completes Palm deal, eyes WebOS hardware

And just like that, Hewlett-Packard is a relevant smartphone company again.

HP plans to use Palm's WebOS in tablet-style devices, but what of the Windows 7 slate that HP's Phil McKinney talked about earlier this year? HP won't say.(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

The world's largest PC maker now has a mobile operating system of its own after completing its previously announced acquisition of Palm for $5.70 a share, which works out to roughly $1.2 billion. Jon Rubenstein, the former Apple executive who was charged with bringing Palm back to prominence as its chairman and CEO, will report to Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's personal systems group.

Austin, NY likely to see first Chevy Volts

CNET's Caroline McCarthy test-drives a Chevy Volt this spring in Austin, Texas--one of the first cities where GM is expected to sell its plug-in EV.

Austin, Texas, and New York will be among the first cities in the U.S. where the Chevy Volt plug-in electric vehicle will hit the road.General Motors is expected Thursday to announce that a first run of 8,000 cars will be made available in a handful of cities, The Detroit News reported Thursday.

Road Trip Pic of the Day, 7/1: What is this?

If you know what this is and where it is located you could win a prize in the CNET Road Trip Picture of the Day Challenge.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Class action suit filed over iPhone 4 antenna

Barely a week since the public got its hands on the iPhone 4, the first lawsuit over it has been filed. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on behalf of Kevin McCaffrey, Linda Wrinn, and others on Wednesday, the suit accuses Apple and AT&T of knowingly distributing a phone with a malfunctioning antenna. The iPhone maker and its exclusive carrier partner in the U.S. are accused of a laundry list of infractions, including: general negligence, defect in design, manufacture, and assembly, breach of warranty, deceptive trade practices, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, and fraud by concealment. The class action suit is latching on to the reported issue some customers are having with signal loss when the iPhone 4 is gripped in a certain way. It's been suggested the problem is tied to the iPhone 4's design, which incorporates the cellular radio into the metal band running on the outside of the phone, right where most people put their hands when holding the device. However, it's still not clear if a software update to the phone would help with the issue. Apple has maintained that it's a problem common to any phone when held in that manner and suggested that customers buy a rubber case as a solution. The class action suit says: "Almost immediately after the purchase of their iPhone 4 devices, both McCaffrey and Wrinn began to experience significantly reduced reception and performance when handling the phones as demonstrated in Apple's advertisements or as a reasonable person would handle a mobile telephone while making phone calls, browsing the Internet, sending text messages, or utilizing other services provided by the iPhone 4."

Blu-ray apparently isn't coming to Macs

The more Apple customers pelt Steve Jobs' in-box, the more he seems to respond. But unlike the last flurry of e-mails that were made public on iPhone and iPad issues, this time Jobs is apparently expounding on why Blu-ray won't be coming to Macs.According to the MacRumors fan site, which posted an e-mail exchange, one of its readers e-mailed the Apple CEO to ask why a Blu-ray drive didn't make its way to the company's newly updated Mac Mini. In Jobs' apparent response, he seemed unconvinced of the value of Blu-ray. He supposedly said it doesn't make much sense to include it in the company's computers.

Federal rules on campus file sharing kick in today

The University of Kansas will suspend Web service to students accused of file sharing. (Credit: Screenshot by Greg Sandoval/CNET)

Frat parties and free music have been among the perks of attending college in the United States during the past decade. But now the days of using fat campus bandwidth to download movies and music via file-sharing networks appear to be coming to an end. Thursday is the deadline for colleges and universities that receive Title IV federal aid to have implemented antipiracy procedures on their campuses as part of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008.

IBM names Firefox its default browser

Firefox has become the default browser for nearly 400,000 IBM employees, a big coup for the open-source project during a time of increasing browser competition. "All IBM employees will be asked to use it as their default browser," Bob Sutor, vice president of open source and Linux at IBM's Software Group, said in a blog post Thursday. "Firefox is enterprise-ready, and we're ready to adopt it for our enterprise." Mozilla has said in recent weeks it believes nearly 400 million people use its software.

Get a Creative Vado 720p camcorder for $59.99

Put a high-def camcorder in your pocket for just 60 bucks.(Credit: Creative)

The last time I wrote about the Creative Vado HD pocket camcorder, it sold out in what seemed like minutes. Let's try again, shall we? Creative, by way of Amazon, is offering the Vado HD 8GB "B-Stock" pocket camcorder for $59.99. That's after applying coupon code BLVF5JPR at checkout, and not including around $6 for shipping.

Three 3D TVs compared

Our favorite 3D TV so far is Panasonic's plasma.(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Amazon updates Kindle DX, drops price

The new, improved Kindle DX ships July 7 for $379.(Credit: Amazon)

With the arrival of the iPad in April, many tech pundits wrote off Amazon's similarly sized--and similarly priced--Kindle DX as a non-viable product. But almost three months after Apple launched its tablet, Amazon is making efforts to resuscitate the DX with a price cut to $379, a new graphite finish, and screen that offers higher contrast and darker fonts. It's available for preorder now and ships July 7. The device still has "free" integrated 3G wireless connectivity from AT&T, and aside from the new "high-contrast E-ink screen," doesn't appear to add any additional hardware enhancements.

Experts: Android, iPhone security different but matched

This screen shot shows what the My Tracks Android app has access to and prompts the user for approval before the app can be installed.(Credit: Google)

IE reverses usage share slide; Microsoft cheers

This chart shows the changing usage of the five top browsers; the darker colors are from earlier and the lightest color shows percentages for June 2010.(Credit: data from Net Applications, chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Internet Explorer has reversed a years-long slide in browser usage, at least for the month of June, reclaiming share at the expense of Firefox. IE increased usage from 59.8 percent to 60.3 percent, according to new statistics from Net Applications, an analytics company that monitors browser usage across a large network Web sites. It was buoyed by increasing usage of IE8 that offset the decline in IE7--and by what Web developers no doubt hope will be only a temporary pause in the decline of the despised IE6.

Droid X ad hits iPhone 4 with antenna jab

I understand that people are getting rather excited about the Droid X.Well, iPhone 4 has been out for a week, so, this being cell phone technology, it is only right that people get excited about something else.However, those crafty Droid folks have not merely a finger on the pulse, but a whole hand wrapped around it. I have reason to believe it is their left hand.

Man with Hitler speech ringtone faces jail

People's enthusiasm for technology can sometimes overpower their enthusiasm for common sense.According to the Telegraph, a 54-year-old man was seated on a train in Hamburg, Germany, when his Nokia cell phone rang.Its tune disturbed many in the carriage because instead of a cheery Europop ditty, it was a speech given by Adolf Hitler in which he pledged "the destruction of world Jewry."

Handicapping the mobile music services

I'm a big proponent of cloud-based music services for mobile devices. I struggle figuring out which 500 songs I want on my 8GB iPhone at any given time, and the problem gets worse as as I download more apps. So it's gratifying to see an explosion of mobile music services in the last six months. Start-ups and established companies alike seem to believe that the current model, where users transfer songs from a computer to their phone using a wired connection, is not long for this world. Instead, these companies are coming up with various ways to dispense music over a wireless data network to your phone--no hookup required.

Rdio, now in invitation-only beta testing, joins crowded field of subscription mobile music services. This is a screenshot of the Rdio app for iPhone(Credit: Screenshot)

I've covered many of these services in single blog posts. But there's been so much activity happening in the last couple of weeks--from the announcement of Rdio (a subscription service created by the founders of Kazaa and Skype) to the public launch of mSpot (a service highlighted by Google at its I/O conference in May) to the acquisition of Melodeo by computer giant HP--that it's getting hard to keep track.

Intel Research Day ponders location, gesture tech

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Intel's main business is churning out the chips that power everything from huge server farms to the tiniest mobile devices. But it's also focused on who, how, and where the devices of the future are going to be used. That was the theme here at Intel's ninth annual Research Day held Wednesday at the Computer History Museum. Once a year, Intel's researchers get the chance to show off their forward-thinking projects in a science fair-style exhibition. But in a kick-off speech to open the event, Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer and director of Intel Labs, said that his labs have a new focus: how users experience technology.

Intel Research Day (photos)

Dell Inspiron Rs, reviewed

The Dell Inspiron 14R and 15R: Glossier, and a little more comfortable.(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

World of 'Futurama' rebuilt in Legos

Matt De Lanoy worked overtime to a build a 5x7-foot Lego version of the "Futurama" universe for the Lego builder extravaganza Brickworld 2010 (click to enlarge).(Credit: Flickr/Pepa Quin)

iOS developer Tapulous acquired by Disney

Disney has agreed to buy app developer and publisher Tapulous, according to a report from TechCrunch, and later confirmed by CNET's own sources. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tapulous is probably best known for its iOS apps, which include the Tap Tap series, Riddim Ribbon, and Twitter app Twinkle, which made the jump from a jailbroken application to a legitimate one on the App Store.Tapulous' creations have also been featured in several Apple advertisements and keynotes, including the one for iOS 4, where Apple CEO Steve Jobs used a Tap Tap game to demonstrate multitasking for the first time.

Apple's first iAds hit the iPhone

Nissan's iAd for the electric Leaf.(Credit: Screenshot by Erica Ogg/CNET)

The first day of July brings the first real-world glimpse of Apple's foray into mobile advertising. As planned, iAds debuted on iOS 4-based devices on Thursday, with the first examples of Apple's program enabling advertisers to present interactive ads directly within iOS apps. Engadget has Dove's entry, starring Major League Baseball's Albert Pujols and Andy Pettitte.

Apple calls at least one reported Jobs e-mail fake

Customers report receiving direct e-mail replies from Apple's CEO on everything from the iPhone 4 to Blu-ray.(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

iPhone upgrade gives woman someone else's photos

Sometimes, genius can be erratic. Even when it's wearing a T-shirt and working in an Apple store. Maria Avila had an old iPhone. It was time to give it some of that new 4.0 flavor. So she went to her local Apple store in Modesto, Calif., to have the iOS 4 software installed and came back with an installation she hadn't quite expected. Yes, a slide show of strange photos, 110 of them. Thumbing through her new pictures, Avila told CBS13 in Stockton, Calif.: "I don't know these people."Her upgraded iPhone seemed to have taken on a new personality. She couldn't send texts. The phone locked up. And then, having discovered the strange pictures, she found new information in her address book. As well as text messages.