According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Steve Jobs is still very much involved in the activities of Apple, and in fact still provides most of the vision, direction, and general control of the company. He is also reportedly heading up an effort to deliver an Apple netbook. Does this sound correct?

In a new wave of consolidation rumors, Dell is rumored to be interested in buying Palm. The week before it was IBM rumored to be buying Sun. In a recent column, I argued that too much consolidation among companies in the tech industry hurts users. We need better apps! Do we want an industry consisting of just a few behemoths?

Rumor has it that the much-ballyhooed Palm Pre will arrive at the end of April. In advance of that, Palm is showing the Touchstone charging device for the Pre. It plugs into an electrical outlet, and the Palm Pre, wearing a replacement back cover, magnetically attaches to the Touchstone and charges through induction--there's nothing to click into. Is this phone worth all the hype?

A hacksaw and a few other tools were probably all it took for someone to sever eight fiber-optic cables in Silicon Valley recently, knocking out cell phone, landline and Internet service. Security experts were unable to recall a similar incident. Is our telecom infrastructure too vulnerable to physical attacks?

The Associated Press notes that when Milwaukee police wanted to get word of a murder out quickly, they did it in 113 characters on Twitter. Milwaukee's department is one of a growing number of police and fire agencies using social sites to reach mass audiences. Should more emergency responders follow suit?

I recently wrote a column on why e-mail is dead. People change their e-mail addresses far too often. There is no real way of confirming receipt of an e-mail other than the annoying receipt request. And, IM and social networks increasingly compete with e-mail.

David Spark recently wrote a popular post on people who broke the social networking rules and succeeded. Despite the popularity of the post, some people got generally angry at "social media experts."

PC Mag's Tim Bajarin has written about a couple of the health-related demos shown at the iPhone 3.0 OS launch. One demo involved a blood-pressure cuff that plugged into the connector on the bottom of the iPhone. The phone could potentially send data to a doctor for monitoring. He foresees this kind of monitoring becoming big on all phones.

This week, the Game Developers Conference is going on in San Francisco. Bolstered by an expanding audience that is turning to games for cheaper entertainment, video games are benefiting in some ways from the economic turmoil. Yet the industry is not completely immune, with layoffs and closings of studios that produce games. Electronic Arts is cutting 1,000 jobs, most by the end of this month. Will this industry stay healthy?

Palm has announced it has enough money to launch the Pre, but with a net loss for the last quarter ($98m) bigger than its revenue ($90.6m), there's not much left in the bank, reports The Register. While Palm won't comment on the company's burn rate, it's clear that everything depends on the launch of the new Pre handset - which will come to the US, tied to Sprint, some time soon.

The Open Cloud Manifesto, spearheaded by IBM, has arrived. It is backed by VMware, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Cisco and Novell, and aims to prevent vendor lock-in in the cloud. Notably, Microsoft, Amazon and other big players are not only missing from the partner list, but are making disparaging comments implying that the Manifesto won't protect openness at all.

"Two years ago, embarrassed IBM executives ordered a patent application on offshoring jobs to be withdrawn," The Register is reporting. "Last week it returned, more sophisticated than ever. The latest application describes how to weigh various constraints, such as lack of a skilled workforce, against incentives such as tax breaks." In the US, both algorithms and business methods can be patented. Should this one be allowed?

Google, Warner Music Group, EMI Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and others launched a free Internet music download service for China on Monday in a bid to help turn a field dominated by pirates into a legitimate business. China has the world's biggest online population, with some 300 million Internet users, and there are many pirated music sites.

In a recent column, I cited some of the things that today's smartphone needs. Phones are still a little weak for word processing and full docking capability. They also need a good PowerPoint-type program, and the ability to drive a projector. Chris, what's coming next on the Android phones--any of these features?

Acer's entry into the lucrative smartphone market is in full swing, with four upcoming handsets planned for rollout while executives hint that non-Windows based devices and an app store are under consideration for roll-out later this year. Meanwhile, Dell is rumored to be interested in entering the smartphone space. Is there room for these players at this point?

"People should stop whining about the newest Facebook redesign," writes Microsoft Watch. "Design by committee is, simply put, the wrong way to design anything, particularly user interfaces." Facebook recently posted a voting application for its new interface, and more users don't like it than do like it. "Great ideas start with one idea," says Microsoft Watch.

Visits to Twitter have increased 1,382 percent since last year - from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, according to Nielsen. Adults between the ages of 35 and 49 comprise almost 42 percent of the site's audience - and about 62 percent of them are accessing the site from work.

In other iPhone news, rumors about the next-generation iPhone continue unabated, with the latest focusing on doubled internet-connection speeds and video-capture capability. A rumor from AppleInsider hints that the faster wireless capability in the new iPhones could be powered by an HSPA chip from Infineon that the company claims can not only download at 7.2Mbps, but also upload at 2.9Mbps.

A YouTube video by an enterprising 14-year-old showcasing the talents of his laid-off dad, a Florida-based marketing specialist, has scored thousands of hits and several job interviews. On on March 12 Mark Gullet was laid off as a VP in the marketing department for the National Hockey League (NHL) Tampa Bay Lightning team. Gullet's son produced a musical clip of his dad promoting his talents, which got thousands of hits, and brought interested employers.

Craigslist overtook MySpace as the most searched-for term on the Web recetnly, according to traffic-tracking firm Hitwise. MySpace had owned the top spot since 2006. Research groups attribute the shift to many more people seeking bargains online.

IBM is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems Inc for at least $6.5 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, in a deal that could bolster their computer server products against rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. That would translate into a premium of about 100 percent over Sun's Nasdaq closing price Tuesday of $4.97 a share, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

It will allow developers to create multiplayer games that work over a close-range Bluetooth connection, better integrate the maps that Apple and Google have developed for the device, and "push" messages to users through their programs. Does it finally include cut and paste?

The makers of the iPhone have filed a set patents for a Wii-style wireless controller that looks to be made for the Apple TV and could be used for a number of applications. Some are speculating that it's a first step for Apple in introducing TV-based games.

Advanced Micro Devices announced Monday that Intel plans to pull its 2001 cross-licensing patent agreement in the next 60 days, unless concerns surrounding AMD's joint venture chip foundry are addressed. Intel's warning is an escalation of concerns it expressed more than five months ago, following AMD's announcement it planned to spin off its manufacturing assets to a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi government.

According to reports, The New York Times is contemplating the notion of becoming a subscription-based Web site, where you only get to read it if you pay. Meanwhile, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper has just gone Web-only. The newspaper is 146 years old. Are we about to see the death of newspapers?

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster has responded to the lawsuit filed this week by the sheriff of Chicago's Cook County against it. The suit claims that Craigslist is one of the nation's largers purveyors of prostitution. ""Craigslist cannot be held liable, as a matter of clear federal law, for content submitted to the site by our users," says Buckmaster.

Amazon has released a free Kindle app for the iPhone in Apple's App Store. The release of Kindle for iPhone means users can shop for books at Amazon on a regular PC, and then transfer purchases over the air to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Do people really want to read e-books on a cell phone?

President Obama has announced the appointment of Vivek Kundra to the new post of Chief Information Officer at the White House. Kundra will oversee $71 billion in U.S. technology spending, and he was previously CTO for Washington, D.C. Is a CIO good for the country?

The U.S. government's director for cybersecurity resigned on Friday, criticizing the excessive role of the National Security Agency in countering threats on computer systems. Rod Beckstrom said the NSA was the wrong agency to police cybersecurity. The Obama administration is reviewing the nation's cybersecurity policy.

A woman standing in line in Brooklyn found Berta Rakhmamimov's cell-phone conversation a little too loud. After she requested quiet, she allegedly wound up attacked by Rakhmamimov's fists, coffee and stiletto heels. Rakhmamimov was arrested on charges of assault, with her hot coffee classified as a weapon. Is this a growing problem?

There are myriad reports that Intel is going to announce the outsourcing of its Atom processor chips and NAND flash chips to the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. The Taipei Times reports that TSMC will manufacture and supply Intel's Mobile Internet Device (MID) and Atom chips. It will be the first time that Intel has outsourced manufacturing of such a significant product.

The recent budget cuts that have the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) cutting its staff are more pronounced that initially expected, says a Hypebot blog report. The source says more than 100 people employed at the RIAA in the US and across the world will be relieved of duty, calling it a "bloodbath." Will these folks be missed?

"Is World of Warcraft as addictive as crack cocaine? Some say yes. Others are too busy playing World of Warcraft to answer," writes The Register. A Swedish youth organization has called it "the most dangerous game ever." The org's assessment has received backing from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, which warns that computer addiction is become more widespread across the world.

The UK's military top brass are said to be "furious" that updated imagery on Google Earth has laid bare its nuclear subs and surrounding defense infrastructure. One shaken military expert said that "the revealing snaps would make it easy for terrorists to launch accurate mortar or rocket attacks."

In a recent column, Lance Ulanoff approved of the new democratization of Facebook and Yahoo, but I wrote that the whole thing is baloney. Why did Facebook change its policies in the first place? Think about that for a minute. And what is the point of a Yahoo ombudsman? It's a PR stunt.

Yahoo!'s new CEO Carol Bartz is to announce a major reorganization at the firm, says The Register. Bartz rather ominously warned staff in a weekly email on Friday: "Get well-rested, because next week's a biggie." Bartz has already asked staff to create a list of products they're embarrassed by so management can decide whether to kill them off or fix them.

A Slingbox user managed to run up a data bill of $28,067.31 watching a game of football, despite being aboard a docked cruise liner and having an unlimited data tariff. A Slingbox grabs video from the user's home and streams it over the internet, in this case to a laptop over a cellular connection which the user thought was connected to AT&T;'s network. Unfortunately he was actually connected to the ship's onboard network, which racks up bills for international roaming.

"Computing still sucks--It's too damn hard and confusing for the vast majority of people," writes Lance Ulanoff. A recent study from the Pew Internet Project agrees. Just 70 percent of Pew study respondents were confident that they were on the right track to solve their tech problems. Forty percent were confused by the information that was supposed to help them.

Microsoft has been a leader in smartphones for years, but its market share is slipping. "Microsoft doesn't have a chance if they can't actually get software to market," writes PCMag's Sascha Segan. He says the company's software updates take too long to arrive, and Microsoft is facing increased competition from Apple, RIM, Android and more.

After Microsoft's recent confirmation that there won't be a second big beta release of Windows 7 many people now believe that Windows 7 will indeed be finished this summer--and be on machines in time for the holiday season. Can Microsoft reverse its past pattern of long-delayed versions of Windows?

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Following torrential protests, Facebook is backing off a change in its user policies while it figures how best to resolve questions like who controls the information shared on the social networking site. Consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com wrote a critical post called: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.'"

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have united to offer a way to reduce duplicate content clutter and make things easier for everyone. Search engines try to index and display the original or "canonical" version of content. Searchers only want to see one version in results. Will this partnership help ease the duplication woes?

Apple's iPhone application store is crowded, with more than 20,000 apps available. But one independent developer still managed to rake in $600,000 in a single month with a single iPhone game. Ethan Nicholas, developer of a tank artillery game called iShoot, told Wired he quit his job the day his app rose to No. 1 in the App Store, earning him $37,000 in a single day.

The Korea Communications Commission is working on plans that will boost broadband speeds in that country tenfold by the end of 2012. That means Koreans will access 1 Gbps service by 2012. That's 200 times as fast as your typical 5 Mbps DSL connection sold in the U.S. At present, Koreans can get speeds of up to 100 Mbps from their broadband providers.

"Search engine optimization (SEO) has turned into a big business, and from what I can tell it's the modern version of snake oil," I wrote in a recent column. My biggest beef is long URLs, Tags bug me too. They don't work and are a stupid exercise in futility.

Amazon has released a slimmer version of its Kindle electronic reading device, but it still costs $359. The new Kindle is much thinner, can store 1,500 books instead of 200, and can read aloud.

34-year-old World Cup-winning Italian soccer star Alessandro del Piero is reportedly suing Facebook, over a fake profile bearing his name that links to Nazi propaganda sites. His associates say that links to the far right would hurt Del Piero's career once he leaves football.

Recently a niche programming-oriented website called phpbb.com had its user database hacked into and the passwords for 20,000 members stolen. The most popular password (3.03% of the 20,000) was "123456."

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Microsoft is getting ready to launch an online marketplace akin to Apple's App Store. Microsoft is also readying a more sophisticated version of its mobile operating system called Windows Mobile 6.5, the Journal reported.

PCMag.com's Tim Bajarin notes that the iPhone and the iPod Touch have become serious handheld gaming platforms. He also notes that games for these devices are much cheaper than they are for competitors. Could Apple have a dedicated handheld gaming device in the works?

BREAKING NEWS: The House has defeated a bill that the Senate previously approved which would have postponed the transition to digital TV until June. As it stands, the transition is still slated for February 17th. Will chaos ensue?

Wikipedia is apparently considering instituting a new editorial process that would put better safeguards in place and require all updates to be approved by a "reliable" user. The proposal comes in the aftermath of a false entry that was posted by a user, saying Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd had died after an inaugural luncheon.

Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy has been asked by President Obama to author a white paper on the benefits the U.S. government can derive from using open source technology, BBC News reports. "It's intuitively obvious open source is more cost effective and productive than proprietary software," says McNealy.

Games such as Big Brain Academy on the Wii, and Dr KawaShima's Brain Training on the DS don't provide the mental workout you may have thought, says a new study. The research used two teams of kids--one asked to complete a seven-week memory course using a DS brain-training game, while another group completed puzzles using pencil and paper. The study found the groups using the DS actually recorded a 17 per cent decrease in memory tests after seven weeks.

This week, in England and Wales, it has become a criminal offense to possess pictures that the government deems to be "extreme porn". The Register reports that individuals who are concerned about material they may have on their hard drives should wipe their drives.

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Apple's CEO may return in June, but will we, or Apple, ever be the same? asks Lance Ulanoff in a recent column. Lance says that he believes Apple will be okay even if Jobs doesn't return, despite the historical precedent, which indicates that anyone other than Jobs running Apple spells disaster for the company.

Microsoft browser-rival Opera Software has welcomed a European Commission statement that the company has broken European competition law by including Internet Explorer with Windows. Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said Microsoft should "start competing on merits in the browser market and letting consumers have a real choice of internet browsers."

Steve Ballmer's biggest regret of the past ten years is impatience, says The Register. Ten years after taking over as Microsoft president - and eight years after replacing Bill Gates as chief exec - Ballmer has told The Wall St Journal that impatience prevented Microsoft from pursuing a Google-like paid search business back in 1999. Microsoft started a paid search project that year - before killing it after only two months.

The Vatican--which recently endorsed an iPhone prayer app and gave its blessing to gadget evangelism--is displaying further receptivity to technology with Saturday's announcement that Pope Benedict XVI will get his own YouTube channel.

Google has been talking about the need for a fast lane for its offerings in recent months, which I wrote about in a column a few weeks ago. If Google is put into some fast lane by itself using a more efficient protocol stack including, let's say, a search engine protocol, could it actually free up Internet bandwidth?

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Yahoo! on Tuesday confirmed that former Autodesk chief Carol Bartz will succeed Jerry Yang as its new CEO. Bartz, for her part, urged investors to give Yahoo some "friggin' breathing room"to let the company get back on track..

Written off for dead by many, Palm came back at CES with the Pre -- a smartphone that combines some of the features of the BlackBerry and the iPhone, and which adds a few innovations. It also introduced WebOS, a web-centric mobile operating system. Can Palm go anywhere with these moves?.

Those annoying wires tethering your wide-screen TV to your set-top box or Blu-Ray drive may finally disappear when ultra-wideband HDTV sets hit the market later this year, thanks to a group of announcements at this year's CES. According to a report by the IEE Times, wireless-chip designer SiBEAM is working on designs with LG Electronics, Panasonic, and Toshiba..

One Laptop Per Child, a Boston-based nonprofit dedicated to providing cheap laptop computers to children in underdeveloped countries, has laid off 50 percent of its staff. That leaves the organization with 32 employees, all of whom have taken salary cuts. Is this the end for this effort?.

At the CES show last week, Asus introduced a new $499 netbook called the Eee PC Touch. It sports a nearly 9-inch touch screen that swivels or folds over so it can be used as a tablet-style PC. Meanwhile, other netbooks were everywhere at the show. Aren't these systems underpowered compared to laptops that only cost a little more?.

With one brief press release, Apple managed to blow away the steady breeze of rumors about its Macworld 2009 product announcements. January's Macworld Expo will be Apple's last; and, perhaps more importantly, it will not feature Apple CEO Steve Jobs. What's behind these decisions?.

Acer, AT&T; and RadioShack have teamed up to offer a deal that brings the Acer Aspire One netbook to market for only $99. The Acer Aspire, with integrated 3G wireless technology, usually sells for $500. AT&T; is subsidizing the cost of the device, but customers have to sign up for a two-year AT&T; DataConnect mobile-broadband service agreement. Plans start at $60 a month..

"I get a big kick out of the way everyone is falling all over themselves to anoint "netbooks" as the next big thing," says Lance Ulanoff in another recent column. Ulanoff agrees that the economic downturn is good news for these $350 stripped down portable computers, but thinks their success is largely coming from marketing. Is a slightly more expensive laptop a better choice? .

Although he dubs the prediction outrageous, noted analyst Tim Bajarin is predicting that Microsoft may make a bid for RIM in 2009. "BlackBerry customers are almost as fanatical as Apple users," he argues, and Microsoft's Windows Mobile strategy is on shaky ground.

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